Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Discrete cogeneration optimization with storage capacity decision support for dynamic hybrid solar combined heat and power systems in isolated rural villages

Significance Statement

Smart technology, deployed in rural village energy systems, has emerged as a prominent concept to relieve global energy poverty. It promotes the integration of renewable distributed energy resources by allowing improved data capture, energy management, and control automation. The development of new technologies and control processes, in order to bring clean energy to people living in rural off-grid areas, is needed as an alternative to paraffin and wood-fuel.

Solar cogeneration systems have the ability to attain considerably high levels of energy efficiency. These systems are designed to produce heat and electricity from the same device by recovering energy that would otherwise have been wasted making them suitable for district energy systems in off-grid areas. Solar cogeneration systems are inspiring a large number of developers to come up with packaged cogeneration systems, their emphasis being on functional controller design and scheduling optimization.

Unfortunately, control optimization for systems operating as stand-alone power packs in eco-villages often lack access to wideband wireless and cellular linkage infrastructure. Online control and optimization, therefore, becomes a challenge. Gerro Prinsloo and Robert Dobson from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in collaboration with Andrea Mammoli from University of New Mexico, USA, focused on an integrated on-board control and optimization technique in a bid to realize load demand balancing with specific communication and cost restraints. Their work is published in Energy.

A storage optimization solution was proposed in the study and evaluated within the confines of an energy storage scenario for a rural solar microgrid. They used predicted generation and energy consumption profiles. Using this information along with other economical, physical and environmental restraints, the researchers were able to come up with a day-ahead control plan using an integrated integer linear programming technique.

The authors overlaid the discrete rural village electrical demand per hour onto the main supply contribution. Doing so, they highlighted the mismatch between peak load demand and the solar supply. It was possible to schedule the supply from a consumer point of view, but it wasn’t possible to shift produced loads to a period when excess energy was generated. Load shifting carefully took into consideration daily schedules of the villagers as not to be disruptive. Optimizing the generation schedule allowed the self-consumption and self-generation microgrid controller to reduce the effect on the consumer budget.

It was clear that a significant amount of solar energy was lost during the peak sunlight hours. This was mainly due to a limited microgrid storage capacity. The researchers, therefore, developed a storage optimization decision support system in a bid to curtail the added cost effect on the user. The system could now compare and track operating costs and storage extension capital cost. This would alert the user of billing cost versus operating cost savings that could be obtained by increasing the battery and hot water storage capacity.

Experimental results obtained by the authors indicate that incremental storage optimization can provide energy management efficiency and reduced customer bills. The developed hybrid decision support system ensured that less energy was dumped due to automated microgrid storage capacity specifications. The storage cost optimization gave approximately 66% reduction in daily microgrid liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) costs while the storage optimization posted an approximate annual financial gain of $130, as a result of reduced waste of energy.

About The Author

Andrea Mammoli is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Mexico, and Director of the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies, an organization within the School of Engineering dedicated to research on the integration of distributed energy resources on the electricity grid through system architecture and controls. Mammoli has been active in the field of distributed energy systems since 2005, with projects including solar-assisted HVAC in commercial buildings, building-scale energy storage, distribution-level PV and battery systems, and microgrids, in the context of optimization and controls leading to better economics and enhanced resilience.

He conducts research in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute, Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, among others. Mammoli obtained a Ph.D. in mechanical and materials engineering in 1995 from the university of Western Australia, and was Director’s Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory between 1995 and 1997 in the Energy and Process Engineering group, prior to joining UNM.

About The Author

Gerro Prinsloo is a Mechatronic Engineer and PhD Engineering student at the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Mexico in the USA. He specializes in the mechanical and electronic design aspects of solar thermal systems and solar electrical power generation. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechatronic Engineering from Stellenbosch University in 2011 and a Master’s degree in Mechatronic Engineering from Stellenbosch University in 2014. His PhD research is being conducted at the Centre for Emerging Energy Technologies (CEET) at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and aims to solve challenges faced by rural African villages in terms of solar cogeneration systems with smart Microgrid distribution.

This research aims to implement novel energy management principles to support the use of renewable energy technologies in rural applications. He is a member of the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group (STERG) and a Candidate Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and he continues with Smartgrid research at the CEET Mesa Del Sol Research Labs in Albuquerque.

About The Author

Robert Dobson received his degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1969 and his postgraduate degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1970. He then registered as a Professional Engineer in 1973. He worked at the then Atomic Energy Board until 1980 and gained experience in the design, manufacture and testing of reactor components and systems. He then joined Kwikot LTD and gained experience in the design, manufacture and marketing of electric and solar water heaters and heat pumps. From 1985 and 1987 he was Engineering Services Manager at Kentron Pty LTD, a missile systems manufacturing company. Since 1988 he has been a Lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch. He now gives undergraduate courses in Food Engineering and Heat Transfer. He also gives postgraduate and specialist courses in Twophase Flow and Heat Transfer, and Nuclear Reactor Safety-Systems Engineering.

His research interests are in heat transfer using closed and closed-loop single and two-phase natural circulation thermosyphon-type heat pipes, and thermal management and control using heat pipes and other two-phase flow and heat transfer devices. The research focus on heat to electrical power conversion system safety and reliability enhancement using passive natural circulation systems. Over the past 15 years he has published 56 peer reviewed papers, presented 71 papers at international conferences, supervised 21 thesis projects and is at present supervising and co-supervising 6 Masters and PhD thesis projects.

Reference

Gerro Prinsloo², Andrea Mammoli¹, and Robert Dobson¹. Discrete cogeneration optimization with storage capacity decision support for dynamic hybrid solar combined heat and power systems in isolated rural villages. Energy, volume 116 (2016), pages 1051-1064

Show Affiliations

1. Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, Thermodynamic Research Group, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2. Centre for Emerging Energy Technologies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: An electrochemical approach to measuring oxidative stability of solid polymer electrolytes for lithium batteries

Significance Statement

For any type of commercially rechargeable battery, lithium batteries possess the highest energy density. For this reason, they find vast applications in electric vehicles. However, these batteries contain lithium salts dissolved in flammable solvents. If the battery is damaged, there is a high risk of explosion. Moreover, battery misuse can lead to rise in temperatures leading to dangerous exothermic reactions.

A solution to all these concerns can be found in the production of solid-state batteries. Polymer-lithium salt electrolytes have been analyzed for lithium battery applications. It has been found that polymer electrolytes are safe in the sense that they are nonvolatile, less reactive, less flammable and do not leak. Poly(ethylene oxide) displays higher conductivity when combined with lithium salts than other polymer electrolytes. This polymer can solvate well a good number of salts. Particularly, poly(ethylene oxide) doped with lithium bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide salt exhibits enhanced ionic conductivity. Poly(ethylene oxide) can also be combined with strong polymers like polystyrene to form a robust block copolymer electrolyte.

Unfortunately, little is known about solid electrolyte electrochemical stability. Solid polymer electrolyte degradation may occur in the course of charging and discharging. By-products from side reactions may consume active materials leading to low energy density and reduced battery lifespan. For this reason, Professor Daniel Hallinan Jr. and colleagues developed an electrochemical method to lessen the effects of mass transport, enabling them to determine equilibrium reaction potentials and degradation of the solid electrolyte. Their work is published in Chemical Engineering Science.

The authors prepared two and three-electrode cells in an argon glove box. The cells comprised lithium metal counter electrode, and aluminum, copper, gold or carbon electrodes. They used poly(ethylene oxide) doped with lithium bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide electrolyte. For the three-electrode cell, the authors placed a small lithium metal strip between two electrolyte spacers. They assembled the cell with the prepared polymer electrolyte (and a reference electrode) placed between the counter and working electrodes. These cells were then sealed and taken for electrochemical analysis.

They observed that aluminum corrosion in the poly(ethylene oxide) based electrolyte with bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide was passivated. However, this was not the case with liquid electrolyte containing bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide and ethylene carbonate. The team also noticed no effect of salt concentration in the voltammetry analysis of copper-polystyrene–b–poly(ethylene oxide)-lithium cell. However, current was a function of temperature. The open circuit voltage of the prepared cells corresponded to Cu/Cu²⁺ stripping, but current passage in both the linear sweep voltammetry and the variable reversed linear voltammetry analyses detected Cu/Cu⁺ reaction.

The study also found that gold was not an inert electrode for anodic reaction analyses in lithium cells. Actually, gold electrode posted an anodic reaction lower that the theoretical potential. The oxidative degradation of the solid polymer electrolyte was quantified using glassy carbon electrodes and Butler–Volmer kinetics. The study concluded that oxidative degradation of the polymer electrolytes is a slow reaction with high-activation energy, making them promising candidates for use with high voltage cathodes.

“We are excited about our approach to measuring electrochemical reaction kinetics in solid electrolytes, because such measurements have not been previously performed. Our highlighted work indicates that PEO-based electrolytes should be compatible with advanced (high voltage) cathodes for lithium batteries. We are currently applying our approach to reversible reactions on lithium battery electrodes. We anticipate these results to yield insight into limitations of lithium polymer batteries and enable more accurate modeling of battery performance.” Said Professor Daniel Hallinan Jr.

About The Author

Daniel T. Hallinan Jr. received degrees in Chemical Engineering and Philosophy from Lafayette College. His doctoral research, concerning transport in polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells, was conducted at Drexel University under Professor Joe Elabd. As part of a collaboration during his Ph.D., he also studied transport in polymers under Professor Giulio Sarti at the University of Bologna, Italy. He did postdoctoral research in the labs of Professor Nitash Balsara at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. There he established a laboratory to make lithium batteries using block copolymers and studied lithium dendrite formation in those batteries. He is now an assistant professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

His current research at Florida State University focuses on studying structure and dynamics of nanostructured polymer materials such as block copolymers and polymer-grafted nanoparticles. His projects are focused on increasing the transport rates and the stability of polymer electrolytes for lithium battery and water purification applications.

Reference

Daniel T. Hallinan Jr.^1,2, Alexander Rausch^1,2, and Brandon McGill^1,2. An electrochemical approach to measuring oxidative stability of solid polymer electrolytes for lithium batteries. Chemical Engineering Science, volume 154 (2016), pages 34–41.

Show Affiliations

1. Florida A & M University – Florida State University College of Engineering, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, 2525 Pottsdamer Street, Tallahassee, FL 32310, United States
2. Florida State University, Aero-propulsion, Mechatronics and Energy Center, 2003 Levy Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32310, United States

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Coupled electrochemical thermal modelling of a novel Lithium-ion battery pack thermal management system

Significance Statement

Thermal management systems are crucial for a lithium ion battery pack. High performance, safe operation and longer battery life can be achieved when the battery is operated within a small temperature variation around the room temperature. This demands the application of a thermal management system so as to maintain a safe temperature operation range. Air cooling is among the simplest cooling systems but drawbacks such as low thermal conductivity and low heat capacity discourages its use. This has therefore motivated the development of new liquid coolant thermal management systems for the lithium ion battery pack used mainly for vehicular propulsion.

In a recent paper published in Applied Energy, Suman Basu and colleagues presented a new coupled electrochemical thermal modelling of Lithium-ion battery pack thermal management system. Their aim was to develop an economically feasible, safe, compact and high performance thermal management system for the lithium ion battery pack mainly used in the electric vehicles.

First, the research team designed the novel liquid cooling based thermal management system for the lithium ion pack which comprised of commercially available cells in 6S5P formation (Fig. 1). The design ensured safety and compactness by thermally connecting the cells with conduction elements made of aluminum which are used to conduct the heat away. They then developed a coupled electrochemical thermal model for the battery pack and simulated it. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics was then developed and validated based on numerical model for the electrochemical thermal modeling of the battery pack at high accuracies. The performance of the battery pack under various arrangements and operating conditions was then investigated and reported.

Fig1: Geometry of the Li-ion battery pack and thermal management system.

They observed that the heat generation from the cells is the function of local temperature and reaction rate which had to be resolved so as to predict the thermal performance correctly. The three-dimensional electrochemical model was used to obtain a complete description of the heat generation from the battery pack system. The system also helped in validation against experimental results used to evaluate the performance of the thermal management system under various operating conditions. Thermal contact resistances at the conduction element-channel and cell-conduction element interfaces were observed to be the main hindrance to the operation of this thermal management system (Fig. 2).

Excellent agreement has been achieved between the experimental measurements and simulation predictions from the tests conducted. Application of the thermal interface material at the interfaces is seen to reduce the contact resistances and improve the heat transfer. The thermal management system is seen to cool the pack effectively even at minimal coolant flow rates. At high discharge rate and low coolant flow rate, the maximum temperature rise is kept at a small range. Therefore, this novel and compact thermal management system can work effectively under stringent conditions and is a suitable candidate for electric vehicle battery pack.

Fig 2: Temperature contours of the first set of parallel cells in the pack as a function of contact resistance at the solid-solid interfaces at 0.9 C discharge rate and 0.2 ms-1 flow velocity.

About the author

Suman Basu received his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University working in Electrochemical Engine Center with Prof. C. Y. Wang. He is working in Li-ion battery modelling and simulation project in Samsung R&D India – Bangalore. His main interests are in electrochemical energy storage system, Li-ion battery management system including thermal management and capacity fade, two-phase flow modeling and heat transfer in PEMFC. He received his bachelors and masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur respectively.

Reference

Suman Basu¹, Krishnan S. Hariharan¹, Subramanya Mayya Kolake¹, Taewon Song², Dong Kee Sohn², Taejung Yeo². Coupled electrochemical thermal modelling of a novel Li-ion battery pack thermal management system. Applied Energy volume 181 (2016) pages 1–13

Show Affiliations

1. Next Generation Research (SAIT-India), Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore, #2870 Phoenix Building, Bagmane Constellation Business Park, Outer Ring Road, Doddanekundi Circle, Marathahalli Post, Bangalore 560 037, India
2. Energy Material Lab, SAIT, Samsung Electronics, Republic of Korea

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Assessment of the Pointing Error of Heliostats with a Single Not Polar Rotation Axis for Urban Applications

Significance Statement

In view of increasing energy efficiency with the use of renewable energy, natural daylighting incorporated into buildings has been frequently highlighted due to an achievable reduction in economic cost and greenhouse gas emissions.

Various concentration systems are needed for natural lighting devices for the provision of increased collection of light energy for buildings and urban applications. One of such natural lighting devices is heliostats, which are commonly utilized in small urban applications.

An University of Cordoba researcher team led by Professors Manuel Torres Roldan, Rafael López Luque and Marta Varo Martínez published a research paper in journal, Solar Energy, which analyzes a previously designed heliostat system on its behavior and pointing errors when it’s rotation axis is not oriented along the direction of the Earth’s polar axis.

The authors’ objective was to improve the previous designed polar heliostat system, based on Fahrenheit mechanism, which needs to be oriented towards the Earth’s rotation axis. The improvement deals with the transformation of the polar heliostat mechanism to a generic one with the aid of an automatic control of its rotational speed, thereby eliminating any form of potential architectural restrictions of buildings as a result of the need of redirection in the polar heliostats.

The developed generic heliostat was capable of reflecting the sunbeams with high precision in the desired direction when its rotational speed was controlled automatically.

Considering a fixed focus F located at a height H in the zenithal direction of a terrestrial reference system and a horizontal square plane of side 6H, an average pointing error of 0.01 rad was discovered when the generic heliostat proposed is located at any point of the 36% of the horizontal surface while the average pointing error is below 0.02 rad when the heliostat is located at the 62% of the surface.

When analyzing the behavior of the proposed generic heliostat, it was discovered from graphs of different values of mapping coefficients and angular components that as the mechanism approaches that of the polar heliostat, a better performance was achieved.

The proposed generic heliostat system with Fahrenheit mechanisms and non-polar rotational axis directions can be optimally applied in urban environments due to the achieved admissible pointing errors for smaller urban applications.

Reference

Torres-Roldán, M., López-Luque, R., Varo-Martínez, M.  Assessment of the Pointing Error of Heliostats with a Single Not Polar Rotation Axis for Urban Applications, Solar Energy 137 (2016) 281–289.

Research Group of Physics for Renewable Energies and Resources, University of Córdoba, Albert Einstein Building, Campus de Rabanales, 14071 Córdoba, Spain.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: On-board capacity estimation of lithium iron phosphate batteries by means of half-cell curves

Significance Statement

Battery management systems face usually different challenging tasks. One of the most important concerns the on-board evaluation of the total battery capacity in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. This is due to the fact that the battery capacity has to be computed without necessarily discharging the battery entirely starting from a fully charged state. In fact, during the vehicle operations, the discharge process is mainly carried out in a dynamic condition under variable current rates and temperature. Selecting a method to be used in this process has poised a challenge mainly for lithium iron phosphate cells.

In a recent paper published in Journal of Power Sources, Andrea Marongiu and colleagues estimated lithium iron phosphate batteries capacity by means of half-cell curves. Their research mainly focused on developing a new approach that is based on the detection of the actual degradation mechanisms by collecting plateau information.

First, a model was developed and introduced which described the characteristics of the electrode voltage curves of the lithium iron phosphate cells and the impact of aging on the full cell voltage. A description of the main degradation mechanisms that can occur during the lifetime of the lithium iron phosphate cell and a model capable of describing the effects of degradation on the electrode and on the full cell voltage curves were presented. The research team then introduced a new battery management system structure with an implemented algorithm for on-board capacity estimation.

The results reported in the work show that not all the information from the voltage plateaus has to be collected at the same time although the collection phases have to be over short duration intervals. The new introduced algorithm is simple to parametrize, since only the characteristics of the cell in a fresh state are needed, in terms of stoichiometry and half-cell voltage curves. Eventually, both during charge and discharge the algorithm is able to correctly track the actual battery capacity with an error of approximately 1%. Also, the new proposed BMS structure is designed in a way that part of the novel methodology can run offline (not-real time). This means that the approach can be implemented in cheap microcontrollers, as it does not need to be executed in real time.

The method presented in this paper is valid for lithium iron phosphate /G cells, primarily due to the need of collecting data of plateaus, which is one of the main features of this type of cells. Nevertheless, the proposed model and the approach shown in the literature have a general formulation, which demonstrate the benefit of the tracked aging information for different lithium-ion technologies and additional application scopes.

About The Author

Andrea Marongiu received his master degree in Electrical Engineering from the Cagliari University, Italy, in 2010. In March 2011 he joined the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA) at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, as a research associate and PhD student.

His areas of interest were lithium-ion batteries with special focus on lithium iron phosphate-based cells, EV batteries and the related on board Battery Management System. From August 2016 to February 2017 he worked as Lead Engineer Battery Algorithm at National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB in Sweden. Since March 2017 he works as battery expert at IK4-CIDETEC in Spain, in the field of hybrid system for automotive applications.

About The Author

Dirk Uwe Sauer currently holds the title of professor for electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems at the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA) & Institute for Power Generation and Storage Systems (PGS) at E.ON ERC RWTH Aachen University as well as Principle Investigator at Helmholtz Institute Münster Ionics in Energy Storage.

Originally, professor Sauer studied physics at University of Darmstadt, Germany, and upon graduating in 1994 became a scientist, project coordinator and head of group at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg until 2003. While at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Professor Sauer headed the groups for storage systems, the interdisciplinary team for off-grid and remote power supply-systems, and was the managing director of the club for rural electrification. In 2003, he was appointed as junior professor at RWTH Aachen University, in 2009 he was appointed as professor, and in 2012 he was appointed as full professor for electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems at RWTH Aachen University. In 2010, he became a founding partner of P3 Energy & Storage, and in 2015 he became a founding partner of both BatterieIngenieure GmbH as well as eBusplan GmbH. Together with Prof. Martin Winter he is chairman of the conference “Kraftwerk Batterie / Advanced Battery Power”.

About The Author

Nsombo Nlandi has studied computer science at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany and received his master degree in 2009. In 2013 he got his second master degree in electrical engineering at the University of Hagen, Germany. From 2009 to 2016 he worked as researcher associate at the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA), where he pursued his PhD. His research interests were mainly focused on software for battery diagnostic, namely the development of intelligent Battery Management Systems (BMS). Since August 2016 he has joined National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (Sweden) as Lead Engineer for Embedded Systems.

About The Author

Yao RONG was born in Nanjing, China. He received his bachelor degree in Electrical Power Engineering and Automation from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2007. Afterwards he studied at the RWTH Aachen University the master course of Electrical Power Engineering. During this period he wrote his master thesis at the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA), working meanwhile a student assistant. He obtained his master degree in 2014. In 2015 he joined Jiangsu Marathon Investment Management Co., Ltd In China, where he works currently as chief research officer.

References

Andrea Marongiu^1,3, Nsombo Nlandi^1,3, Yao Rong^1,3, Dirk Uwe Sauer^1,2,3. On-board capacity estimation of lithium iron phosphate batteries by means of half-cell curves.  Journal of Power Sources volume 324 (2016) pages 158-169.

Show Affiliations

1. Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage Systems Group, Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA), RWTH Aachen University, Jägerstrasse 17/19, D-52066 Aachen, Germany
2. Institute for Power Generation and Storage Systems (PGS), E.ON ERC, RWTH Aachen University, Mathieustrasse, D-52074 Aachen, Germany
3. Jülich Aachen Research Alliance, JARA-Energy, Germany

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: The Role of Scientific Knowledge in the Public’s Perceptions of Energy Technology Risks

Significance Statement

Information is a core component of any problem-solving procedure. Understanding the intricacy and nuances of this information can be instrumental to policy makers in solving pressing issues. Public insights have the power to downplay or encourage any political action. How the public receives and processes scientific data and knowledge is crucial in their decision-making process. Varying levels of knowledge about energy produce varying assessments of risk pertinent to specific energy systems.

This paper seeks to examine the role that perceived and objective scientific knowledge may play in the public’s assessment of risk of different energy technologies and how that affects implementation of energy projects.

Professor Arnold Vedlitz from Texas A&M University and Dr. James Stoutenborough at Idaho State University conducted a study on the role of scientific knowledge in the public’s perceptions of energy technology risks. Their work is now published in the journal, Energy Policy.

At first, they had to determine the role of knowledge in the decision making process. The Knowledge Deficit Model was used to conduct the study. It involved collecting public perceptions on matters related to three distinct energy systems – nuclear meltdown threat, burning of coal, and the threat from wind turbines.

It was noted that experts do not consider the assumption of bounded rationality, which considers that individuals do not operate with perfect information associated with an issue. Incomplete information increases the chances of an individual making mistakes during problem-solving processes, leading to creation of improper strategies. First you have to understand a problem before you can solve it. As the Knowledge Deficit Model suggests, those who understand an issue in the same manner as the experts are more likely to view the associated risks in a manner similar to those experts, therefore making a more rational judgement.

The analyses indicate that there is an important distinction between objective and perceived scientific knowledge. Specifically, despite experts holding risk perceptions that differ substantially across the three energy systems, those who were objectively measured to be more knowledgeable about energy were more likely to perceive risk in a manner congruent with the experts. In other words, those who were truly knowledgeable were able to formulate a nuanced understanding of the risk associated with each system, illustrating the flexibility of objective measures of knowledge that are not related to the underlying risk issues examined.

Meanwhile, the authors found that those who believed they understood energy production (both in general and specific to that energy system) were overwhelmingly more likely to perceive higher levels of risk associated with all three energy systems, regardless of the experts’ positions on these systems. These results are important for two reasons. One, it indicates that when people are overconfident in their understanding of an issue, they are more likely to believe the risk associated with that issue is higher. Two, these results suggest that measures of perceived knowledge are not adequate for evaluating an individual’s understanding of an issue. This is important because measures of perceived knowledge are frequently employed to determine issue-specific knowledge. However, this “knowledge” does not result in decision-making that is consistent with an expert’s understanding of the issue. In short, this perceived knowledge will lead to policy prescriptions that may be ineffective.

The authors observed that differences in predictive influence of perceived and assessed knowledge were likely due to the media’s oversimplification of scientific information. Finding a balance between oversimplification and basic scientific literacy is necessary before the public will be able to offer an informed policy decision.

The study concluded that scientific insight does temper public risk evaluations of various energy systems, therefore showing more vividly the connection between science knowledge, scientific trust, and issue problem identification that directly influence the perceived judgement on any energy projects.

About The Author

Dr. Vedlitz is recognized as an expert for his work at the intersection of science-technology and public policy, seeking to understand the processes through which scientific and technical data and discoveries are understood and acted on by decision makers and the public. He examines the role of information; risk assessments; and social, political, economic, and cultural cues in the framing of science discoveries and innovations; the benefits and risks they expose; and the ways in which this information is received and evaluated by policy makers and the public to make public policies, form regulatory regimes and allocate financial resources. He currently focuses on policy formation and decision making for emerging science and technology and the water-energy-food nexus.

Dr. Vedlitz has published in top public policy journals and has published over 120 articles in the field of politics and science and technology policy. He is a co-author and co-editor of a highly cited book from MIT Press dealing with natural resources management and decision making and author of an important book on public policy. He has been principal investigator, co-principal investigator, and senior research scientist on externally funded research projects totaling more than $15.9 million. He serves as a co-director and member of the advisory board of the NIEHS-funded Center for Translational Environmental Health Research as well as division head for the technology and policy division of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and for the technology and policy division of the Texas Transportation Institute, both part of the Texas A&M University System.

He is the recipient of several awards including the Herbert Kaufman Award from the American Political Science Association for the Best Paper (2014) in Public Administration and the Texas A&M University Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching (1980). Dr. Vedlitz received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Houston (1975) and his master’s (1970) and bachelor’s degrees (1968) in Government from Louisiana State University.

About The Author

Dr. Stoutenborough’s research and teaching interests included public policy, U.S. state politics, public opinion, and political psychology with a substantive interest in science and technology issues like climate change and renewable energy.

His research can be found in both the institutional and behavioral paradigms, which he seeking to integrate more strongly. From an institutional perspective, Dr. Stoutenborough examines why institutions (normally, U.S. states) reach particular policy decisions. Within the behavioral paradigm, he is currently researching individual-level behavior as it pertains to political attitude formation, problem identification, agenda setting, and policy adoption.

Specifically, his research examines how risk perceptions, knowledge, trust, and various attitudes influence aspects of the policy process. Dr. Stoutenborough has published his research in Governance, Energy Policy, Water Policy, Climatic Change, Energy¸ Journal of Public Policy, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Review of Policy Research, and in other academic journals.

Dr. Stoutenborough received his Ph.D. (2010) and his M.A. (2005) in Political Science from the University of Kansas (2010) and his B.S. (2003) in Political Science from Kansas State University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

Reference

James W. Stoutenborough¹, Arnold Vedlitz². The role of scientific knowledge in the public’s perceptions of energy technology risks. Energy Policy volume 96 (2016) page 206–216.

Show Affiliations

1. Department of Political Science, Idaho State University, 302 Gravely Hall, Pocatello, ID 83209, USA
2. Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy, The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, 4350 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4350, USA

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Effects of Geographic Area, Feedstock, Temperature, and Operating Time on Microbial Communities of Six Full-Scale Biogas Plants

Significance Statement

Organic waste can be converted to energy by making use of a process known as anaerobic digestion, which involves the breaking down of biodegradable materials by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen. They produce a rich quantity of methane which can be used for cooking, transportation and generation of electricity.

The conversion process, which could be either in mesophilic or thermophilic conditions depending on temperature, contains some certain predominant microbiomes. Therefore, it is important to understand the major phylotypes of Bacteria and Archaea in view of increasing the efficiency of the conversion process.

It is also important to note that different feeds and environmental factors should be considered as major influences of composition and physicochemical properties of the slurry, and their effects during the anaerobic digestion process shouldn’t be undermined.

A group of researchers led by Fabrizio Cappa from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy investigated the effects of different animal feeds at two separate regions and cheese production areas of Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano on the microbiome of six-full scale biogas plants by using indexed Illumina sequencing to identify key phylotypes of Bacteria and Archaea, and a quantitative polymerase chain reaction to determine 16S rRNA gene of total bacteria, archaea, Clostridiales and methanogens populations. The work was published in the journal Bioresource Technology.

The authors observed the effects of feedstock on the production efficiency of methane during the anaerobic digestion process. In Grana Padano biogas plants, the feedstock containing cattle slurry manure, energy crops and agro-industrial by-products had the highest methane concentration with minute accumulation of volatile fatty acids and ammonium concentration.

Biogas plants of the two regions with feedstock containing only cattle slurry manure had the lowest value of specific methane production and volatile solid degradation efficiency. Coupled with the feedstock composition, they also indicated the effects of the hydraulic retention time, organic loading rate and mixing ratio of the substrate as they played a major role in degradation efficiency of volatile solid and specific methane production yield.

Results from the Illumina sequencing analysis while regarding bacterial communities showed that the geographical area, operating temperature and feedstock played a major role in determining of the plant microbiomes while time had a negligible effect. The most predominant phylotypes were discovered to be: Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. Thermotogae phylum found only in the thermophilic biogas plant was clearly related to the hydraulic retention time.

When observing the 16S rRNA gene population of bacteria and Clostridiales, results from the real-time polymerase chain reaction indicated a slight difference between both biogas plants of the two separate regions and as a result, the effect of the geographical location area on bacterial diversity has nothing to do with the order of Clostridiales.

For that of the archaeal community, Illumina sequencing analysis indicated most predominant phylotypes to be Methanosarcina and Methanosaeta in mesophilic biogas plants while Methanoculleus was predominant in thermophilic biogas plant. The Methanosarcina was related to ammonium concentration in the biogas plant.

The mean 16S rRNA gene populations of archaea and methanogens indicated major difference in the archaeal population unlike that of the methanogens where no major difference was found.

This study provided important data on the effects of the geographical location area, feedstock and temperature on anaerobic digestion of organic waste in relation to microbiomes involved in the process.

About The Author

Alessandra Fontana completed Masters in Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Turin, Italy, in 2014. She is currently a PhD student at the Doctoral School on the Agro-Food System at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Italy. Her research is mainly focused on recovery of dairy industry wastes for bioenergy production.

At present, she is also working as guest PhD student within the Bioenergy group at the DTU Environment Department (Technical University of Denmark), in a project involving the biogas upgrading by means of hydrogen produced by water electrolysis using excess electricity from wind mills.

About The Author

Vania Patrone is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Microbiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Italy. Her research is focused on microbial ecology and aims at revealing the identity and physiology of microorganisms within selected environmental or medically relevant systems.
Specifically, her interests include the characterization of gut bacteria and archaea populations to decipher the connection between gut microbial community structure and the onset and progression of disease in both humans and livestock.

A second core research theme is represented by the study of food microorganisms, in particular those related to improving the food quality through fermentation processes, as well as those causing food spoilage. Her areas of expertise range from traditional culture-based microbiological analysis techniques to bio-molecular tools, including genotyping, gene expression, real-time PCR and metagenomics. Since 2016 she coordinates the activities in the microbiome research area of the Research Centre in Nutrigenomics and Proteomics at UCSC.

About The Author

Mirco Garuti completed Masters in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Bologna, Italy, in 2009. He then worked at the Microbial Biotechnology laboratory of Insubria University (Varese, Italy) to optimize fermentation processes aimed at the production of secondary metabolites in Streptomyces strains within a project funding by a private pharmaceutical company.

He is currently working as researcher at the Research Center on Animal Production (CRPA), Italy, focusing on full-scale biogas production improvements, pretreatment technologies, trace elements effects on anaerobic microbial communities, and valorization of agro-industrial by-products in biorefineries. At present, he is also attending a specialization course about Circular Bio-economy.

About The Author

Fabrizio Cappa completed Masters in Agricultural Sciences in 1988. He is a senior researcher at the Institute of Microbiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Italy. His research is focused on food microbiology and dairy industry technologies. He is currently working on the role of clostridia in anaerobic digestion processes by means of both traditional culture-based microbiological analyses and molecular techniques. He is also focusing on the recovery of dairy industry wastes for bioenergy production.

Reference

Fontana, A.¹, Patrone, V.¹, Puglisi, E.¹, Morelli, L.¹, Bassi, D.², Garuti, M.³, Rossi, L.³, Cappa, F.^1,2  Effects of Geographic Area, Feedstock, Temperature and Operating Time on Microbial Communities Of Six Full-Scale Biogas Plants, Bioresource Technology 218 (2016) 980–990.

Show Affiliations

1. Istituto di Microbiologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense, 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy
2. Centro Ricerche Biotecnologiche, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Milano, 24, 26100 Cremona, Italy
3. Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali, C.R.P.A. S.p.A., Viale Timavo, 43/2, 42121 Reggio Emilia, Italy

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Electrochemical behavior of hybrid carbon nanomaterials: the chemistry behind electrochemistry

Significance Statement

Synthesis of hybrid carbon nanomaterials synthesized by temperature-induced opening of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) has yielded three types of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) hybrids. Graphene oxide nanoribbons are basically unzipped multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The main synthesis challenge is the production temperature, which is a critical parameter for the oxygen functional group formation, and determines their electronic structure and their electrochemical performance.

Researcher teams led by Professor Alberto Escarpa from University of Alcala and Professor M. Teresa Martínez at Instituto de Carboquimica ICB-CSIC in Spain proposed to investigate the electrochemical behavior of hybrid carbon nanomaterial production. Their aim was to control the chemistry involved in the production process of nanomaterials, thereby improving the electrochemical performance, which could lead to advanced materials for specific molecular detection. Their work is now published in the peer-reviewed journal Electrochimica Acta

At first, the research team synthesized carbon hybrid nanomaterials by unzipping commercially available MWCNTs at three different temperatures 55 °C, 65 °C and 75 °C, yielding three graphene nanohybrids.

The synthesized carbon nanomaterials were fully characterized by different techniques, such as XRD, Raman, FTIR, XPS and TEM to establish the structural differences according to the different processing temperatures. It was determined that the oxidation degree increases with the production temperature.

Then, electrochemical and impedance measurements were conducted for a wide range of target molecules, at standard temperature, on an electrochemical workplace using a tri-electrode system with a platinum wire, silver-silver chloride and a glassy carbon electrodes.

The team concluded that by controlling chemical oxidation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which generates graphene oxide nanoribbons, new gates are opened leading to exploitation of carbon nanomaterials, as novel materials for both electrochemical sensing and biosensing of relevant target molecules. GONR at 65º C yielded promising revelations by containing specific moieties of suitable electrochemical features, which display amazing analytical performance in electrochemical sensing of varying structure chemical molecules. According to the structural analysis, the electrochemical behavior seems to be associated to the progress of the unzipping reaction that influences the balance between the Csp2/Csp3 ratio, the graphitic fraction and the type of functional groups introduced.

These results exhibit the importance of temperature in the production process, for tailoring a carbon nanomaterial that could be utilized in a specific molecular detection application shedding light into new possibilities for electrochemical sensing applications. It also guides the process to the production of advanced materials to be utilized in a specific molecular detection application.

There is a requirement for advanced renewable energy source technologies in order to meet the long term energy demand challenge and protect the environmental balance. Carbon nanomaterials have great potential to advance renewable energy and supercapacitor technologies. One example is employing and modifying carbon nanotubes as electrodes to increase power production in microbial fuel cells because of their high conductivity and large surface area. This provides an opportunity for the participation of carbon nanomaterials, especially in biofuel cells. Moreover, major breakthrough contributed by carbon nanomaterials in the solar energy sector lies in their application in photovoltaic devices. The new tools and improved synthesis of graphene oxide nanoribbons generated in this study provide an excellent nanomaterial to be used as hole or electron transfer layer in solar cells.

About The Author

Aida Martín is a postdoctoral researcher in Nanoengineering and Biology departments at University of California, San Diego, USA since 2016. Her research interests devotes to wearable sensing and biosensing, microfluidics, micro/nanomachines and electrochemical techniques for bacteria sensing in Pr. J. Wang and Pr. J. Hasty’s groups, respectively. She received his PhD. from the University of Alcala, Spain in 2016 where she worked with graphene and carbon nanomaterials for electroanalysis and using microfluidic techniques under the supervisión of Pr. A. Escarpa. She was also a visitor scholar at University of California San Diego in 2014-2015 where she was immersed into micro and nanomachine technologies.

She is co/author of 20 international papers, one international patent in disposable electrodes based on conducting nanomaterials and one book chapter in carbon nanomaterials for microfluidics.

About The Author

Dr. Alberto Escarpa is Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Alcalá since 2003. He has received several awards such the prestigious NATO post-doctoral Scholarship as postdoc researcher at the New Mexico State University (USA) in 2001 or the “Young Investigator Award” by the University of Alcala in 2003. He is the leader and founder of the group “Analytical Miniaturization and Nanotechnology” since 2003. His research activity is focused on microfluidics, biosensing, nanomaterials and micro motors.

He has co-authored more than 110 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, yielding an h-index of 33, is the editor of the book “Miniaturization of analytical systems: principles, designs and applications” (Wiley, 2009) and “Food Electroanalysis” (2015, Wiley). He has given more than 20 invited talks in highly international meetings about microfluidics and miniaturization of analytical chemistry. He is also Associate Editor of RSC Advances and Electrophoresis and member of the Editorial board of Electrophoresis, Food Chemistry, Applied Materials Today and Microchimica Acta. He is also member of Royal Society of Chemistry since 2016.

About The Author

Alejandro Ansón Casaos was born in Zaragoza in 1978. He obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Zaragoza in June 2005 and is a Research Scientist at Instituto de Carboquimica ICB-CSIC since August 2012. His current research includes fundamentals and applications of carbon nanomaterials, mainly carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide, and their colloids. Most specifically, he is interested in the study of physicochemical properties that are relevant for applications in photocatalysis, photovoltaics, energy storage, sensors, and polymer composites. He likes music, chess, pelota, fitness activities, playing the saxophone, and reading essays, biographies and classical novels.

About The Author

María del Carmen Marín was born in Quesada, in the south of Spain, and studied Chemistry at the University of Jaén. Afterwards, she moved to the University of Alcalá (Madrid) and completing her Master in Characterization of Chemical Systems in 2015. Her research in the group of Prof. Escarpa, involving the development of new materials modified with hybrid nanomaterials. Her results revelated the important of the temperature in the synthesis process. This opened the new opportunities for the electrochemical sensing and biosensing applications.

She is now a PhD student at the University of Siena (Italy) in the group of Prof. Olivucci. The investigation line is the developing a prototype protocol for the automatic and faster construction of congruous sets of QM/MM models of rhodopsin-like photoreceptors and of their mutants. The main application is the prediction of the vertical excitation energies for different set of rhodopsins. This project gave her the opportunity to collaborate with the Laboratory for Computational Photochemistry and Photobiology at the Bowling Green State University (EEUU) in 2016.

About The Author

M. Teresa Martinez graduated in Chemistry (1976) and Chemical Engineering (1978) and received her PhD degree in the field of Chemistry from Zaragoza University in 1982. Currently she is Research Professor at the Institute of Carbon- Chemistry (CSIC) where she previously worked as CSIC Research Fellow and Senior Research Scientist. For the period 2002 to 2006 she became the director of the Institute of Carbon-Chemistry and from 1995 to 2014 she has led the group of Carbon Nanotubes and Nanotechnology. She has worked as visiting Professor in International Research Institutions ; 1989 Clausthal-Zellerfeld University (Germany), 1995 University of Sussex (UK), 2006-2007 Molecular Foundry (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory USA), 2008 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science California University at Berkeley(USA) and University of Santiago de Chile ( 2010).

Concerning specific and inter-personal competencies, she was a member of the European Coal and Steel Experts Committee for “Coal Conversion Area” (2000-2002) and co-chairman of the “Strategic Research Area” of the Hydrogen Platform for the VI Framework Programme 2004). At National level she has been a member of the Research and Development Advisory Committee of the Regional Government for the period 2004-2014 and a member of the CSIC Chemical Science and Technologies Area during the years 2001-2006.

Prof. Martinez has developed her research career in a multidisciplinary sphere in the field of material science, energy and environment and for the last 20 years she has approached these fields from the Nanotechnology developing nanomaterials for Energy, Enviromental and Biotechnological applications. Prof. Martinez research is focused on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, her expertise is the development of materials (synthesis, functionalization and processing of hybrid and compounds materials) based on carbon nanostructures; carbon nanotubes, graphene and graphene quantum dots. The starting point was the pioneering work on the single walled carbon nanotubes production by CO2 Laser (1998) later complemented by CVD and arc-discharge techniques. Today Prof. Martinez and her group (Carbon Nanostructures and Nanotechnology founded in 1995) develop innovative and high quality research at the forefront of science combining physics, chemistry and engineering approaches fostering interdisciplinary research. She is so far, the co-author of over than 200 peer-reviewed publications and hundreds of communications to International Congress in these fields.

About The Author

Dra. María Moreno Guzmán received her degree in Chemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) in 2008 and her PhD in Chemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) in 2013. The project was aimed to develop new miniaturized systems for multiplexed detection using functionalized artificial micro/nanosensors modified with different receptors. The research line focused on the development of artificial nano- and microsensors for analytical and environmental applications.

In 2015 she was moved with the prestigious group MINYNANOTECH (Analytical miniaturization and nanotechnology), under the mentorship of Dr. Escarpa at University of Alcalá, which allowed her to investigate a pioneer and new nanomotors research line with promising applications in the biomedical and analytical fields. Since then, she has participated in more than 7 research projects. She has co-authored over 17 scientific articles in international journals, written 1 book chapter and 21 international communications in national and international conferences. She has an H-index of 8.

She has both theoretical and practical expertise in nanomaterials microfabrication and characterization techniques. She has seven years of experience in developing pioneering methods for the determination of emerging contaminants in environmen and food.

About The Author

Tania Sierra Gómez was born in Madrid, Spain. She studied Chemistry at the University of Alcalá (Madrid). After she completing her Master in Science Research in the specialty of Chemistry in 2016. Her research in the group of Prof. Escarpa, involving the exploration of different nanomaterials and their possible application for electrochemical sensing and biosensing.

She is now a PhD student at the University of Alcalá (Madrid) in the group of Prof. Escarpa. The investigation line is the developing protocol for the determination quickly and a low cost of biomarkers based on glycoproteins for application in diagnosis and evolution of the cancer.

Reference

María Moreno-Guzman¹, Aída Martín¹, María del Carmen Marín¹, Tania Sierra¹, Alejandro Ansón-Casaos², María Teresa Martínez², Alberto Escarpa¹. Electrochemical behavior of hybrid carbon nanomaterials: the chemistry behind electrochemistry Electrochimica Acta volume 214 (2016) pages 286–294.

Show Affiliations

1. Department of Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Alcala, E-28871, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
2. Instituto de Carboquímica ICB-CSIC, Miguel Luesma Castán, 4, E-50018, Zaragoza, Spain

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Climate change impacts in the energy supply of the Brazilian hydrodominant power system

Significance Statement

Renewable energy is a perfect alternative to fossil fuels and is helping many nations curtail their dependence on oil supply and attain an environmentally friendly space. Therefore, new investments in renewable energy such as solar, wind and biomass are helpful in meeting electricity demands and in minimizing the threats of global warming.

Climate change effects have been found to have a direct impact on renewables, which finally affects their electricity generation. For instance, hydroelectricity generation highly depends on water inflow, which is responsible for turning the hydro-turbines. In addition, the amount of water inflow counts on the amount of precipitation, a climate variable that is normally presented in rainfall-runoff models. Precipitation analyses in different places show contrasting rainfall characteristics as compared with historical data, and this is expected to intensify in days to come.

It therefore becomes important to account for different climatic scenarios in the analyses of renewable energy when designing efficient power systems. In a recent work published in Renewable Energy Professor Anderson Rodrigo de Queiroz and colleagues reported considerable advances in the investigation of climate change and climate scenario effects on water inflow generated by the regional Eta climate model. An optimization model is implemented when making a decision in the event of a hydro-thermal scheduling problem. Their work indicates that climate change can affect the system assured energy and the system’s capacity to supply load. The assured energy represents the amount of energy that a set of power plants can generate at a risk of 5% of deficit.

The authors considered two configurations of the Brazilian Power Generation System for their analysis. One was the existing generation system representing the current condition of the Brazilian Interconnected power system while the second was the future generation system, which represented the planned configuration. The proposed future generation system had ten sub-systems with two fictitious interconnection nodes.

The team implemented results from climate models to represent natural processes as well as their interactions in the atmosphere, and physical features. They used information from models, which accounts for characteristics of elements such as aerosols, snow, clouds, and solar radiation, to first simulate present climatic conditions before future projections.

The authors implemented the large basin rainfall-runoff hydrological model to evaluate rainfall-runoff functions for every river basin of the selected system. The model included selected soil and vegetation attributes of each region represented, and is composed of mathematical relations of soil water balance, surface and subsurface drainage as well as interception.

The researchers realized that the system assured energy was bigger for the first period taking into account the four members of the climate model. This was a concern considering that all the existing plants will most likely produce less electricity in days to come. From the results of the future generation system, the study indicated a similar decrease in electricity generation implying that with the proposed hydro power plant expansion, the effects of climate change will take the overall generation to approximately 28% less than the projected hydro-power production using the historical series. In fact, they recorded a drop of about 15% and 28% for existing generation system and future generation system respectively.

An increase in other water uses was also found to significantly affect the system’s assured energy. Increased domestic and industrial water demands would lead to reduced water inflows in the hydro plants, and consequently lead to reduced power generation.

In this paper, the authors provided a framework and performed an investigation implementing a combination of climatic projections scaled at regional levels, a generation optimizer and a rainfall-runoff model. This was in a bid to evaluate the effects of climate change in hydro power generation.

About The Author

Dr. Anderson Rodrigo de Queiroz is a research assistant professor in the CCEE department at North Carolina State University (NCSU). He is member of the computing and systems group and the Operations Research (OR) program at NCSU. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering, major in Power Systems, both from Federal University at Itajubá (UNIFEI), in Brazil, in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He has a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, in 2011. Prior to joining NCSU he worked as a consultant / researcher in several projects for the industry and utilities. From 2013 to 2015 he was an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNIFEI.

His research interests include operations research where his focus is on large-scale stochastic optimization, analytics and decision-making techniques with applications to planning and operation, economics and design of electrical and energy systems and climate-water-energy nexus.

About The Author

Dr. Luana Medeiros Marangon Lima is an analytical consultant at MC&E. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering both from Federal University at Itajubá (UNIFEI), in Brazil, in 2005 and 2007, respectively. She has a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, in 2011. She worked as a consultant in several projects applying OR techniques to solve energy related problems. From 2013 to 2016 she was an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNIFEI.

Her research interests include application of statistical methods to quantify and deal with uncertainty in data and the use of forecasts in decision-making models such as power generation planning and operation. She also has experience with transmission and distribution network regulation and pricing procedures in the new Smart Grid environment.

About The Author

Dr. José Wanderley Marangon Lima is a senior consultant at MC&E and a voluntary professor at Federal University at Itajubá (UNIFEI), Brazil. He has a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from IME/RJ (1979), B.SC. in Business Administration from UFRJ/RJ (1980), a D.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering from UFRJ/RJ (1994).

He is a Senior Member of IEEE and Cigré. From 1980 to 1993, he was with Eletrobrás as senior engineer working on Power System operations and planning. He was with UNIFEI as a Professor of Electrical Engineering (1993-2015). He did his sabbatical at University of Texas at Austin in the Operations Research Department (2005-2006). He was with the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) as an advisor to director (1998-1999). He was the coordinator of the Price and Tariff Technical Committee at Ministry of Mines and Energy (2001-2002). In 2003, he was also with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and elaborated the New Brazilian Electricity Model. He is author and co-author of more than 150 papers published in journals and seminars about Energy, Regulation and Power Systems Operation and Planning. He has been a consultant for more than 20 companies and utilities.

About The Author

Dr. Benedito Cláudio da Silva is a assistant professor in the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI), in Brazil. He is member of the Energy and Water Resources Group of NRI. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering, both from UNIFEI, in 1996 and 2000, respectively. He has a D.Sc. Degree in Water Resources from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, in 2011. Prior to joining as assistant professor at UNIFEI he worked as a consultant / researcher in several projects. His research interests include Hydrological modeling, inflow forecasting, urban drainage, hydrological and meteorological integration, climate change, hydrometry, water resources management and hydropower plants.

About The Author

M.Sc. Luciana Alvim Scianni received her BSc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in 1993 and MSc in Electrical Engineering from Universidade Federal de Itajubá (UNIFEI) in 2014, with thesis on the Climate Change Impacts on Power Generation in Brazil.
With more than 15 years of experience on project management, she worked as senior Project Manager at SMS Demag LTDA between 2000 and 2006. At VALE, from 2006 to 2008, worked with prospection plans to install Steel Making Plants in Brazil. After that, she worked as the Market Intelligence Manager at Vale Soluções em Energia – VSE, from 2008 until 2010. Since 2010, she´s been working as a consultant at MC&E on projects in Power System economics and regulation.

References

Anderson Rodrigo de Queiroz¹, Luana M. Marangon Lima², Jose W. Marangon Lima³, Benedito C. da Silva⁴, and Luciana A. Scianni³. Climate change impacts in the energy supply of the Brazilian hydrodominant power system. Renewable Energy, volume 99 (2016), pages 379-389.

Show Affiliations

1. CCEE Department at North Carolina State University, 2501 Stinson Dr., 27607, Raleigh, NC, USA
2. Institute of Electrical and Energy Systems at the Federal University of Itajubá, BPS Av., 1303, 37500-903, Itajubá, MG, Brazil
3. MC&E Research, R. Sebastião Pereira Leite, 48, 37500-099, Itajubá, MG, Brazil
4. Institute of Natural Resources at the Federal University of Itajubá, BPS Av., 1303, 37500-903, Itajubá, MG, Brazil

 

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Recycling Electroplating Sludge to Produce Sustainable Electrocatalysts for the Efficient Conversion of Carbon Dioxide in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell

Significance Statement

One of the promising ways involves the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into useful gases in the presence of a suitable catalyst mostly metal. However, there exist certain limitations to the excessive use or this technique due to the need for a catalyst to function at high overpotential and the growing price of metals.

The use of a disposed electroplating sludge which comprises of certain organic compounds and metals as electrocatalysts has shown huge potential in electrolytic reaction. The successful use of the electroplating sludge could actually be cost-effective.

A microbial electrolysis cell is often classified as a potential source for renewable energy applications, as they have the ability to convert organic compounds into energy. The microbial electrolysis cell which also adapts a proton exchange membrane also has the ability to reduce high overpotential during electrochemical process. Hence, a means of using electroplating sludge in a microbial electrolysis cell could definitely achieve some positive results.

In a recent paper published in Electrochimica Acta, Professor Yong Yuan at Guangdong Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences and Professor Haoran Yuan and Lifang Deng and their colleagues at Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in China investigated the feasibility and efficiency of a thermally treated electroplating sludge as electrocatalysts for reduction of carbon dioxide to wanted products while considering a microbial electrolysis cell.

At first, the authors confirmed the presence of certain metallic compounds responsible for initiating carbon dioxide reduction when analyzing the thermally treated electroplating sludge.

The thermally treated electroplating sludge possessed high positive potential for carbon reduction compared to the previously reported ones. They also revealed a high catalytic activity during the conversion process.

At a certain potential, the thermally treated electroplating sludge performed efficient reduction of carbon dioxide in the microbial electrolysis cell as six main products; methane, ethylene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and acetate were produced while methane had the highest production rate.

The thermally treated electroplating sludge when compared with the thermally treated municipal sludge and thermally dyeing sludge possessed the highest current densities and Faraday efficiencies for the converted products. The thermally treated electroplating sludge showed excellent stability in the microbial electrolysis cell during the conversion process of carbon dioxide.

The authors also provided a possible pathway mechanism for reduction of carbon dioxide with the use of the thermally treated electroplating sludge catalyst. They found that carbon dioxide was first reduced to a carbonate ion before being protonated by bicarbonate ions to produce methane, ethylene, carbon dioxide and acetate.

This study developed successfully a platform where electroplating sludge can be recycled as a useful catalyst for conversion of carbon dioxide into wanting gases.

About The Author

Li-Fang Deng completed her Master’s studies at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. She worked as a research assistant at Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2011 to present). She has authored over 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her scientific interests include development of wastewater treatment, application of microbial biotechnologies and development of electrochemical catalysts.

About The Author

Hao-Ran Yuan is currently a Professor of Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received Ph.D. in Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2010). He has published around 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests include clean utilization of combustible solid waste, utilization and low carbon emission of high value organic waste, development of electrochemical catalysts and the transformation of coal fired boiler.

About The Author

Prof. Yong Yuan is a Distinguished Professor of school of Environmental Science and Technology at Guangdong University of Technology (2017-present). He received Ph.D. in Environmental Biotechnology from Konkuk University in South Korea (2005-2009). He worked as a Professor at Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental Science and Technology from 2009 to 2017. He has authored over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests include development of microbial energy harvesting systems, application of microbial biotechnologies and development of electrochemical catalysts.

Reference

Yuan, H.^1,3,4, Deng, L.^1,3,4, Cai, X.², Zheng, T.^1,3,4,5, Zhou, S.², Chen, Y.¹, Yuan, Y.² Recycling Electroplating Sludge to Produce Sustainable Electrocatalysts for the Efficient Conversion of Carbon Dioxide in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell,  Electrochimica Acta 222 (2016) 177–184.

Show Affiliations

1. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
2. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environment Pollution Integrated Control, Guangdong Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
3. Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
4. Guangdong Key Laboratory of New and Renewable Energy Research and Development, Guangzhou 510640, China
5. Green Biomanufacturing Research Institute, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, China

 

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