The design and building of new alternative fuel plants is an increasing necessity to replace old technology and non-renewable fossil fuels. To optimize the performance of these plants and to obtain an economically fea...The design and building of new alternative fuel plants is an increasing necessity to replace old technology and non-renewable fossil fuels. To optimize the performance of these plants and to obtain an economically feasible production of these types of fuels, it is necessary to have a total control of each variable involved in the process of production and how these factors affect the yield of fuel production. In this paper it is proposed a model of a digester to generate gas using a Vensim software designed to generate simulations in dynamic state. This simulation was developed using differential equations to model the behavior at each stage of the process and auxiliary conditions to complement the mathematical description of the model. The main factors in the biogas production are the retention time and the methanogen mortality ratio. For retention time lower than 10 h the process loses effectiveness due to bacterial growth is not completed efficiently, but a high retention time involves a bigger reactor and the yield of production decreases considerably for retention time higher than 40 h. The best yields were obtained for a mortality ratio in methanogen and acidogenic bacteria lower than 0.2 and a retention time of 30 h with a final production of 3.33 L by each kilogram of biomass.展开更多
Charcoal gasification could mitigate the energetic problems in the rural zones since these regions have considerable amounts of wood, which is the base of such a fuel available. This paper presents some CFD （computat...Charcoal gasification could mitigate the energetic problems in the rural zones since these regions have considerable amounts of wood, which is the base of such a fuel available. This paper presents some CFD （computational fluid dynamic） predictions of the experimental results obtained from the fixed bed gasification of charcoal made in a pilot-scale downdraft reactor using air, which was designed and built by the Research Group in Clean Development Mechanisms and Energy Management, from the National University of Colombia. The quality of the syngas obtained from the process was evaluated through the CO and CO2 percentages measured in its composition. The performance at various air flow rates （measured at the system entrance, through an analog flow meter） is evaluated with the help of 11 thermocouples, which give the information to create a temperature profile, and three load cells to measure the solid fuel conversion rate. To simulate the process, the information from temperature profile, charcoal proximate analysis, air flow meter and load cells were taken as inputs and the syngas composition was obtained as the result from the calculation. The domain was defined as 2D with an axis-symmetric description, using quads as mesh elements. The calculation and results were performed in a CFD commercial code widely used for this type of simulations： ANSYS FLUENT. The predictions made by the software were validated with the experimental results obtained in the laboratory.展开更多
In a changing world with a high interest in new ecomaterials, natural fibers such as the steelwool or Luffa cylindriea appear in new presentations and mixing with other materials to develop better opportunities to rep...In a changing world with a high interest in new ecomaterials, natural fibers such as the steelwool or Luffa cylindriea appear in new presentations and mixing with other materials to develop better opportunities to replace synthetic fibers. This work presents a research on the use of steelwool fiber for composite materials, on the basis of the physical properties, that generate conditions of mixing with three binders （matrix） natural： the rosin, artificial hard： polyurethane resin and artificial flexible： flexible twin resin （epoxy） and finally a polyester resin to make a comparison with other major resins. A testing of compression and tension is carried out to the materials analyzed, obtaining three types of composite materials by the above mentioned binders and three proposed presentations of fiber （complete, tissue and ground）. The test tube in tension with polyester resin presented a high rigidity and a percentage of deformation of 14%, resulting in less distortion than the woven with resin polyurethane with 12% of deformation. The presentation with resin polyurethane presented greater resistance to compression, because the resin acts as a sponge absorbing the energy of charge and the join of particles is larger than the other presentations generating greater cohesion among them and avoiding its rupture easily for a load of 2,000 kg. The presentation that is least resisted was the woven in two resins in the stage of energy absorption of load where polyurethane is 800 kg and the flexible twin is 850 kg, because the form of woven fiber distribution creates spaces where there are more resin than fiber.展开更多
In the last years, biodiesel production has been on a steady increase due to it is renewable and biodegradable fuel. The process to obtain biodiesel can be carried out using different raw materials. It is conlmonly pe...In the last years, biodiesel production has been on a steady increase due to it is renewable and biodegradable fuel. The process to obtain biodiesel can be carried out using different raw materials. It is conlmonly performed by transesterification reaction of vegetable oils with methanol and using a homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst. This work seeks to compare the results produced in transesterification of wasted cooking oil and chicken fat by homogeneous catalysis with NaOH. Due to in each case triglyceride comes from different raw materials, operation conditions differ slightly, which is more evident in the values used for the temperature. For chicken fat was used temperature variations between 35 ℃ and 55 ℃, varying catalyst in percentages between 0.3% and 0.7% with a molar ratio 6：1 in all cases and a reaction time of I h. Likewise, the conditions used in the tmnsesterification process of waste cooking oil were temperature between 50 ℃ and 60 ℃ with a molar ratio 6/1 and 9/1 for alcohol and oil, and catalyst percentage between 0.5% and 0.7% by weight. The yields obtained were between 78% and 94%, or 83% and 95%, for chicken fat and wasted cooking oil, respectively.展开更多
Currently, biodiesel is presented as one of the best alternatives for gradually replacing the use of fossil fuels, but it has some factors that make it economically impractical if it does not have a government support...Currently, biodiesel is presented as one of the best alternatives for gradually replacing the use of fossil fuels, but it has some factors that make it economically impractical if it does not have a government support. For this reason, research efforts focused on this area have been responsible for optimizing the process of biodiesel production by different catalytic routes to achieve greater efficiency at a lower cost. In this case, the biggest problem has been the high cost generated by an investigation, which in many occasions is the main factor to decide if an investigation could be carried out. Trying to reduce these costs, in the current study, we are using a technique of glycerol quantification by volumetric methods and comparing obtained results with the chromatographic method, which is conventionally used and comparatively much more expensive. Biodiesel employee was obtained by an enzymatic catalysis process varying one of three process variables：oil：alcohol molar ratio, temperature and proportion of catalyst. The numerical differences obtained between the two quantification methods generated relative errors lower than 10%, resulting in some occasions lower than 1%. By gas chromatography analysis the best yield was obtained at the same conditions of the volumetric method, a temperature of 45 ℃, an oil：alcohol ratio 1：4 and 8 wt.% of catalyst, but a yield of 95.5% and 97.1%, respectively. Due to the high precision of gas chromatography, this method is used to carry out a surface response analysis obtaining as ideal operating conditions a temperature of 43.5 ℃, 8.9 wt.%. of catalyst and an oil：alcohol ratio 1：4.展开更多
文摘The design and building of new alternative fuel plants is an increasing necessity to replace old technology and non-renewable fossil fuels. To optimize the performance of these plants and to obtain an economically feasible production of these types of fuels, it is necessary to have a total control of each variable involved in the process of production and how these factors affect the yield of fuel production. In this paper it is proposed a model of a digester to generate gas using a Vensim software designed to generate simulations in dynamic state. This simulation was developed using differential equations to model the behavior at each stage of the process and auxiliary conditions to complement the mathematical description of the model. The main factors in the biogas production are the retention time and the methanogen mortality ratio. For retention time lower than 10 h the process loses effectiveness due to bacterial growth is not completed efficiently, but a high retention time involves a bigger reactor and the yield of production decreases considerably for retention time higher than 40 h. The best yields were obtained for a mortality ratio in methanogen and acidogenic bacteria lower than 0.2 and a retention time of 30 h with a final production of 3.33 L by each kilogram of biomass.
文摘Charcoal gasification could mitigate the energetic problems in the rural zones since these regions have considerable amounts of wood, which is the base of such a fuel available. This paper presents some CFD （computational fluid dynamic） predictions of the experimental results obtained from the fixed bed gasification of charcoal made in a pilot-scale downdraft reactor using air, which was designed and built by the Research Group in Clean Development Mechanisms and Energy Management, from the National University of Colombia. The quality of the syngas obtained from the process was evaluated through the CO and CO2 percentages measured in its composition. The performance at various air flow rates （measured at the system entrance, through an analog flow meter） is evaluated with the help of 11 thermocouples, which give the information to create a temperature profile, and three load cells to measure the solid fuel conversion rate. To simulate the process, the information from temperature profile, charcoal proximate analysis, air flow meter and load cells were taken as inputs and the syngas composition was obtained as the result from the calculation. The domain was defined as 2D with an axis-symmetric description, using quads as mesh elements. The calculation and results were performed in a CFD commercial code widely used for this type of simulations： ANSYS FLUENT. The predictions made by the software were validated with the experimental results obtained in the laboratory.
文摘In a changing world with a high interest in new ecomaterials, natural fibers such as the steelwool or Luffa cylindriea appear in new presentations and mixing with other materials to develop better opportunities to replace synthetic fibers. This work presents a research on the use of steelwool fiber for composite materials, on the basis of the physical properties, that generate conditions of mixing with three binders （matrix） natural： the rosin, artificial hard： polyurethane resin and artificial flexible： flexible twin resin （epoxy） and finally a polyester resin to make a comparison with other major resins. A testing of compression and tension is carried out to the materials analyzed, obtaining three types of composite materials by the above mentioned binders and three proposed presentations of fiber （complete, tissue and ground）. The test tube in tension with polyester resin presented a high rigidity and a percentage of deformation of 14%, resulting in less distortion than the woven with resin polyurethane with 12% of deformation. The presentation with resin polyurethane presented greater resistance to compression, because the resin acts as a sponge absorbing the energy of charge and the join of particles is larger than the other presentations generating greater cohesion among them and avoiding its rupture easily for a load of 2,000 kg. The presentation that is least resisted was the woven in two resins in the stage of energy absorption of load where polyurethane is 800 kg and the flexible twin is 850 kg, because the form of woven fiber distribution creates spaces where there are more resin than fiber.
文摘In the last years, biodiesel production has been on a steady increase due to it is renewable and biodegradable fuel. The process to obtain biodiesel can be carried out using different raw materials. It is conlmonly performed by transesterification reaction of vegetable oils with methanol and using a homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst. This work seeks to compare the results produced in transesterification of wasted cooking oil and chicken fat by homogeneous catalysis with NaOH. Due to in each case triglyceride comes from different raw materials, operation conditions differ slightly, which is more evident in the values used for the temperature. For chicken fat was used temperature variations between 35 ℃ and 55 ℃, varying catalyst in percentages between 0.3% and 0.7% with a molar ratio 6：1 in all cases and a reaction time of I h. Likewise, the conditions used in the tmnsesterification process of waste cooking oil were temperature between 50 ℃ and 60 ℃ with a molar ratio 6/1 and 9/1 for alcohol and oil, and catalyst percentage between 0.5% and 0.7% by weight. The yields obtained were between 78% and 94%, or 83% and 95%, for chicken fat and wasted cooking oil, respectively.
文摘Currently, biodiesel is presented as one of the best alternatives for gradually replacing the use of fossil fuels, but it has some factors that make it economically impractical if it does not have a government support. For this reason, research efforts focused on this area have been responsible for optimizing the process of biodiesel production by different catalytic routes to achieve greater efficiency at a lower cost. In this case, the biggest problem has been the high cost generated by an investigation, which in many occasions is the main factor to decide if an investigation could be carried out. Trying to reduce these costs, in the current study, we are using a technique of glycerol quantification by volumetric methods and comparing obtained results with the chromatographic method, which is conventionally used and comparatively much more expensive. Biodiesel employee was obtained by an enzymatic catalysis process varying one of three process variables：oil：alcohol molar ratio, temperature and proportion of catalyst. The numerical differences obtained between the two quantification methods generated relative errors lower than 10%, resulting in some occasions lower than 1%. By gas chromatography analysis the best yield was obtained at the same conditions of the volumetric method, a temperature of 45 ℃, an oil：alcohol ratio 1：4 and 8 wt.% of catalyst, but a yield of 95.5% and 97.1%, respectively. Due to the high precision of gas chromatography, this method is used to carry out a surface response analysis obtaining as ideal operating conditions a temperature of 43.5 ℃, 8.9 wt.%. of catalyst and an oil：alcohol ratio 1：4.
