Operational characteristics of a 1.2-MW biomass gasification and power generation plant

In this study, we analyzed the operational characteristics of a 1.2-MW rice husk gasification and power generation plant located in Changxing, Zhejiang province, China. The influences of gasification temperature, equivalence ratio (ER), feeding rate and rice husk water content on the gasification characteristics in a fluidized bed gasifier were investigated. The axial temperature profile in the dense phase of the gasifier showed that inadequate fluidization occurred inside the bed, and that the temperature was closely related to changes in ER and feeding rate. The bed temperature increased linearly with increasing ER when the feeding rate was kept constant, while a higher feeding rate corresponded to a lower bed temperature at fixed ER. The gas heating value decreased with increasing temperature, while the feeding rate had little effect. When the gasification temperature was 700-800C, the gas heating value ranged from 5450-6400kJ/Nm3. The water content of the rice husk had an obvious influence on the operation of the gasifier: increases in water content up to 15% resulted in increasing ER and gas yield, while water contents above 15% caused aberrant temperature fluctuations. The problems in this plant are discussed in the light of operational experience of MW-scale biomass gasification and power generation plants.

Synthesis Gas Generation by Chemical-Looping Reforming Using Ce-Based Oxygen Carriers Modified with Fe, Cu, and Mn Oxides

Chemical-looping reforming (CLR) is a technology that can be used for partial oxidation and steam reforming of hydrocarbon fuels. It involves the use of a metal oxide as an oxygen carrier, which transfers oxygen from combustion air to the fuel. Composite oxygen carriers of cerium oxide added with Fe, Cu, and Mn oxides were prepared by co-precipitation and investigated in a thermogravimetric analyzer and a fixed-bed reactor using methane as fuel and air as oxidizing gas. It was revealed that the addition of transition-metal oxides into cerium oxide can improve the reactivity of the Ce-based oxygen carrier. The three kinds of mixed oxides showed high CO and H-2 selectivity at above 800 degrees C. As for the Ce-Fe-O oxygen carrier, methane was converted to synthesis gas at a H-2/CO molar ratio close to 2:1 at a temperature of 800-900 degrees C; however, the methane thermolysis reaction was found on Ce-Cu-O and Ce-Mn-O oxygen carriers at 850-900 degrees C. Among the three kinds of oxygen carriers, Ce-Fe-O presented the best performance for methane CLR. On Ce-Fe-O oxygen carriers, the CO and H-2 selectivity decreased as the Fe content increased in the carrier particles. An optimal range of the Ce/Fe molar ratio is Ce/Fe > 1 for Ce-Fe-O oxygen carriers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that the microstructure of the Ce-Fe-O oxides was not dramatically changed before and after 20 cyclic reactions. A small amount of Fe3C was found in the reacted Ce-Fe-O oxides by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.

Generation of the high efficiency high peak-power femtosecond blue optical pulse

The analysis and calculation of the compensation for the phase mismatch of the frequency-doubling using the frequency space chirp introduced from prisms are made. The result shows that suitable lens can compensate the phase mismatch in a certain extent resulting from wide femtosecond spectrum when the spectrum is space chirped. By means of this method, the experiment of second harmonic generation is carried out using a home-made femtosecond KLM Ti:sapphire laser and BBO crystal. The conversion efficiency of SHG is 63 %. The average output power of blue light is 320 mW. The central wavelength is 420 nm. The spectrum bandwidth is 5.5 nm. It can sustain the pulse width of 33.6 fs. The tuning range of blue light is 404-420 nm,when the femtosecond Ti:sapphire optical pulse is tuned using the prisms in the cavity.

Pulse-front matched ultra-broadband optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier for sub-12 fs pulse generation

We propose a LBO-based ultra-broadband chirped pulse optical parametric amplifier employing pulse-front-matching to yield transform-limited sub-12-fs pulses. Measurement of the maximum possible gain bandwidth for the LBO-based OPCPA demonstrates more than 60nm gain bandwidth FWHM. For the generation of TL pulses by the use of this OPCPA, a suitable combination of OPCPA and PFM is first presented. The PFM pump geometry realizes tilt-free signal amplification, and permits this OPCPA to generate TL sub-12-fs pulses.

Two-dimensional photonic lattices in polymer-dispersed liquid crystal composites

The relationship between liquid crystal orientational ordering and optical diffraction properties is investigated for a two-dimensional square photonic lattice fabricated in a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) composite. Modifications of the nematic director field in the liquid crystal domains were induced by an external applied voltage and by heating over the nematic-isotropic (N-I) phase transition. They were studied by optical polarization microscopy and by analysing far-field optical diffraction patterns. The intensities of various diffraction orders (from the zeroth up to the eighth diffraction order) were monitored with a CCD camera, and their variations were correlated with the modifications of the director field.

Generation of 207-femtosecond pulses from a ytterbium figure-of-eight fibre laser

We report the generation of 207-fs pulses with 1.2mW average power at 1036 nm directly from a passively mode-locked Yb-doped fibre laser with a nonlinear optical loop mirror for mode-locking and pairs of diffraction gratings for intracavity dispersion compensation. These results imply a 4-fold reduction in pulse duration over previously reported figure-of-eight cavity passively mode-locked Yb-doped fibre lasers. Stable pulse trains are produced at the fundamental repetition rate of the resonator, 24.0MHz. On the other hand, this laser offers a cleaner spectrum and greater stability and is completely self-starting.