Eco-Fuel

The Eco-Fuel II Process Producing a Storable, Transportable Fuel for Co-Combustion with Oil... 

The result was the discovery that a high density powder, dubbed ECO-FUEL II, could be produced by treating the partially comminuted MSW with small amounts (around 0.5%) of readily available commodity chemicals which at temperatures under 150°C would embrittle the cellulosic materials in MSW and, with low levels of grinding energy, produce a powdered fuel of high density. The process is protected by patents. 

In January 1974 a pilot plant was built at ADL to develop the design parameters for a full-scale plant to produce this Fuel. The feedstock for the pilot plant was ECO-FUEL I from the East Bridgewater facility which served as the front-end to receive and process MSW for the embrittling process. 

The MSW, ground to powder in the Mill, is separated from the circulating balls at the mill outlet, and conveyed by low-oxygen gases (below 8% by volume), to the Product Cyclone which drops the product to the Product Screen. The ECO-FUEL II product is then cooled while conveying it to the Product Filter, which in turn discharges it to Storage Silos. 

The product no longer contains the low-temperature volatiles and organic materials which cause degradation during storage, nor the moisture necessary for these reactions. ECO-FUEL II can be stored indefinately at temperatures below 60 C. The plastics in MSW have also been treated by the balls which enter the Ball Mill at about 200 C, reducing them to powder. 

The Bridgeport Facility has as its major Fuel customer the United Illuminating Company, which has storage and transport equipment to feed the ECO-FUEL II to Cyclone Furnaces on their Babcock and Wilcox boilers. The boilers burn oil, and are expected to be able to burn up to 40% ECO-FUEI II in one 60 MW boiler now, and in a second larger boiler when the MSW received by the Facility justifies it. 

Only limited data is available on the flash pyrolysis of ligno-cellulosic materials. Rensfelt et al. have reported a significant reduction in char yields following the flash pyrolysis of various biomass materials (17). Diebolt has obtained high gas yields from Eco Fuel II by flash pyrolysis (18). These results suggest that flash pyrolysis may be the preferred thermochemical method for obtaining gaseous fuels and chemicals from all biomass materials. 

Interest in methanol as an alternative fuel revived in the late 1990s—for fuel cells. It wasn t the first time this type of alcohol attracted the attention of the clean-energy community. A number of strategists had argued decades earlier that hydrogen, normally a gas, might not be the preferred eco-fuel for automotive use after all and that perhaps some other liquid fuel might be preferable. 

H-Power Clifton, NJ PEM Stationary, mobile, portable Up to 1,000 N/A ECO fuel cells... 

Polyepichlorohydrin (ECO) fuel hose compounds were vulcanised using lead-free curing systems based on a triazine, a thiadiazole and abisphenol/phosphonium salt/ acid acceptor package. Permeation results showed the advantages of using ECO elastomers as a support layer for fluoroelastomers in fuel hose construction. The adhesion to fluoroelastomers of ECO compounds vulcanised with the alternative curing systems was evaluated. 4 refs. 

Two suppliers to the U.S. market are Bayer and Nippon Zeon. The estimated volume used in the United States is 500 700 t/yr. Hydrogenated nitrile mbber (HSN or HNBR) compounds compete with EKM, EVMQ, ECO, ACM, and high ACN content nitrile mbbers. Big applications include automotive timing belts, blowout preventors, drill pipe protectors, and numerous oil and fuel pump components. 

Epichlorohydrin (ECO) has exceUent resistance to fuel and oil sweU. The ECOs show a volume sweU of 35% at room temperature compared to 70% for a medium ACN—nitnle mbber in ASTM Reference Fuel C. The copolymer has a low temperature britde point of —40° C and the homopolymer,... 

The principal uses of ECO ate in automotive appHcations, eg, for fuel line and fuel vapor recirculation. There ate also some downhole seal appHcations where ECO is used. About 7000 t/yr of epichl orohydrin ate used in the United States. This is aU suppHed by the Zeon Corporation. 

Williams, R. II. (1998). Fuel Decarbonization for Fuel Cell Applications and Sequestration of the Separated CO2. In Eco-restrncturmg hnpIic3tions for Sustainible... 

In Table 13.1 an overview of the resistance against ASTM 3 oil (70 h at 150°C) and fuel C (70 h at 150°C) for a large number of industrially applied mbbers is presented [6] (additional data are taken from reference [7]). Rubbers such as EPDM, polyisoprene (IR), butyl mbber (HR), NR, and BR have a high oil swell, due to their hydrocarbon stmcture, which is very similar to the stmcture of the oil itself. Rubbers such as CR, NBR, HNBR, and ECO have a much lower oil swell, because the polarity of these mbbers is higher. The oil resistance can also be improved by lowering... 

A family of high performance and clean space motor/gas generators and large launch vehicle solid propellants based on poly(GlyN) binder, ammonium nitrate oxidizer and small amounts of aluminum and/or boron with optimized performance at low solids loading (without the presence of plasticizers) and also poly(GlyN) binder, ammonium nitrate oxidizer and aluminum or magnesium fuel have been reported in the literature [141, 142]. These solid propellant formulations produce essentially no HC1 or chloride ions in the exhaust and are considered eco-friendly. 

BDF is eco-friendly fuel because of its non-toxicity, biodegradability, low concentration of small particulate matter and SOx in exhaust gas, and because it does not add to the amount of carbon in the total environment. In addition, conversion of waste edible oil to BDF contributes to the reduction and recycle of the waste material. These advantages have attracted attention all over the world European demand for BDF was 3.2 million tons in 2005, and estimated to double in 2006. In United States, which firstly proposed BDF, the demand was 260 thousand tons in 2005. In Japan, meanwhile, several local governments including Kyoto city produce BDF from waste edible oil to use as a fuel for public transportation, but the total demand in 2005 was only several thousand tons because of difficulty of collecting used frying oils from households. 

BDF has attracted attention as an eco-friendly fuel, and its demand is expected to increase further. We have introduced enzymatic processes which eliminate the drawbacks of chemical process. Not only the enzymatic process, but also processes using supercritical MeOH, ion-exchange resins, and MeOH vapor will likely be used in the future, and a company will decide the most suitable process for its own production environment. We hope that an enzyme process will be selected as a candidate. 

There have been a number of studies on fuels used for electricity generation. One of these studies focuses on the use of natural gas, heavy oil, or coal in cogeneration of electricity.112 Using a numerical eco-load total standardized evaluation system, these authors found that coal had the lowest eco-load of all alternatives considered. In another LCA study, Goralczyk113 compares hydroelectric, photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, oil, coal, and natural gas and quantifies that electricity from hydropower had the least environmental impact. Schleisner114 focuses on wind farms in a life-cycle inventory study that focuses on the materials used to manufacture the windmills and reports that 2% of the electricity generated during the windmill s lifetime is used to manufacture the windmill components. 

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