____________________________________________________

Zero Emission Energy
www.ZeroEmissionEnergy.com

Engineering and Renewable Energy 
Project Development Services

What is "Zero Emission Energy"?

"Zero Emission Energy" includes those power plants and power/energy generation technologies that can generate power and energy without any harmful emissions, including;

• Carbon Emissions

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Hazardous Air Pollutants

• Nitrogen Oxides

• Volatile Organic Compounds

Several energy and renewable energy technologies generate Zero Emission Power, including;

• Concentrated Solar Power

• Concentrating Solar Power

• Geothermal Power Plants

• Graz Cycle

• Net Zero Energy

• Organic Rankine Cycle

• Waste Heat Engines

• Waste Heat Generators

• Waste Heat Recovery

• Wind Power Generation

__________________________________________________

About us:

We provide engineering and renewable energy consulting and project development services;

• Anaerobic Digesters

• Architects and Engineers

• Architectural and Engineering

• Automated Demand Response

• Battery Energy Storage

• Biomass Gasification

• Bulk Energy Storage

• Clean Power Generation

• Cogeneration

• Concentrated Solar Power

• Concentrating Solar Power

• Decentralized Energy

• Demand Side Management 

• Distributed Energy Resources

• Distributed PV

• EcoGeneration

• Engineering Feasibility

• Feasibility Studies 

• Economic Feasibility Analysis

• Emissions Abatement 

• Emissions Engineering

• Engineering Procurement Construction - EPC

• Frequency Regulation

• Front End Engineering

• Front End Engineering Design - FEED

• Front End Loading

• Graz Cycle

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions consulting

• Greenhouse Gas Reporting

• High Concentration PV

• High Voltage Direct Current

• Interconnection Studies

• Natural Gas Storage

• Net Zero Energy

• Peak Load Management

• Plasma Gasification

• Pollution Free Power

• Power Purchase Agreement consulting & PPA funding

• Project Development

• Project Management

• Project Finance/Funding introduction to potential investors

• Rooftop PV

• Salt Dome Storage

• Smart Grid

• Sustainable Urban Living

• Trigeneration

• Unified Smart Grid

• Waste Heat Recovery

• Waste to Energy

• Waste to Fuel

Our work is performed on a strict adherence to "vendor-neutrality" and seek to maximize our client's "triple bottom line" returns:  people, planet and profits.

To receive a preliminary, no obligation consult, email us a summary or overview of your project to:

What is the Graz Cycle?

The Graz Cycle is the only thermodynamic combustion cycle that allows for the retention and capture of carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels.

The Graz Cycle burns fossil fuel along with pure oxygen thereby enabling for the cost-effective separation of the carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion process through condensation. The additional expense for supplying the oxygen for the combustion process - and requirements for an air separation unit, are compensated, in part, through the increase in cycle efficiencies that exceed 65%. The combined efficiency of the Graz Cycle equals of exceeds the thermodynamic performance of other serious contenders in Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS).

The Graz Cycle is the thermodynamic cycle that provides for a "zero emission power plant" which also has the highest available efficiencies using gas turbines. The Graz Cycle has also been heralded as a "zero emission" power plant.

In practice, net electrical cycle efficiencies for Graz Cycle power plants have exceeded 65% - which is far higher than typical of state-of-the-art combined cycle plants.

According to the DOE web site, the Graz Cycle consists of a high temperature Brayton cycle and a low temperature Rankine cycle with a Heat Recovery Steam Generator. The Graz Cycle is an oxy-fuel power cycle with the capability of retaining all the combustion generated CO2 for further use. Its cycle configuration aims at highest efficiency by reducing the heat extraction in the condenser to a minimum. A thermodynamic investigation of the Graz Cycle fired with natural gas (CH4) shows a net efficiency of 52.5%, if the efforts for oxygen supply and CO2 compression to liquefaction are considered. If synthesis gas can be used from an external synthesis gas plant at 500°C, efficiencies can rise up to 56%. Studies indicate that further efficiency improvements and simplification of the cycle are possible.

_______________________________________________________

Brayton Cycle, Cheng Cycle, Carnot Cycle, Kalina Cycle,
Rankine Cycle and Waste Heat Recovery:
the Greenest of all Renewable Energy Technologies

What is the Brayton Cycle?

Gas turbines operate on the principal of the Brayton Cycle, which is defined as a constant pressure cycle, with four basic operations which it accomplishes simultaneously and continuously for an uninterrupted flow of power.

Background Information and History of Rudolph Diesel and Sadi Carnot:

Rudolph Diesel was educated at the predecessor school to the Technical University of Munich, Germany. In 1878, he was introduced to the work of Sadi Carnot, who theorized that an engine could achieve much higher efficiency than the steam engines of the day. Carnot envisioned a cycle in which a gas is compressed, heated, allowed to expand, and then cooled. After the gas is cooled, the cycle begins anew. Mechanical energy is used to compress the gas and thermal energy to heat it. In turn, expansion of the gas yields mechanical energy, and its cooling yields thermal energy. The net result is conversion of thermal energy to mechanical energy.

Diesel sought to apply Carnot’s theory to the internal combustion engine. The efficiency of the Carnot cycle increases with the compression ratio—the ratio of gas volume at full expansion to its volume at full compression. Nicklaus Otto invented an internal combustion engine in 1876 that was the predecessor to the modern gasoline engine. Otto’s engine mixed fuel and air before their introduction to the cylinder, and a flame or spark was used to ignite the fuel-air mixture at the appropriate time. However, air gets hotter as it is compressed, and if the compression ratio is too high, the heat of compression will ignite the fuel prematurely. The low compression ratios needed to prevent premature ignition of the fuel-air mixture limited the efficiency of the Otto engine.

Rudolph Diesel wanted to build an engine with the highest possible compression ratio. He introduced fuel only when combustion was desired and allowed the fuel to ignite on its own in the hot compressed air. Diesel’s engine achieved an efficiency higher than that of the Otto engine and much higher than that of the steam engine. It also eliminated the trouble-prone electric-spark ignition system. Diesel received a patent in 1893 and demonstrated a workable engine in 1897. Today, diesel engines are classified as “compression-ignition” engines, and Otto engines are classified as “spark-ignition” engines.

What is the Carnot Cycle?

The Carnot Cycle has been described as being the most efficient thermal cycle possible, wherein there is no heat losses, and consisting of four reversible processes, two isothermal and two adiabatic. It has also been described as a cycle of expansion and compression of a reversible heat engine that does work with no loss of heat.

What is the Cheng Cycle?

The Cheng Cycle is a highly flexible and efficient method of optimizing a cogeneration plant, and more specifically a combined cycle power plant, which also provides a high amount of flexibility in the power and thermal energy output.

For a Cheng Cycle to be implemented, a gas turbine and waste heat boiler or heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) is required. The gas turbine is updated to accept "steam injection" - the steam being "superheated steam" which is capable of handling up to 20% of the exhaust flow from the gas turbine. The saturated steam as well as the superheated steam, is generated from the waste heat boiler or heat recovery steam generator.

When the Cheng Cycle is in 100% power mode, all of the steam that is produced by the "waste heat" from the gas turbine, is "recycled" through the gas turbine. In cogeneration plants, the Cheng Cycle system is set-up so that steam may be used for process application and-or recycled back to the gas turbine. A duct burner is placed between the gas turbine and the waste heat boiler or the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) which increases the total amount of steam output generated by the plant.

The Cheng Cycle has achieved the following impressive performance metrics on a number of gas turbine generators:

• Increases the power output of the gas turbine by as much as 80%

• Improves overall efficiency by 40%

• With steam injection, can reduce NOx emissions by 90% - achieving 2 PPM

• Reduces CO emissions to less than 10 PPM
  

What is the Kalina Cycle?

Invented by Alexander Kalina, a Russian engineer, the Kalina Cycle uses a water and ammonia in low temperature Waste Heat Recovery applications, such as geothermal power plants, to increase thermodynamic efficiency and power output.

Problems associated with Kalina Cycle, and why it has never gained significant appeal include;

• GE Power attempted to operate a Kalina Cycle power plant in conjunction with a gas fired power plant but found it neither economical or competitive.

• Inability to operate efficiently at high temperature or high pressure.

• Nitriding of the alloy steel superheater tubes.

• Complicated distillation columns required to recombine the turbine exhaust into the binary mixture used in the heat exchangers
  

• cycle proposals seem to be based on zero frictional pressure drop and zero temperature differences in the main process components, and it is pretty expensive to meet such requirements.

What is the Organic Rankine Cycle?

A Rankine cycle is a closed circuit steam cycle. (see www.RankineCycle.com for more information).

An Organic Rankine Cycle uses a heated chemical instead of steam as found in the Rankine Cycle. Chemicals used in the Organic Rankine Cycle include freon, butane, propane, ammonia, and the new environmentally-friendly" refrigerants.


Why use a chemical refrigerant?

A refrigerant boils at a temperature below the temperature of frozen ice. Solar heat, for example, of only 150 degrees Fahrenheit from a typical rooftop solar hot water heater, will furiously boil a refrigerant. The resulting high-pressure refrigerant vapor is then piped to an organic Rankine cycle engine.


Why is it called "organic"?

"Organic" is a term used in chemistry to describe a class of chemicals that includes Freon and most of the other common refrigerants.

What is the Rankine Cycle?

The Rankine Cycle is a thermodynamic cycle used to generate electricity in many power stations, and is the real-world approach to the Carnot Cycle. Superheated steam is generated in a boiler, and then expanded in a steam turbine. The steam turbine drives a generator, to convert the work into electricity. The remaining steam is then condensed and recycled as feed-water to the boiler. A disadvantage of using the water-steam mixture is that superheated steam has to be used, otherwise the moisture content after expansion might be too high, which would erode the turbine blades.

What is Waste Heat Recovery?

Many processes, especially in industrial applications, produce large amounts of excess heat – i.e., heat beyond what can be efficiently used in the process. Waste Heat Recovery methods attempt to extract some of the energy as work that otherwise would be wasted.

Typical methods of recovering heat in industrial applications include direct heat recovery to the process itself, recuperators, regenerators, and waste heat boilers. In many applications – especially those with low-temperature waste heat streams, such as automotive applications – the economic benefits of waste heat recovery do not justify the cost of the recovery systems. Innovative, affordable methods that are highly efficient, applicable to low-temperature streams, and/or suitable for use with corrosive or “dirty” wastes could expand the number of viable applications of waste heat recovery, as well as improve the performance of existing applications. Our focus is on the development of innovative Waste Heat Recovery processes and techniques that are (1) more efficient than conventional methods, yet still cost-effective; and (2) applicable to waste streams from which heat cannot be recovered easily with conventional methods.

Turning to cooling, air conditioning systems consume approximately 10% of the energy used in U.S. buildings and are key contributors to peak demand. Consequently, improving the energy efficiency of air conditioning systems would substantially reduce overall energy consumption and enhance grid reliability. For example, compressors require cooling to dissipate the heat produced during compression and could benefit from improved surface heat transfer – innovative designs could increase the available heat-transfer area or materials enhancement could increase the heat flux between the hot and cool sides of a heat exchanger. Similarly, a reduction in the requirement for condenser cooling could provide significant energy savings if more-efficient, cost-effective technologies were developed.

This is where we believe waste heat recovery integrated with our Solar Trigeneration energy systems represents a unique opportunity for commercial and industrial clients.

Industrial Waste Heat Recovery

Waste Heat Recovery from exit gases can significantly increase the energy efficiency of industrial processes. Energy can be recovered from flue and stack gases, vent gases, and combustion gases at a variety of temperatures at large-scale industrial plants (chemical plants, petroleum refineries, biorefineries, pulp and paper mills, etc.).

_______________________________________________________

What is the "Unified Smart Grid"?

The Unified Smart Grid is the name used for the future transmission power lines that would carry green electricity from the many solar power plants and solar power parks and wind farms that generate the power, typically in remote areas, to the "load centers" or major cities that would use the green power. 

Quite simply, our country's out-dated and inefficient National Electric Grid, lacks the ability to carry all the new green electricity being planned from hundreds of new solar power parks and wind power generation facilities.

The Unified Smart Grid will be a national interconnected network relying on a high capacity backbone of electric power transmission lines linking all the nation's local electrical networks that have been upgraded to smart grids. Europe's analogous project is sometimes referred to as the SuperSmart Grid, a term that also appears in the literature describing the Unified Smart Grid. 

Cost estimates to rebuild the nation's electric grid as a Unified Smart Grid have ranged from $350 billion to $450 billion.

Support for the unified smart grid came with passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.   Title 13 of this Act invested $100 million in funding for the years 2008 – 2012 and establishes a matching program to states, utilities and consumers to build unified smart grid capabilities.  It also creates a Grid Modernization Commission to assess the benefits of demand response and automated demand response and recommended a set of system protocols and standards to be led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology which would coordinate the development of smart grid standards.  FERC would then promulgate these standards and protocols for the unified smart grid through its official rulemaking capabilities.

The Unified Smart Grid received further support with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that set aside $11 billion for the creation of a smart grid.

Building a Unified Smart Grid would help jump-start the renewable energy investments in solar power parks.  Thousands of megawatts of new solar power parks (both Concentrating Solar Power plants and Photovoltaic Power Plants) are being planned. Most are  located in the desert Southwest due to the solar energy resource. A Unified Smart Grid is needed to move the large amount of power, which is fairly concentrated, to the rest of the nation.  Without the new Unified Smart Grid, it would be impossible to distribute the green power to the nation. 

The new Unified Smart Grid is significantly more efficient than the present, nearly 100 year old technology that makes up our nation's present transmission and distribution network of how we get the power from central power plants to customers and major load centers.

Much of the new Unified Smart Grid will be comprised of "High Voltage Direct Current" transmission lines which is significantly more efficient than the present high voltage alternating current transmission lines.  

The new Unified Smart Grid will provide economic development, thousands of new jobs, and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

What would the new Unified Smart Grid look like?

Source:  American Electric Power

__________________________________________________

For more information on the Unified Smart Grid, visit one of the following sites:

Central Power Plant
www.CentralPowerPlant.com

Electric Power Generation
www.ElectricPowerGeneration.net

High Voltage Direct Current
www.HighVoltageDirectCurrent.com

National Electric Grid
www.NationalElectricGrid.com

Transmission and Distribution
www.TransmissionAndDistribution.net

Unified Smart Grid
www.UnifiedSmartGrid.com

Wind Power Generation
www.WindPowerGeneration.com

__________________________________________________

You Can't Have a Unified Smart Grid Without:

Advanced Metering System  *  Advanced Meters  *  Automated Demand Response  *  Automated Energy Management

Battery Energy Storage  *  Building Automation Systems  *  Carbon Free Energy  *  Clean Power Generation  *  Cogeneration 

Compressed Air Energy Storage  *  Decentralized Energy  *  Demand Side Management  *  Dispersed Generation 

Distributed Energy Resources  *  Distributed Generation  *  Distributed PV  *  EcoGeneration  *  High Voltage Direct Current 

Load Leveling  *  Locational Marginal Pricing  *  Micro-Grid  *  Net Zero Energy  *  Net Zero Energy Buildings 

Nodal Pricing  *  Onsite Power Generation  *  Pollution Free Power  *  Plug In Electric Vehicles  *  Renewable Energy Parks 

Rooftop PV  *  Solar Cogeneration  *  Solar Power Parks  *  Trigeneration  *  Virtual Power Plants  *  Waste Heat Recovery

_______________________________________________________

What is a Power Purchase Agreement?

A Power Purchase Agreement is a legal agreement wherein our clients agree to buy either the power (electricity) or the power and energy (hot water, steam and/or chilled water for air-conditioning) - or both - directly from us, for a term of 10 to 20 years, where we have installed, own and operate our solar energy systems.

In nearly every case, once we have installed our solar energy systems at our client's facility, we can immediately reduce our (commercial) client's electricity expenses by 10% over what they were paying for their power electricity from their electric utility.

The right Power Purchase Agreement, solar cogeneration or solar trigeneration energy solution, may save your company hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions of dollars over the term of the agreement.  

Simultaneously, having the wrong or poorly drafted PPA can cost your company thousands or millions of dollars.  You wouldn't consult a brain surgeon to treat your child's broken bone!  Selecting the wrong attorneys, law firm or team to promulgate or re-negotiate your Power Purchase Agreement can leave you "powerless" and penniless - and still requiring the skills and expertise of competent and qualified professionals to resolve the situation. 

Because a Power Purchase Agreement is at the "heart" and underlying foundation of our projects, we can help your business with the selection and oversight of PPA's. 

We can help your city or community create a Municipal Utility District or Public Utility District that may then qualify for our very competitively priced energy and electricity rates. Now is the time for cities, municipal and governmental clients to consider having our company install one of our renewable power and energy systems that will generate "clean" power and energy, lower costs, and avoid the coming electricity shortages and grid congestion problems!  

Products and services provided by us include the following power and energy project development services: 

• Project Engineering Feasibility & Economic Analysis Studies  

• Engineering, Procurement and Construction

• Environmental Engineering & Permitting 

• Project Funding & Financing Options; including Equity Investment, Debt Financing, Lease and Municipal Lease

• Shared/Guaranteed Savings Program with No Capital Investment from Qualified Clients 

• Project Commissioning 

• 3rd Party Ownership and Project Development

• Long-term Service Agreements

• Operations & Maintenance 

• Green Tag (Renewable Energy Credit, Carbon Dioxide Credits, Emission Reduction Credits) Brokerage Services; Application and Permitting

____________________________________________________

Photo courtesy of Alaska Image Library. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

______________________________________________________

How we make and distribute electricity is changing! 

The electric power generation, transmission and distribution system (the electric "grid") is changing and evolving from the electric grid of the 19th and 20th centuries, which was inefficient, highly-polluting, very expensive and “dumb.”  

The "old" way of generating and distributing energy resembles this slide:

____________________________________________________

American Energy Plan
www.AmericanEnergyPlan.com

Wind Power Generation
www.WindPowerGeneration.com

Zero Emission Energy
www.ZeroEmissionEnergy.com

Zero Emission Power
www.ZeroEmissionPower.com

^{______________________________________________________}

We support the Renewable Energy Institute by donating a portion of our profits to the Renewable Energy Institute in their efforts to reduce fossil fuel use through renewable energy and their goals to end fossil fuel pollution by reducing/eliminating Carbon Emissions, Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

The Renewable Energy Institute is "Changing The Way The World Makes and Uses Energy by Providing Research & Development, Funding and Resources That Creates Sustainable Energy via 'Carbon Free Energy,' 'Clean Power Generation' and 'Pollution Free Power' Through Expanding the use of Renewable Energy Technologies."

Copyright © 2003
All Rights Reserved