• Energy Research
• other engineering and technologies close
• BE close
• SA close
• English close

The detailed study of corrosion behaviour of carbon steel in 1M hydrochloric acid solution in the presence and absence of (E)-4-((4-methoxybenzylidene) amino)-3-methyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thione (3-Tz) was investigated using weight loss method at various temperatures from 303 to 333 K. The inhibitor showed 92.15% inhibition efficiency at its optimum concentration 5 x 10-2M at 303K and decreased at higher temperatures. The various parameters of activation determining the kinetic data such as energy, enthalpy and entropy at different concentrations of the inhibitor were evaluated and discussed. The thermodynamic parameters such as, equilibrium constant, adsorption heat and adsorption entropy were obtained. The adsorptive behaviour of(3-Tz) followed Langmuir-type isotherm. The standard free energies of adsorption were negative at different temperatures tested, suggesting better inhibition performance. Applied Journal of Environmental Engineering Science, Vol 1, No 2 (2015)

A new and applicable environmental rating tool for use as a policy tool, called EcoScore, was developed and allows evaluating the environmental impact of road vehicles with different drive trains or using different fuels. A single environmental indicator integrates different aspects of the environmental impact of the vehicles such as global warming, air quality depletion and noise pollution. To integrate these different aspects, the Ecoscore methodology includes different damage categories like: global warming, human health impairing effects and harmful effects on ecosystems. The contribution of the different normalised damages to the single value, called Ecoscore, is based upon a weighting system. The methodology can also be used for the ranking of heavy duty vehicles and two-wheelers. However, in this paper, the methodology will be explained using passenger vehicles and light-duty vehicles as an illustration. The methodology will be implemented by the Flemish government as a policy tool for the promotion of cleaner vehicles. An extensive database including vehicle records and their related emission data was used to develop, to validate and to analyse the environmental rating system. A sensitivity analysis was carried out which allowed the evaluation of the robustness of the methodology.

Valence band offset and valence band bending at the p+ hydrogenated amorphous silicon/n-type crystalline silicon (a-Si:H(p+)/n_c-Si) interface in heterojunction silicon solar cells (HIT) induce a p+ inversion layer which pushes the pn junction 20-25 nm deep in the c-Si side. The heavily hole populated interfacial inversion layer acts as the HIT cell emitter while the ultrathin amorphous silicon layer is the front contact. The impact of doping level and dangling bond defects in the a-Si:H layer and of interface states on the inversion layer properties is investigated by means of AFORS-HET simulations. Apart from the electric field created by the conduction band offset, the HIT cell performs like a c-Si solar cell which has an inversion layer emitter matching that of the HIT cell, with an open circuit voltage of 733 mV. The latter rolls off at relatively large interface (front surface) recombination velocity. Increasing the a-Si:H(p+) doping level modifies the peak hole concentration in the inversion layer and increases the front surface field. On the other hand, c-Si cell with an ultrathin dopant diffused emitter having also the same emitter hole profile sees its performance degraded at relatively low surface reombination because it suffers from bandgap narrowing and from doping dependent mobility degradation and has no front surface field. Inserting an ultrathin intrinsic or lowly doped a-Si:H spacer between a-Si:H(p+) and c-Si provides less hole population in the inversion layer which reduces Auger recombination and improves the open circuit voltage at low surface recombination to 735 mV despite the less effective front surface field. 28th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 822-826

A novel type of system for the deposition of ALD Al2O3 films is described. Wafers are transported in a linear track, floating on gas bearings without any physical contact with the track walls. During transport the wafers pass segments in which they come in contact with sequentially TMA, N2, H2O and N2. The system is made up of a large quantity of such ALD cells, each of which has a typical length of 12cm; in each of these cells 0.12nm Al2O3 is deposited. The dimensions of the pre-cursor injection lines and the pressures and flows are selected such that no mixing of the precursors take place inside the system. This results in a system that operates under atmospheric conditions with a throughput of 3600 wafers per hour, with easy automation, no moving parts (except the wafers) and no deposition on the track walls. Al2O3 films with thicknesses in the range 5-24nm were deposited with the following electrical performance: effective lifetimes on 200 μm thick FZ wafers in the range 1.5-2.5ms, dropping to 0.6-0.8ms after a firing-type anneal and on CZ wafers 0.2-0.7ms after firing. 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 6-10 September 2010, Valencia, Spain; 1640-1644

Peer-reviewed journal article Applied Rheology

A lot of research has been done on the adoption of electric vehicles and on the deployment of the infrastructure for charging the batteries of these vehicles. Currently the total number of installed charging points keeps growing due to both public and private investments. Often charging services are offered as free service extensions. Maintaining this free business model will be difficult on the long term because of the investments needed. Therefore, the long term business viability and durability is not always clear from an investor point of view. This work presents a techno-economic model that describes the expected cost and revenue evolution resulting from different deployment strategies for a municipal or private parking facility operator. For charging service providers, charging pole exploiters and infrastructure owners for electric vehicle charging, the model allows to project the expected profitability. The main findings from this research indicate that business cases for public charging infrastructure can be viable, durable and could be competitive with the costs for charging the electric vehicle at home. Also, in a multi-actor market model all actors involved could benefit from deploying electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Although the business cases will be positive, significant investments are needed. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, Vol 14 No 4 (2014)

Ultra short pulse laser ablation is used to open the SiN passivation layer locally. The influence of different wavelengths, pulse durations and fluences on the electrical cell properties after ablation is studied. Furthermore the overlap between pulses and the total ablated area is varied. The experimental approach for the identification of the laser-induced damage uses standard 6 inch polycrystalline H-cells because of the ease of characterization. Results of ablation using a wavelength of 532 nm show low impact on cell properties by femtosecond and nanosecond pulses, but considerably degradation when applying picosecond pulses. Results of ablation using a wavelength of 355 nm show a very low impact by nanosecond pulses on cell properties and even no impact applying picosecond pulses. 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1623-1627