Thesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-130). Also available online.

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Douglas S. Cairns. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-143).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1996. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-162).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-147).

abstract: Plasmon resonance in nanoscale metallic structures has shown its ability to concentrate electromagnetic energy into sub-wavelength volumes. Metal nanostructures exhibit a high extinction coefficient in the visible and near infrared spectrum due to their large absorption and scattering cross sections corresponding to their surface plasmon resonance. Hence, they can serve as an attractive candidate for solar energy conversion. Recent papers have showed that dielectric core/metallic shell nanoparticles yielded a plasmon resonance wavelength tunable from visible to infrared by changing the ratio of core radius to the total radius. Therefore it is interesting to develop a dispersion of core-shell multifunctional nanoparticles capable of dynamically changing their volume ratio and thus their spectral radiative properties. Nanoparticle suspensions (nanofluids) are known to offer a variety of benefits for thermal transport and energy conversion. Nanofluids have been proven to increase the efficiency of the photo-thermal energy conversion process in direct solar absorption collectors (DAC). Combining these two cutting-edge technologies enables the use of core-shell nanoparticles to control the spectral and radiative properties of plasmonic nanofluids in order to efficiently harvest and convert solar energy. Plasmonic nanofluids that have strong energy concentrating capacity and spectral selectivity can be used in many high-temperature energy systems where radiative heat transport is essential. In this thesis，the surface plasmon resonance effect and the wavelength tuning ranges for different metallic shell nanoparticles are investigated, the solar-weighted efficiencies of corresponding core-shell nanoparticle suspensions are explored, and a quantitative study of core-shell nanoparticle suspensions in a DAC system is provided. Using core-shell nanoparticle dispersions, it is possible to create efficient spectral solar absorption fluids and design materials for applications which require variable spectral absorption or scattering. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Mechanical Engineering 2012

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-02T11:16:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-03-20Bitstream added on 2014-12-02T11:20:53Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000800810.pdf: 4125337 bytes, checksum: 19cb9a06e4f2e6de28d2bf9167246dbc (MD5) / Este trabalho apresenta, analisa e implementa uma proposta de conversor para geração de pulsos elétricos de alta tensão para aplicação na produção de ozônio e injeção do mesmo em água, com a finalidade de ação germicida e bactericida para processos de lavagem e higienização industrial. O conversor proposto é composto por dois estágios, sendo o primeiro estágio um retificador Boost operando no Modo de Condução Descontínua (MCD), responsável pela obtenção de um barramento em Corrente Contínua (CC) regulado e, atuando como seguidor de tensão da entrada apresenta um elevado fator de potência com reduzida distorção harmônica para a corrente de entrada; o segundo estágio consiste no uso de um inversor em Ponte Completa (Full–bridge) ressonante com controle por deslocamento de fase (Phase–shift), frequência constante (em torno de 10kHz) e modulação bipolar. O estágio inversor ressonante é composto pelo inversor em ponte associado a um transformador elevador e a indutâncias e capacitâncias para o ajuste da ressonância, resultando em uma estrutura com capacidade de geração de pulsos elétricos na saída com amplitude de até 6kV para o nível de potência do projeto, os quais são aplicados em um conjunto em paralelo de 14 (quatorze) câmaras de descarga para geração de ozônio e injeção em água. O trabalho apresenta uma revisão bibliográfica para as aplicações do ozônio, as principais topologias de conversores em baixa potência para geração de pulsos elétricos em ozonizadores, a análise de um produto comercial, a proposta e desenvolvimento de uma estrutura conversora em substituição ao produto comercial, resultando em melhor eficiência e maior fator de potência, apresentando–se suas análises qualitativas e quantitativas, modelação, metodologias de projeto, implementação de um protótipo funcional, os principais resultados finais e proposta de continuidade para futuras pesquisas / This research proposes, analyzes and implements a converter for generating high voltage electric pulses for application to ozone production and injection in water for the purpose of bactericidal and germicidal processes for cleaning and sanitizing industry applications. The proposed converter consists of two stages, the first stage being a Boost rectifier operating in Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM), responsible for getting a Continuous Current (CC) bus regulated and, acting as input voltage follower presents a high power factor with reduced harmonic distortion to the input current; the second stage involves the use of a resonant Full–Bridge inverter controlled by phase–shift, using constant frequency (close to 10kHz) and bipolar modulation. The resonant inverter stage is composed of the bridge inverter associated with a step–up transformer, inductors and capacitors to adjust de resonant frequency, resulting in a structure capable of generating electric pulses with amplitude at the output of almost 6kV, which are applied on a set of fourteen (14) discharge chambers in parallel for ozone generation and injection in water. The work presents a literature review for the applications of ozone, the main converter topologies at low power for generating electrical pulses in ozonizators, the analysis of a commercial product, a proposal and development of a power converter structure to replace the commercial one, resulting in better efficiency and high input power factor, presenting their qualitative and quantitative analysis, modeling, design methodologies, implementation of a functional prototype, the main experimental results and proposal of continuity of future researches

In South Africa most of the municipal solid waste is currently removed and taken to land fill sites for engraving. A very small percentage of this is recycled due to lack of exploration of alternative means of further processing. In 2011 approximately 108 million tonnes of waste, mostly being general waste was generated in South Africa. Ninety eight (98) million tonnes of this waste was disposed of at landfill sites (The Department of Environmental Affairs [DEA], 2012). Environmental engineers are finding municipal solid waste management to be a challenge, similarly do the city planners and local administration. The main reason being the difficulty brought about by the complexity in composition of the waste material, no availability of waste minimization technologies and the scarcity of land for landfill sites and their environmental impact (Lal & Singh, 2012). Anyaegbunam (2013) recommend that there is a disposal technique that can convert most of the landfill waste at reduced amount of money to what is being paid on other disposal techniques nowadays, regardless of its form or composition and produce an excess of clean energy, and that technique is called Plasma Gasification which carries a high capability of being economically efficient. According to Young (2010), plasma arc Gasification is a high-temperature pyrolysis process whereby the organics of waste solids (carbon-based materials) are converted into syngas. The syngas can also be sent to gas turbines or reciprocating engines to produce electricity. Few of these plants exist in the world, however there is none in South Africa due to municipal budgetary constraints and lack of evidence for return on investment. Gasification can be described as a thermo-chemical process wherein carbonaceous or carbon-rich feed stocks, for instance tree trimmings or biomass, coal, and petro-coke are transformed into a complex gas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide (and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and other trace gases) under high pressure, oxygen exhausted, strong heat and/or steam environments (SRS Energy Solutions, 2016) The problem of electricity shortages continues to increase and communities are unable to cope with the continuous rising electricity bills. It is forecast that electricity demand will grow by approximately 85% and thereby reaching 31 700TWH (terawatt hours) in the year 2035. This growth rate is anticipated at an annual rate of 2.4% of which the economic and population growth will be the driving force, while on the other hand the daily increase of waste at landfill sites poses many problems with regards to the lifespan of the landfill in case green technological disposal processes are not introduced.

abstract: As sunlight is an ideal source of energy on a global scale, there are several approaches being developed to harvest it and convert it to a form that can be used. One of these is though mimicking the processes in natural photosynthesis. Artificial photosynthetic systems include dye sensitized solar cells for the conversion of sunlight to electricity, and photoelectrosynthetic cells which use sunlight to drive water oxidation and hydrogen production to convert sunlight to energy stored in fuel. Both of these approaches include the process of the conversion of light energy into chemical potential in the form of a charge-separated state via molecular compounds. Porphyrins are commonly used as sensitizers as they have well suited properties for these applications. A high potential porphyrin with four nitrile groups at the beta positions, a β-cyanoporphyrin (CyP), was investigated and found to be an excellent electron acceptor, as well as have the necessary properties to be used as a sensitizer for photoelectrosynthetic cells for water oxidation. A new synthetic method was developed which allowed for the CyP to be used in a number of studies in artificial photosynthetic systems. This dissertation reports the theories behind, and the results of four studies utilizing a CyP for the first time; as a sensitizer in a DSSC for an investigation of its use in light driven water oxidation photoelectrosynthetic cells, as an electron acceptor in a proton coupled electron transfer system, in a carotene-CyP dyad to study energy and electron transfer processes between these moieties, and in a molecular triad to study a unique electron transfer process from a C60 radical anion to the CyP. It has been found that CyPs can be used as powerful electron acceptors in molecular systems to provide a large driving force for electron transfer that can aid in the process of the conversion of light to electrochemical potential. The results from these studies have led to a better understanding of the properties of CyPs, and have provided new insight into several electron transfer reactions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Chemistry 2015

abstract: Microbial electrochemical cells (MXCs) serve as an alternative anaerobic technology to anaerobic digestion for efficient energy recovery from high-strength organic wastes such as primary sludge (PS). The overarching goal of my research was to address energy conversion from PS to useful resources (e.g. hydrogen or hydrogen peroxide) through bio- and electro-chemical anaerobic conversion processes in MXCs. First, a new flat-pate microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) was designed with high surface area anodes using carbon fibers, but without creating a large distance between the anode and the cathode (<0.5 cm) to reduce Ohmic overpotential. Through the improved design, operation, and electrochemical characterization, the applied voltages were reduced from 1.1 to ~0.85 V, at 10 A m-2. Second, PS conversion was examined through hydrolysis, fermentation, methanogenesis, and/or anode respiration. Since pretreatment often is required to accelerate hydrolysis of organic solids, I evaluated pulsed electric field technology on PS showing a modest improvement of energy conversion through methanogenesis and fermentation, as compared to the conversion from waste activated sludge (WAS) or WAS+PS. Then, a two-stage system (prefermented PS-fed MEC) yielded successful performance in terms of Coulombic efficiency (95%), Coulombic recovery (CR, 80%), and COD-removal efficiency (85%). However, overall PS conversion to electrical current (or CR) through pre-fermentation and MEC, was just ~16%. Next, a single-stage system (direct PS-fed MEC) with semi-continuous operation showed 34% CR at a 9-day hydraulic retention time. The PS-fed MEC also showed an important pH dependency, in which high pH (> 8) in the anode chamber improved anode respiration along with methanogen inhibition. Finally, H2O2 was produced in a PS-fed microbial electrochemical cell with a low energy requirement (~0.87 kWh per kg H2O2). These research developments will provide groundbreaking knowledge for MXC design, commercial application, and anaerobic energy conversion from other high-strength organic wastes to resources. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil and Environmental Engineering 2016