Observation of a comb-shaped filamentary plasma array under subcritical condition in 303-GHz millimetre-wave air discharge

Gas breakdown in the millimetre-wave frequency band is an interesting phenomenon in nonlinear dynamics such as self-organized structure formation. We observed the transition between two types of filamentary plasma arrays in air discharge driven by a 303-GHz millimetre wave. Plasma is ignited at a parabolic mirror’s focal point in the overcritical condition. One array parallel to the electric field vector appears with a spacing of λ/4 at the focal point. Filaments then separate into plasma lumps ~10 μs after ignition. At 20 μs, a new comb-shaped array grows in the subcritical condition. Filaments are parallel to the incident beam with spacing of 0.96 λ and elongate towards the incident beam. This comb-shaped array appears only in the electric field plane; bulk plasma with a sharp vertex forms in the magnetic field plane. This array is created by a standing wave structure generated by waves diffracted from the plasma surface. Filamentary plasma array formations can influence the energy absorption by the plasma, which is important for engineering applications such as beamed energy propulsion.

Neutron Imaging of Capillary Effect Under High-Pressure and High Temperature Condition

The supercritical water reactor (SCWR), which is one of the generation IV reactor concepts, has particular thermal hydraulics features. If a severe accident happens and pressure and mass flux in a reactor core are rapidly decreased, a film boiling on a fuel cladding tube surface may occur at subcritical conditions. Once the film boiling happens, heat transfer on the cladding tube surface drastically deteriorated and may result in serious damage to the reactor core. The cooling capability during the film boiling depends on the wetting phenomenon, therefore, experiments to clarify wettability phenomenon in subcritical condition are required. One of the experiments to clarify the wettability phenomenon is the capillary action experiment. In the closed system, the water level will elevate due to the injection of the water. The difference in water elevation is due to the capillary force in the different diameter of the pipes. Based on the different water levels with known surface tension, it is possible to quantify the contact angle. The challenge of the experiment is to measure the precise elevation of the water in small diameter metal pipes under high-temperature and high-pressure condition. Therefore, the neutron imaging was applied in this experiment. Neutron imaging is a structure visualization technique. The principle is the neutron flux captured after passing through the object for visualizing the structure of an object. Neutron flux which is captured using a scintillator plate thus can be seen as an image using CCD video camera. Our research group focuses on the radiation induced surface activation (RISA) effect. Significant improvements of surface wettability and boiling heat transfer on oxide film coatedmaterials by the RISA were confirmed especially under room temperature conditions. In this present research, we evaluate the RISA effect on capillary action in a subcritical condition using the various diameter of the pipe. Neutron imaging was used to visualize the water-gas interface in small diameter stainless steel pipes. The capillary pipes with various inside diameters such as 0.5, 0.8, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.8 mm were used as a test section which was heated up to a temperature of 320° C under a pressure of 21 MPa. The pipes irradiated by γ-ray with an integrated irradiation dose of approximately 500 kGy and non-irradiated pipes with various diameters are installed in parallel and water levels in each pipe were compared to evaluate capillary action differences.

A Preliminary Experiment of Non-Catalytic Transesterification: Thermal Analysis of Palm Oil and Biodiesel at Different Ratio

Currently, the biodiesel production technology is moving toward the trend of non-catalytic reaction under subcritical condition as the conventional non-catalytic transesterification requires high energy input and high production cost. Hence, non-catalytic biodiesel production under subcritical condition using microwave energy is proposed. Before that, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted to characterize the biodiesel feedstock and determine the suitable experimental temperature range for the proposed method. Besides, the thermal behavior of the palm oil and biodiesel at different stages of reaction was also investigated. The results showed that the palm oil and biodiesel were started to degrade from 335ºC and 160ºC respectively. However, the degradation point of palm oil was higher than the supercritical temperature of DMC. So, external energy is needed to bring down the operating condition, such as microwave energy as it has potential to reduce the activation energy. To further eliminate the problem of biodiesel thermal degradation during the transesterification process, the suggested experimental temperature range is within 80ºC to 180ºC, which is from the temperature lower than the boiling point of DMC (<90ºC) to the temperature slightly higher than the biodiesel thermal degradation point. Furthermore, DSC result indicated that palm oil requires 518.35kJ/mol to decompose.

Simulation of biodiesel production using hydro-esterification process from wet microalgae

Recently, algae have received a lot of attention as a new biomass source for the production of renewable energy, such as biodiesel. Conventionally, biodiesel is made through esterification or transesterification of oils where the process involves a catalyst and alcohol to be reacted in a reactor. However, this process is energy intensive for drying and extraction step. To overcome this situation, we studied simulation of a new route of hydro-esterification process which is combine hydrolysis and esterification processes for biodiesel production from wet microalgae. Firstly, wet microalgae treated by hydrolyzer to produce fatty acids (FAs), separated with separator, and then mixed with methanol and esterified at subcritical condition to produce fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) while H2SO4 conducted as the catalyst. Energy and material balance of conventional and hydrolysis-esterification process was evaluated by Aspen Plus. Simulation result indicated that conventional route is energy demanding process, requiring 4.40 MJ/L biodiesel produced. In contrast, the total energy consumption of hydrolysis-esterification method can be reduced significantly into 2.43 MJ/L biodiesel. Based on the energy consumption comparison, hydro-esterification process is less costly than conventional process for biodiesel production.

Performance Optimization and Economic Analysis of Geothermal Power Generation by Subcritical and Supercritical Organic Rankine Cycles

In a sustainability context, using renewable energy sources to hedge against increasing consumption of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions becomes increasingly important. The geothermal resource has a great application prospect due to its rich reserves and convenient utilization, and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a effective method to convert the low-grade geothermal to electricity. To improve the performance of geothermal ORC system, working fluid selection, system parameter optimization and the cycle design are the main approaches. Zeotropic mixtures may show superiority as ORC working fluids due to the temperature glides during the phase transitions, which leads to better temperature matches between the working fluid and the heat source/sink. Moreover, owing to the changing temperature during the transition from liquid to vapor in the vapor generator, supercritical ORC provides a great potential in geothermal utilization and irreversibility reduction. This paper displays an investigation on the performance optimization and economic analysis of various working fluids under subcritical and supercritical conditions. To avoid the silica oversaturation, the geothermal water reinjection temperature should not be less than 70 °C. Turbine inlet temperature, condenser outlet temperature as well as turbine inlet pressure (for supercritical ORC) are optimized to maximize the net power output. Moreover, economic analysis is conducted by taking heat exchanger area per unit power output (APR) and the specific investment cost (SIC) as indicators under the optimal net power output condition. The results shows that working fluid with a medium critical temperature yields greater net power output in supercritical ORC and mixture produces larger net power output compared with its pure components in subcritical ORC. Compared with isobutane (R600a) under subcritical condition, isobutane/isopentane (R600a/R601a) and isobutane/pentane (R600a/R601) under subcritical condition, R134a and R1234ze(E) under supercritical condition yield 3.9%, 3.8%, 8.5% and 8.8% more net power outputs, respectively. In addition, R600a/R601a and R600a/R601 under subcritical condition own higher APR and SIC while R134a and R1234ze(E) under supercritical condition possess lower APR and SIC.