AbstractChina is rich in coal resources, possessing as much as 13 percent of world’s coal reserves.With a vital role in domestic economic development, coal contributes to 70 percent ofnational energy needs. China’s power industry mainly depends on thermal power plants,where the largest share of coal is consumed.At present in China, generating and transmitting of electricity are completely 2 separatedoperating systems, particular different in monopoly level. For better communication betweenthem and more effective and smooth working procedures, the State Grid Corporation of China(hereinafter referred to as SGCC) was established in 2002, under supervision of NationalDevelopment and Reform Commission, which is in charge of making major policiesconcerning development. SGCC has multiple functions, both as governmental authority andas an individual company.The electricity power market is experiencing a significant systematic reform which has beenongoing for over 10 years. Its main goal is to ''Break monopoly, and introduce competition''.In this reform, there are two big power grid companies and five major electricity generationgroups established in the scheme of organization reform. These power grid companies areresponsible for electricity transmission and the power generation groups are in charge ofelectricity production. One purpose of this thesis is to introduce deregulated market theory inChina’s electricity market. Only when generation, transmission and distribution are openedseparately, can it achieve to reduce electrical energy cost and, as a result, lower electricityprice. In the process of reform, several theory problems are discussed: Competition andmonopoly, bidding for sale, the electric power system's big cycle and minor cycle.Petroleum is regarded as a non-renewable resource and will be used up someday. Meanwhile,oil prices surge gradually, and with human society's full-scale development, new demand aswell as new energy technology are stepping onto the historical stage. These factors are majorreasons that the utilization efficiency for petroleum is lower than for any other energy. Inorder to ease the contradiction between energy supply and demand, we must minimize theshare of un-renewable resources such as fossil fuels, and increase the new and renewableenergy shares in the current energy structure. In one word, the long-term objective is toestablish a sustainable-developing energy system.New energy for electric power industry in China has two aspects: First, utilization of cleancoal technology for electricity generation, and second, the renewable energy resource forelectricity generation mainly consists of hydropower, wind power, biomass electricitygeneration, tidal power, and solar power generation and so on. The industry is still in itsinfancy and there’s still a long way to go. The Chinese government will progressivelyincrease the ratio of consumption of the high-quality, clean and renewable energy in the grossenergy consumption from 7 percent in 2005 to 13 percent in 2020.

Coal tar, coal tar creosote and oily wastes are often present as subsurface contaminants that may migrate below the water table, leaving a widely distributed residual source of contaminants leaching to the ground water. <i>In situ</i> chemical oxidation is a potentially viable technology for the remediation of aquifers contaminated with creosote and coal tars. The oxidant of choice would be flushed through the contaminated area to oxidize aqueous contaminants and enhance the mass transfer of contaminants from the oil phase. A series of batch and column experiments were performed to assess the ability of a chemical oxidizing reagent to oxidize creosote compounds and to increase mass transfer rates. Results from the column experiments were then simulated using a reactive transport model that considered 12 different creosote compounds undergoing dissolution, oxidation and advective-dispersive transport. Three strong chemical oxidizing reagents, Fenton's Reagent, potassium persulfate with ferrous ions, and potassium permanganate were tested with batch experiments to determine their reactivity towards creosote compounds. All three reagents successfully decomposed aqueous creosote compounds and were able to reduce the mass of the monitored creosote compounds within the oil phase. However, both the Fenton's and persulfate reagents required large molar ratios of iron and peroxide because the precipitation of iron continually removed the iron catalyst from the aqueous phase. Fenton's and persulfate reagents could be used in systems that are allowed to become acidic to solubilize the iron, but the cost of adjusting the pH, potential impact on aquifer geochemistry and the short lived free radical reaction make these reagents less practical than KMnO4. KMnO4 oxidizes a wide variety of creosote compound, can be used at very high concentrations, and its concentration will not be reduced significantly as it moves through the zone of contamination. The feasibility of using potassium permanganate as an oxidizing reagent for <i>in situ</i> treatment of creosote residuals was investigated using batch column experiments. Column experiments were conducted at a neutral pH in a carbonate rich sand matrix with creosote at 8 % saturation. The columns were treated intermittently with simulated ground water or KMnO4 dissolved in simulated ground water (8 g/L) for 172 days. Under these experimental conditions the KMnO4 decreased the initial mass of the monitored creosote compounds by 36. 5%, whereas in the control column (no oxidizer) only 3. 9% was removed. To remove all of the monitored creosote compounds from the columns it was calculated that the volume needed would be 40 times less for the KMnO4 solution, compared to flushing alone with simulated ground water. To evaluate the potential effectiveness of <i>in situ</i> chemical oxidation at field sites, numerical model simulations need to incorporate relevant chemical oxidation rates to assess system performance and to provide design guidance. In-depth kinetic studies were performed to determine rate constants and to gain insight into the oxidation of creosote compounds with KMnO4. The study examined the kinetics of the oxidative treatment of a selected group of creosote/coal tar compounds in water using excess potassium permanganate and investigated the correlation between reactivity and physical/chemical properties of the organic pollutants. The oxidation of naphthalene, phenanthrene, chrysene, pyrene, 1-methylnapthalene, 2-methylnaphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, carbazole, isopropylbenzene, ethylbenzene and methylbenzene closely followed first-order reaction kinetics, enabling calculation of second-order rate constants. Fluoranthene was only partially oxidized by permanganate and the oxidation of anthracene was too fast to be measured. Biphenyl, dibenzofuran, benzene and tert-butylbenzene failed to react in this study. Comprehensive column experiments complemented by numerical modeling revealed an unequal enhancement of the removal of creosote compounds from the oil phase. For the more readily oxidizable compounds such as pyrene and naphthalene, a significant increase in the mass transfer rates was observed in the oxidation columns, compared to the oxidant free column. For non-oxidizable compounds such as biphenyl and dibenzofuran, an increase in the rate of mass removal was also observed in the oxidation columns, even though their aqueous concentrations were not reduced in the column. This was due to the rapid removal of the more readily oxidizable compounds from the oil, which increases the mole fraction of the non-oxidizable compounds. Thus according to Raoult's Law, the concentration in the aqueous phase becomes closer to its pure phase liquid solubility and its aqueous concentration increases. The most significant result of the experiments is the observed increase in the rate of removal of those compounds that have low aqueous solubilities and are readily oxidized, such as pyrene and fluorene. Compounds that have low aqueous solubilities and are not readily oxidizable, such as chrysene, may still take a long period of time to be removed, but the removal time is greatly reduced with oxidation compared to flushing the area with water alone.

Hydrogen sulphide is an environmentally hazardous gas which is present in many gas streams associated with oil and gas industry. Oxidation of H2S to sulphur in air produces no bulky or waste material and requires no further purification. Activated carbon is known as a catalyst for this reaction.<p> In this research, a coal-based precursor (luscar char) and a biomass-based precursor (biochar) were used for production of activated carbons by two common methods of activation: physical and chemical activation in which steam and potassium hydroxide (KOH), respectively, were used. Experiments were designed by the statistical central composite design method. Two models were developed for the BET surface area and reaction yield of each activation process. These models showed the effects of operating conditions, such as activation temperature, mass ratio of activating agent to precursor, activation time, and nitrogen flowrate on the BET surface area and reaction yield for each activation method for each precursor. The optimum operating conditions were calculated using these models to produce activated carbons with relatively large BET surface area (> 500 m2/g) and high reaction yield (> 50 wt %). The BET surface area and reaction yield for activated carbons produced at optimum operating conditions showed maximum 7 and 7.4 % difference, respectively, comparing to the values predicted by models.<p> The activated carbons produced at optimum operating conditions were used as the base catalysts for the direct oxidation of 1 mol % hydrogen sulphide in nitrogen to sulphur at the temperature range of 160-205 oC and pressure of 700 kPa. Originally activated carbons showed a good potential for oxidation of hydrogen sulphide by their selectivity for sulphur product and low amount of sulphur dioxide production. To improve the performance of steam-activated carbons, the catalysts were modified by acid-treatment followed by thermal desorption. This method increased the break-through times for coal-based and biomass-based catalysts to 115 and 141 minutes, respectively. The average amounts of sulphur dioxide produced during the reaction time were 0.14 and 0.03 % (as % of hydrogen sulphide fed to the reactor) for modified activated carbons prepared from biochar and luscar char, respectively. The effects of porous structure, surface chemistry, and ash content on the performances of these activated carbon catalysts were investigated for the direct oxidation reaction of hydrogen sulphide.<p> The acid-treatment followed by thermal desorption of activated carbons developed the porosity which produced more surface area for active sites and in addition, provided more space for sulphur product storage resulting in higher life time for catalyst. Boehm titration and temperature program desorption showed that the modification method increased basic character of carbon surface after thermal desorption in comparison to acid-treated sample. In addition, the effects of impregnating agents (potassium iodide and manganese nitrate) and two solvents for impregnation process were studied on the performance of the activated carbon catalysts for the direct oxidation of H2S to sulphur.<p> Sulphur L-edge X-ray near edge structure (XANES) showed that the elemental sulphur was the dominant sulphur species in the product. The kinetic study for oxidation reaction of H2S over LusAC-O-D(650) was performed for temperature range of 160-190 oC, oxygen to hydrogen sulphide molar ratio of 1-3, and H2S concentration of 6000-10000 ppm at 200 kPa. The values of activation energy were 26.6 and 29.3 kJ.gmol-1 for Eley-Rideal and Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanisms, respectively.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 64 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-64).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1963. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 64 p. : ill. (some col.), maps. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-109).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 75 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-74).