• Energy Research
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Abstract The prime purpose of this work is to prepare a novel kind of Pickering interfacial solid catalysts for biodiesel production to meet the requirements of highly efficiency and environmental benign. To achieve this goal, the core–shell P[xSPA-yDABCO]@SiO2@Fe3O4 composite materials with a shell of photo-responsive and base catalytic sites were manufactured by means of layer-by-layer fabrication method. The modified materials, entirely characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and magnetization versus magnetic (VSM) techniques, demonstrated sufficient catalytic active sites and photo-responsive sites. Among all the so-prepared catalysts, P[3SPA-2DABCO]@SiO2@Fe3O4 performs extremely well and can stabilize soybean oil-in-methanol Pickering emulsion for 24 h, achieving a biodiesel yield up to 98.2% at a catalyst dosage of 5 wt% after the reaction time of 5 h at 60 °C. Furthermore, the double responsive solid catalyst can be readily separated from the mixture of reaction by an external magnet and UV irradiation, and still presented superior catalytic activity after 6 cycles.

To cope with global warming and environmental protection in recent years, the requirements for clean energy are enhancing, and the installation of wind power, as one of such energy, is increasing in various countries. Nevertheless, the connection of wind blades and support blades often break when wind turbine are running. To avoid such a problem in the design stage or the successive reinforcement through proper methods has become an urgent problem in engineering. Commercial software, Solidworks Simulation, is used for simulating stress distribution and the patch reinforcement design in this paper. The analyses show that the maximum stress of the original design not being reinforced with patches has exceeded the tensile strength of the material and result in the breaks and damage of the entire structure. Using composite patches to reinforce the interface of wind blades and the supportive structure could effectively reduce the maximum stress and the displacement of deformation. Moreover, patches could effectively reduce the maximum stress that the optimal reinforcement should take a larger fillet into account.

The distribution feeders often gets overload under peak power demands. This situation is generally countered by load shading, which leads to financial losses to utilities and individual users. This paper presents the new methodology to support the real and reactive power demand through energy storage (ES) to avoid the load shading situation. The compensation of real / reactive power not only provides the voltage profile improvement but also ensures the sustain power to the consumers. A control scheme incorporated also maintains the unity power factor on source side. This relieves the existing distribution network from the extra reactive loading hence the line is having extra capacity for real power transfer to its maximum thermal limit. This additional capacity availability adds more customer base to justify the energy storage investment. The operational features are presented through a simulation of a realistic urban feeder data. The financial analysis is also presented to justify the energy storages with the distribution networks.

This paper deals with a mitigation of a three-phase cable line magnetic field by a new type of passive shield. We consider a cable line with a flat arrangement of cables. The developed single-loop shield has an asymmetric magnetic coupling with the cable line, due to the use of two different ferromagnetic cores. Its high shielding efficiency is experimentally confirmed. As the developed shield is 0.2÷0.3 m away from the cable line, its thermal effect on the cable line is negligible. As the result, we obtain expressions for the shielding efficiency, parameters of the shield and the cores.

The electro-hydraulic servo pump control system (EHSPCS) is a volume control system that uses a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) with a fixed displacement pump to directly drive and control the hydraulic cylinder. The energy transmission law of the system is very complicated due to the transformation of electrical, mechanical and hydraulic energy as well as other energy fields, and qualitative analysis of the energy transfer efficiency is difficult. Energy transfer analysis of the EHSPCS under different working conditions and loads is proposed in this paper. First, the energy flow transfer mechanism was analyzed, and the mathematical and energy transfer models of the key components of the system were established to explore the energy characteristic state transition rule. Second, a power bond diagram model was built, its state equation and state matrix were deduced, and a system simulation model was built. Finally, combined with the EHSPCS experimental platform, simulation experiments were carried out on the dynamic position following and steady-state position holding conditions of the system, and the variation rules of the power of each energy characteristic state and the system energy transfer efficiency under different loads were obtained. The research results provide a foundation for the study of power matching and energy-saving mechanism of the EHSPCS.

The current status and challenges associated with the production and utilization of cellulosic ethanol in Korea are reviewed in this paper. Cellulosic ethanol has emerged as a promising option for mitigating Korea's CO(2) emissions and enhancing its energy security. Korea's limited biomass resources is the most critical barrier to achieving its implementation targets for cellulosic ethanol. Efforts to identify new suitable biomass resources for cellulosic ethanol production are ongoing and intensive. Aquatic biomasses including macroalgae and plantation wastes collected in the Southeast Asia region have been found to have great potential as feedstocks for the production of cellulosic ethanol. R&D explorations into the development of technologies that can convert biomass materials to ethanol more efficiently also are underway. It is expected that cellulosic ethanol will be in supply from 2020 and that, by 2030, its use will have effectively reduced Korea's total gasoline consumption by 10%.

AbstractShipbuilding is an energy-intensive industrial sector that produces a significant amount of waste, pollution and air emissions. However, the International Maritime Organization concentrates only on reducing emissions during the operational phase. In order to completely phase out emissions from the shipping industry, a life-cycle approach must be taken. The study implemented the proposed transdisciplinary energy management framework in a Bangladeshi shipyard. The framework aims to support shipyard decision makers in making rational and optimized decisions to make shipyards sustainable, while maintaining good product quality and reducing relative cost. This is achieved by applying the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution methods to identify optimal solutions. In addition to making shipyards more sustainable, the framework can enhance both the business and socio-economic prospects of the shipyard and promote the reputation of the shipyard and improve its competitiveness and, in line with this, lead to the promotion of nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement for States. The implementation of the framework shows that the political and legal discipline, the social criteria and the implementation of ISO 14001 and cyber security were the most important criteria and options for the yard's decision makers.

Emissions optimization, particularly for complex engines, relies on developing mathematical correlations or 'Response Surface Models' of engine outputs. There is a clear tradeoff between the complexity of the model and its usefulness for a range of optimization tasks. Several current Sl engine management systems use a 'Spark efficiency curve' to elegantly describe the response of engine torque to spark advance using a prescribed characteristic line that is fitted to a spark sweep with only two degrees of freedom. This provides a powerful method of data reduction. A similar technique has been developed to characterize engine emissions data. A single efficiency curve with only two degrees of freedom can be used to accurately describe the response of, say, hydrocarbon emissions to spark over a wide range of engines and operating conditions. The technique offers similar data reduction advantages for engine management system developers and those optimizing engines using high DoF models. The form and application of the efficiency curves is discussed and examples of application to tasks such as engine emission optimization are discussed.

The energy expended to cool the occupied areas by air conditioners represents a substantial share of the total energy exhausted in buildings. Therefore, developing strategies to reduce this energy is crucial. One of the preponderance strategies adopted to depreciate energy consumption in buildings is the occupancy-based strategy. In this research, an innovative model was established to achieve the goal of reducing cooling energy consumed in buildings based on occupancy-based combined with a constant temperature setpoint strategy in two phases, and each phase engrosses in 20 days. Phase one is to identify the extent of cooling energy employed according to the use of room occupants and its costs in consumption was 276.01 kWh after completion of this phase. Sequentially, constructing phase two intended to reduce cooling energy consumption by employing an automatic air-conditioner (AC) control strategy relying on an improved human detection algorithm with a 25℃ as temperature setpoint, resulting in 112.45 kWh of consumption. To complement the motives for elaboration, the human detection measurement using you only look once (YOLO) improved by applying pre-processing algorithms to reach an average human detection enhancement of 21.2%. The proposed model results showed that potential savings associated with the embraced strategy decreases by more than anticipated as the amount of reduced energy reached 59% savings.