Syngas Production, Storage, Compression and Use in Gas Turbines

This chapter analyses syngas production through pyrolysis and gasification, its compression and its use in gas turbines. Syngas compression can be performed during or after thermal treatment processes. Important points are discussed related to syngas ignition, syngas explosion limit at high temperatures and high pressures and syngas combustion kinetics. Kinetic aspects influence ignition and final emissions which are obtained at the completion of the combustion process. The chapter is organized into four subsections, dealing with (1) innovative syngas production plants, (2) syngas compressors and compression process, (3) syngas ignition in both heterogeneous and homogeneous systems and (4) syngas combustion kinetics and experimental methods. Particular attention is given to ignition regions that affect the kinetics, namely systems that operate at temperatures higher than 1000 K can have strong ignition, whereas those operating at lower temperatures have weak ignition. Keywords: Pyrogas Pyrolysis Ignition Syngas Compression GasificationacceptedVersio

Waste food reduction as a way to reduce resources and energy consumption in the Italian industrial sector: an IO-LCA analysis

Food production involves both agricultural and industrial activities which consume several resources among which: water, energy, land, minerals and chemicals. The efficiency in the use of the resources depends on the type of food which is produced and the adopted processes. In any case if food is discarded or lost at any step of the supply chain this represents a waste of energy and resources. For this reason, the LIFE project irexfo, coordinated by the University of Perugia has proposed a way to promote a business model aiming at both: the reduction of food losses and also the reuse of the not comestible food waste in biogas plants. The model has been tested in Umbria as a pilot region and in this study the results obtained are scaled up to a national level and applied to the Italian IO database reported in the EXIOBASE, to evaluate which could be the benefits of the application of the irexfo business model to the whole Italian agroindustry sector and also the interrelations between this sector and the Italian energy sector. The analysis is performed using SimaPro software 9.0, results are compared with those of similar studies which have been performed at European level. This is the first study of this kind focused on Italy

Coal power decarbonization via biomass co-firing with carbon capture and storage: Tradeoff between exergy loss and GHG reduction

8 figures, 8 tables.-- Supplementary information available.-- © 2023. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Co-firing of coal and biomass is a feasible pathway for low- or even negative-carbon transformation of power sector in countries that rely on coal. There are two main kinds of coal and biomass co-firing pathways: biomass gasification co-firing with pulverized coal (BGCPC) and biomass direct co-firing with pulverized coal (BDCPC). However, few attentions have been paid to the comparative study of techno-environmental assessments for the above two main technologies with or without carbon capture and storage (CCS). Here we present a comparative system evaluation framework based on chemical simulation and life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the energy performances and environmental impacts of different biomass co-firing and CCS technology combinations. A new metric, global warming potential of per unit exergy efficiency loss (GWPUEL) is proposed to reveal the trade-off between greenhouse gas (GHG) emission abatement and exergy efficiency loss. Results show that BGCPC-CCS units of all capacities can achieve negative life-cycle GHG emissions under 25% co-firing ratio scenario, but only 1000 MW BDCPC-CCS units can achieve near-zero life-cycle GHG emissions. Though 300 MW units show the minimum carbon reduction potential among all the selected capacities, they can achieve the most promising GWPUEL benefits for their mild exergy efficiency loss after CCS retrofit. This indicator provides a comprehensive viewpoint to weigh the compromise between energy performance and environmental burdens of different bio-based and CCS technology combinations, further facilitating various decarbonization schemes of global power sector under the carbon neutrality target.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 52076099, 42201315, and 72293601] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [HUST: YCJJ 202203014].Peer reviewe

LCA Analysis of Biocarbon Pellet Production to Substitute Coke

Biocarbon is a promising alternative to fossil reductants for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing sustainability of the metallurgical industry. In comparison to conventional reductants (i.e., coke and coal), biocarbon has low density, poor mechanical strength and high reactivity. Densification is an efficient way to upgrade biocarbon and improve its undesirable properties. In this study, woody biocarbon is compressed into pellets using pyrolysis oils as a binder. In fact both pyrolysis oils and charcoal can be produced through the slow pyrolysis process and represent respectively the liquid product and the solid product. Pyrolysis gases can be used to sustain the process. Mass and energy balance of the biocarbon pelletization process are calculated and used to implement a LCA analysis. Final use of the produced biocarbon will be in the silicon industry in Norway.LCA Analysis of Biocarbon Pellet Production to Substitute CokepublishedVersio

Resection of high-grade glioma involving language areas assisted by multimodal techniques under general anesthesia: a retrospective study

Abstract Background Multimodal techniques-assisted resection of glioma under general anesthesia (GA) has been shown to achieve similar clinical outcomes as awake craniotomy (AC) in some studies. In this study, we aim to validate the use of multimodal techniques can achieve the maximal safe resection of high-grade glioma involving language areas (HGILAs) under GA. Methods HGILAs cases were reviewed and collected between January 2009 and December 2020 in our center. Patients were separated into multimodal group (using neuronavigation, intraoperative MRI combined with direct electrical stimulation [DES] and neuromonitoring [IONM]) and conventional group (neuronavigation alone) and clinical outcomes were compared between groups. Studies of HGILAs were reviewed systematically and the meta-analysis results of previous (GA or AC) studies were compared with our results. Results Finally, there were 263 patients in multimodal group and 137 patients in conventional group. Compared to the conventional group, the multimodal group achieved the higher median EOR (100% versus 94.32%, P < 0.001) and rate of gross total resection (GTR) (73.8% versus 36.5%, P < 0.001) and the lower incidence of permanent language deficit (PLD) (9.5% versus 19.7%, P = 0.004). The multimodal group achieved the longer median PFS (16.8 versus 10.3 months, P < 0.001) and OS (23.7 versus 15.7 months, P < 0.001) than the conventional group. The multimodal group achieved a higher rate of GTR than the cohorts in previous multimodal studies under GA and AC (73.8% versus 55.7% [95%CI 32.0–79.3%] versus 53.4% [35.5–71.2%]). The multimodal group had a lower incidence of PLD than the cohorts in previous multimodal studies under GA (9.5% versus 14.0% [5.8–22.1%]) and our incidence of PLD was a little higher than that of previous multimodal studies under AC (9.5% versus 7.5% [3.7–11.2%]). Our multimodal group also achieved a relative longer survival than previous studies. Conclusions Surgery assisted by multimodal techniques can achieve maximal safe resection for HGILAs under GA. Further prospective studies are needed to compare GA with AC for HGILAs

LCA Analysis of Biocarbon Pellet Production to Substitute Coke

Biocarbon is a promising alternative to fossil reductants for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing sustainability of the metallurgical industry. In comparison to conventional reductants (i.e., coke and coal), biocarbon has low density, poor mechanical strength and high reactivity. Densification is an efficient way to upgrade biocarbon and improve its undesirable properties. In this study, woody biocarbon is compressed into pellets using pyrolysis oils as a binder. In fact both pyrolysis oils and charcoal can be produced through the slow pyrolysis process and represent respectively the liquid product and the solid product. Pyrolysis gases can be used to sustain the process. Mass and energy balance of the biocarbon pelletization process are calculated and used to implement a LCA analysis. Final use of the produced biocarbon will be in the silicon industry in Norway

Substitution of coke with pelletized biocarbon in the European and Chinese steel industries: An LCA analysis

16 figures, 2 tables.According to the Financial Times the steel industry emissions accounted for 7–9% of total greenhouse gases emissions worldwide in 2019. The main contribution to those emissions is directly related to the use of fossil coke and coal as fuels and reducing agents. Four solutions can be adopted to address such issue: direct reduction with hydrogen or syngas, electric arc furnaces, carbon capture and storage and use of biofuels (for example the so called “biocarbon”). These solutions can be also integrated. We propose applying innovative methods to produce biocarbon by pelletizing charcoal with pyrolysis oils and reheating it at high temperatures, to obtain materials with sufficient hardness, reduced porosity and proper reactivity. Once upgraded biocarbon can comply with the requirements usually needed for metallurgical coke. We present in this paper the results of a technical and economic analysis plus an environmental analysis on the expected final use of biocarbon in the silicon and steel industry.This work has been partially sustained by i-REXFO LIFE (LIFE16ENV/IT/000547), a project funded by the EU under the LIFE 2016 program. SINTEF Energy Research acknowledges the financial support from the Research Council of Norway and a number of industrial partners through the project BioCarbUp (“Optimising the biocarbon value chain for sustainable metallurgical industry”, grant number 294679/E20).Peer reviewe

Production and use of biochar from lignin and lignin-rich residues (such as digestate and olive stones) for wastewater treatment

20 figures, 7 tables.-- Supplementary information available.-- © 2021. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Clean water is an essential resource for life, and its demand is continuously increasing with the rapid growth in population, while the freshwater reserves are also depleting. A large amount of wastewater is released by different industries, which is affecting the environment as well as polluting the freshwater reserves. Recycling and treatment of wastewater are highly essential to meet the demand for clean water and to protect the environment. Activated carbon can be used in primary, secondary and tertiary wastewater treatment steps. It can be used to capture pollutants which stop microbial activity or to produce clean water with high purity. About 3 million tons of activated carbon are produced per year and it is mainly used for fluid purification. The objective of this review is to investigate the preparation and production of biochar from lignin which is an important resource available in great quantities (about 100 Million tons per year) and the practical application of it for wastewater treatment. Biochar can be produced through pyrolysis (at temperatures of 600-700 °C) and hydrothermal carbonization (at temperature between 180-300 °C). Subsequent activation can be performed in two ways (physical and chemical), usually at temperatures between 600-800 °C. The quality of biochar and activated carbon produced from lignin-rich residue can be very high, even though the costs also are higher respect to other fossil derived materials (carbon black, lignite and pet coke).The contribution of COST Action LignoCOST (CA17128), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), in promoting interaction, exchange of knowledge and collaborations in the field of lignin valorization is gratefully acknowledged. This work was developed during an STSM promoted by the e-COST European Cooperation in Science and Technology, among the UK Biochar research center at Edinburgh University UK, the BioCarbUp project at SINTEF Energy Research and the Biomass research center at Perugia University Italy. The Marie Curie GTCLC-NEG project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101018756 is gratefully ackowledged. The 2014 Surfoly project: SUstainable Ruminants Feed with OLive pomace and polYphenols enriched charred olive stone, funded by the PRIMA program of the European Union is gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Decarbonizing university campuses through the production of biogas from food waste: an LCA analysis

The amount of food waste production in China catering industry is approximately 17–18 Mt per year. This sector accounts for about 20% of the total food losses in China. China's National Development and Reform commission has ratified 100 pilot cities in five batches to implement food waste treatment projects. Almost the 80% of these projects is based on anaerobic digestion. So, it is very important to understand clearly which is the environmental impact of these new bioenergy, or waste to energy, chains (especially at a small scale). For this reason, a Life Cycle Assessment case study is presented in this work, based on an anaerobic digestion plant, fed with the non edible food waste produced by 29 canteens, which operate inside the campus of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). The analyzed impacts are: Climate Change, Acidification, Eutrophication, and Photochemical Oxidation. The functional unit is represented by 1 kWh of produced electricity. This work demonstrates that small scale biogas plants can be realized inside big Chinese University campuses and can efficiently reduce the environmental impact of food waste management, especially if the pyrolysis process is coupled to dispose the digestate