Bioenergy potential in Mexico—status and perspectives on a high spatial distribution

This paper aims to estimate the potential to use biomass for energy provision in Mexico for today and the two decades to come. Therefore, a novel approach is developed and applied for relevant biomass resources considering technical aspects as well as sustainability constraints. The results of this approach shows that Mexico has a significant potential of biomass for energy production (2,228 PJ/a on average), which represents roughly 48 % of the total final energy consumption by 2010. Based on the official outlooks, it is expected that in the coming two decades, this potential might slightly increase (2,453 PJ/a in 2030 on average), since the biogas potential from organic residues from municipalities and livestock (i.e., animal manure) might rise due to the increase in food production for the growing population. On the other hand, the land available for energy crops production and the provision of forestry wood residues are expected to decrease due the same premise. Additionally, this method offers the opportunity to present the results in a high spatial disaggregation. This is essential to develop strategies and scenarios of an increased use of biomass because bioenergy is usually a source for local and decentralized energy provision. In addition, the methodology proposed here may hold true for other countries with a considerable lack of primary data. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Verification of Experimentally Determined Permeability and Form Coefficients of Al2O3 Ceramic Foam Filters (CFF) at High and Low Flow Velocity Using a CFD Model

Filtration using Ceramic Foam Filters (CFFs) is a method widely used to separate inclusions from molten aluminium. In the present work, the specific permeability and form drag coefficients of nominal 50 mm thick commercial Al2O3-based CFFs, of grades 30, 50, 65 and 80, have been calculated from pressure drop experiments using high (60–500 mm s−1) and low (0.2–10 mm s−1) water velocities. Moreover, 2D axial symmetric Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models have been developed, using COMSOL Multiphysics® to validate the experimental results. The empirically obtained values were defined as global parameters used to model the pressure, as well as the velocity fields in the water pipes and in the CFFs. The modelled pressure drop over the filter thickness for the high water velocity experiments showed < ± 1% deviation from the corresponding experimental results for all CFF grades. Moreover, the developed model also showed good agreement with the experimental results obtained from the low water velocity experiments, where the deviation of the pressure drop for the CFF samples of grade 30, 50 and 65 were ≤ ± 4.6% and for CFF samples of grade 80 ≤ ± 13.4%