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Esta dissertação oferece contribuições para o campo da energia eólica, e fornece um roteiro claro para a tomada de decisão baseada em dados, bem como orientações práticas para otimizar a operação e manutenção. No contexto atual da transformação digital e crescente demanda energética surge a necessidade de soluções inovadores e sustentáveis em larga escala, como a energia eólica offshore. A energia eólica é uma fonte de energia renovável que tem o potencial de contribuir significativamente para a matriz energética global. A implementação e operação de projetos eólicos offshore são desafiadores devido aos custos elevados e à natureza intrínseca dos riscos no ambiente marítimo, por isso necessitam operar em sua máxima eficiência e desempenho, tendo em vista a viabilidade económica. Este trabalho tem como objetivo a compreensão dos fatores principais que influenciam o desempenho energético dos aerogeradores através dos dados que revelam as interrupções e falhas de sistemas. Os resultados obtidos nesta pesquisa destacam a necessidade de uma abordagem integrada, buscando o conhecimento técnico especializado com a aplicação de tecnologias de monitoramento em tempo real e análise de dados. Ao reconhecer os padrões de falhas e as lacunas de eficiência, os gestores podem direcionar seus esforços para aprimorar a fiabilidade, a disponibilidade e a performance geral dessas unidades geradoras de energia elétrica. Através da implementação das recomendações resultantes deste estudo, espera-se que as instituições possam alcançar uma expressiva rentabilidade e sustentabilidade, alinhando-se de forma eficaz com as demandas atuais, garantindo uma posição sólida no ambiente empresarial e contribuindo para um futuro energético mais equilibrado.

Abstract Turkey is currently in the middle of its sixth attempt over the last 60 years to introduce nuclear power. This paper analyzes Turkey’s past and present motivation, capacity and strategies to identify the factors which influence deployment of nuclear power and draw lessons for other nuclear newcomer countries. While existing literature points to a correlation between nuclear power, strong state involvement, centralized energy planning and the rhetoric linking energy to national prestige and security, we show that these factors are not sufficient for a successful nuclear program. We also show that autocratic rule and nuclear weapons aspirations can undermine rather than support the development of civilian nuclear power as it is often presumed in the literature. Turkey’s current strategy based on intergovernmental agreements with Russia and Japan is laced with irony since it is motivated by energy security considerations and yet relies on foreign entities for construction, ownership and operation of nuclear power plants as well as the development of human capacity. Although Ankara intends to build the third nuclear power plant with own resources this seems unlikely based on the South Korean and Japanese experience, both of which needed much more time and effort to localize the industry.

In industrialized countries, large amounts of mineral wastes are produced. They are re-used in various ways, particularly in road and earth constructions, substituting primary resources such as gravel. However, they may also contain pollutants, such as heavy metals, which may be leached to the groundwater. The toxic impacts of these emissions are so far often neglected within Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of products or waste treatment services and thus, potentially large environmental impacts are currently missed. This study aims at closing this gap by assessing the ecotoxic impacts of heavy metal leaching from industrial mineral wastes in road and earth constructions. The flows of metals such as Sb, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, V and Zn originating from three typical constructions to the environment are quantified, their fate in the environment is assessed and potential ecotoxic effects evaluated. For our reference country, Germany, the industrial wastes that are applied as Granular Secondary Construction Material (GSCM) carry more than 45,000 t of diverse heavy metals per year. Depending on the material quality and construction type applied, up to 150 t of heavy metals may leach to the environment within the first 100 years after construction. Heavy metal retardation in subsoil can potentially reduce the fate to groundwater by up to 100%. One major challenge of integrating leaching from constructions into macro-scale LCA frameworks is the high variability in micro-scale technical and geographical factors, such as material qualities, construction types and soil types. In our work, we consider a broad range of parameter values in the modeling of leaching and fate. This allows distinguishing between the impacts of various road constructions, as well as sites with different soil properties. The findings of this study promote the quantitative consideration of environmental impacts of long-term leaching in Life Cycle Assessment, complementing site-specific risk assessment, for the design of waste management strategies, particularly in the construction sector.

Devido à crescente preocupação com as alterações climáticas e à consequente mudança de paradigma, gradualmente são utilizados mais veículos elétricos e híbridos, como é o caso dos FCHEV (Fuel cell Hybrid Electric Vehicle). Como é característico nos veículos híbridos, a existência de duas fontes de energia faz com que seja crucial otimizar a distribuição de potência, sendo esta a chave para melhorar o desempenho do veículo. Assim, definiu-se como medida principal de desempenho o consumo equivalente em Gasoline Gallon Equivalent, que efetua um tradeoff entre o consumo de hidrogénio e o consumo ponderado de energia da bateria, em função do seu estado de carga. Tendo como principais objetivos o aumento do tempo de vida dos componentes e a redução do consumo do veículo, construiu-se uma estratégia de gestão energética em tempo real, baseada em programação dinâmica, com extração de regras de controlo pela response surface methodology e implementação de machine learning para a identificação dos tipos de ciclo de condução. A estratégia foi construída e simulada em Matlab, partindo da modelação do sistema e da implementação da função DPM (Dynamic Programming Matrix), desenvolvida pelo instituto ETH Zurich para efetuar a programação dinâmica. Seguidamente, foi utilizada a função stepwiselm e a app Regression Learner para extrair as regras de controlo e, finalmente, recorreu-se à app Classification Learner para identificar os ciclos de condução. Toda a estratégia foi complementada com o Matlab Coder, para fazer a transição do algoritmo para linguagem C, suportada pela ECU. Os resultados foram analisados no final de cada fase de implementação, validando a metodologia proposta. Assim, na fase de otimização demonstrou-se que é possível melhorar o consumo equivalente, relativamente ao algoritmo implementado no veículo, obtendo-se uma redução média superior a 15%, sem se demonstrarem alterações significativas no consumo de H2. A partir destes resultados, efetuou-se a extração de regras de controlo, utilizando duas estratégias distintas: regressões não lineares e árvores de decisão. No caso da primeira, não foi possível demonstrar que efetivamente o consumo equivalente é menor, apesar da percentagem de redução desse consumo ser em média superior a zero. No caso da segunda, a robustez do modelo de machine learning demonstrou que em média o consumo equivalente é menor do que no algoritmo atualmente presente no autocarro, sendo que a percentagem de redução em média ultrapassa os 10%. Com ambas as estratégias, as alterações no consumo de H2 não se mostraram significativas. Na fase de reconhecimento do ciclo de condução, utilizou-se uma árvore de decisão que foi analisada para diferentes tempos de decisão, demonstrando-se que com 600 e 300 segundos a identificação apresentou os melhores resultados de accuracy, sendo percetível que para 300 segundos será reduzido o espaço em memória na ECU para armazenamento dos parâmetros de condução, mostrando-se também ser mais preciso em cenários mais semelhantes com a realidade. Finalmente os testes de estrada demonstraram melhorias de 15.7% no consumo equivalente, 24.4% no consumo de H2 e 6.8% no rendimento, com a estratégia que utiliza regressões não lineares. No entanto, o algoritmo mais adequado seria o construído com árvores de decisão, que devido à sua complexidade não foi possível de implementar na ECU.

Organic solar cells utilize an energy-level offset to generate free charge carriers. Although a very small energy-level offset increases the open-circuit voltage, it remains unclear how exactly charge generation is affected. Here we investigate organic solar cell blends with highest occupied molecular orbital energy-level offsets (∆EHOMO) between the donor and acceptor that range from 0 to 300 meV. We demonstrate that exciton quenching at a negligible ∆EHOMO takes place on timescales that approach the exciton lifetime of the pristine materials, which drastically limits the external quantum efficiency. We quantitatively describe this finding via the Boltzmann stationary-state equilibrium between charge-transfer states and excitons and further reveal a long exciton lifetime to be decisive in maintaining an efficient charge generation at a negligible ∆EHOMO. Moreover, the Boltzmann equilibrium quantitatively describes the major reduction in non-radiative voltage losses at a very small ∆EHOMO. Ultimately, highly luminescent near-infrared emitters with very long exciton lifetimes are suggested to enable highly efficient organic solar cells. Donor–acceptor systems with low energy-level offset enable high power efficiency in organic solar cells yet it is unclear what drives charge generation. Classen et al. show that long exciton lifetimes enable efficient exciton splitting and thus generation of free charges while also suppressing voltage losses.

In recent decades, many societal changes have unfolded, including population ageing, reconfigurations of household structures, labour market transformation, and a secular deceleration of economic growth. These shifts pose considerable challenges to preexisting welfare states, particularly to the efficacy of countries’ pension systems. This dissertation examines the context and trajectory of pension reforms in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its contribution is to ascertain the viability and political feasibility of reforms that enhance the financial sustainability of their pension systems, while maintaining adequate income and coverage levels. The dissertation builds on political economy approaches and on the institutionalist literature, which highlight how the role of interest groups and structure of institutions and political systems shape policy outcomes. The frameworks of blame avoidance and credit-claiming are also considered, to provide a comprehensive analysis of the complex dynamics surrounding pension systems and reform efforts. This dissertation uses a mixed-methods approach – including public opinion surveys of 3,000+ individuals, semi-structured elite interviews, historical document analyses, and specialized fiscal and actuarial projections of selected pension reforms in the three selected countries. It addresses three core research questions: 1) What is the current context for pension reform in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States given their histories? 2) Is the necessary (for achieving specific minimum levels of sustainability, adequacy, and coverage) pension reform politically feasible? 3) How do the characteristics of each reform affect its political feasibility? Corollary: The modification of which channel (benefits, contributions, retirement age) is perceived as more politically feasible for diverse stakeholders? The methodology chosen provides a timely picture of the context surrounding potential pension reforms in the three case studies. In Mexico, credit-claiming and the interests of private stakeholders explain the success of recent pension reforms, and partisan politics are the key determinants for future fiscal changes. For the United Kingdom, the institutionalist literature helps explain the reasons for the relatively easier reform avenues; the most politically feasible reforms are those in the private sector, while the housing market is of key importance for pensions. In the United States, the institutionalist literature and the framework of blame avoidance also help explain the current legislative gridlock and the reasons why no major reform has been enacted for decades. For Mexico and the United Kingdom there exist politically feasible reforms, notably a modification of the retirement age channel, that can increase the system’s sustainability while maintaining income adequacy and coverage; whereas based on the current context of extreme polarisation and legislative gridlock, there do not seem to exist politically feasible pension reforms that preserve the structure of Social Security in the United States. The dissertation brings the lens of political feasibility to bear on a previously technical literature on the structure of the pension systems in the three countries, and thus on the feasibility of reform to deliver financial sustainability, adequacy of retirement incomes, and adequate coverage of the old age population. It identifies the feasible routes for reform in Mexico and the United Kingdom, but concludes that the political economy context the United States has reached rules out feasible reforms of its current pension structures.

Seaweed fibre is usually discarded as biomass waste after extraction of useful ingredients from seaweed. However this seaweed fibre, a natural abundant cellulose material with uniform dimensions 10 times smaller than other plant-based fibre can be utilized as electrode material for energy storage. In this work, we converted seaweed fibre into conductive carbon electrodes by a thermal carbonisation method. The morphology, chemical composition and conductivity are highly influenced by the carbonisation temperature. In comparison to other biomass sources such as cotton pulp, seaweed fibre is finer, smoother and more conductive at low carbonisation temperature. These carbonized seaweeds were then used as a supercapacitor, giving a high supercapacitance (226.3 Fg−1) at the carbonisation temperature of 900°C, and good stability within 2400 cycles. This specific capacitance is significantly higher than values obtained from filter paper or cotton pulp.

An important limitation of polymer electrolyte fuel cell technology is the low mechanical strength and dimensional instability with changes of water content of proton exchange membranes (PEMs). A range of different approaches to more stable PEMs based on Nafion have been studied of which composite materials of Nafion with mechanically stronger polymers is one of the most promising directions. If successful, they will lead to thinner composite PEMs with enhanced fuel cell performance, life span, and cost-effectiveness. Developed in this thesis are electrospinning conditions for the fabrication of electrospun mats for potential application in PEMs. Polysulfone (PSU), poly vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP), and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were tested as mechanically stronger but inert (minimal contribution to proton transport) polymers that can tolerate the fuel cell condition. PVDF-HFP generated defect free electrospun mats over a wide range of spinning conditions, while PSU required very specific conditions and no successful conditions were found for PVDF mostly due to over-wetting. These mats might function as mechanical support and could be tested as PEMs when filled with Nafion, but the complete filling of electrospun mats with Nafion has been proven difficult. Instead, the electrospinning of Nafion was tested to explore options of electrospinning mixed mats of two different polymers and co-electrospinning of core-sheath fibers. Two commercial Nafion solutions D520 and D2020 with 5 wt% and 20 wt% content of Nafion were electrospun together with polyethylene oxide of two different molecular weights as a carrier polymer. Mats of sufficient quality for PEM tests were obtained with solutions based on 20 wt% content of Nafion, a low flow rate of 0.2 mL/h, and the lower molecular weight polyethylene oxide as the carrier. Finally, coaxial electrospinning conditions for the formation of core-sheath fibers were developed for Nafion as sheath material and PVDF-HFP or PSU as the core material. Defect-free, core-sheath fibers were generated when the concentration of both solutions was high (20 wt%), the Nafion flow rate was about 0.2 mL/h for the sheath, and the core flow rate was below the flow rate of the sheath (0.1-0.15 mL/h for PVDF-HFP and 0.15 mL/h for PSU). Mats of these core-sheath fibers should provide good mechanical strength combined with much better compatibility with Nafion. A straightforward pore filling with Nafion solutions is expected and their investigation as PEMs in fuel cells is planned as future work.