• Energy Research
• physical sciences close
• 14. Life underwater close
• 6. Clean water close
• US close
• FR close
• NL close

Correction for ‘Mesoporous thin film WO3 photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting: a sol–gel dip coating approach’ by Samantha Hilliard et al., Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2017, 1, 145–153.

Costs to permit Marine Energy projects are poorly understood. In this paper we examine environmental compliance and permitting costs for 19 projects in the U.S., covering the last 2 decades. Guided discussions were conducted with developers over a 3-year period to obtain historical and ongoing project cost data relative to environmental studies (e.g., baseline or pre-project site characterization as well as post-installation effects monitoring), stakeholder outreach, and mitigation, as well as qualitative experience of the permitting process. Data are organized in categories of technology type, permitted capacity, pre- and post-installation, geographic location, and funding types. We also compare our findings with earlier logic models created for the Department of Energy (i.e., Reference Models). Environmental studies most commonly performed were for Fish and Fisheries, Noise, Marine Habitat/Benthic Studies and Marine Mammals. Studies for tidal projects were more expensive than those performed for wave projects and the range of reported project costs tended to be wider than ranges predicted by logic models. For eight projects reporting full project costs, from project start to FERC or USACE permit, the average amount for environmental permitting compliance was 14.6%.

Uncertainty surrounding the potential environmental impacts of marine energy (ME) has resulted in extensive and expensive environmental monitoring requirements for ME deployments. Recently, there have been more ME deployments and associated environmental data collection efforts, but no standardized methodologies for data collection. This hinders the use of previously collected data to inform new ME project permitting efforts. Triton Field Trials (TFiT), created at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory by the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy, explores ways to promote more consistent environmental data collection and enable data transferability across ME device types and locations. Documents from 118 previous ME projects or ME-related research studies in the U.S. and internationally were reviewed to identify the highest priority stressor–receptor relationships to be investigated and the technologies and methodologies used to address them. Thirteen potential field sites were assessed to determine suitable locations for testing the performance of relevant monitoring technologies. This introductory paper provides an overview of how priority research areas and associated promising technologies were identified as well as how testing locations were identified for TFiT activities. Through these scoping efforts, TFiT focused on four activity areas: collision risk, underwater noise, electromagnetic fields, and changes in habitat. Technologies and methodologies were tested at field sites in Alaska, Washington, California, and New Hampshire. Detailed information on the effectiveness of the identified methodologies and specific recommendations for each of the four focus areas are included in the companion papers in this Special Issue.

Abstract Buoys carrying scientific equipment usually need continuous power supply for the operation of these equipments. These buoys can be equipped with actuators and controlled to harvest power from the heaving motion of the buoy. A two-body wave energy converter can be designed such that the buoy heaves to harvest energy while the second (lower) body carries the science equipments. This paper presents a control approach for this type of two-body wave energy converter. This control approach is a multi resonant control that attempts to maximize the harvested energy from the buoy (upper body). In this model, the actuator is attached to both bodies. The lower body however is required to have minimal heave motion. The proposed multi resonant control utilizes measurements of the buoy position. The frequencies of the measured buoy position are estimated, along with the motion amplitudes of these frequencies, and used for feedback control. Estimation is carried out using two approaches; the first uses a linear Kalman filter while the second uses an extended Kalman filter. A new method for handling the motion and actuation limitations, suitable for the multi resonant control, is proposed. Various numerical simulation results are presented in the paper. Simulation results show that the linear Kalman filter estimation approach is more robust and computationally efficient compared to the extended Kalman filter.

Vector potential and scalar potential are used to formulate the governing equations for a single-component and single-phase geothermal system. By assuming an initial temperature field, the fluid velocity can be determined which, in turn, is used to calculate the convective heat transfer. The energy equation is then solved by considering convected heat as a distributed source. Using the resulting temperature to compute new source terms, the final results are obtained by iterations of the procedure. Finite-element methods are proposed for modeling of realistic geothermal systems; the advantages of such methods are discussed. The developed methodology is then applied to a sample problem. Favorable agreement is obtained by comparisons with a previous study.

Today, oil and gas fields gradually become mature with a high amount of water being produced (water cut (WC)), favoring conditions for gas hydrate formation up to the blockage of pipelines. The pressure drop is an important parameter which is closely related to the multiphase flow characteristics, risk of plugging and security of flowlines. This study developed a model based on flowloop experiments to predict the relative pressure drop in pipelines once hydrate is formed in high water cutsystems in the absence and presence of AA-LDHI and/or salt. In this model, the relative pressure drop during flow is a function of hydrate volume and hydrate agglomerate structure, represented by the volume fraction factor (Kv). This parameter is adjusted for each experiment between 1.00 and 2.74. The structure of the hydrate agglomerates can be predicted from the measured relative pressure drop as well as their impact on the flow, especially in case of a homogeneous suspension of hydrates in the flow.

Abstract The quenching process has become an important thermal management study to intensify the safety margin for the integrity of the reactor vessel under the core meltdown condition. The boiling heat transfer mechanism in the channel is one aspect that needs further examination. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the differences in channel gap size to counter-current flow limitation (CCFL) and critical heat flux (CHF) during transient cooling in atmospheric pressure and quenching using two vertical plates with 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm gap sizes and heated length of 1100 mm. The initial temperature of the plate was set at 600 °C. Cooling water mass flow rate and sib-cooled temperature were set at about 0.089 kg/s and 90 °C, respectively. Calculations were performed to obtain the CHF value through the boiling curve using transient temperature data. Non-dimensional correlations from other research study was used in this research. The influence of gap sizes on CCFL and CHF resulted in an increased value of CHF relative to gap size; additionally, the CHF for gap sizes of 2 mm and 3 mm increased about 34.4% and 140.5%, respectively, compared to the CHF for the 1 mm gap size. In this research, a curve map of the relationship between non-dimensional CHF and non-dimensional mass flux of water flowing downward shows that the correlation of this experimental study has a gradient number of about 0.22 similar to Mishima and Nishihara correlation. The results confirmed the existence of CCFL in the vertical narrow rectangular channels due to changes in gap sizes that contribute to changes in CHF. Rewetting time also became longer with increasing gap sizes.

Measurements made as part of the 1996 Yellow Sea experiment at location 37° N, 124° E, undertaken by China and the U.S. are analyzed. Signals generated by explosive sources were received by a 60-m-length vertical line array deployed in waters 75m deep. Evidence is presented that precursor arrivals measured at ranges less than 1km are refracted waves that are zeroth order in their ray series classification, and this directly points to the existence of a gradient in sediment sound speed. In contrast, first-order head waves, which are much weaker in amplitude, would exist only if this gradient were absent. It is found that the energy spectrum of precursor arrivals agrees well with a zeroth-order model, i.e., it is proportional to the source amplitude spectrum, S(f), where f is frequency, rather than a first-order model, which would have it proportional to S(f)∕f. From travel time analysis the sediment sound speed just below the water-sediment interface is estimated to be 1573m∕s with a gradient of 1.1s−1, and from analysis of the energy spectrum of the precursor arrivals the sediment attenuation is estimated to be 0.08dB∕m∕kHz over the frequency range 150–420Hz. The results apply to a nominal sediment depth of 100m.