The massive use of fossil fuel has caused huge carbon emission and serious air pollution in China. Now all kinds of alternative energy technology are developing rapidly to solve such problem in China. Electricity produced by non-fossil fuel energy is continued to increase sharply in China. But it’s hard for regular alternative energy, such as wind power, solar power, hydroelectricity power, nuclear power and so on, to easily provide process heat for industry, especially high temperature steam. High temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR, sometimes also called HTR) is a kind of nuclear reactor, which are demonstrated very high efficiencies, safety and availability features by American and German power plant. HTR differs from water nuclear reactors by offering a high thermal efficiency for electricity generation and a high level of passive safety features. Now HTR-PM project is built in Shidao Bay of China. Moreover, HTR is the only nuclear reactor, which can provide high temperature steam comparing with other water nuclear reactors. So HTR can provide a versatile cogeneration solution for industry. In this paper, a case was studied, how to provide heat for a refinery and petro-chemical plant with HTR. Firstly, the energy need of a typical large chemical plant in china was investigated. Steam supply diagram of an oil refinery plant, which produced 10 million tons oil products and 1 million tons ethylene in China, was calculated. Secondly, technical feasibility of energy providing by HTR cogeneration plant was discussed. Extraction steam from HTR system was designed for the chemical plant. It would meet the requirement of steam supply for chemical plant and would replace the captive power plant, where coal was burning. The balance of steam, enthalpy and temperature was calculated. At last, economic evaluation for such cogeneration plants was carried out. The steam supply cost from captive coal power plant and HTR cogeneration plant was compared. Some economical conclusion was made from the discussion.

Gas and air-side heat transfer is ubiquitous throughout many technological sectors, including HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems, thermo-electric power generators and coolers, renewable energy, electronics and vehicle cooling, and forced-draft cooling in the petrochemical and power industries. The poor thermal conductivity and low heat capacity of air causes air-side heat transfer to typically dominate heat transfer resistance even with the use of extended area structures. In this paper, we report design, analysis, cost modeling, fabrication, and performance characterization of micro-honeycombs for gas-side heat transfer augmentation in thermoelectric (TE) cooling and power systems. Semi-empirical model aided by experimental validation was undertaken to characterize fluid flow and heat transfer parameters. We explored a variety of polygonal shapes to optimize the duct shape for air-side heat transfer enhancement. Predictions using rectangular micro-honeycomb heat exchangers, among other polygonal shapes, suggest that these classes of geometries are able to provide augmented heat transfer performance in high-temperature energy recovery streams and low-temperature cooling streams. Based on insight gained from theoretical models, rectangular micro-honeycomb heat exchangers that can deliver high performance were fabricated and tested. High- and low-cost manufacturing prototype designs with different thermal performance expectations were fabricated to explore the cost-performance design domain. Simple metrics were developed to correlate heat transfer performance with heat exchanger cost and weight and define optimum design points. The merits of the proposed air-side heat transfer augmentation approach are also discussed within the context of relevant thermoelectric power and cooling systems.

There is significant interest in technologies that reduce or mitigate greenhouse gases in the atmosphere because of their contribution to climate change. In addition, concerns for energy security are linked to political, environmental, and economic factors that threaten supply of hydrocarbon sources for fuels and the petrochemical feedstock that support the production of plastics, fertilizers, and chemical supply chains. With these climate and energy security concerns, there is a need for technologies that can economically address both issues. In addition, with increased integration of renewable energy systems into the grid, there are major concerns about grid instability and the need for energy storage. Significant research is being done on both topics, but there is a need to more efficiently transmit and use energy (which is the focus of the Smart Grid initiatives) as well as store energy for future use. Electrochemical conversion of CO 2 to useful products will be discussed including analyses of the energy and carbon balances required for the process, the value of the end use chemicals as energy storage media, and the energy density of the end use chemicals compared to other energy storage technologies.

Conventional fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal have historically provided reasonable financial returns on investment as well as energy returned on energy invested (EROEI), despite the fact that continuous financial and energy inputs are required to use these fuels. Besides EROEI, the energy intensity ratio (EIR) is another measure for energy use and economics. The EIR is the ratio of energy bought per dollar to the energy it takes to make a dollar in the economy. In this case we are considering the cost of petroleum per barrel, and therefore we are discussing EIR p or EIR of oil based upon price. The EIR p is related to historical economical data and conclusions will be drawn about the value of EIR p as an economic indicator. Then, EIR p will be used as a tool to demonstrate the value of shifting energy resources from petroleum to alternatives, specifically for transportation and petrochemicals. The considerations for modern economic conditions as they compare to historical economic conditions will be explained, and the viability of policy and alternative technological transportation scenarios will be described in terms of EIR p and its relationship to vehicle miles travelled.

The economics and potential offsets of imported energy are analyzed. Benefits to the carbon footprint of the region are estimated. A commercial structure for the operation of such a co-operative bio-refinery is proposed. Rural and agricultural regions typically have ample production of biomass in various forms, including wood from forestry, agricultural wastes and range grasses. Certain regions also have renewable energy resources such as wind power, solar insolation and hydraulic power. Rural regions are typically seen to have a potential for renewable energy that greatly exceeds energy consumption due to human activity in the region. However, energy consumption in such areas is highly biased toward non-renewable sources, just as in more urbanized regions. This is due to the standardization of virtually all manufactured energy conversion equipment to use available processed energy sources such as electricity and natural gas and refined fuels such as diesel and gasoline. In addition, agricultural activities are highly dependent on energy-intensive petrochemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Energy sustainability and self-sufficiency can therefore be increased by conversion of local renewable resources into appropriate form values for existing energy conversion equipment. Solar power, wind power and hydropower are fully commercial, although more economic in some regions than in others. The production of electricity from biomass fuels via conventional steam cycles is well established, if challenging from an economic standpoint. However, conversion of biomass and other renewable resources into fuels that can be used in standard equipment, and chemicals and fertilizers for local agricultural production is both technically and economically challenging. The authors evaluate the potential for a typical rural region to offset imports of conventional non-renewable energy such as electricity, engine fuels, and fertilizers via the establishment of a regional bio-refinery financed and operated as a local co-operative. The renewable resources of the typical rural region are assumed to facilitate the analysis. The appropriate technologies, scope, product slate, production rates, capital costs and operating costs for the bio-refinery are defined.

Energy efficiency and emission control has traditionally been a priority area in refining and petrochemical industries. In the last 15–20 years these issues has increasingly been focused in the upstream oil and gas industry. Emission taxes and commitment from the industry has led to significant improvements. Energy consumption and emission to air, especially CO2 and NOx has been reduced by typically between 10 to 30% by relatively simple and cost-effective methods. In parallel, change in design practise for new plants has contributed to similar reductions. This paper outlines the analysis and methods used and the results achieved.