Energies, Volume 3, Issue 12 (December 2010) – 11 articles , Pages 1831-2026

Gas hydrates have lately received increased attention as a potential future energy source, which is not surprising given their global and widespread occurrence. This article presents an integrated study of the Nyegga site offshore mid-Norway, where a gas hydrate prospect is defined on the basis of a multitude of geophysical models and one shallow geotechnical borehole. This prospect appears to hold around 625GSm3 (GSm3 = 109 standard cubic metres) of gas. The uncertainty related to the input parameters is dealt with through a stochastic calculation, giving a spread of in-place volumes of 183GSm3 (P90) to 1431GSm3 (P10). The resource density for Nyegga is found to be comparable to published resource assessments of other global hydrate provinces. Full article

The phase diagram for methane + water is explained, in relation to hydrate applications, such as in flow assurance and in nature. For natural applications, the phase diagram determines the regions for hydrate formation for two- and three-phase conditions. Impacts are presented for sample preparation and recovery. We discuss an international study for “Round Robin” hydrate sample preparation protocols and testing. Full article

One of the most important requirements of microgrid operation is to maintain a constant frequency such as 50 Hz or 60 Hz, which is closely related to a power balance between supply and demand. In general, microgrids are connected to power grids and surplus/shortage power of microgrids is traded with power grids. Since islanded microgrids are isolated from any power grids, the decrease in generation or load-shedding can be used to maintain the frequency when a power imbalance between supply and demand occurs. The power imbalance restricts the electricity use of consumers in the case of supply shortage and the power supply of suppliers in the case of supply surplus. Therefore, the islanded microgrid should be operated to reduce power imbalance conditions. Meanwhile, the microgrid is a small-scale power system and the employment of skillful operators for effective operation of its components requires high costs. Therefore, automatic operation of the components is effective realistically. In addition, the components are distributed in the microgrid and their operation should consider their owners’ profits. For these reasons, a multiagent system application can be a good alternative for microgrid operation. In this paper, we present a multiagent system for autonomous operation of the islanded microgrid on a power market environment. The proposed multiagent system is designed based on a cooperative operation scheme. We show the functionality and the feasibility of the proposed multiagent system through several tests. Full article

Clathrate hydrates have recently received attention as novel storage and transportation materials for natural gases or hydrogen. These hydrates are treated as powders or particles, and moderate storage temperatures (around 253 K) are set for economic reasons. Thus, it is necessary to consider the sintering of hydrate particles for their easy handling because the hydrates have a framework similar to that of ice, even though their sintering would require guest molecules in addition to water molecules. We observed the sintering process of clathrate hydrates to estimate the rate of sintering. Spherical tetrahydrofuran (THF) hydrate particles were used in observations of sintering under a microscope equipped with a CCD camera and a time-lapse video recorder. We found that THF hydrate particles stored at temperatures below the equilibrium condition sintered like ice particles. The sintering part was confirmed to be not ice, but THF hydrate, by increasing the temperature above 273 K after each experiment. The sintering rate was lower than that of ice particles under the normal vapor condition at the same temperature. However, it became of the same order when the atmosphere of the sample was saturated with THF vapor. This indicates that the sintering rate of THF hydrate was controlled by the transportation of guest molecules through the vapor phase accompanied with water molecules. Full article

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the design of high-performance mesocombustors, a field currently under rapid development, in particular for propulsion, e.g., for UAVs, and micro/meso-electrical power generators. This study is focused on a cylindrical combustor of 29 cm³, fuelled by methane and air, which provides 2 kW of thermal power. The device was entirely designed and built at the Sapienza University of Rome and coupled with an ultra-micro turbine. Two 3D LES simulations with detailed chemistry are presented. They differ only for the combustion models, so that a model comparison can be carried out. The calculated maximum temperature inside the chamber, the gas exhaust temperature and the combustion efficiency are compared and discussed. The results, reported at two different physical times, show the effects of the different combustion models, which predict different temperature and species concentration maps, but similar values for the combustion efficiency. Thermal, chemical and kinematic maps show that the Eddy Dissipation Concept allows for a more accurate estimatation of the performance parameters for application to first-order design procedures. Full article

In this review, the intriguing, anomalous behaviour of hydrate thermal conductivity will be described, and progress in performing experimental measurements will be described briefly. However particular attention shall be devoted to recent advances in the development of detailed theoretical understandings of mechanisms of thermal conduction in clathrate hydrates, and on how information gleaned from molecular simulation has contributed to mechanistic theoretical models. Full article

In this paper, we present the design and fabrication of hybrid dielectric-metallic back surface reflectors, for applications in thin film amorphous silicon solar cells. Standard multilayer distributed Bragg reflectors, require a large number of layers in order to achieve high reflectance characteristics. As it turns out, the addition of a metallic layer, to the base of such a multilayer mirror, enables a reduction in the number of dielectric layers needed to attain high reflectance performance. This paper explores the design, experimental realization and opportunities, in thin film amorphous silicon solar cells, afforded by such hybrid dielectric-metallic back surface reflectors. Full article

The potential use of satellite observed nighttime lights for estimating carbon-dioxide (CO₂) emissions has been demonstrated in several previous studies. However, the procedures for a moderate resolution (1 km² grid cells) global map of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions based on nighttime lights are still in the developmental phase. We report on the development of a method for mapping distributed fossil fuel CO₂ emissions (excluding electric power utilities) at 30 arc-seconds or approximately 1 km² resolution using nighttime lights data collected by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS). A regression model, Model 1, was initially developed based on carbon emissions from five sectors of the Vulcan data produced by the Purdue University and a nighttime satellite image of the U.S. The coefficient derived through Model 1 was applied to the global nighttime image but it resulted in underestimation of CO₂ emissions for most of the world’s countries, and the states of the U.S. Thus, a second model, Model 2 was developed by allocating the distributed CO₂ emissions (excluding emissions from utilities) using a combination of DMSP-OLS nighttime image and population count data from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) LandScan grid. The CO₂ emissions were distributed in proportion to the brightness of the DMSP nighttime lights in areas where lighting was detected. In areas with no DMSP detected lighting, the CO₂ emissions were distributed based on population count, with the assumption that people who live in these areas emit half as much CO₂ as people who live in the areas with DMSP detected lighting. The results indicate that the relationship between satellite observed nighttime lights and CO₂ emissions is complex, with differences between sectors and variations in lighting practices between countries. As a result it is not possible to make independent estimates of CO₂ emissions with currently available coarse resolution panchromatic satellite observed nighttime lights. However, the nighttime lights image in conjunction with the population grid can help in more accurate disaggregation of national CO₂ emissions to a moderate resolution spatial grid. Full article

This paper develops a modified economic dispatch (ED) optimization model with wind power penetration. Due to the uncertain nature of wind speed, both overestimation and underestimation of the available wind power are compensated using the up and down spinning reserves. In order to determine both of these two reserve demands, the risk-based up and down spinning reserve constraints are presented considering not only the uncertainty of available wind power, but also the load forecast error and generator outage rates. The predictor-corrector primal-dual interior point (IP) method is utilized to solve the proposed ED model. Simulation results of a system with ten conventional generators and one wind farm demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Full article

A method is proposed that uses renewable solar energy to supply energy for the exploitation of marine gas hydrates using thermal stimulation. The system includes solar cells, which are installed on the platform and a distributor with electric heaters. The solar module is connected with electric heaters via an insulated cable, and provides power to the heaters. Simplified equations are given for the calculation of the power of the electric heaters and the solar battery array. Also, a case study for the Shenhu area is provided to illustrate the calculation of the capacity of electric power and the solar cell system under ideal conditions. It is shown that the exploitation of marine gas hydrates by solar energy is technically and economically feasible in typical marine areas and hydrate reservoirs such as the Shenhu area. This method may also be used as a good assistance for depressurization exploitation of marine gas hydrates in the future. Full article

A Luminescent Solar Concentrator (LSC) is a transparent plate containing luminescent material with photovoltaic (PV) cells attached to its edges. Sunlight entering the plate is absorbed by the luminescent material, which in turn emits light. The emitted light propagates through the plate and arrives at the PV cells through total internal reflection. The ratio of the area of the relatively cheap polymer plate to that of the expensive PV cells is increased, and the cost per unit of solar electricity can be reduced by 75%. To improve the emission performance of LSCs, simulation modeling of LSCs becomes essential. Ray-tracing modeling is a popular approach for simulating LSCs due to its great ability of modeling various LSC structures under direct and diffuse sunlight. However, this approach requires substantial amount of measurement input data. Also, the simulation time is enormous because it is a forward-ray tracing method that traces all the rays propagating from the light source to the concentrator. On the other hand, the thermodynamic approach requires substantially less input parameters and simulation time, but it can only be used to model simple LSC designs with direct sunlight. Therefore, a new hybrid model was developed to perform various simulation studies effectively without facing the issues arisen from the existing ray-tracing and thermodynamic models. The simulation results show that at least 60% of the total output irradiance of a LSC is contributed by the light trapped and channeled by the LSC. The novelty of this hybrid model is the concept of integrating the thermodynamic model with a well-developed Radiance ray-tracing model, hence making this model as a fast, powerful and cost-effective tool for the design of LSCs. Full article