• Energy Research
• chemical engineering close
• 11. Sustainability close

The transportation impact on pollution and global climate change, has forced the automotive sector to search for more ecological solutions. Owing to the different properties of Fuel Cell (FC), real potential for reducing vehicles’ emissions has been witnessed. The optimization of FC integration within Electric Vehicles (EVs) is one of the original solutions. This paper presents an innovating solution of multi-stack Fuel Cell Electrical Vehicle (FCEV) in terms of efficiency, durability and ecological impact on environment. The main objective is to illustrate the interest of using the multi-stack FC system on the global autonomy, cycling, and efficiency enhancement, besides optimizing its operation performance.

In this work we assess the pathways for environmental improvement by the coal utilization industry for power generation in Australia. In terms of resources, our findings show that coal is a long term resource of concern as coal reserves are likely to last for the next 500 years or more. However, our analysis indicates that evaporation losses of water in power generation will approach 1000 Gl (gigalitres) per year, equivalent to a consumption of half of the Australian residential population. As Australia is the second driest continent on earth, water consumption by power generators is a resource of immediate concern with regards to sustainability. We also show that coal will continue to play a major role in energy generation in Australia and, hence, there is a need to employ new technologies that can minimize environmental impacts. The major technologies to reduce impacts to air, water and soils are addressed. Of major interest, there is a major potential for developing sequestration processes in Australia, in particular by enhanced coal bed methane (ECBM) recovery at the Bowen Basin, South Sydney Basin and Gunnedah Basin. Having said that, CO2 capture technologies require further development to support any sequestration processes in order to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. Current power generation cycles are thermodynamic limited, with 35-40% efficiencies. To move to a high efficiency cycle, it is required to change technologies of which integrated gasification combined cycle plus fuel cell is the most promising, with efficiencies expected to reach 60-65%. However, risks of moving towards an unproven technology means that power generators are likely to continue to use pulverized fuel technologies, aiming at incremental efficiency improvements (business as usual). As a big picture pathway, power generators are likely to play an increasing role in regional development; in particular EcoParks and reclaiming saline water for treatment as pressures to access fresh water supplies will significantly increase.

Abstract Decision-making for sustainable design requires the evaluation of different options considering all sustainability dimensions simultaneously: economic, environmental and social. Each dimension has a specific relative importance, which depends on the process that is being assessed. The determination of the relative importance is not a simple task, principally, during early design stages when detailed information about the process is scarce, and when core decisions affecting the entire design are made. An example of this kind of decisions during early design stages is the selection of the chemical process route, which, once defined, provides the guidelines for the process design. The present study proposes a multi-criteria analysis based methodology to evaluate different chemical process route options under sustainability criteria and to guide the selection among them. The methodology uses normalized indicators to assess each sustainability dimension, and a multi-criteria analysis method (MCDA) to calculate the weights and influences between dimensions. Indicators, dimension weights and influences are integrated into the Sustainable Cumulative Index ( SCI ) that can be used to compare chemical process route options in sustainability terms and to support their selection. The proposed methodology is illustrated through the assessment and selection of a chemical process route to produce ethyl acetate.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe the methodology developed to link the quantitative outputs of the geosphere risk assessment to the semi-quantitative assessment of risk to the biosphere. It also shows how good practice stakeholder engagement principles can be incorporated into the risk assessment process to achieve transparency in project decision making. The objective of the biosphere risk assessment portion of the Weyburn-Midale Project was to develop a risk assessment methodology that can be applied to a range of CO2 storage projects. Preliminary modelling of potential biosphere impacts associated with the Weyburn-Midale Project was undertaken to enable the risk assessment methodology to be tested and to demonstrate the nature of the biosphere risk assessment outputs, and how the process and outputs can be used to facilitate stakeholder acceptance. The method to assess the biosphere risk at the Weyburn-Midale Project uses the outputs (pathways, likelihoods and CO2 mass) from geosphere risk assessment to identify the general physical and chemical effects on the fundamental biosphere components (groundwater, surface water, soil, air) and the consequential impacts on organisms, habitat, amenity and public safety. The approach applies an existing environmental impact assessment methodology to derive outputs that stakeholders can use to assess the risk and impacts to environmental assets. The outcomes of biosphere risk assessment are used to: develop risk mitigation strategies and future monitoring options; understand whether the project will likely have unacceptable impacts on safety or valued community assets; decide whether the project should proceed; and to assist engagement with regulators and the community.

AbstractFor a commercial Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) chain to be successful, it must satisfy a whole range of requirements: technical, economic, environmental, safety, and societal. A comprehensive, understandable and reproducible assessment of CCS projects is a complex task due to several reasons: wide range of actors and factors involved, substantial differences in the type and nature of both actors and factors, and numerous associated uncertainties. In this paper, a standardised methodology is described and illustrated on a few examples of relatively simple case studies. The proposed methodology provides means and tools for evaluation of several economic, environmental, and in the future also risk associated criteria and thereby enables selection of the most promising options for CCS. The methodology will also help to reduce the uncertainty by improving understanding of the most important dependencies and trends for the investigated key performance indicators as enlightened by the case studies examples. It could also help to design efficient incentives and measures to stimulate realization of CCS by identifying and evaluating the most important non-technical factors affecting the CCS chain viability.

AbstractMaking new coal-fired power plants carbon capture ready (Carbon Capture Ready) in China has been recognised as a crucial by a number of stakeholders academics, energy companies and regional government, based on a study in EU-UK-China NZEC project. A number of publications have investigated the definition, engineering requirements, economic and finance of CCR for China. However there remain a number of questions regarding the extent to which a plant’s physical location might constrain the feasibility of CCS retrofit. To address this issue, a Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used as a tool for mapping current and planned large carbon dioxide sources in Guangdong, also illustrating potential storage sites and calculating possible carbon dioxide transportation route.This paper investigates the location factors that should be considered when locating new build CCR power plants and demonstrates the methodology of using GIS software with spatial analysis in planning new build power plant in Guangdong. A preliminary study has identified over 30 large power plants within the region, with plant locations and historical emission data collected and presented in ArcGIS. Factors such as distance to potential storage site, route of CO2 pipeline, extra space on site and potential development plan etc. were investigated in the modelling and calculated the potential source and sink solution. The study then moves on to suggest possible new build plant locations which can be easily fitted in to the current network, based on economic optimisation. The scope for future coal plant development combined with a possible nuclear plant siting plan is discussed towards the end of the paper.Guangdong province, which owns the third largest coal-fired power installed capacity out of 31 provinces, generated over 8% of China’s total electricity every year for the past 15 years. CO2 storage opportunities could be found in the surrounding South China Sea, where Guangdong has a total of 4,300 km of coastline and some small scale oil fields on shore within the region. It is also among the first places to start the national open and reform policy in China. The province is one of the richest in China, with the highest GDP among all other provinces since 1989, and the foreign trade accounts for more than a quarter of China’s total amount. It also contributes around 12 of the total national economic output. Currently, the provincial government is proposing a low carbon roadmap, which is the first of its kind in China.The work has created a totally new thinking on capture ready power plant planning. This differs from existing studies (e.g., which aim to investigate the existing carbon dioxide emission sources at specified location and provide source and sink matching analysis. Instead the study focuses on policy implementation for new build capture ready power plants. Three clusters within Guangdong province are identified as potential temporary CO2 storage hubs before transporting the gas to a long term storage site. When officials are planning new power plant locations from a capture ready perspective, the plants should not necessarily be close to storage sites in straight line, but rather should be within a reasonable distance of a cluster. Transport of the captured CO2 will not be limited to pipelines, but could be extended to road and rail tankers.Power plant parameters and storage site data were collected for this research. Public transportation, utilities, landscapes, river, land used and population data were referenced from various sources; therefore, some of the data could be out of date. Nevertheless, it should still provide enough information when deciding the location of the transport cluster. Any future work could build on the existing model with updated data. Moreover, it could fit in with the national natural gas transportation network and utility planning network to provide long term integrated energy system analysis.The paper could provide policy makers, investors and urban planning officials with a view on how conventional thermal power plant investment and planning could be optimised, using Carbon Capture Ready designs, to keep the CCS retrofitting option open.

The development of valid air quality models (adressing the complex interrelationships between air contaminants and influential variables) is an integral component to developing good indoor air quality (IAQ) management strategies. With an increase in the capabilities of computational resources to process large datasets utilizing the hybrid mathematical calculations, environmentalists are now better equipped to develop and use hybrid IAQ models. This software review paper presents the development and evaluation of one such hybrid IAQ model, referred to as the multivariate time series based radial basis function neural network models (multivariate time series + radial basis function neural networks) for the monitored contaminants of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide inside a public transportation bus using available software. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 931–935, 2016

AbstractNORDICCS is a virtual CCS networking platform aiming for increased CCS deployment in the five Nordic countries. This paper reports from work investigating options for CO2 transport infrastructure in the Nordic region. Five specific CCS cases have been selected from which capture is analyzed in detail and from which CO2 transport cost has been calculated assuming CO2 being captured only at the site itself or, assuming the selected capture site develops into a CO2-hub with CO2 from several adjacent sources. In the latter case cost has been calculated defining for what volumes pipeline transport becomes less costly than corresponding ship transport. Additionally, cost for both pipeline and ship transport has been calculated as a function of distance and volume in order to apply these calculations to derive the least costly transport mode for the fifty-five largest sources in the region with a coastal location. Also, the effect on cost for systems that will require ramp-up (i.e. transported volumes increase over time) has been calculated. Finally, an analysis of the potential for build-up of clusters in the region was performed. The work clearly shows that ship transport is the least costly transport option, not only for the five selected cases individually but also for most of the emission sources located along the coastline. The work also shows that ship transport is the least costly transport option for most of the potential clusters in the region during the ramp-up phase. An obvious but still important conclusion is that constrained storage capability and injectivity may have a profound impact on design and cost of a CO2 transport system.