Biofuels, as a renewable, eco-friendly, and cost-effective energy source, can reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. The researchers considered different approaches for obtaining high biodiesel yields from microalgae biomass. This work aims to present an overview of the feasibility of microalgae use in biodiesel production. Therefore, biodiesel production from microalgae oil via the transesterification process was explained in detail. The application of non-catalytic transesterification and catalytic transesterification was reviewed. The achievements in the application of homogenous catalysts, heterogeneous catalysts, and enzymatic catalysts for microalgae oil transesterification were discussed. The present technologies for biodiesel production from microalgae need more improvements to increase their efficiencies and reduce costs. Therefore, future research should focus on the development of effective catalysts for biodiesel production from microalgae biomass.

A rational designing nanostructured Earth-abundant and non-precious electrocatalysts for promoting an anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for cutting-edge energy conversion and storage fields. Herein, we demonstrate a porous structured three-dimensional (3-D) FeP nanosheets on NiO modified Ni electrode (PS-3D-FeP@NiO|Ni) using of a facile and two-step electrodeposition strategy that exhibits enhanced OER under alkaline electrolyte. The as-developed porous-structured 3-D FeP nanosheets on NiO modified Ni electrode exhibits the best OER catalytic activity in relations of low onset potential (ղonset) of ~1.37 V (vs. RHE), small overpotential (η) of ~0.17 V to produce the current densities of 10 mA cm−2, lower Tafel slope value of ~40.0 mV/dec, higher turn-over frequency (TOF) of 0.435 s−1, and long-term stability when compared to other CoP@NiOǀNi, NiP@NiOǀNi, CuP@NiOǀNi, NiP|NF (nickel foam), and commercial IrO2|Ni electrodes established in this study. The anodic current den... [more]

The large-scale access of distributed power puts forward higher requirements for the monitoring of the distribution networks, and the topology identification of low-voltage power lines can effectively promote the integration of monitoring data and the distribution network information, effectively realizing the rapid identification of faults and ensuring the safety of users. In this paper, the method of graph theory was used to simplify the analysis of low-voltage lines, and the full topology identification strategy was proposed. Based on IEC 61850 SCL topology configuration information, line topology identification within the region was realized, and the correlation between regions was determined by the injection method. According to the configuration information, regional association information, and user’s collection information, the low-voltage station area line topology was divided into known regional topology and unknown regional topology. Aiming for the identification of line top... [more]

Non-Newtonian fluids are commonly used in a wide range of industries; one example are in biogas power plants. Proper measurements and modeling of such fluids can be crucial from the design and operations point of view. Results presented in this study covered seven samples from three plants (a sewage sludge treatment plant, utilization biogas station and a biogas plant in a sugar factory), including mechanically thickened excessive activated sludge (MTEAS), sugar beet pulp (SBP), liquid fruit and vegetable waste (FVW), beet roots (BR) and corn waste (CW); their mixtures were prepared as in a real plant. The total solid content remained below 6.8% for all samples. The apparent viscosity (15 RPM) did not exceed 10 Pas in any sample. A correlation analysis for solvent type influence on the viscosity was carried out. The obtained results were analyzed, and the Herschel−Bulkley rheological model was selected for the fluid description. Then, the Moullinex method was applied to determine the H... [more]

Wet organic wastes are especially troublesome in valorization. Therefore, innovative solutions are still in demand to make valorization feasible. In this study, we tested a new transformation route of a blackcurrant pomace as a high-moisture industrial waste through a series of high-temperature and pressure solvothermal liquefaction experiments. The feedstock was directly converted under near-critical conditions of the binary solvent system (water/2-propanol). The goal was to examine the effect of conversion parameters (temperature, biomass-to-solvent ratio) on the change in the yield of resultant bioproducts, as well as the quality thereof. The experiments were conducted in a batch autoclave at a temperature between 250 and 300 °C. The main product of the transformation was liquid biocrude, which was obtained with the highest yield (ca. 52 wt.%) at 275 °C. The quality of biocrude was examined by ATR-FTIR, GC-MS, and elemental analysis. The ultimate biocrude was a viscous heterogeneous... [more]

With the rapid development and increasing energy production capacity of high-power wind turbines, a corresponding increase in maintenance requirements has been observed. Reducing the failure rate of wind turbines is a critical objective, alongside decreasing affiliated operation and maintenance costs. This review focuses on the status monitoring, fault diagnosis, fault prediction, and status evaluation of wind turbines. The early fault diagnosis of wind turbines is explored with regard to existing condition monitoring technology. Moreover, the current mathematics-based fault diagnosis and smart fault diagnosis technologies are further explored. Through comprehensive investigation, this paper summarizes the research status of wind turbine fault prediction and complete machine status evaluation, conclusively presenting relevant research points and trends in the fault diagnosis, fault prediction, and status assessment of high-power wind turbines.

Rice husk is the main by-product of the postharvest stage in rice production, which causes environmental impacts due to improper management as a solid waste. However, potential economic applications of rice husk combustion have been identified for energy generation and amorphous silica production in several industries. To minimize hazardous gaseous emissions and crystalline silica availability, rice husk combustion conditions should be properly controlled which also effect for efficient heat production. This study was conducted under different conditions of temperature, airflow, combustion time, and bulk density of rice husk in the combustion process using an experimental prototype hybrid rice husk burner with a fluidized bed. The availability of crystalline silica in rice husk charcoal and the CO and O2 compositions in the exhaust gas were analyzed using XRD analysis and gas analysis, respectively. Furthermore, elemental and thermogravimetric analyses were conducted to find the most e... [more]

Nuclear fusion is widely promoted as the ultimate environmentally friendly solution to the world’s energy demands. However, the medium/long-term nuclear weapons proliferation risks from a hypothetical fusion economy are rarely considered. Using risk assessment tools, this paper undertakes a trial scoping of proliferation hazards arising from fusion energy technologies, focused on the implications of a global ‘Mature Fusion Economy’ (MFE). In the medium term, an MFE could (1) facilitate construction of large, efficient, and reliable nuclear arsenals by producing tritium and the fissile materials Plutonium-239 and Uranium-233; and (2) erode the barriers constraining nuclear weapons acquisition by facilitating the spread of nuclear knowledge, technologies, and materials. Given the potential scale of a global MFE, management via monitoring of proliferation and diplomacy could become unworkable. Therefore, policy development must include independent and comprehensive expert and informed com... [more]

The shipping industry is going through a period of technology transition that aims to increase the use of carbon-neutral fuels. There is a significant trend of vessels being ordered with alternative fuel propulsion. Shipping’s future fuel market will be more diverse, reliant on multiple energy sources. One of very promising means to meet the decarbonisation requirements is to operate ships with sustainable electrical energy by integrating local renewables, shore connection systems and battery energy storage systems (BESS). With the increasing number of battery/hybrid propulsion vessels in operation and on order, this kind of vessel propulsion is becoming more common, especially in the segment of short range vessels. This paper presents review of recent studies of electrification or hybridisation, different aspects of using the marine BESS and classes of hybrid propulsion vessels. It also reviews several types of energy storage and battery management systems used for ships’ hybrid propu... [more]

Water injection in geothermal areas is the preferential strategy to sustain the natural production of geothermal resources. In this context, monitoring microearthquakes is a fundamental tool to track changes in the reservoirs in terms of soil composition, response to injections, and resource exploitation with space and time. Therefore, refined source characterization is crucial to better estimate the size, source mechanism, and rupture process of microearthquakes, as they are possibly related to industrial activities, and to identify any potential variation in the background seismicity. Standard approaches for source parameter estimation are ordinarily based on the modelling of Fourier displacement spectra and its characteristic parameters: the low-frequency spectral level and corner frequency. Here, we apply an innovative time domain technique that uses the curves of P-wave amplitude vs. time along the seismogram. This methodology allows estimation of seismic moment, source radius, an... [more]

The European Union (EU) countries have declared the ambitious goal of providing carbon-free economic development. Considering this, the EU countries are going to pursue relevant policies for a step-by-step refusal of mining and coal energy, consequently reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis of the theoretical background showed that renewable energy is the core dimension of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this case, the paper aims to justify the impact of core dimensions (knowledge spillover, innovation, and environmental regulation) that could boost renewable energy penetration into all sectors and levels. The following methods are applied to test the hypotheses: stationarity testing in panels; cross-section dependence testing; cointegration testing; and estimation in heterogeneous parameter models. The data are obtained from Eurostat, the OECD, and the World Data Bank. The object of research is the EU country in the period 2010−2020. The findings confirm the hypothesis... [more]

This paper proposes an impedance-accelerated inverse-time over-current protection optimization scheme based on the improved quantum genetic algorithm. First, the speed of remote backup protection is improved by increasing the optimization level of backup protection. Second, to ensure the coordination of protection when the distributed generation is connected to the distribution network, a mathematical model for the optimization of inverse time protection parameters is established. The mathematical model takes the minimum total action time of the optimized main and backup protection as the objective function, and the selectivity and sensitivity requirements of the protection as the constraints. In addition, the genetic algorithm is improved from four aspects: coding method, population initialization, quantum revolving gate, and variational evolution. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme can effectively improve the selectivity and operation speed... [more]

To achieve carbon neutrality and improve emission reduction efficiency, capturing carbon dioxide from the air on a large scale and promoting the application and innovation of carbon capture technology (CCUS) are the most important goals. This study undertakes an annual and comprehensive evaluation of the policy and the technological innovation efficiency (TIE) of 10 listed companies in China using the DEA model and the Malmquist index analysis method. The number of relevant laws and policies is significant, but they are not well coordinated. The static evaluation results indicate that the complete factor production rate is low, generally lower than 0.9, and the technical innovation efficiency is weak, mainly because of technological backwardness. The dynamic evaluation results indicate that the changes in total factor productivity (TFP) each year are primarily affected by changes in technological progress. This suggests that most domestic enterprises are still exploring technological i... [more]

Catalyst layers made from novel catalysts must be fabricated in a way that the catalyst can function to its full potential. To characterize a PtNi alloy catalyst for use in the cathode of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs), the effects of the manufacturing technique, ink composition, layer composition, and catalyst loading were here studied in order to reach the maximum performance potential of the catalyst. For a more detailed understanding, beyond the DMFCs performance measurements, we look at the electrochemically active surface area of the catalyst and charge-transfer resistance, as well as the layer quality and ink properties, and relate them to the aspects stated above. As a result, we make catalyst layers with optimized parameters by ultrasonic spray coating that shows the high performance of the catalyst even when containing less Pt than commercial products. Using this approach, we can adjust the catalyst layers to the requirements of DMFCs, hydrogen fuel cells, or polymer elec... [more]

In many applications, such as the miniaturization and cooling of high-power electronics in aerospace, a new thermal management solution is needed, and metal foam radiators may be a valuable solution. In this work, X-ray scanning was applied to obtain the original structure of the metal foam. The real structure calculation model of the metal foam was obtained through a series of modeling, and high-precision numerical simulation was built to study heat and mass transfer in the original structure and homogeneous substitution model for three-dimensional porous metal foam. The distribution of velocity, pressure and temperature field is investigated. The results show that the heat transfer characteristics increase and flow resistance decreases with an increase in the Reynolds number. The heat transfer performance and flow resistance increase with the decrease of porosity. The porous media homogenization model can be consistent with the original real calculation results of metal foam by using... [more]

The accurate measurement and modeling of ferromagnetic material losses are vital issues during the design and analysis of electrical machines. Higher loss values can describe the manufactured rotor and stator machine plates better than the catalog data obtained by standardized measurements using the Epstein frame. In this paper, different temperature-dependent models based on the loss-separation principle are introduced and compared with the measurements. The model parameters are computed from customized laboratory and standardized measurements. The customized measurements based on the stator part of an induction machine in the range of the automotive industry standard, i.e., in [−40 °C, ⋯, 180 °C]. The proposed model and measurement process can be used in the post-processing stage of numerical field analysis to obtain electromagnetic losses according to the agreement between measured and simulated results. During a numerically expensive optimization process, this model can be used to... [more]

With the global energy crisis, increasing demand, and a national-level emphasis on electric vehicles (EVs), numerous innovations are being witnessed throughout the EV industry. EVs are equipped with sensors that maintain a sustainable environment for the betterment of society and enhance human sustainability. However, at the same time, as is the case for any new digital technology, they are susceptible to threats to security and privacy. Recent incidents demonstrate that these sensors have been misused for car and energy theft, financial fraud, data compromise, and have caused severe health and safety problems, amongst other things. To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides a first systematic analysis of EV sustainability, digital technologies that enhance sustainability, their potential cybersecurity threats, and corresponding defense. Firstly, three robust taxonomies have been presented to identify the dangers that can affect long-term sustainability domains, including (1) li... [more]

Intelligent inverters have the capability to interact with the grid and supply supplemental services. Solar inverters designed for the future will have the ability to self-govern, self-adapt, self-secure, and self-heal themselves. Based on the available capacity, the ancillary service rendered by a solar inverter is referred to as moonlighting. Inverters that communicate with the grid but are autonomous can switch between the grid forming mode and the grid following control mode as well. Self-adaptive grid-interactive inverters can keep their dynamics stable with the assistance of adaptive controllers. Inverters that interact with the grid are also capable of self-adaptation Grid-interactive inverters may be vulnerable to hacking in situations in which they are forced to rely on their own self-security to determine whether malicious setpoints have been entered. To restate, an inverter can be referred to as a “smart inverter” when it is self-tolerant, self-healing, and provides ancillar... [more]

In this paper, we propose a mitigation method for reducing lightning-induced insulator voltages based on the installation of low-voltage surge arresters aligned parallelly to the insulator. The three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is applied to numerically model a real surge arrester residual voltage evaluation system. The application of a transient current pulse, typical of lightning discharges, is considered in our numerical model. We considered cases with one or two surge arresters installed per phase, in three different geometric and parametric configurations for installing distribution surge arresters. In addition to the Kirchhoff current division, which reduces both the absorbed energy and the thermal stress, the results associated with the installation of two surge arresters parallelly aligned to the insulator show that the interaction of magnetic fields generated by the surge arresters’ currents can produce an additional strong reduction in lightning-in... [more]

Energy theft causes a lot of economic losses every year. In the practical environment of energy theft detection, it is required to solve imbalanced data problem where normal user data are significantly larger than energy theft data. In this paper, a variational autoencoder-generative adversarial network (VAE-GAN)-based energy theft-detection model is proposed to overcome the imbalanced data problem. In the proposed model, the VAE-GAN generates synthetic energy theft data with the features of real energy theft data for augmenting the energy theft dataset. The obtained balanced dataset is applied to train a detector which is designed as one-dimensional convolutional neural network. The proposed model is simulated on the practical dataset for comparing with various generative models to evaluate their performance. From simulation results, it is confirmed that the proposed model outperforms the other existing models. Additionally, it is shown that the proposed model is also very useful in t... [more]

This paper introduces a brand-new, inspired optimization algorithm (the chaotic billiards optimization (C-BO) approach) to effectively develop the optimal parameters for fuzzy PID techniques to enhance the dynamic response of the solar−hydrogen drive of an induction motor. This study compares fuzzy-PID-based C-BO regulators to fuzzy PID regulators based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and PI-based PSO regulators to provide speed control in solar−hydrogen, induction-motor drive systems. The model is implemented to simulate the production and storage of hydrogen while powering an induction-motor drive which provides a great solution for the renewable energy storage problem in the case of solar pumping systems. MATLAB/Simulink 2021a is used to simulate and analyze the entire operation. The laboratory prototype is implemented in real time using a DSP-DS1104 board. Based on the simulation and experimental results, the proposed fuzzy-PID-based C-BO has reduced speed peak overshoot by 45... [more]

The problem of the output voltage regulation in a DC-DC boost converter feeding a DC microgrid is addressed in this research via the passivity-based control theory with a proportional−integral action (PI-PBC). Two external input estimators were implemented in conjunction with the proposed controller to make it sensorless and adaptive. The first estimator corresponds to the immersion & invariance (I&I) approach applied to calculate the expected value of the DC load, which is modeled as an unknown DC current. The second estimator is based on the disturbance−observer (DO) approach, which reaches the value of the voltage input. The main advantage of both estimators is that these ensure exponential convergence under steady-state operating conditions, and their parametrization only requires the definition of an integral gain. A comparative analysis with simulations demonstrates that the proposed PI-PBC approach is effective in regulating/controlling the voltage profile in unknown DC loads as... [more]

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising way to produce renewable energy. The solid-state anaerobic digestion (SSAD) with a dry matter content more than 15% in the reactors is seeing its increasing potential in biogas plant deployment. The relevant processes involve multiple of evolving chemical and physical phenomena that are not crucial to conventional liquid-state anaerobic digestion processes (LSAD). A good simulation of SSAD is of great importance to better control and operate the reactors. The modeling of SSAD reactors could be realized either by theoretical or statistical approaches. Both have been studied to a certain extent but are still not sound. This paper introduces the existing mathematical tools for SSAD simulation using theoretical, empirical and advanced statistical approaches and gives a critical review on each type of model. The issues of parameter identifiability, preference of modeling approaches, multiscale simulations, sensibility analysis, particularity of SSAD o... [more]

Most climatic changes are not just the result of human activity, but also of business models that harm the environment. An attempt to attain an ecological balance is an answer to the challenge posed by this situation. The combustion of liquid fuels results in the atmospheric emissions of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide and hydrocarbons. To reduce emissions of these pollutants and at the same time attain an ecological balance, specific modifiers are applied. This paper presents an analysis of the energy efficiency and ecological efficiency of fuel oil combustion in power plant boilers based on the results of tests carried out by the present authors, in which a Fe/Mg/Ce modifier was used. The tests were carried out for system capacities ranging from 1 to 5 MW. It was found that savings on fuel, which resulted from the implementation of a system for the control and supervision of power plant operation, were in the range of 4 to 6%, and those resulting from the us... [more]

The objective of this research is to propose an efficient energy management system for photovoltaic (PV) generation units connected to monopolar DC distribution networks via convex optimization while considering a day-ahead dispatch operation scenario. A convex approximation is used which is based on linearization via Taylor’s series expansion to the hyperbolic relations between voltages and powers in the demand nodes. A recursive solution methodology is introduced via sequential convex programming to minimize the errors introduced by the linear approximation in the power balance constraints. Numerical results in the DC version of the IEEE 33-bus grid demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed convex model when compared to different combinatorial optimization methods, with the main advantage that the optimal global solution is found thanks to the convexity of the solution space and the reduction of the error via an iterative solution approach. Different objective functions are analy... [more]