A Techno-economic Study of a Biomass Gasification Plant for the Production of Transport Biofuel for Small Communities

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. Link to publishers version:http://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1111A techno-economic feasibility study of liquid bio-fuel production from biomass to meet the demand for public transport in small communities is presented. The methodology adopted in this work is based on calculating the demand of fuels required by transport sector and then estimating the amount of available biomass from various sources which can be treated to produce biofuels to meet the demand within the region. Depending on demand and available biomass feedstock, size and type of the gasification plant are specified. Narvik, a town in the northern part of Norway, is considered as a case study. The current demand of diesel for public transport in Narvik was calculated. The main sources of biomass in the region under consideration come basically from forests and municipal solid waste. It was found out that the potential of producing biofuel is more than three times the fuel demand for public transport, which means that excess biofuel produced can be used in other sectors such as heating. A downdraft gasifier of 6.0 MW was considered adequate to produce the required amount of biofuel. Cost analysis was performed where capital cost, operational and maintenance (O&M) costs for the biomass pre-treatment processes, the gasification plant and the gas to liquid (GTL) plant were considered in the assessment. It was concluded that the payback period of the project could be achieved within four years. The study demonstrated that biomass gasification offers small communities a means to cover their energy demand for public transport using local biomass feedstock and fulfils environmental targets of the community

An overall performance index for wind farms: a case study in Norway Arctic region

Wind farms (WFs) experience various challenges that affect their performance. Mostly, designers focus on the technical side of WFs performance, mainly increasing the power production of WFs, through improving their manufacturing and design quality, wind turbines capacity, their availability, reliability, maintainability, and supportability. On the other hand, WFs induce impacts on their surroundings, these impacts can be classified as environmental, social, and economic, and can be described as the sustainability performance of WFs. A comprehensive tool that combines both sides of performance, i.e. the technical and the sustainability performance, is useful to indicate the overall performance of WFs. An overall performance index (OPI) can help operators and stakeholders rate the performance of WFs, more comprehensively and locate the weaknesses in their performance. The performance model for WFs, proposed in this study, arranges a set of technical and sustainability performance indicators in a hierarchical structure. Due to lack of historical data in certain regions where WFs are located, such as the Arctic, expert judgement technique is used to determine the relative weight of each performance indicator. In addition, scoring criteria are predefined qualitatively for each performance indicator. The weighted sum method makes use of the relative weights and the predefined scoring criteria to calculate the OPI of a specific WF. The application of the tool is illustrated by a case study of a WF located in the Norwegian Arctic. Moreover, the Arctic WF is compared to another WF located outside the Arctic to illustrate the effects of Arctic operating conditions on the OPI

Risk and Resilience Assessment of Wind Farms Performance in Cold Climate Regions

Wind energy conversion systems such as wind farms are growing in numbers and capacity all over the globe. The onshore wind energy generation sector witnessed an increase of approximately 144 TWh during 2020, with onshore wind farms capacity addition of 108 GW, which is twice as much as the added capacity during 2019 (IEA, 2021). This staggering increase in capacity imposes higher needs for improved methodologies and expertise, in measuring the performance of wind farms and improving it. Cold climate regions are known to have an appealing potential for attracting wind farms installation and investments. However, the weather conditions in the cold climate regions impose risks and challenges to the operation and maintenance of wind turbines, and to the workers at the wind farms. Another challenge prevails in the lack of data and expertise related to wind energy projects in cold climate regions, due to the fact that wind farms instalments are relatively new in these regions. In addition, parts of the cold climate regions, such as the Arctic region, are known for their sensitive environment, and industrial projects could impact that sensitivity. The risks and challenges discussed in this thesis can be classified in different ways, there are risks that are induced by the weather conditions that affect the operation and performance of wind turbines, such as the reliability, availability and maintainability of the wind turbines, and there are the risks that are induced by the wind farms that will affect the societal, the economic, and the environmental status of the surroundings of the wind farms. This thesis introduces applicable methodologies that can be used to measure performance-related aspects of wind farms in cold climate regions, on different levels and operating under different scenarios. Moreover, in a performance-related context, a methodology for measuring the resilience of wind farms facing disruptive events is introduced, and lastly the different risks related to the operation of wind farms in cold climate regions are identified and analyzed through a methodology that allows for proper ranking of risks to prioritize the measures that can be used to mitigate those risks

Resilience Assessment of Wind Farms in the Arctic with the Application of Bayesian Networks

Infrastructure systems, such as wind farms, are prone to various human-induced and natural disruptions such as extreme weather conditions. There is growing concern among decision makers about the ability of wind farms to withstand and regain their performance when facing disruptions, in terms of resilience-enhanced strategies. This paper proposes a probabilistic model to calculate the resilience of wind farms facing disruptive weather conditions. In this study, the resilience of wind farms is considered to be a function of their reliability, maintainability, supportability, and organizational resilience. The relationships between these resilience variables can be structured using Bayesian network models. The use of Bayesian networks allows for analyzing different resilience scenarios. Moreover, Bayesian networks can be used to quantify resilience, which is demonstrated in this paper with a case study of a wind farm in Arctic Norway. The results of the case study show that the wind farm is highly resilient under normal operating conditions, and slightly degraded under Arctic operating conditions. Moreover, the case study introduced the calculation of wind farm resilience under Arctic black swan conditions. A black swan scenario is an unknowable unknown scenario that can affect a system with low probability and very high extreme consequences. The results of the analysis show that the resilience of the wind farm is significantly degraded when operating under Arctic black swan conditions. In addition, a backward propagation of the Bayesian network illustrates the percentage of improvement required in each resilience factor in order to attain a certain level of resilience of the wind farm under Arctic black swan conditions

Criteria-Based Fuzzy Logic Risk Analysis of Wind Farms Operation in Cold Climate Regions

Different risks are associated with the operation and maintenance of wind farms in cold climate regions, mainly due to the harsh weather conditions that wind farms experience in that region such as the (i) increased stoppage rate of wind turbines due to harsh weather conditions, (ii) limited accessibility to wind farms due to snow cover on roads, and (iii) cold stress to workers at wind farms. In addition, there are risks that are caused by wind farms during their operation, which impact the surrounding environment and community such as the (iv) risk of ice throw from wind turbines, (v) environmental risks caused by the wind farms, and (vi) social opposition risk to installing wind farms in cold climate regions, such as the Arctic. The analysis of these six risks provides an overall view of the potential risks encountered by designers, operators, and decision makers at wind farms. This paper presents a methodology to quantify the aforementioned risks using fuzzy logic method. At first, two criteria were established for the probability and the consequences of each risk; with the use of experts’ judgments, membership functions were graphed to reflect the two established criteria, which represented the input to the risk analysis process. Furthermore, membership functions were created for the risk levels, which represented the output. To test the proposed methodology, a wind farm in Arctic Norway was selected as a case study to quantify its risks. Experts provided their assessments of the probability and consequences of each risk on a scale from 0–10, depending on the description of the wind farm provided to them. Risk levels were calculated using MATLAB fuzzy logic toolbox and ranked accordingly. Limited accessibility to the wind farm was ranked as the highest risk, while the social opposition to the wind farm was ranked as the lowest. In addition, to demonstrate the effects of the Arctic operating conditions on performance and safety of the wind farm, the same methodology was applied to a wind farm located in a non-cold-climate region, which showed that the risks ranked differently

A Techno-economic Study of a Biomass Gasification Plant for the Production of Transport Biofuel for Small Communities

A techno-economic feasibility study of liquid bio-fuel production from biomass to meet the demand for public transport in small communities is presented. The methodology adopted in this work is based on calculating the demand of fuels required by transport sector and then estimating the amount of available biomass from various sources which can be treated to produce biofuels to meet the demand within the region. Depending on demand and available biomass feedstock, size and type of the gasification plant are specified. Narvik, a town in the northern part of Norway, is considered as a case study. The current demand of diesel for public transport in Narvik was calculated. The main sources of biomass in the region under consideration come basically from forests and municipal solid waste. It was found out that the potential of producing biofuel is more than three times the fuel demand for public transport, which means that excess biofuel produced can be used in other sectors such as heating. A downdraft gasifier of 6.0 MW was considered adequate to produce the required amount of biofuel. Cost analysis was performed where capital cost, operational and maintenance (O&M) costs for the biomass pre-treatment processes, the gasification plant and the gas to liquid (GTL) plant were considered in the assessment. It was concluded that the payback period of the project could be achieved within four years. The study demonstrated that biomass gasification offers small communities a means to cover their energy demand for public transport using local biomass feedstock and fulfils environmental targets of the community

Risk assessment of wind farm development in ice proven area

There many risks associated with wind farms operating in cold harsh areas, a number of these risks is caused by icing. Atmospheric and super-structure icing can cause ice accretion on wind turbines’ structure, and lead to public safety risks caused by ice throw and the failure of wind turbine’s components. Other risks can affect wind farm’s maintenance crew and their activities. Such risks are caused by snow accumulation and forming of sea ice, which can lead to limiting the access to wind turbines, and reducing their availability and the overall power production of the wind farm. Snow accumulation and ice accretion on wind turbines specifically and the wind farm generally induce different types of risks. Therefore, an analysis should be carried out to determine how the different types of icing and snow accumulation affect each part of a wind turbine and wind farm. A risk matrix is usually utilized to determine the rank of these risks and prioritize them, which will help in the decision-making process for risk mitigation

Risk assessment of wind farm development in ice proven area

There many risks associated with wind farms operating in cold harsh areas, a number of these risks is caused by icing. Atmospheric and super-structure icing can cause ice accretion on wind turbines’ structure, and lead to public safety risks caused by ice throw and the failure of wind turbine’s components. Other risks can affect wind farm’s maintenance crew and their activities. Such risks are caused by snow accumulation and forming of sea ice, which can lead to limiting the access to wind turbines, and reducing their availability and the overall power production of the wind farm. Snow accumulation and ice accretion on wind turbines specifically and the wind farm generally induce different types of risks. Therefore, an analysis should be carried out to determine how the different types of icing and snow accumulation affect each part of a wind turbine and wind farm. A risk matrix is usually utilized to determine the rank of these risks and prioritize them, which will help in the decision-making process for risk mitigation

Risk Assessment of Operation and Maintenance of Wind Turbines in the Arctic [poster]

Published: https://www.arcticfrontiers.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2019/Arctic%20Frontiers%20Science/Poster%20presentations/4232675_Albara.pdf</a

Risk Assessment of Hazards Due to the Installation and Maintenance of Onshore Wind Turbines

In this work, an assessment of four types of risks is carried out for wind turbines during four phases, namely: transportation, installation, operation and maintenance. This work mainly focuses on onshore type of wind turbines and briefly mentioning the offshore wind turbines. The introduction gives an overview of the main parts and components of wind turbine, in addition to discussing the process of risk assessment and the procedure to be followed in this study. The paper focuses on the following four risks: the risk of transporting large-scale wind turbine parts and components, the risk of workers slipping, tripping and falling during installation and maintenance of wind turbines, the risk of working in confined spaces, and finally the risk of ice accretion and irregular shedding when the wind turbine is in operation phase or even when it is stationary. The last type of risk is highly observed in cold climate regions. The four mentioned types of risks are the main ones out of the many risks that could appear during transporting, installing, operating and maintaining wind turbines. The main aim of this work is to contribute in the proper risk assessment of potential hazards, which enhances the ability to devise passive and active protection measures to reduce the effects of a catastrophic event