Re-Looking into the Active Moieties of Metal X-ides (X- = Phosph-, Sulf-, Nitr-, and Carb-) Toward Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Non-precious metal-based catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) have been extensively studied, among which the transition metal X-ides (including phosph-ides, sulf-ides, nitr-ides, and carb-ides) materials are emerging as promising candidates to replace the benchmark Ir/Ru-based materials in alkaline media. However, it is controversial whether the metal Xides host the real active sites since these metal Xides are thermodynamically unstable under a harsh OER environment—it has been reported that the initial metal Xides can be electrochemically oxidized and transformed into corresponding oxides and (oxy)hydroxides. Therefore, the metal Xides are argued as “pre-catalysts”; the electrochemically formed oxides and (oxy)hydroxides are believed as the real active moieties for OER. Herein, the recent advances in understanding the transformation behavior of metal Xides during OER are re-looked; importantly, hypotheses are provided to understand why the electrochemically formed oxides and (oxy)hydroxides catalysts derived from metal Xides are superior for OER to the as-prepared metal oxides and (oxy)hydroxides catalysts.     

基于VMD和改进TCN的短期光伏发电功率预测

光伏发电功率存在波动性,且光伏出力易受各种气象特征影响,传统TCN网络容易过度强化空间特性而弱化个体特性。针对上述问题,文中提出一种基于VMD和改进TCN的短期光伏发电功率预测模型。通过VMD将原始光伏发电功率时间序列分解为若干不同频率的模态分量,将各个模态分量以及相对应的气象数据输入至改进TCN网络进行建模学习。利用中心频率法确定VMD的最优分解模态分解个数。在传统TCN预测模型的基础上,使用DropBlock正则化取代Dropout正则化以达到抑制卷积层中信息协同的效果,并引入注意力机制自主挖掘并突出关键气象输入特征的影响,量化各气象因素对光伏发电的影响,从而提高预测精度。以江苏省某光伏电站真实数据为例进行仿真实验,结果表明所提预测方法的RMSE为0.62 MW,MAPE为2.03%。     

基于跨临界CO2热泵的茶叶生产能源系统负荷削减潜力

乡村产业中的化石能源设备逐渐被电能技术替代，引起了乡村负荷波动增大、部分时段产生集中高负荷的问题。为了解决以上问题，将低品位清洁能源应用至乡村的茶叶生产中，针对烘茶全过程的工艺要求提出了跨临界CO₂热泵烘茶技术；并以某茶叶生产乡村为对象，对其代表台区的全年日用电量及产茶日负荷进行了分析，得出采用CO₂热泵烘茶后其负荷得到大幅度削减，整体可降低至原负荷的39.6%~46.8%，峰值负荷与平时负荷的比值由原本的13.6降至5.4~6.2。跨临界CO₂热泵应用至农产品生产中可有效缓解乡村供电压力。     

Measurement of vertical and horizontal vibrations of a probe for acoustic evaluation of food texture

Two‐dimensional (vertical and horizontal) vibrations of a wedge‐type probe upon food rupture were evaluated separately using two accelerometers placed perpendicular to a guide rod of a swing‐arm device for texture evaluation of the flesh of three varieties of apples and three types of potato chips. Voltage signals from the accelerometers were filtered using a half‐octave band‐pass filter. The energy texture index (ETI), based on kinetic energy of the vertical or horizontal probe vibrations, was calculated over low to high frequency bands (no. 1–21). The spectra for the flesh of the three varieties of apples included two common peaks for vertical ETI at band no. 11 (1,120–1,600 Hz) and 19 (17,920–25,600 Hz) and horizontal ETI at band no. 1 (0–10 Hz) and 15 (4,480–6,400 Hz). The spectra for the three types of potato chips had a common ETI peak at band no. 11 (1,120–1,600 Hz) for horizontal ETI and at no. 15 (4,480–6,400 Hz) for vertical ETI. The three apple varieties gave rise to different intensities of vertical and horizontal ETIs while the two peaks were maintained. The thick potato chip type had higher vertical and horizontal ETIs than the thin and soft varieties in most bands; however, the thin type had the highest vertical ETIs only in lower bands (0–200 Hz). The soft type had the lowest vertical and horizontal ETI. The above results suggest that different food textures can be distinguished by two‐dimensional vibration analyses of probe insertion into a food sample based on frequency bands.     

Discriminating between the effect of pulse width and duty cycle on the hydrogen generation performance of 3-D electrodes during pulsed water electrolysis

The present study investigates the effect of applying voltage and current pulses during alkaline water electrolysis using 3-D Ni-based electrodes. The pulses had a square shape and alternated hydrogen production and resting time. When voltage pulses were applied, it was observed that the current at on-time was systematically higher than the current during DC electrolysis. However, during off-time, a change in polarization was observed, which decreased the overall voltage pulse performance. For pulses with a 50% duty cycle and a pulse width of 1 ms, the current response was mainly capacitive and almost no hydrogen production occurred. Current pulses on the other hand were proven to be much more promising in improving the energetic process efficiency. In that case, a pulse period of 2 ms resulted in an overpotential reduction of 17% for a 50% duty cycle. This reduction further increased to 28% when decreasing the duty cycle to 20%. Finally, in all cases where faradaic processes were dominant, applying a forced electrolyte flow was shown to be beneficial.     

Cu-assisted induced atomic-level bivalent Fe confined on N-doped carbon concave dodecahedrons for acid oxygen reduction electrocatalysis

Atomically dispersed transition metals anchored on N-doped carbon have been successfully developed as promising electrocatalysts for acidic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Nonetheless, how to introduce and construct single-atomic active sites is still a big challenge. Herein, a novel concave dodecahedron catalyst of N-doped carbon (FeCuNC) with well confined atomically dispersed bivalent Fe sites was facilely developed via a Cu-assisted induced strategy. The obtained catalyst delivered outstanding ORR performance in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ media with a half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.82 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE), stemming from the highly active bivalent Fe-N_x sites with sufficient exposure and accessibility guaranteed by the high specific surface area and curved surface. This work provides a simple but efficient metal-assisted induced strategy to tune the configurations of atomically dispersed active sites as well as microscopy structures of carbon matrix to develop promising PGM-free catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications.     

α-Stirling hydrogen engines for concentrated solar power

α-Stirling engines are receiving more and more attention for applications of concentrated solar power in small power installations (15–30 kW). The design of these engines has not experienced in recent years the breakthrough needed to deliver close to the Carnot Cycle energy conversion efficiencies. The delivered efficiencies are limited to mid-to-high 20% in the typical installations “Dish Stirling”. Here we review the latest studies made on α-Stirling engines, unfortunately mostly based on theoretical models of limited reliability, but also including very few examples of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) modeling followed by prototyping and testing. Finally, we present in detail one CAE model of an α-Stirling engine delivering energy conversion efficiencies of 42% with hydrogen as working fluid and adopting one hot cylinder, one cold cylinder, and one regenerator, with the hot fluid temperature of 800 °C. This efficiency is much higher than current air microturbines, which may deliver efficiencies of only about 20% working at much lower temperatures.     

Conversion of natural gas jet flame burners to hydrogen

In a study of conversion from CH₄ to H₂, jet flame characteristics of these gases and their blends are compared on a burner diameter scale of mm. Low velocity H₂ and CH₄ jets, burned on pipes of different diameters, indicate higher blow-off limits for H₂, but lower heat release rates, a consequence of its lower specific energy. Compensation for this might be obtained through increased H₂ flow velocity, or a small increase in pipe diameter. Blended CH₄/H₂ flames have lower heat release rates than CH₄ alone, yet small proportions of H_2, with CH₄ might still be burned, on a CH₄ burner. Throughout, fundamental understanding is enhanced through two dimensionless groups: laminar flame thickness normalised by burner diameter, δ_k/D, and the dimensionless flow number, U1. These suggest an optimal role for H₂ combustion, utilizing its high acoustic and blow-off velocities, in high intensity, subsonic, combustors, at low δ_k/D, and high U1.     

Influence of laser ignition on characteristics of an engine for hydrogen enriched CNG and iso-octane usage

The study has focused on determining the laser plug effects on engine characteristics and the laser plug usage results have compared with spark plug usage. The laser ignition technique is a type of new ignition technique and an important solution that can make combustion systems more efficient. The testing of an engine with a laser plug is the novelty of the study and the tests were carried out with reference to equivalence ratio and plug power ranges. The behaviors of the engine at full load were examined so experimentally for both ignition techniques at hydrogen enriched CNG and iso-octane mixture usage. The tests were carried out for variations of 0.4–2.0 equivalence ratio and 20–120 W plug power. A mixture that 90% iso-octane and 10% HCNG in mass was used at two ignition modes in tests for 3300 rpm maximum engine torque speed. Also, the flame formation and propagation for both ignition techniques were detected via a high-speed camera. The tests have shown the laser ignition leads to more energy consumption in the rich mixture conditions and also, less energy is required in the lean conditions. The laser ignition discharge has extended the engine's lean combustion limits via a small energy input at the tests. The high-speed camera images have shown that the laser ignition reduces the Kernel flame formation and propagation time. The laser ignition technique was produced less NO_x than the conventional spark ignition method.     

A fuel-cell/battery hybrid DC backup power system via a new high step-up three port converter

In this paper, a fuel-cell (FC)/battery hybrid direct-current (DC) backup power system is proposed for high step-up applications. This system is composed of a newly developed non-isolated three-port converter, which achieves a high voltage gain by taking the advantage of a quasi Z-source network and an energy transfer capacitor. After analyzing the converter, a comprehensive comparison study and a design procedure are provided. Moreover, the controllers regulating the source power levels while smoothing the FC power profile according to the proposed energy management strategy (EMS) are designed based on the developed small-signal model of the proposed converter. Both hardware and controller design procedures are validated through the PSIM model of the whole system. As a result, it is shown that the proposed system can effectively couple FC and battery while transferring their energies to a high voltage DC bus according to the offered EMS.