Promotion strategy of clean technologies in distributed generation expansion planning

Distributed generation expansion planning (DGEP) has been frequently reported in the literature around the world. In this scope, renewable technologies which are considered as a kind of distributed generations are developing due to their environmental benefits. However, only a few renewable energies have proven to be competitive so far, while their economic viability is also limited to certain regions of the world. In this paper, an encouraging mechanism is proposed in favor of clean technologies in the planning process. This mechanism is defined based on a grant function of emission not polluted which is paid to DG owners to promote renewable and clean technologies. In the planning process, a multi-objective optimization algorithm is applied to produce a Pareto set of optimal planning schemes by taking into account different objective functions (cost and grant functions). The best planning scheme among the Pareto set is chosen based on a composite utility which are obtained through a Monte Carlo simulation of uncertain situations. Distributed generation technologies which are considered in this paper are conventional and renewable technologies, namely photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), fuel cell (FC), micro turbine (MT), gas turbine (GT), and reciprocal engine (RE). To assess the ability of the proposed method, a typical distribution system is used for expansion planning under two environmental scenarios.     

Application of Grid partitioning based Fuzzy inference system method as a novel approach for prediction of interfacial tension of hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide

Nowadays the importance of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes increases because of increasing demand of energy and declination of oil reservoirs. Due to this fact the researchers attracted to study performance of EOR methods. one of the high efficient methods is carbon dioxide injection which is favorable because of low cost and environmental friendly viewpoints. One of important parameters which have straight effect on recovery of injection is interfacial tension between carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons. In the present investigation the main objective is proposing the Grid partitioning based Fuzzy inference system method as novel approach to predict interfacial tension of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon in terms of temperature, pressure, liquid and gas densities and molecular weight of alkane. The coefficients of determination for different datasets of training and testing of estimating algorithm are determined as 0.9919 and 0.9899. This results express the algorithm has potential of estimating interfacial tension of hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide.     

Focal-Plane Spatially Oversampling CMOS Image Compression Sensor

Image compression algorithms employ computationally expensive spatial convolutional transforms. The CMOS image sensor performs spatially compressing image quantization on the focal plane yielding digital output at a rate proportional to the mere information rate of the video. A bank of column-parallel first-order incremental DeltaSigma-modulated analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) performs column-wise distributed focal-plane oversampling of up to eight adjacent pixels and concurrent weighted average quantization. Number of samples per pixel and switched-capacitor sampling sequence order set the amplitude and sign of the pixel coefficient, respectively. A simple digital delay and adder loop performs spatial accumulation over up to eight adjacent ADC outputs during readout. This amounts to computing a two-dimensional block matrix transform with up to 8times8-pixel programmable kernel in parallel for all columns. Noise shaping reduces power dissipation below that of a conventional digital imager while the need for a peripheral DSP is eliminated. A 128times128 active pixel array integrated with a bank of 128 DeltaSigma-modulated ADCs was fabricated in a 0.35-mum CMOS technology. The 3.1 mm times 1.9-mm prototype captures 8-bit digital video at 30 frames/s and yields 4 GMACS projected computational throughput when scaled to HDTV 1080i resolution in discrete cosine transform (DCT) compression     

Comparative study of heat transfer and pressure drop for curved-twisted tubes utilized in chemical engineering

Increasing importance of heat transfer in chemical engineering science causes that investigation in the field of enhancement techniques is always one of the up-to-date topics for study. In the current comparative analysis, the thermal enhancement and friction penalty are explored numerically for curved tubes via twisted configuration. To accomplish this, three common geometries namely helical, serpentine, and Archimedes spiral, are considered at different coil-pitches and twist-pitches as well as five Reynolds numbers in the laminar flow regime. The results exhibit noticeable enhancements (up to 60%) in the thermal performance of the twisted cases as compared to the smooth cases. The highest increases are recorded for the serpentine case, followed by the helical and spiral cases. It is found that these enhancements vary via coil-pitch and twist-pitch. Increasing coil-pitch and twist-pitch augments both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in all curved-twisted tubes, however, the effects of twist-pitch are more pronounced. To predict Nusselt number and friction factor, new correlations are also proposed. The maximum deviations of the predicted results compared to the simulated data are within ±5%.     

Novel 0D/1D ZnBi2O4/ZnO S-scheme photocatalyst for hydrogen production and BPA removal

Developing interfacial connections is one of the breakthrough strategies to improve the photocatalytic activity. Herein, ZnBi₂O₄ nanoparticles-ZnO nanorods heterojunction was successfully synthesized and used, as a dual-function photocatalyst, for photocatalytic degradation of Bisphenol A and hydrogen production with improved photocatalytic activity under simulated sunlight irradiation. The highest H₂ production (3.44 mmol g^?1 h^?1) was obtained for ZnO-20 wt% ZnBi₂O₄ sample, which is around 12.7 times higher than pure ZnO. According to the HRTEM result, the intimate interfacial connections are formed between ZnO and ZnBi₂O₄ which could act as trapping centers for charge carriers and results in the boosted photocatalytic activity. Further, a high aspect ratio of 1D ZnO nanorods and small size of 0D ZnBi₂O₄ nanoparticles (~10 nm) increases the number of interfacial contacts and thus the charge carriers’ recombination was suppressed more efficiently. Based on the trapping experiments, ESR and Mott-Schottky analysis, ZnBi₂O₄–ZnO hybrid photocatalyst followed the S-scheme charge transfer mechanism.     

Influence of Wall Material and Inlet Drying Air Temperature on the Microencapsulation of Fish Oil by Spray Drying

Several single and composite milk-originated wall materials were used to microencapsulate fish oil via spray drying at various inlet drying air temperatures. Skim milk powder (SMP), whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate (WPI), 80% WPI?+?20% milk protein concentrate, and 80% WPI?+?20% sodium caseinate (NaCas) were applied as the wall for capsules generated at drying air temperatures of 140, 160, and 180 °C. The higher the drying air temperature, the higher was the particle size, encapsulation efficiency, and peroxide value and the lower was the moisture content and bulk density. The microcapsules prepared with SMP showed the highest encapsulation efficiency and lowest peroxide value for the oil due to the presence of lactose in its chemical composition. Differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared analyses indicated the absence of any significant interaction between SMP and fish oil.     

STUDY ON THE ACETYLENE HYDROGENATION PROCESS FOR ETHYLENE PRODUCTION: SIMULATION,MODIFICATION, AND OPTIMIZATION

In this study, an industrial acetylene hydrogenation unit is simulated utilizing three available kinetic models. The results are compared against six-day experimental data and the best model is selected. Effects of feed temperature and the amount of injected hydrogen on ethylene selectivity are also studied. According to the simulation results, the unit is not working under its optimum conditions. Furthermore, by reduction of the hydrogen flow rate to 52 kg/h, process selectivity is increased. In addition, a new approach is proposed to modify the hydrogenation process and reduce undesired by-products. In the simulation of the modified process, hydrogenation reactors temperature, hydrogen flow rate, and H-1/H-2 ratio were regulated as adjustable parameters for the process optimization. The simulation shows that ethylene selectivity increases by 12%, while acetylene concentration and hydrogenation reactor temperature remains within acceptable ranges. Such selectivity could be achieved at the hydrogen flow rate of 50 kg/h with H-1/H-2 ratio of 0.1/0.9.     

Transductive multi-label learning from missing data using smoothed rank function

Pattern Analysis and Applications - In this paper, we propose two new algorithms for transductive multi-label learning from missing data. In transductive matrix completion (MC), the challenge is...     

Peer‐to‐peer financing choice of SME entrepreneurs in the re‐emergence of supply chain localization

While peer‐to‐peer (P2P) financing mechanisms have recently gained significant popularity, small and medium sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs still harbor a considerable degree of skepticism about the role of governments in promoting alternative supply chain finance (SCF) solutions in the re‐emergence of supply chain (SC) localization. This paper studies the SC financing problem of a capital‐constrained SME entrepreneur under two alternative financing schemes provided by an online P2P lending‐investment platform, namely debt financing (DF) and equity financing (EF). Considering the competition between a local and a foreign SC in a shared market, we investigate the direct (i.e., subsidizing domestic production) and indirect (i.e., subsidizing P2P platform service fee) roles of government intervention toward SC localization. Formulating a three‐level Stackelberg game model, this paper presents a scenario‐based decision‐making framework to jointly evaluate four different SCF scenarios through the lens of local SC, P2P financing platforms, and government. The results reveal that there exist three possible regions (i.e., DF, EF, and Conflict), within which the government and the P2P financing platforms can examine the alternative SCF schemes in order to achieve a mutually agreeable agreement. Our sensitivity analysis on interest rate and exchange ratio suggests that, when financed via an online P2P lending platform (i.e., DF), the local SC always achieves a higher profit under the direct intervention policy. The indirect policy, however, is preferred only when EF is the main source of SCF and the exchange ratio is sufficiently high.