Emission and economic performance assessment of a solid oxide fuel cell micro-combined heat and power system in a domestic building

Combined heat and power (CHP) is a promising technological configuration for reducing energy consumption and increasing energy security in the domestic built environment. Fuel cells, on account of their: high electrical efficiency, low emissions and useful heat output have been identified as a key technological option for improving both building energy efficiency and reducing emissions in domestic CHP applications. The work presented in this paper builds upon results currently reported in the literature of fuel cells operating in domestic building applications, with an emission and economic performance assessment of a real, commercially available SOFC mCHP system operating in a real building; under a UK context. This paper aims to assess the emission and economic performance of a commercially available solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) mCHP system, operating at The University of Nottingham's Creative Energy Homes. The performance assessment evaluates, over a one year period, the associated carbon (emission assessment) and operational costs (economic assessment) of the SOFC mCHP case compared to a ‘base case’ of grid electricity and a highly efficient gas boiler. Results from the annual assessment show that the SOFC mCHP system can generate annual emission reductions of up to 56% and cost reductions of 177% compared to the base case scenario. However support mechanisms such as; electrical export, feed in tariff and export tariff, are required in order to achieve this, the results are significantly less without. A net present value (NPV) analysis shows that the base case is still more profitable over a 15 year period, even though the SOFC mCHP system generates annual revenue; this is on account of the SOFC's high capital cost. In summary, grid interaction and incubator support is essential for significant annual emission and cost reductions compared to a grid electricity and gas boiler scenario. Currently capital cost is the greatest barrier to the economic viability of the system

Delivery of an Ebola Virus-Positive Stillborn Infant in a Rural Community Health Center, Sierra Leone, 2015.

We report the case of an Ebola virus (EBOV) RNA-negative pregnant woman who delivered an EBOV RNA-positive stillborn infant at a community health center in rural Sierra Leone, 1 month after the mother's last possible exposure. The mother was later found to be immunoglobulins M and G positive indicating previous infection. The apparent absence of Ebola symptoms and not recognizing that the woman had previous contact with an Ebola patient led health workers performing the delivery to wear only minimal personal protection, potentially exposing them to a high risk of EBOV infection. This case emphasizes the importance of screening for epidemiological risk factors as well as classic and atypical symptoms of Ebola when caring for pregnant women, even once they have passed the typical time frame for exposure and incubation expected in nonpregnant adults. It also illustrates the need for health-care workers to use appropriate personal protection equipment when caring for pregnant women in an Ebola setting

Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak

In its largest outbreak, Ebola virus disease is spreading through Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. We sequenced 99 Ebola virus genomes from 78 patients in Sierra Leone to ~2000× coverage. We observed a rapid accumulation of interhost and intrahost genetic variation, allowing us to characterize patterns of viral transmission over the initial weeks of the epidemic. This West African variant likely diverged from central African lineages around 2004, crossed from Guinea to Sierra Leone in May 2014, and has exhibited sustained human-to-human transmission subsequently, with no evidence of additional zoonotic sources. Because many of the mutations alter protein sequences and other biologically meaningful targets, they should be monitored for impact on diagnostics, vaccines, and therapies critical to outbreak response.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Clinical Illness and Outcomes in Patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone

Background Limited clinical and laboratory data are available on patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD). The Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, which had an existing infrastructure for research regarding viral hemorrhagic fever, has received and cared for patients with EVD since the beginning of the outbreak in Sierra Leone in May 2014. Methods We reviewed available epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory records of patients in whom EVD was diagnosed between May 25 and June 18, 2014. We used quantitative reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction assays to assess the load of Ebola virus (EBOV, Zaire species) in a subgroup of patients. Results Of 106 patients in whom EVD was diagnosed, 87 had a known outcome, and 44 had detailed clinical information available. The incubation period was estimated to be 6 to 12 days, and the case fatality rate was 74%. Common findings at presentation included fever (in 89% of the patients), headache (in 80%), weakness (in 66%), dizziness (in 60%), diarrhea (in 51%), abdominal pain (in 40%), and vomiting (in 34%). Clinical and laboratory factors at presentation that were associated with a fatal outcome included fever, weakness, dizziness, diarrhea, and elevated levels of blood urea nitrogen, aspartate aminotransferase, and creatinine. Exploratory analyses indicated that patients under the age of 21 years had a lower case fatality rate than those over the age of 45 years (57% vs. 94%, P=0.03), and patients presenting with fewer than 100,000 EBOV copies per milliliter had a lower case fatality rate than those with 10 million EBOV copies per milliliter or more (33% vs. 94%, P=0.003). Bleeding occurred in only 1 patient. Conclusions The incubation period and case fatality rate among patients with EVD in Sierra Leone are similar to those observed elsewhere in the 2014 outbreak and in previous outbreaks. Although bleeding was an infrequent finding, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal manifestations were common. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and others.

Fostering Sustainable Innovation through Creative Destruction Theory

The current information age is modelled on the advancement of innovative mindset of creative thinkers, championed through means associated with transformative technologies embodied on events like, high speed internet and payment system, thereby making it possible for transactions to be dealt with almost instantaneously. Such developments are essentially vital, given its prospect for championing growth rate and dynamism in the world economy and also, the need to ensure living conditions are adequately satisfied, particularly in the direction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) earmarked for full implementation in the year 2030. The concept of innovation is widely used in all walks of life - the effort of Schumpeter’s paradoxical term, “creative destruction” became highly prominent in the 1950s, which many economists in recent time have endeavoured to linked with free market economics (Cozzi and Galli, 2019; Benigno and Fornaro, 2018). Creative destruction as proposed by Schumpeter, and also explained by Alm and Cox (Online) is essentially facts about capitalism, which is thought to be a shorthand description of free market’s messy way of delivering progress

Import Substitution Industrialization [ISI]: An approach to Global Economic Sustainability

Globalisation has over the years brought about openness, thus creating an inextricable link among countries through various channels, including trade and investment. Consequently, there has been a substantial expansion in trade in goods and services and the flow of foreign direct investment between developed and developing countries. Even though, both have benefitted from this global openness, the balance of benefits is mainly tilted to developed countries, reinforced by the fact that developing countries have been importing more and exporting less to these countries – a reflection of the under-developed state of their industrial sector, which is evident in their export of mainly unrefined or primary products, with little or no value addition taking place. This gives attestation to the presence of an insignificant import substitution-oriented manufacturing activity in such countries, which have rendered them heavily reliant on imports for their survival – by extension making them highly susceptible to external risks and shocks. This brought about the inception of ISI, which originated from as early as in the 1930s through into the 1960s in Latin America and some parts of Asia and Africa – a notion that was meant to incorporate three stages, namely ‘domestic production of previously imported non-durable consumer goods, extension of production to a wide-range of consumer durables and complex manufactured items and finally, exporting of manufactured goods, with the vision of diversifying to multiple range of items’ (Bussell,, n/d)

Experimental study on a hybrid solar photothermic and radiative cooling collector equipped with a rotatable absorber/emitter plate

Taking the frigid outer space as the heat sink, a terrestrial body can cool itself to a sub-ambient temperature via radiative sky cooling (RC) scheme. However, poor seasonal and regional adaptabilities and low cooling power density of the RC technology confine its effective applications only in hot seasons and regions with RC-friendly ambient conditions. Similarly, a solar thermal collector cannot work at night and is of little value when heat is needless. To tackle these challenges, a hybrid solar photothermic and radiative cooling (PT-RC) collector equipped with a rotatable absorber/emitter panel is proposed and experimentally investigated. This dual-mode collector can flexibly switch between PT and RC to match specific energy demands in different scenarios. The daily solar thermal efficiency of the PT-RC system at zero-reduced temperature reached 50.4%, a typical level of flat-plate solar water heating systems. The PT-RC system could not provide cooling energy during most daytime hours. However, the system could easily achieve nighttime cooling, with the cooling power of the collector decreasing from about 60 to 50 W/m2 as the circulated water being continuously cooled down from around 20 to 12 °C. The average nocturnal cooling power of the PT-RC collector ranged from 30.5 to 57.5 W/m2 in a multi-night RC test. This rotatable PT-RC collector offers a new strategy to flexibly deliver heat and coldness in a renewable and environmental-friendly manner and shows the potential of smart thermal management in buildings, vehicles, agriculture, etc

Detection, location, and diagnosis of different faults in large solar PV system—a review

Over the past decade, the significance of solar photovoltaic (PV) system has played a major role due to the rapid growth in the solar PV industry. Reliability, efficiency and safety of solar. PV system can be enhanced by continuous monitoring of the system and detecting the faults if any as early as possible. Reduced real time power generation and reduced life span of the solar PV system are the results if the fault in solar PV system is found undetected. Therefore, it is mandatory to identify and locate the type of fault occurring in a solar PV system. The faults occurring in the solar PV system are classified as: physical, environmental, and electrical faults which are further classified into different types as described in this paper. Once a fault is located and detected, an appropriate diagnosis method needs to be used to rectify it. In this paper, a comprehensive review of diverse fault diagnosis techniques reported in various literature is listed and described. This paper helps the researchers to get an awareness of the various faults occurring in a solar PV system and enables them to choose a suitable diagnosis technique based on its performance metrics to rectify the fault occurring in solar PV systems