Heavy Fossil Fuels Research Articles

Energy analysis and environmental impact assessment for self-sufficient non-interconnected islands: The case of Nisyros island

The European continent is surrounded by islands, which even though geographically and socially diverse, share common energy burdens regarding heavy fossil fuels reliance. More specifically, the non-interconnected islands (NII) encounter unique challenges in the decarbonization processes, rendering them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of such transitions. Numerous studies have been conducted to address such emerging issues. However, a research gap exists, as most of the proposed RES-related grid interventions neglect actual historical data in favor of a more theoretical, but possibly misleading, approach. In addition, potential grid stability concerns arising from high levels of RES penetration remain unaddressed. To this end, the objective of the present study focuses on addressing mainly electrical grid stability and resiliency considerations (e.g. imbalances, frequency fluctuations, voltage unbalance rate, for the case of energy islands, as in the case of the NII Greek island of Nisyros). Two sustainable scenarios including novel technologies (e.g. flywheel instead of conventional BESS, a hybrid transformer, vehicle-to-grid chargers) are examined from an energetic and environmental perspective, for short- (2030) and mid-term (2050) implementation horizons, reaching electrical and energy self-sufficiency targets up to 50% and 95%, respectively. For the energy analysis, capacity-investment optimization problems, power flow simulations and specialized transient simulations were conducted, while for the environmental impact assessment a novel in-house developed tool was utilized. As a result, the proposed interventions can result in significant fossil fuel cost savings of about 88%, reduced CO2 emissions up to 38% and overall remarkable financial and environmental benefits. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that a NII can realistically abolish thermal energy to a bare minimum and enhance its self-sufficiency by harnessing local renewable energy potential, while at the same time ensuring grid stability.

State Estimation of Lithium-ion Battery for Shipboard Applications: Key Challenges and Future Trends

With the aggravation of environmental problems caused by the long-term dependence of shipping traffic on heavy fossil fuels, it is an irreversible development trend for electrified ships to integrate large-capacity battery energy storage systems (ESSs). As the main component, the shipboard lithium-ion battery (LIB) plays an important role in the operation of ship power system to balance the source and load sides. By analyzing the effects of temperature, vibration, humidity and salt spray on battery characteristics in the shipping environment, this paper points out that the characteristics of shipboard LIB have certain differences on the state changes with the land-based batteries. Then, this paper systematically reviews the most commonly used LIB modeling and state estimation methods and their applicability to the shipping environment, including the empirical models, electrochemical models, equivalent circuit models (ECMs) and data-driven models. On this basis, the state estimation methods of state of charge (SOC), state of power (SOP), state of health (SOH), state of energy (SOE) and state of temperature (SOT) are reviewed. Finally, the challenges and prospects of shipboard LIB research are prospected, in the hope of providing inspiration for the development and design of efficient and safe electric ships.

Carbon Footprint Reduction and its Impact on Economic Development in Nigeria

Nigeria relies on heavy fossil fuels for energy. Nigeria emitted 0.57 metric tonnes of CO2 per capita in 2018. From 0.44 metric tonnes in 2016 to 0.56 metric tonnes in 2017, this figure has increased 29%. The issue is the lack of data on carbon footprint reduction and economic development in Nigeria. time series data from the 1990–2019 was employed to examine the relationship between carbon footprint reduction and economic development in Nigeria. How carbon footprint reduction affects Nigerian economic development was the main research subject. Carbon footprint reduction and economic development were examined using quantitative methods and ordinary least squares linear multiple regression. From the regression result, CO2 emission total CO2 emission from fossil (TCO2 has p-values below 0.05 (5%), indicating significance. The results showed that a unit increase in CO2 from TCO2 will decrease economic development by 0.003381. The study suggests lowering carbon footprint. The study's findings will help Nigeria's government reduce carbon emissions and boost economic growth.

The Renewable, Sustainable, and Clean Energy in Iraq Between Reality and Ambition According to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change

For quite some time now, Iraq has witnessed a great shortage, not only in the production of electric power, but even in the distribution system. In addition to this shortage, which exacerbates the problem is the large increase in the population of Iraq, in addition to the great problems that the country has experienced, especially the fierce confrontation with ISIS terrorist gangs, which drained a lot of Iraq’s human and material energies and negatively affected the energy reality in our country, not to mention the All or most of our electric power plants run on heavy fossil fuels and have old technology tracks. Iraq has power shortages, and there are various obstacles that must be solved in order to keep up with projected demand. Based on the results of this study, it appears that solar, wind, and biomass energy are underutilized at now but have the potential to significantly contribute to Iraq's renewable energy future. Wind power offshore in the Gulf (near Basrah in southern Iraq) also has untapped potential that has to be explored. There has been talk about the Iraqi government's efforts to harness green energy. The purpose of this article is to examine and debate the present and future of renewable energy in Iraq. Renewable energy applications such as solar, wind, and biomass have been discussed. Finally, suggestions for making use of various energy sources are provided.

Real-time natural gas release forecasting by using physics-guided deep learning probability model

Natural gas release from oil and gas facilities contributes significantly to the greenhouse effect and reduces the benefit of displacing heavy fossil fuels with natural gas. Real-time concentration spatiotemporal evolution forecasting of natural gas release is essential to predetermine atmospheric carbon trajectory and devise timely strategy to mitigate the expected impact on the environment. Deep learning approaches have recently been applied for spatiotemporal forecast tasks, but they still exhibit poor performance pertaining to uncertainty and boundary estimations. This study proposes an advanced Hybrid-Physics Guided-Variational Bayesian Spatial-Temporal neural network. Experimental study based on a benchmark experimental and simulation dataset was conducted. The results demonstrated that the additional uncertainty information estimated contributes to reducing the harmful ‘over confidence’ of the point-estimation models at the plume area. Also, the proposed normalized uncertainty and physical inconsistency constraint term ensured the accuracy at the plume boundary. By adopting the Monte Carlo sampling number m = 100, penalty factor λ = 0.1, and drop probability p = 0.1, the model achieves a real-time capacity of an inference time less than 1s and a competitive accuracy of R2 = 0.988. Overall, our proposed model could provide reliable support to maximize the environmental benefits of natural gas energy usage and contribute to the carbon peak and neutrality target.

Bioenergy — when, where and how?

Energy is required for development. A broad variety of energy sources have been discovered and employed during human evolution. Fossil, solar, hydro, wave, wind, geothermal, stream, tides, nuclear biological energy sources provided humanity with 155,505 TWh consumed in 20121. At the same time, energy production and use in the past few centuries has had some impact on the climate, with potential to perhaps alter life on Earth. According to International Energy Agency (IEA): “Energy production and use account for two thirds of the world’s greenhousegas (GHG) emissions... Since the fi rst Conference of the Parties (COP) in 1995, GHG emissions have risen by more than one-quarter and the atmospheric concentration of these gases has increased steadily to 435 parts per million carbon-dioxide equivalent (ppm CO2-eq) in 2012” 2. On the other hand, for the fi rst time in 40 years in 2014, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) did not change yet the global economy grew by 3% 2. Th e goal for policy markers, scientists and industry is to further develop policies and technologies to reduce the GHG emissions while preserving economic growth. Fossil fuels, not only aff ect climate change but also lead to political insecurity in countries that depend on foreign sources of energy. It is recognized by the governments of most of countries that domestic production of energy is a key factor for political and economic security. Recently, the IEA has proposed a bundle of bridge technologies, i.e. to use energy sources that we already have, to further mitigate the climate impact of our energy systems. Among these is Biomass. Biomass combustion is probably the fi rst energy source humans used. In the 18th and 19th centuries biomass derived biofuels lit streets, warmed houses, and eventually led to the development of the transportation industry3. However, the discovery and commercialization of fossil fuels almost completely displaced biomass from the energy sector for almost a century. Bioenergy, deployed locally, provides an exciting opportunity for energy production in multiple locations in the world. Many concerns about net energy return on investment, intensive land and water use, fertilizers and pesticides use have raised questions with regard to the long-term sustainability of biomass based energy systems. To become sustainable, biomass and bioenergy systems still have a long way to ago in terms of energy effi ciency and good agricultural practices. But these challenges are possible to overcome as new technologies and policies develop. Th e concerns over the biomass sustainability oft en miss the salutary aspect of its local availability. In multiple world locations, up to 60% of food biomass is wasted because of the lack of preservation technologies and markets. In many developing countries, which will drive the energy demand in the coming decades, farmers oft en have land but do not have any access to grid or sophisticated energy generation technologies. Biomass and bioenergy can provide an aff ordable local solution in multiple locations in developing countries that do not have heavy fossil fuels infrastructure. However, the technology challenges to deliver sustainable and effi cient energy from biomass sources still prevent their global use. Th e goal of the Special Issue is to present the current state of the art, cutting edge research and future perspectives on various pathways of biomass use for bioenergy production. Th e issue incorporates papers from the research laboratories, national research centers and companies that contribute daily to the fi eld of bioenergy, by off ering solution to reduce the technological, economical and sustainability barriers of the use of this local energy source. Th e advances presented here and in many other forthcoming work will enable the smooth and effi cient transition to the fossil fuels emission free economy called for by G7 leaders.

Progress and Challenges in the Direct Carbon Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel cells are under development for a range of applications for transport, stationary and portable power appliances. Fuel cell technology has advanced to the stage where commercial field trials for both transport and stationary applications are in progress. Direct Carbon Fuel Cells (DCFC) utilize solid carbon as the fuel and have historically attracted less investment than other types of gas or liquid fed fuel cells. However, volatility in gas and oil commodity prices and the increasing concern about the environmental impact of burning heavy fossil fuels for power generation has led to DCFCs gaining more attention within the global study community. A DCFC converts the chemical energy in solid carbon directly into electricity through its direct electrochemical oxidation. The fuel utilization can be almost 100% as the fuel feed and product gases are distinct phases and thus can be easily separated. This is not the case with other fuel cell types for which the fuel utilization within the cell is typically limited to below 85%. The theoretical efficiency is also high, around 100%. The combination of these two factors, lead to the projected electric efficiency of DCFC approaching 80% - approximately twice the efficiency of current generation coal fired power plants, thus leading to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of CO2 for storage/sequestration is also halved. Moreover, the exit gas is an almost pure CO2 stream, requiring little or no gas separation before compression for sequestration. Therefore, the energy and cost penalties to capture the CO2 will also be significantly less than for other technologies. Furthermore, a variety of abundant fuels such as coal, coke, tar, biomass and organic waste can be used. Despite these advantages, the technology is at an early stage of development requiring solutions to many complex challenges related to materials degradation, fuel delivery, reaction kinetics, stack fabrication and system design, before it can be considered for commercialization. This paper, following a brief introduction to other fuel cells, reviews in detail the current status of the direct carbon fuel cell technology, recent progress, technical challenges and discusses the future of the technology.

Progress and Challenges in the Direct Carbon Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel cells are under development for a range of applications for transport, stationary and portable power appliances. Fuel cell technology has advanced to the stage where commercial field trials for both transport and stationary applications are in progress. Direct Carbon Fuel Cells (DCFC) utilize solid carbon as the fuel and have historically attracted less investment than other types of gas or liquid fed fuel cells. However, volatility in gas and oil commodity prices and the increasing concern about the environmental impact of burning heavy fossil fuels for power generation has led to DCFCs gaining more attention within the global study community. A DCFC converts the chemical energy in solid carbon directly into electricity through its direct electrochemical oxidation. The fuel utilization can be almost 100% as the fuel feed and product gases are distinct phases and thus can be easily separated. This is not the case with other fuel cell types for which the fuel utilization within the cell is typically limited to below 85%. The theoretical efficiency is also high, around 100%. The combination of these two factors, lead to the projected electric efficiency of DCFC approaching 80% - approximately twice the efficiency of current generation coal fired power plants, thus leading to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of CO2 for storage/sequestration is also halved. Moreover, the exit gas is an almost pure CO2 stream, requiring little or no gas separation before compression for sequestration. Therefore, the energy and cost penalties to capture the CO2 will also be significantly less than for other technologies. Furthermore, a variety of abundant fuels such as coal, coke, tar, biomass and organic waste can be used. Despite these advantages, the technology is at an early stage of development requiring solutions to many complex challenges related to materials degradation, fuel delivery, reaction kinetics, stack fabrication and system design, before it can be considered for commercialization. This paper, following a brief introduction to other fuel cells, reviews in detail the current status of the direct carbon fuel cell technology, recent progress, technical challenges and discusses the future of the technology.

ChemInform Abstract: A Comprehensive Review of Direct Carbon Fuel Cell Technology

AbstractReview: 240 refs.

95/01190 Decomposition treatment of coal and other heavy fossil fuels in supercritical water

Early generation stability of a japonica rice variety, 84-15, was retested by using the allelic differences of two qualitative traits, i.e., glume tip color and waxy endosperm. Results showed that both glume tip color and waxy endosperm segregated in progenies of single F1 plants derived from two crosses of 84-15/Zi 18 (purple color) and 84-15/Dahuaxiangnuo (waxy). The results denied the conclusion obtained in previous studies that 84-15 had a characteristic of early generation stability. Moreover, it was found that using the coefficient of variation as an indicator of early generation stability was unreasonable by analyzing plant height as an example. Importance of avoiding systematic error in research works was also discussed.

超臨界水による石炭および重質原油の分解処理

The property of its supercritical water can be changed remarkably by controlling its temperature and density. Application of its characteristics may make possible the decomposition, liquefaction and/or alteration of coal and other heavy fossil fuels, and the removal of sulfur, nitrogen, heavy metals and so on. In this report, decomposition treatments for liquefaction of coal in supercritical water are reviewed. Result of other fossil fuels such as oil sands are also presented.

A correlation for thermodynamic properties of heavy fossil-fuel fractions

A correlation is developed for calculation of thermodynamic properties of heavy fossil fuels, based on a recent version of the perturbed-hard-chain equation of state. Since the correlation does not require experimental vapor pressures or densities as input data, it is useful for heavy fossil fuels where vapor pressures and densities are difficult or impossible to measure. For fossil-fuel fractions, equation-of-state parameters are found from approximate molecular-structure (characterization) data coupled with a calibration based on pure-component (model-compound) data. Interaction parameters are given for mixtures of fossil fuels with methane, ethane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulfide. While the correlation presented here is useful for calculating vapor-liquid equilibria, it is not intended for conventional fossil fuels, where other correlations are satisfactory. Instead, it is intended for heavy fossil fuels where conventional correlations are often not reliable and where the usual input data are often unavailable.

Molecular weight distribution for heavy fossil fuels from gel-permeation chromatography and characterization data

A correlation is presented for calculating molecular weight distributions for high-boiling hydrocarbon mixtures from measurements using gel-permeation chromatography (GPC). The correlation uses GPC elution volume, hydrogen-to-carbon ratio from elemental analysis, and hydrogen distribution from H NMR spectroscopy. Results for 45 pure hydrocarbons give an average deviation of less than 4%. For application to fractions, the procedure is illustrated with results for an Alaskan North-Slope residue. Characterization data are reported for 13 heavy fossil-fuel fractions, including coal-liquefaction products and crude oils.

Solubilities of heavy fossil fuels in compressed gases. Calculation of dew points in tar-containing gas streams

A molecular-thermodynamic model is used to establish a correlation for solubilities of heavy fossil fuels in dense gases (such as those from a coal gasifier) in the region from ambient to 100 bar and 600 K. This model is then applied to calculate dew points in tar-containing gas streams. Experimental solubility measurements have been made for 2 Lurgi coal-tar fractions in dry and moist methane. Calculated and experimental solubilities agree well. The correlation is used to establish a design-oriented computer program such as can be used for the design of a continuous-flow heat exchanger.

Enthalpy and dew-point calculations for aqueous gas mixtures produced in coal gasification and similar processes

Researchers present a molecular-thermodynamic method for calculating enthalpies and dewpoints for compressed, water-containing synthetic gases obtained from the gasification of coal or heavy fossil fuels, calculate ideal-gas contributions using Harmens, method and taking gas-phase nonideality into account using de Santis and Breedveld's modification of the Redlich-Kwong equation of state, give all necessary parameters for water and for 12 components common in synthetic gases, and introduce some typical calculation results to illustrate the computational method, which is applicable from 300 to 1000 K and up to 300 atm.