<p>Subsea processing can make production from otherwise unprofitable fields profitable. In subsea processing controlled cooling of the process fluid will often be required. Robust and simple solutions are desirable in subsea processing. Coolers that rely on natural convection from the surrounding seawater are therefore interesting, but control of the process fluid outlet temperature is hard to obtain in such coolers. In this study a calculation model for subsea coolers has been developed. The commercial software MATLAB has been used for developing a program. Heat transfer and frictional pressure drop correlations have been studied and recommendations are made for the model. The model is based on tubes in parallel, and the tubes can be oriented vertically or horizontally. The program allows for open, semi-open and closed arrangements on the waterside, and both natural and forced convection is implemented. The program has been tested through simulations of two test cases and found to be performing as desired.</p>

<p>The performance of a hot wire probe with three wires is investigated for two different flow cases. The wires are made of a platinum/rhodium alloy, and has a diameter of 5 micrometer. The three wires make a probe volume with acrossection of approximately 5 mm. A cosinus fit using the effective angle method gives a deviation of plus/minus 1 degree for a variation of yaw angle equal to plus/minus 20 degrees. First the probe was tested in a fully developed turbulent pipe flow, for Re_D = 10^5. Good results were obtained for |y/R|<0.8, both for mean velocities and turbulent stresses. Closer to the wall the mean flow gradient was to large relative to the probe resolution, giving large errors. The second flow case was a cylinder wake. A traverse of the flow at x/D = 10 was performed at Re_D = 3*10^3. The mean velocities and turbulent stresses was partly found to be in qualitative agreement with results found in litterature. The shear stresses uw and vw were however found to be unphysically large, this is belived to be due to the velocity gradient in the wake. Conditional averaging of the wake results with respect to shedding frequency was also conducted.</p>

<p>The process used by the Norwegian company Hydro for making Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) from natural gas and sodium chloride has been studied. A three dimensional CFD model representing the firebox of the EDC cracker has been developed using the commercial CFD tool Fluent. Heat to the cracker is delivered by means of combustion of a fuel gas consisting of methane and hydrogen. In the developed CFD model used in this work, the combustion reaction itself is omitted, and heat is delivered by hot flue gas. With the combustion reaction left out, the only means of tuning the CFD model is through the flue gas inlet temperature. With the flue gas inlet temperature near the adiabatic flame temperature, the general temperature level of the EDC cracker was reported to be too high. The outer surface temperature of the coil was reported to be 3-400 K higher than what was expected. By increasing the mass flow of flue gas and decreasing the temperature, the net delivered heat to the firebox was maintained at the same level as the first case, but the temperature on the coil was reduced by 100-150 K. Further reductions in the flue gas inlet temperature and modifications in the mass flow of flue gas at the different burner rows, eventually gave temperature distributions along the reaction coil, and flue gas and refractory temperatures, that resemble those in the actual cracker. The one-dimensional reactor model for the cracking reaction represents the actual cracker in a satsifactorily manner. The cracking reaction was simulated using a simple, global reaction mechanism, thus only the main components of the process fluid, EDC, VCM and HCl, can be studied. The model is written in a way suitable for implementation of more detailed chemical reaction mechanisms. The largest deviation in temperature between measured and simulated data are about 5%. At the outlet the temperature of the process fluid is equal to the measured data. The conversion of EDC out of the firebox is assumed to be 50 wt-%, this value is met exactly by the model.</p>

<p>A measurement of the hydraulic turbine efficiency at the Vessingfoss hydro power station by the thermodynamic method has been attempted, but has not given the desired results. Two problems have been encountered. The high pressure side temperature measurements show an abnormal scatter resulting in standard deviations of sy=0.05ºC. The reason for the scatter may be temperature layers in the reservoir lake Nesjø. This theory has been investigated, but needs further work. The other problem has been the mechanical strength of the low pressure side collector probes. Two different collectors have been tried, and both have broken down. The second attempt was made with a collector design based on wire rope, which failed because the turnbuckles were under-dimensioned. With proper dimensions, this solution is interesting in the future, as it was easy to install and may contribute to lose collector weight. The relative turbine efficiency has been calculated based on pressures and levels measured during the thermodynamic test. An uncertainty analysis of the result has been carried out. The head loss has been calculated based on technical drawings of the penstock and loss coefficients from the literature.</p>

<p>A multi-reactor, multi-temperature, waste-heat driven biomass thermochemical converter is proposed and simulated in the process simulation tool Aspen Plus™. The thermochemical converter is in Aspen Plus™ integrated with a gas turbine power cycle and a combined fuel cell/gas turbine power cycle. Both power cycles are recuperative, and supply the thermochemical converter with waste heat. For result comparison, the power cycles are also integrated with a reference conventional single-reactor thermochemical converter, utilizing partial oxidation to drive the conversion process. Exergy analysis is used for assessment of the simulation results. In stand-alone simulation, the proposed thermochemical shows high performance. Cold gas efficiency is 108.0% and syngas HHV is 14.5 MJ/kg on dry basis. When integrated with the gas turbine power cycle, the proposed converter fails to improve thermal efficiency of the integrated cycle significantly, compared to reference converter. Thermal efficiency is 41.8% and 40.7%, on a biomass HHV basis, with the proposed and the reference converter respectively. This is despite superior cold gas efficiency for the proposed converter, and the gas turbine cycle is found not to be able to properly take advantage of the high chemical energy in the syngas of the proposed converter. When integrated with the combined fuel cell/gas turbine power cycle, the proposed converter significantly improves the thermal efficiency of the integrated cycle, compared to the reference converter. Thermal efficiency is 56.0% and 51.2%, on a biomass HHV basis, with the proposed and the reference converter respectively. The fuel cell is found to be able to take advantage of the high chemical energy in the syngas of the proposed converter, which is the main cause of increase in thermal efficiency. Operation of the proposed thermochemical converter is found to be feasible at a wide range of operating conditions, although low operating temperatures in the converter may cause problems at very high carbon conversion ratios.</p>

<p>In this work, a 23-1 designed experiment has been performed to evaluate the effect of selected operating conditions on PEMFC performance and durability. Relative humidity, clamping pressure and back pressure were studied at two levels for Gore MEAs and GDLs. Two replicated experiments were performed. An ON/OFF test cycle was used to accelerate degradation. Total duration of the tests, after a break in procedure suggested by Gore, was ten days. In addition to sampling of voltage and current response and ohmic resistance, effluents were manually sampled from both electrodes every 24 hours and analyzed. Experiments with low humidification levels showed inferior durability. The combination of high relative humidity (100 %), high clamping pressure (10 barg) and high back pressure (1.5barg) result in the best performance and the lowest degradation rate. Results indicate that relative humidity is important both for performance and durability. Generally, fluoride emission rates (FER) showed an increasing trend with time. Higher rates were observed at the cathode. For the experiment with low relative humidity (25 %), low clamping pressure (5 barg) and high back pressure (1.5 barg) FER was significantly higher compared to the other experiments. For all tests the sulfur emission rates (SER) are initial high. Rates are higher at the anode. For the experiment with high relative humidity, low clamping pressure and no back pressure, the SER was significantly higher than for the other experiments. The sustained high levels of sulfur are probably a result of sulfuric acid residue from production of the MEA and/or GDL. High humidification of gases appears to more effectively wash out the sulfur.</p>

<p>Coal is the most common fossil resource for power production worldwide and generates 40% of the worlds total electricity production. Even though coal is considered a pollutive resource, the great amounts and the increasing power demand leads to extensive use even in new developed power plants. To cover the world's future energy demand and at the same time limit our effect on global warming, coal fired power plants with CO2 capture is probably a necessity. An Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Power Plant is a utilization of coal which gives incentives for CO2 capture. Coal is partially combusted in a reaction with steam and pure oxygen. The oxygen is produced in an air separation process and the steam is generated in the Power Island. Out of the gasifier comes a mixture of mainly H2 and CO. In a shift reactor the CO and additional steam are converted to CO2 and more H2. Carbon dioxide is separated from the hydrogen in a physical absorption process and compressed for storage. Hydrogen diluted with nitrogen from the air separation process is used as fuel in a combined cycle similar to NGCC. A complete IGCC Power Plant is described in this report. The air separation unit is modeled as a Linde two column process. Ambient air is compressed and cooled to dew point before it is separated into oxygen and nitrogen in a cryogenic distillation process. Out of the island oxygen is at a purity level of 95.6% and the nitrogen has a purity of 99.6%. The production cost of oxygen is 0.238 kWh per kilogram of oxygen delivered at 25°C and 1.4bar. The oxygen is then compressed to a gasification pressure of 42bar. In the gasification unit the oxygen together with steam is used to gasify the coal. On molar basis the coal composition is 73.5% C, 22.8% H2, 3.1% O2, 0.3% N2 and 0.3% S. The gasification temperature is at 1571°C and out of the unit comes syngas consisting of 66.9% CO, 31.1% H2, 1.4% H2O, 0.3% N2, 0.2% H2S and 0.1% CO2. The syngas is cooled and fed to a water gas shift reactor. Here the carbon monoxide is reacted with steam forming carbon dioxide and additional hydrogen. The gas composition of the gas out of the shift reactor is on dry basis 58.2% H2, 39.0% CO2, 2.4% CO, 0.2% N2 and 0.1% H2S. Both the gasification process and shift reactor is exothermal and there is no need of external heating. This leads to an exothermal heat loss, but parts of this heat is recovered. The gasifier has a Cold Gas Efficiency (CGE) of 84.0%. With a partial pressure of CO2 at 15.7 bar the carbon dioxide is easily removed by physical absorption. After separation the solvent is regenerated by expansion and CO2 is pressurized to 110bar to be stored. This process is not modeled, but for the scrubbing part an energy consumption of 0.08kWh per kilogram CO2 removed is assumed. For the compression of CO2, it is calculated with an energy consumption of 0.11kWh per kilogram CO2 removed. Removal of H2S and other pollutive unwanted substances is also removed in the CO2 scrubber. Between the CO2 removal and the combustion chamber is the H2 rich fuel gas is diluted with nitrogen from the air separation unit. This is done to increase the mass flow through the turbine. The amount of nitrogen available is decided by the amount of oxygen produced to the gasification process. Almost all the nitrogen produced may be utilized as diluter except from a few percent used in the coal feeding procedure to the gasifier. The diluted fuel gas has a composition of 50.4% H2, 46.1% N2, 2.1% CO and 1.4% CO2. In the Power Island a combined cycle with a gas turbine able to handle large H2 amounts is used. The use of steam in the gasifier and shift reactor are integrated in the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) in the steam cycle. The heat removed from the syngas cooler is also recovered in the HRSG. The overall efficiency of the IGCC plant modeled is 36.8%. This includes oxygen and nitrogen production and compression, production of high pressure steam used in the Gasification Island, coal feeding costs, CO2 removal and compression and pressure losses through the processes. Other losses are not implemented and will probably reduce the efficiency.</p>

<p>Sorption Enhanced Steam Methane Reforming (SE-SMR) is a novel way of reforming natural gas to high purity hydrogen gas with in-situ CO2 capture by the introduction of a CO2 sorbent. The process is carried out in two steps. In the first step, hydrogen is produced and CO2 is absorbed by the sorbent. In the second step, the sorbent is exposed to high temperature heat and the CO2 is released. For the reforming to run continuously, two bubbling fluidized beds(BFB), can be coupled, one working as a reformer and the other one as a regenerator of the CO2 sorbent. The reformer works at a temperature around 500˚C and the regenerator at around 900˚C. Once the reactions in the reformer are being carried out the reformer works at a near autothermal state due to the exothermic reaction between CO2 and the sorbent. The regenerator however needs to be continuously supplied with heat to maintain at least 900˚C and for the endothermic calcination reaction of the sorbent to be carried out. One of the ways of providing heat to the process is by internal heat exchanger tubes. The advantage of using heat exchanger tubes is that no extra gas is added to the gas already in the bed (used interchangeably with reactor), thus not disturbing the volumetric flow and gas composition of the bed. For sequestration purposes, if the gases within the bed are not disturbed by for example nitrogen, N2, they will be easier to separate and sequester. An analytical calculation of the energy balance of a calcination reactor with horizontal heat transfer tubes was carried out, and the necessary effect was found to be 14.02kW, which equates to a heat exchanger with 96 tubes in 8 rows, taking up 26cm height in the reactor. Transferring heat via exhaust gas through metal tubes does however not yield a high thermal efficiency. One way of improving the efficiency of the calcinator is burning fuel gas directly in the reactor. This will lead to a direct heat exchange between the exhaust gas and the sorbent. On the other hand will the direct burning with air as an oxidizer lead to high fractions of N2 in the reactor. Considering that the gas in question in this work is biogas, the release of CO2 from the combustion is technically carbon neutral. Calculations for the necessary heat exchanger surface area and combustion rate of methane for the in-reactor combustion alternative have been carried out analytically, and a model of the in-reactor combustion has been established. At first, a fully fluidized bed model with integrated methane combustion was planned. Due to limitations of the modeling program and conversations with experts on the scope of the work in relation to the time-frame of the thesis, which is more closely discussed in Appendix H, the problem was reduced to a fixed bed approximation with “black box” combustion of methane outside the reactor. A heat balance, dependent on the rate of calcination was applied in the finite element modeling program COMSOL Multiphysics, and the resulting temperatures in the reactor were examined on the basis of what kind of fuel gas was used. In the first case, upgraded biogas, or SNG(Sustainable Natural Gas) was used as fuel gas. SNG is ~100% CH4, and the biogas has a CH4 content of ~48%. From the model it was seen that the mean temperature of the bed with SNG was 1218K, or 945˚C, and with the biogas the temperature of the bed was 1248K, or 975˚C. The calcination rate was found to be from 72.5 to 86.3% of the optimum. The lower results might be due to the adiabatic flame temperature of the gas and/or the relatively low heat capacity of the gas.</p>

<p>As part of the energy recovery part of the ROMA (Resource Optimization and recovery in the Materials industry) project, a laboratory prototype power production system is being built and completed in 2009. The laboratory prototype is based on a new technology for power production from low to medium temperature heat sources (the off gas from electrolysis cells in the aluminum industry) where CO2 is used as a working medium in a trans-critical Rankine cycle. The laboratory rig consists of the power cycle with a prototype expander as the core unit, an air loop to provide the heat, and an ethylene glycol loop to provide condensation of the working fluid in the power cycle. As a preparation to the assembling and instrumentation of the prototype rig, a simulation and an uncertainty analysis were conducted for the prototype rig in the autumn of 2008. This report focuses on the continuation of that work by an experimental investigation of the individual loops and the components of the prototype rig. The emphasis of this investigation has been put on the air loop and the expander unit of the power cycle. This is basically because these are of great importance to the performance of the power production prototype rig. The air loop was thoroughly tested, and from the investigations it was discovered that there was an unfavorable temperature distribution of the air going into the air-to-CO2 heat exchanger. This is the heat exchanger where heat is provided to the power cycle. The source for this temperature maldistribution was identified, and solutions were investigated to improve on the problem without results. The reduced performance of the air loop was incorporated in a new simulation of the power cycle in order to quantify the consequences for the optimization of the power cycle. The simulation was carried out for warm air temperature of 80 °C. The new calculations showed a reduction in maximum net work output of 27 % compared to the original simulation. The optimal conditions for the power cycle were also changed as a consequence of the reduced air loop performance. The investigation of the expander unit revealed that the expander isentropic efficiency was a strong function of the pressure difference across the expander, and a weak function of the expander inlet pressure. It also revealed that overall the isentropic efficiency was much less than the value of 80 % which was used in the original simulation. A new simulation of the power cycle was carried out where the expander isentropic efficiency was incorporated as a function of the pressure difference across the expander. This function was based on the data from the expander testing. The simulation showed a reduction in maximum net work output from 225 W to about 60 W, for warm air temperature of 80 °C. The new expander characteristics also affected the optimization of the power cycle. The simulation results and the results from the prototype investigation will be important in the optimization and control procedures of the assembled prototype power production system.</p>

<p>In this master thesis the wake of a hydrofoil have been investigated using PIV. The main goal of this work have been to investigate how vortex generators can create mixing and smoothing of the velocity deficit in hydrofoil wakes. This study is motivated by the rotor stator interactions in Francis turbines with the idea that smoother wakes from the stator can reduce the forces on the rotor and hence increase the life span of Francis turbines. A literature survey of foil theory and wake flows have been carried out. This survey motivated the use of a normalization of the velocity in the wake. Experimental work was carried out at the water tunnel facility at Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Tests were performed on a NACA0015 hydrofoil with four different vortex generator configurations, for a range of different angles of attack and velocities. Lift and drag forces on the hydrofoil was measured using a force balance. Because the drag measurement had poor accuracy, it could not be used to compare the different vortex generator configurations in terms of drag. As a result the drag was investigated using the velocity deficit in the wakes. The quality of this analysis have been discussed with the use of CFD. CFD is also used to gain insight into how pressure and velocity is distributed in the water tunnel. The PIV images from the tests have been processed into vector fields with the commercial PIV software DaVis7. For analyzing the PIV data further, different post-processing schemes in DaVis7 was investigated together with programs developed in Matlab. In order to compare the wakes resulting from the use of different vortex generators with measurable quantities, the use of a standard wake profile has been investigated. The standard wake profile is symmetrical and could hence only describe wake measurements done at an angle of attack close to $0^{circ}$. Furthermore it turned out that most vortex generators resulted in a wake that could not be described with the standard wake profile. The vortex generator configurations that gave the best smoothing of the hydrofoil wake for the investigated operation points turned out to be a $1unit{mm}$ V-shaped vortex generator. This vortex generator also caused less drag than than the other vortex generators tested. However, the use of vortex generators resulted in increased drag compared to the plain hydrofoil for the analyzed operating points. The velocity deficit in the wake is shown to get so well smoothed out for some tested cases that it is considered worth while to continue the investigation on vortex generators capability to increase the lifespan of Francis turbines.</p>