Solar Energy Applications

This research presents an attempt to design and develop of solar milk pasteurizer in Suhar city at Sultanate of Oman. The purpose is to design and develop a pasteurizer which is economically affordable and can be locally fabricated, later study the effect of tilt angle on the thermal performance of the pasteurizer. The design specifications were carefully selected and concepts designs were introduced. Screening process is carried out to select the promising concept as a final design. The final design concept is consists of a solar collector and milk pasteurization vat. The theoretical calculations performed and the results showed that the solar collector area of 1.5*1 m 2 is needed to reach milk temperature between (63 ºC-70 ºC) and hold it for 30 minutes. The tilled angle of 27 o gives better results compared with 24 o .

The present work highlights the importance of using the Fresnel lens technique to enhance the productivity of a conventional solar still (CSS). In this regard, the effect of using Fresnel lenses to improve the productivity of a CSS is investigated experimentally under the climate conditions of Basra city (30.5258°N latitude and 47.7738°E longitude), Iraq. The Fresnel lenses integrated conventional single-slop-basin type solar still (CSS FL) adjustable to be rotated manually at different angles was examined, compared to the CSS which showed a remarkable enhancement of producing output. The study concerned the variation of daily solar radiation and temperature effect on the distillate output and the efficiency of both the conventional and modified solar stills at 1 and 2 cm saline water depths during July and September of the year 2019. The experimental results showed better performance during July where it has been found that the productivity of the CSS FL improved over the CSS by about 68.6% at 1 cm depth and about 59.3% at 2 cm depth. Moreover, the average daily thermal efficiency of the CSS and the CSS FL at 1 cm depth was 21% and 36%, respectively. Several conclusions and recommendations are presented for future work.

In this review paper an overview of the studies and projects is given for the malting industry and selected projects for the brewery industry in connection to the use of solar heat. Even during the historical times green malt was dried with the sun and open fire, just since 40 years solar heat is investigated in the industrial malt production of with solar collectors. In order to keep pace with this emerging and fast growing sector for renewable energy applications, it is necessary to get in depth knowledge about the overall potential in the brewing and malting industry and where solar process heat is currently in use. Energy savings of up to 100 % in malt kilning have been achieved in the various studies, leading to a significant reduction in CO 2 emissions with the use of solar collectors. But the breakthrough and acceptance in the industry have not yet been achieved.

Solar Hot Water System is one of the most potential solar thermal technology applications in Nepal. More than 30,000 sets of solar hot water systems have been already installed through out the country. Although it is very popular in the country, the technology used for the fabrication of the same is of late 70’s. There is a need of update and development in this field regarding efficiency upgrading, human resource development, quality assurance, public awareness and economical viability.

1. INTRODUCTION This project is a three fold undertaking in which we shall evaluate the prototype solarus concentrating thermal and hybrid collector and determine the optimization matrix (mapping) of the benefits of solar collector applications and investigate the economic effects of photovoltaic-thermal systems and thus suggest specific dollar to watt ratio ($/ W) for solar cogeneration. The project will include the following parameters; solar radiation, solar concentrating collectors, solar photovoltaic's, solar water heating, electronic control systems and auxiliary plumbing as well as the necessary mathematics behind the two dimensional random walk problem and optimization (linear programming) involving four variables. The random walk problem is essential to our study of ageing (wear and tear) of the prototype in that degradation is largely due to biochemical processes of organisms that find themselves on the collectors for the reason of food and thermal regulation of their body temperatures. The waste products (such as thin films deposited by the sluggard and other creepy crawlies) and the structural damage to glass and metal such as scratches, cracks and dents due to gravel and hail stones in stormy conditions, impede our efforts to efficiently harness incident radiation and over time, these lead to the decline in output of the prototype. Dust and fallen leaves also contribute to the ageing of the collectors.

Residential grid-connected microgrids (MG) comprising renewable generation and storing capability are constrained to grid-operator requirements which include, among others, a smooth and bounded grid power profile. These requirements attempt to mitigate a high unpredictability on the electrical power exchanged between the grid and the MG and affect the design of the MG Energy Management System (EMS). This chapter reviews several energy management strategies based on Fuzzy-Logic Controllers (FLC) designed in the last years to smooth the grid power profile of a residential grid-connected MG. Two MG power architectures are considered. Both include wind and PV solar renewable generation and non-controllable domestic electrical loads. The first architecture assumes a battery charger/inverter as the only controllable element whereas the second one also considers a thermal load as an additional controllable element. The chapter presents a fuzzy logic approach to design the control strategies of the microgrid EMS. The strategies are designed under two scenarios, the first one assuming that forecast of generation and consumption is not available and the second one using MG forecasted data. Simulation and experimental results are provided to highlight and compare the features of all the strategies in terms of their power profile smoothing capability.

Lithium–ion batteries are the key power sources for this technology based world, mainly in the modern mobile world. These batteries have served as the most prominent energy storage devices in case of smartphones, tablets, laptops, electric vehicles and grid-level storage. They offer many advantage in terms of high energy density, moderately high power density, high voltage, low self-discharge, and moderately long cycle life. There are various nano/micro- engineering techniques involved in fabrication of these devices. This chapter discusses in detail the various aspects of Lithium-ion batteries including storage mechanism to installation of various constituents of the battery.

There is a growing interest in novel energetic materials called nano-energetic gas generators (NGGs) which are potential alternatives to traditional energetic materials including pyrotechnics, propellants, primers, and solid rocket fuels. NGGs are formulations that utilize metal powders as a fuel and oxides or hydroxides as oxidizers that can rapidly release a large amount of heat and gaseous products to generate shock waves. The heat and pressure discharge, impact sensitivity, long-term stability, and other critical properties depend on the particle size and shape, as well as assembling procedure and intermixing degree between the components. The extremely high energy density and the ability to tune the dynamic properties of the energetic system makes NGGs ideal candidates to dilute or replace traditional energetic materials for emerging applications. In terms of energy density, performance, and controllability of dynamic properties, the energetic materials based on bismuth and iod...

The crankcase is the base part to which all important parts of an engine are assembled inside and on to it. The structure though is apparently stationary, it transmits or receives highly fluctuating loads at high frequency, from the piston, crankshaft and different pumps and gears inside it, and through bolt holes, its walls, ribs and surfaces mating with the other components. It enables the piston movement and wears out over the period of its maintenance life. The subject on crankcase is vast and an attempt is made in this chapter to describe the design and development of this basic part, with sufficient peer references. To construct a crank case of a heavy-duty diesel engine, materials of choice are grey cast (GJL), vermicular (CJL) and ductile irons (GJS). The physical and mechanical characteristics of grey, vermicular and ductile cast irons are tabled for use in various calculations. The strength of the material, basically affected by alloying elements and their effect on phase ...

Presently, worldwide research is focused on energy efficiency to meet the requirement of greenhouse gas emission and economic reasons. The substantial amount of energy is consumed mainly in industrial, transportation and power generation sectors. The leading source of energy consumption is friction. Friction causes wear of the machine components and their replacement. Therefore, to minimize energy consumption the friction reduction is a foremost objective. Potential mechanisms for the reduction of friction are modified lubricants, coatings, and surface texture. In comparison with other mechanisms, surface texturing is a feasible, promising and well-established technique to improve the tribological performance of machine components for more than two decades. Surface texture decreases an area of contact, act as a reservoir and improves hydrodynamic effect in dry, mixed and hydrodynamic lubrication regime respectively. All of this contributes to reducing the friction coefficient. In addition to this, the surface texture improves the load capacity, dynamic stability and noise intensity of the bearings. It develops additional hydrodynamic effect and minimizing fluid leakage in oil and gas seals. Also, in automobile components such as piston rings, cylinder liner and wet clutch, the texture geometry is considered to be micro-pocket. Lubricant retained in the micro-pocket can be released to surrounding areas of texture to improve the tribological performance. This article outlines the recent advancement in texture design for different automotive components, their mechanisms, key findings and future roadmap. Also, the challenges in the fabrication of surface texture for automotive components are discussed in detail.

In order to comply with the current and future emission norms applicable to diesel engines, understanding the fuel-air mixing phenomena in depth is quite crucial. Fuel spray inside the cylinder of an engine in operation interacts with in-cylinder gases as well as with solid boundaries. Fuel spray impinging on the cylinder wall and piston top, may subsequently enhance soot formation and hence, study and analysis of fuel spary characteristics can help to minimize these effects. However, study of the physics of spray evolvement and dynamics demands advanced diagnostics and numerical techniques. Many attempts have been made in developing computational models for analyzing the fuel-air and fuel-wall interactions. Despite those efforts it remains an exciting area of research to accurately model the spray behavior under dynamic conditions inside the engine cylinder. These models need continuous inputs from experimental studies for validation and for further development purposes. For experi...