MEMS-based microheaters integrated gas sensors

Abstract

In the present work efforts have been made to develop microheater integrated gas sensors with low power consumption. The design and simulation of a single-cell microheater is carried out using ANSYS. Low power consumption (<35?mW) platinum micro-heater has been fabricated using bulk micromachining technique on silicon dioxide membrane (1.5?μm thin), which provided improved thermal isolation of the active area of 250?×?250?μm². The micro-heater has achieved a maximum temperature of ～950?°C at an applied dc voltage of 2.5 V. Fabricated mircro-heater has been integrated with SnO₂ based gas sensors for the efficient detection of H₂ and NO₂ gases. The developed sensors were found to yield the maximum sensing response of ～184 and ～2.1 with low power consumption of 29.18 and 34.53?mW towards the detection of 1?ppm of NO₂ gas and 500?ppm of H₂ gas, respectively.     

Development of 72‐kV high‐pressure air‐insulated GIS with vacuum circuit breaker

SF₆ gas has excellent dielectric strength and interruption performance. For these reasons, it has been widely used for gas‐insulated switchgear (GIS). However, use of SF₆ gas has become regulated under agreements set at the 1997 COP3. Thus, investigation and development for GIS with a lower amount of SF₆ gas are being carried out worldwide. Presently, SF₆‐free GIS has been commercialized for the 24‐kV class. Air or N₂ gas is used as the insulation gas for this GIS. On the other hand, SF₆‐free GIS has not been commercialized for the 72‐kV‐class GIS. The dielectric strengths of air and N₂ gas are approximately one‐third that of SF₆ gas. To enhance the insulation performance of air and N₂ we have investigated a hybrid gas insulation system which has the combined features of providing an insulation coating and suitable insulation gas. We have developed the world's first 72‐kV SF₆‐free GIS. This paper deals with key technologies for SF₆‐free GIS, such as the hybrid insulation structure, a bellows for the high‐pressure vacuum circuit breaker, a newly designed disconnector and spacer, and prevention of particle levitation. Test results of the 72‐kV high‐pressure air‐insulated GIS with the vacuum circuit breaker are described. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 157(4): 13–23, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20451     

Modelling of chemical surface acoustic wave sensors and comparative analysis of new sensing materials

Comparative analysis of different, new gas sensing materials in surface acoustic wave chemical sensors is presented. Different gas sensing materials as polyaniline (PANI), Teflon AF 2400, polyisobutylene (PIB), polyepichlorohydrin (PECH) are considered. They are chosen according to the type of gas to be detected and the desired accuracy: Teflon AF 2400 thin film for the detection of CO₂, PANI nanocomposites film that belongs to the group of conductive polymers for the detection of CO, NO₂ and phosgene (COCl₂), and PECH and PIB for the detection of dichloromethane (CH₂Cl₂, DCM). In the analysis, the simple and useful method of the complete analyses of gas chemical sensors is used. The method is based on the electrical equivalent circuit of the surface acoustic wave sensor. The method is very efficient and can be used for the optimal design of CO₂ sensors. The results are compared with those presented in public literature and good agreement is obtained, demonstrating the validity of modelling. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于SF6混合气体绝缘性能的设备补气策略研究

随着电力需求的增长和环境保护要求的提高,SF₆气体的使用逐渐受到限制。SF₆混合气体在一定程度上减少了SF₆气体用量,目前已经在电气设备中应用。文中针对SF₆混合气体在220 kV气体绝缘组合电器（GIS）中发生泄漏引起的绝缘变化展开研究,通过改变微量的气压值和混合比,探究混合气体的绝缘性能变化,分析气压、混合比因素对工频击穿电压的影响规律,获取各气压下各比例混合气体的绝缘强度曲线图,从而得到保证设备安全稳定运行的补气策略。研究发现,混合气体击穿电压的变化规律呈现出随着压强和混合比的提高,非线性程度增大的特点,并且得到了设备安全运行的混合比和气压的边界值。文中的研究可以为SF₆/N₂混合气体绝缘设备提供运维规程和技术标准,同时为制定混合气体的检测技术标准奠定基础。     

The Conceptual Process Arrangement of a Steam–Gas Power Plant with Fully Capturing Carbon Dioxide from Combustion Products

The article proposes a new concept for designing power plants operating on natural gas and involving means for fully removing carbon dioxide from the cycle in the liquid phase form in order to subsequently bind or bury it for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In contrast to means used in the conventional power plant process arrangements for capturing CO₂ from the combustion products, the proposed concept involves the need to develop fundamentally new power engineering technologies, in which the CO₂ utilization system is intrinsically built into the cycle structure already at the initial stage of power plant design and optimization of its parameters. As an example, the process flow diagram of a natural gas fired power plant generating electricity and heat is considered. The integral indicators characterizing the thermal efficiency of such a power plant are given and compared with the similar indicators of the operating or newly designed plants fitted with CO₂ capturing systems, the process arrangement of which implies direct emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The comparison is carried out for the average ratio between the generated electricity and heat that has historically been established in the climatic zone of central Russia. It is shown that the proposed cycle features high thermodynamic efficiency and competitiveness with respect to the same indicators of alternative systems for combined generation of electricity and heat. The article suggests versions of the CO₂ capturing system configuration that allows, with the modern technological level of equipment, the carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced down to 0.5–5.0% of the total amount produced in firing natural gas.     

Insulation characteristics of CO2 gas for nonstandard lightning impulse oscillations: Evaluation method of nonstandard lightning impulse waveform for CO2 gas insulation

SF₆ gas is widely used in electric power apparatus such as gas‐insulated switchgears (GIS), because of its superior dielectric properties; however, it has been identified as a greenhouse gas at COP3 in 1997, and alternative insulation gases to SF₆ have recently been investigated. One of the candidates is CO₂ gas, which has lower global warming potential (GWP). However, CO₂ gas has a lower withstand voltage level than SF₆ gas; therefore, it is necessary to rationalize the equipment insulation level and reexamine the insulating test voltage for electric power apparatus as low as possible. From our previous investigation, in SF₆ gas insulation system, we obtained that the insulation requirements of the real surges (called nonstandard lightning impulse waveform) are not as severe as those of the standard lightning impulse waveform. This paper describes the evaluation method for real surges, based on insulation characteristics of CO₂ gas gaps. Furthermore, the method was applied to typical field overvoltage waveform in the lightning surge time region for 500‐kV systems and it is obtained that the equivalent peak value of the standard lightning impulse waveform is possibly reduced by 10 to 15%. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 163(3): 1– 9, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20560     

Adsorption of gas molecules and the induced magnetic properties of metal-decorated graphene

Based on the first-principles of density-functional theory (DFT), the effects of gas adsorption on the change in adsorptive configurations, electronic structures and magnetic properties of graphene with magnetic metal atoms (MMA = Fe, Co, Ni and Mo) systems were investigated. Four metal atoms are strongly trapped at single vacancy graphene (MMA/SV-graphene) and can effectively regulate the adsorption of CO and O₂ molecules. It is found that the positive charged of MMA are more prone to adsorb the O₂ than that of CO molecule, and these gas molecules on MMA/SV-graphene induce a different type of magnetic properties of systems. Hence, the differences in electronic and magnetic properties of MMA/SV-graphene with the gas molecules are expected to design graphene-based gas sensors and spintronic device.     

Analytical modeling and analysis of Al m Ga1−m N/GaN HEMTs employing both field-plate and high-k dielectric stack for high-voltage operation

In this paper, a new high-voltage Al _m Ga_1?m N/GaN HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistors) with Field-Plate and high-k dielectric stack, Graded two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) Channel Field-Plate Stack dielectric (GCFPS) HEMTs structure has been reported. The proposed structure has shown enhancements of the performances of the GaN-based HEMTs taking into account the effects of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization fields. In order to analyze this structure, a 2D analytical model has been developed where the expressions for 2D channel potential and electric field distribution have been derived. It was shown that the GCFPS design exhibits significantly reduction of the electric field peaks along the 2DEG channel. Therefore, the breakdown voltage (BV) is greatly improved in comparison with the standard AlGaN/GaN FP-HEMTs. The developed model is validated by the good agreement with the 2D simulated data.     

Proposal and Evaluation of a New‐Type Cogeneration System for Energy Saving and CO2 Emission Reduction

The paper proposes a cogeneration system which generates four types of energy or material resources: electricity, steam, hot water, and freshwater. The proposed system can capture CO₂, and be constructed on the basis of a combined cycle power generation system which consists of a gas turbine and a back‐pressure extraction turbine. In the proposed system, power is produced by driving the gas turbine system. High‐pressure saturated steam with medium temperature is produced in the heat recovery steam generator by using gas turbine exhaust gas, and then superheated with a regenerative superheater in which the fuel is burned by using oxygen instead of air for driving the steam turbine generator. Water and CO₂ are recovered from the flue gas of the regenerative superheater. It has been estimated that the proposed system has a net power generation efficiency of 41.2%, a heat generation efficiency of 41.5%, and a total efficiency of 82.7%. Freshwater of 1.34 t/h and CO₂ of 1.76 t/h can be recovered. It has also been shown, when a case study was set and evaluated, that the proposed system can save 31.3% of energy compared with the conventional energy supply system, and reduce CO₂ emission by 28.2% compared with the conventional cogeneration system. Copyright © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Development of new‐type outdoor termination using composite insulator with SF6 gas: Commercial use for 77‐kV transmission lines and development for 154‐kV XLPE cable

Recently, composite insulators have been increasingly employed mainly for economic reasons. We have developed a new type of outdoor termination using a composite insulator, which can be installed horizontally on a steel tower in order to reduce the construction cost. In this outdoor termination, SF₆ gas is filled in the composite insulator and a cold shrinkable premolded rubber unit is applied instead of the combined use of a rubber‐molded stress relief cone, epoxy resin insulator and spring unit. The application of the composite insulator, SF₆ gas and cold shrinkable premolded rubber unit reduces the total weight and makes it possible to install the termination horizontally on the tower. The new‐type outdoor termination for 77‐kV XLPE cable has already been applied in commercial use and enabled a reduction of the construction costs for power transmission lines. A 154‐kV new‐type outdoor termination has been developed and its initial electrical tests were successfully completed. This paper describes the design and performance of both 77‐kV and 154‐kV new‐type outdoor termination, and a follow‐up survey of the 77‐kV new termination in a commercial use. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(4): 18– 26, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20511     

Insulation characteristics and its evaluation method of N2 gas for nonstandard lightning impulse waveforms

Until recently, SF₆ gas has widely been used as the best insulating medium in substation equipment. However, SF₆ gas was specified to be a greenhouse gas at COP3 in 1997 because of its high global warming potential (GWP), and alternative insulation gases to SF₆ have been sought for a long time. Alternatives using the natural gases are considered to be suitable, but none of them show better properties for insulation as well as good environmental compatibility. Therefore, it is necessary to rationalize the equipment insulation level and reduce the test voltage of electric power apparatus to as low a level as possible. The actual lightning surge waveform (so‐called nonstandard lightning impulse waveform) occurring in the actual field is different from the standard lightning impulse waveform (1.2/50 μs). There are many cases in which the actual lightning surge waveform has a steep rise and large decay of overvoltage, and the insulation requirements are not as severe as those for the standard lightning impulse waveform. In this paper, we focused our research on N₂ gas as an SF₆ substitute and investigated the insulation characteristics of N₂ gas for a single‐frequency oscillatory waveform with various frequencies from 2.7 to 20.0 MHz and damping ratios. Based on the experimental results, it might be possible to reduce the test voltage of N₂ gas insulation by evaluating the crest value of the actual lightning surge waveform that has been converted into an equivalent standard lightning impulse waveform. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 167(2): 10–20, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20754     

WO3/BTO heterostructures based NO2 sensor with enhanced response characteristics

Abstract

In the present work, an efficient NO₂ gas sensor has been realised using single phase Barium titanate, BaTiO₃, (BTO) thin film, grown by chemical solution deposition technique (CSD). The gas sensing characteristics of BTO thin film were enhanced by integrating WO₃ modifier in the form of uniformly distributed circular nano-clusters and continuous overlayer. The WO₃ nanoclusters/BTO sensing element exhibited enhanced sensor response (～156) with fast response speed (16?s) at a relatively low operating temperature (140?°C) towards 50?ppm NO₂ gas. An attempt has been made to explain the sensing mechanism involving the twin effect of “Fermi-level exchange mechanism” and “spill over mechanism” upon interaction with target NO₂ gas. The obtained results in the present work are encouraging for the realization of hand-held NO₂ gas sensor.     

Development of a high‐pressure air‐insulated 72/84‐kV disconnecting switch corresponding to bus‐transfer current switching

SF₆ gas has excellent dielectric strength and current interruption performance. For these reasons, it has been widely used for gas‐insulated switchgear (GIS). Today, such global environmental problems as global warming are important issues of concern. SF₆ gas is known as a greenhouse gas with a long atmospheric lifetime, and has global warming potential of 23,900. SF₆‐free 72‐kV GIS was recently developed by using high‐pressure air and a gas/solid hybrid structure. But an alternating current disconnecting switch (DS) has yet to be developed thus making this type of SF₆‐free 72‐kV GIS unsuitable for double bus‐bar application. Consequently, the development of a high‐pressure air‐insulated DS corresponding to bus‐transfer current switching has been expected. The bus‐transfer current is the highest among all current interruption requirements for the DS. To develop an alternating current DS, efforts must be made to reduce arcing damage to the electrode. This paper describes the fundamental characteristics of current interruption in the plain break type and the magnetic field driven type. Then, average arcing time of the magnetic field driven type was estimated by magnetic flux density. Finally, two types of DS, which were a high‐speed plain break and a low‐speed magnetic field driven, were confirmed to comply with bus‐transfer current switching requirements on JEC standard. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 167(2): 48–55, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20595     

基于混合气体热特性的GIL氮气使用配比研究

SF₆存在全球变暖潜能值高,价格昂贵等问题,因此具有良好的绝缘性能和环境友好性的SF₆/N₂混合气体被认为是目前最具发展前景的SF₆替代气体。在保证气体绝缘输电线路(Gas insulated transmission lines,GIL)绝缘水平的前提下,对SF₆/N₂混合气体的热特性进行研究,确定不同条件下的SF₆/N₂混合比,对减少SF₆使用量,降低电力设备对环境的影响具有重要意义。因此,本文利用有限元分析法,建立电磁场-流体-温度场耦合的三维GIL模型,通过改变SF₆/N₂混合比、绝缘气体压力、负载电流和环境温度得到不同工况下的GIL热特性,从而确定SF₆/N₂混合比与温升之间的关系。仿真结果为GIL选择合适的SF₆/N₂混合比提供依据,具有良好的工程应用前景,对减少SF₆使用量,降低电力设备对环境的影响具有重要意义。#$NL关键词：GIL;SF₆/N₂混合气体;气体绝缘;有限元分析;热特性分析#$NL中图分类号：TM75     

A CO2-recovering nonpolluting high-efficiency gas-turbine power-generation system utilizing saturated steam as its working gas

A carbon dioxide-recovering high-efficiency gas-turbine power-generation system is proposed in which carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated is recovered by adopting the oxygen (O₂) combustion method and no thermal nitrogen oxide is generated. In the system, saturated steam produced by utilizing waste heat is adopted as the working fluid of the gas turbine. Thus, the compressing process of the working fluid gas, which is the most energy-consuming process in generating power by using a gas turbine, is not needed. This makes the system extremely high efficient. By taking saturated steam of 210°C as an example, the characteristics of the system were simulated. The net exergetic efficiency of the system has been estimated to be 48.4 percent by considering both the exergy of the saturated steam and the electric power required not only to generate high-pressure oxygen, but also to liquefy the recovered CO₂. The value is higher than the exergetic efficiency 37.8 percent of large-scale thermal power generation plants using the same natural gas, and is 28.0 percent higher than its efficiency of 37.8 percent, the one estimated if the CO₂ generated is removed and recovered from the stack gas by using alkanolamine-based solvent and the recovered CO₂ is liquefied.     

A study on hybrid insulation composition joint using gas and solid insulator for gas‐insulated power equipment

SF₆ is used as the main insulation gas for gas‐insulated switchgear (GIS), but it has recently become a gas that must be restricted because of its greenhouse effects. To date, we have studied the insulation characteristics of compressed N₂ and CO₂ as possible alternatives for SF₆. We have reported that N₂ or CO₂ must be pressurized to 2.0 MPa when it is used as a substitute for SF₆ at 0.5 MPa. Therefore, we have proposed a hybrid installation composition that uses gas and solid insulators. Because the central conductor of GIS is covered by a solid insulator in this composition, a high‐pressure gas at 2.0 MPa is not needed. However, the joint of the solid insulator becomes a weak point for discharge development. In this paper, we describe an effective configuration for improvement of the withstand voltage based on experiments. The most effective connector was made of resin without an implant electrode and the most effective configuration was one without a solid–solid interface between the solid insulator of the central conductor and the resin connector. In this experiment, the improvement of breakdown electric field of the hybrid composition was 44% or more compared with the case of only gas insulation (conventional method). In addition, further improvement can be expected by optimizing the insulation creepage distance and configuration. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 178(1): 11–20, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21107     

Treatment of exhaust gas from vehicles by discharge plasma reactors

The exhaust gas from diesel engines is one of the major causes of air pollution. As one method for pollution control, the authors have been developing plasma reactors. The authors' reactor is a concentric cylinder type which has a glass tube barrier between electrodes. Connecting two of these reactors in series, the NO_x (NO + NO₂) component from diesel engine exhaust gas is decomposed up to 93%. This reactor was mounted on a 3-liter diesel engine and received six-mode load testing at an authorized public facility (JARI, Tsukuba City) and cleared the legal critical value of 350 ppm of NO_x. By this success, the effectiveness of discharge plasma treatment of diesel exhaust gas and its practical evaluation have been confirmed. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 120(2): 1–7, 1997     

线—板式脉冲电晕放电系统研究

线—板式电晕放电系统被广泛应用于大型除尘器及烟气脱硫反应器上。通过改变收集极板间距、放电极邻距及脉冲成形电容值,研究这些参数变化对高压ｎｓ级脉冲波形的影响,为设计脉冲电晕脱硫反映器内部电极结构提供了实用性实验依据。     

E级燃气轮机进气系统加湿降氮效果

燃气轮机在运行中氮氧化物受环境影响排放并不稳定,环境湿度是影响燃气轮机氮氧化物排放的因素之一。在大气湿度较低的工况下,燃气轮机极易出现排放超标情况,考虑氮氧化物排放的环境湿度影响因子,通过改造燃气轮机进气系统增加进气加湿装置,以实现在环境工况干燥时通过增加相对湿度降低重型燃气轮机氮氧化物排放水平。通过实际运行,验证了本文所提改造方法可有效降低燃气轮机在部分负荷工况下的氮氧化物排放。     

Novel SnO2@open microcell-liked graphene network as efficient detection for NO2

Abstract

The design of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with novel porous structure has attracted tremendous attention owing to their larger specific surface area. Herein, three-dimensional open microcells, bowl-shaped RGO were fabricated through spray drying method which employed polystyrene spheres as a sacrificial template. The bowl-shaped, open microcell-liked pores observed in the RGO network had an average diameter of ≈1?μm. Subsequently, the catalytic SnO₂ nanoparticles were loaded on RGO network via a simple solvothermal method (SnO₂@RGO), and their gas sensing properties were investigated at room temperature (RT). In a comparison with pristine RGO network, the SnO₂@RGO composite exhibited almost 4 times higher response to 400?ppm NO₂ at RT and rapid recovery time. The extraordinary sensing performance can be attributed to the novel open microcell-liked porous microstructure with the SnO₂ catalyst nanoparticles.