ABSTRACT
In Chapters 2 through 6, we examined raw fuel integration for various types of energy and fuel generation systems. These chapters showed that a combination of fuels such as coal-biomass, coal-waste, coal-heavy oil, biomass-waste, biomasswater, etc., enhances our ability to create more sustainable, environment-friendly, and efcient thermochemical processes such as combustion, gasication, liquefaction, and pyrolysis. Similarly, a combination of different types of waste can enhance the productivity of anaerobic digestion (codigestion) process. While the concept of multifuel processing is well advanced for the cocombustion, coprocessing, and codigestion processes, their successes have also pushed faster developments and implementation of other multifuel thermochemical processes. These chapters clearly demonstrated that a multifuel strategy will
1. Reduce the use of fossil fuels (or a particular type of fossil fuel), thus preserving our fossil fuel resources for a longer period
2. Reduce the emissions of CO2 in the environment 3. Allow penetrations of renewable fuels like biomass and waste for energy
generation on a larger, economical and sustainable scale 4. Alleviate the need for new and independent costly infrastructure
development for energy and fuel generations from biomass and waste 5. Provide maximum exibility for usages of all available raw materials
(fossil, biomass, and waste) for generations of energy and fuels 6. Allow the maximum use of synergies among various feedstock for optimum
product yield 7. Develop new energy and fuel infrastructure that is capable of handling
diverse and mixed feedstock. Such infrastructure will have a longer sustainability
Chapters 7 and 8 dealt with the second level of energy and fuel systems integration. These chapters dealt with hybrid energy systems for nuclear and renewable energy sources, which can be used for both electric and nonelectric applications through combined use of heat and power (CHP) (cogeneration). In this case, systems integration can occur at the feed side (e.g., nuclear-renewable, renewable-renewable, or renewable-fossil) or at the product side (heat and power). This hybrid energy
system strategy will allow deeper penetrations of nuclear and renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, geothermal, and water for power generation. The approach also makes the use of CHP for numerous nonelectrical applications. The approach allows economical use of nuclear and renewable (solar and wind) energy at smaller scales for their specic nonelectrical applications or for the generation of hydrogen. In summary, the Chapters 7 and 8 point out the importance of hybrid energy systems strategy for (1) more penetrations of carbon-free energy sources in power production, (2) reduction in the usage of fossil energy sources and thereby reduction of CO2 emissions, and (3) better use of nuclear and renewable energy sources for nonelectric applications both at smaller and larger scales.
