Energy

One major issue limiting the implementation of renewable energy sources is the lack of efficient, cost-effective, and reliable energy storage technologies. The vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is a flow-assisted electrochemical system which shows great promise for grid-scale energy storage due to...

Upgrading of pyrolysis oil vapors requires a catalytic reactor able to treat high reactant flow rates without generating a large pressure drop. Therefore, monolithic catalysts appear as good candidates for this purpose. In this contribution, low-surface-area Inconel monoliths were coated with in-...

Concerns about dwindling fossil fuel reserves and climate change, energy independence, and depletion of ecosystem goods and services have driven the development of alternative technologies such as biomass-based fuels (biofuels). Although biofuels may be a step towards alleviating the aforementioned...

Solid sorbent carbon capture systems have the potential to require significantly lower regeneration energy compared to aqueous monoethanol amine (MEA) systems. To date, the majority of work on solid sorbents has focused on developing the sorbent materials themselves. In order to advance these...

The energy efficiency of an alkaline battery system with forced convective flow between the electrodes has been investigated. Rechargeable alkaline batteries, which depend on the reaction between zinc and manganese dioxide (Zn/MnO 2 ), have been widely used because of their excellent properties...

Understanding and modeling the depolymerization mechanisms of cellulosic and lignocellulosic substrates by cellulase cocktails is a critical step towards further optimizing the production of monosaccharides from biomass. The Spezyme CP cellulase cocktail combined with the Novo 188 b-glucosidase...

One key parameter in Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) is the oxygen transport capacity of the CLC materials between the two process reactors; in practice, it may be limited by a combination of many factors, including the metal content of the inert binder, the oxygen uptake and release kinetics and...

Corresponding author: Shulin Chen. Tel: 509-335-3743; Fax: 509-335-2722 E-mail: chens@wsu.edu An increasing attention has been paid to anaerobic digestion (AD) for converting the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (OFMSW) to renewable energy and reducing environmental impact. Since OFMSW is...

Zinc-based rechargeable batteries are one of the most attractive electrical energy storage systems due to its advantages such as low cost and green. On the other hand, short cycle life due to internal short circuit is the most critical disadvantage. We have carried out experiments in flow-assisted...

Due to the recent surge in energy costs and uncertainties in fuel prices, there is significant interest in seeking alternative sources of energy particularly from renewable such as biomass. Indirect liquefaction of biomass (via the thermo-chemical conversion to syngas followed by liquefaction via...