Emergency Power Source Research Articles

Ensuring emergency power for critical municipal services with natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) systems: A cost–benefit analysis of a preemptive strategy

Electric power failures in the aftermath of disasters cripple the delivery of critical emergency services. While emergency generators are available in some facilities, these systems are designed for short-term use and support limited functions. The substantial investment required to ensure emergency power for all critical services is difficult to justify because of the uncertainty associated with the likelihood and magnitude of future disasters. Investment evaluations change when a new source of emergency power is considered. This study evaluates the costs and benefits of a program to preemptively install new building-sited electric combined heat and power (CHP) generation technologies to ensure reliable long-term power for critical municipal services in hurricane-prone regions of the US. Three municipalities are selected for this analysis: Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina. Analysis indicates that costs of such a program can, in some cases, provide net energy bill savings regardless of the occurrence of a disaster.

A regenerative zinc–air fuel cell

The zinc regenerative fuel cell (ZRFC) developed by the former Metallic Power Inc. over the period from 1998 to 2004 is described. The component technologies and engineering solutions for various technical issues are discussed in relation to their functionality in the system. The system was designed to serve as a source of backup emergency power for remote or difficult to access cell phone towers during periods when the main power was interrupted. It contained a 12 cell stack providing 1.8 kW, a separate fuel tank containing zinc pellet fuel and electrolyte, and a zinc electrolyzer to regenerate the zinc pellets during standby periods. Offsite commissioning and testing of the system was successfully performed. The intellectual property of the ZRFC technology is now owned by Teck Cominco Metals Ltd.

High Power Organic Radical Battery for Emergency Power Source

not Available.

Power sources compared: The ultimate truth?

Especially, during the last decade the demand for portable power is steadily rising due to the increasing wireless products integrated in our day-to-day lives (cellular phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) and of course the remote control for your television set or VCR). These portable consumer electronics are mainly powered by alkaline batteries, and nowadays more and more by rechargeables. Alternative power sources, like fuel cells and photovoltaic cells, can be used in portable consumer electronics, possibly making them more cost-effective, more environmentally and user friendly. For the consumer industry, the opportunities of these other alternative power sources is unknown, and designers are not known with the state-of-the-art of the technology. Opportunities for short-term but especially long-term developments in portable electronics are in that way overlooked. In this paper, the most interesting power sources available will be compared on the basis of power and energy characteristics, and costs. Emerging power sources like fuel cells are a very interesting alternative for the lithium-ion battery, but the road ahead for it is still long when we look at state-of-the-art developments. Other power sources described and compared are: ether-smog, human power, thermo-electric generators, piëzo generators, electro-mechanical devices, photovoltaic cells, micro-fuel cells and micro-combustion engines.

Application of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells to Aircraft

Fuels Cells are being considered for various applications on airplanes and space vehicles. It is critical that fuel cells meet the performance and airplane system-level environmental requirements. Fuels cells are being considered for replacing batteries as a non-time limited emergency power source; as a replacement for the Auxiliary Power Units (APUs); and as the primary power source for propulsion on high altitude long endurance aircraft and high altitude airships. For high altitude long endurance airplane or airship applications, fuels cells are being considered as regenerative closed loop power sources. Two major types of fuel cells, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC), are the most probable choices due to their relatively high level of development and potential for commercialization. For transportation applications, the PEMFC is in the forefront because of its compact size, quick startup time and low operating temperatures (∼80°C). In the future, for aerospace applications, the SOFC should become more common because of its ability to use converted hydrocarbon fuels along with some of the impurities such as CO, its high operating temperatures (∼1,000°C) and its potential to combine with a gas turbine to gain even higher efficiency (1). For use on present day airplanes, since the operators of commercial airplanes have no desire to maintain the logistics and carry another type of fuel (e.g. Hydrogen), fuel processing is required to convert current fuels, such as Jet A, JP-5 or JP-8 to hydrogen in order to drive the fuel cells. The complexity of the fuel processing is dependent on the purity required. Here, the SOFC seems to have a definite advantage over the PEMFC.

Portable fuel cell systems

Three types of portable fuel-cell systems were developed. These systems consist of a small fuel-cell stack, two hydrogen cylinders, and a power converter. Each system is complete in one cabinet. Each system supplies 200-250 W of power for more than 6 hours using the two 6.7-liter hydrogen cylinders. These systems generate power quietly and cleanly, and are thus suitable as indoor emergency power sources for various types of equipment.

Application of single DC reactor type fault current limiter as a power source

This paper presents an application of single DC reactor type fault current limiter (FCL) with a gate turnoff (GTO) thyristor bridge as an emergency power source. A DC reactor type FCL stores electrical energy in a superconducting coil at a steady state. When a power transmission stops due to line faults, the FCL supplies stored energy to the load. This conception can be realized by operating the GTO thyristor bridge as an inverter. On the other hand, the function of fault current limitation is possible by keeping all GTO thyristors turned-on. The proposed FCL is numerically tested in a three-phase distribution system.

Electrical energy storage systems for energy networks

Dispersed electrical energy storage systems are expected to work for load leveling, fluctuation smoothing, uninterruptible power supply and emergency power source. Their introduction seems to be essential in order to control the future complicated energy utility networks. In this paper, the characteristics of promising energy storage systems by pumped hydro, compressed air, secondary batteries, superconducting magnet, flywheel or capacitors have been surveyed and discussed. From the results, their characteristics and suitable application fields have been clarified.

Application of an EDLC in a Totally Implantable Medical Device

We propose the use of an electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) as an emergency power source for a totally implantable medical device. Hitherto, only chemical batteries, such as Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries, have been considered as power sources. EDLCs need no control circuits to prevent excess charge and discharge. Furthermore, they can be cycled many times. In these respects, they are superior to batteries.

The World Trade Center Bombing: Injury Prevention Strategies for High‐rise Building Fires

The WTC disaster provided an opportunity to look for ways to prevent morbidity among occupants of high-rise buildings during fires. This paper first describes the overall morbidity resulting from the explosion and fire, and second, presents the results of a case-control study carried out to identify risk factors for smoke-related morbidity. The main ones include: increased age, presence of a pre-existing cardio-pulmonary condition, entrapment in a lift and prolonged evacuation time. Study results point to the importance of the following safety systems during high-rise building fires: smoke-control systems with separate emergency power sources; lift-cars, lift-car position-monitoring systems, and lift-car communication systems with separate emergency power sources; two-way emergency communication systems on all floors and in stairwells; stairwells with emergency lighting and designed for the rapid egress of crowds; evacuation systems/equipment to assist in the evacuation of vulnerable people (elderly, infirm). Also important are evacuation plans that include regularly scheduled safety training and evacuation drills.

Genetic optimization of a fuzzy system for charging batteries

A large variety of nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries have been developed to meet a wide range of user needs, ranging from low-current-level uses like emergency power sources for semiconductor memories to very high-power applications such as motor-operated cordless drills. This paper presents a genetic algorithm approach to optimize a fuzzy rule-based system for charging such high-power Ni-Cd batteries. For the optimization of the fuzzy system, a special objective function is developed which is based on the entropy of a fuzzy system. The resulting fuzzy system is able to charge high-power Ni-Cd batteries in about 10 min with a current of 6 A.

Emergency power source for an ion vacuum pump

This note describes a simple high-voltage dc generator which serves as an emergency power source for an ion vacuum pump during power interruptions, or failure of the main supply.

Petroleum as a source of emergency power for war-ships

Petroleum as a source of emergency power for war-ships