• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• Energy Procedia close

Abstract This paper characterized the wood pellet and torrefied wood pellet fuel as compared to coal for 100 MW co-firing power generation plant. There were five experiments to characterise the chemical and physical properties of coal, wood pellet and torrefied wood pellet namely moisture analysis, Thermo gravimetric Analyser (TGA), Bomb Calorimeter, Organic Elemental Analyser and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The moisture analysis result from moisture analyser and TGA shows that the moisture content of torrefied wood pellet is lower than wood pellet at 6.760% and 3.629%. Moreover, the volatile matter, hydrogen and nitrogen content of torrefied wood pellet is lower than wood pellet at 65.20%, 5.993% and 0.4078% correspondingly. The calorific value, fixed carbon content, ash and sulphur also increase in torrefied wood pellet at 20.68 MJ/kg, 28.85%, 2.321% and 0.1656% respectively. In general, torrefaction improve the fuel properties of wood pellet similar to coal. The 100 MW direct co-firing power plant provides less capital investment, operation and maintenance cost for low rate co-firing ratio. However, there is economic challenges for high rate co-firing substation of torrefied wood pellets.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) brings together geoscientists from all over the world covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. This geoscientific interdisciplinarity is needed to tackle the challenges of the future. One major challenge for humankind is to provide adequate and reliable supplies of affordable energy and other resources in efficient and environmentally sustainable ways. This Energy Procedia issue provides an overview of the contributions of the Division on Energy, Resources & the Environment (ERE) at the EGU General Assembly 2017.

AbstractThe European Union aspires to reducing the import dependency of raw materials that are critical to its industries. In this respect, mineral resource information and data sharing by European Geological Surveys is crucial. In 2010, the European Commission identified 14 critical non-energy non-agricultural raw materials. This list was updated in 2014. This article presents the Critical Raw Material (CRM) Map of Europe produced by EuroGeoSurvey's Mineral Resources Expert Group. This map shows European mineral deposits from the EU FP7 ProMine project database, as containing critical commodities, according to the list of CRM published by the European Commission.

Abstract Renewable generation technologies (e.g. photovoltaic panels (PV)) are often installed in buildings and districts with an aim to decrease their carbon emissions and consumption of non-renewable energy. However, due to a mismatch between supply and demand at an hourly but also on a seasonal timescale; a large amount of electricity is exported to the grid rather than used to offset local demand. A solution to this is local storage of electricity for subsequent self-consumption. This could additionally provide districts with new business opportunities, financial stability, flexibility and reliability. In this paper the feasibility of hydrogen based electricity storage for a district is evaluated. The district energy system (DES) includes PV and hybrid photovoltaic panels (PVT). The proposed storage system consists of production of hydrogen using the renewable electricity generated within the district, hydrogen storage, and subsequent use in a fuel cell. Combination of battery storage along with hydrogen conversion and storage is also evaluated. A multi-energy optimization approach is used to model the DES. Results of the model are optimal battery capacity, electrolyzer capacity, hydrogen storage capacity, fuel cell capacity and energy flows through the system. The model is also used to compare different system design configurations. The results of this analysis show that both battery capacity and conversion of electricity to hydrogen enable the district to decrease its carbon emissions by approximately 22% when compared to the reference case with no energy storage.

Abstract The deeply decarbonized energy economy would be achieved by the efficient power generation and low-carbon end-use equipment and infrastructure, which relies on the fixed cost investments in these items. In this study, we calculated the societal costs by the incremental energy system costs, which are defined the cost of producing, distributing, and consuming energy in a decarbonized energy system. We assess the transformation of the energy system including the major changes in energy supply and end use technology and infrastructure and its related energy costs. The investments in the highly efficient end use of energy, decarbonization of electricity and other fuels including biomass, petroleum, coal, natural gas and switching of end uses to electricity and other low-carbon supplies are calculated. The primary results show that the reference case shows a modest 15% increase in total final energy use, a 9% increase in CO2 emissions relative to 2014 levels, while the deep decarbonization case shows a 20% decrease in total final energy use and an 65% reduction in total emissions. The total societal costs, calculated by summing these three categories costs can be used for assessing the expected cost to achieve the target of greenhouse gas emissions reduction, which can provide theory for implications of low-carbon technology and infrastructure changes for the energy economy and policy.

Abstract The increasing attention toward climate changes and the recent strategic policies to stabilize and reduce CO2 emission is promoting research in the field of carbon capture, storage and more recently utilization technologies, whereby CO2 is captured from industrial flue gas, reused if possible or permanently stored in geological formations, such as depleted oil or gas fields and saline aquifers. In this scenario, Sotacarbo is leading the “Centre of Excellence on Clean Energy” research project, funded by the Regional Government of Sardinia, which aims to develop technologies for low emission power generation and for CO2 capture, utilization and storage. Among these technologies, CO2 utilization by hydrogenation and photoelectrochemical reduction are experimentally studied in the Sotacarbo laboratories. This work presents a general overview of the researches (carried out in close cooperation with the University of Cagliari) on CO2 utilization by conversion into liquid fuels, with a description of the research facilities and a hint on preliminary experimental results.

Abstract Ventilation systems are of vital importance for buildings, not only to provide acceptable thermal conditions and air quality for occupants, but also with regards to energy usage. Impinging jets can be encountered in many ventilation strategies which have major impacts on the acoustic environment and energy performance. The self-sustaining tones can be generated in such applications where a feedback loop is installed in the system. This phenomenon is explained by the corollary of Howe who shows that the origin of noise in such configurations can be attributed to fluid rotations. Howe highlights the role of phase conditions between the vorticity, the velocity of the flow and the acoustic velocity for the optimization of energy transfers between the turbulent kinetic energy and the sound field. In this work, we use 2D-PIV technique and a microphone respectively to measure the kinematic fields simultaneously with the acoustic generation for a rectangular jet impinging on a slotted plate. This study aims to investigate the transfers between the turbulent kinetic energy and the sound field for two Reynolds numbers presenting a high and a low noise levels. It is shown that phase conditions are necessary for the optimization of energy transfer which allows the installation of the self-sustained loop in the flow. It was found also that the change of the aerodynamic mode which is directly related to the self-sustained frequency amplifies the sound intensity and promotes the transfer of energy to the acoustic field.

Abstract This study aims at determining the technology combination that provides the lowest emissions and energy cost for the food-industrial sector. Using a linear optimization objective function in determining the least-cost pathway, data from various sources were compiled to perform simulations on two scenarios; a business as usual (BAU) case and an 80% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. Even in the base case, the emission level reaches 21% of 1990 levels; a reduction of 39% over the simulation period. This indicates that even without the imposition of GHG constraints on the food sector, it is economically more beneficial for the industry to migrate from fossil fuels. This migration takes place by replacing energy from LPG, LFO, Kerosene, HFO, Coal and Natural gas with biomass, biogas and CHP electricity. Economic benefits arise from the fact that biogas and biomass are produced from wastes which are generated onsite within food factories, hence the avoidance of purchasing energy feedstock from the market. The change in energy consumption between the two scenarios is similar due to the prevalence of least-cost solutions and similar energy and food demand requirements. However, the reduction in emissions are greater in the 80%-GHG case than the BAU case; 52% compared to 39% for the BAU case, for 2050 relative to 2010. This is largely owing to decarbonization of grid electricity. This study finds that the food-industrial sector has the potential to exceed this 80% reduction target to a value of 92%, due to the availability of onsite feedstocks to generate biogas. In this simulation, of all waste produced, 92% of waste feedstock is consumed in AD and CHPs, whilst the remaining 8% is dried and processed to be burned in biomass boilers.