Technoeconomic analysis of a methanol plant based on gasification of biomass and electrolysis of water

International audienceMethanol production process configurations based on renewable energy sources have been designed. The processes were analyzed in the thermodynamic process simulation tool DNA. The syngas used for the catalytic methanol production was produced by gasification of biomass, electrolysis of water, CO from post-combustion capture and autothermal reforming of natural gas or biogas. Underground gas storage of hydrogen and oxygen was used in connection with the electrolysis to enable the electrolyser to follow the variations in the power produced by renewables. Six plant configurations, each with a different syngas production method, were compared. The plants achieve methanol exergy efficiencies of 59-72%, the best from a configuration incorporating autothermal reforming of biogas and electrolysis of water for syngas production. The different processes in the plants are highly heat integrated, and the low-temperature waste heat is used for district heat production. This results in high total energy efficiencies (~90%) for the plants. The specific methanol costs for the six plants are in the range 11.8-25.3 €/GJ. The lowest cost is obtained by a plant using electrolysis of water, gasification of biomass and autothermal reforming of natural gas for syngas production

Impact of household heterogeneity on community energy storage in the UK

The increasing penetration of Decentralised Energy Resources (DERs) into the residential sector along with a reduction in their subsidy in many countries requires innovative approaches to ensure economic viability. Whilst applications of Household Energy Storage (HES) have been widely investigated and deployed, in recent years communities have been identified as a key scale for energy systems, particularly for energy storage. Community Energy Storage (CES) is therefore a promising alternative deployment model to assist the roll-out of DERs. The power and energy demand may vary significantly with the demographic composition of community; therefore, it is important to evaluate the operation of HES and CES for different communities and hence to assign suitable energy storage options to corresponding objectives. In this work, an Agent Based Model (ABM) is developed that includes household demand heterogeneities, as well as HES and CES, and photovoltaic (PV) systems. The single household models can be aggregated to a community, and hence it is able to simulate the interaction between households in a local, grid connected, energy system. A battery degradation model is also included in order to reproduce the capacity fade of a Li-ion battery over time. The impact on battery performance of the heterogeneous demand within communities is explored using typical performance indicators, such as Self-Consumption Rate (SCR), Self-Sufficiency Rate (SSR) and battery cycle counts

Economic analysis and risk management for the South Sumatra Natural Gas Pipeline Project in Indonesia

The objective of this thesis is to analyze economic and risk factors for the South Sumatra Natural Gas Pipeline Project in Indonesia. The economic analysis aims to support Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS)’s decision regarding next steps, such as a feasibility study or front end engineering design for the project. In scenario analysis, WACC ought to be less than 9 percent and the growth rate of gas demand is larger than 3 percent to meet KOGAS’s requirements for an investment. Monte Carlo simulation showed that the project has a project NPV of 90 million USD and project IRR of 11 percent on Scenario 1 which is the least profitable scenario. It means that this project could be a viable project for KOGAS, but there is a 36 percent probability that the project IRR would be less than KOGAS’ investment threshold. A sensitivity analysis indicates that a toll fee has the greatest impact on the project IRR among six variables. This thesis establishes mitigation strategies against the South Sumatra Natural Gas Pipeline Project’s significant risks.Energy and Earth Resource

Spatiotemporal assessment of farm-gate production costs and economic potential of Miscanthus × giganteus, Panicum virgatum L., and Jatropha grown on marginal land in China

Funding Information China Scholarship Council. Grant Number: 201606350028 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Grant Number: BBS/E/W/0012843A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs UK Research Council NERC. Grant Numbers: ADVENT, 1806209, FAB-GGR (NE/P019951/1)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Nonlinear hydro turbine model having a surge tank.

yesThis paper models a hydro turbine based on the dynamic description of the hydraulic system having a surge tank and elastic water hammer. The dynamic of the hydraulic system is transformed from transfer function form into the differential equation model in relative value. This model is then combined with the motion equation of the main servomotor to form the nonlinear model of the hydro turbine, in which the power of the hydro turbine is calculated using algebraic equation. A new control model is thus proposed in which the dynamic of the surge tank is taken as an additional input of control items. As such, the complex hydraulic system is decomposed into a classical one penstock and one machine model with an additional input control. Therefore, the order of the system is descended. As a result, the feasibility of the system is largely improved. The simulated results show that the additional input of the surge tank is effective and the proposed method is realizable.National Natural Science Foundation of China (50839003, 50949037, 51179079), Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (No. 2008GA027

A GMBCG Galaxy Cluster Catalog of 55,424 Rich Clusters from SDSS DR7

We present a large catalog of optically selected galaxy clusters from the application of a new Gaussian Mixture Brightest Cluster Galaxy (GMBCG) algorithm to SDSS Data Release 7 data. The algorithm detects clusters by identifying the red sequence plus Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) feature, which is unique for galaxy clusters and does not exist among field galaxies. Red sequence clustering in color space is detected using an Error Corrected Gaussian Mixture Model. We run GMBCG on 8240 square degrees of photometric data from SDSS DR7 to assemble the largest ever optical galaxy cluster catalog, consisting of over 55,000 rich clusters across the redshift range from 0.1 < z < 0.55. We present Monte Carlo tests of completeness and purity and perform cross-matching with X-ray clusters and with the maxBCG sample at low redshift. These tests indicate high completeness and purity across the full redshift range for clusters with 15 or more members.Comment: Updated to match the published version. The catalog can be accessed from: http://home.fnal.gov/~jghao/gmbcg_sdss_catalog.htm

Characterization of MOSFET dosimeters for low-dose measurements in maxillofacial anthropomorphic phantoms

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