International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering

Pyrolysis of waste plastic is a prospective way of conversion of waste plastic into low-emissive hydrocarbon fuel. The present research is focused on the conversion of waste plastic into low-emissive hydrocarbon fuel by two process namely vacuum and catalytic cracking (activated carbon, activated carbon with granulated charcoal and activated carbon with calcium oxide). Waste plastic materials viz., polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate were collected from local convenience store packing materials. Waste plastic material pyrolysis was conducted as individual plastics and as mixed feed in a new laboratory scale batch reactor. Hydrocarbon molecules from the basic materials are split under the impact of catalyst inside the reactor in 70–240 °C. The reduction of process takes place from 500–600 °C to 240 °C in the presence of catalyst. The analyses of pyrolysis products suggested that it can be used as a viable alternative to motor fuel. It was observed that the yield was better in the case of individual plastic material as opposed to mixed feed in all cases except polypropylene under non-catalysed vacuum process. The comparison of the GC-FID (TPH) report of the obtained oil with that of the commercial petrol clearly proves that the prepared oil is composed of petrol components.

Expanding the use of renewable energy is a matter of concern in many countries. Many Japanese local municipalities are attempting to promote business creation using renewable energy as an opportunity for regional revitalization based on the policy of the Japanese government. Renewable energy makes significant contributions to the region in terms of energy security, stable energy supply, and job creation. However, the most important contribution is enhancing residents’ attachment to their community and supporting actions that appeal to the community through renewable energy utilization. Residents should actively participate in regional revitalization, which leads to sustainable prosperity of the region. However, the current measures of local municipalities seem to be lacking such a viewpoint. This study aims to analyse the environmental and economic aspects as well as the social acceptance of establishing a bathing business that utilizes woody biomass as its heat source. This study also discussed how the generation of heat from woody biomass contributes to regional revitalization. The case study area was Kobe and Mt. Rokko, Japan. First, heat production and utilization was assumed for the forest resources in Mt. Rokko, and the annual biomass energy production potential was estimated. The annual costs of lumber cutting, transportation, and chipping, and the annual CO2 reduction by substituting bunker A with woody biomass for heat production were also estimated. A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine community awareness of energy production using woody biomass from Mt. Rokko. Principal component analysis, contingent valuation method, and path analysis were used to quantify respondents’ awareness.

Wind-based power is one of the renewable base power sources that are tipped to play a great role in decarbonising the globe. To achieve this potential, more wind farms are likely to be built. The capacity factor of a wind farm and hence its profitability is dependent on whether it is properly sized and sited. In fact, some wind power plants have failed wholly or underperformed, because the wind turbine plant installed did not match the wind site. In this paper, a new approximate capacity factor equation has been derived for matching wind turbines to potential site for optimum yield and profitability. The indexes of capacity factor and cost of electricity were used as metrics in the model. The proposed model was applied to the climatic conditions and wind turbine characteristics of Kappadagudda and Mailiao wind farms in India and Taiwan, respectively. The result obtained showed good agreement with measured data for the two wind farms. With respect to the Kappadagudda wind farm, the model computed CF of 38% is close to the Kappadagudda real wind farm annual CF of 36% representing an absolute error of 2% and a mean square error of 0.96%. In addition, it was found that the proposed model followed the same general trend with other six existing models compared.

This paper proposes a novel photovoltaic (PV) array-fed induction motor (IM) drive in irrigation applications. The energy conversion includes a single-stage conversion procedure. The output voltage obtained from the PV array is given to the conventional voltage source inverter (VSI), which uses a sensorless vector control approach to drive the IM. A novel approach in vector control with the reduced number of sensors is attempted to improve the performance and handle proper energy conversion. The novel vector control approach incorporates modified maximum power extraction (MPE) algorithms. The system assimilates the single-stage VSI to operate effectively, making the IM-pump drive work superior to other methods. The paper compares the proposed single-stage conversion process exposed to different MPE algorithms, such as P&O and PSO, with the proposed MPSO algorithm. The validation of the proposed system is accomplished through both simulations in MATLAB/SIMULINK and experimental results. The simulation results compare all three MPE algorithms and conclude that MPSO employed for novel vector control extracts maximum power with an accuracy not less than 99.5% subjected to different partial shading conditions. The experimental results validate the proposed MPE algorithm for the induction motor pump drive and obtain maximum power attainment with an accuracy of 98.2% without partial shading effect and 90.84% and 88.89% for partial shading conditions. The overall efficiency of the proposed system varies from 81.2 to 73.4% for different insolation conditions.

Nowadays, cloud computing is one of the most up-to-date topics conducted by many researchers. The specialists and researchers try to create a new generation of data centers using virtual machines to supply the network service virtually and dynamically. These services will lead everyone to access their required application worldwide via the Internet. Furthermore, the number of datacenters (DC) is growing exponentially. Therefore, a novel concept called green computing has been raised to decrease the negative effect of data centers to protect the environment. Green cloud computing solutions strive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, energy, power, and water consumption that are harmful to the environment. In this paper, the approaches moving toward green computing are investigated and categorized to help the researchers and specialists in cloud computing expand green cloud computing and improve the environment quality. The "green cloud computing" has been searched in this survey. We have searched ACM, IEEE, Elsevier, and Springer and surveyed the papers between 2010 and 2022. This paper is a holistic survey useful for researchers who work on green cloud computing and its environmental influence. This paper can lead researchers to move toward green computing to protect the environment against these days’ environmental issues. These days, environmental issues like climate change make this subject more important than before.

The present research work proposes an optimization procedure using Taguchi method and utility concept with the main objective of maximizing the calorific value of syngas with lower CO2 yield during coal gasification process using thermodynamic equilibrium model based on stoichiometric approach. After validating the model with experimental results, the effect of air supply and steam supply on output gas composition and temperature were analyzed in detail. For the purpose of optimization, six control variables at three levels consisting of coal properties, oxidant properties, and reaction properties are considered for optimization of objective functions. The trial runs for Taguchi analysis were carried out using L27 orthogonal array and the concept of signal-to-noise ratio was used to optimize the process. Taguchi method produced two sets of levels of the control variables, one for maximum calorific value of 3.59 MJ/m3 and another set for minimum CO2 yield of 6.25%. To obtain a common set of control variable levels, utility concept has been implemented for optimization of maximum calorific value with low CO2 yield simultaneously. Among the control variables considered, air supply, steam supply, and H/C ratio of coal are found to be the most influencing parameters. It is observed that the calorific value and CO2 yield calculated from the utility concept differ by 3.34% and 2.30%, respectively, compared to the values calculated by the Taguchi method.

Over the years, the need for energy consumption has been increasing in all sectors of society. Consequently, discussions about renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydraulic and wave energy are increasingly being guided in all global environmental political discussions. More specifically, wind energy, mainly offshore, has been increasingly highlighted due to the large area to be explored. Thus, the objective of this work was to study the offshore wind profiles using five different estimation methodologies, verifying which is the best and worst scenario of wind potential. For this purpose, data from the SODAR of “Ômega Energia” located in the state of Maranhão, in the Northeast of Brazil were used; the data from the ERA5 Reanalysis and the data from the Wobben Windpower E-82 E4 wind turbine, with a nominal power of 3000 KW (3 MW). The results showed that the best method for estimating wind profiles both for this location and for the entire Northeast region of Brazil was the method using Taylor & Yelland [28] roughness estimate calculation, which considers a stable atmosphere. Comparatively, the best estimate scenario showed a gain of 0.65 MW of power generation when compared to the worst scenario.

The accuracy of a two-diode model for three different photovoltaic module technologies, namely monocrystalline, amorphous and micromorphous silicon, has been investigated in this paper. The I–V and the P–V characteristics for each type of module were simulated using the specifications given by the module’s manufacturer in their datasheet at standard tests conditions. An accurate technique was used for calculating the corresponding irradiation absorbed by each module type. To validate the model, a comparison between the simulation results and the experimental data obtained for each PV module type tested in outdoor conditions for a sunny and a cloudy day has been carried out. A good agreement was found between the calculated and measured data, both for the I–V and the P–V curves and the characteristic points (I sc, V oc, I mpp, V mpp) under simultaneous variation of temperature and irradiation.

The internal gas pressure is one of the major parameters affecting the microclimate of the anaerobic digester. The effect can be described by Henry’s Law and Ideal Gas law. In this experiment, the effect of reduced gas pressure on the yield of biogas and its composition was observed. The pressure of gas was reduced by displacement of a piston connected to the balancing weight, to maintain constant reduced pressure. As the piston is displaced to its maximum point due to gas generation, then the gas is transferred to the gas storage tank for further analysis. The gauge pressure applied was 0, $$-100$$ , and $$-200$$  mmHg for systems A, B, and C, respectively. The specific gas yield of systems A, B and C was 26.09, 70.41, and 246.5 L/kg (on dry basis). The production of methane was increased with a decrease in internal gas pressure. The corresponding average methane content of systems A, B and C was 38.33, 44 and 63.97%. The $$\hbox{BOD}_{5}$$ removal efficiencies were 6.25, 33.33 and 70.83% for systems A, B, and C, respectively. The pH of the substrate was stable in the system C. The rate of Total Solid (TS) reduction was high in System C. The TS reduction efficiency of systems A, B, and C was 14.7, 16.64, and 22.19%, respectively. The reduction in internal gas pressure can be a new effective and efficient process control strategy. The reduced-pressure system reduces the chemical cost incurred by the addition of alkalinity to maintain the pH.