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The functional design of a decision support system for a state-of-the-art vehicle sharing system (VSS) inevitably includes the selection or definition of methodologies for planning and managing the observed VSS. In this paper, our focus is on an innovative VSS that utilizes light electric vehicles. Our goal is to specify the functions of a comprehensive decision making solution for such a VSS through a qualitative and systematic literature and system analysis. To achieve this goal, we rely on the holistic VSS management framework developed in our previous research. As a result of our study, we identify possible solution methodologies or algorithms for implementing functions of the designed decision making solution, and propose the necessary adjustments for their application in the case of light electric vehicles, or note any research gap. With these findings, we provide justified guidance to practitioners in creating these solutions, with the aim of reducing development time.

Abstract In order to uncover the inner working mechanism and performance of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with biomass gasification syngas as fuel, a two dimensional SOFC multi-physical field model is established. This study makes up for the deficiency that the previous studies of coupling biomass gasification unit and SOFC stack mostly stay at the system level. The results show that the SOFC fueled by the syngas produced from gasification of biomass with steam as the agent has the best performance. The peak power density could achieve approximately 10240 W m−2. With the improvement of operating temperature, the peak power density of SOFC will be increased. At the temperature of 1123 K, the peak power density could achieve about 15128 W m−2. The average reaction rate of water gas shift (WGS) reaction is −29.73 mol m−3 s−1 when the operating temperature is 1123 K. This indicates that the WGS reaction will proceed in reverse direction at high temperatures, thereby reducing the hydrogen concentration. In addition, increase in the anode flux and decrease in the cell length lead to the increase of SOFC current density. In general, this work could provide guidance for the optimization and practical application of SOFC using biomass syngas as fuel.

Exergy as a measure of useful work can be used in the design, simulation and performance evaluation of different energy systems. In this paper it is investigated the Serbian residential building with photovoltaics and solar collectors on the roof, and with three different heating systems: electrical heating, district heating and central heating with gas boiler. Exergy optimization was performed with the aim to determine the optimal area of the PV array and solar collectors on the roof (including embodied exergy). With these values, the maximum exergy efficiency of installed solar systems is obtained, and building primary energy consumption is minimized. The residential buildings with variable temperature in domestic hot water system, variable PV cell efficiency and variable hot water consumption are investigated in order to achieve positive-net energy building. The buildings were simulated in EnergyPlus software and Genopt was used for software execution control during optimization. The obtained results show that positive-net energy building with optimally sized photovoltaics and solar collectors’, can be achieved in a case of gas heating system, and in the cases of PV cell efficiency of 14% and 16%. Also, an environmental and economic analysis of the most favourable solutions from exergetic optimization was performed. Total CO2 emission (with embedded emissions of CO2) increases with increasing amount of generated energy – for PV system of cell efficiency of 12%, 14% and 16%, total CO2 emission of solar systems is 20.8 kg CO2/m2, 23.5 kg CO2/m2 and 26.2 kg CO2/m2, respectively. The emission payback time decreases with increasing PV cell efficiency from 1.11 to 1.04 years. With the increase of PV cell efficiency, there is an increase in the annual financial profit (from 1518 to 4305 €), while at the same time, the investment payback period decreases (from 16.9 to 6.1 years). Best results are obtained for the building with gas heating system ; Published

This study presents the experimental results of the mechanical and thermophysical properties of wood pellet samples important for their utilization in pellet stoves and boilers for heat production. The impact of operational parameters during the production process on a single pelletizer unit for three typical domestic commercial wood pellet samples (PWP110, BWP110, and BWP140) on fuel particle mechanical characteristics and related thermal properties was analyzed. It was concluded that the changes in raw material selection, as well as related operating parameters (extrusion length, i.e., die temperature during production process), have influenced the key mechanical and thermal characteristics of tested commercial wood pellets. The presented results have indicated the existence of a thin solid layer (due to waxes and subsequently lignin coating layer behaviors depending on their glass transition temperatures) on the surface of the BWP140 pellet sample. This layer leads to increasing the thermal resistance in the considered sample which can be explained by decreasing the effective thermal conductivity. Also, the forming of this layer on the surface of the wood pellet sample was caused by the production process (high-temperature impact explained by increasing friction between the die and feedstock during pellets production). It could be related to a lower value of effective thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity for considered (Beech) wood pellet sample.

Abstract The paper comprehensively addresses the control algorithm for the photovoltaic (PV) system. The system’s operation during both nominal and faulty grid conditions, most notably voltage unbalances, is addressed. The control of the boost converters and the inverter that secures reliable and maximized power production is proposed. Specifically, the paper offers a novel DC-link voltage stabilization algorithm that is not based on conventional approaches, such as droop schemes. Rather, the DC-link voltage rate of change is used to realize safe primary energy sources’ power management during transients caused by grid disturbances. This offers improved robustness, reliability and scalability. Moreover, the improved grid-connected converter control is proposed. It enables the production of arbitrary currents and powers profiles, during different working regimes, respecting the converter’s ratings. Consequently, higher-layer control functions can be realized by utilizing the proposed scheme. Also, the flexible power production prioritization feature is integrated into the overall solution. Such an extensive set of features was not demonstrated for PV systems in the literature previously. Different hardware topologies are regarded – centralized, decentralized and distributed. The proposed control schemes were tested using the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environment and were validated through the analysis of the obtained results.

The paper considers two power quality issues: voltage distortion and voltage drop along the pole lines of different LED street (road) lighting installations. The research includes three parts: (1) development of a novel model and the corresponding software for calculating voltage harmonics in the three-phase LED street lighting installations, where the load is nonsymmetrical and nonlinear. The model is based on the application of symmetrical components and the impedance per phase model. (2) Experiments on two sections of a pilot street lighting installation, one with 6 poles with neutral white and the other with 5 poles with warm white LED luminaires (the former were with conventional, and the latter with improved drivers regarding harmonic emissions). Their results were used to define harmonic characteristics of the LED luminaires and validate the model. (3) The developed software was applied to four typical street (road) lighting installations, two with a single-sided and two with a central pole layout. The major outcome was the determination of the maximum permissible number of the LED luminaires which can be connected to the feeding cable without exceeding any of the limits related to voltage drop, total voltage harmonic distortion and individual voltage harmonics in either the full or reduced street lighting regimes.

Climate variables impact human health and in an era of climate change, there is a pressing need to understand these relationships to best inform how such impacts are likely to change.This study sought to investigate time series of daily admissions from two public hospitals in Limpopo province in South Africa with climate variability and air quality.We used wavelet transform cross-correlation analysis to monitor coincidences in changes of meteorological (temperature and rainfall) and air quality (concentrations of PM2.5 and NO2) variables with admissions to hospitals for gastrointestinal illnesses including diarrhoea, pneumonia-related diagnosis, malaria and asthma cases. We were interested to disentangle meteorological or environmental variables that might be associated with underlying temporal variations of disease prevalence measured through visits to hospitals.We found preconditioning of prevalence of pneumonia by changes in air quality and showed that malaria in South Africa is a multivariate event, initiated by co-occurrence of heat and rainfall. We provided new statistical estimates of time delays between the change of weather or air pollution and increase of hospital admissions for pneumonia and malaria that are addition to already known seasonal variations. We found that increase of prevalence of pneumonia follows changes in air quality after a time period of 10 to 15 days, while the increase of incidence of malaria follows the co-occurrence of high temperature and rainfall after a 30-day interval.Our findings have relevance for early warning system development and climate change adaptation planning to protect human health and well-being.