Increasing energy efficiency within the industrial sector is one of the main approaches in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The production and processing of aluminium is energy and greenhouse gas intensive. To make well-founded decisions regarding energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigating investments, it is necessary to have relevant key performance indicators and information about energy end-use. This paper develops a taxonomy and key performance indicators for energy end-use and greenhouse gas emissions in the aluminium industry and aluminium casting foundries. This taxonomy is applied to the Swedish aluminium industry and two foundries. Potentials for energy saving and greenhouse gas mitigation are estimated regarding static facility operation. Electrolysis in primary production is by far the largest energy using and greenhouse gas emitting process within the Swedish aluminium industry. Notably, almost half of the total greenhouse gas emissions from electrolysi... [more]

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is emerging as a new mechanism for settling the exchange of energy between renewable energy generators and consumers. P2P provides a mechanism for local balancing when it is facilitated through distributed ledgers (‘blockchains’). Energy communities across Europe have uncovered the potential of this technology and are currently running pilots to test its applicability in P2P energy trading. The aim of this paper is to assess, using legal literature and legislation, whether the legal forms available to energy communities in the United Kingdom (UK) can help resolve some of the uncertainties around the individual use of blockchain for P2P energy trading. This includes the legal recognition of ‘prosumers’, the protection of their personal data, as well as the validity of ‘smart contracts’ programmed to trade energy on the blockchain network. The analysis has shown that legal entities, such as Limited Liability Partnerships and Co-operative Societies, can p... [more]

In the regime of incentive-based autonomous demand response, time dependent prices are typically used to serve as signals from a system operator to consumers. However, this approach has been shown to be problematic from various perspectives. We clarify these shortcomings in a geometric way and thereby motivate the use of power signals instead of price signals. The main contribution of this paper consists of demonstrating in a standard setting that power tracking signals can control flexibilities more efficiently than real-time price signals. For comparison by simulation, German renewable energy production and German standard load profiles are used for daily production and demand profiles, respectively. As for flexibility, an energy storage system with realistic efficiencies is considered. Most critically, the new approach is able to induce consumptions on the demand side that real-time pricing is unable to induce. Moreover, the pricing approach is outperformed with regards to imbalance... [more]

The building sector is known to have a significant environmental impact, considering that it is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions of around 36% and is also responsible for about 40% of global energy consumption. Of this, about 50% takes place during the building operational phase, while around 10−20% is consumed in materials manufacturing, transport and building construction, maintenance, and demolition. Increasing the necessity of reducing the environmental impact of buildings has led to enhancing not only the thermal performances of building materials, but also the environmental sustainability of their production chains and waste prevention. As a consequence, novel thermo-insulating building materials or products have been developed by using both locally produced natural and waste/recycled materials that are able to provide good thermal performances while also having a lower environmental impact. In this context, the aim of this work is to provide a detailed... [more]

In 2007, the US Department of Energy recommended a no-go on NaBH4 hydrolysis for onboard applications; however, the concept of a NaBH4-H2-PEMFC system has the potential to become a primary source for on-demand power supply. Despite the many efforts to study this technology, most of the published papers focus on catalytic performance. Nevertheless, the development of a practical reaction system to close the NaBH4-H2 cycle remains a critical issue. Therefore, this work provides an overview of the research progress on the solutions for the by-product rehydrogenation leading to the regeneration of NaBH4 with economic potential. It is the first to compare and analyze the main types of processes to regenerate NaBH4: thermo-, mechano-, and electrochemical. Moreover, it considers the report by Demirci et al. on the main by-product of sodium borohydride hydrolysis. The published literature already reported efficient NaBH4 regeneration; however, the processes still need more improvements. Moreov... [more]

A theoretical analysis of the influence of temperature and nanoparticle concentration on free convection heat transfer from a horizontal tube immersed in an unbounded nanofluid was presented. The Nusselt (Nu) number and heat transfer coefficient were parameters of the intensity of the convective heat transfer. For free convection, the Nu number was a function of the Rayleigh (Ra) number and Prandtl (Pr) number. The Rayleigh (Ra) number and Prandtl (Pr) number were functions of the thermophysical properties of nanofluids. The thermophysical properties of nanofluids varied with temperature and nanoparticle concentration. Therefore, an analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects on the performance of nanofluids due to variations of thermal conductivity, viscosity, thermal expansion, density, and specific heat, which are functions of nanoparticle concentration and temperature. Water- and ethylene glycol (EG)-based nanofluids with dispersed alumina (Al2O3) nanoparticles at mass concentra... [more]

The aim of the article is to empirically verify the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. The time scope of this study covers the period of 2008−2019. The scope of analyzed subjects covers 34 European countries, 27 of which are currently members of the European Union. European countries consume large amounts of energy, so it is worth investigating the effect of reducing energy consumption on the process of economic growth. For this purpose, dynamic panel models were used. The research methods included the use of dynamic panel models, taking into account the Arellano and Bond and Blundell and Bond estimators. The results made it possible to identify the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. It was found that, in the short term, increases in production will result in a statistically significant increase in energy consumption. Importantly, in the long term, this impact is also statistically significant and positive. On the other hand, taking i... [more]

The objective of the present study is the parametric investigation of a ground source heat pump for space heating purposes with boreholes. The working fluid in the heat pump is CO2, and the geothermal field includes boreholes with vertical heat exchangers (U-tube). This study is conducted with a developed model in Engineering Equation Solver which is validated with data from the literature. Ten different parameters are investigated and more specifically five parameters about the heat pump cycle and five parameters for the geothermal unit. The heat pump’s examined parameters are the high pressure, the heat exchanger effectiveness, the temperature level in the heater outlet, the flow rate of the geothermal fluid in the evaporator and the heat exchanger thermal transmittance in the evaporator. The other examined parameters about the geothermal unit are the ground mean temperature, the grout thermal conductivity, the inner diameter of the U-tube, the number of the boreholes and the length... [more]

Typically, oil pollution cleanup procedures following first response actions include dispersion. Crude oil is biodegradable, and its bioavailability can be increased when dispersed into very fine droplets by means of chemical surfactants. Although their use is widely spread in many applications, the latter may prove toxic, depending on the extent of use. The use of biological means, such as bioremediation and biosurfactants, has emerged over the past years as a very promising ‘green’ alternative technology. Biosurfactants (BSs) are amphiphilic molecules produced by microorganisms during biodegradation, thus increasing the bioavailability of the organic pollutants. It is their biodegradability and low toxicity that render BSs as a very promising alternative to the synthetic ones. Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2 strain ability to produce BSs, without any impurities from the substrate, was investigated. The biosurfactant production was scaled up by means of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) an... [more]

Pedestrians are participants and, most likely, fatalities in every third road traffic accident in Poland. Over 30% of all fatalities on Polish roads are pedestrians. Accidents with pedestrians are very often the result of various factors related to the infrastructure and behaviour of pedestrians and drivers. The objective of the work was to assess driver and pedestrian behaviour in pedestrian crossing areas. The research also served as a pilot study for similar work to be conducted across Poland, and constituted the basis for monitoring the behaviour of road users in the area of pedestrian crossings. Parameters which must be analysed were identified on the basis of field studies. Principles of selecting test sites were adopted, and measurement methods for pedestrian crossing areas are presented. The influence of the location of the selected test cross-section infrastructure parameters on the behaviour of road users in pedestrian crossing areas is demonstrated. The results of the study... [more]

The need for lowering the environmental impacts has incentivized the investigation of biomass and biofuels as possible alternative sources for energy supply. Among the others, oxygenated bio-derived molecules such as alcohols, esters, acids, aldehydes, and furans are attractive substances as chemical feedstock and for sustainable energy production. Indeed, the presence of oxygen atoms limits the production of aromatic compounds, improves combustion efficiency (thus heat production) and alleviates the formation of carbon soot. On the other hand, the variability of their composition has represented one of the major challenges for the complete characterization of combustion behaviour. This work gives an overview of the current understanding of the detailed chemical mechanisms, as well as experimental investigations characterizing the combustion process of these species, with an emphasis on the laminar burning velocity and the ignition delay time. From the review, the common intermediates... [more]

The losses of supercritical CO2 radial turbines with design power scales of about 1 MW were investigated by using computational fluid dynamic simulations. The simulation results were compared with loss predictions from enthalpy loss correlations. The aim of the study was to investigate how the expansion losses are divided between the stator and rotor as well as to compare the loss predictions obtained with the different methods for turbine designs with varying specific speeds. It was observed that a reasonably good agreement between the 1D loss correlations and computational fluid dynamics results can be obtained by using a suitable set of loss correlations. The use of different passage loss models led to high deviations in the predicted rotor losses, especially with turbine designs having the highest or lowest specific speeds. The best agreement in respect to CFD results with the average deviation of less than 10% was found when using the CETI passage loss model. In addition, the othe... [more]

Open-pit mines can cause environmental changes, such as alterations of landscape structure, hydrology, air quality, and river sediments; they can also generate cones of depression. We propose a new method for surveys of mine waters using the example of an open-pit mine in central Poland. This study examines the correlations between bioluminescence and the color of brown coal mine waters and tests whether values of the three-color coordinate system reflected the physicochemical quality of mine waters measured in real-time and in the field. Our results show that alkalinity, pH reaction, and conductivity are higher in surface drainage, while values of trophic parameters (soluble reactive phosphates, total phosphorus, nitrates) are greater in samples representing subsurface drainage. Correlation analysis of bioluminescence with mine water quality parameters showed that only water color had a strong association with bioluminescence. This correlation is stronger for surface drainage, than fo... [more]

Energy consumption impacts the environment, humans’ well-being, comfort and quality of life. The article aimed to develop the original model of energy consumer segmentation, based on behavioural variables, which influence consumer decisions and motivations regardless of demographic, geographic and socio-cultural differences. The innovative contribution is the segmentation procedure, which fills the existing research gap and can be treated as a universal tool serving various groups of stakeholders for creating and implementing sustainable development policies. The methodology used for the segmentation is based on the original algorithm and involves classifying a consumer into the most appropriate group based on the measurement of the distance between the ideal class representative and a particular respondent. Several distance measures (e.g., Sokal−Michener, Goodall, Lin) were used, while the similarity of those classifications was verified using the adjusted Rand index. The segmentation... [more]

Due to increase in integration of renewable energy into the grid and power quality issues arising from it, there is need for analysis and power improvement of such networks. This paper presents voltage profile, Q-V sensitivity analysis and Q-V curves analysis for a grid that is highly penetrated by renewable energy sources; solar PV, wind power and small hydro systems. Analysis is done on IEEE 39 bus test system with Wind power injection alone, PV power injection alone, with PV and wind power injection and with PV, wind and micro hydro power injection to the grid. The analysis is used to determine the buses where voltage stability improvement is needed. From the results, it was concluded that injection of the modeled wind power alone helped in stabilizing the voltage levels as determined from voltage profiles and reactive power margins. Replacing some of the conventional sources with PV power led to reduction of voltages for weak buses below the required standards. Injection of power f... [more]

The pumped hydropower energy storage (PHES) assessments carried out so far have been focused on large water bodies obtained from global or restricted-use databases, or, on the other hand, on the application of methodologies to specific areas focusing on the detection of dams. In addition, many assessments do not include data optimization, or include it at the end of the process and are subject to the prior application of restrictions, often stipulated with subjective criteria. The aim of this article is to design a universal and easily applicable methodology for the assessment of viable PHES potential, which provides immediate and reliable results to assist in the energy planning of a given territory. It is classified in ravine basins, including an optimization before using the restrictions. The island of Gran Canaria is taken as the territory of application, whose density of dams is the highest in the world and whose share of hydroelectric energy is, at present, null; besides, no PHES... [more]

In order to tap the world wide offshore wind resources above deep waters, cost efficient floating platforms are inevitable. Tension-Leg Platforms (TLPs) could enable that crucial cost reduction in floating wind due to their smaller size and lighter weight compared to spars and semi-submersibles. The continuous development of the GICON®-TLP is driven by computer-aided engineering. So-called aero-hydro-servo-elastic coupled simulations are state-of-the-art for predicting loads and simulating the global system behavior for floating offshore wind turbines. Considering the complexity of such simulations, it is good scientific praxis to validate these numerical calculations by use of scaled model testing. This paper addresses the setup of the scaled model testing as carried out at the offshore basin of the École Centrale de Nantes, as well as the numerical model for the GICON®-TLP. The results of dedicated decay tests of the scaled model are used to validate the computational model at the fi... [more]

The length and pattern of air−fuel mixing plays a significant role in the uniformity, flame temperature, and emission characteristics, which can lead to a superior product quality in a non-oxidizing direct fired burner for a cold-rolled steel plate furnace. In this study, a diffusion-flame-type burner and partially-premixed-type burner were experimentally investigated to understand their effects on flame shape, flame temperature, and exhaust gas characteristics. With this aim, fuel nozzle size, nozzle hole number, fuel injection angle, and mixing distance of fuel and air were varied during the experiments. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were also performed to investigate the air−fuel mixing state for a nozzle-mixed burner and a partially-premixed burner. The results show that the flame temperature of the partially-premixed burner increases by up to 26 °C on average compared to that of the nozzle-mixed burner. It is also shown that the mixing distance plays an important role i... [more]

With the development of smart power grids, electronic transformers have been widely used to monitor the online status of power grids. However, electronic transformers have the drawback of poor long-term stability, leading to a requirement for frequent measurement. Aiming to monitor the online status frequently and conveniently, we proposed an attention mechanism-optimized Seq2Seq network to predict the error state of transformers, which combines an attention mechanism, Seq2Seq network, and bidirectional long short-term memory networks to mine the sequential information from online monitoring data of electronic transformers. We implemented the proposed method on the monitoring data of electronic transformers in a certain electric field. Experiments showed that our proposed attention mechanism-optimized Seq2Seq network has high accuracy in the aspect of error prediction.

High temperature and overheating of photovoltaic panels lead to efficiency losses and eventual degradation. For solar PV systems, this is a significant impediment for achieving economic viability. In this study, a novel Window-Integrated Concentrated Photovoltaic (WICPV) system is proposed for window integration. This offers high (50%) transparency and is fabricated and characterised indoors at an irradiance of 1000 Wm−2. Its electrical performance is tested (a) without applied cooling (i.e., under natural ventilation) and (b) with a heat sink to accommodate passive cooling media. The results are compared to study the effects of reduction in operating temperature on system performances. The effectiveness of a sensible cooling medium (water) and two latent heat removal media, phase change materials (or PCMs, RT50 and RT28HC), is investigated. This paper reports the passive temperature regulation of this WICPV at ambient testing conditions. The results demonstrate an increase in electric... [more]

The paper proposes a new speed control method to improve control quality and expand the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors speed range. The Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM) speed range enlarging is based on the newly proposed power control principle between two voltage sources instead of winding current control as the conventional Field Oriented Control method. The power management between the inverter and PMSM motor allows the Flux-Weakening obstacle to be overcome entirely, leading to a significant extension of the motor speed to a constant power range. Based on motor power control, a new control method is proposed and allows for efficiently reducing current and torque ripple caused by the imbalance between the power supply of the inverter and the power required through the desired stator current. The proposed method permits for not only an enhanced PMSM speed range, but also a robust stability in PMSM speed control. The simulation results have demonstrated the efficiency... [more]

In this article, an efficient long-term novel scheduling technique is proposed for allocating capacitors in a combined system involving distributed generation (DG) along with radial distribution systems (RDS). We introduce a unique multi-objective function that focuses on the reduction of power loss with the maximization of voltage stability index (VSI) subjected to constraints of equality and inequality systems. Loss sensitivity factor and VSI together are involved in pre-identifying the locations of capacitors and DG. Determination of the optimal size of capacitor and DG is performed by utilizing the Bat algorithm (BA) for all the loads in RDS. The conventional approach considers the medium load of (1.0) condition generally, but the proposed method changes the feeder loads linearly, ranging from light load (0.5) to peak load (1.6) with the value of step size as 1%. BA determines the optimal size of the capacitor and DG for each step load. The curve fitting technique is used for deduc... [more]

In an electrical safe microenvironment, all kinds of electrical appliances can be operated safely to ensure the safety of life and property. The significance of safety hazard factors detection is to detect safety hazards in advance, to remind the administrators to exclude risk, to reduce the unnecessary loss, and to ensure that the electrical operation is healthy and orderly before the occurrence of accidents. In this paper, batteries are selected as the primary research subject of safety detection because batteries are used more and more in the Internet of Things (IOT), and they often cause fire in the process of discharging and charging. The existing algorithms need to be embedded into the specialized sensor for each important electrical appliance. However, they are limited by the actual deployment, so it is extremely difficult to spread widely. According to the opinions above, an improved load disaggregation algorithm based on dictionary learning and sparse coding with optimal dicti... [more]

In this paper, a novel approach to matrix-converter-based variable frequency drives is presented. It is proposed that these drives are used to provide or draw out reactive power from the power distribution line, keeping the power factor close to unit and, simultaneously, performing their primary function of motor powering and speed control. This application of matrix-converter-based variable frequency drives is required due to the need to compensate for capacitive reactive power generated by light emitting diode lighting devices. In this study, the reactive power compensation range of the matrix-converter-based variable frequency drive is determined, and a method is proposed to extend the compensation range.

The stochastic behavior of PV together with high PV penetration have given rise to power quality concerns involving voltage dynamic issues such as undervoltage, overvoltage, sag and swell. To ensure the grid’s stability, various methods have been practiced such as a proper sizing of the grid lines and the installation of power quality compensation equipment. However, these measures often require high costs and high control complexity due to additional equipment being involved such as multiple transformers and inverters. Moreover, the current available reactive power compensation equipment has a lesser impact on distribution level networks. Therefore, this work proposes a hybrid control of grid-feeding mode and energy storage with Direct Current (DC) fault detection scheme utilizing fuzzy control to mitigate high PV penetration problems, PV intermittency and faults via active power compensation to maintain the system’s voltage within its nominal range. This hybrid control works on two m... [more]