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Editorial Complex Optimization and Simulation in Power Systems

Abstract To achieve the EU climate and energy objectives, a transition towards a future sustainable energy system is needed. The integration of the huge potential for industrial waste heat recovery into smart energy system represents a main opportunity to accomplish these goals. To successfully implement this strategy, all the several stakeholders' conflicting objectives should be considered. In this paper an evolutionary multi-objective optimization model is developed to perform a sustainability evaluation of an energy system involving an industrial facility as the waste heat source and the neighbourhood as district heating network end users. An Italian case study of heat recovery from a steel casting facility shows how the model allows to properly select the district heating network set of users to fully exploit the available waste energy. Design directions such as the thermal energy storage capacity can be also provided. Moreover, the model enables the analysis of the trade-off between the stakeholders’ different perspectives, allowing to identify possible win-win solutions for both the industrial sector and the citizenship.

The electrical resistance of Ni 50 Ti 30 Hf 20 and Ni 50 Ti 40.5 Hf 9.5 alloys during Stress Assisted Two Way Memory Effect was investigated with the aim to deduce the relationship between electrical resistance and deformation across the transformation range. Results show an almost linear relationship although a crossing point between increasing and decreasing deformation may compromise the use of these alloys actuators.

Laboratory corrosion and scaling testing of metallic materials exposed in high temperature and pressure environments generally involves complex, multi-instrument measurement setups. Here, we present a setup including an autoclave that is instrumented for in-situ electrochemical testing and that contains a ZrO2-based solid-state pH electrode and devices for temperature control and solution stirring. We show results highlighting the importance of adequate pre-calibration of the pH measurement, due to the hysteresis depending on temperature sweep. Additionally, we illustrate how interfacing the autoclave and the electrochemical cell to measuring and controlling instruments, using different data communication interfaces, can create ground loops. These ground loop interferences can introduce significant errors in the measurement, such as a potential shift of >100 mV. In complex, multi-instrument setups, a complete understanding of ground loops may often be difficult. Thus, we recommend systematic checks to identify the ground loops and we propose measures to avoid them. Measurement, 155 ISSN:0263-2241 ISSN:1873-412X

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UV/visible light is a promising radiation source for biomass pretreatment, but very little knowledge is available on the effect of UV on the thermal behavior of lignocellulose in comparison with more classical, physical pretreatment methods. In this paper, we investigate the effects of ball-milling and UV irradiation on two species of softwood and two species of hardwood, using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), evolved gas analysis-mass spectrometry (EGA-MS), and pyrolysis-gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). The XRD data showed that the crystalline fraction of cellulose was destroyed by milling, but not by irradiation. The EGA-MS data and isoconversional kinetic analysis showed that both milling and irradiation can reduce the thermal stability of wood up to a limit value. The Py-GC/MS data showed that irradiation caused the most significant changes in the pyrolytic behavior of the wood species, increasing the ratio of holocellulose to lignin pyrolysis products and the reactivity of cellulose toward the derivatizing agent. Softwoods were more affected by irradiation than hardwoods. This paper shows that UV irradiation can decrease the recalcitrance of biomass toward pyrolysis, but its efficiency is highly dependent on the type of lignocellulosic substrate.

Abstract Breastshot water wheels are gravity hydraulic machines employed in low head sites. The scope of this work is to test the performance of a breastshot water wheel with two geometric inflow configurations: a sluice gate at different openings and two vertical overflow weirs. With the sluice gate, the maximum efficiency of the plant is 75%, constant over a wide range of flow rates, while the efficiency with the weir is increasing in the same flow rate range. Therefore, the wheel with the weir can exploit higher water volumes, and also it performs better at high power input. In practical applications, the inflow configuration can be effectively controlled to optimize the operative working conditions of breastshot water wheels, depending on the external hydraulic ones. The experimental results are also discussed in dimensionless terms, in order to support engineers in the design of similar breastshot water wheels.

Telecommunication is a prerequisite for the Smart Grid. Several technologies are available on the market, but there is not a general agreement about which of them, or combination of them, that can enable most of the services for the distribution grid automation. The paper describes the approach of 7th Framework Program European Project INTEGRIS which relies on the hypothesis that there is not a single technology with an optimal trade-off between cost of investment and performances for all use cases and topologies of a distribution grid. It rather suggests to mesh several technologies (with focus on the Broadband Power Line, the Wi-Fi and the Fiber Optics) to cover all the segment of the distribution grid. This concept has been experimentally validated in two field demonstrators in Italy and in Spain. This paper presents the results of tests on the latency and the throughput.