Anaerobic digestion is one of the most promising management options for dairy manure treatment. Manure wastewater from dairy farms has been used for methane production for decades. However, performance failure due to inadequate mixing is routine. In general, the mixng of anaerobic digester is achived throguh mechnical stirring, liquid circulation, and gas circulation, among which the gas circulation proves to be the most effcient way. In this work, we studied the liquid flow pattern of two differetn type of gas-circualtion based anaerobic digesters, with the aim to understand the effects of hydrodynamic behavior of the digesting liquid on the anaerobic digestion performance, so a better mixing strategy can be provided. We used two 20-L gas circulation based anaerobic digesters with confined (gas-lift) and unconfined (bubble column) design. The anaerobic digestion performance and mixing behaviors were studied at different gas recirculation rate. It was found that the biogas production from the bubble column was constantly higher than that from gas-lift digester. However, the overall flow of the two digesters, which is indicated by residence time distribution (RTD), showed a similar pattern. Furhter investigation of local liquid flow behavior using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) indicate that the bubble column accumulated higher portion of sludge in the bottom of the digester, which has a higher TS and VS, COD, and biomethane production potential than those from the gas-lift digester. This is the reason that the biogas production from the bubble column is higher than the gas-lift digester. Through this study, a thorough characterization of the flow behavior of the anaerobic digester were developed, and provided a deep insight of its influence on the anaerobic digestion performance. / Master of Science

<p>The ion current measured from the spark plug in a spark ignited combustion engine is used </p><p>as basis for analysis and control of the combustion variability caused by exhaust gas </p><p>recirculation. Methods for extraction of in-cylinder pressure information from the ion </p><p>current are analyzed in terms of reliability and processing efficiency. A model for the </p><p>recognition of combustion variability using this information is selected and tested on both </p><p>simulated and car data.</p>

The objectives in this thesis are to present a model of a variable venturi in an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system located in a heavy duty diesel engine. A new legislation called EURO~4 will come into force in 2005 which affects truck development and it will require an On-Board Diagnostic system in the truck. If model based diagnostic systems are to be used, one of the advantages is that the system performance will increase if a model of a variable venturi is used. Three models with different complexity are compared in ten different experiments. The experiments are performed in a steady flow rig at different percentage of EGR gases and venturi areas. The model predicts the mass flow through the venturi. The results show that the first model with fewer simplifications performs better and has fewer errors than the other two models. The simplifications that differ between the models are initial velocity before the venturi and the assumption of incompressible flow. The model that shows the best result is not proposed by known literature in this area of knowledge and technology. This thesis shows that further studies and work on this model, the model with fewer simplifications, can be advantageous.

The ion current measured from the spark plug in a spark ignited combustion engine is used as basis for analysis and control of the combustion variability caused by exhaust gas recirculation. Methods for extraction of in-cylinder pressure information from the ion current are analyzed in terms of reliability and processing efficiency. A model for the recognition of combustion variability using this information is selected and tested on both simulated and car data.

<p>The objectives in this thesis are to present a model of a variable venturi in an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system located in a heavy duty diesel engine. A new legislation called EURO~4 will come into force in 2005 which affects truck development and it will require an On-Board Diagnostic system in the truck. If model based diagnostic systems are to be used, one of the advantages is that the system performance will increase if a model of a variable venturi is used. </p><p>Three models with different complexity are compared in ten different experiments. The experiments are performed in a steady flow rig at different percentage of EGR gases and venturi areas. The model predicts the mass flow through the venturi. The results show that the first model with fewer simplifications performs better and has fewer errors than the other two models. The simplifications that differ between the models are initial velocity before the venturi and the assumption of incompressible flow. </p><p>The model that shows the best result is not proposed by known literature in this area of knowledge and technology. This thesis shows that further studies and work on this model, the model with fewer simplifications, can be advantageous.</p>

the 18th World Congress The International Federation of Automatic Control, Milano (Italy), August 28 - September 2, 2011

The member states of European Union aim to promote the reduction of harmful emissions. Emissions from combustion processes cause effects on human health and pose environmental issues, for example by increasing greenhouse effect. There are two ways to reduce emissions; one is to promote renewable energy sources and the other to utilize more effectively the available fossil fuels until a long-term solution is available. Hence, it is necessary to strive for CO2 mitigation technologies applied to fossil fuels. Low natural gas prices together with high energy efficiency have made gas turbines popular in the energy market. But, gas turbine fired with natural gas come along with emissions of CO2, NOx and CO. However, these disadvantages can be eliminated by using gas turbine with precombustion CO2 capture, separating carbon from the fuel by using fuel reforming process and feeding pure hydrogen as a fuel. Hydrogen fired gas turbines are used in two applications such as a gas turbine with pre-combustion CO2 capture and for renewable power plants where hydrogen is stored in case as a backup plan. Although the CO2 emissions are reduced in a hydrogen fired gas turbine with a pre-combustion CO2 capture, there are still several challenges such as high flame temperatures resulting in production of thermal NOx. This project suggests a method for application of hydrogen fired gas turbine, using exhaust gas recirculation to reduce flame temperature and thus reducing thermal NOx. A NOx emission model for a hydrogen-fired gas turbine was built from literature data and used to select the best operating conditions for the plant. In addition, the economic benefits of switching from natural gas to pure hydrogen are reported. For the techno-economic analysis, investment costs and operating costs were taken from the literature, and an economic model was developed. To provide sensitivity analysis for the techno-economic calculation, three cases were studied. Literature review was carried out on several journal articles and websites to gain understanding on hydrogen and natural gas fired gas turbines. Results showed that, in the current state, pure hydrogen has high delivery cost both in the US and Europe. While it’s easy to access natural gas at low cost, therefore in the current state gas turbine fired with natural gas are more profitable than hydrogen fired gas turbine. But, if targeted hydrogen prices are reached while fuel reforming process technology are developed in the coming future the hydrogen fired gas turbine will compete seriously with natural gas.

Selective Exhaust Gas Recirculation (S-EGR) consists of selectively transferring CO2 from the exhaust gas stream of a gas-fired power plant into the air stream entering the gas turbine compressor. Unlike in “non-selective” Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) technology, recirculation of, principally, nitrogen does not occur, and the gas turbine still operates with a large excess of air. Two configurations are proposed: one with the CO2 transfer system operating in parallel to the post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) unit; the other with the CO2 transfer system operating downstream of, and in series to, the PCC unit. S-EGR allows for higher CO2 concentrations in the flue gas of approximately 13-14 vol%, compared to 6.6 vol% with EGR at 35% recirculation ratio. The oxygen levels in the combustor are approximately 19 vol%, well above the minimum limit of 16 vol% with 35% EGR reported in literature. At these operating conditions, process model simulations show that the current class of gas turbine engines can operate without a significant deviation in the compressor and the turbine performance from the design conditions. Compressor inlet temperature and CO2 concentration in the working fluid are critical parameters in the assessment of the effect on the gas turbine net power output and efficiency. A higher turbine exhaust temperature allows the generation of additional steam which results in a marginal increase in the combined cycle net power output of 5% and 2% in the investigated configurations with S-EGR in parallel and S-EGR in series, respectively. With aqueous monoethanolamine scrubbing technology, S-EGR leads to operation and cost benefits. S-EGR in parallel operating at 70% recirculation, 97% selective CO2 transfer efficiency and 96% PCC efficiency results in a reduction of 46% in packing volume and 5% in specific reboiler duty, compared to air-based combustion CCGT with PCC, and of 10% in packing volume and 2% in specific reboiler duty, compared to 35% EGR. S-EGR in series operating at 95% selective CO2 transfer efficiency and 32% PCC efficiency results in a reduction of 64% in packing volume and 7% in specific reboiler duty, compared to air-based, and of 40% in packing volume and 4% in specific reboiler duty, compared to 35% EGR. An analysis of key performance indicators for selective CO2 transfer proposes physical adsorption in rotary wheel systems as an alternative to selective CO2 membrane systems. A conceptual design assessment with two commercially available adsorbent materials, activated carbon and Zeolite X13, shows that it is possible to regenerate the adsorbent with air at near ambient temperature and pressure. Yet, a significant step change in adsorbent materials is necessary to design rotary adsorption systems with dimensions comparable to the largest rotary gas/gas heat exchanger used in coal-fired power plants, i.e. approximately 24 m diameter and 2 m height. An optimisation study provides guidelines on the equilibrium parameters for the development of materials. Finally, a technical feasibility study of configuration options with rotary gas/gas heat exchangers shows that cooling water demand around the post-combustion CO2 capture system can be drastically reduced using dry cooling systems where gas/gas heat exchangers use ambient air as the cooling fluid. Hybrid cooling configurations reduce cooling and process water demand in the direct contact cooler of a wet cooling system by 67% and 35% respectively, and dry cooling configurations eliminate the use of process and cooling water and achieve adequate gas temperature entering the absorber.

This master‘s thesis deals with design adjustment of spark ignition combustion engine, which might offer larger share of recirculated exhaust gases in cylinder for reaching a large number of benefits that exhaust gas recirculation can offer. The introductory theoretical part describes exhaust gas recirculation and its influence on spark ignition combustion engine. In the following part the methods of mixture layering and types of intake ports are described. Further design of spiral intake port is made based on calculations. Capability of mixture layering is valuated by numerical simulation. Flow properties of intake ports are compared to production version by an experiment on flow station.

Coal ash deposits were collected in a 160 kWth, down-fired oxy-coal reactor under staged and unstaged conditions for four different coals (PRB, Gatling, Illinois #6, and Mahoning). Concentration measurements of carbon, oxygen, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, calcium, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, strontium, and barium were gathered from each deposit sample using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Backscattered electron micrographs for each deposit sample were analyzed to gather morphological data. Particle size and shape were studied for each deposit collected. The average particle sizes of the particles in upstream deposits were much larger than the average particle sizes of the downstream deposits. The downstream deposits consisted primarily of spherical particles while the upstream deposits consisted of round, irregular polygonal, and porous particles. Deposit particles are believed to have deposited at all stages of burnout; those depositing early during pyrolysis may have continued to react after deposition. Element maps for the aforementioned elements were collected with SEM-EDS and analyzed to quantify both average composition and composition of individual particles. These values were compared to ASTM ash analyses performed for each coal and ash collected from the flue gas stream with a cyclonic particle separator. It was found that sulfur concentrations of deposits do not correlate with corresponding sulfur concentrations of the coal. Comparison of similar experiments performed with air-combustion show that oxy-combustion deposits contain about twice as much sulfur as air-combustion deposits when burning the same coal. Deposition propensity of each coal was also examined, and the PRB and Gatling coals were found to have a moderately high deposition propensity whereas the deposition propensity of the Mahoning and Illinois #6 coals was fairly low.