Modular PEM Fuel Cell SCADA & Simulator System

The paper presents a Supervision, Control, Data Acquisition and Simulation (SCADA & Simulator) system that allows for real-time training in the actual operation of a modular PEM fuel cell system. This SCADA & Simulator system consists of a free software tool that operates in real time and simulates real situations like failures and breakdowns in the system. This developed SCADA & Simulator system allows us to properly operate a fuel cell and helps us to understand how fuel cells operate and what devices are needed to configure and run the fuel cells, from the individual stack up to the whole fuel cell system. The SCADA & Simulator system governs a modular system integrated by three PEM fuel cells achieving power rates higher than tens of kilowatts

Estudio de viabilidad de un sistema de intervención remota para aeronaves civiles en situación de interferencia ilícita

El presente estudio trata de evaluar la viabilidad de un sistema de intervención y control de forma remota de aeronaves civiles, las cuales se presupone que se encuentran en situación de interferencia ilícita, bien sea por parte de terceros ajenos a la tripulación o la propia tripulación. Para poder obtener las conclusiones del estudio, se investigaron los acuerdos internacionales que rigen en materia de actos ilícitos a bordo de aeronaves y se procedió a describir los protocolos actuales que se activan en España para estas situaciones. Una vez vistas las herramientas legales existentes para actuar ante este tipo de incidentes, se realizó una búsqueda de las herramientas tecnológicas existentes en la actualidad, las cuales puedan servir de base o soporte al sistema a proponer. Entre ellas se encuentran los avances en materia de RPAS, señales de Command and Control y enlace de datos tácticos militares, así como los sistemas de aviónica embarcados a bordo de las actuales aeronaves comerciales, haciendo especial hincapié en la arquitectura IMA (Integrated Modular Avionics), que es clave para la viabilidad del sistema. Tras haber estudiado estos instrumentos, de los cuales se dispone en la actualidad y se encuentran suficientemente probados, se puede deducir que el sistema es tecnológicamente viable, siempre y cuando la aeronave donde se instale reúna una serie de características que se relatan a lo largo del texto. Quedó igualmente demostrado que los principales avances necesarios, y no existentes en la actualidad, se reducen a la creación de nuevo software y la leve modificación de los ya existentes en los sistemas de aviónica actuales. Igualmente se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de colaboración entre organismos militares y constructores civiles de aeronaves para, en caso de que en un futuro se decidiera crear el sistema, resultara de provecho a nivel internacional, suponiendo esta condición de colaboración el principal inconveniente que pudiera surgir a primera vista. Es obligatorio aclarar, ya en este resumen, que el sistema propuesto en ningún caso pretende convertir una aeronave civil en un dron, y que todo lo que se ambiciona con este sistema es dotar a las autoridades pertinentes de una herramienta adicional a las ya existentes para solventar una crisis puntual.This study attempts to assess the feasibility of a remote control and intervention system for civil aircrafts, which are presumably under illegal interference, either by the crew itself or by others. In order to obtain the conclusions of the study, the international agreements that regulate illegal acts on board were investigated and the current protocols that are activated in Spain for these situations were described. Once the current legal tools to act in the face of this type of incident were seen, a search was made for the existing technological tools, which can serve as a starting point of foundation for the system to be proposed. These include advances in RPAS, Command and Control signals, and military tactical data link, as well as on-board avionics systems in commercial aircrafts, with particular emphasis on IMA architecture (Integrated Modular Avionics), which is key to the system‘s viability. After having studied these instruments, which are currently available and have been sufficiently tested, it can be deduced that the system is technologically feasible, as long as the aircraft where it is to be installed meets a number of features that are described throughout the text. It was also shown that the required main technological tools that are not yet available, are reduced to the creation of new software modules and the slight modification of others already present in the current avionics systems. Likewise, collaboration between civil constructors and military services is crucial in case the proyect is finally created, and it is also the principal inconvenienve at first sight. It is mandatory to clarify that the present proposal is not intended to transform a civil aircraft into a drone. Rather, the postulated system is intended to set up a new and powerful tool at the disposal of the authorities and specialized staff to handle specific crises onboard commercial aircrafts.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Ingeniería Aeroespacia

Green Hydrogen: Resources Consumption, Technological Maturity, and Regulatory Framework

Current climate crisis makes the need for reducing carbon emissions more than evident. For this reason, renewable energy sources are expected to play a fundamental role. However, these sources are not controllable, but depend on the weather conditions. Therefore, green hydrogen (hydrogen produced from water electrolysis using renewable energies) is emerging as the key energy carrier to solve this problem. Although different properties of hydrogen have been widely studied, some key aspects such as the water and energy footprint, as well as the technological development and the regulatory framework of green hydrogen in different parts of the world have not been analysed in depth. This work performs a data-driven analysis of these three pillars: water and energy footprint, technological maturity, and regulatory framework of green hydrogen technology. Results will allow the evaluation of green hydrogen deployment, both the current situation and expectations. Regarding the water footprint, this is lower than that of other fossil fuels and competitive with other types of hydrogen, while the energy footprint is higher than that of other fuels. Additionally, results show that technological and regulatory framework for hydrogen is not fully developed and there is a great inequality in green hydrogen legislation in different regions of the world.This research was funded by the Spanish Government, grant (1) Ref: PID2020-116616RBC31, and grant (2) Ref: RED2022-134588-T REDGENERA

A Novel Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) Algorithm to Apply Artificial Intelligence-Based Maintenance in Electrolysers

Hydrogen provides a clean source of energy that can be produced with the aid of electrolysers. For electrolysers to operate cost-effectively and safely, it is necessary to define an appropriate maintenance strategy. Predictive maintenance is one of such strategies but often relies on data from sensors which can also become faulty, resulting in false information. Consequently, maintenance will not be performed at the right time and failure will occur. To address this problem, the artificial intelligence concept is applied to make predictions on sensor readings based on data obtained from another instrument within the process. In this study, a novel algorithm is developed using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to select the best feature(s) among measured data of the electrolyser, which can best predict the target sensor data for predictive maintenance. The features are used as input into a type of deep neural network called long short-term memory (LSTM) to make predictions. The DLR developed has been compared with those found in literatures within the scope of this study. The results have been excellent and, in fact, have produced the best scores. Specifically, its correlation coefficient with the target variable was practically total (0.99). Likewise, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) between the experimental sensor data and the predicted variable was only 0.1351.This research was funded by the Spanish Government, grant (1) Ref: PID2020-116616RBC31 and grant (2) Ref: RED2022-134588-T REDGENERA

Profitability of Hydrogen-Based Microgrids: A Novel Economic Analysis in Terms of Electricity Price and Equipment Costs

The current need to reduce carbon emissions makes hydrogen use essential for selfconsumption in microgrids. To make a profitability analysis of a microgrid, the influence of equipment costs and the electricity price must be known. This paper studies the cost-effective electricity price (EUR/kWh) for a microgrid located at ‘’La Rábida Campus” (University of Huelva, south of Spain), for two different energy-management systems (EMSs): hydrogen-priority strategy and batterypriority strategy. The profitability analysis is based, on one hand, on the hydrogen-systems’ cost reduction (%) and, on the other hand, considering renewable energy sources (RESs) and energy storage systems (ESSs), on cost reduction (%). Due to technological advances, microgrid-element costs are expected to decrease over time; therefore, future profitable electricity prices will be even lower. Results show a cost-effective electricity price ranging from 0.61 EUR/kWh to 0.16 EUR/kWh for hydrogen-priority EMSs and from 0.4 EUR/kWh to 0.17 EUR/kWh for battery-priority EMSs (0 and 100% hydrogen-system cost reduction, respectively). These figures still decrease sharply if RES and ESS cost reductions are considered. In the current scenario of uncertainty in electricity prices, the microgrid studied may become economically competitive in the near futureThis research was funded by the Spanish Government, grant (1) Ref: PID2020-116616RBC31 and grant (2) Ref: RED2022-134588-T REDGENERA. : This research was possible thanks to the work of Andrea Monforti Ferrario, who developed the software with which a simulation of the described microgrid was performed, which subsequently led to the profitability study carried out in this pape

The Challenge of Digital Transition in Engineering. A Solution Made from a European Collaborative Network of Remote Laboratories Based on Renewable Energies Technology

Society currently faces two crucial challenges: digital transition and energy transition. Educative innovation plays a key role in this challenging scenario, particularly engineering careers, where laboratory practices are as important as theoretical classes. This paper presents a standardized training platform supported by five European universities which include a remote laboratory experience. Each university is responsible for developing a training module under the guidance provided by the responsible entity (University of Huelva, Spain). For this purpose, the University of Huelva has implemented a remote laboratory based on a supercapacitor power bank. The rest of the universities have selected any other renewable source and have replicated the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure. The result is a European network materialized on a homogenized platform where teachers and students can find all the teaching materials (theory and practice) to train and to be trained in renewable energy matters in the new digital era.This research was funded by Erasmus+ Programme, grant number Ref. 2020-1-IT02-KA226-HE-095424 RE-OPEN project; ERASMUS+ Programme 2020-KA2; and the APC was funded by Ref. 2020-1-IT02-KA226-HE-095424 RE-OPEN project, founded by ERASMUS+ Programme 2020-KA2

The Remote Access to Laboratories: a Fully Open Integrated System

An existing lab experience can be made remotely accessible in a relatively easy way. The problem is with the design of a tool which allows any kind of experience to be made remotely accessible. The complexity of this tool is out of discussion. Several universities have been working on it for years. In fact, the Huelva University presented the work “A Complete Solution for Developing Remote Labs†in the 10th IFAC Symposium on Advances in Control Education (2013). Such complete solution was the result of those universities working together. Since then, the joint-work has continued and improvements have also been achieved. Hereafter, a fully open integrated system is presented whose scope is greater than that of 2013. It offers a way to easily implement cloud services for managing the configuration and access to all type of sensors, actuators and controllers (the devices base of the any remote lab). The access proposed is secure, controlled, organized and collaborativ

Testing Bench for Remote Practical Training in Electric Machines

Remote labs are emerging as a necessary tool to support practical classes in engineering studies. It is due to the increasing number of students who combine their studies with work. In fact, there are numerous developments in areas such as electronics and automatic. However, there are only a few of them in the area of electrical machines. This paper presents a testing bench for remote practical training in electric machines. The security challenges presented by these experiments are overcome by software within the remote lab. In addition, a friendly interface has been designed including augmented reality to identify the different elements and to provide information on these items if the student requires it. The testing bench has been developed to be used in different kinds of electrical machines test