- Email: [email protected]
02817 The political economy of energy use and pollution: the environmental effects of East-European transition to market economy
15 Environment (pollution, he&h protecUon, safety) 99102811
The marginal costs of greenhouse gas emissions
Tol, R. S. J. The Energy Journal, 1999,20, (l), 61-81. Estimates of the marginal costs of greenhouse gas emissions are an important input to the decision how much society would want to spend on greenhouse gas emission reduction. Marginal cost estimates in the literature range between $5 and $25 per tonne of carbon. Using similar assumptions, the FUND model finds marginal costs of $9-23/tC, depending on the discount rate. If the aggregation of impacts over countries accounts for inequalities in income distribution or for risk aversion, marginal costs would rise by about a factor of three. Marginal costs per region are an order of magnitude smaller than global marginal costs. The ratios between the marginal costs of CO2 and those of CHd and N20 are roughly equal to the global warming potentials of these gases. The uncertainty about the marginal costs is large and right-skewed. The expected value of the marginal costs lies about 35% above the best guess, the 95-percentile about 250%.
Method and apparatus for manufacture of lowpollution fuels
99102812
Iritani, T. PCT Int. Appl. WO 98 42,807, (Cl. ClOL1/02), 1 Ott 1998, JP Appl. 97/69,965, 24 Mar 1997, 26 pp. (In Japanese) One method for manufacturing a low-pollution fuel comprises passing a synthetic fuel containing MeOH or EtOH, BuOH, toluene and heavy gasoline through a magnetic field. The synthetic fuel, after passing through the magnetic field, is then subjected to ultrasonic oscillation and is passed through a predetermined inorganic material while in contact with the inorganic material. This method can achieve low pollution and when the fuel is used for automobiles equipped with an internal-combustion engine for an ordinary gasoline engine, the fuel generates the heat equivalent to that of the gasoline. Moreover, there is no need for a drastic modification of the internal-combustion engine or the development of an exclusive internalcombustion engine itself.
Performance of regenerable sulfur sorbents on coal derived fuel gas
99102813
Fantom, I. R. and Radford, S. High Temp. Gas Clean., [Pap. Int. Symp. Exhib. Gas Clean. High Temp.], 3rd. 1996, 583-595. Edited by Schmidt, E., Institut fiir Mechanische Verfahrenstechnik und Mechanik der Universitaet Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Air blown gasification cycle (ABGC) technology, a component of coal gasification based combined cycle power generation systems, is currently under joint development by the Coal Technology Development Division (CTDD) of British Coal and an industry-led group. Compared to conventional coal-fired systems, the cycle offers a significant increase in power generation efficiency plus reduced capital cost and low emissions. The component parts of the cycle are being developed via several work programmes and the resulting data will be used to design a prototype integrated plant. An important consideration of the design is sulfur control to meet current and future European legislation. The approach adopted to meet lower sulfur emissions limits using hot gas cleaning techniques is discussed. Sulfur removal at high temperatures using regenerable sorbents offers a lower cost alternative to conventional wet gas cleaning techniques. Recent experimental work on regenerable sorbents is presented including research at CTDD where sorbent performance was measured on pilot scale test reactors on a high pressure fluidized bed gasifier.
99io2814 Photocatalytic reduction of some alkali carbonates in the presence of methylene blue
Jain, S. et al. Int. .I. Energy Res., 1999, 23, (l), 71-77. The photo-reduction of aqueous sodium and potassium carbonates was conducted in the presence of metbylene blue solution (which is also a photocatalyst). The photocatalytic formation of formic acid and formaldehyde were measured spectrophotometrically using Nash reagent. The effect of variation of various parameters, including pH, amount of photocatalyst (methylene blue concentration), concentration of Na2COj and K+ZOj and light intensity on the yield of photo-products was also investigated. A tentative mechanism for this reduction is proposed here.
99102815 Pilot scale acoustic preconditioning of coal combustion fumes to enhance electrostatic precipitator performance
Gallego, J. A. et al. High Temp. Gas Clean., [Pap. Int. Symp. Exhib. Gas Clean. High Temp.], 3, 1996, 60-68. Edited by Schmidt, E., Institut fiir Mechanische Verfahrenstechnik und Mechanik der Universitaet Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany. This study presents a pilot-scale acoustic preconditioning system, which exposes fumes of a coal combustion process to very high sound pressure levels. This is a new technique that can be used to enhance the performance of the electrostatic precipitator by increasing the average particle size of the fly ash. The paper is concerned with acoustic preconditioning and its underlying physical mechanisms as well as looking at design, implementation and evaluation of the technique in a pilot scale ultrasonic precondition chamber. High-intensity acoustic fields are used in acoustic preconditioners for micron and submicron sized particle emission to induce relative motion, collision and agglomeration between the aerosol particles. In these experiments, the hot fumes (170-300°C) of a fluidized bed combustion process are treated in an acoustic agglomeration chamber 3.56 m in length with a rectangular cross-section of 0.7 x 0.5 m. Four stepped-plate, highintensity transducers, designed specifically for this process, are used to give a homogeneous sound field distribution within the chamber. They allow the acoustic preconditioner to operate at sonic (10 kHz) and ultrasonic (20
kHz) frequencies. The sound pressure levels were mapped in detail, and results showed that the present preconditioner design achieves sufficiently high sound pressure levels within the entire agglomeration chamber (140165 dB). Particle size measurements in the micron and submicron size range are used to evaluate the performance of the acoustic preconditioning chamber. A comparison of the results with and those without acoustic preconditioning reveals important changes in the aerosol’s particle concentration. Acoustic treatment is shown to dramatically increase the efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator in the micrometer and submicrometer particle size range.
99102816 Plasma based hydrogen and energy production: more efficient, economical and environmentally friendly utilization of hydrocarbons Hox, K. et al. Hydrogen Power: Theoretical Eng. Solutions Proc. HYPOTHESIS Symp., 2nd, 1997, (Pub. 1998), 143-148. Edited by Saetre, T. 0.. Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Kvaeruer’s two new hydrocarbon conversion processes, the CB&H process and the PYROARC process, are reviewed. Both are characterized by being able to convert low grade hydrocarbons into clean and useful products whilst yielding high thermal efficiency and feedstock utilization. The CB&H process can produces hydrogen and carbon black with no carbon dioxide production from any hydrocarbon. Moreover, this process does not affect the environment by producing unwanted byproducts or pollution. The PYROARC process converts waste and biomass to a clean fuel gas and heat. The new processes are presented in this paper together with the background for the inventions and future possibilities. For CB&H process, it is suggested that interplay between various industries could significantly reduce emission of pollutants and lower power and feedstock consumption.
99lO2817 The political economy of energy use and pollution: the environmental effects of East-European transition to market economy Midttun, A. and Chander, I. Energy Policy, 1998, 26, (13), 1017-1029. The transition of Eastern Europe to Western-type liberal capitalism has by many observers been interpreted as an important step towards a more ecologically sustainable Europe. The main argument has been that the energy efficiency of the West European economy will be imported to Eastern Europe and lead to lower energy consumption and lower pollution. This line of argumentation seems sound as far as the industrial sector is concerned. However, it does not take into consideration the energy and pollution bill of the lavish lifestyle of modern consumer-oriented societies. A shift away from the moderate private consumption of East-European Communism, towards the Western consumerist lifestyle may diminish or even abolish the positive ecological effects of the East-European transition to a competitive market economy. In order to shed empirical light on this problematique, this article explores energy consumption and pollution patterns of Eastern and Western Europe both as far as industrial and domestic end-user consumption is concerned. The article argues that these patterns are related to basic characteristics of the communist and capitalist systems and that pollution and energy-use, in other words, are fundamentally conditioned by the overall political economy. 99102018 Prevention of rock bursts. Expert activity in 1997 Brueckmann, S. and Baltz, R. Glueckauf, 1998, 134, (lo), 580-583. (In German) A report detailing the recent legislative changes and official monitoring of rock bursts in Germany. In 1997, the North Rhine-Westphalian Chief Mines Inspectorate updated the 1976 rock burst guidelines based on recent findings. During 1997 13 collieries were inspected by the Department for Prevention of Rock Burst. At 10 of these collieries 36 stress-relief measures were carried out. The work was concentrated in the area of Bochum and 64% of linear coal mine workings were effected. In the Dickebank and Sonnenschein seams two rock bursts occurred during the revised period.
99102819 Reductions in energy use and environmental emissions achievable with utility-based cogeneration: Simplified illustrations for Ontario Rosen, M. A. Applied Energy, 1998, 61, (3), 163-174. Significant reductions in energy use and environmental emissions are demonstrated to he achievable when electrical utilities use cogeneration. Simplified illustrations of these reductions are presented for the province of Ontario, based on applying cogeneration to the facilities of the main provincial electrical utility. Three cogeneration illustrations are considered: (i) fuel cogeneration is substituted for fuel electrical generation and fuel heating, (ii) nuclear cogeneration is substituted for nuclear electrical generation and fuel heating, and (iii) fuel cogeneration is substituted for fuel electrical generation and electrical heating. The substitution of cogeneration for separate electrical and heat generation processes for all illustrations considered leads to significant reductions in fuel energy consumption (24-61%), which lead to approximately proportional reductions in emissions.
Fuel and Energy Abstracts
July 1999
293
The marginal costs of greenhouse gas emissions
Tol, R. S. J. The Energy Journal, 1999,20, (l), 61-81. Estimates of the marginal costs of greenhouse gas emissions are an important input to the decision how much society would want to spend on greenhouse gas emission reduction. Marginal cost estimates in the literature range between $5 and $25 per tonne of carbon. Using similar assumptions, the FUND model finds marginal costs of $9-23/tC, depending on the discount rate. If the aggregation of impacts over countries accounts for inequalities in income distribution or for risk aversion, marginal costs would rise by about a factor of three. Marginal costs per region are an order of magnitude smaller than global marginal costs. The ratios between the marginal costs of CO2 and those of CHd and N20 are roughly equal to the global warming potentials of these gases. The uncertainty about the marginal costs is large and right-skewed. The expected value of the marginal costs lies about 35% above the best guess, the 95-percentile about 250%.
Method and apparatus for manufacture of lowpollution fuels
99102812
Iritani, T. PCT Int. Appl. WO 98 42,807, (Cl. ClOL1/02), 1 Ott 1998, JP Appl. 97/69,965, 24 Mar 1997, 26 pp. (In Japanese) One method for manufacturing a low-pollution fuel comprises passing a synthetic fuel containing MeOH or EtOH, BuOH, toluene and heavy gasoline through a magnetic field. The synthetic fuel, after passing through the magnetic field, is then subjected to ultrasonic oscillation and is passed through a predetermined inorganic material while in contact with the inorganic material. This method can achieve low pollution and when the fuel is used for automobiles equipped with an internal-combustion engine for an ordinary gasoline engine, the fuel generates the heat equivalent to that of the gasoline. Moreover, there is no need for a drastic modification of the internal-combustion engine or the development of an exclusive internalcombustion engine itself.
Performance of regenerable sulfur sorbents on coal derived fuel gas
99102813
Fantom, I. R. and Radford, S. High Temp. Gas Clean., [Pap. Int. Symp. Exhib. Gas Clean. High Temp.], 3rd. 1996, 583-595. Edited by Schmidt, E., Institut fiir Mechanische Verfahrenstechnik und Mechanik der Universitaet Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Air blown gasification cycle (ABGC) technology, a component of coal gasification based combined cycle power generation systems, is currently under joint development by the Coal Technology Development Division (CTDD) of British Coal and an industry-led group. Compared to conventional coal-fired systems, the cycle offers a significant increase in power generation efficiency plus reduced capital cost and low emissions. The component parts of the cycle are being developed via several work programmes and the resulting data will be used to design a prototype integrated plant. An important consideration of the design is sulfur control to meet current and future European legislation. The approach adopted to meet lower sulfur emissions limits using hot gas cleaning techniques is discussed. Sulfur removal at high temperatures using regenerable sorbents offers a lower cost alternative to conventional wet gas cleaning techniques. Recent experimental work on regenerable sorbents is presented including research at CTDD where sorbent performance was measured on pilot scale test reactors on a high pressure fluidized bed gasifier.
99io2814 Photocatalytic reduction of some alkali carbonates in the presence of methylene blue
Jain, S. et al. Int. .I. Energy Res., 1999, 23, (l), 71-77. The photo-reduction of aqueous sodium and potassium carbonates was conducted in the presence of metbylene blue solution (which is also a photocatalyst). The photocatalytic formation of formic acid and formaldehyde were measured spectrophotometrically using Nash reagent. The effect of variation of various parameters, including pH, amount of photocatalyst (methylene blue concentration), concentration of Na2COj and K+ZOj and light intensity on the yield of photo-products was also investigated. A tentative mechanism for this reduction is proposed here.
99102815 Pilot scale acoustic preconditioning of coal combustion fumes to enhance electrostatic precipitator performance
Gallego, J. A. et al. High Temp. Gas Clean., [Pap. Int. Symp. Exhib. Gas Clean. High Temp.], 3, 1996, 60-68. Edited by Schmidt, E., Institut fiir Mechanische Verfahrenstechnik und Mechanik der Universitaet Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany. This study presents a pilot-scale acoustic preconditioning system, which exposes fumes of a coal combustion process to very high sound pressure levels. This is a new technique that can be used to enhance the performance of the electrostatic precipitator by increasing the average particle size of the fly ash. The paper is concerned with acoustic preconditioning and its underlying physical mechanisms as well as looking at design, implementation and evaluation of the technique in a pilot scale ultrasonic precondition chamber. High-intensity acoustic fields are used in acoustic preconditioners for micron and submicron sized particle emission to induce relative motion, collision and agglomeration between the aerosol particles. In these experiments, the hot fumes (170-300°C) of a fluidized bed combustion process are treated in an acoustic agglomeration chamber 3.56 m in length with a rectangular cross-section of 0.7 x 0.5 m. Four stepped-plate, highintensity transducers, designed specifically for this process, are used to give a homogeneous sound field distribution within the chamber. They allow the acoustic preconditioner to operate at sonic (10 kHz) and ultrasonic (20
kHz) frequencies. The sound pressure levels were mapped in detail, and results showed that the present preconditioner design achieves sufficiently high sound pressure levels within the entire agglomeration chamber (140165 dB). Particle size measurements in the micron and submicron size range are used to evaluate the performance of the acoustic preconditioning chamber. A comparison of the results with and those without acoustic preconditioning reveals important changes in the aerosol’s particle concentration. Acoustic treatment is shown to dramatically increase the efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator in the micrometer and submicrometer particle size range.
99102816 Plasma based hydrogen and energy production: more efficient, economical and environmentally friendly utilization of hydrocarbons Hox, K. et al. Hydrogen Power: Theoretical Eng. Solutions Proc. HYPOTHESIS Symp., 2nd, 1997, (Pub. 1998), 143-148. Edited by Saetre, T. 0.. Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Kvaeruer’s two new hydrocarbon conversion processes, the CB&H process and the PYROARC process, are reviewed. Both are characterized by being able to convert low grade hydrocarbons into clean and useful products whilst yielding high thermal efficiency and feedstock utilization. The CB&H process can produces hydrogen and carbon black with no carbon dioxide production from any hydrocarbon. Moreover, this process does not affect the environment by producing unwanted byproducts or pollution. The PYROARC process converts waste and biomass to a clean fuel gas and heat. The new processes are presented in this paper together with the background for the inventions and future possibilities. For CB&H process, it is suggested that interplay between various industries could significantly reduce emission of pollutants and lower power and feedstock consumption.
99lO2817 The political economy of energy use and pollution: the environmental effects of East-European transition to market economy Midttun, A. and Chander, I. Energy Policy, 1998, 26, (13), 1017-1029. The transition of Eastern Europe to Western-type liberal capitalism has by many observers been interpreted as an important step towards a more ecologically sustainable Europe. The main argument has been that the energy efficiency of the West European economy will be imported to Eastern Europe and lead to lower energy consumption and lower pollution. This line of argumentation seems sound as far as the industrial sector is concerned. However, it does not take into consideration the energy and pollution bill of the lavish lifestyle of modern consumer-oriented societies. A shift away from the moderate private consumption of East-European Communism, towards the Western consumerist lifestyle may diminish or even abolish the positive ecological effects of the East-European transition to a competitive market economy. In order to shed empirical light on this problematique, this article explores energy consumption and pollution patterns of Eastern and Western Europe both as far as industrial and domestic end-user consumption is concerned. The article argues that these patterns are related to basic characteristics of the communist and capitalist systems and that pollution and energy-use, in other words, are fundamentally conditioned by the overall political economy. 99102018 Prevention of rock bursts. Expert activity in 1997 Brueckmann, S. and Baltz, R. Glueckauf, 1998, 134, (lo), 580-583. (In German) A report detailing the recent legislative changes and official monitoring of rock bursts in Germany. In 1997, the North Rhine-Westphalian Chief Mines Inspectorate updated the 1976 rock burst guidelines based on recent findings. During 1997 13 collieries were inspected by the Department for Prevention of Rock Burst. At 10 of these collieries 36 stress-relief measures were carried out. The work was concentrated in the area of Bochum and 64% of linear coal mine workings were effected. In the Dickebank and Sonnenschein seams two rock bursts occurred during the revised period.
99102819 Reductions in energy use and environmental emissions achievable with utility-based cogeneration: Simplified illustrations for Ontario Rosen, M. A. Applied Energy, 1998, 61, (3), 163-174. Significant reductions in energy use and environmental emissions are demonstrated to he achievable when electrical utilities use cogeneration. Simplified illustrations of these reductions are presented for the province of Ontario, based on applying cogeneration to the facilities of the main provincial electrical utility. Three cogeneration illustrations are considered: (i) fuel cogeneration is substituted for fuel electrical generation and fuel heating, (ii) nuclear cogeneration is substituted for nuclear electrical generation and fuel heating, and (iii) fuel cogeneration is substituted for fuel electrical generation and electrical heating. The substitution of cogeneration for separate electrical and heat generation processes for all illustrations considered leads to significant reductions in fuel energy consumption (24-61%), which lead to approximately proportional reductions in emissions.
Fuel and Energy Abstracts
July 1999
293