Home|Site Map|Webmail|Contact|中文|CAS
Search
  Home About IET Institute Labs/Centers Research Scientists News & Events Education Papers Cooperation Join Us Links  
News & Events
Spotlight
News about International Cooperation
Upcoming Events
Location: Home » News & Events » Upcoming Events
Distributed Generation with Renewable Energy Laboratory
Author: | Print | Close | Text Size: A A A | 2018-05-08

Research Fields

Principle and methodology of comprehensive cascaded utilization of energy; Mechanism of multi-energy hybridization and system integration; Efficient utilization of waste heat and low-carbon technologies.

Team Building

The number of full-time employees is 15 in the lab’s research team, including 9 professors (1 Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Thousand Talent youth category, 1 Excellent Young Scholar of National Science Fund, 1 Outstanding Technical Talent of Chinese Academy of Sciences), 3 associate professors, 1 postdoctoral scholar. The lab also has 29 graduate students, including 24 Ph.D. candidates and 5 M.S. candidates. Professor Jin Hongguang is the director of the Chinese Society of Engineering Thermophysics, and subject editor of Applied Energy. Professor Hao Yong serves as a committee member of thermodynamics branch in the Chinese Society of Engineering Thermophysics, associate editor for Applied Thermal Engineering, and associate editor of engineering division of Science Bulletin; Professor Yang Jinfu was elected as the deputy director of professional committee members of the 12th Chinese rotor dynamics of vibration engineering Society.

Projects and Major Achievements

The number of full-time employees is 15 in the lab’s research team, including 9 professors (1 Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Thousand Talent youth category, 1 Excellent Young Scholar of National Science Fund, 1 Outstanding Technical Talent of Chinese Academy of Sciences), 3 associate professors, 1 postdoctoral scholar. The lab also has 29 graduate students, including 24 Ph.D. candidates and 5 M.S. candidates. P r o f e s s o r Jin Hongguang is the director of the Chinese Society of Engineering Thermophysics, and subject editor of Applied Energy. Professor Hao Yong serves as a committee member of thermodynamics branch in the Chinese Society of Engineering Thermophysics, associate editor for Applied Thermal Engineering, and associate editor of engineering division of Science Bulletin; Professor Yang Jinfu was elected as the deputy director of professional committee members of the 12th Chinese rotor dynamics of vibration engineering Society.

In terms of distributed energy system direction, the complementary utilization of solar energy and biogas thermochemistry is proposed, and a new generation of distributed energy systems is integrated. Proposing a biogas and solar energy assisted combined cooling, heating and power system that upgrades the caloric value of biogas before combustion by introducing a thermochemical conversion process that was driven by solar heat. The effects of different alternative control methods for the gas turbine on the off-design performances of CCHP system were analyzed and the part-load performance was improved. The key technology researches on alternative control methods, two-stage liquid desiccant dehumidification system and compression-absorption heat pump were promoted. The advantages of thermodynamic performances of compression-absorption heat pump were performed and experimental work had been carried out. A system of desiccant and air desalination using waste heat is proposed for the islands and coastal areas. An integrated dehumidification and desalination-based prototype driven by waste heat has been built. After being treated, the moist air with salt fog can reach a better state with the humidity down below 55% and the desalination rate reaching 70%, indicating a very promising future for the extensive application of this technology.

On the solar thermochemical and the thermal power generation system integration, for the chemical-looping combustion, a prototype of 10 kW honeycomb reactor is firstly designed and manufactured. Using natural gas as the fuel, NiO and Fe2O3 as the oxygen carrier, the reactivity and redox stability of the prototype are experimentally examined for 150 h continuous operation. The test results show that a better reactivity and redox stability can be obtained, and the average fuel conversion is higher than 95%. For the cascade utilization of full-spectrum solar energy, a novel photovoltaic-thermochemical hybrid system prototype is designed, manufactured and tested by using a concentrating GaAs photovoltaics and a methanol thermochemical reactor. The effect of key parameters on solar energy utilization is analyzed, such as solar irradiation, concentration ratio and so on. Furthermore, the variation of the irreversible loss with the solar-electric efficiency is also disclosed in the solar energy conversion. According to the spectrum distribution, based on the principle of “energy complement, energy level match”, a viable approach is proposed integrating with a transparent photovoltaics and a thermochemical process. The interactions are studied among photovoltaic transmissivity, thermochemical reaction rate and solar-electric efficiency. Moreover, the optimum transmissivity of photovoltaics is revealed for better full-spectrum solar energy conversion. For the solar PV-heat hybridization mechanism, the approach of PV-thermochemistry hybridization is proposed. The solar energy is converted into electricity and low-grade heat, realizing the cascade utilization of solar energy. Low-grade heat is then converted into chemical energy of products by endothermic thermochemical reactions, realizing the synthetic cascade utilization of chemical energy and physical energy. The net solar-to-electricity efficiency of the solar PV-methanol thermochemical power generation system based on the approach can be up to 43%-52% in theory. Solar energy can be stored in the form of chemical energy of products, realizing continuous and stable energy supply. The relevant prototype was built and the experimental results show the efficiency can achieve 32%. The way of effective and stable energy supply of solar energy is developed.

In greenhouse gas control and multi-generation direction, the R&D researches on the directional gasification of hydrocarbon components in coal and polygeneration technologies based on the carbon dioxide capture from the fuel source were carried out by the Distributed Energy and Renewable Energy Laboratory. The thermo-gravimetry experiments of directional gasification of hydrocarbon components in the coal, and 5 kWth fixed bed experimental study were carried out. The coking experiments for 9 coal species such as long flame coal, lignite and fat coal under the conditions of 900 -1100 and the coke-CO2 gasification experiments were finished. And kinetic data such as the activation energy and pre-exponential factors of cokes which are suitable for directional gasification were obtained. According to the experimental results, the cold gas efficiency of the new hydrocarbon gasification technology can reach 84%-86%, which is higher than that of the current advanced Shell gasification technology by 4-6 percentage points, and is higher than that of the CWS gasification technology by 7-9 percentage points. A 30 kWth moving bed/entrained-flow bed/fluidized bed coke-CO2 gasification pilot plant and platform was designed and developed (Commissioned processing). The reactor equipment temperature resistance is 1500°C and the pressure resistance is 5MPa. The reactor equipmentis 5.5 meters high, and 0.18 meters in diameter. The coke handling capacity is 0.1 tons / day.

Technology Transfer

In Feb.2017, a contract was signed by Huadian Electric Power Research Institute and Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It aims to commercialize the theory of cascade utilization of energy in the fields of electric power industry and distributed energy technology, strengthening the depth and breadth of cooperation.

Patents and Paper

In the year of 2017, the lab published almost 100 academic papers, including 50 papers indexed by Science Citation Index (SCI); submitted 25 new patent applications, and was granted 16 patents of invention.

Awards

Liu Qibin was awarded National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars.

2 Best Paper Awards from ICAE 2017 and WES-CUE 2017, respectively.

1 Excellence Award of China Patent.

International Cooperation and Exchanges

Professor Aldo Steinfeld from Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland visited the IET and the lab for a week, supported by the Distinguished category of the President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) program, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Collaboration agreement in the area of solar thermochemistry was built and an exchange student was sent to ETH Zurich;

Also supported by the PIFI program, Associate Professor Shavkat Nurmatov from Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences has been collaborating with the lab in the area of solar thermal energy storage for a period of 6 months;

Associate Professor Zhao Yawen completed a one-year academic visit in Arizona University and Stanford university, building collaboration relationship in the area of solar-fossil thermochemical hybridization.

Many lab members served as branch chairs for the 9th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE).

Dean: Jin Hongguang    Tel: 86-10-82543032     E-mail: hgjin@ iet.cn

Deputy Dean: Hao Yong       Tel: 86-10-82543150     E-mail: haoyong@iet.cn

    Sui Jun           Tel: 86-10-82543030     E-mail: suijun@ iet.cn

 

100kWe solar thermochemical power generation plant-solarcollectors

100kWe solar thermochemical power generation plant

A Photovoltaic-thermochemical hybrid system prototype

 
Copyright © 1980–2009 Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
11 Beisihuanxi Road, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China
Phone: 86-10-62554126 E-mail: iet@iet.cn