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Abstract In the current study, a new solar-driven triple cycle is proposed to allow power generation during low insolation periods. This triple cycle integrates the solar gas-turbine top cycle, the steam Rankine cycle, and the Kalina bottom cycle. During the top cycle of the proposed system, compressed air was heated to 1000 °C or higher in the solar tower receiver. The heated compressed air was then used to drive the gas turbine to generate electricity. A Rankine cycle with a back-pressure steam turbine was utilized to recover waste heat from the gas turbine, thereby generating electricity through the steam turbine. The bottom cycle is the Kalina cycle, which comprises another back-pressure turbine and utilizes ammonia–water mixture as working fluid. After driving the steam Rankine cycle, the flue gas from the gas turbine sequentially heats the ammonia–water mixture to produce power. A new operational strategy was presented to generate electricity during low insolation period without the backup of fossil fuel. In middle insolation periods, the air is heated by the solar field and then directly drives the steam Rankine cycle, bypassing the gas turbine. In low insolation periods, the heated air directly drive the Kalina cycle, bypassing the Brayton cycle and the steam Rankine cycle. The off-design performance was investigated and the irreversibility was disclosed with the aid of the energy-utilization diagram method. Thus, the proposed system can utilize low insolation to generate electricity. This study provides a possibility to improve the solar–electric efficiency.

Abstract The 2013/2017 Nankai Trough (Japan) and 2017 Shenhu Area (China) offshore methane hydrate production tests showed the world the possibility and feasibility of the oceanic methane hydrate production by depressurization. However, the relatively low gas production rate still remained as one of the critical bottlenecks for the economical utilization. This study chose the Nankai Trough as a target area, and aimed at the gas recovery enhancement from the methane hydrate reservoir using vertical wells. A traditional single-vertical-well system and a new dual-vertical-well system were proposed, and special production strategies of the aggressive depressurization and permeability improvement were applied to these two systems for the effectiveness verification. Based on the 15-year simulation results, it was found that the middle low-permeability silt-dominated layers in the reservoir held the key to the gas recovery enhancement, and for the single-vertical-well system, the permeability improvement in this sublayer seemed more reliable and feasible than the aggressive depressurization. On the other hand, the dual-vertical-well system significantly exceeded the single-vertical-well system due to the synergistic effect of the two wellbores, and could raise the average gas production rate (9.5 × 103 m3/day) by one order of magnitude (to 7.9 × 104 m3/day). Moreover, if this new system was combined with the aggressive depressurization, the average gas production rate could be further raised by one order of magnitude (to 3.4 × 105 m3/day).

Abstract This article introduces an effective stochastic operation framework for optimal energy management of the shipboard power systems including large, nonlinear and dynamic loads. The proposed framework divides the ship power system into several agents, which coordinate with each other based on their demands/supplies until. The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is deployed as the multi-agent framework to solve the reformulated distributed energy management problem in the ship. Two types of turbo-generators are considered in the proposed system model, including single-shaft and twin-shaft models, to increase the part-load efficiency in certain times when facing variable speed operation. The proposed distributed framework is equipped with a recursive mechanism, which helps the ship system for running optimal load scheduling when facing insufficient power generation. In order to model the uncertainty effects associated with the forecast error in the interval-ahead load demand, a stochastic framework based on unscented transform is devised which can work in the nonlinear and correlated environments of shipboard power systems. Due to the nonlinear cost function in each agent, a powerful optimization algorithm based on modified θ-firefly algorithm (Mθ-FOA) is proposed. This is a phasor algorithm, which helps for escaping from premature convergence and getting trapped in local optima. The appropriate performance of the proposed stochastic model is examined on the real dataset of a ship power system. The simulation results show the high robustness, guarantied consensus, economic operation and feasible solution when power generation shortage based on load shedding in the system.

Abstract Accurate power forecasting is of great importance to the turbine control and predictive maintenance. However, traditional physics models and statistical models can no longer meet the needs of precision and flexibility when thermal power plants frequently undertake more and more peak and frequency modulation tasks. In this study, the recurrent neural network (RNN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) for power prediction are proposed, and are applied to predict real-time power of turbine based on DCS data (recorded for 719 days) from a power plant. In addition, the performances of two deep learning models and five typical machine learning models are compared, including prediction deviation, variance and time cost. It is found that deep learning models outperform other shallow models and RNN model performs best in balancing the accuracy-efficient trade-off for power prediction (the relative prediction error of 99.76% samples is less than 1% in all load range for test 216 days). Moreover, the influence of training size and input time-steps on the performance of RNN model is also explored. The model can achieve remarkable performance by learning only 30% samples (about 216 days) with 3 input time-steps (about 60 s). Those results of the proposed models based on deep-learning methods indicated that deep learning is of great help to improve the accuracy of turbine power prediction. It is therefore convinced that those models have a high potential for turbine control and predictable maintenance in actual industrial scenarios.

Abstract To improve the conversion efficiency of thermophotovoltaic devices, we designed a thermophotovoltaic system based on an InAs/InGaAsSb/GaSb three-junction tandem cell. The tandem cell can recover photons in the wavelength range of 200–3650 nm and therefore enhance the output power of the system. To further improve system performance, we designed a multilayer circular truncated cone metamaterial emitter matching the tandem cell. Existing TPV systems based on multi-junction tandem PV cells can achieve conversion efficiencies of 33.3%–41%, while the thermophotovoltaic system coupled with the multilayer circular truncated cone metamaterial can recover more photons of 1.44 mol/(m2·s) and achieve a higher conversion efficiency of 52.8% at 1773 K. The thermophotovoltaic system designed here demonstrates an extremely high energy conversion efficiency and has good application prospects.

Abstract The effects of partial premixing on soot formation were investigated both experimentally and numerically in counterflow diffusion flames (CDFs) of ethylene, propane and ethylene/propane binary mixtures. The partial premixing ratio was maintained at relatively low levels so as to minimize the hydrodynamic effects; while the chemical effects of partial premixing on soot formation can be highlighted. The experimental results and simulations consistently showed that partial premixing notably increased soot formation in ethylene flames; while it slightly reduced the soot formation in propane flames, suggesting that partial premixing played different chemical roles in the soot formation process of ethylene and propane flames. Kinetic analyses revealed that partial premixing showed opposing effects on propargyl formation of ethylene and propane flames; this in turn led to the opposing effects on the formation of benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and finally on the soot inception process. For partial premixing in propane/ethylene mixtures, the observed synergistic effects with propane added to ethylene CDFs disappeared, indicating a chemical cross-linking effect between partial premixing and ethylene/propane mixture. In addition, the present soot model showed satisfactory performance in reproducing the mismatch between PAH and soot formation tendencies in ethylene and propane CDFs. This result implies that great care is needed when using PAH concentration as an indicator of sooting tendency of different fuels. The present modeling results provided new insights into the chemical role of partial premixing in the soot evolution process of ethylene, propane and their blends. Further investigations towards the partial premixing effects on soot formation of larger liquid hydrocarbons such as diesel surrogates are required.

Abstract China's carbon emissions have been ranking first in the world. This study filled in the gaps in research, decomposed carbon intensity from the perspective of time, space and industry. A decoupling effort model based on factor decomposition models was constructed to analyze the driving factors of carbon emissions and economic decoupling, which builded a foundation for achieving sustainable economic development. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method (LMDI), the paper measured the carbon emission intensity of 29 provinces and cities in China from 1998 to 2019, and decomposed the decoupling effect between GDP and carbon emission on the basis of factor decomposition by tapio. The results showed that: (1) Carbon intensity declined first, then rise lightly, and finally declined steadily. For the primary industry and the tertiary industry, the carbon intensity declined steadily, while the carbon intensity increased accordingly to the overall carbon intensity. In terms of spatial evolution, the regional differences between different provinces decreased correspondingly. (2) The cumulative contribution rates of these three effects, i.e., technological progress, industrial structure and regional scale were 106.3299%, −15.1486% and 8.8188%, respectively. There were obvious differences of these cumulative contribution rates of carbon intensity among different provinces. (3) From the perspective of industrial, technological progress effect is the largest contribution for carbon intensity in the secondary industry. The Industrial structure effect mainly affects the primary and tertiary industries; and no significant difference in regional scale effect. (4) The decoupling effect gradually improved, and technological progress has played an absolute leading role in promoting the decoupling effect. Based on the research results, the key policy recommendation are put forward as follows: (1) Further improve the technological level and support clean technology enterprises. (2) Promote industrial upgrading in backward industrial provinces (3) Promote regional assistance and the introduction of high-quality foreign investment.