Onur Taylan

Middle East Technical University | METU · Department of Mechanical Engineering

Solar chimney power plants have been accepted as one of the promising technologies for solar energy utilization. The objective of this study is to propose an effective approach to simultaneously determine the optimal dimensions of the solar chimney power plant and the economic feasibility of the proposed plant. For this purpose, a two-stage economi...

Ensuring energy security increasingly requires expanding both yield and resilience of supply through source diversification. In this study, the current energy situation of Nigeria is presented through a detailed literature review. The survey reveals that access to the national grid is limited, and the power delivered to areas classified as urban wi...

Deploying renewable energy systems to supply electricity faces many challenges related to cost and the variability of the renewable resources. One possible solution to these challenges is to hybridize renewable energy systems with conventional power systems and include energy storage units. In this study, the feasibility analysis of a grid-connecte...

This paper reports an experimental study on the effects of reactor geometry for dissociating carbon dioxide using a microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) reactor, and the associated electrode degradation. A MHCD reactor consists of two hollow metal electrodes that are separated by dielectric material. The geometric reactor parameters studied were th...

To cope with the growing installation capacities of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in desert areas, it is necessary to revisit the energy production models and the optimal angles of PV panels given the significant impacts of ambient temperature, wind speed, dust accumulation, and cleaning frequency. In this study, these four factors are examined f...

Optimization of renewable energy system (RES) components is vital to ensure optimal and feasible utilization of resources. Therefore, this chapter aims to find the optimum sizes of PV, wind, and PV + wind hybrid systems under three scenarios: (A) maximizing the renewable energy share, (B) minimizing the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), and (C)...

Many developing countries suffer from high energy-import dependency and inadequate electrification of rural areas, which aggravates the poverty problem. In this work, Al-Tafilah in Jordan was considered as a case study, where the technical, economic, and environmental benefits of a decentralized hybrid renewable energy system that can match 100% of...

Fluctuations in fossil fuel prices significantly affect the economies of countries, especially oil-importing countries, hence these countries are thoroughly investigating the increase in the utilization of renewable energy resources as it is abundant and locally available in all the countries despite challenges. Renewable energy systems (RES) such...

Increasing energy demand and depleting fossil fuels have increased the interest in renewable energy systems. Photovoltaic (PV) and wind systems are at the forefront of these systems. In this study, grid-connected hybrid PV/wind system capacities are optimized with the lowest cost of energy at different discount rates and feed-in-tariffs. In additio...

The goal of this study is to find the optimal sizes of renewable energy systems (RES) based on photovoltaic (PV) and/or wind systems for three energy storage system (ESS) scenarios in a micro‐grid; (1) with pumped hydro storage (PHS) as a long‐term ESS, (2) with batteries as a short‐term ESS, and (3) without ESS. The PV and wind sizes are optimally...

Since usage of fossil fuels for producing electricity causes climate change, renewable energy options have become one of the best substitution for fossil fuels. Solar energy promises high amount of resources for producing electricity. Among solar energy alternatives, Photovoltaic (PV) and Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC) are dominant in the market...

Renewable energy resources such as solar resources are suitable alternatives for the use of fossil fuels as they are abundant, can be harnessed in affordable ways and are considered environmentally friendly. However, renewable energy resources fluctuate with time which decreases the matching between the energy produced by the renewable energy syste...

This study aims to suggest a method for sizing of a photo-voltaic (PV)/wind hybrid system based on maximizing the annual renewable energy system (RES) fraction with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) being equal to the grid tariff. The novelty of this article is the idea of maximizing the energy security, energy localization, and environmental be...

The integration between renewable energy systems (RESs) and oil shale system ensures reliable power generation source with a competitive energy generation cost when compared to costs of conventional systems. In addition, this integration will prevent considerable amount of CO2 emissions. This study aims to determine the size of a grid-tied hybrid s...

Diverse renewable energy technologies are urgently needed, especially for developing countries. This paper aims to create awareness of solar chimney power plants (SCPP) as a viable and sustainable alternative in rural communities with limited or no access to the grid. The study considers site-specific hourly meteorological data in assessing the fea...

The depletion of fossil fuel resources on worldwide basis has necessitated an urgent search for alternative energy sources to meet up the present day demands. Energy demand is growing in developing nations which makes a hybrid power system, consisting of a hybrid Solar Photovoltaic together with wind energy to be considered one of the best alternat...

The use of renewable energy with storage systems is particularly important in small and unreliable grids, such as islands. This paper reports sizing of a photovoltaic (PV) power plant with storage system for Middle East Technical University Northern Cyprus Campus through technical and economic analyses. PV system was modeled considering fixed tilte...

This paper reports an experimental study on dissociating carbon dioxide (CO2) using a microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) plasma reactor operated at 1 atm. The MHCD plasma reactors can be a promising technology for dissociating gases, including CO2, as they do not require catalysts, they operate at around room temperature, and can be inexpensively...

Today we face the formidable challenge of meeting the fuel needs of a growing population while minimizing the adverse impacts on our environment. Thus, we search for technologies that can provide us with renewable fuels while mitigating the emission of global pollutants. To this end, use of non-thermal plasma processes can offer novel methods for e...

This paper reports the electrical characterization and an equivalent circuit of a microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) reactor in the self-pulsing regime. A MHCD reactor was prototyped for air plasma generation, and its current-voltage characteristics were measured experimentally in the self-pulsing regime for applied voltages from 2000 to 3000 V....

This paper reports an experimental study on dissociation of carbon dioxide using a microdischarge plasma reactor at ambient conditions. Carbon dioxide contributes to more than 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions in United States. The microdischarge plasmas can be a very promising method in dissociating gases, including carbon dioxide, due to their...

This paper reports a numerical study on carbon dioxide dissociation using a microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) plasma reactor. These reactors can produce non-equilibrium plasmas and can be a promising technology for converting carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and renewable fuels. However, these applications are currently in their early stag...

This paper reports a numerical study on the discharge of carbon dioxide using a non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor at ambient conditions. DBD plasma reactors have been used for various applications due to their ease of production, process control, operation at different conditions. The applications of DBD plasma reactors...

This paper presents a numerical study, analyzing the transport of light within a novel window concept that uses nanoparticles to guide the incident light to its edges covered with solar cells for generating electrical power. For illustrative purposes, silica coated silver nanoparticles of core radius 50 nm are considered in acrylic windows. The ra...

This paper reports a numerical study on thermal radiation transport in a novel material called dry water. Dry water is a water-in-air inverse foam which consists of micrometer-sized water droplets encapsulated by hydrophobic fumed-silica nanoparticles. First, the size distribution of dry water was measured using a particle size analyzer. Then, the...

This paper reports a numerical study on the thermal radiative transport in a cloud of dry water particles. Dry water is a water-in-air inverse foam which consists of micrometer-sized water droplets encapsulated by hydrophobic fumed-silica nanoparticles. The radiative properties of this novel material were estimated using the Mie theory for coated s...

This study reports the rheological properties of the novel material “dry water” which contains about 98% by weight water but resembles a dry powder. Dry water is a water-in-air inverse foam which consists of microscopic water droplets encapsulated with hydrophobic fumed-silica nanoparticles. This novel material offers a large surface to volume rati...

p>A new normalized model is developed to quantify and explore trends in coincidence of supply and demand in generic intermittent energy systems as key design and operating parameters are varied. This novel model is applied to seasonal-transient simulations for a solar-thermal powered adsorption system with and without heat recovery to investigate t...

The theoretical performance of a solar-powered adsorption cooling system is investigated using TRNSYS and Matlab. Adsorption models for several adsorbent-refrigerant pairs are integrated into previously developed adsorption cycle models. Seasonal transient simulations were run using these models and the actual weather data of Antalya, Turkey. Four...

Energy consumption is continuously increasing around the world and this situation yields research to find sustainable energy solutions. Demand for cooling is one of the reasons of increasing energy demand. This research is focused on one of the sustainable ways to decrease energy demand for cooling which is the solar-powered adsorption cooling syst...

Models are presented for ideal thermal wave adsorption cooling cycles without mass recovery, with adiabatic mass recovery and with isothermal mass recovery. Coefficient of performance (COP) values obtained from simulations are compared with the results of a reversible cycle and previously developed models for a simple cycle and heat recovery cycle...

Models of solar-thermal powered adsorption cooling systems with and without heat recovery developed in TRNSYS and results from steady-periodic and seasonal simulations are presented. A normalized model is presented and used to process the seasonal TRNSYS results to investigate the coincidence between the solar-supplied cooling power and cooling loa...