Sicily is characterized by rural buildings, Palmenti, destined to wine production, which are scattered along the countryside and part of the local historical heritage. There are different types of rural buildings, but all have in common the use of ancient and well-established bioclimatic techniques for wine conservation and aging. Most of them were built with the double function of living space for the owner and productive spaces for all the activities correlated to the cultivations. Indeed, many rural houses, destined to the wine production, are characterized by wineries and wine cellars (the first for the wine production, the second to store the wine for the aging process). The growing production of high-quality Sicilian wines, very appreciated all over the world, leads to upgrade the ancient Palmenti to seek optimal hygrothermal conditions and, therefore, to guarantee high performance of the produced and stored wines. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the retrofit meas... [more]

The theft of electrical energy is one of the main problems faced by electricity distribution utilities, especially in developing countries. Aware of the difficulties in combating non-technical losses (NTLs) in Brazil, the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) established tolerable limits for the percentage of non-technical losses to each Brazilian distribution utility. Despite the notable progress made by ANEEL, when comparing public utility NTLs and their regulatory targets in the last decade, it was observed that the goals defined by this agency were not able to lead to a general reduction in NTLs in the country. Thus, the search for alternative methodologies to deal with the topic is necessary. A more attractive alternative to the ANEEL’s model is an efficient frontier model. This paper describes a stochastic frontier cost model for panel data whose equation is specified to provide the tolerable limits for the percentage of NTLs. The proposed model was applied to a panel of data c... [more]

The prestrike phenomenon in vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) is interesting but complicated. Previous studies mainly focus on the prestrike phenomenon in single-break VCBs. However, experimental work on prestrike characteristics of double-break VCBs cannot be found in literature. This paper aims to experimentally determine the probabilistic characteristics of prestrike gaps in a double-break VCB consisting of two commercial vacuum interrupters (VIs) in series under direct current (DC) voltages. As a benchmark, single-break prestrike gaps were measured by short-circuiting one of the VIs in a double break. The experimental results show that the 50% prestrike gap d50 of each VI in a double break, which is calculated with the complementary Weibull distribution, was significantly reduced by 25% to 72.7% compared with that in a single break. Due to the voltage-sharing effect in the double-break VCB, scatters in prestrike gaps of each VI in a double break was smaller than that in a single break... [more]

This paper deals with the problem of inserting a temperature sensor in the neighbourhood of a chip to monitor the junction temperature. If the sensor is not in the middle of the heat source, the recorded temperature can be quite different from the chip temperature we are mainly interested in. For the steady state temperature, it is rather easy to introduce a correction factor. For the transient behaviour of the temperature, there is a tremendous difference between the chip and the sensor temperature, which cannot be neglected if the temperature is used as a parameter to change, for example, the clock frequency in order to improve the throughput.

Three series of binary metal oxide catalysts containing Ni, Cu, or Co oxides were prepared, fully characterized and tested in CO oxidation. The catalysts, with a constant transition metal loading of 10 wt%, were prepared from metal nitrates and urea mixtures by a microwave-assisted solution combustion method. The RV/OV ratio, corresponding to the stoichiometry of the reactants, calculated from their elemental oxidizing and reducing valences, was varied. In order to modify the redox character of the synthesis medium from the quantity of urea; an excess of urea was used for attaining reducing conditions, while a deficit of urea shifted the medium to oxidizing conditions. Three RV/OV ratios (0.9, 1.0, and 1.1) were selected to elaborate the different binary metal oxide catalysts, nine oxide catalysts were synthesized. Then, the influence of the stoichiometry (RV/OV ratio) on the bulk and surface properties of the binary metal oxide catalysts was investigated. Similarly, the influence of t... [more]

In this study, hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of wheat straw (WS) in sub (350 °C) and supercritical (400 °C) water with and without alkali catalyst was performed to investigate the potential of WS for the production of biocrude. The influences of temperature and catalyst were studied for the HTL products. Results showed that maximum biocrude yield (32.34 wt. %) with least solid residue (4.34 wt. %) was obtained at subcritical catalytic condition, whereas the carbon content was slightly higher in biocrude at supercritical. The higher heating value (HHV) for biocrude is around 35 MJ/kg for all four conditions. The major compounds in biocrude were observed as ketones, alcohols, acids, and hydrocarbons. At 350 °C, 44−55% of the carbon recovered into biocrude. The products were characterized in terms of elemental composition, higher heating values, organics, and inorganic compounds in different phases. To keep in consideration the scale-up of HTL process for continuous plant, aqueous phase... [more]

This paper proposes a novel and efficient energy harvester (EH) system, for capturing simultaneously flutter and vortex-induced vibration. There exists a coupling effect between flexible spring energy harvester (FSEH) and cantilever beam energy harvester (CBEH) in aerodynamic response and output characteristic. Many prototypes of the harvester were manufactured to explore the coupling effect in a wind tunnel. The experimental results demonstrate that FSEH is mainly subjected to flutter-induced vibration and CBEH undergoes vortex-induced vibration. Disturbance of FSEH first takes place, a limited oscillation cycle then occurs, and chaos ultimately happens as airflow velocity increase. Root mean square voltages are more than 11 V for FSEH at beyond 10.52 m/s, which shows the better output performance over the existing harvesters. Vibration response and output voltage of various harvesters are mutually enhanced with each other. An enhancing ratio for FSEH-130-25 is up to 69.6% over FSEH-1... [more]

This article presents the effectiveness of bispectrum analysis for the detection of the rotor unbalance of an induction motor supplied by the mains and a frequency converter. Two diagnostic signals were analyzed, as well as the stator current and mechanical vibrations of the tested motors. The experimental tests were realized for two low-power induction motors, with one and two pole pairs, respectively. The unbalance was modeled using a test mass mounted on a specially prepared disc and directly on the rotor and the influence of this unbalance location was tested and discussed. The results of the bispectrum analysis are compared with results of Fourier transform and the effectiveness of unbalance detection are discussed and compared. The influence of the registration time of the analyzed signal on the quality of fault symptom analyses using both transforms was also tested. It is shown that the bispectrum analysis provides an increased number of fault symptoms in comparison with the cla... [more]

With the recent increase in biomass pellet consumption, the mechanical degradation of pellets during transport and handling has become more important. ISO standard 17831-1 is an accepted global standard that is commonly used amongst researchers and industries to determine the mechanical durability of pellets. However, the measured mechanical durability sometimes fails to match the certificate accompanying the shipment. In such cases, pellet length specifications are suspected to play a role. This paper studies the effect of pellet length on mechanical durability for various types of commercially produced biomass pellets. In addition, the effect of test conditions and torrefaction on the mechanical durability of biomass pellets has been investigated. To study the effect of pellet length, pellets were classified into three groups: shorter than 15 mm, 15 to 30 mm, and longer than 30 mm, and their length distributions were measured using an in-house image processing tool. Then, the mechani... [more]

Upgrading biomass waste streams can improve economics in wood industries by adding value to the process. This work considers use of a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process for the residual feedstock after lignin and hemicelluloses extraction. Batch experiments were performed at 200−240 °C temperatures and three hours residence time with an 8:1 biomass to water ratio for two feedstocks: Raw spruce and spruce after lignin extraction. The proximate analysis and heating value showed similar results for both feedstocks, indicating that the thermochemical conversion is not impacted by the removal of lignin and hemicelluloses; the pretreatment processing slightly increases the heating value of the treated feedstock, but the HTC conversion process produces a consistent upgrading trend for both the treated and untreated feedstocks. The energy yield was 9.7 percentage points higher for the treated wood on average across the range temperatures due to the higher mass yield in the treated experi... [more]

Utilizing the data of a large nationwide household survey conducted in 2014, we investigate public preferences on nuclear power in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident and the role of four sets of factors: (1) household/individual socioeconomic characteristics, (2) psychological status, (3) geographical aspects, and (4) Fukushima accident-related experiences. The preferred energy mix, according to the averaged responses from the survey, includes 0.59 for renewables, 0.29 for fossil fuels, and 0.12 for nuclear—much more skewed towards the renewables than the actual national share of renewables of less than 0.2. Male, older, unmarried, less educated, high-income people, and government party supporters have a preference towards a higher share of nuclear power, except if they live near nuclear power plants. The experience of blackout and aversion to nuclear power during the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 lowers the share of nuclear power in the preferred mix.

spp. are among the most suitable species for biomass production, even for the firewood derived from medium-rotation coppice (MRC). The general problem of wood is that it cannot be utilized immediately because of the high moisture content, which in the combustion process would reduce remarkably the yield of energy. In this context, outdoor storage of whole stems without branches (WS), outdoor storage of whole stems with branches (WSB), open shed storage of firewood logs in mesh bags (OSF), and outdoor firewood logs in mesh bags (ODF) of Eucalyptus spp woody biomass were compared in term of moisture and dry matter loss to evaluate the most convenient form of storing biomass deriving from a medium-rotation coppice. During the storage period, ODF showed higher moisture values than OSF, WSB, and WS, underlining that moisture reduction is related to local climatic conditions, pile size and permeability (compaction). However, at the end of the storage period, the four options reached a simila... [more]

This paper addresses the analysis of the applicability of water as a working fluid for the new adsorptive heat transformation (AHT) cycle "Heat from Cold" (HeCol). The cycle proposed for cold countries operates at the ambient temperature below 0 °C. In this work, an aqueous solution of calcium chloride is proposed instead of liquid water to prevent the ice formation in the evaporator and condenser. The proposed water-based cycle is compared with the common methanol-based HeCol one in terms of the specific useful heat generated per cycle. The effect of the CaCl2 solution on the cycle boundary pressures and its useful heat is studied both theoretically and experimentally. This approach can be extended to other adsorptive heat transformation cycles working at an evaporator or condenser temperature below 0 °C.

This paper uses practical experimentation to analyse the effect of replacing SF6 with pure CO2 in conventional gas insulated transmission line sections by studying partial discharge measurements taken with applied voltages up to 242 kV (rms). The results can also help in understanding the properties of new alternative gas mixtures which can be utilised with a ratio of up to and over 95% CO2. The experiments undertaken involved filling a gas insulated line demonstrator with 3 bars of CO2 and applying voltages up to 242 kV in both clean conditions and particle-contaminated enclosure conditions. The results demonstrate that CO2 can be used to insulate gas equipment without breakdown at high voltage, however, a higher gas-filling pressure may be needed to reduce the partial discharge found in the tests presented in this paper. Another aspect of the work showed that partial discharge (PD) measurements from internal ultra-high frequency (UHF) sensors compared with a direct measurement from a... [more]

This study investigates the influence of moisture content on the potential oxidation efficiency of methane (CH4) of biofiltration systems treating landfill gas containing high oxygen concentrations. Column tests filled with compost with different moisture contents (20%, 30%, and 40%) loaded with different methane flows were set up on a laboratory scale. Analyzing the results the following evidences can be summarized: With low methane load (<100 g CH4 m−2 d−1), a moisture content of 20% was not enough to support bacterial activity, while a moisture content of 40% advantaged the compost respiration assisting it to become the dominating process; with higher methane load (100−300 g CH4 m−2 d−1), a moisture content of 30% resulted in an optimal value to support methanotrophic activity showing the highest CH4 concentration reduction; moving on to a CH4 load above 300 g CH4 m−2 d−1, the inhibition of methanotrophic activity emerged independently to the moisture content of the filter media.... [more]

Piezoelectric actuation is a promising principle for insect-scaled robots. A major concern while utilizing a piezoelectric actuator is energy loss due to its parasitic capacitance. In this paper, we propose a new concept to recover the charge stored in the parasitic capacitance; it requires only three additional lightweight passive components: two diodes and a resistor. The advantages of our concept are its small additional mass and simple operating procedure compared with existing charge recovery circuits. We provided a guideline for selecting a resistor using a simplified theoretical model and found that half of the charge can be recovered by employing a resistor that has a resistance sufficiently larger than the forward resistance of the additional diode. In addition, we experimentally demonstrated the concept. With a capacitive load (as a replacement for the piezoelectric actuator), it was successfully observed that the proposed concept decreased the power consumption to 58% of tha... [more]

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The paper proposes a method for improving the accuracy of early detection of cyber attacks with a small impact, in which the mathematical expectation is a fraction of the total, and the pulse repetition period is quite long. Early detection of attacks against telecommunication networks is based on traffic analysis using extreme filtering. The algorithm of fuzzy logic for deciding on the results of extreme filtering is suggested. The results of an experimental evaluation of the proposed method are presented. They demonstrate that the method is sensitive even with minor effects. In order to eliminate the redundancy of the analyzed parameters, it is enough to use the standard deviation and the correlation interval for decision making.

This paper describes the synthesis, crystal structure, and NH3 sorption properties of Mg1-xMnx(NH3)6Cl2 (x = 0−1) mixed metal halide ammines, with reversible NH3 storage capacity in the temperature range 20−350 °C. The stoichiometry (x) dependent NH3 desorption temperatures were monitored using in situ synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. The thermal analyses reveal that the NH3 release temperatures decrease in the mixed metal halide ammines in comparison to pure Mg(NH3)6Cl2, approaching the values of Mn(NH3)6Cl2. Desorption occurs in three steps of four, one and one NH3 moles, with the corresponding activation energies of 54.8 kJ⋅mol-1, 73.2 kJ⋅mol-1 and 91.0 kJ⋅mol-1 in Mg0.5Mn0.5(NH3)6Cl2, which is significantly lower than the NH3 release activation energies of Mg(NH3)6Cl2 (Ea = 60.8 kJ⋅mol-1, 74.8 kJ⋅mol-1 and 91.8 kJ⋅mol-1). This work shows that Mg1-xMnx(NH3)yCl2 (x = 0 to 1, y = 0 to 6) is stable within... [more]

With the deregulation of the retail electricity market and the increase of the types of electricity price packages, electricity retail companies provide the recommended service of price packages for users, so as to improve the market competitiveness and user stickiness of enterprises. The existing research does not fully consider the impact of user characteristics and package attributes on recommendation results. This paper proposes a hybrid recommendation method of retail electricity price package based on the characteristics of power users and the multi-attribute utility of price package. Firstly, the hierarchical model of hybrid characteristics of power users in retail electricity market is constructed based on the tree structure, and all characteristics are analyzed quantitatively by proximity measurement method. Then, based on the multi-attribute utility theory, the utility model of retail electricity price package to users is constructed. Secondly, the accurate recommendation of... [more]

This paper reports the regulated, unregulated, and particle number emissions from six high-mileage, China-4 compliant, dedicated methanol taxis over the new European driving cycle. Compared to new vehicles, carbon monoxide, total hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides emissions from in-use methanol taxis increased by 76.1%, 40.2%, and 179.8%, respectively. Still, they managed to meet China-4, indicating good in-service conformity. In the test fleet, the test vehicles with longer mileage inclined to emit higher carbon monoxide and total hydrocarbons emissions. Formaldehyde emissions from these field-aged taxis ranged from 1.06 to 2.33 mg/km, which were similar to or lower than those from previously reported pre-Euro-5 gasoline vehicles. One of the six test vehicles produced extraordinarily high unburned methanol emissions, which was about ten times higher than the rest of the properly operating vehicles due to possible misfire, suggesting that unburned methanol will be the primary stress for... [more]

The present study considers evaporative cooling and desiccant unit-based air-conditioning (AC) options for livestock AC application. In this regard, proposed systems are investigated by means of experiments and thermodynamic investigations. Air-conditioning requirements for animals are theoretically investigated and temperature-humidity index (THI) is estimated. A lab-scale heat mass exchanger based on the Maisotsenko-cycle evaporative cooling conception (MEC) is set up and its performance is evaluated at different ambient air conditions. In addition, a desiccant-based air-conditioning (DAC) unit is thermodynamically evaluated using a steady-state model available in the literature. The study focuses on the ambient conditions of Multan which is the 5th largest city of Pakistan and is assumed to be a typical hot city of southern Punjab. The study proposed three kinds of AC combination i.e., (i) stand-alone MEC, (ii) stand-alone desiccant AC, and (iii) M-cycle based desiccant AC systems.... [more]

This paper analyzes the efficiency of thermal power plants in Angola by means of a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. In the first stage, a novel super-efficiency DEA model for undesirable outputs (CO2 emission levels and discharge of polluted water) is initially used to measure their efficiency levels. Then, in the second stage, relevant cost structure variables frequently used to describe a productive technology are employed as analytical thresholds for assessing energy production performance either in terms of capital or labor-intensity levels. Precisely, bootstrapped regression trees are used to discriminate super-efficiency scores yielding an energy production performance predictive model based on the technology type as proxied by its cost structure and their respective thresholds, since Angolan thermal plants are heterogeneous. Findings suggest that Angolan power plants are old and labor intensive, as some of them date back to the colonial era, and that lack of c... [more]

The integration of distributed generation (DG) into the power grid has increased in recent years due to its techno-economic benefits for utilities and consumers. However, due to the fact that distribution systems were not originally designed to accommodate such DG units, many challenges are being faced by utilities to seamlessly integrate them into their systems. One of the critical challenges is their effect on protection system settings and coordination. The DG units will affect the pickup current settings of the protection relays, coordination between the primary and secondary relays, and even the direction of the fault current. Failing to consider DG’s effect on the protection system may lead to serious equipment damage or system failure, causing huge financial setbacks for utilities. To that end, this work proposes a new dynamic approach to optimally allocate different types of DG units over the planning horizon. The objective is to minimize the overall costs of the system while t... [more]

Commercial buildings consume approximately 1.9 EJ of energy in the United States, 50% of which is for heating, cooling, and lighting applications. It is estimated that windows contribute up to 34% of the energy used for heating and cooling. However, window retrofits are not often undertaken to increase energy efficiency because of the high cost and disruptive nature of window installation. Highly efficient window technologies would also need shading devices for glare prevention and visual comfort. An automated window shading system with an appropriate control strategy is a technology that can reduce energy demand, maintain occupant comfort, and enhance the aesthetics and privacy of the built environment. However, the benefits of the automated shades currently used by the shading industry are not well studied. The topic merits an analysis that will help building owners, designers and engineers, and utilities make informed decisions using knowledge of the impact of this technology on ene... [more]