Industrial waste streams from brewing industries and distilleries provide a valuable but largely unused alternative substrate for biogas production by anaerobic digestion. High sulfur loads in the feed caused by acidic pretreatment to enhance bioavailability are responsible for H₂S formation during anaerobic digestion. Microbiological oxidation of H₂S provides an elegant technique to remove this toxic gas compound. Moreover, it allows for recovery of sulfuric acid, the final product of aerobic sulfide oxidation, as demonstrated in this study. Two-stage anaerobic digestion of brewer’s spent grains, the major byproduct in the brewing industry, allows for the release of up to 78% of total H₂S formed in the first pre-acidification stage. Desulfurization of such pre-acidification gas in continuous acidic biofiltration with immobilized sulfur-oxidizing bacteria resulted in a maximum H₂S elimination capacity of 473 g m^–3 h^–1 at an empty bed retention time of 91 s. Complete H₂S removal was achieved at inlet concentrations of up to 6363 ppm. The process was shown to be very robust, and even after an interruption of H₂S feeding for 10 days, excellent removal efficiency was immediately restored. A maximum sulfate production rate of 0.14 g L^–1 h^–1 was achieved, and a peak concentration of 4.18 g/L sulfuric acid was reached. Further experiments addressed the reduction of fresh water and chemicals to minimize process expenses. It was proven that up to 50% of mineral medium that is required in large amounts during microbiological desulfurization can be replaced by the liquid fraction of the digestate. The conducted study demonstrates the viability of microbial sulfur recovery with theoretical recovery rates of up to 44%.

In this paper the energy and carbon footprints of pellet imports from Australia, West Canada, and Russia for co-firing in Europe are investigated. Their ecologic and economic performances are proven by applying the Belgian and UK co-firing subsidy systems, which require dedicated sustainability evaluations. Based on the modelling of different subsidy schemes and price scenarios, the present paper identifies favourable conditions for the use of biomass co-firing in Germany and Austria, which currently do not have dedicated co-firing incentives. The present paper shows that under present conditions, co-firing has a narrow financial gap to coal with -3 to 4€ Cent/kWh_el and has low CO₂ mitigation costs compared to other renewables. Moreover, it is shown that co-firing is one of the most cost-attractive options to reach the EU-2020 targets. For policy makers, the support of co-firing is found to be very efficient in terms of cost-benefit ratio. It is proven that the co-firing subsidy schemes might direct supply chain decisions towards options with low energy and carbon impacts. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
 

Co-gasification of biomass and plastics was investigated in a 100 kW dual fluidized-bed pilot plant using four types of plastic material of different origins and soft wood pellets. The proportion of plastics was varied within a broad range to assess the interaction of the materials. The product gas composition was considerably influenced by co-gasification, whereas the changes were nonlinear. More CO and CO₂ were measured in the product gas from co-gasification than would be expected from linear interpolation of mono-gasification of the materials. Less CH₄ and C₂H ₄ were formed, and the tar content in the product gas was considerably lower than presumed. With the generation of more product gas than expected, co-gasification of wood and plastic materials also had other beneficial effects. Because of the fuel mixtures, more radicals of different types were available that interacted with each other and with the fluidization steam, enhancing the reforming reactions. Wood char had a positive effect on polymer decomposition, steam reforming, and tar reduction. As a result of the more active splash zone during co-gasification of wood and plastics, contact between gas and bed material was enhanced, which is crucial for catalytic tar removal. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

The continuous increase of (volatile) renewable energy production and the development of energy-efficient buildings have led to a transformation of city districts’ energy systems. Their complexity has increased significantly due to the coupling of the different energy sectors like heating, cooling and electricity. Such complex multi-energy systems can be operated more efficiently and reliably if knowledge of their specific components (in terms of mathematical models) as well as knowledge of weather forecasts is incorporated in a high-level controller, which is typically referred to as an Energy Management System (EMS). However, still little comprehensive information on the costs and the practical advantages of such systems is available. For this reason, a simulation environment to estimate the real costs and advantages of the use of such an EMS is required. Consequently, this work focuses on the development of an EMS for future city districts’ energy systems and the development of a co-simulation environment in order to demonstrate the benefits of the use of the developed EMS in comparison to a conventional control strategy. The co-simulation is implemented with the aid of the co-simulation platform Building Controls Virtual Test Bed (BCVTB) and consists of the following parts: a non-linear, thermoelectric model and a control block containing either the conventional control strategy or the EMS. The thermoelectric model is built up using the well-established simulation tools TRNSYS and IDA-ICE, simulating the energy hub of the city district and the districts’ buildings, respectively. The control block is simulated using MATLAB, where IBM ILOG CPLEX is used for solving the resulting mixed-integer linear program (MILP) of the EMS. Finally, an economic model for financial (and ecological) assessment of the operation is simulated with the aid of the software package Dymola. To put the developed EMS and the co-simulation into practise a case study based on a new city district in Graz, Austria, which is currently in the planning stage, is carried out. The integration of the responsible planners and investors in the modelling process guarantees the models’ practical applicability. In the case study the performance of the originally planned conventional control strategy is compared with the performance of the developed EMS using annual simulations with a simulation time step of 1 minute, and a 24 hour prediction horizon and a 15 minute time step for the EMS. For a more robust and realistic comparison both control strategies are simulated for different scenarios considering current and future (2060) climate conditions, medium and high energy demands (load), ideal and real load prediction methods and varying import prices for electricity from the electricity grid. The results show that the use of the developed EMS strategy results in reduced annual total costs (considering operational and investment costs of additionally suggested distributed energy resources) in comparison to the conventional control strategy. Furthermore, the annual CO2-emissions could be reduced by increasing the self-consumption of the installed (renewable) energy resources and thus decreasing the necessary energy imports from the electricity and the heating grid.

Slides of the talk "Co-Simulation of an Energy Management System for Future City District Energy Systems"

The CO/CO₂ release ratio obtained during char combustion of single biomass particles has been analysed in this work experimentally and by modelling. Experiments have been conducted with spruce, straw and Miscanthus pellets at different temperatures. Furthermore, these experiments have been modelled with a single particle model coupled with a CFD model of the single particle reactor. The results show that the CO/CO₂ ratio strongly depends on the feedstock, being lower for spruce than for straw or Miscanthus. Furthermore, the most commonly employed correlations for this ratio in literature are not adequate, as they either under- or over-predict it.

Dieser Bericht bietet eine ERhebung dero CO2e-Einsparungskosten außerhalb des ETS-Handels für den Bereich der Mobilität sowie der Wärmebereitstellung im häuslichen Sektor und Fern- und Nahwärme.

Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert die Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher Brennstoffversorgungsszenarios im Calcinator des Zementherstellungsprozesses auf die emittierten CO2-Emissionen. In weiterer Folge werden die Grenzvermeidungskosten für CO2 im Vergleich zum Referenzszenario (100 % PetCoke) berechnet und dargestellt. Als alternative Brennstoffe werden auf Basis von Betriebserfahrungen sowie großtechnischer Versuche die alternativen Brennstoffe hochkalorischer Fluff (Standardszenario) sowie Schilf (Szenario A) und biogen angereicherter Ersatzbrennstoff (Szenario B) und vergleichend dazu in einer Literaturbasierten Analyse getrockneter Klärschlamm (Szenario C) betrachtet. Um die Auswirkung sich ändernder Marktbedingungen auf die Grenzvermeidungskosten abzubilden erfolgt eine Sensitivitätsanalyse hinsichtlich der Brennstoffgestehungskosten für die alternativen Brennstoffe sowie drei unterschiedliche Preisniveaus für Emissionsrechte und Brennstoffgestehungskosten des Referenzbrennstoffes PetCoke.

The dual fluidized bed (DFB) steam gasification technology of biomass was developed at Vienna University of Technology and is well-established for transforming biomass into a product gas which can be used for further applications. The DFB steam gasification reactor consists of a gasification chamber (bubbling bed, fluidized with steam) and a combustion chamber (turbulent bed, fluidized with air). Biomass is fed into the gasification chamber and gets in contact with the bed material, typically Olivine, at about 840°C. The released volatiles leave the gasification reactor as product gas. A part of the solid residue, called char, flows with the bed material via a chute to the combustion chamber where it is burnt with air. The bed material is heated up, separated from the flue gas stream in a cyclone and flows back to the gasification reactor via a loop seal where it provides the heat for devolatilization and drying of the biomass. The movement of the char is crucial since a sufficient amount has to flow to the combustion chamber and burn to provide enough energy for bed material heat-up. Up to now little is known about the char concentration in the bed material recirculation stream (or short recirculation stream) and its influencing variables. Therefore, a cold flow model, operated with ambient air, was constructed to study the influence of various parameters on the char concentration in the recirculation stream. Bronze is used as bed material since is matches closest to the scaling criteria. The char is also scaled; polyethylene is used as model char.

The cold flow model, see Figure 1 for the flowsheet, consists of a “gasification chamber” which corresponds to the gasification chamber in the hot plant and is as well operated as a bubbling bed. Via a chute the recirculation stream moves to a rotary valve which enables to set a fixed recirculation rate and make it independent from the following pneumatic conveying. Then, gas and solids are separated in a cyclone and the recirculation stream finally flows back to the gasification chamber. After the loop seal samples are taken for investigation of the model char concentration in the recirculation stream. In the present study the influence of fluidization rate in the gasification chamber, bed material recirculation rate and model char mass in the system on the char concentration in the recirculation stream are investigated. It was found that the model char particles show a flotsam behavior. Higher fluidization rates increase the model char concentration in the recirculation stream because of better mixing, whereas the bed material recirculation rate has only little influence. Doubling and tripling the overall char mass in the system did not lead to a doubling or tripling model char concentration in the recirculation stream. The present observations are helping to better understand the ongoing phenomena inside of the dual fluidized bed gasification reactor and provide knowledge to further optimize it.

A deeper understanding and quantification on the influence of inorganic species on the pyrolysis process, combined with the presence of heterogeneous secondary reactions, is pursued in this study. Both chemical controlled and transport limited regimes are considered. The former is achieved in a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) with fine milled biomass in the mg range, while the latter is investigated in a particle level reactor with spherical particles of different sizes. To account for the influence of inorganics, wood particles were washed and doped with KCl aqueous solutions, resulting in K concentrations in the final wood of around 0.5% and 5% on dry basis. Gas species and condensable volatiles were measured online with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and a non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas analyzer. The removal of inorganic species delayed the pyrolysis reaction to higher temperatures and lowered char yields. The addition of inorganics (K) shifted the devolatilization process to lower temperatures, increased char and water yields, and reduced CO production among others. Higher heating rates and temperatures resulted in lower char, water, and light condensable yields, but significantly higher CH4 and other light hydrocarbons, as well as CO. The increase in these yields can be attributed, at least in part, to the gas phase cracking reactions of the produced volatiles. Larger particle size increased the formation of char, CH4 and other light hydrocarbons, and light condensables for low and high pyrolysis temperatures, while reduced the release of CO2 and H2O. This novel data set allows to quantify the influence of each parameter and can be used as basis for the development of detailed pyrolysis models which can include both the influence of inorganics and transport limitations when coupled into particle models.

Experiments have been conducted in a batch fixed bed lab-scale reactor to investigate the combustion behaviour of three different biomass fuels, poultry litter (PL), blend of PL with wood chips (PL/WC) and softwood pellets (SP). Analysis of the data gathered after completion of the test runs, provided useful insights about the thermal decomposition behaviour of the fuels, the formation of N gaseous species, the release of ash forming elements and the estimation of aerosol emissions. It was observed that the N gaseous species are mainly produced during the devolatilisation phase. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) was the predominant compound in the case of SP combustion, whereas ammonia (NH3) displayed the highest concentration during the combustion of PL and blend (PL/WC). With reference to ash forming elements, the release rates of potassium (K) and sodium (Na) range between 15–50% and 20–37% respectively, whereas the release rate of sulphur (S) falls between 54–92%. Chlorine (Cl) presents very high release rate for all tested fuels acquiring values greater than 85%, showing the volatile nature of the specific compound. The maximum potential of aerosol emissions was estimated based on the calculation of ash forming elements. In particular, during PL combustion the maximum aerosol emissions were observed, 2806 mg/Nm3 (dry flue gas, 13 vol% O2), mainly influenced by the release rate of K in the gas phase. Fuel indexes for the pre-evaluation of combustion related challenges such as NOx emissions, potential for aerosols formation, corrosion risk, and ash melting behaviour have also been investigated.

Combustion of waste wood can cause slagging, fouling and corrosion which lead to boiler failure, affecting the energy efficiency and the lifetime of the power plant. Additivation with mineral and sulfur containing additives during waste wood combustion could potentially reduce these problems. This study aims at understanding the environmental impacts of using additives to improve the operational performance of waste wood combustion. The environmental profiles of four energy plants (producing heat and/or power), located in different European countries (Poland, Austria, Sweden and Germany), were investigated through a consequential life cycle assessment (LCA). The four energy plants are all fueled by waste wood and/or residues. This analysis explored the influences of applying different additives strategies in the four power plants, different wood fuel mixes and resulting direct emissions, to the total life cycle environmental impacts of heat and power generated. The impacts on climate change, acidification, particulate matter, freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity and cumulative energy demand were calculated, considering 1 GJ of exergy as functional unit. Primary data for the operation without additives were collected from the power plant operators, and emission data for the additives scenarios were collected from onsite measurements. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the expected increase of energy efficiency. The analysis indicated that the use of gypsum waste, halloysite and coal fly ash decreases the environmental impacts of heat and electricity produced (average of 12% decrease in all impacts studied, and a maximum decrease of 121%). The decrease of impacts is mainly a consequence of the increase of energy generation that avoids the use of more polluting marginal technologies. However, impacts on acidification may increase (up to 120% increase) under the absence of appropriate flue gas cleaning systems. Halloysite was the additive presenting the highest benefits.

A new model-based control strategy for biomass grate boilers is presented in this paper. Internal model control is used to control four outputs of the plant and to achieve a control structure with fewer control parameters needing to be experimentally tuned. A nonlinear state–space model describing the essential behaviour of the biomass grate boiler is used for controller design. The inverse system dynamics representing the main part of internal model control are designed with the help of this model. In doing so the properties of differentially flat systems are used. Due to a time delayed input, the inverse system is determined only for three input output channels. The stabilization of the inverse system dynamics, however, is a challenging task. A stabilization method with the help of the time delayed input is suggested and a stability analysis is given. The new control strategy has only three parameters to be tuned, representing a major reduction of complexity in comparison to existing model-based approaches. Finally, experimental results of the implemented control strategy on representative biomass grate boiler with a nominal capacity of 180 kW are presented and compared to an existing model-based control strategy based on input output linearization. The experimental evaluation proves that it is possible to operate the biomass boiler in all load ranges with high efficiency and low pollutant emissions.

Steam gasification of plastic materials was studied in a dual fluidized bed gasification pilot plant (DFB). Several types of plastics, which are available in large amounts in waste streams, were investigated: PE, PP, and mixtures of PE + PS, PE + PET and PE + PP. It was found that the product gas from PE was rich in CH₄ and C₂H₄ and had a LCV of 25 MJ/N m ³. About 22% of PE was converted to the monomer C₂H₄. Different mixtures of PE with other polymers showed, that the concentrations of CH₄ and C₂H₄increased with an increasing proportion of PE and that they were the main decomposition products of PE. The product gas from pure PP contained more CH₄ and less C₂H₄compared to the product gas from PE. The polymer mixtures behaved differently from the pure substances. Significantly more H₂ and CO were generated from PE + PP and PE + PS. It can be assumed that the decomposition products of the two polymers in the mixture interacted strongly and alternately influenced the gasification process. More water was converted, so the gas production increased. The reforming reactions were enhanced and yielded H₂ and CO at the expense of CH₄ and C₂H₄. The mixture of PE + PET differed from the other polymers because of the high oxygen content of PET. Thus, 28% of CO2 were measured in the product gas. By contrast, CO₂ was in the range of 8%, when oxygen-free polymers were gasified and CO₂ was only produced from reactions with steam. Gasification of polymers resulted in significantly high tar loads in the product gas in the range of 100 g/N m ³. The GCMS analysis of tars showed that tars from polymers mainly consisted of PAH and aro-matics. Naphthalene was the most important tar compound. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Steam gasification of plastic materials was studied in a dual fluidized bed gasification pilot plant (DFB). Several types of plastics, which are available in large amounts in waste streams, were investigated: PE, PP, and mixtures of PE + PS, PE + PET and PE + PP. It was found that the product gas from PE was rich in CH₄ and C₂H₄ and had a LCV of 25 MJ/N m ³. About 22% of PE was converted to the monomer C₂H⁴. Different mixtures of PE with other polymers showed, that the concentrations of CH₄ and C₂H₄ increased with an increasing proportion of PE and that they were the main decomposition products of PE. The product gas from pure PP contained more CH₄ and less C₂H₄ compared to the product gas from PE. The polymer mixtures behaved differently from the pure substances. Significantly more H₂ and CO were generated from PE + PP and PE + PS. It can be assumed that the decomposition products of the two polymers in the mixture interacted strongly and alternately influenced the gasification process. More water was converted, so the gas production increased. The reforming reactions were enhanced and yielded H₂ and CO at the expense of CH₄ and C₂H₄. The mixture of PE + PET differed from the other polymers because of the high oxygen content of PET. Thus, 28% of CO were measured in the product gas. By contrast, CO₂ was in the range of 8%, when oxygen-free polymers were gasified and CO₂ was only produced from reactions with steam. Gasification of polymers resulted in significantly high tar loads in the product gas in the range of 100 g/N m ³. The GCMS analysis of tars showed that tars from polymers mainly consisted of PAH and aro-matics. Naphthalene was the most important tar compound. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.