Estudio comparativo de la utilización de las tecnologías de gasificación Downdraft y lecho fluidizado burbujeante para la generación de energía eléctrica en aplicaciones de baja potencia

En este trabajo de tesis doctoral, se realiza un estudio comparativo teórico y experimental entre dos tipos de tecnologías de gasificación de biomasa, determinando su viabilidad técnica, económica y ambiental para la producción de energía eléctrica en aplicaciones de baja potencia (inferiores a 100 kW). Los tipos de tecnologías seleccionadas están entre los de mayor interés en el campo de la gasificación de biomasa: lecho fijo downdraft y lecho fluido burbujeante. La mayoría de los resultados presentados en este trabajo, comparando las dos tecnologías, fueron obtenidos de manera experimental. Aunque más costosos, los experimentos proporcionan datos de diseño más fiables que los que se pueden obtener a través de la modelización o simulación, esto sin tener en cuenta que las reacciones que se llevan a cabo en el reactor son complejas y difíciles de modelar, sobretodo en la fase de conversión de sólido a gas, además, la mayoría de los modelos se enfocan en la producción y composición del gas sin tener en cuenta tanto la generación de alquitranes y residuos sólidos como su separación del gas, tan esenciales como el propio proceso de generación del gas. Todos estos hechos han obligado a centrar el estudio comparativo en la verificación experimental del comportamiento de ambos tipos de gasificadores, para lo cual se diseñó, construyó y puso en operación un prototipo con una potencia eléctrica del orden de 10 kW para cada una de las dos configuraciones a estudiar. También se aborda en el presente trabajo el problema de limpieza del gas y la separación de los residuos, especialmente alquitranes, generados en el proceso de gasificación. Para cada uno de los dos tipos de tecnologías estudiadas se ha definido y probado un tipo de sistema de limpieza de gases diferente, utilizando en ambos casos lavadores húmedos de gases y filtrado por medio de astillas, aunque con modos de operación diferentes. El estudio experimental permitió determinar la configuración óptima con la cual se obtiene un gas adecuado para ser quemado en un motor de combustión interna, éste es uno de los problemas más importantes a considerar en una planta de gasificación, debido al coste y el consumo de energía adicional que conllevan estos sistemas. En el aspecto de viabilidad económica se determinó, a partir de los gastos de construcción de los prototipos, que las plantas de generación de energía mediante la gasificación de biomasa con potencias inferiores a 50 kW no son económicamente rentables en España, salvo en condiciones muy restrictivas de bajo coste de la biomasa (inferior a 0,03 ¿/kg) y/o elevada subvención que permitiese un precio de venta superior a 0,2 ¿/kWh. Descartando la conexión a red de una planta de gasificación de baja potencia, se consideró su utilización en zonas no interconectadas, comparando los costes de generación de energía en dicha planta con los de las plantas que operan con gas natural o gasoil, se ha determinado que es más rentable la planta de gasificación, por lo tanto sería una alternativa para la generación de energía eléctrica en zonas rurales donde es costoso llevarla utilizando los métodos convencionales.Vargas Salgado, CA. (2012). Estudio comparativo de la utilización de las tecnologías de gasificación Downdraft y lecho fluidizado burbujeante para la generación de energía eléctrica en aplicaciones de baja potencia [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/16379Palanci

Impact of the throat sizing on the operating parameters in an experimental fixed bed gasifier: Analysis, evaluation and testing

The aim of this research is to contribute into the diffusion of biomass power systems by analyzing and testing the throat sizing influence on the operation of a gasification plant coupled with an internal combustion engine. In order to do this, the assessment of the proper operation range for some of the driving process parameters has been carried out. The analysis has been focused on such parameters as pressure drop of the fixed bed reactor, the inlet air flow, the syngas production, electrical power production and efficiency, looking for improving the performance and guaranteeing the proper system operation. Two different campaigns of tests have been carried out for figuring out the best design on the reactor. Based on this analysis, the most convenient throat diameter has been determined (in this case, around 10 cm), producing an increment in the production of syngas of about 31%. This modification has demonstrated also an increment of the electrical power produced by the gasification plant of about 40%, which means an increment in the motor generator efficiency of 35%.Montuori, L.; Vargas Salgado, CA.; Alcázar-Ortega, M. (2015). Impact of the throat sizing on the operating parameters in an experimental fixed bed gasifier: Analysis, evaluation and testing. Renewable Energy. 83:615-625. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2015.04.068S6156258

Methodology for the implementation of e-learning class during the COVID-19

[EN] The serious situation caused by the coronavirus has forced Authorities to take drastic decisions that have affected the normal functioning of the entire society. One of the most impactful measures taken has been the self-discipline of the social distancing as the entire society has been obliged to stay at home. At the education level, restrictions ordered by the Authorities have limited the access to all professors and students at the academic centers. In Spain, the state of alarm decreed by the Government has affected the entire Academic course and therefore, in order to be able to preserve the public service, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, in just a week, has been asked to revise the entire programs and settle on-line courses for more than 35.000 students in multiples disciplines. Within this framework, a methodology has been developed for the implementation of on-line learning courses in a period of crisis within a short time. On-line learning has been demonstrated to be effective as face-to-face education, becoming one of the most popular higher education alternatives. However, students engaged in on-line classes result to be less engaged in collaborative learning, student-faculty interactions, and discussions with their classmates if compared to the traditional system. In this context, the barriers of on-line teaching classes have been investigated and tools to overcome them have been proposed. Finally, a real application to the Polytechnic University of Valencia is presented.This work was supported in part by the regional public administration of Valencia under the grant ACIF/2018/106.Montuori, L.; Alcázar-Ortega, M.; Vargas Salgado, CA.; Bastida Molina, P. (2021). Methodology for the implementation of e-learning class during the COVID-19. En Proceedings INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 155-163. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2020.2020.11877OCS15516

Application of Artificial intelligence to high education: empowerment of flipped classroom with just-in-time teaching

[EN] In the so-called society 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being widely used in many areas of life. Machine learning uses mathematical algorithms based on "training data", which are able to make predictions or take decisions with the ability to change their behavior through a self-training approach. Furthermore, thanks to AI, a large volume of data can be now processed with the overall goal to extract patterns and transform the information into a comprehensible structure for further utilization, which manually done by humans would easily take several years. In this framework, this article explores the potential of AI and machine learning to empower flipped classroom with just-in-time teaching (JiTT). JiTT is a pedagogical method that can be easily combined with the reverse teaching. It allows professors to receive feedback from students before class, so they may be able to adapt the lesson flow, as well as preparing strategies and activities focused on the student deficiencies. This research explores the application of AI in high education as a tool to analyze the key variables involved in the learning process of students and to integrate JiTT within the flipped classroom. Finally, a case of application of this methodology is presented, applied to the course of Energy Markets taught at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.This work was supported in part by the regional public administration of Valencia under the grant ACIF/2018/106.Montuori, L.; Alcázar Ortega, M.; Bastida Molina, P.; Vargas Salgado, CA. (2021). Application of Artificial intelligence to high education: empowerment of flipped classroom with just-in-time teaching. En Proceedings INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 223-231. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2020.2020.11896OCS22323

Experience with synchronous and asynchronous tools in online teaching: Application to Thermal Renewable Energies of the Degree in Energy Engineering at UPV due to the pandemic produced by COVID-19

[EN] Due to the pandemic provoked by COVID-19 in March 2020, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), following the Government's guidelines, changed the modality of the formal lectures from face-to-face to online non-face-to-face teaching. Professors and students had the challenge of adapting to the new model in one week to finish the semester. In this paper, the results of applying online teaching using both: synchronous and asynchronous lectures and the comparison with the traditional course are shown. The synchronous tools used were MS Teams and skype. Among the asynchronous tools used to create the screencast videos are PoliformaT (Own tool created by UPV), MS Powerpoint, MSRecorder and ODB. The platforms used to upload and public the produced videos are media UPV and YouTube. Also, professors use PoliformaT to create exams and task and to send messages and students to send works, carry out exams and access to the information shared by professors.This work was supported in part by the regional public administration of Valencia under the grant ACIF/2018/106Vargas Salgado, CA.; Bastida Molina, P.; Alcázar Ortega, M.; Montuori, L. (2021). Experience with synchronous and asynchronous tools in online teaching: Application to Thermal Renewable Energies of the Degree in Energy Engineering at UPV due to the pandemic produced by COVID-19. En Proceedings INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 175-184. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2020.2020.11879OCS17518

Doodle: an innovative tool for organizing group tutorials in University education

[EN] Group tutorials are becoming an ever-increasing learning methodology in University education due to the continuous knowledge feedback among students. Despite the positive impact of such kind of sessions on students, their previous organization phase remains most of the times misleading. The traditional way of arranging a group tutorial through e-mail normally results in a long and ineffective method mainly caused by the different schedule availability between the professor and the different students. Is in this context where Doodle arises as a virtual application to enhance this first group tutorial phase. Generally, Doodle allows users to schedule meetings in a quick, effective and free way: the organizer creates a new meeting, proposes different schedule options and invites the other participants through an e-mail invitation or a link created by Doodle. Then, participants vote for the schedule options that best fit their availability, so that the final meeting schedule is selected democratically. In the University context, professors would play the role of organizers and students of participants, respectively. In this paper, we analyze the application of Doodle in the organization of a group tutorial of students of Electrical Circuits from the Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering (Polytechnic University of Valencia). Particularly, the tutorial was formed by six students and the professor, and took place in the Department of Electrical Engineering. After the meeting, the students answered a survey. Their answers reveled the positive acceptance of Doodle among them in terms of efficiency and ease of use. 100% of them agree on its suitability for arranging future group tutorials. Moreover, a comparative study demonstrated that using Doodle instead of e-mail while arranging a group tutorial leads to an average of up to 64% reduction in process time.This work was supported in part by the regional public administration of Valencia under the grant ACIF/2018/106.Bastida Molina, P.; Vargas Salgado, CA.; Montuori, L.; Alcázar Ortega, M. (2021). Doodle: an innovative tool for organizing group tutorials in University education. En Proceedings INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 185-193. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2020.2020.11883OCS18519

Low-cost web-based Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system for a microgrid testbed: A case study in design and implementation for academic and research applications

[EN] This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system based on a Web interface to be applied to a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) microgrid. This development will provide a reliable and low-cost control and data acquisition systems for the Renewable Energy Laboratory a Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (LabDER-UPV) in Spain, oriented to the research on microgrid stability and energy generation. The developed low-cost SCADA operates on a microgrid that incorporates a photovoltaic array, a wind turbine, a biomass gasification plant and a battery bank as an energy storage system. Sensors and power meters for electrical parameters, such as voltage, current, frequency, power factor, power generation, and energy consumption, were processed digitally and integrated into Arduino-based devices. A master device on a Raspberry-PI board was set up to send all this information to a local database (DB), and a MySQL Web-DB linked to a Web SCADA interface, programmed in HTML5. The communications protocols include TCP/IP, I2C, SPI, and Serial communication; Arduino-based slave devices communicate with the master Raspberry-PI using NRF24L01 wireless radio frequency transceivers. Finally, a comparison between a standard SCADA against the developed Web-based SCADA system is carried out. The results of the operative tests and the cost comparison of the own-designed developed Web-SCADA system prove its reliability and low-cost, on average an 86% cheaper than a standard brandmark solution, for controlling, monitoring and data logging information, as well as for local and remote operation system when applied to the HRES microgrid testbed.Vargas Salgado, CA.; Águila-León, J.; Chiñas-Palacios, C.; Hurtado-Perez, E. (2019). Low-cost web-based Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system for a microgrid testbed: A case study in design and implementation for academic and research applications. Heliyon. 5(9):1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02474S1115

“Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship” transversal competence evaluation by technical-economic analysis of commercial electrical transformers

[EN] "Innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship” transversal competence evaluation method (CT04-UPV) used in Electrical Machines course (2nd course, Electrical Engineering Degree) is described in this paper. Its evaluation activity consists of a technical and economic analysis of different commercial electrical transformers, carried out by the students. To this end, students get in touch with electrical suppliers, obtaining real transformers data. With this data, they can calculate transformers efficiency through its energy losses and the economic cost that these losses suppose in a period of 10 years. In this way, students are able to question reality, identifying the existing necessity of evaluating not only its initial cost but also economic cost generated by its energy losses when selecting a transformer. With this method, CT04-UPV learning outcome referred to the 1st domain level is achieved: to question the reality, identifying improvement necessities and generating added value ideas. This methodology has been applied for the last three years in the course. In each year, students marks have been graded by the professor using a rubric. Results indicate that “innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship” transversal competence learning outcome is satisfactorily reached by students. Moreover, rating survey answered by students, using Google Forms, shows that their level of satisfaction is very high.Bastida Molina, P.; Ribó Pérez, DG.; Montuori, L.; Vargas Salgado, CA. (2020). “Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship” transversal competence evaluation by technical-economic analysis of commercial electrical transformers. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 159-168. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10115OCS15916

Development of an interactive tool based on Education ERPs Software to support the learning of Transversal Competences

[EN] According to the current tendencies in University education strategies, students should develop not just the specific competences related to the particular degree they pursue, but also a series of transversal competences (TCs, also called key competences). Such TCs may be transferable between different contexts (personal, social, academic, etc.) while help students to solve problems from different perspectives and so, they would provide students with a holistic education and training. In this framework, the authors present in this paper a tool they have designed for the systematic analysis and evaluation of TCs so as to support students in the achievement of such competences. Moreover, the tool is able to help students to choose the courses that may help them to work out and complement the competences they may not be developed yet, as well as it suggests the most appropriate post-graduate courses for the students according to their background, particular interests and degree of development for the different TCs. The tool has been designed under the scope of vertical ERP systems, which have demonstrated their ability to create collaborative and learning environments with multiple communication functionalities between professors and students. Thus, the tool has been thought as an interactive framework that includes different indexes to monitor the level of development of the diverse TCs, so that it may be accessible to both professors and students during their entire academic life. The tools has been tested within the program of Transversal Competences of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, specifically to the Degree of Energy Engineering.Montuori, L.; Alcázar Ortega, M.; Vargas Salgado, CA.; Chiñas Palacios, CD. (2020). Development of an interactive tool based on Education ERPs Software to support the learning of Transversal Competences. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 71-79. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10090OCS717

Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition system applied to a researching purpose microgrid based on Renewable Energy

[EN] Control and data acquisition systems are required in researching facilities to analyze the behaviour of any process. In this paper, the results of the design and implementation of an automation and control system applied to a microgrid based on renewables energy are shown. The microgrid is located in the Laboratory for Distributed energy resources – LabDER at the Institute for Energy Engineering at UPV. The brain of the system is a PLC, programmed to carry out several tasks to guarantee the correct operation of the system. The measuring devices used are power meters, anemometer, temperature sensors and a solar cell to measure irradiance. The communication protocol used is Modbus TCP IP, Modbus RS-485 and Xanbus. All the information is centralized using a SCADA as an HMI. As a result, a robust control, and data acquisition system, able to manage a microgrid for researching purpose was obtained.The authors gratefully acknowledge to the Universitat Politècnica de València and the Instituto Universitario de Ingeniería Energética for their support to accomplish this work.Vargas Salgado, CA.; Águila León, J.; Chiñas Palacios, CD.; Alfonso Solar, D. (2021). Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition system applied to a researching purpose microgrid based on Renewable Energy. En Proceedings INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 233-239. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2020.2020.11898OCS23323