Fischer−Tropsch (F−T) fuel, synthesized from coal-to-liquid (CTL), is an alternative fuel with clean and efficient characteristics. In this study, a surrogate fuel model was developed, including n-dodecane (n-C12H26) and iso-octane (i-C8H18), which represents the n-alkane and iso-alkane in F−T fuel synthesized from CTL, respectively. The proportions of the components in the surrogate fuel are determined by the characteristics of the practical fuel, including cetane number (CN), C/H ration and component composition. For the establishment of the skeletal mechanism model, firstly, based on a two-step direct relationship graph (DRG) and the computational singular perturbation (CSP) importance index method, a reduced model of n-dodecane was developed involving 159 species and 399 reactions, while the detailed n-dodecane mechanism consists of 1279 species and 5056 reactions. Then, the n-dodecane skeletal mechanism was constructed based on a decoupling methodology, involving the skeletal C12... [more]

Different power generation technologies have different advantages and disadvantages. However, if compared to traditional energy sources, renewable energy sources provide a possibility to solve the climate change and economic decarbonization issues that are so relevant today. Therefore, the analysis and evaluation of renewable energy technologies has been receiving increasing attention in the politics of different countries and the scientific literature. The household sector consumes almost one third of all energy produced, thus studies on the evaluation of renewable energy production technologies in households are very important. This article reviews the scientific literature that have used multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods as a key tool to evaluate renewable energy technologies in households. The findings of the conducted research are categorized according to the objectives pursued and the criteria on which the evaluation was based are discussed. The article also provid... [more]

High penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) leads to high stress on a power grid, especially when the supply cannot cover and actively respond to the unpredictable demand caused by charging EVs. In the Java-Madura-Bali (JAMALI) area, Indonesia, the capability of the grid to balance its supply and demand is very limited, and massive EV charging additionally worsens the condition because of unbalanced load profiles. Ancillary services of EVs have led to the idea of utilizing EV batteries for grid support, owing to their high-speed response to the fluctuating power system. In this study, a techno-economic analysis of the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system in the JAMALI grid is conducted in terms of the changes in the feed-in tariff schemes, including regular, natural, and demand response tariffs. The results show that by utilizing EVs, the supply during peak hours can be reduced by up to 2.8% (for coal) and 8.8% (for gas). EVs owned by business entities as operating vehicles with a natural tari... [more]

Currently, there are three major barriers toward a greener energy landscape in the future: (a) Curtailed grid integration of energy from renewable sources like wind and solar; (b) The low investment attractiveness of large-scale battery energy storage systems; and, (c) Constraints from the existing electric infrastructure on the development of charging station networks to meet the increasing electrical transportation demands. A new conceptual design of mobile battery energy storage systems has been proposed in recent studies to reduce the curtailment of renewable energy while limiting the public costs of battery energy storage systems. This work designs a logistics system in which electric semi-trucks ship batteries between the battery energy storage system and electric vehicle charging stations, enabling the planning and operation of power grid independent electric vehicle charging station networks. This solution could be viable in many regions in the United States (e.g., Texas) where... [more]

The integration of photovoltaic (PV) and electric vehicle (EV) charging in residential buildings has increased in recent years. At high latitudes, both pose new challenges to the residential power systems due to the negative correlation between household load and PV power production and the increase in household peak load by EV charging. EV smart charging schemes can be an option to overcome these challenges. This paper presents a distributed and a centralized EV smart charging scheme for residential buildings based on installed photovoltaic (PV) power output and household electricity consumption. The proposed smart charging schemes are designed to determine the optimal EV charging schedules with the objective to minimize the net load variability or to flatten the net load profile. Minimizing the net load variability implies both increasing the PV self-consumption and reducing the peak loads. The charging scheduling problems are formulated and solved with quadratic programming approach... [more]

The increasing demand on coal production has led to the gradually increase of mining depth and more high methane mines, which bring difficulties in terms of coalbed methane (CBM) extraction. Hydraulic fracturing is widely applied to improve the production of CBM, control mine gas, and prevent gas outbursts. It improves coal bed permeability and accelerate desorption and migration of CBM. Even though the impacts of hydraulic fracturing treatment on the coal reservoirs are rare, negative effects could not be totally ignored. To defend this defect, the presented work aims to study the influence of water filtration on coal body deformation and permeability evolution. For this purpose, a simulation based finite element method was developed to build a solid-fluid coupled two-phase flow model using commercial software (COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4). The model was verified using production data from a long strike borehole from Wangpo coal mine in Shanxi Province, China. Several simulation scenarios... [more]

The thermal masses of components influence the performance of many adsorption heat pump systems. However, typically when experimental adsorption systems are reported, data on thermal mass are missing or incomplete. This work provides original measurements of the thermal masses for experimental sorption heat exchanger hardware. Much of this hardware was previously reported in the literature, but without detailed thermal mass data. The data reported in this work are the first values reported in the literature to thoroughly account for all thermal masses, including heat transfer fluid. The impact of thermal mass on system performance is also discussed, with detailed calculation left for future work. The degree to which heat transfer fluid contributes to overall effective thermal mass is also discussed, with detailed calculation left for future work. This work provides a framework for future reporting of experimental thermal masses. The utilization of this framework will enrich the data av... [more]

Operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, and associated uncertainty, for wind turbines (WTs) is a significant burden for wind farm operators. Many wind turbine failures are unpredictable while causing loss of energy production, and may also cause loss of asset. This study utilized 753 O&M event data from 21 wind turbines operating in Germany, to improve the prediction of failure frequency and associated costs. We applied Bayesian updating to predict wind turbine failure frequency and time-to-repair (TTR), in conjunction to machine learning techniques for assessing costs associated with failures. We found that time-to-failure (TTF), time-to-repair and the cost of failures depend on operational and environmental conditions. High elevation (>100 m) of the wind turbine installation was found to increase both the probability of failures and probability of delayed repairs. Furthermore, it was determined that direct-drive turbines are more favorable at locations with high capacity factor (more... [more]

This study proposes a novel three-port bidirectional converter with a three-winding coupled inductor and applies it to a photovoltaic (PV) system to step up the PV system output to a dc bus or dc load while charging the battery. When the PV output is insufficient, battery voltage is stepped up to the dc bus voltage, and when the dc bus has excess energy, it is stepped down to charge the battery. Thus, a three-port bidirectional high step-up/step-down converter is achieved. A three-winding common core coupled inductor is designed and implemented in the converter, and a full-wave doubler circuit is used on the high-voltage side to achieve a high step-up effect. Power switches and diodes in the circuit are shared to achieve bidirectional operation. The output capacitors recover secondary-side leakage inductance energy in the step-up mode, and the third winding can be used to recover primary-side leakage inductance energy to reduce the voltage spike on switching in order to improve the con... [more]

The purpose of this paper is to assess the content and distribution of some elements in coal from two bituminous coal basins and in fly ash and slag derived from combustion of the coals in six power plants in Poland. The petrographic composition and distribution of elements were characterized in the tested samples, using reflected light microscope, X-ray powder diffractometer, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray. The highest content of elements in coal occurs in siderite. In Al-Si particles, as well as in magnetite with skeletal and dendritic structure crystallized on the surface of Al-Si microspheres or cenospheres included in fly ash size < 0.05 mm and in the magnetic fraction of slag, the highest content of elements was noted. Due to the content of elements, fly ash and slag were considered to be neutral for the soil environment. Correlations, which have not been described before, have been observe... [more]

In this paper is provided a systematic, in-depth, behavioral analysis of renewable energy sources cooperatives’ members. The analysis proved that in, on hand, there was a noticeable difference in the portion of affection of each proposed intervention on the actual energy consumption, which may be to even ten times more in some cases, and on the other hand, the difference in energy consumption between the analyzed groups was noticeable as well. So, implementing energy efficiency interventions of various types, such as technical support, special tariffs, energy generation schemes, and smart meters, seems to lead to substantial energy reductions to even more than 10%, cumulatively, and reduces the environmental footprint. Additionally, the majority of energy efficiency interventions applied by the renewable energy sources cooperatives are proved to be effective in achieving their primary goal, sensitizing members, and leading them to a more efficient energy consumption behavior (“greener”... [more]

Progressive failure in rock bridges along pre-existing discontinuities is one of the predominant destruction modes of rock slopes. The monitoring and prediction of the impending progressive failure is of great significance to ensure the stability of the rock structures and the safety of the workers. The deformation and fracture of rocks are complex processes with energy evolution between rocks and the external environment. Regarding the whole slope as a system, an energy evolution equation of rock slope systems during progressive failure was established by an energy method of systemic stability. Then, considering the weakening effect of joints and the locking effect of rock bridges, a method for calculating the safety factor of rock slopes with a locked section was proposed. Finally, the energy evolution equation and the calculation method of safety factor are verified by a case study. The results show that when the energy dissipated in the progressive failure process of rock bridges i... [more]

Horizontal well drilling is a highly effective way to develop marine gas hydrate. During the drilling of horizontal wells in the marine gas hydrate layer, hydrate particles and cutting particles will migrate with the drilling fluid in the horizontal annulus. The gravity of cuttings is easy to deposit in the horizontal section, leading to the accumulation of cuttings. Then, a cuttings bed will be formed, which is not beneficial to bring up cuttings and results in the decrease of wellbore purification ability. Then the extended capability of the horizontal well will be restricted and the friction torque of the drilling tool will increase, which may cause blockage of the wellbore in severe cases. Therefore, this paper establishes geometric models of different hole enlargement ways: right-angle expansion, 45-degree angle expansion, and arc expanding. The critical velocity of carrying rock plates are obtained by EDEM and FLUENT coupling simulation in different hydrate abundance, different h... [more]

The rapid growth of grid integrated renewable energy (RE) sources resulted in development of the hybrid grids. Variable nature of RE generation resulted in problems related to the power quality (PQ), power system reliability, and adversely affects the protection relay operation. High penetration of RE to the utility grid is achieved using multi-tapped lines for integrating the wind and solar energy and also to supply loads. This created considerable challenges for power system protection. To overcome these challenges, an algorithm is introduced in this paper for providing protection to the hybrid grid with high RE penetration level. All types of fault were identified using a fault index (FI), which is based on both the voltage and current features. This FI is computed using element to element multiplication of current-based Wigner distribution index (WD-index) and voltage-based alienation index (ALN-index). Application of the algorithm is generalized by testing the algorithm for the re... [more]

The online monitoring of a high voltage apparatus is a crucial aspect for a predictive maintenance program. Partial discharges (PDs) phenomena affect the insulation system of an electrical machine and—in the long term—can lead to a breakdown, with a consequent, significant economic loss; wind turbines provide an excellent example. Embedded solutions are therefore required to monitor the insulation status. The paper presents an online system that adopts unsupervised methodologies for assessing the condition of the monitored machine in real time. The monitoring process does not rely on any prior knowledge about the apparatus; nonetheless, the method can identify the relevant drifts in the machine status. In addition, the system is specifically designed to run on low-cost embedded devices.

Kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHI) and anti-agglomerants (AA) rather than thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors (THI) are often used for flow assurance in pipelines. This is because they require much lower dosages than thermodynamic inhibitors. Although the hydrate-phase equilibria are not affected, KHI and AA prevent the formed hydrate crystals from growing to a bulky state causing pipeline blockage. However, these KHIs might have huge environmental impact due to leakages from the pipelines. In this study, two biodegradable AA candidates from natural sources (that is, lecithin and lanolin) are proposed and their performances are evaluated by comparing them with and without a conventional AA (Span 80, sorbitan monooleate). At 30% and 50% water cut, the addition of AA materials was found to enhance the flow characteristics substantially in pipelines and hardly affected the maximum value of the rotational torque, respectively. Considering the cost-effective and environmental advantages of the s... [more]

This paper presents an off-design analysis of a gas turbine Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) combined cycle. Combustion turbine performances are significantly affected by fluctuations in ambient conditions, leading to relevant variations in the exhaust gases’ mass flow rate and temperature. The effects of the variation of ambient air temperature have been considered in the simulation of the topper cycle and of the condenser in the bottomer one. Analyses have been performed for different working fluids (toluene, benzene and cyclopentane) and control systems have been introduced on critical parameters, such as oil temperature and air mass flow rate at the condenser fan. Results have highlighted similar power outputs for cycles based on benzene and toluene, while differences as high as 34% have been found for cyclopentane. The power output trend with ambient temperature has been found to be influenced by slope discontinuities in gas turbine exhaust mass flow rate and temperature and by the upp... [more]

Multi-stage refrigeration systems cover a wide range of possibilities and are diffusing more and more. The idea that inspired this work derived from the need to have a tool to model the energy behavior of the intercooler inside a multi-stage refrigeration system. In this work, a semi-analytical model of a single bubble, injected into the liquid of an intercooler of a multi-stage system, has been developed. The developed model is a set of equations derived from the Fourier equation for heat conduction in defined conditions and includes the effects of sensible and latent heat. The vapor bubble is supposed to be injected in the saturated liquid contained in a tank at a defined depth, at an intermediate pressure. The model has been implemented in Matlab and the results show the influence of the liquid surface tension, the injection depth and the thermal diffusivity of the vapor. The model developed here is a useful low-cost tool for evaluating heat transfer optimization of a separator/inte... [more]

Over the past decade, energy forecasting applications not only on the grid side of electric power systems but also on the customer side for load and demand prediction purposes have become ubiquitous after the advancements in the smart grid technologies. Within this context, short-term electrical energy consumption forecasting is a requisite for energy management and planning of all buildings from households and residences in the small-scale to huge building complexes in the large-scale. Today’s popular machine learning algorithms in the literature are commonly used to forecast short-term building electrical energy consumption by generating an abstruse analytical expression between explanatory variables and response variables. In this study, gene expression programming (GEP) and group method of data handling (GMDH) networks are meticulously employed for creating genuine and easily understandable mathematical models among predictor variables and target variables and forecasting short-ter... [more]

Injecting carbon dioxide to enhance shale gas recovery (CO2-EGR) is a useful technique that has raised great research interests. Clear understanding of the two-component gas transport mechanisms in shale nanopores is the foundation for the efficient development of shale gas reservoir (SGR) and also the long-term geological storage of CO2. Although extensive studies on single-component gas transport and corresponding models in shale nanopores have been carried out in recent years, limited studies have been conducted on two-component or even multi-component gas transport models in shale nanopores. In this work, the shale nanopores were classified into inorganic and organic nanopores. The corresponding models for two-component gas transport were constructed. Mechanisms including Knudsen diffusion, slip flow, viscous flow, and molecular diffusion are considered in the inorganic pores. In the organic pores, due to existence of adsorption gas, surface diffusion is further considered besides... [more]

We analyzed the peak spring tidal current speeds, annual mean tidal power densities ( T P D ) and annual energy production ( A E P ) obtained from experiment 06.1, referred as the “HYCOM model” throughout, of the three dimensional (3D), global model HYCOM in an area covering the Baja California Pacific and the Gulf of California. The HYCOM model is forced with astronomical tides and surface winds alone, and therefore is particularly suitable to assess the tidal current and wind-driven current contribution to in-stream energy resources. We find two areas within the Gulf of California, one in the Great Island Region and one in the Upper Gulf of California, where peak spring tidal flows reach speeds of 1.1 m per second. Second to fifth-generation tidal stream devices would be suitable for deployment in these two areas, which are very similar in terms of tidal in-stream energy resources. However, they are also very different in terms of sediment type and range in water depth, p... [more]

Battery electric vehicles (BEV) provide an opportunity to balance supply and demand in future power systems with high shares of fluctuating renewable energy. Compared to other storage systems such as pumped-storage hydroelectricity, electric vehicle energy demand is highly dependent on charging and connection choices of vehicle users. We present a model framework of a utility-based stock and flow model, a utility-based microsimulation of charging decisions, and an energy system model including respective interfaces to assess how the representation of battery electric vehicle charging affects energy system optimization results. We then apply the framework to a scenario study for controlled charging of nine million electric vehicles in Germany in 2030. Assuming a respective fleet power demand of 27 TWh, we analyze the difference between power-system-based and vehicle user-based charging decisions in two respective scenarios. Our results show that taking into account vehicle users’ chargi... [more]

In the permanent magnet direct-drive wind power grid-connected system, in order to solve the coupling problem between d -axis and q -axis currents and to improve the disturbance rejection performance of direct current (DC) bus voltage under grid faults, a new dual closed-loop structure based on linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) is proposed. This new dual closed-loop control includes current inner loop decoupling control and DC bus voltage outer loop control with first-order LADRC. As the LADRC has the advantages of decoupling and disturbances rejection, it is applied to the control of wind power grid-connected inverter. Through analysis, it is demonstrated that the current decoupling control is simpler than proportional integral (PI) control algorithm, the dynamic response speed is faster, and the DC bus voltage control has better anti-disturbance. Finally, a 1.5 MW direct-drive permanent magnet wind power system was established through digital simulation, a... [more]

Prediction of a battery’s health in data centers plays a significant role in Battery Management Systems (BMS). Data centers use thousands of batteries, and their lifespan ultimately decreases over time. Predicting battery’s degradation status is very critical, even before the first failure is encountered during its discharge cycle, which also turns out to be a very difficult task in real life. Therefore, a framework to improve Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) accuracy for forecasting battery’s health with clustered predictors is proposed. Clustering approaches, such as Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) or k-shape-based, are beneficial to find patterns in data sets with multiple time series. The aspect of large number of batteries in a data center is used to cluster the voltage patterns, which are further utilized to improve the accuracy of the ARIMA model. Our proposed work shows that the forecasting accuracy of the ARIMA model is significantly improved by applying the result... [more]

The paper deals with the sequence impedances (positive/negative and zero sequences) of high- and extra-high-voltage land single-core insulated cables. In particular, it presents the comparisons between sequence impedance measurements and computations. The computations of the sequence impedances are carried out by means of the most important international normative and council references (IEC/Cigré) and of multiconductor cell analysis which is a consolidated and powerful tool developed by University of Padova in order to analyse power frequency regimes of multiconductor asymmetric power systems. The comparisons are presented with reference to four high- and extra-high voltage insulated cables, even if the available ones are much higher: however, the conclusions derived from these four reference cases are general and can be useful for transmission system operators and for power electric system engineers involved in insulated cables. The paper demonstrates, for the first time in technical... [more]