Performance analysis of various hybrid renewable energy systems using battery,hydrogen, and pumped hydro‐based storage units

The aim of this research is to analyze the techno‐economic performance of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) using batteries, pumped hydro‐based, and hydrogen‐based storage units at Sharurah, Saudi Arabia. The simulations and optimization process are carried out for nine HRES scenarios to determine the optimum sizes of components for each scenario. The optimal sizing of components for each HRES scenario is determined based on the net present cost (NPC) optimization criterion. All of the nine optimized HRES scenarios are then evaluated based on NPC, levelized cost of energy, payback period, CO₂ emissions, excess electricity, and renewable energy fraction. The simulation results show that the photovoltaic (PV)‐diesel‐battery scenario is economically the most viable system with the NPC of US$2.70 million and levelized cost of energy of US$0.178/kWh. Conversely, PV‐diesel‐fuel cell system is proved to be economically the least feasible system. Moreover, the wind‐diesel‐fuel cell is the most economical scenario in the hydrogen‐based storage category. PV‐wind‐diesel‐pumped hydro scenario has the highest renewable energy fraction of 89.8%. PV‐wind‐diesel‐pumped hydro scenario is the most environment‐friendly system, with an 89% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared with the base‐case diesel only scenario. Overall, the systems with battery and pumped hydro storage options have shown better techno‐economic performance compared with the systems with hydrogen‐based storage.     

Application of chemometric tools in the development of food bars based on cocoa shell,soy flour and green banana flour

In this study, exploratory methods and the simplex-centroid design were applied in the development of food bars with cocoa shell, soy and green banana flours that were evaluated sensorially. The results of the chemical composition and texture were submitted to the Scott-Knott test and the Principal Component Analysis, and was observed a significant difference between the treatments (P < 0.05), as well as a tendency to form five groups, according to its nutritional characteristics. The design used to optimise the sensorial acceptance of the food bars was effective, whose contour surface indicated an optimal region with greater acceptance, with all formulations having good acceptance (scores above 5.52). Check-All-That-Apply, Contingency Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis allowed describing the products, demonstrating the sensory differences between treatments with the presence/absence of cocoa shell. It is concluded that the studied ingredients can be used in food bars, providing nutritional and sensory characteristics acceptable to the consumer.     

Heat and mass transport impact on MHD second-grade fluid: A comparative analysis of fractional operators

The effect of the magnetic flux plays a major role in convective flow. The process of heat transfer is accompanied by a mass transfer process; for instance, condensation, evaporation, and chemical process. Due to the applications of the heat and mass transfer combined effects in different fields, the main aim of this paper is to do a comprehensive analysis of heat and mass transfer of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) unsteady second-grade fluid in the presence of ramped conditions. The new governing equations of MHD second-grade fluid have been fractionalized by means of singular and nonsingular differentiable operators. To have an accurate physical significance of imposed conditions on the geometry of second-grade fluid, the constant concentration with ramped temperature and ramped velocity is considered. The fractional solutions of temperature, concentration, and velocity have been investigated by means of integral transform and inversion algorithm. The influence of physical parameters and flow is analyzed graphically via computational software (MATHCAD-15). The velocity profile decreases by increasing the Prandtl number. The existence of a Prandtl number may reflect the control of the thickness and enlargement of the thermal effect.     

Intelligent computing for the dynamics of fluidic system of electrically conducting Ag/Cu nanoparticles with mixed convection for hydrogen possessions

The present study aims to provide an innovative stochastic numerical solver's application by the use of neural networks with Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation to examine the dynamics of hydrogen possessions and variable viscosity in the fluidic system of electrically conducting copper and silver nanoparticles with mixed convection. The system of PDEs obtained by mathematical modeling of the physical phenomena are reduced into non-linear ODEs by utilizing suitable transformations. The ODEs dataset is constructed through Adams numerical solver and target parameters for input and output parameter of neural networks. The testing, validation and training processes are exploited in neural network models with learning based on backpropagation of LM method to calculate the solution for different scenarios created on variation of physical parameters of the proposed flow of Reynolds and Vogel models. Validation and verification of neural network model to find the solution of fluid flow problem is endorsed on the assessment of achieved accuracy through mean squared error, error histograms and regression studies.     

Influence of van der waals heterostructures of 2D materials on catalytic performance of ZnO and its applications in energy: A review

Recently, photocatalysis has received huge attention in order to overcome energy crisis worldwide. Many semiconductors, potential schemes and hierarchies have come to light during past few decades to fabricate efficient catalysts however, among all these methods heterostructures have taken the world by surprise. With the advancement in post-graphene 2D materials, van der Waals heterostructures have come to light exploring enhancement in photocatalysis. During a very short period a number of ZnO-based van der Waal heterostructures have taken the limelight in the field of photocatalysis. First principles calculations and DFT approach towards the heterostructures of GeC, GaN, WSe₂, WS₂ and other layered 2D materials unleased a series of properties and facts for the provision of enhanced catalysis. Reduction in bandgap of ZnO has also been observed which widens the pathways towards visible light irradiation. However, energy applications of zinc oxide are also fascinating feature as it can serve as a photoanode to replace TiO₂. Whereas the famous hydrogen production, batteries and solar cells have also been fabricated by the use of this semiconductor.     

Development of optimized triaxially electrospun titania nanofiber-in-nanotube core-shell structure

One dimensional (1D) nanostructures and its derivatives can be manipulated to serve special functions like hollow structure, and higher surface area. 1D TiO₂ nanotube-in-nanofibers (NF@NT) are developed through triaxial electrospinning followed by a calcination process. A blended solution of polyvinyl pyrrolidone and tetra-butyl titanate is used in outer and inner layers of nanofibers, respectively, while paraffin oil is used in the middle layer. The optimized triaxial nanofibers of 669.4 ± 52.43 nm are developed at 7.5 w/w% concentration, 28 kV applied voltage, and 24 cm spinning distance. TiO₂ NF@NT structure is obtained through calcination of optimized triaxial nanofibers at 550°C. Subsequently, the morphology of TiO₂ NF@NT and its uniform diameter distribution is confirmed through scanning electron microscopy. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results indicates the formation of TiO₂ NF@NT. X-Rays diffraction pattern peaks also reveals the presence of both anatase and rutile crystalline phases. The presence of only titanium (Ti) and oxygen (O) elements in the TiO₂ NF@NT is confirmed through energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis indicates that TiO₂ NF@NT has a higher specific surface area of ~141.68 m²/g compared with the solid TiO₂ nanofiber (~75.31 m²/g). This study can be adopted to develop TiO₂ NF@NT for wide range of application.     

Evaluation of domestic solar water heating system in Jordan using analytic hierarchy process

In addition to the solar water heating (SWH) system, other domestic water heating systems used in Jordan were considered in terms of benefits and costs using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. In terms of cost, the SWH system was the least expensive. On a percentage basis, the SWH cost about 13% compared to the most expensive heating system, LPG, of about 28%. In terms of benefits, the SWH was also the most beneficial. Approximately, the SWH benefits were about 31%, while the least benefits were obtained from the kerosene water heating system, which is about 9%. By considering both cost and benefit (i.e. cost-to-benefit ratio), solar was also the least expensive, about 7%, with kerosene being the most expensive, over 30%.     

Secure IoT solution for wearable health care applications,case study Electric Imp development platform

Internet expansion affects currently diverse entities on the physical world and daily life. The democratization of the technology called Internet of Things (IoT) brings back many problems associated with the security of the transmitted data, autonomy, and ease of use, with the central constraint of gathering momentum. The use of an embedded development platform for IoT operating through Wi‐Fi and cloud technology is in our case the solution that fits the internet model objects for wearable health care application. This work involves the study and implementation of wearable IoT secure solution dedicated to health care devoted to old and dependent people. The proposed hardware, powered by solar cells, operate through smart sleep and wake up events. The relevant part of the developed IoT operating software exploits the multiagent behavior. Case study, based on the exploitation of the Electric Imp platform, is proposed.     

The role of graphene and europium on TiO2 performance for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Highly efficient Eu-TiO₂/graphene composites were synthesized by a two-step method such as sol-gel and hydrothermal process. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The results confirmed that anatase Eu-TiO₂ nanoparticles with average 10 nm sizes were successfully deposited on two-dimensional graphene sheets. The UV–visible spectroscopy showed a red shift in the absorption edge of TiO₂ due to Eu doping and graphene incorporation. Moreover, effective charge separation in Eu-TiO₂/graphene composites was confirmed by PL emission spectroscopy compared to TiO₂/graphene, Eu-TiO₂ and pure TiO₂. The photocatalytic activity for H₂ evolution over prepared composites was studied under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm). The results demonstrate that photocatalytic performance of the photocatalysts for hydrogen production increases with increasing doping concentration of Eu upto 2 at%. However, further increase in doping content above this optimum level has decreased the performance of photocatalyst. The enhanced photocatalytic performance for H₂ evolution is attributed to extended visible light absorption, suppressed recombination of electron-hole pairs due to synergistic effects of Eu and graphene.     

Engineering the smart factory

The fourth industrial revolution promises to create what has been called the smart factory. The vision is that within such modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralised decisions. This paper provides a view of this initiative from an automation systems perspective. In this context it considers how future automation systems might be effectively configured and supported through their lifecycles and how integration, application modelling, visualisation and reuse of such systems might be best achieved. The paper briefly describes limitations in current engineering methods, and new emerging approaches including the cyber physical systems (CPS) engineering tools being developed by the automation systems group (ASG) at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK.