Biofuels could contribute, on a worldwide basis, to the attainment of international energy-policy objectives in three ways: by reducing dependence on imported oil; by increasing the availability of renewable energy s...Biofuels could contribute, on a worldwide basis, to the attainment of international energy-policy objectives in three ways: by reducing dependence on imported oil; by increasing the availability of renewable energy sources; and by dealing with environmental issues. One such environmental issue is the unsustainable use of agricultural land. There is a need in South Africa there to convert to sustainable and renewable energy resources, such as biofuels, but the production of biofuels will ultimately place pressure on the limited and fragile agricultural resources of the country. This paper sets out firstly to investigate national agricultural policies which could impact on the production of biofuels. It points out that national agricultural policies are hampering the domestic production of biofuels in that the focus is on land reform and increasing the volume of agricultural exports, whereas the provision of food and energy to meet domestic needs features only as a secondary aim. The second objective of this paper is to investigate the possibility of utilising energy crops for biofuel production in South Africa. Annual agricultural production, surplus import and export figures, provide an indication of the capacity of South African farmers to produce crops for biofuel production.展开更多
Solar and biomass are both renewable energy resources.Using biomass as fuel is becoming more and more attractive after governments increase the tariff for the electricity from the renewable sources.However the costs o...Solar and biomass are both renewable energy resources.Using biomass as fuel is becoming more and more attractive after governments increase the tariff for the electricity from the renewable sources.However the costs of power from a biomass power generation plant depend greatly on the availability and quality of the biomass resource.The commercialization of solar alone thermal power generation is hindered by its high initial investment and low thermal efficiency.In this paper,a concept of integrating solar into a biomass power generation system is put forward.In the system the oil heated by a parabolic trough solar field is used to replace the extraction steam to preheat the feed water(entering a biomass boiler) and the previous extraction steam thus saved can continue to do work in the lower stages of turbine.The performance of the hybrid system with different replacements is analyzed and compared through two typical solar aided biomass generating units.The results show that the integration not only reduces the consumption of biomass fuel(at the same generation capacity) but is also proved to be an efficient way to convert solar thermal energy into power.The results also show that with the same solar aperture area,the higher the grade of the replaced extraction steam,the better the thermal performance and economy.展开更多
文摘Biofuels could contribute, on a worldwide basis, to the attainment of international energy-policy objectives in three ways: by reducing dependence on imported oil; by increasing the availability of renewable energy sources; and by dealing with environmental issues. One such environmental issue is the unsustainable use of agricultural land. There is a need in South Africa there to convert to sustainable and renewable energy resources, such as biofuels, but the production of biofuels will ultimately place pressure on the limited and fragile agricultural resources of the country. This paper sets out firstly to investigate national agricultural policies which could impact on the production of biofuels. It points out that national agricultural policies are hampering the domestic production of biofuels in that the focus is on land reform and increasing the volume of agricultural exports, whereas the provision of food and energy to meet domestic needs features only as a secondary aim. The second objective of this paper is to investigate the possibility of utilising energy crops for biofuel production in South Africa. Annual agricultural production, surplus import and export figures, provide an indication of the capacity of South African farmers to produce crops for biofuel production.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 51025624, 51006033)the National Basic Research Program of China ("973" Program) (Grant No 2009CB219801)Foundation of North China Electric Power University
文摘Solar and biomass are both renewable energy resources.Using biomass as fuel is becoming more and more attractive after governments increase the tariff for the electricity from the renewable sources.However the costs of power from a biomass power generation plant depend greatly on the availability and quality of the biomass resource.The commercialization of solar alone thermal power generation is hindered by its high initial investment and low thermal efficiency.In this paper,a concept of integrating solar into a biomass power generation system is put forward.In the system the oil heated by a parabolic trough solar field is used to replace the extraction steam to preheat the feed water(entering a biomass boiler) and the previous extraction steam thus saved can continue to do work in the lower stages of turbine.The performance of the hybrid system with different replacements is analyzed and compared through two typical solar aided biomass generating units.The results show that the integration not only reduces the consumption of biomass fuel(at the same generation capacity) but is also proved to be an efficient way to convert solar thermal energy into power.The results also show that with the same solar aperture area,the higher the grade of the replaced extraction steam,the better the thermal performance and economy.