Viviana Cigolotti

Fuel Cells in the Waste-to-Energy Chain

Abundance of Waste and Energy Scarcity.- Biomass and Waste as Sustainable Resources.- Anaerobic Digestion.- Biomass and Waste Gasification.- Digesters, Gasifiers and Biorefineries: Plants and Field Demonstration.- Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells.- Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.- Fuel Gas Clean-up and Conditioning.- High-Temperature Fuel Cell Plants and Applications.- Biomethane and Natural Gas.- Electricity and the Grid.- Prospects of Hydrogen as a Future Energy Carrier.- Market and Feasibility Analysis of Non-conventional Technologies.- Concluding Remarks.

Low cost combined voltage and current transducer for Smart Meters

One of the key factor for a capillary adoption of smart grid approach in residential or commercial environments is the availability of low cost devices able to carry on required measurement and control tasks. The development and commercialization of low cost smart meters will be an important field of manufacturing in the next future. On the other hand, in addition to simple measurement of energy flows for billing purposes, there is a great interest in customers and utilities in characterize the energy in terms of level of quality, but this requires the calculation of various indexes and the performing of even complex analyses. This leads to an increase of the requirements of both analogical and digital devices composing the smart meters. Great advantages from this point of view come from the availability of more and more powerful microcontrollers at low cost. Analogical devices, such as current and voltage transducers, for power quality assessment over a wide frequency range at low cost still remain a critical aspect. These paper presents an implementation of a smart meter with low cost commercial microcontroller board (Arduino), equipped with a prototype of low cost combined voltage and current transducer designed as shield for the considered microcontroller board. Simulations and experimental characterization of the prototype are shown.

Direct bioethanol fuel cells

Abstract: Biomass can be stored and converted into any form of energy. Hydrogen is a ‘clean’ energy source: its combustion produces only water and energy. A new, eco-friendly reservoir of hydrogen is required to achieve clean and sustainable energy production. Ethanol is a suitable biofuel in this respect, being easy to produce and safe to handle, transport and store. Bioethanol plays an important role as a promising renewable energy source due to its useful properties; it can also be converted to hydrogen-rich gas through a simple reforming process, and is potentially ideal for molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs).

High-Temperature Fuel Cell Plants and Applications

High-temperature fuel cells (HTFCs) have real and imminent potential for implementation of clean, high-efficiency conversion of renewable and waste-derived fuels. Thanks to their capability to operate relatively easily on hydrocarbon-based fuels, and to their increased durability and higher tolerance to inevitable contaminants in the alternative fuels utilized, these integrated solutions are constantly spreading world-wide. The modular build-up of HTFCs makes them adamantly suitable to a decentralised energy infrastructure, which relieves dependencies on primary energy carrier imports and encourages local productivity. In the transitional phase from fossil to renewable fuels, utilization of natural gas in HTFCs allows for the immediate implementation in the established grid infrastructure, reduces CO2 emissions and accelerates the development to full maturity necessary for large-scale market penetration.