Methanol production from CO2 using solar-thermal energy: process development and techno-economic analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 3122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiyong Kim ◽  
Carlos A. Henao ◽  
Terry A. Johnson ◽  
Daniel E. Dedrick ◽  
James E. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Process Development ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Methanol Production ◽  
Energy Process

scholarly journals Solar Integrated Anaerobic Digester: Energy Savings and Economics

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4292
Author(s):  
Lidia Lombardi ◽  
Barbara Mendecka ◽  
Simone Fabrizi
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Solar Integration

Industrial anaerobic digestion requires low temperature thermal energy to heat the feedstock and maintain temperature conditions inside the reactor. In some cases, the thermal requirements are satisfied by burning part of the produced biogas in devoted boilers. However, part of the biogas can be saved by integrating thermal solar energy into the anaerobic digestion plant. We study the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in biowaste mesophilic/thermophilic anaerobic digestion, with the aim of reducing the amount of biogas burnt for internal heating and increasing the amount of biogas, further upgraded to biomethane and injected into the natural gas grid. With respect to previously available studies that evaluated the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in anaerobic digestion, we introduce the topic of economic sustainability by performing a preliminary and simplified economic analysis of the solar system, based only on the additional costs/revenues. The case of Italian economic incentives for biomethane injection into the natural gas grid—that are particularly favourable—is considered as reference case. The amount of saved biogas/biomethane, on an annual basis, is about 4–55% of the heat required by the gas boiler in the base case, without solar integration, depending on the different considered variables (mesophilic/thermophilic, solar field area, storage time, latitude, type of collector). Results of the economic analysis show that the economic sustainability can be reached only for some of the analysed conditions, using the less expensive collector, even if its efficiency allows lower biomethane savings. Future reduction of solar collector costs might improve the economic feasibility. However, when the payback time is calculated, excluding the Italian incentives and considering selling the biomethane at the natural gas price, its value is always higher than 10 years. Therefore, incentives mechanism is of great importance to support the economic sustainability of solar integration in biowaste anaerobic digestion producing biomethane.

Pyrazolium Phase Change Materials for Solar-Thermal and Wind Energy Storage

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Matuszek ◽  
R. Vijayaraghavan ◽  
Craig Forsyth ◽  
Surianarayanan Mahadevan ◽  
Mega Kar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Energy Storage Materials ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Storage Materials

Renewable energy has the ultimate capacity to resolve the environmental and scarcity challenges of the world’s energy supplies. However, both the utility of these sources and the economics of their implementation are strongly limited by their intermittent nature; inexpensive means of energy storage therefore needs to be part of the design. Distributed thermal energy storage is surprisingly underdeveloped in this context, in part due to the lack of advanced storage materials. Here, we describe a novel family of thermal energy storage materials based on pyrazolium cation, that operate in the 100-220°C temperature range, offering safe, inexpensive capacity, opening new pathways for high efficiency collection and storage of both solar-thermal energy, as well as excess wind power. We probe the molecular origins of the high thermal energy storage capacity of these ionic materials and demonstrate extended cycling that provides a basis for further scale up and development.

An oil shale recovery system powered by solar thermal energy

Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 120096
Author(s):  
Hongjuan Hou ◽  
Qiongjie Du ◽  
Chang Huang ◽  
Le Zhang ◽  
Eric Hu
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Oil Shale ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Recovery System ◽  
Shale Recovery
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