Producing geothermal energy with a deep borehole heat exchanger. Exergy optimization of different applications and preliminary design criteria

This paper aims at proposing fast and plain design tools to evaluate the best energy application for deep borehole heat exchangers, exploiting geothermal resources. Exergy efficiency has been chosen as a performance index. Five possible utilization solutions have been analyzed: district heating, adsorption cooling, ORC power production, a thermal cascade system, and combined heat and power configuration. An extensive sensitivity analysis on source characteristics and well geometry has been performed to find the design criteria that ensure the maximum exergy performance. Results show that configurations involving district heating are recommended for exclusive power production. If optimized, district heating exergy efficiency can reach values in the range 40%–50% when a geothermal source at the well bottom is lower than 300 °C. For higher values, the combined heat and power production is a preferable choice, reaching an exergy efficiency of up to 60%. Design charts are also provided to read first-attempt values of the well operative temperatures and flow rate to maximize exergy efficiency for each utilization layouts

Sustainability assessment and performance evaluation of a Ground Coupled Heat Pump system: coupling a model based on COMSOL Multiphysics and a MATLAB heat pump model

The present study investigates the sustainable use of a ground coupled heat pump (GCHP). In order to assess the performance of this type of installation, a computer model composed by two parts has been developed. The Borehole Heat Exchanger (BHE) model is developed in COMSOL Multiphysics, based on numerical methods. Part of the results are fed to the heat pump energy model, developed in MATLAB. A real case study has been used to validate the model: the Faculty of Engineering of La Sapienza University in Latina, undertaking a renewal project for an abandoned part of the building. After the renovation, the building will host a research center on the topic of low-enthalpy geothermal systems. The analysis have demonstrated that the modelled GCHP system can supply a significant share of the energy required from the future research center. This amount of energy can be provided keeping almost stable the thermal balance of the surrounding region in the subsoil, operating in a sustainable way. The range of variation of the ground temperature with respect to the average value is within the limit of 5°C, which is the cap set by the international legislation

Emissivity of Frozen Regions Retrieved from Aquarius Measurements

The land emissivity model used in the Aquarius data processing has been updated for the latest data release (V5.0). In order to improve the estimates of the brightness temperatures of frozen regions, the new model uses values of surface emissivity that have been estimated from the Aquarius measurements averaged over the entire duration of the mission. The retrieved emissivities depend on the geographic location, but they depend only marginally on time, temperature and snow cover

SMOS-NEXT: A New Concept for Soil Moisture Retrieval from Passive Interferometric Observations

This book is a collection of 19 articles which reflect the courses given at the Collège de France/Summer school “Reconstruction d'images − Applications astrophysiques“ held in Nice and Fréjus, France, from June 18 to 22, 2012. The articles presented in this volume address emerging concepts and methods that are useful in the complex process of improving our knowledge of the celestial objects, including Earth

Exploring non-edible parts of pineapples as fat replacers in cake formulations

Non-edible parts of many fruits, such as peel and seeds, are sources of compounds with important nutritional properties. They are also rich in fibres, which gives them the potential to be used as functional ingredients since fibres may be fat replacers in many food formulations. If these parts of fruits are properly transformed into edible forms, there will be potential reuse and recovery of food waste. In the case of pineapple, approximately 70% of the total weight of the fruit is not consumed, being rinds, core, and crown usually discarded. This work aimed to transform pineapples' non-edible parts (rinds and crowns) into powders by freeze-drying with posterior micronization. The objective was to use the powders as fat replacers in a traditional cupcake recipe and assess the texture profile of the baked cakes. Pineapples (Ananas comosus L.) rinds and crowns were removed, cut into small pieces, and freeze-dried. The dried samples were ground in a hammer mill to obtain powders/flours. They were characterized in terms of water activity, water and oil absorption capacity (WAC and OAC), proteins, and total dietary fibre content (on a dry basis, d.b.). These powders were used in a cupcake recipe (control), replacing the fat (butter) with the powders in different proportions: 25, 50, and 75%. Relevant textural parameters such as hardness, cohesiveness, chewiness, and springiness were assessed in the baked cupcakes. Water activity values of rind and crown powders were 0.36±0.02 and 0.49±0.03, respectively. Regarding functional properties, crown flours presented a considerably higher OAC (6.11±0.39 g oil/g d.b.) than the rind (2.45±0.47 g oil/g d.b.); WAC of both flours was similar, averaging 2.30±0.34 g water/g d.b. Protein content was significantly higher in the crown (8.14±0.89 g/100 g d.b.) than in the rind flours (4.43±0.38 g/100 g d.b.). Dietary fibres were mainly insoluble; the crown had 18% and the skin 37%.The texture of cupcakes with 25% of both types of flour was similar to the control. However, as the proportions of the flours increased, texture differed mainly in crown-based recipes, becoming the cakes harder with springiness and adhesiveness decay. These findings suggest that incorporating pineapple waste parts in a traditional cake recipe may serve as healthier ingredients with improved functional properties.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New records of rare species in the Mediterranean Sea (October 2021)

This Collective Article presents information about 27 taxa belonging to five Phyla (one Ochrophyta, one Cnidaria, three Arthropoda, two Mollusca and twenty Chordata) and extending from the Western Mediterranean Sea to the Levantine Sea and theBlack Sea (Sea of Marmara). The new records were reported from 11 countries as follows: Algeria: occurrence of the Africanstriped grunt Parapristipoma octolineatum; Spain: new records of eight uncommon fish species (Gadella maraldi, Hypleurochilusbananensis, Lobotes surinamensis, Parapristipoma octolineatum, Selene dorsalis, Sphoeroides marmoratus, Tetragonuruscuvieri, and Trachyrincus scabrus) from the Spanish Mediterranean; Italy: new record of the football octopus Ocythoe tuberculatafrom the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea; a rare sighting of a juvenile phase of a moray eel of the genus Gymnothorax, tentativelyidentified as Gymnothorax cf. unicolor in the Ligurian Sea; first record of adult Facciola’s sorcerer Facciolella oxyrhynchus inthe Adriatic Sea; occurrence of the tope shark Galeorhinus galeus in the Northern Adriatic Sea; Libya: first confirmed recordof the pen shell Pinna rudis; first documented record of the palaemonid shrimp Brachycarpus biunguiculatus; first record of thefish Sudis hyalina; Malta: new records of Grant’s rockling, Gaidropsarus granti; multiple concomitant reports of the rare hydromedusanspecies Aequorea forskalea; Croatia: a record of the skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis in the Southern Adriatic Sea;Albania: new record of the bigeye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus; Greece: confirmation of the rare brown alga Sargassumflavifolium occurrence in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea; first record of the scaleless dragonfish Bathophilus nigerrimus; Turkey:first occurrence of the calanoid copepod Pteriacartia josephinae in the Aegean Sea; first documented record of the Cremona’s seaslug Placida cremoniana for the easternmost Mediterranean Sea; new record of the yellow-headed goby Gobius xanthocephalusin the Sea of Marmara; Cyprus: first record of the Liechtenstein’s goby Corcyrogobius liechtensteini; an individual of the Yellowfintuna Thunnus albacares captured with handline by an artisanal fisher; Lebanon: an individual of the Black marlin Istiompaxindica captured in a gill ne

MEDLEM database, a data collection on large elasmobranchs in the Mediterranean and Black Seas

The Mediterranean Large Elasmobranchs Monitoring (MEDLEM) database contains more than 3,000 records (with more than 4,000 individuals) of large elasmobranch species from 21 different countries around the Mediterranean and Black seas, observed from 1666 to 2017. The principal species included in the archive are the devil ray (1,868 individuals), the basking shark (935 individuals), the blue shark (622 individuals), and the great white shark (342 individuals). In the last decades, other species such as the thresher shark (187 individuals), the shortfin mako (180 individuals), and the spiny butterfly ray (138) were reported with increasing frequency. This was possibly due to increased public awareness on the conservation status of sharks, and the consequent development of new monitoring programs. MEDLEM does not have homogeneous reporting coverage throughout the Mediterranean and Black seas and it should be considered as a database of observed species presence. Scientific monitoring efforts in the south-eastern Mediterranean and Black seas are generally lower than in the northern sectors and the absence of some species in our database does not imply their actual absence in these regions. However, the available data allowed us to analyse the frequency and spatial distribution of records, the size frequencies for a few selected the available data allowed us to analyse the frequency and spatial distribution of records, the size frequencies for a few selected species, the overall area coverage, and which species are involved as bycatch by different fishing gears