scholarly journals Remote River Energy System: An open source low maintenance turbine design for remote areas

Author(s):  
Ian Masters ◽  
Joshua Bird ◽  
Benjamin Birch ◽  
Maximilian Reader ◽  
William Turner ◽  
...  

Axial flow hydro-kinetic turbines convert the kinetic energy of a flowing fluid into electrical energy, and can be designed for deployment in a wide range of locations. As relatively recent technology, these designs are often high in cost, complex, and require specialist maintenance and materials. This is not viable for many communities in developing countries, which may subsequently remain reliant on fossil fuels. A remote river energy system has been designed to be built and maintained using minimal equipment, with components that can be readily obtained. A formal design process has been used with design review and feedback stages; design tools included Simulink modelling, FEA, CFD, nodal analysis and flume testing. Only a handful of components such as the turbine blades require specialist machining and maintenance. The results demonstrate how an effective water turbine with a 3kW output can be theoretically produced and maintained without an over-reliance on specialised components and tools, thereby producing a more economically viable water turbine for use in developing countries. Open source distribution of the design drawings will facilitate application of the design and improvements by other stakeholders. The design study presented here is a platform for prototype technology trials to further develop the concept.

Author(s):  
Martin Ariel Kazimierski

El actual sistema energético mundial se caracteriza por una alta dependencia de los combustibles fósiles, un paradigma que empieza a encontrar dificultades en tanto se agotan las reservas existentes y aumentan los costos ecológicos. Así, la incorporación de energías renovables, su generación en forma distribuida y el crecimiento del parque automotor eléctrico, se presentan como la triada más prometedora en la conformación de un nuevo paradigma más eficiente y sustentable. Este artículo se centra en la importancia que adquieren los acumuladores energéticos ante este panorama, principalmente por su rol en la estabilización de las redes y posibilitar el autoconsumo y la propulsión eléctrica. Identifica en las baterías de ion-litio un abanico de posibilidades para Sudamérica, que posee las reservas más importantes de litio en el mundo, incorporando la idea del desarrollo dentro del nuevo patrón energético y en un mercado actual y potencial de grandes dimensiones. Abstract The current global energy system is characterized by a high dependence on fossil fuels, a paradigm that begins to encounter difficulties as existing reserves are depleted and ecological costs increase. Thus, the incorporation of renewable energies, their generation in a distributed form and the growth of the electric motor park, are presented as the most promising triad in the conformation of a new, more efficient and sustainable paradigm. This article focuses on the importance that energy accumulators acquire in this scenario, mainly due to their role in stabilizing networks and enabling self-consumption and electric propulsion. It identifies lithium-ion batteries with a wide range of possibilities for South America, which has the most important reserves of lithium in the world, incorporating the idea of ​​development within the new energy pattern and in a current and potential market of large dimensions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 428-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Paton ◽  
M. Malik ◽  
M. Househ

SummaryThe Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries was established to meet a perceived need for Health Informaticians in developing countries to be able to share the results of their research in an affordable and easy-to-access online publication. The journal was developed using the open source platform “Open Journal System,” and has now published 67 articles across 13 issues. A collaborative editorial approach has been established to address the problems of limited research budgets, difficulties with translating to English and other problems specific to authors from developing countries. The journal faces many challenges including ensuring future financial sustainability and inclusion in journal indexing systems. However, the continuing support of an international body of Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members has enabled a wide range of useful and informative health informatics research to be disseminated across the developing world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (S3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Barsanti ◽  
Jan Sören Schwarz ◽  
Lionel Guy Gérard Constantin ◽  
Pranay Kasturi ◽  
Claudia R. Binder ◽  
...  

AbstractTo tackle the climate crisis, the European energy strategy relies on consumers taking ownership of the energy transition, accelerating decarbonisation through investments in low-carbon technologies and ensuring system stability and reliability by actively participating in the market. Therefore, tools are needed to better understand an increasingly complex and actor-dense energy system, tracking socio-technical dynamics that occur at its margins and then predicting the effects on larger scales. Yet, existing domestic energy demand models are not flexible enough to incorporate a wide range of socio-technical factors, and to be incorporated into larger energy system simulation environments. Here, a co-simulation design for domestic energy demand modeling is presented and motivated on the basis of four design principles: granularity, scalability, modularity and transparency. Microsimulation of domestic energy demand, through the Python open source library demod, shows that it is possible to achieve high detail and high temporal resolution without compromising scalability. Furthermore, mosaik, an open source co-simulation framework, makes it possible to generate, integrate and orchestrate a multitude of demod-based instances with other independent models, which for the illustrative purposes of this study are represented by a heat pump model. The authors hope that the detailed documentation of the proposed solution will encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts to develop a simulation ecosystem capable of investigating alternative energy transition pathways and evaluating policy interventions through the socio-technical lens.


2017 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Narita ◽  
Makoto Saruwatari ◽  
Jun Matsui ◽  
Yasutaka Fujimoto

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. VASKOVSKAYA ◽  
◽  
Boris A. KLUS ◽  

The development of energy storage systems allows us to consider their usage for load profile leveling during operational planning on electricity markets. The paper proposes and analyses an application of an energy storage model to the electricity market in Russia with the focus on the day ahead market. We consider bidding, energy storage constraints for an optimal power flow problem, and locational marginal pricing. We show that the largest effect for the market and for the energy storage system would be gained by integration of the energy storage model into the market’s optimization models. The proposed theory has been tested on the optimal power flow model of the day ahead market in Russia of 10000-node Unified Energy System. It is shown that energy storage systems are in demand with a wide range of efficiencies and cycle costs.


Author(s):  
Anita Rønne

Increasing focus on sustainable societies and ‘smart cities’ due to emphasis on mitigation of climate change is simultaneous with ‘smart regulation’ reaching the forefront of the political agenda. Consequently, the energy sector and its regulation are undergoing significant innovation and change. Energy innovations include transition from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources and application of new computer technology, interactively matching production with consumer demand. Smart cities are growing and projects are being initiated for development of urban areas and energy systems. Analysis from ‘Smart Cities Accelerator’, developed under the EU Interreg funding programme that includes Climate-KIC,——provides background for the focus on a smart energy system. Analysis ensures the energy supply systems support the integration of renewables with the need for new technologies and investments. ‘Smart’ is trendy, but when becoming ‘smart’ leads to motivation that is an important step towards mitigating climate change.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2742
Author(s):  
Raquel Iglesias ◽  
Raúl Muñoz ◽  
María Polanco ◽  
Israel Díaz ◽  
Ana Susmozas ◽  
...  

The present work reviews the role of biogas as advanced biofuel in the renewable energy system, summarizing the main raw materials used for biogas production and the most common technologies for biogas upgrading and delving into emerging biological methanation processes. In addition, it provides a description of current European legislative framework and the potential biomethane business models as well as the main biogas production issues to be addressed to fully deploy these upgrading technologies. Biomethane could be competitive due to negative or zero waste feedstock prices, and competitive to fossil fuels in the transport sector and power generation if upgrading technologies become cheaper and environmentally sustainable.


Author(s):  
Farrokh Zarifi-Rad ◽  
Hamid Vajihollahi ◽  
James O’Brien

Scale models give engineers an excellent understanding of the aerodynamic behavior behind their design; nevertheless, scale models are time consuming and expensive. Therefore computer simulations such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are an excellent alternative to scale models. One must ask the question, how close are the CFD results to the actual fluid behavior of the scale model? In order to answer this question the engineering team investigated the performance of a large industrial Gas Turbine (GT) exhaust diffuser scale model with performance predicted by commercially available CFD software. The experimental results were obtained from a 1:12 scale model of a GT exhaust diffuser with a fixed row of blades to simulate the swirl generated by the last row of turbine blades five blade configurations. This work is to validate the effect of the turbulent inlet conditions on an axial diffuser, both on the experimental front and on the numerical analysis approach. The object of this work is to bring forward a better understanding of velocity and static pressure profiles along the gas turbine diffusers and to provide an accurate experimental data set to validate the CFD prediction. For the CFD aspect, ANSYS CFX software was chosen as the solver. Two different types of mesh (hexagonal and tetrahedral) will be compared to the experimental results. It is understood that hexagonal (HEX) meshes are more time consuming and more computationally demanding, they are less prone to mesh sensitivity and have the tendancy to converge at a faster rate than the tetrahedral (TET) mesh. It was found that the HEX mesh was able to generate more consistent results and had less error than TET mesh.


Author(s):  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Cosimo Bianchini ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
James A. Scobie ◽  
Gary D. Lock

This paper deals with a numerical study aimed at the characterization of hot gas ingestion through turbine rim seals. The numerical campaign focused on an experimental facility which models ingress through the rim seal into the upstream wheel-space of an axial-turbine stage. Single-clearance arrangements were considered in the form of axial- and radial-seal gap configurations. With the radial-seal clearance configuration, CFD steady-state solutions were able to predict the system sealing effectiveness over a wide range of coolant mass flow rates reasonably well. The greater insight of flow field provided by the computations illustrates the thermal buffering effect when ingress occurs: for a given sealing flow rate, the effectiveness on the rotor was significantly higher than that on the stator due to the axial flow of hot gases from stator to rotor caused by pumping effects. The predicted effectiveness on the rotor was compared with a theoretical model for the thermal buffering effect showing good agreement. When the axial-seal clearance arrangement is considered, the agreement between CFD and experiments worsens; the variation of sealing effectiveness with coolant flow rate calculated by means of the simulations display a distinct kink. It was found that the “kink phenomenon” can be ascribed to an over-estimation of the egress spoiling effects due to turbulence modelling limitations. Despite some weaknesses in the numerical predictions, the paper shows that CFD can be used to characterize the sealing performance of axial- and radial-clearance turbine rim seals.


Author(s):  
Marcus Kuschel ◽  
Bastian Drechsel ◽  
David Kluß ◽  
Joerg R. Seume

Exhaust diffusers downstream of turbines are used to transform the kinetic energy of the flow into static pressure. The static pressure at the turbine outlet is thus decreased by the diffuser, which in turn increases the technical work as well as the efficiency of the turbine significantly. Consequently, diffuser designs aim to achieve high pressure recovery at a wide range of operating points. Current diffuser design is based on conservative design charts, developed for laminar, uniform, axial flow. However, several previous investigations have shown that the aerodynamic loading and the pressure recovery of diffusers can be increased significantly if the turbine outflow is taken into consideration. Although it is known that the turbine outflow can reduce boundary layer separations in the diffuser, less information is available regarding the physical mechanisms that are responsible for the stabilization of the diffuser flow. An analysis using the Lumley invariance charts shows that high pressure recovery is only achieved for those operating points in which the near-shroud turbulence structure is axi-symmetric with a major radial turbulent transport component. This turbulent transport originates mainly from the wake and the tip vortices of the upstream rotor. These structures energize the boundary layer and thus suppress separation. A logarithmic function is shown that correlates empirically the pressure recovery vs. the relevant Reynolds stresses. The present results suggest that an improved prediction of diffuser performance requires modeling approaches that account for the anisotropy of turbulence.


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