ARMINES

Single issue policies have been an effective means of reducing reactive nitrogen (N_r) emissions in the EU, but to make further reductions more-integrated approaches are required.

BACKGROUND: Presently, health costs associated with nitrate in drinking water are uncertain and not quantified. This limits proper evaluation of current policies and measures for solving or preventing nitrate pollution of drinking water resources. The cost for society associated with nitrate is also relevant for integrated assessment of EU nitrogen policies taking a perspective of welfare optimization. The overarching question is at which nitrogen mitigation level the social cost of measures, including their consequence for availability of food and energy, matches the social benefit of these measures for human health and biodiversity. METHODS: Epidemiological studies suggest colon cancer to be possibly associated with nitrate in drinking water. In this study risk increase for colon cancer is based on a case-control study for Iowa, which is extrapolated to assess the social cost for 11 EU member states by using data on cancer incidence, nitrogen leaching and drinking water supply in the EU. Health costs are provisionally compared with nitrate mitigation costs and social benefits of fertilizer use. RESULTS: For above median meat consumption the risk of colon cancer doubles when exposed to drinking water exceeding 25 mg/L of nitrate (NO3) for more than ten years. We estimate the associated increase of incidence of colon cancer from nitrate contamination of groundwater based drinking water in EU11 at 3%. This corresponds to a population-averaged health loss of 2.9 euro per capita or 0.7 euro per kg of nitrate-N leaching from fertilizer. CONCLUSIONS: Our cost estimates indicate that current measures to prevent exceedance of 50 mg/L NO3 are probably beneficial for society and that a stricter nitrate limit and additional measures may be justified. The present assessment of social cost is uncertain because it considers only one type of cancer, it is based on one epidemiological study in Iowa, and involves various assumptions regarding exposure. Our results highlight the need for improved epidemiological studies.

Penetration of renewable energy sources in isolated and weakly interconnected power systems can be increased in a secure and reliable way, if advanced control tools are available to the operators of these systems. In this paper the functions of MORE CARE are described. This is an advanced control software system aiming to optimize the operation of isolated and weakly interconnected systems by increasing the share of wind energy and other renewable forms, taking into account pumped hydro storage facilities and providing advanced on-line security functions, both in preventive and corrective mode. The main features of the control system comprise advanced software modules for load and wind power forecasting, unit commitment and economic dispatch of the conventional and renewable units and on-line security assessment capabilities integrated in a friendly man-machine environment. In this way, penetration of renewable energy sources in isolated systems can be increased in a secure and reliable way. Pilot installations of advanced control functions are foreseen on the islands of Crete, Ireland and Madeira.

Six widely differing, novel capture processes, currently under development in Europe are described. These processes cover the range of postcombustion, precombustion and denitrogenation and show favourable possibilities for integration with power plants. They can be regarded as potential break-throughs in technical performance and/or costs.

Atmospheric emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia are contributing to a number of negative effects to human health and ecosystems. These effects include both effects of the primary emissions but more importantly through actions of secondary pollutants such as ground level ozone (O3) and secondary particulate matter (PM).

Grain structures observed in most casting processes of metallic alloys are the result of a competition between the growth of several arrays of dendrites that develop under constrained and unconstrained conditions. Often this leads to a transition from columnar to equiaxed grain growth during solidification (CET). A microgravity environment results in suppression of buoyancy-driven melt flow and so enables growth of equiaxed grains free of sedimentation and buoyancy effects. This contribution presents first results obtained in experiments on-board the International Space Station (ISS), which were performed in the frame of the ESA-MAP programme CETSOL. Hypoeutectic aluminium-silicon alloys with and without grain refiners were processed successfully in a low gradient furnace (MSL-LGF). First analysis shows that in the non grain refined samples columnar dendritic growth exists, whereas CET is observed in the grain refined samples. From analysis of the thermal data and the grain structure the critical parameters for the temperature gradient and the cooling rate describing CET are determined. These data are used for initial numerical simulations to predict the position of the columnar-to-equiaxed transition and will form a unique database for calibration and further development of numerical CET-modeling.

We present a practical, differentially private algorithm for answering a large number of queries on high dimensional datasets. Like all algorithms for this task, ours necessarily has worst-case complexity exponential in the dimension of the data. However, our algorithm packages the computationally hard step into a concisely defined integer program, which can be solved non-privately using standard solvers. We prove accuracy and privacy theorems for our algorithm, and then demonstrate experimentally that our algorithm performs well in practice. For example, our algorithm can efficiently and accurately answer millions of queries on the Netflix dataset, which has over 17,000 attributes; this is an improvement on the state of the art by multiple orders of magnitude.

Abstract Thermo‐mechanical fatigue (TMF) data are needed for dimensioning of safety‐critical parts, e.g. in power generation and in transportation by air, rail and road, and for designing of components, which operate at higher levels of efficiency and safety for longer periods of time. However, the current lack of a validated international standard for TMF leads to non‐reproducibility of TMF data with negative implications on the design and economy of operation of many components. While a preliminary draft TMF standard has been written under the auspices of the International Standards Organisation (ISO), the “TMF‐STANDARD” project addresses this issue at the European level, within the GROWTH programme of Framework Programme 5 funded by the European Commission. The R&D work in the TMF‐Standard project has been started with the preparation of an inventory of institutions in the EU and the pre‐accession states that perform TMF testing, and the testing methods and procedures which they apply. Afterwards, extensive pre‐normative testing work has been carried out, the results of which have been considered in the drafting of a preliminary Code‐of‐Practice (CoP) that forms the base for the current validation round robin testing. The results of the validation tests are going to be subjected to statistical analysis, in order to substantiate the formulation of a validated CoP on strain‐controlled TMF testing. The present paper summarizes the main objectives and achievements obtained so far within the TMF‐Standard project, and gives an outlook on the further activities of the project.

This paper gives an overview of the experiments on-board the International Space Station (ISS) performed so far by the CETSOL team. Al-7 wt% Si alloys with and without grain refiners were solidified in microgravity. Detailed grain structure analysis showed columnar growth in case of non-refined alloy, but the existence of a columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) in refined alloy. One main result is a sharp CET when increasing the solidification velocity and a progressive CET for lowering the temperature gradient. Applying a front tracking model this behavior was confirmed numerically for sharp CET. Using a CAFE model both segregation and grain structures were numerically modeled and show a fair agreement with the experimental findings.

Software-intensive systems in the automotive domain are often built in different variants, notably in order to support different market segments and legislation regions. Model-based concepts are frequently applied to manage complexity in such variable systems. However, the considered approaches are often focused on single-product development. In order to support variable products in a model-based systems engineering environment, we describe a tool-supported approach that allows us to annotate SysML models with variability data. Such variability information is exchanged between the system modeling tool and variability management tools through the Variability Exchange Language. The contribution of the paper includes the introduction of the model-based product line engineering tool chain and its application on a practical case study at Volvo Construction Equipment. Initial results suggest an improved efficiency in developing such a variable system.

ISBN 3-9809656-4-3

In order to facilitate comprehensive economic modeling of CSP/STE power plants realistic long-term meteorological datasets with temporal resolution down to 1 minute is a main premise. Currently available standard datasets do not fulfil this premise. The datasets also need to combine the high quality of well-maintained ground-based irradiance measurements and the global coverage of satellite-derived data. Even with the best available data it is necessary to account for the uncertainty in this and the sampling uncertainty from finite time-series to enable the optimal statistical characterization. It is a general challenge that satellite-derived data lack the required temporal resolution, and also often does not cover periods with major volcanic eruptions. Here we see prospects in synthetically generated realistic datasets, although research and development work is required on how to optimally produce and quality assure these.

The purpose of this report is to provide the foundations to responsible actors for further developing their specific methods to create life cycle related benchmarks for the non-renewable primary energy demand/consumption, GHG emissions and further environmental impacts of buildings and to increase the mainstreaming of practice globally. This report covers: General principles and recommendations for the development of benchmarks and target values based on a bottom-up approach (technical and economic feasibility) and a top-down approach (science-based targets to define a safe operating space inside planetary boundaries) General principles and recommendations for the application and interpretation of benchmarks General principles and recommendations for the documentation and communication of benchmarks Recommendations for terms, definitions, system boundaries and accounting rules for buildings with an absolute zero or net zero GHG emission approach (climate neutral buildings). The specific objectives of this report are to: clarify methodological questions with respect to the development of benchmarks to aid low carbon and low environmental impacts for construction, operation and end of life. provide a consistent and transparent basis for a reporting structure for environmental benchmarks in line with international standards contribute to the interpretation and supplementation of international standards to improve their applicability and support their dissemination promote long-term and life cycle-based thinking, by encouraging the early consideration of likely future environmental impacts regarding maintenance, repair and replacement as well as of durability and adaptability of building components and the building as a whole contribute to the overall efforts of national governments and standard makers to guide construction and real estate industry on how to respond to climate change and other mega trends like depletion of natural resources

In this paper, an advanced control system for the optimal operation and management of isolated power systems with increased renewable power integration is presented. The control system minimises the production costs through on-line optimal scheduling of the power units, taking into account short-term forecasts of the load and the renewable resources. The power system security is supervised via on-line security assessment modules, which emulate the power system frequency changes caused by pre-selected disturbances. For each of the above functions, a number of techniques have been applied, both conventional and AI based. The system has been installed in the dispatch center of Crete since June 1999, and is under evaluation.

This paper aims to present a Decision Support System (DSS) for the detection and monitoring of Hazardous Material (hazmat) transportation on the road infrastructure Nice-Imperia-Savona between France and Italy developed in the TMD-NIS Interreg IIIA Alcotra Project. The final objective of the TMD-NIS project is to determine the most effective information and communication technologies and common operation strategies applicable in hazmat management in order to minimize the hazmat transport risk and to improve the road infrastructure safety conditions. An integrated and comparative assessment of two alternative technologies has been performed by the partners of the project: an image processing system to identify the ONU codes on the hazmat plates installed on each truck has been tested in France, while an on-board computer system to store and transmit information related to the hazmat physical conditions, vehicle's locations and performance measures has been implemented in Italy. The collaboration between the different research institutions and the complementarities of the two specific approaches to define and monitor the hazmat vehicle flows allow comparison and validation of the acquired data related to the type, the amount and the itineraries of the hazmat vehicles which cover the trans-border road infrastructures daily. At present, the TMD-NIS project also provides a GIS utility, available on the web, to track in real-time hazmat vehicles, to analyse data about hazmat flows and to visualize the risk index for the highway from the toolbar barriers of St. Isidore (Nice) to the Ventimille.

In this paper, preliminary results from MORE CARE, a European R&D project financed within the Energy Program are described. This project has, as its main objective, the development of an advanced control software system, aiming to optimize the overall performance of isolated and weakly interconnected systems in liberalized market environments by increasing the share of wind energy and other renewable forms, including advanced online security functions. The main features of the control system comprise advanced software modules for load and wind power forecasting, unit commitment and economic dispatch of the conventional and renewable units and online security assessment capabilities integrated in a friendly man-machine environment. Pilot installations of advanced control functions are foreseen on the islands of Crete, Ireland and Madeira.

This report focuses on methodological issues related to the determination, assessment and presentation of the environmental performance of buildings. The purpose of this report is to provide the foundations to responsible parties for further developing their specific methods to assess the primary energy demand, GHG emissions and further environmental impacts of buildings and to increase the mainstreaming of practice globally. As far as possible, this should lead to a standardization of methods used worldwide. Where this goal cannot be achieved, methodological differences can be at least identified. The specific objectives of this report are to: clarify methodological questions that have been shown as significant but are under-addressed in the analysis of methods currently in use in the Annex 72 participating countries provide a consistent and transparent basis for a methodology and reporting structure for environmental performance assessment in line with international standards to enable comparability and usability of results contribute to the interpretation and supplementation of international standards to improve their applicability and support their dissemination promote long-term and life cycle-based thinking, by encouraging the early consideration of likely future environmental impacts regarding maintenance, repair and replacement as well as of durability and adaptability of building components and the building as a whole contribute to the overall efforts of national governments and standard makers to guide construction and real estate industry on how to respond to climate change promote the application of principles for circular economy by encouraging the early consideration of the deconstructability of buildings and building components and quantification of their reuse, recycling and/or recovery potential enable benchmarking and target-setting.

This paper compares different charging strategies for electric vehicles (EVs) and mechanisms to support local distribution grids. First, a general scheduling problem for EVs based on convex optimization and linearized power grid models is presented. Then, it is shown how it can be adapted to model different charging strategies. These include: i) uncoordinated charging, where EVs maximize a local utility function regardless of grid constraints; ii) smart charging, where a charge schedule of all E s is determined by maximizing their utility function subject to grid constraints; iii) vehicle-to-grid, where bidirectional power from the EVs is allowed; and iv) reactive power support, where 2- and 4-quadrant EV chargers can provide reactive power. The performance of these strategies are investigated considering the CIGRE benchmark system for medium-voltage distribution grids. It shows that, in the proposed scenario, smart charging with reactive power support is conducive to the shortest global recharging time.

In the present paper, an advanced control system for the optimal operation and management of medium size power systems with large penetration from renewable power sources (wind and photovoltaics) is presented. This control system is aimed to assist the power system operators in their management tasks, by proposing optimal actions to them for the economic and secure management of the power system. The control system is composed of various modules performing functions such as short-term forecasting of both load and of the renewable sources, economic dispatch of the power units and online dynamic security assessment. The pilot control system is being installed and evaluated on the Greek island of Lemnos.

Electricity systems around the world are decarbonizing, driven by reductions in the cost of renewable energy and encouraged by supportive regulatory policy. Electricity market designs are increasingly being tested to ensure that the bulk power system can deliver reliable, cost-effective energy to all consumers.