Search results for: housing energy efficiency

Authors: Sang Koo Jeon, Seung Hoon Nahm, Oh Heon Kwon

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The unit cell of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) must be stacked as several layers type to obtain the high power. The most of researcher have concerned about the performance of stacked SOFC rather than the structural stability of stacked SOFC and especially interested how to design for reducing the electrical loss and improving the high efficiency. Consequently, the stacked SOFC able to produce the electrical high power and related parts like as manifold, gas seal, bipolar plate were developed to optimize the stack design. However, the unit cell of SOFC was just layered on the interconnector without the adhesion and the hydrogen and oxygen were injected to the interfacial layer in the high temperature. On the operating condition, the interfacial layer can be the one of the weak point in the stacked SOFC. Therefore the evaluation of the structural safety for the failure is essentially needed. In this study, interfacial adhesion between SOFC and metal adhesive was estimated in the high temperature environment. The metal adhesive was used to strongly connect the unit cell of SOFC with interconnector and provide the electrical conductivity between them. The four point bending test was performed to measure the interfacial adhesion. The unit cell of SOFC and SiO2 wafer were diced and then attached by metal adhesive. The SiO2 wafer had the center notch to initiate a crack from the tip of the notch. The modified stereomicroscope combined with the CCD camera and system for measuring the length was used to observe the fracture behavior. Additionally, the interfacial adhesion was evaluated in the high temperature condition because the metal adhesive was affected by high temperature. Also the specimen was exposed in the furnace during several hours and then the interfacial adhesion was evaluated. Finally, the interfacial adhesion energy was quantitatively determined and compared in the each condition.

Keywords: solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), metal adhesive, adhesion, high temperature

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Authors: Z. Mazrouei-Sebdani, A. Khoddami, H. Hadadzadeh, M. Zarrebini

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Silica aerogels are well-known meso-porous materials with high specific surface area (500–1000 m2/g), high porosity (80–99.8%), and low density (0.003–0.8 g/cm3). However, the silica aerogels generally are highly brittle due to their nanoporous nature. Physical and mechanical properties of the silica aerogels can be enhanced by compounding with the fibers. Although some reports presented incorporation of the fibers into the sol, followed by further modification and drying stages, no information regarding the aerogel powders as filler in the polymeric fibers is available. In this research, waterglass based aerogel powder was prepared in the following steps: sol–gel process to prepare a gel, followed by subsequent washing with propan-2-ol, n-Hexane, and TMCS, then ambient pressure drying, and ball milling. Inspired by limited dust releasing, aerogel powder was introduced to the PET electrospinning solution in an attempt to create required bulk and surface structure for the nano fibers to improve their hydrophobic and insulation properties. The samples evaluation was carried out by measuring density, porosity, contact angle, sliding angle, heat transfer, FTIR, BET and SEM. According to the results, porous silica aerogel powder was fabricated with mean pore diameter of 24 nm and contact angle of 145.9º. The results indicated the usefulness of the aerogel powder confined into nano fibers to control surface roughness for manipulating superhydrophobic nanowebs with sliding angle of 5˚ and water contact angle of 147º. It can be due to a multi-scale surface roughness which was created by nanowebs structure itself and nano fibers surface irregularity in presence of the aerogels while a laye of fluorocarbon created low surface energy. The wettability of a solid substrate is an important property that is controlled by both the chemical composition and geometry of the surface. Also, a decreasing trend in the heat transfer was observed from 22% for the nano fibers without any aerogel powder to 8% for the nano fibers with 4% aerogel powder. The development of thermal insulating materials has become increasingly more important than ever in view of the fossil energy depletion and global warming that call for more demanding energy-saving practices.

Keywords: Superhydrophobicity, Insulation, Sol-gel, Surface energy, Roughness.

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Authors: Giorgio Visentin, Alexei A. Buchachenko

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Recent proposals to use Yb dimer as an optical clock and as a sensor for non-Newtonian gravity imply the knowledge of its interaction potential. Here, the ground-state Born-Oppenheimer Yb₂ potential energy curve is represented by a semi-analytical function, consisting of short- and long-range contributions. For the former, the systematic ab initio all-electron exact 2-component scalar-relativistic CCSD(T) calculations are carried out. Special care is taken to saturate diffuse basis set component with the atom- and bond-centered primitives and reach the complete basis set limit through n = D, T, Q sequence of the correlation-consistent polarized n-zeta basis sets. Similar approaches are used to the long-range dipole and quadrupole dispersion terms by implementing the CCSD(3) polarization propagator method for dynamic polarizabilities. Dispersion coefficients are then computed through Casimir-Polder integration. The semiclassical constraint on the number of the bound vibrational levels known for the ¹⁷⁴Yb isotope is used to scale the potential function. The scaling, based on the most accurate ab initio results, bounds the interaction energy of two Yb atoms within the narrow 734 ± 4 cm⁻¹ range, in reasonable agreement with the previous ab initio-based estimations. The resulting potentials can be used as the reference for more sophisticated models that go beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation and provide the means of their uncertainty estimations. The work is supported by Russian Science Foundation grant # 17-13-01466.

Keywords: ab initio coupled cluster methods, interaction potential, semi-analytical function, ytterbium dimer

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Anja Gräff, Stefan Holzer, Manfred Höld, Jörn Stumpenhausen, Heinz Bernhardt

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In view of the increasing quantity of 'green energy' from renewable raw materials and photovoltaic facilities, it is quite conceivable that power supply variations may occur, so that constantly working machines like automatic milking systems (AMS) may break down temporarily. The usage of farm-made energy is steadily increasing in order to keep energy costs as low as possible. As a result, power cuts are likely to happen more frequently. Current work in the framework of the project 'stable 4.0' focuses on possible stress reactions by simulating power cuts up to four hours in dairy farms. Based on heart activity it should be found out whether stress on dairy cows increases under these circumstances. In order to simulate a power cut, 12 random cows out of 2 herds were not admitted to the AMS for at least two hours on three consecutive days. The heart rates of the cows were measured and the collected data evaluated with HRV Program Kubios Version 2.1 on the basis of eight parameters (HR, RMSSD, pNN50, SD1, SD2, LF, HF and LF/HF). Furthermore, stress reactions were examined closely via video analysis, milk yield, ruminant activity, pedometer and measurements of cortisol metabolites. Concluding it turned out, that during the test only some animals were suffering from minor stress symptoms, when they tried to get into the AMS at their regular milking time, but couldn´t be milked because the system was manipulated. However, the stress level during a regular “time-dependent milking rejection” was just as high. So the study comes to the conclusion, that the low psychological stress level in the case of a 2-4 hours failure of an AMS does not have any impact on animal welfare and health.

Keywords: dairy cow, heart activity, power cut, stable 4.0

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Authors: Mozhgan Bahadory, Gholam-Hossein Rostami

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Over the next quarter of a century, the US government and the private sector will spend billions of dollars annually to clean the contaminated sites from pollution such as petroleum products, heavy metals, and solvents organic compounds. During the past three decades, almost 750,000 sites that require remediation have been reported to the United States federal and state agencies. Out of these contamination sites, approximately 300,000 are still in need of remediation. In these sites, the most widespread forms of contamination are petroleum products and heavy metals. At least half of US Department of Defense, US Department of Energy, Superfund sites, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) sites have been reported to contain heavy metals. Heavy metals most often found in the contaminated water are lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, and zinc. This investigation emphasizes the elimination of arsenic and cadmium from aqueous solution. During the past several years, we developed a novel material called Alkali-Activated fly ash Material Permeable Reactive Barrier (AAM-PRB), which includes fly ash, fine aggregates, coarse aggregates, activating chemicals, and water. AAM can be produced with high permeability, 10-1 cm/s, then crushed into pelletized form. Laboratory experiments showed that water containing 10 ppm, 100 ppm, and 1000 ppm of arsenic and cadmium ion passing through AAM-PRB reduced to less than 0.1 ppm. However, water containing 10,000 ppm arsenic ion passing through AAM- PRB shows that the breakthrough was achieved. The removal of the mixture of arsenic and cadmium from aqueous solutions was also tested by using AAM-PRB. The results indicate that the efficiency of AAM-PRB for simultaneous removal of arsenic and cadmium from 10 ppm, 100 ppm, and 1,000 ppm were marginally below that of arsenic alone. Still, it was significantly lower for cadmium from the aqueous solution. The basic science behind removing heavy metal and microstructural investigation AAM-PRB will be the focus of our future work.

Keywords: arsenic, cadmium, contaminated water, fly ash, permeability, reactive barrier

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: Ayman Hijazi, Witold Kwapinski, J. J. Leahy

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Finding a sustainable alternative energy to fossil fuel is an urgent need as various environmental challenges in the world arise. Therefore, formic acid (FA) decomposition has been an attractive field that lies at the center of the biomass platform, comprising a potential pool of hydrogen energy that stands as a distinct energy vector. Liquid FA features considerable volumetric energy density of 6.4 MJ/L and a specific energy density of 5.3 MJ/Kg that qualifies it in the prime seat as an energy source for transportation infrastructure. Additionally, the increasing research interest in FA decomposition is driven by the need for in-situ H₂ production, which plays a key role in the hydrogenation reactions of biomass into higher-value components. It is reported elsewhere in the literature that catalytic decomposition of FA is usually performed in poorly designed setups using simple glassware under magnetic stirring, thus demanding further energy investment to retain the used catalyst. Our work suggests an approach that integrates designing a distinct catalyst featuring magnetic properties with a robust setup that minimizes experimental & measurement discrepancies. One of the most prominent active species for the dehydrogenation/hydrogenation of biomass compounds is palladium. Accordingly, we investigate the potential of engrafting palladium metal onto functionalized magnetic nanoparticles as a heterogeneous catalyst to favor the production of CO-free H₂ gas from FA. Using an ordinary magnet to collect the spent catalyst renders core-shell magnetic nanoparticles as the backbone of the process. Catalytic experiments were performed in a jacketed batch reactor equipped with an overhead stirrer under an inert medium. Through a distinct approach, FA is charged into the reactor via a high-pressure positive displacement pump at steady-state conditions. The produced gas (H₂+CO₂) was measured by connecting the gas outlet to a measuring system based on the amount of the displaced water. The uniqueness of this work lies in designing a very responsive catalyst, pumping a consistent amount of FA into a sealed reactor running at steady-state mild temperatures, and continuous gas measurement, along with collecting the used catalyst without the need for centrifugation. Catalyst characterization using TEM, XRD, SEM, and CHN elemental analyzer provided us with details of catalyst preparation and facilitated new venues to alter the nanostructure of the catalyst framework. Consequently, the introduction of amine groups has led to appreciable improvements in terms of dispersion of the doped metals and eventually attaining nearly complete conversion (100%) of FA after 7 hours. The relative importance of the process parameters such as temperature (35-85°C), stirring speed (150-450rpm), catalyst loading (50-200mgr.), and Pd doping ratio (0.75-1.80wt.%) on gas yield was assessed by a Taguchi design-of-experiment based model. Experimental results showed that operating at a lower temperature range (35-50°C) yielded more gas, while the catalyst loading and Pd doping wt.% were found to be the most significant factors with P-values 0.026 & 0.031, respectively.

Keywords: formic acid decomposition, green catalysis, hydrogen, mesoporous silica, process optimization, nanoparticles

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Authors: Davood Yazdani Cherati, Hussein Hashemi Senejani

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In this paper, a convenient analytical solution for a system of coupled differential equations, derived from thermo-hydro-mechanical analysis of three-phase porous media such as unsaturated soils is developed. This kind of analysis can be used in various fields such as geothermal energy systems and seepage of leachate from buried municipal and domestic waste in geomaterials. Initially, a system of coupled differential equations, including energy, mass, and momentum conservation equations is considered, and an analytical method called AGM is employed to solve the problem. The method is straightforward and comprehensible and can be used to solve various nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Results indicate the accuracy of the applied method for solving nonlinear partial differential equations.

Keywords: AGM, analytical solution, porous media, thermo-hydro-mechanical, unsaturated soils

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Authors: Reza Reiazi

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Attempts to verify Geant4 hadronic physic to transport antiproton beam using standard physics list have not reach to a reasonable results because of lack of reliable cross section data or non reliable model to predict the final states of annihilated particles. Since most of the antiproton annihilation energy is carried away by recoiling nuclear fragments which are result of pions interactions with surrounding nucleons, it should be investigated if the toolkit verified for pions. Geant4 version 9.4.6.p01 was used. Dose calculation was done using 700 MeV pions hitting a water tank applying standards physic lists. We conclude Geant4 standard physics lists to predict the depth dose of Pion minus beam is not same for all investigated models. Since the nuclear fragments will deposit their energy in a small distance, they are the most important source of dose deposition in the annihilation vertex of antiproton beams.

Keywords: Monte Carlo, Pion, simulation, antiproton beam

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Authors: Kyu Bum Han, Eunjin Jeon, Kimberly Watts, Brenda Payan Medina

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Gen3 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) high-temperature thermal systems have the potential to lower the cost of a CSP system. When compared to the other systems (chloride salt blends and supercritical fluids), the particle transport system can avoid many of the issues associated with high fluid temperature systems at high temperature because of its ability to operate at ambient pressure with limited corrosion or thermal stability risk. Furthermore, identifying and demonstrating low-cost particles that have excellent optical properties and durability can significantly reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of particle receivers. The currently available thermal transfer particle in the study and market is oxidized at about 700oC, which reduces its durability, generates particle loss by high friction loads, and causes the color change. To meet the CSP SunShot goal, the durability of particles must be improved by identifying particles that are less abrasive to other structural materials. Furthermore, the particles must be economically affordable and the solar absorptance of the particles must be increased while minimizing thermal emittance. We are studying a novel thermal transfer particle, which has low cost, high durability, and high solar absorptance at high temperatures. The particle minimizes thermal emittance and will be less abrasive to other structural materials. Additionally, the particle demonstrates reusability, which significantly lowers the LCOE. This study will contribute to two principal disciplines of energy science: materials synthesis and manufacturing. Developing this particle for thermal transfer will have a positive impact on the ceramic study and industry as well as the society.

Keywords: concentrating solar power, thermal energy storage, particle, reusability, economics

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Authors: Trevor Malambo Simbayi, Diane Hildebrandt, Tonderayi Matambo

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The rapid growth of population in recent decades has resulted in an increased need for energy to meet human activities. As energy demands increase, the need for other sources of energy other than fossil fuels, increases in turn. Furthermore, environmental concerns such as global warming due to the use of fossil fuels, depleting fossil fuel reserves and the rising cost of oil have contributed to an increased interest in renewables sources of energy. Biogas is a renewable source of energy produced through the process of anaerobic digestion (AD) and it offers a two-fold solution; it provides an environmentally friendly source of energy and its production helps to reduce the amount of organic waste taken to landfills. This research seeks to address the waste management problem caused by an aquatic weed called water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) at the Hartbeespoort (Harties) Dam in the North West Province of South Africa, through biogas production of the weed. Water hyacinth is a category 1 invasive species and it is deemed to be the most problematic aquatic weed. This weed is said to double its size in the space of five days. Eutrophication in the Hartbeespoort Dam has manifested itself through the excessive algae bloom and water hyacinth infestation. A large amount of biomass from water hyacinth and algae are generated per annum from the two hundred hectare surface area of the dam exposed to the sun. This biomass creates a waste management problem. Water hyacinth when in full bloom can cover nearly half of the surface of Hartbeespoort Dam. The presence of water hyacinth in the dam has caused economic and environmental problems. Economic activities such as fishing, boating, and recreation, are hampered by the water hyacinth’s prolific growth. This research proposes the use of water hyacinth as a feedstock or substrate for biogas production in order to find an economic and environmentally friendly means of waste management for the communities living around the Hartbeespoort Dam. In order to achieve this objective, water hyacinth will be collected from the dam and it will be mechanically pretreated before anaerobic digestion. Pretreatment is required for lignocellulosic materials like water hyacinth because such materials are called recalcitrant solid materials. Cow manure will be employed as a source of microorganisms needed for biogas production to occur. Once the water hyacinth and the cow dung are mixed, they will be placed in laboratory anaerobic reactors. Biogas production will be monitored daily through the downward displacement of water. Characterization of the substrates (cow manure and water hyacinth) to determine the nitrogen, sulfur, carbon and hydrogen, total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS). Liquid samples from the anaerobic digesters will be collected and analyzed for volatile fatty acids (VFAs) composition by means of a liquid gas chromatography machine.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, biogas, waste management, water hyacinth

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: M. E. Semenov, U. Zh. Mirzakimov, A. S. Stoporev, R. S. Pavelev, M. A. Varfolomeev

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Gas hydrates are host-guest compounds. Guest molecules can be low molecular weight components of associated petroleum gas (C1-C4 hydrocarbons), carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen. Gas hydrates have a number of unique properties that make them interesting from a technological point of view, for example, for storing hydrocarbon gases in solid form under moderate thermobaric conditions. Currently, the possibility of storing and transporting hydrocarbon gases in the form of solid hydrate is being actively explored throughout the world. The hydrate form of gas has a number of advantages, including a significant gas content in the hydrate, relative safety and environmental friendliness of the process. Recently, new developments have been proposed that seek to reduce the number of steps to obtain the finished hydrate, for example, using a pressing device/screw inside the reactor. However, the energy consumption required for the hydrate formation process remains a challenge. Thus, the goal of the current work is to study the patterns and mechanisms of the hydrate formation process using small additions of hydrate formation promoters under static conditions. The study of these aspects will help solve the problem of accelerated production of gas hydrates with minimal energy consumption. New compounds have been developed at Kazan Federal University that can accelerate the formation of methane hydrate with a small amount of promoter in water, not exceeding 0.1% by weight. These promoters were synthesized based on available natural compounds and showed high efficiency in accelerating the growth of methane hydrate. To test the influence of promoters on the process of hydrate formation, standard experiments are carried out under dynamic conditions with stirring. During such experiments, the time at which hydrate formation begins (induction period), the temperature at which formation begins (supercooling), the rate of hydrate formation, and the degree of conversion of water to hydrate are assessed. This approach helps to determine the most effective compound in comparative experiments with different promoters and select their optimal concentration. These experimental studies made it possible to study the features of the formation of associated petroleum gas hydrate from promoter solutions under static conditions. Phase transformations were studied using high-pressure micro-differential scanning calorimetry under various experimental conditions. Visual studies of the growth mode of methane hydrate depending on the type of promoter were also carried out. The work is an extension of the methodology for studying the effect of promoters on the process of associated petroleum gas hydrate formation in order to identify new ways to accelerate the formation of gas hydrates without the use of mixing. This work presents the results of a study of the process of associated petroleum gas hydrate formation using high-pressure differential scanning micro-calorimetry, visual investigation, gas chromatography, autoclaves study, and stability data. It was found that the synthesized compounds multiply the conversion of water into hydrate under static conditions up to 96% due to a change in the growth mechanism of associated petroleum gas hydrate.

Keywords: gas hydrate, gas storage, promotor, associated petroleum gas

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Qing Zhang, Jiachen Nie, Yujia Wen, Guanyuan Kou, Peng Yu, Kun Xia, Qin Yang, Li Ding

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BACKGROUND: A facility layout problem (FLP) is an NP-complete (non-deterministic polynomial) problem, which is hard to obtain an exact optimal solution. FLP has been widely studied in various limited spaces and workflows. For example, cafeterias with many types of equipment for troops cause chaotic processes when dining. OBJECTIVE: This article tried to optimize the layout of troops’ cafeteria and to improve the overall efficiency of the dining process. METHODS: First, the original cafeteria layout design scheme was analyzed from an ergonomic perspective and two new design schemes were generated. Next, three facility layout models were designed, and further simulation was applied to compare the total time and density of troops between each scheme. Last, an experiment of the dining process with video observation and analysis verified the simulation results. RESULTS: In a simulation, the dining time under the second new layout is shortened by 2.25% and 1.89% (p<0.0001, p=0.0001) compared with the other two layouts, while troops-flow density and interference both greatly reduced in the two new layouts. In the experiment, process completing time and the number of interference reduced as well, which verified corresponding simulation results. CONCLUSIONS: Our two new layout schemes are tested to be optimal by a series of simulation and space experiments. In future research, similar approaches could be applied when taking layout-design algorithm calculation into consideration.

Keywords: layout optimization, dining efficiency, troops’ cafeteria, anylogic simulation, field experiment

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: L. Heidari, M. Jalili Ghazizade

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This paper aims to determine the best environmental and economic scenario for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management of the Maku city by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The functional elements of this study are collection, transportation, and disposal of MSW in Maku city. Waste composition and density, as two key parameters of MSW, have been determined by field sampling, and then, the other important specifications of MSW like chemical formula, thermal energy and water content were calculated. These data beside other information related to collection and disposal facilities are used as a reliable source of data to assess the environmental impacts of different waste management options, including landfills, composting, recycling and energy recovery. The environmental impact of MSW management options has been investigated in 15 different scenarios by Integrated Waste Management (IWM) software. The photochemical smog, greenhouse gases, acid gases, toxic emissions, and energy consumption of each scenario are measured. Then, the environmental indices of each scenario are specified by weighting these parameters. Economic costs of scenarios have been also compared with each other based on literature. As final result, since the organic materials make more than 80% of the waste, compost can be a suitable method. Although the major part of the remaining 20% of waste can be recycled, due to the high cost of necessary equipment, the landfill option has been suggested. Therefore, the scenario with 80% composting and 20% landfilling is selected as superior environmental and economic scenario. This study shows that, to select a scenario with practical applications, simultaneously environmental and economic aspects of different scenarios must be considered.

Keywords: IWM software, life cycle assessment, Maku, municipal solid waste management

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Authors: Palash Kumar Mollick, Leire Olazar, Laura Santamaria, Pablo Comendador, Manomita Mollick, Gartzen Lopez, Martin Olazar

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The entire world is skeptical towards a silver line technology of converting plastic waste into valuable synthetic gas. At this junction, besides an adequately studied conventional catalytic process for steam reforming, a non-thermal plasma is being introduced. Organic volatiles are produced in the first step, pyrolysing the plastic materials. Resultant lightweight olefins and carbon monoxide are the major components that undergo a steam reforming process to achieve syngas. A non-thermal plasma consists of ionized gases and free electrons with an electronic temperature as high as 10³ K. Organic volatiles are, in general, endorganics inactive and thus demand huge bond-breaking energy. Conventional catalyst is incapable of providing the required activation energy, leading to poor thermodynamic equilibrium, whereas a non-thermal plasma can actively collide with reactants to produce a rich mix of reactive species, including vibrationally or electronically excited molecules, radicals, atoms, and ions. In addition, non-thermal plasma provides nonequilibrium conditions leading to electric discharge only in certain degrees of freedom without affecting the intrinsic chemical conditions of the participating reactants and products. In this work, we report thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of the conversion of organic volatiles into syngas using a non-thermal plasma. Detailed characteristics of plasma and its effect on the overall yield of the process will be presented.

Keywords: non thermal plasma, plasma catalysis, steam reforming, syngas, plastic waste, green energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Vipin Saini, Manish Kumar, Shailendra Bhatt, A. Pandurangan

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The aim of the present study was to fabricate a thermo sensitive gel containing Chlorpheniramine maleate (CPM) loaded nanoparticles following intranasal administration for effective treatment of allergic rhinitis. Chitosan based nanoparticles were prepared by precipitation method followed by the addition of developed NPs within the Poloxamer 407 and carbopol 934P based mucoadhesive thermo-reversible gel. Developed formulations were evaluated for Particle size, PDI, % entrapment efficiency and % cumulative drug permeation. NP3 formulation was found to be optimized on the basis of minimum particle size (143.9 nm), maximum entrapment efficiency (80.10±0.414 %) and highest drug permeation (90.92±0.531 %). The optimized formulation NP3 was then formulated into thermo reversible in situ gel. This intensifies the contact between nasal mucosa and the drug, increases and facilitates the drug absorption which results in increased bioavailability. G4 formulation was selected as the optimize on the basis of gelation ability and mucoadhesive strength. Histology was carried out to examine the damage caused by the optimized G4 formulation. Results revealed no visual signs of tissue damage thus indicated safe nasal delivery of nanoparticulate in situ gel formulation G4. Thus, intranasal CPM NP-loaded in situ gel was found to be a promising formulation for the treatment of allergic rhinitis.

Keywords: chitosan, nanoparticles, in situ gel, chlorpheniramine maleate, poloxamer 407

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Oluseyi O. Ajayi, Ohiose D. Ohijeagbon, Mercy Ogbonnaya, Ameh Attabo

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The study assessed the potential and economic viability of stand-alone wind systems for embedded generation, taking into account its benefits to small off-grid rural communities at 40 meteorological sites in Nigeria. A specific electric load profile was developed to accommodate communities consisting of 200 homes, a school and a community health centre. This load profile was incorporated within the distributed generation analysis producing energy in the MW range, while optimally meeting daily load demand for the rural communities. Twenty-four years (1987 to 2010) of wind speed data at a height of 10m utilized for the study were sourced from the Nigeria Meteorological Department, Oshodi. The HOMER® software optimizing tool was engaged for the feasibility study and design. Each site was suited to 3MW wind turbines in sets of five, thus 15MW was designed for each site. This design configuration was adopted in order to easily compare the distributed generation system amongst the sites to determine their relative economic viability in terms of life cycle cost, as well as levelised cost of producing energy. A net present value was estimated in terms of life cycle cost for 25 of the 40 meteorological sites. On the other hand, the remaining sites yielded a net present cost; meaning the installations at these locations were not economically viable when utilizing the present tariff regime for embedded generation in Nigeria.

Keywords: wind speed, wind power, distributed generation, cost per kilowatt-hour, clean energy, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Abderrhamane Jarou, Dominique Sauter, Christophe Aubrun

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Over the past decade, the growing demand for energy efficiency in buildings has attracted the attention of the control community. Failures in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems in buildings can have a significant impact on the desired and expected energy performance of buildings and on the user's comfort as well. FTC is a recent technology area that studies the adaptation of control algorithms to faulty operating conditions of a system. The application of Fault-Tolerant Control (FTC) in HVAC systems has gained attention in the last two decades. The objective is to maintain the variations in system performance due to faults within an acceptable range with respect to the desired nominal behavior. This paper considers the so-called active approach, which is based on fault and identification scheme combined with a control reconfiguration algorithm that consists in determining a new set of control parameters so that the reconfigured performance is "as close as possible, "in some sense, to the nominal performance. Thermal models of buildings and their HVAC systems are described by non-linear (usually bi-linear) equations. Most of the works carried out so far in FDI (fault diagnosis and isolation) or FTC consider a linearized model of the studied system. However, this model is only valid in a reduced range of variation. This study presents a new fault diagnosis (FD) algorithm based on a bilinear observer for the detection and accurate estimation of the magnitude of the HVAC system failure. The main contribution of the proposed FD algorithm is that instead of using specific linearized models, the algorithm inherits the structure of the actual bilinear model of the building thermal dynamics. As an immediate consequence, the algorithm is applicable to a wide range of unpredictable operating conditions, i.e., weather dynamics, outdoor air temperature, zone occupancy profile. A bilinear fault detection observer is proposed for a bilinear system with unknown inputs. The residual vector in the observer design is decoupled from the unknown inputs and, under certain conditions, is made sensitive to all faults. Sufficient conditions are given for the existence of the observer and results are given for the explicit computation of observer design matrices. Dedicated observer schemes (DOS) are considered for sensor FDI while unknown input bilinear observers are considered for actuator or system components FDI. The proposed strategy for FTC works as follows: At a first level, FDI algorithms are implemented, making it also possible to estimate the magnitude of the fault. Once the fault is detected, the fault estimation is then used to feed the second level and reconfigure the control low so that that expected performances are recovered. This paper is organized as follows. A general structure for fault-tolerant control of buildings is first presented and the building model under consideration is introduced. Then, the observer-based design for Fault Diagnosis of bilinear systems is studied. The FTC approach is developed in Section IV. Finally, a simulation example is given in Section V to illustrate the proposed method.

Keywords: bilinear systems, fault diagnosis, fault-tolerant control, multi-zones building

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Gulmira Kenenbay, Urishbay Chomanov, Aruzhan Shoman, Rabiga Kassimbek

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The main task of the meat-processing industry is the production of meat products as the main source of animal protein, ensuring the vital activity of the human body, in the required volumes, high quality, diverse assortment. Providing the population with high-quality food products what are biologically full, balanced in composition of basic nutrients and enriched by targeted physiologically active components, is one of the highest priority scientific and technical problems to be solved. In this regard, the formulation of a new brine from sprouted wheat for meat delicacies from horse meat, beef and pork has been developed. The new brine contains flavored aromatic ingredients, juice of the germinated wheat and vegetable juice. The viscosity of meat of horse meat, beef and pork were studied during massaging. Thermodynamic indices, water activity and binding energy of horse meat, beef and pork with application of new brine are investigated. A recipe for meat products with vegetable additives has been developed. Organoleptic evaluation of meat products was carried out. Physicochemical parameters of meat products with vegetable additives are carried out. Analysis of the obtained data shows that the values of the index aw (water activity) and the binding energy of moisture in the experimental samples of meat products are higher than in the control samples. It has been established by investigations that with increasing water activity and the binding energy of moisture, the tenderness of ready meat delicacies increases with the use of a new brine.

Keywords: compounding, functional products, delicatessen products, brine, vegetable additives

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Rishav Shrestha, Yong Zhang

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The Anti-Stoke upconversion process has been used extensively for bioimaging and is recently being used for photoactivated therapy in cancer utilizing upconversion nanoparticles (UCNs). The UCNs have an excitation band at 980nm; 980nm laser excitation used to produce UV/Visible emissions also produce a heating effect. Light-to-heat conversion has been observed in nanoparticles(NPs) doped with neodymium(Nd) or ytterbium(Yb)/erbium(Er) ions. Despite laser-induced heating in Rare-earth doped NPs being proven to be a relatively efficient process, only few attempts to use them as photothermal agents in biosystems have been made up to now. Gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes are the most researched and developed for photothermal applications. Both have large heating efficiency and outstanding biocompatibility. However, they show weak fluorescence which makes them harder to track in vivo. In that regard, UCNs are attractive due to their excellent optical features in addition to their light-to-heat conversion and excitation by NIR, for imaging and spatiotemporally releasing drugs. In this work, we have utilized a simple method to coat Nd doped UCNs with thermoresponsive polymer PNIPAM on which 4-Hydroxytamoxifen (4-OH-T) is loaded. Such UCNs demonstrate a high loading efficiency and low leakage of 4-OH-T. Encouragingly, the release of 4-OH-T can be modulated by varying the power and duration of the NIR. Such UCNs were then used to demonstrate imaging and controlled photothermal release of 4-OH-T in MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Keywords: cancer therapy, controlled release, photothermal release, upconversion nanoparticles

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Authors: Szu-Hua Wang, Yi-Wen Chen

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Urban ecosystems are complex coupled human-environment systems. They contain abundant natural resources for producing natural assets and attract urban assets to consume natural resources for urban development. Urban ecosystems provide several ecosystem services, including provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services. Rapid global climate change makes urban ecosystems and their ecosystem services encountering various natural disasters. Lots of natural disasters have occurred around the world under the constant changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the past two decades. In Taiwan, hydrological disasters have been paid more attention due to the potential high sensitivity of Taiwan’s cities to climate change, and it impacts. However, climate change not only causes extreme weather events directly but also affects the interactions among human, ecosystem services and their dynamic feedback processes indirectly. Therefore, this study adopts a systematic method, solar energy synthesis, based on the concept of the eco-energy analysis. The Taipei area, the most densely populated area in Taiwan, is selected as the study area. The changes of ecosystem services between 2015 and Typhoon Soudelor have been compared in order to investigate the impacts of extreme precipitation events on ecosystem services. The results show that the forest areas are the largest contributions of energy to ecosystem services in the Taipei area generally. Different soil textures of different subsystem have various upper limits of water contents or substances. The major contribution of ecosystem services of the study area is natural hazard regulation provided by the surface water resources areas. During the period of Typhoon Soudelor, the freshwater supply in the forest areas had become the main contribution. Erosion control services were the main ecosystem service affected by Typhoon Soudelor. The second and third main ecosystem services were hydrologic regulation and food supply. Due to the interactions among ecosystem services, fresh water supply, water purification, and waste treatment had been affected severely.

Keywords: ecosystem, extreme precipitation events, ecosystem services, solar energy synthesis

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Authors: David Serero, Loic Couton, Jean-Denis Parisse, Robert Leroy

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This paper presents an analysis method of airflow at the periphery of several typologies of architectural volumes. To understand the complexity of the urban environment on the airflows in the city, we compared three sites at different architectural scale. The research sets a method to identify the optimal location for the installation of wind turbines on the edges of a building and to achieve an improvement in the performance of energy extracted by precise localization of an accelerating wing called “aero foil”. The objective is to define principles for the installation of wind turbines and natural ventilation design of buildings. Instead of theoretical winds analysis, we combined numerical aeraulic simulations using STAR CCM + software with wind data, over long periods of time (greater than 1 year). If airflows computer fluid analysis (CFD) simulation of buildings are current, we have calibrated a virtual wind tunnel with wind data using in situ anemometers (to establish localized cartography of urban winds). We can then develop a complete volumetric model of the behavior of the wind on a roof area, or an entire urban island. With this method, we can categorize: - the different types of wind in urban areas and identify the minimum and maximum wind spectrum, - select the type of harvesting devices - fixing to the roof of a building, - the altimetry of the device in relation to the levels of the roofs - The potential nuisances around. This study is carried out from the recovery of a geolocated data flow, and the connection of this information with the technical specifications of wind turbines, their energy performance and their speed of engagement. Thanks to this method, we can thus define the characteristics of wind turbines to maximize their performance in urban sites and in a turbulent airflow regime. We also study the installation of a wind accelerator associated with buildings. The “aerofoils which are integrated are improvement to control the speed of the air, to orientate it on the wind turbine, to accelerate it and to hide, thanks to its profile, the device on the roof of the building.

Keywords: wind energy harvesting, wind turbine selection, urban wind potential analysis, CFD simulation for architectural design

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Authors: Maatouk Khoukhi

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Nowadays the reduction of the energy consumed by buildings to achieve mainly the thermal comfort for the occupants represent the main concern for architects and building designers. The common and traditional solution to achieve this target is the design of a highly insulated envelope and reduce the opening and the transparent elements such windows. However, this will lead to the artificial lighting system to consume more energy to compensate the lack of natural lighting coming through the glazed parts of the building envelope. Therefore, a good balance between sufficient daylight and control thermal heat through the building envelope should be considered for energy saving purpose. To achieve a better indoor environment the windows size and spacing including the interior finishing and the location of the partition must be assessed accurately. Daylighting is the controlled admission of natural light into space through windows and transparent elements of the building envelope which helps create a visually stimulating and productive environment for building occupants. The main concern is not to provide enough daylight to an occupied space, but how to achieve this without any undesirable side effect. Indeed, the glare is a major problem in glazed façade buildings, and this could be reduced by using tinted windows. The main target of this research is to investigate the daylight adequacy of functional needs in old Omani Forts and how they have been designed and built to avoid glare and overheating with the appropriate window-to-floor ratio. Because more windows do not automatically result in more daylighting but that is natural light has been controlled and distributed properly throughout the space. Spaces from different Omani and Portuguese Forts under the same climate conditions are considered in order to compare the daylight illuminance levels and examine the similarities and differences in visual attributes between them. The result of this study indicates that lighting preference is not universal and people from different geographical locations are adapted to certain illuminance levels. Therefore, the standards could not be generalized for the entire world. This would be useful to practitioners who are designing to effectively address the diversity of user’s lighting levels preferences in our globally connected society.

Keywords: day lighting, energy, forts, thermal comfort

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Authors: Mariam Aref Mahmoud

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A myth surrounding the development of Cairo bases itself in the Fatimid era when the city, as we know it today, was built. Surrounding the city was a wall meant to protect the main center from any possible attack. The effects of global hierarchies of power extend further than labor regulations and trade statistics. Beyond that, they form dialectical oppositions between local and global identities within urban space. As such, those in power often aim to claim national identity as what they perceive to be the most nationally beneficial strategy. These claims over perceptions of national identity take over the streets, the advertisements, and the parks and eventually make their way into the different forms of media. Often, these claims take over the main planning goals of the city. Whether it is through the control over which sounds are allowed to be produced in public space, what type of people are encouraged to enter which spaces, or other forms of performing local and national identity, public space, property, and land have often been used as a method to present to both the public and the global population what people in power wish for these spaces to represent. In Egypt, these developments have been changing since the end of colonial rule. In particular, this paper will analyze how Hosni Mubarak, and to a certain extent Anwar el-Sadat, enacted neoliberal designs dedicated towards modernization in order to present an image of a Cairo that is not uniquely Egyptian but essentially Western cosmopolitan - a Cairo that belongs to a globalized world.

Keywords: Egypt, imperialism, westernization, housing

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Authors: M. G. Nasuruddin, S. Ishak

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This paper deals with the traditional Malay healing ritualistic ceremony known as Main Puteri. This non-invasive intervention uses the vehicle of performance to administer the healing process. It employs the performance elements of Makyung, that is, music, movements/dance, and dramatic dialogue to heal psychosomatic maladies. There are two perspectives to this therapeutic healing process, one traditional and the other scientific. From the traditional perspective, the psychosomatic illness is attributed to the infestations/possessions by malevolent spirits. To heal such patients, these spirits must be exorcised through placating them by making offerings. From the scientific perspective, the music (sonic orders), movements (kinetic energy), and smell (olfactory) connect with the brain waves to release the chemicals that would activate the internal healing energy. Currently, in Main Puteri, the therapeutic healing ritual is no longer relevant as modern clinical medicine has proven to be more effective. Thus, Main Puteri is an anachronism in today’s technologically advanced Malaysia.

Keywords: exorcism, main puteri, shamans, therapeutic healing

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Authors: Naveed Ahmed Khan

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The ever increasing importance of food industry cannot be denied and especially in the wake of escalating population and prices both in developing and developed nations. Thus, this issue demands the attention of researchers especially in the area of supply chain to identify cost diminution waste eliminating supply chain practices in the said industry. For such purpose the 'Dairy Division' of Engro Foods Limited, one of the biggest food companies in Pakistan was taken into consideration in a case study manner. Based on the literature review and interviews following variables were obtained: energy, losses, maintenance, taxes, and logistics. Having studied the said variables, it was concluded that management of relevant industries operating in a comparable environment need to efficiently manage two major areas: energy and taxes. On the other hand, similar kind of other organizations could be benefited by adopting the proficient supply chain practices being observed at dairy division of Engro foods limited.

Keywords: cost diminution, supply chain, dairy industry, Engro Foods Limited

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Authors: Bolin Hua

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In city governance, various data are involved, including city component data, demographic data, housing data and all kinds of business data. These data reflects different aspects of people, events and activities. Data generated from various systems are different in form and data source are different because they may come from different sectors. In order to reflect one or several facets of an event or rule, data from multiple sources need fusion together. Data from different sources using different ways of collection raised several issues which need to be resolved. Problem of data fusion include data update and synchronization, data exchange and sharing, file parsing and entry, duplicate data and its comparison, resource catalogue construction. Governments adopt statistical analysis, time series analysis, extrapolation, monitoring analysis, value mining, scenario prediction in order to achieve pattern discovery, law verification, root cause analysis and public opinion monitoring. The result of Multi-source data fusion is to form a uniform central database, which includes people data, location data, object data, and institution data, business data and space data. We need to use meta data to be referred to and read when application needs to access, manipulate and display the data. A uniform meta data management ensures effectiveness and consistency of data in the process of data exchange, data modeling, data cleansing, data loading, data storing, data analysis, data search and data delivery.

Keywords: multi-source data fusion, urban comprehensive management, information fusion, government data

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Authors: Amin Padash, Gholam Reza Nabi Bid Hendi, Hassan Hoveidi

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Purpose: The aim of this research is developing a model for green management based on Health, Safety and Environmental Management System. An HSE-MS can be a powerful tool for organizations to both improve their environmental, health and safety performance, and enhance their business efficiency to green management. Model: The model is developed in this study can be used for industries as guidelines for implementing green management issue by considering Health, Safety and Environmental Management System. Case Study: The Pars Special Economic / Energy Zone Organization on behalf of Iran’s Petroleum Ministry and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) manages and develops the South and North oil and gas fields in the region. Methodology: This research according to objective is applied and based on implementing is descriptive and also prescription. We used technique MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision-Making) for determining the priorities of the factors. Based on process approach the model consists of the following steps and components: first factors involved in green issues are determined. Based on them a framework is considered. Then with using MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision-Making) algorithms (TOPSIS) the priority of basic variables are determined. The authors believe that the proposed model and results of this research can aid industries managers to implement green subjects according to Health, Safety and Environmental Management System in a more efficient and effective manner. Finding and conclusion: Basic factors involved in green issues and their weights can be the main finding. Model and relation between factors are the other finding of this research. The case is considered Petrochemical Company for promoting the system of ecological industry thinking.

Keywords: Fuzzy-AHP method , green management, health, safety and environmental management system, MCDM technique, TOPSIS

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Authors: Seyed Saeid Tabaee, Omid Bahar

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Nowadays, using energy dissipation devices has been commonly used in structures. A high rate of energy absorption during earthquakes is the benefit of using such devices, which results in damage reduction of structural elements specifically columns. The hysteretic damping capacity of energy dissipation devices is the key point that it may adversely complicate analysis and design of such structures. This effect may be generally represented by equivalent viscous damping. The equivalent viscous damping may be obtained from the expected hysteretic behavior under the design or maximum considered displacement of a structure. In this paper, the hysteretic damping coefficient of a steel moment resisting frame (MRF), which its performance is enhanced by a buckling restrained brace (BRB) system has been evaluated. Having the foresight of damping fraction between BRB and MRF is inevitable for seismic design procedures like Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) method. This paper presents an approach to calculate the damping fraction for such systems by carrying out the dynamic nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) under harmonic loading, which is tuned to the natural frequency of the system. Two steel moment frame structures, one equipped with BRB, and the other without BRB are simultaneously studied. The extensive analysis shows that proportion of each system damping fraction may be calculated by its shear story portion. In this way, the contribution of each BRB in the floors and their general contribution in the structural performance may be clearly recognized, in advance.

Keywords: buckling restrained brace, direct displacement based design, dual systems, hysteretic damping, moment resisting frames

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Authors: Ali Moradiamani, Samaneh Sadat Sajjadi, Mahdi Jalili

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Power system analysis has been a major research topic in the generation and distribution sections, in both industry and academia, for a long time. Several load flow and fault analysis scenarios have been normally performed to study the performance of different parts of the grid in the context of, for example, voltage and frequency control. Software tools, such as PSCAD, PSSE, and PowerFactory DIgSILENT, have been developed to perform these analyses accurately. Distribution grid had been the passive part of the grid and had been known as the grid of consumers. However, a significant paradigm shift has happened with the emergence of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) in the distribution level. It means that the concept of power system analysis needs to be extended to the distribution grid, especially considering self sufficient technologies such as microgrids. Compared to the generation and transmission levels, the distribution level includes significantly more generation/consumption nodes thanks to PV rooftop solar generation and battery energy storage systems. In addition, different consumption profile is expected from household residents resulting in a diverse set of scenarios. Emergence of electric vehicles will absolutely make the environment more complicated considering their charging (and possibly discharging) requirements. These complexities, as well as the large size of distribution grids, create challenges for the available power system analysis software. In this paper, we study the requirements of simulation tools in the distribution grid and how data-driven algorithms are required to increase the accuracy of the simulation results.

Keywords: smart grids, distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, battery storage systsms, simulation tools

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Authors: Hilary Rutto, Linda Sibali

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In this study, the adsorption of lead and zinc ions from aqueous solutions by modified millet husk has been investigated. The effects of different parameters, such as pH, adsorbent dosage, concentration, temperature, and contact time, have been investigated. The results of the experiments showed that the adsorption of both metal ions increased by increasing pH values up to 11. Adsorption process was initially fast. The adsorption rate decreased then until it reached to equilibrium time of 120 min for both lead and zinc ions. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R), and thermodynamic models (Gibbs free energy) were used to determine the isotherm parameters associated with the adsorption process. The positive values of Gibbs free energy change indicated that reaction is not spontaneous. Experimental data were also evaluated in terms of kinetic characteristics of adsorption, and it was found that adsorption process for both metal ions followed pseudo-first order for zinc and pseudo-second-order for lead.

Keywords: zinc, lead, adsorption, millet husks

Procedia PDF Downloads 151