Design overview of high pressure dense phase CO2 pipeline transport in flow mode

In open literature, there is little information available with regards to the engineering and technological issues for material corrosion, in relation to high pressure supercritical CO2 pipeline transport from single point sources, such as the power industry. A typical CO2 pipeline is designed to operate at high pressure in the dense phase. However, it is evident that although there is considerable experience of testing materials in lower pressure gaseous CO2 in the oil and gas industry, there is little understanding of the behaviour of pipeline materials when in contact with impure CO2 captured either from power plants or the oil and gas industry. In this particular project development, a dynamic dense phase CO2 corrosion rig has been built (conditions: ∼85 bar, 40 °C and up to 5 l/min flow rate) in flow mode, to understand the effect of impurities (SO2, O2, H2, NO2 & CO) present in captured CO2 on the pipeline transport materials. This unique facility in the UK was developed via the MATTRANS project funded by the E.ON-EPSRC strategic partnership (EP/G061955/1). The test rig includes different metallic materials (X grade steel: X60, X70 and X100) to assess the corrosion of pipelines, and different geometry components (tubes, plates, charpy and tensile coupons), to assess ageing and decompression behavior of polymeric seals (Neoprene, fluorocarbon, ethylene and Buna N) under water-saturated dense phase CO2 with different impurity concentrations (0.05 mol % SO2; 4 mol % O2; 2 mol % H2; 0.05 mol % NO2; 1 mol % CO). The dynamic data generated from this dense phase CO2 corrosion rig will give vital information with regards to pipeline suitability and lifetimes, when operating with dense CO2

Engineering scale-up challenges, and effects of SO2 on the calcium looping cycle for post combustion CO2 capture

Engineering scale-up challenges, and potential effects of SO2 on the calcium looping cycle for post combustion CO2 capture have been investigated in Cranfield University's pilot scale reactor (25 kWth). Following reactor and process modifications, close to 80% capture was achieved. SO2 was found to have a detrimental effect on the calcium looping cycle in both batch and continuous cyclic tests, although the presence of steam from natural gas-fired burners was found to have a positive effect on maintaining capture capacity of the sorbent

Biomedical Event Trigger Identification Using Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Network Based Models

Biomedical events describe complex interactions between various biomedical entities. Event trigger is a word or a phrase which typically signifies the occurrence of an event. Event trigger identification is an important first step in all event extraction methods. However many of the current approaches either rely on complex hand-crafted features or consider features only within a window. In this paper we propose a method that takes the advantage of recurrent neural network (RNN) to extract higher level features present across the sentence. Thus hidden state representation of RNN along with word and entity type embedding as features avoid relying on the complex hand-crafted features generated using various NLP toolkits. Our experiments have shown to achieve state-of-art F1-score on Multi Level Event Extraction (MLEE) corpus. We have also performed category-wise analysis of the result and discussed the importance of various features in trigger identification task.Comment: The work has been accepted in BioNLP at ACL-201

A hydrodynamic study of a fast‐bed dual circulating fluidized bed for chemical looping combustion

This study explores the use of a dual interconnected circulating fluidized bed (CFB) for chemical looping combustion. This design can enhance gas–solid interactions, but it is difficult to control the solid transfer and circulation rates. With the use of a 1:1 scale cold-flow model, an investigation determining the hydrodynamic behavior of the dual CFB system has been conducted. The cold-flow system consists of two identical fast-bed risers, each with an internal diameter of 100 mm and a height of 7 m. The simplified cold-flow model is based on the chemical looping Pilot-Scale Advanced CO2 Capture Technology (PACT) facility at Cranfield. Here, we have determined the minimum fluidization and transport velocities, and we have assessed the solid density profiles, transport capacity, and potential for the dilution by air/N2 leakage into the CO2 stream exiting the fuel reactor. The experimental procedure uses two different bed materials, molochite (ceramic clay) and FE100 (iron particles), and it satisfies the dynamic scaling laws to model the bed inventory within the system. The results indicate that the two fast-bed risers share similar density and pressure profiles. Stable circulation can be achieved through pneumatic transport. The circulation rate of the system is flexible and can be adjusted by altering the fluidization velocity in the riser and by altering the bed inventory. The gas leakage from the loop seal to the cyclone was found to be sensitive to the bed height and fluidization velocity in the loop seal. However, by maintaining a loop-seal bed height above 600 mm during operation, the outlet stream remains undiluted

Thermal performance and economic analysis of supercritical carbon dioxide cycles in combined cycle power plant

A closed-loop, indirect, supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) power cycle is attractive for fossil-fuel, solar thermal and nuclear applications owing to its ability to achieve higher efficiency, and compactness. Commercial Gas Turbines (GT’s) are optimised to yield maximum performance with a conventional steam Rankine cycle. In order to explore the full potential of a sCO2 cycle the whole plant performance needs to be considered. This study analyses the maximum performance and cost of electricity for five sCO2 cascaded cycles. The plant performance is improved when the GT pressure ratio is considered as a design variable to a GT to optimise the whole plant performance. Results also indicate that each sCO2 Brayton cycle considered, attained maximum plant efficiency at a different GT pressure ratio. The optimum GT pressure ratio to realise the maximum cost reduction in sCO2 cycle was higher than the equivalent steam Rankine cycle. Performance maps were developed for four high efficient cascaded sCO2 cycles to estimate the specific power and net efficiency as a function of GT turbine inlet temperature and pressure ratio. The result of multi-objective optimisation in the thermal and cost (c$/kWh) domains and the Pareto fronts of the different sCO2 cycles are presented and compared. A novel sCO2 cycle configuration is proposed that provides ideal-temperature glide at the bottoming cycle heat exchangers and the efficiency of this cycle, integrated with a commercial SGT5-4000F machine in lieu of a triple-pressure steam Rankine cycle, is higher by 1.4 percentage point

Pressurised calcination-atmospheric carbonation of limestone for cyclic CO2 capture from flue gases

A study was carried out to investigate the CO2 capture performance of limestone under atmospheric carbonations following pressurised calcination. A series of tests was carried out to study the role of pressurised calcination using a fluidised bed reactor. In this investigation, calcination of limestone particles was carried out at three levels of pressure: 0.1 MPa, 0.5 MPa, and 1.0 MPa. After calcination, the capture performance of the calcined sorbent was tested at atmospheric pressure. As expected, the results indicate that the carbonation conversion of calcined sorbent decreases as the pressure is increased during calcination. Pressurised calcination requires higher temperatures and causes an increase in sorbent sintering, albeit that it would have the advantage of reducing equipment size as well as the compression energy necessary for CO2transport and storage, and an analysis has been provided to give an assessment of the potential benefits associated with such an option using process software.EPSR

Critical evaluation of oil palm fresh fruit bunch solid wastes as soil amendments: Prospects and challenges

Sustainable land use has been identified as one way of tackling challenges related to climate change, population expansion, food crisis and environmental pollution. Disposal of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) solid wastes is becoming a challenge with an increased demand and production of palm oil. Whilst this poses a challenge, it could be turned into an opportunity by utilising it as a resource and fully valorise it to meet soil and crop demands. This review presents the potentials of FFB solid wastes, which include empty fruit bunch (EFB), mesocarp fibre (MF), palm kernel shell (PKS), as soil ameliorants. The major findings are the following: 1) pyrolysis, gasification, combustion, and composting are processes that can enhance the value of FFB solid wastes. These processes lead to new products including biochar, ash, and compost, which are valuable resources that can be used for soil improvement. 2) The application of EFB mulch, ash from EFB, MF and PKS, biochar from EFB, and PKS, and compost of EFB, and MF led to improvement in soil physico-chemical properties, and growth and performance of sweet corn, mushroom, oil palm, sweet potato, cauliflower plant, banana, maize, cocoa, cassava, eggplants, and pepper. However, reports show that EFB compost and ash led to decrease in growth and performance of okra. Therefore, the use of appropriate conversion technology for FFB solid wastes as soil ameliorants can significantly improve crop yield and soil properties, reduce environmental pollution, and more importantly increase income of oil mill processors and savings for farmers

Enhancing properties of iron and manganese ores as oxygen carriers for chemical looping processes by dry impregnation

The use of naturally occurring ores as oxygen carriers in CLC processes is attractive because of their relative abundance and low cost. Unfortunately, they typically exhibit lower reactivity and lack the mechanical robustness required, when compared to synthetically produced carriers. Impregnation is a suitable method for enhancing both the reactivity and durability of natural ores when used as oxygen carriers for CLC systems. This investigation uses impregnation to improve the chemical and mechanical properties of a Brazilian manganese ore and a Canadian iron ore. The manganese ore was impregnated with Fe2O3 and the iron ore was impregnated with Mn2O3 with the goal of forming a combined Fe/Mn oxygen carrier. The impregnated ore’s physical characteristics were assessed by SEM, BET and XRD analysis. Measurements of the attrition resistance and crushing strength were used to investigate the mechanical robustness of the oxygen carriers. The impregnated ore’s mechanical and physical properties were clearly enhanced by the impregnation method, with boosts in crushing strength of 11–26% and attrition resistance of 37–31% for the impregnated iron and manganese ores, respectively. Both the unmodified and impregnated ore’s reactivity, for the conversion of gaseous fuel (CH4 and syngas) and gaseous oxygen release (CLOU potential) were investigated using a bench-scale quartz fluidised-bed reactor. The impregnated iron ore exhibited a greater degree of syngas conversion compared to the other samples examined. Iron ore based oxygen carrier’s syngas conversion increases with the number of oxidation and reduction cycles performed. The impregnated iron ore exhibited gaseous oxygen release over extended periods in an inert atmosphere and remained at a constant 0.2% O2 concentration by volume at the end of this inert period. This oxygen release would help ensure the efficient use of solid fuels. The impregnated iron ore’s reactivity for CH4 conversion was similar to the reactivity of its unmodified counterpart. The unmodified manganese ore converted CH4 to the greatest extent of all the samples tested here, while the impregnated manganese ore exhibited a decrease in reactivity with respect to syngas and CH4 conversion.EPSR

Thermal performance of different integration schemes for a solar tower aided coal-fired power system

A Solar Tower Aided Coal-fired Power (STACP) system utilizes a solar tower coupled to a conventional coal-fired power system to reduce pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions and the investment of solar energy facilities. This paper examines three different schemes for integrating solar energy into a conventional boiler. For each scheme, an energy and exergy analysis of a 600 MWe supercritical coal-fired power system is combined with 53 MWth of solar energy in both a fuel saving mode and a power boosting mode. The results show that, for all these integration schemes, the boiler’s efficiency and system’s efficiency are reduced. However, the standard coal consumption rate is lower in comparison to conventional power plants and the standard coal consumption rate in the fuel saving mode is lower than that in the power boosting mode for all three schemes. Comprehensively considering both the standard coal consumption rate and efficiency, the scheme that uses solar energy to heat superheat steam and subcooled feed-water is the best integration option. Compared with a coal-fired only system, the saved standard coal consumption rate of the above mentioned scheme in fuel saving mode and power boosting mode can reach up to 11.15 g/kWh and 11.11 g/kWh, respectively. Exergy analysis shows, for STACP system, exergy losses of boiler and solar field contribute over 88% of whole system’s exergy loss

Thermal performance of different integration schemes for a solar tower aided coal-fired power system

A Solar Tower Aided Coal-fired Power (STACP) system utilizes a solar tower coupled to a conventional coal-fired power system to reduce pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions and the investment of solar energy facilities. This paper examines three different schemes for integrating solar energy into a conventional boiler. For each scheme, an energy and exergy analysis of a 600 MWe supercritical coal-fired power system is combined with 53 MWth of solar energy in both a fuel saving mode and a power boosting mode. The results show that, for all these integration schemes, the boiler’s efficiency and system’s efficiency are reduced. However, the standard coal consumption rate is lower in comparison to conventional power plants and the standard coal consumption rate in the fuel saving mode is lower than that in the power boosting mode for all three schemes. Comprehensively considering both the standard coal consumption rate and efficiency, the scheme that uses solar energy to heat superheat steam and subcooled feed-water is the best integration option. Compared with a coal-fired only system, the saved standard coal consumption rate of the above mentioned scheme in fuel saving mode and power boosting mode can reach up to 11.15 g/kWh and 11.11 g/kWh, respectively. Exergy analysis shows, for STACP system, exergy losses of boiler and solar field contribute over 88% of whole system’s exergy loss