Energy efficiency and low-carbon energy systems are increasingly taken into account in seaports, due to climate change challenges and the evolution of environmental regulations. Thus, technological breakthroughs must be brought to numerous systems in harbors, such as harbor cranes, seaport vehicles, or the power supply of berthed vessels. These aspects may require the establishment of a microgrid in the harbor area. Microgrids have been subjected to a wide development on the mainland and islands, mostly for domestic loads. However, these are still scarce in harbor areas. Their development in such places faces several challenges, such as high power requirements, monitoring and management of a wide range of loads, energy policy framework, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a microgrid involves a study of sizing and of energy management, to avoid prohibitive costs and to verify load requirements. This paper provides a literature survey related to the development of microgrids in seaport areas. Firstly, the main components that occur in harbor microgrids are listed, and then a review of studies dealing with sizing and energy management is proposed. Finally, from this survey, innovative concepts and barriers are listed, with an up-to-date review of microgrid development in seaports worldwide.

In this paper, we investigate the pore structure and the impacts of Haines jumps on the change in preferential pathways (called the dynamic breakthrough) during fluid percolation through thin porous media. Two capillaries connected in parallel are used to represent a thin porous medium, and Haines jumps are observed through the formation of droplets. Using a droplet growth model and experimental visualisations, the change in preferential pathways is shown to be strongly influenced by the pore lengths, pore radii ratios, and droplet detachment volumes. This work provides a better understanding of the redevelopment of continuous fluid paths observed through thin porous media in electrochemical systems.

In this work, the change of liquid water preferential pathways through PEM fuel cell Gas Diffusion Layers (GDL) with ex situ devices is investigated. A capillary network constituted of two connected micro channels is first developed. It is shown that once the larger channel has been invaded, the pressure variation due to the growth of the water droplets at the channel tip enables the liquid water to invade the smaller capillary channel. At the end, the liquid preferential path is modified. This result is then generalized considering a real GDL. Liquid water is injected through the GDL to a micro channel, and changes in liquid water pathways are observed after several hours of operations. The reported experimental observations show that pressure-induced dynamic transport due the water droplet eruption in the channel has to be taken into account to predict the preferential pathway after long time of fuel cell operation.