Smart Design of Green Hydrogen Facilities: A Digital Twin-driven approach

This work studies the potentials of Digital Twin solutions for the design of competitive and reliable green hydrogen facilities. A digital twin based on stochastic simulations is proposed to address the uncertainties associated with investment and operating costs, to increase confidence and stimulate investments. Several input assumptions are involved (i.e., capital and operational costs, energy consumption, available energy, among others) to analyse their influence on financial indicators. A set of facility designs with equipment redundancy, and thus different system availabilities, was proposed. Monte Carlo simulation method is chosen to propagate uncertainties onto the project bankability assessment. By applying the proposed methodology, the opportunity index and internal rate of return (IRR) are calculated. A sensibility analysis is also carried out. The simulations illustrate that the design of a facility can be optimized to achieve higher profits, based on a trade-off between investment and availability. This study concludes that digital twin solutions are an opportunity for reducing the uncertainties associated with green hydrogen facility design. Improvements to the proposed model can be achieved by performing a refined simulation, in relation to the calculation of system availability and maintenance costs.

Overdentures as an alternative to conventional dentures: a micro-costing analysis for Public Health Service in Brazil

This study aimed to estimate cost and compatibility with public financial incentives of two technologies for treating the edentulous mandible: lower complete dentures (CD) and overdentures retained by two dental implants (OD). This study consisted of a partial economic evaluation, with a micro-costing bottom-up approach for the calculation of direct costs. The estimates involved the number of consultations, proportion of materials, equipment, instruments’ lifetime, and human resources, described in the price panel website of the Ministry of Economy in Brazil. Complementary information was obtained from a panel of experts. A sensitivity analysis was based on 20% variation. The estimated cost of a CD was R$ 189.89 (base scenario), and this varied between R$ 151.91 and R$ 227.89 according to sensibility analysis. The cost of an OD was R$ 663.05 (ranging from R$ 795.66 to R$ 530.44 - 1US=R$ 3.80/July 2019). The Ministry of Health covers appropriately the costs of the CD and OD. Both technologies showed costs that are within the limits of financial public incentives obtained by municipalities. The technologies are economically viable and should be induced through public policies due to their positive impacts on several functional domains of health.

Assessment of the Visual Impact of Existing High-Voltage Lines in Urban Areas

This article proposes a novel methodology to evaluate the visual impact of high-voltage lines in urban areas based on photographic images. The use of photographs allows for calculating the overall aesthetic impact while eliminating the subjective factors of the observer. To apply the proposed methodology based on photographs, the impact of the position and angle where the photograph was taken was analyzed, and a sensibility analysis was carried out. Moreover, it was applied to an application case, and a comparison with results from a previous study of a visual impact was performed. The methodology shows good performance and a better resolution of the indicator.

A novel mechanistic approach to interpret results of chemo-osmotic tests

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to interpret results of chemo-osmotic (or membrane efficiency) tests on shale. In contrast to the conventional approach which determines the two transport parameters called membrane efficiency and diffusion coefficient by experiments, the present approach takes into account micro-scale mechanisms and uses rock and solution properties to model the transport of water and ions through shale. In this paper, we introduce and explain the new approach, evaluate its features, perform a sensibility analysis, and finally run a matching on experimental data by the new approach. The study shows that the new ap-proach has greater flexibility compared with the conventional approach, is sensible for rock and solution properties, and is capable to match with ex-perimental data.

Estimation of the Radiative Sky Cooling Potential through Meteorological Data: A Case Study in Tropical Climate

In search of thermal comfort, over the years, various techniques have been developed to adapt to the conditions of the enclosures, depending on the region and the activity carried out. Thus, this project seeks to evaluate the radiative sky cooling potential for various areas of Panama. This evaluation will be carried out by developing a simplified mathematical model based on meteorological data. An uncertainty-sensibility analysis of the model was also carried out to highlight the critical parameters. Radiative sky cooling systems have been shown to be susceptible to cloudiness and humidity. With a tropical climate, Panama is critical to consider these two variables when developing the simplified mathematical model. Another aspect to consider when estimating the cooling potential will be the hours of the day when there is no solar radiation.

The Nomadic People Optimizer applied to the economic dispatch problem with prohibited operating zones

This work proposes the application of the Nomadic People Optimizer (NPO) to solve the economic dispatch problem considering Prohibitive Operating Zones (POZ). The NPO is a swarm-based metaheuristic recently introduced in the literature and still under-explored. In addition, the POZ increase the difficulties to find the optimal solution of the economic dispatch problem. The performance of the proposed methodology is compared with others metaheuristics present in the literature. Also, a sensibility analysis was performed. The NPO performed better than Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) metaheuristics in solving the problem.

Technical-Economic Analysis of a Hybrid Thermal Energy Supply System Based on Renewable Energy Sources

The technical-economic analysis represents a decisional factor in the implementation of a new thermal energy supply system and is a key part of the feasibility study. In the present paper, the economic performance indicators, used as evaluation instruments within the analysis, highlight the economic efficiency of each proposed scenario and offer an establishment of hierarchy for them. Based on this analysis, the optimal scenario can be recommended, such that the benefits are maximized. The sensibility analysis, performed for the optimal scenario at the end of the paper, shows an estimation of the effects throughout the lifespan of the new system. This is beneficial to pre-empt negative effects or to stimulate the factors that can increase the efficiency of the system throughout the entire lifespan.