Search Results (11)

Climatic changes are reaching alarming levels globally, seriously impacting the environment. To address this environmental crisis and achieve carbon neutrality, transitioning to hydrogen energy is crucial. Hydrogen is a clean energy source that produces no carbon emissions, making it essential in the technological era for meeting energy needs while reducing environmental pollution. Abundant in nature as water and hydrocarbons, hydrogen must be converted into a usable form for practical applications. Various techniques are employed to generate hydrogen from water, with solar hydrogen production—using solar light to split water—standing out as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly approach. However, the widespread adoption of hydrogen energy is challenged by transportation and storage issues, as it requires compressed and liquefied gas storage tanks. Solid hydrogen storage offers a promising solution, providing an effective and low-cost method for storing and releasing hydrogen. Solar hydrogen generation by water splitting is more efficient than other methods, as it uses self-generated power. Similarly, solid storage of hydrogen is also attractive in many ways, including efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This can be achieved through chemical adsorption in materials such as hydrides and other forms. These methods seem to be costly initially, but once the materials and methods are established, they will become more attractive considering rising fuel prices, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and advancements in science and technology. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are highly efficient for converting hydrogen into electrical energy, producing clean electricity with no emissions. If proper materials and methods are established for solar hydrogen generation and solid hydrogen storage under ambient conditions, solar light used for hydrogen generation and utilization via solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) will be an efficient, safe, and cost-effective technique. With the ongoing development in materials for solar hydrogen generation and solid storage techniques, this method is expected to soon become more feasible and cost-effective. This review comprehensively consolidates research on solar hydrogen generation and solid hydrogen storage, focusing on global standards such as 6.5 wt% gravimetric capacity at temperatures between −40 and 60 °C. It summarizes various materials used for efficient hydrogen generation through water splitting and solid storage, and discusses current challenges in hydrogen generation and storage. This includes material selection, and the structural and chemical modifications needed for optimal performance and potential applications. Full article

To ensure stable and normal transformer operation, light gas protection of the transformer Buchholz relay is essential. However, false alarms related to light gas protection are common, and troubleshooting them often requires on-site gas sampling by personnel. During this time, the transformer’s operating state may rapidly deteriorate, posing a safety threat to field staff. To tackle these challenges, this work presents the near-field, thin-sliced transformer monitoring system that uses Electromagnetic Energy Transmission and Wireless Sensing Device (ETWSD). The system leverages external wireless energy input to power gas monitoring sensors. Simultaneously, it employs Near-Field Communication to obtain real-time concentrations of light gases, along with the electrified state and temperature. In field testing conducted on transformer relays’ gas collection chambers, the ETWSD effortlessly monitors parameters within warning ranges, encompassing methane gas concentrations around 1000 ppm, leakage voltage ranging from 0–100 V, and relay working temperatures up to 90 °C. Additionally, to facilitate real-time diagnosis for electrical workers, we have developed an Android-based APP software that displays current light gas concentrations, leakage voltage collection values, and temperature, while also enabling threshold judgment, alarms, and data storage. The developed ETWSD is expected to aid on-site personnel in promptly and accurately evaluating transformer light gas protection error alarm faults. It provides a method for simultaneous, contactless, and rapid monitoring of multiple indicators. Full article

To solve the current reliance of coal mine rock burst and coal and gas outburst detection on mainly manual methods and the problem wherein it is still difficult to ensure disaster warning required to meet the needs of coal mine safety production, a coal mine rock burst and coal and gas outburst perception alarm method based on visible light imagery is proposed. Real-time video images were collected by color cameras in key areas of underground coal mines; the occurrence of disasters was determined by noting when the black area of a video image increases greatly, when the average brightness is less than the set brightness threshold, and when the moving speed of an object resulting in a large increase in the black area is greater than the set speed threshold (V > 13 m/s); methane concentration characteristics were used to distinguish rock burst and coal and gas outburst accidents, and an alarm was created. A set of disaster-characteristic simulation devices was designed. A Φ315 mm white PVC pipe was used to simulate the roadway and background equipment; Φ10 mm rubber balls were used to replace crushed coal rocks; a color camera with a 2.8 mm focal length, 30 FPS, and 110° field angle was used for image acquisition. The results of our study show that the recognition effect is good, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. Full article

Fire is usually detected with fire detection systems that are used to sense one or more products resulting from the fire such as smoke, heat, infrared, ultraviolet light radiation, or gas. Smoke detectors are mostly used in residential areas while fire alarm systems (heat, smoke, flame, and fire gas detectors) are used in commercial, industrial and municipal areas. However, in addition to smoke, heat, infrared, ultraviolet light radiation, or gas, other parameters could indicate a fire, such as air temperature, air pressure, and humidity, among others. Collecting these parameters requires the development of a sensor fusion system. However, with such a system, it is necessary to develop a simple system based on artificial intelligence (AI) that will be able to detect fire with high accuracy using the information collected from the sensor fusion system. The novelty of this paper is to show the procedure of how a simple AI system can be created in form of symbolic expression obtained with a genetic programming symbolic classifier (GPSC) algorithm and can be used as an additional tool to detect fire with high classification accuracy. Since the investigation is based on an initially imbalanced and publicly available dataset (high number of samples classified as 1-Fire Alarm and small number of samples 0-No Fire Alarm), the idea is to implement various balancing methods such as random undersampling/oversampling, Near Miss-1, ADASYN, SMOTE, and Borderline SMOTE. The obtained balanced datasets were used in GPSC with random hyperparameter search combined with 5-fold cross-validation to obtain symbolic expressions that could detect fire with high classification accuracy. For this investigation, the random hyperparameter search method and 5-fold cross-validation had to be developed. Each obtained symbolic expression was evaluated on train and test datasets to obtain mean and standard deviation values of accuracy ($ACC$), area under the receiver operating characteristic curve ($AUC$), precision, recall, and $F1-score$. Based on the conducted investigation, the highest classification metric values were achieved in the case of the dataset balanced with SMOTE method. The obtained values of $\overline{ACC}\pm SD\left(ACC\right)$, $\overline{AUC}\pm SD\left(ACU\right)$, $\overline{Precision}\pm SD\left(Precision\right)$, $\overline{Recall}\pm SD\left(Recall\right)$, and $\overline{F1-score}\pm SD(F1-score)$ are equal to $0.998\pm 4.79\times {10}^{-5}$, $0.998\pm 4.79\times {10}^{-5}$, $0.999\pm 5.32\times {10}^{-5}$, $0.998\pm 4.26\times {10}^{-5}$, and $0.998\pm 4.796\times {10}^{-5}$, respectively. The symbolic expression using which best values of classification metrics were achieved is shown, and the final evaluation was performed on the original dataset. Full article

In light of the alarming climate change situation, the focus of society on sustainability has been enhanced. The recent initiatives at national and international levels to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and to transition to carbon-neutrality have highlighted the urgency. For a more sustainably oriented society, an important shift is needed; hence, we need to invest in creating more knowledge about the importance of sustainability with different stakeholders, and appropriate marketing and communication strategies can make a big difference. Changes need to happen in all sectors of society. The wood furniture industry, textiles, and car industry all produce products that consumers need daily, namely, furniture, clothes, and vehicles. These industries also produce similar amounts of harmful emissions in their manufacturing processes, which considerably contribute to pollution. Our objective was to investigate and to understand how the chosen industries communicate about sustainability. The three-pillar paradigm of sustainability—economic, environmental, and social—was studied. We chose to compare these different industries as they are among those that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and they produce end-consumer products made from different materials. Furthermore, the representative companies are global brands with a strong brand name and presence. The wood furniture industry uses natural materials, while the textile and car industries are more limited in this regard, even if they use some natural materials, for example cotton. Communication about the sustainability of the selected companies in the mentioned sectors was analyzed by applying qualitative content analyses of existing online communication. The companies were selected based on previously defined criteria—the size of the company, geographical location, and brand value. An analysis of the online communication of these companies has demonstrated that the selected industries communicate mostly about environmental topics on their webpages, and less frequently on social and economic issues. The wood furniture industry, although utilizing renewable natural materials, communicates about sustainability similarly to the other two studied sectors. This gives rise to suggestions for improvements in this sector that could give them a leading role in the narrative on communication about environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Full article

The ideal smart home could be automatically controlled using a variety of electronic tools and devices to perform everyday tasks. Smart home automation is crucially beneficial for human life, particularly when considering those with disabilities, inpatients, and elderly populations. In this paper, applications and systems for smart homes are investigated. During experimentation they were controlled via an Android mobile phone and the Arduino platform. Bluetooth Module HC-06 was used to connect the Arduino Uno R3 with the mobile phone. Five smart home applications were developed to control the lighting and electrical sockets, fan speed, temperature- and humidity-meter display/controls, as well as the fire-alarm and toxic-gas alarm systems. Herein, the definition, the graphical user interface, the required main components, and the control circuit connections are prepared and presented for each application. The graphical user interface was created using the RemoteXY website, which is a reliable website for this purpose. The developed applications were tested, and they were found to work efficiently and correctly. Additionally, this innovative system is both cost-effective and affordable (total cost at the time of development was 110 USD). Full article

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a main source of fuel, especially in urban areas because it is clean compared to firewood and charcoal. Gas leakage is a major problem in the industrial sector, residential premises, etc. Nowadays, home security has become a major issue because of increasing gas leakage. Gas leakage is a source of great anxiety with ateliers, residential areas and vehicles like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), buses, and cars which are run on gaspower. One of the preventive methods to stop accidents associated with the gas leakage is to install a gas leakage detection kit at vulnerable places. The aim of this paper is to propose and discuss a design of a gas leakage detection system that can automatically detect, alert and control gas leakage. This proposed system also includes an alerting system for the users. The system is based on a sensor that easily detects a gas leakage. Full article

In this work, a robust stand-off alpha detection method using the secondary effects of alpha radiation has been sought. Alpha particles ionise the surrounding atmosphere as they travel. Fluorescence photons produced as a consequence of this can be used to detect the source of the alpha emissions. This paper details experiments carried out to detect this fluorescence, with the focus on photons in the ultraviolet C (UVC) wavelength range (180–280 nm). A detector, UVTron R9533 (Hamamatsu, 325-6, Sunayama-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Pref., 430-8587, Japan), designed to detect the UVC emissions from flames for fire alarm purposes, was tested in various gas atmospheres with a ²¹⁰Po alpha source to determine if this could provide an avenue for stand-off alpha detection. The results of the experiments show that this detector is capable of detecting alpha-induced air fluorescence in normal indoor lighting conditions, as the interference from daylight and artificial lighting is less influential on this detection system which operates below the UVA and UVB wavelength ranges (280–315 nm and 315–380 nm respectively). Assuming a standard $\raisebox{1ex}{$1$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$r^2$}\right.$ drop off in signal, the limit of detection in this configuration can be calculated to be approximately 240 mm, well beyond the range of alpha-particles in air, which indicates that this approach could have potential for stand-off alpha detection. The gas atmospheres tested produced an increase in the detector count, with xenon having the greatest effect with a measured 52% increase in the detector response in comparison to the detector response in an air atmosphere. This type of alpha detection system could be operated at a distance, where it would potentially provide a more cost effective, safer, and faster solution in comparison with traditional alpha detection methods to detect and characterise alpha contamination in nuclear decommissioning and security applications. Full article

This document develops the study of an implementation project of a home automation system in a housing placed in the town of Galapagar, Madrid. This house, which is going to be occupied by a four-member family, consists of 67 constructed square meters distributed in lounge, kitchen, three bedrooms, bath, bathroom and terrace, this being a common arrangement in Spain. Thus, this study will allow extracting conclusions about the adequacy of the home automation in a wide percentage of housing in Spain. In this document, three house automation proposals are developed based on the requirements of the client and the different home automation levels that the Spanish House and Building Automation Association has established, besides two parallel proposals relating to the safety and the technical alarms. The mentioned proposed systems are described by means of product datasheets and descriptions, distribution plans, measurements, budgets and flow charts that describe the functioning of the system in every case. An evaluation of each system is included, based on other studies conclusions on this matter, where expected energy savings from each design, depending on the current cost of lighting, water and gas, as well as the expected economic amortization period is evaluated. Full article

Multi-sensor and information fusion technology based on Dempster-Shafer evidence theory is applied in the system of a building fire alarm to realize early detecting and alarming. By using a multi-sensor to monitor the parameters of the fire process, such as light, smoke, temperature, gas and moisture, the range of fire monitoring in space and time is expanded compared with a single-sensor system. Then, the D-S evidence theory is applied to fuse the information from the multi-sensor with the specific fire model, and the fire alarm is more accurate and timely. The proposed method can avoid the failure of the monitoring data effectively, deal with the conflicting evidence from the multi-sensor robustly and improve the reliability of fire warning significantly. Full article

In light of the problems of low recognition efficiency, high false rates and poor localization accuracy in traditional pipeline security detection technology, this paper proposes a type of hierarchical leak detection and localization method for use in natural gas pipeline monitoring sensor networks. In the signal preprocessing phase, original monitoring signals are dealt with by wavelet transform technology to extract the single mode signals as well as characteristic parameters. In the initial recognition phase, a multi-classifier model based on SVM is constructed and characteristic parameters are sent as input vectors to the multi-classifier for initial recognition. In the final decision phase, an improved evidence combination rule is designed to integrate initial recognition results for final decisions. Furthermore, a weighted average localization algorithm based on time difference of arrival is introduced for determining the leak point’s position. Experimental results illustrate that this hierarchical pipeline leak detection and localization method could effectively improve the accuracy of the leak point localization and reduce the undetected rate as well as false alarm rate. Full article