Begell House Inc.
International Journal of Energy for a Clean Environment
IJECE
2150-3621
9
1-3
2008
Preface
i-ii
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.20
Mark Y.
Khinkis
Gas Technology Institute, 1700 S. Mount Prospect Rd., Des Plaines, IL,
60018 USA
Yaroslav
Chudnovsky
GTI Energy, Des Plaines, IL 60018
This volume, the reader is holding in his hands or reading via online journal access is a diversified collection of the papers presented by a number of internationally distinguished academic scholars and talented industrial researchers. Every paper represents an independent effort of a single author or a team, however, all of them are about securing our energy future and making our planet "cleaner and greener".
Technology developers lately turned into employing the oxygen or oxygen enhancement techniques for significant improvement of the energy conversion processes. It is known that employing oxygen provides a lot of energy saving and environmental benefits for industrial processes. Innovative "Zero Emission Technologies" studied by Gorski and Yantovsky could deliver a viable alternative for increasing energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions.
An interesting topic is presented by Nosach and Shraiber in the series of three subsequent papers — thermochemical reforming of natural gas in the flow of combustion products for power generation. The proposed schemes allow significant improvement of the variety of power plants efficiency and GHG emission reduction.
New combustion systems and burners development attract many scientists and engineers all over the world to more efficient and cleaner burning of fossil fuels. In that increasing effort the research community nowadays focuses on innovative combustion concepts and techniques, new materials development and use, as well as post-combustion controls of GHG emissions mitigation. The numerical and experimental works presented by Viskanta and Alterdorfner et al. are devoted to inert porous media for advanced combustion devices. Soroka presented an extensive development work on a flat-flame burner for industrial applications, while Borissov and Shtern discussed the specific details of the advanced vortex combustor.
World industry starts actively implementing innovative approaches to using the opportunity fuels such as hot exhaust from a variety of industrial processes, syngas from the solid fuels gasification, as well as biomass fuels such as agricultural residues. Carvalho et al. discuss the main challenges in small-scale combustion of agricultural biomass fuels in the countries of the European Union. An unique method of advanced indirect evaporative cooling is discussed by Gillan. The method was extensively and independently studied by a number of international research organizations concluding significant reduction in electric demands for a wide spectrum of cooling applications. Air conditioners recently manufactured based on this method do not use any refrigerants and reduce energy consumption as opposed to traditional refrigerant-based vapor compression systems.
Several papers of this volume discuss and review numerical, experimental and field test methodology (C.Salvador et al., I Fedchenia et al., G. Scheffknecht) — all are very important for the research performance and results analysis in the energy conservation and GHG emission mitigation area.
We would like to thank all the authors for their valuable contribution to this issue.
ZERO EMISSION ION TRANSPORT MEMBRANE OXYGEN POWER
1-11
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.10
Evgeny
Yantovsky
Jan
Gorski
Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Sciences and Technology, Krakow, Poland
Clean energy; Combined CO2 cycles; Energy supply systems
The reduction of greenhouse gases (to which CO2 contributes over 60%) to stop global warming is now a major priority for governments around the world. One approach, described in this paper, concerns the "clean energy" or "zero emission" technologies. An original concept of a semiclosed ZEITMOP cycle (zero emission ion transport membrane oxygen power) is being developed. It can be compared to other research initiatives such clean energy systems and zero emission natural gas as a response to the well-recognized challenges. As an answer to the crucial question of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, we propose new zero emission fuel-fired power plants and boiler houses ("ZEITMOP boiler and air cooler" and "zero emission membrane smokeless heating"). Zero emission cogeneration of power and heat allows such plants to be located in densely populated areas close to the consumer.
NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF COMBUSTION IN OPEN-CELL MATERIALS FOR POROUS BURNERS
13-38
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.30
Raymond
Viskanta
Heat Transfer Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA
Porous inert materials; Modeling; ePorous burners; Combustion devices; Pollutant emissions
Inert porous media are used in advanced combustion devices that are essential to a variety of energy technologies in order to enable the maximum possible power density and power conversion efficiency needed for economic competitiveness and energy conservation with reduction in pollutant emissions. In these and other applications, the desirable characteristics of porous media are used to influence the relevant fluid dynamic, thermal, and chemical processes by varying the geometrical and/or physical properties of the porous matrix. In this manner, the flow, the temperature, and the distribution of species concentrations may be controlled. After a brief consideration of the models, the two-energy equation (i.e., local thermal nonequilibrium) model is discussed, and the transport coefficients needed for implementing the model equations to predict premixed combustion in high-porosity (open-cell) porous media are briefly reviewed. Despite the fact that some of the fundamental processes taking place in the inert porous media are still not well understood and properties not well known, considerable progress has been in made numerical modeling of combustion in porous burners, burner/radiant heaters, and burners/heat exchangers. Further development of more accurate models and their use in the preliminary design/optimization of porous materials-based combustion devices is encouraged.
IMPROVEMENT OF THE ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STEAM-AND-GAS PLANTS BY MEANS OF CONVERSION OF NATURAL GAS IN COMBUSTION PRODUCTS
39-46
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.40
V. G.
Nosach
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
A. A.
Shraiber
Energy Institute, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
Steam-and-gas plant; Efficiency; Harmful emissions; Thermochemical recuperation; Reformed fuel
We propose a new scheme of steam-and-gas plant with thermochemical recuperation by means of conversion of natural gas in combustion products. Thermodynamic calculations show that this scheme enables one to enhance efficiency by 5.8−7.7% as compared to the traditional steam-and-gas plants. In addition, the new scheme reduces substantially harmful emissions to the environment.
MAISOTSENKO CYCLE FOR COOLING PROCESSES
47-64
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.50
Leland
Gillan
Idalex Inc., 3980 Quebec Street, Denver, Colorado 80207, USA
Dew point; Wet bulb; Evaporative cooling; Effectiveness
Maisotsenko cycle
The Maisotsenko Cooling cycle combines the thermodynamic processes of heat exchange and evaporative cooling in a unique indirect evaporative cooler resulting in product temperatures that approach the dew point temperature (not the wet bulb temperature) of the working gas. This cycle utilizes the enthalpy difference of a gas, such as air, at its dew point temperature and the same gas saturated at a higher temperature. This enthalpy difference or potential energy is used to reject the heat from the product. Consider the cooling gas to be air and the liquid to be water; the Maisotsenko Cycle allows the product fluid to be cooled in temperature ideally to the dew point temperature of the incoming air. This is due to the precooling of the air before passing it into the heat-rejection stream where water is evaporated. For purposes of this paper, the product fluid is air. At no time is water evaporated into the product airstream. When exhausted, the heat rejection airstream or exhaust air is saturated and has a temperature less than the incoming air, but greater then the wet bulb temperature. This cycle is realized in a single apparatus with a much higher heat flux and lower pressure drop than has been realizable in the past due to its efficient design.
COMBINED POWER AND ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIMIZATION OF FUEL-OXIDANT COMPOSITION AND INITIAL PARAMETERS: THERMODYNAMIC APPROACH AND INDUSTRIAL VALIDATION
65-89
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.60
Boris
Soroka
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Combustion; Energy-using efficiency; Industrial furnace; Specific emission of NOx (CO2); Specific fuel consumption; Thermodynamic equilibrium
The methodology, procedures, and computer codes have been proposed to predict the influence of the type of fuel and oxidant, and their parameters (temperature, pressure), on specific fuel and heat consumption, on NOx and CO2 formation, and specific issues with dependence on combustion process parameters. It has been proven that enthalpy and energy analysis in a framework of equilibrium thermodynamics assumption provides adequate relative evaluation of the effect of the mentioned characteristics on the parameters under consideration. The relative fuel saving and relative environmental characteristics have been computed and validated for the cases of using natural and coke oven gases, with various fuel mixtures. Great possibilities of the thermodynamic approach for comparative evaluation of fuels and oxidants have been approved by calculating the fundamental combustion parameter — laminar burning velocity.
NOVEL CO2 CONTROL METHOD BY MEANS OF CO2 CHEMICAL LOOPING
91-101
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.70
C.
Salvador
CANMET Energy Technology Centre, Natural Resources of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 1M1
D.
Lu
CANMET Energy Technology Centre, Natural Resources of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 1M1
E. J.
Anthony
CANMET Energy Technology Centre, Natural Resources of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 1M1
J. C.
Abanades
Department of Energy and Environment, Instituto de Carboquimica, 50015 Zaragoza, Spain
CO2 capture; Fluid bed combustion; Reactivation
Experiments were carried out in a fluidized bed, where the influence of calcination-carbonation cycling on the maximum CO2 carrying capacity could be studied. The effect of NaCO3 and NaCl additives on the maximum CO2 carrying capacity was also assessed. The fluidizing bed used in these experiments is 0.1 m in diameter and could be operated in either bubbling or circulating mode. A fluidization velocity of approximately 1 m/s and CO2 concentration of 15% by volume in air was used. All experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure, and the limestone particle size was maintained between 650 μ;m and 1675 μ;m. Limestone was calcined at 850°C, and the lime was carbonated at 700°C. The CO2 carrying capacity was observed to decay exponentially with each cycle, eventually settling at approximately 20%, varying slightly with the limestone type. The addition of NaCO3 and NaCl had a detrimental effect on the capacity of lime for CO2. A series of thermogravimetric experiments were also performed under similar conditions in an effort to verify the fluid bed work.
EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF HEAT TRANSFER, PRESSURE DROP, AND FOULING MITIGATION POTENTIAL IN FINNED, DIMPLED, AND BARE TUBE BUNDLES
103-118
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.80
Yaroslav
Chudnovsky
GTI Energy, Des Plaines, IL 60018
Aleksandr
Kozlov
Gas Technology Institute, 1700 South Mount Prospect Road, Des Plaines, Illinois 60076, USA
Heat transfer enhancement; Dimpled tube; Finned tube; Pressure drop reduction; Fouling mitigation
This paper presents a comparative evaluation of three heat transfer surfaces, namely, bare, finned, and dimpled tubes. Bare and finned tubes are widely employed by heat transfer equipment across multiple industries, while dimpled tubes are on their way to the market of convective passages of typical industrial process heating equipment. The dimpled tube bundles were evaluated against the bare and finned tube bundles in a laboratory as well as in a field environment. The obtained results clearly demonstrate the superior performance of the dimpled tubes over the traditional finned tubes in the evaluated range of geometry and regime parameters.
ENHANCEMENT OF THE ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GAS-TURBINE PLANTS BY MEANS OF THERMOCHEMICAL RECUPERATION
119-125
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.90
V. G.
Nosach
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
A. A.
Shraiber
Energy Institute, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
Gas-turbine plant; Efficiency; Thermochemical and air recuperation; Harmful emissions
We have developed a new scheme of gas-turbine plant with thermochemical recuperation by means of natural gas reforming in combustion products. Thermodynamic calculations show that this scheme enables one to enhance the efficiency of plant by 5−5.5% as compared with the traditional scheme of air recuperation. In addition, the new scheme leads to a substantial decrease in the emission of NOx.
CHALLENGES IN SMALL-SCALE COMBUSTION OF AGRICULTURAL BIOMASS FUELS
127-142
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.100
E.
Wopienka
Austrian Bioenergy Centre, Rottenhauserstrasse, 1, 3250 Wieselburg, Austria
J.
Lundgren
Division of Energy Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 971 84 Luleå, Sweden
L.
Carvalho
Austrian Bioenergy Centre, Rottenhauserstrasse, 1, 3250 Wieselburg, Austria; and Division of Energy Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 971 84 Luleå, Sweden
Agricultural fuels; Combustion; Emissions; Ash; Slagging
Straw, Miscanthus, maize, and horse manure were reviewed in terms of fuel characteristics. They were tested in existing boilers, and the particulate and gaseous emissions were monitored. The ash was analyzed for the presence of sintered material. All the fuels showed problems with ash lumping and slag formation. Different boiler technologies showed different operational performances. Maize and horse manure are problematic fuels regarding NOx and particulate emissions. Miscanthus was the best fuel tested. Due to the big variation of fuel properties and therefore combustion behavior of agricultural biomass, further R&D is required to adapt the existing boilers for these fuels.
UNIVERSAL STATE SPACE MODEL OF THERMAL TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF POWER ELECTRONICS DEVICES
143-157
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.110
D.
Marvin
United Technologies, East Hartford, CT, USA
I.
Fedchenia
United Technologies, East Hartford, CT, USA
Mikhail
Gorbounov
United Technologies Research Center, 411 Silver Lane, East Hartford, CT 06108, USA
K.
Rogers
United Technologies, East Hartford, CT, USA
Thermal management; Power electronics; IGBT; CFD; FEA; State space model; Thermal transient response
Power electronics devices based on IGBTs are destined to play a critical role in the sustainable energy economy by providing the efficient interface between lower emissions and renewable primary movers such as wind turbines, microturbines, photovoltaic, fuel cells, etc and local power consumers or electrical distribution system such as microgrids. The designers of Thermal Management Systems (TMS) for power electronics are faced with ever increasing demand of improving efficiency, increased reliability and life time as well as reducing the design cycle time, which requires the capability to quickly analyze and optimize enhanced thermal solutions though accurate prediction of three-dimensional transient temperature fields.
A universal training strategy for a state space model is suggested that reproduces temperature responses of power electronic devices with any transient power dissipation profile.
Full CFD and FEA transient models of IGBT modules of various structural elements cooled by natural convection and conduction have been created using the ANSYS IcePak software package. It is extremely time-consuming to use this full model for multiple-mission studies therefore a reduced order model in state space form has been developed to significantly reduce design time. The reduced order model has been trained using a single finite element model run with a universal power dissipation profile. This profile consisted of band limited white noise with a magnitude and frequency limit based on the combination of given devices and set of mission profiles.
It has been shown that the state space model trained with such a profile reproduces the response to a wide variety of different power dissipation patterns typical for our application with an accuracy of about 2°C.
Several different approaches for the choice of the state space model have been studied as well as proper selection of state space size and metrics for estimation of modeling error.
It is suggested that the proposed method can be a universal way of extracting a reduced order model from the high fidelity combination of CFD and FEA models typical for power electronics applications, and possibly for a broader range of applications as well.
MODELING FLOW AND TEMPERATURE IN A COMBUSTOR WITH VOLUME-DISTRIBUTED OXIDATION
159-178
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.120
Anatoli
Borissov
General Vortex Energy Inc., 1306 FM 1092 Siute 205, Missouri City, TX 77459
Vladimir N.
Shtern
General Vortex Energy Inc., Missouri City, TX 77479, USA
Vortex chamber; Meridional circulation; Particle trajectories; Flue gas recirculation
Analytical solutions of the viscous gas equations are applied to model velocity and temperature fields in a vortex combustor with volume-distributed oxidation. The solutions show that swirl generates high-speed meridional circulation, which occupies around 2/3 of the combustor volume and serves as a flame holder and a double mixer. It is found that particle trajectories have double-spiral geometry in both the circulation and flow-through regions. The particle residence time is larger by an order of magnitude than the mixing time. In addition to the internal circulation, the external recirculation of a share of the flue gas is analyzed. Consideration of the mass and energy balance reveals the optimal share value. A proof-of-concept experiment confirms the modeling predictions.
FOSSIL FUEL-BASED POWER GENERATION AND GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: STATE OF THE ART AND PERSPECTIVE
179-194
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.130
G.
Scheffknecht
Institute for Combustion and Power Plant Technology, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 23, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Power plant technology; Carbon capture; Zero-emission power plant; CO2 emissions; Fossil fuel
Coal will continue to play a major and stabilizing role in electricity generation in the future. Coal resources are abundant and coal is presently two to three times cheaper than gas. For many countries with large domestic coal reserves — the United States, China, Germany, and India, for example — the combination of cost and security concerns is an argument in favor of the continued widespread use of coal in the future.
Advanced combustion technologies and environmental protection systems were introduced successfully on the market in the last 20 years. Nowadays, emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, has become more and more important especially when burning coal. The European community introduced a CO2-trading scheme motivated by the aim to keep to certain CO2 reductions.
However, considering the existing coal fleet, significant CO2 reductions can be achieved by replacing old power stations with state-of-the-art power plants. Further reductions may be achieved by cofiring CO2-neutral fuels such as biomass.
Despite the increased share of renewable energy sources, carbon capture and storage technologies for coal need to be introduced over the long term to meet the challenging targets recently issued by the European community.
The advantages of coal as fuel combined with the development of the technology for coal utilization offer a realistic perspective for reliable, economic, and environmentally friendly electricity generation.
REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION UNDER NATURAL GAS COMBUSTION BY MEANS OF FLAT-FLAME BURNERS OF NEW GENERATION
195-209
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.140
Boris
Soroka
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Coanda effect; Combustion stability; Flame aerodynamics; Flat-flame burner (FFB); Gas furnace; Low-emission combustion; NOx and CO formation; Recirculation of combustion products; Velocity profile
This presentation combines the generalization of the modern state of the art of flat-flame burners (FFBs) development and previous investigations of the FFB of GPP series (Erinov and Soroka, 1970) being developed by the Gas Institute (GI) under the author’s participation and guidance, as well as presents the results of R&D of the FFB of a new generation titled GPP-LE. Burners of type LE FFB represent universal burner design from the standpoint of temperature range of the furnace operation by simultaneous conditions of variation of the furnace thermal capacity and change of combustion air preheating and excess factor. The systematic R&D investigations have been carried out in an area of fluid dynamics and mass-and-heat-transfer processes under fuel combustion by use of the FFB. The main attention has been paid to the studying of the aerodynamic structure of the central region along the axis of combustion chamber that is responsible for the Coanda effect provision as well as for the macrokinetics of fuel burning and of pollutants formation. Burners (LE FFB) ensure superstable, low-emission fuel combustion by a wide range of furnace temperatures (500–1900 K; moreover, beginning from ambient temperatures) and combustion air preheating (up to 800 K) to satisfy any complicated and variable operation conditions (usually for heat treatment furnaces). The environmental advantages are superlow emission combustion–concentration values of the main pollutants are lower than accordingly any international norms and national standards (Thomas, B., 2006; Berger et al., 2006): [NOx] is no more than 20−50 ppm (depending on air preheating (300−800 K) within the furnace temperature range up to 1773 K; [CO] is no more than 10 ppm. The LE FFB characteristics are presented in comparison with the best suitable indicators of the FFB of the existing designs and accordingly the latest development. The set of ensured characteristics is unique in comparison to those for any FFB in the world market including the burners using the FLOX combustion mechanism (wunning, 2003).
DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH-PRESSURE BURNER FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS USING INERT POROUS MEDIA
211-222
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.150
M.
Altendorfner
Institute of Fluid Mechanics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
F. V.
Issendorff
Institute of Fluid Mechanics, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
M.
Dannehl
Evonik Degussa GmbH, Process Technology & Engineering, Particle Processing, Germany
High-pressure combustion; Porous inert media; Nanoparticles; Excess air ratio
For a gas-dynamic initiated particle production reactor, a burner creating a hot gas with a pressure of 10−15 bars and of a predefined temperature, mass flow, and minimum oxygen mass fraction was designed and tested under atmospheric conditions. Due to the low temperature level and the necessity of a stable temperature sequence, the application of inert porous media with a velocity stabilization was chosen, which allows a wide power and excess air ratio range. First experimental investigations in atmospheric conditions of the burner show a stable and homogeneous temperature sequence and extremely low emissions of NOx and CO.
ENHANCEMENT OF THE EFFICIENCY OF GAS-TURBINE PLANTS DUE TO THE JOINT USE OF THERMOCHEMICAL AND STEAM RECUPERATION
223-227
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.160
A. A.
Shraiber
Energy Institute, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
V. G.
Nosach
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
Gas-turbine plant; Efficiency; Thermochemical
steam and air recuperation; Harmful emissions
We propose a new scheme of gas-turbine plants that is characterized by the joint use of thermo-chemical and steam recuperation. As compared to the traditional scheme of air recuperation, the new scheme enables one to enhance the efficiency of the plant by 5.7−6.5% and to decrease substantially the emission of harmful substances to the atmosphere.
subject index
228
10.1615/InterJEnerCleanEnv.v9.i1-3.170