Optimisation of a high-efficiency solar-driven organic rankine cycle for applications in the built environment

Energy security, pollution and sustainability are major challenges presently facing the international community, in response to which increasing quantities of renewable energy are to be generated in the urban environment. Consequently, recent years have seen a strong increase in the uptake of solar technologies in the building sector. In this work, the potential of a solar combined heat and power (CHP) system based on an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) engine is investigated in a domestic setting. Unlike previous studies that focus on the optimisation of the ORC subsystem, this study performs a complete system optimisation considering both the design parameters of the solar collector array and the ORC engine simultaneously. Firstly, we present thermodynamic models of different collectors, including flat-plate and evacuated-tube designs, coupled to a non-recuperative sub-critical ORC architecture that delivers power and hot water by using thermal energy rejected from the engine. Optimisation of the complete system is first conducted, aimed at identifying operating conditions for which the power output is maximised. Then, hourly dynamic simulations of the optimised system configurations are performed to complete the system sizing. Results are presented of: (i) dynamic 3-D simulations of the solar collectors together with a thermal energy storage tank, and (ii) of an optimisation analysis to identify the most suitable working fluids for the ORC engine, in which the configuration and operational constraints of the collector array are considered. The best performing working fluids (R245fa and R1233zd) are then chosen for a whole-system annual simulation in a southern European climate. The system configuration combining an evacuated-tube collector array and an ORC engine is found to be best-suited for electricity prioritisation, delivering an electrical output of 3,605¿kWh/year from a 60¿m2 collector array. In addition, the system supplies 13,175¿kWh/year in the form of domestic hot water, which is equivalent to more than 6 times the average annual household demand. A brief cost analysis and comparison with photovoltaic (PV) systems is also performed, where despite the lower PV investment cost per kWel, the levelised energy costs of the different systems are found to be similar if the economic value of the thermal output is taken into account. Finally, a discussion of the modelled solar-CHP systems results shows how these could be used for real applications and extended to other locationsPeer ReviewedPostprint (updated version

Recull dels continguts de la dimensió estètica i literària de l’àrea de Llengua catalana

Al currículum d’educació secundària obligatòria (Decret 143/2007 DOGC núm. 4915), dedicat a l’àrea de Llengua catalana i castellana i literatura de l’ESO, s’espefiquen els continguts per cursos mitjançant tres dimensions: la comunicativa, l’estètica i literària, i la plurilingüe i intercultural, i al currículum del Batxillerat (Decret 142/2008 DOGC núm. 5183) se li afegeix la dimensió de recerca i tractament de la informació. Les graelles que presentem a continuació contenen un recull dels continguts específics de la dimensió estètica i literària de l’àrea de Llengua catalana i castellana dels currículums de secundària i Batxillerat per tal de facilitar als docents la visualització de la progressió i relació dels continguts al llarg de les dues etapes. El format escollit permet que el docent, ràpidament, en prengui consciència i pugui fer programacions a curt i a llarg termini

Buidat dels continguts de la competència literària del currículum de llengua catalana i castellana de primària segons el Decret 142/2007

L'apartat del currículum de primària (Decret 142/2007) conté un apartat sota el títol d'Àmbit de llengües, dins del qual s'especifiquen tots els objectius, continguts i criteris d'avaluació que cal treballar per a cada un dels dicles d'educació primària. El document que hem elaborat conté un buidat dels continguts relacionats directament amb al competència literària del currículum. Fem un repàs de quina és la perspectiva sobre la qual es concep la competència literària en els diferents apartats del currículum. La finalitat consisteix a facilitar-ne l'anàlisi per als estudiants de magisteri, concretament als que cursen l'assignatura "Didàctica de la Literatura Infantil i Juvenil" en el grau en Mestre d'Educació Primària de la Facultat de Formació del Professorat de la Universitat de Barcelona

Effect of monovalent cations on the kinetics of hypoxic conformational change of mitochondrial complex I

AbstractMitochondrial complex I is a large, membrane-bound enzyme central to energy metabolism, and its dysfunction is implicated in cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. An interesting feature of mammalian complex I is the so-called A/D transition, when the idle enzyme spontaneously converts from the active (A) to the de-active, dormant (D) form. The A/D transition plays an important role in tissue response to ischemia and rate of the conversion can be a crucial factor determining outcome of ischemia/reperfusion. Here, we describe the effects of alkali cations on the rate of the D-to-A transition to define whether A/D conversion may be regulated by sodium.At neutral pH (7–7.5) sodium resulted in a clear increase of rates of activation (D-to-A conversion) while other cations had minor effects. The stimulating effect of sodium in this pH range was not caused by an increase in ionic strength. EIPA, an inhibitor of Na+/H+ antiporters, decreased the rate of D-to-A conversion and sodium partially eliminated this effect of EIPA. At higher pH (>8.0), acceleration of the D-to-A conversion by sodium was abolished, and all tested cations decreased the rate of activation, probably due to the effect of ionic strength.The implications of this finding for the mechanism of complex I energy transduction and possible physiological importance of sodium stimulation of the D-to-A conversion at pathophysiological conditions in vivo are discussed

Derecho a techo

Treball Final de Grau en Periodisme. Codi: PE0932 Curs acadèmic: 2014-2015Derecho a Techo es una página web que trata uno de los temas más relevantes de la actualidad, los desahucios, concretamente, en la provincia de Castellón. Las personas que los sufren, son una parte de la sociedad que aparece en los medios de comunicación de forma generalizada, es decir, sin nombre y en muchas ocasiones, sin voz. Queremos personificar a los ciudadanos que se encuentran en esta situación precaria, pero no solo a ellos, sino también a aquellas personas que en situaciones deplorables sacan su máxima solidaridad. Seguiremos a las familias, a los más afectados y a aquellos que luchan por los derechos de todos los ciudadanos, realizando reportajes, tanto escritos, radiofónicos como audiovisuales, entrevistas y fotografías. Derecho a Techo es una web dirigida a todos los públicos, ya que los desahucios no entienden de edad, género o raza.We have created a website that is specialized in provincial journalism focusing on topics that, despite not having real media interest, do exist. In "Derecho a Techo" (Right to a roof), the name of the website, you can find a lot of journalistic articles, especially interviews that cover a wide range of topics related to evictions in the province of Castellon. We chose this social problem because we believe it is right and necessary that all those who are being affected by the Mortgage Law in our province are heard. With our work we want to give a face, a voice, and represents de feelings and opinions of the people, who have this problem and are living it

Integració d'instruments de mesura en un túnel de vent de laboratori

Aquest projecte consisteix en la integració de diversos instruments de mesura per realitzar experiments al túnel aerodinàmic del laboratori d’aeronàutica SA1 de l’EPSC. Aquesta integració inclou la realització de primeres mesures per provar els aparells i l’elaboració d’uns manuals de muntatge i utilització per futurs usuaris que vulguin utilitzar-los. Els instruments que s’han incorporat al túnel són: una balança de tres components, un tub Pitot, i dos models aerodinàmics amb preses de pressió: un cilindre i un perfil NACA0012. Per poder prendre i emmagatzemar dades d’aquests instruments s’han muntat un sistema d’adquisició de dades i un sistema multicanal de 32 pressions. El projecte també inclou un estudi de fonaments d’aerodinàmica i teoria de túnels aerodinàmics. Aquests conceptes s’utilitzen per estudiar els resultats experimentals dels aparells i comparar-los amb els resultats teòrics obtinguts de simulacions realitzades amb el software CFD FLUENT i el programa PABLO

A single scaling parameter as a first approximation to describe the rainfall pattern of a place: application on Catalonia

As well as in other natural processes, it has been frequently observed that the phenomenon arising from the rainfall generation process presents fractal self-similarity of statistical type, and thus, rainfall series generally show scaling properties. Based on this fact, there is a methodology, simple scaling, which is used quite broadly to find or reproduce the intensity–duration–frequency curves of a place. In the present work, the relationship of the simple scaling parameter with the characteristic rainfall pattern of the area of study has been investigated. The calculation of this scaling parameter has been performed from 147 daily rainfall selected series covering the temporal period between 1883 and 2016 over the Catalonian territory (Spain) and its nearby surroundings, and a discussion about the relationship between the scaling parameter spatial distribution and rainfall pattern, as well as about trends of this scaling parameter over the past decades possibly due to climate change, has been presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Quality control process of the daily rainfall series available in Catalonia from 1855 to the present

The quality control of weather data is a necessity and a responsibility of meteorological services that store, distribute, and use these data. In the present work, a newly designed quality control procedure for daily rainfall data is presented after it has been adjusted and tested with more than 10^7 data from 1726 daily rainfall measurement sites in Catalonia. It is applicable to data from different origins (e.g., automatic weather stations or manual historical measurements). The procedure is focused on relative comparison of daily data with reference stations that are automatically selected after an initial estimation of their quality and a proximity study regarding location and correlation. The presented procedure has been verified taking advantage of an available network in the study area that has been routinely quality controlled by technicians of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia. The newly designed quality control procedure for daily precipitation yields good results, especially for extreme values: type I error under 10% is found for values up to 150 mm (error decreasing for lower values) and type II error is under 16% when reported values are twice a measure of 50 mm or more (error decreasing for more extreme values). After the application of the quality control procedure, a selection of series with the minimum desired quality is achieved.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Influencia de los distintos sistemas de producción sobre el bienestar de las gallinas ponedoras. Normas mínimas relativas a la protección de las gallinas ponedoras

Treball presentat a l'assignatura de Deontologia i Veterinària Legal (21223

Nucleic acid i-motif structures in analytical chemistry

Under the appropriate experimental conditions of pH and temperature, cytosine-rich segments in DNA or RNA sequences may produce a characteristic folded structure known as an i-motif. Besides its potential role in vivo, which is still under investigation, this structure has attracted increasing interest in other fields due to its sharp, fast and reversible pH-driven conformational changes. This 'on/off' switch at molecular level is being used in nanotechnology and analytical chemistry to develop nanomachines and sensors, respectively. This paper presents a review of the latest applications of this structure in the field of chemical analysis