Enhancing the Efficiency of Multi-Electrolyzer Clusters with Lye Mixer:Topology Design and Control Strategy

The rise in hydrogen production powered by renewable energy is driving the field toward the adoption of systems comprising multiple alkaline water electrolyzers.These setups present various operational modes:independent operation and multi-electrolyzer parallelization,each with distinct advantages and challenges.This study introduces an innovative configuration that incorporates a mutual lye mixer among electrolyzers,establishing a weakly coupled system that combines the advantages of two modes.This approach enables efficient heat utilization for faster hot-startup and maintains heat conservation post-lye interconnection,while preserving the option for independent operation after decoupling.A specialized thermal exchange model is developed for this topology,according to the dynamics of the lye mixer.The study further details startup procedures and proposes optimized control strategies tailored to this structural design.Waste heat from the caustic fully heats up the multiple electrolyzers connected to the lye mixing system,enabling a rapid hot start to enhance the system’s ability to track renewable energy.A control strategy is established to reduce heat loss and increase startup speed,and the optimal valve openings of the diverter valve and the manifold valve are determined.Simulation results indicate a considerable enhancement in operational efficiency,marked by an 18.28%improvement in startup speed and a 6.11%reduction in startup energy consumption inmulti-electrolyzer cluster systems,particularlywhen the systems are synchronized with photovoltaic energy sources.The findings represent a significant stride toward efficient and sustainable hydrogen production,offering a promising path for large-scale integration of renewable energy.

Multi-fluid Eulerian simulation of binary particles mixing and gas–solids contacting in high solids-flux downer reactor equipped with a lateral particle feeding nozzle

The performance of binary particles mixing and gas-solids contacting,which is considered qualitatively to have a significant influence on the heat transfer in internal heated circulating fluidized beds,is carefully investigated by means of a numerical approach in the newly developed high solids-flux downer lignite pyrolyzer(φ0.1 m×6.5 m).Since binary particles are used in this system,a reasonably validated 3 D,transient,multi-fluid model,in which three heat transfer modes relating to the convection,conduction and radiation are considered,is adopted to simulate the flow behavior,temperature profiles as well as volatile contents.The simulation results showed that the solids stream impinges the left wall surface initially and turns towards the right wall in the further downward direction and then shrinks during this process resulting in that the solids concentrate a little more at the central region.In the further downward section of the downer,the particle flow disperses near the right wall and develops uniformly.Meanwhile,the coal phase is slowly heated in the downer and it is found that most of the heat absorbed by the coal is from the convection heat transfer mode.To explore the heat transfer mechanism more quantitatively,two indexes(mixing index and contacting index)are proposed,and it is found that the mixing index initially increased fast and later remained at a relatively flat state.For the contact index,it shows a trend with a first rising and then falling,finally rising continuously.Also,it is found that the convection heat transfer is closely correlated to the contacting status of gas-coal which indicates that the improving of the gas-coal contacting efficiency should be an effective way to strengthen the coal particle heating process.

Heavy ion and X-ray irradiation alter the cytoskeleton and cytomechanics of cortical neurons

Heavy ion beams with high linear energy transfer exhibit more beneifcial physical and biological performance than conventional X-rays, thus improving the potential of this type of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer. However, these two radiotherapy modalities both cause inevitable brain injury. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of heavy ion and X-ray irra-diation on the cytoskeleton and cytomechanical properties of rat cortical neurons, as well as to determine the potential mechanism of neuronal injury after irradiation. Cortical neurons from 30 new-born mice were irradiated with heavy ion beams at a single dose of 2 Gy and X-rays at a single dose of 4 Gy;subsequent evaluation of their effects were carried out at 24 hours after irradiation. An immunolfuorescence assay showed that after irradiation with both the heavy ion beam and X-rays, the number of primary neurons was signiifcantly decreased, and there was ev-idence of apoptosis. Radiation-induced neuronal injury was more apparent after X-irradiation. Under atomic force microscopy, the neuronal membrane appeared rough and neuronal rigidity had increased. These cell changes were more apparent following exposure to X-rays. Our ifnd-ings indicated that damage caused by heavy ion and X-ray irradiation resulted in the structural distortion and rearrangement of the cytoskeleton, and affected the cytomechanical properties of the cortical neurons. Moreover, this radiation injury to normal neurons was much severer after irradiation with X-rays than after heavy ion beam irradiation.

Polariton lasing in InGaN quantum wells at room temperature

In this paper,we report the exciton polaritons in both positive and negative detuning micro cavities based on InGaN multi-quantum wells(MQWs)and the first polariton lasing in InGaN/GaN MQWs at room temperature by utilizing a 4.5λFabry-Perot(F-P)cavity with double dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors(DBRs).Double thresholds corresponding respectively to polariton lasing and photonic lasing are observed along with half-width narrowing and peak blue-shifts.The threshold of polariton lasing is about half of the threshold of photonic lasing.Our results paved a substantial way for ultra-low threshold lasers and room temperature Bose-Einstein Condensate(BEC)in nitride semiconductors.

Heat-induced Internal Strain Relaxation and its Effect on the Microstructure of Polyacrylonitrile-based Carbon Fiber

The transformation of the internal strain and its effect on the microstructure of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber during the high-temperature graphitization were investigated. The internal compressive strain within the carbon turbostratic structure was confirmed through a careful analysis by wide-angle X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Heat-induced strain/stress relaxation along the fiber axis was observed and was found to have a profound effect on the structure of both the crystallites and microvoids. The results indicated that, the relaxation of residual strain changed the graphite layers from a wrinkled and distorted morphology to a straight and smooth one, and consequently led the crystallites to stack closely and orderly with increasing stack height. The strain relaxation also changed the morphology of crystallites and microvoids, resulting in an anisotropic growth for the latters.

Achieving ultra-stable and superior electricity generation by integrating transistor-like design with lubricant armor

Extensive work have been done to harvest untapped water energy in formats of raindrops,flows,waves,and others.However,attaining stable and efficient electricity generation from these low-frequency water kinetic energies at both individual device and large-scale system level remains challenging,partially owing to the difficulty in designing a unit that possesses stable liquid and charge transfer properties,and also can be seamlessly integrated to achieve preferential collective performances without the introduction of tortuous wiring and redundant node connection with external circuit.Here,we report the design of water electricity generators featuring the combination of lubricant layer and transistor-like electrode architecture that endows enhanced electrical performances in different working environments.Such a design is scalable in manufacturing and suitable for facile integration,characterized by significant reduction in the numbers of wiring and nodes and elimination of complex interfacing problems,and represents a significant step toward large-scale,real-life applications.