Steam Transport Research Articles

Life cycle cost approach involving steam transport model for insulation thickness optimization of steam pipes

Life cycle cost approach involving steam transport model for insulation thickness optimization of steam pipes

Feasibility and recovery efficiency of in-situ shale oil conversion in fractured reservoirs via steam heating: Based on a coupled thermo-flow-chemical model

Shale oil is a type of liquid hydrocarbon obtained through the pyrolysis of organic matter such as kerogen in oil shale reservoirs. Effective extraction of shale oil can significantly alleviate the pressure on oil supply. Among the various methods proposed for shale oil extraction, in-situ conversion of shale oil through high-temperature steam heating is a promising technique. This study employs a newly developed thermo-flow-chemical numerical simulator to establish a heterogeneous geological model and provides a detailed description of the evolution of different components within the shale oil reservoir during the in-situ conversion process. Additionally, the study thoroughly analyzes the role of high-permeability channels, such as fractures, in fluid transport and heat transfer during this process. In comparison with homogeneous reservoirs, fractures play a controlling role in the transport of steam. After injection, steam forms a preferential transport path between the heating well and the production well through the fractures. Subsequent injected steam will preferentially travel through this path, leading to faster heating of the reservoir. However, the uneven distribution of fractures may result in incomplete pyrolysis of the organic matter within the reservoir. Additionally, we found that the producing pressure and the steam injection rate significantly affect the pyrolysis of kerogen and the production of oil and gas. Both excessively low producing pressure and excessively high steam injection rate are detrimental to shale oil extraction. Based on these findings, this study aims to develop more rational heating strategies for reservoirs with different characteristics.

Comparative analysis of zero-carbon supply solutions for mid-to-low temperature process heat using nuclear energy

Energy consumption and carbon emissions from industrial heating processes constitute a significant and indispensable proportion of industrial production. Therefore, advancing the decarbonization of industrial production, particularly to optimize industrial heating processes, is of considerable importance in achieving global environmental sustainability. This study evaluates long-distance steam transport (LDST) and long-distance hot water transport (LDHWT) as zero-carbon supply schemes for mid-to-low temperature process heat. The heat is sourced from the existing Hainan Nuclear Power Plant using indirect heat exchange, ensuring safety for the long-distance transport medium. The schemes were applied in the Yangpu Industrial Park and comparatively analyzed based on energy efficiency and economic viability. The results indicate that both schemes exhibit comparable energy efficiencies, with LDHWT offering a slight economic advantage. However, beyond this case study, LDHWT becomes increasingly advantageous with longer transport distances and encourages factories to lower their required temperatures through technological modifications. By evaluating these schemes, this study aimed to inform future sustainable process heat decisions and contribute to reducing carbon emissions in global industrial operations.

A World by Themselves: Protectionism and the Political Economy of Trade in the Ohio Valley, 1816–1828

This paper explores American tariff politics and the embrace of protectionism within the Ohio Valley in the two decades following the War of 1812. During these years, residents of the western states navigated the emergence of steam transportation, a growing number of state-chartered banks, and intense population growth. This fueled an economic boom that went bust during the Panic of 1819. Western farmers, merchants, and manufacturers blamed harmful patterns of trade for this economic crisis, which bolstered a distinct regional identity that embraced a properly constructed restrictive tariff as a “western” measure. Consequently, the decade of the 1820s featured the most sustained period of conflict over the tariff issue in the antebellum era. This article examines western participation in conflicts over commerce and roots the political economy of trade policy in changing economic conditions that inspired distinct northern, southern, and western perspectives on trade and economic development. I conclude that both protectionist claims to economic nationalism and free trade embrace of international exchange overlook the individual assessments of local and regional markets that set the terms on which participants in the tariff debates of the early republic imagined future development.

Modelling of defective CANDU fuel phenomena

A mechanistic model is presented for the modelling of defective CANDU fuel behaviour. This physically-based treatment includes a multi-physics coupling of fission product release, fuel oxidation and sheath hydriding phenomena with the occurrence of fuel failure. The stoichiometry deviation profile is used to evaluate effects on the fission-product diffusivity and heat conduction in the fuel. A time-dependent fission product release model accounts for the transport of fission products of the short-lived radioiodine and noble gas isotopes in the fuel matrix with their release into the fuel-to-sheath gap and coolant. Transport of steam and hydrogen gases along the gap is further considered as a boundary condition of the fuel oxidation model. This treatment provides an estimate of the partial pressure ratio of hydrogen-to-steam in the gap for evaluation of the critical ratio necessary for the promotion of sheath hydriding. Secondary hydriding and fuel element deterioration is subsequently evaluated in accordance with a Locke-type correlation.

High‐Yield, Green, and Scalable Solar‐Powered Interfacial Evaporation of Multibioinspired Hierarchical‐Integrated Nanofibrous Wood Surface with Sustainable Steam Escape

Solar‐powered interfacial evaporation offers a cost‐effective technique for freshwater scarcity in arid areas. However, further performance improvements have encountered bottlenecks due to the lack of more simplified material design and optimized functional structures resulting in a trade‐off between photothermal conversion and steam transport. Herein, a high‐yield, green, and scalable solar‐driven evaporator with multibioinspired hierarchical‐integrated architecture‐modified wood surface via highly oriented nanofibers is developed. Furthermore, inspired by natural biological structures, a 3D bionic wood cribs structure (BWS) evaporator on the basis of 2D bionic butterfly scales structure (BS) with efficient light absorption, light‐to‐heat conversion, evaporation rate, as well as recyclable steam escape is integrally fabricated. As a result, this well‐designed BWS evaporator shows a high solar absorption of 96%, and a greatly promoted evaporation rate of 1.8 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun illumination, leading to a 23.3% higher than that of the BS. More importantly, the effective convection of the BWS from sides and surface is demonstrated that promotes sustainable steam escape to achieve continuous water evaporation. This proof of concept work provides an insightful attempt to develop scalable evaporation systems with green biomass‐derived resources and functional biomimetic structure.

Experimental investigation of pressure fluctuation and steam transport under SGTR accident in Lead-cooled Fast Reactors

Transient multiphase flow phenomenon of hyperbaric water jetting into lead-based eutectic (LBE) is of significant importance for safety analysis of Lead-cooled Fast Reactors (LFRs). In order to investigate the thermal-hydraulic parameters under Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) Accident in LFRs, the Lead-bismuth Eutectic Steam generator tube rupture Test facility (LEST) was built and the effects of (1) initial pressure peak, (2) pressure rising, (3) steam cavity migration in reaction vessel were evaluated. Under the present experimental and theoretical analysis, the results showed that the maximum pressure peak of 2.93 MPa occurred under the condition of 10 MPa water initial pressure which is the highest experimental requirements of reactor second system, and the accident consequence of pressure peak together with the maximum rising rate 2.001 MPa/s might be the most serious. Floating rate of steam cavity was different in radial direction, and was affected by water pressure and LBE level height. The analysis results will provide severity assessment for safety design, accident forecasting and engineering guidance of LFRs.

Anthropocene Speculations: Steam Technology in Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798)

ABSTRACT This article reads Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” of 1798 as a visionary speculation on the ground-breaking technologies of its time—the steam engine and early experiments with steamboats. Within the larger framework of a history of the Anthropocene and drawing, more specifically, on science studies, current eco-Marxist perspectives and earlier (new) historicist research, I show how the poem blends two distinct epistemic frameworks and temporalities that have been neglected in critical discussions. On the one hand, Coleridge’s text resonates with the earlier mechanical philosophy and imagery from Thomas Burnet’s Sacred Theory of the Earth (1684/90) which expounds a natural history featuring engines; on the other hand, it negotiates contemporary experiments with steam transport and James Watt’s patented improvement of the steam engine, in particular. Intimating an acceleration of (natural) history through human technology, the poem, I argue, displays a powerful and highly ambivalent sense of that acceleration’s social, colonial, and ecological entanglements. By way of conclusion, the article considers the afterlife of the “Rime” in Coleridge’s letters, and in Victorian engineering discourse; I showcase the poem as a spectacular and self-reflexive example of early speculative (or science) fiction.

Hitching a Ride: Cholera, the Canal, and Quarantine

Returning by ship from the hajj in 1902, Aida and Fatma landed at the quarantine station of El Tor, 120 miles south of the city of Suez in the Sinai Peninsula.1 The El Tor station had been set up in the Egyptian town following international sanitary conferences convened to promote international standards for sanitary protections to safeguard Europe from “Asiatic” diseases, most notably cholera. Endemic in India for centuries, cholera had spread out of the Ganges basin in the nineteenth century through globalizing networks of trade and steam transport. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, with its shortening of travel times and distances, increased the danger of epidemics turning into pandemics. Although pathways of the cholera pathogen included routes across the Eurasian steppe and Russia into Germany, European authorities focused on the hajj as the catalyst for diffusion of the disease—a super-spreader event. El Tor was meant to be the linchpin in the system of stopping disease from passing through the Suez Canal to Europe.2

Reduced concentration polarization and enhanced steam throughput conversion with a solid oxide electrolysis cell supported on an electrode with optimized pore structure

Conversion of steam to hydrogen in solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) is largely limited by concentration polarization occurring in the supporting cathodes. The present study was thus aimed at reducing the concentration polarization and increasing the steam conversion by optimizing the pore structure of the cathodes. Button cells supported on cathodes with straight pore structure showed much improved performance than those with tortuous pore structure especially under steam-lean conditions (1.19 vs. 0.69 A•cm−2 at 1.3 V, 750 °C and 10% vol. % H2O). Impedance spectroscopy analysis indicated that the straight pore structure in the cathodes allowed for facile transport of steam, thus effectively mitigating the concentration polarization. The relation between the electrolysis current density and steam concentration determined from the button cells was used to simulate the electrolysis performance of single cells. The simulation predicts that single cells with the straight pore structure in the cathodes can achieve high steam throughput conversion even at high steam feeding rate.

Experimental Investigation on the Effects of Ethanol-Enhanced Steam Injection Remediation in Nitrobenzene-Contaminated Heterogeneous Aquifers

Steam injection is an effective technique for the remediation of aquifers polluted with volatile organic compounds. However, the application of steam injection technology requires a judicious selection of stratum media because the remediation effect of hot steam in heterogeneous layers with low permeability is not suitable. In this study, the removal effect of nitrobenzene in an aquifer was investigated through a series of two-dimensional sandbox experiments with different stratigraphic structures. Four types of alcohols were used during steam injection remediation to enhance the removal effect of nitrobenzene (NB)-contaminated heterogeneous aquifers. The principle of the removal mechanism of alcohol-enhanced organic compounds is that alcohols can reduce the surface tension of the contaminated water, resulting in Marangoni convection, thereby enhancing mass and heat transfer. The addition of alcohol may also reduce the azeotropic temperature of the system and enhance the volatility of organic compounds. The study revealed that all four alcohol types could reduce the surface tension from 72 mN/m to <30 mN/m. However, among these, only ethanol reduced the azeotropic temperature of NB by 15 °C, thereby reducing energy consumption and remediation costs. Therefore, ethanol was selected as an enhancing agent to reduce both surface tension and azeotropic temperature during steam injection. In the 2-D simulation tank, the interface between the low-and high-permeability strata in the layered heterogeneous aquifer had a blocking effect on steam transportation, which in turn caused a poor remediation effect in the upper low-permeability stratum. In the lens heterogeneous aquifer, steam flows around the lens, thereby weakening the remediation effect. After adding ethanol to the low-permeability zone, Marangoni convection was enhanced, which further enhanced the mass and heat transfer. In the layered and lens heterogeneous aquifers, the area affected by steam increased by 13% and 14%, respectively. Moreover, the average concentration of NB was reduced by 51% in layered heterogeneous aquifers and by 58% in low-permeability lenses by ethanol addition. These findings enhance the remediation effect of steam injection in heterogeneous porous media and contribute to improve the remediation efficiency of heterogeneous aquifers by steam injection.

Enhanced Gas Diffusion in Reversible Solid Oxide Cell Fabricated by Phase-Inversion Tape Casting

Electrochemical characteristics of a hydrogen-electrode-supported solid oxide cell (SOC) fabricated by phase-inversion tape casting are experimentally evaluated in both fuel cell (FC) and electrolysis cell (EC) operations. Particular focus is on the effect of the microchannels formed in the hydrogen electrode on the gas diffusion performance in the electrode. Current-voltage and impedance characteristics are measured and compared with those obtained from an SOC fabricated by conventional tape casting technique. The activation resistance is found to be almost identical between the tested cells because both cells are fabricated with a spin-coated functional layer in the hydrogen electrode. On the other hand, the concentration resistance is significantly decreased in the cell fabricated by the phase-inversion tape casting because the microchannels in the hydrogen electrode enhances the gas diffusion performance. This is more remarkable when the cells are operated in diluted fuel composition and with higher current densities. The asymmetric behavior is observed in the current-voltage characteristics of the cells, meaning that the overpotentials in the FC and EC modes are not the same at the same FC and EC currents. The overpotential is found to be always larger in EC mode, however, the extent of asymmetry is reduced in the cell fabricated by the phase-inversion tape casting. This is mainly because the microchannels in the hydrogen electrode reduces the gas diffusion resistance associated with the steam transport in EC mode. Microstructure of the fabricated cells is also analyzed in micro- and nano-scale to quantify the structure of the microchannels formed in the hydrogen-electrode. The microchannels are initiated below the immersed surface during the phase-inversion process, and then grow towards the bottom of the layer. The average diameter of the microchannels increases, whereas its number density decreases. Also, the total porosity in the phase-inversion electrode is found to be almost the same as that in the conventional cell.

Technical and economic analysis of potential steam supply from waste treatment plants to industries in Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Waste-to-energy treatment is an efficient energy recovery method and an important countermeasure against global warming. The supply of steam from waste treatment plants to industrial sectors presents a higher energy recovery efficiency than traditional waste-to-energy methods. However, its technical potential and economic benefits are not fully understood by policymakers. Furthermore, the regional characteristics and effects of neighboring land use, which affect the heat supply and demand, are not commonly analyzed. Therefore, this study evaluates the spatial steam demand of industries in the Aichi Prefecture by using the steam demand unit value per production shipment and the spatial value of manufactured goods shipments. In addition, this study evaluates the steam supply potential from waste treatment plants to industrial sectors based on the estimated spatial steam demand and the transportable distances. The results show that the steam supply from waste treatment plants to the industries has a great physical potential in Aichi Prefecture. From a cost–benefit perspective, plans considering a 1 km range can be profitable, but the profitability decreases as the distance increases and the no-profitability mesh number increases. To improve the energy recovery efficiency from waste, the location of waste treatment plant should be changed, and the efficiency of steam transport on both supply and demand sides should be increased.

The Sedan Chair vs the Steamboat: The Sichuan Route and the Maritime Route in the making of modern Sino-Tibetan relations

AbstractThis article tells the intertwined tales of two historical routes that testify to the extensive geographical distance and profound political connections between Tibet and China throughout the modern era. In much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Sichuan Route operated as the transportation artery upon which the Qing empire depended to maintain authority in Kham and Tibet. It was also the site of a rite of passage for frontier functionaries and a meeting ground between imperial agents and the indigenous population. Despite its destruction after the implosion of the Qing in 1911, the histories and memories of the Sichuan Route continued to influence decision-makers in both China and Tibet in the following decades. The Maritime Route, which emerged in the late nineteenth century with the proliferation of steam transportation in Asia, revolutionized the way in which Tibet connected to China and the rest of the world. It also competed with the Sichuan Route and encouraged the Qing to reconfigure its presence in its non-Chinese territories in the southwest. After the empire fell, political tensions continued to evolve around the Maritime Route, which functioned simultaneously as the reluctant choice of Chinese emissaries and a strategic tool that the Lhasa government wielded to curtail China's influence. Through an exploration of the Sichuan Route and the Maritime Route on the levels of experience and representation, this article sketches the two routes’ troubled interconnections with each other and with every twist and turn in Sino-Tibetan relations from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Gender, Violence, and Justice in Colonial Assam: The Webb Case, c. 1884

Abstract In 1884, Charles Webb, a European employee of a steam transportation company in Assam, sexually assaulted and killed Sukurmani, a woman who had left Bengal with her family to work on a tea plantation. The district magistrate dismissed most of the charges against Webb, assessing only a modest fine for wrongful confinement, and, though the case was appealed and brought to the attention of the viceroy, ultimately this verdict was upheld. The Webb case, as it became known in the Indian press, galvanized public opinion in India, as discussion of the case overlapped with discussion of the controversial Ilbert Bill of the previous year. This article traces the Webb case as it made its way through the courts and newspapers, arguing that a close study of this case reveals the ways that hierarchies of race, class, caste, and gender were constructed and were manifest in daily life. This article further argues that the treatment of the Webb case by the courts and later by the vernacular press indicates that sexual violence was a central element in nineteenth-century contests over colonial rule in India.

Novel solar membrane distillation enabled by a PDMS/CNT/PVDF membrane with localized heating

Membrane distillation as a means of seawater desalination using solar energy has the potential to help address the challenges associated with the water-energy nexus and reduce energy consumption. However, the development of an efficient, scalable, stable, and sustainable novel solar membrane distillation (SMD) process remains challenging due to the limited number of membrane preparation procedures and system designs. This work, inspired by solar-driven interfacial evaporation, describes an SMD process employing a hydrophobic trilayer membrane and a two-level SMD structure for effective seawater desalination. A polydimethylsiloxane/carbon nanotube/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PDMS/CNT/PVDF) membrane, prepared by electrospinning and spraying, exhibited broad light absorption, good photothermal conversion, and localized heating of seawater. The novel two-level SMD structure effectively reused the condensed heat and ensured a greater temperature difference for interfacial evaporation and steam transport, thereby improving fresh water productivity. The greatest productivity (1.43 kg m−2 h−1) and salt rejection (99.9%) were achieved under 1 kW m−2 of solar illumination. This low-energy SMD system using solar energy is suitable for emergency water production and offshore seawater desalination.

Assessment and Prediction of Complex Industrial Steam Network Operation by Combined Thermo-Hydrodynamic Modeling

Steam network operation stability and reliability is vital for any industrial branch. A combined steam network model comprising a balance and a coupled thermo-hydrodynamic model, including seasonal variations impact and system specificities, is presented. A balance model can readily be used by a refinery’s operators. The thermo-hydrodynamic model identifies system bottlenecks and cold spots and evaluates proposed operation and investment measures including heat loss reduction. A three-pressure levels refinery steam network served for model testing and validation. Balance model results reveal significant misbalance in steam production and consumption, reaching 30.5% in the low-pressure steam system, and heat balance differences in the range of 9.2% to 29.5% on individual pressure levels, attributable both to flow measurement accuracy issues and to heat losses. The thermo-hydrodynamic model results differ from the measured steam parameters by less than 5% (temperature) and by less than 4% (pressure), respectively, with the estimated operational insulation heat conductivity exceeding 0.08 W/m/K. Its comparison with that of 0.03 W/m/K for dry insulation material yields the need for pipelines re-insulation and a partial revamp of the steam network. The model is sufficiently general for any type of industry, pursuing the goal of cleaner and energy-efficient steam transport and consumption.

Energy-saving and carbon emission reduction effect of urban-industrial symbiosis implementation with feasibility analysis in the city

It is important to promote energy saving and resource conservation in cities to promote sustainable development. Urban-industrial symbiosis (UIS) strategy is one of the effective ways to reduce resource consumption and carbon emission in the city. However, rather few studies focusing on both the cost benefit of waste treatment optimization and the heat loss of the energy network optimization in the UIS system. In this study, a typical industrial city Shenyang was selected, and the proposed UIS system included an optimized waste treatment system and industrial system. The results indicate that (1) Steam transportation limited the energy saving effects of the UIS system and economic factor played a key role in the waste treatment method transition. The investment payback time of change the MSW treatment method from landfill to waste power generation and to steam generation was 7.7 years and 11.1 years, respectively. (2) Through UIS implementation, Shenyang city could recover 8.05 × 106 GJ of energy from UIS system and reduce the carbon emission by 1.3%. This study provides quantitative analysis to understand the energy savings and emissions reduction potential of UIS practices, and critical insights into the feasibility of its application in the cities of developing countries.

Microstructure characterisation and microhardness of P92 steel heat treated at the transformation temperatures

Modern power plant components for the transport of superheated steam are manufactured from creep resistant steels, such as ASTM grade P92, that have microstructural stability and excellent mechanical properties at high temperature and pressure. Before application as pipes, tubes and connectors, P92 steel undergoes a heat treatment of austenitisation and tempering to achieve a tempered martensite microstructure, with carbides along the prior austenite grain boundaries and carbonitrides within the matrix. In the power plant, pipes and tubes are joined by welding, inducing residual stresses and inhomogeneous microstructures in the weld joint, which reduce creep resistance. As in most steels, the temperature gradient from the fusion line to the base metal leads to different microstructural zones in the weld joint. The fine-grained heat affected zone (FGHAZ), which forms at temperatures near the transformation region, acts as a weak zone for Type IV cracking during creep. The lower and upper critical transformation temperatures for the P92 steel in this work are 800°C-850°C (Ae1) and 900°C-950°C (Ae3) respectively. As-received samples were heated to temperatures of 830, 850, 900°C to simulate the fine grain heat affected zone, or the very high temperature of 1200°C to simulate the coarse grain heat affected zone (CGHAZ), held at that temperature for 90 minutes and then tempered at 730°C to 780°C for 120 minutes. The microstructures before and after heat treatment were observed by scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy, and Vickers microhardness measurements were done. After tempering, coarse carbides were seen on the prior austenite grain boundaries (PAGBs) and nitrides were observed in the matrix. In general, the hardness increased with an increase in the austenitisation and tempering temperature combination.

Influence of the Spacing of Steam-Injecting Pipes on the Energy Consumption and Soil Temperature Field for Clay-Loam Disinfection

Soil steam disinfection (SSD) technology is one of the effective means to eliminate soil-borne diseases, especially under the condition of clay-loam soil cultivation for facility agriculture in Yangtze River delta (China). With the fine particles, small pores and high density of the soil, the way of steam transport and heat transfer are quite different from those of other cultivation mediums, and when using SSD injection method, the diffusion of steam between pipes will be affected, inhibiting the heat transfer in the dense soil. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the influence of steam pipe spacing (SPS) on the energy consumption and soil temperature (ST) for clay-loam disinfection. The best results are to find a suitable SPS that satisfies the inter-tube steam that can be gathered together evenly without being lost to the air under limited boiler heating capacity. To this purpose, we first used a computational fluid dynamics model to calculate the effective SPS to inject steam into deep soil. Second, the ST, ST rise rate, ST coefficient of variation, and soil water content variation among different treatments (12, 18, 24, or 30 cm pipe spacing) were analysed. Finally, the heating efficiency of all treatments depending on the disinfection time ratio and relative energy consumption was evaluated. The result shows that in the clay-loam unique to Southern China, the elliptical shape of the high-temperature region obtained from the numerical simulation was basically consistent with the experiment results, and the ratios of short diameter to long diameter were 0.65 and 0.63, respectively. In the SPS = 12 and 18 cm treatments, the steam completely diffused at a 0–20 cm soil layer depth, and the heat transfer was convective. However, at an SPS = 12 cm, steam accumulation occurred at the steam pipe holes, causing excessive accumulation of steam heat. The relative energy consumptions for SPS = 30, 24, and 12 cm were above 2.18 kJ/(kg·°C), and the disinfection time ratio was below 0.8. Thus, under a two-pipe flow rate = 4–8 kg/h, the inter-tube steam was found to be completely concentrated with a uniform continuous high temperature distribution within the soil for an appropriate SPS = 18–22 cm, avoiding the unnecessary loss of steam heat, and this method can be considered for static and moving disinfection operations in the cultivated layer (−20–0 cm) of clay loam soil. However, for soil with higher clay contents, the SPS can be appropriately reduced to less than 18 cm. For soil with lower clay contents and higher sand contents, the SPS can be increased to more than 22 cm.