Efficient photocatalytic activity of MnO2-loaded ZrO2/carbon cluster nanocomposite materials under visible light irradiation

Nano-sized ZrO2/carbon cluster nanocomposite material was successfully prepared by the calcination of Zr(acac)4/epoxy resin complex in air. The composite material obtained by calcining at 200 °C was treated with hydrogen hexachloroplatinate hexahydrate (H2PtCl6) to obtain Pt-loaded materials denoted as Ic200Pt'sH's. The Pt-loaded material modified with MnO2 particles efficiently decompose water into H2 and O2 with a [H2]/[O2] ratio of 2 under the irradiation of visible light (λ > 460 nm) through the electron transfer process of MnO2 → carbon clusters → ZrO2 → Pt

E-Maintenance for Photovoltaic Power Generation System

AbstractThe high potential recorded by desert of Algeria in terms of sun exposure offers scope to exploit this source of renewable energy to answer the needs for water supply and public lighting in isolated populations. Our objective is to guarantee the reliability of the photovoltaic power generation equipments located in remote and isolated areas, including photovoltaic pumping stations, expected to supply water to local people for human consumption and for livestock from drilling isolated. Thus, we are focused particularly on the reliability of these systems and their maintenance in operational mode.The introduction of the e-maintenance can reduce cost and time management of equipment, and provide easy access to relevant information for the user by freeing up geographical constraints. Our study aims to introduce the techniques proposed by the e-Maintenance, to improve the management of the maintenance process. In this project a cooperative distributed platform of e-maintenance is proposed, including data acquisition systems, control, maintenance management, diagnosis assistance, management of documentation, etc. An e-maintenance platform is a collaboration platform offering a set of software components and software services for maintenance support (integrated and/or distant) all enable maintenance actors to find each other, and the information they need, and to be able to communicate and work together to achieve maintenance process. In this platform, the process of the various modules must be designed following a process of knowledge capitalization and data processing to ensure the diagnosis and prognosis of the pumping system of the Photovoltaic system and thus ensure its reliability. This processing chain will be tested in a first time in a mini-solar station to show the feasibility of the approach

Assessment of levels and dynamics of intra-specific genetic diversity of Latin American tropical trees for conservation and sustainable management

Andrew Lowe, Eric Bandou, Peter Breyne, Henri Caron, Stephen Cavers, Nathalie Colpaert, Bernd Degen, Rogerio Gribel, Marvin Hernandez, Antoine Kremer, Patrick Labbe, Maristerra Lemes, Rogerio Margis, Marcia Margis-Pinheiro, Marc van Montagu, Carlos Navarro and Julia Wilso

A pantropically introduced tree is followed by specific ectomycorrhizal symbionts due to pseudo-vertical transmission

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