World markets for conventional and advanced biofuels over the next five years

Production of transport biofuels grew by just 2% in 2017. To achieve the 2030 SDS target, use of biofuels needs to triple, driven by cost reductions of advanced biofuels, widespread sustainability governance and more adoption in aviation and marine transport. This presentation provides an overview of the market prospects for conventional biofuels over the next five years. It would analyse the current status of deployment and costs for novel advanced biofuels. It would also draw comparisons with electric cars, the extent of their renewable electricity utilisation and decarbonisation potential. It would include the contribution of renewables to road transport demand over the next 5 years and focus on the main biofuels available to decarbonise road freight, now and in the long term. Finally, it will present a case study from India, focusing on ethanol-based chemicals

Tubing specifications selection and its effect on the results of hydraulic fracturing treatment in oil formations

Equipment specification, data collection and design process are critical factors for any hydraulic fracturing treatment success. This paper investigates tubing specifications selection and its effect on the results of hydraulic fracturing treatment in oil formations. Simulations were carried out on well E-45 owned by National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya using two main tools - Pumping Diagnostic Analysis Toolkit (PDAT) and Halliburton proprietary software package (FracPro) for analysing Mini-Frac pumping data. The initial modelling results using 3.5 inch tubing were compared with the experimental results obtained from the actual hydraulic fracturing tests carried out at the E45 by Halliburton as a sub-contractor for NOC. The simulation results showed good agreement with the experiments, validating the model. The model was then extended to explore alternate tubing diameters. This was implemented by introducing the relationship between the tub friction pressures and pumping rate (Friction Pressure vs. Pumping Rate) with the mentioned tube sizes. The results showed that in high stress rock formations, it is worthwhile to minimise the pipe friction by using higher tubing grade (4.5 inches) and burst pressure. A bigger tubing inner diameter can increase the allowable surface pumping rate and pressure

Waste Heat Recovery in Food and Drinks Industry (Abstract only)

Most baking processes in the food manufacturing sector involve use of gas-fired ovens. Only about one-third of the total energy used in these ovens adds value to the final product. The remaining two-thirds is discharged with the exhaust gases at 150-250o C and thus represents an opportunity for heat recovery. However, the low temperature range, fouling and presence of corrosive materials in the exhaust streams make heat recovery technically challenging and uneconomical. The existing low grade heat recovery technolgies mostly use gas to liquid heat transfer to produce hot water for use in other areas of the manufacturing plant. The performance of these systems is governed by hot water demand in the factory and is therefore not recommended if there are frequent fluctuations in demand or if a more efficient technology, such as combined heat and power, is already in place. This study involves design, manufacturing and testing of a novel low-temperature gas to gas heat recovery system using an array of heat pipe heat exchangers, for industrial-scale baking ovens at a large confectionary manufacturing plant. Unlike gas to liquid heat transfer, a gas to gas heat transfer system provides direct savings in oven fuel consumption, independent of the hot water and other energy demands elsewhere in the plant. The heat recovery potential of the system is estimated using a thermodynamic model developed based on energy and mass balance for the ovens. The design enables recovery of up to 50% of the energy available through the exhaust stack, increasing the energy efficiency of the overall process to 60% and reducing food manufacturing costs by one third

Review of Waste Heat Utilisation from Data Centres

Rapidly increasing global internet traffic, mobile internet users and the number of Internet of Things (IoT) connections are driving exponential growth in demand for data centre and network services, which in turn is driving their electricity demand. Data centres now account for 3% of global electricity consumption and contribute to 4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. This study discusses the potential of reusing the waste heat from data centres. An overview of imbedding heat recovery systems into data centres is presented. The implications of economic cost and energy efficient heat recovery systems in data centre buildings are also discussed. The main problems with implementing heat recovery systems in existing data centre designs are (i) high capital costs of investment and (ii) low temperatures of the waste heat. This study suggests alternatives that could allow data centre operators to utilise waste heat with more efficiencies. It also discusses how liquid-cooled data centres can be more efficient in utilising their waste heat than the air-cooled ones. One possible solution suggested here is that data centre operators can decrease their environmental impact by exporting waste heat to the external heat networks. The barriers in connecting datacentres to heat networks are discussed and suggestions to overcome those barriers have been provided

Innovative acoustic jacketing for oil and gas pipelines

Oil and Gas Pipelines need thermal insulation and cladding to protect them from harsh environmental conditions, prevent heat losses, minimise health and safety risks and comply with legislation. In certain areas, these cladding jackets require additional layers of noise and vibration insulation and often the installation process is expensive and labour intensive. Conventional systems use products like Lead and Bitumen for noise reduction, but their use causes health, safety and environmental problems. This research aimed to mitigate these health and environmental problems and produce an economic solution for noise insulation and jacketing. Using a series of experimental tests and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), an integrated cladding system has been developed, combining acoustic insulation and metal sheets in a single product. These tests showed that the new system improved acoustic performance and corrosion prevention while simultaneously allowing easier installation which significantly reduces installation time and related costs. A special purpose machine has also been developed which will produce the product in an efficient and cost effective manner

Challenges in establishing waste-to-energy projects in developing countries with a case study from India

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management and its scientific disposal is a major concern for the local municipal authorities of all major Indian cities. Under the "Clean India Mission", the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) of India is investing US $9 Billion to clean up 75 largest cities in India. Waste to Energy (WTE) plants will be a key to its implementation. Currently, open air burning and landfilling are the most common practices of wase disposal in India. Landfilling is considered the least favourable option for cities as these sites occupy significant land areas in already crowded urban areas. WTE plants or incinerators are considered the most viable solution for safe disposal of MSW all over the world. In India, however, WTE projects have had mixed results and outright failures. Currently, only eight such plants are operational in the country. This is due to several technical, economic, environmental, social and policy factors involved. This study investigates the feasibility of a proposed state-of-the art WTE plant in Delhi which will set an example for other cities to follow. It reviews the various challenges involved in the implementation of such a project and suggests mitigating solutions to overcome these challenges

A polarizable reactive force field for water to enable molecular dynamics simulations of proton transport

A new polarizable water model is developed for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the proton transport process. The interatomic potential model has three important submodels corresponding to electrostatic interactions, making and breaking of covalent bonds, and treatment of electron exchange and correlation through a van der Waals potential. A polarizable diffuse charge density function was used to describe Coulombic interactions between atoms. Most of the model parameters were obtained from ab initio data for a lone water molecule. Molecules respond realistically to their electrochemical environment by the use of coupled fluctuating charge and fluctuating dipole dynamics, which controlled the charge density. The main purpose of the work is to develop a general model and framework for future studies, though some validation work was performed here. We applied the model to a MD simulation study of bulk properties of liquid water at room temperature and model gave good agreement with thermodynamic and transport properties at the same conditions. The model was then applied to a preliminary study of proton transfer, in which multiple proton transfer events were observed, though the rate of proton transfer was under-predicted by a factor of 5

Modeling on-grate MSW incineration with experimental validation in a batch incinerator

This Article presents a 2-D steady-state model developed for simulating on-grate municipal solid waste incineration, termed GARBED-ss. Gas-solid reactions, gas flow through the porous waste particle bed, conductive, convective, and radiative heat transfer, drying and pyrolysis of the feed, the emission of volatile species, combustion of the pyrolysis gases, the formation and oxidation of char and its gasification by water vapor and carbon dioxide, and the consequent reduction of the bed volume are described in the bed model. The kinetics of the pyrolysis of cellulosic and noncellulosic materials were experimentally derived from experimental measurements. The simulation results provide a deep insight into the various phenomena involved in incineration, for example, the complete consumption of oxygen in a large zone of the bed and a consequent char-gasification zone. The model was successfully validated against experimental measurements in a laboratory batch reactor, using an adapted sister version in a transient regime. © 2010 American Chemical Society

Techno-economic feasibility of a hybrid power generation system for developing economies

This work investigates the feasibility of hybrid power generation system using multiple energy sources to fulfil the electrical demand of a residential community. The system performance is evaluated against the capital investment, Cost of Electricity (COE), CO2 emissions and Net Present Cost. Results indicate that the hybrid system reduces the COE by 47% compared to grid price and has a negative CO2 emissions of 24,603 kg/yr due to supplying its surplus energy to the grid. Renewable sources contribute to 80.1% of the overall power produced by the hybrid system. The study finds that the hybrid systems could replace complete dependency on grids

Experimental Validation of the Structural Integrity of Modular Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blades

The production, transportation and repair of long horizontal axis wind turbine blades measuring up to 85 m require expensive specialist machinery that increases the capital cost of wind power generation. A modular blade design is a potential solution to these problems however; the inclusion of joints could make the modular blades inherently weaker. This work investigates the effect of post-tensioned tendons on the structural integrity of modular blades, through cantilever deflection and tensile tests conducted on 3D printed small-scale prototypes. The experiment indicates 43% and 15.4% reduction in blade tip displacement and deflection caused by cyclic loading, respectively, in case of modular design with tendons compared to without tendons design