Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "ACTIVE SOLAR STILLS"

This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of active solar stills, a promising technology for sustainable water purification. Active solar stills utilize external energy sources and the sun's energy to evaporate and condense water, thereby removing impurities and producing clean drinking water. However, existing reviews on active solar stills have certain limitations. This review addresses these limitations through consistent experimental setups and meta-analyses. Additionally, the review takes a holistic approach, considering not only productivity and efficiency but also practicality, maintenance requirements, and economic feasibility. The use of phase change material (PCM) in solar stills is a potential approach to entrap the heat and reduce the losses. The review provides practical guidelines and recommendations for optimizing the performance and feasibility of active solar stills. By integrating these novel aspects, this review offers valuable insights to advance the understanding, implementation, and adoption of active solar stills as a sustainable water purification solution.

Sea water desalination through solar radiation distillation process can achieve low cost and sustainable fresh water for remote dry areas. In conventional passive solar stills, the solar radiation passes through the transparent cover and supplies heat to sea water with limited back reflection. The evaporative heat transfer between the water surface and the glass cover produces the distillate by means of film type condensation at the inner surface of the glass cover. In order to enhance evaporation/condensation phase changes, active solar stills were introduced. In these last, saline water is circulated and put in contact with a heat source which supplies heat to the saline water. With this extra energy, the distillate productivity is increased. In this work, heat supply is assumed to be controlled such that the temperature at the inlet of the still can be adjusted through regulation of the circulating heat transfer fluid rate. Using a modelling based on uniform temperature in each still component, a set of ordinary differential equations was derived. The input variables comprised heat transfer fluid rate, inlet temperature as well as sea water rate and basin depth. Extensive parametric studies were performed after that and optimization of the distilled water yield and rate was discussed.

All Earth's life forms depend heavily on water. Despite the critical importance of fresh water in the modern world, water pollution caused by industry and increasing urbanization has significantly reduced the amount of pure water available on Earth. Changes in global climate and seasons also contribute significantly to the depletion of fresh water resources. Population growth over the past few decades has increased the demand for safe drinking water. Multiple water-borne diseases can result from drinking contaminated water, and depending on the level of pollution, this could even be fatal. There are several ways to purify polluted water, but solar distillation is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly option because it mimics the hydrological processes seen in nature and can be powered by the sun alone. Solar stills provide drinkable water and don't call for any special expertise to operate or maintain. An integrated PV/T solar still is a welcome solution for distant locations that already struggle with access to safe drinking water and dependable electricity. According to research, a passive solar still produced 2–5 kg/m2 of fresh water daily whereas an active solar still connected to a PV/T collector could produce 6–12 kg/m2 of fresh water daily. In this paper, we provide a complete investigation of the solar still coupling and PV module coupling levels at the moment.

Most remote islands are characterized by small populations, many of whom live under the poverty line, poor geographical accessibility and lack of electricity. As such, the solar still, which has a low capital cost, easy operation and less need of maintenance, is recommended to be used in remote islands possessing rich solar irradiance. Against this backdrop, the present study aimed to design and fabricate an effective solar still suitable for application in the remote islands with low freshwater sources but easy access to sea water and rich solar irradiance. Integrating a conventional passive double-slope solar still with an evacuated solar water heater, fins and wick material improves the heat transfer rate through the brine in the basin and increases effective evaporative surface area. Experiments were conducted using batch mode operation during the periods September to October 2021 for the passive solar stills and November 2021 for the active solar still. Experimental results reveal that the augmentation of fins, wicks and a solar water heater influences the overall distillate output of the solar still. The combined use of fins, wicks and a solar water heater increases the average daily productivity by 147% and the average daytime hourly productivity by 245% compared to the conventional passive solar still under similar average solar radiation levels. Using the present design, the active solar still under the solar environment of the testing location can provide 4.4 L of potable water per day. However, to achieve the minimum requirement of 7.5 L/day per person set by WHO, the present design should be modified by increasing the absorber area of the active solar still by 63% and adding eight more evacuated tubes to the solar water heater. The estimated cost per liter of potable water generated by the active (modified) solar still showed that bottled water sold in a typical remote county (Penghu) in Taiwan was 117–283% more expensive than the water generated by the still.

The basin type active solar still with CuO nanoparticles has been investigated in the current study and energy, exergy analysis, energy matrices, exergoeconomic parameter, environeconomic parameter, and productivity has been presented. The prime objective of this design is to develop an energy efficient solar distillation system and produce potable water at a reasonable price. The single and double slope solar distillation systems N-PVT-CPC-HE with water loaded CuO nanoparticles have been studied in detail. A mathematical model developed for the proposed systems and life cycle cost analysis for single and double solar distiller units with N-PVT-CPC using a helically coiled heat exchanger with water loaded CuO nanoparticles has emanated out. The analysis of four different weather conditions viz type a, b, c and d days for each month of year has been done. Detailed computation of energy, exergy, and yield optimized at N=4 number of collectors and various parameters like cost of distillate, CO2 mitigation, carbon credit earned, environeconomic, productivity and exergoeconomic also have been computed. Generally, exergoeconomic parameters are computed by lost exergy per unit cost for the systems like mechanical, thermal, etc. as many researchers reported, while in proposed study to compute the exergy gain per unit cost because solar energy is free of cost available. Solar distillation is carried out at 0.14 m depth of water, N-PVT-Compound parabolic concentrator collectors and optimum flow rate for the composite climate condition of New Delhi, India. Water production cost in ₹/kg and $/kg has also been calculated. Solar distiller performance in terms of hourly productivity of distiller unit has for optimum number of collectors (N = 4), flow rate, and relative water depth have been determined. It has been concluded that double slope N-PVT-CPC active solar distiller unit with heat exchanger using CuO nanoparticles gives the best performance based on average energy, exergy, Page vii yield, cost of distillate, CO2 mitigation, carbon credit earned, environeconomic, productivity and exergoeconomic etc. Following contributions are made by annual analysis of the proposed systems with CuO nanoparticles. 1. Distillate cost is less for system-B than system-A. Annual distillate costs for 30 yrs at rate of interest 10% are 0.30₹/kg for system-B, 0.344₹/kg for system-A, and 0.338₹/kg for system-C. 2. System-A gives a higher value of carbon dioxide mitigation and carbon credit earned based on thermal energy and exergy. Mitigation per ton based on energy and exergy for system-A is 15.76% and 53.5% higher than system-B and system- C, respectively. 3. Annual productivity of system-B for 15, 20, 30, 50 years are 209.44%, 230.63%, 251.28%, and 262.04% respectively. 4. Exergoeconomic analysis based on exergoeconomic parameter (Rex) of the system-B for 15, 20, 30, 50 years are 0.0312, 0.0344, 0.03746, and 0.03906 kWh/₹, respectively.

Economy and mankind are inextricably interlinked. Just as the economy or the production of material wealth is unimaginable without a man, so human existence and development are impossible without the wealth created in the economy. Shortly, both the goal and the means of achieving and realization of the economy are still the human resources. People have long ago noticed that it was the economy that created livelihoods, and the delays in their production led to the catastrophic events such as hunger, poverty, civil wars, social upheavals, revolutions, moral degeneration, and more. Therefore, the special interest of people in understanding the regulatory framework of the functioning of the economy has existed and exists in all historical epochs [A. Sisvadze. Economic theory. Part One. 2006y. p. 22]. The system of economic disciplines studies economy or economic activities of a society. All of them are based on science, which is currently called economic theory in the post-socialist space (the science of economics, the principles of economics or modern economics), and in most countries of the world - predominantly in the Greek-Latin manner - economics. The title of the present book is also Modern Economics. Economics (economic theory) is the science that studies the efficient use of limited resources to produce and distribute goods and services in order to satisfy as much as possible the unlimited needs and demands of the society. More simply, economics is the science of choice and how society manages its limited resources. Moreover, it should be emphasized that economics (economic theory) studies only the distribution, exchange and consumption of the economic wealth (food, beverages, clothing, housing, machine tools, computers, services, etc.), the production of which is possible and limited. And the wealth that exists indefinitely: no economic relations are formed in the production and distribution of solar energy, air, and the like. This current book is the second complete updated edition of the challenges of the modern global economy in the context of the coronary crisis, taking into account some of the priority directions of the country's development. Its purpose is to help students and interested readers gain a thorough knowledge of economics and show them how this knowledge can be applied pragmatically (professionally) in professional activities or in everyday life. To achieve this goal, this textbook, which consists of two parts and tests, discusses in simple and clear language issues such as: the essence of economics as a science, reasons for origin, purpose, tasks, usefulness and functions; Basic principles, problems and peculiarities of economics in different economic systems; Needs and demand, the essence of economic resources, types and limitations; Interaction, mobility, interchangeability and efficient use of economic resources. The essence and types of wealth; The essence, types and models of the economic system; The interaction of households and firms in the market of resources and products; Market mechanism and its elements - demand, supply and price; Demand and supply elasticity; Production costs and the ways to reduce them; Forms of the market - perfect and incomplete competition markets and their peculiarities; Markets for Production Factors and factor incomes; The essence of macroeconomics, causes and importance of origin; The essence and calculation of key macroeconomic indicators (gross national product, gross domestic product, net national product, national income, etc.); Macroeconomic stability and instability, unemployment, inflation and anti-inflationary policies; State regulation of the economy and economic policy; Monetary and fiscal policy; Income and standard of living; Economic Growth; The Corona Pandemic as a Defect and Effect of Globalization; National Economic Problems and New Opportunities for Development in the conditions of the Coronary Crisis; The Socio-economic problems of moral obsolescence in digital technologies; Education and creativity are the main solution way to overcome the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus; Positive and negative effects of tourism in Georgia; Formation of the middle class as a contributing factor to the development of tourism in Georgia; Corporate culture in Georgian travel companies, etc. The axiomatic truth is that economics is the union of people in constant interaction. Given that the behavior of the economy reflects the behavior of the people who make up the economy, after clarifying the essence of the economy, we move on to the analysis of the four principles of individual decision-making. Furtermore, the book describes how people make independent decisions. The key to making an individual decision is that people have to choose from alternative options, that the value of any action is measured by the value of what must be given or what must be given up to get something, that the rational, smart people make decisions based on the comparison of the marginal costs and marginal returns (benefits), and that people behave accordingly to stimuli. Afterwards, the need for human interaction is then analyzed and substantiated. If a person is isolated, he will have to take care of his own food, clothes, shoes, his own house and so on. In the case of such a closed economy and universalization of labor, firstly, its productivity will be low and, secondly, it will be able to consume only what it produces. It is clear that human productivity will be higher and more profitable as a result of labor specialization and the opportunity to trade with others. Indeed, trade allows each person to specialize, to engage in the activities that are most successful, be it agriculture, sewing or construction, and to buy more diverse goods and services from others at a relatively lower price. The key to such human interactions is that trade is mutually beneficial; That markets are usually the good means of coordination between people and that the government can improve the results of market functioning if the market reveals weakness or the results of market functioning are not fair. Moroever, it also shows how the economy works as a whole. In particular, it is argued that productivity is a key determinant of living standards, that an increase in the money supply is a major source of inflation, and that one of the main impediments to avoiding inflation is the existence of an alternative between inflation and unemployment in the short term, that the inflation decrease causes the temporary decline in unemployement and vice versa. The Understanding creatively of all above mentioned issues, we think, will help the reader to develop market economy-appropriate thinking and rational economic-commercial-financial behaviors, to be more competitive in the domestic and international labor markets, and thus to ensure both their own prosperity and the functioning of the country's economy. How he/she copes with the tasks, it is up to the individual reader to decide. At the same time, we will receive all the smart useful advices with a sense of gratitude and will take it into account in the further work. We also would like to thank the editor and reviewers of the books. Finally, there are many things changing, so it is very important to realize that the XXI century has come: 1. The century of the new economy; 2. Age of Knowledge; 3. Age of Information and economic activities are changing in term of innovations. 1. Why is the 21st century the century of the new economy? Because for this period the economic resources, especially non-productive, non-recoverable ones (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.) are becoming increasingly limited. According to the World Energy Council, there are currently 43 years of gas and oil reserves left in the world (see “New Commersant 2007 # 2, p. 16). Under such conditions, sustainable growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) and maximum satisfaction of uncertain needs should be achieved not through the use of more land, labor and capital (extensification), but through more efficient use of available resources (intensification) or innovative economy. And economics, as it was said, is the science of finding the ways about the more effective usage of the limited resources. At the same time, with the sustainable growth and development of the economy, the present needs must be met in a way that does not deprive future generations of the opportunity to meet their needs; 2. Why is the 21st century the age of knowledge? Because in a modern economy, it is not land (natural resources), labor and capital that is crucial, but knowledge. Modern production, its factors and products are not time-consuming and capital-intensive, but science-intensive, knowledge-intensive. The good example of this is a Japanese enterprise (firm) where the production process is going on but people are almost invisible, also, the result of such production (Japanese product) is a miniature or a sample of how to get the maximum result at the lowest cost; 3. Why is the 21st century the age of information? Because the efficient functioning of the modern economy, the effective organization of the material and personal factors of production largely depend on the right governance decision. The right governance decision requires prompt and accurate information. Gone are the days when the main means of transport was a sailing ship, the main form of data processing was pencil and paper, and the main means of transmitting information was sending letters through a postman on horseback. By the modern transport infrastructure (highways, railways, ships, regular domestic and international flights, oil and gas pipelines, etc.), the movement of goods, services and labor resoucres has been significantly accelerated, while through the modern means of communication (mobile phone, internet, other) the information is spreading rapidly globally, which seems to have "shrunk" the world and made it a single large country. The Authors of the book: Ushangi Samadashvili, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University - Introduction, Chapters - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11,12, 15,16, 17.1,18 , Tests, Revaz Shengelia, Doctor of Economics, Professor of Georgian Technical University, Chapters_7, 8, 13. 14, 17.2, 17.4; Zhuzhuna Tsiklauri - Doctor of Economics, Professor of Georgian Technical University - Chapters 13.6, 13.7,17.2, 17.3, 18. We also thank the editor and reviewers of the book.

The design, analysis and modeling of solar energy-based water purifiers, commonly known as a solar still, which is based on the greenhouse effect, is the requirement of time as there is a scarcity of freshwater throughout the globe. The technology of purifying dirty water using solar energy is a promising solution for simplifying contemporary water scarcity as this technology does not create any bad effect on the surroundings, unlike conventional water purification technology, which creates a lot of polluting elements and ultimately has become problematic for the environment. Most solar energy-based water purifiers are self-sustainable, and they can be installed in remote locations where sunlight and source of impure water are available in abundance. This solar energy-based technology of water purification should perform better in hilly locations as the intensity of light is higher than the intensity of light in fields. The current chapter deals with the thermal modeling of different types of passive and active solar stills, including solar stills loaded with water-based nanofluids, followed by their energy and exergy analyses.

In order to meet the ever-growing global demands for food, healthcare, and energy, among other sources, the twenty-first century has seen a significant surge in the use of microalgae. They have seen applications in varied industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to energy to even the food industry, where its role as a source of proteins shines the most among other bioactive compounds. The microalgal biomass has the innate ability to grow in varied ecological conditions and has diverse compositions. While not economically competitive with fossil fuels or other renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, microalgal sources are technically viable, and a multitude of resources and time have been poured into the research of microalgal renewable fuels (biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, etc.). The rich diversity of microalgae, which is still underutilized, provides a variety of physiologically active metabolites of economic importance. These bioactive metabolites have antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties. The microalgal biomass is a rich source of various compounds such as fatty acids, carotenoids, polysterols, and phenolics that can be utilized to synthesize pharmaceutical compounds and other nutraceuticals. Considering microalgae as a superfood, space food, functional food, strong agent for detoxification with high content of micro and macronutrients has found potential application in occupational, systematic, and life style disorders subsequently enhancing immunity. The path from algal research to the launching of new food products or dietary supplements is strongly affected by industrial, regulatory, and nutritional considerations. Our purpose is to review and assess what is known about different food components (i.e., proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, potential toxicants) in the context of improving knowledge about the efficacy of algal foods as nutraceuticals. This review will add be an asset for food, pharma, nutra, and cosmetic sector.

A project was recently undertaken with the objective of designing a novel photovoltaic module, which encloses groups of solar cells that can track the sun. This will allow the module itself to be mounted simply at a fixed tilt but still reap the substantial energy collecting benefits presently associated only with rotating active and passive solar tracking panels, while avoiding their significant additional complexity, cost and weight. The main ultimate goal is to design such a module to collect at least 25% more energy than a similarly-sized fixed-tilt solar panel, while limiting its added production cost to less than 25%. This paper describes the module’s specific design requirements, and the analysis and design embodiments that have led to a few closely related prototypes based on bimetallic coil actuators. It also presents outdoor test (in the state of Georgia, USA) results showing that the most recent such prototypes collected just over 6% more energy than a similarly-sized fixed-tilt solar panel.

Sonar provides vessels with a sensory system to detect and identify still and moving obstacles. In shallow water both active and passive sonar meet their limits. Acoustical methods exist, aiming at supporting sonar systems by means of digital signal processing, or, coming from the field of biomimetics, imitating echolocation principles of marine animals. This paper introduces a sensor system combining these approaches by the use of a vector sensor array applying Near-field Acoustical Holography (NAH) imitating the Lateral Line organ (LL) of fish; a passive method to supplement active and passive sonar. LL is able to localize obstacles due to their dipole-like water displacement by comparing low-frequency water accelerations distributed along the whole body. In contrast to pressure, accelerations are highly evanescent and do not propagate into the far-field. Thus LL does not suffer under reverberation or scattering. The performance of the proposed NAH-based LL-sensor is tested by a computer simulation of a source in absence and in presence of a disturbing source. The LL-sensor has proven to be more robust than pressure detection methods like beamforming and conventional NAH.

Abstract The world is evolving and developing in various sectors to enhance life which in return is increasing the energy requirements. The development of sustainable energy sources has increased over the years in order to preserve the fossil fuel energy resources such as coal, oil, natural gas, wood etc. which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accordingly protect the environment. As the world moves toward sustainable solutions of clean energy resources for a more environmentally friendly life, the utilization of solar energy has increased. Subsequently, Photovoltaics (PV) panels usage increased tremendously in the recent years. the high efficiency of the PVs is highly impacted by the dust build up causing a big decrease of output power in power output which could reach up to 50% power loss with dust accumulation of 5 mg/cm2 as it be discussed later in paper. The objective of this paper is to present one of the proposed solutions for cleaning the solar panels and as a result enhance the absorption of solar power and the efficiency of the PV panels. The solution is a waterless approach for dust removal from solar panels using electrostatic induction. This is a new technology which is experimentally tested. The new technology is a development to Electrodynamic Screens (EDS) technology where particles are electrically conducted actively charged like conductive iron particles where particle lift-off happens when the applied voltage reaches a threshold value that enables particles to overcome the force that adhere them on the surface. Implementing this technology shall provide a sustainable solution that can be implemented anywhere specially areas where it is difficult to transport water or visit regularly for cleaning. The technology is still in experimental stages not established or implemented in any existing system. Results are based on theoretical calculation, experimental lab prototype, and conclusions.

Wake vortices produced by the lifting surfaces of large aircraft can have catastrophic effects on aircraft that follow too close behind. Many incidents have been blamed on wingtip vortices in the past several decades. Therefore, vortex detection is important for enhancing airport productivity by allowing adoptive spacing and for increasing the safety of all aircraft operating around the airport by alerting controllers that hazardous conditions may exist near the runways. Many methods have been developed for detecting wake vortices. However, there is a lack of a literature review to summarize all the methods and compare their advantages and drawbacks. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review these technologies and to summarize their strengths and weaknesses. There are two main methods available in the literature: active and passive detection methods. Active detection methods include LIDAR (LIGHT Detection And Ranging), RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging), and SODAR (Sonic Detection And Ranging). Passive detection methods include microphone systems, opto-acoustic systems, and ultrasonic detection of circulation. Although vortex detection methods are available, due to military and scientific usage, many researchers are still investigating new methods that are more effective.

Abstract This paper presents advances to a thermal model for a cavity-type receiver that will be integrated into NREL’s System Advisor Model (SAM) software. Traditional concentrated solar power towers make use of an external cylindrical receiver where all active surfaces are fully exposed to the environment, resulting in significant convective and radiative losses. Cavity-type receivers promise to mitigate these losses by instead accepting solar flux through an aperture. In order to allow detailed resolution of the temperature distribution across the cavity, it is necessary to create refined meshes for different cavity geometries and determine the view factor accurately and quickly between any two elements in the mesh. To accomplish this, an analytical function is written to precisely calculate view factors between arbitrary planar polygons without requiring the use of computationally expensive Monte Carlo ray tracing. These view factors are modified using the F-hat method and used as the basis for a two-band radiation heat transfer model. Heat transfer fluid routing is handled through an elemental connectivity matrix, which specifies the elemental fluid temperature variation from inlet to outlet and allows the cavity mesh to interact with the fluid elements. The model is solved iteratively for panel and then fluid temperatures in order to account simultaneously for all energy transfers (convective, long wavelength, short wavelength, and fluid). This approach offers a computationally efficient but still detailed simulation of cavity receiver configurations making it suitable for use in an annual-hourly time series simulation tool such as SAM.

Despite a slow pace, Nuclear Power is undergoing a global renaissance. Small modular reactors (SMR) and microreactors are in various design and commissioning phases. These are designed to be built in factories and installed onsite, providing a means to rapidly deploy nuclear power while controlling for uncertain capital expenditures and cost overruns. The OECD (2016) is projecting that by 2035 we could have 21 GWe of new nuclear electricity capacity installed globally with 3.5 GWe in the United States.Simultaneously, renewables such as wind and solar are growing exponentially and battery electric vehicles are gaining traction in the energy sector. If vehicles transition to battery electric vehicles (BEV) our electricity consumption would roughly double. The energy grid as a whole is evolving as numerous point source generators come online and smarter grids enable better resource management and dynamic pricing. The result will be a distributed energy market where individuals and utilities both buy and sell resources in a fast-paced, brokered market. Or perhaps more accurately, autonomous agents will buy and sell resources on behalf of utilities, individuals, and intermediaries.The pertinent question then becomes how do we have human oversight of resources to maintain safe, secure, and reliable operation?A reasonable approach is to examine assets as three general classes. The first class comprises commodity consumer-oriented devices such as home solar, battery storage, and BEVs represented distributed nano-scale devices. The capital expenditures of any single device or installation are relatively small, and the potential consequences of a single installation failing are relatively small. Minimal regulatory oversight is required for individual installations. The second class comprises distributed micro-scale devices like nuclear micro-reactors and small modular reactors. These will have substantial automation compared to existing Generation II reactors. They could incorporate remote operations and monitoring at the fleet scale, with the ability to shut down systems locally. Disruptions would have costly impacts to an organization or municipality.Lastly, at the other end of the spectrum are high-value assets with the potential for low-probability high consequence events. These would include gigawatt-scale nuclear/solar/hydro plants that might also have flexible operations to support onsite data centers, hydrogen production, or cryptomining. These assets would be high-value targets and distruptions would have the potential for severe economic, environmental, and functional consequences at large geographic scales. When we start thinking about human oversight, participation, and decision making, the first class is consumer-oriented. Consumers will be enabled to become prosumers (producers and consumers) sell excess or optimize energy usage and storage based on dynamic rates.The third class of high-value assets resembles how critical infrastructure is managed today. These high-value assets are conservative and slow to evolve through the adoption of automation and operational changes. They would still need to maintain high degrees of human vigilance compared to the other systems for regulatory adherence and maintaining cyber-physical security and reliability.The second class still has high regulatory requirements. However, it is a bit of a clean slate to conceptualize operations and monitoring from first principles with high levels of automation and mixed-initiative monitoring and control (AI/human teaming). In this paper we explore those possibilities.New SMR and microreactors incorporate passive safety and modern engineering modeling and analysis that wasn't available during the design and commisioning of Generation II reactors. The result is reactors that have significantly reduced risks of catastrophic melt-down events like Fukishima. This dramatically expands the possibilities for how they can be monitored and controlled. When we ponder what modern nuclear control rooms should look like we envision multiple operators monitoring dozens of screens to maintain situational awareness and readiness to respond at a moments notice. However, this is unlikely and perhaps even undersired. Once reactors, in particular microreactors, have the demonstrated capability of operating hands-free with minimal oversight it becomes misguided to install humans to maintain constant vigilance (e.g. Level 4 to 5 self-driving). The key performance indicator should be system performance not situational awareness. Having "operators" permanently installed in a control room when no action is required 99.9% of the time becomes a superficial level of vigilance. Take system administration as a corollary. System administrator's primary responsibility is to maintain the availability of infrastructure, but their primary tasking is not to sit idly by and actively monitor.

In November, 2001, the national weather services of the United States and Canada, recognizing inaccuracies in the original, adopted a revised Wind Chill Temperature (WCT) chart. This revision was developed by the authors under a mandate from a joint action group for temperature indicies (JAG/TI) formed by the U.S. Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology. This new chart provides, for a given air temperature and recorded wind speed, that air temperature, the WCT, which would result in the same rate of heat loss from exposed human skin in still air. Values of the WCT are given for a range of air temperatures from −45°F to 40°F and a range of wind speeds from 5 mph to 60 mph. For Canada, the ranges are from −50°C to 10°C and 10 km/hr to 80 km/hr. The new chart was developed using principles of heat transfer, including conduction, forced convection and radiation. Skin tissue resistance was obtained from human studies. This paper describes the application of these principles and will show how these same principles have been used to demonstrate the errors in the original chart developed over 60 years ago by our military in Antarctica and adopted by the U.S. Weather Service in 1973. As was the case for the original chart, a clear night sky has been assumed, thus ignoring any direct solar radiation that would otherwise tend to elevate the WCT. The new chart is unlikely to be the final version long term and this paper will also discuss possible future modifications.

This paper outlines the development and manufacture of a new pipeline evaluation tool with the capability for multipurpose applications on various types of pipeline systems. Developed with financial assistance from the National Research Council, the new survey system provides pipeline companies access to a cost-effective in-direct integrity assessment process to assist with ensuring safe and reliable operation of their facilities. The technological options available to pipeline integrity assessment are extremely costly and/or considerably outdated. Until recently, external evaluation instrumentation had not been significantly modified since its inception in the mid-1980’s. Although there are inline inspection (ILI) tools or “smart pigs” available to assess the overall integrity of a pipeline, they are extremely expensive. The use of internal inspection tools is also restricted to only those pipelines of uniform diameter and which are modified to accommodate launching and receiving traps. The data from ILI logs does not include depth of cover or coating condition assessment, which are also critical in maintaining the integrity of a pipeline. The majority of small diameter pipelines, such as those in gathering systems, are typically not compatible with the internal inspection technique. The incentive for improving and modifying electromagnetic pipeline coating assessment equipment was based upon: • Customer demand for new pipeline maintenance technologies; • Aging infrastructure; • Increased regulation; • Higher facility throughput and less down time requirements. The new generation of instrumentation is still based upon electromagnetic theory while incorporating the latest in computer and digital technology. In comparison to its predecessors, the package is more accurate, efficient, dependable and robust for a variety of harsh field conditions. The equipment has the ability to reliably collect and evaluate substantial amounts of data in real-time through environmentally sensitive areas such as water crossings and regions of wildlife. Compatibility with industry standards was considered in the development of the associated software used for processing and managing the significant quantity of information collected. The software also offers compatibility with GPS (Global Positioning System) and sonar technologies. Geodetic co-ordinates and, if applicable, water depths are obtained simultaneously with all the associated pipeline survey data, providing permanent reference should future remedial action be required. With the collected data set, it is now possible to effectively monitor erosion effects and shifts in pipeline position through three-dimensional modeling of the pipeline corridor and water crossing.

This work performed measurement and verification of installed, operational solar wall systems at Fort Drum, NY, and Forbes Field, Air National Guard, Topeka, KS. Actual annual savings were compared estimated savings generated by a solar wall modeling tool (RETScreen). A comparison with the RETScreen modeling tool shows that the measured actively heated air provided by the solar wall provides 57% more heat than the RETScreen tool predicted, after accounting for boiler efficiency. The solar wall at Fort Drum yields a net savings of $851/yr, for a simple payback of 146 years and a SIR of 0.16. RETScreen models indicate that the solar wall system at Forbes Field, Kansas Air National Guard, Topeka, KS saves $9,350/yr, for a simple payback of 58.8 years and a SIR of 0.34. Although results showed that, due to low natural gas prices, the Fort Drum system was not economically viable, it was recommended that the system still be used to meet renewable energy and fossil fuel reduction goals. The current system becomes economical (SIR 1.00) at a natural gas rate of $16.00/MMBTU or $1.60 /therm.