Performance of control systems based on recycle compensators in integrated plants

The paper illustrates the effects of recycle streams on the controllability of integrated plants and the improvement of performance made possible by a direct compensation of the recycle. A procedure for the decomposition of the global process in a part representing the process without recycle and in a part representing the recycle is presented. This is the key issue for evaluating the relevance of the recycle and to reduce the control system to two blocks: a regulator, depending on the process without recycle, plus a recycle compensator. The design of this control scheme is much easier with respect to a specific regulator computed for the global process and allows to achieve relevant improvement of performance with respect to a standard PI regulator. This is clearly illustrated for a SISO reference case, where process parameters are changed to create situations of particular evidence, and have been confirmed in the application to the two MIMO benchmarks, proposed in literature: the two reactors in series (W.H. Ray, Advanced Process Control, McGraw–Hill, New York, 1981, pp. 219–224), and the two reactors plus three distillation columns (M.L. Luyben, W.L. Luyben, Design and control of a complex process involving two reaction steps, three distillation columns and two recycle streams, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 34 (1995) 3885–3898). For a full evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed control system, the effect of the uncertainty, of the approximated structure of the compensator, as well as possible improvements by including partial adaptive features in the control system, are also taken into consideration.     

Automatic testbed with a visual motion tracking system for airborne wind energy applications

The architecture and a flight test campaign of a small-scale testbed aimed at aerodynamic and dynamic characterization of airborne wind energy systems are presented. The testbed involves a two-line rigid-framed delta kite and an automatic ground station for the lateral control of the kite and reel-in/reel-out of the two tethers. The environment, and the states of the kite, the tethers and the actuators are measured by a set of on-ground and onboard sensors that include, among others, an inertial measurement unit, GNSS receivers, load cells, actuator encoders, a wind station, and a visual motion tracking (VMT) system based on three cameras and an artificial neural network (YOLOv2). The results of a 5-min flight, including the take-off, cross-wind flight, and landing, were used to analyze the capabilities of the testbed. It was shown that the time derivative of the kite course angle exhibits a linear correlation with both the delayed steering input and the delayed differential tether tension, being the dispersion lower for the latter. The intrinsic and extrinsic calibrations proposed for the VMT system led to a good agreement between the estimation of the kite position and course angle provided by the VMT system and the onboard computer. Moreover, although the YOLOv2 algorithm failed in the detection of the kite within around 5% of the images, the simultaneous non-detection from the three cameras was below 0.1% during the full flight. Such a reliability suggests that a VMT system can be used as a redundant or backup sensor for the GNSS.     

Variability of the lipolytic activity and volatile molecules production by a strain of Yarrowia lipolytica in pork fat and its dependence on environmental conditions

The effects of selected variables, i.e. temperature, water activity and yeast inoculation level, on the lipolytic pattern and volatile production by Yarrowia lipolytica Y16A (chosen on the basis of a previous screening) were assessed. The variables were varied according to a central composite design and the models obtained enabled evaluation and weighting of the effects of the independent variables on the free fatty acids (FFAs) and volatile profiles in pork fat based medium. The polynomial models showed the levels temperature, water activity of the pork fat based system and yeast strain inoculation were able to maximize the release of specific FFAs or molecules of sensory importance.     

Use of Staphylococcus xylosus as a starter culture in dried sausages: effect on the biogenic amine content

The main objective of this work was to investigate if the use of Staphylococcus xylosus S81 as a starter culture in sausage production can influence the amount of histamine during ripening, and the concentration of the other most important biogenic amines, by influencing the activity of the microbial amino oxidases as well as the aminoacid decarboxylases. The results confirm that the biogenic amines presence in foods is the consequence of a complex equilibrium between the composition of the medium and the enzymatic activities of the microbial population. In addition, the results suggest that the presence and relative activity of amino oxidases should be considered as an important characteristic in the selection of starter cultures used in the production of fermented foods.     

Fuel with advanced burnable absorbers design for the IRIS reactor core: Combined Erbia and IFBA

IRIS is an advanced medium-size (1000 MW) PWR with integral primary system targeting deployment already around 2015–2017. Consistent with its aggressive development and deployment schedule, the “first IRIS” core design assumes current, licensed fuel technology, i.e., UO₂ fuel with less than 5% ²³⁵U enrichment. The core consists of 89 fuel assemblies employing the 17×17 Westinghouse Robust Fuel Assembly (RFA) design and Standard Fuel dimensions. The adopted design enables to meet all the objectives of the first IRIS core, including over 3-year cycle length with low soluble boron concentration, within the envelope of licensed, readily available fuel technology. Alternative fuel designs are investigated for the subsequent waves of IRIS reactors in pursuit of further improving the fuel utilization and/or extending the cycle length. In particular, an increase in the lattice pitch from the current 0.496 in. for the Standard Fuel to 0.523 in. is among the objectives of this study. The larger fuel pitch and increased moderator-to-fuel volume ratio that it entails fosters better neutron thermalization in an altogether under-moderated lattice thereby offering the potential for considerable increase of fuel utilization and cycle length, up to 5% in the two-batch fuel management scheme considered for IRIS. However, the improved moderation also favors higher values of the Moderator Temperature Coefficient, MTC, which must be properly counteracted to avoid undesired repercussions on the plant safety parameters or controllability during transient operations. This paper investigates counterbalancing the increase in the MTC caused by the enhanced moderation lattice by adopting a suitable choice of fuel burnable absorber (BA). In particular, a fuel design combining erbia, which benefits MTC due to its resonant behavior but leads to residual reactivity penalty, and IFBA, which maximizes cycle length, is pursued. In the proposed approach, IFBA provides the bulk of the hold-down, with no penalty on cycle length, while the amount of erbia is adjusted to obtain the desired margin in the core peaking power and MTC. Preliminary economic analysis proves that within the IRIS design envelope, the combined BA fuel together with the enhanced moderation lattice offer the potential for considerable fuel cycle cost savings when compared to the current core design based on the Westinghouse Standard 17×17 lattice with IFBA. Therefore a combined BA fuel with the enhanced moderation lattice is a promising option to consider for future developments of the IRIS core.     

On the use of double-skinned membranes to prevent chemical interaction between membranes and catalysts

This communication summarizes the use of double-skinned membranes for hydrogen separation in presence of TiO₂ based catalyst (PtReCe/TiO₂). The use of this type of membrane avoids the direct contact between catalyst particles and surface of the Pd-based hydrogen selective layer due to the presence of a mesoporous YSZ/γ-Al₂O₃ layer. The PdAg layer is protected by the mesoporous layer from direct contact with catalyst particles, avoiding erosion and possible chemical interactions. In comparison with a conventional PdAg membrane, the hydrogen flux of DS-membrane was observed not to be compromised during test carried out at 400 °C.     

A comparative assessment of thin-film photovoltaic production processes using the ELECTRE III method

The use of renewable energy sources for the production of electric power brings huge benefits both in terms of environmental protection as well as savings in non-renewable resources. Photovoltaic stands out from other renewable energy sources for its simplicity and the modularity of its energy conversion system. To date, the most highly developed technology for the construction of solar cells is one based on mono and polycrystalline silicon. An alternative production line is currently under development to produce, thin-film modules. There are currently a variety of processes and materials available to make thin-film cells but their relative costs and performance differ. Therefore, it would be useful to make a comparative evaluation of the different processes using a multiple criteria method.     

Cobalt-catalyzed tunable carbon microstructures from halogenated SiC preceramic precursors

Carbide-derived carbons (CDCs) with highly graphitized domains, linear, oval-shaped, and barrel-like structures have been prepared from a silicon carbide preceramic precursor containing catalytic amounts of cobalt. The chlorination temperature as well as the amount of catalysts will determine the specific surface area, pore size, and morphology of the obtained carbons. At low chlorination temperature, an amorphous network with significant amount of double or single oxygenated bonds was obtained. At 700 and 800°C both linear graphitic domains and barrel-like carbon dominate the microstructure with an increased presence of microporosity. There barrel-like structures provided increased specific capacitance, although the high anisotropy of the structure compromises the energy density of the device. At 900°C, despite the disappearance of this cropped surface, the hierarchical pore distribution and low O content also induce an increase of the specific capacitance of the CDC samples regardless of their high percentage of micropores.