Design and Costs Analysis of Hydrogen Refuelling Stations Based on Different Hydrogen Sources and Plant Configurations

In this study, the authors present a techno-economic assessment of on-site hydrogen refuelling stations (450 kg/day of H2) based on different hydrogen sources and production technologies. Green ammonia, biogas, and water have been considered as hydrogen sources while cracking, autothermal reforming, and electrolysis have been selected as the hydrogen production technologies. The electric energy requirements of the hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs) are internally satisfied using the fuel cell technology as power units for ammonia and biogas-based configurations and the PV grid-connected power plant for the water-based one. The hydrogen purification, where necessary, is performed by means of a Palladium-based membrane unit. Finally, the same hydrogen compression, storage, and distribution section are considered for all configurations. The sizing and the energy analysis of the proposed configurations have been carried out by simulation models adequately developed. Moreover, the economic feasibility has been performed by applying the life cycle cost analysis. The ammonia-based configurations are the best solutions in terms of hydrogen production energy efficiency (>71%, LHV) as well as from the economic point of view, showing a levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) in the range of 6.28 EUR/kg to 6.89 EUR/kg, a profitability index greater than 3.5, and a Discounted Pay Back Time less than five years.

Technical evaluation of ultrafiltration unit in Siwalanpaji’s water treatment plant, PDAM Sidoarjo

Raw water with high turbidity requires pretreatment on its ultrafiltration unit to prevent fouling. Based on that, it is necessary to evaluate the ultrafiltration unit’s quality, quantity, and operation in Siwalanpanji’s WTP. The evaluation method compares the design criteria, technical specification, and ultrafiltration with the conventional to see the existing condition. The results of ultrafiltration turbidity and organic substance efficiency removal are about 53% and 18%, it’s not more good than conventional unit efficiency removal, which has 89% for turbidities removal and 37% for organic substance removal. Moreover, the quality of the production water fulfils the standards of Indonesia Health Minister No. 492 of 2010, except for the value of organic substances, which is in this analysis it around 13.69 mg/L meanwhile, in standard, it must not be more than 10 mg/L. Evaluation of the operating performance of each treatment unit related to the membrane unit at the WTP in Siwalanpanji has fulfilled the criteria design. However, using an ultrafiltration unit results in treated water quality is equivalent to a conventional treatment unit. So from this evaluation, it is found that there is a need for recommendations pretreatment, which is better for raw water to treat before ultrafiltration.

Assessment of Hybrid Solvent—Membrane Configurations for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture for Super-Critical Power Plants

The reduction of fossil CO2 emissions from key relevant industrial processes represents an important environmental challenge to be considered. To enable large-scale deployment of low carbon technologies, a significant research and development effort is required to optimize the CO2 capture systems. This work assesses various hybrid solvent-membrane configurations for post-combustion decarbonization of coal-based super-critical power plants. As an illustrative chemical solvent, Methyl-Di-Ethanol-Amine was assessed. Various membrane unit locations were assessed (e.g., top absorber, before absorber using either compressor or vacuum pump). All investigated designs have a 1000 MW net power output with a 90% decarbonization ratio. Benchmark concepts with and without carbon capture using either reactive gas-liquid absorption or membrane separation technology were also evaluated to have a comparative assessment. Relevant evaluation tools (e.g., modeling, simulation, validation, thermal integration, etc.) were employed to assess the plant performance indicators. The integrated evaluation shows that one hybrid solvent-membrane configuration (membrane unit located at the top of absorption column) performs better in terms of increasing the overall net plant efficiency than the membrane-only case (by about 1.8 net percentage points). In addition, the purity of captured CO2 stream is higher for hybrid concepts than for membranes (99.9% vs. 96.3%). On the other hand, the chemical scrubbing concept has superior net energy efficiency than investigated hybrid configurations (by about 1.5–3.7 net percentage points).

Integration of Membrane Processes for By-Product Valorization to Improve the Eco-Efficiency of Small/Medium Size Cheese Dairy Plants

Goat and second cheese whey from sheep’s milk are by-products of the manufacture of goat cheeses and whey cheeses from sheep. Due to their composition which, apart from water—about 92%—includes lactose, proteins, fat, and minerals, and the elevated volumes generated, these by-products constitute one of the main problems facing to cheese producers. Aiming to add value to those by-products, this study evaluates the efficiency of ultrafiltration/diafiltration (UF/DF) for the recovery of protein fraction, the most valuable component. For a daily production of 3500 and using the experimental results obtained in the UF/DF tests, a membrane installation was designed for valorization of protein fraction, which currently have no commercial value. A Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Sensitivity Analysis (SA) were performed to evaluate the profitability of installing that membrane unit to produce three new innovative products from the liquid whey protein concentrates (LWPC), namely food gels, protein concentrates in powder and whey cheeses with probiotics. It was possible to obtain LWPC of around 80% and 64% of crude protein, from second sheep cheese whey and goat cheese whey, respectively. From a survey of commercial values for the intended applications, the results of CBA and SA show that this system is economically viable in small/medium sized cheese dairies.

Design, Construction And Evaluation Of An Experimental Ceramic Membrane Facility With Investigation Into Fouling Control

During the past decade, the growth in membrane research and technology advanced and multiplied in usage for many industries including water and wastewater. A major limitation of the application is due to membrane fouling. In this work, the construction, start-up calibration and testing of a membrane unit as well as an examination into the fouling and cleaning aspect of the ceramic membranes are investigated. An aqueous solution containing precipitate is fed to the unit in order to observe fouling behaviour. Effluent wastewater from a bioreactor, CUBEN, is also tested with the unit and membrane cleaning is performed using various chemical agents. For both chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) and membrane soaking, hydrochloric acid cleaning agent (<1%w) produces best flux recoveries of 72.7% and 82%, respectively. All permeate effluent analysis, resulted in a suspended solids concentration <3mg/L and turbidities <1NTU, which both meet Ontario regulation limits.

Design, Construction And Evaluation Of An Experimental Ceramic Membrane Facility With Investigation Into Fouling Control

During the past decade, the growth in membrane research and technology advanced and multiplied in usage for many industries including water and wastewater. A major limitation of the application is due to membrane fouling. In this work, the construction, start-up calibration and testing of a membrane unit as well as an examination into the fouling and cleaning aspect of the ceramic membranes are investigated. An aqueous solution containing precipitate is fed to the unit in order to observe fouling behaviour. Effluent wastewater from a bioreactor, CUBEN, is also tested with the unit and membrane cleaning is performed using various chemical agents. For both chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) and membrane soaking, hydrochloric acid cleaning agent (<1%w) produces best flux recoveries of 72.7% and 82%, respectively. All permeate effluent analysis, resulted in a suspended solids concentration <3mg/L and turbidities <1NTU, which both meet Ontario regulation limits.

Design, construction and evaluation OFAN experimental ceramic membrane facility with investigation into fouling control

During the past decade, the growth in membrane research and technology has advanced and multiplied in usage for many industries including water and wastewater. A major limitation of the application is due to membrane fouling. In this work, the construction, start-up calibration and testing of a membrane unit, as well as an examination into the fouling and cleaning aspect of the ceramic membranes are investigated. An aqueous solution containing precipitate is fed to the unit in order to observe fouling behaviour. Effluent wastewater from a bioreactor, CUBEN, is also tested with the unit and membrane cleaning is performed using various chemical agents. For both chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) and membrane soaking, hydrochloric acid cleaning agent «1 %w) produces best flux recoveries of 72.7% and 82%, respectively. All permeate effluent analysis, resulted in a suspended solids concentration <3 mgIL and turbidities. < 1 NTU, which both meet Ontario regulation limits.

Design, construction and evaluation OFAN experimental ceramic membrane facility with investigation into fouling control

During the past decade, the growth in membrane research and technology has advanced and multiplied in usage for many industries including water and wastewater. A major limitation of the application is due to membrane fouling. In this work, the construction, start-up calibration and testing of a membrane unit, as well as an examination into the fouling and cleaning aspect of the ceramic membranes are investigated. An aqueous solution containing precipitate is fed to the unit in order to observe fouling behaviour. Effluent wastewater from a bioreactor, CUBEN, is also tested with the unit and membrane cleaning is performed using various chemical agents. For both chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) and membrane soaking, hydrochloric acid cleaning agent «1 %w) produces best flux recoveries of 72.7% and 82%, respectively. All permeate effluent analysis, resulted in a suspended solids concentration <3 mgIL and turbidities. < 1 NTU, which both meet Ontario regulation limits.

Synthesis of Bio-Cellulose Acetate Membrane From Coconut Juice Residues for Carbon Dioxide Removal From Biogas in Membrane Unit

The rapid growth of energy demand and consumption from fossil fuels has been of great concern since the last decade. Renewable energy, including biogas production from wastes, has been studied to ease up the energy crisis problems. This study aims to synthesize bio-cellulose acetate (CA) membranes from agricultural waste and to study its efficiency in the removal of CO2 from biogas. The bio-CA membranes were synthesized from acetylation of bacterial cellulose (BC) and obtained from coconut juice residues (CJRs). The results showed that both chemical and physical characteristics of the bio-CA membrane were compared with those of the chemical CA membranes. The CO2 removal capacity of the bio-CA membranes was tested in a membrane separation unit. The maximum CO2 selectivity of 29.53 was achieved when using the bio-CA membrane with a thickness of 0.05 mm under the feed pressure of 0.1 MPa. Thick CA membranes exhibited better CO2 selectivity performance, particularly at low operating pressure. However, the CO2/CH4 separation factor decreased in the high-pressure region, probably because of the plasticization of the gas components. Eco-efficiency was evaluated to determine the optimal process conditions. In terms of eco-efficiency, the results suggested that the optimal condition was a bio-CA membrane of 0.05-mm thickness and pressure of 0.1 MPa. The implication of this study is promoting a zero-waste environment in which the agricultural residues could be potentially used in the synthesis of high-value CA membranes for biogas purification applications in energy production.

Rivers and Wastewater-Treatment Plants as Microplastic Pathways to Eastern Mediterranean Waters: First Records for the Aegean Sea, Greece

The present work provides the first records on microplastic (MP) amounts and types in rivers and wastewater effluents entering the Aegean Sea, eastern Mediterranean. Two rivers were sampled using a manta net (mesh size, 0.33 mm): a small urban and a medium-sized river with a rural, semiurban catchment. MPs in wastewater samples were collected at two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) within the Athens metropolitan area after secondary treatment and from a pilot biological membrane unit (MBR), using a series of sieves. MPs in the samples were identified using stereoscopic image analysis and spectroscopic techniques. MP concentrations in the rivers were found to be variable, with as high as 27.73 items m−3 in the urban river. Differences in MP shape types, sizes, and polymer types reflect catchment size and usage. MP concentration in wastewater effluents was found to be 100 times higher in the secondary treatment (213 items m−3) than that in the pilot MBR (2.29 items m−3), with filaments and polymers indicative of synthetic textiles and household use. Further research is needed in order to accurately determine variability in MP concentrations and fluxes from these two pathways in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and elucidate the role of rivers in MP retention.