• Energy Research
• 7. Clean energy close
• 13. Climate action close
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• Energy Procedia close

AbstractPre-drying is a potential way to improve the electric generation efficiency of lignite-fired power plant, and steam is a main kind of drying heat source. In conventional pre-dried lignite-fired power system, the steam extraction of regenerative system is led to the dryer directly. The steam extraction must be used by the dryer after throttling, if the energy mismatch exists between the supply of steam extraction and the need of dryer. Two systems of energy supply for the dryer, that the energy of the steam extraction is supplied to the dryer via compressor or ejector, were proposed in this paper to further increase the energy utilization efficiency. These systems were thermodynamic analyzed, and the electric generation efficiencies of these systems were compared. The energy saving boundary was gotten.

AbstractThis paper provides a financial analysis for new supercritical pulverized coal plants with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) that compares the effects of two relevant climate policies. First, an updated cost estimate is presented for new supercritical pulverized coal plants, both with and without CCS. The capital cost escalation of recent years can be attributed to rising materials, plant supply, and plant contractor constraints. This estimate is then compared with recent estimates from public sources. Second, several current and proposed public policies relevant to CCS are presented. Finally, a financial analysis is performed to evaluate the effectiveness of two likely US carbon regulations on deploying Nth-plant CCS technology. The major conclusion is that the leading US carbon cap-and-trade bills will likely not be sufficient to deploy CCS technology in a manner consistent with a 550 ppm CO2 stabilization scenario. A more aggressive carbon policy including CCS research, development, and demonstration must be considered to achieve this goal with significant CCS deployment.

Abstract It is state of technology in district heating systems to use sand as backfill material for district heating pipes (DHP). In conventional pipeline construction, Temporarily Flowable Backfill Materials (TFB) have been already used for backfilling the pipe zone. TFB consists of the excavated material, cement, water and optionally bentonite. Environmental and economic advantages are that the excavated material can be reused and that TFB requires no compaction. In order to embed district heating pipes in TFB, soil mechanical parameters of the TFB are required. Above all the resistance to temperature-induced axial displacement should be well-known in order to estimate the displacements of the DHP, as well as the stress distribution along the DHP. Compared to sand as a non-cohesive backfill TFB have remarkable adhesive contact stresses which result in considerable resistance forces. In this article, the contact behavior between TFB and DHP is described as well as the effect on the DHP statics. Therefore, the results of various laboratory tests are summarized and presented to understand the interface-resistance-characteristics (IRC) of the DHP/ TFB interface. Then, the deduced IRC was implemented in a computer program for some comparative calculations with sand and TFB. Finally, the results of cyclic loading are presented and discussed.

AbstractBiofuel cells performed similarly to those conventional fuel cells are regarded as one of potential substitute for fossil fuel. Developments of biofuel cells demonstrate the advantages on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as well as increasing energy security. Enzyme-based biofuel cells is one kind of the biofuel cells, enzyme-based biofuel cells convert chemical energy into electrical energy via specific enzymes as biocatalysts. Glucose oxidase and laccase were immobilized onto carbon paper as bioanode and biocathode, respectively in enzyme-based biofuel cells system. Mediator and enzyme were mixed in phosphate buffer (pH 7) and citrate buffer (pH 5) solutions, respectively. A Nafion membrane117 was inserted to separate the two half cells. The power density with respect to different operating voltages was obtained with a glucose concentration of 10mM. Potassium hexacyanoferrate III and ABTS (2, 2’-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) as mediators were added to the bioanode and biocathode cell, respectively. Carbon nanoballs were coated on the carbon paper and enormous enhancement of power density was achieved.The power-voltage with the CNB surface modifying by using plasma was with oxygen bubbling in cathode directly in the cell achieved up to 0.114V. The power density was 65.5μW/cm2. The assembled enzyme-based biofuel cells were studied under nitrogen at 37°C in bioanode.

AbstractAn analysis of Italy's National Energy Budget of in the last decades shows the important role of the civil sector and the impact of fossil fuels in air conditioning systems. The high consumption of fossil fuel is Likely due to the predominance of plants with conventional boilers in buildings. Based on the analysis of the Exergy flow this paper proposes the Cogeneration technology for Air conditioning systems with heat pumps to implement the Rational Use of Energy. The feasibility of a retrofit intervention on existing systems of a large size is shown, by the projection of a cogeneration plant for the buildings of the University of Cagliari currently equipped with fossil fuel plants.

Swirl combustors have proven as effective flame stabilisers over a wide range of operation conditions thanks to the formation of well-known swirl coherent structures. However, employment of swirl combustors to work on lean premixed combustion modes while introducing alternative fuels such as high hydrogen blends result in many combustion instabilities. Under these conditions, flame flashback has been considered as one of the major instability problems that have the potential of causing considerable damages of the combustion systems hardware in addition to the significant increase in pollutant levels. Combustion Induced Vortex Breakdown (CIVB) is considered a very particular mode of flashback mechanism in swirling flows as this type of flashback occurs even when the fresh mixture’s velocity is higher than the flame speed, consequence of the interaction between swirl structures and swirl burner geometries. Improvements of burner geometries and manipulation of swirl flows can produce good resistance against this type of flashback. However, increase flame flashback resistance against CIVB can lead to an increase in the propensity of another flashback mechanism, Boundary Layer Flashback (BLF). Thus this paper presents an experimental and numerical approach that allows the increase in CIVB resistance by using diffusive air injection and simultaneously avoid BLF by changing the wall boundary layer characteristics using microsurface grids as a liner for the nozzle wall. Results show that using those two techniques together has promising potentials regarding wider stable operation for swirl combustors, enabling them to burn a great variety of fuel blends safely.

AbstractThe penetration of renewable sources, particularly wind and solar, into the grid has been increasing in recent years. As a consequence, there have been serious concerns over reliable and safety operation of power systems. One possible solution, to improve grid stability, is to integrate energy storage devices into power system network: storing energy produced in periods of low demand to later use, ensuring full exploitation of intermittent available sources. Focusing on stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) energy system, energy storage is needed with the purpose of ensuring continuous power flow, to minimize or, if anything, to neglect electrical grid supply.A comprehensive study on a hybrid stand-alone photovoltaic power system using two different energy storage technologies has been performed. This study examines the feasibility of replacing electricity provided by the grid with hybrid system to meet household demand. This paper is a part of an experimental and a theoretical study which is currently under development at University of Bologna. A test facility is under construction, at the University of Bologna, for the experimental characterization of the cogenerative performance of small scale hybrid power systems, composed of micro-CHP systems of different technologies : a Micro Rankine Cycles (MRC), a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEM-FC), a battery, an electrolyzer and a heat recovery subsystem. The test set-up is also integrated with an external load simulator, in order to generate variable load profiles.This paper presents the theoretical results of the performance simulations developed considering an hybrid system consisting on a photovoltaic array (PV), electrochemical batteries (B) and electrolyzer (HY) with a H2 tank and a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEM-FC) stack, in case of a household electrical demand. The performance of this system have been evaluated by the use of a calculation code, in-house developed by University of Bologna; future activities will be the tuning of the software with the experimental results, in order to realize a code able to define the correct size of each sub-system, ones the load profile of the utility is known or estimated.

AbstractThis paper presents a study on the burning of oil palm empty fruit bunch and palm kernel shell in a fluidized-bed combustor using alumina sand as the bed material to prevent bed agglomeration. During 60-h combustion testing, the biomasses were burned at similar heat input to the combustor (200 kWth) with excess air of 40%. SEM/EDS analyses were performed to investigate the time-domain changes in the alumina grain morphology and elemental composition of the grain coating. Composition of the used/reused bed material and that of PM emitted from the combustor were determined by a XRF method at different operating times. No features of bed agglomeration were found during the entire tests. However, physical and chemical properties of the bed material underwent substantial changes with time.