H2POWER: Development of a methodology to calculate life cycle cost of small and medium-scale hydrogen systems
Abstract At this time, hydrogen-based power plants and large hydrogen production facilities are capital intensive and unable to compete financially against hydrocarbon-based energy production facilities. An option to overcome this problem and foster the introduction of hydrogen technology is to introduce small and medium-scale applications such as residential and community hydrogen refueling units. Such units could potentially be used to generate both electricity and heat for the home, as well as hydrogen fuel for the automobile. Cost modeling for the integration of these three forms of energy presents several methodological challenges. This is particularly true since the technology is still in the development phase and both the financial and the environmental cost must be calculated using mainly secondary sources. In order to address these issues and aid in the design of small and medium-scale hydrogen systems, this study presents a computer model to calculate financial and environmental costs of this technology using different hydrogen pathways. The model can design and compare hydrogen refueling units against hydrocarbon-based technologies, including the “gap” between financial and economic costs. Using the methodology, various penalties and incentives that can foster the introduction of hydrogen-based technologies can be added to the analysis to study their impact on financial cost.
Environmental Externalities, Market Distortions and the Economics of Renewable Energy Technologies
This paper reviews life cycle analyses of alternative energy technologies in terms of both their private and societal costs (that is, inclusive of externalities and net of taxes and subsidies). The economic viability of renewable energy technologies is shown to be heavily dependent upon the removal of market distortions. In other words, the removal of subsidies to fossil fuel-based technologies and the appropriate pricing of these fuels to reflect the environmental damage (local, regional, and global) created by their combustion are essential policy strategies for stimulating the development of renewable energy technologies in the stationary power sector. Policy options designed to internalize these externalities are briefly addressed.
Parboiled rice effluent: A wastewater niche for microalgae and cyanobacteria with growth coupled to comprehensive remediation and phosphorus biofertilization
Abstract The potential of microalgae and cyanobacteria for bioremediation of wastewater by nutrient uptake combined with simultaneous biomass production is a well recognized perception of today's world. The present study illustrates the treatment of a highly polluted wastewater generated during parboiling of paddy in rice mill industries, widely operational in developing countries where rice is the staple food crop, with the help of microalgal and cyanobacterial isolates capable of growing at high rates in parboiled rice mill effluent (RME). This endeavor leads to comprehensive bioremediation of the said effluent and subsequent use of the harvested biomass as slow release phosphorus biofertilizers and the treated effluent for crop irrigation. The RME-acclimatized algal consortium demonstrated highest growth in terms of fresh weight and greatest remediation efficiency at the end of 36 days' treatment of RME, with 93.9% phosphorus and 100% ammonia-nitrogen removal, 98.7%, 91.6% and 93.5% reduction in biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and total dissolved solid, respectively, and an increment of 186 ± 0.3 mg L − 1 dissolved oxygen, bringing down the pollutants level well below the discharge limits suggested by Central Pollution Control Board, India. Additionally, microalgae in the consortium aggregated in clumps spontaneously in presence of the filaments of Phormidium sp. facilitating easy harvest. The RME-acclimatized algal consortium demonstrated highest accumulation of polyphosphate (poly-P) (0.76 ± 0.01% of dry weight) as well as highest release of phosphorus in non-sterile soil emphasizing the essential role of soil phosphorus solubilizing organisms to leach soluble phosphorus from the insoluble poly-P present in the biomass. The rice seedlings watered with treated RME also showed improved growth effect on shoot height and leaf width. The study results establish the suitability of RME as an excellent growth media for microalgae and cyanobacteria.