Biography:

Nasir El Bassam is a Scientific Director of the International Research Centre for Renewable Energy (IFEED), Germany, India and USA and Poverty Researcher, promoting the development of Concentrated Solar  Thermal  Power  (CSP)  in  cooperation  with  German  Aerospace Centre  (DLR),  and  German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Berlin, serving  in  several  committees, and is  EU  Adviser  & Chairman  of  working  group  SREN, FAO, UNO. In this context, he worked out the UN-Concept of Integrated Energy Settlements. He has been nominated as Chair, World Council of Renewable Energy (WCRE), Vice President of the Climate Protection Agency and member of Editorial Board of scientific journals. He published more than 10 books, author of numerous publications, and received several awards.

 

 

Abstract:

Energy is directly related to the most critical social issues which affect sustainable development: Poverty, job creation, income levels, access to social services, gender disparity, population growth, agricultural production, climate change and environmental quality, security issues and migration. More than 2 bil­lion people, 600 million of them living in Africa, have no access to modern energy sources such as electricity; most are living in rural areas. Sustainable frameworks which can really function and could offer real perspectives are needed: IFEED has developed more than 10 years ago for the United Nations the concept of the “Integrated Energy Settlements” which has been implemented in several counties. The concept comprises the following elements: Decentralized and onsite production of energy for households, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), agriculture, water and waste water treatment, mobility, storage, trade, etc., it also includes social, economic, ecological, education and job creation components. This concept is a dynamic process. It has been modified and implemented in October 2015 in Wierthe, Lower Saxony, Germany. The project in Wierthe integrates 15 enterprises with around 80 employees and trainees, education, training  and sport facilities, a forest, fruit and vegetable fields, bee, sheep and horse keeping, e-cars, solar park, bioenergy for heating, desalination and irrigation systems. Wierthe Project is an innovative approach and a concept for maintaining the vital role of rural regions. It targets food and energy, nature and culture, diversity and dignity, economy and society. It combines strategic approaches of clean technologies and sustainable development to live in peace with our self and nature. We have the necessary knowledge, knowhow and the technologies to achieve these goals. 

Recent Publications

1.El Bassam N (2013) Distributed Renewable Energies for Off-Grid Communities. Strategies and Technologies towards Achieving Sustainability in Energy Generation and Supply. Elsevier- Science and Technology Books, 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451.

2.El Bassam N (2010) Handbook of Bioenergy Crops: A Complete Reference to Species, Development and Applications”. Earthscan Publishers, London and New York.

3.Ingrams E (2014) Preparing to Meet the Challenges of the Future. An interview with Nasir El Bassam. SGI Quarterly, Japan

4.El Bassam N. (2016)  Innovative Technologien und Strategien für den breiten Einsatz der Elektromobilität: Internationale Konferenz für Alternative Mobilität,  Solarzentrum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Wietow.

5.El Bassam N (2016) Facing the Challenges of Poverty of Hunger, Poverty and Migration. 7th International Seminar Sustainable Resource Management Towards Food, Energy, Environment and Livelihood. Afrikanisch-Asiatische Studienförderung e.V., Göttingen.

Biography:

Tzu-Chen Hung received his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA, USA in 1989. From 1990 to 1992, he served as a Nuclear Engineer at Argonne National Laboratory. After 2008, he has been serving as a Professor and the Associate Dean of the College of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering at National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) in Taiwan. He has been honored as a Distinguished Professor since 2016. He also served as the Chief Executive for the Committee of Recruitment for Technological Colleges and Universities, Ministry of Education, Taiwan for 5 years. His major research fields are organic Rankine cycle (ORC), computational fluid dynamics, passive heat transfer, and nuclear engineering. Three of his ORC papers have been cited more than 1,500 times worldwide. He has also delivered more than 10 invited/keynote/plenary lectures in international conferences or foreign universities. He has published more than 80 journal papers and more than 150 conference papers. He has been a Guest Editor of 3 international journals. He has served as Host or Committee Member for more than 10 domestic and international conferences. 

Abstract:

Unlike conventional power conversion from fuel source, organic Rankine cycle (ORC) can efficiently convert wasted low-temperature heat to power. That’s why it is said as a “negative carbon” approach in power generation. Moreover, with rising concerns in environment and global warming, ORC for waste heat recovery is expected commercially enormous. A special advantage of ORC is that it has wide spectrum in the selection of working fluid to fit optimal power generation. In general, near isentropic fluids are more favorable. Systematic studies have been worldwide implemented for the selection of appropriate working fluids with respect to the evaporation temperature, available temperature range, operational safety, and environment friendly, etc. All expander feature, heat exchanger behavior and pump performance significantly influence the cycle operation characteristic. Therefore, how to efficiently integrate ORC processes with various conditions of heat sources and sinks is a challenge for ORC commercialization. The stand-alone operation strategy can run steadily at random operation zone, whereas the gird connect operation strategy is suitable for greater heat input. ORC systems have been generally commercialized with the scale greater than 50 kWe. Nowadays, laboratory-scale ORCs have gradually obtained good cycle performance for the liquid heat source less than 120°C. Once small-scale ORC is commercialized, the applications would be more and more flexible. The economic analysis of the ORC systems is performed according to the module costing technique, in which various kinds of economic factors have been proposed, such as APR (heat exchanger area per unit power output), LEC (levelized energy cost), EPC (electricity production cost), etc. Electricity supply is a critical problem in developing or undeveloped territories. We expect that low-cost ORC could be employed in those areas to improve their living standard.

 

 

Recent Publications

1.P.J. Li, T.C. Hung*, B.S. Pei, J.R. Lin, C.C. Chieng, G.P. Yu (2012) “A thermodynamic analysis of high temperature gas-cooled reactors for optimal waste heat recovery and hydrogen production,” Applied Energy, 99: 183–191.

2.J.C. Chang, C.W. Chang, T.C. Hung*, J.R. Lin, K.C. Huang (2014) “Experimental study and CFD approach for scroll type expander used in low-temperature organic Rankine cycle,” Applied Thermal Engineering, 73:1444-1452.

3.D.S. Lee, T.C. Hung*, J.R. Lin, J. Zhao (2015) “Experimental investigations on solar chimney for optimal heat collection to be utilized in organic Rankine cycle,” Applied Energy, 154:651-662.

4.J.C. Chang, T.C. Hung*, Y.L. He, W.P Zhang (2015) “Experimental study on low-temperature organic Rankine cycle utilizing scroll type expander,” Applied Energy, 155:150-159.

5.Y.Q. Feng, T.C. Hung*, S.L. Wu, C.H. Lin, B.X. Li*; K.C. Huang, J. Qin (2017) “Operation characteristic of a R123-based organic Rankine cycle depending on working fluid mass flow rates and heat source temperatures,” Energy Conversion and Management, 131: 55–68.

S.C. Yang, T.C. Hung*, Y.Q. Feng*, C.J. Wu, K.W. Wong, K.C. Huang (2017) “Experimental investigation on a 3 kW organic Rankine cycle for low-grade waste heat under different operation parameters,” Applied Thermal Engineering, 113:756–764.  

Biography:

L Q Wang received his PhD from University of Alberta (Canada) in 1995 and is a Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong. He is also the Qianren Scholar (Zhejiang) and serves as the Director and the Chief Scientist for the Laboratory for Nanofluids and Thermal Engineering, Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), the University of Hong Kong. He has secured over 70 projects funded by diverse funding agencies and industries including the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and has published 10 books/monographs and over 340 book chapters and technical articles, many of which have been widely used by researchers all over the world. He is on the list of the top 1% most cited scholars. He has also filed 22 patent applications and led a team in developing a state-of-the-art thermal control system for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station. He was Visiting Professor of Harvard University (2008) and Duke University (2003). He has presented over 35 invited plenary/keynote lectures at international conferences, and serves/served as the Editor-In-Chief for the Advances in Transport Phenomena, the Editor for the Scientific Reports, the Associate Editor for the Current Nanoscience, the Guest Editor for the Journal of Heat Transfer, the Nanoscale Research Letters and the Advances in Mechanical Engineering, and serves on the Editorial Boards of 19 international journals.

Abstract:

Unlike the past century that was blessed with ever-abundant cheap oil, this century energy has been rated as the single most important issue faced by humanity. Over 80% of all the energy we are using today is produced in or through the form of heat. Engineering heat-transfer process and medium with super thermal performance is thus vital for addressing the terawatt challenge faced by us. Driving force for heat transfer can be direct or indirect. The former is temperature gradient with conduction, convection and radiation as its three fundamental ways of heat transport. The latter comes from cross-coupling among different transport processes in the medium and transports heat in thermal waves which can be in various forms and tunable via manipulating the cross coupling. The first part of this talk is on developing a universal relation between heat flux and temperature gradient in temperature-gradient-driven heat transfer by finding both the necessary and sufficient conditions in a systematic, rigorous way for a heat transfer process to satisfy fundamental laws like the second Law of Thermodynamics. This leads to a generalized Fourier law that provides effective means for engineering temperature-gradient-driven heat-transfer processes with super thermal performance. It is normal that two or more transport processes occur simultaneously in heat-transfer media. Examples include mass, heat, chemical, electrical and magnetic transports. These processes may couple (interfere) and cause new induced effects of flows occurring without or against its primary thermodynamic driving force, which may be a gradient of temperature, or chemical potential, or reaction affinity. Two classical examples of coupled transports are the Soret effect (also known as thermodiffusion) in which directed motion of a particle or macromolecule is driven by flow of heat down a thermal gradient and the Dufour effect that is an induced heat flow caused by the concentration gradient. While the coupled transport is well recognized to be very important in thermodynamics, it has not been well appreciated yet in the society regarding its potential of generating and manipulating thermal waves and resonance. In the second part of this talk, I will summarize our work on examining such a potential and show some unique, super features of heat transport with cross-coupling-driven thermal waves and thermal resonance from our experiments with thermal-wave fluids consisting of specially-designed multiphase materials with multi-scale inner structures of micro-, nano- and subnano- sizes.

Biography:

Robert Schlögl has research interest in fields like: Interfacial reactions of inorganic solids, heterogeneous catalysis, spectroscopy of surfaces during chemical reactions, solid state reactions, acid-base chemistry on surfaces, carbon chemistry, chemistry of oxide systems, cluster chemistry, development of concepts for sustainable chemical energy conversion and storage. He is presently the Director at Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin as well as Founding Director of MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion in Muelheim an der Ruhr. He holds Honorary Professorships at Humboldt University Berlin, Technical University Berlin, University Duisburg-Essen, Ruhr University Bochum and is a Distinguished Associate Professor at TU Munich.

Abstract:

Efforts have been made in various regions of the world to reduce the role of fossil fuels in the energy mix. The motivation for this trend is manifold ranging from fears about insufficient resources to local cost structures and energy security arguments. The argument about protecting the global climate from the adverse effects of greenhouse gas emissions outside Europe is rarely the real driver for change. This has not substantially changed also after the accord of Paris in global warming. It should be understood that the term “energy system” describes the intricate interactions between technical, economic, and societal factors determining the local structure of energy supply to a society. Even within the globally close European countries there exist vast differences in structures of the energy system. Such diversity requires a broad consideration of measures and options of how to de-fossilize the energy supply. The seemingly easy answer to use solar primary electricity as substitute to fossil resources and to maximally electrify the energy system being postulated by “energy activists” is only an option at first glance. The sheer dimension of the transformation, cost arguments and the inherent volatility require always a dual energy system of material and free electrons as energy carriers. Dual systems require free convertibility of energy carriers in both directions. This is easy from material to free electrons but extremely difficult in the reverse direction. The presentation will highlight origins of this critical bottleneck for energy systems. It will be also shown that only C-H-O chemical structures are plentiful and diverse enough to serve as energy carriers. We will need to apply technologies of catalysis around the making and use of hydrogen as central “exchange currency” of future energy systems to overcome this bottleneck. The ideal function of hydrogen as an exchange energy carrier is not matched by its applicability as end user fuel. We need thus considering a man-made cycle of carbon in which CO₂ is reacted with green hydrogen to form fuels that can be used to store, transport or utilize material energy and to serve as feedstock for the material chemical industry. Collection of the finally resulting CO₂ can be done either at point sources directly or through biomass. It is filtering CO₂ from the atmosphere for no human energy input. Biomass as “solid carbon” and not as energy carrier closes the carbon cycle when transformed into CO₂ through fermentation or gasification at central sites. The structure of future energy system in terms of central vs. de-central is a critical issue and will be decided amongst other variables also by our ability to scale chemical energy conversion processes. The final merit order of energy systems will have to be judged in terms of systemic efficiency and stability rather than in comparative efficiency to fossil elements of a fragmented energy system. Mobility will serve as example to highlight this aspect that can lead to critical resistances against energy transformations.

Biography:

Bin Zhu obtained PhD in 1997 from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He has made tremendous efforts and innovations on fuel cells and new energy conversion technologies over 20 years. He has invented and developed ceria-composite electrolytes for low temperature (300-600°C) solid oxide fuel cells (LTSOFCs), the electrolyte-free fuel cell and single layer fuel cells based on novel functional semiconductor-ionic materials (SIMs). He has established a large research network and led several research teams to explore SIMs for advanced energy applications covering fuel cell, solar cell and photocatalysts/electrolysis. He is Principal Investigator and Lead for establishing and developing semiconductor-ionics and new generation energy technologies. He is one of the Most Cited Researchers in China (Energy sector) for 2014, 2015 and 2016, reports published by Elsevier in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Abstract:

Currently two research fields are strongly correlated from semiconductor and ionic materials (SIMs), semiconductor physics and ionics, which have created "Three in one" electrolyte-free fuel cell technology (as illustrated in Figure 1) and science. Semiconductor electronic band can induce ionic conducting properties and band structure changes resulting in superionic conduction. Strongly crosslink approaches from electrons and ions based on extensive experimental discoveries and evidences have made a strong indication for a promising research frontier and new generation fuel cell as the semiconductor-ionic devices, e.g. electrolyte (layer)-free fuel cell (EFFC) and single layer fuel cells (SLFCs). This is because the semiconductor-ionic materials can integrate fuel cell all anode, electrolyte and cathode functions into one component/layer thus to realize the fuel cell. We are working on both theoretical approaches and experiments to develop and establish a new discipline on Semiconductor-Ionics (Semionics) for energy applications. Using existing semiconductor physics and theories, materials, we extend into the ionic properties and energy band modifications by ion effect, e.g. correlation with ions, and electron-ionic correlated transport properties thus facilitating fuel conversions with higher efficiencies. 

Recent Publications (minimum 5)

1. An editor news from Fuel cells: Three in one, Nat. Nanotechnol. 6, 330 doi:10.1038/nnano.2011.89.

2. B. Zhu et al, Novel fuel cell Nano Energy 19 (2016) 156.

3. Zhu et al, Schottky junction effect on high performance fuel cells based on nanocomposite materials, Adv. Energy Mater. (2015) 1401895.

4. B. Zhu, et al, A new energy conversion technology based on nano-redox and nano-device processes. Nano Energy, 2 (2013) 1179.

5. Zhu, B. Raza, R., Abbas G. and Singh, M. An Electrolyte-Free Fuel Cell Constructed from One Homogenous Layer with Mixed Conductivity. Adv. Funct. Mater. 21 (2011) 2465.

6. B. Zhu, R. Raza, H. Qin, Q. Liu and L. Fan. Fuel cells based on electrolyte and non-electrolyte separators. Energy Environ. Sci. 4 (2011) 2986