Renewable energy systems: Industrial and home best practise case studies

The use of renewable energies and energy efficiency improvement systems is sometimes constrained by the investment needed for devices and its installation. However, governments have developed policies to reduce the initial costs to end-users. The increasing number of renewable energy systems can help in the reduction of the global dependency on fossil energy sources, and simultaneously can help to ensure that the carbon dioxide emissions quota is not exceeded, aiming a reduction of the green-house effect. In this sense, this paper presents two best practise case studies. One of them is in the industrial context and other in the residence context, concerning the use of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvement strategies. The best practice case study in industrial context involves the renewable energy systems design in an automotive sector factory, making use of solar thermal panels and energy efficiency measures. The non-industrial case study covers the analysis of the energy efficiency improvement using a thermal energy recovery system from hot water used in daily baths or showers. The direct benefits (savings) and indirect (impacts) are analysed for both case studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In-depth phenolic characterization of iron gall inks by deconstructing representative Iberian recipes

UIDB/50006/2020 PTDC / QUI-OUT / 29925/2017Iron-gall ink is one of the most important inks in the history of western civilization. The deep black colour results from Fe3+ complexes with phenolic compounds available in gall extracts. Unfortunately, it induces the degradation of both ink and support over time. Furthermore, our knowledge of these complex molecular structures is limited. This work aims to overcome this gap, revealing essential information about the complex structures of these pigments and dyes that will create a breakthrough in the next generation of conservation treatments. It presents the first in-depth phenolic identification and quantification of extracts and inks, prepared with and without gum arabic (an essential additive in medieval recipes). Five representative Iberian recipes were selected and prepared. Their phenolic profile was analysed by HPLC–DAD and HPLC–ESI–MS, which revealed that the phenolic compounds present in higher concentration, in the gall extracts, are pentagalloylglucose and hexagalloylglucose (0.15 ± 0.01–32 ± 3 mg/mL), except for one recipe, in which gallic acid is the main phenolic. The influence of the ingredients is also discussed by deconstructing the recipes: extracts of additives as pomegranate peel and solvents used in the extraction of the galls (vinegar and white wine) were characterized.publishersversionpublishe

Glomerulonefrites Agudas Pós-Infecciosas. Casuística de 7 Anos (90-96)

Os autores apresentam uma revisão casuística de 48 casos de Glomerulonefrite Aguda Pós-Infecciosa (GNAPI) seguidos na Unidade de Nefrologia Pediátrica do Hospital de D. Estefânia (HDE) entre 1990 e 1996.Foram analisadas as seguintes características: idade, sexo, história pessoal de infecção, apresentação clínica, critérios diagnósticos, tratamento e evolução.A incidência de GNAPI tem vindo a diminuir nos últimos anos, afectando tipicamente crianças dos 2 aos 10 anos. Na observação inicial 85% das crianças apresentavam hematúria macroscópica, 65% edema, 50% hipertensão e 23% insuficiência renal.No seguimento efectuado todos os doentes apresentaram melhoria clínica e laboratorial, não se verificando sequelas

New insights into iron-gall inks through the use of historically accurate reconstructions

Portuguese Science Foundation, FCT-MCTES: project PTDC/QUI-OUT/29925/2017; post-doctoral scholarship FOOD-RL1-PHD-QUINOA-01-02, CORES PhD programme for PD/BD/105895/2014; scientific infrastructures RECI/QEQ-MED/0330/2012, REM2013 and the Associated Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry-Clean Processes and Technologies-LAQV, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MEC (UID/QUI/50006/2015) and co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007265). Support was also given by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation award 'Estimulo a Investigacao 2016' (146301). FEDER funds through COMPETE, POPH/FSE, QREN. The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness & the European Regional Development Fund for project HAR2015-67619-P.Iron-gall inks have been described as complexes of iron ions with gallic or tannic acids, available in gall extracts. To assess this working hypothesis, we have prepared medieval inks using ingredients and methods appropriate to the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. The five historical inks studied were selected based upon research into Iberian written sources of medieval techniques. Results are supported by comparison with iron complexes with a well-characterized phenol counterpart: gallic, ellagic, and tannic acids as well as digalloyl and pentagalloyl glucose; as either precipitates or prepared as inks by adding gum arabic. Raman and infrared spectroscopies show that medieval writing inks could not have been represented solely by iron complexes with gallic acid. Overall, writing inks display the infrared signature of gallotannins, indicating that complexes of Fe3+-polygalloyl esters of glucose are also formed. Our results also show that the commercial tannic acid solution is far more complex than the gall extracts, and cannot be used to represent a gall extract (as described in historic written sources). High-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionisation, HPLC–ESI–MS, reveals that the concentration of gallic acid varies in the gall extracts, depending on the extraction method and ink recipe. Importantly, in certain recipes, gallic acid is found as a minor compound, when compared with the galloyl esters of glucose.publishersversionpublishe

Generation and observation of fast deuterium ions and fusion-born alpha particles in JET plasmas with the 3-ion radio-frequency heating scenario

Dedicated experiments to generate energetic D ions and D−3He fusion-born alpha particles were performed at the Joint European Torus (JET) with the ITER-like wall (ILW). Using the 3-ion D-(DNBI)-3He radio frequency (RF) heating scenario, deuterium ions from neutral beam injection (NBI) were accelerated in the core of mixed D−3He plasmas to higher energies with ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) waves, in turn leading to a core-localized source of alpha particles. The fast-ion distribution of RF-accelerated D-NBI ions was controlled by varying the ICRF and NBI power (P_{ICRF}≈4-6 MW, P_{NBI}≈3-20 MW), resulting in rather high D-D neutron (≈1×10^16/s) and D−3He alpha rates (≈2×10^16/s) at moderate input heating power. Theory and TRANSP analysis shows that large populations of co-passing MeV-range D ions were generated using the D−(DNBI)−3He 3-ion ICRF scenario. This important result is corroborated by several experimental observations, in particular gamma-ray measurements. The developed experimental scenario at JET provides unique conditions for probing several aspects of future burning plasmas, such as the contribution from MeV range ions to global confinement, but without introducing tritium. Dominant fast-ion core electron heating with T_i≈T_e and a rich variety of fast-ion driven Alfven eigenmodes (AEs) were observed in these D−3He plasmas. The observed AE activities do not have a detrimental effect on the thermal confinement and, in some cases, may be driven by the fusion born alpha particles. A strong continuous increase in neutron rate was observed during long-period sawteeth (>1 s), accompanied by the observation of reversed shear AEs, which implies that a non-monotonic q profile was systematically developed in these plasmas, sustained by the large fast-ion populations generated by the 3-ion ICRF scenario