Browsing by Author "Tassou, Savvas"

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    Feasibility study of biomass gasification integrated with reheating furnaces in steelmaking process
    (DEStech Publication Inc., 2019-11-04) Hu, Yukun; Chowdhury, Jahedul Islam; Katsaros, Giannis; Tan, C. K.; Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye; Varga, Liz; Tassou, Savvas; Wang, Chunsheng
    This paper investigates the integration of biosyngas production, reheating furnace and heat recovery steam cycle, in order to use biosyngas directly as fuel in the furnace. A system model was developed to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed system from the perspective of heat and mass balance. To particularly study the impacts of fuel switching on the heating quality of the furnace, a three-dimensional furnace model considering detailed heat transfer processes was embedded into the system through an Aspen PlusTM user defined model. The simulation results show that biosyngas is suitable for direct use as fuel for reheating furnaces. Should CO capture be considered in the proposed system, it has a potential to achieve the capture without external energy input which results in so-called negative emissions of CO.
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    Priority research questions for the UK food system
    (Springer Science Business Media, 2013-10-01T00:00:00Z) Ingram, John S. I.; Wright, Hugh L.; Foster, Lucy; Aldred, Timothy; Barling, David; Benton, Tim G.; Berryman, Paul M.; Bestwick, Charles S.; Bows-Larkin, Alice; Brocklehurst, Tim F.; Buttriss, Judith; Casey, John; Collins, Hannah; Crossley, Daniel S.; Dolan, Catherine S.; Dowler, Elizabeth; Edwards, Robert; Finney, Karen J.; Fitzpatrick, Julie L.; Fowler, Mark; Garrett, David A.; Godfrey, Jim E.; Godley, Andrew R.; Griffiths, William; Houlston, Eleanor J.; Kaiser, Michel J.; Kennard, Robert; Knox, Jerry W.; Kuyk, Andrew; Linter, Bruce R.; Macdiarmid, Jennie I.; Martindale, Wayne; Mathers, John C.; McGonigle, Daniel F.; Mead, Angela; Millar, Samuel J.; Miller, Anne; Murray, Calum; Norton, Ian T.; Parry, Stephen; Pollicino, Marilena; Quested, Thomas E.; Tassou, Savvas; Terry, Leon A; Tiffin, Richard; Pieter, van de Graaf; Vorley, William; Westby, Andrew; Sutherland, William J.
    The rise of food security up international political, societal and academic agendas has led to increasing interest in novel means of improving primary food production and reducing waste. There are however, also many ‘post-farm gate' activities that are critical to food security, including processing, packaging, distributing, retailing, cooking and consuming. These activities all affect a range of important food security elements, notably availability, affordability and other aspects of access, nutrition and safety. Addressing the challenge of universal food security, in the context of a number of other policy goals (e.g. social, economic and environmental sustainability), is of keen interest to a range of UK stakeholders but requires an up-to-date evidence base and continuous innovation. An exercise was therefore conducted, under the auspices of the UK Global Food Security Programme, to identify priority research questions with a focus on the UK food system (though the outcomes may be broadly applicable to other developed nations). Emphasis was placed on incorporating a wide range of perspectives (‘world views') from different stakeholder groups: policy, private sector, non-governmental organisations, advocacy groups and academia. A total of 456 individuals submitted 820 questions from which 100 were selected by a process of online voting and a three-stage workshop voting exercise. These 100 final questions were sorted into 10 themes and the ‘top' question for each theme identified by a further voting exercise. This step also allowed four different stakeholder groups to select the top 7-8 questions from their perspectives. Results of these voting exercises are presented. It is clear from the wide range of questions prioritised in this exercise that the different stakeholder groups identified specific research needs on a range of post-farm gate activities and food security outcomes. Evidence needs related to food affordability, nutrition and food safety (all key elements of food security) featured highly in the exercise. While there were some questions relating to climate impacts on production, other important topics for food security (e.g. trade, transport, preference and cultural needs) were not viewed as strongly by the participants.
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    System integration study of oxy-biosyngas combustion based metal heating process using Aspen Plus
    (ICAE, 2020-12-10) Hu, Yukun; Chowdhury, Jahedul Islam; Katsaros, Giannis; Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye; Varga, Liz; Li, Kang; Tassou, Savvas; Wang, Chunsheng
    Given the increasing concerns on emissions, efficient and environmentally friendly combustion technologies are urgently needed to address energy trilemma. Metal heating is a large component of energy-intensive processes, as its energy consumption accounts for one third of the steel manufacturing process. Early attempts at using a new flameless oxy-fuel combustion burner give high performance, low NOx, and low-cost heating for the steel industry, while biosyngas is considered as an alternative fuel for reheating furnace with aiming at CO2 mitigation. Yet, all these technical solutions are developed in isolation. This paper investigates the system integration of biosyngas production, air separation unit (ASU), reheating furnace and heat recovery (HR) steam cycle, in order to enhance energy efficiency of steel industry and enable so-called negative emissions. An integrated system model was developed using Aspen Plus to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed integration from the perspective of heat and mass balance. In particular, to study the impacts of fuel switching on the heating quality of the furnace, a three-dimensional furnace model considering detailed heat transfer processes was embedded into the system. The simulation results show that the proposed system integration strategy is technically feasible. The electricity generation of the HR steam cycle used can compensate for about 90% of ASU’s energy consumption. The system is carbon capture-ready for being further integrated with CO2 conditioning and transportation processes