Innovative power engineering

HYDROGEN ENERGY AND REDUCING

THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF MEGACITIES

A.A. Evdokimov, Y.L. Spirin

Air pollution in Moscow and in another megacities leads to the continuous growth of asthmatic diseases in children and high mortality among the elderly, especially during periods of summer smog.

Motor, power plants and gas stoves exhaust fumes is the main factor that defined the poor air condition in megacities. Purification filter – catalysts is not the good decision this problem. There should be another decisive shift to clean cars and fuel.

It would require the following successive steps [1].

1.Develop Diesel-Hydrogen Vehicles (DHV), Petrol-Hydrogen Vehicles (PHV) or Methane -Propane-Hydrogen Vehicles (MPHV). This is especially important for Lorries, tracks and buses. DHV, PHV and MPHV use hydrogen in an urban settings but traditional hydrocarbon fuels are burned in the country. Is a vehicle in a traffic jam – is switched to hydrogen supplying, when vehicle leaves the urban roads it begin using a more powerful hydrocarbon fuels. NAHE (National Hydrogen Energy Association, president A.Yu.Ramensky) already develop such type of vehicles (prototype of the base of minibus AvtoGAZ “Gazel”). Unfortunately, the authorities do not give permission to replicate them yet.

2.Changing fuel for traditional gas stoves from natural gas to mixture consist the high hydrogen content. The best mixture “Hitan” includes at least 20 % hydrogen. This is the cheapest way to provide fulfill standards for low emission vehicles (Euro 4, Euro 5 and so on.). No any deep purification of hydrogen. Moreover this way means use the existing infrastructure delivery and distribution of natural gas without any additional capital costs.

3.Without any doubts the mixture of "Hitan" would be widely used not only for transportation but also for stationary power plants for domestic heating systems (gas stoves, columns, etc.)). As a result we can achieve multiple reductions of NOx and other toxic emissions from vehicles, power plants and gas stoves for domestic purposes. Moreover

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it would be increased of 20–30 % of the energy efficiency of internal combustion engines.

4. The final stage – the technological transfer of all consumers of hydrocarbon fuel into hydrogen

Q: Where to get the hydrogen?

• Answer: The hydrogen on an industrial scale can be produced in wind turbine-electrolysis plants. It means development big complexes of the wind turbine as electricity generator, high-pressure electrolyzers as tool for Hydrogen producing and gas wells as source of hydrogencontaining raw material in the Far North to Hydrogen producing and pumping it to the South, densely populated areas of the country. It is important that existing network of transcontinental trunk pipelines (from Yamburg, Bovanensky, Russkinskaya etc) can be used.

Wind generators (WG) practically do not consume fossil fuels. WG can reduce annual specific emissions of CO2 to 1,800 tons per MW, of SO2 to 9 tons per MW, of nitrogen oxides to 4 tons per MW of WG installed power.

The cost of electricity produced WG depends on the wind speed: under 7 m/s production cost is 5 cents per KWh; under 9m/s is 3 cents per KWh etc.

Annual gas consumption of Moscow is at least 50 Billion cubic meters of natural gas. This volume of gas consumption is required for stationary power plants and domestic heating and cooking systems (gas cooker, speakers, etc.). So, mixture “Hitan” (20 % hydrogen) can reduce annual gas consumption from 50 Billion cubic meters to 40 ones.

Thereby it is very simple process: Hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water; Energy for electolysis is produced using wind power capacity up to 3 MW. The main tool of this process is the highpressure electrolyzer.

The calculation of the performance of the basic unit to produce Hydrogen (together with a 3 MW installed power wind turbine) is:

If the unit voltage U = 1,75 V and current density I = 1 A / cm2.

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Then the specific power consumption of the cell will be N = = 1.75V x 1A = 1.75 W / cm2.

If the generator power is 3 MW, the total area of the unit is S = = N / N sp. = 3 000 000W / 1.75W/sm2 = 1 714 286 cm2.

If the area of the elementary unit is s = 400sm2 = 20x20 cm2, it is necessary to n = S / s = 4286 units or 43 modules of 100 units each.

In this case the volume of hydrogen produced will be M = I * 0,99 * n / F = 400 * 0.99 * 4286 / 26.8 = 63,970 mol or 1 433 m3 / h

The electrolyzer will produce 1433 m3 of hydrogen per hour, or 12, 553 million M3. So, 800 electrolysers is required[3,4]

Where to place Vertically Rotor Hydrogen Plants (VRHP).

The big industrial VRHP (BIvp) should be placed near gas wells directly on the northern gas gathering fields with total capacity of up to 50 industrial units VPHP with installed capacity of 125-150 MW each. They would be ensured the production of not less than 600 million cubic meters of Hydrogen per year.

There is required 20 BIvp in Moscow region.

What are the 3 MW wind turbines?

According to the plans of the chief designer, Prof. D.D. Skorluhanov, VPHP is the low-speed vertical rotary wind turbine with automatic mechanical axis-turning changing wings (working blades (06, 08 or 12 pairs). Front rotor efficiency is approximately 0.8; Pilot version of VPHP unit is up to 3 MW of installed capacity.

These vertical rotor wind turbines structurally got significantly greater installed power because diameter of working sails can be more than 200 meters but the blade pairs can provide no more than 50 meters working sails diameter.

The height of VPHP is no more 50 meters. The blades in this case are designed for aerial wind flows, while the orientation of these streams may differ variably 90-110 degrees and received oblique wind flows. Wind turbine towers set on the foundation piles of slaughtered at a depth of 30 meters. Multiple Row Design (MRD) of blades provides

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increasing of the sail area. The most convenient is 6 console design (“Beetle”-type).

This slow-moving energy conversion plant may not cause harmful noise, since the velocity of the optimal diameter of the rotor in the 90– 150 meters, even under heavy winds (over 24 m/s) will not exceed 2–10 rpm.

VRHPs are able to breed birds. This is very important for Arctic nesting places especially on the shores of the Arctic Ocean because of area for nesting is limited. It should be noted that the wind wheel with vertical rotation axis, unlike those with a horizontal, located in the operating position for any direction of the wind.

VRHP will be assembled on the base of mass-production facilities of aerial and space industry.

All components, parts, tools on-site installation will be assembled “on – Space 'dock with each other” into a single, harmonious, hightech, self-contained and very secure complex, like a spacecraft, but only with a very long life (50–150 years), in particular “terrestrial” circumpolar Arctic conditions (Temperature more than –50 C).

What will VRHP?

Manufacturing VRHP gives impetus to the development of iron and steel (alloy steel) and metal industry, automotive (ecological vehicles), design and project teams, and others.

There are widely used to achieve patriotic aerospace technology for the development of innovative energy projects.

Types of VRHP (3MW of installed power on the left and 0.5MW of installed power on the right)

Small wind turbine can be used for domestic applications [2].

References

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3 (4 & 4.( &5 . . 6, ' /7$' (8 (, 9 (8 :

( ;; < : &'( :$3($% / /& = 4. .'$(.( : > ?.+ (. (+@.-,. ' : (* : 9 ( 5 '* 16–A &B 5 C : – 9 ( 5 ',

2010. – . 18.

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2. Spirin Y.L., Frolov D.V. Low Voltage Power Supply System: atent. Application GB2429343 21.02.2007

3.-. '&/ 0 0 * D +'-* E& '( ' F F < : G'$:&- @ ' 3 (4 ( & ;; H&4&@ '& 7 3$/6 . . 8 G : &'&= /( &($6 -8 . ' I * -3+ :* CJ–28 53 5 C : – 3.: 4.-HD &/ 0 H II 0, 2007. – . 22–24.

4.&: 0 * -. '&/ 0 0 > ?.& 2&7$& ( (5 7 .: '( 7 2&($& 3$( & . . 8 G : &'& & ( ,$:&8 // F . . (5 G : &'( '(' ($% ( & 68 & @ &' G :&&= 4. .'$. / ?.+ (. ' I. – >.: 4.- > DKD &/. >.F. L / (, 2009. –

. 13–14.

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HUST RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENT ON ENERGY FIELD

DURING URBANIZATION PROCESS

Hu Song, Huang Shuhong, Yi Hui, Liu Yang,

Chi Huanying, Yang Rupu

Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, P.R. China, 430074

China is facing severe challenges in sustainable development of energy . More secure and environmental friendly energy are required. Huazhong University of Science and Technology(HUST), one of the most renowned universities in China, is devoted to research and development in the fields of traditional energy utilization, clean and renewable energy technology and energy conservation, and has obtained plentiful achievements in the past 10 years. This paper introduces some key points about research strength of HUST and research institute related to energy(Wuhan New Energy Institute, the State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion and 35MWth Oxy-fuel Combustion Demonstration). The final part demonstrates the international cooperation in energy field of HUST, and presents China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy(ICARE) and China-US Clean Energy Research Center(CERC).

Keywords: HUST, Traditional energy, Renewable energy, Research Strength, International cooperation.

Background

With the rapid development of urbanization process of China, Chinese government is facing the distinguished gap between energy consumption and energy supply. On one side, comparing to level of developed country reaching to 6 tce/(p*year), Energy Consumption per capita (PCE) of China is still very low. It increased from 0.864 tce/(p*year) in 1990 to 2.671 tce/(p*year) in 2012, and expected to reach 3~4 tce/(p*year) 30 to 40 years later because of urbanization process [1, 2]. while the total energy demand will further increase due to population urbanization at the same time. On the other side, the energy mix of China is unsatisfied. In 2014, China's domestic oil demand growth picked up, the annual consumption of crude oil reaches to 518 million tons, representing an increase of 5.8 % compared with last year. China consumes 4.26 billion tce in which nearly 70 % comes from coal and less than 9 % provide by renewable energy [3, 4], just as follows in figure 1.

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Fig. 1. China’s Energy Structure in 2014

Obviously, Energy security, Environmental protection and Economical development drives Chinese government to reform their energy program and vigorously promote clean and renewable energy and advanced fossil fuel technology. Under these circumstances, as a one of the prestigious research universities of China which are directly supervised by the Ministry of Education, HUST get advantages in energy research, especially in Clean and Renewable (New) Energy , Clean Coal Technology, utilizing of traditional energy and energy conservation. HUST is obliged to make some contribution to solving these problems.

In this paper, HUST is carried out by a brief introduction, followed by introducing development of conventional clean energy utilization and research and development of clean and renewable energy by Wuhan New Energy Institute, State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion and other platforms. In final part, achievements of cooperative research between HUST and international partners in the energy field are demonstrated.

Key figures about research strength of HUST

HUST is a national key university directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education of P. R. China, and is one of the first batch of Universities joining the national “211 Project” and “985 Project”. It was founded on May 26, 2000 as a result of the

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merger of the former HUST, Tongji Medical University and Wuhan Urban Construction Institute.

At present, the University has eleven disciplines: engineering, medicine, management, science, philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history and agriculture, offering a variety of degree programs, including 86 undergraduate programs, 303 graduate programs, 237 PhD programs. There are 31 post-doctoral research centers, 7 national key disciplines, 15 national key sub-disciplines[5]. And the top 5 in HUST in table 1 are as follows .

Table 1

TOP 5 Disciplines of HUST in China

Now the University has over 1,000 professors and 1,300 associate professors, including 24 academicians, 65 professors receiving funds from the Cheung Kong Scholars program, 36 winners of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 36 listed in the “National Talents Project” and 135 young scholars listed in “New Century Outstanding Talents Project” of the Ministry of Education.

In recent years, the university receives increasing research funds from government and companies. As presented in the figure 2, HUST got ¥1.5 billion funding comes from government and company to support its research activities in 2014 .Further more, there is a rising trend in the future.

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Fig. 2. Research funds from government and companies in HUST

In area of energy, HUST has done much excellent work in the research and education these years. There are more than 100 Professors (4 CA. & CAE, 10 National Outstanding Youth Funds Winners, 10 Cheung Kong Scholars) have made great contributions on the field, 1700 graduate students and 400 PhD students graduated from the relevant areas. Over 3000 papers and 80 books published in last 3 years, more than 100 patents applied within last 3 years, and had won 16 National awards, depending on Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, State key laboratory of coal combustion, State key laboratory of material forming, and National energy research center. There are four related disciplines: Power Engineering and Thermophysics, Electrical Engineering, Material Science and Engineering, Hydraulic and Hydropower Engineering.

Energy research achievements of HUST

1) Wuhan new energy institute

Wuhan New Energy Institute was established by the cooperation of HUST and the local government. As fig. 3 shows, the beautiful “Calla” merges with lot of renewable elements, which was designed by Grontmij group in Netherland. On the roof of building, PV panel could generate electricity during day. The yellow towel is a vertical axis wind turbine. In addition, rain water could be collected to supply the building.

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Fig. 3. the bird view of Wuhan new energy institute “Calla”

Fig. 4. the mission of Wuhan New Energy Institute

It was expected to be a research center, talent center, cultivation center and creative service center of new energy field. It aims to deal with critical technical problems, achieve a batch innovative result, obtain a series of core technologies and patents, lead certain points in the development of new energy and promote the new energy industry of Hubei and Wuhan[6]. Technology research and development platforms are introduced in figure 4 above. Companies has joint labs and R&D

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