• Energy Research
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AbstractTo which extent do potential users of construction products take sustainability into account during their decision-making process? How well could they align themselves in all the legislation frameworks and calculation tools for the sustainable construction products? In accordance with the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) [1], determining of ecological properties of construction products could be accomplished with applying life cycle assessment (LCA). There is a number of tools and frameworks for evaluating the sustainability of construction products for the European experts, which may be used in such a decision-making process. However, for a non-expert user, this could be quite complex. Therefor, the assumption here is that environmental and human health safety are prior in contrast to the market prices when it comes to choosing a decorative paint or coating. In the framework of herein research, an Analytic Hierarchy/Network Process model was designed involving four major merits of the Analytic Hierarchy Process: Benefits, Opportunities, Costs, and Risks [2]. The model which is based on the major characteristics of a decorative wall paint helps emphasising the best alternative with respect to given priorities: low risk of environmental and human health damage, quality, market price, repairability. The model shows values for all the criteria and alternatives with respect to pairwise comparisons. In a future research step, this model will be validated with a questionnaire survey targeting non-expert users, i.e. average consumers, on the construction market in Germany.

Abstract ORC is a mature technology that can be used for Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) of Internal Combustion (IC) Engines. Direct Evaporation of the organic fluid from the hot exhaust is an interesting option compared to the often preferred intermediary thermal oil loop choice due to its thermal efficiency potential and reduction of system footprint and weight. However, concerns due to dynamic variability of the hot source still hinder its consideration. In this paper, a comparison of the dynamic response of ORC evaporators with both indirect and direct evaporation is performed, under fluctuations of an IC engine exhaust according to relevant frequencies and amplitudes of a standard driving cycle. The results show the range of frequencies and amplitudes of hot source fluctuations for which direct evaporation is most feasible and the range for which special consideration must be taken.

Abstract The Petra Nova Project will be the world's largest post combustion CO2 capture plant on coal fired flue gas once it begins operation expected in the 4th Quarter of 2016. The CO2 capture plant uses MHI's KM CDR ProcessTM which has been in development by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) in collaboration with the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO) since 1990 and has been refined through the application of lessons learned from other commercial plants and R&D projects. MHI continues to improve its technology by focusing on developing more efficient systems and reducing CO2 capture costs. MHI demonstrated a 25 MW heat integration technology using (Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd.) MHPS's High Efficiency System (HES) with Southern Company Services. The project resulted in significant heat recovery and improvements in pollutant capture performance in the electrostatic precipitator (ESP). MHI also evaluated the performance of a new, novel solvent at a 2 tpd pilot test plant in Japan. The pilot test results show lower steam consumption, solvent degradation, and solvent emissions than those of KS-1TM solvent. MHI plans to continue developing the new solvent until it is ready for commercial deployment. Through R&D and through the collection of lessons learned from commercial plants, MHI is working towards reducing the cost and the environmental footprint of CO2 capture.

AbstractThe Oxyfuel-process could be a solution to lower the high specific CO2 emissions of coal-fired power plants. The carbon capture rate (CCR) in current research is usually set to 90% due to the increasing specific energy demand of the capture process (GPU) and lower CO2 purity of the product stream at higher CCR. The remaining CO2 and most of the impurities escape to the environment with the ventgas downstream of the GPU. In current literature it is recommended to increase the CCR from 90% to higher values of up to 98-99%. This can be achieved by adding an additional gas treatment to capture the CO2 contained in the ventgas downstream of the GPU. At high CCR like 99% the necessary recycle of the captured CO2 into the basic GPU process leads to an increase of the specific energy demand of the GPU and an efficiency decrease of the overall process. It is possible to lower this efficiency penalty by recycling the remaining impurities downstream of the additional gas treatment to the ASU to regain the contained oxygen. The feasibility of the recycle strongly depends on the capture rate of the additional gas treatment, because it influences the CO2 concentration in the recycled exhaust gas. In this work an overall process of a coal-fired Oxyfuel power plant with cryogenic ASU and externally cooled GPU as a basic process is modelled. This process is adapted to higher CCR by adding an additional gas treatment by a polymeric membrane (PM) downstream of the GPU. The ASU is modelled as a triple column process. This process enables an exhaust gas recycle downstream of the PM. The GPU is a two stage partial condensation. Furthermore the influence of the additional gas treatment on the GPU process and the overall process for different CCR is examined and the resulting exhaust gas concentrations are calculated to evaluate the possibility for an exhaust gas recycle. This evaluation is necessary, because the remaining CO2 in the exhaust gas that is recycled to the ASU has to be removed upstream of the ASU. This leads to an additional energy demand to regenerate the molecular sieves upstream of the ASU.

In efforts to mitigate climate change, energy systems are undergoing a profound transition towards low-carbon systems. This transition does not only involve changes in energy technologies but importantly it is shaped and incentivized by changes in the rules and regulations that govern energy markets. It is a normative transition, focused at achieving secure, affordable, and sustainable energy provision. In a multidisciplinary approach, this paper proposes a framework that highlights the role of normative principles - i.e. values - in socio-technical systems. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the analysis explicates how values relate to institutional change in the case of the energy transition.

AbstractThe Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO), in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has developed a variety of energy efficient chemical absorbents and economical processes (KM CDR ProcessTM) which aim to reduce the cost of CO2 capture. This work has been ongoing since 1991, using several Japan based R&D facilities, a CO2 capture pilot plant, located at Nanko Power Station in Osaka, Japan and a large scale demonstration plant at Southern Company's Plant Barry.Highly successful R&D has led to the rapid commercial deployment of ten (10) currently active, KM CDR ProcessTM, commercial CO2 capture plants. In addition one (1) plant is now under construction in Qatar (commissioning in 2014). These commercial plants are deployed exclusively in the chemical and fertilizer industries. The KM CDR ProcessTM and KS-1TM have also been utilized at the large scale CCS demonstration plant in the USA, the 500 tons per day (tpd) Southern Company Project, the first project in the world to demonstrate black coal ‘full chain’ CCS. Application for both natural gas and Coal flue gas highlights the versatility and robustness of both the solvent and the process.Recent work has focused on further developing energy efficient chemical absorbents and reducing the energy penalty for further cost reduction. To select absorbents which feature the best profile and fit to the actual operating conditions KEPCO and MHI have intensively evaluated the vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) and reaction kinetics for a range of newly developed absorbents. One of these absorbents has a reaction rate 1.4 times faster than that of KS-1TM, while having similar CO2 loading and reaction temperatures. The thermal energy requirement for CO2 recovery was reduced by 9% compared with KS-1TM to 1.19 t-steam/t-CO2 (in-plant auxiliary steam which corresponds to LP steam) following testing at the Nanko pilot plant using the combination of this absorbent and the commercial KM CDR ProcessTM.In parallel with these developments, KEPCO and MHI have continued to improve the KM CDRProcessTM by optimizing the pilot plant and further improving the thermal energy requirement to 1.09 t- steam/t-CO2 (in-plant auxiliary steam which corresponds to LP steam).In 2011, modifications to the Nanko CO2 capture Pilot Plant lead to the development of a new commercial application termed the “New Energy Efficient Process 3” or “NEEP3”. The combination of the newly developed absorbents and “NEEP3” achieved the lowest yet thermal energy requirement, 1.00 t-steam/t-CO2 (in-plant auxiliary steam which corresponds to LP steam). During the same testing period,KS-1TM achieved a thermal energy requirement of 1.03 t-steam/t-CO2 (in-plant auxiliary steam which corresponds to LP steam).This manuscript introduces and presents the current status of the KEPCO/MHI CO2 capture technology and concepts for future energy reduction improvements. The paper also includes test results in relation to the newly developed absorbent, and the “NEEP3” described above, which has enhanced the performance and markedly reduced the energy penalty of the CO2 capture process. KEPCO and MHI are continuing the development of efficient absorbents and optimizing processes, thus helping to facilitate the future wide scale deployment of CO2 capture technology as an effective counter measure against climate change.

Abstract One third of the world's end energy consumption is used on heating purposes in the building sector. The larger part of energy used for heating comes from high exergy sources (e.g. coal or gas). Since living spaces are usually heated up to around 20 °C, application of low exergy sources (e.g. solar thermal energy or ground heat sources) is sufficient for low temperature district heating supply. The main target of the work carried out is to demonstrate the advantages of exergy-based assessment for increased efficiency of small scale district heating supply schemes. For this reason different supply scenarios, based on fossil and renewable energy sources, are investigated. The different renewable energy supply units are regarded individually or in two- or three-way combinations. In this study renewable and fossil-based supply are compared on the one hand and on the other hand the benefits of merging several renewable energy suppliers for a small building group with a high energy standard are identified. For evaluation and identification of the best supply solution, the exergetic-based assessment method is applied. Additionally simplified aspects of operational management and estimation of investment costs are used to compare the different supply solutions. The evaluation of the scenarios clearly shows that the combination of innovative supply strategies and exergetic assessment leads to a more “holistic understanding” of the energy conversion chain and offers prospects for optimized low temperature district heating supply. Furthermore economic considerations and an analysis of emissions are to be included in the evaluation. This paper represents modeling, simulation and exergetic analysis of renewable multi-generation units to low temperature district heating supply of a building group and covers a topic from IEA DHC Annex TS1 [1].