Enhance Resource Recovery Research Articles

Intended process water management concept for the mechanical biological treatment of municipal solid waste

Accumulating operational experience in both aerobic and anaerobic mechanical biological waste treatment (MBT) makes it increasingly obvious that controlled water management would substantially reduce the cost of MBT and also enhance resource recovery of the organic and inorganic fraction. The MBT plant at Gescher, Germany, is used as an example in order to determine the quantity and composition of process water and leachates from intensive and subsequent rotting, pressing water from anaerobic digestion and scrubber water from acid exhaust air treatment, and hence prepare an MBT water balance. The potential of, requirements for and limits to internal process water reuse as well as the possibilities of resource recovery from scrubber water are also examined. Finally, an assimilated process water management concept with the purpose of an extensive reduction of wastewater quantity and freshwater demand is presented.

Political commitment to CO2 capture and storage: evidence from government RD&D budgets

For CO2 capture and storage (CCS) to succeed as a mitigation strategy, political commitment is one of several prerequisites. This article offers an appraisal of political commitment to a CCS strategy among high-income countries in Europe and North America: Which governments are committed, and what particular interests and concerns do they seek to accommodate by supporting CCS? In order to answer these questions, new data are reported on government CCS research, development and demonstration (RD&D) budgets. RD&D budgets divided by GDP is used as an indicator of political commitment, and explanations are sought for cross-national differences. The analysis shows that fossil fuels reserves and extraction within a country has a very strong bearing on funding levels. Likely explanations include the potential for combining CCS with enhanced resource recovery. All large economies (population >50 million) have a funding program. The smaller states that provide funding (Norway, Canada, the Netherlands) have the highest funding levels relative to GDP. These findings suggest that high-income petroleum producing countries are likely to be leaders in promoting CCS and a favorable regulatory environment. The fact that all large, high-income countries in the two regions now display some interest in CCS further improves its political outlook.

Environmental Impact Evaluation of Conventional Fossil Fuel Production (Oil and Natural Gas) and Enhanced Resource Recovery with Potential CO2 Sequestration

Conventional oil and natural gas production were compared with two case studies of enhanced resource recovery along with the potential for CO2 sequestration applications. The first case study is a Norwegian enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project, and the second focuses on enhanced coal-bed methane (ECBM) recovery in Japan. Both cases or systems involved the recovery of CO2 gases from a coal-fired power plant, followed by compression, transportation, and final injection of the greenhouse gas into geological formations as a solution to mitigate global warming. A life-cycle assessment (LCA) method was applied to measure how each system, conventional as well as enhanced recovery methods, impacts the environment. The first set of results presented were the inventory of air emissions (CO, CO2, CH4, SOx, NOx, NH3, Pb, Hg, etc.), wastewater-containing acids and sulfides, and solid wastes released because of both fossil fuel production and energy usage from the power plant. The impact assessment results because of th...

Toward zero emissions from coal in China

China depends for most of its energy on coal – a situation that is likely to persist in the light of the abundance of its coal resources, the paucity of its oil and gas resources, and the reluctance of the government to allow China to become overly dependent on energy imports. The challenge is to find ways to use coal without the enormous air pollution damage caused by current conversion technologies and with greatly reduced carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. A coal energy system for China is proposed that could ultimately be characterized by near-zero emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. The key enabling technology is oxygen-blown (O 2 –blown) gasification to generate synthesis gas from coal. This technology is used in commercially ready integrated gasification combined-cycle power plants that can provide electricity with air pollutant emissions as low as emission levels for natural gas combined-cycle plants. O 2 -blown gasification is not yet used in China's energy sector, although the technology is well-established in China's chemical process industry. The key enabling strategy, which would often lead to attractive energy costs without further technological advances, is “polygeneration” – the co-production from synthesis gas of at least electricity and one or more clean synthetic fuels (e.g., dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) liquids, hydrogen (H 2 )) and often also chemicals, town gas, and/or industrial process heat. The products of polygeneration could be used in the near term to serve a wide range of energy needs with extremely low levels of air pollutant emissions. In such polygeneration configurations CO 2 can often be produced in relatively pure streams as a co-product as a result of processing to increase the synthetic fuel's hydrogen-to-carbon ratio. In the near term this CO 2 might be used profitably for enhanced oil recovery or enhanced recovery of methane from deep beds of unminable coal where resource recovery opportunities exist. For the longer term the potential exists for evolving the coal energy system to the co-production primarily of electricity and H 2 for serving urban areas, with most of the carbon in the coal ending up as CO 2 that is sequestered in geological reservoirs such as in depleted oil and natural gas fields and deep saline aquifers at low incremental cost – even where there are no opportunities for using the CO 2 for enhanced resource recovery. The H 2 so produced would be used for fueling zero-polluting fuel-cell vehicles, for distributed cogeneration (combined heat and power) applications in stationary fuel cells, and for cooking and heating applications as well. A third clean carbon-based synthetic fuel might also be needed for serving rural markets that would be difficult to serve with H 2 , unless there are breakthroughs in H 2 storage technology. DME is a strong candidate for becoming the “third” clean energy carrier for China. Evolving a coal-based energy system that would be characterized ultimately by near-zero emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases would probably involve shifting the center of gravity for central-station power generation to the chemical process industries that would ultimately be co-producing as their major products electricity, H 2 , and (perhaps) DME. Ongoing structural reforms in the electric power sector that encourage greater competition in power generation would facilitate the realization of this vision for coal.

00/03390 Intrinsic reaction kinetics of methane steam reforming on a nickel/zirconia anode

China depends for most of its energy on coal – a situation that is likely to persist in the light of the abundance of its coal resources, the paucity of its oil and gas resources, and the reluctance of the government to allow China to become overly dependent on energy imports. The challenge is to find ways to use coal without the enormous air pollution damage caused by current conversion technologies and with greatly reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A coal energy system for China is proposed that could ultimately be characterized by near-zero emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases.The key enabling technology is oxygen-blown (O2–blown) gasification to generate synthesis gas from coal. This technology is used in commercially ready integrated gasification combined-cycle power plants that can provide electricity with air pollutant emissions as low as emission levels for natural gas combined-cycle plants. O2-blown gasification is not yet used in China's energy sector, although the technology is well-established in China's chemical process industry.The key enabling strategy, which would often lead to attractive energy costs without further technological advances, is “polygeneration” – the co-production from synthesis gas of at least electricity and one or more clean synthetic fuels (e.g., dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) liquids, hydrogen (H2)) and often also chemicals, town gas, and/or industrial process heat. The products of polygeneration could be used in the near term to serve a wide range of energy needs with extremely low levels of air pollutant emissions.In such polygeneration configurations CO2 can often be produced in relatively pure streams as a co-product as a result of processing to increase the synthetic fuel's hydrogen-to-carbon ratio. In the near term this CO2 might be used profitably for enhanced oil recovery or enhanced recovery of methane from deep beds of unminable coal where resource recovery opportunities exist.For the longer term the potential exists for evolving the coal energy system to the co-production primarily of electricity and H2 for serving urban areas, with most of the carbon in the coal ending up as CO2 that is sequestered in geological reservoirs such as in depleted oil and natural gas fields and deep saline aquifers at low incremental cost – even where there are no opportunities for using the CO2 for enhanced resource recovery. The H2 so produced would be used for fueling zero-polluting fuel-cell vehicles, for distributed cogeneration (combined heat and power) applications in stationary fuel cells, and for cooking and heating applications as well.A third clean carbon-based synthetic fuel might also be needed for serving rural markets that would be difficult to serve with H2, unless there are breakthroughs in H2 storage technology. DME is a strong candidate for becoming the “third” clean energy carrier for China.Evolving a coal-based energy system that would be characterized ultimately by near-zero emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases would probably involve shifting the center of gravity for central-station power generation to the chemical process industries that would ultimately be co-producing as their major products electricity, H2, and (perhaps) DME. Ongoing structural reforms in the electric power sector that encourage greater competition in power generation would facilitate the realization of this vision for coal.

97/03871 Biological fossil CO 2 mitigation

China depends for most of its energy on coal – a situation that is likely to persist in the light of the abundance of its coal resources, the paucity of its oil and gas resources, and the reluctance of the government to allow China to become overly dependent on energy imports. The challenge is to find ways to use coal without the enormous air pollution damage caused by current conversion technologies and with greatly reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A coal energy system for China is proposed that could ultimately be characterized by near-zero emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases.The key enabling technology is oxygen-blown (O2–blown) gasification to generate synthesis gas from coal. This technology is used in commercially ready integrated gasification combined-cycle power plants that can provide electricity with air pollutant emissions as low as emission levels for natural gas combined-cycle plants. O2-blown gasification is not yet used in China's energy sector, although the technology is well-established in China's chemical process industry.The key enabling strategy, which would often lead to attractive energy costs without further technological advances, is “polygeneration” – the co-production from synthesis gas of at least electricity and one or more clean synthetic fuels (e.g., dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) liquids, hydrogen (H2)) and often also chemicals, town gas, and/or industrial process heat. The products of polygeneration could be used in the near term to serve a wide range of energy needs with extremely low levels of air pollutant emissions.In such polygeneration configurations CO2 can often be produced in relatively pure streams as a co-product as a result of processing to increase the synthetic fuel's hydrogen-to-carbon ratio. In the near term this CO2 might be used profitably for enhanced oil recovery or enhanced recovery of methane from deep beds of unminable coal where resource recovery opportunities exist.For the longer term the potential exists for evolving the coal energy system to the co-production primarily of electricity and H2 for serving urban areas, with most of the carbon in the coal ending up as CO2 that is sequestered in geological reservoirs such as in depleted oil and natural gas fields and deep saline aquifers at low incremental cost – even where there are no opportunities for using the CO2 for enhanced resource recovery. The H2 so produced would be used for fueling zero-polluting fuel-cell vehicles, for distributed cogeneration (combined heat and power) applications in stationary fuel cells, and for cooking and heating applications as well.A third clean carbon-based synthetic fuel might also be needed for serving rural markets that would be difficult to serve with H2, unless there are breakthroughs in H2 storage technology. DME is a strong candidate for becoming the “third” clean energy carrier for China.Evolving a coal-based energy system that would be characterized ultimately by near-zero emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases would probably involve shifting the center of gravity for central-station power generation to the chemical process industries that would ultimately be co-producing as their major products electricity, H2, and (perhaps) DME. Ongoing structural reforms in the electric power sector that encourage greater competition in power generation would facilitate the realization of this vision for coal.

Enhanced Resource Recovery by Beneficiation and Direct Acid Leaching of Fly Ash

ABSTRACTAn investigation was conducted into the use of beneficiated ash fractions as feed materials for direct acid leaching to recover Al and other metals. A low-Ca (1.4% CaO) ash was selected from which four fractions (classifier fines, classifier rejects, magnetic concentrate, and non-magnetics) were produced by mineral beneficiation methods. The raw ash and the four ash fractions were leached with 6 M HCl under reflux. Mass balance data were obtained to determine extraction efficiency for Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Na, K and Ti. It was found that size separation of the ash had a marked influence in enhancing extraction efficiency from the fine fraction for all of the elements studied except Fe. Extraction of Fe from the magnetic fraction was less efficient than from the non-magnetic fraction. Examination of the solid residue after leaching showed that, although most of the acid-soluble components were removed from the glassy phases of the ash, a significant part of the ash comprised non-reactive glass of high-Si content. A relationship between extractable Al in ash and leachable alkali and alkaline earth metals was identified and discussed in terms of glass modification theory.