Environmental impact estimation of ceramic lightweight aggregates production starting from residues

Within a circular economy approach, this study investigates the environmental impact of lightweight aggregates (LWAs) produced starting from different mixes of different clays with brewery sludge and cattle bone flour ash (CBA), used as poring and fertilizing agents, respectively. The environmental impact was evaluated by means of release tests, insulation capacity, carbon footprint (CFP), and particulate matter emission during pellet firing. Release tests representative of LWAs realistic application showed very high release of phosphate and satisfactory release of potassium. The thermal insulation of the LWAs was tested by thermal imaging camera and resulted highly variable depending on the composition, with the mix containing CBA performing best. This latter composition leads also to the smallest CO₂ equivalent emission, due to the calorific power of CBA, allowing lower consumption of fossil fuels during the LWA production. Finally, total particulate emissions during the thermal treatment resulted similar in terms of mass for all mixes, while differences in terms of particle morphology and composition occurred. Samples containing residue resulted with a quite good release behavior, CFP, and insulation properties, but higher emission of particles, particularly when glass is added.     

基于混合蚁群算法的异质车队低碳VRP研究

针对货运车辆在配送调度过程中产生大量碳排放的问题，建立模型将多种影响碳排放量的因素协同优化。模型中考虑了不同载重量的异质车队，两个节点之间有多条道路的柔性路径，以及车辆重量随卸货而减少的动态负载等因素，以碳排放量、行驶时间和行驶路程为优化目标，并加入了节点需求时间窗、根据速度变化划分路段、交接和卸货时间的约束。提出了一种混合蚁群算法，利用蚁群算法信息素强度更新方式保持群体记忆性，利用粒子群算法的快速收敛特性增加计算效率。通过随机数值算例的仿真优化与对比分析，验证了算法和模型的有效性。     

Combined Decarbonization of Electrical Energy Generation and Production of Synthetic Fuels by Renewable Energies and Fossil Fuels

Power generation from renewable energy sources and fossil fuels are integrated into one system. A combination of technologies in the form of a carbon capture utilization (CCU)-combined power station is proposed. The technology is based on energy generation from fossil fuels by a coal power plant with CO₂ recovery from exhaust gases, and pyrolysis of natural gas to hydrogen and carbon, completed by reverse water-gas shift for the conversion of CO₂ to CO, which will react with hydrogen in a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for synthetic diesel. The carbon from the pyrolysis can replace other fossil carbon or can be sequestered. This technology offers significant CO₂ savings compared to the current state of technology and makes an environmentally friendly use of fossil fuels for electricity and fuel sectors possible.     

Numerical simulations of the energy performance of a PEM water electrolysis based high-pressure hydrogen refueling station

The present paper proposes an energy analysis on a hydrogen production and storage system. The dynamic and multi-physical investigation is inherent to an energy system composed of a PEM electrolyzer, a diaphragm compressor, a gaseous storage system, ancillaries, and control procedures. To perform this investigation, a model previously developed by the authors has been used. The case-study simulation shows how the electrolyzer has the predominant rate, accounting for 88.5% of the daily 24-h energy demand (13 MWh). The electrolyzer specific energy consumption for 205 kg of hydrogen generated resulted to be 56.3 kWh/kg. The other components have required 1.5 MWh, with a specific energy of about 7.5 kWh/kg. The overall system efficiency resulted to be 52.9%, including all the components and their energy consumption and guaranteeing 14.9 metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide.     

Simulation of integrated novel PSA/EHP/C process for high-pressure hydrogen recovery from Coke Oven Gas

This paper introduces a novel Coke Oven Gas (COG) hydrogen purification/compression system based on the technologies of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) and Electrochemical Hydrogen Purification and Compression (EHP/C). As the EHP/C tolerates O₂, N₂ and CH₄ impurities, PSA can be utilized solely for CO and CO₂ removal (other COG impurities were not considered in this work). A relaxation of PSA hydrogen purity could significantly enhance its recovery rate. In this study, the suitability of traditional hydrogen PSA as part of the hybrid PSA/EHP/C approach was investigated. Aspen Adsorption and Matlab were used to model the PSA and EHP/C systems, respectively. The effect of adsorption pressure, purge-to-feed-ratio (P/F-ratio) and adsorption time within cycle on PSA performance is reported. This study found that breakthrough of non-detrimental components is typically accompanied with poisonous CO. Hence, the CO removal with traditional H₂-PSA resulted into high purity product. In a two-bed PSA, 36.3% of hydrogen was recovered at 99.9988% purity and 0.18 ppm CO. Subsequently, as a result, the EHP/C purification capability was merely utilized, but polished this hydrogen to >99.999% purity. Simultaneously, hydrogen was isothermally compressed to 20 MPa, consuming a marginal 2.42 kWh/kg. Compared to mechanical compression, this is 31.6% more energy efficient. Recovering hydrogen from by-product COG was found to save 0.5 kg CO₂/kg H₂ compared to hydrogen produced from natural gas. Conventional hydrogen PSA, utilizing 70% Activated Carbon and 30% Molecular Sieve 5A, was found not to be effective to target the removal of CO specifically. To increase synergy between PSA and EHP/C, the PSA requires adequate design and operation using appropriate adsorbents and cycle steps to target elimination of CO. An increased EHP/C catalyst tolerance for CO also contributes to higher flexibility.     

城市低碳群体建筑外部边缘空间规划仿真研究

针对当前空间规划方法存在的计算时间长、规划成本高等问题,提出一种基于蚁群算法的低碳群体建筑外部边缘空间规划方法。依据城市低碳群体建筑外部边缘空间的模糊特性,引入模糊集合理论对建筑外部边缘空间进行理解和建筑外部边缘空间模糊矩阵的构建,对边缘空间进行划分和限定。结合建筑外部边缘空间的特性和具体关系模式进行空间层次划分,计算空间属性权重,以此确立空间规划目标,根据空间规划目标函数构建空间规划模型,设定求解空间规划模型的蚁群算法信息素更新方式,依据个体信息素转移概率指导个体进行模型最优解搜索。实验结果表明,所提方法与传统的空间规划方法相比,有效减少了计算时间,降低了规划成本。     

Harmonised life-cycle indicators of nuclear-based hydrogen

When comparing the life-cycle environmental performance of hydrogen energy systems, significant concerns arise due to potential methodological inconsistencies between case studies. In this regard, protocols for harmonised life cycle assessment (LCA) of hydrogen energy systems are currently available to mitigate these concerns. These protocols have already been applied to conventional hydrogen from steam methane reforming as well as to a large number of both fossil and renewable hydrogen options, allowing robust comparisons between them. However, harmonised life-cycle indicators of nuclear-based hydrogen options are not yet available in the literature. This study fills this gap by using the recently developed software GreenH₂armony® to calculate the harmonised carbon, energy and acidification footprints of nuclear-based hydrogen produced through different pathways (viz., low-temperature electrolysis, high-temperature electrolysis, and thermochemical cycles). Overall, the harmonised case studies of nuclear-based hydrogen show a generally good performance in terms of carbon footprint and acidification, but an unfavourable performance in terms of non-renewable energy footprint.     

Trends and driving forces of low-carbon energy technology innovation in China’s industrial sectors from 1998 to 2017: from a regional perspective

Low-carbon energy technology (LC) innovation contributes to both environmental protection and economic development. Using the panel data of 30 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities in China from 1998 to 2017, this paper constructs a two-layer logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model to uncover the factors influencing the variation of the innovation of LC in China’s industrial sectors, including the alternative energy production technology (AEPT) and the energy conversation technology (ECT). The results show that China’s industrial LC patent applications rapidly increased after 2005 and AEPT patent applications outweighed ECT patent applications all the time with a gradually narrowing gap. Low-carbon degree played the dominant role in promoting the increase in China’s industrial LC patent applications, followed by the economic scale, R&D (research and development) efficiency, and R&D share. Economic structure contributed to the increases in LC patent applications in the central and the western regions, while led to the decreases in the eastern region, the north-eastern region, and Chinese mainland Xizang(Tibet) Autonoomous Region is not considered due to lack of data. This note applies to the entire article.. Low-carbon degree and economic scale were two main contributors to the growths of both industrial AEPT patent applications and ECT patent applications in Chinese mainland and the four regions. Several policy recommendations are made to further promote industrial innovation in China.     

低碳环境下钢铁企业燃气系统动态平衡调度仿真

在“节能减排、降本增效”的大背景下,从碳素流视角切入,在煤气介质预测基础上,建立了0-1混合线性规划模型,以能源成本和碳交易成本总和最小化为目标,研究钢铁行业副产煤气生产调度问题。采用基于遗传算法的动态迭代调度算法,通过混合交叉算子和平均变异算子提高遗传算法局部搜索能力,并以国内某大型钢铁企业为仿真对象进行系统仿真,结果表明:混合煤气柜可以根据煤气产耗特点调整存储量,并保证存储量在合理范围内;调节用户会起到一定的缓冲作用,可以根据某种副产煤气的产耗特点响应增加或减少该种煤气的消耗量;当某种副产煤气严重不足时,固定消耗用户会根据优先级响应停调,以满足生产需求。可见副产煤气的优化调度应用可以为中国钢铁行业的低碳发展和节能减排提供技术支撑。