This paper proposes a methodology for numerical modeling of terraforming Mars’ atmosphere using high-energy asteroid impact and greenhouse gas production processes. The developed simulation model uses a spatial data science approach to analyze the Global Climate Model of Mars and cellular automata to model the changes in Mars’ atmospheric parameters. The developed model allows estimating the energy required to raise the planet’s temperature by sixty degrees using different variations of the terraforming process. Using a data science approach for spatial big data analysis has enabled successful numerical simulations of global and local atmospheric changes on Mars and an analysis of the energy potential required for this process.

The nature of carbonate deposition can cause the development of unique geological features such as cavities and vugs called karsts. Encountering karsts while drilling can lead to serious consequences. To improve drilling safety in intervals of karstification, it is important to detect karsts as early as possible. The use of state-of-the-art geophysical methods cannot guarantee early or even real-time detection of karsts or karstification zones. In this paper we demonstrate, based on an analysis of 20 wells drilled in karstified carbonates in the Barents Sea, that a karst that is dangerous for drilling is often surrounded by one or more other karstification objects, thus forming a karstification zone. These zones can be detected in real time through certain patterns in drillstring mechanics and mud flow measurements. They can serve as indicators of intervals with a high likelihood of encountering karsts. The identified patterns corresponding to various karstification objects are summari... [more]

The internal fluid flow capacity of hydrate-bearing sediment (HBS) is one of the important factors affecting the efficiency of natural gas exploitation. This paper focuses on seepage studies on gas hydrates with the following contents: scope of theories’ application, normalized permeability (Kt) models, extension combined with new technology, and development. No review has elucidated the prediction of original permeability (K0) of sediments without hydrates. Moreover, there are few studies on seepage theories with new technologies, such as Computed Tomography (CT), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and resistivity. However, this review summarizes the prospects, evolution, and application of HBS seepage theories from the perspectives of experiments, numerical simulation, and microscopic visualization. Finally, we discuss the current limitations and directions of the seepage theories of HBS.

Achieving the ambitious climate targets required to limit global warming to 1.5 °C requires a deep transformation of the supply-and-demand side of energy−environmental−economic systems. Recent articles have shown that environmentally sustainable consumer behaviors driven by lifestyle changes can significantly contribute to climate-change mitigation and sustainable development goals. However, lifestyle changes are not adequately captured by scenarios developed with integrated assessment and energy-system models (IAMs/ESMs), which provide limited policy insights. This article conducts a systematic review of the IAM and ESM literature to identify the most important lifestyle changes in current mitigation pathways for the residential and transport sectors, review the employed state-of-the-art modeling approaches and scenario assumptions, and propose improvements to existing methodological frameworks. The review finds that mode shifts towards public transport and active transport modes, sha... [more]

Digitalization offers new, unprecedented possibilities to increase the energy efficiency and improve the indoor conditions in buildings in a cost-efficient way. Smart buildings are seen by many stakeholders as the way forward. Smart buildings feature advanced monitoring and control systems that allow a better control of the buildings’ indoor spaces, but it is becoming evident that the massive amount of data produced in smart buildings is rarely used. This work presents a long-term evaluation of a smart building testbed for one year; the building features state-of-the-art monitoring capability and local energy generation (PV). The analysis shows room for improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort due to non-optimal control settings; for instance, average indoor temperatures in all winter months were above 24 °C. The analysis of electricity and domestic hot water use has shown a relevant spread in average use, with single users consuming approximately four times more than the average... [more]

Considering the cost-effectiveness of bioethanol production at high temperatures, there is an enduring need to find new thermotolerant ethanologenic yeasts. In this study, a total of eighteen thermotolerant yeasts were isolated from various natural fermented products in Morocco. Ethanol production using 50 g/L glucose or 50 g/L xylose as the sole carbon source revealed potential yeasts with high productivities and volumetric ethanol productivities at high temperatures. Based on molecular identification, the selected thermotolerant fermentative isolates were affiliated with Pichia kudriavzevii, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Kluyveromyces sp. During the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass at a high temperature (42 °C), the designated yeast P. kudriavzevii YSR7 produced an ethanol concentration of 22.36 g/L, 18.2 g/L and 6.34 g/L from 100 g/L barley straw (BS), chickpea straw (CS), and olive tree pruning (OTP), respectively. It also exhibited multi-str... [more]

was a remarkable, and remarkably influential, model, book and concept published 50 years ago this year. Its importance is that it used, for essentially the first time, a quantitative systems approach and a computer model to question the dominant paradigm for most of society: growth. Initially, many events, and especially the oil crisis of the 1970s, seemed to support the idea that the limits were close. Many economists argued quite the opposite, and the later relaxation of the oil crisis (and decline in gasoline prices) seemed to support the economists’ position. Many argued that the model had failed, but a careful examination of model behavior vs. global and many national data sets assessed by a number of researchers suggests that the model’s predictions (even if they had not been meant for such a specific task) were still remarkably accurate to date. While the massive changes predicted by the model have not yet come to pass globally, they are clearly occurring for many individual nat... [more]

The goal of reaching the peak of carbon in the construction industry is urgent. However, the research on the feasibility of realizing this goal and the implementation of relevant policies in China is relatively superficial. In view of the historical data of energy consumption and building CO2 emission from 1995 to 2019, this paper establishes a BP neural network model for predicting building CO2 emissions. Moreover, the influencing factors, such as population, GDP, and total construction output, are introduced as the parameters in the model. Through the scenario analysis method explores the practical path to accomplish the peak of building CO2 emissions. When using traditional prediction methods to predict building carbon emissions, the long prediction cycle will increase the possibility of significant errors. Therefore, this paper constructs the calculation model of building carbon emission and forecasts the future carbon emission value through the BP neural network to avoid the error... [more]

Porous adsorbent material is promising to be used to regeneratively remove CO2 from space shuttles. In this work, the amount and isosteric heat of CO2 adsorption in solid amine are experimentally studied at pressures ranging from 0 to 6 bar and temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 60 °C. The amount and isosteric heat of water adsorption in the solid amine is tested at different humidities (relative humidity 30−80%). The effective thermal conductivity of the solid amine at different atmospheres (air, N2, CO2 and water), pressures and temperatures is also investigated. The results show that the best temperature for CO2 adsorption in the solid amine is 45 °C under dry conditions. The amount of water adsorption increases with enhanced humidity, while the isosteric heat of water adsorption remains a constant value. The effective thermal conductivity of the solid amine increases with an increase in pressure. The adsorbed phase (CO2 and water) in the solid amine makes a contribution to improvin... [more]

Clean energy liquid oxygen is more and more widely used in aerospace, but the research on the thermodynamic characteristics of liquid oxygen is still less. In this paper, a method for correcting the local saturated vapor pressure by thermodynamic effect is proposed, so we establish the Zwart modified cavitation model considering the thermodynamic characteristics. We choose the turbine pump inducer as the research object, and select liquid water and liquid oxygen at different temperatures as the fluid medium. Based on two different Zwart cavitation models, the cavitation flow characteristics of liquid water at different temperatures of 298 K, 320 K and 350 K are numerically simulated and analyzed, and the cavitation flow characteristics of liquid oxygen at different temperatures of 85 K, 90 K and 95 K are also numerically simulated and analyzed. According to the analysis of the simulation results, for liquid water at the temperature of 298−350 K, since the change range of its thermophys... [more]

Fuel cells (FCs) have received huge attention for development from lab and pilot scales to full commercial scale. This is mainly due to their inherent advantage of direct conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy as a high-quality energy supply and, hence, higher conversion efficiency. Additionally, FCs have been produced at a wide range of capacities with high flexibility due to modularity characteristics. Using the right materials and efficient manufacturing processes is directly proportional to the total production cost. This work explored the different components of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and their manufacturing processes. The challenges associated with these manufacturing processes were critically analyzed, and possible mitigation strategies were proposed. The PEMFC is a relatively new and developing technology so there is a need for a thorough analysis to comprehend the current state of fuel cell operational characteristics and discover new areas fo... [more]

The radius of the coil, the number of turns of the windings, and the parasitic resistances of energy-storing elements affect the performances of wireless power transfer systems. We aimed to study the effects of coil parameters on a wireless power transfer system with the capacitor−capacitor−coupling coil (CCL)-based circuit using numerical simulations. The power transfer system topologies, including series−CCL (S−CCL), CCL−S, and CCL−CCL, were studied vis-à-vis coil parameters. The helical coil and the system topologies were modeled using MATLAB, and the performances of the topologies were examined in comparison to the series−series (S−S) topology. The variables used in the simulations included the radius and number of turns, the parasitic resistance that was merged in the impedance, and the reactance of energy-storing elements. Subsequently, the performances of the topologies were estimated by numerical simulations under several circumstances. The simulation results showed that the pa... [more]

The cooled cooling air technology (CCA technology) shows expected performance in solving the growing thermal challenge for advanced aero engines by reducing the temperature of cooling air. The effect of CCA technology on the overall propelling performance with or without adjusting cycle parameters is controversial. Based on this, both the energy and exergy methods have been adopted to elaborate the specific mechanisms of the above energy utilization discrepancy. As a result, the scheme of CCA technology without optimizing cycle parameters has lower propelling work and efficiency with the total exergy destruction increasing 0.5~2%. Oppositely, as for the scheme of CCA with meliorated cycle parameters, the propelling efficiency improved by around 2~4% with total exergy destruction reduced by 1~3.5%. By analyzing the distribution of exergy destruction, the avoidable and unavoidable exergy destruction caused by the combustion chamber, compressors, and turbines accounts for the largest prop... [more]

In this analysis, we considered a comparative study of micropolar Casson nanofluid flow on a vertical nonlinear Riga stretching sheet. Effects of thermal and velocity slip are considered under thermophoresis and Brownian motions. Select nonlinear PDEs transformed into nonlinear coupled ODEs using the set of suitable transformations. The nonlinear coupled ODEs are solved through a numerical technique along with the Runge−Kutta 4th-order scheme. The impacts of pertinent flow parameters on skin friction, Nusselt number, temperature, and velocity distributions are depicted through tabular and graphical form. Brownian motion and the magnitude of the Sherwood number have opposite performances; likewise, the Nusselt number and Brownian motion also have opposite performances. The Sherwood number and Nusselt number succeeded with higher values. The increment of the Casson fluid parameter declined with fluid velocity, which shows that thickness is reduced due to the increment of the Casson fluid... [more]

Dynamic economic emission dispatch (DEED) in combination with renewable energy has recently attracted much attention. However, when wind power is considered in DEED, due to its generation uncertainty, some additional costs will be introduced and the stability of the dispatch system will be affected. To address this problem, in this paper, the energy-storage characteristic of electric vehicles (EVs) is utilized to smooth the uncertainty of wind power and reduce its impact on the system. As a result, an interaction model between wind power and EV (IWEv) is proposed to effectively reduce the impact of wind power uncertainty. Further, a DEED model based on the IWEv system (DEEDIWEv) is proposed. For solving the complex model, a self-adaptive multiple-learning multi-objective harmony-search algorithm is proposed. Both elite-learning and experience-learning operators are introduced into the algorithm to enhance its learning ability. Meanwhile, a self-adaptive parameter adjustment mechanism i... [more]

The supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle is the preferred power cycle for future nuclear energy, fossil energy, solar energy, and other energy systems. As the preferred regenerator in the cycle, the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) exhibits a high heat transfer efficiency, compactness, and robustness. The structure design of its internal flow channel is one of the most important factors to enhance the heat transfer and reduce pressure loss. In the present work, a trapezoidal PCHE prototype is designed and manufactured, and its thermal-hydraulic performance as a regenerator is experimentally studied in the sCO2 test loop. The overall heat transfer coefficient exceeds 1.10 kW/(m2·K) and reaches a maximum of 2.53 kW/(m2·K) with the changes in the inlet temperature, the working pressure, and the mass flow rate. Correlations of the Nusselt numbers are proposed on both sides, with the Reynolds numbers ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 and 4800 to 14,000, and the Prandtl numbers... [more]

Miscanthus is a perennial wild plant that is vital for the production of paper and roofing, as well as horticulture and the development of new high-yielding crops in temperate climates. Chromosome-level assembly of the ancient tetraploid genome of miscanthus chromosomes is reported to provide resources that can link its chromosomes to related diploid sorghum and complex polyploid sugarcane. Analysis of Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus showed intense mixing and interspecific hybridization and documented the origin of a high-yielding triploid bioenergetic plant, Miscanthus × giganteus. The Miscanthus genome expands comparative genomics functions to better understand the main abilities of Andropogoneae herbs. Miscanthus × giganteus is widely regarded as a promising lignocellulosic biomass crop due to its high-biomass yield, which does not emit toxic compounds into the environment, and ability to grow in depleted lands. The high production cost of lignocellulosic bioethano... [more]

The war in Ukraine has sensitized German policy makers towards the negative economic impact of a curtailment of natural gas flows from Russia. Given its large import dependency, Germany has implemented regulatory measures for mitigating a possible gas shortage and is seeking to diversify from pipeline imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). In this context, we provide a comprehensive review of the natural gas crisis in Europe and place it in the context of the peculiar role of natural gas in Germany. We critically discuss the economic impact of an embargo, and assess demand and supply factors capable of mitigating a supply shortage. We derive a short-term import substitution potential of 13 bcm, assuming timely installation of Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRUs). We discuss the potential for demand reductions in the power sector, in industry consumption, and in households, and estimate a combined maximum of 24.1 bcm. Under decreased industrial demand, the most optimistic... [more]

The acoustic characteristics of hydrates are important parameters in geophysical hydrate exploration and hydrate resource estimation. The microscale distribution of hydrate has an important influence on the acoustic response of a hydrate-bearing reservoir. Although microscale hydrate distributions can be determined using means such as X-ray computed tomography (X-CT), it is difficult to obtain acoustic parameters for the same sample. In this study, we developed an experimental system that integrated pore-scale visualization and an ultrasonic testing system for methane-hydrate-bearing sediments. Simultaneous X-CT observation and acoustic detection could be achieved in the same hydrate sample, which provided a new method for synchronously monitoring microscale distributions during acoustic testing of natural gas hydrate samples. Hydrate formation experiments were carried out in sandy sediments, during which the acoustic characteristics of hydrate-bearing sediments were detected, while X-... [more]

Historically, the power system has relied on synchronous generators (SGs) to provide inertia and maintain grid stability. However, because of the increased integration of power-electronics-interfaced renewable energy sources, the grid’s stability has been challenged in the last decade due to a lack of inertia. Currently, the system predominantly uses grid-following (GFL) converters, built on the assumption that inertial sources regulate the system stability. Such an assumption does not hold for the low-inertia grids of the future. Grid-forming (GFM) converters, which mimic the traditional synchronous machinery’s functionalities, have been identified as a potential solution to support the low-inertia grids. The performance analysis of GFM converters for small-signal instability can be found in the literature, but large-signal instability is still an open research question. Moreover, various topologies and configurations of GFM converters have been proposed. Still, no comparative study c... [more]

The US highway system features a huge flux of energy transportation in terms of weight, speed, volume, flow density, and noise levels, with accompanying environmental effects. The adverse effects of high-volume traffic cause health concerns for nearby residential areas. Both chronic and acute exposure to PM 2.5 have detrimental effects on respiratory and cardiovascular health, and motor vehicles contribute 25−35% of direct PM 2.5 emissions. In addition to traffic-related pollutants, residing near major roadways is also associated with exposure to increased noise, and both affect the health and quality of life of residents. While regulatory and policy actions may reduce some exposures, engineering means may offer novel and significant methods to address these critical health and environmental issues. The goal of this study was to harvest highway-noise energy to induce surface charge via a piezoelectric material to entrap airborne particles, including PM 2.5. In this study, we experiment... [more]

The social acceptability of wind farms has been researched for several decades now, with the first research tracing back to the 1980s. This paper aims to deliver a literature review within the structural framework proposed by the paper of variables influencing the acceptability of wind farms. The large amount of research published on the social acceptability of wind farms requires an effort to identify and categorise variables to deliver a holistic understanding of opposition and support to wind energy. We classify the variables into three main categories: first, ‘psychological variables’, including perceived benefits and costs, emotions, and attitudes; second, ‘contextual variables’, including community energy schemes and media influence; and finally, third, ‘personal resources’, including income or wealth, place of residence, and relevant knowledge in relation to the wind farm. In agreement with other scholars, we argue that NIMBYism (not in my backyard) is an outdated and simplistic... [more]

This work analyses 10 adsorption isotherm models applied to adsorption of Cr(III) and Cu(II) from binary solutions on electron-irradiated sheep wool (0-24-100) kGy. The results are compared with fitting the same adsorbates from corresponding single solutions. The competing cation significantly changes the fitting of the selected isotherms to the extent that even simultaneous fitting of the same cation in the single and binary solution is rare. In the case of Cr(III), 4 favourable matches were found out of 30 compared cases, while in the case of Cu(II), only 2 conformities were found. Having the Cr(III) coordination number exclusively of 6, but Cu(II) up to 4, 5, 6, the last coordinates more easily with the ligands provided by keratin, resulting in preferential chemisorption. If there is still a lack of cysteic acid in the wool to interact with Cr(III) also, this is adsorbed on the wool physically, too. The amount of cysteic acid increasing in the wool with the absorbed dose of energy i... [more]

High-chromium vanadium residue (HCVR (HCVR: high-chromium vanadium residue)) is an important secondary resource of valuable metals such as vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), and molybdenum (Mo). The mainstream technology for the utilization of HCVR, the Na2CO3-assisted-roasting−water-leaching method, usually requires roasting temperatures of more than 800 °C and results in the synchronous leaching of Cr with V and Mo. This makes the subsequent separation of V, Mo, and Cr in the aqueous system difficult. In this study, an efficient and clean process for the selective separation of Cr and stepped recoveries of V and Mo from HCVR is proposed via K2CO3-mediated carbonation conversion. Using this process, the roasting temperature can be reduced from more than 800 °C to 200 °C, and 83.14%, 99.94%, and 0.33% of V, Mo, and Cr, respectively, can be leached. Further, using the weakly alkaline ammonium-salt and sulfide precipitation methods, 98.28% pure V2O5 and 98.65% pure MoS2 can be obtained and the... [more]

Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF) is a non-curable chronic lung disease. Therefore, a quick and accurate PF diagnosis is imperative. In the present study, we aim to compare the performance of the six state-of-the-art Deep Transfer Learning techniques to classify patients accurately and perform abnormality localization in Computer Tomography (CT) scan images. A total of 2299 samples comprising normal and PF-positive CT images were preprocessed. The preprocessed images were split into training (75%), validation (15%), and test data (10%). These transfer learning models were trained and validated by optimizing the hyperparameters, such as the learning rate and the number of epochs. The optimized architectures have been evaluated with different performance metrics to demonstrate the consistency of the optimized model. At epoch 26, using an optimized learning rate of 0.0000625, the ResNet50v2 model achieved the highest training and validation accuracy (training = 99.92%, validation = 99.22%) and mini... [more]