Game theory and hybrid genetic algorithm for energy management and real-time pricing in smart grid: the Tunisian case

ABSTRACT

Microgrids are the key for integrating renewable energy from different sources into smart grid, that is why power grid evolves into a combination of interconnected microgrids. In fact, future power grids are undergoing this groundbreaking change that will help meet the increasing demand of electric power and reduce carbon emission. In this sense we study in this paper, based on measured data, a real case of energy management in the area of Beja located in Tunisia. Indeed, we propose a model for the power exchange which proves the potential of applying game theory in the development of both real-time pricing and energy management mechanism for an open electricity market. We also introduce a hybrid genetic algorithm to compute the Nash Equilibrium. Results show that the proposed smart energy management can decrease the real cost of power up to 20%, to divide the energy transmission losses by a factor of two and to reduce the carbon emission in the area of Beja.     

Grey relational analysis of an integrated cascade utilization system of geothermal water

With the drastic decrease in fossil resources and rapid deterioration of the global environment, the utilization of geothermal resources has been strongly advocated. The combination of heat, power, and cold utility generation is commonly used to increase the utilization efficiency of geothermal resources. In this study, an integrated cascade utilization system of waste geothermal water (ICUWGW) from a flash geothermal power plant in China is established to increase the utilization efficiency of geothermal water. The waste geothermal water leaving the power plant is proposed for further use in cascade for two-stage LiBr/H₂O absorption cooling, agricultural product drying, and residential bathing. Twelve candidate temperature schemes showing different inlet and outlet temperatures of every subsystem are proposed for the ICUWGW. Several criteria are selected for the evaluation and screening of the candidate schemes. Grey relational analysis incorporating analytic hierarchy process is conducted to screen the optimal temperature scheme for the ICUWGW to meet the comprehensive criteria of thermodynamics and economics. Results show that the optimal scheme features significant improvement in energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and equivalent electricity generation efficiency compared with those of the current geothermal power plant. The investment payback time of the additional subsystems for cooling, drying, and bathing is 1.85 years. Exergy analysis is also conducted to determine the further optimization potential of the optimal ICUWGW. Sensitivity analysis of electricity price on the performance of the optimal ICUWGW is also performed.     

A novel single-stage LED driver for energy-saving streetlight applications with interleaved power-factorcorrection

This paper proposes a novel single-stage light-emitting diode (LED) driver with interleaved power-factor corrections (PFC) suitable for energy-saving streetlight applications. The presented circuit combines an interleaved boost PFC converter with a half-bridge-type series-resonant converter cascaded with a full-bridge rectifier into a single-stage power-conversion topology. Two inductors in the interleaved boost PFC converter sub-circuit are designed to operate in discontinuous-conduction mode (DCM) in order to achieve input-current shaping, and the half-bridge-type series-resonant converter cascaded with a full-bridge rectifier is designed to obtain zero-voltage switching (ZVS) on two power switches to reduce their switching losses. The proposed driver features high power factor, low total-harmonic distortion (THD) of input current, and high circuit efficiency, all of which results in energy savings. A prototype driver is developed and implemented to supply a 165W-rated LED streetlight module with utility-line input voltages ranging from 210 V to 230 V. In addition, satisfactory experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed LED driver.     

Refrigeration waste heat utilization for drying applications: a review

ABSTRACT

Cold chain industry has a vast potential for waste heat recovery. It is a matter of importance for energy efficiency point of view, as global energy demand is increasing day by day. Ample amount of low-grade energy is either unutilized or underutilized. The heat rejected by a Heat pump or refrigeration system emerged as a promising solution for dehydration by utilizing low-grade waste heat despite higher investment. As compared to solar drying technology, heat pump drying evolved as a reliable method regarding better process control, energy efficiency, and quality of the product to be dried. Energy utilized through the refrigeration system’s waste/exhaust heat recovery in combination with or without renewable energy source enhances the overall efficiency of the system and also reduces the cost. This useful review investigated and compared the research findings of waste heat utilization through heat pump and from condenser of refrigeration system on laboratory, pilot as well as industrial scale for drying of various fruits, vegetables, and agro products. Various drying parameters like drying rate, moisture content, Specific Moisture Extraction Rate (SMER), Coefficient of Performance (COP), Exergy efficiency, and temperature as well as humidity conditions inside the drying chamber were also reviewed to promote the technological advancement of energy utilization by commercial cold storage waste heat recovery.     

Conceptual design of a three fluidised beds combustion system capturing CO2 with CaO

In this work, the Aspen Hysys conceptual design of a new process for energy generation at large scale with implicit CO₂ capture is presented. This process makes use of the CaO capability for CO₂ capture at high temperature and the possibility of regenerating this sorbent working in interconnected fluidised bed reactors operating at different temperatures. The proposed process has the advantage of producing power with minimum CO₂ emissions and very low energy penalties compared with similar air-based combustion power plants. In this system, five main parts can be distinguished: the combustor where coal is burnt with air, the calciner where the fresh and the recycled CaCO₃ is calcined, the carbonator where the CO₂ produced in the combustor is captured, the supercritical steam cycle and the CO₂ compression system. In this arrangement, the three fluidised bed reactors are interconnected in such a way that it is possible to perform the CaCO₃ calcination at a temperature of 950 °C with the energy transported by a hot solid stream produced in the circulating fluidised bed combustor operating at 1030 °C. The stream rich in CaO produced in the calciner is split into three parts. One of them is transported to the carbonator operating at 650 °C where most of the CO₂ in the flue gas produced in the combustor is captured. The second one is sent to the combustor, where it is heated up and used as energy carrier. The third solid stream that leaves the calciner is a purge in order to maintain the capture system activity and to avoid inert material accumulation. Because of the high temperatures involved in all the system, it is possible to recover most of the energy in the fuel and to produce power in a supercritical steam cycle. A case study is presented and it is demonstrated that under these operating conditions, 90% CO₂ capture efficiency can be achieved with no energy penalty further than the one originated in the CO₂ compression system.     

Thermodynamic-dynamic analysis of gamma type free-piston stirling engine charged with hydrogen gas as working fluid

ABSTRACT

In this study, the combined thermodynamic and dynamic model of a new concept of gamma type free-piston Stirling engine is conducted. The engine consists of two identical displacer cylinders, a power cylinder, a linear alternator, and three-cushion pistons. Two displacer cylinders are symmetrically positioned on each side of the power cylinder for minimizing the rotational vibrations. Hydrogen is used as the working gas and the effect of gas temperature on the specific heat capacity is considered. The analysis carried out in this study involves the prediction of the thermodynamic-dynamic performance characteristics of the engine. In the thermodynamic section of the analysis, the working space of the engine is divided into 31 nodal volumes and the gas pressures in nodal volumes are assumed to be equal to each other. The conservation of mass and energy equations is obtained for each nodal volume. Instantaneous gas temperatures of nodal volumes are calculated by the first law of thermodynamics given for the unsteady open systems. The dynamic section of the analysis involves the motion equations of displacer, power and cushion pistons. The motion equations are derived using the Newton method. In the calculations done for variable specific heat capacity, it has been determined that there is 1% cyclic work reduction compared to the constant heat capacity. It is estimated that the maximum effective power that can be produced by the linear alternator will be around 1.6 kW. The working frequency range of the proposed engine is found to be suitable to generate electrical power.     

CFD analysis on the performance of a solar chimney power plant system: Case study in Algeria

The solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is a power generator which uses solar radiation to increase the internal energy of the air circulating in the system, thereby transforming the useful gain of the solar collector into kinetic energy. The produced kinetic energy then can be converted into electrical energy by means of an appropriate turbine. In this paper, four locations in Algeria

(Constantine, Ouargla, Adrar, and Tamanrasset) were considered as case studies to describe the SCPP mechanism in detail. Numerical simulation of an SCPP which has the same geometrical dimensions was performed to estimate the power output of SCPP in these regions. Using the CFD software FLUENT we simulated a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of a SCPP with the standard k-ε turbulence model. The simulation results show that the highest power output produced monthly average value 68–73 KW over the year and the highest hourly power produced in June is around 109–113 KW.     

Waste Management and Climate Change

Waste management has at least five types of impacts on climate change, attributable to: (1) landfill methane emissions; (2) reduction in industrial energy use and emissions due to recycling and waste reduction; (3) energy recovery from waste; (4) carbon sequestration in forests due to decreased demand for virgin paper; and (5) energy used in long-distance transport of waste: A recent USEPA study provides estimates of overall per-tonne greenhouse gas reductions due to recycling. Plausible calculations using these estimates suggest that countries such as the US or Australia could realise substantial greenhouse gas reductions through increased recycling, particularly of paper.     

Waste in the Inner City: Asset or assault?

In an unequal society, undesirable wastes often end up in the poorest and least powerful communities, becoming part of the economic and environmental milieu of the inner city. Two contradictory responses to waste reflect contrasting theoretical paradigms. Some wastes can become assets in local economic development, creating incomes through scavenging, industrial jobs in recycling plants or new businesses using locally available materials. Other wastes are an assault on the community that receives them; toxic wastes, polluting facilities and industrial by-products often create local health hazards rather than development. Waste as an asset is consistent with the free market model of economics. The inner city, 'endowed' with waste materials and low-wage labour, has a comparative advantage in labour-intensive processing of materials that the rest of society has discarded. Waste as an assault on the community is consistent with a different model of environmental risk. Some by-products of industry are so hazardous that they should not be produced, or should be tightly regulated. Each model has a realm of validity; the balance between the two depends on which wastes are hazardous, and which are just ugly resources waiting to be discovered.     

Industrial waste to energy by circulating fluidized bed combustion

Industrial waste is a good resource from the viewpoint of efficient waste management. The vital need for energy utilization and environmental protection mean it is of interest to develop circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) to burn solid wastes with low pollutant emissions. The paper presents some explanatory studies on waste-to-energy in a pilot scale CFCB facility. A series of combustion/incineration tests have been carried out for the industrial wastes: petroleum coke, waste tire and sludge cakes with various moisture contents. It seems that the CFBC has feed flexibility without modifying heat transfer equipments for energy recovery. In addition, the results of experimental tests demonstrate that gas emissions from waste incineration in CFBC can be well controlled under local regulation limits.At normal operation temperature in CFBC (approx. 800°C), the heat transfer coefficient between bulk bed and bed wall is on the order of 10² W/m^2° C, which is useful to estimate the energy recovery of waste combustion by CFBC. A practical and simple guide is proposed to estimate the energy recovery from waste combustion by CFBC, and to find maximum allowable moisture content of waste if there is to be any energy recovery without auxiliary fuel.     

Energy recovery from municipal solid waste in Nigeria and its economic and environmental implications

An assessment of potential biomass resources in Nigeria for the production of methane and power generation is presented in this paper. Nigeria, as an underdeveloped and populous country, needs an uninterrupted source of energy. The country's energy problems have crippled large sectors of the economy. The percentage of people connected to the national grid is 40%. These 40% experience electricity supply failure on average 10–12 hours daily. Energy generation from municipal solid waste (MSW) is an effective MSW management strategy. Yearly waste generation has increased from 6,471 gigagrams (Gg) in 1959 to 26,600 Gg in 2015. This amount is projected to reach 36,250 Gg per year by 2030. Methane emission for 2015 was 491 Gg, and it is projected to reach 669 Gg in 2030. These values translate to 3.48 × 10⁹ kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity for 2015, with a projected 4.74 × 10⁹ kWh by 2030. The revenue to be derived from the electricity that is generated could have been US$365.04 × 10⁶ for 2015, and it is estimated that it will reach US$473.82 × 10⁶ by 2030. It was found that methane emissions from MSW increased with time, and capturing this gas for energy production will lead to a sustainable waste management.     

Performance analysis of different orc power plant configurations using solar and geothermal heat sources

ABSTRACT

Energy optimization is performed on hybrid solar-geothermal power plant working according to Organic Rankine Cycle and installed in southern Tunisia. The performances of four different configurations of the power plant are studied. Mass and energy balances are established for the different compounds. The effects of the main operating parameters such as the geothermal water temperature, ambient temperature and direct normal irradiation on the power plant performances are analyzed. A code is established using Engineering Equation Solver software (EES) to perform the required calculations. Obtained results show that the hybrid solar-geothermal power plant with a heat recovery system is the most suitable configuration design giving a better overall energy efficiency of 15.77 and13.11% and a maximum net power of 1089 and 1882 kW in winter and summer, respectively. However, in the summer season, using a heat recovery system can valuable only when the water temperature is higher than 66°C. For air-cooled condenser, the suitable condensing pressure is 1 bar in winter and 1.9 bars in summer.     

工业园区的绿色转型

开发区是我国改革开放的产物,已经走过了30多年的发展历程,作为国家战略实施载体,成为全国引进外资密集、高新技术集聚、经济增长迅猛的区域。随着经济的迅速发展和园区的快速扩张,开发区面临着土地资源既浪费严重又非常紧缺、能源供给紧张、环保压力增大、发展后劲不足等问题。金桥开发区结合自身特点,以国家生态工业示范园区建设为契机,着力改造传统制造业,大力发展生产性服务业、战略性新兴产业、高新技术产业,通过优化第二产业,发展第三产业,实现了园区产业结构的转型。同时,以生态创建为抓手,积极引导园区企业加强节能环保,使整个园区的可持续发展能力获得提升。     

Treatment of Landfill Leachate Wastewater by Nanofiltration Membrane

Abstract

Nanofiltration (NF) membrane is an alternative lower energy membrane type compared to reverse osmosis membrane. NF is suitable for rejection of ions and molecules with molecular weight greater than 200 Da. In this study leachate wastewater from a sanitary landfill site in Malaysia was filtered through a NF membrane in order to determine the rejection capability of the membrane towards pollutants such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), conductivity, nitrate, ammonia-nitrogen, and heavy metals such as Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe. The NF membrane used was HL membrane, which under the atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging, showed visible discrete pores. The overall rejections of the pollutants were more than 85% except for nitrate and ammonia nitrogen. NF can be considered an alternative for advanced filtration especially within a hybrid treatment system combining biological–physical treatment and membrane filtration.     

Biogas production from pistachio (Pistaciavera L.) de-hulling waste

Pistachio processing wastes create significant waste management problems unless properly managed. However, there are not well-established methods to manage the waste generated during the processing of pistachios. Anaerobic digestion can be an attractive option not only for the management of pistachio processing wastes but also producing renewable energy in the form of biogas. This study investigated anaerobic digestibility and biogas production potential of pistachio de-hulling waste from wet de-hulling process. Best to our knowledge, this is the first report on biogas production from pistachio de-hulling waste. The results indicated that (1) anaerobic digestion of pistachio de-hulling wastewater, solid waste, and their mixtures in different ratios is possible with varying levels of performance; (2) 1 L of de-hulling wastewater (chemical oxygen demand concentration of 30 g/L) produced 0.7 L of methane; (3) 1 L of de-hulling wastewater and 20 g of pistachio de-hulling solid waste produced 1.25 L of methane; and (4) 1 g of de-hulling solid waste produced 62.6 mL of methane (or 134 mL of biogas).     

天然气净化厂放空废气对环境的影响及控制措施

天然气净化厂除正常生产有工艺废气排放外,传统装置检修开停产过程、供电或设备异常情况下,会有大量酸气、原料气通过放空火炬燃烧后排放。文章主要分析了天然气净化装置放空废气排放情况及其对周边环境的影响,阐述了异常放空、检修开停产过程原料气和酸气放空的控制措施及其环境效益。     

An Exergy Aware Optimization and Control Algorithm for Sustainable Buildings

Abstract

Heating and air-conditioning systems have very low exergetic efficiency as they dissipate primary energy resources at low temperatures usually between 90 and 60°C. This compounds the problem that buildings spend approximately 30% of all the energy consumed in the U.S. for heating and air-conditioning. The overall result is a large entropy production and long-term environmental degradation that can be resolved only by substituting primary energy resources by low-temperature, waste, or alternative energy resources, usually available below 50°C. For such a replacement to be feasible the environmental cost of exergy production must be factored into calculations and compatible HVAC systems must be developed without any need for temperature peaking or equipment oversizing. This article addresses environmental and often-conflicting problems associated with exergy production by HVAC systems and presents an analytical optimization and control algorithm. Results indicate that when a careful design optimization is accompanied by a dynamic control of the split between radiant and convective means of satisfying thermal HVAC loads, exergy efficient sustainable buildings may be cost effective and environmentally benign.     

氧化铝行业水污染控制措施探讨

根据氧化铝行业生产用水及排污特点,结合某氧化铝生产企业生产废水的处理实践,推荐采用逆向洗涤赤泥和氢氧化铝,节约用水量;综合利用赤泥洗液和含碱废水;对生产用水设置循环水系统和二次利用水系统;设置生产废水处理站,氧化铝系统和热电厂的生产系统排水、循环水系统的排污水,以及化验等废水全部排入生产废水处理站处理,废水经处理后作为二次利用供水返回生产系统使用,通过综合利用生产废水,可以实现厂区废水的零排放,节约资源的同时,提高清洁生产水平,避免对环境造成污染。     

Municipal solid waste management in South Africa: from waste to energy recovery through waste-to-energy technologies in Johannesburg

ABSTRACT

“Waste-to-energy” (WTE) technologies have been presented as one of the avenues to improve the management of solid waste whilst promoting clean and healthy urban environments through the recovery of waste and generation of energy. Research suggests that with the right investment in technologies and institutional changes, waste can potentially become a resource that can contribute to the socio-economic development of cities. It is in this context that this paper presents a review of the literature on WTE technologies and their implications on sustainable waste management in urban areas. The paper particularly contributes to our understanding of WTE technologies and its potential on Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is estimated that the city of Johannesburg’s landfills airspace will be completely depleted by year 2023. This projection becomes a motivation for the identification of suitable WTE alternative avenues to manage waste in the city. The paper argues that WTE technologies can contribute significantly to sustainable waste management, economic growth, ecological and environmental well-being.     

Environmental impacts of different food waste resource technologies and the effects of energy mix

The environmental impacts of food waste management strategies and the effects of energy mix were evaluated using a life cycle assessment model, EASEWASTE. Three different strategies involving landfill, composting and combined digestion and composting as core technologies were investigated. The results indicate that the landfilling of food waste has an obvious impact on global warming, although the power recovery from landfill gas counteracts some of this. Food waste composting causes serious acidification (68.0 PE) and nutrient enrichment (76.9 PE) because of NH₃ and SO₂ emissions during decomposition. Using compost on farmland, which can marginally reduce global warming (−1.7 PE), acidification (−0.8 PE), and ecotoxicity and human toxicity through fertilizer substitution, also leads to nutrient enrichment as neutralization of emissions from N loss (27.6 PE) and substitution (−12.8 PE). A combined digestion and composting technology lessens the effects of acidification (−12.2 PE), nutrient enrichment (−5.7 PE), and global warming (−7.9 PE) mainly because energy is recovered efficiently, which decreases emissions including SO₂, Hg, NO_x, and fossil CO₂ during normal energy production. The change of energy mix by introducing more clean energy, which has marginal effects on the performance of composting strategy, results in apparently more loading to acidification and nutrient enrichment in the other two strategies. These are mainly because the recovered energy can avoid fewer emissions than before due to the lower background values in power generation. These results provide quantitative evidence for technical selection and pollution control in food waste management.