EU Project Research Articles

Towards FAIR Data Access

Towards FAIR Data Access

With digital transformation, food industries stay competitive

With digital transformation, food industries stay competitive Today, high energy and raw material prices are leading to an increase in fertilizer, food processing and transportation costs. Daniel de la Puente, Responsible for EU projects at CTIC CITA, states the case for digital transformation for food industries to stay competitive. Puente states the importance of blockchain in the food sector, explaining that food traceability by blockchain will minimize disruption to trade by facilitating targeted product recalls and allowing PORTESA to provide consumers with accurate information about the products they purchase.

(Invited) Radiation-Grafted Anion-Exchange Membranes for Reverse Electrodialysis (RED): The Effect of Changing Functional Groups on Key Properties

Radiation-grafted anion-exchange membranes (RG-AEM) are being developed at the University of Surrey in order to study a variety of chemistries and morphologies for use in a range of electrochemical applications. It is now clear that the ideal base films and grafted functional chemistries, required to fabricate the RG-AEMs, are different for each technology.Over the last decade or so, RG-AEMs with more than 100 different chemical configurations have been fabricated. Most of these have not been studied in detail as the focus was traditionally on RG-AEMs for use in alkaline membrane fuel cells where AEMs needed to have good stabilities in alkali. This has meant the focus was only on a small number of these chemistries. However, other electrochemical applications, such as electrodialysis (ED) and reverse electrodialysis (RED, a salinity gradient power technology) require AEMs to be operating in more neutral pH environments. This allows a wider range of chemistries to be used. For such applications, properties such as permselectivity and fouling resistance can be as important as ion conductivity.This presentation will provide a summary of recent RG-AEM developments at Surrey. A focus will be on the study of AEM chemistries for potential use in RED, with a study on the effects of crosslinking, head-group chemistry, and ion-exchange capacity. It has been found that despite being highly ionically conductive, non-crosslinked RG-AEMs have intrinsically low permselectivities and are prone to excessive levels of swelling in water (especially at high ion-exchange capacities). The incorporation of crosslinking can improve permselectivities, and lower swelling, but this often leads to detrimental drops in ion conductivity. Interestingly, the choice of head-group chemistry can have an effect on properties such as permselectivity.This research has been funded by EPSRC grants EP/M014371/1, EP/M022749/1, EP/R044163/1, and EP/T009233/1 along with EU Project SELECTCO2 (grant agreement 851441). Select recent references: R. Bance-Soualhi, M. Choolaei, S. A. Franklin, T. R. Willson, J. Lee, D. K. Whelligan, C. Crean, J. R. Varcoe, "Radiation-grafted anion-exchange membranes for reverse electrodialysis: a comparison of N,N,N',N'-tetramethylhexane-1,6-diamine crosslinking (amination stage) and divinylbenzene crosslinking (grafting stage)", J. Mater. Chem. A, 9, 22025 (2021) [CC-BY].K. M. Meek, C. M> Reed, B. Pivovar, K.-D. Kreuer, J. R. Varcoe, R. Bance-Soualhi, "The alkali degradation of LDPE-based radiation-grafted anion-exchange membranes studied using different ex situ methods", RSC Adv., 10, 36467 (2020) [CC-BY].T. R. Willson, I. Hamerton, J. R. Varcoe, R. Bance-Soualhi, "Radiation-grafted cation-exchange membranes: an initial ex situ feasibility study into their potential use in reverse electrodialysis", Sustainable Energy Fuels, 3, 1682 (2019) [CC-BY]L. Wang, X. Peng, W. E. Mustain, J. R. Varcoe, "Radiation-grafted anion-exchange membranes: the switch from low- to high-density polyethylene leads to remarkably enhanced fuel cell performance", Energy Environ. Sci., 12, 1575 (2019) [CC-BY].

C-reactive protein as a possible modifier of Lipoprotein(a)-related risk for coronary heart disease in Europe: results from the BiomarCARE project

Abstract Background Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) represents a unique proatherogenic lipoprotein with potent pro-thrombotic and pro-inflammatory properties. Recent studies demonstrated that Lp(a)-associated risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) was significantly increased only in individuals with a high inflammatory burden (i.e. hsCRP levels >2 mg/L). However, these results have been either based on a post-hoc analysis in a highly selected study population with a high/very high CVD risk, or conducted within a multi-ethnic population with significant variation in Lp(a) levels. Purpose The main aim was to investigate whether hsCRP concentration modulates the predictive value of Lp(a) for coronary heart disease (CHD) events in the general population across Europe. Methods Data of 87,760 participants from 10 European prospective population-based cohorts, participating in the Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe (BiomarCaRE)-project, were used for the present analysis (79,958 subjects without and 7,189 individuals with established CHD at baseline (primary/secondary prevention cohorts, respectively)). All Lp(a) measurements were performed in the central BiomarCaRE laboratory. Fine and Gray competing risk-adjusted models stratified by study cohort were calculated to assess the association between Lp(a) levels and future CHD events stratified according to hsCRP levels (<1 mg/l, ≥1–<2 mg/l and ≥2 mg/l). Results During a median follow-up of 11.3 years, 4,928 events occurred in the CHD-free subpopulation and 1,772 events occurred in the CHD subpopulation. In the primary prevention cohort, increased Lp(a) was significantly associated with future CHD events irrespective of hsCRP: Hazard ratios (HRs) for future CHD events (top vs bottom quintile (Q) of Lp(a) distribution) were 1.46 (95% CI: 1.21–1.78; p<0.001) in those having a hsCRP concentration <1 mg/l; 1.32 (95% CI: 1.09–1.61; p=0.0052) for a hsCRP group of ≥1-<2 mg/l and 1.40 (95% CI: 1.22–1.61; p<0.001) in subjects with a hsCRP concentration ≥2 mg/l, after multivariable adjustment for traditional CV risk factors including LDL-Ccorr and lipid-lowering medication. In contrast, in the secondary prevention, we found no association between increased Lp(a) levels and CHD events in individuals with a very low inflammatory burden (HR for hsCRP <1 mg/l 0.92 (95% CI 0.63–1.34), p=0.66, Q5 vs Q1)), whereas the association was significant among subjects with a hsCRP concentration ≥1 mg/l (HRs: 1.43 (95% CI: 1.01–2.03; p=0.045) for hsCRP group ≥1-<2 mg/l and 1.35 (95% CI: 1.07–1.71; p=0.013) for hsCRP group ≥2 mg/l (both for Q5 vs Q1)). Conclusion In a primary prevention setting, Lp(a) was associated with incident CHD irrespective of the inflammatory burden. In contrast, among subjects with known CHD, the association of Lp(a) and future CHD events was only present in those with hsCRP levels >1 mg/l. These findings might guide target population selection for upcoming Lp(a)-targeting compounds. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: Public Institution(s). Main funding source(s): This work was supported by the 7th Framework Programme Collaborative Project (grant agreement no. HEALTH-F2-2011-278913). The MORGAM Project has received funding from EU projects MORGAM (Biomed, BMH4-CT98-3183), GenomEUtwin (Fifth Framework Programme FP5, QLG2-CT-2002-01254), ENGAGE (FP7, HEALTH-F4-2007-201413), CHANCES (FP7, HEALTH-F3-2010-242244), BiomarCaRE (FP7, HEALTH-F2-2011-278913), euCanSHare (Horizon 2020, No. 825903) and AFFECT-EU (Horizon 2020, No. 847770); and Medical Research Council, London (G0601463, No. 80983: Biomarkers in the MORGAM Populations).

Perceived effectiveness of academic leadership development training: The contribution of motivational factors and peer interaction

Due to the radical changes and complexities within academic institutions, leadership development addressed to academic leaders in the digital age has become more critical. In the available literature, the outcome assessment of leadership development and its related factors have not been evaluated rigorously. The current study investigated the contribution of peer interaction and two subscales of motivation to the effectiveness of the leadership development programs perceived by training participants in a diverse context. Of 101 participants, the majority of training workshop attendees were junior and middle-level leaders from both European universities and Chinese universities who participated in the leadership development programs organized under an EU project. PLS-SEM was exploited to validate the measurement model and test the hypotheses. The results showed that self-growth and peer interaction significantly contribute to perceived effectiveness, whereas networking motivator shows nonsignificant impact. The findings also illustrated that the two motivation patterns have significant effects on interaction quality. The mediating role of peer interaction on the relationships between the two motivational factors and perceived effectiveness, respectively, were not found in the current study. The findings contributed to identifying the role of different contributors to the effectiveness of the leadership development program in HE contexts and the potential of such a program to enhance knowledge and capacities of academic leaders regarding university governance and leadership.

Social Work Research impact on Developing a Model of Alternative Community Sanctions in Jordan: Implications for Criminal Policy and Social Work Practice

Social work research encourages the production of evidence-based knowledge in order to provide further insights into how to respond to the social needs of individuals, society and policymakers. This pilot study was conducted by academics of social work based in a university social work department, on students who had violated university discipline regulations and had the potential for aggressive behaviour, seeking evidence to not only support the Ministry of Justice in reforming Jordan’s judicial system and establish community sanctions for juveniles and adults, but also developing the university’s counselling system and disciplinary regulations. This was part of an EU project in collaboration with Jordan’s Ministry of Justice. The methods used to collect the data were mainly qualitative. The research findings present evidence of the need for and effectiveness of community sanctions accompanied by anger management. The study’s findings have played a significant part in supporting the development of criminal policy and approving the integration of community sanctions in juvenile judicial law in Jordan. This research will add to the international literature an evidence to the scientific knowledge of social work research.

Development of online and offline academic mobility of students in modern conditions

The purpose of the research lies in identifying the problematic aspects of ensuring academic mobility of students in the conditions of distance learning. The research methodology consists of the methods as follows: statistical, scientific abstraction, analogy, comparison, analysis, synthesis, graphic, tabular, systematization, generalization. The results of the research prove that the academic mobility of students is one of the effective methods of exchanging experience, knowledge and professional skills in order to increase the competitiveness of the future specialist and his ability to meet the requirements of the globalized labour market. In the course of the research, the problems of ensuring the academic mobility of students have been identified, namely: a low level of awareness of the possibilities of academic mobility, motivation and their financial capacity, the lack of interrelationship between the level of education and income, low rates of development of virtual academic mobility. Taking into consideration the downward trends in the participation of students from Ukraine in EU projects on academic mobility (969 in 2018, 852 in 2019, 1191 in 2020, respectively), it is proposed to intensify the process of obtaining a double diploma by students; to form a mechanism for guaranteeing further employment with a high level of remuneration; to introduce programs of educational crediting of academic mobility by commercial banks.

Reliability assessment of miniaturised electromechanical RF relays for space applications

A test programme was developed for the reliability assessment and evaluation of radiofrequency (RF) miniaturised electromechanical relays (MEMR) as required for space application. The test programme allows to carry out the required qualification of newly designed MEMR device for its use in space as well as in terrestrial applications (e.g. redundancy rings in telecom satellites or 5G technology equipment). It is aligned with the existing ESA standards for the direct current (DC) electromechanical relays. At the same time, the test and evaluation procedures are designed to meet the specific needs and requirements of the RF application domain. The developed test programme was successfully applied for the reliability evaluation of the MEMR developed within the framework of SELECTOR EU project (grant number 821973). The performed failure mode analysis allowed to improve the mechanical robustness of the device to match the qualification requirements.

Integrated Aerodynamic and Structural Blade Shape Optimization of Axial Turbines Operating With Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Blended With Dopants

Abstract Within this study, the blade shape of a large-scale axial turbine operating with sCO2 blended with dopants is optimized using an integrated aerodynamic-structural three-dimensional (3D) numerical model, whereby the optimization aims at maximizing the aerodynamic efficiency whilst meeting a set of stress constraints to ensure safe operation. Specifically, three candidate mixtures are considered, namely, CO2 blended with titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4), hexafluorobenzene (C6F6), or sulfur dioxide (SO2), where the selected blends and boundary conditions are defined by the EU project, SCARABEUS. A single passage axial turbine numerical model is setup and applied to the first stage of a large-scale multistage axial turbine design. The aerodynamic performance is simulated using a 3D steady-state viscous computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model while the blade stress distribution is obtained from a static structural finite element analysis simulation (FEA). A genetic algorithm is used to optimize parameters defining the blade angle and thickness distributions along the chord line while a surrogate model is used to provide fast and reliable model predictions during optimization using a genetic aggregation response surface. The uncertainty of the surrogate model, represented by the difference between the surrogate model results and the CFD/FEA model results, is evaluated using a set of verification points and is found to be less than 0.3% for aerodynamic efficiency and 1% for both the mass-flow rate and the maximum equivalent stresses. The comparison between the final optimized blade cross section has shown some common trends in optimizing the blade design by decreasing the stator and rotor trailing edge thickness, increasing the stator thickness near the trailing edge, and decreasing the rotor thickness near the trailing edge and decreasing the rotor outlet angle. Further investigations of the loss breakdown of the optimized and reference blade designs are presented to highlight the role of the optimization process in reducing aerodynamic losses. It has been noted that the performance improvement achieved through shape optimization is mainly due to decreasing the endwall losses with both the stator and rotor passages.

Inventory Routing for Ammonia Supply in German Ports

Following the International Maritime Organization (IMO), in order to safeguard the realization of the Paris Agreement on climate protection, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have to be reduced by 50% by the year 2050. This objective shall be reached by decarbonization of maritime traffic, which is why ship operators currently increasingly search for alternative fuels. Moreover, since the start of the Ukrainian war in February 2022, this issue of alternative fuels has gained central importance in political agendas. A promising candidate for clean shipping that meets the IMO goals is ammonia since it is a carbon-free fuel. Ammonia (NH3) shows good advantages in handling and storage, and it ensures long sea voyages without any significant loss in cargo space for a reasonable price. Hence, ammonia has the potential to improve the environmental footprint of global shipping enormously. Induced by the introduction of stricter regulations in the so-called emission control areas (ECAs) in Northern Europe in 2015 as well as the renewed global sulfur cap, which entered into force in 2020, ship operators had to decide between different compliance methods, among which the most popular solutions are related to the use of expensive low-sulfur fuel oils, newbuilds and retrofits for the usage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or the installation of scrubber technology. A change to ammonia as a marine alternative fuel represents an additional novel future option, but the successful implementation depends on the availability of NH3 in the ports, i.e., on the installation of the maritime NH3 infrastructure. Currently, the single German NH3 terminal with maritime access is located in Brunsbüttel, the western entrance to Kiel Canal. The distribution of NH3 from the existing NH3 hub to other German ports can be analyzed by the mathematical model of an inventory routing problem (IRP) that is usually solved by combinatorial optimization methods. This paper investigates the interrelated research questions, how the distribution of marine NH3 fuel can be modeled as an IRP, which distribution mode is the most economic one for the German ports and which modal mix for the NH3 supply leads to the greenest distribution. The results of this paper are empirically validated by data that were collected in several EU projects on sustainable supply chain management and green logistics. The paper includes a special section that is dedicated to the discussion of the economic turbulences related to the Ukrainian war together with their implications on maritime shipping.

Evaluation of startup time for a model contra-rotating pump-turbine in pump-mode

A larger part of the electricity is today from intermittent renewable sources of energy. However, the energy production from such sources varies in time. Energy storage is one solution to compensate for this variation. Today pumped hydro storage (PHS) is the most common form of energy storage. Usually, it requires a large head, which limits where it can be built. In the EU project ALPHEUS, PHS technologies for low- to ultra-low heads are explored. One of the concepts is a contra-rotating pump-turbine (CRPT). The behaviour of this design at time-varying load conditions is today scarce. In the present work, the impact of the startup time for a CRPT is analysed through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The analysis includes a comparison between a coarse and a fine CFD model. The coarse model produces acceptable results and is 50 times cheaper, this model is thus used to assess the startup time. It is found that longer startup times generate lesser loads and peak values. A startup time of 10 s may be a sufficient alternative as the peak loads are heavily reduced compared to faster startups. Furthermore, there is not much difference between a startup time of 20–30 s.

P02-17 Promoting physical activity for mental health in the EU: Development and implementation of practice guidelines from the SPHERE EU project 2019-2020

Issue/problemDespite physical activity having an established evidence base for mental health problems there is mixed practice across the EU regarding its role in the support of mental health problems. The SPHERE EU project (Sport Healing Rehabilitation; 2019-2020 http://www.ecos-europe.com/sphere/erasmus-project/) was established to draw together academics, practitioners and psychiatrists, to develop practical guidelines and case study examples for their implementation.Description of the problemTo support the use of physical activity for mental health promotion, a critical review of evidence was conducted to inform the development of Practice Guidelines with case study examples of practice.Results (effects/changes)Practice Guidelines include 17 recommendations relating to physiological, psychological and social dimensions of mental health rehabilitation. The presentation will outline the practical, evidence-based guidelines designed for practitioners and evaluators which can be used to support the use of physical activity for mental health in the EU.LessonsPractical, evidence-based guidelines for practice must be flexible to allow for individual differences and preferences, settings (clinical or community), and facility and equipment availability. This aim of these Guidelines are to enable professionals involved in health enhancing physical activity for mental health to have that evidence translated into practice, in a form that can be transferred to their setting and country.Main messagesDespite physical activity being widely understood to have an important role in the lives of people with mental health problems and other common co-morbidities for this population group, guidelines remain scarce. The SPHERE project has addressed this dearth and provides practical and pragmatic recommendations for physical activity for people with mental health problems in the future.

Biodiversity Informatics: A success story for the long-term financial sustainability of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)

The European Open Science Cloud's (EOSC) ambition to provide European researchers, innovators, companies, and citizens with a federated and open multi-disciplinary environment where they can publish, find and reuse data, tools and services for research, innovation, and educational purposes. To enable this, EOSC promotes the use of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) principles. The EOSC Sustainability Working Group under the EOSC Secretariat published the FAIR Lady Report (European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2020), formulating recommendations for sustainability in the form of a Minimal Viable EOSC (MVE) including criteria for its sustainable implementation, formed by three essential components: EOSC Core, containing the minimum set of components necessary to provide researchers with the means to discover, share, access and reuse data and services; ESOC Exchange, a marketplace built on top of the EOSC Core to extend the set of public and private providers, and EOSC Data federation. EOSC Core, containing the minimum set of components necessary to provide researchers with the means to discover, share, access and reuse data and services; ESOC Exchange, a marketplace built on top of the EOSC Core to extend the set of public and private providers, and EOSC Data federation. The EOSC Association was established in July 2020 as the legal entity to govern EOSC. The Association appointed several Advisory Groups to provide recommendations towards the implementation of EOSC, including two Task Forces on Long Term Data Preservation and on the Financial Sustainability for Sustaining EOSC. This presentation will focus on the Financial Sustainability Task Force. The Task Force formed three "Working Streams" following the recommendation of the FAIR Lady Report to tackle the EOSC Core, Exchange, and Data Federation in smaller groups. Within the Data Federation Working Stream, the experts have identified many thematic data federations that have exisisted for quite some time, notably in environmental sciences, biodiversity, and social sciences. The case of Biodiversity Informatics is presented here as one of these sucess stories, retracing the history of major data federations such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), the CoL (Catalogue of Life), BHL (Biodiversity Hertiage Library) and how they managed to move from community-driven initiatitves to structurally funded research infrastructures supported by national and international governmental authorities with a long term perspective, leading to the establishment of infrastructures like the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and LifeWatch. This presentation will also address the essential contributions of associations like TDWG (Biodiversity Information Standards) and CETAF (Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities) to achieving long-term sustainability and on how to successfully obtain complementary funds from EU projects in Horizon 2020 and its successor, Horizon Europe, with programs such as Synthesis of Systematic Resources (SYNTHESYS), DiSSCo Prepare, Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCiKL), and Transforming European Taxonomy through Training, Research, and Innovations (TETTRIs), to name a few.

Alpine freshwater fish biodiversity assessment: an inter-calibration test for metabarcoding method set up

The analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) by high throughput sequencing (HTS) is proving to be a promising tool for freshwater fish biodiversity assessment in Europe within the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), especially for large rivers and lakes where current fish monitoring techniques have known shortcomings. These new biomonitoring methods based on eDNA show several advantages compared to classical morphological methods. The sampling procedures are easier and cheaper and eDNA metabarcoding is non-invasive and very sensitive, allowing for the detection of traces of DNA. However, eDNA metabarcoding methods need careful standardization to make the results of different surveys comparable. The aim of the EU project Eco-AlpsWater is to test and validate molecular biodiversity monitoring tools for aquatic ecosystems (i.e., eDNA metabarcoding) to improve the traditional WFD monitoring approaches in Alpine waterbodies. To this end, an inter-calibration test was performed using fish mock community samples containing either tissue-extracted DNA, eDNA collected from aquaculture tanks and eDNA samples collected from Lake Bourget (France). Samples were analysed using a DNA metabarcoding approach, relying on the amplification and HTS of a 12S rDNA marker, in two separate laboratories, to evaluate if different laboratory and bioinformatic protocols can provide a reliable and comparable description of the fish communities in both mock and natural samples. Our results highlight good replicability of the molecular laboratory protocols for HTS and good amplification success of selected primers, providing essential information concerning the taxonomic resolution of the 12S mitochondrial marker in describing the Alpine fish communities. Interestingly, different concentrations of species DNA in the mock samples were well represented by the relative DNA reads abundance. These tests confirm the reproducibility of eDNA metabarcoding analyses for the biomonitoring of freshwater fish inhabiting Alpine and peri-Alpine lakes and rivers.

Crisis communication in CBRNe preparedness and response: Considering the needs of vulnerable people

Major emergencies such as CBRNe (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, explosive) incidents pose special challenges for emergency services especially regarding crisis communication. The EU project PROACTIVE aims to enhance CBRNe preparedness and response by increasing the effective management of large, heterogeneous groups including vulnerable civilians (older people, visually and hearing impaired people, ethnic minorities, etc.). The findings from two surveys, one with CBRNe practitioner organisations (May–June 2020 and May–July 2021) and one with Civil Society organisations (October–December 2020), revealed differences between the current CBRNe related communication management of CBRNe practitioners and the special needs of vulnerable people in crisis communication. Our results show that CBRNe practitioners very rarely consider the needs of vulnerable groups in their communication strategies for major emergencies. Furthermore, CBRNe practitioners seldom provide information in additional language formats (e.g. Braille and sign language). To enhance crisis communication with vulnerable people, four recommendations for CBRNe practitioners have been developed.

Knowledge claims in European Union energy policies: Unknown knowns and uncomfortable awareness

Despite the concerted efforts of the scientific community and politicians to contain greenhouse gas emissions, the CO2 level in the atmosphere continues to increase monotonically. This raises the question whether the scientific representations and related knowledge claims used to inform energy policy have been incomplete or incorrect. Are there alternative relevant knowledge claims that have been overlooked or ignored in the discussion of energy policies and if so, why? We answer these questions by elaborating three case studies, energy efficiency improvements, liquid biofuels, and decarbonization of electricity, and using a novel procedure for quality checking policy narratives that is based in post-normal science and developed in the EU project Moving Towards Adaptive Governance in Complexity: Informing NEXUS Security (MAGIC). The focus of our approach is on the coherence of the why (concerns or justifications), what (“solution”), and how (“scientific evidence”) of energy policies. We show that for all cases studied alternative knowledge claims, mostly derived from the relatively new field of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, would be available for better informing energy policy, but that they are unknown knowns in the chosen framing of the issues. We conclude that the idea that the various concerns identified in EU energy policy can be solved simultaneously is unrealistic. This idea can only persist by virtue of banishing uncomfortable knowledge and the creation of implausible socio-technical imaginaries. When considering different aspects of the problem and integrating different narratives and knowledge claims, a smooth and painless transition to a zero-carbon economy seems unlikely.

When SOFC-based cogeneration systems become convenient? A cost-optimal analysis

SOFC-based cogeneration systems potentially offer high energy efficiency and reduced environmental burden, but further research is needed for successful product commercialization. This study has been performed within the framework of the EU project Comsos (Commercial-scale SOFC systems), whose aim is to validate and demonstrate fuel cell-based cogeneration systems for building applications. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model was developed to address the optimal design and scheduling of the SOFC-based energy system. Main techno-economic data of the SOFC modules were provided by the manufacturers and validated through the ComSos installations. The analysis was applied to non-residential applications, focusing on the supermarket sector, which is characterized by interesting features for SOFC systems, e.g., the presence of a constant electrical baseload over the whole year. The main goal of this work is to assess the influence of different parameters, including SOFC investment cost, stack lifetime and efficiency, to identify the conditions that make the SOFC technology cost-effective. The Spark Spread (SS) impact was also investigated to point out the most suitable geographical regions for the installation of SOFC cogeneration systems.The SOFC profitability was found to be highly dependent on its investment cost and the value of the spark spread. An SOFC cost of around 1.2 k€/kW is needed to make this technology profitable for SS equal to -0.05 €/kWh; while a CAPEX of around 6 k€/kW is sufficient for the SOFC to be chosen in the cost-optimal configuration when SS is 0.1 €/kWh (with stack lifetime of 5 years). Compared to the case with no SOFC, the levelized cost of electricity is reduced by 46% if the spark spread is 0.1 €/kWh and the SOFC cost is 1.2 k€/kW, which is a reasonable CAPEX for scenarios with high SOFC production volumes.

Narrating Crisis and Continuity in Migration Debates in the Visegrád States

Narrating Crisis and Continuity in Migration Debates in the Visegrád States

Dynamic Modeling of a PEM Fuel Cell Power Plant for Flexibility Optimization and Grid Support

The transition toward high shares of non-programmable renewable energy sources in the power grid requires an increase in the grid flexibility to guarantee grid reliability and stability. This work, developed within the EU project Grasshopper, identifies hydrogen Fuel Cell (FC) power plants, based on low temperature PEM cells, as a source of flexibility for the power grid. A dynamic numerical model of the flexible FC system is developed and tested against experimental data from a 100-kW pilot plant, built within the Grasshopper project. The model is then applied to assess the flexible performance of a 1 MW system in order to optimize the scale-up of the pilot plant to the MW-size. Simulations of load-following operation show the flexibility of the plant, which can ramp up and down with a ramp rate depending only on an externally imposed limit. Warm-up simulations allow proposing solutions to limit the warm-up time. Of main importance are the minimization of the water inventory in the system and the construction of a compact system, which minimizes the distance between the components.

Educational Potential of Polish Borderland of Nysa, Prudnik, and Głubczyce Districts – Quantitative Changes in 1995–2019

The article describes quantitative changes in the educational area of the Polish borderland, based on the examples of Nysa, Prudnik, and Głubczyce districts. The demographic data, unfavorable for entire Poland, in the borderland regions are additionally burdened with migration from peripheral communes. It is reflected in the functioning of educational institutions. The analysis of the educational potential of the border areas based on data from the three districts indicates alarming demographic forecasts announcing their depopulation. Breaking that process seems impossible without external support. Thanks to co-financing under efficiently implemented EU projects, and, above all, the work of local leaders, many interesting initiatives were implemented to improve the quality of life in the border areas and their tourist attractiveness, which also gives hope for an economic revival. A positive aspect is that with the decreasing number of students, the number of departments also decreases, which gives hope for a better quality of care, upbringing, and education. However, the data show that reversing the negative trends requires great commitment.