LiqTech (Denmark)

Abstract Development of tight reservoirs under water flooding is considered as a challenging process in term of cost and effectiveness. A Potential problem associated with water flood application includes inefficient recovery due to poor injected water quality parameters in the selected reservoirs. Injecting water into tight reservoirs presents significant risks of formation damage, which can severely impair the effectiveness of the water injection process. To mitigate these risks, it's crucial to inject high-quality water.

Porous silicon carbide is a promising material for ceramic receivers in next-generation concentrated solar power receivers. To investigate its tolerance to thermal shock, accelerated ageing of large coupons (50 × 50 × 5 mm) was conducted in a solar furnace to investigate the effects of thermal cycling up to 1000 °C, with gradients of up to 22 °C/mm. Non-destructive characterization by computed X-ray tomography and ultrasonic inspection could detect cracking from thermal stresses, and this informed the preparation of valid specimens for thermophysical characterization. The effect of thermal ageing on transient thermal properties, as a function of temperature, was investigated by using the light-flash method. The thermophysical properties were affected by increasing the severity of the ageing conditions; thermal diffusivity decreased by up to 10% and specific heat by up to 5%.

Abstract The present work describes a comparative study on a pool of 12 dispersants for the de‐agglomeration and stabilization of silicon carbide in aqueous suspensions with solids loading relevant for dip coating applications. As silicon carbide slurries may include sintering aids, different functional groups, molecular weight, and stabilization mechanisms were considered for the dispersants to be able to stabilize both slurry components. Additionally, pH effect, toxicity, additive compatibility, and foaming properties were considered, giving all the necessary information for developing new aqueous formulation of SiC suspensions, including advantages and disadvantages of the different candidates. Different de‐agglomeration procedures, powder surface area, and calcination temperature were also considered to study the effect of the SiC surface properties. The outcome is that slurry stabilization provided by an alkaline environment at pH larger than 8‒9 is significantly more effective than slurry stabilization by any of the tested dispersants. Alkaline environments facilitate a negative surface charge on SiC particles and provide a stable electrostatic stabilization mechanism not observed in neutral or acidic environments. One among the dispersant candidates (FA 4404) seems to broaden slightly the range of stability toward the acidic regime. Anionic surfactants or block co‐polymers tested exhibited no significant interaction with the SiC particles.

Silicon carbide ceramics are really appreciated in energy applications, especially when extreme environments are involved. Their reliability and thermomechanical performances beyond 1000°C are higher than that of superalloys, therefore they may significantly contribute to the reduction of Critical Raw Materials use, which is a crucial point for sustainability issues. The examples discussed in the present paper are taken from European projects, in the field of nuclear energy (IV gen fission nuclear reactors) and renewable energy production (Concentrated Solar Power) and demonstrate a common approach based on optimizing and assessing the ceramic materials, considering current international standards, but also prenormative research and accelerated ageing tests in expected working environments. In this way, together with a simultaneous process implementation for the production of components in the size and geometry required for the applications, high target TRL (5-7) can be demonstrated, creating the competencies, the methods and the results needed for subsequent industrialisation. İ 2018 IEEE.