The Scottish electricity network is currently in a transition towards becoming 100% renewable. Offshore wind, due to a large natural resource, is expected to be key in this transition. In addition to the anticipated environmental benefits, increasing the share of offshore wind is expected to bring economic benefits to the region. In this study two multi-sectoral modelling methodologies – Input-Output

Borehole heat exchanger (BHE) is a promising method for extracting heat from the deep geothermal energy which has been widely used for residential heating in high latitude areas. The solar assisted photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) heat pump could convert solar energy into useful heat efficiently, and could be further used to heat water from the BHE to a higher temperature level. In this paper, a residential

In this research, a one-pot production of biodiesel, hydrocarbons, oxygenates, and aromatics form Chlorella vulgaris was performed in supercritical methanol without catalyst and in the presence of TiO2 and SrTiO3 nanocatalysts. The reaction in the presence of SrTiO3 showed the highest production yield of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). The co-solvents water, chloroform, diethyl ether, and n-hexane

The present paper concerns the assessment of biomass by-products from the urban greenery maintenance with an energy perspective. Usually pruning is not organized by a consolidated planning practice, mainly because of lack of information. After estimating the quantity of wood pruning by-products by means of dendrometric equations and the availability of information on current greenery management, an

When an axial flow pump operates at small flow rates, rotating stall may occur, which seriously restricts the pump performance and poses a great threat to the safe and stable operation of the whole system. The present work proposed a new groove flow control technology for the axial flow pump and studied its improvement effect and mechanism under stall conditions by numerical simulation. Results show

This paper presents a novel composite phase change material (PCM) with two phase transition temperatures (PTTs), which can be used in solar water heating system (SWHS) to accomplish the demand for seasonal thermal energy storage. A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model of evacuated tube collector (ETC) is established. An outdoor test rig has been fabricated to validate the numerical analysis. Differential

In recent years, several studies on residential energy consumption and new strategies for its reduction have been carried out. The literature reports that thermal inertia can have an influence on energy demand and, to a greater extent, on the thermal comfort of the buildings. The performance of thermal inertia in buildings located in different regions or countries has been analysed, comparing structures

Phase change materials (PCMs) are applied to the interior of building components to derive their benefit of high latent heat for efficient thermal management. However, their practical use requires proper encapsulation to minimize leakage that could lead to a drop in latent heat and prevent odour concerns resulting from PCM exudation. One method of encapsulation is done in combination with polyurethane

With the continuous demand for mineral resources, the construction design and stability of underground rock engineering have been a frontier research topic worldwide. Stability analysis of underground caverns, tunnels, boreholes, and cavities is of critical significance for underground engineering. To investigate the mechanical properties and failure mode of sandstone specimens with prefabricated cavities

Herein we report micro-alloying with the combination of Ca/In as a novel strategy to improve the anode performance for Mg-air batteries. Two micro-alloyed Mg–Ca–In anodes, i.e. Mg−0.1%Ca−0.2%In and Mg−0.2%Ca−0.4%In (wt%), are fabricated and evaluated in both configurations: half-cell and Mg-air full cell. Re-deposition of metallic In on anode surface during discharge is demonstrated. Anodic activation

HydroThermal Carbonization (HTC) is a thermochemical process by which biomass is treated in aqueous environment under temperatures of 180–300 °C and self-generated pressure to produce solid fuel as hydrochar from wide range of organic wastes such as garbage, bio solids, agro residues and organic wastes from industrial operations. It is an economically efficient process as it eliminates the need for

Conversion of technical lignin into performance biopolymers such as polyurethane offers environmental and economic advantages when combined with production of biofuels from biomass sugars, presenting significant interest toward studying the role of pretreatment on lignin structure and functionality. Co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation (CELF) pretreatment, employing acidic aqueous tetrahydrofuran

The combustion behavior of selected agricultural residues (olive and peach kernels, almond and walnut shells) and their blends was investigated in a prototype low-investment combustion unit of nominal capacity 65 kWth. Blending ratio for olive kernel was 50 or 70%, while for the rest of the residues 30 or 50%. Flue gas temperatures, inlet and outlet water temperatures of the boiler and gaseous emissions

Despite the abundant clean energy resources on islands, energy supply on the islands in many countries and regions still depends on high-voltage power grids in neighboring continents and high-cost fossil energy such as oil. In China, increasing demand for private gasoline vehicles calls for an abundant gasoline supply, which is harmful to the renewable energy transformation on Chinese islands. The

With the development of wearable and integrated electronic devices, the demand for microbatteries (MBs) with the characteristics of miniaturization and easy integration continues to increase. Currently, a few organic electrolyte based lithium ion MBs (LIMBs) have been reported, but the intrinsic drawbacks of poor safety and high cost constrain their practical applications. In addition, the electrochemical

The solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) and its developement are in an increasing focus, because of its high efficiency and eco‐friendliness in storing energy by converting electrical energy into hydrogen. Recently, research has been conducted to decrease the operation temperature of SOECs below 750 °C to overcome high system costs and rapid degradation rate at high operation temperatures. Although

Several Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) have been recently developed for extraction of hydrogen sulfide from natural gas. Among these newly designed DESs, a combination of caprolactam and tetrabutylammonium halides at molar ratio of 1:1, as the DESs, has the highest desulfurization efficiencies. In this work, we explored the formation of caprolactam based DESs using molecular dynamics simulations and

The present study involves obtaining biodiesel from freshwater algae biomass. Biodiesel is prepared using transesterification method. Three types of biodiesel samples are produced by using three different alcohols (methanol/ethanol/butanol). The prepared biodiesel samples are tested for their properties by adopting ASTM standards. B20 blend of these esters is examined in a compression ignition engine

Solid-state Li-ion batteries (SSBs) have been regarded as the most promising systems to power electronic devices and electric vehicles because of their high energy density and safety. As the key component of SSBs, solid electrolytes have a substantial influence on battery performance. In recent years, polymeric composite electrolytes (PCEs) that combine polymer electrolytes with various fillers have

The development of cost-effective and efficient catalysts via an environment-friendly synthetic process has significance for future renewable energy storage and conversion systems. Molybdenum di-sulphide (MoS2) is promising 2D-material and has received increasing attention due to high HER activity. Still, the HER activity of MoS2 remains challenging in a wide pH range. Here, we demonstrate that a small

As a new modification method, the mechanochemistry features the remarkable advantages of simple operation process, low energy consumption, easy chemical modification and suitability for industrialization. In this work, the coal-fired byproduct fly ash was modified by mechanical-chemical method through omnidirectional planetary ball mill. The effect of mechanical-chemical modification process parameters

The combined template of Mn(CH3COO)2, KCl, and CO(NH2)2 is a strategy for the structural control and functionalization of porous carbons. Waste peach gum is used to achieve the orderly design of N, O-codoped lamellar porous carbon (NLPC). The prepared carbon electrode obtains a mass specific capacitance of 402 F g–1 at an ampere density of 0.5 A g–1 in 6 M KOH, long cycle stability (99.5% mass specific

In this paper, the interfacial properties of a rock/heavy-oil/steam system were measured to observe the degree of wettability alteration when adding new generation chemicals to steam to improve the displacement efficiency and reduce the amount of CO2 by minimizing the need for steam. A heavy-crude-oil obtained from a field in Alberta (27 780 cP at 25 °C) was used in all experiments, and the measurements

In recent years, we have explored non-amide-based classes of kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) polymers to determine if the same level of performance can be achieved as commercial KHI polymers, which all contain amide groups. Here, we have investigated a series of polyvinylaminals as KHIs for the first time. These polymers with pendant alkyl or cycloalkyl groups of varying sizes and shapes were synthesized

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron diffraction have been utilized for micro-structural characterization of Eurofer97/2 heats submitted to thermo-mechanical treatments, with the aim to investigate macroscopic material volumes and to complete the local information provided by scanning electron microscopy. The measurements were carried out at MLZ in Garching, utilizing for SANS also polarized

Dispersion-strengthened (DS) copper alloys with Y2O3 particles are known as high strength and high thermal conductivity materials having potential for heat sink materials of fusion devices. In the previous study on mechanical alloying (MA) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) processing of DS-Cu alloys, the MA powders showed various morphology and size distribution which influenced the properties of the

The distribution of times (DRT) method has become an important extension for electrochemical impedance investigations. Especially for complex systems, calculating the DRT is advantageous, as it yields an increased resolution in frequency domain. Unfortunately, the determination of the DRT from experimental impedance data requires special mathematical effort. An often‐used method for the calculation

In this work, we clearly demonstrate the use of transition‐metal phosphide/sulphide nanocomposite to set up an electrochemical reduction analysis platform for sensitive and selective non‐enzymatic detection of H2O2. With the help of a macroporous nickel foam (NF) as substrate, the noble‐metal‐free electrocatalyst of nanocomposites of Ni3P and Ni3S2 were directly one‐step synthesized on the surface

Nanostructured transition metal oxide synthesis possessing high energy density and stability is desirable for supercapacitors. Herein, we synthesize three‐dimensional NiCo 2 O 4 (NCO) nanosheets with oxygen vacancies induced by sustainable and environmentally benign electrodeposition assisted chemical reduction process. Oxygen vacancies increase the conductivity, adsorptivity, and the active surface

Nanoparticles are widely utilised for a range of applications, from catalysis to medicine, requiring accurate knowledge of their size and shape. Current techniques for particle characterisation are either not very accurate or time consuming and expensive. Here we demonstrate a rapid and quantitative method for particle analysis based on measuring the polarisation-resolved optical extinction cross-section

Correction for ‘Manganese-based layered double hydroxide nanoparticles as highly efficient ozone decomposition catalysts with tunable valence state’ by Siyu Wang et al., Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 12817–12823, DOI: 10.1039/D0NR02796K.

The syntheses of metal nanoparticles by reduction in apolar solvent in presence of long chain surfactants have proven to be extremely effective in the control of the particle size and shape. Nevertheless, the elucidation of the nucleation/growth mechanism is not straightforward because of the multiple roles played by the surfactant. The nucleation stage, in particular, is very difficult to describe

Thin layers of transition metal dichalcogenides have been intensively studied over the last few years due to novel physical phenomena and potential applications. One of the biggest problems in laboratory handling and moving on to application-ready devices lies in a high sensitivity of their physicochemical properties to ambient conditions. We demonstrate that novel, in-situ capping with an ultra-thin

A new strategy to create 3D local connection of building synthons and tune the functionalities of 2D covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is developed by in situ incorporation of multi-branched building blocks during synthesis. The new COF material CPF-3 retains the features of the pristine 2D COF COF-LZU1, including surface area, crystallinity and stability, and expands the light absorption range to

Compared with subcutaneous or intramuscular routes for vaccination, vaccine delivery via gastrointestinal mucosa has tremendous potential as it is easy to administer and pain free. Robust immune responses can be triggered successfully once vaccine carried antigen reaches the mucosal associated lymphoid sites (e.g., Peyer’s patches). However, the absence of an efficient delivery method has always been