Renewable energy supply for electric vehicle operations in California

Due to technological progress, policy thrust and economic circumstances, the large scale integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power is becoming a reality in California, however the variable and unpredictable supply of these renewable resources poses a significant obstacle to their integration. At the same time we are witnessing a strong thrust towards the large scale deployment of electric vehicles which can ideally complement renewable power supply by acting as storage buffers for maintaining stability in the presence of large amounts of renewable power. In this paper we use California system data for identifying the degree to which wind and solar power supply correlate with battery electric vehicle loads. Moreover, in order to assess the economic viability of utilizing renewable resources for powering electric vehicles we adopt the point of view of a profit maximizing electric vehicle service provider which seeks an optimal portfolio of energy supply contracts for satisfying electric vehicle energy demand, and we find that wind generation is a cost competitive option, whereas solar power supply does not appear to be an economically viable option. We also demonstrate how smart charging strategies for satisfying electric vehicle energy demand can lead to significant cost savings for the electric vehicle service provider

Fabrication of Chitin/Poly(butylene succinate)/Chondroitin Sulfate Nanoparticles Ternary Composite Hydrogel Scaffold for Skin Tissue Engineering

Skin loss is one of the oldest and still not totally resolved problems in the medical field. Since spontaneous healing of the dermal defects would not occur, the regeneration of full thickness of skin requires skin substitutes. Tissue engineering constructs would provide a three dimensional matrix for the reconstruction of skin tissue and the repair of damage. The aim of the present work is to develop a chitin based scaffold, by blending it with poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), an aliphatic, biodegradable and biocompatible synthetic polymer with excellent mechanical properties. The presence of chondroitin sulfate nanoparticles (CSnp) in the scaffold would favor cell adhesion. A chitin/PBS/CSnp composite hydrogel scaffold was developed and characterized by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), and swelling ratio of scaffolds were analyzed. The scaffolds were evaluated for the suitability for skin tissue engineering application by cytotoxicity, cell attachment, and cell proliferation studies using human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). The cytotoxicity and cell proliferation studies using HDF confirm the suitability of the scaffold for skin regeneration. In short, these results show promising applicability of the developed chitin/PBS/CSnps ternary composite hydrogel scaffolds for skin tissue regeneration