U.S. Egypt Cooperative Research: Effective Reduction of Industrial Green House Gas Emissions via Energy Integration and Biomass Utilization

该项目支持德克萨斯州农工大学化学工程系Mahmoud El-Halwagi博士与埃及扎加齐格扎加齐格大学的Kamal Eiwda博士的合作研究。他们计划研究通过能源整合和生物质利用有效减少工业温室气体排放。温室气体(GHGs)对环境和气候变化造成了一些最深远的影响。温室气体排放的最大人为来源是发电厂和工业流程。减少工业设施产生的温室气体的两种最可行的替代办法是生物质的联产和利用，并在流程工业中结合热电联产。该项目旨在解决埃及和美国工业设施的温室气体排放问题。特别是，将采用以下重要战略。流程热电联产：大幅减少能源和温室气体排放。生物质能源利用：导致作物生长过程中的碳固存。技术-经济-环境分析和政策建议。该项目将制定系统和普遍适用的程序，以支持上述三项战略，并回答各种问题，包括以下问题：如何在现有流程中将生物质利用纳入联烧和能源生产？如何通过整合来协调供热需求和热电联产机会？确保技术可行性的经济和政策因素是什么？对温室气体排放有什么影响？必要的温室气体抵消/补贴是什么？美国和埃及的几个行业将积极参与该项目，并将为该项目的产业咨询委员会提供服务。除了被引用的出版物和会议报告外，研究结果将通过软件记录下来，这些软件将被开发并传播给业界，以使其能够应用。最后，将在项目结束时组织一次研讨会，正式确定减少温室气体排放的政策制定建议。智力优势：该计划基于一种新的框架，该框架涉及一种在最大限度减少环境浪费的同时优化过程性能的整体方法。将开发、集成和解决模拟、过程综合、集成和优化模型的组合。这些模型将提供一个新的平台，可以系统地为减少能源消耗和大气污染物排放提供完整的战略。这些新技术将为新兴的环境生物复杂性领域的基础研究奠定基础，并将导致一个史无前例的环境和系统研究计划的制度化。更广泛的影响：该项目将导致创建一个积极的、基础广泛的计划，以独特、基本和综合的方式解决这些复杂的环境和加工问题。潜在的环境效益包括减少环境排放、保护自然资源和减少污染。这项工作还可以通过提供具有成本效益的流程设计和运营政策来影响增长政策。这些解决方案将说明各实体在解决问题方面的作用，并为拟议的战略提供成本效益分析。开发的方法足够通用，可以适应和发展，以研究各种行业的污染预防。该项目得到了美国-埃及联合基金计划的支持，该计划为两国的科学家和工程师提供资助，以开展这些合作活动。

0710936ElHalwagiDescription: This project supports collaborative research by Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi, Chemical Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas in collaboration with Dr. Kamal Eiwda, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt. They plan to study the Effective Reduction of Industrial GHG Emissions via Energy Integration and Biomass Utilization. Green house gases (GHGs) pose some of the most profound impact on the environment and climate change. The largest anthropogenic sources of GHG emissions are power plants and industrial processes. Two of the most viable alternatives for reducing GHGs from industrial facilities are the cogeneration and the utilization of biomass in conjunction with combined heat and power (CHP) in the process industries. The project is aimed at addressing the problem of GHG emissions from industrial facilities in Egypt and the United States. In particular, the following important strategies will be employed . Process Cogeneration: resulting in significant reduction in energy and emissions of GHGs . Biomass Utilization for Energy: leading to carbon sequestration during crop growth . Techno-Economic-Environmental Analysis and Policy Recommendations. The project will develop systematic and generally-applicable procedures to enable the foregoing three strategies and to answer various questions including the following: . How to incorporate biomass utilization in co-firing and energy production within an existing process? . How to reconcile thermal demands with cogeneration opportunities through integration? . What are the economic and policy factors to insure technical feasibility? . What is the impact on GHG emissions and what are the necessary GHG offsets/subsidies? Several industries in the US and Egypt will actively participate in the project and will serve on an Industrial Advisory Committee for the project. In addition to refereed publications and conference presentations, the research findings will be documented through software which will be developed and disseminated to industry to enable applications. Finally, a workshop will be organized at the end of the project to formalize the recommendations for policymaking to reduce GHG emissions. Intellectual Merit: This program is based on a novel framework that involves a holistic approach to optimizing process performance while minimizing environmental wastes. A combination of simulation, process synthesis, integration, and optimization models will be developed, integrated, and solved. The models will provide a new platform that can systematically provide a complete strategy for reduction in energy consumption and emission of atmospheric pollutants. These new techniques will lay the foundations for fundamental research in the emerging area of environmental biocomplexity and will result in institutionalizing an unprecedented environmental and systems research program. Broader Impact: The project will result in the creation of an active, broad-based program to address these complex environmental and processing issues in unique, fundamental, and integrated ways. The potential environmental benefits include reduction of environmental discharges, conservation of natural resources, and abatement of pollution. The work can also impact growth policies by providing cost-effective process design and operation policies. The solutions will describe the role of the various entities in solving the problem and provide a cost-benefit analysis for the proposed strategies. The developed approach is generic enough to be adapted and evolved to study pollution prevention for a wide variety of industries. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.