Clean Energy Technology

Tutorial

Clean Energy Technology

 BCA ACADEMY
SCHOOL OF BUILDING AND DEVELOPMENT
CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

TUTORIAL 0:

Look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_station and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_plant to help you with question 1 & 2.

1. With the help of a diagram, describe the main sections of a coal-fuel power plant.

2. Why is coal the dominant fuel in fossil-fuel plant today?

Fossil-fuel continues to be used for generating base load; and coal is cheap and
plentiful in major energy-consuming countries like USA, China.

3. What are the three largest contributions to CO2 abatement?

M2023- Instrumentation and Control Tutorial 0

4. Define power plant heat rate and thermal efficiency.

5. A 294 MW pulverized coal plant has a heat rate of 9009 Btu/kWh [9505
kJ/kWh]). What’s its thermal efficiency?

6. List ways to improve efficiency of generation plants.

7. Identify sources of renewable energy.

2
BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

Module 1 - Tutorial

1. What is meant by the ‘450’ scenario?

2. Explain some of the undesirable effects of global warming.

3. Express the CO2 emissions of a country in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP),
energy intensity and carbon intensity. Then identify the three primary ways of reducing
CO2 emissions without reducing its economic output.

4. List the various clean energy options that can be used to control global warming.

5. End-use energy efficiency measures are expected to contribute substantially towards the
CO2 emissions reduction target under the ‘450’ scenario. What are these measures?

6. Improvements in efficiency and/or reduction of CO2 emission of new and existing

generation plants can take many forms. List some of these.

7. Briefly describe the integrated gasification and combined cycle (IGCC) technology for
coal power plants. (Students to do their own research in order to answer this question).

8. What is the difference between the lower heating value (LHV) and the higher heating
value (HHV) of a fuel?

9. (a) The heat rate of an American coal-fired power plant is 10500 kJ/kWh. What is its
efficiency?

(b) The LHV and HHV of the coal used in the above plant is 20 and 20.5 MJ/kg
respectively. What is the mass of coal needed (in kg) required to produce 1 kWh of
electricity at the above power plant?

(c) A similar plant in Europe using coal with identical LHV and HHV values has a heat
rate of 10000 kJ/kWh. Is the European plant more efficient than the American one?

10. What is meant by carbon capture and storage (CCS)?

11. Describe oxyfuel CO2 capture system.

12. State (a) one common characteristic between nuclear energy and solar energy, and (b)
one key difference between the two.

EA273-1 1-1 Introduction To Clean

Energy
BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

Module 2 - Tutorial

1. Explain the relationship between the greenhouse effect and global warming.

2. Explain the importance of water vapour as a greenhouse.

3. What is the IPCC? What is its main function?

4. List some of the key conclusions of the Fourth IPCC report issued in early 2007.

5. Briefly describe the Kyoto Protocol.

6. List and briefly explain the three ‘flexible mechanisms’ under the Kyoto Protocol.

7. In order to be valid under the CDM and various carbon trading markets, a carbon offset must
satisfy the ‘additionality’ criterion. Explain the concept of ‘additionality’ in this context.

8. What is the difference between the regulatory and voluntary carbon trading markets?

9. What are climate exchanges? List some of these exchanges.

10. An organization in Singapore has compiled the following data in an exercise to estimate its
organizational footprint:

Annual electricity consumption: 100,000 kWh

Total mileage of organizational vehicles: Average-sized petrol vehicle; 60,000 km

Average-sized diesel vehicle; 45,000 km

Business Travel: Short international flight (business class): 12,000 p⋅km

Long international flight (business class): 20,000 p⋅km

Estimate the carbon footprint of this organization.

11. Go to this website: http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/campaigns/calculate.aspx

Use the online calculator to determine the CO2 emissions for your one way flight from Singapore to
Langkawi. What is the emission factor for this flight in term of kgCO2e/p. km? What is the price of
the carbon offset charged by the airline in SGD per kgCO2e (Exchange Rate SGD 1 = MYR 2.3).

12. A solar PV system was installed on a building in Singapore. The expected annual yield of the
system is 12,500 kWh. Assuming that the life cycle carbon footprint of the solar panel was estimated
to be 40 gCO2e/kWh, estimate the net annual reduction in emissions achieved by the solar PV system.

EA273-1 1-1 Introduction To Clean Energy

BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

Module 3 - ENERGY OPTIONS

Tutorial
1. (a) Define capacity factor. Explain why the capacity factor of a wind turbine is relatively
low.

(b) The rated (nameplate) capacity of a wind turbine is 3 MW. Its capacity factor at the site
where it is located is 20%. Calculate the annual electrical energy output of this wind turbine.

2. List the various applications of solar energy.

3. What are biofuels? List and briefly describe two types of biofuels.

4. Briefly describe the three types of geothermal power plants.

5. How can heat from hot dry rocks below the earth’s surface be extracted for useful purpose?

6. What is the primary use of coal? What problems are associated with the use of coal for this
purpose?

7. Define (a) reserves to production (R/P) ratio, and (b) peak oil.

8. Describe the fractional distillation process.

9. What are the two types of non-conventional oil resources?

10. Describe the two types of nuclear processes that can be used to produce energy.

11. What is meant by the annualized or levelized cost of electricity (LCOE)?

12. Wind turbines and solar PV cells do not emit any CO2 during operation. However, they
do have a small carbon footprint (CO2 emission factor). Explain why.

13. Singapore has an area of about 700 km2. The average daily amount of solar energy it
receives per m2 of its surface is estimated to be 4.5 kWh. What is the amount of solar energy
it receives in a year? Give your answer in exajoule (EJ). (Note: 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ.)

14. Singapore consumed 907,000 barrels of oil per day in 2007. It also consumes
6,512,900,000 m3 of natural gas for the whole year. Assuming negligible consumption of
other forms of energy, what is the amount of primary energy consumed by Singapore in that
year? Give your answer un EJ. (Note: Energy content of 1 m3 of natural gas = 36.4 × 103 kJ.)

EA273-3 3-1 Energy Options

BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

Module 4 – SOLAR ENERGY

Tutorial

1. Define insolation, diffuse insolation, direct insolation and global insolation.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy?

3. Explain why a pure silicon crystal is a very poor conductor of electricity.

4. Explain the difference between an n and a p type material.

5. What happen when photons of light strike a solar cell?

6. What are the two common types of solar PV technology used currently? Describe them
briefly.

7. Explain the difference between an off-grid and a grid-tied solar PV system.

8. The average insolation for the month of July in Singapore is 4.25 kWh/m2⋅day. Estimate
the yield for a 300 kWp solar PV system for that month if its derating factor is 60%.

9. What is a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant?

10. What is the benefit of thermal storage in a CSP plant?

11. Explain the difference between an active and a passive solar heating system.

12. What are the factors that affect the amount of energy collected by a solar collector?

13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the thermosyphon compared to the forced
circulation solar hot water system?

14. Figure 4.17 in Module 4 shows typical efficiencies of several types of solar collectors as a
function of ∆T/I, where ∆T is the difference between the average temperature of the collector
and the ambient temperature, and I is the insolation at the location where the collector is
installed. The average temperature of the collector surface can be taken to be the average of
the inlet and outlet water temperature of the collector. Using Figure 4.17, estimate the
efficiency of (a) a flat aluminium plate collector with single glass glazing, and (b) a flat
copper plate collector with single glass glazing and selective surface. Assume that they both
have inlet and outlet water temperatures of 30 and 60°C respectively, and are installed at a

EA273-4 4-1 Solar Energy

BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

location where I = 4.61 kWh/m2 per day. You may assume that the ambient temperature is
equal to the water inlet temperature.

(Conversion factors: 1 kWh/m2 per day = 13.208 Btu / hr·ft2. For ∆T, 1°C = 1.8°F)

15. Calculate the area of a collector required to provide 200 litres of hot water per day using
the collector in 13 (b) above. The density of water is 1000 kg/m3 and its specific heat is 4.18
kJ/kg·°C. Assume that the other required data are the same as in Question 13.

(Note: Heat required to heat a given mass of water = mcp∆T = ρ V cp∆T, where ρ is the
density, V the volume¸ and cp the specific heat of the water. ∆T is the temperature rise of the
heated water.)

16. Calculate the annual electricity saving if the solar water heater in Quest. 15 is used
instead of an electric heater. Assume that the efficiency of the electric heater system is 95%
and that the electricity required for the solar heater pump, control devices etc. is 0.5 kWh per
day.

EA273-4 4-2 Solar Energy

BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

Module 5 – WIND POWER

Tutorial

1. The windmills developed by the Europeans after the Crusades differ in one key aspect
from the original Asian design. What is this difference? What are the likely reasons for this
difference?

2. What is atmospheric pressure? What are the units used to express atmospheric pressure?

3. What is a pressure gradient? What is its relation to wind speed?

4. Explain why air (wind) does not move directly from areas of higher pressure to areas of
lower pressure, but instead moves almost parallel to the isobars in such a way that (in the
Northern hemisphere) the wind circles in a clockwise direction towards the area of low
pressure.

5. Explain why wind energy can be considered as a form of solar energy.

6. What are local winds? Describe some examples of local winds.

7. The power delivered by a blowing wind to the rotor of a wind turbine depends on three
factors. What are these factors? Starting from the equation for the kinetic energy of a moving
body, derive the equation expressing the relationship between these factors and power
delivered by the wind.

8. What is meant by wind power density (WPD)? What is it used for?

9.This graph shows the power curve of

a wind turbine.

(i) At what wind speed is there

sufficient energy in the wind to rotate
the turbine rotor?

(ii) At what wind speed is the blades of the wind turbine adjusted to limit the power to the
rated capacity of this wind turbine? What is the rated capacity of this wind turbine?

(iii) At what wind speed is the wind turbine shut down in order to avoid damaging its gear
etc.?

EA273-5 5-1 Wind Power

BCA ACADEMY Clean Energy Technology

10. What is a nacelle?

11. Explain the functional difference between the yaw and the blade pitch mechanism of a
wind turbine.

12. Explain why it is necessary to connect the wind turbine and generator shaft through gears
in a gearbox.

13. What are the components of a complete wind energy system?

14. What is a hybrid system? Illustrate your answer with a schematic sketch of an off-grid
hybrid system.

15. For a grid-tie wind turbine system, there are two options for synchronising the electricity
produced by the wind turbine system to the electricity supply in the power grid.. What are
these options?

16. (a) Based on the equation

AEO = 4.21 Cp D2 v3

estimate the annual energy output of a wind turbine with a wind velocity-averaged efficiency
of 40%, diameter of 3 m at a location where the annual mean wind speed is 6 m/s.

(b) Compare this estimate with the estimate obtained by using the equation

AEO = 0.01328 D2 v3
where D = rotor diameter, feet, and v = annual mean wind speed, mph.
(Note: 1 m = 3.281 ft, 1 m/s = 2.239 mph.)
(c) What would be the annual energy output if the diameter is doubled but the annual mean
wind speed remains the same?
(d) What would be the annual energy output if the diameter remains the same but the annual
mean wind speed is doubled?

EA273-5 5-2 Wind Power