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Topic Review
Solar Thermal Systems
The use of solar thermal systems (STSs) has reached a significant edge. The increasing research on developing an alternative power supply for limiting fossil fuel usage and climate change are the driving forces of STSs. STSs’ applications, including PV/T or “photovoltaic/thermal” systems, zero-energy buildings, greenhouse solar thermal applications, solar thermal for pumping water, solar thermal refrigerators, solar chimneys, water desalination, and solar collectors, along with the benefits and challenges of these applications.
  • 1.5K
  • 28 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Electrospun Nanofibers in Batteries
Electrospinning spinning techniques enables spinning continuous nanofibers with typical diameters in the range of some ten to some hundred nanometers. Rechargeable or secondary batteries are electrochemical power sources commonly utilized in portable devices such as camcorders, mobile phones, laptops, and electric transportations. In general, batteries are comprised of one or more electrochemical cells. Positive electrode (cathode), negative electrode (anode), porous separator membrane, and ionic conductive electrolyte are the essential components for fabrication of each electrochemical cell, electrospun fibers could enhanced various characteristics of electrolytic cells.
  • 1.5K
  • 06 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Bimetallic Ni-Based Catalysts CO2 Methanation
CO2 methanation has recently emerged as a process that targets the reduction in anthropogenic CO2 emissions, via the conversion of CO2 captured from point and mobile sources, as well as H2 produced from renewables into CH4. Ni, among the early transition metals, as well as Ru and Rh, among the noble metals, have been known to be among the most active methanation catalysts, with Ni being favoured due to its low cost and high natural abundance. However, insufficient low-temperature activity, low dispersion and reducibility, as well as nanoparticle sintering are some of the main drawbacks when using Ni-based catalysts. Such problems can be partly overcome via the introduction of a second transition metal (e.g., Fe, Co) or a noble metal (e.g., Ru, Rh, Pt, Pd and Re) in Ni-based catalysts. Through Ni-M alloy formation, or the intricate synergy between two adjacent metallic phases, new high-performing and low-cost methanation catalysts can be obtained.
  • 1.5K
  • 12 May 2021
Topic Review
Solar Energy Technologies' Sustainable Development towards Solar Photovoltaics
Renewable energy was available in rural areas in the form of wind farms, solar plants, biomass plants and others. In urban contexts, particularly with the use of solar energy technologies called solar energy systems in buildings, such as solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV). The viewpoints on solar energy technologies for sustainable development is  particular to emphasis on photovoltaic (PV), as well as the solar energy technology performance, in order to ascertain worldwide solar energy adoption trends. 
  • 1.5K
  • 29 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Semiconductor Materials for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO2
The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 is one of the most effective methods to control CO2 pollution. Therefore, the development of novel high-efficiency semiconductor materials has become an important research field. Semiconductor materials need to have a structure with abundant catalytic sites, among other conditions, which is of great significance for the practical application of highly active catalysts for CO2 reduction. The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 is a surface/interface reaction. It is important to find and use raw materials which are environmentally friendly and effective as catalysts.
  • 1.5K
  • 27 May 2022
Topic Review
Distribution Measurement Technologies
The integration of advanced measuring technologies in distribution systems allows distribution system operators to have better observability of dynamic and transient events. In this work, the applications of distribution grid measurement technologies are explored in detail. The main contributions of this review are the review of the most recent applications of micro-Phasor Measurement Units, Smart Meters, and Power Quality Monitoring devices used in distribution systems, considering different novel methods applied for data analysis; In addition, this work derives an input-output table that relates measured quantities from micro-Phasor Measurement Units and Smart Meters needed for each specific application found in this extensive review. 
  • 1.5K
  • 22 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Li-Ion Battery Technologies
Lithium-ion battery is a rechargeable battery, which mainly relies on the movement of lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes to work. Lithium-ion batteries use an intercalated lithium compound as an electrode material. Currently, the main common cathode materials used as lithium ion batteries are: lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganate, lithium nickelate and lithium iron phosphate.
  • 1.5K
  • 15 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Fault (Power Engineering)
In an electric power system, a fault or fault current is any abnormal electric current. For example, a short circuit is a fault in which current bypasses the normal load. An open-circuit fault occurs if a circuit is interrupted by some failure. In three-phase systems, a fault may involve one or more phases and ground, or may occur only between phases. In a "ground fault" or "earth fault", current flows into the earth. The prospective short-circuit current of a predictable fault can be calculated for most situations. In power systems, protective devices can detect fault conditions and operate circuit breakers and other devices to limit the loss of service due to a failure. In a polyphase system, a fault may affect all phases equally which is a "symmetrical fault". If only some phases are affected, the resulting "asymmetrical fault" becomes more complicated to analyse. The analysis of these types of faults is often simplified by using methods such as symmetrical components. The design of systems to detect and interrupt power system faults is the main objective of power-system protection.
  • 1.5K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Microgrids in Harbor
Energy efficiency and low-carbon energy systems are increasingly taken into account in seaports, due to climate change challenges and the evolution of environmental regulations. Thus, technological breakthroughs must be brought to numerous systems in harbors, such as harbor cranes, seaport vehicles, or the power supply of berthed vessels. These aspects may require the establishment of a microgrid in the harbor area. Microgrids have been subjected to a wide development on the mainland and islands, mostly for domestic loads. However, these are still scarce in harbor areas. Their development in such places faces several challenges, such as high power requirements, monitoring and management of a wide range of loads, energy policy framework, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a microgrid involves a study of sizing and of energy management, to avoid prohibitive costs and to verify load requirements.
  • 1.5K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Properties of Bio-Crude Oil
The bio-crude oil, a dark brown viscous liquid, comprises a mixture of light hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds, and remarkably, it contains a high liquid content, constituting up to 75 wt%, while generating gas and char as by-products, albeit in lower yields of about 12 wt% and 13 wt%, respectively.
  • 1.5K
  • 13 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Drying Biomass Using Solar Energy
In the world, energy used for drying processes consumes 7–15% of industrial energy. Therefore, the cost of this energy is a crucial challenge to looking for an alternative source of energy, for example, solar energy. Solar energy is available in almost all the world, is free and provides a clean and free pollution energy source. Furthermore, solar energy has a higher development potential than other alternative energy sources, such as the ocean, biomass and geothermal.
  • 1.5K
  • 28 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Data-Driven Fault Diagnosis Methods for Nuclear Power Plants
Fault diagnosis plays an important role in complex and safety-critical systems such as nuclear power plants (NPPs). With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), extensive research has been carried out for fast and efficient fault diagnosis based on data-driven algorithms.
  • 1.5K
  • 23 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Conservation-Compatible Retrofit Solutions
Historic, listed, or unlisted, buildings account for 30% of the European building stock. Since they are complex systems of cultural, architectural, and identity value, they need particular attention to ensure that they are preserved, used, and managed over time in a sustainable way. This implies a demand for retrofit solutions able to improve indoor thermal conditions while reducing the use of energy sources and preserving the heritage significance. Often, however, the choice and implementation of retrofit solutions in historic buildings is limited by socio-technical barriers (regulations, lack of knowledge on the hygrothermal behaviour of built heritage, economic viability, etc.). 
  • 1.5K
  • 24 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Fault Detection in DHC Systems
Peak shaving, demand response, fast fault detection, emissions and costs reduction are some of the main objectives to meet in advanced district heating and cooling (DHC) systems. In order to enhance the operation of infrastructures, challenges such as supply temperature reduction and load uncertainty with the development of algorithms and technologies are growing. Therefore, traditional control strategies and diagnosis approaches cannot achieve these goals. Accordingly, to address these shortcomings, researchers have developed plenty of innovative methods based on their applications and features. The main purpose of this article is to review recent publications that include both hard and soft computing implementations such as model predictive control and machine learning algorithms with applications also on both fourth and fifth generation district heating and cooling networks. 
  • 1.5K
  • 18 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Smart Cities and Older-Adults Mobility
Smart cities have a set of characteristics: smart governance, smart economy, smart environment, smart people, smart living, and smart mobility. This entry aimed to identify: (i) the relevant applications based on information technologies and requiring smart cities’ infrastructure to facilitate the mobility of older adults in URBAN SPACES; (ii) the type of data being used by the proposed applications; (iii) the maturity level of these applications; and (iv) the barriers TO their dissemination. 
  • 1.5K
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Short-Term Firm-Level Energy Consumption Forecasting
To minimise environmental impact, avoid regulatory penalties, and improve competitiveness, energy-intensive manufacturing firms require accurate forecasts of their energy consumption so that precautionary and mitigation measures can be taken. Deep learning is widely touted as a superior analytical technique to traditional artificial neural networks, machine learning, and other classical time series models due to its high dimensionality and problem solving capabilities. Despite this, research on its application in demand-side energy forecasting is limited. We compare two benchmarks (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), and an existing manual technique used at the case site) against three deep learning models (simple Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU)) and two machine learning models (Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Random Forest) for short term load forecasting (STLF) using data from a Brazilian thermoplastic resin manufacturing plant. We use the grid search method to identify the best configurations for each model, and then use Diebold-Mariano testing to confirm the results. Results suggests that the legacy approach used at the case site is the worst performing, and that the GRU model outperformed all other models tested.
  • 1.4K
  • 23 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Alternative Fuels in Maritime Sector
The current sulfur oxide (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and greenhouse gases (GHG) regulations have pressured international maritime transportation to adopt lower-emission fuels. Alternative fuels have received strong attention due to the fact they can be cleaner and environmentally friendly and, in some options, similar to the heavy fuel oil (HFO) and marine gas oil (MGO) used. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) is undoubtedly the main low carbon alternative with many ships already operating with this source in the world. Eighty-eight percent of the papers referred to LNG as an important source in the maritime sector for greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction. Hydrogen is one of the most cited options (16.2%). In a tank-to-wheel assessment, H2 from fossil sources has nil GHG emissions, which can also be highly carbon-intensive when analyzed from a well-to-wheel perspective. Biodiesel is a renewable and low carbon source, which represented 14.5% of total mentions. This option, together with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) (3.8%) and straight vegetable oil (SVO) (3.4%) are sources that can be blended into the current marine engines without further modification. 
  • 1.4K
  • 12 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Fermentation of Woody Biomass
As greenhouse gas emissions are continuously increasing, research is now privileging greener and more sustainable human activities. An attractive strategy in the pursuit of sustainability is the valorization of lignocellulosic biomasses for the production of bioethanol. This approach relies on the bioconversion of wood and agricultural waste, which are abundant globally. They represent considerable sources of fermentable sugars that can be recovered through enzymatic hydrolysis. However, the presence of lignin in wood waste makes it more recalcitrant to enzymatic hydrolysis, and reduces the efficiency of the bioconversion process. Therefore, a pretreatment preceding hydrolysis is highly necessary in order to disrupt the resistant structure of woody biomass. The type and severity of the pretreatment affect the outcomes of the hydrolysis and fermentation steps, just as they strongly influence the overall process costs. Given this context, bioenergy production from this biomass is a promising alternative method of sustainably responding to energy demands while reducing the amounts of waste left in nature. 
  • 1.4K
  • 13 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Lignin-First Biorefinery
Conventional lignocellulosic-biomass-utilization strategies have difficulty in avoiding the undesirable condensation of reactive intermediates during biomass deconstruction, which poses fundamental challenges for commercial applications. Lignin-first biorefinery inhibits the condensation of reactive intermediates either by selectively catalyzing the conversion of these intermediates to stable derivatives or by avoiding their formation by functionalizing natural structures or intermediates. This strategy has attracted wide attention from researchers since it was proposed.
  • 1.4K
  • 10 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Gas-Liquid Membrane Contactors with Aqueous-Amine Solvents
Gas–liquid membrane contactor (GLMC) is a promising process intensification technology for offshore natural gas conditioning in which weight and footprint constraints impose severe limitations. Thanks to its potential for substituting conventional packed/trayed columns for acid-gas absorption and acid-gas solvent regeneration, gas-liquid membrane contactors have been investigated experimentally and theoretically, wherein aqueous-amine solvents and their blends are the most employed solvents for carbon dioxide removal from natural gas in gas-liquid membrane contactors. 
  • 1.4K
  • 19 Sep 2022
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