• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• 7. Clean energy close
• Chinese Academy of Sciences close

Bioenergy is considered a sustainable substitute to fossil-fuel resources and the development of a prudent combination of renewable and innovative conversion technologies are essential for the valorization and effective conversion of biowaste to value-added commodities. Here, a negative pressure-induced carbonization process was proposed for the valorization of lignin-enriched biowaste precursor to bio-oil and environmental materials (biochar) at various temperatures. The high heating values (HHV) of the as-prepared biochars from the lignin enriched precursor under negative pressure (low-medium vacuum) were within 25.9-31.5 MJ/kg, which matched satisfactorily to the commercial charcoal. Whereas, the bio-oils produced from the lignin enriched precursor under vacuum conditions was a blend of complex aromatic and straight-chain hydro-carbons, including aldehyde, ketone, phenol, and furans, exhibiting ability as potential heating-oil with HHV within 21.2-28.2 MJ/kg. Moreover, the biochars produced under vacuum environments at higher temperature showed greater stability (22.5-35.9%) than those produced under N2 atmosphere.

In the development of a Risk Monitor probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) model from the basic PSA model of a nuclear power plant, the modeling of common-cause failure (CCF) is very important. At present, some approximate modeling methods are widely used, but there lacks criterion of modeling accuracy and error analysis. In this paper, aiming at ensuring the accuracy of risk assessment and minimizing the Risk Monitor PSA models size, we present three basic issues of CCF model resulted from the changes of a nuclear power plant configuration, put forward corresponding modeling methods, and derive accuracy criteria of CCF modeling based on minimum cut sets and risk indicators according to the requirements of risk monitoring. Finally, a nuclear power plant Risk Monitor PSA model is taken as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling method and accuracy criteria, and the application scope of the idea of this paper is also discussed.

Abstract Cu2BaSn(S,Se)4 (CBTSSe) solar cells are emerging photovoltaic devices due to their high theoretical efficiencies of ~31%, environment-friendly and earth-abundant composition, low density of non-recombination defects, and so on. However, the record efficiency of CBTSSe solar cell is only 5.2%, showing the importance of studying their performance via numerical analysis to further enhance their practical efficiencies. In this paper, the effect of absorber and buffer layers on performances of Cu2BaSnS4 (CBTS) solar cells are firstly systematically studied via the SCAPS-1D software to provide a platform for the study of the effect of MoS2 interlayer on the performances of CBTS solar cells. The highest PCE of CBTS solar cell with a 30 nm CdS buffer layer is 11.87%. The PCE of CBTS solar cell with a 0.8 μm CBTS absorb layer is 12.51%, indicating that the CBTS solar cell is a potential low-cost solar cell due to its large optical absorption coefficient (α > 104 cm−1). The efficiency of CBTS solar cell is improved to 16.47% when the carrier concentration of CBTS is 1016 cm−3. The relationship between the performance of solar cell and the band gap, thickness, donor concentration, acceptor concentration of MoS2 interlayer is systematically investigated on the basis of the optimized efficiency. It is found that MoS2 interlayer plays an important role in the performance of CBTS solar cell. The p-type MoS2 has a beneficial effect on the efficiency improvement while the n-type MoS2 has a negative effect on the efficiency enhancement. The highest PCE of CBTS solar cell is as high as 18.28% when the thickness and the acceptor concentration of MoS2 are 4 nm and 1019 cm−3, respectively. Our simulation result provides a promising research direction to further improve the actual efficiency of the CBTS solar cell.

Abstract Biomass, as a renewable and sustainable energy resource, can be converted into environmentally friendly and practically valuable biofuels and chemical materials via pyrolysis. However, the process optimization and pyrolysis efficiency are restricted by the limited perception of the complicated mechanisms and kinetics for biomass pyrolysis. Here, to establish an in-depth mechanism model for biomass pyrolysis, we presented a novel investigation for the thermal evolutions and pyrolysis kinetics of the functional groups in peanut shell matrix by using in-situ Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (in-situ FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry-mass spectrometry (TG-FTIR-MS). The in-situ FTIR spectrum deconvolution for the solid matrix was innovatively introduced to identify and quantify the real-time evolution and thermal dynamics of the functional groups during peanut shell pyrolysis. The result for the first time proposed that the pyrolysis mechanisms of total OH at 20–380 °C, aliphatic C-Hn groups at 20–500 °C, C O groups at 260–500 °C, and C–O groups at 300–500 °C were dominant by diffusion and order-based chemical reactions. The TG-FTIR-MS analysis was conducted for the online monitoring of the released volatiles and gases, the amounts of which were in the sequence of C O > CO2 > aliphatic C–O-(H) > C–O-(C) in esters > aromatics > H2O > phenolic hydroxyl > aliphatic hydrocarbons > CO. The study established a novel methodology to evaluate the biomass pyrolysis mechanisms at the molecular level, which provided valuable information for developing advanced pyrolysis techniques on a large scale for sustainable ecosystem.

AbstractAlthough the process of microbial degradation of coal to produce biomethane has got much attention from many research works, the products profiles of coal at the initial stage of methanogenic bioconversion are not clear yet. In this study, five coal‐degrading bacterial strains (CD1, CD10, CD20, CD24, and CD25) from a methanogenic community were isolated and identified. Among them, CD1 and CD24 belong to Paenibacillus sp., CD10 and CD20 belong to Bacillus sp., and CD25 belongs to Stenotrophomonas sp. After biotreatment of lignite and bituminous coal, the kinds of newly produced compounds were 33 and 45, respectively. Metabolomics analysis showed that a large number of alkane compounds and heterocyclic aromatic compounds were produced after degradation of bituminous coal and lignite by isolated bacteria, and most of the compounds had been produced in a hydroxylated or acylated manner, indicating that the initial microbial treatment enhanced the bioavailability of coal. Some alkaloids and biosurfactants were also detected in the aforementioned products, such as glycerophosphocholine, proveratrol A, proveratrol B, surfactin, etc. These microbial metabolites may play an important role in solubilization during the degradation of coal. This study added to the understanding of the complicated metabolic process of methanogenic coal bioconversion and enabled effective production of biomethane with appropriate metabolic strategies.

CsPbBr3‐based perovskite solar cells possess both high humidity and temperature tolerance, and also have excellent long‐term stability in air, but the defect states in the bulk perovskite are always an obstacle for further improvement of their efficiency. Herein, a doping strategy is demonstrated in which AgBr is directly added to the precursor solution in the first step. An appropriate amount of Ag+ ion doping can passivate the defects in bulk or at grain boundaries, reduce the defect density of the film, and form a pinhole‐free film. Finally, the best power conversion efficiency of the solar cell reaches to 6.92% and exhibits a long‐term stability in a humid environment. This work provides a simple and effective method for improving the quality of CsPbBr3 film and the performance of CsPbBr3‐based perovskite solar cells.

Aqueous energy storage devices attract increased attention due to their high safety, low cost, and easy maintenance. However, the low energy density caused by the narrow electrochemical stability window (ESW) of aqueous electrolytes severely restricts their widespread applications. Herein, a new type of “small‐molecule crowding” electrolyte of 95EG‐H2O (95 wt% ethylene glycol [EG]) is proposed for the first time. Significant enhancement of water molecular stability is accomplished through the engineering of a hydrogen bond network. The small‐molecular crowding agent (EG) not only expands the ESW to 3.2 V, but also endows the electrolyte with low viscosity. As a proof‐of‐concept device, the symmetry carbon‐based supercapacitor using the newly developed electrolyte exhibits a so far record‐high operating voltage of 2.8 V, a high energy density of 58.7 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 1.4 and 30.3 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 42 kW kg−1, and a durable lifespan exceeding 20 000 cycles at a current density of 5 A g−1.

Abstract The coal gasification process is one of the main exergy destruction contributors in polygeneration systems and has considerable energy saving potential. In the present study, for improving the performance of the polygeneration system, the coal-steam gasification method was employed to integrate a novel methanol-electricity polygeneration system. The results indicated that the energy efficiency of the novel system was 63.3% with a chemical-to-power output ratio of 8.4, while the energy efficiency of the traditional system is 51.3% at the optimal unreacted syngas recycling ratio. Exergy analysis results revealed that the system exergy destruction in the coal–steam gasification process is 7.5% smaller than that in the GE gasification process, and eliminating the air separation unit can reduce the exergy destruction of the system by 4.3%. Additionally, the energy saving contributions of gasification process improvement and system integration were quantitatively evaluated. When the chemical-to-power output ratio increased from 1.9 to 11.9, the energy saving contributions of the system integration and gasification process improvement ranged from 9.8% to 15.1% and 11.9% to 12.9%, respectively.