Costs fuel conversion

Capturing the C02 from fossil-fuel conversion processes. The costs for capturing C02 result from (1) higher investments for the system with C02 capture compared to a system without, (2) the lower efficiency of the process as a result of the operation of the capture plant (e.g., from the additional energy demand for solvent recovery, C02 compression, etc.) and (3) the operational cost for the capture process (e.g., for absorbent replacement). 

Cost. Bat telle Columbus ( 5) recently estimated the 1980 cost of readying timber residue, cull and dead trees for fuel conversion in the state of Vermont. The analysis considered procurement (stumping), harvesting, chipping and transportation over 40 kilometres, but omitted fertilization costs. Based on green wood (45% moisture, 10.9 GJ/green tonne), the wood cost was estimated as 16.40/green tonne. 

One kilogram of fuel provides 360 mWh of electrical energy (1.22 gBtu). To obtain 1 kilo of fuel requires 9 kilos of uranium. The cost of conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication results in a total cost of about 4,000/kg. Therefore, the fuel cost is 1.1c/kWh or 3.22/mBtu. 

The major market for the product fuel oil for the demonstration plant and near-term future commercial plants is expected to be existing power plants in the coastal metropolitan areas, where the physical and environmental costs of conversion to coal make such a conversion impractical. A significant characteristic of the SRC-II fuel oil for this application is its low sulfur content and thus the capability to meet stringent emission limits in urban areas. Coal-derived residual fuels will, in general, not meet these requirements without stack gas cleanup. 

The cost-effective conversion of lignocellulosic biomass materials into fuels and chemicals relies not only on the efficient degradation of plant cell wall... 

The projected increases in the price of energy is not only because of the cost of oil, but also because of investment costs for conversion of existing and new coal-burning facilities as well as a marked increase in the price of natural gas. After 1990, a world oil shortage will generate further increases. The cost of electric power will rise in line with added fuel and investment costs. 

Synergistic utilisation of fossil fuels and nuclear energy has prospects of efficient conversion of primary energies into energy carriers and lower the cost of conversion as well as the favorable impacts on resources and environment. 

Develop materials, eomponents and operating eonditions of direet methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) for transportation and portable applications optimizing power density, overall fuel conversion efficiency and cost. In particular ... 

Membrane separators offer the possibility of compact systems that can achieve fuel conversions in excess of equilibrium values by continuously removing the product hydrogen. Many different types of membrane material are available and a choice between them has to be made on the basis of their compatibility with the operational environment, their performance and their cost. Separators may be classified as (i) non-porous membranes, e.g., membranes based on metals, alloys, metal oxides or metal—ceramic composites, and (ii) ordered microporous membranes, e.g., dense silica, zeolites and polymers. For the separation of hot gases, the most promising are ceramic membranes. 

Our Department of Energy estimates that the costs of conversion of coal to SNG will be in the range of 4- 5/l,000 cu ft. The numerous necessary plants each will cost about 5,000 daily 1,000 cu ft or 1,000,000 Btu (5, 28). These plants will be designed and built, then operated largely by chemical engineers. However their total bill for the capital costs, also that for the costs of their operation over and above that of the fuel used, are almost incommensurably larger than the costs associated with the present industries which chemical engineers have built and operated. 

With respect to a large-scale hydrogen production, nuclear power can play a significant role if used as a provider of electricity in the electrolysis process or as a provider of high-temperature heat in fossil fuel conversion. An introductory option would be the use of cheap surplus electricity. Production of hydrogen as a bulk energy carrier is by a factor of about 2 too expensive compared with the today s commercial business of natural gas and oil, however, the trend to include external effects into the energy cost may help to achieve economic attractiveness [2]. 

In the United States, whidi has the most attractive oil shale reserves, interest in oil shale development has waxed and waned. This is partly because the richest oil shale reserves, the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, are on lands owned mostly by the US government and therefore are not available for commercial development. Tracts of oil shale lands in the Green River Formation were leased for commercial development in 1974 and the decade between 1974 and 1984 represented the greatest activity ever in oil shale research in the USA. Since then, interest has diminished and hardly any oU shale research is presently being conducted. Understandably, the plentiful supply and low cost of petroleum has suppressed the commercialization of oil shale and other fossil fuel conversion processes (tar sand processing and coal liquefaction). 

A very high degree of proliferation resistance throughout the entire fuel cycle, fuel conversion and fabrication costs that are expected to be lower than for conventional fuel-reprocessing and MOX fabrication... 

To cope with increased fuel load costs, fuel leasing option may prove to be effective. It could be especially attractive for those small reactor concepts that design for an internal conversion (breeding) ratio of unity, i.e., ensure that no loss of fissile mass occurs over the bum-up cycle because of internal breeding. 

Simplicity and promise of low cost - Fuel cells are extremely simple. They are made in layers of repetitive components, and they have no moving parts. Because of this, they have the potential to be mass produced at a cost comparable to that of existing energy conversion technologies or even lower. To date, the fuel cells are still expensive for either automotive or stationary power generation, primarily because of use of expensive materials, such as sulfonated fluoropolymers used as proton exchanged membrane, and noble metals, such as platinum or ruthenium, used as catalysts. 

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