In recent years, the development of advanced structures for providing sustainable energy has been a topic at the forefront of public and political conversation. Many are looking for advancements on pre-existing sources and new and viable energy options to maintain a modern lifestyle. The Handbook of Research on Power and Energy System Optimization is a critical scholarly resource that examines the usage of energy in relation to the perceived standard of living within a country and explores the importance of energy structure augmentation. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics including energy management, micro-grid, and distribution generation, this publication is targeted towards researchers, academicians, and students seeking relevant research on the augmentation of current energy structures to support existing standards of living.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become the recognized instrument to assess the ecological burdens and human health impacts connected with the complete life cycle (creation, use, end-of-life) of products, processes and activities, enabling the assessor to model the entire system from which products are derived or in which processes and activities operate. This volume introduces the major new book series "LCA Compendium - The Complete World of Life Cycle Assessment." In this volume, the main drivers in the development of LCA are explored. The volume also discusses strengths and limitations in LCA as well as challenges and gaps, thus offering an unbiased picture of the state-of-the-art and future of LCA.

Written specifically for the oil and gas industry, Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling provides maintenance managers and engineers with the tools and techniques to create a manageable maintenance program that will save money and prevent costly facility shutdowns. The ABCs of work identification, planning, prioritization, scheduling, and execution are explained. The objective is to provide the capacity to identify, select and apply maintenance interventions that assure an effective maintenance management, while maximizing equipment performance, value creation and opportune and effective decision making. The book provides a pre- and post- self-assessment that will allow for measure competency improvement. Maintenance Managers and Engineers receive an expert guide for developing detailed actions including repairs, alterations, and preventative maintenance.

Written by a team of experts that has been working together for several years in the context of a research network involving international institutions, this book brings several applications related to smart material systems such as vibration and noise control, structural health monitoring, energy harvesting and shape memory alloys. Furthermore, this book also provides basic knowledge on the fundamentals of smart material systems and structures. Consequently, the present title serves as an important resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, it serves as a guide for engineers and scientists working with smart structures and materials both with an application and basic research perspective. Smart material systems and structures represent a new paradigm which is increasing the capabilities of engineering systems. Adaptability and versatility are some important aspects related to such systems. In brief, research on smart materials is characterized by synergistically combining different physical features, such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, and magnetic. As a result, smart material technologies have a huge potential to enhance the performance of engineering structures opening unlimited opportunities to innovation and economic benefits.

Arc welding is one of the key processes in industrial manufacturing, with welders using two types of processes - gas metal arc welding (GMAW) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). This new book provides a survey-oriented account of the modeling, sensing, and automatic control of the GMAW process.
Researchers are presented with the most recent information in the areas of modeling, sensing and automatic control of the GMAW process, collecting a number of original research results on the topic from the authors and colleagues.

Providing an overview of a variety of topics, this book looks at the classification of various welding processes; the modeling aspects of GMAW; physics of welding; metal transfer characteristics; weld pool geometry; process voltages and variables; power supplies; sensing (sensors for arc length, weld penetration control, weld pool geometry, using optical and intelligent sensors); control techniques of PI, PID, multivariable control, adaptive control, and intelligent control. Finally, the book illustrates a case study presented by the authors and their students at Idaho State University, in collaboration with researchers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environment Laboratory.

This textbook bridges the gap between basic literature on the physics of solar cells and highly specialized books about photovoltaic solar energy conversion. It is intended to give students with a background in engineering, materials science, chemistry or physics a comprehensive introduction to materials concepts for solar cells. To this end, general principles of solar cells and materials demands are explained in the first part of this book. The second part is devoted to the four classes of materials concepts for solar cells: solar cells based on crystals of silicon, epitaxial layer systems of III-V semiconductors, thin-film absorbers on foreign substrates, and nano-composite absorbers.

"Combustion of Pulverised Coal in a Mixture of Oxygen and Recycled Flue Gas" focuses on a niche technology, combustion of coal in an oxygen rich environment, which is one approach to obtaining clean coal, by making it easier to capture carbon that is released in the combustion process. Toporov s book breaks ground on covering the key fundamentals of oxycoal technologies, which have not yet been covered in this depth.

"Combustion of Pulverised Coal in a Mixture of Oxygen and Recycled Flue Gas" summarizes the main results from a pioneering work on experimental and numerical investigations of oxyfuel technologies. It provides the theoretical background of the process, the problems to be faced, and the technical solutions that were achieved during these investigations.
Summarizes results from investigations of oxyfuel technologies performed at Aachen University, GermanyProvides theoretical background, as well as the primary problems of these technologies and how they can be solved"

The new edition will discuss recent advances in computer modeling, including how fields generated outside the body are distributed inside and how various frequencies may interact differently with natural biological or biochemical cycles. It covers the basic biological, medical, physical, and electrical engineering principles and experimental results concerning how electric and magnetic fields affect biological systems-both as potential hazards to health and as potential tools for medical treatment and scientific research. It also briefly includes material on the relationship between the science and the regulatory processes concerning human exposure to the fields.

This thesis describes novel strategies for the rational design of several cutting-edge high-efficiency photocatalysts, for applications such as water photooxidation, reduction, and overall splitting using a Z-Scheme system. As such, it focuses on efficient strategies for reducing energy loss by controlling charge transfer and separation, including novel faceted forms of silver phosphate for water photooxidation at record high rates, surface-basic highly polymerised graphitic carbon nitride for extremely efficient hydrogen production, and the first example of overall water splitting using a graphitic carbon nitride-based Z-Scheme system. Photocatalytic water splitting using solar irradiation can potentially offer a zero-carbon renewable energy source, yielding hydrogen and oxygen as clean products. These two 'solar' products can be used directly in fuel cells or combustion to provide clean electricity or other energy. Alternatively they can be utilised as separate entities for feedstock-based reactions, and are considered to be the two cornerstones of hydrogenation and oxidation reactions, including the production of methanol as a safe/portable fuel, or conventional catalytic reactions such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and ethylene oxide production. The main driving force behind the investigation is the fact that no photocatalyst system has yet reported combined high efficiency, high stability, and cost effectiveness; though cheap and stable, most suffer from low efficiency.

Pretreatment of Biomass provides general information, basic data, and knowledge on one of the most promising renewable energy sources- biomass for their pretreatment- which is one of the most essential and critical aspects of biomass-based processes development. The quest to get the environment greener, less polluted, and less hazardous has led to the concept of Biorefineries growing fast globally for developing bio-based processes and products using biomass as the feedstock. Each kind of biomass requires some kind of pretreatment to make it suitable for bioprocess. This book provides state-of-art information on the methods currently available for this.

This book provides data-based scientific information on the most advanced and innovative processing for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic and algal biomass for further processing. Pretreatment of biomass is considered one of the most expensive steps in the overall processing in a biomass-to-biofuel program. With the strong advancement in developing lignocellulose biomass- and algal biomass-based biorefineries, global focus has been on developing pretreatment methods and technologies which could offer technical and economic feasibility. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments on different methods used for the pretreatment of biomass. A separate section is devoted to the methods and technologies of algal biomass due to the increasing global attention of its use.
Provides information on the most advanced and innovative pretreatament processes and technologies for biomassCovers information on lignocellulosic and algal biomass to work on the principles of biorefineryUseful for researchers intending to study scale-upProvides information on integration of processes and technologies for the pretreatment of biomass

This book introduces Software Thermal Management (STM) as a means of reducing power consumption in a computing system in order to manage heat, improve component reliability and increase system safety. Readers will benefit from this pragmatic guide to the field of STM for embedded systems and its catalog of software power management techniques. Since thermal management is a key bottleneck in embedded systems design, this book focuses on root cause of heat in embedded systems: power. Since software has an enormous impact on power consumption in an embedded system, this book urges software engineers to manage heat effectively by understanding, categorizing and developing new ways to reduce static and dynamic power consumption. Whereas most books on thermal management describe mechanisms to remove heat, this book focuses on ways for software engineers to avoid generating heat in the first place.

The advance of variable speed drives systems (VSDs) engineering highlights the need of specific technical guidance provision by electrical machines and drives manufacturers, so that such applications can be properly designed to present advantages in terms of both energy efficiency and expenditure. This book presents problems and solutions related to inverter-fed electrical motors. Practically orientated, the book describes the reasons, theory and analysis of those problems. Various solutions for individual problems are presented together with the complete design process, modelling and simulation examples with MATLAB/Simulink on the companion website. A key focus of Variable Speed AC Drives with Inverter Output Filters is to examine the state variables estimation and motor control structures which have to be modified according to the used solution (filter). In most control systems the structure and parameters are taken into account to make it possible for precise control of the motor. This methodology is able to include modifications and extensions depending on specific control and estimation structures. Highly accessible, this is an invaluable resource for practising R&D engineers in drive companies, power electronics & control engineers and manufacturers of electrical drives. Senior undergraduate and postgraduate students in electronics and control engineering will also find it of value.

This monograph shows the reader how to avoid the burdens of sensor cost, reduced internal physical space, and system complexity in the control of AC motors. Many applications fields-electric vehicles, wind- and wave-energy converters and robotics, among them-will benefit. Sensorless AC Electric Motor Control describes the elimination of physical sensors and their replacement with observers, i.e., software sensors. Robustness is introduced to overcome problems associated with the unavoidable imperfection of knowledge of machine parameters-resistance, inertia, and so on-encountered in real systems. The details of a large number of speed- and/or position-sensorless ideas for different types of permanent-magnet synchronous motors and induction motors are presented along with several novel observer designs for electrical machines. Control strategies are developed using high-order, sliding-mode and quasi-continuous-sliding-mode techniques and two types of observer-controller schemes based on backstepping and sliding-mode techniques are described. Experimental results validate the performance of these observer and controller configurations with test trajectories of significance in difficult sensorless-AC-machine problems. Control engineers working with AC motors in a variety of industrial environments will find the space-and-cost-saving ideas detailed in Sensorless AC Electric Motor Control of much interest. Academic researchers and graduate students from electrical, mechanical and control-engineering backgrounds will be able to see how advanced theoretical control can be applied in meaningful real systems.

This volume summarizes our current knowledge on different biomass-converting enzymes and their potential use in converting biomass into simple sugar to generate bioenergy and other value added co-/by products. It consists of 13 chapters and is divided into three parts: cellulases; hemicellulases; and lignocellulose oxidoreductases. Written by international experts, the contributions offer clear and concise descriptions of both standard and new technologies. It is an invaluable reference resource for undergraduates, post-graduates, researchers and practitioners in the field of microbial enzymes for biofuel and biorefinery applications.

Series-parallel conversion systems, in which multiple standardized converter modules are connected in series or parallel at the input and output sides, to meet the demands of various applications. This book focuses on the control strategies for the series-parallel conversion systems with DC-DC converters and DC-AC inverters as the basic modules, respectively, to achieve input voltage/current sharing and output voltage/current sharing among the constituent modules. The detailed theoretical analysis with design examples and experimental validations are presented. This book is essential and valuable reference for graduate students and academics majoring in power electronics and engineers engaged in developing DC-DC converters, DC-AC inverters and power electronics transformers.

This book introduces readers to the status quo and recent advances in China's low-carbon development. From the evolution of human civilization, to the proposal of low-carbon concepts, up to the choice of China's low-carbon path, the book provides a comprehensive review of low-carbon development, while also elaborating on the core concept, goals and methods. In addition, it addresses a series of questions and issues closely tied to today's social development, such as: "Why is it so vital to pursue low-carbon development?" and "How can China implement low-carbon development?" Accordingly, readers will gain a better grasp of low-carbon development, including low-carbon production and low-carbon lifestyles.

This volume of the Lecture Notes in Mobility series contains papers written by speakers and poster presenters at the 21st International Forum on Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications (AMAA 2017) "Smart Systems Transforming the Automobile" that was held in Berlin, Germany in September 2017. The authors report about recent breakthroughs in electric and electronic components and systems, driver assistance and vehicle automation as well as safety and testing. Furthermore, legal aspects and impacts of connected and automated driving are covered. The target audience primarily comprises research experts and practitioners in industry and academia, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students alike.

"Renewable Energy Integration" is a ground-breaking new resource, the first to offer a distilled examination of the intricacies of integrating renewables into the power grid and electricity markets. It offers informed perspectives from internationally renowned experts on the challenges to be met, and solutions based on demonstrated best practices developed by operators around the world. The book's focus on practical implementation of strategies provides real-world context for theoretical underpinnings and the development of supporting policy frameworks. The book considers a myriad of wind, solar, wave and tidal integration issues, thus ensuring that grid operators with low or high penetration of renewable generation can leverage the victories achieved by their peers. "Renewable Energy Integration" highlights, carefully explains, and illustrates the benefits of advanced technologies and systems for coping with variability, uncertainty, and flexibility.
Lays out the key issues around the integration of renewables into power grids and markets, from the intricacies of operational and planning considerations, to supporting regulatory and policy frameworks Provides global case studies that highlight the challenges of renewables integration and present field-tested solutions Illustrates enabling and disruptive technologies to support the management of variability, uncertainty and flexibility

"Distributed Generation and its Implications for the Utility Industry" examines the current state of the electric supply industry; the upstream and downstream of the meter; the various technological, business, and regulatory strategies; and case studies that look at a number of projects that put new models into practice.

A number of powerful trends are beginning to affect the fundamentals of the electric utility business as we know it. Recent developments have led to a fundamental re-thinking of the electric supply industry and its traditional method of measuring consumption on a volumetric basis. These developments include decreasing electricity demand growth; the rising cost of fossil fuels and its impact on electricity costs; investment in energy efficiency; increasing numbers of prosumers who generate for some or all of their own needs; and market reforms.

This book examines the implications of these trends in chapters focusing on distributed and decentralized generation, transactive energy, the role of electric vehicles, any much more.
Discusses the technological, business, and policy trends most impacting the electric utility sectorProvides an assessment of how fast and how soon distributed energy resources may make an impact on utility sales/revenuesExplores, through a series of international case studies, the implementation of strategies that may help retain the viability of the utility industryFeatures contributions from a number of scholars, academics, experts and practitioners from different parts of the world focused on examining the future of the electric supply industry

"Biorefineries" outlines the processes and steps to successfully scale up production of two types of biofuels, butanol and ethanol, from cellulosic residues for commercial purposes. It covers practical topics, including biomass availability, pretreatment, fermentation, and water recycling, as well as policy and economic factors. This reflects the unique expertise of the editor team, whose backgrounds range from wood and herbaceous feedstocks to process economics and industrial expertise. The strategies presented in this bookhelp readers to design integrated and efficient processes to reduce the cost of production and achieve an economically viable end product
Outlines the economic benefits of designing a single operational process.Includes all currently available processes on pretreatment, fermentation and recoveryCovers all pretreatment, fermentation, and product recovery optionsFocuses on biofuels but acts as a stepping stone to develop cost-efficient processes for an array of commodity chemicals"

This book presents a selection of new insights in understanding and mitigating impacts on wildlife and their habitats. Topics such as, species behaviour and responses; collision risk and fatality estimation; landscape features and gradients, are considered. Other chapters in the book cover the results of current research on mitigation; compensation; effectiveness of measures; monitoring and long-term effects; planning and siting. Examples are given of current research on shutdown on demand and curtailment algorithms. By identifying what we have learned so far, and which predominate uncertainties and gaps remain for future research, this book contributes to the most up to date knowledge on research and management options. This book includes presentations from the Conference on Wind Energy and Wildlife impacts (CWW15), March 2015, hosted by the Berlin Institute of Technology, which offered a platform to national and international participants to showcase the current state of knowledge in wind energy's wildlife implications.

This book gathers papers presented and discussions held at the Conference on Wind Energy and Wildlife Impacts in Melbourne, Australia on 9th October 2012. The purpose of the conference was to bring together researchers, industry, consultants, regulators and Non-Government Organizations to share the results of studies into wind farm and wildlife investigations in Australia and New Zealand. The aim was to further networking and communication between these groups. The conference discussed key issues and areas for future investigation, with the intention of developing consistencies in research and management. Like the Conference, the book showcases current research and management in the field of wind farms and wildlife in Australia and New Zealand; establishes consistencies in research and management; and highlights areas in need of further examination. The papers in these Proceedings are presented in two session topics. The first covers "Investigations and assessment of new wind farms" and the second, "Monitoring, mitigation and offsets." The Proceedings then summarize the panel discussions held at the end of the conference. The themes include improving pre- and post-construction survey design; identifying key knowledge gaps and research priorities; uncertainties and errors in data sets and analysis; creating opportunities to share knowledge; and assessing cumulative impacts across multiple sites.

The book reports on advanced theories and methods in two related engineering fields: electrical and electronic engineering, and communications engineering and computing. It highlights areas of global and growing importance, such as renewable energy, power systems, mobile communications, security and the Internet of Things (IoT). The contributions cover a number of current research issues, including smart grids, photovoltaic systems, wireless power transfer, signal processing, 4G and 5G technologies, IoT applications, mobile cloud computing and many more. Based on the proceedings of the first International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering (ELECOM 2016), held in Voila Bagatelle, Mauritius from November 25 to 27, 2016, the book provides graduate students, researchers and professionals with a snapshot of the state-of-the-art and a source of new ideas for future research and collaborations.