ESRIG-EES colloquium: Max Cosijn and Paul Noteboom, MSc EES students
| When: | Tu 27-11-2018 at 16:00 |
| Where: | 5159.0110, Energy Academy, Nijenborgh 6 |
Title: Construction, testing and application of an automated system for OC/EC separation of aerosol samples
By: Max Cosijn, MSc EES student
Summary:
Carbonaceous aerosols contribute significantly to total particulate matter in the atmosphere, and have a large impact on climate and human health. Radiocarbon analysis is a powerful tool to distinguish fossil and non-fossil sources of carbonaceous aerosols. This source apportionment is usually applied separately to the sub-fractions organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC), which originate from different sources and undergo different processes in the atmosphere. A completely automated system is constructed and tested for the thermal separation of total carbon (TC) into OC and EC and conversion to CO2 for radiocarbon analysis. Before the thermal separation, aerosol particles are filtered out of the air and deposited on quartz fibre filters. The carbonaceous material is extracted from the filter by combustion to CO2 in pure oxygen. The sub-fractions OC and EC are separated by combustion at different temperatures. Combustion products other than CO2, resulting from inorganic constituents need to be removed before radiocarbon analysis of the CO2 samples. The developed method consists of three main steps, which are thoroughly tested in this master project: the combustion of the sample, the purification of the sample and the collection and quantification of the sample. Moreover, the system is evaluated against the well-characterized manual ACS system by repeating samples extracted with the ACS and comparison of the radiocarbon results. In addition, standard materials are analyzed to evaluate the contamination originating from the treatment of the sample. Finally, the new method is applied in a case study, using impactor samples collected during a haze period and a clean period in Beijing, China. An impactor separates the particulates into size range intervals. Information about the size of the particles provides additional information about the sources. Qualitative analysis of radiocarbon analysis of the carbon sub-fractions of impactor samples show promising results and it is recommended to continue this research to produce the required amount of data to be able to do a more quantitative analysis.
Title: How could a district heating network with a renewable source heat Lewenborg
By: Paule Noteboom, MSc EES student
Summary:
Initiators from within the neighbourhood Lewenborg had the ambition to heath their neighbourhood with renewable heat. To achieve this a plan, which encompassed a district heating network and the use of waste heat from a water treatment plant, was made and handed over to the alderman. The initiators are the assignment giver and WarmteStad has a supporting role. First the characteristics of the neighbourhood need to be investigated. Every renewable solution has to be tailor made to the situation. In collaboration with different stakeholders a renewable system has been designed. The main source consist of solar thermal heat in combination with a seasonal storage medium. In addition to solar thermal, auxiliary heating systems are installed. Within the heating system cluster buffers are installed to flatten the heat demand.