Adoption of natural gas for residential heating. ESRI Research Bulletin, 2018/03

The focus of this research is the adoption of gas central heating in Ireland, in particular understanding the time-lag of adoption of more efficient heating methods, once available. Public policy interest in residential fuel choice centres on encouraging fuel switching away from carbon intensive fuels, such as peat and coal, to less carbon intensive fuels, such as gas or renewables. The residential sector accounts for approximately one-quarter of final energy consumption in Ireland, while within the residential sector space and water heating account for approximately 80% of energy use. Reducing the carbon intensity of residential energy is particularly important given Irish and EU targets for greenhouse gas emissions as a means of contributing to international efforts to limit global warming below 2°C

A wavelet analysis of the relationship between oil and natural gas prices

In this paper, we aim to explore the relationship between natural gas and crude oil prices for the U.S. economy over the time period 1997 and 2017 in both the unconditional and conditional framework by conditioning the relationship on natural gas production. The time period covers the recent shale gas supply boom. Our results indicate that during the shale gas revolution period of 2007–2013, oil and natural gas prices were procyclical and oil prices were leading natural gas prices. Once we control for the natural gas production we find that significant or high wavelet coherency is observed during 2000–2015 for 3–4 years scale. These results have implications for cross-market policy effects.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/resourpol2020-03-01hj2019Economic

Systematic Design Procedures for Natural Gas Desulphurization

Natural gas is a mixture of variable hydrocarbons and many contain other contaminants such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide and sulfur. The undesirable compound such as hydrogen sulfide must be removed to prevent corrosion and environmental problems. Sulfur compound also poisons the catalysts and consequently disrupts reactor performance. Reactor systems that have been poisoned by sulphur sees lower the conversion, lower selectivity and higher temperature requirement for a particular lower conversion. While sulfur removal from natural gas stream is necessary, there is insufficient framework to systematically design the removal system. The objective of this project is therefore to develop a framework for the systematic design of H2S adsorber. The desired design framework will be able to predict the breakthrough curve of the chemisorption reaction and determine the size of the adsorption column. The project will also study the interactions between parameters that affect the system's design. The desulphurization system selected in this project uses zinc oxide adsorbent. Additionally HiS is chosen as the adsorbate in the natural gas stream. Desulphurization of natural gas is a two step process; firstly the natural gas containing organic sulfur is catalytically hydrogenated to H2S. Then the natural gas stream containing H2S is send to a chemisorption column. Zinc oxide adsorbent is converted to zinc sulfide upon contact with H2S. The shrinking core model is selected to describe the solid gas reaction on the surface of the adsorbent. The model considers chemical reaction coupled with diffusion as the rate limiting step. Solutions of the shrinking core model enable the prediction of breakthrough curve. The shrinking core model was found to give a good description of the sulfur removal process whereby it has been found that the conversion of single solid sorbent increases continuously with time until it completely converted in 8.32min. A single zinc oxide pellet able to adsorb 1.66E-03 moles ofH2Sper hour before it reaches its breakthrough limit. Further on, sizing is done to calculate the amount ofadsorbent needed for a column. The results obtained are 34,747 kg ZnO needed for an adsorption column with a service lifetime of 6 months and the dimensions of column from calculation deviates less than 5% then the actual industrial equipment. Therefore, the systematic design procedures outlined are applicable for industrial use. ii

03-04-2009 SWOSU to Host Wind and Natural Gas Energy Summer Academy

Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford will once again host a summer academy centering on Oklahoma\u27s wind and natural gas energy industries, thanks to a $32,400 grant from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

Best Practice of Striving Energy Sustainability in A Hot Press Machine for Clutch Facing Manufacture)

A facing clutch manufacturer in Surabaya, Indonesia, PT. X uses 20 hot press machines to produce the facings. The required heating process is provided by heat transfer oil (HTO), which is heated by natural gas burned in a heater. PT. X wants to reduce its natural gas consumption. The assessment started with checking the insulation on the piping system, measuring the temperature in the hot press machines, and measuring the HTO flow rate. The insulation in the piping system is in good condition. From the measurement, it was found that the HTO flow rate is adequate and fits the need of the heating process. Another finding is that the surface temperature of the lower plate in shaft no. 4 is the lowest than in the other shafts. The existing (asbestos) insulation from the lower bed in shaft no 4 to the hydraulic component is only 3 mm thick. This is not enough to prevent heat loss from the bed in shaft no. 4. The new 18-mm asbestos replaced the old asbestos. The replacement shows that the temperature at the mold surface at shaft no. 4 increased from 162.6�C to 170.9�C on average for MC-02 and from 166.7�C to 173.1�C on average for MC-03. Another achievement obtained is that the natural gas consumption was reduced by around 7.3% or 39 MMBtu/month, or equivalent to reducing 0.312 metric tons of CO2 per month. This is a simple effort to use less energy to protect our environment

Pengaruh Suhu Pembakaran dan Laju Alir Limbah Cair terhadap Emisi Gas Karbon Monoksida pada Incinerator di PT. Bayer Material Science Indonesia

Limbah cair yang dihasilkan dari industri dibakar dalam sebuah alat yang disebut incinerator. Limbah harus terbakar dengan sempurna di dalam incinerator sehingga proses pembakaran tidak menghasilkan gas karbon monoksida (CO), karena bersifat racun. Dalam rangka pelestarian lingkungan, pemerintah menjalankan sebuah program yang dinamakan Proper yang berfungsi untuk mengontrol dan mengurangi polusi dari industry. Tujuan dari penelitian ini yaitu menentukan suhu pembakaran dan laju alir limbah cair yang optimal pada incinerator untuk memenuhi baku mutu emisi sesuai KEP. 03/BAPEDAL/09/1995 tentang persyaratan teknis pengolahan limbah berbahaya dan beracun. Variasi suhu pembakaran yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini yaitu 550ºC, 600ºC, 650ºC, 700ºC, 750ºC, 800ºC, dan 850ºC. Variasi laju alir limbah cair yaitu 100 L/ h, 200 L/h, 300 L/h, 400 L/h, 500 L/h, 600 L/h, dan 700 L/h. Berdasarkan penelitian yang telah dilakukan, diperoleh hasil yaitu suhu pembakaran yang optimal yaitu 700 0C, laju alir limbah cair yang optimal yaitu 300 L/h, emisi gas CO yang dihasilkan yaitu 87 mg/Nm3, pemakaian natural gas pada incinerator dalam 1 hari yaitu 3448,8 m3, dan efisiensi pembakaran yaitu 99,71 %

Forward curves, scarcity and price volatility in oil and natural gas markets

The role of inventory in explaining the shape of the forward curve and spot price volatility in commodity markets is central in the theory of storage developed by Kaldor [Kaldor, N. (1939) "Speculation and Economic Stability", The Review of Economic Studies 7, 1–27] and Working [Working, H. (1949) “The theory of the price of storage”, American Economic Review, 39, 1254–1262] and has since been documented in a vast body of financial literature, including the reference paper by Fama and French [Fama, E.F. and K.R. French (1987) “Commodity futures prices: some evidence on forecast power, premiums and the theory of storage”, Journal of Business 60, 55–73] on metals. The goal of this paper is twofold: i) validate in the case of oil and natural gas the use of the slope of the forward curve as a proxy for inventory (the slope being defined in a way that filters out seasonality); ii) analyze directly for these two major commodities the relationship between inventory and price volatility. In agreement with the theory of storage, we find that: i) the negative correlation between price volatility and inventory is globally significant for crude oil; ii) this negative correlation prevails only during those periods of scarcity when the inventory is below the historical average and increases importantly during the winter periods for natural gas. Our results are illustrated by the analysis of a 15 year-database of US oil and natural gas prices and inventory

User guide for the BGS Methane and Carbon Dioxide from Natural Sources and Coal Mining Dataset for Great Britain

This report presents a description and review of the methodology developed by the British Geological Survey (BGS) to produce an assessment of the potential hazard from Methane and Carbon Dioxide from Natural Sources and Coal Mining in Great Britain. The methodology is briefly described in this report. The purpose of the user guide is to enable those licensing this dataset to have a better appreciation of how the dataset has been created and therefore a better understanding of the potential applications and limitations that the dataset may have

Experimental and chemometric studies of cell membrane permeability

[Abstract] Cell membrane permeability (P) governs the molecules or ions to transport through the cell membrane. In this study, we measured P of ruminal microbes in different initial levels of surface tension (ST) and specific surface area (SSA). Data of P in present study and published data of pH, ammonia concentration, digestibility of neutral detergent fibre and gas production in two time scales (tk and ′tk) as input variables Vq(tk) were took into consideration for developing a predictive model. The ideas of Box–Jenkins Operators and Covariance Perturbation Theory Operators were used for the first time to establish a model to predict the variations of cellular permeability. The best model presented sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of > 0.89, and MCC > 0.78 for 77,781 cases (training + validation series). In addition, we also reported a simulation of ternary phase diagram with predicted values of cell permeability at various experimental conditions.National Natural Science Foundation of China; Grant No. 31172234Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Strategic Pilot Project; Grant No. XDA05020700Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China; Grant No. 12JJ3015Red Gallega de Investigación sobre Cáncer Colorrectal; Ref. R2014/03