Fuel future

A,B-site modified LaNi03 and LaCo03 were demonstrated to be active autothermal reforming catalysts and appear to be structurally stable under the reducing reaction conditions. Sulfur tolerance is still an issue based on the rapid decrease in the H2 concentration in the reformate when reforming sulfur-containing fuels. Future work will focus on improving the activity and the sulfur tolerance of these perovskite catalysts. 

Critical experiments utilizing U and Th fuels have been conducted at the Bettis Atomic Power laboratory since 1964. The critical assemblies were of the seed-and-blanket type and the experiments were performed In support of the Light-Water Breeder program. Two sets of experiments have been conducted to date. The first set consisted of l5-in, high assemblies which contained 26 wt% UO2- Zr02 seed fuel in which the uranium was either or "U, and blanket fuel of Th02 or 1 wt% UOa-ThOa. All elements were rod type with Zr clad. The second set consisted of 12 wt% UOa-ThOa seed fuel 28-in. high, and ThOa blanket fuel. Future experiments are planned in this second set with lower concentrations of in the seed fuel and with blanket fuel that contains... 

Alternative Anode Materials-Oxide Anode and Hydrocarbon Fuels Future Directions... 

D channel networks is inportant for numerous fluidic applications which will fuel future the demand for more research in this area. As these methods are refined the processes will be tailored to processing of many different types of polymers. Future work will continue to seek methods to decrease the roughness of microchannels. Analysis of complex mixtures of biomolecules requires surfaces that minimize non-specific adsorption. In order to minimize problems with surface adsorption, characterization of the ablated surface will continue. 

Further characterization of conformation space and devising new methodologies to use conformation space in rational ways should open new directions in how the IM-MS technique is utilized. Applications ranging from natural product discovery and nanomaterials characterization will fuel future studies aimed at understanding and exploring conformation space. Furthermore, instrumental advances to enhance IM resolution will lead to higher definition in the conformational landscape. 

NBR has gained many of its applications through the ability of its vulcanisates to withstand liquid fuels. Future developments in fuels may therefore be of considerable importance. 

To the refiner, the question of octane numbers in future gasolines is of primary importance because it determines the course of operations, the development or on the contrary the stagnation of such and such a process. Table 5.12 thus gives an example of the typical composition by origin and concentration of different base constituents of three grades of the most common motor fuels distributed today in Europe conventional premium gasoline at 0.15 g Pb/1, Eurosuper and Superplus. 

As we have shown previously, obtaining both good cold operation characteristics and sufficient cetane numbers constitutes the principal objective for the refiner in the formulation of diesel fuel. To this is added the need for deep desulfurization and, perhaps in the future, limitations placed on the chemical nature of the components themselves, e.g., aromatics content. 

In the future it will be difficult to avoid deterioration of certain characteristics such as viscosity, asphaltene and sediment contents, and cetane number. The users must employ more sophisticated technological means to obtain acceptable performance. Another approach could be to diversify the formulation of heavy fuel according to end use. Certain consuming plants require very high quality fuels while others can accept a lower quality. 

In any and all cases, desulfurization of diesel fuel is a necessary condition for attaining very low particulate levels such as will be dictated by future regulations (Girard et al., 1993). 

In the future, European and worldwide refining should evolve toward the production of relatively high cetane number diesel fuels either by more or less deeper hydrotreating or by judicious choice of base stocks. However, it is not planned to achieve levels of 60 for the near future as sometimes required by the automotive manufacturers. 

The metal is a source of nuclear power. There is probably more energy available for use from thorium in the minerals of the earth s crust than from both uranium and fossil fuels. Any sizable demand from thorium as a nuclear fuel is still several years in the future. Work has been done in developing thorium cycle converter-reactor systems. Several prototypes, including the HTGR (high-temperature gas-cooled reactor) and MSRE (molten salt converter reactor experiment), have operated. While the HTGR reactors are efficient, they are not expected to become important commercially for many years because of certain operating difficulties. 

Because of the ovedapping roles of coal in industry, many of the technologies covered here have been developed for synthetic fuel appHcations, but they also have been used or have demonstrated potential for production of significant quantities of chemicals. The scope of an article on coal as a chemical source would not be complete without coverage of synfuel processes, but the focus will be on the chemical production potential of the processes, looking toward a future when coal again may become the principal feedstock for chemical production. 

Because oil and gas ate not renewable resources, at some point in time alternative feedstocks will become attractive however, this point appears to be fat in the future. Of the alternatives, only biomass is a renewable resource (see Fuels frombiomass). The only chemical produced from biomass in commercial quantities at the present time is ethanol by fermentation. The cost of ethanol from biomass is not yet competitive with synthetically produced ethanol from ethylene. Ethanol (qv) can be converted into a number of petrochemical derivatives and could become a significant source. 

A realistic assessment of biomass as an energy resource is made by calculating average surface areas needed to produce sufficient biomass at different aimual yields to meet certain percentages of fuel demand for a particular country (Table 2). These required areas are then compared with surface areas available. The conditions of biomass production and conversion used ia Table 2 are either within the range of 1993 technology and agricultural practice, or are beheved to be attainable ia the future. 

Another factor is the potential economic benefit that may be realized due to possible future environmental regulations from utilizing both waste and virgin biomass as energy resources. Carbon taxes imposed on the use of fossil fuels in the United States to help reduce undesirable automobile and power plant emissions to the atmosphere would provide additional economic incentives to stimulate development of new biomass energy systems. Certain tax credits and subsidies are already available for commercial use of specific types of biomass energy systems (93). 

R. H. Essenhigh, Future Fuel Suppliesforlndustry Bases for Choice, ASHRAE Transactions, Vol. 84, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, New York, 1978, Part I. 

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