Iranica Journal of Energy & Environment
Volume:10 Issue: 3, Summer 2019

The interest in renewable energy has been increasing over the last few years, especially after global awareness regarding the hazardous effect of fossil fuel burning. Energy is the source of growth and the booster of the economic and social development of nations and people. This issue has prompted the Algerian government to adopt a new energy policy by promoting and supporting the development of the clean energy, specially the wind and solar energy. An important result of this policy is that the government intended to construct a wind farm in the southwest desert of Algeria. This paper shows the interest of this investment for the southwest region of Algeria, which is installed in Teberkine in Adrar city with an High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connection to improve the power quality in this region without disturbing the network. The open source software  Power System Analysis Toolbox (PSAT) is used in our simulations to improve the calculations.

In this work, a dual-axis automated solar tracker is developed by using two linear motors, four light dependent resistors (LDRs) and two mono crystalline solar panels. The LDRs are placed on the rotating frame where the solar panels are placed to detect the position of the sun and the controller circuit drives the motors to place the frame towards the sun. The controlling unit has been developed using PLC microcontroller. The motor driver circuit has been designed using a code to align the solar panels to a suitable position so that it is exposed to the maximum amount of solar irradiance. The driver circuit receives data from the LDRs and the microcontroller controls the motors to move the panel along its horizontal and vertical axis. To evaluate the performance of the solar tracker, output power of the solar tracker and an identical set of static solar panels set in an optimum fixed orientation are measured from the open-circuit voltage and the short circuit current for two consecutive days. The output power produced by the automatic solar tracker was consistently higher than that by the static solar panel. The energy gain due to using the automatic solar tracker is at highest in the morning and in the afternoon at almost 40%. The lowest value of energy gain is observed during noon at as low as 1%. The average increase in output throughout the day is 24.09%.

This study is projected to regard as characteristics related to the viability of the preparation of methyl ester from Mesua ferrea oil through transesterification using Trisodium phosphate (Na3PO4) and Tripotassium phosphate (K3PO4). Na3PO4 and K3PO4 have high catalytic properties intended for the reaction of transesterification and cost-effective compared to other catalysts. The transesterification process was undergone at diverse operating constraints such as methanol to oil molar ratio (4:1 to 12:1), catalyst concentration (0.75 to 1.75%), and reaction temperature (55-70oC). The duration of transesterification was fixed at 60 min. The maximum yield was obtained at a molar ratio of 8:1 and a catalyst concentration of 1.25% at a reaction temperature of 65oC for the duration of one hour. The yield of Mesua ferrea oil methyl ester (MFOME) with K3PO4 catalyst has specified more compared to Na3PO4. Further, the MFOME was analyzed for physic-chemical properties and all the properties were found to be matched with ASTM standards. Particularly, the superior cetane number was achieved with MFOME. The biodiesel yield of RSM predicted values using both catalysts were well correlated with experimental results.

The composition of fuel production per litre from polyethylene waste via pyrolysis was determined through thermal degradation. Compositions of fuels from high density polyethylene/low density polyethylene (HDPE/LDPE) pyrolysis were naphta, gasoline, and active carbon as residues. The pyrolysis process was carried out at 450-621°C without any catalyst and quantitative analysis method was conducted by using GC-MS. The product of 5 kg pyrolysis HDPE are 3.25 litres of naphta; 0.85 litre of gasoline; 0.325 litre of diesel fuel; and 18.06 grams of active carbon. Then the product of 5 kg pyrolysis LDPE are 0.5 litres of naphta; 2.9 litres of gasoline; 0,1 litre of diesel fuel; and 19 grams of active carbon.

Theobroma cocoa dry bean extract (CDBE) was prepared by Soxhlet extraction method and was characterized for its chemical constituents using Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Gas chromatography-Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and also by Thermogravimetric Analysis-Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TGA-DSC) techniques. FT-IR analysis gave information about the mostly like to be present functional groups in the extract. GC-MS analysis of the extract revealed the presence of important 07 chemical constituents with cis-13-octadecanoic acid as the major component. TGA-DSC study gave the idea about different stages of thermal decomposition of the chemical constituents present in the extract. CDBE was then tested for its ability to inhibit the corrosion rate of mild steel in 1.0M HCl solution medium by means of weight loss, Potentiodynamic polarization, and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The weight loss experiments revealed the anticorrosive property of it on mild steel, which was found to increase with increase in the concentration of the inhibitor CDBE and decrease with an increase in temperature of corrosive medium. EIS results showed the adsorption of organic constituents present in the extract at the metal-solution interface. Potentiodynamic polarization studies revealed that CDBE functioned as a mixed type inhibitor. The surface morphological studies of mild steel surface were carried out by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The inhibition efficiency values obtained by electrochemical measurements were consistent with those from weight loss measurements and hence it can be proposed that CDBE as a potent inhibitor towards corrosion of mild steel under acidic conditions.

Currently the effect of urban discharges on water quantity and quality issues and additional recreational amenities perceived in the urban landscape have gained growing public interest for the provision of sustainable urban development. This is due to the fact that urbanization is converging to challenge city infrastructure due to their adverse impacts on precipitation extremes and the environment of urban areas at large. This study was aimed at identification of the treats of urban expansion and prediction of the environmental responses to urbanization of Jimma City. This is an important input for the decision of environmentalists, hydrologists, storm and waste water management for the better plan and sustainable development of the city. The study analysis of stream flow indicates, urbanization was found to be one of the responsible factors for changing the surface of the land disturbing the hydrological process of Jimma City by altering the magnitude of surface runoff, aquifer recharge and river flows. The expansion of Jimma city have intensified, surface water discharges from developed areas and uncontrolled waste release which have affected the social, environmental and economic state of the area. Increased flood peaks, water volume and pollutant loads, reduced ground water recharge were found to be the major sources water quantity and quality degradation. Degraded water quantity and quality in turn resulted in water crisis, ecological risk, reduced quality of life and reduced level of ecosystem service.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize environmental criteria of sustainable outsourcing model in Fajr Jam Gas refining company with hierarchical analysis procedure method. In order to identify environmental criteria, the identified strategic goals of the model are categorized in the most four aspects of the balanced scorecard and three dimensions of economic, social and environmental sustainability. to determine the importance of each environmental criteria in terms of four groups of experts (members of the outsourcing committee, managers, supervisors and experts in the company) are reported using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and the results of research are reported through EXPERT CHOICE software. The findings indicated that in order to design sustainable outsourcing model using a balanced scorecard, seven strategic objectives in environmental dimension had to be considered two objectives in learning and growth aspect, two objectives in internal business processes aspect, two objectives in customer satisfaction aspect and a strategic environmental objective in financial performance aspect were identified. Finally, using a paired comparisons questionnaire, the importance of each strategic objective was calculated and prioritized.

The concept of solar energy and its applications in present day would come to be one of the solutions to our Nigerian problem of instability and epileptic power supply. In this study, data for mean monthly sunshine hours  and global solar radiation  for Ikeja, Lagos state capital (6.580N, 3.320E) were obtained from Nigeria Metrological Agency (NiMeT), Oshodi Lagos, Nigeria and spanned 1996 to 2010. The data for global solar radiation were measured using a Gunn-Bellani radiometer. A linear regression correlation model was developed for Ikeja and other surrounding area in south-western part of Nigeria with similar meteorological conditions. The results of estimated global solar radiation ranged from 5.1 MJm-2 day-1 on average for August and 13.1 MJm-2 day-1 for March for Lagos. The Angstrom constants a and b of Angstrom-type correlation to estimate monthly average global solar radiation was estimated to be 0.25 and 0.63 respectively. The result for global solar radiation were then subjected to statistical tests [MBE, RMSE, MPE] and proved to be good estimates. The value of clearness index was also estimated to range from 0.31 to 0.59 showing Lagos as a partly clear sky city.

The drought phenomenon is not specific to the region and it affects different parts of the world. One of these areas is Iran in Southwest Asia, which suffered from this phenomenon in recent years. The purpose of this study is to model, analyze and predict the drought in Iran. To do this, climatic parameters (precipitation, temperature, sunshine, minimum relative humidity and wind speed) were used at 30 stations in the period of 29 years (1990-2018). For modeling of TIBI fuzzy index, first, four indicators (SET, SPI, SEB, MCZI) were fuzzy in Matlab software. Then the indices were compared and Topsis model were used for prioritizing areas involved with drought. Finally, Anfis adaptive artificial neural network model was used to predict. Results showed that the new fuzzy index TIBI for classifying drought reflected four of the above indicators with high accuracy. Among these five climatic parameters used in this study, the temperature and precipitation parameters had the most influential effect on the fluctuation of drought severity. The severity of drought was more based on a 6-month scale modeling than 12 months. The highest percentage of drought occurrence was at Bandar Abbas station with a value of 24.3 on a 12-month scale and the lowest was in Shahrekord station with a percentage of 0.36% on a six-month scale. Based on Anfis model and TIBI fuzzy index, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr and Zahedan stations were more exposed to drought due to the TIBI index of 0.62, 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. According to the results in both 6 and 12 months scale, the southern regions of Iran were more severely affected by drought, which requires suitable water management in these areas.

Wind turbines on floating support platforms are designed to be installed in a deep offshore environment several miles off the coast and in water depths greater than 60m. Effects from sea ice, varying mean sea level, and marine growth constitute additional loads that must be considered in a real design process. Design Modeler is the ANSYS tool used to create geometry for hydrodynamic systems. Surface bodies are only supported by ANSYS AQWA thus entire solid body which is created using the design modeler is transformed in to surface body. Four different mini Tension leg platforms were prepared all the dimensions and standards are followed from the guidelines of national renewable energy laboratory United States. This paper focused on the motion performance of tension leg platform supported wind turbine prototypes in Nicobar coast of India. The wind, wave and ocean current data were obtained and inputted in to the AQWA modules and the result is validated with respect to time domain.