Hydrogen production from thermal decomposition of ammonia-contaminated acid gas using a detailed reaction mechanism

The increase in the production of acid gas consisting of H₂S, CO₂, and associated impurities such as ammonia and hydrocarbons from oil and gas plants and gasification facilities has stimulated the interest in the development of alternative means of acid gas utilization to produce hydrogen and sulfur, simultaneously. The present literature lacks a detailed reaction mechanism that can reliably predict the thermal destruction of NH₃ and its blend with H₂S and CO₂ to facilitate process optimization and commercialization. In this paper, a detailed mechanism of NH₃ pyrolysis is developed and is merged with the reactions of NH₃ oxidation and H₂S/CO₂ thermal decomposition from our previous works. The mechanism is validated successfully using different sets of experimental data on the pyrolysis and oxidation of NH₃, H₂S, and CO₂. The proposed mechanism predicts the experimental data on NH₃ pyrolysis remarkably better than the existing mechanisms in the literature. The mechanism is used to investigate the effects of NH₃ concentration (0–20%) and reactor temperature (1000–1800 K) on the thermal decomposition of H₂S and CO₂. A synergistic effect is observed in the simultaneous decomposition of NH₃ and CO₂, i.e., NH₃ conversion is improved in the presence of CO₂ and the decomposition CO₂ to CO is enhanced in the presence of NH₃. The presence of H₂S suppressed NH₃ conversion, while the conversion of H₂S remained unchanged with increasing NH₃ concentration at temperature below 1400 K due to the low conversion of NH₃ (up to 18%). At temperature above 1400 K, NH₃ conversion increased rapidly and it triggered a decrease in H₂S conversion as well as the yields of H₂ and S₂. The major reactions involved in the decomposition of H₂S, CO₂, and NH₃ and the production of major products such as H₂, S₂, and CO are identified. The detailed reaction mechanism can facilitate the design and optimization of acid gas thermal decomposition to produce hydrogen and sulfur, simultaneously.     

加工方式对玉筋鱼干风味的影响

为研究加工方式对玉筋鱼干风味的影响，实验按加工方式分为加盐煮制冷风干燥（boiling in salt solution followed by cold air drying，SCC）组和冷风干燥（cold air drying，CD）组。采用电子鼻技术、气相离子迁移谱（gas chromatography-ion mobility spectroscopy，GC-IMS）技术、氨基酸自动分析技术、高效液相色谱技术测定玉筋鱼干中的风味成分。结果表明，不同加工方式制作的玉筋鱼干在气味、滋味方面存在显著差异。电子鼻、GC-IMS技术均能区分不同工艺制作的玉筋鱼干气味，采用GC-IMS技术共分析出68 种挥发性成分，庚醛、戊醛、3-甲基丁醛对玉筋鱼干独特风味的形成有重要影响，其中3-甲基丁醛源自CD工艺，其区别于SCC工艺气味的关键物质。玉筋鱼干中的主要鲜味氨基酸是Glu，主要呈味核苷酸是肌苷酸；CD组玉筋鱼干中的鲜味氨基酸和甜味氨基酸含量占总游离氨基酸的比重高于SCC组，同时CD组滋味活性值、味精当量值均高于SCC组，所以仅采用CD工艺制作的玉筋鱼干滋味优于加盐煮制后CD工艺制作的玉筋鱼干。     

Experimental study on combustion stability and performance of hydrogen-enriched compressed natural gas of a free-piston linear generator

Free Piston linear Generator (FPLG) engine fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) has recently gained increased research attention. However, due to the low-velocity burning and poor lean limit of CNG fuel, the FPLG engine combustion stability, performance, and efficiency are still low. Hydrogen has a greater burning velocity with wider flame limits that could extend the lean burn limits and combustion characteristics of CNG. This paper compares pure CNG and 10% hydrogen-enriched CNG at various ignition speeds (0.6 ms, 0.8 m/s, and 1 m/s), injection positions (0 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm and 15 mm), and lambda ratios (0.9, 1.4 and 1.7) on the combustion characteristics, performance, and conversion efficiency are duly discussed. The findings show that the FPLG combustion stability limits increase with the hydrogen addition into the CNG. The CNG in-cylinder pressure increases significantly when the injection position is advanced, whereas the hydrogen addition reduces the influence of the injection position. The heat release rate increases by 15.62% and 23.72% with hydrogen addition, corresponding to the advanced and retarded injection positions. Consequently, the hydrogen addition increases the power RMS to 209.21 W and 232.64 W with an increment of 3.46% and 3.13%, respectively. Conclusively, the hydrogen addition into the CNG evidently shortens the combustion duration while improving the heat release rate, combustion stability, power RMS, Cycle-to-Cycle variation, and conversion efficiency.     

Environmental impact assessment of bio-hydrogenated diesel from hydrogen and co-product of palm oil industry

Bio-hydrogenated diesel (BHD) is a second generation biofuel that can be produced from vegetable oil and hydrogen via hydroprocessing. BHD is considered as one of alternative and renewable energy. This work presents evaluation of environmental impacts of BHD produced from palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) compared to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Greenhouse gas emission, energy consumption, and overall environmental impacts are assessed. System boundary is from palm oil cultivation to BHD production. The functional unit is defined as 1 kg of fuel produced at the plant. The results indicate that energy consumption of BHD-PFAD is 1.18 times higher than that of BHD-FAME, while giving GHG emission 13.56 times lower than that of BHD-FAME. The results of overall environmental impacts indicated that BHD-PFAD was 3.58 greater than that of BHD-FAME.     

An unsupervised approach for fault diagnosis of power transformers

Electrical utilities apply condition monitoring on power transformers (PTs) to prevent unplanned outages and detect incipient faults. This monitoring is often done using dissolved gas analysis (DGA) coupled with engineering methods to interpret the data, however the obtained results lack accuracy and reproducibility. In order to improve accuracy, various advanced analytical methods have been proposed in the literature. Nonetheless, these methods are often hard to interpret by the decision-maker and require a substantial amount of failure records to be trained. In the context of the PTs, failure data quality is recurrently questionable, and failure records are scarce when compared to nonfailure records. This work tackles these challenges by proposing a novel unsupervised methodology for diagnosing PT condition. Differently from the supervised approaches in the literature, our method does not require the labeling of DGA records and incorporates a visual representation of the results in a 2D scatter plot to assist in interpretation. A modified clustering technique is used to classify the condition of different PTs using historical DGA data. Finally, well-known engineering methods are applied to interpret each of the obtained clusters. The approach was validated using data from two different real-world data sets provided by a generation company and a distribution system operator. The results highlight the advantages of the proposed approach and outperformed engineering methods (from IEC and IEEE standards) and companies legacy method. The approach was also validated on the public IEC TC10 database, showing the capability to achieve comparable accuracy with supervised learning methods from the literature. As a result of the methodology performance, both companies are currently using it in their daily DGA diagnosis.     

Simulation and analysis of dual-reflux pressure swing adsorption using silica gel for blue coal gas initial separation

A dual-reflux pressure swing adsorption (DR-PSA) process was proposed and simulated to initially separate the blue coal gas, aiming to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) and enrich hydrogen (H₂), simultaneously. With a feed flow rate of 7.290 slpm, a light product reflux flow rate of 0.505 slpm and the heavy product reflux flow rate of 3.68 slpm, the developed DR-PSA process could capture CO₂ up to 64.01% with a recovery of 99.60% and enrich H₂ up to 34.66% with a recovery of 97.63% from the blue coal gas (36.2% N₂/28.5% H₂/13.9% CO/12.7% CO₂/8.7% CH₄). In addition, in order to optimize the process, the effects of various operating parameters on the DR-PSA process performance in terms of product purity and recovery were discussed in detail, including the feed position, the light product reflux ratio and the heavy product reflux ratio. Moreover, the dynamic distribution behaviors of pressure, temperature and gas-solid concentration were presented to explain and evaluate the process separation performance in depth under different operating conditions.     

Natural Gas Production

Current data on natural gas production, as well as a breakdown of production by country. Updated on a monthly basis.     

AP对HATO热分解影响的机制

为详细了解高氯酸铵(AP)对5,5'-联四唑-1,1'-二氧二羟铵(HATO)热分解影响的机制,采用热重-质谱-傅里叶红外光谱(TG-MS-FTIR)联用技术、差示扫描量热法(DSC)、傅里叶红外光谱(FTIR)方法,对HATO和HATO/AP共混物的热分解特性、气体产物以及凝聚相变化进行了研究。结果表明,HATO具有两个连续热分解阶段,HATO/AP共混物则有3个热分解阶段;HATO、AP共混后,HATO使得AP熔融峰消失,AP可使HATO的热分解初始温度提前,热分解时间延长且不影响分解完全性;HATO热分解气体产物有CO_2、N_2O、HCN、NH_3、NO、N_2、H_2O,而HATO/AP共混物热分解产生气体主要有N_2、CO_2、N_2O、HCN、NH_3、H_2O、HCN、NO、HCl、NOCl;另外,采用等转化率法计算HATO和HATO/AP共混物四唑环基团的活化能分别为53.38 kJ·mol~(-1)和60.69 kJ·mol~(-1);通过对比HATO和HATO/AP共混物热分解特性以及凝聚相特征基团的变化,阐释了AP使HATO热分解温度提前的机理很可能是:AP的铵根离子与HATO之间发生了质子转移;推测AP导致HATO热分解时间延长的原因为:HATO/AP共混物产生的NH_3与热分解中间体1,1'-二羟基-5,5-联四唑(BTO)反应生成5,5'-联四唑-1,1'-二氧铵盐(ABTOX)。     

Sources and dynamics of semivolatile organic compounds in a single‐family residence in northern California

Semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) emitted from building materials, consumer products, and occupant activities alter the composition of air in residences where people spend most of their time. Exposures to specific SVOCs potentially pose risks to human health. However, little is known about the chemical complexity, total burden, and dynamic behavior of SVOCs in residential environments. Furthermore, little is known about the influence of human occupancy on the emissions and fates of SVOCs in residential air. Here, we present the first‐ever hourly measurements of airborne SVOCs in a residence during normal occupancy. We employ state‐of‐the‐art semivolatile thermal‐desorption aerosol gas chromatography (SV‐TAG). Indoor air is shown consistently to contain much higher levels of SVOCs than outdoors, in terms of both abundance and chemical complexity. Time‐series data are characterized by temperature‐dependent elevated background levels for a broad suite of chemicals, underlining the importance of continuous emissions from static indoor sources. Substantial increases in SVOC concentrations were associated with episodic occupant activities, especially cooking and cleaning. The number of occupants within the residence showed little influence on the total airborne SVOC concentration. Enhanced ventilation was effective in reducing SVOCs in indoor air, but only temporarily; SVOCs recovered to previous levels within hours.