Browsing by Keyword "General Environmental Science"
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Item Achievements of European projects on membrane reactor for hydrogen production(2017-09-10) Di Marcoberardino, Gioele; Binotti, Marco; Manzolini, Giampaolo; Viviente, José Luis; Arratibel, Alba; Roses, Leonardo; Gallucci, Fausto; TECNOLOGÍA DE MEMBRANAS E INTENSIFICACIÓN DE PROCESOSMembrane reactors for hydrogen production can increase both the hydrogen production efficiency at small scale and the electric efficiency in micro-cogeneration systems when coupled with Polymeric Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells. This paper discusses the achievements of three European projects (FERRET, FluidCELL, BIONICO) which investigate the application of the membrane reactor concept to hydrogen production and micro-cogeneration systems using both natural gas and biofuels (biogas and bio-ethanol) as feedstock. The membranes, used to selectively separate hydrogen from the other reaction products (CH4, CO2, H2O, etc.), are of asymmetric type with a thin layer of Pd alloy (<5 μm), and supported on a ceramic porous material to increase their mechanical stability. In FERRET, the flexibility of the membrane reactor under diverse natural gas quality is validated. The reactor is integrated in a micro-CHP system and achieves a net electric efficiency of about 42% (8% points higher than the reference case). In FluidCELL, the use of bio-ethanol as feedstock for micro-cogeneration Polymeric Electrolyte Membrane based system is investigated in off-grid applications and a net electric efficiency around 40% is obtained (6% higher than the reference case). Finally, BIONICO investigates the hydrogen production from biogas. While BIONICO has just started, FERRET and FluidCELL are in their third year and the two prototypes are close to be tested confirming the potentiality of membrane reactor technology at small scale.Item Assessment of thermal performance and surface moisture risk for a rear-ventilated cladding system for façade renovation(2020-01-24) Arregi, Beñat; Garay, Roberto; Garrido-Marijuan, Antonio; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVAVentilated façade systems, incorporating thermal insulation behind a rear-ventilated cladding, constitute a popular renovation solution in warm European climates. For compliance with building regulations, their energy efficiency is usually obtained through simple onedimensional desktop calculations, which do not consider the impact of the support elements of the cladding penetrating the thermal insulation. This study assesses a ventilated façade system anchored over a solid concrete wall with adjustable stainless steel brackets. One-dimensional calculations are compared against three-dimensional numerical thermal modelling, evaluating the effect of insulation thickness (40–100 mm) and potential gaps in the insulation around anchors. Results indicate low risk of condensation and mould growth over internal surfaces. The additional heat flow induced by stainless steel anchors, which is not considered by simplified calculations, appears lower than for aluminium-based systems but can become significant as insulation levels increase. Ensuring the continuity of insulation around anchors is critical for keeping this additional heat flow at reasonable levels (8–13%). If gaps in the insulation are present around anchors, the additional heat flow increases substantially (25–70%) and pushes effective U-values above 0.4 W/m²K, thus resulting in unforeseen energy consumption and noncompliance with regulatory requirements in many European locations.Item Assessment of urban-scale potential for solar PV generation and consumption(2019-09-05) Pedrero, J; Hermoso, N; Hernández, P; Muñoz, I; Arrizabalaga, E; Mabe, L; Prieto, I; Izkara, J L; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICA; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANAThe rise of grid electricity price and a growing awareness of climate change is resulting in an increasing number of photovoltaic facilities installed in buildings. Electricity market regulation and climatic conditions, in particular solar radiation, are the main factors that determine the economic viability of a photovoltaic facility. This paper describes a method for evaluating the potential for photovoltaic (PV) production and self-consumption for the building stock of a particular city. A GIS 3D city map is used to calculate solar irradiation. Building-level electricity use is calculated based on building type, geometry and other characteristic inferred from building age, taking the cadastre GIS as main input. The methodology identifies the realistic potential for rooftop photovoltaic installations, as well as the optimum size to be installed from an economic perspective. To represent different regulations that can affect economic viability of PV installations, calculations should adapt for the specific installation conditions and regulatory situation, as for example self-consumption and net metering. The proposed methodology is applied to a case study in Irun (Spain), where results for potential of PV generation and self-consumption for the building stock are presented. The results offer public administration a realistic view of economically viable PV potential for the city and allow to analyse different mechanisms to promote their installations. It also serves for individual electricity consumers to evaluate and optimize new photovoltaic energy facilities. Finally, it serves policy makers to estimate the repercussion of electricity market regulations on the economic viability of PV systems.Item Big Data for transportation and mobility: recent advances, trends and challenges: Recent advances, trends and challenges(2018-10-04) Torre-Bastida, Ana I.; Del Ser, Javier; Laña, Ibai; Ilardia, Maitena; Bilbao, Miren Nekane; Campos-Cordobes, Sergio; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; HPA; IA; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; SMART_TRANSPORTBig Data is an emerging paradigm and has currently become a strong attractor of global interest, specially within the transportation industry. The combination of disruptive technologies and new concepts such as the Smart City upgrades the transport data life cycle. In this context, Big Data is considered as a new pledge for the transportation industry to effectively manage all data this sector required for providing safer, cleaner and more efficient transport means, as well as for users to personalize their transport experience. However, Big Data comes along with its own set of technological challenges, stemming from the multiple and heterogeneous transportation/mobility application scenarios. In this survey we analyze the latest research efforts revolving on Big Data for the transportation and mobility industry, its applications, baselines scenarios, fields and use case such as routing, planning, infrastructure monitoring, network design, among others. This analysis will be done strictly from the Big Data perspective, focusing on those contributions gravitating on techniques, tools and methods for modeling, processing, analyzing and visualizing transport and mobility Big Data. From the literature review a set of trends and challenges is extracted so as to provide researchers with an insightful outlook on the field of transport and mobility.Item Comparison of theoretical heat transfer model with results from experimental monitoring installed in a refurbishment with ventilated facade(2020-01-24) García, Belén Zurro; Goikolea, Beñat Arregi; Martín, José Manuel González; Hernández García, José L.; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVAOne of the main points to consider when a building is renovated is the improvement of its energy efficiency, minimizing the heat loss through the enclosures and its heating consumption. Under this scope idea a ventilated facade was designed and incorporated in an educational building located in the city of Burgos (Spain). The main objective of this document is a comparison between the theoretical model of heat transfer across the building envelope separating the environment and the interior space, and the heat intake through a linear regression model with installed experimental monitoring. For this it has been necessary to carry out an exhaustive study of the thermal transmission of each one of the materials that make up the thermal envelope of the building, as well as the linear thermal bridges that can be produced before and after the renovation. In addition, thanks to the monitoring installed in the demonstrator building, the interior and exterior temperatures and the heat consumption of each of the radiators is known. In this way expected and real energy savings have been compared.Item CuO/ZnO catalysts for methanol steam reforming: The role of the support polarity ratio and surface area(2015-09-01) Mateos-Pedrero, Cecilia; Silva, Hugo; Pacheco Tanaka, David A.; Liguori, Simona; Iulianelli, Adolfo; Basile, Angelo; Mendes, Adelio; Ligouri, Simona; TECNOLOGÍA DE MEMBRANAS E INTENSIFICACIÓN DE PROCESOSThe effect of surface area and polarity ratio of ZnO support on the catalytic properties of CuO/ZnO catalyst for methanol steam reforming (MSR) are studied. The surface area of ZnO was varied changing the calcination temperature, and its polarity ratio was modified using different Zn precursors, zinc acetate and zinc nitrate. It was found that the copper dispersion and copper surface area increase with the surface area of the ZnO support, and the polarity ratio of ZnO strongly influences the reducibility of copper species. A higher polarity ratio promotes the reducibility, which is attributed to a strong interaction between copper and the more polar ZnO support. Interestingly, it was observed that the selectivity of CuO/ZnO catalysts (lower CO yield) increases with the polarity ratio of ZnO carriers. As another key result, CuO/ZnOAc375 catalyst has proven to be more selective (up to 90%) than a reference CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 sample (G66-MR, Süd Chemie).The activity of the best performing catalyst, CuO/ZnOAc-375, was assessed in a Pd-composite membrane reactor and in a conventional packed-bed reactor. A hydrogen recovery of ca. 75% and a hydrogen permeate purity of more than 90% was obtained. The Pd-based membrane reactor allowed to improve the methanol conversion, by partially suppressing the methanol steam reforming backward reaction, besides upgrading the reformate hydrogen purity for use in HT-PEMFC.Item Curtain Wall with Solar Preheating of Ventilation Air. Full Scale Experimental Assessment(2020-06-30) Garay-Martinez, Roberto; Arregi, Beñat; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVAHeating load in Commercial buildings is highly related with ventilation systems, while at the same time local discomfort in the vicinity of glass walls occurs due to overheating. In this paper, a novel double envelope curtain wall is presented, which extracts heat from the façade by means of a ventilated cavity which is then incorporated to the ventilation air intake. A substantial reduction of heating loads is achieved. Whenever solar gains are not sought, a bypass element allows the natural ventilation of this air cavity, acting as a ventilated façade. An integrated control system with embedded electronics and actuators allows for a smart control of the system. The system is designed for integration with existing rooftop ventilation systems. Design considerations are discussed, and the outcomes of a full-scale experiment conducted in Bilbao (Spain) along 2019 presented.Item Data driven process for the energy assessment of building envelope retrofits(2020-06-30) Garay-Martinez, Roberto; Arregi, Beñat; Lumbreras, Mikel; Zurro, Belén; Gonzalez, Jose Manuel; Hernandez, Jose Luis; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVAIn the last decades, a growing industry has been created in relation to building envelope retrofits. Linked to the lack of financial capacity of many building owners, innovative instruments such as energy performance contracts have been promoted by public bodies. This kind of instruments require of detailed energy assessment processes in order to define the expected heat load reduction and the associated economic flows between building owners and Energy Services Companies. When dealing with building envelopes, existing methods for building envelope heat loss characterization require of substantial efforts in terms of equipment and time, which makes them difficult to apply in real practice. In this paper, a novel method is proposed based on whole-building heat load assessment by means of heat meters, and analytical calculations of building envelope transmission heat load coefficients. This method, which requires minimal or no additional equipment, can be used over historical data from District Heating systems. It assigns a specific load fraction to building envelope heat transfer and allows to assess the expected reduction due to the building envelope retrofit. Numerical and experimental data is presented based on an educational building in the city of Burgos, Spain.Item Decoupling between human development and energy consumption within footprint accounts(2018-11-20) Akizu-Gardoki, Ortzi; Bueno, Gorka; Wiedmann, Thomas; Lopez-Guede, Jose Manuel; Arto, Iñaki; Hernandez, Patxi; Moran, Daniel; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICAHistorically, the growth of energy consumption has fuelled human development, but this approach is no longer socially and environmentally sustainable. Recent analyses suggest that some individual countries have responded to this issue successfully by decoupling Total Primary Energy Supply from human development increase. However, globalisation and international trade have allowed high-income countries to outsource industrial production to lower income countries, thereby increasingly relying on foreign energy use to satisfy their own consumption of goods and services. Accounting for the import of embodied energy in goods and services, this study proposes an alternative estimation of the Decoupling Index based on the Total Primary Energy Footprint rather than Total Primary Energy Supply. An analysis of 126 countries over the years 2000–2014 demonstrates that previous studies based on energy supply highly overestimated decoupling. Footprint-based results, on the other hand, show an overall decrease of the Decoupling Index for most countries (93 out of 126). There is a reduction of the number of both absolutely decoupled countries (from 40 to 27) and relatively decoupled countries (from 29 to 17), and an increase of coupled countries (from 55 to 80). Furthermore, the study shows that decoupling is not a phenomenon characterising only high-income countries due to improvements in energy efficiency, but is also occurring in countries with low Human Development Index and low energy consumption. Finally, six exemplary countries have been identified, which were able to maintain a continuous decoupling trend. From these exemplary countries, lessons have been identified in order to boost the necessary global decoupling of energy consumption and achieved welfare.Item Design of a Calorimetric Test Facility to Replicate Real Boundary Conditions in the Gulf Countries(2020-06-30) Garay-Martinez, Roberto; Jayan, Bejay; Arregi, Beñat; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVAThe design and modelling of a calorimetric test infrastructure for building envelopes is performed for the side-by-side assessment of different building envelope systems. The infrastructure is designed for representing transient weather conditions in Middle east. It consists of 3 “cold” experimental chambers and a larger “hot” experimental chamber. All three cold chambers have one equally sized envelope element exposed to the larger chamber. The test facility is designed to allow testing on walls and roofs, where different envelope insulation systems will be installed over a common substrate. Heating and cooling loads of all experimental chambers are calculated, and systematic load differences assessed. Heat flow across test samples and other surfaces in the test are calculated. Insulation levels of envelope surfaces in experimental chambers are specified to provide a good match between heat transfer across test samples and heat input to experimental chambers.Item The deterioration and environmental impact of binary cements containing thermally activated coal mining waste due to calcium leaching(2018-05-10) Arribas, I.; Vegas, I.; García, V.; Vigil de la Villa, R.; Martínez-Ramírez, S.; Frías, M.; TRAZABILIDAD CIRCULAR; GENERALCalcium-leaching processes can potentially degrade the structure of a concrete matrix. This problem is studied here through the progressive dissolution of Ca2+ in both ordinary Portland cement pastes (C-0) and binary cement blends (C-20) containing 20% thermally Activated Coal Mining Waste (ACMW).1 A series of accelerated tests are conducted that involve the immersion of these cement pastes in a 6 M ammonium nitrate solution at a temperature of 20 C for 7 and for 21 days. A rise in paste porosity was observed, due to increased capillary pore sizes of between 5 and 0.1 μm. In the case of the 20% ACMW pastes (C-20), calcium leaching decreased, probably as a consequence of the pozzolanic effect of the ACMW, while potassium and magnesium leaching increased, due to the presence of the phyllosilicates in the ACMW. The paste compounds most affected by leaching were Ca(OH)2, C6AS3H32, and C4AC¯H12. In general terms, it can be concluded that the incorporation of ACMW into binary cements slightly reduces the calcium leaching phenomena. Concerning the environmental impact assessment, the substitution of 20% OPC by ACMW reduced CO2 emissions by as much as 12% and improved energy efficiency by using approximately 19% fewer fossil resources.Item The District Energy-Efficient Retrofitting of Torrelago (Laguna de Duero – Spain)(2019-06-21) Vasallo, A; Vallejo, E; Massa, G; Macía, A; Pablos, L; Criado, C; Arrizabalaga, E; Iturralde, J; Gordaliza, A; De Castro, I; Larrinaga, F; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICA; SISTEMAS TÉRMICOS EFICIENTESThe urban growth is estimated to reach up the 66 % by 2050 and consequently the need of resources within the cities will increase significantly. This, combined with the 40 % of energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions of the building sector, makes necessary to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable cities. The CITyFiED project contributes to this transition, aiming to develop an innovative and holistic methodological approach for energy-efficient district renovation and deliver three large scale demonstration cases in the cities of Lund (Sweden), Laguna de Duero (Spain) and Soma (Turkey). CITyFiED methodology consists of several phases that ease the decision-making tasks towards the district renovation, considering the energy efficiency as the main pillar and local authorities as clients. For the case of Torrelago district (Spain) the intervention consists of a set of energy conservative measures including the facąde retrofitting of 143.025 m2 of living space in 31 twelve-storey buildings; the renovation of the district heating network with a new biomass thermal plant; the integration of renewable energy sources, including a micro-cogeneration system, and the installation of individual smart meters. After the renovation action, one-year monitoring campaign is ongoing. The CITyFiED monitoring platform will collect information from the energy systems and deliver environmental, technical, economic and social key performance indicators by March 2019. At the end of the project the achievement of the predefined goals will be verified: Up to 36 % of energy saving and 3,429 tons-CO2/yr emissions saving covering the 59,4 % of the energy consumption with renewable sources.Item District Heating De-Carbonisation in Belgrade. Multi-Year transition plan(2020-11-20) Marijuan, Antonio Garrido; Garay, Roberto; Lumbreras, Mikel; Vladic, Ljubisa; Savić, Radmilo; Savic, Radmilo; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVA; Tecnalia Research & InnovationA large share of the city of Belgrade is heated by a District Heating network. Established in 1965, the network delivers 3.6 TWh to more than 20 million square meters of households industries and businesses, by means of a 1460km-long network. The system has been continuously upgraded and adapted to new technologies and already operates at relatively low temperature, with modernized substations. However, the delivered heat is still produced mainly by means of carbon intensive technologies. Conscious of the need to de-carbonise the city, a multi-year transition plan was established, where large investments have been secured, comprising greater interconnection levels, installation of large solar thermal plants and waste incineration plants, and the conversion of a power plant into CHP, among others. In this paper, the criteria for the selection of the technologies, the identification of enabling investments, interaction with stakeholders, securing of financing, and status of the plan are presented. After the execution of the de-carbonisation roadmap, it is expected that the DH system will reduce its carbon intensity by 50%.Item Does circular economy mitigate the extraction of natural resources? Empirical evidence based on analysis of 28 European economies over the past decade(2023-01) Bianchi, Marco; Cordella, Mauro; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; ECONOMÍA CIRCULARMoving towards a circular economy (CE) has become one of the main strategic initiatives on a global scale in the search for sustainable economic systems. However, the conceptual relationship between sustainable development and the circular economy is a matter of ongoing debate. In particular, the extent to which CE initiatives are contributing to the mitigation of resource extraction seems to be a still unclear topic. This paper investigates the relationship between the extraction of natural resources and the CE, and also analyses the effects of critical socioeconomic drivers such as economic and population growth and economic structures. The analysis is based on a panel data covering 28 European countries during the period 2010–2019. Results confirm that promoting a shift towards more circular economic systems can reduce the extraction of primary resources. However, the mitigating effect of CE initiatives remains rather marginal when compared to the impact of economic growth. Namely, estimates show that the primary resources extracted annually linked to economic growth are roughly four times the resources saved by CE initiatives. The findings provide evidence that the circularity of economic systems should be approached from a systemic perspective that includes both production and consumption as well as waste management. In particular, complementary measures addressing behavioural consumption are needed if we want to achieve a sustainable development.Item Effect of water matrix on photocatalytic degradation and general kinetic modeling(2016-01-01) RIOJA, NEREA; ZORITA, SAIOA; PEÑAS, FRANCISCO JAVIER; ADAPTACIÓN AL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICOPhotocatalysis employing TiO2 nanoparticles was studied to assess the effect of aqueous matrix nature in the degradation of clofibric acid (CFA) under UV-A radiation. Aeroxide TiO2-P25 at 0.50 g/L was the most effective catalyst among those tested, with a CFA degradation of 98.5% after 15 min. The CFA photodegradation in environmental waters (tap, mineral, river and recycled wastewater) and in the presence of inorganic (NaCl, FeCl3, FeCl2, AlCl3, CaCl2, Al-2(SO4)(3), Fe-2(SO4)(3), Na2SO4, NaHCO3, and Na2CO3) and organic compounds (humic acids, and a surfactant) commonly found in real waters was compared to that obtained in pure water. In general, the removal efficiency decreased with inorganic salts, especially with sulfates and carbonates (>70% deactivation), and also in environmental waters (>90%). A general kinetic model has been developed to describe the CFA photo degradation depending on the type and concentration of substances present in water. The first-order kinetic constants were estimated by defining a characteristic parameter for each ion species tested in the aqueous matrix. High correlation (R-2 >0.99 in most cases) was observed between experimental CFA concentrations and those predicted by the model.Item Energy demand prediction for the implementation of an energy tariff emulator to trigger demand response in buildings(2019-08-13) Noyé, Sarah; Saralegui, Unai; Rey, Raphael; Anton, Miguel Angel; Romero, Ander; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; DIGITALIZACIÓN Y AUTOMATIZACIÓN DE LA CONSTRUCCIÓN; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVABuildings are key actors of the electrical gird. As such they have an important role to play in grid stabilization, especially in a context where renewable energies are mandated to become an increasingly important part of the energy mix. Demand response provides a mechanism to reduce or displace electrical demand to better match electrical production. Buildings can be a pool of flexibility for the grid to operate more efficiently. One of the ways to obtain flexibility from building managers and building users is the introduction of variable energy prices which evolve depending on the expected load and energy generation. In the proposed scenario, the wholesale energy price of electricity, a load prediction, and the elasticity of consumers are used by an energy tariff emulator to predict prices to trigger end user flexibility. In this paper, a cluster analysis to classify users is performed and an aggregated energy prediction is realised using Random Forest machine learning algorithm.Item Energy meters in District-Heating Substations for Heat Consumption Characterization and Prediction Using Machine-Learning Techniques(2020-11-20) Lumbreras, Mikel; Garay, Roberto; Marijuan, Antonio Garrido; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVAThe use of smart energy meters enables the monitoring of large quantity of data related to heat consumption patterns in buildings connected to DH networks. This information can be used to understand the interaction between building and the final users´ without accurate information about building characteristics and occupational rates. In this paper an intuitive and clarifier data-driven model is presented, which couples heat demand and weather variables. This model enables the disaggregation of Space-Heating & Domestic Hot water demand, characterization of the total heat demand and the forecasting for the next hours. Simulations for 53 building have been carried out, with satisfactory results for most of them, reaching R2 values above 0.9 in some of them.Item Environmental assessment of domestic solar hot water systems: a case study in residential and hotel buildings: A case study in residential and hotel buildings(2015-02-01) Zambrana-Vasquez, David; Aranda-Usón, Alfonso; Zabalza-Bribián, Ignacio; Jañez, Alberto; Llera-Sastresa, Eva; Hernández, Patxi; Arrizabalaga, Eneko; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICADomestic solar hot water systems (SHWS), which are used to reduce domestic energy use, represent one of the most widely known technologies of solar thermal applications. Taking into account the sizing of these systems during its design phase, it is also important to consider the effects on the environment of their use from a life cycle perspective. An evaluation method based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is used in this paper to analyse the environmental implications of SHWS considering the production, use, maintenance and end-of-life stages. As a case study, 32 different types of SWHS to meet the hot water demand (HWD) of 2 dwellings and 2 hotels, located in the region of Aragón in Spain, are studied. The aim of the case study is to compare the environmental performance of SHWS and to select the best environmentally friendly solution while considering their energy pay-back time (EPBT). From an environmental point of view, comparing the results obtained in all cases studies, e.g., in terms of kg CO2 eq, the use of biomass as fuel for the auxiliary system in each SHWS considered provides the greatest environmental benefit in comparison with the other fuels, usually followed by the use of natural gas. However, in terms of the EPBT, because biomass is the fuel with lowest environmental impact and associated embodied energy, the avoided embodied energy due to the solar contribution in SHWS is the lowest in the biomass case, thereby resulting in a higher value of the EPBT.Item Evaluating energy and resource efficiency for recovery of metallurgical residues using environmental and economic analysis(2022-07-01) Di Maria, Andrea; Merchán, Mikel; Marchand, Muriel; Eguizabal, David; De Cortázar, Maider García; Van Acker, Karel; CIRMETALEnergy and resource efficiency are today key elements for the metallurgical industry in the context of the new European Green Deal. Although the currently available technologies have recently led to an optimisation of energy and materials use, the decarbonisation targets may not be met without the development of new and innovative technologies and strategies. In this context, the goal of the H2020 project CIRMET (Innovative and efficient solution, based on modular, versatile, and smart process units for energy and resource flexibility in highly energy-intensive processes) is to develop and validate an innovative and flexible circular solution for energy and resource efficiency in a metallurgical plant. The circular model proposed is composed of three units: (1) a metallurgical furnace for the recovery of valuable metals from industrial metallic wastes, (2) a unit for heat recovery from the furnace’s exhaust gases, and (3) a digital platform for the optimisation of the whole process. Also, the circular model investigates the possibilities of substituting the metallurgical coke used in the furnace with biobased material (BIOCHAR). This study presents an environmental and economic assessment of the circular model, based on a real pilot testing campaign in which residues from non-ferrous metals production are treated for the recovery of metals, mechanical energy from waste heat, and inert fraction. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) are used to assess the environmental and economic performances of the circular model. The results of the LCA and the LCC highlight the main environmental and economic hot spots of the proposed technologies. The environmental analysis showed the environmental positive effects of recovering secondary metals and energy. However, for some environmental impact categories (e.g. climate change), the benefits are balanced out by the high electricity and natural gas demand in the metallurgical furnace. In this regard, the substitution of metallurgical coke with BIOCHAR can significantly lower the environmental impacts of the whole process. The economic analysis showed the potential economic profitability of the whole process, depending mostly on the quantity and marketability of the recovered metals. For both environmental and economic analysis, the electricity demand in the metallurgical furnace represents the main barrier that can hinder the viability of the process. Therefore, looking for alternative energy sources (e.g. waste heat from other industries) is identified as the most effective strategy to push the sustainability of the whole process. As the proposed technology is under development, these preliminary results can provide useful insights and contribute to the environmental and economic optimisation of the technology.Item Experimental investigation of electric discharge parameters in correlation with peak pressure at industrial electrohydraulic forming(2019-10) Pérez, I.; Knyazyev, M. K.; San José, J.; PROMETALThe paper shows the investigation results of correlating electric discharge and pressure field parameters aimed to improvements in the electrohydraulic impact forming (EHF) technology at industrial application. The experimental research was performed by using a conical discharge chamber equipped with a set of two electrodes in semi-industrial EHF installation. Pressure fields along round flat area were measured by applying the multi-point membrane pressure gauge methodology. The conditions of the tests include a wide range of spark gaps with four levels of charge voltage and energy. Measurements of discharge voltage and current are performed with voltage divider, Rogovsky coil and electronic oscilloscope. Other electric discharge parameters were calculated from the recorded voltage and current curves. The essence of investigation is to analyse energy parameters for peak pressure of shock wave generated by these discharge energy parameters. Though these dependencies were earlier analysed theoretically and tested in electrohydraulic plants under laboratory conditions, the practical interest in this experimental investigation is to reveal influence of conditions of real semi-industrial EHF press designed for batch production of sheet parts. Conducted experimental investigation has shown that industrial applications of high-voltage non-initiated discharges can significantly deviate from the theoretical and laboratory results. Dependencies of peak pressure from maximum power during the first semi-period of discharge current and slope of power curve appeared to be not so strong. These deviations in peak pressure can reach 20–30%. Among the assumed additional factors influencing energy and pressure parameters are: condition of current-conductive rod of electrode (erosion, rust, radius); condition (wear) of electrode insulator (increase of naked area of current-conductive rod); variations in shape, position and length of discharge channel relative to spark gap; “shadowing” effect of electrodes at some positions of discharge channel relative to electrode;, several discharge channels at small spark gap and other. To reveal effect of these factors the authors plan to carry-out tests with wire-initiated discharges to check the variations in shape, position and length of discharge channel relative to spark gap in the same discharge chamber configuration.