This investigation aims to model and assess the wind potential available in seven specific regions of North Algeria. These regions, i.e., Batna, Guelma, Medea, Meliana, Chlef, Tiaret, and Tlemcen, are known for their traditional agriculture. The wind data are obtained from the National Agency of Meteorology (NAM), and a Weibull distribution is applied. In the first part of this study, the wind potential available in these sites is assessed. Then, different models are used to estimate the wind system’s annual recoverable energy for these regions. We are interested in wind pumping for possible use to meet the needs of irrigation water in rural areas. Four kinds of wind turbines are explored to determine the possibility of wind energy conversion. In addition, the effects of the heights of the pylon holding the turbines are inspected by considering four cases (10, 20, 40, and 60 m). This estimation showed that the annual mean wind velocity varies from 2.48 to 5.60 m/s at a level of 10 m. T... [more]

The expansion of electric vehicles made the expansion of charging infrastructure rudimentary to keep up with this developing technology that helps people in a myriad of ways. The main drawback in electric vehicle charging, however, is the time consumed to charge a vehicle. The fast charging of electric vehicles solves this problem thus making it a lucrative technology for consumers. However, the fast charging technology is not without its limitations. In this paper we have identified the technology gaps in EV fast charging stations mostly focused on the extremely fast charging topology. It will help pave a path for researchers to direct their effort in a consolidated manner to contribute to the fast charging infrastructure. A thorough review of all aspects and limitations of existing extremely fast charging (XFC) stations have been identified and supporting data are provided. The importance of DC power network based on free fuel energy sources and silicon carbide-based power electronic... [more]

The flammable hydrogen-blended methane−air and natural gas−air mixtures raise specific safety and environmental issues in the industry and transportation; therefore, their explosion characteristics such as the explosion limits, explosion pressures, and rates of pressure rise have significant importance from a safety point of view. At the same time, the laminar burning velocities are the most useful parameters for practical applications and in basic studies for the validation of reaction mechanisms and modeling turbulent combustion. In the present study, an experimental and numerical study of the effect of hydrogen addition on the laminar burning velocity (LBV) of methane−air and natural gas−air mixtures was conducted, using mixtures with equivalence ratios within 0.90 and 1.30 and various hydrogen fractions rH within 0.0 and 0.5. The experiments were performed in a 14 L spherical vessel with central ignition at ambient initial conditions. The LBVs were calculated from p(t) data, determ... [more]

Blending hydrogen into the natural gas infrastructure is becoming a very promising practice to increase the exploitation of renewable energy sources which can be used to produce “green” hydrogen. Several research projects and field experiments are currently aimed at evaluating the risks associated with utilization of the gas blend in end-use devices such as the gas meters. In this paper, the authors present the results of experiments aimed at assessing the effect of hydrogen injection in terms of the durability of domestic gas meters. To this end, 105 gas meters of different measurement capabilities and manufacturers, both brand-new and withdrawn from service, were investigated in terms of accuracy drift after durability cycles of 5000 and 10,000 h with H2NG mixtures and H2 concentrations of 10% and 15%. The obtained results show that there is no metrologically significant or statistically significant influence of hydrogen content on changes in gas meter indication errors after subject... [more]

It is well known that platoons of closely spaced passenger cars can reduce their aerodynamic drag yielding substantial savings in energy consumption and reduced emissions as a system. Most published research has focused on platoons of identical vehicles which can arguably be justified by some evidence that geometric variety has little to no effect on the overall flow characteristics in platoons of three vehicles or more. It is known that much of the aerodynamic benefit from platooning is gained by the leading two cars, so operating as vehicle pairs could potentially achieve similar environmental benefits whilst addressing many of the practical challenges associated with the safe operation of long platoons on public roads. However, it has been reported that unlike long platoons, the effect of geometry and arrangement is critical if the drag reduction of a pair is to be optimised. This paper describes a parametric study based on three geometric variants of the popular DrivAer model with... [more]

With the rapid development of underground caverns in the fields of hydraulic engineering, mining, railway and highway, the frequency, and intensity of rockburst and dynamic instability have gradually increased, which has become a bottleneck restricting the safe construction of deep caverns. This paper presents a review of the current understanding of rockburst precursors and the dynamic failure mechanism of the deep tunnel. Emphasis is placed on the stability of the surrounding rock of the deep tunnel, the rockburst prediction method, and the dynamic failure characteristics of the surrounding rock of the deep tunnel. Throughout the presentation, the current overall gaps in understanding rockburst precursors and the dynamic failure mechanism of deep tunnels are identified in an attempt to stimulate further research in these promising directions by the research community.

The cocombustion of coal and pinus sawdust waste is an economically viable and sustainable option for increasing the share of biomass in energy production. This technology also has the potential to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from existing coal fired power plants. The thermal synergistic effects of cocombusting Hwange bituminous coal (HC) with Pinus sawdust (PS) were thus investigated using thermogravimetric analysis. Fuel blending mass ratios of 100HC, 90HC10PS, 80HC20PS, 70HC30PS, and 100PS under an oxidative atmosphere at three different heating rates of 5, 12.5, and 20 °C/min were used for the experimental setup. Zero to negative synergy was generally observed for the mass loss curves (TG) at different blending ratios. Generally positive synergy was observed with relation to rate of mass loss curves (DTG) for the 80HC20PS and 70HC30PS fuel blends only. The ignition index increased with blending ratio by an average of 42.86%, whilst the burnout index showed a maximum inc... [more]

Over the past decades, pool boiling on various wetting surfaces has been intensively investigated to enhance boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux. In this study, to enhance the two thermal performances simultaneously, we developed hydrophilic micro/nanotextured surfaces with hydrophobic patterns. Using a silicon substrate, well-arrayed microtextures and randomly arrayed nanotextures were fabricated hierarchically using micro/nanoelectromechanical system processes. The top of the microtextures was coated locally with hydrophobic characteristics using specific self-assembled monolayer coating methods. Based on experimental data, we postulate that the critical heat flux was enhanced by the capillary-induced flow between microtextures and that nanotextures with superhydrophilicity contribute to the delay of the critical heat flux by better wetting the dried area. Owing to the hydrophobicity at the top of the micropillars, the nucleate site density and boiling heat transfer increase... [more]

Latent thermal energy storages (LTES) offer a high storage density within a narrow temperature range. Due to the typically low thermal conductivity of the applied phase change materials (PCM), the power of the storages is limited. To increase the power, an efficient heat exchanger with a large heat transfer surface and a higher thermal conductivity is needed. In this article, planar wire cloth heat exchangers are investigated to obtain these properties. They investigated the first time for LTES. Therefore, we developed a finite element method (FEM) model of the heat exchanger and validated it against the experimental characterization of a prototype LTES. As PCM, the commercially available paraffin RT35HC is used. The performance of the wire cloth is compared to tube bundle heat exchanger by a parametric study. The tube diameter, tube distance, wire diameter and heat exchanger distance were varied. In addition, aluminum and stainless steel were investigated as materials for the heat exc... [more]

A thermochemical recuperation (TCR) reactor was developed and experimentally evaluated with the objective to improve dual-fuel diesel−ammonia compression ignition engines. The novel system simultaneously decomposed ammonia into a hydrogen-containing mixture to allow high diesel fuel replacement ratios and oxidized unburned ammonia emissions in the exhaust, overcoming two key shortcomings of ammonia combustion in engines from the previous literature. In the experimental work, a multi-cylinder compression ignition engine was operated in dual-fuel mode using intake-fumigated ammonia and hydrogen mixtures as the secondary fuel. A full-scale catalytic TCR reactor was constructed and generated the fuel used in the engine experiments. The results show that up to 55% of the total fuel energy was provided by ammonia on a lower heating value basis. Overall engine brake thermal efficiency increased for modes with a high exhaust temperature where ammonia decomposition conversion in the TCR reactor... [more]

Today, distributed energy production is a key activity supporting energy systems in many countries around the world. Applicable regulations, fees and subsidies encourage entrepreneurs to look for solutions that will reduce operating costs and limit their negative impact on the natural environment. In the article, it was decided to carry out a technical and economic analysis and investment risk analysis for the distributed production of electricity and heat based on natural gas. Six scenarios were taken into account, depending on the number of gas engines, the use of the photovoltaic installation and the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system. It has been shown that the most advantageous of the presented solution is the use of a system adjusted to the power of an industrial plant (return on investment in 4th year). The least beneficial for the investor are solutions aimed at the use and resale of energy supplemented with photovoltaic panels and an ORC system. An investment risk analysis and... [more]

Wind power is a substantial resource to assist global efforts on the decarbonization of energy. The drive to increase capacity has led to ever-increasing blade tip heights and lightweight, slender towers. These structures are subject to a variety of environmental loads that give rise to vibrations with potentially catastrophic consequences, making the mitigation of the tower’s structural vibrations an important factor for low maintenance requirements and reduced damage risk. Recent advances in the most important vibration control methods for wind turbine towers are presented in this paper, exploring the impact of the installation environment harshness on the performance of state-of-the-art devices. An overview of the typical structural characteristics of a modern wind turbine tower is followed by a discussion of typical damages and their link to known collapse cases. Furthermore, the vibration properties of towers in harsh multi-hazard environments are presented and the typical design... [more]

This work suggests an interpretation to the quantitatively higher formation of NOx in a compression ignition (CI) engine when fueled with pure biodiesel (B100). A comparative study about the use of rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) and diesel fuel mixtures on injection timing, in-chamber pressure, heat release rate, and NOx emissions were carried out using a diesel engine equipped with a pump-line-nozzle injection system. Such engines are still widely adopted mainly in agriculture, as the fleet of agricultural machinery is particularly old (often over 20 years) and the use of biofuels can reduce the environmental footprint of the sector. This work aims to supply some general explanations and figures useful to interpret the phenomena occurring within the fuel line and in the combustion process when using biodiesel, as well as in engines with different construction characteristics and fueling systems. Given the contradictory results available in the literature, the so-called “biodiesel NOx... [more]

Intraday electricity trading on the continuous intraday market of EPEX SPOT is particularly well suited for the rebalancing of energy production. We analyzed the volatility and dispersion of individual hourly contracts, taking into account the particularities of the market, due to which the standard volatility measure from financial time series cannot be applied. We used and analyzed five measures for price fluctuations, which turned out to be similarly well suited for electricity contracts, with small differences. We then identified fundamental drivers of price fluctuations: the relative share of wind in the overall mix increased dispersion. In addition, price dispersion was positively correlated with the traded volume as well as the absolute difference between the day-ahead auction price and the volume-weighted intraday price. We furthermore analyzed the timely structure of price fluctuations to identify forecast indicators for a contract’s peak trading hour before maturity, finding... [more]

Wind Turbines (WTs) are exposed to harsh conditions and can experience extreme weather, such as blizzards and cold waves, which can directly affect temperature monitoring. This paper analyzes the effects of ambient conditions on WT monitoring. To reduce these effects, a novel WT monitoring method is also proposed in this paper. Compared with existing methods, the proposed method has two advantages: (1) the changes in ambient conditions are added to the input of the WT model; (2) an Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) optimized by Genetic Algorithm (GA) is applied to construct the WT model. Using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), compared with the method that does not consider the changes in ambient conditions, the proposed method can reduce the number of false alarms and provide an earlier alarm when a failure does occur.

The paper aims to identify the most likely factors that determine the demand for energy consumption from renewable sources (renewable energy consumption—REC) in European countries. Although in Europe, a high environmental awareness is omnipresent, countries differ in scope and share of REC due to historical energetic policies and dependencies, investments into renewable and traditional energetic sectors, R&D development, structural changes required by energetic policy change, and many other factors. The study refers to a set of macroeconomic, institutional, and social factors affecting energetic renewable policy and REC in selected European countries in two points of time: i.e., before and after the Paris Agreement. The Bayesian Average Classical Estimates (BACE) is applied to indicate the most likely factors affecting REC in 2015 and 2018. The comparison of the results reveals that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) level, nuclear and hydro energy consumption were the determinants signi... [more]

This article presents the results of energy consumption research for an electric light commercial vehicle (eLCV) powered by a centrally located motor (4 × 2 drive system) or motors placed in the vehicle’s wheels (4 × 4 drive system). For the considered constructions of electric drive systems, mathematical models of 4 × 2 and 4 × 4 drive systems were developed in the Modelica simulation environment, based on real data. Additionally, the influence of changes in the vehicle loading condition on the operation of the motor mounted in the wheel and the energy consumption of the drive module was investigated. On the basis of the conducted research, a comparative analysis of energy consumption by electric drive systems in 4 × 2 and 4 × 4 configurations was carried out for selected test cycles. The tests carried out with the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycles (WLTC) test cycle showed a roughly 6% lower energy consumption by the 4 × 4 drive system compared to the 4 × 2 configuration... [more]

Since January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting various aspects of people’s daily lives and the economy. The first case of COVID-19 in South Korea was identified on 20 January 2020. The Korean government implemented the first social distancing measures in the first week of March 2020. As a result, energy consumption in the industrial, commercial and educational sectors decreased. On the other hand, residential energy consumption increased as telecommuting work and remote online classes were encouraged. However, the impact of social distancing on residential energy consumption in Korea has not been systematically analyzed. This study attempts to analyze the impact of social distancing implemented as a result of COVID-19 on residential energy consumption with time-varying reproduction numbers of COVID-19. A two-way fixed effect model and demographic characteristics are used to account for the heterogeneity. The changes in household energy consumption by load shape group are... [more]

Accurately predicting surface vibration signals of diesel engines is the key to evaluating the operation quality of diesel engines. Based on an improved empirical mode decomposition and extreme learning machine algorithm, the characteristics of diesel engine surface vibration signal were detected, predicted, and analyzed. First, the surface vibration signal was decomposed into a series of signal components by an improved empirical mode decomposition algorithm. Then, the extreme learning machine algorithm was applied to each signal component to obtain the predicted value of the corresponding signal component and determine the characteristics of the ground vibration signal. Compared with the empirical mode decomposition−extremum learning machine algorithm and the extremum learning machine algorithm, the results show that the improved empirical mode decomposition−extremum learning machine algorithm is feasible and effective.

The goal of this study was to contribute to the ongoing debate on the relationship between renewable energy (RE) and CO2 emissions. In particular, we explored the link between RE and CO2 emissions in a sample of major renewable energy-consuming countries for the period 2000−2015. Therefore, the major contribution of this study was to answer the question of whether a substantial shift to renewable energy consumption will lead to lower CO2 emissions. Using the two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, our empirical results suggested that RE has a significant negative effect on CO2 emissions. For example, a one percentage point increase in RE leads to a 0.5% decrease in CO2 emissions.

Variable speed wind turbines are commonly used as wind power generation systems because of their lower maintenance cost and flexible speed control. The optimum output power for a wind turbine can be extracted using maximum power point tracking (MPPT) strategies. However, unpredictable parameters, such as wind speed and air density could affect the accuracy of the MPPT methods, especially during the wind speed small oscillations. In this paper, in a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), the MPPT is implemented by determining the uncertainty of the unpredictable parameters using the extended Kalman filter (EKF). Also, the generator speed is controlled by employing a fuzzy logic control (FLC) system. This study aims at minimizing the effects of unpredictable parameters on the MPPT of the PMSG system. The simulation results represent an improvement in MPPT accuracy and output power efficiency.

This research aimed to assess the process conditions, temperature and pressure, on the gasification of alternative refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in the atmosphere of steam and carbon dioxide on a laboratory scale using a fixed bed reactor. For this reason, the selected RDF were analysed, including proximate and ultimate analysis, mercury content and ash composition. After that, isothermal gasification measurements using the thermovolumetric method were performed under various temperatures (700, 750, 800, 900 °C) and pressures (0.5, 1, 1.5 MPa), using steam and carbon dioxide as gasifying agents. The obtained results showed that in the entire analysed range, the increase in temperature positively affect both the steam and CO2 gasification of RDF. The formation rates of main components (H2 and/or CO) of the resulting gas, as well as yields of gas components and maximum carbon conversion degrees increase. However, this positive effect was the greater, the lower the process pressure was. In tu... [more]

This work presents Prussian blue solid boosters for use in high voltage redox-mediated flow batteries (RMFB) based on non-aqueous electrolytes. The system consisted of sodium iodide as a redox mediator in an acetonitrile catholyte containing solid Prussian blue powder. The combination enabled the solid booster utilization in the proposed systems to reach as high as 66 mAh g−1 for hydrated Prussian blue and 110 mAh g−1 for anhydrous rhombohedral Prussian blue in cells with an average potential of about 3 V (vs. Na+/Na). Though the boosted system suffers from capacity fading, it opens up possibilities to develop non-aqueous RMFB with low-cost materials.

With the rapidly evolving mobile technologies, the number of cellular base stations (BSs) has significantly increased to meet the explosive demand for mobile services and applications. In turn, this has significantly increased the capital and operational expenses, due to the increased electricity prices and energy consumption. To generate electricity, power plants mainly rely on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable energy resources. As a result, CO2 emissions also increase, which adversely affect health and environment. For wireless access technologies and cellular networks, BSs are the largest power consumer, and the network energy consumption is mainly dominated by the network infrastructure, which makes the telecommunications sector liable for energy consumption as well as CO2 emissions around the globe. Alternatively, solar energy is considered as an eco-friendly and economically attractive solution, due to its cost-effectiveness and sustainability. In this paper, the potentials o... [more]

Different fluid compositions have been considered as heat transfer fluids (HTF) for concentrating solar power (CSP) applications. In linear focusing CSP systems synthetic oils are prevalently employed; more recently, the use of molten salt mixtures in linear focusing CSP systems has been proposed too. This paper presents a comparative assessment of thermal oils and five four nitrate/nitrite mixtures, among the ones mostly employed or proposed so far for CSP applications. The typical medium-size CSP plant (50 MWe) operating with synthetic oil as HTF and the “solar salt” as TES was considered as a benchmark. In the first part of the paper, physical properties and operation ranges of different HTFs are reviewed; corrosion and environmental issues are highlighted too. Besides an extensive review of HTFs based on data available from the open literature, the authors report their own obtained experimental data needed to thoroughly compare different solutions. In the second part of the paper,... [more]