In situ shale or kerogen oil production is a promising approach to developing vast oil shale resources and increasing world energy demand. In this study, cyclic subcritical water injection in oil shale was investigated in laboratory conditions as a method for in situ oil shale retorting. Fifteen non-extracted oil shale samples from Bazhenov Formation in Russia (98 °C and 23.5 MPa reservoir conditions) were hydrothermally treated at 350 °C and in a 25 MPa semi-open system during 50 h in the cyclic regime. The influence of the artificial maturation on geochemical parameters, elastic and microstructural properties was studied. Rock-Eval pyrolysis of non-extracted and extracted oil shale samples before and after hydrothermal exposure and SARA analysis were employed to analyze bitumen and kerogen transformation to mobile hydrocarbons and immobile char. X-ray computed microtomography (XMT) was performed to characterize the microstructural properties of pore space. The results demonstrated si... [more]

This paper introduces the concept of fault-tolerant control (FTC) of a multi-string battery energy storage system (BESS) in the dynamic reduction system of a traction substation load (DROPT). The major task of such a system is to reduce the maximum demand for contracted peak power, averaged for 15 min. The proposed concept, based on a multi-task control algorithm, takes into account: a three-threshold power limitation of the traction substation, two-level reduction of available power of a BESS and a multi-string structure of a BESS. It ensures the continuity of the maximum peak power demand at the contracted level even in the case of damage or disconnection of at least one chain of cells of the battery energy storage (BES) or at least one converter of the power conversion system (PCS). The proposed control strategy has been tested in a model of the system for dynamic reduction of traction substation load with a rated power of 5.5 MW. Two different BESS implementations have been propose... [more]

Leading edge erosion is becoming increasingly important as wind turbine size and rainfall are predicted to increase. Understanding environmental conditions is key for laboratory testing, maintenance schedules and lifetime estimations to be improved, which in turn could reduce costs. This paper uses weather data in conjunction with a rain texture model and wind turbine RPM curve to predict and characterise rain erosion conditions across Ireland during rainfall events in terms of droplet size, temperature, humidity and chemical composition, as well as the relative erosivity, in terms of number of annual impacts and kinetic energy, as well as seasonal variations in these properties. Using a linear regression, the total annual kinetic energy, mean temperature and the mean humidity during impact are mapped geospatially. The results indicate that the west coast of Ireland and elevated regions are more erosive with higher kinetic energy. During rain events, northern regions tend to have lower... [more]

Optimisation of heat and electrical load distribution, where the objective function is the maximum efficiency of the CHP unit for a given load range, can be done considering the limitations of electrical power and the heat load. Simulating a real CHP unit with a district heating network shows that demand-side management can improve the overall economic efficiency of the CHP plant and increase the unit’s operating range in the electricity spot market. Economic dispatch makes it possible to determine a reasonable additional increase in the electric power of the CHP unit, and to optimise the supply temperature and mass flow of the district heating network. The results obtained and the analysis performed indicate that the proposed methodology provides logical results and can be used to calculate the efficiency indicators of the cogeneration of electrical and thermal energy. The problem of optimising the operating mode of the CHP unit was solved, which allows us to determine the optimal add... [more]

Today, the power system operation represents a challenge given the security and reliability requirements. Mathematical models are used to represent and solve operational and planning issues related with electric systems. Specifically, the AC optimal power flow (ACOPF) and the DC optimal power flow (DCOPF) are tools used for operational and planning purposes. The DCOPF versions correspond to lineal versions of the ACOPF. This is due to the fact that the power flow solution is often hard to obtain with the ACOPF considering all constraints. However, the simplifications use only active power without considering reactive power, voltage values and losses on transmission lines, which are crucial factors for power system operation, potentially leading to inaccurate results. This paper develops a detailed formulation for both DCOPF and ACOPF with multiple generation sources to provide a 24-h dispatching in order to compare the differences between the solutions with different scenarios under hi... [more]

This paper focuses on a study of natural convection in a van der Waals gas over a vertical heated plate. In this paper, for the first time, an approximate analytical solution of the problem was obtained using an integral method for momentum and energy equations. A novel simplified form of the van der Waals equation for real gases enabled estimating the effects of the dimensionless van der Waals parameters on the normalized heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers in an analytical form. Trends in the variation of the Nusselt number depending on the nature of the interaction between gas molecules and the wall were analyzed. The results of computations for a van der Waals gas were compared with the results for an ideal gas.

As a result of the increase in city populations, and the high energy consumption and emissions of buildings, cities in general, and buildings in particular, are the focus of attention for public organizations and utilities. Heating is among the largest consumers of energy in buildings. This study examined the influence of the income of inhabitants on the consumption of energy for heating and the CO2 emissions in city buildings. The study was carried out using equivalized disposable income as the basis for the analysis and considered the economies of scale of households. The results are shown per inhabitant and household, by independently considering each city. Furthermore, to more clearly identify the influence of the population income, the study was also carried out without considering the influence of the climate. The method was implemented in the case of Spain. For this purpose, Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants were analyzed. The results show that, both per inhabitan... [more]

This paper presents a method for finding an optimal photovoltaic (PV) system according to Croatian legislation. The PV sizing model, in which a decision on investment is made according to economic indicators, is made using MATLAB Software. Based on the input data, the monthly PV system production is calculated, and electricity price formed. According to the PV system production and electricity price, economic indicators are calculated and obtained as output data. The model input data are solar irradiation, load diagram, PV system costs and market price of electricity while the model output data are PV system production, savings, profit, incomes, Net Present Value (NPV) and Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). The obtained economic indicators are presented graphically and used for decision making on an optimal PV system size. The presented model is applied and presented in a case study.

The ignition timing of an SI engine is a critical parameter. The influence on residual gas, effective release energy, and emissions characteristics of ignition timing for the V-twin engine is investigated in this research. For this purpose, an experiment system was built with a dynamometer, and a model of the simulation was created. In this research, the ignition timing was varied from 10 to 45 degrees BTDC under full load operating conditions, with engine speeds ranging from 3000 to 10,000 rpm. Based on the output data, ignition timing has a major impact on the proportion of residual gas, efficient release energy, performance of the engine, and the emission characteristics. The smallest proportion of residual gas was 0.07% at 8000 rpm and ignition timing of 10 °CA. At 15 °CA of ignition timing, the highest efficient release energy was 0.817 kJ at 4000 rpm, while at 8000 rpm and 25 °CA of ignition timing, it was 0.8305 kJ. At 6000 rpm, the greatest braking torque of the engine was 21.5... [more]

In order to fully understand the energy and exergy transfer processes in sinter vertical coolers, a simulation model of the fluid flow and heat transfer in a vertical cooler was established, and energy and exergy efficiency analyses of the gas−solid heat transfer in a vertical cooler were conducted in detail. Based on the calculation method of the whole working condition, the suitable operational parameters of the vertical cooler were obtained by setting the net exergy efficiency in the vertical cooler as the indicator function. The results show that both the quantity of sinter waste heat recovery (SWHR) and energy efficiency increased as the air flow rate (AFR) increased, and they decreased as the air inlet temperature (AIT) increased. The increase in the sinter inlet temperature (SIT) resulted in an increase in the quantity of SWHR and a decrease in energy efficiency. The air net exergy had the maximum value as the AFR increased, and it only increased monotonically as the SIT and AIT... [more]

In recent years, the urgent necessity and tremendous opportunity to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon competitive economy has resulted in growth of long-term targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency, which are coming from policy bodies worldwide. The inherent distributed nature of renewable energies, together with the modularity of those technologies, brings opportunities for consumer empowerment in terms of participation. Nevertheless, there is still the need for increasing global awareness and enabling policies, to strengthen the citizen role in the energy system, facilitating their proactive participation as renewable energy purchasers, investors, and clean energy producers. Drawing from research interviews and the academic literature, this article conceptualizes the understanding of the need for improving public attitudes and explores the factors influencing the acceptance in terms of misconceptions, best communication practices, activities addressing public conce... [more]

Membrane water content is of vital importance to the freezing durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Excessive water freezing could cause irreversible degradation to the cell components and deteriorate the cell performance and lifetime. However, there are few studies on the critical membrane water content, a threshold beyond which freezing damage occurs, for cold storage of PEMFCs. In this work, we first proposed a method for measuring membrane water content using membrane resistance extracted from measured high frequency resistance (HFR) based on the finding that the non-membrane resistance part of the measured HFR is constant within the range of membrane water content of 2.98 to 14.0. Then, freeze/thaw cycles were performed from −50 °C to 30 °C with well controlled membrane water content. After 30 cycles, cells with a membrane water content of 8.2 and 7.7 exhibited no performance degradation, while those higher than 8.2 showed significant performance decay. Elect... [more]

Due to the need of good thermal performance, external wall insulation (EWI) is usually made of materials that are not fire resistant and sometimes flammable. That restricts its application to a particular circumstance such as limited building height. Hence, a material with good thermal insulation and fire resistance performance would allow EWI to be more widely applied. This paper introduces a novel material: a silica-based aerogel porous board, which differs itself from mainstream products available in the market because of its outstanding properties, such as low density, high surface area, low thermal conductivity and superhydrophobicity. Herein, its thermal insulation and fire-resistant performance were tested and compared with commercial products. The cone calorimeter analysis results indicated that the aerogel porous board could improve the fire resistance performance. Moreover, the evaluation of thermal insulation performance suggested that the application of an aerogel porous bo... [more]

Reversible solid oxide cells (rSOC) enable the efficient cyclic conversion between electrical and chemical energy in the form of fuels and chemicals, thereby providing a pathway for long-term and high-capacity energy storage. Amongst the different fuels under investigation, hydrogen, methane, and ammonia have gained immense attention as carbon-neutral energy vectors. Here we have compared the energy efficiency and the energy demand of rSOC based on these three fuels. In the fuel cell mode of operation (energy generation), two different routes have been considered for both methane and ammonia; Routes 1 and 2 involve internal reforming (in the case of methane) or cracking (in the case of ammonia) and external reforming or cracking, respectively. The use of hydrogen as fuel provides the highest round-trip efficiency (62.1%) followed by methane by Route 1 (43.4%), ammonia by Route 2 (41.1%), methane by Route 2 (40.4%), and ammonia by Route 1 (39.2%). The lower efficiency of internal ammoni... [more]

Valorization of digested sewage sludge generated in a medium-sized sewage treatment plant and the effect of valorization on energy consumption during sludge drying used for energy recovery are presented. Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge reduces dry matter content compared to raw sludge. This lowers its calorific value leading to the lower interest of consumers in using it as fuel. The aim of the study was to valorize digested sewage sludge prior to drying with high-energy waste with low moisture content. The procedure led to the reduction in moisture content by about 50% in the substrate supplied for solidification and drying. The calorific value of digested sewage sludge increased by 50−80%, and the energy consumption of the drying process decreased by about 50%. Physical and chemical properties of sewage sludge and moisture content of substrates and mixtures after valorization were determined. The heat of combustion of valorized sewage sludge mixtures, their elemental composition... [more]

This work proposes a new device for air treatment with dehumidification and water recovery/storage, with possible mitigation of indoor environmental conditions. The system is based on Peltier cells coupled with a horizontal earth-to-air heat exchanger, it is proposed as an easy-to-implement alternative to the heat pumps and air handling units currently used on the market, in terms of cost, ease of installation, and maintenance. The process provides the water collection from the cooling of warm-humid air through a process that leads to condensation and water vapor separation. The airflow generated by a fan splits into two dual flows that lap the two surfaces of the Peltier cells, one flow laps the cold surfaces undergoing sensible, latent cooling with dehumidification; the other flow laps the hot surfaces and heats up. The airflow undergoes thermal pre-treatment through the underground horizontal geothermal pipe that precedes the Peltier cells. In the water storage tank, which also work... [more]

Concerns regarding environmental sustainability have generally been an important element in achieving long-term development objectives. However, developing countries struggle to deal with these concerns, which all require specific treatment. As a result, this study explores the interaction between financial development, renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and CO2 emissions in India from 1980 to 2019, taking into account the critical role of economic progress and urbanization. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used to quantify long-run dynamics, while the Vector Error Correction Model is used to identify causal direction (VECM). According to the study’s conclusions, financial development has a considerable positive impact on CO2 emissions. The coefficient of renewable energy consumption and technical innovations, on the other hand, is strongly negative in both the short and long run, indicating that increasing these measures will reduce CO2 emission... [more]

Clean Utilization and Conversion Technology of Coal has at least 40 years of history, beginning with the USA-born Clean Coal Technology program and at the same time the European Thermie research and development program was started [...]

Due to the worldwide impact of industrialization, renewable sources of energy from solar play a huge role in supplying the domestic demand in Taiwan. This paper aims to impart an unbiased performance evaluation of different solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants around Taiwan. This study utilized data envelopment analysis (DEA) using the epsilon-based measure (EBM) model to compute the performance efficiency and ranking of the solar PV power plants. Additionally, the model is used for its advantage of combined radial and non-radial measures to achieve a more precise measure of efficiency. The results show that among nine selected solar PV plants, the top-performing DMU was I (8200051) from the southern part of Taiwan. Therefore, this study recommends that EBM can be a useful tool to evaluate the performance of solar PV power plants using multiple inputs and outputs. Additionally, this study will contribute to sustaining and developing the existing solar PV power capacity while achieving... [more]

Yaw-based wake steering control is a potential way to improve wind plant overall performance. For its engineering application, it is crucial to accurately predict the turbine wakes under various yawed conditions within a short time. In this work, a two-dimensional analytical model is proposed for far wake modeling under yawed conditions by taking the self-similarity assumption for the streamwise velocity deficit and skewness angle at hub height. The proposed model can be applied to predict the wake center trajectory, streamwise velocity, and transverse velocity in the far-wake region downstream of a yawed turbine. For validation purposes, predictions by the newly proposed model are compared to wind tunnel measurements and large-eddy simulation data. The results show that the proposed model has significantly high accuracy and outperforms other common wake models. More importantly, the equations of the new proposed model are simple, the wake growth rate is the only parameter to be specif... [more]

Iron-based industries are one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Partial substitution of fossil carbon with renewable biocarbon (biomass) into the blast furnace (BF) process can be a sustainable approach to mitigating GHG emissions from the ironmaking process. However, the main barriers of using biomass for this purpose are the inherent high alkaline and phosphorous contents in ash, resulting in fouling, slagging, and scaling on the BF surface. Furthermore, the carbon content of the biomass is considerably lower than coal. To address these barriers, this research proposed an innovative approach of combining two thermochemical conversion methods, namely hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and slow pyrolysis, for converting biomass into suitable biocarbon for the ironmaking process. Miscanthus, which is one of the most abundant herbaceous biomass sources, was first treated by HTC to obtain the lowest possible ash content mainly due to reduction in alkali matter and... [more]

Due to the recent global increase in fuel prices, to reduce emissions from ground transportation and improve urban air quality, it is necessary to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. Water, methanol, and a mixture of the two were added at the pre-intercooler position to keep the same charge and cooling of the original rich mixture, reduce BSFC and increase ITE, and promote combustion. The methanol/water mixing volume ratios of different fuel injection strategies were compared to find the best balance between fuel consumption, performance, and emission trends. By simulating the combustion mechanism of methanol, water, and diesel mixed through the Chemkin system, the ignition delay, temperature change, and the generation rate of the hydroxyl group (−OH) in the reaction process were analyzed. Furthermore, the performance and emission of the engine were analyzed in combination with the actual experiment process. This paper studied the application of different concentration ratios... [more]

This paper presents a new method to optimize, from a working cycle defined by torque and speed profiles, both the design and the control strategy of permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs). The case of a 10 MW direct-drive permanent magnet generator for an Offshore wind turbine was chosen to illustrate this method, which is based on the d−q axis equivalent circuit model. It allows to optimize, with a reduced computation time, the design, considering either a flux weakening control strategy (FW) or a maximum torque per Ampere control (MTPA) strategy, while respecting all the constraints—particularly the thermal constraint, which is characterized by a transient regime. The considered objective is to minimize the mass and the average electric losses over all working points. Thermal and magnetic analytical models are validated by a 2D finite element analysis (FEA).

The main goal of this work is the analysis of potential energy and green benefits of 3D printing on building construction. Current literature reports a considerable number of benefits for 3D printing, namely, reduction of material use, lower operational costs and time-saving. The authors also mention design freedom, higher efficiency, productivity and quality. This work presents the latest developments in 3D printing in civil engineering, namely, a review of the last 3D printing projects and the limitations of construction 3D printing with a focus on large-scale applications, technology costs, mix development and optimisation and thermal behaviour.

Given the large demand nowadays for domestic hot water, and its impact on modern building energy consumption, air source transcritical CO2 heat pumps have been extensively adopted for hot water production. Since their system efficiency is limited by significant irreversibility, a CO2-based mixture could offer a promising drop-in technology to overcome this deficiency without increasing system complexity. Although many CO2 blends have been studied in previously published literature, little has been presented about the CO2/R32 mixture. Therefore, a proposed mixture for use in transcritical CO2 heat pumps was analyzed using energy and exergy analysis. Results showed that the coefficient of performance and exergy efficiency variation displayed an “M” shape trend, and the optimal CO2/R32 mixture concentration was determined as 0.9/0.1 with regard to flammability and efficiency. The irreversibility of the throttling valve was reduced from 0.031 to 0.009 kW⋅kW−1 and the total irreversibility... [more]