The second law of thermodynamics and, specifically, exergy analysis have been traditionally used for the assessment and optimization of energy systems. Nevertheless, as shown in this paper, exergy could also constitute a powerful tool for the evaluation of mineral commodities. That said, new or...

The paper proposes a back-to-back 2L-3L grid connection topology for a marine current energy converter. A prototype marine current energy converter has been deployed by a research group at Uppsala University. The concept behind the prototype revolves around a fixed pitch vertical axis turbine...

More and more wave energy converter (WEC) concepts are reaching prototypelevel. Once the prototype level is reached, the next step in order to further decrease thelevelized cost of energy (LCOE) is optimizing the overall system with a focus on structuraland maintenance (inspection) costs, as...

Though the importance of curvature continuity on compressor blade performances has been realized, there are two major questions that need to be solved,<i> i.e.</i>, the respective effects of curvature continuity at the leading-edge blend point and the main surface, and the contradiction between the...

This paper presents the results of an extensive study of two thermal energy storage (TES) systems. The goal of the research is to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity. A small-scale TES system was first built. The inner to outer layers were made of firebrick (FB),...

State-of-the-art integrated macroalgae utilization processes, consisting of drying, gasification, and combined cycle, are proposed and their performance with respect to energy efficiency are evaluated. To achieve high exergy efficiency, the integration is performed through two main principles:...

Over the last years, much attention has been paid to the development of efficient and low-cost power systems for biomass-to-electricity conversion. This paper aims at investigating the design- and part-load performance of an innovative plant based on a wet indirectly fired gas turbine (WIFGT)...

This paper reports a modeling methodology to predict the electrical and thermal behaviors of a 2.7 V/650 F ultracapacitor (UC) cell from LS Mtron Ltd. (Anyang, Korea). The UC cell is subject to the charge/discharge cycling with constant-current between 1.35 V and 2.7 V. The charge/discharge...

We propose a procedure to estimate the fatigue loads on wind turbines, based on a recent framework used for reconstructing data series of stochastic properties measured at wind turbines. Through a standard fatigue analysis, we show that it is possible to accurately estimate fatigue loads in any...

The international diffusion of environmental innovations is getting increasing attention as an opportunity to improve competitiveness. Especially in the energy sector, countries use policy support to this end. A recent goal in this context is the formation of “lead markets”, which represents...