Smart Utilization of Batteries in Grid-Connected PV-Plants

Energy storage is undoubtedly a crucial aspect for the optimal managing of modern active distribution systems. In this paper, a smart utilization of batteries within grid-connected PV-plants is introduced and discussed. Batteries are utilized for maximizing the power generation of a PV-field operating under partial shading conditions, also obtaining the conventional energy storage task. In fact, batteries are proposed to be utilized in a distributed framework together with simple boost-type DC-DC converters; by this way, the power generated by a PV-field can be maximized also in presence of significant mismatches among different PV-modules connected in series, attaining some important advantages with respect to both conventional PV-plants with a centralized energy storage system or to conventional distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) systems with no batteries. Experimental and numerical data are presented, analyzed and discussed

Fabio Magro - Arnaldo Soldani, Il sonetto italiano. Dalle origini a oggi, Roma, Carocci, 2017

Rec. a Fabio Magro - Arnaldo Soldani, Il sonetto italiano. Dalle origini a oggi, Roma, Carocci, 201

A Case-Study Plant for a Sustainable Redevelopment of Buildings Based on Storage and Reconversion of Hydrogen Generated by Using Solar Energy

In todays process of decarbonisation and transition to a green economy based on distributed and sustainable energy production, hydrogen is considered the most promising energy carrier, thanks to its multiple properties. It is clean, versatile and has a high combustion efficiency and more importantly, renewable energy could be used as a primary source for hydrogen production near the end use point, making full use of local energy potential. Nevertheless, the current cost of its technology still requires further research and development, necessary to obtain its rapid and effective launch onto the market. Moreover, hydrogen storage and distribution infrastructures, fundamental to make it usable and competitive, are currently lacking.In this framework, the paper analyses a photovoltaic (PV) system, equipped with hydrogen storage and reconversion subsystems. The technological plant is basically aimed to be easily integrated into buildings for their sustainable redevelopment. At this stage, the presented case study was designed to supply a part of electrical needs of the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria.In brief, starting from the PV generation of electricity, hydrogen is obtained through electrolytic production, which is stored and then reconverted into electricity by using fuel cells. The study clearly meets the main goals of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Un caso studio di impianto per la riqualificazione sostenibile degli edifici basato sullo stoccaggio e sulla riconversione dell’idrogeno prodotto usando l’energia solareNell'odierno processo di decarbonizzazione e transizione verso un'economia verde basata sulla produzione di energia distribuita e sostenibile, l'idrogeno è considerato il vettore energetico più promettente, grazie alle sue molteplici proprietà: è pulito, versatile e ha un'alta efficienza di combustione. In particolare, l'energia rinnovabile potrebbe essere utilizzata come fonte primaria per la produzione di idrogeno vicino al punto di utilizzo finale, sfruttando appieno il potenziale energetico locale. Tuttavia, l'attuale costo della sua tecnologia richiede ancora ulteriori ricerche e sviluppi, necessari per ottenere la sua rapida ed efficace penetrazione nel mercato. Inoltre, al momento le infrastrutture di stoccaggio e distribuzione dell'idrogeno, fondamentali per renderlo utilizzabile e competitive, sono ancora lacunose.In questo scenario, il lavoro analizza un sistema fotovoltaico (PV), dotato di sottosistemi di stoccaggio e riconversione dell'idrogeno. L'impianto tecnologico è pensato per essere facilmente integrato negli edifici per una loro riqualificazione sostenibile; in questa fase, il caso di studio testato era finalizzato alla alimentazione di una parte delle utenze elettriche dell'Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria. In breve, a partire dalla generazione fotovoltaica di elettricità, l'idrogeno viene ottenuto attraverso la produzione elettrolitica, immagazzinato e poi riconvertito in elettricità utilizzando le celle a combustibile. Lo studio è chiaramente in linea con i principali obiettivi dell'Agenda 2030 per uno sviluppo sostenibile.In todays process of decarbonisation and transition to a green economy based on distributed and sustainable energy production, hydrogen is considered the most promising energy carrier, thanks to its multiple properties. It is clean, versatile and has a high combustion efficiency and more importantly, renewable energy could be used as a primary source for hydrogen production near the end use point, making full use of local energy potential. Nevertheless, the current cost of its technology still requires further research and development, necessary to obtain its rapid and effective launch onto the market. Moreover, hydrogen storage and distribution infrastructures, fundamental to make it usable and competitive, are currently lacking.In this framework, the paper analyses a photovoltaic (PV) system, equipped with hydrogen storage and reconversion subsystems. The technological plant is basically aimed to be easily integrated into buildings for their sustainable redevelopment. At this stage, the presented case study was designed to supply a part of electrical needs of the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria.In brief, starting from the PV generation of electricity, hydrogen is obtained through electrolytic production, which is stored and then reconverted into electricity by using fuel cells. The study clearly meets the main goals of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Un caso studio di impianto per la riqualificazione sostenibile degli edifici basato sullo stoccaggio e sulla riconversione dell’idrogeno prodotto usando l’energia solareNell'odierno processo di decarbonizzazione e transizione verso un'economia verde basata sulla produzione di energia distribuita e sostenibile, l'idrogeno è considerato il vettore energetico più promettente, grazie alle sue molteplici proprietà: è pulito, versatile e ha un'alta efficienza di combustione. In particolare, l'energia rinnovabile potrebbe essere utilizzata come fonte primaria per la produzione di idrogeno vicino al punto di utilizzo finale, sfruttando appieno il potenziale energetico locale. Tuttavia, l'attuale costo della sua tecnologia richiede ancora ulteriori ricerche e sviluppi, necessari per ottenere la sua rapida ed efficace penetrazione nel mercato. Inoltre, al momento le infrastrutture di stoccaggio e distribuzione dell'idrogeno, fondamentali per renderlo utilizzabile e competitive, sono ancora lacunose.In questo scenario, il lavoro analizza un sistema fotovoltaico (PV), dotato di sottosistemi di stoccaggio e riconversione dell'idrogeno. L'impianto tecnologico è pensato per essere facilmente integrato negli edifici per una loro riqualificazione sostenibile; in questa fase, il caso di studio testato era finalizzato alla alimentazione di una parte delle utenze elettriche dell'Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria. In breve, a partire dalla generazione fotovoltaica di elettricità, l'idrogeno viene ottenuto attraverso la produzione elettrolitica, immagazzinato e poi riconvertito in elettricità utilizzando le celle a combustibile. Lo studio è chiaramente in linea con i principali obiettivi dell'Agenda 2030 per uno sviluppo sostenibile

Specification and analysis of SOC systems using COWS: a finance case study

Service-oriented computing, an emerging paradigm for distributed computing based on the use of services, is calling for the development of tools and techniques to build safe and trustworthy systems, and to analyse their behaviour. Therefore many researchers have proposed to use process calculi, a cornerstone of current foundational research on specification and analysis of concurrent and distributed systems. We illustrate this approach by focussing on COWS, a process calculus expressly designed for specifying and combining services, while modelling their dynamic behaviour. We present the calculus and one of the analysis techniques it enables, that is based on the temporal logic SocL and the associated model checker CMC. We demonstrate applicability of our tools by means of a large case study, from the financial domain, which is first specified in COWS, and then analysed by using SocL to express many significant properties and CMC to verify them

Essential oils: pharmaceutical applications and encapsulation strategies into lipid-based delivery systems

Essential oils are being studied for more than 60 years, but a growing interest has emerged in the recent decades due to a desire for a rediscovery of natural remedies. Essential oils are known for millennia and, already in prehistoric times, they were used for medicinal and ritual purposes due to their therapeutic properties. Using a variety of methods refined over the centuries, essential oils are extracted from plant raw materials: the choice of the extraction method is decisive, since it determines the type, quantity, and stereochemical structure of the essential oil molecules. To these components belong all properties that make essential oils so interesting for pharmaceutical uses; the most investigated ones are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, wound-healing, and anxiolytic activities. However, the main limitations to their use are their hydrophobicity, instability, high volatility, and risk of toxicity. A successful strategy to overcome these limitations is the encapsulation within delivery systems, which enable the increase of essential oils bioavailability and improve their chemical stability, while reducing their volatility and toxicity. Among all the suitable platforms, our review focused on the lipid-based ones, in particular micro- and nanoemulsions, liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nanostructured lipid carriers.This work was supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Research [Grant PRIN2017 #20173ZECCM Tracking biological barriers to antigen delivery by nanotechnological vaccines(NanoTechVax)] and by Research Funding for University of Catania (Piano per la Ricerca 2016–2018—Linea Di Intervento 2 “Dotazione Ordinaria” cod. 57722172106). Cinzia Cimino was supported bythe PhD program in Biotechnology, XXXVI cycle, University of Cataniainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nanostructured Ni-Fe-P Alloy for Alkaline Electrolyzer

In recent years, the interest towards green hydrogen has drastically increased due to the global decarbonization process. Electrochemical water splitting is considered an attractive solution to convert and store the surplus energy from renewable energy sources. However, hydrogen production by water electrolysis is not economically sustainable. To reduce the cost of produced hydrogen, it is necessary to switch from noble-metal catalyst (Pt, Pd…) to cheap alternatives with a lower per unit energy cost but at the same time able to guarantee a high electrocatalytic activity for both oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. Among transition metals, nickel was selected as active material for its low cost and high chemical stability in alkaline media. Currently, the most investigated transition metal catalyst includes alloy of nickel with sulfide, phosphide, and nitride. In this work, a ternary alloy of Nickel-Iron-Phosphorus with nanowires morphology was investigated and compared to the binary alloy of Nickel-Iron. Ni-Fe-P NWs electrodes were obtained by potential-controlled pulse electrochemical deposition using polycarbonate membrane as template. Electrodes morphology and structure were studied by scanning electrode microscopy (SEM), energy diffraction spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Electrodes were tested both as cathodes as anodes by Quasi Steady State Polarization (QSSP) and Galvanostatic Test. All the tests were performed in 30% w/w KOH aqueous solution at room temperature. Preliminary results showed better performance of the ternary alloy compared to the binary one

A Calculus for Orchestration of Web Services

Service-oriented computing, an emerging paradigm for distributed computing based on the use of services, is calling for the development of tools and techniques to build safe and trustworthy systems, and to analyse their behaviour. Therefore, many researchers have proposed to use process calculi, a cornerstone of current foundational research on specification and analysis of concurrent, reactive, and distributed systems. In this paper, we follow this approach and introduce CWS, a process calculus expressly designed for specifying and combining service-oriented applications, while modelling their dynamic behaviour. We show that CWS can model all the phases of the life cycle of service-oriented applications, such as publication, discovery, negotiation, orchestration, deployment, reconfiguration and execution. We illustrate the specification style that CWS supports by means of a large case study from the automotive domain and a number of more specific examples drawn from it

Service discovery and negotiation with COWS

To provide formal foundations to current (web) services technologies, we put forward using COWS, a process calculus for specifying, combining and analysing services, as a uniform formalism for modelling all the relevant phases of the life cycle of service-oriented applications, such as publication, discovery, negotiation, deployment and execution. In this paper, we show that constraints and operations on them can be smoothly incorporated in COWS, and propose a disciplined way to model multisets of constraints and to manipulate them through appropriate interaction protocols. Therefore, we demonstrate that also QoS requirement specifications and SLA achievements, and the phases of dynamic service discovery and negotiation can be comfortably modelled in COWS. We illustrate our approach through a scenario for a service-based web hosting provider

Three-axial Fiber Bragg Grating Strain Sensor for Volcano Monitoring

Fiber optic and FBGs sensors have attained a large diffusion in the last years as cost-effective monitoring and diagnostic devices in civil engineering. However, in spite of their potential impact, these instruments have found very limited application in geophysics. In order to study earthquakes and volcanoes, the measurement of crustal deformation is of crucial importance. Stress and strain behaviour is among the best indicators of changes in the activity of volcanoes .. Deep bore-hole dilatometers and strainmeters have been employed for volcano monitoring. These instruments are very sensitive and reliable, but are not cost-effective and their installation requires a large effort. Fiber optic based devices offer low cost, small size, wide frequency band, easier deployment and even the possibility of creating a local network with several sensors linked in an array. We present the realization, installation and first results of a shallow-borehole (8,5 meters depth) three-axial Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) strain sensor prototype. This sensor has been developed in the framework of the MED-SUV project and installed on Etna volcano, in the facilities of the Serra La Nave astrophysical observatory. The installation siteis about 7 Km South-West of the summit craters, at an elevation of about 1740 m. The main goal of our work is the realization of a three-axial device having a high resolution and accuracy in static and dynamic strain measurements, with special attention to the trade-off among resolution, cost and power consumption. The sensor structure and its read-out system are innovative and offer practical advantages in comparison with traditional strain meters. Here we present data collected during the first five months of operation. In particular, the very clear signals recorded in the occurrence of the Central Italy seismic event of October 30th demonstrate the performances of our device.PublishedWien7TM. Sviluppo e Trasferimento Tecnologic