Thermal conversion factor, fuel

To determine emission data, as well as the effect that fuel changes would produce, it is necessary to use the appropriate thermal conversion factor from one fuel to another. Table 6-5 lists these factors for fuels in common use. 

Acidification. The acidification and thermal pollution impacts of a chemical plant in general do not come from the plant itself but are related to the conversion of fossil fuel to energy (steam, electricity) hence the same emission reduction factor as for carbon dioxide is assumed for the process intensification potential. 

The size of a catalyst support depends on many factors. Predominant among these are flow rate, light-off performance, conversion efficiency, space velocity, back pressure, space availability, and thermal durability. Other factors, such as washcoat formulation, catalyst loading, inlet gas temperature, and fuel management, can also have an impact on the size of a catalyst support. 

The boiler itself should be very efficient to generate steam and for this preparation of oil, air to fuel ratio, stack temperature of flue gases, conversion of furnace oil to LSHS oil, maximum condensate recovery, cleaning of the fire side, replacement of old boilers etc. are the various important factors to be taken care-of. Factors responsible for optimum consumption of steam such as supply of steam at correct pressure, provision of pressure reducing valves, water separators in steam lines for supply of dry steams at requisite pressure, selection of trap of right type and size for efficient recovery of condensate etc. should be considered for the saving of thermal energy. 

Figure 11.19 shows the process flow sheet for a pilot-scale fluidized bed gasifier, capable of processing some 20 kg/h of biomass feed, coupled with a thermal cracker and reformer reactor. The reformer is loaded with fluidizable nickel-based reforming catalyst and fitted with gas analysis ports at its inlet and outlet. The system has been used to evaluate catalyst activity and the decay of hydrocarbon conversion with time from a slip stream sample of the raw fuel gas. In this way, it is possible to quantify the frequently reported phenomenon of commercial catalyst deactivation, sometimes quite rapid, from high activity of fresh samples to lower residual activity brought about by various factors, including the presence of poisons (sulphur, chlorine) and coke formation. 

Neutronic characteristics of MSRs have been explored in the literature. Flow effects were considered when calculating the effective multiplication factor and fast neutron, thermal neutron, and delayed neutron precursor distribution of the liquid-fuel MSR based on the multigroup neutron diffusion equation and delayed neutron precursor conversation equation (Zhang et ah, 2009b Cheng and Dai, 2014 Zhou et ah, 2014). Spatial kinetic models were developed for better neutronic analysis of the MSRs (Zhang et ah, 2015 Zhuang et ah, 2014). 

Although this policy would involve many risks, it would, on the other hand, allow the industry to profit from the most recent technical developments that are oriented toward the reduction of the fuel cycle costs either by simplifying the core design or by increasing the conversion ratio, the thermal efficiency, the burnup, or any combination of these factors. 

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