Piezoelectric Power Harvesting Process via Phase Changes of Low-Boiling-Point Medium Together with Water for Recovering Low-Temperature Heats

Low-temperature thermal energy conversions down to exergy zero to electric power must contribute energy sustainability. That is to say, reinforcements of power harvesting technologies from extremely low temperatures less than 373 K might be at least one of minimum roles for the current generations. Then, piezoelectric power harvesting process for recovering low-temperature heats was invented by using a unique biphasic operating medium of an underlying water-insoluble/low-boiling-point medium (i.e. NOVEC manufactured by 3M Japan Ltd.) in small quantity and upper-layered water in large quantity. The higher piezoelectric power harvesting densities were naturally revealed with an increase in heating temperatures. Excessive cooling of the operating medium deteriorated the power harvesting efficiency. The denser operating medium was surpassingly helpful to the higher piezoelectric power harvesting density. Concretely, only about 5% density increase of main operating medium (i.e. water with dissolving alum at 0.10 mol/dm3) came to the champion piezoelectric power harvesting density of 92.6 pW/dm2 in this study, which was about 1.4 times compared to that with the original biphasic medium of pure water together with a small quantity of NOVEC.

A review of low-temperature heat recovery technologies for industry processes

The amount of low-temperature heat generated in industrial processes is high,but recycling is limited due to low grade and low recycling efficiency,which is one of the reasons for low energy efficiency.It implies that there is a great potential for low-temperature heat recovery and utilization.This article provided a detailed review of recent advances in the development of low-temperature thermal upgrades,power generation,refrigeration,and thermal energy storage.The detailed description will be given from the aspects of system structure improvement,work medium improvement,and thermodynamic and economic performance evaluation.It also pointed out the development bottlenecks and future development trends of various technologies.The low-temperature heat combined utilization technology can recover waste heat in an all-round and effective manner,and has great development prospects.

Integration of Low-level Waste Heat Recovery and Liquefied Nature Gas Cold Energy Utilization

Two novel thermal cycles based on Brayton cycle and Rankine cycle are proposed, respectively, which integrate the recovery of low-level waste heat and Liquefied Nature Gas （LNG） cold energy utilization for power generation. Cascade utilization of energy is realized in the two thermal cycles, where low-level waste heat,low-temperature exergy and pressure exergy of LNG are utilized efficiently through the system synthesis. The simulations are carried out using the commercial Aspen Plus 10.2, and the results are analyzed. Compared with the conventional Brayton cycle and Rankine cycle, the two novel cycles bring 60.94% and 60% in exergy efficiency, respectively and 53.08% and 52.31% in thermal efficiency, respectively.

Working fluids of a low-temperature geothermally-powered Rankine cycle for combined power and heat generation system

A novel combined power and heat generation system was investigated in this study. This system consists of a low-temperature geothermally-powered organic Rankine cycle (ORC) subsystem, an intermediate heat exchanger and a commercial R134a-based heat pump subsystem. The advantages of the novel combined power and heat generation system are free of using additional cooling water circling system for the power generation subsystem as well as maximizing the use of thermal energy in the low-temperature geothermal source. The main purpose is to identify suitable working fluids (wet, isentropic and dry flu-ids) which may yield high PPR (the ratio of power produced by the power generation subsystem to power consumed by the heat pump subsystem) value and QQR (the ratio of heat supplied to the user to heat produced by the geothermal source) value. Parameters under investigation were evaporating temperature, PPR value and QQR value. Results indicate that there exits an optimum evaporating temperature to maximize the PPR value and minimize the QQR value at the same time for individual fluid. And dry fluids show higher PPR values but lower QQR values. NH3 and R152a outstand among wet fluids. R134a out-stands among isentropic fluids. R236ea, R245ca, R245fa, R600 and R600a outstand among dry fluids. R236ea shows the highest PPR value among the recommended fluids.

Diesel generator exhaust heat recovery fully-coupled with intake air heating for off-grid mining operations:An experimental,numerical,and analytical evaluation

The customarily discarded exhaust from the fossil fuel-based power plants of the off-grid mines holds the thermal potential to fulfill the heating requirement of the underground operation.This present research fills in an important research gap by investigating the coupling effect between a diesel exhaust heat recovery and an intake air heating system employed in a remote mine.An integrative approach comprising analytical,numerical,and experimental assessment has been adapted.The novel analytical model developed here establishes the reliability of the proposed mine heating system by providing comparative analysis between a coupled and a decoupled system.The effect of working fluid variation has been examined by the numerical analysis and the possible improvement has been identified.Experimental investigations present a demonstration of the successful lab-scale implementation of the concept and validate the numerical and analytical models developed.Successful deployment of the fully coupled mine heating system proposed here will assist the mining industry on its journey towards energy-efficient,and sustainable mining practices through nearly 70%reduction in fossil fuel consumption for heating intentions.

Nanofluidic osmotic power generation from CO_(2) with cellulose membranes

The diffusion of chemical species down concentration gradient is a ubiquitous phenomenon that releases Gibbs free energy.Nanofluidic materials have shown great promise in harvesting the energy from ionic diffusion via the reverse electrodialysis process.In principle,any chemicals that can be converted to ions can be used for nanofluidic power generation.In this work,we demonstrate the power generation from the diffusion of CO_(2) into air using nanofluidic cellulose membranes.By dissolving CO_(2) in water,a power density of 87 mW/m^(2) can be achieved.Using monoethanolamine solutions to dissolve CO_(2),the power density can be increased to 2.6 W/m^(2).We further demonstrate that the waste heat released in industrial and carbon capture processes,can be simultaneously harvested with our nanofluidic membranes,increasing the power density up to 16 W/m^(2) under a temperature difference of 30°C.Therefore,our work should expand the application scope of nanofluidic osmotic power generation and contribute to carbon utilization and capture technologies.

热管在核电工程中的应用

概述了热管在空间核电源、核废料冷却、事故条件下安全壳的保护等方面的应用情况，并提出了将热管应用于核电工程中的蒸汽发生器。介绍了国内外针对这些应用所进行的开发研究工作。已有的研究工作表明：根据不同的温度范围选择适当的热管壳体材料、工作介质和吸液芯结构，经过仔细的设计、必要的实验和精良的制作。

Integrated Renewable Energy Solutions for Aquaculture Processing Enerfish

The European Union Framework Programme 71 Enerfish project aims to demonstrate a new poly-generation application with renewable energy sources for the fishery industry in Vietnam. The fish processing plant under consideration can be made by energy self-sufficient when all fish waste oil is processed into biodiesel and further converted to electricity and heat （for cooling） in a CHP （combined heat and power） unit. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the profitability of such plants in southeast Asia. The economic model shows that electricity production is, due to the low electricity tariff, uneconomical （except during electricity blackout）, even if cogeneration heat can be utilized. This prompt a design of the plant whereby the necessary heat for the biodiesel process is taken from the waste heat produced by the compressors of a CO2 cooling system. According to the calculations and assumptions of the present study, the profitability of biodiesel production from fish cleaning wastes in Vietnam depends strongly on the market prices for fish waste and fish oil. Different business case scenarios are described.