"Frontiers in Energy"

Ou, Xunmin;Zhang, Xu;Zhang, Qian;Zhang, Xiliang

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0263-9

Abstract The LanzaTech process can convert carbon monoxide-containing gases produced by industries, such as steel manufacturing, into valuable fuel products. The life-cycle analysis (LCA) of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from the LanzaTech process has been developed for a Chinese setting using the original Tsinghua China Automotive LCA model along with a customized module developed principally for the process. The LCA results demonstrate that LanzaTech gas-to-liquid (GTL) processing in China’s steel manufacturing is favorable in terms of life-cycle fossil energy and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 50% compared with the conventional petroleum gasoline. The LanzaTech process, therefore, shows advantages in both energy-savings and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared with most bio-ethanol production pathways in China.

Babaa, Fatima;Khezzar, Abdelmalek;Oumaamar, Mohamed el kamel

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0258-6

Abstract A transient model for an induction machine with stator winding turn faults on a single phase is derived using reference frame transformation theory. The negative sequence component and the 3rd harmonic are often considered as accurate indicators. However, small unbalance in the supply voltage and/or in the machine structure that exists in any real system engenders the same harmonics components. In this case, it is too difficult to distinguish between the current harmonics due to the supply voltage and those originated by inter-turn short-circuit faults. For that, to have the correct diagnosis and to increase the sensitivity and the reliability of the diagnostic system, it is crucial to provide the relationship between the inter-turn short-circuits in the stator winding and the supply voltage imbalance through an accurate mathematical model and via a series of experimental essays.

Chandrasekaran, Srinivasan;Amarkarthik, Arunachalam;Sivakumar, Karuppan;Selvamuthukumaran, Dhanasekaran;Sidney, Shaji

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0268-4

Abstract To convert wave energy into usable forms of energy by utilizing heaving body, heaving bodies (buoys) which are buoyant in nature and float on the water surface are usually used. The wave exerts excess buoyancy force on the buoy, lifting it during the approach of wave crest while the gravity pulls it down during the wave trough. A hydraulic, direct or mechanical power takeoff is used to convert this up and down motion of the buoy to produce usable forms of energy. Though using a floating buoy for harnessing wave energy is conventional, this device faces many challenges in improving the overall conversion efficiency and survivability in extreme conditions. Up to the present, no studies have been done to harness ocean waves using a non-floating object and to find out the merits and demerits of the system. In the present paper, an innovative heaving body type of wave energy converter with a non-floating object was proposed to harness waves. It was also shown that the conversion efficiency and safety of the proposed device were significantly higher than any other device proposed with floating buoy. To demonstrate the improvements, experiments were conducted with non-floating body for different dimensions and the heave response was noted. Power generation was not considered in the experiment to observe the worst case response of the heaving body. The device was modeled in artificial neural network (ANN), the heave response for various parameters were predicted, and compared with the experimental results. It was found that the ANN model could predict the heave response with an accuracy of 99%.

Krishnavel, Alagarsamy;Mohanta, Dusmata Kumar;Reddy, M. Jaya Bharata

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0265-7

Abstract With the prevailing power scenario, every watt-second of electrical energy has its own merit in satisfying the consumer demand. At the state of such a stringent energy demanding era, failure of a power generation equipment compounds the energy constraints which will not only result in a huge loss of generation but also have an impact on capital revenue. The unexpected failure of generator step-up (GSU) transformer is especially a major disturbance in the power system operation and leads to unscheduled outages with power delivery problems. The time lag in bringing back the equipment in service after rectification or replacement may increase the criticality as the process involves mobilization of spares and maintenance professionals. Hot atmosphere existing in the vicinity of thermal power stations running round-the-clock with more than 100% plant load factor (PLF) increases the thermal stress of the electrical insulation which leads to premature failure of windings, bushings, core laminations, etc. The healthy state of the GSU transformer has to be ensured to minimize the loss of power generation. As the predication related to failure of a GSU transformer is associated with some uncertainties, a fuzzy approach is employed in this paper along with actual field data and case studies for the well-being analysis of GSU transformer.

Keche, Ashok Jayawant Rao;Rao, Gaddale Amba Prasad

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0247-9

Abstract Energy conversion systems based on biomass are particularly interesting because biomass utilization effectively closes the carbon cycle besides achieving self-sustainability. Biomass is particularly useful for highly populated and agriculture dependent economic nations like China and India. A compact and cost effective downdraft gasification system was developed. The present paper describes an experimental investigation on a biomass based gasifier engine system with a capacity of 35 kVA for power generation application. The problem of cooling and cleaning the hot and dirty gas from the gasifier has been satisfactorily solved by the effective cooling and filtration system. The gasifier developed is observed to be operation friendly. The quality of gas was evaluated in terms of its composition, conversion efficiency and total particulate matter. The maximum output of the power plant was obtained at the combustion zone temperature of 850°C. The experimental investigations showed that the percentage reduction in total particulate matter is 89.32%. The conversion efficiency of the biomass gasifier is found to be dependent on the operation conditions and fuel properties of the gasifier. The optimum value of equivalence ratio was observed to be 0.3134 for achieving the maximum gas conversion efficiency of the present gasifier configuration.

Panda, Manoj Kumar;Pillai, Gopinath;Kumar, Vijay

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0269-3

Abstract In this paper an interval type-2 fuzzy logic controller (IT2FLC) was proposed for thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC) to improve power system damping. For controller design, memberships of system variables were represented using interval type-2 fuzzy sets. The three-dimensional membership function of type-2 fuzzy sets provided additional degree of freedom that made it possible to directly model and handle uncertainties. Simulations conducted on a single machine infinite bus (SMIB) power system showed that the proposed controller was more effective than particle swarm optimization (PSO) tuned and type-1 fuzzy logic (T1FL) based damping controllers. Robust performance of the proposed controller was also validated at different operating conditions, various disturbances and parameter variation of the transmission line parameters.

Wang, Lei;Liu, Jing

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0271-9

Abstract As the basis of modern industry, the roles materials play are becoming increasingly vital in this day and age. With many superior physical properties over conventional fluids, the low melting point liquid metal material, especially room-temperature liquid metal, is recently found to be uniquely useful in a wide variety of emerging areas from energy, electronics to medical sciences. However, with the coming enormous utilization of such materials, serious issues also arise which urgently need to be addressed. A biggest concern to impede the large scale application of room-temperature liquid metal technologies is that there is currently a strong shortage of the materials and species available to meet the tough requirements such as cost, melting point, electrical and thermal conductivity, etc. Inspired by the Material Genome Initiative as issued in 2011 by the United States of America, a more specific and focused project initiative was proposed in this paper—the liquid metal material genome aimed to discover advanced new functional alloys with low melting point so as to fulfill various increasing needs. The basic schemes and road map for this new research program, which is expected to have a worldwide significance, were outlined. The theoretical strategies and experimental methods in the research and development of liquid metal material genome were introduced. Particularly, the calculation of phase diagram (CALPHAD) approach as a highly effective way for material design was discussed. Further, the first-principles (FP) calculation was suggested to combine with the statistical thermodynamics to calculate the thermodynamic functions so as to enrich the CALPHAD database of liquid metals. When the experimental data are too scarce to perform a regular treatment, the combination of FP calculation, cluster variation method (CVM) or molecular dynamics (MD), and CALPHAD, referred to as the mixed FP-CVMCALPHAD method can be a promising way to solve the problem. Except for the theoretical strategies, several parallel processing experimental methods were also analyzed, which can help improve the efficiency of finding new liquid metal materials and reducing the cost. The liquid metal material genome proposal as initiated in this paper will accelerate the process of finding and utilization of new functional materials.

Saravanan, Balasubramaniyan;Sikri, Surbhi;Swarup, K. S.;Kothari, D. P.

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0259-5

Abstract In the present electricity market, where renewable energy power plants have been included in the power systems, there is a lot of unpredictability in the demand and generation. There are many conventional and evolutionary programming techniques used for solving the unit commitment (UC) problem. Dynamic programming (DP) is a conventional algorithm used to solve the deterministic problem. In this paper DP is used to solve the stochastic model of UC problem. The stochastic modeling for load and generation side has been formulated using an approximate state decision approach. The programs were developed in a MATLAB environment and were extensively tested for a four-unit eight-hour system. The results obtained from these techniques were validated with the available literature and outcome was good. The commitment is in such a way that the total cost is minimal. The novelty of this paper lies in the fact that DP is used for solving the stochastic UC problem.

Brahmi, Houda;Dhifaoui, Rachid

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0242-1

Abstract This paper presents a mathematical model of photovoltaic (PV) module and gives a strategy to calculate online the maximum power point (MPP). The variation of series and shunt resistor are taken into account in the model and are dynamically identified using the Newton-Raphson algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by laboratory experiments obtained by implementing the model on the dSPACE DS1104 board.

Chen, Hua;Wang, Xiaolin

2013 "Frontiers in Energy"

doi: 10.1007/s11708-013-0254-x

Abstract The zone model has been widely applied in control analysis of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to achieve a high building efficiency. This paper proposed a modified zone model which is much simpler in the HVAC system simulation and has the similar accuracy to the complicated simulation model. The proposed model took into consideration the effect of envelop heat reservoir on the room indoor temperature by introducing the thermal admittance of the inner surfaces of the building enclosure. The thermal admittance for the building enclosure was developed based on the building thermal network analytical theory and transfer function method. The efficacy of the proposed model was demonstrated by comparing it with the complicated model — heat balance method (HTB2 program). The predicted results from the proposed model well agreed with those from the complicated simulation. The proposed model can then make the HVAC system dynamic simulation much faster and more acceptable for control design due to its simplicity and efficiency.