Tawanai

Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) is a blend of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Air that is a direct replacement source for Natural Gas. Working on the fundamentals of fuel interchangebility, the LPG-Air mix/blending is an invisible application of LPG not known to many.

The oppurtunities SNG, also known as Substitute Natural Gas, provides include:

Using it as an industrial back-up (during the Natural Gas shutdown/curtailments).

Using it a base fuel to serve area not under service of Natural Gas.

Using it to suppliment Natural Gas during peak demands known as peak shaving.

SNG is made by mixing the vapour LPG with air to a ratio of approximately 45% air and 55% LPG. Why mixing? Becasue LPG is a highly concentrated source of energy, with 2516 BTU’s per cubic foot gross heat content. Which is too rich to be used as a substitute for natural gas without dilution. If the Natural Gas and SNG have an indentical Wobbe Index, they will produce equivalent energies and will combust in the same amount of air. Thus the mixer blends in just the right amount of air and LPG; producing a mix of specific gravity 1.31 (1480BTU/Cu.Ft) and Wobbe Index that will match that of the Natural Gas.

This interchangeable use of SNG and NG makes it a powerful tool to startegically manage Natural Gas shortage.  In the coming posts we will discuss the details of this strategy and technical aspects of SNG.

Energy, Infrastructure, Natural Gas, SNG Natural g, Pakistan, SNG, Synthethic Natural Ga

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Energy Energy

Recently WSJ published an article on a slightly different use of solar energy – to have hot water supply in a home. As the article states, you don’t need a super hot climate and tens of thousands of dollars to go solar. In many cases, all it takes to offset two-thirds of your hot water bill is a couple of panels resembling skylights, an 80-gallon water storage tank and some shade-free southern rooftop exposure. Costs range from about US $2,000 to $10,000,

Buildings, Environment, Solar

So now generators are going to be the big gift! Here’s one which boosts that it has cng kit installed and it will work for your fans, lights and TV.

Energy, Generator

The government has decided to change the privatisation model for power companies into management contracts, leasing and equity injection through initial public offerings to avoid creation of private monopolies like the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

“Privatisation without competition is bound to create monopoly in private sector as happened in case of KESC. Its outright sale could not meet the stakeholders’ expectations, rather it has been a nightmare for customers,” said a senior water and power ministry official while justifying the need to review the privatisation approach.

The sale of KESC, he said, had achieved none of its objectives and consumer satisfaction was by no means better than in 2004 when such a huge enterprise was sold. The government has to provide even higher subsidies and special treatment to the KESC now than six years ago.

As a result of shoddy work relating to privatisation of power companies over the past two decades, the creation of a competitive electricity market has remained a dream for which the much publicised corporatisation and unbundling of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had been taken in hand about 20 years ago.

Consumers as well as the national economy have not been able to get the promised benefits of power sector reforms despite the creation of a large organisation like the Pakistan Electric Power Company, separation of the hydel wing of Wapda from power companies, injection of billions of dollars of foreign loans and more than eight times’ increase in electricity tariffs.

The official said the government was working on at least 10 models for improving the state-owned power sector -– generation, transmission and distribution companies – keeping in view peculiarities of companies in different regions for ensuring their long-term solvency. He said the new approach had been necessitated by the fact that the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company that had been on the privatisation list for decades and was among the best performing companies in the region had not been able to attract a real investor because the margin for improvement was very limited.

The new models for larger companies would include issuance of initial public offerings of power companies with the involvement of international underwriters to attract local and foreign investment. The smaller companies or single project based entities would be leased out for 10 to 15 years, extendable by another 5 to 10 years.

Likewise, some of the companies would also be considered for public-private partnership or management contracts with specific targets and guarantees. The government will also design new financing contracts for improvement of cash flows of these companies and will include Lease-Build-Operate (LBO), Build-Transfer-Operate (BT or BTO), Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOT or BOOT), Buy-Build-Operate (BBO) and Buy-Own-Operate (BOO).

Via Dawn

Energy

From See n Report.

Energy

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Energy Energy

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• Mitsubishi Motors to triple electric car output › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion http://bit.ly/aiVW4v (via @greenbubble) #

Energy Energy

Via Technology Review

Biomass can be converted to fuels via a process called gasification, which uses high temperatures to break feedstock down into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can then be made into various fuels, including hydrocarbons. But there’s a major drawback–about half of the carbon in the biomass gets converted to carbon dioxide rather than into carbon monoxide, a precursor for fuels. Now researchers in University of Minnesota and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed a method for gasifying biomass that converts all of the carbon into carbon monoxide.

In the new approach, the researchers gasify biomass in the presence of precisely controlled amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, the main component of natural gas, in a special catalytic reactor that the researchers developed. When they did this, all of the carbon in both the biomass and the methane was converted to carbon monoxide. “In the chemical industry, even a few percent improvement makes a big impact. The increase from 50 percent to 100 percent is profound,” says Dionisios Vlachos, the director of the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation at the University of Delaware.

To increase the yields from gasification, researchers at the University of Minnesota and UMass Amherst added carbon dioxide, which promotes a well-known reaction: the carbon dioxide combines with hydrogen to produce water and carbon monoxide. But adding carbon dioxide isn’t enough to convert all of the carbon in biomass into carbon monoxide instead of carbon dioxide. It’s also necessary to add hydrogen, which helps in part by providing the energy needed to drive the reactions. It’s long been possible to do each of these steps in separate chemical reactors. The researchers’ innovation was to find a way to combine all of these reactions in a single reactor, the key to making the process affordable.

Clean Technology, Consumers, Energy

The World Bank will provide $250 million for ‘Natural Gas Production Enhancement and Efficiency Project’ to increase availability and affordability of electricity by improving access to natural gas fuel for power generation through gas sector efficiency enhancements.

According to an updated project report of World Bank, the proposed project would comprise design and implementation of energy sector policy, regulatory, institutional and investment measures to reduce unaccounted-for gas (UFG) from the current level of about 8 percent to closer to international norms (around 1 percent), which would involve: (a) pipeline replacement to eliminate leakages and reduce technical losses; and (b) modernised metering and control systems. The investment component may approximately cut UFG in half, or better, depending on the project’s impact on gas theft.

It would reduce residential consumers’ gas consumption through pilot projects to replace old gas appliances (space heating and/or hot water) that have low efficiency (20-30 percent) with modern, efficient appliances (efficiency 50-70 percent), the report said.

To address the thermal efficiency issue concerning appliances in a broad way with impact beyond the pilot, it would design a gas usage optimisation strategy based on a combination of national priorities and economic costs and benefits, implementation efficiency, and conservation measures. It would enhance institutional capacity in petroleum sector governance, including the regulatory authority (Ogra).

Energy, Investment, Natural Gas, Pakistan