Renewable Energy Research and Applications
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2021

The research aims at designing a solar endurance glider for an increased flight time. The constraints for design include reduction in weight compared to a typical glider and improving its aerodynamic performance by application of vortex generators on its wingspan. The design of each component was performed through various stages of similitude cases; furthermore, the components, such as solar panels and vortex generators were selected based on a decision matrix design process. This research utilized ANSYS 18.1 K-Omega SST turbulence simulation techniques to successfully simulate the glider at different speeds along with various angle of attacks for aerodynamics optimization. The results show an improvement in lift force from 160 N to 192 N once the vortex generators were installed. 16 solar cells are installed on the glider’s wings providing 57.6 Watts of power. This study faced a limitation on the physical testing using a wind tunnel for validation; therefore, the team relied on CFD simulations verification from published data. This report details the concept of boundary layer, design process, glider simulation as well as glider configuration, such as the wingspan and total length. The glider should be able to maintain a flight time of at least 6 hours with vortex generators and solar panels.

The high potential of solar energy in Iran, as well as the problem of air pollution, makes it increasingly inevitable that solar energy is used. In this study, the solar-powered Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) has been investigated. The solar-type collector is a flat plate collector. The energy, exergy, and economic analyses of the hybrid system with the MOPSO algorithm have been carried out for Tehran., the capital of Iran. The working fluid of the solar collector has assumed water and the working fluid of the ORC cycle is R123. The MATLAB software is used for simulation and to compute the R123 fluid properties, the Refprop software is used. The exergy investigation shows that the most exergy destruction is related to the evaporator. Two objective functions consist of exergy efficiency and the price of electricity are considered. The decision variables for this optimization are considered as; the number of solar collector panels, the pump, and turbine isentropic efficiencies, and the pressure of condenser and evaporator. The Pareto diagram shows that the exergy efficiency of the system can vary as 7.5 % to 10.5 %, as well as the price of produced electricity can vary from 0.2 to 0.26 to $/kWh.

During the last decade, serious issues such as energy demand, depletion of fossil fuels and their environmental impacts draw attention towards renewable energy sources. In addition, the energy supply chain of Iran is deeply reliant upon fossil fuels. Further obstacles such as electricity blackouts in the hot season and future energy security require us to address these issues. For this reason, the growing consensus is to dominate a sustainable energy system on the grounds of energy, especially renewable energies, with low emission and pollution. The mean annual solar radiation in Iran is 2200 kWh/m2 which is greater than the worldwide average, due to locating on the world's Sun Belt. The total installed capacity of solar energy in Iran is not significant, however, it is growing annually. .Moreover, the Persian Gulf coasts, could provide the possibility of using the tidal energy of the ocean as well as the Caspian Sea coast which are suitable sites for thermal energy. Currently, 550 MW of renewable energy is being built in Iran and the installed capacity of renewable energy has reached 575 MW. Renewable energy has also led to the employment of 47,321 people directly and indirectly in the country. The installed capacity of Iran’s wind power is about 259 MW (45% of total renewable energies installed capacity), which is mostly located in Manjil and Roodbar. The biogas energy in Iran is mainly produced from domestic and industrial sewage/waste, animal waste, and agricultural product waste.

Bio-ethanol is a clean and renewable fuel that is significantly gaining attention, mainly via its major environmental benefits produced from diverse resources. The campaign for the establishment of biorefineries and encouragement of fossil fuels is gradually gaining greater attention. This research seeks to comparatively investigates material requirement, production yield, and total equipment cost involved in the rice-husk and maize-cob transformation into bioethanol fuel for large-scale production using process modeling and simulation study approach to promote potential investors' interest. This analysis was carried out using a simulator (Aspen HYSYS) and a computational package (MATLAB). The evaluation entails modeling, simulating, material, and energy analysis, including process equipment sizing and cost for the plants. Comparative material analysis of the yield from the model process for the use of biomasses reveals that 9.94kg and 7.32kg of fuel-grade bioethanol would be obtained using 0.03kg and 0.02kg of enzymes for every 1kg of rice husk and maize cob charge in the plant, respectively, per hour. Analysis of the plants' energy flow shows that the maize cob transformation into bioethanol fuel required more energy than the rice husk-based plant confirming maize cob conversion to be more energy-intensive than rice husk. Moreover, the equipment cost analysis indicated that it would cost $ 4739.87 and $ 1757.36 to process a kilogram of biomass (rice husk and maize cob) into fuel-grade bioethanol, respectively, per hour. Ultimately, this study's findings identify rice husk's use to be of high yield while maize cob would be making the production less capital intensive.

Large amplitude inter-well oscillations in bi-stable energy harvesters made them a proper energy harvesting choice due to high energy generation. However, the co-existence of the chaotic attractor in these harvesters could essentially decrease their efficiency. In this paper, an algorithm for detecting chaos in bi-stable energy harvesters based on a data-gathering algorithm and estimating the largest Lyapunov exponent is investigated. First, a simple model of axially loaded non-linear energy harvesters is derived. This model is derived using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Assumed Mode method considering the Von-Karman non-linear strain-displacement equation. The harvester's numerical simulation results are used to test the algorithm's efficiency and accuracy in identifying chaotic response. The results showed the algorithm's success in detecting chaos in such systems with minimum possible calculation cost. The effect of noise on the algorithm's performance has been investigated, and the results showed the excellent robustness of the algorithm to noise. It can diagnose the harvester's chaotic or harmonic behavior with noise-contaminated data, with 10 percent noise density. The comparison between this algorithm and Wolf's method showed relatively less computation time, up to 80 percent, to detect chaos with reasonable accuracy.

Due to the needs of modern societies to provide their energy fully or partially from the renewable energy sources and its necessity as a main principle of sustainable development, its necessary to assess and evaluate renewable energy and its integrating for utilizing a part of consumed energy for societies from cheap energy resource and solving the ecological and social problems. Despite of great potentials of Ardabil province in agriculture, water streams, climatic precipitation and climatic conditions, the necessity of appropriate investments in order to better exploitation form these capabilities (renewable energy) increases. The goal of this research is to potentiometry for the exploitation of renewable energies (solar, wind, biomass and bio-energy, water) based on farming, improvement of policy making for developing renewable energies, developing atlas of renewable energies based on farming and improving policy making of developing renewable energies in Ardabil province. According to the results of this study, the most talented town of Ardabil province in terms of renewable energy is Meshgin shahr town. Solar energy 3/449 kW h/m2/y, hydropower 270/34 Gw h/y and geothermal 76/11kw h/y ranked the first among all the cities of Ardabil province. And the lowest was Sarein city.

India’s rapid economic growth and change in lifestyle have increased the level of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in the country. Metropolitan cities in India are contributing a major portion (in lakhs metric tons per day) of MSW. It is only due to the lack of availability of poor infrastructure to handle MSW in the country. Also, the people ignorance towards to handle these waste is also a big challenge to handle this problem. The implementations of low-cost and user-friendly methods are the primary need to handle this kind of situation. It can be easily predicted that Kitchen waste (KW) is contributing a major portion in MSW and its ignorance towards disposing off is increasing environmental pollution day-by-day. It is the motivation of the present study and a comprehensive review of KW generation in India has been done. A study based on prefeasibility to handle KW is also done and based on that a feasible solution is provided to handle KW on waste to energy for sustainable new business investment opportunities in the present work. The proposed plan will not only reduce the level of MSW in the country but will also create a lot of opportunity for employment in the country for a future generation. The present work concludes that installation of this kind of pilot project in metropolitan cities is the present need for the development of the recycling industry sector using KW as a raw material in India.

In urban open spaces, especially in large cities with warm climates, users are experiencing high thermal loads, which causes thermal discomfort. Thermal comfort in open spaces can be improved; by shading. The problem is shading and protecting open spaces from stresses caused by overheating of the earth's surface and environment. The importance of shade and reducing radiation in achieving thermal comfort in open urban spaces is to increase human presence, create climate change, increase comfort conditions. Recognizing factors that create shadows, such as canopies and their characteristics, can create a favorable space to enjoy the capabilities of outdoor space. New membranes have many characteristics of nomadic tents, and, due to creating shade and natural ventilation, are very suitable for areas with hot climates. Introducing an optimal model and dimensions of a lightweight membrane canopy can create outdoor thermal comfort and increase the efficiency of outdoor spaces. In this paper, library, field, and simulation studies have been used. According to field studies, the presence of membrane canopy can cause temperature differences up to 7.8 C. The simulation results with Ansys, ENVI-met, and Ladybug showed that the membrane canopy cools the space below and prevents overheating. Between four canopy models, the saddle canopy is suitable with a 40.63% impact on the environment and creates cooler space under the canopy. Therefore, a lightweight saddle membrane canopy with dimensions of 5*5 m^2 and a useful height of 3 meters is introduced as a suitable model of membrane canopy for the hot climate of Semnan.

Due to the increasing population growth and energy need, interest in renewable energy sources has increased in recent years. Biogas is one of the sustainable energy resources in the world. In cattle, ovine, and poultry farming, a large amount of fertilizer is produced in Afghanistan. These wastes are a big problem for businesses, and their evaluation is of great importance. One of the ways to utilize wastes is biogas production. In this study, the annual biogas and total annual heat value potential of Afghanistan, depending on the number of animals, were determined. As a result, Afghanistan's biogas potential between 2010 and 2017 is between 1172355870 m3/y and 1282692614 m3/y. It has been determined that the total annual heat value potential is between 29117122340 MJ / y and 26612478246 MJ /y. As a result, it was seen in this study that the widespread use of biogas in Afghanistan is of great importance in terms of both waste disposal and energy production

Due to traditional energy resources problems, scientists looked for a new concept to face these problems. The Solar chimney is one of the promising concepts in renewable energy technology that needs performance enhancement, the proposed study aims at assessing the remarkable advances in the understanding of solar chimney power plant (SCPP) performance investigation through extensive studies with different focuses on several aspects of SCPP technology. In this scientific review paper solar chimneys based on the historical review, enhancements, working principle, components and effective factors, advantages and disadvantages.

Energy is an essential need for living, and renewable energy sources are increasingly popular sustainable energy sources. Solar energy is an inexhaustible and clean, sustainable energy source in the world. In this study, heating of a greenhouse in Herat (Afghanistan) with a heat pump using solar energy was investigated. The greenhouse was kept at 20 oC, and the electricity required to operate the heat pump was taken from the grid. As a result of the analysis, the exergy/electricity input reaches 25.59 kWh, while the minimum values are equal to 0.01 kWh. It was determined that the product exergy went maximum product exergy of 6.38 kWh. Finally, it was determined that a ground source heat pump with a higher COP could be used instead of an air source heat pump.

In this paper, a novel switching table (ST) of the twelve sectors direct power command (DPC) strategy of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) based dual rotor wind power (DRWP) is proposed using two-level hysteresis controllers for reactive and active power and feedforward neural networks (FNNs) algorithms. This intelligent technique was used to replace the conventional ST in order to reduce rotor flux ripple, active power ripple, total harmonic distortion (THD) of stator voltage, torque and reactive power undulations. The simulation and modeling of the proposed strategy were carried out in Matlab software. The DFIG is tested in association with a DRWP systems. The simulation results show that the DPC with FNN controller (DPC-FNN) reduced the THD value of stator voltage, rotor flux undulation, active/reactive power undulation, and electromagnetic torque ripple compared to conventional DPC strategy. It was found that the current waveform becomes purely sinusoidal with a reduction in the THD rate to 0.64%.