5kWe+5kWt reformer-PEMFC energy generator from bioethanol first data on the fuel processor from a demonstrative project

A power unit constituted by a reformer section, a H 2 purification section and a fuel cell stack is being tested c/o the Dept. of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Milano, on the basis of a collaboration with HELBIO S.A. Hydrogen and Energy Production Systems, Patras (Greece), supplier of the unit, and some sponsors (Linea Energia S.p.A., Parco Tecnologico Padano and Provincia di Lodi, Italy). The system size allows to co-generate 5 kW e (220 V, 50 Hz a.c.) + 5 kW t (hot water at 65\ub0C) as peak output. Bioethanol, obtainable by different non-food-competitive biomass, is transformed into syngas by a pre-reforming and reforming reactors couple and the reformate is purified from CO to a concentration below 20 ppmv, suitable to feed a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack that will be integrated in the fuel processor in a second step of the experimentation. This result is achieved by feeding the reformate to two water gas shift reactors, connected in series and operating at high and low temperature, respectively. CO concentration in the outcoming gas is ca. 0.4 vol% and the final CO removal to meet the specifications is accomplished by two methanation reactors in series. The second methanation step acts merely as a guard, since ca. 15 ppmv of CO are obtained already after the first reactor. The goals of the present project are to test the integrated fuel processor, to check the effectiveness of the proposed technology and to suggest possible adequate improvements

Excising Infection in the Surgical Environment

A new AHRC initiative is exploring the architecture and design of operating theatres and what it could mean for AMR research

Excising Infection in the Surgical Environment (ExISE)

A new AHRC initiative is exploring the architecture and design of operating theatres and what it could mean for AMR research. </jats:p

Photoinduced Energy Shift in Quantum-Dot-Sensitized TiO₂: A First-Principles Analysis

We investigate the photoinduced dipole (PID) phenomenon, which holds enormous potential for the optimization of quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs), by means of first-principles electronic structure calculations. We demonstrate that the sensitization of the TiO₂ substrate with core/shell QDs produces almost no changes in the ground state but decisively improves the performance upon photoexcitation. In particular, the maximum attainable <i>V</i>_OC is predicted to increase by ∼25 meV due to two additive effects: (i) the displacement of the photoexcited hole away from the TiO₂ surface and (ii) the interfacial electrostatic interaction established between the TiO₂-injected electrons and the holes residing in the QD core. We believe that this work, explaining the mechanisms by which PID cells deliver better efficiencies, paves the way for the design of new QDSSCs with improved efficiencies

H2 production by steam reforming of bioethanol

Beyond the “North-South”:New territorialities between Africa and Asia Panel organized in the Congrès de Réseaux Asie Le mardi 27, Juin, 2017 14h- 17h00 Lieu : Sciences Po (27, Rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris) Program  ---------- 14h-14h20 Introduction (Kae Amo, Hervé Lado) * Kae Amo, EHESS, IMAF (Institut des Mondes Africains).  " Cultural Hybridation between Asia and Africa/ Hybridation culturelle entre l' Asie et  l'Afrique" * Hervé Lado, Essec Business School  "Is Africa a new oppor..

“Self-trapping” in solar cell hybrid inorganic-organic perovskite absorbers

In the simplest picture, a “self-trapped” polaron forms when an excess electron or hole deforms a crystal lattice, creating a potential well with bound states. Properties of self-trapped polarons in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (MAPbI3), which is widely used as solar cell absorber, are of great interest, and are a subject of ongoing investigations and debates concerning the existence of large polarons with the co-presence of metastable self-trapping. Herein, we employ a self-interaction-free density functional theory method to investigate the stability of small polarons in tetragonal MAPbI3 phase. The electron small polaron is found to be unstable, while the hole small polaron is found to be metastable at realistic operation temperatures of solar cells. Further, the hole polaron is found to have a hole band close to the conduction band, which in conjunction with its metastability suggests that small polarons will have an appreciable effect on charge-carrier recombinations in MAPbI3. Further, we posit that the existence of the metastable polarons in addition to the large polarons may explain the experimentally observed non-monotonic temperature dependence of bimolecular charge-carrier recombination rate in tetragonal MAPbI3 phase