Investigatory project ideas : Land Fill gas to energy

Landfills are continuously producing and recovering landfill gas (LFG). Energy recovered from methane generated at a landfill displaces energy that is produced from fossil fuels, among other conventional sources of electricity.

Simplified diagram of Methane mass balance

Here is the detail study document prepared by University of Columbia,

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Waste plastics into petroleum

Five important breakthrough Solar technologies -2011

This was supposed to be a big year for energy-related technology. Here are the five most important breakthrough in solar energy research in a year 2011.

1. A new discovery from a chemist at the University of Texas at Austin may allow photovoltaic solar cells to double their efficiency, thus providing loads more electrical power from regular sunlight.

2. A new prototype solar cell has been designed by researchers at the University of Florida. They claim that it sees new levels of efficiency and could be made using a roll-to-roll process, a spokesman said, "Imagine making solar panels by a process that looks like printing newspaper roll to roll," said Franky So, a UF professor in the department of materials science and engineering.

3. Optical Furnace Could Cut in Half the Energy Required to Make Solar Cells
The new furnace reduce the energy required to make a solar cell and to make the solar cell itself more efficient is to use an optical furnace to heat up the silicon substrate with which the panel is made.

4. The UF team has crossed the critical threshold of 8 percent efficiency in laboratory prototype solar cells, a milestone with implications for future marketability, by using a specially treated zinc oxide polymer blend as the electron charge transporting material.

5. Researchers have reduced the preparation time of quantum dot solar cells to less than an hour by changing the form to a one-coat quantum dot solar paint.


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The Year in Energy - Technology Review

The Year in Energy - Technology Review

Waste plastics into petroleum fuel made in Ethiopia

I recently watched a video showing how one Ethiopian is using ordinay equipments to make petroleum feul out of waste plastics.(in this video. ) Just a month ago the government was planning on banning the import plastic bags for environmental issues. I would like to point out five things that must be done to make it better!

Possible ideas for further study as final project could be;

1. As you might have noticed he is using very basic equipments to make it in a way that wastes heat for temperature ranges of 140-350 degree C. 
2. There is also a possibility of blending it with the conventional diesel even though direct use of it in cars ( as seen on the video) might not be so good environmentally and car safety. 
3.  Efficient cleaning and per-processing of the plastics should be studied to improve the process
4. The biodiesel from waste cooking oil model should be used to upgrade the process so that small scale business opportunities are created
5. Waste heat in process recovery should be considered. He might use it to heat up water that will be used in cleaning or per-processing the raw plastics

The industrial standard production facility is developed in USA that also turns plastic into fuel.  In a similar but alternative application an American student, using pyrolysis, converted the waste plastic into gas that is burned in combustion chamber producing steam that ultimately drives a generator to produces electricity. Click here

Optimizing water use efficiency in water treatment plant

Water-use systems impact nearly all plant operations either directly or indirectly. The need for optimization emanates from high water use demands, water utility cost or strict environmental regulations. 

Industrial water demand may increase for reasons such as strict product specification requiring more washing , new or improved units requiring more water or most commonly failing equipments such as leaking heat exchangers and clogged tubes can lead to more water needs( cooling for eg.).As the demand for water increases the cost of water use increases proportionally. 

Here are some solutions that could be applied;

How ChE Prepared Me for Business (and How It Didn’t): Final Thoughts

How ChE Prepared Me for Business (and How It Didn’t): Final Thoughts

Save Energy in Water Systems, Part II | Chemical Processing

Save Energy in Water Systems, Part II | Chemical Processing

Energy saving opportunities in pumping systems

Don´t miss pump and fun energy saving FREE calculator from Rockwell automation

Pumps account for an incredible 10% of the world’s total electricity consumption. However, a large proportion of that is wasted. Energy saving opportunities are always there in pumping systems of industries and saving techniques are also abundantly found in websites, including text book techniques we know. 

In this blog, I would like to provide a concept map for all the saving opportunities out there. You may go on and plan a pump energy saving consulting business (specially those developing country students) that after doing a study that applies some of the selected tips on one particular industry. This is because the field is wide; you can do from simple text book saving tips to complex CFD analysis of the flow field and optimizations. Just give it a thought! But doing your final project on it will give you a very good initial test of this hypothesis.

Energy saving in pumping systems can be thought of as two wide approaches;

1) Improve the efficiency of the existing system

2) Design a new system

Lets see a typical pumping system and list out many opportunities

PUMP

1) Is it Over sized?

2)Best efficiency point?

3) Impeller trimming?

4) Change impeller?

5) Multiple pumping arrangement?

6) Multiple speed pumping?

FLOW RATE CONTROLS

1) Throttle and bypass versus adjustable speed drive

2) Multiple speed motor

PIPING

1) Pipe diameter

2) Piping layout

3) valves and fitting and loss

MOTORS

1) Oversized?

2) High efficiency motors

NEW system design

System

• Minimize pumping demand:

• Reduce pumping needs through good plant design

• Reduce leaks

• Lower pumping system flow rate

• Lower the operating pressure

• Choose efficient pumping components

• Use the latest energy prices in calculation of operating costs

Controls and operating

• Consider variable-speed drives for flow management philosophy rather than throttling valves

• Put pressure or flow sensors in the location that will help ensure process requirements are met without excess pumping energy

• Record system trend data

• Provide metering of components (such as flows, kWh)

Pump stations

• Consider multiple size pumps for varying flows

• Pay attention to pipework design with multiple pumps

Piping system

• Maximize pipe diameter configuration

 • Optimize pipe layout to minimize pressure loss

• Minimize pressure losses through valves and fittings

• Minimize bypass flow rates

Throttling controls

• Avoid bypass lines

• Avoid throttle valves

• Optimize use of throttling and adjustable/variable speed drives

Pumps and motors

• Ensure high motor efficiency

• Ensure high pump efficiency

• Ensure pump operates close to its BEP

• Don’t oversize pump

• Ensure the right impeller size

• Ensure the right pump type (axial, centrifugal and so on)

• Ensure compatibility with variable-speed drives

           • Check sealing method (gland packing, mechanical seal and so on)

BIO-ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM CASHEW APPLE JUICE

 

Specific objectives are

1. to establish variation of apple juice sugar concentration with location and maturity
2.  to find out nutrient composition of cashew apple juice(vitamins&minerals)