Energy Newsbriefs

Articles for October 8, 2012

ENERGY NEWSBRIEFS is a weekly current awareness service provided by the WSU Extension Energy Program Library and written by Angela Santamaria, WSU Energy Library Manager, to assist users in tracking developments in the energy field. To view past issues or to subscribe to receive an email notification of the publication of a new issue, go to the Energy Newsbriefs home.

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BIOENERGY

1. "Agrisoma Biosciences, U.S. Military Contribute to Biojet Project," by Applied Research Associates, describes the cooperation among governments and private sector companies that aims to test and evaluate a renewable jet fuel that is "100 percent drop-in."
   
   
2. "Demonstrating Portable Energy," by Erin Voegele, discusses a pilot project for a biomass gasification system for a diesel generator that runs on a ratio of about 9:1, bio-based synthetic gas to diesel fuel. (It is said that the system is able to use 100% bio-based syngas with spark-ignited engines.) The genset in this project is installed in a shipping container. The technology for the syngas genset is well described and interesting. Corn cobs are the feedstock for the demo genset – wood chips have been used for others – and the on-site gasification of the cobs is an integral part of the system. Waste heat from the gasifier and the engine is captured and used to treat tar before it leaves the reactor.
   
   
3. "From Paper to Power," by Anna Simet, describes how an economically-depressed, pulp-and-paper town is transformed into a power generating center. The town's last (and closed) paper mill is being re-purposed to function as a biomass power plant with the conversion of a black liquor recovery boiler into a bubbling fluidized bed boiler.

POLICY

PUMPS / MOTORS / DRIVES

1. "Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps" by Sharon James, Rockwell Automation, connects the characteristics to energy efficiency.
   
   
2. "Plant Upgrades Improve Efficiency at Midwest Refinery," by Dave DePasquale, Seimens Industry, Inc., is a five-web-page case study. Cracking is used to divide hydrocarbon chains into smaller units for the refinery to make additional types of products. The upgrades to the refinery's catalytic cracking units (CCUs) and the energy efficiencies gained are described. The upgrades included new motors that are differently designed in several ways and are connected to variable frequency drives for more flexibility.

RESIDENTIAL EFFICIENCY STRATEGIES

THERMAL TECHNOLOGIES

1. "Calculating the Heat of Combustion for Natural Gas," by Art Morris, Thermart Software, explains why the calculations are necessary and how to make them accurately. The author, additionally, offers the Web addresses of free sources for thermodynamic data.
   
   
2. "Energy-Saving Silicon Carbide Heating Element" was written by Mitsuaki Tada, Tokai Carbon USA, Inc. The author begins with some background information. He explains the context in which Tokai Konetsu Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TKK) functions in Japan, given a particular national regulation that requires attention to saving energy. He, then, describes how one of the ways that furnaces lose heat is addressed by his company's product, EREMA EH, a kind of heating element.
   
   
3. "Furnace Atmosphere Conversion – Exothermic Gas to Hydrogen/Nitrogen," by Bob Esper, Praxair Inc., identifies problems in a plant that makes tubing using the cold-drawn process. The company's two annealing furnaces included exothermic generated atmospheres which, it is explained, were found to be more expensive initially but slightly cheaper to run than H2N2 atmospheres. However, H2N2 atmospheres produce better and more reproducible tubes with higher-quality surfaces which, it is said, might result in saving pickling time. These advantages were judged to be worth the higher cost of operating H2N2 atmospheres. The article shows how the conversion from exothermic atmospheres to H2N2 atmospheres was accomplished. The final paragraph sums up the positive results of the conversion.
   
   
4. "Gear Materials and their Heat Treatment" was co-authored by Daniel H. Herring, President, The Herring Group, Inc.; Frederick J. Otto, Midwest Thermal-Vac; and Fred R. Specht, Ajax-Tocco Magnethermic. This is a valuable introduction to the various heat-treating options for gear materials. It includes a clear review of atmosphere heat-treating (carburizing, carbonitriding, nitriding, and nitrocarburizing) and of vacuum heat-treating (induction hardening via single shot or tooth-by-tooth).
   
   
5. "Using Nitrogen Availability as a Nitriding Process Parameter" was written by Jerzy Michalski, Institute of Precision Mechanics; Warsaw, Poland. The author presents a two-component input atmosphere and two types of single-component input atmospheres. He finds that the first, with two-components, is the only one where nitrogen availability is not simply a function of nitriding potential – the alteration of the former does not alter the latter. Since availability can be understood as a process parameter, he believes such atmospheres have more possibilities in manufacturing.

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