Croatia produced 21,366 tonnes of dry matter (DM) sewage sludge (SS) in 2016, a quantity expected to surpass 100,000 tonnes DM by 2024. Annual production rates for future wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Croatia are estimated at 5.8–7.3 Nm3/people equivalent (PE) for biogas and 20–25 kgDM/PE of sewage sludge. Biogas can be converted into 12–16 kWhel/PE of electricity and 19–24 kWhth/PE of heat, which is sufficient for 30–40% of electrical and 80–100% of thermal autonomy. The WWTP autonomy can be increased using energy recovery from sewage sludge incineration by 60% for electricity and 100% of thermal energy (10–13 kWhel/PE and 30–38 kWhth/PE). However, energy for sewage sludge drying exceeds energy recovery, unless solar drying is performed. The annual solar drying potential is estimated between 450–750 kgDM/m2 of solar drying surface. The lower heating value of dried sewage sludge is 2–3 kWh/kgDM and this energy can be used for assisting sludge drying or for energy generation and supply to WWTPs. Sewage sludge can be considered a renewable energy source and its incineration generates substantially lower greenhouse gases emissions than energy generation from fossil fuels. For the same amount of energy, sewage sludge emits 58% fewer emissions than natural gas and 80% less than hard coal and fuel oil. Moreover, this paper analysed the feasibility of sludge disposal practices by analysing three scenarios (landfilling, co-incineration, and mono-incineration). The analysis revealed that the most cost-effective sewage sludge disposal method is landfilling for 60% and co-incineration for 40% of the observed WWTPs in Croatia. The lowest CO2 emissions are obtained with landfilling and mono-incineration in 53% and 38% of the cases, respectively.
A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (2D CFD) simulation of a low-speed two-stroke marine engine simulation was performed in order to investigate the performance of 2D meshes that allow the use of more complex chemical schemes and pollutant formation analysis. Various mesh density simulations were compared with a 3D mesh simulation and with the experimentally obtained cylinder pressure. A heavy fuel model and a soot model were implemented in the software. Finally, the influences of three water injection strategies were simulated and evaluated in order to investigate the capability of the model and the influence of water injection on NOx formation, soot formation, and engine performance. We conclude that the direct water injection strategy reduces NOx emissions without adversely affecting the engine performance or soot emissions. The other two strategies-Intake air humidification and direct injection of fuel-water emulsion-reduced NOx emissions but at the cost of higher soot emissions or reduced engine performance.
A forced draft fan, used for the supply of combustion air into the steam generator of the conventional liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier was analyzed from the aspect of energy and exergy. The power delivered from the induction motor to the fan was calculated using the manufacturer’s data. The most significant impact on the fan energy power losses is from the air temperature difference between the fan outlet and inlet. The fan energy power losses are inversely proportional to the fan energy efficiency, and the values are between 19.9% and 63.4%, for the entire range of observed steam system loads. The fan exergy destruction depends primarily on the driving power and on the air mass flow rate. At higher loads, an important influence on the fan exergy destruction is from the air pressure at the fan outlet. The exergy efficiency change of the analyzed fan, for the range of observed steam system loads, is directly proportional to the rate of change in the air mass flow, whereas the obtained values of exergy efficiency are between 5.10% and 53.93%. The impact of ambient temperature on the fan exergy destruction and exergy efficiency exhibits is different than in most other steam system components. A change in ambient temperature of 10 °C causes a change in the exergy efficiency of the forced draft fan less than 0.5% in the entire range of observed steam loads.
This article presents the performance analysis of a 700 MW future planned advanced ultra-supercritical (A-USC) coal-fired power plant fitted with post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The reference A-USC unit without CCS achieves a net efficiency of 47.6% with CO2 emissions of 700 kgCO2/MWh. Relatively to subcritical units, the net efficiency of the A-USC is 8%-pts higher while CO2 emissions are 16.5% lower. For a CO2 removal rate of 90%, the net efficiency of the CCS integrated A-USC unit is 36.8%. The resulting net efficiency loss is 10.8%-pts and the electricity output penalty is 362.3 kWhel/tCO2 for present state CCS technology. The study continues with the assessment of interface quantities between the capture unit and the steam cycle affecting the performance of the A-USC. Improved CO2 absorbents could alleviate the net efficiency loss by 2–3%-pts, and enhanced CO2 compression strategies and advanced heat integration could further reduce the efficiency loss by 0.5–1.2%-pts and 0.4–0.6%-pts, respectively. The total efficiency gain from CCS technology upgrades is estimated at 3.6%-pts, thus bringing down the net efficiency loss to 7.2%-pts and the electricity output penalty to 241.7 kWhel/tCO2.
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