Concerns about climate change brought about by the increasing usage of fossil fuels has made it imperative to develop sustainable energy usage based on renewable sources. Micro-hydel plants are an important source of renewable energy that can be exploited to supply requirements of local loads in remote locations while operating as an isolated source, or the larger network when operating in grid connected mode. The focus of this research is to develop an alternative topology to the one currently in use in micro-hydel power plants. While existing plants are based on a ballast-controlled, fixed-speed, operator-supervised model, the proposed work introduces a ballast-free, variable-speed generator capable of unsupervised operation. Conventional micro-hydel generators use o-the-shelf machines with the purported aim of reducing costs. They run at a fixed speed, maintaining constant electrical load by switch-ing a plant-situated ballast load to compensate for consumer load changes. Although the intention is to have a simplified control scheme and reduced costs, the conventional plants end up being expensive since the balance-of-system costs are increased. The plant re-quires supervision by a trained operator and frequent maintenance, failing which the reliability suers. The cost and maintenance reduction possible is analysed by comparing the proposed topology with a typical well designed conventional micro-hydel plant. The proposed topology takes the characteristics of the turbine into account, and by running at variable speed, ensures that only as much power is generated as required by the consumer load. This eliminates the ballast load and associated problems present in conventional plants. The generator can be connected to the grid, if present, enabling the available power to be fully utilized. The behavior of a hydraulic turbine operating at a fixed head and discharge rate with no flow control is analyzed. Based on the turbine characteristics, a generator topology is developed, which operates in a speed range dictated by the characteristics of the turbine. Continual supervision is unnecessary since the operation of the generator is within safe limits at all times. A simple emulator that can mimic the steady state and dynamic behaviour of the turbine is developed to test the proposed generator. The two-machine wound rotor generator proposed has an auxiliary exciter similar to a conventional brushless alternator with the additional provision for bidirectional power transfer. The shaft mounted rotor side electronics facilitate brushless operation, and to-gether with the stator side controllers form an embedded system that does away with having to tune the plant in-situ. The control scheme is evaluated for expected perfor-mance in dierent operating modes. The thesis also discusses an optimization of the synchronous speed of the generator with respect to the turbine characteristics. This minimizes the bidirectional slip power transfer requirements of the rotor side converters and leads to the lowest rating for the auxiliary machine. The proposed generator can then operate like a conventional synchronous gen-erator in the grid connected mode with a simplified control scheme.

La première partie de cette thèse constitue une introduction aux différentes méthodes de conversion d'énergie et de dessalement qui seront évoquées dans cet ouvrage. Dans une deuxième partie, nous montrons que la conductance ionique d'un réseau de nanopores est sous-additive avec le nombre de pores. La contribution individuelle de chaque pore à la conductance globale tend vers une valeur nulle, pour un réseau suffisamment grand. On note que seuls des rapports de longueurs interviennent, et que le choix d'une échelle nanométrique n'a pas d'influence dans l'effet observé. Ensuite, dans une troisième partie, nous mesurons la perméabilité d'un réseau de pores à une échelle macroscopique. Là aussi, l'influence du réseau ne dépend pas de l'échelle du système. La perméabilité évolue en sens inverse de la conductance : elle est augmentée par la présence de pores voisins, mais dans une faible proportion. La quatrième partie se sert des résultats des deux parties précédentes, dans le but de déterminer une loi d'échelle pour la puissance électrique produite par courant d'écoulement et diffusio-osmose, deux méthodes de conversion d'énergie osmotique. On montre que les effets d'entrée ont un effet délétère sur cette conversion ; ils nécessitent des études plus approfondies. La dernière partie est un travail numérique sur un nouveau procédé de dessalement par osmose via une phase gaz, piégée dans des nanotubes hydrophobes. Son intérêt principal est l'utilisation de nanotubes plus gros que les pores des matériaux actuellement utilisés, donc moins susceptibles de s'encrasser. Par dynamique moléculaire, nous étudions la perméabilité et la sélectivité du dispositif / The first part of this thesis is an introduction to the different energy conversion and desalination methods that will be invoked in this work. In a second part, we show that the ionic conductance of a nanopore array is sub-additive with the number of pores. Individal contributions of each pore to the global conductance tend to a null value, if the network is big enough. We note that this phenomenon only involves length ratios, and that working at a nanometric scale does not have any influence. Then, in a third part, we measure the permeability of a pore array at a macroscopic scale. There too, the effect of the array does not depend on the scale of the system. Permeability evolves inversely to conductance: permeability is enhanced by the presence of neighboring pores, but in a smaller proportion than the ionic conductance falls under the same cause. The fourth part uses the results of the two preceding ones, to determine a scaling law for the electric power produced by streaming current and diffusio-osmosis, two methods of osmotic energy conversion. We show that entrance effects have a negative impact on such conversion, more efforts are needed to understand them better and circumvent them. The fifth and last part of this thesis is a numerical work on a new desalination device. It relies on osmosis through a gas phase which is trapped within a hydrophobic nanotube. Its main interest is to use nanotubes bigger than the pores of currently used materials, thus less prone to fouling. We use molecular dynamics methods to study the permeability and selectivity of this device

Rapporten avhandlar en konceptstudie för omvandling av termisk energi till elektrisk samt mekanisk energi, i den autonoma undervattensfarkosten SAPPHIRES. Inledningsvis utreds vilka förväntningar och krav som finns på konceptet för energiomvandling samt om där finns någon publicerad litteratur som redan gjort ansträngningar för att lösa det aktuella problemet. Allmän teori kring värmemotorer och en bred, systematisk litteratursökning inkluderas även i det arbetet. Energiomvandlingen antas kunna ske enligt två fall kallade ”hög-prestanda” och ”låg/medel-prestanda”, vilka innebär att mekanisk samt elektrisk effekt, respektive endast elektrisk effekt ska kunna levereras av konceptet. De mekaniska samt elektriska effekterna ska, vidare, kunna levereras om maximalt 600, respektive 6 kW, och konceptet ska åtminstone kunna uppfylla ett av energiomvandlingsfallen. Den faktiska konceptstudien utgörs av två iterationer av konceptgenereringar, -utvärderingar och -val och de visar att ett koncept kallat ”Öppet system inspirerat av nukleär värmeframdrivning” förefaller vara det bästa sättet att omvandla termisk energi i SAPPHIRES. Därtill indikerar en mer detaljerad analys, bestående av bland annat matematisk modellering och konceptuell konstruktion, att konceptet möjligen skulle kunna uppfylla så kallad ”hög-prestanda” och sedermera leverera både mekanisk och elektrisk effekt om 600, respektive 6 kW. Mer specifikt visar en matematisk analys, med hjälp av vissa antaganden rörande konceptets funktion, att ett ”Öppet system inspirerat av nukleär värmeframdrivning” skulle kunna leverera en mekanisk effekt om 1025 kW samt en elektrisk effekt om 141 kW. En grov, konceptuell konstruktion bekräftar också att konceptets vitala, ingående komponenter faktiskt kan rymmas inom de specificerade dimensionskraven (en cylinderformad volym med en längd och diameter om 1,7, respektive 0,5 m.). Det står dock klart att de möjliga koncepten för energiomvandling kraftigt begränsas av deras möjligheter att leverera tillräcklig mekanisk effekt, för att uppnå ”hög-prestanda”. Om endast ”låg/medel-prestanda” ska uppfyllas tillåts fler av de möjliga koncepten och i ett sådant fall skulle faktorer som underhåll, miljöpåverkan och SAPPHIRES signatur kunna prioriteras i högre utsträckning. / The report discusses a concept study regarding the conversion of thermal energy into electrical and mechanical energy, in the autonomous underwater vehicle SAPPHIRES. First, the requirements and expectations regarding the concept of energy conversion are investigated and efforts are made to identify any published literature, which has already made attempts of solving the issue. General theory regarding heat engines and an extensive literature study are also included in this work. The energy conversion is assumed to perform according to two cases called "high-performance" and "low/medium-performance", meaning mechanical and electrical energy or electrical power should be delivered by the concept, respectively. More specifically, the mechanical and electrical powers should be delivered of a maximum of 600 and 6 kW, respectively and the concept should at least fulfill one of the performance settings. The actual concept study comprises of two iterations of concept generations, evaluations and selections and shows that a concept called "Open system inspired by nuclear thermal propulsion" seems to be the best way of converting thermal energy on-board SAPPHIRES. Moreover, a more detailed analysis, comprising of, inter alia, mathematical modelling and conceptual design, indicates that the concept possibly can meet the so-called "high-performance" and thus, deliver both mechanical and electrical powers of 600 and 6 kW, respectively. More specifically, a mathematical analysis, based on some assumptions regarding the concept's functionality, shows that an "Open system inspired by nuclear thermal propulsion" could deliver a mechanical power of 1025 kW and an electrical power of 141 kW. Rough conceptual design also shows that the vital parts of the concept could fit within the specified maximal dimensions (a cylinder-shaped volume with a length and diameter of 1.7 and 0.5 m, respectively). However, it is clear the possible concepts of energy conversion are severely limited by their capacities of delivering enough mechanical energy, to meet the "high-performance" demands. Assuming only the "low/medium-performance" has to be met, more possible concepts becomes available and in that case, factors such as maintenance, environmental impact and signature of SAPPHIRES could be considered to a greater extent.

This master´s thesis is focused on obtaining electrical energy from vibration control car using electromagnetic dampers. The primary use of the electromagnetic damper is the production of electrical energy, which can then be used to power electrical appliances in your car or battery charging. The thesis is divided into six main parts: a literature review of possible ways of getting electricity from the car damping, theoretical and mathematical analysis of problems, the choice of design with computational analysis of dampers and power calculation.

We present a novel top-electrode spray-coating process for the solution-based deposition of silver nanowires (AgNWs) onto vacuum-processed small molecule organic electronic solar cells. The process is compatible with organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic light emitting thin film transistors (OLETs) as well. By modifying commonly synthesized AgNWs with a perfluorinated methacrylate, we are able to disperse these wires in a highly fluorinated solvent. This solvent does not dissolve most organic materials, enabling a top spray-coating process for sensitive small molecule and polymer-based devices. The optimized preparation of the novel AgNW dispersion and spray-coating at only 30 °C leads to high performance electrodes directly after the deposition, exhibiting a sheet resistance of 10.0 Ω □−1 at 87.4% transparency (80.0% with substrate). By spraying our novel AgNW dispersion in air onto the vacuum-processed organic p-i-n type solar cells, we obtain working solar cells with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.23%, compared to the air exposed reference devices employing thermally evaporated thin metal layers as the top-electrode.

Pakistan, though being one of the most rich in renewable energy resources, faces serious energy crises and has a shortfall of about 6 GW electric energy. Most of the resources are untapped until today. The fuel for electricity production is being imported and is of high cost. The government is trying to fulfill the energy requirements of the industries and urban areas where rural areas are at the lowest priority. Pakistan was hit by flood disaster in 2010. There are number of organizations, governmental and private, that are trying to provide shelters and basic necessities to the flood affecties even until today. Village Goth Mehdi Farm in Sajawal area of Sindh is one of the examples of a newly built village for the flood affecties. It has been built with the help of Pakistan Navy, however, the village is bereft of electricity. This report presents three different designs for the electrification of the flood affected village, consisting of 20 houses, a mosque, a community centre, toilets and street lighting, in Sajawal, Pakistan by utilizing available renewable energy resources using sustainability approach. Supply of clean water and energy for cooking purposes was also investigated. However, it was identified in the site visit that villagers were using a mechanical hand pump to pump the underground clean water for daily usage which did not require further alternative. The village is surrounded by wheat fields and trees, and villagers used wood as fuel for cooking. Dehydrated animal dung of cattle was also used as fuel source. The Sajawal area is located in the wind corridor of Sindh and also receives sun light of high insolation level. Thus, wind turbine (WT) or/and PV module can be used for electricity generation, respectively. Based on such advantages three electricity generating systems are proposed. Option #1: solar energy by using 19 kilowatt Photovoltaic (PV) system with off grid inverter and battery bank to cater the load of the village, Option #2: wind energy by using 20 kilowatt wind turbine with a battery backup and Option #3: hybrid PV and WT system with 5.8 kilowatt PV system combine with 10 kilowatt wind turbine and battery backup. These systems have been designed by keeping social, economical and environmental aspects in account. The financial comparison showed that the option # 1 required highest amount of capital cost with respect to other options, while option # 3 needed lowest initial investment for installation. Moreover Option 1, solar system, was found to be the most expensive option when battery replacements (every 3 years) were considered over a 20 years life time. Option 3, hybrid wind and solar system, was concluded to be the most economical solution for the Goth Mehdi farms.

Ce manuscrit décrit la synthèse d’un moteur moléculaire rotatif photoactivable. Il est montré que la molécule cible peut être intégrée dans un réseau de chaînes PEG, et que l’irradiation UV du matériau obtenu mène à sa contraction à macroscopique. Ces mouvements moléculaires collectifs permettent donc de convertir de l’énergie lumineuse pour produire un travail mécanique de huit ordres de grandeur au-delà de leur échelle. Une combinaison d’études de rhéologie et de diffusion de neutron a permis de définir les paramètres de formation de gels pour obtenir une contraction maximale, mais aussi l’observation expérimentale que la rotation des moteurs initie des enroulements de chaînes PEG, ce qui est responsable de la contraction du matériau. De plus, la synthèse d’une unité modulatrice et son intégration dans ces matériaux sont décrites. Les gels résultants présentent des propriétés de contraction réversibles et le caractère hors-équilibre de l’ensemble du système est ensuite discuté. / This manuscript describes the gram-scale synthesis of a light-driven rotary molecular motor. It is shown that the target molecule can be integrated into a PEG chains network, and that the UV irradiation of the obtained material leads to its macroscopic contraction. These collective molecular movements are then able to convert light energy to produce a mechanical work of eight orders of magnitude beyond their scale. A combination of rheology and small angle neutron scattering studies defined the of gel formation parameters to obtain maximum contraction, but also the experimental observation that motor rotation initiates PEG chain windings, which is responsible of the contraction of the material.In addition, the synthesis of a modulator unit and its integration into these materials is described. The resulting gels present reversible contraction properties and the out-of-equilibrium behavior of the entire system is then discussed.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis focuses on optimization of wind power tracking control systems in order to capture maximum wind power for the generation system. In this work, a mathematical simulation model is developed for a variable speed wind turbine power generation system. The system consists a wind turbine with necessary transmission system, and a permanent magnet synchronous generator and its vector control system. A new fuzzy based hill climbing method for power tracking control is proposed and implemented to optimize the wind power for the system under various conditions. Two existing power tracking control methods, the tip speed ratio (TSR) control method and the speed sensorless control method are also implemented with the wind power system. The computer simulations with a 5 KW wind power generation system are performed. The results from the proposed control method are compared with those obtained using the two existing methods. It is illustrated that the proposed method generally outperforms the two existing methods, especially when the operating point is far away from the maximum point. The proposed control method also has similar stable characteristic when the operating point is close to the peak point in comparison with the existing methods. The proposed fuzzy control method is computationally efficient and can be easily implemented in real-time.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The harvested energy of wind can be transferred to the generators either through a gearbox or through an intermediate medium such as hydraulic fluids. In this method, high-pressure hydraulic fluids are utilized to collect the energy of single or multiple wind turbines and transfer it to a central generation unit. In this unit, the mechanical energy of the hydraulic fluid is transformed into electric energy. The prime mover of hydraulic energy transfer unit, the wind turbine, experiences the intermittent characteristics of wind. This energy variation imposes fluctuations on generator outputs and drifts their angular velocity from desired frequencies. Nonlinearities exist in hydraulic wind power transfer and are originated from discrete elements such as check valves, proportional and directional valves, and leakage factors of hydraulic pumps and motors. A thorough understanding of hydraulic wind energy transfer system requires mathematical expression of the system. This can also be used to analyze, design, and predict the behavior of large-scale hydraulic-interconnected wind power plants. This thesis introduces the mathematical modeling and controls of the hydraulic wind energy transfer system. The obtained models of hydraulic energy transfer system are experimentally validated with the results from a prototype. This research is classified into three categories. 1) A complete mathematical model of the hydraulic energy transfer system is illustrated in both ordinary differential equations and state-space representation. 2) An experimental prototype of the energy transfer system is built and used to study the behavior of the system in different operating configurations, and 3) Controllers are designed to address the problems associated with the wind speed fluctuation and reference angular velocity tracking. The mathematical models of hydraulic energy transfer system are also validated with the simulation results from a SimHydraulics Toolbox of MATLAB/Simulink®. The models are also compared with the experimental data from the system prototype. The models provided in this thesis do consider the improved assessment of the hydraulic system operation and efficiency analysis for industrial level wind power application.

The subject of this thesis is the project of scientific and technological park in the Tomas Bata University in Zlín. This park is divided into three workplaces: the educational and training center, a workplace for applied research, and business center. This project is situated at the location of a former factory area of Baťa Company; specifically in its eastern part. This dissertation is focused on the analysis of the given location, evaluates it in terms of its potential, and finally sets out the main priorities that should be applied in the draft. The accompanying report then describes and specifies the project, as drawn graphically, in the form of situational patterns, plans, sections, perspectives, and visualizations. Specifically, the project deals with the reconstruction of the former manufacture building No. 24, proposes a construction of a new building no. 25, and provides a solution for space in between of these two buildings. The project primarily seeks to make the entire site more attractive, and bring it to the function which would implement the functions in the assignment of the technology park. The function of the technology park is divided with regard to the investors requirements. From the urban point of view, the project seeks to approach the problem stemming out of the essence of the place. The use of objects remaining on the site preserved, is designed not to disturb the architectural expression and static essence. Architectural expression of new objects is selected not to oppose the overall architectural expression of the site. The project also includes and evaluates the usage of solar energy.