C.
The biosolubilization product mainly contained aromatic acids and
chain hydrocarbons, and had organic function groups of hydroxyl,
cyclane, carbonyl, ether linkage and aromatic rings. The heating value
of the biosolubilization product was 14 MJ/kg. Chemical analysis of the
biosolubilization product indicated that side chains of lignite were
important structures in the biosolubilization mechanism.
09/01998 Correlation between optical, chemical and micro-
structural parameters of high-rank coals and graphite
Marques, M. et al. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2009, 77, (3
4), 377382.
In order to identify the parameters that best characterize the chemical
and structural evolution of organic matter during coalification, the
relationships between optical, chemical and micro-structural par-
ameters in high-rank coals and natural graphite were studied. The
samples include anthracites from PenarroyaBelmezEspiel Basin
(Spain), Douro Basin (Portugal), and Alto Chicama Basin (Peru);
and natural graphite from Canada, Mozambique, and Austria.
Correlations between the following optical parameters were assessed:
vitrinite random reflectance (R
r
), reflectance indicating surfaces (RIS)
axis (R
MAX
, R
INT
and R
MIN
), and RIS parameters (R
am
, R
ev
and R
st
),
as well as B
w
and AI anisotropy parameters. Furthermore, the chemical
parameters used were chosen according to their significant variation in
coals, namely volatile matter, carbon, and hydrogen contents calcu-
lated in dry ash free basis (VM
daf
, C
daf
, H
daf
), as well as the H/C atomic
ratio. Structural organization was characterized by micro-Raman
spectroscopy and XRD. Raman parameters used were the full width
at half maximum (FWHM) and position of G and D1 bands on the
first-order Raman spectrum, and the ID1/IG intensity area ratio. The
selected XRD parameters were interlayer spacing d
002
, and crystallite
sizes La and Lc. Results show that: (i) R
MAX
RIS axis seems to
correlate best with chemical and micro-structural parameters; (ii) for
the majority of studied samples, H
daf
and H/C atomic ratio are the only
chemical parameters with significant correlations with R
MAX
; (iii) the
FWHM of the G band of Raman spectrum shows good linear
correlation with the XRD parameter d
002
; and, (iv) structural
organization of carbon materials, as measured by trends in their
optical and crystalline parameters, is influenced by their hydrogen
content (daf basis) and therefore by the H/C atomic ratio.
09/01999 Geochemistry of coals from the Elk Valley
coalfield, British Columbia, Canada
Goodarzi, F. et al. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2009, 77, (3
4), 246259.
The Elk Valley coalfield of British Columbia is one of the major coal-
producing areas in Canada. The coals are of Cretaceous and Jurassic
Cretaceous age and range in rank from high-volatile to low-volatile
bituminous (%Ro
max
: 0.81.6). Coal seams from outcrops and active
mines in this coalfield were analysed for rank and maceral composition
using reflected light microscopy, for geochemistry using AAS, INAA,
and ICPES, and also by proximate and ultimate analyses. The Elk
Valley coal seams contain low average concentrations of hazardous
elements such as As, Mo, Pb, and Se. However, there are seams that
contain relatively high concentrations of some of these elements, such
as 8 mg/kg and 108 mg/kg of arsenic. When the geochemistry of coal
seams is compared within the different parts of the coalfield, the
elemental composition amongst the seams from various sections
located in the central area of the coalfield is similar. Coal seams in
the northern area of the coalfield have different geochemistry than coal
seams in other areas of the coalfield; seams in the northern area have
much higher As, Br, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, and Na content, but contain less Ca.
09/02000 Influence of inherent minerals and pyrolysis
temperature on the yield of pyrolysates of some Pakistani
coals
Ahmad, T. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (5),
11631171.
An analytical method has been developed to quantitize tar, liquids and
gaseous products resulting from the flash pyrolysis of sub-bituminous
Makarwal coal. The method involves the thermal decomposition of
200 mg of 85-mesh size coal at 690
C.
Preparation
09/02001 Effect of altitude and palm oil biodiesel fuelling
on the performance and combustion characteristics of a
HSDI diesel engine
Benjumea, P. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (4), 725731.
Altitude above sea level and fuels chemical and physical nature affect
engine performance and combustion characteristics. In this work, a
combustion diagnosis model including exergy analysis was applied to a
turbocharged automotive diesel engine fuelled with neat palm oil
biodiesel (B100) and No. 2 diesel fuel (B0). Tests were performed
under steady state operating conditions, at two altitudes above sea
level: 500 and 2400 m. Biodiesel fuelling and altitude had an additive
effect on the advance in injection and combustion timings. The
duration of the premixed combustion stage increased with altitude
and decreased with biodiesel. When B100 was used, the transition
between this stage and the diffusion stage was practically suppressed.
As altitude increased, biodiesel fuelling led to shorter combustion
duration, and higher in-cylinder pressures and fuelair equivalence
ratios. Brake thermal efficiency decreased with altitude for both fuels,
but in a greater extent for B0. For all fuels and altitudes, exergy
destruction rose sharply when combustion started, indicating that this
process was the main source of irreversibilities. At both altitudes, the
cumulative exergy destruction was higher for B100 due to its earlier
and faster combustion process. Some of the results obtained in this
work indicate that palm oil biodiesel fuelling can lead to a better
engine performance at high altitudes.
09/02002 Effect of injection pressure on heat release rate
and emissions in CI engine using orange skin powder diesel
solution
Purushothaman, K. and Nagarajan, G. Energy Conversion and Manage-
ment, 2009, 50, (4), 962969.
Experiments have been conducted to study the effect of injection
pressure on the combustion process and exhaust emissions of a direct
injection diesel engine fuelled with orange skin powder diesel solution
(OSPDS). Earlier investigation by the authors revealed that 30%
OSPDS was optimum for better performance and emissions. In the
present investigation the injection pressure was varied with 30%
OSPDS and the combustion, performance and emissions characteristics
were compared with those of diesel fuel. The different injection
pressures studied were 215, 235 and 255 bar. The results showed that
the cylinder pressure with 30% OSPDS at 235 bar fuel injection
pressure, was higher than that of diesel fuel as well as at other injection
pressures. Similarly, the ignition delay was longer and with shorter
combustion duration with 30% OSPDS at 235 bar injection pressure.
The brake thermal efficiency was better at 235 bar than that of other
fuel injection pressures with OSPDS and lower than that of diesel fuel.
The NO
x
emission with 30% OSPDS was higher at 235 bar. The
hydrocarbon and carbon emissions were lower with 30% OSPDS at
235 bar. The smoke emission with 30% OSPDS was marginally lower
at 235 bar and marginally higher at 215 bar than for diesel fuel. The
combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the engine
operating on the test fuels at 235 bar injection pressure were better than
other injection pressures.
09/02003 Environmental chamber measurements of
mercury flux from coal utilization by-products
Pekney, N. J. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (5), 890897.
314 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
01 Solid fuels (preparation)
An environmental chamber was constructed to measure the mercury
flux from coal utilization by-product samples. Samples of fly ash, FGD
gypsum, and wallboard made from FGD gypsum were tested under
both dark and illuminated conditions with or without the addition of
water to the sample. Mercury releases varied widely, with 7-day
experiment averages ranging from 6.8 to 73 ng/m
2
h for the fly ash
samples and 5.2 to 335 ng/m
2
h for the FGD/wallboard samples.
Initial mercury content, fly ash type, and light exposure had no
observable consistent effects on the mercury flux. For the fly ash
samples, the effect of a mercury control technology was to decrease the
emission. For three of the four pairs of FGD gypsum and wallboard
samples, the wallboard sample released less (or absorbed more)
mercury than the gypsum.
09/02004 Nitrogen release during thermochemical
conversion of single coal pellets in highly preheated
mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen
Ponzio, A. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (6), 11271134.
In this investigation, single coal particles (pellets) were combusted in
highly preheated oxidants (8731273 K) with oxygen concentrations
ranging from 0% to 100%, using a small-scale batch reactor. In base of
the experimental results, the influence of oxygen concentration and
oxidizer temperature on total mass conversion, the release of fuel
nitrogen and the fraction of fuel nitrogen that is oxidized to NO
x
, is
discussed. For oxygen concentration 521%, the rate of the thermo-
chemical conversion was shown to be almost independent oxygen
concentration when oxidant temperatures of 10731273 K were used.
The opposite was true for an oxidant temperature of 873 K. Thus there
appears to be an oxidant temperature above which devolatilization is
controlled by convective heat transfer rather than reaction. Further it
was shown that the release of fuel nitrogen was promoted by an
increased oxygen concentration (from 5% to 21% at 1273 K) and an
increase of oxidant temperature (from 1073 K to 1273 K at 21%
oxygen). An estimate of the devolatilization of nitrogen from the
measured pellet temperature indicated that the devolatilization of
nitrogen is significantly delayed with respect to other components. In
fact, during the very initial part of the thermochemical conversion,
most released nitrogen appeared to follow the route via char rather
than via devolatilization. Favourable conditions for NO reduction
thanks to a prompt devolatilization contemporarily to a release of fuel
nitrogen via the char route was believed to be one of the explanation
for the evidenced low ratios between NO
x
emissions and fuel nitrogen
released, particularly in the beginning of the experiment. The fact that
the amount of released fuel nitrogen that is oxidized to NO
x
was shown
to decrease with increasing oxidant temperatures from 1073 K to
1273 K supports this interpretation, though a higher temperature of the
oxidant creates higher devolatilization rates.
Transport, storage
09/02005 Eastman Chemical Companys Chemicals from
Coal program: the first quarter century
Zoeller, J. R. Catalysis Today, 2009, 140, (34), 118126.
Eastman Chemical Company first initiated its Chemicals from Coal
programme in the mid-1970s. The programme led to the successful
commercialization of a process to produce acetic anhydride entirely
from coal-based synthesis gas in 1983. However, Eastman Chemical
Company did not stop to work with on chemicals from coal with the
attainment of the acetic anhydride process and they continued to look
at the additional processes for chemicals from coal. In this manuscript,
Eastman Chemical Company will discuss the case for coal which led
Eastman Chemical Company to take a leadership role in the
production of chemicals from coal and then present three case studies,
including the commercially practiced Eastman acetic anhydride process
and potentially competitive processes for vinyl acetate and methacrylic
acid, which demonstrate the viability of replacing petroleum and
natural gas based processes with processes based entirely on coal
derived synthesis gas.
09/02006 The impact of liberalisation of the electricity
market on the hard coal mining sector in Poland
Kaminski, J. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 925939.
The liberalization of the electricity market changed the conditions of
operation not only for the power industry, but also for related sectors.
One of the particularly sensitive industries in Poland is coal mining,
which is the result of coal-based structure of electricity generation. As
it is more difficult, in the liberalized market, to burden consumers with
all the costs, electricity producers are eager to transfer the risk of
operation to the suppliers. That increases uncertainty about the future
of the hard coal industry. The aim of this paper was to quantitatively
estimate the impact that liberalization of the electricity markets may
have on the coal mining sector in Poland. First of all, the possible areas
of that impact were identified. Then the model, which involved detailed
relations in the impact areas identified, was developed and employed to
evaluate the performance of the mining sector. The comparison of
scenarios of a monopolistic electricity sector with a liberalized one
enabled an estimation of the scale of the impact on the mining sector to
be made. The results showed that liberalization causes decreased coal
consumption and decreased operating profits in coal companies.
However, some savings in electricity costs are possible for coal
producers.
Economics, business, marketing, policy
09/02007 Analysis of the market penetration of clean coal
technologies and its impacts in Chinas electricity sector
Wang, H. and Nakata, T. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (1), 338351.
This paper discusses policy instruments for promoting the market
penetration of clean coal technologies (CCTs) into Chinas electricity
sector and the evaluation of corresponding effects. Based on the reality
that coal will remain the predominant fuel to generate electricity and
conventional pulverized coal boiler power plants have serious impacts
on environment degradation, development of clean coal technologies
could be one alternative to meet Chinas fast growing demand of
electricity as well as protect the already fragile environment. A multi-
period market equilibrium model is applied and an electricity model of
China is established to forecast changes in the electricity system up to
2030s. Three policy instruments: SO
2
emission charge, CO
2
emission
charge and implementing subsidies are considered in this research. The
results show that all instruments cause a significant shift in Chinas
electricity structure, promote CCTs competitiveness and lead China to
gain great benefit in both resource saving and environment improve-
ment. Since resource security and environment degradation are
becoming primary concerns in China, policies that could help to gain
generations market share of advanced coal-based technologies such as
CCTs is suitable for the current situation of Chinas electricity sector.
Derived solid fuels
09/02008 Renewable energy benefits with conversion of
woody residues to pellets
Di Giacomo, G. and Taglieri, L. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 724731.
In the frame of an Interreg IIIC Network-Operation named Reg-
Energy, that unites 18 partners from 11 countries of Europe, the
feasibility of using the woody by-products for heating purpose in a
typical Mediterranean region was investigated. Focusing on the
Abruzzo Region as representative sample area, it came out that a
significant amount of the-above mentioned renewable energetic
material is annually available as a consequence of well-consolidated
and economically significant agro-industrial activities, forest mainten-
ance and industrial wood production and transformation. In particular,
it was found that the total amount of woody residues, as dry substance,
are more than 700 kt/a, with 30% resulting from pruning activities
related to the cultivation of about 360 km
2
of vineyards and 450 km
2
of
olive-groves; these residues are concentrated in the hilly part of the
region close to the Adriatic sea coast. The feasibility of a properly
localized wood pellets production plant was supported by both the
economic and energetic analysis. Additional suggestions related to
optimal plant localization and to the best use of the woody pellets as
substitute of natural gas for heating purposes were reported along with
the positive impact of the whole action on the quality of the
environment and on the recovery of soil fertility.
09/02009 Solid fuel block as an alternate fuel for cooking
and barbecuing: preliminary results
Sharma, M. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (4),
955961.
A large part of the rural people of developing countries use traditional
biomass stoves to meet their cooking and heating energy demands.
These stoves possess very low thermal efficiency; besides, most of them
cannot handle agricultural wastes. Thus, there is a need to develop an
alternate cooking device that is simple, efficient and can handle a range
of biomass including agricultural wastes. In this reported work, a highly
densified solid fuel block using a range of low-cost agro-residues has
been developed to meet the cooking and heating needs. A strategy was
adopted to determine the best suitable raw materials, which was
optimized in terms of cost and performance. Several experiments were
conducted using solid fuel block which was manufactured using various
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 315
01 Solid fuels (derived solid fuels)
raw materials in different proportions; it was found that fuel block
composed of 40% biomass, 40% charcoal powder, 15% binder and 5%
oxidizer fulfilled the requirement. Based on this finding, fuel blocks of
two different configurations viz. cylindrical shape with single and multi-
holes (3, 6, 9 and 13) were constructed and its performance was
evaluated. For instance, the 13 hole solid fuel block met the
requirement of domestic cooking; the mean thermal power was
1.6 kW
th
with a burn time of 1.5 h. Furthermore, the maximum thermal
efficiency recorded for this particular design was 58%. Whereas, the
power level of single hole solid fuel block was found to be lower but
adequate for barbecue cooking application.
09/02010 Swedish perspective on wood fuel pellets for
household heating: a modified standard for pellets could
reduce end-user problems
Sta hl, M. and Wikstrom, F. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 803
809.
The use of wood fuel pellets has increased significantly over the past
few years, and since 2006 the households use the major part of the
pellets available in Sweden. During the same period, the oil heating has
decreased. Many former oil users that were used to almost mainten-
ance-free heating systems now use pellets. Despite significant
improvements of pellet quality and storage and burner equipment,
there are still some problems that the household pellets user
encounters. In this work, common end-user problems are identified.
The cause of each problem, as well as whether a modified Swedish
standard for pellets could reduce some of the problems encountered, is
analysed. The results show that the most serious problems originate
from the crumbling of pellets. It can be concluded that many of the
problems could be avoided by modifying the Swedish standard, e.g. the
quality parameters could be set using intervals instead of threshold
values.
02 LIQUID FUELS
Sources, properties, recovery
09/02011 Application of a proportional-integral control for
the estimation of static formation temperatures in oil wells
Espinosa-Paredes, G. et al. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 2009, 26,
(2), 259268.
A strategy based on proportional-integral (PI) feedback control was
applied to solve an inverse heat transfer problem for estimating static
formation temperatures (SFTs) from logged temperatures in oil wells.
The PI control feedbacks the error between logged and simulated
temperatures during the shut-in time process, existing SFT proposal.
Thus, mathematically speaking an inverse heat transfer problem was
solved in this way, since SFT represents the initial conditions (which
are unknown) to solve the partial differential equations governing the
heat transfer process in the wellbore-formation system. The math-
ematical model considers transient convective heat transfer due to
circulation losses to the rock surrounding a well. The methodology was
tested analysing two oil wells (MB-3007 and MB-3009) from the Gulf
of Mexico and results were compared against two classic methods. The
method presented in this work needs only one temperature measure-
ment for each fixed depth to estimate the SFT.
09/02012 Characteristics of liquid ethanol diffusion flames
from mini tube nozzles
Chen, J. et al. Combustion and Flame, 2009, 156, (2), 460466.
A series of experiments was conducted to explore the combustion
characteristics of a diffusion flames from mini tubes fuelled by liquid
ethanol with visual observations of the flame shape, the dynamic
liquidvapour interface during phase change inside the capillary tubes
and the tube outer surface temperature using CCD and IR cameras. As
the fuel supply rate increased, the interface location rose to the tube
exit and the temperature gradient on the outer tube surface increased,
consequently the evaporating became much stronger and the interface
tended to be unstable. The combustion characteristics are closely
related to the rapid phase change and violent evaporation and
interfacial dynamics, with the violent evaporation, actually explosive
boiling, inducing an explosive flame. The intensity of the explosive
flame became stronger as the flowrate increased with the maximum
flame height, interface location movement, and sound intensity all
significantly increasing. The periodicity of the explosive flame was
directly proportional to the interface moving distance and inversely
proportional to the fuel flow rate.
09/02013 Characterization of reservoir systems at elevated
pressure
Jaeger, P. and Pietsch, A. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineer-
ing, 2009, 64, (14), 2024.
The efficiency in enhanced oil recovery strongly depends on interphase
behaviour of the participating fluids and solids. Analysis is carried out
using experimental techniques for recording contact angles and
interfacial tension at elevated pressure and relating these data by use
of known approaches from literature. Even in fairly incompressible
liquidliquidsolid systems the solidliquid interfacial energies are
shown to change at rising pressure. Combination of measured contact
angles of a ternary watern-alkanedolomite system with those of the
respective binary systems enables estimation of surface and interfacial
energies of rock surfaces. In the presence of gases, especially methane,
the watern-alkane interfacial tension as well as the contact angle of a
(non-wetting) water drop on dolomite in n-alkane is decreased which is
only possible if the interfacial energy of n-alkanedolomite rises based
on Youngs law. In a water-wet system, wetting by water was also
observed to improve under pressure which is attributed to a decreasing
water-rock interfacial energy since the wateroil interfacial tension is
increased at the same time.
09/02014 Effects of stress and oscillatory frequency on the
structural properties of Daqing gelled crude oil at different
temperatures
Li, C. et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2009, 65, (3
4), 167170.
The structural properties of Daqing gelled waxy crude oil were studied
with a controlled-stress rheometer under oscillatory shear mode. The
results demonstrate that the gelled waxy crude oil shows viscoelastic
properties. The linear viscoelastic region and yielding of crude oil can
be determined not only by the critical linear shear stress (t
cl
) and yield
stress (t
y
), but also by the critical linear shear strain (
cl
) and yield
strain (
y
) respectively. With the decrease of test temperature, t
cl
and t
y
increased greatly while
cl
and
y
decreased gradually. The crude oil
showed more elastic at lower temperatures. The frequency had little
effect on the structure of crude oils in the measured range.
09/02015 Enhanced heavy oil recovery through interfacial
instability: a study of chemical flooding for Brintnell heavy
oil
Dong, M. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (6), 10491056.
This study is aimed at developing an alkaline/surfactant-enhanced oil
recovery process for heavy oil reservoirs with oil viscosities ranging
from 1000 to 10,000 mPa s, through the mechanism of interfacial
instability. Instead of the oil viscosity being reduced, as in thermal and
solvent/gas injection processes, oil is dispersed into and transported
through the water phase to production wells. Extensive emulsification
tests and oil/water interfacial tension measurements were conducted to
screen alkali and surfactant for the oil and the brine samples collected
from Brintnell reservoir. The heavy oil/water interfacial tension could
be reduced to about 7 10
2
dyn/cm with the addition of a mixture of
Na
2
CO
3
and NaOH in the formation brine without evident dynamic
effect. The oil/water interfacial tension could be further reduced to
1 10
2
dyn/cm when a very low surfactant concentration (0.005
0.03 wt%) was applied to the above alkaline solution. Emulsification
tests showed that in situ self-dispersion of the heavy oil into the water
phase occurred when a carefully designed chemical solution was
applied. A series of 21 flood tests were conducted in sandpacks to
evaluate the chemical formulas obtained from screening tests for the
oil. Tertiary oil recoveries of about 2223% IOIP (3235% ROIP) were
obtained for the tests using 0.6 wt% alkaline (weight ratio of Na
2
CO
3
to NaOH=2:1) and 0.045 wt% surfactant solution in the formation
brine. The sandpack flood results obtained in this project showed that a
synergistic enhancement among the chemicals did occur in the tertiary
recovery process through the interfacial instability mechanism.
09/02016 Influence of heat and pressure treatment on the
rheological behavior of petroleum pitches
Braga, C. P. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (5), 853860.
Pitch rheological properties are extremely important during the
manufacturing process of carbon materials, in mesophase formation,
and with regard to the final properties of the carbon products. In this
work, pitch samples have been prepared from three different FCC
decant oils by heat-treatment, under 0.9 MPa pressure, in a reactor at
390
C, 410
C, and 430
C. The
quinoline-insoluble content (QI) has been shown to be more important
in increasing the pitch viscosity than the toluene-insoluble content
(TI). Oscillatory rheometry analysis has shown that an elastic response
is not always found in creep and recovery tests, even when the elastic
modulus G
0
is dominant over the viscous modulus G
00
. Pitch elasticity
316 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
02 Liquid fuels (sources, properties, recovery)
was found to be independent of the mesophase, and this pitch property
was either only observed when the cross-over point occurred at very
high frequencies or did not occur at all within the frequency range
studied.
09/02017 Laminar burning velocities at high pressure for
primary reference fuels and gasoline: experimental and
numerical investigation
Jerzembeck, S. et al. Combustion and Flame, 2009, 156, (2), 292301.
Spherical flames of n-heptane, iso-octane, PRF 87 and gasoline/air
mixtures are experimentally investigated to determine laminar burning
velocities and Markstein lengths under engine-relevant conditions by
using the constant volume bomb method. Data are obtained for an
initial temperature of 373 K, equivalence ratios varying from c=0.7 to
c=1.2, and initial pressures from 10 to 25 bar. To track the flame
front in the vessel a dark field HeNe laser Schlieren measurement
technique and digital image processing were used. The propagating
speed with respect to the burned gases and the stretch rate are
determined from the rate of change of the flame radius. The laminar
burning velocities are obtained through a linear extrapolation to zero
stretch. The experimentally determined Markstein numbers are
compared to theoretical predictions. A reduced chemical kinetic
mechanism for n-heptane and iso-octane was derived from the
Lawrence Livermore comprehensive mechanisms. This mechanism
was validated for ignition delay times and flame propagation at low
and high pressures. In summary an overall good agreement with the
various experimental data sets used in the validation was obtained.
09/02018 Partial least squares with outlier detection in
spectral analysis: a tool to predict gasoline properties
Bao, X. and Dai, L. Fuel, 2009, 88, (7), 12161222.
The aim of this study is to propose a novel partial least squares with
outlier detection (PLS_OD) calibration method and show its useful-
ness in calibration successfully with data containing outlying objects.
This method is applied in gasoline spectral analysis to predict gasoline
properties. In particular, a comparative study of PLS_OD and other
five methods is presented. The performances of the proposed method
are illustrated on spectral data set with and without outliers. The
obtained results suggest that the proposed method can be used for
constructing satisfactory gasoline prediction model whether there are
some outliers or not.
09/02019 Petrology and depositional evolution of the
Paleozoic rocks of Iraq
Al-Juboury, A. I. and Al-Hadidy, A. H. Marine and Petroleum Geology,
2009, 26, (2), 208231.
The study integrates petrographical and lithological data from deep
exploration wells and outcrops in northern Iraq to better understand
the sedimentary environments present in the basin and to evaluate the
depositional evolution of the Paleozoic rocks in Iraq. The studied
Paleozoic successions are represented by five sedimentary cycles of
intracratonic sequences. These are dominated mainly by siliciclastic
and mixed sedimentary packages, and are separated by major and
minor unconformity surfaces. These cycles are as follow: the
Ordovician cycle, represented by the Khabour Formation; the Silurian
cycle, represented by the Akkas Formation; the Middle-Late Devonian
to Early Carboniferous cycle, represented by the Chalki, Pirispiki,
Kaista, Ora and Harur formations; the PermianCarboniferous cycle,
represented by the Gaara Formation and late Permian cycle,
represented by the Chia Zairi Formation. Generally, the cycles are
characterized by siliciclastic and mixed carbonateclastic facies with
abrupt changes during Late Paleozoic reflecting the environmental and
tectonic events during this period. The Ordovician Khabour Formation
is suggested to be of shallow marine environment of deposition with
stacked transgressive and regressive cycles that are eustatically
controlled. The shale of Silurian Akkas Formation was deposited in
open-marine environment. Depositional regimes in the Late Devonian
to Early Carboniferous are considered as a continuation of deposition
in the subsiding basin with a wide geographic distribution that reflect
the epicontinental or epeiric seas in a homoclinic ramp setting. The
Permo-Carboniferous Gaara Formation was deposited in continental
to paralic environment while the Late Permian Chia Zairi Formation
represents the carbonate platform deposition. The study revealed that
potential source rocks may include some shale beds of the Khabour
Formation, hot shales of Akkas Formation and the shales of Ora
Formation. The sandstones of the Khabour, Akkas and Kaista
formations have good reservoir potential. The Late Permian carbon-
ates of Chia Zairi Formation may be self-sourcing and contain multiple
reservoirs. The occurrence of shale as source rocks and limestone as
reservoir rocks and some evaporates as sealing horizons make the
formation as a reservoir in its own right.
09/02020 Solar assisted method for recovery of bitumen
from oil sand
Kraemer, D. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 14371449.
A novel concept for the recovery of bitumen from oil sands in a natural
gas limited environment with and without CO
2
constraints is presented.
A feasible method is suggested for the recovery of unconventional oil in
an environmentally friendly and sustainable way that has the potential
of eliminating the need of natural gas as a process fuel. The proposed
concept involves mid temperature steam generation for stimulating an
oil sand formation. The steam is generated by utilizing solar radiation.
The method uses the thermal mass of the oil sand formation to allow
for cyclic steam injection during solar availability while still yielding
continuous bitumen recovery. Feasibility assessments of the concept
from both a thermodynamic and financial point of view are presented
for a scenario of development in the Athabasca region in Alberta,
Canada.
09/02021 Theoretical and physical modeling of a solvent
vapour extraction (VAPEX) process for heavy oil recovery
Moghadam, S. et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering,
2009, 65, (12), 93104.
Solvent vapour extraction (VAPEX) is an effective heavy oil recovery
process because of its significant viscosity reduction through sufficient
solvent dissolution and possible asphaltene precipitation. In this paper,
an analytical model is developed to predict the accumulative heavy oil
production in the entire VAPEX process. In the experiment, a total of
five VAPEX tests are conducted to recover a heavy oil sample from a
visual rectangular sand-packed high-pressure physical model and
measure the accumulative heavy oil production versus time data.
Theoretically, a mathematical model is formulated to predict the
accumulative heavy oil production data at different times. It is assumed
that the transition zone between the solvent chamber and the
untouched heavy oil zone has two straight-line boundaries with a
constant thickness during the VAPEX process. The constant tran-
sition-zone thickness is used as an adjustable parameter and thus
determined by finding the best fit of the theoretically predicted
accumulative heavy oil production data to the experimentally measured
data. It is found that the maximum variation of the transition-zone
thicknesses determined by using the accumulative heavy oil production
data at different times is within 15% for the five VAPEX tests. This
fact indicates that the constant transition-zone thickness assumption is
acceptable. In addition, it is also found that in general, the transition-
zone thickness is increased when the permeability of the VAPEX
physical model is decreased. Moreover, the analytical model is applied
to predict the position of the solvent chamber, and its horizontal
spreading velocity and falling velocity. Both the horizontal spreading
velocity and the falling velocity of the solvent chamber decrease with
time as the VAPEX process proceeds.
Transport, refining, quality, storage
09/02022 Application of Water Source Diagram (WSD)
method for the reduction of water consumption in petroleum
refineries
de Souza, A. A. U. et al. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2009,
53, (3), 149154.
The chemical, petrochemical, textile and paper and cellulose industries
consume great quantities of water and there is an ever increasing
demand to minimize this consumption as natural water resources
become scarcer. Also, the tendency for the cost of water and of effluent
treatment to increase, due to new restrictions regarding discharges to
the environment, has led to the necessity to minimize industrial water
consumption, increasingly favouring the development of new method-
ologies for the optimization of the use of these resources. Of the many
approaches which have been developed, the Water Source Diagram
(WSD) is highlighted since it offers a flexible and dynamic alternative
for the generation of different scenarios for the management of water
networks with the reduction of consumption. In this study, the
implementation of the method in a petroleum refinery with six
operations which consume water, where four contaminants are present
with different permissible input values for each operation, is
investigated. The cases of maximum water reuse, regenerative end-of-
pipe treatment and differentiated regeneration were studied. In the
differentiated regeneration system, there was an important reduction
in the water consumption, with a recycle rate of 37.93 ton/h in
regenerator 2 and 14.02 in regenerator 3. It was observed that with
the application of the WSD method the water consumption was
substantially reduced, in some cases obtaining a reduction in water
consumption greater than those reported in the literature.
09/02023 Hydrotreated-LCO oxidation in a transport
reactor-hydrocyclon system for a low-emission fuel oil
production. II Catalyst deactivation and simulation model
Tailleur, R. G. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (6), 11091119.
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 317
02 Liquid fuels (transport, refining, quality, storage)
The CuCr/IP (4-PVP) catalyst deactivation was studied using continu-
ous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) laboratory equipment at different
temperatures during the oxidation of a tetralin- and fluorene-doped
diesel. The concentration of naphtho-aromatics molecules was fol-
lowed as a function of time on stream, and the catalyst properties
analysed at the beginning and end of run. A computational program
was developed to simulate the operation of a continuous recirculation
slurry-hydrocyclon-type reactor. The program uses a Runge Kutta
Felberg numerical method to solve the mass and energy balance
equations for gas, liquid, and solid. For this calculation, it uses a plug
flow recycle reactor model for the riser and a plug flow for the
downcomer, in agreement with previous fluid dynamic study. The
deactivation results indicate a low catalyst deactivation that can be
modelled by using an exponential function of the time on stream. The
simulation results show that the most important operating variables
affecting activity and selectivity are the gas/liquid ratio, the solid hold-
up, and the initial temperature. The study confirms the effect of both
fluid dynamics and kinetics model parameters in the diesel quality
improvement.
09/02024 Improvement of bitumen performance with epoxy
resin
Cubuk, M. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (7), 13241328.
This paper studies the modification of petroleum bitumen with epoxy
resin. Different amounts of epoxy were doped into bitumen with 50/70
penetration grade and variations in viscosity as a function of
temperature and additive concentration were determined. The effects
of the epoxy additive were examined by rheometer, penetration,
softening point, DSR (dynamic shear rheometer), DSC (differential
scanning calorimeter), RTFOT (rolling thin film oven test), PAV
(pressure aging vessel), BBR (bending beam rheometer) and surface
tension tests. Adhesion and stability of bitumen aggregate mixtures
prepared using original and modified bitumen were compared using
Nicholson stripping and Marshall tests. The optimum dosage of the
additive yielding the best rheological and performance properties was
found to be 2% (w/w). Appreciable decrease in the formation of
rutting, bleeding, stripping and cracking of modified bitumen may be
obtained through epoxy addition.
09/02025 Liquid phase desulfurization of jet fuel by a
combined pervaporation and adsorption process
Wang, Y. et al. Fuel Processing Technology, 2009, 90, (3), 458464.
Since the conventional hydrodesulfurization process employed in the
refinery industry is not suitable for mobile fuel cell applications (e.g.
auxiliary power units, APUs), the present study aims at developing an
alternative process and determining its technical feasibility. A large
number of processes were assessed with respect to their application in
fuel cell APUs. The results revealed that a two-step process combining
pervapouration and adsorption is a suitable process for the on-board
desulfurization of jet fuel. Therefore, a pervaporation process with
subsequent adsorption was selected for detailed investigation. Six
different membrane materials and 10 sorbent materials were screened
to choose the most suitable candidates. Further laboratory experiments
were conducted to optimize the operating conditions and to collect
data for a pilot plant design. Different jet fuel qualities with up to
1675 ppmw of sulfur can be desulfurized to a level of 10 ppmw. The aim
of developing a suitable process for the desulfurization of jet fuel in
fuel cell APUs was thus achieved.
09/02026 Multiphase poroelastic modeling in semi-space
for deformable reservoirs
Yin, S. et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2009, 64,
(14), 4554.
Field observations suggest that while pressure depletion is a local
process that occurs dominantly in reservoirs being exploited, it triggers
a redistribution of effective stress in a more extensive domain that
involves not just the adjacent strata, but the entire overburden and
surrounding rocks out to considerable distances. In an infinite or semi-
infinite domain, a petroleum reservoir can be simulated as a
displacement discontinuity, permitting use of an efficient displacement
discontinuity boundary element method to calculate surrounding stress
and displacement changes. A 3D poroelastic finite element method is
used to account for the local reservoir model. By coupling the
displacement discontinuity and finite element models, a 3D poroelastic
reservoir in an infinite or semi-infinite domain is simulated. The
numerical model has been verified and numerical examples are given.
Results show that the relative deformation properties of surrounding
strata have significant effects on pressure drawdown and reservoir
deformation during production, and thus should be taken into account.
09/02027 Prediction of asphaltene precipitation using
non-isothermal compositional network model
Thanyamanta, W. et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering,
2009, 64, (14), 1119.
In this paper a comprehensive flow model which incorporates
compositional and non-isothermal effects is proposed to investigate
asphaltene precipitation onset conditions in advanced well com-
pletions. The focus is on precipitation induced by pressure and
temperature conditions, particularly in flow restrictions used in wells
to delay unwanted break through of water/gas. A network model is
used with a non-isothermal black oil fluid model to predict the
distribution of pressure, temperature, flow rate and phase fractions in
all components of the well completion. The network geometry consists
of a production tubing (or liner) and an annulus between the reservoir
and the tubing. This geometry will allow for flow between the annulus
and the tubing through inflow control devices which are commonly
used for zonal control. An asphaltene precipitation envelope is used to
identify locations in the well completion at risk. Subsequently, a fully
compositional and non-isothermal model is invoked at these locations.
This detailed model uses a finite difference representation of
conservation of mass, energy and momentum. Furthermore, it uses
an isenthalpic pseudo-three-phase equilibrium model to predict if
asphaltene precipitation actually will occur inside the restriction. A
case study is presented in which the proposed model was successfully
used to predict physical flow parameters and asphaltene onset
conditions. It was found that asphaltene precipitation may occur in
flow restriction due to large pressure drop. Furthermore, it was found
that the use of isothermal modelling to predict asphaltene precipitation
may lead to underestimation of the precipitation. It is concluded that
the details of the well completion must be represented in the flow
model since pressure and temperature may vary non-monotonically
from toe to heel in advanced well completions.
09/02028 The effect of N-containing compounds on
oxidative desulphurization of liquid fuel
Jia, Y. et al. Catalysis Today, 2009, 140, (34), 192196.
The oxidative removal of organic sulfur compounds from model fuel
with H
2
O
2
over Ti-containing molecular sieves in the presence of N-
containing compounds had been studied. The effect of the types and
amounts of nitrides on oxidative desulfurization were investigated. It
has been shown that pyridine and pyrrole have adverse impact on the
oxidation of thiophene and lead to the decrease of corresponding
removal rate. The pyridine has stronger influence than pyrrole.
Quinoline and indole have no impact on the final removal rate of
thiophene. However, the two kinds of nitrides, as well as carbazole,
have obvious impact on the oxidation removal of benzothiophene and
4,6-dimethyl dibenzothiophene. The effect of nitrides on oxidative
desulfurization can be attributed to the strong adsorption of nitrides
and their oxidized products on the active sites of catalysts. For pyridine
and quinoline, which are basic nitrides, their adsorptions on catalysts
are even stronger than that of sulfides.
09/02029 Understanding carbonaceous deposit formation
resulting from engine oil degradation
Diaby, M. et al. Carbon, 2009, 47, (2), 355366.
The formation processes of carbonaceous deposits in the first piston
ring grooves of direct injection diesel engines have been studied.
Deposits generated during engine tests were analysed by SEM/EDX,
thermogravimetric analysis, pyrolysis/gas chromatography/mass spec-
trometry, and FT-IR spectroscopy. These analyses showed that the
deposits, with a structure of cracked varnishes, mainly resulted from
the degradation of lubricants. Their state strongly depends on the
severity of the tests, which resulted in the formation of two kinds of
deposits, termed as oily and dry, according to their content of
volatile organic matters. Then, to better understand the deposit
formation process, a thermo-oxidative degradation of the lubricating
oil was carried out in a tubular furnace, while varying temperature,
duration of the test, and adding metallic elements to simulate the
engine wear. The consumption of antioxidant additives and the
lubricant carbonization were highlighted. Temperature level was
identified as the most influential parameter during the lubricant
degradation process. The presence of metallic elements appeared to
act as a catalyst by speeding up the degradation when the tests duration
was increased.
Economics, business, marketing, policy
09/02030 Allochthonous blocks misidentified as the
basement: implication for petroleum exploration in the SW
Thrace Basin (Turkey)
Sen, S. et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2009, 64,
(14), 5566.
The sedimentary sequence of the SW Thrace Basin (NW Turkey)
comprises of three major sedimentary packages: (a) Cretaceous
(Meastrichtien) Early Eocene package formed as pelagic carbonate,
318 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
02 Liquid fuels (economics, business, marketing, policy)
turbidite, shelf and nearshore-fluvial deposits, (b) Middle Eocene
Early Oligocene package formed as shallow marine, slope apron and
turbidite sediments, (c) Middle MioceneEarly Pliocene package
formed as alluvial fan-fluvial and nearshore deposits. This basin is
structurally complex and its southern margin is represented by a fold-
thrust zone. The Westward Propagation of the North Anatolian Fault
(WPNAF) intersects the Thrace Basin along its southwestern flank. In
the SW Thrace Basin, there are ophiolite and limestone blocks in the
sedimentary succession, which previously were interpreted as suture of
the Intra-Pontide Ocean, Cretaceous aged Yenikoy Melange or
Olistostromal Unit in the Eocene sediments. In this study these rocks
have been defined as allochthonous blocks facies of the Gazikoy
Formation aged MiddleLate Eocene. In previous studies the Karaagac
Formation (Early Eocene) was considered to be within oil window and
have an average potential for oil and gas generation. According to the
data the Karaagac Formation has a moderate TOC content, is mature
and overmature. In the study area, there are potential stratigraphic
traps (submarine fans and channels of the Karaagac and Kes an
Formations, fluvial channels of the Fic itepe Formation and reefs of the
Sog ucak Formation), potential fractured tuffs (the Gazikoy Formation)
and, potential structural traps related to the folds, thrusts and the
WPNAF. Although 17 exploration wells have been drilled in the study
area and vicinity, no discovery has yet been made. The cause of this
may be that the wells were terminated at depths shallower than
potential targets or possibly drilling may have been terminated at the
allochthonous block facies of the Gazikoy Formation, which is
especially derived from ophiolite melange and was misidentified as
basement.
09/02031 Can Brazil replace 5% of the 2025 gasoline world
demand with ethanol?
de Cerqueira Leite, R. C. et al. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 655661.
Increasing use of petroleum, coupled with concern for global warming,
demands the development and institution of CO
2
reducing, non-fossil
fuel-based alternative energy-generating strategies. Ethanol is a
potential alternative, particularly when produced in a sustainable way
as is envisioned for sugarcane in Brazil. The authors consider the
expansion of sugarcane-derived ethanol to displace 5% of projected
gasoline use worldwide in 2025. With existing technology, 21 million
hectares of land will be required to produce the necessary ethanol. This
is less than 7% of current Brazilian agricultural land and equivalent to
current soybean land use. New production lands come from pasture
made available through improving pasture management in the cattle
industry. With the continued introduction of new cane varieties
(annual yield increases of about 1.6%) and new ethanol production
technologies, namely the hydrolysis of bagasse to sugars for ethanol
production and sugarcane trash collection providing renewable process
energy production, this could reduce these modest land requirements
by 2938%.
09/02032 FischerTropsch diesel production in a well-to-
wheel perspective: a carbon, energy flow and cost analysis
van Vliet, O. P. R. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50,
(4), 855876.
The authors calculated carbon and energy balances and costs of 14
different FischerTropsch (FT) fuel production plants in 17 complete
well-to-wheel (WTW) chains. The FT plants can use natural gas, coal,
biomass or mixtures as feedstock. Technical data, and technological
and economic assumptions for developments for 2020 were derived
from the literature, recalculating to 2005 euros for (capital) costs. The
best-guess WTW estimates indicate biomass-to-liquids (BTL) pro-
duction costs break even when oil prices rise above $75/bbl, CTL above
$60/bbl and GTL at $36/bbl. CTL, and GTL without carbon capture
and storage (CCS), will emit more CO
2
than diesel from conventional
oil. Driving on fuel from GTL with CCS may reduce GHG emissions to
around 123 g CO
2
/km. Driving on BTL may cause emissions of 32
63 g CO
2
/km and these can be made negative by application of CCS. It
is possible to have net climate neutral driving by combining fuels
produced from fossil resources with around 50% BTL with CCS, if
biomass gasification and CCS can be made to work on an industrial
scale and the feedstock is obtained in a climate-neutral manner.
However, the uncertainties in these numbers are in the order of tens of
percents, due to uncertainty in the data for component costs, variability
in prices of feedstocks and by-products, and the GHG impact of
producing biomass.
09/02033 How does petroleum price and corn yield
volatility affect ethanol markets with and without an ethanol
use mandate?
Thompson, W. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (2), 745749.
The recent increase in ethanol use in the USA strengthens and changes
the nature of links between agricultural and energy markets. Here, the
interaction of market volatility and the scope for policy to affect this
interaction are explored, with a focus on how corn yields and
petroleum prices affect ethanol prices. Mandates associated with new
US energy legislation may intervene in these links in the medium-term
future. A structural model that represents these markets is simulated
stochastically, and that includes mandates, in order to assess how
shocks to corn or oil markets can affect ethanol price and use. It is
estimated that the mandate makes ethanol producer prices more
sensitive to corn yields and less sensitive to changes in petroleum prices
overall. A discontinuity in these links is noted that is caused by the
mandate. Ethanol use can exceed the mandate if petroleum prices and
corn yields are high enough, but the mandate limits downside
adjustments in ethanol use to low petroleum prices or corn yields.
09/02034 Jump dynamics and volatility: oil and the stock
markets
Chiou, J.-S. and Lee, Y.-H. Energy, 2009, 34, (6), 788796.
This study distinguishes itself from prior studies within the oil and
financial literature by not only examining the asymmetric effects of oil
prices on stock returns, but also exploring the importance of structure
changes in this dependency relationship. Daily data were retrieved on
S&P 500 and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil transactions covering
the period from 1 January 1992 to 7 November 2006, and then
transformed into daily returns. In this study, consideration of expected,
unexpected and negative unexpected oil price fluctuations was
incorporated into the model of stock returns; the authors also focused
on the ways in which oil price volatility, as opposed to general
macroeconomic variables, can influence the stock market. The authors
went on to implement the ARJI (Autoregressive Conditional Jump
Intensity) model with structure changes, from which it was concluded
that high fluctuations in oil prices have asymmetric unexpected impacts
on S&P 500 returns.
09/02035 Mission improbable: does petroleum-related aid
address the resource curse?
Kolstad, I. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 954965.
Petroleum-related aid programmes and projects are a key part of donor
activities in oil-rich developing countries. This paper critically assesses
petroleum-related aid activities, using the Norwegian Oil for Develop-
ment programme as a main case. Recent research suggests that
institutions, or governance, are essential in averting a resource curse.
While governance issues are beginning to receive more attention in
these types of programmes, they still form a minor part of programme
activities. The narrow sector focus that characterizes petroleum-related
aid makes it unlikely that it will produce the higher order institutional
changes needed to lift the resource curse. Petroleum-related aid
activities address the issue of corruption only to a limited extent. Given
the commercial and political interests of donor countries, questions
about the integrity and credibility of these types of programmes can be
raised.
09/02036 Policies to improve the local impact from
hydrocarbon extraction: observations on West Africa and
possible lessons for Central Asia
Klueh, U. H. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 11281144.
The paper offers specific inputs to the debate on local content
promotion in the oil industries of West Africa and Central Asia. To this
end, the authors document the international experience with local
content promotion to derive best practices in the field. They then use a
case study approach to devise a simple analytical framework for
rationalizing the selection of viable sectors for local content promotion,
in an attempt to make operational one of the best practice principles
(efficiency) developed before. By proposing specific rules regarding the
acceptability of a project, the analysis seeks to add rigor and address
distortions on localization outcomes from rent-seeking. The emphasis
is not on supporting efforts to pick winners and subsidize them
through a range of by and large discredited instruments. Rather, the
paper focuses on the specific public inputs the government would have
to provide to support an otherwise market-driven process.
09/02037 Potential contribution of ethanol fuel to the
transport sector of Pakistan
Harijan, K. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(1), 291295.
Pakistan is an energy-deficient country. The indigenous reserves of oil
and gas are limited and the country is heavily dependent on the import
of oil. The oil import bill is a serious strain on the countrys economy
and has been deteriorating the balance of payments situation. The
country has become increasingly more dependent on fossil fuels and its
energy security hangs on the fragile supply of imported oil that is
subject to disruptions and price volatility. The transport sector has a
28% share in the total commercial energy consumption in Pakistan.
About 1.15 million tonnes of gasoline was consumed by this sector
during 20052006. The gasoline consumption in the transport sector is
also a major source of environmental degradation especially in urban
areas. Consequently, Pakistan needs to develop indigenous, environ-
ment-friendly energy resources, such as ethanol, to meet its transport
sectors energy needs. Pakistan produces about 54 million tonnes of
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 319
02 Liquid fuels (economics, business, marketing, policy)
sugarcane every year. The estimated production potential of ethanol
from molasses is about 500 million litres per annum. Ethanol can be
used in the transport sector after blending with gasoline, in order to
minimize the gasoline consumption and associated economical and
environmental impacts. This paper presents the assessment of the
potential contribution of ethanol in the transport sector of Pakistan. It
is concluded that 510% of the annual gasoline consumption in
transport sector could be met from ethanol by the year 2030 under
different scenarios. About US$200400 million per annum could be
saved along with other environmental and health benefits by using
gasol in the transport sector.
09/02038 Recent oil price shock and Tunisian economy
Jbir, R. and Zouari-Ghorbel, S. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 1041
1051.
The objective of this paper is to study the oil pricesmacroeconomy
relationship by the analysis of the role of subsidy policy. The vector
autoregression (VAR) method was employed to analyse the data over
the period 1993 Q1 2007 Q3. The results of the model using both linear
and non-linear specifications indicate that there is no direct impact of
oil price shock on the economic activity. The shock of oil prices affects
economic activity indirectly. The most significant channel by which the
effects of the shock are transmitted is the governments spending.
Derived liquid fuels
09/02039 Bio-methanol: how energy choices in the western
United States can help mitigate global climate change
Vogt, K. A. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 233241.
Converting available biomass from municipal, agricultural and forest
wastes to bio-methanol can result in significant environmental and
economic benefits. Keeping these benefits in mind, one plausible
scenario discussed here is the potential to produce energy using bio-
methanol in five states of the western United States. In this scenario,
the bio-methanol produced is from different biomass sources and used
as a substitute for fossil fuels in energy production. In the US West,
forest materials are the dominant biomass waste source in Idaho,
Montana, Oregon and Washington, while in California, the greatest
amount of available biomass is from municipal wastes. Using a 100%
rate of substitution, bio-methanol produced from these sources can
replace an amount equivalent to most or all of the gasoline consumed
by motor vehicles in each state. In contrast, when bio-methanol
powered fuel cells are used to produce electricity, it is possible to
generate 1225% of the total electricity consumed annually in these
five states. As a gasoline substitute, bio-methanol can optimally reduce
vehicle C emissions by 229 Tg of C (2381% of the total emitted by
each state). Alternatively, if bio-methanol supported fuel cells are used
to generate electricity, from 2 to 32 Tg of C emissions can be avoided.
The emissions avoided, in this case, could equate to 2532% of the
total emissions produced by these particular western states when fossil
fuels are used to generate electricity. The actual C emissions avoided
will be lower than the estimates here because C emissions from the
methanol production processes are not included; however, such
emissions are expected to be relatively low. In general, there is less
carbon emitted when bio-methanol is used to generate electricity with
fuel cells than when it is used as a motor vehicle fuel. In the state of
Washington, thinning high-fire-risk small stems, namely 5.122.9 cm
diameter trees, from wildfire-prone forests and using them to produce
methanol for electricity generation with fuel cells would avoid C
emissions of 3.77.3 Mg C/ha. Alternatively, when wood-methanol
produced from the high-fire-risk wood is used as a gasoline substitute,
3.36.6 Mg C/ha of carbon emissions are avoided. If these same high-
fire-risk woody stems were burned during a wildfire 7.9 Mg C/ha would
be emitted in the state of Washington alone. Although detailed
economic analyses of producing methanol from biomass are in its
infancy, converting biomass into methanol and substituting it for fossil-
fuel-based energy production appears a viable option in locations that
have high biomass availability.
09/02040 Catalysis of SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
solid acid for the
liquefaction of coal
Wang, Z. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (5), 885889.
In order to study the catalysis of SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
solid acid for the
liquefaction of coal, a series of SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
solid acids were
synthesized by the method of precipitationimpregnation. The catalytic
behaviours of the SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
solid acids for the hydro-liquefaction of
Shenhua coal and model compounds, such as diphenylmethane,
bibenzyl and phenyl ethyl ether, were investigated. In addition, non-
catalytic liquefaction and the catalytic liquefaction under N
2
were
further compared with the catalytic liquefaction under H
2
in order to
understand the catalytic mechanism of SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
solid acid. The
results indicate that hydro-liquefaction conversions of coal and model
compounds are related to the strength, amount and nature of acid sites
on the surface of SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
, and the strong acid site responds to their
catalytic activities. The SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
solid acid catalyses mainly the
hydro-cracking, ring-opening and hydrogenation reactions of coal to
produce oil and gas during the coal liquefaction. The hydro-cracking
reactions in the liquefaction of model compounds and coal catalysed by
SO
4
2
/ZrO
2
involved via carbenium ion intermediate instead of
traditional radicals intermediate.
09/02041 Chemical composition and physical properties of
black liquors and their effects on liquor recovery operation
in Brazilian pulp mills
Cardoso, M. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (4), 756763.
Black liquor is the major by-product and fuel of pulp mills. In this
work, effects of black liquor properties on its recovery unit operation
are analysed. Thus, an experimental methodology for characterizing
the principal chemical and physical properties of eucalyptus Kraft and
bamboo soda black liquors has been developed, including sample
collections from six Brazilian mills. Based on results, eucalyptus and
bamboo black liquors present higher contents of non-processing
elements (NPEs), higher concentration and different molar mass of
lignin than those reported by the pine Kraft black liquor. This leads to
distinct rheological properties of these liquors. By comparing results
obtained for the both liquors, the bamboo and the eucalyptus, the
former has the lowest sulfur level, the highest silicon and lignin
concentration and, consequently, the highest apparent viscosity.
09/02042 Comparison criteria for large-scale hydrogen
liquefaction processes
Berstad, D. O. et al. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2009,
34, (3), 15601568.
In a hydrogen liquefier the pre-compression of feed gas has generally
higher stand-alone exergy efficiency than the cooling and liquefaction
sub-process. Direct comparison of liquefiers based on overall exergy
efficiency and specific power consumption will favour those with a
higher portion of pre-compression. A methodology for comparing
hydrogen liquefaction processes that compensates for non-uniformity
in feed specifications has been developed and applied to three different
hydrogen liquefiers. The processes in consideration have been
modified to have equal hydrogen feed pressure, resulting in a more
consistent comparison. Decreased feed pressure results in generally
higher power consumption but also higher exergy efficiency, and vice
versa. This approach can be adapted to the boundary conditions that
the liquefaction process will be subject to in a real energy system.
09/02043 Conversion of Calotropis procera biocrude to
liquid fuels using thermal and catalytic cracking
Padmaja, K. V. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (5), 780785.
With the fast depletion of petroleum reserves, renewable resources like
biomass are acquiring great significance. Calotropis procera, a
laticiferous arid plant is identified as a potential petrocrop. The dried
biomass of C. procera was subjected to non-polar (n-heptane) solvent
extraction. Biocrude so obtained is a rich source of tri terpenoid type of
hydrocarbons. The biocrude was upgraded to useful liquid fuels using
different conversion processes such as thermal and catalytic cracking
(fluid catalytic cracking, FCC). The temperature, pressure and reaction
time maintained during thermal conversions were 430 and 460
C; 1.2
and 0.2 MPa; and 15 and 30 min, respectively. Catalytic cracking was
carried out in continuous mode micro reactor varying the catalyst to
feed ratio (37.03) and temperature (460520
C) aiming at maximiza-
tion of lighter fractions (up to diesel range). High conversions (up to
92%) were obtained using FCC as compared to thermal process
(57.7%). The HPLC analysis of the liquid fuels indicated that thermal
cracking yielded a better quality fuel compared to FCC. The fuel
obtained by FCC was found to contain large proportions of aromatics
and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
09/02044 Effect of CO
2
/N
2
addition to supercritical
methanol on reactivities and fuel qualities in biodiesel
production
Imahara, H. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (7), 13291332.
Addition of the third component to supercritical methanol has been
studied in the literature for biodiesel production in order to reduce
reaction temperature without deteriorating the reaction rate. However,
effect of pressure had often been neglected in the discussion. In this
paper, therefore, effect of pressure was examined with hexane, carbon
dioxide (CO
2
) and nitrogen (N
2
) as one of the third components, using
batch-type and flow-type reactors. As a result, it was found that an
addition of the third component did not contribute to better product
yield at constant reaction pressure. Furthermore, the reaction rate was
found to be determined by pressure and concentration of the reactants
involved in transesterification, not by the function of so-called co-
320 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
02 Liquid fuels (derived liquid fuels)
solvent. Additionally, N
2
addition was found to contribute to
improvement in oxidation stability and reduction of the total glycerol
content, thus offering high-quality biodiesel production.
09/02045 Intensified FischerTropsch synthesis process
with microchannel catalytic reactors
Cao, C. et al. Catalysis Today, 2009, 140, (34), 149156.
A microchannel catalytic reactor with improved heat and mass
transport has been used for FischerTropsch synthesis. It was
demonstrated that this microchannel reactor based process can be
carried out at gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) as high as 60,000 h
1
to achieve greater than 60% of single-pass CO conversion while
maintaining relatively low methane selectivity (<10%) and high chain
growth probability (>0.9). In this study, performance data were
obtained over a wide range of pressure (1035 atm) and hydrogen-to-
carbon monoxide ratio (12.5). The catalytic materials were charac-
terized using BET, scanning electron microcopy (SEM), transmission
electron microcopy (TEM), and H
2
chemisorption. A three-dimen-
sional pseudo-homogeneous model was used to simulate temperature
profiles in the exothermic reaction system in order to optimize the
reactor design. Intraparticle non-isothermal characteristics are also
analysed for the FT synthesis catalyst.
09/02046 Kinetics of hydrocarbon extraction from oil shale
using biosurfactant producing bacteria
Haddadin, M. S. Y. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009,
50, (4), 983990.
This study was done to extract hydrocarbon compounds from El-Lajjun
oil shale using biosurfactant produced from two strains Rhodococcus
erythropolis and Rhodococcus ruber. The results have shown that,
optimal biosurfactant production was found using naphthalene and
diesel as a carbon source for R. erthropolis and R. ruber, respectively.
Optimum nitrogen concentration was 9 g/l and 7 g/l for R. erthropolis
and R. ruber, respectively. Optimum K
2
HPO
4
to KH
2
PO
4
ratio,
temperature, pH, and agitation speeds were 2:1, 37
C, 7 and
200 rpm. Under optimal conditions R. erthropolis and R. ruber pro-
duced 5.67 and 6.9 g/l biosurfactant, respectively. Maximum recovery
of oil achieved with hydrogen peroxide pre-treatment was 25% and
26% at biosurfactant concentration of 8 g/l and 4 g/l for R. erthropolis
and R. ruber, respectively. The extent desorption of hydrocarbons from
the pre-treated oil shale by biosurfactant were inversely related to the
concentration of high molecular weight hydrocarbons, asphaltenes
compounds. Pre-treatment of oil shale with hydrogen peroxide
produced better improvement in aromatic compounds extraction in
comparison with improvement which resulted from demineralization of
the oil shale.
03 GASEOUS FUELS
Sources, properties, recovery, treatment
09/02047 Effects of high-pressure homogenization on
physicochemical properties and storage stability of
switchgrass bio-oil
He, R. et al. Fuel Processing Technology, 2009, 90, (3), 415421.
A high-pressure homogenization (HPH) technique was used to
improve the physicochemical properties and storage stability of
switchgrass bio-oil. The viscosity, ethanol-insoluble fraction, and mass
average molecular weight (Mw) of the bio-oil decreased significantly,
and particle size became smaller after HPH processing; however, no
significant changes were detected in heating value, water content,
density, pH value, or ash content. The bio-oils chemical composition
changed after HPH: amounts of some compounds (furfural, levoglu-
cosan, diethoxymethyl acetate, and lignin-derived compounds) in-
creased, while others (acetic acid and 1,2-ethanediol) decreased. The
homogenization processing remarkably improved switchgrass bio-oil
stability: the viscosity of bio-oil homogenized at 100 MPa increased by
only 13.9% after storage at 40
C in steps of 100
C. A
partial overlap between gasification and pyrolysis exists and is
presented here. This partial overlap increases with increase in
temperature. As an example, at reactor temperature 800
C this
overlap represents around 27% of the char gasification process and
almost 95% at reactor temperature 1000
C.
09/02061 Upgrading of syngas derived from biomass
gasification: a thermodynamic analysis
Haryanto, A. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 882889.
Hydrogen yields in the syngas produced from non-catalytic biomass
gasification are generally low. The hydrogen fraction, however, can be
increased by converting CO, CH
4
, higher hydrocarbons, and tar in a
secondary reactor downstream. This paper discusses thermodynamic
limits of the synthesis gas upgrading process. The method used in this
process is minimization of Gibbs free energy function. The analysis is
performed for temperature ranges from 400 to 1300 K, pressure of 1
10 atm (0.11 MPa), and different carbon to steam ratios. The study
concludes that to get optimum H
2
yields, with negligible CH
4
and coke
formation, upgrading syngas is best practiced at a temperature range of
9001100 K. At these temperatures, H
2
could be possibly increased by
43124% of its generally observed values at the gasifier exit. The
analysis revealed that increasing steam resulted in a positive effect. The
study also concluded that increasing pressure from 1 to 3 atm can be
applied at a temperature >1000 K to further increase H
2
yields.
Hydrogen generation and storage
09/02062 Current status and progress of direct borohydride
fuel cell technology development
Liu, B. H. and Li, Z. P. Journal of Power Sources, 2009, 187, (2), 291
297.
In this review article, recent advances in the development of the direct
borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) technology are reviewed. Based on the
reported results, it is concluded that the BH
4
electro-oxidation is
determined by the catalyst used and BH
4
concentration at the
catalytic sites. Hydrogen evolution during the DBFC operation can be
suppressed by: (1) using a composite catalyst or a hydrogen storage
alloy as the anode catalyst via a quasi 8-electron reaction; (2) using
metals with high hydrogen over-potential, such as Au and Ag as the
anode catalyst via an intrinsic 8-electron reaction; and/or (3) modifying
and optimizing fuel composition. The single cell and stack performance
of DBFC is mainly influenced by the hydrogen evolution, the BH
4
in the
presence of metaborate. A coating of the nanoparticles has been
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 323
03 Gaseous fuels (hydrogen generation and storage)
observed by calorimetry and physico-chemical characterization, corre-
sponding to the formation of a 23 nm layer of cobalt oxide or
hydroxide species.
09/02068 Photofermentative hydrogen production using
purple non-sulfur bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides
O.U.001 in an annular photobioreactor: a case study
Basak, N. and Das, D. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (67), 911919.
For meeting the increasing demand of energy, biohydrogen production
is to be considered in higher yield. Biohydrogen can be produced both
by dark and photofermentative process. In this study, the photo-
fermentative pathway is followed by using dl malic acid (IUPAC name:
2-hydroxybutanedioic acid, molecular weight: 134.08744 g mol
1
,
molecular formula: C
4
H
6
O
5
) as carbon source. Pure strain of purple
non-sulfur (PNS) bacteria: Rhodobacter sphaeroides strain O.U.001 was
studied to produce biohydrogen using the photobioreactor. The
photobioreactor was constructed aiming the uniform light distribution.
The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of 1 L
annular photobioreactor operating in indoor conditions. The highest
rate of hydrogen production was obtained at 92 h. In the designed
photobioreactor, using Rhodobacter sphaeroides strain O.U.001 (initial
dl malic acid concentration of 2.01 g L
1
) at an initial pH of 6.8 0.2,
temperature 32 2
C to a simulated
coal syngas (29.1CO + 28.5H
2
+ 11.8CO
2
+ 27.6H
2
O + 2.1N
2
+
0.01CH
4
) and air. The samples were characterized by SEM/EDS, XRD
and ASR. Results indicated that the compositions of the oxide scales in
syngas and in air were similar. For Crofer 22, scales formed in both air
and coal syngas were composed of (Cr,Fe)
2
O
3
, MnCr compounds and
Fe
3
O
4
. For Haynes 230 the main composition was Cr
2
O
3
. However, it
was found that the morphologies of the scales formed in coal syngas
were different from those formed in air. Besides, the cross section
element distributions of oxide scales formed on Crofer 22 were
disparate. In addition, the ASR values of the oxide scales formed in
coal syngas and in air were similar at 800
C.
09/02079 Torsional instability of carbon nanotubes
encapsulating C60 fullerenes
Wang, Q. Carbon, 2009, 47, (2), 507512.
The torsional instability of a single-walled carbon nanotube containing
C60 fullerenes is investigated using molecular dynamics. A newly
revealed observation of a reduction of the shear stiffness of the carbon
nanotube filled with C60 fullerenes during torsion shows an unusual
local buckling nature of the material instead of a global buckling of an
unfilled carbon nanotube at a critical torsional angle. Such local
buckling largely increases the critical torsional angle for the instability
of the material, and hence enhances its stability. Simulations show that
the local buckling of the material is a result of the van der Waals
interaction between the nanotube and the encapsulated C60 fullerenes.
09/02080 Waste stabilization/solidification of an electric
arc furnace dust using fly ash-based geopolymers
Pereira, C. F. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (7), 11851193.
The stabilization/solidification (S/S) of a carbon steel electric arc
furnace (EAF) dust containing hazardous metals such as Pb, Cd, Cr or
Zn using geopolymerization technology is described in this paper.
Different reagents such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide,
sodium silicate, potassium silicate, kaolinite, metakaolinite and blast
furnace slag have been used. Mixtures of EAF waste with these
geopolymeric materials and class F fly ash have been processed for
studying the potential of geopolymers as waste immobilizing agents.
Compressive strength tests and leaching tests for determining the
efficiency of heavy metal immobilization have been carried out.
Comparison of fly ash-based geopolymer systems with classic Portland
cement stabilization methods has also been accomplished. Compressive
strength values far better than those achieved by hydraulic S/S methods
were easily obtained by geopolymer solids at 28 days. Regarding
leachability, the geopolymer S/S solids also manifested in general a
better behaviour, showing very promising results.
05 NUCLEAR FUELS
Scientific, technical
09/02081 Effects of loading on the dynamics of a low
enriched uranium fueled material test research reactor
Muhammad, F. and Majid, A. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51, (2),
339346.
The effects of using high density low enriched uranium on the dynamics
of a material test research reactor were studied. For this purpose, the
low density LEU fuel of a material test research reactor (MTR) was
replaced with high density LEU fuels currently being developed under
the RERTR program. Since the alloying elements have different
properties affecting the reactor in different ways, fuels UMo (9w/o)
which contain the same elements in same ratio were selected for
analysis. Simulations were carried out to determine the reactor
performance under reactivity insertion and loss of flow transients.
Nuclear reactor analysis code PARET was employed to carry out these
calculations. It is observed that during the fast reactivity insertion
transient, the maximum reactor power is achieved and the energy
released until the power reaches its maximum increases by 45% and
18.5%, respectively, as uranium density increases from 6.57 gU/cm
3
to
8.90 gU/cm
3
. This results in increased maximum temperatures of fuel,
clad and coolant outlet, achieved during the transient, by 27.7 K, 19.7 K
and 7.9 K, respectively. The time required to reach the peak power
decreases. During the slow reactivity insertion transient, the maximum
reactor power achieved increases slightly by 0.3% as uranium density
increases from 6.57 gU/cm
3
to 8.90 gU/cm
3
but the energy generated
until the power reaches its maximum decreases by 5.7%. The
temperatures of fuel, clad and coolant outlet remain almost the same
for all types of fuels. During the loss of flow transients, no appreciable
difference in the power and temperature profiles was observed and the
graph plots overlapped each other.
09/02082 Fuel cycle analysis of GFR using advanced fuels
Foley, R. Q. and Knight, T. W. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51,
(1), 109123.
The potential benefits of a synergistic light-water reactor (LWR) and
gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) fuel cycle were evaluated for its impact
on the front-end and back-end of the fuel cycle. Comparisons were
made with conventional once-through cycle (OTC) and MOX fuel
cycle. Variations in the synergistic LWR/GFR fuel cycles were based
on the degree of recycle in the LWR including both plutonium and
reprocessed uranium with concomitant impact on used LWR fuel
inventory. This provided a wide range in composition of GFR feed
from low to high plutonium content with impact on transmutation/
incineration within the GFR fuel cycle. Self-recycle of all actinides was
modelled for the GFR with analyses demonstrating that the GFR can
be sustained on and consequently accept a wide range of feed
materials. Analyses were done using Monteburns along with MCNP
and Origen2.2 to model a 60-year period corresponding to the
anticipated lifetime of supposed contemporary LWRs and GFRs. All
cycles were evaluated based on actinide total mass and isotopic
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 325
05 Nuclear fuels (scientific, technical)
inventory, radiotoxicity, heatload, and resource requirements including
natural uranium and SWU. For comparison, all fuel cycles were
normalized based on 1 TWHe output. Improvements in fuel cycle
performance are dictated by the production and incineration of minor
actinides in the GFR and their continued recycle may not be feasible
due to the buildup of troublesome isotopes such as
244
Cm and
252
Cf.
But where uranium and plutonium continue to be recycled beyond the
60-year period, the LWR/GFR cycles demonstrated order of magni-
tude reductions in used fuel inventories, heatload, and radiotoxicity on
a per TWHe basis over LWR only cycles. The full details of the
advanced fuel cycle methodology and results are presented.
09/02083 Kinetic parameters of a material test research
reactor fueled with high density U
3
Si
2
dispersion fuels
Muhammad, F. and Majid, A. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51, (1),
141145.
The kinetic parameters of a material test research reactor (MTR)
fuelled with high density U
3
Si
2
dispersion fuels were calculated. For
this purpose, the low density LEU fuel of an MTR was replaced with
high density U
3
Si
2
LEU fuels currently being developed under the
RERTR program. Calculations were carried out to find the core excess
reactivity, prompt neutron generation time and effective delayed
neutron fraction. Nuclear reactor analysis codes including WIMS-D4
and CITATION were employed to carry out these calculations. It is
observed that the excess reactivity (k/k), prompt neutron generation
time (ms) and effective delayed neutron fraction at the beginning of life
followed the relationships 0.05403 +0.00286,
U
(0.92958/,
U
2
), 10
6
/
(922.338 +5268.82/,
U
70.863/,
U
2
and (7.21657.23810
3
,
U
)/1000,
respectively, for 4.0 ,
U
(g/cm
3
) 6.0.
09/02084 Methods for determining operation life and
reactivity depletion for space reactors with fast energy
spectra
Schriener, T. M. and El-Genk, M. S. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009,
51, (2), 366373.
Space reactors with fast neutron energy spectrums are preferred for
their compactness and high fission power density, but require a high
fissile inventory. The operation life estimates of these reactors are
important to mission planning. This paper examines a number of fuel
depletion and neutronics code packages for determining the operation
lives of two space reactors with hard fast neutron energy spectra. These
are: the lithium-cooled, Sectored, Compact Reactor (SCoRe-S
11
), and
the submersion subcritical safe space reactor, cooled with a HeXe
binary gas mixture (40 g/mol). This work investigated the code
packages of Monteburns 2.0, MCNPX 2.6C and TRITON and
validated their prediction with fuel depletion data for a PWR fuel
bundle, with satisfactory results. The operation life predictions of the
two space reactors using these code packages are compared with those
calculated using a simplified method that couples MCNP5 to a burnup
analysis model using the Simulink
1
platform. This method considers
only the 10 most probable low-Z and high-Z elements of the fission
yield peaks plus
149
Sm, and neglects the depletion of fission products
due to capture and radioactive decay. The simplified method requires
significantly shorter running time and its predictions of the operation
lives for the two space reactors are within 0.2912.5% of those obtained
using Monteburns 2.0 and MCNPX 2.6C code packages. This method,
however, is not recommended for operation life predictions for space
or commercial reactors with thermal neutron spectrums.
09/02085 Microporosity of carbon deposits collected in the
Tore Supra tokamak probed by nitrogen and carbon dioxide
adsorption
Richou, M. et al. Carbon, 2009, 47, (1), 109116.
Nitrogen and carbon dioxide adsorption experiments have been used to
investigate the porosity of carbon deposits formed in the Tore Supra
tokamak as a consequence of the erosion of the plasma-facing
components. The authors compared BET, c
s
-, and DubininRaduske-
vich methods to distinguish between micropore volume ($0.04 cm
3
g
1
)
and external surface ($90 m
2
g
1
). Consistent results have been
obtained for nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and the smallest pores are
shown to be reversibly closed and opened under air exposure and
outgassing at 600
C. Considering
simultaneous heat transfer mechanisms, (conduction, radiation and
convection) the calculated maximum temperature of the 50 g of TeO
2
powder comes down at 680
C when the temperatures of the flames and exhaust gas were more
than 1200
C,
the concentration at 950
C.
Quantification of the main compounds showed that sewage sludge
pyrolysis oils contain significant quantities of potentially high-value
hydrocarbons such as mono-aromatic hydrocarbons and phenolic
compounds. The oils also contain substantial concentrations of PAHs,
even at the lowest temperature of 350
C. The effect
of the inorganic constituents of the fuels and their mixture on thermal
conversion characteristics, reactivity, slagging and fouling propensities
and environmental pollution was examined. The thermochemical
reactivity of the two fuels was different in both nitrogen and air.
Devolatilization of paper sludge occurred earlier and with a higher
rate, while its combustion was hindered by the high content of ash.
When the two fuels were mixed their pyrolysis or combustion
reactivities did not substantially change. A first-order parallel reactions
model for pyrolysis and a power low model for combustion fitted the
experimental results accurately. The kinetic parameters of the blend
could be predicted from the data of the individual components. Co-
firing paper sludge with sub-bituminous coal might somehow improve
the slagging/fouling potential of the coal. However, if the mineral
matter of paper sludge is partly removed before use, then the
combustion behaviour of the mixture could resemble that of coal
alone and the overall efficiency of the process would increase.
09/02158 Pyrolysis characteristics of Oriental white oak:
kinetic study and fast pyrolysis in a fluidized bed with an
improved reaction system
Park, H. J. et al. Fuel Processing Technology, 2009, 90, (2), 186195.
The kinetic parameters for the pyrolysis of Oriental white oak were
evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The white oak was
pyrolysed in a fluidized bed reactor with a two-staged char separation
system under a variety of operating conditions. The influence of the
pyrolysis conditions on the chemical and physical characteristics of the
bio-oil was also examined. TGA showed that the Oriental white oak
decomposed at temperatures ranging from 250 to 400
C. The apparent
activation energy ranged from 160 to 777 kJ mol
1
. The optimal
pyrolysis temperature for the production of bio-oil in the fluidized
bed unit was between 400 and 450
C.
However, the use of alternative fuels with a lower reforming
temperature can improve performance of the hybrid plant. This paper
is concerned with a comparative performance analysis of internally
reformed SOFCMGT power plants fuelled with methane, methanol,
ethanol and DME. Since the reforming temperature of methanol and
DME (250350
C to 5
C. These results
indicate that the designed heat pump in this work would provide a
better choice if the operating reliability became crucial for an
adsorption heat pump.
09/02193 Empirical correlation for the time lag of double
pipe heat exchanger operating with variable flow rates
Guellal, M. and Abdesselam, H. Energy Conversion and Management,
2009, 50, (4), 970976.
The behaviour of a heat exchanger in a variable regime can be
described by a two-parameter model with a time lag and a time
constant. In many studies, the analytical calculation based on the
energy balance permitted to express the time constant in various
configurations of the device operating. However, the time lag is only
experimentally determined. An empirical method is proposed for the
prediction of this parameter when a double pipe heat exchanger is
submitted to a flow rate step at the entrance. Experimental data are
used for developing correlations of both hot and cold fluids.
09/02194 Energy and environmental indicators related to
construction of office buildings
Dimoudi, A. and Tompa, C. Resources, Conservation and Recycling,
2008, 53, (12), 8695.
The construction of buildings has a major determining role on the
environment through consumption of land and raw materials and
generation of waste. It is also a significant user of non-renewable
energy and an emitter of greenhouse gases and other gaseous wastes.
As environmental issues continue to become increasingly significant,
buildings become more energy efficient and the energy needs for their
operation decreases. Thus, the energy required for construction and
consequently, for the material production, is getting of greater
importance. The present paper investigates the role of different
construction materials and quantifies them in terms of the embodied
energy and the equivalent emissions of CO
2
and SO
2
in contemporary
office buildings. It also assesses the importance of the embodied energy
of the buildings structure as compared to the operational energy of the
building. It was shown that the embodied energy of the structures
building materials (concrete and reinforcement steel) represents the
largest component in the buildings total embodied energy of the
examined buildings, varying from 66.73% to 59.57%, while the
embodied energy of the building envelopes materials represents a
lower but significant proportion of the buildings total embodied
energy. When the construction elements are examined, the slabs have
the higher contribution at the embodied energy of the studied buildings
and from the envelope elements, the external wall is contributing the
340 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
10 Space heating and cooling/heat pumps
maximum in the overall embodied energy of the building. The
embodied energy correspondence varies between 12.55 and 18.50%
of the energy needed for the operation of an office building over a
50 years life.
09/02195 Energy performance optimization of radiant slab
cooling using building simulation and field measurements
Tian, Z. and Love, J. A. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (3), 320330.
Few field studies of energy performance of radiant cooling systems
have been undertaken. A recently constructed 17,500 m
2
building with
a multi-floor radiant slab cooling system in the tower was investigated
through simulation calibrated with measured building energy use and
meteorological data. For the very cold, dry region where the building
was located, it was found that a typical floor of the tower would have
had 30% lower annual energy use with a conventional variable air
volume system than with the as-built radiant cooling-variable air
volume combination. This was due to (1) simultaneous heating and
cooling by the existing radiant cooling and air systems, (2) the large
amount of free cooling possible in this climate, and (3) suboptimal
control settings. If these issues were remedied and combined with
improved envelope and a dedicated outdoor air system with exhaust air
heat recovery, a typical floor could achieve annual energy use 80%
lower than a typical floor of the existing building HVAC system. This
shows that radiant thermal control can make a significant contribution
to energy-efficiency, but only if the building design and operating
practices complement the strengths of the radiant system.
09/02196 Evaluation of alternative arrangements of a heat
pump system for plume abatement in a large-scale chiller
plant in a subtropical region
Wang, J. et al. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (6), 596606.
Heat pumps could be used to produce hot water for hybrid cooling
towers for preventing the occurrence of plume in subtropical regions.
The evaporative side of the heat pump system could be arranged either
at the inlet side or at the outlet side of these cooling towers for cooling
down the cooling water temperature. Alternatively, the evaporative
side of the heat pump system could also be arranged at the evaporative
side of chillers to reduce return chilled water temperature and
therefore to reduce the cooling load of chillers. This study presents
the evaluation of the impacts of these three arrangements of the heat
pump system on the plume control performance and the energy
performance in a large-scale chiller plant in Hong Kong. The
performance prediction and evaluation of the chiller plant and the
plume abatement system were conducted on a dynamic simulation
platform. The results show that these three arrangements have almost
the same plume control performance with sufficient plume control
capability. The results also show that the arrangement of the
evaporative side of the heat pump system for cooling down return
chilled water temperature has much better performance that the other
two arrangements for improving the overall energy efficiency.
09/02197 Experimental performance evaluation of a novel
heat exchanger for a solar hot water storage system
Deb Mondol, J. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 14921505.
The performance of a novel heat exchanger unit (Solasyphon)
developed for a solar hot water storage system was experimentally
investigated. The Solasyphon is a simple bolt-on heat exchange unit
that can be integrated externally to a traditional single-coil hot water
cylinder (HWC) avoiding the costly replacement of an existing HWC
with a twin-coil HWC. The installation cost of a Solasyphon is lower
compared to a traditional HWC thus offers greater cost effectiveness.
A data acquisition system was designed to compare the thermal
performance of an integrated Solasyphon HWC with a traditional
twin-coil HWC under controlled simulated conditions. The analysis
was based on experimental data collected under various operating
conditions including different primary supply temperatures (solar
simulated); primary supply patterns and draw off patterns. The results
indicated that the Solasyphon delivered solar heated water directly to
the top of the HWC producing a stratified supply at a useable
temperature. Under variable solar conditions the Solasyphon would
transfer the heat gained by a solar collector to a HWC more efficiently
and quickly than a traditional HWC. The Solasyphon system can
reduce installation costs by 1040% and has a lower embodied energy
content due to less material replacement.
09/02198 Experimental study of the performance of porous
materials to moderate the roof surface temperature by its
evaporative cooling effect
Wanphen, S. and Nagano, K. Building and Environment, 2009, 44, (2),
338351.
The change of urban surfaces from permeable to impermeable
materials, i.e. asphalt or concrete, has caused the rising of surface
temperatures, particularly in densely developed cities. The conse-
quences of this problem lead to higher energy consumption, especially
for cooling purposes and other environment related issues. This paper
aims to investigate the performance of several non-porous and porous
potential roofing materials, to determine which ones might best be
used to create a more effective system by utilizing their moisture
absorption and evaporation capabilities. Here, four kinds of materials
pebbles, silica sand, volcanic ash, and siliceous shale were tested to
evaluate their moisture and thermal performance, including the effects
from different particle sizes. First, the necessary physical properties
and pore characteristics were obtained. Thus, each material, under
simple boundary conditions, was evaluated in an evaporation exper-
iment, to determine comparative moisture and thermal behaviour.
Next, cyclic experimentation was conducted, in which variations of
temperature, relative humidity and simulated solar radiation were
included. The measurement results showed that porous materials can
satisfactorily lower surface temperature. Among the tested
samples, siliceous shale of both small and large particle diameter was
found to lower the daily average surface temperature by up to 6.8 and
8.6
N,
longitude of 75.49
C.
Experimental results showed that the addition of a porous graphite
matrix can prevent the agglomeration and the attenuation of sorption
capacity of reactive salt. The composite sorbent could incorporate
0.537 kg of ammonia per kg of reactive salt and the average specific
cooling power (SCP) obtained varied between 200 and 700 Wkg
1
when the evaporation temperature ranged from 35
C to 0
C. The
analysis of the data suggested that the heat transfer characteristic in the
composite sorbent was strongly influenced by chemical reaction and
the conversion rate was very sensitive to the constraint temperatures.
The SCP and coefficient of performance of a simple sorption deep-
freezing system were 350 Wkg
1
and 0.34, respectively, at the
generation temperature of 180
C
and the evaporation temperature of 30
C.
09/02212 Phase change behaviour of some latent heat
storage media based on calcium chloride hexahydrate
Carlsson, B. Solar Energy, 2009, 83, (4), 485500.
Phase change behaviour of pure and some chemically modified calcium
chloride hexahydrate materials suggested in the literature as suitable
heat storage media was studied in storage systems with a low degree of
mixing in order to evaluate their long-term reversibility. The influence
of gravitation on the phase change properties of the pure system was
elaborated by determining local salt concentrations in the liquid phase
and changes in the volume of the system during repeated melting and
crystallization, whereby the amounts of the different phases being
present could be assessed. It was found that thermogravitational effects
are of minor importance in generating salt concentration gradients in
the liquid phase when compared to the concentration gradients
resulting from the sedimentation of the formed tetrahydrate and the
hexahydrate during the phase change reactions. Due to these effects it
was not possible to prevent irreversible tetrahydrate formation and
deterioration in heat storage capability by adding a surplus of water to
the hexahydrate materials, if seeds for the tetrahydrate were present
during repeated melting and crystallization. Upon addition of
SrCl
2
6H
2
O a solid solution of the two hexahydrates is formed and
as a result the formation of the tetrahydrate is suppressed. Due to
irreversible formation of SrCl
2
2H
2
O a state of true congruent melting
seems, however, not possible to reach. Phase segregation effects also in
this case lead to irreversible calcium chloride tetrahydrate formation if
seeds for the latter are added during repeated melting and crystal-
lization. If Ca(OH)
2
is also added, the tetrahydrate formation can be
further suppressed. But, even in this case, irreversible tetrahydrate
formation can not be prevented if the composition of the liquid phase
corresponds to the hexahydrate. On addition of 5 wt% KCl or 5 wt%
KCl +2 wt% SrCl
2
6H
2
O or 5 wt% KCl +0.4 wt% NaCl, repeated
melting and crystallization in the presence of seeds of the tetrahydrate
can, however, be carried out without irreversible formation of the latter
occurs. In the heat storage system CaCl
2
6H
2
O+5 wt% KCl,
formation of tetrahydrate is observed but its rate of dissolution is
found considerably faster than in the pure hexahydrate system. It was
concluded that with those modified calcium chloride hexahydrate
systems reversible phase change cycling can be performed and
therefore there is for example no the need for thickener agents to be
added to avoid irreversible tetrahydrate formation successively redu-
cing heat storage capability of systems in those cases.
09/02213 Review on thermal energy storage with phase
change materials and applications
Sharma, A. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(2), 318345.
The use of a latent heat storage system using phase change materials
(PCMs) is an effective way of storing thermal energy and has the
advantages of high-energy storage density and the isothermal nature of
the storage process. PCMs have been widely used in latent heat
thermal-storage systems for heat pumps, solar engineering, and
spacecraft thermal control applications. The uses of PCMs for heating
and cooling applications for buildings have been investigated within the
past decade. There are large numbers of PCMs that melt and solidify at
a wide range of temperatures, making them attractive in a number of
applications. This paper also summarizes the investigation and analysis
of the available thermal energy storage systems incorporating PCMs for
use in different applications.
09/02214 Second law comparison of single effect and
double effect vapour absorption refrigeration systems
Gomri, R. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (5), 1279
1287.
In this paper a comparative study between single effect and double
effect absorption refrigeration systems with identical cold output is
carried out. Simulation results were used to study the influence of the
various operating parameters on the performance coefficient, the
thermal loads of the components, exergetic efficiency (rational
efficiency) and the total change in exergy of the two systems. It is
concluded that the COP of double effect system is approximately twice
the COP of single effect system but the exergetic efficiency of double
effect system increase slightly compared to the exergetic efficiency of
single effect system. It is found that for each condenser and evaporator
temperature, there is an optimum generator temperature where the
total change in exergy of the single effect and double effect absorption
refrigeration systems is minimum. At this point the COP and exergetic
efficiency of the systems become maximum. In this study and when the
evaporation temperature is varied from 4
C to 10
C, condenser and
absorber temperatures are varied from 33
C to 39
C and generator
(HPG) temperature is varied from 60
C to 190
39
0
54
00
N) in order to provide the
heat requirement of buildings, has been fulfilled. Optimum collector
area for the heating system has been determined. Total heat
requirement of 69% has been met by means of heating system
concerning the space heating and domestic water heating. In the
accordance with the results of the economical analysis, the payback
time of the heating system has been determined as 1920 years.
09/02218 Thermal storage performance analysis on
Chinese kangs
Zhuang, Z. et al. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (4), 452459.
Chinese kangs are widely used as a rural home heating system in
Northern China by 175 million people. The main features of Chinese
kangs include the effective use of thermal mass in kang plate. In this
paper, a thermal and airflow model for an elevated kang is developed
with a simply consideration of the heat transfer in building envelope.
Approximate analytical formulas are derived to identify the critical
parameters that affect the levels and fluctuations of kang plate
temperature and indoor air temperature. It can be observed that the
increase of the plate time constant and the heat source frequency with
continuous firings and equally distributing the firings and adding the
number of firing with intermittent firings can effectively decrease the
fluctuation of kang plate temperature and indoor air temperature. The
results of model analytical solutions can serve engineers for design
proposals or check analysis to determine the required thermal capacity
of kang plate at the early design stage. An example of heat source-
based design process is described to determine the thickness of a kang
plate and firing distribution.
09/02219 Transient two-dimensional model of frost
formation on a fin-and-tube heat exchanger
Lenic, K. et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2009,
52, (12), 2232.
In the paper, numerical and experimental analyses of heat and mass
transfer during frost formation on a fin-and-tube heat exchanger have
been presented. Modelling of the frost formation on cold surfaces
placed in a humid air stream, requires a complex mathematical
approach. A transient two-dimensional mathematical model of frost
formation has been developed. The applied mathematical model has
been defined using governing equations for the boundary layer that
include air and frost sub-domains as well as a boundary condition on
the airfrost interface. The mathematical model with initial and
boundary conditions has been discretized according to the finite
volume method and solved numerically using the SIMPLER algorithm
for the velocitypressure coupling. Results have shown that the frost
layer formation significantly influences the heat transfer between air
and fins. As a result of numerical calculations, time-wise frost thickness
variations for different air humidities, temperatures and velocities have
been presented. Using the developed mathematical model, the
algorithm and the computer code, which have been experimentally
validated, it is possible to predict a decrease of exchanged heat flux in
the heat exchanger under frost growth conditions.
09/02220 Unsteady MHD free convection of a micropolar
fluid between two parallel porous vertical walls with
convection from the ambient
Zueco, J. et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass
Transfer, 2009, 36, (3), 203209.
The study is concerned with the unsteady free convection flow of an
incompressible electrically conducting micropolar fluid, bounded by
two parallel infinite porous vertical plates submitted to an external
magnetic field and the thermal boundary condition of forced
convection. The governing equations are solved using a numerical
technique based on the electrical analogy, where only previous spatial
discretization is necessary to obtain a stable and convergent solution
with very low computational times. To solve the system of algebraic
equations with time as continuous function, an electric circuit simulator
is used. This method permits the direct visualization of the local and/or
integrated transport variables (temperatures and velocities) at any
point or section of the medium. Numerical results for temperature,
velocity and microrotation are illustrated graphically.
11 ENGINES
Power generation and propulsion,
electrical vehicles
09/02221 A computational study of free-piston diesel
engine combustion
Mikalsen, R. and Roskilly, A. P. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (78), 1136
1143.
This paper investigates the in-cylinder gas motion, combustion process
and nitrogen oxide formation in a free-piston diesel engine and
compares the results to those of a conventional engine, using a
computational fluid dynamics engine model. Enhanced radial gas flow
(squish and reverse squish) around top dead centre is found for the
free-piston engine compared to a conventional engine, however it is
found that this has only minor influence on the combustion process. A
higher heat release rate from the pre-mixed combustion phase due to
an increased ignition delay was found, along with potential reductions
in nitrogen oxides emissions formation for the free-piston engine.
09/02222 An improved model of induction motors for
diagnosis purposes slot skewing effect and airgap
eccentricity faults
Ghoggal, A. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (5),
13361347.
This paper describes an improved method for the modelling of axial
and radial eccentricities in induction motors (IM). The model is based
on an extension of the modified winding function approach (MWFA)
which allows for all harmonics of the magnetomotive force (MMF) to
be taken into account. It is shown that a plane view of IM gets easily
the motor inductances and reduces considerably the calculation
process. The described technique includes accurately the slot skewing
effect and leads to pure analytical expressions of the inductances in
case of radial eccentricity. In order to model the static, dynamic or
mixed axial eccentricity, three suitable alternatives are explained.
Unlike the previous proposals, the discussed alternatives take into
account all the harmonics of the inverse of airgap function without
any development in Fourier series. Simulation results as well as
experimental verifications prove the usefulness and the effectiveness of
the proposed model.
09/02223 Axial-flow turbines for low head microhydro
systems
Alexander, K. V. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 3547.
This paper describes the design of four different specific speed
microhydro propeller turbines operating at heads between 4 m and
9 m, and their application to a wider range of heads and outputs by
scaling. The features are specifically tailored for ease of manufacture
and uniquely resistant to debris blockage. Test machines are described
and test results given; hydraulic efficiencies of over 68% have been
344 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
11 Engines (power generation and propulsion, electrical vehicles)
achieved in all test models despite the fact that these turbines blades
are planar, further simplifying manufacture. Theoretical models show
how closely these flat blades can be made to approach the ideal blade
shapes. Outline drawings are given with key dimensions for each
reference model, along with the equations for scaling to arbitrary sites.
These turbines are the axial flow members of a family of turbines
developed to cover the microhydro range from 2 m to about 40 m of
head.
09/02224 Combustion analysis of preheated crude
sunflower oil in an IDI diesel engine
Canakci, M. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 760767.
In this study, preheated crude sunflower oil (PCSO) was tested for
combustion and emission properties against petroleum based diesel
fuel (PBDF) in a naturally aspirated, indirect injection (IDI) engine.
The cylinder gas pressure and heat release curves for PCSO at 75
C
were similar to those of PBDF. The ignition delays for the PCSO were
longer and the start of injection timing was earlier than for PBDF. The
difference in the average brake torque was a decrease of 1.36% for
PCSO though this was statistically insignificant. The brake specific fuel
consumption increased by almost 5% more or less in proportion to the
difference in calorific value, so that the 1.06% increase in thermal
efficiency was again statistically insignificant. The emission test results
showed that the decreases in CO
2
emissions and smoke opacity 2.05%
and 4.66%, respectively; however, this was not statistically significant,
though in line with the apparent increase in thermal efficiency. There
was a significant 34% improvement in the emissions of unburnt
hydrocarbons. Carbon monoxide increased by 1.77% again the result
was not statistically significant given the small number of repeat tests.
The use of PCSO does not have any negative effects on the engine
performance and emissions in short duration engine testing.
09/02225 Comparative performance of direct injection
diesel engine operating on ethanol, petrol and rapeseed oil
blends
Labeckas, G. and Slavinskas, S. Energy Conversion and Management,
2009, 50, (3), 792801.
This article presents the bench testing results of a four stroke, four
cylinder, direct injection, unmodified, diesel engine operating on pure
rapeseed oil (RO) and its 2.5 vol%, 5 vol%, 7.5 vol% and 10 vol%
blends with ethanol (ERO), petrol (PRO) and both improving agents
applied in equal proportions as 50:50 vol% (EPRO). The purpose of
the research is to examine the effect of ethanol and petrol addition into
RO on the biofuel kinematical viscosity, brake mean effective pressure
(bmep), brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) of a diesel engine and
its brake thermal efficiency (bte). Addition into RO from 2.5 to
7.5 vol% of ethanol and petrol its viscosity at ambient temperature of
20
CA bTDC timing
for diesel. Maximum 30% blend of Putranjiva oil with diesel can be
used as an alternative fuel in diesel engine for it differs very little from
diesel in performance and is better than diesel with regard to emissions.
Transport battery development
09/02248 Beyond batteries: an examination of the benefits
and barriers to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and
a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) transition
Sovacool, B. K. and Hirsh, R. F. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 1095
1103.
This paper explores both the promise and the possible pitfalls of the
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
concept, focusing first on its definition and then on its technical state-
of-the-art. More originally, the paper assesses significant, though often
overlooked, social barriers to the wider use of PHEVs (a likely
precursor to V2G) and implementation of a V2G transition. The article
disputes the idea that the only important barriers facing the greater use
of PHEVs and V2G systems are technical. Instead, it provides a
broader assessment situating such technical barriers alongside more
subtle impediments relating to social and cultural values, business
practices, and political interests. The history of other energy
transitions, and more specifically the history of renewable energy
technologies, implies that these socio-technical obstacles may be just
as important to any V2G transition and perhaps even more difficult
to overcome. Analogously, the article illuminates the policy impli-
cations of such barriers, emphasizing what policymakers need to
achieve a transition to a V2G and PHEV world.
09/02249 Enhanced coulomb counting method for
estimating state-of-charge and state-of-health of lithium-ion
batteries
Ng, K. S. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 15061511.
The coulomb counting method is expedient for state-of-charge (SOC)
estimation of lithium-ion batteries with high charging and discharging
efficiencies. The charging and discharging characteristics are investi-
gated and reveal that the coulomb counting method is convenient and
accurate for estimating the SOC of lithium-ion batteries. A smart
estimation method based on coulomb counting is proposed to improve
the estimation accuracy. The corrections are made by considering the
charging and operating efficiencies. Furthermore, the state-of-health
(SOH) is evaluated by the maximum releasable capacity. Through the
experiments that emulate practical operations, the SOC estimation
method is verified to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy.
09/02250 Lead-acid batteries for micro- and mild-hybrid
applications
Valenciano, J. et al. Journal of Power Sources, 2009, 187, (2), 599604.
Car manufactures have announced the launch in coming months of
vehicles with reduced emissions due to the introduction of new
functions like stopstart and regenerative braking. Initial performance
request of automotive lead-acid batteries are becoming more and more
demanding and, in addition to this, cycle life with new accelerated
ageing profiles are being proposed in order to determine the influence
of the new functions on the expected battery life. This paper will show
how different lead-acid battery technologies comply with these new
demands, from an improved version of the conventional flooded SLI
battery to the high performance of spiral wound valve-regulated lead-
acid (VRLA) battery. Different approaches have been studied for
improving conventional flooded batteries, i.e. either by the addition of
new additives for reducing electrolyte stratification or by optimization
of the battery design to extend cycling life in partial state of charge
conditions. With respect to VRLA technology, two different battery
designs have been compared. Spiral wound design combines excellent
power capability and cycle life under different depth of discharge
(DoD) cycling conditions, but flat plate design outperform the latter in
energy density due to better utilization of the space available in a
prismatic enclosure. This latter design is more adequate for high-end
class vehicles with high electrical energy demand, whereas spiral wound
is better suited for high-power/long-life demand of commercial vehicle.
High temperature behaviour (75
C (4.3 cm
2
). During steam
electrolysis, hydrogen production proportionally increased with current
density according to Faradays law, and heat generation at a low
current density was observed by an electrochemical technique. Voids
and Zr diffusion from the ScSZ electrolyte were confirmed in the CGO
buffer layer. Such factors near the surface probably influenced the
increase in ohmic loss and electrode polarization.
09/02263 The role of thermal treatment on the optical
properties of Ge
0.15
Se
0.85
system
Alnajjar, A. A. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 7174.
The Ge
0.15
Se
0.85
alloy has been prepared in evacuated quartz tubes.
Thin amorphous film of Ge
0.15
Se
0.85
system has been prepared by using
thermal evaporation technique with 400 5 nm thickness. Atomic
absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used to determine the concen-
tration of the composite elements (Ge and Se). Amorphous structure
was observed for prepared films by using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The
optical properties of Ge
0.15S
e
0.85
system have been studied as a function
of annealing temperatures (T
a
=300, 350, 400 and 450 K). The results
showed that optical transitions are direct and indirect. The energy gap
E
g
increased with increasing annealing temperature, i.e the absorption
edge shifts to lower wavelength. The refractive index, extinction
coefficient and real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant for
these films vary with heat treatment. Outcome of the study confirms
that this system may be used for photovoltaic devices.
13 ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
SUPPLIES
Biofuels and bioconversion energy
09/02264 A review on gasification of biomass
Kirubakaran, V. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009,
13, (1), 179186.
Studies on the effect of size, structure, environment, temperature,
heating rate, composition of biomass and ash are reviewed. Based on
the observations reported so far, auto-gasification of biomass by the
bio-oxygen and the catalytic ash would be feasible. The auto-
gasification may be explained in terms of heterogeneous catalytic
reaction. Better understanding of auto-gasification is possible by
further studies carrying out on the effect of heating rate on auto-
gasification.
09/02265 An experimental study on air gasification of
biomass micron fuel (BMF) in a cyclone gasifier
Guo, X. et al. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2009, 34, (3),
12651269.
Biomass micron fuel (BMF) produced from feedstock (energy crops,
agricultural wastes, forestry residues and so on) through an efficient
crushing process is a kind of powdery biomass fuel with particle size of
less than 250 mm. Based on the properties of BMF, a cyclone gasifier
concept has been considered in the laboratory for biomass gasification.
The concept combines and integrates partial oxidation, fast pyrolysis,
gasification, and tar cracking, as well as a shift reaction, with the
purpose of producing a high quality of gas. In this paper, characteristics
of BMF air gasification were studied in the gasifier. Without outer heat
energy input, the whole process is supplied with energy produced by
partial combustion of BMF in the gasifier using a hypostoichiometric
amount of air. The effects of equivalence ratio (ER) and biomass
particle size on gasification temperature, gas composition, gas yield,
low-heating value (LHV), carbon conversion and gasification efficiency
were studied. The results showed that higher ER led to higher
gasification temperature and contributed to high H
2
-content, but too
high ER lowered fuel gas content and degraded fuel gas quality. A
smaller particle was more favourable for higher gas yield, LHV, carbon
conversion and gasification efficiency. And the BMF air gasification in
the cyclone gasifier with the energy self-sufficiency is reliable.
09/02266 Biodiesel from waste cooking oil via base-
catalytic and supercritical methanol transesterification
Demirbas, A. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (4), 923
927.
In this study, waste cooking oil has subjected to transesterification
reaction by potassium hydroxide (KOH) catalytic and supercritical
methanol methods obtaining for biodiesel. In catalysed methods, the
presence of water has negative effects on the yields of methyl esters. In
the catalytic transesterification free fatty acids and water always
produce negative effects since the presence of free fatty acids and
water causes soap formation, consumes catalyst, and reduces catalyst
effectiveness. Free fatty acids in the waste cooking oil are transester-
ified simultaneously in supercritical methanol method. Since waste
cooking oil contains water and free fatty acids, supercritical transester-
ification offers great advantage to eliminate the pre-treatment and
operating costs. The effects of methanol/waste cooking oils ratio,
potassium hydroxide concentration and temperature on the biodiesel
conversion were investigated.
09/02267 Biodiesel production from oleaginous
microorganisms
Meng, X. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 15.
High energy prices, energy and environment security, concerns about
petroleum supplies are drawing considerable attention to find a
renewable biofuels. Biodiesel, a mixture of fatty acid methyl esters
(FAMEs) derived from animal fats or vegetable oils, is rapidly moving
towards the mainstream as an alternative source of energy. However,
biodiesel derived from conventional petrol or from oilseeds or animal
fat cannot meet realistic need, and can only be used for a small fraction
of existing demand for transport fuels. In addition, expensive large
acreages for sufficient production of oilseed crops or cost to feed
animals are needed for raw oil production. Therefore, oleaginous
microorganisms are available for substituting conventional oil in
biodiesel production. Most of the oleaginous microorganisms like
microalgae, bacillus, fungi and yeast are all available for biodiesel
production. Regulation mechanism of oil accumulation in microorgan-
ism and approach of making microbial diesel economically competitive
with petrodiesel are discussed in this review.
09/02268 Biodiesel production in a small community:
case study in Thailand
Phalakornkule, C. et al. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2009,
53, (3), 129135.
A community-scale process of biodiesel production from animal fats
was reported together with an economic analysis and wastewater
treatment process. The biodiesel product whose qualification met Thai
biodiesel standards for agricultural engines could be used directly in
agricultural engines, such as water pumps, cultivator engines, trailer-
mounted engines, dump trucks and farm vehicles with single-cylinder,
four-stroke diesel engines without operational problems. This study
was an illustration for producing inexpensive and renewable energy
from domestic sources to reduce dependence on foreign sources of
petroleum. The treatment of wastewater from the biodiesel production
process was necessary because the water contained high levels of COD
(approximately 138,000 mg L
1
) and oils/fats, which may hinder the
biological mechanism. By adding aluminium sulfate of an appropriate
amount followed by an adjustment of pH, alkalinity and nitrogen levels,
the water could be further treated by an anaerobic process.
09/02269 Bioethanol production from thick juice as
intermediate of sugar beet processing
Dodic , S. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 822827.
350 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
13 Alternative energy supplies (biofuels and bioconversion energy)
The aims of this study were to investigate the bioethanol production of
thick juice as intermediate from sugar beet processing in batch culture
by free Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells and the effect of sugar
concentration on ethanol yield and CO
2
weight loss rate. Thick juice
and molasses of sugar beet from a domestic sugar factory were diluted
with distilled water to give a total sugar concentration of 5, 10, 15, 20
and 25% (ww
1
). Initial concentration of fermentable sugars of 20%
(ww
1
) in culture medium can be taken as optimal, enabling maximal
ethanol yield (68%) and maximal CO
2
evolution rate was realized,
amounting to more than 90 g L
1
h
1
. The optimal concentration of
fermentable sugar from thick juice for bioethanol production by free S.
cerevisiae cells was 20% (ww
1
) at 30
C, reaching to 51.2%
and 22.4%, respectively.
09/02286 Improvements in char yield and pore properties of
wood-derived carbon by iodine treatment
Nakamura, K. et al. Carbon, 2009, 47, (1), 348.
An iodine treatment was applied to wood to seek improvements in char
yields and pore-related properties, i.e. surface area, micro-pore volume
and the pore-size distribution, of the carbons derived from them
without any other special pre- and post-treatments. Char yields were
improved, surface area and micro-pore volumes were increased. The
initiation temperature of pyrolysis of the treated woods was decreased,
and gases such as CH
3
I and HI were produced during the pyrolysis.
The change in the above-mentioned yields and pore-related properties
with the iodine treatment was analysed using wood-component
polymers such as cellulose and lignin. By spectroscopic analyses,
iodine in the polymers exists in its ionic state, which may increase the
stability of the polymers. Iodine-treated lignin plays a role of the
modification of the pyrolysis process in the improvements in the yields
and pore-related properties in the resultant wood-derived carbons.
09/02287 Nonmarket cobenefits and economic feasibility of
on-farm biogas energy production
Yiridoe, E. K. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 11701179.
Standard analysis of the economic feasibility of on-farm biogas energy
production tend to emphasize primarily on direct financial benefits to
farmers, and abstracts from the non-market co-benefits associated with
anaerobic digestion of livestock manure and other biomass feedstock.
This shortcoming of the standard feasibility analysis raises a funda-
mental question: How is the economic feasibility of on-farm anaerobic
biogas energy production affected by the associated nonpecuniary co-
benefits? Incorporating key non-market co-benefits from biogas energy
production extends the standard economic feasibility analysis, and
provides important insights. When non-market co-benefits were
excluded, on-farm biogas energy production was generally not
financially feasible for the dairy and swine farm size ranges studied
(except for 600- and 800-sow farms). Overall, results of the financial
feasibility analysis did not change compared to a base scenario (without
non-market co-benefits) when an estimated annual total non-market
co-benefits of CND$5000 was incorporated into the analysis, for both
dairy and swine farms. Biogas energy production was generally
financially viable for small-size dairy (i.e. 50-cow) and swine (i.e.
200-sow) farms when the non-market co-benefits were valued at
CND$15,000 (or higher). Improvements in financial feasibility were
more dramatic for dairy than for swine farms.
09/02288 Optimisation of FAME production from waste
cooking oil for biodiesel use
Bautista, L. F. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 862872.
This study consists of the development and optimization of the
potassium hydroxide-catalysed synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters
(FAME) from waste cooking oil. A factorial design of experiments and
a central composite design have been used. The variables chosen were
fatty acid concentration in the waste cooking oil, temperature and
initial catalyst concentration by weight of waste cooking oil, while the
responses were FAME purity and yield. The initial catalyst concen-
tration is the most important factor, having a positive influence on
FAME purity, but a negative one on FAME yield due to the positive
influences of the yield losses (triglyceride saponification and methyl
ester dissolution in glycerol). Fatty acid concentration in the waste
cooking oil is the second factor of importance, having negative
influences in FAME purity and yield. Temperature has an insignificant
effect on FAME purity, but it has a significant negative influence on
FAME yield due to the positive effect of temperature on the yield
losses. Second-order models were obtained to predict the responses
analysed as a function of these variables.
09/02289 Optimization of biodiesel production from edible
and non-edible vegetable oils
Patil, P. D. and Deng, S. Fuel, 2009, 88, (7), 13021306.
The non-edible vegetable oils such as Jatropha curcas and Pongamia
glabra (karanja) and edible oils such as corn and canola were found to
be good viable sources for producing biodiesel. Biodiesel production
from different edible and non-edible vegetable oils was compared in
order to optimize the biodiesel production process. The analysis of
different oil properties, fuel properties and process parameter
optimization of non-edible and edible vegetable oils were investigated
in detail. A two-step and single-step transesterification process was
used to produce biodiesel from high free fatty acid (FFA) non-edible
oils and edible vegetable oils, respectively. This process gives yields of
about 9095% for J. curcas, 8085% for P. glabra, 8095% for canola,
and 8596% for corn using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a catalyst.
The fuel properties of biodiesel produced were compared with ASTM
standards for biodiesel.
09/02290 Overview of fuel properties of biomass fast
pyrolysis oils
Lu, Q. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (5), 1376
1383.
Fast pyrolysis of biomass is one of the most promising technologies for
converting biomass to liquid fuels. As a result, this technology has
gained extensive attention in the last two decades. The pyrolysis
liquids, known as the bio-oils, have been regarded as promising
candidates to replace petroleum fuels to be used in various thermal
devices. However, bio-oils are totally different from petroleum fuels.
Therefore, the successful utilization of bio-oils in terms of liquid fuels
requires adequate understanding of their fuel properties. This review
concentrates on the detailed fuel properties of bio-oils and discusses
how these properties affect the utilization of bio-oils.
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 353
13 Alternative energy supplies (biofuels and bioconversion energy)
09/02291 Palm oil: addressing issues and towards
sustainable development
Tan, K. T. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(2), 420427.
The quest for renewable energy has intensified since the escalating
price of crude petroleum in the recent years. Renewable energy such as
biodiesel has the potential to replace petroleum-derived transportation
fuel in the future. Biodiesel is defined as the mono-alkyl esters of long-
chain fatty acids derived from vegetable oils such palm oil, rapeseed
and soybean. Currently, more than 80% of the world biodiesel
productions are from rapeseed oil. However, the cost of palm oil,
which is at least US$200 per tonne cheaper than rapeseed oil, indicates
that palm oil could be a more suitable and attractive candidate as the
source of biodiesel compared to other vegetable oils. Although palm oil
is known to be a multi-purpose vegetable oil with products ranging
from food to biodiesel, there are a lot of issues surrounding palm oil
production. Nevertheless, some of these issues reported in the
literature were found to be misleading and are thus confusing the
public perception on palm oil. Thus, the aim of this paper is to
highlight and clarify the negative issues reported in the literature
surrounding palm oil production. Apart from that, various policies or/
and strategies that will lead to a more sustainable production and
development of palm oil industries will also be proposed. Hence, palm
oil will be able to become the leading vegetable oil in terms of food and
non-food production, especially as the main source of renewable
energy, biodiesel.
09/02292 Predicting the temperature dependent viscosity
of biodiesel fuels
Yuan, W. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (6), 11201126.
The purpose of this work was to develop a method for predicting
temperature dependent viscosities of biodiesel based on fatty acid ester
composition. The GrunbergNissan equation combined with a group
contribution method was used as the mixing rule to calculate viscosities
of mixtures of fatty acid esters. Prediction errors at 25
C, predicted viscosities
of soybean oil and yellow grease methyl esters were within 3%. For
coconut, palm and canola oil methyl esters, maximum errors were
underestimations at approximately 7%.
09/02293 Prediction of optimized pretreatment process
parameters for biodiesel production using ANN and GA
Rajendra, M. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (5), 868875.
An artificial neural network (ANN) based program coupled with
genetic algorithm (GA) was developed on MATLAB platform for
predicting the optimized process parameters required for reducing
high free fatty acids (FFA) of any vegetable oils for successful
transesterification. The developed ANN was a feed forward back
propagation network (47131) with one input, two hidden and one
output layers. The input parameters for the ANN to generalize the
pretreatment process were initial acid value of vegetable oil (IAV),
methanol-to-oil ratio (M), catalyst concentration (C) and reaction time
(T) and the output parameter was final acid value (FAV) of oil. The
developed ANN was trained with the experimental data obtained for
jatropha, mahua, simaruoba and rice bran oils with acid value more
than 14 mg KOH/g-oil. The trained ANN was tested with separate set
of data generated from pretreatment of mahua oil using response
surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite rotatable
design (CCRD) and found to predict the input pretreatment process
parameters with low mean square error (MSE) and relative percentage
deviation (RPD). The well trained ANN synaptic joint weights and
threshold values were used by GA to evaluate the fitness (to get FAV of
oil less than 2 after pretreatment) of individuals (combinations of M, C
and T) for optimization. The optimized process parameters predicted
by the developed ANNGA technique for sunflower oil with IAV
28 1 mg KOH/g-oil were experimentally verified and the FAV was
measured to be 2 0.2 mg KOH/g-oil against the predicted value of
2 mg KOH/g-oil.
09/02294 Pretreatment of yellow grease for efficient
production of fatty acid methyl esters
Diaz-Felix, W. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (4), 558563.
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel comprised of fatty acid methyl esters
(FAME) derived from vegetable oils or animal fats. Comparisons
between biodiesel and petroleum-based diesel have shown biodiesel to
be effective in reducing exhaust emissions of carbon monoxide,
hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide. While there are
advantages of biodiesel over the traditional petroleum based diesel,
biodiesel commercialization is limited by production cost that is
dominated by the price of the feedstock (soybean oil). Yellow grease
has the potential to be an effective feedstock with lower cost, but the
chemical composition of these oils is variable depending on the source
of collection and differs from that of virgin oil due to the presence of
free fatty acids (FFA). Esterification has been previously demonstrated
to reduce the FFA levels of YG; however, large quantities of methanol
were required to drive the reaction to high yield. Methanol usage for
processing and FFA content are the main factors affecting the
economics of FAME production from YG. In this study, the
relationship between composition and process variables was system-
atically studied. The effect of FFA ranging from 2% to 32% (w/w) was
studied at three different molar ratios of methanol to FFA (4.5:1, 9:1,
18:1) and was found to have a non-linear relationship. Data obtained
from this full factorial screening was used to develop a predictive
statistical model to forecast the conversion based on initial FFA level
and proportion of alcohol applied for esterification.
09/02295 Steps to discern sustainability criteria for a
certification scheme of bioethanol in Brazil: approach and
difficulties
Delzeit, R. and Holm-Muller, K. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 662668.
Taking Brazilian bioethanol as an example, this paper presents possible
sustainability criteria for a certification scheme aimed to minimize
negative socio-ecological impacts and to increase the sustainable
production of biomass. The authors describe the methods that have
led us to the identification of a first set of feasible sustainability criteria
for Brazilian bioethanol and discuss issues to be considered when
developing certification schemes for sustainability. General problems
of a certification scheme lie in the inherent danger of introducing new
non-tariff trade barriers and in the problems of including important
higher scale issues like land conversion and food security. A
certification system cannot replace a thorough analysis of policy
impacts on sustainability issues.
09/02296 Techno-economic analysis of the energy
exploitation of biomass residues in Heraklion Prefecture
Crete
Boukis, I. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(2), 362377.
As with most of the Greek islands, Crete is not interconnected to the
national power grid. Therefore, power is generated locally and is based
on a handful of ageing power plants running on imported diesel fuel
oil, owned by the Public Power Corporation. However, the growth of
the tourism industry and the subsequent need for more power present
major challenges for the electricity production on the island. The high
potential of biomass residues on the island creates new prospects for
the energy concept of Crete. The purpose of this work is to examine the
feasibility of a biomass-fired plant in the Heraklion Prefecture, on the
island of Crete, taking into account the high biomass residues potential
of this area.
09/02297 Theoretical study of the transesterification of
triglycerides to biodiesel fuel
Asakuma, Y. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (5), 786791.
The transesterification of various triglycerides was considered in terms
of the activation energy obtained from quantum computational
chemistry. According to these values, the effect upon the reactivity of
the structure of the triglyceride is not particularly large. Moreover, the
transesterification reaction is completed via a transition state, in which
ring formation consisting of the carbon of the carboxyl and alkoxy
groups appears, even if a long-chain alcohol is used as a reactant.
Finally, an ideal reaction pathway, in which the ester bond at the center
of the triglyceride is transesterified before peripheral ester bonds, was
shown by an activation energy analysis and electrostatic potential
distribution.
09/02298 Utilization of carbon-negative biofuels from low-
input high-diversity grassland biomass for energy in China
Zhou, X. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(2), 479485.
This paper considered the utilization of carbon-negative biofuels from
low-input high-diversity grassland biomass on degraded lands (LIHD)
for energy including energy equivalent to greenhouse gas (GHG)
capture and storage. The results show that the energy output of LIHD
biomass on degraded soil is nearly equal to that of ethanol from
conventional corn grain on fertile soil. It has also been shown that
LIHD biofuel is far more economical than the conventional biofuels
such as corn ethanol or soybean biodiesel. China is a large
agriculturally developing country, with its rural area largely populated
and vast land degraded. The potential of using energy from LIHD
biomass on degraded lands in China was estimated and the results
show that the potential energy production of LIHD biomass reaches
6350971.32 TJ year
1
, accounting for about 15% of Chinas energy
consumption in 2002.
09/02299 Variability in sunflower oil quality for biodiesel
production: a simulation study
Pereyra-Irujo, G. A. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (3), 459
468.
354 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
13 Alternative energy supplies (biofuels and bioconversion energy)
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats.
The fatty acid composition of the feedstock, which varies among and
within species, is the main determinant of biodiesel quality. In this
work, the variability in biodiesel quality (density, kinematic viscosity,
heating value, cetane number and iodine value) obtained from
sunflower oil is analysed, by means of a validated crop model that
predicts the fatty acid composition of one high-oleic, and three
traditional (high-linoleic) sunflower hybrids. The model was run with
a 10-year average weather data from 56 weather stations in Argentina,
and simulation results were compared to the biodiesel standards of
Argentina, USA and Europe. It is shown that biodiesel produced from
sunflower oil does not have one fixed quality, but different qualities
depending on weather conditions and agricultural practices, and that
intraspecific variation in biodiesel quality can be larger than inter-
specific differences. The results suggest that (a) sunflower oil from
high-oleic hybrids is suitable for biodiesel production (within limits of
all analysed standards), regardless of growing conditions and (b)
sunflower oil from traditional hybrids is suitable for biodiesel
production under the standards of Argentina and USA, while only
certain hybrids grown in warm regions (e.g. northern Argentina,
southern USA, China, India, Pakistan) are suitable for biodiesel
production according to the European standard.
Geothermal energy
09/02300 In-situ thermal response test for ground source
heat pump system in Elazig , Turkey
Esen, H. and Inalli, M. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (4), 395401.
Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems exchange heat with the
ground, often through a vertical, U-tube, borehole heat exchanger
(BHE). The performance of this U-tube BHE depends on the thermal
properties of the ground formation, as well as grout or backfill in the
borehole. The design and economic probability of GSHP systems need
the thermal conductivity of geological structure and thermal resistance
of BHE. Thermal response test (TRT) method allows the in-situ
determination of the thermal conductivity (`) of the ground formation
in the vicinity of a BHE, as well as the effective thermal resistance (R
b
)
of this latter. Thermal properties measured in laboratory experiments
do not comply with data of in-situ conditions. The main goal has been
to determine same in-situ ground type of BHE, including the effect of
boreholes depths (60 m: VB2; 90 m: VB3). As shown in these results,
` and R
b
of the VB2/VB3 boreholes are determined as 1.70/
1.70 Wm
1
K
1
and 0.05/0.03 KW
1
m, respectively.
09/02301 Monitoring of energy exergy efficiencies and
exergoeconomic parameters of geothermal district heating
systems (GDHSs)
Ozgener, L. and Ozgener, O. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 17041711.
In this work, the monitoring energy and exergy efficiency results of the
last heating seasons of operation of the geothermal district heating
systems (GDHSs) and their technical availability analysis and
monitoring exergoeconomic parameters are presented. The case
studies cover the actual system data taken from the systems in Afyon
and Salihli GDHSs, Turkey. General energy, exergy, technical
availability, and exergoeconomic analysis of the GDHSs are intro-
duced. Furthermore, the average technical availability, real availability,
capacity factor and energy and exergy efficiencies value of GDHSs have
been analysed.
09/02302 Review of geothermal energy resources in
Pakistan
Zaigham, N. A. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009,
13, (1), 223232.
Pakistan, despite the enormous potential of its energy resources,
remains energy deficient and has to rely heavily on imports of
hydrocarbon products to satisfy hardly its needs. Moreover, a very
large part of the rural areas does not have the electrification facilities
because they are either too remote and/or too expensive to connect to
the national grid. Pakistan has wide spectrum of high potential
renewable energy sources, conventional and as well non-conventional.
Many of them have not been adequately explored, exploited and
developed. Geothermal energy is one of them. Pakistan can be
benefited by harnessing the geothermal option of energy generation
as substitute energy in areas where sources exist. Most of the high
enthalpy geothermal resources of the world are within the seismic belts
associated with zones of crustal weakness like the seismo-tectonic belt
that passes through Pakistan having inherited a long geological history
of geotectonic events. The present study of the geotectonic framework
suggests that Pakistan should not be lacking in commercially
exploitable sources of geothermal energy. This view is further
strengthened by (a) the fairly extensive development of alteration
zones and fumeroles in many regions of Pakistan, (b) the presence of a
fairly large number of hot springs in different parts of the country, and
(c) the indications of Quaternary volcanism associated with the Chagai
arc extending into Iran and Afghanistan border areas. These
manifestations of geothermal energy are found within three geotec-
tonic or geothermal environments, i.e. (i) geo-pressurized systems
related to basin subsidence, (ii) seismo-tectonic or suture-related
systems, and (iii) systems related to NeogeneQuaternary volcanism. A
few localities, scattered sporadically all over the country, have been
studied to evaluate only some of the basic characteristic parameters of
the geothermal prospects. The present review study the geothermal
activities of varying intensity and nature, associated with different
geotectonic domains, and reveals the viable potential of the geothermal
environments, which could be exploited for the generation of
sustainable indigenous energy in Pakistan.
09/02303 Thermal-economic modeling and optimization of
vertical ground-coupled heat pump
Sanaye, S. and Niroomand, B. Energy Conversion and Management,
2009, 50, (4), 11361147.
The optimal design process of a ground source heat pump includes
thermal modelling of the system and selection of optimal design
parameters which affect the system performance as well as initial and
operational costs. In this paper, the modelling and optimizing
processes of a ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) with closed vertical
ground heat exchanger (VGHX) are presented. To verify the modelling
procedure of heat pump and VGHX systems, the simulation outputs
were compared with the corresponding values reported in the literature
and acceptable accuracy was obtained. Then an objective function (the
sum of annual operating and investment costs of the system) was
defined and minimized, exposed to the specified constraints to estimate
the optimum design parameters (decision variables). Two Nelder
Mead and genetic algorithm optimization techniques were applied to
guarantee the validity of the optimization results. For the given
heating/cooling loads and various climatic conditions, the optimum
values of heat pump design parameters (saturated temperature/
pressure of condenser and evaporator) as well as VGHX design
parameters (inlet and outlet temperatures of the ground water source,
pipe diameter, depth and number of boreholes) were predicted.
Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis of change in the total annual cost
of the system and optimum design parameters with the climatic
conditions, cooling/heating capacity, soil type, and number of bore-
holes were discussed. Finally, the sensitivity analysis of change in
optimum design parameters with increase in the investment and
electricity costs was performed.
Solar energy
09/02304 A comparative performance study of some
thermal storage materials used for solar space heating
Khalifa, A. J. N. and Abbas, E. F. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (4),
407415.
One of the most common methods used in passive heating is the
utilization of a massive wall for heat storage. Many factors affect the
performance of the wall, such as the thickness and the media used for
heat storage. A numerical study has been conducted on a zone heated
by a thermal storage wall. Three different storage materials are
examined, namely concrete, the hydrated salt CaCl
2
6H
2
O and paraffin
wax (N-eicosane). A numerical model is presented in this paper which
judges the suitability of these materials as thermal storage mediums
under the actual weather conditions of Iraq. For that purpose, the
room temperature fluctuation in the zone is evaluated for each
material using different thickness for each wall. The study concluded
that an 8-cm-thick storage wall made from the hydrated salt is capable
of maintaining the comfort temperature in the zone with the least room
temperature fluctuation.
09/02305 A model for calculating hourly global solar
radiation from satellite data in the tropics
Janjai, S. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 14501457.
A model for calculating global solar radiation from geostationary
satellite data is presented. The model is designed to calculate the
monthly average hourly global radiation in the tropics with high aerosol
load. This model represents a physical relation between the earth-
atmospheric albedo derived from GMS5 satellite data and the
absorption and scattering coefficients of various atmospheric constitu-
ents. The absorption of solar radiation by water vapour which is
important for the tropics, was calculated from ambient temperature
and relative humidity. The relationship between the visibility and solar
radiation depletion due to aerosols was developed for a high aerosol
load environment. This relationship was used to calculate solar
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 355
13 Alternative energy supplies (solar energy)
radiation depletion by aerosols in the model. The total column ozone
from TOMS/EP satellite was employed for the determination of solar
radiation absorbed by ozone. Solar radiation from four pyranometer
stations was used to formulate the relationship between the satellite
band earth-atmospheric albedo and broadband earth-atmospheric
albedo required by the model. To test its performance, the model
was used to compute the monthly average hourly global radiation at 25
solar radiation monitoring stations in tropical areas in Thailand. It was
found that the values of monthly average of hourly global radiations
calculated from the model were in good agreement with those obtained
from the measurements, with the root mean square difference of 10%.
After the validation the model was employed to generate hourly solar
radiation maps of Thailand. These maps reveal the diurnal and season
variation of solar radiation over the country.
09/02306 A modified sulphuriodine cycle for efficient
solar hydrogen production
Prosini, P. et al. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2009, 34,
(3), 12181225.
A thermochemical water-splitting cycle representing a modification of
the classical sulfuriodine cycle is proposed. To decrease the energetic
demand, increasing the cycle energy efficiency, the distillation of the
iodine phase was replaced with the evaporation of the excess of water
and iodine. This was obtained by neutralizing the hydrogen iodide in
the iodine phase with nickel oxide. In such a way water and iodine can
be simply recovered by evaporation leaving nickel iodide as solid phase.
The nickel iodide is decomposed to obtain nickel metal and hydrogen is
produced by reaction of the metal with sulfuric acid. The nickel
sulphate, obtained after hydrogen production, is decomposed to
generate sulfur dioxide (used as the reagent in the Bunsen reaction)
and nickel oxide (that is recycled). To validate the cycle effectiveness
the proposed reactions have been carried out. Crystalline solid
materials have been identified by XRD diffraction. Powders mor-
phology was studied by scanning electron microscopy and energy
dispersive X-ray. Thermodynamics studies were carried out by
thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis. Finally an energy
balance to evaluate the theoretical energy efficiency was computed.
09/02307 Air-cooled LiBrwater absorption chillers for
solar air conditioning in extremely hot weathers
Kim, D. S. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (4),
10181025.
A low temperature-driven absorption cycle is theoretically investigated
for the development of an air-cooled LiBrwater absorption chiller to
be combined with low-cost flat solar collectors for solar air condition-
ing in hot and dry regions. The cycle works with dilute LiBrwater
solutions so that risk of LiBr crystallization is less than for
commercially available water-cooled LiBrwater absorption chillers
even in extremely hot ambient conditions. Two-phase heat exchangers
in the system were modelled taking account of the heat and mass
transfer resistances in falling film flows by applying the film theory in
thermal and concentration boundary layers. Both directly and
indirectly air-cooled chillers were modelled by properly combining
component models and boundary conditions in a matrix system and
solved with an algebraic equation solver. Simulation results predict that
the chillers would deliver chilled water around 7.0
C with a COP of
0.37 from 90
C ambient condition. At 50
C
ambient temperature, the chillers retained about 36% of their cooling
power at 35
C).
The NH
3
mass fraction at the turbine inlet varies along with the
expansion pressure and the effects on the cycle efficiency are studied.
For given conditions, an optimum range of vapour mass fractions and
operating pressures can be identified that result in optimum cycle
performance. Simple equations have been derived that link the
operational parameters with the independent variables as well as with
the cycle efficiency.
09/02361 Application of STATCOM/BESS for wind power
smoothening and hydrogen generation
Muyeen, S. M. et al. Electric Power Systems Research, 2009, 79, (2),
365373.
This paper proposes static synchronous compensator (STATCOM)
incorporated with battery energy storage system (STATCOM/BESS) to
smooth the line power of wind farm consists of fixed-speed wind
generators. Constant output power reference is not a good choice
because there may be some cases where wind speed is very low and
then sufficient power cannot be obtained. In that case, energy storage
device can solve the problem but large energy capacity may be needed.
This paper proposes exponential moving average (EMA) to generate
the reference output power, and thus the energy capacity of BESS unit
can be small. Another salient feature of this study is the generation of
hydrogen by using wind energy. At the wind farm terminal, two
topologies of hydrogen generators and their merits and demerits are
analysed. Finally, by taking the advantage of STATCOM/BESS, simple
hydrogen generator topology composed of rectifier and electrolyser is
proposed. Detailed modelling and control strategy of hydrogen
generator and STATCOM/BESS topologies are discussed and a
cooperative control is developed. The effectiveness of the proposed
system is verified by the simulation analysis using PSCAD/EMTDC.
09/02362 Assessment of H
2
- and H
2
O-based renewable
energy-buffering systems in minor islands
Corsini, A. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 279288.
The paper assesses the energy and environmental performance of two
solutions designed to complement renewable energy (RE) technol-
ogies, in stand-alone power system (SAPS) configuration typical of
minor Mediterranean islands, by converting the available RE surplus.
The studied SAPS, based on the Ventotene island demographic,
meteorological and load data, features high renewable energy
penetration onto the load power demand, i.e. up to 55.25% share of
peak power capacity. Transient models have been developed to
simulate the storage process of winter renewable energy surplus and
the time-dependent matching among SAPS electric demand and the
stochastic renewable power contributions combined with energy
surplus conversion systems. The study compares a hydrogen-based
system and a desalinated water-production system, proposed as two
effective alternatives for renewable energy seasonal buffering in an
island context. The comparative analysis of the time-dependent
systems behaviour has been investigated with an hourly distribution
over the period of one reference year, in terms of fuel consumption and
hydrogen system energy storage or desalination capacity. The assess-
ment is carried out by taking performance indicators, SAPS fuel
savings, as well as stored and dump power data. The study
demonstrates the suitability of both the models for the winter
renewable energy buffer, in order to improve to the matching of peak
energy and water demands.
09/02363 Competition between first and second generation
technologies: lessons from the formation of a biofuels
innovation system in the Netherlands
Suurs, R. A. A. and Hekkert, M. P. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 669679.
The support of sustainable energy innovations has become a dominant
topic on the political agenda of many countries. Providing this support
remains difficult, since the processes constituting such innovation
trajectories are poorly understood. To increase insight in such
processes, this paper takes the historical development of biofuels in
the Netherlands as the topic of study. Special attention is paid to the
simultaneous development of two technology generations within the
field: a first generation (1G) and a second generation (2G) of biofuels.
A critical question asked is whether deployment programmes for a 1G
technology may have positive effects on the development of later
generations. Two archetypical support strategies are identified: one is
to keep investing in R&D concerning 2G technology, where the
expected outcome is a fast move from one technology generation to the
other. The other strategy is to focus on learning-by-doing in the 1G
technology. In that way progress can be made in 1G technologies but
the effects on 2G technologies are uncertain. A technological
innovation system perspective was applied to analyse the strategies
followed and their effects. From the results lessons of relevance are
drawn for practitioners who aspire to understand and influence
emerging energy technologies.
09/02364 Cost determination of the electro-mechanical
equipment of a small hydro-power plant
Ogayar, B. and Vidal, P. G. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 613.
One of the most important elements on the recovery of a small hydro-
power plant is the electro-mechanical equipment (turbinealternator),
since the cost of the equipment means a high percentage of the total
budget of the plant. The present paper intends to develop a series of
equations which determine its cost from basic parameters such as
power and net head. These calculations are focused at a level of
previous study, so it will be necessary to carry out the engineering
project and request a budget to companies specialized on the
construction of electro-mechanical equipment to know its cost more
accurately. Although there is a great diversity in the typology of
turbines and alternators, data from manufacturers which cover all the
considered range have been used. The above equations have been
developed for the most common of turbines: Pelton, Francis, Kaplan
and semiKaplan for a power range below 2 MW. The obtained
equations have been validated with data from real installations which
have been subject to analysis by engineering companies working on the
assembly and design of small plants.
09/02365 Current status and perspectives of renewable
energy sources in Poland
Paska, J. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13, (1),
142154.
Using renewable energy sources is one of the crucial components of the
sustainable development, giving rational economic, ecological and
social effects. Developed countries notice the necessity of emission
reduction from combustion of energy fuels processes and the necessity
of seeking alternative energy resources. Support for development of
the use of renewable energy sources became a very important objective
within the European Union. In this article the present state and
perspectives of using renewable energy sources in Poland are depicted
as well as the main tools for promoting their development and
utilization.
09/02366 Design, economic analysis and environmental
considerations of mini-grid hybrid power system with
reverse osmosis desalination plant for remote areas
Setiawan, A. A. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (2), 374383.
This paper discusses the design process of a mini-grid hybrid power
system with reverse osmosis desalination plant for remote areas,
together with an economic analysis and environmental considerations
for the project life-cycle. It presents a design scenario for supplying
electricity and fulfilling demand for clean water in remote areas by
utilizing renewable energy sources and a diesel generator with a reverse
osmosis desalination plant as a deferrable load. The economic issues
analysed are the initial capital cost needed, the fuel consumption and
annual cost, the total net present cost (NPC), the cost of electricity
(COE) generated by the system per kWh and the simple payback time
(SPBT) for the project. The environmental considerations discussed
are the amount of gas emissions, such as CO
2
and NO
x
, as well as
particulate matter released into the atmosphere. Simulations based on
an actual set of conditions in a remote area in the Maldives were
performed for two conditions: before and after the tsunami of 26th
December 2004. Experimental results on the prototype 5 kVA mini-grid
inverter and reverse osmosis desalination plant, rated at 5.5 kWh/day,
are also presented here to verify the idea of providing power and water
supplies to remote areas.
09/02367 Distributed power generation: a case study of
small scale PV power plant in Greece
Bakos, G. C. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 17571766.
In recent years, energy systems have been undergoing a development
trend characterized by privatization of the most important energy
sectors (electricity and natural gas) that has turned former monopolies
into free-market competitors. Furthermore, community awareness of
environmental impact caused by large conventional power plants is
growing, together with a greater interest in distributed-generation
(DG) technologies based upon renewable energy sources (RES) and
cogeneration. In this context, renewable energy technologies are
emerging as potentially strong competitors for more widespread use.
Despite the remarkable progress attained over the past decades, RES
have not yet been fully integrated into the power sector. Some RES-
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 363
13 Alternative energy supplies (others, including economics)
technologies have already achieved a significant market share. The
industry is now quite mature, although far from having developed its
global potential. This paper deals with the current status of DG in
Greece and the presentation of a 60 kWp PV power station, developed
under Law 3468/06 Production of Electricity from Renewable Energy
Sources, High Efficiency Cogeneration of Heat and Power and Other
Devices. This application is the first DG installation with fixed PV
modules implemented in the country after the approval of Law 3468/06.
Cash flow economic analysis of the developed DG installation is
performed and the experiences related to the potential of DG in Greek
electricity market is presented and discussed.
09/02368 Energy system analysis of 100% renewable
energy systems the case of Denmark in years 2030 and
2050
Lund, H. and Mathiesen, B. V. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 524531.
This paper presents the methodology and results of the overall energy
system analysis of a 100% renewable energy system. The input for the
systems is the result of a project of the Danish Association of
Engineers, in which 1600 participants during more than 40 seminars
discussed and designed a model for the future energy system of
Denmark. The energy system analysis methodology includes hour by
hour computer simulations leading to the design of flexible energy
systems with the ability to balance the electricity supply and demand.
The results are detailed system designs and energy balances for two
energy target years: year 2050 with 100% renewable energy from
biomass and combinations of wind, wave and solar power; and year
2030 with 50% renewable energy, emphasizing the first important steps
on the way. The conclusion is that a 100% renewable energy supply
based on domestic resources is physically possible, and that the first
step towards 2030 is feasible to Danish society. However, Denmark will
have to consider to which degree the country shall rely mostly on
biomass resources, which will involve the reorganization of the present
use of farming areas, or mostly on wind power, which will involve a
large share of hydrogen or similar energy carriers leading to certain
inefficiencies in the system design.
09/02369 Exergy analysis of renewable energy-based
climatisation systems for buildings: a critical view
Tor o, H. et al. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (3), 248271.
Exergy is naturally related to the concept of quality of energy.
Therefore, exergy analysis has been widely applied in parallel with
energy analysis in order to find the most rational use of energy. Within
the built environment a wide margin for exergy saving may be found.
Actually, buildings require mostly low quality energy for thermal uses
at low temperatures and nowadays their energy demand is mainly
satisfied with high quality sources. Exergy analysis of renewable
energy-based climatization systems may be considered an emerging
field, where different and often contrasting approaches are followed.
Then, in this paper a comprehensive and critical view on the most
recent studies on this topic is presented. Special attention is paid to the
methodological aspects specifically related to climatization systems and
renewables, and to the comparison of the results. Main renewable
energy-based heating and cooling systems are considered in detail.
Finally, conclusions regarding the state of the art and possible trends
on this field are derived, with the aim to highlight future research
issues and promote further developments of this method. Furthermore,
conclusions regarding the usability of the exergy method as a tool to
promote a more efficient use of available energy sources are also
derived.
09/02370 Gauging the future competitiveness of renewable
energy in Colombia
Caspary, G. Energy Economics, 2009, 31, (3), 443449.
This article aims to assess the likely competitiveness of different forms
of renewable energy in Colombia over the next 25 years. To this end, it
compares the likely power production cost for a set of renewable
energy sources, and compares them to the likely long-run cost of
traditional energy. Costs from global and local externalities through the
use of traditional energy sources are also factored into the analysis.
The key conclusion of the article is that while solar PV will likely
remain uncompetitive under any future cost scenario, cost paths for
small hydro, modern biomass or geothermal are already close enough
to being competitive, so that appropriate government intervention may
make the decisive difference in making these technologies competitive
with conventional energy technologies.
09/02371 Geo-spatial multi-criteria analysis for wave
energy conversion system deployment
Nobre, A. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 97111.
The growing requirements for renewable energy production lead to the
development of a new series of systems, including wave energy
conversion systems. Due to their sensitivity and the impact of the
aggressive marine environment, the selection of the most adequate
location for these systems is a major and very important task. Several
factors, such as technological limitations, environmental conditions,
administrative and logistic conditions, have to be taken into account in
order to support the decision for best location. This paper describes a
geo-spatial multi-criteria analysis methodology, based on geographic
information systems technology, for identification of the best location
to deploy a wave energy farm. This methodology is not conversion
system dependent and therefore can be easily customized for different
systems and implementation conditions. Selection factors can include,
for example, ocean depth, sea bottom type, existing underwater cables,
marine protected areas, ports location, shoreline, power grid location,
military exercise areas, climatology of wave significant height, period
and power. A case study demonstrating this methodology is presented,
for an area offshore the Portuguese southwest coast. The system output
allows a clear differential identification of the best spots for
implementing a wave energy farm. It is not just a simple Boolean
result showing valid and invalid locations, but a layer with a valued
suitability for farm deployment.
09/02372 Hybrid renewable energy-fuel cell system: design
and performance evaluation
Leva, S. and Zaninelli, D. Electric Power Systems Research, 2009, 79,
(2), 316324.
The paper introduces hybrid photovoltaic-wind-diesel generation
systems supplying a remote power load considering the advantages of
sustainable energy from the economic point of view. In particular, a
cost investment valuation is performed on a real plant showing the
effect of sustainable economical saving. The possibility to introduce a
fuel cell generation device in a photovoltaic-wind existing plant for
supplying Telecommunication apparatus is also investigated and the
results are reported and discussed in the paper. Furthermore, starting
from measured data, a control system is realized in order to verify the
functionality of the plant.
09/02373 Hydropower planning coordinated with wind
power in areas with congestion problems for trading on the
spot and the regulating market
Matevosyan, J. et al. Electric Power Systems Research, 2009, 79, (1),
3948.
In this paper a day-ahead planning algorithm for a multi-reservoir
hydropower system coordinated with wind power is developed.
Coordination applies to real situations, where wind power and
hydropower are owned by different utilities, sharing the same
transmission lines, though hydropower has priority for transmission
capacity. Coordination is thus necessary to minimize wind energy
curtailments during congestion situations. The planning algorithm
accounts for the uncertainty of wind power forecasts and power market
price uncertainty. Planning for the spot market and the regulating
market is considered in the algorithm. The planning algorithm is
applied to a case study and the results are summarized in the paper.
09/02374 New directions in renewable energy education
Jennings, P. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (2), 435439.
The renewable energy industry is growing rapidly amidst rising
concerns about oil depletion and climate change. Renewable energy
is seen by many as part of the appropriate response to these concerns
and some national Governments have put programs in place to support
the wider use of sustainable energy systems. This has led to a rapid
increase in demand for renewable energy specialists who are able to
design, install and maintain such systems. Most engineers are not
trained to use these renewable energy technologies and most are not
aware of the principles of sustainability. There is therefore an urgent
need to develop and implement new courses that prepare engineers,
scientists and energy planners to work with renewables to produce
sustainable energy generation systems. Renewable energy education is
a relatively new field and previously it formed a minor part of
traditional engineering courses. These days it has an identity of its own,
with special techniques, standards and requirements which are not
normally encountered in other disciplines. Attempts to add one or two
units of study on renewables into traditional science and engineering
degrees are unlikely to produce graduates with sufficient knowledge or
understanding to use renewables effectively. Modern renewable energy
education includes a study of the technology, resources, systems design,
economics, industry structure and policies in an integrated package.
This prepares the graduates to design sound systems from amongst the
range of options available. There are more pitfalls in the use of
renewables than there are in using the more mature conventional
technologies and systems. Designers, installers and service personnel
need to be particularly aware of the industry and the characteristics of
the various firms and their technologies. Over the past decade several
new approaches have emerged to renewable energy education that seek
to address the needs of the 21st century for sustainable energy supply
systems. This paper will describe the aims, philosophy, structure and
outcomes of several of these initiatives. It includes courses in
renewable energy science, renewable energy engineering, renewable
364 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
13 Alternative energy supplies (others, including economics)
energy policy and planning and renewable energy technician training.
The paper will also describe some aspects of the training of researchers
in cooperation with the renewable energy industry.
09/02375 Opportunities and challenges for renewable
energy policy in China
Zhang, P. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(2), 439449.
Renewable energy is the inevitable choice for sustainable economic
growth, for the harmonious coexistence of human and environment as
well as for the sustainable development. Government support is the key
and initial power for developing renewable energy. In this article, an
overall review has been conducted on renewable energy development
policy (including laws and regulations, economic encouragement,
technical research and development, industrialized support and
government model projects, etc.) in China. On this basis, a systematic
analysis has been conducted on the disadvantages of renewable energy
development policy. On the point of long-term effective system for
renewable energy development, a series of policy advice has been
offered, such as strengthening the policy coordination, enhancing
regional policy innovation, echoing with clean development mechan-
ism, implementing process management, constructing market invest-
ment and financing system. It is expected that the above advices could
be helpful to ever-improvement of renewable energy development
policy.
09/02376 Organization of the current U.S. biopower
industry: a template for future bioenergy industries
Altman, I. and Johnson, T. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 779
784.
The development of biomass based industries face many challenges.
Technological and environmental questions are paramount. However,
the organization of developing biomass-based industries could be a key
non-technical barrier. Given that industrial organization is not the
focus of many research agendas, this article attempts to fill the void.
Biomass sources could be a low cost feedstock for energy production
such as cellulosic ethanol. This potential low cost hinges on effective
and efficient methods of exchange. One way to address the need to
understand the organization of future biomass based industries is to
examine current related industries such as the United States biopower
industry. This article first examines the broad industrial structure of the
current biopower industry by briefly discussing inputs, technology,
function and production trends. Then the discussion is narrowed to
focus on the type of organizational form used to procure or transfer
ownership of biomass materials in the current US biopower industry.
Based on survey evidence the current biopower industry is found to be
highly vertically integrated with little use of spot markets. This result is
found to be consistent across the type of biomass fuel used.
09/02377 Renewable portfolio standards and cost-effective
energy-efficiency investment
Mahone, A. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 774777.
Renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) and mandates to invest in cost-
effective energy efficiency (EE) are increasingly popular policy tools to
combat climate change and dependence on fossil fuels. These supply-
side and demand-side policies, however, are often uncoordinated.
Using California as a case in point, this paper demonstrates that states
could improve resource allocation if these two policies were coordi-
nated by incorporating renewable-energy procurement cost into the
cost-effectiveness determination for EE investment. In particular, if
renewable energy is relatively expensive when compared to conven-
tional energy, increasing the RPS target raises the cost-effective level
of EE investment.
09/02378 Short-term generation scheduling model of Fujian
hydro system
Wang, J. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (4), 10851094.
The Fujian hydropower system is one of the provincial hydropower
systems with the most complicated hydraulic topology in China. This
paper describes an optimization program that is required by Fujian
Electric Power Company Ltd. to aid the shift engineers in making
decisions with the short-term hydropower scheduling such that the
generation benefit can be maximal. The problem involves 27 reservoirs
and is formulated as a non-linear and discrete programming. It is a very
challenging task to solve such a large-scale problem. In this paper, the
Lagrangian multipliers are introduced to decompose the primal
problem into a hydro subproblem and many individual plant-based
subproblems, which are respectively solved by the improved simplex-
like method and the dynamic programming. A numerical example is
given and the derived solution is very close to the optimal one, with the
distance in benefit less than 0.004%. All the data needed for the
numerical example are presented in detail for further tests and studies
from more experts and researchers.
09/02379 Simulation based size optimization of a PV/wind
hybrid energy conversion system with battery storage under
various load and auxiliary energy conditions
Ekren, B. Y. and Ekren, O. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 13871394.
In this paper, size of a PV/wind integrated hybrid energy system with
battery storage is optimized under various loads and unit cost of
auxiliary energy sources. The optimization is completed by a simulation
based optimization procedure, OptQuest, which integrates various
heuristic methods. In the study, the main performance measure is the
hybrid energy system cost. And the design parameters are PV size,
wind turbine rotor swept area and the battery capacity. The case study
is realized for Izmir Institute of Technology Campus Area, Urla,
Turkey. The simulation model of the system is realized in ARENA
12.0, a commercial simulation software, and is optimized using the
OptQuest tool in this software. Consequently, the optimum sizes of PV,
wind turbine and battery capacity are obtained under various auxiliary
energy unit costs and two different loads. The optimum results are
confirmed using loss of load probability (LLP) and autonomy analysis.
And the investment costs are investigated how they are shared among
those four energy sources at the optimum points.
09/02380 Social demand for electricity from forest biomass
in Spain: does payment periodicity affect the willingness to
pay?
Solino, M. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (2), 531540.
In this article, social preferences for a partial substitution programme
of electricity generated by conventional energy sources is analysed, for
energy generated from a local renewable energy source, such as forest
biomass. This analysis sets arguments in favour of accelerating the
introduction of this renewable technology in the Spanish electricity
system. Simultaneously, two methodological goals concerning the
contingent valuation method are discussed. In the first one, it is
analysed to see if there are statistical differences in the willingness to
pay (WTP) when a single- or a double-bounded format is employed to
ask the valuation question. Results show that WTP estimates from
single- and double-bounded significantly differ. In the second one, the
effect of the periodicity of the payment vehicle on the estimates of
welfare change is analysed. The timeframe specification of the payment
vehicle has been scarcely studied, and this fact constitutes the main
contribution of this paper to the specialized literature. Results show
that periodicity influences upon the probability to favour the proposed
change. The periodicity does not affect to the mean WTP obtained in
the single-bounded format, but there are statistical differences in the
double-bounded format. These results might be explained by the
presence of yea saying and payment scale bias.
09/02381 Sustainability by combining nuclear, fossil, and
renewable energy sources
Forsberg, C. W. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51, (1), 192200.
The energy industries face two sustainability challenges: the need to
avoid climate change and the need to replace traditional crude oil as
the basis of transport systems. Radical changes in our energy system
will be required to meet these challenges. These challenges may
require tight coupling of different energy sources (nuclear, fossil, and
renewable) to produce liquid fuels for transportation, match electricity
production to electricity demand, and meet other energy needs. This
implies a paradigm shift in which different energy sources are
integrated together, rather than being considered separate entities
that compete. Several examples of combined-energy systems are
described. High-temperature nuclear heat may increase worldwide
light crude oil resources by an order of magnitude while reducing
greenhouse gas releases from the production of liquid fossil fuels.
Nuclearbiomass liquid-fuels production systems could potentially
meet world needs for liquid transport fuels. Nuclearhydrogen peak
power systems may enable renewable electricity sources to meet much
of the worlds electric demand by providing electricity when the wind
does not blow and the sun does not shine.
09/02382 Sustainable application of renewable sources in
water pumping systems: optimized energy system
configuration
Ramos, J. S. and Ramos, H. M. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (2), 633643.
Eighteen years ago, in Portugal, the expenses associated with the
energy consumption of a water supply system were quite low. However,
with the successive fuel crises and the increase of the energy tariff as
well as the water demand, energy consumption is becoming a larger
and a more important part of the total budget of water supply pumping
systems. In addition, new governmental policies, essentially in devel-
oped countries, are trying to implement renewable energies. For these
reasons, a case-study of a water pumping system in Portugal connected
to solar and wind energy sources was undertaken. A stand-alone and a
grid-connected systems were tested. The stand-alone system was
compared with the cost of extending the national electric grid. In the
grid-connected system two solutions were analysed, one with a water
turbine and another without. To be able to implement a water turbine,
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 365
13 Alternative energy supplies (others, including economics)
a larger water pump was needed to pump the necessary water as for
consumption as for energy production. For the case analysed the
system without a water turbine proved to be more cost-effective
because the energy tariff is not yet so competitive as well as the cost of
water turbines.
09/02383 The cost of water from an autonomous
wave-powered desalination plant
Folley, M. and Whittaker, T. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (1), 7581.
A techno-economic model of an autonomous wave-powered desalina-
tion plant is developed and indicates that fresh water can be produced
for as little as 0.45/m
3
. The advantages of an autonomous wave-
powered desalination plant are also discussed indicating that the real
value of the system is enhanced due to its flexibility for deployment and
reduced environmental impact. The modelled plant consists of the
Oyster wave energy converter, conventional reverse osmosis mem-
branes and a pressure exchangerintensifier for energy recovery. A
time-domain model of the plant is produced using wave-tank
experimentation to calibrate the model of Oyster, manufacturers data
for the model of the reverse osmosis membranes and a hydraulic model
of the pressure exchangerintensifier. The economic model of the plant
uses best-estimate cost data which are reduced to annualized costs to
facilitate the calculation of the cost of water. Finally, the barriers to the
deployment of this technology are discussed, but they are not
considered insurmountable.
09/02384 The vulnerability of renewable energy to climate
change in Brazil
de Lucena, A. F. P. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 879889.
Energy supply in Brazil relies heavily on renewable energy source. The
production of energy from renewable sources, however, greatly
depends on climatic conditions, which may be impacted in the future
due to global climate change (GCC). This paper analyses the
vulnerabilities of renewable energy production in Brazil for the cases
of hydropower generation and liquid biofuels production, given a set of
long-term climate projections for the A2 and B2 IPCC emission
scenarios. The most important result found in this study is the
increasing energy vulnerability of the poorest regions of Brazil to
GCC. Both biofuels production (particularly biodiesel) and electricity
generation (particularly hydropower) may negatively suffer from
changes in the climate of those regions. Other renewable energy
sources such as wind power generation may also be vulnerable,
raising the need for further research. However, the results found are
fundamentally dependent on the climate projections which, in turn, are
still highly uncertain with respect to the future evolution of greenhouse
gas emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and
GCC. Therefore, in such long-term scenario analyses, the trends and
directions derived are the ones to be emphasized rather than the
precise results one arrives.
14 FUEL SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Fundamental science, analysis,
instrumentation
09/02385 A GIS-based methodology for highlighting
fuelwood supply/demand imbalances at the local level:
a case study for Central Mexico
Ghilardi, A. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (67), 957972.
When fuelwood is harvested at a rate exceeding natural growth and
inefficient conversion technologies are used, negative environmental
and socio-economic impacts, such as fuelwood shortages, natural
forests degradation and net GHG emissions arise. In this study, the
authors argue that analysing fuelwood supply/demand spatial patterns
require multi-scale approaches to effectively bridge the gap between
national results with local situations. The proposed methodology is
expected to help (1) focusing resources and actions on local critical
situations, starting from nationwide analyses and (2) estimating, within
statistically robust confidence bounds, the proportion of non-renew-
able harvested fuelwood. Starting from a previous work, a county-based
fuelwood hot spot was selected in the Central Highlands of Mexico,
identified from a national wide assessment, and developed a grid-based
model in order to identify single localities that face concomitant
conditions of high fuelwood consumption and insufficient
fuelwood resources. By means of a multi-criteria analysis, 20 localities,
out of a total of 90, were identified as critical in terms of six indicators
related to fuelwood use and availability of fuelwood resources.
Fuelwood supply/demand balances varied among localities from
16.2 2.5 Gg y
1
to 4.4 2.6 Gg y
1
, while fractions of non-renewable
fuelwood varied from 0 to 96%. These results support the idea that
balances and non-renewable fuelwood fractions (mandatory inputs for
clean development mechanism cookstoves projects) must be calculated
on a locality by locality basis if gross under or over-estimations want to
be avoided in the final carbon accounting.
09/02386 A numerical simulation tool for predicting the
impact of outdoor thermal environment on building energy
performance
He, J. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 15961605.
A building affects its surrounding environment, and conversely its
indoor environment is influenced by its surroundings. In order to
obtain a more accurate prediction of the indoor thermal environment,
it is necessary to consider the interactions between the indoor and
outdoor thermal environments. However, there is still a lack of
numerical simulation tools available for predicting the interactions
between indoor and outdoor microclimate that take into account the
influences of outdoor spatial conditions (such as building forms and
tree shapes) and various urban surface materials. This present paper
presents a simulation tool for predicting the effect of outdoor thermal
environment on building thermal performance (heating/cooling loads,
indoor temperature) in an urban block consisting of several buildings,
trees, and other structures. The simulation tool is a 3D CAD-based
design tool, which makes it possible to reproduce the spatial forms of
buildings and constructed surface materials in detail. The outdoor
thermal environment is evaluated in terms of external surface
temperature and mean radiant temperature (MRT). Simulated results
of these temperatures can be visualized on a colour 3D display.
Building heating/cooling loads and indoor air temperature (internal
surface temperature) can also be simulated. In this study, a simulation
methodology is described, and a sensitivity analysis is conducted for a
wooden detached house under different outdoor conditions (building
coverage, adjacent building height, surrounding with trees or no-trees).
Simulation results show that the simulation tool developed in this study
is capable of quantifying the influences of outdoor configurations and
surface materials on both indoor and outdoor environments.
09/02387 A state machine approach in modelling the
heating process of a building
Pakanen, J. and Karjalainen, S. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (5),
528533.
Process models and their applications have gradually become an
integral part of the design, maintenance and automation of modern
buildings. The following state machine model outlines a new approach
in this area. The heating power described by the model is based on the
recent inputs as well as on the past inputs and outputs of the process,
thus also representing the states of the system. Identifying the model
means collecting, assorting and storing observations, but also effec-
tively utilizing their inherent relationships and nearest neighbours. The
last aspect enables to create a uniform set of data, which forms the
characteristic, dynamic behaviour of the HVAC process. The state
machine model is non-parametric and needs no sophisticated algorithm
for identification. It is therefore suitable for small microprocessor
devices equipped with a larger memory capacity. The first test runs,
performed in a simulated environment, were encouraging and showed
good prediction capability.
09/02388 A study on a scenario using the PID method
Lee, S. H. and Hwang, Y. S. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51, (2),
253257.
A scenario, a broad-brush description of a possible future evolution of
a system, can be specified in terms of a set of FEPs (features, events
and processes) and their interactions. KAERI has developed a scenario
using the PID (process influence diagram) method to reveal the
interactions between processes in detail. For the development of PID,
KAERI established a methodology of four principles based on the
KAERI RES (rock engineering system). According to the method-
ology, a model PID of a reference scenario is under development and
three sub-PIDs of a container corrosion, a mechanical stress change
and a radionuclide migration sub-scenario have been constructed.
Also, a main frame for a full PID has been integrated using two sub-
PIDs such as a container corrosion sub-scenario and a mechanical
stress change sub-scenario. After constructing the full PID of a
reference scenario, the other PIDs will be constructed in a similar
manner to the model PID. In addition, various reduced PIDs as well as
a full PID will be provided to meet a users requirements. Realization
of the scenario using RES and PID is expected to increase the
confidence and the transparency for a safety assessment of a high-
radioactive waste repository.
366 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
14 Fuel science and technology (fundamental science, analysis, instrumentation)
09/02389 An algorithm for calculating the optimal reference
temperature in buildings
Vrec ko, D. et al. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (2), 182189.
In this paper, an algorithm for calculating the reference temperature in
the rooms of a building is presented. The algorithm works in such a way
as to properly reduce the reference temperature in the rooms when
they are not occupied, and at the correct start time, before the rooms
are occupied, recover the reference temperature back to the defined
value. The algorithm is tested in six rooms of a simulated hotel building
using the well-known TRNSYS software. Different occupancy regimes
are considered in the various rooms, and simulations are performed for
a period of 1 year using the weather data of the town of Portoroz,
Slovenia. The results obtained with the proposed algorithm are
compared to the results achieved with a constant reference tempera-
ture setting. The comparison is made with regard to the energy
consumed for the heating and cooling of the rooms, and taking account
of the deviations from the allowed temperature rise time. In the rooms
where the occupancy is not known in advance similar results can be
obtained with the proposed algorithm as with the constant reference
setting. However, in the rooms where the occupancy is known in
advance, desired level of guest comfort can be preserved with the
proposed algorithm with an approximately 10% lower energy con-
sumption for the heating and cooling of the rooms than with the
constant reference recovery time setting.
09/02390 An entropy generation metric for non-energy
systems assessments
Sekulic, D. P. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 587592.
Processes in non-energy systems have not been as frequent a subject of
sustainability studies based on thermodynamics as have processes in
energy systems. This paper offers insight into thermodynamic thinking
devoted to selection of a sustainability energy-related metric based on
entropy balancing of a non-energy system. An underlying objective in
this sustainability-oriented study is product quality involving thermal
processing during manufacturing vs resource utilization (say, energy).
The product quality for the considered family of materials processing
for manufacturing is postulated as inherently controlled by the imposed
temperature non-uniformity margins. These temperature non-unifor-
mities can be converted into a thermodynamic metric which can be
related to either destruction of exergy of the available resource or, on a
more fundamental level of process quality, to entropy generation
inherent to the considered manufacturing system. Hence, a manufac-
turing system can be considered as if it were an energy system, although
in the later case the system objective would be quite different. In a non-
energy process, a metric may indicate the level of perfection of the
process (not necessarily energy efficiency) and may be related to the
sustainability footprint or, as advocated in this paper, it may be related
to product quality. Controlled atmosphere brazing of aluminium, a
state-of-the-art manufacturing process involving mass production of
compact heat exchangers for automotive, aerospace and process
industries, has been used as an example.
09/02391 An intelligent power factor corrector for power
system using artificial neural networks
Bayindir, R. et al. Electric Power Systems Research, 2009, 79, (1), 152
160.
An intelligent power factor correction approach based on artificial
neural networks (ANNs) is introduced. Four learning algorithms,
backpropagation, delta-bar-delta, extended delta-bar-delta and di-
rected random search, were used to train the ANNs. The best test
results obtained from the ANN compensators trained with the four
learning algorithms were first achieved. The parameters belonging to
each neural compensator obtained from an off-line training were then
inserted into a microcontroller for on-line usage. The results have
shown that the selected intelligent compensators developed in this
work might overcome the problems occurred in the literature providing
accurate, simple and low-cost solution for compensation.
09/02392 Analytical study of natural convection in high
Prandtl number
Nadim, N. and Domairry, G. Energy Conversion and Management,
2009, 50, (4), 10561061.
In the case of natural convection modelling, when the Boussinesq
assumption is used, coupled non-linear differential equations are
encountered. In this work, the authors have modelled natural heat
convection by implementing one of the newest analytical methods of
solving non-linear differential equations called homotopy analysis
method (HAM), this provides a vast freedom to choose the answer
type. An iterating analytical method was used in order that cope with
non-linearity. Also, some provisions were applied because of particular
difficulties that are caused by coupling problem. A new adapting
boundary condition is proposed in this work that is based on an initial
guess and then it is developed to the solution expression. HAM was
applied to the case study according to the physics of the target
problem.
09/02393 Capacitor placement and scheduling using
interactive bi-objective programming with valuable trade off
approach
Kuo, C.-C. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (4), 995
1003.
The interactive bi-objective programming with valuable trade off
(IBVT) approach to general capacitor placement and scheduling
problems is proposed. A novel simulated annealing-like, modified
particle swarm optimization is also presented and applied for better
solution quality. Two main contradictory concerns, which including
cost and quality properties, are considered for optimization. For
practical needs, the operating and expansion constraints of distribution
feeders are formulated. Also, both fixed and switched types of
capacitors are included. To demonstrate the effectiveness and
feasibility of the proposed method, comparative studies were con-
ducted on an actual feeder systematically. The experiment showed
encouraging results, suggesting that the proposed approach was
capable of efficiently determining higher quality solutions.
09/02394 Effect of linear and non-linear components in the
temperature dependences of thermoelectric properties on
the cooling performance
Yamashita, O. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 17461756.
The relative cooling of performance of c/c
0
for a thermoelectric (TE)
element was derived analytically by taking the linear and non-linear
components in the temperature (Tz) dependences of TE properties into
the thermal rate equations (TRE) on the assumption that all of the TE
properties are expressed by a quadratic function of Tz at a position z
along a TE element and the temperature profile along a TE element is
linear or non-linear, where c and c
0
are the coefficients of performance
(COP) derived from the new and conventional TRE, respectively. The
linear and non-linear components in the Tz-dependences of TE
properties were estimated experimentally for BiTe alloys. When a
TE element has a linear temperature profile, c/c
0
estimated using the
linear and/or non-linear components in the Tz-dependences of their TE
properties increases with an increase of T and reached great values of
1.31.6 at ZT=1 under the condition of T=300 K and T=80 K. As
a result, it was found that the linear component in the electrical
resistivity , and the non-linear one in the Seebeck coefficient c have a
significant effect on c/c
0
. When c/c
0
was estimated for a non-linear
temperature profile of a module fabricated using these BiTe alloys,
however, it was slightly lower than that obtained for a linear
temperature profile. The formulas obtained for c and c/c
0
are
applicable even for the practical TE coolers and refrigerators with a
strong non-linearity in the temperature profile.
09/02395 Energy and exergy analyses on a novel hybrid
solar heating, cooling and power generation system for
remote areas
Zhai, H. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 13951404.
In this study, a small scale hybrid solar heating, chilling and power
generation system, including parabolic trough solar collector with
cavity receiver, a helical screw expander and silica gelwater adsorption
chiller, etc., was proposed and extensively investigated. The system has
the merits of effecting the power generation cycle at lower temperature
level with solar energy more efficiently and can provide both thermal
energy and power for remote off-grid regions. A case study was carried
out to evaluate an annual energy and exergy efficiency of the system
under the climate of northwestern region of China. It is found that both
the main energy and exergy loss take place at the parabolic trough
collector, amount to 36.2% and 70.4%, respectively. Also found is that
the studied system can have a higher solar energy conversion efficiency
than the conventional solar thermal power generation system alone.
The energy efficiency can be increased to 58.0% from 10.2%, and the
exergy efficiency can be increased to 15.2% from 12.5%. Moreover, the
economical analysis in terms of cost and payback period (PP) has been
carried out. The study reveals that the proposed system the PP of the
proposed system is about 18 years under present energy price
conditions. The sensitivity analysis shows that if the interest rate
decreases to 3% or energy price increase by 50%, PP will be less than
10 years.
09/02396 Experimental investigation on liquidliquidgas
flow: flow patterns and pressure-gradient
Bannwart, A. C. et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering,
2009, 65, (12), 113.
The use of core-annular flow pattern, where a thin fluid surrounds a
viscous one, may be attractive to heavy oil transportation and as an
artificial lifting method in heavy oil wells, a situation that can become
frequent in the Brazilian offshore scenario. However, in petroleum
production operations gas is frequently present. Therefore, the study of
three-phase flow of heavy oil, water and gas is in order. This paper
reports pressure drop measurements and three-phase flow patterns
observed in horizontal and vertical 2.84-cm i.d. glass pipes. The focus
was a mixture of heavy crude oil (3400 mPa s, 970 kg/m
3
at 20
C), water
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 367
14 Fuel science and technology (fundamental science, analysis, instrumentation)
an air at several combinations of the individual flow rates. Three-phase
pressure drop data were compared with single-phase oil and two-phase
oil-gas flows to assess the gains due to water injection. In addition,
three-phase flow patterns formed inside vertical and slightly inclined
1.0 cm i.d. pipes are also presented. Thus, scale-up and inclination
effects could be qualitatively analysed. Full-scale onshore-field
experiments were conducted in order to investigate the applicability
of using water to transport heavy oil in actual lines in the presence of
gas. A big steel pipeline (7.7 cm i.d. and 274 m) conveying a very viscous
crude oil (36950 mPa s, 972.1 kg/m
3
at 20
F and 130
C with H
2
and air feeds at atmospheric
pressure.
09/02419 Static and dynamic modeling of a diesel fuel
processing unit for polymer electrolyte fuel cell supply
Chrenko, D. et al. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2009, 34,
(3), 13241335.
This article introduces the energetic macroscopic representation
(EMR) as approach for the dynamic modelling of a diesel fuel
processing unit. The EMR is the first step toward model-based control
structure development. The autothermal fuel processing system
containing: heat exchanger, reformer, desulfurization, water gas shift,
preferential oxidation and condensation is divided into a multitude
simple subblocks. Each subblock describes an elementary step of the
fuel conversion, several of these blocks may occur in a single module.
Calculations are carried out using two basic principles: mass and
energy balances. For model-based control development, it is imperative
that the model represents dynamic behaviour, therefore temperature
and pressure dynamics are taken into account in the model. It is shown
that the model is capable to predict the stationary behaviour of the
entire fuel processing unit correctly by comparison with given data.
Predictions regarding reformer heat up, temperature and pressure
dynamics are also provided.
09/02420 Static and dynamic modeling of solid oxide fuel
cell using genetic programming
Chakraborty, U. K. Energy, 2009, 34, (6), 740751.
Modelling of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems is a powerful
approach that can provide useful insights into the non-linear dynamics
of the system without the need for formulating complicated systems of
equations describing the electrochemical and thermal properties.
Several algorithmic approaches have in the past been reported for
the modelling of solid oxide fuel cell stacks. However, all of these
models have their limitations. This paper presents an efficient genetic
programming approach to SOFC modelling and simulation. This
method, belonging to the computational intelligence paradigm, is
shown to outperform the state-of-the-art radial basis function neural
network approach for SOFC modelling. Both static (fixed load) and
dynamic (load transient) analyses are provided. Statistical tests of
significance are used to validate the improvement in solution quality.
15 ENVIRONMENT
Pollution, health protection,
applications
09/02421 An energy performance assessment for indoor
environmental quality (IEQ) acceptance in air-conditioned
offices
Wong, L. T. and Mui, K. W. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009,
50, (5), 13621367.
Maintaining an acceptable indoor environmental quality (IEQ) for air-
conditioned office buildings consumes a considerable amount of
thermal energy. This study correlates thermal energy consumption
with the overall occupant acceptance of IEQ in some air-conditioned
offices. An empirical expression of an IEQ index associated with
thermal comfort, indoor air quality, aural and visual comfort is used to
benchmark the offices. Employing input parameters obtained from the
building stocks of Hong Kong, the office portfolios regarding the
thermal energy consumption and the IEQ index are determined by
Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, an energy-to-acceptance ratio
and an energy-to-IEQ improvement ratio are proposed to measure the
performance of energy consumption for the IEQ in the air-conditioned
offices. The ratios give the thermal energy consumption corresponding
to a desirable percentage of IEQ acceptances and to an IEQ upgrade,
respectively. The results showed a non-linear increasing trend of
annual thermal energy consumption for IEQ improvement at the
offices of higher IEQ benchmarks. The thermal energy consumption
for visual comfort and indoor air quality would also be significant in
these offices. This study provides useful information that incorporates
the IEQ in air-conditioned offices into the development of perform-
ance evaluation measures for thermal energy consumption.
09/02422 Assessment of post-Kyoto climate change
mitigation regimes impact on sustainable development
Streimikiene, D. and Girdzijauskas, S. Renewable and Sustainable
Energy Reviews, 2009, 13, (1), 129141.
This article analyses post-Kyoto climate change mitigation regimes and
their impact on sustainable development. Wide range of post-Kyoto
climate change mitigation architectures have different impact on
different groups of countries, therefore sustainability assessment is
performed for four main group of countries: EU and other Annex-I
countries, USA, advanced developing countries and least developed
countries. The post-Kyoto climate change mitigation regimes are
evaluated based on their economical, environmental, social and
political impact for different groups of countries. For the assessment
the scoring is applied. The architectures are further ranked according
to the best results or highest score obtained during assessment
according to all criteria and for all groups of countries.
09/02423 Comparative population dose risks from nuclear
fuel cycle closure and renewal of the commercial nuclear
energy alternative in the U.S.
Pennington, C. W. et al. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51, (2), 290
296.
The debate over a large expansion of commercial nuclear energy for
electricity production in the USA, termed a nuclear renaissance, has
most recently focused on the issues of spent nuclear fuel transportation
and the closing of the once-through nuclear fuel cycle through the
licensing, construction, and operation of the national spent nuclear fuel
repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. While such a commercial
nuclear energy expansion is postulated to have environmental, climate,
resource utilization, and economic benefits, the fundamental issue for
typical US citizens about nuclear energy concerns the potential for
exposure to ionizing radiation. Two generations of US citizens have
experienced public and media education that has heightened their
primal fears of ionizing radiation from commercial nuclear energy. In
such an environment, comparing the risks of radiation doses from
commercial nuclear energy fuel cycle closure and further nuclear
energy expansion with ionizing radiation population doses experienced
year after year, decade after decade from non-nuclear (conventional)
industries seems worthwhile for use in achieving stakeholder education
and concurrence. The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has
recently performed its own landmark risk assessment of spent fuel
transport in the USA, demonstrating the guiding principles and
methods for use in comparative risk assessments involving radiation
dose considerations. Using the NAS assessment approach, this paper
broadens its application to the full consideration of the risk of nuclear
fuel cycle closure and renewal of the commercial nuclear energy
alternative in the USA, to evaluate the ionizing radiation dose risks of
such expansion compared to those routinely accepted for non-nuclear
industries by policy makers and the public. The 50-year collective dose
risk from the total commercial nuclear fuel cycle, even if the US triples
its installed nuclear capacity, transports spent fuel to Yucca Mountain,
and operates the Yucca Mountain repository as planned, is shown to be
in the range of 3.1-million person-cSv; for five selected non-nuclear
industries, the corresponding 50-year collective dose risk exceeds
1 billion person-cSv, a more than 300 times greater risk. A key step
towards renewing the commercial nuclear energy alternative, then, is to
use this knowledge for education of various stakeholder parties.
09/02424 Comparative study of environmental strategies:
the case of Portuguese industries
Sarmento, M. and Durao, D. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 540546.
This paper aims at assessing some environmental strategies im-
plemented by the managers of potential polluting industries. Three
inquiries were answered by 150 large, medium, and small enterprises,
located all over Portugal, in 2001, 2003, and 2005. It was concluded that
companies are increasingly concerned with environmental issues, since
the mean values are x
m
=3.9 in 2001, x
m
=4.4 in 2003, and x
m
=4.4 in
2005, for a scale varying from 1 to 5. The companies are investing
increasingly in environmental processes since the mean values are
x
m
=2.7 in 2001, x
m
=3.7 in 2003, and x
m
=3.8 in 2005. As far as the
equipment is concerned, the mean values are x
m
=3.2 in 2001, x
m
=4.0
in 2003, and x
m
=4.3 in 2005.
09/02425 Consumers perceptions regarding tradeoffs
between food and fuel expenditures: a case study of U.S.
and Belgian fuel users
Skipper, D. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (67), 973987.
Biofuels have been suggested as a sustainable alternative to fossil-
based fuels, but when produced with inputs traditionally used as food
and feed grain, the production of biofuels has contributed to price
increases in the food sector. In the fall of 2006, a survey was
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 371
15 Environment (pollution, health protection, applications)
administered to compare consumer perceptions regarding the tradeoff
between renewable fuels and food in the USA (n =242) and Belgium
(n =363). Results show that respondents in both countries prefer lower
food prices to lower fuel prices (67.6% in the USA and 78.9% in
Belgium). A logit model was estimated to determine which variables
impacted whether a consumer favoured policies that lower fuel prices at
the cost of higher food prices. While the sample of Belgian respondents
appeared to realize that lower fuel prices eventually had to come at the
cost of higher food prices, the sample of US respondents felt domestic
agriculture could provide some low-cost, environmentally friendly
alternatives with little impact on food prices. Accessible public
transportation in Belgium acted as an important fuel saving strategy
in that country and led respondents to emphasize food price decreases
over fuel price decreases. Also, respondents with heightened awareness
towards the environment recognized that the expansion of renewable
fuels may need to come at the cost of higher food prices. These
attitudes were similar in both countries. Finally, in both countries older
respondents placed more importance on lower food prices than lower
fuel prices.
09/02426 Energy consumption pattern of a decentralized
community in northern Haryana
Devi, R. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13, (1),
194200.
A survey of household energy consumption pattern has been carried
out in a village, Bibipur, district Jind, Haryana, India, during 2004. The
households surveyed covered heterogeneous population belonging to
different income groups, education groups and social groups. Studies
were made on the total energy available, total energy required and
energy consumption in different sectors domestic, agricultural, trans-
port, rural industries and miscellaneous uses. The total energy
available from all the sources (animate, biomass/non-conventional
and inanimate sources) in the village is 468,205 MJ and the require-
ment for all the activities and from all the resources is 592,220 MJ.
There is a big gap between energy supply and demand for the village.
There is more availability of non-conventional energy resources as
compared to conventional energy resources and some resources are
unexploited. Therefore, to meet the balance of energy demand and
supply, non-conventional resources should be exploited. In domestic
sector, maximum energy is used in cooking (52.1%) and 45% of it is
supplied from non-conventional energy sources and 10% from
conventional energy sources. Calculations were made by considering
all the energy resources for average per capita energy consumption and
it was 20.02 MJ/day per capita. Electricity is used mainly for lighting
and power, while gas is preferred for cooking. In agricultural sector,
energy consumption for different activities was calculated and it was
found that maximum energy consumption is in irrigation (41.7%) and
minimum in transplanting. In agricultural sector, maximum energy
comes from conventional energy sources (about 60%) and from non-
conventional energy sources it is only about 30%. From the study, it
was found that maximum population having good economic conditions
like electricity very much as an energy source followed by LPG, biogas,
coal, firewood and agricultural residues.
09/02427 Environmental impacts of a lignocellulose
feedstock biorefinery system: an assessment
Uihlein, A. and Schebek, L. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (5), 739
802.
Biomass is a sustainable alternative to fossil energy carriers that are
used to produce fuels, electricity, chemicals, and other goods. At the
moment, the main biobased products are obtained by the conversion of
biomass to basic products like starch, oil, and cellulose. In addition,
some single chemicals and fuels are produced. Presently, concepts of
biorefineries which will produce a multitude of biomass-derived
products are discussed. Biorefineries are supposed to contribute to a
more sustainable resource supply and to a reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions. However, biobased products and fuels may also be
associated with environmental disadvantages due to, e.g. land use or
eutrophication of water. The authors performed a life-cycle assessment
of a lignocellulose feedstock biorefinery system and compared it to
conventional product alternatives. The biorefinery was found to have
the greatest environmental impacts in the three categories: fossil fuel
use, respiratory effects, and carcinogenics. The environmental impacts
predominantly result from the provision of hydrochloric acid and to a
smaller extent also from the provision of process heat. As the final
configuration of the biorefinery cannot be determined yet, various
variants of the biorefinery system were analysed. The optimum variant
(acid and heat recoveries) yields better results than the fossil
alternatives, with the total environmental impacts being approximately
41% lower than those of the fossil counterparts. For most biorefinery
variants analysed, the environmental performance in some impact
categories is better than that of the fossil counterparts while
disadvantages can be seen in other categories.
09/02428 Identifying potential environmental impacts of
large-scale deployment of dedicated bioenergy crops in
the UK
Rowe, R. L. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009, 13,
(1), 271290.
This review assesses the evidence base for potential impacts of large-
scale bioenergy crop deployment principally within the UK context, but
with wider implications for Europe, the USA and elsewhere. The
authors focus on second generation, dedicated lignocellulosic crops,
but where appropriate draw comparison with current first-generation
oil and starch crops, often primarily grown for food. For lignocellulosic
crops, positive effects on soil properties, biodiversity, energy balance,
greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, carbon footprint and visual impact
are likely, when growth is compared to arable crops. Compared to
replacement of set-aside and permanent unimproved grassland,
benefits are less apparent. For hydrology, strict guidelines on
catchment management must be enforced to ensure detrimental effects
do not occur to hydrological resources. The threat of climate change
suggests that action will be required to ensure new genotypes are
available with high water use efficiency and that catchment-scale
management is in place to secure these resources in future. In general,
for environmental impacts, less is known about the consequences of
large-scale deployment of the C4 grass Miscanthus, compared to short
rotation coppice (SRC) willow and poplar, including effects on
biodiversity and hydrology and this requires further research. Detailed
consideration of GHG mitigation and energy balance for both crop
growth and utilization suggest that perennial crops are favoured over
annual crops, where energy balances may be poor. Similarly, crops for
heat and power generation, especially combined heat and power
(CHP), are favoured over the production of liquid biofuels. However, it
is recognized that in contrast to heat and power, few alternatives exist
for liquid transportation fuels at present and research to improve the
efficiency and energy balance of liquid transport fuel production from
lignocellulosic sources is a high current priority. Although SRC, and to
a lesser extent energy grasses such as Miscanthus, may offer significant
benefits for the environment, this potential will only be realized if
landscape-scale issues are effectively managed and the whole chain of
crop growth and utilization is placed within a regulatory framework
where sustainability is a central driver. Land resource in the UK and
throughout Europe will limit the contribution that crops can make to
biofuel and other renewable targets, providing a strong driver to
consider sustainability in a global context.
09/02429 Indoor environmental quality in Hellenic hospital
operating rooms
Dascalaki, E. G. et al. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (5), 551560.
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in hospital operating rooms (ORs)
constitutes a major challenge for the proper design and operation of an
energy efficient hospital. A subjective assessment of the indoor
environment along with a short monitoring campaign was performed
during the audits of 18 ORs at nine major Hellenic hospitals. A total of
557 medical personnel participated in an occupational survey, provid-
ing data for a subjective assessment of IEQ in the audited ORs. The
OR personnel reported work related health symptoms and an
assessment of indoor conditions (thermal, visual and acoustical
comfort, and air quality). Overall, personnel reported an average of
2.24 work-related symptoms each, and 67.2% of respondents reported
at least one. Women suffer more health symptoms than men. Special
dispositions, such as smoking and allergies, increase the number of
reported symptoms for male and female personnel. Personnel that
perceive satisfactory indoor comfort conditions (temperature, humid-
ity, ventilation, light, and noise) average 1.18 symptoms per person,
while for satisfactory indoor air quality the average complaints are 0.99.
The perception of satisfactory IEQ (satisfactory comfort conditions
and air quality) reduces the average number of health complaints to
0.64 symptoms per person and improves working conditions, even in a
demanding OR environment.
09/02430 Investigation on the feasibility and enhancement
methods of wind power utilization in high-rise buildings of
Hong Kong
Lu, L. and Ip, K. Y. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009,
13, (2), 450461.
This paper reports the investigation results of wind power application
in buildings. It is found that the concentration effect of buildings and
the heights of buildings could enhance wind power utilization by
increasing the wind speed by 1.52 and wind power density by 38
under the given simulation conditions. The wind aerodynamics and
wind flows over the buildings are investigated based on local
meteorological data and local high-rise building characteristics. This
paper concludes that wind power utilization in high-rise buildings in
Hong Kong is feasible theoretically, and some effective enhancement
methods are proposed based on the simulation results, such as making
full use of the heights of buildings and the concentration effect of
buildings, and choosing optimal shape of building roof. However, to
372 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
15 Environment (pollution, health protection, applications)
receive the highest potential wind energy resource and avoid turbulent
areas, the tool of computational fluid dynamics has to be used to model
the annual wind flows over buildings to help analyse, locate, and design
wind turbines in and around buildings.
09/02431 Lack of international consensus on the
disposition and storage of disused sealed sources
Streeper, C. et al. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2009, 51, (2), 258267.
Radioactive sealed sources are found in almost every country in the
world because of their beneficial medical and commercial or industrial
applications. Some of the isotopes used have short half-lives iridium-
192 (Ir-192), 73.8 days while others have very long half-lives
americium-241 (Am-241), 432 years or plutonium-239 (Pu-239),
24,130 years. It is important, particularly for longer lived isotopes, to
find final disposition pathways. Lack of a permanent disposition
pathway such as recycling or irretrievable disposal creates numerous
problems, including the potential loss of regulatory control, which
increases the risk of inadvertent or deliberate misuse of the material.
The misuse of radioactive materials has the potential for substantial
public health and economic damage. Disused sources also pose an
inherent risk to the end-users from a liability, safety, and public health
perspectives. This paper examines various disposition pathways
employed by several key source manufacturing or possessing nation-
states for disused sources. Examples of source disposition pathways
include long-term storage, deep geological disposal, borehole disposal
and shallow land burial. The Off-Site Source Recovery Project
(OSRP), part of the office of Global Threat Reduction Initiative
(GTRI), acts as an intermediary in the recovery and ultimate
disposition of US origin sealed radiological materials. Several concepts
that could help mitigate the challenge of a lack of long-term disposition
options for sources are available, but these tools have not yet been
applied by most nation-states. For example, regional consolidation and
repatriation of sources to the country of manufacture would ease or
eliminate the need for in situ disposal or storage in a number of
developing nation-states.
09/02432 Land use and carbon mitigation in Europe:
a survey of the potentials of different alternatives
Ovando, P. and Caparros, A. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 9921003.
This paper considers studies that analyse carbon emission mitigation
alternatives involving the use of land within Europe. The aims are to
approximate the aggregate amount of carbon offsets that can be
achieved through these alternatives, such as land-use changes, forest
management and bioenergy production, and to show to what extent the
results of the different studies are compatible and take into account the
fact that land is a finite resource. Finally, based on the surveyed
studies, the authors estimate the potential contribution of these
alternatives to the goals of emission reduction proposed by the
European Union for the years 2020 and 2050. Taking into account
the results of the different studies analysed in this survey, land-based
alternatives can contribute from 13% to 52% of the European
proposed target by 2020. The implementation of these alternatives
would concurrently require from 8% to 30% of EU-25 agricultural land
to be afforested or diverted to bioenergy crops in this period.
09/02433 Modulating societal acceptance in new energy
projects: towards a toolkit methodology for project
managers
Raven, R. P. J. M. et al. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 564574.
This paper considers the results of the Create Acceptance project. In a
comparative analysis of 27 case studies on new energy projects, five
crucial challenges were identified for project managers of new energy
projects related to societal acceptance. A six-step methodology was
discussed for facilitating societal acceptance in new and ongoing energy
projects. The methodology was tested and refined in five demon-
stration projects in Europe to test its usability. The experiences with
the methodology were positive, but several issues were identified for
further improvement.
09/02434 Prediction of yearly energy requirements of
indoor ice rinks
Seghouani, L. et al. Energy and Buildings, 2009, 41, (5), 500511.
A model of the transient heat transfer between the ground under and
around the foundations of an indoor ice rink and the brine circulating
in pipes embedded in the concrete slab under the ice has been coupled
with a previously developed model calculating heat fluxes towards the
ice by convection, radiation and phase changes. Subroutines calculating
the energy consumption for heating and humidifying (or cooling and
reheating) the ventilation air have also been added to the model. The
resulting simulation tool has been used to calculate monthly
refrigeration loads and energy consumption by the ventilation system,
the lights, the brine pump, the radiant heating system of the stands and
the underground electric heating used to prevent freezing and heaving
for four North American cities with very different climates. Corre-
lations expressing the energy consumption of the ventilation air stream
in terms of the sol-air temperature are formulated.
09/02435 Representations of environmental concerns in
costbenefit analyses of solid waste recycling
Pickin, J. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2008, 53, (12), 7985.
The value of costbenefit analysis (CBA) as a decision tool in the area
of solid waste recycling is examined, centring on a review of how 37
effect-by-effect English language studies attempt to encapsulate the
associated environmental issues. In this study, the author identifies five
critical areas where CBAs are often inconsistent with each other, with
popular views of recycling, or with other areas of policy. These are: the
types of environmental impact and their valuation; the relevance of
upstream externalities; whether there is a scarcity externality; the
economic significance of householder efforts; and the need to drive
towards long-term sustainability through eco-restructuring. Rather
than the hard rationality it seems to promise, the author concludes that
CBA with environmental externality measurement and valuation has
diverted debate from the public arena into technical complexities that
are the preserve of experts, allowing space for analysts ideological
inclinations to be manifest and for commissioning agencies to procure
results that suit their interests. The author argues that the best CBAs
are those with multiple levels of information, disaggregated environ-
mental data, range values, sensitivity analysis, itemization of excluded
or unvalued elements, and, to the extent affordable, valuation by
multiple methods. Expressed preference methods may produce
valuations that accord with economic theory and are also more in
tune with popular opinion.
09/02436 Social, economical and environmental impacts of
renewable energy systems
Akella, A. K. et al. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34, (2), 390396.
Conventional energy sources based on oil, coal, and natural gas have
proven to be highly effective drivers of economic progress, but at the
same time damaging to the environment and to human health. Keeping
in mind, the social, economical and environmental effects of renewable
energy system have been discussed in this paper. The uses of renewable
energy system, instead of, conventional energy system, to control social,
economical and environmental problems have been discussed. The
results show that the trends of total emission reduction in different
years, which is exponentially increasing after the installation of
renewable energy system in remote areas.
09/02437 The relationship between income and
environment in Turkey: is there an environmental Kuznets
curve?
Akbostanci, E. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 861867.
This study investigates the relationship between income and environ-
mental quality for Turkey at two levels. First, the relationship between
the CO
2
emissions and per capita income is examined by the help of a
time series model using cointegration techniques. In the second stage,
the relationship between income and air pollution is investigated by
using PM
10
and SO
2
measurements in Turkish provinces. In this part of
the study panel data estimation techniques are utilized. The time series
model covers 19682003, and the panel data model covers 19922001
including observations from 58 provinces. A monotonically increasing
relationship between CO
2
and income is found in the long-run
according to time series analysis. On the other hand, panel data
analysis indicates an N-shape relationship for SO
2
and PM
10
emissions.
Therefore, the results of the time series and panel data analyses do not
support the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, which assumes
an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental degradation
and income.
09/02438 The relative importance of social and institutional
conditions in the planning of wind power projects
Agterbosch, S. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009,
13, (2), 393405.
Governments around the world try to stimulate the development and
use of renewable energy technologies, like wind energy. While wind
turbines are increasingly being implemented, however, a lack of social
acceptance at the local level remains an important challenge for
developers of wind power plants. This article aims to explore the
relative importance of social and institutional conditions and their
interdependencies in the operational process of planning wind power
schemes. The article not only focuses on how negative local social
conditions can frustrate public policy (cf. NIMBY syndrome), but also
on how positive local social conditions can compensate for a negative
public policy framework. The authors analysed the cases of implement-
ing wind power of two actors (the regional energy distributor and small
private investors) in the municipality of Zeewolde, the Netherlands.
Both cases illustrate that the formal institutional framework (formal
rules, procedures and instruments) is neutral in a certain sense. Social
conditions management styles, interests and informal contacts put
Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009 373
15 Environment (pollution, health protection, applications)
meaning in this framework. The way stakeholders deal with the
prevailing institutional structure clarifies social acceptance and there-
with implementation.
CO
2
, NO
x
, SO
2
and particulate
emissions
09/02439 Accounting for energy-related CO
2
emission in
China, 19912006
Zhang, M. et al. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 767773.
As the country with the second largest emitter of energy-related CO
2
gas, China experienced a dramatic decline in CO
2
emission intensity
from 1991 to 2000, but since then the rate of decline slowed and CO
2
emission intensity actually increased in 2003. In this paper, the
complete decomposition method developed by Sun is used to analyse
the nature of the factors that influence the changes in energy-related
CO
2
emission and CO
2
emission intensity during the period 19912006.
The authors found that: (1) energy intensity effect is confirmed as the
dominant contributor to the decline in CO
2
emission and CO
2
emission
intensity, (2) economic activity effect is the most important contributor
to increased CO
2
emission, and (3) economic structure and CO
2
emission coefficient effects are found to contribute little to the changes
in CO
2
emission and CO
2
emission intensity, which actually increased
CO
2
emission and CO
2
emission intensity over the period 19912006
except for several years.
09/02440 An econometric study of CO
2
emissions, energy
consumption, income and foreign trade in Turkey
Halicioglu, F. Energy Policy, 2009, 37, (3), 11561164.
This study attempts to empirically examine the dynamic causal
relationships between carbon emissions, energy consumption, income,
and foreign trade in the case of Turkey using the time-series data for
the period 19602005. This research tests the interrelationship between
the variables using the bounds testing to cointegration procedure. The
bounds test results indicate that there exist two forms of long-run
relationships between the variables. In the case of first form of long-
run relationship, carbon emissions are determined by energy consump-
tion, income and foreign trade. In the case of second long-run
relationship, income is determined by carbon emissions, energy
consumption and foreign trade. An augmented form of Granger
causality analysis is conducted amongst the variables. The long-run
relationship of CO
2
emissions, energy consumption, income and
foreign trade equation is also checked for the parameter stability.
The empirical results suggest that income is the most significant
variable in explaining the carbon emissions in Turkey which is followed
by energy consumption and foreign trade. Moreover, there exists a
stable carbon emissions function. The results also provide important
policy recommendations.
09/02441 Assessing the effect of mass transfer on the
formation of HC and CO emissions in HCCI engines, using a
multi-zone model
Komninos, N. P. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (5),
11921201.
The focus of the present study is to assess the effect of mass transfer on
the formation of unburned HC and CO emissions in HCCI engines. A
multi-zone model was modified and used for this purpose. The new
feature of the multi-zone model is its ability to switch between two
distinct simulation modes, i.e. either including or excluding mass
transfer between zones. The switch between modes occurs at a user-
defined point in the engine closed cycle. Apart from mass transfer, the
two modes use identical sub-models for the heat transfer between
zones and to the cylinder wall and for combustion simulation, which is
modelled using a reduced set of chemical reactions coupled with a
chemical kinetics solver. Using the modified multi-zone model, four
cases were simulated and compared: one including mass transfer
throughout the closed cycle, and three cases whereby mass transfer is
neglected after the initiation of the first or second heat release or after
the completion of main heat release. The simulation results reveal that
mass transfer affects the HC and CO accumulated at the colder regions
during combustion and governs the HC partial oxidation and CO
production during expansion. For the operating conditions studied,
neglecting mass transfer during combustion results to an under-
prediction of HC by as much as 50% and of CO by 45% relative to
the case where mass transfer is considered for. Omitting mass transfer
only during expansion, results in an overestimation of HC by 9% and in
an underestimation of CO by 26%.
09/02442 Control of NO emission during coal reburning
Luan, T. et al. Applied Energy, 2009, 86, (9), 17831787.
In this study, two types of coals were used as the reburning fuel to
investigate the influence of the reburning zone stoichiometry SR
2
, the
primary NO level and the particle size on NO reduction. For both
coals, the NO reduction can reach as high as 6070% in the tested SR
2
range of 0.71.1. No optimum reburning zone stoichiometry was
observed in this study. The NO reduction decreases monotonically with
the decrease of reburning zone stoichiometry. The effect of particle
size is only obvious for larger particle sizes.
09/02443 Experimental research on catalytic
decomposition of nitrous oxide on supported catalysts
Wang, Y. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (5),
13041307.
A series of NiCo catalysts were prepared in this study. Experimental
results showed that supported NiCo catalyst had the ability of
decomposition of N
2
O, and its activity was increased with increasing
content of the catalytic components on the support. Study indicated
that a little addition of platinum catalytic component to the NiCo
catalyst would benefit on improving its activity, and it was obvious
under lower reaction temperature. Experimental results showed that
the PtNiCo catalyst had good stability. XRD, SEM, TG and ICP
characterization also showed that the prepared catalyst had a good
stable structure before and after reaction.
09/02444 Greenhouse gas emissions assessment of
hydrogen and kerosene-fueled aircraft propulsion
Nojoumi, H. et al. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2009, 34,
(3), 13631369.
The paper highlights the importance of hydrogen as a promising
alternative for future aircraft fuel, with respect to reduced environ-
mental impact, increased sustainability, high energy content and
favourable combustion kinetics, since the rapid growth and depen-
dence of aircraft propulsion on fossil fuels are unsustainable. This
paper compares the environmental impact of hydrogen and kerosene-
fuelled aircraft, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and other
emission comparisons. Sample flights from Toronto to Montreal, and
Calgary to London are examined. Emissions from a conventional
aircraft are estimated and compared with the LH
2
(liquid hydrogen)
aircraft. The environmental benefits and drawbacks of these systems
are presented from safety and storage perspectives. Radiative forcing
factors that compare conventional aircraft and LH
2
aircraft are
included. It is shown that the amount of NO
x
, HC and CO emissions
for the trips with conventional aircraft for Calgary is 171.4, 41.9 and
32.2 kg, while Montreal is 56.17, 2.43 and 21.9 kg, and London is 251.7,
5.1 and 39.2 kg, respectively. These results are compared against
hydrogen propulsion to show the promising capabilities of hydrogen as
an aircraft fuel.
09/02445 Modified CaO-based sorbent looping cycle for
CO
2
mitigation
Li, Y. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (4), 697704.
CaO-based sorbent looping cycle, i.e. cyclic calcination/carbonation, is
one of the most interesting technologies for CO
2
capture during coal
combustion and gasification processes. In order to improve the
durability of limestone during the multiple calcination/carbonation
cycles, modified limestone with acetic acid solution was proposed as an
CO
2
sorbent. The cyclic carbonation conversions of modified limestone
and original one were investigated in a twin fixed bed reactor system.
The modified limestone shows the optimum carbonation conversion at
the carbonation temperature of 650
C to 1100
C, and negligible
hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur contents.
09/02503 Integrated waste-to-energy conversion and waste
transportation within island communities
Zsigraiova, Z. et al. Energy, 2009, 34, (5), 623635.
Usually in islands both primary energy sources and drinking water are
missing. Additionally, municipal solid waste (MSW) must be managed
avoiding exclusive use of landfills, which limits sustainable develop-
ment. Power generation from MSW incineration contributes signifi-
cantly to replacing energy produced from fossil fuels and to reduce
overall emissions. A solution based on thermodynamics, environmental
and economic analyses and 3D-GIS modelling for the afore-mentioned
problems for Cape Verde is proposed. This model integrates waste
transportation optimization and incineration with energy recovery
combining production of heat and power (CHP), the heat being used
for drinking water production. The results show that extraction
condensing steam turbines are more suitable when power production
is a priority (5.0 MW with 4000 m
3
/d of drinking water), whereas back-
pressure turbines yield 55406650 m
3
/d of drinking water with an
additional power production of 3.34.7 MW. The environmental and
economic assessment performed shows the feasibility of the proposed
CHP solution, which brings a considerable reduction in net air
emissions (1.6 kt), including a significant decrease in the greenhouse
gas emissions (131 ktCO
2
), and that the revenue from energy sales
(e15 million) has potential to balance the incineration cost. Moreover,
when terrain relief is accounted for in the route optimization for
minimum fuel consumption, savings up to 11% are obtained.
09/02504 Lactic acid recovery from fermentation broth of
kitchen garbage by esterification and hydrolysis method
Zhao, W. et al. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2009, 33, (1), 2125.
Kitchen garbage was utilized to produce lactic acid (LA) to reduce the
corresponding cost. The whole process for pure LA production
involved fermentation, esterification and hydrolysis. Kitchen garbage
could produce 47.9 g L
1
LA with pH adjusted with ammonia to 67.
Then the fermentation broth was concentrated by water evaporation,
the ammonium lactate inside was esterified with the butanol to produce
butyl lactate. Proper catalyst was studied to improve esterification rate,
a cation-exchange resin modified by FeCl
3
as a catalyst was proved to
be effective. The esterification yield of ammonium lactate (NH
4
LA)
could reach 96%. Pure LA was hydrolysed from the obtained butyl
lactate in presence of a cation-exchange resin in the H
+
form as a
catalyst. The catalyst for hydrolysis could be regenerated and reused to
save the cost. LA production from the kitchen garbage could not only
save cost, but also solve the pollution problems of kitchen garbage.
09/02505 Parametric optimization and comparative study of
organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for low grade waste heat
recovery
Dai, Y. et al. Energy Conversion and Management, 2009, 50, (3), 576
582.
Organic Rankine cycles (ORC) for low-grade waste heat recovery are
described with different working fluids. The effects of the thermodyn-
amic parameters on the ORC performance are examined, and the
thermodynamic parameters of the ORC for each working fluid are
optimized with exergy efficiency as an objective function by means of
the genetic algorithm. The optimum performance of cycles with
different working fluids was compared and analysed under the same
waste heat condition. The results show that the cycles with organic
working fluids are much better than the cycle with water in converting
low grade waste heat to useful work. The cycle with R236EA has the
highest exergy efficiency, and adding an internal heat exchanger into
the ORC system could not improve the performance under the given
waste heat condition. In addition, for the working fluids with non-
positive saturation vapour curve slope, the cycle has the best
performance property with saturated vapour at the turbine inlet.
09/02506 Performance and combustion characteristics of a
DI diesel engine fueled with waste palm oil and canola oil
methyl esters
Ozsezen, A. N. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (4), 629630.
This study discusses the performance and combustion characteristics of
a direct injection diesel engine fuelled with biodiesels such as waste
(frying) palm oil methyl ester (WPOME) and canola oil methyl ester
(COME). In order to determine the performance and combustion
characteristics, the experiments were conducted at the constant engine
speed mode (1500 rpm) under the full load condition of the engine.
The results indicated that when the test engine was fuelled with
382 Fuel and Energy Abstracts September 2009
17 Energy conversion and recycling
WPOME or COME, the engine performance slightly weakened; the
combustion characteristics slightly changed when compared to pet-
roleum based diesel fuel. The biodiesels caused reductions in carbon
monoxide, unburned hydrocarbon emissions and smoke opacity, but
they caused to increases in nitrogen oxides (NO
x
) emissions.
09/02507 Pyrolysis kinetics and combustion
characteristics of waste recovered fuels
Grammelis, P. et al. Fuel, 2009, 88, (1), 195205.
Alternative fuels, such as biomass and refuse-derived fuels tend to play
an increasingly important role in the European energy industry. Co-
firing fuels derived from non-hazardous waste streams have the
potential of covering a significant part of the future demand on co-
incineration capacities, which is expected to increase due to the
implementation of the 2000/76 EC landfill directive. However, their
combustion behaviour has not yet been fully investigated, because of
the difficulty to define representative fuel characteristics simulating
accurately all the fuel fractions. In the present study, refuse-derived
fuel behaviour was investigated by thermogravimetry under pyrolysis
and combustion conditions. A non-isothermal thermogravimetric
analyser (TA Q600) operated at ambient pressure was used for both
the pyrolysis and combustion experiments. The devolatilization of the
waste samples was investigated at a temperature range of 301000
C
with the constant heating rate of 20
C to 10
C.
When the nozzle throat diameter is increased, the minimum boiler
temperature decreases. A primary nozzle with a 3.5 mm throat diameter
was tested at a boiler temperature of T
b
=95
C, an evaporator
temperature of T
e
=10