Joint power distribution and charging network design for electrified mobility with user equilibrium decisions

Rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) requires the development of a highly flexible charging network. The design and management of the charging infrastructure for EV-dominated transportation systems are intertwined with power grid operations both economically and technically. High penetration of EVs in the future can increase the charging loads and cause a wide range of operational issues in power distribution networks (PDNs). This paper aims to design an EV charging network with an embedded PDN layout to account for energy dispatch and underlying traffic flows in urban transportation networks supporting electric mobility in the near future. A mixed-integer bilevel model is proposed with the EV charging facility location and PDN energy decisions in the upper level and user equilibrium traffic assignment in the lower level considering an uncertain charging demand. The objective is to minimize the cost of PDN operations, charging facility deployments, and transportation. The proposed problem is solved using a column and constraint generation (C&CG ) algorithm, while a macroscopic fundamental diagram concept is implemented to estimate the arc travel times. The methodology is applied to a hypothetical and two real-world case study networks, and the solutions are compared to a Benders decomposition benchmark. The east-coast analysis results indicate a 77.3% reduction in the computational time. Additionally, the benchmark technique obtains an optimality gap of 1.15%, while the C&CG algorithm yields a 0.61% gap. The numerical experiments show the robustness of the proposed methodology. Besides, a series of sensitivity analyses has been conducted to study the impact of input parameters on the proposed methodology and draw managerial insights.     

Cell-Derived Vesicles for Antibiotic Delivery—Understanding the Challenges of a Biogenic Carrier System

Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) sparked substantial therapeutic interest, particularly due to their ability to mediate targeted transport between tissues and cells. Yet, EVs’ technological translation as therapeutics strongly depends on better biocompatibility assessments in more complex models and elementary in vitro–in vivo correlation, and comparison of mammalian versus bacterial vesicles. With this in mind, two new types of EVs derived from human B-lymphoid cells with low immunogenicity and from non-pathogenic myxobacteria SBSr073 are introduced here. A large-scale isolation protocol to reduce plastic waste and cultivation space toward sustainable EV research is established. The biocompatibility of mammalian and bacterial EVs is comprehensively evaluated using cytokine release and endotoxin assays in vitro, and an in vivo zebrafish larvae model is applied. A complex three-dimensional human cell culture model is used to understand the spatial distribution of vesicles in epithelial and immune cells and again used zebrafish larvae to study the biodistribution in vivo. Finally, vesicles are successfully loaded with the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin (CPX) and showed lower toxicity in zebrafish larvae than free CPX. The loaded vesicles are then tested effectively on enteropathogenic Shigella, whose infections are currently showing increasing resistance against available antibiotics.     

Joint column generation and Lagrangian relaxation technique for incident respondent location and allocation

Incident response operations require effective planning of resources to ensure timely clearance of roadways and avoidance of secondary incidents. This study formulates a mixed-integer linear program to minimize the total expected travel time and maximize the demand covered. The model accounts for the location, severity, frequency of incidents, dispatching locations, and availability of incident respondents. An integrated methodology that includes column generation and Lagrangian relaxation with a density-based clustering technique that defines incident hot spots is proposed. The hybrid approach is applied to an empirical case study in Raleigh, NC. A network instance with 10,672 incident sites, clustered with a search distance (ε) of 5 min, is solved efficiently with an optimality gap of 1.37% in 2 min. A Benders decomposition technique is implemented to conduct benchmark analyses. The numerical results suggest that the proposed algorithm can solve the problem efficiently and outperform the benchmark solutions.     

Continuous cultivation of Debaryomyces hansenii (LAF-3 10 U) on dodecane in synthetic desalter effluent at varying dilution rates on dodecane

Desalter effluent (DE) is typically discharged into a petroleum wastewater treatment plant, but its high salt concentration deteriorates the biological treatment. This study used various dilution rates to investigate the treatment of a synthetic DE containing dodecane under saline conditions using a halotolerant yeast, Debaryomyces hansenii, to determine the optimum substrate concentration for use in continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs). A literature review indicated that this study was the first to examine the biological treatment of DE using D. hansenii in a CSTR system. At a low dodecane substrate concentration, DE did not inhibit D. hansenii growth, and the experimental data approached the Monod model, with μ_max and K_s selected as 0.08 h⁻¹ and 1575 mg L⁻¹, respectively. The optimum removal of chemical oxygen demand (95.7% and 85%) was obtained at dilution rates of 0.007 and 0.026 d⁻¹. Using D. hansenii in a CSTR system appeared to be a sustainable approach for the biological treatment of DE. Scale-up of these laboratory findings to the industrial scale is required to confirm that petroleum DE can be treated using equalization and filtration tanks as a continuous bioreactor. Adjusting the dilution rate can provide sufficient time for biodegradation and hydrocarbon removal from high salt DE by halotolerant yeasts like D. hansenii.     

Power consumption in a moving baffle oscillatory baffled reactor: A CFD study

Oscillatory baffled reactors (OBRs) can perform high-intensity mixing under low power consumption, and thus are viable replacements for stirred tank reactors in biological, chemical, and polymer processes. This study simulated the flow inside a moving baffle OBR with single orifice baffles using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The effect of operational and geometrical parameters along with the fluid density and viscosity on average power consumption and maximum power consumption was investigated, and appropriate correlations for both average and maximum power consumption were obtained. It was found that average and maximum power consumption are independent of viscosity, and amplitude has a greater impact on maximum power consumption than on average power consumption. These correlations were then compared with available power models (that showed an acceptable level of discrepancies) in the literature. Lower power consumption values obtained from CFD results compared to those obtained from quasi-steady state model (QSM) and eddy enhancement model (EEM) models (developed for stationary baffle OBRs) under the same operating conditions, along with higher axial dispersion of moving baffle OBRs compared to stationary baffle types under the same operating conditions, indicated that a moving baffle OBR is a more efficient mixing device than a stationary baffle OBR in terms of power consumption. The ratio of average power consumption to maximum power consumption was proven to be independent of the type of fluid and a very weak function of oscillation frequency.     

Butter fortified with spray-dried encapsulated Ferulago angulata extract nanoemulsion and postbiotic metabolite of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum improves its physicochemical,microbiological and sensory properties

Butter is a valuable dairy product, and its sensory attributes can be changed due to oxidative rancidity and microbial contamination. This study investigated the effect of Ferulago angulata extract nanoemulsion (FAEN) on butter properties alone or in combination with postbiotic metabolites produced by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum (PMLP) into the butter in the free form or spray-dried encapsulated. The combination of the encapsulated form of FAEN and PMLP in butter indicated that it is capable of controlling peroxide and acidity values and increases the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities consequently leading to the increased shelf life of butter.     

Thermo-Mechanically Assisted Grain Growth in Ti6Al4V Fabricated Using the Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing During High-Temperature Mechanical Testing

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - High-temperature mechanical behaviors of metal alloys and the underlying microstructural variations responsible for such behaviors are important areas...     

Simulation and Optimization of Back Surface Field for Efficient HIT Solar Cells

Silicon - We investigate an appropriate material for the optimisation of Back Surface Field (BSF) layer in Heterojunction with Intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells:...