Thermodynamic analysis of an improved integrated biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell micro combined heat and power system

Limited overall efficiency and excessive complexity can hinder the competitiveness of biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell micro combined heat and power systems. To overcome these problems, hydrocarbons direct internal reforming is analysed as a strategy to increase efficiency and reduce system complexity. To the same end, two biosyngas...

Interactions of high temperature H₂S and HCl cleaning sorbents with biosyngas main components and testing in a pilot integrated biomass gasifier SOFC system

High temperature biosyngas cleaning is more efficient when the end user operates at elevated temperature, as in biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell systems. However, there is not much experience with this technology and low temperature gas cleaning is usually adopted. This paper advances current knowledge by presenting the results from the...

Catalytic reforming of acetic acid as main primary tar compound from biomass updraft gasifiers: screening of suitable catalysts and operating conditions

Tar compounds have been defined as Achilles’ heel in biomass gasification. Catalytic reforming solves problems caused by tar by converting them into H₂ and CO. Most of the research has focused on secondary and tertiary tar reforming while some information on primary tar can be derived from bio-oil reforming. However, these studies...

Effect of selected representative biomass gasification tar compounds on Ni-GDC solid oxide fuel cells

Contaminants as particulate matter, sulfur, chlorine and tar should be removed from biosyngas to avoid damaging solid oxide fuel cells. However, there is no sufficient information on tar effect since they might be potentially used as a fuel, or they might cause performance losses and irreversible damages. Therefore, this study aims to assess...

Publisher Correction: LifeTime and improving European healthcare through cell-based interceptive medicine (Nature, (2020), 587, 7834, (377-386), 10.1038/s41586-020-2715-9)

In this Perspective, owing to an error in the HTML, the surname of author Alejandro López-Tobón of the LifeTime Community Working Groups consortium was indexed as ‘Tobon’ rather than ‘López-Tobón’ and the accents were missing. The HTML version of the original Perspective has been corrected; the PDF and print versions were always correct.

LifeTime and improving European healthcare through cell-based interceptive medicine

Here we describe the LifeTime Initiative, which aims to track, understand and target human cells during the onset and progression of complex diseases, and to analyse their response to therapy at single-cell resolution. This mission will be implemented through the development, integration and application of single-cell multi-omics and imaging,...

High-efficiency biomass gasifier SOFC systems with direct internal tar reforming

Removing biosyngas contaminants is crucial for the efficient and safe operation of biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cells systems. Among the contaminants, tar might be considered an additional fuel if converted into H₂ and CO in a reformer or directly in the SOFC. However, no sufficient information is available on direct internal...

Exploring the Internal Radiative Efficiency of Selective Area Nanowires

Nanowires are ideal building blocks for next-generation solar cell applications. Nanowires grown with the selective area (SA) approach, in particular, have demonstrated very high material quality, thanks to high growth temperature, defect-free crystalline structure, and absence of external catalysts, especially in the InP material system. A...

Effect of H₂S and HCl on solid oxide fuel cells fed with simulated biosyngas containing primary tar

Integrated biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell systems are an alternative to fossil-fuel-based combined heat and power generators. However, biosyngas contaminants represent a bottleneck for small-scale systems. In this work, we present the results of experiments on the effects of H₂S, HCl, and acetic acid as model primary tar on...

Charge carrier-selective contacts for nanowire solar cells

Charge carrier-selective contacts transform a light-absorbing semiconductor into a photovoltaic device. Current record efficiency solar cells nearly all use advanced heterojunction contacts that simultaneously provide carrier selectivity and contact passivation. One remaining challenge with heterojunction contacts is the tradeoff between...

Cross-influence of toluene as tar model compound and HCl on Solid Oxide Fuel Cell anodes in Integrated Biomass Gasifier SOFC Systems

Integrated Biomass Gasifier Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Systems represent an alternative to fossil fuel based power plants, and direct internal tar reforming allows achieving high efficiency and decreasing system complexity. However, at present, tar is removed or reformed externally since there is not yet general agreement on the fate of these...

Influence of tar and HCL on SOFC anodes in integrated biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell systems

Nanowire arrays as cell force sensors to investigate adhesin-enhanced holdfast of single cell bacteria and biofilm stability

Surface attachment of a planktonic bacteria, mediated by adhesins and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), is a crucial step for biofilm formation. Some pathogens can modulate cell adhesiveness, impacting host colonization and virulence. A framework able to quantify cell-surface interaction forces and their dependence on chemical surface...

Numerical investigation of dynamic effects for sliding drops on wetting defects

The ability to trap or deflect sliding drops is of great interest in microfluidics, as it has several technological applications, ranging from self-cleaning and fog harvesting surfaces to laboratory-on-a-chip devices. We present a three-dimensional numerical model that describes sliding droplets interacting with wetting defects of variable...

Lanthanide 4f-level location in AVO4:Ln3+ (A = La, Gd, Lu) crystals

The spectral properties of LaVO4, GdVO4 and LuVO4 crystals doped with Ce3+, Pr3+, Eu3+ or Tb3+ have been investigated in order to determine the position of the energy levels relative to the valence and conduction bands of the hosts along the trivalent and divalent lanthanide series. Pr3+ and Tb3+ ground state levels are positioned based on the...