Energy resources processing separations processes

Energy and natural resources processing. NSF should sustain its support of basic research in complex behavior in multiphase systems, catalysis, separations, dynamics of solids transport and handling, and new scale-up and design methodologies. 

Enantiomeric excess of at least 90% for the catalytic process (less wastage of energy and resources in separation of the undesired enantiomer). 

In order to make use of thorium as a nuclear resource for power generation, development of efficient separation processes are necessary to recover 233U from irradiated thorium and fission products. The THORium uranium Extraction (THOREX) process has not been commercially used as much as the PUREX process due to lack of exploitation of thorium as an energy resource (157,180). Extensive work carried out at ORNL during the fifties and sixties led to the development of various versions of the THOREX process given in Table 2.6. The stable nature of thorium dioxide poses difficulties in its dissolution in nitric acid. A small amount of fluoride addition to nitric acid is required for the dissolution of more inert thorium (181). 

SilvaGas A thermal process for gasifying biomass. Wood chips and hot sand are mixed in a circulating fluidized bed at 1000°C under atmospheric pressure. Steam is injected to induce mixing. The products are H2, CO, CH4, C02, C2H4, and char. The char and sand are separated, and the char is burned in another reactor. Intended for operation with a gas turbine. Developed by Future Energy Resources Corporation and demonstrated in Burlington, VT, in 2000. 

Cleaner production emphasizes elimination or reduction of waste at source. This approach is vastly preferred to end-of pipe treatment of terminal waste streams from a process. Elimination of waste at source not only averts the need for subsequent treatment, but also avoids consuming material and energy resources in waste generation, separation, treatment, or disposal. 

As the oceans of the world contain about 10 kg of deuterium and resources of lithium minerals are of comparable magnitude, it is clear that if this fusion reaction could be utilized in a practical nuclear reactor, the world s energy resources would be enormously increased. Although intensive research is being conducted on confinement of thermonuclear plasmas, it is not yet clear whether a practical and economic fusion reactor can be developed. If fusion does become practical, isotope separation processes for extracting deuterium from natural water and for concentrating from natural lithium will become of importance comparable to the separation of U from natural uranium. 

Mechanical Component Separation Component separation is a necessaiy operation in the recovery of resources from sohd wastes and in instances when energy and conversion products are to be recovered from processed wastes. Mechanical separation techniques that have been used are reported in Table 25-61. 

In Section 7.3, process-specific technical information on alternative fuels, which is needed for the WTW analysis is presented, and in Section 7.4 drive-system-specific data are provided, which are then merged in a WTW analysis of complete energy chains in comparison in Section 7.5. In reality, the potential number of realistic alternative fuel chains and drive system combinations is much larger. Owing to limited space, a set of most relevant processes is presented. A separate section (7.6) discusses the resource utilisation of the energy chains presented in Section 7.5. Section 7.7 finally combines specific GHG emissions for relevant alternative fuel supply chains with specific costs in a portfolio analysis. 

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