Smart integration of a DC microgrid: Enhancing the power quality management of the neighborhood low-voltage distribution network

The fast development of the residential sector regarding the additional integration of renewable distributed energy sources and the modern expansion usage of essential DC electrical equipment may cause severe power quality problems. For example, the integration of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) may cause unbalance, and voltage fluctuation, which can add constraints for further PV integrations to the network, and the deployment of DC native loads with their nonlinear behavior adds harmonics to the network. This paper demonstrates the smart integration of a DC microgrid to the neighborhood low-voltage distribution network (NLVDN). The DC microgrid is connected to the NLVDN through a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI), in which the VSI works as a distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM). Unlike previous STATCOM work in the literature, the proposed controller of the VSI of the DC smart building allows for many functions: (a) it enables bidirectional active/reactive power flow between the DC building and the AC grid at point of common coupling (PCC); (b) it compensates for the legacy unbalance in the distribution network, providing harmonics elimination and power factor correction capability at PCC; and (c) it provides voltage support at PCC. The proposed controller was validated by Matlab/Simulink and by experimental implementation at the lab

Combination of Electrocoagulation and Electro-Oxidation Processes of Textile Wastewaters Treatment

The present paper investigates the electrocoagulation-electrooxidation (EC-EO) process for the treatment of high-strength wastewater textile industry located in Babylon governance -Iraq. This EC-EO process evaluated the efficiency of electrocoagulation in treating contaminants.Textile wastewater such as BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, turbidity, nitrates, sulfate, total phosphates, electrical conductivity, oil and grease and the total phenols by using either Aluminum or (Iron) electrodes set in a bipolar structure or Titanium coated with iridium oxide Ti/IrO2 electrodes arranged in a monopolar outline in the same electrolytic cell. The first set of analyses that examined the best performance of textile wastewater was achieved by using Aluminum and Titanium coated with iridium oxide plates alternated in the electrode pack and operated at a current of 0.6 A during 90 min of treatment with pH adjusted to approximately 6.0. Further analysis showed that, 95% of oil and greases (O&G) were removed, however chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) removal reached 90% and 87%, respectively. Another important finding was that, more than 96 % of soluble phosphate was removed, and the process was effective in removing turbidity (98%) and suspended solids (98%). A total cost of treated textile effluent process under the best conditions involved using an EC - EO process including chemical electrode consumption, and energy was 2.03 USD/m3. Keywords: Electrocoagulation, Electro-oxidation, Titanium electrode, Textile wastewater, Aluminum electrode.

Electrocoagulation Technology in Wastewater Treatment: A Review of Methods and Applications

The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature that published from 2010 to 2013 on topics related to electrocoagulation technology within the wastewater. The review describes and discussing issues surrounding electrocoagulation treatment within wastewater, including its concept, the background and various wastewater treatment techniques applications in the industry such as, optimization, modelling, combination composition and ,comparison with other treatment methods. Keywords: coagulation,electrochemical treatment , electrocoagulation, electrode, wastewater treatment

A3 thinking approach to support knowledge-driven design

Problem solving is a crucial skill in product development. Any lack of effective decision making at an early design stage will affect productivity and increase costs and the lead time for the other stages of the product development life cycle. This could be improved by the use of a simple and informative approach which allows the designers and engineers to make decisions in product design by providing useful knowledge. This paper presents a novel A3 thinking approach to problem solving in product design, and provides a new A3 template which is structured from a combination of customised elements (e.g. the 8 Disciplines approach) and reflection practice. This approach was validated using a case study in the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) design issue for an automotive electrical sub-assembly product. The main advantage of the developed approach is to create and capture the useful knowledge in a simple manner. Moreover, the approach provides a reflection section allowing the designers to turn their experience of design problem solving into proper learning and to represent their understanding of the design solution. These will be systematically structured (e.g. as a design checklist) to be circulated and shared as a reference for future design projects. Thus, the recurrence of similar design problems will be prevented and will aid the designers in adopting the expected EMC test results

Investigation on SVM-Backstepping sensorless control of five-phase open-end winding induction motor based on model reference adaptive system and parameter estimation

This paper deals with a new control technique applied to five-phase induction motor under open-end stator winding (FPIM-OESW) topology using the backstepping nonlinear control. The main objective is to improve the dynamics of this kind of machine, which is intended to be used in high power industrial application, where the maintenance is difficult and the fault tolerant is needed to ensure the continuous motor operating mode with minimized number of interruption. This control technique is combined with the Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) to maintain a fixed switching frequency. In addition, the Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) concept is used for the estimation of the load torque, the rotor flux and the rotor speed to overcome the main drawbacks presented with the previous sensorless systems concepts. However, the great sensitivity to the changes of the motor internal parameters and it operating instability problems, especially in low-speed operating region, that causes an estimation error of the rotor speed, is the most disadvantage of the MRAS technique. Therefore, to solve this problem, an estimation method of the motor internal parameters such as the rotor resistance, the stator resistance and the magnetizing inductance, is proposed in this paper. Where, the main aim is to improve furthermore the control performance, to reduce the computational complexity and to minimize the rotor speed estimation error. The obtained simulation results confirm the enhanced performance and the clear efficacy of the proposed control technique under a variety of cases of different operating conditions. - 2019 Karabuk UniversityScopu

CLOVE OR GREEN TEA ADMINISTRATION ANTAGONIZES KHAT HEPATOTOXICITY IN RATS

Objective: Khat consumption has become a common problem that affects the health aspects of life in Yemen and other parts in the world. The liver has been suspected to be particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of khat use and until now khat hepatotoxicity effects are still controversial. This study was conducted to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of aqueous extracts of clove and green tea, as medicinal herbs with established antioxidant properties, against controversial hepatotoxicity effects of khat in rats. Methods: Rats received a daily oral dose of khat extract alone or in combination with green tea or clove extract for six weeks. To study the effects on liver cells, histopathology, routine liver function tests, malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) enzymes were investigated. Results: Khat administration showed marked liver injury; congestion in the portal vein with fibrous tissue proliferation, extended from the portal area and forming intralobular Porto-portal bridging fibrous septae. Besides significant routine liver function tests alterations, lipid peroxides elevation, and TAC reduction with significant inhibition of SOD and CAT activities. Conclusion: Combined administration of khat with clove or green tea protected hepatocytes via oxidative stress inhibition. They significantly counteracted the alterations in liver function tests, decreased lipid peroxidation and restored the antioxidant status to near normal levels. These results confirm khat hepatotoxicity and suggest that clove or green tea administration has strong hepatoprotective effects against khat induced hepatotoxicity in rats via antioxidant mediated mechanism.Â

Finite Element Analysis in Porous Media for Incompressible Flow of Contamination from Nuclear Waste

A non-linear parabolic system is used to describe incompressible nuclear waste disposal contamination in porous media, in which both molecular diffusion and dispersion are considered. The Galerkin method is applied for the pressure equation. For the brine, radionuclide and heat, a kind of partial upwind finite element scheme is constructed. Examples are included to demonstrate certain aspects of the theory and illustrate the capabilities of the kind of partial upwind finite element approach

Practices Towards an Effective Response to Climate and Energy Challenges in The Al-Muthanna University Campus

Regarding the UN reports, Climate change adaptation and mitigation stands for the most difficult challenge for the current and subsequent years in the world, in addition to the particular case of Iraqi cities, especially with the dry, hot climate and Power generation problems. Al-Muthanna University, during the last five years, focused on using the essential tools depending on NBS for saving energy (using daylight, rainwater, and natural materials) and also using innovative solutions (led light,  sensors, solar panels, remote sensing) for reducing energy consumption in the Campus, Greenhouse gas emission the University reduce it by reducing the energy consumption itself, encouraging staff to use Liquid Gas Fuel Automotive, increase the green area, cycling. Therefore, the approximate use of energy-efficient applicants (particularly LED lamps and laptops) is around 75%.  It is also good to mention that there is a total area of smart buildings of 82150 m2 across all campuses of Al-Muthanna University. In addition, the total Carbon footprint in 2021 equals 90.83 metric tons

EXTRACTION-SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF SOME ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUGS IN PHARMACEUTICAL AND BIOLOGICAL FLUIDS USING TWO SULPHONPHTHALEIN DYES

Objective: Two simple and sensitive extractive spectrophotometric methods have been described for the determination of some antihypertensive drugs namely, bisoprolol (BIS), carvedilol (CAR), propranolol (PRP) and telmisartan (TLM) either in pharmaceutical formulations or biological fluids. Methods: The proposed methods involve the formation of yellow colored ion-pair complexes of the studied drugs with two sulphonphthalein dyes as bromophenol blue (BPB) and bromocresol purple (BCP) in acidic medium. Results: The colored products are extracted into methylene chloride and measured spectrophotometrically at 402 nm for all the drugs. Beer's law limits, Sandell sensitivity values, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) values have also been reported for both the methods. The composition of the ion-pair complexes was found 1: 1 by Jobʼs continuous variations method. The effects of concentration of dye, pH and interference of excipients have been studied and optimized. The accuracy and precision of the methods were evaluated on intra-day and inter-day basis; the relative standard deviation (RSD) was<1.72%. Various analytical parameters have been evaluated and the results have been validated by statistical data and indicated no significant difference in accuracy and precision. Conclusion: The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of the studied drugs in pharmaceutical formulations and in biological fluids. Keywords: Antihypertensive drugs, Sulphonphthalein dyes, Ion-pair, Pharmaceuticals