Municipal solid waste (MSW) has caused the increasing concern for environmental issues in recent years, and the wide engagement from all stakeholders of society has been involved in promoting integrated MSW management. Therefore, this study aims to identify the problems of dis-synergy among multi-stakeholders engaged in the integrated MSW management evolution, then contribute strategies to coordinated development of integrated MSW management system by bettering the engagement and interaction of different stakeholders combined with the region characteristics. From the perspective of the stakeholder theory and synergy theory, we constructed an integrated MSW management system with four stakeholder subsystems: governments, enterprises, residents, and NGO subsystems. We used integrated MSW management in Harbin as a case study and used the synergy degree model to estimate the system synergy degree from 2010 to 2019. Then, the synergetic development trend of integrated MSW management was stu... [more]

In this paper, a full-order terminal sliding-mode control method is proposed for the rectifier side and the inverter side of the soft open point (SOP). The rectifier-side DC voltage control system consists of the voltage- and current-loops with controllers which are designed using full-order sliding-mode (FOSM) to enhance the dynamic performances and anti-disturbance. The integral type virtual control signal without chattering is designed to compensate for the unmatched uncertainties including external disturbances and some parameter perturbations. The full-order terminal sliding-mode (FOTSM) controller for the current-loop can force the current response to track its reference in finite time. The inverter side power control system is designed to regulate the power. The FOTSM controller for the power-loop ensures the power-tracking accuracy under a disturbed condition. Finally, the simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers for the rectifier and inverter sides... [more]

It has been established that a consistent supply of electricity to sectors of an economy is vital for economic growth. Countries in West Africa have not realized their full economic potential due to limited access to electricity. The problem with limited energy consumption has been compounded by an unstable supply of power. In this regard, diverse studies have sought to ascertain the factors that influence the consumption of electricity. However, in West Africa, there are very limited empirical works carried out to establish the determinants of electricity consumption and this has necessitated this study. The pooled OLS method is used to examine the determinant consumption of electricity for the period 1980 to 2018. In addition, the study focuses on four countries in West Africa: Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal. The results indicate that gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, trade openness, industry output and population growth show a positive and significant rel... [more]

Biodiesel has established itself as a renewable fuel that is used in transportation worldwide and is partially or in some cases completely replacing conventional fuels. Chemically, biodiesel is a fatty acid monoalkyl ester (FAAE). Generally, the term biodiesel refers to the fatty acid methyl or ethyl esters (FAME or FAEE). Herein, an overview of the research on the synthesis of FAAE in which the alkyl moiety is a C3+ alkyl chain (branched/unbranched) is given. In addition, a comparison of the properties of the aforementioned FAAE with each other, with FAME and FAEE, and with fuel standards is given. The length of the alkyl chain has a major influence on viscosity, while pour point temperatures are generally lower when branched alcohols are used, but the fatty acid part of the molecule also has a major influence. The development of new pathways for the synthesis of higher alcohols from biomass opens a future perspective for the production of long chain FAAE as biofuels, fuel additives,... [more]

Amongst energy-related CO2 emissions, electricity is the largest single contributor, and with the proliferation of electric vehicles and other developments, energy use is expected to increase. Load forecasting is essential for combating these issues as it balances demand and production and contributes to energy management. Current state-of-the-art solutions such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and sequence-to-sequence algorithms (Seq2Seq) are highly accurate, but most studies examine them on a single data stream. On the other hand, in natural language processing (NLP), transformer architecture has become the dominant technique, outperforming RNN and Seq2Seq algorithms while also allowing parallelization. Consequently, this paper proposes a transformer-based architecture for load forecasting by modifying the NLP transformer workflow, adding N-space transformation, and designing a novel technique for handling contextual features. Moreover, in contrast to most load forecasting studies... [more]

The optimum planning of the electrical power expansion and, accordingly, controlling the power quality are recent critical issues in power management [...]

At present, the imbibition behavior in tight rocks has been attracted increasing attention since spontaneous imbibition plays an important role in unconventional oil and gas development, such as increasing swept area and enhancing recovery rate. However, it is difficult to describe the imbibition behavior through imbibition experiment using tight rock core. To characterize the imbibition behavior, imbibition and drainage experiments were conducted among water, oil, and gas phases in a visible circular capillary tube. The whole imbibition process is monitored using a microfluidic platform equipped with a high frame rate camera. This study conducts two main imbibition experiments, namely liquid-displacing-air and water-displacing-oil experiments. The latter is a spontaneous imbibition that the lower-viscosity liquid displaces the higher-viscosity liquid. For the latter, the tendency of imbibition rate with time does not match with previous model. The experimental results indicate that it... [more]

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems have been used worldwide in buildings because of their advantages of highly efficient performance in terms of energy and environment for space cooling and heating; however, cooling demand is predominant in tropical climates. This paper reviews of the GSHP systems applications in Southeast Asia; several applications of GSHP in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam have been addressed. Experiments were initiated in 2006 in Kamphaengphet; the latest experiment found in the Scopus searching tool is the GSHP simulation in Kuantan in 2019 using EnergyPlus using the ground loop design software. GSHP systems have the potential to be used in Southeast Asia despite the dominance of cooling demand, leading to a thermal imbalance within the subsurface. This imbalance can reduce the performance of the system; however, groundwater flow is considered as a key factor in preventing the effect of thermal distribution owing to GSHP operation. These r... [more]

Two-phase expansion is the process where a fluid undergoes a pressure drop through or in the liquid−vapor dome. This operation was historically avoided. However, currently it is studied for a multitude of processes. Due to the volume increase in volumetric expanders, a pressure drop occurs in the fluid resulting in flashing phenomena occurring. These phenomena have been studied before in other processes such as two-phase flows or static flash. However, this has not been extensively studied in volumetric expanders and is mostly neglected. Even if data has shown this is not always neglectable depending on the expander type. The thermal non-equilibrium occurring can be modeled on different principles of flashing flows, such as the mixture model, boiling delay model, and homogeneous relaxation model. The main application area in current literature for volumetric two-phase expansion machines, is in low-temperature two-phase heat-to-power cycles. These cycles have shown benefit over classic... [more]

Smart heating controls are being introduced in the domestic sector with the aim of reducing heating demand in buildings. However, the impact of controls on heat demand is not fully understood. This study set out to add empirical evidence to Kempton’s theory on mental models of home heat controls. With this purpose, radiator setpoint records from smart thermostatic valves in 47 flats from a care home in the South of England were evaluated over a 12-month period. Three types of households were identified: (i) low interactors who do not have interaction, or have minimal interaction, with the controls (24.5%); (ii) medium interactors who adjust their setpoint when the outdoor temperature changes and whose behavior is comparable to households that have a “feedback” mental model (49%); and (iii) high interactors who adjust the setpoint based on their own strategy, which does not necessarily follow outdoor temperature changes and reflects a lack of understanding of how the controls work (26.5... [more]

This paper provides insight into the optimal configuration scheme of the grid-connected inverters based on harmonic amplification suppression. The connection of the inverters changes the natural resonance frequencies of the grid. Hence, a reasonable configuration of grid-connected inverters can optimize the impedance distribution and shift the natural resonance frequencies to frequency bands farther away from the harmonic sources. We proposed a scheme of site selection and determination of the number of inverters to suppress harmonic amplification. The resonance frequencies and modal frequency sensitivities (MFSs) were obtained by the resonance modal analysis (RMA). Moreover, the concepts of security region and insecurity region of resonance frequency were illustrated. The grid-connected sites can be obtained by calculating the participation factors (PFs) of the resonance frequencies in the insecurity region. Furthermore, the optimal number was determined by building the Norton equival... [more]

Solar photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) technology is the main strategy for harvesting solar energy due to its non-polluting, stability, good visibility and security features. The aim of the project is to develop a mathematical model of a PV/T module integrated with optical filtration and MXene-enhanced PCM. In this system, a single MXene-enhanced PCM layer is attached between the PV panel and absorber pipe with solid MXene-PCM for storage and cooling purposes. Additionally, the thermal fluid is utilized in the copper absorber pipe and connected to the heat pump system for enhancing system thermal and electrical efficiency. Furthermore, the influences of the optical filtration channel height, concentration of the nanoparticles on PV surface temperature and overall system efficiency are also discussed. This study demonstrates that the annual thermal and electrical energy output can reach 5370 kWh per annum with 74.92% of thermal efficiency and 5620 kWh with 14.65% of electrical efficiency, re... [more]

Water inrush disaster is one of the major disasters affecting the production safety of coal mines following roof caving, fire, gas outburst, and dust explosion disasters. It is urgent to reveal the water inrush mechanism and take effective measures to prevent the disasters. More than 80% of water inrush accidents occur around geological structural zones such as faults and karst collapse columns (KCCs). The water inrush events from KCCs caused huge economic losses and heavy casualties, and the water inrush process often shows certain hysteresis characteristics. Taking the water inrush disaster from a KCC during roadway excavation in PanEr Coal Mine of Huainan Mining Area as the case study, the delayed inrush mechanism of KCC was analyzed from the aspects of floor failure, KCC activation, seepage transition, and water inrush development characteristics. The results show that the rock mechanical properties and the excavation depth are the main factors affecting the floor failure character... [more]

The Mackenzie Delta (MD) is a permafrost-bearing region along the coasts of the Canadian Arctic which exhibits high sub-permafrost gas hydrate (GH) reserves. The GH occurring at the Mallik site in the MD is dominated by thermogenic methane (CH4), which migrated from deep conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs, very likely through the present fault systems. Therefore, it is assumed that fluid flow transports dissolved CH4 upward and out of the deeper overpressurized reservoirs via the existing polygonal fault system and then forms the GH accumulations in the Kugmallit−Mackenzie Bay Sequences. We investigate the feasibility of this mechanism with a thermo−hydraulic−chemical numerical model, representing a cross section of the Mallik site. We present the first simulations that consider permafrost formation and thawing, as well as the formation of GH accumulations sourced from the upward migrating CH4-rich formation fluid. The simulation results show that temperature distribution, as well as... [more]

The efficient utilization of energy in rich fuel detonation processes and the effective control method of soot are important topics in combustion research. In this paper, we numerically study the detonation wave behavior of acetylene−air systems in rich fuel condition by using a reduced reaction mechanism. The non-stiff terms of the governing equations are solved explicitly using the gas kinetic scheme, and the stiff terms are solved implicitly. Our results show that the acetylene pyrolysis is the dominant reaction process. The oxidation reaction is exploited to initiate the reaction induction process, providing the required energy to overcome the potential energy barrier. The secondary detonation structure is due to the stable interaction of the transverse waves and the combined action of the vinyl reaction system, thus effectively improve the energy release rate and providing a powerful solution for the fuel-rich high-energy release of advanced heat engines. The area of the unreacted... [more]

User behaviour can significantly affect indoor thermal comfort conditions, as well as energy consumption, especially in existing buildings with high thermal masses where natural cross ventilation is the main strategy to reduce cooling loads. The aims of this paper were: (i) to compare how behavioural changes evaluated by means of rule-based and stochastic models lead to changes in indoor thermal comfort levels, and (ii) to define the patterns of indoor thermal comfort in historic residential buildings in future scenarios. To this end, a historic building located in Molfetta (Southern Italy) was analysed using a dynamic energy simulation engine in five weather scenarios (Typical Meteorological Year, current extreme weather file 2018, predicted weather files for 2020, 2050, and 2080 generated by morphing method), and stochastic and rule-based models for window openings were adopted and compared. The results showed that the stochastic model was more accurate than the rule-based one, resul... [more]

The increasing energy demand has led to more explorations in the oil and gas industry. To achieve this, marine risers and pipelines are used to convey fluid and other resources to meet the increasing demand. In recent years, hybrid flexible composite risers have become more adaptable. Flexible risers have already proven to be a popular riser solution for various floating production systems in shallow to deepwater in many parts of the world due to their good dynamic behaviour and dependability. The hybrid flexible composite riser is made up of numerous layers of plastics, flexible pipes, composites, and steel. Some innovative monitoring methods, such as Fiber Optics Bragg Gratings (FBG), are based on a clamped composite structure with embedded optical fibre. This study presents characteristics of the monitoring techniques of composite flexible riser technology. The advantages of the monitoring techniques include aiding composite riser measurements, recording data from riser deformation,... [more]

The imbalance market is very volatile and often exhibits extreme price spikes. This makes it very hard to model; however, if predicted correctly, one could make significant gains by participating on the right side of the market. In this manuscript, we conduct a very short-term probabilistic forecasting of imbalance prices, contributing to the scarce literature in this novel subject. The forecasting is performed 30 min before the delivery, so that the trader might still choose the trading place. The distribution of the imbalance prices is modelled and forecasted using methods well-known in the electricity price forecasting literature: lasso with bootstrap, gamlss, and probabilistic neural networks. The methods are compared with a naive benchmark in a meaningful rolling window study. The results provide evidence of the efficiency between the intraday and balancing markets as the sophisticated methods do not substantially overperform the intraday continuous price index. On the other hand,... [more]

Domestic coal and waste resources, which are valuable sources of carbon, can support efforts to transform a linear economy into a circular carbon economy. Their use, as an alternative to conventional, imported fossil resources (crude oil, natural gas) for chemical production, provides an opportunity for Poland to solve problems related to competitiveness, security of supply, and sustainable development in various industries. This is important for Poland because it can provide it with a long-term perspective of economic growth and development, taking into account global trends (e.g., the Paris Agreement) and EU legislation. The article presents a concept to support the transformation from linear toward a circular carbon economy under Polish conditions. The carried-out analyses showed that coal, RDF, and plastic waste fuels can be a valuable source of raw material for the development of the chemical industry in Poland. Due to the assumed availability of plastic waste and the loss of carb... [more]

In this study, a highly conductive composite bipolar plate with an embedded conductive carbon nanofiber network was prepared by chemical vapor deposition, and a conductive network was constructed inside the composite bipolar plate. The latter network was then compared with a conductive network formed by directly adding carbon nanotubes more evenly distributed. The optimum preparation methods of vapor-grown carbon fibers and the fiber content were analyzed, and the specific surface area and porosity of the bipolar plates were measured and analyzed using a BET test. The results show that the carbon nanofibers prepared under the conditions of 700 °C and a content of 2% exhibited the best effect on improving the performance of the bipolar plates. The conductivity of the prepared bipolar plates could reach 255.2 S/cm, which is 22.1% higher than treatment with multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The bending strength of the prepared bipolar plates was 47.92 MPa, and the interface contact resistanc... [more]

In recent years, anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) technology, a combination of a biological reactor and a selective membrane process, has received increasing attention from both industrialists and researchers. Undoubtedly, this is due to the fact that AnMBRs demonstrate several unique advantages. Firstly, this paper addresses fundamentals of the AnMBRs technology and subsequently provides an overview of the current state-of-the art in the municipal and domestic wastewaters treatment by AnMBRs. Since the operating conditions play a key role in further AnMBRs development, the impact of temperature and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the AnMBRs performance in terms of organic matters removal is presented in detail. Although membrane technologies for wastewaters treatment are known as costly in operation, it was clearly demonstrated that the energy demand of AnMBRs may be lower than that of typical wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Moreover, it was indicated that AnMBRs have th... [more]

The coordination of optimal overcurrent relays (OCRs) for modern power networks is nowadays one of the critical concerns due to the increase in the use of renewable energy sources. Modern grids connected to inverter-based distributed generations (IDGs) and synchronous distributed generations (SDGs) have a direct impact on fault currents and locations and then on the protection system. In this paper, a new optimal OCR coordination scheme has been developed based on the nonstandard time−current characteristics (NSTCC) approach. The proposed scheme can effectively minimize the impact of distributed generations (DGs) on OCR coordination by using two optimization techniques: genetic algorithm (GA) and hybrid gravitational search algorithm−sequential quadratic programming (GSA−SQP) algorithm. In addition, the proposed optimal OCR coordination scheme has successfully employed a new constraint reduction method for eliminating the considerable number of constraints in the coordination and tripp... [more]

The development of decarbonised systems is being fostered by the increasing demand for technological solutions for the energy transition. Solid Oxide Cells are high-efficiency energy conversion systems that are foreseen for commercial development. They exhibit potential power generation and power-to-gas applications, including a reversible operation mode. Long-lasting high performance is essential for guaranteeing the success of the technology; therefore, it is fundamental to provide diagnosis tools at this early stage of development. In this context, operando analysis techniques help detect and identify incipient degradation phenomena to either counteract damage at its origin or correct operando protocols. Frequent switches from the fuel cell to the electrolyser mode add more challenges with respect to durable performance, and deep knowledge of reverse-operation-induced damage is lacking in the scientific and technical literature. Following on from preliminary experience with button c... [more]

The Huaibei coalfield is an important coal base and one of the hot spots of coalbed methane development in China. Therefore, a detailed understanding of gas occurrence in the Huaibei coalfield is of great significance. This paper analyzes the gas occurrence from the perspective of multiple-level tectonic control, i.e., the regional tectonic level, the coalfield tectonic level, the mining area tectonic level, and the coal mine tectonic level. This study deduces that gas occurrence in the Huaibei coalfield is characterized by multiple-level tectonic control. At the regional level, the Huaibei coalfield is located in the southeast margin of the North China plate, affected by the tectonic evolution of the North China plate and by the evolution of the Dabie−Tanlu−Sulu orogenic belt. Therefore, the regional geological tectonic is complex, leading to the high gas content and serious gas hazard. At the coalfield level, gas occurrence in the Huaibei coalfield is controlled by east−west faults,... [more]

The heat pump system has been widely used in residential and commercial applications due to its attractive advantages of high energy efficiency, reliability, and environmental impact. The massive exergy loss during the isenthalpic process in the expansion valve is a major drawback of the heat pump system. Therefore, the Tesla turbine exergy analysis in terms of transiting exergy efficiency is investigated and integrated with the transcritical heat pump system. The aim is to investigate the factors that reduce exergy losses and increase the coefficient of performance and exergy efficiency. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, a three-dimensional numerical analysis of the supercritical CO2 flow simulation in the Tesla turbine in three different geometries is carried out. Second, the effect of the Tesla turbine on the coefficient of performance and exergy efficiency of the heat pump system is investigated. The effect of the rotor speed and disk spacing on the Tesla turbine po... [more]