Sharif Digital Repository

In recent years, declining fossil fuel reserves and increasing environmental concerns led to higher utilization of renewable energy source (RES). One of the RES is Solar energy which is abundantly found in different areas of the globe, particularly in Iran. The aim of this research is to select a suitable site for constructing a solar power plant to generate electricity-hydrogen in southern Iran, Kerman province. For this purpose, a new hybrid Multi criteria decision making method is used. The Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA)method is used to weigh the criteria and the Measurement of alternatives and ranking according to Compromise solution (MARCOS)method is used to rank... 

Due to the acceleration of energy transition from fossil fuels to Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), the structure of the power industry (mainly generation and distribution) is changing. The emergence of the smart grid concept and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) electricity markets make local producers and consumers face new challenges and risks. Managing the risks that the participants in P2P markets are encountered is necessary to guarantee a sustainable penetration of such markets. This article provides a comprehensive risk analysis by implementing a proposed risk management framework to address the identification, classification, assessment, and mitigation of all risks that prosumers will face when... 

The reaction progress variable is a crucial concept in the advanced flamelet combustion models. As a controlling variable, a well-defined progress variable must consider the essential features of the combustion process. It is usually a heuristically defined linear combination of some major chemical species mass fractions. However, such a simple definition could lead to inaccurate results for the fuel-rich reactive mixtures or complicated fuels, due to the vast number of chemical species in the combustion process. In this paper, a new method for generating a reaction progress variable is proposed through solving a constrained optimisation problem. The proposed method uses a genetic algorithm... 

The concerns regarding the consumption of traditional fuels such as oil and coal have driven the proposals for several cleaner alternatives in recent years. Hydrogen energy is one of the most attractive alternatives for the currently used fossil fuels with several superiorities, such as zero-emission and high energy content. Hydrogen has numerous advantages compared to conventional fuels and, as such, has been employed in gas turbines (GTs) in recent years. The main benefit of using hydrogen in power generation with the GT is the considerably lower emission of greenhouse gases. The performance of the GTs using hydrogen as a fuel is influenced by several factors, including the performance of... 

In current study, a meta-analysis approach was used to identify and evaluate the impact of various factors on the performance of integrated systems of anaerobic digestion with microbial electrolysis cell. In this study, related articles on the topic were systematically identified and collected according to the considered criteria, and the effect size that refers to the value of the difference between variables mean (total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal rate and CH4 yield) was estimated. According to the meta-analysis, fed-batch operation mode, the range of 20< temperature ≤30 °C, metal cathodes, the range of 500< anode surface area ≤5000 cm2, HRT (hydraulic retention time) >20 days,... 

We introduce an effective method for copper indium sulfide selenide (CISSe) doping with different alkali metals (Li, Na and K) based on a pre-deposited alkali chloride layer. A simple and fast spray method is used for pre-deposition of alkali chloride layer (LiCl, NaCl, KCl) on substrate surface before spray pyrolysis deposition of copper indium disulfide CuInS2 (CIS) films followed by selenization. The different properties of alkali-doped CISSe films by the alkali chloride pre-deposition (ACPD) method were compared to the post-deposition treatment (PDT) method. Based on FESEM images, a highly compact film with large grains can be obtained for CISSe films doped with K(∼0.72 μm) and Na (∼0.56... 

One way of improving the performance of diesel engines is to produce modifications in the fuel supply systems. In this article, the effects of creating rotationary flow inside the nozzle and changing fuel injection angle on the performance and emission of caterpillar diesel engine have been examined in two separate stages using AVL FIRE software. First, the injector and its spray have been simulated with various geometries. The numerical results of this step indicate that creating rotationary flow inside the nozzle decreases the penetration length, while increases fuel spray cone angle and improves atomization quality. In the subsequent step, the diesel engine has been simulated with its... 

The combustion of kerosene spray under hot-diluted conditions and conventional conditions was experimentally investigated. By examining flame photographs, chemiluminescence images, and in-field temperature measurements, the separate effect of different variables including oxygen concentration, temperature and velocity of the co-flowing air, fuel flow rate and injection pressure, and eventually the type of spray nozzle on multiple parameters such as flame stability, structure, luminosity, temperature field, and qualitative CH radical distribution, as well as HCO and NO2 with lower precision, in the reaction region, have been studied. It was observed that an increment in injection pressure and... 

An experimental study of a lab scale rotating detonation combustor (RDC) has been conducted to identify and classify its modes of operation under different feeding conditions. The chamber uses air as oxidizer and hydrogen as fuel. The stability diagram of the RDC has been determined based on the detonation chamber Reynolds number and reactants mixture equivalence ratio values. The Reynolds number is based on the air volume flow rate, chamber annulus size, and the reactants mixture feeding slot area. Hence the effects of geometrical parameters and operational parameters on the detonation wave stability can be presented in a single stability map. This diagram identifies different zones in... 

Microfluidic synthesis methods are among the most promising approaches for controlling the size and morphology of polymeric nanoparticles (NPs). In this work, for the first time, atomistic mechanisms involved in morphological changes of polybenzimidazole (PBI) NPs in microfluidic media are investigated. The multiscale molecular dynamic (MD) simulations are validated with the literature modeling and experimental data. A good agreement is obtained between the molecular modeling results and experimental data. The effects of mixing time, solvent type, dopant, and simulation box size at the molecular level are investigated. Mixing time has a positive impact on the morphology of the PBI NPs.... 

As one of the cleanest energies, hydrogen has attracted much attention over the past decade. Hydrogen can be produced using water electrolysis in a Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis Cell (PEMEC). In the present study, the performance of the PEMEC, powered by the Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) system, is scrutinized. It is considered that the PVT system provides the required electrical power of the PEMEC and preheats the feedwater. A comprehensive numerical model of the coupled PVT-PEMEC system is developed. The model is used to investigate the effect of various operating parameters, including solar radiation intensity, inlet feedwater temperature, and feedwater mass flow rate, on the... 

In order to make a Na–Y zeolite with Si/Al ratio of 2.27 more acidic with a higher volume of mesopores, a combination of different and consecutive methods including; chemical (i.e.; utilizing different compounds, such as NH4F and EDTA) and thermal/hydrothermal (i.e.; implementing calcination/steaming) methods, were employed for modification and dealumination. The combination of acidic-hydrothermal dealumination method led to a further structural collapse compared to that of the acidic calcination. In comparison with the other dealumination methods, the fluorination strategy (i.e.; utilizing NH4F) resulted in a zeolite with higher crystallinity, acidity, and specific surface area. The... 

Bipolar Plates (BPPs) are the most crucial component of the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell system. To improve fuel cell stack performance and lifetime, corrosion resistance and Interfacial Contact Resistance (ICR) enhancement are two essential factors for metallic BPPs. One of the most effective methods to achieve this purpose is adding a thin solid film of conductive coating on the surfaces of these plates. In the present study, 410 Stainless Steel (SS) was selected as a metallic bipolar plate. The coating process was performed using titanium nitride and chromium nitride by the Cathodic Arc Evaporation (CAE) method. The main focus of this study was to select the best coating... 

The use of hybrid renewable energy has increased in recent years due to the growing environmental concerns caused by the consumption of fossil fuels. The purpose of this study was the economic-environmental feasibility of using hybrid energy systems in one of the most polluted and populated provinces in Iran, Isfahan province. Various components of the hybrid energy system such as wind turbine (WT), photovoltaic panel (PV), diesel generator (DG), converter (CV) along with two scenarios of energy storage including battery (BT) and hydrogen storage have been considered in modeling the energy system. Six scenarios were considered based on the combination of different components for supplying... 

Sensors are one of the most vital instruments in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), and operators and safety systems monitor and analyze various parameters reported by them. Failure to detect sensors malfunctions or anomalies would lead to the considerable consequences. In this research, a new method based on thermal–hydraulic simulation by RELAP5 code and Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFNN) is introduced to detect faulty sensors and estimate their correct value. For design an efficient neural net, seven feature selectors (i.e., Information gain, ReliefF, F-regression, mRMR, Plus-L Minus-R, GA, and PSO), three sigmoid activation functions (i.e., Logistic, Tanh and Elliot), and three training... 

Steam/water stratified flow would occur in transient condition (e.g. LOCA) in light water Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Due to high gradient of flow characteristics at the interface of steam/water flow, the prediction of flow characteristics (e.g. temperature, pressure, velocity, and Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE)) requires further attention and special interfacial models. Also, accurate simulation of these mentioned characteristics needs fine spatial mesh and very small time steps based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) standard criteria. In order to reduce the computational cost, the combination of thermal–hydraulic modelling and soft computing is considered as a new strategy in this... 

Catalytic reduction of nitrobenzene is the leading technological step in aniline production. The hydrogen required for this stage, is dominantly produced from fossil fuels through reforming processes, which take much energy and emit large amounts of CO2. Biomass-derived glycerol steam reforming is an attractive alternative to traditional reforming to reduce the dependence on hydrocarbon resources and mitigate climate change. This research aims to analyze a mass- and heat-integrated multi-tubular membrane reactor, containing nitrobenzene hydrogenation (exothermic-side) and glycerol steam reforming (endothermic-side) for co-production of aniline and syngas. In this process, hydrogenation... 

Renewable energy (RE) as a new player in the generation sector of power systems imposes new challenges to the system operators. The intermittent nature of REs for systems where are autonomous calls for new operational and planning strategies to reach more efficient power management. An autonomous hybrid green power system (HGPS) should be able to meet the load while keeping the cost of the HGPS as low as possible. Many studies have presented different un-optimal and optimal operational strategies, a few of which were optimally sized. In this regard, this paper develops a new thorough framework for designing and optimizing an autonomous HGPS. To reach this goal, the proposed model (a)...