A climo and litho soil-sequence on the Vico volcano (Italy)

A la suite d'une cartographie pédologique détaillée de la majeure partie de l'appareil volcanique de Vico (Italie), une séquence topoclimatique a été définie. Cing profils ont été choisis à des altitudes représentatives des principales zones climatiques. Les changements observés dans les sols correspondent bien aux effets de variations significatives des paramètres climatique

Multi-criteria evaluation of hydrogen and natural gas fuelled power plant technologies

This paper evaluates nine types of electrical energy generation options with regard to seven criteria. The options use natural gas or hydrogen as a fuel. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to perform the evaluation, which allows decision-making when single or multiple criteria are considered. The options that were evaluated are the hydrogen combustion turbine, the hydrogen internal combustion engine, the hydrogen fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the hydrogen fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, the natural gas fuelled solid oxide fuel cell, the natural gas turbine, the natural gas combined cycle and the natural gas internal combustion engine. The criteria used for the evaluation are CO2 emissions, NOX emissions, efficiency, capital cost, operation and maintenance costs, service life and produced electricity cost. A total of 19 scenarios were studied. In 15 of these scenarios, the hydrogen turbine ranked first and proved to be the most preferred electricity production technology. However since the hydrogen combustion turbine is still under research, the most preferred power generation technology which is available nowadays proved to be the natural gas combined cycle which ranked first in five scenarios and second in eight. The last in ranking electricity production technology proved to be the natural gas fuelled phosphoric acid fuel cell, which ranked in the last position in 13 scenarios

Space and Time pattern of mid-velocity IMF emission in peripheral heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies

The emission pattern in the V_perp - V_par plane of Intermediate Mass Fragments with Z=3-7 (IMF) has been studied in the collision 116Sn + 93Nb at 29.5 AMeV as a function of the Total Kinetic Energy Loss of the reaction. This pattern shows that for peripheral reactions most of IMF's are emitted at mid-velocity. Coulomb trajectory calculations demonstrate that these IMF's are produced in the early stages of the reaction and shed light on geometrical details of these emissions, suggesting that the IMF's originate both from the neck and the surface of the interacting nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex 3.1, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

A new concept of highways infrastructure integrating energy storage devices for e-mobility transition

European Commission aims to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Since transport produces 23 % of the global emissions, a massive electrification is necessary. A proper infrastructure for battery and fuel cell electric vehicles (BEVs/FCEVs) charging/refueling should be developed, especially along the highways. This research study illustrates three different alternatives of energy storage integration into fast charging stations (FCSs) aiming to support BEVs/FCEVs fast charging/refueling by exploiting the surplus of renewable energy assessed in Italy at 2040. Specifically, the integration of Lithium-Ion Battery (LIB), Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) and LIB/Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer (PEM-E) into FCS is analyzed assessing the overgeneration exploitation and volumetric encumbrance of storage section. Dynamic FCS models are developed for each scenario and simulations are performed to proper sizing the storage components. The paper outcomes highlight that the number of charged/refueled EVs at parity of occupied volume is for the PEM-E case of one order magnitude lower than LIB case. If the comparison is made over the charged/refueled kWh per cube meter, the difference between PEM-E and LIB is significantly reduced (i.e., 11.7 vs. 28 kWh m−3). It is highlighted as BEVs fast charging (once LIB is considered) allows more than halve volume occupation with respect to FCEVs refueling with H2 on-site production, since territory occupation is a constraint at systemic level. Moreover, the LIB integration allows a reduction up to 53 % of the power requested from the grid with respect to the storage absence, reducing under voltage and power stability issues as well

How hybridization of energy storage technologies can provide additional flexibility and competitiveness to microgrids in the context of developing countries

Hybrid microgrids, integrating renewable energy sources and energy storage, are key in extending energy access in the remote areas of developing countries, in a sustainably way and in providing a good quality of service. Their extensive development faces a financing gap, having a high capital expenditure (CAPEX) also due to high storage costs. In the present work, a case study of a Ugandan microgrid was used to compare various battery technologies employed on their own and in a combination with a flywheel, in terms of their durability and the overall levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the plant. Simulations show how hybrid storage configurations result in a lower LCOE for the current load profile of the microgrid and even more so for two reference residential and industrial load scenarios, suggesting this would remain the best solution even accounting for future socio-economic development. The resulting LCOE for hybrid storage configurations is lower than the average values reported for microgrid projects and represents a promising solution to speed up the development of such electrification initiatives