Catalytic combustion of coal mine ventilation air methane

Coal mine methane (CMM) is not only a greenhouse gas but also a wasted energy resource if not utilised. Underground coal mining is by far the most important source of fugitive mine methane, and approximately 70% of all coal mining related emissions are from underground ventilation air. Hence, research and development on mine methane capture, mitigation and utilisation should focus on methane emitted in ventilation air.To develop more efficient, cost effective technology for the mitigation and utilisation of mine ventilation air methane, this paper introduces the monolith catalyst bed reactor, which has better characteristics for power generation applications than fixed bed and fluidised bed reactors. This is due to its very low pressure drop at elevated mass throughputs, high geometrical area, and high mechanical strength and high resistance to dust. This paper briefly reviews methane catalytic combustion basics, and mainly presents experimental results on simulated ventilation air methane (VAM) catalytic combustion performance of four catalysts tested at different temperature, pressure and CH₄ concentrations. The experimental results show that determination of major operational parameters including temperature is very important for designing large-scale combustors to achieve high methane conversion rate. The major operational parameters determined in the experimental rig would be a reference for the design. In general, a preheated air temperature of ≥450 °C is required for the most effective of the four tested catalysts.     

Symptoms prevalence among office employees and associations to building characteristics

A cross-sectional study was performed in eight companies, comprising 32 buildings without previously recognized indoor air problems. Engineers filled in a technical questionnaire on building characteristics, floor surface materials, ventilation, cleaning procedures, heating and cooling. A total of 3562 employees returned questionnaires on individual factors, workload, perceived physical work environment, allergy and symptoms. Frequent symptoms were feeling of fatigue or heavy-headedness, eye irritation, and dry facial skin. Women reported symptoms more frequently than men. Employees with allergy had a 1.8-2.5 times risk of reporting a high score for general, skin, or mucosal symptoms. The risk of a high symptom score increased with daily visual display unit (VDU) work time. Passive smoking and psychosocial load were also relatively strong predictors of symptoms. Weekly cleaning as compared with a frequency of cleaning two to four times a week increased the risk of symptoms. Adjusted odds ratio for a high general symptoms score from infrequent cleaning was 1.5 (95%CI 1.1-2.0). A high ventilation flow or central ventilation unit filter EU7 vs. EU8 seemed to be associated with an increased risk of general symptoms. Absence of local temperature control increased the risk of mucosal symptoms.     

Effect of ventilation and filtration on submicrometer particles in an indoor environment

The effect of filtration and ventilation on reduction of submicrometer particle concentration indoors was investigated in an office building. The air-handling system consisting of dry media filters and an air-conditioning unit, reduced particle concentration levels by 34%. The characteristics of indoor airborne particles were dominated by, and followed the pattern of, outdoor air, with vehicle combustion aerosols as the main pollutant. The ratio indoor/outdoor particle concentration varied between 14 and 26% for different sub-zones. The presence of significant source of particles indoors was not observed. A simple mathematical model predicting evolution of particles indoors is presented. The model, based on a particle number balance equation, was validated with experimental data and showed very good agreement between predicted and measured parameters.     

干式变压器的通风计算

分析了干式变压器进行时的热平衡,计算了干式变压器散热所需要的空气流量,提出了干式变压器超铭版额定值运行时的风冷计算公式。     

射流通风增压技术的研究

目前，公路、铁路隧道普遍采用纵向式射流通风，虽然射流通风系统具有很多优点，但射流通风效率较低，一般仅为15％左右．本文采用在射流风机出口设置收缩管以提高射流速度的方法。通过射流增压和隧道通风效率的理论分析及实例计算，表明该方法可使射流增压有显著的提高，最高达到54．8％。从而提高了隧道射流通风的通风效率，大约能提高10个百分点。     

Optimising the ventilation configuration of naturally ventilated livestock buildings for improved indoor environmental homogeneity

Due to the geometrical structure and ventilation configuration of naturally ventilated livestock buildings the animal occupied zone can experience large heterogeneities in ventilation efficiency. Ensuring a homogeneous indoor environment is important when designing naturally livestock buildings as producers should be confident that all animals are receiving the same environmental conditions, at least for the prevailing climate. Moreover, by including climate homogeneity in the building design process, the occurrence of high airspeeds in specific regions of a building can be reduced during windy outdoor conditions, thereby reducing the cold-stressing of animals in these regions. Therefore, it is desirable to know how to alter the geometrical features of a building in order to promote homogeneity in the indoor environment. In the present study, response surface methodology and computational fluid dynamics were used to develop predictive models that described the homogeneity of the indoor environment of a naturally ventilated livestock building as a function of its geometry and ventilation configuration. Three different eave opening conditions were chosen in order to improve the applicability of the developed response surfaces to practical situations encountered in Ireland. Results showed that for high to medium porosity eave opening conditions the environmental homogeneity was most sensitive to the building's roof pitch. However, when low porosity eave opening conditions were used the homogeneity was found to be highly sensitive to the sidewall height. Overall, this study found that modifying the building geometry has the greatest effect on environmental heterogeneity when the most restrictive eave opening condition was employed. It is also hoped that with the developed equations, a designer can subsequently select the best combination of design variables in order to achieve good uniformity in a naturally ventilated calf building.     

Effects of the solid curtains on natural ventilation performance in a subway tunnel

Solid curtains can be installed in subway tunnels for the promotion of air ventilation in ventilation ducts in association with the piston effect caused by a running train. With an aim to analyze the effects of solid curtains on duct ventilation performance in a subway tunnel, the current study adopts the tunnel and subway train geometries which are exactly the same as those in a previous model tunnel experiment, but newly incorporates two ventilation ducts connected vertically to the tunnel ceiling and two solid curtains placed at an upstream position of a duct near the tunnel inlet and at a downstream position of another duct near the tunnel outlet, respectively. A three-dimensional CFD model adopting the dynamic layering method for tracking the motion of a train, which was validated against the reported model tunnel experiment in a previous study, is employed to predict the train-induced unsteady airflows in the subway tunnel and in the ducts. The numerical results reveal that the duct ventilation performance in a subway tunnel strongly depends on the operation of the solid curtains. The suction mass flow of the air through the duct near the tunnel inlet and the exhaust mass flow of the air through the duct near the tunnel outlet are increased considerably in the case with the solid curtains in comparison with those in the case without the solid curtains.     

Control of CO2 in a naturally ventilated classroom

The ventilation performance of a naturally ventilated classroom was investigated to monitor the CO₂ levels and compare compliance with new guidelines. Measurements of CO₂ levels were taken for 1 week during the heating season while different ventilation modes were investigated.     

Energy optimized-ventilation constrained variable air volume system control

The analytical energy performance of an advanced energy optimized-ventilation constrained control approach to variable air volume systems was compared to four other controls. The other controls are either currently used or have been proposed in the literature. The advanced control demonstrated its potential to meet the ventilation requirements of ASHRAE Standard 62–1989 for every zone of the building with minimal energy consumption.

The analytical work was carried out in a single story prototypical commercial building. The building was analyzed in five US cities to provide insight into the impact of climate on the performance of the advanced control. The advanced control consumed less total energy, considerably less in some cities, than the other four controls. The advanced control provides an excellent opportunity to apply to buildings new automation equipment and software never attempted before.