Day 3 :
- Track 1: Renewable Energy Sources and Industrial Applications
Track 6: Energy and Environment
Track 9: Energy Solutions and Facts
Session Introduction
Tobias Richards
University of Borås, Sweden
Title: Opportunities for thermal waste treatment
Biography:
Tobias Richards is a professor in energy recovery at University of Borås since 2010. He has a PhD in chemical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology and made his postdoctoral studies at University of Maine within the college of Engineering. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and is the editor of a new book in the area of waste treatment (Resource Recovery to Approach Zero Municipal Waste). During the fall 2014 he was a visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley.
Abstract:
Waste is constantly increasing in the world and has been tightly associated with growth; both in terms of number of people and in terms of industrial and economic growth. However, waste can be regarded as a resource and as depletion of natural resources and higher demand on energy utilization is a reality several opportunities arise. Among those are of course the traditional sorting and recycling options but also options regarding energy recovery. Waste combustion (incineration) has been a practice for more than a century. It faces difficulties with low efficiency for waste to power processes due the inhomogeneity of the feedstock and the corrosiveness. This has led to improvements in the technology including: new materials, combination with gas turbines, advanced superheating and better presorting. Apart from the energy efficiency improvements, other options exist to reach a more sustainable handling regarding the inorganic fraction. Today, this fraction is mainly put on landfills but by utilizing the increased concentrations of key elements in the ashes it is possible to start new processes mainly by leaching and separation Gasification is a new opportunity that can lead to better efficiencies for both these aspects. The power production can be improved by utilization of gas boilers with higher steam temperatures and pressures or by gas turbines. Besides, the condition in the gasifier prevents the inorganic material to oxidize and might even reduce already formed oxides which make the materials more attractive. Several new commercial plants are now erected or under construction.
Ana Rosu
University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Romania
Title: Camelina sativa: A promising cost-effective crop for biofuel feedstock; testing the optimization of Camelina farming in Romania
Biography:
Ana Rosu is a Graduate of the faculty of biology, University of Bucharest and scientific researcher in the field of cell biology and plant biotechnology at the Institute of Biology, Romanian Academy of Sciences. She completed her PhD in Biology in 1987. She is a scientific research coordinator and is responsible for professional formation of young specialists as professor of plant biology and biotechnology of the faculty of biotechnology at University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest. She has published more than 70 articles in scientific journals; 24 scientific presentations at international and national scientific events.
Abstract:
Global energy insecurity in the face of diminishing fossil oil reserves revitalized the interest to identify alternative renewable sources of energy feedstock with an emphasis on plants. There is increased interest in Camelina sativa due to the exquisite quality of its seed oil as a source of green energy namely of bio-based petroleum substitutes especially aircraft biofuel. A top priority on the EU environmental agenda is the use of alternative aviation fuels aiming to achieve an annual production of two million tons of sustainably produced biofuels for the European civil aviation by 2020 (European Advanced Biofuels Flightpath). Though Camelina seed oil has been used on Romanian territory since the Bronze Age for food, medicinal purposes and as lamp oil, after the Second World War it was replaced by higher yielding crops. It is now obvious that in order to provide sufficient Camelina seed oil to be used as a bio-based petroleum substitute, it is imperative to develop new varieties characterized by high and stable yield, higher oil content and increased adaptability to the environmental conditions. Another basic requirement for having enough available feedstock is to develop reliable and cost-effective agro-technology for the cultivation of this species. Answering these challenges was the aim of two European research projects with Romanian participation (ITAKA and NICAVA). The trials of Camelina production in different Romanian locations proved that this crop has a good production potential even on polluted soils and the production variables which affect the seed yield and the oil quality are discussed.
André Pedral Sampaio
APOLLO Research Group of Sustainable Technology,Brazil
Title: Prometheus project: Using a plasma reactor for reforming gas of bio digesters with carbon sequestration and hydrogen use for treatment of sewage and cogeneration of energy
Biography:
Andra Pedral Sampaioin holds Phd in Industrial Engineering - Organizational Intelligence from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2008), Master in Industrial Engineering - Business Management from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2002), Computer Specialist at Educational Center for Education Graduate Olga Metting (1999), Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Bahia (1986). He has extensive experience in the areas of Information Technology, Process Engineering, Hydrogen, Bioenergy, Energy Generated, Process Automation, Sustainable Development, Audit and Judicial Skill. Winner of the South Regional – Santander and Winner of 4th Prize Santander Science and Innovation with the project OPTIMUS: Creating a method for assessing the strategic management informed by MCDA-C; Coordinates of the APOLLO research group, developing research projects in the areas of technology, robotics, organizational strategies, clean energy and sustainable development. Creator, researcher and coordinator of the Engineering courses of the Faculty of Technology of Valença / Ba – FACTIVA. Founder of FACTIVA's Technology Center. Professor and researcher at the Federal University of Bahia – UFBA. Coordinator and researcher of the research groups: NDTA – FACTIVA: Advanced Technology Development Center Factiva; And GPAPOLLO – UFBA: Apollo Research Group – UFBA.
Abstract:
Global warming derived from burning fossil fuels, lance in the atmosphere, billions of tons of CO, CO2, NO2, NO, CH4 and other greenhouse gases . Altering the climate of the planet and compromising the Rivers and Sea’s due the melting ice caps, severe droughts and big storms. Thus, because of these climate changes and impacts of greenhouse gases associated with the instability of fossil fuel prices, reduced reserves and the reduction of areas for the creation of large hydroelectric plants have contributed with an increased concern with the environment, energy and production. Therefore, becomes a premise in current projects developing new sources of clean energy without generating greenhouse gases. These conditions remind also that the global climate is changing with a general warming trend which may cause problems of famine, drought and floods in various parts of the globe. Such phenomena predicted in climate projections, a decade ago and were considering such critical changes in the global climate for the next fifty years have shown that these are happening right now. Changes in environmental policies are being implemented in haste in the world and those who are not yet alarmed by the magnitude of this problem tend to suffer the consequences of his later efforts. Seasonal effects resulting from Global warming and ice ages are common on the planet but do not occur in human scale, however, humanity provides the necessary formula for changes that would occur over hundreds of years in one century. It is no longer a matter of "if" and "when" is the question of how one can reverse or ameliorate the effects of human intervention in order to slow down Earth’s climate changes and disasters that potentially represent that affect us as a whole. With these bases Prometheus Project is builder for building completely carbon free plants without producing waste to the environment and bothering to retrieve it. Based on this principle is that the project was based on a systematic use of wastewater in order to recover the degraded water, avoiding the generation of methane into the atmosphere and offset the emission of gases. The Prometheus Project proposes generating energy and treat contaminated water thus reducing the constant strain on the environment and allowing this to recover from human interference by providing a rational and intelligent use of sewage coming from the anaerobic treatment basins which may or may not a have high content of other dissolved solutes for the purpose of energy production through a plasma reactor for pyrolysis of methane obtained from anaerobic bio-digesters of the chamber using an interchangeable modular structure for generation of colloidal carbon and hydrogen which feeds the pyrolysis reactor to treatment of wastewater, addition of power generation without affecting the environment and having as byproducts of the process generating clean energy, the production of pure H2 and C, rock wool and water.
Boe-Shong Hong
National Chung Cheng University,Taiwan
Title: Design of thermal boost chopper for power-amplification control of thermoacoustic engines via thermal-inertia materials
Biography:
Boe-Shong Hong has completed his PhD from The PennState University at University Park, USA and Postdoctoral study therefrom. He is currently a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and served as one of Associate Editors in some journals.
Abstract:
With the advent of thermally inductive materials, it becomes possible to design a thermal boost chopper for thermoacoustic engines as an electrical analogy to a boost converter. In the design, a thermal relay is chosen as the switching device and the thermally inductive material is to store-deliver heat-flux along with the on-off of thermal relay in a cycle. According to the principle of step-up choppers, the temperature gradients from the thermal storage to the resonator at their interface is impulsively large by which a vigorous stream of heat-flux will then be pumped into the resonator at the frequency of thermal-relay switching. This prodigiously drives up the power rating of thermoacoustic engines. Meanwhile, the switching of thermal-relay will be kept at resonance all the time for the maximum power factor in the thermal-to-acoustic conversion. The thermal boost chopper not only increases power-ratings but also enlarges application scope as stated in the following: When it is applied to a stand-alone AC solar-power generator, its power-rating is at least several times of the prior designs of active thermoacoustic engines. For an ideal matching with the resonator and the AC current generator, the power amplification can even be hundreds of times. It can also be employed to recycle dissipated heat out of manufacture processes to electricity which greatly widens the application scope. Moreover, it makes possible to replace the passive thermoacoustic engines dependent down from photovoltaic panels by active ones.
Vincent Okudoh
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
Title: Sustainable waste conversion to biogas through anaerobic digestion of cassava biomass in South Africa
Biography:
Vincent Okudoh has completed his Ph.D from University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2011 and postdoctoral studies from the same University School of Engineering. He is a Biotechnology lecturer and researcher with BioERG at Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Town Campus, South Africa. He published many papers in reputed journals and serves as an Advisory Editorial Board member with Scholars Academic Journal of Pharmacy.
Abstract:
About 70% of the countries in Africa rely on imported energy and are faced with major challenges such as energy security for the future and better use of natural resources. This situation is aggravated by huge unemployment and low gross domestic product (GDP). A huge chunk of African countries’ national budget which could have gone into development is spent on energy import. This leads to in-fighting (wars), poor infrastructural development and spread of lethal diseases. The exploration of other natural sustainable sources of energy such as biogas is of great importance because of the excessive demand from both the rural and urban population on fossil energy. Conversion of biomass to energy will help reduce this dependence as well as mitigate the negative social and environmental impacts such as rural unemployment and global warming. Cassava biomass offers multiple benefits such as high yields of starch ((80.6% dry weight) and total dry matter (38.6%). Using a locally fabricated laboratory batch fermenter (25 L), anaerobic digestion was carried out under mesophillic conditions. Pre- treatment of the cassava biomass with spoilage fungi, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium species yielded large amounts of fermentable sugars required for digestion. Fresh Zebra droppings (2:1 v/v) were used as inoculum. Theoretical biogas yields were between 0.71 and 0.75 Nm3 per kg VS while the total biogas yields of between 250 and 300 L/kg VS fed into the digester was obtained after 20 days retention time. Cassava is not yet a staple food in some BRICS countries like South Africa and the peels and other by-products of its processing are equally suitable for energy production. The use of cassava will be an alternative feedstock strategy for several rural biogas projects running with cow dung inside South Africa. In addition, opportunities exist for decentralized, cheaper and socially advantageous bioenergy production from cassava considering that fuel and electricity needs are not satisfied in many rural areas. Finally, the incorporation of cassava anaerobic digestion facility at different scales will deliver additional benefits like the incorporation of nutrients and residual carbon into the land as fertilizer.
Ailton de Silveira Junior
APOLLO Research Group of Sustainable Technology,Brazil
Title: Chiron project: Reform of methane from a cold plasma reactor with hydrogen production for desalination and energy cogeneration
Biography:
Ailton de Silveira Junior, holds Master’s in Industrial Engineering - Business Management from the Federal University of Bahia (2005);Degree in Mechanic Engineering from the Federal University of Bahia (1990). He has extensive experience in the areas of Mechanic Engineering, Hydrogen, Bioenergy, Energy generated, Process automation, Sustainable developmentand Construction of mechanical machines and automobiles. He is the Deputy Coordinator of the APOLLO research group, developing research projects in the areas of technology, robotics, organizational strategies, clean energy and sustainable development.
Abstract:
The increasing exploitation of water resources in recent decades has resulted in situations of water stress worldwide. Thus, the phenomena of reduced water availability in Brazil have caused a reduction of hydroelectric resources, which presents itself as one of the main problems for power generation in Brazil. Moreover, the Brazilian electric system is not warranted against shortages, even if the principles of the new energy model are followed. To get an idea of the problem, if the production of thermal energy is removed, the risk of rationing could rise from 10 % to 27 % in 2013, according to IBGE. The situation may actually get worse if reducing the supply of Bolivian gas happens, which would be especially worrisome for the South and Southeast regions. In order to reduce the risks of a general power outage, the CHIRON Project emerged, supported by two social projects, one of Brazilian's federal government and the other of Bahia state's government, both aiming the rational and intelligent use of saline wastewater from treatment of artesian well water by reverse osmosis, which may or may not have a high content of other dissolved solutes, and also with the purpose of generating energy through of a cold plasma reactor for pyrolysis of methane and / or any other hydrocarbon, using a modular and interchangeable framework for generating black carbon and hydrogen, which feed the reactor of water desalination and the turbo- generator of energy, without affecting the environment and having as byproducts of the process the generation of clean energy and the production of H2 and C, rock salt and water in two ways: drinking water suitable for human consumption; and demineralized, deionized, industrial water.
Biography:
Wafik Noseir is an Environmental Engineering Consultant. He has been teaching since 1983 and has many papers in the sustainable development to his credit especially with the environment. He worked for solar energy corporation "Honeywell", petroleum sector planning & follow up manager at 3 major international companies “Arthur Anderson” consultant, Coca-Cola as a projects & Environmental manager. He is a Project manager of the National project of Egypt "Toshka" and has participated in many International Conferences especially the World Congress for the Environment 7 times which were held at Washington DC, California, Portland, Florida, France, Turkey, UK and Denmark. He is a founder & owner of Egyptian Modern Center; trying to find its way towards sustainability in polluted environment.
Abstract:
Are we as humans sustained? The simple answer to this complicated question would be; No. So, is our Earth sustained? The answer to this question can be divided to two approaches; one answer is the nature of the earth itself inside our solar system together with the nature of the sun & its lifetime and the second answer would be the nature of the humans themselves, who are the most “intelligent species” on this planet and are controlling its resources & other species on this planet too; of how they live, how they react with each other, what are their controls of the technologies that they come up with every day as evolving species. So what is sustainability? It is the process that we want to achieve for our development. So have we started? I guess not yet for the targets that we (the visionaries) hope to achieve. So we are writing here to start; by ideas and maybe actual examples to show that (taking into account considerations such as the increasing population and depleting resources) technology can be used for betterment, most essentially of using the green energy as our main source of energy such as solar, wind, waves, water hydrogen, methane & halophytes biofuels, compressed air and sand fuel cells.
Ndip Esaka Emmanuel
Environment and Rural Development Foundation, Cameroon
Title: The effect of fossil fuel on wildlife in Africa
Biography:
Ndip Esaka Emmanuel has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Dschang, Cameroon. He has been an Animal Keeper and an Educator at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, A Wildlife Bio-monitor at Wildlife Conservation Society in Cameroon and currently the Vice Coordinator for Wildlife Conservation Education and a Bio-monitor at ERuDeF, Cameroon.
Abstract:
Africa the world’s hotspot for terrestrial wildlife, home of the elephant, gorilla, chimpanzee, ostrich, etc is been destroyed each day by heavy pollutants from fossil fuel. About 70% of the rural population in Africa depend heavily on the forest for food, medicine, shelter etc. But sadly, when fossil fuel pollutants such as sulphuric acid in the air combines with rain water droplets, the water droplets become acidic forming acid rain which can kill trees, medicinal plants, contaminate water supply and harm animals. Due to the increasing worldwide demand for fossil fuels, extraction is going to be an unstoppable force which directly or indirectly is a great threat to biodiversity. In Cameroon, large amount of fossil fuel pollutants from SONARA refinery station is a great threat to marine ecosystems, the environment and the population. Th is has lead to the killing of many aquatic animals, water pollution and forest fragmentations for new extraction sites as well as the extinction of many plants and animal species due to habitats lost. Wildlife are the main building blocks of the world we live in, humans depend directly or indirectly on them to make life easy. Therefore it is our responsibility to protect wildlife by applying the use of a more secure and environmental friendly energy source like the Green energy.
Supiah Shamsudin
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia
Title: Rainfall parameters and distribution using analytical probabilistic method for Klang Valley, Malaysia
Biography:
Supiah Shamsudin is a professor at Razak School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur (UTMKL).Her research interests include hydraulics and hydrology, water resources engineering and management and environmental management.
Abstract:
The Analytical Probabilistic Method (APM) for flood analysis has been applied as an alternative to design storm and continuous simulation method because of its computational efficiency. The objective of this study is to determine the statistical analysis of rainfall at selected catchment area and to determine the analytical probabilistic method parameter at 6 hours of Inter Event Time Definition (IETD). Four catchment areas at Klang Valley were chosen for this study and hourly rainfall and stream flow data for at least 10 years were used to develop the APM parameter. The APM results from goodness-of-fit test indicated that all the rainfall characteristics (i.e., rainfall duration, rainfall depth, rainfall intensity and inter event time) fitted the exponential distribution and the value of APM parameters were presented. APM parameters for catchment area at Klang Valley are presented in a table. The parameters were average duration of rainfall event, t (hr) whereby λ (hr-1) is the parameter for exponential PDF of rainfall duration, average volume of rainfall event, v (mm) whereby ζ (mm-1) is the parameter for exponential PDF of rainfall volume, average intensity of rainfall event, i (mm/hr) whereby β (hr/mm) is the parameter for exponential PDF of rainfall intensity, average inter-event time, b (hr) whereby ψ (hr-1) is the parameter for exponential PDF of inter-event time and average annual number of rainfall events, θ (yr-1). The APM parameter of rainfall duration values range from 0.099 0-0160 hr-1. The exponential PDFs of rainfall depth were range from 0.035-0.077 mm-1 while APM parameter for rainfall intensity were range from 0.017-0.433 hr/mm. Lastly, the parameter of exponential PDF of inter-event time range from 0.023-0.077 hr-1. Other related parameters and their distributions were also discussed in the paper.
F. Murilo T. Luna
Universidade Federal do Ceará,Brazil
Title: Studies on engine performance and emissions of high viscosity biodiesel oils
Biography:
F. Murilo T. Luna is a graduate in Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Ceará (2004) and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Ceará (2012). His research interests focus on industrial chemical processes and applications, particularly on the following subjects: adsorption fundamentals, modeling of adsorption processes, and assessment of bioproducts (biodiesel and biolubricants).
Abstract:
Environmental benefits and significant economical impact on global oil requirements could be obtained through gradual worldwide replacement of mineral diesel by biodiesel. For this reason, studies on biodiesel performance and emissions from diesel engines have been receiving increasing interest. However, most of the current research effort has been concentrated on methyl esters with low viscosities, usually obtained from refined vegetable oils such as soya, canola, palm, sunflower and linseed. The operational impacts of biodiesel produced from other alternative raw materials such as beef tallow or castor oil have not been thoroughly evaluated, probably due to their high viscosity values that impose important modifications to spray breakup, evaporation and combustion processes within the diesel engines. This study aims to contribute in further understanding the effects of using beef tallow or castor oil biodiesels in diesel engines combustion. Additionaly, the effects of the high viscosity of these biofuels were addressed in attempting to evaluate its importance on combustion and pollutant emissions. Thus steady state experiments were performed in a turbocharged DI diesel engine coupled to an automated test bed equipped with an alternate current dynamometer and pollutant emissions analysers. Blends with bio/mineral oil ratios between 5 and 20% vol were evaluated. The engine tests were carried out in three load conditions corresponding to 33, 66 and 100 % of the maximum value reported for the engine brake mean effective pressure (BMEP). Furthermore, a detailed study on the response in exhaust gas recirculation and injection timing was also performed for each biodiesel sample.
M.A. Kalam
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Title: Experimental investigation of the effect of antioxidant into biodiesel in a compression ignition engine
Biography:
Md Abul Kalam (M.A. Kalam) is working as a Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia. He has obtained undergraduate degree from KUET (Bangladesh), Master and PhD from UM. His research areas are broad like fuel combustion, biolubricant and biofuels testing in IC engines. He has published many ISI journals and his H-index is 21.
Abstract:
Biodiesel has been a promising clean alternative fuel due to its better physicochemical properties. However, previous studies found that biodiesel can greatly reduce HC, CO and PM emissions except NOx emissions as compared to diesel fuels. The fuel bound oxygen in biodiesel is one of the reasons to produce higher NOx emission. Currently, B20 is being used in several countries as short term operation. The long term operation may not be suitable due to its material compatibility in respect to changing weather conditions and costs effectiveness. In this study, the effect of antioxidant additives on fuel properties, engine performance and emission characteristics of an engine fuelled with biodiesel were investigated and compared with conventional diesel fuel. For this study, four fuel samples, including pure diesel, B30, B30 + 2-Ethylexyl nitrate, B30 + Butylated hydroxytoluene, B30 + 2, 2’-methylenebis (4-methyl-6-tert-butylphenol) were used in a four stroke DI diesel engine. The engine was tested in different load-speed operating conditions as according to SAE engine test method. Among all the additives 2, 2’-methylenebis (4-methyl-6-tert-butylphenol) with B30 shows the best results in terms of lower NOx emissions, higher brake power, lower CO etc. The average reduction of NOX emission for 2-Ethylexyl nitrate, Butylated hydroxytoluene and 2, 2’-methylenebis (4-methyl-6-tert-butylphenol) blend are 5%, 7.3% and 8.4% respectively compared to B30 without additives. All the additives blend showed significant reduction in CO and smoke emissions due to better fuel properties as well as better combustion as compared to diesel and additive free B30.
Mônica C. G. Albuquerque
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil
Title: Esterification of fatty acids from Babassu oil to produce aviation biofuel
Biography:
Mônica Albuquerque has completed her PhD from Universidad Federal do Ceará-BR (2008) in collaboration with Universidad de Malaga-ES. She is Professor in the mechanical engineering department of Universidad Federal do Ceará. Her research expertise and experience includes biofuels, biodiesel, bio-lubricant, catalysis, and mesoporous materials.
Abstract:
In this work aviation biofuel production was studied by fatty acids (C6 to C16) esterification. The process variables in heterogeneous catalysis were evaluated using an experimental design. Temperature and reaction time were the studied parameters, and the methyl esters content was response of the experimental design. An ion exchange resin was used as a heterogeneous catalyst. The process optimization was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM) and polynomial model of second order. Results show that the most influential variables on the linear coefficient of each effect studied were temperature and reaction time. The best result of methyl esters conversion in the experimental design was under the conditions: 10% wt of catalyst; 100 °C and 4 hours of reaction. The best achieved conversion was 96.5% wt of biofuel.
P. Somasundaran
Columbia Earth and Environmental Engineering, USA
Title: Enhancing enzyme activity via surfactant interactions for improved bio-fuel production
Biography:
P.Somasundaran received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and his Bachelor of Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in 1961. Before joining Columbia University, he worked for the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation and Reynolds Industries. He was appointed the first La von Duddleson Krumb Professor in the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the first Director of the Langmuir Center for Colloids & Interfaces and founding director of the National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Center for Advanced Studies in Novel Surfactants. He was also elected Chairman of the Henry Krumb School at Columbia University, as Chair of Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Material Science & Mineral Engineering in 1992 and 1995.
Abstract:
The central goal of this work is to improve the liberation of free sugars from cellulosic bio-feed stock through interactions with colloid surfaces. Through this project we propose and test one such mechanism of enhancement that is not commonly explored in the past literature: the manipulation of structural dynamics as one pathway through which colloids - such as non-ionic surfactants aggregates and inorganic particles - may influence protein function, i.e enzyme activity. This novel view of protein/environment interaction is potentially transformative and will heavily influence how protein based technologies are designed. This project is divided into three major objectives. 1) Select a system where enzyme activity / kinetics parameters are enhanced by surfactant interactions. 2) Determine link between active site flexibility and enhancement relative to surfactant concentration. 3) Determine surfactant / enzyme conditions that effectively enhance free sugar generation from cellulose. Fluorescence and UV spectroscopy will be used to enzyme kinetics. Anisotropic fluorescence decay, NMR, Raman will be used to measure both the dynamic and static changes to enzyme structure as well as measure surfactant/protein interactions. Initial results have clearly demonstrated a link between enzyme flexibility and function as a function of surfactant. Furthermore, initial tests strongly indicate that enzyme hyper activity is influenced by surfactant aggregates rather than free monomers.
Chiranjibi Bhattarai
Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC), Nepal
Title: Environmental and health impacts of micro-hydro in a rural area of Nepal: A case study of a Nepalese village
Biography:
Chiranjibi Bhattarai is working as an energy engineer since 2006 at District Development Committee on behalf of Alternative Energy Promotion Center, Nepal. Currently he is working in DDC Gulmi, Nepal. He has completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Pokhara University in 2005 and holds M.A in Sociology from T.U. Nepal. He has over 8 years of experience in renewal energy sector working in the rural community.
Abstract:
Nepal one of the developing countries, having lowest per capita income in the world, has only 15% of rural people access to electricity. Rural people satisfy their energy needs by burning biomass, damaging both environment and human health. Connecting to national power grid is quite expensive, which seems to beyond the current government capacity. Rural electrification through Micro hydro has proved to be a very successful form. Community participation MH seems to be greater intervention in energy sector in rural Nepal in order to satisfy energy needs. The Alternative energy promotion center (AEPC) and District development committee has used a holistic approach to launch an alternative energy initiative in rural Nepal.\"Wami-taxar\" is one of the Village developments Committee in Gulmi district where people will have to wait a several years for access to electricity through national grid. So, micro hydro has become a credible option for alternative source to electrify this area. More than 3000 HH has been electrified through 200 KW power, generated from 3 Micro hydro Plants. The promotion of Micro hydro in this VDC is not only used for rural electrification but also used for improving the quality of life. Micro hydro (MH) system has energized sustainable development by creating jobs, protecting the environment and change in gendered division of labor and socio-economic status. Both male and female they work together in milling, schools, nursing homes etc. People as well as students of this area have access to modern communication era and telemedicine. Similarly MH canal is used for Irrigation Purpose. With the global pressure to reduce GHG emissions, MH in this area is gaining Popularity. The MH of this area have significant potentiality of carbon mitigation, which potentially reduce GHG emission through replacement of Kerosene or and diesel. Finally, MH electricity is much welcomed by local people of this area. Establishing the Co-operative of MH user, it has changed their economic as well as social status.MH plants of this area has helped the people to be Socialized, active participation in decision making and gender equity. So MH power system is an \"alternate Solution for the growing energy demand in this area\"
Chandrasekar Srinivasakannan
The Petroleum Institute, UAE
Title: Recent developments in mercury removal technologies in gas processsing
Biography:
Dr. C. Srinivasakannan has completed his PhD from Indian Institue of Technology, Madras, India at the age 28. He is currenlty a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of the Petroluem Institute, Abu Dhabi. He has published over 130 papers in internatinal journals of repute. His research interest includes gas processing, fluidization, porous material, gasification, pyrolysis, waste to energy, waste water treatment.
Abstract:
Presence of mercury in the natural gas and crude oil is of serious environmental, health and processing concern to gas processing as well as refining industries. The concentration of mercury in the gas could vary from nano to micro grams depending on the location on the gas wells. Mercury could be present in elemental, organic or inorganic forms, all which are of serious concern as it would seriously enhance the corrossion rate of the aluminium exchangers leading to catastropic failiure. Hence mercury removal is one of the separation processess in gas and crude processing involving differnt kinds of adsorbents. These separation process are normally coupled with moisture removal operations of the gas processing utilizing carbon based adsorbents either with regeneral type utilizing silver impregnated carbons or non regenerable type involving sulfur, iodide, bromide etc. The most popular and cheaper being the sulfur loaded carbons, however the performance and the cost of which is found to vary in orders of magnitude depending upon its performance. A relative comparison of the various the forms of popularly avaialble and laboratory developed carbons indicate the importance of efficient incorporation of the sulfur in the carbon matrix rather than the high amounts of sulfur being loaded. Even the best of materials available have utilized far less amouts of sulfur for binding with mercury as compared to the amount of sulfur present in the material. The recent developments include sulfonated carbons with relatively much higher mercury removal capacity although they had relatively low surface area and sulfur content as compared with the popularly utilized UOP catalyst in the industry. The second generation development with better performance is reported with metal sulfide impregated carbon material which overcome some of the disadvantages of sulfur impregnated carbons. The recent focus on these lines of development concentrate on utilization of ionic and deep utectic solvents in carbon matrix with compatively better performances.
Ishenny Mohd Noor
Biopro Petrol Global Marketing, Indonesia
Title: Case study of effect of BFS additive biocatalyst fuel to enhance efficiency of MTU electric generator diesel engine with capacity of 1 MWatt at power plant of PT. PLN Aceh, Indonesia
Biography:
Ishenny Mohd Noor is the founder and the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Biopro Petrol Global Marketing Sdn Bhd and Managing Board Director PT. Noor Amalindo in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has many years of experience working in alternative fuel research and development. He has been inclined towards this field of research since his postgraduate studies in University of Malaya and Biopro Diesel™ (first invention fuel from POME, Patent No 2011700182) is the culmination of his efforts in his 15 year research in biochemical process technology which has been touted as biocatalyst fuel for petrol and diesel engines also coals and biomass. He graduated from University of Malaya (Doctor of Philosophy in Biofuel and Biochemical Engineering) in 2007 and holds Master’s Degree (M.Eng Biochemical Engineering) from the same university, while his Bachelor’s degree of Engineering in Chemical Engineering (1990) is from Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Acheh Indonesia. Previously he was an academic lecturer in Chemical Engineering Department, Terenggano Advanced Technical Institute in Kemaman, Terengganu Darul Iman, Visiting Lecturer in Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering at University of Malaya. He was then engaged as Consultant for Biodiesel Plant in the same department. As a testament to his credibility, he was given responsibility to hold many positions throughout his service as an academician and a businessman. He is also one of the members of Chemical Engineers of Indonesia (PII) and panel members of Malaysian Advanced Biofuel Process Technology. His present research is in renewable energy, biofuel, and material product development.
Abstract:
The new government of Indonesia will activate policy for cutting down of the fuel subsidies. The fuel diesel shortly will increase up to $0.85 per liter for industry. This policy will have high impact on the industries such as PT. PLN to supply electricity to the public. PT. PLN depends a lot on the fuel diesel; which will affect the electricity price upon increase. PT. Noor Amalindo Indonesia would like provide a solution with the Biopro Fuel Saver (BFS) Additive Biocatalyst Fuel. BFS Biocatalyst Fuel is produced by converting waste from used cooking oil (UCO) by biochemical technique. It is an attractive alternative for blending with fossil fuel for any application in which commercial diesel or petrol is used such as transportation, industrial applications and power electric generator. Case study using BFS Additive Biocatalyst Fuel compared to diesel fuel with electric generator, PT. PLN Power Plant at PLTD Setia, BlangPidie, Aceh, Indonesia shows that fuel consumption reduce from 0.286 L/kWh to 0.22 L/kWh, while power loaded increased from 600 kW to 800 kW. Temperature radiator of engine reduce from 82o C to 88o C, oil lubricant pressure 5.2 bar constant, resonance noise response (RNR) engine reduce shows that fluctuated high resonance response to lower flat resonance response and the emission shows that reducing of carbon monoxide (CO) on the chimney from 300.2 mg/m3 to 249,2 mg/m3, respectively. Biopro fuel saver is biocatalyst fuel additive are increase engine power capacity, sustain condition operation and environmental friendly and saving of budget to produce energy up to 17% and break event point at 700 kW load of power. Power plant at Setia, BlangPidie will save budget of fuel of diesel per year of $ 1.72 Millions.
José MarÃn-Batista
Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia
Title: Feasibility of sugarcane molasses as co-substrate for chicken manure anaerobic digestion
Biography:
Mr. José Daniel MarÃn Batista is MS candidate on chemical engineering from industrial university of Santander (Colombia). He is graduate research assistant at the biotechnology laboratory at industrial university of Santander and research member of Center for Environmental Studies and Research. His first publication was “Effect of chicken manure organic load on biomethane potential†and he is expecting his second publication to be published at the end of year.
Abstract:
Anaerobic digestion is mature technology to convert organic waste in biogas, a mixture between CH4 and CO2. Chicken manure (CM) is an attractive substrate for anaerobic digestion due to high available organic matter mainly composed by proteins. When proteins degrade anaerobically, they produce ammonia, that in excess decrees yield of the process. Process inhibition is mitigated by co digestion of CM with carbon-rich organic waste. Anaerobic co digestion (AcoD) improves nutrient balance represented in better C/N ratio. Thus, it is important to choose a blend ration with synergisms effect since improvements in methane production is mainly a result of increasing in organic loading rate [2]. This study evaluated the feasibility of sugarcane molasses (SCM) as a co-substrate for anaerobic digestion (AD) of chicken manure (CM). Different CM to SCM ratios (1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3 and 0:1 on volatile solid basis) were evaluated through biomethane potential assays (BMP) (39°C). 95% confidence regions (biodegradability vs. hydrolysis kinetic) were determined for a statistical comparison between BMPs. Total reducing sugar, total volatile fatty acids, total ammonia nitrogen, pH and alkalinity were also analyzed as response variables of process performance. Interactions between substrates were evaluated by increment on degradation extent and rate of the both substrates. According to results, all mixtures showed a synergistic effect. The highest methane yield of 0.54 m3 CH4/kg VS was observed with CM to SCM ratio of 1:3. It is concluded SCM is a promising co-substrate to foster CM anaerobic digestion.
P. Das
The Science Foundation for Tribal & Rural Resource Development, India
Title: Olax scandens Roxb: A new and potentially rich source of bioethanol and biodiesel
Biography:
Premananda Das earned his BSc (Ag), MSc (Ag), and PhD degrees from Orissa University of Agriculture, Calcutta University, and Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia (West Bengal), respectively. He was trained at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi University; Melbourne, Australia; Dusseldorf, Germany; University of Liverpool and Royal Botanic Gardens, UK. He visited a number of Botanic Gardens in countries like Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka to study the diversity of Araceous plants and tropical and sub-tropical trees. In 1985, Das moved to Regional Plant Resource Centre (RPRC), Bhubaneswar, as Founding Director. As INSA Senior Scientist, he worked on medicinal plants in the Department of Biotechnology, IIT, Kharagpur, West Bengal. He established Mangrove Research Centre, Biomass Research Centre, National Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and Research, Bhubaneswar, and Biju Patnaik Medicinal Plants Garden and Research Centre, Jeypore. For rural development, he established Venkateswar Institute for Sustainable, Innovative and Objective Nurture at Bhubaneswar. He was member of Executive Council of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi (2001-03).
Abstract:
Diminishing petroleum reserves, deleterious effects of exhaust gases on the environment, ever increasing demand and rise in prices have created interests for alternative, eco-friendly and renewable sources of fuels. In recent years, research has been directed to explore plant sources for oils and fats to be used as biofuels. Olax scandens Roxb (family Olacaceae), a scandent shrub found often in ravines, stream banks in the sub-Himalayan tract in Kumaun, upper Gangetic plains, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, the Eastern and the Western Ghats of India with bisexual flowers assured fruit set and high productive potential was found as a promising source for biofuels. The Seed: Pulp ratio was 1:4; hexane mediated extraction of seed (kernel) produced 59% oil and the pulp fermented with Sachharomyces cerevisiae yielded 24.01% ethanol at pH 3.5 and 48.8o C. The physico-chemical properties and fatty acid profiles of the crude and transesterified oils were characterized. Both static and running engines showed significantly enhanced performance in terms of run time and load which may be due to improved lubrication and burning efficiency at B10 and B20 (10% and 20% biodiesel) and E10 (10% bio-ethanol) derived from Olax. Engine emissions i.e., CO, CO2, NOx and other parameters i.e., engine noise and temperature were highly favorable as compared to that of petroleum diesel which might enhance engine longevity.
Roxana Javid
Texas Tech University, USA
Title: The effect of biodiesel production on the CO2 emissions and area harvested for oilseeds
Biography:
Roxana Javid is a Graduate Research Assistant Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, Texas Tech University, USA.
Abstract:
This study investigated the impacts of biodiesel produced from oilseeds on global CO2 emissions as well as the United States oilseeds area harvested and yields. Oilseeds mainly include soybean, maize, sunflower seed, rapeseeds, and sugarcane. Three scenarios were defined: first scenario evaluated the effect of percent changes in the U.S. biodiesel production by 2011 based on 2001. The second one addressed the same impacts when both the U.S. and the EU produce biodiesel and the third one reported historical changes in U.S. biodiesel production. GATP-BIO model was utilized to develop the scenarios and analyze the results. The model divided each country’s land endowment into 18 Argo Ecological Zones (AEZs), and the whole world into 18 trading regions and 21 industries. Findings showed that as a result of the U.S. and the EU biodiesel production, CO2 emissions were decreased in the U.S. and the EU. Additionally the world’s total CO2 emissions were reduced by 0.13% mainly due to reduction in household diesel consumption. It was found that considering AEZs is critical for the economic and land coverage analysis. Finally, the U.S. tax credit policy was found to be efficient in biodiesel productions.
Nasir Al-Lagtah
Newcastle University International Singapore, Singapore
Title: Economizing bioethanol production process through value-added utilization of lignin residue
Biography:
Nasir Al-Lagtah joined Newcastle University International Singapore (NUIS) on January 2014 as a lecturer in chemical engineering. Before that, he was a lecturer (teaching focused) at Manchester University UK. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering from Queen’s University of Belfast in 2008. His research interests include further utilization of lignin residue (biorefinery by-product), production of biodiesel using heterogeneous catalysts, modelling and simulation of bioenergy processes using Aspen Plus (thermal conversion of lignin, biodiesel production, glycerol (biodiesel by-product) utilization to produce value-added products.
Abstract:
Recently, energy crisis has become a main issue as the global energy demand is increasing while the crude oil reserves are depleting as the time passes. Therefore it is necessary to find alternative and renewable energy sources. Biofuels are very promising renewable energy source. Bioethanol is a biofuel which is mostly used as an automobile fuel. During the production of bioethanol, large amount of lignin is produced as a by-product. Lignin has a great potential to produce valuable products to increase the overall revenue. In this research, lignin has been utilized for methanol production and power generation through gasification process or for producing activated carbon, methanol and power through pyrolysis process. Both processes were simulated using Aspen Plus software. Lignin gasification process converted about 51% of lignin into methanol. On the other hand, lignin pyrolysis process converted about 9% of lignin into methanol and 20.5% into activated carbon. Heat integration of both processes resulted into producing surplus of steam which was utilized to meet some of the processes utility requirements along with power generation using steam turbines. Economic analysis of two processes showed that capital investment and payback period of lignin pyrolysis process was significantly higher. Therefore, lignin gasification process was considered to be more economically feasible.
Biography:
Rich Snow has obtained his PhD in Physical Geography from Indiana State University in 1999 and he is a tenured full Professor of Meteorology in the Department of Applied Aviation Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. He has written and presented numerous papers on climate change and co-authored the text “Climatology: An Atmospheric Science†published by Pearson Education.
Abstract:
Sustainability is often promoted as a noble environmental objective but remains a goal that is unattainable for most Americans due to our dependence on a non-renewable, fossil fuel based infrastructure. The first step in achieving a sustainable lifestyle is to realize the need to downsize, which is a notion that can be difficult to embrace. However, once one realizes that less is more, the goal of sustainability is well within reach. For those who are content to stay in one place, a small house or cabin can fill the bill and can be designed for living off the grid. Others who are more adventurous can look to the sea for energy independence. Sailing vessel September Sea is a 36 foot ultralight sloop designed by sailboat racing legends Bill Lee and Bruce Farr and built by Lancer Yachts. While the engine is diesel powered, it burns just 0.5 gallons per hour and is only necessary for manuvering in marinas. The rest of the time, the sails serve as the main means of transportation. The boat is equipped with solar panels, a wind generator, a bank of four AGM batteries, an inverter to transform 12 volts into 120 volts, a water maker, a 12 volt refrigerator and a 4000 watt diesel generator to backup the systems and power the air conditioner on those rare hot nights at anchor. This poster depicts the transformation of a simple sailboat into a model of mobile sustainability.
Sidikat Kuye
Federal University of Agriculture, Nigeria
Title: Production and evaluation of alternative fuels from cassava peels
Biography:
Sidikat Kuye graduated from Federal University of Technology in 1992 with Second Class (Upper) Division in Mechanical Engineering. She obtained two M.Sc degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and also Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from University of Lagos, Akoka. She started her professional career in the industry and joined the academic community as a Lecturer in 2004. She is a corporate member of Nigeria Society of Engineers and a registered member of COREN. She has supervised about 5 undergraduate students. Her research interests include offshore mechanics, human mechanics, corrosion engineering and modelling and simulation.
Abstract:
Fuel is any material that is capable of releasing energy on altering its chemical or physical structure. Cassava peels generated during processing of cassava tuber is a potential source for biofuel if properly harnessed. This work produced and evaluated alternative fuels from cassava peels. Dried milled cassava peel with particle size passing through size No. 10 mesh was used as feedstock for biofuels production. Percentage starch contained in the milled peels was evaluated by hydrolytic and spectrophotometric methods. Biogas was generated from anaerobic digestion of neutralized 25% w/w solid content cassava slurry using 0.1 M sodium hydroxide in a bio-digester for 30 days retention period. Its methane content was analyzed with ASTN2188 biogas analyser. Dilute hydrochloric acid of 0.1 M was used for the acid hydrolysis while alpha-amylase (Termamyle 170) and gluco-amylase were used for the enzyme hydrolysis. The hydrolysates from both processes were fermented with ethanol tolerant yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). The results revealed that the percentage starch in the peels was 9.84%. The volume, methane content and Carbon IV Oxide content of the biogas were 0.588 L/kg, 57.72% and 30.97% respectively. The volume and ethanol content of the bioethanol produced from enzyme hydrolysis process were 1560 mL/kg, 68.93%, 68.20% and those of acid hydrolysis were 1400 mL/kg, 67.64% respectively. This work showed the viability of biofuels production from cassava peels.
Eriisa Yiga Paddy
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Title: Research analysis into an appropriate biogas technology for a farming community: Case study Uganda
Biography:
Eriisa Yiga Paddy is at the verge of accomplishing his MSc in Renewable Energy at the age of 28 years from Edinburgh Napier University and a holder of Bachelors of Science Technology Physics from Kyambogo University. He is a former technician at Uganda National Bureau of Standards and laboratory technician at Lakeside College Luzira Kampala Uganda for the last five years. He is a graduate member of the Energy Institute in UK and a member of the Renewable Energy Association of Uganda. He is a former teacher of mathematics and physics subjects at different secondary schools and colleges in Uganda.
Abstract:
Biogas is a source of renewable, alternative and sustainable energy produced from the anaerobic digestion of organic material by bacteria. Uganda’s energy matrix is dominated by biomass as a source of energy contributing about 95% of the total primary energy consumption. This is in form of firewood and charcoal, this has caused rapid depletion of forests in rural areas and an increase in price levels of charcoal and firewood in urban areas of Uganda. This project will give an overview of the biomass energy in Uganda, literature review on biogas technology, biogas technologies available in the world market, the success and limitations of this renewable technology in meeting the energy needs of Uganda, a Sub-Saharan African country whose main economic activity being predominantly agriculture. The research is necessary, as it will avail awareness to the government, agricultural farmers, readers and other stakeholders about the different biogas digester designs and the appropriate type that can be adopted in Uganda. The huge amount of waste produced by the agriculture industry in Uganda can be converted into biogas thus eliminating harmful micro-organisms. Furthermore, it will be possible to tap the variety of biogas technology benefits. The project will recommend the appropriate type of biogas digester that can be adopted by the rural farming community in Uganda whose economy is agricultural based. Different methods of attaining data amongst which include review of academic research journals, interviewing, reading of biogas books will be applied.
El khchine Younes
Polydisciplinary faculty of Taza,Moracco
Title: Performance prediction of wind using aerodynamic BEM with data extracted from CFD
Biography:
Y El Khchine is a state engineer in mechanical engineering, PhD student in mechanical engineering at energy laboratory of engineering sciences, FP- Taza and works in the team numerical modeling in applied mechanics at Polydisciplinary faculty of Taza, Moracco
Abstract:
In this study, a mixed CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and BEM (Blade Element Momentum Method) analysis is implemented for simulating the flow field around a wind turbine rotor to predict its aerodynamic performance such as the Power Curve diagram and the forces and moments imposed on the rotor blades that are essential in structure design of wind turbine. The present approach requires considerable less computational time and memory than three-dimensional simulation of a wind turbine rotor by merely CFD methods. This work consists of two parts: 1Calculating 2D aerodynamic coefficients of the blades by CFD methods, using Fluent commercial software. 2-Simulating 3D flow field through the wind turbine rotor using BEM technique. To validate the current approach, the numerical results is compared with experimental. The numerical results indicate good accuracy with those of experiments.
Zeineb Abdmouleh
Qatar University,Qatar
Title: Review of policies encouraging renewable energy integration & best practices
Biography:
Zeineb Abdmouleh has completed her MSc in Industrial Engineering at the age of 23 years from National Engineering School of Tunis. She is currently working as a Research Assistant Engineer in Qatar University in the field of power system and renewable energy integration and has previous experience as solar project developer with the British company Nur Energie. She has published 2 papers in reputed journals and received the DESERTEC Best Paper Award 2012 for her Diploma Thesis Paper “Technical and Economic Analysis of the Tunisian Transmission Grid with respect to Renewable Energiesâ€.
Abstract:
This paper provides policy-makers and renewable energy project developers with background information and analysis into the successful penetration of renewable energy policies. The analysis emphasizes on the different mechanisms to establish an encouraging regulatory framework for renewable energies and examines examples of both successful and failed experiences, through case studies and analysis of various countries. This analytic survey attempts to shed light on the factors which led to successful implementation of renewable energy depending not only on different countries experience, but also on the different sources and technologies for renewable electricity. The main objectives through the provision of this overview are to help policy implementers learn from each other’s experiences and contribute to the efforts to meet indicative renewable energy targets. The methodology applied in this document is to collect all applied mechanisms helping deploying renewable energy projects with a reviewing of study cases analysis for some specific experiences. Then the information are classified and discussed from the financial, fiscal, legislative, political, technological and environmental points of view in order to make it a reference and a guideline for other renewable energy policies studies.
Jagannadh Satyavolu
University of Louisville, USA
Title: Integrated C5-based biorefinery for the production of high energy density biofuels and biochemicals
Biography:
Jagannadh Satyavolu works as Theme Leader, Biomass conversion and Biofuels, Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.Dr. Satyavolu earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH and has 30 years of experience in commercial business leadership roles, operations and capital project management, intellectual asset development and management, product and process technology development, industrial application research, and academia. He holds 20 US and international patents and has steered multiple projects from concept to commercialization. Prior to joining Conn Center, he worked at Cargill, Georgia Institute of Technology, Battelle Labs, and the Ohio State University.
Abstract:
Hemicellulose based sugars (e.g., xylose and arabinose) can be a platform for synthesis of a variety of high energy density fuels currently derived from petroleum. Pentoses were identified by the US Department of Energy in 2004 among the top candidates of valuable chemical precursors that could be produced from biomass. University of Louisville has developed and demonstrated an integrated C5-based biorefinery concept. In this concept, we start with a hemicellulose rich “captive†agricultural biomass and selectively extract C5 sugars. Some examples of such hemicellulose rich biomass are: soy hulls from soybean processing, rice hulls from rice milling, corn fiber from wet milling or dry milling, bagasse from sugarcane processing, etc. One of the key process steps of this biorefining concept is a precipitation protocol that delivers D-xylose in pyranose form to obtain a pure starting monosaccharide. The C5 sugars derived from these co-products can be converted via chemical synthesis routes to higher-value bio-jet fuels and high energy density components of bio-jet fuels.
Aurore Richel
University of Liege – Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Belgium
Title: Production of biofuels and biobased compounds in urban biorefineries
Biography:
Aurore Richel is professor and head of the Laboratory of Biological and Industrial Chemistry at the University of Liege – Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech. The laboratory is engaged in research and education in the fields of biological chemistry, biorefining and industrial technologies. A. Richel and her team are involved in numerous projects and industrial collaborations, specializing in the following areas: optimized use of vegetal biomass for biofuels and fine chemicals, pretreatments and cracking of lignocellulosic biomass and development of new methodologies with low environmental footprints.
Abstract:
“Urban biorefining†is an original concept aiming at using urban wastes (household wastes, municipal wastes, industrial liquid and/or solid residues and side-products, etc.), mainly of vegetal origin, for the production of an array of biofuels and bioproducts. This “urban biorefining†concept fits particularly with the economic, geographic and politic contexts and constraints of the Walloon Region (south part of Belgium). Indeed, Walloon Region is a very small territory (area of about 6,504 sq mi) with a temperate climate. Supply feedstock, mainly arising from forestry and agriculture, are thus rather restricted, submitted to importation, and subjected to non-standardized quality. Several examples of our regional strategy, still available on an industrial scale, are herein proposed and detailed.
Biography:
Chiranjibi Bhattarai is working as an energy engineer since 2006 at District Development Committee on behalf of Alternative Energy Promotion Center, Nepal. Currently he is working in DDC Gulmi, Nepal. He has completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Pokhara University in 2005 and holds M.A in Sociology from T.U. Nepal. He has over 8 years of experience in renewal energy sector working in the rural community.
Abstract:
Nepal one of the developing countries, having lowest per capita income in the world, has only 15% of rural people access to electricity. Rural people satisfy their energy needs by burning biomass, damaging both environment and human health. Connecting to national power grid is quite expensive, which seems to beyond the current government capacity. Rural electrification through Micro hydro has proved to be a very successful form. Community participation MH seems to be greater intervention in energy sector in rural Nepal in order to satisfy energy needs. The Alternative energy promotion center (AEPC) and District development committee has used a holistic approach to launch an alternative energy initiative in rural Nepal.\"Wami-taxar\" is one of the Village developments Committee in Gulmi district where people will have to wait a several years for access to electricity through national grid. So, micro hydro has become a credible option for alternative source to electrify this area. More than 3000 HH has been electrified through 200 KW power, generated from 3 Micro hydro Plants. The promotion of Micro hydro in this VDC is not only used for rural electrification but also used for improving the quality of life. Micro hydro (MH) system has energized sustainable development by creating jobs, protecting the environment and change in gendered division of labor and socio-economic status. Both male and female they work together in milling, schools, nursing homes etc. People as well as students of this area have access to modern communication era and telemedicine. Similarly MH canal is used for Irrigation Purpose. With the global pressure to reduce GHG emissions, MH in this area is gaining Popularity. The MH of this area have significant potentiality of carbon mitigation, which potentially reduce GHG emission through replacement of Kerosene or and diesel. Finally, MH electricity is much welcomed by local people of this area. Establishing the Co-operative of MH user, it has changed their economic as well as social status.MH plants of this area has helped the people to be Socialized, active participation in decision making and gender equity. So MH power system is an \"alternate Solution for the growing energy demand in this area\"
M. Habibullah
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Title: Study the tribological characteristics of combined blend of Palm-Coconut biodiesel in four ball tribometer
Biography:
M. Habibullah works at Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His research interests include renewable energy,biofuels and biodiesel.
Abstract:
Due to increasing environmental pollution concerns and diminishing petroleum reserves, the use of biodiesel alternative to petroleum diesel is increasing. Therefore, this is creating the tribology of biodiesel related new issues. The purpose of this research is to investigate the tribological characteristics of combined blend of palm-coconut biodiesel by using four ball tribometer. The biodiesel was produced using transesterification process and measured their major physical-chemical properties. Experiment was conducted during 300s with constant temperature at 27° C and constant sliding speed of 1200 rpm at different load of 40 kg, 50 kg, 63 kg and 80 kg for all tested fuels. The elemental analysis for tested fuel was done using multi element oil analyzer (MOA) and worn surfaces of the ball were examined by SEM/EDX analysis. Result reveals that diesel fuel shows the higher unsteady state friction coefficient with longer time duration along with higher wear scar diameter (WSD) and decreases with increasing biodiesel percentage. From the elemental analysis, it is found that more metal element is added for Palm Biodiesel (PB) and highest amount of metal elements were decreased for diesel fuel. The formation of oxide and addition of metal elements are extremely low for Coconut Biodiesel (CB). Surface morphology showed that CB20 shows the smaller worn surfaces compared to other diesel-biodiesel blend except CB100. A further increase in the concentration of biodiesel (PB30, PB50), the extrusion of metal is quite higher than PB20 and thus PB20 showed auspicious lubricating performance and highest possibility to form lubricating film without breaking down.
Adewale Adewuyi
Redeemer’s University, Nigeria
Title: Biodieself from Gliricidia sepium and Baphia nitida: A renewable source of energy for sustainable development in rural Africa
Biography:
Adewale Adewuyi holds BSc (Chemistry), MSc and PhD in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Ibadan. Over the years, his research activities has been on the industrial applications of underutilized seeds and seed oils which cuts across primary health service, synthesis of surfactants, biofuel, oleochemicals and their use in environment, medicine and food. Dr Adewuyi is a recipient of several awards such as: University of Ibadan Postgraduate School Scholarship, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Postgraduate Fellowship, University of Ibadan Postgraduate School Publication Award, PAN Africa Chemistry network, Research Training Fellowship for Developing Country Scientists, Coimbra Group Scholarship, TWAS/DFG Fellowship, AAS-icipe-TWAS-ROSSA travel grant, TWASBiovisionNext, Schlumberger excellence in education development, Royal Society of Chemistry travel grant, Bioversity International Travel Grant and IFS Water Research Grant (No W/5401-1). Dr Adewuyi has given several presentations in both local and international conferences, workshops and seminar which have served as platforms for the transfer of ideas and his research findings. Currently, he is lecturing and doing research at the Redeemer’s University, Nigeria, his dreams and goals are to contribute and play active role in the development and sustenance of Science and Technology in Africa and other developing nations of the world.
Abstract:
With the depletion of oil resources as well as the negative environmental impact associated with the use of fossil fuels; self-sufficiency in energy requirement is critical to the success of any developing economy. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. Presently, over 70% of the population of the people in Africa lives in rural areas where there are resources for agriculture. Gliricidia sepium and Baphia nitida are two underutilized plants in Nigeria; they are planted as a shade tree. Their seeds are discarded as waste in Nigeria creating a waste disposal problem. Biodiesel was produced from the oils of these underutilized seeds using a two step reaction system. The first step is a pretreatment which involved the use of 2% sulphuric acid in methanol and secondly, transesterification reaction using KOH as catalyst. The result of the method applied showed a conversion of ester content above 98% with phosphorus content below 1 ppm while the copper strip corrosion test was 1A in both biodiesel. The oil of Gliricidia sepium and Baphia nitida with high free fatty acid can be reduced in a one-step pretreatment of esterification using H2SO4 as catalyst. This one-step pre-treatment reduced the problem of soap formation normally encountered when using oil with free fatty acid for the production of biodiesel, thus reducing the production cost of the Gliricidia sepium and Baphia nitida biodiesel. The biodiesel produced from the oil of Gliricidia sepium and Baphia nitida exhibited properties that are in agreement with the recommended European standard (EN 14214).
Hanifa Taher
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology,UAE
Title: Green production of biodiesel from microalgae lipids
Biography:
Hanifa Taher earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the UAE University in June 2014. Her PhD and MSc research work both focused on the enzymatic production of biodiesel from lipids extracted from different feedstock using supercritical carbon dioxide, and developing and integrated production process. In March 2014, Dr. Taher joined Masdar Institute of Science and Technology as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Her research interests are in green extraction of valuable compounds, biodiesel production, microalgae biomass production, processes intensification, optimization, and scale–up, which resulted in more than 10 journal publications and 1 patent. Recently, she submitted her first scientific book discussing the cutting edge technologies in enzymatic biodiesel production.
Abstract:
Biodiesel production from lipids-rich feedstocks is potentially an acceptable and suitable substitute to petroleum diesel. The re-shaping of the available technologies to greener alternatives is needed for fuel production. To produce a sustainable fuel that reduces dependency on fossil fuels, and utilize a feedstock that does not compete with food stock, and, at same time, contributes to the reduction of CO2 emissions, microalgae lipids were suggested. Utilization of microalgae as a feedstock for biodiesel production is well known worldwide, but the production process is not yet economical, where the biodiesel cost from microalgae is still high compared to petroleum diesel, which is associated from the down-streaming cost. The green extraction and reaction processes could be viable and utilization of the proteins in the leftover biomass pharmaceutical and food applications could justify such high costly processes. Extraction of microalgae lipids using green solvents; such as supercritical CO2 and ionic liquids eliminates the need for using toxic organic chemicals. Moreover, integrating microalgae lipids extraction with enzymatic transesterification in one unit renders the use of such expensive process. However, these still needs extensive studies and developments before being commercialized. Such researches could lead to a major development in sustainable biodiesel production, especially if the leftover biomass can be used for pharmaceutical applications.
Vidya P. Kafle
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: Development of hybrid energy system by steady state energy balance simulation approach for Phungling Bazar in Taplejung, Nepal
Biography:
Vidya P. Kafle works at the Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. His research interests include development of hybrid renewable energy systems.
Abstract:
Dilute and random nature of renewable energy resources forms the basis of hybridization. A hybrid renewable energy system serves its best when optimized with appropriate dispatch strategy. This paper presents the optimization of hybrid renewable energy system based on steady state energy balance simulation approach with a combined dispatch strategy that results in an optimum combination of components guaranteeing the minimum levelized cost of energy for a given maximum allowable annual capacity shortage. The proposed approach of optimization is written in the Java programming language that allows easy handling of the data and constraints and also supports multithreading. It implicitly determines the penetration of the resources based on the annualized life cycle cost of net energy contributed, hence there is no worry regarding the feasibility of a particular resource. Also, demand constraint considered for battery, genset and other components of the system aims at reduction of unnecessary energy generation and conversion thereby reducing the components’ size, O&M cost and human involvement and finally the cost of energy. A build-lease-transfer model of community bio-digester is also proposed which is found to drastically cut down the fuel cost and hence cost of energy along with the cost of waste management, finally benefiting the community.
Mohammad Ashraful Alam
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Title: Nanoparticles characterization for biodiesel in internal combustion engine
Biography:
Mohammad Ashraful Alam works at Centre for energy science, department of mechanical engineering, University of Malaya, Malaysia. His areas of interest include combustion and fuel engineering(Internal combustion engine), Biofuel, Biolubricant, NGV, Exhaust Emission, and HCCI and EGR system.
Abstract:
A comparative morphological analysis was performed on the exhaust particles emitted from a DI diesel engine using different blending-ratios of palm biodiesel. In this study, several operating condition modes have been set under two constant loads 25% and 50% and constant speed of 2420 rpm. Biodiesel has selected due to its properties to reduce the amount of particulate matter from the exhaust emission of the engine. It has been observed by this experiment that particulate matter & particulate matter concentration are reduced with respect to diesel fuel at 25% load condition. The particle size for each fuel blends increased with an increasing the engine load. Palm biodiesel are less effective for formation of soot precursors than the diesel fuel combustion. The amount of volatile material produced from the biodiesel samples is slightly less than the volatile material produce from the diesel fuel sample. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) showed that the amount of volatile material in the soot from biodiesel fuels was slightly lower (10.8%) than that of diesel fuel. On the other hand, the amount of fixed carbon from the biodiesel samples was slightly higher than that of diesel fuel. Similarly, Ash content increased with the increasing biodiesel content in the fuel blends. The amount of carbon percentage emitted from the diesel engine exhaust using bodiesel increased (by 0.85% to 10% respectively) with an increasing ratio of biodiesel to diesel fuel, while the metal composition of the exhaust gases was increasing at between 4.8% to 26.5% respectively. Finally, comparing between SEM images of diesel, B20 and B40, was found more particles in diesel exhaust and it was gradually decreased with an increasing biodiesel concentration in the diesel fuel.
Ayodeji Oluleye
Federal University of Technology, Nigeria
Title: Wind energy density in Nigeria as estimated from the ERA interim reanalysed data set
Biography:
Ayodeji Oluleye is a lecturer at the Department of Meteorology, School of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Nigeria. His areas of interest include Industrial pollution modelling and climate change detection.
Abstract:
Inadequate power generation from hydro and fossil fuel electrical power stations in Nigeria demands seeking additional sources of power generation. This study focuses on wind source with the aim to determine suitable locations for commercial wind farms. Using reanalysed wind speeds data from European Reanalysis project (ERA interim), wind speeds at the turbine height of 70 m have been estimated for 39 stations over Nigeria. Because local surface features of each station have strong effect on wind speeds, profile of wind has been estimated by taking into account the surface albedo, cloud cover and atmospheric stability functions. By using the two - parameter Weibull function, this study has delineated area (stations) characterised by persistent wind flows adequate for commercial electrical power generation. Calculated usable electrical output from General Electric 1.5xle type turbine in the identified potential areas ranges between 2.5 and 11.3 MW in southern station of Lagos, whereas in the northern windy stations usable electrical power ranges between 4.79 and 11.04 MW.
Ahmad Mardi
International Vision for Energy and Recycling/ University of Surrey,UK
Title: Optimization of the fischer tropsch process for the Gasification of MSW
Biography:
Ahmad Mardi is a Holder and Shareholder in International Vision for Energy and Recycling (IVER). He holds a Master’s degree in Renewable Energy Systems Engineering from the University of Surrey in England, he specializes in the production of fuels from wastes and he is currently pursuing PhD at the Technical University of Berlin. He is a Renewable Energy Entrepaneur who lead the development and operation of several of IVER’s renewable energy projects inclusive of a pyrolysis plant, a biodiesel production facility and a 50 MW wind farm. He has extensive international experience in the industry through strategic partnerships with Canadian, British, American, Chinese and European companies.
Abstract:
The gasification of waste to produce biofuels through the Fischer Tropsch method is a technology with significant potential. The advantages of this technology is that it can accommodate a variety of waste materials to produce syngas. This syngas is then converted into fuels via the Fischer Tropsch method through reactions involving. The aim of this work is to optimize the gasification process to accommodate a feedstock variable in composition such as municipal solid waste to produce biofuels. Syngas composition will vary when processing MSW since the composition is inclusive of food wastes, paper, plastics, etc., at variables percentages. Therefore a reforming process to optimize the H2: CO ratio is required to maximize the efficiency of the process. The cost or method of reforming or reacting the syngas will play a crucial role on the economic viability of the process. The syngas is then passed to the Fischer Tropsch reactor in which reactions take place over a catalyst of either iron, cobalt or ruthenium depending on the H2: CO ratio and the desired end product.
Wombo N.P
Federal University Lafia, Nigeria
Title: Comparative characterization of biomass-refuse derived composite briquettes for energy generation
Biography:
Wombo N Patience works in Department of Chemistry at Federal University Lafia, Nigeria. Her research interests include biomass derived energy.
Abstract:
Establishing a sustainable renewable energy system is a challenge to most developing countries. There has been a consistent budgetary and policy initiatives to boost power generation but without significant outcomes. Various kinds of energy generation systems exist but for a viable approach, it has to be renewable and sustainable. Proven technology has shown that for most developing countries, hydrothermal, solar, wind and biomass alternatives are the best options while geothermal, tidal and nuclear alternatives are feasible options for the technologically developed countries. Emerging technologies options to power generation is the establishment of pockets of steam driven turbine electricity generators using co-firing i.e., involving combustion of coal and biomass as fuel. In this work, briquettes made as composites from the combination of waste materials (cocoa pod, palm kernel shell, rice husk, kola nut pod, castor seed shells and refuse derived fuel (RDF) materials like waste paper, discarded textile materials and waste plastic bags and containers) and tar sand are used as fuel in a locally designed and fabricated electricity generator housing a turbine system. The briquettes are characterized by determining the ultimate analysis, ash fusion temperature, volatile matter, fixed carbon, heavy metal composition, calorific value, bulk density, moisture content and Chlorine and Alkali contents. Compressive strength, particle size of component materials as well as combustion and ignition temperatures was also determined. Using Design of Experiment (DOE) software, optimal material composition ratio for optimization of the production of briquette was carried out. The results present to the scientific and industrial world an optimized composite material for use in cottage/pocket turbine driven energy generating systems. This is expected to boost the supply of electrical energy to the rural populace and the excess power can be fed into the national grid.
Noboru Yoshida
Wakayama University, Japan
Title: Biomass energy recovery by linkage of waste incinerators and sewage treatment plants
Biography:
Noboru Yoshida is a professor at Department of Environmental Systems in Faculty of Systems Engineering, Wakayama University. He received his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering at Osaka University in 1997. He served as a specially appointed professor of the Research Institute for Sustainability Science, Osaka University in 2007-2009. His research interests include industrial ecology, energy and material flow analysis, etc.
Abstract:
Waste-related biomass is one of stably procurable renewable energy resources. Energy recovery from environmental infrastructure, such as waste incinerator and sewage system, is one of key issues for considering eco-industrial development. Therefore, this study aims at maximization of biomass energy recovery from the waste by collaboration of sewage sludge treatment plants and municipal waste incinerators under future society constraints, such as low-carbon society and population decline in Japan. In this study, nationwide nearly 1800 sewage sludge plants and nearly 900 municipal waste incinerators were firstly categorized in the context of location, scale, construction year, installed energy recovery equipment, etc. Secondly, available technological and societal inventories were extracted, including combustion of sewage sludge with municipal waste incinerator and newly developed dry-type methane fermentation, with respect to material and energy exchanges, mutual exploitation of equipment, integration of processes and sectors, etc. Finally possible energy recovery amount and carbon dioxide reduction were examined through various collaboration scenarios in consideration of difficulty of alternative technology and social systems, with short-term, mid-term, and long-term scales. As a result of the analysis, we clarified that strategic expansion of surrounding intensive energy demand as well as technology innovation were effective to improve efficiency of energy recovery both in urban and rural areas with respect to dynamics of target population for environmental infrastructures, especially in Japan, where significant population decline were concerned in the long term.
Nima Moazami
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Title: Modelling and optimization study of fischer-tropsch synthesis for diesel production
Biography:
Nima Moazami has completed his MEng in July 2011 at the age of 22 years in Mechanical Engineering by achieving First-Class Honours from The University of Birmingham in UK. He has been awarded ‘The University of Birmingham School Scholarship’ to fund his Ph.D. research with supervision from Prof. Miroslaw L Wyszynski since November 2011. Now, he is in Ph.D. writing up stage and is working partly as a postgraduate teaching associate in different subjects such as thermodynamics, heat transfer, biofuel and combustion. He is editorial assistant in Biofuels Engineering journal (De Gruyter) and holding a responsibility of tutoring in mathematics support centre at The University of Birmingham.
Abstract:
Biofuel is considered as a relevant technology for both developing and industrialized countries due to the sustainability and environmental issues, impacts on energy security, and socioeconomic concerns related to the rural sector. Diesel produced from biomass by Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis shows a great potential for the production of environment friendly high-quality transportation fuels. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis’ products are excellent high-performance, clean diesel fuels; due to the absence of sulphur, NOx and their aromatic compounds. The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis consists of a three-phase phenomenon: gaseous phase (syngas, water vapor, carbon dioxide and light hydrocarbons); liquid phase (heavy hydrocarbons); solid phase (catalyst). A two-phase heterogeneous gas-liquid flow model was developed to simulate a fixed bed Fischer-Tropsch reactor. In this study, the main objective was to optimize the process conditions to achieve the maximum yield of desired products (i.e. diesel fuels) and to reduce the rate of production of unwanted CO2 and CH4. A mathematical modeling and chemical kinetics study were carried out for both gaseous and liquid production using simulated N2-rich syngas (17% CO, 33% H2 and 50% N2). The experiments were conducted over an in-house 37% Co-based catalyst on a SiO2 support over a wide range of operating conditions (i.e. temperature of 503-543 K, total pressure of 10-25 bar and WHSV of 1.8-3.6 NL gcat-1 h-1). The chemical reaction kinetics were developed for the total paraffins and olefins’ production of each carbon number in both gaseous and liquid phase with a comprehensive product distribution scheme. The model was based on a carbon number dependent chain growth concept and stoichiometric relationship between the hydrocarbons produced and the syngas converted. The product distribution obtained from the model includes the light hydrocarbons CH4, ethene (C2H4) and ethane (C2H6), LPG (C3-C4), gasoline (C5-C12), diesel fuel (C12-C22), and waxes (C23+). The rate of syngas conversion (i.e. CO and H2¬) was developed by using a Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) rate expression. The water gas shift reaction was also taken into account in order to simulate the rate of change of CO2 species along the reactor bed length. The kinetic parameters and the physical properties were estimated by fitting the experimental data under a variety of operating conditions using advance Global Optimization technique. The accuracy of model relative to the experimental results was determined by the statistical analyses, quantitatively (i.e. using a mean absolute relative residual (MARR) and F-test method) and qualitatively (i.e. using a party diagram). The simulated values of the reactants’ conversion and products’ selectivity were in good agreement with the experimental data. It was found that the temperature, gas flow rate (per unit mass of catalyst) and H2/CO ratio are the significant operating conditions that affect the syngas conversion and the entire product distribution, specially the liquid production rate.
- Track 2: Renewable Energy Systems & Sources (RESS)
Track 6: Energy Network
Track 3: Energy Storage
Session Introduction
G.N.Tiwari
Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, India
Title: Annual performance of partially covered photovoltaic thermal flat plate collectors connected in series
Biography:
G. N. Tiwari is Professor in Centre for energy studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. He had received postgraduate and doctoral degrees in 1972 and 1976, respectively, from Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U). Ever since 1977, he has been actively involved in the teaching program at Centre for Energy Studies, IIT Delhi. His research interest in the field of Solar Energy Applications are solar distillation, water/air heating system, greenhouse technology for agriculture as well as for aquaculture, Earth to air heat exchanger, passive building design and hybrid photovoltaic thermal (HPVT) systems, climate change, energy security, etc. He has guided about 80 Ph.D. students and published over 600 research papers in journals of repute. He is recipient of National Hari Om Ashram Prerit S.S. Bhatnagar Award in 1982 for his seminal contribution in the field of solar distillation. He had been to the University of Papua, New Guinea in 1987-1989 as Energy and Environment Expert. He is responsible for development of "Solar Energy Park" at IIT Delhi and Energy Laboratory at University of Papua, New Guinea, Port Moresby. He has successfully co-coordinated various research projects on solar distillation, solar water heating system, Greenhouse technology, hybrid photovoltaic thermal (HPVT) and Building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BiPVT) system etc. funded by Govt. of India in recent past.
Abstract:
The performance of series connected tube in plate flat plate water collectors partially covered by the photovoltaic module has been evaluated on annual basis. The system consists of 5 partially covered photovoltaic thermal (PVT) water collectors having 2 m2 area. The annual energy has been estimated by considering all types of weather conditions for New Delhi India. The solar radiation data provided by Indian meteorological department (IMD, Pune) has been used for computing the annual energy. The overall thermal energy and exergy saved by the system are estimated as 10 MWh and 0.887 MWh respectively. The carbon credit earned by the system in a year on overall thermal energy basis is found to be USD 296.1 and on exergy basis it is USD 26.2. The energy payback time on overall thermal basis and exergy basis was found to be 1.6 years and 17.8 years respectively.
Qin Ma
South Dakota State University, USA
Title: Genome-scale identification of cell-wall related genes in switchgrass through comparative genomics and computational analyses of transcriptomic data
Biography:
Qin Ma is an assistant professor in Plant Science department at South Dakota State University. He was trained as a mathematician with a Ph.D. in operations research (focusing on graphical modeling and combinatorial optimization); and has been working in a bioinformatics lab in the past six years, initially as a visiting student, then as a postdoc and now a research assistant scientist. Hence, he views himself as a well-trained bioinformatics researcher and computational modeler of biological data and systems. His technical strength is in developing combinatorial optimization techniques and data mining and modeling with the advent of high-throughput Omics technologies. Until now, he has published 25 papers on reputed bioinformatic journals; and have gained substantial experience in developing and applying advanced software techniques / web databases in carrying out my own bioinformatics research in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic areas.
Abstract:
Substantial efforts have been invested in the past two decades into identification of plant cell-wall (PCW) related genes in several genomes, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa (rice) and Zea mays (maize), having led to large pools of predicted PCW genes in these organisms. However, no such gene list has been identified in the bioenergy crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Here we present a computational study for prediction of PCW genes in switchgrass using a two-step procedure: (i) homology mapping of all annotated PCW genes in these three organisms to switchgrass, giving rise to the initial list of 991 genes; and (ii) candidate selection from the 991 mapped genes based on co-expression analyses of transcriptomic, which leads to the identification of 104 large groups of co-expressed genes each under a sufficiently large number of conditions, referred to as co-expression modules (CEMs), which cover 830 genes, and represent our initial PCW genes in switchgrass. We then extended this co-expression analysis to include all the switchgrass genes, and found additional 847 genes that are strongly co-expressed with some of the 104 CEMs, hence also predicted as PCW genes, 123 of the predicted genes are homologous to predicted PCW genes in Arabidopsis.
Biography:
Godwin.C.Onyedim is a professor at the faculty of sciences, department of Computer Science/Physics/Mathematics and Statistics at Federal University, Otuoke. His research interests include site characterization using geophysical (electrical, seismic and magnetic) methods,investigation of groundwater pollution in coastal areas and applications of high resolution aeromagnetics in reconnaissance geophysical surveys. Fracture mapping using geophysical and remote sensing data for oil, groundwater, mineral exploration and ground stability investigations and remote sensing and GIS applications to environmental pollution and remediation studies are few more areas of his interest.
Abstract:
The Curie Point Depth (CPD), sedimentary thicknesses and heat flow maps of parts of the Chad basin, Nigeria were generated through the analysis of radial log power spectral of twenty-five overlapping square blocks of high resolution aeromagnetic data (HRAD). This was with a view to appraising the geothermal and hydrocarbon potential of the study area. 2D forward modeling of profiles across the CPD map and the anomalous zones of the Reduced-to-the-Equator map of the HRAD was carried out to obtain five models of the magnetic crust in the study area. The magnetic anomalies trend mainly in the NE¬-SW, E-W and ENE-WSW directions for which the NE-SW orientation predominated. The CPDs range between 3.0 km and 16.7 km. Shallow CPD (<3.5 km) zones were identified at the extreme edges of the north-western and south-western portions. The sedimentary thicknesses in the study area ranged between 1 km and 3 km. The geothermal gradient varies between 34° C/km and 173° C/km and heat flow between 87 and 446 mW/m2 indicating high vertical temperature gradients and geothermal heat flow in parts of the Chad basin. The high heat flow zones situated at the extreme edge of the north-western and south-western parts of the study area are likely to constitute valuable geothermal resources. The magnetic forward models revealed the variation of the basement topography with smoother Curie point isotherm level and the presence of sub-basins in the study area. Basement rocks in regions of shallow CPD were found to have richer magnetic contents than those in regions of deep CPD. The study concludes that dry oil wells encountered in the Nigerian sector of the Chad basin in the past could have been the consequence of prevailing high magnitude of geothermal heat flow (>200 nQ/m2) resulting from shallow depths to the Curie isotherm in various parts of the study area.
R.K.Mishra
Hi-Tech Institute of Engineering and Technology, India
Title: Energy matrices and carbon credit earned for a semitransparent photovoltaic thermal (SPVT) water collector under constant collection temperature mode
Biography:
Rajeev Kumar Mishra received Bachelor of Science degree (B.Sc) with Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in 2003 and Master of Science degree (M.Sc.) in Physics from University of Allahabad, Allahabad, UP, India in 2005. He received Master of Technology degree (M. Tech.) in Material Science and Technology from IIT-BHU, Varanasi, India in 2008. He received PhD degree in 2014 from IIT Delhi in the area of Solar Energy. His areas of interest are material science in engineering, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, solar cell materials, solar distillation, solar water/air heating system, hybrid photovoltaic thermal (HPVT) systems etc. He attended and presented several research papers in International conferences in India and in other countries namely Sweden, Spain, Ireland. Dr. Mishra has worked for six months during January, 2013 to June, 2103 as a research fellow in Dublin Energy Lab, Dublin, Ireland under prestigious Government of Ireland, DIT Fiosraigh International Scholarships scheme. He has authored a book titled "Advanced Renewable Energy Sources" published by RSC Publishing, Cambridge, UK. He worked as the convener in the "International Conference on Energy Security, Global Warming and Sustainable Climate" SOLARIS-2012, held in BHU, Varanasi during 7-9, February, 2012. From July, 2014 he is working as assistant professor and associate HOD in the department of Mechanical engineering, Hi-Tech Institute of Engineering and Technology Ghaziabad, India.
Abstract:
In this communication, energy matrices of semitransparent photovoltaic thermal (SPVT) water collector has been evaluated for two different configurations namely collectors partially (Case A) and fully (Case B) covered by PV modules. The study has been carried out under constant collection temperature mode for industrial applications based on overall thermal energy and exergy output of SPVT water collector. Total carbon credit earned by SPVT water collector has also been evaluated. It has been observed that the energy payback time (EPBT) and energy production factor (EPF) are lower and higher respectively for partially covered SPVT water collector (case A). This can be considered as the best option in comparison with fully covered SPVT water collector (case B) from thermal energy point of view. Further unit cost of thermal energy and exergy is reduced by about 5% due to effect of carbon credits earned.
Joseph Zeaiter
American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Title: Design of an automated solar reactor for the pyrolysis of waste rubber to fuel and petrochemicals
Biography:
Dr. Joseph Zeaiter received his BE in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney in 1998. He then obtained a PhD in process systems engineering from the same university in 2003. After his graduation, Dr. Zeaiter joined the process industry, as an advanced process control lead engineer/senior consultant working on projects in oil and gas, petrochemicals, power plants and mining. He worked for Invensys (now Schneider Electric) in APAC and GCC regions and with Process Systems Enterprise in their London office. In 2010, Dr. Zeaiter returned to academia and joined the department of petroleum and chemical engineering at the American University of Beirut. He is currently an assistant professor at AUB and his research interests are centered on the conversion of municipal solid waste (plastic and rubber) into fuel and chemicals. Dr. Zeaiter has more than twenty publications (journal and conference papers) in the areas of pyrolysis, advanced control, process modeling and optimization of polymerization reactors.
Abstract:
An automated solar reactor system was designed and built to carry out catalytic pyrolysis of waste rubber tires at 550° C. To maximize solar energy concentration, a two degrees-of-freedom automated sun tracking system was developed and implemented. Both the azimuth and zenith angles were controlled via feedback from six photo-resistors positioned on a Fresnel lens. The pyrolysis of waste rubber was tested with the presence of two types of acidic catalysts, H-beta and H-USY. Additionally, a photoactive TiO2 catalyst was used and the products were compared in terms of gas yields and composition. The catalysts were characterized by BET analysis and the pyrolysis gases and liquids were analyzed using GC-MS. The oil and gas yields were relatively high with the highest gas yield reaching 32.8% with H-beta catalyst while TiO2 gave the same results as thermal pyrolysis without any catalyst. The dominant gaseous components in the presence of zeolites were propene and cyclobutene. The TiO2 and non-catalytic experiments produced a gas product of mainly isoprene (76.4% and 88.4% respectively). As for the liquids they were composed of numerous components spread over a wide distribution of C10 to C29 hydrocarbons of naphthalene and cyclohexane/ene derivatives.
Youngmin Woo
Korea Institute of Energy Research, Republic of Korea
Title: Regarding on the gasoline equivalent fuel economy of the electric vehicles
Biography:
Youngmin Woo has completed his PhD in 2007 from KAIST. He is a Senior Researcher at Korea Institute of Energy Research, a Government funded research organization. He has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals and his expertise lies in the internal combustion engines and alternative fuels including vehicular testing and assessments.
Abstract:
Energy consumption of an EV (Electric vehicle) can be compared with that of gasoline vehicles by EPA MPGe (Miles per gallon gasoline equivalent) ratings. However, the MPGe is flawed and gives much too big value since it is based on the equivalence of electric energy to the lower calorific value of gasoline fuel that is 8.905 kWh per L. Thus, the big values in the fuel economy labels of the EVs need to be corrected to give more reasonable values in accounting that the losses from batteries, inverters, motors and additional inefficiencies in real world driving just like in the thermal vehicles. As a result, a real world driving of a PHEV (Plug-in hybrid vehicle) gives an energy equivalence of 4.701 kWh per L gasoline that is only 52.8% of the original value in the calorific value consideration. The loss in the charging was about 10% and that in the PHEV fuel economy test was about 28%. Thus, remaining loss 20% is ascribed to the inefficiency from the vehicular losses.
Jae Hyun Kim
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology, Republic of Korea
Title: Li4Ti5O12 based material as high performance electrode for lithium ion batteries and hybrid super- capacitor
Biography:
Kim completed his doctorate in materials science and engineering with magnetic semiconductor and device at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2003. He focused on the new material synthesis by pulsed laser deposition and its application to devices and characterization of the materials by high resolution transmission microscopy. After his development and characterization of new materials, he joined LG. Philips LCD as senior research engineer, where he directed design and process development of TFT-LCD TV panel in 2003 ~ 2005. He opened new area for large TFT-LCD TV by optimizing the design of TFT and CF glass. He also contributed to reduction of fraction defective by innovative improvement of process window in liquid crystal drop. He moved to Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in 2005. He developed new device structure for organic thin film transistor of high performance. He has directed his research to fabrication of various one-dimensional Si nano/micro structures by electrochemical etching and noble metal catalytic etching. He is devoting to improving the efficiency of radial p-n junction solar cell by using one-dimensional Si wire arrays and is also developing the wire array transfer technique onto other substrate. He is doing research on anode materials including Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) based materials, Si nanowires. He is also studying the enhancement of electrochemical performance of the hybrid supercapacitor. Concurrently, Dr Kim is interested in unified device of combining various renewable energy source elements.
Abstract:
Spinel Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) has been considered one of excellent materials to improve and reinforce the weak points of conventional carbon anode material. It has advantages of negligible structural change during the charge/discharge process, good Li+ diffusion channels due to 3-dimensional structure, and no formation of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). However, LTO has low conductivity. In order to overcome this drawback, doping with anions and cations, coating with metal and oxide, and making composite with other materials. In doping method, most of studies have been focused on single doping material. In this study, we tried co-doping of two different elements. The combination of materials was over 300 pairs. We found the best doping combination. To improve the cycle performance even more, we coated ZnO, Al2O3, Al-doped ZnO of several nm on the surface of LTO electrode using atomic layer deposition. We also introduce the application of LTO to hybrid super capacitor. The effect of various LTOs that was fabricated on different process conditions on electrochemical performance of hybrid super capacitor will be discussed.
Edith I Madukasi
Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi, Nigeria
Title: Co-densification of coating sludge as alternative energy source
Biography:
Edith I Madukasi has completed her PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin China and about to under take a Postdoctoral studies at University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa in Waste Management. She is the Agricultural Deputy Director of Environmental Technology Division of the Foremost Research Institution in Nigeria. She has published more than 15 papers in reputed peer reviewed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.
Abstract:
A solid burnable fuel composite containing high proportion of dehydrated sludge (60% dried sludge) is presented. Thermo-chemical analyses of coating sludge showed heating and energy values to be 27.88 and 13.20 MJ/kg indicating possible use as fuel source. However, high contents of lead and zinc (2.4 and 38.8 mg/L) depicted deleterious oxides emissions. Hence sludge was pre-treated prior to co-densification with mixed paper waste (MPW). Chemically leached sludge with 5M HNO3 at pH 1.5 recorded maximum lead reductions (below detectable limit), zinc recorded 87.6% reduction. Sludge-paper fire-log glowed with red hot, limited smoke and improved ash content during bench combustibility test.
Deepali Atheaya
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: Exergy analysis of an inverted photovoltaic thermal compound parabolic concentrator (IPVT-CPC) water collector
Biography:
Deepali Atheaya is a PhD research scholar since 2013 at Center for energy studies, Indian institute of Delhi, India. She has completed her B.Sc (Engineering) in Mechanical Engg. from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., India. She did her M. Tech in Industrial & Production Engineering from the same university. She has about 10 years of teaching experience in thermodynamics, manufacturing processes and production engineering subjects, renewable energy resources etc.
Abstract:
There is an acute shortage of fossil fuel supply in the present world. Solar energy utilization is one way by which this problem of energy shortage can be tackled. Therefore, a novel design of inverted photovoltaic thermal compound parabolic concentrator (IPVT-CPC) is proposed. The thermal modeling of IPVT-CPC system was performed. MATLAB 2010a software was used to investigate the exergy of the system. The exergy analysis was carried out to evaluate the system performance. This IPVT-CPC system was then compared with normal PVT-CPC system. Integration of the photovoltaic thermal system was done with a compound parabolic concentrator and an inverted absorber and the combined IPVT-CPC system formed have been found to have increased overall exergy efficiency. Further, the analytical expression for the temperature dependent electrical efficiency has been developed and the results obtained were analyzed by MATLAB2010a. It was observed that IPVT-CPC system performance is better than the PVT-CPC system.
Arjun Deo
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: Design and performance evaluation of a virtual grid-connected photovoltaic system in Indian climatic conditions
Biography:
Arjun Deo has completed his Master of Technology (MTech) degree in Energy Studies from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India in 2013. After completing his Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree in electrical and electronics engineering in 2008, he has a 3 years teaching experience at graduate level engineering programme in electrical engineering. Presently, he is pursuing his PhD degree at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. He has published three research papers in reputed international journals and many conference papers of national and international repute. His areas of research interest are photovoltaic systems, economics and planning, carbon trading and electrical Engineering.
Abstract:
Present study deals with the design and performance evaluation of photovoltaic (PV) system connected with virtual grid. Analysis has been done by monitoring 500 WP crystalline photovoltaic systems mounted on inclined structure at flat roof of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India. The system was monitored for one year using linear and non linear load at 220 V, 50 Hz. Daily, monthly and annually performance parameters of the PV system are evaluated which include: Average generated electrical energy (kWh), different efficiencies (system efficiency, inverter efficiency etc.), average power output, performance ratio, capacity factor, yields and losses. The average electrical energy generated was 3.75 kWh per day per kWp for the average solar radiation 5.4 kWh per day per unit area. The average module efficiency, system efficiency and inverter efficiency were 10.8%, 8.5% and 94.8% respectively. The average final yield in outdoor test condition was 3.1 kWh per day per kWp. The Performance ratio of the system per month was 63.27 with 12.9% capacity factor. The average temperature losses, capture losses and system losses were 0.26, 0.73 and 1.06 hour/day respectively.
Jasleen Bhatti
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: Exergy analysis of flat plate collector integrated biogas plant
Biography:
Jasleen Bhatti is a PhD research scholar since 2011 at Centre for energy studies, Indian institute of technology Delhi, India. She has completed her B.Sc (Hons) Chemistry from Delhi University, Delhi, India. She did her M.Sc in Analytical Chemistry from Agra University. She has over 4 years of experience in industrial research and operations and has another 4 years of experience solely in the research field of solar energy and its applications, photovoltaic thermal integrated systems, development of biogas technology.
Abstract:
There has been a worldwide increase in the demand for energy. The major part of this energy demand is being met by the combustion of fossil fuels which has resulted in their price rise. The utilization of fossil fuels has also put across pressing challenges to the society like climate change, pollution and public health hazards, and energy poverty; making the greening of the energy sector an imperative change. It has long been recognized that the sunlight falling on the earth’s surface is more than adequate to supply all the energy that human activity requires. Therefore, in this communication, an analytical expression for slurry temperature (Ts) for an active N- flat plate collector's (N-FPC's) integrated biogas plant has been derived for conducting exergy analysis. The calculations were performed by using MATLAB 2010a. In this study, it was found that the maximum annual exergy for flat plate collector and slurry were obtained for the months of June and July. The influences of various design parameters such as the mass of the slurry (Ms), the length of the collector pipe (L), the number of collectors in series (N) and the mass flow rate of the slurry ; on slurry temperature has been studied for an optimum slurry temperature ( ). Further the above parameters have also been optimised to design an active system for the heating of the slurry. This flat plate collector integrated biogas plant has been observed to be self sustainable and showed a superior performance as compared to a simple biogas plant.
Verónica Benavente
University of Alicante, Spain
Title: Hydrothermal carbonization of olive mill waste: effect of the olive oil load on the hydrochar properties
Biography:
Verónica Benavente obtained her degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Alicante in 2012. She received a master of Materials Science from the University Materials Science Institute of Alicante (IUMA) in 2013 and, recently, a master of Renewable Energies form the Miguel Hernández University of Elche in March 2015. Currently, she is a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at University Institute of Chemical Process Engineering of Alicante (IIPQ), where she has been working since 2010; first, conducting research in the field of polymer processing at the research group “Polymer, Pyrolysis and Combustion”; lately, conducting research toward the doctoral degree in the field of waste treatment at the research group “Waste, Energy, Environmental and Nanotechnology” (REMAN). Her research focuses on the upgrading of agro-industrial wastes via torrefaction and hydrothermal carbonization to make them suitable for energy generation.
Abstract:
The Mediterranean region is currently responsible for a large proportion of the olive oil production worldwide. Spain, Italy, Turkey and Greece are the main producer countries and supplied almost the 80% of the total olive oil produced during the 2013-2014 campaign. The main process used to produce olive oil is a two-phase centrifugation method, which is a relatively new process that solves many issues with the three-phase method: reduces the amount of process water, the energy requirements and the volume of waste generated and improves the quality of the olive oil produced. However, this technology generates a new waste known locally as ‘alperujo’ or two-phase olive mill waste (TPOMW), which is a high polluting by-product that, in addition, has a very high moisture content(>65%). Likewise, depending on the origin, the TPOMW still contains variable olive oil loadings. Current technologies are insufficient in treating this waste and a specific management regarding minimization, valorization and mitigation of their environmental impact is needed. This work focuses on the development of a possible treatment method: the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of TPOMW to produce bioenergy feedstocks. Hydrothermal carbonization is a wet thermochemical treatment technique that takesplace in a sealed reactor, where several complex reactions occur to produce a carbon-enriched solid more suitable for energy generation (HTC-char). As the moist waste is heated, the water is evaporated producing autogenous pressure that holds the rest of the water in the liquid phase and, consequently, prevents large amounts of energy being wasted evaporating water. Other pyrolysis processes require a dry feed; HTC reduces the energetic requirements to treat the TPOMW as the water must not be eliminated before this technology. In this work the influence of the initial olive oil loading on the physical and chemical properties of the HTC-char produced form TPOMW was evaluated. Fresh TPOMW was dried at 105º C during 24 h and then the remaining olive oil was totally extracted by accelerate solvent extraction (ASE) with hexane. Afterwards, mixtures of dry and extracted TPOMW (DE-TPOMW), olive oil (OO) and deionized water (DW) were prepared with different ratios (see Table 1). Experiments of HTC were conducted in a high pressure reactor with an internal volume of 1 Lat 225ºC and residence time of 2 hours. Figure 1 shows the diagram flow of the experimental procedure. Finally, several analysis techniques were used to characterize the HTC-char. It was found that after the HTC treatment the olive oil mainly remains in the HTC-char and, consequently, contributes to enhance the global heating value of the solid by approximately 12%. Other characteristics like the solid yield (%) and the hydrophobic properties also improved as the olive oil content in the previous mixtures increased. Thus, on the one hand, the solid yield rose from 50 to over 58% and, on the other, the dewatering of the HTC-chars by mechanical filtration was greaterwith increasing OO. As a result, the moisture content of the HTC-chars after filtration considerably decreased. Therefore, it could be concluded that HTC is deemed to be an effective treatment of TPOMW that will be more beneficial to produce bioenergy feedstocks as the amount of olive oil retained in the raw TPOMW increases.
Preshanthan Moodley
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Title: Comparative study of dilute acid pretreatment techniques for fermentable sugar production from sugarcane leaves (Saccharum officinarum)
Biography:
Preshanthan Moodley is a Master’s of Science student studying microbiology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He obtained his B.Sc degree in 2013 majoring in microbiology and biochemistry and has also obtained his BA Honors degree in film-making in 2009. Currently, his area of research includes biofuel production from pre-treated agricultural waste residues while focusing on bio hydrogen from sugarcane leaves. His interest in this field made it possible for his honors thesis to be published in a reputable international journal. His future research interests include expanding upon different biofuels such as methane and ethanol.
Abstract:
Agricultural biomass such as sugarcane leaves are a potential feedstock for biofuel production. Annually, approximately 1.6 billion tons of sugarcane is produced and the leaves are disposed either by landfill dumping or burning which has serious repercussions for the environment. This paper examines the pattern of release of xylose and glucose from sugarcane leaves subjected to various acidic pre-treatment regimes of HCl, H2SO4 and HNO3 under varied input parameters of acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio, treatment time and temperature. The Response Surface Methodology was used to generate six process models for xylose and glucose prediction with respect to the acid type. The Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that all models were significant with coefficients of determination (R2) ranging between 0.78 and 0.93. Process optimization using the developed models and experimental validation gave xylose and glucose yields of 78g/L and 11.48g/L, 50.75g/L and 7.15g/L, 30.82g/L and 3.99g/L for HCl, H2SO4 and HNO3 based pre-treatment respectively. Thus HCl based pre-treatment with acid concentration of 4.90%, solid to liquid ratio of 47.26%, treatment time of 84 minutes and temperature at 99oC gave the highest yield of fermentable sugars with a xylose to glucose ratio of 6.8: 1. These data showed a significant improvement with a 15 fold increase in xylose and glucose compared to previous studies and highlights the suitability of sugarcane leaves as an excellent source of fermentable sugars for the production of biofuels.
Diana Sánchez-Herrera
Universidad Veracruzana, México
Title: Lignocellulosic residues and its viability as a green source for biogas generation
Biography:
Diana Sánchez from México received her Bsc. in Biology from the Universidad Veracruzana and holds an MSc degree in Renewable Energy from the CICY research center (2009-2011). She was working with the development of a microbial fuel cell for the generation of bioelectricity with synthetic waste water, evaluating the system by electrochemical analysis (CV, EIS) and the characterization of the biofilm an anolyte developed in the anode in different stages of the bio electrochemical system. Currently she is a PhD student in the multidisciplinary program of Tropical Ecology at the CITRO research center belonging to the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico. Her PhD research topic focuses on the evaluation of the methane generation potential of the sugarcane straw, by the implementation of liquid hot water and enzymes as pretreatment of this biomass. This agricultural waste has no current use and represents a harmful residue to the environment due to the traditional practice of its burning on the fields. She already published one scientific paper awhile other research activities were under review.
Abstract:
The global energy demand has been increasing over the years mainly by the exponential growing of the worldwide population and their technological demands. With these demands we must take into consideration that their resolution through the use of fossil fuels as the main source of energy has several repercussions not only for the environment but for ourselves. Thus, many alternative energies have been proposed as a possible solution with the distinctive plus of been environmental friendly. One of the main concerns in this matter is the selected source for developing the desired green energy. The current utilization of grains like Sorghum, corn, soya or other seeds rich on oil or sugars have as a main disadvantage the utilization of food services which are necessary to the common good. On this matter, we want to discuss the application of lignocellulosic residues as a green source for the generation of biogas. It is considered that the lignocellulosic residues are the most abundant, widely distributed and less currently use in other type of activities coming to generate up to 200 billion tons per year. These key characteristics make them a suitable candidate for the generation of an inexpensive alternative energy as the biogas. In this conference we will make an approach of the main characteristics of these residues, its structural complexity and the main treatment technologies to overcome that complexity in order to increase the biogas yields.
Marco Ravina
Politecnico di Torino,Italy
Title: Global and local emissions of a biogas plant considering the production of biomethane as an alternative end-use solution
Biography:
Marco Ravina is a PhD student at Land, Environment and Infrastructure Department in Turin Polytechnic, Italy. He has recently published his first paper on environmental sustainability of energy systems. He is working on a project on global and local environmental assessment of district heating network in the Turin urban area.Marco Ravina is a PhD student at Land, Environment and Infrastructure Department in Turin Polytechnic, Italy. He has recently published his first paper on environmental sustainability of energy systems. He is working on a project on global and local environmental assessment of district heating network in the Turin urban area.
Abstract:
The conversion of biomass to energy is a complex process whose environmental sustainability must be assessed. In the present work, global and local emissions of a biogas plant are evaluated considering two alternative end uses: Combustion of biogas in a combined heat and power unit or upgrading of biogas to biomethane and subsequent injection to the gas grid or use in transports. Global emissions are estimated by using the carbon footprint methodology comparing the scenarios on the basis of the same functional unit. The results show a CO2 reduction for biogas combustion equivalent to that of biomethane used as fuel in transports. If the thermal energy produced by the biogas cogenerator is not used, the greenhouse gas balance approaches to zero. A second part of the work considers the contribution of methane losses from the upgrading process. The equivalent CO2 saving raises considerably if methane slip is limited to 0.05% while the process results no longer sustainable for a methane loss of 4%. The evaluation of local impacts considers the emission of NOx and particulate matter (PM) generated by biogas combustion and its alternative solution. A Gaussian model of dispersion is applied and ground level iso-concentration maps are generated. The results show a variable extension of the plume which may a cause non-negligible impact of these pollutants in the surroundings of the source. Adopting biomethane as the end use solution could partly or totally avoid these local impacts. In conclusion, this work points out that adopting the biomethane solution may result environmentally sustainable in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction of NOx and PM local emission.
En-Chin Su
National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
Title: Hydrogen production from EDTA-2Na by Pt/N-TiO2/cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube multi-junction photocatalyst under simulated sunlight irradiation
Biography:
En-Chin Su, is a Ph.D student study in Energy and Materials Recovery Lab, which is a part of the Department of Environmental Engineering at the National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan. She has engaged in research on developing synthesis and characterization of photocatalytic materials for six years. There are over ten references related to alternative fuel (hydrogen and biodiesel) development have been published by our group. In the future, our goal is to develop an efficient photocatalyst which can be photo-excited by sunlight, thus facilitating the waste-to-energy system conversion from real wastewater.
Abstract:
Hydrogen, which possesses some features such as cleaning, high energy conversion, and renewability, is suitable for energy conversion without greenhouse gas emission. Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is regarded as the promising way to produce hydrogen because of the clean and simple procedure. To enhance the photoexcitation probability of SrTiO3/TiO2 composite material and to facilitate the photo-exited electron delivery among Pt, N-TiO2, and cubic SrTiO3, the TiO2 tube with well electron delivery was selected as the internal layer material for cubic SrTiO3 distribution. The effect of composition on electron delivery, light absorption, and charge recombination rate were discussed in this study. In this study, the Pt/N-TiO2/cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube multi-junction photocatalyst has been developed. XRD and FETEM analysis results indicated that the cubic SrTiO3 particles grew along the surface of TiO2 tube, resulting in a tight contact structure of cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube. The N-TiO2 composed with cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube revealed 9 times higher hydrogen evolution efficiency under simulated sunlight irradiation than N-TiO2 composed with cubic SrTiO3. The enhanced activity was ascribed to the well electron delivery of TiO2 tube and the well charge separation among N-TiO2, cubic SrTiO3, and TiO2 tube. After modifying the surface of N-TiO2/cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube with tiny amount (0.1 wt.%) of platinum (Pt), the multi-junction photocatalyst exhibited 8.5 times higher hydrogen evolution efficiency than N-TiO2/cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube. PL analysis results showed that coating Pt could further retard the charge recombination rate of multi-junction photocatalyst due to the well-electron acceptance of Pt. According to the hydrogen evolution and EDTA-2Na degradation results, it was found that using Pt/N-TiO2/cubic SrTiO3/TiO2 tube could facilitate the waste-to-energy system conversion from EDTA-2Na simulated wastewater.
Meryem Oudda
Université TAHRI Mohamed - Bechar, Algeria
Title: Fuzzy logic controller for a photovoltaic system with a SEPIC converter
Biography:
Meryem Oudda received the L.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from TAHRI Mohamed Bechar University, Algeria, in 2009 and 2011 respectively, where she has been working toward the doctoral degree in the Department of Electric and Electronics Engineering since January 2012. She is currently a Research member at the research laboratory: « Command Analyze and Optimization of Electro-Energetic Systems », TAHRI Mohamed Bechar University, Algeria.
Abstract:
In order to control the output voltage of a photovoltaic system with a DC-DC converter; type Single Ended Primary Inductor Converter (SEPIC); a fuzzy logic controller is investigated in this paper. The system is designed for 210 W solar PV (SCHOTT 210) panel and to feed an average demand of 78 W. This system includes solar panels, SEPIC converter and fuzzy logic controller. The SEPIC converter provides a constant DC bus voltage and its duty cycle controlled by the fuzzy logic controller which is needed to improve PV panel’s utilization efficiency. A fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is also used to generate the PWM signal for the SEPIC converter. The model of the power system is developed using SimPowerSystem toolbox and the control part is realized using Fuzzy Logic Toolbox in MATLAB.
Maykel Courel-Piedrahita
National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico
Title: The role of kesterite materials in the second generation of solar cells
Biography:
Maykel Courel Piedrahita is currently pursuin his PhD in Physics and Mathematics from National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City. He holds a Master’s degree in Material Science from Havana University, Cuba. His research has been mainly focused on thin film solar cells based on kesterite compounds as well as quantum solar cells. He has published more than 16 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a Reviewer of six repute journals.
Abstract:
The most efficient thin film solar cells are based on Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGSSe) and CdTe compounds known as second generation polycrystalline thin films. The challenge of these materials is to reduce the cost per watt of solar energy conversion, but they are actually formed by expensive and or scanty elements in the earth’s crust such as In, Ga, Te and other that presents toxicity issues like Cd. In the last years, new materials with properties of interest for photovoltaic applications and formed by non-toxic and abundant elements have been suggested as alternatives to the main second generation solar cells based on CdTe and CIGSSe. Semiconductor compounds with kesterite structure (Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1−x)4, Cu2ZnSnS4, Cu2ZnSnSe4), all of them Cadmium-free have been proposed as new candidates for thin film solar cells. However, reported solar cell efficiencies for these compounds have not yet reached the expected values. In fact, solar cell efficiencies lower than 13% have been obtained. In this work, a critical review on the main limiting factors for achieving high efficiency in kesterite thin film solar cells are presented. A discussion about a further solar cell efficiency improvement is also introduced based on theoretical results.
Biography:
Farhad Fazlollahi has graduated with Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Shiraz University, Iran in September 2009. He has also completed his Master’s degree at University of Sistan, Iran. He has been working on his PhD thesis at Brigham Young University (BYU) under supervision of Professor Larry L Baxter since Jan 2013. His mian field is Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC) as an innovative new technology that promises to decrease energy consumption and costs of separating CO2 from other gases in most flows including power plant exhausts, natural gas flows and most industrial streams.
Abstract:
Transient modeling and optimization of two natural gas liquefaction processes have been done using Aspen HYSYS. In case of energy consumption, the optimized model has been chosen for transient modeling. These results pertain to Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) generally and to an energy storage process associated with cryogenic carbon capture (CCC) in which the LNG process plays a prominent role. The energy storage CCC process influences the time constants and magnitudes of the flow rate characteristics. These flowrate variations affect all units, especially compressors and heat exchangers. New types of heat exchanger design and optimization method; Model predicted control theory (MPCT) have been presented and transient responses have been compared with traditional design. The proposed process controls temperatures, pressures and other operating parameters. K-value and U-value techniques guide flowrate and heat exchanger stream variations. Transient responses to both ramping and step-changes in flow rates indicate process responses including summary effects represented in transient efficiency graphs. Finally natural gas (NG) consumption and LNG production have been compared to show the optimality of new design.
Jong Hyeok Park
Yonsei University, Republic of Korea
Title: Clay nanosheets in skeletons of controlled phase inversion separators for thermally stable Li-ion batteries
Biography:
Jong Hyeok Park is an associate professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Yonsei University, Republic of Korea. He received his PhD in chemical engineering from KAIST, Korea, in August 2004. Then, he joined University of Texas at Austin, USA, as a postdoctoral researcher in 2004 (under Prof. Allen J. Bard). From March 2007 to February 2008, he worked at ETRI. He is an author and a co-author of 190 papers and 50 patents. His research focuses on organic solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, and solar-to-hydrogen conversion devices.
Abstract:
Phase inversion is a powerful alternative process for preparing ultra-thin separators for various secondary batteries. Unfortunately, separators prepared from phase inversion generally suffer from uneven pore size and pore size distribution, which frequently results in poor battery performance. Here, a straightforward route is demonstrated to solve the drawbacks of phase-inversion-based separators for Li-ion batteries by means of directly incorporating 2D clay sheets in the skeleton of poly(vinylidene fl uoride- co -hexafl uoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) with multiscale pore generation from a simple one-step solution coating method. Additionally generated pores by the inclusion of 2D nanosheets in PVdF-HFP skeletons, combined with the multiscale pores (several micrometers + sub-micrometers) originally generated by means of the controlled phase inversion, can generate additional ionic transport pathways, leading to Li-ion battery performances better than those of commercialized polyethylene separators. Moreover, the addition of extremely low contents of 2D clay sheets in PVdF-HFP separators allows thermally stable polymer separators to be realized.
K. Salhi
Renewable Energy Development Center,Algeria
Title: Simulation study of a single effect absorption refrigeration system using geothermal sources in Algeria
Biography:
K. Salhi works at Renewable Energy Development Center, Algeria. His research interests include Absorption and geothermal energy applications.
Abstract:
This study is concerned with absorption chillers single effect, powered by thermal energy of geothermal sources in Algeria, the influences of the components temperature and the heat exchanger effectiveness on the performance coefficients were studied to test optimum operating conditions for the proposed system, We studied the machine in the following conditions, the coolant temperature is between 30 and 40 ° C and the evaporation temperature between 2 and 20 ° C, the results show that the coefficient of performance of this system is quite high, however, very high temperature of the geothermal source.
S. C. Solanki
Ujjain Engineering College, India
Title: Carbon credit earned from photovoltaic thermal greenhouse dryer in Indian weather conditions
Biography:
S. C. Solanki works at Mechanical Engineering Department, U.E.C. Ujjain, India. His research interests include CO2 mitigation, photovoltaic thermal applications and exergy analysis.
Abstract:
The carbon credit earned and the CO2 mitigation from the single slope photovoltaic thermal (PVT) greenhouse dryer installed at SODHA BERS Complex Varanasi, India has been estimated in the present communication. The annual performance of the system with load condition has been investigated considering all type (a, b, c, d types) of weather condition of India. It has been found that the thermal energy and electrical energy were maximum for the month of May and minimum for month of September. The carbon credit earned by the system in a year on overall thermal energy basis is found to be USD 93.9 and on exergy basis it is USD 28.3.
Khaled Mammar
University of Bechar,Algeria
Title: Active Power of PEM fuel cell System Power Generation using Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Controller
Biography:
Khaled Mammar works at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Bechar, Algeria. His research interests include Fuel Cell , Polymer-electrolyte fuel cell PEMFC, Electrochemical model, Modeling and Simulation and Fuzzy Logic Controller.
Abstract:
This paper presents an application of adaptive neuro fuzzy controller for PEM fuel cell system. The model proposed for control include a fuel cell stack model, reformer model and DC/AC inverter model. Furthermore a fuzzy logic (FLC) and neuro fuzzy controllers are used to control active power of PEM fuel cell system. The controllers modifies the hydrogen flow feedback from the terminal load. The validity of the controller is verified when the fuel cell system model is used in conjunction with the ANFIS controller to predict the response of the active power. Simulation results confirmed the high performance capability of the neuofuzzy to control power generation.
Gaanty Pragas Maniam
Universiti Malaysia Pahang,Malaysia
Title: Esterification of palm fatty acid distillate using organophosphonic acid-functionalised rice husk silica
Biography:
Maniam, G.P. earned PhD (Chemistry) in research related to biodiesel and heterogeneous catalyst from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2011. His research focused on biofuel from waste sources and utilization of solid catalysts. He has authored more than 40 publications with nearly 500 citations and presented his findings at both international and national conferences. Currently he is supervising 15 postgraduates as the main and co-supervisor. Dr. Maniam is an Associate of Malaysia Institute of Chemistry and an Editorial Board Member of International Journal of the Institute of Materials, Malaysia. He has been a reviewer for numerous journals related to his field. He has been the recipient of: Tan Sri Datuk Ong Kee Hui Postgraduate Chemistry Award from the Malaysia Institute of Chemistry for his PhD work, Top Cited Papers Award from Elsevier, Gold Award at INPEX 2014 USA for his research product and several awards locally. Currently he is heading a centralized facility laboratory in his university as a Director.
Abstract:
In the present study, renewable green fuel is produced using a by-product generated during the purification process of palm oil refinery, known as palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD). PFAD has been considered as the most promising biodiesel feedstock despite its drawbacks of high free fatty acid (FFA) and water content. In order to overcome these problems, the organophosphonic acid-functionalized rice husk silica (OP-RHS) catalyst was used in esterification of PFAD. Parametric study has been conducted and the optimal conditions were found to be: MeOH:oil molar ratio of 15:1 and 8 wt.% catalyst amount at 100 °C, yielding highest methyl ester content 88.6% at 8 h reaction time. The catalyst could maintain a high catalytic activity (> 80 %) even during the fourth cycles. The research results show that OP-RHS is a potential catalyst for biodiesel production using high FFA and moisture content feedstock.
Shyam
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: Annual performance of partially covered photovoltaic thermal flat plate collectors connected in series
Biography:
Shyam has received Bachelor of Science degree (B.Sc) with Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in 2003 and Master of Science degree (M.Sc.) in Physics in 2005 from University of Allahabad, Allahabad, UP, India. He had received Master of Technology degree (M. Tech.) in Cryogenic Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 2008. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Marathwada Institute of Technology, Bulandshahr, (UP) India (Affiliated to UP Technical University, Lucknow) from August 2008 to October 2012 and taught Basic Engineering Physics at graduate level. Presently, he is pursuing Ph.D. at Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His areas of research interest are solar thermal collectors (modelling and experimental), photovoltaics, heat and mass transfer, exergy, CO2 mitigation, climate change and carbon trading, exergoeconomic and enviroeconomic analyses.
Abstract:
The performance of series connected tube in plate flat plate water collectors partially covered by the photovoltaic module has been evaluated on annual basis. The system consists of 5 partially covered photovoltaic thermal (PVT) water collectors having 2 m2 area. The annual energy has been estimated by considering all types of weather conditions for New Delhi India. The solar radiation data provided by Indian meteorological department (IMD, Pune) has been used for computing the annual energy. The overall thermal energy and exergy saved by the system are estimated as 10 MWh and 0.887 MWh respectively. The carbon credit earned by the system in a year on overall thermal energy basis is found to be USD 296.1 and on exergy basis it is USD 26.2. The energy payback time on overall thermal basis and exergy basis was found to be 1.6 years and 17.8 years respectively.
Yeshona Sewsynker
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Title: Does the volume matter? An insight into modelling and optimization of biohydrogen production across scales
Biography:
Yeshona Sewsynker has completed her BSc degree in Microbiology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She is currently pursuing MSc in Microbiology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research focuses on biofuel production. Her recent publication entitled “Modelling of biohydrogen generation in microbial electrolysis cells using a committee of artificial neural networks (ANNs)†was published in Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment in 2015. She is currently working on another manuscript titled “Development and Assessment of two Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Models for prediction of Biohydrogen yieldâ€.
Abstract:
Renew interest in biohydrogen production as a potential alternative to the depleting fossil fuels is driving the development of this bioprocess. Its scale up requires the development of process models that relate the key operational parameters with the hydrogen yields, models that are accurate and reliable at various scales of the process development. In this paper, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were used to model and optimize biohydrogen production at two different process scales. The input variables consisted of inoculum size (10-50%), molasses concentration (100-300 g/L) and Hydraulic Retention Time (10-48 hours) and the output was the hydrogen yield. The considered process scales were the culture volumes of 80 and 800 ml. Seventeen experimental data were generated at each scale and used for model development and process optimization, thus a total of two models at each scale. RSM models gave coefficients of determination (R2) values of 0.97 and 0.89 for 80 and 800 mL respectively. Process optimization with these models predicted a yield of 1.09 and 0.72 mol H2/mol sucrose for 80 and 800 ml scales respectively. Experimental validation gave yields of 0.99 and 0.70 moles H2/mol sucrose for 80 and 800 ml respectively. Thus, deviations from predicted values of 0.1 and 0.02 were obtained from 80 and 800 ml scales. These models showed relatively negligible deviations from their predicted values. These findings suggest that miniaturization of experiments for biohydrogen model development does not significantly impact on the model accuracy. This minimizes the process development cost.
André Pedral Sampaio
APOLLO Research Group of Sustainable Technology,Brazil
Title: Chiron project: Reform of methane from a cold plasma reactor with hydrogen production for desalination and energy cogeneration
Biography:
Dr. Andra Pedral Sampaioin holds Phd in Industrial Engineering - Organizational Intelligence from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2008), Master in Industrial Engineering - Business Management from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2002), Computer Specialist at Educational Center for Education Graduate Olga Metting (1999), Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Bahia (1986). He has extensive experience in the areas of Information Technology, Process Engineering, Hydrogen, Bioenergy, Energy Generated, Process Automation, Sustainable Development, Audit and Judicial Skill. Winner of the South Regional – Santander and Winner of 4th Prize Santander Science and Innovation with the project OPTIMUS: Creating a method for assessing the strategic management informed by MCDA-C; Coordinates of the APOLLO research group, developing research projects in the areas of technology, robotics, organizational strategies, clean energy and sustainable development.
Abstract:
The increasing exploitation of water resources in recent decades has resulted in situations of water stress worldwide. Thus, the phenomena of reduced water availability in Brazil have caused a reduction of hydroelectric resources, which presents itself as one of the main problems for power generation in Brazil. Moreover, the Brazilian electric system is not warranted against shortages, even if the principles of the new energy model are followed. To get an idea of the problem, if the production of thermal energy is removed, the risk of rationing could rise from 10 % to 27 % in 2013, according to IBGE. The situation may actually get worse if reducing the supply of Bolivian gas happens, which would be especially worrisome for the South and Southeast regions. In order to reduce the risks of a general power outage, the CHIRON Project emerged, supported by two social projects, one of Brazilian's federal government and the other of Bahia state's government, both aiming the rational and intelligent use of saline wastewater from treatment of artesian well water by reverse osmosis, which may or may not have a high content of other dissolved solutes, and also with the purpose of generating energy through of a cold plasma reactor for pyrolysis of methane and / or any other hydrocarbon, using a modular and interchangeable framework for generating black carbon and hydrogen, which feed the reactor of water desalination and the turbo- generator of energy, without affecting the environment and having as byproducts of the process the generation of clean energy and the production of H2 and C, rock salt and water in two ways: drinking water suitable for human consumption; and demineralized, deionized, industrial water.
Man Jiang
Southwest Jiaotong University, China
Title: Degradation of lignin in acidic imidazolium ionic liquid
Biography:
Man Jiang works at School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan, China. Her research interests include Biomass,Hydrolysis, Lignin and Lignocellulosic Conversion.
Abstract:
Lignin is the highest energy component of plant biomass consisting of phenol units. Eco-friendly degradation of lignin in ILs provides an important way to utilize it efficiently. In this study, 1-methyl-3-benzylimidazolium chloride (BnMIMCl) and 1-methyl-3-benzylimidazolium trichloroacetate (BnMIMTFA) were applied for degradation liquefaction of lignin. The highest liquefaction efficiency of 75.45% was obtained under the optimized condition. This attributed to the good dissolving capability and assistance of the ILs to lignin during the degradation. GC-MS analysis showed that 60% of low molecular products were phenols. The present method is simple and efficient at liquefaction and provides a useful approach for the production of basic petrochemical materials. Lignin is used for these materials. It is the second most abundant natural organic polymer after cellulose in the world.
LÃvia Maria Leite da Silva
Fundação Estadual do Meio Ambiente (FEAM), MG. Brazil
Title: Study of solar hydro complementarity potential for electric generation in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Biography:
Civil Engineer at PUC Minas, Lawyer at University Salgado de Oliveira, MSc. in Environmental Management and Audit at European University Miguel de Cervantes, PhD student of Program Nuclear Science and Techniques of Department of Nuclear Engineering at UFMG. Environmental Analyst of State Environment Foundation (FEAM).
Abstract:
Nowadays, Brazil lives up to the challenge of meeting the increase consumption of electricity present in all sectors of society. For this purpose, it is required to use renewable energy sources as a promotional mechanism for sustainable development. However, the availability of these sources is often linked to natural factors such as rainfall, which show variation throughout the year. Thus, it has become interesting as to how we can utilize simultaneous more of renewable sources for generation purposes, to ensure the seasonal stabilization of energy supply and the reduction of environmental impacts arising from the installation of new transmission and distribution systems. Therefore, a study was conducted by the Fundação Estadual do Meio Ambiente - FEAM, to survey the potential complementarity of hydro and solar photovoltaic sources in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In this state, the largest share of the electricity generated stems from hydro plants (about 85%). That was used for analysis of the solar potential available in areas where there are already Hydroelectric Power Plants - HPP (> 30MW) and Pequenas Centrais Hidroelétricas - PCH (1 MW - 30 MW) are installed. This work aims at an increase in the reliability of the electrical generating system and its viability, since there is the possibility of joint use of transmission systems already in operation. Previous analysis indicate a further strategic potential of the complementarity among solar generation and PCH, since this has a lower installed power, making them more compatible with the solar source, which has smaller amounts of hours of annual availability.
Luis Enrique Lambis Benitez
Stanford University School of Medicine,Colombia
Title: Performance and stability of rapidly degradable anaerobic digestion waste: Kitchen waste case study
Biography:
Luis Lambis is a Master of chemical engineering candidate from Universidad Industrial de Santander – Colombia.
Abstract:
The management of food waste is a challenging task due to its special nature of high moisture content and easy decay. Anaerobic digestion has been proven an efficient and green technology in disposing of different natures wastes. Anaerobic digestion of rapidly biodegradable waste, like kitchen waste, is limited by the amount of organic load the system can withstand without inhibited. In this sense, the feasibility of this technology depends on finding strategies for giving the substrate stability. To counteract the inhibition and to overcome the disadvantages in single digestion, co-digestion of food waste with Cattle manure was carried out. Organic load and mixture ratio were selected as key parameters in order to improve process stability and performance. A 22 factorial design was used to analyze the effect of the selected key parameters, using as levels: 10-17 g of volatile solid/l and 50:50 – 90:10 (in terms of volatile solids), for organic load and mixture ratio respectively. Anaerobic reactors were carried out in triplicate using 50 mL hermetically closed bottles at 39 ± 2 °C. A blank was used to determine the background methane yield of the inoculum. A mono-digestion control (only kitchen waste as substrate) was used as well. Methane volume production and volatile solid consumption were performance response variables. Total volatile fatty acids / Total alkalinity ratio and pH were stability response variables. The maximum methane yield of 0.94 m3 CH4/kg VS was obtain by reactors with a organic load of 10 g VS/l and 90:10 mixing ratio kitchen waste/ cattle manure. An increase of 29% compared to mono-digestion.
Chengjiu Guo
Shenyang Agricultural University, China
Title: Purification of Pb in pulping wastewater by reed wetland ecosystem
Biography:
Chengjiu Guo is a Professor at Shenyang Agricultural University. He is the Vice-Director of Liaoning Shuangtai Estuary Wetland Station, a national Ecological observation & research station. He has published more than 30 papers and serving as a Chairman of the research team of soil and water conservation and desertification control in College of Water Conservancy.
Abstract:
Liaoning Shuangtai estuary wetland is the international key wetland which played an important role on purification of water quality of Liao River and the stability of regional climate. Based on sampling in this wetland and simulation experiments at the Shenyang Agricultural University lab pool, distribution characteristics of Pb in paper making wastewater, wetland soil and reeds tissue was analyzed respectively within a growing season. The removal rate of Pb was the highest by irrigation 20% concentration wastewater and the best removing effect emerged at jointing stage. For the same period, Pb content in water was least at 10 cm water depth and purifying effect was the most significant. The difference of Pb thermodynamics adsorption was remarkable in 10-40 cm depth soil. As the sampling depth increases the adsorption property of Pb was best in 10 cm soil depth where the purification effect was significant. Distribution characteristics Pb in Reed organization was different. The absorbing capability order of reed tissue to Pb was root>stem>leaves in the whole growth period.
Wei Wu
National Cheng Kung University,Taiwan
Title: Process design of hydrogen production, purification and compression subject to near-zero carbon emissions
Biography:
Wei Wu is a professor at Department of Chemical Engineering at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. His research interests include Process Control; Chemical Process Integration and Optimization; Renewable Energy Systems Design.
Abstract:
Since the hydrogen production system includes reaction and separation processes, it commonly involves large temperature gradients. Overall minimum hot and cold utility targets required to achieve the saving energy are implemented in hydrogen production, industrial plants, and bioprocesses. Friedler indicated that energy saving, global warming and greenhouse gas emissions have become major technological, societal, and political issues. In particular, process integration has not been satisfactorily developed to solve various energy-related problems by using heat exchanger networks (HENs). In this article, the process design of hydrogen production, purification and compression is carried out in Aspen Plus environment. The hydrogen production process with a combination of a steam methane reforming (SMR) reactor, a carbon dioxide reforming of methane (CO2R) reactor and a water-gas-shift (WGS) reactor is presented. The process of hydrogen purification and compression (HPC) is developed to meet the specifications of high-pressure hydrogen storage and improve the energy efficiency. The oxy combustion combined with the heat exchanger network is integrated into the system to address near-zero carbon emissions. Hydrogen production process To develop the hydrogen production process with low carbon emissions, the SMR+CO2R+WGS process is utilized. Process of hydrogen purification, compression and carbon dioxide recovery For the objective of the hydrogen storage and CO2 recovery, the process of hydrogen purification, compression and carbon dioxide recovery (HPCC) is carried out. If it is connected to the SMR+CO2R+WGS processes, then the integrated process is named as the SCWH (SMR+CO2R+WGS+HPCC) process. Notably, the condensed water can be recycled and the feed of CO2 can be captured from the flue gas, and this high-pressure hydrogen production system can contribute to reduce carbon emissions. Regarding the oxy combustion approach, the oxygen required is separated from air prior to combustion and the fuel is combusted in oxygen diluted with recycled flue-gas rather than by air. This oxygen-rich, nitrogen-free atmosphere results in final flue-gases consisting mainly of CO2 and H2O (water), so producing a more concentrated CO2 stream for easier purification. Assumed that the QC6 is completely recovered, the Qneed of the whole processes is less than the corresponding QC6. Heat integration To reduce the external energy supply, the heat integration design using the heat exchanger networks (HENs) is a typical approach to achieve the maximum waste heat recovery. Using the hot/cold stream data, the design of HENs is applied to meet the maximum energy recovery, the heat-integrated system with HENs is done by using Aspen Energy Analyzer. This study examined an integration of hydrogen production and compression system subject to heat integration and carbon dioxide reduction. The main results are summarized as follows: 1. The conceptual design of the hydrogen production process using SMR, CO2R and WGS is addressed in Aspen Plus environment. 2. The CO2R unit can consume extra CO2 and effectively enhance the hydrogen yield of the system. 3. The sensitivity analysis of operating variables with regard to feed conditions is investigated. 4. The optimal HEN meets the target of the maximum heat recovery, so it can reduce the utility load for cooling by 65% and heaters are not required.
Muhammad A Latif
University of Queensland, Australia
Title: Enhanced phosphorus release by low pH anaerobic digestion process
Biography:
Muhammad Asif Latif joined the AWMC in July 2012 as a PhD student researching the field of environmental engineering, particularly of the nutrients recovery in wastewater systems using anaerobic digestion approach. Asif completed his honour’s degree in agricultural engineering at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Pakistan (2004). He worked with some textile companies in Pakistan for wastewater treatment before joining the Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Malaysia, where he graduated in 2011 with a degree of Masters of Engineering in Environmental Engineering. Before joining UQ, Asif also worked at Didaktik Engineering Works Malaysia as a design engineer, where he managed the R&D, biogas production and metering system design, process control and automation, project costing, project management and 3D designing of parts and instruments.
Abstract:
Lab scale anaerobic digesters were deployed to enhance in-reactor P solubility in a semi-continuous AD process at low pH conditions. The experiment was setup for five pH ranges of 7, 6.5, 6.0, 5.5 and 5.0 by applying a sludge retention time of 48 days (HRT 12days) at each pH condition. The pH was controlled and maintained automatically using PLC interface. Significant increase in soluble P (84% of total P) was observed between pH 5-5.5 and 50-62% of total P was released between pH 6-6.5. Whereas, control reactor (pH 7) showed a 43% release of total P. While methane yield was decreased at low pH but it did not affect the methane production rate but the extent of conversion of the residual organic matter into biogas. Methane loss at pH 6.5, 6, 5.5 and 5 was 20, 28, 29 and 38% respectively. Figure 1 shows the methane yield and concentration of soluble P at each pH compared to control. COD removal and VS removal were also affected in the same manner as methane yield at low pH. Total VFA and SCOD were respectively increased from 40 to 850 mg L-1 and 600 mg L-1 to 2700 mg L-1 from pH 7 to 5. This increase in the concentration of soluble organics is addressed due to an imbalance in the equilibrium between acidogenesis and methanogenesis where, production of intermediate products (butyric and propionic acids) was higher than their conversion into acetate. A post AD analysis of digested sludge’s at different pH conditions was also carried out via biochemical methane potential (BMP) test. BMP of low pH sludge’s have shown higher methane production than control. Low pH is suggested to be a suitable option which can reduce overhauling frequency, reactor shutdown and acid flushing to reduce precipitants.
Fangli Su
Shenyang Agricultural University, China
Title: Identifying and classifying pollution hotspots to guide watershed management in a large agricultural multiuse watershed
Biography:
Fangli Su has completed her Ph.D at the age of 30 years and postdoctoral studies from Shenyang Agricultural University. She is the vice-director of Liaoning Shuangtai Estuary Wetland Station, a national Ecological observation & research station. She has published more than 30 papers and serving as an editorial board member of repute.
Abstract:
Large reservoirs are important source of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use. Reservoir hydrology and water quality are central to the provisioning of these services and both are largely determined by the upstream watershed. Improved watershed management can be achieved by classifying sub watersheds by intensity and type of pollution threat and developing targeted management measures. In this study, we established an evaluation system based on 17 factors representing point and non-point source pollutant potential and environmental carrying capacity that are likely to affect water quality in the Dahuofang reservoir and watershed in northeastern China. We used entropy-based methods to rank 118 sub watersheds by potential pollution threat and clustered sub watersheds according to potential pollution type. As expected non-point source pollution is the most serious factor affecting water quality across the larger watershed, however combining ranking and clustering analyses allowed us to suggest specific areas for prioritized watershed management (in particular two sub watersheds with the greatest pollution potential) as well as to recommend conservation of current practices in other less vulnerable locations (91 small watersheds with low pollution potential). Finally, we identified the factor most likely to be influencing water quality for each of the 118 sub watersheds and suggest adaptive control measures for each location. These results provide a scientific basis for improving watershed management and sustainability for the Dahuofang reservoir as well as a framework for identifying threats and prioritizing management in the watersheds of large reservoirs around the world.
Ahmad Sedaghat
Australian College of Kuwait, Kuwait
Title: Open pipe and nozzle external flows in drifted wind turbines
Biography:
Ahmad Sedaghat is an Associate Professor at Mechanical Engineering department at Australian College of Kuwait, Kuwait. His research interests include wind energy and Drifted wind turbine.
Abstract:
From the classical fluid mechanics, it is realized that nozzle devices will accelerate flows in internal flows. For application of such devices in innovative wind turbines such as shrouded or wind catcher ones, it is however required to study open nozzle or diffuser devices in external flows. In this work, some examples of short open pipes and nozzles in horizontal and vertical flow directions are studied using analytical and numerical methods. The analytical method is simply based on the application of Bernoulli equation with considering pressure losses within the devices. The numerical solution was obtained by solving the modelled RANS (Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes) equations in two dimensional flows. The results indicate that the wind speed through the horizontal open nozzles and pipes are not increased by the area ratio and just retarded by the effects of pressure losses. In other words, no appreciable increase of downstream wind velocity is obtained compared with the freestream wind by using shrouded nozzle envelope for a horizontal axis wind turbine. For the vertical open nozzle and pipe flows, however, the effects of natural drift due to the height is more pronounced compared with ineffective area ratio of nozzle devices. This merely shows that the added gravity head will affect downstream flows and not the nozzle area ratio. It is concluded that the vertical wind collectors or wind concentrators in forms of nozzles or pipes designs such as INVELOX turbine concept are useful in utilizing gravity head for increasing low wind speeds through their natural drift mechanism. But the effects of natural drift are reduced to retard flow speed in high wind speeds. Hence, multiple nozzles with appropriate tower height may be usedto accelerate wind speed in similar designs.
Naveed Ullah
Korea University of Technology and Education, South Korea
Title: Hybrid generation system modelling by using MATLAB
Biography:
Naveed Ullah is currently pursuing his Masters in Electrical Engineering with specialization in Renewable Energy form Korea university of Technology and Education.
Abstract:
This paper presents the simulation and modeling of the double fed induction generator of wind turbine and electric power generation by using Solar Panel. The purpose is to find that how can we get the maximum power from the DFIG wind turbine and which type of photovoltaic solar panel give maximum efficiency, by changing the different factors used in wind turbine such as pitch angle, wind speed and controlling system of rotor and grid side as well as signing different types of photovoltaic solar panels.
Lifeng Li
Shenyang Agricultural University, China
Title: Effect of irrigation with paper making wastewater on heavy metals in wetland soil and the tread assessment
Biography:
Lifeng Li has been an associate professor in Shenyang Agricultural University since 2008. She is the leading researcher both of Liaoning Shuangtai estuary wetland station and wetland and water ecology research Group. She has published more than 10 papers and serving as a secretary of College of Science.
Abstract:
To study the accumulative rules of paper making wastewater irrigation on soil heavy metal in reed wetlands was very significant to effectively using paper making wastewater and controlling the heavy metal pollution. This article studied the seasonal variation regularity of heavy metal in the soil in Shuangtai estuarine reed wetland, effects of paper making wastewater on soil heavy metal was analyzed after irrigation three concentration of wastewater (300 mg•L-1,175 mg•L-1,50 mg•L-1) used the remnant model to forecast and assess the accumulation of heavy metal contaminations. The results showed that irrigation with paper making wastewater can increase the heavy metal content in soil. There was a significant correlation between the wastewater irrigation and wastewater consistence. There was a different vertical distribution rule. Between different heavy metals: The As, Pb were accumulated in middle level of soil (20~40 cm) and the content of Cd, Cu in each solum had a smaller change, the Ni were accumulated in lower medium level of soil with the deepening of solum, the content of Ni was decreased gradually. Every heavy metal in the test could accumulate in soil with 300 mg•L-1. After about 10 years of irrigation, the accumulated Cd in the soil was found to be higher than the first grade of National Soil Environmental Quality Standard. When irrigated with 50 mg•L-1potency, Pb, Ni, Cu accumulated lightly, after about 50 years of irrigation the accumulated Pb, Ni, Cu in the soil were found to be less than the first grade.
Hilary Owamah
Landmark University, Nigeria
Title: Development of an alternative simple model for the prediction of maximum biogas potential and digester stability analysis
Biography:
Hilary Owamah is a Faculty Member of Civil Engineering department at Landmark University.His areas of interest includes Wastewater Treatment, Water Analysis, Wastewater Engineering, Biological Wastewater Treatment and Remediation.
Abstract:
The modified Gompertz model has been popularly used for the prediction of maximum biogas production potential of substrates. However, the modified Gompertz equation is difficult to solve and can also not be used for the prediction of digester stability in simple terms. Maximum biogas production potential and stability assessment (MBPPSA) model were therefore developed in this study for the anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and maize husk. The results of maximum biogas production potential (A) obtained using the MBPPSA model corresponded well with the results obtained using the popular but complex modified Gompertz model for digesters B-1, B-2, B-3, B-4, and B-5. The (If) value of MBPPSA model also showed that digesters B-3, B-4, and B-5 were stable, while B-1 and B-2 were unstable. Similar stability observation was also obtained using the modified Gompertz model. The MBPPSA model can therefore be used as alternative model for anaerobic digestion feasibility studies and plant design.
Martha Minale Yeshanew
University of Cassino and Southern Laizo, Italy
Title: Enhanced biogas and fertilizer production through anaerobic co-digestion sanitary wastewater and kitchen solid waste under ambient temperature: Waste generated from condominium house
Biography:
Martha Minale Yeshanew from Ethiopia, holds MSc degree in Environmental Engineering with the highest score in 2011 from Addis Ababa University. She was working as a school dean at Addis Ababa Science and Technology from 2011 to 2013. Currently she is an Erasmus mundus PhD student in the program of Environmental Technology for contaminated soils, sediments and solids (ETeCoS3) in University of Naples Federico (II), Italy. Her PhD research topic focusses on improving the efficiency of anaerobic digestion using different technologies. She already published one scientific paper while other research activities were under review.
Abstract:
Addis Ababa is one of the fastest growing cities where high urbanization has become a challenge. The municipality has launched a huge condominium housing program in response to the housing shortage problem in the city. However, sanitary wastewater and solid waste management are the critical problems to those houses. The wastes were collected and evaluated for its biogas production and fertilizer potential to solve the foreseen waste management problems. The physicochemical characteristics of the collected wastes were determined. A laboratory scale batch anaerobic co-digestion of both wastes with different mix ratio of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, and 0:100 (sanitary wastewater: kitchen organic solid waste by volume) were carried out at ambient temperature for 30 days. The amount of biogas produced during the digestion period for those mixing ratios were compared. The physicochemical characteristics showed that kitchen wastes were rich in nutrients and easily biodegradable organic compounds. While sanitary wastewater contains high amount of nitrogen and trace metals, which makes the co-digestion of the two waste more attractive. Highest cumulative biogas yield of approximately 65.6L were obtained from 25:75 mix ratio, followed by 50:50,100:0, 25:75, and 0:100 with biogas productions 52.7, 50.0, 23.7 and 9.5 L, respectively. The percentage of methane gas during the study period was between 19.8-62.8%. With regard to the fertilizer potential of the digested sludge; composting and sun drying process were effective and helpful for land application by completely inactivating the pathogen.
Sanza Kazadi
Jisan Research Institute, USA
Title: Entrochemical thermal battery design for atmospheric heat collectors
Biography:
Dr. Sanza T. Kazadi is the founder of Jisan Research Institute (JRI) is a nonprofit only professional research laboratory for children located in Alhambra, California. Research at the Dr. His research interests is primarily focused around swarm engineering which is a field of engineering concerned with generating swarms utilizing a mathematically provable methodology. Applications of swarm engineering methodologies can be found in economics, mathematics, engineering, computer science, and sociology.
Abstract:
We present two novel design modifications to the basic entrochemical system which enable the generation of an entrochemical thermal battery. The inclusion of a passive mixing mechanism enables the continual disruption of the water layer that forms at the top of the saline solutions enhancing the overall thermal gradient. Embedding of one cell's cool side in the previous cell's warm side allows efficient conduction of thermal energy between the two effectively driving the additive property of the overall thermal gradient, the battery effect. We demonstrate that the passive mixing mechanism enhances performance generating a one-cell gradient of 18.3±0.3º C rather than a non-mixed gradient of 10.3±1.5º C. Using the battery effect, we are able to obtain a three-cell thermal gradient of 40.2±0.3º C. Using the current uninsulated chambers, a projected asymptotic thermal gradient of 64.71º C is determined for many independent cells.
Biography:
Elias A. Silveira works at the Fluids Mechanics Laboratory and Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil. His research interests include of photovoltaic application for energy generation and renewable energy for environment conservation.
Abstract:
Renewable energy can be found in multiple inexhaustible ways, for example: the sun, the wind, the water, among other ways. These different sources of energy are cheaper and cleaner than the convencional one, and has been used even by ancient civilizations. Using them it’s possible to promote cost saving, such as the wind energy to pump water and grind grain. At the moment, the search for green energy is increasing due to the sharp population growth, which it requires an increase in energy availability. Besides that, most of nowadays conventional ways of energy they are not renewable, and affect the environment in many different ways. There are several ways of obtain the renewable energy. However, a few of them are not viable economically, and in some cases they are not efficient enough in order to provide the necessary quantity of energy required by some complexes. Some examples are: commercial buildings, or even those residential buildings; malls; data centers and other major facilities. To overcome these limitations there are some researches on how to obtain the best technology combination to reach the high demand of the current world. The use of green energy in the developed countries has a participation in energy matrix of 13% in average, and 6% in countries in development, but in Brazil the energy matrix is composed of 75% renewable sources with the major part using water resources. In this way the country has one of the biggest and most important projects of green energy in the world, for example by the use of ethanol in fuel production.Besides ethanol, the country has been increasing impressively in the wind energy use. Nowadays Brazil produces 6 GW through wind farms which correspond to 4.5% of participation in the brazilian energy matrix and there is an expectation to reach 8% in 2018, and could reach 22.4 GW in 2023. The use of photovoltaic transformation in Brazil is still incipient due to the high price of photovoltaic cells panels. However, some small buildings are currently using widely the solar collectors panels for water heating. For eletricity production in Brazil, water resources are mainly used, which consist of approximately 65% of the brazilian energy matrix. However, as hydroelectric power stations require the construction of dams and depends on the water level. Soon there will not be enough available water in stream beds to generate sufficient eletricity to reach the country’s demand. Given this scenario, there is a policy energy in Brazil to estimulate the diversification of the energy matrix, based on regional characteristics. For example, the south and northeast of Brazil look for taking advantage of wind energy, while the Amazon region seeks to build bigger hydroeletric power stations. When it comes to producing green energy, it is necessary to emphasize that it is possible to produce significantly quantity of energy without emitting several tons of CO2, which is a significant help to preserve the enviroment. In the present work, a scenario of the “green energy†use in Brazil will be presented, as well as statistics, showing how are the prospects for the future.
Azza EL-Medany
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Title: Green tea extract: Its potential protective effect on Bleomycin induced lung injuries in rats
Biography:
Professor Azza El-Medany has obtained her PhD at age of 32 years from Alexandria University and postdoctoral studies from Alexandria University College of Medicine. She is a Professor of pharmacology & vice head of department of pharmacology, college of medicine , KSU. She published more than 40 papers in the areas of GIT, CVS, Natural products & toxicological researches in reputed journals and is currently serving as a member of a number of professional bodies.She is a recipient of special awards in scientific research & teaching. She was a speaker at numerous international conferences at Singapore, Japan,Brazil & USA.
Abstract:
Lung fibrosis is a common side effect of the chemotherapeutic agent, bleomycin. Current evidence suggests that reactive oxygen species may play a key role in the development of lung fibrosis. The present work studied the effect of green tea extract on bleomycin induced lung fibrosis in rats. Animals were divided into three groups: Saline Control Group, Bleomycin Group in which rats were injected with bleomycin (15 mg/kg, i.p.) three times a week for four weeks and Bleomycin and Green Tea Group in which green tea extract was given to rats (100 mg/kg/day, p.o) a week prior to bleomycin and daily during bleomycin injections for 4 weeks until the end of the experiment. Bleomycin induced pulmonary injury and lung fibrosis that was indicated by increased lung hydroxyproline content, elevated nitric oxide synthase, myeoloperoxidase (MPO), platelet activating factor (PAF), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α ), transforming growth factor 1β ( TGF1β ) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity in lung tissues. On the other hand, bleomycin induced a reduction in reduced glutathione concentration (GSH). Moreover, bleomycin resulted in severe histological changes in lung tissues revealed as lymphocytes and neutrophils infiltration, increased collagen deposition and fibrosis. Co-administration of bleomycin and green tea extract reduced bleomycin induced lung injury as evaluated by the significant reduction in hydroxyproline content, nitric oxide synthase activity, levels of MPO, PAF & TNF-α & ACE in lung tissues. Furthermore, green tea extracts ameliorated bleomycin induced reduction in GSH concentration. Finally, histological evidences supported the ability of green tea extract to attenuate bleomycin induced lung fibrosis and consolidation. Thus, the finding of the present study provides that green tea may serve as a novel target for potential therapeutic treatment of lung fibrosis.
Alemayehu Gashaw
Bule Hora University, Ethiopia
Title: Co-digestion of municipal organic waste with night soil for biogas production: A review
Biography:
Alemayehu Gashaw Woldegiorgis was born in Ethiopia, Oromia, North Shoa zone and is currently working as a lecturer at Bule Hora University, Bule Hora, Ethiopia.. He received his B.Ed. degree from Debre Birhan University, Debre Birhan, Ethiopia and M.Sc. degree from Bahir Dar University in Organic chemistry. His research has focused upon researchable title ‘Biogas Production from Co-digestion of Ethiopian food waste with cow dung’, which is generally not studied in Ethiopia due to different food available here compared to that available in other countries. My thesis research was on evaluation of the feasibility of biogas production from leftover food from the cafeteria of Bahir Dar University.
Abstract:
Currently, biogas production is one of the most promising renewable energy sources and it represents a very promising way to overcome the problem of waste treatment. Biogas, which is principally composed of methane and carbon dioxide, can be obtained by anaerobic fermentation of biomass such as manure, human excreta, sewage sludge and municipal solid wastes. Furthermore, the solid residuals of fermentation (the digested slurry) might be reused as fertilizer, to enhance the fertility of the soil. The prime advantages of biogas technology include (i) organic wastes with a low nutrient content can be degraded by co-digesting with different substrates in the anaerobic bioreactors, and (ii) the process simultaneously leads to low cost production of biogas, which could be vital for meeting future energy needs. This review clearly indicates that co-digestion of organic waste is one of the most effective biological processes to treat a wide variety of solid organic waste products and sludge as well as biogas production. In addition, it discussed the factors affecting biogas production.
Alice Ikuzwe
University of Pretoria, South-Africa
Title: A novel design of a day lighting system for a classroom in rural South Africa
Biography:
Alice Ikuzwe is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at University of Pretoria, South Africa. She holds undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rwanda: College of Science and Technology and a PGD (Post-graduate Diploma) in Mathematical Sciences from African Institute for mathematical Sciences in joint collaboration with University of Stellenbosch, South-Africa. She holds a Masters of Engineering (MEng) in Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch. Her fields of research are solar energy systems and renewable energy.
Abstract:
Nowadays, there exist many innovative day lighting technologies which could be used to enhance natural illumination for buildings that use more electric light during the day such as schools, industrial buildings. This study describes the passive zenithal light pipe day lighting technology’s performance through the scale model method. The yield of passive zenithal light pipe was improved and was achieved by incorporating a light collimator in the light pipe. Through the design and fabrication of the light collimator, illuminance in the classroom has been improved from 178 lux distributed by commercial diffuser to 370 lux (illuminance average from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. under sunny days from October to December 2013). A range of reflector materials were tested on the interior lining of the collimator for consistent illuminance distribution and it was discovered that rough re-used aluminum cooking foil distributed uniformly and increased illuminance. All data used has been obtained from measurements at a test location in Stellenbosch, South Africa throughout year.
Haifu Li
Shenyang Agricultural University, China
Title: Effects of paper mill wastewater on seedling growth and the antioxidant system of reeds
Biography:
Haifu Li has completed his MSc at the age of 25 years from Shenyang Agricultural University and worked in this University since 2013. He is the leading researcher of Liaoning Shuangtai estuary wetland station, a national Ecological observation & research station. He has published more than 10 papers and currently serves as a secretary of College of water conservancy.
Abstract:
The effects of different concentrations of wastewater (chemical oxygen demands of 300, 175 and 50 mg•L-1) from a paper mill on seedling growth and the antioxidant system in reeds were tested in experimental pools that simulated the wetland ecosystem of the Liaoning Shuangtai estuary in China. Root length, biomass and moisture content, but not shoot moisture content and plant height, significantly increased with increases in wastewater concentration. At a concentration of 300 mg•L-1, shoot biomass increased by 52.5% and root biomass increased by 73.05% over the control. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content, production rate of superoxide anions (O2•-) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content all decreased with increasing concentration. At 300 mg•L-1, MDA content, production rate of O2•- and H2O2 content were 0.34, 0.24 and 0.16 times, respectively, those of the control in leaves and were 0.25, 0.19 and 0.17 times, respectively, those of the control in roots. Superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase activities and ascorbic acid and glutathione contents in leaves and roots significantly increased with increasing concentrations of wastewater. These results suggest that a concentration of 300 mg•L-1 could improve the activities of antioxidant enzymes, inhibit the generation of reactive oxygen species and reduce the generation of MDA, thus effectively alleviating the damage caused by salinity in wetland soil.
Erika Elizabeth Barbosa Mireles
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Léon, México
Title: Isolation of hydrocarbonoclastic bacterial consortium for degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in contaminated soil
Biography:
Erika Elizabeth Barbosa Mireles is a Biological Pharmaceutical Chemist in the Faculty of Sciences Chemicals,UJED since 2012. She is currently perusing M.Sc. in Applied Microbiology from Univesidad Autonoma de Nuevo Léon at Monterrey, Mexico.
Abstract:
Contamination of water and soil by hydrocarbons has increased in recent years. Hydrocarbons are widely known to be extremely polluting with toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic potential for humans while concern increases due to the difficulty to removing these compounds from the environment. This type of environmental contingencies arise direct effects on biota, since oil contains toxic chemicals that cause damage to plants, animals and humans but mainly on populations of microorganisms which represent an important part of the ecosystem and are key processes biogeochemicals. As an alternative to this problem bioremediation born; environmental technology as its main advantage is its versatility as it is a natural process of environmental self-sanitation and can adapt to the needs of each site. The denominated “hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria†are categorized according to the carbon source used when they are able to grow with alternative carbon sources. A number of these bacteria may yet be undiscovered and this bacterial can be used with the bioaugmentation technical to enhance the rate of remediation of contaminated natural systems by adding specific microorganisms to the system in this work used the “bacterial hydrocarbonoclasticâ€. Mexico is known for being one of world’s biggest oil producers and within its territory a number of natural oil seeps are found. In sites with these characteristics are known to exist hydrocarbonoclastic bacterial which have the distinctive ability to survive with hydrocarbons alone as carbon source (food) and facilitate mineralization by forming organic compounds more labile by breaking bonds. Due to the unique characteristics of these microorganisms, their use in soil environmental reclamation programs could be assumed.
Jacob Masiala Ngoy
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Title: Influence of moisture on multi-walled carbon nanotube with polyaspartamide for CO2 capture
Biography:
Jacob Masiala Ngoy is a chemical engineer of formation, with specialization in nanotechnology: the application of nanotechnology in drug delivery in order to improve the cancer therapy. Today with the same nanotechnology application, under Norwegian Petroleum Energy (Norad EnPe) grant, he has improved the adsorption technology for CO2 capture through a tailor-made adsorbent. This was a PhD project he has been working on since 2012, and now is an achievement in the chemical engineering department at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has been supervising MSc and BSc projects and also works as an occasional postgraduate lecturer for CO2 sorption technology.
Abstract:
Global warming caused by the increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere constitutes today a threat to life sustainability. Most of the energy throughout the world is generated by fossil fuel power plants which exhaust significant amount of GHG in the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is being investigated for the reintegration of fossil fuel utilization in view of environment clean up where the renewable energy takes advantage. However, technologies for the separation of CO2 from flue gas require a feat of engineering for efficient achievement. This work provides an advanced adsorption technology through a novel adsorbent, MWNT-PAA, designed from the non-covalent functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) by polyaspartamide (PAA) as product of ethylenediamine (EDA) grafted to polysuccinimide (PSI). The adsorbent MWNT-PAA was demonstrated to be highly water tolerant in the temperature range 25-55℃ with a pressure of 110kpa, where the CO2 adsorption capacity increased with the increase of moisture in the adsorbent. After 10 cycles of adsorption-desorption, the MWNT-PAA showed a stable regenerability with a desorption temperature of 100℃ and 99% recovery. Furthermore, the thermodynamic study of MWNT-PAA through heat flow results confirmed the exothermicity of the adsorption process with a higher heat release of 5600kJ/kg compared to desorption process where a very low heat was absorbed (580kJ/kg) to confirm the endothermicity of the process. Thus, the TSA system could release 5000kJ/kg as heat flow balance. This gives the adsorbent MWNT-PAA a large advantage for the energy efficiency.
André Luiz de Carvalho
Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil
Title: Climate changes and sugarcane productivity in northeastern region of Brazil
Biography:
André Luiz de Carvalho has completed his Ph.D in Energy and Nuclear Technologies at the age of 30 years from Federal University of Pernambuco and postdoctoral studies from Federal University of Alagoas, in Brazil. He has experience in agrometeorology, solar radiation and climate modeling and biogeochemistry and he has published some papers in journals about meteorology and climatology, including issues related to the impacts of climate changes on agriculture.
Abstract:
Climate changes have stimulated the increase in the use of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels, because their lower impact on the climate. Biomass is one of the main renewable energy sources, especially sugarcane that is used for production of ethanol and thermal energy. In northeastern Brazil, sugarcane is grown in the Atlantic Forest region (Zona da Mata), mainly between Alagoas and ParaÃba states. This region presents great rainfall variability, with high precipitation in coastal strip, favoring sugarcane cultivation. However, some areas have high water deficit, especially in the north portion of northeastern region. In these areas, sugarcane cultivation is limited and may become even drier in the future, according to the climate change projections generated by the main global circulation models. Thus, computational models like Century model, simulating carbon cycle and nutrients dynamics in agricultural and forestry systems have been used to reproduce sugarcane behavior on several management and climate scenarios. These simulations aim to generate prior information of production to allow the adoption of adaptation strategies to avoid losses in the future. Climate scenarios projected by global climate models and regionalized for specific areas by the Eta/CPTEC model are used to simulate sugarcane potential productivity in future climate. Climate scenarios are based on greenhouse gas emission projections defined by the IPCC: A2 scenario (high emissions) and B2 (low emissions). The combined use of crop simulation models in agronomic systems with climate scenarios can become viable further analysis of the possible impacts of climate changes on potential sugarcane yield.
Flocerfida Amaya
University of Perpetual Help System Laguna, Philippines
Title: Life cycle assessment of water reuse in Laguna international industrial park: The Philippines
Biography:
Flocerfida L. Amaya is currently serving as Dean, College of Eng'g at University of Perpetual Help System Laguna, Philippines.
Abstract:
Life Cycle Assessment was applied to assess the water balance of selected locators in Laguna International Industrial Park Inc. and as a management tool to evaluate the overall impacts of each of the processes involved. The knowledge about life cycle assessment and industrial ecology is one of the building blocks of sustainability of water reuse in LIIP. Most of the locators do not consider yet ecological sustainability due to their limited knowledge of industrial ecology. Although most of the Pollution Control Officers are not that informed about industrial ecology and life cycle assessment, they are willing to disclose their data on volume of ground freshwater consumption and wastewater discharge. There are locators who have pre-treatment process due to their high quality requirements of water and they just discharge this pre-treated water directly to the Centralized Sewage Treatment Plant. In consonance to this, there are locators who are using water for their auxiliary operations which do not require high quality of water. Evaluation results showed that industrial ecology can be applied to selected locators so they can reduce their groundwater consumption and volume of discharged wastewater. It was identified that barriers in closing the water loop in LIIP are due to abundance of freshwater supply and its cheaper cost.
Omeje Maxwell
Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia
Title: Tectonic and radioactivity impacts of 238U on groundwater based drinking Water at Gosa and Lugbe Area of Abuja, North Central Nigeria
Biography:
Omeje Maxwell works in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.His research interests include radiation Detection, Environmental Radioactivity and application of radioactivity for detection of chemical toxicity risk of ground water.
Abstract:
Tectonic contribution of activity level of 238U in groundwater based drinking water in Gosa and Lugbe area of Abuja were measured using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP- MS). The highest activity level of 2736 Bq L-1 reported in Lugbe borehole whereas the lowest value of 443 Bq L‒1 reported at Gosa borehole. The inhabitants permanently used water from the boreholes for daily consumption. The group receives 5.55 x 10‒5 mSv of the annual collective effective dose due to 238U in drinking water. The radiological risks of 238U in the water samples were found to be low, typically in magnitude of 10−7 with cancer mortality value of 1.03 × 10‒7and morbidity value of 1.57 x 10‒7. The chemical toxicity risk of 238U in drinking water over a life time consumption has a mean value of 4.0 x 10ï€3 μg kg‒1 day‒1 . It could be that the human risk due to 238U content in groundwater supplies from ingestion may likely be the chemical toxicity of 238U as a heavy metal rather than radiological risk. Significantly, Lugbe subsurface may have developed some fractions of granitic strata that contributed to the distribution of radioactive of 238U in tectonically weak zones.
Nguyen Thai Hoa
Kyoto University, Japan
Title: A proposal of the low carbon development strategies for Haiphong city, Vietnam
Biography:
Nguyen Thai Hoa is a program specific researcher at Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan. Her research interests include development of low carbon development strategies and scenarios.
Abstract:
Haiphong is known as the third largest city of Vietnam and a largest ocean port in the North and has an important position in economy development strategy of Vietnam government. As part of Viet Nam Green Growth Strategy 2011-2020 and under the Conclusion No.72-KL/TW, Haiphong is taking the lead in awareness raising and taking action to become the first "Green Port City" in Viet Nam by 2020. Haiphong city need to promulgate action plans to concretize that idea of Green Port City. This action plan is necessary and should be integrated with the middle- and long-term master plan of socio-economic development, specific sectorial development plans including transportation, industry, waste management, power and agriculture. The objectives of this study are: (1) to design a low carbon city for Haiphong; (2) to support the vision of building Haiphong as a green city. The method of the study involves development of CO2 emission inventory, and quantification of socio-economic activity level in 2020. We used ExSS as a tool for estimation and two scenarios are set, namely 2020BaU (Business as Usual) and 2020CM (CounterMeasure). The results showed that the amount of CO2 emission is less by 27% in 2020CM than 2020BaU. By decomposing the emission reduction countermeasures in 2020CM, it showed that the main pathways to reduce CO2 emissions are the advanced energy efficiency, more public transportation share in the city and the power sector structure adjustment with the emission reduction contribution rates are 38.3%, 28.2% and 15.2%, respectively. We expect this study is useful and supported for researchers, policy makers to see a clear vision of building green growth climate change action plans and to develop proposals for implementing those plans.
Hamad Al-Mebayedh
Kuwait Oil Company, Kuwait
Title: Reviewing the quality of the environmental impact assessment (EIA)
Biography:
Hamad al Mebayedh is a highly skilled petroleum, environment, energy, and construction senior projects engineer, with a proven record of success in driving major environmental projects strategies and plan, dealings with government leaders and corporate management. Experienced at coordinating and overseeing culturally diverse and widely distributed environmental project teams. Outstanding history in developing major oil companies environmental strategies, procedures and standards. He holds Master of Science in Drilling and Well Design Engineering and Master of Science in Construction Project Management from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Civil and Structural Engineering and Post-Graduate Programme in Safety Engineering, Reliability and Risk Management from University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Abstract:
Organizations involved in construction and development projects have to use Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures. The overall success of the EIA process depends on the quality of the EIA document. This paper addresses the main consolidation areas concerning improving and reviewing the quality control within the EIA process, and provides guideline for reviewing the quality of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) document. The objectives of this Guideline are; ensuring existence of key requirements in the EIA document, to determine the important issues and alternatives that should be examined in EIA report, Identify the nature and severity of the significant environmental impacts associated with the project, to serve as a detailed terms of reference (TOR) for EIA studies in projects, and to determine whether the information provided is adequate for decision making. The Purpose of this research paper is to assist in the review of EIA reports and ensure a high level of quality is achieved, to enhance the quality of the EIA reports in order to achieve the desired success of HSE measures in the projects, and to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, specifically EPA, and HSEMS procedures.
Biography:
Dr. Kharseh is working on utilizing renewable energy resource for reducing fossil-fuel energy consumption with expertise in the energy systems, heat transfer, and renewable energy analysis. He currently works on an international collaboration between McGill University (Canada) and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at Qatar University on exploiting available renewable energy resources in Qatar. Altogether, Dr. Kharseh has his own Swedish patent in renewable energy filed and applying for a new one. He is also an energy consultant of a Swedish company that is proving a smart energy solution.
Abstract:
Owing to the awareness of the impact of global warming, there has been a growing interest in studying the relationship between human activities and climate change. Observations provide evidence that rising atmospheric CO2 level, which has increased by 25% last century caused by human activities, are associated with rising global temperature. This air pollutant makes planet's climate system more unstable. Review of the literature confirms that climate change has consequences of on public health. Although, some of these health impacts of climate change would be beneficial (e.g., reduce the seasonal wintertime peak in deaths in temperate countries), scientists believe that most of the health impacts would be detrimental. Climate change directly increases water temperature, which it is an important cause of increasing waterborne disease, and enhances the potential for contamination by means of flooding. According to WHO, three million people annually die worldwide as a direct result of air pollution. The United Nations Environment Program acknowledges that deteriorating environmental conditions are responsible for 25% of all preventable ill health. About 5% of deaths and diseases globally are attributed to air pollution. Additionally, extreme climate events such as droughts, floods, or hurricanes, which are expected to become more frequent, have great impact on public health and life quality especially in poor countries. The currents presentation shows evidences, causes, and identify climate changes effect on public health and economic; as well as review a number of actions and mitigations that can reduce or prevent adverse health outcomes related to climate change.
Mahmoud Salari
Texas Tech University, United States of America
Title: The effect of changing ethanol production on the area harvested and CO2 emissions
Biography:
Mahmoud Salari is an instructor at Department Of Economics, Texas Tech University, USA. His areas of interest are Global trade analysis, CO2 emissions and Ethanol production.
Abstract:
Biofuel production has been increasing dramatically in the last decade. Recently several countries have introduced mandates and targets for ethanol expansion. This paper investigates the recent developments in ethanol production and its impact on the area harvested and CO2 emissions for the producer countries and the rest of the world. This paper defines three scenarios that examined 50%, 100% and 150% increasing ethanol production respectively in the world which are modeled in GTAP-BIO. The results show that the increasing production of ethanol has different impacts on the area harvested and CO2 emissions in different areas. In all defined scenarios, the largest change is related to the amount of cereal grains. The findings demonstrate that increasing ethanol production from biofuels resulted in CO2 emission mitigation in the producers’ countries and increasing CO2 emissions in the rest of the world. This paper shows increasing ethanol production resulted in CO2 emission mitigation for the United States, while observing reduction in the CO2 emissions for the whole economy.
Hamad Al-Mebayedh
Kuwait Oil Company, Kuwait
Title: Climate changes and its effects on the Arab area
Biography:
Hamad al Mebayedh is a highly skilled petroleum, environment, energy, and construction senior projects engineer, with a proven record of success in driving major environmental projects strategies and plan, dealings with government leaders and corporate management. Experienced at coordinating and overseeing culturally diverse and widely distributed environmental project teams. Outstanding history in developing major oil companies environmental strategies, procedures and standards. He holds Master of Science in Drilling and Well Design Engineering and Master of Science in Construction Project Management from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Civil and Structural Engineering and Post-Graduate Programme in Safety Engineering, Reliability and Risk Management from University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Abstract:
Climate change is a phenomenon of concern not only to countries in the Arab World but also to all countries all over the world, though the Arab region is at a disadvantage due to its predisposition to harsh climatic conditions. The energy sector is the main contributor to climate change, which in turn results in changes in water quality and quantity, sea level, human health, food production, tourism and security. Arab World counties have attempted to adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change; but there are numerous challenges that they must overcome in order to keep up with these changes. Some mitigation factors in the industrial sector and building sector, mainly those in search of substitute fuels to oil are far-reaching if the countries can cooperate in their efforts. Since the area has resources to implement comprehensive changes, it is recommended that stakeholders work together in order to achieve synchrony in their efforts.
Pedro Nunes de Freitas
Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
Title: Environmental controls in heritage buildings: the case study of “baixa pombalina’s†units, in Lisbon.
Biography:
Pedro Nunes de Freitas is currently serving as a Professor at Universidade de Évora, Lisbon, Portugal. His research areas include Architecture, Planning and green buildings.
Abstract:
“Baixa Pombalinaâ€, the downtown and historic district of Lisbon is one of the most important pieces of urbanism and architecture ever built in Portugal and is at present time a UNESCO World Heritage nominates those buildings were built after the great earthquake of 1755, for housing, commercial and services functions. And they constitute a rational and functional approach for health and comfort to their residents, translating the state-of-the-art of architecture at the time, through the use of lighting and natural ventilation. In this research study, buildings of “Baixa†are observed as a scenario where residents of 21st Century live in spatial and built structures of 18th Century. This paper is about environmental controls within current thermal and lighting performance of “Baixa Pombalina†buildings. It analyses the efficacy of those buildings from the passive design point of view as well as the habits of its occupants in controlling and regulating the devices available in “Baixa†buildings at present time. A questionnaire model was developed to study bioclimatic performance of offices and residences selected in “Baixaâ€. And field work involved a survey where workers of fifteen offices and residents of five houses have participated. Results demonstrate that in buildings of Baixa, controls are used less interactively during winter season and more interactively during summer season. Results indicate that in the Lisbon climate, it is mainly during the summer season that controls have a major role in thermal performance of these in heritage buildings.
Suhas B. Dhande
K.R. Sapkal College of Management Studies, India
Title: Energy Conservation: Adapt to the nature
Biography:
Suhas B. Dhande is the Director at K.R. Sapkal College of Management Studies, Nashik, India. He is Academic Research Coordinator (ARC) for BCUD, University of Pune and has published various papers in National & International Conferences & chaired sessions. He has industrial expertise of about 18 years in Research & Development under Automotive Sector at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
Abstract:
In the current scenario of worldwide emerging need of energy conservation, various renewable energy sources are being explored, tested, some are under development and some are already in practical use, partially or fully. No doubt, it is the need of the hour. Many a times, very simple solutions can give answers to the complex questions. This paper tries to focus such simple solutions to the issue of energy utilisations and conservation. If human being adapts to the nature, follow the nature, lot of energy requirement can be bring down. This energy saved will be energy earned. This will reduce the burden on the energy conservation issue. Nature prompts us very efficient way of optimization. Human being used to follow the same path till recent years. But technology gave human being over-confidence and so he started dis-obeying the laws of nature, rather exploiting them. This is the crucial time to think seriously, understand the limitations of human being and technology, so as to adapt to the natural principles of nature. This will help conserve all- the nature, the human beings and all the living beings. The paper explores various ways how human being can adapt to the natural principles of nature and how the approach can contribute to the issue of energy conservation.
Zhonghua Zhang
Beijing Institute of Technology,China
Title: Embodied carbon in china’s foreign trade: A literature review based on online SCI-E and SSCI
Biography:
Zhonghua Zhang is now a PhD candidate at the age of 31 years from Beijing Institute of Technology. He has run a company for 5 years as a CEO. His research interest are energy economics; international economics; environmental and resource economics; international trade and climate change. Two of his papers has been published in reputed journals and other 2 papers are under review. He has been serving as Peer Reviewer for 2 journals.
Abstract:
This paper systematically presents a survey of the empirical literature on the embodied carbon in China’s foreign trade (ECCT). The latest publications regarding ECCT in peer-reviewed journals are summarized based on the bibliometric method and the online versions of Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Publications referring to ECCT are assessed with respect to quantities, most productive countries, institutions, authors, citations and disciplines. By using synthetic analysis of keyword frequency, this study reveals the most popular methodologies applied to measure the ECCT; it also discusses the variation of numerical results in the literature as well as the reasons and counter measures for the uncertainties in the results. Continuous investigation of the literature suggests that the methodology employed to measure the ECCT has become more reasonable with the results becoming more critical. However, the numerical results of the ECCT have shown great discrepancies within a given year because of different considerations on methodology specification, accounting principles and data sources and processing. For instance, the estimates of CO2 emissions embodied in the exports of China in 2007 changed from 478 Mt to over 3,000 Mt whereas those for its imports ranged from 140 Mt to over 1,700 Mt. Moreover, the results with respect to the balance of CO2 emissions embodied in the foreign trade of China in 2007 varied between over 100 Mt and 2,900 Mt. Hence, overcoming the inherent data limitations in China and improvements in calculating the ECCT should be urgently considered.
Modeste Kameni
University of Yaounde, Cameroon
Title: A review of the resource potential and energy efficiency in the building codes of Cameroon
Biography:
Modeste Kameni works at Environmental Energy Technologies Laboratory, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. His research interests include Energy efficiency, Potentials of the resources and green buildings.
Abstract:
Today, more than ever, the human energy requirements are enormous and still growing. All the countries of the world need energy which is the main source of development. The development of African continent is still very slow; it is mainly due to the limited policy interest and investment levels. The effective use of energy is crucial because of the continuous depletion of energy resources especially for developing countries which are currently experiencing rapid economic and population growth. The aim of this paper is to review the status and current trends of potential of the resources, energy consumption and energy policies in the residential sector both globally and in those of Cameroon. It was found that the world’s energy needs are constantly growing and should exceed 50% of current levels by 2030. Africa has substantial new renewable energy resources, most of which are under-exploited. We found that 83% of the rural population in Africa has no access to electricity. This rate reached 92% in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which is against 70% for South Asia. Especially in Cameroon, the energy consumption in the residential sector is about 70% of the total energy consumption. This rate is higher compared to the world level that is around 27%. The energy efficiency is very important in the context of sustainable development. Traditional biomass is the main source of energy in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Barham S. Mahmood
Koya University, Iraq
Title: Optimization of CO2 storage in deep saline aquifer using the Raven software
Biography:
Barham is an Assistant Lecturer in Petroleum Engineering Department at Faculty of Engineering, Koya University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Koya University in 2011. He started working as a junior petroleum engineer in the faculty of engineering since Nov 2011. He received his Masters in Petroleum Engineering from the Heriot-Watt Institute of Petroleum Engineering in 2014.
Abstract:
Determining storage capacity in a deep saline aquifer is constrained by the capability of the formation to disperse additional pressure which is generated by CO2 injection (pressure build-up)and migration of CO2 at the edge of the aquifers (CO2 leakage) . Therefore, in order to accurately predict the storage capacity it is important to consider these two factors before a CO2 project proceed. In term of optimization scenario for CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers, it is usually focused on the key optimization parameters such as well location, number of well, well completion and injection rate to obtain a desire injectivity, maximize CO2 storage as much as possible and provide risk assessment with reasonable confidence In this project two cases were considered. An optimization study has been carried out in one sector of Bunter model (Dome A) and among the relevant parameters mentioned above three parameters has been optimized; injection rate, well location and well completion by applying multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm using Raven software. The result of this study shows that in case two when changing the number of wells from 5 to 7 injectors the possible storage capacity for dome A is increased from 139 Mt to 145 Mt. However, the maximum CO2 leakage did not reach the criterion of 0.1%/year. Thus, to determine the maximum safe volume of CO2 further extended CO2 injection is required. In terms of pressure build-up, the result shows that the well bottom-hole pressure in observation well for both cases never exceed the fracture pressure of the Bunter formation. The result also indicates that the MOPSO algorithm is promising in obtaining the desired objective to improve storage capacity significantly while reducing the pressure build-up and CO2 migration.
Nida Rabab
Institute of Business Management, Pakistan
Title: Impact on vegetables irrigated with municipal and industrial wastewater from Korangi drain near IOBM, Karachi
Biography:
Nida Rabab from Pakistan is an MBA graduate in Environmental and Energy Management from Institute of Business Management, Karachi, 2014. She has worked as a research assistant at IoBM, Pakistan for the completion of the research project. She has completed her final year Internship from Civil Aviation Pakistan. She also holds an individual membership of WWF Pakistan.
Abstract:
The present study was conducted to assess the impact on vegetables irrigated with municipal and industrial wastewater from Korangi Drain near IOBM, Karachi. Some vegetables are grown using sewage and industrial wastewater laden with alarmingly high levels of heavy metals and bacteriological contamination. Maximum concentration of lead was found in spinach 8.20 mg/l as against safe limits of 0.01 mg/l and maximum nickel concentration was found in banana 3.114 mg/l as against 0.02 mg/l, whereas all vegetables were invariably bacteriologically contaminated much beyond safe limits. Appropriate legislations in Sindh aided with competent manpower for rigorous monitoring to gauge the harmful impact on vegetables grown with untreated municipal and industrial wastewater is essential to effectively combat the these problems of growing vegetables. The discharge of untreated municipal and industrial wastewater through Korangi Drain into fresh water bodies of Karachi coast should be banned to save the coast from becoming hypoxic and causing irreparable loss to marine life.
Track 4:Energy Conservation and Architecture
Track 7:New Trends and Technologies for RESS
Track 8 : Agricultural Sustainability
Track 10 : Nanotechnology
Session Introduction
Sven Erik Jørgensen
Copenhagen University, Denmark
Title: Application of ecological models for assessment of sustainability
Biography:
Sven Erik Jørgensen is professor emeritus in environmental chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. He has received a master of science in chemical engineering from the Danish Technical University (1958), a doctor of environmental engineering (Karlsruhe University) and a doctor of science in ecological modelling (Copenhagen University). He is honourable doctor at Coimbra University, Portugal and at Dar es Salaam University (Tanzania). He has received the Einstein Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Science. He has in 1975 founded the journal Ecological Modelling and in 1978 ISEM (International Society of Ecological Modelling). He has received several awards, The Ruder Boskovic Medal, The Prigogine Prize, The Pascal Medal, The Einstein professorship at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, The Santa Chiara Prize for multidisciplinary teaching and the very prestigious Stockholm Water Prize. The Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, edited by Sven Erik Jørgensen, received in 2013 the outstanding publishing achievement, “this year’s Outstanding Academic Title”.He has published 370 papers of which 256 were published in peer-reviewed international journals and he has edited or authored 79 books, of which several have been translated to other languages (Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese). He has authored a successful textbook in ecological modelling “Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling”, which was published as a fourth edition together with Brian Fath in 2011. It has been translated to Chinese and Russian (third edition). Recently he authored a well received textbook in system ecology entitled “Introduction to Systems Ecology”. It was published as English edition in 2012 and as Chinese edition in 2013. He was editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Ecology, that was published in 2008, and of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, that was published in December 2012. The Encyclopedia of Environmental Management received the award “Outstanding Academic Title” for 2013. He has taught courses in ecological modelling and systems ecology in 33 different countries. He is the editorial board member of 20 international journals in the fields of ecology and environmental management. He is the president of ISEM and he has been elected member of the European Academy of Science’s, for which he is the chairman of the Section for Environmental Sciences.
Abstract:
There has lately been an increased interest in sustainability assessment and models have been developed to assess the sustainability of ecosystems, a natural area for instance a landscape and of a well-defined area that includes not only ecological processes but also socio-economic activities. Our experiences with sustainability assessment projects are still very limited, but from many sides it has been proposed which key variables to include in such an analysis. The use of work energy as a sustainability indicator that includes expressions of natural and socio-economic activities has been proposed and also tested with a reasonable success. The efficiency of the use of work energy in general and the amount of work energy needed to maintain the various subsystems and their capacity of work energy were included in these analyses. It is, however, clear that one indicator is insufficient to assess a sustainability of a very complex system. It has therefore been proposed to supplement the use of work energy as indicator with development of models of the most important cycles for natural and socio-economic systems, namely the cycles of carbon, nitrogen and water. Two ecological factors are in focus when it is discussed what is important to include in a sustainability analysis, namely the services offered by the ecosystems and the biodiversity, that is important for the spectrum of resistances to possible impacts on the systems. It is probably important to include these two ecological factors as direct indicators in the sustainability analysis, although they are both to a certain extent covered by the work energy analysis. Socio-economic indicators are of course also needed but it is beyond the scope of this presentation. The result of use of models for the assessment of the global sustainability by use of a “limits to growth”- like model will be presented. The model has been used to assess the global development in the case of 1) more support to the developing countries by the industrialized countries 2) more green tax to reduce depletion of resources3) more investment in pollution control including the emission reduction of the greenhouse gases 4) more investment in education and research to develop new solutions of the global problems.. It can be shown that these investments and changes lead to a win-win situation. The model has also been used to calculate the ecological footprint by various scenarios. These results will be presented, too.
André Pedral Sampaio
APOLLO Research Group of Sustainable Technology,Brazil
Title: Artemis project: A thermo- electric 100% carbon free to be built at the Amazon forest
Biography:
Andra Pedral Sampaioin holds Phd in Industrial Engineering - Organizational Intelligence from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2008), Master in Industrial Engineering - Business Management from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2002), Computer Specialist at Educational Center for Education Graduate Olga Metting (1999), Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Bahia (1986). He has extensive experience in the areas of Information Technology, Process Engineering, Hydrogen, Bioenergy, Energy Generated, Process Automation, Sustainable Development, Audit and Judicial Skill. Winner of the South Regional – Santander and Winner of 4th Prize Santander Science and Innovation with the project OPTIMUS: Creating a method for assessing the strategic management informed by MCDA-C; Coordinates of the APOLLO research group, developing research projects in the areas of technology, robotics, organizational strategies, clean energy and sustainable development. Creator, researcher and coordinator of the Engineering courses of the Faculty of Technology of Valença / Ba – FACTIVA. Founder of FACTIVA's Technology Center. Professor and researcher at the Federal University of Bahia – UFBA. Coordinator and researcher of the research groups: NDTA – FACTIVA: Advanced Technology Development Center Factiva; And GPAPOLLO – UFBA: Apollo Research Group – UFBA.
Abstract:
The Amazon is a priceless treasure that needs to be preserved at every cost. Besides being the largest forest of the world, with the largest concentration of fresh water and to have the largest biodiversity of the planet, the Amazon forest is a life source, one of the few places in the planet earth where the nature still exercises all your magnificent force. It is difficult to explain in words that every visitor sits down when knowing the Amazonian for the first time: a power never imagined magnetism, forces, emotion, respect, vastness, life and peace. The Amazon forest copper 6,5 million of KM2, of the which 4 million are in Brazilian territory. But, in spite of the Amazon basin to be formed by torrential rivers, the quite permeable soil and the little canyons presence and falls of water, they impede the implantation of hydroelectric plants in the area. Due to vast territorial extension, the Amazonian shelters a riverside population that they don't have minimum resources of survival, among them the electric power. But, due to the difficulties of taking the electrification the those communities, and the Brazilian government's constants prohibitions to liberate plants that use fuels root, more and more it appears collections and investments in several forms of clean energy generation. This way, in order to promote the sustained development, it is that was born the ARTEMIS project that foresees the rational and intelligent use of waters and waves, with hydraulic potential bass, could have or not a low oxygen level and the presence of solid substances dissolved, with the purpose of electric power production - starting from the combination of a gas turbines system, moved H2, and moved thermal units H2. Basing your proposal, in a productive structure at a low cost, with high financial profitability, and occupying a small area, the ARTEMIS project was conceived in modules, resembling each other to protounits, that has as pattern the constructive easiness, the modular form, easy exchange, the union of innovative technologies and besides everything the capacity to adapt to the needs the generation, could be used from small units of production to gigantic, what will guide your implantation cost. Besides everything, the architecture of the project doesn't generate gases of the effect it stews. Like this, the project, while it conserves the environment using up-to-date technology for energy generation, it makes with a low cost, to maintain your process. The volume of energy, produced through this project, it is high, being capable to supply the energy consumption to this associated, this everything starting from a raw material, water of the amazon rivers, tends or not, hydraulic potential bass, creating a process that will lower the production costs energy, besides guaranteeing the quality and environmental protection. Based on a fixed platform, which operates in the middle of rivers or sea, this project was built to take advantage of all conditions generated by the seas, wind and sun to generate power. Thus, the Artemis project brings together three power generation systems: thermal system, mechanical system and photo-voltaic system. The Arthemis project is similar to a big tarantula. The body of the Tarantula serves as a fixed plat- form to generate energy through photo-voltaic panels and wind generators helical. Furthermore, there are electrolytes, inside which produce hydrogen for power generation through Stirling engine coupled to power generators, that can generate power by solar heating or the combustion of hydrogen. But not only the body generates energy, the legs of the tarantula are mobile and they follow the movements of the waves, allowing what eight legs generate energy by the movement of waves. The head of the tarantula is responsible for control of the entire complex.
Joseph Zeaiter
The American University of Beirut, Beirut
Title: Conversion of olive stones and dates pits to fermentable sugars using ammonia and dilute acids
Biography:
Joseph Zeaiter is an assistant professor at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering under the Faculty of Engineering & Architecture at American University of Beirut. His research interests include thermolysis of plastic waste into fuel, process modeling, advanced process control and optimization.
Abstract:
The use of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste has received considerable attention as a sustainable feedstock that can replace fossil fuels for the production of renewable energy. Therefore, municipal waste in the form of date pits and olive stones was investigated as a potential feedstock for fermentable sugars production. Treatment of the biomass by ammonia was investigated in order to convert lignin into fermentable sugars. Further hydrolysis by dilute phosphoric acid was carried out in an Autoclave Parr Reactor where reactor temperature (135 to 200° C) and acid concentration (2.5 to 10% (w/w)) were examined. Analysis of the decomposition rate of hemicellulose biomass was undertaken using HPLC of the reaction products. Initial results indicate no hydrolysis of hemicellulose by ammonia and only lignin was broken down. Acid hydrolysis lead to the breakdown of biomass into Xylose where the maximum concentration was obtained at 135° C, 120 min reaction time and at 2.5 (wt) % H3PO4, 150° C and 60 min reaction time. For glucose, an average yield of 26% was obtained at 2.5 (wt) % H3PO4, 200° C and 30 min. Furfural and 5-Hydroxymethlyfurfural (HMF) formation was clearly affected by reaction temperature where the higher the temperature the higher the formation rate. The produced sugars can be used as a source for fermentation to produce bioethanol.
Cuk Supriyadi Nandar
Center for Technology of Manufacturing Industry, Indonesia
Title: Robust and adaptive pid control design for stabilization of interconnected smart power system with high penetration of renewable energy
Biography:
Cuk Supriyadi Ali Nandar received B.Eng degree from Electrical Engineering Department, Gadjah Mada University in 2002. He earned his M.Eng Degree in Electrical Engineering from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in 2009, and D.Eng from Kyushu University. He is currently researcher at Agency for The Assessment and Application of Technology. His field of interest includes smart grid power system and renewable energy. He has published 2 (two) International Book Chapters, 14 International Journals and attended 21 International Conferences.
Abstract:
When large power output renewable energy generation connected to grid, the number of conventional rotating type of generators in operation decreases, which results in the reduction of total inertia constant and it makes the power system stability weak. Moreover, the uncertainty of renewable energy generations may cause the dynamic characteristic of the power system changeable. On other hand, the performance of controller depends on the dynamic characteristic of the power system. Therefore, we need to re-estimate the system to adjust controller parameters to enhance the stability of the power system. This paper proposes design of energy storage controller in interconnected power system by considering robustness and adaptivity. The structure of controller is PID controller due to the most applicable in industry, simple structure, low cost and high reliability and performance. Robustness of controller is guaranteed by taking system uncertainties such as various generating and loading conditions, system nonlinearities etc., into consideration, the concept of enhancement of inverse additive perturbation is formulated as the optimization problem of PID parameters. The generic algorithm is applied to solve for controller parameters. In adaptive control, the controller parameters are changed depending on the situations. However, it is not desirable that the parameters are changed too frequently. It is preferable that the parameter alteration is done at the right moment. Here a system identification technique and the robust controller design method are combined into an indirect adaptive controller design. The result of model identification is used to monitor discrepancy between output of the actual power system and output of the identified model. When a large discrepancy is detected, a new set of controller parameters is determined to adapt to the new situation. The effectiveness of proposed method is evaluated in interconnected power system with high renewable energy penetration against various line flow conditions and inertia constant in comparison with the conventional robust controller without considering adaptivity. Non linear simulation in interconnected power system confirm that the proposed controller design is effective to stabilize the system against various line flow conditions and inertia constant due to renewable energy penetration.
Yudi Widodo
Indonesian Legume and Tuber Crops Research Institute, Indonesia
Title: Integrating root crops with animal husbandry for providing renewable energy in rural remote regions
Biography:
Yudi Widodo has completed his Bachelor’s degree of Agronomy from the State University of Surakarta (UNS). In 1984 and 1985, he was trained at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan Nigeria and Centro International Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) Cali Columbia. He has obtained his Master’s degree on Plant Science from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Yogyakarta in collaboration with Brawijaya University (UB) Malang, by international lecturers from Australia and Netherlands. He has more than 125 articles published domestically and international proceeding. He actively struggle for Proposing Indonesia-Madagascar Partnership in Agricultural Limkages (IMPARTIAL) as a new Alliance for Sustainable Development starting from 2014.
Abstract:
Energy has to be available everywhere in any location including in rural remote areas where communities live. A major figure in developing countries, poor electricity were suffered by inhabitants of rural remote areas, due to wire connection from state is not available. Electrical facility is providing for community who able to buy energy for their daily life. In fact at rural remote areas whereas agriculture is existing, biomass produced as byproduct from existing agriculture can be used as raw material to provide renewable energy with ecologically friendly. At least two of daily basic needs namely food preparation and light or heat have to be available. Cassava, sweet potato and the other root crops are mostly grown by farmers in rural areas. The main economical yield in the form of starchy root and tuber are directly for human consumption, however the abundance of biomass aside as source of feed, it also provide potential renewable energy by mixing with animal dung. Methane released from this integration system can be burnt to prepare food as well as to provide light. By implementing this method, free methane emission into atmospheric zones is avoided, so indirectly converting methane as renewable energy is a part of the endeavor to reduce global warming. Waste from methane digester can be mixed with organic material for worm rearing as source of protein for fish and chicken as well. Worm dunk is spent for organic fertilizer of agricultural field to attain greener environment.
Sismudjito
North Sumatera State University,Indonesia
Title: From waste to renewable energy: The significant contribution of green innovation for rural community
Biography:
Sismudjito has completed his Bachelor of Sociology at University of Gadjah Mada Yogyakart and his Master and Doctoral Degree of Sociology were completed from North Sumatera University (USU Medan) where he has been working as lecturer of Sociology since 1990.
Abstract:
Field survey was carried out at the rural areas of 13 villages under subdistrict Secanggang at district Langkat province of North Sumatra during April to June 2014. The main objective of this study is to determine the innovativeness belong to rural community in response to the need of renewable energy, and in fact in their circumstances waste as raw material is abundance. From the field survey indicated that rural community dealing with livelihood as farmers, fisheries and animal husbandry are dreaming about the potential of waste convertion into renewable energy, due to the existing energy consumption was mainly fulfilled by unrenewable fuel without ecologically friendly. Rural community aware that renewable energy is a reality in developed countries, due to commitment of government to realize the agenda for anticipating global warming by reducing emission of gaseous released from unrenewable fuel from fossiel. Imagination, inspiration and intuition as well as invention of renewable energy from waste were gathered as collected idea to be implemented into their circumstances. However as common character and attitude of rural communities, in order to perform the effectiveness of tool and apparatus for converting waste to renewable energy the real demonstration need to be installed. By showing the newly example in small scale means that seeing is believing, consequently rural community will be stimulated to develop based on their innovatiness response.
Aryan Azad
Sejong University, South Korea
Title: Enhanced hematite-based photoelectrochemical water splitting by comparing coating and doping methods
Biography:
Aryan Azad was born in 1985. In 2008 and 2011 she obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Textile Chemistry Engineering. Ms. Azad became top class honor student amongst the students graduated in the Textile Chemistry Engineering in both bachelor and master courses. Currently she is PhD student in Nano Technology and Advanced Materials Engineering department in Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea. She also has some publications in both Nano Technology and Textile science.
Abstract:
According to the global energy problem one of the solutions can be renewable solar hydrogen which is produced by splitting water and solar energy. Hematite (α-Fe2O3) thin films and Ti-doped hematite were grown on Fluorine thin oxide (FTO) substrate by hydrothermal method. On the other hand TiO2 and Fe2O3 were coated by layer by layer (LBL) method on Fluorine thin oxide (FTO) glasses. Samples were heat treated in different temperatures between 550 °C and 750 °C with various times between 10 min and 2h. The photoelectrochemical performances of undoped and doped hematite and coated FTO glasses by TiO2 and Fe2O3, were characterized and compared by X-ray characterization (XRD), optical band gap energy, photocurrent density (I-V) and field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FESEM). It has been demonstrated that the photoelectrochemical performance of Ti-doped hematite on the FTO glass, which was sintered in air at 550 °C for 2 h and annealed at 750 °C for additional 10 min, illustrated significantly high photo catalytic activity by increasing photocurrent density, decreasing the band gap energy and reducing electron-hole recombination.
Rafael Sánchez Solano
CINVESTAV-IPN, México
Title: SOTHPUWI: Solar tracker of high precision using web cam and control interface
Biography:
Rafael Solano Sanchez has completed his Bachelor as a mechanical electrician engineer at the age of 23 years from the Universidad Veracruzana. He is currently studying Masters in Bioelectronics in the CINVESTAV in México City.
Abstract:
SOTHPUWI is an automatic, high-precision solar tracker, with a graphical control interface, and a temperature control for recording the temperatures reached by a Fresnel lens used as solar concentrator. The tracker is a metal structure of two-axis, on which the Fresnel lens of 0.32m² is always oriented perpendicularly to the direction of the solar rays in order to obtain the highest energy efficiency. The tracker uses a web cam as a single sensor for the tracking of the sun. This sensor captures ten pictures per second and it sends the information to a computer through a USB cable, where using the interface, we can watch the position of the sun in real time according to the plane of the collector. The interface automatically sends feedback signals through an electronic device to two DC motors in order to maintain the collector perpendicular to the radiation source. The interface allows the displaying of readings from various sensors mounted on the tracker and it also enables or disables functions such as the web-cam to control the tracker via digital keypads and on the other hand, it is possible to reactivate the web-cam to return the automatic position control to it. SOTHPUWI proved an accuracy of 0.1° and a response time of 0.7 seconds. The maximum temperature recorded was 410 ° C, on a cloudy day at 14:30 hours in Mexico City. The interface remains open to the new programming features. The system proved its satisfactory operation for future applications.
Hui-Ping Zeng
Beijing University of Technology, China
Title: The evolution of the bio-filter layer for Manganese removal and the countermeasure
Biography:
Huiping Zeng received his M.E. and Ph.D. from Harbin Institution of Technology in 2010(Thesis: Biological purification of groundwater with high concentration of iron, manganese and ammonia and engineering application) and 2007(Thesis: Deterioration of biological filter for the purification of groundwater with iron and manganese), B.E. from Hunan University in 2005(major in water supply and drainage engineering). His research interests include the theory, technology and engineering application of biological purification of groundwater with high concentration of iron, manganese and arsenic. He has finished several demonstration projects of biological purification of groundwater with iron and manganese in Harbin and Shenyang. He has Published over 20 papers and participated in several research projects, including China Postdoctoral Fund (2012), National Natural Science Foundation(2013) and Beijing Education Commission Project(2014).
Abstract:
Biological filtration is the highly-efficient and economical process for manganese removal from groundwater, but after the bio-filter's long time operation manganese concentration of the effluent often exceeded the PRC national standards for drinking water quality. In order to know the truth, the as-prepared samples of the filter media were characterized. The filtration experiment had been done using filter media in various properties from mature bio-filters which had run for different time: just maturation, after 2 years operation. Also we replaced the old sand in the bio-filter with the new sand in different proportion (50%, 30%, 25%, 15%, 10%) to investigate the filtration effect. The results indicated that the diameter of the filter media became more and more lager due to the adhesion and accumulation of oxides of iron and manganese after long time operation, which led to the change of filter bed structure and even the deterioration of filtrate. Therefore, to maintain high efficiency of manganese removal in long-term operation, replacing some old filter media which optimum thickness was 10cm to 15cm with new one periodically was necessary and feasible.
Biography:
Chris Castro is an emerging social entrepreneur, community organizer, and sustainability professional with a passion for accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy. Chris is currently a Sustainability Program Manager and Senior Energy Adviser for the City of Orlando, working on implementing the Green Works Community Action Plan and developing policies and programs to advance clean energy and sustainability initiatives throughout Central Florida. In 2008, Chris co-founded IDEAS For Us, an award-winning international 501c3 nonprofit and UN-accredited NGO that’s building a movement of people working to accelerate environmental solutions on campuses and communities in more than 20+ countries around the World. In 2012, Chris also helped create Citizen Energy, a clean energy consulting and development firm working to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions in commercial buildings throughout Washington DC. In previous roles, he has also held sustainability & energy-related positions with University of Central Florida, Orange County Government, and the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) in Washington DC. Finally, Chris was recently designated as Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and a delegate for the Clinton Global Initiative. In his spare time, Chris enjoys urban farming and surfing the east coast of Florida.
Abstract:
In every major American city, buildings account for the majority of energy use and carbon pollution–even more than the transportation or industrial sectors. If cities want to be more competitive and more resilient against energy-related crises, they must boost the energy efficiency of their building stock. In the City of Orlando, 6% of the number of buildings contribute to 57% of the impacts regarding energy use and carbon pollutions, showing that improving the energy performance of these buildings will yield significant, rapid results to reaching our energy and climate action goals. However, in order to achieve significant energy savings, cities must know how much energy their large buildings are using in the first place. As a participant of the City Energy Project, the City of Orlando is developing an integrated framework of policies and programs that will increase energy efficiency investments in commercial, multifamily, and industrial buildings. This multi-faceted approach will work on improving the city’s municipal building portfolio, enabling actionable information about energy use, creating new financial instruments, developing custom incentive programs for improve performance, crafting new workforce development programs that educate building operators, exploring new energy codes and green building standards (for new construction), and launching creative ways to spur investments through city-wide competitions. This presentation will unveil the overview of City Energy Project initiatives, and disclose what the City of Orlando is working on to drive economic growth and improved competitiveness, enable smarter markets and governments, improve our environment, and become a national leader in energy efficiency for new and existing buildings.
Michael Steifman
CEO & Founder of UtiliSave, USA
Title: Energy solutions: How to organize and monetize data
Biography:
Upon graduating from the Wharton School of Business, Michael began his career in 1986 at the Starrett Housing Corporation where he was ultimately promoted to a corporate Vice President. There, his duties included implementing and monitoring all phases of real estate development projects from site negotiations and acquisitions, to design, financing, construction management, marketing, and leasing of projects. Michael acquired a wealth of knowledge within the real estate sector and more specifically, property management in the context of the property’s utility consumption and billing. In 1992, he founded UtiliSave seeking to educate clients on their energy use, uncover billing errors, and develop trustworthy relationships to identify cost saving opportunities.
Abstract:
Big data is changing the way the world does business and is set to revolutionize the utility industry as well. In the past, utility information was collected just once a month, it can now be collected in 15 minute intervals (and even more frequently in some situations), an incredible 35,000 times a year. Analytic tools are capable of making sense of this information and providing insight for verifiable business decisions, paving way for serious ROI. A new generation of technologies are being designed to extract economic value from these large swaths of previously unavailable data. Yet having all of the data in the world will not positively influence your bottom line unless you know how to organize it and how to analyze it. This data can be used for making internal operations more energy efficient while simultaneously being monetized as it relates to the utility company billing, in both regulated and deregulated markets. Are heating and cooling systems operating at the same time? Is equipment being activated at off-hours, are motors and drives properly calibrated? All this can be discerned from the data, it is even possible to know what equipment is being operated and when, from the analysis of the data. The more granular the data, the greater the opportunity for conservation and savings.
Tom Willie
Blue Pillar Inc., USA
Title: Optimizing energy efficiency with centralized facility management
Biography:
Tom Willie brings a successful 15-plus year start-up, technology and smart grid history to his position of CEO of Blue Pillar. Mr. Willie was most recently CEO of Current Group and had also served as CURRENT’s Chief Product Officer and its Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining CURRENT, Mr. Willie served as Vice President and General Manager of Siemens/Efficient Networks. He previously also served as the Vice President/Vice Chairman of PRIME Alliance AISBL and held strategic worldwide marketing management positions at Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor. Tom Willie obtained his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
Abstract:
Energy efficiency programs for businesses and facilities offer important financial and environmental benefits. The concept of energy efficiency is easy for businesses to grasp, but many are unaware of how to best gather energy data from their existing infrastructures to make informed energy management decisions, preventing them from operating at maximal efficiency. This session will cover technology innovations that make it possible to create a Digital Energy Internet of Things (IoT) network that connects controls and gathers data from core facility and electrical equipment regardless of make, model or vintage. Once connected, facility managers are able to control an entire facility’s equipment portfolio, execute critical power system compliance and readiness testing, monitor critical powers systems, and automate energy efficiency programs such as Demand Response. Using Centralized Facility Management (CFM), a new operational management trend, facility operators and corporate managers can monitor their connected equipment across geographically dispersed facilities and holistically view the energy efficiency and resiliency all of their dispersed operations. This session will discuss how an IoT network and CFM platform can help businesses leverage the power of asset connectivity, control, and data management to improve energy resiliency and efficiency across all facility operations.
Biography:
Usha Bajpai had obtained her M Sc Physics and Ph D degree from the University of Lucknow. After serving for 13 years in Nigeria in the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, she joined the Department of Physics, University of Lucknow as a faculty member. She established the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory in the Department and she is presently the Coordinator of Renewable Energy in Centre of Excellence in Renewable Energy Education and Research of the University of Lucknow. She started M Sc Programme in Renewable Energy in 2007-08. A new programme called B Voc Renewable Energy Technology from the current academic session and the University of Lucknow. Prof Bajpai has more than 115 research papers published in International and National Journals or presented in International and National Conferences. She has also authored a book on “Sustainable Building and Climate Change-An Indian Perspective†published in Germany in 2012. She is a consultant of MNRE and is a member of many professional societies. She is an editor/reviewer of various International and National Journals including Solar Energy, a Journal of International Solar Energy Society.She has developed solar photovoltaic powered bicycle and tri-cycle for handicapped persons which have been launched by Kalyanam Karoti in Lucknow in 2012. She has been awarded many prizes and awards including Lokmani Award by Bharat-Bharti in 2012 for development of Parivar Kalyan Chullha and its popularization. She has also been awarded Samaj Shiromani Award in Science and Technology by Nai Dishayen India in 2014 for outstanding achievements in the field of Science and Technology.
Abstract:
Skill is the learned ability to carry out a task with pre-determined results often within a given amount of time, energy or both. The rapid growth in renewable energy sector requires an extensive pool of competent manpower (skilled and knowledgeable) to design, install and maintain the renewable energy systems. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India had proactively initiated a project to estimate the future human resource needs in the renewable energy sector and evolve suitable human resource development strategies for meeting them. The strategies involved were to analyze trends in renewable energy industry, quantification of existing job opportunities in different functional areas, estimation of manpower requirements in renewable energy sector in short term (5 years) and medium term (5-10 years), map the skill requirements at different functional levels, develop sector wise human resource development strategies, develop strategies for possible partnership models between industry, institutions, academia and government towards skill development and develop inputs to integrate renewable energy into the current curricula at industrial training institutes, polytechnics and universities. The skill requirements for renewable energy technologies are unique in nature and vary widely across different sub-sectors. Certain skill requirements are common across all sectors of renewable energy, i.e. mechanical, electrical, installation and maintenance skills. A few other skills are unique to specific sectors i.e. wind resource assessment, techno-commercial marketing, installation of building-integrated photovoltaic systems, boiler and turbine operation, maintenance of biomass power plants, design and operation of biogas plants are highly specific. The skill mapping survey carried out by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India with the Confederation of Indian Industry in a study covered the sub-sectors of renewable energy like wind energy, solar photovoltaic conversion, solar thermal conversion, small hydro power and biomass/biogas. Function-wise skill gaps in each of the sub-sectors included research and development, project development and consultancy, manufacturing, construction and installation, operation and maintenance and marketing activities. Recently, the Government of India has created a new Ministry called the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the State Governments also created such setups for all round skill development in the entire spectrum of the Indian economy. National Skills Qualification Framework has been adopted and several innovative programs including Bachelor of Vocation programs have been started in renewable energy technologies. With all these efforts of the Government of India, development of required skills in renewable energy will be reality in the near future.
Ali Ghaffarian Hoseini
AUT University, New Zealand
Title: Future of intelliginet green built environments
Biography:
Ali Ghaffarian Hoseini is an academician at the Department of Built Environment Engineering, School of Engineering, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand. He has achieved well-recognized international innovation awards in addition to publication of various international level patent, journal articles, books, conference papers, etc. His research interests concern the wide spectrum of BIM; design cognition and computing; Building automation systems; Energy efficient buildings; Green building development; Green roofs; Environmental design behavior; Sustainable design developments; Adaptive environments; Smart housing; Intelligent buildings; Artificial intelligence in design & construction and integrated design studies.
Abstract:
Advancement of green built environments is of extreme significance to contemporary researchers. Application of highly sophisticated methods to achieve this has emerged the concept of incorporating Building Information Modelling (BIM) with Building Management Systems (BMS). Consequently, the notion of employing knowledge-based BMS is promoted. On the other hand, utilization of Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) for various building performances has indicated positive sustainable possibilities. Thus, incorporation of LCA and real-time building monitoring with knowledge-based BMS is recommended as a promising potential to endorse advancement of future green/sustainable built environments. It is overstressed that, such developments should not be only limited to consideration of green design principles for to-be-constructed buildings however, the idea of greening existing buildings following similar policies is recommended.
Biography:
Suresh C Bajpai holds MSc Physics, LLB and PhD degree’s from University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India. His areas of specializations are photovoltaic systems, energy in buildings, green buildings, energy modeling, energy managements and conservation. He has served as Ag Director of the Sokoto Energy Research Centre, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Nigeria and also the UNCHS Expert on use of New/Renewable Energy in Low Cost Housing at the Building Research Institute, Kingston, Jamaica. Recently, he worked as Chief Advisor (Research and Product Development), Ren-En-Gen Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Chief Advisor, Research Institute of Social Entrepreneurship (RISE). He has authored above 110 research papers which have been published in National/International Journals or presented in various conferences/workshops/seminars. In addition he has also co-authored/co-edited three books on renewable energy and has delivered many invited lectures at National and International institutions and organizations. Dr Bajpai is a member of many editorial boards of journals including the Editorial Board of the Solar Energy Society of India and is actively engaged in propagating photovoltaic energy conversion systems, energy conservation and management and green building ideas in India and abroad. Dr Bajpai is a Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, New Delhi. Presently, he is the Guest Faculty and Subject Expert at Centre of Excellence in Renewable Energy Education and Research, University of Lucknow (New Campus), Lucknow, India.
Abstract:
Energy is the prime mover of economic growth, and is vital to sustaining a modern economy and society. Future economic growth significantly depends on the long-term availability of energy from sources that are affordable, accessible and secure. India’s energy demand is expected to double by 2030. In the face of its present energy constraints, the country needs to use its energy as efficiently as possible and generate more power through renewable energy. The Government of India launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) in 2010, with an aim to establish India as a global leader in solar energy and to deploy 20,000 MW of solar power capacity by 2022. JNNSM targets were to be achieved in three phases: Phase 1 (up to early 2013), Phase 2 (2013-17) and Phase 3 (2017-22). In the Phase 2 – Batch 1, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) auctioned total 750 MQ of solar projects divided in two categories – open and domestic with 375 MW in each. This had a strong interest with bids from 58 developers for 2,170 MW as against 750 MW capacity on offer. However, with new Government coming in May-2014, the targets were revised to 1,00,000 MW by 2022 on account of solar energy alone. Besides the national program, solar programs at the state level are also driving solar growth in the country. At present, India has only around 2.8 GW of solar modules and 1.4 GW of solar cell manufacturing capacity. Significant portion of it remains underutilized, as the domestic manufactures fail to compete with imported solar PV price. It is generally agreed that, unless the market is backed by aggressive R&D, this growth may not continue and solar PV will not achieve the potentially substantial contribution that it could make to energy supplies. Further, a mechanism that seamlessly integrates technological advances to industry on real-time basis and also supports the industry to take the technology risk would be important for India.
Amine Boudghene Stambouli
University of Science and Technology of Oran, Algeria
Title: Stem technology initiative by Sahara solar breeder project: Chemistry and electronics of oxides as stem material for future energy and environment
Biography:
Professor Amine Boudghene Stambouli is a graduate of the University of Sciences and Technology of Oran (Algeria) in 1983. He received his master's degree in modern electronics (1985) and his PhD in optoelectronics (1989) at the University of Nottingham in England. He joined the University of Sciences and Technology of Oran in 1989. His studies started in the field of High Field Electroluminescence and optoelectronics and lately changed to environmental friendly production of energy. His research interests include at present: Photovoltaics, Fuel cells, hybrid systems, and environment impacts. He is a full Professor of optoelectronics and material science for environment and energy applications at the Department of Electronics. Prof. Amine Boudghene Stambouli is United Nations consultant (Index 382958), member of many scientific and industrial organizations and director of several doctoral courses.
Abstract:
The energy crises and challenges around the globe in the last few decades are a major concern to all countries. Solar energy is a widely used technology nowadays due to its availability. It has no negative effects on the environment as compared to other conventional energy such as the use of fossil fuel which eventually increases the earth’s average temperature and pollution. The earth’s surface accepts a solar amount of 108 kWh day-to-day, that is equal to 500,000 billion of barrels of oil, i.e., a thousand times any oil reserve identified to humans. This more than adequate availability makes solar energy less costly with no pollution. Every living thing preserves its life in a pseudo-steady state flow of energy and material to form a universal cycle for regenerating its origin, i.e. stem species, from the final product in the life cycle with the aid of sun light or other external energy. People start　worrying about a serious effect that may be caused by losing the energy-material balance due to the rapidly growing fossil fuel combustion. The inevitable result is the CO2 accumulation to threaten our sustainability by the global warming effect with CO2, which is not only anticipated but also recognised scientifically. As we could assign the stem cell to branch into every part of animals and plants, it is presumed to be possible to propose the stem concept and technology for in-organic (non-living) materials as well. Although there is a big difference in the life span, rocks, metals, and even our cosmos are aged and changed into various forms to be the most stable species on the earth, i.e. mostly oxides. In this article, we propose the stem technology initiative for recovering the balance in our future world, where human population and energy consumption keep growing, by developing a clean global solar energy supply system coupled with sustainable social security consensus．Our strategy for initiating stem technology R & D is based on the following scenario: 1. Define stem energy and stem material; 2. Design and propose the route to stem energy initiative; 3. Bridge the stem energy and stem material technology; 4. Sahara Solar Breeder (SSB) plan as a promising stem material/energy hybrid technology; 5. Extension to Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and central Asia; 6. Future prospect: Si renaissance and High critical Temperature Superconductor (HTcSC) transmission.
C. I. Chuks-Ezike
Robert Gordon University, United Kingdom
Title: Policy drivers propelling the uptake of renewable energy target within the European Union barriers hindering its speedy adoption
Biography:
C I Chuks-Ezike has just completed his Master’s program in Oil and Gas Law from the Robert Gordon University. He will be joining PhD program on Environmental Management in October 2015. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Nigerian Supreme Court in November 2013 upon a successful program at the Nigerian Law School where he has graduated with a Second Class Upper. He has since engaged in scholarly writings of articles and journals for local and international conferences, some of which he has delivered orally as papers or posters.
Abstract:
It is asserted that the European Union (EU) cannot achieve its energy objectives on its own. Energy constitutes a horizontal policy issue since the EU’s energy policy is a component of policy areas such as foreign policy, environmental/climate change and competition. Core energy matters such as climate change have a global viewpoint; hence the EU approach also has to be external. The issues of sustainability, security of supply and competitiveness are common a challenge that has plagued the EU member states over the years, hence have formed the foundation of a Common Energy Policy (CEP). This policy aims at achieving the targets reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, increasing energy efficiency and increasing the share of the renewable in the energy mix. This is because oil and gas exploration has been strongly linked to environmental problems such as climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. This thus means that the EU seeks an energy that is not only available, affordable, enhances competition instead of a monopoly and is also sustainable. The author of this work is of the view that these elements of a clean and available energy are only policy drivers for the adoption of Renewable Energy (RE). This is on the grounds that RE possesses all the qualities of cleanliness and availability described hence should be an alternative to conventional energy source. It is however notable that despite the policy drivers, most nations, whilst EU nations are yet to work uniformly and steadily towards achieving the renewable targets set.
Hamad Al-Mebayedh
Kuwait Oil Company, Kuwait
Title: Contaminated soil treatment technology selection and management process
Biography:
Highly skilled petroleum, environment, energy, and construction senior projects engineer, with a proven record of success in driving major environmental projects strategies and plan, dealings with government leaders and corporate management. Experienced at coordinating and overseeing culturally diverse and widely distributed environmental project teams. Outstanding history in developing major oil companies environmental strategies, procedures and standards.
Abstract:
This paper serves as the written guideline for contaminated site remediation projects, and Provides a framework for the key issues such as contaminated sites management process and decision framework for technology selection that need to be considered throughout remediation programs, to ensure that reports prepared by consultants, Contractors, or and any responsible party on the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites project contain sufficient and appropriate information. And to enable efficient review by regulators, the Site Auditor and other interested parties. In this paper, we eliminate the fact that the soil characteristics is a very important element in the remediation technologies selection process as site soil conditions frequently limit the selection of a treatment process. Process-limiting characteristics such as pH or moisture content may sometimes be adjusted. In other cases, a treatment technology may be eliminated based upon the soil classification (e.g., particle-size distribution) or other soil characteristics. This concludes the fact that we have to evaluate the technologies on the base of the contaminants and soil characterization. The effectiveness of the remediation technologies depends on three groups (Contaminant and site Characteristics, Regulatory Requirements, and Cost limitations); the Effectiveness of Technologies Dependency (ETD). Contaminate prospective, and RI/FS a very important element in our decision framework on the Contaminated Site Management and Technology Selection Process (CSM&TSP). Up on site characterization and the site investigation data requirement, technology group could be identified either In Situ or ex situ. The main advantage of in situ treatment is that it allows soil to be treated without being excavated and transported, resulting in potentially significant cost savings. However, in situ treatment generally requires longer time periods, and there is less certainty about the uniformity of treatment because of the variability in soil and aquifer characteristics, and because the efficacy of the process is more difficult to verify. The main advantage of ex situ treatment is that it generally requires shorter time periods than in situ treatment, and there is more certainty about the uniformity of treatment because of the ability to homogenize, screen, and continuously mix the soil. Ex situ treatment, however, requires excavation of soils, leading to increased costs and engineering for equipment, possible permitting, and material handling/worker exposure conditions. In this paper Contaminated Site Management and Technology Selection Process (CSMTSP) has been introduced as a guideline for Remediation Project Managers RPM to support their technology selection decision. Information in this paper is intended to give project managers a comprehensive understanding of the process to screen and select treatment technologies for specific contaminated sites, and guidance for further consideration of treatment technology and its applicability.
Rizeq Hammad
University of Jordan, Jordan
Title: Integrating solar technologies into the building envelope: A case study: Integration of a photovoltaic system in a house in Amman city
Biography:
Rizeq NS Hammad is full professor in the Department of Architecture, Jordan University, Amman- Jordan.He holds a Ph. D. in Architecture and Building from Engineering department of Liverpool University, UK. He has pursued M. Sc. In Computer Aided Design from Strathclyde University, Glasgow-UK.He has authored 5 books in lighting & acoustics and has some 40 scientific researches published in international refereed journals.
Abstract:
This paper describes the integration of electrical generating energy system using sunlight and day lighting within building skin design, and utilizing this energy as supplementary (and main energy supply in the near future). This system is has led to reduction of the building’s electrical bill in a limited energy resources country, like Jordan. The total electrical bills within 50 years in Jordan are equal to the primary cost of the building construction. A photovoltaic system is installed in a small house in Amman City, and the electrical energy output is carefully studded through two years period. This system is integrated with the electrical board which is supplied by the electrical company. The system consists of photovoltaic panels, an electrical converter and a two way electrical meter. When the system is produces additional electricity, (more than that required for house-hold needs, this extra load passes to the main electrical board. The electrical meter counts the supply from the main board and the additional electricity produced by the system. The final electricity bill is the difference between the in and out watts. The maximum allowable watts from this system should not exceed 3kw per hour. This system proves to be efficient during the two years, where the sunny days in Amman are approximately 300 days, and the overcast days are few. The average monthly production is 500 kilowatts, and that contributes to 30% of the final bills during the winter and 60% during the summer. This reduces the final monthly electrical bills to $15 during sunny days compared to $150.This system will cover its initial cost within 7 years despite the fact that the maximum allowable watts for this house are 3kw/hour. This system has many advantages in a poor energy resources country, such as Jordan and produces electricity without any additional cost, needs no maintenance and produces green energy. The system will even continue to produce free energy without any charges and charge the electrical board while the occupants are enjoying their vacations.
Parimal M Patel
V.N.S.G.University, India
Title: Effect of coal fly ash on somatic chromosomes of Cajanus cajan L.
Biography:
Parimal M Patel works at the Department Of Biosciences at V.N.S.G. University, Surat, India.
Abstract:
To assess possible impacts of coal fly ash on somatic chromosomes of Cajanus cajan L. were investigated. The root was treated with diluted, semi-diluted and concentrated solution of fly ash. The mitotic and phase indexes were determined and chromosomal abnormalities were investigated in both control and test groups. It was found that coal fly ash had a marked mitodepressive action on mitosis. Chromosome aberrations were observed in all stages of mitosis. Results of laboratory experiments reveals that cell size increased with the treatment of semi-diluted and concentrated fly ash solution respectively, but cell size not affected when root tip treated with the diluted fly ash solution. The types of chromosomal abnormalities observed included: chromatid bridge, c-mitosis, disturbed metaphase. A pronounced toxic effect is observed in semi-diluted solution and above its.
Biography:
G. S. Murty is a professor and Former Director of School of Chemistry at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India.
Abstract:
The presentation will focus the importance of cow based organic farming for the sustainable development of the rural economical condition of India. Indian agriculture is centered round the cow and its progeny since vedic ages ( about 9000 yrs old) and is true( to some extent) even now.India has an arable land of about 17million hectares and 16 million farmers of which 60% hold less than a hectare.Mahatma Gandhi, in his vision for India, envisaged a system of devolved, self-sufficient communities, sustaining their needs from the local environment, and organizing income generating ventures around co-operative structures. But in view of shifted priorities and Rapid changes in Indian economic front, particularly in service sector, is effecting the agriculture.It will be an enigma to predict the future of Indian agriculture unless specific effective programs are carved out addressing the rural economy which would also enable employment of the rural masses that are spread in six lakh ( 0.6 million ) villages. We know that Energy access is a critical prerequisite to poverty reduction and the answer Indian villages lies in gober gas and its improved version Bio methane that can be harnessed from the cow dung available ( about 1250 Mt ) in rural areas from 300 million cattle. In 1992, the Government of India established MNRE, the world’s first ministry committed to renewable energy. According to MNRE reports presently there are about 4 million family-size biogas plants installed in the country and has a potential for 12 million family-size biogas plants , estimated as 17000MW energy. Researchers showed that the dung produced by each cow corresponds to energy equivalent of 225 liters of petrol. Thus even if half of the cow dung is harnessed properly in India, it can meet all the LPG and Kerosene needs used for cooking purposes and fuel. In addition the slurry produced as by product is excellent organic manure, meets the entire fertilizer requirement for 150 Million hectares of crop lands of India. India is on the road of organic farming and several agencies are working towards this goal. Organic sustainable agriculture practices can provide synergic benefits that include mitigating climate change, improving ground water level and quality, reducing the agricultural GHG providing both quality and quantity of the products and in turn the health of the people. Harnessing this potential is a challenge but if addressed properly several solutions will emerge for the rural development where India lives mostly.
Yasser E. Abu Eldahab
Ain-shams University, Egypt
Title: Design and implementation of a novel search technique to the global maximum power point under partial shading conditions
Biography:
Yasser E. Abu Eldahab is currently pursuing his Masters at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain-shams University, Cairo, Egypt. His research areas include Renewable energy and Photovoltaic systems.
Abstract:
The partial shading issue is one of the most critical problems facing the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms. This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel search technique for global maximum power point (GMPP) under partial shading conditions (PSC). It utilizes a two-stage algorithm to overcome the partial shading issue. In the first stage, it uses the genetic neural algorithm (GA) to determine the nearest point to the GMPP. In the second stage, it starts from the optimum point obtained in stage one and applies a new and smart MPPT algorithm to increase the searching speed. In order to determine the performance parameters and evaluate the validity and efficiency of the new method, a complete experimental prototype is implemented. The experimental results prove that, under all possible partial shading conditions, the new technique reaches directly the GMPP with very limited steady state oscillation. Moreover, it tracks the maximum power point (MPP) much faster than the traditional methods. Consequently, the new technique has a significant improvement in energy extraction efficiency from the photovoltaic array to the load.
Jay Prakash Verma
Banaras Hindu University, India
Title: Current need of alternative sustainable bioenegry production from lignocellulosic biomass
Biography:
Jay Prakash Verma is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, India. His research area includes Soil Microbiology, Biofertilizer, Bio pesticide, PGPR, PGPF, Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Biotechnology and Microbiology, Plant-Soil-Microbe Interaction, Soil Fertility and Soil Health Management, Pesticide Degrading Microbes, and Cellulose Degrading Microbes for Bioethanol Production from cellulosic material.
Abstract:
The foreseeable depletion and negative environmental impact of fossil fuels in burgeoning population, around the world advocate the utilization of renewable energies, particularly the liquid bio-fuels like bio-ethanol. The fossil fuels consumption causes lot of environmental pollution such as emission of green house gases which help in global climate change. So that urgent need of research towards the alternative green energy such as wind, water, solar and bio-ethanol. In this review we want to discuss about sustainable bio-energy production from lignocellulosic biomass. Ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable and alternative to diminishing petroleum-based liquid fuels. And the major bottleneck for ethanol production is the disruption of lignin from plant cell wall. The lignocellulosic residues used to produce bio-ethanol are promising feedstock due to its compositions that are rich in polysaccharide. The lignocellulosic biomass (cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin) is the most abundantly found carbohydrate in the nature. The cellulose and hemicelluloses is easily degradable by cellulases enzyme while the lignin is most recalcitrant that reduce the rate of cellulases at time of hydrolysis of plant biomass. Lignin, the aromatic heteropolymers are primarily derived from the monolignols (the main building blocks of lignin), that accounts for nearly 30% of the organic carbon on Earth. The bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol involves three major unit steps: pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. The enzymatic digestibility of recalcitrant substrates especially, lignocellulosic material, depending upon the source of biomass, increase with lignin removal. Among these processes the pretreatment is the crucial step for lignin disruption that it makes the cellulose to more accessible for enzymatic hydrolysis. The second and most imperative step is the enzymatic hydrolysis which involves the synergistic action of cellulolytic enzymes i.e., cellulases such as endo-1, 4-β-glucanase, cellobiohydrolase and β-glucosidase for the conversion of carbohydrate polymer (Cellulose) into fermentable sugar. Fermentation process involved for conversion of glucose to bio-ethanol. This studied focused the future need of research and development towards sustainable bioenergy production from lignocellulosic biomass.
Chayma Ouhibi
University of Avignon , France and University of Tunis El Manar,Tunisia
Title: Effects of UV-C radiations on the response of romaine lettuce to abiotic and biotic stress
Biography:
Chayma Ouhibi is currently pursuing her PhD from Université d'Avignon, Avignon, France. Her research interests include physiology, food science, irrigation and water management.
Abstract:
Applied in high doses, UV-C radiations are harmful while administered at low doses. These same radiations stimulate beneficial answers. This phenomenon is known as hormesis and the beneficial dose is qualified hormic. The application of low doses of UV-C on fruits and vegetables in post harvest enhances resistance against pathogens; improve their nutritional quality and their performance to grow. This works were carried out on different species. In my thesis, we treated a single species of romaine lettuce var claudius after harvest with a non-harmful dose of UV-C (0.85 kJ.m-2) and we evaluated its effect on resistance to Botrytis cinerea (BC87) and Sclerotinia minor (SM) in their nutritional value during storage and their responses to salt stress. The analysis of all the results obtained showed that the UV-C dose decreases the sensitivity of romaine lettuce to these two pathogens, improve nutritional value by increasing the content in phenolic compound in ascorbic acid and acquire to plants from seeds pre-treated with UV-C greater potential for adaptation to salt stress.
Mandeep Kaur
CT Group of Institutions, India
Title: Tungsten supported Ti/SiO2 nanoflowers: mesoporous catalyst for biodiesel production
Biography:
Mandeep Kaur works at CT Group of Institutions, Jalandhar, India. Her research interests include application of nanotechnology for production of biodiesel.
Abstract:
Present work demonstrated a convenient method for the synthesis of flower shaped tungsten supported TiO2/SiO2 (W/Ti/SiO2) without using templates by sol-gel method in a single step. The prepared W/Ti/SiO2 has been employed as heterogeneous catalyst for the transesterification of variety of feed stocks viz., fresh cotton seed, waste cotton seed and karanja oil with methanol. The surface morphology and shape of prepared catalyst was determined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) studies. The catalyst structure and crystallite size were determined by the by powder X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) study. The catalyst active sites were quantified by NH3 temperature programmed desorption (TPD) study and surface area of prepared catalysts was determined by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) technique. Under optimal reaction conditions of methanol/oil molar ratio of 30:1, catalyst to oil weight fraction of 5 % and 65° C reaction temperature, a 98% fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) yield was obtained from the waste cotton seed oil in 4 hour. The optimized catalyst was reused successfully for transesterification reaction up to 5 cycles without any significant loss in activity. Few physicochemical properties of the prepared biodiesel sample have also been studied and compared with standard values.
Amod Panthee
Kathmandu University, Nepal
Title: Development of guidelines for welding repair of hydraulic turbines
Biography:
Amod Panthee has completed his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Kathmandu University in 2014. His area of research is design and welding repair of hydro-turbines. He is currently working as a Researcher to develop guidelines for welding repair of hydro-turbines which is collaborative work between the hydro industry in Nepal and Kathmandu Univesrity. He has presented his work in several conferences including one International Conference in 2013. In addition he has 3 papers published in peer reviewed international journal.
Abstract:
Turbine material is heavily eroded when operated in sediment-laden rivers in Nepal. Erosion reduces the efficiency and increases operational risk. The solution to these problems due to erosion is either to replace with new turbines or repair and operate. But, welding repair is chosen as best alternative in Nepalese energy industry due to low cost to build-up the eroded surface. Welding repair of hydraulic turbines does not impair the material property but it can be catastrophic when carried out improperly. Such problem is also observed in Khimti Hydropower (KHP) and Chilime Hydropower (CHP) in Nepal. The turbines in KHP and CHP operated without major defects before repair. But root cracks and cracks along the splitter was observed after welding repair. The occurence of cracks in welding repaired turbines is due to factors like quality of weld deposit, preheating and post weld heat treatment conditions and design changes during repair. Therefore, quality control in welding repair is essential to avoid such failures. The paper aims to discuss the current practice of welding repair and experimental study on mechanical properties of turbine material at various heat treatment conditions. The results thus obtained is used to develop a guideline for welding repair of hydro-turbines. The long term output of the project will be intallation of welding repair plant at local industry in Nepal for maintenance of hydro-turbines.
Shiba Subedi
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Title: Theoretical studies on structural and electronic properties of boron and boron nitride nanodiscs : A density functional approach
Biography:
Shiba Subedi has completed his Master’s (M. Sc.) in physics at the age 26 years from Tribhuvan University. He is interested in computational work in the field of condensed matter and applied physics. He is one of the students who is conducting SIESTA software for research in Nepal. He has some national papers and some manuscripts have been submitted to international journals too.
Abstract:
Using first principles density functional theory calculations, we systematically studied the structural and electronic properties of boron nano disc (B-nd) and boron nitride nano disc(BN- nd). By using state of art method we designed two novel structures of B-nd and BN-nd with average diameter of 0.8578 nm and 0.7487 nm respectively. These structures are optimized using sufficient conjugate gradient steps followed by individual convergence test of Mesh-cutoff, K- points and lattice constants. After structural optimization our ab-initio calculation calculated cohesive energy per pair of atoms to verify the stability of structures in generalized gradient approximation (GGA) within the SIESTA (Spanish Initiative for Electronic Simulations with Thousands of Atoms) package. The main feature of SIESTA is the use of flexible basis sets composed of linear combination of numerical atomic orbitals, which can be generated by solving the Kohn–Sham equation of atomic pseudopotentials. In order to explore details of electronic properties of these nanodiscs, further density of states, partial/projected density of states, band structure and charge densities of are performed at ambient conditions. These studies show thatBN-nd is comparatively more stable and exhibits semiconducting nature with ~0.6 eV energy gap, whereas B-nd depicting metallic behavior with finite density of states at Fermi energy level. It is found that while doping nitrogen in boron disc it creates energy gap and decreases the conductance also. That mean studied systems may serve as semiconductor as well as metal depending upon the necessity. In the field of materials probably we are first time reporting a novel and theoretical studies on any nanodisc.
Mehedi Hasan
Jagannath University,Bangladesh
Title: A study on the possible amount of electrical energy can be extracted from Bryophyllum pinnatum leaf
Biography:
Mehedi Hasan has completed his Master in Physics degree from Jagannath University, Bangladesh. His thesis work was focused on the renewable energy especially on biomass from the perspective of his country.
Abstract:
Producing and supplying environment friendly electrical energy has become a great matter of thought in this century. The condition in the rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan) are very frustrating. Bryophyllum pinnatum or Miracle Leaf can be grown anywhere in these regions without any special treatment and can be used as a simplified source of electricity based on the principle of redox reaction which involves no complicated procedures and requirements but only zinc and copper plates as electrodes immersed in the sap of miracle leaf act as a fuel as a form of electrolyte which contains some sort of organic acids. In our research work, we have studied the possible amount of electrical energy can be extracted from a certain amount of juice or leaf by studying the ampere-hour of a unit cell, columbic efficiency of an unit cell and the power density, energy density, specific capacity, specific energy density of a certain amount of juice or leaf which are very useful for building Nano-power plant at the off grid regions at an affordable cost.
Biography:
Georgia M Reash is an accomplished Systems Improvement Specialist, Project Manager and Trainer with over 25 years experience fortifying institutions and communities with 21st century qualities that assure market presence and sustainable growth. She has worked extensively with over 250 cities and organizations as a capacity building consultant; helping leadership realizing performance goals through the facilitation of vision, the development of strategic sustainability plans and the creation of powerful presentation documents. Her history in sustainable community development includes 14 years of applied research and field testing involving Beacon Community, a vision framework for sustainable design. Her expertise in grantsmanship and full spectrum project financing has been vibrant over several decades; yielding over $21 million in community financial investment with emphasis on sustainability, energy efficiency and environmental repair. As a humanitarian advocate, she has directed projects of significance addressing gas emissions reductions, renewable energy technologies, poverty, cultural intolerance/minority inequity, drug and alcohol prevention and human rights.
Abstract:
Workshop Goal: The goal of this workshop is to provide a valuable learning and information exchange experience that offers knowledge and tools that support renewable energy/energy efficiency action planning at the community implementation level. Attendees will gain knowledge in holistic/integrated strategic planning approaches to energy projects, neighborhood revitalization and sustainable community development designed to enhance the value intersection between technologies, economic development, social systems change and citizen engagement. Participants will receive supportive planning forms and resource information for applied use in work and community planning settings. Target Attendees: These include Municipal leaders and managers, community development organizations, urban planning/master planning strategists, grass roots neighborhood leaders, students engaged in sustainability, innovators in integrated community systems design. Overview: Few cities or villages across the globe have been left untouched by the past decade of economic tumult, market instability, globalization or the external pressures of poverty, disease, war or natural disaster. Economic stress has trickled down into every aspect of the community ecosystem including climate, governance, businesses, public services and citizenry. All combined, cities are thirsting for solutions that will help grow local economy including energy efficiency and sustainability strategies that foster renewal on multiple levels. Renewal is the key aim embodying Renewable Cities of Tomorrow; a vision of community sustainability that features renewable energy technologies as a central focus and catalyst for civic planning and economy building. Clean energy technologies provide a tangible anchor around which broader planning and change making can rally offering a platform for creating both a renewed environment and economy essential for the cities of tomorrow. The value of renewable energy technologies at the municipal level is optimized when the power of technology is coupled with the power of a local Sustainable Community Action Agenda; a plan of economic restoration rooted in a collaborative community engagement process designed stimulate awareness and the creation of sustainable enterprise. The workshop will provide a Renewable Cities of Tomorrow vision framework for table top discussion and a snapshot review of the core components that go into creating effective renewable energy cities including but not limited to: Effective Renewable Energy Leadership Consortiums; An Integrated Systems Strategy; Renewable Energy Shared Action Agenda for Cities, Business, Education and Citizens; Diversifying the Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy Economic Engine; Conscious Learning-Conscious Leadership; Sustainable Systemic Change and Shared Solution Finding and Humanitarian Response Alongside Technologies