Stick-Breaking Dependent Beta Processes with Variational Inference

Neural Processing Letters - The beta processes (BP) is a powerful nonparametric tool in feature learning, which is often used as the prior of Bernoulli process for choosing features from a feature...     

Study of MW-scale biogas-fed SOFC-WGS-TSA-PEMFC hybrid power technology as distributed energy system: Thermodynamic,exergetic and thermo-economic evaluation

Advanced biogas power generation technology has been attracting attentions, which contributes to the waste disposal and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. This work proposes and models a novel biogas-fed hybrid power generation system consisting of solid oxide fuel cell, water gas shift reaction, thermal swing adsorption and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (SOFC-WGS-TSA-PEMFC). The thermodynamic, exergetic, and thermo-economic analyses of this hybrid system for power generation were conducted to comprehensively evaluate its performance. It was found that the novel biogas-fed hybrid system has a gross energy conversion efficiency of 68.63% and exergy efficiency of 65.36%, indicating high efficiency for this kind of hybrid power technology. The market sensitivity analysis showed that the hybrid system also has a low sensitivity to market price fluctuation. Under the current subsidy level for the distributed biogas power plant, the levelized cost of energy can be lowered to 0.02942 $/kWh for a 1 MW scale system. Accordingly, the payback period and annual return on investment can reach 1.4 year and about 20%, respectively. These results reveal that the proposed hybrid system is promising and economically feasible as a distributed power plant, especially for the small power scale (no more than 2 MW).     

Design and optimization of ceramic membrane structure: From the perspective of flux matching between support and membrane

The support flux was first investigated as a separate influencing factor for its effect on performances of ceramic filtration membranes. Three pre-membranes were prepared by tape-casting and then transfer-coated to supports to form dual-layer ceramic membranes after sintering. Experiments demonstrated that membrane layers with almost the same properties were obtained despite the huge difference in support flux. When the support flux increases from 3.120 to 97.53 m³m^?2h^?1, the flux of these three membrane series have increased by 75%, 186% and 228%, respectively. Experimental rules can provide structural design and evaluation from the perspective of permeability. The limit membrane flux of a certain system was derived according to the resistance distribution law of internal membrane structure and the Darcy's theorem. On this basis, a method for designing support flux was proposed. Furthermore, we present a criterion to quickly and easily evaluate the match between the support and the top layer, which is the ratio of membrane resistance to total resistance. Finally, the filtration resistance of penetration caused by suction of membrane particles into the support was measured for the first time, taking the advantage of the transfer-coating method that inherently free of penetration. Our works are expected to deepen the understanding of the ceramic membrane structure and provided guidance for its rational design and optimization.     

CFD Modeling of Active Volume Creation in a Non‐Newtonian Fluid Agitated by Submerged Recirculating Jets

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models were employed to investigate flow conditions inside a model reactor in which yield stress non‐Newtonian liquid is mobilized using submerged recirculating jets. The simulation results agree well with the experimental results of active volume in the reactor obtained using flow visualization by the authors in a previous study. The models developed are capable of predicting a critical jet velocity (v_c) that determines the extent of active volume obtained due to jet mixing. The v_c values are influenced both by the rheological properties of the liquid and the nozzle orientation. The liquid with higher effective viscosity leads to higher v_c for a downward facing injection nozzle. However, an upward facing injection nozzle along with a downward facing suction nozzle generates enhanced complementary flow fields which overcome the rheological constraints of the liquid and lead to lower v_c.