| 1. |
- Cardozo, Evelyn, 1984-
(författare)
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Combustion of agricultural residues : Application for Stirling micro-combined heat and power
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Access to energy services is crucial for the development of countries. Therefore, in developing countries, the access to modern conversion technologies would contribute to reduce the poverty, improve health services and promote the economy especially in rural areas. Around 2.5 billion people in these countries use biomass for cooking. However, major concerns are due to the unsustainable use of biomass and the inefficient conversion technologies employed in rural areas. Therefore, the use of locally available biomass in modern biomass conversion technologies would significantly reduce emissions and improve the energy efficiency. These modern technologies may include residential pellet stoves and boilers which at the moment only are used for heating appliances in industrialized countries. Their combination with a prime mover like a Stirling engine could a very attractive solution to produce combined heat and power (CHP) though still in prototype stage. In this context, this study is mainly focused on the development of an energy system fuelled by locally available biomass to produce heat and electricity based on a Stirling engine. The main objective is to perform experiments to find relevant parameters that characterize the energy system proposed.In the first stage of this work, the suitability of using agricultural residues in a pellet boiler was evaluated in comparison to commercial wood pellets. The agricultural residues used during the tests were: sugar cane bagasse, sunflower husks and Brazil nut shells. The first two residues were pelletized and the last one was reduced to a uniform size. Parameters and energy used during the pelletizing were found. Emission levels and boiler efficiency under steady-state and transient conditions were also presented for the different biomass sorts. In the second stage, the integration of the same pellet burner and the Stirling engine was characterized in terms of losses and efficiency calculations. Finally, the integration of the pelletizing, combustion, and heat and power generation was discussed based on experimental and predicted results.
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| 2. |
- Strand, Torsten, et al.
(författare)
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On the Significance of Concentrated Solar Power R&D in Sweden
- 2011
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the World Renewable Energy Congress 2011, Linköping.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is an emerging renewable energy technology that has the potential to provide a major part of European energy needs at competitive cost levels. Swedish industry is strongly involved in CSP-based energy production either in the form of growing providers on the European energy market or as developers and producers of key components for CSP power plants. The growing industrial interest is reflected and accompanied by state of the art research in this field at the Department of Energy Technology at KTH. In the present paper the main challenges and opportunities for CSP R&D are presented and linked to the industrial environment and interests in Sweden. Related to these challenges, an overview of the latest research activities and results at the Department of Energy Technology is given with examples concerning CSP plant operation and optimisation, techno- economic cycle studies and high temperature solar receiver development.
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| 3. |
- Wang, Wujun
(författare)
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Development of an Impinging Receiver for Solar Dish-Brayton Systems
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A new receiver concept utilizing impinging jet cooling technology has been developed for a small scale solar dish-Brayton system. In a typical impinging receiver design, the jet nozzles are distributed evenly around the cylindrical absorber wall above the solar peak flux region for managing the temperature at an acceptable level. The absorbed solar irradiation is partially lost to the ambient by radiation and natural convection heat transfer, the major part is conducted through the wall and taken away by the impingement jets to drive a gas turbine. Since the thermal power requirement of a 5 kWe Compower® micro gas turbine (MGT) perfectly matches with the power collected by the EuroDish when the design Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) input is 800 W/m2, the boundary conditions for the impinging receiver design in this work are based on the combination of the Compower®MGT and the EuroDish system.In order to quickly find feasible receiver geometries and impinging jet nozzle arrangements for achieving acceptable temperature level and temperature distributions on the absorber cavity wall, a novel inverse design method (IDM) has been developed based on a combination of a ray-tracing model and a heat transfer analytical model. In this design method, a heat transfer model of the absorber wall is used for analyzing the main heat transfer process between the cavity wall outer surface, the inner surface and the working fluid. A ray-tracing model is utilized for obtaining the solar radiative boundary conditions for the heat transfer model. Furthermore, the minimum stagnation heat transfer coefficient, the jet pitch and the maximum pressure drop governing equations are used for narrowing down the possible nozzle arrangements. Finally, the curves for the required total heat transfer coefficient distribution are obtained and compared with different selected impinging arrangements on the working fluid side, and candidate design configurations are obtained.Furthermore, a numerical conjugate heat transfer model combined with a ray-tracing model was developed validating the inverse design method and for studying the thermal performance of an impinging receiver in detail. With the help of the modified inverse design method and the numerical conjugate heat transfer model, two impinging receivers based on sintered α-SiC (SSiC) and stainless steel 253 MA material have been successfully designed. The detailed analyses show that for the 253 MA impinging receiver, the average air temperature at the outlet and the thermal efficiency can reach 1071.5 K and 82.7% at a DNI level of 800 W/m2 matching the system requirements well. Furthermore, the local temperature differences on the absorber can be reduced to 130 K and 149 K for two different DNI levels, which is a significant reduction and improvement compared with earlier published cavity receiver designs. The inverse design method has also been verified to be an efficient way in reducing the calculation costs during the design procedure.For the validation and demonstration of the receiver designs, a unique experimental facility was designed and constructed. The facility is a novel high flux solar simulator utilizing for the first time Fresnel lenses to concentrate the light of 12 commercial high power Xenon-arc lamps. Finally, a prototype of a 253 MA based impinging was experimentally studied with the help of the 84 kWe Fresnel lens based high flux solar simulator in KTH.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Abbes, Yacine
(författare)
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Educational studies in heat and power technology : how students learn with multimedia tools and problem-based learning
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Higher education is undergoing continuous changes and new learning tools and methods are implemented. Researchers in education do not always agree upon the effectiveness of some of the methods introduced into engineering education. The present thesis consists of two case studies on educational methods introduced at the Department of Energy Technology, at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. The qualitative research methodology has been used in case one and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology has been used in the second case. The sources of evidences consisted of: unstructured interviews, analysis of video recording, questionnaires, and analysis of a variety of documents. In the first case, an educational program in heat and power technology was analysed. The second case consists in an in-depth study of group dynamics in a Problem –Based Learning course. These studies showed that the learning approach adopted by students depends strongly on the way they view the particular learning tool or method. The first case study revealed the existence of two types of learners. Surfacelearners follow the structure suggested by the designers of the multimedia program. This category of learners focuses only on the material available in the program. Deep-learners go beyond the information and the structure suggested in the program and combine different learning tools in their learning. These students do not follow the structure of the tutorials’ of the multimedia program. This study showed that students who had a strong view how to learn with a multimedia program or a learning method benefited less from the learning tools available. Students with weak views on how to learn from educational program or leaning tool benefit less from the presentation and engage in more surface learning. Self-motivated learners use the multimedia presentation in novel ways and crosscheck the information given with other material. The second study showed that students have unclear and weak views on how to learn with student-directed Problem- Based Learning model. Four types of learners were identified in Problem-Based Learning project: Leaders, Key Actors, Common Students and Social Loafers. Leaders and Key Actors are self-motivated individuals and participate most in the projects. Students who viewed themselves or were viewed as leaders were held responsible to take most of the decisions and students expected them to work more than the average student. Students who viewed themselves as common team members expected a lower workload than leaders’. Key Actors are self-motivated students who do not view themselves as separate from other group members but who participate more than others. Leaders learned more group and social processes, that they did not fully take part in, while common students learned more from the project management aspects that they did not take part in. The study also found that Problem-Based Learning groups can become very cohesive, and can develop distorted views on how to learn with Problem-Based Learning, and un-common group dynamics phenomena such as groupthink can occur in Problem-Based Learning setting.
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| 7. |
- Abeywecra, Ruchira, et al.
(författare)
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A Remote Mode High Quality International Master Degree Program in Environomical Pathways for Sustainable Energy Systems (SELECT) -Pilot Program Experiences During First Year of Studies
- 2018
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Ingår i: PROCEEDINGS OF 2018 IEEE GLOBAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION CONFERENCE (EDUCON) - EMERGING TRENDS AND CHALLENGES OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION. - : IEEE. - 9781538629574 ; , s. 276-284
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Remote mode study programs at master degree level are becoming more popular than undergraduate level programs. Students after graduation with Bachelors degree very often are employed and the most appropriate mode for them to pursue higher studies is the remote mode. Postgraduate programs with one or two year duration mostly focus on specific areas of research based industrial application. Traditional remote education is thought to be more centered on web based on-line programs with a little opportunity for teacher student interaction and interaction with peers. In such programs motivation for studies has been a problem and as a result many students drop off and also those remain in the program for prolonged periods do not show good performance. One of the reasons for failures of students in remote studies is the isolation leading to discouragement for the completion studies. A remote mode Master Degree Program in Environomical Pathways for Sustainable Energy Systems (MSc-SELECT), consisting of a number of innovative features aimed at improved student engagement, motivation, exposure to experiences in multi-national setting and team work, was developed and implemented by the Master School of the EIT-InnoEnergy, as a pilot project. The program was offered, collaboratively and simultaneously to students in three locations, Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Spain and the Open University of Sri Lanka. The students in Sweden and Spain each followed 50% of the courses on-campus and 50% in remote mode depending upon the university they registered with. The students in Sri Lanka followed the entire 1st year fully remotely. All the students (from KTH, OUSL and UPC) will spend the 2nd year on-campus at another university in the consortium. This paper discusses, from the perspective of the fully remote site, the remote program with its innovative aspects, student performance and experience together with future tasks for making the program viable and beneficial to all partner countries.
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| 8. |
- Abeyweera, Ruchira, et al.
(författare)
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Capacity Building Through a Web Based Master Degree Programme in Sustainable Energy Engineering
- 2017
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Ingår i: PROCEEDINGS OF 2017 IEEE GLOBAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION CONFERENCE (EDUCON2017). - : IEEE. - 9781509054671 ; , s. 800-805
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Open Distance Learning is gaining popularity as a successful alternative for on-campus higher education especially with the emergence of web based platforms which enable the online delivery of courses worldwide. This emerging educational pedagogy can successfully be employed as means of capacity building of the people living in the less fortunate parts of the world where higher education especially at master level are scarce. This paper presents a two-year collaborative master study programme in sustainable energy engineering offered in synchronous with an on-campus study programme conducted by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden, to students of Sri Lanka, which was facilitated by the Open University of Sri Lanka. The paper describes the need of such a programme, the format of course delivery and assessment thereof, plus the benefits gained. This programme has produced 72 post graduates in Sri Lanka alone and more than 200 distant postgraduates worldwide in the field of sustainable energy engineering during last 10 years period. In terms of capacity building in the energy sector in Sri Lanka this is considered a great achievement. The experience gained by the local staff in the role of local facilitators who engaged in some of the academic related activities such as evaluation of students' presentation and co-supervision of thesis projects have been greatly appreciated as being additional benefits to the staff in terms of their own academic development and capacity building. Finally, conclusions are made on how remote programmes of study could successfully be delivered to places where such know-how is scarce by adapting appropriate technologies in training personnel at postgraduate level to meet the needs of the industry.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Aichmayer, Lukas, et al.
(författare)
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Micro Gas-Turbine Design for Small-Scale Hybrid Solar Power Plants
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of engineering for gas turbines and power. - : ASME International. - 0742-4795 .- 1528-8919. ; 135:11, s. 113001-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hybrid solar micro gas-turbines are a promising technology for supplying controllable low-carbon electricity in off-grid regions. A thermoeconomic model of three different hybrid micro gas-turbine power plant layouts has been developed, allowing their environmental and economic performance to be analyzed. In terms of receiver design, it was shown that the pressure drop is a key criterion. However, for recuperated layouts, the combined pressure drop of the recuperator and receiver is more important. In terms of both electricity costs and carbon emissions, the internally-fired recuperated micro gas-turbine was shown to be the most promising solution of the three configurations evaluated. Compared to competing diesel generators, the electricity costs from hybrid solar units are between 10% and 43% lower, while specific CO2 emissions are reduced by 20–35%.
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