With the continuous development and utilization of clean energy, the thermal utilization of solar energy is an important research direction. In view of the problems of the low utilization rate of solar heat in alpine regions of solar energy, an air-type vacuum-tube solar collector (AVSC) with air as the heat-exchange medium was designed. The vacuum tube of the solar heat collector adopted a double-pass spiral direct-current structure, and the vacuum tube had a built-in heat-storage rod. In order to test the heat collection performance of the designed air evacuated-tube solar collector, a heat collection performance test of the collector was conducted. The results showed that the average heat collection efficiency of the vacuum tube solar collector without phase-change heat-storage rods was 38%. The evacuated-tube solar collector using water as the heat transfer medium had an average heat collection efficiency of 58%. The average equivalent heat collection efficiency of the AVSC with a... [more]

Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration has become a common practice in technology development projects. Rarely, however, the integration (and translation) of knowledge from different disciplines and different societal contexts is reported in detail. In this article, we address this gap and present the inter- and transdisciplinary technology development in the international research project “DigiMon—Digital Monitoring of CO2 Storage Projects” that aims to develop a human-centered monitoring system. Based on interviews, surveys and stakeholder workshops in Norway, Greece, Germany and The Netherlands, we identify characteristics of CO2 storage monitoring systems that reflect the concerns and expectations of publics and stakeholders. We document the translation of social scientific findings into technical expertise for the design of a monitoring system. We discuss how the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary process has affected the technology development. In outlining ho... [more]

Although smart farms are considered an alternative to traditional agriculture, they require large amounts of energy and high investment costs, hindering their efficient implementation. In the Republic of Korea, the energy supply is primarily for heating rather than cooling, necessitating the accurate prediction of the greenhouse internal temperature to determine the feasibility of agricultural management while using renewable energy. This study developed a model (TRNSYS) for predicting the internal temperature of a greenhouse using building energy simulation. A greenhouse heating experiment was conducted using a hybrid heating system simulated by TRNSYS to analyze the prediction model. The regression analysis of the experimental and simulation results revealed an R2 and RMSE of 0.8834 and 3.61, respectively. A comparative analysis was conducted with the existing hot air heating system to evaluate the heating performance and economic feasibility of the hybrid system. Overall, the heatin... [more]

Innovation is one of the successful and competitive advantage factors for SMEs in the dynamically changing environment of the RES industry. For SMEs, innovation is driven by a number of factors, such as the size of the enterprise, the scope of activity, innovation capability, strategy, and environmental conditions. Organizations’ commitment to innovation is another important factor. This is especially true for SMEs with strong social bonds, meaning that every employee of the company is, to some extent, involved in the innovation process and influences the organization’s opinion. The goal of the paper is to assess the impact of organizational determinants of commitment to innovation on innovative behavior in SMEs in the RES industry. The paper is both theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part explains the relevance of organizational determinants of commitment to innovation and how they translate to innovative behavior in SMEs. The empirical part presents an analysis of the results... [more]

Because the linear motor feeding system always runs in complex working conditions for a long time, its performance and state transition have great randomness. Therefore, abnormal detection is particularly significant for predictive maintenance to promptly discover the running state degradation trend. Aiming at the problem that the abnormal samples of linear motor feed system are few and the samples have time-series features, a method of abnormal operation state detection of a linear motor feed system based on normal sample training was proposed, named GANomaly-LSTM. The method constructs an encoding-decoding-reconstructed encoding network model. Firstly, the time-series features of vibration, current and composite data samples are extracted by the long short-term memory (LSTM) network; Secondly, the three-layer fully connected layer is employed to extract potential feature vectors; Finally, anomaly detection of the system is completed by comparing the potential feature vectors of the t... [more]

Renewable energy sources (RES) can provide valuable flexibility potential for multiple markets and grid services in the future. In this paper, the focus lies on the development of algorithms for an optimal dispatch and bidding of a RES-based virtual power plant (VPP) by considering current short-term and balancing market conditions in Austria, as well as a proposed redispatch market. Specifically, different pricing and bidding strategies for a redispatch market are compared and their feasibility is analyzed. The attractiveness of different pricing models and remuneration mechanisms for redispatch, as well as the influence of the redispatch call probability on the bidding behavior of the VPP, is investigated. The simulation of the bidding behavior is carried out using linear optimization techniques. The paper describes the algorithms as well as the assumptions for market rules in redispatch, balancing and short-term electricity markets. The results show that the probability to be activa... [more]

In order to solve the hydrodynamic characteristics of the multi-floater truss-type wave energy convertor (WEC) platform, the mathematical model is established by using the high-order boundary element method based on potential flow theory, in which the floater and the platform are connected by the floating arm based on the lever principle. The mathematical model is applied to study the heave motion response of each floater of the multi-floater truss-type WEC platform, and the effects of the floater number and the floater arrangement on the motion responses of floaters, as well as the power generation of the WEC platform are analyzed. The effect of the hydraulic cylinder on the floater is simulated by linear damping, and then, the work of the hydraulic cylinder is used to generate electricity, so as to achieve the purpose of simulating the multi-floater WEC power generation device. Some useful conclusions are obtained through calculation, which can provide data support for the correspond... [more]

In these days of heightened environmental consciousness, many countries are shifting their focus towards renewable energy sources for both large-scale uses (such as power plants that generate electricity) and smaller-scale applications (e.g., building heating and cooling). In this light, it is not surprising that there is a growing interest in technologies that are reliant on non-conventional sources of power, such as geothermal energy. This study is making an effort to provide a comprehensive understanding of the possible advantages and multiple uses of geothermal energy systems, in the context of their technical and environmental evaluation through Life Cycle Assessment. A brief description of the analyzing methods and the tools used to study a particular system or application is presented. The geothermal technologies and the applications of specific systems are discussed in detail, providing their environmental advantages and their technical barriers as well. District and domestic h... [more]

With global warming and the depletion of fossil energy sources, renewable energy is gradually replacing non-renewable energy as the main energy in the future. As one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources, the safety and reliability of wind energy have been paid more and more attention. The size of modern wind turbines is becoming larger and larger. As the main component of wind turbines to capture energy, the blade is often damaged by various complex environments and irregular loads. Therefore, the health monitoring and damage identification of wind turbine blades have become a main research focus. At present, in addition to the overview of various detection methods of wind turbine blades, there is a lack of comprehensive classifications and overviews of the main damage types, damage-generation mechanisms, and basic principles of the damage-detection technology of wind turbine blades. In this paper, firstly, the common fault types of wind turbine blades, such as trailing edge... [more]

Fault-tolerant control systems (FTCS) are used in safety and critical applications to improve reliability and availability for sustained operation in fault situations. These systems may be used in process facilities to reduce significant production losses caused by irregular and unplanned equipment tripping. Internal combustion (IC) engines are widely used in the process sector, and efficient air−fuel ratio (AFR) regulation in the fuel system of these engines is critical for increasing engine efficiency, conserving fuel energy, and protecting the environment. In this paper, a hybrid fault-tolerant control system has been proposed, being a combination of two parts which are known as an active fault-tolerant control system and a passive fault-tolerant control system. The active part has been designed by using the genetic algorithm-based fault detection and isolation unit. This genetic algorithm provides estimated values to an engine control unit in case of a fault in any sensor. The pass... [more]

This paper investigates the combined effect of the kiln or brick surface roughness and the brick lattice setting density on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in tunnel kilns. The flow uniformity, pressure drop, convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC), and pumping power are studied. A high-density setting (HDS), which comprises 768 bricks, and a low-density setting (LDS), which comprises 512 bricks, are tested for kiln boundaries and brick surface roughness levels of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 mm. The investigation is conducted using a 3D-CFD model with the k-ω turbulence model. The surface roughness changes from 0 to 4 mm for either kiln walls or bricks while fixing the other. The results show that increasing the tunnel kiln surface roughness from 0 to 4 mm increases the pressure drop of both the HDS and LDS by about 13.5%. It also increases the established CHTC value of the LDS more than the HDS by about 23% for all tested roughness levels. Changing the brick surface roughne... [more]

The integration of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technologies is a hybrid technology that overcomes a myriad of problems in the 5G cellular system and beyond, including massive connectivity, low latency, and high dependability. The goal of this paper is to improve and reassess the bit error rate (BER), spectrum efficiency (SE) of the downlink (DL), average capacity rate, and outage probability (OP) of the uplink (UL) in a 5G network using MIMO. The proposed model utilizes QPSK modulation, four users with different power location coefficients, SNR, transmit power, and two contrasting bandwidths 80 and 200 MHz under selective frequency Rayleigh fading channels. The proposed model’s performance is evaluated using the MATLAB software program. The DL results found that the BER and SE against transmitted power showed the MIMO-NOMA enhanced the BER performance for the best user U4 from 10−1.7 to 10−5.2 at 80 MHz bandwidth (BW), and from 10−1.5... [more]

The photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system was initially developed by attaching a simple sheet and tube thermal collector to the PV panel to improve cell performance while producing heat energy. The collector designs and heat transfer fluid are the main focus of PVT research, with the sheet and tube collector being the direct reference, and nanofluid being the promised working fluid. This study intends to review the development of the sheet and tube PVT (ST-PVT) system reported by researchers in the literature by searching and selecting quality literature from reputable academic databases guided by set criteria to maintain the consistency and validity of the literature selection. The findings indicate that the ST-PVT system with no glazing and a serpentine collector offers the most desirable thermal and electrical performance. It is also learned that CuO/water nanofluid enhances ST-PVT overall efficiency at a higher rate. However, it is observed that nanofluid required more pumping power, u... [more]

This article presents a method for quantification of methanol and ethanol integrated in the same gas-chromatographic run with a quantification of gases dissolved in mineral oil, making it an integrated tool in transformer diagnostics. The results of aging experiments at 120 °C and 60 °C of Kraft paper, copper, barrier, and pressboard immersed in mineral oil, as well as the aging of thermal upgrade paper in mineral and natural ester oil at 140 °C are presented, in order to investigate correlations between different aging markers and to evaluate their partitioning between oil and cellulose at defined conditions. The results of partitioning experiments at 60 °C showed that re-absorption of methanol from oil to the cellulose materials is faster than the re-absorption of furans. This means that methanol is a paper-degradation marker that can be used in diagnostics over shorter equilibrium times and for the detection of developing faults at broader temperature ranges. Furthermore, a statisti... [more]

The 14th Five-Year Plan for renewable energy development proposes that renewable energy should achieve high-quality leapfrog development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The rapid development of integrated energy services has created more market opportunities for photovoltaics, and the photovoltaic (PV) industry has entered a new stage. In this study, from the perspective of stakeholders of a PV micro-grid under integrated energy services, a decision model for a PV micro-grid business model was established with the help of fuzzy mathematical theory. The MATLAB platform was used to carry out the decision analysis and simulation of the PV micro-grid business model. The simulation results showed that the self-consumption business model had the best overall performance among the current three different business models. It was also the business model with the highest comprehensive correlation with the government, power grids, investors, and users. Studying the best business model for... [more]

Some novel applications require the tracking/rejection of biased sinusoidal reference/distur-bances. According to the internal model principle (IMP), a controller must embed the model of a biased sinusoidal signal to track references and also reject perturbations modeled through the aforementioned signal. However, the design of that kind of controller is not straightforward, especially when they are implemented in digital processors. This paper presents a controller, based on generalized predictive control (GPC), designed for tracking/rejection of biased sinusoidal signals. In general, GPC is based on the prediction of the plant responses through an augmented prediction model. The proposed approach develops an augmented model that predicts the future errors. The prediction model and the control law used in the proposed approach embed the discrete-time model of a biased sinusoidal signal. Thus, the proposed controller can track/reject biased sinusoidal references/disturbances. The predi... [more]

The multi-input converters play a significant role in developing grid-independent hybrid electric vehicles (GIHEVs). This article describes the design and analysis of a single-ended primary-inductor converter (SEPIC)-based novel multi-input DC-DC converter (MIC) for grid-independent hybrid electric vehicles (GIHEVs) that is powered by a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel and a fuel cell. The average large-signal, small-signal, and steady-state modelings are demonstrated to achieve high-quality design and analysis. The proposed converter promises wide output voltage and power flow management at lower duty cycle values. The sources can transfer energy to the load either jointly or individually in this converter with the appropriate operation of the power switches. A hardware prototype is also developed and tested efficiently to uphold the mathematical modeling, design, and operation. With fewer switches, lower voltage stress, and fewer circuit components, the suggested converter claims better... [more]

The anode state of charge (SOC) and degradation information pertaining to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is crucial for understanding battery degradation over time. This information about each cell in a battery pack can help prolong the battery pack’s life cycle. Because of the limited observability, estimating the anode state and capacity fade is difficult. This task is even more challenging for the cells in a battery pack, as the current through the individual cell is not constant when cells are connected in parallel. Considering these challenges, this paper presents a novel method to set up three-electrode cells by using the battery’s casing as a reference electrode for building a three-electrode battery pack. This work is a continuation of the authors’ previous research. An unknown input observer (UIO) is employed to estimate the anode SOC of an individual battery in the battery pack. To ensure the stability of a defined Lyapunov function, the UIO parameter matrices are expressed as... [more]

An active heating system has been developed for application in smart clothing for mountain rescuers. It uses a set of sensors and is aimed at gathering necessary data for the elaboration and testing of an automatic control algorithm. The system is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, which can be additionally charged from flexible PV modules. The article presents an estimation of this system’s power supply requirements and its energy budget. Since the system’s maximum operation time strongly depends on the efficiency of its main power converter, the design of the latter was based on a model enabling power loss estimation in its particular components. Characteristics ultimately measured on a prototype showed a high agreement with simulations. Furthermore, five different arrangements of PV modules were studied in order to find the most effective one. The system was tested in real conditions for the three most promising PV module configurations.

In this article, the authors assumed that the “iGeneration” is the leading driving force for the SMART orientation of modern cities. Dynamic and multidirectional technical and technological processes introduce a new level of changes in urban space, adapting it to the present and future requirements of its inhabitants in a sustainable manner. An important infrastructure element of the urban space is the crosswalk, being an inseparable element of everyday life in the city. As part of a clear emphasis on the issue of vulnerable road users’ protection, the aim of the article is to examine the perception of users regarding crosswalks in Poland, based on the example of Szczecin. The main aim of the article is to identify the dimensions of crosswalk perception. The specific objectives include the determination of the state of knowledge about the essence and typology of crosswalks and the identification of good practices in their designation. Literature analysis, questionnaire research, and a... [more]

Due to a high operating voltage and theoretical capacity, P2-type layered Mn-based metal oxides are considered to be promising cathodes in sodium-ion batteries, but their poor structural stability in the process of Na+ insertion/deinsertion severely hinders their practical application. Here, an interesting K+ pre-intercalation is used to expand the interlayer distance and enhance the electrochemical reversibility of KsFexAlyMnzO2. With a suitable K+ content, the optimized electrode shows a high specific capacity of 135 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, a good rate capability of 80 mAh g−1 at 5 C and an excellent cycling performance of 76.4% capacity retention after 200 cycles at a high rate of 5 C. This work proves the feasibility of a K+ pre-intercalation strategy in a P2-type layered cathode.

In this paper, research was carried out on borehole protection technology using screen pipes, aiming to address the problems of gas drainage borehole collapse and low gas drainage efficiency in soft coal seams, which have low gas permeability and high gas content. An experiment was conducted to study the compressive resistance and borehole protection effects of polyvinylchloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and acrylonitrile−butadiene−styrene (ABS) screen pipes with different sieve opening spacings. The optimal screen pipe material and sieve opening spacing were determined. The borehole protection effect and gas drainage efficiency using three borehole protection methods, namely, bare boreholes, traditional PVC screen pipes, and new ABS screen pipes, were compared and studied on site, and the influence of pipe diameter on borehole protection efficiency was revealed. The results show that the compressive resistance and borehole protection effects of the three types of screen pipes are in... [more]

During the last decades, wind energy has been developed from an emerging technique of yielding sustainable energy into a robustly established technology due to its renewable, sustainable, and clean features [...]

Renewable energy communities are catalysts of social innovation, the citizens’ engagement in energy actions, and the exploitation of local resources. Thus, this paper defines a model for analyzing and optimally sizing energy systems serving renewable energy communities. Then, the proposed and replicable model was tailored to the economic feasibility analysis of a renewable energy community in the municipality of Tirano (Northern Italy). An energy audit was carried out to identify the electricity production and consumption within the perimeter of the primary substation and the thermal energy demand of the existing district heating network. The technical features of the energy conversion systems serving the renewable energy community were determined: an organic Rankine cycle biomass-based cogeneration plant, a mini-hydro plant, and a distributed photovoltaic system. Moreover, several different scenarios have been identified, in terms of cogeneration operating mode, photovoltaic penetrati... [more]

Organosolv pre-treatments aiming to selectively remove and depolymerise lignin and hemicellulose and yield an easily digestible cellulose fraction are one of the potential options for industrial implementation within the biorefinery concept. However, the use of high temperatures and/or high catalyst concentrations is still hindering its wide adoption. In this work, mild temperature organosolv processes (140 °C) that were either non-catalysed or catalysed with sulphuric or acetic acid were compared to standard similar conditions using ethanol-based organosolv for both wheat straw (WS) and eucalyptus wood residues (ERs) as agricultural and forestry-derived model raw materials, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that high cellulose purities could be obtained for the catalysed ethanol-based processing of the WS, which resulted in high saccharification yields (>80%), conversely to the non-catalysed process, which only reached values close to 70%. For eucalyptus residues (ER... [more]