Oil, Gas, and Energy Commons^™

Novel Blends Of Sulfur-Tolerant Water-Gas Shift Catalysts For Biofuel Applications, Timothy Michael Roberge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As traditional sources of energy become depleted, significant research interest has gone into conversion of biomass into renewable fuels. Biomass-derived synthesis gas typically contains concentrations of approximately 30 to 600 ppm H2S in stream. H2S is a catalyst poison which adversely affects downstream processing of hydrogen for gas to liquid plants. The water-gas shift reaction is an integral part of converting CO and steam to H2 and CO2. Currently, all known water-gas shift catalysts deactivate in sulfur concentrations typical of biomass-derived synthesis gas. Novel catalysts are needed to remain active in the presence of sulfur concentrations in order to boost …

Catalytic Tri-Reforming Of Biomass-Derived Syngas To Produce Desired H2:Co Ratios For Fuel Applications, Devin Mason Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on upgrading biomass derived syngas for the synthesis of liquid fuels using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). The process includes novel gasification of biomass via a tri-reforming process which involves a synergetic combination of CO2 reforming, steam reforming, and partial oxidation of methane. Typical biomass-derived syngas H2:CO is 1:1 and contains tars that deactivate FT catalyst. This innovation allows for cost-effective one-step production of syngas in the required H2:CO of 2:1 with reduction of tars for use in the FTS. To maximize the performance of the tri-reforming catalyst, an attempt to control oxygen mobility, thermal stability, dispersion of metal, …

Design Of Colloidal Composite Catalysts For Co2 Photoreduction And For Co Oxidation, Bijith D. Mankidy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this doctoral dissertation, novel colloidal routes were used to synthesize nanomaterials with unique features. We have studied the impact of nanoparticle size of catalyst, role of high surface area of a photocatalyst, and the effect of varying elemental composition of co-catalytic nanoparticles in combination with core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles. We have demonstrated how physical and chemical characteristics of nanomaterials with these unique features play a role in catalytic reactions, specifically the oxidation of CO and the photoreduction of CO2. The first objective of this doctoral dissertation involved the preparation of CoO nanoparticles with discrete nanoparticles sizes (1-14 nm) using a …

Water's Dependence On Energy: Analysis Of Embodied Energy In Water And Wastewater Systems, Weiwei Mo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water and wastewater treatment is a critical service provided for protecting human health and the environment. Over the past decade, increasing attention has been placed on energy consumption in water and wastewater systems for the following reasons: (1) Water and energy are two interrelated resources. The nexus between water and energy can intensify the crises of fresh water and fossil fuel shortages; (2) The demand of water/wastewater treatment services is expected to continue to increase with increasing population, economic development and land use change in the foreseeable future; and (3) There is a great potential to mitigate energy use in …

Linear And Non-Linear Deformations Of A Wind Turbine Blade Considering Warping And All Aeroelastic Load Couplings, Fouad Mohammad Mohammad

Wayne State University Dissertations

The structural dynamics behavior of the blade of a horizontal axis wind turbine that reacts to the different components of the aerodynamic loading were studied by many researchers using different approaches and assumptions. In the present research, the author considered all the extensional, torsional and flexural loadings acting on the blade with their couplings, variable airfoil cross sections with warping effects, shear deflection, rotary inertia and with or without blade's pretwist for both the linear small deformation case and the nonlinear large deformation case. To the best knowledge of the author the simultaneous inclusion of all these factors has not …

Optimal Placement Of Wind Turbines On Non-Flat Terrain Using Cluster Identification And Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm, Carlos Alejandro Garcia Rosales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

To date, wind power has become very popular to produce electricity due to climate change, greenhouse gases and the fossil fuels crisis. Although using wind turbine technology to produce electricity is very mature, industries are looking to achieve the best utilization of the wind energy in order to fulfill the electrical needs for cities at a very affordable cost. In this thesis, a method entitled Cluster Identification Algorithm (CIA) and an optimization approach called a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) are integrated and implemented to maximize wind power efficiency and wind power in wind farms and minimize cost caused by the …

Phase Evolution And Thermal Properties Of Yttria-Stabilized Hafnia Nano-Coatings Deposited On Alumina, Ernesto Javier Rubio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High-temperature coatings are critical to the future power-generation systems and industries. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), which are usually the ceramic materials applied as thin coatings, protect engine components and allow further increase in engine temperatures for higher efficiency. Thus, the durability and reliability of the coating systems have to be more robust compared to current natural gas based engines. While a near and mid-term target is to develop TBC architecture with a 1300 °C surface temperature tolerance, a deeper understanding of the structure evolution and thermal behavior of the TBC-bond coat interface, specifically the thermally grown oxide (TGO), is of …

Hafnia-Based Nanostructured Thermal Barrier Coatings For Next Generation Gas Turbine Technology, Mohammed Noor-A-Alam

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Extensive efforts have been directed in the last several decades towards improving thermodynamic efficiency of industrial gas turbines for power generation plants. The central theme of the efforts is to increase the turbine operating temperature and, thus, allowing higher efficiency. Thermal barrier coatings (TBC) constitute an advanced technology to protect the metallic surface from high temperature exposure for long time operation. The TBCs protect the gas turbine components from high temperature and allows further increase in engine operating temperature which subsequently increases the efficiency of the gas turbine power plant. However, the current TBC materials are capable of allowing the …

Microscopic And Spectroscopic Analysis Of Wo3 And Ti-Doped Wo3 Thin Films, Young Taek Yun

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tungsten oxide (WO3) has been a subject of high interest for its unique properties, and recently for its importance in different types of industrial applications which ranges from non-emissive displays, optical, microelectronic, catalytic/photocatalytic, humidity, temperature, gas, and biosensor devices. In this study, WO3 and Ti doped thin films were prepared using radio frequency magnetron reactive sputtering at different substrate temperatures ranging from room temperature to 500 ºC in increments of 100 ºC. After forming a hypothesis based on knowledge of established WO3 properties, we attempt in this work to investigate how the doping influences the roughness and the mean grain …

Investigation Of Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed With Non-Spherical Particles, Mario Alberto Ruvalcaba

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The number of experimental and numerical studies of multiphase flows has remarkably increased over the last several years. This research has abundant applications in energy, chemical, and conversion processes. Common use of these technologies includes catalytic cracking for petroleum refineries, fluidized bed reactors (type of chemical reactor), interface modification, and has been an important technology breakthrough in coal gasification. The present work will concentrate on the investigation and validation of gas-solid flows utilizing numerical methods. The gas-solid flows study on this research assumes the solid and gas phases as continua with averaged properties.

The fluid flow computation was achieved using …

Measurement And Analysis Of Turbulent Syngas/Air And Methane Oxy-Combustion, Vishwanath Reddy Ardha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Development of a next generation gas turbine combustors for power production by using fossil fuels is increasing substantially in order to maintain energy sustainability. National Energy Technology Laboratory has made efforts for developing hydrogen and oxy-fuel based gas turbine combustors which could enhance plant efficiency and ensure low or zero NOx production without sacrificing operational advantages. The current experimental work aims to characterize the turbulent flow-field of premixed syngas/air flames, methane/oxy flames and syngas/oxy flames in a laboratory scaled burner by varying the Reynolds numbers, blockage ratios, firing inputs and blockage ratios in the upstream of the burner. The effects …

Crack Analysis In Silicon Solar Cells, Maria Ines Echeverria Molina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Solar cell business has been very critical and challenging since more efficient and low costs materials are required to decrease the costs and to increase the production yield for the amount of electrical energy converted from the Sun's energy. The silicon-based solar cell has proven to be the most efficient and cost-effective photovoltaic industrial device. However, the production cost of the solar cell increases due to the presence of cracks (internal as well as external) in the silicon wafer. The cracks of the wafer are monitored while fabricating the solar cell but the present monitoring techniques are not sufficient when …

Assessment Of Methods To Manipulate Thermal Emission And Evaluate The Quality Of Thermal Radiation For Direct Energy Conversion, Samantha Wijewardane

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Control of spectral thermal emission from surfaces may be desirable in some energy related applications, such as nano-scale antenna energy conversion and thermophotovoltaic conversion. There are a number of methods, from commercially available paints to advanced surface gratings that can be used to modify the thermal emission from a surface. To find out the proper emission controlling technique for a given energy conversion method all the surface emission controlling methods are comprehensively reviewed regarding the emission control capabilities and the range of possible applications. Radiation with high degree of coherence can be emitted using advanced surface emission controlling techniques. …

Industrial And Agricultural Applications Of Solar Heat, Brian Norton

Books/Book chapters

Mankind’s earliest use of solar energy was probably the drying of food crops to aid their preservation. Open sun drying of fruit, vegetables, fish and meats often improved or enhanced particular flavors and textures such that solely because of those attributes many dried products remain in culinary use today, as examples, dried seaweed, sun-dried tomatoes, raisins and dried pistachio nuts. Open sun drying is displaced increasingly by glazed solar dryers that (i) enable equilibrium moisture content to be reached sooner and (ii) avoid losses of the crop to insects and rodents.

A further agricultural application, the greenhouse extended the use …

Encapsulation Of High Temperature Phase Change Materials For Thermal Energy Storage, Rupa Nath

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thermal energy storage is a major contributor to bridge the gap between energy demand (consumption) and energy production (supply) by concentrating solar power. The utilization of high latent heat storage capability of phase change materials is one of the keys to an efficient way to store thermal energy. However, some of the limitations of the existing technology are the high volumetric expansion and low thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs), low energy density, low operation temperatures and high cost. The present work deals with encapsulated PCM system, which operates at temperatures above 500°C and takes advantage of the heat …

Development Of The Control And Ignition Systems On A High Pressure Gas Turbine Combustor, Carlos Alejandro Valdez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The ignition and control systems of a laboratory scale high-pressure gas turbine combustor were developed in the present work. This work provides a detailed description of the design, development and testing of the remote control system developed for a High Pressure Gas Turbine Combustor (HPTC).

The combustor has the capability to operate at pressures up to 1.5 MPa and temperatures up to 2400 K. It is also designed for a maximum air and fuel flow rates of 81.93 g/s and 35.77 g/s respectively. The fuel used will be CH4 for the early experiments but it is designed to operate using …

Low Energy Disruption Of Lipid Containing Biomass, Joaquin Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Lipid containing biomass from microalgae has received recent research interest as a renewable and sustainable feedstock for biofuel production. Algae is known to offer as much as 30 times the energy density than corn based ethanol, the current world standard for biomass based liquid transportation fuels. The development of large scale systems and methods of extracting lipids from microalgae is still in the early stages of development and significant increases in efficiency and reduction in costs are necessary to substantiate algae as a feasible alternative source of fuel. Traditional conversion of algae feedstock into a refineable feedstock for biofuel can …

A Gis Approach For Estimating Optimal Sites For Grid-Connected Photovoltaic (Pv) Cells In Nebraska, Tomotoshi Funabashi

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

In the context of rising energy concerns and increased spotlight on solar energy, this study examines and draws attention to the state of mid potential sunlight. The purpose of this study is to estimate the optimal sites for grid-connected photovoltaic cells in Nebraska, which is ranked 13th nationally in terms of insolation potential. Five factors – insolation potential, adjacency to roads, accessibility to grid, topography, and acreage – are examined with the use of Geographic Information System (GIS). Insolation potential was quantitatively analyzed by averaging, plotting, and interpolating the 20 years of datasets recoded at 28 weather stations of High …

Estimating Oil Concentration And Flow Rate With Calibrated Vessel-Mounted Acoustic Echo Sounders, Thomas C. Weber, Alex De Robertis, Shep Smith, Samuel F. Greenaway, Larry A. Mayer, Glen Rice

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

As part of a larger program aimed at evaluating acoustic techniques for mapping the distribution of subsurface oil and gas associated with the Deepwater Horizon-Macondo oil spill, observations were made on June 24 and 25, 2010 using vessel-mounted calibrated single-beam echo sounders on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Thomas Jefferson. Coincident with visual observations of oil at the sea surface, the 200-kHz echo sounder showed anomalously high-volume scattering strength in the upper 200 m on the western side of the wellhead, more than 100 times higher than the surrounding waters at 1,800-m distance from the wellhead, …

Energy-Based Analysis Of Utility Scale Hybrid Power Systems, Kwame Agyenim-Boateng

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The promise of large-scale use of renewables such as wind and solar for supplying electrical power is tempered by the sources' transient behavior and the impact this would have on the operation of the grid. Among the methods cited for addressing some of those concerns are exploring the complementary nature of solar and wind power generation, and through the use of supplemental energy storage. While the technology for the latter has not been proven to be economical on a large scale at the present time, some assessments of what magnitude is required can be made. An energy-based analysis of utility …