Preparation of activated biomass carbon from pine sawdust for supercapacitor and CO2 capture

Biomass based carbon has captured more and more attention because it is environmentally friendly and has properties of low cost and ideal sustainability. In this study, three kinds of activated biomass carbons (ie, ABC-700, ABC-800 and ABC-900) were first carbonized through pine sawdust pyrolysis and then activated using KOH under three different activation temperatures (ie, 700°C, 800°C and 900°C). The structure properties of the prepared activated biomass carbons were characterized by N₂-adsorption/desorption, SEM, TEM, XRD, Raman, XPS, TG and ultimate analysis. To clarify the activation mechanism, the gas products produced during KOH activation process were measured online with an ETG gas analyzer. The performance of the activated biomass carbons derived from pine sawdust for supercapacitor and CO₂ capture was then evaluated. The predominant gas products during the activation process are H₂ and CO. It indicates that the porous structure was created by using an enhanced etching reaction between carbon atoms and KOH. An increment of the activation temperature from 700 to 900°C results in the increase of surface area (from 1728.66 to 2330.89 m²/g) and total pore volume (from 0.671 to 1.914 cm³/g). Among the three samples, ABC-900 exhibits the maximal specific capacitance of 175.6 F·g⁻¹ and high energy density of 24.39 Wh·kg⁻¹ at the 0.5 A·g⁻¹. And the ABC-700 shows the maximal CO₂ capture capacity of 4.21 mmol/g and high selectivity of CO₂ over N₂ at 298 K and 1 bar. In addition, ABC-700 also has excellent stability and reproducibility after 15 times adsorption-desorption cycles. The unexceptionable electrochemical performance and adsorption capacity of the biomass-carbons show its broad application prospects in the field of supercapacitors and CO₂ capture.     

Nitrogen-doping activated biomass carbon from tea seed shell for CO2 capture and supercapacitor

Activated carbon is a promising material that has a broad application prospect. In this work, biomass (tea seed shell) was used to prepare activated carbon with KOH activation (referred to as AC), and nitrogen was doped in activated carbon using melamine as the nitrogen source (referred to as NAC-x, where x is the mass ratio of melamine and activated carbon). The obtained activated biomass carbon (activated bio-carbon) samples were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET)-specific surface area analysis, ultimate analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, Raman spectrum analysis, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The specific surface areas of activated bio-carbons were 1503.20 m²/g (AC), 1064.54 m²/g (NAC-1), 1187.93 m²/g (NAC-2), 1055.32 m²/g (NAC-3), and 706.22 m²/g (NAC-4), revealing that nitrogen-doping process leads to decrease in specific surface area. XPS analysis revealed that the main nitrogen-containing functional groups were pyrrolic-N and pyridinic-N. The capacity of CO₂ capture and electrochemical performance of activated bio-carbon samples were investigated. The CO₂ capturing capacity followed this order: AC (3.15 mmol/g) > NAC-2 (2.75 mmol/g) > NAC-1 (2.69 mmol/g) > NAC-3 (2.44 mmol/g) > NAC-4 (1.95 mmol/g) at 298 K at 1 bar, which is consistent with the order of specific surface area. The specific surface area played a dominant role in CO₂ capturing capacity. As for supercapacitor, AC-4 showed the highest specific capacitance (168 F/g) at the current density of 0.5 A/g, but NAC-2 showed the best electrochemical performance (89 F/g) at 2 A/g. Nitrogen-containing functional groups and specific surface area both had an important impact on electrochemical performance. In general, NAC-3 and NAC-2 produced excellent electrochemical performance. Compared with NAC-3, less melamine was used to prepare NAC-2; therefore, NAC-2 was considered as the best activated bio-carbon for supercapacitor for 141 F/g (at 0.5 A/g), 108 F/g (at 1 A/g), and 89 F/g (at 2 A/g) in this work.     

One-pot synthesis of high N-doped porous carbons derived from a N-rich oil palm biomass residue in low temperature for CO2 capture

Porous carbon materials have been widely used for CO₂ adsorption, but their preparation was subject to conditions such as raw material cost, activator corrosion, and temperature. In this study, nitrogen-doped porous carbonaceous adsorbents were prepared in a low temperature region (400-550°C) by one-step composite nitrogen doping method, using low-cost oil residue as raw materials and less corrosive NaNH₂ as activator. The CO₂ adsorption performances of the prepared N-doped porous adsorbents were systematically explored. The results showed that optimal oil residue-derived carbonaceous adsorbent owned excellent amount of CO₂ adsorption up to 3.51 and 5.63 mmol/g at 298 and 273 K under 1 bar, respectively. It was discovered that the congenerous influences of porous structure, nitrogen content and V_n of the adsorbent affected their CO₂ adsorption performances under 1 bar. Importantly, these oil residue porous carbonaceous adsorbent also was verified owning fine selectivity of the CO₂ over N₂ (15.7), which attributed to its high V_n and nitrogen content. Furthermore, optimal sample OAC-500-2.5 owned medium Q_st (21-26 kJ/mol), which was beneficial practical application. This work may inspire new sparks on novel nitrogen-doped adsorbent with inexpensive precursor, low activation temperature and simple preparative tactic, indicating that the nitrogen-doped sample is promising in the practical situation of CO₂ adsorption.     

Evaluation of Mg‐MOF‐74 for post‐combustion carbon dioxide capture through pressure swing adsorption

This paper presents a computational study of an energy‐efficient technique for post‐combustion CO₂ capture using novel material, namely, Mg‐MOF‐74, using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes. A detailed one‐dimensional, transient mathematical model has been formulated to include the heat and mass transfer, the pressure drop and multicomponent mass diffusion. The PSA model has been further extended by incorporating a heat regenerating process to enhance CO₂ sequestration. The heat dissipated during adsorption is stored in packed sand bed and released during desorption step for heating purpose. The model has been implemented on a MATLAB program using second‐order discretization. Validation of the model was performed using a complete experimental data set for CO₂ sequestration using zeolite 13X. Simulation of the PSA experiment on fixed bed has been carried out to evaluate the capacity of Mg‐MOF‐74 for CO₂ capture with varying feed gas temperature of 28 and 100 °C, varying pressurization and purge times and heat regeneration. It was discovered that the PSA process with heat regeneration system might be advantageous because it achieves equivalent amount of CO₂ sequestration in fewer PSA cycles compared with PSA without heat regeneration system. Based on the simulated conditions, CO₂ recovery with Mg‐MOF‐74 gives high percentage purity (above 98%) for the captured CO₂. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhanced hetero‐elements doping content in biomass waste‐derived carbon for high performance supercapacitor

Betel nut wastes are firstly modified with nitric acid/thiourea to fabricate hetero‐element doping carbon (C‐H‐T) for energy storage. C‐H‐T exhibits improved content of O (12.27%), N (2.52%), and S (2.88%) compared with that of purely carbonized carbon with O (9.2%) and N (1.76%). Without nitric acid heat treatment, the carbon materials prepared by hydrothermal treatment with thiourea only get increasing hetero‐elements content of O (10.46%), N (2.9%), and S (0.53%). The similar results have been obtained using urea and melamine as dopants. Due to the synergistic effects of the hetero‐elements containing functional groups, C‐H‐T get a significant enhancement in its electrochemical properties with a high capacitance (423 F g^?1 at 0.5 A g^?1) in KOH electrolyte. C‐H‐T based coin‐type symmetric supercapacitors display maximum energy density of 61.7 Wh kg^?1 and considerate cycling ability with 94% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles. The fabricated two‐step method can inspire the increase of hetero‐elements content in carbon materials to develop its application in energy storage.     

Fabrication of microporous and mesoporous carbon spheres for high‐performance supercapacitor electrode materials

Microporous and mesoporous carbon spheres (CSs) were fabricated using resorcinol and formaldehyde as precursors in the presence of Pluronic F127 as porogen and KOH as the active agent. The textural characteristic and morphology were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and N₂ adsorption/desorption techniques. Pluronic F127 played an important role for generating mesopores, while KOH activation brought abundant micropores and resulted in a combined microporous and mesoporous structure of the CSs. The results showed that a typical sample (denoted as CS‐F‐K) possessed a spherical shape, with a high specific surface area of 735.4 m²/g, large pore volume of 0.622 cm³/g, and combined microporous and mesoporous structure, which endowed CS‐F‐K good electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 182 F/g under a current density of 0.5 A/g, remarkable rate performance, and long‐term cycling stability. After 1000 cycles at 3 A/g, CS‐F‐K electrode can still remain the specific capacitance of 154.8 F/g with a retention of 98.9%. The excellent electrochemical performance of CS‐F‐K was mainly attributed to the micro‐mesoporous structure, which promoted the ion accumulation on the electrode surface and facilitated fast ion transportation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comprehensive techno‐economic analysis method for power generation systems with CO2 capture

A new comprehensive techno‐economic analysis method for power generation systems with CO₂ capture is proposed in this paper. The correlative relationship between the efficiency penalty, investment increment, and CO₂ avoidance cost is established. Through theoretical derivation, typical system analysis, and variation trends investigation, the mutual influence between technical and economic factors and their impacts on the CO₂ avoidance cost are studied. At the same time, the important role that system integration plays in CO₂ avoidance is investigated based on the analysis of a novel partial gasification CO₂ recovery system. The results reveal that for the power generation systems with CO₂ capture, the efficiency penalty not only affects the costs on fuel, but the incremental investment cost for CO₂ capture (U.S.$ kW⁻¹) as well. Consequently, it will have a decisive impact on the CO₂ avoidance cost. Therefore, the added attention should be paid to improve the technical performance in order to reduce the efficiency penalty in energy system with CO₂ capture and storage. Additionally, the system integration may not only decrease the efficiency penalty, but also simplify the system structure and keep the investment increment at a low level, and thereby it reduces the CO₂ avoidance cost significantly. For example, for the novel partial gasification CO₂ recovery system, owing to system integration, its efficiency can reach 42.2%, with 70% of CO₂ capture, and its investment cost is only 87$ kW⁻¹ higher than that of the reference IGCC system, thereby the CO₂ avoidance cost is only 6.23$ t⁻¹ CO₂. The obtained results provide a comprehensive technical–economical analysis method for energy systems with CO₂ capture useful for reducing the avoidance costs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy minimization in monoethanolamine‐based CO2 capture using capacitive deionization

Post‐combustion CO₂ capture using monoethanolamine (MEA) is a mature technology; however, the high energy input requirements for solvent regeneration are still a challenge for MEA‐based CO₂ capture. In this paper, a novel approach is presented in which a conventional CO₂ absorption–desorption system is integrated with capacitive deionization (CDI) in such a way to minimize the heat duty requirement of the stripper. The CO₂‐rich solution drawn from the absorber column is first sent to CDI where ionic species are adsorbed at oppositely charged electrodes during the charging cycle, and an ion‐free solution is sent back to the absorber. The adsorbed ions released during the regeneration cycle are sent to the stripper column. The concentrated solution from the CDI process that was sent to the stripper required low heat duty to regenerate the solvent because of the high CO₂ loading of the solution. The feasibility of the suggested modelling technique is verified at various stripper inlet temperatures and lean CO₂ loadings. The results indicate that 10–45% of the total energy supplied to the stripper can be conserved at a lean CO₂ loading of 0.0000–0.0323 using the suggested process model. Moreover, the required size of the stripper column will be small due to the small volume of the concentrated ionic solutions from the CDI cell, eliminating the initial cost of the CO₂ capture system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of templated carbons starting from clay and clay‐derived zeolites for hydrogen storage applications

Clay and its recrystallized zeolitic derivatives were used in this study as templating agents for carbon nanostructured materials. The conventional nanocasting process that involves impregnation with furfural alcohol and subsequent chemical vapour deposition was followed. Several techniques such as X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermo‐gravimetric analysis (TGA) and surface area analysis were used to characterize the parent templating materials including the resulting nanocasted carbons. The study demonstrated that there is greater potential for the use of value‐added clays rather than their pristine form and hence presents a cost‐effective alternative for producing carbonaceous materials with more attractive properties for hydrogen storage applications. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nitrogen-doped porous carbons derived from sustainable biomass via a facile post-treatment nitrogen doping strategy: Efficient CO2 capture and DRM

Nitrogen (N)-doped carbon materials have become promising candidates for many applications. In this paper, the biomass activated carbon (BC) was obtained by carbonization and activation of soybean meal. Using soybean meal as the precursor, potassium hydroxide (KOH) as the activator and melamine as the nitrogen source, a series of N-doped porous biomass carbons (H-NC-X) with different N contents were achieved via a facile post-treatment nitrogen doping strategy. Then these samples were used as a catalyst for dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction and an adsorbent for CO₂ capture. Among all the investigated samples, BC has the largest specific surface area and the best pore structure characteristics, showing the best CO₂ adsorption capacity. However, when BC was used as a catalyst for DRM reaction, it showed the worst catalytic performance. After nitrogen doping treatment, the CO₂ adsorption capacity of the prepared N-doped biomass porous carbon decreased gradually with the increase of the introduced N content. This is mainly due to the destruction of the microporous structure of porous carbon by post-processing nitrogen doping. In contrast, when nitrogen-doped porous carbon was used as the reforming catalyst, the catalytic activity increased with the increase of the introduced N content. The order was: H-NC-30>H-NC-20>H-NC-10. This indicates that when nitrogen-doped porous carbon was used as an adsorbent, the pore structure plays a major role; while when it was used as a reforming catalyst, nitrogen functional groups are the major active sites. This study provides a promising N-doped carbon material for effect CO₂ adsorption and DRM reactions.     

Impact of choice of CO2 separation technology on thermo‐economic performance of Bio‐SNG production processes

Three different CO₂ separation technologies for production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from biomass gasification – amine‐based absorption, membrane‐based separation and pressure swing adsorption – are investigated for their thermo‐economic performance against the background of different possible future energy market scenarios. The studied scale of the SNG plant is a thermal input of 100 MW_th,LHV to the gasifier at a moisture content of 20 wt‐% with a preceding drying step reducing the biomass' natural moisture content of 50 wt‐%. Preparation of the CO₂‐rich stream for carbon capture and storage is investigated for the amine‐based absorption and the membrane‐based separation technology alternatives. The resulting cold gas efficiency η_cg for the investigated process alternatives ranges between 0.65 and 0.695. The overall system efficiency η_sys ranges from 0.744 to 0.793, depending on both the separation technology and the background energy system. Amine‐based absorption gives the highest cold gas efficiency whereas the potential for cogeneration of electricity from the process' excess heat is higher for membrane‐based separation and pressure swing adsorption. The estimated specific production costs for SNG c_SNG for a process input of 90.3 MW_th,LHV at 50 wt‐% moisture vary between 103–127 €₂₀₁₀/MWh_SNG. The corresponding production subsidy level c_subsidy needed to achieve end‐user purchase price‐parity with fossil natural gas is in the range of 56–78 €₂₀₁₀/MWh_SNG depending on both the energy market scenario and the CO₂ separation technology. Sensitivity analysis on the influence of changes in the total capital cost for the SNG plant on the production cost indicates a decrease of about 12% assuming a 30% reduction in total capital investment. Capture and storage of biogenic CO₂ – if included in the emission trading system – only becomes an option at higher CO₂ charges. This is due to increased investment costs but, in particular, due to the rather high costs for CO₂ transport and storage that have been assumed in this study. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heteroatom‐doped graphene and its application as a counter electrode in dye‐sensitized solar cells

The most frequently used counter electrode (CE) in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is platinum on fluorine‐doped tin oxide glass. This electrode has excellent electrical conductivity, chemical stability, and high electrocatalytic affinity for the reduction of triiodide. However, the high cost of metallic platinum and the poor electrochemical stability pose a major drawback in the commercial production. This has necessitated a search for a non‐precious metal and metal‐free electrocatalyst that demonstrates better catalytic activity and longer electrochemical stability for practical use in DSSCs. Graphene has been at the centre of attention due to its excellent optoelectronic properties. However, a defect‐free graphene sheet is not suitable as a CE in DSSCs, because of its neutral polarity which often restricts efficient charge transfer at the graphene/liquid interface, irrespective of the high in‐plane charge mobility. Hence, heteroatom‐doped graphene‐based CEs are being developed with the aim to balance electrical conductivity for efficient charge transfer and charge polarization for enhanced reduction activity of redox couples simultaneously. The elements commonly used in chemical doping of graphene are nitrogen, oxygen, boron, sulfur, and phosphorus. Halogens have also recently shown great promise. It has been demonstrated that edge‐selective heteroatom‐doping of graphene imparts both efficient in‐plane charge transfers and polarity, thereby enhancing electrocatalytic activity. Thus, heteroatom‐doped graphene serves as a good material to replace conventional electrodes and enhance power conversion efficiency in DSSCs. The focus is to reduce the cost of DSSCs. This review explores the performance of DSSCs, factors that influence the power conversion efficiency, and various physicochemical properties of graphene. It further outlines current progress on the synthetic approaches for chemical doping (substitutional and surface transfer doping) of graphene and graphene oxide with different heteroatoms in order to fine‐tune the electronic properties. The use of heteroatom‐doped graphene as a CE in DSSCs and how it improves the photovoltaic performance of cells is discussed.     

Parametric study of chemical looping combustion for tri‐generation of hydrogen,heat, and electrical power with CO2 capture

In this article, a novel cycle configuration has been studied, termed the extended chemical looping combustion integrated in a steam‐injected gas turbine cycle. The products of this system are hydrogen, heat, and electrical power. Furthermore, the system inherently separates the CO₂ and hydrogen that is produced during the combustion. The core process is an extended chemical looping combustion (exCLC) process which is based on classical chemical looping combustion (CLC). In classical CLC, a solid oxygen carrier circulates between two fluidized bed reactors and transports oxygen from the combustion air to the fuel; thus, the fuel is not mixed with air and an inherent CO₂ separation occurs. In exCLC the oxygen carrier circulates along with a carbon carrier between three fluidized bed reactors, one to oxidize the oxygen carrier, one to produces and separate the hydrogen, and one to regenerate the carbon carrier. The impacts of process parameters, such as flowrates and temperatures have been studied on the efficiencies of producing electrical power, hydrogen, and district heating and on the degree of capturing CO₂. The result shows that this process has the potential to achieve a thermal efficiency of 54% while 96% of the CO₂ is captured and compressed to 110 bar. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scope of doped mesoporous (<10 nm) surfactant‐modified alumina templated carbons for hydrogen storage applications

Metal (Ni/Pd) and nitrogen codoped mesoporous templated carbons were synthesized using low‐cost surfactant‐modified mesoporous alumina as a hard template via chemical vapor deposition for hydrogen storage application. Initially, high surface area (1508 m²/g) nitrogen‐doped templated carbon was successfully prepared. Pore volume was also significant (1.64 cm³/g). The codoping with metals (Ni or Pd) reduced both the area and pore volume. All the codoped carbons were mesoporous (2‐8 nm). Aggregated morphology was observed for nitrogen‐doped carbon; tubular or noodle shape appeared on codoping with metals. The dispersion of Pd metal within the carbon framework was highest. The 2 wt% Pd codoped carbon showed the highest hydrogen uptake of 5 wt% (?196°C; 25 bar). This may be attributed to its most number of active sites corresponding to the highest metal dispersion and amount of nitrogen present. The cyclic stability of the samples was also good with only 3% to 5% loss in storage capacity up to 10 cycles.     

Morphology‐dependent electrochemical performance of nitrogen‐doped carbon dots@polyaniline hybrids for supercapacitors

In this work, the binary N‐CDs@PANI hybrids were fabricated by introducing zero‐dimensional nitrogen‐doped carbon dots (N‐CDs) into reticulated PANI. Firstly, N‐CDs were prepared by one‐pot microwave method, and then, the N‐CDs were introduced into in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline (ANI) monomer. The N‐CDs with abundant functional groups and high electronic cloud density played a significant role in guiding the polyaniline‐ordered growth into intriguing morphologies. Moreover, morphology‐dependent electrochemical performances of N‐CDs@PANI hybrids were investigated and N‐CDs improve static interaction and enhance the special capacitances in the N‐CDs@PANI hybrids. Especially, the specific capacitance of PC4 hybrid can reach 785 F g^?1, which exceed that of pure PANI (274 F g^?1) at current density of 0.5 A g^?1 according to three‐electrode measurement. And the capacitance retention of the PC4 hybrid still keeps 70% after 2000 cycles of charge and discharge. The N‐CDs@PANI hybrids can have potential applications in electrode materials, supercapacitors, nonlinear optics, and microwave absorption.     

Parametric techno‐economic studies of coal/biomass co‐gasification for IGCC plants with carbon capture using various coal ranks,fuel‐feeding schemes,and syngas cooling methods

Because of biomass's limited supply (as well as other issues involving its feeding and transportation), pure biomass plants tend to be small, which results in high production and capital costs (per unit power output) compared with much larger coal plants. Thus, it is more economically attractive to co‐gasify biomass with coal. Biomass can also make an existing plant carbon‐neutral or even carbon‐negative if enough carbon dioxide is captured and sequestered (CCS). As a part of a series of studies examining the thermal and economic impact of different design implementations for an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant fed with blended coal and biomass, this paper focuses on investigating various parameters, including radiant cooling versus syngas quenching, dry‐fed versus slurry‐fed gasification (particularly in relation to sour‐shift and sweet‐shift carbon capture systems), oxygen‐blown versus air‐blown gasifiers, low‐rank coals versus high‐rank coals, and options for using syngas or alternative fuels in the duct burner for the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to achieve the desired steam turbine inlet temperature. Using the commercial software, Thermoflow^®, the case studies were performed on a simulated 250‐MW coal IGCC plant located near New Orleans, Louisiana, and the coal was co‐fed with biomass using ratios ranging from 10% to 30% by weight. Using 2011 dollars as a basis for economic analysis, the results show that syngas coolers are more efficient than quench systems (by 5.5 percentage points), but are also more expensive (by $500/kW and 0.6 cents/kW h). For the feeding system, dry‐fed is more efficient than slurry‐fed (by 2.2–2.5 points) and less expensive (by $200/kW and 0.5 cents/kW h). Sour‐shift CCS is both more efficient (by 3 percentage points) and cheaper (by $600/kW or 1.5 cents/kW h) than sweet‐shift CCS. Higher‐ranked coals are more efficient than lower‐ranked coals (2.8 points without biomass, or 1.5 points with biomass) and have lower capital cost (by $600/kW without using biomass, or $400/kW with biomass). Finally, plants with biomass and low‐rank coal feedstock are both more efficient and have lower costs than those with pure coal: just 10% biomass seems to increase the efficiency by 0.7 points and reduce costs by $400/kW and 0.3 cents/kW h. However, for high‐rank coals, this trend is different: the efficiency decreases by 0.7 points, and the cost of electricity increases by 0.1 cents/kW h, but capital costs still decrease by about $160/kW. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of MEA and DGA performance for CO2 capture under different operational conditions

Carbon capture and storage from flue gases is the most common method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using a primary amine as the solvent of CO₂ capture unit is popular because of its high activity and ability to be used for streams with low concentration and low partial pressure of CO₂. Monoethanolamine(MEA) and Diglycolamine(DGA) are the most common kinds of primary amines which have been traditionally used in many natural gas sweetening plants. In this research, the capture plant has been designed for these two solvents at various CO₂ concentrations in the feed flue gas. This paper proposes different possible alters to overcome the high energy requirements of capture plant. It also presents the results of technical evaluation of different parameters, in order to design an actual plant with minimum energy requirement. The results of different parameters show that for DGA solvent, there will be an improvement in overall energy usage in the capture plant rather than MEA for some special cases. To gain the practical results, actual stages have been used for absorber and stripper instead of equilibrium stages. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microbial electrolysis cells for production of methane from CO2: long‐term performance and perspectives

A methane‐producing microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a technology to convert CO₂ into methane, using electricity as an energy source and microorganisms as the catalyst. A methane‐producing MEC provides the possibility to increase the fuel yield per hectare of land area, when the CO₂ produced in biofuel production processes is converted to additional fuel methane. Besides increasing fuel yield per hectare of land area, this also results in more efficient use of land area, water, and nutrients. In this research, the performance of a methane‐producing MEC was studied for 188 days in a flat‐plate MEC design. Methane production rate and energy efficiency of the methane‐producing MEC were investigated with time to elucidate the main bottlenecks limiting system performance. When using water as the electron donor at the anode during continuous operation, methane production rate was 0.006 m³/m³ per day at a cathode potential of ?0.55 V vs. normal hydrogen electrode with a coulombic efficiency of 23.1%. External electrical energy input was 73.5 kWh/m³ methane, resulting in a voltage efficiency of 13.4%. Consequently, overall energy efficiency was 3.1%. The maximum achieved energy efficiency was obtained in a yield test and was 51.3%. Analysis of internal resistance showed that in the short term, cathode and anode losses were dominant, but with time, also pH gradient and transport losses became more important. The results obtained in this study are used to discuss the possible contribution of methane‐producing MECs to increase the fuel yield per hectare of land area. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multifracture response to supercritical CO2‐EGS and water‐EGS based on thermo‐hydro‐mechanical coupling method

Hydraulic‐fracturing treatments have become an essential technology for the development of deep hot dry rocks (HDRs). The deep rock formation often contains natural fractures (NFs) at micro and macroscales. In the presence of the NF, the hydraulic‐fracturing process may form a complex fracture network caused by the interaction between hydraulic fractures and NF. In this study, analysis of carbon dioxide (CO₂)‐based enhanced geothermal system (EGS) and water‐based EGS in complex fracture network was performed based on the thermo‐hydro‐mechanical (THM) coupling method, with various rock constitutive models. The complexity of the fracture geometry influences the fluid flow path and heat transfer efficiency of the thermal reservoir. Compared with CO₂‐based EGS, water‐based EGS had an earlier thermal breakthrough with a rapid decline in production temperature. CO₂ can easily gain heat rising its temperature thus reducing the effect of a premature thermal breakthrough. Both CO₂‐based EGS and water‐based EGS are affected by in‐situ stress; the increase in stress ratio improved the fracture permeability but resulted in an early cold thermal breakthrough. When the same injection rate is applied to water‐based EGS and CO₂‐based EGS, water‐based EGS displayed higher injection pressure buildup. Water‐based EGS had higher reservoir deformation area than CO₂‐based EGS, and thermoelastic constitutive model for water‐based EGS showed larger deformed area ratio than thermo‐poroelastic rock model. Furthermore, higher values of rock modulus accelerated the reservoir deformation for water‐based EGS. This study established a novel discussion investigating the performance of CO₂‐based EGS and water‐based EGS in a complex fractured reservoir. The findings from this study will help in deepening the understanding of the mechanisms involved when using CO₂ or water as a working fluid in EGS.     

Effective MgO‐doped TiO2 nanoaerogel coating for crystalline silicon solar cells improvement

This study looks at investigating the influence of high surface area TiO₂ and MgO‐doped TiO₂ aerogel nanomaterials to improve the photovoltaic performance of monocrystalline silicon (mono‐Si) solar cells. TiO₂ and MgO‐doped TiO₂ anatase nanoaerogels were synthesized via a single‐step colloidal homogeneous precipitation sol‐gel method in a compact high‐pressure hydrogen reactor. TiO₂‐based nanoparticles were encapsulated in ethylene vinyl acetate resins, and the obtained composite solutions were screen printed on the textured surface of the cells. The specific surface area, microstructural, composition, and optical properties of the nanoaerogels were characterized by Brunaur‐Emmett‐Teller, X‐ray powder diffractometer, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, field emission transmission electron microscope, field emission scanning electron microscope, and ultraviolet‐visible spectrophotometry. We observed that the MgO‐doped TiO₂ (2% mol) nanoaerogel exhibited a much superior specific surface area (231 m²/g) compared with the undoped TiO₂ (154 m²/g). Experimental results showed that the calculated relative power conversion efficiency increased by 4.6% for the MgO‐doped TiO₂ coating and 3.4% for the undoped TiO₂ under a simulated one‐sun illumination.