A Sankey diagram says more than 1000 pie charts
From a slideshow by Convion (Finland) on its fuel cell technology.
Using a feed of 8,42 kg natural gas per hour with an energy content of 114,75 KW (based on the lower heating value) the CHP equipment yields 59,5 KW electric energy and heat. Biogas or hydrogen can also be used as fuel.
Electrical efficiency is between 53 and 65% net AC, the total energy efficiency is larger 85%.
An updated diagram of the energy flows in Europe has been published on the European Energy Agency (EEA) website. This is for the EU-28 states.
I had previously posted about the 2010 diagram (here). The data is for 2012. Flows are in MToe.
The CESAR (Canada Energy Systems Analysis Research) blog at www.cesarnet.ca had been idle for a while, but reopened 2015 with a post on Québec’s energy flows and related carbon dioxide emissions.
The post ‘The State of Energy in Quebec – 2015’ features two Sankey diagrams originally from a report in French language ‘État de l’énergie au Québec’ by HEC Montral (PDF here). Benjamin Israel is the author (should I say artist?) of these Sankey diagrams.
The first Sankey diagram is on Québec’s energy flows in 2012. Flows are in petajoule (PJ). 1 petajoule is described for everybody to understand as “(278 GWh) corresponding to the energy consumption of approximately 10.000 households in Québéc.”
Four columns give a structure to the diagram: energy sources, transformation, use, efficiency of the system. The upper part depicts energy produced in Quebec (“Énergie Produite en Québec”). Energy sources are purely renewable: hydro, wind and biomass. The bottom part shows fuel imports into the province: petroleum, natural gas, uranium, coal. Grey arrows collect the losses. Interesting to see how losses from energy generation and refineries in column 2 dive beneath crossing bands to rejoin the other losses in column 4.
The second Sankey diagram (from p. 27 in the HEC document) is a summary of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (in French: ‘émissions de gaz à effet de serre’ short: GES) in Québec in 2012.
Given the information from the above energy diagram, where Québec domestic energy production is 100% from renewable sources, it is not surprsing to see that the carbon emissions are mainly from imported energy. Combustion of fossil fuels makes up for 57 of the total 78 Mt CO2-equivalent emissions. The remaining 21 Mt of CO2-equivalent emissions are from industrial processes, agriculture and waste.
Québec’s per capita GHG emissions ranges lowest with 9,7 tonnes of CO2-eqs compared to other Canadian provinces (see scale in lower left).
Beautifully crafted Sankey diagram. I hope to see more on the CESAR blog in the future.
The article ‘The Use of Energy in Malaysia: Tracing Energy Flows from Primary Source to End Use’ by Chinhao Chong, Weidou Ni, Linwei Ma, Pei Liu and Zheng Li features the two Sankey diagrams below. The article is available open access in Energies 2015, 8(4), pp. 2828-2866.
The first diagram is an ‘Energy Allocation Diagram’ that is structured (from left to right) in columns, fuel, primary energy supply (energy generation), primary energy supply (energy conversion), consumption/use in different sectors. The consuming sectors (transport, commercial, residential, etc.) are further broken down into groups, offering one more level of detail. Flows are in million tonnes of oil equivalents (Mtoe), data is for 2011.
The other Sankey diagrma offers a detailed view of oil and oil products. Flows are also shown in Mtoe, data again for 2011. The upper half is domestic production, the bottom part shows imports. ‘ATF’ could be automobile transmission fuel (machine oil), not sure about ‘AV’. Losses and stock changes branch out vertically to the top.
A nice, really well-structured diagram. Clear and comprehensible.
The 2012 GEA Global Energy Assessment report (GEA Global Energy Assessment – Toward a Sustainable Future, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK and New York, NY, USA and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria) features five maps showing energy trade in the world on pages 128/129.
These can almost be considered Sankey diagrams, so I am featuring them here on the blog.
This one is for embodied energy in trade goods.
And this one is a classic oil and oil product trade flows map:
Flows lead from a specific color-coded region to another. The quantities are clustered in arrows with three different widths as shown in the legend (1, 5, 10 Exajoule)
This Sankey diagram made it on the cover of the report ‘Cost analysis applied to sustainable product design’ published by IHOBE Basque Ecodesign Center.
Not directly related to the content of the report this is a diagram on the energy flows of EU-27 countries in 2007.
Rytec, a Swiss-based consulting firm, is the author of a 2011 report that compares 29 waste incinerators in Switzerland in regard to their energy flows.
The report ‘Einheitliche Heizwert- und Energiekennzahlenberechnung der Schweizer KVA nach europäischem Standardverfahren’ (translation: Uniform heating value and energy indicators calculation for Swiss waste incinerators according to European standard method) was comissioned by Swiss Environment Agency (BFU) and Swiss Energy Agency (BFE).
The annex contains 29 Sankey diagrams like the following:
All waste incinerator Sankey diagrams are structured similarly, allowing direct comparison of efficiency and energy output mix. Data is for 2009.
The first diagram is for KVA Basel (waste incinerator Basel), the second for KVA Oftringen (waste incinerator Oftringen, Aargau). Basel is much larger (incinerated waste with energy content of 710 GWh in 2009) and serves an urban area. Oftringen is smaller and seems to be more of a regional waste incinerator (incinerated waste with energy content of 237 GWh in 2009).
Basel apparently sells off the heat to the district heating system or neighbouring industry (yellow arrow ‘Wäremexport’) and converts only a small fraction to electricity. Oftringen on the other hand sells off electric energy (43 GWh) with apparent losses (grey arrow 122,5 GWh).
A lot more to discover when comparing these two (and the other 27) Sankey diagrams.
U.S. Energy Information Administration has published the Annual Energy Review (AER) with data for 2014 on their website. Other diagrams, e.g. for coal or natural gas are also available.
This is from March 2015, so data is preliminary. Flows are in quadrillion BTU. Older Sankey diagrams are available (like this one for 2008), so everyone can compare and identify changes over the past years.