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The aim for this study has been to evaluate the integration potential of turbo-machinery into the production processes of biofuels. The focus has been on bio-fuel produced via biomass gasification; mainly methanol and synthetic natural gas. The research has been divided into two parts; gas and steam turbine applications. Steam power generation has a given role within the fuel production process due to the large amounts of excess chemical reaction heat. However, large amounts of the steam produced are used within the production process and is thus not available for power production. Therefore, this study has been focused on lowering the steam demand in the production process, in order to increase the power production. One possibility that has been evaluated is humidification of the gasification agent in order to lower the demand for high quality steam in the gasifier and replace it with waste heat. The results show that the power penalty for the gasification process could be lowered by 18-25%, in the specific cases that have been studied. Another step in the process that requires a significant amount of steam is the CO2-removal. This step can be avoided by adding hydrogen in order to convert all carbon into biofuel. This is also a way to store hydrogen (e.g. from wind energy) together with green carbon. The results imply that a larger amount of sustainable fuels can be produced from the same quantity of biomass. The applications for gas turbines within the biofuel production process are less obvious. There are large differences between the bio-syngas and natural gas in energy content and combustion properties which are technical problems when using high efficient modern gas turbines. This study therefore proposes the integration of a natural gas fired gas turbine; a hybrid plant. The heat from the fuel production and the heat recovery from the gas turbine flue gas are used in a joint steam cycle. Simulations of the hybrid cycle in methanol production have shown good, QC 20110128

This thesis concerns biogas-operated fuel cells. Fuel cell technology may contribute to more efficient energy use, reduce emissions and also perhaps revolutionize current energy systems. The technology is, however, still immature and has not yet been implemented as dominant in any application or niche market. Research and development is currently being carried out to investigate whether fuel cells can live up to their full potential and to further advance the technology. The research of thesis contributes by exploring the potential of using fuel cells as energy converters of biogas to electricity. The work includes results from four different experimental test facilities and concerns experiments performed at cell, stack and fuel cell system levels. The studies on cell and stack level have focused on the influence of CO, CO2 and air bleed on the current distribution during transient operation. The dynamic response has been evaluated on a single cell, a segmented cell and at stack level. Two fuel cell systems, a 4 kW PEFC system and a 5 kW SOFC system have been operated on upgraded biogas. A significant outcome is that the possibility of operating both PEFCs and SOFCs on biogas has been established. No interruptions or rapid performance loss could be associated with the upgraded biogas during operation. From the studies at cell and stack level, it is clear that CO causes significant changes in the current distribution in a PEFC; air bleed may recover the uneven current distribution and also the drop in cell voltage due to CO and CO2 poisoning. The recovery of cell performance during air bleed occurs evenly over the electrode surface even when the O2 partial pressure is far too low to fully recover the CO poisoning. The O2 supplied to the anode reacts on the anode catalyst and no O2 was measured at the cell outlet for air bleed levels up to 5 %. Reformed biogas and other gases with high CO2 content are thus, from dilution and CO-poisoning perspectives, suitable for PEF, QC20100708

With growing awareness of global warming and fear of political instability caused by oil depletion, the need for a society with a sustainable energy system has been brought to the fore. A promising technology often mentioned as a key component in such a system is the fuel cell technology, i.e. the energy conversion technology in focus in this thesis. The hopes and expectations on fuel cells are high and sometimes unrealistically positive. However, as an emerging technology, much remains to be proven and the proper use of the technology in terms of suitable applications, integration with society and extent of use is still under debate. This thesis is a contribution to the debate, presenting results from two fuel cell demonstration projects, looking into the introduction of fuel cells on the market, discussing the prospects and concerns for the near-term future and commenting on the potential use in a future sustainable energy system. Bringing fuel cells to reality implies finding near-term niche applications and markets where fuel cell systems may be competitive. In a sense fuel cells are already a reality as they have been demonstrated in various applications world-wide. However, in many of the envisioned applications fuel cells are far from being competitive and sometimes also the environmental benefit of using fuel cells in a given application may be questioned. Bringing reality to fuel cells implies emphasising the need for realistic expectations and pointing out that the first markets have to be based on the currently available technology and not the visions of what fuel cells could be in the future. The results from the demonstration projects show that further development and research on especially the durability for fuel cell systems is crucial and a general recommendation is to design the systems for high reliability and durability rather than striving towards higher energy efficiencies. When reliability and durability are achieved fuel cell systems may be in, QC 20100909, Energy Systems Programme, Clean Urban Transport for Europe, GlashusEtt

Wood is an interesting alternative to fossil fuels. It is CO2-neutral and widely available. However it is a difficult fuel to handle which features a low energy content. Thus technologies for wood thermal conversion need to be improved. This work concerns the development of a comprehensive two-dimensional mathematical model describing the pyrolysis of large wood particles and its implementation in a Fortran program. The model has been continuously tested and improved by experimental results obtained in a reactor for single particle pyrolysis (SPAR) at the Division of Physical Chemistry at Göteborg University. The first part of the thesis (Paper I) presents a kinetic study of the pyrolysis of large wood particles, based on experiments carried out in the SPAR. Three pyrolysis kinetic schemes were selected for later inclusion in a model featuring heat and mass transfer. Paper II concerns the addition of a sub-model for heat and mass transfer to the three kinetic schemes. The resulting model for large wood particles has been tested against experiments in the SPAR. A scheme based on two competing reactions developed from experiments at low temperature pyrolysis in the SPAR was found to perform well but its empirical nature limits its validity to the experimental conditions of the SPAR. A scheme from the literature based on TGA experiments appeared promising, especially when planning to enhance it with secondary reactions. Paper III deals with the development of shrinkage models for 2D cylindrical particles. The predicted mass loss, size variation and surface temperature were tested against experiments carried out in the SPAR. The shrinkage does not a?ect the pyrolysis rate or the surface temperature in the conditions prevailing in the SPAR. Paper IV investigates the influence of different shrinkage models and the geometry on the heating rate of a shrinking particle. Shrinkage influences the heating rate positively by increasing the conductive heat flow and negatively by, QC 20100624

Black liquors are presently combusted in recovery boilers where the inorganic cooking chemicals are recovered and the energy in the organic material is converted to steam and electricity. A new technology, developed by Chemrec AB, is black liquor gasification (BLG). BLG has more to offer compared to the recovery boiler process, in terms of on-site generation of electric power, liquid fuel and process chemicals. A prerequisite for both optimization of existing processes and the commercialization of BLG is better understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved including interactions with the refractory lining. The chemistry in the BLG process is very complex and to minimize extensive and expensive time-consuming studies otherwise required accurate and reliable model descriptions are needed for a full understanding of most chemical and physical processes as well as for up-scaling of the new BLG processes. However, by using these calculated model results in practice, the errors in the state of the art thermochemical data have to be considered. An extensive literature review was therefore performed to update the data needed for unary, binary and higher order systems. The results from the review reviled that there is a significant range of uncertainty for several condensed phases and a few gas species. This resulted in experimental re-determinations of the binary phase diagrams sodium carbonate-sodium sulfide (Na2CO3-Na2S) and sodium sulfate-sodium sulfide (Na2SO4-Na2S) using High Temperature Microscopy (HTM), High Temperature X-ray Diffraction (HT-XRD) and Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA). For the Na2CO3-Na2S system, measurements were carried out in dry inert atmosphere at temperatures from 25 to 1200 °C. To examine the influence of pure CO2 atmosphere on the melting behavior, HTM experiments in the same temperature interval were made. The results include re-determination of liquidus curves, in the Na2CO3 rich area, melting points of the pure components

This thesis is studying the heatsinks new designs for copper heatsinks which utilizes modelling and simulation by CFD, construction of prototypes and experimental works. Challenges and complications in manufacturing of copper heatsinks are expressed and finding the solutions to these hindrances involve in this work. Numerical efforts supported by fluent are made to promote investigation and approaching the goal in which serves the new opportunities for wider application of copper material in heat sinks. However the thermal conductivity of copper is about double as aluminium but still aluminium heatsinks are commonly used for heat dissipation in computers. Comparing of heat performance of two analogous heatsink of different materials, aluminium and copper, is conducted by numerical analysis in the CFD environment. In addition to larger surface area and airflow velocity another solution for enhancement of heat dissipation is suggested. Manufacturing solutions of copper heatsinks are proposed which will facilitate fabrication of more high performance copper heatsinks than the current heavy and expensive models. Our first copper heat sink model is designed exclusively based on the technical observations and analyses of numerical simulation of two identical copper and aluminium heatsinks by CFD and as well as manufacturability concerns. This heat sink is fabricated mechanically and is tested by a number of heat sources and high sensitive devices such as adhesive K type thermocouple, data acquisition 34970A in associated with HP Bench Link program. An extent experimental work on aluminium heatsinks, integrated with forced convection, is performed in order to measure their thermal capacities. Comparison of the heat performance of a typical aluminium heatsink, which was the best among the all aluminium heat sinks and proposed copper heatsink under identical experimental conditions, is performed. Also in some numerical efforts, optimizing and predicting of the therm

Black liquors are presently combusted in recovery boilers where the inorganic cooking chemicals are recovered and the energy in the organic material is converted to steam and electricity. A new technology, developed by Chemrec AB, is black liquor gasification (BLG). BLG has more to offer compared to the recovery boiler process, in terms of on-site generation of electric power, liquid fuel and process chemicals. A prerequisite for both optimization of existing processes and the commercialization of BLG is better understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved including interactions with the refractory lining. The chemistry in the BLG process is very complex and to minimize extensive and expensive time-consuming studies otherwise required accurate and reliable model descriptions are needed for a full understanding of most chemical and physical processes as well as for up-scaling of the new BLG processes. However, by using these calculated model results in practice, the errors in the state of the art thermochemical data have to be considered. An extensive literature review was therefore performed to update the data needed for unary, binary and higher order systems. The results from the review reviled that there is a significant range of uncertainty for several condensed phases and a few gas species. This resulted in experimental re-determinations of the binary phase diagrams sodium carbonate-sodium sulfide (Na2CO3-Na2S) and sodium sulfate-sodium sulfide (Na2SO4-Na2S) using High Temperature Microscopy (HTM), High Temperature X-ray Diffraction (HT-XRD) and Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA). For the Na2CO3-Na2S system, measurements were carried out in dry inert atmosphere at temperatures from 25 to 1200 °C. To examine the influence of pure CO2 atmosphere on the melting behavior, HTM experiments in the same temperature interval were made. The results include re-determination of liquidus curves, in the Na2CO3 rich area, melting points of the pure components

This thesis is studying the heatsinks new designs for copper heatsinks which utilizes modelling and simulation by CFD, construction of prototypes and experimental works. Challenges and complications in manufacturing of copper heatsinks are expressed and finding the solutions to these hindrances involve in this work. Numerical efforts supported by fluent are made to promote investigation and approaching the goal in which serves the new opportunities for wider application of copper material in heat sinks. However the thermal conductivity of copper is about double as aluminium but still aluminium heatsinks are commonly used for heat dissipation in computers. Comparing of heat performance of two analogous heatsink of different materials, aluminium and copper, is conducted by numerical analysis in the CFD environment. In addition to larger surface area and airflow velocity another solution for enhancement of heat dissipation is suggested. Manufacturing solutions of copper heatsinks are proposed which will facilitate fabrication of more high performance copper heatsinks than the current heavy and expensive models. Our first copper heat sink model is designed exclusively based on the technical observations and analyses of numerical simulation of two identical copper and aluminium heatsinks by CFD and as well as manufacturability concerns. This heat sink is fabricated mechanically and is tested by a number of heat sources and high sensitive devices such as adhesive K type thermocouple, data acquisition 34970A in associated with HP Bench Link program. An extent experimental work on aluminium heatsinks, integrated with forced convection, is performed in order to measure their thermal capacities. Comparison of the heat performance of a typical aluminium heatsink, which was the best among the all aluminium heat sinks and proposed copper heatsink under identical experimental conditions, is performed. Also in some numerical efforts, optimizing and predicting of the therm

The main objective of this investigation is to determine the effect of different physical parameters on the performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic compounds. In this respect, the effects of irrigation and water content of packings on the removal efficiency of bed in different pollutant loading rates, and gas phase flow rates, is studied. Alpha-pinene, which is produced from variety of industrial wood products, pulp and paper industries, and fragrance production units, has been selected as a model compound. Since the effectiveness of biofiltration depends strongly upon water solubility of compounds, in the case of alpha-pinene (2.5 ppm, at 25 ◦C), the process of waste gas treatment is faced with difficulties. In this paper, it is shown that performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic contaminants, declines due to irrigation. This reduction is detected by an increase in the outlet concentration from 11% up to 22.5%. Its magnitude depends on the gas velocity inside the biofilter and outlet concentration of the bed. The result indicated that pore blocking along the bed has less effect on the performance reduction than diffusion coefficient. Also the inhibitory effects of velocity on biodegradation are considerably higher than the effects of concentration. In addition, this compost-based biofilter shows noteworthy higher elimination capacities in comparison with previous studied biofiltration systems. In this study, a maximum elimination capacity of 227 gm−3 of packing h−1 is achieved by 95% of removal efficiency. The maximum concentration in the inlet gas was 650 mgm−3. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The main objective of this investigation is to determine the effect of different physical parameters on the performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic compounds. In this respect, the effects of irrigation and water content of packings on the removal efficiency of bed in different pollutant loading rates, and gas phase flow rates, is studied. Alpha-pinene, which is produced from variety of industrial wood products, pulp and paper industries, and fragrance production units, has been selected as a model compound. Since the effectiveness of biofiltration depends strongly upon water solubility of compounds, in the case of alpha-pinene (2.5 ppm, at 25 ◦C), the process of waste gas treatment is faced with difficulties. In this paper, it is shown that performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic contaminants, declines due to irrigation. This reduction is detected by an increase in the outlet concentration from 11% up to 22.5%. Its magnitude depends on the gas velocity inside the biofilter and outlet concentration of the bed. The result indicated that pore blocking along the bed has less effect on the performance reduction than diffusion coefficient. Also the inhibitory effects of velocity on biodegradation are considerably higher than the effects of concentration. In addition, this compost-based biofilter shows noteworthy higher elimination capacities in comparison with previous studied biofiltration systems. In this study, a maximum elimination capacity of 227 gm−3 of packing h−1 is achieved by 95% of removal efficiency. The maximum concentration in the inlet gas was 650 mgm−3.

The main objective of this investigation is to determine the effect of different physical parameters on the performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic compounds. In this respect, the effects of irrigation and water content of packings on the removal efficiency of bed in different pollutant loading rates, and gas phase flow rates, is studied. Alpha-pinene, which is produced from variety of industrial wood products, pulp and paper industries, and fragrance production units, has been selected as a model compound. Since the effectiveness of biofiltration depends strongly upon water solubility of compounds, in the case of alpha-pinene (2.5 ppm, at 25 ◦C), the process of waste gas treatment is faced with difficulties. In this paper, it is shown that performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic contaminants, declines due to irrigation. This reduction is detected by an increase in the outlet concentration from 11% up to 22.5%. Its magnitude depends on the gas velocity inside the biofilter and outlet concentration of the bed. The result indicated that pore blocking along the bed has less effect on the performance reduction than diffusion coefficient. Also the inhibitory effects of velocity on biodegradation are considerably higher than the effects of concentration. In addition, this compost-based biofilter shows noteworthy higher elimination capacities in comparison with previous studied biofiltration systems. In this study, a maximum elimination capacity of 227 gm−3 of packing h−1 is achieved by 95% of removal efficiency. The maximum concentration in the inlet gas was 650 mgm−3. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The main objective of this investigation is to determine the effect of different physical parameters on the performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic compounds. In this respect, the effects of irrigation and water content of packings on the removal efficiency of bed in different pollutant loading rates, and gas phase flow rates, is studied. Alpha-pinene, which is produced from variety of industrial wood products, pulp and paper industries, and fragrance production units, has been selected as a model compound. Since the effectiveness of biofiltration depends strongly upon water solubility of compounds, in the case of alpha-pinene (2.5 ppm, at 25 ◦C), the process of waste gas treatment is faced with difficulties. In this paper, it is shown that performance of biofilters, treating hydrophobic contaminants, declines due to irrigation. This reduction is detected by an increase in the outlet concentration from 11% up to 22.5%. Its magnitude depends on the gas velocity inside the biofilter and outlet concentration of the bed. The result indicated that pore blocking along the bed has less effect on the performance reduction than diffusion coefficient. Also the inhibitory effects of velocity on biodegradation are considerably higher than the effects of concentration. In addition, this compost-based biofilter shows noteworthy higher elimination capacities in comparison with previous studied biofiltration systems. In this study, a maximum elimination capacity of 227 gm−3 of packing h−1 is achieved by 95% of removal efficiency. The maximum concentration in the inlet gas was 650 mgm−3. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.