191results about How to "Maximize energy efficiency" patented technology

An energy management system and method providing a holistic premise energy optimization and energy efficiency reclamation system comprised of an interconnected system of software, analytics and automated process that optimizes the energy generation and storage technologies, energy consumption, energy demand and energy utilization of energy consuming assets within a premise.

A method of forming a multijunction solar cell comprising an upper subcell, a middle subcell, and a lower subcell comprising providing first substrate for the epitaxial growth of semiconductor material; forming a first solar subcell on said substrate having a first band gap; forming a second solar subcell over said first subcell having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; and forming a grading interlayer over said second subcell having a third band gap larger than said second band gap forming a third solar subcell having a fourth band gap smaller than said second band gap such that said third subcell is lattice mismatched with respect to said second subcell.

Embodiments of the invention are directed toward a novel pressurized vapor cycle for distilling liquids. In some embodiments of the invention, a liquid purification system is revealed, including the elements of an input for receiving untreated liquid, a vaporizer coupled to the input for transforming the liquid to vapor, a head chamber for collecting the vapor, a vapor pump with an internal drive shaft and an eccentric rotor with a rotatable housing for compressing vapor, and a condenser in communication with the vapor pump for transforming the compressed vapor into a distilled product. Other embodiments of the invention are directed toward heat management, and other process enhancements for making the system especially efficient.

A battery assembly is constructed of an elongated plastic shell irregularly shaped to fit optimally in anatomical cavities, particularly ear canals. The battery assembly relies structurally on a thin plastic shell which is designed to be inexpensively formed in a variety of complex shapes, thus offering superior volumetric utilization and energy capacity when compared with conventional metal button cell designs. In preferred embodiments, the shell is domed to distribute axial stresses so that it can be thin and still provide sufficient strength to avoid breakage in an extended wear environment despite its plastic composition. A preferred embodiment of a hearing device incorporating the battery assembly is disposable, to be discarded upon depletion of the electrical energy of the battery assembly.

The present invention relates to a method of providing a routing protocol in a sensor network. The routing protocol is a new model which is made considering a battery efficiency so that an AODV protocol, which is widely used because of its simplified and reliable algorithm, can be matched to a sensor condition. An energy information of a node is contained in the RREQ message of the AODV, thereby allowing the neighboring nodes and the nodes on the path to know their energy states. The method of providing a routing protocol in a sensor network includes the steps of: initializing a routing table and searching a network device of a node to initialize a host; opening a socket when there is a request for forwarding of an IP (Internet Protocol) packet from an upper layer or when there is a request through the network device; determining whether there is the IP packet forwarding request of the upper layer node or whether the packet is received from the network device; if there is the IP packet forwarding request of the upper layer, searching the routing table, and determining whether or not there is a destination node which intends to transmit the packet, and returning to a main loop if there is the destination node; and if the packet is received through the network device, determining types of the received packets and performing RREQ process, IDLE process, RREP process, RERR process, and RREP_ACK process.

An approach is presented for designing the polymeric recording layer for nanometer scale thermomechanical storage devices. Cross linked polymers are used as the recording layers in atomic force microscopy data storage devices, giving significantly improved performance when compared to the previously reported linear polymers. This results in superior wear resistance and enhanced erasing, critical features for the long-term multiple read-write cycles of such thermomechanical storage devices. In addition, this ability to introduce a predetermined extent of cross linking allows fine tuning of the thermal and force parameters in the R / W / E (read-write-erase) cycles.

An integrated system provides electricity and heat from solar, waste heat, biomass and fossil fuel energy. The system operates with a volatile organic working fluid that circulates in a variable speed heat engine type cycle, that is heated either to its boiling point, to a saturated state or above its boiling point, or to a superheated gas state, expanded through an expander, with working fluid injected therein such that the fluid exiting the expander is cooled in a condenser in thermal communication with a facility's domestic hot water, space heating or process heating systems, and circulated by a pump. Heat exchange loops define hot water production capability for use in a facility while a generator is coupled to the expander to produce electricity and is connected to the utility grid at fixed frequency and voltage in either a paralleling or island mode.

A method for controlling a data center, comprising a plurality of server systems, each associated with a cooling system and a thermal constraint, comprising: a concurrent physical condition of a first server system; predicting a future physical condition based on a set of future states of the first server system; dynamically controlling the cooling system in response to at least the input and the predicted future physical condition, to selectively cool the first server system sufficient to meet the predetermined thermal constraint; and controlling an allocation of tasks between the plurality of server systems to selectively load the first server system within the predetermined thermal constraint and selectively idle a second server system, wherein the idle second server system can be recruited to accept tasks when allocated to it, and wherein the cooling system associated with the idle second server system is selectively operated in a low power consumption state.

A thermal management system for an aircraft is provided. The aircraft includes a primary air conditioning system which compresses and cools outside air to create inside air. The inside air pressurizes the internal volume of the aircraft and ventilates a first object in the internal volume. An exhaust exhausts a portion of the inside air to allow more outside air to be drawn into the aircraft. A cooler cools a coolant which in turn controls temperature of at least two objects in the internal volume.

A system for increasing the overall efficiency of a hydrogen fueled vehicle and refilling station infrastructure wherein the process of (1) consuming pressurized hydrogen gas that is stored in on board tanks used to power hydrogen fueled motor vehicles and (2) refueling the vehicle tanks at a hydrogen refilling station after the available on board fuel supply in the tanks is consumed is controlled according to a predetermined sequence involving the utilization of the hydrogen in the on board tanks.

A rotary wing aircraft (1) provided with a main lift rotor (2), a tail rotor (5), and a power plant (4) driving a main gearbox (3) that co-operates with said main rotor (2), said tail rotor (5) being provided with a plurality of blades (10) of variable pitch (I) and with a pitch modification device (20), and said aircraft (1) having control means (30) for controlling said pitch modification device (20). The aircraft (1) includes an electric motor (9) for rotating said tail rotor (5) and regulator means (TRCU) connected to the control means (30) and also to the electric motor (9) and to the pitch modification device (20). The regulator means (TRCU) generate a first setpoint concerning pitch that is transmitted to the pitch modification device (20), and a second setpoint for controlling a motor parameter that is transmitted to the electric motor (9).

This invention provides a waste-processing system capable of processing high-solids wastes such as manure. This invention provides a compact U-shaped digester that allows for recycling of activated sludge to improve the efficiency of the process. Efficiency is also improved through a sludge heating design that creates a current in the digester and efficiently heats the sludge. A composter is provided to further process the sludge through aerobic digestion to create usable fertilizer. Finally, one embodiment provides a turbine that is fueled by biological gases from the digester to generate heat and electricity to be used by the system.

A new apparatus for design and scale-up of photocatalytic and thermocatalytic processes is disclosed. The apparatus is based on optimizing photoprocess energetics by decoupling of the process energy efficiency from the DRE for target contaminants and is applicable to both low- and high-flux photoreactor design and scale-up. The low-flux apparatus is based on the implementation of natural biopolymeric and other low-pressure drop media support for titanium dioxide and other band-gap photocatalysts and is further based on the implementation of multifunctional metal oxide aerogels and other media in conjunction with a novel rotating fluidized particle bed reactor.

The present invention relates to methods for the batch fixation and electrical connection of pre-strained SMA wires on a microstructured substrate using electroplating, providing high bond strength and electrical connections in one processing step. The integration process here developed relies on conventional micro machining techniques and it provides an efficient solution to some problems that have hindered the widespread diffusion of bulk SMA to MEMS, such as the lack of cost-efficient integration methods of bulk SMA and the difficult electrical contacting of the actuator material at small scale. Also disclosed herein is a Joule-heated SMA wire actuator on silicon MEMS.

The present invention discloses an IoT (Internet of Things)-based water supply equipment management method. The IoT based water supply equipment management method adopts a plurality of groups of water supply equipment management units. Each group of water supply equipment management units is used for managing and controlling a set of water supply equipment; each data of each group of water supply equipment management units is sent to a data acquiring and sending server by an information acquisition and data transmission module and is transmitted to a stream data server cluster for data processing by the data acquiring and sending server; the IoT-based water supply equipment management method has the functions of secondary data storage and data archiving; meanwhile, by a service server, real-time data or stored data of the water supply equipment is subjected to operations of inquiry and the like according to requests of an external client; by a system management client, faults of a system and faults of the water supply equipment can be processed and judged and corresponding maintenance personnel is assigned to carry out maintenance so as to implement intelligent and uniform management of each set of water supply equipment.

The present invention provides a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery system, in which an electrode for optical power generation and an electrode for charging and discharging generated electrical energy are integrated into a single cell structure, and the potential difference between the electrodes is systematically controlled, thus maximizing the conversion efficiency of optical energy, maximizing the utilization rate of cell energy, and extending the life span of the battery.For this, the present invention provides a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery system including: a transparent electrode capable of transmitting light; a PN semiconductor layer formed on the transparent electrode and generating a current by incident light; and a secondary battery layer, formed on the PN semiconductor layer, in which the current generated by the PN semiconductor layer is charged.

An apparatus and method are provided for providing substantially uniform illumination. The apparatus includes an elongate reflector housing with an inner surface having a substantially constant profile in cross section which is generally concave, an optical center being defined at a geometric focus of the profile of the inner surface. In a preferred embodiment, substantially uniform illumination is achieved by providing an elongate light source positioned within the elongate reflector housing such that a geometric center of the light source is situated preferably spaced outwardly from the optical center of the housing, away from the inner surface of the housing.

A fully integrated drying or heating system utilizes forced air and electrical heaters. A solid cartridge heater is enclosed within a compact air plenum with a circuitous air path arranged within the plenum in heat transfer communication with the heater. The plenums are shaped and configured to be used in banks of plural plenums, with the operating controls and all the components of the air distribution system and air heating system fully integrated into a modular package.

A new method for design and scale-up of photocatalytic and thermocatalytic processes is disclosed. The method is based on optimizing photoprocess energetics by decoupling of the process energy efficiency from the DRE for target contaminants. The technique is applicable to both low- and high-flux photoreactor design and scale-up. The low-flux method is based on the implementation of natural biopolymeric and other low-pressure drop media support for titanium dioxide and other band-gap photocatalysts. The high-flux method is based on the implementation of multifunctional metal oxide aerogels and other media in conjunction with a novel rotating fluidized particle bed reactor.

Provided is a highly energy-efficient processor architecture. The architecture employs 2-stage dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) and a sleep mode for high energy efficiency, dynamically controls the power supply voltage and activation of an embedded processor with instructions, and thus can prevent performance deterioration while reducing power consumption.A highly energy-efficient processor employing the processor architecture includes: a function unit block for performing an operation according to instructions input from the outside; at least one peripheral unit block for performing data communication with an external device; an instruction decoder for interpreting the input instructions and determining operation modes of the function unit block and peripheral unit block required for executing the interpreted instructions; a function unit block driver for applying a different power supply voltage according to the operation mode of the function unit block to the function unit block; and a peripheral unit block driver for applying a different power supply voltage according to the operation mode of the peripheral unit block to the peripheral unit block.

Energy-saving methods and systems for updating media information on a media equipment device are provided. An update to media information is received at the media equipment device. Data identifying a weight for the update is retrieved from the storage device. The data may be related to the user's media preferences or viewing history of content associated with the update. A weight is then assigned to the update based on the retrieved data. The assigned update weight is compared to a threshold value which is retrieved from the storage device. If the update weight exceeds the threshold value, the device will switch from a first power mode of operation (e.g., sleep mode) to a higher power mode of operation (e.g., active mode) so that the media information may be updated with the information contained in the received update.

The invention relates to the modification of the compression ratio using technologies similar to traditional engine parts.Turbines (26) and (81) set up to act in the reverse direction drive a screw (32) and shift the pivot (29) which articulates the rod (35) integral with a cam (8a) located between the foot of connecting rod (6a) and crank pin (5).The invention is intended in particular to increase energy efficiency and reduce engine pollution.

The present invention is a pre-aligner capable of determining the center of a wafer by casting light onto a wafer that is positioned above a charge-coupled device (CCD). The pre-aligner performs this operation by directing light emitted from a single LED simultaneously onto the wafer and the CCD. The light emitted from the LED is directed through a light guide in order to direct the light onto the wafer and CCD. A lens collimates the light exiting the light guide such that the light, as it passes the wafer's edge, is substantially perpendicular to the wafer's edge. The light guide may be removably secured to the pre-aligner housing for easy installation removal. The pre-aligner is capable of self-calibrate the LED.

The present invention provides a system that utilizes microwave heating to sterilize contaminated effluent. The system sterilizes the contaminated effluent by heating it to a minimum temperature for a minimum duration under pressure, and then discharging it to a sanitary drain as sterilized effluent. The process maximizes energy efficiency by using a heat exchanger to raise the temperature of the contaminated effluent with heat drawn from the sterilized effluent of the previous batch. All solids and particles originally present in the contaminated effluent pass through the system and are discharged as part of the sterilized effluent.