The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on society. Scientists are working to mitigate the impact in many ways. As a field closely related to human life, building engineering can make a great contribution. In this article, we started with the concept of the smart building as our guide. The impact of COVID-19 on daily energy consumption, information and communication technology, the ventilation of the interior environment of buildings, and the higher demand for new energy technologies such as electric vehicles is an entry point. We discuss how the concept of the smart building and related technologies (refrigeration, measurement, sensor networks, robotics, local energy generation, and storage) could help human society respond to the pandemic. We also analyze the current problems and difficulties that smart buildings face and the possible future directions of this technology.

Green hydrogen from photocatalytic water-splitting and photocatalytic lignocellulosic reforming is a significant proposition for renewable energy storage in global net-zero policies and strategies. Although photocatalytic water-splitting and photocatalytic lignocellulosic reforming have been investigated, their integration is novel. Furthermore, biosynthesis can store the evolved hydrogen and fix the atmospheric carbon dioxide in a biocathode chamber. The biocathode chamber is coupled to the combined photocatalytic water-splitting and lignocellulose oxidation in an anode chamber. This integrated system of anode and biocathode mimics a (bio)electrosynthesis system. A visible solar radiation-driven novel hybrid system comprising photocatalytic water-splitting, lignocellulose oxidation, and atmospheric CO2 fixation is, thus, investigated. It must be noted that there is no technology for reducing atmospheric CO2 concentration. Thus, our novel intensified technology enables renewable and su... [more]

In this study, the performance evaluation of a semi-type floating offshore wind turbine system according to the direction of the incoming waves is investigated. The target model in this this study is a DTU 10 MW reference wind turbine and a LIFES50+ OO-Star Wind Floater Semi 10 MW, which is the semisubmersible platform. Numerical simulation is performed using FAST developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which is an aero-hydro-servo-elastic fully coupled simulation tool. The analysis condition used in this study is the misalignment condition, which is the wind direction fixed at 0 degree and the wave direction changed at 15 degrees intervals. In this study, two main contents could be confirmed. First, it is confirmed that sway, roll, and yaw motions occur even though the direction of the incoming waves is 0 degree. The cause of the platform’s motion such as sway, roll and yaw is the turbulent wind and gyroscope phenomenon. In addition, the optimal value for the nacelle... [more]

In recent decades, it has become quite clear that the dynamics of the environmental matrix have been subjected to notable changes [...]

This article proposes a review of the modeling approaches for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) for nonlinear control design. The aerodynamic, hydrodynamic and mooring line dynamic modules for the FOWT have been reviewed to provide an overview of several modeling approaches with their respective features. Next, three control-oriented models from the literature are revisited by presenting their methodological approaches to modeling and identification. These three models cover the three most popular types of FOWTs. Then, the performances of these models are validated with the open fatigue, aerodynamics, structures, and turbulence (OpenFAST) code, and their performances are evaluated according to several criteria. Finally, one of the three models is used to illustrate a nonlinear second-order sliding mode control based on the twisting algorithm to optimize the performance of the FOWT in terms of energy extraction and reduction in the platform pitch oscillation.

The ongoing energy transformation, which is fueled by environmentally cautious policies, demands a full synergy with existing back-up gas turbines (GTs). Renewable energy sources (RESs), such as wind and solar, are intermittent by nature and present large variations across the span of the day, seasons, and geographies. The gas turbine is seen as an essential part of the energy transition because of its superior operational flexibility over other non-renewable counterparts, such as hydro and nuclear. Besides the technical aspects, the latter are less popular due to controversies associated with safety, ecological, and social aspects. GTs can produce when required and with acceptable reaction times and load ranges. This allows a balance between the energy supply and demand in the grid, mitigating the variations in RESs. The increased cycling due to operational flexibility has adverse effects on GT components and the unit efficiency. The latter dictates how well GTs make use of the burned... [more]

Improving the control of flexible assets in distribution grids, e.g., battery storages, electric vehicle charging points, and heat pumps, can balance power peaks caused by high renewable power generation or load to prevent overloading the grid infrastructure. Renewable energy communities, introduced as part of the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive, provide a regulatory framework for this. As a multi-site energy management method, they can tap flexibility potential. The present work quantifies stimulus for renewable energy communities to incentivize the grid-friendly operation of flexible assets, depending on the shares of participants in rural, suburban, and urban grid topologies. Results indicate that an operation of the community, driven by maximizing the economic benefits of its members, does not clearly reduce the annual peak load at the low-voltage substation, while the operation strategy of a grid-friendly renewable energy community achieves a peak power reduction of 23−55... [more]

The increasing use of fossil fuels as an energy source has resulted in a serious problem regarding two of their main drawbacks: (i) the exhaustion of these resources and (ii) the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with their use [...]

There is much interest in alternative energy sources for greenhouse heating and cooling, due to the impact of severe climatic conditions and increasing fossil fuel prices. The main objective of this study was to experimentally evaluate the performance of an air-to-water heat pump (AWHP) system to fulfil the cooling and heating energy requirements of a three-spanned greenhouse under local weather conditions in Daegu, South Korea. For this purpose, a system comprising three air-to-water heat pumps, a water storage tank, and fan coil units (FCU)s was designed. Experiments were conducted extensively during the summer and winter seasons. The maximum heating and cooling energy supply to the greenhouse was 210 kcal∙h−1∙m−2 and 230 kcal∙h−1∙m−2, respectively. Based on the outcomes of this study, the AWHP system can provide heating during the winter season. During the summer season, the FCU capacity was insufficient to provide the desired cooling to achieve the setpoint air temperature inside t... [more]

The imbalance between the supply and demand of electricity is becoming expansive due to the increase in renewable energy penetration. Consequently, the time-varying electricity price is proposed as a tool to manage the mismatch. To cope with the electricity price difference across time and to extract the benefit to the limit, an energy storage system (ESS) can be a good tool to smooth out electricity usage. Nevertheless, ESS can be expensive due to the high installation cost and centrally managed system. In this paper, we propose a distributed ESS installed in each home appliance. Separately installed batteries can avoid sizeable initial investment costs. We calculated the benefit of the system that mainly stemmed from the electricity price difference and compared the benefits across various sizes of the battery system. In addition, the charging/discharging schedule depends on the power consumption profile and electricity price distribution. Decreasing battery prices and rising electri... [more]

Photovoltaic (PV) plants can be built rapidly when compared with other conventional electrical plants; hence, they are a competent candidate for supplying the electricity grid. The output power of the PV modules can be used in plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) DC charging stations to reduce the burden on the electricity grid, particularly during peak load hours. To integrate PV modules and electric vehicles (EVs) with the electricity grid, the modular multilevel converters (MMCs) topologies producing staircase voltage waveforms are preferred as they are able to deliver less total harmonic distortion (THD) and higher efficiency in addition to lower voltage stress on semiconductor switches. In conventional centralized MMC topologies, a direct connection to a high-DC-link input voltage is required which is not appropriate for PV plants. A new MMC topology for PV/EV/grid integration is proposed in this paper, where the individual PV arrays are directly connected to each phase of the AC grid... [more]

High-temperature electrolysis using solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) is an innovative technology to temporarily store unused electrical energy from renewable energy sources. However, they show continuous performance loss during long-term operation, which is the main issue preventing their widespread use. In this work, we have performed the long-term stability tests up to 1000 h under steam and co-electrolysis conditions using commercial NiO-YSZ/YSZ/GDC/LSC single cells in order to understand the degradation process. The electrolysis tests were carried out at different temperatures and fuel gas compositions. Intermittent AC- and DC- measurements were performed to characterize the single cells and to determine the responsible electrode processes for the degradation during long-term operation. An increased degradation rate is observed at 800 °C compared to 750 °C under steam electrolysis conditions. Moreover, a lower degradation rate is noticed under co-electrolysis operation in com... [more]

Studies related to oil and gas wells have attracted worldwide interest due to the increasing energy shortfall and the requirement of sustainable development and environmental protection. However, the state of oil and gas wells in terms of research characteristics, technological megatrends, article-produced patterns, leading study items, hot topics, and frontiers is unclear. This work is aimed at filling the research gaps by performing a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 6197 articles related to oil and gas wells published between 1900 and 2021. VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were used as the main data analysis and visualization tools. The analysis shows that the annual variation of article numbers, interdisciplinary numbers, and cumulative citations followed exponential growth. Oil and gas well research has promoted the expansion of research fields such as engineering, energy and fuels, geology, environmental sciences and ecology, materials science, and chemistry. The top 10 inf... [more]

The annual operation data of an F-class gas turbine generator set revealed that the duration of the startup process accounts for about 8.5% of the whole operation process. The three combustion models of a DLN2.0+ combustor demonstrated higher NOx emissions than the premixed mode under normal load during the startup process. In order to evaluate the scale of NOx emissions at this stage, numerical simulation was carried out for the startup process to discern the NOx emission pattern. Typical simulation conditions for each season were established to calculate the total annual NOx emissions at the initial stage based on operating data. On this basis, the characteristics of NOx emissions influenced by changes in the atmospheric environment were studied in depth. The results of this study provide referential data for evaluating the pollution characteristics and combustion adjustment of a ground gas turbine during startup.

Hydrogen, which has a high energy density and does not emit pollutants, is considered an alternative energy source to replace fossil fuels. Herein, we report an experimental study on hydrogen leaks and ventilation methods for preventing damage caused by leaks from hydrogen fuel cell rooms in homes, among various uses of hydrogen. This experiment was conducted in a temporary space with a volume of 11.484 m3. The supplied pressure, leak-hole size, and leakage amount were adjusted as the experimental conditions. The resulting hydrogen concentrations, which changed according to the operation of the ventilation openings, ventilation fan, and supplied shutoff valve, were measured. The experimental results showed that the reductions in the hydrogen concentration due to the shutoff valve were the most significant. The maximum hydrogen concentration could be reduced by 80% or more if it is 100 times that of the leakage volume or higher. The shutoff valve, ventilation fan, and ventilation openin... [more]

The present work focuses on the quality of char and primary tar produced from fast pyrolysis in N2 and CO2 of lignocellulosic biomasses: walnut shells (lignin-rich), straw (hemicellulose-rich) and pinewood (cellulose-rich). Heat treatments are carried out in a heated strip reactor (HSR) at 1573 and 2073 K for 3 s, with a heating rate of 104 K/s. The equipment allows for quenching the volatiles as soon as they are emitted. Chars are analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis in air. Results are compared with the products obtained from raw lignin, pure cellulose and pure hemicellulose. Cellulose and hemicellulose tars are dominated by anhydrous monosaccharides, which are scarce in straw tar and abundant in walnut shells tar. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs are present in the primary products, in particular for walnut shells. The most reactive char is the one obtained from straw and the least reactive is the walnut shells char. Severe heat treatment and a CO2 atmosphere generate additio... [more]

At present, the stability study of the flywheel battery system under the influence of road conditions is only limited to the analysis of dynamic characteristics but also lacks effective controller considering road disturbances. In order to solve this defect and further improve the robust performance of vehicular flywheel battery systems under road disturbances, a robust controller considering interference of road surface roughness is proposed. Firstly, on the basis of a brief introduction to flywheel battery system structure, the influence degree of the flywheel by road condition is compared to find the key areas most affected by road disturbance factors. Then the nonlinear dynamic model of the axial suspension system is constructed, and the actual road surface roughness is regarded as the unmodeled dynamics of the external disturbance emphatically. Following, the established unknown system dynamics is approximated by radial basis function (RBF) neural network based on the minimum para... [more]

Oil/gas is mainly distributed in caves for fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs, it is therefore of significance to effectively connect caves for successful carbonate reservoir development. However, the mechanism and controlling factors that influence the connection between fractures and caves still remain unknown. To investigate how hydraulic fracture interacts with natural karst cave, a coupled seepage-stress-damage model for a vuggy carbonate reservoir is established based on statistical damage mechanics theory and finite element method. The accuracy of the proposed model is validated in comparison with experimental results. Some influencing factors, including fluid pressure in the cave, formation parameters, and construction parameters, are fully taken into account. The study results show that, when the fracture deflection degree is small, a hydraulic fracture can indirectly connect with the cave through high permeable damage units. The matrix heterogeneity that influences hydrauli... [more]

The deactivation of catalysts and their regeneration are two very important challenges that need to be addressed for many industrial processes. The most quoted reasons for the deterioration of dimethyl ether synthesis (DME) concern the sintering and the hydrothermal leaching of copper particles, their migration to acid sites, the partial formation of copper and zinc hydroxycarbonates, the formation of carbon deposits, and surface contamination with undesirable compounds present in syngas. This review summarises recent findings in the field of DME catalyst deactivation and regeneration. The most-used catalysts, their modifications, along with a comparison of the basic parameters, deactivation approaches, and regeneration methods are presented.

The choice of a particular PV technology for best performance is sometimes based upon a single factor or single operating condition. However, many parameters have functionalities that oppose each under actual operating conditions. In this paper, the comparisons of different PV module technologies under moderate environmental conditions (Tropical Climate Zone, Belo Horizonte, Brazil) are explored based upon the two competing parameters of soiling-layer spectral effects and panel operating temperature. Specifically, low-bandgap PV technologies (e.g., Si or Cu(In,Ga)(SSe)2) are reported to have performances less affected by the absorption of incoming sunlight than higher-bandgap absorbers (e.g., a-Si:H or CdTe). However, the opposite is true for operating temperatures, with higher bandgaps having advantages under higher-temperature operating conditions. We present a simple comparative soiling-temperature model with experimental collaborative data to address the following question: What is... [more]

The motions of power sources in industrial applications were always provided by electromechanical systems, which use around 70% of the gross energy consumption of industrialized economies [...]

The widespread popularity of renewable and sustainable sources of energy such as solar and wind calls for the integration of renewable energy sources into electrical power grids for sustainable development. Microgrids minimize power quality issues in the main grid by linking with an active filter and furnishing reactive power compensation, harmonic mitigation, and load balancing at the point of common coupling. The reliability issues faced by standalone DC microgrids can be managed by interlinking microgrids with a power grid. An artificial intelligence-based Icosϕ control algorithm for power sharing and power quality improvement in smart microgrid systems is proposed here to render grid-integrated power systems more intelligent. The proposed controller considers various uncertainties caused by load variations, state of charge of the battery of microgrids, and power tariff based on the availability of power in microgrids. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the integration of wi... [more]

The biofuel management of a biofuel-penetrated district heating system is complicated due to its association with multiple and polymorphic uncertainties. To handle uncertainties and system dynamic complexities, an inexact two-stage compound-stochastic mixed-integer programming technique is proposed, innovatively based on the integration of different uncertain optimization approaches. The proposed technique can not only address the inexact recourse problems sourced from multiple and compound uncertainties existing in the pre-regulated biofuel supply−demand match mode, but can also quantitatively analyze the conflicts between the economic target that minimizes the system cost and the risk preference that maximizes the heating service satisfaction. The developed model is applied to a real-world biofuel management case study of a district heating system to obtain the optimal biofuel management schemes subject to supply−demand, policy requirement constraints, and the financial minimization... [more]

Despite the rapid development of electric vehicles, the shrinking number of fossil fuels that are the source of electricity remains conventional. The availability of energy sources and technology is sometimes naturally limited, high-priced, and might be politically circumscribed. This leads to an increased desirability of biodiesel due to its modest and economically higher energy density in comparison to batteries. The palm oil industry accounts for 23% of total deforestation in Indonesia. Contrary to palm oil, pangium edule (PE) is considered more sustainable and it intercrops with most of the forest’s vegetation while supplying biodiesel feedstock. A relatively higher pangium edule methyl ester (PEME) was delivered through PE feedstock, provided that it was processed with a heterogeneous catalyst, K2O/PKS-AC. This feedstock consumed a lower alcohol ratio and had a reasonably swift production process without sacrificing biodiesel quality. Therefore, this study aims to assess the perfo... [more]

High temperature superconductivity is emerging as a solution for lightweight, cost-effective and high-power wind generators. Current injection and maintainment/sustainment in the field winding are obtained by metal current leads which, due to persistent heat conduction and joule loss, are responsible for a large part of the total cryogenic heat load. Slip rings, which further reduce the overall performance and reliability of the system, are also required. In this paper we assess the viability of the HTS dynamo and the rectifier flux pumps for energizing the field coils of the EcoSwing 3.6 MW HTS wind generator. Both a “warm” solution, with the rectifier at room temperature, and a “cold” solution, in which the latter is integrated into the cryostat, are investigated with regard to the rectifier flux pump. A comparison with the actual, state-of-the-art, system of the EcoSwing machine is carried out in terms of the total required cooling power and the ability to charge the HTS field windi... [more]