Energy-intensive Industrial Applications Research Articles

Comparison of membrane-based pre-and post-combustion co2 capture options applied in energy-intensive industrial applications

Comparison of membrane-based pre-and post-combustion co2 capture options applied in energy-intensive industrial applications

Techno-economic and environmental assessment of flexible operation for decarbonized super-critical power plants using reactive gas–liquid absorption

Reactive gas–liquid absorption is currently one of the most technological and commercial mature decarbonization solution for energy-intensive industrial applications. This decarbonization system is based on chemical absorption - desorption cycle using alkanolamine solutions. In this work, the reactive gas–liquid absorption was assessed from techno-economic and environmental perspective for decarbonization of super-critical power plants as well as to improve the plant time flexibility. The assessed coal and lignite plant concepts generate 1000 MW net output with 90% carbon capture rate. As benchmark cases, the plant designs without CO2 capture were also assessed to quantify the decarbonization energy and cost penalties. Detailed evaluations cover the following aspects: decarbonized power generation by chemical scrubbing with / without solvent storage facilities; set-up of an integrated assessment methodology; evaluation of main techno-economic and environmental performance indicators. A key novelty element of this work represents the usage of solvent storage to improve the flexibility of decarbonized power plant. Base-load operation and flexible part-load operation with lean & rich solvent storage were both evaluated to assess the flexibility impact on overall performance indicators. The time flexible solution based on solvent storage reduces the specific capital cost by about 11% and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) by about 7–9%.

High redox performance of Y0.5Ba0.5CoO3−δ for thermochemical oxygen production and separation

The efficient production and separation of oxygen is essential for numerous energy-intensive industrial applications in the fuel and mineral processing sectors.

Reducing Carbon Footprint of Energy-Intensive Applications by CO2 Capture Technologies: An Integrated Technical and Environmental Assessment

Reducing the CO2 emissions from energy production sector as well as from other energy-intensive industrial applications (e.g. metallurgy, cement, chemistry etc.) is of great importance today. Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies are under development to be implemented in fossil fuel-based industrial applications to reduce the carbon footprint. The main aim of this paper is to present, through illustrative coal-based examples, the CO2 capture technologies used to reduce the carbon footprint of energy-intensive processes. The assessments are focused on conceptual design, modelling and simulation, process integration and technical and environmental assessment of CO2 capture with potential applications in industrial sectors with high greenhouse gas emissions e.g. power generation, metallurgy, cement, chemicals.Two reactive gas-liquid and gas-solid carbon capture technologies are evaluated through illustrative industrial size examples. The CO2 capture rate is set to 90 %. Various coal-based processes were considered as illustrative examples e.g. combustion, gasification, cement production, integrated steel mill, coal to chemicals etc. The proposed conceptual designs were modelled and simulated using process flow modelling software ChemCAD. The mass and energy balances as well as the thermal integration tools were used to quantify the key technical and environmental performance indicators (e.g. fuel consumption, overall energy efficiency, carbon capture rate, energy penalty for CO2 capture, specific CO2 emissions etc.). The integrated assessments show that CCUS technologies have significant advantages in reducing the environmental impact of energy-intensive industrial applications e.g. cutting the specific CO2 emissions by about 60 - 90 %.

Falling-droplet-enhanced filmwise condensation in the presence of non-condensable gas

Enhancing condensation heat transfer in the presence of non-condensable gas (NCG) is of fundamental importance for a wide range of energy-intensive industrial applications. Heat transfer performance of vapor condensation in the presence of NCG is dominated by the initial nucleation and mass transfer of vapor molecules in the diffusion layer near the condensing surface. Most of the approaches based on accelerating condensate liquid removal cannot effectively improve the nucleation and vapor transport, which makes it challenging to enhance vapor condensation in the presence of NCG. Here, we present a hydrophilic copper surface with interval fluorocarbon-coated hydrophobic bumps to enable falling-droplet-enhanced filmwise condensation in the presence of NCG. Benefiting from the reduced nucleation energy barrier on the hydrophilic surface, water vapor can rapidly nucleate and form a thin liquid film on the surface. Such condensate film can be periodically removed from the interval hydrophobic bumps to prevent the thickness growth of liquid film along the vertical surface, which is attributed to the surface adhesion reduction of condensate liquid on the hydrophobic bumps. More importantly, the removed condensate liquid departing from the hydrophobic bumps can fall off in the form of droplets to strongly disturb the NCG diffusion boundary layer. Numerical calculations and visualization experiments quantitatively reveal that the falling droplets can significantly improve water vapor transport from the bulk vapor to condensing surface for droplet growth. High-performance heat transfer of the enhanced filmwise condensation in the presence of NCG is experimentally demonstrated to be better than both the conventional filmwise and dropwise condensation while avoiding the durability issues of ultra-thin hydrophobic coatings by utilizing durable fluorocarbon-coated bumps.

An optimized graphene oxide self-assembly surface for significantly enhanced boiling heat transfer

The enhancements in boiling heat transfer, i.e., critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) can bring immediate benefits to improve the safety, efficiency and cost of heat energy transfer and conversion systems, leading to substantial global energy savings and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The enhanced boiling surfaces with great durability are highly desired for energy-intensive industrial applications. Here an optimized graphene oxide (GO) self-assembly surface for significantly enhanced boiling is developed, which could be readily fabricated utilizing the nucleate boiling self-assembly method. The optimal GO boiling surface produces remarkable improvements in boiling heat transfer performance (a CHF of 261 W cm-2 and a HTC of 9.1 W cm-2 K−1), which is among the highest values ever reported for pool boiling heat transfer on the planar enhanced surfaces. Additionally, it shows a good durability. The prominent performance can be attributed to the formation of interconnected and highly thermally conductive GO laminate film with moderate thickness on the substrate, which facilitates rapid cooling and rewetting of the local hot/dry regions, as well as bubble nucleation, thereby delay the occurrence of film boiling regime. The proposed strategy in current work is highly scalable and possesses enormous potentials in pragmatic applications.

Carbon capture and utilisation technologies applied to energy conversion systems and other energy-intensive industrial applications

Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from heat and power sector as well as from other energy-intensive industrial applications is of paramount importance today. Various carbon capture technologies can be applied to reduce the CO2 emissions from the polluting process industries. This paper is presenting, through various illustrative coal-based examples, the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies used to reduce the carbon footprint of the overall processes. The evaluations were focused on the conceptual design and the technical & environmental assessment of CCUS technologies with potential applications in power generation, iron & steel, cement and chemicals (including captured CO2 utilisation for production of various chemicals e.g. methanol, substitute natural gas, synthetic fuel).Two reactive gas-liquid and gas-solid methods were evaluated through illustrative examples. The first evaluated CO2 capture option is based on gas-liquid absorption using chemical solvents (alkanolamines). The second capture option is based on calcium looping system. The carbon capture rate is set to 90%. Various coal-based processes were considered as illustrative examples e.g. combustion, gasification, cement production, integrated steel mill, coal to chemicals etc. The proposed conceptual designs were simulated; the mass & energy balances as well as the thermal integration tools were used to quantify the key technical and environmental performance indicators. The assessments show that CCUS technologies have significant advantages in reducing the environmental impact of energy-intensive industrial applications and simultaneously to produce useful products.