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01354 The Asian battery market — a decade of change
07 Alternative energy sources (bioconversion energy) 04/01354 change
The Asian battery market - a decade of
Eckfeld, S. et al. Journal of Power Sources, 2003, 116, (1-2), 32-39. The Asian battery industry will undergo significant change over the next decade as it adapts to the enormous economic and technological pressures of the rapidly changing world. Europe and North America in recent years have seen significant rationalization in battery manufacturing capacity and ownership for a variety of reasons. Into the future, Asia will be no exception, but the rate and magnitude of change may conceivably be greater than that already experienced elsewhere. Rationalization in battery manufacturing plants will occur as a result of the establishment of super plants to manufacture batteries in order to improve the economies of scale and to facilitate the heavy investment in new capital and equipment that will be required to supply the newer technology battery types. The impact of 42 V automotive systems and valve-regulated lead-acid batteries will be influential on this scenario. It is expected that China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand will feature heavily in the future Asian battery scene at the expense of some established countries and producers. The current state of the battery industry in Asia, factors driving change in Asia, and the likely implications for those companies that are currently manufacturing batteries in Asia or considering a future role in Asia within the coming decade are examined in this paper.
04•01355 The multidimensionality of electricity reform an Australian perspective Sharma, D. Energy Policy, 2003, 31, (l 1), 1093-1102. The electricity industry in Australia has over the last decade undergone fundamental and profound change. The industry has been functionally unbundled. The generation and retail segments of the industry have been exposed to competition. The transmission and distribution monopolies have been reoriented to foster competition. The customers are being offered increasing choice in the selection of their energy providers. The ownership of the industry is generally moving away from the public domain to the private domain. The rules for the governance of the industry have been developed in the form of a variety of market codes and regulation. Much of the debate about industry reform is being conducted exclusively in the economic domain. There is a general lack of any serious analysis and debate on the political, social, environmental and other dimensions of reform despite a wide consensus on the criticality of such dimensions. This is clearly unhelpful and could lead to obfuscation of the real challenges confronting the industry and preclude the development of responsible policy prescriptions to meet such challenges. There is an obvious need to devote some direct attention to these neglected dimensions of reform. This paper is one such attempt. It draws together the various dimensions of reform and provides a firmer basis for meaningful analyses and concrete debate on the issues. While the discussion focuses on Australian experience, the messages are relevant for other countries engaged in electricity reform.
04•01356
What is power quality?
Bollen, M. H. J. Electric Power Systems Research, 2003, 66, (1), 5 14. This paper introduces the terminology and various issues related to 'power quality'. The interest in power quality is explained in the context of a number of much wider developments in power engineering: deregulation of the electricity industry, increased customer-demands, and the integration of renewable energy sources. After an introduction of the different terminology two power quality disturbances are discussed in detail: voltage dips and harmonic distortion. For each of these two disturbances, a number of other issues are briefly discussed, which are characterization, origin, mitigation, and the need for future research.
04/01357 Geothermal Power Project 2003-2004: European Union Energy Framework Programme - ALTENER Adam, O. et al. Geothermics, 2003, 32, (4-6), 471474. This paper describes the Geothermal Power research project supported by the ALTENER-Energy Framework Programme of the EU. Four Hungarian, one Austrian, one Portuguese, and an Icelandic partner will implement the project starting from spring of 2003. The main objectives of the project are to develop an integrated feasibility study on the installation of small-scale geothermal power plants in Hungary combined with heating applications and balneological use via a cascading system. The intention is to provide a model for extended application throughout the Accession Countries and the EU-15. The envisaged major target is to identify the most feasible group of boreholes for the implementation of mini-power plants. For this purpose detailed financial viability studies will be made, taking into due consideration physical, technical and environmental parameters. More detailed information is available on the project website: www.geothermalpower.net.
07
ALTERNATIVE E N E R G Y SOURCES Bioconversion energy
04/01358 Adoption of thermogravimetric kinetic models for kinetic analysis of biogas production Zuru, A. A. et al. Renewable Energy, 2004, 29, (1), 97-107. The mechanism of biogas production from camel, cattle, goat, horse and sheep dung slurries has been investigated by adopting nine mechanistic models which are used in the kinetics of thermal decomposition of solids. To achieve this, the volume of biogas produced was recorded at 24-h intervals over a period of 13 weeks and converted into the fraction of gas produced (c0. For each model, g(~), a straight-line plot was attempted using the equation: g(cO=kt °kt, and linear regression analysis was used to establish the 'best-fit' model, which was then considered as descriptive of the rate-limiting step in biogas production. The analysis revealed that g(c0=ct is the 'best-fit' model for all the slurries. This implies that nucleation and subsequent growth of the nuclei is the rate-determining step. This, in the case of the experimental design used in this study, is synonymous to the formation and subsequent growth of biogas bubbles in the digester. Thus, the rate of biogas production from animal dung slurries could be said to be dependent on the nucleation centres in the slurry.
04•01359 Application of catalytic hydropyrolysis for the rapid preparation of lignin concentrates from wood Beramendi-Orosco, L. E. et al. Organic Geochemistry, 2004, 35, (1), 6172. The use of hydropyrolysis (hypy) is described as a potentially rapid procedure for obtaining lignin-enriched residues from wood for either simply estimating lignin content or for performing stable isotope ratio measurements. Hypy was carried out on samples of oak wood and, as reference materials, Klason lignin and pure cellulose over the temperature range of 200-500°C. The composition of the residues were assessed by solid-state lsC NMR. At 300 and 350°C, the extents of conversion achieved for cellulose was 88 and 95% respectively, indicating that highly lignin-enriched residues should be obtained for wood samples. This was confirmed by solid-state ~3C N M R which also indicated that any remaining cellulose had aromatized to a significant extent. In addition, hypy caused quite extensive demethylation of methoxyl functionalities and cleavage of the characteristic/3-0-4 ether lignin linkage. Finally, correcting the 300 and 350°C hypy residues for residual cellulose gave estimates of the lignin content for oak wood in close agreement with those obtained by the Klason method and by solid-state 13C NMR. At 350°C, the residual cellulose accounts for ca. 30% of the Iignin concentrate obtained from hypy.
04/01360 Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil: 1. Process design and technological assessment Zhang, Y. et al. Bioresource Technology, 2003, 89, (1), 1-16. Four different continuous process flowsheets for biodiesel production from virgin vegetable oil or waste cooking oil under alkaline or acidic conditions on a commercial scale were developed. Detailed operating conditions and equipment designs for each process were obtained. A technological assessment of these four processes was carried out to evaluate their technical benefits and limitations. Analysis showed that the alkali-catalysed process using virgin vegetable oil as the raw material required the fewest and smallest process equipment units but at a higher raw material cost than the other processes. The use of waste cooking oil to produce biodiesel reduced the raw material cost. The acid-catalysed process using waste cooking oil proved to be technically feasible with less complexity than the alkali-catalysed process using waste cooking oil, thereby making it a competitive alternative to commercial biodiesel production by the alkali-catalysed process.
04/01361 Biofuel use and its emission of noxious gases in rural China Wang, X. and Feng, Z. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2004, 8, (2), 183-192. This article discusses biomass resources and its consumption in China's farming area. In 2000, the annual yield of crop-straw was about 6900 Mt, of which 54% could be used as a source of energy. The reasonable supply of firewood was about 150 Mt. The total consumption of biofuel in China's rural area was 219 Mtce, among which crop-straw and firewood accounted for 44 and 56%, respectively. The proportion of the available heat from commercial energy over the total available heat consumed in the countryside was 0.513, and biofuel consumption decreases 3.8% annually. China is at a transition point from a period of
Fuel and Energy Abstracts May 2004
185
The Asian battery market - a decade of
Eckfeld, S. et al. Journal of Power Sources, 2003, 116, (1-2), 32-39. The Asian battery industry will undergo significant change over the next decade as it adapts to the enormous economic and technological pressures of the rapidly changing world. Europe and North America in recent years have seen significant rationalization in battery manufacturing capacity and ownership for a variety of reasons. Into the future, Asia will be no exception, but the rate and magnitude of change may conceivably be greater than that already experienced elsewhere. Rationalization in battery manufacturing plants will occur as a result of the establishment of super plants to manufacture batteries in order to improve the economies of scale and to facilitate the heavy investment in new capital and equipment that will be required to supply the newer technology battery types. The impact of 42 V automotive systems and valve-regulated lead-acid batteries will be influential on this scenario. It is expected that China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand will feature heavily in the future Asian battery scene at the expense of some established countries and producers. The current state of the battery industry in Asia, factors driving change in Asia, and the likely implications for those companies that are currently manufacturing batteries in Asia or considering a future role in Asia within the coming decade are examined in this paper.
04•01355 The multidimensionality of electricity reform an Australian perspective Sharma, D. Energy Policy, 2003, 31, (l 1), 1093-1102. The electricity industry in Australia has over the last decade undergone fundamental and profound change. The industry has been functionally unbundled. The generation and retail segments of the industry have been exposed to competition. The transmission and distribution monopolies have been reoriented to foster competition. The customers are being offered increasing choice in the selection of their energy providers. The ownership of the industry is generally moving away from the public domain to the private domain. The rules for the governance of the industry have been developed in the form of a variety of market codes and regulation. Much of the debate about industry reform is being conducted exclusively in the economic domain. There is a general lack of any serious analysis and debate on the political, social, environmental and other dimensions of reform despite a wide consensus on the criticality of such dimensions. This is clearly unhelpful and could lead to obfuscation of the real challenges confronting the industry and preclude the development of responsible policy prescriptions to meet such challenges. There is an obvious need to devote some direct attention to these neglected dimensions of reform. This paper is one such attempt. It draws together the various dimensions of reform and provides a firmer basis for meaningful analyses and concrete debate on the issues. While the discussion focuses on Australian experience, the messages are relevant for other countries engaged in electricity reform.
04•01356
What is power quality?
Bollen, M. H. J. Electric Power Systems Research, 2003, 66, (1), 5 14. This paper introduces the terminology and various issues related to 'power quality'. The interest in power quality is explained in the context of a number of much wider developments in power engineering: deregulation of the electricity industry, increased customer-demands, and the integration of renewable energy sources. After an introduction of the different terminology two power quality disturbances are discussed in detail: voltage dips and harmonic distortion. For each of these two disturbances, a number of other issues are briefly discussed, which are characterization, origin, mitigation, and the need for future research.
04/01357 Geothermal Power Project 2003-2004: European Union Energy Framework Programme - ALTENER Adam, O. et al. Geothermics, 2003, 32, (4-6), 471474. This paper describes the Geothermal Power research project supported by the ALTENER-Energy Framework Programme of the EU. Four Hungarian, one Austrian, one Portuguese, and an Icelandic partner will implement the project starting from spring of 2003. The main objectives of the project are to develop an integrated feasibility study on the installation of small-scale geothermal power plants in Hungary combined with heating applications and balneological use via a cascading system. The intention is to provide a model for extended application throughout the Accession Countries and the EU-15. The envisaged major target is to identify the most feasible group of boreholes for the implementation of mini-power plants. For this purpose detailed financial viability studies will be made, taking into due consideration physical, technical and environmental parameters. More detailed information is available on the project website: www.geothermalpower.net.
07
ALTERNATIVE E N E R G Y SOURCES Bioconversion energy
04/01358 Adoption of thermogravimetric kinetic models for kinetic analysis of biogas production Zuru, A. A. et al. Renewable Energy, 2004, 29, (1), 97-107. The mechanism of biogas production from camel, cattle, goat, horse and sheep dung slurries has been investigated by adopting nine mechanistic models which are used in the kinetics of thermal decomposition of solids. To achieve this, the volume of biogas produced was recorded at 24-h intervals over a period of 13 weeks and converted into the fraction of gas produced (c0. For each model, g(~), a straight-line plot was attempted using the equation: g(cO=kt °kt, and linear regression analysis was used to establish the 'best-fit' model, which was then considered as descriptive of the rate-limiting step in biogas production. The analysis revealed that g(c0=ct is the 'best-fit' model for all the slurries. This implies that nucleation and subsequent growth of the nuclei is the rate-determining step. This, in the case of the experimental design used in this study, is synonymous to the formation and subsequent growth of biogas bubbles in the digester. Thus, the rate of biogas production from animal dung slurries could be said to be dependent on the nucleation centres in the slurry.
04•01359 Application of catalytic hydropyrolysis for the rapid preparation of lignin concentrates from wood Beramendi-Orosco, L. E. et al. Organic Geochemistry, 2004, 35, (1), 6172. The use of hydropyrolysis (hypy) is described as a potentially rapid procedure for obtaining lignin-enriched residues from wood for either simply estimating lignin content or for performing stable isotope ratio measurements. Hypy was carried out on samples of oak wood and, as reference materials, Klason lignin and pure cellulose over the temperature range of 200-500°C. The composition of the residues were assessed by solid-state lsC NMR. At 300 and 350°C, the extents of conversion achieved for cellulose was 88 and 95% respectively, indicating that highly lignin-enriched residues should be obtained for wood samples. This was confirmed by solid-state ~3C N M R which also indicated that any remaining cellulose had aromatized to a significant extent. In addition, hypy caused quite extensive demethylation of methoxyl functionalities and cleavage of the characteristic/3-0-4 ether lignin linkage. Finally, correcting the 300 and 350°C hypy residues for residual cellulose gave estimates of the lignin content for oak wood in close agreement with those obtained by the Klason method and by solid-state 13C NMR. At 350°C, the residual cellulose accounts for ca. 30% of the Iignin concentrate obtained from hypy.
04/01360 Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil: 1. Process design and technological assessment Zhang, Y. et al. Bioresource Technology, 2003, 89, (1), 1-16. Four different continuous process flowsheets for biodiesel production from virgin vegetable oil or waste cooking oil under alkaline or acidic conditions on a commercial scale were developed. Detailed operating conditions and equipment designs for each process were obtained. A technological assessment of these four processes was carried out to evaluate their technical benefits and limitations. Analysis showed that the alkali-catalysed process using virgin vegetable oil as the raw material required the fewest and smallest process equipment units but at a higher raw material cost than the other processes. The use of waste cooking oil to produce biodiesel reduced the raw material cost. The acid-catalysed process using waste cooking oil proved to be technically feasible with less complexity than the alkali-catalysed process using waste cooking oil, thereby making it a competitive alternative to commercial biodiesel production by the alkali-catalysed process.
04/01361 Biofuel use and its emission of noxious gases in rural China Wang, X. and Feng, Z. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2004, 8, (2), 183-192. This article discusses biomass resources and its consumption in China's farming area. In 2000, the annual yield of crop-straw was about 6900 Mt, of which 54% could be used as a source of energy. The reasonable supply of firewood was about 150 Mt. The total consumption of biofuel in China's rural area was 219 Mtce, among which crop-straw and firewood accounted for 44 and 56%, respectively. The proportion of the available heat from commercial energy over the total available heat consumed in the countryside was 0.513, and biofuel consumption decreases 3.8% annually. China is at a transition point from a period of
Fuel and Energy Abstracts May 2004
185