Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “FOSSIL FUEL”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Development of Nano-crystalline Doped-Ceramic Enabled Fiber Sensors for High Temperature In-Situ Monitoring of Fossil Fuel Gases

This is a final technical report for the first project year from July 1, 2005 to Jan 31, 2012 for DoE/NETL funded project DE-FC26-05NT42439: Development of Nanocrystalline Doped-Ceramic Enabled Fiber Sensors for High Temperature In-Situ Monitoring of Fossil Fuel Gases. This report summarizes the technical progresses and achievements towards the development of novel nanocrystalline doped ceramic material-enabled optical fiber sensors for in situ and real time monitoring the gas composition of flue or hot gas streams involved in fossil-fuel based power generation and hydrogen production.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Shifting from Fossil Fuel Reliance to Green Energy Sovereignty: Ute Mountain Ute Tribe

Self-determination has been an on-going effort for Native American people and gained much traction with the passing of The Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act. Congress passed this act to assist Native American tribes and Alaska Native villages with planning, development, and assistance to achieve their energy goals. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT) has relied on oil and natural gas for economic support the last 70 years. Burning fossil fuels, along with oil and gas development, decreases the quality of air and leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Subsequently, the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy is now more costly than many renewable energy sources, including solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Environmental stewardship, along with the need to maintain revenue generation, has led UMUT’s efforts to achieve energy self-determinism employing PV and exploring other technology. In the past, the tribe completed a 1 megawatt PV project near Towaoc, Colorado, which serves as a case study on the tribe’s energy goals: a future where renewables will dominate their energy landscape. This paper explores UMUT’s past and on-going efforts toward energy independence and how it relates to the broader landscape of Native American energy sovereignty.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Monthly, global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption

This paper examines available data, develops a strategy and presents a monthly, global time series of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions for the years 1950 2006. This monthly time series was constructed from detailed study of monthly data from the 21 countries that account for approximately 80% of global total emissions. These data were then used in a Monte Carlo approach to proxy for all remaining countries. The proportional-proxy methodology estimates by fuel group the fraction of annual emissions emitted in each country and month. Emissions from solid, liquid and gas fuels are explicitly modelled by the proportional-proxy method. The primary conclusion from this study is the global monthly time series is statistically significantly different from a uniform distribution throughout the year. Uncertainty analysis of the data presented show that the proportional-proxy method used faithfully reproduces monthly patterns in the data and the global monthly pattern of emissions is relatively insensitive to the exact proxy assignments used. The data and results presented here should lead to a better understanding of global and regional carbon cycles, especially when the mass data are combined with the stable carbon isotope data in atmospheric transport models.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fog and Froth-based Post Combustion CO 2 Capture in Fossil Fuel Power Plants

The University of Kentucky (UK) project titled “Fog+Froth-Based Post-Combustion CO 2 Capture in Fossil Fuel Power Plant”, DE-FE0031733, was conducted from 5/1/2019 to 12/31/2023 in two Budget Periods (BPs), with BP1 from 5/1/2019 to 1/31/2021 and with BP2 from 2/1/2021 to 12/31/2023. The overall goal is to reduce the CO 2 capture capital and operating cost by reducing the absorber size. Other participants included Industrial Climate Solutions, Inc. (ICSI), ALL4 and NexantECA. All project deliverables, milestones, and success criteria were met. Scaled-up demonstration of the compact absorber is planned and two specific aspects of the project demonstration, the solvent spray and the low absorber bottom packing temperature, have been incorporated into the overall UK CO 2 capture process which is on the road to large scale verification and commercialization.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2016

A statistical approach for isolating fossil fuel emissions in atmospheric inverse problems

We study independent verification and quantification of fossil fuel (FF) emissions that constitutes a considerable scientific challenge. By coupling atmospheric observations of CO 2 with models of atmospheric transport, inverse models offer the possibility of overcoming this challenge. However, disaggregating the biospheric and FF flux components of terrestrial fluxes from CO 2 concentration measurements has proven to be difficult, due to observational and modeling limitations. In this study, we propose a statistical inverse modeling scheme for disaggregating winter time fluxes on the basis of their unique error covariances and covariates, where these covariances and covariates are representative of the underlying processes affecting FF and biospheric fluxes. The application of the method is demonstrated with one synthetic and two real data prototypical inversions by using in situ CO 2 measurements over North America. Also, inversions are performed only for the month of January, as predominance of biospheric CO 2 signal relative to FF CO 2 signal and observational limitations preclude disaggregation of the fluxes in other months. The quality of disaggregation is assessed primarily through examination of a posteriori covariance between disaggregated FF and biospheric fluxes at regional scales. Findings indicate that the proposed method is able to robustly disaggregate fluxes regionally at monthly temporal resolution with a posteriori cross covariance lower than 0.15 µmol m -2 s -1 between FF and biospheric fluxes. Error covariance models and covariates based on temporally varying FF inventory data provide a more robust disaggregation over static proxies (e.g., nightlight intensity and population density). However, the synthetic data case study shows that disaggregation is possible even in absence of detailed temporally varying FF inventory data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Catalytic Hydroprocessing of Single-Cell Oils to Hydrocarbon Fuels : Converting microbial lipids to fuels is a promising approach to replace fossil fuels

Microbial lipids hold great promise as biofuel precursors, and research efforts to convert such lipids to renewable diesel fuels have been increasing in recent years. In contrast to the numerous literature reviews on growing, characterising and extracting lipids from oleaginous microbes, and on converting vegetable oils to hydrocarbon fuels, this review aims to provide insight into aspects that are specific to hydroprocessing microbial lipids. While standard hydrotreating catalysts generally perform well with terrestrial oils, differences in lipid speciation and the presence of co-extracted compounds, such as chlorophyll and sterols, introduce additional complexities into the process for microbial lipids. Lipid cleanup steps can be introduced to produce suitable feedstocks for catalytic upgrading.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Solution combustion synthesis of iron-based alumina nanocomposites for clean production of hydrogen from fossil fuels

Iron-based alumina nanocomposites are promising materials for microwave-assisted thermocatalytic dehydrogenation of fossil fuels, which has been proposed for the production of hydrogen with no CO2 emissions. Solution combustion synthesis (SCS) is an attractive technique for the fabrication of these materials because it has been used for synthesis of many nanoscale oxides. However, SCS can be carried out using different organic fuels and different heating equipment, and it is important to determine which fuel and heating mode generate materials with the best properties for dehydrogenation, such as maximized specific surface area. In the present work, the iron-based alumina nanocomposites were obtained by SCS using two different fuels (citric acid and glycine) and two different heating modes (a hotplate and a muffle furnace). The precursors/oxidizers were iron nitrate and aluminum nitrate. They were mixed with the fuel according to stoichiometry and dissolved in water. Heating the solution resulted in combustion synthesis. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis, laser diffraction particle size analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The experiments have shown that the specific surface area of the iron-based alumina nanocomposites obtained by SCS can be dramatically increased by using citric acid instead of glycine, and additionally by using a muffle furnace instead of a hotplate.

Solution combustion synthesis, Nanoscale metal oxi↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fossil Fuel Transitions Framework: Case Studies of the Decision-Making Process for Energy and Economic Development Pathways

Each community is unique, and transitions must be tailored to local and national contexts, with recognition that access to financing is a key differentiator between wealthy and low-to-middle income countries. This analysis examines six community fossil fuel transitions in two different country contexts to provide insights on inclusive processes and decision-making criteria that bring forth positive outcomes for the communities. In both the United States and Chile, a coordination mechanism is established across government agencies and the importance of stakeholder engagement is recognized. In many cases, the government, local community groups, and electric utility or industry players have a critical role in transition planning and support.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Repurposing Fossil-Fueled Assets For Energy Storage

The annual retirement of U.S. coal-fired electricity generation units (CF-EGU) is at an all-time high and is expected to continue. This loss of reliable baseload generation, combined with predicted growth of variable renewable energy (VRE) generation, is expected to stress grid reliability as the number of load-following resources drops below the experienced load variability. Many regions are already experiencing challenges, and fossil retirement-related warnings by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. are becoming more dire. All CF-EGU retirements pose significant challenges to asset owners, local workforces, and their communities. Repurposing a retiring CF-EGU as a long-duration energy storage plant can address these challenges and offer a suite of additional benefits to asset owners, the grid, and society. This project performed a techno-economic evaluation and assessment of repurposing a Duke Energy fossil-fueled asset (in particular, a coal plant) into an energy storage system by integrating the retiring asset with a Malta long duration Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system. The project validated the technoeconomic benefits of repurposing retiring coal plants into long-duration energy storage using Malta’s PHES. Key findings for this project are summarized below: (1) Technical: (a) Retiring coal plants (and other steam turbine fossil generation) can be repurposed to enable the clean energy transition using Malta’s technology. (b) For older retiring coal plants, repurposing the site and electrical interconnection for a standalone PHES plant is the most economically favorable option. (c) For newer coal plants where there is also a local peaking capacity need, repowering the steam cycle into a hybrid integration with PHES is attractive. (d) A process was developed to assist fossil generation owners in choosing the best path for each plant’s circumstances. (2) Economic (a) Communities facing economic challenges caused by the retirement of fossil generation would benefit from repurposing the plant as long-duration energy storage using Malta’s PHES. (b) On a $/MW basis, repowering retiring coal units into Malta PHES plants can maintain the same number and types of jobs and economic activity. (c) For a 70% carbon reduction scenario, a 10-hour Malta PHES plant is more economic for the asset owner than similar-power 4-hour batteries. This project showed that repurposing a retiring coal unit into thermal energy storage, by integrating it with a Malta PHES system, makes techno-economic sense. At least two integration options are available, with the optimal solution depending on the coal plant and its location. Repurposing retiring coal plant into energy storage results in economic benefits for the plant owner and local communities.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Risks to global biodiversity from fossil-fuel production exceed those from biofuel production

Potential global biodiversity impacts from near-term gasoline production are compared to biofuel, a renewable liquid transportation fuel expected to substitute for gasoline in the near term (i.e., from now until c. 2030). Petroleum exploration activities are projected to extend across more than 5.8 billion ha of land and ocean worldwide (of which 3.1 billion is on land), much of which is in remote, fragile terrestrial ecosystems or off-shore oil fields that would remain relatively undisturbed if not for interest in fossil fuel production. Future biomass production for biofuels is projected to fall within 2.0 billion ha of land, most of which is located in areas already impacted by human activities. A comparison of likely fuel-source areas to the geospatial distribution of species reveals that both energy sources overlap with areas with high species richness and large numbers of threatened species. At the global scale, future petroleum production areas intersect more than double the area and higher total number of threatened species than future biofuel production. Energy options should be developed to optimize provisioning of ecosystem services while minimizing negative effects, which requires information about potential impacts on critical resources. Furthermore, energy conservation and identifying and effectively protecting habitats with high-conservation value are critical first steps toward protecting biodiversity under any fuel production scenario.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2019

A roadmap for China to peak carbon dioxide emissions and achieve a 20% share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy by 2030

As part of its Paris Agreement commitment, China pledged to peak carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions around 2030, striving to peak earlier, and to increase the non-fossil share of primary energy to 20% by 2030. Yet by the end of 2017, China emitted 28% of the world's energy-related CO 2 emissions, 76% of which were from coal use. How China can reinvent its energy economy cost-effectively while still achieving its commitments was the focus of a three-year joint research project completed in September 2016. Overall, this analysis found that if China follows a pathway in which it aggressively adopts all cost-effective energy efficiency and CO 2 emission reduction technologies while also aggressively moving away from fossil fuels to renewable and other non-fossil resources, it is possible to not only meet its Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) commitments, but also to reduce its 2050 CO 2 emissions to a level that is 42% below the country's 2010 CO 2 emissions. While numerous barriers exist that will need to be addressed through effective policies and programs in order to realize these potential energy use and emissions reductions, there are also significant local environmental (e.g., air quality), national and global environmental (e.g., mitigation of climate change), human health, and other unquantified benefits that will be realized if this pathway is pursued in China.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Simulation Analyses in Support of DOE’s Fossil Fuel Rule for Single Component Equipment and Lighting Replacements

At the request of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted a series of building energy simulations using a large office model to investigate the potential savings that could be accrued from a typical chiller, boiler, or lighting replacement in a Federal office building. FEMP’s interest was in knowing whether or not single component replacements like these would have any chance of achieving the fossil- fuel-based energy consumption reduction requirements specified in Section 433 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 20071. Specifically, FEMP was interested in whether an older Federal building, built in the 1980s or 1990s and designed to meet energy standards in place at the time the building was designed, could meet the requirements of Section 433 of EISA for renovations. Many single component renovations like chiller replacements, boiler replacements, and lighting retrofits may meet the minimum cost requirement of Section 433 of EISA but may not offer any opportunity to achieve fossil-fuel-generated energy consumption reductions on the order of 55% or more. If single component renovations such as these would not achieve the necessary reductions, then FEMP would consider modifying rules based on Section 433 of EISA to exempt these types of single component renovations from the overall fossil-fuel-generated energy consumption reduction provisions. FEMP would instead require Federal agencies to ensure that these renovations use FEMP-designated efficiencies for chillers and boilers or the lighting power density requirements found in ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2010. The results of PNNL’s analysis indicated that it is unlikely that a combined boiler and chiller replacement, or an individual boiler or chiller replacement in an older existing Federal building would meet the requirements of Section 433 of EISA. While buildings can achieve up to 34% reduction in cooling and 11% reduction in heating load with this type of retrofit, these savings fall well short of the minimum savings specified in Section 433 of EISA. Similarly, a lighting retrofit in an older existing Federal building would also not likely meet the requirements of Section 433 of EISA. While buildings can save up to 52% on lighting loads, the whole buildings savings would be well short of the minimum savings specified in Section 433 of EISA.

Halverson, Mark A.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Small Scale SOFC Demonstration Using Bio-Based and Fossil Fuels

Technology Management, Inc. (TMI) of Cleveland, Ohio, has completed the project entitled Small Scale SOFC Demonstration using Bio-based and Fossil Fuels. Under this program, two 1-kW systems were engineered as technology demonstrators of an advanced technology that can operate on either traditional hydrocarbon fuels or renewable biofuels. The systems were demonstrated at Patterson's Fruit Farm of Chesterland, OH and were open to the public during the first quarter of 2012. As a result of the demonstration, TMI received quantitative feedback on operation of the systems as well as qualitative assessments from customers. Based on the test results, TMI believes that > 30% net electrical efficiency at 1 kW on both traditional and renewable fuels with a reasonable entry price is obtainable. The demonstration and analysis provide the confidence that a 1 kW entry-level system offers a viable value proposition, but additional modifications are warranted to reduce sound and increase reliability before full commercial acceptance.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2011

Integrated capture of fossil fuel gas pollutants including CO.sub.2 with energy recovery

A method of reducing pollutants exhausted into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels. The disclosed process removes nitrogen from air for combustion, separates the solid combustion products from the gases and vapors and can capture the entire vapor/gas stream for sequestration leaving near-zero emissions. The invention produces up to three captured material streams. The first stream is contaminant-laden water containing SO.sub.x, residual NO.sub.x particulates and particulate-bound Hg and other trace contaminants. The second stream can be a low-volume flue gas stream containing N.sub.2 and O.sub.2 if CO2 purification is needed. The final product stream is a mixture comprising predominantly CO.sub.2 with smaller amounts of H.sub.2O, Ar, N.sub.2, O.sub.2, SO.sub.X, NO.sub.X, Hg, and other trace gases.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Crude Glycerol as Cost-Effective Fuel for Combined Heat and Power to Replace Fossil Fuels (Final Technical Report)

The primary objectives of this work can be summed into two major categories. Firstly, the fundamentals of the combustion of glycerol (in both a refined and unrefined form) were to be investigated, with emphasis of the development of a system capable of reliably and repeatedly combusting glycerol as well as an analysis of the emissions produced during glycerol combustion. Focus was placed on quantifying common emissions in comparison to more traditional fuels and this work showed that the burner developed was able to completely combust glycerol within a relatively wide range of operating conditions. Additionally, focus was placed on examining specific emissions in more detail, namely interesting NOx emissions observed in initial trials, acrolein and other volatile organic emissions, and particulate and ash emissions. This work showed that the combustion of crude glycerol could result in significantly reduced NOx emissions as a function of the high fuel bound oxygen content within the glycerol fuel. It also showed that when burned properly, the combustion of crude glycerol did not result in excessive emissions of acrolein or any other VOC compared to the combustion from more traditional fuels. Lastly however, this work has shown that in any practical application in which glycerol is being burned, it will be necessary to explore ash mitigation techniques due to the very high particulate matter concentrations produced during glycerol combustion. These emissions are comparable to unfiltered coal combustion and are directly tied to the biodiesel production method. The second focus of this work was directed to developing a commercialization strategy for the use of glycerol as a fuel replacement. This strategy has identified a 30 month plan for the scaling up of the laboratory scale burner into a pre-pilot scale system. Additionally, financing options were explored and an assessment was made of the economics of replacing a traditional fuel (namely natural gas) with crude glycerol from biodiesel production. This analysis showed that the cost of replacing natural gas with crude glycerol requires a strong function of the market price per unit of energy for the traditional fuel. However, the economics can be improved through the inclusion of a federal tax credit for the use of a renewable fuel. The conclusion of this analysis also shows that the ideal customer for energy replacement via crude glycerol is biodiesel producers who are located in remote regions, where the cost of energy is higher and the cost of crude glycerol is lowest. Lastly, the commercialization strategy analyzed competing technologies, namely traditional natural gas and electric heaters, as well as competing glycerol burners, and concludes with a discussion of the requirements for a pilot demonstration.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optimizing the combustion synthesis of FeAlxOy catalysts for microwave-assisted thermocatalytic dehydrogenation of fossil fuels

The growing demand for hydrogen requires the development of clean and energy-efficient technologies for its synthesis. Microwave-assisted thermocatalytic dehydrogenation of fossil fuels has demonstrated the potential to produce H2 with high yield and selectivity, and simultaneously generate valuable nanostructured carbon byproducts. In prior work, iron-based alumina (FeAlxOy) catalysts for this process were made via solution combustion synthesis (SCS). However, the effect of SCS parameters on the dehydrogenation performance is not well understood. The present study investigates this by varying the SCS fuel, Fe:Al molar ratio, and heating mode. The results show subtle changes of these parameters can result in significant differences in the phase composition, specific surface area, and microwave absorbing properties of FeAlxOy, which all affect microwave-assisted dehydrogenation. Notably, H2 selectivity can be increased from 30% to 74%. Statistical testing determined that the SCS fuel used was the most significant SCS parameter affecting dehydrogenation performance.

Chanoi, Zachary A.↗