ICAER 2015 Preface

Preface
The Department of Energy Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bom-
bay is one of the first dedicated departments in India focussing on energy science, engineering
technology and policy. The department is expected to provide critical manpower and research
outputs that are crucial for the growth of India’s energy sector and provide innovative tech-
nologies and systems to mitigate the global challenge of climate change. Keeping the vision
of the department, ”To develop sustainable energy systems and solutions for the future” in
mind, the need of providing a common platform to the researchers in the field of Energy and
allied domains, the Department organizes the bi-annual conference: International Conference
on Advances in Energy Research, since 2007, to provide an excellent forum to present new
findings, exchange novel ideas, discuss new developments and finally reflect on the challenges
that lie ahead. This is a compendium of all the the papers presentated at the 5th Interna-
tional Conference on Advances in Energy Research (ICAER 2015), organized from 15th to 17th
December, 2015 by the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay, Mumbai. A total of 545 papers were received from various countries (In-
dia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Turkey, UK and USA).
After a rigorous review by subject experts, 310 papers were selected for presentation at the
conference. Out of the selected papers, 150 papers were scheduled for oral presentation and 160
papers were scheduled for poster presentation. The conference was organised in 42 sessions in
the field of photovoltaics, solar thermal, wind energy, biomass and combustion, energy storage,
energy efficiency and modelling, energy policy, fuel cells, and buildings, to name a few. Se-
lected papers will be considered for publication in Materials Today Proceedings (Elsevier) and
Energy Procedia (Elsevier) journals. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the
invited speakers, delegates, sponsors, the members of the organizing and academic committee
and most importantly the students of the department for their dedicated efforts in organising
this conference.

March 8, 2015 Prof. Sagar Mitra and

Mumbai Prof. Balasubramaniam K R
Organizing Secretary, ICAER 2015
 List of Papers

Paper # Title
1 Impact of SVC -STATCOM on Distance Relay Performance for Wind Farm Integration
4 Experimental Investigation of Single Cylinder Direct Injection CI Engine Performance Using
Biofuels
5 Polygeneration for Power, Refrigeration, Desalination and Utility Heat- Comparative
Performance Evaluation for Different Biomass Inputs
6 A STUDY ON MARINE RESOURCE UTILIZATION OF BANGLADESH- AN APPROCAH TO MARINE
ENERGY CONVERSION AND UTILIZATION
8 Optimization of mass of heat pipe for space applications using Ant Colony Optimization
9 MAXIMUM POWER TRACKING CONVERTER BASED OPEN CIRCUIT VOLTAGE METHOD FOR PV
SYSTEM
11 Wind Generation Integration Impact on Fuel Cost Savings in Pool Based Electricity Markets
13 Effect of Short Chain Alcohols on Yield of Biodiesel Produced from Pongamia Oil
18 Comparison of the performance of box type solar cookers -- when the cooking pot is kept
directly on the absorber plate and when raised using lugs- an experimental study
19 Energy Recovery during Biodegradation of an Azo-dye in Microbial Fuel Cell
21 Estimation of optimum heat exchanger area of vapor compression-absorption integrated
system using modified irreversibility approach
24 Solar Flower System for Residential Loads
25 The Influence of Chemical Treatment on the Mechanical Behaviour of hair Fibre-Reinforced
Composites
26 Investigations and Analysis of PV - battery based microgrid Energy Management System
27 Assessment of 2- Ethyl hexyl acetate as Biodiesel Additive- Property evaluation and Engine
Performance Analyses
29 Energy and Exergy analysis of diesel engine powered trigeneration systems
30 Sun Light Transmission through Silica Optical Fibers for Lighting- An Experimental Study
31 Collector efficiency in counter flow type double pass solar air heaters having multi V shaped
artificial roughness
34 Experimental study on Performance of Downdraft Gasifier Reactor under Varied Ratios of
Secondary and Primary Air Flows
35 XPS Studies of Sr doped La2CuO4 - A potential cathode material for IT-SOFCs
36 Estimation of land-fill gas generation from municipal solid waste in Indian Cities
38 Effect of Chamber Volume, Electrode Material and Cation Exchange Membrane on
Performance of Microbial Fuel Cell
41 Radiation Forecasting with Elman back-propagation Neural Network using Groups of Multiple
Parameters
46 Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Vapor Compression-Absorption Cascade Refrigeration System
(VCACRS) Powered by Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)
47 Palladium Nanocubes Synthesized Via - Metal Chloride Route For Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
(DSSC) Applications
48 Work recovery scroll expander modeling for trans-critical CO2 refrigeration system at high
ambient temperature
50 A Maximum Power Point Tracking Technique Based on Ripple Correlation Control for Single-
Phase Photovoltaic System with Fuzzy Logic Controller
51 A simple synthesis of nanostructured CaIn2O4 using aloe vera nectar
52 Energy conservation by partial substitution of cement with an industrial waste from alumina
industry in construction products.
53 Analysis of water cooling of CPV cells mounted on absorber tube of a Parabolic Trough Collector
54 Structural morphological and electrical studies of LiFePO4 synthesized by solution combustion
method
56 Application of OSCAT satellite data for offshore wind power potential assessment of India
57 A comparative study of grid-connected photovoltaic systems in four different locations of India
58 Equilibrium Model for Biomass Gasification- Study of effect of Biomass properties and
Operating parameters
59 Investigation on optimum steam flushing pressure in a cogeneration cement factory
61 Investigation on Fluid Dynamic Characteristics of Square Barrel Wall Fins on Efficiency of A
Cyclone Separator
62 Optimization of Renewable Energy Sources in a Microgrid using Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm
63 Analysis of D.C Electric springs in the micro grid system consisting of fluctuating Energy sources
64 Experimental Investigations on Rubber Seed Oil Methyl Ester by Varying the Load Conditions
and Compression Ratio in a Diesel Engine
66 Lanthanum doped Ceria Nanoparticles- a Promising Material for Energy Applications
67 Uncertainty Analysis on the Integration of Safety and Health Indexes in a Chemical Product
Design Framework
68 Non-precious metal based counter electrodes for dye sensitized solar cell
70 Hybrid Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Systems (PVT)- performance Simulation and
Experimental Validation
71 A Comparative Study on Influence of Edible and Non-Edible Vegetable Oil on Combustion
Characteristics of Multi Cylinder CI Engine
72 Power Quality and Economic Assessment of DG Penetration in Distorted Distribution Systems
73 Co-firing of Coal with Pine Needles in a 20 kW Oxy-fired Bubbling Fluidized bed- Experimental
Investigation
74 Hydrothermal Synthesis of 1D Nanocrystalline TiO2 Nanorods and Their Influence in Dye
Sensitized Solar Cells
76 Energy saving using D-STATCOM placement in Radial Distribution system under reconfigured
network
77 Numerical Modelling on Modified Directional Solidification Process of Multi-crystalline Silicon
Growth for Photovoltaic Applications
78 Numerical investigations on modified hot-zone in DS furnace for mc-Si growth process
79 Numerical analysis of operating parameter in mc-Si for Directional solidification process
81 Shading and Mismatch effect on the Performance of PV Module
82 Energy Savings in Radial Distribution Systems with Intermittent Wind Power and Probabilistic
Load Demands
84 Performance, Combustion and Exhaust Emissions Analysis of a Diesel Engine Fueled with Algae
Oil and Algae Biodiesel
88 Performance analysis of earth water heat exchanger for concentrating photovoltaic cooling
89 Performance Evaluation of Fluidised Bed Biomass Gasifier Using CFD
90 Chlorophyll Entrapped Chitosan Hydrogel as a Novel Material for Artificial Light-Harvesting
92 Optimization of Process Parameters for Biodiesel Production from Different Kinds of Feedstock
94 Fuzzy Logic Control of Z-source DC-DC Converter for Photovoltaic Systems
96 Energy Options for India in a Carbon Constrained World – Analysis Using a GAMS Model
99 CO2 absorption in aqueous Monoethanolamine in a packed bed tower
100 Application of Microwave Energy for Biodiesel Production using Waste Cooking Oil
101 Effect of inter-stage pressure on the performance of a two stage refrigeration cycle using inter
cooler.
105 Analysis of High Temperature Low Sag Conductors used for High Voltage Transmission
109 Modelling and simulation of air-steam gasification of rice husk using Aspen Plus
110 Effects of Thermal Barrier Ceramic Coatings and Different Nozzle Configurations on Emissions
and Performance Characteristics of Diesel Engine
111 Thermodynamic optimization of coal-biomass co-gasification process by using non-
stoichiometric equilibrium modelling
112 Effect of Load Composition on Optimized Selection of Reactive Power Compensators in wind
diesel based Isolated Hybrid Power System
113 Ruthenium complex functionalized polymer grafted on reduced Graphene Oxide sheet as a p-
type material for polymer solar cell
116 Performance evaluation of a Guarded Hot Box Test Facility using fuzzy logic controller for
different building material samples
119 Design and feasibility studies of a small scale Grid Connected Solar PV Power Plant
120 Performance Of Building Roofs On Energy Efficiency – A Review
121 Experimental Investigation using an On-Board Dry Cell Electrolyser in a CI Engine working on
Dual Fuel Mode
122 Thermal performance of a heat pipe embedded evacuated tube collector in a compound
parabolic concentrator
123 Studies on the Developing of Nano-Structured ‘Cu2S’ film for photovoltaic application
125 Modeling and performance analysis of an evacuated tube solar collector using H2O-LiCl as a
desiccant solution
127 Performance of Low Speed Electric Two-wheelers in the Urban Traffic Conditions- a Case Study
in Kolkata
130 Exploring Synergy Effect of Plasma with Lignite Ash on NOx Abatement in a Biofuel Exhaust
131 Enrichment of secondary wastewater sludge for production of hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol
using statistical optimization from crude glycerol by mixed-culture
132 Marine Energy Turbine Performance- Effect of Blade Sweep
134 Photoluminescent characterization of CaYTiNbO7-Eu3+ as an orange-red emitting phosphor
137 EMI FILTER DESIGN AND INVESTIGATION OF MODULATION STRATERGY TO REDUCE COMMON
MODE VOLTAGE IN GRID CONNECTED INVERTERS
141 Parametric Evaluation of Beam Deflection based Piezoelectric Material of Rainwater Energy
Harvester Using Implicit and Explicit FEM Simulations
144 Autothermal Reforming of Ethanol on Rhodium Catalysts- Elucidation of Reforming Pathways
from Detailed Microkinetics
146 EOR – Experimental Study to attain self sufficiency in crude oil production in Naharkatiya oil
field
148 Nanostructured Hafnium oxide thin films for sensing carbon monoxide- An experimental
investigation
149 Modeling Negative Temperature Coefficient for Methane Auto-ignition at High Pressures
150 Modelling and Control of Quasi Z-Source Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter for Grid
Connected Photovoltaic Systems
151 Effect of thermally oxidized TiOx compact layer and multiple sintering of mesoporous TiO2 on
the performance of dye sensitized solar cells.
152 Engine Performance Using Waste Cooking Biodiesel and Its Blends with Kerosene and Ethanol
153 Thermal Performance of Solar Water Heater with Multiple Twisted Tape Inserts
154 Optimization of Bagasse Utilization for Ethanol Production in a Sugar Mill
156 Numerical study of latent heat storage system for ORC-based solar thermal power plant for
extension of electricity generation
157 Comparison Study of Aqua-Ammonia and LiBr-Water Solar Cooling Cogeneration Cycle
158 SECOND LAW ANALYSIS OF LATENT HEAT THERMAL STORAGE FOR ORC-BASED SOLAR
THERMAL POWER PLANT
159 HARMONIC ESTIMATION USING OFDM PRINCIPLE
161 Application of natural deep eutectic solvents in biomass pretreatment, enzymatic
saccharification and cellulosic ethanol production
162 Controlled Electrochemical Growth of Spinel NiCo2S4 Nanosheets on Nickel Foam for High
Performance Supercapacitor Applications
163 Subcritical water hydrolysis of spent Java Citronella biomass for production of reducing sugar
164 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HYBRID SOLAR COOKING AND WATER HEATING SYSTEM
165 Polyaniline-Nickel Oxide –a Core-Shell Structured Nanocomposite as Electrode Material in
Super Capacitor Applications.
170 Performance Evaluation of Algal Photobioreactors Using CFD and Growth Modeling
180 Optimized process synthesis of biodiesel production from microalgae
181 Modeling and optimization of dilute acid pre-treatment processing of lignocellulosic feedstock
183 A Numerical investigation of flow maldistribution in inlet header configuration ofPlate fin heat
exchanger.
189 Synthesis and Characterization of Two Dimensional Copper Selenide (CuSe) Nanosheets
190 Internalising the external cost of electricity generation- An approach for the economic viability
of renewable energy based power generation.
191 Coaxial Surface Junction Thermocouple for Transient Measurements in the Combustion
Chamber of an Internal Combustion Engine
193 Numerical Study of Thermal Storage using Encapsulated Phase Change Material for Solar
Thermal Power Plant
195 A Two Stage Increase-Decrease algorithm to Optimize Distributed Generation in a Virtual
Power Plant
196 Experimental studies on a combined two stage desalination and cooling plant
197 Development of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics for a Plate Type Offset-Fin
Compact Heat Exchanger using Numerical Investigation Methodology
202 STUDY OF DEGRADATION OF QUALITY OF SOYABEAN BIODIESEL WITH STORAGE TIME AND ITS
EMISSIONS ON VARIOUS LOADS
203 A Review of Research and Policy on Using Different Biodiesel oils as Fuel for C.I. Engine
204 Silicon Micro-Nanopillars as Solar Tracker for Photovoltaic Application
205 Metamaterial Mirror as Back Reflector for Thin Silicon Solar Cell Application
207 Thermodynamic Analysis of Two Stage Metal Hydride Based Hydrogen Compressor
208 Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer Analyses of an Adiabatic Dehumidifier – An Unique Approach
210 Long-term Performance Analysis of CdTe PV module in real operating conditions
213 First Principles calcultion for hydrogen adsorption on electron(n) doped surfaces- Bond
exchange mechanism
216 Microencapsulation and characterization of Agar gel based phase change materials for thermal
energy storage in cooling towers
217 Performance analysis of wavy finned solar air heater compared to offset rectangular finned
solar air heater
219 Thermohydraulic performance of solar air heater equipped with wavy fin absorber plate
220 Li adsorption and diffusion on 3D metallic T6 Carbon- First Principles study
223 Bio-gasification based Externally Fired Combined Cogeneration Plant- Part A- Energetic and
Techno-economic Performance Analyses
226 Thermodynamic Evaluation of Two Repowering Schemes for an old Coal Fired Power Plant
through Integration of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell
235 An Experimental Approach towards Blending Multiple Nanoparticles in Diesel Fuel for Cleaner
Emissions and Enhanced Performance of CI Engines
236 Comparative Studies on CO2 Adsorption Isotherms by Solid Adsorbents
237 Comparative Studies on CO2 Adsorption Kinetics by Solid Adsorbents
238 Impact of microalgal oil on the cold flow properties of edible and non-edible biodiesel
242 An Optimisation-based Negotiation Framework for Energy Systems in an Eco-Industrial Park
243 Techno-economic assessment of carbon mitigation options for existing coal-fired power plants
in India
247 Design of a Venturi Type Biogas Mixer for a Four Stroke Spark Ignition Engine
248 Fuel Quality Assessment of Biodiesels Produced through Alcoholysis from Pongamia glabra,
Mesua Ferrea and their blend- A novel yet cinch approach
250 Fugitive methane emissions from Indian coal mining and handling activities- estimates,
mitigation and opportunities for its utilization to generate clean energy
252 Carbon Supported Sn-Co Cathode Catalyst for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells
253 Investigation of thermal efficiency via entropy generation analysis within cavities with curved
walls subjected to differential-Rayleigh-Benard heating
254 Effects of Partial Addiction of Butanol in a Rubber seed Oil Methyl Ester Diesel Blend
255 Effect of particle size on the parameters of Supercapacitor
256 MICROALGAE CHLORELLA- A POTENTIAL FEEDSTOCK FOR BIODIESEL PRODUCTION -A Review
257 Utilization of Wind Shear for Powering Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Surveillance Application-
A Numerical Optimization Study
258 Sizing Curve for the design of thermal stabilizer of a diesel engine powered trigeneration system
260 Energy Efficient Jaggery Making using Freeze Pre-concentration of Sugarcane Juice
261 Numerical Investigations for Optimal Design and Development of a Small-Scale HAWT using
CFD
262 Energy and Exergy Analysis of CI Engine for Karanja Biodiesel
264 Daylight performance of a naturally ventilated building as parameter for energy management
265 Elimination of Lower order Harmonics in 11-level CMLI feeding an Induction Motor Drive using
Modified Cat-PSO Technique
266 Oxy-Biomass Circulating Fluidized Bed combustion
273 Insights into the Interaction Energy for Cs+–Crown Ether complex by Molecular Dynamics
Simulations
274 Cu2ZnSnS4 Films using an Eco-friendly Direct Liquid Coating Approach for Solar Cell
Applications
275 Impact of Solar Panel Configuration on Large Scale Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Scenario for
Mumbai
280 Design and experimental analysis of 15 kW down draft gasifier
281 Experimental Study and Comparison of Paddy Drying in Natural Convection and Rotating
Fluidized Bed in a Static Geometry Dryer (RFB-SG)
282 Sustainable Recycling Model for Municipal Solid Wastes in Patna
283 Load Shedding in Deregulated Environment and Impact of Photovoltaic System with SMES
286 Experimental studies of permeability measurement and hydrodynamics study of all-Vanadium
redox flow battery
287 Development of anion exchange membrane from polyvinyl alcohol functionalized with
quaternary ammonium groups via flexible alkyl spacers.
291 PYROLYSIS OF DRIED BLACK LIQUOR SOLIDS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BIO-CHAR AND
BIO-OIL
292 Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag–TiO2 hybrid nanostructures prepared by a facile wet
chemical method
295 CFD AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON A CYCLONE SEPARATOR PERFORMANCE FOR
FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIRE
297 Design and development of downdraft biomass gasifier of 20kWth capacity to generate
producer gas
299 Preservation of Sand and Building Energy Conservation
303 Optimal Placement of DG in Distribution network for Power loss minimization using NLP & PLS
Technique
304 Investigation of Various Wall and Window Glass Material Buildings in Different Climatic Zones
of India for Energy Efficient Building Construction
306 High Performance Lithium-ion Hybrid Electrochemical Capacitor Based on Li4Ti5O12 and Rice
husk-Derived Porous Carbon
307 Power Rating of Six Different Photovoltaic Technology Modules as Per IEC 61853-1 Under real
outdoor condition
308 Estimation of Dynamic resistance of HIT technology module in dark and illuminated condition
310 CFD investigation of air velocity and temperature distribution in a room equipped with active
chilled beams
312 Framework for a Sustainable Rural Electrification System- A Socio-technical System Approach
314 Study of Kinetic Models for Trans-esterification Reaction using Heterogeneous Catalysts
317 Intrinsic p-type Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film for hetero-structure solar photovoltaic device application
319 CdTe sensitized nano porous electrodes for photovoltaic application
320 Influence of injection timing and nozzle opening pressure on the combustion, performance and
emission analysis of small CI engine fueled with biodiesel
322 PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZINC DOPED CdS THIN FILMS FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC
APPLICATIONS
324 Analysis of soiling effect on thin-film and crystalline technology PV modules for composite
climate zone of India
325 Effect of Extended Surfaces and Fluid Structure Interaction on the Performance of Triangular
Receiver using Compound Parabolic Concentrator
326 Models for Deployment of Solar PV Lighting Applications in Rural India
328 Thermal influences on rotordynamic coefficients of a rotating gas turbine seal
330 Comparative Study of Cathode Materials for Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Synthesized
by Different Methods
331 Li Functionalized Hydrogenated h-BN Sheet- A Promising Candidate for Efficient Hydrogen
Storage
332 INVESTIGATION ON SYNTHESIS OF BIODIESEL FROM DISTILLERY SPENT WASH USING
OLEAGINOUS YEAST Metschnikowia pulcherrima
333 Absorber tube with internal hinged blades for solar parabolic trough collector
336 Combustion Characteristics and Cyclic variation of a LPG fuelled MPFI Four cylinder Gasoline
Engine
338 Hydrogen sorption mechanism of magnesium (hydride)
340 Investigation of Solar Heat Pipe Collector Using Nanofluid And Surfactant
343 Kinetic Analysis of Melon Seed Husk Using Non-Isothermal Thermogravimetric Analysis
345 Carbon Dioxide Plume Geothermal (CPG) system - a new approach to enhance geothermal
energy production and deployment of CCUS at large scale in India
346 CFD Analysis of Combustion in a Wankel Engine in the Presence of Porous Media
348 Series Resistance measurement of Solar PV Modules using Mesh in Real Outdoor condition
350 Electrochemical Behavior and Stress Developments in Few Layers Graphene during Lithiation-
Delithiation
351 Enzymatic Biodiesel Production from Non-edible Oil and its Characterization
352 A Novel Grid Tied Multilevel Inverter for Photovoltaic Systems
354 Low Reflecting Hierarchically Textured Silicon by Silver Assisted Chemical Etching for Potential
Solar Cell Application
356 IMPLEMENTATION OF SOLAR POWERED DC PUMPING SYSTEM FOR IRRIGATION
357 Hydrogen Storage and Spillover Effect in Pd Dispersed Reduced Graphene Oxide
361 Study on Potential of Gasification Technology for Municipal Solid Waste(MSW) in Pune city
362 Greener synthesis of CZTS NR- Structural and KPFM studies
363 Light Intensity and Spectral Dependence Characteristics of Silicon Nanowire-PEDOT-PSS
Heterojunction Solar Cells
364 Performance assessment of solar agriculture water pumping system
365 Tracking Global Operating Point based on Modified Firefly Algorithm for Photovoltaic Systems
operating under Partially Shaded Conditions
366 Correlations between phase transformations, stress developments and electrochemical
behaviour of metallic anode materials for Li-ion batteries
368 Nano-diamond and Diamond-like Carbon Thin Films for Anti-Reflecting Coating Application on
Silicon Solar Cells
369 Modeling and Simulation of PBI based High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell
370 Quick Synthesis of SnS Nanoparticles
371 Simple and low cost production of wrinkled graphene sheets for supercapacitor electrodes
374 Effect of Tin as dopant on Zinc Oxide Thin Films For Solar Cell Applications
377 On the Multifunctional Electrocatalytic Activities of Doped Metal Chalcogenides
378 Performance assessment of heat exchanger with airfoil pin-fin inserts
380 Effective Inhibition of Hydrogen Flames for Safe Hydrogen Handling & Storage
381 An Experimental Study on Combustion and Emission Analysis of Four Cylinder 4-Stroke Gasoline
Engine Using Pure Hydrogen and LPG at Idle Condition.
382 Prediction of Novel Thermodynamically Stable Li-Sn Alloys at Ambient and High Pressure
383 Proportional and Integral constants Optimization Using Bacterial Foraging Algorithm for Boost
Inverter
384 A New Sensorless Speed Control Technique for Induction Motor Driven Electric Vehicle Using
Model Reference Adaptive Controller
385 Application of Paraffin Based Nanocomposite in Heat Pipe Module for Electronic Equipment
Cooling
387 Heat Transfer Enhancements of Low Volume Concentration CNT-water nanofluid and Wire Coil
Inserts in a Circular Tube
388 Parameter Optimization of Three Phase Boost Inverter Using Genetic Algorithm for Linear
Loads
389 Li2NiTiO4- A new Insertion type Pseudocapacitive Electrode for Aqueous Lithium-Ion
Asymmetric capacitors
391 An Investigation of Performance Parameters on Different Photovoltaic cell materials using
Lambert-W Function
394 Biogas Production from Water Hyacinth in the Batch type Anaerobic Digester
400 Titania nanobelts as a scattering layer with Cu2ZnSnS4 as a counter electrode for DSSC with
improved efficiency
403 Investigation of Graphite and SWCNT Composite Electrode for Zinc-Bromine Redox Flow
Batteries
404 Design, Simulation and Implementation of Active clamp Current Fed Isolated Full Bridge DC-DC
Converter with Voltage Multiplier for Fuel Cell Grid Applications
407 Understanding the effectiveness and role of graphene and NiTi as possible mechanical buffers
for Si-based anode materials for Li-ion batteries
408 Establishment of Smart Micro Grid for Demand Side Managment
411 Development of ANN Based Model for Solar Potential Assessment Using Various
Meteorological Parameters
412 Na-doped SrSiO3 material- structure and its conductivity
418 Mathematical modeling of functional material for alternative energy applications
421 Energy Conservation Using Dedicated Outdoor Air System
425 Analysis of Mechanical and Thermal behaviors for Cross linked Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA)
Protective film employed for PV cells
428 Solar energy harvesting- Environmental Issues & Regulations
429 Design and Experimental analysis of Biomass Sand bed Fluidized Bed Gasifier
430 Techno economical evaluation of cold metal transfer joining of Aluminium 6061 alloy
432 Growth of Fe3O4 nanoparticles on N-doped reduced graphene oxide for super capacitor
applications
434 Solar Steam Generator with Absorber Integrated Storage
440 Performance emission and combustion characteristics of a CRDI engine operating on jatropha
curcas blend with EGR
441 Effect of surface chemistry and surface charge on thermal conductivity enhancements in
copper nanofluids
448 Proximal Support Vector machine (PSVM) Based Imbalance Fault Diagnosis of Wind Turbine
Using Generator Current Signals
449 Selection of Most Relevant Input Variables Using Principle Component Analysis algorithm for
Support Vector machine Based Wind Turbine Fault Diagnosis Model
450 A methodology for mixed mode building design using building simulation based optimization
452 Graphene oxide filter paper for removing pollutant dye in waste water treatment and studying
its filtration properties at nano scale.
453 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Based Intelligent Fault Diagnosis of Wind Turbine Using
Electric Signature Analysis
457 Experimentation Investigation of Combustion Characteristics of Jatropha Biodiesel and its
Diesel Blends for Gas Turbine Combustor.
460 Tea factory waste as a feedstock for thermo-chemical conversion to biofuel and biomaterial
461 Synthesis and microstructural properties of LiFePO4 and Li3V2(PO4)3 cathode materials for
rechargeable Li ion battery
462 Optimization and structure-property correlation of black chrome solar selective coating on
Copper and Nickel plated copper substrates
465 Development of Textured Electrode, Index Matching Layer and Nanostructured Materials for
Light Trapping inside Photovoltaic devices
466 Prospects of Implementing CO2 Capture and Sequestration (CCS) in the Proposed Supercritical
Coal Power Plants in India
470 Power factor issues on agricultural feeders- Investigated through the case of a village in Sangli,
Maharashtra
472 Synthesis and physical properties of low cost, non toxic, earth abundant P-type CuInS2 thin film
as absorber layer for photovoltaic application
474 Crystal facet control for the stability of p-Cu2O nanoneedles film as photocathode for
photoelectrochemical activity
477 Experimental Investigation of Heat Loss to the Ground in Clamp Type Brick Kilns
478 Growth of Titania Nanoflowers for Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity
479 Solution-assisted Energy-savvy Synthesis of High-voltage Na2M2(SO4)3 (M = 3d metals)
Alluaudite Family of Sodium Insertion Materials
480 Carbon Emission Savings by Reduction in Cycling Operation of Power Plants
481 Power Generation from Condenser Heat Loss of a Coal-fired Thermal Power Plant using Kalina
Cycle
482 Energy and Exergy Analyses in Molten Salt Based Thermocline Thermal Storage for Solar
Thermal Power Plant
483 EMISSION OPTIMIZATION OF SINGLE CYLINDER DIESEL ENGINE WITH EFFECT OF INERTIA CLASS
ON CHASSIS DYNAMOMETER TEST CYCLES
490 Application of gold nanoparticles obtained via Green Synthesis using leaf extract of Phyllanthus
emblica in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
493 Economic And Environmental Assessment Of A Rural Micro Grid
495 Analysis of Fault Ride-Through Capability of Grid-Connected Wind Farm
497 Electrolysis Process in Cu-Cl Thermochemical Cycle for Hydrogen Production
498 Parametric Studies of a Simple Direct Expansion Solar Assisted Heat Pump Using ANN and GA
499 Parametric studies of a Simple Direct Expansion Solar Assisted Heat Pump Operating in a Hot
and Humid Environment
500 Anaerobic Co-digestion of Food Waste with Poultry Manure for Enhanced Biogas Production
504 Synthesis of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) from Schizochytrium Marine Microalgae oil
506 Prediction of Thermodynamic Loss in a High-Speed Steam Nozzle
510 Refined Hybrid Microgrid Architecture for the Improvement of Voltage Profile
511 Stochastic Model of Electric Vehicle Parking Lot Occupancy in Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)
512 Utilization of LNG cold energy
514 Graphene based electrocatalyst support in Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
515 A study on effect of Cold Flow Improvers on Crystallization Properties of Dairy Washed Milk
Scum Oil Biodiesel
516 Effect of Substrate Temperature on Twin Donor Layer Organic Solar Cell
518 Gas Phase Synthesis of One-dimensional Single Crystal Tin Oxide Nanostructured Lithium-ion
Battery Anodes
520 Gasoline Direct Injection- An Efficient Technology
522 Comparison of Bio-oil Properties from Non-Catalytic and In-situ Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis of Palm
Empty Fruit Brunch
523 Design and Implementation of a Three Phase Inverter for Renewable Energy Source with
Unified Control Strategy.
524 The Pursuit of Clean Energy by Half of the Planet’s Population- The Current State and the Way
Forward
525 Inverse vulcanization polymer composites via sustainable route for Li-S battery
526 Light Intensity for Study Purpose- A Critical Insight from Rural Households
527 Electrochemical properties of Li2FeP2O7 as cathode material for Li-ion Battery
528 A model of localisation of solar energy for providing ‘right to clean light’ to rural school-going
children
529 Design and Implementation of a Three Phase Inverter for Renewable Energy Source with
Unified Control Strategy.
531 Optimum laser parameter tuning in silicon solar cell using Raman spectroscopy
532 Localization of Solar Energy through Local Assembly, Sale and Usage of 1Million Solar Study
Lamps
533 Optimization of Boron Spin on Dopant (BSOD) Diffusion for Emitter Formation In n- type c-Si
Solar Cells
534 Contribution of Boron Spin on Dopant Source towards Bulk Lifetime Degradation of n- type
silicon during Emitter Formation
535 Isotopic Analysis and Characterization of Boric Acid Diffused Emitters in n- type c- Si Solar Cells
 Impact of SVC /STATCOM on Distance Relay
Performance for Wind Farm Integration
Rahul Dubey1 , S. R. Samantaray 2, B.K Panigrahi1, and G. V. Venkoparao 3
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi-110016, India
2
Schools of Electrical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar-751013, India
3
Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd, Bangaluru-560095, India
* E-mail: rahul.dubey2011@gmail.com

Abstract: The paper presents an analytical approach for finding the possible impacts of shunt connected flexible AC
transmission system (FACTS) devices such as static synchronous compensator (STATCOM)/ Static VAR Compensator
(SVC) and off-shore wind penetration on distance relay characteristics. Analytical results are presented and verified by
simulated results (based on steady state model of STATCOM & SVC). The result compares under reaching for both
FACTS devices & it is found that under reaching is more severe for SVC connected system. Moreover presence of SVC
changes the line characteristic presented to relay even for bolted faults. It is also seen that type of coupling transformer
has a considerable effect on apparent impedance. Furthermore, the reach setting of the relay is significantly affected as
the relay end voltage fluctuates continuously when off-shore wind-farms are connected to power transmission systems.
Thus, generating tripping characteristics for appropriate operating conditions is a demanding concern and the same
has been addressed in the proposed research work.

Keywords: Wind farms, SVC, STATCOM, transmission line protection, distance relaying.

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been an intensive effort to increase the participation of renewable sources of electricity in the
fuel and energy balance of many countries. In particular, this relates to the power of wind farms (WF) attached to the
power system at both the distribution network and the high voltage (HV) transmission network. The number and the
level of power of WF attached to the power system are growing steadily, increasing the participation and the role of
such sources in the overall energy balance. Incorporating renewable energy sources into the power system entails a
number of new challenges for the power system protections in that it will have an impact on distance protections which
use the impedance criteria as the basis for decision making [1-4] .The most difficult part in wind farm is the
uncontrolled wind speed, leading to voltage and frequency fluctuation. Thus, the protection issues become critical as the
transmission lines connecting wind farms are subjected to continuously changing environment. Adaptive protection
schemes for distribution systems including wind source have been proposed in [5].The adaptive relay setting for
transmission lines including wind farm is proposed in [6-7] and the effect of variations in wind farm parameters on the
reach setting is extensively studied. It is observed that the trip boundaries of the relay is significantly affected when the
loading level, source impedance, voltage level, frequency etc. varies .
Main objective here is to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, using some realistic FACTS device such as
SVC/STATCOM. Therefore, one needs to know the level of under reach caused by such scenarios. The location of shunt
connected installation depends upon system engineers’ requirement. Theoretically devices can be installed at three
locations i.e. at sending end (just after generating station switchyard (i.e. after relay)) or at middle of the transmission
line compensation or at receiving end substation. Shunt connected FACTS devices (SVC/STATCOM) are installed at
receiving end to increase system stability (improving HVDC performance) whereas mid -point compensation is used for
increasing power transfer capacity [8-9]. The effect of shunt connected FACTS device on sending end can also be of
academia and utilities interest in present day. Therefore first two cases i.e. shunt connected FACTS device at sending
end and at middle of the line is considered here. The objective of paper is following :-
 Observe the distance relay characteristics in presence of shunt FACTS devices such as SVC/STATCOM
integration with off-shore wind farm.
 Investigate the impact of SVC & STATCOM on trip region for single-line-to-ground (SLG) faults by
simulation so as to catch controller performance also.
 To produce the result analytically and compare the results obtained through simulation and draw conclusion.
 It will be shown that coupling transformer affects the trip region for SVC & STATCOM as no zero sequence
current flows through STATCOM during healthy & fault condition.

1
 2. SYSTEM STUDIED

Figure 1 shows the single line diagram of the Interconnection of wind farm to the grid without FACTS devices [6].
Figure 2 and Fig.3 shows the schematic configuration of the system under study. In this paper, MATLAB/SIMULINK
(Sim-Power System) is used to model the 500 kV, 300 km long transmission system with STATCOM/SVC and off-
shore wind-farm integration. The parameters of the system are;

Fig.1. Interconnection of wind farm to the grid.

Fig. 2. Schematic configuration of the system under study (FACTs installed at sending end).

Fig. 3. Schematic configuration of the system under study (FACTs installed at middle of the line).

3. RESULT ANALYSIS

3.1 Trip region for uncompensated line connected with off-shore wind farm
The apparent impedance calculations for uncompensated transmission line connected with off-shore wind farm for
single-line-to-ground fault have been discussed in [8]. Figure 4 shows the trip region for uncompensated line.
Where, the four lines and the included area for an ideal trip region defined below;
Line a: solid faults at different locations.
Line b: faults at a relay-reach end (80% of line length) with different fault resistance up to 200Ω.
Line c: faults at different points with a 200Ω fault resistance.
Line d: faults at the relaying point with different fault resistance up to 200Ω.
50

40
(Ohm)

30 Line a
Line b
Line c
APP

20 Line d
X

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
RAPP(Ohm)

Fig.4 Trip region for uncompensated line connected with off-shore wind farm.
3.2 Trip region for SVC with off-shore wind farm
Figure 5 shows the trip region for with SVC installed at starting of transmission line. Figure 6 shows the trip region for
with SVC installed at middle of transmission line. So from Fig.5 and Fig.6 we can observe that when SVC installed at

2
starting only one trip zone (area-1) comes into picture the reason is fault always occurs after SVC. Similarly when SVC
installed at middle two trip zone (area-1 and area-2) comes into picture for fault before (area-1) and after SVC (area-2).
From Fig.5 and Fig.6 we can clearly observe that there is mismatch between actual (from simulated) and analyzed
(from theoretical analysis).
60

50
Actual
40

XAPP (ohm)
30

20
Analyzed
10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
RAPP (ohm)

Fig.5 Trip region for SVC (Fig.2) shunt compensated line connected with off-shore wind farm.
60

50

40 Analyzed
Area-2
XAPP (ohm)

(Fault after SVC)

30

20 Actual
Area-1
(Fault before SVC)
10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
RAPP (ohm)

Fig.6.Trip region for SVC (Fig.3) shunt compensated line connected with off-shore wind farm.
3.3 Trip region for STATCOM with off-shore wind farm
Figure 7 shows the trip region for with STATCOM installed at starting of transmission line. Figure 8 shows the trip
region for with STATCOM installed at middle of transmission line.
60
Actual Trip Region
50

40
XAPP (ohm)

Analyzed trip region

30

20

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
RAPP (ohm)

Fig.7 Trip region for STATCOM (Fig.2) shunt compensated line connected with off-shore wind farm.

50
Actual

40
Area-2
Analyzed
XAPP (ohm)

(Fault after STATCOM)

30

20
Area-1
(Fault before STATCOM)
10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
RAPP (ohm)

Fig.8 Trip region for STATCOM (Fig.3) shunt compensated line connected with off-shore wind farm.

4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research work has been supported by Prime Minister’s Fellowship for Doctoral Research, being implemented joint
-ly by Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with industry partner
Robert Bosch.

3
 5. REFERENCES

[1] G. D. Rockefeller, “Fault protection with a digital computer,” IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-88, no. 4,
pp. 438–461, Apr. 1969.
[2] A. G. Phadke and J. S. Thorp, Computer Relaying for Power Systems, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009.
[3] Y. Q. Xia, K. K. Li, and A. K. David, “Adaptive relay setting for standalone digital distance protection,” IEE
E Trans. on Power Delivery, vol.9, no. 1, pp. 480–491, 1993.
[4] S. I. Jang, J. H. Choi, J.W. Kim, and D. M. Choi, “An adaptive relaying for the protection of a wind farm inte
rconnected with distribution networks, “in Proc. IEEE PES Transmiss. Distrib. Conf. Expo. Sep. 7–12, 2003,
vol. 1, pp. 296–302.
[5] S. M. Brahma and A. A. Girgis, “Develop ment of adaptive protection schemes for distribution systems with
high penetration of distribution generation,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 56–63, Jan.2004.
[6] A. K. Pradhan, and G´eza Jo´os, “Adaptive Distance Relay Setting for Lines Connecting Wind Farms”,
IEEE Transcations on Energy Conversion, Vol. 22, No-1, pp. 206-213, March 2007.
[7] R.K.Dubey, S.R.Samantaray, B.K. Panigrahi, “Adaptive Distance Relaying Scheme for Transmission Network
Connecting Wind Farms", Electric Power Components and Systems, vol 42, issue-11, pp. 1181-1193, July 2014.
[8] Rahul Dubey, S.R.Samantaray, B.K. Panigrahi, " Simultaneous impact of unified power flow controller and off-
shore wind penetration on distance relay characteristics", IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, vol 8,
issue-11, pp.1869 - 1880, Nov. 2014.
[9] Rahul Dubey, S.R.Samantaray, B.K. Panigrahi, G.V. Venkaparao, "Adaptive distance relay setting for parallel
transmission network connecting wind farms and UPFC", International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy
Systems, vol.65, Feb.2015, pp. 113-123.

4
 ICAER-2015

Experimental Investigation of Single Cylinder Direct Injection CI

Engine Performance Using Biofuels
Suresh D. Mane 1
Principal, Girijabai Sail Institute of Technology, NH 17, Majali, Karwar 581345

Abstract

This paper presents the results of investigations carried out on a single cylinder direct injection engine operating on diesel
fuel, Methyl esters of Honge and Jatropha Curcas Oil. Optimum parameters for Honge and Jatropha Curcas oil biodiesel
when used in a single cylinder DI, CI engine were found experimentally. The raw vegetable oils were converted into their
biodiesels (BD) separately by transesterification process. Tests were also carried to determine the properties of the fuels
which include Flash point, Fire point, Kinematic viscosity and Gross calorific value at South Western Railways diesel loco
shed laboratory. Engine tests were carried out using engine with PC interface separately for petroleum diesel, BD made from
Jatropha oil and Pongamia Pinnata oils. Initially tests were carried out at three different injection timings to arrive at the
optimum injection timings for the three fuels separately.. Engine tests have been carried out with the aim of obtaining
comparative measures of brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc), brake power, exhaust gas
temperature, NOx, HC and smoke emissions. All the tests were conducted at six different power outputs ( No load, 20%,
40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of rated power) and for three injection timings of 19o, 23o and 27o btdc keeping the injection
pressure constant at 205 bar. It was observed that the optimum injection timing for Honge oil methyl ester (HOME), diesel
and Jatropha oil methyl ester (JOME) at 205 bar injection pressure are 19o, 23o and 27o btdc respectively. It is observed that
the brake thermal efficiency for HOME and JOME are slightly lower than neat diesel operation. However the brake specific
fuel consumption of HOME and JOME were higher compared to Diesel. Emissions of NOx and HC also were comparatively
lower for HOME and JOME when compared with Diesel for various Brake power conditions.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Pongemia pinnata, Jatropha Curcas, Emissions, Diesel Engine

1. Introduction

Out of the various alternative fuels available, vegetable oil is one of the renewable fuels having a great potential.
Vegetable oils have become more attractive recently because of its environmental benefits and the fact that it is
made from renewable resources [1]. The continuous and rapid depletion of petroleum fuels and their ever
increasing demand coupled with harmful exhaust emissions from the engines have created interest among
researchers to search for suitable alternative fuels. Among the various alternative fuels for compression ignition
engines, methyl esters of non-edible vegetable oils give encouraging results. Hence two non edible vegetable
oils viz. Pongemia Pinnata (Honge) and Jatropha Curcas oil (Karanjyot) were used in the present research work
to investigate the optimum conditions for their use as diesel engine fuels. The Honge oil is popularly known as
Pongamia Pinnata or Karanja oil. The Honge oil is extracted from the seeds of the Honge tree also called
Karanja tree. The higher viscosity and low calorific value of raw Honge oil and Jatropha curcas oils are the
major problems of using this fuel in CI engine.
Kamalesh A. Sorate (2015), reviewed the biodiesel properties and its effect on engine system compatibility to
discuss its long term acceptability issues in automotive application summarized that biodiesel provides better
lubricity by reducing wear and friction [2]. Ozer Can, (2014) conducted study, using a mixture of biodiesel fuels
produced from two different kinds of waste cooking oils was blended in 5% and 10% with No. 2 diesel fuel.
The biodiesel/No. 2 diesel fuel blends were tested in a single- cylinder, direct injection, four-stroke, natural
aspirated diesel engine under four different engine loads (BMEP 0.48–0.36–0.24–0.12 MPa) and 2200 rpm
engine speed. With the biodiesel addition ignition delay was decreased for the all engine loads with the earlier
combustion timings due to higher cetane number of biodiesel fuel [3]. Fuel properties of blends and pure citrus
sinensis biodiesel were found out and performance characteristics and exhaust emissions of the engine fueled
with blends were analyzed [4]. The engine performance experiments indicated that citrus sinensis biodiesel
cause a slight reduction in torque and brake power values. Exhaust emission tests revealed that while CO
emission values decrease, NO X emission values increase with citrus sinensis biodiesel usage. To conclude,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9448433574; fax: 08382-285566.

E-mail address: mane.suresh@gmail.com, principalgsit@yahoo.com

5
citrus sinensis biodiesel can be used as a very promising additive to improve CO emissions of conventional
diesel fueled engine. For power generation and public transport [5] if renewable energy use and net carbon
dioxide emissions reduction are the goals, ethanol and biodiesel should be preferred. The addition of 5% of
biodiesel in petroleum diesel increases the share of renewable energy in the supply chain of petroleum diesel by
47.5% with an increase of 0.58% in total energy consumption and a reduction of 3.8% in net CO 2 emissions
during the life cycle in Brazil. After the successful implementation of B5, 5% palm based biodiesel, in Malaysia
on June1, 2011, the Malaysian government is looking to go ahead with B10 or even a higher blending ratio [6].
Being non-edible feedstock, jatropha can play a vital role along with the existing palm oil. Experiment was
conducted in a four-cylinder diesel engine fuelled with B5, 10%,and 20% blends of palm and jatropha biodiesel
and compared with fossil diesel at full load and in the speed range of 1000 to 4000 RPM. The brake power was
decreased on average 2.3% to 10.7% while operating on 10% and 20% blends of palm and jatropha biodiesel.
Indian Railways has set up a biodiesel production unit at Loco Workshops Perambur in Chennai which is
successfully manufacturing biodiesel for the past 10 years [7]. Similar plants are being established at Raipur in
Chattisgarh and Tondiarpet near Chennai. Biodiesel is being used in blends of B5, B10 and B20 for diesel
engines of transport vehicles and locomotives.
Hence the optimum injection timing for Honge oil methyl ester (HOME), diesel and Jatropha oil methyl ester
(JOME) at 205 bar were determined experimentally. Brake thermal efficiency for HOME and JOME and brake
specific fuel consumption of HOME and JOME. Emissions of NOx and HC also were determined for HOME
and JOME when compared with Diesel for various Brake power conditions

Nomenclature

JOME Jatropha Oil Mehyl Ester

HOME Honge Oil Methyl Ester
BD Biodiesel
EGT Exhaust Gas Temperature
btdc Before Top Dead Centre

2 Experimental Engine Setup

2.1 Engine and testing setup

Experiments are conducted on a Kirloskar TV 1 type, four stroke, single cylinder, water cooled, naturally
aspirated direct injection diesel engine test rig. Figure 1 shows the experimental test rig. The specifications of
the engine are shown in table 1. An eddy current dynamometer is used for loading the engine. The fuel flow
rate is measured on the volumetric basis using a burette and stop watch. The engine and dynamometer were
interfaced to a control panel, which is connected to a digital computer. The smoke opacity is measured by using
Hatridge smoke meter. HC, CO, CO 2 , NO X emissions were measured using Techmark Delta 1600L series
Emission Monitoring System. The tests were conducted with injection pressure of 200 bar and three injection
timings viz., 19o, 23o and 27o btdc. All tests are conducted at different loads viz. no load, 20%, 40 %, 60 %, 80%
and 100% of full power output.. The engine speed is maintained constant at 1500 rpm.

Table 1. Experimental Engine Specifications

Description Details
Type of Engine 4 Stroke, Single cylinder
Speed 1500 rpm
Brake power 5.2 kW
Bore diameter 80 mm
Stoke length 110 mm
Specific Fuel Consumption 0.245 kg/ kW hr
Compression Ratio 17.5:1

6
 F1

PC CP
F2

T4
PT SM
T6
T2 T5
Calorimeter

T3

Dynamo
N meter Engine Rota meter

T1

Fig. 1 Experimental Setup for performance testing of diesel engine with biofuels

T1, T3 – Inlet water temperature supplied to engine. T2 – Outlet Engine jacket water temperature
T4 – Outlet Calorimeter water temperature T5 – Exhaust gas temperature before calorimeter
T6 – Exhaust gas temperature after calorimeter F1 – Fuel flow Differential Pressure unit
F2 – Air intake Differential Pressure unit N – RPM Encoder
PT – Pressure Transducer for cylinder pressure measurement
SM – Smoke meter and Exhaust Gas Analyser Wt – Load, PC-Computer, CP – Control panel

2.2 Properties of fuels used for testing

The properties of diesel, Honge oil methyl ester and Jatropha oil methyl ester used in the experiments are shown
in table 2 below.

Table 2. Specification of diesel, HOME (100%) and JOME (100%)

Property Diesel HOME JOME
Kinematic Viscosity at 40oC 2.6 5.8 5.4
o
Flash Point in C 71 138 170
Density of fuel in kg/m3 840 890 870
GCV of fuel in kJ/kg 43,000 34,500 35,800
Cetane Number 51 45 53

3. Results and Discussions

All Engine tests were conducted with diesel, HOME, JOME at an injection pressure of 205 bar. The injection
timings of 190, 230 and 270 btdc were used for the experimentation. Optimum injection timings were than
determined for each fuel operation keeping constant injection pressure of 205 bar.

3.1 Brake Thermal Efficiency:

Fig. 2 shows variation of brake thermal efficiency for different fuels with brake power output. From the Fig. it is
observed that brake thermal efficiency of all the fuels increases with increase in brake power output and the
maximum thermal efficiencies were obtained at brake power of 4.16 kW and then decrease with further increase
in brake power. Brake thermal efficiency of 31.25% is obtained with diesel for injection timing of 230 btdc as
compared to other injection timings. However, performance with HOME and JOME operation was not smooth
at 230 btdc. Performance of HOME is better for retarding injection timing of 190 btdc while Performance of
JOME is better for advanced injection timing of 270 btdc. The maximum values of thermal efficiencies with
HOME and JOME were observed as 29.5 %, and 29 % respectively. The maximum thermal efficiency of
31.25% was achieved with diesel. The lower efficiency obtained with methyl esters of Honge and Jatropha oils
are attributed to their lower calorific value and lower volatility.

7
 Brake Thermal efficiency in %
35
30
25
20
15
Diesel 23 o btdc
10
HOME 19 o btdc
5
JOME 27 o btdc
0
0 1.04 2.08 3.12 4.16 5.2
Brake Power in kW

Fig. 2 Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) vs Load

3.2 Brake Specific Fuel Consumption:

Fig. 3 shows variation of brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) of diesel, HOME, JOME with power output.
From figure it is observed that bsfc of HOME and JOME are considerably higher than diesel for the entire
power range. This is mainly due to lower calorific value of vegetable oils, poor atomization due to higher
viscosity that leads to improper mixture formation. The bsfc values for JOME and HOME were found to be 336
gm/kWh and 338 gm/kWh at 5.2 kW; the corresponding value for diesel is 282 gm/kWh. The higher density of
the methyl esters i.e. HOME and JOME has led to more discharge of fuel for the same displacement of the
plunger in the fuel injection pump, thereby increasing the SFC.

600

500
Bsfc in gm/kWh

400

300

200 Diesel 23 o btdc

HOME 19 o btdc
100 JOME 27 o btdc

0
0 1.04 2.08 3.12 4.16 5.2
Brake Power in kW

Figure 3: Bsfc vs. Brake Power.

3.3 Smoke Emissions

Fig. 4 shows variation of the smoke emissions of diesel, HOME, JOME with power output. The smoke emissions
increase as power output increases because more amount of fuel is burnt at higher loads. With HOME and
JOME smoke emission is increased particularly at higher loads due to poor atomization of fuel as their
viscosities are higher compared to diesel. However at rated load the smoke emissions of HOME and JOME are
comparable with diesel as seen from the graph. The values of smoke intensity at rated power output of 5.2 kW
for Diesel, JOME and HOME is found to be 77.5 Hatridge Smoke Units (HSU), 81.5 HSU, and 80 HSU
respectively. In all the above conditions of operation the smoke emission is found to be higher for HOME and
JOME than diesel. This is mainly due to heavier molecular structure of HOME and JOME.

8
 90

Smoke Emissions in HSU

80 Diesel 23 o btdc

70 HOME 19 o btdc

60 JOME 27 o btdc

50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1.04 2.08 3.12 4.16 5.2
Brake Power in kW

Figure 4: Smoke Emissions vs. Brake Power

3.4 HC Emissions

80
H.C.Emissions in ppm

70 Diesel 23 o btdc

60 HOME 19 o btdc
JOME 27 o btdc
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1.04 2.08 3.12 4.16 5.2
Brake Power in kW

Figure 5: HC Emissions vs. Brake Power

Fig. 5 above shows variation of the HC emissions of diesel, HOME, JOME with power output. The HC
emissions are a consequence of incomplete combustion of a fuel. HOME and JOME exhibit lower HC
emissions compared to diesel for all power ranges due to better combustion as the esters contain free oxygen
which improves combustion. At rated power the HC emissions were 60 ppm and 39 ppm for HOME and JOME
respectively when compared to 74 ppm of diesel. JOME has the least HC emissions across all sections of the
power output.

3.5 NO x Emissions

Fig. 6 shows variation of the NO X emissions of diesel, HOME, JOME with power output. It is clearly evident
from the above figure that both HOME and JOME show lower NOx emissions as compared to standard diesel
mainly due to lowered premixed burning rate following the delay period (lower operating temperatures).At the
rated power output the NOx concentration in exhaust was found to be 1605 ppm, 1064 ppm and 1050 ppm for
Diesel, HOME and JOME respectively.

The performance study of Methyl esters of Honge oil and Jatropha curcas oils as CI engine fuels indicate that no
major modifications are required for the existing diesel engine. Engine performance with both HOME and
JOME is slightly poor with higher smoke emissions as compared to neat diesel operation due to its higher
viscosity leading to poor atomization and poor mixture preparation. The cost of biodiesel manufactured by
transesterifying non edible vegetable oils is higher when compared to the price of petroleum diesel as on date.
BD costs Rs 60 for HOME and Rs 100 per liter for JOME as compared to Rs 50 per litre of diesel. Optimum
injection timing and injection pressure for diesel mode of operation are 230 btdc and 205 bars. However for
HOME and JOME operation it is 190 btdc and 270 btdc respectively. At the optimum operating conditions the

9
maximum brake thermal efficiency for diesel, HOME and JOME operation is 31.25%, 29.5% and 29%
respectively. It is observed that smoke emission and exhaust gas temperature with HOME and JOME operation
are higher than that of diesel

1800

NOx Emissions in ppm

1600 Diesel 23 o btdc
1400 HOME 19 o btdc
1200 JOME 27 o btdc

1000
800
600
400
200
0
0 1.04 2.08 3.12 4.16 5.2
Brake Power in kW

Figure 6: NOx Emissions vs. Brake Power

4 Conclusions

The performance study of Methyl esters of Honge oil and Jatropha curcas oils as CI engine fuels indicate that no
major modifications are required for the existing diesel engine. Engine performance with both HOME and
JOME is slightly poor with higher smoke emissions as compared to neat diesel operation due to its higher
viscosity leading to poor atomization and poor mixture preparation. The cost of biodiesel manufactured by
transesterifying non edible vegetable oils is higher when compared to the price of petroleum diesel as on date.
BD costs Rs 60 for HOME and Rs 100 per liter for JOME as compared to Rs 50 per litre of diesel. Optimum
injection timing and injection pressure for diesel mode of operation are 230 btdc and 205 bars. However for
HOME and JOME operation it is 190 btdc and 270 btdc respectively. At the optimum operating conditions the
maximum brake thermal efficiency for diesel, HOME and JOME operation is 31.25%, 29.5% and 29%
respectively. It is observed that smoke emission and exhaust gas temperature with HOME and JOME operation
are higher than that of diesel.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the officials of Diesel Locomotive Shed, South Western Railway, Hubli
Karnataka, Loco Works, Southern Railway, Chennai and BVB College of Engineering & Technology, Hubli,
Karnataka for the necessary assistance and guidance.

References

[1] Demirbas, A. (2008) Economic and environmental impacts of the liquid biofuels. Energy Education Science and Technology 2008: pp.
37–58
[2] Kamalesh A. Sorate, PurnanandV. Bhale,” (2015) Biodiesel properties and automotive system compatibility issues”, Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews 41(2015), pp. 777–798
[3] Ozer Can, (2014) “Combustion characteristics, performance and exhaust emissions of a diesel engine fueled with a waste cooking oil
biodiesel mixture” Energy Conversion and Management 87 (2014), pp. 676–686
[4] Gokhan Tuccar, et.al. (2014),” Diesel engine emissions and performance from blends of citrus sinensis”, biodiesel and diesel fuel, Fuel
132 (2014), pp. 7–11
[5] Márciode Almeida D´Agosto et.al, (2015)”Evaluating the potential of the use of biodiesel for power generation in Brazil”, Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43(2015), pp. 807–817
[6] M.J. Abedin, (2014)” Performance, emissions, and heat losses of palm and jatropha biodiesel blends in a diesel engine”, Industrial Crops
and Products 59 (2014), pp. 96–104
[7] Suresh D. Mane and N. Nagesha, “Renewable Energy Technologies for Carriage Repair Shops: A Case Study of Two Workshops” The
International Journal of Engineering And Science|Vol. 1(2) (2012), 324-331

10
 ICAER-2015

Polygeneration for power, utility heat, desalination and

refrigeration: comparative performance evaluation for different
biomass inputs
Kuntal Janaa1, Sudipta Dea
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032, India

Abstract

Polygeneration is the process integration of delivering multiple utilities from a single unit to obtain an efficient multi-utility
system. Biomass based polygeneration have strong potential for efficient delivery of several outputs with lesser/negative
CO 2 emission as sustainable solution. In this work a polygeneration with four utilities – power, refrigeration, desalination
and utility heating using biomass is modeled in ASPEN Plus®. Eight different biomass representing different generic
categories were selected as inputs. It is noted that biomass based polygeneration have good potential for producing multiple
utilities. Performance variation in the form of output utilities as well as fuel saving through polygeneration for different
biomass is reported in this paper. It is observed that power output mostly depends on heat values of biomass and partly on
gasification efficiencies. However, other utilities have no such distinct dependence on biomass heat values as these utilities
are produced by waste heat recovery. Significant fuel savings through integration of processes in a single unit is observed.

Keywords: polygeneration; biomass; ASPEN Plus® simulation; performance analysis

1. Introduction

Fossil fuels provide the greatest share of energy worldwide till date and this trend is expected to continue for a
significant period in future [1]. However, CO 2 emission from the use of fossil fuels is identified as the major
anthropogenic source of climate change, greatest challenge for survival of life on earth [2]. Also, complete
replacement of fossil fuels by renewable resources is not possible maintaining the present rate of economic
growth. During this transition, development of more efficient systems will help reducing CO 2 emissions for
same utility output. Thus developing efficient utility systems using renewable resources is an imperative need of
the present. Biomass based polygenerations are such systems with strong potential for this purpose.
Polygeneration is a conceptual designation for systems that integrate multiple processes in a single plant for
producing multiple outputs [3]. This kind of system has higher efficiency and is environment-friendly.
Polygeneration using only biomass has the advantage of having higher efficiency and less CO 2 emission than
plant using fossil fuels [4]. Several authors conceptualized and estimated performance analysis of
polygeneration using fossil fuels [5, 6], renewable resources [7, 8] or simultaneously using both fossil and
renewable resources. Different aspects like thermodynamic performance, techno-economic evaluation; dynamic
simulation etc. has been discussed in these references. Several utilities are combined in their proposed systems
with different types of inputs. Polygeneration with cold storage and desalination is a possible option for remote
areas [7, 9]. Using agricultural residues, the potential of polygeneration was studied by Jana and De [10].
Bentsen et al. (2104) reviewed on various agricultural residues production and its use for energy and materials
[11]. Developing decentralized polygeneration systems meeting local needs and satisfying local constraints is
site specific and needs investigation and innovation. For a sustainable polygeneration design, potential of local
energy resources should be in investigated.

In this paper a biomass based polygeneration system is proposed. Output utilities like electricity,
desalination of water, utility heat, vapor absorption refrigeration process have been combined in this system.
Biomass is gasified to produce syngas for subsequent processing for this proposed polygeneration unit. ASPEN
Plus® flowsheet simulation model has been developed to estimate the performance of this polygeneration unit.
Eight different biomass representing distinct generic types are used as inputs. Potential of these generic biomass

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9874126675; fax: +91 3324146890.

E-mail address:kuntaljana@gmail.com

11
are measured through simulation. Estimated variations of performance of the proposed polygeneration for base
case operation due to varying biomass types are discussed in this paper.

2. Methods

2. 1. System Description

The schematic of the polygeneration system is given in Fig. 1. Input biomass was gasified with air at
atmospheric pressure in a gasifier to produce syngas. Produced hot syngas was then cleaned for dust particles
and other removable impurities. The heat of the syngas was then utilized in two subsequent heat exchanging
processes- first in superheater-reheater of the steam cycle and then for generation of steam in the gas cooler. In
this order the temperature profiles of the two heat exchanging fluids were thermodynamically efficient. Cleaned
and cooled syngas was then compressed to supply to the gas turbine combustion chamber. Air for this
combustor was supplied through a separate air compressor. Hot and pressurized combustion products then
expanded in a gas turbine generating power. Heat of flue gas at atmospheric pressure from the gas turbine was
then utilized for steam generation in superheater-reheater as well as economizer-evaporator of the steam power
cycle. Before discharge through the stack some residual heat of the flue gas was utilized for feed water to the
system for generation of steam used for refrigeration and desalination processes. The flue gas temperature to
stack was however always maintained above acid condensation temperature to avoid corrosion of equipment.
Utility outputs were divided into six distinct blocks as shown in schematic (Fig. 1).

To Stack

SYNGAS COMPRESSOR
HEATER

SYNGAS CLEANER
GASIFIER

Biomass

Syngas GAS
Water Air Ash
COOLER

SUPERHEATER- GAS
ECONOMIZER- COMBUSTOR
REHEATER TURBINE
EVAPORATOR

AIR COMPRESSOR

STEAM
TURBINE
PUMP Air

Saline water

CONDENSER
Steam

REFRIGERATION
SPLIT
DESALINATION

MIXER
Concentrated saline water Desalinated Hot
hot water Water

Fig. 1. Schematic of the process of the polygeneration [3]

Electric power was generated in an efficient gas-steam combine cycle power plant. On the other hand, steam
generated by heat recovery through syngas cooler was utilized for both vapor absorption refrigeration as well as
multi stage flash desalination of saline water. After utilization of latent heat of steam in these two processes,
sensible heat was used for utility heating purpose. Utility of heat in the form of hot water at a temperature of

12
~990C is obtained from this polygeneration unit combining condensed steam used in the refrigeration and
desalination processes.

2.2. Model description in ASPEN Plus®

Six distinct islands represent different processes in this polygeneration. These are gasification, gas turbine
power generation, steam turbine power generation, desalination, vapor absorption refrigeration and utility heat.
Combination of process parameters were decided as obtained from literature so that results of simulation could
be obtained. Four user developed Fortran blocks were also used to calculate moisture separation from biomass
in the separator, yield distribution of Ryield reactor, mass flow rate of gasifying air corresponding to assumed
equivalence ratio and mass flow rate of air for combustion of syngas. Details of specifications and assumptions
of this model are discussed in subsequently.

2.3. Specification and operating parameters

The ASPEN Plus® flowsheet model was used to estimate the performance of the polygeneration system for eight
different biomass as inputs to this unit. Selected biomass represents different generic categories. Agricultural
waste is a convenient biomass for its known availability at particular period of the year. Optimum mixing of
different agricultural wastes can assure required biomass input for designed capacity of a unit. Rice straw, wheat
straw, cotton stalks were used as representatives for this type of biomass in this analysis. Energy crop is another
option for energy security using biomass. These have short period for full growth so that they can be used
continuously for known capacity of a plant with planned cultivation around it. Eucalyptus represents this type of
biomass in this analysis. Forest residue is abundantly available in specific locations and proposed as useful
biomass for energy and other utilities. Redwood was considered in this analysis as a typical biomass of this
category. Many food processing industries are integrated with agriculture and large quantity of wastes or by
products is obtained from this industry. Sugarcane bagasse, coconut fiber dust, rice husk were such typical
biomass used in this analysis. The detailed thermo-chemical properties of these biomass [12] used for analysis
are given in Table 1. The system analysis was carried out for each of this biomass with the developed model for
polygeneration scheme as described in section 2.1 and 2.2. A base case simulation for the conceptualized
polygeneration scheme was done to estimate and compare the performance of the polygeneration unit for each
of this biomass. For a rational comparison, equal feed rate (1000 kg/h) of biomass was considered as input to the
system with identical operating parameters as shown in Table 2. The whole mass of syngas was used in gas
turbine combustion chamber and exhaust flue gas from the gas turbine after heat exchange in the steam cycle
was assumed to leave at a pinch point temperature difference of 400C than the saturation temperature of the
steam for the steam power cycle. The amounts of steam available for refrigeration and desalination processes
were estimated on the basis of available heat for these processes. An equal distribution of total process steam for
the refrigeration and desalination processes was assumed.

2.4. Basic assumptions

(a) The simulation was considered in steady state and equilibrium condition [7].
(b) All sulfur was converted into H 2 S in gasification process [13].
(c) Tars were assumed to be converted into combustible syngas [14].
(d) 2% carbon loss was assumed through ash [15].

13
Table 1. Ultimate and proximate analyses (mass percent) (dry basis)

Sugarcane Rice straw Wheat Eucalyptus Coconut Rice Cotton Redwood

bagasse (Weathered) straw fiber, dust husk stalks

Higher calorific 17.33 14.56 17.51 19.42 20.05 16.14 15.83 20.72
value(MJ/Kg)

Lower calorific 16.24 13.76 16.49 18.23 19.02 15.27 14.79 19.51
value(MJ/Kg)

FC 14.95 13.33 19.80 17.82 29.7 16.67 17.3 19.92

VCM 73.78 62.31 71.30 81.42 66.58 65.47 65.4 79.72

Ash 11.27 24.36 8.90 0.76 3.72 17.86 17.3 0.36

C 44.80 34.6 43.20 49.0 50.29 40.96 39.47 50.64

H 5.35 3.93 5.00 5.87 5.05 4.3 5.07 5.98

O 39.55 35.38 39.40 43.97 39.63 35.86 39.14 42.88

N 0.38 0.93 0.61 0.30 0.45 0.4 1.2 0.05

S 0.01 0.16 0.11 0.01 0.16 0.02 0.02 0.03

Cl 0.12 0 0.28 0.13 0.28 0.12 0 0.02

Ash 9.79 25 11.40 0.72 4.14 18.34 15.1 0.40

2.5. Physical property method

For gasification purpose Peng-Robinson equation of state with Boston Mathias alpha function (PR-BM) was
used to determine all physical properties of the conventional components [8]. As alpha is a temperature
dependent variable, it gives good result for correlation of the pure component vapor pressure at high
temperature. In biomass gasification process syngas is produced according to Gibbs free energy minimization
model [8]. For non-conventional components say, (Biomass and ash) HCOALGEN and DCOALIGHT model
was chosen for enthalpy and density estimation. Ultimate and proximate analyses were used for non-
conventional components. For gas turbine power generation PR-BM property method was used. While for
steam turbine power generation and process-steam generation STEAM-TA gives good result as it is directly
related to the steam table data. For refrigeration process, the working fluid was NH 3 -H 2 O mixture, Peng-
Robinson (PR) cubic equation of state (EOS) was selected to model thermophysical properties [16]. Electrolyte
Non Random Two Liquid vapor phase modeled (ELECNRTL) property method has good accuracy to estimate
thermo-physical properties of desalination process [17] and hence used for this simulation.

14
Table 2. Operating parameters for the simulation [3, 7]

Configurations Parameters Value

Biomass feed Mass flow rate 1000 kg/h

Air compression, Pressure ratio 14

Syngas compression Isentropic efficiency 0.9

Gasifying air Equivalence ratio 25% of stoichiometric air

Combustion air Excess air 25%

Gas cleaning Separation efficiency of solids 85%

particles

Gas turbine combustor Pressure ratio 14

Gas turbine Discharge pressure 1atm

Isentropic efficiency 0.9

Heat recovery steam generator HP stage temperature 5380C

HP stage pressure 12.4MPa
LP stage temperature 5000C
LP stage pressure 3.2MPa
HP and LP Steam turbine Isentropic efficiency 0.92
LP-ST discharge pressure 0.07MPa
NH 3 -H 2 O mixture feed to Total mass flow rate 1000kg/hr
refrigerant pump NH 3 mass fraction 0.5

Refrigeration Evaporator temperature -50C

Saline water Temperature 200C

Pressure 1atm
H 2 O mass fraction 0.965
NaCl mass fraction 0.035

MSF Desalination Number of stages 5

Top brine temperature 1010C
Last stage flashing temperature 39.20C

3. Results and discussion

Output utilities for the proposed polygeneration unit were calculated using developed ASPEN Plus® model for
a fixed quantity of different types of biomass for the identical base case condition and assumptions. Depending
on the calorific value and other properties of biomass, system performance is expected to vary for different
biomass. However, logistics for biomass sometimes even become more crucial than its actual properties. These
are included in techno-economic analysis which is beyond the purview of this paper. In this study a basic
thermodynamic performance analysis at steady state for equilibrium condition is presented. Variations in
magnitude of output utilities for different biomass are discussed. However the basic objective of a
polygeneration system is to gain in thermodynamic efficiency through optimum integration of material and
energy flows to obtain all utilities simultaneously from the same unit in better efficient way. Inherent
complexity of a polygeneration unit than separate units delivering same outputs will be justified only if a gain
in thermodynamic efficiency through the process of integration into a single unit is obtained. More the gain in
efficiency through the process of integration of different utilities better is the objective fulfilled for the
development of polygeneration system. In this paper fuel energy savings ratio (FESR) is used as the parameter
for evaluation of this gain in efficiency. FESR is indicated as the amount of fuel saved by the polygeneration

15
system for the same output utilities from standard separate unit for each of these utilities. If F is the fuel
required for the polygeneration system to deliver certain utilities, and F ref ( i.e. reference fuel) is the amount of
total fuel required for the same utilities from separate standard plants each for one utility output then [7, 9],

FESR = (F ref – F)/F ref = 1 – F/F ref (1)

FESR of the polygeneration system was also calculated for each of this biomass to estimate and compare the
gain in efficiency. Reference amount of fuel was calculated by standard conversion efficiency as obtained from
literature [7, 9].

2.5
(2a)
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

GT Power (MW) ST Power (MW)

0.12
(2b)
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0

Fig.2 (continued) Different utility outputs from polygeneration (a) power output (MW) (b) refrigeration (MW) (c) Desalination (kg/h) (d)
Utility heat (MW) for 1 t/h of biomass feed rate

16
 500
450 (2c)
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

0.08
0.07
(2d)
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0

Fig.2 (continued)

Figure 2 shows the utility outputs of the polygeneration unit for each of the biomass as obtained from
this simulation. As the whole of the syngas was used for gas turbine power generation, higher the heat value of
the syngas for a biomass, greater would be the power output of the gas turbine. Biomass having greater heat
value more probably would produce syngas with higher heat value. However gasification efficiency depending
on the properties of the biomass would have some effect on the calorific value of produced syngas. The gas
turbine power output (as shown in Fig. 2a) was generally more for the biomass having greater heat value. As the
steam power plant also utilized maximum possible heat from the gas turbine exhaust gas, the steam power
output was also proportionate to the calorific value of biomass. As a result the total power output increased with
heat value of the biomass. From Fig. 2a, it is observed that the power from the gas turbine, steam turbine as well
as the total power output is according to the heat values of the biomass feedstock, i.e. biomass with higher heat
value produces greater power. Only two biomass –wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse show different relative
trend than this general trend. It is because the heat value of syngas grossly depends on that of feedstock biomass
but gasification efficiency depends on property of biomass also. For the above two biomass their heat values
were close though conversion to syngas was better obtained for sugarcane bagasse though having slightly lower
heat value than wheat straw. Thus power output for this scheme mostly depends on the heat value of feed stock
though gasification efficiency may also influence the magnitude.
Steam generated utilizing waste heat from the flue gas to the stack and part of heat from the syngas
cooling process was used for two utilities i.e. refrigeration and desalination of water. Most of the heat value of
the syngas was utilized for power generation. Rest heat was utilized for other three utilities. Thus heat available

17
for these utilities depends on syngas heat value as well as amount of power output. Higher syngas heat value
would provide more heat for subsequent downstream utilities for identical power output. On the other hand,
more the power output less would be the amount of other utilities for a specific heat value of the syngas. Also an
equal distribution of generated steam was assumed in this model for refrigeration as well as desalination. As a
result, there is no definite relation observed between the heat values of biomass and the magnitudes of these two
utility outputs, i.e., refrigeration and desalination, as shown in Fig. 2b and 2c. The eucalyptus shows highest
outputs for these two utilities and rice straw produces the minimum.

Hot water available can be used for utility heating. In this polygeneration hot water for utility heat was
obtained from three different sources. Steam condensed after heating process in desalination as well as vapor
absorption refrigeration, contributed to major part of this hot water. Rest was the desalinated water which came
out of the flash chamber. In this model maximum possible saline water was assumed to be inducted for
desalination process. In net effect, the total hot water providing utility heat is found to have no distinct relation
with heat value of biomass according to developed model as shown in Fig. 2d. However, they are in same order
as it was for other two utilities, i.e., refrigeration and desalination as shown in Fig. 2b and 2c.
The gain in efficiency through complex integration of multiple utilities and/or inputs in a
polygeneration will be justified if the system saves fuel through this process of integration. Thus fuel saving will
depend on type of utilities integrated into the system and their corresponding standard efficiencies, calorific
value and gasification efficiency of biomass, relative allocation of different utilities etc. Thus the ultimate effect
of saving in fuel in polygeneration system can only be estimated through complete simulation and even better
by experiment of the pilot plant. Principle of optimizing fuel saving is thus scheme-specific depending on the
types of inputs, desired utilities and their relative magnitude etc and needs further investigation. The result
obtained for this scheme with assumed biomass as inputs shows FESR for different biomass as shown in Fig. 3.
However, wheat straw emerges having the lowest FESR (~20%) and sugarcane bagasse is having the highest
value (~30%) of it for this simulation. Thus, significant fuel saving (20%-30%) is expected through this
polygeneration.

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Fig.3 Fuel energy savings ratio (FESR) through polygeneration

4. Conclusions

A biomass based polygeneration is proposed with four different utilities – power, refrigeration, desalination
and utility heat. An ASPEN Plus® simulation is done for the developed model. Eight different generic biomass
are used as inputs to compare their relative performance for a base case. Results show that significant amount of
power, cooling, heating and desalinated water may be obtained from the polygeneration fuelled by different

18
biomass. Results show that power outputs are mostly in line with the heat values of biomass and partly depend
on gasification efficiency. Other utilities do not have such distinct dependence on heat values of biomass.
Significant fuel saving (20-30%) through polygeneration is observed and it depends on properties of biomass,
operating conditions and relative magnitudes of utilities etc.

Acknowledgements

Kuntal Jana gratefully acknowledges the Senior Research Fellowship (09/096/(0812)/2014-EMR-I) awarded
by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-New Delhi, India) for this research toward PhD.

REFERENCES
[1] IEA , International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook, Paris, 2014.
[2] IPCC, IPCC fifth assessment report, Climate change 2015 (AR4), 2015. (available from http://www.ipcc.ch/)
[3] K. Jana, S. De, Polygeneration performance assessments: multi-dimensional viewpoint, Clean Technol. Environ. Policy 17-6 (2015)
1547–1561.
[4] H. Li, H. Hong, L. Gao, H. Jin, Performance analysis of a new biomass-based polygeneration system for power and methanol, Int. J.
Green Energy 5 (2008) 297–312.
[5] G. Yu, Y. Xu, X. Hao, Y. Li, G. Liu, Process analysis of polygeneration of Fischer- Tropsch liquid and power with CO 2 capture based
on coal gasification, Fuel 89 (2010) 1070-1076.
[6] T.A. Adams II, P.I. Barton, Combining coal gasification and natural gas reforming for efficient polygeneration, Fuel Processing
Technology 92 (2011) 639-655.
[7] K. Jana, S. De, Sustainable polygeneration design and assessment through combined thermodynamic, economic and environmental
analysis, Energy 91 (2015) 540-555.
[8] K. Jana, S. De, Techno-economic evaluation of a polygeneration – A case study for an Indian district, Bioresour. Technol. 181 (2015)
163–173.
[9] K. Jana, S. De, M. Assadi, M.M. Mojoumerd, A CCGT based polygeneration using rice straw: simulation by Aspen Plus®, Proceedings
of the ASME Gas Turbine India Conference 2014, New Delhi, India. Paper no. GTINDIA2014-8257
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/GTINDIA2014-8257)
[10] K. Jana, S. De, Polygeneration using agricultural waste: Thermodynamic and economic feasibility study, Renew. Energy 74 (2015)
648-660.
[11] N. S. Bentsen, C. Felby, B. J., Thorsen, Agricultural residue production and potentials for energy and materials services, Prog. Energ.
Combust. Sc. 40 (2014) 59-73.
[12] E.A. Domalski, T.L. Jobe Jr, T.A. Milne, Thermodynamic data for biomass conversion and waste incineration. A product of Solar
Technical Information Program. Prepared by the National Bureau of Standards 1986, United States.
[13] G. Schuster, G. Loffler, K. Weigl, H. Hofbauer, Biomass steam gasification -an extensive parametric modeling study, Bioresour.
Technol. 77-1 (2001) 71-79.
[14] F. Paviet, F. Chazarenc, M. Tazerout, Thermo chemical equilibrium modeling of a biomass gasifying process using ASPEN Plus, Int. J.
Chem. React. Eng. 7 (2009) A40.
[15] X.T. Li, J.R. Grace, C.J. Lim, A.P. Watkinson, H.P. Chen, J.R. Kim, Biomass gasification in a circulating fluidized bed. Biomass and
Bioenergy 26 (2004) 171-193.
[16] N.A. Darwish, S.H. Al-Hashimi, A.S. Al-Mansoori, Performance analysis and evaluation of a commercial absorption-refrigeration
water-ammonia (ARWA) system, Int. J. Refrig. 31 (2008) 1214-1223.
[17] C. Luo, N. Zhang, N. Lior, H. Lin, Proposal and analysis of a dual-purpose system integrating a chemically recuperated gas turbine
cycle with thermal sea water desalination, Energy 36 (2011) 3791-3803.

19
 ICAER-2015

A Study On Marine Resource Utilization Of Bangladesh: An

Approach To Marine Energy Conversion And Utilization
Rafiur Rahman Khan1 Mutadi Munawar Zahin2
Final year student,IUT-OIC,Gazipur,Boardbazar,Bangladesh
First year student, IUT-OIC ,Gazipur,Boardbazar,Bangadesh

Abstract
Bangladesh is a country endowed with an abundance of natural resources, notable of which
would be of the marine variety. Modern research in utilizing marine energy started in 1973 &
one of the first product of the research was the Salter’s Duck, which was an inspiration for
further developments despite it’s ineffectiveness in practice. Marine energy is not yet a viable
option of providing large-scale energy ,but it has been estimated that
10% of the world’s energy requirement can be fulfilled if the sites suitable for implementation of
the systems are properly developed. Utilization of marine energy is still just a theoretical concept
in Bangladesh,& the most comprehensive work on the field was on the possibility of Bangladesh
in an effective way based on data collection, analysis & scientific research.
The objective of the study is to convert & utilize marine energy of Bangladesh in an effective
way based on data collection, analysis & scientific research.

Keyword: Marine; Energy; Research.

Introduction
Electricity is a very important factor in developing the economy and the standard of living of a
country. It must be generated using the national resource of that country. Bangladesh largely
depends on natural gas and hydro power stations to generate major portion of power. The
country lags behind than its expected production capacity. Though many power generation units
have been added to the national grid to solve the power crisis issue, it is not enough. High
demand and increasing need of power have created challenge for the power stations to meet the
demand. In our country, a major portion of total population still does not have the access to
electricity. Only 10% of the rural households have electricity connection and there are some
parts of Bangladesh which will not get the access of electricity connection from the national grid
within next 30 years [1]. For the solution of the problem, we have to look an better approach
such as from renewable energy. It can be fuel, biogas, rain, wind, biodiesel etc.

However, prospective planning and comprehensive understanding of this dynamic field requires
continuous assessment. Moreover, the progression, as well as regressions, in this sector should
be continually scrutinized. Based on this objective, the paper focuses in Marine resource
utilization of Bangladesh with a view to utilizing in the power sector for the production of
electricity.

* Corresponding author. Tel:+8801762669896

E-mail address: taim21@yahoo.com

20
Literature Review:

The renewable energy is the foremost interest of scientific community in present situation.
Ocean is one of the largest reservoir of wave energy. Bangladesh has a few of large costal area
which is very suitable to implement this project. The theoretical ocean wave energy is estimated
8000-80000 TWh/year [2]. Considering the recoverable energy and if the efficient conversion
systems are utilized, the annual quantity can even reach 2000TWh [3]. Variability in several
time-scales is the main disadvantage of the wave energy which includes wave to wave, with sea
state, and month to month variability [4]. It is researched [5] that the wave energy contains 15-20
times energy than wind or solar energy per square meter. There are hundreds of Ocean wave
energy conversion system have been developed and most of these are based on oscillating wave
column [6]. .

Various methods for converting a wave’s energy into electrical energy have been introduced
since 1799, but most of these methods have not been well received. Two of the reasons for this
are that they are too complicated and not economical. Therefore, scientists turned their attention
to other renewable energy sources such as wind energy because utilizing them is more
economical. [7]/Also, the peak wave power density at sea level is 5 times that of the wind power
at the height of 19.5 m above sea level [8].Direct wave energy conversion systems were then
introduced by introducing linear permanent magnet generators (LPMG) and by advancement of
Permanent magnet (PM) materials. The main reason for the complexity and high cost of the
indirect systems is the elimination of the intermediate systems; this leads to a simpler structure
and low cost device. Capability of converting the calm waves into electrical energy is another
characteristic of these systems [9]

The most common direct conversion systems with reasonable performance are the Power Buoy
(PB) and Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS) systems. Both systems use LPMGs.

This research provides an overview of the energy conversion of ocean waves generated in the
Bay of Bengal with the wave energy extraction process by analyzing Power Buoy & Archimedes
Wave Swing system.
Power buoy:

 The Power Buoy is a floating power generation system

 It captures energy from waves. A mooring keeps the Power Buoy on station in the ocean.
 At the surface, a float moves in response to ocean waves along a spar with a reduced
response to waves due to a heave plate at its base. Relative motion between the float and
spar drives a pushrod into the spar.
 A mechanical actuator converts the linear motion into a rotary action that drives a
vector‐controlled electric generator, which in turn outputs a three phase wild voltage and
wild frequency AC power.
 A state of the art power management and conditioning system converts and conditions
the AC power into high quality DC power.

21
  An advanced Energy Storage System (ESS) utilizing state of the art battery and ultra
capacitor technology is then used to remove the transient nature of the power. Depending
on the Power Buoy type and size, the DC power may or may not be converted back into
constant voltage and constant frequency AC power.[10]

Figure :1 Example of Power Buoy system

Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS):

 The AWS is a submerged air-filled piston that expands and contracts in response to wave
pressures .
 Relative movement of the two parts of the device is converted directly to electricity by a
linear generator.
 Resonant system that can be tuned to predominant waves.

22
 Figure 2: A typical AWS system
This research provides an overview of the energy conversion of ocean waves generated in the
northern part of Bay of Bengal with the wave energy extraction process by analyzing Power
Buoy & Archimedes Wave Swing system specially focusing on AWS system.

Data collection & Methodology :

Occean Wave energy:

 Winds are caused by differential heating of earth by sun and it generates water waves as
it passes over ocean surface.
 In the wave generation process, wind transforms some of its energy to the waves and the
wave starts moving in the wind direction.
 Conversion of energy available in the waves is more efficient than direct collection of
energy from the wind, due to the fact that waves are a more concentrated form of solar
energy than wind.
 It has been estimated that the theoretical wave energy potential is in the order of 1 to 10
TW or approximately to the today’s world energy consumption.

Physical Concepts :

Waves are generated by wind passing over the surface of the sea. As long as the waves
propagate slower than the wind speed just above the waves, there is an energy transfer from the
wind to the waves. Both air pressure differences between the upwind and the lee side of a
wave crest as well as friction on the water surface by the wind, making the water to go into
the shear stress causes the growth of the waves.
Wave height is determined by wind speed, the duration of time the wind has been blowing, fetch
(the distance over which the wind excites the waves) and by the depth and topography of the
seafloor (which can focus or disperse the energy of the waves). A given wind speed has a
matching practical limit over which time or distance will not produce larger waves. When this
limit has been reached the sea is said to be "fully developed".
In general, larger waves are more powerful but wave power is also determined by wave
speed, wavelength and water density
Oscillatory motion is highest at the surface and diminishes exponentially with depth. However,
for standing waves near a reflecting coast, wave energy is also present as pressure oscillations at
great depth, producing microseisms. These pressure fluctuations at greater depth are too small to
be interesting from the point of view of wave power.
Propagation: The waves propagate on the ocean surface, and the wave energy is also
transported horizontally with the group velocity. The mean transport rate of the wave energy
through a vertical plane of unit width, parallel to a wave crest, is called the wave energy flux (or

23
wave power, which must not be confused with the actual power generated by a wave power
device).
Thus with significant wave height, it is possible to convert the wave energy into electrical energy
by Power buoy or AWS system.
Following data were collected after the cyclone Phailin Crossed the northern part of the Bay of
Bengal.[11]

Table 1:Cyclone Data

Based on the above data , the relationship with Maximum Wave height corresponding to Time
was formulated using Excel & Matlab Analysis.

24
Figure: 3 –Excel Analysis of Relationship of Max Wave Height & Time

(Based on the the wave statistical parameters during Cyclone Phailin which crossed the
northern Bay of Bengal are described based on the Directional Wave rider buoy-measured wave
data from 8 to 13 October 2013. On 12 October 2013)

Figure :4 Matlab analysis of Relationship of Significant Wave Height & Time.

25
Methodology:
 The data were collected & interpreted.
 Significant wave height & time was taken from Day 9 to 13.
 Relationship of Maximum Wave Height vs Day/Time was established in Microsoft
Excel.
 Relationship of Maximum Wave Height vs Day/Time was established in Matlab.
 Physical & graphical key results were analyzed.
 Proper way to utilize the cyclone wave height was measured.
 Suitable wave energy converter system was selected based on the analysis.

Analysis :

Initial stage of the cyclone the wave height was consistently low.
The wave height suddenly increased.
Sudden increase of the wave height occurred from the beginning of 11th October &
Continued till the end of 12th October.
Ample wave height for electricity generation was presented during the two days(11th &
12thOctober)
Results/Key findings:

1. Ample wave height is present continuously for the two days(11th & 12th October)
2. Energy conversion can be done during such presence of wave heights
3.Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS) is appropriate to use here for energy conversion as :

 The system(AWS) will act normally for wave heights upto 3m, but when it
exceeds 3.5 m the top part detaches.
 It would keep preventing further junction stress damage,
 It will keep the lower part safer.
 Thus cutting down repair costs.
 Power buoy system extracts energy via a method of bending its joints.But the
faraday generator system depends on the velocity of entry and exit of the rod
in the magnet.
 Thus, Archimedes (which acts like a piston) is a better option than pelamis
(which acts similar to the bendy part of a straw)

Electricity generation:

In deep water where the water depth is larger than half the waveheight, the wave energy flux is

with P the wave energy flux per unit of wave-crest length, Hm0 the significant wave height
Te the wave energy period, ρ the water density and g the acceleration by gravity The above

26
 formula states that wave power is proportional to the wave energy period and to the square of
the wave height. When the significant wave height is given in metres, and the wave period in
seconds, the result is the wave power in kilowatts (kW) per metre of wave front length.
Considering moderate ocean swells, in deep water, a few km off a coastline, with a wave
height of 3 m and a wave energy period of 8 seconds. Using the formula to solve for power
near the BAY of Bengal, we get

meaning there are 36 kilowatts of power potential per meter of wave crest.
In major storms, the largest waves offshore are about 15 meters high and have a period
of about 15 seconds. According to the above formula, such waves carry about 1.7 MW of
power across each metre of wavefront.
An effective wave power device captures as much as possible of the wave energy flux.
As a result, the waves will be of lower height in the region behind the wave power
device.

In In the sea, average(mean) energy density per unit area of gravity waves on the water surface
is proportional to the wave height squared, according to linear wave theory:

where E is the mean wave energy density per unit horizontal area (J/m2), the sum
of kinetic and potential energy density per unit horizontal area. The potential energy density
is equal to the kinetic energy, both contributing half to the wave energy density E, as can be
expected from the equi partition theorem. In ocean waves, surface tension effects are
negligible for wavelengths above a few decimetres.
As the waves propagate, their energy is transported. The energy transport velocity is
the group velocity. As a result, the wave energy flux, through a vertical plane of unit width
perpendicular to the wave propagation direction, is equal to

with cg the group velocity (m/s). Due to the dispersion relation for water waves under the
action of gravity, the group velocity depends on the wavelength λ, or equivalently, on the
wave period T. Further, the dispersion relation is a function of the water depth h. As a
result, the group velocity behaves differently in the limits of deep and shallow water, and
at intermediate depths. [12][13]

27
 Thus with appropriate and valid data, it would be possible to know the exact
electricity production capacity after a Cyclone using Archimedes Wave Swing system.
Development of Fish-Culture in Marine Environment:
The study gives a priority in developing the methods of fish-culture giving importance on the
following things:
• Developing high quality fish protein by isolating collagen, gelatin and fish oil .
• Designing a simple and cheap extruder for and built in Bangladesh .
• High quality and nutritious and dried food products including infant foods, snacks are needed
to make from the selected fish. .
• Biochemical changes (protein de nitration and lipid oxidation) in dried and extruded fish food
products are needed to investigate for improved quality control methods and preservation
systems, including natural antioxidant mixtures.

Uniqueness of marine resource energy & resource utilization:

1. The energy is free

2. Fuel is not needed, and there is no waste produced
3. Not expensive to operate and maintain.
4. Can produce a great deal of energy
5. Development of Marine fish-culture will expand post harvest fish processing technologies to
produce nutritious, safe and cheap products for local use
6. It will serve as a purpose of aiding food security.

Conclusion:

The study would serve as a scope for marine energy & resource utilization as well as creating an
alternate option for emergency power during a national power failure. Again the improvement of
fish culture would develop strong and beneficial long-term link between developing countries
like Bangladesh and Europe in terms of research, education and training and trade.
With proper data available and proper funding, the process of producing electricity from the
wave energy will be possible in future in Bangladesh with a view to contributing in the national
power system.

References:

[1] Adnan Jamil, “Biogas and Cattle Organs: An Alternative Significant

Source of Energy for Sustainable Development in Rural Bangladesh”, Student
Thesis, Institutionen för livsvetenskaper, 2008. Available at:
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-1617

[2] R Boud. 2003. “Status and Research and Development Priorities,

Wave and Marine Accessed Energy,” UK Dept. of Trade and
Industry (DTI), FES-R-132, AEAT/ENV/1054, United Kingdom.

28
[3] AW Clarke and JA Trinnaman, (Eds.). 2004. Survey of Energy
Resources: 2004. Elsevier Science Limited.
[4] AFDO Falcão. 2010. Wave energy utilization: A review of the
technologies. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 14(3):
899-918.
[5] “Electric Power from Ocean Waves,” Wavemill Energy Corp.,
http://www.wavemill.com (accessed Dec. 1 2005).
[6] TV Heath. 2012. A review of oscillating water columns.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical,
Physical and Engineering Sciences, 370: 235-245.
[7] Mueller, 2002; Polinder et al., 2000; Ohashi S and Matsuzuka T;
2005.Polinder H et al., 2000; Mueller and Baker, 2002; Leijon et al., 2003.
[8] (Falnes,2007).
[9] (Mueller, 2002; Polinder et al., 2000; Ohashi S and Matsuzuka T;
2005.Polinder Het al., 2000; Mueller and Baker, 2002; Leijon et al., 2003. Falnes,
2007).
[10]OCEAN POWER TECHNOLOGIES POWERBUOY®: SYSTEM‐LEVEL
DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION METHODOLOGY Mike
Mekhiche Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. Pennington, NJ 08534
Kathleen A. Edwards Ocean Power Technologies, Inc.Pennington, NJ 08534 .
[11] M. M. Amrutha1, V. Sanil Kumar1, T. R. Anoop1, T. M. Balakrishnan
Nair2, A. Nherakkol2, and C. Jeyakumar2
1Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Institute of
Oceanography, Dona Paula 403004, Goa, India
2Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (Ministry of Earth
Sciences), “Ocean Valley”, Pragathi Nagar (BO),
Nizampet (SO) 500090, Hyderabad, India
[12] Phillips, O.M. (1977). The dynamics of the upper ocean (2nd ed.).
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-29801-6.
[13]Goda, Y. (2000). Random Seas and Design of Maritime Structures. World
Scientific. ISBN 978-981-02-3256-6.

29
 ICAER-2015

Optimization of mass of heat pipe for space applications using

Ant Colony Optimization
T. Alama,1*, U. Upadhyayb, S. Azamb, R. Kumarb
a
Department of Mining Machinery Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826004, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826004, India

Abstract

Small scale heat dissipation is one of the most researched areas in the field of heat transfer. The use of electronic devices is
not only getting more and more popular but also the size of the gadgets is getting smaller. This makes the dissipation of heat
from smaller surface areas more challenging than ever. Heat pipes are one such means to transfer heat in electronic and
space applications due to its ability to transfer heat over low temperature difference and to work in zero gravity. Mass
optimization of heat becomes of prime importance in these mass and space constrained applications. However, optimization
is challenged by the constraints that have to be taken into consideration while designing heat pipe. The present study has
intended show the suitability of evolutionary technique of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) in constrained problems by
optimizing the mass of heat pipe used in satellite application while managing the constraints applicable to its operation and
design.
Keywords:Ant Colony Optimization; Heat Pipe; Mass Optimization.

1. Introduction

Heat pipes are devices employed to transmit large quantities of heat through a small cross-sectional area with
no additional power input to the system at various temperature levels. It utilizes the latent heat as well as the
sensible heat of the vaporized working fluid. As a result, the effective thermal conductivity may be several
orders of magnitudes higher than that of the good solid conductors. Hence, they are often referred to as
superconductors. Heat pipes have widespread application in the areas where limited space is available for the
transfer of high heat flux. It was originally developed by NASA for space applications as heat pipe are effective
in small temperature difference and zero gravity. Today, heat pipes are used for cooling electronic devices like
computers, cell phones and solar collectors.
Considering widespread applications in miniature appliances and space applications, mass optimization of
heat pipe becomes of utmost importance. Heat transfer in heat pipes is limited by several constraints. Several
researchers have tried to investigate the influence of these constraints on the heat transfer capacity at various
temperature ranges. An investigation conducted by Tari [15] on the heat transfer capacity limits of heat pipe
analyses the influence of various physical and design parameters such as selection of fluid and dimensions of
heat pipe on the heat transfer limit of heat pipe. The work also detailed on the dominance of various constraints
in different temperature range and their influence on heat transfer capacity on changing the size of the heat pipe.
As mentioned above, dominance of various constraints at different temperature ranges makes it necessary to
apply the appropriate optimization technique for minimization of mass while taking into account all the
constraints. It has been observed that a number of researchers have tried to optimize the heat pipe performance
with the application of different optimization techniques. Rajesh et al. [16] calculated the optimum design of a
heat pipe by formulating it as a nonlinear programming problem with the objective to minimize the weight of the
heat pipe, subject to nonlinear inequality constraints and side constraints. The effects of orientation and adiabatic
section length of the heat pipe on the optimum design parameters were also studied.
Further research focused on determining even better optimization techniques to obtain accurate results in
minimal time. Sanaye et al. [12] used Genetic algorithm for multi-objective optimization in cost and
effectiveness of heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) design. De Sousa et al. [1] studied the efficacy of the
Generalized External Optimization algorithm through the application of the method to the design of a heat pipe
for satellite thermal control. In this work, eighteen constraints were considered and optimum combination of
seven parameter values were obtained by varying liquid, flux and sink temperature. Geem et al. [18] and Jeong

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0326-2235947; fax: 0326-2296563.

E-mail address:tanweer.amu@gmail.com

30
[8] have simultaneously considered performance, reliability, and weight of heat pipe in satellite applications for
multi objective optimization.
In recent times, evolutionary optimization technique have attracted a lot of researchers form various domains
due to their convergence efficiency. Many such evolutionary algorithms have been inspired from biological
sources such as flock of birds, ants and bee colony. Dorigo et al. [7] introduced the concept of replicating the
behavior of real ants for solving discreet optimization problems by incorporating the characteristics of positive
feedback distributed computation and subsequently using a constructive greedy heuristics. The algorithms and
its convergence characteristics were further published in Dorigo et al. [4]. Various versions of ACO including
ant system, ant colony system, min max system have been introduced in detail by Dorigo [5] and Stutzle [14] to
solve discreet optimization problems. The algorithm to solve this discreet problem had been discussed by the
same author in Artificial Life [6]. Şahin et al. [13] and Foli et al. [2] have successfully applied evolutionary
algorithms such as the artificial bee colony algorithm and genetic algorithm for mass optimization of shell and
tube type heat exchangers and for miniaturized heat exchangers respectively.
However, the amount of literature in the application of evolutionary algorithms in the field of heat transfer
using heat pipe has been very limited. Nafchi et al. [9] and Yang et al. [17] have shown that multi-objective Bee
Algorithm and Firefly algorithm are suitable for optimization in satellite heat pipe design. Kim et al. [3]
presented a study on Heat Pipe Optimization Using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. The heat pipe
configuration is optimized regarding to seven parameters, such as diameter of vapor core, thickness of wick, etc.,
and eighteen constraints including operational, dimensional, and structural ones. To verify the performance of
the PSO method results were compared with the once obtained by generalized external optimization (GEO)
Optimization of heat pipe parameters have been done by earlier researchers mostly with the use of traditional
approaches like Taguchi method, linear programming and other optimization techniques like genetic algorithm
and generalized external optimization. However, the application of nontraditional optimization techniques in
heat pipe optimization has been limited only to PSO in published literature; particularly the application of newer
methodologies like Ant Colony Optimization has found no application in this domain. An attempt has been
made in this work to study the heat pipe design variables in space applications using ACO. This work is aimed
to highlight the suitability of ACO as an optimization tool in constrained optimization problems like that in heat
transfer using heat pipe.
An effort has been made in this work to use an evolutionary optimization technique namely ant colony
optimization (ACO) to optimize a set of design parameters for minimization of mass for a heat pipe.

Nomenclature

A radius of
B position of
C further nomenclature continues down the page inside the text box
Av Area of the vapor space (m2)
Aw Area of the wick (m2)
C Correlation coefficient
fv Correlation coefficient for friction (N/W m)
g Gravity (m/ s2)
K Permeability of the wick (m2)
Le Length of Evaporative Section (m)
Leff Effective length of the pipe (m)
q Heat transfer rate (Watt)
Rce Effective capillary radius of the wick (m)
Rev Reynolds number for vapour
rhv Hydraulic radius of the vapour space (m)
Greek Symbols
σ Surface tension of the fluid (N/m)
ρv Density of the vapour (kg/ m3)
λ Latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
ε Porosity of the wick structure
μv Viscosity of the vapour (kg/m s)
μl Viscosity of the liquid (kg/m s)
ρl Density of the liquid (kg/ m3)
𝜑 Tilt angle (°)
Subscript

31
ce Capillary
e evaporative
eff Effective
hv Hydraulic of vapour
l Liquid
v Vapour
w Wick

2. Ant Colony Optimization

The ant colony optimization technique is inspired by the foraging behavior of real ants. Ants would always
try to find the shortest route to reach the source of food following the principle of swarm intelligence. Each ant
of the colony contributes to finding the best path by depositing a trail of 'pheromone'. Subsequently, all the other
ants are attracted to this pheromone trail and follow the same path to reach the food source resulting in
maximum amount of pheromone deposition on the shortest path. Eventually the pheromone on any earlier and
less favoured path would evaporate to enable more and more ants taking the shortest path and hence accumulate
higher and higher amount of pheromone on the chosen route.
Based on this concept, the ant colony can be modelled artificially to find the optimum value of an objective
function considering a given number of parameters. Each ant chooses its path from node i to node j among the
𝑛𝑑 nodes yet to be visited based on the probability given in Eqn. (1) below:

α β
[φij ] [dij ]
pij= α β (1)
∑nd
i,j=1[φij ] [dij ]

φij and dij are the values of pheromone and heuristic signifying the contribution of the path i to j chosen by
an ant to obtain the optimal solution. α and β are the path influencing parameters.
Ant colony system (ACS), introduced by Dorigo and Gambardella [6] is an improvement over the original
ant system. ACS incorporates the modifications that aim to diversify the search process by subsequent ants
during first iteration by incorporating local update. Local pheromone update takes place as follows;

τij ← (1 − ρ)τij + φτ˳ (2)

Where φ is the pheromone decay coefficient and τij is the initial value of the pheromone. Offline pheromone
update is performed at the end of each the construction process using the Eqn. (3) given below:

𝜏𝑖𝑗 ← (1 − 𝜌)𝜏𝑖𝑗 + ∆𝜏𝑖𝑗 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 , ∀(𝑖, 𝑗) ∈ 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ ; 0 < 𝜌 < 1\ (3)

ρ is the pheromone evaporation rate and ∆τij best = 1/Lbest if the best ant used the edge (i,j) in its tour. The
value of ρ would influence the objective function f(x) in ACS. In minimization problem, ∆τij is the amount of
pheromone deposited by the ant having minimum value of objective function f(x).

∆τij ∝ f(x), ∀(i, j) ∈ best path (4)

3. Heat Pipe

In this paper, an effort has been made to apply Ant colony optimization to minimize the mass of a heat pipe
capable of transferring a fixed amount of heat flux at a fixed sink temperature. This approach has been followed
by both Kim et al. [3] and De Sousa et al. [1] in their study of optimization of heat pipe. The material chosen for
the container is stainless steel (SS304) which is compatible with the working fluids used in this study i.e.
methanol and ammonia. These fluids have a suitable range of operation temperature for satellite application.
However, ammonia requires high working pressure and has a high freezing temperature, so methanol is
considered a suitable replacement for the fluid. In this paper, optimum mass has been calculated for both the
fluids by varying maximum heat transfer rate at a fixed sink temperature. However, a detailed study has been
conducted only on methanol by varying sink temperature. Since optimization of heat pipe is a constrained

32
optimization problem, an effort has also been made to find out which constraint is dominant at a particular
temperature of sink.
The total mass is sum of mass of container (mcont), wick (mwd), liquid in wick (mwl) and vapor in vapor core
(mvapour). Table 1 represents the expression used to calculate several mass variables associated with heat pipe.

mtotal = mcont + mwd + mwl + mvapour (5)

Table 1 Expression to calculate various types of masses

mcont mass of the container πtt(di + tt)Leff ρt
mwd mass of the dry wick πtw(dv + tw)(1- ε)Leffρw
mwl mass of the liquid in the wick πtt(dv + tw)εLeffρl
mvapour mass of the fluid vapour inside the heat pipe 1/4(π dv 2 ρl Leff)

The objective function to be minimized is the total mass of the heat pipe (mtotal). The length of the adiabatic
section (La) is dependent on the application and here was fixed equal to 0.5 m. The range of all other design
variables whose optimum combination has to be determined is given in Table 2 while Figure 1 shows a
schematic diagram of a simple heat pipe. The amount of heat that can be transferred in a heat pipe of a particular
specification is limited by several constraints. Hence the optimization of mass is a constrained optimization
problem. The constraints are as follows [1, 16].

Table 2 Design variables and their range

Mesh number of wick N 314 𝑡𝑜15000
Diameter of wick wire d 0.025× 10−3 𝑡𝑜 1.0 ×
Vapor core diameter dv 10−3 10−3 𝑡𝑜 80.0 × 10−3
5.0×
Thickness of wick tw 0.05× 10−3 𝑡𝑜 10.0 ×
Length of evaporator section Le 10−3
50 × 10−3 𝑡𝑜 400 × 10−3
Length of condenser section Lc 50 × 10−3 𝑡𝑜 400 × 10−3
Length of adiabatic section La 50 × 10−3 𝑡𝑜 400 × 10−3
Thickness of pipe wall tt 0.3 × 10−3 𝑡𝑜 3.0 × 10−3

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of a heat pipe

3.1 Capillary Limit

Heat transferred in the wick structure of the heat pipe is limited by viscous, inertial and other losses occurring
in liquid and vapour phases and these losses must not exceed capillary pumping pressure. The governing
equation for capillary limit is given below;

𝑃𝑐 +𝑃𝑔
𝑄𝑐 = (𝐹 ; 𝑄 ≤ 𝑄𝑐 (6)
𝑙 +𝐹𝑣 )𝐿𝑒𝑓𝑓

33
3.2 Boiling Limit

Heat transfer is also limited by the transition of nucleate boiling to film boiling. Thus, maximum heat transfer
limit is governed by equation below

2πLe ke Tv 2σ
Qb = ( P) ; Q ≤ Qb (7)
λρv ln(di ⁄dv ) rn c

3.3 Entrainment Limit

Throughout the simultaneous two phases counter flow of liquid and vapor, viscous shear forces occurs at the
liquid-vapor interface. At the operation of heat pipe, if these viscous shear forces become larger than the liquid
surface tension forces, the liquid particles will be forced to be added into vapor flow. This condition is
quantified by entrainment limit and the heat transfer limit is given by

0.5
πd2 σρv
Qe = v
λ( ) ; Q ≤ Qe (8)
4 2rr,h

3.4 Viscous Limit

Heat transfer is also limited by viscous pressure losses in the pipe. The governing equation to ensure vapor
pressure of the liquid does not exceed these losses is given by

πd4
v ρv λPv
Qv = ; Q ≤ Qe (9)
256µv Leff

3.5 Sonic Limit

The sonic limit occurs when the vapour flow velocities approaches to sonic flow velocities at the exit of the
evaporator. To prevent choking of vapour in the heat pipe the mach number of vapour must be less than 0.2.
8Q
Mv = ; Mv ≤ 0.2 (10)
πd3
v √γv Rv Tv

3.6 Resistance Limit

The source temperature is limited by the thermal resistance of the heat pipe and the sink temperature.

Tso = RQ + Tsi ; Tso,min ≤ Tso ≤ Tso,max (11)

Where R = R et + R ct + R ew + R cw (12)

d d d d
ln( do ) ln( do ) ln( i ) ln( i ) k[(kl +kw )− (1−ε)(kl −kw )]
i i dv dv
R et = ; R ct = ; R ev = ; R cv = ; k eq = [(kl +kw )+ (1−ε)(kl −kw )]
2πLe kt 2πLc kt 2πLe keq 2πLc keq

For space application, Tso,min = -10°C and Tso,max = 45 °C

3.7 Reynolds Number Limit

This limit ensures an incompressible and laminar flow

4Q
Rev = ; Rev ≤ 2300 (13)
πdv μv λ

Diameter of the wick wire must be less than half of the wick structure thickness i.e. 2d ≤ t w.

34
3.8 Structural Constraints

These constraints ensure that the stress in the cylinder and end caps remain well below the ultimate tensile
stress of the material used with a factor of safety taken as 4.
2 μts
∆P(d2
o +di )
2 ≤ (14)
d2
o −di 4

3
∆P(d3
o +di ) μts
3 ≤ (15)
2(d3
o −di ) 4

4. Material and Methods

In this work, mass of heat pipe has been optimized using ACO for a desired heat transfer rate. The
environmental parameters and design constraints have been fixed taking into account the application of the
device in artificial satellite. Mass of the heat pipe that has to be optimized has been considered as given in
equation 5 [1, 15]. For comparison purpose, the outside temperature of the condenser is considered fixed Tsi [1]
and it ranges from -30°C to 15°C. Three working fluids have been considered initially on the basis of
compatibility and application of heat pipe [10, 11] whose properties are assumed to dependent on the operating
temperature of the heat pipe, and data from Dunn and Reay were used to obtain interpolation curves [11].
Ant colony optimization is the technique used to optimize equation 5 taking into constraints mentioned
above. Simple optimization involves considering the seven variables mentioned in table 1 (apart from adiabatic
length which is considered fixed [1]) as independent nodes. Each ant while finding its respective solution must
choose the value of node within the range given in Table 1 so that the path length is minimum. In this case, the
path length is the value of the objective function i.e. the mass of the heat pipe given by equation 5. Additionally,
in order to accommodate the constraints mentioned earlier in the ACO algorithm given by Dorigo [6], a
modification in the final path length is done whenever any of the constraints is violated. The path length or the
value of the objective function with respect to the nodes traversed by each ant is fixed to be a very large number
whenever the path violates any one of the constraints. The pheromone on each node is deposited as per equation
4 such that the amount of pheromone deposited is inversely proportional to the length of the path. The shorter
the path corresponding to the chosen combination of nodes, the more is the amount of pheromone deposited at
the end of the each iteration. Thus, if a very large number is chosen as the length of the path each time a
constraint is violated, the less pheromone will be deposited on that path (or the combination of nodes) and the
less favored it will be by the successive ants. Consequently, the result finally will converge to the shortest path
satisfying all the constraints.

5. Results and Discussions

In order to determine the performance of the heat pipe, constant temperatures at the condenser section is
considered ranging from 15.0 to +30.0°C in intervals of 15.0°C. The heat transfer rate varied in the range 25.0–
100.0 W.
The result of mass optimization using ACO for heat transfer rate of 25 W with sink temperature of 0°C is
shown in Table 3. On comparing these values with the one obtained using PSO by K. Kim et al [3] (also shown
in Table 2), the optimum mass obtained using ACO is lesser than the one obtained using PSO by 6.91%. The
convergence plot for this result using ACO is given in Figure 2. It is seen that the value converges to minimum
at around 250 iterations for 100 ants.

Table 3 Optimum value of design parameters for Q=25W and Tsi=273 K using methanol as working fluid
Technique N D (m) dv (m) tw (m) Le (m) Lc (m) tw (m) Mass (kg)
ACO 314 0.03 5.50 0.2 50 50 0.3 0.02979
PSO 314 0.025 6.1 0.19 57.1 50 0.3 0.032

Table 4 shows the variation of optimum mass with change in maximum heat flux for methanol, ethanol and
ammonia. On comparing the optimum mass at different heat transfer rates as shown in Figure 3-5, it is seen that
the heat pipe using methanol or ethanol has much lesser optimum mass than the one using ammonia as the
working fluid. And the variation in optimum mass keeps on increasing as the heat transfer capacity increases.
This result can be used to determine the number of individual heat pipes required for a particular heat transfer
limit. For example for heat pipe using methanol, to dissipate a maximum of 50W, a single heat pipe will be of

35
0.3603 kg while using two heat pipes of capacity 25 W will have a mass of (2 times 0.02979). Similarly, a
single heat pipe of 100W capacity is lighter than two heat pipes of 50 W capacities or four of 25 W capacities.
From figure 6 it can be concluded that for all heat transfer rates ranging from 25 to 100W, methanol is the most
suitable working fluid.
The effect of variation of sink temperature on optimum mass of heat pipe is shown in Figure 7. It can be
inferred from data that for methanol as working fluid, the optimum mass of heat pipe increases for increase in
temperature above 0°C at all heat transfer limits. However, also as temperature goes below 0°C, optimum mass
increases with decrease in temperature. Hence, it can be deduced that the working temperature range for
methanol is above 0°C.

Table 4 Variation of optimum mass with heat transfer limit

Q in Optimum mass (kg)
methano Ethanol ammonia %,Variation
Watt
25 0.02979
l 0.03464 0.09104 67.27812
30 0.03220 0.03478 0.10860 70.349908
40 0.03513 0.03946 0.14362 75.539618
50 0.03891 0.04183 0.17640 79.57483
60 0.04237 0.04502 0.21538 80.327793
75 0.04681 0.04891 0.26222 82.148578
90 0.05069 0.05098 0.31224 83.765693
100 0.05419 0.05601 0.35106 84.563892

Figure 2 Convergence of mass for methanol

Figure 8 shows the comparison of various limits for the entire operating temperature for methanol for the
optimum parameters obtained at -15°C for heat transfer capacity of 25W. Source temperature (Tso) is
determined by the resistance limit. For the above conditions, with varying sink temperature from -15° to 30°C,
Tso varies from 310° to 340°C and from Figure 9, it can be seen that boiling limit limits the maximum heat
transfer in this temperature range.

Figure 3 Variation of optimum mass with heat Figure 4 Variation of optimum mass with heat
transfer limit at Tsi=273K for methanol transfer limit at Tsi=273K for ammonia

36
Figure 5 Variation of optimum mass with heat Figure 6 Comparison of optimum mass variation
transfer limit at Tsi=273K for ethanol with heat transfer for all three liquids

Figure 7 Variation of optimum mass with maxm heat Figure 8 Dominance of different limits with source
transfer capacity for different sink temperatures temperature for methanol

Figure 9 Limits in action for source temperature

from 310° to 340°C compared with 5W maximum
heat transfer limit

4. Conclusion

The purpose of the present work is to optimize the mass of heat pipe in order to reduce the payload in
satellite applications and also in reducing the size of electronic gadgets. In this work a nontraditional
optimization technique namely ACO has been applied to find the optimum values of design variables for
minimizing the mass and taking into account design constraints. Following conclusion can be drawn:
 The value of mass obtained using this method has been found to be lesser than the one obtained by PSO
by earlier researchers [3]. This study also proved the suitability of ACO to solve constrained
optimization problems.

37
  It can be concluded from the results obtained using this technique that methanol is more suitable than
ethanol and ammonia for heat pipe application in space. The increase in optimum mass for ammonia with
increase in maximum heat transfer limit is much higher than that for other two fluids.
 ACO can also be used to generate the data to point out the number of heat pipes required for a particular
heat transfer applications at different sink temperatures.

Reference

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[5] M. Dorigo, Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence: 5th International Workshop, ANTS 2006,
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[7] M. Dorigo, V. Maniezzo, A. Colorni, Ant system: optimization by a colony of cooperating
agents. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on, 26.1 (1996) 29-41.
[8] M. J. Jeong, T. Kobayashi, and S. Yoshimura, Extraction of Design Characteristics of Multiobjective
Optimization – Its Application to Design of Artificial Satellite Heat Pipe, Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, 3410 (2005) 561-575.
[9] Nafchi, A. Mirzakhani, A. Moradi. Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization Problems in Mechanical
Engineering Design Using Bees Algorithm. Journal of Solid Mechanics Vol 3.4 (2011): 353-364.
[10] P. Dunn and D. A. Reay, Heat Pipes, New York: Pergamon Press, 1976, pp. 272-277.
[11] S.W. Chi, Heat Pipe Theory and Practice, A Sourcebook, Hemisphere Publishing Corporation,
Washington, DC,
[12] Sanaye, Sepehr, Davood Modarrespoor. Thermal-economic multiobjective optimization of heat pipe heat
exchanger for energy recovery in HVAC applications using genetic algorithm. Thermal Science 00 (2012)
203-203.
[13] Şencan Şahin, Arzu, Bayram Kılıç, and Ulaş Kılıç. Design and economic optimization of shell and tube
heat exchangers using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm, Energy Conversion and Management 52.11
(2011) 3356-3362.
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[15] Tari, A Comparative Investigation Of Heat Transfer Capacity Limits Of Heat Pipes. Doctoral dissertation,
Middle East Technical University, 2007.
[16] V. G. Rajesh, K. P. Ravindran, Optimum heat pipe design: a nonlinear programming
approach, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 24.3 (1997) 371-380.
[17] X. Yang, M Karamanoglu, T. Luan, K. Slawomir, Mathematical Modelling and Parameter Optimization of
Pulsating Heat Pipes, Journal of Computational Science 5.2 (2014) 119-125.
[18] Z.W. Geem, H. Hwangbo, Application of harmony search to multi-objective optimization for satellite heat
pipe design, Proceedings of US-Korea Conference on Science, Technology, & Entrepreneurship (UKC
2006).

38
 ICAER-2015

Maximum Power Tracking Based Open Circuit Voltage Method

for PV System
Pratima Das 1
Departent of EEE, Karunya University,Coimbatore,641401,India

Abstract

Photovoltaic power plants pose challenges when integrated with power grid. The PV plants always focus on
extracting maximum power from arrays. A new technique for tracking a pseudo-maximum power point for
creating power reserve is presented. By using developed fractional open circuit voltage algorithm power is
extracted from the array and continuously power is supplied to load as well as for charging the battery. In this
project a 12V, 7Ah battery is used for charging and to avoid the revise current flow from the battery when input
is, diode is replace by MOSFET which will stop the reverse current .Generally in other algorithm will trace the
power when maximum input is coming for that time power circuit is disconnected from the load. In this case
power developed algorithm is connected to designed moderate power five switch synchronous algorithm and
operates in pseudo-operation which will continuously supply the power to charge the battery. This can be
control by using PIC microcontroller which will generate the pulses and track the PV power. Precise
measurement in the steady state shows that the converter finds the maximum power point with tracking 95.85%.
Keywords: Buck-Boost Converter, Maximum Power Pont tracking (MPPT), PV system.

1. Introduction

Solar power is the cleanest energy available naturally. Maximum the utility of the power and providing a
stable and reliable power source is a fundamental requirement for any electricity power product and system
including computer integrated manufacturing system. Power electronic converters are very often used to
interface solar panel to the required load. A non-inverting buck-boost converter is essentially a cascade
combination of a buck converter followed by a boost converter, where a single inductor-capacitor is used for the
both. This work uses a non-inverting synchronous Buck-Boost to guarantee a wide input voltage range and
consequently harvest power from the solar panel over a wide range of radiations. Here five switch moderate
design power converters are used for extracting power from the PV system.
Here, input is given by using the input capacitor and a MOSFFET, which will supply the input to the
cascaded non-inverting synchronous buck-boost converter. The input MOSFET is controlled by PIC
microcontroller such that, when input power is require to measures the open voltage form the panel input
MOSFET gets open and switch1will open and PV system momentarily disconnected from the converter, during
. The purpose of using only developed fractional open circuit voltage so that power circuit will continuously
supplies the voltage even though the input power from the PV system is less than the reference voltage. To
generate the pulse differential modulation technique is used to trigger the switches of non-inverting buck-boost
converter. Input switch is control by the same microcontroller. Microcontroller generates five pulses such that
input switches will on for small time (nanosecond) to measure the open circuit voltage of panel. Here five switch
non-inverting buck-boost converter will charge the battery of 12V, 7amp. The switching frequency of the
switches is 2 kHz and input switch will be disconnected for very small time (nanosecond). The basic block
diagram with five switches is shown in fig.1. In literature review, the most used MPPT algorithm for solar panel
are Perturb & observation (P &O) and incremental conductance (INC), which gives the relationship between
voltage and current. On contrary, in PV panel, the electrical characteristic is linear:

𝑠𝑠
= and = (1)
2 2

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 9486504241.

E-mail address: daspratima45@gmail.com

39
Where and are the voltage and current at maximum power point, is the open circuit voltage and 𝑠𝑠
is the short circuit current. MPPT algorithm that use this relationship either measure the open-circuit voltage or
short circuit current, they provide a number of advantage over the aforementioned method:
• Measurement of only one parameter (voltage or current);
• Lower numerical computational requirements;
• No-steady state oscillation (P & O) or (INC)

Fig. 1 Block diagram of illustrating the fundamental structure of the complete system

These methods have the disadvantage that no energy flows from the PV panel to the converter during sampling
line because the converter must be disconnected from the PV panel to allow for the measurement of or 𝑠𝑠 .
The schematic experimental circuit diagram of complete PV system using five-switch non-inverting
synchronous buck-boost converter is shown below.

Fig.2 Circuit schematic PV system using five-switch non-inverting synchronous buck-boost converter

2. MPPT Algorithm

It is necessary to control the charging of the battery, but it would not be required to perform the MPPT
function on its own. The microcontroller controls the gate driver connected to the high-side-N-MOSFET of the
buck converter with 2kHz, 8-bit on chip PWM, and it drives the low-side-N-MOSFET used to switch the input
capacitors on and off the circuit at 10KHz frequency.

Fig.3 Flow chart µp code programmed to the microcontroller.

Above flow chart shows the implementation of fractional open circuit voltage algorithm with other control
parameters. Above flow chart shows, voltage is limited up to 12V so that battery will keep on charging at a
constant voltage. It shows the dumping of MPPT algorithm in microcontroller (PIC microcontroller). Every
100nsec the switch is disconnected and duty cycle needed to set the MPP. After checking if the battery was

40
previously disconnected, the controller reduces the current if it is greater than , this is done by decreasing
the duty cycle by a factor proportional to the difference 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 − . Otherwise the microcontroller will decide if
to maximize the power or to set a new value for 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 :
1. > 12 : 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 is reduce down to 𝑡𝑡
2. 12.8 < 14.4 : if 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 _ MPPT ; otherwise the duty cycle is not change unless < 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 /2,
which indicates that the power produced is decreasing, therefore the duty cycle is increased by 0.39%.
3. 9 < ≤ 12.8 :
4. < 10.2 : 𝑎𝑎 = 𝑡𝑡

2.1 Fractional Open Circuit Voltage Method

The fractional open circuit method is based on the fact that the voltage of PV panel at the MPP is
approximately linearly proportional to this open-circuit voltage, . The proportional constant 1 depends on
the fabrication technologies of solar cells, fill factor and the meteorological conditions.

VMPP ≈ K 1 .VOC (2)

The PV panel’s open circuit voltage is measured by interrupting the normal operation of the system with a
certain frequency and storing the measured value.

2.2 Fractional Short Circuit Method

Fractional short circuit current results from the fact that, under varying atmospheric condition, is
linearly related to the of a PV array thus,

I MPP ≈ K 2 .VOC (3)

Where 2 proportionality is constant, just like in the fractional open circuit voltage technique 2 has to be
determined to the PV array in use. The constant is generally found to be between 0.78 and 0.92. Measurement
𝑆𝑆 during the operation is problematic. An additional switch usually to be added to the power converter to
periodically short the PV array so that 𝑆𝑆 can be measured using a current sensor. This increases the number of
components and cost.

3. Power Converter

There are several solution being utilised today, including cascaded boost converter, classic four-switch buck-
boost converter, linear regulator; SEPIC converter; cuck converter. The converter used in this project has
advantages over all of these alternatives. Most notably are improved are improved efficiency and this
simplification of external components required for control loop(s) and/ or compensation.

3.1 Power Converter for PV panel

DC-DC converter is power electronic device able to transform DC voltage from one level to another,
possible also reversing the voltage polarity. The most common basic topologies are the Buck which steps down
the input voltage, the Boost which steps up the input voltage and finally Buck-Boost that is able to step either up
or down the output voltage relative to that applied at the input. The modes of operation of power converter is
shown below :

Fig.4 Inductor Charging and Discharging Paths in Buck, Boost and Buck-Boost Converter

41
 3.2 Switching Operation

The main components of buck, boost and buck-boost are an inductor L, a switch S and a diode D. A Pulse
Width Modulation (PWM) control how long the switch stays closed during each switching period. The on and
off states of the switch dived the converter’s operation into two phases; a charge phase and discharge phase,
both of which describe the energy transfer to a form the inductor. Above figure shows the basic circuit
schematics of the three converter topologies and the inductor’s charging and discharging phases. During
(PWM high) the inductor L is magnetized by the PV panel voltage which applied to its terminal, varying on
the converter’s topology. As a result, the current in the inductor is incremented by

∆V L .t on
∆I LON =
L (4)

When the switch opens during , there cannot be discontinuity in the current of the inductor, i.e. a way to
keep the current circulating in the same direction has to be provided I order to guarantee the ampere-turns
continuity in the inductor. The solution is found in the so-called freewheel diode D, which in the synchronous
version of the converters is replaced by another switch. During there will be another similar change in the
current in the inductor. Input and output capacitors are added as buffer elements: the former is charged by the
source and release power during while the latter provides power to the load when the diode is reverse-
biased. This cyclic transfer of energy between the circuit elements maintains the output voltage at the proper
value, in accordance with its topology. The value of the duty cycle, which is the ratio of the PWM’s high time to
its switching period (D= / ), directly affects the ratio between output and input voltage M= 𝑜𝑜 / 𝑖𝑖 .

1 D
M buck = D, M boost = , M buck −boost = (5)
1− D 1− D

3.3 Model of the Non-Inverting Synchronous Buck-Boost Converter

The dynamics describing to the non-inverting Buck-Boost converter is found to have the following state
representation:

Fig.5 Simplified non-inverting buck-boost converter

Fig. 5(a) Switch position at u = 1. Fig .5(b) Switch position at u = 0.

di
L = −(1 − u )v + uE , (6)
dt
di v
C = (1 − u )t − (7)
dt R

42
 where i and R, respectively, the current through the inductor L and the voltage across the terminals of the
capacitor C. The external source voltage E has a constant value. The variable is the control input, which
represents the switch position, restricted to take values in the discrete set {0,1}. The control objective consists in
regulating the output voltage around a desired equilibrium point.

4. Battery Managment

The battery management system monitors and controls the storage and delivery of the energy drawn
from the solar panel. The system block diagram of the battery management system is shown in fig. 6.

Fig.6 Functional block diagram of the battery management system.

In fig.6 is comprised of a buck-boost power converter, lithium battery modules and a charge controller
(microcontroller). The input power of the battery management system comes from the output maximum power
point-tracking system. The voltage at this incident angle of the sunlight. In this application, the input voltage
can be varied from 6 to 30V. The voltage of the power converter will be maintained at around 12V , so that we
can charge the Li-ion battery successfully. The battery modules selected in this system are lithium-ion (Li-ion)
polymer rechargeable batteries (HECELL, battery model: H6849D5-4800mAh). A battery sub-module consists
of three management system contains two battery modules; each module consists of four sub-modules as shown
in fig.7. It has a nominal voltage of 12.2V with 5200mAh capability.

Fig.7 Construction of the battery module

4.1 Working of Battery

The charging and discharging of the batteries are carried out through the charge controller. The
charging and discharging control circuit as shown in fig.8. To charge sub-module, we will close the switch S1
but switch S2 and S3 will remain open. On the other hand, we need to close the switch S2 and open the switches
S1 and S3 in order to charge the battery sub-module 2.

43
 Fig.8 Charging and discharging circuitry for Li-ion battery

To charge sub-module we will close the switch S1 but switch S2 and S3 will remain open. On the other
hand, we need to close the relay S2 and open the switches S1 and S3 in order to charge the battery sub-module2.
In charging the Li-ion battery, the battery is charge at a constant current until the battery voltages reaches the
maximum voltage limit. The circuit then switches to voltage-regulation, allowing the current to taper at lower
values. For constant current charging, we maintain the voltage V1 in fig.4.3 at a constant voltage by controlling
the pulse width of the PWM controller. While in constant voltage charging mode, we will maintain V2 at a
constant voltage level.

5. Hardware Implementation And Result

By using the developed MPPT algorithm, the PV characteristic with readings can be plot as shown
below.

Fig. 9 Graphical representation panel readings

Table.1 Panel readings

S. No Panel Input Voltage Panel Input Current Power (watts)

(V) (I)
1 3.4 1.09 3.706
2 4.13 1.02 4.2126
3 4.65 1.01 4.6965
4 6.18 0.92 5.6856
5 8.32 0.83 6.9056
6 9.29 0.76 7.06604

44
 7 10.13 0.68 6.8884
8 12.42 0.62 7.7004
9 14.51 0.59 8.5609
10 16.16 0.56 9.0496
11 17.21 0.49 8.4329
12 18.04 0.46 8.2984

5.1. Gate Pulse Waveform

The switching takes place when sign of the error and its slope at the boundary of a band. For positive error and
negative slope occurs causes the switching pulse in following figures.

M1 M2 M3

M4 M5

Fig.10 Pulses across each MOSFET

5.2 Modules in hardware implementation

The prototype hardware circuit of complete project is shown in fig.10 which contains the following
circuits. The hardware assembly can be divided in to different modules as listed below.

• Control circuit: To control and switching of switches is done by using microcontroller. A

microcontroller is a complete microprocessor system built on a single IC. Microcontrollers were
developed to meet a need for microprocessors to be put into low cost products. The microcontroller
that has been used for this project is from PIC series. Various microcontrollers offer different kinds of
memories. EEPROM, EPROM, FLASH etc. are some of the memories of which FLASH is the most
recently developed. Technology that is used in pic16F877 is flash technology, so that data is retained
even when the power is switched off. Easy Programming and Erasing are other features of PIC 16F877.

• Protection circuit: Here diode protection circuit is used which connected in series with solar panel and
then given to power circuit.

• Power circuit: It comprises of combination five MOSFET switch

• Driver circuit: This circuit is used to give trigger pulses to switches of power circuit.

45
 The overall prototype of the hysteresis modulation for non-inverting synchronous buck-boost converter is
shown in fig.10. This consists of driver circuit, input filter, microcontroller, power circuit and battery.

Fig.11Testing of prototype non-inverting synchronous buck-boost converter

Above diagram shows all the components with output wave form from electrical project laboratory. This project
has been performed in the electrical laboratory successfully. If the input from the panel or RPS is 10.14V than
the output of the power circuit Vout be 12.08V. If the input is coming from the panel is 17.18V or more than it
(up to 30V) , than the output from the power circuit will maintain the same power or voltage i.e 12V.Hence the
power circuit will work on both buck as well as boost mode.

Fig.12 Hardware implementation of non-inverting synchronous buck-boost converter

The input capacitor which is connected to input switch will connect and disconnect the synchronous buck-
boost converter. Input capacitor will always turn on if out of the panel is required to measure, at this moment the
switch of the buck mode i. switch 1 will be disconnected. In this case the power circuit still is operating and
delivering the power to charge the battery. Operation of buck- boost converter is fully depends upon the value of
solar panel. This mode of operation is called as pseudo operation of the power circuit. Now if the panel output is
less than the reference voltage than boost mode will operate. In this case the energy is stored in the inductor will
deliver the power to the load and input switch will be disconnected from the panel for 100nsec. This process
will keep on repeating. Hence the power circuit will continuously will supply the power to output. In this case

46
MPPT will extract more power every time and power circuit will perform the modes of operation. Output of the
complete implementation of hardware is shown below:

Fig.13 Output waveform

5.3 Conclusion

By using Non- inverting synchronous buck-boost design is efficiently tested for the moderate power
i.e. solar system. By using fractional open circuit voltage MPPT algorithm is successfully true for five switch
non-inverting synchronous buck-boost converter. This paper presented an innovative algorithm technique to
obtain the open-circuit voltage measurement of solar panel with minimal disconnection of the load. The MPPT
algorithm is programmed to a low-cost microcontroller and does not require expensive sensors; it checks the
open-circuit voltage every 100nsec and accurately adjust the optimum operating point in less than 10msec.
The converter used in dc-dc non inverting synchronous buck-boost (93% efficient), which can work in
buck, boost or buck-boost mode; this guarantees the harvest of power over a wide range of radiations
differences across the solar panel. The system is tested with 12V battery for charging and discharging mode.
The presented MPPT system was rested both under steady state and transient condition with RPS,
demonstrating its ability to set the optimum electrical operating point quickly and very accurately. These results
exceed the performance of any other MPPT algorithm for PV system presented in the literature so far.
Future work will focus on comparing the proposed MPPT technique to other MPPT algorithms and on
integrating several MPPT converters together to form a DMPPT system.

Acknowledgement

At the outset, I express my gratitude to the ALMIGHTY GOD who has been with me during each and
every step that I have taken towards the completion of this project. I wish to thank with deep sense of
acknowledge to the Management of Karunya University. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Director, School
of Electrical Sciences, Professor and Head, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering for their
excellent encouragements in course of this work. I would like to thank all the Teaching faculty members and
Supporting Staff of our department for advising me whenever in need, co-operating with me and arranging the
necessary facilities.

47
Appendix A. MPPT Algorithm

B. MPPT Algorithm

C. Power Converter

3.1 Power Converter for PV panel

3.2 Switching Operation

3.3 Model of The Non-Inverting Synchronous Buck-Boost Converter

D. Battery Management

4.1 Working of Battery

E. Hardware Implementation and Result

5.1 Gate Pulse Waveform

5.2 Modules in hardware implementation

5.3 Conclusion

References

[1] M. Vitelli, \On the necessity of joint adoption of both Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking and
Central Maximum Power Point Tracking in PV systems," Progress in Photo-voltaics: Research and
Applications, July 2012.
[2] F. Katiraei, R. Iravani, N. Hatziargyriou, A. Dimeas, May/June 2008, "Microgrid management: control and
operation aspects of Microgrids," IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, vol. 6, pp. 54-65.
[3] Analysis of a Low Power Solar Energy Tracking Method for Simple Photovoltaic Applications D. Baskar,
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
[4] A High Efficiency, Non-Inverting,Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter, Andrew Notman Allegro MicroSystems,
Stuart House, Eskmills Park,Musselburgh, East Lothian,EH21 7PB Scotland, 2012.
[5] Duarte, JL, Wijntjens, JAA, Rozenboom, J. Designing light sources for solar- powered systems. In:
Proceedings of the fifth European conference. Power electronics and application, vol. 8, 1993. p. 78–82.
[6] Hermann, U, Langer, HG. Low-cost DC to AC converter for photovoltaic power conversion in residential
applications. In: Proceedings of IEEE PESC’93, June 1993. p. 588–94.
[7] Bose BK, Szczesny PM, Steigerward RL. Microcomputer control of a residential photovoltaic-power
conditioning system. IEEE Trans Ind Appl 1985;IA- 20:1182–1191.
[8] Bhuiyan MMH, Asgar MA. Sizing of a stand-alone photovoltaic power system at Dhaka. Renew Energy
2003;28:929–38.
[9] NakamuraT,SeniorCL.Solarthermalpowerforlunarmaterialsprocessing.J Aerosp Eng2008;21(2):91–10.
[10] ChirikjianGS,ZhouY, SuthakornJ. Self-replicating robots for lunar development. IEEE-
ASMETransMechatron2002;7(4):462–72.

48
 ICAER-2015

Wind generation integration impact on fuel cost saving in pool

based electricity market
Manish Kumara, K.S Sandhub, Ashwani kumar c
a
Ph.D. scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, NIT Kurukshetra-136119, India
b,c
Electrical Engineering Department, NIT Kurukshetra136119, India

Abstract

In this paper, effect of wind generation integration has been obtained considering the 24 hour wind speed variation on its
output. Mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) approach has been proposed with wind generation integration for
determining optimal location and fuel cost savings of conventional generators. The results have been obtained for the fuel
cost, total real and reactive power loss, optimal conventional generation schedule and optimal DG sizes and location. The
results have been obtained for IEEE 24 bus reliability test system.
Keywords: Fuel cost savings, mixed integer non-linear programming, wind generation, electricity markets;

1. Introduction

For efficient and less use of carbon energy in future, the excessive penetration of distribution generation (DG) is
the vital challenges for the researchers. The location and size of DG greatly influence the performance of power
system. For the minimization of transmission loss, maximization of supply reliability, maximization of profit of
the distribution companies or consumer benefits, wind generation can play a key role [1-2]. Ackermann defined
distributed resources (DR) with a main focus on the value of DR in the re-regulated electricity markets
especially in the context of market power [3]. An overall review of current status of DRs was provided.
Distributed generation integration has many technical challenges and issues regarding the policy framework of
penetration. The authors presented key issues of challenges and opportunities of DGs integration focussing on
the opportunities, modelling, and Government renewable incentives [4]. A methodology for optimal distributed
generation allocation for losses reduction, reliability improvement, and voltage profile improvement is presented
in [5]. In the recent years, many wind turbine generation system (WTGS) have been installed in many countries
from the viewpoints of global warming and depletion of fossil fuels. WTGS is low cost in comparison with
other generation system using renewable energy [6-7].
A multi-objective optimization approach using evolutionary algorithm for sizing and siting of distribution
generation in distribution system has been presented in [8]. A dynamic programming for multi-objective DG
allocation for power losses minimization, voltage profile improvement and reliability enhancement has been
proposed [9]. Many authors proposed sensitivity based approaches, optimization based methods for DG
integration in the distribution systems [10-13]. Distributed generation allocation based on the average daily load
and power generation curves with an objective of minimizing the cumulative average daily active power loss
[14]. Enhancement of loading capability of distribution system with distributed generation placement
considering the techno-economic benefits criteria with multiple DGs placement taking the load growth into
consideration is presented in [15]. A mixed integer linear programming approach for optimal allocation of DGs
and determining their sizes considering their capability curves is presented in [16].
In this paper, the impact of wind integration has been obtained on the fuel cost savings. The wind power has
been obtained for 24 hrs duration and a mixed integer programming approach has been proposed to obtain
optimal number and location of DGs minimizing the fuel cost of conventional generators. The impact of wind
integration on the nodal prices has also been obtained. The proposed approach has been tested on IEEE 24 bus
reliability test system.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 9416366091; fax: (+91) 1744238050.

E-mail address: ashwa_ks@yahoo.co.in

49
Nomenclature

x state vector of variables V, δ

u are the control parameters, P gi ,Q gi , P DGi , Q DGi
ξ int Integer variable with values {0,1}
Ng set of generator
Nb number of buses in the system
P gi ,Q gi real and reactive power generation at bus –i
a i ,b i, c i cost coefficient in $/h, $/MWh,$/MWh2
N DG set of distributed generator
P DGi , Q DGi active and reactive power of distributed generator at bus –i

2. General OPF formulation with wind generators

A general objective mixed integer non-linear programming approach considering the total transmission loss for
24 hour has been formulated to find optimal location and number of distributed generators.
(
Min F x, u , ξ
int
) (1)
Subject to equality and inequality constraints defined as
( )
h x, u , ξ int = 0 (2)
g (x, u , ξ )≤ 0 int
(3)
ξ is an integer variable with values {0,1}. The zero value represents absence and one value represents
int

presence of wind distributed generator in the network. Objective function F is minimization of the fuel cost of
conventional generators with wind integration considering the impact of wind variations for 24 hrs.
ng
( ) = obj = ∑∑  c(i, k ) (Pg (i,k ))
24
+ b(i, k ) Pg (i, k ) + a (i, k ) 
2
Min F x, u , ξ int

i =1 k =1  (4)

2.1. Equality Constraints

Real and reactive power balance equations modified in the presence of wind distributed generation for all the
buses are as:
Pi ,k = Pgi ,k + ξ iint
,k ∗ PDGi ,k − Pdi ,k ∀ i = 1,2,  N b , k = 1,2,...24 (5)
Qi ,k = Qgi ,k + ξ iint
.k ∗ QDGi , k − Qdi , k ∀ i = 1,2, N b , k = 1,2,...24 (6)

2.2. Inequality constraints

(a) Real power generation limit: This includes the upper and lower real power generation limit of generators at
bus-i
Pgimin
, k ≤ Pgi , k ≤ Pgi , k , i = 1,2, N g , k = 1,2,...24
max
(7)
(b) Reactive power generation limit: This includes the upper and lower reactive power generation limit of
generators and other reactive sources at bus-i
Qgimin,k ≤ Qgi ,k ≤ Qgimax
, k , i = 1,2, N q , k = 1,2,....24 (8)
(c) Voltage limit: This includes the upper and lower voltage magnitude limit Vi ,Vi max at bus-i
min

Vi ,min
k ≤ Vi ,k ≤ Vi ,max
k , i = 1,2, N b , k = 1,2,...24 (9)
(d) Phase angle limit: This includes the upper and lower angle limit δ imin , δ imax at bus-i
δ imin
, k ≤ δ i , k ≤ δ i , k , i = 1,2, N b , k = 1,2,...24
max
(10)
(e) Line flow limits: These constraints represent maximum power flow in a transmission line and are based on

50
thermal and stability considerations. The line flow limit can be written as:
S ij ,k ≤ S ijmax
,k (11)

2.3. Power generation limit

This includes the upper and lower real power DG generation limit of generators at bus-i
a) Real power generation limit
PDGi
min
, k ≤ PDGi , k ≤ PDGi ,k , i = 1,2, N DG , k = 1,2,...24
max
(12)
b) Reactive power generation limit: This includes the upper and lower reactive power generation limit of
distributed generators at bus-i
QDGi
min
,k ≤ QDGi ,k ≤ QDGi ,k , i = 1,2, N DG , k = 1,2,...24
max
(13)
(c) Optimal number of distributed generators: This includes the limit on number of maximum distributed
generators in the network.
N DG
N DG = ∑ ξ iint,k ≤ N DG
max
(14)
i =1

3. Results and discussion

A small wind farm comprising doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines of 1500 kW, with a power
installed of 1.5 MW is connected through a rated 23/0.69 kV transformer. The analysis is carried out on IEEE
24-bus system. Voltage limits are assumed to be within the range 0.95 to 1.05 p.u. The wind speed curves are
obtained and the active power output obtained is shown in Fig. 1 for consecutive 24 hrs of a day.

1.5
DG active power (MW)

0.5

0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
Hrs
Fig. 1 Actual active power output of wind turbine

The analysis has been carried out for the following cases:
Case 0: without DG
Case 1: with one DG
Case 2: with two DG
Case 3: with three DG

3.1. Case0 (without DG)

In case 0 (without DG) in each period the total real and reactive power loss are 0.455888p.u.MW and -
1.41338p.u.MVar respectively and the fuel cost of conventional generator is 14625.48$/hr .

51
3.2. Case (With one DG)

The results for case 1 (with one DG) for each hour are obtained. The results are obtained for fuel cost of
conventional generator, total active power loss (PLT), reactive power loss (QLT), total DG size (p.u.MW), total
DG size (p.u.MVar) and optimal location of DG at respective buses. it is observed that for minimization of fuel
cost the optimal bus location of DG is bus-5. At cut in speed of wind the DG output power is 0.0342p.u.MW
and 0.01654p.u.MVar (i.e. in 1st hour). The fuel cost of conventional generator in 1st hour is 14624.808$/hr.
This is the maximum fuel cost obtained with one DG. At the rated wind speed 12m/s the DG output power is
1.4649p.u.MW and 0.70951p.u.MVar (i.e. in 8th hour). The fuel cost in 8th hour is 14599.005$/hr. This is the
minimum fuel cost obtained with one DG. Hence, it can be concluded that as the wind speed increases the DG
output increases and reaches near to its rated value. The minimum fuel cost is obtained at the rated speed in 8,
15 and 20th hours.
The optimal conventional generation schedule is given in Fig.2 and 3. It is observed from Fig.2 that at bus 1
in 1st hour the active generation is 1.502066p.u.MW and reduced to its minimum value (i.e. 0.284382p.u.MW)
in 8th hour. From 1 to 8 hours the reduction occurs continuously in active generation of the generator at bus 1 as
the output of DG increases with wind speed. At bus 2 the generator is scheduled at its minimum generation (i.e.
0.15p.u.MW) in each hour. At bus 7, 13, 15, 16, 22 and 23 the conventional generators are scheduled at its
maximum generation limit in each hour. At bus 21,the active generation is reduced with increment in DG output
and it is minimum whenever the DG output is at its rated value. It is observed that the reduction occurs in
generator at bus 1 and 21. It is because of the fuel cost is more at these buses as compared to other buses.
In Fig. 3, the reactive power generation of conventional generator is shown. It is observed that the reactive
power output of generators at bus 2 and 22 is negative and the rest generators are scheduled at positive reactive
power output. It means these generators are absorbing reactive power, whereas the rest generators are supplying
reactive power. At bus 1, the reactive generation is 0.580898 p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.499529
p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 2, the conventional generator is scheduled at its minimum
reactive generation (i.e. -0.5p.u.MVar). At bus 7, the reactive generation is 0.52p.u.MVar in 1st hour which
reduced to 0.40p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 13, the reactive generation is
0.29p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.00p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 15, the
reactive generation is 1.1p.u.MVar in each hour. At bus 18, the reactive generation is 0.69p.u.MVar in 1st hour
which reduced to 0.84p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 21, the reactive generation is
0.33p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.64p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 23, the
reactive generation is 0.64p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.40p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th
hour. It is observed from this discussion that reactive power of conventional generator is reduced considerably
with the increment in DG output.
The DG active and reactive power output in each hour is shown in Fig. 4 and 5 respectively. It is observed
that the optimal location is at bus 5 in each hour. In Fig. 6 and 7 the active and reactive power nodal price at
each bus are shown respectively. From Fig.6 it is observed that the maximum active power nodal price occur at
bus 2. In 1st hour when the DG generation is minimum at 0.0342p.u.MW the real power nodal price at this bus
is 36.04636$/MWh and when the DG output is near to the rated value the real power nodal price at this bus
reduced considerably (i.e. at DG output 1.46 MW the real power nodal price at bus 2 35.16172$/MWh). As the
DG output increases from its minimum value to its rated value the real power nodal price at each bus reduces.
Fig.7 shows the reactive power nodal price at each bus in each hour. It is observed that the reactive power nodal
price at bus 6 in each hour is maximum.
The Lagrangian multiplier for reactive power can be both positive and negative. The reactive power price
negative sign indicates the negative sign associated with Lagrange multiplier corresponding to reactive power
balance equation, however, the price has to be paid for reactive power absorption as well as for injecting
reactive power in the network. It is observed from Fig. 8 that the active power loss decreases as the output of
DG increases and when the Output of DG at its rated value the maximum reduction takes place. In period 8, 15
and 21 when the output of DG is near to its rated value which shows the maximum reduction in each line. The
maximum losses are occurring in line 11 in each hour. It is observed from the Fig. 9 that the minimum voltage
occurs at bus 3 in each period of the day. As the output of DG reaches its rated value in periods 8, 15 and 20 the
voltage at bus 5, 10, 18 and 21 improve with the marginal change in the voltage of the other buses.

52
 Real power nodal price ($/MWh)
Conventional generation (MW)
8 40

35
6
30
4
25

2 20

0 15
24
24 20
20 16 24
16 20
12 16
12 16 8 12
8 12 4 8
4 8 4
4 0 0
0 0 Bus number Hrs.
Bus number Hrs

Fig. 2 Real power generation (p.u.MW) Fig.6 Real power nodal price ($/MWh) at each bus

Reactive power nodal price ($/MVarh)

Conventional generation (MVar)

2
1.5

1 0

0.5 -2

0 -4

-0.5 -6
24 24
20 20 24
16 20 16 20
12 16 12 16
8 12 8 12
4 8 4 8
4 4
0 0 0 0
Bus number Hrs Bus number Hrs.

Fig.3 Reactive power generation (p.u.Mvar) Fig.7 Reactive Power nodal price ($/MVarh) at each bus

1.5
DG active power(MW)

0.05
Real power loss (MW)

1 0.04

0.03

0.5 0.02

0.01
0
24 0
20 3836
16 24 30 24
20 24 20
12 16 18 16
8 12 12
4 8 12 8
4 6 4
0 0 0 0
Bus number Hrs Line number Hrs

Fig.4 DG active power output (p.u.MW) Fig.8 Real power loss (p.u.MW) in each line with one DG

0.8 1.1
DG reactive power (MVar)

0.6 1.05
Voltage (p.u.)

0.4 1

0.2 0.95

0 0.9
24 24
20 20 24
16 24 16 20
20 12 16
12 16 8 12
8 12 8
4 8 4 4
4 0 0
0 0 Bus number Hrs
Bus number Hrs

Fig. 5 DG reactive power output (p.u.MVar) at 0.9 power factor Fig. 9 Voltage profile with one DG
lagging

3.3. Case2 (with two DG)

It is observed that for minimization of fuel cost the optimal bus location of DG is bus-5. At cut in speed of
wind the DG output power is 0.0342p.u.MW and 0.01654p.u.MVar (i.e. in 1st hour). The fuel cost of
conventional generator in 1st hour is 14624.23$/hr. This is the maximum fuel cost obtained with two DG. It is
with the optimal location of DG as 4 and 5. At the rated wind speed 12m/s the DG output power is
1.4649p.u.MW and 0.70951p.u.MVar (i.e. in 8th hour). The fuel cost in 8th hour is 14585.57$/hr. This is the
optimum fuel cost obtained with two DGs. The optimal location of DG is obtained at bus-3 and bus-5. Hence, it

53
can be concluded that as the wind speed increases, the DG output increases and reaches near to its rated value.
The minimum cost is obtained at the rated speed at 8, 15 and 20th hour.
Conventional generation (MW)

Real power nodal price ($/MWh)

8
40

6 35

4 30

2 25

20
0
24
20 15
16 2
20 24
12 16 20
8 12 16 24
4 8 20
4 12 16
0 0 8 12
Bus number Hrs 8
4 4
0 0
Bus number Hrs.
Fig.10 Real power generation (p.u.MW) Fig. 14 Real power nodal price ($/MWh) at each bus with two DG

Reactive power nodal price ($/MVarh)

2
Conventional generation(MVar)

1.5
0
1
-2
0.5
-4
0
-6
-0.5 24
24 20 24
16 20
20 12 16
16 20 8 12
12 16 4 8
8 12 4
4 8 0 0
4 Bus number Hrs.
0 0
Bus number Hrs

Fig.15 Reactive power nodal price ($/MVarh) at each bus with two
Fig.11 Reactive power generation (p.u.MVar) DG

1.5 0.05
Active power loss (MW)

0.04
DG active power

1
0.03

0.02
0.5
0.01

0 0
24 40
20 24
36
16 20 30 24
12 16 24 20
8 12 18 16
8 12 12
4 4 8
0 0 6 4
Bus number Hrs 0 0
Line number Hrs

Fig.16 Real power loss (p.u.MW) in each line with two DG

Fig.12 DG Active power output (p.u.MW)

1.1
0.8
DG reactive power(MVar)

1.05
Voltage (p.u.)

0.6
1
0.4
0.95
0.2
0.9
0 24
24 20 24
20 24 16 20
16 20 12 16
12 16 8 12
8 12 4 8
4 8
0 4
0 0
4 0
Bus number Hrs Bus number Hrs

Fig. 17 voltage profile with two DG

Fig.13 DG reactive Power output (p.u.MVar) at 0.9 power factor

The optimal conventional generation schedule is given in Fig.10 and 11. It is observed from Fig. 10 that at
bus 1 in 1st hour the active generation is 1.467p.u.MW and reduced to its minimum value (i.e. 0.15p.u.MW) in
8th hour. From 1 to 8 hours the reduction occurs continuously in active generation of the generator at bus 1 as

54
the output of DG increases with wind speed. At bus 2 the generator is scheduled at its minimum generation (i.e.
0.15p.u.MW) in each hour. At bus 7, 13, 16, 22 and 23 the conventional generators are scheduled at its
maximum generation limit in each hour. At bus 15, when DG output is minimum the conventional generation is
at its maximum limit 2.15p.u.MW and When DG out increases to its rated value, the conventional active
generation at bus 15 reduces to 0.984p.u.MW. At bus 21the active generation is reduced with increment in DG
output and it is minimum whenever the DG output is at its rated value. It is observed that the reduction occurs in
generator at bus 1, 15 and 21. It is because of the fuel cost is more at these buses as compared to other buses.
In Fig.11 the reactive power generation of conventional generator is shown. It is observed that the reactive
power output of generators at bus 2 and 22 is negative and the rest generators are scheduled at positive reactive
power output. It means these generators are absorbing reactive power, whereas the rest generators are supplying
reactive power. At bus 1, the reactive generation is 0.577p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to
0.29029p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 2, the conventional generator is scheduled at its
minimum reactive generation (i.e. -0.5p.u.MVar). At bus 7, the reactive generation is 0.5189p.u.MVar in 1st
hour which reduced to 0.454p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 13, the reactive generation is
0.2839p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.00p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 15, the
reactive generation is 1.1p.u.MVar in each hour except 8, 15 and 20th hours, when the DG output is at its rated
value. At bus 18, the reactive generation is 0.699p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.64p.u.MVar with
increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 21, the reactive generation is 0.338p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to
0.116p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 23, the reactive generation is 0.683p.u.MVar in 1st
hour which reduced to 0.389p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. It is observed from this discussion
that reactive power of conventional generator is reduced considerably with the increment in DG output.
The DG active and reactive power output in each hour is shown in Fig. 12 and 13 respectively. It is observed
that the optimal location is at bus 5 in each hour. In Fig. 14 and 15 the active and reactive power nodal price at
each bus are shown respectively. From Fig.14 it is observed that the maximum active power nodal price occur at
bus 2. In 1st hour when the DG generation is minimum at 0.0342p.u.MW the real power nodal price at this bus is
36.02136$/MWh and when the DG output is near to the rated value the real power nodal price at this bus
reduced considerably (i.e. at DG output 1.46 MW the real power nodal price at bus-2 is 29.58406$/MWh). As
the DG output increases from its minimum value to its rated value the real power nodal price at each bus
reduces. Fig.15 shows the reactive power nodal price at each bus in each hour. It is observed that the reactive
power nodal price at bus 6 in each hour is maximum. The Lagrangian multiplier for reactive power can be both
positive and negative. The reactive power price negative sign indicates the negative sign associated with
Lagrange multiplier corresponding to reactive power balance equation, however, the price has to be paid for
reactive power absorption as well as for injecting reactive power in the network. The reactive power nodal price
is maximum at bus-3 in each hour.
The active power loss decreases as the output of DG increases and when the Output of DG at its rated value
the maximum reduction takes place shown in Fig16. In period 8, 15 and 21 when the output of DG is near to its
rated value which shows the maximum reduction in each line. The maximum losses are occurring in line 11 in
each hour. The minimum voltage occurs at bus 3 in each period of the day. As the output of DG reaches its rated
value in periods 8, 15 and 20 the voltage at bus 5, 10, 18 and 21 improve with the marginal change in the
voltage of the other buses shown in Fig.17.

3.4. Case3 (with three DG)

It is observed that for minimization of fuel cost the optimal bus locations of DG are buses 3, 4 and 5 in some
hours and buses 4, 5, 6 in some hours. At cut in speed of wind the DG output power is 0.0342p.u.MW and
0.01654p.u.MVar (i.e. in 1st hour). The fuel cost of conventional generator in 1st hour is 14623.71$/hr. This is
the maximum fuel cost obtained with three DG. It is with the optimal location of DG as 4, 5 and 6. At the rated
wind speed 12m/s the DG output power is 1.4649p.u.MW and 0.70951p.u.MVar (i.e. in 8th hour). The fuel cost
in 8th hour is 14577.57$/hr. This is the minimum fuel cost obtained with three DG. It is with the optimal location
of DG as buses 3, 4 and 5. It is observed from the Table 6.3 that whenever DG output is greater than or equal to
0.4191p.u.MW the optimal locations of DG are buses 3, 5, and 4. Whereas below this value, the optimal
locations of DG are buses 4, 5 and 6.Hence, it can be concluded that as the wind speed increases the DG output
increases and reaches near to its rated value. The minimum fuel cost is obtained at the rated speed in 8, 15 and
20th hours.
The optimal conventional generation schedule is given in Fig.18 and 19. It is observed from Fig.18 that at
bus 1 in 1st hour the active generation is 1.467p.u.MW and reduced to its minimum value (i.e. 0.15p.u.MW) in
8th hour. From 1 to 8 hours the reduction occurs continuously in active generation of the generator at bus 1 as
the output of DG increases with wind speed. At bus 2 the generator is scheduled at its minimum generation (i.e.

55
0.15p.u.MW) in each hour. At bus 16, 22 and 23 the conventional generators are scheduled at its maximum
generation limit in each hour. At bus 7, 13 and 15 when DG output is minimum the conventional generation is at
its maximum limit and When DG out increases to its rated value, the conventional active generation at bus 15
reduces to the minimum limits. At bus 21, the active generation is reduced with increment in DG output and it
is minimum limit of active generation whenever the DG output is at its rated value. It is observed that more
reduction occurs in generator at bus 1, 15 and 21. It is because of the fuel cost is more at these buses as
compared to other buses.
Conventional generation (MW)

8 0.8

DG reactive power(MVar)
6 0.6

4 0.4

2 0.2

0 0
24 24
20 24 20 24
16 20 16 20
12 16 12 16
8 12 8 12
4 8 4 8
4 4
0 0 0 0
Bus number Hrs Bus number Hrs

Fig.18 Real power generation (p.u.MW) Fig.21 DG reactive power output (p.u.MVar) at 0.9 power factor
lagging
Conventional generation(MVar)

1.5
Real power nodal price ($/MWh)

40
1 35

0.5 30

25
0
20
-0.5 15
24 24
20 24 20
16 20 16 24
12 16 20
12 16
8 12 8 12
4 8 4 8
4 4
0 0 0 0
Bus number Hrs Bus number Hrs

Fig.19 Reactive power generation (p.u.MVar) Fig.22 Real power nodal price ($/MWh) with three DG
Reactive power nodal price ($/MVarh)

1.5 2
DG active power (MW)

0
1
-2
0.5
-4

0 -6
24 24
20 24 20 24
16 20 16 20
12 16 12 16
8 12 8 12
4 8 4 8
4 4
0 0 0 0
Bus number Hrs Bus number Hrs

Fig.20 DG active power output (p.u.MW) Fig.23 Reactive power nodal price ($/MVarh) with three DG

56
 0.05 1.1
Active power loss (MW)

0.04
1.05

Voltage (p.u.)
0.03
1
0.02

0.01 0.95

0
0.9
3836
30
24
24 20
24 20 16 24
18 16 20
12 12 12 16
6 8 8 12
4 4 8
0 0 4
Line number Hrs 0 0
Bus number Hrs

Fig.24 Active loss (p.u.MW) in each line with three DG

Fig.25 Voltage profile with three DG
The reactive power generation of conventional generators are shown in Fig.19. It is observed that the reactive
power output of generators at bus 2 and 22 is negative and the rest generators are scheduled at positive reactive
power output. It means these generators are absorbing reactive power, whereas the rest generators are supplying
reactive power. At bus 1, the reactive generation is 0.6106 p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to -
0.1947p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 2, the conventional generator is scheduled at its
minimum reactive generation (i.e. -0.5p.u.MVar). At bus 7, the reactive generation is 0.5144p.u.MVar in 1st
hour which reduced to 0.346p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 13, the reactive generation is
0.252p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.00p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 15, the
reactive generation is 1.1p.u.MVar in each hour except 8, 15 and 20th hours, when the DG output is at its rated
value. In these periods the reactive generation at bus 15 reduced considerably. At bus 18, the reactive generation
is 0.7016p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.6509p.u.MVar with increment in output in 8th hour. At bus 21,
the reactive generation is 0.344p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.1519p.u.MVar with increment in output
in 8th hour. At bus 23, the reactive generation is 0.635p.u.MVar in 1st hour which reduced to 0.1529p.u.MVar
with increment in output in 8th hour. It is observed from this discussion that reactive power of conventional
generator is reduced considerably with the increment in DG output.
The DG active and reactive power output in each hour is shown in Fig.20 and 21 respectively. It is observed
that the optimal location is at bus 5 in each hour. In Fig.22 and 23, the active and reactive power nodal price at
each bus are shown respectively. It is observed that the maximum active power nodal price occur at bus 4. In 1st
hour when the DG generation is minimum at 0.0342p.u.MW, the real power nodal price at this bus is
35.88437$/MWh and when the DG output is near to the rated value the real power nodal price at this bus
reduces considerably (i.e. at DG output 1.46 MW the real power nodal price at bus 4 is 19.95556$/MWh). As
the DG output increases from its minimum value to its rated value the real power nodal price at each bus
reduces. It is observed that the reactive power nodal price at bus 6 in each hour is higher due to more reactive
power requirement at this bus. The Lagrangian multiplier for reactive power can be both positive and negative.
The reactive power price negative sign indicates the negative sign associated with Lagrange multiplier
corresponding to reactive power balance equation, however, the price has to be paid for reactive power
absorption as well as for injecting reactive power in the network.
It is observed from Fig.24 that the active power loss decreases as the output of DG increases and when the
Output of DG at its rated value the maximum reduction takes place. In period 8, 15 and 21 when the output of
DG is near to its rated value which shows the maximum reduction in each line. The maximum losses are
occurring in line 11 in each hour. It is observed from the Fig.25 that the minimum voltage occurs at bus 3 in
each period of the day. As the output of DG reaches its rated value in periods 8, 15 and 20 the voltage at bus 5,
10, 18 and 21 improve with the marginal change in the voltage of the other buses.
The fuel cost reduction with wind generators for all the cases is shown in Fig.26. It is observed that there is
considerable reduction in fuel cost of conventional generators with wind generation added into the system. The
losses in the system also reduce considerably with wind integration into the system. There is also considerable
reduction in the nodal prices at each bus. Thus, the consumers are benefited with wind power availability. This
study can help for the better planning of the system with wind integration.

57
 Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
14630
14620
14610

Fuel cost with DG

14600
14590
14580
14570
14560
14550
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324
Bus number

Fig.26 Fuel cost of conventional generators with DG

4. Conclusions

With wind integration, it is observed that it has considerable impact on the losses reduction and fuel cost savings
of conventional generators due to their power output reduction. The losses in the system are reduced. The nodal
prices are observed to reduce with wind integration that improves the energy market efficiency and can make
the wind generation technologies more viable into the commercial sector.

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58
 ICAER-2015

Effect of Short Chain Alcohols on Yield of Biodiesel Produced

from Pongamia Oil
Puneet Verma, M.P. Sharma, Gaurav Dwivedi
Biofuel Research Laboratory, Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Techonology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India -
247667

Abstract

The crude oil prices in world market is increasing day by day and focus is being shifted to find out substitutes of petroleum
diesel and biodiesel has emerged out to be potential alternative fuel. In earlier times, biodiesel was mainly being produced
from edible oils but that has led negative impact due to scarcity of food crops in developing nations. So non-edible oils are
found to be suitable for biodiesel production and Pongamia oil is selected as it is 2nd in availability among non-edible oils.
Main hindrance towards production of biodiesel is the technologies adopted. Up till now, only methanol and to a lesser extent
ethanol has been preferred for transesterification. There is scope of using higher alcohols for production of biodiesel and as
n-butanol can be obtained from renewable sources, it also holds good prospect. As per the literature, optimised reaction
parameters have been studied and followed for transesterification reactions to reduce the cost of production which includes,
1% Catalyst Concentration of NaOH by weight of oil, 6:1 alcohol to oil molar ratio, 60 °C reaction temperature and 60
minutes reaction time. Yield of biodiesel prepared from different short chain alcohols (methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol and n-
butanol) was compared for optimising the selection of alcohol

Keywords: Biodiesel, Alcohols, Transesterification, Pongamia, Renewable Energy

1. Introduction

World energy crisis, depletion of the world's petroleum reserves and the increasing environmental concerns are
resulting in great demand for alternative sources of petroleum-based fuel. Therefore, many countries have started
to take a series of research to resolve this problem. Biodiesel is a non-toxic, biodegradable, renewable fuel which
can be used as alternative fuel. Biodiesel is produced from a range of organic feedstock including fresh or waste
vegetable oils, animal fats, and oilseed plants. It has significantly lower emissions than petroleum-based diesel
and in addition, biodiesel is better than diesel fuel in terms of sulphur content, flash point, aromatic content and
biodegradability [1]. It has been reported that biodiesel combustion can result in less air pollutant emissions, such
as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, hydrocarbons, but with slightly higher nitrogen oxides.
Since the feedstock of biodiesel is mostly renewable, it significantly reduces carbon dioxide emission during its
whole life cycle. There are some physical properties for biodiesel such as viscosity, specific gravity, flash point
and refractive index, which they change from, base oil to biodiesel properties [2-4]. Pongamia oil is one of the
potential oils with yearly production of 200 t (metric ton), out of which 6% is being presently utilized. The main
production area for the Pongamia oil is in the village level and villagers use this oil in some of their daily activities.
This paper highlights the efforts made to develop biodiesel from Pongamia oil, which is available in rural India.
Our experiment in the lab closely agrees with the reported literature that the presence of high FFA makes
transesterification reaction difficult because of the formation of soap with alkaline catalyst. In the present set of
experiments, the alternative route of using acid catalyst was adopted for biodiesel production from Pongamia oil.
Typically Pongamia oil, collected for the present investigation, was observed to contain 8.2% of free fatty acid
(FFA). It is relevant to emphasize here that oleic acid happens to be the major constituent of Pongamia oil. Such
steps were adopted to evaluate the effect of FFA level on the production of biodiesel process with different alcohol
using acid catalyst (H 2 SO 4 ) and then base catalyst (NaOH) was used to prepare biodiesel with low FFA content
[5-8]. The transesterification process is usually carried out with an alcohol in presence of acid or base catalyst.
The most used alcohol is methanol because of its low price, reactivity and easy phase separation. However, there
are also disadvantages in the application of methanol such as its dangerousness, because of the danger of its low
boiling point, or its fossil fuel origin. Besides this, the advantages of using ethanol to obtain biodiesel are its lower
toxicity and its renewable origin from biomass. Nevertheless, ethanol is more expensive at the same purity
conditions necessary in the ethanolysis to avoid secondary reactions, like methanol. Regarding propanol as raw
material for producing biodiesel, there is not a lot of information about either quality parameters or reaction
optimization. This fact is probably because it has lower reactivity than methanol or ethanol, it is more expensive
and it does not come from renewable sources. Finally, butanol can be obtained from biomass, like ethanol, and

59
the biodiesel obtained from butyl alcohol can be totally biodegradable and renewable. However, the main problem
with butanol in the transesterification reaction is its low reactivity and the need to carry out the reaction at higher
temperatures with more catalyst consumption than in the methanol case [9]. In this paper, an attempt has been
made to investigate the effect of short chain alcohols on yield of biodiesel produced from Pongamia Oil.

2. Material and Methods

Pongamia oil (PO) was purchased from M/s Katyani Exports Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. All chemicals like KOH,
different alcohols like methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol were of AR grade and 99% pure. Pongamia oil
was filtered to remove all insoluble impurities from the oil followed by heating at 100 °C for 10 min to remove
all the moisture. The fuel properties of Pongamia oil after refining were determined as per standard methods. The
properties of Pongamia oil are reported in Table 1.

Table 1: Fuel Properties of Pongamia Oil

S. No. Properties Pongamia Oil

1. Net calorific value (MJ/kg) 29.90

2. Flash point (°C) 208

3. Viscosity (cSt, at 40 °C) 21.4

4. FFA (%) 8.2

5. Density (kg/m3 40 °C) 875

3. Experimental Procedure

3.1 Pre-esterification step

Due to the fact that Pongamia Oil has a high FFA concentration (8.2%) a pre-esterification reaction with H 2 SO 4
was carried out to have a suitable raw material to conduct the transesterification step with potassium hydroxide.
The pre-esterification reaction has been carried out in a 3000 mol jacketed three necked batch reactor with reaction
temperature of 60 °C, alcohol:oil ratio of 6, a catalyst percent of 1%, a reaction time of 60 minutes and an impeller
speed of 100 rpm. When the esterification reaction is finished it is necessary to decant the methanol– catalyst
phase and conduct washing and a purification steps to remove the remains of catalyst in the esterified product.
Next, the esterified oil is washed with distilled water, until the remains of catalyst were removed and heated to
remove water content [10-13]. In this first step the FFA concentration is reduced up to 1.82%.

3.2 Transesterification step

Experiments have been carried out in a 500 ml three necked batch reactor, where the total volume of esterified oil
is 250 ml. The reactor is equipped with a reflux condenser to return the evaporated alcohol back to the reactor, a
mechanical stirrer and a stopper to remove samples. Experiments have been performed according to the following
procedure. First, esterified oil is added to the reactor. When the set temperature is reached the catalyst and the
methanol are introduced in the reactor and just at that moment the reaction time is considered zero. During the
experiments, the pressure and the impeller speed are maintained constant. The mixture is transferred to a
separating funnel, allowing glycerol to separate by gravity. After the decantation and washing steps, product in
heated at 105 °C for about 10 minutes to remove the water content.

5. Result Discussion

5.1. Biodiesel Yield

Before conducting the transesterification reaction, the CJCO was subjected to an acid esterification reaction with
methanol. Once the oil is esterified, the transesterification reactions with methanol, ethanol, n-butanol and 2-
propanol were carried out at 60 °C and catalyst concentration 1 wt.%. The reaction time was 30 min, the alcohol:

60
oil ratio was 6 and the stirring speed was 100 rpm, and were maintained constant. The obtained results are shown
in Figure 1.

Methanol Ethanol 2-propanol Butanol

90

80

70

60
Yield (%)

50

40

30
20
10
0
Pongamia Biodiesel from different alcohols

Fig. 1. Comparison of Yield of Pongamia Biodiesel prepared with different alcohols

Figure 1 shows the comparison of yield among different alkyl esters of Pongamia Oil. Methyl Ester of Pongamia
oil had yield of 88.9% whereas ethyl ester of Pongamia oil had yield of 82.3%. After the washing process, it was
observed that the separation of water from the ester obtained by using 2-propanol needed much more time
compared to that in methanol usage. This shows 2-propanol has much more of a tendency to absorb water during
the washing process than methanol, as expressed in the literature [14]. For Butanol, yield obtained for biodiesel
was 84.3%. It was observed that phase separation was difficult for higher alcohols and took more time as compared
to methanol.

5.2. Fuel Properties

5.2.1 Flash Point

According to European biodiesel standard EN 14214 flash point of biodiesel must be at least 120 °C. The flash
point of each biodiesel samples ranged from 140 to 152 °C showing that samples does not contain any volatile
impurities that may affect their properties and effect of different alcohols on Flash point was marginal. Similar
FAAE flash point values are described in literature [15].

5.2.2 Viscosity

The higher viscosity of fuel affects the efficiency of fuel injection system performance more importantly at lower
temperature. According to European biodiesel standard EN 14214 viscosity (at 40 °C) should lie between 3.5 and
5.0 mm2/s.

61
 Methanol Ethanol 2-propanol Butanol

6
Kinematic Viscotiy (mm2/s)

0
Alkyl Esters of Pongamia Oil

Fig. 2. Comparison of Viscosity of different alkyl esters of Pongamia Oil

For methyl ester and ethyl ester, viscosity lies between the specified range by EN14214 that is 4.1 and 4.9 mm2/s
respectively. But propyl and butyl ester had higher viscosity, 5.4 and 6.2 mm2/s respectively, due to increase of
the number of carbon atoms in hydrocarbon chain of the alcohol moiety.

5.2.3 Calorific Value

Calorific values shows the ability of fuel to generate energy and represents the energetic value of fuel. With
rises with the increases of hydrocarbon chain length in FAAE molecule. Figure 3 shows the calorific value of
different samples of alkyl esters of Pongamia oil.

Methanol Ethanol 2-propanol Butanol

43
42
Calorific Value (MJ/kg)

41
40
39
38
37
36
35
Alkyl Esters of Pongamia Oil

Fig. 3. Comparison of Calorific Value of different alkyl esters of Pongamia Oil

Methyl ester of Pongamia Oil showed minimum calorific value of 37.98 MJ/kg which rose with use of higher
alcohols. Biodiesel prepared with butanol was found to be exhibiting highest calorific value of 42.76 MJ/kg.

62
5.2.4 Cold Flow Properties

Cloud Point (CP), Pour Point (PP) and Cold Filter Plugging Point (CFPP) constitute the cold flow properties at
the low temperatures. CFPP, CP and PP values for FAME are higher than winter diesel fuels that make FAME
difficult to use at lower temperatures. Figure 4 explains the cold flow properties of different samples of biodiesel.

CP PP

25

20
CP and PP (C)

15

10

0
Methanol Ethanol 2-propanol Butanol
Alkyl Esters of Pongamia Oil

Fig. 4. Cold Flow Properties of different alkyl esters of Pongamia Oil

Best cold flow properties were observed for fatty acid butyl ester that was CP and PP to be 12.4 and 10.7 °C
respectively. With the increase of the length of hydrocarbon chain of alcohol moiety, the resulting CFPP, CP and
PP values are lower when compared to alkyl ester of lower alcohols

6. Conclusion

Pongamia Biodiesel was prepared with the help of different short chain alcohols. Reaction conditions kept
were 1% Catalyst Concentration of NaOH by weight of oil, 6:1 alcohol to oil molar ratio, 60 °C reaction
temperature and 60 minutes reaction time. After conducting the experiments, it was found out that methanol is
the most suitable among different alcohols from prospects of viscosity and yield obtained and 2-propanol gives
least yield of biodiesel. In addition to it, cold flow properties and calorific value are best obtained with butanol
owing to longer hydrocarbon chain.

References

[1] P. Verma, M.P. Sharma, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research. 1(5) (2015) 245-250.
[2] R. Ghanei, G.R. Moradi, R. TaherpourKalantari, E. Arjmandzadeh. Fuel Processing Technology. 92 (2011) 1593–1598
[3] P. Verma, V.M. Singh, Journal of Integr. Res. Adv. 1(1) (2014) 1-4.
[4] M. Chai, Q. Tu, M. Lu, Y.J. Yang, Fuel Processing Technology. 125 (2014) 106–113.
[5] G. Dwivedi, M.P. Sharma. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 31 (2014) 650-656.
[6] M. Naika, L.C. Meher, S.N. Naik, L.M. Das, Biomass and Bioenergy. 32 (2008) 354-357.
[7] P Verma, M.P. Sharma, G. Dwivedi. Materials Today: Proceedings. 2 (2015) 3196 – 3202.
[8] G. Dwivedi, M.P. Sharma. Fuel 145 (2015) 256-262.
[9] M. Sánchez, F. Bergamin, E. Peña, M. Martínez, J. Aracil. Fuel. 143 (2015) 183–188.
[10] A. Bouaid, N. El boulifi, K. Hahati, M. Martinez, J. Aracil. Chemical Engineering Journal. 238 (2014) 234–241
[11] B. Likozar, J. Levec. Applied Energy. 123 (2014) 108–120.
[12] C. Brunschwig, W. Moussavou, J. Blin. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. 38 (2012) 283-301.
[13] I. Reyero, G. Arzamendi, S. Zabala, L.M. Gandía. Fuel Processing Technology. 129 (2015) 147–155.
[14] H. Sanli, M. Canakci. Energy & Fuels. 22 (2008) 2713–2719.

63
[15] K. Malins, V. Kampars, R. Kampare, J. Prilucka, J. Brinks, R. Murnieks, L. Apseniece. Fuel. 137 (2014) 28–35.

64
 ICAER-2015

Comparison of the performance of box type solar cookers -- when

the cooking pot is kept directly on the absorber plate and when
raised using lugs: an experimental study
Md Reyaz Arifa, Naiem Akhtara,*
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, UP, India

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of raising the cooking pots from the absorber plate inside the box type solar cooker using lugs
instead of putting them directly on the absorber surface. Comparative experimental studies have been carried out to observe
the effect of raising cooking pots from the absorber plate using lugs on the performance of box type solar cooker. Two box
type solar cookers of identicalthermal performance have been used. In one cooker the cooking pot is kept directly on the
absorber plate while in the other cooker the cooking pot is raised from the absorber plate using lugs. The height of the lugs is
varied from 1 mm to 9 mm.It is found from the experimental study that raising the vessel by using lugs will not help in
improving the performance of the solar cooker, rather, it will reduce the heat transfer from the absorber plate to the cooking
vessel. Hence, it is recommended that the cooking vessel should be put directly on the absorber surface instead of raising the
vessel from the absorber plate using lugs.
Keywords: Box type solar cooker; cooking pot on absorber plate; cooking pot on lugs.

1. Introduction

Amongst the various types of solar cookers available the box type solar cookers are simple and low cost
cookers. The performance of box type solar cooker depends on many parameters such as design parameters,
climatic variables and operational parameters. The design parameters include shape of cooker, number of
glazing, properties of black paint used in the tray, insulating material and effectiveness of reflector-booster
mirror; the climatic variables include solar radiation, ambient temperature and wind speed; operational
parameters include the amount and type of food kept for cooking and number of cooking vessels used.In order
to improve the thermal performance of the box type solar cookers researchers [1-9] have studied several aspects
of these parameters. In box-type solar cookers the cooking pots are generally placed directly on the surface of
the absorber plate. However, Narasimha Rao and Subramanyam [6] have reported that a reduction in cooking
time is possible by raising the vessel on some supports (lugs) instead of keeping the vessels directly on the floor
of the absorber plate. As depicted in Fig.1 Narasimha Rao and Subramanyam [6] performed the experiment by
putting both the cooking vessels in the same cooker.

Fig. 1. Box type solar cooker with a cooking vessel on lugs and another identical vessel on
the floor of the cooker [Reference: Narasimha Rao and Subramanyam (2003)]

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9457694976
E-mail address: akhtar_n@rediffmail.com

65
 In their experiment one vessel was raised from the absorber plate using lugs while other identical vessel was
kept directly on the floor of the cooker. They have also used the booster mirror in their experimental study. On
the basis of their experiment they have reported that the temperature of the water kept in the vessel supported on
lugs achieves maximum temperature earlier as compared to that in the vessel kept on the floor. However, this
conclusion seems to be incorrect from the heat transfer point of view. In fact the heat transfer from the absorber
plate to the vessel when the vessel is in direct contact with the absorber plate will be more as compared to the
heat transfer when the vessel is raised above the absorber plate using lugs. The reason for their incorrect
conclusion may be that they have used booster mirror and both the cooking vessels are kept in the same cooker,
consequently, at a particular instant of time the solar radiation may not fall on both the vessels equally.
A better method to examine the effect of lugs would be to use two solar cookers of identical thermal
performance and without the use of booster mirror. In one cooker the cooking pot should be kept directly in
contact with the absorber plate and in another cooker the cooking vessel be raised using lugs.

2. Mechanisms of heat flow to the contents of cooking pot

Solar radiation incident on the aperture of the solar cooker is transmitted through the glass cover. The
transmitted radiation is mostly absorbed by the black absorber plate and part of it is also absorbed by the cover
of the cooking vessel which is generally blackened. The absorber plate of the cooker attains maximum
temperature, acts as a fin andthe heat is transferred to the contents of cooking vessel kept on the absorber plate
by conduction. Part of heat energy will also be received bythe radiation absorbed on the surface of the vessel.
This heat energy is utilized in cooking the food or heating the liquid in the cooking pot. Some of the heat is also
lost to the surrounding atmosphere mainly by convection and radiation in the upward direction and a small part
by conduction towards sides and bottom. The conduction heat transfer from absorber plate to the base of the
cooking vessel which is in direct contact with the high temperature absorber platewill be more effective than the
heat transfer when the cooking vessel is raised from the absorber using lugs.

3. Present work
In the present work a comparative study on the performance of the box type solar cooker is carried out in
order to see the effect of raising cooking pots from the absorber plate using lugs in the box-type solar cooker.
For this, two box type solar cookers are taken which are identical in shape, size and thermal performance †. In
one cooker the cooking vessel is kept directly on the absorber plate of the solar cooker while in the other cooker
the cooking vessel is raised above the absorber plate using lugs.

4. Experimentation
The experimental set-up of the present study consists of two identical box type solar cookers, cooking vessels
made of aluminium, a pyranometer along, and thermocouples with multimeter as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Photograph of experimental set-up

†
To check the identical thermal performance of the box type solar cookers, the first figure of merit (F1) and second figure of merit (F2)
have been evaluated following the procedure proposed by Mullick et al. [10] and also adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on
solar cooker; IS 13429: 2000 [11].

66
The aperture area of both the solar cookers is 48 cm x 48 cm. Absorber plate of the cookers is made of
aluminium sheet and painted black. The outside of the cooking vessels and the covers are also painted with dull
black paint. As shown in the schematic diagram, Fig. 3, the experiments have been carried out simultaneously
without lugs in cooker 1 and using lugs in cooker 2 so that the effect of lugs is studied alone and the effect of
other variables are the same in both the cases.

Double glass glazing

Cooking Vessel on Cooking Vessel

Absorber Plate Water on lugs
Insulation (glass wool) Lugs

Caster wheel

Cooker 1 Cooker 2

Fig. 3. Box type solar cookers with cooking vessel on absorber plate and cooking vessel on lugs, respectively.

The Pyranometer CMP11, manufactured by Kipp & Zonen, is used to measure the intensity of solar radiation.
Calibrated copper-constantan thermocouples are used to measure the pot content (water) temperatures, absorber
plate temperatures and ambient temperature.In order to compare the performance of box type solar cooker for
the two cases (i) when the vessel is kept directly on absorber plate and (ii) when the vessel is raised above the
absorber plate using lugs, both the identical solar cookers are kept side by side in the morning in the sunshine on
the clear days. The experiments have been performed without the use of the booster mirror of these cookers. In
one cooker the cooking pot is kept directly on the absorber plate while in the other cooker the cooking pot is
kept on three lugs placed at 120o. The cooking vessels used in both the cookers are of same size and both the
vessel contains same quantity of water. The pot content (water) temperatures for both the cases, ambient
temperature, and the intensity of solar radiation are recorded at an interval of 10 minutes.The experiments have
been carried out on several days for different heights of lug from 1 mm to 9 mm.

5. Results and discussion

Observations for the effect of raising cooking pots from the absorber plate using lugs in the box type solar
cooker were recorded over a number of days. Observations are taken for each height of lugs varying from 1 mm
to 9 mm for both the cases (i) when the vessel is kept directly on absorber plate and (ii) when the vessel is raised
above the absorber plate using lugs. The variation of temperature of pot contents (water) with the time of the
day for 6 mm, 7 mm and 8 mm heights of the lugsare shown in the Figs. 3-5, respectively.

110 900
27th April 2013
100 800
Solar radiation (W/m2 )

90 700
Temperature (oC)

Pot on absorber plate

80 Pot on lugs (6 mm) 600
Ambient temp.
70 500
Solar radiation
60 400

50 300

40 200

30 100
10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00
Time of the day (hours)
Fig. 4. Variation of intensity of solar radiation, ambient temperature and pot content temperatures
with time of the day for 6 mm height of lugs.

67
 100 900
18th April 2013
90 800

Solar radiation (W/m2 )

700
Temperature (oC)
80
Pot on absorber plate 600
70 Pot on lugs (7mm)
500
Ambient temp.
60
Solar radiation 400
50
300
40
200
30 100

20 0
09:45 10:15 10:45 11:15 11:45 12:15
Time of the day (hours)

Fig. 5. Variation of intensity of solar radiation, ambient temperature and pot content temperatures
with time of the day for 7 mm height of lugs.

100 900
13th May 2013
90 800

Solar radiation (W/m2 )

Pot on absorber plate 700
80
Temperature (oC)

Pot on lugs (8 mm) 600

70 Ambient temp.
500
Solar radiation
60
400
50
300
40
200

30 100

20 0
10:45 11:15 11:45 12:15
Time of the day (hours)

Fig. 6. Variation of intensity of solar radiation, ambient temperature and pot content temperatures
with time of the day for 8 mm height of lugs.

The rise in temperature of water for both the cases (i) when the vessel is kept directly on absorber plate and
(ii) when the vessel is raised above the absorber plate using lugs for different heights of lugs (1 mm to 9 mm)
for the time duration of 80 minutes is calculated for various daysof experiments. These values are presented in
Table 1 and a comparison of rise in temperature of water for the two cases with different heights of the lugs is
shown in Fig. 6. It is observed that for all the heights of lugs (1mm to 9 mm) the rise in temperature of water in
the pot kept directly on absorber plate is more as compared to the pot kept over the lugs. Thus, it is evident that
when the cooking vessel is kept directly on the absorber plate of the solar cooker then the heat transfer to the
contents of the vessel is more as compared to the vessel which is raised above the absorber plate by means of
lugs. Hence, the performance of the solar cooker will enhance when the vessel is kept on the absorber instead of
keeping the vessel on the lugs.

68
Table 1. Rise in temperature of water for 80 minutes time interval for different heights of lugs and average solar radiation during this period.

Temperature of water Rise in temperature

Initial temperature
after 80 minutes of water in 80 Temperature
of water
duration minutes duration difference Average
Height (oC)
(oC) (oC) in 80 solar
Date of lugs
minutes radiation
(mm)
duration (W/m2)
Pot kept on the Pot kept on the Without With (X-Y)
Absorber Absorber lugs lugs
Lugs Lugs (X) (Y)
plate plate

03.05.2013 1 29.42 29.46 74.85 71.33 45.43 41.87 3.56 692

04.05.2013 2 29.42 29.46 81.10 77.57 51.68 48.11 3.57 819

02.05.2013 3 29.42 29.46 85.19 73.42 55.77 43.96 11.81 778

30.04.2013 4 31.85 31.76 81.10 71.33 49.25 39.57 9.68 699

29.04.2013 5 34.26 34.05 91.20 73.42 56.94 39.37 17.57 759

27.04.2013 6 34.26 34.05 91.20 75.5 56.94 41.45 15.49 776

18.04.2013 7 26.98 27.14 76.95 67.11 49.97 39.97 10 748

13.05.2013 8 29.42 29.46 87.21 79.63 57.79 50.17 7.62 804

14.05.2013 9 31.85 31.76 81.10 73.42 49.25 41.66 7.59 772

60
Pot on Absorber Plate
Pot on lugs
Rise in Temperature (oC)

55

50

45

40

35
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Height of Lugs (mm)
Fig. 7. Variation of rise in temperature of water when pot is kept on absorber plate and when pot is kept on lugs Vs Height of lugs

6. Conclusions

On the basis of the present experimental study it is concluded that the performance of the solar cooker is
better when the cooking vessel is kept directly on the absorber plate as compared to the case when the cooking
vessel is raised from the absorber plate using lugs. Therefore, it is recommended that the cooking pots should be
kept directly on the absorber plate and should not be raised using lugs.

69
Acknowledgements
The authors are highly grateful to Professor M. Altamush Siddiqui, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
A.M.U. Aligarh, for his support and valuable suggestions in carrying out the work.

References

[1] A. Dang, An analytical study of a solar cooker augmented with a booster mirror, using pcm as storage, Energy Conversion and
Management 25 (1985) 255-261.
[2] M. Grupp, P. Montagne, M. Wackernagel, A novel advanced box-type solar cooker, Solar Energy 47 (1991) 107-113.
[3] S.C. Mullick, T.C. Kandpal, S. Kumar, Testing of box-type solar cooker: Second figure of merit F 2 and its variation with load and
number of pots, Solar energy 57 (1996) 409-413.
[4] A. Gaur, O.P. Singh, S.K. Singh, G.N. Pandey, Performance study of solar cooker with modified utensil, Renewable Energy 18
(1999) 121-129.
[5] O.V. Ekechukwu, N.T. Ugwuoke, Design and measured performance of a plane reflector augmented box-type solar-energy cooker,
Renewable Energy 28 (2003) 1935–1952.
[6] A.V. Narasimha Rao, S. Subramanyam, Solar cookers-Part-I: cooking vessel on lugs, Solar Energy 75 (2003) 181–185.
[7] A. Harmim, M. Boukar, M. Amar, Experimental study of a double exposure solar cooker with finned cooking vessel, Solar Energy 82
(2008) 287–289.
[8] A. Harmim, M. Belhamel, M. Boukar, M. Amar, Experimental investigation of a box-type solar cooker with a finned absorber plate,
Energy 35 (2010) 3799-3802.
[9] R. Mishra, T.K. Aseri, Thermal performance enhancement of box-type solar cooker: a new approach, International Journal of
Sustainable Energy 31 (2012) 107–118.
[10] S.C. Mullick, T.C. Kandpal, A.K. Saxena, Thermal test procedure for box-type solar cookers, Solar Energy 39 (1987) 353-360.
[11] BIS standards on solar cooker, IS 13429: (2000), PART-I Bureau of Indian Standards, Manak Bhawan, New Delhi.

70
 ICAER-2015

Energy Recovery during Biodegradation of Azo dye in Microbial

Fuel Cells
M. Danish Khana, Nishat Khana, Shaaikh Ziauddin Ahammadb, Mohammad Zain
Khana1, S Sabira
a
Environmental Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh UP, 202 002, India
b
Department of Biocehcmial Engg & Biotech, Indian Institue of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016, India

Abstract

Lately, microbial fuel cells have earned a lot of attention as an energy producing source due to continuously depleting non-
renewable sources of energy. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bio-electrochemical device that convert chemical into electrical
energy using microbes as catalyst. In the near future, the technology can evolve to serve the purpose of continuous energy
production. MFC can utilise different substrates like glucose, acetate, lactate, waste water etc. as carbon source for microbes.
At present, current and power production is relatively low but it is expected that with the advancement in technology through
improved knowledge, the performance of this system can be enhanced.
We conducted the anaerobic followed by aerobic treatment of a complex azo dye reactive orange 16 (RO 16) using acetate
as the substrate. The main focus of this work was to study the degradation rate and the energy generation from complex
organic matter and we obtained satisfactory results. For that, different concentrations of RO 16 were fed to a single
chambered microbial fuel cell (SMFC) coupled with an aerobic post treatment process for complete removal of azo-dyes and
its degradation products. The UV/VIS data showed more than 90% removal of dye colour i.e. decolourization with in the
first week of experiment. The COD removal efficiency obtained was also quite high upto 90%. GC/MS data revealed that
RO 16 was first converted to aromatic amines in SMFC which were further transformed in to phthalic acid and finally to
benzoic acid in the aerobic step. The experiment was continued for the time period of two months and a continuous current
production was recorded during the period. The maximum power density achieved was 115 mW/m2. Although the columbic
efficiency was quite low in the range of 1.88-3.4%, which implies reduced electron transfer rate from microbes to the
electrode due to various kinds of electron losses (ohmic losses, concentration losses etc). We also studied electrode surface
characteristics by SEM analysis. To study the effect of substrate on the electron transfer from substrate to anode and effect
of biofilm on anode, cyclic voltammetry (CV) was also performed.

Keywords: Fuel Cell, Bioenergy, Bioremediation, Azo dye, Power density

1. Introduction

MFCs are bioelectrochemical systems (BES) that convert the chemical energy in to electrical energy by the
action of microorganism under alternate anaerobic-aerobic conditions. It is only possible when the
microorganisms use MFC anode as terminal electron acceptors rather than natural acceptors such as oxygen,
nitrate or a soluble oxidizing agents. Microorganisms utilize a part of the energy for growth and transform the
rest into electricity thereby reducing the sludge production also.1-3 In addition to energy recovery, MFCs have
also been studied for biosensor development and other desalination applications.4,5

The performance of the MFC depends upon the electrochemical reaction occurring in the system which in turns
depends upon various factors such as pH, temperature, type of substrates, conductivity of the solution, reactor
design, resistance of the circuit, type of electrodes and associated losses.6,7

The work involves complete removal of RO 16 in a combined SMFC-activated sludge process along with
energy recovery. Efforts have been made to link the output power density with COD removal. The work further
involves identification of the products of biodegradation of RO 16 and investigation of its pathway. This is
basically extension of our recently published work in which we tried to degrade RO 16 under anaerobic
conditions in absence of any growth substrate.8

71
Nomenclature

MFC Microbial Fuel Cell

SMFC Single Chambered Microbial Fuel Cell
BES Bioelectrochemical Systems
RO 16 Reactive Orange 16, azo dye
COD Chemical Oxygen Demand, ppm
PD Power Density, mW/m2
CE Columbic Efficiency
qPCR Quantitative real time Polymerase Chain Reaction
GC/MS Gas Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometry

2. Experiment

In order to achieve complete removal of azo-dye and its degradation products a dual strategy was adopted
consisting of an anaerobic followed by aerobic treatment. A single chambered MFC was constructed in
accordance with Sevda et al.9 and used to degrade the azo-dye anaerobically. Briefly, the single chambered
MFC consist of a plexi glass chamber (100 mL volume) closed from the top to maintain anaerobic conditions. A
graphite anode (area 15.115 cm2) was inserted in to the plexi glass chamber while an identical graphite cathode
was placed besides the outer surface of the plexi glass chamber and both were connected with a copper wire
having an external resistance of 470 Ω. The two electrodes were kept separated by an ion permeable proton
exchange membrane (Nafion®).
The downstream aerobic degradation was carried out in a plexi glass chamber (100 mL) containing aerobic
sludge and left open to air. The contents were aerated by a domestic aeration pump at the rate of 2 cm s-1. The
reactor assembly is shown in Fig. 1.
The surface microstructures and composition of the mixed microbial culture were studied by a Scanning
electron microscope (JEOL JSM-6510 Japan) coupled with an Energy dispersive X-ray diffractometer while the
quantification of universal bacteria and the electrochemically active Geobacter species was done with the help
of a quantitative real time polymerase chain reactions (qPCR).

Fig. 1. Two stage strategy adopted for complete treatment of RO 16 along with its structure

72
3. Results and discussion

3.1. Dye decolorization

The decolorization efficiency was low initially due to the instability of the system. However, the
decolorization efficiency was improved appreciably after 25 h for all the test concentrations. After 168 h period
(7 days), more than 90% of the dye was removed (Fig. 2a).
A complete decolorization under anaerobic conditions does not mean complete removal of azo-dyes due to
their transformation in to colourless aromatic amines which are almost recalcitrant towards anaerobic treatment.
The absorbance peaks at 250 and 290 nm represents benzene and naphthalene rings while that at 386 and 490
nm represents the azo linkage and responsible for intense color.10,11 Appearance of some shoulder peaks in
SMFC treated effluent shows presence of some organic moiety; however, absence of any characteristic peak in
the aerobically treated sample shows complete removal of RO 16 in a combined anaerobic-aerobic process (Fig.
2b).

Fig. 2. (a) Dye decolorization efficiency in the SMFC (b) UV spectra of the samples (influent untreated RO 16,
SMFC treated and aerobically treated samples)

3.2. COD removal, power density and columbic efficiency

The reactor performance was also evaluated in terms of power density (mW/m2), COD removal (%) and

73
columbic efficiency (%).Initially the COD removal efficiencies were low since the system was unstable but as
soon as the system got stable the removal efficiencies increases and finally stabilized at 94% with simultaneous
increase in the output power densities.

The peaks shown in the PD plots (Fig. 3) represent fresh addition of acetate in order to maintain the
required feast to famine ratio which is a pre-requisite for energy production in SMFC. The power density is
directly related to the substrate concentration and therefore reduces towards the end of the experiment due to
substrate limitations (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Power density along with COD removal efficiency during the study (arrows are pointing
towards the COD removal efficiency after aerobic downstream process)

Coulombic efficiency (CE) for an anodic process is calculated on the basis of current output per unit of
COD removed while for a cathodic process it is simply equal to the percentage of electrons recovered.12 The
electricity generated in the process (based on CE values) can also be integrated for sustainable electrosynthesis
of various chemicals using the microbial electrosynthesis (MES) process which in turn fix carbon dioxide as
well.13,14 The CE of the system was lower in comparison to the data available in literature (Table-1). This may
be due to the lower voltage production rates caused by the presence of alternate electron acceptors (SO 4 2-, O2
etc), saturation kinetics, competing reactions (such as methanogenesis/fermentation) as well as the toxic and
persistent nature of RO 16.
The CE was much lower than our unpublished result where acid navy blue was treated in presence of
glucose in a MFC. The values are even lower than the CE reported by Bakhshian et al.15 and El-Mekawy et al.16
The lower values of CE suggest high degree of losses including ohmic, metabolic and concentration losses
within the system.

Table 1. Columbic efficiency for different concentrations of RO 16 during the study

S. No. RO 16 (mg L-1) Acetate (mg L-1) Time (h) ∆ COD (ppm) CE (%)

1. 50 1000 24 400 3.4

2. 100 1000 24 614 2.33
3. 200 1000 24 634 2.06
4. 400 1000 24 688 1.88

3.3. Surface morphology and chemical composition

The surface morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy while the chemical composition

74
was explored by EDX probe. The SEM images show the presence of diverse population of bacteria including
cocci, diatoms and rod shaped bacteria. The anaerobic sludge of the SMFC appears to be quite porous which
supports better mass transfer resulting in to higher degradation rates.
Addition of fresh feed containing acetate supplement the overall power production owing to sudden
improvement in the microbial activity. The EDX analysis showed the presence of various elements in the
microbial sludge including carbon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, silicon, aluminium etc in the mixed culture (Fig.
4). These elements were present in the extracellular polymeric substance secreted by the microorganisms as well
as in the mineral salt medium used in the present study.

Anaerobic Anaerobic

Fig. 4. SEM images and EDX spectra of anaerobic sludge inoculated in to SMFC

3.4. Microbial quantification by qPCR

Fig. 5 shows the population of the universal bacterial gene and the exoelectrogenic Geobacter species
based on qPCR data. The qPCR analysis was performed for both in the initial anaerobic inoculum and the final
anaerobic sludge obtained in SMFC at the end of the study. It is clear from the figure (Fig. 5) that the abundance
of Geobacter has been greatly increased during the course of study (around 1.5 times). However, the total
population of the universal bacteria has been diminished due to microbial inhibition caused by toxic substrate.
At the end of operation, the total universal bacterial population was dominated by Geobacter species.

75
Fig. 5. Quantification of the universal bacteria and exoelectrogenic Geobacter species by qPCR technique

3.5. Extraction and identification of products of biodegradation

The degraded samples (4 ml) were collected and extracted with ethyl acetate (1:1). The ester fractions were
evaporated to dryness and the residue was finally dissolved in 2 ml of methanol for GC/MS analysis. The
reports available in literature shows that the reductive cleavage of azo-bonds was the first step by the initial
attack of the anaerobic microorganisms resulting in to aromatic amines which then undergo a ring cleavage
under aerobic conditions.17,18
In the present case 6-acetylamino 3-amino naphthalene 2-sulfonic acid with m/e 281 and N (3,4- bis hydroxy
methylphenyl) acetamide m/e 223 were formed under anaerobic conditions. The aromatic amines were further
degraded under aerobic conditions to give phthalic acid (m/e 166) which then transformed in to benzoic acid
(m/e 122).
Based on the GC/MS data and probable degradation products, a degradation pathway for biodegradation of RO
16 in the combined anaerobic-aerobic treatment process has been proposed in Fig. 6.

76
Fig. 6. Probable degradation pathway of RO 16 in a combined process (a- reactive orange 16; b- 6-acetylamino
3-amino naphthalene 2-sulfonic acid; c- N 3,4- bis hydroxy methylphenyl acetamide; d- phthalic acid; e-
benzoic acid; f- carbon dioxide and water)

4. Conclusions

The azo-dye reactive orange 16 was reduced by the initial attack of the anaerobic microbial communities
resulting in to aromatic amines which were further mineralized under aerobic conditions. This implies that a
combined anaerobic-aerobic process consisting of single chamber microbial fuel cell coupled with activated
sludge process is an effective method for treating azo dye. The adopted strategy removes more than 90% of the
chemical oxygen demand along with energy recovery. The current production and columbic efficiency can be
improved by controlling the saturation kinetics, competing reactions, alternate electron acceptors as well as
ohmic losses.

Since, the output power densities and coulombic efficiencies are low; there is always a scope for development of
more efficient MFCs with superior performance for large scale applications of this technology.

MFC is a relatively new approach of waste water treatment. If in the near future, the energy recovery from such
systems can be increased, the technology has the potential to become a reliable method of waste treatment and
thus generating energy from it compensating the wastewater treatment plant operating cost and merging the two
crucial demand of time making them more affordable for developing nations.

77
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Department of Science & Technology, Government of India for providing financial
support to this project (Grant no. SB/FT/CS/037/2012). IIT Delhi is duly acknowledged for molecular biology
work.

References
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[2] L. Huang, J.M. Regan, X. Quan, Bioresour. Technol., 99 (2008) 596–603.
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[9] L. Huang, J. M. Regan and X. Quan, Bioresour. Technol., 99 (2008) 596–603.
[10] J.Mitrovic, M. Radovic, D. Bojic, T. Andelkovic,M. Purenovic and A. Bojic, J. Serb. Chem. Soc., 77
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78
 ICAER-2015

Estimation of Optimum Heat Exchanger Area of Vapor

Compression-Absorption Integrated System Using Modified
Irreversibility Approach
Vaibhav Jaina, Gulshan Sachdevab, Surendra S Kachhwahac
a
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi-110085, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Ghandinagar-382007, India

Abstract

This paper presents the optimum size and cost estimation of vapor compression-absorption integrated system (VCAIS) using
coefficient of structural bonds (CSB) method of thermoeconomic optimization. The optimum area of heat exchanger is
estimated provided overall heat transfer coefficient, operational and cost parameters are known along with CSB values. The
modified as well as conventional Gouy-Stodola equation is used to compute the irreversibility and CSB of VCAIS and its
components. The CSB method based on modified method predicts significant reduction in total annual cost of plant
operation as compared to base case. The total optimized annual cost of plant operation determined by structural method is
lower by 8.1% (conventional method) and 7.0% (modified method) as compared to base value. Comparison of structural
method with an integrated optimization algorithm from Engineering Equation Solver (EES) shows that the modified method
predicts the total annual cost of plant operation in a more accurate manner.
Keywords: Vapor compression; absorption; integrated system; optimum area; CSB; modified Gouy-Stodola law

1. Introduction

In consequence of electrical energy shortage and environmental issues related to the global warming and
ozone layer depletion attributed to the application of vapor compression system (VCS), the return to the
utilization of decarburizing and energy efficient cooling technology appears to be an appropriate alternative.
Accordingly, the vapor compression-absorption integrated system (VCAIS), have recently received increasing
attention [1]. Nowadays, integrated refrigeration system is considered as a feasible solution to increase the
energy efficiency of system since it economizes the utilization of energy resources. From the thermodynamic
view point, an integrated refrigeration system is simply a cascading of traditional vapor compression system
with a single effect vapor absorption system (VAS). This system leads to substantial electrical energy saving and
ultimately a significant contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere [2]. In VCAIS, the
VCS rejects heat to the cascade condenser which acts as the evaporator of VAS. The saving in electrical energy
is achieved as the refrigerant temperature at compressor exit is lower. The previous work on VCAIS is
summarized in Table 1.
.

Nomenclature

ac capital recovery factor

A heat transfer area (m2)
b the part of annual cost which is not affected by the optimization
Bi input exergy (kW)
Ci equivalent cost of input exergy ($/kWh)
𝐶𝑖𝑒 unit cost of input electricity ($/kWh)
𝑓
𝐶𝑖 unit cost of input fuel exergy ($/kWh)
𝐶𝑘 capital cost of k subsystem ($)
𝑙
𝐶𝑘,𝑖 local unit cost of irreversibility ($/kW)
𝐶𝑡 annual cost of the system ($/year)

79
COP coefficient of performance
CSB coefficient of structural bonds
Di, Do inner and outer tube diameters (m)
Fi, Fo fouling factor at inner and outer surfaces (m2K/kW)
h specific enthalpy (kJ/kg)
hi, ho heat transfer coefficients at inner and outer surfaces (kW/m2K)
I irreversibility rate (kW)
i interest rate (%)
k thermal conductivity (kW/m K)
m mass flow rate (kg/s)
N period of repayment (years)
P pressure (kPa)
PER primary energy rate
Q heat transfer (kW)
s specific entropy (kJ/kg K)
T temperature (K)
𝑡𝑜𝑝 period of operation per year (hours)
U overall heat transfer coefficient (kW/m2K)
W power input (kW)
x concentration of LiBr solution

Greek symbol
η efficiency
𝜀 effectiveness
𝜉𝑘,𝑖 capital cost coefficient ($/kW)

Subscript
a absorber
av average
cascade cascade condenser
comp compressor
cond condenser
cov conventional
eff effective
evap evaporator
EQS element or subsystem
fl1, fl2 first fluid, second fluid
g generator
gen generation rate
in inlet condition
isen isentropic
k kth element
mod modified
o environmental condition
overlap overlap or approach in cascade condenser
out outlet condition
p pump
ref refrigerant
shx solution heat exchanger
t total
VAS vapor absorption system
VCAIS vapor compression-absorption integrated system
VCS vapor compression system
1,2, 3... state points

In available literature [1, 3-12], energy and exergy analyses have been applied by the researchers to
accomplish the challenge of improving VCAIS. The main drawback of VCAIS is that due to integration of VCS

80
with VAS, the configuration becomes bulky and having higher fixed cost. Therefore, to make these systems cost
effective and competitive to the conventional systems, there is a need to optimize them.
A literature survey reveals that two different thermoeconomic optimization techniques (structural method and
autonomous method) are used for optimization of thermal systems [13]. Coefficient of structural bonds (CSB)
method is based on the relative interdependence between component irreversibility and the total system
irreversibility, whereas, autonomous method, uses local unit costs of exergy fluxes entering and leaving the
system elements under consideration [13]. Jain et al. [14] and Cimsit et al. [15] used autonomous method for the
thermoeconomic optimization of VCAIS and reduced the total annual operating cost of system by 11.9% and
3.3% respectively. Both the Researchers have applied direct search method to minimize the total system cost. In
autonomus method, the whole system can be optimized together whereas the advantage of CSB method is that,
all systems elements and parts can be optimized individually in terms of economics and exergy loses. Thus the
whole system can be optimized in their elements. In addition to this, the use of autonomous method requires
complex numerical procedures to optimize the system whereas use of CSB method eliminates this problem [13].
Dingec and Ileri [16] and Selbas et al [17] applied the structural method for optimization of VCS whereas
Misra et al. [13] and Kizilkan et al. [18] applied the same for VAS. This method consists of a detailed exergy
and cost analyses of the system, and the system optimization is obtained by the sequential local optimization of
system components.
In the present work, the structural method of thermoeconomic optimization is applied to VCAIS which is the
main novelty of present work. Irreversibilities of components and system are calculated using both the modified
and conventional method through the total annual cost as the objective function to be minimized. The
optimization results are also compared with the results obtained from Direct search method (autonomous
method) wherein the complete system is optimized together.

2. Thermodynamic and economic analyses

A schematic diagram of vapor compression-absorption integrated system for water chilling application is
shown in Figure 1. This integrated refrigeration system includes two separate systems; vapor compression
system (R410A as refrigerant) and vapor absorption system (water-LiBr as working pair). The condenser of
VCS and evaporator of VAS are merged into a single component called cascade condenser.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a VCAIS.

The sum of the refrigeration load and the electrical energy supplied to the compressor of VCS is rejected to
the VAS through cascade condenser [1]. The consumption of electricity in the compressor of the VCS is
reduced due to low temperature of refrigerant at compressor exit. Assumptions made to simplify the modeling
and analyses are as following [1-2]:
1. System operates under steady state and saturated vapor occurs at the exit of evaporator and condenser.

81
 2. Pressure and heat loss/gain in various components and pipelines of system are neglected.
3. Isenthalpic process occurs in the expansion valves.
4. The temperature range of external fluid (water) for evaporator, condenser, absorber and generator is
taken as 5°C. Further, the approach temperature of the leaving water for these heat exchangers is
assigned as 5°C.
5. The effectiveness of solution heat exchanger is assumed 60% whereas the electrical efficiency of pump
is assumed as 90%.
6. The ambient temperature and pressure are assumed to be 298 K and 101.325 kPa.
An Engineering Equation Solver (EES) program has been used to simulate and analyze the performance of
VCAIS in different working conditions. Table 1 shows the specifications of VCAIS as obtained by the literature
survey [1, 3].

Table 1. Process data of VCAIS.

Parameters Value
Rate of heat absorbed by evaporator (Qevap in kW) 50
Evaporator temperature (Tevap in ºC) -1
Cascade condenser temperature (T1 in ºC) 15
Condenser temperature (Tcond in ºC) 40
Generator temperature (Tg in °C) 90
Absorber temperature (Ta in ºC) 40
Degree of overlap (Toverlap in ºC) 5
Effectiveness of solution heat exchanger (Єshx) 0.6
Isentropic efficiency of compressor (ηisen) 0.65
Electrical efficiency of pump (ηp) 0.9

2.1. Energy and exergy analyses

The thermodynamic model of VCAIS includes following set of governing equations for a particular system
component considering each component as a control volume [1].
Mass balance, ∑ 𝑚 = 0 (1)
Material balance, ∑ 𝑥𝑚 = 0 (2)
Energy balance, ∑ 𝑄 + ∑ 𝑊 + ∑ 𝑚 ℎ = 0 (3)
𝑄
Entropy balance, 𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛 = ∑ 𝑚𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡 − ∑ 𝑚𝑠𝑖𝑛 − ∑ ≥ 0 (4)
𝑇

The performance indicators of VCAIS based on the energy and exergy analyses are described as follows.
The coefficient of performance (COP) is defined as the ratio of cooling capacity to the energy supplied to the
system. Based on this, COP of various systems are determined as follows,
𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑉𝐶𝑅𝑆 = 𝑄𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝 /𝑊 (5)
𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑉𝐴𝑆 = 𝑄𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒 /(𝑄𝑔 + 𝑊𝑝 ) (6)
𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐴𝐼𝑆 = 𝑄𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝 /(𝑊 + 𝑄𝑔 + 𝑊𝑝 ) (7)

The exergy analysis is essential along with the energy analysis for the process improvement [12]. In the
present communication, the irreversible loss occurring in different components of the system is determined by
applying the concept of effective temperature (Teff) in place of environment temperature (T o) used in Gouy-
Stodola equation as most of the thermodynamic processes emit or absorb heat at a temperature level other than
the environmental temperature [19]. The comparison of conventional and modified method of exergy analysis
shows a quantitative difference between two approaches [10]. Hence, modified method is used for accurate
computation of exergy loss.
𝐼 = 𝑇𝑒𝑓𝑓 𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛 (8)

In Eq. (8), the effective temperature for a thermodynamic process is defined with the help of its real final
state (2) and the ideal isentropic final state (2r) [19].
(𝑇 −𝑇 )
𝑇𝑒𝑓𝑓 = 2 𝑇22𝑟 (9)
ln
𝑇2𝑟

The theoretical formulating of effective temperature (T eff) for different components of VCAIS is given by
Jain et al. [10]. Hence, it is not repeated in the present work.

82
2.2. Component size and cost data

Heat exchangers are the important components of VCAIS as their heat transfer area significantly affects the
total cost and overall performance of the system. Namely, evaporator, cascade condenser, condenser, absorber,
generator and solution heat exchanger are the heat exchangers used in VCAIS. In the present system, all the heat
exchangers except solution heat exchanger are assumed to be of shell and tube type [20]. Solution heat
exchanger is designed as single pass annular configuration [21]. The external tube diameter for solution heat
exchanger is assumed to be 15 mm with 1mm wall thickness and internal pipe diameter 9.5 mm with 0.7 mm
wall thickness [21]. The internal and external tube diameters for evaporator, condenser, cascade condenser,
absorber and generator are taken as 13.84 mm and 15.87 mm respectively whereas the tube length for these heat
exchangers is assumed to be 6.096 m with numbers of passes 4, 2, 2, 4, and 2 respectively [20, 22]. The tube
material for all the heat exchangers is assumed to be copper [21]. The total heat transfer area (A) required at
each heat exchanger for given thermal load (Q), is computed from the following fundamental equation:
𝑄 ≈ 𝑈𝐴(𝑇𝑎𝑣,𝑓𝑙1 − 𝑇𝑎𝑣,𝑓𝑙2 ) (10)

Following Kotas [23], the constant thermodynamic average temperatures of the fluids are used in present
analysis. This simplified equation (Eq. 10) is also used by Misra et al. [13] and Gebreslassie et al. [24] in
estimating optimum heat exchanger size of VAS. In Eq. (10), the overall heat transfer coefficient (U) based on
outside surface of the tube is defined as [20]:
1
𝑈 = 𝐷𝑜 1 𝐷𝑜 𝐷𝑜 𝐷𝑜 1 (11)
[( )( )+( )𝐹𝑖 +( ) ln( )+𝐹𝑜 +( )]
𝐷𝑖 ℎ𝑖 𝐷𝑖 2𝑘 𝐷𝑖 ℎ𝑜

The value of fouling factors (Fi, Fo) can be taken as 0.09 m2°C/kW at the inside and outside surfaces of the
tube respectively [20]. Eqs. (10-11) are applied to all the heat exchangers of system for the given thermal load.
Different correlations are applied to find internal and external heat transfer coefficients in Eq. (11) as prescribed
in literature [20, 22, 25-27]. In the present analysis, the investment cost of all the heat exchangers and
compressor are considered while the cost of pump, valves, refrigerant, connecting pipes etc. are neglected. The
capital cost associated with each heat exchanger is calculated using the following equation in the form of its area
[18]:
𝐶𝑘 = 516.621𝐴𝑘 + 268.45 (12)
∀𝑘 ∈ 𝐸𝑄𝑆 ∩ {𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝, 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑, 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒, 𝑔, 𝑎, 𝑠ℎ𝑥}

The investment cost for the scroll compressor of VCS is presented as [28]:
573𝑚̇𝑟𝑒𝑓,𝑉𝐶𝑆 𝑃 𝑃
𝐶𝑘 = ( ) ( 4 ) ln ( 4) (13)
0.8996−𝜂𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑛 𝑃3 𝑃3
∀𝑘 ∈ 𝐸𝑄𝑆 ∩ {𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝}

3. The coefficient of structural bonds computation for thermoeconomic optimization

The thermoeconomic optimization combines the first and second law of thermodynamic analyses with
economics [13]. The second law analysis is done in order to determine the irreversible loss in different units and
the whole system. The effect of the parameter xi on the performance of the kth component and the overall
system is represented by the term coefficient of structural bonds (CSB). The CSB of a unit k, which is obtained
by the variation of a parameter xi is given as [24];
𝑑𝐼
𝐶𝑆𝐵𝑘,𝑖 = ( 𝑡 ) (14)
𝑑𝐼𝑘 𝑥 =𝑣𝑎𝑟
𝑖

where Ik and It are the irreversible loss of unit k and complete system respectively. The parameter x i is termed
to the efficiency of the units which can be minimum temperature difference, effectiveness or area of the heat
exchanger [24]. If a slight decrease of the irreversibility of one heat exchanger due to an increased efficiency
causes a remarkable decrease in the total irreversible loss of the system (high CSB), it is worthwhile to put much
of the design effort in improving the efficiency of this unit. The value of CSB is used in the structural method of
the thermoeconomic optimization which results in the design of cost-effective refrigeration system.
This technique is applicable when exergy input to the thermodynamic system has a single fixed unit cost
[23]. This condition can also be fulfilled, if a single form of exergy input of invariable quality or fixed
proportions of more than one form of input exergy of invariable quality is used [13]. In the present case, fuel
exergy (input to the generator) and electrical exergy (input to the pump and compressor) are supplied to VCAIS

83
to achieve desired refrigeration effect. Hence, the equation for equivalent cost of exergy (Eq. 15) is determined
based on the consumption of heat and electrical exergy in the system.
𝑓
𝐶𝑖𝑒 𝑊𝑡 +𝐶𝑖 𝑄𝑔
𝐶𝑖𝑒𝑥 = (15)
𝑊𝑡 +𝑄𝑔

𝑓
In literature, the unit cost of fuel exergy (𝐶𝑖 ) and electrical exergy (𝐶𝑖𝑒 ) are reported as 0.03785 $/kWh [18]
and 0.075 $/kWh [28] respectively.

3.1. Objective function

For the optimization of the system under consideration, the objective function is defined to minimize the
annual cost of system operation.
min 𝐶𝑡 (𝑥𝑖 ) = 𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝐶𝑖 𝐵𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 ) + 𝑎𝑐 ∑𝑘∈𝐸𝑄𝑆 𝐶𝑘 (𝑥𝑖 ) + 𝑏 (16)

In the Eq. (16), the first term on the right side represents the annual operational cost due to electricity and
heat supply whereas second term represents the total capital cost and third term represents the other cost factors,
which are not affected by the optimization, for example maintenance costs etc. in the monetary units.
The capital recovery factor (𝑎𝑐 ) in Eq. (16) can be presented as [18],
𝑖(1+𝑖)𝑁
𝑎𝑐 = (17)
(1+𝑖)𝑁 −1

whereas the terms i, and N stand for the interest rate and system life time which are taken as 3.5% [18] and
15 years [28] respectively whereas the annual operational hours (𝑡𝑜𝑝 ) of the VCAIS are assumed to be 6000 h
[28]. Reorganization and differentiation of the objective function with respect to x i, Eq. (16) results as [23]:
𝑑𝐶𝑡 𝑙 𝑑𝐼𝑘 𝑑𝐶
= 𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝐶𝑘,𝑖 + 𝑎𝑐 𝑘 (18)
𝑑𝑥𝑖 𝑑𝑥𝑖 𝑑𝑥𝑖

In Eq. (18), the term 𝐶𝑘,𝑖

𝑙
represents the unit cost of exergy which is given by [24]:
𝑎𝑐
𝑙
𝐶𝑘,𝑖 = 𝐶𝑖 𝐶𝑆𝐵𝑘 + 𝜉 (19)
𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑘,𝑖

The term 𝜉𝑘,𝑖 denotes capital cost coefficient and can be defined as [24]:
𝑑𝐶𝑙′
𝜉𝑘,𝑖 = ∑𝑛𝑖=1 [ ] (20)
𝑑𝑥𝑖 𝑥 =𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒,𝑙′≠𝑘
𝑖

𝜉𝑘,𝑖 shows the effect of xi on the capital cost of the unit to be optimized. As a first approximation, the
contribution of the term 𝜉𝑘,𝑖 can be neglected [23]. The unit cost of irreversibility becomes,
𝑙
𝐶𝑘,𝑖 = 𝐶𝑖 𝐶𝑆𝐵𝑘 (21)

At optimum point, Eq. (18) becomes zero, resulting in following equation.

𝑙 𝑑𝐼𝑘 𝑑𝐶
𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝐶𝑘,𝑖 = −𝑎𝑐 𝑘 (22)
𝑑𝑥𝑖 𝑑𝑥𝑖

By putting the value of 𝐶𝑘,𝑖

𝑙
from Eq. (21), we get the following expression:
𝑑𝐼𝑘 𝑑𝐶𝑘
𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝐶𝑖 𝐶𝑆𝐵𝑘 = −𝑎𝑐 (23)
𝑑𝑥𝑖 𝑑𝑥𝑖

From above simplified equation, the value of xi (e.g. an area, effectivenesss or a minimum temperature
difference) which results in the lowest operating cost (Ct) of system is obtained. According to Gebreslassie et al.
[24], some exactitude will be lost in the results by the use of Eq. (23), but more insight in the parameters
affecting the optimization problem can be obtained, which is one of the benefits of Eq. (23) compared to
conventional numerical optimization techniques.

3.2. Decision variables

Decision variables (efficiency parameters) are those variables which minimize the present objective function
(total annual cost of operation). In present case, the area of evaporator, cascade condenser, condenser, generator,
absorber, and effectiveness of solution heat exchanger are the chosen decision variables for VCAIS. The
appropriate set of their values will minimize the total annual cost of individual systems. The optimum area of

84
these units corresponds to their temperature (effectiveness in case of solution heat exchanger) which is
thermodynamically and economically optimum.

4. Model validation

The previous work on VCAIS is based on numerical study. The thermodynamic model is applied to simple
and well established subsystems (VAS and VCS) that has been studied experimentally and established widely in
the open literature to provide the valuable relevant data for comparison. The variables for the validation of
models of VCS and VAS are set depending on the reference data. Experimental data of Xuan and Chen [29]
using R404A as refrigerant are considered for validation of present model of VCS using following set of input
data: Qevap = 1152.3 kW, Tcond = 43°C, Tevap = -23°C. The percentage error for the computation of compressor
power, COP and temperature at the compressor exit are 0.2%, 0.0% and 4.2% respectively. In order to validate
the present model of VAS, the simulation results have been compared with the corresponding theoretical and
experimental data reported by Aphornratana and Sriveerakul [30]. Figure 2 depicts that simulation results are in
good agreement with the theoretical results. The variation in the theoretical and experimental results is due to
unwanted heat loss/gain in different components and pipelines of experimental test rig of VAS [30].

0.9

0.8

0.7
COP

0.6

0.5

0.4 COP (present VAS model)

COP_theoretical [30]
COP_experimental [30]

0.3
60 65 70 75 80 85 90

Tg (°C)

Fig. 2. Performance curves of present VAS model and Aphornratana and Sriveerakul [30].

The proposed Eq. (23) was also applied by Gebreslassie et al. [24] and Kizilkan et al. [18] for determining
the optimum area of heat exchangers in VAS.

5. Results and discussion

First the heat exchangers of VCAIS are designed and heat transfer coefficients are calculated at base values.
Then the optimization of the components of VCAIS is done using CSB method, establishing a property
dependent thermodynamic model based on the relative interdependence between component irreversibility and
the total system irreversibility using the exergy concept. As this method is based on irreversibility, modified
Gouy-Stodola equation [19] is used in the calculation of actual irreversible loss and compared with the
conventional method. Finally the total annual cost of plant operation is minimized and the associated
environmental benefits are also discussed.
The values of overall heat transfer coefficients (Eq. 11) determined for evaporator, cascade condenser,
condenser, absorber, generator and solution heat exchanger of VCAIS are 3.56 kW/m2K, 0.23 kW/m2K, 2.31
kW/m2K, 0.75 kW/m2K, 1.32 kW/m2K and 0.07 kW/m2K respectively. Figure 3 shows the variation of total
irreversibility rate of system with component irreversibility rate by the modified as well as conventional method.
It can be observed from the Figure 3(a) that the increase in the evaporator area from 1.5 m2 to 3 m2 increases its
temperature from -2.8°C to 1.82°C. Hence its irreversibility rate decreases from 1.74 kW to 0.87 kW causing
the total irreversibility rate of the system to decrease by 13.3%. These numerical values are predicted from the
modified Gouy-Stodola equation. The trend of reduction in the irreversibility rate of evaporator with increasing
the evaporator temperature is obvious because the average temperature difference between the evaporator and
the chilled water decreases with increase in evaporator temperature. The reduction in evaporator irreversibility
rate is linear due to increase in its temperature. The average slope of the line is found to be 2.17 which is the
CSB value for the evaporator. It describes that reduction in evaporator irreversibility rate by one unit due to
increase in evaporator temperature and area, reduces the total irreversibility rate of system by 2.17 times. The

85
similar trend is observed for other heat exchangers of VCAIS by both the approaches. The CSB value measured
for other components of VCAIS from modified method are: CSB cascade = 2.01, CSBcond = 0.36, CSBa = 0.41,
CSBg = 0.40 and CSBshx = 8.84 whereas these value predicted from conventional method are: CSB evap = 2.06,
CSBcascade = 1.91, CSBcond = 0.45, CSBa = 0.51, CSBg, = 0.28 and CSBshx = 8.27. Both approaches indicate
solution heat exchanger as the most sensitive component of VCAIS being highest CSB value. Hence, it would
be advisable to put much of design effort in improving the efficiency of this unit.

13.6
Aevap = 1.5 m 2 Acond = 3.0 m 2
Tcond = 40.9C
Total irreversibility rate of VCAIS (kW)

Total irreversibility rate of VCAIS (kW)

14
Tevap = -2.8C 13.4 Acond = 3.5 m 2
A cond = 4.5 m 2 Acond = 4.0 m 2 Tcond = 39.7C
Tcond = 38.1 C  Tcond = 38.8C
13.2
13

Aevap = 2.0 m 2 13.0

Tevap = -0.5C
Aevap = 2.5 m 2

12 Tevap = 0.88C
12.8

Aevap = 3.0 m 2 CSBevap,mod = 2.17 CSBcond,mod = 0.36

Tevap = 1.8C CSBevap,cov = 2.06 12.6 CSBcond,cov = 0.45
11
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Evaporator's irreversibility rate (kW) Condenser's irreversibility rate (kW)

(a) (b)

14.0 Acascade = 18.0 m 2 Aa = 5.0 m 2

13.6
T 1 = 16.3C T a = 41.4C
Total irreversibility rate of VCAIS (kW)

Total irreversibility rate of VCAIS (kW)

2
Acascade = 19.0 m
13.4
T1 = 15.7C
13.5 Aa = 5.5 m 2
Acascade = 20.0 m 2

13.2 T a = 38.9C
A cascade = 21.0 m T1 = 15.2 C
2 A a = 6.5 m 2 Aa = 6.0 m 2
T a = 35.3C T a = 37.0C
T1 = 14.8C
13.0 13.0

12.8

12.5
12.6
CSBcascade,mod = 2.01 CSBa,mod = 0.41
CSBcascade,cov = 1.91 12.4 CSBa,cov = 0.51
12.0
1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0
Cascade condenser's irreversibility rate (kW) Absorber's irreversibility rate (kW)

(c) (e)

13.6
Ag = 7.0 m 2 A shx = 5.0 m 2
T g = 89.6C 13.6 shx = 0.54
Total irreversibility rate of VCAIS (kW)
Total irreversibility rate of VCAIS (kW)

13.4 A g = 9.0 m 2
Ag = 8.0 m 2 13.4 Ashx = 6.0 m 2
T g = 91.3C shx = 0.59
T g = 90.6C
2
Ashx = 7.0 m
Ag = 6.0 m 2 13.2 Ashx = 8.0 m 2 shx = 0.63
13.2 T g = 88.2C shx = 0.67

13.0

13.0
12.8

CSBshx,mod = 8.84
CSBg,mod = 0.40
12.8 12.6 CSBshx,cov = 8.27
CSBg,cov = 0.28

0.50 0.52 0.54 0.56 0.58 0.60

2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4

Generator's irreversibility rate (kW) Solution heat exchanger's irreversibility rate (kW)

(f) (g)

Fig. 3. Plot for determining the CSB for the (a) evaporator, (b) condenser, (c) cascade condenser, (d) absorber, (e) generator and (f) solution
heat exchanger of VCAIS.

The above discussion shows that increasing the surface area, irreversibility rate (calculated by both the
approaches) of individual component and the whole system decreases. But at the same time, the investment cost

86
of the system increases due to increase in heat exchanger area. Therefore, a heat exchanger with smaller
irreversibility rate is essentially not optimum, as investment costs are high and low investment costs do not
necessarily lead to optimum heat exchanger designs as irreversibility is high. Hence, it is essential to determine
the optimum heat exchanger area based on thermoeconomic concepts. The optimum condition for the
components of VCAIS occurs when the right hand side term of Eq. (23) is made equal to left hand side value
and the corresponding optimum heat exchanger areas of respective components are determined (Table 2).
The value of optimum area is also calculated from integrated numerical optimization algorithm inbuilt with
the EES. The total optimized annual cost of plant operation determined by structural method is lower by 8.1%
(conventional method) and 7.0% (modified method) whereas this value predicted from integrated numerical
optimization algorithm is lower by 7.3% as compared to base value. Comparison of structural method with the
integrated optimization algorithm from EES shows that the modified method predicts the total annual cost of
plant operation in a more accurate manner. General tendencies are similar for the minimization of total cost by
CSB method and the numerical method. Hence, modified method is employed for further performance study of
cascaded system at optimum point. The other parameters of VCAIS at optimum point by modified method are
presented in Table 2.
The main objectives for integrating VAS with VCS are energy conservation and environmental protection for
the sustainable development. From modified method, it can be seen that after optimization, 35.6% of electricity
consumption is saved in the compressor of VCAIS for the same cooling capacity. It is also essential to measure
and compare the environmental impact of VCAIS due to increase in environmental concerns, specifically global
warming issues. In this regard, the environmental impact of cooling system is quantified by its CO 2 emissions
produced by the combustion of fossil fuel in the generation of electricity. For emission conversion factor of
electricity from grid to be 0.968 kg/kWh [14], around 29 ton/year of CO2 is emitted by the operation of VCAIS
at base value, whereas this amount is reduced to 18.6 ton/year after optimization (modified method). The
significant reduction in CO2 emission is because of less consumption of electricity in compressor. Hence
VCAIS becomes more energy efficient and decarburizing cooling technology after optimization.

Table 2. Results of simulation at design and optimum conditions determined by CSB and numerical method.
Performance parameters Base condition CSB method Numerical method
Conventional method Modified method
Wt (kW) 4.99 3.19 3.21 3.17
Qg (kW) 73.37 66.53 67.33 65.91
COPVCS 10.01 15.650 15.54 15.75
COPVAS 0.749 0.799 0.790 0.806
COPVCAIS 0.638 0.717 0.708 0.723
It ( kW) 12.83*/13.45** 9.89 10.72 9.76*/10.59**
Aevap (m2) 1.87 5.5 5.42 5.40
Acond (m2) 3.37 3.35 3.03 5.99
Acascade (m2) 20.6 21.71 22.63 26.60
Ag (m2) 7.36 3.66 4.84 3.78
Aa (m2) 5.27 6.45 5.77 10.22
Ashx (m2) 6.16 12.77 13.50 8.25
At ( m2) 44.65 53.45 54.21 60.26
Ck ($) 25136 29475 29868 32989
Ct ($/year) 21087 19378 19611 19530
*
Conventional method
**
Modified method

The reduction in compressor work further increases the COP of VCS from 10.01 to 15.54; whereas, the COP
of VAS is improved from 0.705 to 0.790 due to reduction in the thermal energy required at generator. Hence,
the overall COP of VCAIS is improved by the present optimization technique. Table 2 depicts that the total
irreversibility of system is decreased by 20.2% at the expense of larger heat transfer area of the heat exchangers,
by the present optimization procedure. The similar trends in the results are also reported by Misra et al. [13].
Hence, the capital cost of heat exchangers is increased. The percentage increment in the investment cost of the
VCAIS, as a whole, is 18.8%. It is emphasized to note that the fuel required (electricity in the compressor and
heat energy in the generator) for producing the same cooling capacity, has been reduced by $1886 per year. It is
interesting to note that the estimated payback period for additional investment cost is 2.5 years whereas the
system is designed for the life time of 15 years. Hence, the extra cost incurred in the investment of the system
will be paid off in early stages of operation. From above discussion, it is seen that the coefficient of structural
bond optimization technique (modified method) applied on VCAIS has potential to improve energetic,
exergetic, economic and environmental performances of the system simultaneously which otherwise requires a
very complex mathematical and sophisticated numerical method.

87
6. Conclusions

In present paper, the CSB method of thermoeconomics is effectively applied for determining the optimum
area of the heat exchangers of VCAIS. Using the methodology as discussed, it is simple to obtain the
approximate optimum configuration for any heat exchanger of VCACRS. Once the CSB for different heat
exchangers is found, the formula derived for optimum configuration can be applied to it. Optimum area equation
depends on parameters, which are directly related to the heat exchangers. The total cost of VCAIS is decreased
by 7.0% (modified method) by the present optimization procedure. The application of proposed technique for
the estimation of heat exchanger area and its cost offers an interesting way to quickly estimate close to optimum
values used as the starting designed data for the application of comprehensive design methodologies.

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88
 ICAER-2015

Solar Flower System for Residential Loads

Kishor Gaikwad1#, Kapil Gadge2, Aditya Kadrolkar3, Smita Lokhande4, Kundan
Kalange5, Sahil Mutha6, Rasika Joshi7, Ekta Sharma8

Kishor Gaikwad 1 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005, India

Kapil Gadge2 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005, India

Aditya Kadrolkar3 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering-411005, Pune, India

Smita Lokhande4 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005, India

Kundan Kalange5 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005,India

Sahil Mutha6 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005, India

Rasika Joshi7 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005, India

Ekta Sharma8 is Undergraduate Student of Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Pune-411005,India

#corresponding author’s Email ID:- gaikwadks12.elec@coep.ac.in

Abstract

Grid power in most of the cases is polluted, unreliable and inefficient. Distributed generation increases the reliability of
power supply to the consumers. As these generating units are at the load side in the power system, this significantly reduces
transmission and distribution losses. Distributed generation includes sources like solar, wind etc. Residential consumers are
exists in large number in the power system. Power requirement of residential consumers is less, so it is possible to have
distributed generation for them using solar energy. Due to this, residential consumer will get flexibility in usage of power and
rescue from load shedding problem. This paper discusses about the design, simulation and practical implementation of Solar
flower system for residential loads. Solar panels are arranged in the shape of flowers forming a tree. Mechanical tracking
system enables to extract of maximum power from the solar panels. This tracking system will confirm that panels are oriented
towards the sun. Once the mechanical solar tree get settled, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system in the DC-DC
converter will extract maximum power at that instant. Generated power will used for two purpose, first to fulfill load demand
and second to charge battery if load demand is less than generation. If the load demand is higher than generation then battery
will supply that excess power. DC-DC converter operated in constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) mode is used to
charge battery. Voltage source inverter is used to feed AC power to load. Sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique is used
in the inverter for driving signals. The system can operate in two modes, either in grid connected or islanded mode. In grid
connected mode, solar flower system will use its full generation capability to share load, while in islanded mode, power will
be fed to critical loads. This is most suitable distributed generation for residential loads.

Keywords: Sun Tracking System; MPPT; Standalone System; Solar-Tree; Distributed Generation

89
1. Introduction

Distributed generation increases the efficiency and reliability of existing utility grid. Use of renewable energy
resources like solar and wind energy can improve the quality of power developed. Renewable energy can be
employed to cater the needs of existing loads, but due to lower efficiency of solar panels harnessing solar energy
is difficult. The project aims at development of micro-solar generation plant for residential loads. The solar plant
is provided with mechanical power point tracking to increase the efficiency thereby facilitating sufficient power
for small residential loads.
Solar flower system is distributed generation unit for low power consumers like residential consumers. Basic
block diagram of plant includes DC-DC boost converter for implementation of maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) algorithm for extracting maximum power out of solar panels. DC-DC boost converter is followed by
grid-tie inverter and battery charger connected in parallel. The generation of power from plant is controlled by a
central control system controlling power angle of inverter along with duty cycle of DC-DC buck converter
employed as battery charger.

2. Design:

The system consist of the two DC-DC converter along with Inverter. DC-DC boost converter with MPPT
control is used to extract the maximum power from the solar panel. Inverter is used to feed power to AC Loads.
Bi-directional DC-DC Converter is used to charge and discharge battery as per load requirement. The basic block
diagram of the system is shown in the figure 1.

Figure 1: Block diagram of the System

The main features of the system are explained as follows:

2.1 Solar Panel Arrangement

The mechanical model has one axis tracking system. Its other axis is inclined at the solar angle. The solar
angle is should be 25 degree to 30 degree to get maximum power from the solar panel over a year for location
Pune, India. Other axis is rotated by the stepper motor in coordination with the irradiance sensor. The mechanical
design of the system designed in the Solid works package is shown in below figure 2.

90
 Figure 2: CAD Model of Solar Flower System

The electrical circuitry is kept in the wooden enclosure along with stepper motor. Due to one axis solar
tracking system, it increases the generation of power by 20% [1]. This system is user-friendly standalone, hence
anyone can operate it. Flower shape is chosen to increase aesthetics.

2.2 Maximum Power Point Algorithm

Solar cell output majorly depends on the light intensity incident on it. The MPPT technique used in this
system is the power feedback technique which measures the output power of the Photo-voltaic (PV) system and
uses it as a feedback variable.
Perturb and Observe (P & O) technique is implemented. DC-DC converter is the basic component
required in implementation of this algorithm. The output of the PV array is given as an input to the converter. The
I-V characteristic of the PV array being nonlinear, makes it difficult to power a certain load. In P&O technique
voltage is used as the control variable. The present and the past power values are compared and accordingly the
PV voltage is changed in order to track the maximum power point. If the power in present instant is increased
than the past value, then the perturbation is continued in the same direction otherwise the perturbation direction
is reversed. However, this technique leads to little oscillations about the maximum power point as the actual value
is seldom obtained.
The MPPT Algorithm is shown in figure 3. Voltage and current is sensed by the sensor. Power is
calculated and it is compared with the previous instant power. After calculating the power difference, depending
upon the sign of the difference duty cycle of converter is varied to achieve MPPT.

91
 Figure 3: MPPT Algorithm

2.3 Battery Charging Algorithm

Lead acid battery is used to store energy. Battery charger circuit charge it by following the constant
current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) profile. The algorithm for battery charging is shown in the figure 4. If the
battery voltage is below the voltage (Vm) of the battery then charger charges by predefined constant charge current.
If the sensed battery voltage is greater than the voltage (V m), charger charges by constant voltage. State of charge
of the battery is measured by the coulomb counting method.

Figure 4: Battery charging algorithm

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3. Simulation

The solar flower system is simulated in the MATLAB Simulink package. Screenshot of the simulation
for constant AC Load is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Screenshot of the MATLAB simulation

Solar panel of Voc = 22.68V and Isc = 8.87A is modelled using equations. DC-DC Boost Converter is
connected after the solar panel. This converter has MPPT control which extract maximum power from the solar
panel at an instant. Battery Charger and Inverter are connected followed by the Boost converter.
For the irradiance = 0.3 Pu, the output voltage of the boost converter with MPPT converter with constant
load is shown in Figure 6

Figure 6: Output of Boost Converter

The battery is charged only when demand of energy is lower than generation. The response of battery
charger is shown in the figure 7. State of charge of the battery increases, if the battery get fully charged then it
will trip the charging. The charging current is determined by considering the total time for which energy is
available and loads which has to operate at the night.

93
 Figure 7: Battery SOC vs time

The peak value of bipolar output voltage waveform of the Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM)
Inverter is 50V. LCL filter is used to remove higher order harmonics. Figure 8 & 9 shows the bipolar waveform
and filtered waveform respectively. After this, transformer is used to step up voltage to 230V AC which is
requirement of loads.

Figure 8: Bipolar output waveform of inverter

Figure 9: Output waveform of filter

94
 In case of grid connected mode, the control system synchronises inverter output with utility grid and
after this it will feed power according the generation. If the irradiance is more, more power will fed to grid and
vice versa. A closed loop control system works on it. It senses the input voltage of the inverter, if the input voltage
of inverter drops which is consequence of low generation then it reduces the power angle of the inverter. If voltage
exceed the predefined level then control system increases the power angle. There is one more feedback from the
irradiance sensor, it changes the power angle only when there is change in irradiance.

Figure 10: Power Flow Result

Figure 10 shows the grid tie operation of the system. A constant load 130W is shared by Utility grid
and tie line inverter. The power shared by the inverter 75W and that by grid is 55W.

4. IMPLEMENTED SYSTEM

Solar panels having maximum power of 150W are arranged in the shape of the flower and has 1 axis tracking
system. Output wires are taken out from pipes of mechanical model and all the electrical circuitry is kept at the
bottom box. The implemented system is shown in Figure 11.
For constant irradiance and load, the duty cycle of the converter is constant. Hence the output voltage of
converter is constant. The ripple waveform of the output voltage of boost converter is shown in Figure 12. For the
grid connected mode, control unit first synchronizes the inverter output with grid. Figure 13 represents
synchronization of inverter with grid. The voltage waveforms are stepped down and shown on the DSO.

95
Figure 11: Implemented solar flower system

Figure 12: Peak to peak Ripple voltage

96
 Figure 13: Grid synchronisation

5. CONCLUSION

Solar flower system is user friendly stand-alone distributed generation. It will reduce the load shedding
problem and increase reliability of supply. Single axis solar tracking system enables to extract more power from
the solar panel. Also one more feature of the system can operate in islanded as well as grid connected mode. The
aesthetic look of the system increases due to arrangement of solar panels in tree shape. The solar tree design can
be optimized by reducing the area between two flower and petals.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors express their sincere gratitude towards the director and faculty of College of Engineering, Pune.
The authors also thank to Team COEP Micro grid members for their constant inputs.

7. REFERENCES

[1] Hossein Mousazadeh, Alireza Keyhani, Arzhang Javadi, Hossein Mobli, Karen Abrinia c, Ahmad Sharifi
“A review of principle and sun-tracking methods for maximizing solar systems output” journal in Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews 13 (2009).
[2] Sathish Kumar Kollimalla and Mahesh Kumar Mishra ‘Novel Adaptive P&O MPPT Algorithm for
Photovoltaic System Considering Sudden Changes in Weather Condition’
[2] S. L. Roberto Faranda, “Energy Comparison of MPPT Techniques for PV Systems,” WSEAS Trans. On
Power Systems, vol. 3, no. 6, Jun. 2008
[3] J. J. Nedumgatt, K. B. Jayakrishnan, S. Umashankar, D. Vijayakumar, and D. P. Kothari, “Perturb and
Observe MPPT Algorithm for Solar PV Systems-modeling and Simulation,” in Annual IEEE India Conference
(INDICON), Dec. 2011

97
 [4] G. Walker, “Evaluating MPPT Converter Topologies using a MATLAB PV Model,” Journal of
Electrical & Electronics Engineering, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 49–56, 2001.
[5] D. Shmilovitz,” On the control of photovoltaic maximum power point tracker via output
parameters”, IEEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 2, March 2005
[6] Veerachary, M., Senjyu, T., and Uezato, K.: ‘Maximum
power point tracking of coupled inductor interleaved boost converter supplied PV system’, IEE Proc.
Electr. Power Appl., 2003, 150, (1), pp. 71–80
[7] Febriyandi, Imam, Wijaya, F.Danang, Firmansyah, Eka:’DC-DC converter as power supply of battery
charger 100V 300W using 25kHz switching frequency’, International Conference on Electrical Engineering and
Computer science (ICEECS), 2014
[8] Zhan Wang, Hui Li,’Integrated MPPT and Bidirectional battery charger for PV application using one
multiphase interleaved three port dc-dc converter’ , IEEE Applied power electronics conference and Exposition
(APEC), 2011
[9] Karshenas H.R., Niroomand M., ‘Design and Implementaiton of single phase inverter with sine wave
tracking method for emergency power supply with high performance reference’, Electrical Machines and Systems
2005, ICEMS 2005.

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 ICAER-2015

The Influence of Chemical Treatment on the Mechanical

Behaviour of hair Fibre-Reinforced Composites
Prashant Srivastavaa, Chetan Gargb, Shishir Sinha*
a
Center of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation & Management (CoEDMM), Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,Roorkee-247667, India.
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,Roorkee-247667, India.
*
Department of Chemical Engineering & CoEDMM, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,Roorkee-247667, India.
Corresponding author : prashant97iitr@gmail.com

Abstract

Hair is discarded material for our societies and easily found in municipal waste as polluted materials. And large
volume is occupied by hair fiber in dumps/waste streams due to slow degradation. So the best way is to develop the approach
for utilization the waste material as resources or raw materials. Polymer composites are very common and light weighted
material to use everywhere with different reinforced materials.

This research work has been investigated the mechanical properties of hair fiber reinforced composites. These
reinforced composites are shown the effect of fiber loading and fiber ratios on HDPE polymer reinforced composites in terms
of the mechanical behaviour of composites, and also compared the effect of treated and untreated fiber on reinforced polymer
composites. Water absorption and FTIR analysis are also done for the study of reinforced polymer composites. These type of
fiber reinforced polymer composites are very useful for our society to utilize the waste materials as resources.

Keywords: Human hair fibres, High density polyethylene, Composite, Chemical treatment, Mechanical behaviour.

1. Introduction

Demand of polymer base natural fibre reinforced composites has increased dramatically in recent years.
Various examples of natural fiber (wood, cotton, jute, sisal, flex, leaf fibers, bamboo and hair, etc.) are used for
developing of reinforced composites. Hair fibre treated as animal fiber under the category of natural fiber or
other fibrous materials which offer the advantages of being lightweight, eco-friendly and low-energy production
[1]. With an objective to take advantage of nature’s gift to mankind, Intensive research in adopting natural fibers
as reinforcement in polymeric composites has intensely attracted the interests of contemporary materials’
scientists and engineers which as a boon also reduce the huge expenses pumped into the development of
synthetic fibers[2]. Hair fiber is a natural fiber considered useless in most of the societies and, therefore, it found
in the municipal waste streams in almost all cities and towns of the entire world. It stays in the dumps/waste
streams for a long time due to slow degradation[3]. The human hair is a natural fiber formed by keratin, a protein
containing the high concentration of sulfur coming from amino acid cystine. The main physical and mechanical

99
properties of hair involve the characteristics to improve the smoothness, elasticity and softness [5]. The hair fiber
has been conventionally used for the manufacturing of natural fiber reinforced composites due to their large
availability in municipal waste and their low density and inexpensiveness as well as contains good mechanical
properties.

A natural fiber reinforced composite consists of two components; a matrix which may be either
thermosetting or thermoplastic and reinforcing natural fiber (e.g.- wood, cotton, jute, sisal, flex, hemp, abaca,
human hair etc.). High Density Polyethlyene (HDPE) is vastly used as a thermosetting plastic for industrial
purposes. HDPE offers the variety of applications such as making of pipes, bottles, toys, wire and cable
insulation, and corrosion protection for steel pipelines due to its high tensile strength, excellent impact resistance,
low moisture absorption and excellent low temperature toughness and chemical and corrosion resistance
properties. Their ability to be reinforced with natural fiber and made into composites further gave a wide range
of applications [2].
Bonding between polymer-fibre and stress pass from the matrix to fiber are responsible factor for
increasing the efficiency of reinforcing composites. Basically, surface modification and compatibilizer are two
methods to improve the adhesion between natural fiber-polymer matrix. Surface modification is generated the
additional reactive sites on the surface and develop the better bonding between natural fiber-polymer by the help
of physical and chemical treatment. Oil and wax is removed from hair fibre by chemical treatment. These
treatement is increasing the results of mechanical properties.

MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY:-

All the materials used for this research work were bought from India. The HDPE (High density polyethylene)
was purchased from Rapid Coat Powder Coatings Pvt. Ltd. Ghaziabad, India, and human hair waste purchased
from barber shop from Roorkee, India. We used waste hair fiber directly as a natural fiber after the different
treatment. Preliminary we washed it with hot water to remove oil and other particles and then washed with
ethanol to remove the organic components and then wish with distilled water for removing the alcohol contains,
and dried in the hot oven for 24 hrs for removing the water contains for fibres. We used 3 types of human hair
sample named, Untreated, treated with N/2 NaOH, treated with N/4 caustic soda. Untreated fibre is used for
sample preparation directly, but treated fibre is used after the caustic treatment 0.25N, 0.5 N NaOH at 50 oC for 1
hour.
Process to Prepare the Composite:-
The human hair reinforced HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) composite made by the hot
compression molding technique. To develop the composite we mixed human hair fiber and matrix (HDPE) in a
predetermined ration given in table 1. We used electronic weighing balance machine for weighing the samples.
The mold made up of steel. We mixed human hair fiber and matrix by the stirrer and then after proper mixing,
we put mixed material into the molding machine and raise the temp of machine up to 130 oC. and then switched

100
off the machine and air cooled the composite. The same phenomena were used for all predetermined various
fiber samples, and prepared 4 mm thick composite sheets.
Table 1 : Composition of the hair fibres-reinforced HPDE composties
Composition Wt% Wt% Wt% Wt% Wt% Wt%
HDPE 100 95 90 85 80 75
Hair fiber 0 5 10 15 20 25

Characterization:-

1. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) :-

FTIR spectrometer (Nicolet 6700 series) is used for spectrum analysis of untreated and treated
human hair fiber samples as well as composites. Potassium bromide (KBr) was used to remove or
minimize the OH- peak as a reference substance in above characterization. The range 4,000-600 cm−1
with a spectrum resolution of 4 cm−1 used for analyzed the sample [6].

2. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Analysis :-

The morphological study of untreated and alkali treated hair fiber composites are done by
scanning electron microscope (SEM, Model LEO-435 VP) with an acceleration voltage of 0-30 kV. In
this analysis, fractured surfaces of the composite samples are used after tensile test. A thin layer coating
of gold was used for this purpose [6].

3. Water Absorption Test :-

Moisture absorption tests were conducted with weighing balance machine as per ASTM D570-98
standards. The moisture absorption was calculated by the weight difference of the specimens. And the
%ge gain of water absorption was calculated by the following formula:

(Wt − Wi) ∗ 100

%ge Water Absorption =
Wi

Where Wi represent the initial weight of the specimen and Wt represent the weight of the specimen at
time t respectively. And when the %ge gain of water absorption less than 0.1%, we assumed
equilibrium state and stopped the experiment.

4. Mechanical Properties Test:

A. Tensile strength test :-

The flat specimen samples were used for analysis of the tensile strength test of the specimen. The tensile
test conducted on a computerized Universal Testing Machine (UTM, INSTRON model 5982 ) as per ASTM
D3039 standards. The test was done with a constant crosshead speed of 2 mm/min. The values of the test taken
by the average of three same types of samples of each composition [2].

101
 B. Flexural strength test:-

The flexural strength of the composite a computerized Universal Testing Machine (UTM) as per ASTM D790
standards was used. The crosshead speed same as the tensile strength test. The values of the test taken by the
average of three same type of samples of each composition [2].

Results and discussion:-

1. FTIR analysis of reinforced hair fiber composites:

FTIR spectra of untreated and treated with 0.25N, 0.50N NaOH human hair fiber are shown in fig 1. The FTIR
spectra show a broad peak of 0.25N NaOH treated fiber composite at 3605 cm-1 corresponding to the O–H
stretching vibration and free hydroxyl group. And nearby this peak two more peaks of untreated and 0.5N NaOH
treated fiber composites occur in between 3420 and 3440 represents the O–H stretching vibration and H–
bonded group. And then two broad peaks occur of all three types of fiber composites in between 2840-2920
represents the C–H stretching vibrations. Then one more peak of all three types of fiber composites occurs at
around 1165 show the C–O stretching vibration and C–H wag (–CH2X) group. And then a common peak for all
occurs at 1363 shows the C–H rock group. And then finally a last common peak for all three types of fiber
composites occurs at around 720 corresponding to the C–H rock and C–Cl stretching vibration group [4].

Fig 1-FTIR spectra of untreated and treated composites

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2. SEM analysis of reinforced hair fiber composites:
Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the untreated, 0.25N, 0.50N NaOH treated fiber are shown in
Fig. 2(a)-(c). SEM is used here to evaluate the hair fiber morphological conditions. Fig 2(a) micrograph of
untreated fibers shows the smooth surface due to less porous hair fibers. As the hair fiber treated with 0.25 N
NaOH porosity increases in order and due to more porous hair fiber fig 2(b) shows the rough surface and more
pits occur that surface. In fig 2(c) hair fiber treated with 0.5N NaOH, that contain higher porous hair fiber then
untreated and 0.25N NaOH treated fiber so fig shows the higher rough surface and highest pits on that
surface.

Fig 2- SEM micrographs (a) Untreated hair fiber (15% composition) (b) 0.25N NaOH treated hair fiber (15% composition) (c) 0.50N NaOH
treated hair fiber (15% composition).

3. Water absorption behavior of reinforced hair fiber composites:

The amount of the water absorbed by the composite calculated by the following formula:-

(Wt −Wi )∗100

%ge Water Absorption =
Wi

Where Wi represent the initial weight of the specimen and W t represent the weight of the specimen at time t
respectively.

103
The water absorption behavior of the hair fiber/HDPE composite illustrated by fig. 3(a)-(c). it describes that
the increasing hair fiber content in the composite increase the water absorption in the hair fiber/ HDPE
composite. Initially, it absorbed the water rapidly and then after a particular time period it slow down and
reaches the saturation level. According to fig %ge gain of water absorption increasing with increasing hair
fiber content in the composites. It occurs due to hydrophilic nature of hair fiber. As the fiber content
increases in the composites interfacial area of the composites increases simultaneously and due to increasing
the interfacial area, water absorption also increases[4].

The fig 3(a)-(c) describes the behavior of untreated, and treated by N/2 NaOH and N/4 NaOH. That
describes the chemical treatment of fibers slightly increases % gain of water absorption. And % gain of
water absorption increases with increasing with fiber content.

1.7 5%
1.6 10%
1.5
15%
1.4
percentage gain of Water absorption

20%
1.3
25%
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
-0.1

-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time (Days)
Fig 3(a) - %ge gain of water absorption for Untreated fiber

2.0
5%
1.8 10%
15%
1.6 20%
percentage gain of Water absorption

25%
1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

-0.2
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time (Days)
Fig 3(b) - %ge gain of water absorption for 0.25N NaOH treated fiber

104
 2.0 5%
10%
1.8
15%

percentage gain of Water absorption

1.6 20%
25%
1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

-0.2
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time (Days)
Fig 3(c) - %ge gain of water absorption for 0.5N NaOH treated fiber

4. Analysis of mechanical properties of reinforced hair fiber composites:

The results of mechanical properties of different reinforced composites are shown in fig 4(a), 4(b). Fig 4 (a)
describe the change in the flexural strength of hair fiber polymer composites with different weight fraction (5,
10, 15, 20 and 25%). According to this study, flexural strength is decreasing as increasing the fibre ratio in
composites. But flexural strength is got the optimum value at 10% fibre loading due to heavy bonding
between fibre- polymer. But increasing the fibre ratio in polymer composites, flexural properties are going
down due to weak fibre-polymer interaction, higher void. Low interfacial strength is resulting the low
efficiency of reinforced polymer composites as increase fibre loading.

Fig 4 (a):- flexural strength of hair fiber/HDPE composites

105
The results of tensile properties of different reinforced composites are shown in fig 4(b) at different weight
fraction (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25%). According to this study, tensile strength is initically increasing as increasing the
fibre content, and going down after achieving the optimum value. At 15% wt. ratio, tensile strength are got the
optimum value due to heavy bonding between fibre and polymer matrix, and load is distributed between fibre
and polymer matrix. At increasing the fibre content, tensile property are decreasing due to weak fibre-polymer
interaction, poor dispersion of fibre in the matrix and more void. Low interfacial strength is resulting the low
efficiency of reinforced polymer composites as increase fibre loading.

Fig 4 (b):- tensile strength of human hair fiber/HDPE composites

Conclusion:-

This research work has been investigated the different properties of hair fiber reinforced composites. This
reinforced composites are shown the effect of fiber loading and fiber ratios on HDPE polymer reinforced
composites in terms of tensile and flexural strength, and also compared the effect of treated and untreated fiber
on reinforced polymer composites. Interfacial bonding between the hair fibres-polymer can be improved by
chemical treatment. The results of water absorption test is increased due to chemical treatment as increasing the
roughness of fibre surfaces. These type of fiber reinforced composites are very useful for our socity to utilize the
waste materials as a resources, and these reinforced composires are minimize the problem of waste
by consumption/recycle as a raw materials.

Acknowledgment
This study is supported by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee (INDIA) and Ministry of
Human Resources and Development (MHRD), INDIA.

106
References:-

[1]. N. Venkateshwaran, A. ElayaPerumal, A. Alavudeen, M. Thiruchitrambalam, Materials and Design 32 (2011) 4017-4021.
[2]. Isiaka O. Oladele, Jimmy L. Olajide, and Adekunle S. Ogunbadejo, American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) e-ISSN :
2320-0847 p-ISSN : 2320-0936, 04, 02, 19-26.

[3]. Ankush Gupta, Review Article, Journal of Waste Management, Article ID 498018 (2014) 17 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/498018

[4]. H. Alamri, I.M. Low, Polymer Testing 31 (2012) 620–628.

[5]. Maria Valéria Robles Velasco, Tania Cristina de Sá Dias, Anderson Zanardi de Freitas, Nilson Dias Vieira Júnior, Claudinéia
Aparecida Sales de Oliveira Pinto, Telma Mary Kaneko, André Rolim Baby, Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 45
(2009) n. 1, jan./mar.

[6]. Nirupama Prasad, Vijay Kumar Agarwal, and Shishir Sinha, Korean J. Chem. Eng pISSN: 0256-1115 eISSN: 1975-7220 DOI:
10.1007/s11814-015-0069-z.

[7]. Varun Mittal, Shishir Sinha. DOI:10.15.15/polyeng (2014) 6270.

107
 Investigations and Analysis of PV - battery based microgrid
Energy Management System
Lakshmi Anisha Bhimanapatia, Umashankar Sa, Sonal Gaurava, Chirag Birlaa,
Aman Lambaa
a
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, India

Abstract

This paper deals with the management of Energy Management System (EMS) connected in a microgrid with a PV array and
regulate the battery charge, hold and discharge operations using DC-DC bidirectional converter based on the requirement of the
Load. The PV array along with the battery and load is simulated for various conditions such as PV supplying and charging the
battery, PV system supplying only the load, battery supplying the load and PV-Battery both supplying the load. The output
parameters like voltage, current and power graphs are plot-ted and analyzed for each condition. The entire paper is simulated on
Matlab-Simulink environment.

Keywords:Microgrid; Bidirectional Converter; Battery Management System (BMS); Controller

1. Introduction

Power Electronic converters help in converting the DC output power of the PV arrays into DC/AC power [1-2].
This AC power can then be used for supplying local loads or the grid [3-5]. Batteries are used to store the DC power
in case the load demand is less. Battery banks when used without a bidirectional converter are required to be large in
numbers, but using many batteries is not economical and convenient as even one cell failing can disrupt the entire
current flow[6]. Transformer based isolated bidirectional converters are expensive and also have greater power loss
due to use of many switches [7]. The battery used in this system is based on Lead-Acid battery because of its low
cost and long life [8-12].
In this paper the PV system output is boosted to inverter input requirements and load using boost and interleaved
boost. The battery is connected via a dc-dc bidirectional converter. The dc-dc converter uses IGBT for its fast
switching speed and low output impedance. This paper proposes the integration of a non-conventional source of
energy such as PV array with a local load/grid and battery energy storage system along with various modes of
operation. Theses modes depend upon the PV output and battery state of charge (SOC) conditions and variations in
the load as well. The block diagram of the pro-posed microgrid EMS system is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1. Block Diagram of the Microgrid Energy Management System(EMS)

108
2. System Configuration

2.1. PV Module

The Solar PV Module used in this paper acts as an input source for charging the battery as well as supplying to
the AC Load during normal conditions. The PV Module model used in this paper has been shown in figure 2 (a) and
its parameters are shown in table 1. The PV Module operates at constant irradiation level of 1000 Wm -2 and ambient
temperature of 25o C. At optimum conditions produces an output of 23 V. The module is connected to the AC Load
through a DC-DC Boost Converter and 1-Phase Inverter. It is connected to the Battery through a DC-DC
Bidirectional Buck-Boost Converter. The output graph of the PV Module is shown in figure 2 (b).

Fig 2. (a) Simulink model of the PV Module; (b) Voltage and current graph of the PV Module.

Table 1.Parameters of the PV Module.

Parameter Value
Short Circuit Current 4.74 A
Open Circuit Voltage 21024 V
Series Resistance 0.004702 Ω
Parallel Resistance 100 Ω
Thermal voltage 0.9248 V
Irradiation 1/100
Diode Saturation Current 3.8300e-010

2.2 DC-DC Boost Converter

In PV systems, generally, dc-dc converters are used either to step up/down the PV voltage. They can also be used
to extract maximum power through MPPT (maximum power point tracking). Figure 3 (a) shows the circuit diagram
of a dc-dc boost converter. During continuous conduction mode of operation this converter has two intervals of
boost operation. We shall do steady state analysis i.e. inductor volt-second balance and capacitor charge balance in
both the intervals. Then by applying small ripple approximation we can easily design the boost converter as per
requirements.

109
 Figure 3. (a) Circuit diagram of a (DC-DC) Boost Converter; (b) V-I graph.

2.2.1 Subinterval 1

In this subinterval the IGBT/MOSFET switch (Q1) conducts and diode D1 is reverse biased.
VL = Vg (1)
IC = -v/R (2)
Applying small ripple approximation gives
VL= Vg (3)
IC = -V/R (4)
where V= steady state output voltage.

2.2.2 Subinterval 2

In this subinterval the IGBT/MOSFET switch (Q1) doesn’t conduct whereas the diode D1 conducts.
VL = Vg - v (5)
IC = iL - v/R (6)
Applying small ripple approximation gives
VL = Vg - V (7)
IC = I - V/R (8)
Combining equations (3), (4), (7) and (8) to form a graph for vL(t) and iC(t) vs t(time) as shown in figure 3 (b).
Where, D= Duty Cycle, TS= switching time peri-od, D’ = (1-D).
Now, under steady state the average voltage across the inductor should be zero which is inductor volt-second
balance. Hence,
L(t)dt = VgDTS + (Vg-V)D’TS = 0 (9)
V=Vg/D’ (10)
Change in inductor current during subinterval 1 is
[diL(t)/dt] = VL(t)/L = Vg/L (11)
dt = DTS and diL(t) = 2∆iL (12)
where ∆iL = inductor current ripple. Therefore, combining (11) and (12) ∆i L = VgDTS/2L

Similarly, change in capacitor voltage during subin-terval 1 is

[dVC(t)/dt] = iC(t)/C = -V/RC (13)
∆v = VDTS/2RC (14)
where ∆v= capacitor voltage ripple.
With given values of Vg and V we can find out D (10) and with assumed ripples we can find out the values of L
and C(13,14) for the boost converter de-sign. The parameters used in this paper are shown in table 2. The voltage is
boosted to 310V. The output voltage graph of boost converter is shown in figure 4.

110
 Table 2. Parameters of the DC-DC Boost converter.
Parameter Value
Pulse width 92.5 %
Period 4*10-5 s
Inductance 7.63e-4 H
Capacitance 35e-4 F

Figure 4. Output voltage graph of Boost converter.

2.3 DC-DC Interleaved Boost Converter

Interleaving technique is remarkable in the field power electronics. For high power applications, voltage and current
stress can exceed the handling capability in high power applications. So number of power devices can be connected
in parallel and/or in series. But voltage sharing and/or current sharing will always be a problem. Paralleling of
power converters is an alternate solution instead of paralleling power devices which could be more beneficial.
The two-phase IBC consists of two parallel connected boost converter units. Each of the units in the IBC can be
controlled by switching the devices with phase shift of 360 /n, where n is the number of parallel connected units. In
o

this converter, there should be a phase shift implemented between the switching pulses of the both devices. A phase
shift of 180 should be provided for each switch as there are two parallel units.
o

Figure 5. (a) Circuit diagram of a two phase Interleaved Boost Converter; (b) Theoritival wavefrom

2.3.1 Design of IBC

The value of the inductor can be calculated as per the following equation
L= Vin*M/fs∆iL (15)
where, M - Modulation Index, Vin – Input Voltage, fs-Switching frequency, Δ𝐼𝐿 - Inductor current ripple.

111
The value of the capacitor can be calculated by the following equation.
C=I0M/ fs∆Vc (16)
where, M - Modulation Index, fs-Switching frequency, Δ𝑉𝐶 – Change in output voltage, Io –Output current.

Figure 6. DC Output voltage from Interleaved Boost converter.

2.4 Multilevel NPC inverter

Multilevel inverters are getting continuous attention in industry and academics. The main concern about increasing
the level of the inverter is to reduce the output current harmonic distortion, increasing the efficiency of the inverter.
Many topologies of inverters came in to existence due to the wide study, research on the usage of inverters and the
applications of particular inverter in different sectors. Multilevel NPC is one among them.

V0 (volts0 T11 T12 T13 T14

+Vdc/2 1 1 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
-Vdc/2 0 0 1 1

Figure 7. (a) Circuit diagram of NPC inverter; (b) Switching table of 3-level NPC

2.5 DC-DC Bidirectional Buck-Boost Converter

A non-isolated DC-DC Bidirectional Buck-Boost converter is used in this paper to boost PV output to battery
voltage requirement during charging conditions and in discharging conditions reduce battery output voltage to
desired value to supply the load. The parameters required are calculated as follows
For the Buck Converter operating in Continuous mode, the duty cycle is given by

(17)
The current at the continuous-discontinuous boundary is given by
(18)

112
 (19)

The Simulink model of the bidirectional converter is shown in figure 8 and the parameters used in this paper are
shown in table 3. The output waveforms of the converter during boost and buck mode are shown in figure 9 (a) and
9 (b) respectively.

Table 3.Parameters of the DC-DC Bidirectional Buck-Boost converter.

Parameter Value
Pulse width (IGBT 1) 21 %
Pulse width (IGBT 2) 79 %
Inductance 6.46e-6 H
Capacitance 7.8e-1 F

Figure 8. DC-Dc Bidirectional Converter for Battery Energy Storage

2.6 Battery

The Battery Model used in this paper is a Lead-Acid Battery with a nominal voltage of 100 V. The simulation
parameters used in Simulink are shown in table 4. The initial state of charge (SOC) of the model can be set
according to the need of the simulation.

Table 4.Parameters of the Battery model.

Parameter Value
Nominal Voltage 100 V
Rated Capacity 6.5 Ah
Fully Charged Voltage 108.8816 V
Nominal Discharge Current 1.3 A

113
 .

Fig 9: Output voltage and current of bidirectional converter in (a) boost mode; (b) buck mode when normal boost converter and 2-level inverter
are connected in the system

Fig 10: Output voltage and current of bidirectional converter in (a) boost mode; (b) buck mode when interlevaed boost converter and 2-level
inverter are connected in the system

Figure 11. Output voltage and current of bidirectional converter in (a) boost mode; (b) buck mode when interleaved boost converter and 3-level
inverter are connected in the system

2.7 Load

2.8 The load used in this paper is a 220V, 4.65KW AC Resistive Load of 10 Ω connected with a 1-phase two level
Inverter and three level inverter are compared. The inverter converts the DC input from the PV module or the
Battery depending on the mode of operation and converts it into AC voltage with RMS value 310 V.

2.9 Controller Logic

The control logic uses relational operator to check when the PV insolation levels or the load current change.
From figure 8 we can see that the IGBT switches of the Bi-directional converter are controlled using multiport
switches. Boost mode IGBT is controlled using [A] Goto block and buck mode IGBT is controlled using [B] Goto
block. From figure 1 we can see that the Battery module is connected to the main system using ideal switch
controlled by [C] Goto block. Also, the PV array is connected to the system using ideal switch controlled by [D]
Goto block. As soon as there is a change in the parameters the control logic generates pulses in terms of 1 or 0 for
each Goto block to change the modes of operation of the system. Table 5 shows the various output generated for
each Goto block during different modes of operation.

Table 5.Parameters of the Battery model.

Mode of operation [A] [B] [C] [D]

Mode 1: PV supplying load and charging battery 0 1 1 1
Mode 2: PV supplying load only - - 0 1
Mode 3: Battery supplying load 1 0 1 0
Mode 4: PV-battery both supplying the load 1 0 1 1

114
3. Results

3.1 Mode 1
This mode operates from simulation time 0 – 1.3 seconds simulation time. During this mode the PV module
operates at the insolation level of 1000 Wm-2. The PV module supply’s the load as well as charges the battery. The
output voltage and current graph of load and battery is shown in figure 12. The initial state of charge of the battery is
kept at 50% during Matlab simulation.

3.2 Mode 2
This mode operates from simulation time 1.3 – 2.0 seconds simulation time. During this mode the PV module
operates at insolation of 700 Wm-2. Due to this the output of the PV array drops and it can no longer support both
load and battery charging. Therefore the battery is disconnected and the PV array only supply’s to the load during
this mode. The output voltage and current graph of load and battery is shown in fig.12.

3.3 Mode 3
This mode operates from simulation time 2.0 – 2.4 seconds simulation time. During this mode the PV module
operates at insolation of 300 Wm-2. Due to this the output of the PV array drops below operating conditions and the
PV module cannot support the load any longer. Therefore the PV block gets disconnected and the battery supply’s to
the load during this mode. The output voltage and current graph of load and battery is shown in figure12.

3.4 Mode 4
This mode operates from simulation time 2.4 – 2.8 seconds simulation time. During this mode the PV module
operates at insolation of 1000 Wm-2. The load experiences at an increase in resistance which causes load variation.
In order to cater to the increased load both PV and battery supply to the load during this mode. The output voltage
and current graph of load and battery is shown in figure12.

Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4

Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4

Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4

Figure 12. Inverter output voltage and current (a) with normal boost coverter and 2-level inverter (b) with interleaved boost converter and 2-level
inverter(c)with interleaved boost converter and 3-level NPC inverter

115
 Table 6- comparison of results with boost & Interleaved boost converters

S.no Parameter Boost converter Interleaved boost converter

1 Input voltage 23.19V 23.19V

2 Output voltage 317.2V 337.1V

3 Input inductor current ripple 3.32% 2.04%

4 Output voltage ripple 2.83% 1.63%

Table 7- Comparison of different parameters with three different topologies

S.N Parameter With normal boost and 2- With interleaved With interleaved
o level inverter boost converter and boost converter and
2-level inverter 3-level NPC inverter
1 SOC 98.03 98.06 98.07
2 Ripple content in 3.72% 2.78% 2.03%
Input inductor
current
3 Ripple content in 2.83% 1.63% 1.52%
output voltage

4. Conclusion

The output V-I graphs of the load and battery obtained during simulation of each modes represent the
performance of the system under specified conditions of battery charging and discharging. Mode 1 is from 0 to 1.3
sec simulation time during which the PV output is optimum and it supply’s both to load and charges the battery.
Mode 2 runs from 1.3 to 2 during which the PV only supply’s the load. Mode 3 runs from 2.0 to 2.4 sec during
which the battery supply’s the load. Mode 4 runs from 2.4 to 2.8 sec during which the PV and battery both supply to
the increased load. The Voltage and current waveforms obtained during the simulation of the system explain in
detail the system’s versatility in different operating conditions. Output voltage, SOC and current of different
arrangements are shown in figure 13 and various performance parameters are compared in tables 6 and 7.
Interleaved boost converter has better output in terms of output voltage, less voltage and current ripple than normal
boost converter. Also if interleaved boost converter and NPC three level inverter results tabulated for three phase
load and performance is better than single phase inverter based microgrid in terms of less voltage and current ripple
with SOC remains almost same. The system exhibits how a renewable source of energy such as PV array can work
together with Battery in microgrid to power local loads.

Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4 Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4

116
 Mode1 Mode2 Mode3 Mode4

Figure 13. Output voltage,SOC and current waveforms of battery when (a) Normal boost converter and two level inverter
(b) Interleaved boost converter with two level inverter (c) Interleaved boost converter with three level NPC inverter

5. References

[1] S. K. Kim, J. H. Joen, C. H. Cho, J. B. Ahn, and H Kwon, “Dynamic modelling and control of a grid-connected hybrid generation system with
versatile power transfer,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 1677-1688, Apr. 2008.
[2] F. Valenciaga and P. F. Puleston, “Supervisor con-trol for a stand-alone hybrid generation system using wind and photovoltaic energy,” IEEE
Trans. Energy
Conv., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 398-405, June 2005.
[3] Hamrouni N, Jraidi M, Chérif A. New control strategy for 2-stage gridconnected photovoltaic power system. Renewable Energy 2008;
33(10):2212–21.
[4] Barbosa PG, Rolim LGB, Watanabe EH, Hanitsch R. Control strategy for gridconnected DC–AC con-verters with load power factor
correction. IEEE Procedings. Gener, TransmDistrib 1998; 145(5):487– 492.
[5] Koutroulis E, Kalaitzakis K, Voulgaris NC. Devel-opment of a microcontroller based, photovoltaic max-imum power point tracking control
system. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics 2001; 16(1):46–54
[6] http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-24.htm
[7] R. J. Wai and R. Y. Duan, “High-efficiency bidi-rectional converter for power sources with great volt-age diversity,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 1986-1996, Sep. 2007.
[8] C. Marisarla and K.R. Kumar, “A Hybrid Wind and Solar Energy System with Battery Energy Storage for an Isolated System”, International
Journal of

Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT), vol.3, no. 3, pp. 99-104, September 2013.
[9] S.W. Mohod and M.V. Aware, “Micro Wind Pow-er Generator With Battery Energy Storage for Critical Load”, IEEE Systems Journal, vol.
6,
 no. 1, pp. 118-125, March 2012.
[10] C.A. Hill, M.C. Such, D. Chen, J. Gonzalez andW.M. Grady, “Battery Energy Storage for Ena-bling Integration of Distributed Solar Power
Genera-tion”, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 3, no. 2, pp.850 - 857, June 2012.
[11] Matthew Clayton Such, Cody Hill, “Battery En-ergy Storage and Wind Energy Integrated into the Smart Grid”, IEEE PES Innovative Smart
Grid Tech-nologies (ISGT’12), pp. 1-4, January 2012.
[12] J.F. Manwell and J.G. McGowan, “Lead Acid Battery Storage Model for Hybrid Energy Systems”, Solar Energy, vol. 50, no. 5, pp. 399-405,
1993.

[13] B.M Hasaneen & Adel A. Elbaset Mohammed,“Design and simulation of DC/DC boost converter”,Faculty of Engineering, Minia
University, Minia, Egypt.
[14] Robert W. Erickson & Dragan Maksimovic,“Fundamentals of Power Electronics”, Book, Second edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
2001.
[15] Trowler and Whitaker, “Bi-Directional Inverter and Energy Storage System”, University of Arkansas, 2008.
[16] Hasan, Haque, Negnevitsky, “Control of Energy Storage Interface with Bidirectional converter for Photovoltaic Systems”, AUPEC,
2008.
[17] K.Pradeepa,R.Shankar “Implementation of Interleaved boost converter for PV power Generation Systems”, IJREAT 2013

117
 ICAER-2015
Assessment of 2- Ethyl hexyl acetate as Biodiesel Additive: Property evaluation and Engine
Performance Analyses
R. Chakraborty*, P. Mukhopadhyay, B. Kumar, P. Mukherjee
Chemical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032

Abstract
Synthesis of 2-ethyl hexyl acetate (2-EHA) through esterification of acetic acid with 2-ethyl hexanol (EH) was investigated
using heterogeneous Amberlyst 15 catalyst. The reactions were performed with 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 molar ratios of EH to acetic
acid over 70oC to 90oC reaction temperature range. Catalyst amount was varied from 10-14 wt%. 66.83% conversion was
achieved at the optimum reaction parameters for a reaction time of 75 minutes; representing an economically viable
synthesis. The purified product 2-ethyl hexyl acetate was blended (1, 2 and 3 vol. %) with palm biodiesel and the engine (4-
stroke, single cylinder, 1450-1600 rpm) performance-emission characteristics were analyzed. Notably, there was a decrease
in carbon monoxide, oxygen and NOx emission with increment of 2-EHA concentration in the blended biodiesel. Besides,
addition of 2-EHA to biodiesel could result in reduction of pour point significantly. Thus, in terms of fuel properties, engine
performance and emission characteristics; 2-ethyl hexyl acetate seems to possess promising attributes to be used as a
biodiesel additive.
Keywords: 2 ethyl hexyl acetate, biodiesel additive, cold flow improver.

1. Introduction

Biodiesel has been considered as an alternative fuel due to its advantages over diesel in terms of
harmful engine emissions and poor fuel properties [1]. Thus, biodiesel can fulfil the energy requirement and
serve as a potential resource with respect to exhausting fossil fuels, increasing petroleum price and rising energy
issues [2, 3]. However, biodiesel possesses certain major pitfalls; amongst which cold flow property of biodiesel
is quite poor [4]. This restricts biodiesel for further use compared to petroleum diesel as at low temperature it
results in formation of wax crystals thus resulting fuel filter plugging [5]. Hence, biodiesel requires
winterization technique where fuel additives were blended to improve fuel properties thus enabling biodiesel to
perform satisfactorily in cold climate [6, 7]. It has been identified in previous literature that branched alcohol
derived fatty esters are able to lower pour point and cloud point of fuel [8]. Moreover, 2-ethyl hexyl acetate of
freezing point at -93oC was expected to be an effective pour point depressant in case of biodiesel. However, till
date very scanty literature is available regarding the usage of 2- ethyl hexyl acetate as diesel and biodiesel
additive. Thus in the present work effort has been made to develop an efficient fuel additive via esterification of
a branched alcohol (2-ethyl hexanol) and acetic acid giving 2 ethyl hexyl acetate (2-EHA) using a batch reactor.
Our work also encompasses the effect of addition of this fuel additive in biodiesel which has been expected to
enhance fuel properties, engine performance and emission.

Nomenclature
2-EHA 2-ethyl hexyl acetate
EH 2-ethyl hexanol
AA acetic acid
BTE break thermal efficiency, %
BSFC break specific fuel consumption, kg/kW h
EGT exhaust gas temperature, oC
B Concentration of acetic acid, mol/L
N Normality of potassium hydroxide solution
V KOH volume consumed for titration, mL
A Acid number
S Signal to noise ratio
N
 MR 2-ethyl hexanol and acetic acid mole ratio
 CC Catalyst concentration, wt. %
 RT Reaction temperature, oC
 AA Acetic acid conversion, %

*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (033) 24572689, Fax: (+91) 3324146378,
E-mail: rajat_chakraborty25@yahoo.com

118
2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Materials

Chemicals used for the experimental runs and the sources of their procurement were: Glacial acetic acid (99%)
from Merck, pure 2-ethyl-1-hexanol from SRL, Amberlyst 15 Hydrogen Atom (strongly acidic cation
exchanger) from Sigma Aldrich and Molecular Sieve 3A purified from SRL. Palm biodiesel (B100) has been
collected from Emami Biotech Ltd., India.

2.2. Methods

Esterification reaction of acetic acid (AA) with 2-ethyl-hexanol (EH) was carried out in a batch reactor
consisting of a 1000 ml 3-necked flask equipped with 2 reflux condensers creating a total reflux condition.
Table 1 displays the 3 independent process factors and their levels examined in a L9 orthogonal array using
Taguchi design. All experiments were conducted in triplicate using three distinct levels of the three process
factors (Table 1) viz. 2-ethyl-hexanol to acetic acid molar ratio (  MR ), catalyst concentration (  CC , wt %) and
reaction temperature (  RT , oC). Amberlyst 15 was used as a catalyst and varied between 10-12 wt. % (Table 1)
of limiting reactant. Initially EH and the Amberlyst 15 catalyst was added to the 3-necked flask and mixed,
followed by the addition of AA after the reactor system had reached a specified temperature. The molar ratio
between EH and AA was varied between 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1. The reaction temperature was maintained at a
constant value (70-90oC) by a PID type temperature controller. The central neck of the 3-necked flask was fitted
with a mechanical stirrer and a stirrer speed of 700 rpm was maintained throughout the reaction. Adsorbent in
the form of molecular sieve was placed within the condensers and was used to eliminate water to facilitate the
forward reaction. The reaction was carried out for 75 minutes to achieve maximum AA conversion.

Table 1. Experimental factors and levels for acetic acid esterification with 2-ethyl-hexanol in batch reactor using Amberlyst 15 commercial
catalyst

Process Factors
 MR  CC (wt%)  RT (°C)

1stLevel (  1 ) 1:1 10 70

2ndLevel (  2 ) 2:1 12 80

3rdLevel (  3 ) 3:1 14 90

After the completion of the reaction, the product mixture formed was separated from the catalyst by the
process of filtration using a vacuum filter and filter paper. The ester phase was obtained by the application of a
vacuum evaporation method whereby excess alcohol was separated. The saturation temperature of 2-ethyl
hexanol at 5mm Hg was calculated to be 70o C. These pressure and temperature conditions were maintained in
the evaporation chamber to boil off the excess alcohol to obtain 2-EHA ester.
The Taguchi method was employed to evaluate optimal process factor values conforming maximum
acetic acid conversion owing higher S/N ratios using the software MINITAB-16 (Minitab Inc. USA for
Windows7). The experimental design matrix and mean of three experimental values for the  AA along with the
calculated S/N ratio (Eq. (1)) are enumerated in (Table 2). The S/N ratio values corresponding to  AA are
evaluated, using the ‘larger-the-better’ characteristics. The S/N ratio for all experimental run was calculated
according to the Eq. (1) using the AA conversion i.e. yi of the corresponding run.

S  n
1
 10 log  1  y 2  (1)
N  n i 1
i


where, i is the number of replicate, n is the number of trial experiments performed in any particular parametric
combinations as per Table 1.
The estimated S/N ratio can be expressed using following equation:

k
S   (2)
S    S S 
N est N j 1 
Nj N

119
where, S is the mean of the ratio, S and S is the S ratio corresponding to the optimal process parameters,
N N Nj N

j and k is the number of the process parameters that significantly affected the optimal conditions of  AA .

Eq. (3) was used in order to evaluate the acetic acid concentration and Eq. (4) was used to determine the acetic
acid conversion as shown below:

56.11 N  V (3)
B
W
 A  B (4)
 AA  100  ACETICACID 
 A ACETICACID 

2.3 Blending of 2-EHA with Palm Biodiesel

The product 2-EHA ester has been used as an additive for palm biodiesel. It was well mixed in 1, 2 and
3 volume% with palm-biodiesel (Emami Biotech Ltd., India) by using a magnetic stirrer at 500 rpm and the
resultant blended fuels were tested in a 4-stroke,single cylinder diesel engine (Compression Ignition (Kirloskar
AV-1, Capacity: 553 cc).The engine was operated between 1450-1600 rpm; subsequently exhaust emissions
have been analyzed and the percentage of various gases were reported using a gas analyzer (230 V AC ± 10%;
Single Phase). The engine performance parameters viz. exhaust gas temperature, brake thermal efficiency and
brake specific fuel consumption have also been investigated. The different parameters noted were then plotted
against brake power to get a comprehensive understanding of their variation with respect to increase in engine
load.

3. Results and Discussion

Taguchi analysis presented in Table 2 depicts that at 90oC reaction temperature, 12 wt. % catalyst and 2:1 molar
ratio, AA conversion reached about 66 % with highest S ratio of 36.49 db.
N
Table 2. L9 orthogonal array experimental matrix at different operating conditions and corresponding mean acetic acid conversion (  AA ).

 MR  CC (wt. %)  RT (°C)  AA (%) S (db)

Run no. N
1. 1 1 1 55.89 34.94

2. 1 2 2 61.46 35.77

3. 1 3 3 62.33 35.89

4. 2 1 2 50.98 34.14

5. 2 2 3 66.00 36.49

6. 2 3 1 53.83 34.62

7. 3 1 3 63.19 36.01

8. 3 2 1 46.12 33.27

9. 3 3 2 51.78 34.28

3.1 Individual Parametric Effects

Table 3 represents the response values for S ratios. Higher the S ratio the more prominent will be the
N N
effect of the parameter on AA conversion. Thus, based on the delta values parameters are ranked as the most
significant factor affecting AA conversion. Temperature had the highest rank signifying any change in
temperature would have a much larger effect on conversion compared to the other 2 parameters (Fig. 1).

120
 Table 3. Response Table for Signal to Noise Ratios Larger is better

Level  MR  CC (wt. %)  RT (°C)

1 35.54 35.04 34.28
2 35.09 35.18 34.73
3 34.52 34.93 36.14
Delta 1.01 0.25 1.85
Rank 2 3 1

Figure 1 also enumerates increased EH:AA mole ratio results drop in AA conversion whereas, increase in
temperature results in higher conversion depicting endothermic nature of the reaction. Additionally, catalyst
concentration possess insignificant effect, however, increase in catalyst concentration upto 12 wt. % results in
comparatively higher conversion, but 14 wt. % decreases conversion which can be accredited to the fact that
high catalyst concentration increases system viscosity at the particular rpm resulting hindrance in mixing thus
reducing AA conversion.
Moreover the Taguchi response table (Table 3) resulted optimum value of  MR at level 1,  CC at level 2 and
 RT at level 3. Thus, an experimental run has been conducted at this reaction condition and maximum AA
conversion of 66.83 % has been achieved.

Fig. 1. Main effects plot for S ratio

N
3.1 Fuel Properties

The fuel properties of the blended fuels were tested using standardized ASTM methods. The properties tested
were density, viscosity, cloud pour point, flash point, fire point and cetane number. The following table (Table
4) illustrates their comparative values. It can be observed from the table that increase in 2-EHA percentage has
decreased the pour point of biodiesel by 3 oC and enhanced the lubricity by reducing the density and viscosity of
biodiesel. However, decrease in flash point below the EN standard value restricts its further use; this can be
resolved by bending an additive that will increase the flash point [9].

Table 4. Comparative study on fuel properties of biodiesel and blended diesel.

Properties Palm Bio-diesel 1% 2-EHA 2% 2-EHA 3% 2-EHA EN 14214 2008

Density g/cc 0.875 0.869 0.866 0.825 0.86-0.90
Viscosity cst 4.48 4.21 4.15 4.09 3.5-5.0
Cloud point oC 16 16 14 13 reporta
o
Pour Point C 15 14.5 13.1 12 reporta

Flash PointoC 158 115 105 90 101 min

Fire PointoC 175 140 130 120 -

Cetane Number 65 63 61 60 51 min
a
Pour point and cloud point is dependent on several factors viz., place and time of year

121
3.2 Engine Emission

Characteristic CO emission for B100 and 3 blended fuels have been presented in Fig. 2. It can be well observed
from Fig. 2a that B100 emits comparatively 23 % higher amount of carbon monoxide compared to blended
fuels. This could be because of the higher oxygen content of fuel additive resulting in more complete
combustion. The CO emissions for the different blends are almost similar at higher brake power but at low
brake power CO emission decreases with increase in blending percentage.
The characteristics of CO2 emissions vs. brake power are shown in Fig. 2b. The CO2 emission
decreases with the increase in brake power which indicates an earlier combustion allowing more time for
converting the formed CO to CO2 [10, 11].

Fig. 2. CO and CO2 emission at different brake power.

The engine NOx emission for the tested fuels at different brake power is given in Fig. 3. The NOx concentration
increases with the rise in brake power for all the fuels. The NOx emission was reduced by 60.7%, 69.2% and
74.1% with increase in the vol. % of 2-EHA in the blend.

The variation of hydrocarbon emission with that of brake power is shown in Fig. 3b. The emissions
should be converted into brake specific mass emissions since the engine clearly was operating with different
thermal efficiency with the different fuels. There is an increase in the hydrocarbon emissions with the increase
in brake power for all the fuel blends. When the percentage of the additive was increased in the blend it resulted
in an increase in the hydrocarbon emissions from the engine at higher loads that may be attributed to the poor
atomization of fuel due to longer ignition delay.

Fig. 3. NOx and HC emission at different brake power.

3.3 Engine Performance

Brake specific fuel consumption (in terms of kg/kW h) increases as the load decreases because more fuel is
required to carry a light load, as seen in Fig. 4a. In all cases, B100 and blended fuels at different proportion
exhibits similar brake specific fuel consumption.
The variation of brake thermal efficiency with brake power for different fuel blends and B100 is shown
in Fig. 4b. The brake thermal efficiency indicates how efficiently energy in the fuel is converted into mechanical
output. As the percentage of load increased resulting in increase of brake power, brake thermal efficiency of all
blends increased due to increase in mechanical efficiency. At lower load blended fuels and B 100 exhibited
similar BTE but at higher loads 3 vol. % exhibited higher BTE due to its lower volatility and lower ignition
delay compared to other blends and B100.

122
 Fig. 4. Variation of BSFC and BTE at different brake power.

In analysing of the emission characteristics of the fuel, exhaust gas temperature is an important indicator of the
heat of the fuel tested at the combustion period. The variation of exhaust gas temperature with respect to brake
power for the tested fuels is shown in Fig. 5. The exhaust gas temperature values increased with the increase of
the brake power for all four test fuels [12]. B100 had much higher exhaust gas temperature as compared to the
blended fuels and an increase in the additive blend ratio resulted in 16.5%, 18% and 20% EGT reduction with
increase in the amount of additive. Overall, B100 shows the highest exhaust gas temperature compared to all the
tested fuel blends because of its high viscosity.

Fig. 5. Variation of Exhaust Gas Temperature with Brake Power.

4. Conclusion

Addition of 2- ethyl hexyl acetate to palm biodiesel resulted enhanced engine performance and favorable
exhaust emission characteristics. It has also been observed that 2- ethyl hexyl acetate improves cold flow
property of fuel significantly. However, flash point of blended fuel decreases at higher proportions which limits
its further use, thus it requires blending of flash point improver to enhance overall property of fuel. Furthermore,
tested fuels depicted 20% mean reduction in emission of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and 40±5% mean reduction in
NOx emission compared to B100 emission at different engine speed (1450-1650 rpm) thus depicting the
effectiveness of 2-EHA as fuel additive.

References
[1] G. Knothe, Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 36 (2010) 364–373.
[2] H.D. Hanh, N.T. Dong, K. Okitsu, R. Nishimura, Y. Maeda, Renew. Energy 34 (2009) 780–783.
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123
 ICAER-2015

Energy and Exergy analysis of diesel engine powered

trigeneration systems
Mahesh. N. Shelara1* G.N. Kulkarnib S.D.Bagadec
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering,KKWagh Institute of Engineering,Nashik 422003,India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering,College of Engineering,Pune,411005,India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering,Dr Daulatrao Aher College of Engineering,Karad,415125,India

Abstract

This article presents the thermodynamic analysis of diesel engine powered trigeneration system considering the actual
engine data of 200 kVA engine systems. Trigeneration systems considered for analysis comprises of a diesel engine
integrated with absorption chillers. For better thermodynamic performance of a trigeneration system for cooling applications,
absorption chillers integrated with engine systems should accept the heat energy at almost the same temperature at which it
is available. With this consideration two trigeneration systems are examined. System one uses low grade heat energy
recovered from engine jacket water with single effect chiller and high grade heat energy of exhaust gases in double effect
chiller. System two combines recovered energy for use in a single chiller. Analysis of such trigeneration configurations
cannot be based on first law analysis alone. This paper through an energy and exergy analysis of a trigeneration system
under cooling mode, recommends the use of a trigeneration system with two chillers over a trigeneration system with single
chiller. Operating the trigeneration system near the rated capacity of engines improves its energetic as well as exergetic
performance. Though the initial cost of a trigeneration system with two chillers is more than the one with single chiller, life
cycle costing analysis reveals the former is attractive even on economic basis.

Keywords: Diesel generator,Trigeneration,Exergy,Energy and Economic analysis.

Nomenclature

C initial capital cost in Indian rupees

Cp specific heat of water [kJ/kg K]
Cpg specific heat of engine exhaust gases [kJ/kg K]
CRF capital recovery factor
COP coefficient of performance
DEC double effect chiller
d discount rate
e specific exergy [kJ/kg]
EJ diesel engine jacket
EHRU Exhaust heat recovery unit
EF Exergy of fuel
EP Exergy of product
Eq Exergy associated with heat transfer
ED Exergy destroyed
HE1 Heat exchanger for heat transfer from engine jacket water to water input of desorber
mg mass flow rate of exhaust gases of the engine [kg/s]
ma mass flow rate of air consumed by the engine [kg/s]
mf fuel consumption rate of engine [kg/s]
mh mass flow rate of hot water entering the desorber of single effect chiller [kg/s]
mw mass flow rate of engine jacket water [kg/s]
mc mass flow rate of chilled water from single effect chiller[kg/s]
mc' mass flow rate of chilled water from double effect chiller[kg/s]

1* Corresponding author. Tel.: 9822052351.

E-mail address: mnshelar@kkwagh.edu.in

124
P Pump
Pc Cooling load in TR
Pe electrical power output
SEC single effect chiller
s specific entropy in kJ/kg K
T temperature of the fluid in K
T0 dead state temperature in K
TR tons of refrigeration
y* exergy destruction in component with respect to exergy input
y exergy destruction in component with respect to total exergy destruction in system
ηe exergetic efficiency

1. Introduction

Trigeneration with reciprocating engines as prime movers involve recovery of energy rejected from engines and
using this energy to satisfy cooling and heating demand of a given load. Such systems are known to be
beneficial in reduction of energy use and carbon emissions [1].Energy recovered from exhaust gases is
commonly harnessed using suitably designed heat exchangers[2,3].Absorption chillers come in different
configurations and types which affects its performance [4].Systems approach in analyzing trigeneration systems
has been used in many studies indicating the desirability of trigeneration [5]. Trigeneration systems are required
to satisfy the variable power demand or variable thermal demand depending on the load curve and the mode of
operation of diesel generator [6]. Diesel generators operating in electricity demand following mode would
operate at part loads at times. Part load behavior of engines would result in corresponding reduction in output of
absorption chillers. Integrating absorption chillers with diesel engine generators requires a thorough
understanding of both quantity as well as quality of energy recoverable from the engine. The energy balance of
diesel generators is investigated thoroughly by many researchers. It is known that the exhaust gas quantity as
well as its temperature varies appreciably with engine loading. These results in reduction of energy recovered
from exhaust gases at part loads and in degradation of the quality of recovered energy. The temperature of water
exiting the jacket of diesel generator is much lower and performance of absorption chiller with such a low
temperature hot water as input is poor. At part engine loads, the performance would be poorer. Understanding
the performance of the system integrated with exhaust fired absorption chiller at rated as well as part engine
loads is therefore attempted in this paper. Exergetic analysis is used by researchers to study and analyse engine
based Trigeneration systems[7,8].Investigations from energy, exergy and economic basis is presented for a
trigeneration system with two chillers at full load as well as part load conditions. The performance is compared
with another trigeneration system using a single chiller.

2. Trigeneration configurations

For better thermodynamic performance of a trigeneration system for cooling applications, absorption chillers
integrated with engine systems should accept the heat energy at almost the same temperature at which it is
available. With this consideration two trigeneration systems with a diesel engine generator integrated with waste
energy recovery system is examined at full loads and part loads. Trigeneration system with two chillers
integrates a low grade heat energy recovered from engine jacket water with single effect chiller and high grade
heat energy from exhaust gases with double effect chiller. This system with two chillers is shown in Fig.1. This
trigeneration system comprises of diesel generator, exhaust heat recovery unit, single and double effect
absorption chiller. The performance data of engine at rated and part load conditions is given in Table 1.The
absorption chillers are of lithium bromide water type available from manufacturers like thermax and voltas in
Indi .The exhaust fired absorption chiller is double effect type while the hot water driven absorption chiller is a
single effect configuration.The energy recovered from exhaust gases is input to the desorber of double effect
chiller.The quality and quantity of this energy varies with engine loading.At rated conditions, the quantity and
quality of energy is maximum as reflected from the temperature and mass flow rate of exhaust gases.The
energy recovered from the engine jacket water is input to the desorber of single effect chiller. The engine jacket
water is maintained at a temperature of 900C at its inlet.The jacket water temperature at exit will vary
depending on the engine load. It is possible to design a trigeneration system by combining the energy recovered
from exhaust gases and engine body for use in a single chiller .Such a system is shown in Fig 2.This
trigeneration configuration comprises of two heat exchangers and a single effect hot water driven absorption
chiller.

125
 Fig. 1. Trigeneration with two chillers.

Fig. 2. Trigeneration with single chiller.

Table 1. Engine data obtained from actual trials

Percentage Engine power Mass flow rate Exhaust Temperature of Mass flow rate of Specific fuel
loading of exhaust gas temperature 0C jacket water at jacket water (kg/s) consumption
gases (kg/s) the engine outlet kg/kWh
0
C
100 180 0.25 5400C 95 2.08 210
75 135 0.19 4460C 93.5 2.08 220
50 90 0.13 3840C 92.3 2.08 227

126
Table 2. System parameters and economic data (2014 prices in Indian Rupees)

Load Peak power demand is 180 kW and may vary to 135 kW and 90 kW .Cooling demand is to be met by absorption
chillers.

Engine V type turbocharged water cooled diesel engine with 180 kW capacity at 1500 rpm and compression ratio of
16.7.Capital cost is Rs 6000/kW.Life of engine 10 years.Fuel cost is Rs 60/kg.LHV of diesel 40,600kJ/kg.

Absorption chiller Thermax make, exhaust gas driven double effect lithium bromide water system of capacity 40 TR and
COP=1.4.Single effect chiller of system two is hot water driven and of capacity 30 TR and COP =0.7.Capital cost
of single effect chiller is Rs 75000/TR while for the double effect machine it is Rs 50000/TR.Discount rate is
10%.Life of chillers is 10 years.

3. Thermodynamic properties

Table 3 shows the pressure, temperature, mass flow rate, enthalpy and entropy of thermodynamic states of
Fig.1. Some thermodynamic states were defined as input data and some were obtained from the property tables.
This table represents the data for the engine and the chiller operating at full load. Properties at part load
conditions were also obtained though they are not included in the paper.

Table 3. Thermodynamic properties of state points in Fig. 1 at full load

State Fluid Pressure Temperature Mass flow Enthalpy(kJ/s) Entropy(kJ/kg0C) Specific Exergy
no. (bar) (0C) rate (kg/s) Exergy(kJ/kg) rate(kW)
i Fuel 1.00 27 0.011 44730 447.3
ii Air 1.00 30 0.24 303.5 5.712 0.0
1 Water 3.1 90.0 2.08 376.9 1.193 25.95 53.97
2 Water 3.0 95.0 2.08 398 1.250 30.06 62.52
3 Water 3.0 90.0 1.91 376.9 1.193 25.95 49.56
4 Water 2.9 85.0 1.91 355.9 1.134 22.54 43.05
5 Exhaust 1.1 540.0 0.25 817.07 1.001 522 130.5
6 Exhaust 1.1 200.0 0.25 475.36 0.4575 343.7 85.92
7 Water 1.0 12.0 5.72 50.4 0.181 1.02 5.83
8 Water 0.9 7.0 5.72 29.4 0.106 2.37 13.55
9 Water 1.0 12.0 1.61 50.4 0.181 1.02 1.64
10 Water 0.9 7.0 1.61 29.4 0.106 2.37 3.81

4. Energy , Exergy and Economic Model

All the components of trigeneration system which includes diesel engine generator, heat exchangers, and
absorption chillers can be approximated as steady flow energy devices and analyzed using control volume
approach. Applying the first law and second law to control volume at steady state with negligible kinetic and
potential energy changes yields us expressions (1) and (2).Work is high grade energy and hence represents
exergy. The exergy transfer associated with heat transfer is obtained from equation (3).The specific flow exergy
can be calculated using equation (4) where the subscripts o stands for restricted dead state and T o is the dead
state temperature. Exergy destruction in the expression (2) quantifies the irreversibility occurring in each
component. To calculate exergy destruction as the difference between exergy input and exergy output terms like
exergy fuel and exergy products are defined in literature and included in equations (5) to (7) Where 𝐸𝑖̇ and
𝐸𝑒 stands for exergy input and exergy output respectively. These rates of exergy destruction in each component
are best captured by comparing them to overall exergy input to the trigeneration system and are expressed as
equation (8).Alternatively the component exergy destruction rate can be compared to the total exergy
destruction rate within the system. The annualized capital cost is arrived at using expressions (11) and (12) with
the assumptions in Table 1 and 2. The equivalent electrical energy from absorption system is calculated
assuming a COP of compression chiller as 3.5.The fuel consumption and the fuel cost is estimated from the
specific fuel consumption data assumed in the Table 1.Annualized life cycle cost is calculated using the units of
electrical energy generated from generator and equivalent electrical output from absorption chiller.

127
𝑄̇ + 𝑊̇ = ∑ 𝑚̇ 𝑒 ℎ𝑒 − ∑ 𝑚̇ 𝑖 ℎ𝑖 (1)
𝐸𝑞 + 𝑊 = ∑ 𝑚̇ 𝑒 ℎ𝑒 − ∑ 𝑚̇ 𝑖 ℎ𝑖 + 𝐸𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 (2)
𝑇
𝐸𝑞 = ∑(1 − 𝑂)𝑄̇ (3)
𝑇
𝑒 = (ℎ − ℎ𝑜 ) − 𝑇𝑂 (𝑠 − 𝑠𝑜 ) (4)
𝐸𝑓 = ̇ ∑ 𝐸𝑖̇ (5)
𝐸𝑝 = ∑ 𝐸𝑒̇ (6)
ED = Ef - Ep (7)
𝐸
𝑦 ∗𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑘 = 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑘 (8)
𝐸𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙
𝐸𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑘
𝑦= (9)
𝐸𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙

Pe+Eq
𝜂𝑒 = ( 10)
𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙
𝐴 = 𝐶 ∗ CRF (11)
𝑑(𝑖+𝑑)𝑛
𝐶𝑅𝐹 = (12)
(1+𝑑)𝑛 −1

5. Thermodynamic performance of Trigeneration system with two chillers

The energetic performance of the trigeneration system is captured by the parameters like power output (W),
refrigerating effect and by writing a component wise energy balance. The exergetic performance is obtained by
calculating the exergy of fuel (EF) and products(ED) ,exergy output to the exergy input, exergy destruction per
component, to the total exergy destruction and exergetic efficiency. Exergy destroyed per ton of refrigeration is
another parameter for performance evaluation. All these values were computed for full load, 75% of full load
and 50% of full load and are tabulated in Tables 4 to 6.
Table 4. Energetic and exergetic evaluations of the components of diesel engine trigeneration system at full load for system with two
chillers

Components Q (kW) W(kW) ĖF(kW) ĖP(kW) ĖD (kW) y() y () e() ĖD/TR
(KW)
Engine 441 180 469.66 353.97 115.69 72.48 24.63 75.36 2.46
Double effect 100 0.0 44.58 7.72 36.86 23.09 7.84 17.31 0.92
chiller
Heat exchanger 0.0 105.57 103.53 2.04 1.27 0.43 98.06 -
water tank (HE1)
Single effect 40 0.0 6.51 1.502 5.01 3.13 0.92 23.07 0.715
chiller
Overall system 626.32 466.72 159.60 100 33.82 66.01 3.39

Table 5. Energetic and exergetic evaluations of the components of diesel engine trigeneration system at 75% of full load for system with
two chillers

Components Q (kW) W(kW) ĖF(kW) ĖP(kW) ĖD (kW) y() y () e()

Engine 346.5 180 369.02 254.46 114.56 82.22 31.04 68.95
Double effect 51 0.0 24.6 4.24 20.36 14.61 5.51 17.23
chiller
Heat exchanger 0.0 91.96 91.07 0.89 0.63 0.24 99
water tank (HE1)
Single effect 30 0.0 4.87 1.356 3.514 2.52 0.95 27.84
chiller
Overall system 490.45 351.126 139.32 100 37.74 62.24

Table 4 reveals that the exergy destruction is maximum in engine followed by exhaust gas fired double effect
chiller. The larger value of exergy destruction in exhaust fired absorption chiller is due to poor temperature
matching between exhaust gases and refrigerant boiling in the desorber of chiller. Exergy destruction in engine
is due to the irreversibility of combustion phenomenon..Part loading of engine increases the contribution of

128
engine in total exergy destruction as seen from y* values though the absolute values of exergy destroyed would
reduce at lower loads.Exergy destruction in other components is negligible. Exergy destruction calculated per
ton of refrigeration calculated for full load is a parameter useful in comparing the system with two chillers with
the one with single chiller. A better clarity on the performance parameters is obtained from the figures 3 to 6.

Table 6. Energetic and exergetic evaluations of the components of diesel engine trigeneration system at 50% of full load for system with
two chillers

Components Q (kW) W(kW) ĖF(kW) ĖP(kW) ĖD (kW) y() y () e()

Engine 238.35 180 253.84 167.25 86.59 86.99 34.11 65.88
Double 27.99 0.0 12.58 2.173 10.40 10.44 4.097 17.24
effect chiller
Heat exchanger 0.0 78.81 78.62 0.19 0.19 0.074 99.75
(HE1)
Single 20 0.0 3.24 0.891 2.349 2.35 0.92 27.5
effect chiller
Overall system 348.47 248.93 99.54 100 39.20 60.78

140

120

100

80 100
75
60
25
40

20

0
Engine DEC HE1 SEC

Fig. 3. ĖD (kW) for different components at various loads

120

100

80
100
60
75

40 25

20

0
Engine DEC HE1 SEC
Fig. 4. η for different components at various loads

129
 100
90
80
70
60
100
50
75
40
25
30
20
10
0
Engine DEC HE1 SEC

Fig. 5. y* for different components at various loads

40

35

30

25
100
20
75
15 25
10

0
Engine DEC HE1 SEC

Fig. 6. y for different components at various loads

6. Thermodynamic performance of Trigeneration system with single chiller

Thermodynamic properties for system represented in Fig. 2 are included in Table 7. These properties are
obtained similar to those in Table 2. Analysis of the trigeneration system involves calculation of the parameters
defined earlier in the text .The calculated values are summarized in Table 8. Exergy destruction in engine and
exhaust heat exchanger contribute significantly to the total exergy destruction. Exergy destruction values are
larger because of the temperature mismatch of the flue gas with that of hot water in the heat exchanger. The heat
exchanger can be designed to minimize energy losses but the exergy destruction is unavoidable. Combining the
recovery of exhaust gases (high grade energy) with that of jacket water (low grade energy) results in exergy
destruction which effects the performance of trigeneration system. The exergy destruction per ton of
refrigeration for a single chiller indicates this inefficiency of the system vis a vis trigeneration system with two
chillers. Trigeneration system with single chiller would entail lower initial costs, however the exergetic and
energetic performance of the system is inferior to that of a system with two chillers. It would be interesting to
investigate the economic performance of the two systems. Fig. 7 is a comparative picture of the life cycle cost of
energy per kWh for the two systems for different hours of operation per year. Trigeneration system with two
chillers appears economically attractive.

130
 Table 7. Thermodynamic properties of state points in Fig. 2 at full load

State Fluid Pressure Temperature Mass Enthalpy(kJ/s) Entropy(kJ/kg0C) Specific Exergy

no. (bar) (0C) flowrate Exergy(kJ/kg) rate(kW)
(kg/s)
i Fuel 1.00 27 0.011 44730 447.3
ii Air 1.00 30 0.24 303.5 5.712 0.0
1 Water 3.1 90.0 6.69 376.9 1.193 25.95 173.60
2 Water 3.0 91.42 6.69 383.2 1.209 27 180.63
2' Water 3.1 95 6.69 398 1.25 30.06 201.10
3 Water 3.0 90.0 6.69 376.9 1.193 25.95 173.60
4 Water 2.9 85.0 6.69 355.9 1.134 22.54 150.79
5 Exhaust 1.1 540.0 0.25 817.07 1.001 522 130.5
6 Exhaust 1.1 200.0 0.25 475.36 0.4575 343.7 85.92
7 Water 3.0 12 4.68 50.4 0.181 1.02 4.77
8 Water 2.9 7 4.68 29.4 0.091 2.37 11.09

Table 8. Energetic and exergetic evaluations of the components of diesel engine trigeneration system at full load for system with single
effect chiller

Components Q (kW) W(kW) ĖF(kW) ĖP(kW) ĖD (kW) y() y () e() ĖD/TR
(KW)
Engine 441 180 469.66 350.20 119.46 72.50 25.43 74.56 5.97
Exhaust 100 0.0 311.13 287.02 24.11 14.63 5.13 92.25 -
heat exchanger
Heat exchanger 0.0 0.0 351.89 347.2 4.69 2.84 0.99 98.66 -
(HE1)
Single 0.0 22.81 6.32 15.05 7.26 3.20 27.70 0.75
effect chiller
Overall system 180 1155.49 990.74 164.75 100 34.75 64.92 8.23

18
16
14
12
System with two Chillers
10
8 System with single
6 Chiller

4
2
0
8000 7000 6000 5000 4000
Fig. 7. Annualized life cycle cost (Rs per kWh) versus hours of operation for both systems

7. Conclusions

For a 200 kVA engine the power output at 100% is 180 kW while the energy recovered from jacket water and
exhaust gases is 40 kW and 100 kW respectively. This energy when integrated with single effect chiller and
double effect chiller would produce a chilling effect of 7TR and 40TR respectively. At part loads the chilling
output would reduce as seen from energy analysis. Second law efficiency is maximum for engine system with
recovered heat (about 75%) at full load. This efficiency reduces to 65% at 50% loading. The exergy destruction
is contributed by engine system in a major way (y* values are 72% at full load) indicating the importance of
engine in total exergy destruction. At part loads this contribution increases to 87 % ( at 50% loading)).The
second efficiency of double effect and single effect chiller are lower as compared to other components which
can attributed to the lower temperature of chilled water. The second law efficiency of double effect chiller is
lower as compared to that of single effect chiller. Considering that COP of double effect chiller is higher than

131
single effect chiller a still greater efforts should go in improvements in second law efficiency of double effect
chiller. This lower second law efficiency can be attributed to a greater temperature difference between the
exhaust gases and water in the desorber section of double effect chiller. It appears that the heat exchanger water
tank does not contribute much to the overall exergy destruction as indicated by higher second law efficiency and
lower y value. With trigeneration system integrated with only single effect chiller, the exergy destruction per ton
is more than twice the corresponding value from system with two chillers. This can be attributed to lower
chilling effect as well as increase in irreversibility in a system using a single chiller. This irreversibility is
captured by exergy destruction in exhaust heat exchanger that occurs in system with single chiller. Better
temperature matching of waste energy source with the application meaning using two chillers would lower this
irreversibility. The performance of trigeneration system with two chillers is better than that of a system with a
single chiller based on energetic, exergetic as well as economic perspective for the trigeneration system under
consideration.

8.References

[1] K. F. Fong, C.K Lee, Performance analysis of internal-combustion-engine primed trigeneration systems for use in high-rise office
buildings in Hong Kong Energy Procedia 61, 2014, pp. 2319 – 2322.
[2] N.H.Shekh, B.Saiful, Waste heat recovery from a diesel engine using shell and tube heat exchanger, Applied Thermal Engineering
61,2013,pp. 355-363.
[3] N.H.Shekh, B.Saiful, Waste heat recovery from the exhaust of a diesel generator using Rankine Cycle, Energy Conversion and
Management 75, 2013,pp.141–151.
[4] K.Herold, S. Klein, R. Radermacher, Absorption Chillers and Heat Pumps, CRC Press, Florida, United States of America,1995.
[5] D.Gewald, S. Karellas, A. Schuster, H.Spliethoff, Integrated system approach for increase of engine combined cycle efficiency Energy
Conversion and Management 60, 2012, pp. 36–44.
[6] Shelar Mahesh, Bagade Sunil , Kulkarni Govind. Trigeneration for a typical Indian Hospital: An assessment considering compulsory
load management scenario, Proceedings of International conference on advances in energy research, 2009, pp.338-342, IIT Bombay,
India.
[7] D.B.Espirito Santo.Energy and exergy efficiency of a building internal combustion engine Trigeneration system under two different
operational strategies,Energy and Buildings 53,2012,pp28-38.
[8] Aysegul Abusoglu,Mehmet Kanoglu.Exergetic and thermoeconomic analyses of diesel engine powered cogeneration:Part 1-
Formulations.Applied Thermal Enineering 29,2009,pp234-241.

132
 ICAER-2015

Sun light transmission through silica optical fibers for lighting: an

experimental study
Sanket Patil, Naveen Kumar
Department of Physics
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing Kancheepuram
Chennai - 600127

Abstract

The process of sunlight transmission through optical fibers has received considerable interest from the scientific community
in recent times. The interdisciplinary emerging field has found many applications in the field of solar lighting, solar furnace,
three dimensional solar cells etc. Most of the optical fiber based solar lighting systems have employed plastic fibers as the
light transmission media and the use of silica fibers in such systems has not been given much attention. Further, the actual
measured data/values of the light emanating from the output ends of fibers in such systems are rarely reported. In the present
study, merits and demerits of employing silica and plastic fibers in transmitting sun light are discussed. A silica optical fiber
based solar lighting system has been developed and after installing it on an indigenously fabricated sun tracker, its
performance has been measured and reported. Based on experimental and simulated results, multimode silica fibers could
turn out to be better light transmission media than the plastic fibers, particularly for the case when light has to be transported
over longer distances. The findings reported herein stress the need for tailor made customized solar lighting design for
different buildings.
Keywords: Sun-light transportation, Optical fibers, Sun tracking, Solar lighting system

1. Introduction

Rapid industrialization, unavailability of residential land and safety concerns are the major impetuous
prompting the people to live/work in high rise buildings. The design of such sky scrapers necessitates the
consumption of electricity for lighting purpose even during the day-time when plenty of sunlight is available in
the open ambient space. A huge amount of electric energy is consumed for maintaining a uniform/minimum
level of illumination during the day-time working hours in schools, colleges, restaurants, hotels, offices etc. and
it puts an extra burden on the grid power. For example, lighting accounts for about 30% of residential electricity
consumption in India and the demand for electricity is ever on the rise and only lighting would consume about
100,000 GWh/year of electricity by 2025 [1]. The gross total consumption of electricity for lighting only could
be astoundingly high for the whole world. Since during the day-time plenty of sun-light is available, it may be
preferable to transport these photons into interior of the buildings. Such solution is natural, suitable, and it
provides many psychological and physiological advantages also [2]. Through different surveys it has been
established that people become more active, agile and efficient while working under natural environment with
exposure to sun light [3]. Considering the space constraints, security reasons, affordability and modern
civilizations’ choice for high rise towers as hallmark of advancement, the option of transportation of sunlight
through optical fibers seems to be satisfying/meeting the evolving/desired specifications governed by the
futuristic building design culture. The concept of transportation of sunlight through optical fibers is at-least 3
decades old [4] and many applications of such phenomenon have been studied by the various researchers over
the years [5-14]. In such systems, sunlight incident on aperture of the concentrator is focused and injected into
the optical fibers (placed at the focal spot). Thus, the light launched in optical fiber will undergo total internal
reflection at core and cladding or cladding and air interface while traversing through it and visible beam gets
delivered at desired place inside the building. With the advancement in availability of specialty optical fibers in
terms of different core/cladding size, materials, fabrication techniques, and other design parameters (numerical
aperture etc.), researchers’ are showing keen interest in exploring the fiber optics for applications other than the
main usage in long haul communication networks. The most common applications of solar light transmission
through optical fibers include lighting [5-6], solar surgery [7], solar furnaces and power generation [8-9],
hydrogen production/photo-bioreactor [10], solar lasers and laser pumping [11-12]. The idea of developing three
dimensional solar cells for power generation is also gaining importance in very recent times, and some

133
successful demonstration at laboratory scale have been reported [13-14]. The aim of the present study is to
provide some comparative merits/demerits and discuss various useful aspects in selection of different
components needed in realization of optical fiber based solar lighting systems. To the best of our knowledge,
data measurements and quantitative evaluation of such system fabricated with Fresnel lens and silica multimode
fiber bundle is being reported for the first time. The results and scientific suggestions of the study may be useful
for any of the areas wherein sunlight is transmitted through optical fibers and can potentially lead to
improvement in development of more feasible or economically viable technology.

Nomenclature

n1 refractive index of the optical fiber core

n2 refractive index of the optical fiber cladding

2. Methodology and Design Considerations

Almost all of the studies, wherein optical fibers were employed for developing solar lighting systems, have
proposed the use of a light collector/concentrators, secondary/hot/cold mirrors, optical fibers, and sun-trackers
as essential constituent components in the system realization. The concentrators that are installed in such
systems include parabolic dishes, Plano-convex lenses or truncated pyramid/conical shapes with reflecting inner
walls. Though, Fresnel lenses are cheaper/light weight and are well known for their light concentration ability,
yet paraboloid concentrators are more often chosen component in such applications [5-8]. Plastic optical fibers
(POF) [15-16] seem to be the choice of the researchers over the silica fibers even though the latter is a low loss
and cheaper light transmission media. Nevertheless, due to large core diameter (~1mm – 8 mm) and high
numerical aperture (~0.7), POF can collect more light increasing the light gathering capacity of the system, and
it makes them preferable light transmission media over the silica fibers. In silica fibers, though less light might
be launched (in them) due to small core diameters (~ 50 micrometer) and numerical aperture value (0.2) but
owing to lower transmission loss, these may prove to be better solution, particularly over longer distances of
transmission of light. So there exists a trade-off between silica fibers and plastic fibers. These design aspects of
any solar lighting module in terms of choice of each components has not been much discussed quantitatively
despite being known to play a very crucial role in the overall efficiency of the configuration of the lighting
module. It must be remembered that there are many people around the world who choose comforts over
economics and many builders/realtors would like to incorporate the inclusion of such lighting systems in their
Master Plan design of the building at very inception. Success of such type of planning necessitates the design
and manufacturing of tailor made customized solution for each building depending upon topology of the
project/building. It may be possible that POF based lighting module is a better choice for some floors but the
silica fibers may prove to be more efficient solution for other floors consequently making the quantitative
discussion pertinent to each type of design. In the present paper, a solar lighting module has been developed and
installed on an indigenously fabricated sun tracker. The Fresnel lens is employed for concentrating the sun-light,
hot mirrors are used for filtering the IR and UV part of the solar spectra, and the multimode silica fibers are
fitted at the focal spot for transportation of concentrated sun-light. A brief rationale behind the choice of the
different components of the lighting module has been the subject matter of this section.
Spot size of the concentrated beam, concentrating angle of the focusing unit, fiber diameter, fiber numerical
aperture, fiber transmission losses and temperature at the focal spot are probably the most relevant parameters in
this context, one may like to consider in optimizing the design of such systems. Owing to the solar angular
diameter (δ ~ 32 minutes), a bright spot of minimum radius Fδ/2 is formed at the focal point of the light
concentrating unit and within the spot contained cos4φ times the total flux received by concentrating collector; φ
is the half rim angle/lens angle of the light focusing concentrator and F is the focal length. To facilitate the
concentrated light energy (at the focal spot) be captured by the optical fiber, it is generally suggested that the
core diameter of the optical fiber should be larger than/equal to the spot size (of the focused beam) as it enables
the entire focused flux injected into the core of an optical fiber successfully. This is one of the clinching reasons
for POF being preferred over silica fibers. The next important parameter is the numerical aperture of the light
guide. Numerical aperture is the measure of the light gathering capacity of the optical fibers and mathematically,
it is sine of the half angle of acceptance of rays entering the core/cladding region of the fiber. Rays entering the
fiber should have angle of incidence less than or equal to the half of the angle of acceptance so as to undergo
Total Internal Reflection (TIR) inside and eventually traverse through the fiber without any loss due to
refraction/reflection. The rays which enter the fiber at an angle higher than its angle of acceptance shall be
partly reflected and refracted inside and eventually get lost while traversing through the fiber. Ideally the

134
numerical aperture of the fiber should be larger than/ equal to the sine of lens/half rim angle of the focusing unit.
Generally, POF has larger numerical aperture over the silica fibers and their value can be as high as 0.7 or even
higher, which means that their angle of acceptance can be larger than 90o. But, it should be remembered that the
light launched in the cladding region of silica optical fibers may also suffer total internal reflection (TIR) at
cladding – plastic jacket boundary/interface and get transmitted without any leakage loss provided the refractive
index (RI) of the jacket should be less than that of the cladding region and light enters the cladding at an angle
satisfying the TIR condition at the interface. If the jacket of the silica fiber is removed, the TIR would happen at
cladding air interface and it shall also greatly enhance its angle of acceptance and numerical aperture as there is
a large difference in cladding RI (n 2 ) and air RI (n 1 ). Thus, silica fibers with jacket stripped off can result in
large cross sectional area and relatively high numerical aperture. The numerical aperture of an optical fiber so
that the rays suffer TIR either at core – cladding interface or at cladding – air boundary within the fiber may be
expressed as;
N. A. = Sin Θ max = - ) (1)

N. A. = Sin Φ max = -1) (2)

Where n 1 is the refractive index of the core region of an optical fiber.

Another, important consideration comes from the management of the temperature at the focal spot of the
concentrator. Around 44% of the sunlight spectra are occupied by the infra-red radiations, which are the prime
source of heat energy resulting in high temperature at the concentrating spot. The larger aperture diameter of the
primary concentrating unit and smaller spot size of the focused radiations shall lead to higher temperature. The
study of variations in temperature profile and flux profile has been reported in the context of realization of solar
furnaces [15-16]. Typically, a Plano-convex lens of diameter 8 cm could produce a temperature of about 120oC
at its focal spot, when exposed to sunlight with insolation ~ 800 W/m2. Generally, plastic fibers fabricated with
PMMA are not recommended for use at an operating temperature above 70oC. The silica fibers are more
suitable under high temperature operating conditions (silica melting temperature > 1000oC) but the plastic jacket
has to be removed, when used at temperature > 70oC. Instability against high temperature, high cost, and high
transmission losses are the major limiting factors, which inhibits the use of POF in solar light transmission. It is
because of this reason that the usage of cold/hot mirrors has been put into practices in implementing Optical
Fibers Solar Lighting Systems (OFSLS) as these mirrors filters out the IR components of the radiations, which
in turn may be converted into electricity through co-generation techniques [5]. Though, it seems to be promising
aspect nevertheless, it increases the overall cost of the system and part of the visible spectra also gets absorbed
by the hot/cold mirrors leading to reduction in 15% - 20% of the input energy which otherwise would have been
available for transmission at the input end of the fibers. Therefore, the advantage of POF due to their better light
capturing ability on account of their large diameter and high numerical aperture has been obscured to some
extent owing to their in-effectiveness while operating under high temperature conditions necessitating the usage
of hot/cold mirrors. Thus, the alternate choice is to pack the silica multimode fibers in a bundle and arrange it
inside the capillary tube, which can be placed at the focal spot of the light concentrating unit. Considering all the
above mentioned pros and cons, it seems that silica fibers could produce better results for the case wherein small
concentrating units are employed in construction of OFSLS and the transmission distance is longer. POF would
be more efficient for OFSLS with large concentration units and shorter distance transmission.

3. Fabrication and Experimental Evaluation

The major components involved in realization of OFSLS are sunlight focusing unit, optical fibers, sun-
tracker, cold/hot mirrors, luminaries etc. A Fresnel lens of size 16 cm x16 cm and focal length 22 cm was
chosen as the sunlight concentrating unit and it was mounted on an in-house developed uni-axial sun-tracker. A
small L- shape acrylic made customized unit, for holding the hot mirrors and silica fiber bundle at the focal spot
of the concentrated beam, was also attached with the tracker. The solar tracker model developed was essentially
a PSAT (Polar Aligned Single Axis Tracker) type with incorporation of adjustable tilted base angle to facilitate
the seasonal adjustment in its orientation for keeping its face towards sun. The solar tracker was designed to
give rotational output of 15 degrees per hour, which amounts to the rotational speed of 6.944 x 10-4 rpm.
Generally, a costly and sophisticated sensor based programmable micro-controller driven stepper/servo motor
technology is employed in obtaining such low and precise speed. Here, a worm and worm wheel based concept
is selected to achieve the desired speed with DC motor controlling the rotation of the shaft. The technique
proposed herein bypassed the need of using sensors and programmable stepper/servo motor and could
effectively reduce the over-all cost of the tracker. Another advantage of using worm and worm wheels is its self-
locking capability. After fabrication and assembly of the solar tracker, it was tested in real-time and it was found

135
to exhibit a deviation of ~0.5 degree/hour from its design speed and it may be attributed to the change in the
location of the centre of gravity of the system with time. The accumulation of this error over time can be
prevented by introducing a slight increase in the motor speed periodically. After observing these points, a
rectangular acrylic structure was connected to the output tracking shafts on either side with the help of a lock
nut arrangement and the Fresnel lens was placed on this acrylic arrangement. The optical fiber bundle was held
at the focal point of the Fresnel lens using an L-bend attached to the lens holder. The hot mirrors were attached
on the top portion of the L- bend with help of nut screw arrangement. The tracking shaft is connected to a DC
motor through a gear train. The fully functional system was kept in the sun and the sun was tracked by the solar
tracker (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Experimental prototype functional model of solar day light system.

The spot diameter of the concentrated beam at the focal spot was found to be approximately ~ 2.0 mm, as
expected, and temperature at the focal point was measured to be ~ 305oC. It was difficult to measure the energy
flux, flux profile, and temperature profile’s radial variations inside the spot. After placing one hot mirror
between the lens and the concentrated beam spot, the temperature was measured to be ~ 150oC for the
corresponding incident light flux measured (on the Fresnel lens) with lux meter was 106500 lumens/m2.
However, after inserting one more additional hot mirror, the temperature was reduced to 110oC. Optical fiber
bundle comprised of 75 optical fibers of length 2 meter each, was arranged inside a capillary tube kept in an
adjustable slot with its front facing the focal spot and it was attached with the tracker. The light intensity
emanating out from the fiber bundle is shown in the Fig. 2. The input intensity of light incident on the surface of
Fresnel lens and output light emanating out of optical fiber bundle were measured after every 15 minutes
intervals and their variations with time are shown.

Fig. 2: Photo of sunlight light emanating at the output end of the silica optical fiber bundle during the experimental performance evaluation
of solar lighting systems.

4. Results and Discussion

The optical fibers employed in the present study were multimode silica fibers with core and total (core +
cladding) diameters 50 µm and 125 µm, respectively. The jacket covering of 75 fibers (forming the bundle)
were removed and their ends were prepared and afterward, arranged in a circular geometry inside the capillary
tube of diameter ~ 1.2 mm. The total area occupied the by the optical fibers was ~1.13 mm2, however, the area
occupied by the core and the cladding would be 0.147 mm2 and 0.785 mm2, respectively, which would be the
maximum useful space though which light could traverse through the phenomenon of TIR. The light launched
in rest of the area (0.198 mm2) would eventually be lost in the dead interstitial air gap. It must be remembered
that numerical aperture of the fiber with air surrounding the cladding would be quite sufficient enough to allow

136
all the incident rays on core/cladding to suffer TIR at either core - cladding or cladding – air interface.
Nevertheless, if plastic jacket were present over the cladding region, it would not only reduce the effective
useful area inside the tube but also decrease the angle of acceptance of the rays for undergoing TIR at the
Cladding – Jacket interface. The purpose of the present system is to transmit the white light (wavelength span of
400 nm to 800 nm) collected from the solar spectrum at high temperature which necessitates the importance of
estimation of various types of transmission losses over the broad band range. Generally, manufactures give the
value of material absorption losses at a particular wavelength for the constituent components and not for span of
white light spectra. One of the important problems in these types of systems is theoretically estimation of losses
[17] incurred by the light while propagating through the fiber and other accessories. The transmission losses in
optical fibers are attributed to material/absorption losses, scattering losses, etc. The losses are estimated to be ~
1.5 dB/km for multimode silica fibers whereas for plastic fibers the losses are reported to be 300 dB/km. But
these loss indicators are specified at wavelength of 1310 nm and not for the white light traversing through the
fibers. However, the average value could be as high as 10 dB/Km - 20 dB/km in the visible range for silica
multimode optical fiber with core/cladding diameter as 50/125 µm. For ordinary plastic fiber, the attenuation
coefficient could be ~ 500 dB/km, in the visible range and this value would increase with the core diameter. The
Fresnel lens had an average transmittance of about 95% and the hot mirror has an average transmittance of 85%
in the visible spectrum. Further, assuming that the intensity of light is approximately uniformly launched in the
fiber bundle, then about 30% of the concentrated energy was actually launched in the fiber as only 30 % of the
total spot size area (3.14 mm2) was actually occupied by the optical fibers. After considering these losses in the
luminance at each level of component, the theoretical estimation of the flux emanating at the output was
performed. Attenuation coefficient of the light was approximately found to be 20 dB/km. It can be deduced
from the Figure 3 that theoretical estimation and experimental measurements were matching to a reasonable
degree.

Density of light incident on Fresnel lens Esky (klux)

Quantity of light at the output end with 1 hot mirror F1o/p (Lumens)

120 400
100 350

Output Flux (lum)

Iluminance (klux)

300
80 250
60 200
40 150
100
20 50
0 0
9:45 10:15 10:45 11:15 11:45 12:15 12:45 1:15 1:45 2:15 2:45 3:15 3:45 4:15
AM AM AM AM AM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM

Time (Hour)

Fig. 3: Variations in measured and simulated values of output light flux, emanating from 2 m long silica fiber bundle, with time.

In order to illustrate the usefulness of the silica fiber over plastic fibers, the experimental results have been
compared with those of Song et.al [15]. The effective aperture diameter of the lenses used by Song et al. was
around 471 cm2 while in our case it was around 196 cm2 (the effective area of the lens, for concentrating the
light, was 14 cm x14 cm). It can be observed from the Fig. 8 that the input light intensity and the output light for
both (Song et al. and Fig. 4) the cases are of similar magnitude (350 lumens) even though the area of light
collection in the former case is about 2.4 times the area of the Fresnel lens. The overall efficiency of the system,
in the former case, is less than 5% but in the present case it is greater than 14%.

137
 Density of light incident on Fresnel lens Esky (klux)

Theoretical quantity of light at the output end with 1 hot mirror for 6m optical
fibre F1o/p (Lumens)
120 400

Output Flux (lum)

Iluminance (klux)
100 300
80
60 200
40 100
20
0 0

Time (Hour)

Fig. 4: Variations in measured input light intensity on Fresnel aperture and simulated output light flux emanating from 6 m long silica
fiber bundle with time.

Therefore, it could be concluded that silica multimode fibers would also prove to be useful in sun-light
transportation over longer distances provided Fresnel lenses are employed as light focusing units. It may be
difficult to comment on the economical viability of such systems, nevertheless, the field of research is definitely
considered among the elite group of emerging technologies. The discussion presented herein concludes in favor
of customized solar lighting design for each building/house as the financial analysis and output efficiency would
differ for each design. POF based lighting system may prove to be suitable (in terms of light output) for some
floors in a building, however, silica fibers may perform better for some other floors or buildings in a different
situation. The results and discussion presented in the manuscript would be helpful in making such decision.

5. Conclusions

Selection criterion in choosing different components for realizing an optical fiber based solar lighting system
has been presented. The merits and demerits of employing silica and plastic fibers in transmitting sun light are
discussed. A silica optical fiber based solar lighting system has been developed and after installing it on
indigenously fabricated sun tracker, its performance has been measured and matched with those of simulated
one. Based on experimental and simulated results, it can be concluded that multimode silica fibers could also
turn out to be suitable light transmission media over longer distances, which will improve the overall economics
of such systems. The manuscript also stresses the need for tailor made customized solar lighting design for
different buildings.

References

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[15] J. F. Song, Y. P. Yang, H. J. Hou, M. X. Zhang, Configuration of day-lighting system via fibers and experiments of concentrated
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139
 Nusselt number and friction factor characteristics for double
pass solar air heater duct having discrete multi V shaped and
staggered rib roughness
Ravi Kant Ravi*, R.P.Saini**
*, **Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand-247667, India
ravik.iitr@gmail.com

Abstract

Double pass counter flow solar air heaters with artificial roughness on both sides of the heated plate is one of the critical and

economic design improvements that have been proposed to improve the thermal performance. This paper presents an

experimental investigation to study the effect of roughness and performing parameters on Nusselt number and pressure drop

characteristics of double pass duct having discrete multi V shaped and staggered rib roughness. The experiments has been

performed for the range of Reynolds number (Re) from 2000 to 16000, angle of attack (α) from 30° to 75°, relative

staggered rib size (r/e) from 1 to 2.5, for the fixed values of relative staggered rib position (p’/p) of 0.69, relative gap

distance (Gd/Lv) of 0.69, relative gap width (W/w) of 6, relative pitch ratio (p/e) of 10, relative height ratio (e/D) of 0.043

and relative gap size (g/e) of 1. Based on the experimental data, Nusselt number and friction factor characteristics have been

determined for different values of roughness and performing parameters. The experimental results have been compared with

those of smooth duct under similar flow conditions and considerable enhancement in both Nusselt number and friction factor

has been found.

Abbrivations: SAH- Solar air heater, SPSAH-Single pass solar air heater, DPSAH-Double pass solar air heater, MFRA-

Mass flow rate of air

Keywords: Double pass solar air heater, Nusselt number, friction factor, artificial roughness, Heat transfer

Nomenclature

ṁ Air mass flow rate, kg/s

A Area, m2
H Height, m
W Width, m
V Velocity, m/s
f friction factor
Nu Nusselt number
h heat transfer coefficient, w/m2-k
T temperature, °C
D Hydraulic diameter, m
K thermal conductivity, w/m-k
p Pitch, m
e Rib height, m
p’ staggered rib pitch, m
Subscripts
fm fluid
pm plate
o outlet
i inlet
s smooth

140
1. Introduction

Solar air heaters (SAHs) are specific types of heat exchanger devices that provide energy in the form of heat
for the purpose of space Heating [1], drying agricultural products(paddy drying, fruit drying, timber drying, cash
crop drying etc.) and some industrial applications [2, 3] or other locations normally requiring the use of
conventional energy sources to maintain a constant temperature. Thermal efficiency of the conventional SAH
found to be poor due to low convective coefficient between heat collecting surface and working fluid. So it
becomes essential to increase the convection coefficient in order to increase the thermal performance of the
system. It is found in literatures that the convective coefficient can be increased by various methods which
include: (i) use of the extended surfaces i.e. fins or turbulators (ii) use of the PBMs and (iii) breaking of the
viscous sub in turbulent layer region, by using wires ribs, corrugated surfaces and protrusions to make absorbing
surface artificially roughened [4]. Double pass solar air heater (DPSAH) is a technique to enhance the
thermohydraulic performance of a convectional SAH. Various investigators performed experimental and
theoretical investigations to increase thermal performance of the DPSAH using different approaches i.e.
prolonged surfaces using fins, PBMs and folded absorber but so far very few studies have been reported with
DPSAHs provided with artificial roughness.
El-Sebaii et al. [5] investigated the double pass finned plate SAH theoretically and experimentally and an
analytical model for air heater was also presented. He also showed that double pass V-corrugated SAH is 9.3 to
11.9 % more efficient compared to smooth DPSAH. Paisarn Naphson[6] conducted a theoretical investigation
on the performance and entropy generation of DPSAH heater with longitudinal fins and developed the
mathematical model which described the heat transfer characteristics for mass flow rate between 0.02 to 0.1
Kg/s. Ho et al. [7] found an extensive enhancement in collector efficiency when operation of DPSAH was
carried out with external recycle. They also concluded that the desirable effect i.e. increased air velocity
compensate the undesirable effect of decreased driving force (i.e. temperature difference. Aldabbagh et al.[8]
investigated both single and DPSAH experimentally with fins and used steel wire mesh as absorber plate and
found that for same MFRA,the efficiency of DPSAH was more than SPSAH. Esen et al.[9] experimentally
investigates the performance of DPSAH having aluminum cans.
Sharma et al. [10] investigated experimentally the thermal and thermohydraulic performance of DPSAH
having V- shaped ribs on both side of the absorbing surface. The effect of operating and ribs parameters on the
performance of the duct were also investigated and compared with the DPSAH without artificial roughness.
Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of artificially roughened DPSAH duct was experimentally
investigated by Dogra et al. [11]. They used transverse ribs as roughness elements on both sides of heated plate.
The effect of operating and ribs parameters on the performance of the duct was studied. It was found that the
thermal and thermo-hydraulic efficiency of artificially roughened duct was more than that of duct without
artificial roughness. Rawat and Jaurker [12] experimentally investigated the performance of DPSAH with 60 o
inclined V- shaped ribs on the absorber plate. Considerable enhancement in the Nusselt number was obtained
and attained a maximum value for relative roughness pitch (p/e) of 10 and decreased further beyond this value.
Kumar et al.[13] conducted an experimental investigation to on multiple V-shaped rib with gap roughness on
Nusselt number and pressure loss of SPSAH duct. It was observed that the Nusselt number was enhanced when
the secondary air flow released through the gap in investigated roughness geometry and meets with the core
flow. Heat transfer and friction factor were found to be maximum for Gd/Lv of 0.69 and g/e of 1.0.
This paper presented an experimental investigation on the performance of double pass rectangular duct
having discrete multi V-shaped and staggered rib roughness on each surface of the heated plate. The variations
of Nu and f as a function of Re and roughness parameters including relative staggered rib size (r/e) and α have
been assess to investigate the performance of the system.

2. Roughness geometry and range of parameters

Aluminium wires are used to provide artificial roughness. Fig. 1 shows the pattern of the roughness
elements which consist of circular ribs that are glued on both the surface of the absorber plate. These ribs are
glued on surface in downstream i.e. in direction of flow on both sides. The cross-section of artificial roughness
has been depicted by the rib height (e), pitch (P) and angle of attack (α). -
The range of parameters (shown in Table 1) for this experimental research has been selected on the
account of functional review of the duct and performing situations of the DPSAH.

141
 P
Upper side
Gd
w Lv

g
W

r
P’

Lower side

Fig.1: Roughness geometry

Table 1: Operating parameters range

Operating parameters Range

Reynolds Number (Re) 2000-16000 (8 steps)
Relative gap position (Gd/Lv) 0.69
Relative staggered rib position (p’/p) 0.2
Relative staggered rib size (r/e) 1–2.5 (4 steps)
Angle of attack (α) 30°-75°(4 steps)
Relative height ratio (e/D) 0.043
Relative pitch ratio (P/e) 10
Relative gap size (g/e) 1
Relative roughness width (W/w) 6

3. Experimental setup

A double pass rectangular duct has been designed and fabricated with the help of wood to see the
influence of ribs parameters on Nusselt number and pressure loss of roughened DPSAH. A schematic diagram
of the experimental set up is shown in Fig. 2 which consists of double pass rectangular duct, plenum, solar
simulator, orifice meter, micro-manometer, thermocouples, milli-voltmeter, and a centrifugal air blower. The
dimension of the one side rectangular channel is 2010  300  25mm . 50.8mm is the total height of the flow
channel including absorber plate. The channel consists of inlet, test and outlet sections and a small gap so that
air can easily move down. The entry and exit sections have been taken according to ASHARE standard [14],
i.e., 5(W*H) ½. Length of the test section is 1600 mm and 50 mm of gap is provided after test section for the
proper circulation of air. Bottom of duct has been made from 20mm thick wooden plank with 6mm thick
plywood fixed on it and other two sides have been made from 25mm thick wooden plank. A glass is placed on
the top of the first pass so that double pass channel can be formed and radiations easily fall on absorber plate.
The heat to absorber plate is provided by using solar simulator which consists of 24 halogen lights; each with
rated power of 150 W fixed on a stand in such a way that radiation directly falls on the absorber plate. The
maximum average radiation of 1000W/m2 can be reached. The intensity of radiation falling on absorber plate is
measured by using pyranometer. A 0.8mm thick galvanized iron sheet is used as an absorber plate on which
wire ribs is glued on both sides. The air mass flow rate (MFRA) through the channel is deliberated by using an
orifice meter (Cd=0.612) associated with U-tube manometer and control valve to control flow through channel.
Orifice meter is calibrated against a standard pitot tube. The pressure loss across the test channel is deliberated
by using a micro-manometer. The temperature of flowing air and heated plate is recorded with help of calibrated
T-type thermocouples placed at different location on heated plate and in path of flowing air. A data acquisition
system is used to read the thermocouple’s output.

142
 Halogen
lights

Entry
Air Inlet
section
Glass
Electric cover
motor
600 500 900
25

25

Transition
section 450 1600 50

Air outlet Orific meter U-tube Absorber

manometer Exit plate
Centrifugal section
blower

Fig.2: Schematic diagram of the experimental set up

3.1 Experimental Methodology

The experimental set up runs for a set of parameter for different MFRA until quasi-steady state was not
achieved so that we can get relevant data for Nusselt number and pressure loss. Once the steady state was
achieved, following data were recorded for the calculation purpose:
(1) Air temperature at different points
(2) Absorber plate temperature on 16 different locations on it.
(3) Pressure loss through the test section.
(4) Pressure loss through orifice meter.

These data were used for different calculation so that data can be reduced in terms of some useful direct forms,
i.e., Heat transfer and pressure loss.

4. Data diminution

Data obtained from the experiments for heated plate and flowing air temperatures at different locations in the
channel was collected under quassi static conditions for constant radiation and MFRA. The collected data was
used to calculate the Nu and f.
Relevant expressions for computation of above mentioned parameters and some intermediate parameters have
been given below:
The average plate temperature Tpm was calculated by the average of the temperatures recorded at different
locations on the plate as

T1  T2  T3  T4  T5  T6  T7  T8  T9  T10  T11  T12  T13  T14  T15  T16

TPm  (1)
16
The bulk mean fluid temperature T fm is the arithmetic mean of air temperature at the inlet and outlet to the test
section calculated as
Ta  Tb
T fm  (2)
2
MFRA can be calculated by the pressure loss measured across the calibrated orifice meter using the following
expression:
2  (Po )
m  cd Ao (3)
1  4

Pressure loss (ΔPduct) calculated from the head loss across the test section is used to figure out the friction factor

143
as follows

2(p) d D
f  (4)
4  Lv 2
The heat transfer coefficient “ h ” is obtained from the relationship given below,
Qu
h (5)
Ap (Tpm  T fm )
Useful heat gain ( Qu ) to the fluid is given by
Qu  mc p (To  Ti ) (6)
Nusselt number as given below can be calculated with the help of heat transfer coefficient
hD
Nu  (7)
k
5. Validation of experimental data

Before conducting the experiments on roughened absorber plate, it is necessary to conduct the validation test of
the fabricated set up with smooth plate. The value of Nu and f which have been found from the experiment is
compared from the value obtained from Dittus- Boelter equation (11) and Modified Blasius equation (12)
respectively. The comparison of experimental result for smooth plate, Dittus-Boelter equation and Blasius
equation are shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

Dittus-Boelter equation
Nus  2  0.024 Re0.8 Pr 0.4 (8)

Modified Blasius equation

f s  2  0.085Re0.025
(9)

The Dittus-Boelter equation and Modified Blasius equation has been taken two times the original value for
validation as this is the case of DPSAH. The average deviation of experimental values of the Nu is ±2.43% and f
is ±4.286% .Thus, there is a logically good agreement between the two sets of values has been found which
provides the accuracy of the data being compiled using experimental duct.

80

70

60
Nusselt Number (Nu)

50

40

30
Expeimental data
Dittus-Boelter equation
20

10

0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Reynolds Number (Re)

Fig. 3: Comparison of experimental and predicted values of Nu for smooth duct

144
 0.022

Experimental data
0.020 Modified blasius
equation

0.018
friction Factor (f)

0.016

0.014

0.012

0.010
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Reynold Number (Re)

Fig. 4: Comparison of experimental and predicted values of f for smooth duct

6. Results and discussion

The thermal and pressure loss characteristics of the duct having one wall heated and roughened with
discrete multi V shaped and staggered rib, enumerated on the basis of experimental data compiled for different
Re and roughness parameters, have been reviewed below. The results have also been correlated with those
collected in case of smooth rectangular channel performing under identical experimental conditions to discuss
the increment in Nusselt number and friction factor by using roughened duct.

6.1. Effect of Reynolds number (Re)

The influence of Re on Nu and f for discrete multi V shaped and staggered rib roughness with Gd/Lv= 0.69,
g/e=1.0, W/w= 6, p/e= 10, e/D= 0.043, W/w=6, α= 60°, relative staggered rib position p’/p =0.2 and relative
staggered rib size r/e=1 to 2.5 and that for smooth duct shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The values of Nu are found to
increase with increasing Re in all conditions where as the value of f reduces with increment in Re. It is due to
fact that the increment in Re results in intensive turbulent mixing which depletes the viscous dominant region. It
consequently reduces the thermal barrier due to the presence of viscous sub layer and enhances the heat transfer
rate. In contrast, with the increment in Re, the roughness projects more beyond the viscous region which add to
pressure losses and fluid velocities and resultantly declines the f. It can be observed that there is substantial
contribution of discretization and providing the gap in the limbs of the multi V shaped rib.

145
 300

Smooth plate
250 r/e=1.0
r/e=1.5
r/e=2.0
200 r/e=2.5
Nusselt number (Nu)

150

100

50

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Reynolds number (Re)

Fig.5: Nu as a function of Re

0.06
smooth plate
r/e=1.0
0.05 r/e=1.5
r/e=2.0
r/e=2.5
0.04
Friction factor (f)

0.03

0.02

0.01

0.00
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Reynold number (Re)

Fig.6: f as a function of Re
6.2. Effect of roughness parameters

Figs. 7 and 8 shows the variation of Nu and f with angle of attack (α) for some selected Re. The other
roughness parameters were W/w= 6, P/ e=10, Gd/Lv =0.69, g/e= 1.0, r/e=2.5, p’/p=0.2 and , e/D= 0.043, It is
observed that the Nu and f increase with increase in α and reached a maximum value at α= 60° beyond this
value Nusselt number and friction factor start decreasing.

146
 250
Re=5250
Re=9500
Re=15000

200
Nusselt number (Nu)

150

100

50
30 45 60 75

Aplha (Degree)

Fig.7: Effect of α on Nu

0.038
Re=5250
0.036 Re=9500
Re=15000
0.034

0.032
Friction factor (f)

0.030

0.028

0.026

0.024

0.022

0.020
15 30 45 60 75 90

Alpha (Degree)

Fig.8: Effect of α on f

7. Conclusions

Following conclusions have been drawn on account of experimental study conducted on artificially
roughened DPSAH duct which includes:

1. Thermal and pressure loss characteristics get enhanced by providing the roughness on each surface of
the heated plate in DPSAH duct.
2. The Nusselt number and friction factor are found to be strong function of roughness parameters. The
maximum values of Nu and f correspond to relative staggered rib size (r/e) of 2.5 and angle of attack
(α) of 60°.

147
 3. The maximum increment in Nu and f are found to be 3.68 and 3.05 times as that of smooth duct
respectively.

References

[1] Chen X, Yang H, Lu L, Wang J, Liu W. Experimental studies on a ground coupled heat pump with solar thermal collectors for
space heating. Energy; 36: 5292-300, 2011.
[2] Sharma VK, Colangelo A, Spagna G. Experimental performance of an indirect type solar fruit and vegetable dryer. Energy
convers Management; 34: 293-308, 1993.
[3] Sreekumar A, Techno-economic analysis of a roof –integrated solar air heating system for drying fruit and vegetables. Energy
Convers Manegement; 51: 2230-8, 2010.
[4] Chamoli S, Chauhan R, Thakur NS, Saini JS. A review of the performance of double pass solar air heater. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews; 16: 481-492, 2012.
[5] EI-Sebaii AA, Aboul-Enein S, Ramadan MRI, EI-Bialy E. Year round performance of double pass solar air heater with packed
bed. Energy Conversion and management; 48:990–1003, 2007.
[6] Naphon P. Effect of porous media on the performance of the double pass flat plate solar air heater. International Communications
in Heat and Mass Transfer; 32:140–50, 2005.
[7] Ho CD, Yeh HM, Wang RC. Heat transfer enhancements in double pass flat plate solar air heaters with external recycle. Journal
of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers; 42:793-800, 2011.
[8] Aldabbagh LBY, Egelioglu F, Ilkan m. Single and double pass solar air heaters with wire mesh as packing bed. Energy; 35:3783–
7, 2010.
[9] Esen H. Experimental energy and exergy analysis of a double flow solar air heater having different obstacles on absorber plates.
Building and Environment; 43:1046–54, 2008
[10] Sharma, A., Varun,Kumar, P., Bharadwaj, G., Heat transfer and friction characteristics of double pass solar air heater having V-
shaped roughness on the absorber plate. J.Renewable Sustainable Energy 5, 023109, 2013.
[11] Dogra S, Chauhan N, Bhardwaj G. Effect of Artificial roughness on Heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in Rectangular
duct of a double pass solar air heater. International journal of Mechanical engineering and Technology; 4(3): 289-298, 2013.
[12] Rawat DS, Jaurker AR. Performance evaluation of two pass solar air heater using 60 o inclined v shaped ribs on absorber plate.
International Journal of Engineering Science Invention; 3(8): 01-10, 2014.
[13] Kumar A, Saini RP, Saini JS. Experimental investigation on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of air flow in a rectangular
duct with multi v-shaped rib with gap roughness on the heated plate. Solar Energy;86:1733-49,2012.
[14] ASHRAE, Standard, Method of Testing to Determine The Thermal Performance of Solar Air Heater. American Society for
Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering, New York, pp. 1–34,93–97, 1977.

148
 ICAER-2015

Experimental Study on Performance of Downdraft Gasifier

Reactor under Varied Ratios of Secondary and Primary Air
Flows
P.M. Gnanendra and N.K.S Rajan*

C.G.P.L, Department of Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560058, India

Abstract

Experimental investigation is carried out in open top downdraft biomass gasifier for studying reaction front propagation rate
and variation in gas quality in the packed bed reactor. The study includes conditions both with and without secondary air in
to the reactor. It is established that in at certain range of ratios of primary to secondary air flows, entry flame front stabilized
near the secondary air nozzle. Effect of moisture content in the fuel is studied for different secondary to primary air ratio. It
is found that the propagation rates are lower for fuel with higher moisture content. Variation in gas composition with different
ratios of secondary to primary air for a range of moisture content in the fuel is studied. The effect of the ratio of secondary to
primary air on gas calorific value is evaluated. The results of the work is presented with their associated observations.
Keywords: Gasification, Reaction front, Downdraft Gasifier;

1. Introduction

Biomass is primarily composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) with main chemical compounds
in the biomass are cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Other components such as nitrogen (N), sulphur (S), and
chlorine (Cl), are known to be in traces. Issues regarding reducing emissions of greenhouse effect gases and
economics, biomass comes out as an advantageous alternative to fossil fuels and is a well–recognized renewable
alternative fuel. One of the approaches to produce electric energy using biomass is through gasification.
Gasification is a high temperature two stage reactions, oxidation and reduction reactions whereas combustion
involves only high temperature process with single stage oxidation. Gasification has more advantages compared
to combustion route since it has a better control on the process and leads to wider and cleaner applications.
Intrinsically the thermochemical process in the biomass gasification produces a gaseous fuel that could be used as
a fuel in reciprocating internal combustion engines [1], fuel cells and gas turbines and in many high efficiency
thermal applications [2]. A significant variety of work is reported that study the biomass gasification process
evaluating the influence of the input parameters on the gas composition and heating value of the producer gas.
Few authors have studied the flame front propagation rate in packed with various configuration. Propagation
behavior in a reactor will differ significantly depending on where the fuel bed is ignited Thunman et al. [3]. In
one such study carried out on a top lit gasifier and reported [4], the bed is ignited from the top surface and a narrow
reaction front is established, which progresses in the direction opposite to the air flow, known as counter-current
combustion. Perez et al. [10] studied in fixed bed downdraft gasifier higher power can be generated if the gasifier
is fueled with the biomass having higher flame front velocity. An increase in particle size resulted in reduction of
effective surface available for reaction, which inhibited the transport of mass and heat to the thermochemical
process. This lead to lower biomass consumption rate, equivalence fuel/air ratios, maximum process temperatures
and consequently lower flame front velocities. Increase in moisture content, particle size and superficial velocity
showed decrease in producer gas heating value. H 2 , CH 4 and CO species concentration decreased as the
thermochemical process moved from gasification (fuel rich) to combustion (fuel lean). Operation of the reactor
with higher superficial velocity also increases the peak temperatures up to certain velocity and any further increase
results in reduced temperatures this is due to fact that at higher velocity convective cooling dominates. Optimal
gasification conditions were obtained for these experimental studies. Present study focuses on the usage of fuel
with higher moisture % and its effect on gas calorific value.

_________________________
* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 080-23600536; fax: (+91) 080-23601692.
E-mail address: nksr@cgpl.iisc.ernet.in

149
Galindo et al. [6] presented the experimental study of two stage air supply downdraft gasifier with reactor diameter
of 0.3m with two vibrators positioned on top (hopper region) and bottom (grate region) of reactor just to make
through smooth flow of biomass. Air flow between 18Nm3/h and 22Nm3/h and Air ratio (AR) of 0%, 40% and
80% were used to study the influence on tar and particulate content in gas. Feiqiang Guo et al. [7] work presents
the design and test results of a biomass fixed bed gasification using a three air stage continuous downdraft
approach. Based on the tests, it was found that the three stage of air supply can yield a high and uniform
temperature in the oxidation and reduction zones for better tar cracking. Most of the work in the literature are
limited to counter current or top lit gasifier. In this work in a downdraft gasifier, fuel is ignited in bottom through
side air nozzles. The solid char residue which is one of the products from the pyrolysis is made to react further
with secondary air and a high temperature oxidation zone is formed near secondary nozzles. The present work is
carried out on a downdraft system with an extended study on the ratio of the secondary to primary air (R sp ) on its
performance

Nomenclature

R sp ratio of secondary to primary air flow

ΔX distance travelled by flame front in mm.
ΔT time taken for the thermocouples to reach 500°C

2.0 Materials & Methods

2.1 Fuel properties

Table 1 below gives the physical properties of fuels used in the present experiments.

Table 1. Physical properties of fuel.

Biomass Moisture % Ash % Particle Density, Bulk density,
kg/m3 kg/m3
Casurina Wood 2-3 0.5-1 620 320
Honne Wood 2-3 0.5-1 760 424
Tamarind seeds 4-5 2 1200 745
Oak wood 2-3 0.5-1 300 320

2.2 Experimental Set up

Experimental set up consists of a reactor, scrubber, moisture trap, blower, and gas flow control valve, bottom
screw for ash extraction, top water seal and venturimetre as shown in the Fig1. Reactor is insulated with ceramic
glass wool and is cascaded with a set of gas cooling devices. A blower located as a last downstream element
(before the end-use device) as regards to the gas provides the necessary driving in a suction mode, to the system.
Ignition is carried out by hot gases through the secondary port. Secondary port is shut-off after the reactor is
stabilized. A valve upstream of the reactor lets the control to be set to the system to have desired gas flow rate.
Data of temperature, gas flow rate, gas composition, biomass consumption and bed movement are acquired at
regular intervals. Each set of experiments are carried out at a preset gas flow rates and are extended over a range
of gas flow rates.

150
 Fig 1: Experimental set up

2.3 Experiments with primary air and combination of R sp.

Wood particle is subjected to various thermal environment inside the reactor. Bed movement, Biomass
consumption rate, gas flow rate, residence time and particle velocity all depends on air mass flux. There is an
upward movement of the front against the air coming in opposite direction. Heat released is transferred to the
unburnt region in axial direction by radiation and conduction. Experiments with only primary air shows
propagation rate behaviour inside the reactor in fig 3. Open top gasifier without secondary air entry results in
flame front moving from ignition point (bottom) to the top of the reactor with unconverted char left over. Both
primary and secondary air entry to the reactor helps in stabilizing combustion zone at the nozzle.

2.4 Propagation measurement in packed bed.

Typical temperature profile inside packed bed is as shown in figure 2. Based on the data acquired, propagation
rate, air flow rate, gas calorific value, biomass consumption rates are interpreted for each set of the experiments.
Flame propagation rate is estimated from the responses of the k-type thermocouples located along the length of
reactor. The flame propagation rate is evaluated as: V flame =ΔX/ ΔT; (1)

Fig 2: Temperature profile with time

151
2.5 Bed movement.

Bed movement inside the packed is dependent on air mass flux and fuel burnt rate. Bed movement increases with
increase in consumption rate. Theoretical bed movement is calculated by the relation, and found to be consistent
with actual measured bed movement using measuring scale at regular intervals.

Bed movement, mm/s= ( ( )/( 𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 � �∗ 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 (𝑚𝑚 2)); (2)

ℎ 3

2.6 Pressure drop in bed .

Pressure drop inside the packed bed for cold flow is relatively small compared to active bed during operation.
The reason for increase in pressure drop is due to resistance to gas flow by high temperature formed inside the
reactor increasing gas viscosity and gas velocity. Char formed during conversion process also contributes to
increase in pressure drop. Pressure drop in gasifier depends on physical properties like particle size, bed length,
char ash build up. Based on the desired gas flow rate, blower should be able to overcome all the pressured drop
associated with other components during operation. Reactor outlet pressure drop measurement indicates the
gasifier is in suction mode or reduction in suction pressure during ash build up case. Ash is removed at regular
intervals to avoid pressure build-up inside the reactor. Ash obtained in the bin is dependent on rotation of screw.
Amount of ash obtained for each rotation is calculated for several trails during cold flow this helps in avoiding
over removal. Roughly around 3-5% of ash is removed for 1 kg of biomass.

2.7 Gas composition measurement .

The producer gas composition is measured continuously using an online gas analyzer. The online gas analyzer
is a make of Maihak. This gas analyzer can measure the composition of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide
(CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), oxygen (O 2 ) and hydrogen (H 2 ). The percentage composition of each of these gases is
directly displayed on the screen. The gas analyser consists of different sensors working on different principle for
measuring the percentage composition in producer gas. The sensor used for measuring carbon monoxide, carbon
dioxide and methane composition works on Non Dispersive Infra-Red (NDIR) principle. And the sensor used for
measuring oxygen and hydrogen composition works on paramagnetic principle and Flame Ionization Detector
(FID) principles respectively. For cleaning the producer gas calcium chloride filter is used. The filter is made up
of glass and the filter is prepared by filling fused calcium chloride in between cotton. Fused calcium chloride is
used to remove the moisture content in the gas and the tar particles are removed by cotton. For sucking the gas
from the gas line a vacuum pump is used whose suction side is connected to gas line and the deliver side is
connected to the inlet of gas analyzer. The calorific value of producer gas is calculated by considering the heating
value of the combustible gas.

3 Results & Discussions

3.1 Flame propagation rate in packed bed.

Tests carried out with only primary air (R sp = 0) Fig .3, show that the reaction front (or the flame) propagation
rate increases up to a certain air mass flux and decreases beyond. The results establish clearly that air mass flux
is one of the dominating controlling parameter that influence the rate of reaction front propagation, peak
temperature, biomass consumption rate, bed movement and the gas calorific value. The results indicate that the
peak propagation rate is 0.10 ± .02 mm/s, obtained for air mass flux rate about 0.10 ± .02 kg/m2s, is the optimum
range of primary air mass flux required for the reactor.

152
 Fig. 3. Propagation rate with air mass flux.

3.2 Comparison with burn rates of different fuels.

Burn rate increases with increase in air mass flux and with further increase in air mass flux it remains constant
over a broad range of air mass flux. Figure 4 shows the variation of burn rates for present fuels used. Flame
propagation rate multiplied particle density gives the burn rate flux. Peak burn rates of 0.07 kg/m2s, 0.065 kg/m2s
were obtained for Honne wood and Casurina wood . Tamarind seeds has lower volatile content and lower burnt
rates of 0.03 kg/m2s. But the nature of burn rates trend observed is same in all cases. Porteiro et al [9] and Varun
[4] have studied the bed behavior in counter current case and classified it into 3 regimes. Zone 1: Oxygen limited
regime, with increase in air mass flux, burn rate increases. This is due to amount of heat released increases with
increase in air mass flux. Zone 2: Reaction limited regime, further increase in air mass flux, burn rate remains
constant over a broad range of flux. Earlier studies from the mass loss curves for packed bed with time shows that
there is a decreasing trend in time due to combined oxidation of volatiles and char combustion [4]. Zone 3:
Convection dominated regime. Burn rate and propagation rate depends on physical properties of fuel like volatile
content, moisture percent, particle density, bulk density, porosity and packing density.

Fig 4: Burnt rates with air mass flux.

153
3.3 Bulk density effects in packed bed.

Flame propagation rate and burn rates in packed bed depends on which zone it is operated. Table 2 gives
comparison of present study and that carried out by Porteiro et al. [9] and Miljkovic [8]. Each regime has its
different characteristics as observed in burn rate variation with air mass flux. Miljkovic [8] operated only in zone
2 and gives wrong inference about burnt rate does not depend on bulk density. Figure 5 shows the influence of
bulk density on flame propagation. Peak propagation rate is obtained for fuels with low bulk density.

Fig 5: Bulk density with peak propagation rates for different fuels

Table 2: Particle and bulk density of various fuels, present (a) and from literature b [9] & c [8].

Fuel Bulk density, kg/m3 Particle density, kg/m3 Propagation rate, mm/s
a
Casurina 330 620 0.110
Hone wood a 460 720 0.100
a
Tamarind seeds 745 1200 0.03
a
Oak wood 320 600 0.08
WP 1 b 690 1180 0.083
b
WP 2 680 1240 0.080
b
Brassica P 600 1140 0.087
Polar P b 610 1030 0.082
b
RDF P 340 560 0.100
b
Olive stone 620 1070 0.083
Almond shell b 360 920 0.108
Pine shavings b 150 530 0.408
c
Treated straw 60 1.33
c
Straw 48 1.667
Whole Straw (uncut) c 30 2.667

154
3.4 Gas composition variation with air mass flux for bone dry fuels.

The propagation rates are higher for dry fuel, logically since presence of moisture would account for its
enthalpy of evaporation, an additional energy used up in the process. It is observed that for these cases of fuels
with lower moisture content the flame shows a tendency to propagate above the secondary nozzles. Yang et al.
[5] found burn rates decreased 4 times with increase in moisture from 10% to 50%. Flame propagation rate is
inversely proportional to moisture content in fuel. Experiments from only primary air showed that gas calorific
value saturated to 3.1±.2 MJ/kg fig 6. This is due to fact bone dried fuels has lower hydrogen content in fuel.
Present study is also focused on utilizing the higher moisture present in fuel to enhance H 2 % in gas composition
and also to stabilize the reaction front propagation near secondary port.

Fig 6: Gas composition variation with air mass flux.

3.5 Temperature profile inside the reactor.

Peak bed temperatures increases with increase in air mass flux as shown in Fig 7. At lower air mass flux the
amount of air supplied is less hence the heat release rates is lower corresponds to the lower peak bed temperatures.
With further increase in air mass flux the heat released rates increases, however there is saturation of peak
temperature at higher air mass flux this is due to the limitation of K type thermocouple where it can measure peak
temperature of 12000C. Temperature profile with only primary air coming from top shows that the peak
temperature increase with increase in air mass flux. From Fig 8 (100% primary air) it is clear that, char temperature
decreases from 1200K to 700K as the flame is propagating up due to particles cooling by air. Peak temperature
obtained is less than the adiabatic flame temperature of wood due to additional energy being utilized in heating
the wood particle for subsequent drying and devolatilization process. Remaining char left over after flaming
pyrolysis is made to react further with the addition of secondary air entry through the nozzle. With this additional
air, constant high temperature around 1000K formed helps in converting char Fig 9. High temperature zone formed
near nozzles transfers’ heat to above wood particles by radiation and conduction. Amount of heat released depends
on the air mass flux inside the reactor. Flame is stabilized near the nozzle so the high temperature zone formed
results in cracking higher molecular weights compounds.

155
 Fig. 7: Peak Temperature with air mass flux

Fig. 8: Temperature profile with time for only primary air (no secondary air)

Fig 9: Temperature profile with time for both primary air and secondary air entry

156
3.6 Effect of Ratio of Secondary to Primary Air (R sp ).

Both primary and secondary air supply lets to have a control in stabilizing reaction front at a fixed location.
High temperature oxidation zone is formed near the secondary nozzle. Flame propagation rate is reduced in
presence of secondary air supply. At this condition flame front tends to propagate up towards unburnt biomass
but and the reactive bed extends below with the char formed out of the biomass in its prior flaming or pyrolysis
zone and the same is consumed in the reduction reactions below the secondary port region. This makes the reaction
front to move slowly 0.03±0.01 mm/s compared to 0.10 ± .02 mm/s for the condition of R sp = 0, as described
above. Table 3 gives the gas composition variation for different R sp , It is found that Gas calorific value increases
with increasing secondary to primary air ratio (R sp ). Figure 10 & 11 shows the gas composition variation with R sp
for different primary air mass flux. Peak calorific value is obtained with increasing R sp .

Figure 10: Effect of Gas composition variation with S/P ratio, Primary air mass flux maintained at 0.08 kg/m2s

Figure 11: Effect of Gas composition variation with S/P ratio, Primary air mass flux maintained at 0.1 kg/m2s

157
 Table 3: Gas composition variation with Rsp
PAMF, Moisture %
kg/m2s R sp CO% CO2% CH4% O2% H2% C.V,MJ/kg
0.1 15
0.45 15.27 13.4 1.47 0.47 16.6 3.7

0.55 16.56 12.52 1.55 0.4 17.2 4

0.63 16.99 11.73 1.53 0.399 18 4.1

0.65 16.11 12.78 1.61 0.42 18.06 4.1

0.80 16.73 11.77 1.56 0.2975 17.17 4

0.85 16.93 12.06 1.55 0.34 16.78 4

0.31 15.17 13.32 1.72 0.44 16.19 3.7

0.00 11.64 12.67 2.64 1.82 10.31 2.91

0.08 0.74 16.51 12.35 1.7 0.414 18.05 4.1 15

0.63 16.48 12.5 1.46 0.54 17.06 3.9

0.45 13.76 14.47 1.39 0.54 16.22 3.4

0.58 14.52 13.96 1.6 0.49 16.96 3.7

0.00 12.2 14.06 3.08 8.17 2.84

0.36 15.2 10.8 1.1 2.03 13.5 3.2

4 Conclusions

The experimental study carried out on open top downdraft biomass gasifier under conditions of with and
without secondary air has led to establish that an optimal air flux is found to provide the highest reaction
propagation rate. The study also gives an insight into the behavior of the reactor and its performance at varied
ratios of secondary to primary air flow rates. Study on the moisture content in the fuel is made that reveals that
hydrogen in the gas output can be increased advantageously in a controlled condition. The parametric
experimental study and the analysis is found to be of use in more effective gasification system, though the current
study is limited to smaller scale and needs to be studied on its scaling effects for a practical application.

References

[1] Sridhar, G, Mukunda, H.S, Paul, P.J (2001). Biomass derived producer gas as a reciprocating engine fuel – an experimental analysis.
Biomass and Bioenergy, 21, pp 61-72.
[2] Mukunda, H S, Dasappa, S, Paul, P J, Rajan, N K S, Yagnaraman, M, Kumar, D Ravi & Deogaonkar, M Current Science 98 (5), 627–638.
[3] Thunman, H. (2002) Combustion of solid fuels in a fixed bed, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
[4] S.Varunkumar (2012). Packed bed gasification – combustion in biomass based domestic stoves and combustion system. Ph.D Thesis.
[5] Yang, Y.B, Sharifi, V.N, Swithenbank, J. (2004) Effect of air flow rate and fuel moisture on the burning behaviours of biomass and
simulated municipal solid wastes in packed beds. Fuel Vol 83, Issues 11-12 pp 1553- 1562.
[6] Ana Lisbeth Galindo, Electo Silva Lora, Rubenildo Viera Andrade, Sandra Yamile Giraldo, Rene Lesme Jaén, Vladimir Melian Cobas,
(2014). Biomass gasification in a downdraft gasifier with a two-stage air supply: Effect of operating conditions on gas quality. Vol 61, pp
236-244.
[7] Feiqiang Guo; Yuping Dong; Lei Dong; Chenlong Guo. (2014). Effect of design and operating parameters on the gasification process of
biomass in a downdraft fixed bed: An experimental study. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Vol 29, Issue 11, pp 5625-5633.
[8] Miljkovic 2015 Experimental facility for analysis of biomass combustion characteristics, Thermal Science 2015 Vol 19, 1, pp 341-350
[9] Jacobo Porteiro, David Patino, Jose L. Miguez, Enrique Granada, Jorge Moran, Joaquin Collazo (2010) . Fuel Vol 89, pp 26-35.
[10] Perez, J.F, Melgar, A, Benjumea, P.N (2012), Fuel 96, 487-496.

158
 ICAER-2015

XPS Studies of Sr doped La2CuO4 : A potential cathode material

for IT-SOFCs
Deepak Tyagi*a, Sriraksha Srinivasanb, B. N. Wania, S. R. Bharadwaja
a Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai-400085, INDIA
b St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore-560027, INDIA

Abstract

The cathode material in a SOFC plays a major role in determining the efficiency of energy conversion and
performance of the fuel cell. Until recently, most of the studies concerned with cathode material for SOFCs
were devoted to perovskite-type oxides. However, presently, a family of oxides with the K2NiF4 type structure
is attracting much attention. In this present work, one such K2NiF4 type oxide, La2-xSrxCuO4-δ has been
synthesized and evaluated as a potential cathode material for IT-SOFCs. The material was synthesized by
traditional solid state technique. The characterizations of the prepared sample were done by XRD, SEM, and
XPS.

Keywords: IT-SOFCs, La2-xSrxCuO4-δ, XPS

1. Introduction

In recent years, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) has emerged as one of the most significant power generation
technologies because it can provide advantages of high energy conversion low noise and low pollution. Sr
substituted lanthanum copper oxide has been explored as superconducting oxide [1]. La2CuO4 possesses K2NiF4
like crystal structure, which can be described as an intergrowth of perovskite (ABO3) and rock salt (AO) blocks.
Appropriate doping at A-sites of A2BO4 crystal lattice may result either in creation of vacancies in anioic
sublattice or increase of average B-ion oxidation state, thus being a valuable tool for tuning mobility of oxygen
in the system. Due to bond length mismatch across ABO3-AO interface the corresponding layers experience
compressive and tensile stress which is relieved in various ways (Jahn-Teller distortion and tilting of Cu2+O6
octahedra, introduction of oxygen vacancies on doping Sr or Ba etc

2. Experimental

La2-xSrxCuO4-δ(x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) were synthesized by ceramic route. Stoichiometric amounts of La2O3
(Alfa Aesar, 99.9%), SrCO3 (Aldrich, 99.99%), CuO (s.d.Fine, 98.0%) were mixed and heated at 900°C for 3
days. The powder was dry pressed to form pellets and heated at 900°C for 2 days. The powder X-Ray
diffraction patterns were recorded on Philips analytical diffractometer in the range 20 to 70o (using Ni-filtered
Cu Kα radiation). The particle morphologies were studied using JEOL JSM-6360 Scanning electron
microscope. XPS studies of these materials were carried out using SPECS surface analysis system using Al Kα
X rays. (1486.7 eV).

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. X-Ray

XRD patterns of La2-xSrxCuO4-δ system are given in the Fig.1, which indicates that all the products are single
phase materials. The powder patterns were further indexed using POWD program and cell parameters were
generated which are given in Table 1. The lattice parameters and cell volumes obtained have been plotted as a
function of Sr doping concentration.

159
 Table 1. Cell parameter of La2-xSrxCuO4-
Compound System a (Å) b (Å) c (Å) v (Å3)
La2CuO4 Orthorhombic 5.3556 5.4054 13.1528 380.76
La1.9Sr0.1CuO4 Orthorhombic 5.3505 5.3874 13.2230 381.15
La1.8Sr0.2CuO4 Orthorhombic 5.3457 5.4071 13.2029 381.63
La1.7Sr0.3CuO4 Orthorhombic 5.3485 5.405 13.2020 381.65
La1.6Sr0.4CuO4 Orthorhombic 5.3481 5.401 13.2030 381.67

(La1.6Sr0.4) CuO4-

(La1.7Sr0.3) CuO4-
Intensity (arbt.units)

(La1.8Sr0.2) CuO4-

(La1.9Sr0.1) CuO4-

La2CuO4

20 30 40 50 60 70
2 (Degrees)

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of La2-xSrxCuO4-.

13.5
383.0
13.4

13.3 382.5
c
13.2
Cell Volume ( Å 3 )
Cell parameter ( Å )

382.0
13.1
V
13.0
381.5
5.5
b 381.0
5.4

a 380.5
5.3

380.0
5.2
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Sr concentration(x) in La2-xSrxCuO4

Fig. 2. Variation in lattice parameters and cell volume with extent of Sr doping La2CuO4.

3.2 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

The particle morphology and porosity of the samples were investigated using Scanning Electron Microscopy.
Fig.3 shows the SEM images of La2CuO4 and La1.6Sr0.4CuO4-δ respectively. The samples exhibit good porosity,
which is a pre-requisite for cathode material in SOFCs. It can also be observed that when compared to the
undoped sample, Sr doping in La2CuO4 reduces the particle size which will tend to facilitate agglomeration.

160
 Fig. 3 SEM imagge of La2CuO4 annd La1.6Sr0.4CuO4--δ

3.3 X-rayy Photoelectrron spectrosccopy (XPS)

X-ray Photoeelectron spectrroscopy (XPS)) is used for thhe determinatiion of oxidatio on states of thhe
different elements pressent in the sysstem. XPS speectra were obtained with pass energy 50 eV e for survey scan and
20 eV forr individual sccan using 380 W operating power. The XPS X positions were referencced using Carbbon (1s)
peak at 2284.5 eV. Prior to actual anaalysis, the sam mples were pree-treated in deesorption chammber or preparration
chamber maintained att 10-9 Torr vaccuum.
Fig 4 shows the
t 3d peak off La which is primary
p regionn for La XPS.. It shows La isi present in +3 +
oxidationn state. The spplitting of eachh spin orbit coomponent i.e. 3d3/2 and 3d5/22 is due to mu
ultiplet splittinng.
Similarlyy Sr gives Sr 3d
3 spetra (Fig 5), which can n be deconvoluuted to 3d3/2 and
a 3d5/2 compponents. Thesee spectra
suggest sstrontium is prresent in +2 oxxidation state only.

La 3dd3/2 La 3d5/2
Multiplet Splitting
S
La1.6Sr0.4CuO4 Sr 3d

L 1.6Sr0.4CuO4
La

La1.7Sr0.3CuO4

L 1.7Sr0.3CuO4
La
Counts

La1.8Sr0.2CuO4
Counts

L 1.8Sr0.2CuO4
La

La1.9Sr0.1CuO4

L 1.9Sr0.1CuO4
La

La2CuO4

14
45 140 135 130 125 120
855 85
50 845 840 835 830 825

Binding Enerrgy (eV) Bind

ding Energy (eV)

Fig. 4 La 3d
d spectra of La2-xSr
S xCuO4-δ system
ms Fig.5 Sr 3d specctra of La2-xSrxCuuO4-δ systems

Fig 6 presentts the XPS sppectra of the Cu

C 2p spectraal region of alll the compouunds. It showss a strong
satellite ppeak in between 2p1/2 and 2p
2 3/2 peaks. Binding energy values of 2p1//2 and 2p3/2 peeaks as well ass presence
of satelliite peak indicate that Cu iss present in +2
+ oxidation state.
s But upoon strontium doping,
d both the peaks

161
(2p1/2 andd 2p3/2) shift towards
t o Cu+2 goes too Cu+3 as we dope Sr+2
higheer binding eneergy. It indicattes that part of
o La+3[1]. Therefore the oxxygen remainss same i.e. oxyygen nonstoichiometry is noot formed.
in place of

The O 1s peak k of the samples is shown in

i Fig 7. Initiaally the Oxygeen peak is veryy broad and itt can be
de-convooluted into three peaks as loow binding eneergy peak (OL), medium binnding energy peak (OM) and high
binding eenergy peak (OOH). The medium binding energy
e peak (O OM) is attributted to oxygen vacancies or defects
which doo not significanntly change upon
up Sr dopingg in La2CuO4. OH can be atttributed to cheemisorbed oxyygen (O2,
H2O, OH H). Upon Sr dooping, the peaks become inccreasingly sym mmetric and th he OH peak disappears
d [2,33]. This
indicates that less amoount of adsorbed oxygen is present
p in highher Sr doped compounds.

Fig. 6 Cu 2p spectra of La2-x

2 SrxCuO4-δ syste
ems Fig.7 O 1s spectrra of La2-xSrxCuO
O4-δ systems

4. Conclu
usions

Sr2+ subsstituted La2CuuO4 compounnds were succcessfully preppared by ceraamic route. Itt retains singgle phase
orthorhom mbic structuree up to the exttent of 40 molle % replacemment. Sr can dissolve
d in La2CuO4 up to 220 mole %
and abovve that it has formed a satuurated solution n. An attemptt was made too explore thesse materials asa cathode
material for solid oxidde fuel cell. Thhey were founnd to be stable in oxygen atmosphere
a an
nd SEM resultts showed
the porossity in this coompound. XPS S result clearlly indicated thhat on Sr2+ su
ubstitution in place of La3++could not
generate oxygen non n-stiochiometrry but part of Cu2+ wass converted to t Cu3+. Am mong all the material,
La1.9Sr0.1CuO4 was shoortlisted as suiitable cathodee material in case of oxide ion conductingg SOFCs.

Acknowlledgement

Ms. Sriraaksha Srinivassan is thankfuul to the Natioonal Acadamyy of Science, Banglore

B for providing herr financial
aid to coomplete this research
r projeect under thee Joint Summ
mer Research Fellowship Program
P 2014. Authors
acknowleedge the helpp received from m Shri N Maanoj, Chemisttry Divison, Bhabha
B Atomiic Research Centre
C for
help in accquiring the SEM
S micrograaphs.

Referencces

[1] S.B. L
Lee, C.N. Chaang, C.N. Hsicch, C.T. Liu, Physica
P C. 350 (2001) 46-5
54.
[2] J. Zhuu, Z. Zhao, D. Xiao, J. Li, X. Yang, Y. Wu,
W Mat. Chem m & Phys. 94 (2005) 257-260.
[3] G. Riietveld, M. Gllastra, S.M. Verbrugh,
Ve O. Jeepsen, O.K. Anderson,
A V. Marvel, Phyysica C. 185-189 (1991)
D.V
829-8830.

162
 ICAER-2015

Estimation of land-fill gas generation from municipal solid waste

in Indian Cities
Deepam Das, Bijoy Kumar Majhi 1, Soumyajit Pal, Tushar jash
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India

Abstract

Estimation of methane emission from the landfills is very much required for fast urbanizing countries. Rapid growth in
population and industrialization causes a direct impact on the environment. As methane emission is a key contributor to the
greenhouse effects it is necessary to quantify the methane emission from municipal solid waste (MSW), so as to take
measures to ease the greenhouse gas emission. In this present study four models have been used to quantify the LFG
emission estimation characteristics from MSW in six metropolitan cities covering different parts in India for a period of 30
years (1982 - 2012).
Keywords: GHG emission; Municipal solid waste; Landfill gases; Indian cities; LFG estimation

1. Introduction

In recent times with rapid urbanization, management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the biggest
problems faced by India and other developing countries. According to Census 2011, India with a population of
1.21 billion generates about 100000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day. Daily per capita waste
generation rate vary from 200 to 600 gm in major cities of the country depending on the lifestyle adopted by the
people and the nature of the places [1]. Few years back community bins collection was practiced, however after
commencement of MSW (Management and Handling) rules 2000, collection, segregation and containerized
system adopted in many cities. But unfortunately almost 70-90 % of MSW is openly dumped, which is the most
ordinary and cheapest disposal method for every municipalities of India [2].
The unscientific way of dumping MSW in landfills may lead to hazards like soil pollution, ground water
contamination and air pollution due to emission of greenhouse gases. Lack of attention by the government
causes huge amount of methane gas exposed into the atmosphere. Methane is one of the major ingredients of
greenhouse gases (GHG) which is responsible for global warming. Today methane is the second most
greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. About 30% of methane emitted to the atmosphere is from landfill sources
as per Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [6]. Today policies have been adopted all over the
world to reduce emission of landfill gases (LFG) from MSW.
Quantitative assessment of landfill gases with appropriate methodology is required to reduce the greenhouse
gas emission by possible means waste to energy conversion. It is not feasible for a new project to be successful
if we do not asses potential of the source. For the application of new technologies it is also necessary to
determine the energy generation potential from MSW. Government is adopting new concept to recovery energy
from the MSW but in most of the cases, lack of insufficient potential of raw material leads to a failure. Although
MSW treatment is a great challenge but it can prove to be a golden opportunity if we can extract energy using
certain technologies. The energy recovery from the MSW may repay for energy demand and thus to minimize
the use of conventional energy sources. Various inventories are practiced throughout the world for estimation of
landfill gases. India is also adopting different methodologies for assessing GHG emissions like stoichiometric
method, IPCC 1996 default method, IPCC 2006 first order decay (FOD) method, triangular method (TM),
modified triangular method (MTM), in-situ closed flux chamber method [2]. Protocol like First Order model
(TNO), Multi-phase model, LandGEM model (US-EPA), EPER Model Germany (UmweltBundesamt),
GasSIM, EPER Model France (ADEME) are used by European Union and other developed nation also for
estimation LFG emission from landfills [3]. In many countries estimation of LFG using these inventory is a
great challenge because of inadequate data availability on MSW management. During the landfill process the
municipal waste has to gone through a certain stages like collection, transportation and or segregation leading to

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-943-348-5110.

E-mail address: bijoy119@gmail.com

163
variation in quantity and quality of waste during final disposal of waste. In the present paper an attempt has been
made to estimate LFG emissions from landfills of some selected tier I cities in India considering various factors
in Indian condition.

2. Methodology

Four different models (1) First Order model (TNO), (2) Multi-phase model (Afvalzorg), (3) LandGEM
model (US-EPA) and (4) EPER Model Germany (UmweltBundesamt) have been used to carry out the present
work. All the data implemented here were secondary data collected from different sources. Tier one cities of
India were selected for quantification of LFG emission for a period of 30 years from 1982 to 2012. Populations
of the respective cities have been obtained from Census 2011. Here it is considered that total MSW generated in
the city are directly proportional to the population of the city and with no collection recovery efficiency. In the
existing work, we have considered per capita MSW generation in Indian cities increased with a rate of 1.2 %
every year [4]. Total volatile solid (VS) and organic carbon content of the typical MSW in urban India have
been considered as 13.27% and 12.06% respectively in wet weight basis throughout the investigation. All the
generated waste in throughout the city is landfilled in the respective dumping sites.

2.1. Overview of selected cities

To carry out the present work tier I cities of India are taken for estimation of LFG emission. Six cities (tier I)
namely Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai have been selected for this study. As per
government of India tier I refer to the city having population of one lakh and above. Tier I cities are selected
here because these cities are highly affected with the overwhelming increase in MSW with the increase in
population and industrialization. Cities with area, population, and waste generation rates are shown in Table 1.
The generated wastes of the city are usually landfilled within the city. Table 2 shows the landfill sites of the
respective cities. Also the physical characteristics of MSW of these cities are shown in Table 3.

Table 1. Cities with waste generation rates.

Area Population Waste Generation Rate
Name of the city
(km²) (Census 2011) (Kg/capita/day)
Bangalore 741 9,588,910 0.484
Chennai 1,189 4,681,087 0.657
Delhi 1,484 16,753,235 0.475
Hyderabad 650 4,010,238 0.382
Kolkata 185 4,486,679 0.383
Mumbai 603 3,145,966 0.436
Source: [5]

Table 2. Cities with their dumping sites.

Name of the City Disposal sites
Mandur, Mavallipura, Anaanapura, Cheemsandra, Kannahalli,
Bangalore
S.Bingipura
Chennai Kodungaiyur, Perungudi
Delhi Ghazipur, Okhla, Bhalswa
Hyderabad Jawaharnagar
Kolkata Dhapa, Garden Reach
Mumbai Deonar, Mulund, Gorai, Kanjur

Table 3. Physical characteristics (% in wet weight basis) of waste in different tier I cities in India.

Name of City Paper Textile Leather Plastic Metals Glass Ash, fine earth and Compostable
others matter
Bangalore 8.00 5.00 – 6.00 3.00 6.00 27.00 45.00
Chennai 10.00 5.00 5.00 3.00 – – 33.00 44.00
Delhi 6.60 4.00 0.60 1.50 2.50 1.20 51.50 31.78
Hyderabad 7.00 1.70 – 1.30 – – 50.00 40.00
Kolkata 10.00 3.00 1.00 8.00 – 3.00 35.00 40.00
Mumbai 10.00 3.60 0.20 2.00 – 0.20 44.00 40.00
Source [7]

164
2.2. Inventory for emission quantification

To carry out the present work four different emission model are used namely First order model (TNO),
Multi-phase model (Afvalzorg), LandGEM model (US-EPA) and EPER Model Germany (UmweltBundesamt).
These models are practiced in many countries for LFG emission estimation. The parameters used by these
models are described briefly in literature [3].

2.2.1. First order model (TNO)

This model was developed by Oonk and Boom in the year 1995[8]. Here the amount of waste generated was
assumed to be decayed exponentially with time. The mathematically expression of the first order model is given
below.

(1)

Where,
= landfill gas production at a given time [m3 LFG . y-1]
= dissimilation factor, 0.58
1.87 = conversion factor [m3 LFG . ]
A = amount of waste in place [Mg]
C0 = amount of organic carbon in waste [kgC . Mg Waste -1]
k1 = degradation rate constant, 0.094 [y-1]
t = time elapsed since depositing [y]

2.2.2. Multi-phase model (Afvalzorg)

In the first order multi-phase model different fraction of waste are taken into account. All types of waste
contain typical fraction of slow, moderate and fast degradable. Here three waste fractions are taken and for that
LFG productions are calculated separatelythe model was developed by Agricultural University of Wageningen
in the year 1996. Mathematical model is shown in equation 2.

(2)

Where,
= landfill gas production at a given time [m3 LFG . y-1]
= dissimilation factor, 0.58
i = waste fraction with degradation rate k1,i[ ]
c = conversion factor [m3 LFG. ]
A = amount of waste in place [Mg]
C0 = amount of organic carbon in waste [kgC . Mg Waste -1]
k1,i = degradation rate constant of fraction i [y-1]
t = time elapsed since depositing [y]
Here the values of k were reported as 0.1, 0.03 and 0.009 per year for fast decaying (e.g. food and garden
waste), medium decaying (e.g. paper, wood, textiles) and slow decaying organic waste (e.g. leather, rubber)
respectively.

2.2.3. LandGEM model (US-EPA)

LandGEM model was developed by and made available by United Nation Environmental Protection Agengy
(US-EPA). It is also a first order decay model where it determines the mass of methane generated using the
methane generation capacity and the mass of waste deposited and it shown in equation 3.

(3)

Where,
= methane emission rate [m3CH4 . y-1]
k = methane generation constant [y-1]
= methane generation potential [m3CH4 . Mg Waste -1]

165
 = mass of waste in ith section [Mg]
= age of the ith increment or section [y]
Data source used for this model like methane generation constant, methane generation potential and average
annual precipitation of different cities are shown in table 4.

Table 4 CH4 generation potential, average annual precipitation rate and CH4 generation rate constant of waste in different metro
cities of India.

L0 Average annual precipitation k

Name of City
(m3 CH4 .Mg Waste -1) (mm/year) (year-1)
Bangalore 46.07 877.8 0.04
Chennai 47.66 1549.9 0.06
Delhi 33.72 755.4 0.03
Hyderabad 40.49 821.7 0.04
Kolkata 44.23 1765.1 0.07
Mumbai 44.3 2334.6 0.08
Source [9]

2.2.4. EPER Model Germany (UmweltBundesamt)

This is a Germany based zero order model and can be mathematically describes as

(4)

Where,
Me = amount of diffuse methane emission [Mg CH4. y-1]
M = annual amount of landfilled waste [Mg waste . y-1]
BDC = proportion of biodegradable carbon [MgC .Mg Waste -1]
= proportion of biodegradable C converted 0.5 [–]
= calculation factor of carbon converted into CH4, 1.33 [Mg CH4. MgC-1]
D = collection efficiency:
active degassing 0.4 [–]
no recovery 0.9 [–]
active LFG recovery and cover 0.1 [–]
= methane concentration 50 [%]
For the present case study it has been considered that the total waste generated in the city was landfilled and
not recovered for other use. So here we took 0.9 as collection efficiency for all the metro cities.

3. Results and Discussion

Landfill gas generation rate (106m3/year) in six tier I cities in India, given in Fig. 1, have been estimated
using the four different mathematical models discussed earlier.
From Fig. 1 it has been observed that, the LFG estimation according to the Multi-phase model is minimum
for all the cities, while the EPER model Germany estimates the maximum emission which is almost 300-500%
of the minimum estimation. The First order model estimation is about 200% of the minimum estimation.
According to first order model, the entire amount of waste has been taken into consideration for calculation
while only slow, medium and fast degradable portions of wastes are considered in Multi-phase model excluding
the non-biodegradable or inert materials. Large fluctuations in LFG emissions have been estimated with the
German EPER model. In this study, the zero order model was used i.e., the methane production of an amount of
waste landfilled in a particular year is released in that same year.
The estimations according to the first two models (First Order and Multi-phase) have followed the same
pattern i.e. the LFG emission increases first with increase in population as well as generated MSW for a certain
period of time, then the gas emission declines with increasing MSW (Fig. 1). This is because landfill sites have
a certain period of life time for which it has to be reconstructed again. While in the other two models
(LandGEM and EPER Germany), LFG emission increases throughout the entire period (1982-2012) with
increasing amount of MSW. Therefore, it can be concluded that the mathematical models diverge from each
other with increasing time. For all the cities same patterns of LFG emissions have been observed throughout the
entire period of study.

166
Fig. 1. Estimated LFG emission from six different city from 1982-2012.

167
4. Conclusions

The study concluded that all the above LFG emission inventories used in the present work show that large
amount LFG emitted to the atmosphere from all the Indian metro cities. With rapid industrialization in
metropolitan all cities causes a direct impact in its MSW generation. There is a huge potential for energy
generation from methane in Indian cities. By proper management of municipal solid waste we can reduce the
health hazards and convert the waste to useful energy. Collection, transportation and segregation of MSW are
needed if we want to utilize this LFG directly for heating purpose or indirectly for electricity generation,
otherwise the greenhouse gas emissions will increase day by day.
The present work deals with the comparability and transparency of the four mathematical models. There is no
such intention to validate or check the accuracy of the stated methodologies. The main purpose of the present
work is to assess the LFG emission of Indian metro cities. The inventory estimation is made mostly on the basis
of the published data from respective sources. More extensive research is needed for Indian condition to attain
the factors used in all the models. There are many constraints for collection of data source mostly on
municipalities regarding MSW management. It is because due to lack of awareness among the people and
because of less priority given for MSW management, which leads to insufficient financial budget allocation for
the municipalities.

References

[1] CPHEEO, Manual on Municipal Solid Waste Management, Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation,
Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, 2000.
[2] M. Chakraborty, C. Sharma, J. Pandey, N. Singh, P.K. Gupta, Methane emission estimation from landfills in Delhi: A comparative
assessment of different methodologies. Atmospheric Environment, 45 (2011), pp. 7135–7142.
[3] H. Scharff, J. Jacobs, Applying guidance for methane emission estimation for landfill. Waste Management, 26 (2006), pp. 417–429.
[4] M. Sharholy, K. Ahmad, G. Mahmood, R.C. Trivedi, Municipal solid waste management in Indian cities - A review, Waste
Management, 28 (2008), pp. 459–467.
[5] CPCB. Management of Municipal Solid Waste, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi, India. 2004.
[6] A.B. Akolkar, M.K. Choudhury, P.K. Selvi, Assesment of methane emission from municipal solid wastes disposal sites. Research
Journal of Chemistry and Environment, 24(4) (2008), pp. 49-55.
[7] CPCB, Status of Solid Waste Generation, Collection, Treatment and Disposal in Metro Cities, Series: CUPS/46/1999–2000, 2000.
[8] J. Oonk, A. Boom, Landfill gas formation, recovery and emissions, NOVEM Programme Energy Genaration from Waste and Biomass
(EWAB), TNO report R95–203, Apeldoorn, Netherlands,1995.
[9] A. Kumar, M.P. Sharma ,GHG emission and carbon sequestration potential from MSW of Indian metro cities. Urban Climate, 8(2008),
pp. 30–41.
[10] Census of India, 2011, Government of India, India.

168
 ICAER-2015

Effect of Chamber Volume, Electrode Material and Cation

Exchange Membrane on Performance of Microbial Fuel Cell
Geetanjalia,#, K.R. Bharadwaja, S. Kumara,*, R. R. Mewarama
a
Department of Biotechnology, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Allahabad 211004, India
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 532 2271243, E-mail: sanjaykr27@mnnit.ac.in

Abstract

There is a growing research interest in development of microbial fuel cell (MFC) with low chamber volume and high
electrode surface area to improve electricity output. Till date, power density produced by MFCs is limited for commercial
application. In this study, experiments were conducted to identify limiting factors in a dual chamber MFCs by varying the
volumetric capacity of MFC, electrode material and proton exchange membrane (PEM) area while kept other operational
parameters constant. Two MFCs with 500 mL and 200 mL capacity were constructed from plexiglass material and operated
with three different electrode materials in fed batch mode for each experimental condition. Polarization and power curves
were recorded for different electrodes performance in variable capacity of MFCs. Cyclic voltammetry curve were also
evaluated for its peak anodic and cathodic value by potentiostat for all experimental conditions. The higher power density
(3.04mW/m2) was observed with carbon cloth electrode and higher surface area of PEM which is three and six times higher
in comparison with carbon paper and graphite material, respectively. These results indicated that carbon cloth was potential
electrode material and higher PEM area was favorable for higher power density.

Keywords: Microbial fuel cell; Potentiostat; Power density; Carbon electrodes; Cyclic voltammetry; mixed microbial culture.

1. Introduction

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are an emerging method for achieving sustainable energy technology since they can
produces electricity and simultaneously remove organic matter [1]. In a MFC system, the electrochemically
active microorganisms inoculated in anodic chamber able to generate electrons contained in organic substances
via their central metabolism and transfer to a solid electrode which function as the anode. The extracted
electrons pass through an external load to the electron acceptors (i.e. ferricyanide, oxygen), present in cathodic
compartment which accept the electrons generated by the microorganisms and function as the cathode [2].
These two compartments are separated by proton exchange membrane (PEM) [3,4]. Significant advancement
has been made in the last few years to improve the performance of MFCs technology, with ever-increasing
power densities, reliabilities and diversified functionalities due largely to the evolutionary reduction in internal
resistance that has been achieved by rational design of the MFC reactors. However, the commercial application
of MFC is yet to be implemented due to insufficient output power to drive most electronic devices used in our
daily life [5].

Different design concepts and configuration with different chamber volume have been developed to optimize
arrangement of three basic components, anode, cathode and separator, in a functioning system [6]. Volumetric
loading determine the total amount of electrons delivered by the substrates for current production[7] on the other
hand, a number of studies demonstrates that with increasing MFC size, the volumetric power density decreases.
Clauwaert et al. [8] analyze this effect in terms of a volume-based resistivity, being the product of the actual
internal resistance of the reactor and actual volume of the reactor. In this way, a metric is defined that makes it
possible to compare reactors of different volumes. They show that with increasing volume, the volume-based
resistivity tends to increase. This resistivity can be analyzed in terms of a number of elements that all contribute
to the total internal resistance, like anode and cathode over-potential, concentration over-potential, membrane
resistance, and solution resistance. These contributions to internal resistance have been extensively studied, and
strategies have been developed to lower them. However, little if any attention has been paid to the study of the

169
scale dependency of these elements of internal resistance. This has been hampering a systematic scale up of the
MFC. Increasing or decreasing the volumetric capacity of anodic chamber can affect the power production.

The power output of MFCs is inherently limited by the maximum rate of electron transfer that can be
sustained by anodic bacteria [9]. Hence the anode material plays a crucial role in the power production
of MFCs. Carbon-based materials such as carbon cloth (mesh), carbon paper, carbon felt, activated
carbon, graphite fiber brush, and graphite granule have been widely used as the anode material in
MFCs, because of their high chemical stability, electrical conductivity, and biocompatibility [4]. Power
density yields in MFCs have increased 5–6 orders of magnitude over the last decade as a result of the
optimization of reactor configuration, the improvement of operational parameters, the selection of bacteria with
greater electrochemical activity, and the application of novel electrode materials. Very low columbic
efficiencies in prior work with microscale MFCs indicate that as the size of the MFC chamber decreases,
electron sinks other than the anode become dominant. Methane formation may be an electron sink in MFCs,
however, methane’s electron fractions from acetate are typically less than 4% [10].

Separator is utilized to physically separate the anodic and cathodic chambers (or cathode for a single-chamber
MFC). Although the single-chamber MFC without a separator has been reported to produce a higher power
density [11,12], the absence of a separator would increase oxygen and substrate diffusion and thus lower the
Columbic efficiency and bioelectrocatalytic activity of the anode microorganisms [13]. To overcome the
adverse effect of oxygen diffusion, certain electrode spacing should be ensured, which will result in a high
internal resistance [13,14]. Moreover, the accelerated substrate diffusion would lead to a rapid
biofouling/deactivation of cathode and deteriorate the MFC performance [15]. This is especially true for the
treatment of complex wastewaters, where the oxic/anoxic interface on air–cathodes is a favorable environment
for mixed microbial consortia [16]. Therefore, it has been widely recognized that a separator is necessary to
ensure the efficient and sustainable operation of an MFC [17,18].

The flat-plate configuration enables a reduced electrode spacing, thus a lower internal resistance and
higher volumetric power density can be achieved. However, most researchers report only the liquid volume
used for the reactor design, with litter consideration given to the module configuration that allowed the design of
the modular MFC reactor to be flexible in terms of stack density, reactor size, operation and maintenance of the
whole system [19]. Fortunately, prior researches had demonstrated that multiple anodes, closely spaced
electrodes, and air chamber were of great significance to the module design for a more efficient microbial-
power harvesting system. There appears to be general trend of increased power production with higher surface
area materials, but there have only been limited comparisons of power production under conditions that are
identical except for the anode material

In this study, two dual chamber MFCs of capacity 500 mL and 200 mL were designed and constructed in order
to better understand the impact of volumetric capacity on power generation.. Three types of carbon based
electrode material with same surface area were studied in two different capacities of MFCs configurations.
Investigations of electrode performance in terms of power density were evaluated in variable capacity of MFCs.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Reactor construction

Two sets of MFC with 500 mL (6.5×7.75×10 cm3,MFC500) and 200 mL (6.75×6×5 cm3,MFC200) volumetric
capacity were designed and constructed as shown in Fig. 1(a) and 1(b). The MFC consisted of anode and
cathode chamber made of acrylic sheet and separated by a proton exchange membrane (Nafion 117 by Alfa
Aesar of thickness- 0.18 mm) of area 65 cm2 and 30 cm2 for MFC 500 and MFC 200 respectively. The two
chambers were provided with a lid which had ports for electrode at distance of 4cm from the membrane end.
The lid was also provided with two multipurpose ports which can be used for sparging nitrogen gas, taking
samples and feeding nutrients. Nafion membrane was activated as described by Lu et al. [20]. Three types of
electrodes were used Carbon paper (FuelCellsEtc., Toray paper 060), 2.5cm×10cm, 190µm thick ; Carbon cloth
(FuelCellsEtc., Elat® hydrophilic plain cloth) 2.5cm×10cm, 406µm thick and carbon felt. The total geometrical
accessible surface areas of the entire three electrodes in anode and cathode chamber were 50 cm2.

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(a) (b)

Fig. 1. Experimental set up of microbial fuel cell (a) 500 ml and (b) 200 ml.

2.2. Media inoculum and enrichment

The anodic compartments of the MFC were inoculated with activated sludge sample obtain from anaerobic
digester of Naini sewage treatment plant. The COD value of waste water was 1200 mg l-1. The reactors were
operated in fed batch mode for over 25 days. The reactor was fed with a medium containing (mg/l) NaHCO 3,
6000; NH4 HCO3 , 70; KCl, 25; K2HPO4 , 14; (NH)4SO4 , 10; Yeast extract, 5000; MgCl2.4H2O, 9;
FeCl2.4H2O, 2; EDTA, 1; MnCl2 .4H2O, 0.5; CoCl2.6H2O, 0.15; Na2SeO3, 0.1; (NH4)6 MoO7 .4H2O, 0.09;
ZnCl2 , 0.05; H3BO3 , 0.05; NiCl2.6H2O, 0.05; CuCl2.2H2O, 0.03, Glucose, 5000. The cathode consisted of the
same media except Glucose, Yeast extract, NaHCO3 and NH4HCO3 eliminating all major carbon and nitrogen
contributors such that there would not be any microbial growth. The inoculum and the reactor were purged with
nitrogen gas for 30 min to ensure the anaerobic condition inside the reactor [21]. Feed solutions were replaced
when the voltage dropped below 20mV.
2.3. Operation
The dual chamber microbial fuel cell was operated continuously at room temperature. A total of six
operation cycle run in order to evaluate all the three electrode in both capacity of MFCs. The reactors were
operated with an external circuit connected to 500Ω except as noted [22]. The potential differences was
measured every 100 sec intervals using a data logger (Digital TRUE RMS Multimeter Hantek 365F). All the
three types of carbon electrode were used as electrode material one by one by keeping the all the other
parameter constant. . Each reactor run three times for a cycle of 30 days with three different electrodes viz.,
carbon cloth, carbon paper and carbon felt. The total geometrical accessible surface areas of all electrodes
maintained same for all six cycle

2.4. Electrochemical Analysis

All electrochemical experiments were carried out with PGSTAT 101 Metrohm Autolab system in a three-
electrode cell that consisted of the working electrode (anode), Ag/AgCl reference electrode (CHI111), and
cathode as counter electrode. The Ag/AgCl reference was placed in close proximity to the anode The cell
polarization and power curves were obtained from by varying the external resistor from 18,000Ω to 3Ω. The
voltage (E) across an external resistor was measured every 20 min using a data logger system (Digital TRUE
RMS Multimeter Hantek 365F) connected to a computer. The power output (P) generated was calculated
according to P=V2/R (V is the voltage and R is the Rext) and plotted with respect to R ext[23,24]. The maximum
power output was derived from the polarization curve. Current-voltage characteristics is estimated using ohms
law, V=IR where, V is voltage, I is current and R is resistant. Power output is estimated from P = IV. The
current in the system is normalized with respect to the apparent area the cathode electrode and the polarization
behavior is plotted. The area specific internal resistance of the system is estimated from the slope of the
polarization curve which is multiplied with the total cathode area to determine the total internal resistance (R int).
Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was performed on an electrochemical analyzer at a scan rate of 100 mV/s with
upper vertex potential 1.00 V and lower vertex potential -1.00 V. Current (I) and power (P) were calculated
and normalized by the projected surface area of the anode (50 cm 2). Polarization and power density curves were
obtained by varying the external resistance used in the circuit. The polarization curve measurement was
conducted to determine the power generation at different external resistors (R ext).

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 Results and Discussions:

Fuel cell was operated in fed batch mode at room temperature (30 ± 2 °C). The simulated wastewater was
introduced in to the anodic chamber and was inoculated with domestic waste water producing mixed micro
flora. During operation the anolyte solution was mixed continuously by stirring with magnetic beads. MFC
start-up time essentially depends upon system architecture. The MFCs takes time from 1 h to more than two
months to attain maximum output voltage. In order to investigate the capability of the three different electrodes
in two reactor of different volumetric capacity, experiment was run six times. Once voltage production dropped
to baseline, a fresh addition of simulated wastewater was injected into the anode chamber during the entire
period of operation. A repeated cycle of addition showed good reproducibility of voltage generation in terms of
peak profile and maximum voltage. The open circuit voltage recorded after every 6 h. Fig 2 (a) and (b) plots the
voltage generated over 620 hrs at 6 hrs for all the six experiment. The Open circuit voltage for both MFCs with
carbon cloth as electrode shows the maximum voltage generation of 0.932 V and 0.844 V for MFC 500 at 96
hrs and MFC 200 at 90 hrs after inoculation. However, the OCV of MFC with carbon felt reached a maximum
value of 0.238 V and 0.211 V after 378 hrs and 396 hrs in second fed batch cycle. From the above result it can
be observed that MFC with carbon felt produced almost 66% lower maximum voltage than MFC with
carbon cloth. This also shows that carbon cloth has less startup time and very slightly less when inoculated in
small volumetric capacity reactor. On the other side carbon paper shows maximum voltage 0.732 V and 0.696 V
after 180 hrs and 120 hrs for MFC500 and MFC200 respectively. Actually, the OCV is dependent on the both
biological and electrochemical processes in the MFC systems. Accordingly, all parameters were identical except
the type of anode material. In this situation, the OCV differences could be attributed to the performance of the
anode. Several parameters could influence the electrode over potential, including: electrode surface,
electrochemical characteristics of the electrode, mechanism of electron transfer etc.

(a)
(b)

Fig. 2. Variation of voltage with time/ open circuit voltage (a.) 500 mL reactor; (b) 200 mL reactor.

Analysis of power and polarization curves derived from typical operation of our MFC (Fig. 3) yielded rich
device performance information. To obtain the polarization curve, the current density was calculated and plotted
against potential and power density at different resistances to visualize the maximum power density and current
density with respect to the resistance once the maximum voltage was attained. By systematically decreasing
external load and recording voltage data at equilibrium, we noted the maximum power output from MFC500
with carbon cloth as electrode is 3.04mW/m2. This result indicates that carbon cloth can promote bacteria
adhesion on the anode surface, which plays a key role in improving the power output. Current generation with
different resistance was observed once the maximum voltage was attained. Maximum current of density 39
mA/m2 was observed at 100 ohm resistance. Drop in the voltage was comparatively higher at lower resistance,
which indicated more potential drop. Voltage stabilization was comparatively rapid at higher resistances (20
KΩ) compared to lower resistances (100 Ω) studied. Relatively effective electron discharge observed at lower
resistances may be probable reason for more potential drop and slow stabilization of the voltage at lower
resistors. Oxidation of substrates by microbes was observed to be more at lower resistance than at higher
resistance where to identify the formal potential of the catalytic active site, we analyzed the biofilms with cyclic
voltammetry.

172
(a) (b)

Fig. 3. Anode polarization curves and power curves measured in (a) 500 mL reactor; (b) 200 mL reactor.

CV tests were carried out to determine the electrocatalytic behavior of anode materials (Fig.4). Carbon cloth
results in larger current responses when compared to carbon paper and carbon felt in the scan range between
−1.0 V and 1.0 V. A peak current of 23 mA at −1.002 V in the oxidation scan and a peak current of −15 mA at
−1.0 V in the reduction scan are observed at the carbon cloth in MFC500. The peak current is much higher than
those at the carbon paper and carbon felt, which is due to the electron-transfer efficiency from the bacteria to the
anode. These above results indicated that carbon cloth was potential electrode material and higher exchange
membrane area was advantageous for higher current density and electricity generation.

Fig.4. Cyclic voltammograms for with different anode material in (a.) 500 mL and (b.) 200 mL reactor; carbon
cloth, paper and felt .

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 Radiation Forecasting with Elman back-propagation Neural Network using Groups of Multiple Parameters

Yashwant Kashyapa, Ankit Bansal b, Anil Sao c Devender Kumard

a
School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Roorkee
c
School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi
d
LG Soft India Private Limited

Abstract- Modern solar energy plant design need the information of solar radiation availability. In this paper, the
Elman back-propagation Neural Network (ELM) of the artificial neural network (ANN) has been used for hourly
solar radiation forecasting. 2002 to 2008, six-year of meteorological data has collected from Mandi location in
India, which located at very different climate zone. Nine combinations of inputs parameters have been used for
model performance comparison. The ANN model has inputs parameters shown best results (RMSE~0.2) in group-3
compared remaining eight groups besides higher numbers of inputs.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network (ANN); Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI); Forecasting; solar energy; ANN
modeling;

1. INTRODUCTION

In coming decades, the application of renewable energy will be growing rapidly especially in solar
industry. Therefore the uncertainty in the solar energy causes the major impact on power production and
synchronization for utility. The organization and research sector need to focus on development and estimation of
solar power production capability under different climate condition. There are many Meteorological parameters
affect the solar energy intensity, such as cloud cover, aerosols, humidity etc. [1-4]. The most effectively cloud
creates major fluctuation in direct solar radiation (DNI) that suffers from sudden short-term variations [5-8].

The metrological parameters from weather stations are closely correlate to solar radiation. These
parameters are widely used in various empirical models and Ångström formula for radiation estimation [9, 10]. Due
to difficulty in estimation of solar radiation, researchers propose many models. They include metrological
parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity and precipitation etc. [11-14]. The difficulty of tradition
models is static learning ability and need of prior knowledge about correlation among variables [15-17].

Artificial neural network architecture is well define approach for prediction, optimization and control of
input output correlation without any mathematical formulation [18-21]. Similar work has been reported word-wide
such as Saudi Arabia, Spain, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Algeria, and the UK [22-25]. Therefore, ANN has mostly
applied in the field of solar energy application using different Meteorological condition [26-32]. The architecture of
this model include inputs layers which has multiple combination such as latitude, longitude, altitude, sunshine
duration, month of year, sunshine ratio, temperature, vapor pressure, relative humidity and wind speed etc. [3, 26-
31, 33]. All those models demonstrate ANN performs are better than classical models, but unable to define the
details of each individual group. The performance of ANN with different input variable groups has rarely compared
in same research [18, 34, 35].

This paper defines the two-layer Elman back-propagation neural network model to determine best independent
parameter from the hourly global solar radiation. The well-known Meteorological data were used in different groups
in ANN model and the results were evaluated. Finally, the best ANN models were selected and forecasted the hourly
global radiation with least RMSE error.

2. DATA AND METHODS

2.2. Description of data

The extraterritorial radiation is 1.3kW/m2 that contributes to the direct and diffuse irradiation. The data were
collected from minister of renewable energy (MNRE) on hourly grid data at Mandi (HP, India) location. However,

175
the eleven parameters are Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI), Direct Normal
Irradiance (DNI),Bulb Point Temperature (BPT), Due Point Temperature (DPT), Pressure (PR), Wind Direction
(WD), Wind Speed (WS), Time in Hour (HH), Time in Day (DD), Time in Month (MM) and Time in Year (YY) are
also used at same location and time.

2.3. Model development

The generalization capability of neural network is most important factor, which has used for solving nonlinear
problem. To achieve better generalization on neural network it has divided into three sections namely called
training, validation and testing. During the training model adopt the variance property of data and try to reduce error
as much as possible. The validation processes has used to cross-check the performance of model with set of data that
has not used in training set. The testing processes involve the complete check of model at final stage, including
training and validation processes. The data set in the form of 70:15:15 percentages of complete data, for training,
validation and testing set. The Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm has used for the optimization of neural network [3,
22, 36, 37].

The Elman back propagation neural network (ELM) is designs with two layer of back propagation and feedback
from the output to hidden layer as well as input layer. ELM is most common method that has used for classification
and regression problem. In some condition the efficiency of ELM are not good as per standard, due to memory
capacity with back-propagation. However, many other architecture of ELM are available with improve efficiency
with back-propagation [7-10][38]. Considering feedback with ELM is very considerable approach to improve the
performance and convergence for local minima problem [7, 39, 40].

The artificial neural network has widely used, due to its simplicity, generalization and learning ability with
combination of back-propagation network. The Widrow-Hoff learning principles were used to generalize the
multilayer neural network with different nonlinear differentiable transfer functions. The network is train until input
vector and output vector correlate properly. The relationship can be expressed between dependent and independent
variable as GHI=f (GHI, DNI, DHI, BPT, DPT, PR, WD, WS, HH, DD, MM and YY); However, selection of
suitable independent variable is one of most important method for the satisfactory radiation forecasting model. This
variable structure of ANN model were defined based on its coefficient and weighted parameters [41-43].

3. SELECTION OF INPUT AND OUTPUT

The developments of neural network architecture have defined based on selection of number of inputs
parameters to produce the best output. The present case, output of neural network is hourly basis of GHI and 11
input groups of ANN architecture. The 11 input groups have designed in following way:
• Group 2; two input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of two parameters such as C (11, 2) =
!
55 combination; where C(n, k) = ( )!
!
• Group 3; three input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of three parameters such as C (11, 3)
= 165 combination;
• Group 4; four input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of four parameters such as C (11, 4) =
330 combination;
• Group 5; five input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of five parameters such as C (11, 5) =
462 combination;
• Group 6; six input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of six parameters such as C (11, 6) =
462 combination;
• Group 7; seven input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of seven parameters such as C (11,
7) = 330 combination;
• Group 8; eight input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of eight parameters such as C (11, 8)
= 165 combination;
• Group 9; nine input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of nine parameters such as C (11, 9) =
55 combination;
• Group 10; ten input nodes; the combination among all inputs in term of ten parameters such as C (11, 10) =
11 combination;

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 4. METHODS OF MODEL EVALUATION

The model performance has been divided in two basic parts of training and testing. This validation process
involves compression among all results of different model outcome and the lowest forecasting error. The estimation
of error has been defined in term of root mean square (RMSE); RMSE provides knowledge about short term
performance correlations.

⎆
RMSE = ⩹ ∑ṢԎ⎆(IṢ − IΆṢ) (1)

Where, IṢ signify measured value at forecasted time t and IṢ forecasted value, n represent total number of sample.
The standard procedures to test time series models are identification, assessment and validation checks [44, 45].

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

5.1. Parameter selection

All parameters mentioned above are compared using both training and testing to evaluative performance of
ANN model as given in Fig.1 to Fig.13. The dependent parameters related the solar radiations are GHI, DNI, DHI,
BPT, DPT, PR, WD, WS, HH, DD, MM and YY. The most important step is evaluating the appropriate predicting
variable among the collection of all best dependent variables. Since, the dependent variables control the dynamics,
bias coefficient and outcome of neural network architecture. Accordingly, the initially fix the entirely dependent
variable with GHI and consider one of the variable for ANN model. The number of hidden neurons and delay has
fixed to 10 and 1 for all cases, due to increases in hidden neuron does not make any major changes in the
performance of ANN. The independent data sets have used to predict accurate independent variable, after recursive
iteration.

Similar research such as an adaptive load dispatches strategy including renewable energy conversion units
of virtual power plant. The effects of the stochastic nature of solar and wind energy systems overcome electricity
market load. The performance prediction of solar equipped heat pump using artificial neural networks with
Lavenberg Marguardt and 10 neurons in the hidden layer is most suitable algorithm [46-48]. Rough Set (RS) theory
and artificial neural network (ANN) integrates a novel method based on data-fusion techniques to predict the air-
conditioning loads were presented. In addition, individual RS-ANN forecast results are better than ARIMA.
Modeling and prediction of wind speed in the wind energy siting and sizing were essential prerequisites
applications. ANN based prediction of temperature in the water exiting the ground heat exchanger GHE shows the
exit temperature with an absolute error less than 0.2 degree centigrade [49-52].

Fig.1 Radiation estimation using groups of two parameters both training and testing cases.

5.2. Solar radiation prediction using group-2

The training and test results of ANN group-2 with different variables has shown in Fig.1. It has been
clearly seen, from Fig.1, for example, DPT/DNI with log (-12) RMSE training error is good fit combination, due to
the seasonal variation of global horizontal solar radiation. Overall performances of group-2 results are comparable
during training cases. The GHI itself has satisfied the performance, but some higher error in training cases, and
better performance in testing cases in combination with DNI. The best result obtained from group-2 is below 0.4
(RMSE<0.4) even from the plot are not good as expected.

Fig.2 Radiation estimation using groups of three parameters both training and testing cases.

5.3. Solar radiation prediction using group-3

In Fig.2 shows four aspect of ANN model performance such as training and testing, error and plots with
respect to multiple variables. Result clearly explains that training error in a group of three varies from log (-6) to log
(-12), higher to lower value, and respective variables are GHI/DNI/GHI and WS/WD/GHI. If we compare the same
variable in testing cases error was 0.4 and 0.5, those are not correct combination of training versus testing model.
The best model shows in RMSE training error of log (-10) in a group of GHI/DNI/GHI shows testing error 0.2,
respectively. However, best result among all groups, but from plot fitting was not good.

177
 Fig.3 Radiation estimation using groups of four parameters both training and testing cases.

5.4. Solar radiation prediction using group-4

The training and test results of ANN group-4 with different variables are shown in Fig.3. It has been clearly
seen, for example, PR/WS/WD/D with log (-11.5) RMSE training error is good fit group. Overall performances of
all inputs of group-4 are comparable during training cases as from the plot. On the other cases, the
GHI/DNI/DHI/GHI has satisfactory performance but some higher error in training cases, and good performance in
testing cases. The best result obtained from group-4 is below 0.35 (RMSE<0.35) even from the plot are not good as
expected.

Fig.4 Radiation estimation using groups of five parameters both training and testing cases.

5.5. Solar radiation prediction using group-5

In Fig.4 shows four aspect of ANN model performance such as training, testing error and its plots with
respect to multiple variables. Result clearly explains that training error in a group of five variable is log (-11.5), and
its respective variables are GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/GHI. If we compare the same variable with testing side its error is
0.4, in this case only one group performs best. However, curve fitting of plot was not good.

Fig.5 Radiation estimation using groups of six parameters both training and testing cases.

5.6. Solar radiation prediction using group-6

In Fig.5 shows four aspect of ANN model performance such as training, testing error and its plots with
respect to multiple variables. Result clearly explains that training error in a group of six varies from log (-6.5) to log
(-12.5) higher to lower value, and its respective variables are GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/GHI and PR/WS/
WD/H/D/GHI. If we compare the same variable with testing side their errors are below 0.4 and above 0.5, those are
not correct combination of training versus testing model. The best model shows with RMSE training error of log (-
8.5) in a group of GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/GHI shows testing error below 0.4, respectively, but the plot we
observed were not good.

Fig.6 Radiation estimation using groups of seven parameters both training and testing cases.

5.7. Solar radiation prediction using group-7

The training and test results of ANN group-7 with different variables are shown in Fig.6. It has been clearly
seen, for example, DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/WD/DNI with log (-12) RMSE training error is good performance group.
Overall performances of all inputs of group-7 are comparable during training cases as from the plot. On the other
cases, the GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/GHI has good performance in testing cases, but some higher error in training
cases. The best result obtained from group-7 is below 0.35 (RMSE<0.35) even from the plot are not good as
expected.

Fig.7 Radiation estimation using groups of eight parameters both training and testing cases.

5.8. Solar radiation prediction using group-8

In Fig.7 shows four aspect of ANN model performance such as training, testing error and its plots with
respect to multiple variables. Result clearly explains that training error in a group of eight varies from log (-8) to log
(-11.5) higher to lower value, and its respective variables are GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/G/H and
DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/WD/D. If we compare the same variable with testing side their errors are below 0.4 and
above 0.4, second one is not correct combination of training versus testing model. The best model is first one,
however, the plot we observe the fitting was not good.

Fig.8 Radiation estimation using groups of nine parameters both training and testing cases.

5.9. Solar radiation prediction using group-9

The training and test results of ANN group-9 with different variables are shown in Fig.8. It has been clearly
seen, which is DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/WD/H/GHI with log (-12.5) RMSE training error is a good performance
group. Overall performances of all inputs of group-9 are comparable during training cases as from the plot. The
group GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/WD/GHI has good performance in testing cases, but some higher error in

178
training cases as compare to others variables. The best result obtained from group-9 is below 0.35 (RMSE<0.35)
however plots are not good as expected.

Fig.9 Radiation estimation using groups of ten parameters both training and testing cases.

5.10. Solar radiation prediction using group-10

In Fig.9 shows aspect of ANN model performance such as training, testing and plots with respect to
multiple variables. Result clearly explains that training error in a group of ten varies from log (-11.65) to log (-
11.95) higher to lower value, and its respective variables are GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/WD/H/GHI and
GHI/DNI/DHI/BPT/DPT/PR/WS/WD/H/GHI. If we compare the same variable with testing side their errors are
below 0.42 and above 0.4, both are correct combination of training versus testing model. The best model is second
one however the plot we observe is not fit since errors.

Fig.10 Radiation estimation using ten groups training log RMSE error

Fig.11 Radiation estimation using ten groups testing RMSE error

Fig.12 Radiation estimation using ten groups of training plot

Fig.13 Radiation estimation using ten groups of testing plot

5.11. Proposed ANNS comparison

The summary of all groups are shown in Fig.10 to Fig.13, respectively, it appears that the number of input
variables not necessary always good or effect. This conclusion can be easily found out after comparing the RMSE
column of Fig.11. However, there is no relationship between the GHI and other independent variables such as the
HH, MM and YY. Therefore, they were not selected as independent variables and thus they were eliminated. Among
the eleven independent variables (GHI, DNI, DHI, BPT, DPT, PR, WD, WS, HH, DD, MM and YY), the GHI
seems to be most effective in estimation of the GHI. It can be seen from Fig.2, for the group-3, the GHI/DNI is used
as independent variable and the GHI as dependent variable. According to the derived results and based on the
training data set the RMSE ranged from log (-12) to log (-6) higher to lower value, while corresponding ranges of
0.85-0.2 respectively. For the testing data set, the maximum RMSE was found to be 0.85 for the group-4, on the
other side, the best result found was 0.2 of group-3.

6. CONCLUSION

Two-layer Elman back propagation neural network designed with LMA method are trained and tested for
hourly solar radiation in India using Meteorological parameters. Nine ANN models with multiple input variables
groups have designed for relative testing of different hourly radiation models. The performance of ANN models
shows metrological parameters such as GHI, DNI, DHI, H and BPT has most important parameters for hourly solar
radiation forecasting, without these parameter could not achieve the satisfactory performance in a groups. However,
compared to ANN groups (group-2 to group-10); group-10 and group-8 model show less accuracy. Furthermore,
group-3 show the best accuracy for forecasting error as well as plot, obtained from testing cases.

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181
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184
 ICAER-2015

Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Vapor Compression-Absorption

Cascade Refrigeration System (VCACRS) Powered by Organic
Rankine Cycle (ORC)
Bhavesh Patela,S. S. Kachhwahaa,Vaibhav Jainb, N. J. Hadiac
a
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Raisan, Gandhinagar 382007, Gujarat, India
b
Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110085, Delhi, India
c
Institute of Chemical and Engineering Science (ICES),1Pesek Road, Jurong Island, Singapore 627833

Abstract

In the present study, the performance potential of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) powered vapor compression-absorption
cascade refrigeration system (VCACRS) is presented. It is shown that the proposed hybrid system is capable of providing
about 170 kW cooling power, 167 kW heating power and 14 kW electric power (supplied to compressor and pumps). The
overall efficiency of the tri-generation system is about 78%. Moreover, the rational / exergy efficiency of the trigeneration
system is reported 40%. Furthermore, this study reveals that the best performance can be attained with the 80°C desorber
temperature and lowest ORC evaporator pinch point temperature difference that is 3°C. In addition, the study reveals that
the heater, ORC evaporator, absorber and the expander are the main sources of exergy destruction. The heater contributes
to 21% of the total destructed exergy whereas the ORC evaporator, absorber and the expander contributes to 14%, 14% and
13% of the total destructed exergy.

Keywords: ORC, VCACRS, Cascaded system, Pinch point, Irreversibility, Exergy, Rational efficiency, Gouy-Stodola equation.

1. Introduction

Vapor compression and absorption technologies are widely used for refrigerating and air conditioning
applications. Vapor compression refrigeration system (VCRS) is best suited for low temperature applications.
However, it poses certain limitations like higher consumption of electrical energy, emission of green-house and
hazardous working fluid. Vapor absorption refrigeration system (VARS) consumes insignificant electricity since
it utilizes low grade heat as an energy source. Moreover, it has advantage of longer life span and environment
friendliness. On the other hand, the COP values of these systems are low and also not suitable for low
temperature (75 to 90°C) and small capacity (1–30 kW) applications [1]. The application of cascaded vapor
absorption-compression refrigeration system (VCACRS) maintains the advantage of both vapor compression
and vapor absorption system while minimizing the limitations for the same [2].
According to the researchers [2-6], the electrical power consumption in VCACRS is reduced by 31-61%
compared to conventional VCRS for same cooling capacity compare to conventional VCRS. Regardless of the
proven fact, the VCACRS has limitation that it requires high grade (electricity) and large amount of low grade
energy. On the other hand, it is proven in recent studies that ORC is most promising technology for generating
combined heat and power (CHP) in a single process [7]. The use of ORC in refrigeration application would
bring several advantages since it can achieve great efficiencies from low grade heat sources and can result cost-
effective for micro-scale applications [8].The ORC is a potential sub system that can be used with the
refrigeration system for producing the mechanical/electrical power, heating and cooling simultaneously from the
same single energy source and such a thermal system is identified as trigeneration system [9]. Trigeneration
plants appear to be more efficient power plants utilizing the waste heat from prime movers and reported 80%
efficiency of a power plant where the waste heat from the prime mover is utilized [9-11]. Fang et al. [12]
investigated the trigeneration system and found an overall efficiency reaching 70-90% along with less fuel
consumption, greenhouse gas emission, pollutants to the environment and significant reduction in operational
and maintenance cost due to their decentralized nature. Fernandez-Seara et al. [13] studied the possibilities of
powering the cascaded compression-absorption refrigeration system by means of gas engine and stated that
there is always a need of surplus electricity due to significant difference in the energy ratio (power/ heating)
requirement of the cascade system and energy ratio provided by the co-generation system.

185
 Nomenclature
ARI Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration 𝑐𝑝 specific heat at constant pressure
Institute
CHP combined heat and power CHCP combined heating cooling & power
e specific Exergy 𝐸̇ exergy flow rate
EES engineering Equation Solver EUF energy utilization factor
h enthalpy 𝐼̇ Irreversibility
IRS integrated refrigeration system 𝑚̇ mass flow rate
ORC organic Rankine cycle 𝑄̇ Heat
r relative irreversibility 𝑠̇ Entropy
SOFC solid oxide fuel cells T Temperature
VARS vapor absorption refrigeration system VCACRS vapor compression absorption cascade
refrigeration system
VCRS vapor compression refrigeration 𝑊̇ Work
system
Greek Symbols
Ƞ efficiency Δ Delta
θ carnot factor ϵ Effectiveness
Superscript/ Subscript
0 environmental state 1,2… state points
a Absorber c condenser
cc cascade condenser comp compressor
D Desorber e Evaporator
ev expansion valve elec electrical
exp Expander gen generation
h Heater i state point
k component m mechanical
ORC organic Rankine cycle overlap degree of overlap or approach
P Pump PP pinch point
prv pressure reducing valve R rational
s isentropic shx solution heat exchanger
th thermal t total

A compression and absorption chiller based integrated refrigeration system (IRS) of cooling capacity 596 kW
directly operated by a gas engine, has been set up and tested by Sun [14]. The IRS system saves running costs of
73,007 RMB (Chinese Yuan) per year as compared to the conventional systems by using waste heat. Hwang
[15] and Kowalski and Zenouzi [16] studied a combined vapor compression/absorption cycle systems based on
the micro-turbine and gas turbine, respectively and found highest first law utilization factor. Al-Sulaiman et al.
[17] reported maximum trigeneration efficiency 76%, 90% and 90% respectively in a comparative study
between SOFC, biomass and solar driven integrated ORC-absorption trigeneration system. Furthermore, study
reveals that best performance can be achieved for lowest ORC evaporator pinch temperature. Jradi and Riffat
[18] presented an experimental study of trigeneration system comprises a biomass driven ORC operated
dehumidification (heating) unit and cooling unit for dehumidifying and cooling of supply air with reported
efficiency 83%.
The above mentioned researchers have done the preliminary first law analysis of the VCACRS system with
different energy system (e.g. gas engine, gas turbine and micro turbine) and concluded that there is need of
single efficient energy system which can fulfill the simultaneous high grade and low grade energy needs for
small and medium applications. Only a few studies considered ORC as a prime mover of a trigeneration system
is available in literature. The literature review suggests that ORC may be an advantageous option to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and to increase efficiency of trigeneration system. Al-Sulaiman FA et al. [19]
reported that the ORC is expected to play an important role in energy production in the near future, mainly due
to its ability to be integrated with thermal systems when low (55-150°C) or medium-temperature (150-300°C)
waste heat is available.
In present study, integration of an ORC-based CHP unit and compression/absorption cascaded cooling
trigeneration system is employed which can provide heating, power and low temperature cooling. Such
combination has yet to be investigated in the literature to meet simultaneous cooling, heating and power needs.
Hence, it is considered as the main motivation for the present study. The present system is proved to be having

186
higher energy utilization efficiency by recovering waste heat of ORC which not only saves the running cost but
also contributes in additional environmental benefits. The complete integrated system was modeled and
analyzed using the software package Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The first law and detailed second law
results are reported and discussed in current study followed by the parametric analysis.

2. System analysis

2.1. Cycle description

The schematic diagram of a proposed compression/ absorption cascade refrigeration system integrated with
ORC is depicted in Fig.1. It can be seen that, a condenser of a VCRS and evaporator VARS are thermally
coupled by means of heat exchanger called as cascade condenser which forms the compression/absorption
cascade refrigeration system. The condenser rejects the thermal load of compression section to the absorption
section through cascade condenser. It leads to reduction in pressure ratio across the compressor due to lowered
condenser temperature by cascading. Thus, the compressor requires less amount of work. The generator of
VARS is also thermally coupled with the condenser of ORC cycle by means of heat exchanger called as
desorber (vapor generator). ORC comprises evaporator which can generate the heat from the medium
temperature range (90-150°C) renewable energy sources e.g. solar, biomass and waste heat. ORC produces
mechanical power and waste heat at a significant temperature after the expansion process. The waste heat at a
temperature greater than desorber temperature is produced as a by-product after the expansion process. Waste
heat is supplied to desorber as driving source of energy to VARS. The electrical power generated by ORC is
supplied to run the compressor of VCRS to achieve cooling at low temperature (<0-4°C). Heater is provided to
regulate the quantity of supply heat in desorber as per the requirement. The electrical to heat energy ratio
required by cascade system does not match the energy ratio provided by the ORC cogeneration system. The
surplus amount of waste heat is to be extracted from the heater as a waste heat. The waste heat extracted can be
utilized in the various industrial processes which require low temperature (< 100°C) heat [e.g. Cleaning (40-
80°C), drying (30-90°C), bleaching (60-100°C), cooking, painting, surface/ heat treatment (40-60°C),
preheating (30-100°C), distillation and pasteurization].

Fig. 1 Vapor compression-absorption refrigeration system powered by organic Rankine cycle

187
2.2. Assumptions

Mathematical modelling is based on following assumptions [2, 20]:

 All the system components operate under steady state

 The refrigerants saturated at exit of evaporator, ORC evaporator, cascade condenser, condenser and desorber
and inlet of absorber and pump (ORC).
 All the pressure and heat losses/gains in different components of system are neglected.
 The process occurring in all the expansion valves are isenthalpic.
 At given temperature and pressure, water-LiBr solutions in the desorber and the absorber are assumed to be
in equilibrium.
 Only physical exergy is considered for exergy analysis.
 The condenser and absorber are assumed to be water cooled.
 The ambient temperature (𝑇0 ) and pressure (𝑃0 ) are 25°C and 0.1MPa.

3. Mathematical modeling and Validation

3.1. Energetic and Exergetic analysis

Energetic analysis:

Energetic analysis of system is based on first law of thermodynamic. The following set of fundamental
governing equations (Mass balance, Energy balance and Entropy generation) used for modelling individual
components.

 Mass balance, ∑ 𝑚̇ = 0; (1)

 Material Balance, ∑ 𝑥 𝑚̇ = 0 (2)
 Energy balance, ∑ 𝑄̇ + ∑ 𝑊̇ + ∑ 𝑚̇𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑛 − ∑ 𝑚̇𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 0 ; (3)

Exergetic Analysis:

Exergetic analysis is based on the second law of thermodynamics. Second law helps the designers to identify
particular component causes the significant irreversible losses due to entropy generation in the system.

𝑄 ̇
 Entropy generation, ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛 = ∑ 𝑚̇ 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡 − ∑ 𝑚̇ 𝑠𝑖𝑛 − ∑ ( ) ≥ 0 (4)
𝑇

 Specific exergy at point, 𝑒𝑖 = (ℎ𝑖 − ℎ0 ) − 𝑇0 (𝑠𝑖 − 𝑠0 ) (5)

 Exergy flow rate at point, 𝐸̇𝑖 = 𝑚𝑖 [(ℎ𝑖 − ℎ0 ) − 𝑇0 (𝑠𝑖 − 𝑠0 )] (6)

Thermodynamic model to simulate for ORC integrated VCACRS trigeneration system is developed by
applying above governing equations for each component defined in Fig.1. The modeled thermodynamic
equations for individual components are presented in Appendix A.

3.2. Performance Parameter

 As per the entropy principle, all the real processes are irreversible and generate entropy. The associated
irreversibility with the process can be determined by means of Gouy-Stodola law [21]:

𝐼 ̇ = 𝑇0 𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛
̇ (7)

 The total irreversibility rate of the system is given by,

𝐼𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = ∑ 𝐼𝑘 (8)

188
  The COP/ efficiency of sub systems are given by,

𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑉𝐶𝐴𝐶𝑅𝑆 = 𝑄̇𝑒 / (𝑊̇𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 + 𝑊̇𝑃 + 𝑄̇𝐷 ) (9)

𝜂𝑡ℎ,𝑂𝑅𝐶 = ((𝑊̇𝑒𝑥𝑝 − 𝑊̇𝑃,𝑂𝑅𝐶 )/𝑄̇𝑒,𝑂𝑅𝐶 ) ∗ 100 (10)

 The first law and second law efficiencies of Trigeneration system

Because of the difficulties in quantifying the benefits achieved by use of CHP or CHCP plants over
traditional ones, many evaluation criteria have been presented in literature, e.g. PER (Primary energy ratio),
trigeneration efficiency, EUF (Energy utilization factor), EUE (Energy utilization efficiency) based on first law
and Rational efficiency, second law efficiency, Exergetic efficiency based on second law efficiency. The
following evaluation criteria is considered for the present study.

Ƞ𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = ((𝑄𝑒 + 𝑄ℎ )/ 𝑄𝑒,𝑂𝑅𝐶 ) ∗ 100 (11)

𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 (Ƞ𝑅,𝑘 ) = ( 𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 ) (12)

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝐼𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 (Ƞ𝑅 ) = 1 − ( 𝐸𝑥𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑
)=1−(
𝑄𝑒,𝑂𝑅𝐶 ∗ 𝜃𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑡
) (13)

𝑇 𝑇19 − 𝑇20
Where, Carnot factor;𝜃𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑡 = 1 − ( 𝑇0) and 𝑇𝑆 = 𝑇
𝑠 𝑙𝑛 ( 19 )
𝑇20

 The relative irreversibility in each component of the cycle is a convenient non dimensional form for
examining the relative contributions of different plant components cause to total irreversibility is:

𝑟𝑘 = 𝐼𝑘 /𝐼𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (14)

3.3. Model Validation

Organic Rankine Cycle

Numerical data (input operating conditions) from the work of Tchanche et al. [2] is used for the validation of
present ORC model. The plant uses R134a as the working fluid. The results were obtained and compared in
Table 1

Table 1 Comparison of second law results of current model

Sr. Components I I % Error
No. (Tchanche (Current
Model)[20] Model)
1 Turbine 1.401 1.401 0.00
2 Pump 0.075 0.074 -1.33
3 Evaporator 1.308 1.309 0.08
4 Condenser 0.896 0.896 0.00
5 System 3.680 3.680 0.00

Table 1 shows the good coherence between results of compared parameters with maximum error within the
range of ±1.33%. The discrepancies are very small, mainly due to the difference of software version

Cascade Refrigeration System

Input data from the work of Jain et al. [2] is used for the validation of present VCACRS mathematical
model. The simulation program is modified accordingly for validation of model. Water-LiBr and R22 is used in
compression and absorption section, respectively.
Table 2 validates the first law and second law performance parameters for current and reference model. It
shows that all the calculated and operating parameters are predicted within the error of ±0.22%.

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 Table 2 Comparison of first law and second law parameters of present model of VCACRS with Jain et al. [2]
Component Validation of First law parameter Validation of second law parameter
Sr. Parameter Jain Model Present Model Error Irreversibility Irreversibility (I) Error
No [ 2] (%) (I) Present Model (%)
Jain Model [2]
1 Condenser Qc 95.710 95.690 0.02 1.961 1.961 0.00

2 Absorber Qa 121.200 121.200 0.00 1.786 3.488 0.00

3 Generator Qg 126.900 126.900 0.00 3.791 3.793 -0.05
4 Evaporator Qe 80.700 80.700 0.00 1.786 1.782 0.22
5 Cascade condenser Qcascade 89.950 89.940 0.01 2.805 2.803 0.07
6 Compressor Wcomp 9.254 9.240 0.15 3.166 3.162 0.13
7 Pump Wp 0.002 0.002 0.00 0.002 0.002 0.00
13 VCRS COP 8.723 8.734 -0.13 - - -

14 VARS COP 0.708 0.709 -0.14 - - -

15 Cascade COP 0.592 0.593 -0.17 19.391 19.380 0.06

3.4. Design conditions and operating parameters

The input data given in Table 3 along with the assumptions given in section 2.2 for a sub system of
trigeneration system are considered to carry out the computer simulation.

Vapor compression absorption cascade refrigeration

Single effect water/LiBr absorption system and a R410A compression chiller is considered for the present
study. In order to check the feasibility of ORC trigeneration system, a commercially available 170 kW VCRS
chiller (model YCWL) is considered [22]. The fix input parameters considered are mentioned in Table 3 [23].
The temperature range of external fluid for evaporator is taken as 10°C (as per ARI standard it can be 6 to 20°C)
and for absorber and condenser it is taken as 5°C [24]. The approach temperature for evaporator and condenser
is taken is taken as 5°C and 3°C (from the engineering experience and commercially available data). The degree
of approach temperature (𝑇1 − 𝑇5 ) in cascade heat exchanger is also set to be 5°C [25]. The isentropic,
mechanical and electro-motor efficiencies of compressor are taken as 70%, 80% and 90%, respectively [26].
Further, the electrical efficiency of pump and effectiveness of solution heat exchanger is assumed as 90% [25]
and 70% [21], respectively.

Organic Rankine cycle.

In the present work, a HFE-7100 environment friendly organic fluid was chosen from the literature for ORC.
The temperature difference between the heat reservoir/source of ORC evaporator and the expander inlet is kept
10°C and the pinch point temperature difference 𝛥𝑇𝑝𝑝 is taken as 3°C. Pressure ratio across the turbine/
expander is taken as 3. The difference between the desorber temperature and ORC pump inlet temperature is
kept 5°C. The isentropic, mechanical and motor-generator efficiency of expander are taken as 70%, 60% and
90%, respectively [20].

Table 3 Value of Input parameters at design condition [23]

Parameter Value
Cooling capacity of Chiller (kW) 170
Inlet temperature of water at evaporator (°C) 16
Inlet temperature of water at condenser (°C) 27
Temperature of at the exit of the cascade condenser (𝑇5 𝑖𝑛 °𝐶) 6
Desorber temperature 𝑇𝐷 (°C) 80
Outlet temperature of ORC fluid at desorber (𝑇16 𝑖𝑛 °C) 𝑇𝐷 + 5°𝐶
Inlet temperature of water at absorber (°C) 27
Inlet temperature of water at heater (°C) 37
Outlet temperature of water at heater (°C) 80

190
4. Results and analysis

In this section, the results of computer simulation carried out for the trigeneration system are presented and
discussed. The flow parameters at inlet and outlet of each component are as shown in Table 4. The states points
are mentioned according to the Fig. 1.

Table 4 Flow parameter of system.

State T P m h s e
Fluid
Point (C) (kPa) (kg/s) (kJ/kg) (kJ/kg.K) (kJ/kg)

1 R410a 11.0 1117 0.826 75.77 0.294 87.72

2 R410a 1.0 824.0 0.826 75.77 0.295 87.41
3 R410a 1.0 824.0 0.826 281.70 1.047 69.22
4 R410a 18.6 1117 0.826 293.20 1.058 77.21
5 Water 6.0 0.935 0.076 2512 8.998 -166.70
6 LiBr-H2O 37.0 0.935 1.004 90.99 0.222 29.38
7 LiBr-H2O 37.0 5.627 1.004 90.99 0.222 29.38
8 LiBr-H2O 63.3 5.627 1.004 144.20 0.387 33.42
9 LiBr-H2O 80.0 5.627 0.928 195.80 0.451 65.95
10 LiBr-H2O 49.9 5.627 0.928 138.20 0.280 59.22
11 LiBr-H2O 49.9 0.935 0.928 138.20 0.280 59.22
12 Water 80.0 5.627 0.076 2650 8.609 87.30
13 Water 35.0 5.627 0.076 146.60 0.505 0.59
14 Water 6.0 0.935 0.076 146.60 0.526 -5.71
15 HFE7100 115.7 212.3 3.009 257.10 0.778 29.89
15a HFE7101 85.0 212.3 3.009 201.50 0.626 19.53
16 HFE7100 85.0 212.3 3.009 122.40 0.405 6.27
17 HFE7100 85.3 636.9 3.009 122.80 0.406 6.33
18 HFE7100 130.6 636.9 3.009 265.90 0.768 41.62
19 Water 140.6 101.3 19.07 2757 7.562 507.30
20 Water 129.3 101.3 19.07 2735 7.507 501.20
21 Water 16.0 101.3 4.060 67.20 0.239 0.58
22 Water 6.0 101.3 4.060 25.32 0.091 2.65
23 Water 27.0 101.3 10.88 113.20 0.395 0.03
24 Water 32.0 101.3 10.88 134.10 0.464 0.34
25 Water 27.0 101.3 9.085 113.20 0.395 0.03
26 Water 32.0 101.3 9.085 134.10 0.464 0.34
27 Water 37 101.3 0.929 155 0.532 0.9838
28 Water 80 101.3 0.929 335 1.075 18.94
State point 0 is mentioned for water and working fluids for the given ambient condition.

Various stream properties and the amount of heat and work involved by all equipment of the trigeneration
system was determined by computer simulation. The performance parameters of the energetic and exergetic
analysis of the process (heat and work, COP of various system, irreversibility and second law or rational
efficiency of system and individual components) are calculated and presented in Table 5. As a subsystem of
trigeneration, COP of VCACRS is found to be 0.69 which is low compare to conventional compression
refrigeration system because it utilizes the waste heat that has be rejected in desorber by ORC. The compressor
work for the system is less due to low intermediate temperature maintained in cascade condenser. The effect of
pump work on the total energy inputs is found to be significant. The efficiency of the ORC is found to be
5.91%. The lower efficiency was found because lower expansion ratio. Moreover expansion process ends in the
superheated region so there is less amount of energy is converted into the mechanical power.

191
 Table 5 Results of energetic and exergetic performance parameters Results

First law analysis Second law analysis

Unit Component Heat transfer Work First law efficiency Irreversibility 𝑟𝑘 𝜂𝑅
Q [kW] W [kW] COP or Ƞ 𝐼 ̇[kW] [%] [%]
Evaporator 170.00 - 6.67 9.69 55.92
Compressor 9.53 2.94 4.27 69.19
Expansion valve 2 - - 0.25 0.37 0.00
Cascade Condenser 179.50 - 3.55 5.15 70.97
Desorber 238.10 - 5.61 8.15 85.93
Cascade system Absorber 227.60 - 0.69 9.43 13.69 26.38
Condenser 190.00 - 3.76 5.46 42.85
Solution heat exchanger 53.42 - 2.19 3.17 64.98
Expansion valve 1 - - 0.48 0.69 0.00
Pressure reducing valve - - 0.00 0.00 0.00
Pump 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.58
ORC evaporator 430.70 - 9.90 14.37 91.51

ORC Expander - 26.54 8.76 12.73 75.18

5.91 %
Heater - 167.20 14.42 20.94 53.52
Pump 1.09 0.91 1.32 17.11

Trigeneration - - - 78.53 % 68.86 40.66

The proposed hybrid system is capable of providing about 170 kW cooling power, 167.20 kW heating power
and 14.3 kW electric power (supplied to compressor and pumps). Trigeneration efficiency of the system is
78.53% due to generation of heat along with cooling and power. The total irreversibility of the system is found
to be 68.86 with maximum exergy destruction in heater (due to higher temperature difference between
refrigerant and external fluid streams). Relative exergy irreversibility ratio (r) of heater is maximum (21%)
which indicates the contribution of component to the total exergy destruction or irreversibility of the system.
The values obtained of relative irreversibility ratio for all the components are shown in Fig. 2. The rational
efficiency or the exergetic efficiency for the trigeneration system is found to be 40.66% which represents that
the 40.66% exergy (useful work) was recovered from the total exergy (available work potential) expended by
the system. ORC evaporator is having highest second law/ rational efficiency around 91% represents maximum
conversion of supplied exergy into mechanical work. Moreover, the second law efficiency found for all the
components of the trigeneration system is shown in Fig. 3. The second law or rational efficiency of expansion
valves and pressure reducing valves is zero as none of the work potential is recovered.

Evaporator SECOND LAW EFFICIENCY(%)

Compressor
10%
91.51

Heater 4%
85.93

21%
75.18
70.97
69.19
64.98
55.92
53.52
42.85

40.66

Desorber
EV2
26.38

Pump 8%
0%
17.11

1% Cascade
3.58

Condenser
0

5%
PRV
SHX

EV1, EV1, PRV

Desorber

ORC pump
Pump

System
Evaporator

Condenser
Boiler

Heater
Expander
Cascade condenser

Absorber
Compressor

0% EV1
1% Absorber
Expander
14%
13%

ORC Condenser
Evaporator Pump SHX 6%
14% 0% 3%

Fig.2 Component irreversibility ratio Fig.3 Second law efficiency of system and component

192
4.1. Influence of pinch point temperature difference of the ORC evaporator

The effect of pinch point temperature variation along with the desorber temperature range (75-100 °C) is
examined and first law and rational (second law efficiency and plotted as shown in Fig. 4. It can be observed
that the desorber temperature has obviously clear influence on rational efficiency and insignificant influence on
energy efficiency. The optimum temperature for the desorber can be predicted as 80°C due to drastic fall in
rational efficiency afterwards and insignificant improvement in energy efficiency. In addition, it can be observed
that the system rational efficiency increases with reduction in pinch point temperature difference at a given
desorber temperature. (i.e., due to higher exergy destruction due to increase in mass flow rate of external fluid).
The results of the pinch point variation with second law efficiency of the system as shown in Fig. 4 confirms the
results of [20, 27]. The energy efficiency is observed to be constant for this variation.

4.2. Influence of expander pressure ratio.

The pressure ratio over the expander varies from 3 to 5 contributes abundant change in the system
performance as shown in Fig. 5. The energetic and exergetic efficiencies considerably decrease 7% and 3%
respectively, as increase in pressure ratio at 80°C desorber temperature. Increase in pressure ratio increases the
power output and decrease in ORC fluid. At a given pressure ration, the 10°C variation in desorber temperature
has insignificant influence around 1% on the energetic and rational efficiency.

84 41
40.6 trig en eratio n Rational efficiency
83 79 TD = 80°C 40.5
TD = 85°C
82 40.25
System's Rational efficiency (%)

78 TD = 90°C 40

System's Rational efficiency(%)

81
39.5
trigeneration
trigeneration

39.9 77
80 PP = 3 to 6(°C)
39
79 PP 76
39.55
3(°C)
38.5
78 75
4(°C)
77 39.2 38
5(°C)
74
76 6(°C) 37.5
38.85 73
75 trigeneration 37
Rational efficiency
74 38.5 72
36.5
75 80 85 90 95 100 3.2 3.6 4 4.4 4.8
Desorber T emperature (T D)(°C) Expander Pressure Ratio

Fig.4 Influence of pinch point temperature difference on Fig. 5 Influence of pressure ratio on first and second
first and second law efficiency law efficiency

5. Conclusion

The present study investigates the feasibility of ORC as energy source for VCACRS. It appears that the ORC
fulfils the energy demand of VCACRS with surplus generation of excess amount of waste heat after the
expansion process. The energetic and exergetic/rational efficiency of the system is found to be 78.29% and
40.66%, respectively with minimum pinch point temperature difference 3°C in ORC evaporator. Increase in
pinch point temperature difference from 3-6°C leads to significant drop in rational efficiency. The maximum
second law efficiency is 91% for the ORC evaporator. The maximum exergy destruction was found in heater
(around 21%) and ORC evaporator (15%) due to significant temperature difference across the streams. There is
significant fall observed in energetic and exergetic efficiencies with increase in expander pressure ratio. The
best performance of the trigeneration is obtained at 80°C desorber temperature, PR=3 and 3°C pinch point
temperature difference.
To improve system efficiency, the coefficient structural bond (CSB) analysis was also carried out which
gives the impact of increase in individual components irreversibility on irreversibility of trigeneration system.
Coefficient of Structural Bond (CSB) analysis shows cascade condenser and evaporator is relatively more
sensitive to change in its temperature as compared to the other components.

193
Appendix A

Table A.1 Thermodynamic equations for ORC integrated VCACRS.

Component First law equations Second law equations

Evaporator 𝑄̇𝑒 = 𝑚̇3 (ℎ3 − ℎ2 ) 𝑇22

̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑒 = 𝑚̇3 (𝑠3 − 𝑠2 ) + (𝑚̇21 𝑐𝑝 )𝑒 ln
𝑇21
= (𝑚̇21 𝑐𝑝 )𝑒 (𝑇21 − 𝑇22 )

Compressor 𝑊̇𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 = 𝑚̇3(ℎ4 − ℎ3 ) ̇

Expansion Valve 2
Cascade Condenser
Desorber
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 = 𝑚̇3 (𝑠4 − 𝑠3 )
𝑊̇𝑠,𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝
𝑊̇𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 =
𝜂𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝
ℎ1 = ℎ2 ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑒𝑣2 = 𝑚̇1 (𝑠2 − 𝑠1 )
𝑄̇𝑐𝑐 = 𝑚̇5 (ℎ5 − ℎ14 ) ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑐𝑐 = 𝑚̇4 (𝑠1 − 𝑠4 ) + 𝑚̇5 (𝑠5 − 𝑠14 )
= 𝑚̇4(ℎ4 − ℎ1 )
𝑇5 = 𝑇1 − 𝑇𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑝
̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝐷 = 𝑚̇9 𝑠9 + 𝑚̇ 12 𝑠12 − 𝑚̇8 𝑠8
𝑚̇8 = 𝑚̇9 + 𝑚̇12
𝑄̇𝐷 = 𝑚̇12 ℎ12 + 𝑚̇9 ℎ9 − 𝑚̇8 ℎ8 + 𝑚̇15 (𝑠16 − 𝑠15𝑎 )

Absorber 𝑚̇6 = 𝑚̇5 + 𝑚̇11 ̇

𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑎 = 𝑚̇6 𝑠6 − 𝑚̇ 5 𝑠5 − 𝑚̇11 𝑠11
𝑥9 𝑚̇11 = 𝑥6𝑚̇6 𝑇24
+ (𝑚̇23 𝑐𝑝 )𝑎 ln
𝑄̇𝑎 = 𝑚̇5 ℎ5 + 𝑚̇11 ℎ11 − 𝑚̇6 ℎ6 𝑇23

= (𝑚̇23 𝑐𝑝 )𝑎 (𝑇24 − 𝑇23 )

Condenser 𝑄̇𝑐 = (𝜖𝐶̇ )𝑐 (𝑇13 − 𝑇25 ) 𝑇26

̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑐 = 𝑚̇13 (𝑠13 − 𝑠12 ) + (𝑚̇25𝑐𝑝 )𝑐 ln
𝑇25
= 𝑚̇13 (ℎ12 − ℎ13 )
= (𝑚̇25𝑐𝑝 )𝑐 (𝑇26 − 𝑇25 )

Solution heat exchanger 𝑚̇9 ℎ9 − 𝑚̇10 ℎ10 = 𝑚̇ 8ℎ8 − 𝑚̇7ℎ7 𝑇8 𝑇10

̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑆ℎ𝑥 = (𝑚̇6 𝑐𝑝 )7−8 ln + (𝑚̇9 𝑐𝑝 )9−10 ln
𝑇9 − 𝑇10 𝑇7 𝑇9
𝜀𝑠ℎ𝑥 =
𝑇9 − 𝑇7
Expansion valve 1 ℎ13 = ℎ14 ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑒𝑣1 = 𝑚̇13 (𝑠14 − 𝑠13 )
Pressure reducing valve ℎ10 = ℎ11 ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑝𝑟𝑣 = 𝑚̇9 (𝑠11 − 𝑠10 )
Pump (𝑃12 − 𝑃5 )𝑚̇6 ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑃 = 𝑚̇6(𝑠7 − 𝑠6 )
𝑊̇𝑃 =
𝜌𝜂𝑃
𝑚̇7 ℎ7 = 𝑚̇6 ℎ6 + 𝑊̇𝑃
ORC evaporator 𝑇20
𝑄̇𝑒,𝑜𝑟𝑐 = 𝑚̇18 (ℎ18 − ℎ17 ) ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,e.orc = 𝑚̇18 (𝑠18 − 𝑠17 ) + (𝑚̇20𝑐𝑝 )𝑒,𝑜𝑟𝑐 ln
𝑇19
= (𝑚̇20 𝑐𝑝 )𝑒,𝑜𝑟𝑐 (𝑇19 − 𝑇20 )

Expander 𝑊̇𝑒𝑥𝑝 = 𝑚̇18 (ℎ18 − ℎ15 ) ̇

𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑒𝑥𝑝 = 𝑚̇18 (𝑠18 − 𝑠15 )
𝑊̇𝑒𝑥𝑝
𝜂𝑠,𝑒𝑥𝑝 =
𝑊̇𝑠,𝑒𝑥𝑝
𝑊̇𝑒𝑥𝑝 = 𝑊̇𝑠,𝑒𝑥𝑝 . 𝜂𝑠,𝑒𝑥𝑝
ORC Pump 𝑊̇𝑠,𝑃,𝑜𝑟𝑐 = 𝑊̇𝑃,𝑜𝑟𝑐 . 𝜂𝑠,𝑃,𝑜𝑟𝑐 ̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,𝑃,𝑜𝑟𝑐 = 𝑚̇16 (𝑠17 − 𝑠16 )
= 𝑣16 (𝑃17 − 𝑃16 )
𝑚̇16
= (𝑃17 − 𝑃16 )
𝜌
𝑚̇24 (𝑃17 − 𝑃16 )
𝑊̇𝑃,𝑜𝑟𝑐 =
𝜌 𝜂𝑠,𝑃.𝑜𝑟𝑐
𝑚̇17 ℎ17 = 𝑚̇16 ℎ16 + 𝑊̇𝑃,𝑜𝑟𝑐
Heater 𝑄̇ℎ = 𝑚̇15 (ℎ15 − ℎ15𝑎 ) 𝑇28
̇
𝑆𝑔𝑒𝑛,ℎ = 𝑚̇15𝑎 (𝑠15𝑎 − 𝑠15 ) + (𝑚̇27 𝑐𝑝 )ℎ ln
𝑇27
= (𝑚̇27 𝑐𝑝 )ℎ (𝑇28 − 𝑇27 )

The states points in table 1 are defined relative to Fig. 1

194
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Energy Reviews. 5 (2001) 343–372.
[2] V.Jain, S.S.Kachhwaha, G. Sachdeva, Exergy analysis of a vapor compression-absorption cascaded refrigeration system using
modified Gouy-Stodola equation. Int. J. Exergy, (2014) 1-23.
[3] C. Cimsit, and I.T. Ozturk, Analysis of compression-absorption cascade refrigeration cycles, Applied Thermal Energy, (2012), 311–
317.
[4] L. Wang, A. Ma, Y. Tan, X. Cui, and H. Cui, Study on solar assisted cascade refrigeration system”, Energy Procedia, (2012), 1503–
1509.
[5] S. Garimella, A.M. Brown, and A.K. Nagavarapu, Waste heat driven absorption/ vapor-compression cascade refrigeration system for
megawatt scale, high-flux, low-temperature cooling, International Journal of Refrigeration, (2011), 1776–1785.
[6] L. Kairouani, E. Nehdi, Cooling performance and energy saving of a compression–absorption refrigeration system assisted by
geothermal energy, Applied Thermal Energy, (2006), 288-294.
[7] B. Peris, J. Navarro-Esbri, F. Moles, J.P. Marti, A.Mota-Babilomi. Experimental characterization of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)
for micro-scale CHP applications, Appl. Therm. Eng. 79 (2015) 1-8.
[8] M. Dentice d'Accadia, M. Ssso, S. Sibilio, L. Vanoli, Micro-combined heat and power in residential and light commercial applications,
Appl. Therm. Eng. 23 (2003) 1247-1259.
[9] F.A. Al-Sulaiman, I. Dincer, and F. Hamdullahpur. Energy and exergy analyses of a biomass trigeneration system using an organic
Rankine cycle, Energy, (2012) 975-985.
[10] T. Kerr. Combined heating and power and emissions trading: options for policy makers. France: International Energy Agency; 2008.
[11] International Energy Agency. Combined heat and power: evaluating the benefits of greater global investment, France; 2008.
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[15] Y. Hwang., Potential energy benefits of integrated refrigeration system with microturbine and absorption chiller. International Journal
of Refrigeration, (2004), 816–829.
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Energy Resources Technology, Transactions of the ASME, (2006), 168-77.
[17] F.A. Al-Sulaiman, F. Hamdullahpur, and I. Dincer, Performance comparison of three trigeneration systems using organic Rankine
cycles. Energy. (2011) 5741-5754.
[18] M. Jradi, S. Riffat, Experimental investigation of a biomass-fueled micro-scale trigeneration system with an organic Rankine cycle and
liquid desiccant cooling unit, Energy. 71 (2014) 80-93.
[19] F.A. Al-Sulaiman, I. Dincer, F. Hamdullahpur, Exergy analysis of an integrated solid oxide fuel cell and organic rankine cycle for
cooling, heating and power production. J Power Sources. (2010) 2346–54.
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195
 ICAER-2015

Palladium Nanocubes Synthesized Via - Metal Chloride Route

for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Applications
*

P. Vijayakumar , K.Veerathangam , M. Senthil Pandiana, P. Ramasamya1*

a a

1*
SSN Research Centre, SSN College of Engineering, Kalavakkam-603 110, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

Palladium nanocubes (Pd NCs) were synthesized using metal chloride route. The morphology of the electrode is
observed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Energy dispersive spectra analysis
confirms the palladium material. The phase purity of the synthesized palladium nanocubes was investigated through X-Ray
Diffraction (XRD) analysis and the obtained pattern was compared with JCPDS data. The Photovoltaic performance of the
DSSC with palladium counter electrode is being investigated.

Keywords: Counter electrode; Catalytic activity; Corrosion;

1. Introduction

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention during the past years due to
their respectable power conversion efficiency, facile fabrication, and potential low cost. Noble metal nanocubes
(like silver, platinum, gold and palladium) exhibit unique physical, chemical, optical and thermo dynamical
properties at nano regime which lead them in too many applications such as catalysis, sensors and magnetic
recordings[1-2]. The manipulation of the morphology of catalysts at the nanometer scale is therefore an efficient
approach to enhance their activity and lower the necessary metal content. Pd having rough surfaces, dendritic
morphologies, or porous structures show superior catalytic performance compared to their compact
counterparts. Platinum (Pt) has been widely used in various applications, but limited resources of Pt and the
vulnerability of Pt towards poisoning has prompted a search for alternatives [3].

In this context, palladium (Pd) is promising because of its excellent catalytic activity and, chemical
stability. In these work palladium nanocubes were synthesized via simple metal chloride route. The structures
were characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) as well as EDS analysis
and X-ray diffraction analysis.

1.1 Experimental Procedure

Nano-scaled Palladium was synthesized as follows. Palladium chloride (2.67 g, PdCl 2 ) was added to
10 ml ethanol while stirring for 30 mins. The metal source PdCl 2 dissolved completely in ethanol.
Subsequently, the solution was dried at 130◦C. Finally, sintering the precursors at 800◦C for 4h under N 2
atmosphere, the Palladium nanocubes is achieved.

1.2 Preparation of Counter electrode (CE)

100 mg Pd powder was dispersed in 2.5 ml iso propanol. The mixture was milled for 8 hr. Then it was
ultrasonically dispersed for 30 min. The Pd paste was prepared and coated on FTO substrate using Doctor Blade
method. The Pd coated films were dried at room temperature and the product was heated at 450°C for 1 h.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91)-044-27469700; fax: +91-44-27475166.

E-mail address: ramasamyp@ssn.edu.in

196
2. Results and discussions

2.1 X - Ray diffraction (XRD)

The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the as-prepared sample are shown in Fig. 1. These
patterns correspond to Pd of a cubic phase, diffraction peaks were observed at 40.2◦, 46.4◦, 68.2◦ with lattice
parameters of a= 3.879Å (S.G: Fm3-m (225)) (JCPDS card no. 87-0638). The broad feature of Pd diffraction
peaks is an indication of the small crystallite size of Pd. The average crystallite size estimated by Scherrer’s
equation is about 3 nm, deduced from the half widths of the reflection peak (111).

Pd

111
Intensity(a.u)

200

220
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
2θ degree

FIG.1 Powder X-ray diffraction pattern of Palladium nanocubes (Pd NCs)

2.2 Morphology Analysis

The low-magnification image in Fig. 2 shows the Pd nanocubes and no other by-products are found.
This is matched with XRD crystal structure result. These nanocubes have a smooth surface and have lengths of
several micrometres. The energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis of Pd is shown in Fig.3.The emission peaks
corresponding to the elements Pd were observed at 2.7, 3.0 and 3.6 (Pd). From the EDX spectra, it is clear that
the prepared samples are free from impurities. Table 1. Shows Pd element in weight% and atomic %.

FIG.2. FESEM images of Pd nanocubes (Pd NCs)

197
 Table 1. EDS deduction results

Element Weight% Atomic%

Pd L 100.00 100.00

Total 100.00

FIG .3 EDS Spectrum of synthesized Palladium nanocubes (Pd NCs)

2.3 Transmission electron microscope (TEM)

Size and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns of the palladium nanocubes synthesized
using metal chloride route were investigated using HRTEM. The HRTEM images of palladium nanocubes that
are shown in the Figures.4 indicate the formation of distributed cubic structure with ~40 nm , the inset is the
SAED pattern. SAED confirms that the Pd NCs is good crystalline material. These loosely inter-connected
grains result in many internal pores.The pores in the interior lead to the bright spots in the SAED of the
Nanocubes, each cube is composed of many single crystalline grains. The Photovoltaic performance of the
DSSC with palladium counter electrode is being investigated.

FIG 4. TEM image of Palladium nanocube. The inset is the SAED pattern

3. Conclusions

Palladium nanocubes were successfully synthesized using metal chloride route. The synthesized
palladium nanocubes were characterized using XRD and confirmed the cubic phase. HRTEM investigation
results show that the average size of synthesized palladium nanocubes is around 40 nm. EDS measurement
confirms the impurity free Pd NCs. The Photovoltaic performance of the DSSC with palladium counter
electrode is being investigated.

198
Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Mr.Vijayaragavan, Department of Institute of Advance Studies, PSG
Coimbatore for HRTEM measurement. We also thank Mr.Ranganathan Research Associate, Department of
Physics, IIT Chennai for XRD measurement. We would like to thank Ms. Ranjitha, CIT Coimbatore for fruitful
discussions. The authors thank the DST SERI for financial support in the Grant No. DST/TM/SERI/2k12/40/(G)
& 04.06.2014.

References

[1]. K. Watanabe, D. Menzel, N. Nilius and H. J. Freund, Chemical reviews, 106 (2006) 4301-4320
[2]. S. Cheong, J. D. Watt and R. D. Tilley, Nanoscale 2 (2010) 2045-2053
[3] . J. Xia, N. Masaki, K. Jiang, S. Yanagida, J. Mater. Chem. 17 (2007) 2845-2850

199
 ICAER-2015

Work recovery scroll expander modeling for trans-critical CO2

refrigeration system at high ambient temperature
Simarpreet Singh1*, M.S. Dasgupta
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan-333031 (India).

Abstract

This paper presents an attempt to model a scroll type work recovery expander as applied to a trans-critical CO2 refrigeration system at high
ambient temperature. A semi-empirical model, proposed first by V. Lemort for R-123, is taken as basis for modeling. The modified scroll work
recovery expander model is developed in MATLAB and REFPROP is used as source for property data. The performance is validated with
published experimental data for CO2 trans-critical refrigeration system upto 309 K suction temperature. Mismatch between model based
prediction and experimental data is discussed. The model is used to predict conditions for maximum work recovery at 321 K suction temperature.
The approach of prediction based on semi-empirical model appears to be an appropriate tool for investigating the performance at high ambient
conditions. The applicability and economic viability of such a device is also verified.
Keywords: Scroll expander; CO2; trans-critical system; work recovery expander.

1. Introduction

CO2 as a refrigerant is receiving renewed attention because it is natural, non-flammable and non-toxic [1]. Theoretical and
experimental studies reveal that the coefficient of performance (COP) of trans-critical CO2 refrigeration system is lower than
popular synthetic refrigerants more so for operation in high ambient conditions like in India [2]. Large throttling loss is one of the
main reasons. Many researchers are investigating and exploring ways to improve system efficiency. A typical trans-critical CO2
refrigeration cycle is shown in p-h chart in Fig 1, with processes 1-2-3-4. It is revealed from literature that the throttling loss can
be reduced by replacing the throttle valve (process 3-4) with a work recovery device (process 3-4s) called an expander.
Various types of work recovery expanders have been proposed in the last two decades for example piston expander, rolling
piston expander, vane expander, turbo expander, scroll expander and screw expander. Scroll type work recovery expander is one
of the high performing expanders as reported [3]. Working of scroll expander is based on the two nested spirals often called
scrolls, which rotates relatively as CO2 expands inside the device and produces work. A sectional view of scroll work recovery
expander is shown in Fig 2.

Fig. 1. Trans-critical CO2 refrigeration system (p-h chart) Fig. 2. Scroll expander.

Scroll expander was first used for trans-critical CO2 refrigeration system in 2004, 72% overall efficiency was reported and also
it was concluded that the efficiency can further be improved by incorporating suction line heat exchanger [4]. In order to examine
the feasibility of scroll expander for trans-critical CO2 refrigeration system, the performance has been investigated theoretically
as well as experimentally for sub-critical and super-critical regions. It was concluded that during expansion of the super-critical
fluid inside the scroll expander, phase change may occur and this can greatly influence the performance [5]. In a later development
[6], an experimental and theoretical study of scroll work recovery expander was carried out with R-123 and the same was explored

*
Corresponding author. Tel.:+918094041444.
E-mail address: simarpreet.singh@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

200
Nomenclature

AU Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K) expan Expansion

CO2 Carbon Dioxide el Electrical
𝑚̇ Refrigerant Mass Flow Rate (Kg/h) h Enthalpy
rv Volumetric Ratio in Inlet
T Temperature (K) leak Leakage
W Work Recovery (W) l Conductivity
Ɛ Isentropic Efficiency p Pressure
Subscripts sh Shaft
amb Ambient su Suction
Cp Specific heat thru Throat
ex Exhaust w Wall

for organic Rankine cycle, using eight identified parameters of the scroll expander by V. Lemort. The semi-
empirical model developed was able to predict the mass flow rate, shaft power and discharge temperature with
reasonable accuracy. The model was then used to study how the design of the scroll expander could be altered to
achieve better efficiency. It was also mentioned that this model could be used with different working fluids to
determine the effect of the working fluid on semi-empirical parameters [7]. Later the semi empirical model
proposed by V. Lemort, was adopted by many researchers to be used with other fluids for example ammonia and
air [7], R-123 [8], R-245fa [9], etc. but for CO2 trans-critical.
In this paper, the V. Lemort’s semi-empirical model for scroll work recovery expander is taken up and modified
to check the compatibility and applicability to trans-critical CO2 refrigeration cycle at high ambient conditions
(typical Indian conditions) for CO2 system. The semi-empirical model is modified by introducing re-calculated
values for 𝐴𝑈𝑠𝑢,𝑛 , 𝐴𝑈𝑒𝑥,𝑛 , 𝐴𝑈 for CO2 at high ambient temperature. The model is validated using experimental data
generated for CO2, by Kohsokabe et al. [10] but for lower ambient temperature range of operation. The validated
model is then used to predict work recovery for a higher ambient temperature.

2. Scroll work recovery expander modelling

There are three major modeling approaches as applied to thermal machines, these are empirical, semi-empirical
and deterministic modelling. Semi-empirical modelling involves assumptions, approximations and generalizations
of design to simplify calculations or to yield a result in accordance with observation, commonly used by designers
to represent the performance of a machine and to evaluate its characteristics. The conceptual scheme of V. Lemort’s
model is shown in Fig 3.

2.1. Model description

Flow through the work recovery expander constitutes of:
 Adiabatic supply pressure drop (su-su1).
 Isobaric supply cooling (su1-su2).
 Adiabatic and reversible expansion to the “adapted” pressure (su2-ad).
 Adiabatic expansion at a constant machine volume (ad-ex2).
 Adiabatic mixing between supply and leakage flow (ex2-ex1).
 Isobaric exhaust cooling-down or heating up (ex1-ex).

Fig. 3. Conceptual scheme of scroll work recovery expander.

201
The problem at hand is to modify and employ V. Lemort model for CO2 trans-critical system, the stages are
elaborated as follows.
 Adiabatic supply pressure drop (su-su1): Pressure losses between the expander suction port and the suction
chamber is accounted with this process and resolved as an isentropic flow through nozzle.
𝐴𝑠𝑢
𝑚̇ = √2(ℎ𝑠𝑢 − ℎ𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑢,𝑠𝑢 ) (1)
𝑣𝑡ℎ𝑟,𝑠𝑢

 Isobaric supply cooling (su1-su2): This process covers the heat transfer between fluid entering the suction
chamber and the outer envelope of expander.
−𝐴𝑈𝑠𝑢
̇ − ℎ ) = [1 − 𝑒
𝑄̇𝑠𝑢 = 𝑚̇(ℎ𝑠𝑢1 ̇
𝑚 𝑐𝑝 ] 𝑚̇ × 𝐶𝑝 (𝑇𝑠𝑢1 − 𝑇𝑤 ) (2)
𝑠𝑢2

 Adiabatic and reversible expansion upto throat of the expander called “adapted” (su2-ad): This stage is related
to the built-in volume ratio of the expander.
𝑣𝑖𝑛 = 𝑟𝑣 × 𝑣𝑠𝑢2 (3)
 Adiabatic expansion at a constant volume inside machine (ad-ex2): The under and over expansion occurs at this
stage when the adapted pressure is higher or lower respectively, compares to the system pressure at the expander
outlet.
 Isobaric exhaust cooling-down or heating up (ex1-ex): This process covers the heat transfer between fluid leaving
the discharge chamber and the outer envelope of expander.
−𝐴𝑈𝑒𝑥
𝑄̇𝑠𝑢 = 𝑚̇(ℎ̇ 𝑒𝑥 − ℎ𝑒𝑥1 ) = [1 − 𝑒 ̇
𝑚 𝑐𝑝 ] 𝑚̇ × 𝐶𝑝 (𝑇𝑤 − 𝑇𝑒𝑥 ) (4)
2.2. Performance evaluation
 Displaced mass flow rate: The total mass displaced in the expander is associated with mass in the scroll and mass
leakage from the scroll due to the gap between top and bottom flank.
𝑁 𝑉𝑠
𝑚̇ = 𝑚̇𝑖𝑛 + 𝑚̇𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑘 = + 𝑚̇𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑘 (5)
𝑣𝑠𝑢2 𝑟𝑣,𝑖𝑛

 Heat transfer coefficient: The heat transfer coefficient re-calculated for CO2 refrigerant for high ambient
conditions is given by.
0.8 𝜇 0.4 0.4 0.6
𝜌𝐶𝑂2 𝐶𝑝𝐶𝑂2 𝑘𝐶𝑂2
𝐴𝑈𝐶𝑂2 = 𝐴𝑈𝑅−123 ( ) ( 𝑅−123) ( ) ( ) (6)
𝜌𝑅−123 𝜇𝐶𝑂2 𝐶𝑝𝑅−123 𝑘𝑅−123

 Internal power: The internal power is produced in the expander by combination of the suction power, expansion
power and discharge power.
𝑊𝑖𝑛̇ = 𝑚𝑖𝑛
̇ [(ℎ𝑠𝑢2 − ℎ𝑖𝑛 ) + 𝑣𝑖𝑛 (𝑝𝑖𝑛 − 𝑝𝑒𝑥2 )] (7)
 Shaft power: The power transferred by the shaft connected with the main unit of scroll expander as an output is
considered as a shaft power.
𝑊̇𝑠ℎ = 𝑊̇𝑖𝑛 − 2 × 𝜋 × 𝑁𝑟𝑜𝑡 × 𝜏𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 (8)
 Overall isentropic efficiency: The ratio of actual power produced to the ideal power produced for the same
pressure ratio.
𝑊̇𝑒𝑙
𝜀𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠 = (9)
𝑚̇(ℎ𝑠𝑢 −ℎ𝑒𝑥 )

3. Model calibration and validation

The semi-empirical model is developed in MATLAB environment and the properties of the working fluids are
obtained by connecting the same to REFPROP version 9.0. The input variables for the work recovery expander
simulation model are the supply pressure, supply temperature and exhaust pressure. The model necessitates eight
parameters 𝐴𝑈𝑎𝑚𝑏 , 𝐴𝑈𝑠𝑢 , 𝐴𝑈𝑒𝑥 , 𝑚𝑛 , 𝐴𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑘, 𝑉𝑠 , 𝐴𝑠𝑢 & 𝑇𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 to be tuned in order to get the maximum COP. The
output of simulation model are shaft power, isentropic efficiency, temperature at exit and electrical work generated
by the scroll work recovery expander.
We first aims to compare the experimental and theoretical study for model validation using experimental data
for CO2 by Kohsokabe et al. [10] whose input parameters are shown in Table 1.

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 Table 1. Performance measuring parameters.
Parameter Value
Suction pressure (kPa) 9200,8200
Discharge pressure (kPa) 4770,4210,3960
Suction temperature (K) 309
Speed (rpm) 2800

3.1. Effect of pressure ratio

Fig. 4 (a) shows the variation of operating pressure ratio, tested at 9200 kPa suction pressure and 315 K suction
temperature. Efficiency of work recovery expander as calculated by using equation (9) is graphically presented
with pressure ratio. The trend observed has very good agreement with experimental studies and optimized pressure
ratio is calculated to be 3.2 by both the methods.
Fig. 4 (b) shows the variation of operating pressure ratio, tested at 8200 kPa suction pressure and 309 K suction
temperature by both experimental study and model based prediction. The trend can be seen having similarity and
optimized pressure ratio observed in both studies is about 3.

Fig. 4. (a & b) Effect of pressure ratio; (c) Effect of speed.

3.2. Effect of speed

Fig. 4 (c) shows effect of speed (rpm) on CO2 mass flow rate in scroll work recovery expander during both
experimental and simulation based study. The trend can be seen as similar between 2200-3200 rpm. The small
difference in magnitude is ascribed to the substantial amount of leakage mass flow rate encountered in experimental
study although an arbitrary leakage factor has been considered in our theoretical study.

4. Results and discussion

In typical Indian condition, where ambient temperature is higher, it is necessary to operate the compressor with
higher pressure ratio to obtain high temperature and pressure at the compressor exit beyond the ambient
temperature. So that heat rejection can take place. This implies enhanced power requirement for running the
compressor and reduces the overall COP of the system. However, this situation also provides a better opportunity
for work recover from the high pressure gas at the gas cooler exit. A work recovery expander essentially exploits
this opportunity and there by improve the COP of the cycle.

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4.1. Simulated study
The modified scroll work recovery expander is tested for various input parameters as given in Table 2 to predict
the conditions for maximum work recovery for proposed high ambient temperature operation.

Table 2. Performance measuring parameters.

Parameter Value/Range
Suction pressure (kPa) 9000-10000
Discharge pressure (kPa) 4400-5000
Suction temperature (K) 321
Speed (rpm) 2800

Efficiency of scroll work recovery expander is tested at 25 combinations of parameters and shown in Fig 5 (a).
Note that it is possible to arrive at same pressure ratio for more than one combination of parameters. So we observe
scattering of points in the plot, as shown in Fig 5 (a). The efficiency decreases sharply for low pressure ratios and
the same is ascribed to over-expansion losses while efficiency decreases again for high pressure ratios and is due
to under-expansion losses. Maximum efficiency of 0.81 is observed at 321 K ambient temperature. It is concluded
that pressure ratio has major influence on efficiency, in other words, we will need to have control over pressure
ratio in order to obtain maximum efficiency.

Fig. 5 (a). Effect of pressure ratio; (b) Work recovered.

Maximum work recovery for the 25 combinations is graphically presented in Fig 5 (b). It is observed that by
increasing the pressure lift, the work recovery from the expander can be increased in a monotonous way. However,
as previously observed, the efficiency decreases beyond a certain pressure ratio, due to increase in various losses
like leakage, heat transfer, friction etc. which are factors incorporated within the model. Error and trend in error is
determined from difference between experimental and theoretical results at the data points of experimental study.
A multivariate trend line is generated for a best fit curve and upto 6% error is observed between predicted and
experimental data at 309 K. Extrapolating the same curve, about ±10% error is expected from the model based
prediction at 321 K.

4.2. Economic justification

Scroll expander of high rating are not available off the shelf, hence most researchers have bypassed the problem
by procuring a scroll compressor instead and re-working it to convert the same to a scroll expander. Scroll
compressor of Copeland make model no: ZR380KCE [11] can be chosen and converted into an expander for

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operation matching our theoretical study. The estimated cost of the device is Rs. 1,35,025/-, added up 40% for re-
working to convert to expander and 10% overhead cost totaling Rs. 2,07,939/-. The same device if run for 16 hours
a day, the approximate saving in terms of electricity against work generated is Rs 576/- per day assume electricity
unit cost Rs. 6/-. This will justify the deployment of such a device as the payback period is about 1 year only.

5. Conclusions

From the above study following conclusions have been drawn:

 Semi-empirical model of a scroll work recovery expander is identified and suitably modified to check its
applicability for trans-critical CO2 cycle.
 Modified model is compared with experimental data for CO 2 at 309 K suction temperature.
 Comparison shows that the model is able to predict behavior of CO 2 in a scroll work recovery expander with
about ±6% error.
 The Model is then extended and operated at 321 K suction temperature at the same rpm. The model modified for
CO2 is used to predict the maximum work recovery from scroll work recovery expander at high ambient
temperature with about ±10% error.
 It is also verified that such a device will be economically justified as payback period is about 1 year.

6. Future scope

Application of natural refrigerant, in particular CO2 in trans-critical cycle is expected to increase in nearer future.
Work recovery expander will almost certainly be an option for incorporation in such cycle, to enhance its COP for
high ambient temperature application. This study can be helpful in selection, design and optimization of such work
recovery expanders.

Acknowledgement

Author will like to acknowledge partial financial support received from the host organization, BITS Pilani, India
& Government of India under research grant No: DST/TSG/NTS/2012/19-G.

References

[1]. Lorentzen, G. (1994) The use of natural refrigerants: a complete solution to the CFC/HCFC Predicament, International Journal of
Refrigeration, 18(3), pp. 190-97.
[2]. Gupta, D.K. and Dasgupta, M.S. (2014) Simulation and performance optimization of finned tube gas cooler for trans-critical CO2
refrigeration system in Indian Context, International Journal of Refrigeration, pp. 153-167.
[3]. Yanagisawa, T., Shimizu, T., Fukuta, M. and Handy, T. (2004) Study on fundamental performance of scroll expander, Trans. Of JSME.
[4]. Westphalen, D. and Dieckmann, J. (2004) Scroll expander for carbon dioxide air conditioning cycles, International Compressor
Engineering Conference, 690.
[5]. Fukuta, M., Yanagisawa, T., Kosuda, O. and Ogi, Y. (2006) Performance of scroll expander for CO2 refrigeration cycle, International
Compressor Engineering Conference, 1768.
[6]. Lemort, V., Quoilin, S., Cuevas, C. and Lebrun, J. (2009) Testing and modelling a scroll expander integrated into an organic Rankine cycle,
Applied Thermal Engineering, 29, pp. 3094-3102.
[7]. Mendoza, L.C., Navarro-Esbri, J., Bruno, J.C., Lemort, V. and Coronas, A. (2014) Characterization and modelling of a scroll expander
with air and ammonia as working fluid, Applied Thermal Engineering, 70, pp. 630-640.
[8]. Giuffrida, A. (2014) Modelling the performance of a scroll expander for small organic Rankine cycles when changing the working fluid,
Applied Thermal Engineering, 70, pp. 1040-1049.
[9]. Lemort, V., Declaye, S. and Quoilin, S. (2011) Experiment characterization of a hermetic scroll expander for use in a micro-scale Rankine
cycle, Journal of Power and Energy, 226, pp. 126-136.
[10]. Kohsokabe, H., Koyama, M., Tojo, K., Matsunaga, M. and Nakayama, S. (2008) Performance characteristics of scroll expander for CO2
refrigeration cycles, International Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Conference, 1239.
[11]. Available at http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/copeland-refrigeration-compressor-copeland-scroll-compressor-copeland-
compressor-for-cold-room-ZR380KCE-TWD/815796_32350158017.html, accessed on 14th October 2015.

205
 ICAER-2015

A Maximum Power Point Tracking Technique Based on Ripple

Correlation Control for Single Phase Photovoltaic System with
Fuzzy Logic Controller
Ch. L. S. Srinivasa, Sreeraj E. Sb 1
a,b
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
National Institute of Technology Goa, Ponda and 403401, India

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique by integrating ripple correlation control
(RCC) with fuzzy logic controller (FLC) for single-phase, single-stage grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. RCC is
suitable for implementing MPPT in single-phase PV systems and it possess advantages of less complexity, low cost of
implementation and high rate of convergence. The proposed MPPT technique based on RCC integrated with FLC is working
satisfactorily under varying insolation conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed technique has been verified by
performing numerical simulation studies.
Keywords: Power Point Tracking; Photovoltaic; Ripple correlation control; Fuzzy logic Controller.

1. Introduction

The relevance of renewable energy resources (like solar, wind etc.) as sources of electric power has been
increased over the years because of the increasing demand of electricity, limited availability of conventional
energy resources, and as a potential alternate to tackle global warming [1]. Among renewable energy sources,
solar photovoltaic (PV) system is considered one of the most promising technologies, as electrical energy is
available directly and is suitable for distributed generation. It is eco friendly and requires less maintenance and
operating cost [2]. In the distributed generation applications, PV system operates in two modes, namely,
standalone mode and grid connected mode. In grid connected mode, the operation strategy of PV system is to
extract maximum available power from the PV array and feed it to the grid.
A typical Grid connected PV system has more than one stage of power conversion. The first stage consist dc-
dc converter to boost the voltage level such that it can extract maximum power form the PV array and the
second stage consists a dc-ac converter which supplies the extracted power from the PV array to ac grid. The
cost and complexity of PV system can be reduced by adopting single stage topologies. Single-stage PV system
is more reliable as compared to multistage PV system owing to its reduced component count and complexity of
the system [2-4]. The dc-ac inverter present in the single-stage PV system perform the functions of extracting
maximum power from PV array and supplies that power to grid.
Since the v-i characteristics of the PV cell are nonlinear which is dependent on the solar insolation and
temperature [5], there is a need for efficient maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques. Various MPPT
techniques such as Hill climbing, Perturb and Observe, Incremental conductance are reported in the literature [5-
8]. Even though these methods are more popular and can track maximum power point (MPP), each method has
their own drawbacks. The drawbacks of Perturb and Observe and Hill climbing methods are deviation in the
operating point from MPP due to sudden change in the atmospheric conditions like sudden variations in the solar
insolation. Also, the correct perturbation size is important for satisfactory performance in dynamic as well as
steady state operation [5-9]. The choice of the proper perturbation size affects the performance of Incremental
conductance based MPPT technique also [5, 6]. Efforts have been made to solve this problem by providing
variable perturbation step size, but it requires costly and complex control circuits [7].
Another method called ripple correlation control (RCC) yields fast and parameter insensitive MPPT of PV
system [9, 10]. MPPT based on RCC is suitable for single-phase, single-stage PV system. In single phase PV
system, PV array voltage is subjected to the 100 Hz ripple (double the grid frequency) because of the oscillating
nature of the power fed to the grid [9-11]. This ripple is used to track the maximum power point (MPP). Since
the ripple is naturally available by switching of the inverter in single-phase PV system no artificial perturbation
is needed, which is drawback in the aforementioned Perturb and Observe, Hill climbing and Incremental

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-8975320849.

E-mail address: sreeraj@nitgoa.ac.in

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conductance MPPT methods.
In this paper a novel RCC based MPPT algorithm along with a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) has been
proposed. FLC has been used to improve the dynamic performance of the system specially under varying
insolation condition as FLC does not require accurate mathematical description of plant [12, 13]. Fig. 1 shows
the typical single phase single stage PV system with FLC. The output of PV array is connected to the dc link
capacitor C, which is acting as input to the voltage source inverter (VSI). The output of the VSI is fed to the grid
and is controlled by MPPT & FLC and PWM blocks. MPPT block generates the reference dc link voltage V ref ,
by taking the PV array voltage and PV array current as inputs. The output of the MPPT block is compared with
the dc link voltage and given as an input to the FLC. The output of the FLC is change in load angle δ, which is
given as an input to the PWM control block which generates the switching signals for the VSI. Extensive
numerical simulations are carried out to validate the proposed scheme. The proposed MPPT technique with FLC
improves the dynamic performance of the PV system especially under varying insolation conditions.

Fig. 1. Single phase single stage PV system

Following sections of this paper are organized as follows: the operating principle and implementation of
MPPT algorithm is discussed in Section 2. Design of the fuzzy logic controller is presented in Section 3.
Simulation results of a PV generation system are presented in Section 4 and concluding remarks are presented in
Section 5.

2. Operating Principle and Implementation of MPPT Algorithm

For a single-phase system, the value of instantaneous power p g (t) injected into the grid pulsates at twice the
grid frequency. This causes the dc-link capacitor voltage to oscillate at 100Hz. For the single-stage system given
in Fig. 1, the terminals of the PV array is directly connected across the dc link capacitor, and therefore the
output voltage of the PV array, v pv (t) also oscillates at 100 Hz. The PV array current, i pv (t) and the power fed by
the PV array, p pv (t) also contains ripple. The ripple content of a general time varying quantity, x(t) can be
expressed as:

~
x (t ) = x(t ) − x (t ) (1)

where, ~ x (t ) represents the ripple content, and x (t ) represents the moving average component. The general
quantity, x(t), can be PV array voltage, v pv (t); current, i pv (t); or power, p pv (t).
The power produced by PV arraycan be obtained by finding the product of PV array voltage and PV array
current as expressed in (2)

p pv (t ) = v pv (t )i pv (t ) (2)

By expressing v pv (t) and i pv (t) as in (1) and substituting them in (2), the PV array power can be written as

~ ~
p pv (t ) = v pv (t )i pv (t ) + i pv (t )v~pv (t ) + v pv (t ) ipv (t ) + v~pv (t ) ipv (t ) (3)

The power ripple can be find out by subtracting the average component of PV array power from (3), written as

207
 ~ ~ ~
p pv (t ) = i pv (t )v~pv (t ) + v pv (t ) ipv (t ) + v~pv (t ) ipv (t ) (4)

The product of ~
p pv (t ) and v~pv (t ) can be expressed as

 ~
ipv (t )  ~ 2 ~
~ ~ ~ 
p pv (t )v pv (t ) = v pv (t ) i pv (t ) + v pv (t ) ~
2  + v pv (t ) ipv (t ) (5)
 v (t ) 
 pv 

and also, the derivative of PV array power with respect to PV array voltage can be expressed as

dp pv (t ) di pv (t )
= i pv (t ) + v pv (t ) (6)
dv pv (t ) dv pv (t )

Linearization of v-i curve as shown in Fig. 2 at the point (v o ,i o ) gives

~
 di pv (t )  i (t )
  = pv (7)
 dv pv (t )  ~ (t )
v
 vo pv

Based on (6) and (7), ~

p pv (t )v~pv (t ) can be written as

~p (t )v~ (t ) = v~ 2 (t ) dp pv (t )  + v~ 2 (t )~i (t ) (8)

pv pv pv  dv pv (t )  pv pv
 

Fig. 2. PV array power and current versus PV array voltage

~
From (8), following things can be observed, over a cycle, as the average value of v~pv (t ) ipv (t ) is zero and
2

v~pv 2 (t ) is always positive, the magnitude of the average value of error signal ~p pv (t )v~pv (t ) , henceforth called as
dp pv
e(t), is directly proportional to magnitude of . Since, e(t) proportional the slope of the curve between PV
dv pv
array power and PV array voltage, it represents the distance of the operating point from MPP.
When the operating point is far left of MPP (Region 1 in Fig.3), the average value of e(t) is positive. When
the operating point is in the left vicinity of MPP (Region 2 in Fig. 3), the average value of e(t) is positive with

208
smaller magnitude and when the operating point is at MPP (Region 3 in Fig. 3), average of the e(t) is zero. In
Region 4, the operating point is right of MPP and e(t) is negative. As the average value of error signal indicates
the distance of the operating point from MPP, the operating point can be controlled by passing the average error
signal through a PI controller. The implementation of the proposed MPPT algorithm is shown in Fig. 4. The
ripples v~pv (t ) and ~
p pv (t ) can be obtained by subtracting the average values from the respective signals using

Fig. 3. Dc-link voltage, power ripple and product of power and voltage ripple for different operating regions

Fig. 4. Block diagram representation of proposed MPPT algorithm

LPFs. The product of PV array voltage ripple and PV array power ripple is used as input to a PI controller. The
output of the PI controller is considered as reference voltage signal, V ref (t) to control the dc-link voltage. The
reference voltage signal is compared with the dc link voltage

3. Design of Fuzzy Logic Controller

The control block diagram of fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is shown in Fig. 5. The difference between the V ref
and v pv is e v given as a input to the FLC and change in load angle, Δδ is output of the FLC.
The design of FLC consists of three stages namely, fuzzification, design of rule base and defuzzification.

209
Fuzzification is the process of converting a numerical variable to a linguistic variable. Seven fuzzy levels have
been used for high accuracy with Gaussian membership function as shown in Fig. 6. Fuzzy levels are
represented by NB (negative big), NM (negative medium), NS (negative small), Z (zero), PS (positive small),
PM (positive medium), PB (positive big) and these fuzzy levels have been used in both input and output
variables. The rule base of FLC is given in Table 1. Based on the rule base FLC produces output for

Fig. 5. Control block diagram of Fuzzy logic controller

Fig. 6. Membership function for (a) input e v ; (b) output Δδ.

Table 1. Rule base of a fuzzy logic controller.

Sl. No Rule Base

1 IF e v is NB THEN Δδ is PB
2 IF e v is NM THEN Δδ is PM
3 IF e v is NS THEN Δδ is PS
4 IF e v is Z THEN Δδ is Z
5 IF e v is PS THEN Δδ is NS
6 IF e v is PM THEN Δδ is NM
7 IF e v is PB THEN Δδ is NB

corresponding input. Mamdani fuzzy implication has been used for evaluation of individual rules.
Defuzzification is the process of converting linguistic variable to real numerical variable, centriod of area
(COA) method of defuzzication has been implemented in this paper.

4. Simulation Results

The proposed MPPT algorithm with FLC has been simulated using Matlab/Simulink. The details of the PV
system have been given in Table 2. The performance of the PV generation system has been evaluated for
varying insolation conditions under transient as well as steady state.

210
 Initially system is simulated with insolation of 1000 W/m2 and it is noted that PV array voltage is 411 V and
PV array power 1.45 kW which corresponds to MPP for 1000 W/m2 insolation as shown in Fig. 7(a) and 7(b).
Further, a step change of insolation level from 1000 W/m2 to 600 W/m2 is applied at 2 seconds and the PV array
voltage and power is settled at 404 V and 0.83 kW which corresponds to MPP for insolation level of 600 W/m2
as shown in Fig. 7(a) and 7(b). From Fig. 7(a) shows that the operating point reaches the MPP less than 0.5
seconds and it is observed that the proposed MPPT technique performs satisfactorily.

Table 2. PV generation system parameters.

Parameter Value

Rated power of PV array 1.45 kWp

DC link capacitance, C 1000 �F

AC link inductor, L 15.5 mH

PWM carrier frequency 10 kHz

Short circuit current (1000 W/m2, 25 ˚C) 3.8 A

Open circuit current (1000 W/m2, 25 ˚C) 510 V

Fig. 7. Simulated performance during step change in solar insolation. (a) PV array power; (b) Reference voltage and dc link voltage

Fig. 8. Simulated steady state performance of the system: Grid voltage (100 V/div.) and Grid current (10 A/div.)

Fig. 8 shows the grid voltage and grid current at insolation level of 600 W/m2, the PV system has been
designed to supply only real power to the grid. From Fig. 8 it can be noticed that the VSI feeding power to the

211
grid with unity power factor. The total harmonic distortion (THD) in grid current has been analyzed and it is
observed that THD is 2.54 % and peak value of fundamental component of grid current is 7.274 A for 1000
W/m2 insolation. For 600 W/m2 insolation condition, THD of grid current is 3.58 % and peak value of the
fundamental component of grid current is 3.754 A. as shown in Fig. 9. It is observed that the THD of the grid
current is within the limits for both 1000 W/m2 and 600 W/m2 insolation conditions.

Fig. 9. Harmonic Spectrum of the grid current. (a) with 1000 W/m2 insolation; (b) with 600 W/m2 insolation

5. Conclusion

A novel MPPT technique based on ripple correlation control for with fuzzy logic controller is proposed for
single-phase single-stage grid connected PV systems. The MPPT block uses the product of voltage and power
ripple to drive the operating point towards MPP. The proposed algorithm with FLC is working quite
satisfactorily under dynamic irradiance conditions. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been proved
through extensive numerical simulations results.

References

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[3] E. S. Sreeraj, K. Chatterjee, S. Bandyopadhyay, One-cyclecontrolled single-stage single-phase voltage-sensorless grid-connected pv
system, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 3, Mar. 2013 pp. 1216–1224.
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IEEE Trans. on Power Electron., vol.22, no.5, Sept. 2007, pp.1928-1940.
[5] B. Subudhi, R. Pradhan, A Comparative Study on Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques for Photovoltaic Power Systems, IEEE
Trans. on Sustainable Energy, vol.4, no.1, Jan. 2013, pp.89-98.
[6] Fangrui Liu, Yong Kang, Yu Zhang, Shanxu Duan, Comparison of P&O and hill climbing MPPT methods for grid-connected PV
converter, in Proc. 3rd Conf. IEEE Ind. Electron. Applicat., ICIEA June 2008, pp.804-807.
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IEEE Power Elecron. Conf., vol.3, June 2004, pp.1957-1963.
[8] M.A.G. de Brito, L. Galotto, L.P. Sampaio, G. de Azevedo e Melo, C.A. Canesin, Evaluation of the Main MPPT Techniques for
Photovolt Applications, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol.60, no.3, Mar. 2013, pp.1156-1167.
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[10] T. Esram, J.W. Kimball, P.T. Krein, P.L. Chapman, P. Midya, Dynamic Maximum Power Point Tracking of Photovoltaic Arrays Using
Ripple Correlation Control, IEEE Trans. on Power Electron., vol.21, no.5, Sept. 2006, pp.1282-1291.
[11] D. Casadei, G. Grandi, C. Rossi, Single-phase single-stage photovoltaic generation system based on a ripple correlation control
maximum power point tracking, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conv., vol.21, no.2, June 2006, pp.562-568.
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compensation of photovoltaic for air conditioning system with fuzzy controller, in Proc. 25th IEEE Photovolt. Spec. Conf., May 1996,
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[13] Syafaruddin, E. Karatepe, T. Hiyama, Artificial neural network-polar coordinated fuzzy controller based maximum power point
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 ICAER-2015

A simple synthesis of nanostructured CaIn2O4 using aloe vera

nectar
Barkha Tiwari1* and Shanker Ram2
1
Research Scholar of Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute Technology, Kharagpur – 721302, India
2
Faculty of Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute Technology, Kharagpur – 721302, India

Abstract

Synthesis of a nanostructured CaIn2O4 is important to explore its utility as an optical host for doping rare-earth and other optical
species for devising light-emitters, optical data storage system, and other optical devices. A green synthesis route has its own
merit in minimizing toxicity in such materials, especially for medical and biological applications. Fresh nectars extracted from
many green plants can be an emerging source to host a controlled chemical reaction for synthesizing certain metals and oxide
derivatives of controlled size and/or shape with functionalized optical and other properties in a simple “green synthesis route”.
Considering these technical points, here we synthesize CaIn2O4 of a granular nanostructure using a fresh gel extracted from green
aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis mill). An advantage with such kinds of a green gel is that it readily absorbs the metal ions from an
adequate salt precursor so that the later forms a mixed hydrogel. As-milled and annealed powders at 400-600 C in air (to burn
out free carbon impurities) were studied in terms of the crystal structure, microstructure, and light emission in elucidating how a
nanostructured CaIn2O4 bonds a residual carbon in a hybrid structure so as it tunes the bandgap and other optical properties.
Keywords: CaIn2O4; Green synthesis; Nanostructure; Nanoceramics

1. Introduction

There has been an increasing attention towards the synthesis of metal oxide nanostructures due to their potential
applications as photocatalysts, gas sensors, and other devices [2-6]. CaIn2O4 is one of the important wide bandgap
semiconductors that is considered as a potentially eco-friendly. It is a ternary semiconductor oxide that belongs to
the AB2O4 family which has good optical properties when doped with suitable optical species. It is being
synthesized using several methods like sol-gel chemistry and co-precipitation from a liquid precursor in air in
refining the microstructure and functional properties for different applications [2-4]. The most common method for
preparing CaIn2O4 is the solid state reaction of the component oxides. However, this method requires high reaction
temperature and longtime heat-treatments [6]. To avoid toxicity, in this investigation we explore a green synthesis of
CaIn2O4 at moderate temperature. Developing efficient green chemistry methods for synthesizing oxide
nanostructures has become a major focus nowadays. Green herbs provide an efficient reaction medium for
synthesizing certain metals and oxide derivatives of controlled size and/or shape with a bonded carbon surface layer
and in-turn tailored optical and other properties. Aloe barbadensis miller, also known as aloevera, is a very short
stemmed succulent herb which consists of two major parts “gel” and “latex”, and those offer several medicinal
applications. The basic ingredients are amino acids, anthraquinones, enzymes, minerals, vitamins, lignins,
monosaccharide, polysaccharides, salicylic acids, saponins, and sterols. Polysaccharides present in the aloevera are
very good thickening agents and that can be used in ordering metal ions in the synthesis of metals, metal oxides, and
derivatives in specific microstructures [9].

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-943-461-1138.

E-mail address:barkha@matsc.iitkgp.ernet.in

213
 2. Experimental details
2.1. Raw materials
Highly pure (99.5%) indium acetate In(C2H3O2)3, calcium acetate Ca(C2H3O2)2, and camphor, purchased from
Alfa-Aesar, were used to obtain the compound CaIn2O4 of a single crystalline phase. A fresh aloe vera gel was used
to readily absorb the metal ions from an adequate salt precursor in the form of a solution. Distilled water was used as
a solvent during the entire synthesis procedure.
2.2 Synthesis of CaIn2O4 of small crystallites
A dilute 0.025 M solution of In(O2C2H3)3 in 200 mL water was dispersed in aloe vera nectar in 1:1 ratio along
with 1 M Ca(O2C2H3)2 in 25 mL of water. Upon heating at 80-90 C, the mixture changes its initial greenish color
slowly to a dark brownish color over a period of 80-90 min reaction in the solution, and then it was quite stable even
after a month or so in open air at room temperature. So obtained hydrogel was dried at room temperature and then
was burnt along with camphor (as a fuel) in open air. A recovered powder from the self-propagating combustion was
pulverized using a mortar and a pestle to get a refined powder which contains a huge amount 10-15 wt% of
byproduct carbon on the combustion of the precursor. It was then ball milled to obtain small CaIn2O4 crystallites
dispersed in carbon in the form of a finely divided loose powder.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. X-ray diffraction and FESEM images
Figure 1 presents a typical X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the as-burnt CaIn2O4 powder. As marked with the
dhkl values (interplanar distances), all the peaks are indexed in terms of a single crystalline CaIn2O4 phase (21 nm
average crystallite size as per the peak broadening) assuming a tetragonal crystal structure (141 space group). This
pattern is very similar to that reported for a bulk powder prepared from a solid state reaction [1]. As given in Table
1, the lattice volume Vl = 0.7951 nm3, determined from the lattice parameter a = 0.9006 and c = 0.9892 from the dhkl
values in the XRD pattern in Fig.1, yields a crystal density l = 5.790 g/cm3, which is 5.8% smaller than the bulk
value. The results reveal that the lattice expands significantly when it is prepared in small crystallites using a
precursor gel stabilized with natural aloe vera nectar in this example. An energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectrum
included in Fig.1 describes the compound CaIn2O4 of characteristic peaks of Ca, In and O in the 1: 2: 4. It contains
10-15 % carbon part of which bonds over in a hybrid CaIn2O4 composite.

Ca
(221)

In FIGURE 1. XRD pattern (EDX spectrum in the inset)

of CaIn2O4 prepared from a precursor gel with aloe
O
vera and fired with camphor in open air. The Al and
C Au peaks belong to the support and coating used in
the measurement.
Au
Intensity

Al *
In Ca

0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

Energy (keV)
(314)
(301)

(322)

(332)
(411)
(302)

(206)
(116)
(404)
(112)

(226)

(219)
(228)
(435)

20 40 60 80 100
Diffraction angle 2 (degree)

214
Table 1. Structural parameters in CaIn2O4 prepared of small crystallites prepared from a precursor gel with aloe vera and fired with camphor in
open air.

Lattice parameters
CaIn2O4 (nm) D (nm) ε (%) Vl (nm3) ρ (g/cm3)
ɑ c

Nanostructure 0.9006 0.9892 20.8890 1.2580 0.8023 5.790

Bulk 0.8770 0.9822 ------- ------- 0.7554 6.150

Figure 2 presents FESEM images of the CaIn2O4 powders derived from a hydrogel in aloe vera nectar was burnt
with camphor (as a fuel) in a self-propagating combustion and then annealed at 400 C in open air for 2 h. The
results elucidate the aloe vera nectar is highly efficient in controlling the final size, shape and morphology of the
CaIn2O4 crystallites. As-prepared sample CaIn2O4 consists of plates with sharp edges (~100 nm length and 25 nm
width). The sharp edges in these plates look-like a fibril structure. The small CaIn2O4 plates are bonded in the
residual carbon in a hybrid composite structure. In annealing the sample at 400 C in air, the carbon burns out
slowly, leaving behind a sample CaIn2O4 of distinct nanoplates.
`
(a) (b)

200 nm 200 nm
nm
FIGURE 2. FESEM images of (a) as-prepared and (b) annealed CaIn2O4 at 400 oC for 2 h in air.

3.2. UV – visible absorption spectrum

Figure 3(a) presents the UV/visible absorption spectra 250-800 nm for the as-received and 400 C annealed
CaIn2O4 powders. A doublet band arises over 400-200 nm with distinct maxima at 285 nm (3.71 eV) in the virgin
powder and that is shifted over lower wavelengths at 265 nm (3.85 eV) in the annealed powder. The blue band shift
indicates the formation of a grapheme oxide (GO) layer on the CaIn2O4 crystallites of a compressed lattice structure
in the form of a hybrid composite. The bandgap widening is the result of confinement of the Cs2 electrons in the
GO-layer as it co-bonds on the favorable CaIn2O4 facets.
1.50
(a) 1.4
600
(b)
Absorbance (a.u.)

265 1.2 900

1.25
1.0
Absorbance (a.u.)

400
1/2

0.8 283
h

1.00
0.6
600
(h)1/2

200
0.4
0.75 Eg = 3.71 eV
0.2

0.0 0
2 3 4
0.50
200 300 400 500 600 700 800
300
Wavelength (nm) h(eV)

0.25 Eg = 3.85 eV
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 0
2 3 4
Wavelength (nm) h (eV)
FIGURE 3. (a) UV-visible absorption spectra and (b) Tauc plots of as-prepared and 400 C annealed CaIn2O4.

215
 The present spectra are reasonably different from that of a bulk sample CaIn2O4 when prepared by the solid state
reaction [4]. The spectrum in the bulk sample exhibits a clear absorption edge with an optical bandgap of 3.75 eV [2,
4]. In Figure 3(b), the Tauc plots of the absorption edges in the two spectra in Figure 3(a) depict the bandgaps of
3.71 eV and 3.85 eV, as determined by slopes of the straight lines, respectively. These values are more less the
same as those determined from the respective band positions.
Conclusions
A phase pure CaIn2O4 is formed of pretty small crystallites through a simple green synthesis process of a
precursor solution catalyzed with an aloe vera gel. A gel so obtained on burnt with camphor in a self-propagating
combustion in open air yields the sample of a fine powder. Part of the carbon soot releases on the gel burns in air
reacts over the CaIn2O4 forming a grafted carbon surface layer. The crystallites appear in a shape of plates of 100 nm
length and 25 nm width. Upon annealing at 400 C in air, the carbon relieves slowly leaving behind CaIn2O4 of
unbarred surfaces. A bonded carbon layer modifies the light absorption and emission properties that are useful for
harvesting the photocatalytic properties with different dyes.

Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge MHRD, New Delhi, for a financial support.

References
1. Passerini et al., Chim Ital., 60 (1930) 760.
2. J. Sato et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 107 (2003) 7965.
3. X. Liu et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 90 (2007) 081904.
4. Jianjun et al., Catal. Lett. 130 (2009) 147.
5. S. Ram et al., Enc. of Nanosci. and tech. 22 (2011) 179.
6. D. Gingasu et al., Dig. J. Nanomater. Bios. 6 (2011) 1215.
7. T. Li et al., Opt. Express 21 (2013) 18281
8. J. Ding et al., Int. J. Hyd. Energ. 39 (2014) 119.
9. G. S. Priya et al., Int. J. Sci. Res. Publ. 4, Issue 6 (2014) 199.

216
 ICAER-2015

Development of energy-saving chequered tile with partial substitution of cement with bauxite residue.

M.P. Deshmukh 1*, D.D. Sarode 2

1
Research Scholar, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India.
2
Associate Professor, General engineering department, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India.
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 22 23084881, Fax: (+91) 22 23070924, E-mail: manojpd_2810@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: The worldwide production of cement accounts for almost 7% of total world CO 2 emmision. Global cement
composites consumption has crossed the mark of 20 billion tons per annum. Production of cement is characterized by
large energy consumption to the tune of 4GJ per ton. An equivalent quantum of carbon dioxide is liberated while
producing one ton of cement. There is an urgent need to explore alternative substitute for cement. During Bayer’s
process of production of alumina, a large quantity of dust-like alkaline bauxite residue (Red mud) is discharged into
the environment. At a global level, 120 million tonnes of red mud is produced per annum. According to an estimate 3
billion tonnes of red mud is already awaiting in the industrial backyards for its utilization. This huge quantum of red
mud is likely to contaminate soil and water. Hence bulk utilization of red mud is a big challenge before the agencies
associated with management of bauxite residue. An attempt is made here to substitute cement with red mud in
varying proportions such as 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 % of the cement content in production of chequered tile.

Keywords: Bayer’s process, red mud, concrete, bauxite residue, chequered tile.

1. Introduction

Cement composites are the second largest consumables on the earth, next to water. Annual consumption of
concrete and allied products has crossed a mark of odd 20 billion tons per year at level. Cement production is
energy intensive process and it liberates an equivalent quantity of carbon dioxide, thus increasing more pressure
on utilization of energy sources. It is pertinent to find the alternative energy-saving material which will replace
the cement partly or fully in cement composites and would reduce carbon footprints on the earth.

India has a huge population and has a relatively small land area to give an overall population density of 368 per
sq. km. This exerts a great pressure on the systems of environmental management and waste treatment. Every
year about 120 million tonnes of bauxite residue (red mud)is freshly disposed off into stock-piling yards. Bulk
utilization of Red mud has been, and continue to be a great challenge for the researchers and other stake-holders.
Utilization of bauxite residue for some constructive purpose will also reduce the burdon of waste on land and
related pollution effects.
Thus if an industrial waste, bauxite residue, is used to replace cement in various construction products would
certainly help to conserve lot of energy and will also reduce carbon emmissions. Chemical properties of red mud
indicates low percentage of CaO as compared to percentage cement and gypsum. Low cementatious properties
putforth limitations on the use of red mud as binder in composite. Red mud primarily consists of oxides of
aluminium and Iron. Red mud ,water and cement together develops calcium silicate hydrate(CSH) gel that
improves strength characterstics of composites upto certain extent. Presence of alumina,silica,iron oxides and a
variety of oxides and alkalis,each in varying degrees imparts pozollanic properties to the concrete. Pozzolanas
are materials containing reactive silica and/or alumina which on their own have little or no binding property
but,when mixed with lime in presence of water,will set and harden like a cement. Due to presence of allumina
and silica content in red mud, it behaves as pozzolanic material in secondery reaction. It reacts with calcium
hydroxide in presence of water to form ettringate.

TABEL 1:Chemical composition of red mud

Sr No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Content Al 2 O 3 Fe 2 O 3 Na 2 O CaO SiO 2 K2O TiO 2 P2O5 MgO SO 3 Ca 2 O 3 LOI
% 20.5 34.3 4.0 4.8 11.6 0.17 8.35 0.32 0.4 0.33 0.15 15

217
 Graph 1 ; The XRD of red mud from Hindalco, Belgaon, Karnataka, India (A.C.C. lab,Thane)

2.MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Chequered tiles are the tiles having grooves on the surface of the tile making it anti-slippery. The area of
chequered grooves should not be less than 2 per cent of the total surface area of the tile. The chequered groove
can be in any shape and length, but the depth of grooves should not be less than 3 mm. Chequered cement
concrete flooring titles are used for footpaths, entrance and stair-cases of public buildings, passages of
auditoriums and storage go-downs, etc. Large number of cement concrete chequered tiles are being
manufactured and used in our country.

The materials used in the presented research are described as the following:
Cement: 53 Grade, OPC-Associate Cement companies (specific gravity-3.15).
Red mud :Hindalco,Belgaon,Karnataka,India,(specific gravity-3.10).
Fine aggregate:CFA from Tata,Bhainderpada,Thane with specific gravity 2.65.,
Dolomite-crushed from Chhota Udaipur,Rajasthan with specific gravity 2.8.
Dolomite powder from Chhota Udaipur ,Rajasthan with specific gravity 2.89.
Colouring pigments from N.R.Traders and enterprises, Ahmedabad,Gujarat.

Chequered tile consists of two courses- Bottom course (base layer) and wearing course ( top layer). Bottom
course consists of mix of cement and crushed fine aggregates in the ratio 1:5. Top wearing course consist of
colouring pigment, crushed dolomite,cement,dolomite powder, naphtha-based superplasticizer,crushed fine
aggregate and water in a specified proportion.

3. EXPERIMENTAL WORK :
Casting of 60 Cement concrete chequered tiles of size 300*300*30 mm.is proposed. Top wearing course of
chequered tile is 7.5 mm thick.Bottom part of chequered tile is 22.5 mm thick. The experimental part of
replacement of cement with red mud is exclusively done for bottom part. For this 12 tiles each were cast for
controll (0%), 5%,10%,15% and 20% replacement trials. Batch size of 60 Kg.each is prepared separately for
each replacement trial.
Experimental work was carried out were in three stages;
Stage 1
Top wearing course material of 90 Kg. is mixed in mixer with all the necessary ingredients.Cement,dolomite
powder,crushed dolomite,colouring pigments,water,etc are added and mixed in a mixed. Chequered tile moulds
mounted on machinery are cleaned and oil is applied to inside of the mould.
Stage 2
Bottom course material of 60 Kg batch size is taken separately for each replacement trial. Controll trial (0%
replacement) is carried out without adding any red mud and subsequent trials of replacement of cement with
5%,10%,15%,20% of red mud respectively. Naphtha based chemical admixture is added to achieve workability
and flowability to the composite mass.

218
Staget 3
Chequered tiles are cast by putting stage 1 and stage 2 material in a mould of size 300*300*30 mm size mounted
on Chequered tile making machine. After casting the tiles are cured for 28 days and then tested for various
parameters confined to IS:13801-1993 (Reaffirmed 2006).
Table 2: Batching of ingredients of chequered tile for top and bottom part.
Sr. Material Requirement Requirement Batch Batch size of 60 kg for percentage replacement
No. per cubic of material size per of cement with red mud for bottom course of
meter of only for cubic chequered tile ( Kg)
material for base of tile meter of 0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
full tile base
1. Cement 400 kg 280 Kg 400 Kg. 10 9.5 9 8.5 8
2. Red mud -- -- -- -- 0.5 1 1.5 2
3. Crushed 1700kg 1365 Kg 1950 48.75 48.75 48.75 48.75 48.75
sand Kg.
4. Dolomite 200 kg -- --- --- -- -- -- --
powder
5. Crushed 50 kg -- --- --- -- -- -- --
dolomite
6. Coloring 4 kg -- -- --- -- -- -- --
pigments
7. Water 120 Kg 42 Kg 60 Kg 1.5 Kg 1.5Kg 1.5Kg 1.5Kg 1.5Kg

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

Cement content is reduced and replaced by 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% in composite mix prepared for base
course in chequered tile. All the 10 characteristics indicated in table 3 are considered to determine the effect of
replacement of cement with red mud in varying proportion.
Wet transverse strength (WTT), percentage water absorption, resistance to wear for individual tile, resistance to
abrasion as an average value are the key indicators for determining the properties of chequered tile. Out of
twelve tiles cast for each replacement, six tiles are subjected to various tests and average values are tabulated in
table 3.Results of replacement of cement with red mud in varying proportion from 0 to 20% are prepared in
accordance with IS:13801-1993 (reaffirmed 2006)

Table 3: Effect of replacement of cement with red mud in base part of chequered tile.

Sr Tests IS:13801-1993 Replacement of cement with red mud by % wt.

No Requirements (Average value of six tiles tested for each % )
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
1. Length, mm 300+1 299.4 299.6 299.5 299.6 299.7
2. Width, mm 300+1 300 300 300 300 300
3. Thickness, mm 30+5 30.5 30.9 30.8 31.2 31.2
4. Wet transverse test, 3 Min 3.4 3.7 3.5 3.9 3.3
N/mm2(WTT)
5. Flatness, mm 1 Max 0.1 0.15 0.15 0.16 0.15
6. Perpendicularity, % 2 Max 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.06 0.06
7. Straightness, % 1 Max 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.25 0.2
8. Water absorption, % by mass 10 Max 3.8 2.8 4.2 5.1 5.5
(WAT)
9. Resistance to wear- average in 2 Max 1.8 2.0 1.7 1.8 2.0
mm (RTW-avg)
10. Resistance to wear- individual 2.5 Max 2.0 2.1 2.1 2.2 2.4
specimen in mm. (RTW-Ind)

219
Graph 2 ; Chart showing Wet transverse strength (WTT),average resistance to wear (RTW-avg), resista
nce to wear for individul tile (RTW-Ind) and water absorption (WAT).

Cement replacement trial results for Chequered tile.

6
5.5
5.1
5
4.2
3.9 3.8
4 3.7
3.4 3.5
3.3
3 2.8
2.4 2.4
2.2
2 2 2.1 2.1
2 1.8 1.7 1.8

0
WTT (%) RTW-avg(mm) RTW_Ind(mm) WAT
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

Percentage water absorption and resistance to wear are two of the most prominent characteristics that determines
the quality of chequered tile. It is found that even after replacement of cement up to 20% with red mud, all the
values obtained for parameters are much within permissible limits as per IS:13801-1993.

5. CONCLUSSION:
It can be concluded that, Cement could be replaced up to 20% with an industrial waste (red mud) and there is
further scope for higher percentage cement replacement with red mud. Reduction of consumption of cement is
associated with energy saving, reduction in carbon footprints, reduction in pollution and assist in sustainable
developments of construction and housing sector.
Millions of cement concrete chequered tiles are being manufactured and used at various locations in India. Each
chequered tile consists of minimum one Kg. of cement. For each five thousand cement concrete lot, we can
replace one ton of cement with one ton of red mud with just 20% replacement of cement. One ton of carbon
emissions can be reduced per 5000 production lot of chequered tile and subsequent large energy savings
becomes possible.
Thus utilization of highly alkaline industrial waste (bauxite residue) as a partial replacement to cement will
reduce the wastage of emery in cement production and will also minimise the environmental pollution and will
resolve sustainability issues of natural resources.

Acknowledgements : We are grateful to the officials of Hindalco, Belgaon, Karnataka for the help
extented in supplying red mud to Mumbai . We are equally grateful to R and D division of Associated
cement companies, Thane, India and the production division of Variety pavers pvt. Ltd., Thane

220
REFERENCES

1. Banvolgyi, G. Huan, T. M., “De-watering, disposal and utilization of red mud: state of the art and emer

ging technologies”.

2. Cooling, D.J., “Improving the Sustainability of Residue Management Practice”, from Paste 2007, Proce

edings of the Tenth International Seminar on Paste and Thickened Tailings, edited by Fourie, A. B., and

Jewell,

3. Eliz Paula Manfroi, MalikCheriaf, Junaide Cavalcante Rocha, 2013, Microstructure, Minerology and an

d Environmental Evaluation of cementitious Composites Produced with Red Mud waste , Construction

and Building Materials, Vol.no.xxx , 1-08.

4. Critical Review Environ. Sci. and Tech., (41) 271-315. Klauber, C., Grafe, M., and Power, G, “Review

of Bauxite Residue “Re-use” Options”, CSIRO Document DMR-3609 (2009)

5. Power, G., Grafe, M., and Klauber, C., “Review of Current Bauxite Residue Management, Disposal and

Storage: Practices, Engineering and Science.” CSIRO Document DMR-3609 (2009).

6. Zainab Z Ismail and Enas A. Al-Hashmi,2009, Recycling of waste glass as a partial Replacement for Fi

ne aggregate in Concrete, Waste management, Vol.no.29.655-659.

7. Zhihua Pan, Lin Cheng, Yinong Lu, Nanru yang,,2002, Hydration Products of Alkali-Activated Slag- R

ed Mud cementitious material, Cement and Concrete Research, Vol 32,357-362.

221
 ICAER-2015

Analysis of water cooling of CPV cells mounted on absorber tube

of a Parabolic Trough Collector
Nikhil Gakkhara,1, M.S.Sonia,b, Sanjeev Jakhara

a
Center for Renewable Energy and Environment Development, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India 333031
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India 333031

Abstract

In the present paper, an analytical approach has been developed and presented to estimate the thermal performance of multi-
junction solar panel under high concentration with liquid cooling on both sides of the panel. For such system, the receiver of
parabolic collector is modified to incorporate solar cells. A long panel of flexible solar cells is mounted on the outer side of
circular receiver. The water is allowed to flow from inside as well as outside of receiver, thus reducing the temperature of
the panel significantly. Analytical model is developed and thermal analysis has been carried out using MATLAB (vR2012a).
The thermal model predicts the temperature variation of the cell along its length, which given the improved efficiency of the
panel. To validate the proposed model, the simulation is performed in COMSOL (v5.1). The results shows that temperature
of the liquid can be maintained up-to 85 °C, thus reducing the temperature of panel from initial temperature (without liquid
cooling) of above 134 °C, under stagnant air in the annulus conditions. The results obtained are within the close
approximation. The future scope would include the experimental validation of the proposed system.
Keywords: Parabolic Trough Collector; Concentrator photovoltaic; Liquid immersion cooling; MATLAB

1. Introduction

Solar thermal energy utilization can be done with the help of Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC). Many
researchers tested and validated the application of PTCs with various application like power generation,
desalination etc. Parabolic trough technology has proven to be the most mature and low cost solar thermal
technology available today. Concentrated sunlight using linear Fresnel lens can also be used to drive
Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) cells [1]. The application of CPV using various techniques has already been
discussed in the literature [2]–[5]. Concentrated Photovoltaic Thermal (CPV/T) which includes thermal system
for CPV cooling has also been used for utilization of electrical as well as thermal energy. Conventry [6]
investigated the performance of a CPV/T collector where the row of cells were cooled by liquid flowing through
an internally finned aluminum pipe with optical concentration of 37 suns. He found out that the thermal and
electrical efficiency of the system was affected by high temperatures.
The main problem with the CPV cells is the high temperature with increase in concentrated solar radiation.
This increase in temperature leads to reduction in the cell efficiency and too high of a temperature may damage
the cell’s integrity. If the temperature exceeds a certain limit its life-span would reduce rapidly [7], so proper
cooling system is required to maintain the temperature within the limit. A simple cooling system design may
also help to reduce the maintenance costs. While a variety of approaches have been used to the keep the cells
cool, most of them are based upon removal of heat from the back of the cell (opposite surface of the incident
flux exposed surface) [8]–[10]. The both side cooling of the flat CPV cell was discussed by Zhu et al. [11].
Liquid immersion cooling of concentrated PV cells has also been discussed by Han et al. [12], [13], Zhu et al.
[14], Han et al. [15] , Xiang et al. [8] etc. The presented research work proposes the modified receiver system
for effective cooling. Since, circular geometry has large surface area as compared to flat plate the circular tube
is consideration. The CPV cells are assumed to be mounted on the absorber tube of PTC where the liquid is
allowed to flow though the annulus as well, thus allowing the cooling to occur from both sides of the cells.

1
Corresponding author. Tel.: +01596-515225; fax: +91-1596-244183.
E-mail address: nikhil.gakkhar@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in, nikhil.bits@outlook.com

222
Nomenclature

A area (m2)
D diameter (m)
g gravitational constant (9.8 m/s2)
h convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2.K)
k thermal conductivity (W/m.K)
T temperature (K)
L length (m)
P perimeter (m)
̇ rate of heat transfer per unit length (W/m)
Greek letters
θ incident angle
ƞ optical efficiency
α absorptance
ρ reflectance
ε emissivity
μ refractive index
τ transitivity
ν kinematic viscosity
σ Stefan-Boltzmann constant (5.67 x 10-7 W/m2K4)
Indices
cond conduction
conv convection
rad radiation
i irradiance
m mirror
g glass
t absorber tube
f fluid (HTF)
b bracket
r receiver

2. Proposed system

In this section, a proposed novel design for the liquid immersion cooling system of CPV along with PTC is
presented. The designed receiver consists of non evacuated glass tube, absorber tube and flexible multi-junction
CPV cells mounted on absorber tube with the help of epoxy. The Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) flows through
inside as well as outside of absorber tube, thus cooling the CPV cells from both sides for better performance.
The schematic diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 1. For the design estimation, the energy balance has
performed on such receiver system as discussed further in the section.

3. Thermal analysis of the proposed model

3.1. Energy balance model

In this section, the thermal model for proposed novel design is presented. For the design estimation, the
energy balance has performed on receiver system using one-dimensional methods by taking followings
assumptions:

 The solar radiation falling on the receiver is always taken normal to the surface.
 Uniform heat flux over the glass envelope and absorber tube.
 The flexible CPV cell is perfectly mounted along the irradiance side.
 The scattering and attenuation of solar radiation within the liquid is assumed to be negligible.

223
 Fig. 1. One dimensional steady state energy balance

As shown in Fig. 1, the energy balance is performed on receiver which consists of glass tube and absorber
pipe. The flexible CPV cells are mounted on irradiance side of absorber tube so that it receives maximum solar
radiation. For the simplicity, the cell and epoxy thickness has been neglected and is assumed to be of same
thermal conductivity as of the absorber tube. The HTF flows inside the absorber tube as well as through
annulus. The one dimensional energy balance method is taken similar to the evacuated absorber tube which are
available in the literature [16], [17]. The energy model is modified by balancing the incoming solar radiation
and optical losses. In this novel receiver, uniform circumferential heat flux is assumed by taking the average of
solar radiation from concentrated and non concentrated side. All the temperatures and thermodynamic properties
are also assumed to be uniform across the circumference. Six surfaces are identified for the heat transfer
analysis across the receiver. The incoming solar radiation falls on the surface 5 ( ̇ ), which is glass envelope
outer surface, as well as on surface 3 ( ̇ ) which is outer surface of absorber tube. Across the glass tube, the
absorbed energy is transferred through conduction ( ̇ ) and by convection ( ̇ ) from surface 4. The
surface 4 which is inner surface of glass envelop allows convection heat transfer through HTF (which is flowing
within the annulus and taken as bulk surface 9). The surface 3 transfers the heat through convection ( ̇ )
and conduction ( ̇ ) to the HTF and inner surface of tube respectively as shown in Fig. 1. From surface 2
the heat transfer occurs by convection ( ̇ ) to the inner fluid, which is taken as surface 1. The ambient
and sky conditions are taken with subscript 6 and 7 respectively.
Using Fig. 1, by applying the energy balance on each surface, the following equations are obtained:

q 5' a  q '45cond  q 56
'
 57
conv  q
'
rad (1)
q '49conv  q '45cond  q 34
'
rad (2)
q39
'

conv  q 49conv
'
(3)
q 3a  q 39
' '
conv  q  32
'
cond  q 34
'
rad  q bc
'
(4)
q 32
'
cond  
q '
21conv (5)

3.1.1. Incident solar irradiation

The incident solar absorptance on surface 5 ( ̇ ) and on surface 3 ( ̇ ) falling on the outer surface of the
glass is treated as heat flux to simplify the thermal analysis. As discussed by Forristall [17], this assumption
simplifies and makes the conduction equation linear across the glass and absorber tube. Although this
assumption introduces minimal error, but for small absorbtance coefficient of the glass, this error can be
neglected. Also, the incident irradiation is taken as uniform over the entire circumferential surface. The variation

224
in incident angle which causes optical losses by the incident rays which are not normal to the surface are given
by Incident Angle Modifier (K) as

K  cos   0.000884  0.00005369 2 (6)

The optical efficiency of the glass is given by radiation absorbed by the glass envelop by the incident normal
irradiation. Forristal [17] defines the solar absorption in glass as
q 5a
'
 q i' g  g (7)
while g    
t m K
where is the estimates of effective optical efficiency as given by Price et al. [18]
̇ is the solar radiation falling on the receiver per unit length (W/m)
The solar radiation falling on the absorber tube after passing through the glass envelop and HTF can also be
treated as heat flux. The equation of solar absorption becomes
q 3a
'
 q i'tt (8)
while t   g g f

3.2. Heat Transfer Analysis

The receiver part consists of glass tube, HTF and absorber tube. The heat transfer would occur by all three
modes, i.e. Conduction, Convection and Radiation.

3.2.1. Conduction heat transfer

The conduction heat transfer takes place on three surfaces in the given model through the glass, absorber tube
and as heat losses in the form of conduction from the support brackets. The conduction heat transfer within the
glass and tube are given as:
2 k g (T4  T5 )
q '45cond  (9)
ln( D5 / D4 )
2 kt (T2  T3 )
q 32
'
cond  (10)
ln( D3 / D2 )

The values of thermal conductivity of glass envelope and absorber tube are assume to be uniform throughout
the surface and are taken from the Incropera [19]. The conduction from the support bracket depends on the
contact area between absorber tube and bracket. To estimate the heat losses, the bracket is treated as infinite
long fin with base temperature 10 degree less than the T3. For the simplification the dimensions of the support
bracket is assumed to be same as that of Forristal [17]. The perimeter is taken as 0.2032 m having area of 1.613
x 10-4m2. The thermal conductivity is assumed to be 50 W/m-K. The convective heat transfer coefficient
depends on wind or no-wind case. From the literature it is taken within the range of 2-25 W/m2-K (for no-wind)
and 25-250 W/m2-K (for wind). The conduction equation for such system is given as:

q bc
'
 hb Pb kb Ab  (Tb  T6 ) / Lr (11)

3.2.2. Convection heat transfer

The convection occurs at four surfaces in this model. From surface 5, the convection
( ̇ ) occurs from outer glass surface to the ambient conditions. The temperature difference is assumed to be
linear here. The convection term is given by
q 56
'
conv  h56 D5 (T5  T6 ) (12)
With h56  Nu5 k g / D5 (13)
The value of Nusselt number (Nu) for the equation (13) can be obtained by treating cross-sectional flow over
the long cylinder. The flow velocity over the cylinder governs the Reynolds number and thus Nusselt number.
To assess the convection coefficient, wind and no-wind cases are used. For the no-wind case, the convection
from the glass surface to the surrounding will only by natural convection. To estimate the natural convection,
the correlation given by Churchill and Chu [20] will be used as discussed in Ref [19].

225
 2
 8 
 1  9  27

 6
    0.559 16  
Nu56  0.60  0.387  Ra56 / 1      (14)
  56   
 Pr
   
 
g  (T5  T6 ) D53
Ra56  (15)
 56 56
1
 (16)
T56
 56
Pr56  (17)
56
where Ra is the Rayleigh number and Pr is the Prandlt number for glass outer cover, β is volumetric
coefficient for thermal expansion and α is thermal diffusivity at temperature T56 which is the film temperature.
The Eqn (14) is valid for 105 < Ra < 1012. In case of wind, the convection will be forced and the correlation for
Nusselt number can be obtained by using Churchill and Bernstein equation. This correlation is valid for all
ranges of Reynolds number with > 0.2 .
1/4 4/5
   Re
0.4 
5/8 
56 
Nu56  0.3  0.62 Re Pr 1/2 1/3
1  
1  2/3    (18)
 
 Pr56  282000  

This correlation assumes long horizontal cylinder with isothermal conditions. The fluid (air) properties are
taken as ambient conditions, while Pr56 is evaluated at the film temperature on the surface 5. The convection
within the absorber tube can be estimated by taking the fluid flow inside the tube. The correlations can be taken
as Petukhov equations [21], as discussed in Ref [22]
q '21conv  h21D1 (T2  T1 ) (19)
 f 
 8  Re Pr  Pr56 
0.11
Nu   
  (20)
1.07  12.7
8
f

Pr 2/3  1  5 
Pr

f  (0.79ln Re 1.64)2 (21)

The other two convections occur between the annulus, from the outer surface of the absorber tube to the HTF
( ̇ ) and from the inner surface of the glass cover to the HTF ( ̇ ). The convective heat transfer for
surface 3 and surface 4 can be calculated by using Petukhov correlation as discussed in eqn (20). Gnielinski
[23] modified the correlation by adding the effect of characteristics length during the convection.
 f 
 8  Re Pr   d 2/3 
Nu    1     (22)
 L 
1  12.7
f
8

Pr 2/3  1   

f  (1.8log Re 1.5)2 (23)

In Eq (12), for ̇ (convection between surface 3 (T3) and bulk mean temperature of water (T9)) and for
̇ (convection between surface 4 (T4) and bulk mean temperature of water (T9)), the hydraulic diameter
(dh) is taken as characteristics length for the estimation of Reynolds number. It is given by difference of inner
glass envelope diameter to outer absorber tube diameter.

3.2.3. Radiation heat transfer

The radiation occurs from glass surface to the sky ( ̇ ) and from the absorber tube to the glass ( ̇ ).
The later one occurs due to high temperature of the absorber tube and is of long wavelength. It will get absorbed

226
within the HTF and thus increases the temperature of the fluid. The radiation terms for ̇ is given by
Stefan-Boltzmann law and is given at sky temperature T7
q 57
'
rad   g  D5 (T5  T7 )
4 4
(24)
The absorber tube radiation can be treated as the radiation between two concentric cylinders with
participating media in between. Here, for the simplicity the scattering and attenuation effect has been neglected
between the fluid molecules. The radiation equation for this case is given by Modest [24]. The Non-dimensional
radiative heat flux depends upon the ratio of two cylinders diameter (D3/D4) and is taken from the Modest [24].
Further this term can be neglected if we assumed all the long wave radiation got absorbed within the next fluid
layer to the absorber tube. The radiation between the fluid layer and from fluid layer to the glass can be
estimated by using generic equations for long infinite concentric cylinder with participating media [19].
 D2 (Tn4  Tn41 )
q 34
'
rad  (25)
1 1 1   g D2
 1
t t  g D4
where Tn and Tn-1 are the intermediate fluid temperature at n and n-1 layer respectively.

3.2.4. Heat losses

The heat losses in the receiver includes the convection and radiation heat loss from the outer glass envelope
to the environment and the conduction losses from the support bracket. It is given as:
q 'heatloss  q 57
'
 56
rad  q
'
 bc
conv  q
'
(26)

4. Comsol Validation

The validation of proposed model is done by simulating the system using Comsol (v5.1). For the simplified
solution, the 3D model of the receiver is taken as 2D symmetrical model and thermal analysis is done by taking
heat transfer multiphysics. The dimension of receiver tube is taken as 1.2 meter with glass envelope diameter of
125 m having thickness of 10 mm. The absorber tube diameter is 70 mm with thickness of 2.2 mm. The
thickness of cell is taken as 0.5 mm is assumed to be negligible in case of analytical model. Since back side of
cell is attached to the absorber tube, surface 2 (Inner side of absorber tube) which is in contact with fluid is
taken as the back cell temperature. For multiphysics, simple heat transfer in solid along with laminar flow model
is used. The meshing is taken with normal approach with the curvature factor of 0.3, as per the simulation tool.
The two physics are coupled with temperature coupling. The simulated model of receiver tube is shown in Fig.
2. The temperature variation along the length is presented. The parameters taken for the simulations are shown
in Table 1.

Fig. 2. Temperature plot of receiver tube along the length (mm)

227
 Table 1. Receiver tube specification used in the model
Parameters Value
Receiver tube length 1.2 m
Absorber internal diameter 0.0656m
Emissivity of glass 0.82
Absorber external diameter 0.07 m
Absorber thermal conductivity 411 W/mK
Glass cover internal diameter 0.110 m
Emissivity of absorber tube 0.4
Optical efficiency of glass envelop 0.8
Absorptance of glass envelope 0.04
Thermal conductivity of glass 1.04 W/mK
Thermal conductivity of air 0.026 W/mK
Thermal conductivity of fluid 0.1357 W/mK
Wind velocity 1 m/s
Density of air 1.2 kg/m3
Density of fluid 1060 kg/m3
Dimensionless radiative heat transfer coefficient 0.96

5. Results and Discussion

The Comsol simulation of proposed system having flexible multijunction cells mounted on the absorber tube
with HTF on both sides of the cells is simulated using parameters mentioned in Table 1. The temperature at the
front surface of cell is observed to be more than the back side of the cell. The temperature variation across the
six different surfaces along the length is shown in Fig. 3. It is observed from the Fig. 3 that the temperature at
the outer glass surface (Surface 5) increases gradually as compared to inner most fluid (surface 1). The
temperature at surface 2 and 3 are almost identical with the fact that it is the inner and outer surface of the
absorber tube having small thickness. Similar trend is observed in inner and outer surface of glass tube. The
temperature within the annulus goes from the inlet temperature (which is assume to be 295 K) to a converging
value of around 360 K, by the end of tube length. The temperature results obtained are then compared with the
results obtained by analytical model by MATLAB. The analytical approach results for fixed outer glass
envelope section is compared with the comsol results and are shown in Fig. 4.

370

360

350 Surface 5
Temperature (K)

340 Surface 4

330 Surface 3
Surface 9
320
Surface 2
310
Surface 1
300

290
0 150 300 450 600 750 900 1050 1200
Length (mm)

Fig.3. Temperature variation over various surface

228
 315

314

313

312
Temperature (K)

311
Comsol simulation
310
Analytical model
309

308

307

306
Surface 5 Surface 4 Surface 9 Surface 3 Surface 2 Surface 1

Fig. 4. Comparison of Comsol model (v5.1) and Analytical model for same outer glass envelope temperature

Fig. 4 shows the comparison of comsol model (v5.1) and analytical model for same outer glass envelope The
temperature value of two dimensional model in comsol across the length is obtained and at the point where outer
temperature of glass envelope reaches 313 K, a cut cross-sectional view is obtained. The radial temperature
variation is observed on each surfaces compared with one dimensional analytical results. It is found out that the
analytical model shows the same trend as that of comsol results. In comsol case, when surface 5 is taken at 313
K, the temperature in inward direction decreases to 311 K for surface 1. The analytical model shows
temperature of 309 K for surface 1 with same surface 5 temperature. The variation in the analytical model may
be due to the assumptions taken in the same. Further, the comsol model is also varied with the condition when
no water flows through the annulus, by making it similar to stagnant air tube conditions. The simulations in the
comsol reveals the maximum cell temperature that could be achieved in case of no fluid within the annulus. The
plot obtained in such case is shown in Fig. 5. The graph shows that without fluid within the annulus, the
maximum temperature is obtained across the length as 407 K which is 46 degrees higher than the fluid flow
case. Thus without fluid flow, or cooling from one side, the high cell temperature would degrade the cell. This
also reduce the electrical efficiency of the cell. Hence, in such case, the HTF within the annulus would carried
away by excess and the temperature of the cell can be maintained. The extracted thermal energy can be utilized
for heating applications.

Fig.5. Comsol plot for no fluid flow case within the annulus

229
6. Conclusion

In the present paper, an analytical approach has been developed and presented to estimate the thermal
performance of multi-junction solar panel under high concentration with liquid cooling on both sides of the
panel. The analytical model is proposed for a system where CPV cells were assumed to be mounted on the
absorber tube. The HTF is flown within the annulus to allow cooling of the cell from both sides. The model is
simulated considering the geometrical, optical and thermal aspect of receiver tube in MATLAB. The
temperature trend obtained in the radial direction decreases from outward to inward. From outer glass envelope
surface at 313 K, the temperature of inner most fluid reaches to 309 K. Across the length, the results shows
increase in temperature trend. This model is validated with comsol where two dimensional approach has been
used for simulation. In that simulation sectional view for same outer glass temperature is taken and compared
with analytical model which gives slight variation because of the assumptions taken within the model. Further
the comsol model is compared with no flow condition in the annulus, thus achieving the maximum temperature
of 407 K (134 °C). This shows that fluid flow within the annulus is better case where heat can be carried away
easily from the both sides of the cells. In such case, the operating temperature of cells can be maintained 46
degree less when compared to that obtained for vacuum in the annulus i.e. one side cooling. With both sides
cooling not only the operating efficiency of CPV cells will increase but also the heat gained by the fluids in the
annulus as well as in the absorber tube will enhance the overall utility of the system. Future scope of the
research is experimental validation of such system.

Acknowledgements
Authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the Center for Renewable Energy and Environment
Development, BITS - Pilani Rajasthan, for this research.

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[3] G. S. Kinsey, W. Bagienski, A. Nayak, M. Liu, R. Gordon, and V. Garboushian, “Advancing efficiency and scale in CPV arrays,”
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[14] L. Zhu, Y. Wang, Z. Fang, Y. Sun, and Q. Huang, “An effective heat dissipation method for densely packed solar cells under high
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concentrating photovoltaic receiver,” in Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE, 2010, pp. 3033–3038.
[16] R. V. Padilla, G. Demirkaya, D. Y. Goswami, E. Stefanakos, and M. M. Rahman, “Heat transfer analysis of parabolic trough solar
receiver,” Applied Energy, vol. 88, no. 12, pp. 5097–5110, Dec. 2011
[17] R. Forristall, “Heat Transfer Analysis and Modeling of a Parabolic Trough Solar Receiver Implemented in EES,” 2003.
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vol. 6, no. 503, pp. 565, 1970.
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 ICAER-2015

Structural morphological and electrical studies of LiFePO4

synthesized by solution combustion method

S. J. Rajobaa, L. D. Jadhava*, S. Varmab, B. N. Wanib, S. R. Bharadwajb

a
Electrochemical Energy Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Rajaram College, Kolhapur,416004,India.
bChemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India

Abstract
Solution combustion synthesis is one of the simple, cost effective and rapid processes for the production of nano-particles of
variety of metal oxides. In present work the nano crystalline LiFePO4 (LFP) powder has been synthesized by solution
combustion synthesis technique. The LFP is very sensitive to oxygen atmosphere forming oxide of iron. Therefore, the fuel
content is increased to create the reducing atmosphere which helped to form single phase LFP powder. The decomposition
temperature of as prepared sample is confirmed by TG-DTA. The orthorhombic phase pure LFP is obtained after
calcination at 700 ᵒC in nitrogen atmosphere as confirmed by XRD. Elemental mapping is done by using EDAX. SEM shows
porous morphology of LFP powder. The DC conductivity of the LEP at room temperature is 7.6 × 10 -6 S/cm.

Keywords: combustion synthesis; metal oxide; oxidant to fuel ratio.

1. Introduction

Batteries and supercapacitors are safe, low-cost, high efficiency and environmental friendly energy
storage devices. Among the different batteries, Li ion batteries (LIBs) are most attracting. It was first
introduced, in 1991, by Sony for portable electronic devices. The state of art cathode for the LIB is LiCoO 2. It
offers high lithium ion mobility, high electrochemical potential and practical capacity of 140 mAh/g. However,
cobalt is rare and toxic material, which not only increases the cost of the battery but also effects on the
environment. So reducing the cost and toxicity of battery is of major concern. In 1997, J. B. Goodenough [1]
introduced LiFePO4 as a cathode material for LIB. It is the most attractive cathode material because of its low
cost, non-toxicity, thermally stable and high theoretical capacity.
LiFePO4 shows olivine structure consisting of distorted LiO6, FeO6, and PO4 units. The cation
arrangement in LiFePO4 differs significantly from that in layered or spinel structures. There is no continuous
network of FeO6 edge-shared octahedral that might contribute to the electronic conductivity. Instead, the
divalent Fe2+ ions occupy the corner-shared octahedra. The P5+ is located in tetrahedral sites, and Li+ resides in
chains of edge-shared octahedra. The strong covalent bonding between the oxygen and P 5+ to form the (PO4)3-
unit allows for greater stabilization in such structures compared to layered oxides [2].
This paper reports combustion synthesis of LiFePO4. The TG-DTA is employed to detect phase
formation. The ash is calcined in air and nitrogen atmosphere and is studied for structural, elemental and
morphological properties. Its dc conductivity is also measured.

231
2. Experimental
In the current research work, LiFePO4 powder was synthesized by solution combustion method. Iron
nitrate (FeN3O9.9H2O, Alfa Aesar), ammonium di-hydrogen phosphate (NH4H2PO4, Alfa Aesar) and lithium
nitrate (LiNO3, Alfa Aesar) were used as metal precursors. Glycine (C2H5NO2, HIMEDIA) was used as a fuel. It
is the source of carbon and hydrogen and it also contains amino acids, which helps in the formation of metal
complex. Metal nitrate precursors were dissolved in the minimum amount of water and kept with continuous
stirring on the hot plate. The glycine was then mixed in to the solution of metal nitrate precursors, which
allowed mixing metal nitrates at molecular level to form homogeneous mixture. The stoichiometric oxidant to
fuel ratio is 1:2 but in the current research work it was doubled (1:4) to create reducing atmosphere during
combustion. The process of heating and stirring is continued until excess amount of water is removed to form
gel. This gel was kept in a pre-heated furnace at 300ᵒC; gel decomposed and black colour floppy was formed.
After grinding ash in agate mortar, this powder was heat treated at 700 ᵒC in air and nitrogen atmosphere with
heating rate 10ᵒ/min.
Characterization: Thermogravimetric measurement was performed in air and nitrogen atmosphere to
study the decomposition behaviour of as prepared powder using the Perkin Elmer TGA-DTA-DSC instrument
(model SDT-2960). The crystalline properties of LiFePO4 powder were carried out by using X-ray
diffractometer (PHILIPS PW-3710) with Cu Kα as radiation source wave length of radiation 2.2897Ǻ.
Morphological properties were analysed using scanning electron microscope (SEM, JEOL JSM-6360).
Elemental analysis of LiFePO4 powder was carried out by EDAX (Hitachi S-4200).
DC conductivity of LFP film was carried out in a temperature range of 30-130 ᵒC in air.

3. Result and Discussion:

3.1 TG-DTA
a b

Fig. 1. Thermo-gravimetric analysis of as prepared powder in (a) air and (b) nitrogen.

Fig 1a and 1b shows the thermo-gravimetric analysis of as prepared powder in air and nitrogen
atmospheres, respectively. A weight loss in three regions is observed. The gradual weight loss with endothermic
peak at ~ 150 ᵒC in both atmospheres is due to desorption of water molecule and weight loss between 150

232
to370ᵒC is due to the removal of remaining constituents in the powder. While in air, abrupt weight loss after
400ᵒC (fig 1a) is due to the combustion of nitrates and formation of oxides with corresponding exothermic peak.
Above 500ᵒC, weight remains constant assuring phase formation [3-5]. However, the XRD of this powder (not
shown here) reveals that the single LFP is not formed rather Fe 2O3 is formed as secondary phase. On the
contrary, in nitrogen, gradual weight loss is observed (fig 1b). This is because of the carbonization, which is
observed in elemental analysis and is presumed to enhance the conductivity even in the low temperature.

3.2 X-ray diffraction study

Fig. 2. XRD pattern of LFP powder calcined at 700oC in nitrogen atmosphere

Fig. 2 shows the XRD pattern of LFP powder calcined at 700 oC in nitrogen atmosphere for 5h. All the
peaks are well matching with JCPDS card no 83-2092. It shows single phase LFP with lattice constants a =
10.32, b = 6.06 and c = 4.67 Å. The formation of Fe2O3 is prohibited by the absence of air during calcination.
The crystalline size (D) is calculated by using Scherrer formula,
k
D
 cos  (1)
Where, D is crystallite size, K is constant (0.9), λ is wave length of X ray, β is full width at half maxima of the
diffraction peak. The average crystalline size of the powder is 19.76 nm, which is small compared to that
reported in [6-7].

3.3 Elemental analysis

Fig. 3 shows EDX spectrum of LFP powder calcined at 700 ᵒC in nitrogen atmosphere. It shows
characteristics peaks of Fe, P and O from in LFP powder. It also shows the carbon residues in the LFP powder,

233
which originates from fuel.

Fig. 3. The EDX spectrum of LFP powder calcined at 700 ᵒC in nitrogen atmosphere.

3.4 Surface morphological study

Fig. 4a shows the surface morphology of the powder, which shows clusters of agglomerated grains of
average size 0.57 µm. For the measurement of dc conductivity, LFP powder is screen printed on glass substrate.
The SEM of screen printed LFP in Fig. 4b shows fine sized grains of nanometric dimensions with porous
structure.

a b

Fig. 4. The surface morphology of (a) powder and (b) film.

3.5 DC conductivity measurement

-6
Fig. 5 shows the DC conductivity of LFP. The dc conductivity at room temperature is 7.6 × 10 S/cm,
-9
which is higher as compared to the reported value of 10 S/cm in [8]. The increased conductivity is assigned to

234
the presence of carbon in LFP powder.

Fig. 5. DC conductivity measurement of LFP with respect to temperature.

4. Conclusion

We have successfully obtained single phase LiFePO4 by solution combustion method and have studied
structural, morphological and electrical properties. The TG-DTA and XRD of powder calcined in air reveals
that the Fe2O3 is formed as secondary phase. If calcined in nitrogen, carbon remains in the powder as detected in
XRD and EDAX. It helps to improve the conductivity of LFP.

5. Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Dr. D. M. Phase UGC DAE IUC Indore for extending EDAX and SEM
characterization and Mr. Ahire, Sr. Engineer, UGC DAE IUC Indore for his co-operation.

6. Reference:

1. A. K. Padhi, K, Nanjundaswamy, J. B. Goodenough, J. Electrochem. Soc. 4 (1997) 1188-1193.

2. K. Hsu, S. Tsay and B. Hwang, J. Mater. Chem. 14 (2004), 2690-2695.
3. A. Naik, J. Zhou, C. Gao, L. Wang, Electrochim Acta. 142 (2014) 215-222.
4. X. Zhuo-bing, M. A. Ming-you, Trans. Nonferrous Met. Soc. China 16(2006) 273-276.
5. J. Nanda, S. K. Martha, W. D. Porter, H. Wang, N. J. Dudne, M. D. Radin, D. J. Siegel, J. Power Sources
251 (2014) 8-13.
6. K. S. Dhindsa, B. P. Mandal, K. Bazzi, M. W. Lin, M. Nazri, G. A. Nazri,V. M. Naik, V. K. Garg, A. C.

235
 Oliveira, P. Vaishnava, R. Naik, Z. X. Zhou, Solid State Ionics. 253 (2013) 94-100.
7. X. Sun, K. Sun, Y. Wang, X. Bai, C. Chen, Bo Cui, Int. J. Electrochem. Sci. 8 (2013) 12816-12836.
8. L. He, P. Yang, S. Zhang, X. Wei, G. Liu, Int. J. Electrochem. Sci. 8 (2013) 7107-7114.

236
 ICAER-2015

Application of OSCAT satellite data for offshore wind power

potential assessment of India
Garlapati Nagababu1*, Ravi Simha R, Natansh K Naidu, Surendra Singh Kachhwaha,
Vimal Savsani
School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, India

Abstract

In the present study the summary of offshore wind resources of the India has been provided by analyzing the OSCAT
satellite data measured over 2 years (2012-2013). In order to determine the feasibility of wind power development in the
region of interest and to calculate the available offshore wind potential available therein, the Geographical Information
System (GIS) has been used to generate winds at the turbine hub height of 80 m. The calculation shows that the maximum
range of annual mean wind speed and wind power density (WPD) are 9.7-13.4 m/s and 1048.7-1632.5 W/m2 respectively,
followed by estimation of generated power using a modern wind turbine of 2.1 MW rated capacity. The total area of interest
was further divided into zones having different wind classes. Nearly 74% of the area within the region of interest was found
to be of class 1. The annual energy production (AEP) calculations indicate that by utilizing 100 percent of its available
offshore wind resources, India is capable of achieving 7291.30 GW of installed wind power capacity and by utilizing which
it can generate 29563518.64 - 57453958.07 GWh / year which is 21.51 – 41.81 times its present electricity requirement of
1374111.12 GWh / year.
Keywords: OSCAT; GIS; offshore wind energy; India

1. Introduction

Energy is crucial for the evolution, growth and sustenance of all life forms and plays a pivotal role in the
overall development of a country. With the Indian economy marching towards higher growth rates, which as of
now has touched the mark of 6.6% for the financial year (FY) 2015-16, needs sufficient sources to feed its
energy demands for a sustained growth. The anticipated peak demand of electricity in India for the FY 2015-16
is around 156.862 GW and the demand met is around 152.754 GW i.e. there is around 4.108 GW of power
deficit [1]. According to load generation balance report [1], India is likely to experience the annual mean energy
shortage of 2.1% and a peak shortage of 2.6% for the FY 2015 – 2016. In order to meet this ever increasing
demand of electricity, electrical power is being generated from the non-renewable sources of energy which
mainly consist fossil fuels. The extensive use of fossil fuels is creating many environmental issues [2]. Due to
the rising concerns over climate change around the world, there is a need of reducing the dependency over the
fossil fuel based energy generation.
Wind energy emerged as the front-runner in terms of meeting the demand in amongst renewable energy
sector with more than 369597 MW capacity installed globally [1]. The offshore wind energy sector has
experienced a rapid growth in the recent years mainly due, among other factors, to generating more energy from
fewer turbines and most of the world's largest cities being located near a coastal area. Offshore wind power is
suitable for large-scale development near major demand centers globally, thus avoiding the need for long
transmission lines. Commissioning of offshore wind turbines in the vicinity of densely populated coastal regions
with high property values is economically attractive, because high property values make onshore development
expensive and sometimes may also lead to public opposition.
Wind can be measured directly by anemometers and windvanes installed on the buoys, masts or ships as well
as indirectly by weather balloons and rawinsondes. These methods cannot be applied to map large sea areas with
high spatial resolution. In practice, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and satellite imagery (like
Synthetic Aperture Radar, QuikSCAT, OSCAT etc.) approaches can meet these needs [4].
Dvorak et al. [5] analyzed the offshore wind energy potential of California at the wind turbine hub height of
80 m and classified various areas in the region based on water depth, coastal transmission line access, wind
turbine development potential and annual mean wind speed at 80 m hub height. Oh et al. [6] assessed the wind

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +919724013948

E-mail address: garlapatinagu@gmail.com

237
Nomenclature

 Air density, kg/m3

z Height above ground level, m
zr Reference height above ground level, m
Vz Wind speed at height z, m/s
V zr Wind speed at height zr, m/s
P/ A Wind power density, W/m2
A Swept area of the rotor blades, m2
Ea Extractible mean monthly energy, kWh/m2/year
d Number of days in the month
CF Capacity factor
N Total number of observations
P Annual Energy production, kWh/year

resource around Korean Peninsula based on the marine buoy datasets and QuikSCAT satellite data. Till date no
systematic studies have been yet to be carried out to estimate the available offshore wind energy potential off
the coasts of India. Currently; in the entire offshore exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the India; no offshore
wind power projects exist, operational or otherwise and none has been planned either; one reason for which
could be the incomplete or insufficient understanding of wind regime over the sea, so as to identify the
feasibility of wind power development off the coasts of India along-with indicating the potential offshore sites.
In this study, the offshore wind resource estimation has been carried out for the entire Indian offshore EEZ and
the results thereof are discussed in detail. The Oceansat-2 scatterometer (OSCAT) [7] satellite data measured
over the period of 2 years has been used for analysis to identify the wind resource characteristics off the coasts
of India. The remotely sensed data is derived from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Oceansat-
2 satellite, which estimates near-surface wind speed at 10 m height above sea level (asl) by using scatterometer.

2. Methodology

2.1. Data acquisition

In consistence with the prerequisites of wind resource evaluation, remotely sensed OSCAT wind field data
[7] from January 2012 to February 2014 has been used. The OSCAT wind field dataset was used for offshore
wind resource assessment for the entire Indian EEZ. An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed
by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state/country has special rights regarding
the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind and according to
which the EEZ can extend upto a maximum limit of 200 nautical miles off the coasts of the concerned
state/country. OSCAT is an active microwave sensor on-board the Oceansat-2 satellite launched by the Indian
Space Research Organization (ISRO) on 23rd September 2009. It is a Ku-band pencil beam scatterometer
operating at 13.515 GHz frequency with a ground resolution cell size of 50 km x 50 km. OSCAT was intended
to provide ocean surface wind vectors covering the global oceans with a revisit time of 2 days. The data was
supplied to Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) and numerical data was analyzed based on longitude and
latitude representing the wind conditions at a specific point. Therefore, mean wind speed distribution, wind
power density distribution and monthly, yearly and seasonal wind speed variation can be calculated based on
these data.

2.2. Mathematical model

A typical offshore wind turbine hub height of 80 m is selected for the purpose of analysis. As the wind
resources are measured by OSCAT at 10 m above the sea level the data needs to be extrapolated to required hub
height, for which the logarithmic law was used which is given by the relation
ln
 zz 

(1)
Vz  Vz  
z
ln 
r
 r z 
 

238
Where z, z r represents the turbine hub height and a reference height above sea level respectively. Vz , Vz are the
r

wind speeds at the heights z, z r respectively. The roughness length, z o of 0.2 mm has been considered as per
recommendations for offshore applications [4,8].

The mean wind power density P / A was calculated as

N
P 1

A 2N
 V
j 1
3
j (2)

Where A is swept area of the wind turbine, N is the total number of observations, V j is the wind speed at
observation j and ρ is the standard sea level air density taken as 1.225 kg/m3 [4,8].

The annual energy is defined by the relationship given by

12
Ea   0.024d P / A
n 1
(3)

The annual energy production that the turbine can generate is defined by the relationship

P  CF  A  E a (4)

The available area under each class was estimated which was then divided by the individual turbine footprint in
order to find out the total number of wind turbines that can be commissioned within the area under each class.
The individual turbine footprint (i.e. Array Spacing) was calculated using the following equation [8]

Array Spcing  rotor diameter 2  downwind spacing factor   crosswind spacing factor  (5)

The total number of turbines that can be commissioned within the area under each class was determined by
using the following equation [8]

available area
Number of turbines  (6)
array spacing

a b

Fig. 1 Distribution of (a) mean annual wind speed (m/s); (b) mean wind power density (W/m2)

239
3. Result and discussion

The dataset assessed in this study is the daily OSCAT wind field product from 2012 and 2013 having a
spatial resolution of 50 km x 50 km and daily average wind speeds were extracted from it. Fig. 1 depict the
distribution of annual mean wind speed and the annual mean WPD over the entire region of interest (i.e. the
entire Indian offshore EEZ). Wind data obtained from the OSCAT satellite was measured at the height of 10 m
above sea level (asl), which was extrapolated to the required hub height of 80 m asl using Eq. 1. Utilizing this
wind data obtained at the height of 80 m asl, the annual mean wind speed was calculated for the entire region of
interest (using Eq. 2) and was mapped as shown in Fig. 1 (a) which clearly indicates that a vast majority of the
area under study exhibits wind speeds in the range of 4.9 – 6.6 m/s whereas the highest wind speeds (in the
range of 6.6 – 13.4 m/s) are encountered off the southeastern coasts of India between the ports at Vizag and
Tuticorin and off the western coast of India in the vicinity of Kandla port. The lowest wind speeds (in the range
of 2.6 – 4.9 m/s) are encountered off the southwestern and southern coasts of India between the ports at
Mangalore and Tuticorin.
The annual mean WPD was evaluated over the entire Indian offshore EEZ, based on the annual mean wind
speed, by using Eq. 3, which clearly indicates that the WPD is directly proportional to the cube of wind speed,
thereby justifying the similar trends exhibited by the annual mean WPD and annual mean wind speed as mapped
in Fig. 1, wherein Fig. 1 (b) indicates that a vast majority of the area under study exhibits WPD in the range of
65.2 – 204.7 W/m2. The highest WPD encountered is in the range of 629.8 – 1632.6 W/m2 while the lowest
WPD encountered is in the range of 14.4 – 65.2 W/m2.

3.1. Seasonal variation

Four seasons have been considered in India and their span from January to December has been considered as
follows [9]

 Winter: January to February (59 days)

 Pre-Monsoon: March to May (92 days)
 Monsoon: June to September (122 days)
 Post-Monsoon: October to December (92 days)

Fig. 2. Seasonal variation of mean wind speed (m/s) (a) Pre-Monsoon; (b) Monsoon; (c) Post-Monsoon; (d) Winter

240
 In accordance with this, Fig. 2 depicts the distribution of mean wind speed for different seasons in India,
calculated by using Eq. 2. During the three seasons apart from winter, highest wind speeds are encountered off
the southeastern coasts of India between the ports at Vizag and Tuticorin and off the southwestern coast of India
in the vicinity of the port at Mormugao whereas during winter highest wind speeds are encountered off the
southwestern coasts of India between the ports at Mumbai and Mangalore, as well as in the vicinity of Vizag
and Chennai ports. Moreover for all the seasons highest wind speeds are also encountered at or in the vicinity of
the Kandla port off the western coast of India, while lowest wind speeds are encountered off the western coasts
of India in the entire region above the Mumbai port excluding the region around Kandla port, off the eastern
coasts of India in the entire region above Vizag port and off the southwestern and southern coasts of India
between the ports at Mangalore and Tuticorin. Remaining regions, other than the ones discussed above, can be
considered to have moderate wind speeds.

Fig. 3. Seasonal variation of mean wind power density (a) Pre-Monsoon; (b) Monsoon; (c) Post-Monsoon; (d) Winter

Fig. 3 depicts the distribution of annual mean WPD, calculated by using Eq. 3, across the region of interest
which is again found to exhibit trends similar to the distribution of seasonal mean wind speed. For all the
seasons, the offshore regions in the vicinity of Kandla port on the western coast, the Mormugao port on the
southwestern coast and Chennai port on the southeastern coast of India exhibit highest WPD whereas the lowest
WPD is encountered in the region above the Mumbai port off the western coast except the region around Kandla
port, above Vizag port off the eastern coast and in the region off the southwestern and southern coasts of India
between the Mangalore and Tuticorin ports.

Table 1. Wind power classes at the extrapolated hub height of 80 m [10]

Wind power class Annual average

wind power density (W/m2)
1 0 – 251.3
2 251.3 – 375.1
3 375.1 – 490.8
4 490.8 – 603.6
5 603.6 – 732.6
6 732.6 – 975.1
7 > 975.1

241
a b

Fig. 4. (a) Classification of entire available offshore wind resource into various classes based on WPD; (b) Distribution of AEP over the
entire Indian offshore EEZ

At the hub height of 80 m, the various sites within the region of interest can be classified on the basis of
WPD, as depicted in Table 1 [10] and the same information has been mapped in Fig. 4 (a) and is indicated in
Table 2 as well from which it can be inferred that nearly 74% of the sites within the region of interest are of
class 1 at which approximately 48% are economically feasible for wind power development. Except a small
region off the coast of Mormugao which is of class 2 and the region in the vicinity of Kandla port which is of
class 6 – class 7, almost all the sites in the Arabian Sea are identified to be of class 1. However, the sites in the
range of class 3 – class 7 do exist off the southeastern coast of India in the region between the ports of Vizag
and Tuticorin (in the Bay of Bengal) wherein majority of the sites of class 6 and class 7 are concentrated far off
the coasts of Chennai.

Table 2: Percentage of available area within various wind classes

Available area within % of total area

Wind Class
respective wind class within each wind class
1 1207909.24 73.78
2 93567.09 5.72
3 90904.41 5.55
4 114844.43 7.01
5 54883.41 3.35
6 32879.28 2.01
7 42174.48 2.58
TOTAL 1637162.33 100.00

Next, on the basis of annual mean WPD the annual energy production (AEP) (kWh/year) was calculated by
using Eq. 4 and Eq. 5 and was also mapped across the region of interest as depicted in Fig. 4 (b). For AEP
calculations, Suzlon S97 2.1 MW wind turbine [11] along with hypothetical capacity factor of 0.25 was
considered. As is evident from Fig. 4 (b) the sites off the southwestern coasts of India between the ports at
Mormugao and Mangalore as well as those off the southeastern coasts of India between the ports at Vizag and
Tuticorin along-with those at or in the vicinity of the Kandla port off the western coast of India exhibit highest
wind power potential. The locations off the the western coasts of India in the region above the Mumbai port
(except the Kandla port location), those located off the eastern coasts of India in the region above Vizag port
along-with those located off the southwestern and southern coasts of India between Mangalore and Tuticorin
ports exhibit lowest wind power potential. The remaining locations other than these can be considered to have
moderate wind power potential.

242
Table 3. Power generation from different regions classified based on the expected AEP range within the Indian offshore EEZ

Min. expected Max. expected

AEP range (kWh/m2) No. of Turbines Total MW Capacity
power generation (GWh) power generation (GWh)
332-4500 1565454 3287454.7 959683.1 13007753.9
4500-9000 854260 1793946.7 7098262.6 14196525.2
9000-13500 681828 1431839.6 11330965.0 16996447.6
13500-18000 278804 585488.6 6949958.9 9266611.9
18000-22500 70427 147898.7 2340814.3 2926017.9
22500-26000 21273 44674.3 883834.4 1060601.2

Table 3 indicates the various regions within the Indian offshore EEZ classified based on the range of AEP
that can be expected from the sites within those regions along-with indicating the individual turbine footprint,
number of turbines that can be commissioned, total MW capacity that can be installed, as well as minimum and
maximum expected power generation for the regions of each class.
Inferences drawn from the data indicated in Table 3 are indicated in Table 4 which clearly imply that by 100
percent utilization of its available offshore wind resource, India is capable of generating 21.51 – 41.81 times its
present power requirement of 1374111.12 GWh/year. Moreover, if 40% of the available area is excluded in
order to account for shipping lanes, fishery rights and other conflicting uses, it estimates that India can capable
of generating 12.91 – 25.09 times of present power requirement.

Table 4. Net offshore power generation capacity and its comparison with present electricity demand

Minimum Maximum
Required
Total Expected Expected power Expected Expected power
Power No. of
GW power generation/Present power generation/Present
(GWh/year) turbines
Capacity generation requirement generation requirement
[3]
(GWh/year) (Ratio) (GWh/year) (Ratio)
Before
excluding
1374111.12 3472049 7291.3 29563518.6 21.51 57453958.07 41.81
available
area
After
excluding
40% of the 1374111.12 2083229 4374.7 17738111.2 12.91 34472374.84 25.09
available
area

Conclusions

This study analyzes the wind flow across the entire Indian offshore EEZ and provides an estimate of the
available offshore wind power potential in India along-with highlighting the zones having the highest and
lowest wind power potential. These estimates were derived on the basis of the satellite data, which was first
validated with respect to the available in-situ moored buoy data, and was then utilized for AEP estimation. The
findings of this study are as follows
 The highest annual mean wind speeds ranging from 6.6 – 13.4 m/s and WPDs ranging from 629.8 – 1632.6
W/m2 are encountered off the southeastern coasts of India between the ports at Vizag and Tuticorin and off
the western coast of India in the vicinity of Kandla port. Hence, these locations should be given utmost
priority while selection of sites for the development of offshore wind power in India.
 The study of seasonal variations indicates that the annual mean wind speed and WPD are highest off the
western coast of India in the vicinity of Kandla port and off the southeastern coast of India off the location
of Chennai port. Moreover, the region off the Mormugao port off the southwestern coast of India also
indicates highest values of annual mean wind speed and WPD except during the Monsoon season.
 Almost all the sites located off the western, southwestern and southern coasts of India are of class 1
whereas those located off the southeastern coast of India, particularly in the region between the ports at
Vizag and Tuticorin are mostly of class 3 – class 7, thus indicating relatively higher wind potential
compared to all other sites off the coasts of India.
 The annual energy production that by utilizing 100 percent of its available offshore wind resources, India is
capable of achieving 7291.30 GW of installed wind power capacity (by installing wind turbines of 2.1 MW
rated capacity) and it can achieve AEP of 29563518.64 - 57453958.07 GWh / year which is 21.51 – 41.81

243
 times its present electricity requirement of 1374111.12 GWh / year. If wind turbines having higher swept
areas are used, the net power generation capacity may also increase many fold.

References

[1] Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).[Online]. Available: http://mnre.gov.in/mission-and-vision-2/mission-and-

vision/. [Accessed: 09-Sep-2015].
[2] S. Chakrabarti, G. S. Rathore, Sushil Kumar, A. S. Hada, Rekha Bajaj Energy statistics 2013, Central statistics office, New
Delhi, 2013.
[3] Load generation balance report 2015-16, Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi, 2015.
[4] Beaucage P, Lafrance G, Lafrance J, Choisnard J, Bernier M, Synthetic aperture radar satellite data for offshore wind
assessment: A strategic sampling approach, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, (2011) 27-36.
[5] Michael J. Dvoraka, Cristina L. Archerb, Mark Z. Jacobsona, California offshore wind energy potential, Renewable Energy, 35
(2010) 1244–1254.
[6] Ki-Young Oh, Ji-Young Kim, Jun-Shin Lee, Ki-Wahn Ryu, Wind resource assessment around Korean Peninsula for feasibility
study on 100 MW class offshore wind farm, Renewable Energy, 42 (2012) 217-226.
[7] Chiranjivi Jayaram and A. Jeyaram,Regional Remote Sensing Centre-East, NRSC/ISRO, Kolkata; Debadatta Swain, Saurabh
Bansal and K. H. Rao (NRSC), ISRO, Hyderabad; Udaya Bhaskar T. V. S. and E. Pattabhi Rama Rao Indian National Centre for
Ocean Information, Generation of OSCAT Winds Daily Composites, 2013.
[8] B. Sheridan, S. D. Baker, N. S. Pearre, J. Firestone, and W. Kempton, Calculating the offshore wind power resource: Robust
assessment methods applied to the U.S. Atlantic Coast, Renew. Energy, 43 (2012) 224–233.
[9] G. of I. National Climate Centre, India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
ANNUAL CLIMATE SUMMARY - 2014, 2014.
[10] N. Salvação, M. Bernardino, and C. G. Soares, Assessing the offshore wind energy potential along the coasts of Portugal and
Galicia, 2006 (2014) 995–1002.
[11] Suzlon, 2.1MW PLATFORM Generations ahead, 2015. [Accessed: 09-Oct-2015].

244
 ICAER-2015

A Comparative Study of Grid-connected Photovoltaic Systems in

Four Different Locations of India
Baishali Talukdar, Sadhan Mahapatra 1, Nabin Sarmah
Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur-784028, India

Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of 100 kW P grid-connected photovoltaic systems for four different geographical
locations of India viz. Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jodhpur and Tezpur using PVsyst simulation tool. The simulation is performed
by considering three different module technologies i.e. mono-crystalline silicon, poly-crystalline silicon and thin film-CdTe.
The total energy generated by the PV systems, performance ratio of the systems and the total system losses due to various
factors are estimated. The PV system based at Tezpur is found to have lowest annual energy output for all the module
technologies due to low solar radiation but highest performance ratio in compare to the other three locations. It is observed
from the simulation that CdTe modules perform better for all the four locations which are mainly because of low irradiance
and temperature loss in CdTe modules than mono-Si and poly-Si module technologies. The PVsyst simulation result is also
validated with the field measurement results from a 100 kWp power plant at Sahibabad and it shows good agreement. It is
concluded from the study that, though solar radiation is relatively low in North Eastern part of India, but as the average
ambient temperature is low, Performance Ratio is satisfactory; cost of energy will be comparable to other places.
Keywords: PV system, grid-connected, energy output, Performance Ratio, PVsyst

1. Introduction

Solar energy is the most readily available source of renewable energy. It is anticipated to become the world’s
largest source of electricity by 2050, with solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar power will contribute 16%
and 11% to the global overall energy consumption respectively [1]. India has vast solar energy potential and
with the launch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2010, the country has witnessed appreciable
scaling up of installed solar capacities from mere 2 MW in 2008-09 to 3744 MW by March, 2015 [2].
Photovoltaic (PV) array directly converts the incident solar radiation into DC power through the photovoltaic
effect which can be further converted to AC power using inverters and coupled to the electric distribution grid.
Such grid-connected photovoltaic systems can play a significant role in meeting the electricity demand to a
considerable extent. The energy generation from a PV system is mainly influenced by the solar irradiation and
ambient temperature. To understand the operational behavior of PV systems before installation, it is essential to
estimate the energy yield and to analyze the performance of PV modules considering the climatic conditions of
the location. Karki et al. made a comparative study of two 60 kWp grid-tied PV systems in Kathmandu and
Berlin using PVsyst simulation tool and analyzed the total amount of energy generated by the systems that can
be feed to the grid and different losses that occur in the systems [3]. Tripathi et al. studied two 500 kWp grid
connected PV systems (a-Si power plant and mc-Si power plant) located at the same place in Gujarat, both of
which experience the same fluctuation in temperature and radiation. The final yield and performance ratio of the
two systems is evaluated and a-Si solar PV power plant found to have high capture losses as compared to the
mc-Si solar PV power plant [4]. Irwanto et al. analyzed the performance of a PV system power output by using
PVsyst simulation tool. The results of simulation depicted the effect of ambient temperature and incident
irradiance to the performance of polycrystalline silicon PV module. The efficiency of PV module increases from
11.3% to 14% as the ambient temperature decreases from 55⁰C to 10⁰C. When the incident irradiance varies
from 200 W/m2 to 1000 W/m2 , the output power of PV module increases from 26.8W to 130.6W, thereby
increases the efficiency from 10.45% to 13.05% [5]. Several studies in recent years have been conducted on the
performance evaluation of PV systems for different geographical locations and due to exponential increase in the
demand of solar PV systems, it becomes important to compare the performance of available photovoltaic
technologies in a particular climatic zone for maximum energy output and minimum system losses. In this study,
a comparative analysis of the performance of 100 kW p grid-connected solar photovoltaic system for four
different locations in India i.e. Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jodhpur and Tezpur has been carried out by using PVsyst

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 03712 275306.

E-mail address: sadhan.mahapatra@gmail.com

245
simulation tool. The total energy generated by the systems, reference yield, final yield, performance ratio and
system losses are analyzed to evaluate the suitability of these PV systems and compare their performance using
three different module technologies viz. mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si), poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si)
and thin film-CdTe PV modules. The simulation results are also validated with the field measurement results
from a 100 kWp power plant located at Sahibabad.

2. Methodology and PV system description

PVsyst simulation tool is used for sizing and data analysis of the 100 kWp photovoltaic system. This
simulation tool deals with grid-connected, stand-alone, pumping and DC-grid PV systems, and includes
extensive meteo and PV systems components databases, as well as general solar energy tools [6]. The global
horizontal solar irradiation and the monthly average ambient temperature obtained from the meteorological
database in PVsyst are used as input data. Fig 1 represents mono-crystalline-Si module specifications used in the
PVsyst simulation tool. A grid-connected PV system of 100 kWp is designed for four different locations in
India (Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jodhpur and Tezpur) using PVsyst and the simulation is performed by considering
three different modules technologies viz. mono-crystalline Si, poly-crystalline Si and thin film CdTe modules
tilted at an angle optimized with respect to the latitude of the four regions to obtain maximum global incident
irradiation on the module plane. The monthly energy output from the 100 kWp PV systems and their
performance ratio along with the different losses that occur in the systems are compared. Table 1 presents the
input parameters for the system design in PVsyst. The simulated results in PVsyst are used to perform a
comparative analysis of the PV systems at four different locations. The performance parameters that define the
overall system performance with respect to the energy production, solar resource and overall effect of system
losses include total energy output, final yield, reference yield and performance ratio [7]. The performance ratio
is the ratio of final yield and reference yield and it indicates the global system efficiency with respect to the
nominal installed power of PV system.

Table 1. Input Parameters for grid-connected 100 kW P PV system design in PVsyst

Parameters Ahmedabad Chennai Jodhpur Tezpur
Latitude 23.1⁰N 13.0⁰N 26.3⁰N 26.7⁰N
Longitude 72.6⁰E 80.2⁰E 73.0⁰E 92.8⁰E
Altitude 58 m 19 m 287 m 48 m
Tilt angle 27⁰ 20⁰ 30⁰ 30⁰
PV system size 100 kW
Module
Mono-crystalline Si Poly-crystalline Si Thin Film (CdTe)
Technology
Module rating 250 Wp 250 Wp 100 Wp
PV module
MoserBaer-MBPV CAAP First Solar-
Model Shan Solar-3MSS60
BC 250 Wp FS-3100-PLUS
Number of
400 400 1000
Modules
Output Power 100kW ac
Inverter
Model ABB-PVS800-57-0100kW-A

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Comparative analysis of solar radiation and ambient temperature

The global horizontal irradiation and ambient temperature of the four geographical locations in India over the
months of a year are compared and observed that Jodhpur receives the highest total annual global irradiation of
2046.1 kWh/ /year followed by Ahmedabad and Chennai with global irradiation of 2020.6 kWh/ /year and
2007.6 kWh/ /year respectively while Tezpur receives the lowest annual global irradiation of 1719.8
kWh/ /year. The ambient temperature profile shows that Chennai has the highest annual average ambient
temperature of 28.4⁰C followed by Ahmedabad and Jodhpur with ambient temperature of 27.1⁰C and 27⁰C
while Tezpur has the lowest annual average ambient temperature of 24.1⁰C. The comparison of the global
irradiation and ambient temperature for different places viz. Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jodhpur and Tezpur are
shown in Fig. 2.

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 Fig.1. Mono-crystalline-Si module specifications in PVsyst

Fig. 2. Comparison of global irradiation and ambient temperature in four different places

Table 2 Simulated results of grid-connected 100kWp PV systems in Ahmedabad

Tilted at 0⁰ Tilted at 27⁰ Ambient Energy injected into grid (kWh)
Month Global horizontal Global effective Temperature
irradiation irradiation (⁰C) Mono-Si Poly-Si CdTe
(kWh/m2month) (kWh/m2month)
Jan 147.3 193.4 19.6 16000 16191 16454
Feb 156.6 186.9 22.4 15070 15284 15655
Mar 203.1 215.1 27.9 16741 17031 17637
Apr 213.8 200.2 31.6 15426 15706 16314
May 225.4 192.3 33 14981 15234 15761
Jun 183.6 151.7 31.7 12225 12390 12667
Jul 139.1 118.4 29.1 9815 9918 10028
Aug 136.9 121.8 28.1 10063 10172 10303
Sep 162.7 160 28.9 12902 13079 13379
Oct 171.1 192.8 27.9 15256 15498 15966
Nov 144 183 24.1 14789 14995 15349
Dec 136.9 185.6 20.3 15338 15522 15779
Total 2020.6 2101.1 27.1 168606 171022 175293

3.2. Energy output from PV systems

It is observed that for the PV system based at Ahmedabad with global effective irradiation of 2101.1
kWh/m2 /year on the PV array’s surface for a tilt angle of 270, the total annual energy that can be injected to the

247
grid by using mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules are 168606 kWh, 171022 kWh and 175293 kWh
respectively. The monthly energy generations for the three module technologies are shown in Table 2. Similar
kinds of results are obtained for the other locations. It is found from the simulation that the total annual energy
that can be injected to the grid by using mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules are 168606 kWh, 171022 kWh and
175293 kWh for Ahmedabad; 156004 kWh, 158081 kWh and 161477 kWh for Chennai; 174963 kWh, 177523
kWh and 182119 kWh for Jodhpur and 151344 kWh, 152982 kWh and 154860 kWh for Tezpur respectively.
On comparison of same capacity PV systems based in four geographical locations with different global
irradiation and temperature profile, the annual energy generations for the three module technologies are found to
be the highest in Jodhpur and lowest in Tezpur because of the lower global irradiation available in Tezpur as
compared to the other three locations. It is also observed that the energy produced is maximum for CdTe
modules and minimum for mono-Si modules for all the four locations. This is due to less irradiance and
temperature loss in CdTe modules than mono-Si and poly-Si module technologies. The comparison of annual
energy production from 100 kWp PV system using mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules in Ahmedabad,
Chennai, Jodhpur and Tezpur are shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Comparison of system energy production for three different module technologies

3.3. PV system losses

Fig 3-6 presents the system loss comparison for three different module technologies at the various locations.
The overall losses for the PV systems using mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules based in Jodhpur are
maximum with about 24.6%, 24% and 20.7% losses for mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules respectively and
almost equal to the losses that occur for the systems based in Ahmedabad. The lowest losses are observed for
the PV systems based in Tezpur with about 21.2%, 20.7% and 18.5% losses for mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe
modules respectively.

Fig. 4. Comparison of total system losses for three different module technologies

248
The various system losses are calculated in PVsyst based on the inputs of site parameters, global radiation,
ambient temperature and electrical and mechanical specifications of the modules considered for simulation. The
simulated losses are obtained in the form of loss diagrams in PVsyst simulation as shown in Fig. 5 (loss diagram
for mono-Si module in Tezpur) below and the different losses that occur in 100 kW P PV systems in Tezpur
using the three different module technologies are summarized in Table 3. It is observed that CdTe modules
undergo minimum losses with an overall system loss of 18.5 %. The losses in mono-Si and poly-Si modules are
nearly equal with a variation of 0.5% and more than CdTe modules.

Fig. 5. Loss diagram of 100 kW P PV system in Tezpur using 250 Wp monocrystalline-Si modules

Table 3. Predicted system losses for 100 kW P PV system in Tezpur

System Losses (%)
Mono-Si Poly-Si CdTe
Module Efficiency 15.23 15.19 13.89
Irradiance Loss 0.5 0.5 0.3
Temperature Loss 12.5 11.6 8.0
Array soiling loss 3.0 3.0 3.0
Module quality loss 0.4 0.7 2.5
Module array mismatch loss 1.0 1.0 0.8
Ohmic wiring loss 1.0 1.0 1.0
Inverter loss during operation 2.8 2.9 2.9
Total losses 21.2 20.7 18.5

Table 4. Predicted system losses for 100 kW P PV system in Jodhpur

Jodhpur
System Losses Parameters (%)
Mono-Si Poly-Si CdTe
Module Efficiency 15.23 15.19 13.89
Irradiance Loss 0.2 0.3 0.1
Temperature Loss 16.1 15.0 10.3
Array soiling loss 3.0 3.0 3.0
Module quality loss 0.4 0.8 2.5
Module array mismatch loss 1.0 1.0 0.8
Ohmic wiring loss 1.2 1.2 1.2
Inverter loss during operation 2.7 2.7 2.8
Total losses 24.6 24.0 20.7

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 Table 5 Different system losses in PVsyst simulation for Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
System Losses Parameters (%)
Mono-Si Poly-Si CdTe
Module Efficiency 15.23 15.19 13.89
Irradiance Loss 0.3 0.4 0.2
Temperature Loss 15.9 14.8 10.2
Array soiling loss 3.0 3.0 3.0
Module quality loss 0.4 0.8 2.5
Module array mismatch loss 1.0 1.0 0.8
Ohmic wiring loss 1.2 1.2 1.2
Inverter loss during operation 2.7 2.8 2.8
Total losses 24.5 24 20.7

Table 6 Different system losses in PVsyst simulation for Chennai

Chennai
System Losses Parameters (%)
Mono-Si Poly-Si CdTe
Module Efficiency 15.23 15.19 13.89
Irradiance Loss 0.4 0.4 0.2
Temperature Loss 15.0 14.0 9.7
Array soiling loss 3.0 3.0 3.0
Module quality loss 0.4 0.8 2.5
Module array mismatch loss 1.0 1.0 0.8
Ohmic wiring loss 1.1 1.1 1.1
Inverter loss during operation 2.7 2.8 2.8
Total losses 23.6 23.1 20.1

3.4. Performance Ratio

The performance ratio of the PV systems are compared and found that the PV systems in Tezpur have the
highest performance ratio of 78.6%. 79.5% and 80.4% whereas Jodhpur has the lowest performance ratio of
75.7%, 76.8% and 78.7% for mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules respectively. CdTe module performs better
for all the four locations since it undergo minimum losses although its efficiency is low as compared to the
mono-Si and poly-Si module technologies. The comparison of the performance ratio of the PV systems using
the three module technologies are shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. Comparison of Performance Ratio for three different module technologies

3.5. Validation of modeling results

To validate the simulation results, the annual energy output data of a 100 kWp solar photovoltaic power
plant situated at Sahibabad is compared with the simulated results for the same location. Plant consists of 62
strings of 10 modules in series. The total capacity of the plant is 100 kWp (Fig 7). Mono-Crystalline Silicon
modules of 165Wp each is used in the plant. The simulation results for the monthly energy output of the plant in
2014 are compared with the simulation results obtained from the model. As shown in Fig.8 the simulation
results found to have close match with the plant data collected. The simulated results are found to be in close

250
agreement with the actual measured results with an uncertainty of 4.1% when the measured solar radiation data
of the site is used as input to the simulation. While the simulation results are found to have insignificantly
higher values of energy generation for all the months of the year, further modification in the model is being
carried out to reduce the mismatch.

4. Conclusions

A comparative analysis of the performance of 100 kWp grid-connected PV systems in four different locations
of India viz. Ahmedabad, Chennai and Jodhpur and Tezpur has been performed and it is found from the
simulation that the total annual energy that can be injected to the grid from the 100 kWp systems in Tezpur for
mono-Si, poly-Si and CdTe modules are 151344 kWh, 152982 kWh and 154860 kWh with performance ratio of
78.6%, 79.5% and 80.4% respectively. The energy generation and performance ratio is found to be higher for
CdTe modules in all the four locations irrespective of different global irradiation and ambient temperature
profile. This is due to low irradiance loss and temperature loss in CdTe modules than that of mono-Si and poly-
Si modules. Even though the average solar energy potential at Tezpur (north-eastern part of India) is lower than
the northern and southern part of India, the study reveals that the performance ratio of the PV system is higher at
Tezpur than the other three regions because of the lower temperature loss. The rise in module temperature from
STC is lower at Tezpur in comparison to other three locations. Hence, NE India can play an important role in
the country’s ambitious target of 100 GW through PV systems by 2022.

Fig. 7. 100 kWP photovoltaic power plant installed on the rooftop in Central Electronics Limited (CEL), Sahibabad

Fig.8. Comparison of the simulation results with the experimentally collected data from a 100 kWP photovoltaic power plant

251
Acknowledgements

The first author would like to acknowledge Dr. Sanjai Kumar of SPV Division in Central Electronics
Limited, Sahibabad for extending his help and support in collecting actual system data of 100 kW P PV power
plant (mono-Si) installed in CEL campus for validation of simulation results.

References

[1] International Energy Agency "Technology Roadmap: Solar Photovoltaic Energy", http://www.iea.org. IEA, 2014, accessed on May
21, 2015.
[2] Solar power in India, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_India, Retrieved May 23, 2015.
[3] P. Karki, B. Adhikary, K. Sherpa, Comparative study of grid-tied photovoltaic system in Kathmandu and Berlin using PVsyst, IEEE
ICSET Nepal, 2012.
[4] B. Tripathi, P. Yadav, S. Rathod, M. Kumar, Performance analysis and comparison of two silicon material based photovoltaic
technologies under actual climatic conditions in Western India, Energy Conversion and Management. 80 (2014) 97-102.
[5] M. Irwanto Y. M. Irwan, I. Safwati, W. Leow, N. Gomesh, Analysis simulation of the photovoltaic output performance, IEEE 8th
International Power Engineering and Optmization Conference, Malaysia, 2014.
[6] PVsyst, http://www.pvsyst.com/, accessed on September 15, 2014.
[7] V. Sharma, S. S. Chandel, Performance analysis of a 190 kWp grid interactive solar photovoltaic power plant in India, Energy. 55
(2013) 476-485.

252
 ICAER-2015

Equilibrium Model for Biomass Gasification: Study of effect of

Biomass properties and Operating parameters
Vinita Shirkea, S.V. Ranadeb, R. Bansala,b,1
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s College of Engineering and Technology, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai, India

b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s College of Engineering and Technology, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai, India

Abstract

Biomass has evolves as one of most promising and clean sources of fuel. Biomass gasification is a thermal
conversion process which converts solid biomass into syngas which is can be used for various applications
including power generation. The choice of gasifying agent air or steam depends on the application of the
syngas. India vast amount of the agri-waste residue is generated in agriculture field which can be used for
power generation, chemical manufacturing and liquid fuel production using gasification technology. In this
study, thermodynamic equilibrium model for biomass gasification is developed to calculate the syngas
composition, gas calorific value, effect of temperature, oxygen to biomass ratio, and steam to biomass ratio .
Model is solved using ‘Fsolve’ function in MATLAB.. Four biomasses wheat straw, paddy straw, rice straw and
rice husk from Punjab state in India are studied. Gross calorific value of four biomasses at 1073K and
oxygen/biomass=0.45 is in the range 24.0-26.6 kcal/mol. For steam/biomass=0.6 and 1073 K temperature,
GCV of four biomasses is in the range 23.7-25.9 kcal/mol.

Keywords: Wheat straw, Paddy straw, Rice straw, Rice husk, Gasification.

1. Introduction

The overall energy demand of world is increasing at faster rate than the increase in population [1]. Fossil energy
resources that can be exploited economically are believed to be finite. Biomass is of major interest as a
renewable energy source in the context of both climate change mitigation and energy security [2]. According to
a recent study, oil and gas prices are set to double by 2050 [2]. There are many areas in India which don’t have
any access of electricity. As in India most of the people has agriculture as their occupation, the agri-waste
residue can be used as the major source for power generation using gasification technology. Biomass can be
converted into biofuels using either thermal or chemical processes. Among thermal conversion processes,
gasification has received the most attention. This is due to the higher efficiency compared to processes such as
direct combustion, pyrolysis and liquefaction [2].

1.1. Biomass available in India

The bio-power potential in India is 16881 MW. The total energy potential using biomass and waste in India is
give in Table 1. India produces 98 million tonnes of paddy with roughly 130 million tonnes of straw. Of this,
about half is used as animal fodder. The rest is mostly burned in the fields, though a small amount is also
consumed by brick kilns and paper and packaging industry. Gasification has higher efficiency compared to other
processes such as direct combustion, pyrolysis and liquefaction [4].

The northern states in India like Punjab and Haryana are rich due to multi cropping practices. The main biomass
is wheat and rice straw. Some amount of cotton stalks is also available in the western part of Punjab [1]. Last
year Punjab Biomass Power Ltd (PBPL) generated 12 MW and helped farmer to reduce pollution with
generation of electricity using biomass [6]. Gasification would be the one of the option for utilization of this
vast amount of biomass in India.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 02265138119; fax: (+91) 02227423403.

E-mail address: vinitashirke@ymail.com
253
1.2 Various gasification technologies

The major gasifiers types are downdraft, updraft, bubbling fluidized (BF) and circulating fluidized bed (CFB).
Suitability of gasifier type for biomass is studied. Fluidized bed is better option for biomass gasification
because: Fluidized bed gasifier shows potential in high capacity biomass gasification applications due to
uniform temperature and clean gas, it is compact because of high heat exchange and high reaction rate due to
intensive mixing in the bed and it tolerates many types of feedstock and have ability to deal with fluffy and fine
grained materials with high ash contents and low bulk density [3]

1.3 Modelling approaches for gasification

The thermodynamic equilibrium, quasi equilibrium, kinetic and CFD model had been used for the study of
biomass gasification [7, 8]. Thermodynamic equilibrium modeling approach is widely used to evaluate the
performance of gasification system in terms product gas composition and efficiency [8]. A kinetic model can
predict the profiles of gas composition and temperature inside the gasifier. Kinetic model takes into
consideration both the kinetics of gasification reactions inside the gasifier and the hydrodynamics of the gasifier
reactor. CFD models are used to predict distribution of temperature, concentration, and other parameters within
the reactor. CFD models are based on solutions of a set of simultaneous equations for conservation of mass,
momentum, energy, and species over a discrete region of the gasifier [5].

2. MODEL DEVELOPMENT FOR BIOMASS GASIFICATION

The global reaction of biomass gasification can be written as,

𝐶𝐻𝑥 𝑂𝑦 + p(𝑂2 + 3.76) 𝑁2 + m 𝐻2 O → 𝑥1 𝐻2 + 𝑥2 CO+𝑥3 C𝑂2 +𝑥4 𝐻2 O + 𝑥5 C𝐻4 +( 3.76p) 𝑁2
(1)

By solving elemental balance equations and equilibrium constant equations, we will get composition of gas.

Solution strategy: model equations are nonlinear equations and need to be solved simultaneously. Fsolve
function in MATLAB is used for solution of set of non-linear equations.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Model is used to calculate gas composition and calorific value for four biomasses- wheat straw, Paddy straw,
rice straw, rice husk from Punjab India. The proximate and ultimate analysis is given in Table 2. Before
predictions, the results of developed model are validated with experiment for fluidized bed steam biomass
gasification of rice husk at 750 C and steam/biomass=1.7 [9].

Table 1. Biomass from Punjab used for model prediction

Biomass Wheat Paddy Rice Rice

straw straw straw husk
Proximate analysis (%)
VM 71.41 61.62 63.12 58.07
Ash 7.58 20.49 10.1 17.82
FC 16.02 14.01 18.2 16.65
M 4.99 4.3 8.58 7.5
GCV 4010 3309 3343 3582
Ultimate analysis (%)
C 46.46 39.97 41.04 38.9
H 5.12 3.97 6.26 5.1
O 35.5 30.26 38 37.9
N 0.47 0.79 1.22 2.17
S 0.18 0.23 0.64 0.12

254
3.1. Effect of temperature

Effect of temperature on syngas composition and GCV at oxygen/biomass ratio=0.45 for paddy straw, rice husk,
rice straw and wheat straw is shown in Figure 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Optimum temperature and GCV at
Oxygen to biomass ratio =0.45K is tabulated in Table 2.
When Oxygen to biomass ratio is kept constant and when temperature increases GCV of all biomasses
increases. Composition of CO and H2 increases with increase in temperature for all biomasses. Composition of
CO2 and CH4 decreases with increase in temperature for all biomasses.

0.3 CO 25
CO2
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)
0.2 CH4 24
(fraction)

H2
GCV(kcal/mol)
0.1 23

0 22
500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400
Temperature (K)
Figure1: Effect of temperature ratio at oxygen/biomass=0.45 for paddy straw

0.3 25
CO
0.25 24.5
Gas composition

CO2

GCV (kcal/mol)
0.2 CH4 24
(fraction)

0.15 H2 23.5
0.1 23
0.05 22.5
0 22
500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400
Temperature (K)
Figure 2: Effect of temperature ratio at oxygen/biomass=0.45 K for rice husk

0.3 27.5
CO
0.25
Gas composition

27
GCV (kcal/mol)

CO2
0.2
(fraction)

CH4 26.5
0.15 H2
26
0.1
0.05 25.5
0 25
500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400
Temperature (K)
Figure 3: Effect of temperature ratio at oxygen/biomass=0.45 K for rice straw

0.3 26
CO
0.25 CO2 25.5
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)

0.2 CH4 25
(fraction)

H2
0.15 GCV(kcal/mol) 24.5
0.1 24
0.05 23.5
0 23
500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400
Temperature (K)
Figure 4: Effect of temperature ratio at oxygen/biomass=0.45 K for Wheat straw

255
 Table 2. Optimum temperature and GCV at Oxygen to biomass ratio =0.45K

Biomasses Temperature (K) GCV (kcal/mol)

Paddy straw 1073K 24.37
Rice husk 813K 23.15
Rice straw 1073K 26.64
Wheat straw 1073K 25.23

Effect of temperature on gross calorific value is also studied for various biomass using Oxygen / biomass = 0.45
which is shown in Figure 5. As temperature is increasing gross calorific value is also increasing. When
temperature in the gasifier increases amount of tar decreases due to which composition of gases increases which
results in increase of GCV.

30
29
28
GCV (kcal/mol)

27
26 paddystraw
25
24 rice husk
23
22 rice straw
21
20
wheat straw
500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500

Temperature (K)
Figure 5: Effect of temperature on gross calorific value with Oxygen / biomass

3.2. Effect of oxygen/biomass ratio

The quality of gas obtained from a gasifier depends strongly on the value of oxygen/biomass ratio to ensure a
condition far from complete combustion. An excessively low value of oxygen/biomass results in several
problems including incomplete gasification, excessive char formation and low heating value of the product gas.
On the other hand, too high a value of oxygen/biomass results in excessive formation of products of complete
combustion, such as CO2 and H2O at the expense of desirable products like CO and H2. This causes a decrease
in the heating value of the gas. The results of variation of GCV with oxygen/biomass ratio are shown in Figure
6. GCV value is found to be decreasing with increase in oxygen/biomass for all biomasses. With respect to
highest GCV is the optimum oxygen to biomass ratio for various biomasses at 1073 K temperature are tabulated
in Table 3.

50
40
GCV(kcal/mol)

30 wheat straw
20 rice husk
10 rice straw
0 paddy straw
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Oxygen/biomass

Fig 6: Effect of Oxygen / biomass ratio on GCV

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 Table 3. Optimum Oxygen to biomass ratio and GCV at 1073 K

Biomasses Oxygen/Biomass GCV (kcal/mol)

ratio
Paddy straw 0.2 46.27
Rice husk 0.45 24.03
Rice straw 0.45 26.64
Wheat straw 0.4 28.68

Water gas reaction is endothermic (temperature increases), with increase in oxygen/biomass ratio more char
and H2O gets consumed resulting CO and H2 production increases. Boudouard reaction is endothermic reaction
(temperature increases) CO2 reacts with char to produce CO. Initially sufficient char is available for reaction but
as oxygen/biomass ratio increases char decreases due to which CO decreases with increase in CO 2. Methanation
reaction is exothermic (temperature decreases) ,with increase in oxygen/biomass ratio char and H 2 gets
consumed with decreasing production of CH4 ie production of H2 increases. In CO partial combustion is
endothermic reaction (temperature increases) CO is reacts with O 2 contributing in production of CO2 [2]. Effect
of oxygen/biomass ratio at 1073 K for paddy straw, rice husk, rice straw and wheat straw is shown in Figure 7,
8, 9 and 10 respectively.
1 CO 50
0.8 CO2 40
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)
CH4
(fraction)

0.6 H2 30
GCV(kcal/mol)
0.4 20
0.2 10
0 0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Oxygen/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)

Figure7: Effect of oxygen/biomass ratio at 1073 K for paddy straw

Highest GCV is found when 0.2 oxygen/biomass ratio for paddy straw as seen in Figure 7. Composition of CO2
is highest when 0.72 oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO,CH4 and H2 is highest when 0.2
oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained.

1 30
CO
0.8 CO2 25
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)

CH4 20
(fraction)

0.6
H2 15
0.4
10
0.2 5
0 0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Oxygen/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)
Figure 8: Effect of oxygen/biomass ratio at 1073 K for rice husk

Highest GCV is found when 0.2 oxygen/biomass ratio for Rice husk as seen in Figure 8. Composition of CO2 is
highest when 0.72 oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO, CH4 and H2 is highest when 0.2
oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained.

257
 1 30
CO
Gas composition
0.8 CO2 25

GCV (kcal/mol)
CH4 20
(fraction)
0.6
H2 15
0.4
10
0.2 5
0 0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Oxygen/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)
Figure 9: Effect of oxygen/biomass ratio at 1073 K for rice straw

Highest GCV is found when 0.2 oxygen/biomass ratio for Rice straw as seen in Figure 9. Composition of CO2 is
highest when 0.72 oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO,CH4 and H2 is highest when 0.2
oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained.

1 CO 30
0.8 CO2 25
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)
CH4
20
(fraction)

0.6 H2
GCV(kcal/mol) 15
0.4
10
0.2 5
0 0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Oxygen/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)
Figure 10: Effect of oxygen/biomass ratio at 1073 K for Wheat straw

Highest GCV is found when 0.2 oxygen/biomass ratio for Wheat straw as seen in Figure 10. Composition of
CO2 is highest when 0.72 oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO,CH4 and H2 is highest when
0.2 oxygen/biomass ratio is maintained.

3.3.Effect of steam to biomass ratio

Effect of steam/biomass ratio at 1073 K for paddy straw, rice husk, rice straw and wheat straw is shown in
Figure 11, 12, 13 and 14 respectively. As steam to biomass ratio increases, the gross calorific value decreases.
Steam has been used as gasifying as well as fluidizing agent Steam to biomass ratio varies from 0.6 to 3.75. As
SB increases composition of CO2 and H2 increases and CO and CH4 decreases. Water gas reaction is
endothermic (temperature increases) , with increase in SB more char and H 2O gets consumed resulting CO
and H2 production increases. Methanation reaction is exothermic (temperature decreases), with increase in SB
char and H2 gets consumed with decreasing production of CH4 ie production of H2 increases. In CO shift
reaction with increase in SB H2O increases with increase in CO2 and H2 [2].

0.8 80
CO
Gas composition

0.6 60
GCV (kcal/mol)

CO2
(fraction)

0.4 40

0.2 20

0 0
0.2 0.7 1.2 1.7 2.2 2.7 3.2 3.7
Steam/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)
Figure 11: Effect of steam/biomass ratio at 1073 K for paddy straw

Highest GCV is found when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio for paddy straw as seen in Figure 11. Composition of CO
and CH4 is highest when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO2 and H2 is highest when

258
steam/biomass ratio is 3.75.

0.8 80
CO
CO2
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)
0.6 CH4 60
(fraction)

H2
0.4 GCV(kcal/mol) 40

0.2 20

0 0
0.2 1.2 2.2 3.2 4.2
Steam/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)

Figure 12: Effect of steam/biomass ratio at 1073 K for rice husk

Highest GCV is found when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio for rice husk as seen in Figure 12. Composition of CO and
CH4 is highest when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO2 and H2 is highest when
steam/biomass ratio is 3.75.

0.8 66
CO
64
Gas composition

CO2

GCV (kcal/mol)
0.6 62
CH4
(fraction)

60
0.4 H2
58
0.2 56
54
0 52
0.2 1.2 2.2 3.2 4.2
Steam/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)
Figure 13: Effect of steam/biomass ratio at 1073 K for rice straw

Highest GCV is found when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio for rice straw as seen in Figure 13. Composition of CO and
CH4 is highest when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO2 and H2 is highest when
steam/biomass ratio is 3.75.

0.7 CO 70
0.6 CO2 60
Gas composition

GCV (kcal/mol)

0.5 CH4 50
(fraction)

0.4 H2 40
GCV(kcal/mol)
0.3 30
0.2 20
0.1 10
0 0
0.2 1.2 2.2 3.2 4.2
Steam/Biomass ratio (mol/mol)

Figure 14: Effect of steam/biomass ratio at 1073 K for Wheat straw

Highest GCV is found when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio for wheat straw as seen in Figure 14. Composition of CO
and CH4 is highest when 0.6 steam/biomass ratio is maintained. Composition of CO2 and H2 is highest when
steam/biomass ratio is 3.75. Optimum Steam to biomass ratio and GCV at 1073 K for various biomasses are
tabulated in Table 4.

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 Table 4 Optimum Steam to biomass ratio and GCV at 1073 K
Biomasses Steam/Biomass GCV (kcal/mol)
ratio
Paddy straw 0.6 64.711
Rice husk 0.6 63.865
Rice straw 0.6 64.972
Wheat straw 0.6 61.857

Oxygen/biomass ratio directly gives amount of oxygen required. As air consists of nitrogen as well, syngas
produced using air gasification is diluted with nitrogen. The optimum oxygen/Biomass ratio for four biomasses
based on maximum GCV is estimated and tabulated Table 3. Table 5 shows the results for biomass gasification
using oxygen as gasifying agent for four biomasses as Oxygen/biomass = 0.45 and T = 1073 K. Rice straw has
maximum GCV among four biomass samples.

Table 5: Gas compositions and calorific values at 1073 K and oxygen / biomass = 0.45

Biomasses GCV(kcal/mol) CO CO2 CH4 H2

Paddy straw 24.3738 0.2145 0.1034 0.0008 0.1417
Rice husk 24.0366 0.1852 0.1228 0.0011 0.1676
Rice straw 26.6479 0.1887 0.1074 0.0015 0.1982
Wheat straw 25.2356 0.2121 0.1003 0.0010 0.1562

Effect of steam/biomass ratio on gas composition and GCV of various biomasses have studied. Steam/biomass
ratio varies from 0.6 to 3.75. As steam/biomass ratio increases composition of CO 2 and H2 increases and CO and
CH4 decreases. The gas composition and GCV at 1073K and steam/biomass ratio of 0.6 for four biomasses are
tabulated in Table 6. Wheat straw gives maximum GCV among the four biomasses.

Table 6: Gas compositions and calorific values at 1073 K and Steam / biomass = 0.6

Biomasses GCV(kcal/mol) CO CO2 CH4 H2

Paddy straw 65.8852 0.4160 0.0551 0.0112 0.5175
Rice husk 63.7414 0.3612 0.3612 0.0115 0.5394
Rice straw 64.7671 0.3451 0.0756 0.0128 0.5664
Wheat straw 65.9511 0.4019 0.0554 0.0117 0.5307

4. CONCLUSION

The model developed in this work predicts gas composition and calorific value based on composition of
biomass and inlet condition. The choice of gasifying agent steam/ O 2 depends on application of syngas. The
optimum inlet conditions are different for different biomasses.
For paddy straw, rice husk and wheat straw when oxygen/biomass decreases from 0.42 to 0.72 composition of
CO also decreases. In case of rice straw when oxygen/biomass decreases from 0.42 to 0.56 composition of CO
decreases and at 0.72 composition of CO becomes negative. For paddy straw GCV increases with increase in
oxygen/biomass from 0.2 to 0.72. For rice husk, rice straw and wheat straw GCV firstly decreases from 0.2 to
0.3 and then suddenly increases at 0.42 and again decreases.
When steam/biomass decreases from 0.6 to 3.75 composition of CO and CH 4 also decreases and composition of
CO2 and H2 increases for all biomasses. Production of H2 can be enhanced by using steam as heating medium.
When temperature increases composition of CO and H2 increases while composition of CO2 and CH4 decreases.
GCV also increases with increase in temperature. Temperature used in biomass gasifier is always maintained
high for maintenance of gasifier.
This will be useful for industry at the initial project development stage in absence of experimental or actual data.
Model considering kinetics need to be developed for predicting reasonable accurate gas compositions and GCV.

260
REFERENCES

[1] Grover, S., Kathuria, R. and Kaur, M. (2012) Energy Values and Technologies for Non woody Biomass: as a
clean source of Energy, IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IOSRJEEE), Volume 1, pp.
10-14.
[2] Doherty, W., Reynolds, A. and Kennedy, D. (2009) The effect of air preheating in a biomass CFB gasifier
using ASPEN Plus simulation, Elsevier, Volume 3 3, pp. 1158–1167.
[3] Knoef, H.A.M. (2005) Handbook of biomass gasification, Publisher BTG.
[4] Gautam, G. (2010) Parametric Study of a Commercial-Scale Biomass Downdraft Gasifier: Experiments and
Equilibrium Modeling, Auburn University Auburn, Alabama.
[5] Baruah, D. and Baruah, D.C. (2014) Modelling of biomass gasification: A review, Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 39, pp.806–815.
[6] Sood, J. (2012) NASA draws attention to fires in Punjab fields, Science and environment online down to
earth, link: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/nasa-draws-attention-fires-punjab-fields
[7] Ptasinski, K. J., Prins, M. J. and Pierik, A. (2007) Exergetic evaluation of biomass gasification, Energy,
Volume 32, pp. 568–574
[8] Syed, S., and Janajreh, I. (2012) Thermodynamics Equilibrium Analysis within the Entrained Flow Gasifier
Environment, Int. J. of Thermal & Environmental Engineering, Volume 4, pp. 47-54.
[9] Loha, C., Chatterjee, P.K. and Chattopadhyay, H. (2011) Performance of fluidized bed steam gasification of
biomass – Modelling and experiment, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 52, pp.1583–1588.

261
 ICAER-2015

Investigation on optimum steam flashing pressure in a

cogeneration cement factory
G. V. Pradeep Varmaa*, T. Srinivasb
a,b
CO2 Research and Green Technologies Centre, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, India 632 014

Abstract

Currently India is producing 350 million tons of cement and so there is a more potential to generate the power through waste
heat recovery. A case study has been conducted at a cement factory, Telangana, India with cogeneration plant having
flashing technology. The high pressure water is flashed into wet steam at two pressure levels (high pressure flashing and low
pressure flashing) to increase the power generation. The hot water from the flashing chamber is used for the regeneration of
the cycle and the steam is supplied to the turbine at the relevant location. In the current work, the optimum values for the
high pressure flashing and the lower pressure flashing are searched and developed for the maximum heat recovery and also
higher output from cogeneration plant. The identified key operational parameters are steam generating pressure, limit to high
pressure flashing, limit to low pressure flashing and flash mass ratio.

Keywords: Cogeneration; steam, flash; heat recovery; thermodynamics

1. Introduction

India has a great potential in cogeneration field to meet the increasing demand of power. Cogeneration is a
thermo dynamically efficient use of fuel. In separate production of electricity, some energy must be discarded as
waste heat, but in cogeneration this thermal energy is put in use. Cogeneration currently accounts for around 9
% of global power generation. Karellas et al., [1] compared energetically and exergetically two different WHR
methods: a water steam-Rankine cycle and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC).A parametric study proved that the
water steam technology is more efficient than ORC in exhaust gases temperature higher than 3100C.Madlool et
al., [2] conducted exergy analysis for cement industries. The exergy losses due to irreversibility from kiln are
higher than other units in cement production plant. Saneipoor et al., [3] examined the performance of a new
Maronch Heat Engine (MHE) Compressed air the working fluid is installed to recover the waste heat. Ankur
Kapil et al., [4] conducted a case study on energy consumptions for the site and a new cogeneration targeting
method and benefits of optimizing steam levels for reducing the overall energy consumption has been proposed.

Liu et al., [5] proposed that the thermal efficiency of the raw material preheating and decomposition process
unit has the greatest impact on the thermal efficiency of the whole process, followed by the clinker cooling and
clinker calcination process. Adem atmaca and Recep yumrutas [6]. A detailed analysis has been carried out
which includes the thermodynamic and exergo economic methodology on a cement plant and formulations
developed. Emad Benhelal et al., [7] proposed a new pyro processing unit in a cement factory. Decomposition
reactions have been separated from other reactions which results in pure carbon dioxide production. Tahsin
engine and vedat ari [8] conducted an energy audit on cement production. It is mentioned that the average
specific energy consumption is about 2.95Gj per ton of cement produced for well-equipped advanced kilns.
Shaleen khurana et al., [9] selected a steam cycle to recover the heat from the streams using a waste heat
recovery system generator and it is estimated that about 4.4Mw of electricity can be generated. It is 30% of the
electricity requirement of the plant. Pradeep Varma and Srinivas [10] proposed a low steam pressure for power
generation at 176 °C, 330 °C and 420 °C heat recovery gas temperature.

Tianhong pan et al., [11] proposed a statistical model to optimize the six fans subjected to different climatic
conditions are also incorporated. Jiangfeng wang et al., [12] carried out exergy analysis on single flash steam
cycle, dual pressure steam cycle, Organic Rankine Cycle and Kalina cycle in a cement plant subjected to same
operational conditions. Compared with other cogeneration systems in cement plant, the Kalina cycle can achieve
the best performance from the view point of exergy efficiency, and the ORC shows the lowest exergy efficiency
under the same condition. The literature review shows that there no much work done on steam flashing
technology in the power generation using waste heat recovery. Therefore the current work is focused on the
*
Corresponding author. Tel. +919440262833
E mail address: gvpv73@yahoo.com

262
finding the best operational conditions for the high pressure flashing and low pressure flashing in a cogeneration
plant applied to a cement factory.

Nomenclature

h enthalpy(kJ/kg) Mg mass of gas

m mass flow rate (kg/s) Ms mass of steam
p pressure(bar) mgaqc mass of gas in AQC boiler( Nm3/hr)
t temperature (0C) mgph mass of gas in PH boiller (Nm3/hr)
T temperature (K)
W work done
Q heat supplied
SH super heater
EVA evaporator
ECO economiser
HPF high pressure flasher
LPF low pressure flasher
ESP electro static precipitator
MW molecular weight
Subscripts
AQC AQC boiler
PH PH boiler

2. Methodology

The following are the assumptions made in the cogeneration plant for thermodynamic evaluation.

1. The isentropic efficiency for turbine and pump is taken as 85% and 75% respectively
2. The pinch point (pp) temperature is taken as 20oC.
3. The terminal temperature difference (ttd) is taken as 25 oC.
4. The specific heat of flue gas is considered as cp=1.03kJ/kg k
5. The molecular weight (MW) of the flue gases is considered as 29
6. The saturation temperature of high pressure is taken as 200.492oC
7. The saturation temperature of condenser pressure is taken as 45.81 oC
8. The mass ratio for flushing (mrf) is considered as 0.25
9. The volume of gas available in the PH boiler is 360750 Nm3/hr
10. The volume of gas available in the AQC boiler is 191600 Nm3/hr
Waste heat recoveries cement plant whose capacity is 4000 TPD has been selected for case study which is
located in Telagana, India. The schematic flow diagram of the plant is shown in figure 1. The working fluid
passed through feed pump is sent into air quenched cooler (AQC) boiler and preheated (PH) boiler. The mass,
m11 is saturated water, supplied to AQC (12), PH (16) boiler and high pressure flusher (HPF) (19). The saturated
water to AQC is vaporized (13) and superheated (14) in later stages. The saturated water (16) is evaporated (17)
and superheated (18) in PH boiler. The saturated water (19) after flashing enters to HPF where the steam and
water are separated. High pressure flashed steam (21) is supplied to the flash steam turbine at appropriate place.
The saturated water (20) is passed through a flashing valve enters into the low pressure flusher (LPF) where
water is flashed again. The flashed steam (24) is supplied to flash steam turbine. The two streams of superheated
vapour from AQC boiler and PH boiler are mixed and expanded through turbine to generate power. The rest of
the preheated working fluid is separated into saturated vapour and saturated water. The saturated vapour from
two flash chambers is supplied to turbine to generate more power. The turbine exhaust is condensed in the
condenser, and passes through condensing pump to be mixed with saturated water from the low pressure flasher.

263
The mass and energy balance formulae are developed from the schematic and temperature-entropy diagram.
Drawings:
1. Schematic flow diagram of cogeneration plant in a cement factory.
2. Temperature-entropy diagram of cogeneration cycle.
3. Heat recovery plot between hot fluid and cold fluid in (a) PH boiler and (b) AQC boiler Drawings.
18 1

17
16 Steam 2,3,4,5
2 turbine
HPF
21 6
To 19
Hot SH EVA Air 20
Gas Pre 22
Heater Condenser
LPF
7
24
Hot Gas 14 15 20
23
SH
13
12 9
8
EVA Pump Pump

11
ECO

10
To ESP

Figure 1. Schematic flow diagram of cogeneration plant in a cement factory

264
 14
18 1

11,12 13
TEMPERATURE

15,16 2
High Pressure 17
3
21
20 4
10 19 HPF
5
24
9 6
23 22 LPF
8
7
Condenser

ENTROPY S

Figure 2. Temperature-entropy diagram of cogeneration cycle

Tg5

Tg7
18

16 17 SH
EVAP

Figure 3 (a) Pre heater Boiler

Tg1

Tg3

Texh 13 14

SH

EVAP
11 ECO
11 12

Figure 3 (b) Air Quenched Cooler Boiler

265
Thermodynamic mass and energy balance formulae:

Mass balance
 m gaqc MW 
M gaqc   (1)
 22.4  3600 
 
 m gph MW 
M gph   (2)
 22. 4  3600 

M gphc pg (T g 5T g 7 

M sph (3)
h18 h16

M gaqcc pg (T g 3T g 5 

M s aqc (4)
h14 h12
m1 M sph M saqc (5)
m3 m 2 m 21 (6)
m5 m4 m24 (7)
m9 m8 m 23
m19 m10 mrf (8)

Energy balance
Q sup ply m10 h1 h10  (9)

The net power from the cogeneration plant

W netW tW pm1 h1 h 2  m3 h 3 h 4  m5 h 5 h 6  m7 h8 h 7  m9 h10 h 9  (10)

 W 
The cycle thermal efficiency 1   net   100 (11)
Q 
 sup ply 

3. Results and Discussions

To identify the efficient operational conditions, performance characteristics of existing cogeneration plant have
been plotted. Fig.4 shows that the maximum power is resulted at 0.5 temperature ratio for both low pressure
flasher (LPF) and high pressure flasher (HPF). The power output is gradually decreasing down as the LPF ratio
and HPF ratio is increased. The amount of flashed steam depends on the pressure before the flash tank and final
pressure in the flashing tank. The lower the pressure in the flashing tank the higher is the amount of steam , but
on the other side, low pressure steam generates less power [12].

266
 9100

9050

9000

Power,kW
8950 HPF temperature ratio

0.3
8900 0.4
0.5
0.6
8850 0.7
0.8

8800
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
LPF temperature ratio

Figure 4 Effect of LPF and HPF temperature ratios on plant power

11000

10000 mrf

9000

8000
Power,kW

7000
0.2
6000 0.3
0.4
5000 0.5
0.6
4000 0.7

3000

2000
0 20 40 60 80 100
HRSG pressure

Figure 5 Power output for different HRSG pressure with variation of mrf

Fig.5 shows that the power decreases with increase in HRSG pressure due to drop in heat recovery. If the
flashed amount is increased, there will be a more chance of increasing the steam turbine working fluid.
Obviously it augments the power from the steam turbine. But the saturated water that is being supplied from
AQC boiler to the PH boiler is reduced so it is not possible to use the pre heater gases effectively. The steam
from AQC and PH is in superheated condition being mixed before it enters into the turbine so that superheated
steam is supplied to the turbine inlet. Saturation temperature of the steam increases with HRSG pressure and
steam generation decreases and so low power. From the figure it can depict that the power output is optimum at
mrf of 0.2 to 0.3. The recommended HRSG pressure is from 15 to 16 bar.

267
 112
HPF temperature ratio
110 0.3

Exhaust gas temperature,Degree C

0.4
108 0.5
0.6
106 0.7
0.8
104

102

100

98

96
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
LPF temperature ratio

Fig .6 Variation of exhaust gas temperature with LPF temperature ratio and HPF temperature ratio.

Fig.6 shows the influence of LPF temperature ratio and HPF temperature ratio on exhaust gas temperature from
AQC boiler. AQC boiler exhaust temperature is reduced with increase in heat recovery load in PH boiler. From
figure the LPF temperature ratio at 0.9 the exhaust gas temperature varying from 106 0C to 1100C at 0.1 LPF
temperature ratio the exhaust gas temperature is varying from 96 0C to 1010C .At 0.5 HPF and LPF temperature
ratio the exhaust gas temperature can be predicted as 101 0C

300

mrf
0.2
250 0.3
Exhaustgastemperature,degree C

0.4
0.5
0.6
200
0.7

150

100

50
0 20 40 60 80 100
HRSG pressure

Fig. 7 Parametric analysis of HRSG pressure with exhaust gas temperature

268
Fig. 7 shows the role of flash mass ratio with HRSG pressure on exhaust gas temperature. The optimum
pressure is around 15 to 17 bar. The mass ratio flash (mrf) value is in between 0.2 to 0.3. The exhaust gas
temperature is varying from 100 to 1100C. So from the graph an inference can be drawn that the HRSG pressure
should not exceed 15 to 16 bar with an mrf value of 0.2 to 0.3. For higher mrf values the exhaust gas
temperature is very low, so the gas will accumulate in the stack. For higher HRSG pressure the exhaust gas
temperature is very high and it is more than the gas temperature of the preheater (PH) exit so it is not possible to
use the waste gases that are coming out of the pre heater. The cogeneration plant in one particular application,
the gases with 3600C, can be cooled down to 900C where as gases with 3400C can be cooled down to 2300C.
The pre heater exhaust gas 2300C is used in the cement plant for drying raw materials ,which limits its available
heat for power generation .The critical parameters such as steam flow rate and superheat gas outlet temperature
are to be optimized for each plant in order to achieve maximum power generation

Table 1 Material flow details from mass and energy balance equations

State P, bar t, 0C m, kg/s h, kJ/kg

1 15.70 322.52 11.58 3087.13
2 4.61 192.90 11.58 2842
3 4.61 191.34 12.00 2838.6
4 0.92 97.27 12.00 2593.4
5 0.92 97.27 12.33 2595.4
6 0.10 45.91 12.33 2324.7
7 0.10 45.91 12.33 192.5
8 0.92 46.18 12.33 192.69
9 0.92 48.82 15.43 235.70
10 15.70 49.19 15.43 237.80
11 15.70 200.65 15.43 855.9
12 15.70 200.65 4.38 855.9
13 15.70 200.65 4.38 2794.3
14 15.70 335.00 4.38 3114.58
15 15.70 200.65 11.57 855.87
16 15.70 200.65 7.20 855.87
17 15.70 200.65 7.20 2794.3
18 15.70 315.00 7.20 3070.5
19 4.61 148.93 3.86 855.9
20 4.61 148.93 3.44 627.0
21 4.61 148.93 0.42 2744.8
22 0.92 97.37 3.44 627
23 0.92 97.37 3.11 407.2
24 0.92 97.27 0.33 2669.7
Table 1 lists the properties of data of plant shown in Figure 1.evaluated from mass and energy balance
formulation. The optimized HP flasher pressure and LP flasher pressure are respectively 4.61 bar and 0.92 bar at
0.5 temperature ratios for both flashers.

Table 2
The performance of double flash cycle
Turbine work(kW) 9119.2
Pump work(kW) 33.03
AQC boiler exhaust temperature (0C) 86.24
Heat input(kW) 43969
Net power output(kW) 9086.2
Thermal efficiency (%) 20.66
Table 2 indicates that efficiency of the plant is low but in case of heat recovery plants efficiency is not the
criteria power to be improved by maximizing the heat recovery .The tabulated results are the plant specifications
developed at the optimized operation conditions using first law of thermodynamics.

4 Conclusions
A cement factory cogeneration plant, the conventional steam power plant has been replaced by a double flash

269
steam power plant. The results are focused to search the best condition for HRSG pressure, HP flasher, LP
flasher and flashing amount. There is a relation between flash mass and exhaust gas temperature. An optimum
flash mass ratio can be selected at a minimum flue gas temperature. The current work suggests 0.5 temperature
ratio for both HP flasher and LP flasher. The suggested flash mass ratio is 0.25 to result approximately 90oC of
exhaust gas temperature at AQC. On overall basis double flashed system proves over conventional plant by
increasing heat recovery and so power output.

5. References

[1] S. Karellas, A.-D. Leontaritis, G. Panousis, E. Bellos, E. Kakaras (2013) Energetic and Exergetic analysis of
waste heat recovery systems in the cement industry, Energy 58 pp.147-156.
[2] N.A. Madlool,R. Saidur, N.A. Rahim, M.R. Islam, M.S. Hossian (2012) An exergy analysis for cement
industries: An overview Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews pp.921-936.
[3] P. Saneipoor, G.F. Naterer, I. Dincer (2011) Heat recovery from a cement plant with a Marnoch Heat
Engine, Applied Thermal Engineering pp.1734-1743.
[4] Ankur Kapil, Igor Bulatov, Robin Smith, Jin-Kuk Kim (2012) Site-wide low-grade heat recovery with a new
cogeneration targeting method, Chemical Engineering Research and Design pp.677-689
[5] Z. Liu , Z. Wang , M.Z. Yuan , H.B. Yu (2015) Thermal efficiency modeling of the cement clinker
manufacturing process Journal of the Energy Institute 88 pp 76–86.
[6] Adem Atmaca , Recep Yumrutas (2014), Thermo dynamicand exergo economic analysis of a cement plant:
Part I – Methodology,Energy Conversion and Management 79 pp.790–798.
[7] Emad Benhelal, Gholamreza Zahedi, Haslenda Hashim (2012), A novel design for green and economical
cement manufacturing, Journal of Cleaner Production 22 pp.60-66.
[8] Tahsin Engin, Vedat Ari (2005) Energy auditing and recovery for dry type cement rotary kiln systems––A
case study, Energy Conversion and Management 46 pp.551–562.
[9] Shaleen Khurana, Rangan Banerjee , Uday Gaitonde (2002), Energy balance and cogeneration for a cement
plant, Applied Thermal Engineering 22 pp.485–494.
[10] G.V. PradeepVarma, T.Srinivas (2015), Design and analysis of a cogeneration plant using heat recovery of
a cement factory, Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 5 pp.24–31.
[11] Tianhong Pan, Dongliang Xu , Zhengming Li , Shyan-Shu Shieh , Shi-Shang Jang (2013) Efficiency
improvement of cogeneration system using statistical model Energy Conversion and Management 68 pp.169–
176
[12] Jiangfeng Wang, Yiping Dai Lin Gao (2009) Exergy analyses and parametric optimizations for different
cogeneration power plants in cement industry.Applied Energy 86 pp.941-948

270
 ICAER-2015

Investigation on Fluid Dynamic Characteristics of Square Barrel

Wall Fins on Efficiency of A Cyclone Separator
R. Jaina, M. Dasarb, P.A. Kulkarnic, R. S. Patilb*
a
Tata Technologies, Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park Hinjewadi, Pune 411057, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa campus, Zuarinagar 403726, India
c
Bitmapper Integration Technologies, Pune 411038, India

Abstract

In the present paper, the effects of helical fin with square cross section fixed on the inner surface of barrel wall of the
cyclone separator is studied. 3D CFD simulations using ANSYS-Fluent 15 were accomplished to study the effect of barrel
wall fin on cyclone separator’s performance in terms of collection efficiency and fluid dynamic characteristics like pressure
drop along the height of the cyclone separator, tangential velocity. The effects of fin pitch were also investigated. The
different characteristics for finned models were also compared with non-finned cyclone separator. A 2D2D Lapple model of
cyclone separator was used with a barrel diameter of 200 mm, with and without fins. The geometry was modelled using Pro-
E 5.0, and meshed in ICEM CFD 15.0. Post processing simulations were performed using Fluent 15.0. The turbulence model
used was the Reynolds’ Stress Model. Discrete phase Lagrangian model was used to simulate the gas-solid flow.
Computational results were validated using published numerical and experimental data for the cyclone separator without
fins, and further CFD simulations were performed for fin based cyclone separator.

Keywords:CFB, CFD Simulations, Cyclone Separator, Efficiency, Fins

1. Introduction

The cyclone separator used in the recent technology boiler like Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler
handles a large volume of gas at high temperature. Therefore the outer skin temperature of the cyclone separator
is relatively high; therefore more heat losses occur by natural convection and radiation. To overcome this
problem, some cyclone separators are water or steam cooled. This heat recovery can enhance the capacity of the
boiler [1]. Therefore proper design of cyclone separator of CFB is essential which subsequently affects fluid
dynamic characteristics of cyclone separator. It is observed that heat transfer characteristics of the cyclone
separator are the function of fluid dynamic characteristics [2]. Hence it is important to study the fluid dynamic
characteristics of a cyclone separator in a CFB system. Literature is also available to predict the fluid dynamic
characteristics numerically [3-7]. Major function of the cyclone separator is the separation of the solid particles
from gas; in this regard it is important to evaluate the performance of cyclone separator in terms of cyclone
efficiency. Literature is available on gas-solid flow structure and collection efficiency of the cyclone separator
[8-10]. It is reported that the cyclone efficiency decreases with increase in cyclone separator’s diameter, gas
outlet duct diameter, gas inlet area [8-10]. A mathematical model for the calculation of cyclone efficiency is
reported by Avci and Karagoz [11].
Nag and Gupta [12] reported the effect of fins suspended in the cylindrical portion of the cyclone separator on
the average heat transfer coefficient for the different operating parameters like solid circulation rate, gas
superficial velocity, and pressure in the cyclone separator. Exterior fins have been used on the vortex finder (top
gas outlet) of the cyclone separator for enhancing heat transfer [13]. Fins were also used on barrel wall of the
cyclone separator for controlling the turbulent conditions [14]. Hence it is revealed that lot of literature is
available on experimental and numerical studies which predict hydrodynamics and heat transfer characteristics,
cyclone efficiency of the cyclone separator without fins [1-11]. Few research papers are available on
experimental studies to predict the effect of fins on heat transfer characteristics and turbulent conditions [12-14].
However effect of fins (helical pathway which will carry water or steam) mounted on the inside wall surface of
the cylindrical portion of the cyclone separator on collection efficiency and thermal efficiency of CFB boiler has
not reported through experimental or numerical study. Arrangement of the fin on the inside wall surface of the
cylindrical portion of the cyclone separator will help in heat recovery from the hot gas flowing outside the fin
because of possible heat transfer between hot gas and helical fin. However cyclone separator’s main function
i.e. separating particles from gas should not be affected. Therefore present paper mainly focuses on the
numerical study to predict the effect of barrel wall fins on the cyclone efficiency and other fluid dynamic
characteristics. Results obtained were compared with cyclone separator without fins.
* Corresponding author. Dr. Ranjit S. Patil. Tel.:+91—832-258-0209, +91-9923138587; E-mail address:ranjitp@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in

271
 (a) (b)

(c)
Fin
Water Base

Fig. 1. (a) Dimensions of non-finned

non cyclone used; (b) cyclone with barrel fins; (c) fin structure.

2. Methodology

A Lapple 2D2D type cyclone separator (barrel height and height of the conical section is twice the barrel
diameter) with the cylinder diameter of 200 mm was used for investigation. Fig. 1 corresponds to the normal
cyclone separator (here onwards, referred as cyclone I). Helical fins of length 5 mm, and a pitch of 30 mm (here
onwards, referred as cyclone II) and 50 mm (here onwards, referred as cyclone III) are created on the inner
surface of the cyclone barrel as shown in Fig. 1(b). Fig. 1(c) illustrates the geometry (cut section) of helical fin.
It consists of two parts: solid metallic base of 10 mm × 5 mm placed on inner surface of cylindrical portion of
cyclone separator and a hollow cross-sectional
sectional area of 10 mm × 5 mm for flow of water placed over it. The
height of the cyclone separator is considered along the Y Y-axis,
axis, and the mixture (air + solid) enters the cyclone
separator in a direction along the X-axis.
axis. Unstructured hybrid meshes were created in ANSYS ICEM CFD with
hexahedral elements at the core off cyclone, prismatic elements at the wall to capture boundary layer physics;
tetrahedral and pyramid elements between them. The mesh was made finer near the wall for the resolution of
near wall effects.
For conducting grid independence tests, three different
differe meshes were created for each geometry. For cyclone I,
the numbers of nodes were 303774
03774 (304k), 594682 (595k), and 1150717 (1150k).. For cyclone II, the numbers of
nodes used were 294693 (295k), 597184 (597k), and 1174893 (1175k). For cyclone III, the numbers of nodes
used were 301493 (301k), 601826 (602k) and 1162893 (1163k). Nodes 595kk and 1250k gave very close results,
however results obtained using coarser mesh i.e. results of 595kk nodes are presented in the present paper (Fig. 4
and Fig. 5). Y+ valueue measured is around 40 and is suitable for Reynolds’s Stress Model (RSM) model.
The Continuity and the momentum equations were discretized with steady state simulation. The Reynolds
stress model was used for modelling turbulence, which cannot be modelled
modelle using the k-εε models because they
are unable to resolve anisotropic stresses and rapidly changing strain rate [3, 4, 6, and 7] in the highly swirling
flow of cyclone. The linear pressure strain sub-model
sub was used for modelling the changing strain rate. SScalable
wall function was used for the near wall treatment of gas flow because it can resolve near wall physics for
arbitrarily refined meshes by using the log-law.
log
The two-phase
phase flow in cyclone separator is usually modelled using the Eulerian-Lagrangian
Eulerian Lagrangian approach
a which
is implemented in ANSYS Fluent 15 as the Discrete Phase Model (DPM). This model is chosen because the
volume fraction of solid is less than 0.1 and the interaction of solid phase with the gas phase or the continuous
phase is not very significant.
ant. This model is used for the calculation of the collection efficiency of the cyclone
separator. The Discrete Random Walk model is used to count the effect of velocity fluctuations on the forces
acting on the particles.

272
 Coupled scheme is used for the pressure velocity coupling. The second order upwind spatial discretization
scheme is used for updating the momentum, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent dissipation rate, and Reynolds’
stresses.
Pressure outlet boundary condition was given at the gas outlet of the cyclone separator. The inlet condition is
velocity-inlet with velocity magnitude 20 m/s normal to the inlet surface. The solid outlet was the bottom of the
cyclone separator that collects the solid particles and had the boundary condition as wall. The cyclone separator
wall also has wall as boundary condition and it reflects the particle; the normal and tangential reflection
coefficients are set at 0.85 and 0.75, respectively. Boundaries of the finned cyclone separator and the normal
cyclone separator were same.
The grid independence tests give extremely close results for the two higher mesh densities (595k and 1250k)
as shown in Fig. 2. Hence the study was continued using 595k nodes mesh. The simulation results of the
tangential velocity magnitude for all the geometries with the intermediate density (595k nodes) is validated with
the experimental data from Wang et al. (2006) [7] and is found to be considerably close as shown in Fig. 3. The
results are closer to the experimental values near the wall while in the central portion; the deviation increases
due to the “wall” boundary condition at the solid outlet of the cyclone separator. The tangential velocity in the
simulation is taken along the X-axis (parallel to the inlet direction) at a height of 650 mm (Y = 650 mm) from
the solid outlet present at the bottom.

Fig. 2. (a) Grid independence test for cyclone I

Fig. 2. (b) Grid independence test for cyclone II

Fig. 2. (b) Grid independence test for cyclone II

Fig. 2. (c) Grid independence test for cyclone III

273
 Fig. 3. Validation of simulation data with Wang et al. [7] for tangential velocity

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 4. Pressure drop along the height for cyclones I, II, and III

274
3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Pressure drop along height and the pressure field

Pressure drop along thee height (ΔP),

(ΔP) as shown in Fig. 4 was obtained by taking difference of total pressure
value at the height of 100 mm and 300 mm, 300 mm and 500 mm, 500 mm and 700 mm, 700 mm and 900 mm
measured from the bottom (solid outlet) of the cyclone separator, at the negative x extreme along the xx-axis in
that plane. The total pressure (Fig. 5)) in the cyclone separator increases from the centre to its wall. The total
pressure at the centre of the cyclone separator is lower than the atmospheric pressure because the highly swirling
flow creates a vortex around the central region. The pressure drop (Fig. 4)) for the cyclone II and cyclone III has
increased slightly
tly in the cylindrical region in comparison to the pressure drop in the cyclone I. This is because of
the helical fin that is located on the barrel wall. The fin creates an obstruction to the flow of gas (air) leading to
higher dissipation of dynamic pressure. ure. This can be explained by the increase in turbulence observed in the
turbulence intensity contours as shown in Fig. 6. The increase in the turbulent intensity in the barrel region also
supports the fact that boundary layer has become more turbulent for the finned cyclone due to the addition of the
helical fin. This leads to a higher pressure drop in the upper region of the cyclone separator.
Surface area in the cylindrical region of cyclone II is greater than cyclone III, hence, frictional (drag) forces
result in a higher pressure drop in cyclone II, which is slightly greater tha
thann cyclone III as shown in Fig. 4.
4

Fig. 5. Contours of total pressure for cyclones I, II, and III from left

Fig. 6. Contours of turbulent

t intensity for cyclones I, II, and III from left

275
 Fig. 7. Collection efficiency for cyclones I, II, and III for different particle sizes

3.2. Collection efficiency

The collection efficiencies of cyclones I, II, III were calculated using the discrete phase model (DPM) with
injections of 15000 particles of cement (ρ = 3320 kg/m3) sent as in [7], but the diameters used were 0.1 µm, 0.5
µm, 1 µm, 2 µm, 3 µm, 4 µm, 5 µm, 10 µm. It is observed that collection efficiency increases with increase in
particle size as shown in Fig. 7, because larger size particles were heavier hence collected at solid bottom outlet
of cyclone separator.
Collection efficiency of cyclone is a function of pressure drop and the height at which reverse flow in cyclone
occurs [15]. As shown in Fig. 7, it is observed that for the same particle size, cyclone efficiency decreases from
the normal non-finned cyclone (cyclone I) to the finned cyclone separator. This is because as explained in
previous section 3.1, the higher pressure drop in the upper region (cylindrical region) of the finned cyclone
separator causes lower intensity of swirling flow in its outer vortex, thus causing a reduction in the tangential
velocity of the gas (air). Also the helical fin directly affects the axial velocity, which reduces in the downward
direction in the outer vortex near the wall where particles concentration is high. Due to the reduction in axial and
tangential velocities, possibility of particles trapping in the inner vortex of air moving in upward direction
increases. Also, the addition of fins causes a change in the effective diameter of the finned cyclone separator
which subsequently causes the reversal of the air at a higher height (refer Fig. 5) above the solid outlet in the
finned cyclone separator than the normal non-finned cyclone separator causing more particles to escape through
the gas-outlet. Axial velocity is observed to increase near the inner core of finned cyclone separator. This is in
accordance with the law conservation of mass.
Below 2 mm diameter, the cyclone efficiency was decreased with increase in fin pitch for the constant fin
length of 5 mm. This is because of the reduction in axial velocity near the wall with increase in fin pitch (Fig. 8).
Axial velocity is also an important parameter for the particle collection at the solid outlet of the cyclone
separator as it pushes the particles near the wall downwards. Because the fins resist downward (axial) movement
of air, the axial velocity in the outer vortex near the wall is also reduced, where the particle concentration is
relatively high, and so, the separation efficiency was lowered. Also most important is the height above the solid
outlet in the conical region of cyclone separator (55 mm, 60 mm, 95 mm for cyclone I, II, III respectively) from
where reverse flow took place as shown in Fig. 5 and hence the collection efficiency decreases considerably for
cyclone III. Cyclone efficiency is almost same for all the geometries above particle diameter of 2 mm because
the centrifugal force acting on the particles pushes them to the walls from where they are carried below due to
their weight and swirling motion.

276
 (c)

Fig. 8.. Axial velocity graphs for cyclone I, cyclone II, and cyclone III from left

4. Conclusion

Significant changes were observed in the fluid dynamic characteristics with the installation of square barrel
wall fins inside the cyclone separator. The velocity field was drastically modified due to the helical fin. The
axial velocity reduces in barrel region of outer vortex while increases in the inner core. The pressure drop along
the height of the cylindrical portion of the finned cyclone separator which subsequently decreases the intensity
of swirling in the outer vortex hence tangential velocity decreases. Because of these reasons the particles
entrained in the gas (air) upward inner vortex flow and subsequently the cyclone efficiency shows a marginal
decrease
ecrease when the fins are attached to the barrel wall.
The pressure drop across the cyclone separator increases with increasing fin pitch, hence and the collection
efficiency decreases with increase in fin pitch for a constant fin length. Also, a higher heat
heat transfer is expected in
cyclone II than cyclone III, because of a larger surface area. Pertaining to the above findings, it is advisable to
consider a fin pitch of 30 mm critical because the interaction of the fin with the continuous phase (air) affects the
hydrodynamics and hence the cyclone separator’s performance (collection efficiency). For this value of pitch,
the increased surface area because of added fins (helical pathway carrying water or steam) on the inner wall of
barrel allows a possibility off more heat recovery between hot gas outside and fluid flowing inside fin (helical
pathway) and hence the capacity of the CFB boiler is expected to grow.

References

[1] Gupta, A.V.S.S.K.S. and P.K. Nag.: Prediction of heat transfer coefficient in the cyclone separator of a CFB. International JJournal of
Energy Research 24: 1065-1079, 2000.
[2] Nag, P.K. and N.K. Singh.: Heat transfer in the cyclone separator of a circulating
circulating fluidized bed. In Preprints of CFB-5,
CFB
5th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds. Beijing, P.R. China, HM II. 1996.
1996
[3] Azadi, M., Azadi, M., & Mohebbi, A.: A CFD study of the effect of cyclone size on its performance parameters. Journal
of Hazardous Materials, 182(1-3), 835--41. 2010.
[4] Hoekstra, A. J., Derksen, J. J., & Akker, H. E. A. Van Den. (1999). An experimental and numerical study of turbulent
swirling flow in gas cyclones, 54, 2055
2055–2065.

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[5] Shi, L., &Bayless, D. J.: Comparison of boundary conditions for predicting the collection efficiency of cyclones. Powder
Technology, 173(1), 29–37, 2007.
[6] Wan, G., Sun, G., Xue, X., & Shi, M.: Solids concentration simulation of different size particles in a cyclone separator.
Powder Technology, 183(1), 94–104, 2008.
[7] Wang, B., Xu, D. L., Chu, K. W., & Yu, a. B.: Numerical study of gas–solid flow in a cyclone separator. Applied
Mathematical Modelling, 30(11), 1326–1342, 2006.
[8] Dietz, P.W.: Collection efficiency of cyclone separator. AIchE Journal 27: 882-892, 1981.
[9] Trefz, M. and E. Muschelknautz.: Extended cyclone theory for gas flows with high solid concentrations. Chemical
Engineering Technology 16: 153-160, 1993.
[10] Zhou, L.X. and Soo, S.L.: Gas-solid flow and collection of solids in a c clone separator. Powder Technology 63: 45-53.
1990.
[11] Avci, A. and I. Karagoz.: Effects of flow and geometrical parameters on the collection efficiency in cyclone separators.
Journal of Aerosol Science 34: 937-955, 2003.
[12] Nag, P.K. and Gupta, A.V.S.S.K.S.: Fin heat transfer studies in a cyclone separator of a circulating fluidized bed. Heat
Transfer Engineering 20: 28-34, 1999.
[13] Bodo, K.: Cyclone Separator Vortex Finder with exterior Heat fins. Canadian Patent File, Patent File Number: 780525.
Application Number:304031, 1977
[14] Otto, L., Oskar, W.: Flow Control. Master’s Thesis Luleå University of Technology, Sweden 2013.
[15] Elsayed, K.: Analysis And Optimization of Cyclone Separators Geometry Using Rans and Les Methodologies. PhD
Thesis, University of Brussels, 2011.

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 ICAER-2015
Optimization of Renewable Energy Sources in a Microgrid using
Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm
K. Prakash Kumara, B. Saravanana*, K.S. Swarupb
a
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore-632014, India.
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai-600036, India.

Abstract

Advances in microgrid enabling technologies and utilization of Renewable Energy Sources are prompting more and more
number of smaller investors to invest in Renewable energy generation and distribution at microgrid level. The increased
competition requires the energy producers to offer energy at minimum possible cost to gain the confidence of consumers,
which needs efficient methods to schedule the energy generation among the available Renewable Energy Sources. Optimal
scheduling of generation is one of the methods used to reduce the cost of generation. Out of many types of algorithms used
effectively to solve the problem, evolutionary program techniques are proven and time tested to be one of the best solutions. A
stochastic based search algorithm, called Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm is used in this article to solve the problem of optimal
scheduling of energy generation among the available Renewable Energy Sources. The effectiveness of the algorithm is
validated by implementing to schedule generation in a microgrid scenario. The results are validated by comparing to an already
tested Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease algorithm.

Key words: Optimization; Cost of generation; Generation Scheduling; Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm.

1. Introduction

A microgrid is defined as a single controllable system of a cluster of loads and micro sources supplying both
power and heat [1]. Advances in microgrid enabling technologies are augmenting the harness of Renewable
Energy Sources (RESs) to meet the ever increasing demand for energy. RESs are becoming prominent alternatives
to conventional sources due to developments like improved efficiencies, reduced costs of generators, phenomenal
increase in capacity of the generators, improved methods of decreasing the uncertainty of energy availability,
subsidised policies of governments etc. The prevailing and recuperating operational conditions of RESs and
microgrids are gaining the confidence of more and more number of smaller investors to enter the energy markets
at all levels, particularly in generation in microgrids. This offers consumers a wider choice of power producers to
purchase power from, but the producers face a strict competition among themselves. The development offers a
wider scope for distributed / decentralised generation, which in near future is sure to replace the centralised
systems at least partially. For instance, Germany is aiming to meet 25-30% of its total energy requirement from
RESs by the end of 2030 [2].

The energy markets, in reality with many smaller power producers, offer a strict competition for the energy
producers. Offering energy at a competitive tariff rate is the key to successful business. Methods to evaluate the
cost of energy from different sources close to reality and methods of reducing the total cost of generation are
pivotal in reducing the cost of generation of energy. One among the effective methods of reducing the cost of
generation is optimal scheduling of generation among the available sources. Optimal scheduling has been a
complex issue for a long time, inspiring a lot of research in conventional power systems. Uncertainty in demand
and power availability of RESs adds to its complexity in microgrid environment. A lot of techniques of linear,
non-linear and stochastic nature are reported in literature. A stochastic method is formulated to optimise the cost
of electricity and natural gas for buildings in [3]. A linear programming technique, Additive Increase
Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) method, is applied to schedule generation of RESs in a microgrid environment in
[4]. Some centralised mixed integer linear formulations are explored by researchers for the problem of RESs
scheduling in microgrids [5 &6]. The linear programming techniques stated above have their own limitations in
view of optimizing capabilities and in many cases their capacities are outperformed by swarm intelligence based
algorithms. A number of swarm intelligence based algorithms are developed and are being developed and the
same are successfully demonstrated in optimisation applications. A Dolphin Echolocation Optimization technique
is used to schedule generation of RESs in a microgrid in [7]. An improved bat algorithm is used to optimize the
size of energy storage device in a microgrid in [8]. The objective of this paper is to formulate an energy
management system based on Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm (AFSA) which schedules generation task among
the available RESs to optimise the utility function in a microgrid with uncertainty of power availability.

*
Corresponding author: Tel: (+91) 9659954979, E-mail: bsaravanan@vit.ac.in

279
2. Problem statement

The problem is formulated under surplus generation assumption, i.e., at any given time t, the total power
generated by all the available RESs is more than the demand.

∑ . ( )> ( ) (1)

where ( )is the real power generated by ith RES at time interval t, d (t) is the demand on the system at time
interval t. Hence (1) allows the EMS to have a choice from the available RESs for generation and its share of
generation ( ) to the total power generation (∑ ) to cater the demand d(t) at a given time. The load and the total
generation can be balanced by the EMS by many methods like disconnecting of some of the non-preferential
loads, supplying from its storage facility or by drawing the balance power required from a utility grid or from a
neighbouring microgrid. The additional power requirement met from the inherent storage facility or drawn from
the connected utility grid in the later two cases can be modelled as another source being governed by (1).
However this problem is not significant here as the problem is formulated under assumption that total power
generation always meets the demand at any given time.

Cost of generation is the objective function of interest here and the same is considered for optimization.
The commonly accepted cost function for RESs in microgrid literature is the quadratic cost function, which is
formulated as [9]

C( ) = . + . + (2)

where C is the currency unit, α, β and γ are the cost coefficients that depend on the technology of the respective
RES in terms of currency unit. Though the quadratic equation (2) gives complete picture of cost of generation of
any type of unit, it is a common practice to neglect the quadratic term α which introduces non-linearity in
optimisation problems and consider only the direct costs. The non-linearity can be removed by neglecting α, as is
a common practice in literature. However in this paper, the complete quadratic function is considered for
computational purposes.

2.1 Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm

In water, fishes are found to be distributed around the region where food is available and at the same time like to
stay close to the swarm. A fish continuously adjusts its position in a swarm in response to external environment
and its own state [8]. The movements of individual fishes in a swarm appear to be random, but in reality it is a
highly synchronized movement towards the objective. Fishes stay close to the swarm to protect themselves from
predators, maintain safer distances from neighbouring fishes to avoid collisions and continuously search food.
These behaviours inspired formulation of new algorithms to solve optimization problems with a fair degree of
efficiency. The algorithm uses a local searching behaviour of individual fishes, termed as artificial fishes, to reach
the global optimal solution. The random search, swarming, following and preying behaviours of the fishes are
adopted in the algorithm for the search. The position of each artificial fish denotes a possible potential solution.
The current position xi can be represented by Xi = (xi1, xi2,... xin) where i is the number of control variables, n is the
number of fishes in the swarm. The food consistency that the artificial fish in position xi can find is given by
= ( ). The new position of the artificial Xi* is given by

∗ ()∗
= + ∗ (3)

where rand ( ) is a random number generated between 0-1, step is the distance through which a fish moves in one
movement, Xj is a position within the scope of the vision of the fish. The position Xj is defined by different
behaviours of fish as follows [10,11].

1. Chasing the trail behaviour: The artificial fish will follow the neighbouring fish, which is positioned at a
place with more food consistency within its vision scope to find more food. Here Xj is the position of
the neighbour.
2. Swarming / gathering behaviour: The artificial fish has a tendency to move to the centre of the swarm in
order to ensure the presence of swarm around it and to avoid any potential danger. Here Xj is given by
= + ()∗ ∗ ‖ (4)
‖

where is the centre of the swarm.

280
 3. Foraging / Preying behaviour: The artificial fish senses the food consistence at other locations by vision
or sense and determines its movement. When it finds a location with more food around, it directly goes
in that direction. The position in this behaviour is given by
= + ∗ () (5)

2.2 Terms used in the algorithm:

Artificial fish: These are decision variables used in the optimisation problem. The power generated from
each generator of this problem form the artificial fishes.
Swarm length: The total number of fishes in the initial swarm.
Step: It is the maximum distance that a fish can move in one movement. In this problem it is the
step increment of power generated, i.e., the ramp.
Vision: It is the distance through which the artificial fish can see. In this problem, it is the
maximum limit of generation of each generator.

2.3 AFS Algorithm:

Step 1: Generation of initial fish swarm randomly.

Step 2: Initialization of parameters.
Step 3: Evaluation of fitness of each fish in the swarm.
Step 4: Perform chasing the trail behaviour, swarming behaviour and foraging
Behaviour on each AF and evaluate new positions. Evaluate the fitness function at each
position.
Step 5: Update the best fitness value.
Step 6: Check the termination condition. If not satisfied, go to Step 4.

Initialize parameters

Generate fish swarm xi , i = 1 to n

Evaluate fitness Yi , i =1 to n

Update best fitness

Yes
Is the termination
condition satisfied?

No
Perform trail behaviour Print xi, Yi
for xi & Yi , i = 1 to n

Perform swarm behaviour

for xi & Yi , i = 1 to n

Perform foraging behaviour

for xi & Yi , i = 1 to n

Figure 1. Flow chart of Artificial Fish Swarm algorithm

Figure 1 shows the flow chart to implement AFS algorithm. The three behaviours trailing, swarming and foraging
behaviours are performed one after the other if the termination condition is not satisfied.

281
3. Simulation setup

The cost of generation is considered as utility function for optimization in this article. As introduced in section 2,
the cost function can be stated by

( ) = [ ( )] + ( )+ . (6)

The optimization problem can be stated as

∑ ( )

. . ∑ ( )= ( )

0≤ ( )≤ () (7)

4. Results and discussions

For testing the performance of AFS algorithm, a microgrid in isolated mode investigated in [4] is considered with
three wind mills with 750 kW capacity each, two PV plants with a capacity of 200 kW each and one CHP plant of
500 kW capacity over a time duration of 24 hours. The load and the generation are sampled at a time interval of 1
hour. The data for every hour and is given in Table 1 for reference, in which Pm denotes the max real power
availability. The parameters of cost function αi , βi and γi are chosen from [4] and are as tabulated in Table 2 . The
artificial fish algorithm is implemented and the optimal scheduling of generation among the considered RESs is
carried out. For validation sake, Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease algorithm [4] is also implemented by
using suitable values for additive parameter A and multiplicative parameter B. The performance of the AFS
algorithm is tested under the following two cases, depending on the access to the CHP source, which is the
costliest among the considered sources.

Case-1: In this case, the CHP source is accessed simultaneously along with the remaining sources. Though this
case sounds less logical with respect to the economy of generation, still the case is considered to prove
the effectiveness of the AFS algorithm in such cases.

Case-2: In this case, the CHP source is accessed only when all the remaining cheaper sources are exhausted. This
is a realistic optimization case and mimics a either grid connected microgrid or interconnected
microgrids, where the CHP source can be replaced by grid or other microgrid.

Table 1. Maximum power availability of each source

Hour Pmaxw1 Pmaxw2 Pmaxw3 Pmaxpv1 Pmaxpv2 demand
0 660 688 429 0 0 1471
1 699 707 442 0 0 1325
2 740 698 220 0 0 1263
3 723 699 39 0 0 1229
4 666 576 21 0 0 1229
5 558 675 167 0 0 1321
6 669 674 351 0 15 1509
7 666 693 532 10 71 1663
8 719 732 497 67 90 1657
9 711 746 504 98 116 1643
10 711 686 507 122 140 1643
11 716 661 366 139 155 1652
12 706 638 372 145 163 1666
13 678 561 195 145 163 1639
14 697 650 74 133 155 1642
15 709 652 23 120 133 1640
16 693 657 138 94 107 1676
17 707 660 381 61 86 1920
18 721 659 617 17 46 2214
19 644 668 652 0 1 2382
20 674 664 706 0 0 2382
21 677 661 744 0 0 2327
22 688 642 696 0 0 2174
23 694 674 711 0 0 1903
24 672 649 72 0 0 1666

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 Table2 . Cost function parameters of RESs
Plant ai bi ci
Wind plant 1 0.0027 17.83 4.46
Wind plant 2 0.0028 17.54 4.45
Wind plant 3 0.0026 17.23 4.44
Solar PV 1 0.0055 29.30 4.45
Solar PV 2 0.0055 29.58 4.46
CHP 0.0083 75.73 5.21

Table 3. Results of generation scheduling using AIMD and AFS algorithms for case-1
Hour Scheduling using AIMD algorithm (kW) Scheduling using AFS algorithm (kW) Cost (USD)
Pwind1 Pwind2 Pwind3 Ppv1 Ppv2 Pchp Pwind1 Pwind2 Pwind3 Ppv1 Ppv2 Pchp AIMD AFS
0 367.74 367.74 367.74 0 0 367.74 648 456 363 0 0 4 74.66 53.58
1 331.25 331.25 331.25 0 0 331.25 541 517 224 0 0 43 69.98 53.3
2 347.74 347.74 219.83 0 0 347.74 230 683 194 0 0 156 69.89 58.71
3 396.66 396.66 38.97 0 0 396.66 606 546 19 0 0 58 72.21 52.57
4 402.66 402.66 20.98 0 0 402.66 569 529 21 0 0 110 72.57 55.59
5 384.69 384.69 166.87 0 0 384.69 517 609 128 0 0 67 73.09 54.65
6 381 381 351 0 15 381 647 583 201 0 3 75 76.29 58.46
7 395.52 395.52 395.52 9.99 70.91 395.52 601 462 512 4 56 28 80.62 59
8 375 375 375 67 90 375 441 644 427 20 83 42 80.22 60.21
9 357.33 357.33 357.33 97.82 115.78 357.33 618 482 394 91 43 15 79.62 58.81
10 345.36 345.36 345.36 121.77 139.74 345.36 362 608 464 72 85 52 79.49 61.15
11 339.59 339.59 339.59 138.83 154.81 339.59 546 606 278 106 100 16 79.7 59.9
12 339.59 339.59 339.59 144.83 162.8 339.59 474 624 357 61 107 43 80.11 61.23
13 378.77 378.77 194.88 144.91 162.9 378.77 666 445 153 143 137 95 81.98 65.22
14 426.72 426.72 73.95 132.91 154.9 426.72 664 644 15 51 112 156 84.63 67.47
15 454.7 454.7 22.99 119.92 132.91 454.7 690 646 16 59 107 122 85.83 65.53
16 445.71 445.71 137.91 93.94 106.93 445.71 663 644 111 92 107 59 85.28 62.91
17 464 464 381 61 86 464 687 613 334 38 57 191 89.92 73.49
18 550.5 550.5 550.5 16.98 45.96 499.55 590 594 616 12 29 373 96.12 88.48
19 627 627 627 0 1 500 593 667 634 0 0 488 98.35 97.59
20 627.47 627.47 627.47 0 0 499.58 664 565 662 0 0 491 98.31 97.81
21 609 609 609 0 0 500 602 551 736 0 0 438 97.37 93.72
22 558 558 558 0 0 500 663 636 486 0 0 389 94.69 88.28
23 475.74 475.74 475.74 0 0 475.74 630 580 643 0 0 50 88.53 63.74
24 547 547 72 0 0 500 668 641 65 0 0 292 85.93 73.86
Total cost of generation over 24 hours 2075.39 1685.26

The possibility of using storage devices to enhance the reliability of the microgrid are not considered in either
case, as the aim of this article is only to endorse the applicability of the AFS algorithm for economic generation
scheduling in a microgrid.
Table 1 shows the hourly maximum power availability of each renewable source. The scheduled generation
using AFS algorithm is as tabulated in Table 3 for case-1 and in Table 4 for case-2. Figures 2(a) and 3(a)
summarise the generation scheduling simulated by AFS algorithm for both the cases. Table 3 and Table 4confirm
that the total generation scheduled by the AFS algorithm exactly matches the demand which endorses the
applicability of the algorithm for economic generation scheduling in a microgrid. The costs of generation as
estimated by AIMD algorithm and AFS algorithm are tabulated in the cost columns of Table 3 and Table 4.It
shows that the AFS algorithm is a class ahead in economic scheduling compared to AIMD algorithm. In both the
cases, from the 0th hour to 18th hour, where the surplus power availability is more, the ability of AFS algorithm is
much more pronounced because there is a larger choice of generators to choose from. More surplus power
availability enables larger search space and more no of artificial fish locations are generated and hence the
algorithm is able to find a better economic mix of generation, which the AIMD algorithm is unable to do. On the
other hand, AIMD algorithm simply schedules generation among the available generators equally at the end of
given number of iterations by adding a fixed increment A for each iteration, subject to the maximum power
availability with the respective generator, which can be seen from the Table3 and Table4. The CHP source being
the costliest source, even a small reduction in its generation allocation brings a large difference in the generation
cost and this is the reason for large difference between the costs evaluated by the two algorithms in case-1. During
19th to 23rd hours, the saving in cost as calculated by AFS algorithm is less for the reason that the surplus power
availability is much less, which results in a lesser search space for the Artificial Fish. At end of the day, the AIMD
algorithm puts the total cost of generation over 24 hours at USD 2075.39 in case-1 and at USD 1561.56 for case-2,
where as AFS algorithm puts the same at USD 1685.26 for case-1 and USD 1548.68 for case-2, with a net saving
of USD 390.13 and 12.91 respectively in each case. Figures 2(b) and 3(b) summarise the trends of hourly cost of
generation as calculated by AFS algorithm and AIMD algorithm for the two cases. The cost difference is much

283
Table 4. Results of generation scheduling using AIMD and AFS algorithms for case-2
Hour Scheduling using AIMD algorithm (kW) Scheduling using AFS algorithm (kW) Cost (USD)
Pwind1 Pwind2 Pwind3 AIMD AIMD Pchp Pwind1 Pwind2 Pwind3 Ppv1 Ppv2 Pchp AIMD AFS
0 521 521 429 0 0 0 521 521 429 0 0 0 53.29 53.26
1 441.65 441.65 441.65 0 0 0 217 685 423 0 0 0 50.69 50.64
2 521.58 521.58 219.82 0 0 0 377 671 215 0 0 0 49.7 49.67
3 595 595 39 0 0 0 595 595 39 0 0 0 49.19 49.17
4 632 576 21 0 0 0 632 576 21 0 0 0 49.21 49.21
5 558 596 167 0 0 0 558 596 167 0 0 0 50.75 50.73
6 571.6 571.6 350.75 0 14.99 0 562 618 328 0 1 0 54.17 54
7 527.37 527.37 527.37 9.99 70.91 0 606 526 521 8 2 0 57.48 56.77
8 501.7 501.7 496.7 66.96 89.95 0 482 667 492 1 15 0 58.39 56.71
9 476.41 476.41 476.41 97.88 115.86 0 511 654 470 5 3 0 58.1 56.38
10 460.43 460.43 460.43 121.8 139.83 0 702 478 451 2 10 0 58.17 56.49
11 496 496 366 139 155 0 496 496 366 139 155 0 59.98 56.77
12 493 493 372 145 163 0 493 493 372 145 163 0 60.39 57.53
13 575 561 195 145 163 0 575 561 195 145 163 0 59.99 59.26
14 640.17 640.17 73.9 132.8 154.8 0 640 641 74 132 155 0 59.86 59.86
15 709 652 23 120 133 3 709 652 23 120 133 3 59.62 59.62
16 680.56 656.57 137.91 93.94 106.93 0 681 656 138 94 107 0 59.41 59.41
17 707 660 381 61 86 25 707 660 381 61 86 25 64.44 64.44
18 721 659 617 17 46 154 721 659 617 17 46 154 76.04 76.04
19 644 668 652 0 1 417 644 668 652 0 1 417 93.52 93.52
20 674 664 706 0 0 338 674 664 706 0 0 338 88.9 88.9
21 677 661 744 0 0 245 677 661 744 0 0 245 82.51 82.51
22 688 642 696 0 0 148 688 642 696 0 0 148 74.2 74.2
23 634.33 634.33 634.33 0 0 0 671 566 666 0 0 0 60.84 60.84
24 672 649 72 0 0 273 672 649 72 0 0 273 72.75 72.75
Total cost of generation over 24 hours 1561.59 1548.68

2500 100

2000 90
AFSA
AIMD
Power generated (kW)

Pgwind1
Pgwind2 80
1500 Pgwind3
Pgpv1
Pgpv2
AFSA

Pchp
demand 70
1000 Pgtotal

60
500

50
0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
0 5 10 15 20
hr hour

Figure 1 (a) Figure 1 (b)

Figure 1 (a) Scheduled generation vs time as calculated by AFS algorithm in case -1
(b) Cost comparison as estimated by AIMD and AFS algorithms

2500 100

95
AIMD
2000 90
AFSA
85
Power generated (kW)

Pgwind1 80
1500 Pgwind2
Pgwind3 75
AIMD

Pgpv1
Pgpv2
Pgtotal
70
1000 Pgchp
65

60
500
55

50
0
0 5 10 15 20
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
hr
hr

Figure 2 (a) Figure 2 (b)

Figure 2 (a) Scheduled generation vs time as calculated by AFS algorithm in case -2
(b) Cost comparison as estimated by AIMD and AFS algorithms

284
 more glaring in case 2, because as already demonstrated, the AFS algorithm explores the search space for best
location of artificial fish, which gives the best fitness value i.e., optimal cost of generation.

5. Conclusions

The fast depleting conventional energy sources are urging the energy sector to shift its dependency to the RESs.
Moreover the advances in DG and RES technologies are so attractive that the energy sector cannot overlook them.
But the uncertainty in the power availability of the RESs is posing operational problems to maintain balance and
stability. In spite of these odds, the liberalised energy policies by the governments are very promising to the
private power producers and there is a strict competition in the energy markets. A variety of optimization
algorithms are in use and are being developed by research to address the problem of optimized utilization of DG
and RESs based on day ahead forecasted statistics. In this paper AFS algorithm is used to schedule generation
economically in a microgrid with uncertain sources under two cases. In case 1, the improvement in cost reduction
by the AFS algorithm is much glaring, as the costliest source is accessed simultaneously along with the other
sources. Also in case 2, which is a more realistic one, in which the costliest source is accessed only after all the
cheaper sources are exhausted, the AFS algorithm is performing reasonably good. A comparison is made
between AFS algorithm and AIMD algorithm for validation, by using them to schedule generation in a microgrid
comprising of three wind, two solar PV and a CHP generators isolated mode with a load curve of a few MW over
24 hour time schedule at a time interval of 1 hour. The AFS algorithm is proved to be much more competitive in
economic scheduling of generation compared to AIMD algorithm.

References

[1] Sirus Mohammadi and Ali Mohammadi, Stochastic scenario-based model and investigating size of battery
energy storage and thermal energy storage for micro-grid, J. Electrical power and energy systems,vol.61, pp.
531-546, 2014.
[2] IEEE-PES Task Force on Microgrid Control, Trends in Microgrid Control, IEEE transactions on Smart Grid,
vol.5, no. 4, July 2014.
[3] X. Guan, Z. Xu and Q.S. Jia, Energy efficient buildings facilitated by microgrid, IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol.
1, no. 3, pp. 243-252, 2010.
[4] Emanuel Cristoni, Marco Raugi and Robert Shorten, Plug and Play distributed algorithm for optimized power
generation in a microgrid, IEEE transactions on Smart grid, vol.4, pp.2145-2154, 2014.
[5] Y. S. Kim, Y.K. Eom, K.Y. Lee and J.H. Park, Economic load despatch for piecewise quadratic function using
Hopefield neural network, IEEE Transaction on Power Systems, vol. 8, pp.1030-1038, 1993.
[6] A. Parisio and L. Glielmo, A mixed integer linear formulation for microgrid economic scheduling, IEEE
conference on Smart Grid Communications, Brussels, Belgium, pp. 505-510, 2011.
[7] Fatemeh Najibi and Taher Niknam, Stochastic scheduling of renewable micro-grids considering photovoltaic
source uncertainities, Energy conversions and management, vol. 98,pp. 484-499, 2015.
[8] Bahman Bahmani-Firouzi , Rasoul Azizipanah-Abarghooee, Optimal sizing of battery storge for microgrid
operation management using a new improved bat algorithm, Electrical power and energy systems, vol.56, pp.
42-54, 2014.
[9] Y.S. Kim, Y.K. Eom, K.Y. Lee and J.H. Park, Economic load despatch for piecewise quadratid function using
Hopefield neural network, IEEE Trasactions on Power systems, vol.8, pp. 1030-1038, 1993.
[10] Bo Xing, Wen Jing Gao, Innovative computational intelligence: A rough guide to 134 clever algorithms,
Springer international publishing, Switzerland, 2014.
[11] Ban X., Yang Y., Ning S., Lv X and Qin J., A self adoptive control algorithm of the artificial fish formation,
IEEE International conference on Fuzzy systems, Korea, pp. 1903-1908, 2009.

285
 ICAER 2015

Analysis of D.C Electric springs in the micro grid system

consisting of fluctuating Energy sources
S Hari Charan Cherukuri a, B Saravanana*, and K S Swarupb
a
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore-632014, India
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai-600036, India

______________________________________________________________________________
Abstract:
This paper deals about the reduction of power drawn from the supply system during generation un-certainties in D.C Micro grids
using D.C Electric springs. In this work supply system is modelled using a fluctuating power source and a battery i.e. during
generation uncertainties the system runs on battery support. A micro grid system which has a critical load and non-critical load
has been taken for this study and the simulations are done in MATLAB. The objective is to conserve power by making the non-
critical loads draw less power during generation uncertainties which in turn relives the battery and renewable generator to the
possible extent. D.C Electric springs are extension to A.C Electric springs used in A.C systems which make the non-critical loads
draw less power by adjusting the voltage applied to them. The D.C Electric spring presented in this work is different from the
existing technologies present in the literature in terms of the circuitry used and the application point of view.

Key words: D.C Electric spring, Noncritical load, D.C micro grid, Supply system, Uncertainties
______________________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction:

D.C micro grids in the electricity distribution level especially for domestic and commercial applications are gaining
momentum [1]. D.C power is more attractive because the losses in the D.C system are certainly low due to the
absence of reactive power and also because many of the domestic equipment work on D.C supply [2]. Along with
growing interest in the D.C micro grid system there is an increasing trend in connecting small and micro generation
sources to the micro grid [3]. Presence of fluctuating energy sources in the micro grid causes generation
intermittence which may lead to instability in the micro grid system [4]. Reliable supply of power in the complex
grid environments can be achieved by effectively handling renewables, demand response and storage [5]. Making
the transmission grid smart by designing smart transmission networks, smart control centers and smart substations
reliability in power supplied increases [6]. In order to take care of the generation uncertainties in the D.C micro grid
systems i.e. to match the demand and supply gap traditional methods like the full or partial load shedding can be
employed. In the literature there is also one other technique to manage the demand supply gap by shifting the non-
critical/curtailable loads to the off peak times and is known as Demand side management (DSM). The article [7]
presents an optimal methodology to reduce the demand supply gap by optimally scheduling the controllable loads in
a D.C smart home system. The authors in [7] considered heat pump and battery as controllable loads and scheduled
the smart home system using tabu search optimization algorithm. Taking water heater as controllable loads the
authors in [8] presented a novel technique to schedule the loads based on the cost settings made by the
house/building owners in order to make load management cost effective as per the requirement of the consumers
which is again an optimal way of scheduling the loads. Apart from DSM using batteries in conjunction with the
fluctuating renewable energy sources will also help to reduce the demand supply gap i.e. whenever there is sufficient
power generation in the grid the battery will charge itself and during generation deficits the battery supports the
system by providing the required power. In A.C systems a new technology by name Electric springs has been
proposed [9] which makes the non-critical loads drawn lesser power (instead of curtailing them completely) during
generation uncertainties and make the battery storage requirement to be low which means that the power drawn from
the supply system (battery and generator) gets low [10]. Different applications and uses of A.C Electric spring for
different problems were presented in the literature. In [11] the application of A.C Electric spring in providing
reactive power support and voltage regulation has been projected and the dynamic control strategy for voltage and
frequency control at power system level has been reported in [12]. In providing reactive power support to the system
____________________________________
*
Corresponding author. Tel: (+91) 9659954979, E-mail: bsaravanan@vit.ac.in

286
the performance of STATCOM is compared with A.C Electric spring in [13] and it has been found out that spring is
more effective in providing reactive support than STATCOM and the effectiveness of spring in mitigating the
voltage and frequency fluctuations is demonstrated in [14] which is also quite encouraging. Further it has been
presented in [15] that A.C spring is capable of reducing the power imbalance in three phase power systems to
considerable level. Inspired from the concept of A.C Electric Spring to achieve the objective as did in the A.C
system the concept of D.C Electric spring is proposed in this paper as an extension of A.C Electric springs to reduce
the power drawn from the supply system during uncertainties in power generation.

A D.C Electric spring in a different perspective and different application has been presented in the literature [16].
In [16] the authors presented a different inference for Mechanical and Electric spring and also designed an Electric
spring with a different circuitry and used for power quality applications to mitigate voltage sags and swells whereas
the DC Electric spring(E.S(D.C)) presented in this work is different in terms of circuit design, application and its
interpretation with Mechanical spring.

2. Methodology and Problem formulation:

To realize the concept of D.C Electric spring a micro grid which consists of loads and the supply system is
considered as shown in Fig.1.

Point of common coupling (PCC)

AC/DC
Fluctuating AC Converter
Source

D.C Electric
Spring
DC/DC
Storage System Converter

R R1

Fig. 1 Micro grid system considered for the study

Fig.1 consists of a Fluctuating A.C source connected to an AC/DC converter which in turn feeds the D.C Critical
and Non-critical loads. The micro grid system also consists of a battery which supports the loads during
uncertainties in the AC source. Hence the supply system (Complete setup of source and the storage system) is
expected to supply required power to critical and noncritical loads even during uncertainties in the source.

In general during un-certainties in generation to reduce the burden on the supply system especially the non-
critical loads like the waters heaters will be cut off and will be switched ‘ON’ whenever there is sufficiency in
generation because water heaters can heat up water and the heat can be retained for longer times [17]. In this paper
to conserve power during deficits, the power drawn by the non-critical load is controlled by regulating the voltage
applied to the non-critical load because loads like water heaters can sometimes(during generation uncertainties) be
operated at larger voltage tolerance values (Approximately 20 % from their rated value). Whereas critical loads are
those types of loads which are not curtailable and also it is essential to maintain voltage at specified tolerance levels.

287
 The other examples of non-critical loads can be lighting systems used in parking lots, stairways where little more
change in illumination level is acceptable.
D.C Spring

L1
Input D.C supply

Critical load
Ch
D C
V

Non-Critical load (R)

Fig. 2 Connection diagram of D.C Electric spring

Fig.2 shows the connection diagram of D.C Electric spring which is connected in series with the non-critical
load. The word D.C Electric spring is coined by taking inspiration from the mechanical spring. An ideal mechanical
spring when stressed with certain force from one direction it transfers the same to the other side of it. This transfer
of force from one side of the Mechanical spring to the other side is dependent on the applied force i.e. lesser the
force applied lesser will be the transfer and higher the applied force higher will be the transfer. In the same way D.C
Electric spring works with reference to the source voltage i.e. if the source voltage is sufficient enough then the
complete voltage will be applied to the non-critical load like when sufficient force is applied to the mechanical
spring it transfers it completely to the other side here electrically that is achieved by closing Switch (S) and
whenever there is deficiency in the renewable generator voltage (not the voltage by considering battery support) it
means that there is no enough force on the spring which will lead to lesser transfer of force to the other side. This is
achieved in the Electric spring by opening ‘S’ and operating the Chopper (Ch) by which lesser voltage will be
supplied to the non-critical load. In this away as the complete circuit is analogous to mechanical spring it is called
Electric spring and as it used in D.C circuitry it is called D.C Electric spring.

Now coming to the actual operation of D.C Electric spring, during uncertainties in generation the switch(S) is
open and the chopper (Ch) is supplied with the Controlled PWM pulses in such a way that the average value of
voltage applied to the non-critical will be reduced to the certain tolerable value which is lesser than the rated value
and now whenever there is sufficient generation the switch(S) is closed which means the entire chopper circuitry is
bypassed and full rated value of voltage will be applied across non-critical load. The Inductor (L1) & capacitor(C)
present in Fig. 2 are used to filter out the ripples in the D.C component supplied to the non-critical load and Diode
(D) is used for freewheeling action.

The relation between the voltage applied to the noncritical load and the power drawn from the supply system is as
explained below.

𝑃 = 𝑃𝐶 + 𝑃𝑁𝐶 (1)

𝑉2
𝑃𝑁𝐶 = (2)
𝑅

P = Ps + Pb (3)

Where P is the total power drawn by the critical and noncritical load from the supply system (Source and
Battery), Pc is the power drawn by the critical load which is always constant because the voltage applied to it is also
almost constant and PNC is the power drawn by the noncritical load and it can be written as shown in Eq. 2, Ps is the

288
total power supplied by the source and P b is the power supplied by the battery. Hence the total power supplied by the
supply system can be related using Eq. 3

Now considering a two folded objective of minimizing the power drawn from the supply system and battery the
Eq. 1 can be written as follows

Minimization of power drawn from the supply system

Min. P = Pc + PNC (4)

Minimization of power drawn from the battery storage system

Min. Pb = Ps – (Pc + PNC) (5)

In order to achieve the afore said objective stated in Eq. 4 & Eq. 5 the only option available is by reducing the
power drawn by the non-critical load using Electric spring. From Eq. 2 it can be noticed that if the voltage applied to
the non-critical load is reduced to a certain extent there will be reduction in the total power drawn from the supply
system which in turn relives the battery also from supplying more power to the loads during generation uncertainties
and as a result by using smart techniques like the D.C Electric spring the battery storage requirement in the future
D.C micro grids will get low and hence low rated batteries can be used which again will reduce the capital and
maintenance costs. So looking at the upcoming results it is also clear that not only battery but also the renewable
generator is relieved to a certain extent during generation intermittence.

2.1 Control Strategy adopted for operation of battery and D.C spring:

The battery as well as the spring will be operating only when the output voltage of the source falls below the normal
rated value of 220 volt. The control signals for the battery are generated i.e. the DC/DC converter shown in the Fig.
1 will be triggered which regulates the voltage that has to be supplied by the battery. The generation of control
pulses is as shown in Fig. 3

Vs Control Pulses to the

+ PID Controller PWM Generator DC/DC Converter
-
Vref
Fig. 3 Control circuitry adopted for the Storage system

Fig. 3 shows the control strategy adopted for the Battery storage system where Vs is the voltage supplied by the
renewable generator and Vref is the reference value of the voltage which will be set to the actual rated value of the
micro grid system. Now whenever there is change in voltage supplied by the renewable generator there will be error
signal generated and it is processed by the PID controller and based on the requirement PWM generator generates
pulses which feed the DC/DC converter and hence the battery is allowed to discharge which means the system runs
on battery support.

Similarly control pulses are generated for the operation of D.C Electric spring and the control strategy is not very
different from that one of the battery. By comparing the voltage supplied by the renewable generator and the rated
value of the system voltage an error signal would be generated which will open the switch(S) in the spring circuitry
and allows the power flow through the Chopper (Ch). Now whenever S is open the Chopper is gated using PWM
pulses and only 180 volt is allowed to appear across the non-critical load which will lead to reduction in power
drawn from the supply system during generation uncertainties.

289
3. Simulation Results and Discussions:

The D.C Micro grid system shown in Fig.1 is considered for the study and is designed in MATLAB (Fig. 4) which
consists of a Fluctuating power source and converter to convert the generated A.C power to D.C to feed the D.C
loads. The ratings of the micro grid system are obtained from [9]. Although the systems considered for the study in
[9] is an A.C system the same rating of the loads, source and the battery are taken here for the study of a D.C micro
grid system.

Fig. 4 Simulation diagram of the considered D.C Micro grid system

Fig. 4 is a similar to Fig. 1 simulated in MATLAB environment. It consists of a Fluctuating power source which
gives different D.C output voltages at different instants of time and the system ratings are as indicated in the Table
1. Fig. 3 also shows the D.C Electric spring which is connected in series to the noncritical load and will be operated
only when the output voltage of the power source falls below the rated value (220 V)

Table 1 Details of the D.C Micro grid system

Nominal system Resistance of non- Resistance of
Battery capacity
voltage(Average value) critical load critical load

Output DC voltage Ampere hour Rating

220 volt 27.5 Ω 31 Ω
208 V 45

The battery storage block in the Fig. 4 actuates only when the voltage supplied by the source is lesser than the
stipulated value. Initially the battery is considered to be fully charged and the rating of the battery considered shall
not be considered as the optimum size. The simulations are done for 1800 second i.e. for half an hour time for
preprogrammed fluctuations in the output voltage and the variation of the source voltage is as shown in the Fig. 5

290
Average value of DC voltage supplied by the renewable generator 230

220

210

200

190

180

170
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Time in second

Fig. 5 Variations in the output voltage of the source considered for the study

260
Average value of DC voltage across critical load

250

240

230

220

210

200
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Time in second

Fig. 6 Average value of Voltage across the Critical load

291
 Fig. 5 shows the variations in the source output voltage where the source voltage is maintained at rated value for
the initial period of 50 second and after 1750 second which means that battery has to support the system from 50 th
second to 1750th second and also the electric spring has to operate to suppress a reasonable voltage across the non-
critical load.

Here in this work during battery support the non-critical load is made to operate at a tolerance level of 20 % from
its rated value which will result in saving the power drawn from the battery as well as the source during
uncertainties in the renewable generator. During battery support i.e. after 50 th second the voltage across the critical
load is maintained at specified tolerance level and the voltage across the non-critical load is allowed to fall to 180
volt by the action of the spring as shown in Fig. 6 & Fig. 7

250
Average value of DC voltage across non critical load

200

150

100

50

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Time in second

Fig. 7 Average value of D.C voltage across the non-critical load

From Fig. 6 & Fig. 7 it can be established that in steady state the voltage across the critical load is maintained at
specified tolerance value and also the voltage across the non-critical load is maintained at a higher tolerance value in
steady state due to the operation of spring and hence the power drawn by the critical & non-critical loads will follow
the same and is as shown in Fig. 8 & Fig. 9

Fig. 8 shows the power drawn by the Critical load during uncertainties in generation as well as during normal
operating condition where the power drawn by the critical load is almost constant even during un-certainties which
means that there is no substantial reduction in the power drawn by the critical load. Now in order to save power or to
release the battery and the renewable generator during uncertainties in the power generation the power drawn by the
non-critical loads is suppressed to considerable extent which can be inferred from Fig. 9.

292
 2000

1800

1600
Power drawn by the critical load

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Time in second

Fig. 8 Power drawn by the Critical load

1800

1600
Power drawn by the non critical load

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Time in second

Fig. 9 Power drawn by the non-critical load

293
 Fig. 9 shows the power drawn by the non-critical load where it can be noticed that during generation sufficiency
i.e. up to 50th second and after 1750th second the power drawn by the non-critical load is around 1760 watt and
during deficits in power generation the power drawn by the non-critical load is around 1200 watt which is a straight
dip of around 560 watt. This means that instead of curtailing the non-critical load completely by using smart
techniques like the Electric spring substantial amount of power saving can be achieved.

Making a comparative study of the power drawn by the critical and non-critical loads with and without D.C
Electric spring it is very encouraging to use them in smart grid environments and are as follows

Table.2 Different parameters of the grid elements without the action of D.C Electric spring
Average Power drawn Average Power drawn Average current drawn Average current drawn
S. No. from the source from the battery from the source from the battery without
without D.C spring without D.C spring without D.C spring D.C spring
1. 2.0091 KW 1.622 KW 8.2340 A 6.8611 A

Table.2 shows the different parameters which are observed during the course of simulation for a time of 1800
second where the Average values of power drawn from source and battery, current drawn from the source and
battery are projected. Table.2 gives information of different electrical parameters when the D.C Electric spring is not
in action i.e. the micro grid system runs on battery support during un-certainties in power generation and the voltage
applied to both the critical and non-critical loads is same i.e. 220 volt which means that there is no power saving by
the non-critical load.

Table.3 Different parameters of the grid elements with the action of D.C Electric spring
Average Power drawn Average Power drawn Average current drawn Average current drawn
S. No. from the source with from the battery with from the source with from the battery with
D.C spring D.C spring D.C spring D.C spring
1. 1.7904 KW 1.5064 KW 7.3093 A 6.3598 A

Table.3 gives information about different electrical parameters when D.C Electric spring is pressed into action
i.e. the noncritical load works at 180 volt during generation un-certainties. So by comparing the corresponding
values in Table.2 & Table.3 it can be noticed that the difference in power drawn from the source is around 218 watt
and from the battery is around 115 watt and in the same way there is a difference in the Average current drawn for
both the cases. It can be estimated that due to the action of E.S (D.C) the power drawn from the supply system
(power source and battery) is reduced by 12 % i.e. from 3.6 KW without the action of spring and to 3.29 KW with
the action of spring.

It is interesting to notice from the above comparison that for considered fluctuations in the source voltage not
only the battery but also the source is relieved to a certain extent because of the action of spring. If the objective is to
reduce the battery storage requirement it can be compared and estimated that there is 8 % reduction in the power
drawn from the battery which means that battery storage requirement gets lesser. Apart from the power drawn from
the battery if the Average current drawn from the battery is considered there is a reduction of around 0.5 Ampere of
current drawn which clearly states that by using D.C Electric springs there can be reduction in the Ampere hour
capacity of the battery also which will be very helpful in saving capital as well as maintenance costs incurred for the
battery storage.

4. Conclusion

From the proposed work it can be established that usage of D.C Electric springs in the existing D.C micro grid
systems can largely relieve the battery and the renewable generator during un-certainties in the power generation by
the source. For the considered fluctuation pattern of the output voltage there is a saving of 8 % in the power drawn
from the battery and also by looking at the saving in the power drawn from the supply system during generation
uncertainties it can be seen that there is 12 % reduction in the power drawn which means that using D.C Electric
Spring not only the battery storage requirement gets lesser but also the power drawn from the supply system as well

294
as the source gets reduced which means that usage of D.C Electric spring in the micro grid system will realize both
the objectives. It can be noted that for a different pattern of output voltage of the source the reduction in power
drawn will be different. The future scope of this work can be on developing suitable devices or equipment which can
operate at higher voltage tolerance and such devices will be useful if the micro grid structure is weakly regulated.
Further this type of technologies can be used in D.C micro grid structures to reduce the energy storage requirements
in future.

References:
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IEEE Transactions on, 25(12), 3066-3075.
[2] Engelen, K., Shun, E. L., Vermeyen, P., Pardon, I., D'hulst, R., Driesen, J., & Belmans, R. (2006, November). The feasibility of small-scale
residential DC distribution systems. In IEEE Industrial Electronics, IECON 2006-32nd Annual Conference on (pp. 2618-2623). IEEE.
[3] Indu Rani, B., Saravana Ilango, G., & Nagamani, C. (2013). Control strategy for power flow management in a PV system supplying DC
loads. Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, 60(8), 3185-3194.
[4] "Germany's green energy destabilizing electric grids," Institute for Energy Research, Jan.
2013.Available:http://instituteforenergyresearch.orglanalysis/germanys-greenenergy-destabilizing-electric-gridsl.
[5] Moslehi, K., & Kumar, R. (2010). A reliability perspective of the smart grid.Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on, 1(1), 57-64.
[6] Li, F., Qiao, W., Sun, H., Wan, H., Wang, J., Xia, Y., & Zhang, P. (2010). Smart transmission grid: Vision and framework. Smart Grid, IEEE
Transactions on, 1(2), 168-177.
[7] Tanaka, K., Yoza, A., Ogimi, K., Yona, A., Senjyu, T., Funabashi, T., & Kim, C. H. (2012). Optimal operation of DC smart house system by
controllable loads based on smart grid topology. Renewable Energy, 39(1), 132-139..
[8] Du, P., & Lu, N. (2011). Appliance commitment for household load scheduling.Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on, 2(2), 411-419.
[9] Hui, S. Y., Lee, C. K., & Wu, F. F. (2012). Electric springs—A new smart grid technology. Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on, 3(3), 1552-
1561.
[10] Lee, Chi Kwan, and Shu Yuen Hui. (2013) "Reduction of energy storage requirements in future smart grid using electric springs." Smart
Grid, IEEE Transactions on 4(3),1282-1288.
[11] Lee, C. K., Chaudhuri, B., & Hui, S. Y. (2013). Hardware and control implementation of electric springs for stabilizing future smart grid
with intermittent renewable energy sources. Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, IEEE Journal of, 1(1), 18-27.
[12]Chaudhuri, N. R., Lee, C. K., Chaudhuri, B., & Hui, S. Y. R. (2014). Dynamic modeling of electric springs. Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions
on, 5(5), 2450-2458.
[13]Luo, X., Akhtar, Z., Lee, C. K., Chaudhuri, B., Tan, S. C., & Hui, S. Y. R. (2015). Distributed voltage control with electric springs:
Comparison with STATCOM. Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on, 6(1), 209-219.
[14]Chen, X., Hou, Y., Tan, S. C., Lee, C. K., & Hui, S. Y. R. (2015). Mitigating Voltage and Frequency Fluctuation in Microgrids Using
Electric Springs. Smart Grid, IEEE Transactions on, 6(2), 508-515.
[15]Yan, S., Tan, S. C., Lee, C. K., Chaudhuri, B., & Hui, S. Y. (2015). Electric Springs for Reducing Power Imbalance in Three-Phase Power
Systems. Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, 30(7), 3601-3609.
[16] Kwan-Tat Mok, Ming-Hao Wang, Siew-Chong Tan, Shu-Yuen (Ron) Hui (2015), DC Electric springs – An Emerging Technology for DC
Grids. In Applied power Electronics conference and Exposition (APEC), 2015 IEEE(pp. 684- 690).IEEE
[17] Zolpirani, M. S., Morsi, W. G., Li, H., Diduch, C. P., & Chang, L. (2010, August). A centralized controller to control power demands of
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1). IEEE.

295
 ICAER-2015

Experimental Investigations on Rubber Seed Oil Methyl Ester by

Varying the Load Conditions and Compression Ratio in a Diesel
Engine
V.V.Patila, R.S. Patilb,*, G. Karthikeyanb
a
PhD Scholar,Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa campus, Zuarinagar 403726, India
b
Faculty of Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa campus, Zuarinagar 403726, India

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to obtain the performance and emission characteristics of rubber seed oil methyl ester (ROME)
(B100) by using single cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio (VCR) diesel engine at constant speed (1500 rpm)
without any modifications in the engine. Different characteristics of B100 were investigated by varying the load in
increasing order [no load (0%) to full load condition (100%)] and by varying the compression ratio 14:1, 15:1, 16:1, 17:1,
and 18:1 for each of five load conditions varying from no load to full load; and compared with performance and emission
characteristics of diesel (B0) obtained at compression ratio 18:1 at different load conditions. Performance characteristics like
indicated power, brake power, brake thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption were
investigated. Emission characteristics like exhaust gas temperature, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and NOx were also
investigated.
Keywords: Emission Characteristics, Load, Performance Characteristics, Rubber Seed Oil Methyl Ester,Variable Compression Ratio

1. Introduction

Vegetable oil is one of alternate renewable energy resource, which can be easily made available in a country
like India. ROME (B100) have comparable properties with diesel (B0), hence diesel can be completely replaced
by ROME (B100) [1-2]. Performance and emission characteristics of rubber-seed oil (B100) and diesel (B0)
were compared at different load conditions [1]. Performance and emission characteristics of pure rubber seed oil
(B100), diesel (B0), and biodiesel were compared at different load conditions [2]. A single cylinder constant
speed direct injection diesel engine was used to analyze the emission characteristics of jatropha and rubber-seed
oil blended with diesel [3]. Performance and exhaust emissions characteristics of variable compression ratio
(VCR) diesel engine by using the esterified tamanu oil with varying the compression ratio were reported by [4].
Performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of different blends of rice bran oil and ethanol by using
single cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio multi fuel engine with varying the compression ratio of
16.5:1, 17:1, 17.5:1, and 18:1 at 50% load reported by [5]. Effects of variation of compression ratio on
combustion and performance characteristics of preheated palm oil by using single cylinder four stroke variable
compression ratio engines with 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% diesel blends were reported by [6]. Experimental
investigations on zizi plus jujuba oil diesel blends by using diesel engine at compression ratio 15:1 to 18:1 were
reported by [7].

Literature review reveals that, esterified rubber-seed oil (B100) was not tested in variable compression ratio
(VCR) diesel engine by varying the compression ratio. Hence present work focus to evaluate the optimum
performance and emission characteristics of ROME by varying the compression ratio as 14:1, 15:1, 16:1, 17:1,
and 18:1 for each of five load conditions varying from no load to full load.

Nomenclature

CO2 Carbon dioxide

NOx Nitrogen oxide
ROME Rubber seed oil methyl ester
VCR Variable compression ratio
CR Compression ratio
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-832-2580-209, E-mail address: ranjitp@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in

296
2. Experimental Investigations

2.1 Experimental set up

a b

Fig. 1. (a) experimental set up; (b) schematic diagram of setup.

The experimental set up consist of single cylinder, four stroke variable compression ratio diesel engine as
shown in Fig.1 (a) and schematic diagram of set up as shown in Fig. 1 (b). The variable compression ratio diesel
engine (VCR) connected to water cooled eddy current dynamometer for no load condition (0%) to full load
condition (100%). The compression ratio changed without altering the combustion chamber geometry by
specially designed tilting cylinder block arrangement. Experiment setup is provided with essential instruments
for combustion pressure and TDC pulse crank-angle measurements. Experimental arrangement is also prepared
for interfacing parameters measurement like air flow, fuel flow, temperatures, and load to computer. Experiment
set up has consist of mild steel fabricated air box with orifice meter and manometer, fuel tank with glass fuel
metering column, DP type fuel flow transmitter, pressure air flow transmitter, digital load indicator, strain gauge
type load cell sensor, and water rotameters. These enable the experimental setup to study different performance
and combustion characteristics. Lab view based engine performance analysis software package “Engine soft
LV” was used for performance analysis. Table 1 shows specifications of diesel engine setup. Accuracy for the
different instruments used was known and it was used further to predict the uncertainties. Kline and McClintok
method has been used to predict the uncertainties in the measurement of different powers or efficiencies. Root
mean square value of uncertainty was not more than ± 5% for the different measurements. AVL DIGAS 444
with diesel application probe type of exhaust gas analyzer used for this experimental emission investigation.
Presented values of pollutants are based on dry basis.

Table 1. Diesel engine specifications.

Sr. No. Engine part Specifications
01 Make Kirloskar
02 Number of cylinder 01
03 Number of stroke 04
04 Bore 87.5 mm
05 Stroke 110 mm
06 Rated power 4.6 kW at 1500 rpm
07 Combustion chamber Tilting cylinder block
08 Product code 234
09 Compression ratio 14:1 to 18:1

297
 Table 2. Meaning of symbols.
Symbols Meaning
F1 Fuel flow
F2 Air flow rate
F3 Flow rate of water to jackets
F4 Flow rate of water to calorimeter
T1 Temperature of jacket inlet water
T2 Temperature of jacket outlet water
T3 Temperature of inlet water of calorimeter
T4 Temperature of outlet water of calorimeter
T5 Temperature of exhaust gas before calorimeter
T6 Temperature of exhaust gas after calorimeter
E Variable compression ratio diesel engine
N Speed of engine
D Eddy current dynamometer

Table 3. Properties of fuel.

Sr. No. Name of blend Density of blend Calorific value of
(kg/m3) blend (kJ/kg)
01 Rubberseed oil methyl ester (B100) 882.37 37500
02 Diesel (B0) 829 42000

2.2 Experimental methodology

Experiments were conducted to obtain the performance and emission characteristics of ROME (B100) by
using single cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio (VCR) diesel engine at constant speed (1500 rpm)
without any modifications in the engine. Different characteristics of ROME (B100) were investigated by
varying the load in increasing order [no load (0%), 25%, 50%, 75% and full load condition (100%)] and by
varying the compression ratio 14:1, 15:1, 16:1, 17:1, and 18:1 for each of five load conditions varying from no
load to full load; and compared with performance and emission characteristics of diesel (B0) obtained at
compression ratio 18:1 at different load conditions. For every operating conditions different performance
characteristics (like brake power, indicated power, brake thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency, brake
specific fuel consumption) and emission characteristics (like exhaust gas temperature, carbon monoxide, carbon
dioxide, and NOx) were investigated.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Performance characteristics of rubber seed oil methyl ester and diesel

Fig. 2(a) shows the variation of brake power with load percentage at constant speed engine. Performance
characteristics like brake power for ROME was almost same for all compression ratios 14:1 to 18:1. It was
matching to brake power values obtained for diesel at CR-18:1 at different load conditions. A brake power was
increasing with increase in load on the engine. Brake power is proportional to the torque and speed of engine.
Speed of engine was constant during experiments. Torque characteristics of ROME was increasing for CR-14:1
from 0.38 Nm to 28.99 Nm, for CR 15:1 from 0.32 Nm to 29.31Nm, for CR-16:1 from 0.38 Nm to 29.06 Nm,
for CR-17:1 from 0.41 Nm to 29.16 Nm, for CR-18:1 from 0.41 Nm to 29.18 Nm, and for diesel from 0.43 Nm
to 29.39 Nm as the load increases, hence brake power was increasing with increase in load. As shown in Fig.
2(b), variation of indicated power with load was showing same trend as like brake power. Indicated power of
ROME increases for CR-14:1 from 2.26 kW to 6.78, for CR 15:1 from 2.89 kW to 7.11 kW, for CR-16:1 from
2.59 kW to 7.13 kW, for CR-17:1 from 2.9 kW to 7.09 kW, for CR-18:1 from 2.95 kW to 7.15 kW, and for
diesel from 2.75 kW to 7.14 kW as the load increases. Indicated power for ROME for compression ratios CR-
15:1 to CR-18:1 and for diesel at CR-18:1 was almost same but it was more than ROME at CR-14:1 as shown in
Fig. 2(b).

298
 a b
D-CR-18 D-CR-18
5
ROME-CR-14 ROME-CR-14
ROME-CR-15 ROME-CR-15
7
ROME-CR-16 ROME-CR-16
4 ROME-CR-17 ROME-CR-17
ROME-CR-18 6 ROME-CR-18

Indicated Power (kW)

Brake Power (kW)

3
5

2
4

1 3

0 2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 2. (a) variation of brake power with load; (b) variation of indicated power with load.

Variation of brake thermal efficiency with load on the engine for ROME and diesel is as shown in Fig. 3(a).
For a given load, brake thermal efficiency increases with increase in compression ratio because the brake
thermal efficiency is the ratio of brake power and energy of fuel (product of calorific value and mass flow rate
of fuel), which was increasing with increase in compression ratio for a given load. It is also observed that, the
brake thermal efficiency increases at higher load conditions and at higher compression ratios, this is because for
a constant calorific value of the fuel, mass flow rate of ROME increases for CR-14:1 from 0.69 kg/hr to 1.48
kg/hr, for CR 15:1 from 0.74 kg/hr to 1.53 kg/hr, for CR-16:1 from 0.58 kg/hr to 1.48 kg/hr, for CR-17:1 from
0.48 kg/hr to 1.43 kg/hr, for CR-18:1 from 0.42 kg/hr to 1.27 kg/hr, and for diesel at CR-18:1 from 0.35 kg/hr to
1.2 kg/hr as the load increases. The brake thermal efficiency of ROME was more than diesel at CR-18:1 from
no load condition to full load condition. Brake power was almost same for ROME and diesel at CR-18:1 but
energy of fuels were different. The calorific value of ROME was 37500 kJ/kg and for diesel was 42000 kJ/kg.

Fig. 3(b) presents the variation of volumetric efficiency with load and compression ratio. The volumetric
efficiency decreases at higher load conditions and at higher compression ratios. With increase in load percentage
and compression ratio, the volumetric efficiency decreases because air flow rate to the engine cylinder decreases
with increase in load. Volumetric efficiency of diesel was more than ROME with increase in load percentage.
Average exhaust gas temperature from no load to full load condition for diesel remains lower than ROME
which is shown in Fig. 5(a). Hence cylinder wall temperature also will be low than while using ROME. Hence
when fresh air adds to the cylinder, its density remains high and hence volumetric efficiency remains higher
than while using ROME as a fuel. With increase in load percentage volumetric efficiency decreases, this is
because of increase in generation of gases and subsequently amount of gases left back in the cylinder of the
previous cycles increases which do not allow sucking more fresh air inside the cylinder. Hence volumetric
efficiency decreases with increasing load percentage.

Fig. 4(a) shows brake specific fuel consumption variation with load and compression ratio for ROME
(B100) and diesel for CR-18:1. Brake specific fuel consumption was the ratio of mass of fuel consumed per unit
time to the brake power. Mass of fuel consumed per unit time was decreasing with increase in compression ratio
for a given load, while brake power slightly increasing. Hence brake specific fuel consumption decreases at
increase in compression ratio for a given load. The brake specific fuel consumption of diesel is less than
ROME. It is observed that brake specific fuel consumption was more at lower load conditions, because brake
power generated was smaller at no load condition, but after increase in load from 25% to full load (100%)
condition, increase in brake power takes place, this increment was comparatively very larger than increment
took place in amount of mass of fuel consumed per unit hour.

299
 a b
D-CR-18 D-CR-18
ROME-CR-14 ROME-CR-14
35
ROME-CR-15 81.0 ROME-CR-15
ROME-CR-16 80.5 ROME-CR-16

Brake Thermal Efficiency (%)

30 ROME-CR-17 80.0 ROME-CR-17

Volumetric Efficiency (%)

ROME-CR-18 79.5 ROME-CR-18
25
79.0

20 78.5

78.0
15
77.5

77.0
10
76.5

5 76.0

75.5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 3. (a) variation of brake thermal efficiency with load; (b) variation of volumetric efficiency with load.

Fig. 4(b) shows the comparison of cylinder pressure for ROME and diesel. For all the fuels, peak pressure
occurs suddenly after top dead center (TDC). The peak pressure for diesel at CR-18:1 (73 bar) was more than
ROME at different compression ratios. The peak pressure for ROME was 33 bar, 39 bar, 42 bar, 45 bar, and 52
bar for compression ratio 14:1, 15:1, 16:1, 17:1, and 18:1 respectively. It is observed that pressure in the
cylinder rises rapidly after the start of combustion (SOC) with movement of piston from bottom dead center
(BDC) to TDC. As shown in Fig. 4(b), it is observed that for each fuel, peak pressure was generated just after
TDC because complete combustion of fuel droplets took place due to already generated high pressure and
temperature in the cylinder and due to proper mixing of fuel droplets with air due the turbulence created when
piston moves from TDC to BDC. SOC for ROME for the entire compression ratio occurs nearly at 20⁰ before
TDC and end of combustion (EOC) occurs at 210⁰, 70⁰, 40⁰, 40⁰ and 30⁰ after TDC for compression ratio 14:1,
15:1, 16:1, 17:1 and 18:1 respectively. SOC of ROME occurs very close to TDC because addition of low Cetane
number (43) fuel -ROME. This also indicates that ignition delay period was lesser for pure diesel hence pressure
generated in the cylinder was maximum (73 bar) after the combustion of pure diesel. Due to increased ignition
delay period, possibilities of knock also increases.

a b
Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (kg/kWh)

D-CR-18 D-CR-18
22
ROME-CR-14 80
ROME-CR-14
ROME-CR-15 ROME-CR-15
20
ROME-CR-16 70 ROME-CR-16
18
ROME-CR-17 ROME-CR-17
Cylinder Pressure (bar)

60
16 ROME-CR-18 ROME-CR-18
14 50
12
40
10

8 30

6
20 EOC
4 SOC EOC
10
EOC
2
EOC
TDC EOC
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 -350 -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Load (%) Crank angle

Fig. 4. (a) variation of brake specific fuel consumption with load; (b) comparison of cylinder pressures

300
3.2 Emission characteristics of rubber seed oil methyl ester (B100) and diesel (B0).

a b
D-CR-18 D-CR-18
ROME-CR-14 ROME-CR-14
720 ROME-CR-15 0.14
ROME-CR-15
700
ROME-CR-16 ROME-CR-16

Carbon Monoxide (% by volume)

680
Exhaust Gas Temperature (K)

660 ROME-CR-17 0.12 ROME-CR-17

640 ROME-CR-18 ROME-CR-18
620 0.10
600
580 0.08
560
540
0.06
520
500
0.04
480
460
440 0.02
420
400 0.00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 5. (a) variation of exhaust gas temperature with load; (b) variation of carbon monoxide with load.

Fig. 5(a) shows the variation of exhaust gas temperature with load. Exhaust gas temperature increases with
increasing load and but it decreases with increase in compression ratio from 14:1 to 18:1. The average exhaust
gas temperature of ROME was more than diesel at CR-18:1. Fig. 5(b) presents the variation of carbon monoxide
with load and compression ratio. Carbon monoxide emissions decreases up to 75% load condition and then
increases till full load condition because of increase in incomplete combustion. Carbon monoxide emission
decreases with increase in compression ratio for a given load because of decrease in volumetric efficiency as
shown in Fig. 3(b). The carbon monoxide emissions were slightly same and negligible for ROME and diesel at
CR-18:1.

As shown in Fig. 6(a), carbon dioxide emissions vary with load and compression ratio. It is observed that,
carbon dioxide content in the exhaust gas was not more than 1.6% (by volume) for ROME at all the
compression ratios and has an opposite trends to the trends shown in Fig. 5(b) for carbon monoxide. This is
being justified by percent content of carbon monoxide present in the exhaust gas shows the complete
combustion of blends in combustion process. As shown in Fig. 5(b), carbon monoxide content was almost nil
(maximum 0.12%) for ROME. It clearly indicates that there was complete combustion of fuel. This is because
of lean mixture was used for combustion i.e air-fuel ratio for ROME. However very small amount of carbon
monoxide generation is there (upto 0.12%) which may be because of poor mixing of air and fuel, local rich fuel
regions inside the cylinder. The carbon dioxide emissions were more for diesel than ROME at CR-18:1.

Fig. 6(b) shows the variation of nitrogen oxide (NOx) with load and compression ratio. For a given load, the
NOx emission increases with increase in compression ratio because of increase in temperature inside the
combustion chamber which helps dissociation of more diatomic nitrogen (N2) into monoatomic nitrogen (N) and
subsequently generation of more NOx takes place. NOx emissions were increased upto 75% load condition and
then decreased till full load condition for a given compression ratio because of incomplete combustion
(Fig. 5(a)) causing less temperature generation inside the cylinder causing less dissociation of diatomic nitrogen
(N2) into monoatomic nitrogen (N) and subsequently generation NOx decreases. Exhaust gas temperature
increases with increase in load because of increase in amount of fuel combusted at higher load conditions. It
means that combustion chamber temperature was more at higher load conditions. Although average temperature
value inside the cylinder over the range from no load to full load condition after diesel combustion is lower than
ROME but NOX emissions of diesel fuel was found to be more than ROME as shown in Fig. 6(b). This is
because Cetane number of diesel is more than ROME hence after the injection of fuel, combustion of diesel
starts early i.e at lower position of piston measured with respect to top dead center during the compression
stroke. It means that combustion of diesel starts early than ROME hence reaction time for diesel was more
hence amount of diesel combusted during the compression stroke remains more than amount of ROME
combusted, hence NOX generation and heat loss to the walls of cylinder during the compression stroke will

301
 a b
D-CR-18 D-CR-18
ROME-CR-14 ROME-CR-14
2.2 ROME-CR-15 ROME-CR-15
450
ROME-CR-16 ROME-CR-16
Carbon Dioxide (% by volume) 2.0
ROME-CR-17 400 ROME-CR-17
ROME-CR-18 ROME-CR-18

Nitrogen Oxide (ppm)

1.8 350

300
1.6
250
1.4
200

1.2
150

1.0 100

0.8 50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 6. (a) variation of carbon dioxide with load; (b) variation of nitrogen oxide with load.

also be more in case diesel combustion than ROME. Hence at higher loading, exhaust gas temperature for diesel
found to be lower than ROME as shown in Fig. 5(a) although calorific value of diesel (42 MJ/kg) is greater than
ROME (37.5 MJ/kg). But at the lower loading conditions, effect of calorific value of fuel on temperature as
shown in Fig. 5(a) will be more dominant rather than effect of Cetane number because amount of fuel
combusted at lower loading conditions will be low. In the expansion stroke, temperature and pressure in the
cylinder decreases and hence chances of formation of NOX also decrease. Other reasons like volumetric
efficiency and air fuel ratio for diesel is more than ROME hence subsequently NOx generation was also more in
case of diesel as shown in Fig. 6(b).

4. Conclusions

The conclusions related with the characteristics of ROME by varying the compression ratios are listed below.
 It is observed that performance characteristics of ROME (B100) like brake thermal efficiency increases;
while volumetric efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption decreases with increasing load and
compression ratio.
 The exhaust gas temperature also increases with increasing load percentage. For a given compression ratio,
carbon dioxide, NOx, emissions were increased upto 75% load condition and then decreased till full load
condition. For a given load, carbon dioxide, NOx emissions were increased with increase in compression
ratio. At a given compression ratio, carbon monoxide emissions were decreased upto 75% load condition
and then increased till full load condition. For a given load, carbon monoxide emissions decrease with
increase in compression ratio.
 NOx, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide emissions for diesel (B0) fuel at 100% load condition and
compression ratio 18 was observed to be 200 ppm, 0.02% by volume, and 1.7% by volume respectively;
while in case of B100, these were observed to be 150 ppm, 0.11% by volume, and 1.4% by volume,
respectively at 100% load condition and compression ratio as 18. Hence optimum operating condition for a
ROME (B100) if used in a diesel engine will be obtained at 100% load condition, compression ratio 18;
where carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and NOx emissions generated will be within acceptable limit; and
brake thermal efficiency of B100 will be around 35% comparatively higher than brake thermal efficiency
for diesel (B0) obtained (around 33%) at 100% load condition and at compression ratio 18.

Conclusions regarding comparisons of characteristics of ROME with diesel at compression ratio 18:1 are listed
below.
 The brake power, indicated power of ROME and diesel were slightly same.
 Brake thermal efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption of ROME was more than diesel.
 Volumetric efficiency of diesel was more than ROME.
 The carbon dioxide and NOX emissions of diesel were more than ROME.
 The average exhausts gas temperature of diesel was less than ROME.

302
Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Indian Biodiesel Corporation, Baramati and Mrs. Supriya Bobade for the
oil preparation support.

References

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coir-pith producer gas, Renewable Energy, 2008, pp. 2077-2083.
[2] A. S. Ramadhas, S. Jayaraj, C. Muraleedharan, Performance and emission evaluation of a diesel engine fueled with methyl esters of
rubber seed oil, Renewable Energy, 2005, pp. 1789-1800.
[3] S. Mahalingam, B. R. Rameshbabu, B. Balaji, Emission analysis of di-diesel engine at different injection pressures using jatropha and
rubberseed oil blended with diesel, Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 2014, pp. 78-80.
[4] M. T. Raj, M. K. K. Kandasamy, Tamanu oil an alternative fuel for variable compression ratio engine, International Journal of Energy
and Environmental Engineering a springer open access, 3(18), 2012.
[5] P. Singh, R. Singh, Experimental investigation of the effect compression ratio in a direct injection diesel engine running on different
blends of rice bran oil and ethanol, International Journal of Environmental, Ecological and mining Engineering, 7(12), 2013, pp. 922-
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[6] S. Nagaraja, M. Sakthivel, R. Sudhakaran, Combustion and performance analysis of variable compression ratio engine fueled with
preheated palm oil–diesel blends, Indian Journal of Chemical Technology, 20, 2013, pp. 189-194.
[7] K. Naveen, P. T. Parameshwaran, A. Pon, Experimental Investigation of variable compression ratio diesel engine using ziziphus jujuba
oil, International Journal of Innovative research in science, Engineering and Technology, 3(3), 2014, pp. 1134-1139.

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 ICAER-2015

Lanthanum doped Ceria Nanoparticles: a Promising Material for

Energy Applications

Kushal Singh*, Rishu Kumar, Anirban Chowdhury

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Kanpa Road, Bihta, Bihar, 801118, India
* Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 7549458920, E-mail:kushal.pms13@iitp.ac.in

Abstract In this work, we report the structural and catalytic properties of Lanthanum doped Ceria nanostructures. The La-
doped Ceria nanoparticles (Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2-x ) were prepared by co-precipitating lanthanum nitrate hexahydrate and cerium (III)
nitrate hexahydrate at pH 8. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in conjunction with X-ray diffraction results
depicted low temperature crystallization as early as 300 °C. This is the lowest reported temperature data for the La-doped
Ceria system synthesized without any complexing agent/ligand, till date. The lattice parameter was calculated to be 5.492 ±
0.004 Å; the crystallite size was obtained as ~ 8 nm by Scherrer method. The structural and redox properties have been
investigated by various characterization techniques, e.g., X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy
(TEM), Temperature programmed reduction (TPR),Temperature programmed desorption (TPD). The catalytic properties of
the Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2-x nanostructures proved them to be useful for future energy related applications.

Keywords: Ceria, Lanthanum oxide, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Temperature programmed
reduction (TPR), Temperature programmed desorption (TPD)

1. Introduction

Energy scarcity and environmental pollution are the two crucial challenges the world is facing now-a-days. In
this relation, the nanostructures of cerium oxide based material has found its suitability as energy materials due
to its excellent redox and transport properties; the high surface to volume ratio of the nanostructures also adds to
this advantage [1]. In recent years, rare earth doped ceria with a fluorite type structure has engrossed extensive
attentions in the field of catalysis due to its structural and thermal stability [2]. The pure CeO 2 crystallizes a
fluorite (CaF 2 ) type of structure with space group Fm3m and retains the same arrangement till the melting point
[3]. The metal ion doped ceria has also been proved to be an efficient catalyst for treatment of auto exhaust
processes and other applications [4-6]. The CeO 2 -La 2 O 3 system with fluorite type structure has limited
solubility up to 49 mol % La 2 O 3 substitution for the La3+ substituted CeO 2 solid solution [7]. In a related solid
solution system, a promising performance was reported for La 2 Ce 2 O 7 both as an oxide ion conductor and as an
electrode component in proton conducting fuel cells and as hydrogen permeation membrane [8]. Ceria is useful
for the commercial applications, such as, three way catalysis (TWC), fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) as well as
depollution of noxious compounds from gaseous streams originating from industrial production [9]. The
conversion of hydrocarbons, CO and NOx present in the automotive exhaust can be converted to H 2 O, CO 2 and
N 2 with the help of three way catalysis.

The metal ion doped ceria has been proved to be an efficient catalyst for treatment of auto exhaust processes and
other applications [4-6, 10]. The doped ceria increase the surface properties and sintering temperature of the
sample at higher temperature [11]. Mogensen et al. [3] studied the different properties of pure and doped ceria
and concluded that the system doped with Y and Sm enhance the electrochemical properties of the system from
200 to 1000 °C. The lanthanum doped ceria is reported to play an important role for enhancing structural and
catalytic properties of the system [11, 12]. Andrievskaya et al. [7] worked on the phase relationship in CeO 2 -
La 2 O 3 system concluded that this particular system has a huge potential for the creation of new materials for a
wide range of application such as solid electrolyte in fuel cells, oxygen sensors, catalyst carrier, refractory for
furnaces and thermal barrier coating system. Various methods, e.g., co-precipitation, molten salt method,
hydrothermal etc have been reported for the synthesis of such a La-doped Ceria based solid solution system [7,
11-14]. Reddy et al. [11] synthesized the Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2−δ nanoparticles using cerium nitrate hexahydrate and

304
Lanthanum nitrate hexahydrate precursors by co-precipitation method. They found that the mixed oxide of ceria
with lanthanum showed the better catalytic property and reported an increase of 4-5 times in the oxygen storage
property (OSC) compared to ceria. Mori et al. [12] prepared the La x Ce 1-x O 2- δ (x = 0.125, 0.15, 0.175, 0.20)
nanopowders by co-precipitation method. They found the doping ceria with La3+ increases the ionic
conductivity by weakening the surface and bulk oxygen bond. They further concluded that the La3+ doped ceria
based electrolytes have large micro domains (10 nm) compare to the La+3 and alkaline earth co-doped ceria
based electrolytes (1 – 3 nm) in the microstructure. Wang et al.[15] synthesized the 50 % lanthanum doped ceria
solid solutions by hydrothermal method with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide
(CTAB) as surfactants, respectively. They studied the effect of surfactant on the crystal growth behaviour of
La 2 Ce 2 O 7 and concluded on the significance of the surfactant in influencing the structural properties such as
lattice parameter, average crystallite size and crystal growth. La 2 O 3 -CeO 2 based solid solutions has also been
reported by molten salt method [16] where La(NO 3 ) 3 ·6H 2 O and Ce(NO 3 ) 3 ·6H 2 O were used as precursors,
mixed in deionized water under constant stirring followed by the addition of aqueous ammonia. Yamamura et
al. [17] synthesized the powders of the lanthanum doped ceria through solid state method worked on the
relationship between the electrical conductivity and crystal structure.

In this work, we report the structural and catalytic properties of lanthanum doped Ceria nanostructures. The
Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2-x nanoparticles synthesized via co-precipitation route did not involve any surfactants and
demonstrated the onset of crystallization as early as 300 ºC. The structural and redox properties of the nano-
powder have been investigated by various characterization techniques, e.g., Differential thermal calorimeter
(DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Temperature programmed
reduction (TPR), Temperature programmed desorption (TPD). The catalytic properties of the Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2-x
nanostructures have been discussed in relation to the structural modifications as introduced by La-doping in the
ceria system.

2. Experimental details

The Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2-x nanoparticles synthesized via co-precipitation route was carried out from Ce(NO 3 ) 3 •6H 2 O
(99%; CDH, New Delhi, India) and La(NO 3 ) 3 •6H 2 O (99.9%; CDH, New Delhi, India) precursors, and a dilute
aqueous ammonia solution was used as the precipitating agent. Individual precursors were mixed in Milli Q
water up to a final concentration of 0.2 M. The precipitates were collected at pHs 8, 9, and 10.The obtained light
yellow colored precipitate was washed with deionised water followed by four cycles of centrifugation at a speed
of 10000 rpm (for 20 min). The resultant products were then dried in an oven at 110 °C for 8 h and crushed to
powders. Thermal analyses of the dried powders were performed using a differential thermal calorimeter (STA
449 F3Jupiter NETZSCH, Selb, Germany) in air from room temperature to 1450 °C at a heating rate of 20
°C/min. X-ray diffraction (Rigaku TTRX-III, Japan) study was carried out to examine the crystallographic
information of the material at 5 kW using the Cu-Kα radiation (λ = 0.154 nm). Continuous scans were
performed on the calcined powder samples over the range of 20–75 °2θ with scan rate of 2°min-1 and step size
0.02 degree. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM, FEI, Tecnai G2 20 S-Twin, Japan)
was performed at 200 kV to obtain information on the crystal morphology.

3. Result and discussion

The TG, Fig. 1(a) plot depicted two major mass loss steps at 230 and 430 °C with total mass loss of ~20% till
800 °C. The mass loss from 110 °C to 245 °C is due to water removal while the TG step from 250 to 600 °C can
be related due to decomposition of nitrates (major) and carbonates (minor) present in the sample. The first
endothermic peak at 350 ºC is due to the decomposition of hydroxynirates; the same event is noted much early
(>50 ºC) at 295 ºC for the precipitate collected at pH 8, Fig. 1 (b).

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 (a) (b)
Fig. 1: (a) TG-curve of Lanthanum cerate precipitate collected at pH 8. (b) DSC plot of lanthanum cerate
precipitate, dried at 110 °C collected at different pHs.

In most of the cases, a broad peak was observed spreading over the range 400 -700 °C. Noteworthy is also
the fact that, it was a green synthesis method in aqueous medium which did not involve any
surfactant/ligand. The system did not show any other extra peaks due to phase separation at high
temperature (>550 °C) as shown in Fig. 2 (a). The La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowders were indexed with JCPDS
file no. 01-080-5546. The lattice parameter was calculated to be 5.492 ± 0.004 Å; the crystallite size was
obtained as ~8 nm by Scherrer method. The TEM results on the La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowders revealed
significant information about their phase evolution. The selected area diffraction patterns (SADP) of the
synthesized La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowders depicted that the powder contains mixture of phases.The
presence of the well-defined rings in the SADP for the extra phase (La 2 O 2 CO 3 ) confirms that this phase is
not present as a surface adsorbed carbonate layer as shown in Fig.2 (b). Rather, it is present in nano-
crystalline form. The small mass fraction of the oxycarbonate phase may be responsible for its absence in
the XRD plot.

(a) (b)

Figure 2: (a) X-ray diffraction patterns of La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowder calcined at different temperature. (b)
Selected area electron diffraction patterns for the 550 °C calcined La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowders

Temperature-programmed reduction by H 2 has been used substantially to characterize the oxygen reducibility of
doped CeO 2 . H 2 -TPR is done for La3+ doped ceria nanopowders calcined at 600 °C. Figure 3 (a) shows that
TPR profile for samples calcined at 400 °C and LC 550 °C. The major finding of this analysis is that the
reduction temperature of surface and bulk Ce4+ is lowered down to 420 and 600 °C, in contrast to pure Ceria
system where such events are noted at 517 °C and 827 °C[18]. The results are comparable with the earlier
published works[11]. The decrease in reduction temperature can also be attributed to the high surface area.
Multiple sites for surface-bound carbonate (CO 3 -) species were identified in TPD measurement as shown in
Figure 3 (b); thereby making the La-doped Ceria system suitable for such types of reactions.

306
 (a) (b)

Fig. 3: (a) Temperature program reduction (TPR) plot for the 600 °C calcined La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowders. (b)
Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) plot for the 600 °C calcined La 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2-x nanopowders

5. Conclusions

We have synthesized Ce 0.8 La 0.2 O 2-x nanoparticles by a simple and efficient way using co-precipitation. An early
event of crystallisation at 300 °C has been confirmed by XRD analyses. The DSC analyses revealed pH 8 to be
the best co-precipitation pH for the lanthanum cerate nanopowders. However, the TEM-SADP results show the
presence of an oxycarbonate phase, La 2 O 2 CO 3 .The phase and catalytic property measurement results make the
La-doped Ceria naoparticle suitable for energy applications, e.g., in catalytic converters.

References

[1] C Sun, H Li, L Chen (2012) Energy & Environmental Science 5: 8475. Doi:10.1039/c2ee22310d
[2] A Trovarelli (1996) Catalysis Reviews 38: 439.
[3] M Mogensen, NM Sammes, GA Tompsett (2000) Solid State Ionics 129: 63.
[4] K Higashi, K Sonoda, H Ono, S Sameshima, Y Hirata (1999) Journal of materials research 14: 957.
[5] F Zamar, A Trovarelli, C de Leitenburg, G Dolcetti (1995) Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications: 965.
[6] JS Bae, WK Choo, CH Lee (2004) Journal of the European Ceramic Society 24: 1291.
[7] E Andrievskaya, O Kornienko, A Sameljuk, A Sayir (2011) Journal of the European Ceramic Society 31: 1277.
[8] V Besikiotis, CS Knee, I Ahmed, R Haugsrud, T Norby (2012) Solid State Ionics 228: 1.
[9] CdL Alessandro Trovarelli, Marta Boaro, Giuliano Dolcetti (1999) Catalysis Today 50: 353.
[10] A Trovarelli (1999) Comments on Inorganic Chemistry 20: 263.
[11] BM Reddy, L Katta, G Thrimurthulu (2010) Chemistry of Materials 22: 467. Doi:10.1021/cm903282w
[12] T Mori, J Drennan, J-H Lee, J-G Li, T Ikegami (2002) Solid State Ionics 154: 461.
[13] W Hernandez, O Laguna, M Centeno, J Odriozola (2011) Journal of Solid State Chemistry 184: 3014.
[14] WF Lim, KY Cheong (2014) Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP 16: 7015. Doi:10.1039/c3cp55214d
[15] Y Wang, C Wang, C Li, Y Cheng, F Chi (2014) Ceramics International 40: 4305.
[16] XY Wang, YP Zhu, WG Zhang (2009) Advanced Materials ResearchTrans Tech Publ,
[17] G Colon, JA Navio, R Monaci, I Ferino (2000) Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2: 4453. Doi:10.1039/b002815k
[18] G Balducci, P Fornasiero, R Di Monte, J Kaspar, S Meriani, M Graziani (1995) Catalysis letters 33: 193.

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 ICAER-2015

Uncertainty analysis on the integration of safety and health

indexes in a chemical product design framework
J.Y. Tena, L.Y. Nga, M.H. Hassimb, D.K.S. Nga, N.G. Chemmangattuvalappila,1
a
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering/Centre of Excellence for Green Technologies, The University of Nottingham
Malaysia Campus, Broga Road, 43500 Selangor D.E., Malaysia.
b
Department of Chemical Engineering/Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310
UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

Abstract

Computer aided molecular design (CAMD) techniques were developed to design molecules/mixtures that meet a set of
desirable properties specified by the customers. Physicochemical properties are often selected as the target properties during
the design stage. The incorporation of safety and health aspects into CAMD is crucial to ensure that the generated molecule
does not cause harm and health-related risks to the consumers. A chemical product design methodology has been developed
to integrate both safety and health aspects into the CAMD framework. The measurement of safety and health indicators are
based on molecular properties that have impact on both aspects. Each property is assigned with an index value depending on
the degree of potential hazards. These properties can be estimated through property prediction method. The accuracy of the
allocated index score is thus dependent on the accuracy of property prediction models. In this work, uncertainty analysis is
performed on the safety and health indicators to ensure that the allocated score better represents the inherent hazard of a
molecule. A case study on solvent design for gas sweetening process has been carried out by considering uncertainties to
determine the optimal molecule with reasonably low safety and health hazards level and optimum functionality.
Keywords: Molecular design; safety and health index; safety and health aspects in CAMD; uncertainty analysis

1. Introduction

Many industrial disasters from the past have highlighted the importance of process safety as a crucial decision
factor for process design and development. This has resulted in the inception of hazard identification and
analysis methods to control hazards in the process for minimizing the consequences of a possible accident.
These methods may help in reducing the overall safety impacts of the plant, but it does not eliminate the intrinsic
hazards present in the plant [1]. Any failure of the protective devices or human errors could still lead to an
accident. Moreover, the setting up of such add-on equipment also complicates the design and increases the
capital costs [2]. An alternate concept known as inherent safety design (ISD), which was first introduced by
Trevor Kletz in the 1970s, aims to eliminate or minimize the hazards present in the plant through the
introduction of inherent safety principles into process design. It has been recognized as a dependable tool in
synthesizing a safer, sustainable and economically viable plant [3]. However, the chemicals that are used for
plant operations also play an important role in the decision making phase. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate
the inherent health and safety assessment while deciding on the use of solvents and other chemicals involved in
the process. In this work, the inherent safety and health aspects are integrated into a chemical product design
framework to ensure that the product does not only achieve the desired functionality, but also exhibits favorable
safety and health performance. Both aspects will be analyzed with the help of indexes from literature. The
uncertainty analysis on the application of safety and health indexes for the molecular assessment will be the
main highlight of this paper.

1.1. Inherent safety and health

An inherently safer process is an attractive option as it reduces the amount of hazardous chemicals and
operations used in a process. Inherent safety has long been introduced in many applications, such as process
concept evaluation, process route planning and plant layout design [4]. The pioneer of all inherent safety
indexes was the Prototype Index for Inherent Safety (PIIS) developed by Edwards and Lawrence [5], which help

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6 (03) 8924 8122; fax: +6 (03) 8924 8017.
E-mail address: nishanth.c@nottingham.edu.my

308
to rank the inherent safety of different process by mainly focusing on the reaction step. Another index named
Inherent Safety Index (ISI) by Heikkilä [6] considered a wider scope of process steps. The two mentioned
indexes have selected several parameters to represent the inherent safety factors, and these parameters or data
must be readily available during preliminary design stage. Meanwhile, the i-Safe index by Palaniappan et al. [7]
adopted some of the parameters from ISI and PIIS. For inherent occupational health, Occupational Health
Hazard Index (OHHI) was introduced by Johnson [8] for the assessment of occupational health hazard during
design phase. Process Route Healthiness Index (PRHI) by Hassim and Edwards [9] was developed to address
the drawbacks of OHHI, but this method is rather complex as it covers a broad range of parameters. Another
established inherent health index is the Inherent Occupation Health Index (IOHI) by Hassim and Hurme [10]
which evaluates the potential health risks of different process routes during research and development stage.

1.2. Computer-aided molecular design

CAMD is a reverse problem of property prediction method which a molecule can be identified based on the
given set of molecule building blocks and a particular set of target properties [11]. The principal objective of
CAMD is to determine a compound that exhibits the specified set of properties. Hence, CAMD has been
recognized as a powerful tool to design chemical based products, including solvents, refrigerants, active
ingredients, polymers, etc. [12]. In order to generate a chemically feasible molecular structure, CAMD utilizes a
set of molecular fragments or building blocks and to estimate the specified properties of the molecular structure.
These properties can be predicted using group contribution methods (GCM), in which the contributions for a
specific property of each fragment or group present in the compound are summed up to calculate the compound
property value. The accuracy of these property prediction methods will highly affect the accuracy of safety and
health index values allocated to the molecule. As a result, uncertainty analysis will be conducted on these
indexes to ensure that index values with higher accuracy will be assigned to the molecules to better represent
their inherent hazard level.

1.3. Multi-objective optimization

Most of the decision-making problems are often concerned with multiple conflicting criteria. These problems
are known as multi-objective optimization problem as multiple design criteria are considered. In this work, the
CAMD problem becomes a multi-objective optimization problem as the model has to concurrently optimize the
target properties and the safety and health criteria of the molecule. However, a product with optimized target
properties may not necessarily exhibit a favorable safety and health performance as these two criteria can be
conflicting in nature. Fuzzy linear programming method proposed by Zimmermann [13] is applied in this work.
This approach is capable of optimizing multiple conflicting criteria simultaneously. In his approach, a fuzzy
decision set of solutions is first specified through the aggregation of all fuzzy inequalities by employing the
‘min’ aggregation approach. The optimal solution of the linear program can be obtained by the one fuzzy
decision for which its minimum aggregated function is the maximal [14].

1.3.1. Fuzzy optimization

Fuzzy optimization algorithm can be employed by first introducing a degree of satisfaction, λ p for each target
property. λ p can then be expressed as a linear membership function bounded by the lower and upper bounds of
the target property as shown in Equations (1) and (2).

 0 V p ≥ vUp
 U
v −Vp
λ p =  Up L
v pL ≤ V p ≤ vUp ∀p ∈ P (1)
vp −v p
 1 V p ≤ v pL


 0 V p ≤ v pL
 L
V p − v p
λp =  U L v pL ≤ V p ≤ vUp ∀p ∈ P (2)
vp − vp
 1 V p ≥ vUp


309
 where p represents target property p, V p represents target property value, and v p L and v p U represent the lower
bound and upper bound of the target property respectively. Equation (1) is applied on target properties to be
minimized while Equation (2) is used on target properties to be maximized. λ p is a continuous variable
representing the level of satisfaction ranging from 0 to 1. The higher the λ p value of a target property, the higher
is its degree of satisfaction. All target properties are allocated with their respective λ p . Max-min operator
method by Zimmermann [13] will then be employed to maximize the target property with the least satisfied
degree of satisfaction, λ by using Equation (3). Through this method, the remaining target properties will be
satisfied partially to at least the degree of λ. The overall objective is now to maximize the value of λ.

λ p ≥ λ ∀p ∈ P (3)

2. Modeling methodology

2.1. Problem formulation

The needs of a chemical product are first specified by defining the product specifications to determine the
functionality and physical behavior of a product. These product specifications can be translated in terms of
target properties, which are represented by the physicochemical properties of the molecules. Target properties
are usually represented in terms of property range, in which the property value must fall within the predefined
range for the molecule to function as intended. Once all relevant target properties are defined, they will either be
categorized as objective functions to be optimized or property constraints to be fulfilled. The possible molecular
groups acting as the potential building blocks will then be selected. Next, the structural constraints are specified
and implemented in order to eliminate combination of infeasible solution.

2.2. Selection of inherent safety and health subindexes

For safety indexes, PIIS [5] and ISI [6] considered. Only chemical-related parameters are selected as
assessment tool in this work. In a CAMD problem, it is easier to apply the parameters that can be directly linked
to the properties which can be estimated through property prediction models. Parameters in which the index
scores are assigned based on non-numerical descriptions may not be easily included in the mathematical
optimization model. Two parameters are chosen from the safety indexes, namely flammability (I FL ) and
explosiveness (I EX ). These parameters can be represented in terms of flash point (flammability), lower explosion
limit (LEL) and upper explosion limit (UEL) (explosiveness). The penalty scores for the two selected safety
subindexes are shown in Appendix A (Tables A1 and A2).
As for health indexes, the two indexes studied are PRHI [9] and IOHI [10]. The chemical-properties
parameters chosen include viscosity (I η ), material phase (I MS ), volatility (I V ) and exposure limit (I EL ). Normal
boiling point (T b ) and permissible exposure limit (PEL) are properties used to evaluate I V and I EL respectively.
Another parameter named acute health hazard (I AH ) will also be included in which the scoring for this subindex
will be based on the NFPA health hazard rating [15]. It can be measured using LD 50 for acute oral toxicity. The
penalty scores for the five selected health subindexes are shown in Appendix A (Tables A3 to A7).
The total penalty score of a molecule (I SHI ) is the summation of all the seven subindex scores assigned to it.
A molecule with lower total penalty score is desired as it indicates an inherently safer and healthier molecule.

2.3. Model development and uncertainty analysis

All properties that are considered as the target properties and assessed in the inherent safety and health
subindexes have to be calculated through the property prediction models. One of the most notable approaches
used is GCM, which is able to estimate the physicochemical properties of a molecule based on its molecular
structure [16]. The general equation for the applied GCM is shown in Equation (4). f(p) denotes the simple
function of property p, while C i represents the contribution of first-order group of type-i that occurs N i times.

f ( p ) = ∑i N i Ci (4)

For properties that cannot be estimated using GCM, their corresponding empirical correlation will be applied.
Permissible exposure limit (PEL) and LD 50 for acute oral toxicity can be estimated using GCM models
developed by Hukkerikar et al. [17]. Physical properties like flash point (F p ), normal boiling point (T b ) and

310
melting point (T m ) are estimated using GCM models developed by Hukkerikar et al. [18]. Conte et al. [19] have
established a GCM model to calculate viscosity (η). Both upper explosion limit (UEL) and lower explosion limit
(LEL) can be estimated using correlations developed by Ma et al. [20].
For all these property prediction models, the estimated value may not always be close to the exact value. The
deviation of the estimated value may result in an inaccurate subindex value being allocated to the molecule. For
instance, given that molecule J has an estimated T b value of 148°C. As shown in Figure 1(a), its I V subindex
value would be one. However, the GCM for T b has a standard deviation of 7.9°C [18]. The exact T b value for
molecule J falls within the range of 148°C ± 7.9°C, which is represented by the grey region in Figure 1(a).
Based on Figure 1(a), it is possible that its I V subindex value can either be zero or one, since 150°C is a
boundary value where any T b values above it will result in an I V value of zero, whereas any T b values below it
(but above 50°C) will result in an I V value of one. It can be observed that when the property value moves across
the boundary value, it will cause an abrupt change on the subindex value. Therefore, the allocation of subindex
value to any property value that is adjacent to the boundary value is highly uncertain. Hence, uncertainty
analysis is carried out on these regions.

Fig. 1. (a) Initial form of I V subindex; (b) I V subindex with the incorporation of uncertainty

As mentioned above, 150°C is one of the boundary values for I V subindex. To conduct uncertainty analysis
on this subindex, the standard deviation of GCM for T b has to be identified, which is 7.9°C. This value will be
added to or subtracted from 150°C to create the uncertain range (142.1°C to 157.9°C, the grey zone on the right
in Figure 1(b)). When T b is 157.9°C, the initial I V value is zero; when T b is 142.1°C, the initial I V value is one.
In this uncertain range, the I V value will linearly transition from zero (at 157.9°C) to one (142.1°C). This
transition is represented by the slope drawn on the uncertain range. The formula used to calculate the I V value in
this range is shown in Table B4. Meanwhile, Figure 2(a) illustrates part of the subindex scoring for I AH
subindex. The standard deviation of GCM for log LD 50 is 0.43 [17]. Uncertainty analysis is done on the two
boundary values (2.699 and 3.301) as shown in Figure 2(a), and the uncertain range for both boundary values
are identified. However, there exists an overlapping of uncertain range for both boundary values (darker grey
region in Figure 2(a)). By using the similar linear transition of index value applied in I V subindex, two slopes
are drawn on the uncertain range for both boundary values. As shown in Figure 2(b), the overlapping region
contains two different transition slopes contributed by each boundary value. However, any property value at any
region can only receive a single subindex value to represent its inherent hazard level. Hence, composite curve is
applied on this overlapping region, which is shown in Figure 2(c).

311
 Fig. 2. (a) Initial form of I AH subindex; (b) I AH subindex with the incorporation of uncertainty; (c) I AH subindex with composite curve

The uncertainty analysis is repeated for all boundary values of all subindexes. In this work, uncertainty
analysis is conducted on all subindexes but I EX subindex, as this subindex involves two properties (UEL and
LEL). These two properties are predicted using correlations [20], and the standard deviations are not provided
by the model. Hence, the initial I EX subindex (Table A2) will be applied. The revised subindexes are shown in
Appendix B (Tables B1 to B6).

2.4. Optimization model

In the model, multiple target properties will be selected as the objective function. Hence, a decision making
has to be made on the trade-off between different target properties, fuzzy optimization algorithm can be
adequately applied in this problem. Equations (1) and (2) are utilized to optimize all target properties, while the
objective function of this work is to maximize the value of λ with Equation (3) as constraint.

3. Case study: solvent design for gas sweetening process

3.1. Optimization formulation

This case study is adopted from Chemmangattuvalappil and Eden [21], where the objective is to determine a
solvent that will replace methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) as the absorbent which can help in minimizing the
usage of amine solution in the acid gas removal unit. The target properties chosen for this case study include
heat of vaporization (H v ), vapor pressure (VP), molar volume (V m ), molecular weight (M w ), viscosity (η),
normal boiling point (T b ) and melting point (T m ). The molecule should have high T b to minimize the amount of
solvent loss, minimum soil sorption coefficient (log K oc ) to prevent the accumulation of the escaping solvent in
one place [21] and minimum total penalty score (I SHI ) for an inherently safer and healthier molecule. The
objective is to minimize log K oc and I SHI , and maximize T b . The target properties and their respective lower and
upper bounds at standard condition (298 K and 1 atm) for this case study are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Property targets for molecular design.

Property p Lower bound Upper bound Property p Lower bound Upper bound
H v (kJ/mol) 50 528 VP (mm Hg) - 11
V m (cm /mol)
3
40 224 M w (g/mol) 60 250
η (cP) - 460 T b (°C) 142 272
T m (°C) -65 25

The molecules generated are allocated with index scores based on the safety and health subindexes selected.
The subindex scores are shown in Appendix (Table A2 and Tables B1 to B6). The total penalty score that a
molecule receives, I SHI is calculated using Equation (5).

I SHI = I FL + I EX + Iη + I MS + IV + I EL + I AH (5)

GCM models developed by Hukkerikar et al. [18] can be used to estimate H v and V m . VP cannot be predicted
by GCM, but it can be calculated from T b using an empirical relationship [22]. Meanwhile, log K oc can be

312
calculated through a correlation [23] given in terms of octanol-water partition coefficient (log K ow ). log K ow can
be calculated using GCM by Hukkerikar et al. [18]. The selected molecular blocks include CH 3 , CH 2 , CH, OH,
CH 2 O, CH 2 NH 2 , CH 2 NH, CHNH, CH 3 N and CH 2 N, which are derived from the conventional absorbents that
are utilized in gas sweetening process.

3.2. Fuzzy optimization

The target properties listed in Table 1 are then converted into their respective property operator, Ω p as shown
in Table 2. The property operator is illustrated by the simple function f(p) for each target property p, which is
exactly the left-hand side of Equation (4). For instance, the property operator of T m is given by the function of
exp(T m /T m0 ), where T m is given in K, while T m0 has a value of 143.5706 K [18]. By substituting the lower and
upper bounds of T m from Table 1 into exp(T m /T m0 ), the lower and upper property operator bounds of T m are
shown in Table 2. The property operator range for the three properties to be optimized (T b , log K oc and I SHI ) can
be determined by optimizing each of these three properties one at a time to identify their respective upper and
lower property operator bounds, which are listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Target property operators for molecular design.

Property p Ωp LB UB Property p Ωp LB UB
Hv H v - H v0 40.3873 518.3873 VP exp(T b /T b0 ) 5.2289 -
Vm V m - V m0 0.024 0.208 Mw Mw 60 250
η ln η - 6.1312 Tb exp(T b /T b0 ) 5.4596 9.3078
Tm exp(T m /T m0 ) 4.2623 7.9779 log K oc log K ow - -2.6284 2.8472
K ow0
I SHI I SHI 10.165 12.669

Once the boundary values of these three properties are determined, Equation (1) is utilized minimized both
log K oc and I SHI while Equation (2) is applied to maximized T b . The optimization model is a mixed integer
nonlinear programming (MINLP) as it involves nonlinear constraints when modeling the allocation of subindex
values with uncertainty to the molecule. Therefore the global optimum solution cannot be guaranteed. Integer
cut constraints are applied to enumerate alternative solutions to enhance the confidence level of the solutions.

4. Results and discussion

From the optimization results, the best five molecules with the five highest λ value are:
• Solvent A1: CH 3 CH(OH)N(CH 2 CH 3 )CH(OH)CH 3
• Solvent A2: HOCH 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 CH 3 )CH 2 OH
• Solvent A3: CH 3 CH 2 OCH 2 N(CH 2 CH 3 )CH(CH 3 )CH 2 OH
• Solvent A4: CH 3 CH(CH 3 )CH(OH)CH(CH 3 )CH 2 NH 2
• Solvent A5: CH 3 CH 2 CH 2 NHCH 2 CH 2 CH 2 CH 2 OH

Table 3. The best five solvents and their estimated properties.

Solvent λ I SHI log K oc T b (°C) H v (kJ/mol) V m (cm3/mol) F p (°C)
A1 0.4899 11.406 -1.142 214.42 82.23 133.0 107.60
A2 0.4852 11.327 -1.208 213.81 81.92 117.1 108.91
A3 0.4278 11.598 0.259 215.36 71.15 175.8 90.09
A4 0.4273 11.490 -0.551 206.26 72.01 146.6 89.05
A5 0.4265 11.542 0.419 213.42 71.76 153.0 94.05

Table 4. The best five solvents and their estimated properties (continued).
Solvent Tm η (cP) UEL-LEL (vol%) M w (g/mol) VP (mm Hg) PEL (ppm) LD 50 (mg/kg)
(°C)
A1 21.08 36.66 7.553 133.2 0.2211 2.443 771.0
A2 23.77 38.81 8.930 119.2 0.2280 2.530 818.2
A3 -12.34 7.51 5.772 161.2 0.2110 1.048 526.3
A4 22.38 11.78 6.265 131.2 0.3319 5.634 877.9

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 A5 16.20 10.93 6.265 131.2 0.2324 4.772 744.6

Fig. 3. The molecule structures of the best five generated molecules.

The estimated properties of these five solvents are shown in Tables 3 and 4, while the molecular structures of
the five solvents are shown in Figure 3. From the results, solvent A1 has the highest λ value. By comparing the
three optimized target properties, solvent A2 has the lowest I SHI and log K oc values while solvent A3 has the
highest T b . If uncertainty analysis were not conducted on the subindexes, the initial form of subindexes would
be applied and these five generated solvents would have a similar I SHI value of 11. Since the five I SHI values are
similar, the inherent hazard level of the five molecules cannot be differentiated. Hence, by carrying out
uncertainty analysis on the subindexes, it definitely helps in producing a total index score which better
represents the actual inherent safety and health hazard level of the molecule. Besides that, the uncertainty caused
by the accuracy of the property prediction models is resolved.

5. Conclusions

A chemical product design framework employing CAMD methods has been developed to design a molecule
with low safety and health hazards level that also meets a set of desired properties specified by consumers. The
safety and health parameters from the existing safety and health indexes that are relevant to the chemicals are
used to evaluate the safety and health aspects of the molecules. Uncertainty analysis is carried out on the
subindexes to ensure that a more accurate index value is allocated to the molecule to better represent the safety
and health performance of the molecule. A case study on the solvent design for a gas sweetening process is
carried out and fuzzy optimization is applied to develop molecules that simultaneously achieve high
functionality and high safety and health performance.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the research opportunity provided by The University of Nottingham Malaysia
Campus and University Teknologi Malaysia, and the financial support provided by Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation (MOSTI).

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Appendix A. Safety and health subindexes

Table A1. Flammability (I FL ) subindex (modified from NFPA).

Factor Score information Penalty
Flammability, I FL Non-flammable 0
Flash point ≥ 93.4°C 1
Flash point < 93.4°C 2
Flash point < 37.8°C 3
Flash point < 22.8°C 4

Table A2. Explosiveness (I EX ) subindex (modified from ISI).

Factor Score information Penalty
Explosiveness, I EX Non explosive 0
S = (UEL-LEL) vol% 0 ≤ S < 20 1
20 ≤ S < 45 2
45 ≤ S < 70 3
70 ≤ S ≤ 100 4

Table A3. Viscosity (I η ) subindex (modified from PRHI).

Factor Score information Penalty
Viscosity, I η Low (0.1 cp ≤ η < 1 cp) 1
Medium (1 cp ≤ η < 10 cp) 2
High (10 cp ≤ η ≤ 100 cp) 3

Table A4. Material phase (I MS ) subindex (from IOHI).

Factor Score information Penalty
Material phase, I MS Gas (boiling point < 25°C) 1
Liquid (boiling point ≥ 25°C) 2

Table A5. Volatility (I V ) subindex (from IOHI).

Factor Score information Penalty
Volatility, I V Liquid and gas
Very low volatility (boiling point > 150°C) 0
Low (150°C ≥ boiling point > 50°C) 1
Medium (50°C ≥ boiling point > 0°C) 2
High (boiling point ≤ 0°C) 3

Table A6. Exposure limit (I EL ) subindex (from IOHI).

Factor Score information Penalty
Exposure limit, I EL Vapour (ppm)
log PEL > 3 0
2 < log PEL ≤ 3 1
1 < log PEL ≤ 2 2
0 < log PEL ≤ 1 3
log PEL ≤ 0 4

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 Table A7. Acute health hazard (I AH ) subindex (from NFPA).
Factor Score information Penalty
Acute health hazard, I AH Oral rat LD 50 (mg/kg)
log LD 50 > 3.301 0
2.699 < log LD 50 ≤ 3.301 1
1.699 < log LD 50 ≤ 2.699 2
0.699 < log LD 50 ≤ 1.699 3
log LD 50 ≤ 0.699 4

Appendix B. Revised safety and health subindexes (with uncertainty)

Table B1. Flammability (I FL ) subindex (revised form).

Factor Score information Penalty
Flammability, I FL Non-flammable 0
F p ≥ 105.5°C 1
81.3°C ≤ F p < 105.5°C (105.5 - F p ) /24.2 + 1
49.9°C ≤ F p < 81.3°C 2
34.9°C ≤ F p < 49.9°C (49.9 - F p ) /24.2 + 2
25.7°C ≤ F p < 34.9°C [10(34.9 - F p ) + 317] /121
10.7°C ≤ F p < 25.7°C (10.7 - F p ) /24.2 + 4
F p < 10.7°C 4

Table B2. Viscosity (I η ) subindex (revised form).

Factor Score information Penalty
Viscosity, I η 0.1 cp ≤ η < 0.35 cp 1
0.35 cp ≤ η < 1.65 cp (η - 0.35) /1.3 + 1
1.65 cp ≤ η < 9.35 cp 2
9.35 cp ≤ η < 10.65 cp (η - 9.35) /1.3 + 2
10.65 cp ≤ η ≤ 100 cp 3

Table B3. Material phase (I MS ) subindex (revised form).

Factor Score information Penalty
Material phase, I MS T b < 17.1°C 1
17.1°C ≤ T b < 32.9°C (T b - 17.1) /15.8 + 1
T b ≥ 32.9°C 2

Table B4. Volatility (I V ) subindex (revised form).

Factor Score information Penalty
Volatility, I V Liquid and gas
T b > 157.9°C 0
157.9°C ≥ T b > 142.1°C (157.9 - T b ) /15.8
142.1°C ≥ T b > 57.9°C 1
57.9°C ≥ T b > 42.1°C (57.9 - T b ) /15.8 + 1
42.1°C ≥ T b > 7.9°C 2
7.9°C ≥ T b > -7.9°C (7.9 - T b ) /15.8 + 2
T b ≤ -7.9°C 3

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 Table B5. Exposure limit (I EL ) subindex (revised form).
Factor Score information
Exposure limit, I EL Vapour (ppm)
log PEL > 3.78
2.78 < log PEL ≤ 3.78
2.22 < log PEL ≤ 2.78
1.78 < log PEL ≤ 2.22
1.22 < log PEL ≤ 1.78
0.78 < log PEL ≤ 1.22
0.22 < log PEL ≤ 0.78
-0.78 < log PEL ≤ 0.22
log PEL ≤ -0.78
Penalty
0
0.641(3.78 - log PEL)
1.2821(2.78 - log PEL) + 0.641
0.641(2.22 - log PEL) + 1.359
1.2821(1.78 - log PEL) + 1.641
0.641(1.22 - log PEL) + 2.359
1.2821(0.78 - log PEL) + 2.641
0.641(0.22 - log PEL) + 3.359
4

Table B6. Acute health hazard (I AH ) subindex (revised form).

Factor Score information Penalty
Acute health hazard, I AH Oral rat LD 50 (mg/kg)
log LD 50 > 3.731 0
3.129 < log LD 50 ≤ 3.731 1.1628(3.731 - log LD 50 )
2.871 < log LD 50 ≤ 3.129 2.3256(3.129 - log LD 50 ) + 0.7
2.269 < log LD 50 ≤ 2.871 1.1628(2.871 - log LD 50 ) + 1.3
2.129 < log LD 50 ≤ 2.269 2
1.269 < log LD 50 ≤ 2.129 1.1628(2.129 - log LD 50 ) + 2
1.129 < log LD 50 ≤ 1.269 3
0.269 < log LD 50 ≤ 1.129 1.1628(1.129 - log LD 50 ) + 3
log LD 50 ≤ 0.699 4

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 ICAER-2015

Hybrid Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Systems (PVT):

Performance Simulation and Experimental Validation
Ronak Shaha*, Dr. P. Srinivasanb
a
BE Graduate, Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani - 333031, India
b
Professor, Mechanical Engineering Dept., Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani - 333031, India

Abstract

Continuous Solar irradiation on the photovoltaic panel causes its temperature to increase, resulting in reduced
efficiency. The present paper focuses on improving the efficiency of the photovoltaic panel through the use of
hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) system. Water is used as the coolant in the cooling channel, flowing through
the copper tubing provided below the photovoltaic panel, where the temperature is maximum. The thermal energy
extracted in the process can be harnessed in several ways, improving the overall efficiency of the system. A
theoretical model was prepared using COMSOL® multi-physics. The results achieved in the experimental set-up
are quantified. As per the experimentation carried on the photovoltaic panel, an average temperature of 303.38K
at Standard Test Condition (STC) was achieved through cooling, while the temperature of the panel without
cooling rose up to 333.15K in environmental conditions, thus, improving the efficiency of the photovoltaic panel.
The paper later applies the idea to an entire solar power plant to improve the overall efficiency of the power plant,
by cooling the photovoltaic panel as well as generate hot water as its by-product.

Keywords: Photovoltaic panel; Hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) systems; Hybrid model

1. Introduction

The key problem imposed on the modern society is the ever-growing demand for energy and at the same time,
the scarcity of resources providing this energy. Current climatic conditions, have dramatically increased the need
of a large scale implementations of renewable energy technologies. In India, most of the energy is produced from
conventional energy sources - coal and natural gas. The percent share of renewables in the total electricity
generation in India was 15.67% in 2012/13 [1]. The target for deployment of grid-based renewable power was
4125 MW, and the achievement was 1352.68 MW in 2012/13 [2]. Given the climatic conditions and the
geographic terrain of India, generation of electricity through photovoltaic panel has a huge scope.

A typical operating characteristic curve of a solar cell indicates that the efficiency of the solar cell decreases as
the temperature increases. Improving this efficiency thus becomes a matter of major concern, to make the solar
energy harvesting a feasible option of renewable energy. Hybrid photovoltaic and solar thermal (PVT) systems
produce both electricity and heat simultaneously. In doing so, PVT systems enable higher energy yields per square
meter and thus more efficient use of the available roof space. Furthermore, the thermal collector now actively
cools the photovoltaic solar cells, resulting in increased electrical performances. Heat generated in the process can
be utilized suitably for other practical purposes. In addition, PVT systems allow for a more uniform appearance
on the roof and require less installation costs as compared to two individual systems together.

Theoretical and experimental studies of PVT were documented as early as in mid 1970s. Use of hybrid PVT
system with either water or air as the coolant (i.e. the PVT/w and PVT/a systems in abbreviation) was presented
by Wolf [3]. The research works that followed were mainly on flat-plate collectors, like the contributions from
Raghuraman [4]. Garg and his co-workers [5] carried out detailed analytical and experimental studies on hybrid
PVT air and liquid heating systems. Based on the weather of New Delhi, their transient simulation analysis found
that in terms of overall energy performance, the double glass configuration is better than the single-glass option

_______________________________
* Corresponding author. Tel.:+91-7276053203
E-mail address: rns0391@gmail.com

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for conventional PVT/a collectors. Bergene and Lovvik [6] proposed a detailed physical model of a flat-plate
PVT/w collector system for performance evaluation. The fin-width to tube–diameter ratio was investigated and
the total efficiency was found in the range of 60–80%. With the use of modified Hottel–Whillier model, de Vries
[7] investigated the steady–state long-term performance of various PVT collector designs in Netherland. The
single-covered design was found better than the uncovered design (of which the thermal efficiency is unfavorable).
On the other hand, Rockendorf et al. [8] constructed prototypes of thermoelectric collector (first generating heat
and subsequently electricity) and PVT/w collector (with solar cells on aluminum-absorber and copper-tubing
combination); their TRNSYS simulation results showed that the electrical output of the PVT/w collector is
significantly higher than that of the thermoelectric collector.

In the above studies of flat-plate collectors, the calculated thermal efficiency of PVT/liquid systems are
generally in the range of 45–70% for unglazed to glazed panel designs. For PVT/a systems, the thermal
efficiencies can be up to 55% for optimized collector design.

The present work combines information available from scientific literature, knowledge from experts,
simulations and experimental data, to obtain a thorough insight into the research questions. Thermal heat transfer
simulation of PVT system is carried out using COMSOL multi- physics and subsequently, the results of the
simulations have been compared using experiments. The idea is later extrapolated to a complete Solar Power Plant
to utilize the space and available energy efficiently.

2. Methodology

Majority of research is focused on PVT systems having thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells with electrical
efficiencies of approximately 15%. These cheap and light weight cells are very well suited to cover large flat roofs
of commercial offices. The amorphous Silicon has the advantage to operate at higher temperatures without
compromising much on its electrical efficiency. But, cooling the modules increases the electrical performance.
The present work is aimed at installing PVT systems in solar power plants in India and as a result all the simulation
and the experimentation are performed on standard solar panel. The size of the panel used is a miniature 110mm
x 110mm. The total energy output (electrical and thermal) of the hybrid PVT system depends on the solar energy
input, the ambient flow rate, coolant channel depth, length and fraction of temperature, the wind speed, the
operating temperature of the system parts, and the heat extraction mode. The electrical output is of priority and
the operating conditions of the system thermal unit must be adapted accordingly. PVT/w system was chosen due
to its many advantages above the PVT/a systems as shown in Table 1 [9].

Table 1. Comparison between PVT/w and PVT/a systems.

Water Air
Heat energy capacity Light weight
Good conductivity Easy to manufacture
Advantages Easy/economic to pump Less damage in case of leakage
Thermal efficiency of ±60% Thermal efficiency of ±50%
Cheap and safe Cheap and safe
Phase changes (can be fixed with glycol) Low energy capacity
Heavy weight Low conductivity
Disadvantages
Less applications (mainly for drying)
Additional heat exchanger required

The following section introduces the three prototypes that are compared in this study and the numerical
simulations are explained in detail. The models were simulated with water as their working fluids. Model 1 is a
free flow PVT collector, with a water channel provided, as shown in Fig. 1.

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 Fig. 1. Model 1 PVT with water channel

The model was simulated in COMSOL, with Standard Test Conditions (STC) and the effect was studied under
different flow rates of water. The various conditions applied in COMSOL are shown in the graphical manner in
Fig. 2 as a heat balance equation.

h (convection &
Solar radiation) T (ambient)
irradiation
T (Plate)
h (conduction)
Water
h (conduction)

T (Base)

h (convection & T (ambient)

radiation)

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of heat balance at boundary conditions

The second model was sheet and tube model with PV panel glass surface acting as a single cover to the whole
model and the copper tubing acting as the cooling channel. Fig. 3 shows the COMSOL model. A copper tube of
6mm outer diameter and thickness 1mm was used. Copper powder was chosen as a filler between the tubing
spaces, as it is better at conducting heat as compared to air, and at the same time reduces the manufacturing costs.
The conditions used were same as the earlier model. The heat balance figure is almost the same with addition of
conduction between the spaces within the copper tubing. The entry and exit of water is through the copper tubes.

Fig. 3. Model 2 PVT with copper tubing

The primary task of this arrangement was to keep the photovoltaic panel temperature at the desired level, here
303.15 K. To achieve this, the flow rate was supposed to be kept high, as per simulations. At such high flow rates
the thermal output, was not satisfactory. To improve the thermal output of the arrangement, hybrid model was
implemented as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Hybrid thermoelectric model to improve the thermal output

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 The model is based on the PVT principle to attain the cooling of the solar panel as well as the solar water heater
principle to increase the output water temperature. About one-half of the copper tubing in under the solar panel
and the remainder acts as a solar water heater. The solar water heater part is painted black ensuring maximum
heat collection.

The simulation was performed using conjugate heat transfer physics and a steady state analysis was performed.
Model 1 gave better electric output as compared to Model 2, but the thermal output was almost negligible. As a
result experiment setup was prepared for the sheet and tube model and the Hybrid Model. The experiment were
carried out indoors under a 1000W halogen lamp to simulate the Standard Test Conditions (STC). Simulations
were carried out with water as the coolant at the flow rate of 100ml/min and 200ml/min, which implies the water
entering the tubes at the velocity of 0.137 m/s and 0.274 m/s, respectively.

3. Result

Under constant sunlight in Pilani, Rajasthan in the month of March the temperature of the panel temperature
rose up to a temperature of 600C, in a half hour period. To standardize the experiment, STC was used. Fig. 5
shows the panel temperature attained in the simulations. As expected, higher flow rates have a better cooling of
the solar panel.

Fig. 5. (a) Results of COMSOL simulation flow rate 100ml/min; (b) Results of COMSOL simulation flow rate 200ml/min

Figure 6 shows the result obtained for a model 2 simulated in COMSOL, under different flow rates of
100ml/min and 200 ml/min. As expected with the increase in the flow rate, the output water temperature is
reduced, though by minor difference. This is attributed to the small solar panel size under consideration. Also a
higher flow rate provides a better cooling as shown by the temperature profiles.

Fig. 6. (a) Results of COMSOL simulation flow rate 100ml/min; (b) Results of COMSOL simulation flow rate 200ml/min

Experiment on model 2 and the hybrid model was performed. The temperature cooling profiles of the solar
panel remained the same in both the models, for a given flow rate. The water was supplied through the reservoir
at a temperature of 301.95K. The experiment was performed for a period of 30 min, in the meantime steady state

321
temperature for water was reached. The experimental output is summarized in Table 2 and 3 in Appendix A. The
percent increase in the voltage output are compared in table 2, for model 2 as well as the hybrid model. At STC,
the panel voltage output was 482mV, in a half hour period, at the same time the panel output voltage was 516mV
when the panel was cooled, improving the voltage output by 7.05%. Thus, the cooling heavily influences the
electrical performance of the solar panel. The output temperature rise of approximately 2K attained is in good
agreement to the COMSOL simulations performed thus verifying the simulations. There is a difference in absolute
temperature as the simulations and experiment were carried out under different input temperatures.
The rise in temperature of only 2K is attributed to the fact the solar cell under study is a single cell of 110mm
x 110mm. It is expected that the temperature rise as well as the cooling effect will be more pronounced under a
life size solar panel used in the solar power plant.
A graphical comparison of the experimental output, as shown in Fig. 7, clearly indicates the increase in the
efficiency of the PVT system over the normal solar panel.

Normal Conditions Panel Cooled Model 2 Panel Cooled Hybrid Model

550
540
530
520
Output Voltage (mV)

510
500
490
480
470
460
450
1 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
Time (min)

Fig. 7. Graphical comparison of the experimental output voltage

Increase in the flow rate increases the cooling effect of the solar panel, at the same time the output temperature
is reduced. Fig 8 shows a graphical comparison of the different flow rates. A comparison between the theoretical
and the experimental data is made. The experimental data is in close agreement with the theoretical COMSOL
simulations.
12
100ml/min
200ml/min
Percent increase in temperature

10

0
Comsol Simulation Model 2 Hybrid Model
Fig. 8. Graphical comparison between the theoretical and the experimental data

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3.1. Solar power plant usefulness:

The largest Indian solar power plant and the second largest in the world is located in near Charanka village in
Patan district, northern Gujarat. With a present capacity of 221 MW installed, from about 500 MW planned for
the facility, spreading over an area of 2000 hectares.

Space being a major constraints in these plants, the proposed Hybrid design would cause to reduce the number
of Solar panels by approximately 50%. At such places Model 2 design would prove beneficial. Hybrid design
would be helpful in places, where hot water is a requirement i.e. traditional power plants. Traditional power plants
require regeneration techniques to pre-heat water. In addition to regeneration, if the water is passed through this
solar panels an addition of power could be saved to improving the efficiency. Solar power generation could be
used as a by-product in such places, improving overall power output of the power plant.

An idea of varying pipe diameter, for the hybrid model could be used to solve the problem of higher flow rates
for the solar panel and lower flow rates for the solar heater part. A smaller diameter for the solar panel would
ensure higher flow rate, at the same time a bigger diameter for the solar heater part will ensure lower flow rate.
Thus satisfying both the electrical and thermal performance of the PVT systems. Also a simulation and experiment
on a life-size solar panel would give us a better idea of the practicality of the solar power plant usefulness.

4. Conclusion

The performance of a PVT system has been successfully determined in an experimental study. The theoretical
result of the heat transfer simulation of the silicon solar cell was also in good agreement with the experimental
results.

Though the temperature rise achieved was not significant, this is attributed to two facts - the panel size is very
small compared to the panels used in solar power plants, and STC conditions lowered the temperature rise as
compared to real environmental conditions. By using the active cooling technique, the experimental result has
shown a significant improvement on the electrical efficiency of PV module.

It seems advantageous to combine the PV module with the collector – hybrid model in situations where hot
water is having a useful application like traditional power plant. Places where space is a constraint as in solar
power plant Model 2 would be a beneficial model. The improved efficiency of the combined system can shorten
the payback period of the entire system. The cost of adding the collector to the PV module is not very significant
compared to the price of PV module itself. Therefore, the PVT system is worth developing in the industry. A
suitable application for the heated water or any other coolant that can be used in place of water, if generated,
active cooling system would prove a very beneficial process to harness more power at lower costs.

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Appendix A: Experimental Data

Table 2. Experimental Output Voltage data comparison for different models

Output Output Voltage

Output Voltage
Voltage Voltage Percent
Voltage Percent
Time(min) Normal Hybrid Increase
Model 2 Increase
Conditions Model Hybrid
(mV) Model 2
(mV) (mV) Model
1 540 542 542 0.37 0.37
3 536 533 536 -0.56 0
6 525 525 528 0 0.57
9 517 519 523 0.39 1.16
12 511 516 520 0.98 1.76
15 507 514 518 1.38 2.17
18 502 513 517 2.19 2.99
21 495 513 516 3.64 4.24
24 488 513 517 5.12 5.94
27 484 512 516 5.79 6.61
30 482 512 516 6.22 7.05

Table 3. Experimental data for comparison of temperature increase between Model 2 and Hybrid Model

Model 2 water Hybrid Model

output water output Temperature
Time (min)
temperature temperature Percent Increase
(oC) (oC)
1 29.8 29.8 0
3 30.6 31.7 3.59
6 30.8 32.5 5.52
9 30.8 32.7 6.17
12 31 32.9 6.13
15 30.8 30.8 6.49
18 31 32.9 6.13
21 31 32.9 6.13
24 31 32.9 6.13
27 31 32.9 6.13
30 31 33 6.45

References

[1] The Energy and Resources Institute Energy Data, Directory and Yearbook (2015), New Delhi, India.
[2] The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, 2014.
[3] Wolf M, Performance analysis of combined heating and photovoltaic power systems for residences, Energy Convers 1976, 79–90.
[4] Raghuraman P, Analytical prediction of liquid and air photovoltaic/thermal flat plate collector performance, J Sol Energy Engineering
1981, 291–8.
[5] Garg HP and Adhikari R S, Optical design calculations for CPCs, Energy International Journal 1998, 907–9.
[6] Bergene T and Lovvik OM, Model calculations on a flat-plate solar heat collector with integrated solar cells, Solar Energy 1995, 453–
62.
[7] De Vries DW, Design of a photovoltaic/thermal combi-panel, Ph.D. Thesis, Eindhoven Technical University, Netherland; 1998.
[8] Rockendorf G, Sillmann R, Podlowski L and Litzenburger B, PV-hybrid and thermoelectric collectors, Solar Energy 1999, 227–37.
[9] Chow, T, A review on photovoltaic/thermal hybrid solar technology, Applied Energy, 87, 365-379.

324
 ICAER-2015

A Comparative Study on Influence of Edible and Non-edible

Vegetable oil on Combustion Characteristics of Multi Cylinder CI
Engine
Pinkesh R. Shaha1 and Anuradda Ganeshb
a
Department of Energy science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India
b
Department of Energy science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India

Abstract

The combustion of straight vegetable oil (SVO) in diesel engine has shown conflicting results in performance and engine
longevity depending on the type of oil and engine. The Combustion analysis can well describe the exact reason behind the
observed phenomenon of performance and exhaust emissions. The purpose of the present work is to compare the behaviour
of edible and non-edible crude vegetable oil on combustion characteristics of existing diesel engine under similar operating
condition with cognitive elaboration. A comparative study using Sunflower oil as edible oil and Karanj oil as Non-edible oil
was conducted on Cummins DXP 17.5 litter, 2-cylinder DI diesel Genset at constant speed by varying brake. The physical
properties were also measured to calculate the Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) to correlate the combustion results.
Combustion analysis revealed that both edible oil and non-edible oil exhibited longer ignition delay, higher cylinder pressure
and heat release rate (HRR) as compared to diesel fuel. However, Sunflower oil showed little lower cylinder pressure and
HRR in comparison to Karanj oil. It can be concluded that non-edible Karanj oil showed better combustion characteristics in
comparison to edible Sunflower oil in same engine under similar operating conditions.
Keywords: straight vegetable oil; edible oil; non-edible oil; combustion characteristics; diesel engine

1. Introduction

Environmental degradation of petroleum products and their non-renewable nature has led to a world-wide
search for renewable and greener alternatives in I.C. engine. The most promising alternative fuel for fossil diesel
fuel substitution is vegetable oils or their derived bio-diesels and bio-alcohols in existing engine without any
modifications. However, chemical process to prepare biodiesel is not easily accessible in remote and rural area
due to logistic problems and expenses. Thus crude vegetable oil called as straight vegetable oil (SVO) is
receiving increasing public and scientific attention to use it directly in diesel engine. There are many
publications reported in the literature about the experimental works on diesel engine fuelled with blend of diesel-
vegetable oil [1-5] and/or with bio-diesel [6-9] but very little publications available concern with direct use of
straight vegetable oil. Some engine researchers find that use of pure sunflower seed oil in DI diesel engine
delivers approximately the same maximum power with slightly higher specific fuel consumption and reported
high value of particulate matter, CO, NO x and HC emissions as compared to diesel fuel but choking of injector
tip is a major problem while using over an extended period of time [10-12]. Richard Stone et al. [13] showed
that sunflower oil can have a longer ignition delay period than diesel fuel in the engine test though did not
necessarily lead to a higher maximum rate of pressure rise, heat release rate and combustion noise.
Nomenclature

ν Kinematic viscosity of liquid fuel, m2/s

σ Surface Tension of fuel, N/m
ρf Density of fuel, kg/m3
ρa Density of air, kg/m3
∆P Pressure drop across nozzle, bar
cst Centi stoke
Ƴ Sp. Heat ratio

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +919825472703; fax: +91-022-25764506.

E-mail address:pinkeshrshah@gmail.com, pinkeshshah@iitb.ac.in

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Similarly, the Karanj oil was experimented for analyzing performance characteristics in India recently [5] and it
was found to give a better performance when compared to diesel. J. Hemanth et al. [14] showed lower level of
CO and SO 2 emissions with Pongamia Pinnata oil in comparison to diesel. Dhinagar et al. [15] tested Karanj oil
in a low heat rejection engine and showed reduction in thermal efficiency. However, most of researchers have
shown higher exhaust gas temperature, Smoke, HC, NO x and CO emissions as compared to diesel [16,17].
Thus, combustion of straight vegetable oil in diesel engine has shown conflicting results in emissions, power
and engine longevity depending on the type of oil and engine. Not only that but diesel engine combustion is also
governed by various spray characteristics parameters such as spray tip penetration, spray cone angle and spray
droplet sizes (SMD) [18]. The bigger droplet size of fuel burns slowly due to poor atomization resulting in poor
engine performance. The influence of injection characteristics and SMD with non-edible Karanj oil in diesel
engine was studied in details in our earlier work [19,20].
Combustion characteristics of vegetable oil must be known in order to interpret the results of exhaust
emissions and engine performance parameters. It is known that an internal combustion engine displays wide
variations in the cylinder pressure from one cycle to another even under nominally constant operating conditions
[21]. Any deviation in the pressure time development is one of the causes of the power fluctuations which may
reduces the efficiency and reliability of an engine, increases combustion noise and exhaust emissions [22].
Therefore, thermal efficiency, operation stability and emissions were evaluated based on the in-cylinder
pressure and heat release analysis. In addition to these, injection systems, oil type, lipid acid ratio and fuel
temperature all have significant impact on the combustion characteristics of an engine. The differences in
physical properties between edible and non-edible oils also affect the combustion characteristics. It is extremely
relevant in this context to assess the combustion characteristics of edible and non-edible oil fueled engine under
similar operating condition because the chemical structure of the carbon chains i.e. chain length, number of
double bond, location of double bond, etc. vary from oil to oil. It is the olefinic bond that account for both the
favorable and the unfavorable features of vegetable oils when used as diesel engine fuels [23]. The differences
in geometry between the various types of unsaturated fatty acids, as well as between saturated and unsaturated
fatty acids, play an important role in combustion chemistry.

1.1. Fatty acid compositions

Both edible and non-edible vegetable oils have almost the same chemical compositions and fatty acids but
vary in proportions in their carbon chain length from C16 to C18 and in the number of double bond according to
nature of plant species and on the growth conditions of the plant. The nature of fatty acids largely determines
their ability to burn correctly in an engine [24]. Unsaturation in the fatty acid chain of triglycerides is the main
cause of combustibility, thermal instability, oxidation and polymerisation when vegetable oils are used as diesel
fuels [25]. It has been reported that more number of double bond are prone to have less cetane number which
directly affects the ignition delay and combustion process [26]. The oils with higher level of polyunsaturated
fats tends to have higher NO x and unexpected CO emissions due to polymerization [27]. The viscosity increases
with the increase in the length of carbon chain and decreases with the increase in the number of double bond
[28- 31].
To the authors’ best knowledge, no study has been reported on comparison of edible and non-edible oil based
on combustion characteristics of diesel engine under similar operating conditions as per literature survey. This
was the basic motivation behind the research in this paper. Thus, the specific objective of this study was to
compare the influence of Sunflower oil (edible oil) and Karanj oil (non-edible oil) on combustion characteristics
of existing diesel engine without any modifications and to suggest the best one under similar operating
conditions.

2. Experimental set-up and procedure

A fully automated computerized test bed, four-stroke, water cooled, Cummins, DXP 15-5 series Diesel
Genset was used for test trial whose detail specifications are shown in the Table 1. The schematic diagram of
experimental set-up is shown in the Figure 1. The engine was mounted on a fully automated test bed and
coupled to an alternator to provide the load through connected electric heater load bank as shown in Figure 1.
The alternator was used for loading the engine through load bank consisted of heating coil. Thermocouples were
located at strategic points on engine system to monitor temperature as displayed on computer monitor system.
All parameters such as load, power, speed, flow rate, pressure, temperature, voltage, current, etc. were displayed
promptly on the monitor and stored by the computer. All experiments were conducted at the rated speed of 1500
rpm with variable load conditions without any modification in the engine.

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 Table 1. Engine Specifications Table 2. Physical properties of test fuels
Engine Make Cummins Properties Unit D KO SF
Model X 1.7 G1 Density g/cc 0.849 0.956 0.923
BHP / kW 20 / 15 Surface
mN/m 27.87 31.91 33.5
No. of Tension
02
cylinders Viscosity cst 4.35 59.84 52.42
RPM 1500
o
Flash point C 93 212 274
Bore (mm) 91.44
SMD * µm 33.99 112.4 107.9
Stroke (mm) 127
Compression Calorific value MJ/kg 42.50 36.98 35.14
18.5:1
ratio
Displacement 1.7
(liter)
Governor Mechanical
All tests were performed at the standard injection pressure of 210 bar and injection advance of 11o BTDC at
constant pump settings. The crude Karanj oil and Sunflower oil were filtered through a cotton cloth & wire
mesh filter of 5 micron before taking into fuel tank. Each test cycle consists of 5.5 hours with 10 numbers of
readings starting from no load to full load at an interval of 25% and reverse from full load to no load, thus 2 set
of readings at each load. The readings were taken at an interval of about 30 minutes after stabilization. The
experimental work is started with a preliminary investigation of the engine fueled with diesel fuel in order to
determine the engine operating characteristics and prepared the baseline data. The same procedure was followed
for Karanj oil and Sunflower oil at the same operating conditions respectively and the results are compared with
baseline data. The nozzles were cleaned at the end of each test and reinstalled for next trial. For every fuel
change, the fuel lines were cleaned by running the engine with diesel fuel for 30 min to stabilize at its new
condition. The test procedure was repeated two times for all test fuels to verify the consistency of results and to
minimize the uncertainty.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental set-up

2.1 High speed Data Acquisition (HSDA) System

A combustion diagnosis was carried out by means of a quartz piezoelectric pressure transducer
(Kistler 7061B) mounted on the cylinder head in the standard position and the charge amplifier (Kistler
504E4). The Kistler pressure transducer has the advantage of a good frequency response of 45pc/bar and linear
operating range of 0-250 bar. A continuous circulation of water was maintained to avoid overheating of
transducer. The crankshaft angle was obtained from a crank angle encoder having 0.5 degree CA resolution
mounted on the crankshaft. A signal from a magnetic pick-up simultaneously recorded indicates the position of
the TDC in each cycle. These signals were acquired by a data acquisition system through RS view 32 software
cell 610 developed by Cummins India Ltd., Pune, India. For each operating condition, 100 engine pressure
cycles were recorded and the mean of cylinder pressure trace was obtained by ‘light smoothing’ based on six
data points weighted smoothing. In order to eliminate the impact of cyclic variations, the net heat release rate of

327
each test condition was calculated from the averaged in-cylinder pressure of 100 consecutive cycles with
Equation 1 as described in Heywood [32] based on the first law of thermodynamics combining the ideal gas
law.

1
= + (1)
−1 −1

Where, = ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑒𝑒 𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟

2.2 Instrumentations and test fuels

Viscosity was measured by Brookfield viscometer having auto selected speed/spindle facility. Surface
tension and Density were measured by GBX Tensiometer with 3-S software working on principle of Wilhelm
plate method. The calorific value of test fuels was measured by bomb calorimeter as per ASTM D 240 method.
Flash point was measured using a closed cup flash point tester. The SMD in this study was not measured but
calculated based on well known empirical correlation given by M. M. Elkotb [33] which is purely concern with
physical properties of fuel as shown in Equation 2.

D = 6156ν0.385 0.737
f0.737 𝜌𝜌 0.06
∆ −0.54
(2)

Karanj oil and Sunflower oil were chosen for this study because of its relatively high yields and widespread
production in Maharashtra, India and obtained from local commercial supplier from Mumbai city. The test fuels
were abbreviated as per their name such as ‘D’ for Diesel, ‘KO’ for Karanj oil and ‘SF’ for Sunflower oil
respectively.

3. Results and discussion

The efficiency of diesel combustion and its associated pollutant emissions are not just affected by the ignition
delay and volatility properties but also through the influence of the atomization of the fuel spray which depends
to a great extent upon physical properties. Therefore fuel properties were measured in this study to correlate the
combustion characteristics analysis. The main physical properties which affect the atomization process are
viscosity, surface tension and density which in turns govern the SMD as shown in the Table 2.

3.1. Fuel characterization

From Table 2, it can be seen that Karanj oil and Sunflower oil are endowed with higher viscosity, density,
surface tension and flash point than diesel due to presence of more unsaturated ester and longer carbon chain
length in their structure. However, the SF oil shows 12.4 % lower viscosity than KO due to presence of higher
percentage of polyunsaturated acid because viscosity increases with the increase in the carbon chain length and
decreases with the increase in the number of double bond (unsaturation chain level). The presence of cis double
bond is more responsible for lower viscosity of SF. Surface tension is one of the key properties considered in
spray breakup and collision/coalescence models. Diesel engine combustion is also governed by various spray
characteristics parameters such as spray tip penetration, spray cone angle and spray droplet sizes (SMD). The
SMD of both vegetable oils KO and SF are found drastically higher than that of diesel fuel because of higher
density, viscosity and surface tension of oils. Since the surface area and the volume of droplets are of primary
importance for evaporation and combustion [34], the smaller SMD enhances vaporization and reduces time
duration thus strongly influences the overall combustion rate. The calorific value of both oils KO and SF are
about 17% lower on a mass basis in comparison to that of diesel fuel. However, given the high density of
vegetable oils, their volumetric net calorific value is only 5 to 6% less on average than that of diesel fuel. The
low energy content of vegetable oils is due to the presence of chemically bound oxygen in the fatty acid chains.
The high flash point of vegetable oil attributes to its lower volatile characteristics due to presence of
predominate unsaturated acid chain length of C18:1 and C18:2 in its structure. Besides the thermo chemical
characteristics of vegetable oil, the composition and structure also affects the combustion characteristics of
diesel engine. The principal fatty acids typically present in the Karanj oil and Sunflower oils were determined
by GC-MS spectra as shown in the Table 3.

328
Table 3. Fatty acid compositions of Karanj oil and Sunflower oil
Fatty acid Structure and Karanj oil Sunflower oil
(Molecular weight) Wt. % Wt. %
Palmitic 16:0 (256) 7.9 6.2
Stearic 18:0 (284) 5.2 3.2
Oleic 18:1 (282) 65.8 17.5
Linoleic 18:2 (280) 13.1 72.9
Saturated Fatty Acid 21.1 9.4
Unsaturated Fatty Acid 78.8 90.4
Molecular weight 265.5 278.7
xx:y indicates xx carbons (Cn) in the fatty acid chain with y double bond.

3.2. Combustion characteristics

3.2.1 Cylinder pressure

The cylinder peak pressure of an engine provides information about the direct utilization of heat for
useful work. In a compression ignition engine the peak pressure depends on the combustion rate in the initial
stage which in turn influenced by the amount of fuel taking part in the uncontrolled combustion.

Fig. 2. Comparison of variation of cylinder pressure with crank angle between diesel and vegetable oil

Figure 2 shows the comparison of variation of cylinder pressure with respect to crank angle between
diesel and vegetable oils at full load. It is observed that both Karanj oil and Sunflower oil exhibits higher
cylinder pressure than neat diesel fuel due to presence of higher percentage of unsaturated fatty acid in their
structure. This high degree of unsaturation is responsible for lower cetane number of fuel causes longer ignition
delay increases cylinder pressure. The pressure rise starts little earlier for both vegetable oils than that of diesel
fuel leading the combustion to take place very close to TDC and thus higher the peak pressure. This high
cylinder pressure is mainly attributed to the advanced injection because of higher bulk modulus and viscosity of
vegetable oil.
However, SF oil shows lower cylinder pressure than KO due to its higher flash point and low volatile
nature. The viscosity and volatility of fuel have very important role on atomization rate and air fuel mixing
formation means that, for a given ignition delay period, a smaller quantity of flammable air fuel mixture is
formed, thus lower cylinder pressure. The probable reason for lower volatility can be the chemical structure of
SF oil which contains higher number of double bond and polyunsaturation.

3.2.2 Heat Release Rate (HRR)

The heat release analysis compute how much heat would have to be added to the cylinder contents in order to
produce the observed pressure variation. It is observed from the Figure 3.2(a) that the heat release rate (HRR)
follows the same trend as of cylinder pressure curve, higher for KO and SF oil than for diesel fuel as expected,
due to presence of higher percentage of unsaturated fatty acid in their structure. This will increase ignition delay
period allows more time for a flammable air fuel mixture to be formed leading to high maximum rate of heat
release. This behavior determines the peak temperature in combustion chamber and hence leading to higher
concentrations of NO x in the exhaust gases.

329
 a b

Fig. 3. (a) Comparison of HRR with crank angle for test fuels; (b) Comparison of ignition delay of test fuels

It is noticed from the Figure 3(a) that the SF oil shows significantly lower HRR than KO though having
almost the same ignition delay and the peak of HRR shifts away from the top dead centre. A reasonable suspect
for such phenomena mainly attributed to high flash point (274o C of SF as compared to 215o C of KO) and
lower volatility of SF oil giving a significantly lower maximum net heat release rate, means that, for a given
ignition delay period, a smaller quantity of flammable air fuel mixture is formed.

3.2.3 Ignition delay

The uncontrolled phase depends on the delay period which determines the ability of the fuel to mix well with
air. The ignition delay is an important parameter which is controlled by physicochemical properties of fuel. In
this study ignition delay was not measured but the difference between the start of delivery from pump setting
and a point where abrupt change in slope of curve occurs on P-θ diagram was considered as ignition delay.
It is seen from the Figure 3(b) that the Ignition Delay (I.D.) of both KO and SF oil shows higher than diesel
fuel at full load condition. One of the possible reasons for this observation may be the poor ignition ability of
vegetable oils because of presence of higher percentage of compositions of oleic and conjugated linoleic acids in
their structure which are highly unsaturated. Since the surface area and the volume of droplets are of primary
importance for evaporation and combustion, the droplets (SMD) strongly influences the ignition delay. The
higher viscosity of both oils atomizes into larger droplets alters spray characteristics at the time of injection
delaying the combustion process in the engine resulting in longer ignition delay. Also, the higher boiling point
of both oils increases ignition delay because to vaporize the initial fuel fraction, more time is required. In
addition to this, advancement in dynamic injection timing leads to longer ignition delay due to higher density
and bulk modulus of both oils because higher density means less compressible fuel, so the pressure builds up
more quickly and the fuel injects into the combustion chamber earlier in the compression cycle. Therefore it
reaches the injector nozzle within a very short time as explained in our earlier work [20]. The lower cetane
number of both oils may also be one of the reasons for longer ignition delay because it is fact that unsaturated
and branched hydrocarbons have lower cetane number and poor ignition ability [35]. Another reason for longer
ignition delay may be due to higher specific heat of highly unsaturated vegetable oil as it needs more heat
energy to evaporate inside the cylinder by absorbing heat from the combustion chamber [23].
However, the fact that ignition delay results are found to sensitive with injection timing makes it difficult to
draw definitive conclusion to have same ignition delay of Karanj oil and Sunflower oil. The qualitative
behaviour of the initiation of injection is attributable to the corresponding variation of the dynamic injection
timing, makes it difficult to draw the exact value of ignition delay reliably. During the combustion process, the
double bond in vegetable oil breaks down into smaller hydrocarbon molecules. How these molecules behave in
terms of changing the ignition delay and burning rate is not known. More advanced study needs to be done to
examine the mechanism of this effect.

4. Conclusion

The main conclusions derived from experimental results are given below.
1. The SMD of both edible and non-edible vegetable oils are found higher than that of diesel fuel due to
their higher density, viscosity, surface tension and presence of higher number of double bonds in their
structure. The calorific value of KO and SF oil was found lower whereas flash point was higher than
that of diesel. However, the Sunflower oil was showing lower calorific value and higher flash point as
compared to Karanj oil due to presence of predominate unsaturated acid chain length in its structure.
2. Both KO and SF oil exhibited longer ignition delay which in turn leads to higher cylinder pressure and

330
 HRR as compared to diesel fuel. The Karanj oil was showing higher cylinder pressure and HRR than
Sunflower oil due to presence of lower unsaturated linoleic fatty acid in its structure and lower value of
flash point. Higher cylinder pressure and HRR represents the amount of heat added directly to cylinder
contents to produce useful work.
Thus, it can be concluded that non-edible Karanj oil is showing better combustion in comparison to edible
Sunflower oil under similar operating conditions in the diesel engine without any modifications.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to the management of Cummins India Ltd., Pune for
providing facility and necessary funding to carry out the experiments. We wish to express our deep thanks to
Mr. Ashish Vora and Mr. Gajanan Dandekar for their support in conducting the experiments. We are grateful to
Sophisticated Analytical Instrumentations Facility (SAIF), IIT Bombay for providing GC-MS facility.

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 ICAER-2015

Power Quality and Economic Assessment of DG Penetration in

Distorted Distribution Systems
Narinder Kumar1*, Ashwani Kumar, Member, IEEE
1Research Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India
2 Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India

Abstract

Integration of distributed energy resources with distribution systems are presenting new challenges in terms of quality and
reliability of supply, as well as in the optimal utilization of available resources in competitive electricity markets. Increasing
penetration of Distributed Generation (DG) in the recent decades is leading to a significant change in how the present
distribution systems are planned and regulated. Furthermore, presence of current and voltage harmonics in the DG resources
necessitates a detailed mathematical analysis of integrating such resources with distorted distribution systems. In this research
paper, a comprehensive load flow analysis of unbalanced and distorted distribution systems has been attempted by integrating
various DG resources. Main contributions of this paper are: (i) Flow of fundamental and distortion power due to linear and
non-linear DG operation in distorted distribution systems. (ii) Assessment of harmonic amplification due to distorted
substation/ DG voltage. (iii) Economic Assessment of total energy consumption for different harmonic orders. Load flow
results are obtained with IEEE-13 bus unbalanced system and IEEE-69 bus system.
Keywords: Distributed energy resources, non-linear load, voltage harmonics, distortion power, total energy cost

1. Introduction

Analysis of modern distribution systems is a challenging task due to increasing non-linear load, and also due
to the presence of voltage harmonics in substation supply. Furthermore, in wake of deregulated electricity markets
and environmental considerations, there are growing concerns for integrating distributed energy resources with
existing distribution systems for achieving optimal operation. Consequently, comprehensive analysis of power
flow in distorted distribution systems integrated with DG becomes critical for mitigating any power quality
problems and for achieving energy efficiency of the distribution network [1-6]. Backward-forward sweep is a
widely popular technique for load flow analysis of distribution systems [7]. However, this technique encounters
limitations due to complexities in modeling of loads and sources in the presence of voltage and current harmonics
in DG. In this paper, a comprehensive distortion power analysis of various buses of the distribution system in the
presence of linear and non-linear distributed energy resources has been carried out by evaluating THDV and THDI
at various buses [8-10]. Harmonic amplification in the distribution network is assessed by computing shunt
capacitor currents of different harmonic orders due to voltage distortion in DG. Resonant conditions are assessed
through network equations and without adopting time-consuming frequency-scan technique. Subsequently,
increase in total energy bill due to flow of distortion power flow has been calculated. The limits of harmonic
voltage distortion in non-linear DG are taken according to IEEE-1547-2003 Standard. For economic assessment
of the distortion power flow due to non-linear DG operation, harmonic power losses (both real and reactive), along
with harmonic ratio factors are also calculated.

Nomenclature

( )
.( ) = ℎ ℎ
( )
= ′ℎ′ ℎ 1
( )
= ′ℎ′ ℎ 2
( ) ( )
, = ine impedance values corresponding to various harmonics orders
( ) ( )
, = ℎ ℎ ′ℎ′

* Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 9915152946, Fax: (+91) 9816693524.

E-mail address: narindersadana@gmail.com

333
2. Mathematical Modeling in the presence of DG sources

2.1. Total current contributed by DG in harmonic environment

Modeling of a DG unit in distribution load flow analysis depends upon its operation as well as its connection
with the grid. During sinusoidal analysis of distribution system in the presence of DG, such units are treated as
either PQ or PV nodes. Non-linear DG operation involving injection of harmonic frequency currents from the DG
unit can be incorporated by using current injection model for harmonic frequencies, and PQ/PV model for the
fundamental. Mathematically, total current through DG unit under non-sinusoidal conditions can be represented
as:
( )
( ) =( ) +∑ (1)

2.2. Voltage distortion in DG unit

Depending upon winding design and core non-linearity, DG unit may cause distortion in voltage at the point
of interconnection, further leading to the propagation of harmonics in other buses of the distribution system. In
the presence of shunt capacitors, even a small distortion in DG voltage can result in the significantly large value
of shunt capacitor current during resonance conditions. Computation of shunt capacitor current in such conditions
can be understood by network-theoretic approach for a simple 6-bus distribution system containing nonlinear DG.

C1

4
3
2
1
Nonlinear
DG having 5
voltage
6
harmonics

C2

Fig.1. A simple 6-bus RDS having nonlinear DG at bus 1

Application of Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law from nonlinear DG bus ‘1’ to two shunt capacitors would yield two
linear equations as below:

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) − + . − . =0 (2)

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) − . − + + . =0 (3)

334
 Above equations on simplification can be expressed as:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
+ . + . = ( ) (4)

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
. + + + . = ( ) (5)

Rearranging, the shunt capacitor currents absorbed by two capacitors in the presence of voltage distortion in
the DG can be calculated as

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
+ ( )
( ) = ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) (6)
+ + ( )

2.3. Total non-sinusoidal current at a bus

Subsequently, the total current flowing through a bus is calculated from the measured harmonic spectra of non-
linear load and non-sinusoidal current flowing through shunt capacitor, as
( ) ( )
=∑ +∑ (7)

In the presence of voltage distortion either in substation supply or DG, second component of Eq (7) becomes
critical for assessing any possibility of resonant conditions in the network.

2.4. Current and Voltage Total Harmonic Distortion

Current and voltage THDs at any bus ‘i’ in the presence of harmonics can be computed as:

( )
∑ | () |
()
(%) = ( ) × 100 (8)
| ()|

( )
∑ | () |
()
(%) = ( ) × 100 (9)
| () |

2.5. Distortion power and Total Apparent Power in Harmonic environment

In harmonic environment, total apparent power injected power at a bus is given as

=[ . ] = + [ + ] (10)

=[ . ] +[ . ] +[ . ] +[ . ] (11)

Total power in terms of S1, and current and voltage THDs will be given by:

= (1 + + + . ) (12)

2.6. Power Increase Factor (PIF)

Increase in total apparent power at any bus due to non-sinusoidal conditions has been assessed through the
ratio of total apparent power under harmonic conditions to the fundamental apparent power, and indicated as
Power Increase Factor (PIF):

335
 =( ℎ ℎ )/( ) (13)

PIF is a significant indicator in economic assessment of harmonic power flow as energy tariff in present
scenario are primarily based on total apparent power.

2.7. Harmonic power loss and ratio factors in the presence of nonlinear DG

Nonlinear DG operation and the presence of harmonics in distribution system lead to increase in harmonic
power losses – both real and reactive. These are calculated from load flow results by using branch impedance at
harmonic frequencies. Harmonic power ratio factor (HPR) for real and reactive powers is computed as the ratio
of harmonic real/ reactive power to the fundamental power from the substation bus.

3. Results and Discussion

Proposed algorithm is applied on two RDS: 13-bus unbalanced and 69-bus balanced, both having nonlinear
load as well as nonlinear DG with voltage distortion. The analysis has been carried out by taking 4% cut-off limit
of voltage harmonics of individual order in DG as specified in IEEE-1547-2003 Standard [11-12]. Load flow
results have been obtained in both systems considering odd harmonic orders from 3rd to 15th. For fundamental
frequency power in DG, PQ model has been taken.

3.1. IEEE-13 bus unbalanced RDS

Data for above system has been taken from [4] and nonlinear 3-phase delta-connected DG (PQ-mode) is
considered at node 671, supplying 300 kW and 197 kvar in each phase. Due to limitations of space, load flow
results for THDV, THDI and PIF of phase-‘a’ only are depicted for the discussion.

Table 1. Voltage THD for phase ‘a’ in 13-bus unbalanced RDS

THDV for harmonic order ‘h’: phase-a

Bus No. (%)

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
650a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
632a 5.26 5.29 12.95 4.43 6.08 5.25 5.24 5.40
633a 5.26 5.30 12.96 4.43 6.08 5.25 5.24 5.40
634a 5.28 5.32 13.01 4.45 6.11 5.27 5.26 5.43
671a 10.94 11.02 26.77 9.23 12.64 10.92 10.89 11.24
680a 10.94 11.02 26.77 9.23 12.64 10.92 10.89 11.24
684a 10.84 10.93 26.58 9.23 12.53 10.82 10.79 11.13
652a 10.93 11.02 26.74 9.31 12.62 10.91 10.88 11.22
692a 10.94 11.02 26.77 9.23 12.64 10.92 10.89 11.24
675a 11.80 11.87 28.64 9.93 13.70 11.79 11.75 12.13

336
 Table 2. Current THD for phase ‘a’ in 13-bus unbalanced RDS
THDI for harmonic order ‘h’: phase-a

Bus No. (%)

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
650a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
632a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
633a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
634a 3.38 3.41 8.37 2.86 3.90 3.38 3.37 3.47
671a 14.26 14.31 25.96 13.28 15.32 14.25 14.23 14.44
680a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
684a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
652a 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
692a 12.63 12.71 27.04 11.33 14.05 12.61 12.59 12.87
675a 13.42 13.42 13.42 13.42 13.42 13.42 13.42 13.42
650a 17.58 17.63 32.48 16.27 19.02 17.57 17.55 17.82

Table 3. PIF for phase ‘a’ in 13-bus unbalanced RDS

PIF for harmonic order ‘h’: phase a

Bus No. (pu)

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
650a 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
632a 1.001 1.001 1.008 1.001 1.002 1.001 1.001 1.002
633a 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
634a 1.002 1.002 1.012 1.001 1.003 1.002 1.002 1.002
671a 1.016 1.016 1.070 1.013 1.020 1.016 1.016 1.017
680a 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
684a 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
652a 1.014 1.014 1.072 1.011 1.018 1.014 1.014 1.015
692a 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
675a 1.022 1.023 1.094 1.018 1.027 1.022 1.022 1.023

Table 4. depicts the values of harmonic power losses and factors for phase ‘a’, as indicated:

Table 4. Harmonic power losses and HRP for phase ‘a’

Value for harmonic order ‘h’: Phase ‘a’
Parameter
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

Harmonic real power loss (kW) 1.98 1.87 10.45 1.68 2.46 2.00 1.98 2.00
Harmonic reactive power loss (kvar) 28.25 27.34 130.47 23.00 38.76 28.84 28.24 29.11
Harmonic power ratio factor (Real)
1.37 1.37 7.99 1.00 1.81 1.36 1.36 1.43
from substation, HPRP (%)
Harmonic power ratio factor
4.15 4.02 19.51 3.37 5.67 4.23 4.15 4.27
(Reactive) from substation, HPRQ (%)

Graphical variation of these parameters for various harmonic orders is illustrated in Fig. 2. – 4.

337
3.2. Discussion on the load flow results of 13-bus RDS

Load flow results of 13-bus unbalanced RDS have revealed wide variation in THD and power profile
corresponding to different harmonic orders. A significantly large bus voltage distortion due to 5th order harmonic
voltage in DG has been observed at all nodes of phase ‘a’; for example, node ‘675a’ shows THDV of 28.64 % due
to mere presence of 4% harmonic voltage of 5th order in DG. Correspondingly large values of THDI (32.48 %)
and PIF (1.094) at this node for ‘h’=5 have been found. Similarly, very large values of harmonic power losses and
factors corresponding to ‘h’=5 are observed.

3.3. IEEE-69 bus RDS

IEEE-69 bus RDS is analyzed by considering one nonlinear DG at bus no. 61, beside four shunt capacitors at
various locations. Table 5 and 6 show load flow results for THDV and harmonic power losses:

Table 5. THDV at various harmonic orders in 69-bus RDS

THDV for harmonic order ‘h’
Bus No. (%)
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.01
3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
4 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.03
5 0.00 0.01 0.04 0.09 0.18 0.22 0.11 0.17
6 0.02 0.10 0.27 0.58 1.18 1.40 0.67 1.05
7 0.04 0.19 0.52 1.09 2.22 2.64 1.26 1.98
8 0.04 0.21 0.58 1.22 2.47 2.95 1.40 2.21
9 0.04 0.22 0.61 1.29 2.60 3.11 1.48 2.33
10 0.04 0.26 0.71 1.53 3.22 4.11 1.58 1.92
11 0.04 0.27 0.73 1.59 3.36 4.35 1.65 1.83
12 0.05 0.30 0.82 1.80 3.90 5.31 2.05 1.55
13 0.06 0.33 0.90 1.99 4.43 6.31 2.61 1.27
14 0.06 0.36 0.98 2.19 4.96 7.34 3.27 1.29
15 0.07 0.39 1.06 2.39 5.51 8.42 4.01 1.61
16 0.07 0.39 1.07 2.43 5.62 8.62 4.15 1.69
17 0.07 0.40 1.10 2.50 5.81 9.01 4.41 1.86
18 0.07 0.40 1.10 2.50 5.81 9.02 4.42 1.86
19 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.35 4.65 2.02
20 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.36 4.66 2.02
21 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.36 4.66 2.02
22 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.36 4.66 2.02
23 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.36 4.66 2.02
24 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.36 4.66 2.02
25 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.36 4.66 2.02
26 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.37 4.66 2.02
27 0.07 0.41 1.13 2.57 5.99 9.37 4.66 2.02
28 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
29 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
30 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
31 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
32 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
33 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
34 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
35 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
36 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
37 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
38 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
39 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
40 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01

338
 41 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
42 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
43 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
44 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
45 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
46 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01
47 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.03
48 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.03
49 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.03
50 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.03
51 0.04 0.21 0.58 1.22 2.47 2.95 1.40 2.21
52 0.04 0.21 0.58 1.22 2.47 2.95 1.40 2.21
53 0.04 0.25 0.68 1.44 2.88 3.36 1.78 2.89
54 0.04 0.29 0.78 1.63 3.21 3.67 2.16 3.55
55 0.04 0.33 0.90 1.89 3.67 4.13 2.73 4.48
56 0.04 0.38 1.03 2.14 4.13 4.59 3.30 5.40
57 0.05 0.60 1.54 3.14 5.90 6.50 5.57 8.88
58 0.06 0.70 1.79 3.63 6.78 7.45 6.70 10.60
59 0.06 0.73 1.87 3.78 7.02 7.73 7.20 11.34
60 0.06 0.77 1.96 3.95 7.30 8.06 7.80 12.19
61 0.06 0.85 2.15 4.31 7.87 8.74 9.07 14.03
62 0.06 0.86 2.18 4.37 7.98 8.88 9.31 14.39
63 0.06 0.88 2.23 4.47 8.14 9.08 9.68 14.91
64 0.06 0.88 2.24 4.48 8.15 9.09 9.70 14.94
65 0.06 0.88 2.24 4.49 8.16 9.10 9.70 14.95
66 0.04 0.27 0.73 1.59 3.36 4.35 1.65 1.83
67 0.04 0.27 0.73 1.59 3.36 4.35 1.65 1.83
68 0.05 0.30 0.82 1.80 3.90 5.31 2.05 1.55
69 0.05 0.30 0.82 1.80 3.90 5.31 2.05 1.55

Table 6. Harmonic power loss and factors for 69-bus RDS

Value for harmonic order ‘h’
Parameter
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
Harmonic real power loss (kW) 0.01 0.89 2.82 6.64 16.10 21.35 12.77 17.50
Harmonic reactive power loss (kvar) 0.01 1.14 6.00 19.77 60.98 93.52 64.57 105.42
Harmonic power ratio factor (Real)
1.23 0.59 0.61
from substation, HPRP (%) 0.00 0.05 0.15 0.35 0.86
Harmonic power ratio factor
5.35 3.69 6.03
(Reactive) from substation, HPRQ (%) 0.00 0.07 0.34 1.13 3.49

Variation of various parameters of 69-bus RDS is shown in Fig. 5. - 7.

3.4. Discussion on load flow results of 69-bus system

Results of 69-bus RDS indicate high voltage distortion at various buses corresponding to the presence of 11th,
13 and 15th order harmonic in DG voltage. A large THDI value is observed at bus no. 7 (approx. 57 %) due to
th

harmonic load, leading to high PIF of 1.152 at this bus, which signifies an increase of 15.2 % total power due to
harmonics. This increase of 15.2 % will further cause an increased energy tariff as electricity billing is based on
the total apparent power.

4. Conclusion

In the above paper, a comprehensive approach of assessing the impact of DG penetration in distribution systems
under harmonic environment has been presented. The methodology involves integration of non-linear DG
resources with distorted distribution system by extending fundamental-frequency DG model to include voltage
and current harmonics. Results demonstrate effectiveness in assessing any harmonic resonant conditions due to

339
distortion in substation or DG voltage, as well as in quantifying the economic impact of distortion power flow in
the distribution network. There exists ample scope of extending present distribution load flow techniques to
incorporate non-linearity in Distribution Generation so as to take mitigate any adverse effect of harmonic voltage
on distribution system.

THD_V vs. 'h' for 13-bus unbalanced RDS having non-linear DG:
phase 'a'

35.00 Fund.
30.00
h=3
THD_V (%)

25.00
20.00 h=5
15.00 h=7
10.00
h=9
5.00
0.00 h=11
650 632 633 634 671 680 684 652 692 675
h=13
Bus No.
h=15

Fig. 2. Variation of THDV with ‘h’ for 13-bus RDS

Variation inTHD_I with 'h' for 13-bus unbalanced RDS having

nonlinear DG: phase 'a'

35.00 Fund.
30.00
h=3
25.00
THD_I (%)

h=5
20.00
h=7
15.00
10.00 h=9
5.00 h=11
0.00 h=13
650 632 633 634 671 680 684 652 692 675
h=15
Bus No.

Fig. 3. Variation of THDI with ‘h’ for 13-bus RDS

Variation in PIF with 'h' for 13-bus unbalanced RDS having

nonlinear DG: phase 'a'

1.200 Fund.
1.000 h=3
0.800 h=5
PIF (pu)

0.600 h=7
0.400 h=9
0.200
h=11
0.000
h=13
650 632 633 634 671 680 684 652 692 675
Bus No. h=15

Fig. 4. Variation of PIF with ‘h’ for 13-bus RDS

340
 Variation of THD_V at various buses of 69-bus RDS for h=11,13
and 15 in nonlinear DG voltage
16.00
14.00 h=11
12.00 h=13

THD_V (%)
10.00
h=15
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
Bus No.

Fig. 5. Variation of THDV with ‘h’ for 69-bus RDS

Variation of THD_I at various buses of 69 bus RDS for h=11, 13

and 15 in nonlinear DG voltage
80.00

60.00 h=11
THD_I (%)

h=13
40.00
h=15
20.00

0.00
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
Bus No.

Fig. 6. Variation of THDI with ‘h’ for 69-bus RDS

Power Increase Factor at various buses of 69-bus RDS for 11th

harmonic voltage in nonlinear DG

1.400
1.200
PIF (per unit)

1.000
0.800
0.600
0.400
0.200
0.000
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
Bus No.

Fig. 7. Variation of PIF with ‘h’ for 69-bus RDS

341
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[2] Kansal, S., Kumar, V., Tyagi, B. (2013) Optimal Placement of different type of DG sources in distribution networks, Electric Power
Systems Research, 53, pp 752-760
[3] Murty, V.V.S.N. and Kumar, A. (2014) Mesh distribution system analysis in presence of distributed generation with time varying load
model, Electric Power Systems Research, 62, pp. 836 – 854.
[4] Murty, V.V.S.N. and Kumar, A. (2015) Optimal placement of DG in radial distribution systems based on new voltage stability index under
load growth, Electric Power Systems Research, 69, pp. 246 – 256.
[5] Task Force on Harmonics Modeling and Simulation (1996) Modeling and simulation of the propagation of harmonics in electric power
network – part I: Concepts, models and simulation techniques, IEEE Trans. Power Del., 11(1), pp. 452 – 465.
[6] Task Force on Harmonics Modeling and Simulation (1996) Modeling and simulation of the propagation of harmonics in electric power
network – part II: Sample systems and examples, IEEE Trans. Power Del., 11(1) , pp. 466 – 474.
[7] Thukaram, D., Banda, H. M. W., and Jerome, J. (1999) A robust three-phase power flow algorithm for radial distribution systems, Elect.
Power Syst. Res., 50(3), pp. 227 – 236.
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Nonsinusoidal, Balanced or Unbalanced Conditions, IEEE.
[9] Kersting, W. H. (2001) Radial Distribution Test Feeders, Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting, 2, pp. 908 – 912.
[10] IEEE Standard 519-1992, IEEE Recommended Practices and Requirements for Harmonic Control in Electrical Power Systems, IEEE
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[12] IEEE Std. 1547a-2014, IEEE Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems, Amendment 1, IEEE

342
 ICAER-2015

Co-Firing of Coal with Pine Needles in a 20kw Oxy-Fired

Bubbling Fluidized Bed: Experimental Investigation
Rajesh Kumara1 and Ravi Inder Singh b
a
Research Scholar,bAssistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Pilani
Campus, Rajasathan, India, 333031

Abstract

Oxy-fired fluidized bed combustion is one of promising technique which serves a dual purpose i.e. benefits of fluidized bed
combustion and oxygen firing technology. India, being a diversified country has a vast resource of biomass which includes
agricultural waste, organic matter, forest waste etc. Pine needles (PN) which are forest biomass are abundantly available in
the hills of North India and its proper utilization will strengthen the economy as well as reduces the pollution. Co-firing with
oxy-fired fluidized bed has potential for negative CO 2 emission level for power generation. Co-firing at low percentages of
the thermal power (typically below 5-10 %) avoids the characteristic operating problems of biomass combustion. The
present work extensively investigate the temperature profile, flue gas emission and the performance of co-firing coal with
pine needles under air-fired and oxy-fired condition in a 20kW bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) combustor. Five different
ratios of coal and pine needles are considered for this study are 100%/0%, 75%/25%, 50%/50%, 25%/75% and 0%/100%.
Combustion is observed under control and stable for the blend when pine needle share is in-between 25% to 50%. Maximum
combustion efficiency of 97.05 % could be achieved with 75%coal/25%PN under oxy-fired condition. The measured
percentage of NOx and other gases are found in permissible limit.The short fluidized bed combustor of 1.8 m in length is
made from financial grant obtained from DST New Delhi India.

Keywords: Bubbling fluidized bed (BFB), Pine Needles, Co-firing, Oxy-fired, Biomass;

1. Introduction

The fossil fuel depletion and greenhouse gas emission captured the worldwide attention to develop
sustainable, renewable and several “carbon capture and storage” (CCS) technologies. As a renewable energy
resource, biomass provides substantial benefits as far as the environment is concerned and oxy-fuel fluidized
bed combustion technology provides the most favourable environments for the combustion of solid fuels, which
results in maximum amount of carbon dioxide, which is easy to control. Co-firing with oxy-fired fluidized bed
has potential for negative CO2 emission level for power generation[1]. Co-firing of coal with biomass can be a
attractive approach to increase the use of renewable energy and by increasing bio-mass share reduces the fossil
fuel usage which also contributes to the sustainability of the natural resources[2]. Co-firing biomass with coal
allows an energetic utilization at a high level efficiency which is not obtainable in small-scale dedicated biomass
combustors. Co-firing at low percentages of the thermal power (typically below 5-10 %) avoids the
characteristic operating problems of biomass combustion, i.e. ash sintering and fouling of heat transfer surfaces
[3]. Co-firing is not much practiced in India on large scale and even on small scale. Kumar et al. [4] studied the
co-firing of coal with biomass and found no clear effect of co-firing on boiler performance. Madhiyanon et al.
[5] studied the co-firing characteristics of rice husk with coal under controlled bed condition. Oxy-fired
technology for co-firing cases is at their initial stage. Tan et al. [6] measured the combustion characteristics,
Jurado et al. [7] studied the effects on heat transfer, gas and ash compositions, Duan et al. [8] studied the NOx
emission, under oxy-fired co-firing with coal and biomass. Bhuiyan et al. [9] presented a three dimensional CFD
modeling for co-firing coal with biomass under oxy-fuel condition.

India has a vast resource of bio-mass; a renewable source of fuel, which if used effectively would
reduce the rate of depletion of fossil fuel [10]. Pine needles are type of biomass which is abundantly available in
the North, India. Approximately 1500 square km pine forest is available in the state Himachal Pradesh, India
and 3400 square km in the state Uttrakhand, India. As per the report [11] presented by Ministry of New and

1 Corresponding author. Tel. +919465837776.

E-mail address: rajesh.narota@gmail.com

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Renewable Energy, Government of India in 2012, 1m2 of pine forest will yield 1.19 kg of pine needles every
year and a 100kW gasifier running for 24 hours would require 4500 kg of pine needles. Highly inflammable and
non-biodegradable pine needles are spread over the forest floor area which catches fire instantly in the summer
due to high atmospheric temperature. The forest fires threat to biodiversity, forests, environment and local
economy. They prohibit air flow and hinder the growth of grass in the forests. Their degradation is slow due to
non-biodegradable nature. It is necessary to utilize these pine needles to make some valuable product and one
solution is to harness the energy from the same. Tzamtzis et al. [12] presented a thermogravimetry-bridge/mass
spectrometry method for the on-line monitoring of pine needles combustion emissions. Font et al. [13] studied
the kinetics of pyrolysis and combustion of pine needles and cones. As per the best of author’s knowledge no
work is presented on the co-firing of the coal with pine needles under oxy-fired fluidized bed combustion.

In the present work pine needles are co-fired with coal at different ratios in a 20kW bubbling fluidized
bed (BFB) combustor for air-fired and oxy-fired condition. The observations are made for the temperature
profile, flue gas emission and the performance of co-firing coal with pine needles.

2. Experimental apparatus and procedure

2.1 Experimental setup

The work described in this paper is performed on a lab scale bubbling fluidized bed combustor as shown in
Fig. 1. This is a 1.8m long square bubbling fluidized bed combustor followed by two cyclones, induced fan, flue
gas cooler and stack. The two cyclones are used because this unit is designed for mainly high ash coal and
biomass. The detailed description of setup is given in Table 1. The oxygen can be supplied from bottom as well
from side. The ports “S” in the freeboard is used for measurement of gas concentration. The thermal capacity of
this system is below 20 kW. The actual figure of experimental setup is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Experimental Setup. Fig. 2. Actual picture of Oxy-fired bubbling fluidized bed unit

Table 1 Experimental Setup Description

Plant Type Oxy-fired Bubbling fluidized bed combustor
Plant Capacity 20 kW
Auxiliary systems Gas supply system, Solid feeding, Gas analyzer, Internal heat exchanger, ID fan. Cyclone
Test Conducting Option Oxy-fired combustion mode, Enriched-air combustion mode
Combustor Material Stainless steel
Combustor Dimensions 1.8 m long square Combustor
Fuel Used: Coal, Pine needles
Bed material Coal Ash
Reactant Gas Air, O2
9-thermocouple are placed on combustor at suitable height to measure the inside temperature of bed, splash
Instrument zone and freeboard, 2- thermocouple placed on cyclone, Data Logger,
Pressure sensors are used to measure the inside pressure of combustor
“Testo 350” professional portable gas analyzer used to measure the concentration of the emitted gases (CO2,
Gas analyzer:
NOx, SO2, CO & O2 )

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2.2 Fuel property

In this study we used high ash coal that is generally used in the furnaces in Rajasathan, India. Coal is pulverized
to the small particle size approximately less than 20mm as shown in Fig. 3. Pine needles used for co-firing are
collected from the forest of Hamirpur, HP, India. Generally the pine needles are 25 to 35 cm long as shown in Fig. 4.
It is very difficult to burn this unprepared biomass in the combustor because the feed rate of pine needles per hour is
very low. Pine needles have a low bulk density as compared to a bulk density of coal, which complicate the feeding
and firing of same. To overcome this problem the pine needles are chopped to a small size to increase the density of
the fuel and feed rate. Proximate and ultimate analyses of these two fuels are performed and the result is shown in
Table 2. The pine needles have high energy contents (4800 kcal/kg gross calorific value) and not explored for oxy-
fired fluidized bed.

Table 2 The properties of Fuels

Coal Plant Needles (PN)
Proximate Analysis (Wt. %)
Moisture 4.39 5.26
Volatile matters 17.97 75.11
Ash 47.86 3.15
Fixed carbon 28.78 16
Ultimate Analysis (Wt. %)
Carbon 36.22 51
Hydrogen 2.64 7
Nitrogen 1.09 0.8
Sulphur 0.55 0.01
Oxygen 7.25 39
GCV (k Cal/kg) 3500 4800

Fig. 3. Pulverized Coal. Fig.4. Pine Needles

2.3 Experimental procedure

A series of tests are conducted for various co-firing ratio of coal and pine needles (as shown in Table 3) in
bubbling fluidized bed under both air-fired and oxy-fired condition. Initially bed is heated up to a temperature of
200oC by four heaters mounted in the bed. Pre-mixed coal and pine needle blend is fed to the combustor through the
hopper. Primary air/oxygen is introduced to the combustor bed through the distributer and secondary air/oxygen is
introduced into the combustor freeboard through holes. Temperature of bed, splash zone and freeboard is measured
at different height for each test when steady state is reached. Emission of flue gas for each test is measured at a point
“S” in the freeboard as shown in Fig. 1. The concentration of flue gases is measured by employing a “testo 350”
professional portable flue gas analyzer.

Table 3 Amount of coal and pine needles under various co-firing ratio
Test 1 2 3 4 5
Coal 100% 75% 50% 25% 0
Pine Needles 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

3. Results and Discussion

A series of steady state experiments are performed on a bubbling fluidized bed to investigate the effect of
different blend ratio of coal+pine needles (under both air-fired and oxy-fired condition) on the performance of a
fluidized combustor and gas emission. The oxygen enhanced up to 20% and a constant fuel feed rate of
approximately 20 kg/hr was maintained throughout the experiments.

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3.1 Temperature Profile

Temperature is measured at 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6m height above distributer in the bed, 0.8 m in the splash
zone and 1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8m in freeboard. The temperature profiles are characterized by temperature
gradient along the height above the distributor. Pine needles alone create some problem during burning. It has
higher content of volatile matter as compared to coal. Due to this PN are easy to ignite and burn, although the
combustion is rapid and difficult to control. Secondly, pine needles are very light in weight so unburnt particles
in ash are high because pine needles are depart the combustor with gas. Co-firing of the pine needle with coal in
proper ratio is necessary for stable and efficient combustion. Fig. 5 shows the temperature variation along the
height of combustor for coal, pine needles and blends for both air-fired and oxy-fired conditions.
Temperature in the combustor bed above the distributor (for individual fuel blend) is very low as
compare to the splash zone and free board. The maximum temperature (for all the fuels used) in the combustor
is observed in the splash zone because most of the fuel burnt is above the bed in splash zone and some amount
in freeboard. From both air-fired and oxy-fired condition it is observed that coal burning has the maximum
splash zone temperature compared to other cases. A blend of 50% coal/50% PN has the minimum splash zone
temperature where as PN and a 25%coal/75%PN blend give intermediate temperature value. Bed temperature
for the PN and 25%coal/75%PN blend is very low as compared to coal and 75%coal/25%PN blend. One
possible reason for the same is that the fuel density in the bed for these two cases is low. The low density of the
solid fuel also complicates their burning. A little rise in the temperature was also observed in the freeboard at a
height of 1.4 m where secondary air is enters.

Fig. 5. Temperature variation along the height of the combustor for different coal and pine needles blend under air-fired and oxy-fired
condition

Under oxy-fired condition the burning of the pine needles+coal is improved. Temperature in the entire
zone for oxy-fired conditions is increased as compared to air-fired case. Burning of PN and 50%coal/50%PN
blend is improved significantly. A blend of 75% Coal/25%PN and 50%Coal/50%PN shows some stable and
efficient burning throughout. Temperature range for these cases in splash zone is 800 to 1180K. A fall in the
temperature of the combustor top end at 1.8m is observed for all the cases. This may be due to the change in
cross-section of the combustor at that point.

3.2 Combustion efficiency

Performance of the combustor for different blends and conditions is measured by calculating combustion
efficiency. To evaluate combustion efficiency, the heat losses due to incomplete combustion and unburnt carbon
in the cyclone ash were determined. Efficiency is calculated by the following equation.

CV [(WC  CVC )  (Wco  CVco )

C 
CV

CV= calorific value of fuel (kCal/kg), CVC = calorific value of carbon (kCal/kg), CVCO = calorific value of
carbon monoxide (kCal/kg), WC= weight of carbon in flue gas (kg), WCO = weight of CO in flue gas (kg).

346
 Result of tests shows (Fig.6) that the combustion efficiency increases as the oxygen is increased because the
rate of the fuel oxidation is proportional to power of oxygen concentration. The combustion efficiency of pine
needles is much lower because of higher heat loss associated with unburnt carbon, which affected by both high
ash content and elevated concentration of unburned carbon in particulate matter collected from the cyclone. A
maximum possible combustion efficiency of 97.05 % is achieved for a blend of 75%coal/25%PN under oxy-
fired condition.

Fig. 6. Combustion efficiency for different coal, pine needles and their blend under both air-fired and oxy-fired condition

3.3 Gas emission

The species concentration of gases is measured in the freeboard by using testo350 professional portable gas
analyzer. It is found that percentage of oxygen in stream of air in splash zone increases the combustion
phenomenon. Fig. 7. (a) reports the CO concentration for five cases as shown under steady-state air-fired and
oxy-fired condition. It is observed that the amount of carbon monoxide decreases with increase in oxygen
concentration, because at steady state the amount of fuel is stable and oxygen content is higher which increases
the combustion rate of fuel. A large decrease in CO is observed for the blend having only 25% coal/75%PN.
NOx concentration for five cases under steady-state air-fired and oxy-fired condition is shown in Fig. 7 (b).
Generally, NOx production depends on nitrogen contents in fuels and increase in temperature. Pine needles
contains very little nitrogen content and hence NOx produced is less. It is found that with increase in oxygen
concentration inside combustor, the combustion rate is increased which further increases the temperature. NOx
production is directly proportional to temperature rise.

Fig. 7. (a) CO concentration variation with increase in Oxygen concentration; (b) NOx variation with increase in Oxygen concentration

4. Conclusion

 Temperature profiles along height of combustor for 50%coal/50%PN and 75%coal/25%PN are fairly
uniform under air-fired and oxy-fired conditions. Above the bed in the splash zone variations in
temperature are observed. The maximum temperature for the entire blend in both air-fired and oxy-fired
condition was observed in splash zone and then a gradual reduction in temperature up to a height of
1.2m occurs. Again a rise in temperature at a height of 1.4m above the distributor plate is observed,
which indicates considerable burning of fuel in the freeboard.

347
  With the supply of extra oxygen a substantial increase in temperature throughout the combustor is
observed. The effect of extra oxygen on the temperature profile is predominant due to effective burning
of fuel blend in the splash zone.
 A maximum possible combustion efficiency of 97.05 % could be achieved with 75%coal/25%PN under
oxy-fired condition.
 When steady state is reached the amount of the fuel supplied is stable and the oxygen concentration is
increased inside the combustor. With the increase in combustion rate the concentration of CO reduces
gradually and NOx concentration increases under permissible limit.

Acknowledgements

Author is thankful to Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India for providing financial grant for
conducting the research.

References

[1] Jia, L., Tan, Y., Wu, Y., & Anthony, E. J. (2012). Co-firing of Coal and Biomass in a Pilot Scale Oxy-fuel CFBC. 64th IEA Meeting,
Naples
[2] Gungor, A. (2013). Simulation of co-firing coal and biomass in circulating fluidized beds. Energy Conversion and Management, 65,
574–579.
[3] Singh, R. I. (2015). Heat Transfer Analysis of Splash Zone of Short Fluidized bed Combustor using coal and biomass under variable
oxygen conditions. Proceedings of CHT-15 ICHMT International Symposium on Advances in Computational Heat Transfer May.
[4] Kumar, H., Mohapatraa, S.K., Singh, R. I. (2015). Study of a 30 MW Bubbling Fluidized Bed Combustor Based on Co-Firing Biomass
and Coal. Sadhana.
[5] Madhiyanon, T., Sathitruangsak, P., & Soponronnarit, S. (2011). Co-firing characteristics of rice husk and coal in a cyclonic fluidized-
bed combustor under controlled bed temperatures. Fuel, 90(6), 2103–2112.
[6] Tan, Y., Jia, L., & Wu, Y. (2013). Some combustion characteristics of biomass and coal cofiring under oxy-fuel conditions in a pilot-
scale circulating fluidized combustor. Energy and Fuels, 27(11), 7000–7007.
[7] Jurado, N., Darabkhani, H. G., Anthony, E. J., & Oakey, J. E. (2014). Oxy-combustion Studies Into the Co –Firing of Coal and Biomass
Blends: Effects on Heat Transfer, Gas and Ash Compositions. Energy Procedia, 63(0), 440–452.
[8] Duan, L., Duan, Y., Zhao, C., & Anthony, E. J. (2015). NO emission during co-firing coal and biomass in an oxy-fuel circulating
fluidized bed combustor. Fuel, 150, 8–13.
[9] Bhuiyan, A. a, & Naser, J. (2015). Computational modelling of co-firing of biomass with coal under oxy-fuel condition in a small scale
furnace. Fuel, 143, 455–466.
[10] Singh, R. I. (2014). Study of fluidized bed combustion power plant using agri residues. Applied Thermal Engineering, 71(1), 616–626.
[11] Jain, V., & Srinivas, S. (2012). emPOWERing rural India the RE way: inspiring success stories. Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy, Government of India.
[12] Tzamtzis, N., Karma, S., Pappa, a., & Statheropoulos, M. (2006). On-line monitoring of pine needles combustion emissions in the
presence of fire retardant using a “thermogravimetry (TG)-bridge/mass spectrometry method.” Analytica Chimica Acta, 573, 439–444.
[13] Font, R., Conesa, J. a., Moltó, J., & Muñoz, M. (2009). Kinetics of pyrolysis and combustion of pine needles and cones. Journal of
Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 85(1-2), 276–286.

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 ICAER-2015

Hydrothermal Synthesis of 1D Nanocrystalline TiO2 Nanorods

and Their Influence in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
R. Govindaraja,∗ N. Santhosha, M. Magesha, M. Senthil Pandiana, P. Ramasamya
a
SSN Research Centre, SSN College of Engineering, Kalavakkam-603110, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

Titanium dioxide nanorods were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal process at 170 °C. The structural and
crystallographic information of prepared samples was confirmed with Powder X-ray diffraction analysis, which shows larger
fraction of anatase phase with small fraction of brookite phase. The morphological results show that the TiO 2 nanorods had
diameter of about ~ 25 nm and the length of ~ 100 nm which is confirmed with field emission scanning electron microscopy.
From the nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherm analysis, the specific surface area and pore volume of the synthesized
material have been calculated with the help of Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda approaches (BET
surface area: 84.83 m2/g and Pore Volume: 0.1316 cc/g). The synthesized nanorods have been used to fabricate the dye
sensitized solar cells and its performance was analyzed with the help of current-voltage characteristics with standard light
source. The solar energy conversion efficiency (η) of the DSSC was about 2.15 % with short circuit current of 5.97 mA/cm2,
open circuit voltage of 0.63 V and fill factor of 0. 57 %.

Keywords:Solar cells; Nanorods; Hydrothermal; X-ray diffraction; Surface area

1. Introduction

Titanium dioxide is an important material for various environmental and technological applications, such as
photocatalysis, solar cells, self-cleaning materials etc. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are one of the promising
energy harvesting devices and have been the subject of intensive studies currently achieving efficiencies over 14
% [1]. Considerable efforts have been made to improve the energy conversion efficiency by developing or
modifying DSC components, such as sensitizers, photoanodes, electrolytes, and counter electrodes. As the key
element of the DSC device, the TiO 2 photoanode, sensitized by a dye, acts as both a physical support for the
sensitizer and a means of charge transport. Photoinjected electrons travel from the TiO 2 network to the
transparent conducting substrate by diffusion, but they are strongly limited by trapping at grain boundaries. This
process facilitates carrier recombination within the electrolyte at the surface. Electron transport is limited due to
the mesoporous structure, which can hinder conversion efficiencies. The one-dimensional (1D) TiO 2
nanostructures such as nanorods, nanowires or nanotubes have been estimated to significantly increase the
electron diffusion length up to 100 μm for DSC since they confer the advantages of providing direct electron
transfer pathways and effectively inhibiting photo-generated charge recombination. Various methods have been
developed and successfully employed to synthesize 1D nanostructure. Among them, hydrothermal method has
many advantages such as low cost, easier control of shape and size with different morphology [4-5]. In this
approach, we have synthesized porous TiO 2 nanorods by hydrothermal method and their influence DSC also
studied.
Synthesized products were subjected to Powder X-ray diffraction, Field emission scanning electron
microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area analyser. Finally
the obtained nanorods were used as a photoanode in dye sensitized solar cell and their performance was
analysed.

2. Experimental

Titanium (IV) butoxide (Aldrich) was mixed with the same amount of acetylacetone (ACA) to slowdown the
hydrolysis and the condensation reactions. Subsequently 40 ml of Millipore water was slowly added into the
solution, and stirred well for 5 min at room temperature. After kept stirring, aqueous ammonia solution (25-
30%) 30 ml was slowly added drop by drop into the above solution, then the solution was transferred into a 250

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +9790346912; fax: +91-4427475166.

E-mail address:isrogovindaraj@gmail.com

349
mlTeflon-lined stainless steel autoclave vessel and placed in a silicone oil bath. Then the precursors containing
solution is heated at 170 °C and kept for 72 h with stirring condition in the same temperature without any
temperature fluctuation. After that, the autoclave was naturally cooled to room temperature. The obtained
product was thoroughly washed with aqueous HCl solution, 2-Propanol and Millipore water for several times,
followed by drying at 100 °C for 12 hr. Finally, the obtained samples were collected and calcined at 450 °C for
1 hr in homemade programmable high temperature furnace. Flow chart shows the schematic representation of
TiO 2 nanorods preparation by hydrothermal process.

Flow chart: Synthesis protocol for TiO 2 nanorods

3. Fabrication of DSSC

The electrodes were prepared as follows: 1 g of TiO 2 powder was mixed with 0.1 ml of acetylacetone and
ground mechanically. During vigorous stirring, 5 mL of mixture of water and ethanol (1:1 vol %) was added and
0.4 ml of polyoxethylene (10) octylphenyl ether (Triton x-100) was added with the above solution to form a
paste. The obtained colloidal paste was coated on the FTO (Sheet resistance, 8 Ω∕□) substrate by doctor blade
technique. After coating, the resulting film was sintered at 500 °C for 1 hr. The same procedure was followed
for nanorods based photoanode. The sintered electrodes were soaked in 0.3 mM of cis-Bis(isothiocyanato)
bis(2,2’-bipyridyl-4,4’-dicarboxylato ruthenium(II) (known as N3) dye in an ethanol solution. The counter
electrode was prepared by doctor blade technique using Platisol T/SP (Solaronix SA) precursor and thermally
decomposed at 400 °C for 30 min. Finally both electrodes are sandwiched together to form a cell. The small
amount of electrolyte (Iodolyte AN-50) was injected into cell.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Powder X-ray diffraction analysis

The diffraction data was recorded for 2θ values between 20° and 80°. The predominant anatase-phase plane
is (101), and the planes (004), (200), (105), (211), (204), (116), (215) are also detected. Additionally, the
brookite phase is also observed at 30.8 corresponding to plane (121) as seen in Fig. 1.

350
 6000
(101)

5000

4000
Intensity (a.u.)

3000

(200)

2000
(004) (105) (211)
(204)
(121) (215)
1000 (116) (220)

0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Two theta (degree)
Fig. 1. Powder X-ray diffraction pattern

4.2. Nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherm

Fig. 2a. shows the nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherm and pore size distribution of the TiO 2
nanorods. The specific surface area, pore volume and average pore width of the TiO 2 nanorods are 84.83 m2/g,
0.1316 cc/g and 5.7 nm respectively. The isotherm exhibits type IV pattern with hysteresis loop, characteristic
of mesoporous material according to the classification of IUPAC.

100 0.0020
a) b) 5.7 nm Pore volume = 0.1316 cc/g
80 BET surface area = 84.83 m2/g 0.0016
N2 Volume (cm3/g)

Dv(d)[cm /Å/g]

0.0012
60
3

0.0008
40
0.0004
20
Adsorption 0.0000
0
Desorption
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 100 200 300 400
Relative pressure (P/P0) Pore width[Å]

Fig. 2. (a) N 2 Adsorption and Desorption isotherm of TiO 2 nanorods; (b) Pore size distribution of TiO 2
nanorods

351
 sharp increase in adsorption volume of N 2 was observed and located in the P/Po range of 0.67-0.99. The pore
size distribution obtained by BJH approach (Fig. 2b.) is noticeably narrow (5.7 nm), confirming good quality of
the sample.

4.3. Morphology

a b

c d

Fig. 3. (a) FESEM image of TiO 2 nanorods; (b) HRTEM image of TiO 2 nanorods; (c) Lattice fringes pattern
of nanorods; (d) SAED pattern of nanorods.

Fig 3a-b. shows the FESEM and HRTEM images of nanostructures, indicating the nanorods-like morphology
composed of different size rods. The rods structure had approximately 25 nm diameters and 100 nm length. In
addition, the lattice fringes (Fig. 3c.) of the nanorods appearing in the image (d=0.35 nm) also allowed for
identification of the anatase phase. The selected area diffraction pattern (Fig. 3d.) shows good number of bright
spots which indicates polycrystalline nature of the nanorods.

4.4. Current-Voltage characteristics of DSC

Fig. 4. shows the I-V characteristics of the solar cells. The solar energy conversion efficiency of the cell
using nanorods with mesoporous structure was about 2.15% with short circuit current (J sc ) of 5.97 mA/cm2,
open circuit voltage (V oc ) of 0.63 V and fillfactor (FF) of 0.57.

352
 6

5
Current density (mA/cm2)

2
P25
Nanorods

0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Voltage (V)

Fig. 4. I-V characteristics of DSC.

The efficiency of the cell using P25 reached 1.79 % with J sc 5.37 mA/cm2, V oc of 0.63 V and FF of 0.53. The
TiO 2 nanorods exhibit small improvement in J sc and FF. This improvement could be due to lowering of the
charge recombination in the cell interface.

5. Conclusion

The mesoporous TiO 2 nanostructues were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. The obtained
nanorods have larger fraction of anatase phase with small fraction of brookite phase, which is confirmed with
powder XRD and it also shows good crystalline behavior of the samples. The BET surface area and pore
volume of the synthesized material are about 84.83 m2/g and 0.1316 cc/g respectively. The morphological result
shows the synthesized TiO 2 nanorods having 25 nm widths and 100 nm lengths. The selected area diffraction
pattern shows that the anatase phase was formed in the nanorods, which again matched with powder XRD
results. The mesoporous structure of TiO 2 nanorods exhibits positive improvement in the J sc and FF.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to UGC-DAE CSR (CSR-KN/CRS-66/2014-15/506) and DST-SERI

(DST/TM/SERI/2k12/40(G)) for the financial support. The authors would like to express gratitude to A. K.
Barua, IIEST, Howrah, West Bengal for all the encouragement.The authors thank National Centre for
Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, Madras University, Chennai for HRTEM studies.

References

[1] K. Kakiage, Y. Aoyama, T. Yano, K. Oya, J-I. Fujisawa and M. Hanaya, Chem. Commun. (2015) 10.1039/C5CC06759F.
[2] J. Y. Liao, B. X. Lei, D. B. Kuang and C. Y. Su, Energy Environ.Sci.4 (2011) 4079-4085.
[3] W. Q. Wu, J. Y. Liao, H. Y. Chen, X. Y. Yu, C. Y. Su and D. B. Kuang, J. Mater. Chem. 22 (2012) 18057-18062.
[4] J. Du, J. Qi, D. Wang and Z. Tang,Energy Environ. Sci. 5 (2012)6914-6918.
[5] R. Govindaraj , M. Senthil Pandian, G. Senthil Murugan P. Ramasamy and Sumita Mukhopadhyay, J. Mater Sci: Mater Electron, 26
(2015) 2609–2613.

353
 ICAER-2015

Energy saving using D-STATCOM placement in radial

distribution system under reconfigured network
Atma Ram Guptaa, Ashwani Kumarb
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, India
a,b

Abstract

High R/X ratio and significant voltage drop causes substantial power losses along the distribution network. In this paper
optimal location and size for D-STATCOM is determined for radial distribution networks under reconfigured network to
reduce the power loss which in turns save the energy and environment. The main contribution of the paper is:
• D-STATCOM allocation using index vector method for radial distribution network with and without reconfiguration,
• D-STATCOM size calculation using variational techniques for RDS with and without reconfiguration,
• Impact of CP,CI,CZ, and realistic ZIP load model including load growth on D-STATCOM placement,
• Energy Saving with improvement in voltage profile, reduction in power losses with D-STATCOM placement under
reconfigured network,
• Cost analysis with and without D-STATCOM Placement under reconfigured network,
• Results are compared with existing technique proposed in literature.
The proposed method is tested for D-STATCOM allocation in IEEE 69-bus radial distribution systems. Results show the
considerable improvement in voltage profile, reduction in losses and, energy saving under reconfigured network.

Keywords: D-STATCOM; Radial distribution system; Optimum location; Optimum size; Reconfigured network.

1. Introduction

Around 13% of the total power generation is wasted as line losses in distribution system due to high R/X ratio
and significant voltage drop along the distribution network. Reduction of power loss is needed for economic
operation of power system and it is main challenge of various researchers. Many authors have proposed the
network reconfiguration technique for reducing losses, load balancing, improving voltage profile as well as
increasing the system loadability of RDS. The network reconfiguration of RDS is a technique to find best
configuration, which provides reduced power loss with maintaining all operating constraints, like voltage profile
of all nodes, current capacity of the feeder, and radial structure of the network [1]. Network reconfiguration
technique was proposed for distribution network to reduce TPL and TQL as well as for load balancing in [2].
Voltage stability of distribution system can also be improved by network reconfiguration as discussed in [3].

Nomenclature

RDS Radial distribution system

DG Distributed generation
D-FACTS Distribution Flexible AC Transmission System
D-STATCOM Distribution Static Compensator
Index[n] "Index” for nth bus
V[n] Voltage at nth bus
Iq[k] Imaginary component of current in ℎ branch
Ip[k] Real component of current in ℎ branch
Qeff[n] Effective load at nth bus
total Q Total reactive load of the given distribution system
TPL Total Active Power loss
TQL Total Reactive Power loss
Vmin Minimum bus voltage
IV Index vector

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9896279046.

E-mail address: arguptanitd@gmail.com

354
 A two-stage algorithm for reconfiguration of balanced and unbalanced systems has been developed for
reduction of losses in [4]. Current flow is used instead of power flow for deciding the opening of switches in
first stage and exchange of branch is proposed for loss reduction in next stage. Hourly switching operation for
improvement of voltage stability index considering different load at every bus is proposed in [5]. Discrete
Artificial Bee Colony is used for reconfiguring of network in [6] for improving the loadability of distribution
network. A new hybrid evolutionary algorithm based on combination of a New Fuzzy Adaptive Particle Swarm
Optimization and Nelder–Mead simplex search method is used for reconfiguration in [7].
Various researchers implemented series voltage regulator, shunt capacitors, distributed generation (DG) for
maintaining voltages at an acceptable range and reducing losses of the distribution system. But, series voltage
regulator and shunt capacitors have some disadvantages, like conventional series voltage regulators cannot
generate reactive power and have quite slow response because of their step by step operations. The disadvantage
with the shunt capacitors is that they cannot generate continuously variable reactive power. Now-a-days, D-
FACTS devices are used in the distribution systems at strategic locations to improve the system performance
and overcome on the problems of series voltage regulator and shunt capacitors. Immune algorithm is used to
find optimal location and size of D-STATCOM in [8]. Capacitors are placed in unbalanced distribution network
to reduce losses as well as improvement in voltage profile [9, 10]. D-STATCOM is placed in RDS for voltage
profile improvement using voltage stability indicator in [11]. An effective ways of D-STATCOM placement for
various loading conditions are proposed in [12]. Few, Authors have implemented simultaneous placement of DG
and D-STATCOM [13], reconfiguration and DG [14], reconfiguration and capacitor [15], D-STATCOM and
reconfiguration [16] to reduce power loss and improving the voltage profile. The combination of distribution
system reconfiguration and optimal placement of D-STATCOM is the effective way to reduce the losses in
distribution network. Reconfiguration also allows integrating more renewable energy sources in system [17].
Simultaneous placement of both DG and D-STATCOM in reconfigured network is proposed for reduction of
losses, improvement in voltage profile as well as for load balancing in [18].
It is found from literature survey that researchers have worked for D-STATCOM placement in reconfigured
network by taking CP load. But, in real power system loads are not constant. This paper presents placement of
D-STATCOM under reconfigured network for CP, CI, CZ and realistic ZIP load model including load growth.
Reconfiguration with D-STATCOM placement is a very effective technique for voltage profile improvement
which in turns reduces the line losses and saves the energy. In this study, load growth of 7 % is considered for
planning of distribution system for 5 years. First the load flow analysis is conducted on RDS for calculating line
losses and voltage profile. After this, index vector method [23] is used for finding optimal location of D-
STATCOM for radial distribution network with and without reconfiguration. The bus having the highest index
vector as well as its normalized voltage is less than 1.01 is selected as candidate bus for D-STATCOM
placement. After identifying the optimal location, place the D-STATCOM at its optimal location and vary its
size in steps from minimum value to a value equal to feeder loading capacity and run the load flow in each step
in order to compute the losses. The D-STATCOM size at which minimum real power loss occurs is selected as
the optimal size. Finally the load flow is carried out by compensating the obtained optimal size of D-STATCOM
at the candidate bus for IEEE 69-bus test system for finding the improvement in voltage profile, reduction in
losses and, energy saving under reconfigured network using MATLAB software version 7.8, 2009 [19]. The
organization of the paper is as follows. Section 2 explains the load flow analysis of RDS, modelling of load and
index vector method for determination of optimal location of D-STATCOM and section 3 describes the
variational technique for finding optimum size of D-STATCOM for radial distribution network with and without
reconfiguration. Section 4 explains the reconfiguration technique and section 5 shows the results and comparison
tables for the IEEE 69 bus RDS.

2. Load Flow Analysis of RDS

Load flow analysis of distribution system differs from the transmission system. The conventional Gauss
Seidel and Newton Raphson method is used for transmission systems and their use in distribution system
usually does not provide good results and very often solution diverges. Load flow analysis used in this paper
for RDS is based on forward and backward sweep algorithm on power basis [24]. The complete flow chart for
load flow analysis for RDS is shown in Fig. 1. In power basis load flow, the backward sweep is used to
determine effective power at each node from far end of the feeder to sending end and the forward sweep is
mainly bus voltage and power loss calculation from sending end to receiving end of a feeder or a lateral.

355
 Start

Read the load data and line data of RDS

Assume initial voltage, V=1pu at all bus

Calculate net real and reactive power flows of all

branches using backward propagation

Update bus voltages and phase angles using

forward propagation

Is Load Flow Converged ?

YES NO

Find TPL, TQL and Voltage profile of all bus

Stop
Fig.1 Flow Chart for backward forward sweep method

2.1. Load Modeling

The active and reactive powers for the static load models can be expressed in an exponential form as:
np
V  (1)
P = P0  
 V0 

nq
V  (2)
Q = Q0  
 V0 

Where, 0 and 0 are the active and reactive powers at bus nominal voltage 0 . stands for bus load voltage
and and are the load exponents [20]. Here the value of both and is equal to zero for constant power
(CP) load model. Both and is equal to one, for constant current (CI) load model. The value of and
is equal to two for constant impedance (CZ) load model.
• ZIP load model

 V 
2
V   (3)
P
= Po  a p   + bp   + cp 
 V
 o   Vo  
 
 V 
2
V   (4)
Q
= Qo  aq   + bq   + cq 
 V
 o   Vo  
 

where, the sum of the ZIP load coefficients for both P, and Q loads is equal to 1. a p + bp + c p =
1,
 aq + bq + cq = 1 , In this paper work 69 bus systems = =0.1, = =0.1, = =0.8, P o and Q o are the
real and reactive power consumed at a reference voltage Vo.

2.2. Load growth model

Load i =Load × (1 + r) m (5)

Where, r =annual growth rate, m=plan period up to which feeder can take the load and r=0.07 and m=5 for 69
bus test system.

356
2.3. Index Vector Method

Index Vector is calculated using the base case load flow of RDS, and calculating reactive component of
current in the branches and reactive power load absorption at each bus [23]. The line and load data of IEEE 69
bus RDS is taken from [20]. The total active and reactive power loads of the system are 3802.19 kW and
2694.60 KVAr respectively. First the base MVA and base kV used in this paper is 100 and 11 respectively, and
then the results are also obtained with base value of 100 MVA and 12.66 kV respectively. The Index-Vector for
bus n is given by

1 Iq[k] Qeff [n] (6)

Index[n] = 2 + +
Vn Ip[k ] total  Q

After calculating index vectors at all buses, the magnitudes of normalized voltage are determined for all the
buses by the following formula

V [i ]
Norm [ i ] = (7)
0.95

The node which has highest Index Vector as well as its normalized voltage is less than 1.01 will be
considered as the optimal node for the placement of D-STATCOM. The index vector profile for ZIP load model
without load growth is shown in Fig. 2. It shows that index vector is maximum for 61st bus and hence selected
for optimum D-STATCOM placement. Index Vector profile shows 61st bus is the optimum bus for D-
STATCOM placement for all CP, CI, CZ load model including realistic ZIP load model with load growth.

INDEX VECTOR
2.5

2.25

1.75
INDEX VECTOR

1.5

1.25

0.75

0.5

0.25

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
BUS NUMBER

Fig. 2.The index vector profile without reconfiguration

3. Variational technique

The size of D-STATCOM is calculated using the variational technique [10]. D-STATCOM is placed at its
optimal location and the variation of real power loss with D-STATCOM size for RDS with and without
reconfiguration is determined and shown in Fig. 3(a) and 3(b) respectively for 100 MVA and 11 kV base values.
Fig. 4(a) and 4(b) shows the results of variational technique for 100 MVA and 12.66 kV base values. The size
gives the minimum loss is taken as optimum size of D-STATCOM. Without reconfiguration optimum size is
1350 KVAr and with reconfiguration it reduces to 1075 KVAr for CP load model at both base values. For ZIP
load model the optimal size of D-STATCOM without and with reconfiguration are found 1200 and 1000 KVAr
respectively. Load growth of is also considered for planning of distribution system. In this study, load growth of
7 % is considered for 5 years. The optimal size of D-STATCOM for ZIP load model with load growth are found
1150 KVAr without reconfiguration and 1000 KVAr with reconfiguration.

357
 350 160
300 140
Active Power Loss in KW

Active Power Loss in KW

250 120
100
200
80
150
60
100 40
50 20
0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Size of D-STATCOM in KVAR Size of D-STATCOM in KVAr

Fig. 3(a) Variational Technique without reconfiguration Fig. 3(b) Variational Technique with reconfigured network

250 120

200 100

80
TPL in KW

150 TPL in KW
60
100
40
50
20

0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Size of D-STATCOM in KVAr Size of D-STATCOM in KVAr

Fig. 4(a) Variational Technique without reconfiguration Fig. 4(b) Variational Technique with reconfigured network

4. Reconfiguration procedure

Distribution systems consist of two types of switches sectionalizing-switches (normally closed) and tie-
switches (normally open). The design of RDS can be changed by opening sectionalizing switches and closing tie
switches so that the radial arrangement of the network is maintained and all of the loads are supported at
reduced power losses, improved voltage profile, improved power quality and increased system security. The
reconfiguration used in this paper for IEEE-69 bus RDS and the complete flow chart for reconfiguration
procedure is explained in [20].

5. Results

The results are obtained for IEEE 69 bus RDS with various load model without and with D-STATCOM
placement in reconfigured network. The analysis has been carried out by developing codes in MATLAB version
7.8 on Windows 8 Intel® Core™ i7 Processor ,1.8 GHz, RAM 8 GB. Impact of various load models along with
load growth on system performance is evaluated in terms of voltage profile, power losses, cost of energy losses
and annual energy savings enhancement. Cost function of energy loss and D-STATCOM is taken from [21] and
[22] respectively. The complete steps of finding results without and with reconfiguration are shown in the flow
chart of Fig. 5(a) and 5(b) respectively.
Following four cases have been considered for analysis of results.
• Case-1: Without reconfiguration and without D-STATCOM placement
• Case-2: Without reconfiguration and with D-STATCOM placement
• Case-3: With reconfiguration and without D-STATCOM placement
• Case-4: With reconfiguration and with D-STATCOM placement
Table 1 compares the results for CP load model at 100 MVA and 11 kV base values for all four cases. It is
found that line loss are reduced from 317.906 KW to 210.71 KW after D-STATCOM placement, further it is
reduced to 134.616 KW after reconfiguring the network, then D-STATCOM is placed in reconfigured network
and with implementation losses reduced to 98.993 KW. Again, it has been found that line losses of the system
reduce if the base kV values are increased by keeping base MVA constant.

358
 Start Start

Read the input Network Data Read the input Network Data
( load data and line data) ( load data and line data)

Reconfigure the network

Run Load Flow and find TPL and TQL

Run Load Flow and find TPL and TQL

Calculate Index Vector for each bus
Calculate Index Vector for each bus

Find the bus offers maximum value of Find the bus offers maximum value of
Index Vector (suppose jth bus ) Index Vector (suppose jth bus )

Set optimum Location of D-STATCOM = jth bus Set optimum Location of D-STATCOM = jth bus

Set QDSTATCOM = 0 at bus jth Set QDSTATCOM = 0 at bus jth

Run Load Flow and Find TPLDSTATCOM QDSTATCOM = QDSTATCOM +SZ QDSTATCOM = QDSTATCOM +SZ
(SZ= Step Size) Run Load Flow and Find TPLDSTATCOM
(SZ= Step Size)

TPLDSTATCOM New < Yes TPLDSTATCOM New < Yes

TPLDSTATCOM
TPLDSTATCOM

No
No
Set QDSTATCOM as optimum Size of DSTATCOM
Set QDSTATCOM as optimum Size of DSTATCOM

Set QDSTATCOM as optimum Size at optimal

location jth bus Set QDSTATCOM as optimum Size at optimal
location jth bus
Run Load Flow after DSTATCOM placement
find Total Power Losses Run Load Flow after DSTATCOM placement
find Total Power Losses

Stop
Stop

Fig. 5(a) Flow chart without reconfiguration Fig. 5(b) Flow chart with reconfigured network

Table 1. Results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for CP load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11
Parameters Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
Total Active Power loss (KW) 317.906 210.71 134.616 98.993
Total Reactive Power loss (KVAr) 143.834 97.3747 125.451 91.001
Optimum Location for D-STATCOM Placement ----- @61st bus ----- @61st bus
Optimum Size of D-STATCOM (KVAr) ----- 1350 ----- 1075
Minimum Bus Voltage (p.u) 0.8754 0.9062 0.93191 0.9547
Total Power loss reduction (KW) ----- 107.196 183.29 218.913
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) 2784856.60 1845819.60 1179236.20 867178.68
Annual Energy Saving (KWh) ----- 939036.96 1605620.40 1917677.90
Cost of Energy Loss in US $ ( 80.5 US $/ KWh) 224180953 148588478 94928514 69807884
Cost of D-STATCOM in US $ (70 US $/ KVAr) ----- 94500 ----- 75250
Annual Cost saving in US $ ----- 75497975 129252439 154297819

Table 2. Results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for CP load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=12.66.
Parameters Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
Total Active Power loss (KW) 225.13 152.15 98.64 73.23
Total Reactive Power loss (KVAr) 102.22 70.53 92.06 67.38
st
Optimum Location for D-STATCOM Placement ----- @61 bus ----- @61st bus
Optimum Size of D-STATCOM (KVAr) ----- 1350 ----- 1075
Minimum Bus Voltage (p.u) 0.90917 0.93101 0.94947 0.9663
Total Power loss reduction (KW) ----- 72.98 126.49 151.90
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) 1972138.80 1332834 864086.40 641494.80
Annual Energy Saving (KWh) ----- 639304.80 1108052.40 1330644
Cost of Energy Loss in US $ ( 80.5 US $/ KWh) 158757173.40 107293137 69558955.20 51640331.40
Cost of D-STATCOM in US $ (70 US $/ KVAr) ----- 94500 ----- 75250
Annual Cost saving in US $ ----- 51369536.40 89198218.2 107041592

359
Here, the base case losses are reduced from 317.906 KW to 225.13 KW by increasing the base kV from 11 to
12.66 kV. Table 2 compares the results of all four cases for CP load model at 100 MVA and 12.66 kV base
values. Table 3 and Table 4 compare the results for CI and CZ load model at 100 MVA and 11 kV base values
for all four cases.

Table 3. Results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for CI load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11
Parameters Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
Total Active Power loss (KW) 253.776 178.198 141.17 109.97
Total Reactive Power loss (KVAr) 116.34 83.37 115.70 95.18
Optimum Location for D-STATCOM Placement ----- @61st bus ----- @61st bus
Optimum Size of D-STATCOM (KVAr) ----- 1300 ----- 1050
Minimum Bus Voltage (p.u) 0.9166 0.9374 0.9581 0.97168
Total Power loss reduction (KW) ----- 75.578 112.60 143.80
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) 2223077.760 1561014.4 1236649.20 963337.20
Annual Energy Saving (KWh) ----- 662063.36 986428.56 1259740.56
Cost of Energy Loss in US $ ( 80.5 US $/ KWh) 178957759.68 125661659.20 99550260.60 77548644.60
Cost of D-STATCOM in US $ (70 US $/ KVAr) ----- 91000 ----- 73500
Annual Cost saving in US $ ----- 53205100.48 79407499.08 101335615.08

The size of D-STATCOM reduces from 1300 to 1050 KVAr after reconfiguration of network with CI load
model and line loss are reduced from 253.776 KW to 178.198 KW after D-STATCOM placement, further it is
reduced to 141.17 KW after reconfiguring the network, then D-STATCOM is placed in reconfigured network
and with implementation losses reduced to 109.17 KW.Table 5 compares the results for realistic ZIP load model
at 100 MVA and 11 kV base values for all four cases. The size of D-STATCOM reduces from 1200 to 1000
KVAr after reconfiguration of network. It is observed that line loss are reduced from 285.39 KW to 207.89 KW
after D-STATCOM placement, further it is reduced to 144.672 KW after reconfiguring the network, then D-
STATCOM is placed in reconfigured network and with implementation losses reduced to 115.525 KW. Fig. 6,
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 compares the voltage profile of all four cases for CP, CI and CZ load respectively at base
MVA of 100 and base kV of 11. Table 6 compares the results of above four cases for CP load at both base
values with the existing results available in literature.

Table 4. Results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for CZ load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11
Parameters Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
Total Active Power loss (KW) 229.03 156.35 136.52 103.53
Total Reactive Power loss (KVAr) 105.78 74.02 112.69 89.90
Optimum Location for D-STATCOM Placement ----- @61st bus ----- @61st bus
Optimum Size of D-STATCOM (KVAr) ----- 1350 ----- 1050
Minimum Bus Voltage (p.u) 0.9219 0.94107 0.9598 0.9723
Total Power loss reduction (KW) ----- 72.68 92.51 125.50
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) 2006302.80 1369626.00 1195915.20 906922.80
Annual Energy Saving (KWh) ----- 636676.80 810387.60 1099380
Cost of Energy Loss in US $ ( 80.5 US $/ KWh) 161507375.40 110254893 96271173.60 73007285.40
Cost of D-STATCOM in US $ (70 US $/ KVAr) ----- 94500 ----- 73500
Annual Cost saving in US $ ----- 51157982.40 65236201.80 88426590

Load growth of is also considered for planning of distribution system. In this study, load growth of 7 % is
considered for 5 years and the results are given in Table 7. Finally, the comparison of annual energy loss
reduction and comparison of cost reduction by proposed technique in all four cases for CP load model, realistic
ZIP load model and ZIP load model with load growth are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively. Results show
the considerable improvement in voltage profile, reduction in losses and, energy saving with D-STATCOM
placement under reconfigured network.

360
 Table 5. Results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for ZIP load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11
Parameters Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
Total Active Power loss (KW) 285.39 207.89 144.672 115.525
Total Reactive Power loss (KVAr) 129.82 96.13 117.95 100.00
Optimum Location for D-STATCOM Placement ----- @61st bus ----- @61st bus
Optimum Size of D-STATCOM (KVAr) ----- 1200 ----- 1000
Minimum Bus Voltage (p.u) 0.91311 0.93087 0.9572 0.9707
Total Power loss reduction (KW) ----- 77.5 140.72 169.865
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) 2500016.40 1821116.40 1267326.72 1011999
Annual Energy Saving (KWh) ----- 678900 1232707.20 1488017.40
Cost of Energy Loss in US $ ( 80.5 US $/ KWh) 201251320.20 146599870.20 102019800.96 81465919.50
Cost of D-STATCOM in US $ (70 US $/ KVAr) ----- 84000 ----- 70000
Annual Cost saving in US $ ----- 54567450.00 99231519.24 119715400.70

Table 6. Comparison of results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for CP load in reconfigured network
Parameters [16], [18], Proposed Technique Proposed Technique
69 bus 33bus @12.66 kV base, 69 bus @ 11 kV base, 69 bus
TPL in KW for Case-1 225 202.50 225.13 317.906
TPL in KW Case-4 78.59 110.22 73.23 98.993
TPL reduction (%) 65.07 45.57 67.47 68.86

1.02 Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4

0.98

0.96
Voltage in P.U

0.94

0.92

0.9

0.88
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
Bus Number

Fig. 6 Comparison of voltage profile for CP load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11

1.01 Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4

1
0.99
Voltage in P.U

0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69
Bus Number
Fig. 7 Comparison of voltage profile for CI load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11

361
 Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
1.01
1
0.99
Voltage in P.U
0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69
Bus Number

Fig. 8 Comparison of voltage profile for CZ load @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11

6000000
Annual Energy Loss in (KWh)

5000000
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) for
4000000
ZIP load model with load
growth
3000000
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) for
2000000 CP load model

1000000

0
Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4

Fig. 9 Comparison of Annual Energy loss reduction

450
Cost of Energy Loss in US Million $

400 Cost of Energy Loss in US

350 million $ for ZIP load with
load growth
300 Cost of Energy Loss in US
250 million $ for CP load
200 Cost of Energy Loss in US
150 million $ for ZIP load
100
50
0
Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4

Fig. 10 Comparison of Cost reduction

Table 7. Results obtained for D-STATCOM placement for ZIP load with load growth @ base MVA=100 and base kV=11
Parameters Case-1 Case-2 Case-3 Case-4
Total Active Power loss (KW) 596.56 441.55 287.79 231.85
Total Reactive Power loss (KVAr) 270.35 203.08 234.11 200.27
Optimum Location for D-STATCOM Placement ----- @61st bus ----- @61st bus
Optimum Size of D-STATCOM (KVAr) ----- 1150 ----- 1000
Minimum Bus Voltage (p.u) 0.8703 0.9002 0.93844 0.9579
Total Power loss reduction (KW) ----- 155.01 308.77 364.71
Annual Energy Loss (KWh) 5225865.60 3867978 2521040.40 2031006
Annual Energy Saving (KWh) ----- 1357887.60 2704825.19 3194859.60
Cost of Energy Loss in US $ ( 80.5 US $/ KWh) 420682180.80 311372229 202943752.20 163495983
Cost of D-STATCOM in US $ (70 US $/ KVAr) ----- 80500 ----- 70000
Annual Cost saving in US $ ----- 109229451.80 217738428.60 257116197.80

362
5. Conclusions

In this paper optimal D-STATCOM placement and size is obtained based on index vector method. The
analysis has been carried out on IEEE 69 bus distribution network with CP, CI, CZ, realistic ZIP and ZIP load
model including load growth. Based on the analysis carried out, the following conclusions are made:
• Average CP load is slightly higher than ZIP load model, thereby D-STACOM rating is also slightly higher
in CP than ZIP load model.
• With the D-STATCOM, there is significant improvement in voltage profile, reduction in power losses and
cost of energy losses and there by annual energy savings are higher.
• Power losses increases with load growth accordingly, the required D-STATCOM KVAR support also
increases to meet the load growth. Annual energy savings obtained due to energy loss reduction is higher
with load growth after installation of D-STATCOM.
For the optimal D-STATCOM size it is essential to determine the optimal location of the device due to its
cost involved. The selection of the location must result into optimal D-STATCOM ratings for better voltage
profile, reduced losses, and lower cost of reactive support/KVAR. The annual savings obtained with D-
STATCOM without and with load growth are observed higher when the device is placed at 61st bus. Hence, this
study can help the system operator to plan the better distribution system with optimal reactive power planning.
Further, this work can also be extended with residential, commercial and industrial load model.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the MHRD, Govt. of India for providing research
facilities to the work reported in this paper.

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 ICAER-2015

Numerical Modelling on Modified Directional Solidification

Process of Multi-crystalline Silicon Growth for Photovoltaic
Applications
P. Karuppasamya, M. Srinivasana, K. Aravintha, P. Ramasamya,∗
a
SSN Research Centre, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai-603110, India

Abstract

A transient global model was used to investigate the effect of bottom grooved furnace upon the directional solidification
(DS) process of multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si). The numerical simulation assumed geometry is perfect 2D axis-symmetry.
The temperature distribution, crystal-melt (c-m) interface, thermal stress and dislocation density have been simulated. The
modified heat exchanger block system was used for controlling the temperature gradient at the bottom of the crucible. The
obtained result shows convex shape of the c-m interface. The von Mises stress and dislocation density were reduced while
using the bottom grooved furnace. This work was carried out in the different grooves of radius 30 and 60 mm of the heat
exchanger block of the DS furnace.

Keywords: Directional solidification; Numerical simulation; Dislocation density; Thermal stress; Silicon; Solar cells.

1. Introduction

Multi-crystalline silicon plays an important role in photovoltaic (PV) market because of its low production
cost and high conversion efficiency. Directional solidification (DS) method is one of the cost effective
techniques for the mass production of multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) material other than the unidirectional
process like Czochralski method [1]. However, the efficiency of the mc-Si solar cell is less compared to the
single crystalline silicon because of the presence of grains, grain boundaries, dislocation density, twins and
impurities. PV cell made from mc-Si wafer has achieved efficiency normally 15.8 – 16.8 % [2]. The seed –
casting method is potentially able to produce mc-Si from seed crystal placed at the bottom of the crucible during
the solidification process. The efficiency achieved from the seed casting method is 18.9% [3, 4]. Nakajima et al.
[5] have controlled the dendrite arrangement in the dendrite casting method by the cooling pad with different
thermal conductivity. Also they have reported the enhanced cooling conditions [6]. Li et al. controlled the grains
to get a high quality mc-Si by introducing the notched – crucible [7]. Zhou et al. have shown that the final
dislocation density can be reduced by the modified cooling process in mc-Si ingot production [8]. Xi Yang et al.
[9] have investigated the effect of temperature distribution, melt convection, c-m interface and thermal stress of
mc-Si growth process in the DS process. The thermal distribution, c-m interface shape and energy consumption
and heat loss from different portions of the system has been analyzed [10]. T.Y. Wang et al. have reported the
cooling spot furnace for higher cooling rate at the center portion of the crucible than the other parts of the charge
[11]. In the present work, we have introduced a groove in the bottom of the heat exchanger block in the DS
furnace to achieve spot cooling. The c-m interface, von Mises stress and dislocation density were analyzed by
using conventional and modified furnace. The numerical simulations were carried out to demonstrate the
performance of bottom grooved heat exchanger block in the DS system.

2. Model Description

The configuration of the conventional and modified DS furnace has been shown in Fig. 1 (a) and (b)
respectively. Two different sizes (such as 30mm and 60mm) of the bottom grooved heat exchanger block have
been made in the modified DS furnace. The modified blocks are used for controlling the temperature gradient at
the bottom of the crucible. Fig. 2 shows the temperature profile at TC1, TC2 and position of the side wall

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +919677051554; fax: +914427475166.

E-mail : ramasamyp@ssn.edu.in

365
insulation in the DS furnace with respect to the time. The Thermocouple 1 (TC1) was placed at the graphite
heater which is used to monitor the furnace temperature and it is also used to control the heater power.

Fig. 1. Typical view of the DS system (a) conventional furnace (b) modified furnace

Thermocouple 2 (TC2) is placed at the top of the heat exchanger block. Which is used to measure the
temperature at the bottom of the crucible. Initially, the side wall insulation moves upward. The heat was
dissipated through the side wall insulation and heat exchanger block in the DS furnace. The crystallization
starts when the temperature decreases below the melting point of silicon.

400
1800
350
1600
Side wall movement (mm)

300

1400
250
TC1
TC (K)

1200 TC2 200

Side wall movement (mm)
1000 150

100
800
Rate=10 mm/h
50
600
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (h)

Fig. 2. Temperature profile and side wall insulation movement of DS system

3. Numerical model

The simulation was done using the commercial software CGSim 15.1 from STR group. The numerical
simulation has been carried out for the 2-D axisymmetry DS furnace. All the solid components are involved in
the conductive heat transfer and the radiative surfaces, which are assumed to be diffuse gray. The melt was
assumed to be an incompressible Newtonian fluid. The inert argon gas was treated as an ideal incompressible. A
global numerical simulation has been carried out to analyze the temperature distribution, velocity of melt flow,
rate of argon flow and also find out many internal parameters of crystal like von Mises stress, c-m interface. The
outer wall of the furnace temperature is kept constant and side wall insulation is moved upward for the cooling

366
process. The physical parameters of the material properties have been used for this model as given in table. 1.
The governing equation [12] is most helpful for the study of transport phenomena for the temperature, velocity,
energy and momentum. The initial boundary conditions have been evaluated using CGSim 15.1 software.
Dislocation density is an important parameter for characterizing crystal quality. Thermal stress is provided by
thermal deformation due to its temperature variation. Recently Smirnova et al. have discussed the numerical
calculation of thermal stress and dislocation in silicon ingot at different cooling processes and also those are
verified experimentally [13]. Normally High stress level leads to the inelastic creep deformation. Hence, it is
coupled with movement of dislocations. Stress and dislocation distributions are modeled within the Haasen -
Alexander- Sumino (HAS) model [14] giving the relationship between plastic deformation and dislocation
density.

Table 1.Physical properties

Material Variable Value

Silicon (crystal) Heat conductivity, k (W/m.K) 110.612-0.1507T+0.109E-003T2-4.0094E-
008T3+5.668E-012T3
Emissivity 0.9016-.0026208T
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 2339.5-0.03267
Latent heat, ΔH (J/kg) 1800000
Heat capacity, C p (J/kg.K) 1000
Poisson’s ratio 0.217
Young’s modulus, E (Pa) 1.653E+11

Silicon (melt) Heat conductivity, k (W/m.K) 66.5

Emissivity 0.3
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 3194-0.3701T
Melting point, T m (K) 1685
Heat capacity, C p (J/kg.K) 915
Dynamic viscosity, µ (Pa.s) 0.008
Latent heat, ΔH (J/kg) 1800000

Quartz Heat conductivity (W/m.K) 4

Emissivity 0.85
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 2650
Heat capacity (J/kg.K) 1232
Graphite Heat conductivity, k (W/m.K) 146.8885-0.17687T
Emissivity 0.8
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 1950
Heat capacity, C p (J/kg.K) 710
susceptor Heat conductivity, k (W/m.K) 105
Emissivity 0.8
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 1720
Heat capacity, C p (J/kg.K) 1000
Insulation Heat conductivity, k (W/m.K) 0.5
Emissivity 0.8
Density, ρ (kg/m3) 500
Heat capacity, C p (J/kg.K) 100
Argon Heat conductivity, k (W/m.K) 0.01
Heat capacity, C p (J/kg.K) 521
Dynamic viscosity, µ (Pa.s) 8.466E-6+5.365E-8T-8.682E-12T2
Pressure (Pa) 50000
Molar mass (g/mol) 40

367
 In this model, the total stain ε ij is assumed to be subdivided by components

ε ij = ε ije + ε ijT + ε ijc (1)

where ε ij, ,ε ijT and ε ij are elastic strain, thermal strain and creep strain respectively.
e c

In HAS model the creep strain rate and the multiplication rate of mobile dislocation density N m can be
expressed as follows [15]
dε ijc  Q 
bk 0 (τ eff ) exp −
1 p 1
= N m S ij (2)
dt 2  kT  J2

dN m  Q 
= Kk 0 (τ eff ) exp −
p +1 (3)
N m
dt  kT 
where b is the magnitude of Burgers vector, τ eff is the effective stress, Q is the Peierls potential, k is
Boltzmann’s constant, S ij is the deviatoric stress, J 2 is the second invariant of deviatoric stress.

4. Results and discussion

The directional solidification process mainly depends on thermal field and heater power of DS furnace.
Generally heat loss mainly due to both bottom of the heat exchange block and side insulation of the DS furnace.
In this case, side insulation is moving at the rate of 10 mm/h up to 15 hours, then it becomes stable till the
complete crystal growth process. The flow rate of argon gas is 30 L/min and the pressure of DS furnace 0.6 bar.
Temperature distribution of heat exchanger block in different radial groove is as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Heat exchanger block of DS furnace (a) Without groove (b) groove of radius 30 mm (c) groove of radius 60 mm

The simulation result indicates that the shape of c-m interface is slightly convex during the solidification
process under the influence of the bottom grooved heat exchanger block. The temperature distribution in the
heat exchanger block of DS furnace is simulated in each case. When the radius of grooves in the heat exchanger
block is increased, the crystal-melt interface is more convex during the solidification process. A convex shape of
crystal-melt interface is more significant for controlling the impurities and preventing nucleation at side wall of
the crucible for growth of high quality m-c silicon [16]. The shape of m-c interface depends up on temperature
of the crucible. The temperature difference is high in the bottom region than the top portion of the grown ingot.
It indicates that the direction of the radial component of heat flux towards the silicon ingot. Since the magnitude
of the radial component of heat flux mainly depends on the temperature difference between the center and
peripheral region of the ingot.

368
 40

38 without groove
groove at 30 mm

Interface position (mm)

36
groove at 60 mm

34

32

30

28
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Radius of ingot (mm)

Fig. 4. Crystal – melt interface of mc-Si at different radial grooves

The c-m interface position of different radial groove of the heat exchanger is shown in Fig. 4. Miyazawa et
al. [17] have shows that the dimensions of the crucible have higher impacts on the solidification interface shape.
Chang et al. [18] confirmed that the c-m interface shape can be adjusted by changing the temperature of the
heaters. This is due to very high thermal conduction at the center of the crucible than the peripheral region. It is
seen that the temperature decreases at the center portion of the ingot than the peripheral region with
corresponding radial grooves.

Fig. 5. von Mises stress of mc-Si ingot (a) Without groove (b) groove of radius 30 mm (c) groove of radius 60 mm

The von Mises stress of mc-Si ingot at different radial grooves is shown in Fig. 5 (a), 5 (b) and 5 (c) with
their corresponding radial groove of the heat exchanger block. We use the von Mises stress to represent the
thermal stress components. The higher thermal stress probably occurs in the central and peripheral regions of
the grown ingot. In our case, the von Mises stress decreases while increasing radial groove of the heat exchanger
block.

We have investigated the dislocation multiplication of the silicon ingot at different radial grooves as shown
in Fig. 6. Mostly, the thermal stresses are induced by dislocation densities during the cooling process [19]. The
simulation results indicate that the dislocation density reduces in peripheral region of the ingot as compared to
central portion of ingot. However, it could be decreased while increasing radial groove of the heat exchanger
block in the DS process.

369
 Fig. 6. Dislocation density of ingot (a) without groove (b) 30 mm groove (c) 60 mm groove

5. Conclusion

Global heat transfer was studied in the less bottom grooved DS furnace. The simulation was performed by
the finite volume method in 2D axisymmetric model. The c-m interface, dislocation density and von Mises
stress were simulated and analyzed by the various radial bottom grooved heat exchanger block. The convex
shape of the c-m interface is obtained from a modified heat exchanger block. The thermal stress and dislocation
density in grown mc-Si are less than in conventional system. We have improved c-m interface become more
convex. Finally, higher radial bottom grooved heat exchanger block reduces the dislocation density and von
Mises stress, which can be used for growing good quality mc-Si ingots for PV applications.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India
(Order no: 31/58/2013-2014/PVSE & 15-01-2015).

References

[1] A. Luque, S. Hegedus, Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, New York, 2003.
[2] J.A. Wei, H. Zhang, L.L. Zheng, C.L. Wang, B. Zhao, Solar Energy Mat. Solar Cells. 93 (2009) 1531-1539.
[3] Y. Miyamura, H. Harada, K. Jiptner, S. Nakano, B. Gao, K. Kakimoto, Applied Physics Express. 8, (2015) 062301.
[4] Y. Miyamura, H. Harada, K. Jiptner, J. Chen, R.R. Prakash, S. Nakano, B. Gao,K. Kakimoto and T. Sekiguchi, J. Cryst. Growth. 401
(2014) 133–136.
[5] K. Nakajima, K. Kutsukake, K. Fujiwara, K. Morishita, S. Ono, J. Cryst. Growth. 319 (2011) 13-18.
[6] T.F. Li, H.C. Huang, H.W. Tsai, A. Lan, C. Chuck and C.W. Lan, J. Cryst. Growth. 340 (2012) 202–208.
[7] T.F. Li, K.M. Yeh, W.C. Hsu, C.W. Lan, J. Cryst. Growth. 318 (2011) 219–223.
[8] N.G. Zhou, M.H. Lin, L. Zhou, Q.F. Hu, H.S. Fang, S. Wang, J. Cryst. Growth. 381 (2013) 22–26.
[9] X. Yang, W. Ma, G. Lv, K. Wei, T. Luo, D. Chen, J. Cryst. Growth. 400 (2014) 7–14.
[10] J. Wei, H. Zhang, L. Zheng, C. Wang, B. Zhao, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells. 93 (2009) 1531-1539.
[11] T.Y. Wang, S.L. Hsu, C.C. Fei, K.M. Yei, W.C. Hsu, C.W. Lan, J. Cryst. Growth. 311 (2009) 263–267.
[12] J. Fainberg, H.J. Leister, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 137 (1996) 167-174.
[13] O. Smirnoa, V. Mamedov, V. Kalaev, Cryst. Growth Des. 14 (2014) 5532–5536.
[14] H. Alexander, P. Haasen, Solid State Physics. 22 (1968) 27-158.
[15] S. Nakano, X.J. Chen, B. Gao, K. Kakimoto, J. Cryst. Growth. 318 (2011) 280-282.
[16] Q. Yu, L. Liu, W. Ma, G. Zhong, X. Huang, J. Cryst. Growth. 358 (2012) 5-11.
[17] H. Miyazawa, L.J. Liu, K. Kakimoto, J. Cryst. Growth. 310 (2008) 1142–1147.
[18] C.E. Chang and W.R. Wilcox, J. Cryst. Growth. 21 (1974) 135–40.
[19] K. Jiptner, B. Gao, H. Harada, Y. Miyamura, M. Fukuzawa, K. Kakimoto, T. Sekiguchi, J. Cryst. Growth, 408 (2014) 19–24.

370
 ICAER-2015

Numerical investigations on modified hot-zone in DS furnace for

mc-Si growth process
S. Sanmugavela, M. Srinivasana, K. Aravintha, P. Ramasamya,*
a
SSN Research Centre, SSN College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, Chennai – 603110, India

Abstract

A transient global numerical model has been carried out to simulate the multi-crystalline silicon growth process by the
directional solidification method. A two dimensional axisymmetric model was used. The heat transfer problems such as
conductive, convective and radiative heat transfer were coupled with our model and these problems were solved iteratively
using the finite volume method. The heater element has been modified in the present work to produce a high quality multi-
crystalline silicon ingot. The change has been made to control the temperature distribution. By controlling the temperature
distribution, we can also control the melt crystal interface of the ingot. The shape of the melt-crystal interface of the ingot, the
temperature distribution in the crucible and the heat flux from the melt as well as from the crystal have been studied. Finally,
the simulation results show that the modification in the heater element keeps the melt-crystal interface as planar in the DS
system, also it gives better results than conventional system.
Keywords: Modeling and Simulation; Melt Crystal Growth; Directional Solidification; Multi-crystalline Silicon; Hot Zone.

1. Introduction

Here introduce the paper, and put a nomenclature if necessary, in a box with the same font size as the rest of
the paper. The paragraphs continue from here and are only separated by headings, subheadings, images and
formulae. The section headings are arranged by numbers, bold and 10 pt. Follow further instructions for authors
as given below.
There has always been an incredible source of unlimited, free and clean power right above our heads. Most
electricity is generated by burning coal that emits pollutants into the atmosphere. Solar electricity comes from a
clean and renewable source which is also a Reliable Power.
Multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) cells are made from cast square ingots large blocks of molten silicon which is
carefully cooled and solidified. They consist of small crystals giving the material its typical metal flake effect. The
production technique of multi-crystalline silicon is very simple compared to single crystalline silicon. But the
quality of the material becomes less due to the presence of grains in mc-Si. The grain boundaries act as
recombination centers for light generated minority carriers. So it reduces overall minority carrier lifetime of the
material. The grain boundaries, introducing shunting paths to the current flow across the P-N junction and blocking
the carrier flows, reduce solar cell performance. To avoid these recombination losses the grains should be in large
size and thus the grain boundary can be reduced per unit cell, this type of material is used for commercial solar
cell production.
Directional solidification (DS) is a technique in which cooling in a given direction leads to preferential growth
of grains in the opposite direction, leading to an anisotropic-oriented microstructure. The efficiency of silicon
based solar cell depends on the grain size, defect density and impurity concentrations. Therefore the process should
be optimized to get the highly efficient mc-Si for photo voltaic application.
One of the greatest technological and scientific challenges of multi-crystalline silicon growth is to achieve
homogeneity of the material properties in the grown crystal. It is affected by fluctuations of the growth rate of the
crystal. One of the possible causes for fluctuations of the growth rate is the non- stationary convection in the melt.
The temperature distribution was numerically simulated by Wu et.al, [1]. Thermal field based convection and
mass transfer in the DS furnace was numerically investigated by Liu et.al, [2-6] Chang and Wilcox showed that
the melt crystal interface can be adjusted by changing the temperature of the heaters [7]. Xi yang et al., controlled
the lateral heat dissipation of crucible and avoided the large temperature transition using modified vacuum
directional solidification process with conical insulation [8]. Black et al., studied the relation between thermal
fields and melt crystal interface and proposed an optimized mono like Si production method [9]. A new improved
Directional solidification furnace was proposed by Gao et al., to reduce the grain size [10]. Nakano developed a
model to study the temperature distribution in unidirectional solidification process [11].

371
 The present work focused on modifying hot-zone system in the DS furnace. We have generated a new model
in which the hot zone was modified in the DS furnace by introducing a single heating element instead of multi
heating elements for the production of high quality mc-Si. In order to get such a high quality ingot in the DS
process, the single heating element was made to control the temperature distribution and also to control the crystal-
melt interface using a time dependent numerical model with the help of CGSim 15.1 to simulate the silicon growth
process.

2. Furnace design

Fig. 1. Conventional (left) and modified (right) DS furnace

A 2-D axisymmetric geometry was used in our work which is shown in Figure 1. The Directional solidification
system mainly consists of silica crucible, graphite susceptor, heat exchange block, graphite resistance heater,
insulation, chamber wall, gas tube. The solar grade silicon feedstock material was loaded into the crucible. To
avoid the temperature deformation a graphite susceptor is attached to the crucible. Argon, the inert gas, is used to
keep the purity of the growth system. A thermocouple is placed near the graphite heaters to monitor the furnace
temperature. The physical properties of the materials have been shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Physical properties of the materials used.

Properties Values
Argon
Heat conductivity 0.01 W m-1 K-1
Heat capacity 521 J Kg-1 K-1
Ideal Gas Law
Density Pressure 50000 Pa
Molar Mass 40 Kg K-1 mol-1
Dynamic Viscosity P(T)=8.466E-6+5.365E-8 T-8.682E-12T2
Graphite (P)
Heat conductivity 105 W m-1 K-1
Emissivity 0.8
Heat capacity 1000 J Kg-1 K-1
Density 1950 Kg m-3
Graphite
Heat conductivity P(T)=146.8885-0.17687T+0.000127T2-4.6899E-008T3+6.665E-012T4
Emissivity 0.8

372
 Density 1950 Kg m-3
Heat capacity 710 J Kg-1 K-1
Insulation
Heat conductivity 0.5 W m-1 K-1
Emissivity 0.8
Density 500 Kg m-3
Heat capacity 100 J Kg-1 K-1
Quartz
Heat conductivity 4 W m-1 K-1
Emissivity 0.85
Heat capacity 1232 J Kg-1 K-1
Density 2650 Kg m-3
Steel
Heat conductivity 15 W m-1 K-1
Emissivity 0.45
Heat capacity 1000 J Kg-1 K-1
Density 7800 Kg m-3
Silicon Melt
Heat conductivity 66.5 W m-1 K-1
Emissivity 0.3
Density P (T) =3194-0.3701T
Melting Temperature 1685 K
Surface tension 0.7835 N m-1
Dynamic viscosity 0.0008 Pa S
Heat capacity 915 J Kg-1 K-1
Wetting angle 11 deg
Latent Heat 1800000 J Kg-1
Silicon Crystal
P(T)=110.6122042-0.1507227384T+0.0001093579825T 2-
Heat conductivity 4.009416795E-008T3+5.66839358E-012T4
Emissivity P (T) =0. 9016-0.00026208T
Density 2530 Kg m-3
Latent Heat 1800000
Heat capacity 1000 J Kg-1 K-1

Convective heat transfer of the silicon melts inside the crucible, conductive heat transfer in all solid components
and radiative heat transfer within the furnace are coupled with this system. These problems were solved iteratively
using the finite volume method. 1-d grids were generated for the radiation heat transfer and 2-d grids were
generated for conduction and convection heat transfer to take place.

3. Mechanism

With the side insulation movement towards the upward direction the temperature of the melt crystal interface
will start to decrease with respect to the heat loss through radiation. The seed crystal starts to grow after the
temperature comes below its melting point. The necessary temperature gradient was maintained by adjusting the
heater power and the velocity of the side insulation. The silicon melt was considered as incompressible Newtonian

373
fluid. The single crystalline silicon feed is placed at the crucible bottom. To take the heat away from the crucible
a heat exchanger block was placed below the graphite susceptor.
Seeded directional solidification process consists of two main steps as follows
1. Seed preservation
2. Bulk crystal growth.
Initially the heater power is given to make the feed stock fully melt. The unmelt seed crystal maintains the
thickness of 38 mm. The seed preservation is complete if the thermal field in the furnace is stabilized.
For the second step the side insulation is moved upward at a controlled speed and forms a gap to extract heat
from the system. The solidification is started on the surface of the seed crystal due to the downward heat flux.
Thus the bulk crystal starts to grow.

4. Mathematical Description

Fourier’s fundamental law of heat transfer helps us to determine the temperature distribution during the
crystallization.
∂fs ∂T
-∇.(λik ∇T)+ρΔH =ρCp
∂t ∂t
where ρ, λ,Cp and H representing the physical properties such as density, thermal conductivity, heat capacity
and latent heat respectively. fs is the solid fraction. Also from the Fourier's law of heat conduction we can
determine the heat flux. The heat flux by conduction in a particular direction is proportional to the gradient of the
temperature on that direction inside the material. It can be written mathematically as,

q ∂T
=-K
A ∂n
here K is the thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of the material will vary from point to point but
at any given point, regardless of the direction, the value of the thermal conductivity of the material will be the
same.

5. Results and Discussions

Unlike other parameters, temperature plays an important role in crystal growth. The temperature distributions
for the time dependent model were shown in the Figure 2&3 with color gradient and isothermal lines in the Kelvin
scale. In the temperature distribution the isothermal lines are changing their shapes with respect to the ingot height
because of the cooling process. This change in isothermal lines is related to the shape of the melt-crystal interface
during the growth process [12]. Initially more concave isothermal lines were observed in the conventional DS
furnace. Throughout the growth process the interface of the conventional furnace is concave. The only difference
is, as time goes on it reduces to less concave from more concave. The reason why it is keeping the concave melt-
crystal interface is, after the opening of side insulation the radiative heat transfer dominating the other modes of
heat transfer. So the heat loss near the peripheral region at the bottom of the ingot loses more heat energy than the
central region does. This is because the effect of the heater is not that much sufficient to prevent the thermal loss
near the peripheral region. So the crystal grows easily near the wall of the crucible than at the center [Figure 4].

Fig. 2. Temperature distribution of conventional DS furnace

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 Fig. 3. Temperature distribution of modified DS furnace

In the case of modified furnace, the heater is placed almost near the bottom of the crucible. So the chance of
growing the crystal near the wall is very less compared to the central region. At 10% of the growth the crystal
interface is curved downwards slightly near the peripheral region to make a convex melt-crystal interface [Figure
5]. After some time the growth velocity near the crucible wall is increasing due to the domination of the radiative
heat transfer. Approximately after 50% of the growth process the central region and the peripheral region
compensated their growth velocity in the manner to get a planar melt-crystal interface.

Fig. 4. Melt - Crystal interface of conventional DS furnace

Fig. 5. Melt - Crystal interface of modified DS furnace

With respect to the crystal the melt-crystal interface of the conventional directional solidification furnace looks
concave. The outward heat flow from the crucible (with crystal & melt) is shown in vector representation in Figure
6 & 7. In conventional furnace the heat extraction by the crucible wall is more than the heat transfer by crystal.
So the heat loss at the center of the melt is less and the heat loss near the crucible wall is more. It causes that a
higher growth rate near the crucible wall than at the center. Because of the high growth rate near the wall the

375
crystal grows towards the center and brings all impurities inside the crystal. Also the possibility of multi-
crystalline grain growth is more near the wall which has to be avoided. In the case of modified furnace the melt -
crystal interface with respect to the crystal is convex at the seed preservation and keep planar in the bulk crystal
growth process. Because the heat extraction by the crystal is high. So the thermal loss near the wall is low
compared to the center region and the temperature at the center is less than that of the temperature near the wall.
This is just opposite to the conventional method. Compared to the concave interface, the convex interface is more
desirable because it pushes outward the impurities and the grains to the peripheral region from the center of the
ingot. Even though the convex is better (compared to concave interface), it also has its own drawback that it tends
to produce twins in the crystal. Also the both interfaces (concave & convex) will produce non-uniform stress
along the radial direction and also they will produce high dislocation density. Also to avoid cracking we need to
reduce the strain in the crystal. So the planar interface is ideal for the crystal growth process [13]. In the modified
directional solidification furnace using single heater a uniform and planar like temperature distribution was
achieved.

Fig. 6. Heat flux in conventional DS furnace

Fig. 7. Heat flux in modified DS furnace

Generally the viscosity of fluids is nothing but the resistance of the fluid to the gradual deformation which is
caused by shear stress or tensile stress [14]. If the viscosity is very low, then the flow will be a turbulent one which
is not desirable. If the viscosity is very high the turbulent flow will be controlled. Also the supercooling
temperature increases. So the crystal formation will be a difficult task. So here, using the modified DS furnace
the viscosity of the melt was controlled in the manner to get better convection with almost the laminar like flow.
Here in the Figure 8 & 9 the viscosity of the conventional furnace and the modified furnace has been shown.
Compared to the conventional method, the modified furnace has a better control over the viscosity.
Chunlei Qiu et.al., reported that the melt flow has significant influence over the top surface of the crystal. Also,
they have shown that the stronger melt flow is resulting in the surface structure variation and roughness [15].

376
 Fig. 8. Viscosity in the conventional DS furnace with large turbulence

Fig. 9. Viscosity in the modified DS furnace with mild turbulence

In the melt the particles near the crucible wall are in higher temperature than the particles in the free melt
surface and in the center of the crucible. The particle with higher temperature moves towards the free melt surface
because of its lower density. And the dense particles which are having a lower temperature comes to the bottom
of the melt. This process happens continuously. If the process happens very fast, then it is difficult to grow the
crystal. Also the radial flow of the melt has to be laminar, so that we can get a smoother surface of the crystal. So
the optimization has to be done to reduce the melt flow velocity. Figure 10 shows melt velocity in the conventional
DS furnace. The flow velocities are printed as contour lines. In the conventional furnace the melt velocity near
the interface is in the order of 10-3. The negative sign represents the direction of the flow because the velocity is
a vector quantity. If we looked into the Figure 11 which is for the modified furnace, the melt flow velocity is in
the order of 10-4. As the flow velocity in modified furnace is lower than in conventional furnace, modified furnace
is more advantageous.

Fig. 10. Velocity of the melt in the conventional DS furnace

377
 Fig. 11. Velocity of the melt in the modified DS furnace

6. Conclusion

Numerical investigation on temperature distribution in mc-Si growth processes were carried out in a 2D
axisymmetric model by the finite volume method. From the simulation results, the convex temperature
distribution in the crystal and the planar temperature distribution in the melt were achieved. The furnace was
designed to make more thermal loss through the crystal than through the crucible wall. So we can get the planar
melt-crystal interface in modified furnace and can avoid the concave interface. The turbulent viscosity and the
melt flow velocities are optimized, to grow a better crystal. Finally, the simulation results show that the
introduction of the single heating element in the directional solidification furnace gives the better results and may
be used to produce high quality multi-crystalline silicon ingots for the solar cell applications.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Government of India
(Order no: 31/58/2013-2014/PVSE & 15-01-2015).

References

[1] B. Wu, N. Stoddard, R.H. Ma, R. Clark, Bulk multicrystalline silicon growth for photovoltaic (PV) application, J. Cryst. Growth 310
(2008) 2178–2184.
[2] L.J. Liu, S. Nakano, K. Kakimoto, Carbon concentration and particle precipitation during directional solidification of multicrystalline
silicon for solar cells, J. Cryst. Growth 310 (2008) 2192–2197.
[3] Z.Y. Li, L.J. Liu, W.C. Ma, K. Kakimoto, Effects of argon flow on heat transfer in a directional solidification process for silicon solar
cells, J. Cryst. Growth 318 (2011) 298–303.
[4] Z.Y. Li, L.J. Liu, W.C. Ma, K. Kakimoto, Effects of argon flow on impurities transport in a directional solidification furnace for silicon
solar cells, J. Cryst. Growth 318 (2011) 304–312.
[5] Z.Y. Li, L.J. Liu, X. Liu, Y.F. Zhang, J.F. Xiong, Effects of argon flow on melt convection and interface shape in a directional solidification
process for an industrial-size solar silicon ingot, J. Cryst. Growth 360 (2012) 87–91.
[6] Z.Y. Li, L.J. Liu, X. Liu, Y.F. Zhang, J.F. Xiong, Heat transfer in an industrial directional solidification furnace with multi-heaters for
silicon ingots, J. Cryst. Growth 385 (2014) 9–15.
[7] C.E. Chang, W.R. Wilcox, Control of interface shape in the vertical Bridgman - Stockbarger technique, J. Cryst. Growth 21 (1974) 135–
140.
[8] Xi Yang, Wenhui Ma, Guoqiang Lv, Kuixian Wei, Tao Luo, Daotong Chen, A modified vacuum directional solidification system of
multicrystalline silicon based on optimizing for heat transfer, J. Cryst. Growth 400 (2014) 7-14.
[9] A. Black, J. Medina, A. Piñeiro, E. Dieguez, Optimizing seeded casting of mono like silicon crystals through numerical simulation, J.
Cryst. Growth 353 (2012) 12–16.
[10] B. Gao, S. Nakano, H. Harada, Y. Miyamura, T. Sekiguchi, K. Kakimoto, Reduction of polycrystalline grains region near the crucible
wall during seeded growth of monocrystalline silicon in a unidirectional solidification furnace, J. Cryst. Growth 352 (2012) 47–52.
[11] S. Nakano, X. J. Chen, B. Gao, K. Kakimoto, Numerical analysis of cooling rate dependence on dislocation density in multicrystalline
silicon for solar cells, J. Cryst. Growth 318 (2011) 280-282.
[12] Bei Wu, Nathan Stoddard, Ronghui Ma, Roger Clark, Bulk multicrystalline silicon growth for photovoltaic (PV) application, Journal of
Crystal Growth, 310 (2008) 2178-2184.
[13] Govindhan dhanaraj, Kullaiah byrappa, Vishwanath Prasad, Michael Dudley: springer handbook of crystal growth (2010) 318-320.
[14] http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/dynamic-absolute-kinematic-viscosity-d_412.html.
[15] Chunlei Qiu, Chinnapat Panwisawas, Mark Ward, Hector C. Basoalto, Jeffery W. Brooks, Moataz M. Attallah, On the role of melt flow
into the surface structure and porosity development during selective laser melting, Acta Materialia 96 (2015) 72–79.

378
 ICAER-2015

Numerical analysis of operating parameter in mc-Si for

Directional solidification process
G. Aravindan, M. Srinivasan, K. Aravinth, P. Ramasamy* 1
SSN Research Centre, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai - 603 110, India.

Abstract

Numerical simulation have been made on multi crystalline-Silicon (mc-Si) growth by directional solidification (DS) process
for Photovoltaic (PV) application. Heat transfer plays an important role in the DS process as dislocation density and growth
rate are controlled by temperature gradient of the DS furnace. The heat transfer in the DS furnace is controlled by movement
of side wall insulation at different speed from the bottom insulation. The simulation results show that the thermal stress in the
mc-Si ingot for 0.2 mm/min velocity is minimum. The flux from the crucible and dislocation density of mc-Si ingot ware
discussed.

Keywords: Heat transfer; Computer modelling and simulation; DS process;

1. Introduction

Many researchers across the world are working to produce a high conversion efficiency of silicon ingot
for photovoltaic application. Multi-crystalline silicon plays an important role in the production of photovoltaic
solar cells. The solar power production is environmentally good compared to other power production methods.
The 90 % PV markets are using silicon solar cells [1]. There are two types of silicon: mono crystalline silicon and
multi crystalline silicon. The mono crystalline silicon ingots are produced by Czochralski method and the multi
crystalline silicon ingots are produced by directional solidification method. Even though mono crystalline silicon
has higher efficiency than multi crystalline silicon, the low production cost and the simple growth procedure make
multi crystalline silicon dominate over the mono crystalline silicon. Optimization is very important in the case of
the directional solidification method. The parameters such as solidification time, annealing process, gas flow,
temperature distribution and cooling process should be optimized. Optimizing these parameters in a real situation
is very difficult and complicated too. Numerical simulation is the best tool for optimization to get good quality
mc-Si ingot in the DS process [8].
The simulation was carried out using CGSim commercial software. The heat transfer plays an important
role in the DS process as dislocation density and the growth rate are controlled by the temperature gradient of the
DS furnace. Xiaofong Qi et al reported the effect of movement of side wall insulation in the DS furnace. They
have found that thermal stress at the bottom of the ingot was significantly reduced in the solidification process and
also the conversion efficiency is very high [2]. The similar results have been reported by Wang et al [3]. In this
present work, we have analysed the effect of linear motion of the side insulation on thermal behavior of the mc-
Si ingot.

1.1. Furnace configuration

The schematic view of DS furnace is shown in Fig. 1. The major assumptions made in our simulation are as
follows: (a) The incompressible melt flow is laminar, (b) The geometry of DS furnace is 2D axisymmetric and (c)
The effect of gas flow is negligible [4,9]. A quartz crucible is supported by graphite susceptors to avoid
temperature deformation. Initially solar grade feedstock material was loaded into quartz crucible. The argon gas
flows from the top of the crucible. Resistive graphite heaters were used for heating up the DS furnace. The
temperature of silicon at bottom of the crucible is very low compared to the top of melt. After the fall of
temperature below the melting point of silicon, the crystal starts to grow. Material properties used in our
simulation are shown in Table 1.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9677051542; fax: +91-4427475166.

E-mail address: ramasamyp@ssn.edu.in

379
 Fig. 1. Schematic view of Directional Solidification (DS) furnace.

Table 1. Material properties.

Material property Value
Silicon Melt
Heat conductivity 66.5 (W/cm*k)
Emissivity 0.3
Melting point 1685 (K)
Dynamic Viscosity 0.0008 (Pa*S)
Heat Capacity And an entry 9.5 (J/Kg*K)

Silicon Crystal
Poisson’s ratio 0.217
Young’s modulus 1.653E11 (Pa)

Quartz 4 (W/cm*k)
Heat conductivity 0.85
Emissivity 1232 (J/Kg*K)
Heat Capacity 2656 (Kg/m^3)
Density And another entry

Graphite
Heat conductivity 0.8 (W/cm*k)
Density 1950 (Kg/m^3)
Heat Capacity 710 (J/Kg*K)

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1.2. Mathematical model

The thermal stress analysis is made using displacement-based thermo-elastic stress model. The governing
partial differential equation for momentum balance in an axisymmetric [10] can be written as
1 ∂ ∂ σ φφ
(1)
(rσ rz ) + (σ rz ) − =0
r ∂z ∂z r

1 ∂ ∂
(rσ rz ) + (σ zz ) = 0 (2)
r ∂r ∂z
where σ rr , σ zz , and σ φφ are normal stresses in the radial, axial and azimuthal directions, respectively, and
σ φφ is the shear stress. Integrating the above equation in control volume V of a solid material bounded surface S
and substituting the stress-strain equation we get von Mises stress [5], it can be written as
1
3
σ von = ( Sij Sij ) 2 (3)
2
where S ij is the stress deviator
1
Sij = σ ij − σ kkδ ij
3
In AH model, the creep strain rate and the multiplication rate of the mobile dislocation density can be expressed
as follows:
Q
N m = Kk0 (τ eff ) p + λ exp(− ) N m
kT (4)

τ eff = J 2 − D N m
(5)
1
J2 = (6)
Sij Sij
1
Sij = σ ij − σ kk δ ij (7)
3

Where B-Burgers Vectors, τ eff - Effective stress, k-Boltzmann constant, T- Absolute temperature in the
silicon crystal. N m - Density of mobile dislocations. S ij - Deviatory stress, J 2 -Second invariant of the deviatoric
stress, D- Strain harding factor, K 0 ,k and p –matrix constant [6].

2. Results and discussion

Solar cell performance is mainly affected by the multiplication of dislocation density. Dislocations are
generated from thermal stress due to the temperature gradients during the solidification process. The temperature
gradient can be controlled by the movement of bottom or side wall insulation. The crystal growth process was
simulated at different side insulation movement (0.2 mm/min, 0.3mm/min and 0.4 mm/min). The growth process
was simulated in 35 hours. Initially the insulation was closed. During the solidification process, side wall
insulation was moved upwards up to 20 cm linearly and kept constant throughout the growth process .The furnace
temperature was measured throughout the growth process. The temperature of the heat exchanger block for
different side insulation movement with respect to the time is shown in Fig. 2. From the figure, it shows that the
heat loss will be less in the case of 0.2 mm/min. Heat flux is main role for creation of thermal stress during the
solidification. Fig. 3. is shown in maximum heat flux from the crucible during the solidification. Initially it is
raised because of insulation does not move. heat flux is minimum in 0.2 mm/min and it is also thermal stress is
low 0.2 mm/min compared to 0.3 and 0.4 mm/min side insulation movement. The thermal stress in different
sidewall movement is shown Fig. 4.

381
 Fig. 2. Temperature Profile of heat exchanger block for different insulation movement with respect to time

Fig. 3. Heat flux in quartz crucible during the solidification

2.1 Thermal Stress and Dislocation density

The von Mises stress is nothing but the thermal stress. The figure 4 a, b, and C are the thermal stress at the
final stage of the process for the side wall movement of 0.2 mm/min, 0.3 mm/min, 0.4 mm/min. Among the three
cases 0.2 mm/min is desirable because the thermal stress in this case is very low compared to 0.3 mm/min and
0.4 mm/min. The maximum thermal stress observed in 0.2 mm/min is 5.16 E5 Pa where other cases have 6.8 E5
Pa, 7.6 E5 Pa corresponding to 0.3 and 0.4 mm/min respectively. The obtained results show lower thermal stress
value compared to reported one [2]. Thermal stress is mainly affected the dislocation density and it is affected
conversion efficiency of mc-Si ingot. The dislocation density of mc-Si is based on Haasan-Alexander-Sumino
model. The dislocation cluster are nucleated generated at near the melt-crystal interface [7]. Figure 5 is shown
that dislocation density for different insulation movement. From this figure maximum dislocation cluster occurs
at near melt-crystal interface. The dislocation is density observed in 0.2 mm/min is 6.68 E6 m-2 where other cases
have 1.2 E10 m-2, 1.12 E10 m-2 corresponding to 0.3 and 0.4 mm/min respectively, from this results 0.2 mm/min
insulation movement rate lower dislocation density compare to 0.3 and 0.4 mm/min. The Max dislocations occur
at the top of the mc-si ingot.

382
a b

Fig. 4. Thermal stress with different sidewall movement (a) 0.2 mm/min, (b) 0.3 mm/min & (c) 0.4 mm/min respectively.

a b

Fig. 5. Dislocation density with different sidewall movement (a) 0.2 mm/min, (b) 0.3 mm/min & (c) 0.4 mm/min
respectively.

383
3. Conclusion

The best tool to grow a good quality multi-crystalline silicon ingot in the DS process is the numerical
simulation. The thermal stress and dislocation density for different speed of side insulation movement were
analyzed. Dislocation density is generated from the thermal stress and they also affects the conversion efficiency
of mc-Si ingot. From our simulation results the case with insulation movement velocity 0.2mm/min has the lowest
thermal stress and dislocation density. The dislocation density is higher in the top of the mc-Si ingot. Our
simulation results may be used to grow better mc-Si ingot for PV application.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Government of
India (Order no: 31/58/2013-2014/PVSE & 15-01-2015).

References

[1] Jiuan Wei et al . Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells. 93 (2009) 1531–1539.
[2] XIaofang Qi, et al. Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells. 2014 pp 118-123.
[3] S. Wang et al. Crystal Research and Technology. 2013 Vol 48 No 7,454-463.
[4] Koichi Kakimoto et al. Solid State Phenomena. Vols. 156-158 (2010) pp 193-198.
[5] X.J. Chan et al. Journal of Crystal growth. 2008 pp 4330-4335.
[6] S.Nakano et al. Journal of crystal Growth. 318 (2011) 280-282.
[7] B. Ryningen et al. Acta metarialia. 59 (2011) 7703–7710.
[8] Changlin Ding et al. Journal ofCrystalGrowth. 387(2014)73–80.
[9] Zhiyong Wu et al. Journal ofCrystalGrowth. 426(2015)110–116.
[10] H.S. Fang et al. Journal of Crystal Growth. 346 (2012) 5–11.

384
 ICAER-2015

Shading and Mismatch Effect on the Performance of PV Module

Sukanya Buragohain a, Sadhan Mahapatra a,1, Nabin Sarmah a, Sanjai Kumar b

a
Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784028, Assam, India
b
Solar Photovoltaic Group, Central Electronics Limited, Sahibabad 201010, India

Abstract

The installation of a PV system at a place for optimum yield is influenced by various factors; geographic location,
system design and various atmospheric parameters of the location. This study presents the effect of shading and mismatch in
the module inter-connection configuration and mismatch in the characteristic of the individual cells of a module. Different
percentage area of a single cell of a module is shaded and current generation and output power of the module at varying solar
radiation is measured. Non-uniformity in the behavior of the module power output is also observed when single cell of a
100Wp module is shaded individually at a time at constant radiation. This behavior of the cells or module leads to mismatch
effect on the module performance which affects the overall output of a plant. Mismatch effect is also observed by connecting
a number of different capacity modules together in different connection configurations. The array consisting of the different
module configuration showed different behavior when exposed to constant radiation thus leading to a decrease in the current
generation of the system by 80%, thereby decreasing the total energy generation capacity of the entire system.
Keywords: Shading, mismatch, performance, photovoltaic

1. Introduction

The installation of a PV system for optimum yield is primarily influenced by geographic location (latitude,
longitude and available solar radiation), installation design (tilt angle, orientation and altitude) to maximize solar
exposure, environmental factors like ambient temperature, wind, humidity, dust, rain etc. and the type of the
module technology used i.e. mono-crystalline, poly-crystalline or thin film [1]. Among the different factors,
shading and mismatch effect on a PV plant leads to a considerable loss in the total output power of the plant
depending on the intensity and area of shading and the mismatch in the connection configuration of the
modules. Shading can be due to a tree branch, bird dropping, building or module dust. When the cells of the
array are shaded, the photo current generated reduces thus reducing the total system performance. The shaded
cell acts as a resistive load and absorbs the power from the un-shaded cells. The large dissipation of power from
the shaded cell results in local overheating or hotspots. During installation, specific measurement of the area
must be done so that there is no front row shading phenomenon [2]. The effect of mismatch is observed when
solar cells or modules having different properties are connected to form a module or an array. This causes
serious problems as under worst case condition the output of the PV module is determined by the solar cell with
the lowest output which reduces the overall efficiency of the system. These factors for mismatch include
manufacturing mismatch of the cells, thermal gradients within an array which directly affects the power output,
uneven soiling, cloud shading and refraction, failed bypass diodes which may persist for the full lifetime of the
system, voltage drop in the additional components, variable degradation of the solar cells and accumulated wear
and tear of mechanical and electrical components [3].

Effect of shadow influence on the module is difficult to model as it depends on various parameters such as
the configuration of the PV array, the relative rate of shadow, and the shaded area of the module. For the same
percentage of the shading on a PV array, the impact can vary from 0% to 100% depending on where the shadow
forms and also the topology of the module circuit in the PV array [4]. Mohammedi et al. experimentally
observed the effect of shading on a PV pumping system with an array of 990W with 55W module connected to
each other into three parallel strings and each string consisting of six series of module for a period of 33 days in
the month of June and July, 2013. Different configurations of shading was studied and found that significant
shading can reduce the PV output to about 50%. Thus in order to reduce shading, proper location for installation
must be chosen and recommended the use of electronic controller to reconfigure the system according to the
shaded part [5]. Taha and Salih evaluated the effect of shading on a solar PV module by covering 25%, 50%,

1
Corresponding author: Tel: (+91) 3712 275306
E-mail: sadhan.mahapatra@gmail.com

385
75% and 100% of the module and compared it with an un-shaded module at constant radiation and temperature.
This study observed that the current of the module decreases with the increase in shading from zero to 100% [6].
Ramaprabha and Mathur studied the harmful effects of partial shading on the performance of a PV module with
a PSPICE simulation model representing 36 cells PV module. The study was conducted under partial shaded
conditions to test several shading profiles. It was concluded that a substantial power loss occurs due to non-
uniform illumination of a series string with the power generated by the highly illuminated cells wasted as heat in
the poorely illuminated cells emphasizing the need to have uniform illumination under different shading patterns
[7]. Yunyun et al. determined the effect of frame shadow on a Photovoltaic/Thermal system using a
mathematical model which showed that the performance of a partly shaded cell can be calculated as it operates
below the average radiation intensity of the shaded and un-shaded parts with a worst case scenario of 39.3%
decrease in the efficiency of the system [8]. Sun et al. analyzed the effect of shading on a grid connected PV
system in Northwest China. This study concluded that shading affects the electrical properties of a PV module
and observed different impact on the output of a PV module when same shading area was applied on different
position of the module [9]. Fialho et al. adopted a heuristic method to obtain the I-V and P-V curves of a series
connected mono-crystalline PV system and presented a simulation for partial shading of the system to illustrate
a feasible assessment for designing a PV system. The partial shading simulation was carried out with two PV
modules connected in series with bypass diode connected across the modules. Due to non-uniform illumination
of the two series modules two local maximum power peaks were obtained thus posing a difficulty to the
maximum power point tracking [10]. Patel and Agarwal with the help of MATLAB based modeling and
simulation studied the effect of partial shading on the I-V and P-V characteristics of a PV array and observed
that the array configuration of the modules significantly affected the maximum power available under partial
shading condition [11]. Alsayid et al. analyzed the impact of different shading particularly partial shading in a
PV array first by simulation using Matlab/Simulink and then illustrated experimentally on a series connected
two 140 W PV module for verifying the validity of the simulation results [12].

Lu et al. investigated the performance of various module layouts when one or more cells in the modules
were partially shaded. A SPICE software Micro-Cap was used for simulation where a shadow with zero
transmittance was simulated to pass over an area of one 6-inch solar cell in the corner of a module from two
orthogonal directions and the maximum power was calculated for each configuration. The results showed that a
series-parallel hybrid connection of cells in a module has a significant improvement on the output power under
partial shading conditions [13]. Kanters and Davidsson examined the effect of mutual shading on the technical
and economic aspect of a PV system installed on a flat roof [14]. A comparison was performed between an un-
shaded and shaded module with different row distances and inclination angles. This study found that a row
distance less than 1 meter affected the output of the modules due to mutual shading. A system with 0 degree
inclination angle and 0 meter row distance was found to be the most favorable configuration in a small roof
whereas a small row distance between sections was found to be mandatory in case of a larger roof . This study
showed that the row distance and inclination angle are an important factor to be kept in mind while designing a
big system on a flat roof. Thakkar et al. emphasized the nonlinear impact of partial shading on the PV
performance by incorporating a model calibrated with data from Tucson Electric Power solar test yard. Shading
de rating factors of the model were compared with the daily data for a year [15]. It was observed that the system
generated 22% more kWh for the month of December, when the modules were separated by twice the distance
and predicted the generation of 1.5 times as many kWh/yr per square-meter of land in a system with 12 degree
inclination angle compared to a system with modules at 32-degrees inclination angle thus showing a nonlinear
impact on the PV system performance. Picault et al. proposed a method to simulate PV arrays with adaptable
module interconnection to reduce the mismatch losses [16]. This study experimentally validated the model by
taking a 2.2 kWp plant with three different interconnection schemes. The experimental work on alternative array
configuration showed a rise in 4 % of the output power in partially shaded condition with respect to traditional
module interconnection schemes. Wurster and Schubert analyzed the effect of current mismatch and shading on
the power out of PV module [17]. This study found that for most configuration of PV system, strings of
different length in parallel to several others having an equal module count have a mismatch loss below 1 %. The
mismatch losses were found to be below 0.5% when one string is shorter. Guerrero et al. measured the
performance of a photovoltaic array consisting of different technologies under ambient condition with an
AMPROBE Solar Analyzer [18]. The array curves obtained were validated with a model developed in
MATLAB Simulink and found a loss of 20 % in the output of the array due to module mismatch which lead to
scenarios for conceivable modifications in the planning of PV field configurations. Wang and Hsu studied five
different configurations of PV cells i.e. the simple series (SS) configuration, series parallel (SP), total cross tied
(TCT), bridge linked (BL) and honey comb (HC) configuration to compare their performance under partial
shading condition [19]. By using Newton Raphson algorithm the comparison of the maximum power and fill
factor of the five connection configuration was carried out and found that in most cases the TCT configuration
had superior performance over the other four connection configuration. Belhachat and Larbes also analyzed the

386
performance of different PV array configuration by modeling the array using model of Bishop and
implementing using Simulink/ Simpower software [20]. The result confirmed the superiority of TCT
configuration under partial shading condition. In addition the results confirmed the equivalent power production
of all the configurations under uniform illumination and pointed out that for determining the optimal and
appropriate configuration the shading, its pattern, location of shading and type of shading of a place must be
analyzed before installing a system. In this study the effect of shading and mismatch in the module inter-
connection configuration and mismatch in the characteristic of the individual cells of a module are
experimentally studied. The mismatch and shading is also analysed using Simulink/MATLB simulation tool.

Nomenclature

Voc open circuit voltage

Isc short circuit current
Pmax maximum power
Vpm voltage at maximum power
Ipm current at maximum power
Vld load voltage
Ild load current
Pvld load power
FF fill factor
η efficiency

2. Modelling and experimental method

To understand the effect of shading on the different solar cell configuration and modules an indoor
experimental set-up is used and solar simulator is used for constant solar radiation. More detailed analysis on the
mismatch effect is carried out by MATLAB simulation followed by experimental validation using the same set-
up.

2.1 Experimental method for shading analysis

The effect of shading is observed in a 35 Wp module inclined at 250 angle in an outdoor environment by
randomly choosing cell and artificially shaded different percentage of area of the cell with a black chart paper.
The open circuit voltage (V oc ) and short circuit current (I sc ) of the module is measured at different shaded area
of the cell of the module (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) as shown in Fig.1. A variable load in the form of a
rheostat is connected to the module and the voltage and current generated from the module at varying solar
radiation at different shaded condition is recorded. A similar kind of experiment is also performed considering a
100Wp module under a solar simulator, (1000W/m2 radiation) Spire 350i to study the shading effect. In this
module, individual cells are shaded at a time with a black chart paper, where other cells are exposed to a
constant radiation of the solar simulator. Fig. 2 presents the cell number of the 100Wp module. I-V
characteristic of the module is measured each time, considering different cell shaded. Similarly, different
combinations of cells are shaded to observe the impact of shading on the performance characteristic of the
module.

Fig.1. Different shading patters used for studying the shading effect (shown with black colour on a solar cell)

387
 17 39 29 7
26 21 35 18
19 3 25 24
12 33 16 5
1 40 11 20
13 38 30 22
10 37 23 8
9 32 34 31
36 2 6 28
Fig.2. Solar cell arrangement in a 100W p module

2.2 Simulation and experimental set-up for mismatch analysis

The mismatch effect on the voltage, current and output power of an array is studied by connecting five
modules of different ratings in different array configurations (series, parallel and various combinations of series
and parallel, denote as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and K) and exposing the configurations to a constant
radiation of 1000 W/m2 under a solar simulator. The Voc, Isc and maximum power profile of the various
configurations are obtained and analyzed for the different connection configurations. Table 1 presents the
performance characteristics of the five modules considered. A model to understand the mismatch effect of the
PV modules in an array, MATLAB Simulink model is developed. The block diagram of the model developed
for the simulation study is shown in Fig.3. The PV module is modelled based on the standard solar cell model or
equivalent circuit. The block diagram shows one representative configuration. Modules of different specification
(as given in Table 1) and configurations (as shown in Fig.4) are used in this study. For experimental analysis
and validation of the developed model, an indoor characterization set-up with a solar simulation is used. The
Spire Sun Simulator 350i is used to test the photovoltaic modules under simulated air mass of 1.5. Pulsed Xenon
light is used as the light source which matches the solar spectrum. A standard radiation of 1000W/m2 is used for
this study. The same configurations as shown in figure 3 are used in mismatch simulation studies for
experimental validation.

Table 1 Specification and performance of the module used for studying the effect of mismatch
Module number PM5 PM6 PM12 PM18 PM24
Parameters 1 2 3 4 5
V oc (V) 21.71 21.76 21.93 22.04 21.47
I sc (A) 0.38 0.45 0.87 1.27 1.65
P max 6.05 7.17 14.64 21.77 26.81
V pm 17.11 17.54 18.13 18.4 18.2
I pm 0.35 0.41 0.81 1.18 1.47
V ld 16.4 16.4 16.4 16.4 16.4
I ld 0.36 0.42 0.83 1.22 1.53
P vld 5.95 6.93 13.61 19.9 25.14
FF 0.73 0.73 0.76 0.78 0.76
η (%) 6.96 8.25 16.86 8.51 10.49

Fig.3. Block diagram of the MATLAB Simulink model for simulation of PV module mismatch analysis

388
 Configuration A Configuration B Configuration C

Configuration D Configuration E Configuration F

Configuration G Configuration H Configuration I

Configuration J Configuration K

Fig.4. Different module connection configuration

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Shading effect

I-V and P-V curve depicts the drop in the current and power output due to shading of different percentage
area of a single cell (Fig.5). It is observed that the power output of the module decreases with the increase in the
shaded area of the module, which is obvious in photovoltaics. A small amount of shading leads to a large
deviation in the I-V and P-V profiles from the actual module characteristic. Due to the partial shading, the cell is
subjected to non-uniform illumination and therefore the current generated by the cell decreases. Since the cells
are in series in a module, shading of a single cell causes the current in the string to drop to the level of the
shaded cell. It is found that the output of the module decreases proportionally to the shaded area of the cell.
Thus with the increase in shading, the current generated by the cell decreases which results in a substantial
power loss due to non-uniform illumination in a series string of the module. A non- uniformity in the module I-
V characteristic is observed due to shading of individual cells of the 100Wp module. The Isc and Voc of the
module exhibit a variation in their drop on shading the different cells connected at different positions in the
module (Fig.6). Isc decreases at a higher rate than the Voc of a cell which leads to unexpected difference in the
cell behaviour resulting in changing of the module I-V curve dynamically due to different shading patterns. It
can be incurred that, on shading cell number 11, module has the highest percentage of drop in Isc, which
reduces the module output as the current generated by the weakest cell is the maximum that can flow through
the module circuit. In case of cell number 33, a minimum impact on the module performance is observed as

389
shading this cell have a minimum impact on the module Isc. The percentage drop in Isc for each cell is shown in
Fig.7. Thus a difference is observed in the behaviour of the cells on shading. This difference in cell behaviour
results may be due to different intrinsic and extrinsic material defects of the cell. The rate of recombination of
carrier, minority carrier lifetime, diffusion length etc. forms some of the intrinsic defects. Micro cracks, broken
fingers and poor cell contacts form some of the extrinsic defects which results in different performance of the
cells in a module.

3.0 30
0% shading
25% shading 0% shading
2.5 25 25% shading
50% shading
75% shading 50% shading
2.0 20
Current (A)

75% shading

Power (W)
1.5 15

1.0 10

0.5 5

0.0 0
0 5 10 15 20
0 5 10 15 20 Voltage (V)
Voltage (V)
(a) (b)
Fig.5. (a) I-V and (b)P-V profiles of 35 Wp module under different shading

(a) (b)
Fig.6. (a) Variation of Isc and (b) Variation of Voc when different cells are shaded in a 100 Wp module

Fig.7. Percentage drop in Isc when individual cells are shaded

3.2 Mismatch effect

The study on the mismatch effect on the connection of different rated modules in number of configuration
shows that there can be significant loses in certain configurations. It is observed that the Voc for configuration
A (modules are connected in series) is maximum whereas Isc is minimum. The overall Voc is the summation of
the open circuit voltage of the modules in the configuration and overall Isc is that of the lowest rated module. In
configuration B, Isc is the maximum as the modules are in parallel combination the current gets summed up.
Similarly when five modules are connected in number of combinations, Isc and Voc varies as the modules
configuration varies; accordingly the maximum power output of the module also varies. Fig.8 shows the
experimental values of Isc, Voc and Pmax, which also validates the simulation results for the mismatch study.

390
The validation analysis shows a good agreement of simulation and experimental results except the
configurations C, D, E. Further investigation for these configurations is being carried out for validation of the
model.
120

Voc (Simulation)
100 Voc (Experiment)

80

Voc (V)
60

40

20

0
A B C D E F G H I J K
Configurations
(a)
6

5 Isc (Simulation)
Isc (Experiment)
4
Isc (A)

0
A B C D E F G H I J K
Configurations
(b)
90
80
Pmax (Simulation)
70
Pmax (Experiment)
Power output (W)

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
A B C D E F G H I J K
Configurations
(c)
Fig.8. Variation of (a) Isc, (b) Voc and (c) Pmax of the different module configuration

4. Conclusions

It is observed from the shading analysis that on shading a single cell the output power of a module decreases
and this drop in the performance increases with the increase in shading area. It is also observed a non-
uniformity in the behavior of the cells when single cell of a module is shaded individually. This non-uniformity
results due to various extrinsic and intrinsic differences of similar types of the cells of the module. This behavior
of cells as well shading of a cell or module leads to mismatch effect on the module performance which affects
the overall module output. The mismatch effect is also observed when a number of different capacity modules
are connected together. These effects can lead to a decrease in the current generation up to 80%, thereby
decrease in power output of the module. It is also noted that this study cannot be generalised for all the modules
available in the market for this specific configuration and mismatch. However, the study has given a clear
indication both quantitative and qualitative manner about the losses that arises due to the partial shading and
mismatch of the module specifications in a particular configurations.

391
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392
 ICAER-2015

Energy savings in radial distribution systems with intermittent

wind power and probabilistic load demands
Sooraj Narayan Ka, Ashwani Kumarb*
a
National Instituite of Technologyy, Kurukshetra, 136119, India
b
National Instituite of Technologyy, Kurukshetra, 136119, India

Abstract

This paper discusses the energy savings in radial distribution systems with wind turbine integration with probabilistic load
power demands. The energy savings are determined by calculating the difference cost of energy losses of the distribution
system without and with the wind power source. Deterministic load flow (DLF) studies do not incorporate the randomness of
the load power demands. The probabilistic load flow (PLF) method incorporates this randomness to provide more realistic
and accurate results regarding the performance of the system. In this paper, the load and the substation voltages of the
distribution system are considered as random variables for the calculation of energy savings. The main contributions of this
paper are: i) Comparison of annual energy savings and cost of energy losses obtained using DLF and PLF calculations ii)
Analysis of 24 hour energy savings of radial distribution systems with the integration of wind turbines using practical 24
hour wind data iii) Comparison of energy savings of radial distribution systems for winter and summer seasons. The
comparison of energy loss savings is done on deterministic and probabilistic platforms. The study is conducted for winter
and summer seasons using the corresponding hourly wind data for both seasons and hourly load demand curves for both
seasons. This study can help extensively in the realistic analysis of radial distribution systems with renewable integration.
The results are obtained for a standard IEEE 33 bus radial distribution system.
Keywords: Radial Distribution Systems;Wind Turbine Integration;Probabilistic Load Flow;Energy Savings

1. Introduction

Electric power systems are in a continuous state of evolution and are fast evolving into a completely
intelligent system [1]. Distributed Generation (DG) has procured an expanded enthusiasm for as far back as
decade because of the techno-socio-economical advantages provided by it. The techniques and strategies
embraced for the planning and operation of the customary unidirectional power system frameworks must be
altered and remade with the mix of DG's into the distribution systems. This is chiefly in view of the fact that
DG's convert the formerly passive distribution system into an active one. The different benefits of integrating
DGs into the distribution system have been well examined and explored in the past [3-5]. Among its various
benefits, the integration of DG units in distribution systems provides significant savings in the cost energy
losses. The total power losses are reduced with DG integration and hence the energy losses are also reduced.
Accurate estimation of annual energy savings with the integration of DG resources plays a very important role
in the planning of power distribution systems.
Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of energy. In the year 2014, the annual installation level
rose up to 50GW, while in 2013, the annual installations were about 35 GW [6]. Wind power integration into
the distribution system also poses some technical challenges. The modeling of these resources is a significantly
important part of the analysis. Since the wind speed is intermittent, probabilistic distribution functions are be
used to model these variables [7]. The impacts of renewable integration on distribution system parameters have
to be studied before integration in order to ensure system security and reliability.
For the analysis of a distribution system to be realistic, the instantaneous dynamism of the system has to be
taken into consideration while performing load flow studies. One of the vital steps in that direction is the load
flow analysis of the distribution system in a probabilistic perspective. The probabilistic analysis can incorporate
the stochastic behavior of the distribution system [8]. It can help provide better and more accurate results
regarding various system variables. Precise and accurate modelling of feeder loads is essential for any study
regarding distribution systems. In addition to modelling the load probabilistically, this work has also considered
real time stochastic intermittency of substation voltages also [9].

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +911744233389; fax: +911744238050.

E-mail address: ashwani.k.sharma@nitkkr.ac.in

393
 In [10], the authors discussed the energy loss savings for a mesh distribution system in the presence of
distributed generation. In the above referenced paper, the authors also incorporated the impacts of time varying
realistic ZIP load models on the energy loss savings of mesh distribution systems with DG penetration. In [11],
the authors discussed the use of capacitor banks for maximizing the net energy savings in radial distribution
systems. The maximization of energy savings is done in the referenced paper by minimizing the power losses
using various algorithms like Cuckoo search and Bat algorithm. In [12], the authors proposed a new algorithm
for the accurate estimation of energy savings in a smart distribution network for Volt/Var control. The algorithm
presented in the referenced paper for energy saving estimation is non-intrusive in nature. In [13], the authors
presented a new methodology for allocating capacitors in distribution systems based on maximizing the energy
loss reduction. The maximization of reduction in energy losses effectively maximizes the increase in energy
savings with capacitor allocation. In [14], the authors presented the use of artificial bee colony algorithm for the
maximization of net annual cost savings of energy loss with optimally allocated capacitor banks in radial
distribution systems. In [15], the authors discussed about the energy savings by using energy efficient
distribution transformers. In [16], the authors discussed the planning of energy saving modification or ESM for
distribution networks.
In [17], the authors presented the use of a two-point estimate method for the probabilistic load flow in order
to analyze a distribution system considering wind generation. A new probabilistic load flow method was
proposed based on voltage drop calculation for distribution systems with wind power in [18]. In [19], integration
of wind power and electric vehicles were both considered to carry out a constrained probabilistic load flow of
distribution systems. In [20], the unsymmetrical two point estimate method is used to solve the probabilistic
load flow problem of distribution networks with integrated wind and solar PV modules.
The literature review for this paper has revealed that very few authors have addressed the energy savings in
distribution systems with intermittent wind power integration. Many authors have focused on analysing the
specific economic benefits of wind energy integration in distribution networks like power loss reduction and
voltage profile improvement. Even though many of these works have incorporated the probabilistic nature of the
system, the accurate estimation of annual energy savings from a probabilistic perspective with wind integration
needs to be addressed.
In this paper, the energy savings are determined by calculating the cost of losses of the system without and
with the wind power source. The energy losses before and after wind turbine integration are compared to obtain
the energy loss savings. This comparison of energy loss savings is done on deterministic and probabilistic
platforms. The probabilistic load flow or PLF is solved using the Monte Carlo Simulation or MCS method. The
study is conducted for winter season and summer season using the corresponding 24 hour wind data for both
seasons and 24 hour load demand curves for both seasons. The main contributions of this paper are: i)
Comparison of annual energy savings obtained using DLF and PLF calculations ii) Analysis of 24 hour energy
savings of radial distribution systems with the integration of wind turbines using practical 24 hour wind data iii)
Comparison of energy savings of radial distribution systems for winter and summer seasons. The cost of energy
losses are computed mathematically from the total annual energy loses of the system. The comparison of energy
loss savings is done on deterministic and probabilistic platforms. The study is conducted for winter season and
summer season using the corresponding 24 hour wind data for both seasons and 24 hour load demand curves for
both seasons. The results are obtained for a standard IEEE 33 bus radial distribution system [21].

Nomenclature

COSTEL Cost of energy losses

𝐸𝑆 Energy savings
𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑡 Operating cost of wind turbine for hour 𝑡
𝑃𝐿,𝑖 Active load power demand at bus 𝑖
𝑄𝐿,𝑖 Reactive load power demand at bus 𝑖
𝑃𝑤 Power output of wind turbine in MW
𝑣 Wind speed in m/s
𝑣𝑐𝑖 Cut-in speed of the wind turbine in m/s,
𝑣𝑐𝑜 Cut-out speed of the wind turbine in m/s,
𝑣𝑟 Rated speed of the wind turbine in m/s,
𝑃𝑟 Rated power output of the wind turbine in MW
𝑉𝑆𝐼 Voltage stability index

394
2. Cost of energy losses, energy savings and cost of wind

2.1 Cost of energy losses

Based on the mathematical equation presented in [10], the annual cost of energy losses (COSTEL ) can be
calculated as follows:
COSTEL =(Total Real Power Loss)*(𝐾𝑃 + 𝐾𝐸 ∗ 𝐿𝑠𝑓 ∗ 8760) $ (1)
where
𝐾𝑃 : Annual demand cost of power loss ($/kW)
𝐾𝐸 : Annual cost of energy loss ($/kWh)
𝐿𝑠𝑓 : Loss factor
Loss factor 𝐿𝑠𝑓 can be defined in terms of load factor (𝐿𝑓 ) as:
𝐿𝑠𝑓 = 𝑘𝑐 ∗ 𝐿𝑓 + 1 − 𝑘𝑐 ∗ 𝐿𝑓 2 (2)
The values taken for the calculations are [10]:𝑘𝑐=0.2, 𝐿𝑓 =0.47, 𝐾𝑃 =57.6923 $/kW, 𝐾𝐸 = 0.00961538
$/kWh

2.2 Energy savings

The energy savings or the savings in cost of energy losses is obtained as follows:
𝐸𝑆 = 𝐶𝑂𝑆𝑇𝐸𝐿 𝑤𝑜𝑊𝑇 − 𝐶𝑂𝑆𝑇𝐸𝐿 𝑊𝑇 $ (3)
Where 𝐶𝑂𝑆𝑇𝐸𝐿 𝑤𝑜𝑊𝑇
is the cost of energy losses without wind turbine integration and 𝐶𝑂𝑆𝑇𝐸𝐿 𝑊𝑇 is the cost of
energy losses with wind turbine integration.

2.3 Cost of wind

The cost of operating the wind turbine for each hour 𝑡 (𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑡 ) can be calculated as follows [22]:
𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑡 = 𝑎𝑤 𝑈𝑤 ,𝑡 + 𝑏𝑤 𝑃𝑤 ,𝑡 (4)
where
𝑎𝑤 : Fixed costs of the wind turbine
𝑏𝑤 : Variable cost coefficient of the wind turbine
𝑈𝑤 ,𝑡 : Coefficient denoting the operational availability of the wind turbine for hour 𝑡 (1- available, 0-not
available)
𝑃𝑤 ,𝑡 : Power output of wind turbine for hour 𝑡 in MW.
The values of the coefficients taken for determining the hourly costs of wind turbine are [22]:
𝑎𝑤 =12.8 $, 𝑏𝑤 =75 $/MWh, 𝑈𝑤 ,𝑡 =1 for all the 24 hours of study.

3. Modeling of parameters

3.1 Wind power source modeling

The uncertainty of wind turbine output at any location mainly arises due to the variation in wind speed and
air density. Since wind speed varies frequently, it is considered to be a random variable in the radial power flow
calculation. In this paper, the Weibull distribution has been used to sample wind speed. The Weibull distribution
function is a two parameter function which is used to describe wind speed mathematically as [18]:
𝒌 𝒗 −𝒗
𝒇 𝒗 = ( )𝒌−𝟏 𝒆𝒙𝒑( )𝒌 ,𝟎 ≤ 𝒗 ≤ ∞ (5)
𝒄 𝒄 𝒄
where 𝒗 is the wind speed in m/s, 𝒌 is the shape parameter and 𝒄 is the scale parameter.
The power output from a wind turbine is given by the following equation [17]:
𝟎, 𝒗 ≤ 𝒗𝒄𝒊
𝒌𝟏 𝒗 + 𝒌𝟐 , 𝒗𝒄𝒊 < 𝑣 < 𝒗𝒓
𝑷𝒘 = (6)
𝑷𝒓 , 𝒗𝒓 < 𝑣 < 𝒗𝒄𝒐
𝟎, 𝒗 > 𝒗𝒄𝒐
where, 𝑃𝑤 is the power output of wind turbine in MW, 𝑣𝑐𝑖 is the cut-in speed of the wind turbine in m/s, 𝑣𝑐𝑜 is
the cut-out speed of the wind turbine in m/s, 𝑣𝑟 is the rated speed of the wind turbine in m/s, 𝑃𝑟 is the rated
𝑷
power output of the wind turbine in MW, 𝒌𝟏 = 𝒓 and 𝒌𝟐 = −𝒌𝟏 ∗ 𝒗𝒄𝒊 .
𝒗𝒓 −𝒗𝒄𝒊

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3.2 Probabilistic load modeling

The distribution system load demands are uncertain and this uncertainty is handled using probability
distribution functions. The probabilistic nature of load at each bus in a distribution system can be incorporated
into load flow studies by visualizing the loads as random variables distributed with a variance about a mean
value. The load demands at each bus are assumed to be random variables with Gaussian or Normal distribution
[17].
𝟏 (𝑷𝑳,𝒊 −µ 𝑷𝑳,𝒊 )𝟐
𝒇 𝑷𝑳,𝒊 = 𝒆𝒙𝒑 − (7)
𝝈𝑷𝑳,𝒊 𝟐𝝅 𝟐𝝈𝑷𝑳,𝒊 𝟐

𝟏 (𝑸𝑳,𝒊 −µ 𝑸𝑳,𝒊 )𝟐
𝒇 𝑸𝑳,𝒊 = 𝒆𝒙𝒑 − (8)
𝝈𝑸𝑳,𝒊 𝟐𝝅 𝟐𝝈𝑸𝑳,𝒊 𝟐

where, 𝑷𝑳,𝒊 and 𝑸𝑳,𝒊 are the active and reactive load demands at bus number 𝒊. µ𝑷𝑳,𝒊 , µ𝑸𝑳,𝒊 , 𝝈𝑷𝑳,𝒊 and 𝝈𝑸𝑳,𝒊 are the
mean and standard deviation values of load active and reactive powers respectively.

3.3 Probabilistic substation voltage modeling

The substation voltage may also vary instantaneously similar to the load variation. This instantaneous
variation in the substation voltage can be modelled using the normal distribution function [9].
𝟏 (𝑽𝒔/𝒔 −µ 𝑽𝒔/𝒔 )𝟐
𝒇 𝑽𝒔/𝒔 = 𝒆𝒙𝒑 − (9)
𝝈𝑽𝒔/𝒔 𝟐𝝅 𝟐𝝈𝑽𝒔/𝒔 𝟐

where, 𝑽𝒔/𝒔 is the nominal substation bus voltage (1.00 p.u.) and µ𝑽𝒔/𝒔 , 𝝈𝑽𝒔/𝒔 are the mean and standard
deviation values of substation voltage respectively.

4. Optimum location for wind turbine placement

The Voltage Stability Index (VSI) shown in (10) for was proposed by U.Emingolu and M.H.Hocauglu in
[24]. This index identifies the most voltage sensitive bus in the system. The bus with the least value of VSI is
the most sensitive bus and the DG is to be placed on that bus for voltage profile improvement. This index is
obtained from the two node distribution system shown in Fig 1.
𝑽𝑺𝑰 𝒓 = 𝟐𝑽𝟐𝒔 𝑽𝟐𝒓 − 𝑽𝟒𝒓 − 𝟐𝑽𝟐𝒓 𝑷𝑳,𝒓 𝑹 + 𝑸𝑳,𝒓 𝑿 − 𝒁 𝟐 (𝑷𝑳,𝒓 𝟐 − 𝑸𝑳,𝒓 𝟐 ) (10)
where 𝒔 and 𝒓 are the sending and receiving end nodes respectively. 𝑽𝒔 and 𝑽𝒓 are the sending and receiving
end voltages in per unit respectively.𝑷𝑳,𝒓 and 𝑸𝑳,𝒓 are the active and reactive power load at node 𝒓. 𝑹, 𝑿 and 𝒁
are the resistance, reactance and impedance of the line connecting nodes 𝒔 and 𝒓 respectively.

Fig. 1. One line diagram of a two bus distribution system

5. Wind power leveling

Weibull distribution function is used to produce samples of wind power outputs. Then, for each hour, the
power outputs are leveled into 𝑚 number of levels. Each level represents a power range of the wind turbine
power output. Let each level of wind power output be represented as 𝐿𝑗 , where 𝑗 is the level index. Then, the
probability of occurrence of every wind power level is calculated as:
Ѝ𝒋,𝒕
𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒋,𝒕 = (11)
Ƭ
where, 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒋,𝒕 is the probability of occurrence of wind power level 𝒋 and hour 𝒕, Ѝ𝒋,𝒕 is the number of wind
power samples in level 𝑗 and hour 𝒕 and Ƭ is the total number of wind power samples. The mean power output
of each power level is multiplied by the probability of occurrence of that level to get that actual wind turbine
output for that level.
𝑷𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅_𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒋,𝒕 = 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒋,𝒕 . 𝑷𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅_𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒋,𝒕 , ∀𝒋, ∀𝒕 (12)
where 𝑷𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅 _𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒋,𝒕 is the mean power output of level 𝐿𝑗 . For each hour, the output power of wind turbine is
determined as:
(𝑷𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏_𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒋,𝒕 ) , ∀𝒕
𝑷𝒘,𝒕 = 𝐦𝐚𝐱⁡ (13)

396
 6. Results and discussions

The results are obtained for the standard IEEE 33 bus radial distribution system given in [21]. The base
power of the system is 100 MVA and the base voltage is 12.66 KV. The total connected active power load is
3.72 MW and reactive power load is 2.30 MVAR. The deterministic load flow or the DLF of the distribution
system is carried out using the forward/backward load flow method [21]. The wind turbine selected for this
study has the following specifications: 𝑣𝑐𝑖 =2.5 m/s, 𝑣𝑟 =13 m/s, 𝑣𝑐𝑜 =25 m/s and 𝑃𝑟 =0.6 MW [25]. A total of 20
wind turbines are assumed to be integrated into the test distribution system. 24 hour data of a day is used to
represent the two seasons, winter and summer, of the year. The mean and standard deviation of 24 hour wind
speed data is obtained for Cape Comorin, a site in South India, for the months of January and May from [26].
The mean and standard deviations of wind speed for summer and winter seasons used in this paper are shown in
Fig. 2. The months of January and May represent winter and summer seasons respectively. From the mean and
standard deviation data, the Weibull parameters are determined and 15000 wind speed samples are generated for
each of the 24 hours using expressions (5). From the wind speed samples, wind power samples are also
generated for each hour using expression (6). Then, to determine the wind turbine power outputs to be applied to
the system for each hour, expressions (11), (12) and (13) are used. The final wind power outputs for each hour
of summer and winter seasons are shown in Fig. 3. The optimum bus for placing the wind turbines is obtained
using VSI. Bus 18 is observed to have the minimum VSI value and hence the wind turbines are placed here. The
wind turbines are assumed to be operating at unity power factor. The number of samples for MCS based PLF is
set to 15000. The data values of load at each load bus are assumed to be their respective mean values. A
standard deviation of 10% is set for each load bus. The substation voltage mean value is assumed to be 1.0 p.u.
The standard deviation of substation voltage model is set to 1.5% [9]. The load is also assumed to follow the
hourly load variation for summer and winter seasons according to the data given in IEEE-RTS [27]. The hourly
load in terms of daily peak load for 24 hours of winter and summer seasons are shown in Fig. 4.

Mean wind speed (m/s) for summer Standard deviation of wind speed (m/s) for summer
Mean wind speed (m/s) for winter Standard deviation of wind speed (m/s) for winter
7
6
Wind speed (m/s)

5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 2. Mean and standard deviations of wind speed for summer and winter seasons

Summer Winter
1200
Power output forf wind turbines

1000
800
600
(kW)

400
200
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 3. 24 hour power outputs of wind turbines for summer and winter seasons

397
 Winter Summer
120

Percentage of daily peak (%)

100
80
60
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 4. 24 Hourly load as a percentage of daily peak load for winter and summer

6.1. Comparison of results from DLF and PLF calculations

Table I and Table II shows the total real power losses (TPL), total reactive power losses (TQL), minimum
bus voltage (Vmin) and the cost of energy losses without wind turbine placement using DLF and PLF for
summer and winter without respectively. Table III and Table IV shows the total real power losses (TPL), total
reactive power losses (TQL), minimum bus voltage (Vmin), the cost of energy losses and the hourly operating
cost of wind turbines with wind turbine placement using DLF and PLF for summer and winter without
respectively. From the results obtained, it is evident that the cost of energy loss values estimated by PLF
calculations is higher than that estimated by DLF calculations. For example, from Table I, the cost of energy
losses obtained for hour 1 for summer without wind integration using DLF is 6564.597 $ and the value
estimated using PLF is 6574.495 $. Similarly, for hour 2, the cost of energy losses estimated is 5735.052 $ using
DLF and 5746.294 $ using PLF. This difference in the cost of energy losses occurs due to the difference in total
real power loss estimated by the DLF and PLF calculations. From Table I, the TPL value for hour 1 is estimated
as 81.61648 kW using DLF and 81.73955 kW using PLF. Similarly, for hour 2, the TPL value is estimated as
71.3029 kW using DLF and 71.44267 kW using DLF. A similar difference in the estimation of power loss
values and cost of energy loss values between DLF and PLF can be observed for all the hours for both seasons,
with and without wind turbine placement. For example, from Table II, the cost of energy losses obtained for
hour 1 for winter without wind integration using DLF is 7227.291 $ and the value estimated using PLF is
7238.246 $. Similarly, for hour 2, the cost of energy losses estimated is 6351.457 $ using DLF and 6363.966 $
using PLF. From Table II, the TPL value for hour 1 is estimated as 89.85564 kW using DLF and 89.99185 kW
using PLF. Similarly, for hour 2, the TPL value is estimated as 78.96655 kW using DLF and 79.12207 kW
using DLF. A similar difference in the estimation of reactive power loss values between DLF and PLF can be
observed for all the hours for both seasons, with and without wind turbine placement. The PLF method of
analysis is more realistic as it incorporates the uncertainties of various random variables of the system. Since the
PLF method of analysis is more realistic than DLF, the results obtained from PLF are also bound to be more
realistic. Hence, the DLF underestimates the power losses of the system and in effect underestimates the cost of
energy losses of the system. The results obtained from PLF are more accurate in nature for the precise analysis
of the system performance. For example, in the case of hour 14 and hour 15 in Table I, the DLF estimates the
real power losses as 210.9824 kW for both the hours. Hence, the cost of energy losses is also estimated to be the
same, 16969.78 for both the hours. But the PLF calculations show a slight difference in the real power loss
values, 211.338 kW for hour 14 and 211.3032 kW for hour 15. This means that the cost of energy losses are
estimated as 16998.39$ for hour 14 and 16995.59$ for hour 15. Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 5(b) shows the 24 hour
voltage profile of the 33 bus RDS before wind turbine placement during summer and winter seasons
respectively. Fig. 5(c) and Fig. 5(bd shows the 24 hour voltage profile of the 33 bus RDS after wind turbine
placement during summer and winter seasons respectively. On comparing these figures, it can be observed that
there is a notable improvement in the voltage profile of the distribution system in both summer and winter
seasons after wind turbine placement.

398
 1 1

0.98 0.98

Voltage(p.u.)
Voltage(p.u.)

0.96 0.96

0.94 0.94

0.92 0.92
25
0.9 25 0.9 20
35 30 20 35 30 15
25 20 15 25 20 10
15 10 15 5
10 5 5 10 5 0 Time(hours)
0 0 0
Bus number Time (hours) Bus number

Fig. 5(a). Voltage profile of the system for summer Fig. 5(b). Voltage profile of the system for winter

without wind integration without wind integration

1.04 1.04

1.02 1.02

1 1
Voltage(p.u.)
Voltage(p.u.)

0.98 0.98

0.96 0.96

0.94 0.94

0.92 20 20
35 0.92 10
30 25 10 35 30
20 15 10 25 20 15
5 0 0 Time(hours) 10 5 0 0 Time(hours)
Bus number Bus number
Fig. 5(c). Voltage profile of the system for summer Fig. 5(d). Voltage profile of the system for winter

with wind integration with wind integration

6.2. Comparison of results for summer and winter seasons

Fig. 6 shows the cost of energy losses in $ obtained from DLF and PLF calculations in summer and winter
seasons of the 33 bus RDS. Fig. 7 shows the comparison of total real power loss or TPL values obtained from
DLF and PLF calculations in summer and winter seasons of the 33 bus RDS. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of
total reactive power loss or TQL values obtained from DLF and PLF calculations in summer and winter seasons
of the 33 bus RDS. Fig. 9 shows the minimum bus voltage magnitudes (Vmin) for each hour obtained from DLF
and PLF calculations in summer and winter seasons of the 33 bus RDS. From Fig. 6, it is evident that there is a
significant reduction in the cost of energy losses of the system in both summer and winter seasons after
integrating the wind turbines. The reduction in the cost of energy losses happens due to the reduction in the total
real power loss of the system with wind power integration, as shown in Fig. 7.
From Fig. 7 and Table I, it can be observed that the minimum cost of energy losses is obtained for hour 5 in
summer season without wind turbine placement. The value of this minimum cost of energy losses for hour is
4966.203$ using DLF and 4973.194$ using PLF. The corresponding real and reactive power losses are 61.83085
kW and 41.86635 kVAR respectively. The minimum bus voltage for this hour is 0.948197 p.u. The minimum
cost of energy losses for summer season after wind turbine placement is also obtained for hour 5. The value of
this minimum cost of energy losses for hour is using 4719.639$ DLF and 4727.551$ using PLF. The
corresponding real and reactive power losses are 58.77682$ and 46.03493$ respectively. The minimum bus
voltage for this hour is 0.967655, which is higher than the minimum bus voltage for this hour without wind
turbine integration. The increase in the value minimum bus voltage indicates the improvement in the voltage
profile of the system. The operating cost of wind turbine in $ for this hour is 82.82936 as shown in Table III.
From Fig. 7 and Table II, it can be observed that the minimum cost of energy losses is obtained for hour 5 in
winter season without wind turbine placement. The value of this minimum cost of energy losses for hour 5 is
5537.195$ using DLF and 5545.03$ using PLF. The corresponding real and reactive power losses are 68.94039
kW and 46.6841 kVAR respectively. The minimum bus voltage for this hour is 0.945283. The minimum cost of

399
 energy losses for winter season after wind turbine placement is obtained for hour 4, as shown in Table IV. The
value of this minimum cost of energy losses for hour 4 in winter after wind turbine placement is 4142.408$
using DLF and 4152.688$ using PLF. The corresponding real and reactive power losses are 51.62964 kW and
37.69139 kVAR respectively. The minimum bus voltage for this hour is 0.9623 p.u. The corresponding
operating cost of wind turbine for this hour is 65.713934$. From these results, it is evident that the minimum
cost of energy losses after wind turbine placement is lower for summer season compared to winter season. From
Fig. 7 and Table I, it can be observed that the maximum cost of energy losses is obtained for hour 14 in summer
season without wind turbine placement. The value of this maximum cost of energy losses for hour is 16969.78$
using DLF and 16998.39$ using PLF. The corresponding real and reactive power losses are 211.338 kW and
143.2807 kVAR respectively. The minimum bus voltage for this hour is 0.903783 p.u. The cost of energy losses
for summer season after wind turbine placement for this hour is 11802.31$. The corresponding real and reactive
power losses are 146.736 kW and 100.3775 kVAR respectively. The minimum bus voltage for this hour is
0.928234 p.u. From Fig. 7 and Table II, it can be observed that the maximum cost of energy losses is obtained
for hour 18 in winter season without wind turbine placement. The value of this maximum cost of energy losses
for hour 18 is 17003.49$ using PLF. The corresponding real and reactive power losses are 211.4014 kW and
143.3208 kVAR respectively. The minimum bus voltage for this hour is 0.903771. The maximum cost of energy
losses for winter after wind turbine placement is obtained for hour 19, and the value is 12742.57$. The
corresponding real and reactive power losses are 158.4261 kW and 106.1036 kVAR respectively. The minimum
bus voltage for this hour is 0.923932 p.u. A comparison of hourly operating cost of wind turbines in $ is shown
in Fig. 10. From Fig. 10 and Table III, a minimum wind turbine operating cost of 62.62978$ is obtained for
summer season in hour 19. The minimum wind turbine operating cost for winter is 47.858522$, also obtained
for hour 19. The operating costs of wind turbines is generally lower for winter season compared to summer
season due to relatively lower mean wind speeds, as evident from Fig. 10. The increase in the minimum bus
voltages with wind turbine placement for summer and winter seasons can be observed from Fig. 9.
Summer without wind integration (DLF) Summer with wind integration (DLF) Winter without wind integration (DLF)
Winter with wind integration (DLF) Summer without wind integration (PLF) Summer with wind integration (PLF)
Winter without wind integration (PLF) Winter withwind integration (PLF)
20000
Cost of energy loss ($)

15000

10000

5000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11Time
12 (Hours)
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Fig. 6. Cost of energy losses ($) of 33 bus RDS

Summer without wind integration (DLF) Summer with wind integration (DLF) Winter without wind integration (DLF)
Winter with wind integration (DLF) Summer without wind integration (PLF) Summer with wind integration (PLF)
Winter without wind integration (PLF) Winter withwind integration (PLF)
250

200
TPL (kW)

150

100

50

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 7. Total real power loss (TPL) for the 33 bus RDS

400
 Table: I Comparison of results obtained from DLF and PLF without wind integration for summer season
DLF PLF
Hours Cost of Cost of
TPL TQL TPL TQL
Vmin (p.u.) energy Vmin (p.u.) energy losses
(kW) (kVAR) (kW) (kVAR)
losses ($) ($)
1 81.61648 55.26814 0.940382 6564.597 81.73955 55.35843 0.940383 6574.495
2 71.3029 48.27878 0.944299 5735.052 71.44267 48.37959 0.944291 5746.294
3 66.42999 44.9769 0.946246 5343.113 66.57026 45.07744 0.946243 5354.395
4 61.74394 41.80191 0.948187 4966.203 61.86379 41.88879 0.948184 4975.843
5 61.74394 41.80191 0.948187 4966.203 61.83085 41.86635 0.948197 4973.194
6 66.42999 44.9769 0.946246 5343.113 66.53314 45.05217 0.946246 5351.409
7 81.61648 55.26814 0.940382 6564.597 81.78438 55.38933 0.940368 6578.101
8 117.2334 79.41371 0.92846 9429.344 117.403 79.54064 0.928447 9442.99
9 156.3265 105.9295 0.917292 12573.69 156.6043 106.13 0.917288 12596.03
10 188.8401 127.9922 0.909017 15188.83 189.2592 128.294 0.908993 15222.54
11 206.4394 139.9379 0.904829 16604.38 206.8481 140.2326 0.904829 16637.26
12 210.9824 143.0219 0.903776 16969.78 211.2802 143.2366 0.903801 16993.74
13 206.4394 139.9379 0.904829 16604.38 206.7194 140.1451 0.904851 16626.91
14 210.9824 143.0219 0.903776 16969.78 211.338 143.2807 0.903783 16998.39
15 210.9824 143.0219 0.903776 16969.78 211.3032 143.2546 0.903793 16995.59
16 197.5258 133.8874 0.906927 15887.45 197.9171 134.1752 0.906905 15918.92
17 193.1547 130.9205 0.907973 15535.86 193.5728 131.2221 0.90796 15569.49
18 193.1547 130.9205 0.907973 15535.86 193.5737 131.2194 0.907965 15569.57
19 180.3797 122.2504 0.911098 14508.34 180.6534 122.4521 0.911097 14530.36
20 176.2332 119.4366 0.912136 14174.84 176.5358 119.6572 0.91213 14199.17
21 176.2332 119.4366 0.912136 14174.84 176.5818 119.6837 0.912134 14202.87
22 180.3797 122.2504 0.911098 14508.34 180.6481 122.451 0.9111 14529.94
23 156.3265 105.9295 0.917292 12573.69 156.7105 106.2047 0.917261 12604.57
24 104.5664 70.82498 0.932464 8410.507 104.7813 70.98045 0.932455 8427.798

Summer without wind integration (DLF) Summer with wind integration (DLF) Winter without wind integration (DLF)
Winter with wind integration (DLF) Summer without wind integration (PLF) Summer with wind integration (PLF)
Winter without wind integration (PLF) Winter withwind integration (PLF)
160

140

120

100
TQL (kVAR)

80

60

40

20

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 8. Total reactive power loss (TQL) for the 33 bus RDS

401
 Table: II Comparison of results obtained from DLF and PLF without wind integration for winter season
DLF PLF
Hours Cost of Cost of
TPL TQL TPL TQL
Vmin (p.u.) energy Vmin (p.u.) energy
(kW) (kVAR) (kW) (kVAR)
losses ($) losses ($)
1 89.85564 60.85252 0.937427 7227.291 89.99185 60.95242 0.937427 7238.246
2 78.96655 53.47221 0.941364 6351.457 79.12207 53.58435 0.941356 6363.966
3 71.3029 48.27878 0.944299 5735.052 71.45392 48.38701 0.944295 5747.199
4 68.84298 46.61191 0.945273 5537.195 68.97726 46.70922 0.945269 5547.995
5 68.84298 46.61191 0.945273 5537.195 68.94039 46.6841 0.945283 5545.03
6 71.3029 48.27878 0.944299 5735.052 71.41398 48.35982 0.944298 5743.986
7 110.7989 75.05068 0.930466 8911.802 111.0305 75.21776 0.930448 8930.433
8 152.5083 103.3391 0.918317 12266.58 152.7336 103.5074 0.918301 12284.71
9 188.8401 127.9922 0.909017 15188.83 189.1807 128.2379 0.909011 15216.23
10 193.1547 130.9205 0.907973 15535.86 193.5842 131.2298 0.907949 15570.41
11 193.1547 130.9205 0.907973 15535.86 193.5347 131.1946 0.907973 15566.43
12 188.8401 127.9922 0.909017 15188.83 189.1038 128.1824 0.90904 15210.04
13 188.8401 127.9922 0.909017 15188.83 189.0939 128.1801 0.909038 15209.25
14 188.8401 127.9922 0.909017 15188.83 189.1551 128.2216 0.909023 15214.17
15 180.3797 122.2504 0.911098 14508.34 180.7005 122.4831 0.911099 14534.15
16 184.5819 125.1022 0.910058 14846.34 184.9732 125.3900 0.910053 14877.81
17 206.4394 139.9379 0.904829 16604.38 206.8575 140.2395 0.904830 16638.01
18 210.9824 143.0219 0.903776 16969.78 211.4014 143.3208 0.903771 17003.49
19 210.9824 143.0219 0.903776 16969.78 211.2561 143.2236 0.903773 16991.8
20 193.1547 130.9205 0.907973 15535.86 193.4573 131.1411 0.907971 15560.2
21 172.1422 116.6605 0.913171 13845.78 172.4908 116.9076 0.913170 13873.82
22 141.3745 95.78638 0.921381 11371.07 141.6429 95.9870 0.921385 11392.66
23 107.6575 72.92075 0.931466 8659.134 108.0415 73.1959 0.931460 8690.02
24 78.96655 53.47221 0.941364 6351.457 79.1814 53.6277 0.941361 6368.738

Summer without wind integration (DLF) Summer with wind integration (DLF) Winter without wind integration (DLF)
Winter with wind integration (DLF) Summer without wind integration (PLF) Summer with wind integration (PLF)
Winter without wind integration (PLF) Winter withwind integration (PLF)
0.98

0.96
Vmin (p.u.)

0.94

0.92

0.9

0.88

0.86
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 9. Minimum bus voltage magnitude (Vmin) for the 33 bus RDS

402
 Table: III Comparison of results obtained from DLF and PLF with wind integration for summer season
DLF PLF
Cost of Cost of
energy energy Cost of wind
Hours TPL TQL Vmin TPL TQL Vmin
losses losses ($)
(kW) (kVAR) (p.u.) (kW) (kVAR) (p.u.)
COSTEL COSTEL
($) ($)
1 74.28275 57.67352 0.962289 5974.728 74.39986 57.76018 0.962295 5984.147 89.95537
2 67.80241 53.12074 0.965265 5453.5 67.9331 53.21442 0.965257 5464.012 88.15047
3 65.34119 51.52199 0.966848 5255.539 65.48334 51.62554 0.96683 5266.972 87.87272
4 61.4236 48.53133 0.968152 4940.438 61.53643 48.6126 0.96814 4949.513 85.90216
5 58.67845 45.96293 0.96765 4719.639 58.77682 46.03493 0.967655 4727.551 82.82936
6 64.72223 50.94389 0.966741 5205.754 64.81556 51.01216 0.966747 5213.261 87.21181
7 70.15777 53.73194 0.961492 5642.946 70.30548 53.83841 0.961479 5654.828 85.11253
8 89.26836 65.84107 0.95153 7180.054 89.40352 65.93929 0.951549 7190.926 85.0431
9 112.6017 81.01004 0.942353 9056.809 112.855 81.19241 0.942348 9077.183 85.69366
10 132.5434 93.82352 0.935398 10660.76 132.9401 94.10841 0.935371 10692.67 85.16196
11 145.0534 102.9256 0.932695 11666.97 145.4481 103.2108 0.932668 11698.72 89.45206
12 146.6584 100.1245 0.928009 11796.07 146.9597 100.3442 0.928017 11820.3 68.57595
13 144.128 98.09731 0.928367 11592.54 144.4245 98.31783 0.928376 11616.38 65.8317
14 146.3879 100.1232 0.928247 11774.3 146.736 100.3775 0.928234 11802.31 69.83961
15 146.229 100.1441 0.92841 11761.53 146.5547 100.3822 0.928414 11787.73 70.70607
16 137.1838 93.84851 0.930581 11034 137.5279 94.09804 0.930569 11061.68 68.27907
17 134.6298 91.81861 0.930963 10828.58 135.0242 92.10244 0.930936 10860.3 65.66696
18 135.1294 91.9164 0.93061 10868.76 135.5234 92.19865 0.930579 10900.45 63.7998
19 126.2163 85.90303 0.933005 10151.86 126.4814 86.0984 0.93302 10173.19 62.62798
20 123.1868 86.73718 0.937137 9908.19 123.4736 86.94723 0.937136 9931.255 80.39265
21 124.1618 88.08384 0.937746 9986.612 124.4974 88.32437 0.937727 10013.61 83.81848
22 127.9126 91.23348 0.937451 10288.3 128.1665 91.42 0.937455 10308.72 87.03091
23 111.9467 80.24786 0.942094 9004.123 112.2514 80.46222 0.942066 9028.632 84.20589
24 81.96165 61.08832 0.954807 6592.36 82.16008 61.23026 0.954796 6608.319 84.68462

Summer Winter
100
90
80
70
Cost of wind($)

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Time (Hours)

Fig. 10. Hourly cost of wind turbine operation for summer and winter

403
 Table: IV Comparison of results obtained from DLF and PLF with wind integration for winter season
DLF PLF
Cost of Cost of
energy energy Cost of wind
Hours TQL Vmin TQL Vmin
TPL (kW) losses TPL (kW) losses ($)
(kVAR) (p.u.) (kVAR) (p.u.)
COSTEL COSTEL
($) ($)
1 63.15222 44.23068 0.954681 5079.475 63.28364 44.32751 0.954686 5090.045 60.016675
2 56.07169 39.66371 0.958046 4509.972 56.21973 39.77 0.958037 4521.879 60.22608
3 51.81477 37.25184 0.96092 4167.578 51.96642 37.36169 0.960901 4179.776 62.454682
4 51.50183 37.59919 0.962312 4142.408 51.62964 37.69139 0.9623 4152.688 65.713934
5 53.87644 40.07498 0.963183 4333.403 53.98377 40.15372 0.963187 4342.036 70.770876
6 58.02401 43.73923 0.963183 4667.001 58.12593 43.81372 0.963189 4675.199 75.597311
7 81.66121 59.33369 0.951984 6568.194 81.86782 59.48248 0.951969 6584.813 77.925077
8 107.0545 75.52266 0.941628 8610.635 107.2402 75.65825 0.941649 8625.566 76.727216
9 130.6941 90.46534 0.933385 10512.02 131.008 90.69119 0.933378 10537.27 73.998654
10 133.7351 92.02164 0.932013 10756.61 134.1438 92.3152 0.931985 10789.49 71.276822
11 133.8699 91.90447 0.93176 10767.46 134.2399 92.17173 0.931734 10797.21 69.912432
12 136.4704 91.80633 0.929489 10976.62 136.7377 92.00087 0.929497 10998.12 53.445352
13 136.9688 92.07811 0.929326 11016.7 137.2354 92.27642 0.929335 11038.15 52.617838
14 136.9102 92.04591 0.929345 11012 137.2212 92.27297 0.929333 11037 52.713157
15 130.528 87.79486 0.931046 10498.66 130.8029 87.99565 0.931051 10520.77 52.448261
16 134.1549 90.15769 0.930048 10790.38 134.4371 90.36448 0.930054 10813.08 51.826082
17 152.9795 102.5301 0.925181 12304.49 153.3915 102.8255 0.925162 12337.62 49.51533
18 157.432 105.4466 0.924094 12662.61 157.8998 105.7823 0.924055 12700.23 48.518238
19 158.0033 105.799 0.92396 12708.56 158.4261 106.1036 0.923932 12742.57 47.858522
20 136.7908 92.51384 0.929734 11002.39 137.0903 92.73355 0.929738 11026.48 59.223927
21 121.5025 82.3382 0.933951 9772.722 121.7671 82.53066 0.933958 9794.003 58.453813
22 99.25469 67.5603 0.940659 7983.277 99.531 67.75916 0.94064 8005.502 57.387812
23 75.15633 51.79944 0.949271 6044.992 75.28938 51.89716 0.949289 6055.694 57.951865
24 55.69837 39.12217 0.957661 4479.945 55.82539 39.21384 0.957659 4490.161 58.067629

Table V shows the energy savings for summer and winter seasons with wind turbine integration. The
seasonal energy savings are shown graphically in Fig. 11. From Table V and Fig. 11, it can be observed that
there is a significant variation in the energy savings of the test system for winter and summer seasons. The
maximum energy savings for summer season is obtained for hour 15. This value amounts to 5207.86$ from PLF
calculations and 5207.25$ from DLF calculations. For the same hour, the energy savings in winter is 4013.38$.
The maximum energy savings for winter season is obtained for hour 10. This value amounts to 4780.92$ from
PLF calculations and 4779.25$ from DLF calculations. For the same hour, the energy savings in summer is
4529.87$. A minimum energy savings of 26.33$ is obtained in hour 4 for summer season. The minimum energy
savings for winter season is obtained for hour 6 and the value is 1068.787$.The minimum energy savings for
winter is higher than the minimum energy savings of summer. From Fig. 11, the energy savings are higher in
winter from hours 1 to 10 and for hour 20 while it is higher in summer from hours 11 to 19 and from hours 21 to
24. The variation in wind speed and the load patterns influence the net energy savings.

Table: V Energy savings in $ for summer and winter seasons with wind integration
Summer season Winter season Summer season Winter season
Hour Hour
DLF PLF DLF PLF DLF PLF DLF PLF
1 589.869 590.348 2147.816 2148.201 13 5011.84 5010.53 4172.13 4171.1
2 281.552 282.282 1841.485 1842.087 14 5195.48 5196.08 4176.83 4177.17
3 87.574 87.423 1567.474 1567.423 15 5208.25 5207.86 4009.68 4013.38
4 25.765 26.33 1394.787 1395.307 16 4853.45 4857.24 4055.96 4064.73
5 246.564 245.643 1203.792 1202.994 17 4707.28 4709.19 4299.89 4300.39

404
 6 137.359 138.148 1068.051 1068.787 18 4667.1 4669.12 4307.17 4303.26
7 921.651 923.273 2343.608 2345.62 19 4356.48 4357.17 4261.22 4249.23
8 2249.29 2252.064 3655.945 3659.144 20 4266.65 4267.915 4533.47 4533.72
9 3516.881 3518.847 4676.81 4678.96 21 4188.228 4189.26 4073.058 4079.817
10 4528.07 4529.87 4779.25 4780.92 22 4220.04 4221.22 3387.793 3387.158
11 4937.41 4938.54 4768.4 4769.22 23 3569.567 3575.938 2614.142 2634.326
12 5173.71 5173.44 4212.21 4211.92 24 1818.147 1819.479 1871.512 1878.577

Summer (DLF) Summer (PLF) Winter (DLF) Winter (PLF)

6000

5000

4000
Energy savings($)

3000

2000

1000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Time (Hours)

Fig. 11. Energy loss savings for summer and winter seasons of 33 bus RDS

4. Conclusions

This paper studied the impacts of intermittent wind power penetration on the cost of energy losses and the
energy savings of radial distribution systems. A comparison was made between the results obtained from
deterministic and probabilistic load flow calculations. The effects of probabilistic loads and seasonal wind
speeds/load patterns on the cost of energy losses and the energy savings of the distribution system were also
discussed in detail. The results were analyzed for a standard 33 bus radial distribution test system.
From the studies conducted, the following observations were made:
1. There is a significant reduction in the cost of energy losses of the system with the integration of wind
turbines. This results in increased annual energy savings. The reduction in cost of energy losses is due
to the reduction in total real power loss with wind integration.
2. The cost of energy losses calculated from PLF is higher than that calculated from DLF. Since the PLF
incorporates the realistic randomness of the various uncertainties of the system, it is more accurate than
the DLF method. Hence, the DLF underestimates the power losses and the cost of energy losses
compared to the PLF calculations.
3. There is a notable difference in the cost of energy losses and the energy savings obtained for winter and
summer seasons. The load profile and wind speeds are different for winter and summer seasons and
hence the energy savings also vary accordingly.
4. The single maximum energy savings is higher for summer season compared to winter season. But the
single minimum energy savings is higher for winter season compared to summer season.
There is also a significant improvement in the voltage profile of the system after wind turbine integration for
both winter and summer seasons. This study is important as it provides better insights into the impacts of
intermittent wind speeds and random load variations on the energy savings of distribution systems.

Acknowledgments

This work is carried out under the project grant SR/S3/EECE/0035/2012, SERB, New Delhi. The author
acknowledges DST New Delhi for grant of the project.

405
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406
 ICAER-2015

Performance, Combustion and Exhaust Emissions Analysis of a

Diesel Engine Fuelled with Algae Oil and Algae Biodiesel
Sushant. S. Satputaley1*, Dr. D. B. Zodpe2, Dr. N. V. Deshpande3
1*
Ph.D Student at VNIT Nagpur and Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, St. Vincent Pallotti College of Engg. &
Tech., Nagpur, satputaley@gmail.com
2
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, VNIT, Nagpur.
3
Director, NIT Silchar, Assam, India.

Abstract

Algal oil was obtained from microalgae chlorella vulgaris. The microalgae was cultivated in open pond system. Upon
harvesting, the biomass was centrifuged and dried. The algal oil was obtained by a solvent extraction method using n-hexane
as solvent. By this method 28% of algal oil is obtained from dry algae biomass. Transesterification process is carried out to
produce algae biodiesel by adding potassium hydroxide and methanol. The biodiesel yield obtained is 85%. The testing of
algae oil and algae biodiesel is carried out to know the calorific value, density and kinematic viscosity. Performance and
combustion parameters were analyzed on a Kirloskar single cylinder direct injection compression ignition engine. The
compression ratio is 17.5. It develops 5.2 kW brake power at rated speed of 1500 rpm with diesel as fuel. The engine is
initially run on diesel fuel to generate baseline data and after that it is run on straight algae oil and algae biodiesel. Similar
loading conditions are used for all the fuels. The Brake Specific Fuel Consumption, Brake Specific Energy Consumption,
Brake Thermal Efficiency, Smoke Opacity, CO, HC, and NO x were studied. The trials conducted on diesel engine with
algae oil and algae biodiesel show that results are comparable to diesel fuel.

Keywords: Algae oil; chlorella vulgaris; transesterification; algae biodiesel; NO x .

1. Introduction

Due to depleting reserves and rising prices of fossil fuels, interest has rightly begun in the development of
renewable energy sources. In year 2010, fossil fuels accounted for 88% of the global primary energy
consumption. The current technological progress, reducing potential reserves and increased exploitation has led
to energy insecurity and climate change by increasing greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions due to consumption of
fuels at a higher rate [1].
Besides, oil prices are galloping in the world market. The last few years have seen a rapid increase in world
petroleum prices. The number of vehicles on road is also rapidly increasing. Given that the fossil fuel reserves are
fast depleting, newer sources have to be tried out, in order to meet the future demands. Biofuel is an emerging
option. Biofuels are renewable energy fuels obtained from vegetable oil, fats and microalgae. Biofuel, derived
from renewable plant sources holds immense potential for meeting world’s future energy needs. Biodiesel fuels
not only burn cleaner producing low emissions but are even renewable, unlike fossil fuels, which means we could
develop a continuous supply of them [1-8].
The research on different aspects of biodiesel production and utilization in diesel engine has been reported
by a number of researchers [2]. Algae have much faster growth-rates than terrestrial crops. The per unit area
yield of oil from algae is estimated to be from 20,000 to 80,000 Lt per acre, per year; which is 7 to 31 times
greater than the next best crop that is palm oil [3]. Biodiesel from algae seems to be the only renewable biofuel
that has the potential to completely displace petroleum-derived transport fuels without adversely affecting
supply of food and other crop products.

Nomenclature

KOH potassium hydroxide BSFC brake specific fuel consumption

BSEC brake specific energy consumption BTHE brake thermal efficiency
CO carbon monoxide UBHC unburned Hydrocarbons
NO x nitrogen oxide

407
2. Biodiesel

Biodiesel is an esterified version of vegetable oil, which could be edible or non-edible. Biodiesel and
bioethanol produced from terrestrial plants have attracted the attention of the world as potential substitutes.
However, due to food Vs fuel competition as well as land consumption of these biofuels, they have brought
much controversy and debate on their sustainability. In this respect, cultivation of macroalgae in sea water or
industrial or other waste water provides a possible solution for this energy issue. Microalgae are single-cell,
photosynthetic organisms known for their rapid growth and high energy content. Some algal strains are capable
of increasing their mass several times per day. In some cases, more than half of that mass consists of lipids or
triacylglycerides. Oil content in microalgae can be maximum up to 80% of dry biomass. Depending on species,
microalgae produce many different kinds of lipids, hydrocarbons and other complex oils [8-11]. Not all algal
oils are satisfactory for making biodiesel, but suitable oils occur commonly

3. Microalgae Cultivation and Harvesting

Pure culture of chlorella vulgaris species was obtained from Environmental Biotechnology Division of
National Environmental Research Institute (NEERI) Nagpur. The chlorella vulgaris microalgae cells were
grown in the complete nutrients medium in a five liter transparent flasks illuminated by 30 µmoles/m2/s
artificial lights at 30°C on 16 to 8 hour light and dark cycle. Then the five liters culture was grown in 20 liters
pond and then the 20 liters culture was used for the open pond of size 20.44 m3 (11.36 m long, 3.6 m wide and
0.5 m deep) and the nutrients were added in the pond. The pond was exposed to 13 to 11 hour light and dark
cycles [3].
The nutrients were added in the pond and stirring of microalgae culture was done using three water pumps
which continuously circulate the microalgae culture, to avoid settlement of the algae cells. The stirring gives
sufficient access of sunlight and mineral nutrients to microalgae cells. The different parameters observed during
growth of microalgae were dissolved oxygen, pH, CO 2 , Optical density and temperatures of atmosphere and
pond.
The growth was measured by monitoring the optical density at 670 nm using a UV-V spectrophotometer
(Perkin Elmer, USA) and the pH measurement was taken with a calibrated digital pH meter (Labtronics, India).
Harvesting of microalgae is a very important process for efficient oil production from microalgae. The
optical density is the count of microalgae growth and an optical density of 1.2 ppm is desirable for harvesting
the microalgae. With reference to the observations recorded during microalgae growth the optical density
obtained on fifteenth day was 1.34 ppm, the microalgae was harvested on the same day. The harvested
microalgae were centrifuged at 4000 rpm at 5°C for 5 minutes in order to remove water. The resulting biomass
was dried in sunlight until the weight of the sample became constant. From experimental investigation it was
observed that one kg of dry microalgae biomass was obtained from 8 to 9 kg of wet microalgae biomass.
The advantages of biofuel production using microalgae are high growth rate, more cost effective farming,
high-efficiency CO 2 mitigation and less water demand than land crops. On the other hand, one of the major
disadvantages of microalgae for biofuel production is the low biomass concentration in the microalgal culture
due to the limit of light penetration, which in combination with the small size of algal cells makes the harvesting
of algal biomasses relatively costly. The higher capital costs of and the rather intensive care required by a
microalgal farming facility compared to a conventional agricultural farming is another factor that impedes the
commercial implementation of the biofuels from microalgae strategy [3].

4. Oil Extraction from Microalgae Biomass

Soxhlet extractor as shown in figure 1 is used for oil extraction from microalgae biomass [12-13]. In soxhlet
extractor 300 ml of n-hexane is added to round bottom flask and 10 g of microalgae powder rapped in filter
paper is kept in thimble wall. The round bottom flask is heated at 70°C due to which the n-hexane gets
vaporized and enters into condenser, where it gets condensed and converts into warm liquid hexane. This warm
hexane enters into the thimble wall and comes in contact with dry algae powder, as the warm hexane comes in
contact with dry microalgae powder, the oil gets extracted from microalgae biomass. When the mixture of
hexane and algae oil reaches the thimble wall tube, due to siphonification, the oil and hexane mixture gets
collected into round bottom flask. This completes one cycle of soxholet extraction process. Such 8 to 10 cycles
are conducted on microalgae biomass for complete extraction of oil from it.
After completion of 8 to 10 cycles, the mixture of hexane and oil obtained is kept in a solvent extractor setup
where the solvent and microalgae oil are separated. Using soxhlet extractor, 28% of microalgae oil is extracted
from dry microalgae biomass. The biomass obtained after oil extraction can be used as feed stock for anaerobic

408
digestion process, which not only gives biogas but also provides essential nutrient recovery from lipid extracted
microalgae biomass [14].

Figure 1: Soxholet Extractor

5. Transesterification Process

Microalgae oil extracted from chlorella vulgaris is converted in to algae biodiesel using transesterification.
The transesterification process is conducted by heating 100 ml of algae oil with 25 ml of methanol and 0.95 g of
KOH at 48-52°C in round bottom flask on a magnetic stirrer and heater. The mixture was kept in a separating
funnel for 8 to10 hours to separate the glycerol from the mixture. The glycerol was separated and the biodiesel
was water washed to neutralize pH value [9]. The biodiesel yield obtained was 85%.

6. Chemical Properties
The chemical properties of algae oil, algae biodiesel and diesel are compared with ASTM biodiesel
standards in table 1. [6]
Table1: Comparison of different properties of algae oil, algae biodiesel and diesel with ASTM Biodiesel
Standards.
Properties Algae oil Algae Biodiesel Diesel ASTM Biodiesel std.
Appearance Translucent Translucent Clear Translucent
Colour Yellow/ Greenish Yellow Yellowish Greenish Yellow
Greenish
Kinematic viscosity, 40°C (cSt) 33.74 4.41 1.9 to 4.1 3.5 to 5.5
Acid no. (mg KOH per g) 0.2 0.374 Max 0.5 Max 0.5
Calorific value (MJ/kg) 35.8 37.5 43.5 37.5
Flash Point (°C) 220 115 75 Min 100
Density (kg/lit) 0.897 0.864 0.830 0.862 – 0.9

7. Engine Setup Details

Schematic diagram of experimental setup is shown in figure 2. A single cylinder four stroke direct injection
water cooled diesel engine (Kirloskar TV1 model, 0.661 liters capacity, 5.2 kW at a speed of 1500 rpm) with
piezo and crank angle sensors is used for experimental study. It is coupled with eddy-current dynamometer with
load cell of 50 kg capacity, magnetic pulse pickup and high speed data acquisition system. The original
mechanical in-line fuel injection system was used for injecting diesel or biodiesel at a pressure of 225 bar using
pintle nozzle and the fuel injection timing 23° before TDC is maintained throughout the tests.
The AVL 437 smoke meter is used to measure the smoke opacity and AVL Digas 4000 light, an infrared
type gas analyzer was used to measure CO 2 , CO, HC, NO x , O 2 . At each engine mode, the engine was allowed
to run for a few minutes until the exhaust gas temperature and the gaseous emission concentrations reached
steady state values and then data was measured subsequently.

409
 8,11
7 9 10

5 6
3 4

1
2

1- Engine, 2- Eddy-current Dynamometer, 3-Exhaust port, 4-Inlet port, 5 – Exhaust filter, 6 – Air filter, 7-Fuel
measuring unit, 8- AVL Digas 4000 light, 9-Air measuring unit, 10 – Computer and 11- AVL 437 Smoke meter.
Figure 2: Computerized Setup of Single Cylinder Naturally Aspirated Water Cooled Diesel Engine

8. Test Procedure

The engine is warmed up before starting the experiment after which the engine temperature is maintained
constant by controlling the cooling water flow rate. The diesel, Algae oil and algae biodiesel are used as test fuel
in diesel engine with variable load condition (0 kg to18 kg in the step of 2 kg) at the constant engine speed of
1500 rpm. The engine is initially run on diesel fuel to generate base line data and after that it is run on algae oil
and algae biodiesel. Three sets of readings are collected on engine using diesel, algae oil and algae biodiesel and
the average readings are used to carry out the performance, combustion and emission analysis of diesel engine.

9. Brake Specific Fuel Consumption

The brake specific fuel consumption is a measure of the fuel flow rate per unit power output. It measures
how efficiently an engine uses the fuel supplied to produce work. The brake specific fuel consumption observed
for diesel, algae biodiesel and algae oil is shown in figure 3.
It was observed that the brake specific fuel consumption in case of biodiesel and algae oil was more
compared to diesel for all load condition. This indicated that the engine takes more fuel to give the same power
output when using biodiesel and algae oil as compared to diesel. This trend is observed owing to the fact that
biodiesel and algae oil have a lower heating value than neat diesel fuel, and thus more biodiesel and algae oil is
required for the maintenance of a constant power output.

Figure 3: Brake Power Vs Brake Specific Fuel Consumption

10. Brake Specific Energy Consumption

The comparison based on the specific fuel consumption cannot be made since the fuel has different energy
content. Therefore a comparison is made based on the brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) of the
different blends. The brake specific energy consumption is the product of brake specific fuel consumption and
the calorific value of the fuel. The comparison of brake specific energy consumption of diesel, algae biodiesel
and algae oil is shown in figure 4.
A trend of decrease in BSEC with the use of biodiesel and algae oil was observed from no load to full load.
The biodiesel and algae oil shoed an almost similar trend with that of diesel with slight variation. Due to the
lower calorific value of the algae biodiesel and algae oil fuel, it required more amount of fuel to give the same
power output resulting in higher energy consumption.

410
 Figure 4: Brake Power Vs Brake Specific Energy Consumption

11. p-θ Diagram

Figure 5 shows the comparison of cylinder pressure Vs crank angle (p–θ) diagram for microalgae biodiesel
and algae oil with pure diesel. The comparison of p–θ diagram showed similarity in combustion process for
diesel, microalgae biodiesel and algae oil. p–θ diagram of microalgae biodiesel and algae oil is similar to that of
pure diesel for entire range of crank angle except between 360 to 380 degrees. Peak pressure for diesel,
biodiesel and algae oil increases with engine load. The peak pressure value of diesel is 4 to 14% higher as
compared to biodiesel and algae oil due to higher calorific value and lower viscosity [36]. The sharp peak
obtained in pure diesel mode was due to spontaneous combustion. The maximum pressure developed for diesel
was 67.65 bar at 375 degree, for B100 63.26 bar at 374 degree indicating 6.93% higher for diesel and for algae
oil 58.5 bar at 374 degree indicating 13.53% higher for diesel.

Figure 5: Pressure Vs Crank Angle (θ)

12. Brake Thermal Efficiency

Brake thermal efficiency is the ratio of brake power developed by the engine to the energy supplied by the
fuel. It is the measure of the engine efficiency or the fuel conversion efficiency. The result obtained for the
diesel and biodiesel was shown in figure 6.

Figure 6: Brake Power Vs Brake Thermal Efficiency

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 From the figure it was learnt that brake thermal efficiency with biodiesel and algae oil fuel is lower than that
of neat diesel fuel. The reduction of brake thermal efficiency with biodiesel and algae oil is attributed to poor
spray characteristics, poor air fuel mixing, higher viscosity, lower volatility and lower calorific value. Biodiesel
showed the maximum reduction of brake thermal efficiency of 5.2% on 5.15 kW brake power and algae oil
showed the maximum reduction of brake thermal efficiency of 6.4% on 5.15 kW brake power. The decrease in
the brake thermal efficiency on higher loads in case of biodiesel and algae oil fuel could be attributed to the poor
combustion characteristics on higher loads due to poor fuel atomization of the biodiesel blended fuels because
of their higher viscosity as compared to diesel. The time available for combustion of per unit of fuel at higher
load was less as compared to lower loads, which may reduce the brake thermal efficacy of fuel at higher loads
[33].

13. Exhaust Gas Temperature

A measure of exhaust gas temperature is done with a TFR sensor. The results obtained were presented in
figure 7. Not much drastic variation was observed in the exhaust temperature between diesel, biodiesel and
algae oil. The maximum decrease by 13.2°C, is observed for B100 at 5.15 kW brake power and the maximum
decrease by 26.2°C, is observed for algae oil at 5.15 kW brake power. The similarity in the exhaust temperature
between the different fuels could be a possible indication of the similar combustion profile and heat loss from
the engine for the different fuels [32].

Figure 7: Brake Power Vs Exhaust Gas Temperature

14. Smoke Opacity

Smoke opacity is an indication of the complete combustion of the fuel. The AVL 437 smoke meter is used
to measure smoke opacity. The results obtained are presented in Figure 8. A general trend of decrease in the
smoke opacity with biodiesel fuel was observed at all the loads. Presence of extra oxygen 10 to 12 % in
biodiesel and algae oil helps to eliminate smoke formed by aiding complete carbon oxidation in the fuel.

15. Unburned Hydrocarbon Emission

Unburned hydrocarbon (UBHC) emission trends for methyl esters of algae oil and diesel are presented in
figure 9. The reduction of UBHC was linear for the fuels tested. This reduction indicates more complete
oxidation as compared to diesel. 10 to 12% extra oxygen in biodiesel and algae oil results in better combustion
and lower UBHC emission. Lowest amount of UBHC was produced by biodiesel at an average difference of 6%
compared to any load condition [33].

412
 Figure 9: Brake Power Vs Unburned Hydrocarbons
16. Carbon Monoxide Emission

CO is produced due to deficiency of oxygen during combustion. Under low load condition the CO emissions
is high due to rich fuel air mixture for engine operation. The variation of CO emission with engine loading for
different fuel is compared in figure 10. CO emission is lesser for all load condition of biodiesel and algae oil.
These lower CO emissions of biodiesel and algae oil may be due to their more complete oxidation as compared
to diesel due to presence of 10 to 12% extra oxygen in biodiesel. Some of the CO produced during combustion
of biodiesel might have been converted into CO 2 by taking up the extra oxygen molecule present in the
biodiesel chain resulting into reduced CO formation [33].

Figure 10: Brake Power Vs Carbon Monoxide

17. Nitrogen Oxide Emission

The variation of NO x with engine load for different fuel blends tested is presented in figure 11. The nitrogen
oxides emission formed in an engine are highly dependent on combustion temperature, along with the
concentration of oxygen present in combustion products.

Figure 11: Brake Power Vs Nitrogen Oxides

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 In general, the NO x concentration varies linearly with the load of the engine. As the load increases, the
overall fuel-air ratio increases resulting in increase in the average gas temperature in the combustion chamber
and hence NO x formation, which is sensitive to temperature increase. A general trend of decrease in the NO x
with the use of algae biodiesel and algae oil was observed at each load. Algae biodiesel showed the maximum
decrease of NO x of 10 ppm at 1.19 kW, 8 ppm at 2.31 kW and 7 ppm at 4.53 and 5.15 kW brake power load.
Algae oil showed the maximum decrease of NO x of 19 ppm at 5.15 kW brake power load. The reason for the
decrease in the NO x in case of biodiesel and algae oil fuel could be attributed to the poor combustion
characteristics at higher loads due to poor fuel atomization of the biodiesel blended fuels because of their higher
viscosity as compared to diesel.
18. Conclusion

This work deals with the production of oil from chlorella vulgaris microalgae, biodiesel preparation from
algae oil and performance study of diesel engine fuelled with diesel, algae oil and algae biodiesel. The results of
the report are summarized as follows:
• The microalgae was cultivated in open pond system. The algal oil was extracted using solvent extraction
method using n-hexane as solvent. By this method 28% of algal oil is obtained from dry algae biomass.
Transesterification process is carried out to produce algae biodiesel by adding potassium hydroxide and
methanol. The biodiesel yield obtained is 85%.
• It is observed that the brake specific fuel consumption in case of biodiesel and algae oil is more compared
to diesel at all load conditions. This indicates that the engine takes more fuel to give the same power output
when using biodiesel as compared to diesel. This trend is observed owing to the fact that biodiesel and
algae oil have a lower heating value than neat diesel fuel, and thus more biodiesel and algae oil is required
for the maintenance of a constant power output.
• A trend of decrease in BSEC with the use of biodiesel and algae oil is observed from no load to full load.
Biodiesel and algae oil shows an almost similar trend with that of diesel with slight variation. Due to the
lower calorific value of the biodiesel and algae oil fuel, it requires more amount of fuel to give the same
power output, thus resulting in higher energy consumption.
• The brake thermal efficiency for biodiesel and algae oil is less as compared to that of diesel. Algae
biodiesel and algae oil show the maximum reduction of brake thermal efficiency of 5.2% and 6.4% at 5.15
kW brake power respectively. The decrease in the brake thermal efficiency at all loads in case of algae oil
and algae biodiesel fuels could be attributed to the poor combustion characteristics at higher loads due to
poor fuel atomization of the algae oil and algae biodiesel fuels because of their higher viscosity as
compared to diesel.
• The peak pressure value of diesel is 4 to 14% higher as compared to algae oil and algae biodiesel. The
maximum pressure developed for diesel is 67.65 bar at crank angle of 375 degree, for B100 63.26 bar at
crank angle of 374 degree indicating 6.93% higher for diesel and for algae oil 58.5 bar at crank angle of 374
degree indicating 13.53% higher for diesel.
• Algae biodiesel and algae oil showed the reduction in emission of CO, UBHC, NO x and Smoke Opacity as
compared to diesel. Biodiesel showed the maximum decrease of NO x of 10 ppm at 1.19 kW, 8 ppm at 2.31
kW and 7 ppm at 4.53 and 5.15 kW brake power load. Algae oil showed the maximum decrease of NO x of
19 ppm at 5.15 kW brake power load.
Based on above results and discussion, it was concluded that algae oil and algae biodiesel can be adopted as
an alternative fuel for the existing diesel engines without any engine modifications.

19. Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Environmental Engineering Research
Institute (NEERI), Nagpur and Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (V.N.I.T), Nagpur who provided
the laboratory facility for the research work.

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 ICAER-2015

Performance analysis of earth water heat exchanger for

concentrating photovoltaic cooling
Sanjeev Jakhar1, M.S. Soni1*, Nikhil Gakkhar1
1
Centre for Renewable Energy and Environment Development (CREED), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of
Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India 333031

Abstract

In the present work, an Earth Water Heat Exchanger (EWHE) has been designed for Pilani, Rajasthan (India). The system is
designed and simulated in transient analysis tool TRNSYS (v17.0) by varying its operating parameters which includes mass
flow rate, length, pipe materials and diameter of buried pipe. The depth-wise temperature of soil has also been evaluated
from the simulation and it is found that the depth of 3.5 m is sufficient for pipe burial. The results show that there is an
inverse correlation between the pipe length and the EWHE outlet temperature. The comparative study between three
different material shows that the performance of EWHE system hardly depends on the properties of these material. Further,
the EWHE performance is found to be decreasing with an increase in the mass flow rate from 0.008 kg/s to 0.05 kg/s. The
simulated proposed system is then compared with the existing ones in the literature for a given cooling setup of
Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV). It is observed that the proposed system gives better performance than the cooling system
given in literature. To achieve the temperature drop from 48.5 °C to 25.5 °C as per the existing CPV setup in the literature,
the pipe length of 60 m would be sufficient in the proposed EWHE system. Thus the coupling of EWHE with CPV plants
could be economical as well as performance enhancer.
Keywords: Earth Water Heat Exchanger; TRNSYS (v17.0); Parametric variation; Concentrating Photovoltaic.

1. Introduction

Geothermal cooling works on the principle that at a depth of about 3.5 m or more, the soil temperature
remains fairly constant throughout the year, and is approximately equal to the average annual ambient air
temperature [1]. Specially in peak summer in dry and arid areas like Rajasthan and Gujarat, due to high solar
insolation, ambient temperature reaches about 47 ºC during daytime [2,3]. For such areas geothermal cooling
may be considered to be a very good alternative for cooling purpose. Some researchers have used Earth Air Pipe
Heat Exchanger (EAPHE) for air conditioning [4-7]. Bansal et al. [8] presented a model for EAPHE and
experimentally validated it. They found that the performance of EAPHE does not depend on buried pipe
material. Jakhar et al. [9] evaluated the performance of the EAPHE with solar air heating duct for winter
heating. They concluded that the COP of system increased up to 4.57 when coupled with solar air heating duct.
However, the challenge with EAPHE is that it requires large surface area for effective heat transfer because of
low thermal conductivity and low heat carrying capacity of air. The required surface area may be reduced by
using water as cooling medium in EWHE because of its high heat transfer capacity. In this system instead of air,
hot water is sent through the pipes which are buried at a certain depth below the ground, where the heat is
transferred from the hot water to the earth resulting in decrease in the outlet temperature. This outlet water from
buried pipes may be used for space cooling with the help of a compact heat exchanger. Joen et al. [10] presented
an analytical model for comparison the performance of EAPHE and EWHE. They calculated that the soil
resistance is more dominant in case of EWHE and required small diameters tubes for effective heat transfer.
Chel et al. [11] investigated the performance of an integrated system of EWHE, water air heat exchanger and air
to air heat exchanger (AAHE) with the help of TRNSYS 17. They found that the integrated system together
could reduce the annual heating consumption of the building by 72 %.

In the current work an attempt has been made to use EWHE for cooling of CPV cells. In such EWHE
system, performance depends on various parameters which include mass flow rate of the water, depth of buried
pipe, length, diameter and material of pipe, etc. By changing these parameters the variation in outlet temperature

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 1596-515634, Fax: (+91) 1596-244183.

E-mail address: mssoni@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

417
of EWHE can be achieved. This study presents the variation in these parameters to achieve optimum EWHE
outlet temperature. Further, the applicability of such proposed system is discussed by replacing the system given
in literature of CPV [12, 13]. The operating temperature of the CPV system, as discussed by [14-16] is the key
parameter affecting its performance, as with rise in temperature beyond certain limit results in decrease in
efficiency. Hence, it is must to maintain the temperature within certain limit to achieve higher efficiency. The
results obtained from the simulations shows that the proposed system performs better by giving sufficient
temperature drop than the cooling system given in literature.

2. Description of the TRNSYS simulation

TRNSYS, a transient simulation system tool is used to model the renewable energy systems to estimate the
transient variation [17]. Using this tool numerical simulation of the EWHE was carried out by using its inbuilt
Meteonorm files for weather conditions. The model design includes inbuilt system components which take
parameters and time dependent inputs of desired system and produces a time dependent outputs. Various
components, which are designated as Type, can be interconnected with a flow chart. Here a given output of one
component is used as an INPUT to a number of other components. In the current system the model for EWHE
was used to estimate the transient output over a period of time.
The following standard TRNSYS component models (Types) were used in the simulation:
 Type 3- Variable speed pump
 Type 952- Earth water heat exchanger
 Type 15 - Weather data processor
 Type 65- Online plotter
 Type 77- Simple ground temperature model
Type 952 is important models in ground heat pump library of TRNSYS which models a horizontal heat
exchanger that interacts thermally with the ground. It considers conductive heat transfer to the soil and
convective heat transfer within the pipes. For the simulation, the physical and thermal parameters of the system
taken are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Physical and thermal parameters used in simulation.
Parameters Properties
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipe 0.40 W/m K
thermal conductivity
Galvanized Iron (GI) pipe thermal 16 W/m K
conductivity
Steel pipe thermal conductivity 54 W/m K
Fluid density 1000 kg/m3
Fluid specific heat 4.19 kJ/kg K
Fluid thermal conductivity 0.55 W/m K

3. Methodology

In this section, the methodology of variation in design parameters for the buried pipe dimensions is
discussed. The various parameters were analyzed by simulating their performance on TRNSYS. The simulation
conditions were taken for Pilani Rajasthan (India) and the simulation was performed for the duration of 10 hours
which is average sunshine hour during summer period. The temperature variation across the depth, over a period
of a year, was calculated. The parametric simulation was performed for three pipe materials i.e. GI, HDPE and
Steel pipe. For different pipe material, by keeping length, flow rate and diameter constant simulation was
carried out and observed that the temperature variation between all three materials is almost similar with the
temperature difference ±1.61 °C. Among three materials HDPE pipe is taken for the performance analysis
because of it is cheaper as compare to other two. For HDPE pipe by keeping diameter and length of the pipe as
fixed value the mass flow rate is varied and outlet temperature for each case is determined. This analysis gives
the optimum flow rate for a given condition. By keeping this flow rate as constant for HDPE pipe the analysis is
carried forward by changing the length of the pipe for a particular diameter. In the final analysis the effects of
different HDPE pipe diameters is estimated for the fixed length and flow rate.

Further to discuss the applicability of such system, by replacing the cooling system given in literature of
CPV with the proposed system, the results obtained were compared with the existing literature. For the analysis,
two references have been taken and the values of outlet temperature of CPV/Thermal (CPV/T) system were

418
taken as inlet for EWHE system. From the analysis, it has been estimated that the cost of proposed system is
quite inexpensive as compared to the conventional system used in the literature.

4. Results and discussion

4.1 Performance analysis of EWHE system

The performance of EWHE system is analyzed by varying different parameters, which includes type of pipe
material, length and diameter of pipe and mass flow rate of fluid within the pipe. The analysis is further carried
out to estimate the effect of burial depth over a period of year, for the local conditions of Pilani, Rajasthan.
Since the earth act as heat sink for the higher temperature, as the depth increases the soil temperature converges
to annual average ambient temperature. Fig 1 shows the ground temperature variation for different depths. With
increase in depth from 0.5 m to 3.5 m, the average temperature over the year varies from 9.5 °C to 44.7 °C for
0.5 m depth while it remains within the range of 22.5 °C to 27.7 °C for 3.5 m depth. Considering this small
variation in temperature, the depth of 3.5 m is taken for the simulations. At this depth the EWHE performance
is evaluated for three different pipe materials, i.e. GI pipe, Steel pipe and HDPE pipe. The inlet temperature for
each case was taken as 90 °C, which is assumed to be outlet temperature of CPV as discussed in literature [18].

50
Temperature ( °C )

40

30

20

10

Months
0.5 m 1m 1.5 m
2m 2.5 m 3m
3.5 m

Fig. 1. Annual ground temperature range at different depths for Pilani, Rajasthan (India).

Fig. 2 reveals the EWHE exit temperature for three different pipe materials for pipe length of 90 m, diameter
of 25 mm and flow rate of fluid as 0.02 kg/s. It is concluded that the temperature difference of the fluid at outlet
of EWHE for GI and Steel pipes is mere 0.2 °C while in the HDPE and Steel pipe is around 1.6 °C, for same
inlet conditions. This small variation occurs because of less coefficient of friction for HDPE pipes. Although the
GI and steel pipes has high thermal conductivity as compared to HDPE pipes, the coefficient of friction is quite
high in these two. This causes the temperature at the outlet as marginally lower than the HDPE pipe. From this
estimation, it can be concluded that in EWHE system, the properties of these materials have small impact on the
performance of the system. The same also been discussed in literature for earth air heat exchanger by Bansal et
al. [8]. The HDPE pipe is selected for the study as it is much cheaper as compared to GI and steel pipe.
The effect of mass flow rate on the performance of EWHE along the fixed length of 90 m and diameter of 25
mm for HDPE pipe is shown in Fig. 3. It reveals that with increase in mass flow rate the outlet temperature of
EWHE increases as expected. This is evident from the fact that with increase in mass flow rate, the Reynolds
number increases which in turns increases the Nusselt number and hence the convective heat transfer
coefficient. But with the increase in flow rate of fluid, the contact time to which fluid is in contact with ground
is reduced significantly. Thus the later effect is dominant and so the temperature drop at higher flow rate will be
less as compared to lower flow rate. The maximum temperature drop observed for 0.008 kg/s but it is very low
flow rate so for the analysis the mass flow rate varied from 0.02 to 0.05 kg/s.

419
 90.00

80.00

Temperature ( °C )
70.00

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Time ( Hr )
HDPE GI Steel

Fig. 2. EWHE outlet temperature vs different pipe material (pipe ⱷ 25 mm, Length= 90 m, Flow rate=0.02 kg/s).

90.00
80.00
70.00
Temperature ( °C )

60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Time ( Hr )
m=0.008 kg/s m=0.02 kg/s m=0.03 kg/s
m=0.04 kg/s m=0.05 kg/s

Fig. 3. EWHE outlet temperature vs mass flow rate (pipe ⱷ 25 mm, Length= 90 m, Pipe material= HDPE) .

By keeping the mass flow rate of 0.02 kg/s for HDPE pipe, with diameter as 25 mm, the effect of variation
of length is estimated. The results obtained by the varying length from 50 m to 90 m are shown in Fig. 4. It
reveals that with increase in length the temperature drop increases as expected. For the pipe length of 90 m, the
outlet temperature is obtained as 31.9 °C for the inlet of 90 °C.
The standard sizes of HDPE pipe available in market are selected for analysis ranging from 25 mm to 50
mm. The effect of variation in diameter from 25 mm to 50 mm of HDPE pipe at the flow rate of 0.02 kg/s and
90 m length is shown in Fig. 5. With increase the pipe diameter the outlet temperature decreases gradually over
a period of time. After four hours of EWHE operations the temperature drop will be more for HDPE pipe with
maximum diameter of 50 mm. The exit temperatures obtained after the 10 hours operations are 31.80 °C for 50
mm and 36.16 °C for 25 mm. Although the temperature difference is merely 4.36 °C but the 25 mm size pipe is
around 44% cheaper than of 50 mm. Thus, the pipe diameter of 25 mm may be used for the practical
applications.

420
 90.00

80.00

Temperature ( °C ) 70.00

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Time ( Hr )

L=50 L=60 L=70 L=80 L=90

Fig. 4. EWHE outlet temperature vs pipe length (pipe ⱷ 25 mm , flow rate = 0.02 kg/s, Pipe material= HDPE).

90

80
Temperature ( °C )

70

60

50

40

30

20
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Time ( Hr )
D=25 mm D=32 mm D=40 mm D=50 mm

Fig. 5. EWHE outlet temperature vs pipe diameter (Length=90 m, flow rate= 0.02 kg/s, Pipe material= HDPE).

4.2 Applicability of EWHE system for CPV cooling

In this section, the usability of such EWHE system to replace the cooling system given in literature of CPV
has been identified. For the analysis, a CPV/T system with storage tank is taken from the literature [12, 13]. Xu
et al. [12] designed the CPV/T system in which solar cells were attached to straight and tree shaped cooling
water channel by utilizing a thin-film thermal cladding. They used inlet temperature of 25 °C, CR of 50 suns
and flow rate of 0.00045 kg/s and 0.00044 kg/s for straight and tree shaped channel to achieve CPV/T outlet
temperature of 58.7°C and 55°C for respective cases. These outlets of the CPV/T system are simulated as inlet
for the proposed system to identify the appropriate length of EWHE for the same cooling effect. It is observed
from the Table 2, that it would take EWHE system of 4 m and 5 m length for the respective cases to achieve the
temperature drop up to inlet temperature of 25°C. The cost estimation for both cases shows that it is quite
cheaper than the reference cases and hence the proposed system is much better and cheaper option.
The Table 2 also shows the comparative study with the existing system of Li et al. [13] where they used CR

421
of 16.92 and flow rate of 0.012 kg/s for four different solar cells, i.e. Crystalline Silicon (CS), Polycrystalline
Silicon (PS), Super Cell Array (SCA) and GaAs cell array. In their system they used the CPV/T system
connected to storage tank heat exchanger for hot water applications. This system is modified in the present study
and simulated for same inlet temperature and direct normal irradiance to achieve the same outlet temperature as
shown in Fig. 6. The results obtained with proposed EWHE system are shown in Table 2, which indicates that
the maximum length of 60 m would be sufficient to achieve the same cooling effect. The proposed system is
cheaper as compared to reference cases. The EWHE system along with CPV may be used for the arid regions of
western Rajasthan which is blessed with high solar insolation. This system will be very much helpful in summer
as outside temperature reach up to 50 °C, leaving very small scope for utilization of thermal energy. While
rejecting heat to the ambient will also be great challenge. Thus the proposed EWHE system will be a better
solution.

Table 2. Applicability of EWHE system with existing literature.

Author Concentration ratio CPV cells Flow rate Water outlet Water outlet Pipe length
(CR) (Suns) material (kg/s) temp. from temp. from required for
CPV/T (EWHE EWHE (CPV/T EWHE (meter)
Inlet) °C inlet) °C
Xu et al. 50 (Straight) Monocrystalline 0.00045 58.70 24.20 5
(2012) silicon
50 (Tree) 0.00044 55.00 24.30 4
Li et al. 16.92 CS and PS 0.012 48.50 25.50 60
(2011)
16.92 SCA 0.012 47.00 25.70 58

16.92 GaAs 0.012 42.50 26.00 52

2
6

1 3 1

5
4
2

4 3

1. CPV/T system 4. Pump

2. Valves 5. Cold water in 1. CPV/T system 3. EWHE
3. Storage tank / Heat exchanger 6. Hot water out 2. Valves 4. Pump

(A) (B)

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of (A) Conventional CPV/T cooling system (B) Proposed CPV/T cooling system with EWHE.

5. Conclusion

The present work discussed the parametric study of EWHE by varying different parameters which includes
burial depth, pipe material, pipe length, pipe diameter and mass flow rate. The analysis was performed for local
conditions of Pilani, Rajasthan and simulations were performed using TRNSYS (v17.0). By varying burial
depth, it was observed that with increase in depth from 0.5 m to 3.5 m, the soil temperature over the year varies
from 9.5 °C to 44.7 °C for 0.5 m depth while it remains within the range of 22.5 °C to 27.7 °C for 3.5 m depth.
Considering this small variation in temperature, the depth of 3.5 m is taken for the simulations for local
condition. The comparative study between three different materials shows that the properties of these materials
have lesser impact on the performance of the EWHE system so among these three materials HDPE pipe can be

422
used for its low cost. The performance of the system increases with increase in length of the pipe and decreases
with increase of mass flow rate. In case of increase in diameter, the performance of the system increase in the
longer run, but the economic factor increases with increase in pipe diameter. The simulated system is then
compared with cooling system of CPV as discussed by Xu et al. [12] and Li et al. [13] to estimate the effect of
replacing the same with EWHE. From the analysis it was found out that the EWHE system gives better
performance as compared to the reference system and hence may be used for the cooling purpose of CPV
systems.

Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the support from the Center for Renewable Energy and Environment
Development, BITS - Pilani Rajasthan, for this research.

References
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Conditioning Engineers Inc., NE Atlanta, GA 30329; 2009.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2011; 15 (9):5169–5175.
[3] Soni M.S. and Gakkhar N. Techno-economic parametric assessment of solar power in India: A survey.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2014; 40: 326–334.
[4] Sodha, M. S., Sharma, A. K., Singh, S. P., Bansal, N. K. and Kumar, A. Evaluation of an earth-air tunnel
system for cooling/heating of a hospital complex. Building and Environment, 1985; 20(2); 115-122.
[5] Pfafferott J. Evaluation of earth-to-air heat exchangers with a standardized method to calculate energy
efficiency. Energy and Buildings 2003; 35:971-983.
[6] Kumar R, Ramesh R, Kaushik R. Performance evaluation and energy conservation potential of earth–air-
tunnel system coupled with non-air-conditioned building. Building and Environment 2003; 38:807-813.
[7] Ajmi FA, Loveday DL, Hanby V. The cooling potential of earth–air heat exchangers for domestic buildings
in a desert climate. Building and Environment 2006; 41: 235-244.
[8] Bansal V., Misra R., Agrawal G. D., and Mathur J. Performance analysis of earth–pipe–air heat exchanger
for summer cooling. Energy and Buildings, 2010; 42(5); 645-648.
[9] Jakhar S., Misra R., Bansal V., and Soni M. S. Thermal performance investigation of earth air tunnel heat
exchanger coupled with a solar air heating duct for northwestern India. Energy and Buildings 2015; 87; 360-
369.
[10] Joen T. C., Liu L., and De Paepe M. Comparison of earth-air and earth-water ground tube heat exchangers
for residential application. International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference, Purdue University,
2012; 2194–10.
[11] Chel A., Janssens A., and De Paepe M. Thermal performance of a nearly zero energy passive house
integrated with the air–air heat exchanger and the earth–water heat exchanger. Energy and Buildings
2015; 96; 53-63.
[12] Xu X., Meyers M.M., Sammakia B.G. and Murray B.T. Thermal modeling of hybrid concentrating pv/t
collectors with tree-shaped channel networks cooling system. 13th IEEE Intersociety Conference on
Thermal and Thermo mechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm), IEEE; 2012, 1131-1138.
[13] Li, M., Li, G. L., Ji, X., Yin, F., and Xu, L. The performance analysis of the trough concentrating solar
photovoltaic/thermal system. Energy Conversion and Management 2011; 52(6); 2378-2383.
[14] Wurfel, P., and Wurfel, U. Physics of solar cells: from basic principles to advanced concepts. John Wiley &
Sons, 2009.
[15] Royne A., Dey C. J. and Mills D. R. Cooling of photovoltaic cells under concentrated illumination: a
critical review. Solar energy materials and solar cells 2005; 86(4); 451-483.
[16] Sravan Raj P., Soni M.S. and Jakhar Sanjeev, A review on Photovoltaic/Thermal and Concentrated
Photovoltaic/Thermal hybrid solar technology. International Congress on Renewable Energy, "Powering
National Growth Through Solar", (ICORE); 2014, 282-289.
[17] TRNSYS 17: Transient System Simulation Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA): Solar
Energy Laboratory.
[18] Renno C., and Petito F. Design and modeling of a concentrating photovoltaic thermal (CPV/T) system for a
domestic application. Energy and Buildings 2013; 62; 392-402.

423
 ICAER-2015

Performance Evaluation of Fluidised Bed Biomass

Gasifier Using CFD
Anil M1, Rupesh S1, Muraleedharan C1, Arun P1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Calicut 67360, India

Abstract

Biomass gasification is one of the effective thermo-chemical methods to extract energy from biomass. This study mainly
focuses on 2D modelling and simulation of biomass gasification in a bubbling fluidised bed gasifier using computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) solver ANSYS FLUENT 15.0. Separate phases are used for biomass (saw dust), sand and gases and
all the phases are solved using Eulerian- Eulerian approach. The effect of turbulence on computational fluid dynamics
modelling of fluidised bed reactors is analysed by comparing the results obtained from laminar and turbulent cases.
The developed model is used to predict the effect of equivalence ratio, steam to biomass ratio, steam temperature and air
preheating on product gas composition. It is found that when equivalence ratio is increased from 0.15 to 0.4, H2
concentration is decreased by 72% and the variation of steam to biomass ratio from 0.5 to 1.5 enhanced the H2 concentration
by 87%.
Keywords: Fluidized bed; gasification; multiphase flow ; turbulence; modelling

1. Introduction

Scarcity of conventional fuels and environmental issues has lead to an increased dependency on renewable
energy source like biomass. Among the various conversion routes available, biomass gasification is identified as
one of the effective methods to extract energy. Fludised bed gasifiers are widely used for this purpose as they
offer better heat and mass transfer characteristics. CFD is found to be an effective and economical tool in
simulating fluidsed bed gasifiers in which governing equations for mass, momentum, energy and species
transport are solved to obtain the spatial and temporal variation of parameters [1, 2]. Multiphase flow in a
fluidised bed reactor is modelled through two major approaches namely, Euler-Euler model and Euler–Lagrange
model. Euler-Euler approach is found to have reasonable accuracy in simulating fluidised bed in comparison
with Euler–Lagrange approach [3, 4]. Effect of drag models on the hydrodynamic behaviour of fluidised bed
was analysed by Loha et al. [5] and found that Gidaspow drag model gives a better prediction. Taghipour et al.
[6] reported that a restitution coefficient value of 0.9 can provide a better prediction of cold flow hydrodynamics
in CFD simulation of fluidised beds. Hydrodynamics, heat and mass transfer of air gasification of biomass in a
circulating fluidised bed gasifier was numerically modelled by Liu et al. [7]. Only limited computational works
have been reported for simulating air-steam gasification of biomass in bubbling fluidised bed gasifiers. The
present work deals with the CFD modelling and simulation of air-steam biomass gasification to analyse the
effect of equivalence ratio (ER), steam to biomass ratio (SBR), steam temperature and air preheating on product
gas composition.
Pyrolysis of biomass fed to the gasifier is modelled using one-stage global single-reaction model
in which biomass undergoes thermal degradation to form char, moisture and volatiles.
Each pyrolysis constituents and amount of gas mixtures formed from the volatiles are considered [8].

Nomenclature

v velocity (m/s)
S source term
ρ density (kg/m3)
g gas
s solid
α volume fraction
p pressure (Pa)
ps solid pressure (Pa)
m mass flow rate (kg/s)

424
g acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
R interaction force between phases (N)
µ shear viscosity (kg/ms)
d diameter (m)
X mass fraction
e restitution coefficient
g0 radial distribution coefficient
ess restitution coefficient
𝜃 granular temperature, m2/s2
Φ friction angle
h specific enthalpy (J/kg)
q conductive heat flux (J/m2)

2. Mathematical modelling

The Eulerian–Eulerian two-fluid model is used to analyse the performance of fluidised bed. The gas mixture
phase is considered as the primary continuous phase and solid phases as the secondary dispersed phases. These
different phases are treated mathematically as interacting and interpenetrating continua with single pressure
shared by them. Conservation of mass, momentum, energy and species are applied to each phase with associated
constitutive relations as follows [9, 10]:

2.1 Continuity equations

Gas Phase:

∂ αg ρg
+ ∇. αg ρg vg = Sg (1)
∂t

Solid Phase:

∂ α sn ρ sn
+ ∇. αsn ρsn vsn = Ssn (2)
∂t

2.2 Momentum equations

Gas Phase:

∂ αg ρg νg n
+ ∇. αg ρg νg νg = −αg ∇p + ∇. τg + αg ρg g + s=1 (R gs + νsg msg − νgs mgs ) (3)
∂t

Solid Phase:

∂ α sn ρ sn v sn
+ ∇. αsn ρsn νsn νsn = −αsn ∇p − ∇psn + ∇. τsn + αsn ρsn g +
∂t

N
l=1 R ln + νsg msg − νgs mgs (4)

where the gas and solid phase stress tensors (τs , τg ) are given by,

T 2
τg = αg μg ∇νg + ∇νg − αg μg ∇. νg I (5)
3

T 2
τsn = αsn μs ∇νs + ∇νs − αs (λs − μs )∇. νg I (6)
3

Transport properties of the solid phase are expressed as a function of granular temperature and radial
distribution function as follows:

Solid phase bulk viscosity,

425
 4 θs
λs = αs ρs ds g 0 ss (1 + ess ) (7)
3 π

Solid phase shear viscosity is made of kinetic, collisional and frictional viscosity,
µs = µs,col + µs,fr + µs,kin (8)
The relations for µ𝑠,𝑐𝑜𝑙 , µ𝑠,𝑓𝑟 and µ𝑠,𝑘𝑖𝑛 are:

4 θs
µs,col = αs 2 ρs ds g 0 ss (1 + ess ) (9)
5 π

𝑝 𝑠 sin ⁡
(Ø)
µ𝑠,𝑓𝑟 = (10)
2 𝐼2𝐷

𝛼 𝑠 𝜌 𝑠 𝑑 𝑠 𝜃𝑠 𝜋
µ𝑠,𝑘𝑖𝑛 = 2 (11)
6 3−𝑒𝑠𝑠 1+ 1+𝑒𝑠𝑠 (3𝑒𝑠𝑠 −1)𝛼 𝑠 𝑔0 𝑠𝑠
5

For a multi-phase system with ‘N’ number of phases, considering all the phases, solid pressure can be
expressed as,
3
𝑁 𝑑 𝑙𝑠
𝑝𝑙 = 𝛼𝑙 𝜌𝑙 𝜃𝑙 + 2 𝑙=1 𝑑 3 1 + 𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑔0 𝑙𝑠 𝛼𝑙 𝛼𝑠 𝜌𝑙 𝜃𝑙 (12)
𝑙

Radial distribution function for ‘N’ solid phases,

1 −1
αs 3 1 αn
g o,ss = 1 − + ds N
n=1 d (13)
αs ,max 2 n

Kinetic fluctuating energy of the nth solid phase can be represented using granular temperature as [11],
3 𝜕
𝛼𝑠 𝜌𝑠 𝛩𝑠 + ∇. (𝛼𝑠 𝜌𝑠 𝑣𝑠 𝛩𝑠 ) = −𝑝𝑠 I + 𝜏𝑠 : ∇ 𝑣𝑠 + ∇. k Θs ∇Θs − γΘs + 𝜙𝑔𝑠 (14)
2 𝜕𝑡

where −𝑝𝑠 I + 𝜏𝑠 : ∇ 𝑣𝑠 : energy generation by solid stress tensor, kΘs: diffusion coefficient, γΘs : collisional
energy dissipation, 𝜙𝑔𝑠 : energy exchange between the gas and particles [12-14].

2.1. Species transport equations

Gas Phase:

∂ α g ρ g X g ,i
+ ∇. αg ρg Xg,i vg = −∇. αg ρg D g,i ∇Xg,i vg + Sg,i (15)
∂t

Solid Phase:

∂ α sn ρ sn X sn ,i
+ ∇. αsn ρsn Xsn ,i vsn = −∇. αsn ρsn D sn ,i ∇Xsn ,i vsn + Ssn ,i (16)
∂t

2.2. Energy equations

Gas Phase:
Energy equation for the gas phase is,

𝛛 𝛂𝐠 𝛒𝐠 𝐡𝐠
+ 𝛁. 𝛂𝐠 𝛒𝐠 𝐯𝐠 𝐡𝐠 = −𝛁𝐪𝐠 + ∆𝐡𝐫𝐠 + 𝐧
𝐬=𝟏 𝐡𝐬𝐠 (17)
𝛛𝐭

Solid Phase:
Energy equation for the nth solid phase is,

∂ α sn ρ sn h sn
+ ∇. αsn ρsn hsn vsn = −∇qsn + ∆hrsn + n
s=1 hgs (18)
∂t

Governing equations for mass, momentum, species transport and energy are solved to determine the spatial
and temporal variations of different parameters.

426
3. Numerical considerations

The geometry and parameters used for the analysis are shown in table 1 and figure 1, respectively.

Table 1. Hydro dynamic parameters and other properties

Bed

Material Sand

Density 1800 kg/m3

Particle diameter. 0.8 mm

Initial Volume Fraction 0.6

Biomass

Material Saw Dust

Density 896 kg/m3

Particle diameter. 1 mm

Other

Pressure outlet 1 atm.

Inlet velocity 0.5 m/s

Time step size 0.001 s

No. of iterations for each time step 20

Convergence Criteria 10-4

Specularity coefficient at walls 1 (no slip)

Restitution coefficient 0.9

Drag model Gidaspow

Fig. 1. Computational domain

Grid independence test is conducted and grid size of 17700 is selected. Phase Coupled SIMPLE algorithm is
used for coupling the pressure and velocity terms. Second order implicit scheme and QUICK algorithm were
used for the discretization of unsteady term and convective term, respectively. The simulations were carried out
for 20 s and the time averaged values for each parameter between 5 s and 20 s are taken for the analysis.

4. Results and discussion

The developed model is used to analyse the effect of turbulence in fluid dynamic modelling of fluidised bed
gasifier and also the effect of operating parameters like equivalence ratio (ER), steam to biomass ratio (SBR),
steam temperature and air preheating on product gas composition.

4.1. Effect of turbulence in the modelling of fluidised bed

The effect of turbulence on the hydrodynamic behaviour of fluidised bed is analysed by comparing the
simulation results with and without turbulence. Effect of turbulence in the radial variation of solid volume
fraction and solid velocity is given by figures 2 and 3, respectively. For both the cases solid volume fraction is
less at the centre compared to that at the walls. This is attributed to the formation of bubbles at the central region
of the bed. From figure 3 it is clear that solid velocity is zero at the walls and this is due to the non slip wall
boundary condition. Comparing the simulation results for laminar and turbulent cases it can be concluded that
the turbulence has considerable effect on hydrodynamic modelling and hence it cannot be neglected.

427
 0.63

Solid Volume Fraction

0.625 Turbulent Laminar
0.62
0.615
0.61
0.605
-1.39E-1 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
Lateral Distance (m)

Fig. 2. Radial variation of time-averaged solid volume fraction

0.25
Axial Solid Velocity

0.2
0.15
(m/s)

0.1
0.05
0
0 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
Lateral Distance (m)

Fig. 3. Radial variation of time-averaged solid velocity

4.2. Effect of Equivalence ratio (ER) on syngas composition

Equivalence ratio is varied by keeping air velocity constant and by changing the mass flow rate of biomass.
The effect of equivalence ratio on product gas composition is depicted through figure 4. The increase in CO2
and decrease in CO and H2 with increase in ER is due to the shifting of the process more towards combustion.
It is also observed that an increase in ER from 0.15 to 0.4 resulted in a decrease of H 2 concentration by 72%.

0.2

0.15 ER=0.15 ER=0.25 ER=0.3 ER=0.4

Mole Fraction

0.1

0.05

0
H₂ CO CO₂

Fig. 4. Effect of ER on product gas composition

428
4.3. Effect of steam to biomass ratio(SBR) on syngas composition

Figure 5 shows the effect of steam addition on product gas composition. It is observed that with increase in
steam addition H2 and CO2 concentrations are increasing and that of CO is decreasing. This is due to the effect
of water gas shift reaction, where CO combines with steam to produce H2 and CO2. H2 concentration is found to
be increased by 87% when steam to biomass ratio is increased from 0.5 to 1.5.
0.18
0.16 SBR=0.5 SBR=1.0 SBR=1.5
0.14
0.12
Mole Fraction

0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
H₂ CO CO₂

Fig. 5. Effect of SBR on product gas composition

4.4. Effect of air preheating on syngas composition

The effect of air preheating on syngas composition is shown in figure 6. Comparison of gas composition with
and without air preheating shows that preheating of air can produce gas with better quality. Increase in average
temperature of the system with preheated air is the reason for the improvement in producer gas quality.

0.16
0.14
0.12 30 ⁰C 60 ⁰C
Mole Fraction

0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
H₂ CO CO₂

Fig. 6. Effect of air preheating on product gas composition

4.1. Effect of steam temperature on syngas composition

From the analysis it is found that increase in steam temperature also enhances the reaction by increasing the
system temperature. This in turn improves the gas quality. The variation of product gas composition with change
in steam inlet temperature is shown in figure 7. Even though increase in steam temperature is favourable for gas
quality, its upper frontier is limited by the cost involved in steam generation and metallurgical limitations.

429
 0.16

0.14

0.12 300 ⁰C 600 ⁰C 800 ⁰C

Mole Fraction

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0
H₂ CO CO₂

Fig. 7. Effect of steam temperature on product gas composition

5. Conclusions

A two dimensional multi-fluid model to simulate air-steam gasification of saw dust was developed in ANSYS
15. The developed model was used to analyse the effect of turbulence in the fluid dynamic modelling of
fluidised bed. From the simulation results it was found that the effect of turbulence cannot be neglected in the
modelling of fluidised bed. The model is used to analyse the impact of equivalence ratio, steam to biomass ratio,
air preheating and steam temperature in product gas composition. H2 concentration is found to be increased by
87% when SBR is varied from 0.5 to 1.5. The effect of combustion at higher ER values reduced H2
concentration by 72%, when ER is increased from 0.15 to 0.4, respectively.

6. Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by MNRE through R&D project on
‘Investigation on bio-hydrogen production by thermo-chemical method in fluidized bed gasifier under catalytic
support and its utilization’ (No. 103/181/2010-NT).

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430
 ICAER-2015

Chlorophyll Entrapped Chitosan Hydrogel as a Novel Material

for Artificial Light Harvesting
Pubali Mandala, Jhimli Sarkar Mannab, Debmallya Dasc, Manoj Kumar Mitrac
aSchool of Material Science & Nanotechnology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India.
bHenry W Bloch School of Management, UMKC, Kansas, Missourie, USA. cMetallurgical & Material Engineering Department, Jadavpur
University, Kolkata 700032, India.

Abstract

Chlorophyll a infused chitosan biopolymer crosslinked hydrogel was evaluated as an active element of a new
class of aqueous soft matter based biomimetic photovoltaic cell showing efficiency of 0.6%, comparable to natural
pigment or photosystem based solar cells reported so far. Photon absorbance through a wide range of the visible
spectrum along with ultrafast energy migration within closely packed array of Chlorophyll a assemblies inside
the hydrogel, as evident from UV-Vis absorbance and TCSPC data, leads to efficient charge transfer facilitated
by the matrix. High values of short circuit current density (437 µA/cm2) and open circuit voltage (1.36 V) are
obtained for the simple photovoltaic system developed by sandwiching the novel gel between two electrodes. We
propose a probable charge transfer method from Chlorophyll a to counter electrode via reversible oxidation of
peripheral C=O bonds of the pigment form cyclic voltammetry studies. The studies indicate that with proper
modifications Chlorophyll/Chitosan complex can be a potential component of bio-inspired, eco-friendly, cheap
solar cells, which are the future of photovoltaic research.

Keywords: Chlorophyll a; hydrogel; biomimetic; bio-friendly; photorespoinse; redox potential.

1. Introduction

The recent trend in photovoltaic research is designing bio-inspired highly efficient artificial light harvesting
complexes using perfectly oriented assembly of molecules1, 2, 3, 4. Molecular self-assembly is the key tool behind
functioning of many biological systems and processes. Photosynthesis is such a quantum method where the
primary event is absorption and funneling of light excitation followed by conversion into chemical energy 5, 6.
Assembly of Chlorophyll a pigments via inter molecular electronic coupling play the major role in light harvesting
from antenna complex, where light is absorbed, to reaction center, where photosynthetic redox reaction takes
place within a special pair of Chlorophyll a. Photosynthesis precisely involves conversion of light energy into
chemical energy by creation of a pair of oxidant and reductant resulting from ejection of an electron from
Chlorophyll to an acceptor7. This sustainable nanoscale mechanism which is the foundation of life on earth has a
remarkable quantum efficiency of >95%8, 9. Chlorophyll pigments, mainly Chlorophyll a (Chl-a), are the building
blocks of photosystems in plants, algae and cyanobacteria. In this era of green and sustainable technology,
rigorous study on assembly of Chlorophyll a molecules within various genre of matrices, drawing inspiration form
natural systems, has received considerable attention. Importance of such studies lie in the fact that isolated
monomeric Chlorophyll a molecules in solvent cannot harvest photon. They absorb excitation energy only in
narrow regions of the spectrum, a major part of which is lost as heat. Potentially hazardous triplet states are also
formed via inter-system crossing which affect excitation energy transfer (EET) and cell life. But in natural
photosystems the environment, comprising mainly of protein, facilitate superfast excitation transfer by
minimizing and controlling such losses10. Coupling between closely packed molecules and pigment-protein
interaction results in broader absorbance cross-section and faster charge or energy transfer besides reducing
wasteful intersystem crossing. Excitation energy is transferred towards the target chromophore through Chl-a
network within 10-100 picosecond timescale with near 98% efficiency11. This is much higher than the best
efficiency achieved so far by their artificial counterparts using costly, highly complicated fabrication techniques
and hazardous chemicals.

The concept of replacing volatile toxic electrolytes in DSSC with water was introduced by Murakami et.
al12. A new class of solar cells based on hydrogel with relatively high efficiency was reported by Hoo et. al 13.
Hydrogels are three dimensional array of cross-linked biopolymers capable to encapsulate huge amount of (~90%
of their weight) water and biomolecules. Reaction rate and ion transport properties in “quasi-liquid” hydrogels

431
are comparable to that in liquid media, making them a good alternative of hazardous volatile solvents used in
conventional dye sensitized solar cells14, 15. In this work effort has been given on using Chlorophyll a embedded
chitosan hydrogel for development of a simple cost effective photon energy harvesting system. This is an
extension of a previous work by us revealing superfast excitation migration within perfectly arranged
supramolecular structures of chromophores embedded in chitosan hydrogel through various photo-physical
property studies16. Chitosan is a derivative of chitin, one of the most abundant biopolymer found on earth. This
polysaccharide is widely used in tissue engineering and wound healing. Electrical and electrochemical studies
show that Chl-a/ Chitosan hydrogel complex based system can be a step towards bio-friendly cheap solar cells.

Nomenclature

Chl-a Chlorophyll a
CSChl Chl-a entrapped chitosan hydrogel
CS Chitosan hydrogel
DSSC dye sensitized solar cell
EET Excitation energy transfer
TCSPC Time correlated single photon count
FF Fill factor

2. Materials & Method

Chl-a was freshly extracted from spinach leaves using conventional column chromatography method. Chitosan
was purchased from SRL and was used as received. 25% glutaraldehyde solution was supplied by Merck
Chemicals. 0.2 gm chitosan was dissolved in 14 ml 1% acetic acid solution and stirred for 8 hours to obtain a
viscous homogeneous solution.1 ml of 1% glutaraldehyde solution was drop-wise added to it as a cross-linker8
and was left for almost1hour. After adjusting pH of the hydrogel to ~ 6.5, it was cast on a glass petri and kept in
a vacuum desiccator for nearly 48 hours to evaporate. The as prepared membrane was then soaked in Chl-a (in
ethanol) overnight which results in successful entrapment of molecules inside the hydrogel matrix. The outer
surface of hydrogel membrane was washed with bi-distilled water, wiped carefully with blotting paper before
performing any characterization. The whole experiment was carried out at room temperature, i.e, 30-35○C.

2.1. Sample characterization:

UV-vis spectra of the hydrogel was measured using a LAMBDA 35 UV-VIS Spectrometer (Perkin-Elmer). Time
dependent emission and fluorescence anisotropy measurements were carried out using a HORIBA JOBIN YVON
IBH, JY-IBH 5000 M setup at 674nm wavelength. Photocurrent response was measured with a Keithley 238
sourcemeter under a white illumination source of 1000W/m2 power. Electrochemical analysis was carried out in
a two electrode system at 100 mVS-1 scan rate. All the synthesis and characterization were performed at room
temperature (30–35 °C).

3. Results & Discussions

3.1. Absorbance Property:

The absorbance spectrum of CsChl (Fig. 1.A.) shows signature of Chl-a at 428 nm and 605 nm along with
significant inhomogeneous broadening up to 900nm region. The Q band of chlorophyll a in chitosan hydrogel is
hypsochromically shifted and broader compared to that of monomeric Chl-a in ethanol (inset) solvent. This may
be attributed to electronic interaction between adjacent molecules giving rise to new energy states. The

432
inhomogeneous broadening in 600-900 nm region arises due to pigment-environment interactions which plays an
important role in excitation transfer enhancement through facilitating pigment orientation and coupling 17, 18.

3.2. Fluorescence Property:

Presence of different molecular assemblies was further supported by tri- exponentially fitted time correlated
fluorescence decay data (Fig. 1.B.) with very short average excited state lifetime. All the three components have
lifetime shorter than that of monomeric Chl-a (~ 4.5 nsec) suggesting most of the pigment molecules are
participating in fast inter-molecular excitation migration within chitosan matrix. The average excited state lifetime
and quantum yield was calculated to be 1.563 nsec and 0.31 respectively. Low amount of quantum yield also
supports coordinated fluorophore molecular species similar to photosystem. The nature of absorbance as well
fluorescence decay curves have been explained more elaborately in the first part of this work ( P. Mandal, J. S.
Manna, D. Das, M. K. Mitra, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 14, 2015, 786-791).

Figure. 1.A. UV-Vis absorbance spectra of CSChl showing inhomogeneous broadening of Chl-a Q band and
spectral broadening up to 900nm arising due to inter molecular and molecule -environment interaction. B.
Ultrafast fluorescence decay curve of CSChl.

3.3. Photoelectric Study:

Structure of the simple prototype photovoltaic system used for photocurrent and electrochemical studies of CSChl
is described in Fig. 2. The as prepared gel was sandwiched in between two electrodes with help of a white
insulating Teflon chamber. Transparent ITO coated glass substrate (Sigma-Aldrich) was used as the top electrode
whereas low cost silver coated substrate was used as the
counter electrode. The area of contact between electrodes
and hydrogel was measured to be 0.64 cm2 and thickness of
the layer was kept ~2mm. The current density-voltage curve
(Fig.3) exhibits photo response with a short-circuit current
density (Jsc) of -437 µA/cm2 and open circuit voltage of 1.36
Volt. The fill-factor of the system was calculated to be 0.54.
Open circuit voltage value represents the highest voltage a
solar cell can provide to an external circuit. When a solar
cell is in open circuit condition, the free carrier generation
due to photo excitation exactly balance recombination
resulting no net current in the circuit. In case of organic solar
cells this value is low compared to inorganic cells due to fast
Figure. 2. Schematic Diagram of CSChl based recombination and relaxation of carriers, decreasing the cell
photovoltaic cell. efficiency further19. From the high Voc of CSChl
photovoltaic system it may be predicted that a major amount the carriers successfully reach the collecting electrode
before recombination. This is further facilitated by quasi-liquid hydrogel environment where charge transport

433
mobility is high. Another important parameter determining energy conversion efficiency of a solar cell is the short
circuit current which is the maximum photocurrent generated under zero-biased condition. Larger short circuit
current value is significant for better efficiency of a photovoltaic system. For organic photovoltaic the critical
factor decreasing Jsc is slow carrier transport 20, which can be enhanced in aqueous gel medium like chitosan 21, 22,
23
. All the values fetched from J-V curve are listed in Table.1.

Figure. 3. J-V curve of CSChl photovoltaic system.

Table 1. Photocurrent characteristics of CSChl

Jsc (µA/cm2) Voc(Volt) FF IPCE
437 1.36 0.54 0.6%

3.4. Electrochemical Analysis:

Cyclic voltammetry analysis was carried out considering the prototype solar cell as a two electrode
electrochemical configuration for better understanding of charge transfer dynamics within Chl-a/chitosan
hydrogel complex. Here the aqueous gel plays the role of electrolyte placed between two working electrodes. The
voltagram of the cell shows (Fig. 4.A.) a single cathodic peak at -0.44 V which is related to reduction of Chl/Chl+
pair through single electron transfer. This reaction is reversible giving rise to broad reduction peak around -0.08
V, unusual for C-H bond formations but rather typical for O-H bonds24. The peripheral C=O group of Chl-a
participating in long range push-pull dipolar interaction with water molecules present within the hydrogel matrix,
as proposed in the previous part of this work16, is most likely to take part in this reduction. This kind of reaction
enable the pigment molecules to form a bond with metal. Although oxidation of monomeric Chl-a in solvents like
DMF, ethanol or acetonitrile occurs at very high negative potential25, 26, it is sensitive to the coordination state of
the central Mg atom which further associated with the porphyrin ring symmetry27. We previously established that
in CSChl self-assembled Chl-a molecules are interactive with the hydrogel scaffold via 6 th coordination like
photosystem II. Structural reorientation of self-assembled 6th coordinated chlorophyll molecules within the
chitosan hydrogel matrix are responsible for decrease of oxidation potential 28. The significant increase in
oxidation potential is in agreement with slow response of the cell, a common feature for organic solar cells. The
overall redox behavior of the system is comparable to that of Chlorophyll reaction center P700 in photosystem of
cyanobecteria29. No significant redox peak is visible in the bare chitosan hydrogel where most of the functional
groups are taking part in strong ionic crosslinking.

Therefore in the water rich environment of CsChl photo-current response process may be described in three
consecutive steps: a) electronic interaction between properly organized Chl-a molecules in the hydrogel scaffold
enhance photon absorbance over broad wavelength, b) excitation migration between interactive molecular
assemblies of short excited state lifetimes, c) reduction of Chl-a molecules at matrix electrode interface
transferring taking part in EET showing photo-current response. The Chl-a encapsulated chitosan hydrogel in this
case serve two key purposes. It acts as the active layer of a DSSC where exciton generation takes place upon light

434
 Figure.4. Cyclic Voltammetry curves of CSChl based
photovoltaic cell showing reversible oxidation of aggregated
Chl-a species depicting charge transfer to the counter
elextrode

absorption. The gel-electrode interface on the other hand acts like schottky barrier where charge separation and
collection occurs.

4. Conclusions

In summary, this work presents preparation, characterization and evaluation of a novel photovoltaic unit using
Chitosan/Chlorophyll-a hybrid material. Short excited state lifetime along with low quantum yield may be
attributed to strong dipolar interaction as well as pigment-matrix interaction resulting broad absorbance spectrum.
Current-voltage measurements carried out placing the as prepared hydrogel between to electrodes in dark and
illuminated conditions. Show high open circuit voltage (1.36 Volt) and short circuit current density (437 µA/cm2).
Although IPCE is much lower (0.6%) compared to conventional inorganic and organic solar cells, it is comparable
to Chlorophyll based biomimetic solar cell reported so far. This new kind of photovoltaics have the potential for
evolving as easily fabricated, cheap, eco-friendly, efficient light conversion systems. Overall, we present
evidences that Chlorophyll based bio-inspired simple systems have the potential to be the future of solar cell
research.

Acknowledgements

The authors deeply acknowledge the financial support granted by University Grant Commission under the
program UPE 2 to Pubali Mandal. The grant rendered to Debmallya Das by CSIR is also thankfully acknowledged.

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 ICAER-2015

Optimization of process parameters of biodiesel production from

different kinds of feedstock.

Nabanita Banerjeea,*, Souvik Barmana, Gour Sahaa,Tushar Jash a

a
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

Abstract

An experimental study has been carried out to produce biodiesel from different kinds of feedstock. Operating parameters
have been optimized with respect to percentage yield of production and viscosity. The most common method for production
of biodiesel is transesterification. Palm, karanja, mahua ,linseed and castor oil are among the few of the non edible oils
.Along with this waste cooking oil can also be considered as non edible oil as it is mostly thrown away. The process of
transesterification depends on various factors like reaction temperature, stirring rate, molar ratio, amount of catalyst and
reaction time. Depending upon the acid value, the number of steps of transeterification was determined. If free fatty acid is
greater than 2.5% then two step transesterificaton is carried out. Karanja and mahua oil undergo two step process because of
high FFA content. The main objective of the study was to optimize the reaction parameters for production of biodiesel from
different kinds of oil based on kinematic viscosity and percentage of yield obtained.
Keywords: biodiesel, feedstock, transesterification, non-edible, acid value

1. Introduction

The world is confronted with the twin crisis of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation. The
indiscriminate extraction and consumption of fossil fuels have led to a reduction in petroleum reserves.
Petroleum based fuels are obtained from limited reserves. These finite reserves are highly concentrated in
certain regions of the world. Therefore, those countries not having these resources are facing a foreign exchange
crisis, mainly due to the import of crude petroleum oil. Hence, it is necessary to look for alternative fuels, which
can be produced from materials available within the country. Most of the oils used for biodiesel production are
edible in nature. They face competition between food and fuel. The non edible feedstock is likewise useful for
manufacturing biodiesel giving an appreciable yield.

Most of the oils used for biodiesel production are edible in nature. They face competition between food and fuel.
The non-edible feedstock is likewise useful for producing biodiesel giving an appreciable yield. The conversion
process of biodiesel depends upon the free fatty acid content of the oil. If it is > 2.5% then two step or three step
process is used [1]. In India tree based oilseeds like sal, neem, undi and mahua are found in abundance, with an
estimated annual production potential of more than 20 Mt, of which mahua contributes 181kt [2]. These oils
have great potential to make biodiesel for supplementing other conventional sources. Research has shown that
three step transesterification has been used in case of mahua oil [3].The main drawback of using biodiesel is the
high cost of production. The high cost of vegetable oils, which could account for 75% of manufacturing cost,
has led to increase of production cost of biodiesel at approximately 1.5 times than that of conventional diesel
[4].

2. Materials and methods

2.1 Materials used

The different oils used for this experimental study are used vegetable oil palm oil, linseed oil and mahua oil.
The oils were collected from a local wholesale dealer. The used vegetable oil was collected from the university
guest house. Methanol used here was 99% pure and KOH was 84% pure and the H2SO4 was also 98% pure .All
the Chemicals were obtained from Merck Ltd.
__________________________________
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 7044274238
E-mail: nabs913@gmail.com

437
2.2 Experimental procedure

The used vegetable oil has a lot of impurities of food particles and black carbon particles. Primary filtration was
done in the container in which it was kept. If it is left to settle for 1-2 days, the heavier particles settle at the
bottom. The top part of the oil can then be passed through waste cotton to filter the larger food particles. After
this step, carbon particles were removed through vacuum filtration. The oil after filtration gets stored in the
bottom. The used vegetable oil and palm oil, linseed oil, karanja oil and castor oil have free fatty acid content
less than 2.5%. They undergo direct transesterification. The catalyst and the alcohol were completely stirred and
then the calculated amount of oil was added. The experimental setup consisted of a 500 ml frosted conical flask
fitted with a reflux condenser on a magnetic stirrer.The parameters were varied one at a time keeping the other
factors constant. Mahua oil has free fatty acid content 17.5%. To avoid saponification, this oil has to be
esterified in the presence of acid like H2SO4. H2SO4 reacts to the oil and produces esterified oil and water-
alcohol mixture. This mixture was separated in a separating funnel by keeping it standing for 1.5 hours. The
upper darker layer was the methanol and water mixture and the lighter bottom layer was the esterified oil which
is ready for transesterification. The reaction mixture was allowed to stand for overnight in a separating funnel
after a stipulated duration of stirring. Two clear separate phases were obtained. Glycerol being at the bottom,
methyl ester formed the upper layer. The methyl ester obtained underwent repeated washing till the pH of the
dissolved water became neutral. Then the oil was separated from dissolved water via separating funnel.
Washing was followed by heating of the oil in air oven at 900C for 15- 20 minutes. After the oil was cooled to
normal temperature yield of biodiesel was finally measured.

The experimental data for used vegetable oil, palm oil, linseed oil, and mahua oil are given below where some
parameters have been varied one at time. The free fatty acid content of mahua oil reduced to 1.65% from 17.5%
after first step acid esterification.

Table 1.
Percentage yield of biodiesel prepared from 100 ml of used vegetable oil at different experimental conditions.

Parameter Reaction Reaction Molar ratio of Catalyst Stirring Yield (%)

changed temperature (0C) time(hrs) alcohol: oil concentration (%w/w) rate
(R.P.M)
Molar 45 2 6:1 1 1000 90
ratio 45 2 9:1 1 1000 97
45 2 12:1 1 1000 92
Catalyst 45 2 9:1 0.5 1000 90
concentration 45 2 9:1 1 1000 97
45 2 9:1 1.5 1000 89
45 2 9:1 2 1000 88
Reaction time 45 0.5 9:1 1 1000 91
45 1 9:1 1 1000 93
45 1.5 9:1 1 1000 94
45 2 9:1 1 1000 97
45 2.5 9:1 1 1000 87

Table 2.
Percentage yield of biodiesel prepared from 100 ml of palm oil at different experimental conditions.

Parameter Reaction Reaction Molar ratio of Catalyst Stirring Yield (%)

changed temperature (0C) time(hrs) alcohol :oil concentration (%w/w) rate
(R.P.M)
Molar 55 2 3:1 1 1000 75
ratio 55 2 6:1 1 1000 91
55 2 9:1 1 1000 94
55 2 12:1 1 1000 94
Catalyst 55 2 9:1 0.5 1000 95
concentration 55 2 9:1 1 1000 94
55 2 9:1 1.5 1000 85
55 2 9:1 2.5 1000 87
Reaction time 55 0.5 9:1 1 1000 97
55 1 9:1 1 1000 94
55 1.5 9:1 1 1000 90
55 2 9:1 1 1000 94
55 2.5 9:1 1 1000 92

438
Table3
Percentage yield of biodiesel prepared from 100ml of linseed oil at different experimental conditions.

Parameter Reaction Reaction Molar ratio of Catalyst Stirring Yield (%)

changed temperature (0c) time(hrs) alcohol: oil concentration (%w/w) rate
(R.P.M)
Molar 60 2 3:1 1 1000 89
ratio 60 2 6:1 1 1000 88
60 2 9:1 1 1000 90
60 2 12:1 1 1000 90
Catalyst 60 2 9:1 0.5 1000 85
concentration 60 2 9:1 1 1000 90
60 2 9:1 1.5 1000 84
60 2 9:1 2 1000 79
Reaction time 60 0.5 9:1 1 1000 87
60 1 9:1 1 1000 87.5
60 1.5 9:1 1 1000 90
60 2 9:1 1 1000 90
60 2.5 9:1 1 1000 88

Table4
Percentage yield of biodiesel prepared from 100ml of mahua oil at different experimental conditions.

Parameter Reaction Reaction Molar ratio of Catalyst concentration Stirring Yield (%)
changed temperature (0c) time(hrs) alcohol: oil (%w/w) rate
(R.P.M)
Molar 60 1 STEP I 6:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 77
ratio 60 1 STEP II 6:1 0.7% w/w KOH
60 1 STEP I 8:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 92
60 1 STEP II 6:1 0.7% w/w KOH
60 1 STEP I 8:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 87.5
60 1 STEP II 8:1 0.7% w/w KOH
60 1 STEP I 8:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 80
60 1 STEP II 9:1 0.7% w/w KOH
60 1 STEP I 8:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 75
60 1 STEP II 12:1 0.7% w/w KOH
Reaction time 60 1 STEP I 8:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 92
60 1 STEP II 6:1 0.7% w/w KOH
60 1 STEP I 8:1 1.24 v/v H2SO4 1000 80
60 2 STEP II 6:1 0.7% w/w KOH

2.3 Testing of Biodiesel

The density of biodiesel was measured in specific gravity bottle. The viscosity of the biodiesel samples were
measured using Ostwald’s Viscometer at 400C.

Table4
Experimental results of biodiesel from used vegetable oil

Parameter Magnitude of Constant parameters Density Viscosity

changed parameter kg/m3 (m2/sec)*10-6

Molar 6:1 Catalyst-1% Stirring rate-1000 861 5.88

ratio 9:1 Reaction time-2hrs R.P.M 850 5.11
12:1 845 5.10
Catalyst 0.5 Molar ratio-9:1 Temperature-450C 813 5.65
concentration 1 Reaction time-2hrs 850 5.11
1.5 839 5.5
2 791 9.79
Reaction time 0.5 Catalyst-1% w/w KOH 857 5.44
1 Molar ratio-9:1 865 5.20
1.5 872 5.92
2 850 5.11
2.5 868 5.56

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Table 5.
Properties of biodiesel prepared from palm oil

Parameter Magnitude of Constant parameters Density Viscosity

changed parameter Kg/m3 (m2/sec)*10-6

Molar 3:1 Catalyst-1% Stirring rate-1000 784 9.03

ratio 6:1 Reaction time- R.P.M 769 5.28
9:1 2hrs 767 4.81
12:1 Temperature-550 C 766 4.75
Catalyst 0.5 Molar ratio-9:1 860 7.46
concentration 1 Reaction time- 767 4.81
1.5 2hrs 850 5.41
2.5 862 6.85
Reaction time 0.5 Catalyst-1% w/w 845 5.68
1 KOH 850 5.65
1.5 Molar ratio-9:1 854 5.13
2 767 4.81
2.5 852 5.23

Table 6.
Properties of biodiesel prepared from linseed oil

Parameter Magnitude of Constant parameters Density Viscosity

changed parameter Kg/m3 (m2/sec)*10-6

Molar 3:1 Catalyst-1% Stirring rate-1000 880 7.96

ratio 6:1 Reaction time-2hrs R.P.M 878 6.05
9:1 872 5.90
12:1 Temperature-600C 884 8.41
Catalyst 0.5 Molar ratio-9:1 876 5.66
concentration 1 Reaction time-2hrs 872 5.90
1.5 870 4.88
2 886 5.90
Reaction time 0.5 Catalyst-1%w/w KOH 874 6.34
1 Molar ratio-9:1 886 5.01
1.5 873 5.50
2 872 5.90
2.5 878 5.61

Table 7.
Properties of biodiesel prepared from mahua oil

Parameter Magnitude of Constant parameters Density Viscosity

changed parameter (kg/m3) (m2/sec) *10-6
Molar STEP I 6:1 Catalyst- Stirring rate-1000 846 6.46
ratio STEP II 6:1 Step I-1.24 v/v H2SO4 R.P.M
STEP I 8:1 Step II-0.7% w/w KOH 880 6.10
STEP II 6:1 Reaction time-2hrs Temperature-600C
STEP I 8:1 852 6.11
STEP II 8:1
STEP I 8:1 839 7.16
STEP II 9:1
STEP I 8:1 841 6.49
STEP II 12:1
Reaction time(hrs) 1 Molar ratio- 880 6.10
1 Step I-8:1
1 Step II-6:1 869 6.70
2 Catalyst-
Step I-1.24 v/v H2SO4
Step II-0.7% w/w KOH

440
3. Results and Discussion

There has been no significant increase in the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel from used vegetable oil when the
molar ratio was changed from 9:1 to 12:1. But the yield slightly decreases with increase in molar
ratio(Fig.1).Therefore molar ratio 9:1 has been taken under consideration. In case of palm oil 0.5% w/w of
catalyst has given larger yield but the viscosity is higher than that of 1% w/w of catalyst (Fig 2).Although
maximum yield has been obtained at 0.5 hrs, viscosity is higher which may be due to incomplete reaction.
Viscosity of palm oil has slightly decreased with increase in molar ratio (Fig.2). Therefore the data for 9:1 molar
ratio of 1% w/w of catalyst is optimum. Linseed oil has very high viscosity at 12:1 although the percentage
yield is same for 9:1 and 12:1(Fig.3).Mahua oil undergoes two step process of transesterification. Increase in
molar ratio in step I till 8:1 decreases the kinematic viscosity but further increase in molar ratio in step II does
not significantly decrease the viscosity (Fig 4). Therefore the molar ratio of 8:1 and 6:1 in the two subsequent
steps with maximum yield (Fig.4) has been taken as the optimized parameter.

Table7.
Viscosity and yield of biodiesel prepared from different oils.

Oil Viscosity (m2/sec)*10-6 Yield (%)

Used vegetable oil 5.11 97

Palm oil 4.81 94

Linseed oil 5.90 90

Mahua oil 6.10 92

Fig.1.Molar ratio (alcohol:oil) versus percentage yield and Fig.2.Molar ratio (alcohol:oil) versus percentage yield and
kinematic viscosity of used vegetable oil kinematic viscosity of palm oil

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Fig.3.Molar ratio (alcohol:oil) versus percentage yield and Fig.4.Molar ratio(alcohol:oil) versus percentage yield
kinematic viscosity of linseed oil and kinematic viscosity of mahua oil

4. Conclusion

Oil from different kinds of feed stock can be utilized for biodiesel production. Depending upon the process
parameters the yield and kinematic viscosity varies. The molar ratio of 9:1 is the optimized parameter for the oil
undergoing single step transesterification. The complete tranesterification takes 2 hours and catalyst
concentration of 1% is giving optimized yield for single step process. If FFA content is high then two step
process is mandatory as in case of mahua oil. Further experimental work can be carried out by varying other
process parameters like temperature and stirring rate.

References

[1] Vladimir Strezov, Tim Evans: Biomass Processing Technologies; CRC Press; pp. 222.

[2] Kaul S, Kumar A, Bhatnaga AK, Goyal HB, Gupta AK. Biodiesel: a clean and sustainable fuel for future. Scientific strategies for
production of non-edible vegetable oils for use as biofuels. All India seminar on national policy on non-edible oils as biofuels. SUTRA,
IISc Bangalore, 2003.

[3] Shashikant Vilas Ghadge, Hifjur Raheman. Biodiesel production from mahua (Madhuca indica) oil having high free fatty acids. Biomass
and Bioenergy 28 (2005), pp. 601–605.

[4] A.N.Ma and M.A. Hanna, "Biodiesel Production: A Review," Bioresource Technology, Vol. 70, pp. 1-15,1999

442
 ICAER-2015

Z-source DC-DC Converter with Fuzzy Logic MPPT Control for

Photovoltaic Applications
U.Shajith Ali
Department of EEE, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India

Abstract

Z-source converters are recently premised DC-DC converters which can perform buck and boost operations, offer greater
range of DC output voltage, high reliability and reduce in-rush and ripple currents. In photovoltaic (PV) applications, they
provide better results compared to conventional DC-DC converters. These converters can be used as power conditioning
units, so that the voltage boost and reception of maximum power from the PV array can be achieved. The maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) is here achieved by controlling the duty cycle of the converter. A fuzzy logic control based MPPT is
developed in this work to track the maximum power point of the PV array under variable solar irradiance and temperature
conditions. MATLAB simulation and experimental results are given to establish the developed system.
Keywords: Photovoltaics; Z-source DC-DC Converter; Fuzzy logic; MPPT

1. Introduction

Sustainable energy usage is steeply increased because of the environmental awareness and continuous price
growth of conventional fuels. PV arrays convert the energy from an essentially unlimited source –the sun-into
useable electricity. In previous years, PV arrays have been directly connected to loads. Unfortunately, direct
connection of PV cells to the utility almost never allows optimum power transfer when the load, solar irradiance
or temperature changes [1]. A PV module can produce the power at a point, called an operating point, anywhere
on the current-voltage curve. But there is a particular point, called a maximum power point (MPP), at which the
PV module develops the maximum output power. A maximum power point tracker (MPPT) is thus required to
operate the PV array at this optimum point. To transfer energy from PV arrays into utility, power conditioning
unit, which is normally a power electronic converter is required to convert the dc voltage obtained from PV
array into desired voltage and to prevail the maximum power utilization of the PV array.
There are many dc-dc converter topologies intended in literature for solar photovoltaic application, some of
them are derived from basic dc-dc converters, such as buck, boost, buck-boost, cuk converter, and others derived
from isolated dc-dc converters, such as fly-back, forward converter. Also, there have topologies derived from
half bridge and full bridge converters [2, 3, 4]. These topologies have many merits and can meet the needs of
many applications. But they suffer two major limitations of short circuit effect and limited voltage gain. The
high voltage gain can be achieved using isolated DC-DC converters by increasing the turns ratio of the
transformer. But the input current is pulsed, which greatly affects the life of the PV array [5, 6].
New power converters like Z-source converters are developed to give better results and eliminate the above
disadvantages of the conventional converters. Z-source converters have been recently studied by several
researchers [7, 8, 9]. In this paper the operating principle of the Z-source DC-DC converter and its integration
with PV array is explained for standalone photovoltaic applications. In this paper, a fuzzy logic based MPPT is
proposed to track the maximum power point of the PV array under varying solar irradiance and temperature.
Fuzzy is comparatively easy to design since it does not require any information about the exact model.

2. Z-Source DC-DC Converter

The topology of the Z-source DC-DC converter is shown in Fig.1. Unlike other buck-boost converters,
Z-source converters consist of two inductors and two capacitors connected in X-shape to couple the converter to
the input DC voltage. This converter can produce a desired output DC voltage irrespective of DC input voltage
magnitude since the input may be the variable voltage obtained from solar panel, fuel cell or battery. Depending
on switching positions of S1 and S2, the circuit of Z-source DC-DC converter has two operating modes: Non
shoot-through mode and shoot-through mode [10].

443
 Non shoot-through mode operation is obtained by closing the switch S1 and opening the switch S2. The
equivalent circuit of this mode is shown in Fig.2. During this mode, the Z-network inductors L1 and L2 transfer
the stored energies on them to the load. The capacitors C1 and C2 are charging using the input current Is. The
output inductor L is energized during this operation.

S1
L1 L

C1
C2 S2 C
R Vo
Vs

L2

Fig. 1. Topology of Z-source DC-DC converter.

Shoot-through mode is the short circuit mode and is achieved by closing the switch S2 and opening switch S1.
Now the charges stored in Z-network capacitors C1 and C2 are transferred to inductors L1 and L2. The inductors
and capacitors are now forming a parallel connection and the equivalent circuit is shown in Fig.3. So the total
voltage across the Z-network is more than the input voltage. This makes the diode in parallel with switch S1
reverse biased. Hence the input voltage is disconnected and the input current is zero during this mode.

Fig.2. Non shoot-through mode of operation.

Fig.3. Shoot-through mode of operation.

Assume the Z-network inductors and capacitors are identical (i.e L1=L2=Lz and C1=C2=Cz). So the following
equations are valid.
V C1 = VC 2 = VCZ (1)

V L1 = V L 2 = V LZ (2)

When the converter is in non shoot-through operation for a duration Tn, the inductor voltage and the voltage
across the switch S2 can be written as

V LZ = V S − VCZ (3)

V d = VCZ − V LZ = 2VCZ − V S (4)

444
When the converter is in shoot-through operation for a duration Ts, the following equations can be written.
Vd = 0 (5)

V LZ = VCZ (6)

The total switching time is T = Tn + Ts. The capacitor voltage VCZ can be obtained by equating the average of
the inductor voltage over one switching time T to zero and is derived as

 Tn   1− D  (7)
VCZ =  VS =  VS
 Tn − Ts   1 − 2D 

where D = Ts / T is the shoot-through duty cycle.

Similarly, the output voltage can be determined as

T
T .0 + Tn (2VCZ − VS )  Tn  1− D 
VS = 
∫
1
Vo = vd (t )dt = s =  VS = VCZ (8)
T T  Tn − Ts   1 − 2D 
0

3. Fuzzy Logic MPPT Control

Many significant MPPT techniques have been formulated by many researchers [11, 12, 13, 14]. Recently,
intelligence-based MPPT control techniques have been introduced [15, 16, 17, 18]. In this paper, a fuzzy logic
based intelligent control technique associated with an MPPT controller is formulated in order to improve
tracking efficiency. Fuzzy logic MPPT controller measures the values of the voltage and current at the output of
the PV array and calculates the PV power to derive the inputs of the controller. The inputs to the fuzzy logic
controller are taken as the error E and change in error CE. The error E is set as the change in power with respect
to change in voltage and is expressed as:

P(k ) − P(k − 1)
E= (9)
V (k ) − V (k − 1)

Hence CE can be written as:

CE = E (k ) − E(k − 1) (10)

where P(k) and V(k) are the instantaneous power and voltage of the PV array. Fig.4 and Fig.5 show the input
membership functions. The crisp output of the controller is the shoot-through duty ratio of the converter and its
membership function is shown in Fig.6. There are 49 inference rules applied and are summarized in Table 1 and
shown in Fig.7.

Fig.4. Membership function plots for E.

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 Fig.5. Membership function plots for CE.

Fig.6. Membership function plots for D.

Table. 1. Fuzzy rule base table.

E / CE NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB
NB M M M VVS VVS VVS VVS
NM M M M VS VS VS VS
NS S M M S S S S
ZE VS S M M M B VB
PS VB B B B M M B
PM VB VB VB VB M M M
PB VVB VVB VVB VVB M M M

Fig.7. Input variables and output variable mapping.

4. Results and Discussion

For the purpose of modelling, simulation and hardware implementation, a photovoltaic panel from SOLKAR
manufacturer is selected because this PV panel is commercially suited for all applications. This panel has 36
series connected PV cells and provides 37W of nominal maximum power, 21.24V of open circuit voltage and

446
2.55A of short circuit current. A PV array with two series connected PV modules each consists of 4 parallel
SOLKAR PV panels is used as the DC input source.
Therefore, at standard conditions (1000 W/m2 and 25o C) the array produces the following maximum power and
associated voltage and current.
Pm = 2 x 4 x 37 = 296W
Vmp = 2 x 16.43 = 32.86V
Imp = 4 x 2.25 = 9A

The integration of Z-source converter with the PV array is developed in Matlab/Simulink. Simulation and
experimental readings are obtained at the solar irradiation of 900 W/m2 and at the temperature of 38o C.
The inductors in the Z- network limit the current ripple through the devices during boost mode with shoot-
through. The capacitors in the Z-network absorb the voltage ripple and maintain a reasonably constant voltage
across the Z-network. The Z-network elements are designed with the following values: L1 = L2 = 3mH and
C1 = C2 = 1000µF. The switching frequency is 10 kHz. The two semiconductor devices in the converter are
selected based on the current through them and the maximum voltage across them. Here IGBTs are taken as the
switching devices. The complete system is simulated and the output voltage, inductor current and capacitor
voltage waveforms of converter are given in Fig.8. The tracking of the maximum power point of the PV array
with this fuzzy controller is shown in Fig. 9 and is compared with that of conventional P&O MPPT controller.

It is very clear that the fuzzy controller based MPPT tracks the maximum power point quickly and is faster
than the conventional controller. Laboratory hardware with the same parameter values is developed to validate
the simulation results. Input and output powers are directly measured using power quality analyzer and these
values are displayed in Fig.10. The values in watts and VA are rounded-off values by the meter. From the
results, the output DC boosted voltage obtained from the Z-source converter is 102.2V and the load current is
2.46A. The output power can be calculated based on the output voltage and load current. The total output power
is 251W. Thus the maximum power output from the photovoltaic array is obtained at the available irradiation
and temperature conditions. The tracking of PV power is shown in Fig.11.

Fig.8. Simulation waveforms: Output voltage, inductor current and Capacitor voltage.

447
 Fig.9. Power Tracking with P&O and Fuzzy Controller.

Fig.10. Experimental measurement of Fuzzy logic MPPT.

Fig.11. Experimental results of PV power tracking.

5. Conclusions

Z-source DC-DC converter is preferred in this work for boosting the PV voltage and for receiving the
maximum power from the PV array. A fuzzy logic based control is developed for maximum power point
tracking. From the results it is very clear that the fuzzy logic controller produces better performance than the
basic P&O controller. It can be inferred that the fuzzy controller is faster in the transient part of maximum
power point tracking. Also, very small oscillation in the steady state is obtained as compared to the P&O
controller. Thus it is possible to get the maximum power point of the PV array quickly and obtain the maximum
power with much more accuracy with fuzzy controller. The complete system is modeled and simulated in the
Matlab/Simulink environment. Also the proposed concepts are verified experimentally using a laboratory
prototype.

448
References

[1] J. B. Lesourd, Solar photovoltaic systems: the economics of a renewable Energy resource, Environmental Modelling & Software,
Elsevier, 2001, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 147-156.
[2] Chihchiang Hua, Touliu, Taiwan, Chihming Shen, Study of maximum power tracking techniques and control of DC/DC converters for
photovoltaic power system, 29th Annual IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, Fukuoka, 1998, pp. 86 - 93.
[3] Wuhua Li, Xiangning He, Review of Nonisolated High-Step-Up DC/DC Converters in Photovoltaic Grid-Connected Applications,
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2011, Vol. 58, No. 4, pp.1239 - 1250.
[4] Zhigang Liang, Rong Guo, Member, Jun Li, Q. H. Alex, A High-Efficiency PV Module-Integrated DC/DC Converter for PV Energy
Harvest in FREEDM Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2011, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp.897 - 909.
[5] Jong-Pil Lee, Byung-Duk Min, Tae-Jin Kim, Dong-Wook Yoo,Ji-Yoon Yoo, A Novel Topology for Photovoltaic DC/DC Full-Bridge
Converter With Flat Efficiency Under Wide PV Module Voltage and Load Range, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2008,
Vol. 55, No. 7, pp.2655 – 2663.
[6] L. Zhu, A novel soft-commutating isolated boost full-bridge ZVS-PWM dc–dc converter for bidirectional high power applications,
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2006,Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 422–429.
[7] Xupeng Fang, A novel Z-source dc-dc converter, IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology,Chengdu, China, 2008, pp.
1-4.
[8] U.Shajith Ali, Z-Source DC-DC Converter with Improved Perturbation and Observation Algorithm for Photovoltaic Systems,
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, 2015, Vol. 10 No.2, pp.1341-1345.
[9] Dong Cao, Z. P. Fang, A Family of Z-source and Quasi-Z-source DC-DC Converters, Twenty-Fourth Annual IEEE Applied Power
Electronics Conference and Exposition, Washington DC, 2009, pp. 1097 - 1101.
[10] Shilpa Sarode and S. G. Kadwane, Dynamic Modelling & Controller Design for Z-Source DC-DC Converter, International Journal of
Scientific Engineering and Technology, 2013, Vol.2, No. 4, pp. 272-277.
[11] V. Salas, Barrado, A. Lazaro, Review of the Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithms for Stand-alone Photovoltaic Systems, Solar
Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2006, pp.1555–1578.
[12] D. P. Hohm, and M. E. Ropp, Comparative Study of Maximum power point tracking algorithms, Progress in Photovoltaics: Research
and Applications,2003, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 47-62.
[13] U. Shajith Ali, and V. Kamaraj, "Modified incremental conductance algorithm for Z-source inverter based photovoltaic power
conditioning systems," Journal of Electrical Systems, 2013, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp.279-289.
[14] Mei Shan Ngan, Chee Wei Tan, A Study of Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithms for Stand-alone Photovoltaic Systems, IEEE
Applied Power Electronics Colloquium (IAPEC), 2011, pp.22 - 27.
[15] Md Fahim Ansari, S. Chatterji, Atif Iqbal, A fuzzy logic control scheme for a solar photovoltaic system for a maximum power point
tracker, International Journal of Sustainable Energy. 2012, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 245-255.
[16] Pongsakor Takun, Somyot Kaitwanidvilai and Chaiyan Jettanasen, Maximum Power Point Tracking using Fuzzy Logic Control for
Photovoltaic Systems, In Proceedings of International Multi Conference of Engineers and Computer Scientists, 2011.
[17]U.Shajith Ali, Fuzzy Logic Control of Quasi Z-source Multilevel Inverter for Photovoltaic Applications,Australian Journal of Basic and
Applied Sciences, 2015, 9 (16), pp. 8-14.
[18] Tsai-Fu Wu, Chien-Hsuan Chang, Yu-Kai Chen, A Fuzzy-Logic-Controlled Single-Stage Converter for PV-Powered Lighting System
Applications, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2011, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 287-296.

449
 ICAER-2015

Energy Options for India in a Carbon Constrained World –

Analysis Using GAMS
Tejal Kanitkara,b*, T.Jayaramanb, Rangan Banerjeea
a
Department of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India
b
School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 400088, India

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for determining energy options for India, specifically for the power sector, under a
variety of scenarios of constraints on investments and emissions. The economic burden on India in the event of constrained
CO2 emissions is calculated relative to scenarios with no constraints on emissions. The GAMS platform is used to construct
a least cost optimization model for the power sector. From the relative additional financial burden in increasingly
constrained emission scenarios modeled for India, it is clear that mitigation requirements will have significant implications
for planning energy infrastructure for the future. The results presented in this paper show that for a target of 2500
kWh/person/year in 2035 and 3500 kWh/person/year in 2050, the investments required are significantly high.
Considerations of global sustainability operationalised in the model through a constraint on cumulative emissions, add
further to this burden. Model results show that a 30% reduction in the available carbon quota for the country increases the
costs of electricity by 25% till 2030 and about 80% till 2050. A key contribution of this paper is the presentation of a method
of evaluating domestic policy options in the power sector which is explicitly linked to global mitigation scenarios.

Keywords: power sector planning, emissions, climate change mitigation

1. Introduction

Climate change mitigation in any country requires significant levels of investment in low carbon technologies
and the possible foregoing of significantly cheaper options based on the use of fossil fuels. Developing countries
have, in addition to the difficulties that they face in undertaking such investments, the responsibility of poverty
eradication and raising the level of material well-being of the bulk of their populations. To estimate the nature of
the economic burden that these twin requirements place on them, some specific considerations are essential.
These include: (a) the energy needs of the developing countries into the future, (b) the appropriate fuel-mix to
satisfy these needs, and (c) the nature of specific low-carbon technologies in various sectors (which must
include all the major sectors contributing to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) and their associated energy
requirements.

A significant section of the literature discusses the allocation of mitigation burden in terms of the reduction of
the total annual flow of emissions, that is undertaken progressively (Meyer, 1999; Ekhold et al. 2010; Baer,
2013), where the reduction is essentially measured as a deviation from a ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory. A more
detailed analysis of these approaches can be found in Jayaraman et al, 2011, Kanitkar et al. 2010 and Kanitkar et
al., 2015. Among the problems associated with such approaches is the inherent ambiguity in defining the
business-as-usual trajectory that may typically contain a number of assumptions regarding efficiency
improvements, the structural composition of the economy, and improvement in the productivity of factors of
production etc. These ambiguities are enhanced when individual countries are concerned. Another section of the
literature that discusses optimum energy pathways for countries is based on similar assumptions. Such models,
that also make predictions based on extrapolating from the current structure of the economy (Nordhaus, 2008;
Manne and Richels, 2005) or the extrapolation of energy demands alone (as in bottom-up energy demand
models), (Dean et al. 1992; Rai and Victor, 2009; Mallah and Bansal, 2010), are likely to significantly
underestimate the future requirements of physical infrastructure, industrial production, and energy services for
developing countries.

In this paper, we undertake first modest steps in developing an account of how the economic burden of
mitigation (i.e. requirement of investing in non-fossil fuel technology) for individual developing countries is to
be estimated. The focus will be on one particular country, namely India, and the considerations of this paper will
be further restricted to one sector, namely the power sector. Specifically the paper considers the constraints on

450
India's power sector including the choice of fuel mix, the extent of dependence specifically on fossil fuels and
the duration of such dependence. A variety of scenarios for varying rates of transition to a low carbon economy
and the associated additional costs that will be imposed on the power sector in India are explored. A bulk of the
studies undertaken for India, do not explicitly consider a constraint on emissions. Neither do these studies
provide explicit links to the projected energy demands nor the development goals to be achieved within the
country in terms of provision of energy services to the bulk of the population (GoI, 2006, HoI, 2009).

In the following section, the power sector model built using the GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System)
platform is described. In section 3, the model outputs are presented and its implications are reviewed. The
conclusions are presented in Section 4.

2. Data and Assumptions

The power sector is arguably the largest component of the energy sector as a whole and in a developing
economy such as India, growing rapidly and of considerable importance to the development of the country’s
infrastructure. Therefore, the power sector has been considered for analysis in this paper in order to demonstrate
the implications of undertaking mitigation actions.

The power sector model that is described here uses the physically accessible carbon space to a given country as
the prime environmental constraint under which its fuel options are evaluated. The model evaluates the fuel
options, assuming that a specific proportion of the national carbon budget is available for power generation.
This enables the study of the impact of specific future carbon budgets on fuel options as well as the comparison
of the costs incurred for electricity generation under different budgets. There is of course room for this power
sector budget to change within a nationally available budget. However, this flexibility will be limited, if the
global budget, and consequently the national budget allocations for the future are assumed to be fairly rigid.

The same technique can be applied to different countries and comparison can be made to demonstrate, for
instance, how a larger carbon budget for a developed country would lower the costs of its electricity generation
but would at the same time raise the costs of power for a developing country whose carbon budget would be
correspondingly lower. The model discussed here can be described as a modified version of a generation
expansion planning model wherein energy costs are minimized subject to constraints on both mineral and
atmospheric resources.

Detailed sector-level analysis have been done for many countries to determine the quantum of changes that
would be required in order to address the question of climate change mitigation. Bottom up energy models (very
often built using the MarkAl or TIMES platforms), typically extrapolate historical trajectories of economic
growth and their consequent implications for energy demands (TERI, 2006). Total emissions are usually an
output from such models. More recently modeling studies have been undertaken to determine the impact of
cumulative emissions targets on various sectors of the economy (Anderson et al., 2008; Wang and Watson,
2010). Such a study however has not been undertaken for India. Also, the studies cited above do not provide
concrete estimates of the additional financial burden that may accrue due to increasingly stringent emission
targets. In this paper multiple scenarios are modeled for the power sector in India and the fuel options and
resultant costs for the power sector are determined for various scenarios of carbon budget allocation to India.
The input parameters and assumptions built into the model along with data sources used for each major input
parameter are explained here.

2.1 Energy Requirements

The values for energy requirements in a target year can be obtained through a variety of methods, viz. and input-
output analysis, a simple IPAT analysis (Energy Intensity (I) = Population (P) x Economic Activity (A) x
Technology (T)) for the target year or a statistical analysis correlating energy and development across a host of
countries. The electricity requirement in 2035 (in kWh/person/year) using a variety of such methods, is shown
in Table 1.

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Table 1 Electricity Demand in 2035 using different methods

Electricity Demand in 2035

(kWh/person/year)

Using an IPAT analysis - assuming a GDP growth rate of

6.9% p.a. and an annual reduction of 2% in the energy
intensity of GDP 1913

Using a SAM - For an overall GDP growth rate of 6.9% 2394

Normative Values based on correlating HDI and Electricity

Use - Correlation with HDI of mid level developed countries -
~0.8-0.85 4500

The Indian economy is currently a low consumption economy, with very low levels of per capita consumption
as compared to other developed countries as well as some other emerging economies. India also has a low
Human Development Index (HDI) as compared to other countries and although the growth in energy
consumption levels reaches a plateau after a certain achievement in HDI (Martinez and Ebenhack, 2008), India
is also below the nominal requirement to reach the level which will allow a sustained improvement in human
development without a further increase in energy use. In addition to this, the economic structures within
developing economies such as India, are liable to change rapidly and dynamically. Therefore, extrapolation of
past trends may inaccurately represent potential scenarios for the future. The per capita electricity use for India
in 2010 was 705 kWh/person/year. The per capita electricity consumption of mid-level developed countries
ranges from 4500 to 6000 kWh/person/year. An assumption of the possibility of decoupling growth and human
development entirely from fossil fuel use would involve speculation that cannot be justified against the goals of
achieving high levels of human development at this stage.

The technological basis of providing the energy requirements to achieve high levels of development may of
course change in the future, but since there is no reasonable way in which to predict these changes, it appears
prudent that policy decisions should be based on real, proven and achievable targets. The per capita electricity
consumption of mid-level developed countries (such as Portugal, which shows a lower consumption of
electricity for the same level of human development as compared to other mid-level developed countries with a
similar profile), can therefore be used as a benchmark value to be achieved by a particular year. However there
may be some room to reduce this number based on technology and efficiency improvements. There are various
projections for energy demand also given by the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Power, Government
of India, and those obtained from input output analysis or other similar analyses, which together with the
previous methodology provide a range of values that may be used to create scenarios against which the power
sector model may be constructed. Thus, by choosing a benchmark for the achievable best, a target for energy
consumption to be achieved in a given time period in the future can be arrived at. The electricity demand curve
is then constructed by the model based on the specified target values.

In this paper, we have taken a value of 2500 kWh/person/year to be achieved by 2030 and 3500
kWh/person/year to be achieved by 2050. The value of 2500 kWh/person/year is estimated to be the electricity
demand in 2030 in the document submitted by Government of India to the UNFCCC (United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change) as part of India’s INDC (Intended Nationally Determined
Commitment.

2.2 Power Supply

India is relatively diverse in terms of the fuel sources that supply the power demand. However, the share of coal
based power generation is the highest. Of the existing 71 GW of coal based power generation capacity in India
existing in 2009, about 35 GW would still be operating in 2030 and all of the these plants would be
decommissioned by 2047 (based on the estimates given by the Ministry of Power, Government of India).
Similarly, the existing nuclear power capacity and gas based generation in 2009 is estimated to be
decommissioned by 2045. 30 GW of existing hydro based capacity however is expected to still be available till
2050 (CEA, 2009). Given the expected lifetimes for existing power plants, the gap between the total demand

452
between 2010 and 2050 and the total capacity that will be available from currently operational plants will be met
by additional generation from a variety of fuels.

The distribution of electricity sources in India currently is accounted for by two factors; i) cost of electricity
generation and ii) resource availability. India has high amounts of coal reserves. Gas has recently started to
acquire greater significance in power generation; however demand for natural gas from other sectors (fertilizer
production for example) is likely to limit the role that it can play in the power sector in the future. However,
most studies of the power sector in India project an increase in the share of gas-based generation in the medium-
term (GoI, 2006). A large portion of the hydro reserves are also yet to be tapped; India has a total potential of
about 150 GW of which only about 41 GW has been tapped so far (33 GW by 2009). However, the capacity
factors of hydro-electric plants are low compared to coal plants and a large part of the new hydro capacity is
expected to be of the “run-of-the-river” variety, with lower capacity factors. Electricity generation from
renewable energy sources in the country has increased considerably in the last decade and in 2010 these
accounted for 10% of total installed capacity and 5% of total electricity generation. A large percentage of this
increase can be attributed to an increase in wind energy generation. The total energy generation potential and
average capacity factors (actual values for 2009 and expected values in 2030 and 2050) for each fuel source are
shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Fuel-wise Capacity Factors and Total Energy Potential*

Actual Average Expected Average
Capacity Factor/Plant Capacity Factor/Plant
Load Factors (2009 ) Load Factors (2030 ) Total Energy Potential$
% % GW
Coal (Average of existing
subcritical, planned
75% 85% 600
supercritical power plants, no
CCS)

Nuclear 70% 80% 65

Hydro 38% 50% 150
Gas – CCGT 70% 80% 100
Diesel 20% 20% 15
Wind 19% 18% 300
Small Hydro Power 25% 30% 15
Biomass 65% 70% 70
Solar Photovoltaic 19% 20% NA
Concentrated Solar Power 23% 23% NA
Municipal Solid Waste 60% 60% 25
*Sources: Ministry of New and Renewable Resources, Report of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, Ministry of Power
$
The total energy potential referes to the maximum energy flux that can technically be generated using each technology

The sources of electricity that will meet the energy demand are constrained by many factors such as resource
constraints (e.g. availability of coal, gas, uranium), as well as constraints on factors such as water, land etc. The
second category of constraints is not considered in this model. The resource constraints estimated by various
agencies can vary quite widely and have a significant impact on the outcomes of the kind of fuel mixes that may
be possible in the future. In the model, this input can also be modified as better estimates become available.

The actual amount of generation and installed capacity need to be higher than consumption to account for losses
in the transmission and distribution network (T&D losses), as well as auxiliary consumption by the plants. The
T&D losses in India are high (25% of total electricity generated is lost in transmission and distribution) partly
because India has the highest length of low tension distribution lines with very low density of domestic
consumers at the tail-end especially in rural areas as well as low usage of electricity by domestic consumers. A
part of what is categorized as “transmission and distribution” loss in India is actually un-metered consumption;
however, even after accounting for these reasons, the T&D losses in India can be reduced significantly in the
future. The model allows the user to input a reduction of T&D losses from 25% in 2010 to 20, 15, or 10%, by

453
2030. Apart from the T&D losses and auxiliary consumption, a spinning reserve of 10% is used as standby in
case of unforeseen failures in power plants.

2.3 Cost of Electricity

The aim of the model is to provide a potential ‘least-cost’ fuel mix while simultaneously ensuring that the future
emissions constraint for India will not be violated. Therefore the cost of electricity generation and potential
trajectories of this cost for each fuel source is an important input. The cost of generation for each technology
includes three major components – i) capital costs, ii) operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, and iii) fuel
costs. It is possible to determine the current levelized cost of generation using these components for each
technology. However, to project the behavior of energy cost in the future involves many assumptions (Yeh and
Rubin, 2011). Capital costs may vary based on actual increase in material costs, changes in market conditions or
developments in the regulatory and policy framework within which these costs are determined. Similarly, O&M
costs may vary based on changes in labour costs in the particular country of analysis and the fuel costs may vary
based on either actual changes in the cost of fuel extraction or variations in market conditions. Using cost
projections to reliably determine financial burdens therefore is a challenging task. Despite these uncertainties
however, it is possible to determine the levels of additional financial burdens that will have to be incurred given
increasing constraints in allowed emissions, in a robust manner, if the cost assumptions are maintained constant
for the base as well as subsequent scenarios. It is also possible to verify the robustness of the results by
generating a series of scenarios for varying cost assumptions. In our model we vary the cost inputs thereby
generating different scenarios for a range of carbon constraints and energy demands. In the results presented in
this paper, the current capital and energy costs for each technology are estimated based on norms established by
the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, India (CERC, 2009). The current cost of electricity generated
with different technologies is shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Cost of Electricity from various fuel sources in India

Capital Cost (Rs. Energy Costs
Million/MW) (Rs./kWh)
Large Hydro 73 2.23
Coal (Average across imported and
domestic coal) 50 2.25
Natural Gas 35 4.23
Nuclear (Average across imported and
domestic nuclear) 72 2.80
Wind 70 4.70
Small Hydro Power 66 2.37
Biomass 59 3.70
Solar Photovoltaic 69 4.21
Concentrated Solar Power 124 10.07
Sources: Calculated for each technology using Central Electricity Regulatory Commission,
(Terms and Conditions of Tariff) Regulations

The model discussed here considers cost escalation for each power generation technology over the projected
period on the basis of an increase in over-night costs. These assumptions have been checked against other
costing studies for consistency (van den Broek et al., 2009; Pauschert, 2009; IEA, 2011). The cost projections
for the future also incorporate current estimates of new technology such as carbon capture and sequestration
(CCS) or Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) for gas and coal based generation. The trends of
electricity costs might well change in the future, and can be modified accordingly. Estimates of cost escalation
given in the literature show a wide range of variation and have assumed to both increase as well as decrease for
a time period of the next 40 years.

Similarly, the value of the discount rate to be applied for such an analysis done for the developing country also
varies significantly in the literature. The WGIII report in IPCC AR4 (IPCC AR4, WG-III, 2013), provides a
detailed discussion of the discount rates to be used for developed and developing countries. It recommends that
though discount rates of between 4 to 6% may be justified for long term mitigation projects in the developed

454
countries, in developing countries usually the rates used may be higher (10-12%). Some studies use a discount
rate of 8% (Mallah and Bansal, 2010).There are recommendations that suggest that for longer time periods
(more than 30 years), discount rates should progressively reduce (OXERA, 2002). However, this further
complicates the problem and for the sake of simplicity a single discount rate of 10% is used in this analysis.
However in estimating relative costs or additional costs as a percentage of baseline costs, the discount rate is not
a serious issue.

3. Power Sector Model – Methodology

The model presented in this paper is an expanded version of a typical generation expansion model and provides
a least-cost fuel mix for the power sector subject to constraints on emissions in the form of a carbon budget as
well as constraints on fuel resources for each power generation technology. The problem is one of linear
optimization, solved using the GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) platform, wherein the total pooled
cost of electricity – both fixed cost and variable cost - for the time-period 2010 to 2050 is minimized. The
demand curve for electricity is constructed by the model based on input requirements specified by the user as
explained above.
The objective function is specified as shown in Equation (1).
  (1)
OBJ = Min  ∑∑ FC(F,T) + ∑∑VC(F,T) 
 F T F T 
Where,
OBJ is the unrestrained objective function
FC (F,T) is the total pooled fixed cost (capital investment) for each power generation technology (F) and each
year (T) – in Rs./MW discounted to 2010 values
T varies from 2010 to 2050
F = (Coal, Hydro, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Diesel, Wind, Biomass, Small Hydro Power, Solar Photovoltaic,
Concentrated Solar Power, Municipal Solid Waste)
VC (F,T) is the total variable cost of power generation technology and each year – in Rs./kWh discounted to
2010 values

The cost is minimized subject to constraints specified below

(i) The total supply of electricity has to match the total demand in each time period T. Equation (2) and (3) are
the basic equations used to generate values for the main variables – installed capacity for each power
generation technology and the actual electricity generation from the same.
∑ ES ( F ,T )= D ( T )− ∑ EG ( F , T )
(2)
F F

∑ IC ( F , T )= ∑ ES ( F , T )× 8760× PLF ( F ,T )
(3)
F F
Where,
ES (F,T) is the electricity supplied by each technology in year T
D (T) is the demand for electricity in year T
EG (F,T) is the electricity supplied by existing plants in year T
IC (F,T) is the installed capacity for each technology in year T
PLF (F,T) is the plant load factor or capacity factor for each technology in year T

(ii) The cumulative emissions constraint (with the actual budget input as a constant fraction of the total budget
available to the country, which may be different for each scenario that is generated) is given as a as a hard
constraint that cannot be violated shown in Equation (4) and (5).
AEM (T )= ∑ ES ( F , T )× EF ( F )
F (4)
∑ AEM ( T ) ≤ CB
(5)
T
Where,
AEM(T) denotes the annual emissions from the power sector in year T
EF(F) is the emission factor for each power generation technology (in tC/kWh)
CB is the carbon budget (cumulative emissions) available to the country between 2010 and 2050)

(iii) Resource constraints are input as simple limits on the total generation or installed capacity for each fuel
source. For each fuel source there is a limit on the total cumulative potential available in the country. Also, for

455
each fuel source, there is a limit applied to the new power generation capacity that can be reasonably
commissioned in each year and the capacity that can be decommissioned. For example it is assumed that no
more than 30%-50% (varying based on the type of power generation technology) of current installed capacity
can be commissioned anew in each year. The model also has to obey constraints for base and peak load. It is
assumed here that total base load capacity at any given time cannot fall below 30% of the total generation
capacity. The operationalisation of these constraints is shown in equations (6), (7) and 980

∑ IC ( F ) ≤ AP ( F )
(6)
T

IC ( F ,T + 1) ≤ a× IC ( F ,T ) and
IC ( F ,T + 1)≥ b× IC ( F ,T ) (7)
BES ( T )≥ 0 . 3× ES ( T ) (8)
Where,
AP(F) is the cumulative potential for each fuel
BES(T) is the total base load contribution to electricity generation in year (T)
a and b are coefficients used to express the limits within which new installed capacity can be added or
decommissioned

(iv) Additional constraints have also been added in the model to account for other limits that operate on
power generation. For example, the average plant life considered for existing as well as additional thermal
power plants is 25 years. If any plant is decommissioned before its entire lifetime, then it would follow that the
cost of electricity from that plant is higher than the values considered as inputs to the model. This additional
cost in case of all plants is not accounted for in the cost calculations. However an additional constraint is applied
specifically for coal based generation, wherein the emissions from the plant added in the first year are
committed for the subsequent 25 years. The constraint is operationalized by disallowing decommissioning of
newly added coal plants for the first 25 years. However existing coal and gas plants will be decommissioned as
per scheduled lifetime estimates before this 25 year time period.

It should also be noted that the model provides the fuel mix transitions based on a carbon budget available to the
country between 2010 and 2050. The carbon budget available beyond 2050 is not accounted for in the model.

456
4. Results and Discussion

The model can be run for various scenarios of electricity demand and carbon budgets. The results presented in
this paper are for the scenarios outlined in Table 4.

Table 4 Five Scenarios for Determining Fuel Mix for India

Budget for the Power
Total Budget Sector after
for India Total Budget accounting for
(GtC) - 2012- for the Power existing power plants
Scenarios for Carbon Budgets 2050 Sector (GtC) (GtC)

Scenario-1: No
global restriction on No restriction on emissions between 2012 and
emissions 2050 - - -
Global Carbon Constraint - 697 GtC between
Scenario-2: Low 2012-2100 (Assume 70% of it available till
global and national 2050 - 488 GtC); India gets full per capita
restrictions entitlement -17% 83 33 29
Global Carbon Constraint - 697 GtC between
2012-2100 (Assume 70% of it available till
Scenario-3: Low 2050 - 488 GtC); India gets only half of its
global but high full entitlement (as developed countries use
national restrictions more space) 41 21 17
Global Carbon Constraint - 477 GtC between
Scenario-4: High 2012-2100 (Assume 70% of it available till
global and low 2050 - 334 GtC); India gets full per capita
national restrictions entitlement -17% 57 23 19
Global Carbon Constraint - 477 GtC between
2012-2100 (Assume 70% of it available till
Scenario-5: High 2050 - 334 GtC); India gets only half of its
global and national full entitlement (as developed countries use
restrictions more space) 28 14 10

The first scenario provides a baseline for the cost incurred for power generation in the absence of a constraint on
emissions. For each subsequent scenario the fuel mix is further constrained by a budget. The global carbon
budgets are based on estimates provided by the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC for restricting temperature
rise to 2 deg. C. If we want at least a 50% probability of restricting temperature rise to below 2 deg. C, then the
world can emit no more than 67 GtC between 2012 and 2100. Scenarios 2 and 3 are based on this global
emissions constraint. Ir is assumed that 70% of this cumulative emissions quota is available between 2012 and
2050. In scenario-2 it is assumed that India can access its complete per capita entitlements (17% of total
cumulative emissions as India has 17% of the total global population). n Scenario-3, only half of this is
available to India. This takes into consideration the possibility of developed countries not undertaking their
share of mitigation actions, leaving a large burden to be borne by developing countries such as India. Similarly
for a higher probability of 67% of restricting temperature rise to below 2 deg. C., the emissions quota is 477
GtC between 2012 and 2100. Scenarios 4 and 5 are based on this emissions constraint on global emissions. If
India is to achieve its target of 2500 kWh/person/year in 2030 and 3500 kWh/person/year in 2050 under these
constraints through a least cost pathway, the cost to the national economy is shown in Tables 6. Additional cost
in these tables refers to the total costs incurred for all new power generation capacity added between 2010 and
2050.

457
Table 5 Additional costs for new power generation between 2012 and 2050 for each scenario*
% Increase
Cumulative Carbon
Cumulative Capital % Increase as Cumulative Capital as
Contraint between
Scenarios Cost from 2012 to Compared to Cost from 2012 to Compared
2012 and 2050
2030 (Rs. Trillion) Scenario-I 2050 (Rs. Trillion) to
(GtC)
Scenario-I

1 No constraint 14 25
2 29 14 1% 37 51%
3 17 17 25% 45 81%
4 19 16 19% 44 76%
5 10 28 107% 53 111%
Conditions - 10% Discounting, 5% Escalation
*Table shows the total cost incurred for all new power generation undertaken to meet energy requirements between 2012 and 2050.

The total cost incurred in adding new power generation capacity under Scenario-5 is about 107% higher that
estimated under Scenario-1 for the time period 2012 to 2030 and about 111% higher for the time period 2012-
2050. The carbon constraint is the highest in Scenario-5. It can be seen from Table 6 that the costs progressively
increase with a tighter carbon constraint for the power sector. The fuel mix transitions for Scenarios 1, 3 and 5
for an energy requirement of 2500 kWh/person/year in 2030 and 3500 kWh/person/year in 2050 are shown in
Figure 1.
1000
Scenario‐1 ‐ No Scenario‐3‐ Medium Scenario‐5 High
Restrictions on Emissions Restrictions on Emissions Restrictions on Emissions
900

800

700
Installed Capacity (GW)

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
Fossil Fuels Large Hydro + Nuclear Other Renewable Energy

Figure 1 Fuel Mix Transitions for Scenarios 1,3 and 5

As seen from Figure 1, coal based power generation is severely restricted with each additional restriction on
cumulative carbon budget. In each of the three scenarios a large part of the electricity demand in the final years
is supplied by rapid addition of renewable energy technologies, especially solar photovoltaic. This happens for
two reasons – i) Cost escalation estimates predict that the real costs for solar technology will reduce in the
coming years before saturating and increasing later with a commensurate increase in material costs and other
allied costs. However this reduction enables solar technology to achieve grid parity by about 2020; ii) there is no
limit specified for the maximum amount of solar energy generation that can be installed in the country as there
is currently no methodology to establish this reliably. For all other fuel technologies however, a maximum
resource limit is specified beyond which no more capacity of that particular fuel type can be added. This leads to
the selection of solar technology beyond a particular time as it becomes more cost effective and the most
abundantly available resource. It should be noted however that it may not be possible to achieve the levels of
generation prescribed in the model with solar technology. In the absence of any breakthrough in other
technology and high constraints on emissions, this would mean that the total energy demand in 2050 may not be
met. Given that the value targeted for 2035 and 2050 in per capita terms is much lower than the energy

458
consumption of other developed economies, this will have serious implications for the goals of poverty
eradication and development in emerging economies such as India.

From the relative additional burden in increasingly constrained budget scenarios it is clear that the availability of
adequate carbon space is a key constraint as one may have intuitively expected at the very outset. However it is
difficult to obtain precise absolute estimate of costs as they are sensitively dependent on the cost scenarios that
are used in the model. It is entirely possible that the cost projections used in this model may in reality change in
the future. In such a case, the additional burden in the various budget scenarios as compared to the unrestricted
or full entitlement case, will also change. A comparison of costs based on two different values of discount rate
for each scenario is shown in Figure 2.
70.0

60.0
Cumulative Investments ‐ 2012‐2030

50.0
(Rs. Trilion)

40.0

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0
Cumulative Emissions ‐ 2012‐2030 (GtC)

Discount Rate = 10% Discount Rate = 4%

Figure 2 Investments incurred in each Scenario for two values of Discount Rate – 4% and 10%

The results shown in Figure 2 illustrate the sensitivity of the model to the assumptions made in the model. All
models are sensitive to such assumptions. The results of the model therefore should not be taken as predictive
but as indicative of the implications of certain policy decisions. In addition to these considerations it is
interesting to examine the emissions profile from each of these scenarios, which, for ease of comparison, have
been plotted together in the Figure 3.

1.8
No restrictions
1.6
29 GtC
1.4
Annual Emissions (GtC/year)

1.2
19 GtC
1
17 GtC
0.8

0.6
10 GtC
0.4

0.2

0
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
2025
2027
2029
2031
2033
2035
2037
2039
2041
2043
2045
2047
2049

Sc‐1 Sc‐2 Sc‐3 Sc‐4 Sc‐5

Figure 3 Annual Emissions for all 5 Scenarios

The shape of the profiles indicates that as the budget is increasingly constrained, the peak of the emissions
profile is reduced with the peak also moving back to earlier years. In some of the constrained scenarios, the

459
annual emission rise up in the last few years since some coal capacity is added towards the end of the time
period to make up a minimum base load requirement of 30%.

5. Conclusion

India’s per capita electricity consumption is currently (in 2010) 705 kWh/person/year. As compared to the per
capita electricity consumption in developed countries, this is significantly low (USA – 11,920 kWh/person/year,
France – 7023 kWh/person/year, United Kingdon – 5467 kWh/person/year, Portugal – 4477 kWh/person/year,
)(World Bank, 2013)). The results presented in this paper clearly show that even for a normative goal of 2500
kWh/person/year in 2035 and 3500 kWh/person/year in 2050, the investments required in the power sector are
significantly high. Considerations of global sustainability operationalised in the model through a cumulative
constraint on emissions, add further to this burden. Model results show that a 30% reduction in the available
carbon space increases the costs by 25% till 2030 and about 80% till 2050. As the constraint increases, either
due to a stringent constraint on global emissions or due to India’s inability to access its entire entitlement to
carbon space, this cost increases further.

Cheaper sources of energy are completely accessible only in Scenario-I, where there are no restrictions on
emissions. New coal based power capacity that can be added reduces by 80% under Scenario-2 and reduces by
90% under Scenario-3. This essentially means that, under a mitigation regime, wherein the future carbon space
available to India is severely restricted, only about 85 GW of new coal based capacity may be added. In the 12th
Five Year Plan Report of the Government of India (GoI, 2012), it is estimated that about 62 GW of coal based
capacity would be required to be added in the next five years itself. This also has serious implications for the
availability of base load power required for industry. The only other technology that may be able provide base-
load power in this scenario is nuclear energy, which is accompanied by a significant increase in the costs. A
tighter budget restriction would also leave little flexibility for a smooth transition to a low carbon economy. It is
important to note that India would require both a higher carbon budget for the future as well as an increase in
the level of renewable energy capacity as a part of the total fuel mix. A higher budget will not eliminate the
necessity to increase the share of renewable energy, especially if the country wishes to achieve higher levels of
per capita energy use in the future.

The peaking year for annual emissions is 2035 for Scenario-1, after which emissions stabilize as no new coal
based capacity is added. The level at which emissions peak reduces for each subsequent scenario. The peak
emissions in Scenario-3 are about 40% lower as compared to Scenario-1 and in Scenario-5 they are about 98%
lower. The year of peaking also shifts to earlier years. This is another indicator of the reduction in flexibility
available to the power sector in undertaking a transition to a low carbon pathway.

A key contribution of this paper is the presentation of a method of evaluating domestic policy options in the
power sector which is explicitly linked to global mitigation scenarios. It is of crucial importance to developing
countries, and especially large developing economies such as India, South Africa, China and Brazil, to connect
global mitigation efforts proposed by developed countries to the implications of the same for the development of
their domestic energy infrastructure.

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 ICAER-2015

CO2 absorption in aqueous Monoethanolamine in a packed bed tower

A.Dey1*, S.K.Dash2, B.P.Mandal1
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar

Abstract

This work focuses on the study of aqueous Monoethanolamine (MEA) as a solvent for post combustion capture by
evaluating the MEA - CO2 capture process both theoretically and experimentally. An experimental study has been conducted
to understand the absorption of CO2 in aqueous MEA solution at 303 K in a packed column with a diameter of 0.048 m and
randomly packed with 10 mm glass rachig rings. Experiment was conducted by varying the solvent flow rate from 7.5 to 20
LPH, and at a gas flow rate of 23.25 LPM. The results show that the K GaV value increases significantly when the L/G ratio
increases. In addition to that the Parametric study of the CO2 removal process simulation of absorber has also been
performed with ASPEN Plus using rate based simulation in RADFRAC model based on electrolyte-NRTL property method
assuming the zwitterion mechanism.

Keywords: Monoethanolamine, CO2, Absorption, Aspen Plus

1. Introduction

Carbondioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. In order to diminish global
warming, United Nations (UN) has called for several international forums on climatic changes, with the aim to
regulate CO2 emissions in all developed and under development countries, CCS (Carbon capture & Storage)
being one of the steps towards the same. CCS is a “process consisting of the separation of CO 2 from flue gases
generated from industrial and energy related sources, transport to a storage location and long term isolation from
the atmosphere” [1]. There are three approaches towards CCS: Post combustion capture, pre-combustion
capture and oxyfuel process. Post combustion technology offers some advantage as existing combustion
technologies can still be used without adopting major changes on them.

A number of separation processes could be employed with post –combustion capture. These include (a) Physical
absorption [2] (b) Chemical absorption [3] (c) Membrane separation [4] (d) Adsorption [5]. Chemical
absorption is one of the most extensively used technologies for large scale CO 2 capture systems. The
industrially important solvents used are primary amines like Monoethanolamine (MEA) and Diglycolamine
(DGA), secondary amines like diethanolamine (DEA) and Diisopropanolamine (DIPA) and tertiary amines like
methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and Triethanolamine (TEA). Primary and secondary amines react fast and
directly with CO2 to form stable carbamates while Tertiary amines do not react directly with CO 2 as in aqueous
solution they catalyzes the hydrolysis of CO2 to form a bicarbonate ion and a protonated amine [6].
Monoethanolamine (MEA) was one of the alkanolamines introduced for CO 2 absorption already in the 1930s
and has been industrially important since then [7]. MEA is commercially easily available and also the most
widely used solvent in industrial processes for the removal of CO 2 from flue gases.In recent years, various
experimental works have been carried out to further investigate on efficiency of packed column in CO 2 removal.
Packed column is commonly used as a means of promoting efficient contact between gases and liquids because
it offers high mass transfer efficiency with low pressure drop.

The present research work has been undertaken with the objective to conduct a lab scale experimentation for the
absorption study of 7 vol% CO2-air mixture in 30 wt% aqueous MEA in a packed column at 303 K and to study
the effect of increase in solvent flow rate on the efficiency of the column. The observations were used to
calculate the results for KGav, CO2 % removal in MEA. In addition to that Aspen plus simulation has been
performed to to investigate the effect of various operating variables such as Gas flow rate, Amine concentration
as well as solvent inlet temperature on the absorber efficiency of the packed column

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2. Determination of overall absorption rate of CO2 into aqueous MEA

2.1. Two-Film theory

The absorption of CO2 into aqueous MEA solution is a gas-liquid reaction. According to the two film theory,
a thin gas film exists on one side of the interface and a thin liquid film exists on the other side with molecular
diffusion being the controlling factor. In case of chemical absorption, the overall mass transfer coefficient is
based on the individual gas and liquid phase mass transfer coefficient [8]

1 1 H (1)
 
K G kG k L

Where H is the Henry’s law constant, β is the enhancement factor, k L and kG are the liquid side mass transfer
coefficient without chemical reactions and the gas –side mass transfer coefficient, respectively. and
can be considered as the total mass transfer resistance in the gas phase and the mass transfer resistance in the
liquid phase respectively.

2.2 Determination of the overall mass transfer coefficient

The specific rate of absorption of component A in the gaseous phase into the reactant B in the liquid phase can
be determined based on the two film theory as [9]

N A  KG P( y  y*) (2)

Where NA is the specific rate of absorption of A into a reactant B , KG is the overall mass transfer coefficient, P
is the system pressure, y represents mole fraction of component A in the bulk gas phase and y* is the mole
fraction of component A in equilibrium with the liquid phase. y* was assumed to be zero in case of very fast
chemical reaction, thus the above equation can be simplified as below:

N A  KG PCO2 (3)

Where, PCO2, is the bulk gas partial pressure and is represented as the log mean average value of inlet and outlet
partial pressures [10].

PCO2 ,in  PCO2 ,out (4)

PCO2 
 PCO2 ,in 
ln  
 PCO ,out 
 2 

In a gas absorption equipment such as Packed column, the effective gas-liquid interfacial area (av) is considered
as another important parameter in mass transfer process in addition to the mass transfer coefficients, but it is
very difficult to determine the gas liquid interfacial area (a V), thus it is more practical to determine the
volumetric overall mass transfer coefficient (KGaV) and the overall absorption rate (Φ), defined as the specific
absorption flux per unit volume of the liquid phase. The overall absorption rate can be expressed as:

  KG aV PCO2 (5)

Combining equation (5) and (1)

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 1 1 H PCO2
   (6)
K G aV kG aV k L aV 

And the expression of Φ can be obtained as follows:

QG (Y1  Y2 )
 (7)
Vr

Where Y1 is the mole ratio of CO2 in the gas phase at the inlet of the absorber Y2 is the mole ratio of CO2 in the
gas phase at the outlet of the absorber Vr is the volume of the liquid phase and QG is the molar gas flow rate.

3. Experimental Section

3.1 Materials and equipment

Monoethanolamine (MEA) used for making 30 wt% aqueous MEA solution is 99.99% pure and was obtained
from Finar Chemicals. CO2 used as a solute component in the inlet CO2-air mixture was 99.99% pure, stored in
high pressure cylinder of capacity 47 L. All the reagents used in the experiment, Hydrochloric acid (HCl),
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and Barium Chloride (BaCl2.2H2O) were procured from Merck Ltd. All the aqueous
solutions are prepared using double distilled de-ionized water. The experimental setup includes a laboratory
scale packed column, air compressor for inlet air supply, Gas analyzer (Horiba VA 3000) for analyzing inlet and
outlet CO2 concentrations.

3.2 Experimental set up & Procedure

The schematic diagram of the experimental setup as shown in Figure 1 consists of packed bed column of inside
diameter 48 mm and packing height of 0.65m. The column is randomly packed with 10 mm glass Raschig rings.
Air from the air compressor can be sent to a mixing tank through a rotameter (5.5-55 LPM) and CO2 from the
cylinder passes through a rotameter (0.67-67 LPM) into the mixing tank. From the mixing tank, the inlet gas
mixture can be sent to the packed column from the bottom and the MEA solution from the liquid tank passes
through the rotameter (2-20 LPH) and enters the column from the top in countercurrent fashion. The column
pressure can be adjusted with the help of a pressure gauge (0-2.1 kg/cm2). The amine solution for absorption of
CO2 while flowing through the column exits at the bottom. The outlet gas can be sent to the gas analyzer which
is also used to determine the inlet CO2 concentration.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of CO2 absorption apparatus

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4. Results and Discussion

4.1 Experimental Findings

The effect of the liquid flow rate on the overall absorption rate was investigated. In this case, the gas flow rate
was 23.25 LPM, the concentration of CO2 at the inlet was 7 % (v/v), and the temperature was 308 K. Table 1
shows the effect of liquid flow rate on the overall mass transfer coefficient and the CO 2 % removal. It is found
that an increase in the liquid flow rate results in an increase in K Gav value. According to the two film theory, the
increase in the liquid flow rate lead to higher liquid side mass transfer coefficient (kL), which directly results in
the increase of the overall mass transfer coefficient (KG) according to Eq. (1). Besides, the interfacial area (aV)
generally increases with the liquid rate in packed reactors of both random packing and structured packing since
with the increase in liquid flow rate, more liquid would be spread on the packing surface. This condition leads to
an increase in the interfacial area per unit volume (aV). Similar trends were also observed by Qing et al. [11]

Table 1 Experimental Results for CO2-MEA System

Liquid inlet Flow Gas inlet Flow (LPM) CO2 % Removal KGav (kmol/kpa*m3*hr)
(LPH)
7.5 23.25 0.54 0.37
10 23.25 0.58 0.38
12.5 23.25 0.6 0.42
15 23.25 0.67 0.45
17.5 23.25 0.67 0.47
20 23.25 0.69 0.49

4.2 Aspen Plus simulation for CO2 absorption in aqueous MEA using Rate based model

In order to investigate the effect of various parameters on the absorber efficiency, The simulations are
developed using Aspen Tech’s Aspen Plus V 8.1. Physical properties models and data are the foundation for
accurate simulation, and Aspen Plus software possesses a complete physical properties system most suited to
the chemical industry. Additionally, Aspen Plus provides pre-prepared carbon capture modules that use various
amine absorbents for carbon capture in industrial process simulations. It provides physical properties data and
binary interaction data that are suited to the simulation of MEA-based carbon capture process. Aspen Plus is
widely used and the results of different literatures have been well validated.

4.2.1 Component

This study focuses on CO2-specific absorption study in aqueous MEA. Thus, any other acid gases like H 2S,
NOX, etc. have not been considered as components for the inlet gas stream. According to the experimental
specifications, the feed gas stream (GASIN) is considered to be composed of CO 2 and air, also the inlet liquid
stream (LIQIN) is containing MEA and water (H2O). Considering a zwitterion reaction mechanism for the
reaction between MEA and CO2, MEAH+, MEACOO-, OH-, H3O+, HCO3-, CO3- are also added as components.

4.2.2 Property Method

Property method is the method used for the presentation of thermodynamic and kinetic parameters for
physiochemical properties and inter-species interactions of all the species involving in the chemical process, and
for the parameters that are unavailable in computer databases. Mainly, four different property methods are
available for CO2 + MEA system: ELECNRTL, ENRTL-HF, ENRTL-HG, and AMINES. Out of them, the
ELECNRTL model is selected for the present simulation as it can handle both very low and high concentration
of aqueous and mixed solvent systems. The solubility of gases is modelled with Henry’s law and required
coefficients are available in the databanks. For the calculation of vapor phase properties, Redlich-Kwong

466
equation of state is used.

4.2.3 Flowsheet

Figure 2 Flowsheet of CO2-MEA System in ASPEN Plus

The input specifications for the inlet gas and liquid streams are as follows:

Table 2 Input Specifications for the Gas and Liquid Streams

Parameter GASIN LIQIN

o
Temperature 30 C 30oC
Pressure 0.29 psig 10 psig
Total flow 23.25 LPM 10 kg/hr
Composition 7% CO2 30 wt%

To represent the packed column type absorber, the RADFRAC model is selected. The calculation methods for
simulation of modules are of two types: equilibrium and rate-based. For parametric study, the rate-based model
is used as suggested by Ying Zhang et. al (2013) [12]. Reboiler and condenser are not required for this
simulation. The GASIN stream enters on the bottommost stage and the LIQIN enters above the topmost stage
for a counter-current operation. The packing specifications of the absorber column are mentioned as follows:

Table 3 Input Specifications for the RADFRAC Column

Calculation type Rate –based

No. of stages 20
Condensor None
Reboiler None
Packing type Raschig
Material Ceramic
Packing size 10 mm
Section Diameter 0.048 m
Section Pakced height 0.65 m

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4.2.4 Reactions

The reactions taking place in the absorber column according to the zwitterion mechanism are assumed to be:

MEAH+ + H2O MEA + H3O+

2H2O H3O+ + OH-
HCO3- + H2O CO32- + H3O+
CO2 + OH- HCO3-
HCO3- CO2 + OH-
MEA + CO2 + H2O MEACOO- + H3O+
MEACOO- + H3O+ MEA + CO2 + H2O

The k and EA values for the reactions are specified as follows [13]:

Table 4 Kinetic Data for the Reactions of CO2-MEA System

Reaction k value EA value (cal/mol)

CO2 + OH-  HCO3- 4.32*1013 13249

MEA + CO2 + H2O  MEACOO- + H3O+ 9.77*1010 9855.8

HCO3-  CO2 + OH- 2.38*1017 29450.89

MEACOO- + H3O+  MEA + CO2 + H2O 2.7963*1020 17229.79

4.2.6 Effect of Gas Flow Rate

The gas flow rate has an effect on the absorption performance and increase in the gas flow rate leads to a higher
mass transfer coefficient as shown in Figure 5. Here solvent flow rate is maintained constant at 10 LPH with 30
wt% MEA concentration. According to the mass transfer theory of gas liquid reaction, the mass transfer
coefficient increases with the gas flow rate, which gives rise to the acceleration of absorption process. As the
gas flow rate increases CO2 in the gas liquid interface is quickly replenished, this maintains a higher partial
pressure of CO2. Thus the overall mass transfer coefficient is enhanced. However, the mole ratio of MEA to
CO2 decreases with the total gas flow rate increasing which adversely effects the CO 2 % removal as shown in
Figure 5 and Figure 6. Similar trends were also observed by Qing et al.[14]

Figure 5 : Effect of gas flow rate on the KGaV value Figure 6 : Effect of gas flow rate on the % CO2 removal

468
4.2.7 Effect of Amine Concentration

As shown in Figure 7 and 8 the KGaV value and % CO2 removal increases as the MEA concentration increases
from 7 to 30 mass % at the solvent flow rate of 10 LPH and the gas flow rate of 23.25 LPM.This is attributed to
the fact that the increase of the amine concentration leads to a higher amount of the active MEA available to
diffuse toward the gas-liquid interface and react with CO2 , resulting in a higher chemical reaction enhancement
factor β [11]. According to Equation (6), the mass transfer resistance in the liquid phase decreases with the
chemical reaction enhancement factor β increasing, which leads to a higher KGaV value as well as% CO2
removal

Figure 7 : Effect of amine concentration on the KGaV value Figure 8 : Effect of amine concentration on the % CO2 removal

4.2.8 Effect of Solvent Inlet Temperature

Liquid temperature also plays an important role in impacting the absorption performance in a packed column.
The effect of liquid temperature on the KGaV value was investigated from 303 to 333 K and presented in Figure
9. It was found that KGaV value of MEA increased as the liquid feed temperature increased over the range of
303 to 323 K. This trends results from the increasing second –order reaction rate constant (k2) and the
decreasing liquid viscosity (μ), which are beneficial to increase the absorption efficiency [13]. However as the
liquid feed temperature increased beyond a certain value, the reverse CO 2 absorption reaction dominated the
entire reaction process, since the amine-CO2 reaction is exothermic, thus the absorber efficiency reduces.
Another reason which can be figure out is that the increased temperature resulted in a lower equilibrium CO 2
solubility in aqueous MEA solution

Figure 9 : Effect of amine concentration on the % CO2 removal

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5. Conclusion

Experimental and theoretical studies on the overall mass transfer coefficient and the % CO2 removal of the
absorption of CO2 into aqueous MEA solution in a packed column were carried out.The results show an
increasing trend of KGaV value with increase in L/G (Liquid to gas flow rate) ratio. Further the Aspen plus
simulation corresponding to the effect of various operating parameters such as Gas flow rate, Amine
concentration and Solvent inlet temperature on the absorption of CO2 in aqueous MEA was also carried out. The
results show that the solvent inlet temperature plays an important role in the absorption process. The optimized
solvent inlet temperature for the absorption process is around 50 oC. Also the overall mass transfer coefficient
(KGaV) increases with the liquid flow rate, gas flow rate as well as the amine concentration with maximum value
of 0.75 kmol/kPa.hr.m3 reported for 30 mass % MEA solution

References

1. IPCC, 2005. Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) Special report on carbondioxide
capture and storage. Cambridge university press, Cambridge, UK.
2. S.Chakravarti, A.Gupta, B.Hunek (2001) Advance technology for the capture of carbondioxide from
flue gases, 1st National conference on carbon sequestration, Washington, DC.
3. S.A.Freeman, R.Dugas, V.Wagener, G.T.Rochelle, Int. J. Greenh. Gas Con. 4 (2010) 119-124
4. E.Favre J.Membrane Sci. 294 (2007) 50-59
5. Z.Zhao, X.Cui, J.Ma, R.Li, Int. J. Greenh. Gas Con.1(2007) 355-359
6. M.Wang, A.Lawal, P.Stephenson, J.Sidders, C.Ramshaw ,Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 89 (2011) 1609-1624.
7. Y.Jiru, D. Eimer, Energy Procedia 37(2013) 2180-2187.
8. J.D.Seader, E.J.Henley, Separation Process Principles, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, 1998.
9. C.J.Geankopilis, Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles, fourth ed. Prentice Hall, New
Jersey,2003
10. J.T.Cullinane, G.T.Rochelle, Ind.Eng.Chem. Res. 45(2006) 2531-2545
11. Q.Zeng,Y.Guo,Z.Niu,W.Lin, Fuel Process.Tech. 108 (2013) 76-81
12. Y.Zhang, C.Chen, Energy Procedia 37 (2013) 1584-1596
13. U.Sampath, P.R.Arachchigea, M. C. Melaaen , Energy Procedia 23 (2012) 391–399.
14. Q.Zeng,Y.Guo,Z.Niu,W.Lin, Ind.Eng.Chem.Res. 50 (2011) 10168-10175

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 ICAER-2015

Application of Microwave Energy for Biodiesel Production using

Waste Cooking Oil
Anvita Sharma1*, Pravin Kodgire1, S.S Kachhwaha2, H.B Raghavendra2, Kartik
Thakkar2
1
Chemical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Prtroleum University, Gandhinagar-382007, Gujarat, India
2
Mechanical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar-382007, Gujarat, India

Abstract

In the present experimental study, waste cooking oil has been used as feedstock to produce biodiesel using microwave
energy at 180W. Homogeneous (KOH) and heterogeneous catalyst (CaO) has been selected for transesterification reaction.
The effect of various process parameters (reaction period, methanol-to-oil ratio and catalyst percentage) on the yield of
biodiesel was studied using design of experiments (DOE).The optimum process conditions were then obtained using
response surface methodology (RSM) coupled with 33full factorial design. The results revealed that at the following optimum
process conditions; reaction time 10 min (9 min), methanol-to-oil ratio 15:1(6:1), and 10(0.5) wt% catalyst concentration, a
biodiesel yield of 90.4(93.8) wt.% has been obtained using heterogeneous catalyst CaO (homogeneous catalyst KOH).

Keywords:waste cooking oil; microwave; homogeneous catalyst; heterogeneous catalyst; biodiesel

1. Introduction

Biodiesel has many merits as a renewable energy resource including being derived from a renewable
domestic resource. Further, compared to petroleum based diesel, biodiesel is environmental friendly based on
combustion emission profile. It is considered as new clean substitute for commercial diesel [1]. The applications
of biodiesel have its own pros and cons respectively, naming a few: biodegradable, non-toxic, renewable source
of energy, environmental friendly as it reduces greenhouse gas emission, cost efficient as produced locally, high
flash point makes it safer fuel, higher cloud and pour point creates problem in cold weather, corrosive nature
against copper and brass, higher viscosity and lower volatility as compared to diesel [2].

Transesterification reaction, also known as alcoholysis, is a well established chemical reaction where
triglyceride reaction with alcohol forms fatty acid alkyl esters and glycerol. A 3:1 molar ratio of alcohol to oil is
required to complete the reaction; since it is a reversible reaction, excess alcohol is practically used to avoid
shift of equilibrium to reactant side and also increases the yield. Equation (1) shows general transesterification
reaction and equation (2), (3), (4) shows three sequential reversible consecutive reactions of transesterification
[3].
RCOOR’ + R2OH RCOOR’ + R’OH (1)
Glycerides Alcohol Ester Glycerol

Triglycerides + ROH Diglycerides + R’COOR (2)

Diglycerides + ROH Monoglycerides + R’COOR (3)

Monoglycerides + ROH Glycerol + R’COOR (4)

Major critical issues for biodiesel production are raw material costs and limited availability of
vegetable oils. Approximately 75% of total manufacturing cost leads to approximately 1.5 times higher cost
than commercial diesel [4]. On the other side waste cooking oil price is 2-3 times cheaper than virgin vegetable
oil, which can significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of biodiesel [5]. With increase in food consumption
there is a large amount of production of waste cooking oils, and therefore, conversion of this wasted cooking oil
into fuel will eliminate the environmental impacts [6]. Literature review confirms the use of waste cooking oil

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +918511103370

E-mail address:anvita.s@sot.pdpu.ac.in

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having high scope in production of biodiesel [1]. M.H. Jayed et.al [7] remarked that petroleum diesel is also the
major source for the emission of NOx, SOx, CO, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Emission of such pollutants other than having negative impacts to environment also has severe impacts on
human health due to their persistence in the environment. The use of waste cooking oil as a biodiesel source has
a potential to reduce CO2, particulate matter and other greenhouse gases as the carbon contained in biomass-
derived fuel is largely biogenic and renewable. Waste cooking oil, which is otherwise wasted, is one of the most
economical choices to produce biodiesel [8].
Majority of researchers have focused on non-edible oils or waste cooking oils as feedstock for
biodiesel production such as algae oil [9, 10], jatropha oil [11], and grease oil [12] etc. The usage of waste
edible oils can reduce biodiesel production costs by 60–90% [13-15]. In an effort to produce higher quality
biodiesel at lower costs, researchers are using various novel processes to decrease the reaction time, amount of
alcohol, catalyst, and particularly reaction temperature [16]. The physical and chemical properties of the WCO
feedstocks used by Leung and Guo [17] are displayed in Table 1.The major difference between various WCO
oils is the type of fatty acids attached in the triglyceride molecule.
Waste cooking oil fatty acid composition is responsible for biodiesel fuel properties. Both the degree of
saturation /unsaturation and molecular weight of vegetable oils determine fuel properties. The degree of
saturation / unsaturation is proportional to the iodine value while the saponification value is inversely
proportional to molecular weight [8].

Table 1 Common fatty acids present in Waste Cooking oil [17]

Fatty acid Composition (wt%) Waste cooking oil
Myristic (C14:0) 0.9
Palmitic (C16:0) 20.4
Palmitoleic (C16:1) 4.6
Stearic (C18:0) 4.8
Oleic (C18:1) 52.9
Linoleic(C18:2) 13.5
Linolenic(C18:3) 0.8
Arachidic (C20:0) 0.12
Eicosenic (C20:1) 0.84
Behenic (C22:0) 0.03
Erucic (C22:1) 0.07
Tetracosanic (C24:0) 0.04
Mean molecular wt (g/mol) 856

Biodiesel production processes are based on either conventional or supercritical heating methods.
Commonly used methods are Pyrolysis, Micro-emulsions, Dilution, and Transesterification of oils to esters [3].
Among these methods, transesterification is proven simplest and most economical route to produce biodiesel,
with physical characteristics similar to fossil diesel. Due to inefficiencies in conversion and energy utilization,
transesterification being a well-established method results in high cost biodiesel. Some of the methods used for
transesterification of organic feedstock to yield biodiesel are conventional heating with acid, base catalysts and
co-solvents; sub- and super-critical methanol conditions with co-solvents and without catalyst; enzymatic
method using lipases; ultrasonic and hydrodynamic cavitation and microwave irradiation with acid, base and
heterogeneous catalysts. [18]
Recently, biodiesel production techniques has been shifted from convectional method of mechanical
stirring to process intensification techniques for catalytic processes such as ultrasound cavitation, microwave
technology and hybrid technology (combination of both). Recent developments in these techniques are briefly
summarized below:
Ultrasound cavitation increases the speed of chemical reaction of the transesterification and also
facilitates the change of production method from batch processing to continuous flow processing. The principle
of ultrasound action in biodiesel production is primarily based on the emulsification of the immiscible liquid
reactants by micro turbulence generated by radial motion of cavitation bubbles. It allows a short reaction time
and high yield because of emulsification and cavitation of the liquid–liquid immiscible system [19]. The
ultrasonic irradiation biodiesel process reduces the reaction time by more than 30 min as compared to the
conventional method. [20].
The studies conducted by Stavarache, et. al [21,22] and Ji, et. al [19] showed use of vegetable oil and
homogeneous catalyst and achieved the yield upto 98% in nearly 30 min. Studies on waste cooking oil was
reported by Babajide, et. al [23], Hingu et. al [24], Gude & Grant [25], Pal & Kachhwaha [26] and Maddikeri
et.al [27] show the yield nearly 90%. The biodiesel produced from this method satisfies the biodiesel standards.
[28]
Microwaves, representing a non-ionizing radiation, influence molecular motions such as ion migration
or dipole rotations without altering the molecular structure. Due to microwave irradiation rapid molecular level
rapid heating is observed in mixture of vegetable oil, methanol, and catalyst which contain both polar and ionic

472
components [16]. All microwave reactors for chemical reactions are operating at 2.45 GHz frequency. When
compared with conventional methods, where heating can be relatively slow and inefficient because transferring
energy into a sample depends upon convection currents and the thermal conductivity of the reaction mixture,
microwave heating proves to be a better alternative. Thus microwave irradiation is one of the best methods for
reducing the reaction time and increasing the yield in biodiesel. It enhances the separation speed and eases the
separation process [29].
Lertsathapornsuk et al. [30] reported reduced reaction time of 10s using microwave irradiation on used
cooking oil using ethanol. Saifuddin and Chua [31] produced biodiesel from waste cooking oil and ethanol and
observed reduction in reaction time. Hsiao et al.[32]investigated production of biodiesel using soybean oil on
nano CaO heterogeneous catalyst and proved microwave to be more efficient in comparison to conventional
method. Waste cooking oil was used at 750W with reaction time 3 min was studied by Chen et al [33],
Khemthong et.al[34] studied biodiesel production using CaO at 900W using egg shell. All these studies were
performed using high end sophisticated instruments.
Hybrid technique is a combination of microwave, ultrasound and mechanical stirring processes which
are also available in open literature for biodiesel production. These process intensification techniques are
designed in a two ways: either sequential or superimposing with each other.
Vitthal et al. [35] used sequential effect of microwave and ultrasound in a two-step synthesis method
for high acid value nagchampa oil and compared the individual approaches of microwave, ultrasound and
conventional. Choedkiatsakul et.al [36] studied a combination of both ultrasound and microwave on palm oil
using NaOH as catalyst. Ming-Chien et al. [37] showed that the optimal procedure involved 1min ultrasonic
mixing and 2-min closed microwave irradiation for biodiesel production.
Nature of catalyst used plays an important role during transformation of oil to biodiesel. Application of
alkaline homogeneous catalyzed transesterification reaction provides faster rates in comparison to acid catalysts.
Some of the alkaline catalyst used NaOH, KOH and sodium methoxide. These catalysts do not form water
during the reaction. Mostly sulfonic acid, hydrochloric acid, etc are favoured as acid homogeneous catalysts for
production of biodiesel. Although the acid catalysts have given high yield but the reaction rates are slow [38].
Experimented heterogeneous catalysts include either oxides of alkali or oxides of alkaline earth metals. These
catalysts need neither catalyst recovery not aqueous treatment unlike homogeneous catalysts. These catalysts
displayed high biodiesel yields and salt free glycerol [39]. Tippayawong [40] used Jatropha oil with sodium
methoxide as catalyst in continuous flow and yield obtained was 96.5%. Patil [41] used waste cooking oil with
BaO and KOH as catalyst and with 6 min of reaction time achieved 96%yield. Bin [42] used Soybean oil and
heterogeneous nano sized catalyst at a temperature of 60°C with a reaction time of 10 min.
Based on the literature sited above it was noticed that by using homogeneous and heterogeneous
catalyst on different types of oil the yield obtained is more than 90% with less reaction time . Conventional
transesterification reaction requires mixing continuously for long periods of time to facilitate the reaction
between oil and alcohol, where the reaction can takes place only in the interfacial region between the two
liquids. Therefore, use of microwave irradiation provides better mixing and reduces the reaction time.
There is limited number of exhaustive comparative studies of biodiesel production by using waste
cooking oil in domestic microwave with homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. Objectives of the present
experimental study are to produce biodiesel in a domestic microwave using waste cooking oil (cotton seed oil),
and to compare the performance of homogeneous (KOH) & heterogeneous catalysts (CaO) for biodiesel
production.

2. Experiments

2.1. Materials and Equipments

Oil used for the process of biodiesel production was waste cooking oil (cotton seed) collected from local
restaurant, Methanol (Analytical) purity 99%, CaO powder from Merck; KOH pellets from Fisher Scientific and
Heptane from Sigma Aldrich for GCMS analysis. Reaction was carried out in Samsung 28 domestic microwave
oven with power output of maximum 900 W and frequency 2450 Hz. Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of
biodiesel prepared in microwave. Five hundred ml capacity Borosil beaker was used to carry on the
transesterification reaction.

473
 Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of microwave for biodiesel preparation

2.2. Design of Experiments

Design of experiments is an efficient procedure for planning experiment so that the data obtained can
be analyzed to achieve optimum yield with minimum number of experiments. DOE begins with determination
of objectives of an experiment and selection of process factors for study. Well-chosen designs maximize the
amount of information that can be obtained for a given amount of experimental effort [43].
The most common DOE methods include One factor design, factorial and general full factorial designs,
two level full/fractional factorial designs, Plackett-Burman factorial designs, Taguchi orthogonal arrays,
response surface method design etc. Atapour et.al [44] showed 5 levels 4 factor central composite designs
coupled with response surface methodology, Rahimi et.al, [45] studied 3 level 3 factor central composite design
coupled with response surface methodology on soybean oil. Neem oil optimization of 4 factor 5 level design
was studied by E. Betiku et al[46]. Avramovic et.al [47] studied 3 level 3 factor designs using full factorial
method. Velickovic et al. [48] studied 3 factor 3 level full factorial design to optimize biodiesel from sunflower
oil.. and Kılıc et.al, [49] optimized biodiesel from castor oil using full factorial 23 design.
In the present study, the tool employed to optimized processes in the use of experimental designs is full
factorial design because this design helps to determine the effects of process factors or variables and the
interaction between them on the outcomes of the experiment. Full factorial experiment 33 (27 experiments) were
carried out without replication. Table 1 shows the factors used for the experiments
experiments of homogeneous (KOH) and
heterogeneous (CaO) catalysts. The total power supplied for the reaction was 180 W which was kept constant
for all experiments. Factors, methanol – to- oil ratio (X1), catalyst weight % (X2) and time of reaction (X3) and
the three levels applied are shown in Table 2. Low, medium and high level of factors were designated as (-1),
(0) and (1) respectively. Main objective is to optimize the reaction conditions for biodiesel produced using
microwave. Selections of various levels aare re based on experimental runs conducted in laboratory. Through
experiments [48]. Total 27
literature survey we found full factorial method to be efficient in terms of number of experiments
samples has been collected and using GC (Gas Chromatography) the %FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) has
been determined.

Table 1 Coded and Real values of the factors selected in DOE

Factors Levels for KOH Levels for CaO
-1 0 1 -1 0 1
M:O ratio 4.5 6 7.5 12 15 18 X1
Catalyst (wt %) 0.3 0.5 0.7 5 10 15 X2
Time (Min) 6 9 12 6 8 10 X3

Table 2 Full Factorial Design Matrix for Homogeneous & Heterogeneous catalyst
Uncoded Factors for CaO
Coded Factors Uncoded Factors for KOH Catalyst Yield KOH Yield CaO
Catalyst
Factor Factor Factor Factor Factor Factor GC-MS Factor Factor Factor GC-MS
A B C A B C Response A B C Response
Run X1 X2 X3 X1 X2 X3 X1 X2 X3
1 0 0 1 6 0.5 12 95.77 15 10 10 90.37
2 0 -1 1 6 0.3 12 93.52 15 5 10 78.91
3 1 -1 1 7.5 0.3 12 87.87 18 5 10 70.45

474
4 1 -1 -1 7.5 0.3 6 21.05 18 5 6 60.45
5 0 0 0 6 0.5 9 93.87 15 10 8 88.14
6 -1 1 1 4.5 0.7 12 94.71 12 15 10 80.32
7 -1 0 -1 4.5 0.5 6 48.7 12 10 6 82.91
8 0 -1 -1 6 0.3 6 47.65 15 5 6 70.34
9 -1 -1 0 4.5 0.3 9 69.4 12 5 8 78.32
10 0 0 -1 6 0.5 6 47.47 15 10 6 76.41
11 1 -1 0 7.5 0.3 9 92.62 18 5 8 76.52
12 -1 -1 1 4.5 0.3 12 69.64 12 5 10 67
13 0 1 0 6 0.7 9 96.77 15 15 8 72.48
14 1 0 -1 7.5 0.5 6 79.43 18 10 6 76.87
15 1 1 0 7.5 0.7 9 94.02 18 15 8 78.91
16 -1 1 0 4.5 0.7 9 94.79 12 15 8 84.35
17 -1 -1 -1 4.5 0.3 6 71.54 12 5 6 61.25
18 0 -1 0 6 0.3 9 84.72 15 5 8 78.32
19 1 1 -1 7.5 0.7 6 86.84 18 15 6 61.62
20 0 1 -1 6 0.7 6 93.01 15 15 6 80.66
21 -1 0 0 4.5 0.5 9 97.06 12 10 8 89.76
22 1 1 1 7.5 0.7 12 94.69 18 15 10 80.59
23 1 0 0 7.5 0.5 9 93.71 18 10 8 80
24 1 0 1 7.5 0.5 12 66.07 18 10 10 85.43
25 0 1 1 6 0.7 12 87.64 15 15 10 74.98
26 -1 0 1 4.5 0.5 12 95.89 12 10 10 82.42
27 -1 1 -1 4.5 0.7 6 93.08 12 15 6 73.44

2.3. Preparation of CaO heterogeneous catalyst

Five gm laboratory grade CaCO3 in powder form Merck was used for calcination process. Powder was
kept in porcelain crucible heated in laboratory muffle furnace for 5 h from room temperature to 1200 °C at
heating rate 10° C / min. [50]. Equation (5) shows the reaction for conversion of calcium carbonate to calcium
oxide.

CaCO3
CaO + CO2 (5)

CaO catalyst has a tendency to incipiently carbonate and hydrate when exposed to air. Hence activation
of catalyst before use is very important. For activation, catalyst is calcined in muffle furnace upto 700°C for 2
hr, and allowed to be there till the temperature drops to normal temperature. After activation catalyst is stored
under vacuum in desiccator containing silica gel to remove moisture.

2.4. Biodiesel Production

2.4.1. Biodiesel preparation using homogeneous catalyst

Borosil glass beaker of 500 ml size was used for the reaction. Oil to Methanol molar ratio, catalyst
weight, time for reaction was taken as per the runs mentioned in Table 2. Oil was preheated to remove the
moisture content by heating it to 80°C using microwave for 7 min. Methanol and KOH catalyst were mixed well
and kept in desiccator to prevent from moisture. At room temperature, oil the mixture of methanol and KOH
were mixed with the WCO. During each run pH value was measured which comes in range of 7 to 8. After
completion of each run biodiesel was kept in a separating funnel for about 30-40 min. Glycerol phase was

475
separated from the bottom of separating funnel. After removal of glycerol phase warm distilled water was added
for washing of biodiesel. Biodiesel was washed thrice and then dried using mechanical stirring.

2.4.2. Biodiesel preparation using heterogeneous catalyst

Biodiesel preparation is similar to that of homogeneous catalyst except that the required quantity of CaO
were mixed with WCO and heated along with rigorous stirring at 60°C. Then required quantity of methanol is
added at 60°C as per the runs mentioned in Table 3 After completion of cycle biodiesel was passed through
vacuum filtration to remove the catalyst and then left for phase separation in a flask for half an hour. Catalyst
was dried in hot air oven and sent for XRD analysis to ascertain repeated usability.

2.5. Analysis of Catalyst and Biodiesel

Analysis of CaCO3 and CaO was done using X-ray diffraction (XRD), with PAN Analytica analyzer
(X’Pert3 Powder). Samples were analyzed using a double-crystal wide-anglegoniometry with the 2θ scan from -
40°–220° at a scan speed of 5° 2θ/min in 0.05°or0.03°2θ increments using CuKα radiation (λ =0.15406nm).
Analysis of biodiesel produced is carried out on GC-MS (Agilent Technologies, 5975C, inert
XLEI/CIMSD with triple – Axis Detector). Column used for analysis is HP-5MS.Product yield is defined as the
weight percentage of final product (transesterified and purified oil) relative to weight of oil at the start. Product
yield equation is expressed as follows:

 

Product yield (%) = (6)

   

2.6. Statistical Multiple Regression Modeling

The experimental data on FAME yield were analyzed with a multiple regression model to fit the
second order polynomial equation. By handling three nominal factors at three levels a possible curvature in
response function could be modeled and the investigation of a quadratic relationship between the response and
each factor was simplified. General regression equation of this model is as follows:

y=b0 + b1X1 +b2X2 + b3X3 + b12X1X2 + b13X1X3 + b23X2X3 + b123X1X2X3 + b11X12 + b22X22 + b33X32 (7)

where y is response, b0 is constant regression coefficient, bi and bii are linear and quadratic regression
coefficients, bij and bijk (i, j, k= 1,2,3) are regression coefficients of 2nd and 3rd factor interactions, respectively
and X1, X2 and X3 are factors. [51]

476
3. Results and Discussion

3.1. XRD analysis of CaO and CaCO3

X-ray diffraction patterns of the CaCO3 samples before and after calcinations are shown in Fig.2.
Complete phase transformation yielding calcium oxide (CaO) occurs at 900 °C after 1 h calcination. As per the
study of Tangboriboon N. et al. [57] the main peak of CaCO3 should be at 2θ= 29.399 and after calcination 2θ=
37.345 is the main peak for CaO. Similarly, after performing XRD on sample we got the peaks as required i.e
calcium carbonate and calcium oxide are at 29.4° and 37.3° respectively. Sample 1 is XRD image of CaO
formed after calcination of CaCO3 and sample 4 is XRD image of CaCO3.

Fig.2 XRD image of CaO and CaCO3

3.2. GC analysis of Biodiesel formed using CaO catalyst and KOH catalyst

Fig. 3 and Fig.4 shows the GC-MS graph for biodiesel produced using KOH catalyst and CaO catalyst
respectively. At retention time of 31min maximum yield of FAME was obtained for both cases.
Retention time, min

Fig. 3. GCMS graph for Biodiesel with KOH catalyst

Retention time, min

Fig. 4. GCMS graph for Biodiesel with CaO catalyst

477
3.3. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Using MINITAB 17, statistical analysis was carried out as per the DOE mentioned in Table 1.Table 3
and 4 show the results for biodiesel production using CaO and KOH catalysts respectively using ANOVA. P-
values are used as a tool to check the significance of corresponding coefficient. As shown in Table 3, P-value of
CaO model, was 0.02 which is very small hence proves the suitability of the present model. Similarly, as given
in Table 4, P-value of the KOH model was 0.00 which indicates that the model is quite accurate. Additionally,
coefficient determination (R2) and adjust coefficient of determination (Adj. R2) indicated that, the accuracy and
general availability of the polynomial model were adequate. The equation (8) and (9) shows the regression
equation for experiments using CaO and KOH catalyst respectively.

Y = -157 + 14.49 X1 + 16.39 X2 + 16.4 X3 - 0.428 X12 - 0.4253 X22 - 0.901 X32 - 0.460 X1* X2 + 0.011 X1* X3 -
0.527 X2* X3 + 0.0328 X1* X2* X3 (8)

Y = -4.2 - 1.8 X1 + 122 X2 + 3.47 X3 - 0.893 X12 - 162.4 X22 - 0.636 X32 + 20.1 X1*X2 + 1.83 X1*X3
+ 14.7 X2*X3 - 3.07 X1*X2*X3 (9)

Table 3 Results of analysis for CaO catalyst using ANOVA

Source of Variation Degree of freedom Sum of squares Mean square F-value P-value
Regression 10 1479.65 147.965 5.19 0.02
X1 1 71.62 71.615 2.51 0.132
X2 1 119.56 119.56 4.3 0.057
X3 1 42.08 42.078 1.48 0.242
X12 1 88.90 88.902 3.12 0.096
X22 1 678.25 678.251 23.81 0.000
2
X3 1 77.92 77.923 2.74 0.118
X1*X2 1 22.82 22.821 0.8 0.384
X1*X3 1 0.01 0.007 0.00 0.988
X2*X3 1 8.65 8.651 0.3 0.589
X1*X2*X3 1 7.74 7.744 0.27 0.609
Error 16 455.83 28.489
Total 26 2935.48
S= 5.337, R2 = 76.45%, adj R2 = 61.73%

Table 4 Results of analysis for KOH catalyst using ANOVA

Source of Variation Degree of freedom Sum of squares Mean square F-value P-value
Regression 10 245.137 245.137 8.62 0.00
X1 1 0.4 0.399 0.01 0.907
X2 1 24.49 24.489 0.86 0.367
X3 1 5.3 5.296 0.19 0.692
2
X1 1 24.20 24.199 0.85 0.37
X22 1 253.26 263.26 8.91 0.09
X32 1 196.46 196.455 6.91 0.018
X1*X2 1 30.14 30.142 1.06 0.318
X1*X3 1 78.67 78.699 2.77 0.116
X2*X3 1 37.19 37.189 1.31 0.27
X1*X2*X3 6 61.05 61.051 2.15 0.162
Error 13 454.87 28.43
Total 26 2906.64
S= 5.33194, R2 = 84.35%, adj R2 = 74.57%

The three-dimensional response surface plots are for general graphical representations of the regression
equation. Fig. 5 shows the response surface plots for biodiesel yield as a function of temperature, methanol /oil
ratio and catalyst concentration for CaO. The results show that at optimum process condition, maximum yield of
90.37% can be achieved within 10 min reaction period with 10wt % catalyst concentration (CaO) and 15:1
methanol to oil ratio. Similarly, from Fig. 6 it can be concluded that at optimum process condition, maximum
yield of 93.87% can be achieved within 9 min with 0.5 wt% catalyst concentration (KOH) and 6:1 methanol to
oil ratio. Fig. 7 shows the probability curve for residual percentage, the value of residual percentage should be
maximum near 0 and should decrease as the interval increases.

478
 a. Y vs Catalyst%, Time b. Y vs M:O, Catalyst % c. Y vs M:O, Time
Fig. 5 Response Surface Plots for experiments using heterogeneous catalyst (CaO)

a. Y vs Catalyst%, Time b. Y vs M:O, Catalyst % c. Y vs M:O, Time

Fig. 6 Response Surface Plots for experiments using homogeneous catalyst (KOH)

a. Probability curve (CaO catalyst) b. Probability curve (KOH catalyst)

Fig.7 Probability curve showing the predicted and actual yield for Biodiesel

4. Conclusion

Optimization of waste cooking oil using microwave was done using 33 full factorial designs, this design
procedure has been followed to optimize the variables to determine a maximum biodiesel yield and a second-
order response equation obtained as a function of three variables. The results revealed that at the following
optimum process conditions; reaction time 10 min (9 min), methanol-to-oil ratio 15:1(6:1), and 10:1 (0.5) wt%
catalyst concentration, a biodiesel yield of 90.4(93.8) wt.% has been obtained using heterogeneous catalyst CaO
(homogeneous catalyst KOH).

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the funding agency Gujarat Energy Development Association (GEDA) for
providing fund to purchase the equipments and Centre for Biofuels and Bioenergy Studies (CBBS) in PDPU for
providing laboratory facilities to perform experiment. Authors would also like to thank GACL for providing
fund for GC-MS.

479
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480
 ICAER-2015

Effect of inter-stage pressure on the performance of a two stage

refrigeration cycle using inter cooler
Nilesh Purohita1, Dileep Kumar Guptab, Mani Sankar Dasguptaa
a
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Pilani Campus, 333031
b
Department of Mechanical Engineeering, IITRAM, Gujarat (India)

Abstract

Effect of inter-stage pressure on the performance of a two stage refrigeration cycle using inter cooler is studied based on
thermodynamic modelling. Six common refrigerants are selected for the analyses. These are R134a, R22 and R143a as
synthetic refrigerants and propane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide as natural refrigerants. The designed input range is -50oC
to -30oC for evaporator temperature and 40oC to 60oC for heat rejection temperature. Three classical relations for estimating
inter-stage pressure in a two stage refrigeration system are selected and the performance is evaluated against optimized inter-
stage pressure corresponding to the best COP. Results show that for trans-critical cycles, the deviation of optimized inter-stage
pressure with the classical ones is considerable, while for sub-critical cycles, COP is very less sensitive to inter-stage pressure.
Further, comprehensive analysis of CO 2 based trans-critical refrigeration system is presented for a wider range covering -50oC
to 10oC evaporation temperature and 35oC to 60oC gas cooler outlet temperature. A correlation for estimating optimum inter-
stage and gas cooler pressure for the same is also formulated. With gradual increase in focus towards adoption of natural
refrigerants like CO 2 , the effect of inter stage pressure is expected to be an important consideration in warmer climatic
condition.
Keywords: Two stage cycle; Inter-stage pressure ;Trans-critical; COP; Inter cooler.

1. Introduction

The performance of a single stage vapour compression cycle deteriorates at high heat rejection and low
evaporation temperatures. Classically this is overcome by employing multi staging. One of the options is to utilize
inter cooling using external fluid between the compression stages to reduce the specific volumes and the discharge
temperatures, which as a consequence reduces the work input to the compressor. Selection of the inter-stage
pressure is crucial for enhancing the performance of such systems. A few thumb rules exist for choosing
approximately the right inter-stage pressure for the subcritical systems [1]. However, such relations do not hold
good for trans-critical cycles [2]. Natural refrigerants like CO 2 & N 2 O has low critical temperature (just above
30oC) and such cycles need to be run as trans-critical, in warm climatic conditions. Moreover, natural refrigerants
such as air, water, ammonia, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, isobutene, propane etc. are ecologically safer, have
zero ODP and low GWP and are, therefore, gaining importance [3, 4]. Both synthetic refrigerants (R134a, R22
and R143a) and natural refrigerants (propane, CO 2 and N 2 O) are chosen for the analysis. Some salient properties
of selected refrigerant are listed in Table 1. Among the chosen natural refrigerants, CO 2 is in focus for many
researchers. This may be attributed to the many favourable properties of CO 2 .

Table1. Properties of refrigerants

Refrigerant Type Critical Temperature (o C) Critical Pressure (MPa) ODP GWP
R134a Artificial 101.06 4.05 0 1300
R22 Artificial 96.14 4.99 0.005 1700
R143a Artificial 72.70 3.76 0 4300
Propane Natural 96.74 4.25 0 3
Carbon Dioxide Natural 31.1 7.37 0 1
Nitrous Oxide Natural 36.37 7.24 0 310

In this paper, the effect of inter-stage pressure on the performance of a two stage refrigeration cycle is
investigated for selected refrigerants which operates in sub and trans-critical cycle. The system performance is
evaluated over a range of condensing/gas cooler temperature (40 o C to 60 o C) and evaporator temperature (-50 o

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9950980335.

E-mail address: purohitnilesh89@gmail.com

481
C to -30o C). Further, finding from our study that trans-critical cycle is more sensitive with respect to inter- stage
pressure and that CO 2 as a refrigerant is gaining importance worldwide, the same is studied in more detail. Various
other operating parameters like inter-stage pressure, gas cooler pressure and compressor discharge temperature
for both stages are investigated thoroughly to see their effect on system COP. Finally, two correlations for
estimating optimum gas cooler and inter-stage pressure for the tested range of evaporators (-50oC to 10oC) and
gas cooler outlet temperatures (35oC to 60oC) are presented.

The classical relations from standard literature are invoked to obtain inter-stage pressures and
performance of the cycles are evaluated at these pressures. Further, the performance is compared with the
condition, when the system is operated at that value of inter-stage pressure (Po) which gives maximum COP. The
classical relations used in this study are as listed in equation 1 to 3, obtained from [6 & 7]:

P1=�Pevap*Pg (1)
P2=�Pevap*Pg*(Tg/Tevap) (2)
P3=Saturation pressure corresponding to temperature, Ts=�Tevap*Tg (3)

2. Thermodynamic Modelling

The refrigeration cycle is modelled by employing energy balance across individual cycle components.
Representative P-h diagram for investigated cycles are given in Fig. 1. For both the subcritical and trans-critical
cycles, process 1-2 is first stage compression, process 2-3 is inter cooling at constant pressure, process 3-4 is
second stage compression, process 4-5 is heat rejection at constant pressure, process 5-6 is isenthalpic expansion
and process 1-6 is evaporation. The heat rejection in the subcritical cycles is done using condenser, whereas in
supercritical cycle a gas coolers replace the condensers. The compressor efficiency is assumed as 70% and the
intercooler effectiveness is taken as 80%. For subcritical cycles (R134a, R22, R143a and propane) the intercooler
exit temperature is taken as 5oC above the saturation temperature corresponding to the inter-stage pressure,
whereas in trans-critical cycles (CO 2 , N 2 O) inter cooling is done with ambient air at temperature ( ), which is
taken equal to the gas cooler exit temperature (assuming approach temperature as zero).

Fig. 1 P-h diagrams for two stage refrigeration cycle (a) subcritical cycle (b) supercritical cycle.

The mathematical equations involved in the simulation are:

1 =h2-h1, (Work done in LP Compressor) (4)

2 =h4-h3, (Work done in HP Compressor) (5)
1 = (h2i-h1)⁄(h2-h1), (Efficiency of First Stage Compressor) (6)
2 = (h4i-h3)⁄(h4-h3), (Efficiency of Second Stage Compressor) (7)
e= (T2-T3)⁄(T2-To), (Effectiveness of Inter Cooler) (8)
RE=h1-h6 , (Refrigeration Effect) (9)
COP=RE/( 1+ 2) (10)

The simulation is done using MATLAB and the state point thermodynamic properties are taken
automatically by linking up with REFPROP version 9. Iterative method is employed to find optimum operating
conditions corresponding to the best COP. Published literature [2, 5, 6 & 8] shows that the choice of inter-stage
pressure affects the optimum conditions for refrigeration cycles. Hence, optimization of condensing pressure and
inter-stage pressure are done simultaneously. Further, the performance of the cycle is compared with that
determined from classical relations for calculation of inter-stage pressure.

482
3. Results and Discussions

The system is simulated for the defined parametric range. Choice of inter-stage pressure is made both by
using classical relations (equation 1-3) and by simultaneously optimizing it along with gas cooler pressure (for
trans-critical cycles P3 inter-stage from equation (3) is not valid to evaluate). The Fig. 2 shows the variation of
inter-stage pressure with condenser/gas cooler exit temperature for various evaporation temperatures. Fig. 3
shows the COP variation for the same conditions.

-50oC Po -40oC Po -30oC Po -50oC P1 -40oC P1 -30oC P1

-50oC P2 -40oC P2 -30oC P2 -50oC P3 -40oC P3 -30oC P3

800 1300
500
R134a 750 R22 1200 R143a
460 700
1100
420 650
1000
380
Pint (kPa)
Pint (kPa)

Pint (kPa)
600
340 900
550
300 800
500
260 450 700
220 400 600
180 350 500
140 300 400
40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60
Gas Cooler Outlet TemperatureoC Gas Cooler Outlet TemperatureoC Gas Cooler Outlet TemperatureoC
800 12000 12000
750 Propane 11000 Carbon Dioxide 11000
Nitrous Oxide
700 10000 10000
650 9000 9000
Pint (kPa)

Pint (kPa)

Pint (kPa)
600 8000 8000
550 7000 7000
500 6000 6000
450 5000 5000
400 4000 4000
350 3000 3000
300 2000 2000
40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60
o o
Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature C Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature C Gas Cooler Outlet TemperatureoC

Fig. 2 Variation of inter-stage pressure with condenser/gas cooler exit temperatures.

-50oC Po -40oC Po -30oC Po -50oC P1 -40oC P1 -30oC P1

-50oC P2 -40oC P2 -30oC P2 -50oC P3 -40oC P3 -30oC P3

1.9 1.9 1.9
1.7 1.7 R22 1.7 R143a
R134a
1.5 1.5 1.5
1.3 1.3 1.3
COP

COP

COP

1.1 1.1 1.1

0.9 0.9 0.9
0.7 0.7 0.7
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.3 0.3 0.3
40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60
o o
Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature C Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature C Gas Cooler Outlet TemperatureoC
1.9 1.9 1.9
1.7 Propane 1.7 Carbon Dioxide 1.7 Nitrous Oxide
1.5 1.5 1.5
1.3 1.3 1.3
COP

COP

COP

1.1 1.1 1.1

0.9 0.9 0.9
0.7 0.7 0.7
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.3 0.3 0.3
40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60 40 45 50 55 60
o o
Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature C Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature C Gas Cooler Outlet TemperatureoC
Fig. 3 Variation of COP with condenser/gas cooler exit temperatures.

483
The major findings from the Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are:
• Inter-stage pressure calculated using classical relations are significantly different from the optimum value for
both subcritical and trans-critical cycles for all evaporator temperatures. With increase in evaporator
temperature, the deviation of optimum inter-stage pressure from the classical relations decreases for both
subcritical and trans-critical cycle.
• For subcritical cycles, the difference of COP computed from classical relations and optimization schemes is
negligible. The overlapping of COP for all tested values of inter-stage pressures is seen in Fig. 3. Hence,
classical relations are justified in subcritical conditions
• For trans-critical cycles appreciable variation in COP with respect to different inter-stage pressure schemes
is observed as compared to sub-critical cycles. This implies that the classical relations for evaluating inter-
stage pressure are not satisfactory for trans-critical cycles.

Among the trans-critical cycles for refrigeration, CO 2 cycles are being increasingly used. Owing to this,
we have chosen the same for our further analysis. From the point of view of material strength to withstand high
pressure, the compressor discharge temperature and pressure are another important parameter. Hence, effect of
working pressures on compressor discharge temperatures is also studied. The average ambient temperature
encountered in majority of cities in India is summarized in three distinct temperature zones identified as zone I
with design temperature of 29oC, zone II with design temperature of 40oC and zone III with design temperature
of 45oC [9]. We chose here zone II and zone III for analysis as required CO 2 refrigeration system will be trans-
critical in nature. Fig. 4 demonstrates the effect of inter stage and gas cooler pressure on compressor discharge
temperature and system COP. Further, it compares the sensitivity of COP with respect to inter stage and gas cooler
pressure for trans-critical cycle. Evaporator temperature of -30oC and gas cooler outlet temperature of 40oC (zone
II) is considered for plotting Fig. 4.

Second Stage Compressor First Stage Compressor COP

165 0.8 165 0.8

Zone II Zone II
155 0.775 155 0.775

145 0.75 145 0.75

Compressor Discharge Temperature (K)

Compressor Discharge Temperature (K)

135 0.725 135 0.725

COP

COP
125 0.7 125 0.7

115 0.675 115 0.675

105 0.65 105 0.65

o
Evaporation Temperature= -30 C
Evaporation Temperature= -30oC
Optimum Gas Cooler Pressure= 17 MPa
95 0.625 Optimum Inter Stage Pressure= 9 MPa
95 0.625

85 0.6 85 0.6
6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Inter-stage Pressure (MPa) Gas Cooler Pressure (MPa)

Fig 4. Variation of Compressor Discharge Temperature and COP with respect to inter-stage and gas cooler pressures

Major findings from Fig. 4 are as follows:

• For a fixed value of evaporation temperature, both the first and second stage compressor discharge
temperatures are found to be within limits for optimal set of working conditions.
• Inter stage pressure closer to the optimal condition allows lower discharge temperatures for both the
compression stages and gives higher COP.
• The COP of the cycle is less sensitive to inter stage pressure as compared to gas cooler pressure.
• Further, investigation on sensitivity of system performance to the gas cooler pressure is required to formulate
some guidelines for cycle operation for the many practical considerations.

Fig. 5 shows the variation of COP with respect to gas cooler pressure for zone II and zone III plotted
corresponding to optimize inter stage pressure. We observe that the slope of the COP vs gas cooler pressure curve

484
is steeper at lower gas cooler pressure. From practical point of view a safe working zone can be marked out where
the pressure is not too high (practicability from material strength considerations) as well as the COP is almost
near its maxima. In general, for all investigated range of parameters, a pressure range of 10 to 12 MPa forms the
safe zone near to optimum working pressure range with optimized inter-stage pressure for better performance of
compressors.

-50oC -40oC -30oC -20oC -10oC 0oC 10oC

3 3

2.8 Zone II, 40oC 2.8 Zone III, 45oC

2.6 2.6

2.4 2.4

2.2 2.2

2 2

1.8 1.8
COP

COP
1.6 1.6

1.4 1.4

1.2 1.2

1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Gas Cooler Pressure (MPa) Gas Cooler Pressure (MPa)

Fig. 5 Variation of COP with respect gas cooler pressures for zone II and zone III

Fig. 6 shows the comparison of performance of two stage and single stage cycle for three evaporation
temperatures (-50, -20 & 10). For this set of figure, optimized inter stage pressure is taken for two stage cycle.
System COP, optimum gas cooler pressure and corresponding compressor discharge temperature are separately
plotted illustrating the pros and cons of multi staging. It is clear from the figure that COP is higher for two stage
cycle as compared to single stage for full range of investigation. However, single stage cycle offers lower optimal
discharge pressure. At the same time, two stage cycle is found to have lower compressor discharge temperature
which allows better compressor performance.

3.9
3.5
3.1 - 50 oC Two Stage

2.7 - 50 oC Single Stage

2.3 - 20 oC Two Stage

COP

1.9 - 20 oC Single Stage

1.5 10 oC Two Stage

1.1 10 oC Single Stage

0.7
0.3
35 40 45 50 55 60
Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature (oC)
Compressor Discharge Temperature (oC)
Optimum Gas Cooler Pressure (MPa)

24 320
22 290

20 260
230
18
200
16
170
14
140
12 110
10 80
8 50
35 40 45 50 55 60 35 40 45 50 55 60
Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature (oC) Gas Cooler Outlet Temperature (oC)

Fig. 6 Performance comparison of two stage and single stage cycle for CO 2 based refrigeration system

485
 Two correlations for optimal values of inter-stage and gas cooler pressures for CO 2 based two stage cycle
are formulated using Minitab. Equations 11 and 12 shows the correlation. Design of experiments is used to limit
the number of simulated experiments for this statistical analysis. Both these correlations are valid for the entire
range of investigation with R2 (correlation coefficient) value of 0.99.

Pint= 1752 + (25.6×Tevap) + (141.7×Tg) - (0.1389×Tevap2 ) + (0.48×Tg2 ) (11)

Pg= 4046 + (81.9×Tevap) + (16.8×Tg) + �0.347×Tevap2 � + �3.6×Tg2 � - (2.667×Tevap×Tg) (12)

4. Conclusions

The effect of inter-stage pressure on the performance of two stage cycle performance is studied. Various
schemes for selecting the inter-stage pressure are compared along with the optimization of the same for maximum
COP. Further, effect of inter stage pressure and compressor outlet pressure in trans-critical CO 2 based cycle is
studied in detail. The following are major conclusion from the research:
• For sub-critical cycles, the existing classical relations for estimating inter-stage pressure are satisfactory and
gives near optimum COP.
• For trans-critical cycles the use of classical relations for estimating inter-stage pressure do not give optimum
COP. The inter-stage pressure needs to be simultaneously optimized with heat rejection (gas cooler) pressure.
• Both inter-stage and gas cooler pressure in a trans-critical cycle affect system performance while gas cooler
pressure has a dominant effect.
• Increase in COP is observed with increase in evaporator temperature. However, the rate of change of COP
with respect to gas cooler pressure is not uniform. It dominates between 10-12 MPa for zone II and zone III.
This working range is identified and prescribed as safe working conditions for near optimum operation with
practical considerations.
• Comparison between CO 2 based two stage inter cooler and single stage cycle shows that better performance
is obtained for the former cycle. While, optimal gas cooler pressure is higher for two stage cycle, the
compressor discharge temperature is lower offering better performance from practical point of view also.
• Correlations have been formulated for estimating optimum inter-stage and gas cooler pressure for tested range
of parameters. COP of CO 2 as refrigerant in trans-critical cycle is found to be between 0.4-3.7 for the
investigated cases.

5. Future Scope

In near future, use of natural refrigerants is expected to increase and COP of such system will be an issue
of concern particularly for warm weather condition operation. This study should be beneficial for design and
control of multistage compression system for trans-critical cycles. The future scope for research lies in
investigating the trans-critical cycle incorporating real time constraints like approach temperature, pressure drop
in heat exchangers, heat transfer in compression and expansion devices etc. Further, scope lies in investigating
other multi staging schemes like flash gas bypass, parallel compression etc. Integration of work recovery
expander, sub coolers and other possible devices at intermediate points in the cycle for COP improvement may
be another extension of this work.

6. Acknowledgement

Author will like to acknowledge partial financial support received from the host organization, BITS
Pilani, India & Government of India under research grant No: DST/TSG/NTS/2012/19-G.

Nomenclature

Evaporator pressure (kPa) Efficiency of compressor

Condenser/Gas cooler pressure (kPa) e Effectiveness of inter cooler
𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 Evaporator temperature (oC) RE Refrigeration effect (KJ/Kg)
𝑇𝑇 Condenser/Gas cooler outlet temperature (oC) COP Coefficient of performance
Intermediate temperature (oC) h Specific enthalpy (KJ/Kg)
Inter stage Pressure (kPa)
LP Low Pressure Subscripts
WD Work required by compressor (KJ/Kg) i isentropic
HP High Pressure
Ambient temperature (oC)

486
7. References

[1] Gupta, V. K., Prasad, M. (1983) Optimum thermodynamic performance of three stage refrigerating systems, International Journal of Re
frigeration 6 (2) 103–107.
[2] Agarwal, N.,Bhattacharyya, Sand. Sarkar, J. (2007) Optimization of two-stage trans-critical carbon dioxide heat pump cycles, Internatio
nal Journal of Refrigeration, 42(2), pp.180 -187.
[3] Lorentzen, G. Revival of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, International Journal of Refrigeration 17 (1994) 292–300.
[4] Gupta, D.K., & Dasgupta, M.S. (2010). Gas cooler design issues for trans-critical carbon dioxide refrigeration system in Indian conte
xt. Proc. Of Int. Conference in Advances of Mechanical Engineering, ICAME-2010, pp 229-233, SVNIT, Surat, India.
[5] Agarwal, N., Sarkar, J. and Bhattacharyya, S. (2011) Thermodynamic analysis and optimization of a novel two-stage trans-critical N 2 O
cycle, International Journal of Refrigeration, 34, pp. 991-999.
[6] Torrella, E.,Llopis, R. and Cabello, R. (2009) Experimental evaluation of the inter-stage conditions of a two-stage refrigeration cycle us
ing a compound compressor, International Journal of Refrigeration, 32, pp.307 -315.
[7] Arora, R. C. (2010) Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, PHI, New Delhi.
[8] Purohit, N., Gupta, D. K., & Dasgupta, M. S. Thermodynamic analysis of trans-critical CO2 refrigeration cycle in Indian context,
NCEEITET-15, Jammu, India.
[9] Gupta, D. K., Singh, D. K., & Dasgupta, M. S. (2010). Environmental Effect on Gas Cooler Design for Trans-critical Carbon Dioxide
Refrigeration System in Indian Context. Journal of Advanced Research in Mechanical Engineering, 1(3)

487
 ICAER-2015

Analysis of High Temperature Low Sag Conductors used for

High Voltage Transmission
Subba Reddy B* and Diptendu Chatterjee
High Voltage Laboratory, Dept. of Electrical Engg, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, India

Abstract

Presently there is a continuous demand for the electric power consumption across the globe, however with the
existing distribution lines are reaching critical limits of ampacity and sag, it has become difficult in finding
corridors to construct new overhead lines in many industrialized countries including India. Replacing the existing
ACSR conductors with high temperature high current low sag (HTLS) conductors almost of the same diameter is
one of the recent methods. The present work a parametric study is conducted for steady state surface temperature,
thermal time constant, change of emissivity, absorptivity etc for various ACSR and HTLS conductors using the
developed computer code which is in accordance with IEEE Std.738. Some experimental study is also conducted
and the results obtained are presented.

Keywords:HTLS conductors; ampacity;ACSR; low sag;Simulation; Experimentation

1. Introduction

The increase in power requirement is becoming a great challenge for the utilities in terms of cost and capacity
where the existing lines have reached their maximum limit. One of the solutions is the installation of a parallel
structure like the existing towers, but this is not an economical solution. The other way to find a cost-effective
and more viable solution is in adopting high temperature low sag (HTLS) conductors for distribution systems
[1]. These conductors are different from conventional conductors in terms of material or structure or both. The
significance of HTLS conductors is they can carry 2.5 times the current that of the conventional ACSR
conductors of same size and can withstand higher temperature (>200°C) with less sag. One of the several
advantages of HTLS over conventional ACSR is by re-conductoring an existing line with HTLS conductor the
power delivery capacity can be increased. But an HTLS conductor for long transmission is not recommended as
it will cause higher voltage drop and power loss due to high current. So increasing voltage level will be wise.
Several HTLS projects are being planned and implemented throughout the world including India [1, 2].
The study of HTLS conductor was first initiated by Douglass [3] explaining the practical applications used
for Connecticut Light and Power Company. Later Alwar et al [4] have discussed about conventional ACSR
conductors and the composite core conductors for low sag at high temperature. IEEE Standard 738 [5] explains
several factors that affect the temperature of bare overhead conductor. The equations to find the current
temperature relationship are given in this standard. Several researchers [6-9] discussed about the emissivity,
radial temperature distribution, corrosion and effective radial thermal conductivity in bare solid and stranded
conductors. Ravi Gorur [10] characterised the composite cores for HTLS conductors and studied surface
temperature vs. time curve, core temperature with current, with emissivity, absorptivity, thermal conductivity
etc in accordance with IEEE Std 738[5]. Further Harvey and others [11-15] studied temperature creep and sag-
tension performance of HTLS conductors. Recent IEEE Standard 1283[16] gives the guidelines for determining
the effects of high temperature operation on conductors, connectors and accessories. It describes possible
adverse impact on operating overhead transmission line at high temperatures. Gerald et al [17] discussed about
how HTLS conductors can be a solution to the ever increasing power demand. A technical report [18] describes
the structure and properties of aluminium conductor composite reinforced (ACCR) conductors. Researchers [19-
24] have used different models for calculation of various parameters for HTLS conductors. Recently several
planned projects [25] using HTLS conductors are being implemented in the country. Hence this work was
initiated with the view that the data obtained will be useful for further implementation of projects as well as in
enhancing the current literature.

____________________________________________
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-080-22932550; fax: +91-080-22932550.
E-mail address: reddy@ee.iisc.ernet.in

488
2. Simulation Study

In the present work, simulation studies are carried based on IEEE-738 Standard [5]. The study consist of a
developed Matlab code to simulate: Surface temperature variation with time for a given current level, variation
of surface temperature with different parameters like ambient temperature, absorptivity and emissivity of the
conductor material, variation of temperature along the radius of the conductor etc. Separately (i) a graphic user
interface (GUI) is developed for use in optimal design of different transmission and distribution accessories to
be used for HTLS conductors which simulates temperature variation with current and different parameters also
(ii) Simulation of magnetic field near the conductor due to increased current in case of HTLS conductors is
attempted.

The technical details of various types of HTLS and ACSR conductors used for the present work are given in
table 1 below:
Table. 1. Specification of conductors used for simulation
Details ACSR HTLS1 HTLS2 HTLS3 HTLS4
Overall Dia (mm) 28.12 28.14 28.62 28.118 31.77
Resistance per length at 0.0728 0.0554 0.0674 0.0702 0.0431
25deg C (ohm/km)
Resistance per length at 0.0869 0.0662 0.0741 0.0843 0.0511
75deg C (ohm/km)

Heat Capacity per 1309 756 1177 1296 1495

length (W-sec /m-C)
Following assumptions were made for the estimation of current and temperature:
Ambient Temperature=40 degree centigrade; Velocity of wind=.61 meter/sec; Absorptivity=.5;
Angle of the flow of wind with conductor axis=90 degree; Emissivity=.5; Day number of the year=161;
Altitude=0 meters; Latitude=43; Azimuth of line=90 degree; Time of the day=11 a.m.

3. Simulation Results

The equations specified in [5] and the assumptions made, the thermal response and parametric variation of
temperature is presented. The thermal response of one ACSR and different HTLS conductors at 1750 Ampere is
given in Fig.1. Variation of steady state surface temperature of ACSR and different HTLS conductors with
emissivity and ambient temperature at 1000 Ampere are presented in Fig.2. The variation of steady state surface
temperature with both emissivity and absorptivity at 1000 Ampere for ACSR and HTLS conductor is given in
Fig. 3. For the desired surface temperature it is possible to get the operating point and fix the emissivity and
absorptivity value of the conductor to get the desired temperature. From the results it is seen HTLS conductors
perform better over ACSR.

200 120
Steady State Temperature (in deg C)

180 110
Surface Temperature (in deg C)

160 100
140
90
120
80
100 ACSR ACSR
HTLS-1 70 HTLS-1
80
HTLS-2 HTLS-2
60 HTLS-3 60 HTLS-3
HTLS-4 HTLS-4
40 50
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
time(minutes) Ambient Temperature (in deg C)
Fig. 1. Thermal time response for a step current of 1750 A Fig. 2. Variation of Steady State Surface Temperature of with
Ambient Temperature at 1000A

489
 115

135
120 110
140 130
105

Steady State Temperature (in deg C)

Steady State Temperature (in deg C) 125
130 110
120 100

120 115
100 95
110
110
90
105 90
100 100 85

95 80
90 80
90
1 1 75
80 70
85 0.5
0 0.2 0.5 0 0.2
0.4 0.6 0.4 0.6
0.8 1 0 0.8 1 0
absorptivity absorptivity
emissivity emissivity

(a) ACSR (b) HTLS

Fig. 3. Variation of Steady State Surface Temperature with emissivity and absorptivity at 1000A

A Matlab based graphical user interface (GUI) has also been developed where in the environmental conditions,
conductor dimensions, accessories material properties etc, given as input to get the optimal dimension of the
accessories, and the time response of the conductor temperature.

4. Estimation of magnetic Fields

The HTLS conductors operate at a higher current level, hence produce a proportionally higher magnetic field.
A 3D magnetic field simulation is carried out using a commercially available FEM software COMSOL
Multiphysics®[26]. The magnetic field near the region of the conductor has been estimated with the distance.
Both the cross-sectional plot and 3-D plot of the magnetic field for single and double conductor setup are
presented. International guidelines [27] for the permissible magnetic field through human body both for
continuous and discontinuous application help in deciding the approximate height of the conductors from
ground level.
Simulation of magnetic fields in this work includes contour and 3-D magnitude plot of the magnetic field in
the cross sectional surface of single and double line. For all the cases, current through all the conductors is
assumed to flow 1750 Ampere and the region of interest is up to 6 meters in all the direction perpendicular to
the axis of the lines. Magnetic field contours for single and for the double transmission conductors are estimated
Fig.4 shows for double line. Similarly the magnitude of the magnetic field in cross-sectional surface of the
conductor for double lines in 3-D are shown Fig. 5 respectively. It is seen nearer to the conductor the magnetic
fields are very high and reduce with the distance.

Fig.4. Magnetic field contours due to double lines Fig.5. Magnitude of magnetic field in the cross sectional surface
each carrying 1750 Ampere of double lines each carrying 1750 Ampere

5. Experimentation: Results and Discussions

The experimental arrangement is shown in Fig.6, consists of a specially fabricated towers of height 1.5 meters
having a span length of 6.5meters with a provision for conductor tension. A specially fabricated high current
source of 6kVA, 2000A is used for the experiments. Two connecting leads of 25mm x40mm rectangular cross-
section aluminium busbars of length 3.5meters (approx) are used. For temperature measurement non contact
type laser instrument and a testo make thermal imager model 875-II were employed. Various samples of ACSR
Conductors: Bersimis, Zebra, Moose along with HTLS Conductors: GTZ ACSR GAP Conductor, INVAR
Moose, ACSS Curlew etc were used for the experiments. Also HTLS conductor accessories like Mid-Span
compression Joint, End Joint, Repair Sleeve, T- Connectors etc, were evaluated. Two types of experimentation
(short term and long term) were carried out on all the types of HTLS conductors and accessories.

490
 Fig.6. Experimental arrangement (ACSR & HTLS) Fig.7. Typical measurement using thermal imager
For short term experimentation the conductor is connected in between the two towers with span of 6.5 meters
and the end terminations suitably connected with the bus-bars to the high current generator to provide a closed
path (Fig.6). For ACSR conductors, the input current is varied from 0 to 600 Amps in steps 0f 100 Amps after
every 5 minutes. The temperature is recorded at different points on the conductor, busbars, end terminations etc.
For temperature measurement a thermal imager Testo-875II model was used along with non contact laser based
instrument. A typical measurement carried out on one of the sample using thermal imager is shown in Fig.7.
From the measurements it was observed the temperature was higher mainly at the connecting joints. In case of
HTLS conductors input current is varied from 0 to 1000 Amps in steps of 100 Amps after a gap of 5 minutes
and the values of temperature are recorded with the laser and also thermal imager. Similarly for the
experimentation on conductor accessories, the experimental setup remains same except the accessories are
connected suitably between the towers using conductor joints and appropriate sleeves.
The long term experimentation was planned to obtain the thermal time constant for different ACSR and
HTLS conductors using the same electrical connections as used in short term experiments. For ACSR
conductors a step input current of 400 Amps is applied and the surface temperature of the conductor is measured
at every 10 seconds up to 5 minutes and the temperature variation with time is obtained. Then the applied
current is reduced and switched off and allowed to cool down for 30 minutes. The experiment is repeated for
500 Amps and 600 Amps respectively and the values of temperature variation are obtained.
In case of HTLS conductors a step current input of 400 Amps is applied and the surface temperature of the
conductor is measured at every 10 seconds till 5 minutes and temperature variation with time is obtained. Then
the system is cooled down for 30 minutes and the experiment is repeated for 500Amps, 600 Amps and 1000
Amps respectively. Similar experiments were carried out for various accessories and the values obtained are
reported. Experiments for HTLS were limited to 1100A as it was seen that temperature was high near the
connecting joints. The results obtained are analyzed and presented individually. Variation of steady state surface
temperature of different ACSR and HTLS conductors with currents is presented in Fig.8. and variation of steady
state surface temperature for different HTLS conductors accessories with current is shown in Fig.9.

(a) ACSR (b) HTLS

Fig.8. Variation of steady state surface temperature for different ACSR/HTLS Conductors with Currents

Fig.9. Variation of steady state surface temperature of different HTLS accessories with current

491
Conclusion

In the present work effort has been made to study and compare the performance of different types of HTLS and
ACSR conductors. A new experimental facility was established for the investigations.
It was seen for the application of same current, the steady state surface temperature of the HTLS conductor is
lesser than that of the ACSR conductor of similar rating. The thermal time constant is low for HTLS conductors
in comparison to the ACSR conductors of similar rating as it depends on resistivity, radial thermal conductivity
and shape/surface of the conductor.
The difference in average temperature between core and strand is lower in case of HTLS conductors. It is not
more than 2 degrees for application of 1750 Amps, while for the same in case of ACSR conductor it is nearly
about 10 degrees.
With the change in emissivity, absorptivity and ambient temperature the change in steady state surface
temperature of HTLS conductors are similar to that of the ACSR conductors.
With increased emissivity, surface temperature of the conductor decreases and with increased absorptivity,
surface temperature of the conductor increases.
The accessories subjected to same current level acquire less temperature than the conductor.
Magnetic field near the vicinity is similar for both ACSR and HTLS conductors, but only the magnitude
proportionally increases because of the higher current in case of HTLS conductors.

References

[1] Transmission and distribution in India, technical report by Powergrid Govt. of India, New-Delhi, 2012.
[2] Subba Reddy B and Diptendu Chatterjee, “Computation of Current and Temperature Distribution for High Temperature Low Sag
Conductors”, 6th IEEE Power India International conference-(PIICONF-2014) Conf. ID: 34084, paper No: 1569998623, New-Delhi,
India, 5th - 7th Dec 2014.
[3] Dale A Douglas, “Practical applications of High-temperature low sag Transmission Conductors”, Technical report Power delivery
consultants, Inc, 2004.
[4] A. Alwar, E. J. Bosze, S. R. Nutt, “A Composite Core Conductor for Low Sag at High Temperatures,” IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery, July 2005, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 2193-2199.
[5] IEEE Standard for calculating the Current-Temperature of Bare Overhead Conductors, IEEE Std. 738-2012, 2013.
[6] C. S. Taylor, H. E. House, “Emissivity and its Effects on the Current Carrying Capacity of Stranded Aluminium Conductors,” AIEE
Transactions, October 1956, Vol. 75, Part. II, pp. 970-976.
[7] D. A. Douglass, “Radial and Axial Temperature Gradients in Bare Stranded Conductors,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, April
1986, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 7-15.
[8] W. Z. Black, S. S. Collins, J. F. Hall, “Theoretical Model for Temperature Gradients within Bare Overhead Conductors,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 707-715,April 1998,
[9] V. T. Morgan, “The Radial Temparature Distribution and Effective Radial Thermal Conductivity in Bare Solid an Stranded
Conductors,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, July 1990, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 1443-1452.
[10] R. Gorur, R. Oslen, “Characterization of Composite Cores for High Temperature-Low Sag (HTLS) Conductors,” Final Project Report,
PSERC Publication 09-05, July 2009.
[11] J. R. Harvey, R. E. Larson, “Use of Elevated-Temperature Creep Data in Sag-Tension Calculations,” IEEE Trans. Pow. App. and
Systems, March 1970, volume: PAS-89, Issue: 3, Part: Part I, Page(s): 380-386.
[12] J. Bradbury, P. Dey, G. Orawski, K. H. Pickup, “Long Term Creep Assesment for over head line conductors,” Proc. IEE, October
1975, vol. 122, no. 10, pp 1146-1152.
[13] H. Pohlman and R. Thomas, "Sag increase resulting from conductor creep on medium voltage transmission line and the problem of
measuring sag on live overhead lines," 12th International conference on electrical distribution, federal republic germany, 1993.
[14] John. R. Harvey, "Creep of transmission line conductor," IEEE Trans. Pow. App. and Systems, Apr 1969, volume: PAS-88, Issue: 11,
Page(s): 1690-1695.
[15] Calvin A. Roest, " Creep studies of aluminum conductor alloys," ," IEEE Trans. Pow. App. and Systems, Nov 1969, volume: PAS-88,
Issue: 4, Page(s): 281-286
[16] IEEE Guide for Determining the Effects of High-Temperature Operation on Conductors, Connectors & Accessories,” IEEE Std 1283,
August 2013.
[17] Gerald et al, “ White paper Electric Energy Challenges of the future Project”, Technical report, PSERC Publication 12-11, May 2012.
[18] Anonymous, “Aluminium Conductor Composite Reinforced Technical Notebook (477 kcmil family),” 3M, November 2006. (from
web).
[19] Ir. Zahrul Faizi bin Hussien, “Electric Power Transmission,” Power Electronics Handbook, 2011.
[20] Karabay, S, “ACSS/TW aerial high-temperature bare conductors as a remedy for increasing transmission line capacity and
determination of processing parameters for manufacturing,” Materials and Design, 2009.
[21] Piccolo, A, “Thermal rating assesment of overhead lines by Affine Arithmatic,” Electric Power System Research, 2004-11.
[22] Kopsidas, Konstantinos and Simon M. Rowland, “A Performance Analysis of Reconductoring an Overhead Line Structure,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery, 2009.
[23] Lijia Ren, Xiuchen Jiang, Gehao Sheng, Wu Bo, “Design and calculation method for Dynamic Increasing Transmission Line
Capacity,” WSEAS Transactions on Circuits and Systems, May 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 5, pp. 348-357. (www.wseas.us)
[24] Silva, A.A.P. and J.M.B. Bezerra, “Applicability and limitations of ampacity models for HTLS conductors,” Electric Power Systems
Research, 2012.
[25] http://www.indiaworldenergy.org/pdf/T&D%20Report_PGCIL.pdf, “Transmission and Distribution in India,” 2010.
[26] Comsol Multiphysics Inc, Version 4.3 © 1998-2012.
[27] “ICNRP Guidelines for limiting exposure to time varying electric and magnetic fields”, Health physics, Vol.74, pp 494-522, April
1998.

492
 ICAER-2015

Modelling and Simulation of Air-Steam Gasification of

Rice Husk Using ASPEN Plus
Arun K Mohandas1,1Rupesh S, 1C Muraleedharan, 1Arun P
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut Calicut 67360, India

Abstract

Biomass is getting increased attention as a potential source of future energy as it provides long term solutions with respect to
global issues of sustainable energy and greenhouse gases reduction. Biomass gasification is being looked upon as one of the
efficient methods for the extraction of energy contained in biomass. The present work focuses on simulating the production
of syngas from biomass (rice husk) using ASPEN Plus simulator. The developed model is capable of simulating pyrolysis,
tar cracking, combustion, and reduction (gasification) reactions. The model was used for comparing air, steam and air-steam
gasification. For air-steam gasification the maximum hydrogen yield predicted by the model for a steam to biomass ratio of 1
and temperature of 1000 K is 34.51% by volume of syngas at an equivalence ratio of 0.25.
Keywords: Gasification; ASPEN Plus; gasification; pyrolysis; tar cracking

1. Introduction

Biomass gasification is a complex process consisting of different steps, namely drying, pyrolysis, combustion
and gasification of pyrolysis products. Mathematical models have been used extensively to investigate biomass
gasification due to high costs and difficulties associated with experimentation. Several mathematical models
have been proposed to evaluate the effect of design and operating parameters on gasification process. ASPEN
Plus models have enabled better prediction of behavior of the process using fundamental relationships like mass
and energy balance, application of reaction kinetics, phase and chemical equilibria. It also allows the user to
customise the models by incorporating user defined subroutines [1].
Doherty et al. [2] simulated a circulating fluidised bed gasifier using ASPEN Plus and analysed the effect of
preheating of air on the gasifier performance and composition of synthesis gas. Air gasification of olive kernel
in a pilot scale bubbling fluidised bed gasifier was simulated by Michailos and Zabaniotou [3] in Aspen Plus by
using a combination of two approaches-Gibbs free energy minimisation and reaction kinetics. The fluid
dynamic equations for a bubbling fluidised bed and kinetic expressions for the char combustion were
implemented using FORTRAN subroutines. Mathieu and Dubuisson [4] simulated wood gasification based on
minimisation of Gibbs free energy using Aspen Plus process simulator. The sensitivity of the model towards
variations in oxygen content in air, air temperature, operating pressure and injection of steam was analysed.
Mansaray et al. [5] developed two models to simulate the performance of a dual-distributor-type fluidised bed
gasifier. The first model used an overall equilibrium approach while the second model incorporated the fluid
dynamic complexities of the reactor. Mehrdokht et al. [6] modelled the reactions taking place in the bed and free
board of a fluidised bed reactor separately by adopting governing fluid dynamic equations for a bubbling bed
and kinetic expressions for the char combustion. Gasification of wood in a downdraft gasifier was simulated by
Paviet et al. [7] and used to predict the composition of flaming pyrolysis gas and producer gas. Kumar et al. [8]
simulated corn stover and distiller grains gasification using Aspen Plus and predicted the flow rate and
composition of product from given biomass composition and gasifier operating conditions. This work deals with
two compartment kinetic modelling of air-steam gasification of rice husk considering pyrolysis, char
gasification and combustion.

2. Model Development

The two compartment ASPEN Plus model is developed by considering the following assumptions:

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +919496366701;

E-mail address:mailtorupeshs@gmail.com

493
2.1. Assumptions

 Gasifier is a steady-state system with uniform temperature and pressure throughout.

 Gases except H2, CO, CO2, CH4, and N2 are negligible in composition.
 N2 is inert in the entire process.
 All elements in biomass except sulphur take part in the chemical reactions.
 Char is 100% graphitic carbon.

2.2. Process Description

The process flow diagram for the present simulation is given in figure 1. Biomass entering into the system is
subjected to devolatilisation in the block ‘PYROLYSIS’ and is converted into volatile matter, char and tar.
This is achieved by incorporating FORTRAN subroutines to predict the yield of pyrolysis products based on the
correlations developed by Gomez –Barea et al. [9]. The block ‘TARCRACK’ is used to predict the products of
homogeneous secondary tar cracking. The stream ‘VM’ containing non-condensable gases - CO, CO2, H2 and
CH4 is subjected to combustion in the kinetic reactor ‘COMBUST’ and the product of combustion, char and
steam are fed into another kinetic reactor ‘RCSTR’ to simulate char gasification reactions. The reactions
considered in ‘COMBUST’ and ‘RCSTR’ are given by equations (1) and (2), respectively.

Fig. 1. Process flow diagram in ASPEN Plus

C + αO2 → 2 1 − α CO + 2α − 1 CO2 (1)

C + βH2 O → β − 1 CO2 + 2 − β CO + βH2 (2)
where α is the mechanism factor which is a function of temperature and average diameter of the particles.
Its value lies in the range of 0.5-1. Matsui et al. [10] experimentally determined β is in the range of 1 to 1.5 in
the temperature range of 650- 900 °C. For this study the values of α and β have been chosen as 0.9 and 1.4,
respectively for better agreement with experimental results. Kinetic parameters used for the simulation of
combustion and char gasification are given in table 1.

Table 1. Kinetic Parameters [6]

Process E/R (K) k (s-1 atm-1)
Combustion 13,523 0.046
Char gasification 19,544 6474.70

2.3. Model Validation and Application

The prediction accuracy of the model is verified by comparing the gas composition predicted by the model
with the experimental results of Loha et al. [11] as shown in figure 2. Deviation of model results from the
experimental values is estimated by calculating root mean square error (RMS).

X E −X M 2
RMS = (3)
N

494
where XE, XM and N are experimental data, model predicted value and number of observations, respectively.
The average RMS error was found to be 5.84 when validated with seven sets of experimental data.

Fig. 2. Validation with experimental results of Loha et al. [11]

E: Experimental M: Model

The developed model is used to compare the gasification performance with different gasifying agents.
The effect of performance parameters like temperature, equivalence ratio and SBR on product gas composition
is analysed.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Effect of gasification temperature on product gas composition

Sensitivity analysis is performed to analyse the effect of temperature, equivalence ratio and steam to
biomass ratio on the dry gas composition and efficiency of the process. All gas components are plotted on dry
basis. The effect of gasification temperature on the syngas composition is depicted in figure 3. It is found that
H2 concentration increases with temperature, reaches a maximum value (34.51%) at 1000 K and then falls with
further increase in temperature.

Fig. 3. Effect of temperature on gas composition for ER=0.25 and SBR=1

This decrease in H2 concentration beyond a temperature of 1000 K is due to the reversal of exothermic
water gas shift reaction. This reversal consumes the hydrogen produced in char gasification, water gas reaction
and methane reformation, and hence results in net decrease in H 2 concentration. A similar trend in the variation
of CO is also observed with increase in temperature. This is due to the combined effect of water gas reaction,
Boudouard reaction, water gas shift reaction and steam methane reforming.

495
 Carbon dioxide concentration is also found to be decreasing with increase in temperature. This decrease in
the initial stage is due to the effect of Boudouard reaction whereas beyond 1000 K the effect is accompanied by
the reversal of water gas shift reaction.

3.2. Effect of SBR on product gas composition

The SBR is varied by keeping the biomass feed rate constant at 1 kg/h and varying the steam flow rate.
The effect of steam addition on product gas composition is depicted through figure 4. It is observed that steam
addition increases hydrogen concentration in product gas. This enhancement in hydrogen is due to the effect of
water gas reaction, water gas shift reaction and steam methane reforming. The increase of CO with SBR is the
effect of water gas reaction. The dominance of water gas shift reaction is clear from the simultaneous increase
and decrease in CO2 and CO, respectively with increase in SBR.

Fig. 4. Effect of SBR on gas composition for T=1000 K and ER=1

3.3. Effect of ER on product gas composition

Figure 5 shows the effect of ER on product gas composition. The required ER is maintained by regulating
the air flow rate to the combustion block. It is found that H 2 and CO concentration decreases and that of CO2
increases with ER. This is due to shifting of the process more towards combustion with the addition of more
and more air.

Fig. 5. Effect of ER on gas composition for SBR=1 and temperature 1000 K

3.4. Comparison of air, steam and air-steam gasification

Comparison of air, steam and air-steam gasification in terms of first law efficiency is given in figure 6.
It is found that the first law efficiency is the highest for air-steam gasification followed by air gasification and
steam gasification. Even though producer gas from steam gasification has the highest lower heating value
(LHV) (10-11 MJ/Nm3), its lower gasification efficiency is attributed to the external heat duty required to
sustain the endothermic gasification reactions. On the other side, even though air gasification is less energy

496
intensive its lesser efficiency compared to air-steam gasification is due to the lower LHV (1.5-3 MJ/Nm3) of the
product gas.

Fig. 6. Comparison of carbon conversion efficiency

4. Conclusions

An ASPEN Plus model to simulate air-steam gasification of rice husk was developed. The developed model
is capable of simulating pyrolysis, tar cracking, combustion, and reduction reactions. The model was used for
comparing air, steam and air-steam gasification in terms of first law efficiency. For air-steam gasification the
maximum mole fraction of hydrogen was found to be 34.51% for a steam to biomass ratio of 1, equivalence
ratio of 0.25 and temperature of 1000 K.

5. Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by MNRE through R&D project on
‘Investigation on bio-hydrogen production by thermo-chemical method in fluidized bed gasifier under catalytic
support and its utilization’ (No. 103/181/2010-NT).

References

[1] Aspen Technology, Inc., ASPEN PLUS User Models, Cambridge: Aspentech, 2006.
[2] W. Doherty, A. Reynolds, D. Kennedy, Proceedings 21st International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation
and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems, Krakow, Poland, (2008) 1241-1248.
[3] S. Michailos, A. Zabaniotou, Energ. Convers. Manage. 43 (2002) 1291–1299.
[4] P. Mathieu, R. Dubuisson, Energ. Convers. Manage. 43 (2002) 75-81.
[5] K. G. Mansaray, A. M. Al-Taweel, A. E. Ghaly, F. Hamdullahpur, V. I. Ugursal, Energ. Source. 22 (1990) 83-98.
[6] B. Mehrdokht, Nikoo, N. Mahinpey, Biomass Bioenerg. 32 (2008)1245-1254.
[7] F. Paviet, F. Chazarenc, M. Tazerout, International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, 7 (2009) 1312-1318.
[8] A. Kumar, H. Noureddini, Y. Demirel, D. D Jones, M. A. Hanna, Trans. ASABE, 52 (2009) 1989–1995.
[9] A. Gomez-Barea, S. Nilsson, F. D. Vidal-Barrero, M. Campoy, Fuel Process. Technol. 91 (2010) 1624-1633.
[10] I. Matsui, D. Kunii, T. Furusawa, J. Chem. Eng. Jpn.18 (1985) 105–13.
[11] C. Loha, P. K. Chatterjee, H. Chattopadhyay, Energy Energ. Convers. Manage. 52 (2011), 1583–1588.

497
 ICAER-2015

Effects of Thermal Barrier Ceramic Coatings and Different

Nozzle Configurations on Emissions and Performance
Characteristics of Diesel Engine
Vinay Kumar a, 1, Hetal.N.Shah a, Pintu Patel b
a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Merchant Institute of Technology, Piludara, Mehsana, 384380, India

bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Merchant Engineering College, Basna, Mehsana, 384380, India

Abstract

Thermal barrier coatings play a vital role to make the engine more adiabatic. This concept of improving the combustion
capacity, better diffusion, atomization and lubrication have generated impetus to active research on low heat rejection (LHR)
or insulated engines. So with this aim, this study presents concept of thermal barrier ceramic coating in internal Combustion
engines. The engine was thermally insulated by coating at such as piston-head with TAFA95MXC material having 250 µm
thickness and various nozzle geometries. Experimental tests were done at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100% load at 210 bar injection
pressure and 25°BTDC injection timmings. Results shows that, in modified engine (coated parts & 3 hole nozzle) brake
thermal efficiency increased by 2.12% , fuel consumption decreased about 6.48%, exhaust gas temperature increased up to
11.42 %, CO emissions reduced by 14.28%, CO2 increased by 11.43%, HC reduced by 2.12% and NOx increased by 8.43 %
as compared to unmodified (original) conditions.

Keywords: Coatings, Low heat rejection engine, TAFA95MXC, Variable injection pressure, Nozzles

1. Introduction

In recent times, much attention has focused on achieving the increase in efficiency of an internal combustion
engine by reducing energy lost to the coolant. Internal combustion engine heat balance sheet indicates that the
input energy is divided into to exhaust. This phenomenon, of course, should conform to some physical laws. The
first law of thermodynamics is satisfied as long as energy is converted regardless of how that energy is
apportioned between various categories. The second law stipulates that all the input energy cannot be converted
into work; in other words, it is impossible to obtain 100% efficiency, so some heat has to be rejected, preferably
at the lowest possible temperature to achieve highest possible efficiency [2]. The reduction in the cylinder heat
transfer to either the coolant or environment does not violate the second law of thermodynamics and, moreover,
according to the first law, has the potential of producing more work. So, this vision and theory of improving the
design and performance have generated impetus to active research on adiabatic or more appropriately, LHR or
insulated engines.

Nomenclature

LHR Low heat rejection

HVOF High velocity oxy-fuel
BTE Brake Thermal Efficiency
CO Carbon monoxide
SI Spark Ignition
HC Hydro carbon
HSDI High Sulphur Diesel Injection
P1 Uncoated Piston
N1 3 Hole Nozzle (Modified)
N2 4 Hole Nozzle (Modified)
P2 Coated Piston

1.1. Coating Materials and Techniques

Ceramic coatings can be classified into following three categories as per compositions:

498
  Oxides: Alumina, beryllium, zirconia,
 Non-oxides: carbide, boride, nitride, silicide.
 Composite materials: particulate reinforced, fibre reinforced, combination of oxides and non-oxides.[11]

For different types of coatings materials, a variety of coating techniques are available. Thermal spray
technologies are important in a variety of different industries for the deposition of anti-wear coatings based on
metallic, carbide containing, ceramic or composite materials. Plasma spraying has already found a wide range of
applications in the automotive industry, especially for piston and its rings, The high thermal energy density
available within the plasma used for melting the powder coupled to the ability to manufacture powder and
design plasma guns for specific applications with short spray distances has rapidly promoted the use of plasma
spraying. Different thermal spray processes are being used to provide coatings for cylinder bores. Plasma and
HVOF processes are characterized differently with regard to two principal aspects. A comparison of plasma
spraying and HVOF spraying shows that the plasma processes offer higher plasma temperature at relative low
velocities whereas the HVOF process is the opposite. When HVOF is used at shorter spray distances it can lead
to overheating of the substrate. [10]
In response, different coatings and techniques has been applied by many authors in experimental studies on
engines performance and emissions investigations.Muhammet et al.[1] investigated the effects of coatings
thickness on temperature and thermal stress distribution using finite element method. An increase in the
maximum temperature at the crown centre, compared with the uncoated piston is 32.7%, 55.8%, 72.5% and
84.8% for 0.4 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.2 mm and 1.6 mm thick coating, was reported. Vedharaj et al.[2]utilized biodiesel
and operate it in a diesel engine with partially stabilized zirconia coating and without coating. It was observed
that the BTE of the engine was increased by 6%, when compared to uncoated engine. Further, the emissions
such as CO, HC and smoke were reduced by 27.7%, 7.2% and 14.3%, respectively, at full load condition, while
NOx (oxides of nitrogen) emission was increased. Aydin et al. [3] thermally insulated the engine by coating
some parts of it, such as piston, exhaust and intake valves surfaces with zirconium oxide (ZrO2) and find out
high power torque and mean effective pressure values and low brake specific fuel consumption. Mesut et al. [4]
showed that designing pistons of a SI engine with partially thermal barrier coatings which possess low heat
conductance properties have a great potential to improve performance and to reduce unburned emissions at idle
and partially load conditions.
Shah et al. [5] investigated microstructure, mechanical, and wear properties of magnetron sputtered CrAlN and
CrN coating by using scanning electron microscopy/EDS and atomic force microscopy, and the phase formation
by x-ray diffraction (XRD). The wear resistance of all the CrAlN coatings is better than that of pure CrN
coating. Cengiz et al. [6] compared wear behaviors of the engine with CrN coated cylinder and with uncoated,
cast iron, cylinder. The effect of hardness, surface topography, microstructure, and running conditions were
studied. With X-ray analysis, the structural changes on the surface due to thermal and mechanical shocks were
examined. SEM micrographs prove that coated cylinders, the decrease in the amount of wear particles.

2. Methodology

The experiment were carried out for above mentioned characteristics on Single cylinder, four stroke, water
cooled diesel engine running at constant RPM (1500 RPM) with different injector nozzle having a different
hole geometry (3 hole, 4 hole)and 210 bar injection pressure with different load conditions [0% (no load), 20%,
40%, 60%, 80%, 100%] at 25º BTDC.

2.1. Coating Material

From literature review, different researcher used so many coating materials and different techniques in IC
engine and other applications which had impact on wear characteristics, lubricity. Researchers coated the piston
head, Rings and Valves.Coatings of insulation materials used in the LHR engine must have high temperature
strength, high expansion coefficient, low friction characteristics, good thermal shock resistance, light weight and
durability. [7]
In this experimental investigation, TAFA95MXC were used as coating material and only piston head surface
was coated. This material have considerable and favourable thermal and physical properties that can withstand
at high temperatures and can work as layer of insulation at piston periphery .Thickness of coating was 250 µm
and coated by plasma spray method. Specifications of coatings and coated pistons figures are:

499
 Table 1. Propeerties of TAFA 95 MXC [12] Tablee 2. Composition of C [12]
o TAFA 95 MXC

Properties Value Coomposition Weight (%))

T
Thickness 250 µm Silicon 1.60

Meelting Point 1204 C C

Chromium 29.0
Bonnd Strength 5775 (psi)
M
Manganese 1.65
Coatting Density 6.7 (gm/cm2)
Boron 3.75
T
Thermal 5.1 (W/m˚K))
coonductivity Iron 64.0
Therm
mal Expansion NA(µm/m˚K))

Fig 1 and 2: Coatted and Uncoated P

Pistons

2.2. Injectiion Hole Confiigurations

Despite thee fact that all modern

m diesel engines
e use muulti-hole injecttors, single-holle injectors aree frequently useed
to understaand the fundam mental propertiies of high-preessure diesel innjections due too their axisymm metric design of
the injectorr nozzles. A multi-hole
m injecctor accommoddates many holes around the nnozzle axis to deliver adequaate
amount of fuel with smalll orifices[9].Muulti hole nozzlees which havinng different no. of holes (3 hoole, 4 hole) weere
used in expperimental worrk.

Parameters Sp
pecification

Model New JaiKiishan diesel enginee

RPM 1500

No. of cylinder Single cylinder

No.of stroke Four stroke

Engine Power 4.5 KW

Cylinder bore 85 mm

Stroke length 110.80 mm

I
Injection timing 2
26ºBTDC
Innjection pressure 185 bar

Coompression Ratio 18:1

Speciific fuel consumptiion 250

0 gm/KWhr

Fig 3: Typees of Nozzles Table 3: Engine specificatiion

500
2.3 Experim
mental Set-up
To evaluatte the performaance and emission characterisstics, single cyllinder, water coooled, HSDI diesel
d engine w
was
used. Engiine is coupledd with an elecctrical dynamoometer with looad bank actinng as a variabble load system m.
Various innstruments and gauges are used to obtain diifferent measurrements. The engine
e speed measure
m with thhe
help of diigital tachometer, fuel tank connected wiith calibrated glass burette to measure mass m of fuel ffor
experimentt, engine intakke air supply is connected too air box for measure
m mass of air consum me ,thermocoupple
with digitaal temperature indicator
i was used
u to measurre exhaust tempperature.

Fig 4:Schematic Diaggram of Experimenntal Set Up

3. Results aand Discussion

ns

3.1Brake Thermal
T Efficieency: BTE of thhe engine increeased with incrreasing loads.

BTE
E vs LOAD
35.00
30.00
25.00
20.00
BTE %

15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
0 20 40 60 80 100
Load %
Original P1N
N1 P1N2 P2N
N1 P2N2

F 5: Variation of Brake Thermal Effficiency

Fig
It can be observed from the
t figure that the thermal eff
fficiency is highhest for enginee with P2N1 coondition at eveery
load. The brake thermall efficiency off original (unm
modified) conddition was 30.58% and of P2N1 P was aboout
32.70% annd hence increaased by 2.12 %.
%

3.2 Brake Specific Fuel Consumption: Fuel consumpption decreasedd with increasee in load. Onee possible reasoon
for this redduction is that the brake pow
wer increases inn higher percenntage compare to fuel consum
mption. The fuuel
consumptioon increases whenw engine is
i fitted with N2N condition. Fuel consum mption decreaseed by 6.48% as

501
compared to original and P2N1 condition.

1000.00 BSFC vs LOAD

BSFC (gm/kwhr)
800.00

600.00

400.00

200.00

0.00
0 20 40 60 80 100
Load %
Original P1N1 P1N2 P2N1 P2N2

Fig 6: Variation of Brake Specific Fuel Consumption

3.3 Exhaust Gas Temperature: Exhaust gas temperature of the engine is the indication of conversion of heat into
work. With increase in number of holes in nozzle, increment in fuel consumption was found and so the
temperature in the combustion chamber increased. Highest recorded temperature was 510K at P2N2 condition at
80 and 100% load.

Exhaust Gas Temp. vs LOAD

600

500
Exh. Gas Temp. (°K)

400

300

200

100

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Load %
Original P1N1 P1N2 P2N1 P2N2

Figure 7: Variation of Exhaust Gas Temperature

3.4 Brake Mean Effective Pressure: The brake mean effective pressure is increasing on increasing load

8.00 BMEP vs LOAD

6.00
BMEP (bar)

4.00

2.00

0.00
0 20 40 60 80 100
Load %
Original P1N1 P1N2 P2N1 P2N2

Fig 8: Variation of Brake Mean Effective Pressure

3.5 Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions: Carbon monoxide emissions from internal combustion engines are
controlled mainly by the fuel/air equivalence ratio. CO is the outcome of poor atomization and incomplete
combustion. Increase of CO in N2 with respect to N1 condition was reported. The CO emission was 0.07% at
original and 0.06% at P2N1condition.

502
 0.5 CO vs LOAD

0.4

0.3
CO %
0.2

0.1

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Original P1N1 P1N2 P2N1 P2N2 Load %

Figure 9: Variation of Carbon Monoxide Emissions (CO)

3.6: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions: With increasing load, CO2 is increasing at every condition. The reason
can be explained from the fact that at higher compression ratio, fuel consumption of engine increases due to
reduction in ignition delay, the combustion charge attains higher temperature.CO2 increases with increase in
load from 14.78 % to 16.47 % at original to P2N1 condition at full load and hence CO2 increase by 11.43%.

CO2 vs LOAD
20

15
CO2 %

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Load %
Original P1N1 P1N2 P2N1 P2N2

Fig 10: Variation of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions

3.7 Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) emissions: NOx formation is highest with P2N2 condition. In coated piston,
temperature of combustion chamber increased and hence NOx increased from 593 ppm to 618 ppm which
increased by 4.21 % between P1N1 and P2N2 conditions. NOx level increased from 557 ppm to 604 ppm as
compared to unmodified (original) condition and P2N1condition at full load .

NOx vs LOAD
800

600
NOx (ppm)

400

200

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Original P1N1 P1N2 P2N1 P2N2 Load %

Figure 11: Variation of Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) Emissions

4. Conclusions: The conclusions derived from the study can be summarized as follow:
 BTE improved about 2% in modified conditions.
 BSFC reduced by 6.48 %.
 NOx formation
 HC reduced by some percentage.

503
5. References
1] Muhammet Ceritet. et. al. Temperature and thermal stress analyses of a ceramic-coated aluminium alloy
piston used in a diesel engine. Thermal Science 2014; 77: 11-18.
2] S. Vedharajet. et al. Experimental and finite element analysis of a coated diesel engine fueled by cashew nut
shell liquid biodiesel. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 2014; 53:259–268.
3] Huseyin Aydin et al. Combined effects of thermal barrier coating and blending with diesel fuel on usability
of vegetable oils in diesel engines. Applied Thermal Engineering 2013; 51:623-629.
4] Mesut Duratet. et al. The effects of coating materials in spark ignition engine design. Materials and Design,
2012; 36:540–545.
5] Hetal N. Shah et. al. Influence of Al Contents on the Microstructure, Mechanical, and Wear properties of
Magnetron Sputtered CrAlN Coatings. Materials Engineering and Performance2012; 112:1-8.
6] Cengiz Oneret. et al. Surface properties of CrN coated engine cylinders. Materials and Design 2009;30
:914–920.
7] Federico Brusiani et. al. Influence of the Diesel injector hole geometry on the flow conditions emerging
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 ICAER-2015

Thermodynamic optimization of coal-biomass co-gasification

process by using non-stoichiometric equilibrium modeling
Samar Das a, Pranay Kumar Sarkar b, Sadhan Mahapatra a,1
a
Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784028, India
b
RuTAG-NE, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India

Abstract

Co-gasification of coal and biomass improves the gasification process by reducing the amount of tar generated and also
produces a low carbon footprint on the environment. In this study, Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA), a non-
stoichiometric equilibrium simulation tool, developed by NASA, based on Gibbs free energy minimization technique has
been used to study the thermodynamic optimization of coal-biomass co-gasification process. Simulation of the co-
gasification process has been done to evaluate the product gases from gasification process for various coal-biomass mixtures
at different equivalence ratios and temperatures. The simulation results show that as the gasification temperature increases,
CO molar fraction increases for a particular equivalence ratio and reverse is the trend for CO 2 . Again, the CO molar fraction
increases with a decrease in equivalence ratio for all the gasification temperature and reverse in case of CO 2 . The study also
observed that as the percentage of coal increases in the fuel mixture, mole fraction of CO increases at a particular
equivalence ratio with the increase in temperature. However, a reverse trend is observed in case of CO 2 . The mole fraction
of H 2 decreases with the increase in coal percentage for all gasification temperature for a particular equivalence ratio.
Keywords: Thermodynamic optimization; Non-stoichiometric equilibrium modelling; CEA; co-gasification

1. Introduction

Biomass can be considered to be one of the most potential renewable energy sources which can contribute to
the energy needs of both developed and developing world [1]. Biomass is a natural substance, which converts
the accumulated solar energy to chemical energy by photosynthesis process in the presence of sunlight.
Biomass largely contains cellulose (about 50%), hemi-cellulose (about 25%) and lignin (25%) with an average
chemical composition of C 1 H 1.4 O 0.6 [1]. Biomass gasification is a process involves complex chemical reactions
which converts solid biomass into gaseous fuel, water vapour, char (solid carbon) and tar (aromatic higher
hydrocarbons) [1]. In case of gasification process, partial oxidation of biomass occurs under a sub-
stoichiometric condition with the air quantity being limited to 1.4 to 1.8 kg for per kg of biomass. The
equivalence ratio for gasification is close to 0.25. The resultant mixture of gases produce during biomass
gasification process is called the producer gas or syngas, which contains carbon monoxide (about 20-22%)),
hydrogen (about 20 to 22%), carbon-dioxide (about 12-14%), methane (about 1-2%), water vapour and the rest
is nitrogen. In a typical biomass gasification process, biomass first undergoes drying process in the drying zone
and then the thermal degradation or pyrolysis of these biomass particles occurs in the pyrolysis zone. The
products of pyrolysis i.e., char, tar and gases then again undergoes various reactions among themselves as well
as with the gasifying medium to form the final gasification product with by-products like char, tar, and ash. It
has been observed in some of the commercial gasifiers that the thermal energy required for drying, pyrolysis,
and endothermic reactions comes from a certain amount energy released during some exothermic combustion
reactions allowed in the gasifier itself. More accurately, gasification is the combination of oxidative pyrolysis
reaction and hot-char caused reduction reactions and achieved a composition of gas as close to equilibrium
(under excess char condition) is possible. The product gas is also comprises of particulate matter, which needs
to be removed along with tar depending upon the applications [1]. Air is widely used as gasifying medium for
producing syngas used for electrical and thermal applications [1]. The desired characteristics of producer gas are
different for various applications like generation of power and synthetic liquid fuels [2]. In the former case, the
operating conditions under which the producer gas has maximum LHV is need to be optimized; while for the
second application, H 2 /CO ratio (along with actual content of H 2 and CO in terms of moles) is important [2].
The optimum operating conditions for gasifier operation depends on gasification temperature, air to fuel ratio
(or equivalence ratio) and gasification medium to produce producer gas from the process. Various researchers in
recent times have reported that the co-gasification of woody biomass and coal has several advantages over

1
Corresponding author: Tel.: +91-3712 -275306
E-mail id: sadhan.mahapatra@gmail.com

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biomass gasification. Mostly pronounced advantages are coal has higher energy content of 30 MJ/kg against
energy contained in biomass with 18 MJ/kg [3]. Biomass gasification comparatively produces large amount of
tar than the coal gasification [4]. On the other hand, woody biomass has some advantages over coal due to
presence of higher volatiles for pyrolysis process and also reduces CO 2 emissions. Therefore, co-gasification of
biomass and coal improves the gasification process by reducing the amount of tar generated due to higher
temperature inside the gasifier then gasification process with only biomass as fuel. Again, the co-gasification
process not only produces a low carbon footprint on the environment compared to coal gasification only but also
improves the H 2 /CO ratio in the produced gas. In addition, the process is also beneficial from the chemical point
of view as the inorganic material present in biomass catalyses the gasification of coal [4]. This syngas can be
converted to liquid fuel by Fisher-Tropsch process. However, some practical problems are also associated with
the co-gasification of coal and biomass on upstream and downstream processes as well as the gasification
process. On upstream side, moisture content and pre-treatment plays a very crucial role as well as the particle
size of biomass and coal should be uniform for optimum gasification [4]. Moreover, due to the density
differences between biomass and coal makes the co-gasification process more complex. Apart from these,
slagging or clinker formation is also an important concern in gasifier due to higher bed temperature. Therefore,
the co-gasification of coal and woody biomass needs a detailed study for power generation and synthetic liquid
fuel production.

Modeling of biomass gasification represent the mathematical formulation of chemical and physical process
like pyrolysis, combustion, reduction, and drying takes places inside the gasifier [2, 4]. There are two different
approaches for modeling and optimization of biomass gasification process, viz. kinetic and thermodynamic
equilibrium [2]. Kinetic models take into account the expressions of reaction rate for various simultaneous and
parallel reactions occurs in the gasifier [2]. Physically kinetic models are more realistic, and several authors
have reported detailed reaction schemes along with rate constants for gasification process [5]. Thermodynamic
equilibrium models are classified into two types: (i) stoichiometric models and (ii) non-stoichiometric models. It
is found that the kinetic based models are more computationally intensive and provide better results. On the
other hand, thermodynamic equilibrium models are independent of gasifier design which is used as a useful tool
for preliminary comparison and for process studies on the influence of process parameters to predict the output
gas compositions [5]. The stoichiometric model is based on stoichiometric reactions while non-stoichiometric
method is based on minimizing the Gibbs free energy in the system.

Stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric equilibrium models have been used by numerous authors to study the
influence of various operating conditions in gasification process [5]. Buragohain et al. used a non-stoichiometric
SOLGASMIX model based on Gibbs energy minimization to study the comprehensive thermodynamic
equilibrium analysis of biomass gasification process [2]. This analysis is aimed to find the optimum
combinations of operating conditions for biomass gasifier, in terms of molar fraction of H 2 and CO in the
producer gas, H 2 /CO molar ratio, LHV and overall efficiency of the gasification process. Sreejith et al. and
Ahmed and Sinnathambi developed a model based on thermodynamic equilibrium concept using the process
simulator ASPEN PLUS for the biomass gasification process [6, 7]. Sreejith et al. carried out the simulation to
predict the composition of producer gas, lower heating value (LHV), combustible gas yield and also efficiency.
This study concluded that there is a decrease and increase in the concentration of CO 2 and CO respectively with
the increase in gasifier temperature [6]. Ahmed and Sinnathambi also reported that as the air flow increases the
mass fraction of CO and H 2 decreases while reverse is the trend for CO 2 . Lower heating value of the producer
gas decreases with the temperature and reaches a minimum value of 8.92 MJ/Nm3 at 1000 K and then increases
to 9.8 MJ/Nm3 at 1500 K [7]. Schuster et al. studied the biomass gasification process with steam in a fluidized
bed gasifier with the use of equilibrium model and concluded that for thermodynamic considerations, the
accuracy of an equilibrium model is sufficient [8]. This study also concluded that because of the relatively low
operating temperature, thermodynamic equilibrium conditions may not achieved in the system. In this study,
sensitivity analysis indicated that gasification temperature and oxygen content present in the fuel are the most
important parameters for the determination of efficiency of the gasification process. Buragohain et al. attempted
to formulate a generalized correlation for biomass gasifier performance for decentralized power generation with
semi-equilibrium non-stoichiometric thermodynamic model simulations based on variables such as air fuel ratio,
H/O, C/O and O/H [9]. The correlations has been formulated to estimate the percentage yield of LHV and
producer gas composition in terms of volume fraction of two major components i.e. CO and CO 2 [9]. Srinivas et
al. predicted the gas composition and performance of a biomass gasifier by developing a thermo-chemical
model based on the concept of thermodynamic equilibrium using simplified numerical method for different
biomass [10]. This study found that at lower values of relative air to fuel ratio and steam to fuel ratio, heating
value of the syngas and exergy efficiency of the gasifier is high. Melgar et al. developed a mathematical model
to study the thermo-chemical processes occurs in a downdraft biomass gasifier and validated it experimentally.
This model not only helped in predicting the behaviour of different types of biomass but also can be used as a

506
useful tool for optimizing the design and operation of downdraft biomass gasifiers [11].

Kumabe et al. studied co-gasification of Mulia coal and Japanese cedar and mixed the coal and raw biomass
on molar carbon basis. This study observed the impact of the biomass content in terms of the molar ratio of H 2 ,
CO, and CO 2 in the producer gas [4]. The study reported that with the variation in biomass ratio, gas
composition varies and with the increase in biomass ratio from 0 to 1, H 2 composition reduces from 47.9 to 37.5
% and CO 2 content increases from 26.1 to 33.7 %. Pinto et al. studied the influence of temperature and
gasification medium in co-gasification of coal with wastes [12]. In this study air, steam as well as the mixtures
of both these are used as gasification medium, with the intention to optimise the co-gasification process. It is
observed that with the increase in gasification temperature resulted in decrease in tars and hydrocarbon contents
and increase in H 2 by promoting hydrocarbons for further reactions. Pan et al. studied the co-gasification of
residual biomass with poor quality coal mixtures and gasification of individual feedstock is performed in bench
scale in a fluidized-bed system at atmospheric pressure for production of fuel gas [13]. The study reported that
the lower heating value of dry product gas increases from 3700 to 4560 kJ/Nm3 and from 4000 to 4750 kJ/Nm3
for pine chips/low-grade coal and for pine chips/refuse coal respectively with the increase in blend ratio. The
study concluded that co-gasification not only depends upon the proportion of biomass but also on the type of
coal used in the mixtures [13]. Kezhong et al. used two different types of biomass such as pine sawdust and rice
straw along with Shenmu coal [14]. It is observed that during co-gasification, increase in biomass ratio from
20% to 33% resulted in rise of H 2 yield from 17.66% to 19.30% and CO 2 yield from 19.07% to 20.22%. V´elez
et al. reported the co-gasification results with sub-bituminous coal and biomass (sawdust, rice husk, coffee
husk) in a fluidized bed gasifier with air/steam mixture [15]. It is found that the reactor temperature decreases
with the increase in biomass content due to the lower heating value of biomass compared to coal. The study also
concluded that as the biomass content increases in the mixture, hydrogen content also increases in the producer
gas but energy efficiency significantly decreases in the process. Song et al. studied the impact of coal biomass
co-gasification process in a fluidized bed reactor and found increase in biomass ratio and temperature resulted in
increase of the dry gas yield, cold gas efficiency and also the carbon conversion efficiency [16]. Wang and Chen
studied the co-gasification of coal and biomass in an auto-thermal fluidized bed gasifier with air and steam as
gasifying medium for the temperature range of 875-975°C, steam to biomass ratio of 1: 2 and biomass to coal
ratio of 1: 4 [17]. This study focused on the effects of reaction temperature on producer gas composition, LHV,
energy and exergy efficiencies and reported that as the reaction temperature increases, H 2 and CO content
increases, and H 2 /CO is greater than one at temperature above 925°C. The present study tries parametric studies
of co-gasification processes based on non-stoichiometric thermodynamic equilibrium model and analysed the
co-gasification process under various operating conditions such as a variation in biomass to coal mixtures, air to
fuel ratio and gasification temperature.

2. Modeling

In this study Chemical Equilibrium with Applications model (CEA), developed by NASA based on Gibbs
free energy minimization technique (non-stoichiometric equilibrium) is used for simulation of the gasification
process [18]. This model can be used in the situations where all the possible reactions occur in the systems are
unknown. The understanding of chemical equilibrium of a chemical system enables to calculate the
thermodynamic properties of the system which can be applied to a wide variety of problems in both chemistry
and chemical engineering. Some other applications are the design and analysis of equipments such as gasifiers,
compressors, turbines, nozzles, engines, shock turbines, heat exchangers, and chemical processing equipments
[18]. The model is used to calculate complex chemical equilibrium composition as well as the thermodynamics
properties of the equilibrium mixture [18]. Chemical equilibrium model usually defined by either equilibrium
constants or minimization of free energy formulations. In case of minimization of free energy method, each
species can be treated independently without specifying the set of reactions whereas it is required for
equilibrium constant model formulations. In CEA model, minimization of free energy technique has been used.
The conditions for equilibrium can be specified in terms of thermodynamic functions, such as the minimization
of Gibbs or Helmholtz energy or the minimization of entropy. The generalized assumptions in the model are (i)
gasifier is zero dimensional or pressure and temperature are uniform inside the reactor (ii) no heat loss to
environment satisfying adiabatic conditions (iii) all the processes are in thermodynamic equilibrium conditions
(iv) product gases involves only CO, CO 2 , CH 4 and H 2 neglecting other gases which may present in a small
percentage. In this study, coal-biomass mixture is used as fuel in the gasification process and the operating
conditions are varied.

507
3. Simulation parameters

CEA simulation tool developed by NASA, based on Gibbs free energy minimization technique has been used
to evaluate the product gases from co-gasification process for various coal-biomass mixtures at different
equivalence ratio and temperature. The major input parameters in this regard are (i) elemental vector or
elemental composition of gasification mixture (ii) temperature and (iii) gasification pressure. The elemental
vector input is determined by two factors: (a) molar ratio of biomass to the gasification medium and (b) weight
percentage of coal with biomass. In this study air is used as gasifying/oxidizing agents for simulations. The
amount of oxidizer provided for gasification is characterized by equivalent ratio (ER), which can be determined
from:

𝑜𝑜 𝑜𝑜 𝑠𝑠 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝

=
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑜𝑜 𝑜𝑜 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑜𝑜 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚

The different coal biomass mixtures viz., 100% biomass, 90% biomass + 10% coal, 80% biomass + 20% coal,
70% biomass + 30% coal and 60% biomass + 40% coal for gasification process are considered in this study.
The molecular formula for biomass C 1 H 1.79 O 0.85 N 0.008 and for coal C 1 H 0.22 O 0.59 N 0.04 is determined from the
ultimate analysis of the fuel samples and used in the simulation. Table 1 represents the ultimate analysis of
biomass and coal sample. The molecular formula for the fuel samples are also presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Ultimate analysis of biomass and coal sample

Composition in weight % on dry basis
Type Carbon Hydrogen Nitrogen Oxygen Molecular formula
Saw dust 43.62 6.55 0.41 49.42 C 1 H 1.79 O 0.85 N 0.008
Coal 53.87 1.02 2.58 42.53 C 1 H 0.22 O 0.59 N 0.041

Simulations are carried out considering different operating conditions to calculate the output gas composition
and also the lower heating value. Equivalence ratios consider for simulation process are 1, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.25 and
0.2. High equivalence ratio 1 means the amount of oxidizer supplied for oxidation is equal to the stoichiometric
amount of oxidizer essential for combustion and lower equivalence ratio i.e. 0.2 means limited amount of
oxidizer is supplied for oxidation which is required for gasification process. Equivalence ratio has an important
effect on the compositions of the output gas and considered to be the most important parameter for optimum
output and LHV of the product gas. That is why a wide range of equivalence ratio is selected to observe the
variation in the output gas. In this study, eight representative gasification temperatures for simulation viz.,
700°C, 800°C, 900°C, 1000°C, 1100°C, 1200°C, 1300°C and 1400°C are considered. This wide range of
temperatures has chosen to evaluate the variation in the product gas composition with the temperature, so as to
get a closer perception into the influence of this parameter. Secondly, atmospheric pressure is considered for the
gasification process as most of the commercial gasifier operates at atmospheric pressure. Table 2 presents the
input matrixes for the simulation study.

Table 2 Input matrixes for simulation

Gasifying agent or medium Air
Fuel sample (Biomass and coal ratio in percentage) 100:0; 90:10; 80:20;70:30;60:40
Equivalence ratio 0.2,0.25,0.30,0.40,0.50,1.0
Gasification temperature (°C) 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300,1400

4. Results and discussion

Simulation has been carried out to predict the output gas mole fraction at different gasification temperatures at a
particular equivalence ratio and also with different equivalence ratios at a particular gasification temperature for
different coal-biomass mixtures. The gasification temperature varied from 700 to 1400°C at a particular
equivalence ratio to study the influence of temperature on the output gas composition. Gas compositions are
represented in dry basis and the results are compared with others presented in literature. Assuming, only CO,
CO 2 , H 2 , H 2 O, CH 4 and N 2 are presents in the output gas compositions. Figure 1 represents the variation of
CO and CO 2 mole fraction for different coal-biomass mixture for various temperatures at a particular ER. It can
be observed from Figure 1 that as the coal percentage increases in the fuel mixture, mole fraction of CO
increases with the increase in temperature at particular ER. However, CO 2 mole fraction shows completely
opposite behavior for same temperature variations and for same ER. The CO fraction depends on three

508
reactions, namely Boudouard, water gas and water gas shift reactions. Water gas and Boudouard reaction helps
to increase the mole fraction of CO, whereas water gas shift reaction decreases the mole fraction of CO. The
increase in CO mole fraction with the increase in temperature at a particular ER is due to the Boudouard
reaction i.e., carbon dioxide is converted to carbon monoxide by reacting with the available carbon in the form
of char, which is also resulted in decrease in CO 2 mole fraction in the output gas. Boudouard reaction is an
endothermic reaction and it produces CO above 1000°C temperature [8]. With the increase in coal percentage in
the fuel mixtures, mole fraction of CO increases with the increase in temperature for a particular ER is due to
increase in the percentage of carbon in the total mixture, available for Boudouard reaction. With the increase in
percentage of coal in coal-biomass mixture leads to decrease in available H 2 O for water gas reaction, so
Boudouard reaction become dominating one and rate of Boudouard reactions gradually increases with the
increase in coal percentage in the mixture, hence mole fraction of CO also increases. Pan et al. concluded that
gasification temperature is a most crucial parameter of the gasification study, as all the reaction rates strongly
depends on temperature [13]. Melgar et al. reported that gasification temperature is most important parameter as
its influence the chemical equilibrium conditions directly, hence output gas compositions [11]. This study also
reported that as the ER increases, which means more air is available for oxidation process, i.e., more carbon will
be oxidized; hence gasification temperature will also increase [11]. Figure 2 represents the variation of CO and
CO 2 mole fraction for different coal-biomass mixtures at a particular temperature with varying ER. It can be
observed from Figure 2 that the molar fraction of CO increases with the decrease in ER for all the temperature
but CO 2 molar fraction increases with the increase in ER for all the temperatures. At higher ER like 0.5,
availability of air is more for oxidation of carbon resulted in shift from gasification regimes to combustion
regime, due to which CO 2 mole fraction increases and decrease in CO mole fraction for all the temperature.
Again with the increase in ER, there is complete combustion of fuel mixture, hence higher temperature; no more
carbon is available for Boudouard reaction, so mole fraction of CO decreases. Again, it has been observed that
at lower ER like 0.2 (gasification regimes), with the increase in coal percentage CO mole fraction increases.
Vélez et al. also observed similar results that the Boudouard reaction dominates and consumed CO 2 thereby
increased the concentration of CO in the product gas [15].

0.5
ER =0.25

0.4
CO, CO2 mole fraction

0.3
100% Biomass_CO 100% Biomass_CO2
90% Biomass_CO 90% Biomass_CO2
0.2 80% Biomass_CO 80% Biomass_CO2
70% Biomass_CO 70% Biomass_CO2
60% Biomass_CO 60% Biomass
0.1

0.0
500 700 900 1100 1300 1500
Temperature °C
Fig. 1 Variation of CO and CO 2 mole fraction with temperature for different coal-biomass mixtures

0.5
100% Biomaas_CO
Temperature = 1200 C 100% Biomass_CO2
90% Biomass_CO
0.4 90% Biomass_CO2
80% Biomass_CO
CO, CO2 mole fraction

80% Biomass_CO2
70% Biomass_CO
0.3 70% Biomass_CO2
60% Biomass_CO
60% Biomass_CO2
0.2

0.1

0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
ER
Fig. 2 Variation of CO and CO 2 mole fraction with ER for different coal-biomass mixtures

509
 Figure 3 represents the variations of H 2 mole fraction for different coal-biomass mixtures with
temperatures at a particular ER of 0.25 with air as gasifying medium. It can be observed from Figure 3 that for a
particular ER, with the increase in temperature, mole fraction of H 2 first increases, reaches a maximum value at
800 °C and then decreases with the increase in temperature. However, with the increase in percentage of coal in
the fuel mixtures, the molar fraction of H 2 decreases for a particular temperature and ER. The mole fraction of
H 2 decreases with the increase in temperature at a particular ER is due to the reaction of H 2 with available
oxygen and produces H 2 O. Therefore, with the increase in temperature, H 2 appears in the form of water
vapour. Wang and Chen reported that as the temperature increases in a co-gasification process, H 2 mole fraction
increases [17]. Figure 4 represents the variations of H 2 mole fraction with ER for different coal-biomass
mixtures at a particular temperature of 1200°C with air as gasifying medium. It can be observed from Figure 4
that the mole fraction of H 2 first increases with the decrease in ER; reach a maximum and then decreases with
further increase in ER (except 100% biomass where mole fraction of H 2 increases with decrease in ER) for all
temperature. Also, as the percentage of coal increases in the mixtures the maximum value of mole fraction of H 2
decreases. It is also observed that the maximum point gradually shift towards the increase ER with the increase
in percentage of coal with biomass at a particular temperature. Vélez et al. reported that water gas shift reaction
has a strong role in increasing the hydrogen concentration in the output gas and the water gas shift reaction is
most influencing in the temperature range of 810°C to 850°C [15]. Mole fraction of H 2 decreases with the
increase in coal percentage with biomass for all temperature for a particular ER is due to at higher temperature
water gas shift reaction takes place in opposite direction which also explained the increase in mole fraction of
CO in the expense of H 2 .
0.29 ER = 0.25

0.27

0.25
H2 mole fraction

0.23

0.21

0.19

0.17 100% Biomass_H2 90% Biomass_H2

80% Biomass_H2 70% Biomass_H2
60% Biomass_H2
0.15
500 700 900 1100 1300 1500
Temperature °C
Fig. 3 Variation of H 2 mole fraction with temperature for different coal-biomass mixtures
0.30
1200 0 C
0.25
100% biomass
H2 mole fraction

0.20 90% biomass + 10% coal

80% biomass + 20% coal
0.15 70% biomass + 30% coal
60% biomass + 40% coal
0.10

0.05

0.00
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
ER
Fig. 4 Variation of H 2 mole fraction with ER for different coal-biomass mixtures

Similar type of result is also reported by Kezhong et al. [14]. Buragohain et al. reported that at lower ER
the hydrogen production increases with the increase in temperature for biomass gasification by using air as
oxidizing medium [9]. However, at higher ER (0.4-0.8) this study reported that the optimum condition is in the
temperature range of 500-600°C for maximum hydrogen production and above that temperature H 2 production
decreases [9]. This study also reported, at lower temperature H 2 production increases with the increase in ER,
and at higher temperature the H 2 production decreases with the increase in ER [9]. Water gas reaction and water

510
gas shifting reaction are the main cause for hydrogen production. Water gas reaction is an endothermic reaction,
which tries to decrease the gasification temperature; on the other hand water gas shift is an exothermic reaction,
which tries to increase the gasification temperature. Both these reactions help to increase the H 2 production rate
initially at lower temperature, but as the temperature increases, the water gas shift reaction takes place in
opposite direction, hence reduce the H 2 production rate. Again, decrease in H 2 production rate with increase in
coal percentage in the coal-biomass mixture, is due to decrease in elemental hydrogen presence in the fuel
mixture. However, Kumabe et al. reported that as the biomass percentage increases in the coal-biomass mixture
from 0-1, H 2 production yield decreases. Pinto et al. reported that with the increase in temperature for a
fluidized bed gasification of biomass with steam, with increase in temperature from 750 to 890°C, H 2
concentration increases in the total gas compositions [12]. Melgar et al. concluded that as the temperature
decreases the mole fraction of H 2 decreases due to a good amount of H 2 is converted to CH 4 [11]. Puig-Arnavat
et al. also found a similar trend for variation of H 2 with ER, and this study also verified the simulation results
with experimental data available for downdraft and fluidized bed gasifier in literature [5]. This study also found
a similar kind of peak for CO also, and its reflection on volume percentage of CO 2 variation with ER with
consideration of 3% heat loss from the gasifier to the environment, 2% carbon does not converted to gas and
11.7% moisture present in the dried biomass. This study explained the phenomena as Boudouard reaction is
endothermic, therefore with the increase in ER and temperature, CO mole fraction increases due to presence of
enough char for Boudouard reaction. However, after a certain value of ER (0.35), there is not enough carbon
presence for Boudouard reactions, hence CO mole fraction decreases with the increase in temperature or ER.
Char gasification or water gas reaction is also endothermic, hence with the increase in temperature or ER,
reaction rate increases, so more char and H 2 O consumed leads to increase in CO and H 2 mole fraction. Methane
formation reaction is exothermic, as temperature increases CH 4 decreases, hence increase in percentage of H 2 in
the gas composition. Water gas shift or CO shift reaction is an exothermic reaction, so, as temperature increases,
reaction rate decreases, i.e., less CO and H 2 O consumed, hence decrease in CO 2 and H 2 at higher temperature.
Steam methane reforming reaction is endothermic, hence with the increase in temperature, reaction rate
increases, hence more CO and H 2 at higher temperature. The resultant variation in gas compositions with ER
and temperature is the combination of all these reactions.

Figure 5 represents the variation of CO/H 2 ratio for different coal-biomass mixtures at various temperatures
for a particular ER. It can be observed from Figure 5 that with the increase in temperature CO/H 2 ratio increases
with the increase in coal percentages in fuel mixtures. It is also observed that with increase in temperature mole
fraction of CO increases for a particular ER and in case of H 2 mole fraction, it increases first and then decreases.
The mole fraction of H 2 attains a maximum at 800°C and then decreases with the increase in temperature. As a
result of this, it can be concluded that from temperature 700 to 800°C increase in CO/H 2 ratio is less and after
that it increases linearly with the increase in temperature. It is observed from ultimate analysis that the
percentage of hydrogen present in coal is very low compared to biomass and this may be the reason of decrease
in H 2 mole fraction with addition of coal in the fuel mixtures. Figure 6 represents the variation of CO/H 2 ratio
for a particular temperature with varying ER. It can be observed from Figure 6 that with the increase in ER,
CO/H 2 ratio increases linearly. It is observed that CO mole fraction increases with the decrease in ER for a
particular temperature. Reverse trend is observed in case of CO 2 mole fraction. At higher ER (towards
combustion regimes), availability of air is more due to which combustion resulted higher mole fraction of CO 2 .
As ER decreases, availability of air decreases and reactions takes place in the gasification regimes, resulted in
decrease of CO 2 mole fraction and increase of CO mole fraction in the output gas. Moreover, with the increase
in ER, availability of oxygen increases in the reaction zone due to which H 2 converted to water vapor for all
temperatures. It can be concluded that with the increase in ER both CO and H 2 mole fraction decreases but the
decreasing rate of H 2 is rapid compare to CO which resulted in increase in CO/H 2 ratio. Moreover, with the
addition of coal in the fuel mixtures carbon percentage increases and as a result CO mole fraction increases.
Hence, it can be concluded that with the increase of coal percentage, CO/H 2 ratio increases at a particular
temperature and ER.

Kumabe et al. also reported that as biomass ratio increases in the mixture of coal-biomass, the H 2 /CO
decreases, i.e., CO/H 2 increases with the increase in biomass in the coal-biomass mixtures. In case of
production of synthesis fuel through Fisher-Tropsch reactions, CO/H 2 required is different for different output
viz., for methanol production the ratio required is ½, and the ratio required is 1 for dimethyl ether (DME) [4].
So, depending on the product requirement, the optimum conditions for gasification process would be different.
Buragohain et al. observed that it is not only the CO/H 2 ratio is important to find the optimum condition for
biomass gasification process for synthesis fuel productions; absolute number of moles of each component
present in the compositions also needs to be considered [9]. This is for example, methanol production, gasifier

511
need to operate at lower temperature with 100% biomass, to obtain an optimum CO/H 2 ratio, but at the same
time tar content on the resultant gas will also increases, and also the absolute mole of CO and H 2 will be very
low. Kumabe et al. reported that as the biomass percentage increases in the mixture of coal-biomass, the total
gas yield increases due to high volatile matter presence in the biomass [4]. However, at the same time the char
production rate and tar level decreases and increases respectively at lower temperature region. The decrease in
char production rate with increase in percentage of biomass in the mixtures may be attributed to total decrease in
elemental carbon in the mixture. It is also true, if the biomass ratio increases, the gasification temperature will
also reduces. Pinto et al. explained the increase in CO with the increase in temperature is due to increase in
consumption rate of CO 2 due to dry reforming reaction (CO 2 + CH 4 → CO + H 2 ), and as the temperature
increases this reaction became more dominant over water gas shift reaction. Although this helps to explain the
increasing rate of CO with temperature, however it does not satisfy with the decreasing rate of H 2 with increase
in temperature [12].
3.0
ER = 0.25

2.5
CO/H2 mole fraction ratio

2.0

1.5

1.0
100% biomass
90% biomass
0.5 80% biomass
70% biomass
60% biomass
0.0
500 700 900 1100 1300 1500
Temperature °C
Fig. 5 Variation of CO/H 2 mole fraction with temperature for different coal-biomass mixtures

4
Temperature = 1200 C
CO/ H2 mole fraction ratio

100% biomass
1 90% biomass
80% biomass
70% biomass
60% biomass
0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
ER
Fig. 6 Variation of CO/H 2 mole fraction with ER for different coal-biomass mixtures

5. Conclusions

In this study, CEA simulation tool developed by NASA, based on Gibbs free energy minimization technique has
been used to evaluate the composition of the product gases from gasification process for various coal-biomass
mixtures at different equivalence ratio and temperature by using air as gasifying agent. It has been observed
from the study that as the coal percentage increases in the fuel mixture, mole fraction of CO increases with the
increase in temperature at particular ER. However, CO 2 mole fraction shows completely opposite behavior for
same temperature variation and for same ER. It has also been observed that CO mole fraction increases with the
decrease in ER for a particular temperature. On the other hand, a reverse trend is observed in case of CO 2 mole
fraction. It is also observed that at a particular ER, mole fraction of H 2 first increases with the increase in
temperature attains a maximum value and then starts decreasing with increasing temperature. Again the mole
fraction of H 2 first increases with the decrease in ER; reach a maximum and then decreases with further increase
in ER (except 100% biomass where mole fraction of H 2 increases with decrease in ER) for all temperature.
Also, as the percentage of coal increases the maximum value of mole fraction of H 2 decreases, and the
maximum point gradually shift towards the increase in ER with increase in percentage of coal with biomass at a

512
particular temperature. It has been observed that with the increase of coal percentage, CO/H 2 ratio increases at a
particular temperature and ER. Again CO/H 2 ratio increases with increase in temperature and with the increase
in the percentage of coal in the coal-biomass mixtures.

References

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[2] B. Buragohain, P. Mahanta, and V.S. Moholkar, Thermodynamic optimization of biomass gasification for decentralized power
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[3] http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Technologies/Gasification%20Technology.pdf
[4] K. Kumabe, T. Hanaoka, S. Fujimoto, T. Minowa, K. Sakanishi, Co-gasification of woody biomass and coal with air and steam, Fuel.
86 (2007) 684–689.
[5] M. Puig-Arnavat, J.C. Bruno, A. Coronas, Modified thermodynamic equilibrium model for biomass gasification: A study of the
influence of operating conditions, Energy Fuels. 26 (2012) 2841-2851.
[6] C.C. Sreejith, C. Muraleedharan, P. Arun, Performance prediction of steam gasification of wood using an ASPEN PLUS
thermodynamic equilibrium model, Int J Sust Energ. 33(2) (2014) 1385-1394.
[7] R. Ahmed, and C.M. Sinnathambi, Influence of operating condition on the air gasification of dry refinery sludge in updraft gasifier,
4th Int Conf Energ and Enviro. 16 (2013) 012068.
[8] G. Schuster, G. Löffler, K. Weigl, H. Hofbauer, Biomass steam gasification-an extensive parametric modeling study, Bioresour
Technol. 77(1) (2001) 71-79.
[9] B. Buragohain, P. Mahanta, V.S. Moholkar, Performance correlations for biomass gasifiers using semi-equilibrium non-stoichiometric
thermodynamic models, Int J Energ Res. 36(5) (2012) 590-618.
[10] T. Srinivas, A.V.S.S.K.S. Gupta, B.V. Reddy, Thermodynamic equilibrium model and exergy analysis of a biomass gasifier, J Energ
Resour Technol. 131(3) (2009) 0318011- 0318017.
[11] A. Melgar, J.F. Pérez, H. Laget, A. Horillo, Thermochemical equilibrium modelling of a gasifying process, Energy Convers and
Manage. 48(1) (2007) 59-67.
[12] F. Pinto, C. Franco, R. N. Andre, C. Tavares, M. Dias, I. Gulyurtlu, I. Cabrita, Effect of experimental conditions on cogasification of
coal, biomass and plastics wastes with air/steam mixtures in a fluidized bed system, Fuel. 82 (15–17) (2003) 1967–1976.
[13] Y. G. Pan, E. Velo, X. Roca, J. J. Manya, L. Puigjaner, Fluidized-bed co-gasification of residual biomass/poor coal blends for fuel gas
production, Fuel. 79 (2000) 1317–1326.
[14] L. Kezhong, R. Zhang, J. Bi, Experimental study on syngas production by cogasification of coal and biomass in a fluidized bed, Int J
Hydrogen Energ. 35(7) (2010) 2722–2726.
[15] J. F. V´elez, F. Chejne, C. F. Vald´es, E. J. Emery, C. A. Londo˜no, Cogasification of Colombian coal and biomass in fluidized bed:
an experimental study. Fuel. 88 (3) (2009) 424–430.
[16] Y. Song, J. Feng , M. Ji, T. Ding, Y. Qin, W. Li, Impact of biomass on energy and element utilization efficiency during co-gasification
with coal, Fuel Proce Technol. 115 (2013) 42-49.
[17] L. Wang, Z. Chen, Gas generation by co-gasification of biomass and coal in an auto thermal fluidized bed gasifier. Appl Therm Eng.
59 (2013) 278-282.
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Analysis, NASA Reference Publication 1311, 1994.

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 ICAER-2015

Effect of Load Composition on Optimized Selection of Reactive Power Compensators in wind

diesel based Isolated Hybrid Power System

Nitin Kumar Saxenaa, Ashwani Kumarb

a
Department of Electrical Engineering, MIT Moradabad, India
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, India

Abstract

Most of the isolated hybrid power systems (IHPSs) are in function directly by public private participation schemes. Steady
state and dynamic conditions both require reactive power for the operation of IHPS but role of compensating devices
become more important especially in presence of system dynamics due to load and input disturbances. Load demand and
characteristics also plays an important role in deciding the requirement of reactive power compensation. In such systems,
choice of compensating techniques for controlling system voltage directly depend upon the cost and quality of electricity
required by the customers. This paper describes the scope of optimizing compensation cost using dynamic and static
compensators together with composite load patterns. These composite load models are developed by changing the
compositions of dynamic and static load pattern.

Keywords: Reactive power compensation, isolated hybrid power system, static and dynamic compensator, static and dynamic load,
compensation cost.

1. Introduction

Over 400 million people in India, including 47.5% of those living in India’s rural areas, still had no access to
electricity [1]. Geographical diversity, concentrated availability of natural resources, dispersed power demand in
India is a real challenge for Government to provide electricity using traditional centralized generation units.
Because of the remoteness of much of India’s un-electrified population, renewable energy can offer an
economically viable means of providing connections to these groups. Government of India is also promoting
use of decentralized distributed generating units through various schemes [2]. Therefore, private investors have
a great motivation and opportunities to develop their own decentralized hybrid power system.
To assure power supply’s continuity and reliability, renewable energy based generators are coupled with
highly proven and most developed conventional fuel based generators. Self-excited induction generator for wind
and synchronous generator for diesel are popularly used hybrid power system without connecting it through
grid. This system is called wind-diesel based decentralized hybrid power system [3-4]. In previous papers, the
effect of load/input power disturbances is well documented on the system voltage stability. In most of the
studies static load pattern was discussed [5-7]. The author has investigated the role of the composite load which
includes participation of static and dynamic load simultaneously.

Nomenclature
∆ : Incremental change in reactive power generated by Synchronous Generator
∆ 𝐼𝐼 : Incremental change in reactive power absorbed by Induction Generator
∆ : Incremental change in reactive power absorbed by Load
∆ : Incremental change in reactive power generated by STATCOM
∆ : Incremental change in reactive power generated by Fixed Capacitor
: Load terminal voltage
∆ : Incremental change in load voltage due to load and/or input disturbances
: Magnetising reactance referred to stator side in Induction generator
( )𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 : Transfer function of reactive power change to voltage change for composite load model
( ) 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 : Transfer function of reactive power change to voltage change for static load model
( ) 𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 : Transfer function of reactive power change to voltage change for dynamic load model
, , 𝑡𝑡 𝑡𝑡
: Reactive power by fixed capacitor and STATCOM at steady state and transient sate
( ): Cost of variable, ∀ ∈ { , , 𝑡𝑡 , 𝑡𝑡 , }

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9411946054.

E-mail address: nitinsaxena.iitd@gmail.com

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 Also, decentralized hybrid power systems are mostly connected with commercial and residential consumers
for which load behaviour is random and fluctuating in nature. To analyze the effect of load and/or input pattern
in system a several compositions of static and dynamic load in composite load models are is studied with
change in load reactive power demand and wind input active power for getting effect on system voltage
performance and compensation cost.
As the wind speed is not stagnant and changes rapidly. The renewable based power systems are highly
dependable on intermittent nature of inputs. The major disadvantage of the induction generator is the
requirement of reactive power for its operation. In grid-connected system, induction generator can be excited
from the grid/capacitor banks, whereas in an isolated system, reactive power excitation along with load reactive
power demand can only be achieved using reactive power compensators [8-9]. Apart from steady state reactive
power requirement, transient conditions also require reactive power for stabilizing the voltage response due to
instant changes in load demand and input power in system.
Static compensation does not respond for sudden change in load and input of system. Therefore, fast acting
dynamic compensation is required so that system may attain its steady state in least time. Reactive power
dynamic compensation for voltage stability due to load and input wind power changes in wind-diesel based
isolated hybrid power system has been discussed by many authors. The optimized selection for static and
dynamic compensation gives cost effective solution for compensation. Fixed capacitor and STATCOM are used
as static and dynamic compensators.
In this paper, cost of reactive power compensation is evaluated first for available wind diesel based isolated
hybrid power system in which only STATCOM is used for compensation. Parameters for STATCOM controller
are tuned using ANFIS. A composite load is modelled for simulation study of system. Compensation cost is
optimized by the participation of fixed capacitor along with STATCOM for pre-defined performance parameters
of voltage response. System performances are compared for reference and optimum compensation technique for
different load patterns. And, finally reactive power planning is elaborated for several steps from 1% to 10% in
input and/or wind power changes.

2. Reactive Power Study for Isolated Hybrid Power System

For this study, wind diesel based isolated hybrid power system includes wind operated self excited induction
generator, diesel operated synchronous generator, composite load (combination of both static and dynamic
load), fixed capacitor and STATCOM as reactive power compensators. A block representation for MATLAB
Simulink model is shown in Fig. 1 for such system.

Fig. 1 Representation of Voltage-Reactive power balance simulink diagram for isolated hybrid power system

A sudden change in load demand and input power causes a voltage deviation, to stabilize this compensators
release extra reactive power. The reactive power equations for all components and power balance equations
evolved in decentralized hybrid power systems are well established and documented in [10-13].
The power balance equation derived for the decentralized hybrid power system is; ∆ ( ) =
[∆ ( )+∆ ( )+∆ ( ) − ∆ 𝑰𝑰 ( ) − ∆ ( )] (1)
+
Due to load and/or input disturbance in the system synchronous generator, fixed capacitor and STATCOM
generate while induction generator and load absorbs reactive power. MATLAB program and simulink model are
developed to evaluate the parameters of self excited induction generator, synchronous generator, fixed capacitor
and STATCOM first and then system response. In [14], author has given detail description for evaluating and
developing the same.

515
3. Load Modeling

In this work, composite load model is developed and implemented for the reactive power
compensation/voltage stability study of isolated hybrid power system. Most of the reactive power compensation
issues are investigated considering static load models (exponential type) by many authors for isolated hybrid
power system as in Fig. 1. The static load model is suitable for steady state as it does not involve the load
dynamics that plays an important role under disturbances. It has been concluded that power system voltage
stability behaviour and choice of compensation techniques significantly depends on selection of the load model
and its parameters [15]. In order to effectively analyze the dynamics of decentralized hybrid power system,
loads need to be regarded along with the generators in a transient stability analysis. Dynamic load models are
therefore necessary for dynamics studies [13, 16]. However, it is very difficult to exactly describe the loads in a
mathematical model. Accurate load modelling is important to correctly predict the response of the system to
disturbances. With a poor load model we would need to operate the system with a higher safety margin. Many
papers have been published about composite load modelling which includes the composite load as a
combination of static and dynamic load model [15-17].
As in Eq. (1), simulink model of the system requires a transfer function, for load reactive power change
with voltage change. for composite load model can be evaluated by adding the transfer functions of static
and dynamic load model as in Eq. (2).
( )𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 = ( ) 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 + ( ) 𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 (2)
These static and dynamic load model transfer functions are investigated in detail in [18]. Steps showing
algorithm to achieve for 5th order model of induction motor as dynamic load model and for exponential load
as static load model for composite load is given in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Steps for estimating for composite load

Table 1 List of composite load patterns based on participation of dynamic load

Title Pattern1 Pattern 2 Pattern 3 Pattern 4 Pattern 5
Static load component 250 kW 200 kW 150 kW 100 kW 50 kW
Dynamic load component 0 kW 50 kW 100 kW 150 kW 200 kW
Total rating of composite load 250 kW 250 kW 250 kW 250 kW 250 kW

To analyse the effect of dynamic load in load model, static and dynamic load participations are changed.
Table 1 describes five patterns of load, based on the participation of exponential type static load and 5th order
induction motor type dynamic load for which step responses are given in Fig. 3. For each pattern, ( ) 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 and
( ) 𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 is evaluated using the detail procedure described in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 depicts that dynamic behaviour of
CLM is due to the presence of induction motor as the load. This means load with high participation of dynamic
load attains stability in maximum time. In order to cope with the increased uncertainties imposed to power
systems, probabilistic tools are employed to predict the state of the system at any time instant. To quantify this
risk, probabilistic load patterns (PLPs) are employed. PLP captures the variations in generation and load due to
the random processes which drive them.

516
 Fig. 3 Step response comparisons for( ) of different patterns of composite load

4. Problem Formulation for Optimizing Compensation Cost

It is assumed that isolated hybrid power system is designed by an independent investor who used to decide
participation of reactive power compensators on the basis of their cost, rating, and system voltage response. For
cost analysis, compensation cost functions for compensators are defined in [14]. Cost of fixed capacitor is very
low compare to STATCOM but fixed capacitors do not respond for system dynamics. STATCOM alone can
provide an adequate solution of reactive power compensation for system voltage stability but it makes system
very costly. It is assumed that the cost of reactive power in system includes only the reactive power production
cost of generators and capacitors [20]. In [21], reduced rating of STATCOM has been suggested for the
excitation of induction generator. For transient condition, reactive power can only be generated through fast
acting dynamic compensating device but steady state reactive power requirement can be planned through
participation of static as well as dynamic compensators so that overall compensation cost may be reduced. The
role of static compensation deforms the voltage response in system and hence participation of fixed capacitor
with STATCOM is optimized up to the extent of voltage variation within the permissible range.
Therefore, for system reactive power planning, an optimization problem is formulated with two important
aspects; (i) Minimizing the cost of compensation under steady state through participation of fixed capacitor as
static compensator along with STATCOM as dynamic compensator, and (ii) Participation of static compensator
with dynamic compensation upto the extent where system voltage response remain in its pre defined acceptable
range.
Therefore, an objective function J which represents cost function of reactive power compensation as in Eq.
(3) is optimized to find best solution of reactive power compensation in the system with equality and inequality
constraints. Functions of cost for STATCOM and fixed capacitor depend upon the reactive power released by
them.
={ ( )+ ( )} + ( 𝑡𝑡 )} (3)
Equality constraints;
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 (4)
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 𝐼𝐼 + − (5)
𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = + (6)
Inequality constraints;
0≤ ≤ 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 (6)
0≤ ≤ 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 (7)
𝑚𝑚 ≤ ∆ ≤ 𝑚𝑚 (8)
𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑡𝑡 ≤ 𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑡𝑡 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 (9)
Acceptable range of voltage response should be decided first using reference case in which compensation is
achieved with the help of STATCOM only. With the help of these parameters, acceptable range of parameters is
decided. The decision is based on the overall mutual acceptance of power quality between end user and investor
in terms of system voltage response. Flow chart for selecting best possible optimized solution for compensation
is demonstrated in Fig. 4.

5. Reactive Power Planning by Optimum Selection of Compensators for Different Load Compositions

Reactive power demand for transient condition is taking care by STATCOM and reactive power demand for
steady state condition can be supplied by the participation of both static as well as dynamic compensator and
therefore, optimization approach is applied only for steady state. STATCOM gain constants are required for
simulation study of the system and calculated using ANFIS based tuning method [18]. For system study, large
disturbances of 10% in input wind power and load demand with 1% probabilistic load pattern is given for
getting dynamic changes in system at its extreme limit.

517
 Algorithm for reactive power planning is explained by flow chart given in Fig. 4. The results for reference
and optimize cases are summarized in Table 2 for all five load patterns given in Table 1. For reference case,
steady state demand of reactive power is released by STATCOM only. So, fixed capacitor reactive power and
cost terms are zero. For every optimization problem, 10,000 samples are taken for deciding participation of
fixed capacitor and STATCOM reactive power by satisfying Eq. (6). Voltage response and compensation curve
can be plotted for each load pattern using MATAB simulink block. For load pattern 5, performance curves are
shown in Fig. 5 to 7.

Fig. 4: Flow chart for reactive power planning

The compensation costs at steady state and under transients are presented for each pattern. The voltage
performance of the system at the time of disturbance and reactive power pattern for STATCOM and fixed
capacitor are demonstrated for load pattern 5. It has been concluded that settling time for STATCOM reactive
power compensation increases with increase in dynamic load participation. Cost comparison shows that under
disturbances reactive power demand is almost equal in all case. With increase in dynamic load participation,
fixed capacitor contribution increases and therefore overall cost reduces.

Table 2 Comparative study for response parameters of optimized and reference system for load pattern 2 with probabilistic load pattern
Response P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
parameters R O R O R O R O R O
(pu) 0 0.1248 0 0.1411 0 0.1231 0 0.1756 0 0.1966
(pu) 0.2326 0.1078 0.2535 0.1124 0.2745 0.1514 0.2953 0.1197 0.3163 0.1197
( ) ($/hour) 0 0.0041 0 0.0047 0 0.0041 0 0.0058 0 0.0065
( ) ($/hour) 0.0666 0.0309 0.0726 0.0322 0.0786 0.0433 0.0845 0.0343 0.0905 0.0343
C( ) ($/hour) 0.0666 0.0350 0.0726 0.0369 0.0786 0.0474 0.0845 0.0401 0.0905 0.0408
𝑡𝑡
(pu) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
𝑡𝑡 0.2014 0.2014 0.2076 0.2076 0.2086 0.2086 0.2103 0.2103 0.2123 0.2123
(pu)
( 𝑡𝑡 ) ($/hour) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
( 𝑡𝑡 ) ($/hour) 0.0577 0.0577 0.0594 0.0594 0.0597 0.0597 0.0602 0.0602 0.0608 0.0608
( ) ($/hour) 0.1243 0.0926 0.1320 0.0963 0.1383 0.1000 0.1447 0.1003 0.1513 0.1015
P: Load pattern; R: Reference case; O: Optimized case

Fig. 5 Comparison of Voltage response for load pattern 5 with probabilistic pattern

518
 Fig. 6 Comparison of STATCOM reactive power response for load pattern 5 with probabilistic pattern

Fig. 7 Comparison of FC reactive power response for load pattern 5 with probabilistic pattern

6. Conclusion

Role of load patterns are investigated for reactive power compensation in isolated hybrid power system using
optimization technique for best possible participation of STATCOM in presence of fixed capacitor. Result
shows how overall compensation cost reduces by involving static compensators along with dynamic
compensators and compensation cost can be planned for different type load patterns of end user. Therefore, this
approach gives a scope for investors for deciding the breakeven point of installing compensators in system.

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[17] Kim Byoung Ho, Kim Hongrae, Lee Byoungjun (2012) Parameter Estimation for the Composite Load Model, Journal of International
Council on Electrical Engineering, 2(2), pp. 215-218.
[18] Saxena Nitin, Kumar Ashwani (2014) Reactive power compensation of an isolated hybrid power system with load interaction using
ANFIS tuned STATCOM, Frontiers in Energy, 8(2), pp. 261-268.
[19] Chung C.Y., Chung T.S., Yu C.W., Lin X. J. (2004) Cost based reactive power pricing with voltage security consideration in
restructured power systems, Electric Power Systems Research, 70, pp. 85–91.
[20] Singh Bhim, Murthy S. S., Gupta Sushma (2004) Analysis and design of STATCOM-based voltage regulator for self-excited induction
generators, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 19(4), pp. 783-790.

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 ICAER-2015

Performance evaluation of a Guarded Hot Box Test Facility using

fuzzy logic controller for different building material samples
Chayan Kumar Basaka, Debrudra Mitrab, Amrita Ghoshb, Gautam Sarkarc, Subhasis
Neogib1
a
Department of Electrical Engineering, Techno India Saltlake, Kolkata, India
b
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
c
Department of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

Abstract

In an air-conditioned building located at any climatic region, the energy usage could be conserved by means of reducing the
heating or cooling load on the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system depending upon outdoor climatic
conditions. In case of unconditioned building, the temperature variation inside it over a specified time depending upon the
outdoor climatic conditions helps one to estimate the duration of uncomfortable periods. By controlling heat gain or loss
through building components like walls, roofs, window glazing etc. the overall energy used in both types of buildings could
be minimised and for doing so, thermal performance of any building material should be evaluated. The overall heat transfer
coefficient, which is measured using the Guarded Hot Box Test Facility, is one of the key measures of evaluating the energy
performance of any building material. The lesser this value, the less energy is required to maintain comfortable conditions
inside the building. In this paper, the performance evaluation of a fuzzy logic based temperature control strategy in a
Guarded Hot Box Test Facility using three types of building materials-a single glazing, a double glazing and a plank of
Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) as test specimens has been done and compared.

Keywords: U-value; Guarded Hot Box; Fuzzy Logic Controller; Standard deviation; Root Mean Squared Error

1. Introduction

The building sector in developing countries like India is experiencing a very high growth rate of about 8% per
annum. High growth rate results in a very high demand for energy. In India, building sectors consume about
33% of total energy produced nationally [1]. Thus, the building sector has the highest potential in conserving
energy by implementing building materials with improved thermal properties. By controlling the heat gain or
loss through the building components like walls, floors, roofs, window glazing etc. the overall energy used in the
buildings could be minimised. For doing this, the thermal performance of any building material should be
evaluated.
The U-value or overall heat transfer coefficient, which is measured in W/(m2K); determines the heat loss or
gain (depending upon the outdoor ambient temperature) through a building component. Higher the U-value the
higher is the rate of heat transfer. Lower U-value indicates better thermal insulation property. In a commercial or
domestic building, the selection of proper building materials and glazing with improved thermal properties along
with the energy efficient appliances can lead to the conservation of energy. Thus, accurate measurement of the
U-values of the building materials should be done from the energy conservation point of view.
The U-value of a building material is normally determined by the Guarded Hot Box Test method [2]. The
method described in the International Standards measures the total magnitude of heat transferred from one side
of the specimen to the other side for a given temperature difference [2, 3]. It takes into account all the modes of
heat transfer. In this test procedure it is of utmost importance to maintain the set-point temperatures in all the
three chambers viz. metering box, guard box and cold box of the facility precisely. Proportional-integral-
derivative (PID) controllers have been used extensively in controlling temperatures at various temperature
regimes such as very low temperatures in adiabatic demagnetisation refrigerators [4] and high temperatures in
gas-fuel combustor systems [5]. These controllers perform well and show a moderate satisfactory level of
reliability. It is found that though many studies were performed to optimise the energy efficiency of different
heating systems, the controllers that are being used today are of basic on/off type or PID. To ensure proper

1
Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 033 2457 2907
E-mail address: neogi_s@yahoo.com

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regulation, different auto-tuning methods of PID parameters have been proposed [6, 7, 8, 9]. Keeping in mind
the slow dynamic response of the thermal systems with large time delays, other approaches have also been
proposed in the literature like fuzzy logic [10], neural networks [9] etc. In the Guarded Hot Box Test Facility,
basic on-off and proportional controllers have already been incorporated [11, 12]. C. K. Basak et al. have
compared the performances of on-off and PID logic driven PWM temperature controllers for different types of
guard box circulating fans [13]. In the present paper, the performance evaluation of a fuzzy logic based
temperature control strategy in the same facility using three different types of building materials-a single
glazing, a double glazing and an Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) plank as test specimens has been done and
compared.
Nomenclature

U Overall heat transfer coefficient

e Temperature error
ec Time rate of change of error
d duty cycle of the input voltage pulses to the heaters inside the metering box/guard box
σ Standard Deviation
RMSE Root Mean Squared Error
Q Heat flow rate through the test sample from the metering box to the cold box
A Area of the test sample perpendicular to the heat flux
T nh Environmental temperature of the hot side
T nc Environmental temperature of the cold side

2. Guarded Hot Box Test Facility

In the present work, the set-up has been constructed following the standards BS EN ISO 8990:1996 [2] and
BS 874: Part 3: Section 3.1:1987 [3]. The overall test set-up comprises of a metering box, a guard box and a cold
box [11, 12, 13]. In this test procedure, a constant one dimensional heat flow has to be maintained in steady state
from the metering box to the cold box through the specimen whose U-value is to be measured. The specimen is
placed in an aperture between the cold box and the guarded metering box. To prevent the air flow between
metering box and guard box the open side of the metering box is pressed against the test element. Heat supplied
to the metering box passes through the test element to the cold box. The cold box is to be maintained at a
constant low temperature. By using a chilled circulating medium and a heat exchanger the cold box provides a
controlled low temperature environment. DC circulating fans are installed inside the metering box and the guard
box for bringing uniformity in the temperature. But they also dissipate a significant amount of heat that also
helps in the increase of temperature. To minimise the effect of changes in the laboratory environment
temperature on the test specimen in the metering box area, an adequate width of guarded space is provided. The
U-value of the sample can be calculated by using the following formula:

Q
U= (1)
A(Tnh − Tnc )

Here, Q (W) is the heat flow rate through the test sample from the metering box to the cold box which is
measured by calculating the total heat losses through the metering box walls and the surround panel and then
subtracting it from the total heat input to the metering box through the heaters and circulating fans (as fan
motors are installed inside the metering box). A (m2) is the area of the test sample perpendicular to the heat flux.
T nh (oC) and T nc (oC) are the environmental temperatures of hot and cold sides respectively.

3. Experimental details

During the test the temperatures of the metering box and the guard box are controlled very accurately.
According to the standard [3] the temperature controllers must be able to keep the temperature fluctuations and
long term drifts within 1% of the air to air temperature difference over the test specimen for a considerable long
time period depending upon the test specimen used. K-type thermocouples are installed to measure the air
temperatures and surface temperatures at different locations of the metering box and the guard box [14, 15]. The
temperatures measured by the thermocouples are logged time to time by the Agilent Data Acquisition Systems
34970A. The logged temperatures are then fed into the computer programme Agilent VEE Pro (Version: 9). In
this programme, air temperatures of the metering box at three different locations and air temperatures of the

522
guard box at three different locations are averaged out individually which are used as the input feedback signals
to the controllers. Two individual temperature controllers are designed (one for the metering box and the other
for the guard box). For developing fuzzy logic based control schemes, MATLAB fuzzy scripts have been
written inside the Agilent VEE programme which then calls the MATLAB script engine to produce the desired
control outputs.
For Fuzzy logic controller [10, 15], the temperature error (e) and the time rate of change of temperature error
(ec) have been taken as the input to the controller. These input parameters have a combination of triangular and
trapezoidal membership functions. The duty cycle (d) of the input voltage pulses to the heaters inside the
metering box/guard box has been taken as the output variable. This parameter varies between 0% (heater fully
off) and 100% (heater fully on) depending upon the defuzzified value of output. Five triangular membership
functions have been used for this. Mamdani type of fuzzy logic controller has been used with a set of 25 ‘if-
then’ rules. Mean of Maximum (MoM) method has been used for defuzzification. This defuzzification method
has been used keeping in mind the system heating input requirements and the characteristics of the control
circuitry [15]. In our present work, the set point temperatures of the metering box and the guard box are kept
fixed at 40oC and performances of the system are evaluated and compared by using three different sample
materials – a single glazing, a double glazing and a plank of XPS. In these three test cases the cold side of the
set-up is maintained at certain low set-point temperatures.
Case 1: A specimen of single glazing has been used as the test element. DC circulating fans of the metering box
are operated at a power level of around 17W. The controller output is evaluated using Fuzzy logic, and then
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique has been implemented to change the duty cycle of the input voltage
pulses to the heaters. A nominal time period of 10 seconds has been used between two successive data logger
scans. For this case the average ambient temperature for the test period is found 27.44oC. The cold side average
temperature is found to be 27.55oC. The time-temperature characteristic obtained in this case is shown in Fig. 1.

40
Temperature (oC)

36

32

Metering Box Temperature

Guard Box Temperature
Set-point
28

0 2 4 6 8
Time elapsed (hour)

Fig. 1. Time-temperature characteristics for Case 1.

40
Temperature (oC)

36

32

Metering Box Temperature

Guard Box Temperature
Set-point
28

0 2 4 6 8
Time elapsed (hour)

Fig. 2. Time-temperature characteristics for Case 2.

523
Case 2: A specimen of double glazing has been used as the test element. DC circulating fans of the metering
box are operated at a same input power level. Input power levels of the heaters inside the metering box have
also been kept same. Same control strategy has been used here. For this case the average ambient temperature
for the test period is found 27.44oC. The cold side average temperature is found to be 4.71oC. The time-
temperature characteristic obtained in this case is shown in Fig. 2.
Case 3: A specimen of XPS sheet has been used as the test element. All the input parameters and the control
strategy are kept same as Case 2. For this case the average ambient temperature for the test period is found
29.41oC. The cold side average temperature is found to be 4.88oC. The time-temperature characteristic obtained
in this test case is shown in Fig. 3.

40
Temperature (oC)

36

32

Metering Box Temperature

Guard Box Temperature
Set-point
28

0 2 4 6 8
Time elapsed (hour)
Fig. 3. Time-temperature characteristics for Case 3.

4. Performance evaluation

The experimental data obtained from the three test cases with the set points of 40oC are analysed statistically
to calculate the standard deviations (σ) and the Root Mean Squared Errors (RMSE). For all the cases the
calculations have been done after the air temperatures of the metering box and the guard box reached the set
points. The results have been summarised below in tabular format.

Table 1. Different performance parameters for metering box and guard box temperature profiles.
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Performance Parameters Metering Guard Metering Guard Metering Guard
Box Box Box Box Box Box
Minimum air temperature after o
40.001 C o
39.892 C 39.967 C o
39.960 C 40.005oC
o
39.873oC
reaching set-point
Maximum air temperature after 40.125oC 40.220oC 40.124oC 40.175oC 40.741oC 40.145oC
reaching set-point
Mean air temperature after 40.066oC 40.069oC 40.050oC 40.064oC 40.390oC 40.046oC
reaching set-point
Maximum fluctuation of air 0.312% 0.550% 0.310% 0.437% 1.854% 0.362%
temperature from the set-point
σ of air temperature after reaching 0.021oC 0.048oC 0.020oC 0.040oC 0.234oC 0.040oC
set-point
RMSE of air temperature after 0.069oC 0.085oC 0.054oC 0.076oC 0.455oC 0.062oC
reaching set-point

5. Discussions

After analysing the data of these three test cases, it can be seen that for Case 1 and Case 2, the controllers are
able to keep the metering box and the guard box air temperature fluctuations well within the allowable limits

524
described in the standards [2, 3]. While for Case 3, it is found that the proposed temperature control scheme is
capable of maintaining the temperature of the guard box at the set-point but the metering box temperature
begins to increase as the guard box reaches its set-point. Though during this period, the heaters inside the
metering box are made off by the controller, the additional heat is coming from the dissipated heat of the
circulating fans inside. This additional heat is extracted from the metering box to the cold box at a very slow
rate because of low U-value and very high thermal inertia of the test specimen (XPS). Before the guard box
reaches its set-point, there is a considerable amount of heat loss through the walls of the metering box to the
guard box. Thus, during that period, the metering box air temperature is stabilised [13, 15].
This phenomenon can be avoided by further decreasing the cold box set-point temperature to achieve higher
rate of heat removal from the metering side to the cold side. Similarly, by changing the guard box set-point can
also help in stabilising the metering box temperature.

6. Conclusions

In the present work, the overall system performances for a fuzzy logic based temperature control scheme in a
Guarded Hot Box Test Facility are evaluated and compared using three test samples viz. a single glazing, a
double glazing and a sheet of XPS. From the experimental results obtained it can be concluded that the designed
fuzzy logic based temperature control scheme is capable of controlling the temperature of the metering box as
well as the guard box with the desired level of accuracy. For Case 1 and Case 2, the maximum fluctuations of
metering box air temperature from the set-point are found to be 0.312% and 0.310% respectively. Whereas, for
Case 3, the observed maximum fluctuation of metering box air temperature from the set-point is 1.854%. The
cause of this increment of air temperature is the heat dissipated from the circulating fans inside. This additional
heat is unable to be extracted by the cold side due to large thermal inertia of the XPS test specimen.
However, these test cases need to be conducted for longer durations of time in various seasonal conditions in
order to evaluate the system performance more accurately. Moreover, the system performance needs to be
evaluated several times keeping the laboratory ambient conditions constant so that the internal wall losses can
be standardised.

References

[1] Kumar, S., Kapoor, R., Rawal, R., Set, S. and Walia, A. (2010) Developing Energy Conservation Building Code Implementation
Strategy in India, Proceedings of ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Pacific Grove, CA.
[2] British Standard BS 874: Part 3: Section 3.1:1987, British Standard Methods for determining thermal insulating properties – Part 3.
Tests for thermal transmittance and conductance – Section 3.1 Guarded hot-box method.
[3] British Standard BS EN ISO 8990:1996, Thermal insulation – Determination of steady state thermal transmission properties –
Calibrated and guarded hot box.
[4] Hoshino, A., Shinozaki, K., Ishisaki, Y. and Mihara, T. (2006) Improved PID method of temperature control for adiabatic
demagnetization refrigerators, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers,
Detectors and Associated Equipment, 558 (2), pp. 536–541.
[5] Hsuan, C. and Chen, R. (2002) Intelligent control of exit temperature in a gas-fuel can-type combustor, Engineering Applications of
Artificial Intelligence, 15 (5), pp. 391–400.
[6] Zhenhai, D. and Lianyun, S. (2012) Design of Temperature Controller for Heating Furnace in Oil Field, International Conference on
Applied Physics and Industrial Engineering, Physics Procedia, 24, pp. 2083–2088.
[7] Silva, F. V., Neves Filho, L. C. and Jr. Silveira, V. (2006) Experimental evaluation of fuzzy controllers for the temperature control of
the secondary refrigerant in a liquid chiller, Journal of Food Engineering, 75, pp. 349–354.
[8] Bi, Q., Cai, W., Wang, Q., Hang, C., Lee, E., Sun, Y., Liu, K., Zhang, Y. and Zou, B. (2000) Advanced controller auto-tuning and its
application in HVAC systems, Control Engineering Practice, pp. 633–644.
[9] Liang, J. and Du, R. (2008) Design of intelligent comfort control system with human learning and minimum power control strategies,
Energy Conversion and Management, 48, pp. 517–528.
[10] Calvino, F., Gennusa, M. L., Rizzo, G. and Scaccianoce, G. (2004) The control of indoor thermal comfort conditions: introducing a
fuzzy adaptive controller, Energy and Buildings, 36, pp. 97-102.
[11] Ghosh, A., Ghosh, S. and Neogi, S. (2014) Performance Evaluation of a Guarded Hot Box U-value Measurement Facility under
Different Software Based Temperature Control Strategies, Energy Procedia, 54, pp. 448-454.
[12] Ghosh, A., Hyde, T.J. and Neogi, S. (2013) Development and Performance Evaluation of a Virtual PID Controller For a Guarded Hot
Box Test Facility for U-Value Measurement, International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, Volume 3,
Special Issue 3: ICERTSD 2013, pp. 17-21.
[13] Basak, C. K., Sarkar, G. and Neogi, S. (2015) Performance evaluation of material and comparison of different temperature control
strategies of a Guarded Hot Box U-value Test Facility, Energy and Buildings, 105, pp. 258-262.
[14] Ghosh, A. (2013) Study on the Performance characteristics and identification of the parametric control strategies of a guarded hot box
system and the development of the closed loop feedback control systems for U-value measurement, M.Tech Thesis, Jadavpur
University.
[15] Basak, C. K. (2015) Development of fuzzy logic based control strategies for temperature control and its performance evaluation in a
guarded hot box test facility for U-value measurement, M.Tech Thesis, Jadavpur University.

525
 ICAER-2015

Design and feasibility studies of a small scale Grid Connected

Solar PV Power Plant
Ratan Mandala*, Srinjoy Panjab
a
Faculty, School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032.

b
Post Graduate Student, School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032.

Abstract

The depletion of fossil fuel resources on a worldwide basis has necessitated an urgent search for alternative energy sources
to meet up the present day demands. Solar energy is clean, inexhaustible and environment-friendly potential resource among
renewable energy options. But neither a standalone solar photovoltaic system nor a wind energy system can provide a
continuous supply of energy due to seasonal and periodic variations. Therefore, in order to satisfy the load demand, grid
connected energy systems are now becomes promising options that combine solar and conventional energy systems to meet
the future energy demand at reduces consumption of fossil fuels. In the present work it is tried to develop a small scale grid
connected solar photovoltaic (SPV) system. The details of the grid connected solar photovoltaic system are studied first.
Here, in this present work 1 kWp SPV system is considered for system design. Then it is installed on the roof top of our
School of Energy Studies Building and successfully connected with the grid. We find that the system is feeding power to the
grid successfully. From the performance analysis of the system we found that the power feeding to the grid maximum 814 W
at the radiation of around 1003 W/m2 and the overall system efficiencies are varying from 12.3% to 18.42% at different level
of solar intensity. We also found the average energy generation from the present system is around 3 – 4 kWh/day in the last
rainy seasons. These results are the evidence of reliability and feasibility of the present system. And it will help to reduce the
electricity bill for the consumers who have maximum consumption in day hours i.e. School, College, Office, Commercial
buildings, Shops etc. To best of our Knowledge this is the first time such type of small scale grid connected solar photo
voltaic (SPV) system was reported.

Keywords:SPV system, Grid connected inverter, Synchronization, Frequency, etc.

1. Introduction

Energy plays a pivotal role in our daily activities. The degree of development and civilization of a country is
measured by the amount of utilization of energy by human beings. Energy demand is increasing day by day due
to increase in population, urbanization and industrialization. The world’s fossil fuel supply viz. coal, petroleum
and natural gas will thus be depleted in a few hundred years. The rate of energy consumption increasing, supply
is depleting resulting in inflation and energy shortage. This is called energy crisis. Hence alternative or
renewable sources of energy have to be developed to meet future energy requirement. In one minute, the sun
may provide enough energy to supply the world’s energy needs for one year. In one day, it provides more energy
than the world’s population could consume in 27years. The energy is free and the supply is unlimited. All we
need to do is find a way to use it. The largest solar electric generating plant in the world produces a maximum of
354 Megawatts (MW) of electricity and is located at Kramer Junction, California. Since India has abundant
sources of RE especially sunlight, it can cater to all the energy needs of the country. The country receives an
average radiation of 5 kWh per square meter (m) per day and with 2300 to 3200 sunshine hours per year. The
potential of solar photovoltaic has therefore been estimated at 20 MW per square km [1]. Grid interconnection of
photovoltaic (PV) power generation system has the advantage of more effective utilization of generated power.
However, the technical requirements from both the utility power system grid side and the PV system side need
to be satisfied to ensure the safety of the PV installer and the reliability of the utility grid. Clarifying the
technical requirements for grid interconnection and solving the problems are therefore very important issues for
widespread application of PV systems. Grid interconnection of PV systems is accomplished through the inverter,
which convert DC power generated from PV modules to AC power used for ordinary power supply for electrical
equipments [2].
_______________________________________
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9474608241
E-mail address: ratan_mandal99@yahoo.co.in

526
Studies from various research paper we understood that there may be some drawback in PV industry like failure
of power generation in cloudy weather, high capital cost, lack of solar cell materials, complex module
manufacturing process, a number components required, higher tariff, larger loss, proper architectural design etc.
Output of the inverter does not give 100% sinusoidal wave; it creates harmonics in the output voltage and
current wave [3].

Now Government of India has set a renewable energy capacity addition target of 29.8 GW for the twelfth
TYP, taking the total renewable capacity to almost 55 GW by the end of TY17. This includes 15 GW from wind,
10 GW from solar and 2.7 GW from biomass and 2.1 GW from small hydro. Investment in renewable energy is
expected to almost quadruple to Indian Rupee (INR) 3,186 billion in the 12th Ten Year Plan (TYP) from
INR892 billion in the 11th TYP, implying average annual investments of nearly INR600 billion [1]. To achieve
this target apart from large scale SPV power plant, the small scale grid connected SPV by individuals may add a
great potential to the conventional grid system. Keeping mind the need and present problem associated with the
grid connected SPV system; we have designed a small scale (1KW) grid connected SPV system. Now it is
installed on the roof top of our School of Energy Studies Building and successfully connected with the grid. The
design methodologies for the same and its feasibility study by performance analysis are described here.

Nomenclature

A ampere
ac alternating current
dc direct current
GW gigawatt
INR Indian Rupee
JNNSM Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission
kW kilowatt
kWh kilowatt hour
kWp kilowatt peak
MW megawatt
RE renewable energy
sq. ft. square foot
SPV solar photovoltaic
TYP ten year plan
V volt
W watt

2. METHODOLOGY

Grid connected PV system can be designed in various ways, like with battery, without battery, with or without
transformer etc. Here without battery grid interconnected system is used, because of short life time, large
replacement cost, and increased installation cost. A transformer is used for boosting the ac output voltage and
feeding to grid [4, 5]. There are two meters connected-one is called the import meter, the other is called the
export meter. Thus the difference between the two meter readings gives the power fed to the grid from solar
photovoltaic power plant. So using these meters we can easily determine what amount of energy is fed to the
grid from solar power. From the results obtained, we find that a 1 kW solar photovoltaic power plant can be
developed on 100 sq. ft. /kWp chosen area. Corresponding system sizing and specifications are provided along
with the system design.

2.1. Design of a Single Phase 1kW Power Plant

For 1 kWp plant, the required no of module= 1000/250=4 numbers (considering the module specification,
which is given Table 1.) Now to form Solar Photovoltaic Plant, 4 modules are connected in series combination.
After connecting 4 modules in series the output voltage obtain in around 95 volt dc (after dropping the voltage
by different by pass and blocking diode and wires). This 95 volt dc output from SPV structure is the input of
single phase inverter and it will convert the dc voltage into ac voltage. After the inverter a transformer is
connected, which will boost up the ac voltage and fed to the grid. The block diagram of the whole systems in the
present design is given in the following figure 1.

527
Table 1. Solar photovoltaic plant specification

Fig. 1.Block diagram 1kWP Grid connected solar photovoltaic power plant.

2.2. Details of inverter used for this Single Phase 1kW Power Plant

For the present design of installation we use JSI series inverter of model no. JSI-1100TL, manufactured by
JFY Solar Inverters. The detail specification of the same is given in Table 2. The JSI series are a single phase
solar inverters. They are responsible for converting the direct current generated by the PV panels into single-
phase 230V ac 50 Hz alternating current for delivery into the AC grid. This inverter only operates when it is
connected to the AC grid and cannot operate as a stand- alone unit [6].

Table 2. Detail specification of JSI series inverter [6]

528
 2.3. Data acquisition method for performance evaluation

In the present study of work the authors have taken all the electrical data
(i.e. dc voltage, dc current, ac voltage, ac current, power, energy, frequency etc.) for solar PV panel and inverter
with the help of different meters mounted with the system panel board as well as directly from the inverter
display panel. And the solar intensity has been taken with the help of a calibrated pyranometer mounted with PV
module at the same slope angle (25ᵒ and facing due south). The snap shots showing the metering arrangement
are given here in Fig. 2. Due to lack of having data logger with the present system data has been taken manually
with one hour interval for assessing the performance of the system. The sample data sheet with calculated
overall system efficiency is shown here in the Table 3.

a. b.

c.

Fig. 2.The snap shots showing the metering arrangement for (a) system panel board, (b) inverter
display and (c) pyranometer.

529
 Table 3. The sample data collected for performance evaluation

SPV
Date Solar PANEL Inverter
2015 Intensity O/P Energy Energy O/P
W/m2 V I W kWH1 kWH2 V I W
Oct-
01

73.226 130 1.5 195 155.2 150.4 230 0.5 80.5

530.914 131 4 524 155.4 150.6 231 2 428
205.48 127 1.75 222.25 155.8 151 230 1 178
Oct-
05 397.174 125 3 375 162.2 157.3 228 1.6 320
517.54 127 3.5 444.5 162.5 157.6 230 2.05 424
61.338 132 0.8 105.6 162.9 158 225 1 70.6
Oct-
06 880.124 125 5.6 700 165.4 160.5 229 3.2 696
737.468 121 5 605 165.8 160.9 228 2.7 588
340.706 125 2.5 312.5 166.1 161.2 228 1.5 284
215.882 130 2 260 166.3 161.4 225 1.1 189
102.946 130 1 130 166.4 161.5 229 0.75 101
Oct-
13 62.824 125 1 125 174.5 169.5 230 0.5 74.4
119.292 127 1.2 152.4 174.5 169.6 230 0.75 114
Oct-
14 1003.462 130 6.5 845 176.5 171.6 230 3.8 814
848.918 125 6 750 176.5 171.6 230 3.35 726

3. RESULTS AND DISSCUSION

Best on our design the proposed system is installed on the roof top of our School of Energy Studies Building
at Jadavpur University and successfully connected with the grid. We find that the system is feeding power to the
grid successfully. And best of the data collected so far as shown in the table 3. Variation of performance
parameter as a whole as well its subsystems are evaluated and represented graphically as shown Fig. 3.

530
a.

900

800 y = 1E-04x2 + 0.6399x + 100

R² = 0.9848
700

600

500
SPV Panel Output
W
400 Inverter O/P W

300 y = 0.0004x2 + 0.3889x + 100

R² = 0.9827
200

100

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Intensity (W/m2)

b. 1.2
y = -6E-07x2 + 0.001x + 0.5614
R² = 0.7522
1

0.8
Panel efficiency

Inverter Efficiency
0.6
Overall Efficiency

0.4

y = 4E-07x2 - 0.0006x + 0.3186

R² = 0.6605
0.2

y = -5E-05x + 0.1603
R² = 0.5326
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Intensity (W/m2)

Fig. 3. (a) Graphical representation of SPV panel output and Inverter output with solar intensity and
(b) Graphical representation of SPV panel efficiency, Inverter efficiency and Overall efficiency
variation with solar intensity.

531
 From the above data we found that the power feeding to the grid maximum 814 W at the radiation of
around 1003 W/m2 and the overall system efficiencies are varying from 12.3% to 18.42% at different level of
solar intensity. We also found the average energy generation from the present system is around 3 – 4 kWh/day
in the last rainy seasons as displayed in the inverter display panel shown in Fig. 2.b. These results are the
evidence of reliability and feasibility of the present system. Further, it can be concluded that the more and more
installation of these kind of small SPV Grid connected power plant by individuals will help to fulfil the target
set by government of India in JNNSM. And it will help to reduce the electricity bill for the consumers who have
maximum consumption in day hours i.e. School, College, Office, Commercial buildings, Shops etc. Therefore,
more emphasis should be given on this type of small project.

Acknowledgements

The authors want to acknowledge and give thanks to School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University for
providing infrastructure and UGC for providing fund under UGC- XII plan scheme, unless these work cannot be
carried out.

REFERENCES

[1] Ernst & Young, “Mapping India’s Renewable Energy growth potential: Status and outlook 2013,” p. 36,
2013.

[2] V. Salas, M. Alonso-Abella, E. Olías, F. Chenlo, and a. Barrado, “DC current injection into the network
from PV inverters of <5kW for low-voltage small grid-connected PV systems,” Sol. Energy Mater. Sol.
Cells, vol. 91, no. 9, pp. 801–806, 2007.

[3] T. Khatib, K. Sopian, and H. a. Kazem, “Actual performance and characteristic of a grid connected
photovoltaic power system in the tropics: A short term evaluation,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 71, pp.
115–119, 2013.

[4] C. Demoulias, “A new simple analytical method for calculating the optimum inverter size in grid-connected
PV plants,” Electr. Power Syst. Res., vol. 80, no. 10, pp. 1197–1204, 2010.

[5] J. Phillips, “Determining the sustainability of large-scale photovoltaic solar power plants,” Renew. Sustain.
Energy Rev., vol. 27, pp. 435–444, 2013.

[6] Installation and Operator’s Manual of IFY Solar Inverter.

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 ICAER-2015

Performance of Building Roofs on Energy Efficiency- A Review

a a a,1
Arna Ganguly , Debashish Chowdhury , Subhasis Neogi
a
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

Abstract

The steep increase in energy demand mainly during the summer season for tropical humid climates has gained significant
importance in this scarce condition of fossil fuels. This paper presents a review on different roof technologies performed
with an aim to reduce the cooling loads during summer thus helping in energy conservation. Firstly it deals with green
vegetated roof carried out in regions of hot humid climates. The green roof performance was explored by evaluating its effect
on temperature fluctuations and heat fluxes during summer. The results showed that the presence of plants led to a decrease
in temperature under the green roof. The water use and tolerance to stress at times of prolonged drought were also assessed
for several types of plants suitable for extensive green roof systems. Other cooling strategies are use of reflective paints also
called cool paints. The impacts of the application of a reflective paint on a flat roof were analyzed by mainly monitoring
reduction of roof surface temperature at different case study locations. Further performance of three kinds of cool paints and
even cool black paints are studied for going deeper into the facts of cool paint potentials and limitations. Eventually
comparative analyses between these two solutions are assessed by taking into account the several parameters that affect the
final energy performances.

Keywords: Green Roof; Cool Roof; Cool Paints

1. Introduction

The intensification of the urban heat island effect has led to development of issues like global warming,
greenhouse gas effect etc. The building sector is directly involved in this change and adequate solutions can
provide great benefit at energy and environmental levels. Roofs in particular are envelope components for which
advanced solutions can provide significant energy savings in buildings with air conditioning facilities or improve
indoor thermal conditions in buildings without such facilities. Green roofs are generally seen as a desirable
building element, providing numerous benefits where water availability does not restrict their implementation.
However, most Mediterranean locations have long, dry summers, requiring irrigation to sustain vegetation
throughout extended dry periods. Green roofs are generally classified into two major categories: (a) extensive
green roofs, which may be established on a very thin layer of soil and are designed to require minimal
maintenance and (b) intensive green roofs, which have a soil layer of 20 cm or more and can support a large
variety of plants. On the other hand cool roof strategies are progressively drawing the attention of the scientific
community and the market due to their effective role in reducing building energy requirements for cooling and
peak electricity demands, and mitigating urban heat island effects. A cool roof technology generally consists of a
roof system with a coating characterized by high solar reflectance and high thermal emissivity. When the roof is
exposed to solar radiation, these two characteristics render the roof’s external surface colder compared to the
same roof with lower reflectance and levels of emissivity and consequently, the solar heating load entering the
indoor thermal zone is decreased. This technique for improving thermal comfort inside buildings is low cost,
effective, easy to apply, energy efficient and helps to reduce the phenomenon of Urban Heat Island (UHI).The
necessity for cool non-white products arose because heat absorbing darker colors, which are often preferred for
aesthetic reasons, contribute to UHI. This led to the development of cool paints of darker colors, but with special
pigment that still reflected solar radiation. For aesthetic and energy efficient considerations, organic and complex
inorganic black pigments with good spectral selectivity have attracted some industrial formulators to
fundamental and applied researches. Complex inorganic pigments are less expensive and generally exhibit high
durability properties like weathering, temperature, chemical resistance and UV scattering.

1
Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 033 2457 2907;
E-mail address: neogi_s@yahoo.com

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2. Green Roof

Natural cooling techniques have been used over the centuries. The introduction of mechanical air
conditioning systems although came with a huge thermal comfort but it had to deal with a huge amount of
energy expenditure. The benefits of green roof natural cooling system have not only shown huge potential in
reducing the building energy consumption but also had been a large contributor to mitigate the urban heat island
effect. According to A. Niachou et. al. foliage protects the buildings from solar radiation , controls the
temperature and humidity of the indoor building environment [1]. The plants for their biological functions such
as photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration and evaporation absorb a significant portion of the solar radiation.
Moreover, the solar radiation, external temperature and relative humidity are reduced as they pass through the
vegetated part covering the roof, hence protecting the integrity of the underlying roof. Selection of plant species
plays an important role. Plant species exhibiting a strong ability to store water in their leaves and drought
resistant are suitable for green roof plantation.

Green roof installation is characterized by a number of layers. According to A. Spala et. al. the lowest point
before the original bare roof consists of a water proofing membrane in order to protect the building from
leakages [2]. Similar scenario was also shown by Dominique et. al. where there were both a water proofing
membrane and drainage layer and also other protecting layers summing up a total depth of 120mm between the
green roof (GR) and the bare roof surface [3].

2.1. Effect on roof surface temperature

Green roofs help to decrease the roof surface temperature significantly. According to Dominique et. al. the
extensive green roof installed in Reunion Island which was mainly characterized by tropical humid climate,
showed a significant decrease in temperature of the roof surface. While the maximum temperature of the
reference bituminous roof surface reached about 73.5 ±1.4 °C, the roof covering the three succulent plant species
namely Plectranthus neochilus, Kalanchoe thrysiflora and Sedum reflexum only reached an average maximum
temperature of 34.8 ±0.6 °C. Similar things were reported by A. Spala et. al. where the green roof system in
Athens, Greece showed a decreased temperature after its installation as recorded in the space thermograph.
Similarly A. Niachou et. al. reported that lowest temperatures of the green roof ranged from 26 °C to 29°C and
were measured in places dominated by thick dark green vegetation. The highest temperatures were between
36°C and 38°C and were measured in spaces covered by sparse vegetation. While the temperature of green roof
cover of insulated building varied from 28.7 °C to 32.5 °C at different positions, the temperature of green roof
cover of non-insulated building varied from 28.9 °C to 42.6 °C at similar positions. Thus there were no
significant temperature variations between the external surface of the insulated building with or without
implementation of the green roof while the temperature reduction due to existence of green roof on the exterior
surface temperature of non-insulated building was of the order of 10 °C. Thus the impact of green roof of non-
insulated building is favourable.

2.2. Contribution to thermal comfort

Green roofs induce to decrease temperature fluctuations thus contributing towards thermal comfort.
According to Dominique et. al. the average values of temperature differences between GR surface and GR
surface at 120mm were 6.8±1.4 °C for Plectranthus, 6.5 ±0.9 °C with Kalanchoe and 6.7 ±0.1 °C for Sedum .
Thus a significant ability to decrease the temperature at the GR surface as well as inside the GR was observed.
According to A. Niachou et. al. thermal comfort was recorded for insulated building with green roof where the
average maximum indoor air temperature was 29 °C with green roof while it was 31 °C without green roof. The
temperature fluctuation was also lesser with green roof showing average daily temperature width to be 4°C
while it was around 7°C without green roof. Orna Schweitzer et. al. reported that all the four plant species
namely, Pennisetum clandestinum, Apentia cordifolia, Sesuvium verrucosum and Halimione portulacoides
showed a significant cooling effect mainly during the warmest hours of the day (temperature difference with and
without green roof being 3.1K – 4.4 K), the most effective being P. clandestinum and S. verrucosum [4].

2.3. Shading effect of vegetated roof

Sun-shading capability of the plant species plays a very important role in effecting the performance of a green
roof. According to Dominique et. al. on typical three days of January, 2011 when the mean maximum solar
radiation was 1165.7±43.3 W/m2 ,the maximum heat flux transferred through Plectranthus green roof surface
was 27.7 ±2.2W/m2 , for Kalanchoe the value was 28.8 ±2.7 W/m2 and 16.6±1.7 W/m2 for Sedum. Higher
performance of Sedum was related to the higher sun-shading effect and its higher ability to grow more quickly

534
than the other two species used in the experiment. Similar things were observed by Orna Schweitzer et. al. which
showed comparable temperature difference between the planted roof and the insulation layer of the test cells
equipped with three variations of green roof and that of with moist soil cover. The effect of moistening the soil
showed smaller cooling effect than any of the planted green roofs. Thus the shading effect of the vegetated roof
proved to be much more efficient than the evaporative cooling mechanism of the moist soil.

2.4. Water consumption

Water consumption , tolerance to stress and tolerance to salinity are the three important parameters to be
taken into account in case of green roofs located in arid climatic conditions where water consumption is an
important factor, as shown by Orna Schweitzer et. al where the experiment took place in Tel Aviv which has
practically no precipitation during summer. It was observed that the daily evapotranspiration was lowest for A.
Cordifolia at a wind speed of 2m/sec hence showing most economic water consumption.

2.5. Tolerance to stress and salinity

Green roofs installed in a water scarce region might have to withstand prolonged periods of stress. Thus two
factors come into play are : (i) the response of the plant species to a complete removal of irrigation for one
month and (ii) use of brackish water instead of potable water, with different levels of salinity. According to Orna
Schweitzer et. al. Apentia cordifolia survived the extended drought conditions with a fairly good health among
the four species of plants selected for the experimental study. On the other hand S.verrucosum and
H.portulacoides watered with solutions of 100mM and 150mM of salt showed a much better performance in
terms of tolerance to salinity than the other two plant species.

2.6. Effect on U-value

According to Dominique et. al. the U-value, K-value and R-value of the green roof was evaluated based on
the results of temperature fluctuations and heat flux variations as discussed above. It was observed that Sedum
had a U-value of 2.15 ±0.22 W/m2.K which was significantly lower than the other two pant species.
Consequently Sedum showed a greater value of thermal resistance also, which was 0.47±0.05 m2.K/W. Similar
results were observed in case of K-value hence showing better energy performance of Sedum compared to
Plectranthus and Kalanchoe. According to A. Niachou et. al. the U-value of non-insulated roof ranged from
7.76 W/m2.K to 18.18 W/m2.K while the ones with green roof varied from 1.73 W/m 2.K to 1.99 W/m2.K.
Thus it directly shows that the heat transfer within non-insulated roof is greater than within non-insulated roof
with green roof. Furthermore in case of moderately insulated roof the U-value varied from 0.74 W/m2.K to 0.80
W/m2.K while the same with green roof had a U-value of 0.55 W/m2.K to 0.59 W/m2.K, hence the difference of
thermal conductance co-efficient was almost equal to 0.2 W/m2.K. Similarly the same was observed for well
insulated roof in which the bare roof had a U-value between 0.26 W/m2.K to 0.4 W/m2.K while the same bare
roof with green roof above had a U-value ranging from 0.24 W/m2.K to 0.34 W/m2.K, hence having an
estimated difference of 0.02 W/m2.K to 0.06 W/m2.K. Thus while the contribution of green roof had a
significant effect on the thermal performance above the non-insulated building, on the other hand it was
negligible in case of well-insulated buildings.

2.7. Effect on energy consumption

Energy consumption is reduced to a great extent in case of buildings with green roof. According to A. Spala
et. al. the percentage cooling load reduction for the whole building varied from 15% to 39% while for the floor
just beneath the roof, the effect was much more significant showing a reduction upto 58% during summer.
During winter small increase as well as decrease of heating load was found in both the cases. Moreover the
observed decrease of heating load fluctuated between 2% to 8% for whole building and between 5% to 17% for
the floor just beneath the roof.

2.8. Energy saving capability

Orna Schweitzer et. al. showed that A. Cordifolia provided an optimum performance both in terms of water
consumption and cooling efficiency (cooling efficiency taken as a ratio of reduction in sensible heat in test cell
to amount of water supplied to the roof) which were 4.5 L/m2 and 5.5% respectively. A. Niachou et. al. showed
that energy saving percentage of the compared roofs (with and without green roof) for heating ranged from 9%
for well-insulated roof while it was 45% for non-insulated roof. Estimated values with similar comparison for
cooling loads showed zero energy saving in case of well-insulated building and about 45% for non-insulated
building. Similarly, energy saving percentage in non-insulated buildings during summer varied from 54% for 4
air change per hour and 61% with 10 air change per hour. The corresponding values in building with moderate

535
insulation ranged from 9% (4 ACH) to 12% (10 ACH). On the other hand, for well-insulated building the energy
saving for cooling was almost zero for each alternative scenario of night ventilation. The results thus explained
the fact that during summer period the green roof contributed to the preservation of low air temperature during
the daytime and high temperature during the night. Thus night ventilation led to the conservation of air
temperature at lower levels not only during night, but also during the daytime.

3. Cool Roof

The Urban Heat Island phenomenon is one of the main reasons behind the increase in urban air temperature.
This primarily occurs due to the removal of natural vegetation and its replacement with buildings and paved
surfaces. Building roofs are huge absorbers heat from solar radiation thereby increasing the roof temperature up
to a great extent.

Many building technologies contributing to mitigate this Urban Heat Island effect which eventually increases
the cooling demand of the buildings during the summer is being adopted. The use of highly reflective materials
also called “Cool materials” or “Cool Coatings” helps to maintain a much low exterior surface temperature. Cool
materials are a particular category of paints that are able to stay cool under the solar radiation. These are
characterized by high solar reflectance which tends to reduce the absorption of solar radiation when compared to
conventional building materials and hence limiting the roof surface temperature rise. These are also
characterized by high infrared emittance that dissipates the accumulated heat without transferring it indoors.

3.1. Effect on roof surface temperature and internal ceiling surface temperature

Different case studies have been undergone showing the potential of cool roof. According to M. Kolokotroni
et. al. the monitoring parameters included internal surface temperature, indoor air temperature, indoor relative
humidity and roof surface temperature [5]. Every case study has a pre-application and post application of cool
paint condition in order to firmly point out the potentiality of a cool roof. According to M. Kolokotroni et. al. the
case study that took place in an open office building in Brunel University, London consisted of a pre-application
of cool paint starting from 1st May, 2009 to 1st week of June, 2009. Similarly it also included a post-application
condition starting from 1st August, 2009 to last week of July, 2009. Every parameter showed a better
performance from cooling point of view in case of roof after application of the cool paint. As shown by M.
Kolokotroni et. al. on two particular days i.e 1 st June,2009 and 16th August,2009 each having approximately
similar external average temperature and average global radiation during daytime showed that the roof surface
temperature was higher on 1st June as compared to 16th August by a maximum of 7.7 °C and an average of 6 °C
during working hours. Internal ceiling surface temperature was higher by a maximum of 3.1 °C on 1st June.
Surface temperature differences were also by calculated by deducting internal ceiling temperature from roof
surface temperature during the pre and post painted months. It was observed that the pre-painted period showed
a cooler roof surface temperature than internal ceiling surface during early morning while during midday just the
opposite occurred. During the post-painted period the internal ceiling temperature always remained at a higher
value than the roof surface temperature indicating the cooling effect of cool paint on the external surface.
According to E. Bozonnet et. al. the case study building located in Poiters, France the mean external roof
temperature was 30.2 °C during pre-application of cool paint and 19.8 °C during the post-application condition
[6]. Similarly a study was conducted by C. Romeo et. al. in a school located in Trapani, a town on the west coast
of Sicily that during the pre-application of cool paint the maximum surface temperature difference was 48°C and
decreased to 26°C after application of the cool paint [7]. C. Romeo et. al. presented more detailed temperature
profiles of twenty days in August,2009. It observed a difference of 20°C between the non-treated roof and air
temperature; on the other hand the difference was never higher than 5°C between the cool roof and air. A
cumulative distribution of temperature difference between the external roof surface temperature and air
temperature during the monitoring campaign showed a noticeable increase of the surface temperature higher
than 10° C for more than about quarter of the period mostly during daytime hours. On the other hand the cool
roof surface temperature resulted in higher temperature difference than 3°C compared to air temperature during
6.6% of the monitored period. Similar results were found in the thermal modelling of the building of Brunel
University as shown by M. Kolokotroni et. al. It was observed that the predicted hours of internal air
temperature and internal operative air temperature (working hours) for the case study building during May, 2009
to September, 2009 remained above 25°C for 981 hours at a solar reflectance of 0.1 and 851 hours at a solar
reflectance of 0.6 and greater than 25°C for 1045 hours at solar reflectance of 0.1 and 853 hours at a solar
reflectance of 0.6 respectively, hence proving the positive sides of a cool roof.

536
3.2. Variations due to ventilation system

The performance of cool paint is affected by operational conditions like ventilation system of the rooms
beneath the roof under monitoring campaign. According to M. Kolokotroni the internal ceiling surface
temperature of the open office area and the three office rooms showed a slight decrease on both the days that is
1st June, 2009(pre-application) and 16th August, 2009 (post application) with similar external average
temperature and average global radiation. This slight decrease in temperature was observed on both days
between 7am and 8 am due to increased ventilation rate by user’s opening of windows as they came to the
office. The same things were observed in the parametric analysis of the case study. Lower ventilation rates
achieved higher energy savings in case of air-conditioned building with the highest reduction indicated for a
solar reflectance of 1.0, air change rate of 2 at summer and winter set-point temperatures of 25°C and 21°C,
respectively.

3.3. Effect due to different room orientation

Cool Roof potentials are also identified with rooms having different orientations. According to C. Romeo et
al. one of the rooms in Trapani, Sicily which was mainly west oriented and was characterized by high thermal
loads during the afternoon had a mean indoor air temperature 3.5 °C higher than the ambient air, the two values
being 27.9°C and 24.4°C. On the other hand after the application of cool paint the indoor air became 0.4° C
warmer than the ambient temperature, the two values being 28.6 °C and 28.2 °C. Similarly the same results were
observed for another room that was mainly east oriented, indoor air temperature was higher than outdoor during
96% of the time before the application of cool paint while indoor temperature was 2°C cooler than the ambient
temperature during 50% of the time and only 13.6% of the time it was warmer.

3.4. Effect on thermal comfort

Thermal comfort is another factor which is significantly improved after the application of cool coatings.
According to M. Kolokotroni et. al. maximum internal operative temperature is reduced by 2.2 °C at a solar
reflectance of 0.6 and average internal operative temperature is reduced by 2.5 ° C where operative temperature
signifies the internal room temperature during working hours ( 7.00-18.00). In the parametric analysis of the
same case study internal operative temperature was greater than 25° C for only 30% of the hours thus increasing
the thermal comfort. Similar results are shown by E. Bozonnet et. al. where in order to investigate more into the
potentiality of cool roof it was compared with a non-insulated roof. A clear benefit was obtained in summer
conditions with a maximum temperature of 41.4 °C that is the operative temperature with initial non-insulated
roof and only 32.1°C with cool painted roof. C. Romeo et. al. showed cumulative distribution of discomfort
hours for the three school rooms in Trapani, Sicily with three reference operative temperatures : 25 °C, 27 °C
and 29 °C. The effect of application of the cool paint depicted a strong reduction of discomfort hours in two of
the rooms and temperature was greater than 27 °C for less than 15% of the period. Worse results were obtained
for the room which was mainly west oriented, because of high solar gains through the wide open windows
facing west in the afternoon. The operative temperature was higher than 27°C for more than 25% of the period
and 29° C for 5% of the period. Cumulative distribution of discomfort conditions were also shown for insulated
building which showed a clear benefit for temperature higher than 27°C, the number of hours was reduced by
20% in one room while by 30% for the other.

3.5. Effect on energy consumption

Cool roof has the advantage of decreasing the cooling demand during summer and the disadvantage of
increasing the heating load during the winter. According to M. Kolokotroni et. al. the simulated heating and
cooling energy demand for the case study in Brunel University before and after the application of cool roof
showed that total energy demand without cool roof was 4211 kWh/year while 4031 kWh/year after the
application of cool roof thus saving around 180 kWh/year. According to C. Romeo et. al. cool coating
application on the roof is the best performing technology among several conditions like roof insulation, night
ventilation ,external shading which were effective in cutting off at least 30% of the cooling energy demand, on
the other hand the it was 54% in case of cool roof. Better performance is surely expected by integration of the
cool roof system with other passive cooling solutions. According to C. Romeo et. al. the combination of cool
roof with other energy measures led to a net energy demand reduction up to 78%. C. Romeo et. al. also showed
that with increase in solar reflectance the roof leads to a reduction of 4.6% of the total net energy demand, the
heating demand increased by 28.4% and the cooling demand reduced by 60%. Different results were obtained in
case of insulated building. In this case the net cooling demand was always higher than the heating demand. The
net total energy demand was reduced by 13%, while the heating demand increased by 23% and the cooling
demand decreased by 32%.

537
4. Cool Paints

4.1. Non-white cool paints

The use of highly reflective “cool” coatings helps to maintain lower exterior surface temperatures of roofs
and consequently contributes to an increased indoor thermal comfort during summer which reduces the need for
cooling. The necessity for non-white cool paints arose because of aesthetic reasons and also darker colours serve
as a glare control. According to Kai L. Uemoto et. al. special class of non-conventional inorganic pigments are
used to produce energy efficient coloured paints [8]. These are called Complex Inorganic Coloured Pigments
(CICPs) or Mixed Metal Oxide (MMO) pigments. These special groups of non-conventional pigments are
characterized by high reflectance in the NIR radiation. Kai L. Uemoto et. al. showed that colour co-ordinates of
the conventional white, brown and yellow colour were approximately similar to the corresponding cool paints
with white, brown and yellow colour. The test was undergone in laboratory with reference to a standard
unpainted specimen of fiber cement roofing sheet and were kept on a wooden device with thermocouples
attached at different points and exposed to two 250W infrared radiation lamp. It was found that the cool paints
significantly improved reflectance in the NIR range compared to unpainted standard sheet and to conventional
paint of the same colour. Kai L. Uemoto et. al. presented that the application of the two types of white paint
lowered both the outer and inner surface temperatures of the fiber cement roofing sheets, thus improving the
thermal performance. The results also added that the brown paint presented a higher temperature than the
unpainted standard fiber cement roofing sheet but on the other hand the cool brown paint reflected more in the
NIR radiation than in the visible range thus reducing the surface temperatures. Significant improvement in
thermal performance was similarly observed in case of sheet painted with cool yellow paint. It was also
observed that cool white paint was most effective in reducing radiant heat flux transfer inside the wooden device
and cool brown paint was more efficient in doing the same than conventional yellow although yellow is lighter
in colour than cool brown.

4.2. Cool black paint

According to Jie Qin et. al. the conventional use of black roofs on buildings in a lot of places is most likely
because it meets the aesthetic requirement and has lower risk to moisture damage unlike the white roofs [9].
Here Jie Qin et. al. presents a “two-layered technique” where preparation of a black thin top coat pigmented
with NIR-transmitting black colorants and a white basecoat with high NIR reflectance which are then applied to
substrates with low NIR reflectance. The conventional pigments used for black colour that is carbon black and
copper-chromite black were compared with black colours pigmented with commercially available inorganic
manganese ferrite black spinel, chromite iron nickel black, perylene black and dioxazine purple over white
basecoat and aluminum alloy substrate. Black coatings pigmented separately with chromite iron nickel black
and manganese ferrite black spinel were cooler than those of the conventional ones i.e. carbon black and copper
chromite black but they were not eligible cool black coatings for building energy efficiency in China because
the cool coating had lightness L* smaller than 40, NIR reflectance lesser than 0.4 and their solar reflectance was
also lesser than 0.3. Jie Qin et. al. found that black colour pigmented with perylene black and dioxazine purple
(with addition of inorganic yellow pigments to re-establish a true black colour) showed a much better
performance with high solar and NIR reflectance and thus proved to be qualified cool black coatings. From cost
and profit perspective, the application of black coatings pigmented with perylene black to the roofs of the
buildings is of high cost. Thus the black coating pigmented with diaoxazine purple and yellow colorants likely
presents one of the best choices for building energy efficiency.

5. Conclusion

The effects of global warming and climate changes are of relevant concern for ecological system. The global
warming and the urban sprawl cause a number of environmental hazards, the urban heat island (UHI) is one of
these. This phenomenon is defined as the air temperature rise in densely built environments with respect to the
countryside surroundings. The main cause is the modification of the land surface in the urban area, where the
vegetation is replaced by extensively built surfaces are characterised by high solar absorption. Roof surfaces of
the building accounts for a large part of the total urban surfaces; hence they can be successfully used to reduce
the air and surface temperature of urban area. Cool and green roofs are widely used to mitigate the UHI. These
techniques have proved significant benefits on the energy performance of buildings, providing passive cooling
to the built environment.

Green roofs use the foliage of plants to protect the building environment. The soil layer gives an added up
insulation to the building roof while the water content increases the thermal inertia of the structure. On the other
hand cool roofs are characterized by materials having high solar reflectance and high thermal emittance.

538
5.1. Comparative analysis on green roof and cool roof

According to M. Zinzi et al. the three typical locations chosen were Barcelona, Cairo and Palermo [10]. The
north rim that is Barcelona is heating dominated for non-insulated buildings, while heating and cooling are both
relevant in buildings in the centre of the Mediterranean region that is Palermo . The south rim that is Cairo is
cooling dominated for any building thermal characteristics. In case of the row houses of Palermo best
performances were obtained with the green roof always wet, with heating demand comparable with the
conventional roof, but with the cooling demand reduced by more than half. The total energy savings were 24%.
On the other hand cool roof reduced the cooling demand by 75%, but the increase of the heating demand
lowered the total energy savings close to 12%. Energy savings were around 11% during winter, due to the
higher insulation level of the roof, but low improvements were reached in the cooling season, because of the
limited advantage of the dry vegetation layer.

Barcelona has a cooler climate than others, thus non -insulated envelope induced a high heating demand. The
best result was obtained by dry green roof, because of the insulation effect produced by the soil layer in winter
and the natural water content in summer. The total energy demand was reduced by 14%. In this case cool roof
registers the worst performance, with 10% increase in total energy demand. In case of Cairo, cool roof led to
40% reduction in energy demand. High differences were found for the green roof configurations that is the wet
green roof proved to be the best performing solution, it led to 45% of the total energy savings. Actual rainfall
and dry green roof . Performances practically gave the same results with 13% energy savings as compared to
standard roof, with 10% reduction of the cooling demand.

According to M. Zinzi et. al. cool roof technique proved to be the effective solution for southern and central
areas of the Mediterranean basin which were mainly cooling dominated areas. The non- insulated houses might
have faced a penalty of excessive increase in heating demand but, on the other side, cool roofs practically
nullified the installation of the cooling systems, because of the very low cooling energy demand.

Performances of the green roofs are strongly dependent on the water content of the system with the adopted
model. A well wet green roof has good cooling performance, but relying on the rainfall does not ensure effective
energy performances during the dry Mediterranean hot season, especially in the central and the southern rim of
the basin. Nevertheless, green roofs improve the heating performances as well, when compared with the
conventional roofs.

Thus both the techniques, the cool roof and the green roof come with their own advantages and
disadvantages but both have their usefulness accordingly contributing highly towards the section of energy
conservation of the built environment.

6. References

[1] A. Niachou, K. Papaknstantinou, M. Santamuris, A. Tsangrassoulis, G. Mihalakaku, Analysis of the Green Roof Thermal Properties and
Investigation of its Energy Performance, Energy And Buildings 33 (2001) 719-729.
[2] A. Spala, H.S. Bagiorgas, M.N. Assimakopoulos, J. Kalavrouziotis, D. Matthopoulos, G. Mihalakakou, On th green roof system .
Selection, state of art and energy potential investigation of a system installed in an office building in Athens, Greece , Renewable
Energy 33 (2008) 173–177.
[3] Dominique MORAU, Teddy LIBELLE, François GARDE, Performance Evaluation of Green Roof for Thermal Protection of Buildings
In Reunion Island ,Energy and Buildings 14 (2012) 1008–1016.
[4] Orna Schweitzer, Evyatar Erell, Evaluation of the energy performance and irrigation requirements of extensive green roofs in a water-
scarce Mediterranean climate, Energy and Buildings 68 (2014) 25–32.
[5] M.Kolokotroni, B.L. Gowreesunker, R.Giridharan,Cool roof technology in London : An experimental and modeling study, Energy and
Buildings 67(2013) 658-667.
[6] E. Bozonnet, M. Doya, F. Allard, Cool roofs impact on building thermal response: A French case study, Energy and Buildings 43
(2011) 3006-3012.
[7] C. Romeo, M. ZinziI,Impact of a cool roof application on the energy and comfort performance in an existing non-residential building. A
Sicilian case study, Energy and Buildings 67 (2013) 647–657.
[8] Kai L. Uemoto, Neide M.N. Sato, Vanderley M. John, Estimating thermal performance of cool colored paints, Energy and Buildings 42
(2010) 17–22.
[9] Jie Qin, Jianrong Song,Jian Qu,Xiao Xue,Weidong Zhang, Zhongnan Song,Yunxing Shi, Lihong Jiang,Jingfang Li,Tao Zhang, The
methods for creating building energy efficient cool black coatings, Energy and Buildings 84(2014) 308–315.
[10] M. Zinzi, S. Agnoli, Cool and green roofs. An energy and comfort comparison between passive cooling and mitigation urban heat
island techniques for residential buildings in the Mediterranean region, Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 66–76.

539
Paper Code: 121

Experimental Investigation using an On-Board Dry Cell Electrolyser in a CI

Engine working on Dual Fuel Mode

Anoop Sunil1*, P.V. Manu2**, S. Jayaraj3

Mechanical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala, India
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 8089412439, E-mail: anoopsunil.kairali@gmail.com
**
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 9447392531, E-mail: pvmanu@nitc.ac.in
Abstract: In this work, an integrated system of electrolyzer with CI engine which introduces HHO gas into the air
intake is experimented. The system was installed to the engine with all the accessories including the required safety
measures. The experiments were conducted on a 553cc single cylinder constant speed (Kirloskar) engine. Dry cell
HHO generator has been installed to the test engine. The test gave the result such that the fuel consumption has been
reduced by 6- 12% with an HHO gas supply of 1LPM along with the engine air intake.

Keywords: HHO gas, Duel fuel mode, CI engine.

1. INTRODUCTION

The main input for the economic development of any country is presently based on the commercial energy
availability and its usage. The main source of energy we depend on are non-renewable sources [1]. The conventional
source that we depend now are very less to meet the future energy demand. Also, the increase in the automotive
vehicles and the emissions produced by these led to the search for alternative fuels. Few such alternate fuels were
bio-diesel, bio-ethanol, biogas, hydrogen, and solar energy. Hydrogen is one of the most abundant energy source and
the best alternative fuel due to its high heating value, availability and high burning velocities [2]. It can be used as an
alternative fuel in automobiles. One the major drawback of hydrogen is its storage and hence here comes into picture,
the concept of on-board hydrogen production by water electrolysis. Electrolysis of water separates hydrogen and
oxygen which are together known as oxyhydrogen (HHO) gas and which can be fed into the engine. The fuel
consumption and exhaust gas emissions from the engine are to be studied extensively before the use of on-board dry
cell electrolyzers in the CI engines [3].

2. HHO GAS GENERATOR

Electrolysis of water is the decomposition of water to hydrogen and oxygen with the passage of electric current
through the water. Pure water is considered for electrolysis of water and to increase the electrical conductivity of
pure water electrolytes such as sulphuric acid (H 2 SO4), potassium hydroxide (KOH), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), etc
are added [4].

Electrolysis of water can be done using electrolytic cell which consists of electrodes and electrolyte. The electric
power source is connected to two electrodes (anode and cathode) which are made of inert metals such as platinum,
stainless steel, iridium, etc. During electrolysis, the hydrogen will be generated at the cathode and oxygen will be
generated at the anode and the amount of hydrogen generated will be twice that of oxygen. The reaction taking place
at the electrodes and overall reaction is as follows:

Cathode (reduction): 2 H 2 O(l) + 2e− → H 2 (g) + 2 OH−(aq)

Anode (oxidation): 4 OH−(aq) → O 2 (g) + 2 H 2 O(l) + 4 e−
Overall reaction: 2 H 2 O(l) → 2 H 2 (g) + O 2 (g)

The two types of electrolytic cell are wet cell electrolyser and dry cell electrolyser. In a wet cell the electrodes are

540
dipped in electrolytes such that the entire electrode material is surrounded by electrolyte where as in a dry cell the
electrolyte is trapped inside the rubber gasket which separates the electrode plates. As compared to wet HHO cell,
dry HHO cell has many advantages. In dry cell electrolyzer, the electrolyte is stored in an electrolytic tank which
also acts as a bubbler and electrolyte enters the cell under gravity. The outlet of the electrolyser is connected to the
intake manifold with safety devices. It requires less current as compared to wet cell for production of same amount
HHO. The maintenance cost of the dry cell is also low. From the above description it is clear that the dry HHO cell
will be more suitable for HHO gas generation [5,6].

For fabrication of dry cell electrolyzer, a particular size of dry cell electrolyzer was chosen with specified current
density on the electrodes. Stainless steel plates were chosen as electrodes and neoprene gaskets were used to give the
spacing between the electrodes. The main objective was to optimize various parameters of the dry cell electrolyzer.
For optimizing the electrolyzer, four parameters that affects the electrolysis were selected and the parameters are
space between the electrodes, type of electrolyte, concentration of electrolyte, and the surface finish of electrode. The
parameters were taken in two levels. With the help of Design of Experiments (DoE) [7], run table has been generated
and experiments were conducted according to the run order. In order to optimise the cell, the response voltage were
noted. The response voltage noted is the voltage at which the electrolysis starts and we just receives a continuous
flow of HHO gas. With the responses obtained, the observations were analysed and optimized with the help of
Design Experts software. The optimized result will the combination of parameter which requires less voltage
electrolysis. The further experiments are carried out with the optimized combination. The optimized result was with
3mm spacing between the electrodes, 30% KOH as electrolyte and rough surface of electrodes.

3. TEST ON IC ENGINE
The HHO gas produced by electrolysis was supplied to the CI engine and the diesel fuel consumption and exhaust
gas emissions were recorded. The amount of HHO gas that was supplied to the inlet manifold can be controlled by a
rota-meter. The engine used for test was a constant speed (1500 rpm) Kirloskar engine with rated power 5HP and
cylinder volume 553cc. Experiments were conducted with four different flow rates of HHO gas. All the observations
obtained were compared with the conditions corresponding to the use of 100% diesel fuel.

40 0.89 LPM
35 1.37 LPM

30 1.66 LPM
2 LPM
25
BTE (%)

Diesel
20
0.89 LPM
15
1.37 LPM
10 1.66 LPM
5 2 LPM

0 Diesel
0 1 2 3 4
BP (kW)

Fig. 1 HHO dry cell electrolyzer Fig. 2 Variation in BTE with HHO gas addition
4. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

From the optimization of dry cell electrolyzer, the combination of parameters that will consume minimum voltage
were stainless steel electrodes with rough surface and 3mm spacing between electrodes, and electrolyte with 30%
concentration of KOH. The maximum generation of HHO gas that obtained was 2.2 litres per minute (LPM). The dry
cell electrolyzer fabricated is shown in figure 1. Figure 2 and 3 show the variation the brake thermal efficiency
(BTE) and the diesel fuel consumption with the addition of HHO gas into the air intake. It was seen that the as the

541
Flow rate of HHO gas increases there was increase in the brake thermal efficiency. Similarly the diesel fuel
consumed got reduced with the addition of HHO gas. These results were expected due to the additional energy
content of HHO gas. Figure 4 shows the carbon dioxide emission at the exhaust and it was decreasing with the
increase in flow rates of HHO gas. This was expected due to the reduction in diesel fuel consumption. Similarly the
oxygen content at the exhaust tent to increase and also the NO X emission tend to increase due to the increase in
temperature inside the combustion chamber. It was concluded that the harmful emissions such as carbon dioxide and
carbon monoxide got reduced which explains hydrogen as an eco-friendly fuel that can be substituted as a secondary
fuel without changing the present design of engine.
1.05

0.95
0.89 LPM
0.85 1.37 LPM
1.66 LPM
0.75

FC (kg/h)
2 LPM
0.65
Diesel
0.55 0.89 LPM
1.37 LPM
0.45
1.66 LPM
0.35
2 LPM
0.25 Diesel
0 2 4
BP (kW)

8
Fig. 3 Variation in diesel Fuel
consumption with HHO gas addition 7

6 Diesel

5 0.89 LPM
CO2 (%)

1.37 LPM
4
1.66 LPM
3 Diesel

2 0.89 LPM
1.37 LPM
1
1.66 LPM
0
0 1 2 3 4

BP (kW)

Fig. 4 Variation in carbon dioxide emission with HHO

gas addition
5. REFERENCES

[1] Ali Can Yilmaz, Erinc¸ Uludamar, and Kadir Aydin. (2010) Effect of hydroxy (HHO) gas addition on
performance and exhaust emissions in compression ignition engines, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 35,
pp. 1366 to 1372.

542
[2] Al-Rousan, Ammar A. (2010) Reduction of fuel consumption in gasoline engines by introducing HHO gas into
intake manifold, International journal of hydrogen energy 35.23, pp. 12930-12935.

[3] R B Duriraj, J Shanker, and Dr. M Sivasankar.(2012) HHO gas with biodiesel as dual fuel with air preheating
technology, Procedia Engineering, 38 pp. 1112 – 1119

[4] Santilli, Ruggero Maria. (2006) A new gaseous and combustible form of water, International Journal of
Hydrogen Energy 31.9, pp. 1113-1128.

[5] Dweepson, S. Chinnasamy Subramanian, J. Ashok kumar, and S. Sakthivel. (2014) An Experimental
Assessment of Performance and Exhaust Emission Characteristics by addition of Hydroxy (HHO) gas in Twin
cylinder C.I. Engine”, IJIRSET, 2.

[6] Dülger, Z., and K. R. Özçelık. (2000) Fuel economy improvement by on board electrolytic hydrogen production,
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 25.9, pp. 895-897.
[7] Jiju Antony. (2003) Design of Experiments for Engineers and Scientists, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK, 1st
edition

543
 ICAER-2015

Thermal Performance of a Heat Pipe Embedded Evacuated Tube

Collector in a Compound Parabolic Concentrator
a a a1
Debabrata Pradhan , Debrudra Mitra , Subhasis Neogi
a
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development and performance evaluation of a compound parabolic concentrator for
medium temperature application. In the present study Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) has been used as a non-
imaging solar concentrator. A single piece of evacuated tube heat pipe solar collector has been used to collect the solar
radiation which is concentrated by the CPC. The condenser of the heat pipe has been directly inserted into the storage tank.
The performance of the system has been evaluated for different tilt angles. Different performance parameters such as system
thermal efficiency and standard power have also been evaluated in this paper.

Keywords: Evacuated tube heat pipe solar collector; Compound Parabolic Concentrator; System thermal efficiency; Standard
power.

1. Introduction

Solar thermal energy systems are considered as the most economical choice among all renewable energy
systems. Different types of solar collector are used depending upon the level of temperature application. Flat
Plate Collectors are used for low temperature applications. To attend medium temperature applications, i.e.
applications in the temperature range between 100-2500 C, it has become imperative to concentrate the solar
radiation. Various methods are available for concentrating the solar radiation like compound parabolic
concentrator, parabolic trough concentrator, fixed reflector-moving receiver, fixed receiver-moving
reflector, Fresnel lens and central receiver etc [1] .
In our present study we have restricted our field to concentrating the solar radiation utilizing compound
parabolic concentrators. These non-imaging concentrators have the capability of reflecting to the receiver the
entire radiation incident on the aperture over ranges of incident angles within the acceptance angle of the
concentrators. Compound Parabolic Concentrators are special types of solar collector fabricated in the shape of
two meeting parabolas. It is considered among the collectors having the highest possible concentrating ratio. It
belongs to the non-imaging family. As it has large aperture area, only intermittent tracking is required [2].
In addition, the evacuated tube-heat pipe mechanism is adopted for transferring the useful heat at a higher
efficiency. In such evacuated tube systems, losses are significantly reduced due to vacuum enclose. Both diffuse
as well as beam component of solar radiation are converted to useful heat [3].
The heat pipe integrated into the evacuated tube collector systems result in a very quick response provide
higher level of attainable temperature. Compound Parabolic Concentrators (CPC) are used in such kinds of
applications where medium temperatures at around 1000C are required. Thus, a system combining a compound
parabolic collector with an evacuated tube heat pipe is proposed for concentrating and collecting solar radiation.
This in turn will attend higher degrees of temperature. The collected heat energy at medium temperature can be
utilized for various applications. In the present study, the collected heat has been utilized for boiling a given
quantity of water to evaluate the performance of the solar water heating systems for medium temperature
application.

1
Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 033 2457 2907;
.E-mail address: neogi_s@yahoo.com

544
Nomenclature
Cc Specific heat of the material of container, J/(kg-k)
Cw Specific heat of water, J/(kg-K )
Mc Mass of container, kg
Mw Mass of water kept during the test, kg
t duration of the interval, s
Aa Aperture area of the CPC
I Average solar radiation during the interval, W/m2
Tf Water Final temperature, 0C
Ti Water initial temperature, 0C
Tw Water temperature, 0C
Ta Average ambient temperature during the interval, 0C
∆T Temperature difference, 0C
AC Total surface area of the container, m2
Cc Specific heat of the material of sterilizing container, J/kg K
τo Time constant, min
FUL Heat loss factor, W/(m2k)
ɳ Efficiency

2. Methodology

2.1. Experimental set up

Ideal CPC has been designed in AutoCAD as shown in Fig. 1. Three structures have been created using mild
steel bars which have been used as two end supports and middle support. These three supports have then been
integrated into a single structure by four steel bars. A thin fiber sheet has been screwed on the inner surface of
the CPC structure. Before screwing, an aluminium tape has been pasted on the top of the fiber sheet. Stand 2 has
three cross arms to hold the CPC at three different angles. It also has three hole-pairs at three different heights to
hold the container holder. The storage tank has been made of galvanized iron sheet. A small hole has been
created at the side surface of the container such that the heat pipe condenser could easily be inserted into the
container. The heat pipe has been connected to storage tank using high temperature silicon sealant. Extruded
polystyrene (XPS) and asbestos tape have been used as thermal insulation. In the present work two
pyranometers have been used to measure the global radiation. One pyranometer is set on a horizontal plane and
other is set on the CPC plane. A thermocouple has been used to measure the ambient temperature. One
thermocouple has been connected to the condenser of the heat pipe to measure the temperature of the heat pipe
condenser. Another thermocouple is placed at the middle of the storage water to measure water temperature.
The compound parabolic concentrating collector has been positioned such that the absorbers are aligned in a
north-south orientation, facing the sun at a tilt angle of 150,250 and 450.

2.2. Heating test

Heating test is very useful to determine thermal efficiency and Standardized Power of the systems. Before
the start of heating test the CPC has been covered by a white coloured cover such that no radiation can fall on
the CPC before starting of the experiment . Water has been pouerd into the contaier and it has been covered by
the top cover and XPS insulation. The cover of the CPC has then been opened and temperature of the heat pipe
and ambient have been monitored and collected through the data logger systems.Intermittent tracking has been
done for getting maximum solar radiation at the aperture of the CPC.

2.3. Cooling test

After the heating test as the water temperature reaches 950C, the compound parabolic concentrator has been
held in a position such that no solar radiation can fall on its aperture directly. Then the whole CPC has been
shaded by white coloured cover to ensure total blockage of solar radiation. Temperature of the heat pipe, water
and ambient have been measured and recorded. Heat loss factor of the container has been calculated from the
cooling test [4].

545
Fig. 1. Profile of the CPC Fig. 2. Front view of the system

Fig.3. Evacuated tube heat pipe solar collector

Fig. 4. Insulated container

546
 Table 1: Different components specifications

Component Parameter Value /Description Unit

Storage tank Storage tank material Galvanized iron -
Height 140 mm
Length 200 mm
Width 120 mm
Insulation XPS, Asbestos tape -

Heat pipe Length 1800 mm

Material Copper -
Evaporator length 1700 mm
Evaporator diameter 6 mm
Condenser length 100 mm
Condenser diameter 10 mm
Heat transfer fin Aluminum -

Evacuated tube Tube length 1780 mm

Outer tube diameter 58 mm
Inner tube diameter 52 mm

CPC Aperture area 0.5967 m2

Aperture length 1700 mm
Aperture width 351 mm
Half acceptance angle 27 deg.
Original concentration ratio 3.73
Original reflector height 493 mm
Truncated concentration ratio 3.53
Truncated aperture width 351 mm
Truncated reflector height 367 mm

 Heat loss factor

Heat loss factor is calculated using known values of time constant for cooling (τ0), surface area of the
container (Ac), and total thermal capacity of the container. Though some amount of heat is also stored within
the heat pipe, here it is neglected. The value the heat loss factor (F UL) of the system is calculated using the
following equation.

FUL= (1)

 Time constant for cooling

The Logarithmic method is used here to find the time constant for cooling. For each set of the data points from
cooling test, the values of [ln (Tw-Ta)] are calculated. Now value of [ln (Tw-Ta)] on Y axis and corresponding
time on X axis are plotted. A straight line is fitted using these points. The slope of the line equals to (-1/τo),
where τ0 is defined as the time-constant for cooling. Time constant for cooling is calculated for three different
tilt angles separately. For each cases cooling test is done for few days and average value of τ o is consider as
time constant for cooling at that tilt angle.

2.4. System thermal efficiency and Standard power

System thermal efficiency during heating is calculated using eq. (2)

(2)

Standard power of system has been taken based on the temperature change of the load under known insolation

547
condition [5]. This has been calculated considering standard insolation of 850 W/m 2.The standard power of the
system has been calculated using the eq. (3)

Standard power (3)

Here System thermal efficiency and Standard power have been calculated for 10 minute interval
Mean temperature difference for each of the test interval has been calculated by the following equation

(4)

Standard power on Y-axis and ∆T on X axis have been plotted for each interval. A least square linear
regression of the plotted points have been used to find the relationship between standard power and the mean
temperature difference

3. Results and Discussion

Variations of insolation and temperature of the heat pipe and ambient temperature with time during heating test
has been given in Fig. 5. Thermal efficiency of the systems during the heating test has been plotted in Fig. 7

Ggggg

Fig. 5. Variations of insolation and temperature of the heat pipe,water and ambient with time during heating test

548
 30

25

20

Efficiency
15

10

0 20 40 60 80
Time (min)

Fig. 6. Power Vs time for 250 tilt angle Fig. 7. Efficiency Vs time for 250 tilt angle
For Heating test curve for Heating test curve

Fig. 8. Variations of insolation and temperature of the heat Fig. 9. ln(Tw-Ta) vs time
pipe,water and ambient with time during cooling test

Table 2. Standard power for three different tilt angles

Tilt Equation of standard power Standard power for

angle(deg.)
ΔT=50(W)

45 Y= -0.83 * X + 123.19 81
25 Y= -1.072 * X + 130.78 77.28
15 Y = -1.22 * X + 132.77 71.77

549
 Table 3. System efficiency for different days test

Tilt avg. (%) avg. (%) avg. (%) avg. (%) mean of avg.
angle(0) of of of of (%) of test days
Test day1 Test day2 Test day3 Test day4 1,2,3 and 4

45 19.58 21.78 18.56 20.41 20.08

25 19.29 20.92 19.09 19.13 19.6
15 19.73 17.70 18.56 18.39 18.59

Table 4: Heat loss factor for different days’ test

Mean of heat
Heat loss factor Heat loss factor Heat loss factor Heat loss factor loss factor
for for for for for
Tilt angle(0)
Test day1 Test day2 Test day3 Test day4 Test day
(w/m2.K) (w/m2.K) (w/m2.K) (w/m2.K) 1,2,3and 4
(w/m2.K)

45 2.67 2.31 2.29 2.20 2.37

25 2.11 2.14 2.17 2.77 2.29
15 2.38 2.34 2.03 2.92 2.42

Thermal efficiency of the system for three different tilt angles was calculated for ten minutes interval. On four
different days, for each tilt angle, data were recorded to calculate the efficiency. The values of efficiency were
then averaged to obtain the average efficiency of the system. For each test day, it was observed that the
efficiency of the system increased, reached maximum value and then decreased. The thermal efficiency of the
system for first ten minutes was lower because the input energy is used here to heat up the heat pipe. After
heating up of the heat pipe the efficiency of the system was initially higher because of high rate of heat transfer
between heat pipe condenser and water and due to lower heat loss from the container and heat pipe to
surroundings as water temperature was comparatively low. But as the water temperature increases, the
efficiency of the system decrease gradually due to lower heat transfer from heat pipe to water and higher heat
loss from container and heat pipe to surroundings. It was found that mean of average thermal efficiency for four
day test is highest for tilt angle of 450 and lowest for 150.

4. Conclusions

In the present study, it has been found that the system thermal efficiency was slightly higher for tilt angle 450
and slightly lower for tilt angle 150.The standard power of the system for temperature difference of 500C for tilt
angle 450,250 and 150 have been found to be 81W, 77.28 W and 71.77 W respectively. Heat loss factor of the
container for tilt angle 450,250 and 150 are 2.37 W/m2.K, 2.29 W/m2.K and 2.42 W/m2.K respectively. The heat
loss factor has been found almost same irrespective of tilt angle. This is because the storage tank was well
insulated. It has been observed that after 72.6 minutes water reached temperature of 950C from 31.70C for a
water load of 1.79 kg. It has also been observed that after around 62 minutes the heat pipe reached a temp of
1000C and the water near the heat pipe condenser started to boil. From the experimental results it has been found
that the system could provide adequate temperature needed for boiling water application.

5. References

[1] S. P. Sukhatme, Solar Energy, Tata Mcgraw-Hill publishing company limited, New Delhi, 2006.
[2] J. A. Duffie, W. A. Beckman, Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes, John wiley&sons, New York, 2006.
[3] Dan Nchelatebe Nkwetta , Mervyn Smyth ,Aggelos Zacharopoulos and Trevor Hyde (2012) “In-door experimental analysis of
concentrated and non-concentrated evacuated tube heat pipe collectors for medium temperature applications” ,Energy and

550
 Buildings , 47 , 674–681.
[4] Kumar, S., Kandpal T. C. and Mullick, S.C. (1996) Experimental test procedure for determination of optical efficiency factor of a
parabolloid concentrator solar cooker, Renewable Energy, 7(2), pp. 145-151
[5] ASAE Standard, Testing and Reporting Solar Cooker Performance, ASAE S580

551
 ICAER-2015

Studies on the Developing of Nano-Structured ‘Cu 2 S’ film for

photovoltaic application

Ratan Mandala*, Gaurab Basub, and Biswajit Ghosha

a
Faculty, School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032.

b
Post Graduate Student, School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032.

Abstract

Current efforts have been given to develop new photovoltaic materials to improve the efficiency with reducing cost. The factors
that have been taken into account in developing new photovoltaic materials include: a suitable energy band gap, the possibility of
depositing the material using low cost deposition methods, abundance of the elements and low environmental costs with respect
to the synthesis of the elements, production, operation and disposal of modules. It’s been a long time that continuous efforts has
been given to find out the most appropriate material to be employed as absorber material for solar cell and some advanced
material has been proposed too as potential solar cell material. Here in our present study we have taken Cu 2-x S as a suitable p-
type absorber layer material but the formation of stable Cu 2-x S film was being difficult task. Different researchers proposed
different methods among them we have found the elemental stacked layer deposition method is one of the promising technique.
But this technique requires further optimization on thickness and layer no’s to get the best result with required stoichiometry.
With this context we have tried to optimize the thickness and layer no’s for developing multilayer Cu 2-x S thin film on the glass
substrate by physical vapour deposition technique. The results obtained in this method shows that the optimum numbers of layer
is 10 ensures formation of crystalline Cu 2 S structure with optical band gap is around 1.65 eV to 1.85 eV by different
characterization technique like XRD, EDX, SEM, Spectrophotometry and PL. The I-V characteristic of Schotkey junction using
silver and bulk resistance (ρ b ) with the sample shows semiconductor behaviour of the same.
To the best of our knowledge this is the first time such type of nano-structured Cu 2 S film fabrication is reported.

Keywords:Cu 2 S, Physical vapour deposition, Elemental stacked layer, Absorber layer, Optimization, Band gap.

1. Introduction

With the increase of population and advancements of technology, the demand for energy will increase more than
100% in 40 to 50 years from now. There are different renewable energy sources like solar energy, wind energy,
oceanic energy, and bio-energy etc. are available to solve this energy crisis. Burning up fossil fuel add hazardous
chemical in our environment, by using renewable energy we can save our planet from such poisons. Here we can
take solar energy as the solution. It has a huge potential and we have the technology to convert the solar energy into
electricity. Current statistics shows, annually total incident solar energy on earth is 10000 times the present global
consumption. In India the incident solar radiation is 110 times its present consumption. Solar Photovoltaic is the one
of the promising technique to convert solar radiation in to electricity. A meaningful contribution of solar energy to
the world electric power budget will be possible if the cost of the solar cells or modules must reach a commercially
acceptable price in comparison to the other sources of energy. There are number of approaches for achieving this
goal, which are: (i) reduction of material requirement and raw material cost implies low material cost, (ii) lowering
the fabrication cost, (iii) increasing the solar conversion efficiency and (iv) increasing the device lifetime.
_______________________________________
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9474608241
E-mail address: ratan_mandal99@yahoo.co.in

552
 In this context the thin film technology would be the best option. Copper (Cu) based semiconductors like Cu 2 S,
CuInSe 2 , etc. have emerged as the potential materials for the fabrication of many optoelectronic devices specially in
Solar Photovoltaic application. Cu 2 S is a p-type material having direct band gap of 1.21-1.7 eV in the optical range
and best suited for its use as the absorber layer in PV conversion structure [1,2]. Moreover, the material is cheap and
abundant in availability and non-toxic in nature. In the early 60’s to 80’s Cu 2 S were studied using CdS as hetero-
junction partner for various device applications [3,4]. Many devices like solar cell, nuclear radiation detector were
fabricated using the p-n junction of these materials. But the problem was the performance degradation of such
devices with time.Considering the importance of nano-crystals in technological applications for resisting the problem
of performance degradation, a large number of research work and studies on the chalcogenides in electronics and
absorbing coatings, selective radiation filters in architectural windows, electrodes, chemical sensors, optoelectronic
devices, thermoelectric cooling materials, and catalysts [5-11], among others, were emerged out. Some numerous
studies have been reported on the Cu based binary system in the form of powder, bulk, and as well as in thin films
forms with different compositions and properties [12].These differences in the properties originated mainly by
factors related to phases equilibria, because of a strong tendency of Cu and Sulphur (S) to form several metastable
and nonstoichiometric phases. The copper based semiconducting materials in chalcogenide (Cu X S) system is known
to have five different stable phases at room temperature and these are chalcocite (Cu 2 S), djurleite (Cu 1.95 S),
digenite(Cu 1.8 S), anilite (Cu 1.75 S), and covellite (CuS) [13] with a crystal structure varying from hexagonal to
orthogonal.

Several techniques have been utilized in order to obtain Cu X S thin films; the more common are solvo-thermal
method[14-27], atomic layer deposition, hydrothermal, photo chemical deposition, sono-chemical, microwave
assisted reaction, solid state reaction, metal-organic deposition, vacuum evaporation, micro-emulsion, spray
pyrolysis, polyol route, chemical bath deposition (CBD) and elemental stacked layer deposition. Each of the above
methods has their own flexibility and limitations. As for example; the CBD is a cheap and powerful technique for
preparing thin film materials at atmospheric pressure and comparatively at low temperature (less than 95∘C). Using
CBD method it is very much possible to make large area thin films in any type of substrate and of almost any shape.
The vacuum evaporation technique with elemental stacked layer deposition method has its own flexibility to
deposition in many stoichiometric compositions and found one of the promising options.

But whatever be the deposition techniques, the major aim was to develop quality films at large scale productions.
Thus, the techniques were assessed in terms of the properties of the obtained films available from a particular
technique.

Researchers concentrated their attentions on the copper sulphides due to its interesting optical and electrical
properties, resulted from the variations in stoichiometry, composition, morphology, and due to their potential
applications in various fields. The major thrusts were given for its use as the absorbers for solid state solar cells or in
photo catalytic reactions [28].Solid-state solar cells are considered attractive devices for the next generation of
photovoltaic cells. Copper sulphides can be considered in some ways ideal absorber materials due its salient features
like; it is non-toxic, cheap and, the most important features that the material is abundant, and with good absorption
characteristics. The researchers projecting about the emergence of Extremely Thin Absorber (ETA) cells which is
one of the few configurations with potential to exploit the favourable qualities of Cu X S in a low-cost solar cell.
Additionally, Cu X S can be considered a model electronically “poor” semiconductor, and construction of a good solar
cell with it would be clear proof of its use in ETA principle [29].

Already it is mentioned that among the different methods of Cu 2 S fabricationproposed by different researchers,
we have found the elemental stacked layer deposition method is one of the promising technique for its own
flexibility to deposition in many stoichiometric compositions[27]. In this present study Cu 2 S films were made to
nucleate over bare glass substrate using physical vapour deposition method. Thickness of the test sample along with
the number of elemental Cu & S layers was the focus of our study. Elemental layer thickness is being moderated to
restrict peeling of layers. Structure and morphological properties were investigated using X-ray Diffraction (XRD),
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) & Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) studies. Using EDX composition behavior
and atomic mass concentration of our test samples can be observed. From XRD pattern we determine Cu 2-x S mixed
phase identity. Here our study also highlights the band gap of obtained samples. Determination of bulk resistance
(ρ b ) and contact resistance (ρ c ) taking ‘Al’ as contact material and I-V characteristics at room temperature revealed

553
the Cu 2-x S assumes semiconductor behavior as evident from earlier studies. To the best of our knowledge, so far
there has been no report on optimization of Cu 2-x S fabrication based on layer thickness and number of elemental
component layers.

Nomenclature

Å angstrom
Al aluminium
Cu cupper
CuInSe 2 cupper indium selenide
Cu 2 S cupper sulphide
EDX energy dispersive X-ray
ETA Extremely Thin Absorber)
eV electron volt
h Plank constant
I current
nm nanometer
PL photo luminance
PV photo-voltaic
PVD physical vapour deposition
ρb bulk resistance
ρc contact resistance
SEL stacked elemental layer
SEM scanning electron microscopy
TLM transmission line model
UV ultra-violet
V voltage
XRD X-ray diffraction
α absorbtivity
υ frequency
2. Methodology

Physical vapour deposition (PVD) system consists of a chamber (to be evacuated) and two pumps - rotary and
diffusion, connected through pipelines to the chamber. At first glass substrates are washed in acetone solution
followed by ultrasonic cleaning in acetone and deionised water. Then we place the glass substrate in the holder.
The rotary pump is used to create a low vacuum (~ 10-2 mbar) inside the chamber by sequentially opening the
roughing and backing valve. The corresponding pressure is measured by the Piranigauge. Then the diffusion pump
comes into action. With the help of the cooling tubes surrounding it and the oil-heating arrangement inside, it raises
the vacuum up to 10-5 mbar (measured by the Penning gauge). Inside the chamber there is a platinum filament and a
quartz crucible to place the sample to be evaporated. The substrate is placed in a holder above the filament or crucible.
The holder is provided with a heating arrangement and temperature recorder from outside. When the source material is
evaporated by passing current through its container, it rises up. As the chamber is evacuated to a high degree, the mean
free path of the evaporated molecules increases and becomes comparable to the source-to-substrate distance. As a
result, the molecules undergo very few collisions (compared to that at normal pressure) between themselves as well as
the air molecules inside and the major portion of them can reach the substrate to condense on it.Copper (Cu) sheet,
inside platinum filament was heated in the range of 30 to 40 ampere. It will deposit Copper layer on the glass
substrate. Sulphur (S) powder is placed in a graphite crucible (whose neck was filled with quartz wool) was
gradually heated to start evaporation using Electron beam gun by maintaining a heating current of ~30 ampere.
Using this process Sulphur layer is deposited. Deposition process was continued depending on the number of layers
required. Thickness of the film and the deposition rate were continuously monitored using a crystal oscillator
controlled digital thickness monitor. After the film achieved the required thickness, the evaporation was
stopped; the substrates were allowed to cool and then brought out of the deposition chamber. Throughout our study
we have prepared many Cu 2-x S thin film, after so many different studies, we took five test samples to represent our
final test results showed in Table 1.

554
 Table 1. Sample names with corresponding thickness parameters

Sample Number of layers Elemental layout(bottom to top) Sample thickness(Å)

S1 6 Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S 375

S2 7 Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu 468

S3 10 Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S 519

S4 8 Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S 524

S5 6 Cu-S-Cu-S-Cu-S 515

3. RESULTS AND DISSCUSION

In our present work five different samples were studied using structural, optical and electrical
characterization methods. X-ray Diffraction is a tool used for determining the atomic and molecular structure of a
crystal; it will indicate the formation of Cu 2-x S. The value of x ranges from 0 to 0.2 depending on the various process
parameters. XRD pattern of sample S3 and S4 are shown in Fig. 1.

a. b.

Fig.1. (a) XRD pattern of sample S3; (b) XRD pattern of sample S4.

The particle grains structure, uniformity of the surface morphology, crystalline structure, and grain boundary
are some of the important attributes that can be determined using SEM study shown in Fig 2.

a. b.

Fig. 2. (a) SEM image of sample S3; (b)SEM image of sample S4

555
 Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis study is done to evaluate the bulk compositional ratio of the constituent
elements expected to be formed out to the fabricated samples. It generally measures the composition at the bulk as
the depth of penetration in to the sample is up to a few microns. Percentage analysis of Cu and S from EDX study is
shown in a tabular form below (Table 2.) also the EDX pattern of sample S3 and S4 are shown in Fig. 3.

a. b.

Fig. 3. (a) EDX pattern of sample S3; (b) EDX pattern of sample S4.

Table 2. Percentage Analysis of Cu and S from EDX study

Sample Cu (Atomic %) S (Atomic %) Ratio(Atomic %)

S1 64.55 35.45 1.82

S2 67.86 32.14 2.11

S3 67.33 32.67 2.06

S4 65.22 34.78 1.87

S5 66.24 33.76 1.96

From the results of UV-visible spectrophotometry optical response of the films was measured. At first
transmittance of the films were plotted against different wavelength. From this data optical behaviour of the films
was detected and also direct energy band gap was calculated. PL is one of the most widely used experimental
methods for optical characterization. Her we have done PL testing on our test samples to find out the band gap. For
this analysis we use excitation wavelengths 410 nm, The UV emission PL peaks between 546 nm to 584 nm
corresponds to direct band to band electron transition. PL peaks around 480 nm originated due to defects in the
sample. Hence apart from band gap calculation we can study defect analysis of the test sample using PL. Emission
peak position and corresponding band gap of different sample using PL method as well as different band gap of test
sample determined by UV-visible spectroscopy is given in table 3. The variation of (α)2 with photon energy, hυ (eV)
for Cu2S film for) sample S2 and S4 and the PL characteristics are shown in Fig. 4. and Fig. 5.

556
 Table 3. Band gap obtained from PL and Spectrophotometry

Sample Thickness( Å) Number Emission peak Band gap (eV) Band gap (eV) from
of layers position (nm) in PL from PL Spectrophotometry

S1 375 6 576 2.15 1.8

S2 468 7 570 2.17 1.65

S3 519 10 584 2.12 1.7

S4 524 8 582 2.13 1.85

S5 515 6 546 2.27 1.8

a.
b.

hυ (eV) hυ (eV)

Fig. 4. Variation of (α)2 with photon energy, hυ (eV) for Cu2S film for (a) sample S2 and (b) sample S4.

a. b.
2000 2000
1500 1500
1000
500 1000
0 500
0 1000
0
WAVE LENGTH(nm) 0 500 1000
WAVE LENGTH(nm)

Fig. 5. Photo luminance (PL) characteristics of (a) sample S3 and (b) sample S4.

557
 From the I-V curve it is observed, that the response curve is similar to that of a diode in forward bias and reverse
bias condition at the presence of day light. It is well known that linear relation is observed for ohmic contacts. So this I-
V response ensures use of prepared film in semiconductor application.

Fig. 6. I-V Characteristics of Schotkey-junction formed with silver

Also the bulk resistance (ρ b ) and contact resistance (ρ c ) taking ‘Al’ as contact material is determined by TLM
method ensures the semiconducting characteristics of the same. The bulk resistance (ρ b ) and contact resistance (ρ c ) are
shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Bulk resistance (ρ b ) and Contact resistance (ρ c ) Cu 2 S sample preapared by optimized SEL method

Bulk resistance (ρ b ) Contact resistance (ρ c )

1.27X10^-4 Ω-m 5.1X10^-4 Ω-m2

The above results are very much encouraging. Many more studies on PV properties are going on for developing PV
device using suitable hetero-junction partner.

Acknowledgements

The authors want to acknowledge and give thanks to TEQIP cell, Jadavpur University for providing fund for
purchasing a vacuum coating unit for our laboratory at School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University. Without
having this unit these type of the work cannot be performed.

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[18] K. Okamoto and S. Kawai, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 12, 1973, p. 1130.

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[27] R.Mandal, D.Das, B.Ghosh, “Development of Nano-Structured ‘Cu2-xS’ Film for Photovoltaic
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560
 ICAER-2015

Modelling and Performance Analysis of U Type Evacuated Tube

Solar Collector Using Different Working Fluids
B. Kiran Naika, A.Varshneya, P.Muthukumara1, C. Somayajia
a
Deparment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institue of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India

Abstract

This paper presents the mathematical modelling of a U type evacuated tube solar collector required for heating a working
fluid. The developed mathematical model is used for predicting the outlet temperature and net heat gain by the working
fluid. The model predictions are compared with experimental data and a good agreement is observed between them.
Aqueous lithium chloride solution (LiCl-H 2 O), water and air are chosen as working fluids. The effects of working fluid flow
rate and inlet temperature, collector length, ambient temperature and solar intensity on the performance of the system are
investigated. It has been observed that collector length, working fluid flow rate and solar intensity have greater impact on
performance of the collector. The working fluid inlet temperature doesn’t have significant effect. Also, a detailed analysis on
aforementioned working fluids is carried out for U type copper tube and the results are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Thermal model, heat transfer coefficient, heat gain, U type evacuated tube solar collector

1. Introduction

In the recent times, due to global warming and projected fossil fuel depletion in reserves the utilization of
renewable energy got more attention. In this regard, solar energy is projected one of the most reliable alternative
energy sources due to its abandon availability and environment friendliness. In order to utilize solar energy in
most efficient way, several possible technologies have been explored over last three decades. Evacuated tube
solar collector is a device which is generally used to deliver heat for several applications such as water heating,
air conditioning, etc. This collector can achieve higher temperature range of above 120 °C, [1] due to their
combining effects of highly selective surface coating and vacuum insulation. Although many methods are
available for heating of working fluid, evacuated tube solar collectors are more attractive due to their capability
of having high heat extraction. Also, they are cost effective, most reliable and have reasonably longer life time.

Nomenclature

Ac area of the collector (m2)

D diameter (m)
cp specific heat at constant pressure (kJ/kg-K)
hc convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-K)
hr radiative heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-K)
km thermal conductivity of the material (W/m-K)
ṁ mass flow rate (kg/s)
Q tube net heat gain by the U tube (W)
Q useful net heat gain by the working fluid (W)
r radius (m)
S eff Solar radiation intensity (W/m2)
T temperature (°C)
U overall heat loss coefficient (W/m2)
V∞ ambient air velocity (m/s)
η Collector efficiency

* Corresponding Author. Tel.: (+91) 361-2582673; Fax: (+91) 361-2690762.

E-mail address: pmkumar@iitg.ernet.in

561
 Greek symbols

ϵ emissivity
α Absorptivity
τ transmissivity
σ Stefan Boltzmann constant (W/m2-K4)

Subscripts

a air
amb ambient air
avg average
a-c Between copper tube and air
c,is copper tube inner surface
c,os copper tube outer surface
cf,o copper fin outer surface .
cf,i copper fin inner surface
i inlet
i,1 inner surface of outer glass tube
i,2 inner surface of inner glass tube
o outlet
o-amb between outer tube and ambient
o,1 outer surface of outer glass tube
o,2 outer surface of inner glass tube
w,o working fluid outlet
w,i working fluid inlet
1-c Between copper tube and inlet fluid
2-c between copper tube and outlet fluid

(a) (b)

(c)
1
hr ,( o,2−i ,1) P o,1
r r r
1 l n( c ,os ) l n( o ,2 ) 1 l n( o ,1 )
hc ,1−c P c ,is
rc ,is 1 ri ,2
hr ,( o,2−i ,1) P o,2
ri ,1 Tamb
2π K m U a −c Pcf 2π K g 2π K g
Tamb
Tw,i Tc ,is Tcf ,o Ti ,2 To ,2 Ti ,1 To ,1 1
hc ,amb P o ,1

Fig. 1. Schematic of U type evacuated tube solar collector (a) Cross section (b) Illustration (c) Thermal network diagram.

The schematic of U-tube type evacuated tube solar collector is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of outer glass tube,
inner glass tube, copper or aluminum fin and U shaped copper tube (Fig. 1, a). Initially the solar radiation
incident on the outer surface of the outer glass tube is transferred to the outer surface of the inner glass tube and

562
then it is absorbed by the fin material. Finally, the energy collected by the fin is transferred to the working fluid,
flowing inside the U shaped copper tube, by the convective mode of heat transfer (Fig.1, b).

The heat transfer process occurring in an evacuated tube solar collector has been studied way back from
1970s. The first mathematical model for the heat transfer analysis and the performance predictions of the
aforementioned collector was studied by Eberlein [2] in 1976 using air as working fluid. In this study, it was
found the overall heat loss coefficient was very less in the collector due to the sealing of outer and inner glass
together and by maintaining evacuated annular space between the tubes. Using the formulated model,
investigated the performance of the collector by means of air and liquid as working fluid under identical
conditions. Zhiqiang et al. [3] and Morrision et al. [4, 5] modeled the natural circulation flow of the collector
experimentally and numerically using water as working fluid and concluded that for efficient heat transfer,
buoyancy effects and mass flow rates inside the tube played a significant role. Hazami et al. [6] and Nkwetta et
al. [7] studied the thermal performance of water in glass evacuated tube solar collector with different inner glass
surface coating. Depending upon the temperature of the working fluid, they classified heat transfer
characteristics of the surface coating as low (<100°C), medium (100-300 °C) or high temperature (>300 °C).
Neeraj and Avdhesh [8] experimentally investigated and compared the ordinary type, copper coil type and the
circular fin type headers for an evacuated tube solar collector coupled with latent heat storage device, where air
was considered as a working fluid. Form the experimental studies, they have observed that the outlet temperature
in an evacuated tube solar air collector using circular fin and copper coil gave better performance when
compared with the ordinary solar evacuated tube collector. Shah and Furbo [9] investigated the theoretical flow
of an all-glass evacuated tube collector and mentioned that collector tube with shorter length achieved the
highest efficiency. Kim et al. [10] compared the numerically investigated model with the Eberlein’s model and
suggested that one-dimensional numerical model could be used in designing the all-glass solar collector tube
very efficiently for different geometrical parameters. Liang et al. [11] validated the theoretical and experimental
investigations of U tube evacuated tube collector with filled type and concluded that this collector has a better
thermal performance with normal U-tube evacuated type solar collector. Badar et al. [12] evaluated the overall
heat transfer coefficient of evacuated tube both theoretically and experimentally. They found out that the
theoretical model has good agreement with the experimental model for air inside the glass cover. Gao et al. [13]
proposed a new mathematical model for predicting the thermal performance of U-type evacuated tube solar
collector by taking into account the temperature distribution along the tube radius and axis, and validated the
model with experimental data obtained using aluminum as a fin. They investigated the dependence of thermal
efficiency on ambient conditions and tube design parameters. Arturo et al. [14] numerically studied the low
temperature water in glass evacuated tube solar collector using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and
predicted the outlet temperature with the Boussinesq approximation model (BA) and variation of the properties
with the temperature (VPT) model. They concluded that the BA model has closer values for both thermal
efficiency and outlet temperature when compared with the VPT model.

Most of these studies on collector performance were focused on the enhancement of the design for various
components. Many researchers evaluated the overall performance of solar collectors experimentally [2-5, 8, 11,
16-18]. Most of the theoretical models developed were based on numerical simulations [6-7, 9-10, 12-15].
Compared to numerical investigation, analytical solution have advantages in analyzing the parameters which
affect the heat transfer performance. In the present study, a mathematical model is developed for predicting the
outlet temperature and net heat gain by the working fluid. The developed model reduces the complexity of the
solution and doesn’t require tedious numerical procedure. Furthermore, this model can be used for different
working fluids by altering the specific heat of the working fluids and the heat transfer coefficient from the U-
tube surface wall to the working fluids.

2. Mathematical modelling for evacuated tube solar collector

The following assumptions are made to simplify the analysis

• The process of heat transfer is steady.
• Solar intensity at the collector surface is constant throughout the collector.
• Specific heat of working fluids remains constant with respect to the temperature encountered in the system.
• Axial mode of heat transfer is negligible.
• Convective heat transfer between the inner surface of inner glass tube and the air gap is negligible.
• Hear loss of heat between copper tube and inner glass tube is negligible.

563
The energy balance for the outer and inner surface of the outer glass tube can be written as

2π k g l (Ti ,1 - To ,1 )
U o − amb (To ,1 - Tamb ) + =
0 (1)
ro ,1
ln( )
ri ,1
2π k g l (Ti ,1 - To ,1 )
hr ,( o ,2 −i ,1) (To ,2 - Ti ,1 ) + =
0 (2)
r
ln( o ,1 )
ri ,1
Energy balance for the inner glass tube is obtained as

2π k g l (To ,2 - Ti ,2 )
hr ,( o ,2 −i ,1) (To ,2 =
- Ti ,1 ) + hc , amb (Ti ,2 − Ta ) (3)
ro ,2
ln( )
ri ,2
Energy balance for the copper fin can be written as

ατ=
S eff U a − c (Tcf ,o − Ta ) + Qtube (4)
Heat transfer across the copper tube can be written as

K m (Tc ,is − Tc ,os )

Qtube × rcf ,i =
r (5)
ln( c ,os )
rc ,is

Energy balance for the working fluid is obtained as

Quseful
= mc  p (Tw,o − Tw=
,i ) hc ,1− c Ac (Tc ,is − Tavg ) (6)

Tw,i + Tw,o
where Tavg =
2

2.1 Heat transfer coefficients

The overall heat transfer coefficient between the outer surface of the outer glass tube and the ambient air is
formulated as [2]

U
= o−a hc , amb + hr ,o − amb (7)
Where

hc , amb
= 5.7 + 3.8V∞ [2] (8)

∈o σ (Tamb
hr ,o − amb = 2
+ To2,1 ) (9)

Radiative heat transfer coefficient between the outer surface of inner glass tube and the inner surface of outer
glass tube can be written as

σ (To2,2 + Ti ,12 )(To ,2 + Ti ,1 )

hr ,( o ,2 −i ,1) = (10)
Di ,1 (1− ∈2 ) 1 (1− ∈1 )
× + +
Do ,2 ∈2 F12 ∈1

The overall heat transfer coefficient between the copper tube and the inlet working fluid is
formulated as

564
 1
U= U=
1− c 2−c
Dc ,os D D (11)
+ c ,os × ln( c ,os )
Dc ,is × hc 2 K m Dc ,is

2.2 Collector Efficiency

The thermal performance of an evacuated tube solar collector is calculated using the collector efficiency (η). It
is defined as the ratio of the net heat gain capacity of the working fluid to the product of solar radiation incident
on the collector and area of the collector (A c ).

mc
 p (Tw,o − Tw,i ) (12)
η=
Seff Ac
This can also be calculated using following equation [19]

(Tavg − Tamb ) (13)

2
 T − Tamb 
ηo − a1  avg
η=  − a2
 Seff  Seff

Where η o is attained from the manufacture’s data sheet or official test reports, a 1 and a 2 are the thermal loss
parameters

3. Validation of model

Table 1. Evacuated tube collector dimensions and surface properties [8, 13].

Sl. Parameters Unit Evacuated tube Evacuated tube

No. collector- (a) [8] collector- (b) [13]
1 Outer glass tube diameter m 0.047 0.058
2 Outer glass tube thickness m 0.0012 0.002
3 Outer glass tube transmittance - τ= 0.8 τ= 0.8
4 Thermal conductivity of glass W/mK 1.2 0.74
5 Inner glass tube outer diameter m 0.037 0.047
6 Inner glass tube thickness m 0.0012 0.002
7 Selective surface properties of inner tube - α= 0.92 α= 0.92
8 Inner glass tube inner surface, emissivity (ε) - 0.8 0.8
9 Air gap m 0.001 0.001
10 Air thermal conductivity W/mK 0.03 0.03
11 Type of fin - Copper Aluminium
12 Fin thickness m 0.0006 0.00025
13 Thermal Conductivity of fin W/mK 307 202
14 U copper tube outer diameter m 0.008 0.01
15 U copper tube inner diameter m 0.0074 0.0095
16 Collector tube length m 1.5 1.8
17 Working fluid - Air Water
18 Specific heat at constant pressure (C p ) kJ/kg-K 1.005 4.2
19 Heat transfer coefficient between U tube wall and working W/m2K 250 700
fluid h c(1-c)

In order to use the developed analytical model for predicting the performance of the evacuated tube solar
collector with confidence, validation is needed. A comparison was made between the predicted values,
calculated using an analytical model by means of dimensions and surface properties specified in Table 1 and the
experimental values available in the literature. Reliable sets of experimental data using water and air as the
working fluid reported by Gao et al. [13] and Neeraj et al. [8] respectively were considered for the validation
purpose. A comparison of typical experimental results (eleven cases [8, 13]), with the results obtained from the
developed model, is given in Table 2. Since Gao et al. [13] and Neeraj et al. [8] provided no information about
the ambient air velocity used in their experimental facility, it is assumed as 2.5 m/s. The outer glass surface
temperature (T o-1 ) is adjusted using an increment ratio (temperature/intensity) of 0.002 (K-m2/W), for obtaining
slighter increment of T o-1 when compared with the ambient temperature (T a ). According to the results given in
Table 2, there is a very good agreement between the experimental data [8, 13] and the theoretically predicted
outlet temperature, the net heat absorbed by the working fluid and collector efficiency. In all the cases, the
predicted values for the above parameters have the maximum deviation of ± 9.1 %. Based on this preliminary
comparison, it is believed that the mathematical model described herein provided good prediction and added

565
confidence to use this model for quick estimate of the performance parameters. Further, the effects of the
ambient temperature and mass flow rate on the net heat absorbed by the working fluid, the influence of
evacuated tube length on the outlet temperature of the working fluid and the impact of working fluids (Air, H 2 O
and LiCl-H 2 O) on the performance of the evacuated tube collector by varying inlet temperature and solar
intensity are investigated using the present model. The parameters that have been kept constant are listed in
Table 3.

Table 2. Comparison of experimental results with the present model.

Working fluid – Air [8] for evacuated tube collector, a

Inlet parameters Outlet parameters
T amb T w,i ṁ S eff V T w,o Q useful η
∞
2
(°C) (°C) (kg/s) (W/m ) (m/s) (°C) (W) (%)
Exp. Present % error Exp. Present % error Exp. Present % error
33.5 33.5 0.018 469 2.5 39.8 39.35 1.13 273 257.27 5.76 79.57 79.64 -0.098
34 34 0.018 621 2.5 44.5 43.85 1.46 350 327.26 6.49 79.62 79.71 -0.113
35 35 0.018 758 2.5 46.4 45.77 1.36 381.5 359.41 5.79 79.67 79.74 -0.087
36.5 36.5 0.018 813 2.5 48 47.20 1.67 420 392.14 6.63 79.69 79.77 -0.100
37 37 0.018 834 2.5 49.7 48.77 1.87 444.5 412.07 7.29 79.60 79.69 -0.110
32 32 0.035 495 2.5 39.4 39.89 -1.24 106.2 115.08 -8.36 79.85 79.75 0.125
34.5 34.5 0.035 662 2.5 42.3 42.95 -1.54 149.4 161.11 -7.84 79.78 79.68 0.128
35.5 35.5 0.035 748 2.5 44.3 44.94 -1.44 167.4 179.00 -6.93 79.88 79.80 0.100
36 36 0.035 836 2.5 46.4 46.94 -1.16 178.2 187.92 -5.45 79.88 79.82 0.075
Working fluid – Water [13] for evacuated tube collector, b
Inlet parameters Outlet parameters
T amb T w,i ṁ S eff V T w,o Q useful η
∞
2
(°C) (°C) (kg/s) (W/m ) (m/s) (°C) (W) (%)
Exp. Present % error Exp. Present % error Exp. Present % error
23.7 22.9 0.027 926 2.5 29 29.63 -2.17 169.9 185.42 -9.11 80.38 80.21 0.211
23.9 56.6 0.030 860 2.5 61 62.61 -2.64 133.1 144.40 -8.53 80.51 80.42 0.111

Table 3. Operating parameters for parametric investigation

Sl. No. Operating parameters Unit Operating values

1 Ambient air temperature °C 34
2 Ambient air velocity m/s 2.5
3 Working fluid inlet temperature °C 32
4 Mass flow rate of working fluid kg/s 0.018
5 Solar intensity W/m2 834
6 Efficiency of the evacuated tube % 0.7
7 Dimensions of evacuated tube collector (Table 1) - Evacuated tube Collector- (a)
8 Working fluids - Air, H 2 O, LiCl-H 2 O
9 Licl-H 2 O properties [20] - C p = 1.280 kJ/kgK
h c,(1-c) = 400 W/m2
LiCl concentration 34 % of H 2 O

4. Results and discussions

Figure 2 illustrates the net heat absorbed by the water at different ambient temperatures and solar intensities
incident on the collector. To investigate this effect, the ambient temperature is varied from 34 to 40 °C that can
be obtained during high solar intensities. The net heat absorption increases linearly as function of ambient
temperature. The higher the solar intensity yields the greater rate of heat absorption by a working fluid. This is
due to the fact that, when the ambient temperature decreases, the heat transfer rate from the outer surface of the
glass tube to the working fluid decreases. This implies that, with decrease in solar intensity, there is a significant
decrease in radiative heat transfer between the outer glass and the inner glass tube and hence there is a decrease
in net heat energy absorbed by the working fluid. The ambient temperature causes significant variation in the net
heat absorption capacity at higher solar intensity and the effect is relatively insignificant at lower solar intensity.
For a given T amb of 37 °C, increasing the solar intensity from 800 to 1100 W/m2, increases the net heat
absorption by 29 %.

The influence of mass flow rate on the water outlet temperature is illustrated in Fig. 3. For the given operating
conditions, as the mass flow rate increases, the outlet temperature decreases. This indicates that at low flow rate
there is a longer period of contact between the working fluid and U tube wall and hence there is decrease in the
outlet temperature. From Fig. 3, it is observed that, for a given inlet temperature of 32 °C, the percentage change
in the outlet temperature for mass flow rate between 0.01 kg/s and 0.015 kg/s is greater than that of 0.015 and
0.02 kg/s. Therefore, it is recommended to operate the working fluid at lower flow rate as much as possible for
maximum heat gain from the U tube wall surface.

566
 475 Tamb - 34 °C
Tamb - 37 °C

425 Tamb - 40 °C

375

Quseful, W
325

275

225

175
750 800 850 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150
Solar intensity, W/m2

Fig. 2. Influence of ambient temperature on net heat absorbed by the working fluid (water).

46 400

ṁ - 0.01 kg/s L-1m

44 350
ṁ - 0.015 kg/s L - 1.5 m

42 ṁ - 0.02 kg/s L-2m

300
Outlet Temperature, °C

40
250
Quseful, W

38
200
36
150
34

100
32

30 50
30 32 34 36 38 40 42 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46
Inlet temperature, °C
Inlet Temperature, °C

Fig. 3. Influence of working fluid (water) mass flow rate on outlet Fig. 4. Influence of collector length on net heat absorption of the
temperature. working fluid (water).

Figure 4 shows the results obtained for the net heat absorbed by the working fluid for different collector length
and outlet temperatures. For a given collector length, as the inlet temperature increases the amount of heat
absorption decreases. It happens because lower the inlet temperature implies the higher rate of heat transfer and
with increase in inlet temperature, the heat transfer rate decreases drastically due to constant solar intensity,
thermal conductivity of the material (copper) and working fluid flow rate. From Fig. 4, it is also observed that
for a given inlet temperature of 32 °C, with increase in collector length there is a significant increase in net heat
absorption capacity but as the inlet temperature increases from 32 to 44 °C, there is insignificant effect on the
net heat absorption capacity. This is due to the fact that the decrement of the heat interactions from the working
fluid to the U tube surface and the collector efficiency (function of change in working fluid temperature)
apparently with increase in inlet temperature. Hence, there is a constant heat transfer gain beyond a particular
working fluid inlet temperature irrespective of collector length. Therefore, it is advisable that the length of the
collector should be synchronized depending upon the operating conditions.

Figure 5 shows the variation of the inlet temperature with the outlet temperature for various working fluids. The
outlet temperature increases with the increase in inlet temperature. In this study, three different working fluids
namely, air, H 2 O and LiCl-H 2 O which are entering into a U- copper tube are analyzed. The results indicate that
a higher heat transfer coefficient results in a higher outlet temperature. The difference in outlet temperatures
between the air and the water was about 10 °C for 40 °C inlet temperature and this difference was about 7.5 °C

567
for water and LiCl-H 2 O. In contrast, the corresponding outlet temperature differences between the air and the
LiCl-H 2 O is 3.2 °C (write in temperature) for 40 °C outlet temperature. However, some factors like chemical
reaction between the working fluid and the U copper tube, evaporation loss with increase in temperature of
working fluids are neglected during the analysis.

55 600

Air H2O
H2O 500 LiCl-H2O
50
LiCl-H2O Air

400
Outlet Temperature, °C

45

Quseful, W
300

40
200

35
100

30 0
30 32 34 36 38 40 42 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Inlet Temperature, °C Solar intensity, W/m2

Fig. 5. Variation of inlet temperature with outlet temperature for Fig. 6. Variation of solar intensity with net heat absorption
different working fluids phenomenon for different working fluids.

The variation of solar intensity with net heat absorption for different working fluids is illustrated in Fig.6. For a
given operating conditions, to investigate the effect of solar intensity with the net heat absorption, solar intensity
is varied from 700 to 1500 W/m2 (Table 3). For a particular solar intensity, the net heat absorption for H 2 O is
higher when compared to air and LiCl-H 2 O. This happens because of the difference in heat transfer coefficient
and specific heats of the working fluid. The difference in net heat absorption between the H 2 O and the air was
about 67 % for 700 W/m2 solar intensity and 74 % for 1100 W/m2, and this difference increases with increase in
solar intensity. The results also show that the net heat absorption difference between Air and LiCl-H 2 O was 46
% for 700 W/m2 and increased to 50 % for the 1100 W/m2 solar intensity; in contrast, the corresponding net heat
absorption differences between the LiCl-H 2 O and H 2 O were 40 and 48 % for 700 and 1100 W/m2 solar
intensities respectively. This indicates that the thermal conductance of the U-tube material (copper) with the
working fluid have a greater impact on the net heat energy gain. Moreover, it is observed from Fig.5 that the
solar intensity causes the insignificant variation in net heat absorbed by a working fluid at lower specific heat
and the effect is significant at higher specific heat.

5. Conclusions

An analytical solution of heat transfer process taking place in an evacuated tube solar collector was developed
under some reasonable assumptions based on the proposed mathematical model. The performance predicted
with the analytical solution showed very good agreement with experimental data available in the literature [8,
13]. It is found that the lower mass flow rate and the optimized collector length increase the outlet temperature
of working fluid. The effect of changing the ambient temperature on the net heat energy gain is more prominent
at high solar intensity compared to low intensity. Results of the study showed that the water has highest amount
of heat energy absorption capacity when compared with air and LiCl-H 2 O solution. Also, it is observed that the
higher specific heats and the higher heat transfer coefficients between the U-tube wall and working fluid
increase the heat energy absorption capacity significantly. For the detailed analysis of heat transfer processes
across an evacuated tube solar collector, this model provides more accurate prediction. In addition, using this
mathematical model one can quickly analyze the performance characteristics of different working fluids with
the known operating parameters.

References

1 G.L. Harding,Y. Zhiqiang, D.W. Mackey, Heat extraction efficiency of a concentric glass tubular
evacuated collector, Int. J. Solar Energy, 35 (1985) pp.71–79.
2 M.B. Eberlein, Analysis and Performance Predictions of Evacuated Tubular Solar Collectors using Air

568
 as the Working Fluid, University of Wisconsin, 1976.
3 Y. Zhiqiang, G. Harding, B. Window, Water-in-glass manifolds for heat extraction from evacuated solar
collector tubes.Int. J. Solar Energy, 32 (1984) pp.223–230.
4 G. Morrison, I. Budihardjo, M. Behnia, Water-in-glass evacuated tube solar water heaters, Int.J. Solar
Energy, 76 (2004) pp.135–140.
5 G. Morrison, I. Budihardjo, M Behnia, Measurement and simulation of flow rate in a water-in-glass
evacuated tube solar water heater, Int.J. Solar Energy 78 (2005) pp.257–267.
6 M. Hazami, N. Naili, I. Attar, A. Farhat, Solar water heating systems feasibility for domestic requests in
Tunisia: thermal potential and economic analysis, Int. J. Energy Convers Manage, 76(2013) pp.599–
608.
7 D.N. Nkwetta,M. Smyth, A. Zacharopoulos,T. Hyde, Experimental performance evaluation and
comparative analyses of heat pipe and direct flow augmented solar collector, Int. J. Appl Therm Eng
60(2013) pp.225–33.
8 N. Mehla, A. Yadav, Experimental analysis of thermal performance of evacuated tube solar air collector
with phase change material for sunshine and off-sunshine hours, Int. J. Amb. Energy, (2015) Vol. 2162-
8246.
9 L.J. Shah, S. Furbo, Theoretical flow investigations of an all glass evacuated tubular collector, Int. J.
Solar Energy 81 (2007) pp.822–828.
10 J.T. Kim, H.T. Ahn, H. Han,H.T. Kim, W. Chun, The performance simulation of all-glass vacuum tubes
with coaxial fluid conduit, Int. J. Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 34 (2007) pp.587–597.
11 R. Liang et al., Theoretical and experimental investigation of the filled-type evacuated tube solar
collector with U tube, Int. J. Sol. Energy, 85 (2011) 1735–1744.
12 A.W. Badar,R. Buchholz, F. Ziegler, Experimental and theoretical evaluation of the overall heat loss
coefficient of vacuum tubes of a solar collector.Int. J. Solar Energy 85 (2011) pp.1447–1456
13 Y. Gao, R. Fan, X.Y. Zhang, Y.J.AN, M.X.Wang, Y.K.Gao, Y.Yu. Thermal performance and parameter
analysis of a U-pipe evacuated solar tube collector, Int. J. Solar energy, 107(2014) pp.714-727.
14 J.A.A.Ayala, G.M. Rodriguez, M.P.Nunez, A.R.U. Ramirez and A.G. Munoz, 2015, Numerical study of
a low temperature water-in-glass evacuated tube solar collector,Int.J. Energy Convers Manage 94(2015)
pp. 472–481.
15 J.A. Duffie, W. Beckman, Solar engineering of thermal processes, 3rd ed., J. Wiley & Sons.
16 Grass, C. Schoelkop, W. Staudacher, L. and Hacker Z. (2004) Comparison of the optics of non-tracking
and novel types of tracking solar thermal collectors for process heat applications up to 300 1C, Solar
Energy 76 pp.207–15.
17 A.A. Ghoneim, N. Fisch,A.S.A. Ammar, E. Hahne. Investigation of evacuated tube collectors,
Int.J.Solar Energy 16(1994) pp.15–25.
18 Q. Lin,S. Furbo, Solar heating systems with evacuated tubular solar collector, EuroSun,98(1998), III.
2.27-1-7.
19 M.C. Rodríguez-Hidalgo, P.A. Rodríguez-Aumente, A. Lecuona, M. Legrand, R. Ventas, Domestic hot
water consumption vs. solar thermal energy storage: the optimum size of the storage tank, Int. J. Appl.
Energy 97 (2012) pp. 897-906.
20 S.K. Chaudhari and K.R. Patil, Thermodynamic properties of Aqueous solutions of Lithium Chloride,
Int. J. Phy. & Chem. Liq., 40(2002) pp. 317–325.

569
 ICAER-2015

Performance of Low Speed Electric Two-wheelers in the Urban

Traffic Conditions: a Case Study in Kolkata
Deepanjan Majumdar 1, Archisman Majumder , Tushar Jash,
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India

Abstract

The present study discusses the performance of the electric two-wheeled vehicles on the basis of their running conditions in
present day traffic in the urban regions. In this study survey based results and experimental outcomes were compared with
that of the conventional IC engine counterpart for the road conditions in the city of Kolkata. The specific energy
consumption of the electric variants were found to be 155.64 kJ/km and 114.5 kJ/km from the experimental and survey
results, respectively, compared to 810 kJ/km of the conventional two-wheelers. The specific energy cost and the specific
CO2 emission were also obtained from the study.
Keywords: Electric two-wheelers; specific energy consumption; specific CO2 emission; specific cost; road transport

1. Introduction

The rapid economic development of India has been accompanied with increase in the road transportation
activities in urban and rural areas of the country. About 80% of the total passenger transportation has been
reported to be shared by road transport sector [1]. The major transportation activities have been reported in the
urban and adjoining areas. Along with the economic progress, privatized mode of transport has experienced
much preference among the commuters. The maximum share among the privatized mode of transport has been
marked by the two wheeled vehicles, which consist of mopeds, motorcycles, and scooters, playing the most
important role in this sector. The low energy consumption compared to other forms of heavier vehicles, smaller
size, and easy manoeuvrability in the heavy traffic conditions have been the major advantages of two-wheelers
for the transportation of one or two passengers at a time [2].The energy intensity for conventional two-wheelers
in India varies from 0.55 to 0.45 MJ/ pkm for 2 stroke and 4 stroke models, respectively [3]. By the end of
March, 2010, the total number of registered two-wheelers was 71.8 million, which constituted 50.63% of total
vehicle fleet in India [4]. Again, 50% of the total gasoline consumption of the country has been reported to be
consumed by the two wheel vehicle fleet and the average daily travel for a two-wheeler in India has been
reported to be 24 km [2].
Presently, electric two-wheelers have penetrated the two-wheeler vehicle market, which are undoubtedly an
energy efficient mode of transport. Electric two-wheelers have two major variants; the low speed and the high
speed models. According to the daily average distance as recorded for the two-wheelers in India, the electric
scooters may be quite suitable for parallel running along with that of the conventional two-wheelers. But the
lower load carrying capacity and shorter distance travel per charge are the two major drawbacks for the electric
two-wheelers.

Nomenclature

pkm passenger-kilometer

Earlier study on small scale electric scooter trial showed that the energy consumption for electric scooters has
been 0.45 MJ/ km and that zero emission can be achieved if the electricity for charging can be derived from
renewable sources [5]. But the trial electric scooters had motor ratings of 3 kW, which are mainly the high speed
variants. Greaves et.al [6] studied the suitability of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) with prevailing traffics,
based on GPS data records of daily driving patterns in the city of Sydney. The results encourage the adoption of
BEVs among the vehicle owners. Again the impact of real-world driving pattern has been studied by Amjad et.al

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9903 44 8450

E-mail address:deepanjanmajumdar@yahoo.in

570
on the energy consumption pattern of a hybrid electric two-wheeler, in the city of Coimbatore [2]. The study
estimated the fuel efficiency and all electric range for a prototype and its simulated performance for both Indian
Driving Cycle and real-world driving cycle. Regarding the use of two-wheelers in India a recent study suggested
that, two-wheelers would be the preferred mode of transport in 2035 and that electric two-wheelers of low cost
and limited range were mostly suitable for intra city driving [7]. In the present study the suitability of low speed
electric two-wheelers with the present urban conditions have been analyzed for the traffic conditions at Kolkata
city in West Bengal.
Government of India has launched the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) for the
development of electric and hybrid vehicle technology in the country and its acceptance in the transport sector,
and from the recent financial year the subsidy under this scheme has been implemented to reduce the capital cost
of the electric vehicles. Thus the cost involved in the electric vehicle may reduce leading to the market
penetration of electric vehicles.

2. Methodology

The present study comprised of two separate procedures; firstly, the data for the operating conditions of the
electric two-wheelers were collected by conducting primary surveys among the vehicle owners with formatted
questionnaires. The daily travel data have been recorded from the available odometers, over a month. The
energy consumption data were also provided by the owners and were also estimated from the battery capacity. A
daily pattern of utilization of electric two-wheelers was thus obtained. Secondly, the real time performance of an
electric two-wheeler was studied as a part of the experiment, for obtaining the energy consumption data and the
performance characteristics with the present traffic conditions. The experiment has been conducted based on a
low speed electric two-wheeler available in the market. The data from the electric two-wheeler study has been
analyzed to obtain its pattern of energy consumption at different loading conditions, its performance in present
day traffic and to check the suitability with different traffic conditions. The specification of the vehicle under
study as shown in Fig.1 has been provided in Table 1.

Fig. 1 Test electric two-wheeler

Table 1 Test electric two-wheeler specifications

Vehicle weight 94 kg
Battery type VRLA Deep Discharge
Battery capacity 24 Ah
Electricity consumption /charge 1.25 units
Charging time 6 – 8 hrs
Motor type and Power BLDC (Hub motor) and 250 W
Max speed and range 25 km/hr and 70-75 km/ charge
Pay Load capacity 75 kg
Courtesy: Electrotherm (I) India

The charging facility for the test vehicle was established at the University premises, where the energy
consumption data has been recorded by the energy meters. The routes for on-road testing of vehicle performance
have been identified considering the limited range of the electric two-wheeler and non-availability of charging
points elsewhere. These routes included heavy traffic zones during the morning peak hours, medium traffic at

571
afternoon hours, and heavy traffic at evening hours. The performance of the vehicle has also been studied in the
low traffic zones at extreme southern fringes of the city. The routes identified have been shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 On-road test routes (Courtesy: Google Maps)

The data for speed variations, distance traversed, and route of travel have been obtained by GPS tracking
method. The corresponding distances traversed along with the energy consumed have been tabulated to find the
energy consumption pattern. The energy cost has been obtained from the tariff rate of the electricity utility of the
region. In this study the electricity utility tariff from CESC Ltd. has been considered at INR 6.41/ kWh. Again,
the charging procedure includes emission of CO2 at the thermal power stations. Thus the CO2 emissions related
to the charging of electric two-wheelers has also been calculated. CO2 emissions at thermal power stations have
been considered at 1.281 kg/kWh [8].

3. Results and Discussion

The result of the survey conducted among the electric two-wheeler owners had revealed that the purpose of
the vehicle utilization has been versatile in nature, from local commuting to delivery of goods. The study
showed that the numbers of electric two-wheelers were very less compared to the IC engine counterparts. The
major purpose of use of the electric two-wheelers has been limited to local services. A daily usage pattern
available from the survey has been shown in Fig. 3. The average daily usage of the electric two-wheeler has
been 26.2 km.

60

50

40
Kilometers

30

20

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Days

Fig. 3 Daily travel pattern for electric two-wheeler

The on road tests reveals that electric two-wheelers have been energy efficient than the similar vehicles
propelled by IC engines. The major counterpart of the electric two-wheelers has been considered to be the
present day scooters having continuous variable transmission technologies; this is because of the comparable
sizes, carrying capacities, kerb weights and wheel sizes. But the maximum speed and load carrying capacity

572
have been far different. The maximum speed and accelerating capability of the low speed electric two-wheeler
does not match with that of the IC engine vehicles. The high speed variants of the electric two-wheelers have the
capability to develop greater speed and acceleration to match with the conventional counterparts [5]. But the
high speed variants are less popular as these require similar legal procedures like that of the IC engine vehicles.
Thus the experiment was performed with low speed variant of electric two-wheelers, having a maximum speed
limit of 25 km/ h. Fig. 4 A-D shows the speed time variation for the electric two-wheeler, obtained from GPS
tracking, for different times of the day and routes.

Fig. 4 Speed time variation of Electric Two-wheeler

The average moving speeds for the test two-wheeler varied from 16.68 km/h to 12 km/ h depending on the
traffic conditions, whereas the maximum speed attained during the tests, varied between 36.11 km/ h to 22.03
km/ h. The maximum speeds of about 30 km/ h were achieved during the down slope movement on flyovers. In
the Fig 5, the charging regime of the test vehicle for each trip has been shown.
The specific energy consumption rate for the test electric two-wheeler has been found to be 155.64 kJ/km
compared to 810.67 kJ/km for the conventional scooters. Tables 2-4 show the comparison between electric two-
wheelers and the conventional scooters from the energy consumption and environmental perspective.

1.4
Energy Consumption (kWh)

1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
22.96 3.3 10.9914.01 13 8.1 9.4 17.8 14.9 11.6 17.17 19.4 3.8 9.2

Distance (km)

Fig. 5 Charging regime of test vehicle

573
 Table 2 Comparison between conventional scooters and low speed electric two-wheelers

Maximum Distance per

Vehicle Propulsion Technology Maximum Speed (km/ h)
refuel/recharge (km)

Conventional Scooters SI engine >80 225

Electric two-wheelers BLDC* motor 25 75 - 95

*BLDC – Brushless DC

Table 3 Energy consumption and cost

Vehicle Specific Energy Consumption (kJ/km) Energy Cost (INR/km)

Conventional Scooters 810.67 1.65

Electric two-wheeler (Survey) 114.50 0.20
Electric two-wheeler (On-road Test) 155.64 0.28

Table 4 Environmental impact

Specific CO2 emission Considering
Specific CO2 emission (g CO2/
Vehicle Technical Losses in Transmission at
km)
11.8% (g CO2/ km) [9]
Conventional Scooters 54.10 -
Electric two-wheeler (Survey) 40.74 45.55
Electric two-wheeler (On-road Test) 55.38 61.91

The test results obtained from surveys reveals that average energy consumption per kilometer of the electric
two-wheelers was about 19 % of that of the conventional scooters and also corresponds to the estimated electric
two-wheeler consumption in India by Saxena et.al [10]. The specific CO 2 emission results showed that the
electric two-wheeler test vehicle emitted about 14% more CO2 than the conventional scooters, considering the
transmission losses. But the emissions, in case of electric two-wheelers occur at the generating stations, which
thus remains centralized and can be controlled unlike that of the conventional ones that directly affects the urban
air quality.

4. Conclusions

The low speed electric two-wheeler has been found to be energy efficient than that of the conventional
counterparts. Among the two major variants of electric two-wheelers; the low speed ones have been mostly
preferred by the electric vehicle adopters, as these require no legal procedures like the high speed variants. As
obtained from the survey, the utilization of these vehicles has been purely local, within an average to and fro
distance of 30 km. This is also due to the absence of charging facilities other than household or office premises.
Though being energy efficient than the IC engine counterparts, the environmental factor remains challenging,
being at the similar level compared to that of the conventional scooters. The maximum speed, load carrying and
accelerating capacities, have been the major disadvantages of these vehicles.

References

[1] T.V. Ramachandra, Shwetmala, Emissions from India’s transport sector: statewise synthesis, Atmospheric Environment, 43(2009), pp.
5510-5517.
[2] S. Amjad, R. Rudramoorthy, S. Neelakrishnan, K.S.R. Varman, T.V. Arjunan, Impact of real world driving pattern and all-electric range
on battery sizing and cost of plug-in hybrid electric two-wheeler, Journal of Power Sources, 196(2011), pp. 3371-3377.
[3] B.S. Reddy, P. Balachandra, Urban mobility: A comparative analysis of megacities of India, Transport Policy, 21(2012), pp. 152-164.
[4] Transport Research Wing, Road Transport Year Book (2009-10 & 2010-11), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of
India, New Delhi, 2012.
[5] J.D.K. Bishop, R.T. Doucette, D. Robinson, B. Mills, M.D. McCulloch, Investigating the technical, economic and environmental
performance of electric vehicles in the real world: A case study using electric scooters, Journal of Power Sources, 192(2011), pp. 10094-
10104.
[6] S. Greaves, H. Backman, A.B. Ellison, An empirical assessment of the feasibility of battery electric vehicles for day-to-day driving,
Transportation Research Part A, 66(2014), pp. 226-237.

574
[7] P.R. Shukla, A.S. Dhar, M Pathak, K. Bhaskar, Electric Vehicle Scenarios and a Roadmap for India, PROMOTING LOW CARBON
TRANSPORT IN INDIA, UNEP DTU Partnership, Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development Technical University of
Denmark, November 2014.
[8] T. Jash, Renewable Energy And Environment, Geographical Review of India, 69(1)(2007), pp. 20-24.
[9] CESC Ltd. https://www.cesc.co.in/wp-content/uploads/invpresent/CESCInvestorPresentation-April2015.pdf, accessed on 16.10.2015.
[10] S. Saxena, A. Gopal, A. Fadke, Electrical consumption of two-, three- and four-wheel light-duty electric vehicles in India, Applied
Energy, 115(2014), pp. 582-590.

575
 ICAER-2015

Exploring Synergy Effect of Plasma with Lignite Ash on NOx Abatement in a Biofuel Exhaust

Vijetha Reddy1, Ann Sarah2, B S Rajanikanth21

1
EE Department, National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India
2
High Voltage Lab, EE Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India

Abstract

The paper focuses on treating the oxides of nitrogen (NO x ) present in a biofuel exhaust in a non-conventional way. The
biofuel or biodiesel is obtained from pongamia pinnata, a native Indian plant. While the biodiesel emissions have lesser
amount of carbon-monoxide and hydrocarbons, it has increased concentration of NO x which needs to be addressed.
Dielectric barrier discharges energized by high voltage repetitive pulses was used to cause the chemical reactions in the
plasma reactor. The plasma reactor is a dielectric glass reactor with a concentrically placed screw type electrode. To enhance
removal of NO x the plasma treatment reactor was connected in cascade with an adsorbent reactor. Pellets made out of lignite
fly ash, an industrial waste product, were used as adsorbents. This is a first-time attempt to study plasma-lignite synergistic
effect on exhaust gas treatment. Results indicate significant removal of NO x under the laboratory conditions in the cascaded
plasma-adsorbent treatment

Keywords: Biodiesel, NOx removal, electrical discharge, lignite ash, engine exhaust

1. Introduction

Air pollution is one of the major aspects of environmental pollution. The ever increasing number of petro-diesel
engines is one of the major causes of increased air pollution. The diesel exhaust releases harmful hydrocarbons,
carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides as well as soot and other particulate matter into the atmosphere. All this
contribute to acid rain, photochemical smog and various health hazards in human beings. Along with the
pollution issues, the faster depletion rate of fossil fuels (such as petro diesel) has also prompted mankind to look
for alternative options which are eco-friendly and renewable. Biofuels, which are derivatives of non-
edible/edible vegetable oils, are gaining popularity in recent years as a sustainable alternative to conventional
petro-diesel based engines [1-4]. Biofuels on one hand causes considerable reduction in volatile organic
compounds, particulate matter, soot, oil mist etc., but on the other hand may have higher concentrations of
nitrogen oxides, an aspect that needs to be addressed. The higher levels of nitrogen oxides in the bio diesel
exhaust may be due to the excess oxygen content in the hydrocarbon chain of the vegetable oils from which
biofuels are produced.

This paper addresses the nitrogen oxide emission control in a diesel engine which is fuelled by bio diesel
obtained from the seeds of pongamia pinnata, a native Indian plant. The raw oil extracted from the seeds
undergoes trans-esterification process which is a reaction of triglyceride (fat/oil) with an alcohol in the presence
of acidic, alkaline or lipase as a catalyst to form mono alkyl ester (biodiesel) and glycerol after which bio diesel
is separated out [4]. The conventional catalytic based systems suffer from finite life time factors and huge cost
implications whereas engine modifications have reached saturation from the point of optimizing the fuel
combustion. This has led the fellow fraternity, working in pollution control, to look for plasma based after
treatment techniques for cleansing the gaseous pollutants [5-8]. The radical induced reactions observed in a
catalytic converter can more or less be observed in a plasma treated exhaust environment, though the rate at
which these reactions happen differ. The reactions may include oxidation, reduction or dissociation of gas
molecules present in the exhaust. The literature shows that when the exhaust, which is rich in NO is treated with
electrical discharges, the highly oxidizing plasma environment result in copious conversion of nitrogen dioxide
(NO2) from nitric oxide (NO). Since the aim is to reduce NOx (NO+NO2), it may be necessary to use an
additive to control the increased NO2 component. One such additive can be an adsorbent, which can be
commercially obtained or prepared from industrial wastes [9-11].

We report in this paper a preliminary laboratory study on NOx abatement from a biodiesel exhaust using a

* Corresponding author. Tel/Fax: +91-80-22932373.

E-mail address: raj@hve.iisc.ernet.in

576
dielectric barrier discharge created by high voltage pulsed plasma in cascade with lignite ash as adsorbent,
which is an industrial waste. The making of the lignite ash pellets has been briefly described in this paper.
Earlier we have shown the successful NOx abatement with sub bituminous fly ash and an improved abatement
has been observed now with lignite ash. This study was carried out with the intention of providing a cheaper and
economically viable solution to exhaust emission control as well as an effective solution to waste disposal
problem in industries using lignite coal.

2. Experimental setup

The biodiesel prepared from pongamia pinnata was used to run a 5 kW DG set which acted as the source of
NOx in the present study. A portion of the exhaust was taken inside the lab and the rest was allowed to escape to
the atmosphere. The sampled raw exhaust was made to pass through steel wool, moisture adsorbent and
particulate filters to eliminate soot, oil mist, water vapor and other fine solid particulate matter retaining only the
gaseous components. A vacuum pump, connected before the gas treatment dielectric barrier discharge (DBD)
reactor, ensured a regulated gas flow in the present studies. Upon application of high voltage repetitive pulses to
the DBD reactor formation of radicals from the background O 2 /N 2 molecules occur which then induce chemical
reactions leading to conversion/reduction/oxidation of NOx. To further enhance the NOx removal efficiency,
the plasma treated exhaust was made to pass through an adsorbent system consisting of lignite ash. Gas
composition was measured using a gas analyzer. Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the experimental set-up.

Fig. 1 Experimental setup

The DBD reactor, shown in Fig.2, is a cylindrical glass reactor with a concentrically placed screw type
electrode. The glass reactor was wrapped with aluminium foil which acted as the ground electrode while the
high voltage was given to the screw electrode. The glass acts as the dielectric barrier preventing total breakdown
of the gap which is about 0.3mm.

Fig. 2 Gas Treatment Plasma Reactor

The high voltage power supply consists of a 25kV transformer charging a capacitor through a half-wave
rectifier. A motor driven spark gap repetitively discharges the capacitor producing a chain of pulses. The
frequency of pulses was 80 Hz with a rise time of 20-30 ns.

The adsorbent reactor is connected after the plasma reactor with the intention of enhancing NO x removal by

577
adsorption process. In the present study, instead of commercially available adsorbent, lignite ash procured from
Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited was used. Lignite ash, being an industrial waste, is abundantly available at
negligible price. It should be noted here that in our previous work we had demonstrated adsorption capabilities
of fly ash residue from sub-bituminous coal [11]. Fig.3 shows the lignite ash and its pellets. The lignite fly ash
powder was pelletized by mixing with a 1:1 mixture of sodium hydroxide (SH) and sodium silicate (SS). The
chemical composition of lignite fly ash shows the presence of several minerals including silicon, aluminium,
iron and magnesium in the oxide form and calcium in the carbonate form. After treatment it was observed that
there is an inclusion of sodium and increase of silica in the composition.

Fig. 3 (a) Lignite Ash (b) Lignite Ash Pellets

The morphology of lignite ash shows angular and spherical crystals, which when treated with a mixture of 1:1
sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solution, the particles agglomerate and reveal a porous character
contributing for the adsorption capabilities.

3. Results and Discussion

The experiments were carried out at room temperature. The sampled exhaust flow rate is maintained at 5lpm
and the exhaust is filtered and conditioned before treatment. The initial concentrations of the major gas
components studied in the present work are shown in Table 1

Table 1 Initial concentration of gas components in biodiesel exhaust

Gas Component 0% Load 20% Load

NO (ppm) 204 476
NO2(ppm) 16 37
NOX (ppm) 220 513
O2 (%) 17.8 15.96

The reaction pathways for NOx formation within the diesel engine at high temperature and pressure are:

N 2 + 2O 2 → 2NO 2 (1)

N 2 + O 2 → 2NO (2)

It should be noted here that the moisture present in the gaseous exhaust is removed by water traps and desiccant
drierite, and hence the possibility of formation of nitric acid vapor is negligible. The plasma atmosphere causes
dissociation of the background gas molecules N 2 and O 2 by means of highly energetic electrons leading to the
formation of N, O and O 3 radicals as shown in the following reactions:

O2+ e → O + O + e (3)

O2 + O → O3 (4)

N 2 + e → N + N +e (5)

These radicals in turn cause several reduction and oxidation reactions. The reaction pathways for NO/ NO 2
formation/ dissociation are given in [9].

578
Initially preliminary investigations were carried out to check residual ozone at the downstream of the gas
treatment reactor as this may affect NO x electrochemical sensors. Plasma was successively applied to dry air
and then to the engine exhaust and ozone was measured in both the cases. While in the former case about 360-
380 ppm of ozone was observed, in the latter case it was just 0-1 ppm. It can be inferred that all the ozone
generated inside the plasma reactor was utilized for causing various chemical reactions in the exhaust itself.

NO x abatement experiments were carried out under 0% and 20% loading conditions. Under no load conditions
the plasma reactor showed a good reduction efficiency of NO as shown in Fig.4. The NO concentration was
reduced from an initial value of 203 ppm to 9 ppm. The NO 2 concentration in the meanwhile increased from 6.6
ppm to a maximum of 126 ppm and then started reducing at higher energies owing to further reactions of NO2
with ozone. It should be noted here that about 50% of the NO gets converted to NO 2 and about 40-45% gets
reduced to other byproducts which needs further validation

Fig. 4 NO/NO2 variation with pulse energization at 0% loading

Fig.5 presents the NOx removal with plasma and plasma-adsorbent combination. The Plasma treatment alone
led to about 50 % NOx removal. When the plasma treated gas was made to pass through lignite ash filled
adsorbent reactor the DeNO x efficiency increased to 96% mainly due to the adsorption of NO 2 .However, when
the exhaust was treated with only adsorbent (zero plasma), the NO x removal was just 6% as shown in bar graph
in Fig.6.

Fig.5 DeNOx efficiency variation with pulse energization at 0% loading (Effect of Lignite Ash Adsorbent)

579
Interestingly, the adsorbent’s porous structure facilitate increased adsorption of NO 2 than NO thus resulting in
lesser removal of NOx when the exhaust is rich in NO which is the case under zero plasma. Once the exhaust
passes through oxidizing plasma environment, the aforementioned situation changes i.e, the plasma treated
exhaust will now be rich in NO 2 when compared to NO and when this exhaust passes through the adsorbent the
higher component of NO 2 gets adsorbed as evident from Fig.6. However, it was observed that significant
amount of NO too was reduced by the adsorbent reactor after plasma treatment when compared to zero plasma
case. This may be due to room temperature chemical reactions occurring between NO and the exhaust-
byproducts (resulting from plasma treated exhaust) in the presence of the adsorbent which needs further
investigation.

Fig. 6 Synergistic effect of plasma-adsorbent system on NOx removal at 0% Load

Studies were then carried out under loaded conditions by electrically loading the diesel generator set. The
loading was about 20%. Similar trends were observed under loaded conditions also. The initial value of gas
components, with 20% load increased to more than twice the value under no load conditions as shown in Table
1. It has been observed that plasma alone could remove only 12.5% of NO x at 70.26 J/L but plasma and
adsorbent together in cascade could achieve 87.5% DeNO x efficiency as shown in Fig.7.

Fig. 7 DeNOx efficiency variation with pulse energization at 20% loading (Effect of Lignite Ash Adsorbent)

Fig.8 compares the different gas treatment conditions under a constant specific energy of 70.26 J/L. As before,
he synergy effect for NO x removal was very much evident in the plasma-adsorbent case. Here too, a reduction

580
of NO in the adsorbent reactor indicated possibility of lignite ash induced chemical reactions in addition to the
adsorption phenomenon which needs to be studied further.

Fig. 8 Synergistic effect of plasma-adsorbent system on NOx removal at 20% Load

4. Conclusions

Experiments revealed that pulsed plasma DBD reactor with screw type corona electrode resulted in about 50%
NOx removal at no load conditions for a given specific energy which is quite significant when compared to the
other types of corona electrodes such as helical and pipe types [11]. The synergistic effect of pulsed plasma and
lignite ash adsorbent could produce DeNO x efficiency as high as 96% at 0% load and 86.5% efficiency under
load at just 70.26 J/L. It can be inferred that the lignite ash adsorbent, which is an industrial waste and available
free of cost, can be a better alternative to commercially available adsorbents for NO x reduction.

5. References

[1] Dwivedi, G. and Sharma, M.P. (2013) Performance evaluation of diesel engine using biodiesel from
pongamia oil, Int. J. Renew. Energy Res., 3(2), pp. 292–297.
[2] RajeshKumar, K., Channarayappa, Prasanna, K. T., Gowda, B. (2013) Design and performance study on
polypropylene biodiesel pilot plant for non-edible oils, Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, 3, pp. 79–86
[3] Bobade, S. N. and Khyade, V. B. (2012) Detail study on the properties of pongamia pinnata (karanja) for the
production of biofuel, Res. J. Chem. Sci., 2(7), pp. 16–20.
[4] Thiruvengadaravi, K.V., Nandagopal, J., Baskaralingam, Bala, V. S. S. and Sivanesan, S. (2012) Acid-
catalyzed esterification of karanja (pongamia pinnata) oil with high free fatty acids for biodiesel production,
Fuel, 98, pp. 1–4.
[5] Srinivasan, A. D. and Rajanikanth, B. S. (2007) Nonthermal-plasma-promoted catalysis for the removal of
NOx from a stationary diesel-engine exhaust, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., 43(6), pp. 1507–1514.
[6] Kogelschatz, U. (2002) Filamentary, patterned, and diffuse barrier discharges IEEE Trans. Plasma Science,
30(4), pp. 1400–1408.
[7] Wedaa, H., Abdel-Salam, M., Ahmed, A. and Mizuno, A. (2011) NO removal using dielectric barrier
discharges in a multi rod reactor stressed by AC and pulsed high voltages, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr.
Insul., 18(5), pp. 1743–1751.
[8] Chae, J.O. (2003) Non-thermal plasma for diesel exhaust treatment, J. Electrostatics, 57(3-4), pp. 251–262.
[9] Anusuya, B. and Rajanikanth, B.S (2015) Discharge Plasma Combined With Bauxite Residue for Biodiesel
Exhaust Cleaning: A Case Study on NOx Removal, IEEE Trans, on Plasma Science, 43(6), pp. 1974-1982
[10] Mohapatro, S. and Rajanikanth, B. S. (2012) Dielectric Barrier Discharge Cascaded with Red Mud
Waste to Enhance NOx Removal from Diesel Engine Exhaust, IEEE Trans. Dielectr.Electr.Insul., 19(2), pp.
641-647.
[11] Anusuya, B., A., Sanjana, K., Shekhar Kumar, M. and Rajanikanth, B. S. (2014) Discharge Plasma
Cascaded with Fly Ash for Removal of NOx in Biodiesel Exhaust: A Feasibility Study, International
Journal of Plasma Environmental Science & Technology, 8(2), pp. 98-102

581
 ICAER-2015

Enrichment of secondary wastewater sludge for production of

hydrogen using statistical optimization from crude glycerol by
mixed-culture
Vinayak Laxman Pachapura, Prianka Kuttyb, Satinder Kaur Brara*, Antonio Avalos
Ramirezc
a
Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Centre - ETE, 490, Rue de la Couronne, Québec(QC), Canada G1K 9A92
b
National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, Telangana 506004, India
c
Centre National en Électrochimie et en Technologies Environnementales, 2263, avenue du Collège, Shawinigan (QC), G9N 6V8 Canada
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+1) 418 6543116, Fax: (+1) 418 6542600, E-mail: satinder.brar@ete.inrs.ca

Abstract

Anaerobic fermentation using mixed cultures has emerged as a cost effective and sustainable method to produce hydrogen.
The pretreatment of wastewater sludge by five methods such as heat, acid, base, microwave and chloroform was conducted
and compared for hydrogen production. The highest hydrogen production across the pretreatment methods for heat treatment
was around 15.18 ±0.26 mmol/L of medium at 30 ºC using 1% crude glycerol as substrate. The heat pretreated inoculum
possessed better natural acclimatization activity for degrading CG and produced twice as much as hydrogen in comparison
to other pretreatment methods. Based on the results, heat treatment at 100 ºC for 15 min was selected for central composite
design (CCD) along with response surface methodology (RSM) was used as tool for optimization. The fermentation
condition such as crude glycerol (CG) concentration (2.5 to 25 g/L), percentage of inoculum size (InS) (2.5to 15 % v/v)
along with initial pH (3 to 7) was tested with hydrogen production as response parameters. The optimum conditions at 20
g/L of CG, 20% InS and at pH 7, resulted in maximum hydrogen production of 28.72 ±0.71 mmol/L. The increase in
concentration of crude glycerol with increasing inoculum size increased hydrogen production, however the effect of initial
pH was dominant and had a significant effect (p-value: 0.0011) in increasing hydrogen production. The mixed-culture
survived the potential inhibitors compounds present at 20 g/L of CG and overcome the substrate inhibiting concentration of
pure and co-culture system to produce maximum hydrogen production 28.72 ±0.71 mmol/L.

Keywords: crude glycerol; ethanol; hydrogen; mixed-culture; wastewater sludge.

582
 ICAER-2015

Marine Energy Turbine Performance: Effect of Blade Sweep

Paresh Halder1*, Abdus Samad 1
Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Laboratory (WEFEL)
1
Ocean Engineering Department, IIT Madras, Chennai, Pin-600036, TN, INDIA

Abstract

The present paper investigates blade sweep effect of a Wells turbine used in an oscillating water column (OWC) to extract
wave energy. The numerical analysis of flow was carried out by using a commercial software ANSYS CFX® v14. 0. Two
different blades were used: unswept blade and 10o backward-swept blade, respectively. It was found that the backward swept
blade strongly affects the blade stall margin. It was also observed that the flow separations of the swept and unswept blades
occur near the trailing edge and the leading edge, respectively.
Keywords: Wells Turbine; Blade sweep; Axial flow; Aerofoil.

1. Introduction

The Wells turbine, which is an axial flow air turbine, rotates continuously in one direction. Symmetric aerofoil
is used to construct the turbine blades having a stagger angle of 90o.
Curran and Gato [1] investigated two swirl energy recovery methods and reported that the viscous losses
constitute the largest part of losses. Halder et al. [2] reported the effect of casing-groove to enhance the turbine
performance and found a higher turbine performance. Halder and Samad [3] used different shapes of blade profiles
and it was shown that the blade shape influences the turbine performance. Several authors [4, 5] reported their
numerical and experimental works to show the effect of Wells-turbine blade sweep. .
In this paper, a numerical study of backward swept blade has been studied and the performance of a Wells
turbine has been reported. The results were compared with the existing experimental result and the flow analysis
is presented.

Nomenclature

T Shaft torque (N-m) U* Flow coefficient

LE Leading edge ρ Density (kg/m3)
FC Flow coefficient t Blade thickness (m)
N Speed of rotor, rpm U tip Rotor velocity (m/sec)
PS Pressure surface R tip Tip radius (m)
RANS Reynolds averaged Navier-Stoke equations ω Rotational speed (rad/sec)
SS Suction surface T* Torque Coefficient
TE Trailing edge z Number of rotor blade
R mid Mid Span radius (m) η Efficiency
∆P0 Stagnation pressure drop (Pa) * Non-dimensional parameter
∆P* Pressure drop coefficient

2. Numerical Methodology

The effect of blade-sweep of a Wells turbine is numerically studied by solving the steady 3-D incompressible
RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) equations with k-w SST model. A finite-volume based solver ANSYS
CFX® v14.0 solved the governing equations of fluid flow.
Tables 1 and 2 show the turbine specification and problem setting parameters in a CFD approach, respectively.
The computational domain is displayed in Fig.1. The computational domain was extended to four and six times

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 22 2574826; fax: (+91) 22 2574802.

E-mail address: paresh.halder@gmail.com

583
of the blade chord length along the upstream and downstream of the blade leading and trailing edges, respectively.
The unstructured grids were used in the entire computational domain. The boundary layer nodes were employed
near the walls. The number of elements were 1.6 million, which was based on the grid sensitivity test shown in
Fig.2.

Table 1. Specification of the blade Table 2. Boundary conditions

Parameter Dimension Parameter Description
Blade profile NACA0015 Flow domain Single turbine
Blade chord length, C 0.125m Interface Periodic
Blade number, z 8 Fluid nature air
Blade thickness, t 15% of C Turbulence model SST k-w
Casing radius 0.3m Inlet Velocity inlet
Hub radius 0.2m Outlet Pressure outlet
Mean radius 0.25m Residual convergence value 1e-05
Backward swept 10o Mass imbalance 0.01%

3. Result and Discussion

3.1. Validation

The numerical results were validated with existing experimental results by Curan and Gato [1] (Fig.3). The
present results were compared with the experimental result in terms of ∆P*, T* and η. It was found that the results
are in good matching with the experimental results.

3.2. Effect of Blade Swept

The comparison of performances between backward swept and unswept blades is shown in Fig. 3. The results
indicated that the increase in flow coefficient causes the corresponding increase in the static pressure coefficient
Fig.3 (a). Backward sweeping influences the torque coefficient and the efficiency.
0.8 0.8
Exp, Curran and Gato (1997)
Present CFD result

0.6 1.2 m 1.6 m 2.1 m 0.6 ∆Ρ∗

∆Ρ∗
η
Efficiency (η)

Τ∗
0.4
0.4
η

0.2 Τ∗
0.2

0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3
No of elements (In million ) U*

Fig. 1. Computational Domain Fig. 2. Grid independence test Fig. 3. Validation

Fig. 4(c) shows that the pick efficiency is higher in the unswept blade than that in the backward swept blade.
However, for a higher FC (U*=0.275), the swept blade has a higher efficiency and the stall is delayed. On the
other hand, the efficiency of the unswept blade sharply decreases (U*=0.225).
1.5 0.7
a 10o Backward Swept b 0.20 10o Backward Swept c
Unswept Unswept 0.6
1.2
0.15
0.5
0.9
T*
∆Ρ∗

0.10 0.4
0.6
0.05 0.3

0.3 0.2 10o Backward Swept

0.00
Unswept
0.0 0.1
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
U* U* U*

Fig. 4. Effect of blade swept (a) Pressure Coefficient; (b) Torque Coefficient; (c) Efficiency

The streamlines at the mid-span of the blade passage are shown in Fig. 5. At a lower FC (U*=0.075), flow
patterns are the same and the different for higher flow coefficients for both the cases. At the higher FC (U*=0.275),

584
a reversed flow is noticed near the TE of the swept blade, whereas a large swirl flow is observed near the LE of
the unswept blade. The blade sweep has strong effect on the flow separation on the SS and it changes the turbine
performance.
Unswept 10o Backward Swept

U*=0.075 U*=0.275 U*=0.075 U*=0.275

Fig.5 Streamline patterns on the mid-span of the blade passage

Fig. 6 shows the variation of static pressure around the blade surface at 50% span. At the lower FC (U*=0.075),
the variation in pressure on the blade surfaces is negligible. At the higher FC (U*=0.275), the backward swept
blade shows higher pressure on the SS and delays the flow separation. The torque is higher at the higher FC and
it gives a wider operating range.

a 3 b 10

2 5
0
Pressure(KPa)

Pressure(KPa)

1
-5
0
-10
-1
-15
-2 Unswept -20 Unswept
o o
10 backward swept
-3 10 backward swept -25

-2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1 0 1 2
X/C X/C
Fig. 6 Variation of the static pressure around the blade surface at 50% span; (a) U*=0.075; (b) U*=0.275

4. Conclusion

The effect of backward blade sweep on the performance of Wells turbine has been reported in the present paper.
The numerical analysis has been investigated by solving the RANS equations with k-w SST model. The numerical
result matched well with the experimental results.
The performance in terms of torque and operating range of the turbine is enhanced by the backward-blade-
sweep modification. It was noticed that the peak efficiency is reduced and moved towards the higher flow
coefficients.

References

[1] R.Curran ,L.M.C. Gato, The energy conversion performance of several types of Wells turbine designs. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part A J Power
Energy. 211 (1997) 133-145. doi:10.1243/0957650971537051.
[2] P. Halder, A, Samad. J.H. Kim, Y.S. Choi, High performance ocean energy harvesting turbine design–A new casing treatment scheme.
Energy. 86 (2015) 219–31. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.03.131.
[3] P. Halder, A. Samad, Wave Energy Harvesting Turbine: Performance Enhancement. Procedia Engineering. 116 (2015) 97–102.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.269.
[4] T.H. Kim,T. Setoguchi, K. Kaneko. S, Raghunathan. Numerical investigation on the effect of blade sweep on the performance of Wells
turbine. Renew Energy. 25 (2002) 235–48. doi:10.1016/S0960-1481(00)00210-X.
[5] L.M.C. Gato, M. Webster, An experimental investigation into the effect of rotor blade sweep on the performance of the variable-pitch
Wells turbine. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part A J Power Energy. 215 (2001) 611–22. doi:10.1243/0957650011538848.

585
 Photoluminescent Characterization of CaYTiNbO7:Eu3+ as an Orange-Red
Emitting Phosphor
Hansnath Tiwari and U. V. Varadaraju*
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036, India.

Abstract

The photoluminescence of Eu3+ doped pyrochlore, CaYTiNbO7 is studied, which have been
synthesized at higher temperature via conventional solid state reaction. The solubility of Eu3+ in
host lattice of pyrochlore, CaYTiNbO7 was confirmed by powder X-Ray diffraction. The nature
of site in host lattice preferred by Eu3+, has been explained with the help of emission spectra,
recorded at 392 nm (NUV) and 461 nm (near blue led). Selected composition of this phosphor
shows potential application as an orange-red phosphor for solid state lighting.

Keywords: Luminescence, Phosphor, Pyrochlore, Rare Earth, Concentration Quinching

*Corresponding author email address: varada@iitm.ac.in

586
1. Introduction

Search for new material phosphors for white light emitting diode (WLED) is an ongoing saga
and challenge for a material state chemist. The key issue is on NUV (near ultra-violate)
absorption or blue LED chips based phosphor, the orange red emission of Eu3+ with its electric
and magnetic dipole transition fits the bill as an appropriate activator. The task is then to find out
a most suitable host which facilitate both electric and magnetic dipole transition of Eu3+ ion. In
the case of rare earth activated phosphors, the emission colour and peak intensity are highly
depends on the site symmetry as well as the strength of the crystal field at rare earth ion site
[1][2]. Among all the rare earth ions, the emission lines of Eu3+ are supersensitive, i.e., they have
excessive susceptibility for the crystal chemical environment [3]. Generally the magnetic dipole
(MD) transition is dominant over electric dipole (ED) when Eu3+ ions are imbedded in a
centrosymmetric site [4][5] and also ED transition is dominant over MD transition if the
occupied site is without inversion symmetry (non- centrosymmetric) [6] [7]. The pyrochlore
oxides can provide these possibilities because they are well known as a host material for trivalent
rare earth activators[8][9][10].
The cubic pyrochlore oxides (space group Fd-3m) have chemical formula A2B2O6O’ with one
anionic vacancy is derived from the fluorite structure (CaF2), where A is a rare earth or alkaline
earth metal and B is a transition metal in an eight and six coordinated site respectively
[11][12][13]. A large number of possibilities for site substitutions and vacancies [14][15] make
to the pyrochlore oxides as an interesting material for the various aspects of research. Among the
pyrochlore family, calcium pyroniobate (Ca2Nb2O7) and yttrium titanate (Y2Ti2O7) were found
to be a highly efficient as an optically active nonlinear material[16][17] . In the case of titanate,
the site of Y3+ have inversion centre (D3d symmetry) [17] which highly influenced the emission
spectra of Eu3+ activators by influencing the magnetic dipole transition over the electric dipole
transition i.e., inducing orange-red emission [1]. In compared to red emitting phosphor, the
orange red emitting phosphor have higher luminous efficacy if the ability to respond to affective
changes by the humane eyes are taken into consideration [18]. In the present study, the mixed
pyrochlore oxides with general formula CaYTiNbO7 which is abbreviated as CYTN, doped with
different atomic concentration of Eu3+ at the place of Y3+ has been synthesized by conventional
solid state reaction at higher temperature and its photoluminescence properties are studied.

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2. Experimental

2.1 Materials and Methodology

The mixed orange-red pyrochlore, CYTN phosphor with different Eu3+ contents were synthesized
by the conventional high temperature solid–state method by using CaCO3 (Merck, 99.9%), Y2O3
(Indian rare earths, 99.9%), Eu2O3 (Indian rare earths, 99.9%), TiO2 (Merck, 99.9%), and Nb2O5
(Merck, 99.9%). Here the atomic percentage of Eu3+ with respect to Y3+, were taken into account
for calculating propose of stoichiometry for the sample. The required stoichiometric amounts of
these materials were weighed, mixed with the acetone and ground for one hour in an agate mortar.
Here acetone was used as a mixing medium to obtain homogeneity of the sample. The samples
were preheated in air atmosphere by using the muffle furnace at 1000 ºC for 12 hours to
decompose the carbonates. The obtained powders were reground and heated in air atmosphere at
1400 ºC in the form of pellets for 12 hours to obtain the pure phase of compounds followed by
normal cooling to the room temperature. For the heating purposes alumina crucibles were used.

2.2 Characterization Techniques

The phase purity of the synthesized materials were confirmed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD)
pattern employing a scan speed of 0.02° per second in the 2θ range from 10° to 90° using a D8
BRUKER X-ray diffractometer with Ni filter and Cu-kα radiation (λ = 1.54056 A°).The unit cell
parameter were calculated by using least-square method (UnitCellWin programme). The
excitation (PLE) and emission (PL) spectra were recorded by using Spectrofluorometer (F-8500,
JASKO). All the measurements were carried out at room temperature.

3. Result and discussion

3.1. Characterization of solid state reaction derived mixed pyrochlore.
Figure 1 represents the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of CYTN: xEu3+ (0.00 ≤ x ≤
1.00) calcined at 1400 °C for 12 hours. All the peaks were indexed to a cubic pyrochlore type
structure with space group Fd-3m in accordance with the JCPDS file no. 042-0413. The powder
XRD patterns of the doped samples indicating that, small amount of Eu3+ doping didn’t alter the
phase purity and structure. In the powder patterns of Eu3+ doped samples, reflections were shifted
toward the lower two theta value when compared to parent phase, CYTN, and this reveals that the

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cubic lattice parameter (‘a’) increases with increasing the Eu3+ concentration in the host lattice.
This increments in lattice parameter is due to the larger ionic radius of Eu3+ (r = 1.070 A°) as
compared to Y3+ (1.015 A°) in eight-fold coordination. The cubic lattice parameter ‘a’ for the
undoped one is 10.244A° and it increases to 10.281A° for 100% replacement of Y3+ with Eu3+
ions doping. The variations in lattice parameter of parent compound with Eu3+ contents are
tabulated in Table 1. The increment in lattice parameter value also confirmed the effective
substitution of europium into the lattice.

3.2 Photoluminescence characterization of Eu3+ ions in mixed pyrochlore host.

Figure 2 (a & b) shows the excitation spectra of CYTN: xEu3+ (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 1.00) which are
obtained at room temperature by keeping an eye on the orange-red emission of Eu3+ at 582 nm
and 614 nm respectively. The relative peak position is same in both cases but their intensity is
higher in the spectrum recorded at 582 nm excitation. The excitation spectrum consists of a broad
band in the region between 220 nm to 350 nm which credited to the charge transfer (CT)
transition of Eu3+ and surrounding O2- ions polyhedra. The observed hump in CT band at 285 nm
and 309 nm is probably due to the presence of two types of oxygen based polyhedral i.e., NbO6
and TiO6. The other sharp peaks in excitation spectrum, between 350 nm to 500 nm result from
the intra-configurationally 4f-4f transition of Eu3+ ions. These peaks are represented as 361 nm
7
F0-5D4, 381 nm 7F0-5G2-4, 392 nm 7F0-5L6, 412 nm 7F0-5D3 and 461 nm 7F0-5D2, out of that the
peak at 392 nm near ultra violet and 461 nm for blue light have shown higher intensity in both
spectrum (recorded at 582nm and 614 nm) which makes this compound suitable for NUV excited
as well as blue light based phosphor.
Figure 3 (a & b) shows the emission spectrum of CYTN: xEu3+ (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 1.00) recorded at 392
nm and 461 nm consists of a broad region of orange and red emission spectral area (from 560 nm
to 670 nm). The intensity of peaks in emission spectrum recorded at 392 nm is little bit higher
than 461 nm but no difference in position. The obtained pattern is especially similar to the
transition of the lower level of excited state 5D0 to ground state 7Fj (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) levels of Eu3+ (4f6
configuration).The intensity of peaks in emission spectra is little bit higher for 392 nm except it
there were no difference. As we know that the spectrum of rare earths are scarcely influenced by
the crystal field due to the shielding effect of outer orbital electrons (5s25p6). However, the
possible transitions and their selection rules are only determined by the crystal field. The emission

589
spectrum of Eu3+ substituted CYTN shows the most intense peak centered at 582 nm correspond
to magnetic dipole (MD) transition and the peak at 603 and 614 nm correspond to electric dipole
(ED) transition. The degree of domination of one peak over the other tells about the site symmetry
preferred by Eu3+ in that particular host material because intensity of MD transition would be high
if the site have inversion center of symmetry while the ED transition would dominate if the site is
without inversion center of symmetry. Therefore the intensity ratio of ED to MD known as
asymmetric ratio, tells us about the degree of distortion from centrosymmetric to non-
centrosymmetric around Eu3+ ions in that particular host matrix. The singularity and sharpness of
5
D0-7F0 at 575 nm indicates the presence of only one type of coordination environment for Eu3+ in
CYTN crystal system. The shape of lines and position didn’t change by varying the concentration
of Eu3+; this also implies that Eu3+ occupied a single crystallographic site in the crystal lattice.
The optimal concentration of Eu3+ is found to be 50% for the CYTN, above which the emission
intensity decreases with increasing Eu3+ concentration as a result of concentration quenching.
Figure 4 shows the asymmetric ratio graph for CYTN with different amount of Eu3+ as a dopant.
The value of asymmetric ratio is very high in the case of 100% replacement of Y3+ by Eu3+ ions,
indicating that with increasing the concentration of Eu3+ from 10 to 100% induced the site with
lower symmetry.
The chromaticity coordinate (x, y) of CYTN with 50% of Eu3+ dopant are found to be (x =
0.522, y = 0.358) after calculating by using the standard data. The CIE coordinates of yellow
emitting phosphor YAG: Ce3+ phosphors are (x = 0.461, y = 0.525) and red emitting phosphors
are (x = 0.64, y = 0.34), if we keep in comparison, the chromaticity coordinates of CYTN with
50% dopant came in between the both referenced Yellow and Red phosphors . So, as an orange
red emitting phosphor CaY0.50TiNbO7:0.50Eu3+ may have a potential application for white light
emitting diodes.

4. Conclusion
In summary, CYTN doped with different concentration of Eu3+ ion can be synthesized by solid
state reaction at 1400 ºC with intermediate grinding. With 50% of Eu3+ ions at Y3+ site in
CYTN, the material shows intense emission in orange-red area of the emission spectrum (560
nm to 670nm) with highly dominated MD transition lines corresponding to 5D0-7F1 over all
possible transition. In the case of more than 50% dopant the intensity of peaks in spectrum

590
started decreasing, so, for the CYTN host material the dopant concentration of Eu3+ is 50% to get
a good result. The CIE coordinates calculated by using the slandered data, shows that CYTN
with 50% Eu3+ dopant can be used as an orange-red emitting phosphor for white light emitting
diodes.

Acknowledgement
The author would like to acknowledge Dr. N. Laxminarasimhan for their valuable suggestions
and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for research fellowship.

591
 Eu3+ content Cell Parameter
(%) a (A°)

0 10.244
5 10.245
10 10.246
15 10.246
20 10.245
25 10.253
50 10.263
75 10.279
100 10.281

Fig.1. Powder XRD pattern of CaY1-xTiNbO7:xEu3+ Table.1 Variation of unit cell

(a) λ = 582 nm (b) λ = 614 nm

Fig.2. Excitation spectra of CaY1-xTiNbO7:xEu3+ with different wavelength

592
 (a) λ = 392 nm (b) λ = 461 nm

Fig.3. Emission spectra of CaY1-xTiNbO7:xEu3+ with different wavelength

(a) (b)

Fig.4. (a) The relative intensity ratio, I0–2/I0-1 as a function of the doping level of Eu3+ for
CaYTiNbO7 under excitation at 392 nm and (b) The Integrated emission intensity of 5D0–7F2
transition of Eu3+.

593
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[5] Z. Lu, J. Wang, Y. Tang, Y. Li, Synthesis and photoluminescence of Eu3+-doped Y2Sn2O7
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[8] Y. Zhang, C. Jia, Z. Su, W. Zhang, The enhanced and color-tunable photoluminescence of
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Ammonolysis Study of the Rare-Earth Tantalates RTaO4, (2005) 152–156.

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 ICAER-2015

EMI Filter Design and Investigation Of Modulation Strategy To Reduce Common Mode Voltage In Grid
Connected Inverters
Umashankar S , Vaishnavi B Rameshb,1, Niteesha Kumarib,2, Vandana Sharmab,3
a

a
Associate Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, India
b
PG Student, School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, India

Abstract

Two level inverters generate Common Mode Voltage (CMV). CMV causes high frequency common mode
electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise. This CMV also causes leakage current in grid tied inverter and
bearing currents in electrical drives application. So, reducing the CMV within the power converter has become
important. CMV can be reduced either by using additional hardware, such as EMI filters or by investigating the
modulation technique or by using both. As CMV is generated due to asymmetrical operation of switching
pulses, so this can be inferred that CMV is mainly depend upon the PWM strategy used in the inverter. Using
suitable PWM, mitigation of the CMV and thereby EMC is achievable within the inverter. In this paper we will
be making a comparison between the different Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) techniques employed for three
phase voltage source inverters (VSI).According to IEC, 2011, maximum allowable leakage current is 300mA.
The CMC can be reduced by applying best suited modulation strategy to the inverter and this CMC can be
further reduced by employing common mode choke (in this case, EMI filter). In this project, EMI filters are
employed in 2 level grid tied inverter and CMV and common mode current (CMC) is mitigated to great extent.
Also, various PWM techniques are also implemented in order to observe any further change in the common
mode voltage and current.
Keywords: Grid connected Inverter ; EMI Filters; PWM Strategies; Common Mode Voltage.

1. Introduction

AC drives are more predominant over the DC drives. AC drives require high power, variable voltage and
variable frequency supply. This has made the research related to various PWM schemes intensive over the past
few decades [2][6]. These schemes have been used to achieve variable voltage and frequency in power
electronic converters. A grid connected inverter is a power inverter that converts direct current (DC) electricity
into alternating current (AC) with an ability to synchronize to interface with a utility line. When we talk about
the power quality issues in any system, they can be sub-categorized into two major divisions, firstly the
reliability of the power utility grid and secondly the quality of the voltage waveforms. The main obstacle that is
faced by the power electronic design engineers is the reduction of harmonic content in inverter circuits [3]. The
low or medium power applications which use the classic model of square wave inverter suffer a major drawback
of dominant lower order harmonics in the output voltage. One of the solutions to upgrade to a harmonic free
environment in high power converters is to use PWM control techniques. The main aim of these control
strategies is to produce a sinusoidal AC output whose both magnitude and frequency can be limited. Abrupt
voltage transitions on the output terminals of a variable-frequency drive (VFD) are an inherent source of
radiated and conducted Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). These voltage transition times are essentially
determined by the rise and fall time of the semiconductor devices used in the inverter section of VFDs .These
voltage transition times that can now be as fast as 100 ns and high dv/dt produces higher magnitude of common-
mode (CM) noise currents in the stray line-to-ground capacitance and cables. These common mode noise
currents can cause electromagnetic interference and affect control signals [7].
The generated common-mode voltage of an inverter is defined as the average of the phase leg output
voltages. In a two-level three-phase voltage source inverter, where the possible output phase leg voltages could
be either Udc/2 or -Udc/2, the common-mode voltage can only be zero if the DC link voltage is zero. The
common-mode voltage generated by the inverter will produce a common-mode current if there is a valid path in

596
the system. In residential power systems, the neutral point of the low-voltage grid is always connected to the
ground. In transformer-less inverters, the path for the common-mode current is completed through the ground
capacitances on the DC side and the grounded grid neutral point on the AC side. The maximum leakage current
is limited in a safety standard perspective by the current limit of the residual-current device. The residual-current
device is designed to detect residual currents and prevent an electrocution in locations where a direct contact
with a person is possible. The residual-current devices are only required to be low-frequency devices, and a
larger leakage current at the switching frequency may not be detected by the residual current device. However,
the leakage current should be limited so that false disconnections do not appear in the residual-current device
and also because the leakage current generates extra losses. The fault current is referred to as residual current.
In this paper, we investigate the different modulation techniques and discuss on how these techniques
can be effectively modified for the reduction of the common mode voltage for a grid connected 2 level inverters.
Also we will concentrate on the design of the EMI filters for effective reduction of the common mode voltage in
the system, thus improving the system stability.

2. Modulation techniques for High power inverters

The inverter legs are switched by using Pulse Width Modulation techniques, which means width of
each pulse is varied in proportion to the amplitude of the sine wave[2]. The frequency of the reference signal
determines the output voltage frequency and the amplitude of reference wave controls the modulation index and
then in turn the rms output voltage of the inverter. The rms output voltage of the inverter can be calculated by

2𝑝 𝛿𝑚
𝑉0 = 𝑉𝑆 √ ∑𝑚=1 (1)
𝜋

𝛿𝑚 =width of mth pulse

p = number of pulses per half cycle

Fig.1. Three phase two level inverter

The PWM generation techniques can be broadly classified into sinusoidal based PWM (SPWM) and Space
Vector based PWM (SVPWM). In SPWM methods involves the comparison of the three phase reference
modulating signals with a common triangular carrier wave to generate the pulses for the three phases. Whereas,
in SVPWM methods, a revolving reference voltage vector is provided as voltage reference instead of three
phase modulating waves. The main aim of these control strategies is to produce a sinusoidal AC output whose
both magnitude and frequency can be limited. PWM switching technique not only targets the primary issues
such as reduced THD, efficient dc bus utilization etc but also take care of secondary concerns like EMI
reduction , lowering the switching loss, better harmonic spectrum.

2.1 Sine PWM Technique

In this method a modulating sinusoidal waveform is generated and compared with a triangular carrier
wave in order to generate the PWM pulses. Hence, for a three phase inverter we will be using three modulating
sinusoidal waveforms with 120 degree phase shift in each. The triangular carrier wave has a very high frequency
compared to the reference sine wave. The fundamental component magnitudes and frequencies, on the line side

597
is changed by varying the magnitude and frequency of the modulating signal. It is simple and linear between
0% and 78.5% of six step voltage values, resulting in poor voltage utilization. Thus to reduce the harmonics the
voltage range has to be extended. Amplitude modulation index and frequency modulation ratio are the important
factors to describe any pulse width modulated scheme. The modulation index is varied between 0.25 to unity so
as to check the least THD value. The modulation index is varied by varying the amplitude of the sine waveform
and keeping the amplitude of the triangular carrier wave constant[2][6].

Fig.2 General adaptation of SPWM technique

2.2 Space vector PWM Technique

In SVPWM method, the voltage reference is provided using a revolving reference vector. In this case
the fundamental component magnitude and frequency in the line side are controlled by the magnitude and
frequency, respectively, of the reference voltage vector. This method utilizes the dc bus voltage more effectively
and generates a lower harmonic distortion in a three phase voltage source inverter.
Space Vector Modulation (SVM) originates from the vector approach to Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) for
three phase inverters. This method is more sophisticated for the generation sine wave that provides a higher
voltage to the load connected to the inverter but with lower total harmonic distortion. The main objective of any
modulation technique is to obtain variable output having a maximum fundamental component with minimum
harmonics. SVPWM method is advanced, computation intensive PWM method and preferably the best
techniques for variable frequency drive application[6].

The concept of space vector is basically derived from the rotating field of induction motor. Here the three phase
quantities are transformed to their equivalent two-phase quantity either in synchronously rotating frame (or)
stationary frame. From these two-phase components, the reference vector magnitude is obtained and used for
modulating the inverter output. Considering the stationary reference frame let the three-phase sinusoidal voltage
component be,

Va = VmSinωt (2)
Vb = VmSin(ωt-2ᴨ/3) (3)
Vc = VmSin(ωt-4ᴨ/3) (4)

This resultant rotating flux can be represented as single rotating voltage vector. For implementing the space
vector PWM, the voltage equations in the abc reference frame can be transformed into the stationary dq
reference frame that consists of the horizontal (d) and vertical (q) axes as depicted in Fig-2. From this figure, the
relation between these two reference frames is obtained below
fdq0 = Ksfabc (5)

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 Fig.3 The relationship of abc reference frame and stationary dq reference frame.

This transformation is equivalent to an orthogonal projection of [a b c]t onto the two-dimensional perpendicular
to the vector [1 1 1]t in a three-dimensional coordinate system. As a result, six non-zero vectors and two zero
vectors are possible. The six non-zero vectors (V1-V6) can be shaped as the axes of a hexagonal as depicted in
Fig.4, and is responsible to supply power to the load connected to the inverter. The angle between any adjacent
two non-zero vectors is 60 degrees. Meanwhile, two zero vectors (V0 and V7) are at the origin and do not affect
the load. The aim of SVPWM technique is to approximate the reference voltage vector Vref using the eight
switching patterns.

Fig.4 Basic switching, vectors and sectors.

Voltage Switching Line to Neutral Line to Line

Vectors States Voltage Voltage
A B C Van Vbn Vcn Vab Vbc Vca
V0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
V1 1 0 0 2/3 -1/3 -1/3 1 0 -1
V2 1 1 0 1/3 1/3 -2/3 0 1 -1
V3 0 1 1 -1/3 2/3 -1/3 -1 1 0
V4 0 1 1 -2/3 1/3 1/3 -1 0 1
V5 0 0 1 -1/3 1/3 2/3 0 -1 1
V6 1 0 1 1/3 -2/3 1/3 1 -1 0
V7 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Table 1. Switching patterns and output vectors.

The implementation of the Space vector PWM can be done by the below procedure:
 Determination of Vd ,Vq ,Vref and angle α(made by the Vref with the origin).
 Determination of the application time of the voltage vectors.
 Determination of the switching pattern for the switches( S1-S6).

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3. Comparison between Sine PWM and Space vector modulation

The open loop analysis is carried out for various modulation index for both the PWM switching
techniques i.e. sine PWM and space vector PWM inverter systems with a simple R load and without designing
the LC filter. The results were tabulated as below

Fig.5 Graph of Modulation index v/s THD of switching techniques

It is observed that the THD is found to be less at 0.8 modulation index for both the methods when a resistive
load is connected on the load side of the inverter system. Thus, throughout our analysis we fix our modulation
index to be as 0.8 in order to obtain optimum switching[8].

4. EMI Filter Design

The damaging effects of electromagnetic interference pose unacceptable risks in many areas of technology,
and it is necessary to control such interference and reduce the risks to acceptable levels[1]. Many specs and
ratings must be considered when selecting EMI filters .These include case size, I/O connections, mounting type,
safety agency approvals, operating voltage, operating current (ac or dc amps), leakage current, isolation
resistance, withstand test voltages, high-voltage pulse or spike attenuation, operating temperature range, dc
resistance, and insertion loss[7].

4.1 LC Filter design

The inverter system when subjected to pulse width modulated techniques will produce harmonics and
mainly it will appear around at switching frequency and multiples of switching frequency. These harmonics are
required to be filtered out before leasing the output voltage to be supplied to the load. To attenuate these
harmonics interferences a typical second order low pass LC filter is used[1]. Due to absence of any physical
resistive component in the circuit, LC filters are intrinsically un-damped systems. A large resonant peak appears
at their corner frequency. The corner frequency of LC filter is also called resonant frequency (ωo). The factors
considered for the designing of filter is size of inductor and the availability of components and the control
bandwidth required for particular application. Figure2.13 shows the plot of a typical LC filter. The LC filter
transfer function is given as
1
G(s) = (6)
𝐿𝐶𝑆 2 +1

And the corner frequency is given as

1
ωo = (7)
√𝐿𝐶

Since the inverter produce harmonics mainly of the order of switching frequency and multiples of that so
attenuation has to be provided for the switching frequencies. For our purpose the filter is designed to provide an
attenuation of 30dB for frequencies above switching frequency. The filter parameters are calculated over a range

600
of frequencies between 500Hz to 50kHz. This range of frequency is selected to so as to analyze the effect of the
EMI on the system effectively.

Parameters 𝒇𝒔 = 500HZ 𝒇𝒔 = 1000HZ 𝒇𝒔 = 50kHZ

Attenuation 30dB 30dB 30dB
Corner freq 558.7 rad/sec 1117.4 rad/sec 55870.4 rad/sec

L 8.1mH 8.1mH 8.1mH

C 395.51µF 98.87µF 0.0395µF

Table-2. LC filter parameter calculation

4.2 Design of Common mode Filter

The common mode filter consists of two common mode chokes LCM1, CCM1, RCM1and LCM2,
three Yconnected capacitors, CCM2 and a damp ing resistor RCM2 that is connected between the grid and the
capacitor neutral point[4].

Fig.6 The system configuration when the proposed passive filter is connected

Where
LCM1 = common mode choke at rectifier side
LCM2 = common mode choke at inverter side

The equivalent circuit clears the effect of the EMI filter on eliminating the common mode voltage and conclude
that installation of the EMI filter yields the following current loops.

 Loop 1: Inverter → common mode choke (LCM1) →L/3 → ground line →system ground line →
mains → common mode choke (LCM2) → rectifier → inverter
 Loop 2: Inverter → common mode choke (LCM1) →L/3 → ground line →heat sink ground line →
heat sink → device parasitic capacitors → inverter
 Loop 3: Inverter → device parasitic capacitors → heat sink → heat sink ground line → system ground
line → mains → common mode choke (LCM2) → rectifier → inverter
 Loop 4: Inverter → common mode choke (LCM1) → DC Link → inverter
 Loop 5: Inverter → device parasitic capacitor → heat sink → heat sink ground line → motor ground
line →RCM2 and 3CCM2 → CM inductor (LCM2) → inverter
 Loop 6: Inverter → common mode choke (LCM1) →L/3 → RCM2 and 3CCM → CM inductor
(LCM2) → inverter

Resonant frequency for the common mode circuit should be placed in a range of about 1.5 kHz and is given
by
1
𝑓0 = (8)
2𝜋√𝐿𝐶𝑀 𝐶𝐶𝑀

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For our application, considering the practical constrains we choose the capacitor value of
C=300nF. This is chosen keeping in consideration the size of the capacitor. The capacitor size should be small
for the designed frequency in order to reduce the bulkiness of the hardware unit.

Resonant frequency Inductor value Capacitor value

1.5kHz 38mH 300nF
Table 3. LC filter parameter calculation for common mode filter

Generally, the common mode voltage produced by the rectifier, VCMrec and that by the inverter, VCMinv,
cause common mode voltages to the ungrounded heat sink because non-negligible parasitic capacitors exist
inside the two electrically insulated diode and IGBT modules in the circuit configuration of PWM inverter fed
grid system connecting a small passive EMI filter at the output of a voltage-source PWM inverter and at input of
rectifier[5]. The inverter has a digital PWM controller in which three-phase sinusoidal balanced reference
signals are compared with a repetitive triangular carrier signal with a frequency of 10 kHz in order to generate
the gate signals for the IGBTs[2]. This filter requires access to ungrounded motor neutral point. It can damp out
the over voltage appearing at the output terminals. Although its installation makes the line-to-line voltages
sinusoidal, it produces no effect on each line-to-neutral voltage.

5. Results

After fixing our modulation index to a value of 0.8, a simple open loop analysis was carried out for a 2
level inverter for the current and voltage THD with and without the filter.The tabulations were made as below

Switching Switching Before filter (THD) After filter(THD)

Technique frequency Line current Line voltage Line current Line voltage
450HZ 82.07% 176.2% 2.72% 6.94%
1kHZ 64.81% 138.2% 2.53% 6.88%
SPWM 10kHZ 24.9% 88.46% 1.04% 4.16%
50kHz 24.27% 67.92% 1.03% 4.12%

450Hz 12.48% 50.48% 1.56% 3.68%

1Khz 4.82% 52.84% 0.14% 0.66%
SVPWM 10khz 3.15% 43.89% 0.11% 0.42%
50kHz 3.15% 43.89% 0.11% 0.43%
Table 3. Comparison of THD for SPWM and SVM techniques

The simulation of the system was carried out by MATLAB/Simulink environment. The circuit level model was
developed in the Simulink platform. The model of the system was developed in various stages. The first section
comprises of the diode rectifier modeling in order to obtain a constant dc voltage. Then the dc link capacitor was
designed so as to provide a constant dc input voltage to the three phase two level inverter circuit which is
modeled using IGBTs and various PWM techniques were implemented for firing the inverter circuit[8].

The Simulink model for the closed loop analysis was designed in MATLAB. The dc link capacitor was
designed with a capacitance value of 0.5uF and the output side active filter with L= 8.1mH and C=923.5nF.

The figure below shows the Simulink model of the designed system.

602
 Fig.7 SIMULINK model for closed loop system

The common mode voltage and the common mode current of the system was analyzed without and with the
filter implementation. The waveforms obtained were as below.

Fig.8 Common mode voltage (above), Common mode current (below) without filter

Fig.9 Common mode voltage (above) common mode current (below) with filter

The FFT analysis of the system common mode voltage and common mode current for a two level inverter
system is as shown below

603
At 10kHz, we obtain the below FFT analysis
Common Mode Voltage (CMV) Common Mode Current (CMC)

Fundamental THD(%) Fundamental THD(%)

Value Value
Without EMI Chokes 47.99V 38.01% 0.01536A 3152.31%
With EMI Chokes 0.4325V 73.39% 8.903e-5A 2213.58%

6. Conclusion

The adverse effects of common mode issue in PWM inverter in grid-tied system has concerned in this
project. A passive cancellation method based on two small passive filter connected between grid neutral point
and rectifier input and also between inverter output and grid has been, designed and tested for a three phase two
level grid tied inverter. Whole system has been modelled and then simulated on MATLAB/Simulink platform
with and without connecting the EMI filter. Experimental results have verified that the designed EMI filter
is effective and valuable in preventing the adverse effects of common mode issue. In the above table we have
made an investigation on the change in the fundamental values of common mode voltage and current of the 2
level grid connected inverter. From this it can be inferred that the common mode voltage (CMV) and common
mode current (CMC) can be reduced to a large extent on the addition of the rectifier side and inverter side
filters. From the above investigation our objective of reducing the CMC and CMV of a two level inverter is
achieved. From all the above analysis made above we can conclude that for a two level inverter above a
frequency of 10kHz, the EMI effect increases drastically, and by only changing the reference we cannot reduce
the CMV and CMV of the system effectively and the size of the EMI filters designed have a larger size.

References
[1] Abdolreza Esmaeli and Fazel Tavassoli (2011) “A Novel Passive Filter to Reduce PWM Inverters
Adverse Effects in Electrical Machine System”.
[2] Zhilei Yao and Lan Xiao ,VOL. 60, NO. 4, April 2013 presented a paper on “ Control of Single-Phase
Grid-Connected Inverters With Nonlinear Loads”.
[3] Kalpana V.and Dr. K. A. Palani swamy presented a paper on “ An Improved Control Scheme for Grid
Connected Voltage Source Inverter”.
[4] Jiri Lettl, Jan Bauer, and Libor Linhart (March 2011) “Comparison of Different Filter Types for Grid
Connected Inverter”.
[5] Sajad Sarajian (June 8, 2014) “Design and Control of Grid Interfaced Voltage Source Inverter with
Output LCL Filter”.
[6] Sunil Panda ,Anupam Mishra ,B. Srinivas (May 2009) “Control of Voltage Source Inverters using
PWM/SVPWM for Adjustable Speed Drive Applications”.
[7] A.M. Salamah, S.J. Finney and B.W. Williams presented a paper on “Three-phase phase-lock loop for
distorted utilities”.
[8] K. Vinoth Kumar, Prawin Angel Michael, Joseph P. John and Dr. S. Suresh Kumar (July 2010)
“Simulation and Comparison of SPWM and SVPWM Control for Three Phase Inverter”.

604
 ICAER-2015

Parametric Evaluation of Beam Deflection based on Piezoelectric

Material for Rainwater Energy Harvester Using Implicit and
Explicit FEM Simulations
Markand Vyasa, Rakesh Nathb
a
Research Associate, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GIMT, Gauhati University, Guwahati,781001, India
b
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering GIMT, Gauhati University, Guwahati, 781001, India

Abstract

Energy harvesting from rainwater through various smart materials have come into research, thus widening the scope of using
these materials for the implementation and augmenting to the considerable growth of energy harvesting techniques. The
technique present a brief idea of voltage generation whenever the piezoelectric material is strained or deformed. The purpose
of our study is to carry out the parametric analysis and comparative study of piezoelectric effect based energy harvester
using two different commercially available piezoelectric materials viz. PZT-4A and PZT-5H.This is to be performed through
series of implicit and explicit method simulations of FEM on COMSOL and ANSYS, along with variation in the rainwater
droplet size viz. 1.6mm, 3mm and 5mm. Firstly, the dynamic loads of different rainwater droplets sizes are investigated
analytically. To calculate the variation of different methods in terms of deflection and voltage output, the implicit and multi
body explicit dynamic simulations are implemented separately. It was found that the setup of explicit adhere to the actual
model, whereas implicit is more inclined to the theoretical calculation of load applied on the plate. Hence, the results
procured from explicit are considered from accurate and actual than implicit.

Keywords: Piezoelectric material, COMSOL, ANSYS, Implicit-Explicit FEM, Rainwater Energy Harvester

1. Introduction

In the present world, the requirement of energy in our day to day life is rapidly increasing and so the necessity
of production of energy by various alternative sources. Among the various alternative technologies rain water
harvesting and its utilization are an environmentally sound and a very economical solution. Rainwater
harvesting, in its broadest sense, is a technology used for collecting and storing rainwater for human use from
rooftops, land surfaces or rock catchments using simple techniques such as jars and pots as well as engineered
techniques. The application of appropriate rainwater harvesting technology is important for the utilization of
rainwater as a water resource [1]. Piezoelectric materials are smart materials which are widely used to convert
mechanical energy into electrical energy. A quantity of electric charge proportional to the applied force gets
generated, which can be measured. Piezoelectric effect occurs only in non-conductive materials [2].There is a
tremendous amount of vibrational and kinetic energy which can be utilized by the falling of rainwater droplet on
piezoelectric plate, which might be in the form a Bimorph viz. two active layers of one piezoelectric material
and another that of structural steel or any other metal. Viswas et al. explained that the kinetic energy of
raindrops can be converted into electricity by using piezoelectric materials. The paper explains behavior of
raindrops at impact and of piezoelectricity [3].

Nomenclature
Uy Deflection of the beam ρ water Density of water
D Diameter of rain drop L Beam Length
FEM Finite Element Method V Voltage Generated
PZT Lead Zirconate Titanate d 31 Piezoelectric strain coefficients
m Mass of raindrop

* Corresponding author. Tel.:+91-361-273-0127; fax:+91-361-254-4892.

E-mail address: Markanv@Gmail.com

605
2. Simulations

Simulations are carried out on COMSOL, ANSYS Static Structural and ANSYS Explicit Dynamics to compare
the results procured from Implicit and Explicit FEM simulation.

2.1 Implicit FEM Simulations

Popovici et al. [4] has established a 2-D FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis of a cantilever beam
deformation producing electrical voltages through a direct piezoelectric effect of PZT-5H in COMSOL. The
paper is referred to carry out an implicit 3-D simulation in ANSYS and COMSOL with same material
properties; dimension and line load, hence, validating our simulation.

a b

Fig. 1 (a)The model used for simulation; (b) Mesh generated on the plate

Mesh method used was automatic and mesh type generated are free quadrilaterals.

2.2 Analytical calculation of kinetic load rainwater droplet

−3( 31 ) 2
The Formulae for the voltage, = [5] (1)
8 2

Calculation of velocity, 2 = 2 (Where H=Height of free fall, considered as 3.5meters) (2)

(g=Standard gravitational acceleration viz. 9.81m/s2)
K.E.of the rain drop
Load developed by rain drop,Edge load = (3)
Effective su rf ace ar ea of the droplet impact

Velocity of raindrop in the 3.5m setup=8.286m/s

3
Mass of the droplet, = ⨯
6
1
Kinetic Energy of the droplet, K. E. = mv 2
2

Table 1. Edge load calculation for various droplet size

Droplet size Mass of droplet(kg) Kinetic energy(J) Edge load
(in mm) (N/m)
(Assumed)
1.6 2.144×10-6 7.365×10-5 4.419
3 1.4137×10-5 4.851×10-4 8.268
6 6.545×10-5 2.246×10-3 13.81

2.3 Validation

3-D Static structural simulations in ANSYS and 3-D stationary simulations in COMSOL are undergone to
validate results as per Popovici et al. [4] 2-D simulation, where one end of the beam is kept fixed and the other
end is under uniform edge load.

606
 Table 2. Values of stress and displacement obtained from ANSYS and COMSOL

Load Von Mises Von Mises Deflection Deflection(mm) Deflection

(N/m) Stress (MPa) stress (MPa) (mm) (COMSOL) (mm)
[4] (ANSYS) [4] (ANSYS)

500 14.71 13.3 2.53 2.618 2.613

1000 29.42 26.76 5.06 5.235 5.823
2500 73.55 66.915 12.65 13.1 13.0
5000 147.1 133.83 25.30 26.2 26.1
7500 220.6 200.75 37.95 39.3 39.1
10000 294.2 267.66 50.61 52.4 52.3

Fig. 2.Variation of Load vs. Deflection

Fig. 3. Variation of Load vs. Deflection

607
3. Results and Discussions

Results are been procured through simulations carried out on ANSYS and COMOL.

3.1 Implicit FEM

The process of implicit FEM viz. static structural in ANSYS and stationary in COMSOL are valid as per
validation, hence by applying the obtained edge load the following results are obtain from the simulation. Grid
independence study is carried out on the model in ANSYS static structural for a droplet size of 5mm.

a b

Fig. 4. (a) Implicit result from COMSOL; (b) Implicit result from ANSYS

Table 3. Implicit FEM Results from COMSOL and ANSYS, and voltage output

Rain drop Load Deflection of Deflection of Voltage(in mV)

diameter(mm) (N/m) beam(in m) beam (in m)
(COMSOL) (ANSYS) PZT-4A PZT-5H
1.6 4.419 2.315⨯10-5 1.7528⨯10-5 0.56 0.31
3 8.268 4.3286⨯10-5 3.2795⨯10-5 1.28 0.48
5 13.81 7.2301⨯10-5 5.4777⨯10-5 1.77 0.77

Table 4. Grid independence study

Elements Nodes Deflection(m)

80 786 3.2607e-005
168 1492 3.2657e-005
1656 12608 3.276e-005
2200 16606 3.2767e-005
5382 34263 3.2788e-005
27500 156060 3.2794e-005
39120 220866 3.2795e-005
39600 223570 3.2795e-005
38880 219514 3.2795e-005

608
 Fig. 5: Grid Independence Test

3.2 Explicit FEM

Since, there is static loading in the implicit FEM and the impact of the raindrop is considered on the edge. The
results obtained have multiple constrains. Hence, Multibody explicit dynamic simulations are undergone, where
the droplet hits the plate at 8.268m/s velocity under a standard gravitational acceleration on both the bodies.
The simulation shown in figure 6 is carried out with a 5mm droplet size and end step time being 8.99e-3 sec.

a b

Fig. 6 (a) Initial phase of explicit dynamic simulation; (b) Final phase explicit dynamic simulation

Table 5. Explicit FEM Results from explicit dynamics ANSYS and voltage output

Drop size Deflection from ANSYS Voltage(mV)

(in mm) (m) PZT-4A PZT-5H
-5
1.6 2.525×10 1.13 .50
3 2.7×10-5 1.46 .54
5 3.1073×10-5 1.68 .45

Fig.7. Raindrop diameter vs. voltage output graph from implicit FEM

609
 Fig. 8. Raindrop diameter vs. voltage output graph from explicit dynamics

Conclusion
The results obtain from explicit are considered more accurate than that of implicit ,as the impact of the raindrop
is considered in the explicit simulation whereas in implicit static loading takes place on the edge which
continues until the maximum deformation possible due to the line pressure exerted is reached .The behaviour of
material in explicit are considered as linear ,hence with such negligible deflection due to the raindrop on the
plate the piezoelectric material ,it almost behaves as an isotropic material. It can be inferred that the amount of
actual voltage which can be generated is much less but with further optimizing the dimension and free-fall
height of the raindrop a sufficient amount can be generated by different piezoelectric materials and the
proposed method for solving can be taken into consideration for testing for different materials. The overall
concept can be practically implemented in geographical locations where the percentage of rainfall throughout
the year is perennial.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Vinayak Kulkarni, Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT
Guwahati, Guwahati for his assistance to procure the necessary facilities for the simulations.

References
[1] N.D.F.R. Dos Anjos, Source Book of Alternative Technologies for Freshwater Augmentation in Latin America and the Caribbean,
International Journal of Water Resources Development, 14(3) (1998).
[2] Low-Pass Filtering for Vibration Sensors, SENSOR TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN, February, 2003.
[3] P.V. Biswas, M.A. Uddin, M.A. Islam, M.A.R. Sarkar, V.G. Desa, M.H. Khan and A.M.A. Huq ,Harnessing Raindrop Energy In
Bangladesh, Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering, ICME (2009).
[4] D. Popovici, F. Constantinescu, M. Maricaru, F.I. Hantila, M. Nitescu and A. Gheorghe, Modeling and Simulation of Piezoelectric
Devices, Ph.D thesis, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania(2008).
[5] N.N. More, International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET), Finite Element Analysis of Piezoelectric
Cantilever, M.Tech thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering ,K.L.E’S College of Engineering and Technology, Belgaum,
Karnataka, India,Vol. 2 (3) (June 2013).

610
 ICAER-2015

Autothermal Reforming of Ethanol on Rhodium Catalysts:

Elucidation of Reforming Pathways from Detailed Microkinetics
Marm Dixita, Renika Baruaha, Anand Parejiyaa, Dhrupad Parikha, Atul Bhargava,1
a
Energy Systems Research Laboratory, IIT Gandhinagar,VGEC Campus, Ahmedabad 382424, India

Abstract

Ethanol autothermal reforming has been studied using comprehensive, detailed microkinetic mechanisms and an effort has
been made to elicit the mechanism of ethanol reforming on rhodium. The microkinetic mechanism is adapted from literature
and has been validated with reported experimental results. The effects of co-reactants have been analyzed on the reaction
path and major reactive pathways have been established. The results show that ethanol activation occurs via dissociative
adsorption to C2H4O which is then further dissociated to C(s), while oxidation of the carbon occurs by O(s). Further the
mechanism is reduced by information obtained from reaction path analysis, which is further substantiated by principal
component analysis. Almost 50% reduction from the full microkinetic mechanism is obtained. This study will form the basis
of further work to elicit a single step rate equation for ethanol autothermal reforming to reduce model complexity.

Keywords: ethanol; autothermal reforming; microkinetic model; rhodium

1. Introduction

Hydrogen as an energy carrier, and fuel cells as energy conversion devices have gained traction recently in
the context of the shift toward more efficient and less carbon-intensive energy solutions [1]. This has renewed
the interest in delocalized hydrogen generation with a lot of focus on hydrocarbon reforming process, in
particular autothermal reforming due to its thermodynamic neutral nature and relatively high yield [2].
Reforming bio-fuels like ethanol has an added advantage of being renewably available and being carbon neutral
[3]. However, the focus of research in the past few years has been catalyst development and the evaluation of the
process and equipment with little work being done on the numerical modeling, kinetics and mechanism of the
reaction [4], [5]. This is primarily due to the computational complexity involved in solving detailed
microkinetic mechanisms that elucidate the working of the catalyst system using surface reactions and capture
the reactor performance over a wide range of reactor conditions [6].

This behavior can be accurately modeled using a fundamental understanding of the underlying surface
catalytic phenomenon provided by a detailed microkinetic mechanism [7]. A detailed microkinetic mechanism is
further useful to accurately model the reaction over a wide range of reactor conditions [8]. Ethanol steam
reforming and partial oxidation have been extensively studied mechanistically and experimentally [9]–[13].
Detailed microkinetic mechanisms exist in open literature for these reforming reactions and have been
experimentally validated [14]. However, limited literature is available on mechanistic insight to autothermal
reforming of ethanol on rhodium [15]. Further, these studies are purely theoretical in nature and do not take into
account real-life parameters like the effect of base, reaction conditions and reactor geometry. Our attempt is to
adapt a non-validated reaction mechanism and adapt it to experiments. Once validated, the reaction mechanism
is analyzed using reaction path analysis which gives an insight into the reforming pathways and effect of co-
reactants. This analysis also helps identify reactions paths that are not contributing to the reforming reaction and
can be omitted from the mechanism. We derive a reduced mechanism as a conclusion to this work based on
reaction path analysis and principal component analysis. This study will form the basis of further work in model
reduction for developing a single step rate equation for ethanol autothermal reforming.

Section two details the microkinetic mechanism adapted from literature and validates it with experimental
findings. Section three describes the reaction path analysis and details the results from the simulations: it
identifies the reaction mechanism and details the effects of co-reactant addition and temperature. Section four
details the principal component analysis and the results from the reaction path analysis to derive the reduced

1
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 814 030 7813
E-mail address: atul.bhargav@iitgn.ac.in

611
mechanism. We observe excellent agreement of the reduced mechanism with the full mechanism for all
simulated cases.

2. Microkinetic Mechanism

139

137 C2H5OH
CO2
CO
111
Reaction Pair

CH4
H2
27

17

-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

Normalized Sensitivity Coefficient

Figure 1: Sensitivity analysis of microkinetic mechanism for outlet mole fractions

The microkinetic mechanism for this work has been adapted from [16]. The proposed mechanism has 14 gas
phase species, 51 surface species and 202 elementary-like surface reactions. No gas phase reactions are
involved. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to identify the most sensitive reactions with respect to the outlet
mole fractions. The sensitivity analysis was performed on outlet mole fraction of C2H5OH, H2, CH4, CO and
CO2 by perturbing the reaction rates of each reaction pair by 5%. Both forward and backward reactions were
perturbed simultaneously to ensure that the equilibrium constant of the reaction pair remains undisturbed. Figure
1 shows the most sensitive reactions from the reaction mechanism for one test conditions. Procedure followed
by Koehle as described in [17] was used to determine the magnitude of parameter adjustment. Only those
parameters were changed that had a large impact for a particular model response and low impact on other model
responses. Based on this analysis, pre-exponential factors of four reaction pairs were adjusted to improve the
agreement with experimental data. It has been seen that pre-exponential factors may have an uncertainty of
factor of 10-100 and hence this adjustment is valid.

612
 Table 1 Microkinetic Mechanism for ethanol autothermal reforming

Reduced Reduced
No. Reaction No. Reaction
Mechanism Mechanism

1 H2 + Rh(s) => H2(s)  102 CH3(s) + O(s) =>CH3O(s) + Rh(s) 

2 H2(S) → H2 + RH(S)  103 C(S) + O(S) → CO(S) + RH(S) 
3 O2 + RH(S) → O2(s)  104 CO(s) + Rh(s) =>C(s) + O(s) 
4 O2(s) =>Rh(s) + O2  105 CO(s) + H(s) =>C(s) + OH(s) 
5 H2O + Rh(s) =>H2O(s)  106 C(S) + OH(S) → CO(S) + H(S) 
6 H2O(s) → Rh(s)+H2O  107 CH(S) + O(S) → CO(S) + H(S) 
7 CO + Rh(s) =>CO(s)  108 CO(s) + H(s) =>CH(s) + O(s) 
8 CO(S) + RH(S) → CO  109 HCO(S) + RH(S) → H(S) + CO(S) 
9 CO2 + Rh(s) =>CO2(s)  110 CO(s) + H(s) =>HCO(s) + Rh(s) 
10 CO2(S) → CO2 + RH(S)  111 CO(S) + O(S) → CO2(S) + RH(S) 
11 CH4 + Rh(s) =>CH4(s)  112 CO2(s) + Rh(s) =>CO(s) + O(s) 
12 CH4(S) → CH4 + RH(S)  113 CH(s) + OH(s) =>HCO(s) + H(s) -
13 C2H4 + Rh(s) =>C2H4(s)  114 HCO(s) + H(s) =>CH(s) + OH(s) -
14 C2H4(S) → C2H4 + RH(S)  115 COH(S) + RH(S) → C(S) + OH(S) 
15 C2H6 + Rh(s) =>C2H6(s)  116 C(s) + OH(s) =>COH(s) + Rh(s) 
C2H5OH(S) + C2H5(S) →
16 C2H6(s) =>C2H6 + Rh(s)  117 C2H5OC2H5(S) + H(S) 
C2H5OC2H5(s) + H(s)
17 C2H5OH + Rh(s) → C2H5OH(S)  118 =>C2H5OH(s) + C2H5(s) 
C2H5OC2H5(s) + Rh(s)
18 C2H5OH(s) =>C2H5OH + Rh(s)  119 =>C2H5O(s) + C2H5(s) -
C2H5O(s) + C2H5(s)
19 C2H5OC2H5 + Rh(s) =>C2H5OC2H5(s)  120 =>C2H5OC2H5(s) + Rh(s) -
C2H5OC2H5(S) → C2H5OC2H5 + C2H5OC2H5(s) + Rh(s) =>THF(s)
20 RH(S)  121 + H2(s) -
THF(s) + H2(s) =>C2H5OC2H5(s)
21 CH3CHO + Rh(s) =>CH3CHO(s)  122 + Rh(s) -
22 CH3CHO(S) → CH3CHO + RH(s)  123 BuO(s) + Rh(s) =>THF(s) + H(s) -
23 C3H7CHO + Rh(s) =>C3H7CHO(s) - 124 THF(s) + H(s) =>BuO(s) + Rh(s) -
24 C3H7CHO(s) =>C3H7CHO + Rh(s) - 125 BuO(s) + Rh(s) =>PrCHO(s) + H(s) -
25 CH3CH3CO + Rh(s) =>CH3CH3CO(s) - 126 PrCHO(s) + H(s) =>BuO(s) + Rh(s) -
CH3CHO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2CHO(s)
26 CH3CH3CO(s) =>CH3CH3CO + Rh(s) - 127 + H(s) -
CH2CHO(s) + H(s) =>CH3CHO(s)
27 H2(s) + Rh(s) =>H(s) + H(s)  128 + Rh(s) -
CH3CHO(S) + RH(S) → CH3(S) +
28 H(s)+H(s) → H2(s) + RH(s)  129 HCO(S) 
HCO(s) + CH3(s) =>CH3CHO(s) +
29 O2(s) + Rh(s) =>O(s) + O(s)  130 Rh(s) 
CH3CHO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3CO(s)
30 O(s) + O(s) =>O2(s) + Rh(s)  131 + H(s) 
CH3CO(S) + H(S) → CH3CHO(S)
31 H(s)+O(s) → OH(s) + RH(s)  132 + RH(S) 
C2H5OH(S) + RH(S) → C2H5O(S)
32 OH(s) + Rh(s) =>H(s) + O(s)  133 + H(S) 
C2H5O(s) + H(s) =>C2H5OH(s) +
33 OH(s) + OH(s) =>H2O(s) + O(s)  134 Rh(s) 
C2H5OH(s) + RH(S) →
34 H2O(S) + O(S) → OH(S) + OH(s)  135 CH3CHOH(S) + RH(s) 
CH3CHOH(s) + H(s) =>C2H5OH(s)
35 H(s) + OH(s) =>H2O(s) + Rh(s)  136 + Rh(s) 
C2H5OH(S) + RH(S) → CH3(S) +
36 H2O(S) → H(S) + OH(S)  137 CH2OH(S) 

613
 CH3(s) + CH2OH(s) =>C2H5OH(s)
37 CH(S) + RH(S) → C(S) + H(S)  138 + Rh(s) 
C2H5(s) + H2O(s) =>C2H5OH(s) +
38 C(s) + H(s) =>CH(s) + Rh(s)  139 H(s) 
C2H5OH(S) + H(S) → C2H5(S) +
39 CH2(S) + RH(S) → CH(S) + H(S)  140 H2O(S) 
C2H5OH(s) + C(s) =>C2H5(s) +
40 CH(s) + H(s) =>CH2(s) + Rh(s)  141 COH(s) 
C2H5(S) + COH(S) → C(S) +
41 CH3(S)+RH(S) → CH2(S) + H(S)  142 C2H5OH(S) 
C2H5O(S) + RH(S) → CH3CHO(S)
42 CH2(s) + H(s) =>CH3(s) + Rh(s)  143 + H(S) 
CH3CHO(s) + H(s) =>C2H5O(s) +
43 CH4(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) + H(s)  144 Rh(s) 
C2H5O(S) + RH(S) → C2H4O(S) +
44 CH3(S) + H(S) → CH4(S) + RH(S)  145 H(S) 
C2H4O(s) + H(s) =>C2H5O(s) +
45 CC(S) + RH(S) → C(S) + C(S) - 146 Rh(s) 
C2H4O(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H4(s) +
46 C(s) + C(s) =>CC(s) + Rh(s) - 147 O(s) 
C2H4(S)+O(S) → C2H4O(S)
47 HCC(s) + Rh(s) =>CC(s) + H(s) - 148 +RH(S) 
C2H4O(S)+RH(S) → H2CO(S) +
48 CC(s) + H(s) =>HCC(s) + Rh(s) - 149 CH2(S) 
CH2(s) + H2CO(s) =>C2H4O(s) +
49 HCC(s) + Rh(s) =>CH(s) + C(s)  150 Rh(s) 
CH3CO(s) + Rh(s) =>CO(s) +
50 CH(S) + C(S) → HCC(S) + RH(S)  151 CH3(s) 
CO(S) + CH3(S) → CH3CO(S) +
51 HCCH(s) + Rh(s) =>HCC(s) + H(s) - 152 RH(S) 
H2CO(S) + RH(S) → HCO(S) +
52 HCC(s) + H(s) =>HCCH(s) + Rh(s) - 153 H(S) 
53 HCCH(s) + Rh(s) =>CH(s) + CH(s) - 154 HCO(s) + H(s) =>H2CO(s) + Rh(s) 
CH3CHOH(s) + Rh(s) =>HCOH(s)
54 CH(s) + CH(s) =>HCCH(s) + Rh(s) - 155 + CH3(s) -
HCOH(s) + CH3(s)
55 H2CC(s) + Rh(s) =>HCC(s) + H(s)  156 =>CH3CHOH(s) + Rh(s) -
CH3COH(s) + Rh(s) =>COH(s) +
56 HCC(S) + H(S) → H2CC(S) + RH(S)  157 CH3(s) -
COH(s) + CH3(s) =>CH3COH(s) +
57 H2CC(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2(s) + C(s) - 158 Rh(s) -
CH3O(s) + Rh(s) =>H2CO(s) +
58 CH2(s) + C(s) =>H2CC(s) + Rh(s) - 159 H(s) 
H2CO(S) + H(S) → CH3O(S) +
59 C2H3(s) + Rh(s) =>HCCH(s) + H(s) - 160 RH(S) 
C2H5OH(S) + H(S) → C2H5O(S) +
60 HCCH(s) + H(s) =>C2H3(s) + Rh(s) - 161 H2(S) 
C2H5O(s) + H2(s) =>C2H5OH(s) +
61 C2H3(s) + Rh(s) =>H2CC(s) + H(s)  162 H(s) 
CH2CHO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2(s) +
62 H2CC(S)+H(S) → C2H3(S)  163 HCO(s) -
CH2(s) + HCO(s) =>CH2CHO(s) +
63 C2H3(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2(s) + CH(s) - 164 Rh(s) -
CH2CHO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2CO(s)
64 CH2(s) + CH(s) =>C2H3(s) + Rh(s) - 165 + H(s) -
CH2CO(s) + H(s) =>CH2CHO(s) +
65 CH3C(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) + C(s) - 166 Rh(s) -
CH2CO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2(s) +
66 CH3(s) + C(s) =>CH3C(s) + Rh(s) - 167 CO(s) -
CH2(s) + CO(s) =>CH2CO(s) +
67 CH3C(s) + Rh(s) =>H2CC(s) + H(s) - 168 Rh(s) -

614
 CH3OH(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2OH(s) +
68 H2CC(s) + H(s) =>CH3C(s) + Rh(s) - 169 H(s) -
CH2OH(s) + H(s) =>CH3OH(s) +
69 CH3CH(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3C(s) + H(s) - 170 Rh(s) -
CH2OH(S) + RH(S) → H2CO(S) +
70 CH3C(s) + H(s) =>CH3CH(s) + Rh(s) - 171 H(S) 
H2CO(s) + H(s) =>CH2OH(s) +
71 CH3CH(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H3(s) + H(s) - 172 Rh(s) 
CH2OH(S) + RH(S) → HCOH(S) +
72 C2H3(s) + H(s) =>CH3CH(s) + Rh(s) - 173 H(S) 
HCOH(s) + H(s) =>CH2OH(s) +
73 CH3CH(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) + CH(s) - 174 Rh(s) 
HCOH(S) + RH(S) → COH(S) +
74 CH3(s) + CH(s) =>CH3CH(s) + Rh(s) - 175 H(S) 
75 C2H4(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H3(s) + H(s)  176 COH(s) + H(s) =>HCOH(s) + Rh(s) 
CH2OH(s) + Rh(s) =>OH(s) +
76 C2H3(S) + H(S) → C2H4(S) + RH(S)  177 CH2(s) -
OH(s) + CH2(s) =>CH2OH(s) +
77 CH2(s) + CH2(s) =>C2H4(s) + Rh(s) - 178 Rh(s) -
C2H5OH(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H4OH(s)
78 C2H4(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2(s) + CH2(s) - 179 + H(s) -
C2H4OH(s) + H(s) =>C2H5OH(s) +
79 C2H5(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3CH(s) + H(s) - 180 Rh(s) -
C2H5OH(s) + Rh(s) =>OH(s) +
80 CH3CH(s) + H(s) =>C2H5(s) + Rh(s) - 181 C2H5(s) -
OH(s) + C2H5(s) =>C2H5OH(s) +
81 C2H5(S) + RH(S) → C2H4(S) + H(S)  182 Rh(s) -
C2H5O(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) +
82 C2H4(s) + H(s) =>C2H5(s) + Rh(s)  183 H2CO(s) 
H2CO(S) + CH3(S) → C2H5O(S) +
83 C2H5(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) + CH2(s)  184 RH(S) 
CH3CHOH(s) + Rh(s)
84 CH3(S) + CH2(S) → C2H5(S) + RH(S)  185 =>CH3COH(s) + H(s) -
CH3COH(s) + H(s)
85 C2H6(S) + RH(S) → C2H5(S) + H(S)  186 =>CH3CHOH(s) + Rh(s) -
CH3OH(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3O(s) +
86 C2H5(s) + H(s) =>C2H6(s) + Rh(s)  187 H(s) -
CH3O(s) + H(s) =>CH3OH(s) +
87 CH3(S) + CH3(S) → C2H6(S) + RH(S)  188 Rh(s) -
C2H4OH(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H4O(s) +
88 C2H6(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) + CH3(s)  189 H(s) -
C2H4O(s) + H(s) =>C2H4OH(s) +
89 CH4(s) + O(s) =>CH3(s) + OH(s) - 190 Rh(s) -
C2H4OH(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H4(s) +
90 CH3(s) + OH(s) =>CH4(s) + O(s) - 191 OH(s) -
C2H4(s) + OH(s) =>C2H4OH(s) +
91 CH3(s) + O(s) =>CH2(s) + OH(s) - 192 Rh(s) -
C2H4OH(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2OH(s) +
92 CH2(s) + OH(s) =>CH3(s) + O(s) - 193 CH2(s) -
CH2OH(s) + CH2(s) =>C2H4OH(s)
93 CH2(s) + O(s) =>CH(s) + OH(s) - 194 + Rh(s) -
CH3CO2(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3CO(s) +
94 CH(s) + OH(s) =>CH2(s) + O(s) - 195 O(s) -
CH3CO(s) + O(s) =>CH3CO2(s) +
95 CH(s) + O(s) =>C(s) + OH(s) - 196 Rh(s) -
CH3(s) + CO2(s) =>CH3CO2(s) +
96 C(s) + OH(s) =>CH(s) + O(s) - 197 Rh(s) -
CH3CO2(s) + Rh(s) =>CH3(s) +
97 HCO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH(s) + O(s) - 198 CO2(s) -
C2H5O(s) + Rh(s) =>C2H5(s) +
98 CH(s) + O(s) =>HCO(s) + Rh(s) - 199 O(s) -

615
 C2H5(s) + O(s) =>C2H5O(s) +
99 H2CO(s) + Rh(s) =>CH2(s) + O(s) - 200 Rh(s) -
C2H5OH(s) + O(s) =>C2H5O(s) +
100 CH2(s) + O(s) =>H2CO(s) + Rh(s) - 201 OH(s) -
C2H5O(s) + OH(s) =>C2H5OH(s) +
101 CH3O(S) + RH(S) → CH3(S) + O(S)  202 O(s) -


The simulations were carried out to match the experimental conditions reported by Cai et al [18]. Ethanol:
Steam: Oxygen ratio was kept to be 1:1.8:0.6. The reactor dimensions and velocities were assumed to result in a
contact time of 0.6 s g ml-1. The thermo-kinetic calculator toolbox “Cantera [19]” (reactor module) was used to
solve the plug flow model for autothermal reforming of ethanol on Rh catalyst. The output mole fractions of
simulations and experiments are compared can be seen in Figure 2. Good agreement of the simulation results
with experimental data exists for the entire range of temperatures studied.
70%
H2 Exp_H2
CO2 Exp_CO2
60% CH4 Exp_CH4
CO Exp_CO

50%
Mole Fraction

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
400 450 500 550 600 650
Temperature (°C)

Figure 2: Comparison of microkinetic mechanism with experimental results from [18]

3. Reaction Path Analysis

A reaction path analysis helps identifying the main reaction paths involved in the process leading from
reactants to products based on the net production rates of each surface species involved in the microkinetic
mechanism [20]. The RPA was done with the aid of the object oriented programming tool within Cantera (and
interfaced with python). We have run RPA for an isothermal reactor for cases where 1 < S/C < 2.0, 0.8 < O/C <
2.0 (both at inlet) and 450 < T < 650 °C, since moderate to high conversions were reported in the literature at
these temperatures. A reaction path diagram for experimental data described in previous section is shown in
Figure 3. Ethanol activation on a catalyst surface can occur via the pathways as detailed in Figure 4.

616
 Figure 3 Reaction Path Diagram for ethanol autothermal reforming

It is observed that ethanol activation occurs via dissociative dissociation of hydroxyl group from the
molecule. This then further goes oxidation to C2H4O adspecies which break down to single C species. The
single C species then undergo dissociation to yield C(s) that is oxidized to CO and CO 2. This behavior has been
previously observed in theoretical studies[9], [13]. . On increasing the O/C ratios, the complete oxidation
pathways take over, with CO2 and H2O being the predominant products. Increasing S/C ratios favors the partial
oxidation product pathways. These trends have been seen experimentally for autothermal reforming in many
studies [21], [22]. The effect of temperature is prominently seen on the activation pathway for ethanol. At higher
temperatures, the C-C bond undergoes scission: the selectivity for ethylene therefore reduces. Oxidant for
conversion of C(s) is chiefly contributed by oxygen, with a small contribution by the hydroxyl species.

Figure 4: Possible activation pathways for ethanol on catalyst surface

617
4. Microkinetic Mechanism Reduction

100% 100%

80% 80%

Ethanol Conversion
60% 60%
Mole Fraction

40% 40%

RM_CO RM_H2 RM_XEtOH

20% FM_CO FM_H2 FM_XEtOH 20%

0% 0%
450 500 550 600 650
Temperature (°C)

(a)

100% 100% 100% 100%

OC = 0.6 SC = 1.8

80% 80% 80% 80%

Ethanol Conversion

60% 60% 60% 60% Ethanol Conversion

Mole Fraction

Mole Fraction

40% 40% 40% 40%

RM_CO RM_H2 RM_XEtOH RM_CO RM_H2 RM_XEtOH
FM_CO FM_H2 FM_XEtOH FM_CO FM_H2 FM_XEtOH

20% 20% 20% 20%

0% 0% 0% 0%
0.6 1 1.4 1.8 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
H2 O:EtOH O2 :EtOH

(b) (c)
Figure 5: (a) Temperature programmed reaction for H2O:EtOH:O2=1:1.8:0.6. Results show outlet mole fractions of CO,
CO2 and ethanol conversion for full mechanism (FM) and reduced mechanism (RM). (b) Ethanol conversions, outlet H2 and
CO mole fraction for varying H2O:EtOH ratio for O2:EtOH= 0.6 (c) Ethanol conversions, outlet H2 and CO mole fraction
for varying O2:EtOH ratio for H2O:EtOH= 1.8

It is seen that only certain pathways are active for all the reactor conditions modeled. It is thus possible that
only a select few of the full model can accurately model the ATR performance. Excluding this above reactions
give us almost a 50% reduction from the full microkinetic mechanism. Further, to substantiate this reduction, we
performed principal component analysis using the information from the sensitivity analysis [23], [24]. We
considered the matrix S, where individual elements Si,j represent the sensitivity coefficient of the outlet mole
fractions of ith species to the jth reversible reaction. In particular, the mole fractions of CH 4, CO, CO2, H2 and

618
C2H5OH were monitored. Since the full microkinetic mechanism consists of 101 reversible reaction pairs, the
dimensions of the sensitivity matrix is 101 x 120, and the matrix S X ST is a 101 x 101 square matrix with 101
eigenvalues. Eigenvalues have been shown to provide an absolute measure of significant subsets of the full
mechanism that consists of closely interacting elementary reactions. This information forms the basis of the
objective criterion for selecting a minimal reaction set [23]. The largest eigenvalue is considered to be the most
important, and the corresponding eigenvector is then considered for choosing the important reaction pairs. The
important reactions identified by the PCA and the RPA were found to be similar. The prediction of the full
microkinetic model and the reduced microkinetic model are compared for various conditions in Figure 5. The
results show excellent agreement for a wide range of operating conditions.

5. Conclusion

Ethanol autothermal reforming was analyzed using microkinetic mechanism. The non-validated microkinetic
mechanism was optimized to experimental data and performed acceptably over a large span of reaction
conditions. Our analyses demonstrated the important reaction paths, the most abundant reaction intermediates
and the key sensitive reaction steps. It is seen that regardless of the S/C and O/C ratios, the ethanol consumption
is due to dissociation of –OH group with an important intermediate being C2H4O(s). Further steps lead to
carbon which is then oxidized to CO and CO 2. Based on the information derived from reaction path analysis and
principal component analysis, a reduced mechanism is generated with almost fifty percent reduction. Our
reduced mechanism is able to correctly predict the outlet mole fractions as well as the ethanol conversion for a
wide range of S/C and O/C ratios reported in the literature. These studies form the base of a larger effort to
study ethanol autothermal reforming reactions on rhodium catalysts. The major pathways will form the initial
step in development of a hierarchically reducing the detailed microkinetic mechanism. Future endeavors will
include detailed sensitivity analysis and partial equilibrium analysis to reduce the microkinetic mechanism and
possibly develop an analytical rate expression for ethanol autothermal reforming.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support received from IIT Gandhinagar, the Ministry of Human
Resources, Government of India and the Ministry of Science & Technology (Grant number SR/S3/CE/078/2012
(DST)), Government of India.

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 EOR – Experimental Study to attain self sufficiency in crude
oil production in Naharkatiya oil field

B.M. Das1*, S. B. Gogoi2, B. B. Hazarika3

Department of Petroleum Technology

1,2,3

Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam

*Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT

The present study examines an important enhanced oil recovery method in order to increase the oil recovery of
depleting Nahorkatiya oil field of Upper Assam Basin. Surfactant flooding is the most promising EOR technique
which uses surfactant to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) and allow oil to flow through the porous media. In my
study, petroleum surfactant that has been investigated for attaining such low interfacial tensions is inexpensive
Black Liquor (BL), obtained from Nowgong Paper Mill, Jagiroad, Assam. The main constituent of BL is Na-
Lignosulfonate, which is chosen as an alternative surfactant source because it is derived from bamboo which is
renewable and abundantly available in this region. Addition of surfactants reduces the capillary forces that trap the
oil in the pores of the rock and thereby reduces the IFT between oleic phase and aqueous phase which finally leads
to decrease in residual oil saturation and enhanced oil recovery.

Keywords: Black liquor, Interfacial tension, Porous media, Enhanced oil recovery

1. INTRODUCTION

Crude oil, an important primary energy resource is a naturally occurring liquid found in rock formations. It consists
of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds. It is generally
accepted that oil is formed mostly from the carbon rich remains of ancient plankton after exposure to heat and
pressure in the Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years. Over time, the decayed residue was covered by
layers of mud and silt, sinking further down into the Earth’s crust and preserved there between hot and pressured
layers, gradually transforming into oil reservoir rock such as sandstones, limestone rocks etc. These rocks have
microscopic pores and these pores contain petroleum along with water.

Several methods & techniques are employed to maximize production of this crude oil. The most emerging
technique employed now-a-days is Enhanced oil recovery method. Multiphase flow in porous media was a
pragmatically area of study which provides a basis to visualize an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) process by
surfactant flooding. Surfactant flooding is the most promising EOR technique which uses surfactant to reduce the
inter-facial tension (IFT) and allow oil to flow through the porous media [1]. Addition of surfactants reduces the
capillary forces that trap the oil in the pores of the rock. The surfactants slug displaces the majority of the oil from
the reservoir contacted, by reducing the Interfacial Tension between oleic phase and aqueous phase.

In my study, petroleum surfactant that has been investigated for attaining such low interfacial tensions is
inexpensive Black Liquor (BL), obtained from Nowgong Paper Mill, Jagiroad, Assam. The main constituent of BL
is Na-Lignosulfonate, which is chosen as an alternative surfactant source because it is derived from bamboo which
is renewable and abundantly available in this region. Na- Lignosulfonate is available as effluent from paper and pulp
mills. Several studies of lignosulfonate showed increased interfacial activity between oil and petroleum sulfonate
upon the addition of lignosulfonate [2]. In this study, the IFT between surfactant (BL) in DW and paraffin oil were
calculated by Kruss Easy dyne method [3]. The multiphase flow behaviour is then analysed by experimentally
evaluating the permeability through displacement method.

621
 2. EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

2.1 Materials

For the experimental analysis, the porous medium was obtained from a producing field of Nahorkatiya area of
Upper Assam Basin obtained from a depth of 3836– 3839m. The paraffin oil of viscosity (μ o ) 115 cp & brine
solution, 3000 ppm of NaCl in DW having viscosity (μ w ) of 1 cp are used respectively. The surfactant used is BL,
anionic water soluble surfactant, whose main constituent is Na-Lignosulfonate from Nowgong Paper Mill, Jagiroad.

2.2 Methods

2.2.1 Interfacial Tension (IFT)

The IFT test was conducted in KRUSS Easy Dyne Tensiometer, which is intended only for measurements of the
surface tension of liquids, the IFT between two liquids and measurements of the density of a liquid. The principle of
the measuring method is the attractive forces between molecules (cohesion), for which, a certain work is necessary
to change the size of a liquid interface or surface.

The EasyDyne S measures the surface or interfacial tension with a measuring probe suspended from a force sensor.
This probe is a ring or a plate consisting of a material with optimum wetting properties material (platinum
respectively platinum-iridium). A force acts on the balance as soon as the probe touches the surface. If the wetted
length of the probe is known the force measured can be used to calculate the interfacial or surface tension.

2.2.2 Core flooding Test

The general procedure was:

1. The core was saturated with brine.

2. The core is flooded with brine until it was saturated with brine to determine the absolute permeability [K]
of the core sample

3. Oil was flooded until no more brine was produced (about 2 PV) to determine the relative permeability of
oil to water at irreducible brine saturation [k ro at S wi ]. The S wi averaged 0.30.

4. Water was flooded until no more oil was produced (about 2 PV) to determine the relative permeability of
water to oil at residual oil saturation [k rw at S or ]. The S or averaged 0.70.

5. Finally surfactant flooding was done until no more oil was produced to determine the residual oil saturation
after surfactant flooding.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Interfacial Tension (IFT)

The results of IFT experiment when the oleic phase was chosen as Liquid Paraffin and the aqueous phase was
chosen as Black Liquor in distilled water is shown in Fig. 1. The experiment proves that with addition of surfactant,
the IFT between the aqueous & oleic phase decreases. The concentration of BL is increased slowly to check for
more appropriate CMC & IFT value. With increase in the concentration of BL in DW, we got four different values
of IFT at CMC as shown in the Figure. Initially we got IFT 12.8 mN/m at 0.03 CMC, then by increasing the
concentration of BL in DW, IFT value becomes 9.5 mN/m at 0.111 CMC, then further IFT equals 6.5 mN/m at 0.22
CMC and finally at 0.335 CMC, the IFT value is 4.8 mN/m. The IFT experiment proves that addition of surfactant
give rise to low IFT between the oleic and the aqueous phase, which are very much in demand in enhanced oil
recovery projects. Many Literatures have reported that with decrease in IFT leads to enhanced oil recovery. [4,5].
For the displacement experiment, the lowest value of IFT is considered and the CMC of BL is taken as 0.335 ml in
100 ml of DW.

622
 Fig 1. IFT between BL in DW & LP vs Conc. Of BL in DW

3.2 Core flooding Test

The results of the Core flood Experiments are represented graphically below in Figure 2 which shows that as the
pore volume injected increases, the percentage oil recovery also increases with a maximum recovery of
approximately 40%.

45
40
35
30
% Oil recovery

25
20
15
10
5
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Pore Volume injected

Fig. 2 Oil recovery by S Flooding for NH(B)

4. DISCUSSION

Systematic investigation of IFT experiment shows that addition of surfactant give rise to low interfacial tension
between the oleic and the aqueous phase, which access the effect of enhanced oil recovery efficiency. The aqueous
phase having lowest IFT was found suitable for oil displacement experiments. The Core flooding experiment further
proves that with surfactant flooding, a maximum of 40% oil recovery can be obtained. Therefore the reduction of
interfacial tension because of addition of Black liquor into the aqueous phase leads to the release of residual oil
droplets from the capillaries in the porous media, thereby increasing substantially the amount of petroleum

623
obtainable from a given porous media. . Stefan Iglauer et al. also concluded a wide variety of surfactants can meet
the technical requirements as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agents [6]. De Groote and Monsoon [7,8] originated the
idea of removing oil from reservoirs by means of spent sulfite liquors as early as 1929. The use of various
lignosulfonates has been disclosed extensively in the literature [9,10] disclose several methods of using aqueous
solutions of lignosulfonate salts as sacrificial agents. The use of oxidized lignosulfonates is disclosed in [11].

5. CONCLUSION

The characteristic of emulsion is studied based on IFT and core flood experiments, which describes the behaviour of
multiphase flow through porous media. The experiments reveal that addition of surfactant lowers the IFT of the
emulsion and further displacement experiments prove that with increase in pore volume injected, the oil recovery
increases with a maximum oil recovery of 40%. Therefore the experiments proved that lowering of IFT with
addition of surfactant helps in releasing more oil blobs and substantially leads to enhanced oil recovery of 40%.

6. REFERENCES

1. Pillon Lilianna Z., 2008, Interfacial Properties of Petroleum Products, CRC press, pp.35.
2. Babu, D.R. Hornof, V. and Neale G., “Use of Spent Sulfite Liquors in Enhanced Oil Recovery Operations”, J.
Can. Pet. Tech., pp. 48-53 (1984).
3. www.kruss.de, KRUSS EasyDyne Tensiometer manual, Measuring instruments for interfacial chemistry.
4. Nagalajan R., Wasan D. C. J., 1993. Measurement of dynamic interfacial tension by an expanding drop
tensionmeter, Colloid Interface Sci., V159. pp 164.
5. Pingping Shen · Bin Zhu · Xian-Bin Li · Yu-Shu Wu, “An Experimental Study of the Influence of Interfacial
Tension on Water–Oil Two-Phase Relative Permeability”, (9 April 2010), Springer Science+Business Media
B.V. 2010
6. Iglauer Stefan , Wu Yongfu , Shuler Patrick , Tang Yongchun, Goddard A. William III, “ New surfactant
classes for enhanced oil recovery and their tertiary oil recovery potential”, Journal of Petroleum Science and
Engineering, 71 (2010) 23–29.
7. De Groote M. Monsoon L.T., 1929. Flooding Process for Recovering Oil from Subterranean Oil-Bearing Strata.
U.S. Patent No. 1,823,439.
8. De Groote M. Monsoon L.T., 1930. Flooding Process for Recovering Fixed Oil from Subterranean Oil-Bearing
Strata. U.S. Patent No. 1,823,440.
9. Bousaid I.S. Ho B.K., 1981. Oil recovery method employing alternate slugs of surfactant and fresh water
solution of sacrificial agent. U.S. Patent No. 4,271,906.
10. Kalfoglou G. 1979. Lignosulfonates as additives in recovery processes involving chemical recovery processes.
U.S. Patent No. 4,157,115.
11. Kalfoglou G. 1979. Oxidized lignosulfonates as additives in oil recovery processes involving chemical recovery
agents. U.S. Patent No. 4,133,385.

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 ICAER-2015

Nanostructured Hafnium Oxide Thin films for Sensing Carbon

Monoxide: An Experimental Investigation
V. Dave1, P.K. Mishra2, R. Chandra3
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur,INDIA
2
Department of Physics, Ranchi University, Ranchi,INDIA
3
Institute Instrumentation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-INDIA

Abstract

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a pollutant with potential to harm all living things. The main source of CO is vehicle emissions,
burn agriculture and industrial activities. Although carbon monoxide is only a weak greenhouse gas, its influence on climate
goes beyond its own direct effects. Its presence affects concentrations of other greenhouse gases including methane,
tropospheric ozone and carbon dioxide. In this paper, we are reporting the CO sensing properties of hafnium oxide thin
films. The thin films of HfO 2 were deposited on glass substrates using DC magnetron sputtering technique at four different
temperatures. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties were investigated using XRD, AFM, UV-vis
NIR spectrophotometer and electrical unit respectively. The crystalline nature of the film increases with the temperature. It
was also found that the sensitivity of the films increases with CO concentration while it decreases with the deposition
temperature. The factor responsible for this phenomenon was the porosity of the film calculated from packing density.

Keywords: Hafnium oxide;Sensitivity;Crystallite size; Refractive index;

1. Introduction

There is great demand for gas sensors in various fields. Precise control of air/fuel ratio in the combustion
processes of vehicles can significantly increase the efficiency of overall system. The concentration of carbon
monoxide is an important parameter in determining the efficiency of combustion. These CO emitted in the
form of Flue gases affect the climate and concentrations of other greenhouse gases which include methane,
tropospheric ozone and carbon dioxide. Due to large emission of CO gases , the world is facing problems like
global warming, climatic changes and human health hazards. Thus, there is a urgent need to know the accurate
flue gas concentration of CO gas as it is the most sensitive indicator of unburned combustible losses [1].

Commercially available gas sensor devices are fabricated from semiconductor metal oxides and are
based on principle of change in electrical resistivity of the oxide with the concentration of the gas. Surface
quality of the fabricated oxide plays an important role because change in resistivity place at the boundary
between the gaseous and solid states. Therefore, a thin film based metal oxide will be more suitable as a gas
sensor for detecting CO gas.
Hafnium oxide seems to be most promising candidate in this application as it possess high mechanical,
thermal and chemical stability. Further, hafnium dioxide (HfO 2 ) is reported to exhibit attractive properties like
high dielectric constant (ε=25) [2], wide band gap (E g =5.7eV) [3], high melting point and thermodynamically
stable [4]. These film in the form of coating find its applications in various electronic devices [5-6] and optical
systems [7-8]. Limited work has been done in exploring CO sensing property of HfO 2 . The use of HfO 2 films
as CO gas sensors was first proposed by Capone et al. [9]. Since than very little has been published on CO-
sensing property of HfO 2 thin film prepared by PVD and its dependence on various thin film preparation
conditions such as substrate temperature, partial pressure of oxygen in the coating chamber, etc.

Hafnium oxide in the form of thin layer has been synthesized by various techniques like chemical
vapour deposition [10-11], electrochemical deposition [12], atomic layer deposition [13], pulse laser deposition
[14], RF and DC sputtering [15-17 and electron beam evaporation [18]. Each method has its own merits and
demerits. The reactive sputtering method provides many advantages like uniform coating, good adhesion,

625
 reproducibility and high deposition rate [19]. Looking at these advantages, we have deposited HfO2 coating for
glass insulator through DC reactive sputtering. The effects of substrate temperature on the optical and CO-
sensing properties of the films were studied.

2. Experimental
Hafnium oxide thin films were deposited on glass and quartz substrates by DC magnetron sputtering in a
custom designed 12 inch diameter chamber (Excel Instruments, India) using a 99.99% pure hafnium target (2"
dia and 5 mm thickness). The substrates were cleaned by rinsing in ultrasonic baths of acetone and dried under
nitrogen gas. The chamber was evacuated by a turbomolecular pump. It is backed up by a rotary pump. The
base pressure was below 2x10-6 Torr. Thereafter high purity (99.9%) oxygen along with inert gas (Ar) was bled
into the chamber. The ratio of flow of oxygen and argon was kept 1:2. The ratio of the gas mixture was
controlled and measured using mass flow controller and capacitance manometers (MKS), respectively. The gas
pressure was kept at 5 mTorr for all depositions. During each sputtering experiment, the gas pressure was
carefully monitored and kept constant since the sputtering current is extremely sensitive to the pressure of the
sputtering gas. The sputtering was carried for a period of one hour at different substrate temperature varying
from room upto 450 °C in steps of 150 °C. The sputtering was kept 50W power. The target to substrate
distance was kept constant at 50 mm. Other than the substrate temperature, all parameters were constant during
the set of experiments.
The structural properties of hafnium oxide films were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD)
using Bruker D8 Advance Diffractometer with Cu-Kα radiation having wavelength 1.54Ao. The surface
morphology and the microstructure of the films were studied using Atomic Force Microscope (NT-MDT
Ntegra Prima). The elemental analysis of the films was carried out using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(EDS) attached with FE-SEM (FEI, Quanta 200F). The optical transmission spectra was measured in the 200-
800 nm wavelength range using UV –Vis –NIR spectrophotometer (Varian Cary 5000). The electrical
properties were measured using source meter (Keithley 2400) and nanovoltmeter (Keithley 2182 A).Four
samples were prepared at room temperature, 150 °C, 300 °C and 450 °C.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Structural Analysis

X-ray diffraction analysis was carried out to determine the preferred orientations and structural
transformation of HfO 2 films on glass substrate at different substrate temperature. Figure 1 shows the XRD
pattern of the nanocrystalline films of hafnium oxide deposited at varying substrate temperature. The XRD
curve clearly reveals that as deposited film is amphorous in nature while films deposited at some substrate
temperature are polycrystalline in nature and the dominant peak occurs at 2θ ≈ 280 which corresponds to (-111)
orientation of monoclinic phase of HfO 2 [20]. The other less dominant peak belongs to (011), (111), (020), (-
211), (220) and (122) orientation. Moreover, the diffraction peaks in the XRD patterns become more intense
and sharper as the substrate temperature was increased from 150 οC to 450 οC, indicating an enhanced
crystallinity for the films deposited at high substrate temperature. The enhancement in the crystallinity of
hafnium oxide films can be associated with the change of the kinetic energy of the sputtered particles with the
increased substrate temperature.

The average crystallite size of the thin film was calculated using the Debye-Scherrer formula [21]

where t is the crystallite size, λ the wavelength of X-ray (1.54056 A0), β the line width at half maximum of the
most dominant peak and θ Bragg diffraction angle. Table I shows the variation of crystallite size with
deposition temperature. The crystallite size lies in the range of 13 - 24 nm. The crystallite size increases with
increase in substrate temperature. The probable reason may be that as the substrate temperature increases, the
kinetic energy of the sputtered particles also increases. Thus the sputtered particles have sufficient energy to
migrate on the substrate and hence results in the higher growth of the crystallite size. Therefore, the
crystallinity is improved.

626
 Figure 1 XRD patters of HfO 2 films at different substrate temperatures

Table I Parameters of HfO 2 films

Substrate Crystallite Roughness at% Hf at% O Refractive Packing

Temperature size (nm) index Density
(oC) (nm)
As Deposited - 5.12 37.45 62.55 1.83 0.82
150 13 8.35 33.66 64.63 1.92 0.88
300 17 11.33 33.23 66.77 2.05 0.97
450 24 14.77 32.88 67.12 2.08 0.99

3.2. Surface morphology and chemical composition

The surface morphology of the films was studied using AFM. The three dimensional AFM images
obtained for HfO 2 films deposited at different substrate temperature are shown in fig. 2. The AFM
micrographs corresponds to a scan area of 2μm x 2μm.It can be seen that the hafnium oxide films have same
morphologies. They all are constituted with a large number of nanoscale asperities. Each asperity consists of
surface nanograins that are used to form a surface peak. However the size and roughness of these varies with
substrate temperature. Table I lists rms roughness of HfO 2 samples at different temperatures. It is clear that as
temperature was increased from room to 450 0C, roughness value also increases from 5.12 nm to 14.77. This
behaviour of roughness may be correlated to the particle size which was earlier calculated through XRD. The
increment in substrate temperature increases the particle size which in turn enhances the roughness.

Figure 2 AFM micrographs of the deposited Hafnium oxide films at different deposition temperature

627
 The chemical composition analysis was done through EDS. Table I shows the at% of hafnium and
oxygen as substrate temperature was varied. The O/Hf ratio is approximately two for film deposited at 150,
300 and 400 0C while for the as deposited samples, it is less than two. The O/Hf ratio less than two is clearly
indicative that hafnium was not fully oxidized for the as deposited sample. This can be associated with the fact
that the increased kinetic energy due to increment in substrate temperature enhanced the activity of the
sputtered particles and thus facilitated the formation of the Hf-O bond. Therefore, the oxidation of Hf atoms is
increased and the oxygen vacancy in the thin films is decreased with increasing substrate temperature.

3.3 Optical property

To investigate the degree of transparency of the DC sputtered HfO 2 coatings, measurements of optical
transmission was carried out using UV-Nis-NIR spectrophotometer. Figure 3 shows the optical spectra of
HfO 2 films deposited at different sputtering power in the wavelength range 200-800 nm. Two important
features are evident. Firstly, the transparency decreases as the temperature increases and secondly, the average
transmission for all the samples was found out to be greater than 80% in the visible region. Maximum
transparency was observed for the as deposited film. The decrease in transmission as the temperature is
increased was due to enhancement of the surface roughness. Surface roughness and transparency have inverse
relationship. Providing surface roughness to the coatings means introducing sources of light scattering which in
turn decreases the transparency of the films. The transmission data was used to obtain the refractive index of
the film using relation provided by Manifacier [22]

where n o and n 1 are the refractive indices of air and the substrate, respectively. The refractive index of the
deposited samples calculated at λ=550 nm is shown in Table I. The refractive index obtained is consistent with
that reported for sputtered HfO 2 films [23]. The refractive index of the deposited films increases with increase
of deposition temperature. This can be ascribed to the fact that the sputtered particles at higher substrate
temperature have higher kinetic energy which results into high packing density and hence higher refractive
index.

Figure 3 Transmission spectra of deposited Hafnium oxide films

628
 Gas-sensing properties of metal oxide films have been observed to strongly depend on porosity of the
films [24].Direct measurement of porosity in thin films may not be easily achieved. However, as outlined
below, the problem may be treated in another way. The packing density, p, of a porous film is defined as

Its porosity P 0

Thus , it follows

P o = 1 – p (6)
Since the index of refraction of a material is related to its packing density, which can be lowered by
introducing porosity, hence the index can also be lowered.

The correlation between the packing density and the refractive index can be expressed as [25]

where n f denotes the refractive index of the film, n b the refractive index of the bulk. Assuming the bulk value
of refractive index of HfO 2 as 2.1 [23] at 550 nm and using the calculated refractive index of the HfO 2 films,
the variation of packing density with deposition temperature is shown in Table I. The packing density of the
HfO 2 films is maximum (0.99) for the film deposited at 450 °C. This shows the formation of a closely packed
structure of HfO 2 film on glass substrate at higher temperature while as deposited films were loosely packed
and hence are highly porous.

3.4 CO gas-sensing properties

The CO gas-sensing properties of the oxide films were studied by measuring the film resistance in air (R air )
and in presence of dry air containing different concentrations of CO (R CO ). The CO gas showed a reducing
effect, leading to a decrease in the electrical resistance as in most of the n-type metal oxide semiconductors
[26]. For reducing gases the sensitivity S is defined as δR/RCO where _δR = R air −R CO . The sensitivity was
measured as a function of CO concentration. It was found that the S, measured at a given substrate temperature
increases with CO concentration. However, the sensitivity was found to be decreasing with the substrate
temperature as shown in fig. 4. The as deposited films has the lowest refractive index among the different
types of the films studied in the present work. Films with the lowest refractive index are the most porous films
(Table I). This shows that the CO-sensing properties strongly depend on the porosity (as indicated by its
refractive index) of a metal oxide film. According to the Lorentz–Lorenz law the refractive index of a material
increases with its density and vice versa. This means that the porosity of a film increases as its refractive index
decreases. Thus, the sensitivity of a film strongly depends on, and increases with, the porosity.

Figure 4 Sensitivity of deposited film as a function of CO concentration

629
4. Conclusions
The effects of the substrate temperature on the structural, compositional, optical and CO sensing
properties of hafnium oxide thin films were investigated. Films deposited without temperature were
amorphous, whereas films deposited on heated substrates showed diffraction peaks. The refractive index
was found out to be increasing with the substrate temperature. The present study showed that the CO-
sensing properties strongly depend on the film porosity (as indicated by its refractive index) as well as with
substrate temperature. The sensitivity of the films increases both with the film porosity and CO
concentration but decreases with substrate temperature.

References
1. S.M.A. Durrani, Sensors and Actuators B 120 (2007) 700–705
2. R. Chow, S. Falabella, G.E. Loomis, F. Rainer, C.J. Stolz, M.R. Kozlowski, Appl. Opt. 32 (1993)
5567-5574.
3. M. Balog, M. Schieber, M. Michman, S. Patai, Thin solid films 41(1977) 247-259.
4. M. Houssa, High-K Gate Dielectrics, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol (2004).
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6. D.A. Buchanan , IBM J. Res. Dev. 43 (1999) 245-264.
7. M.F. Al-Kuhaili, Opt. Mater. 27 (2004) 383-387.
8. M. Zukic, D. G. Torr, J. F. Spann, M.R. Torr, Appl. Opt 29 (1990) 4293-4302.
9. S. Capone, G. Leo, R. Rella, P. Siciliano, L. Vasanelli, M. Alvisi, L. Mirenghi, A. Rizzo, J. Vac. Sci.
Technol. A 16 (1998) 3564–3568.
10. M. Balog, M. Schieber, M. Michman, S. Patai, Thin solid films 41(1977) 247-259.
11. Q. Fang, J.Y. Zhang, Z. Wang, M. Modreanu, B.J. OSullivan, P.K. Hurley, T.L. Leedham, D. Hywel,
M.A. Audier, C. Jimenez, J.P. Senateur, and I. W. Boyd, Thin Solid Films 203 (2004) 453-454.
12. M.J. Esplandiu, L.B. Avalle, V.A. Macagno, Electrochimica. Acta 40 16 (1995) 2587-2593.
13. J. Kim, S. Kim, H. Kang, J. Choi, H. Jeon, M. Cho, K. Chung, S. Back, K. Yoo, C. Bae, J. Appl. Phys.
98 (2005) 094504.
14. J. Zhu, Z.G. Liu, Y. Feng, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 36 (2003) 3051-3056.
15. R. Tan, Y. Azuma, I. Kojima, Appl. Surf. Sci. 222 (2004) 346-350.
16. G. Aygun, I. Yildiz, , J. Appl. Phys. 106 (2009) 014312.
17. S.M. Edlou, A. Smajkiewicz, G.A. Al-Jumaily, Appl. Opt. 32 (1993) 5601-5605.
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19. M. Ohring, The Materials Science of Thin Films, Academic Press, San Diego, CA (1992).
20. G. Aygun, A. Cantas, Y. Simsek, R. Turan, Thin solid films 519 (2011) 5820-5825.

21. B.D. Cullity, Elements of X ray diffraction, 2nd edn, Addison-Wesley, London, (1978), p.102.

22. J.C. Manifacier, J. Gasiot, J.P. Fillard, J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 9 (1976) 1002–1004.

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24. P. Sung-Soon, J.D.Mackenzie, Thin Solid Films 274 (1996) 154–159.

25. H.K. Pulker, Characterization of optical thin films, Appl. Opt 18 12 (1979) 1969-1977

26. Th. Becker, S. Ahlers, Chr. Bosch-v.Braunm¨uhl, G.M¨uller,O. Kiesewetter, , Sens. Actuators B 77

(2001) 55–61.

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 ICAER-2015

Modeling Negative Temperature Coefficient for Methane

Auto-ignition at High Pressures
Manjeet Chaudharya, Anand Parejiyaa, Marm Dixita, Atul Bhargava,1
a
Energy Systems Research Laboratory, IIT Gandhinagar,VGEC Campus, Ahmedabad 382424, India

Abstract

The negative temperature coefficient is a phenomenon occurring in some fuel-air mixtures that results in reduction in system
temperature for increasing inlet temperatures. Standard kinetic models are essential tools that help predict this phenomenon
and such studies are of practical importance for designing practical combustion facilities or reformers. In this work, we adapt
multiple reaction mechanisms from literature and compare them for methane oxidation at high pressures. In this perspective,
the auto ignition delay time of methane air mixture have been evaluated in dependence of temperature by using several
reaction mechanisms. The key reactions responsible for negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behaviour have been
identified using reaction path analysis and sensitivity analysis. At the same time, the dependence of temperature on the NTC
is also discussed. This study will form the basis of further work to understand the kinetics of combustion of higher
hydrocarbons.

Keywords: methane, partial oxidation, NTC, high pressure, ignition

1. Introduction

Modelling auto ignition for hydrocarbons has been increasingly gaining research interest recently [1]–[6].
Further, methane has been gaining traction as a fuel for use in variety of applications with a stipulated rise of
almost 100% in the coming years [7]. A lot of recent studies have been focused on experimental and numerical
behaviour of methane-oxygen mixtures, with a specific focus on MILD combustion regimes[8]. Further,
negative temperature co-efficient (NTC) regime has been experimentally verified for methane recently [8], [9].
Typically, this regime is characterized by moderate to intensely low-oxygen dilution and is finding application
in numerous real-life applications[10]. The study of methane oxidation will find importance and application in
industrial furnaces, reformers, automotive engines as well as solid-oxide fuel cell systems [10]–[15]. Even from
a safety perspective, there is a need to study the NTC region of oxy-fuel mixtures [17].

This behavior was previously known for higher hydrocarbons [18], [19]; however limited literature exists
detailing this phenomenon for methane oxidation. However the reported literature is limited to low-temperature
and pressure ranges for experimental studies [8], [20]. Picarelli et al studied diluted methane air mixtures
numerically and experimentally [9]. Sabia et al compared multiple reaction mechanisms for their ability to
predict NTC regimes for diluted methane-oxygen mixtures [21]. Sabia et al also carried out experimental studies
for diluted mixtures for intermediate temperature ranges [8]. However these studies do not quantify the effects of
additional co-reactants like steam, as well as the effect of pressure on the system response. Steam as co-reactant
forms an integral part of reforming and pre-reforming processes where the NTC region is observed [19]. We
have employed multiple mechanisms available in open literature and compared them for methane oxidation at
higher pressures. Sensitivity analysis and reaction path analysis have been performed to understand the import
reactions and pathways.

The analyses shown in this paper has double significance, both in terms of the process as well as the
numerical tools available to simulate these systems. Due to fact that the methane-oxidation system is a multi
equilibrium system, a lot of contending pathways are possible that can change the kinetics of the reactive
process. Hence, the interdependence of the working temperature, concentration of the co-reactants and the
branching routes of the active oxidation pathway were studied. Section two details the various mechanisms
adapted from literature and details the numerical model investigated. Section three describes the results for

1
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 814 030 7813
E-mail address: atul.bhargav@iitgn.ac.in

631
simulations and effect of co-reactant addition. Section four details the reaction path analysis and sensitivity
analysis performed and elicits the key reactions and pathways for the same.

2. Reaction Mechanisms, Numerical Model and Validation

Numerical simulations for studying the evolution of methane ignition process were studied using the thermo-
kinetic calculator toolbox “Cantera” [22]. Several oxidation kinetic mechanisms, freely available on the web,
were considered. The names used to identify them in the paper along with the relative reference and the
numbers of involved species and reactions are reported in Table 1. Kinetic mechanisms were opportunely
validated for several operative conditions and different reactor configurations, as well described in literature
[23].

Table 1: Details of Reaction Mechanism Studied

Model Reference # of species # of reactions

GRI-Mech 3.0 [24] 53 325
Ranzi [25] 69 1134
Huang [26] 40 194

In the present work, from the computed temperature axial profiles auto-ignition delay times (τign) were assessed
in a wide range of parameters. The reactor was defined as an adiabatic system with constant pressure. The
energy equation for the constant pressure case was given by

dT 1 K
cp     hk   k  Wk  0 (1)
dt  k 1

K
Where the mean specific heat of mixture is c p   Yk .c p , k . . The net chemical production rate  k of each
k 1
species results from a competition between all the chemical reactions involving that species. Each reaction
proceeds according to the low of mass fraction and the forward rate coefficients are in the modified Arrhenius
form.

E
K f  AT  exp  , (2)
 RT 

In particular, the investigated temperature range is 900–1200 K for a dilution of 85%, and with several
carbon/oxygen (C/O) feed ratios at atmospheric pressure, 5 bar and 10 bar. Following a criterion described in
details elsewhere [27] auto ignition delay (τign) was defined as the time corresponding to a temperature increase
of 10 K with respect to mixture inlet one (T in). In addition to auto-ignition delay computation, CANTERA
application has also been used for reaction sensitivity and rate of production analyses and automatically drawing
net reaction path diagrams.

3. Results and Discussion

The prediction of auto-ignition delay time obtained by the various mechanisms is shown in Figure 1. Auto-
ignition delay for excess air ratio 1.25 and an 85% diluted stream. As can be seen, auto-ignition delay decreases
monotonically with increase in inlet temperature. However, a large variation is seen in the predicted delays. For
instance, at 900°C, the ignition delay predicted by the Huang mechanism is an order of magnitude less than that
predicted by GRI 30. However, while the predicted delay by GRI 30 is linear with respect to inlet temperature,
the other two mechanisms show a slight deviation in this behavior.

632
 100

1 atm.

10

Huang
Ranzi
Gri30
τign [s]

0.1

0.01
900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200
Temperature[K]

Figure 1: Comparison of auto ignition temperatures for various inlet temperatures. Excess air ratio is
maintained to be 1.25

For the range of temperatures between 950 K and 1100 K the Huang and Ranzi mechanism we see that the
auto ignition delay shows a change of slope. This behavior can be explained by a change in the system
reactivity. In particular, the Ranzi mechanism has τign = 0.85114 s at 950 °C and it drops only to 0.546 s at
1000°C, which amounts to at least two orders of magnitude larger time than that expected of a system with
linear response. The Huang mechanism shows a much smoother transition between the two linear regimes as
compared to Ranzi mechanism. This behavior has not been characterized extensively experimentally, and hence
the exact reason for this behavior is not known. However, it is clear that certain kinetic pathways in the
intermediate temperature regime are responsible for this behavior.

10 10

1 1
1 atm 1 atm.
5atm 5 atm.
10atm 10 atm.
τign [s]
τign [s]

0.1 0.1

0.01 0.01

0.001 0.001
900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200
Temperature[K] Temperature[K]

(a) (b)

Figure 2: Effect of pressure on auto-ignition delay predicted by (a) Huang and (b) Ranzi mechanism. The excess air ratio for
all cases was maintained 1.25 with 85% dilution.

633
Effect of pressure on the ignition delay has also been studied. As can be seen from

Figure 2, increase in pressure yields a corresponding decrease in the auto-ignition delay. We also observe
that the NTC region shifts to higher inlet temperatures with increase in temperature. The NTC behavior
disappears at 10 bar for the temperature range examined for Ranzi mechanism, while at higher pressures the
Huang mechanism shows a continuous non-linear behavior. Similarly effect of steam addition on the auto-
ignition delay was observed for all the test pressures. Steam acts as a diluents for the mixture and hence it seen
that the ignition delay increases with steam addition. However, at higher pressures, the effect of steam addition
diminishes.

100 10
1 atm. 10 atm.
Gri30 with steam Gri30 with steam
Ranzi with steam Ranzi with steam
10 Huang with steam 1 Huang with steam
Gri30 without steam Gri30 without steam
Ranzi without steam Ranzi without steam
Huang without steam Huang without steam

τign [s]
τign [s]

1 0.1

0.1 0.01

0.01 0.001
900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200
Temperature[K] Temperature[K]

(a) (b)
Figure 3: Effect of steam addition on auto ignition delay for (a) 1 bar and (b) 10 bar pressure. The excess air ratio was
maintained at 1.25 , steam to methane ratio was kept 1 with 85% dilution.

4. Reaction Path Diagram and Sensitivity Analysis

CH4
CH4

CH3 CH3

CH3OH C2H6
CH2 CH3O CH2 CH3O
CH2OH C2H5

CH CH2O
CH CH2O
CH2O C2H4

HCO
HCO C2H3

CO HCCO C2H2
(a)
CO

CO2 CH2CHO

CO2
CH2CO

(a) (b)

634
 Figure 4: Reaction path diagram computed with Ranzi mechanism at (a) 1000K and (b) 1200 K

The reaction path analysis and sensitivity analysis have been carried out for the Ranzi mechanism as it shows
the best behavior for the studied conditions. A reaction path analysis helps identifying the main reaction paths
involved in the process leading from reactants to products based on the net production rates of each surface
species involved in the microkinetic mechanism [28]. The RPA was done with the aid of the object oriented
programming tool within Cantera (and interfaced with python). A reaction path diagram for reactor data
described in previous section is shown in Figure 4. At 1000 K one observes two competing pathways that lead
to CO and CO2: CH3 oxidizing to CH3O, which later on gives formyl radical and CO is produced. The
contending pathway is dissociative one where CH3 loses hydrogen successively to CH radical and is then
oxidized to yield CO. However, at higher temperatures, where NTC is observed, two other pathways are found
to be active. Not only does the CH3 radical follow the two pathways discussed, it undergoes coupling reaction
to form ethane. This ethane takes then undergoes dissociation to form CH2CO radical which yields HCO. While
at low pressures, the dissociative and oxidative pathways with the CH3O and CH x intermediate are favored, at
higher pressures the methyl alcohol intermediate is the most abundant. CH3OH forms from the CH3 radical
which than reduces to CH2O. This radical then dissociates to give HCO, the precursor to CO for all contending
pathways. This behavior is seen at higher pressures for all temperatures evaluated. Addition of steam reinforces
the dissociative pathway for all pressures and temperatures. If we assume the C2 pathway as being responsible
for the NTC behavior, the behavior of steam addition on ignition delay can be understood. With the single
carbon pathways being preferred the reduction in NTC behavior is expected (Figure 3).

CH3 OO + CH4 -> CH3 COOH + CH3

CH4 + HO 2 -> H2 O2 + CH3
CH3 OO -> CH3 O + CH3O
CH3 OO -> CH2 O + OH
CH4 + H -> CH3 + H2
1100 °C
CH3 + HO2 -> CH3 O + OH
1000 °C
CH3 + O 2 -> CH3 O + O
CH3 O + O 2 -> CH2 O + HO 2
CH3 O (+M) -> CH2 O + H (+M)
O 2 + CH4 -> CH3 + HO 2
CH3 + CH3 (+M) -> C2 H6 (+M)
H2 O 2 (+M)-> OH + OH (+M)
HO2 + HO2 -> H2 O 2 + O 2
H + O 2 (+M) -> HO 2 + M
H + O 2 -> H2 O2 + O

-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

Normalized Sensitivity Factor

(a)

CH3 OO + CH4 -> CH3 COOH + CH3
CH4 + HO 2 -> H2 O2 + CH3
CH3 OO -> CH3 O + CH3O
CH3 OO -> CH2 O + OH
CH4 + H -> CH3 + H2
CH3 + HO 2 -> CH3 O + OH
CH3 + O 2 -> CH3 O + O
CH3 O + O 2 -> CH2 O + HO 2
CH3 O (+M) -> CH2 O + H (+M)
O2 + CH4 -> CH3 + HO 2
CH3 + CH3 (+M) -> C2 H6 (+M)
H2 O2 (+M)-> OH + OH (+M)
HO 2 + HO 2 -> H2 O2 + O 2
H + O 2 (+M) -> HO 2 + M
H + O2 -> H2 O 2 + O
-1.0 -0.5
Normalized Sensitivity Factor
CH3 OO + CH4 -> CH3 COOH + CH3
CH4 + HO 2 -> H2 O 2 + CH3
1 atm. CH3 OO -> CH3 O + CH3 O With Steam
10 atm. CH3 OO -> CH2 O + OH Without Steam
CH4 + H -> CH3 + H2
CH3 + HO 2 -> CH3 O + OH
CH3 + O 2 -> CH3 O + O
CH3 O + O 2 -> CH2 O + HO 2
CH3 O (+M) -> CH2 O + H
O2 + CH4 -> CH3 + HO 2
CH3 + CH3 (+M) -> C2 H6 (+M)
H2 O2 (+M)-> OH + OH (+M)
HO2 + HO2 -> H2 O 2 + O2
H + O 2 (+M) -> HO 2 + M
H + O 2 -> H2 O2 + O
0.0 0.5 1.0 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
Normalized Sensitivity Factor

(b) (c)
Figure 5: Sensitivity analysis for Ranzi mechanism (a) Comparison of sensitivities for 1000 °C and 1100 °C (b) Sensitivity

635
comparison for atmospheric pressure and 10 bar (c) Comparison of sensitivity for steam addition at atmospheric pressure

Further, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to determine the most sensitive reactions for all the conditions
tested. The results of the sensitivity analysis can be found in Figure 5. It is seen that reaction yielding C2H6 has
the highest sensitivity at 1100 °C, resulting in reduced CH3 radicals available for the dissociative and oxidative
pathways. The increase in auto-ignition delay is due to the decreased system reactivity following the reasons
outlined. Further, at higher pressures, this reaction shows reduced sensitivity, which explains the reduced NTC
behavior at those pressures. Similar behavior has been observed for the case when steam is introduced.

5. Conclusion

The present work attempts to understand the auto-ignition behavior of methane-oxygen mixtures in diluted
conditions at high pressures. Several available reaction mechanisms were investigated for their ability to model
negative temperature coefficient regime. Specifically, behavior of diluted mixtures was investigated at
atmospheric to 10 bar pressures. Effect of steam addition to the reactant mixture was investigated for the entire
range of temperatures and pressures. From reaction path analysis and sensitivity analysis it is seen that
recombination pathway that yield C2 species slows down the reactive process leading to the NTC behavior. This
study also highlights the fact that most available reaction mechanisms show poor reliability with only one
mechanism clearly depicting the NTC, while the available literature clearly evidences its existence. It is thus
necessary to carry out further experimental and modeling studies in the MILD combustion regime.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support received from IIT Gandhinagar, the Ministry of Human
Resources, Government of India and the Ministry of Science & Technology (Grant number SR/S3/CE/078/2012
(DST)), Government of India and Ministry of Defense (Grant number NMRL\EST\NMR238\41\2014-15).

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 ICAER-2015

Modeling and Control of Quasi Z-Source Cascaded H-Bridge

Multilevel Inverter for Grid Connected Photovoltaic Systems
D.Umarani1, Dr.R.Seyezhai2
1
Assistant Professor,Department of EEE,SSN College of Engineering,Chennai -603110,India
2
Associate Professor,Department of EEE,SSN College of Engineering,Chennai -603110,India

Abstract

This paper presents the modeling and controlling the power of Quasi Z-Source cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter for
grid connected photovoltaic systems. The Quasi Z-Source inverter is an inverter that provides buck / boost output along with
DC-AC conversion in a single stage. This topology has numerous advantages which makes it reliable and suitable for PV
applications. Due to the impedance network and the cascaded H-bridge structure, it provides high gain, reduced total
harmonic distortion (THD) and high reliability in PV systems. In this paper, a five level cascaded H-Bridge Quasi Z-source
inverter has been considered for which the impedance network has been designed. Phase Shifted Inverted Sine carrier pulse
width modulation has been implemented along with shoot- through control for controlling the switches of the inverter. The
closed loop power control scheme has been implemented in two stages. In the PV input side, each string voltage is controlled
by adjusting the shoot-through states of the inverter using Independent Maximum Power Point Tracking Control. DC link
voltage of each bridge has been balanced by using DC link voltage control. Both of these controlling actions result in the
control of grid injected power. A 2kVA PV inverter has been designed and built using MATLAB/SIMULINK and the
hardware has been completed for the open loop control. The simulation and open loop hardware results are discussed.

Keywords: Quasi Z-Source inverter; Photovoltaic system; Pulse Width Modulation; DC link voltage; Maximum Power Point tracking

1. Introduction

In recent years, photovoltaic (PV) power fed utility grid is gaining more attention as the power requirement of
the world is alarmingly rising. Generally, module inverters, string inverters and central inverters are employed
for grid tied PV generation systems. But the disadvantage of these inverters are they produce output voltage
lesser than the input DC rail voltage, restricts the simultaneous conduction of switches belonging to same leg
and suffers from poor spectral quality[1].In order to improve the quality of the output voltage, cascaded H-
Bridge multilevel inverter (CHB-MLI) is preferred for PV systems. Because, they can use separate PV sources
for each bridge and it also produces an output which closely resembles the sinusoidal wave. But in MLI, a DC-
DC converter is required at each stage to boost up the input voltage which increases the cost and complexity of
the circuit [2]. Therefore, this paper proposes a five-level Quasi Z-Source multilevel inverter (QZMLI) for grid
connected PV applications. The advantage of this inverter is it provides step up/step down operation and DC-
AC inversion in a single power stage by employing a unique impedance network [3] at each level leading to the
conduction of devices in the same leg [4]. By incorporating the advantages of cascaded H-bridge MLI to the
quasi impedance network, the Quasi Z-Source multilevel inverter (QZMLI) evolves [5] which will be a
promising topology for PV in near future.

As the solar power fluctuates stochastically, it will be difficult to control the output voltage and power that is fed
to the grid; therefore an independent MPPT can be employed in QZMLI. By employing total power injection
control, maximum power point tracking and independent DC link voltage control, the power generated by the
PV arrays can be fully controlled to feed the utility grid [6]. This paper illustrates a total power control scheme
using PI controller for controlling the power of the PV based single phase grid tied QZMLI. The maximum
power point tracking (MPPT) using Perturb and Observe (P & O) method is implemented for each PV source
[7]. MPPT with maximum constant boost control varies the shoot-through states and DC link voltage controls
the PWM. Phase shifted inverted sine carrier has been used as it improves power quality of the grid voltage with
reduced voltage stress across the device and reduced THD [8]. The simulation of the circuit configuration with

1
Ms.D.Umarani, Tel.: +91-8883372733 ; 2 Dr.R.Seyezhai, Tel : +91-9894968847
E-mail address: umaranid@ssn.edu.in , seyezhair@ssn.edu.in

638
the controller has been carried out using MATLAB/Simulink. Hardware for the single-phase QZSMLI under
open loop configuration is built and the results are validated.

Section 2 illustrates the design and the circuit operation of QZMLI. Section 3 deals with maximum constant
boost inverted sine PWM technique for the proposed topology. Section 4 describes the total power control using
DC link voltage control and Independent MPPT control of the grid fed PV based QZMLI. Section 5 provides
the analysis of various performance parameters of the proposed topology. Section 6 showcases the open loop
hardware prototype with its results. Section 7 concludes the proposed work followed by references.

Nomenclature
D shoot-through duty ratio
Tsh Shoot-through time period over a switching cycle
Ts Switching time period over a cycle
To Non shoot-through time period over a switching cycle
Inductor current ripple
VPN Inverter bridge voltage
Vo RMS output voltage
Io RMS output current

2. Quasi Z-Source Multilevel Inverter

Fig.1 shows the circuit configuration of five-level cascaded H-Bridge Quasi Z-Source Inverter with Quasi
Impedance Network to each DC link of the PV module [9]. The impedance network consists of two inductors
L1, L2 and two Capacitors C1 and C2 at each stage of the inverter bridge. This unique LC network connected to
the inverter bridge modifies the operation of the circuit, allowing the shoot-through states and will effectively
protect the circuit from damage when the short circuit occurs. By effectively utilizing the shoot-though state, the
QZS network boosts the dc-link voltage. The major advantages of QZSI compared to other Z-inverters are [4]
 It draws a continuous constant dc current from the source.
 The voltage on capacitor C2 is greatly reduced.
 The continuous and constant dc current drawn from the source make this topology well suited for PV
power conditioning systems.
2.1 Circuit Operation of QZSI
The operation states of the QZSI are shoot-through state and non shoot-through state. The equivalent circuits of
the shoot-through state and non shoot-through state are shown in Fig.2. (a) and (b). During the shoot-through
state the power transmission will be zero as the DC link voltage is Zero. At the non shoot-through state, the
power is transmitted form DC side to AC side. According to the operating states, the basic relationships are
given below:
1−𝐷
𝑉𝐶1 = 1−2𝐷 𝑉𝑃𝑉 (1)
𝐷
𝑉𝐶2 = 1−2𝐷 𝑉𝑃𝑉 (2)
1
𝑉𝑑𝑐 = 1−2𝐷 𝑉𝑃𝑉 = 𝐵. 𝑉𝑃𝑉 (3)
𝑉𝑃𝑉 𝑀.𝑉𝑑𝑐
𝑉𝑎𝑐 = . 𝑀. 𝐵 = (4)
2 2
1
𝐵= (5)
1−2𝐷
𝑇𝑠ℎ
𝐷= 𝑇𝑠

639
 (a)

Fig.2.(a) Shoot through state

(b)

Fig.2.(b) Non-Shoot through state

Fig.1 Five-level Cascaded QZSI

2.2 Design of Quasi Impedance Network

Based on the 2ɷ ripple analysis of the single phase QZSI, the impedance network has been designed. This
analysis has been carried out specifically because of the inherent second harmonic power flow in the single
phase QZSI. Passive methods used to mitigate 2ɷ component will lead to huge size of impedance network. 2ω
power flow is analyzed and current ripple damping control is proposed in [9] to find the minimum qZS
capacitance and inductance.The 2ɷ Power Po-2ɷ is completely stored in capacitors and the
2𝑉 𝐼𝑜
QZS Capacitance is 𝐶 = ɷƐ𝑉𝑜 2 (7)
𝑃𝑁

To limit the switching frequency ripple, the

𝐷(1−𝐷)𝑇𝑠 𝑉𝐷𝐶
QZS Inductance is 𝐿 = (8)
1−2𝐷 .2.∆𝑖
Using equations (7) and (8), the values of L and C of Quasi Impedance Network have been calculated as 3.5 mH
and 760µF respectively. Based on the above design, the parameters for simulation are provided in Table 1.
3. Modulation Strategies for QZMLI
The operation of Quasi Z-source inverter requires proper switching of the devices. The carrier based pulse width
modulation (PWM) technique is preferred to implement the switching pattern. The PWM is generated by
comparing reference sine wave with phase shifted inverted sine carrier of desired switching frequency.
Modification is made in the conventional PWM technique to include the additional shoot-through state. There
are three ways of providing shoot-through states to the pulses of QZMLI. They are Simple Boost Control
(SBC), Maximum Boost Control (MBC) and Constant Boost Control (CBC). These strategies differ by the
magnitude of the shoot through line [10]. In this paper, constant boost technique is implemented compared to
the other two techniques because of constant shoot through duty ratio, reduced voltage stress and better boost
factor [11].
3.1Phase Shifted Inverted Sine carrier PWM Strategy with Maximum constant boost control
In the proposed topology, Phase shifted inverted sine carrier PWM (ISPWM) has been used. The reference wave
is a conventional sine wave of 50 Hz frequency. The inverted sine carrier with frequency helps in maximizing
the output voltage for the given modulation index. Greater pulse area results in enhanced fundamental
component. The inverted sine carrier results in three times the fundamental component of conventional
triangular PWM with reduced THD [12].This PWM strategy requires no mode change and causes exactly same
number of switching per cycle with improved fundamental component.Fig.3(a) shows the ISPWM technique.
Phase shifted ISPWM has been used for the cascaded H-Bridge QZSI. It uses inverted sine carriers shifted by

640
angle ɵ called phase shift angle. It has the advantages of balanced switching action and the phase shift angle can
be used to control the output voltage. The pulse generation using Phase shifted inverted sine carrier along with
maximum constant boost control has been shown in Fig. 3(b). The five level output voltage form the proposed
topology is shown in Fig.4.The peak value of the output voltage is found to be 400 V without filter.
4
ISPWM Generation

-2

-4
0.02 0.021 0.022 0.023 0.024 0.025 0.026 0.027 0.028 0.029 0.03
Time(S)

1.5
PWM

0.5

0
0.02 0.021 0.022 0.023 0.024 0.025 0.026 0.027 0.028 0.029 0.03
Time(S)

Fig. 3(a) Inverted Sine Carrier PWM

2
PS-ISPWM

-2

-4
0.02 0.022 0.024 0.026 0.028 0.03 0.032 0.034 0.036 0.038 0.04
Time(S)

1.5
PWM Pulses

0.5

0
0.02 0.022 0.024 0.026 0.028 0.03 0.032 0.034 0.036 0.038 0.04
Time(S)

Fig.3(b) Pulse Pattern of Phase shifted ISPWM for QZMLI

600

400
Five-level output voltage(V)

200

-200

-400

-600
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
Time(S)

Fig.4 Five-level output voltage of the proposed topology

4. Control of PV based QZMLI for grid connected System

4.1 Total Power control of the proposed topology
In conventional methods, the real and reactive power of the inverter is controlled independently but this paper
illustrates a simplified total power control of the QZMLI. It combines DC link voltage control and Independent
MPPT control for each inverter bridge. The power injected to the grid is the PV string output power. Let the
power reference be Pn*.The peak value of the grid current is

641
 2𝑃𝑛 ∗
𝐼𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑 = 𝑉 (7)
𝑝𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑

To ensure unity power factor operation, the phase locked loop (PLL) is used to measure the phase of the grid
voltage. The grid current is measured and fed back to the current loop. The output voltage 𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 is given by the
current loop to produce the modulation index. With the modulation index and the shoot-through duty ratio from
the MPPT, the required gating signals are produced for the QZSI [13-14].
The power control can be implemented by using the power reference generated by the DC link voltage control.
In DC link voltage control, the capacitor voltages are measured and compared with the DC link voltage of the
inverter bridge. The error is converted to proportional current magnitude using proportional-integrator. Now the
current reference is generated by measuring the phase of the grid voltage using PLL. The current reference is
compared with the grid current to lock the phases of grid voltage and grid current. The shoot-through generated
by independent MPPT using P& O method is added to the PS-ISPWM. This modified PWM will control the
power of the inverter. Fig.5 represents the total power control of the proposed system.

Fig.5 Total Power control of the proposed topology

4.2 Simulation of the DC link voltage control and Independent MPPT for proposed topology
The five-level cascaded QZSI based grid tie PV system has been built by MATLAB/Simulink and the results
are provided in this section. The simulation of the entire system is shown in Fig.6 (a) and (b).The simulation
parameters for QZSI have been listed in Table 1.The pulse pattern controlled by the DC link voltage control and
independent MPPT control has been shown already in Fig.5.

Table 1. Simulation parameters of QZSI

Design Parameter Value Unit

Switching frequency , fs 10k Hz
Shoot through duty ratio , D 0.25 -
Boost Factor B 1.66
Modulation Index , M 0.8 -
Input Voltage , VDC 105 V
DC link Voltage 145 V
Inductor Current ripple, ∆𝑖 40% -
Inductors L1,L2 3.5 mH
Capacitors C1, C2 1000 µF

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 Fig.6 Total power controller for a single H-bridge QZSI
400

300

200
Peak Value(Vg,Ig)

100

-100

-200

-300

-400
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Time(S)

Fig.7 Grid Voltage and Grid current of the proposed topology

Fig.7 represents the peak values of the grid voltage and grid current. The peak value of grid voltage is found as 336
V and grid current as 14 A from which the apparent power of the grid connected five-level QZSI has been
calculated as 2000VA. It can be clearly observed that the phase locking of grid voltage and grid current has
occurred.
5. Performance Parameters for QZMLI with ISPWM
As inverted sine carrier has better spectral quality with higher fundamental component compared to conventional

643
sinusoidal PWM with triangular carrier, it has been selected for the grid-tied PV based QZMLI. The carrier wave is
analysed to find the relationship among the parameters such as modulation index, shoot-through duty ratio, voltage
stress across switching device, boost factor, voltage gain and switching loss. The shoot-through duty ratio has been
𝑉𝑝𝑣
varied and the corresponding boost factor and has been plotted for phase shifted inverted sine carrier pulse
𝑉𝑐1
width modulation (PS-ISPWM). The graph is shown in Fig.8 (a) and (b) respectively. The modulation index has
been varied and the corresponding voltage gain, voltage stress and THD of the grid current has been plotted for
phase shifted inverted sine carrier pulse width modulation (PS-ISPWM).The graph is shown in Fig.9 (a),(b) and (c)
respectively. For varying switching frequency, the corresponding switching loss has been calculated and plotted for
both phase shifted inverted sine carrier pulse width modulation (PS-ISPWM) and phase shifted sinusoidal pulse
width modulation (PS-SPWM). The graph is shown in Fig.10.
(a) (b)

𝑉𝑝𝑣
Fig.8 (a).D Vs B; (b) D Vs
𝑉𝑐1

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig.9 (a).M Vs G; (b) M Vs Stress; (c) M Vs current THD Fig.10. Switching frequency Vs Switching Loss

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 30

Inductor Current ripple

20

10

The inductor current ripple and the capacitor voltage ripple are 0shown in Fig.11 (a) and (b) respectively.
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
(a) (b) Time(S)

30 200

Capacitor Voltage Ripple

Induc tor Current ripple

180
20
160

140
10
120

0 100
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3 0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
Time(S) Time(S)

200 Fig.11.(a) Inductor current ripple; (b) Capacitor voltage ripple

Capac itor Voltage Ripple

𝑉𝑝𝑣
From
180
Fig.8 (a) and (b), one can infer that the boost factor and ratio of increases with increase in shoot-through
𝑉𝑐1
160
duty ratio. From the waveforms of Fig.9.(a) and (b), The voltage gain and voltage stress reduces with increase in
modulation
140 index. As the same way, the current THD increases with increase in modulation index which is shown
in120Fig.9. (c). so, it is better to choose the optimum value of modulation index that provides reduced current THD
and improved boost factor. From Fig.10, one can conclude that the switching loss is reduced in the case of Inverted
sine
100 carrier PWM technique compared with Triangular carrier PWM technique. So it provides better efficiency with
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
improved fundamental component. Time(S) The voltage ripple across the capacitor of the QZS network is found to be
28.57% and current ripple of the inductor is found as 33.33%. Thus, the inverted sine carrier proves to be better for
QZMLI.
6. Hardware prototype for open loop system of the proposed topology
The hardware prototype of the impedance network and the five-level cascaded H bridge quasi Z-source inverter are
shown in the Fig 12. The maximum constant boost implemented phase shifted PWM was generated using Xilinx-
MATLAB interface and the program was fused to NEXYS2-SPARTAN3E.The generated pulses are shown in
Fig.13 in which the shoot through states can be clearly seen in S1 and S3.

S1

S4

S2

S3

Fig.13 PS-ISPWM pulse pattern for QZSI

Fig.12 Hardware Prototype of the five-level QZSI

Fig.14 Output Voltage obtained from the hardware prototype of five-level QZSI

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The output voltage obtained from the developed hardware model of the five-level cascaded H bridge quasi Z-source
inverter is shown in the Fig.14.The output voltage is boosted to 33 V for an input voltage of ~9V at each stage of
the bridges using PV panels. The voltage has been boosted approximately to match the boost factor of 1.66 which
validates the simulation results.
7. Conclusion
In this paper, a five level Quasi Z-Source grid connected PV system exploiting cascaded multilevel inverter is
proposed. The design of the impedance network was carried out using 2ɷ ripple analysis which proves to provide
minimized LC network. The system is capable of injecting PV power into the grid with reduced total harmonic
distortion using a single power conversion stage. From the results, it is observed that by employing inverted sine
PS-PWM technique for the proposed MLI, enhanced fundamental component and improved spectral quality of the
output is obtained. The total power control which combines DC link voltage and independent MPPT control was
implemented. The grid voltage and grid current attained phase lock condition through the proposed control strategy.
The simulation results are validated with the experimental results in open loop condition. Hence, QZMLI is a
suitable candidature for grid connected photovoltaic applications.
References
[1] Kjaer, Soeren Baekhoej, John K. Pedersen, and Frede Blaabjerg. "A review of single-phase grid-connected
inverters for photovoltaic modules." Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on 41.5 (2005): 1292-1306.
[2] Cecati, Carlo, Fabrizio Ciancetta, and Pierluigi Siano. "A multilevel inverter for photovoltaic systems with
fuzzy logic control." Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on 57.12 (2010): 4115-4125.
[3] Huang, Yi, Miaosen Shen, Fang Z. Peng, and Jin Wang. "Z-source inverter for residential photovoltaic
systems." IEEE Trans. Power Electron 21, no. 6 (2006): 1776-1782.
[4] Anderson, Joel, and Fang Z. Peng. "Four quasi-Z-source inverters." In Power Electronics Specialists
Conference, 2008. PESC 2008. IEEE, pp. 2743-2749. IEEE, 2008.
[5] Li, Yuan, Joel Anderson, Fang Z. Peng, and Dichen Liu. "Quasi-Z-source inverter for photovoltaic power
generation systems." In Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2009. APEC 2009. Twenty-Fourth
Annual IEEE, pp. 918-924. IEEE, 2009.
[6] Sun, Dongsen, Baoming Ge, Fang Zheng Peng, Abu Rub Haitham, Daqiang Bi, and Yushan Liu. " A new grid-
connected PV system based on cascaded H-bridge quasi-Z source inverter." In Industrial Electronics (ISIE), 2012
IEEE International Symposium on, pp. 951-956. IEEE, 2012.
[7] Hohm, D. P., and M. E. Ropp., "Comparative study of maximum power point tracking algorithms using an
experimental, programmable, maximum power point tracking test bed." Photovoltaic specialists conference, 2000.
Conference record of the twenty-eighth IEEE. IEEE, 2000.
[8] P.Dananjayan,S.Jeevananthan, R.Nandhakumar „„Inverted Sine Carrier for Fundamental Fortification in PWM
Inverters and FPGA Based Implementations‟‟. Serbian Journal of Electrical Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 171-
187, November 2007.
[9] Ge, Baoming, Haitham Abu-Rub, Yushan Liu, and Robert S. Balog., “Minimized Quasi-Z source network for
single-phase inverter." In Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2015 IEEE, pp. 806-811.
IEEE, 2015.
[10] S. Thangaprakash, A. Krishnan. “Comparative evaluation of modified pulse width modulation schemes of Z-
source inverter for various applications and demands”. International Journal of Engineering, Science and
Technology , Volume. 2, No. 1, 2010, pp. 103-115
[11] D.Umarani and Dr.R.Seyezhai,” Design and Simulation of Cascaded H- Bridge Quasi Z-source Multilevel
Inverter for Photovoltaic Applications”, International Journal of Innovative Research In Electrical, Electronics,
Instrumentation And Control Engineering, Vol. 2, Issue 7, 2014.
[12] Seyezhai, R., and Dr BL Mathur. "Performance evaluation of inverted sine PWM technique for an asymmetric
cascaded multilevel inverter." Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology 9, no. 2 (2009): 91-98.
[13] D. Sun, B. Ge, F.Z. Peng, A. Haitham, D. Bi, Y. liu, " A New Grid-Connected PV System Based on Cascaded
H-bridge Quasi-Z SourceInverter," in 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics(ISIE), vol.,
no., pp.951-956, 28-31 May 2012.
[14] Y. Liu, B. Ge, H. Abu-Rub, F. Peng, "An effective control method for quasi-Z-source cascade multilevel
inverter based grid-tie single-phase photovoltaic power system," IEEE Trans. on Industrial Informatics, 2013, doi:
10.1109/TII.2013.2280083

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 ICAER-2015

Impact of thermally oxidized TiO x compact layer and multiple

sintering of mesoporous TiO 2 on the performance of dye-
sensitized solar cells
Krishnaiah Mokuralaa, Isheta Majumdara, Siva Sankar Nemalaa, Parag Bhargavaa and
Sudhanshu Mallicka * 1
a
Particulate Materials Lab, Department of Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai and 400076, India

Abstract

The impact of thermally oxidized TiO x compact layer and the effect of sintering process of mesoporous TiO 2 film on dye-
sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) performance was studied. Adhesion at mesoporous TiO 2 film and FTO substrate interface,
interparticle connectivity in the TiO 2 film influence DSSC performance. Multiple doctor blade coatings of mesoporous TiO 2
with sintering after each coating were prepared to build the thickness and improve the interparticle connectivity in the
mesoporous TiO 2 film which was confirmed by nanoindentation measurement. Adherence between the mesoporous TiO 2
layer and FTO substrate was examined with the help of ultra sonication. For films made of compact layer with multiple
sintering of mesoporous TiO 2 , peeling off of the mesoporous TiO 2 film from FTO substrate was negligible as compared to
films made without multiple sintering (WMS) and without compact layer. DSSCs fabricated using without multiple sintering
(WMS) of mesoporous TiO 2 with Pt as counter electrode (CE) showed a photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.4% as
compared to films made with multiple sintering (MS) of mesoporous TiO 2 which showed 6.6% efficiency. DSSCs
fabricated with compact layer and multiple sintering (MS) of mesoporous TiO 2 with Pt as CE showed a PCE of 8.4%.

Keywords:Thermally oxidized compact layer, photo anode, multiple sintering, adhesion, I-V characteristics.

1. Introduction

DSSCs have emerged as promising photovoltaic devices due to their simple fabrication process, relatively
high efficiency, environmental friendliness, low cost, flexibility of substrates and large scale roll-to-roll
production [1].They have attracted great attention as potential alternatives to traditional Si-based solar cells and
thin film solar cells. Though, Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGSe) based solar cells have shown photo conversion efficiency
up to 20.3%, but these solar cells are expensive due to limited sources and high cost of Indium and Gallium
[2].A typical DSSC consist of a dye sensitized photoanode (TiO 2 ), an electrolyte with an I-/I 3 - redox couple and
a CE. The function of TiO 2 is to transport electrons injected by the sensitizer into TiO 2 to the FTO substrate. It
is important to control the microstructure and defects in TiO 2 film to achieve a better device performance.
Defects include microcracks in the film, agglomerated TiO 2 particles, weakinterparticle connectivity in the TiO 2
film and also between the film and FTO [3-4]. Apart from the above issues, charge recombination at interfaces:
FTO-electrolyte and TiO 2 -dye-electrolyte is a major problem in conventional DSSCs, which limits the device
performance [4-6]. Charge recombination processes at FTO - electrolyte interface can be avoided by placing a
dense compact layer between FTO and electrolyte. The compact layer can prevent the direct contact between the
FTO and electrolyte interfaces which effectively prohibits injected electrons in FTO from recombining with the
redox couple in the electrolyte [3 - 4].The electron transport process through the TiO 2 film is also considered to
be a major determinant of the current generated by the cell [7 - 8]. The electron transport through the TiO 2 film
is dependent on crystallinity, phase composition of TiO 2 , interconnectivity between the TiO 2 particles and
microstructure of TiO 2 film [9 - 11]. According to reported literature, faster electron transport in TiO 2 resulted in
higher photocurrent density in DSSCs made with TiO 2 films having better interparticle connectivity [12 -15].

The TiO 2 compact layer has been fabricated by various methods, such as sputtering, spin-coating, chemical
vapor deposition, electrodeposition, ALD, sol-gel dip coating, spray pyrolysis and thermal oxidation of Ti film.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-22-25767641; fax: +91-22-2572697.

E-mail address:mallick@iitb.ac.in

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Among the various fabricated methods, compact layer prepared by thermal oxidation process has less pin hole
which acts as a more efficient inhibitor of the charge recombination at the FTO-electrolyte interface [16].

In the present study, we report effect of pot milling time on agglomerate TiO 2 particles and improvement of
interparticle connectivity in the mesoporous TiO 2 , impact of the compact layer and their influence on DSSCs
performance.

2. Experimental details
2.1 Compact layer
20 nm Ti films were deposited on FTO glass substrate by radio frequency sputtering at power of 150W,
working pressure 2.3*10-3 mbar at room temperature. Ti films deposited on FTO substrate were heat-treated at
500oC for 2 h in air to convert into TiO x film by thermal oxidation process.

2.2 Mesoporous layer

TiO 2 slurry (for the mesoporous layer) was prepared by mixing 3.6 g of TiO 2 powder (P 25, Degussa) and
3.6 ml of polyethylene glycol (i.e. PEG 600) (Merck) with ethanol. The slurry was pot milled for 30 days. The
titania slurry was coated over the compact layer (5 mm × 5mm) by doctor blade technique. The films were dried
at 125-130oC for 1h and then sintered at 500oC for 30 min. This coating process was carried out multiple times
with sintering of each layer prior to the next coating to obtain the desired thickness (17μm). Another set of
samples were prepared using the same process but the difference being that each layer was only (not sintered)
dried at 125-130oC for 1h and finally sintering at 500oC for 30 min was carried out only after the last layer was
deposited (WMS).

2.3 Counter electrode (Pt)

30nm Pt film were deposited on FTO substrate using radio frequency sputtering technique at power of 150
W, working pressure 2.3*10-3 mbar at room temperature.

2.4 DSSCs assembly

Sintered TiO 2 films were immersed in 0.3mM N719 dye (Dyesol) in ethanol for 24 h at room temperature
for sufficient dye adsorption. The films were then rinsed with ethanol to remove the excess dye adsorbed.
DSSCs were assembled using the dye loaded TiO 2 film as photo anode and sputtered Pt film as CE. A spacing
of approximately 60 µm was maintained between the electrodes using a Surlyn spacer, sandwiched between the
electrodes. This gap between the electrodes was finally filled with the electrolyte. The electrolyte was made of
the following constituents: 0.1M lithium iodide (LiI, Anhydrous, Merck), 0.05M Iodine ((I 2 , Thomas Baker,
LR), 0.5M 4-tert-Butylpyridine (TBP, Sigma Aldrich, 96%) and 0.6 M 1-Methyl- 3-propylimidazolim iodide
(PMII, Sigma Aldrich, 98%) and acetonitrile.

2.5 Characterization techniques

The state of agglomeration of TiO 2 nanoparticles was observed by FEG-TEM (JSM7600F). Particle size
distribution in a TiO 2 slurry suspension (organic solvent-ethanol) was measured using dynamic light scattering
(DLS- Beckman Coulter). The cross-sectional and surface features of the sintered TiO 2 films and compact layer
were characterized by FEG-SEM (JSM 7600F). Interparticle connectivity in TiO 2 films was characterized by
nanoindentation. Adherence between the mesoporous TiO 2 layer and FTO substrate was examined with the help
of ultra-sonication. Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics of the fabricated cells were measured using a Keithley
2420 source meter (Keithley Instruments, Inc.) under illumination of 90 mW/cm2. The incident photon - to-
current efficiency (IPCE) of DSSCs was recorded in the range from 300 – 800 nm using Xenon Lamp (Bentham
PVE300)

.3. Results and discussions

The primary particle size of the commercial (Degussa P25) TiO 2 nanoparticles after one day pot milling was
found to be in between 20 to 30 nm but the particles were highly agglomerated, as can be seen in Fig. 1a. These
agglomerates were broken down to different sizes when the TiO 2 slurry was pot milled for longer times (30
days) as seen in Fig. 1b. The particle size distribution in the TiO 2 slurries prepared by pot milling for 1day and

648
30 days is shown in Fig.2. The size distribution curve shifted to lower diameter when the slurry was prepared by
ball milling for 30 days and mean diameter of TiO 2 had been reduced from 360 nm to 180 nm after 30 days of
pot milling. The average d 10 , d 50 and d 90 for 1day and 30 days were found to be 180 nm, 370 nm, 720 nm and 87
nm, 171 nm, 347 nm respectively.

Fig. 1. (a) FEG-TEM image of TiO 2 nanoparticles (commercial P25 Degussa) after one day (b) after 30 days pot milling.

Fig. 2 Dynamic light scattering (DLS) of TiO 2 nanoparticles suspension pot milled for 1 day and 30 days

Fig.3a, b and c show FEG–SEM images of FTO substrate, Ti deposited on FTO and thermal oxidation of Ti
film leads to compact layer of TiO x on FTO substrate. High resolution FEG-SEM images (inset, Fig. 3b and c)
show the Ti and TiO 2 particles deposited over rough granular FTO surface. Fig.1d shows the interface between
FTO and compact layer, the compact layer filled up the surface roughness attributed to FTO crystals and
provided perfect coverage of the FTO. The thickness of the compact layer, measured from cross-sectional SEM,
is found to be 50 nm and which is further confirmed by profilometer (Fig.1d).

Fig. 3.FEG-SEM image of (a) FTO substrate, (b) Ti deposited on FTO substrate, (c) After thermal oxidization (500oC for 2h) of Ti
deposited on FTO substrate (compact layer) and (d) Cross-sectional image of compact layer over FTO substrate

649
 The compact layer and multiple sintering of mesoporous TiO 2 film influence the adherence between the
mesoporous TiO 2 layer and the substrate. To examine this, mesoporous layer with or without compact layer,
with (MS) and with out multiple sintering (WMS) of mesoporous layer TiO 2 films were sonicated for 15 min to
1h and their corresponding photographs are shown in Fig.4, 5 and 6. In the case of without multiple sintering
(WMS) and without compact layer, peeling off of the mesoporous layer was considerably higher (Fig. 4) as
compared to film of WMS and with compact layer (Fig. 5). For the multiple sintered (MS) mesoporous layer
with compact layer, peeling was negligible (Fig. 6). The dense compact film leads to stronger interface between
the layers because of greater contact area as during absence of compact layer slurry for mesoporous layer may
not perfectly fill into the roughness associated with FTO grains. Also, bonding of mesoporous TiO 2 to compact
layer of TiO x must be better due to similarity in chemical bonds as compared to that with FTO. Multiple
sintering of mesoporous TiO 2 led to improved interparticle connectivity in the TiO 2 film.

Fig. 4 Photo graphs of without multiple sintering (WMS) and without compact layer (a) as prepared films (b) after 15 min ultrasonication

Fig. 5 Photographs of without multiple sintering (WMS) and with compact layer (a) as prepared films after (b) 15 min, (c) 30 min, (d) 45
min ultrasonication

Fig. 6 Photographs of multiple sintering (MS) and with compact layer (a) as prepared films (b) after 30 min and (c) 45 min ultrasonication

650
 The interparticle connectivity in TiO 2 films produced by multiple sintering (MS) was much better as evident
from the smaller penetration depth of the nanoindenter for the same peak load (Fig. 7) The multiple sintering
route resulted in higher quality reproducible films as seen from little scatter in nanoindentation profiles (Fig. 7)
for indentations carried out over different parts of the films in contrast to films prepared without multiple
sintering (WMS). Thus, in the present work MS approach was used to prepare all the photoanodes

Fig. 7 Nanoindentation of MS and WMS of TiO 2 film

FEG-SEM image of mesoporous TiO 2 layer (a) without multiple sintering (WMS) and (b) with multiple
sintering (MS) are shown in Fig. 8. Films prepared by without multiple sintering (WMS) showed lot of cracks in
the film (Fig. 8a) whereas no cracks were observed in multiple sintered films (Fig. 8b). Cracks in the WMS film
might be due to the insufficient binding strength of TiO 2 particle in the film while for MS film, binding strength
of TiO 2 particle in the film attributed to the multiple sintering of the film which leads to crack-free films.

Fig.8 Surface features of (a) WMS and (b) MS of TiO 2 film

J-V measurements were performed under AM 1.5 conditions. Impact of compact layer and the effect of
multiple sintering on DSSC performance is shown in Fig. 9 and photovoltaic parameters calculated from J-V
curves are summarized in Table.1. As we observed from Table.1, V oc remains constant but the photo current
density increases in case of multiple sintering (MS) which is due to improvement in the interparticle
connectivity in TiO 2 films. The enhancement in photocurrent density of Pt-based CE (18.6 mA/cm2) is due to
the incorporation of compact layer between the FTO and mesoporous TiO 2 film. Compact layer improves the
adherence between the FTO and mesoporous TiO 2 layer and also prevents charge recombination at FTO-
electrolyte interface.The incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) spectra of DSSCs with and without
compact layer are shown in Fig.10. The IPCE response at 350 nm is attributed to the direct band gap photo-
electron excitation of TiO 2 . The maximum value of IPCE spectra for all the DSSCs are obtained at 520 nm. The
IPCE of DSSC with compact layer is observed to be about 90% at 520 nm, in contrast to without compact layer
CE (81% at 520 nm). The IPCE spectra results are in accordance with the photo conversion efficiencies of
DSSCs (Fig.9 and Table.1)

651
 Table 1 Photovoltaic parameters calculated from the I-V characteristics

Methods V oc (mV) J sc (mA /cm2) FF ƞ (%)

WMS 728 8.30 0.56 3.4

MS 714 13.90 0.6 0 6.6

Compact 729 16.90 0.62 8.4

layer-MS

Fig. 9 Impact of compact layer and effect of multiple sintering of mesoporous TiO 2 on DSSC performance

Fig. 10 IPCE spectra of dye sensitized solar cells

Conclusions

Adhesion at mesoporous TiO 2 film and FTO substrate interface and interparticle connectivity in the TiO 2
film influence DSSCs performance. DSSCs fabricated using photoanode without multiple sintering (WMS) of
mesoporous TiO 2 with Pt as CE showed a photo conversion efficiency of 3.4% whereas photoanode with

652
multiple sintering (MS) of mesoporous TiO 2 showed 6.6% efficiency. An enhancement in the photocurrent
density (from 13.95 to 16.9 mA/cm2) was observed upon incorporation of compact layer between the FTO and
mesoporous TiO 2 film. Compact layer prevents the charge recombination at FTO-electrolyte interface. DSSCs
fabricated with compact layer showed photoconversion efficiency of 8.4%.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge DST, NCPRE, SERIIUS, and IITB for financial support and SAIF,
CEN for the analytical instrument facility supporting the present work.

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 ICAER-2015

Engine Performance Using Waste Cooking Biodiesel and Its

Blends with Kerosene and Ethanol
Gaurav Dwivedi, M.P. Sharma, Puneet Verma, Prem Kumar
Biofuel Research Laboratory, Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Techonology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India -
247667

Abstract

The Waste cooking oil is popular source for biodiesel production and it can be developed as substitute to diesel. The aim of
the present work is to evaluate the fuel properties and investigate the impact on engine performance using waste cooking
biodiesel and its blend with diesel, kerosene and ethanol. The result of investigation show that cold flow properties of waste
cooking biodiesel blend with ethanol and kerosene are much better than waste cooking biodiesel and its blends with diesel.
The blends were also tested on diesel engine to evaluate the engine performance and the result shows that Brake Specific
fuel consumption for waste cooking biodiesel blend with ethanol and kerosene are higher as compared to waste cooking
biodiesel and it blends with diesel. This is due to lower calorific value for ethanol and kerosene. The brake thermal
efficiency for waste cooking biodiesel blend with diesel is higher as compared to other blends of waste cooking biodiesel
with ethanol and kerosene. The result shows that waste cooking biodiesel blend with ethanol and kerosene can be
recommended for cold climatic conditions while WCB 20 can be developed as an alternative to diesel.

Keywords: Energy; Biodiesel; Waste Cooking oil; Brake Specific Fuel Consumption; Brake Thermal Efficiency

1. Introduction

The rapid fossil fuel utilization coupled with serious environment degradation has led to the fast depletion of
finite and highly concentrated fossil resources all over the world the developing country like India imports more
than 80% petroleum crude and is putting heavy burden on exchequers. The situation can be improved by
developing alternative bio fuels like biodiesel and bio ethanol as substitute of petroleum diesel and gasoline
respectively. The biodiesel can be produced from renewable feedstock such as edible and non edible oils [1].The
main feedstock for biodiesel production in India is non- edible oils obtained from plant species such as Jatropha,
Pongamia, Mahua, Neem, Waste cooking oil (WCO) and Polanga due to the high cost of edible oils [2].
Biodiesel, derived from the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, is composed of saturated and
unsaturated long-chain fatty acid alkyl esters. In spite of having some application problems, recently it is being
considered as one of the most promising alternative fuels in internal combustion engine [3]. Bio-diesel scores
very well as an alternate fuel of choice as it helps in decreasing dependence on fossil – fuels and also as it has
almost no sulphur. Higher cetane of biodiesel as compared to petro diesel implies its much improved
combustion profile in an internal combustion engine [4].The WCO can be developed as an alternative source of
fuel. Various researchers investigated the impact of waste cooking biodiesel on engine performance. Meng et
al. [5] used WCO for biodiesel production and investigated the engine performance without any modification to
diesel engine, the B20, B50 blend fuels (include 20%, 50% crude biodiesel respectively) led to unsatisfactory
emissions whilst the B20 blend fuel (include 20% refined biodiesel) reduced significantly particles, HC and CO
etc. emissions. CO, HC and particles emission were reduced by 18.6%, 26.7% and 20.58%, respectively.
Karabektas [6] used turbocharger to evaluate the performance of diesel engine and the result showed that the
brake thermal efficiency of biodiesel was slightly higher than that of diesel fuel in both naturally aspirated and
turbocharged conditions, while biodiesel yielded slightly lower brake power and torque along with higher fuel
consumption values. It was also observed that emissions of CO in the operations with biodiesel were lower than
those in the operations with diesel fuel, whereas NOx emission in biodiesel operation was higher. This study
reveals that the use of biodiesel improves the performance parameters and decreases CO emissions of the
turbocharged engine compared to diesel fuel. Jain et al. [7] used WCB to evaluate the performance of diesel
engine biodiesel up to WCB 100 and it is found that brake specific fuel consumption for WCB 100 (411 g/kWh) is
about 17.8 % higher than diesel (349 g/kWh) at full load while the brake thermal efficiency of waste fried oil
methyl ester (24.2 %) is almost similar to diesel (24.5%) at full load without any modification in the engine
design. Ghobadian et al. [8] used artificial neural network model and predicted the engine performance and

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exhaust emissions with correlation coefficient (R) 0.9487, 0.999, 0.929 and 0.999 for the engine torque, SFC,
CO and HC emissions. Many researchers have also investigated the impact of ethanol on engine performance.
M. Al-Hasan [9] used blending unleaded gasoline with ethanol increases the brake power, torque, volumetric
and brake thermal efficiencies and fuel consumption, while it decreases the brake specific fuel consumption and
equivalence air–fuel ratio. The CO and HC emissions concentrations in the engine exhaust decrease, while the
CO 2 concentration increases. The 20% volume ethanol in fuel blend gave the best results for all measured
parameters at all engine speeds. Qudais and Qudaisat [10] investigated the effect of fumigation and blends
methods have the same behavior in affecting performance and emissions, but the improvement in using the
fumigation method was better than when using blends. The optimum percentage for ethanol fumigation is 20%.
This percentage produces an increase of 7.5% in brake thermal efficiency, 55% in CO emissions, 36% in HC
emissions and reduction of 51% in soot mass concentration. The optimum percentage for ethanol diesel fuel
blends is 15%. This produces an increase of 3.6% in brake thermal efficiency, 43.3% in CO emissions, 34% in
HC and a reduction of 32% in soot mass concentration. Pikunas et al. [11] investigated experimentally and
compare the engine performance and pollutant emission of a SI engine using ethanol–gasoline blended fuel and
pure gasoline. The results showed that when ethanol is added, the heating value of the blended fuel decreases,
while the octane number of the blended fuel increases. The results of the engine test indicated that when
ethanol–gasoline blended fuel is used, the engine power and specific fuel consumption of the engine slightly
increase; CO emission decreases dramatically as a result of the leaning effect caused by the ethanol addition;
HC emission decreases in some engine working conditions; and CO 2 emission increases because of the
improved combustion. Shane Curtis [12] used 10% ethanol-gasoline blends can be used in spark ignition
engines without any major modifications to the air/fuel system. The 10% ethanol blend produces similar fuel
conversion efficiency and BSFC to that of pure gasoline. CO emissions for 10% ethanol blends are much lower
than CO emissions from gasoline. NOx and CO 2 emissions for 10% ethanol blends and gasoline are similar.
20% ethanol-gasoline blends do not perform as well as pure gasoline does in spark ignition engines that are
calibrated to run on gasoline. The fuel conversion efficiency and brake work both decrease for an engine
operating on a 20% ethanol blend, while BSFC increases. The literature review shows that WCB and ethanol
can be used as alternative to diesel. Ethanol has low CP and PP it can be used as cold flow improver. But the
main problem associated with the WCB is its poor cold flow property which can create problem in engine
operation by choking the fuel lines and filters [1-4, 13, 14].There are various methods to improve the cold flow
property which includes blending, winterization and use of cold flow improver. This paper investigates the
impact of blending ethanol, kerosene and diesel with WCB to improve its cold flow property and its impact on
diesel engine performance.

2. Methodology for Biodiesel Production

Waste Cooking oil (WCO) collected from IIT Roorkee hostel mess and was filtered to remove all insoluble
impurities from the oil followed by heating at 1000C for 10 minutes to remove all the moisture. The fuel
properties of WCO after refining were determined as per standard methods. The properties of WCO are reported
in table 1.
Table 1: Properties of waste cooking oil

S. No. Properties Pongamia Oil

1. Net calorific value (MJ/kg) 32.45

2. Flash point (0C) 230

3. Viscosity (cSt, @ 250C) 27

4. FFA (%) 0.8

5. Density (kg/m3 @ 250C) 935

The table 1 shows that FFA contents of the oils is 0.8 %.Owing to low FFA content base catalyzed
transesterification processes was adopted. For the biodiesel production from WCO mixture of methanol (5%
v/v) and KOH (1% w/w of oil) was prepared and heated at 500C then this hot mixture was mixed with oil and
stirred at 500C for 2 hours later on mixture was allowed to settle down in separating funnel for overnight , at the

655
end two layers were formed. The lower layer of glycerin was drained off by gravity, while the upper lighter
layer was separated separately. The biodiesel yield of 97.05% is obtained by this base transesterification
process. The biodiesel samples were tested for physicochemical properties as per ASTM D-6751 and Indian IS
15607 specification and the properties are given in Table 2 which shows that although the WCB meets most of
the specifications but according to Indian Climate it cannot be used in winter season.The WCB samples were
analyzed for ME formation at a predetermined interval of time by Gas Chromatograph (Netal make) equipped
with a flame ionization detector and a capillary column for injecting the sample [15]. The GC oven was kept at
230°C (5°C/ min). Nitrogen was used as carrier gas. Quantitative analysis of % ME was done using European
standard EN 14,103:2003 (DIN EN, 1410). The% ME yield was calculated using Eq. (1).
∑ − −
% = 100 (1)

∑A = Total peak area from the methyl ester in C14 to that in C24:1;
A EI = Peak area corresponding to methyl heptadecanoate;
C EI = Concentration of the methyl heptadecanoate solution (mg/ml);
V EI = Volume of the methyl heptadecanoate solution (ml);
m = Mass of the sample (mg).
The table 3 shows the fatty acid composition of WCB. For the purpose of error analysis, 2 tests were conducted
for single sample and then the average of the 2 readings was taken for further investigation purpose.

Table 2: Physicochemical properties of WCB, Diesel, Kerosene and Ethanol

S.No. Property ASTM ASTM IS IS WCB Diesel Kerosene Ethanol

(unit) 6751 6751 15607 15607
limit limit
1 Flash point D-93 Min. IS 1448 - 170 60 55 20
(°C) 130
2 Viscosity at D-445 1.9-6.0 IS 1448 - 6.2 3.5 1.6 2.24
40 °C (cSt)
3 Water and D- 2709 Max. D- Max. 0.05 - - -
sediment 0.05 2709 0.05
(vol%)
4 CP (°C) ASTM - IS 1448 - 14.5 6 -11 Very
D2500 - low
11
5 PP(°C) ASTM - IS 1448 - 13.7 5 -13 Very
D97 - 12 low

Table 3: Fatty acid composition of WCB

S. No. Fatty acid % composition (WCB)

1 Palmitic acid (P) 11.2
2 Stearic acid (S) 3.2
3 Oleic acid (O) 44.5
4 Linoleic acid (L) 41.0
5 Linolenic acid (LL) 0.1

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 3. Fuel Properties of Biodiesel

The various blends of WCB with diesel, kerosene and ethanol (WCB 20 , WCK 20 and WCE 20 ) are prepared in
different proportion and fuel properties of these blends are evaluated which is shown in table 4.The properties of
biodiesel blend of WCB 20 is similar to that of diesel. But there is much variation in the properties of WCB 100
with that of diesel. Due to high viscosity of WCB 100 it cannot be used directly as fuel. So it blended with diesel
and due to that viscosity is reduced and biodiesel can be used in engine directly.
Table 4: Fuel Properties of Various Blends of WCB

Waste cooking Calorific Value of Viscosity of Density of

Biodiesel (WCB) (WCB) and its (WCB) and its (WCB) (kg/m3)
and Its Blends blends (MJ/kg) blends (cst @ and its blends
25˚C)

WCK-20 35.23 5.2 862

WCB-20 42.41 4.2 823
WCE-20 34.82 4.8 850
WCB-100 38.23 6.2 900

3.1 Cloud Point and Pour Point of biodiesel and its blend

At low temperatures, higher-melting point (MP) components in the fuel, nucleates and grow to form solid
crystals. The temperature where the crystals become visible and form a hazy or cloudy suspension is defined as
the cloud point (CP). The CP of biodiesel is generally higher than that of petro diesel. Prolonged exposure of the
fuel to temperatures at or below CP causes crystals to grow and form interlocking networks. Pour point (PP) of
the fuel is defined as the lowest temperature where the fuel flows or can be pumped. Both CP and PP should be
closely monitored by the user to ensure trouble-free operation in cold climates. CP and PP were measured
according to ASTM D-6751 test methods ASTM D2500, D97 respectively using the cloud and pour point
apparatus. The sample was cooled in a glass tube under prescribed conditions and inspected at intervals of 1°C
until a cloud or haze appeared. This temperature was recorded as CP. In determination of PP, sample was cooled
in a glass tube under prescribed conditions and inspected at intervals of 3 °C until it no longer moved when the
place of surface was held vertical for 65 seconds; the PP was then taken as 3 °C above the temperature of
cessation of flow. Data for all analytical measurements are means of triplicate. Subsequent analysis showed no
statically significant difference among the measurements.

16
14
12
CP and PP (ºC)

10
8
CP
6
4 PP
2
0
Diesel WCK-20 WCB-20 WCE-20 WCB-100
Waste cooking biodiesel and its blends

Fig.1 Cold Flow Property of WCB and its Blends

Figure1 shows the variation of CP and PP for WCB and its blends. The WCB 100 have poor cold flow property

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so it cannot be recommended as fuel in cold climatic condition while WCK 20 and WCB 20 have better cold flow
property than WCB 100 but it is not comparable to diesel. The WCE 20 have much improved cold flow improved
which is similar to diesel. The WCE 20 can be recommended in cold climatic condition for engine operation. The
much improved CFP for WCE 20 is due to low CP and PP value for ethanol.

4. Experimental Setup for Engine Test

The blend of biodiesel is tested on engine to check the performance of engine and technical specification of
engine is shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Technical specification of Diesel Engine

S.No. Parameters Details

1 Make and model Kirloskar, AA35

2 Type of engine Vertical, 4-stroke, single acting high speed
compression ignition diesel engine
3 No of cylinder
4 Rating @ 1500 rpm 2.6 kW (3.5 bhp)
5 Base 30 mm
6 Stroke 76 mm
7 Cubic capacity 0.382 liters
8 Compression ratio 15.6: 1
9 Duel timing for standard 240
engine by spill (BTDC)
10 BMEP @ 1500 rpm 5.5 kg/mm2
11 Rated speed 1500 rpm
12 Direction of rotation Clockwise when looking at flywheel end

4.1 Methodology for Performance Testing

The engine was directly coupled to alternator and loaded by electrical resistance. The separate fuel measurement
unit was connected with engine. A resistive load panel was attached with the output of the generator. The
engine- generator set was run initially using diesel for 10 minutes each for 25, 50, 75 and 100% load. The fuel
consumption was measured by using stopwatch. At the same time the reading of voltmeter, current meter and
energy meter were also noted down. Different blends of WCB with diesel Kerosene and ethanol were prepared.
The filter of diesel engine was opened and complete mixture of biodiesel and diesel was drained so that it could
not mix with the next blend. The experiment was repeated for each blend.

5. Result and Discussion

The load tests results were processed to compare the BSFC of all the biodiesels considered in the study. Figure
2 plots the variation of BSFC of WCB and its blends with diesel, kerosene and ethanol (WCB 20 , WCK 20 and
WCE 20 , WCB 100 and Diesel) with load.

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 1400

1200

1000
BSFC (g/kWh)
Diesel
800
WCK20
600
WCB20
400 WCE20

200 WCB100

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
% Load

Fig. 2 Comparison of BSFC (g/kWh) of WCB and its blends

It’s evident from the figure 2 that BSFC of WCE 20 is highest at all loads from other blends while diesel has
much lower BSFC. When the load is 25%, BSFC of WCK 20 and WCB 100 is 34.4% and 33% higher than that of
diesel but at 100% loading the BSFC gap reduced to 33.8% and 25.6% for WCK 20 and WCB 100 respectively as
compare to diesel. The BSFC for diesel and WCB 20 are comparable in all loading conditions. At 25% loading
BSFC of WCK 20 is 32.2% higher than WCB20 but at 100% loading the BSFC of WCB 100 is comparable to that
of WCK 20 . The reason for higher BSFC for WCE 20 and WCK 20 is due to lower calorific value for ethanol and
kerosene which correlates with the results given in literature [16].

25

20

15 Diesel
BTE (%)

WCK20
10 WCB20
WCE20
5
WCB100

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
% LOAD

Fig. 3 Comparison of BTE (%) of WCB and its blends

As per the test results shown in figure 3 show that, WCK 20 has lowest BTE at all loading condition while
WCE 20 has similar BTE as that of WCB 100 at all load. The BTE for WCB 20 is similar to that of diesel. The
result shows that WCB 20 can be recommended as an alternative fuel to diesel.

Conclusions

The experiment investigation shows that biodiesel from waste cooking oil can be developed as alternate fuel for
future. The fuel properties like density, viscosity and calorific value of WCB 20 are more or less comparable to

659
diesel. The cloud point and pour point of various biodiesel blends is higher than that of diesel. As the percentage
increase in biodiesel concentration, it will further result in increase in cloud and pour point of biodiesel due to
presence of various fatty acids in it. The CP and PP of WCE 20 is comparable to that of diesel. The engine testing
result shows that BSFC of WCE 20 is highest at all loads from other blends while WCB 20 have comparable
BSFC and BTE to that of diesel. The result of experimental investigation shows that WCE 20 can be
recommended as an alternative fuel in cold climatic condition while WCB 20 can be developed as alternative fuel
in normal condition.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors greatly acknowledge the financial support from MHRD, Govt. of India in the form of research
scholarship to carry out this work.

REFERENCE
[1] G. Dwivedi, M. P. Sharma, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 33 (2014) 316–322.
[2] G. Dwivedi, M. P. Sharma, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 32 (2014) 114–122
[3] G. Dwivedi, M. P. Sharma, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 3(2) (2013) 325-330
[4] P Verma, M.P. Sharma, G. Dwivedi. Materials Today: Proceedings. 2 (2015) 3196 – 3202.
[5] X. Meng, G. Chen, Y. Wang, Fuel Processing Technology, 89 (2008) 851-857
[6] M. Karabektas, (2009), Renewable Energy, 34, 989–993
[7] https://www.academia.edu/1931925/Evaluation_of_Engine_Performance_on_Biodiesel_from_Waste_Cooking_Oil
[8] B. Ghobadian, H. Rahimi, A.M. Nikbakht, G. Najafi, T.F. Yusaf, Renewable Energy, 34 (2009) 976–982
[9] M. Al-Hasan, Energy Conversion and Management, 44 (2003) 1547–1561
[10] M. Abu-Qudais, O. Haddad, M. Qudaisat, Energy Conversion & Management, 41 (2000) 389-399
[11] A. Pikunas, S. Pukalskas, J. Grabys, Journal of KONES Internal Combustion Engines, 10 (2003) 3-4
[12] S. Curtis, M. Owen, T. Hess, S. Egan, Brigham Young University, December 5, 2008
[13] G. Dwivedi, M. P. Sharma, International Journal Of Renewable Energy Research ,3(4) (2013) 819-826
[14] P. Verma, V. M. Singh, Integr. Res. Adv., 1(1) (2014) 1-4.
[15] Determination of ester and linolenic acid methyl ester contents; 2003. English version of DIN EN 14103.
[16] P. Verma, M.P. Sharma, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research. 1(5) (2015) 245-250.

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 ICAER-2015

Thermal Performance of Solar Water Heater with Multiple

Twisted Tape Inserts
Anil Kumar Patil, Manoj Kumar, Chaitanya Vashistha
Department of Mechanical Engineering, DIT University, Dehradun-248009, Uttarakhand, India.

Abstract

The thermal performance of solar water heater largely depends on the flow characteristics of fluid inside the tube. The
present work aims to study the thermal performance of solar water heater having multiple twisted tape inserts in the fluid
carrying tubes. The thermal efficiency of solar water heater with multiple inserts is compared with that of a heater with
smooth tubes under the similar operating conditions. The results show that the application of multiple inserts in the fluid
tubes considerably increases the thermal efficiency of a conventional solar water heater. The thermal efficiency variation
was found to be in the range of 33- 68 % and 39 – 74 % in case of conventional solar water heater tube and tube with four
counter-swirl twisted tape inserts (4CTT), respectively.
Keywords: Solar water heater, Twisted tape inserts, Nusselt number, Reynolds number, Friction factor, Thermal efficiency.

1. Introduction

Solar water heater provides a convenient and effective way of utilizing solar energy to provide hot water for
daily requirements. Solar water heaters are widely used in household purposes and commercial applications
across the globe. The thermal performance of solar water heater depends on the convective heat transfer rates
between the fluid carrying tubes attached to the absorber plate and the fluid flows through the tubes. Literature
suggests that the heat transfer rates from the tube surface to the fluid stream can be significantly enhanced by the
application of passive heat transfer enhancement techniques. Use of twisted tape inserts is a promising
technique to bring out the enhancement in heat transfer at the cost of bearable rise in frictional losses. It has been
observed that the presence of inserts promotes fluid mixing by inducing swirl motion and secondary flow and
thereby leads to considerably higher rate of heat transfer.
In the last decade, a few efforts have been made to investigate the performance of solar water heaters with
different types of inserts. Kumar and Prasad [1] investigated a solar water heater with twisted tape inserts having
different twist pitch to tube diameter ratio and found that the heat transfer and friction in twist tape collectors
increased by 18-70% and 87-132 %, respectively compared to plain tube collector. Chang et al. [2] investigated
the heat transfer and friction characteristics of a circular tube fitted with single, twin and triple twisted tapes. It
was revealed that for the same pumping power, the tube fitted with the triple twisted tapes showed the highest
performance factors in the turbulent flow regime. It was also reported that the heat transfer enhancement is
increased with an increase in number of twisted tape insert. Jaisankar et al. [3] experimentally investigated the
heat transfer and pressure drop in a thermosyphon solar water heater with full length left-right twist, twist fitted
with rod and spacer at the trailing edge. The results showed that the solar water heaters with full length twists are
better for heat transfer with lower flow resistance. In the studies by Yan et al. [4], the effect of irradiance, tilt
angle and the guide plate on the heat transfer performance has been examined. Martin et al. [5] studied the heat
transfer enhancement in a tube-on-sheet solar panel with wire-coil inserts, using TRNSYS as the simulating tool.
The application of wire-coil inserts increases the thermal efficiency values by 4.5%. Garcia et al. [6] carried out
an experimental study on the use of wire-coil inserts to enhance heat transfer in a typical flat plate solar water
heater. It has been reported that the Wire-coil inserts provided an average increase in thermal efficiency from
14% to 31% and an increase in the useful power collected with no additional pressure losses of up to 8–12%.
The study recommends that the wire-coil devices can be successfully inserted within the flow tubes of solar
water collectors for increasing its thermal efficiency. Sekhar et al. [7] experimentally investigated the heat
transfer enhancement in a horizontal circular pipe with water and water based nano-fluids fitted with twisted
tapes. It was reported that the use of twisted tapes and nano-fluids in the pipe flows is advantageous since the
energy gained with heat exchange is more than the energy spent on pumping power.

661
 It is evident from the literature review that the thermal performance of solar water heater can be improved by
the application of inserts. It has been reported that the presence of three parallel twisted tape inserts can produce
better heat transfer results as compared to single and twin twisted tape inserts [2]. The effect of four twisted tape
inserts on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of solar water heater tube is not reported in the literature.
The present work aims to investigate the thermal performance of a solar water heater tubes fitted with multiple
inserts arranged in co-swirl and counter-swirl orientations. The variation of thermal efficiency of solar water
heater with multiple inserts is discussed with regard to temperature rise parameter and Reynolds number for
different geometries of inserts.

Nomenclature

Ac Collector area m2
CoTT Twin Co-swirl twisted tapes -
4CoTT Set of four Co-swirl twisted tapes -
Cp Specific heat at constant pressure J/kg K
CTT Twin counter swirl twisted tapes -
4CTT Set of four counter twisted tapes -
D Tube diameter m
f Friction factor -
F’ Plate efficiency factor -
Fr Collector heat removal factor -
h Convection heat transfer coefficient W/m2 K
I Solar insolation W/m2
k Thermal conductivity W/m K
L Length of the tube m
ṁ Mass flow rate Kg/s
Nu Nusselt number -
Qu Useful heat gain W
Re Reynolds number -
Tp Plate temperature K
Ta Ambient temperature K
Ti Inlet temperature of fluid K
To Outlet temperature of fluid K
Ul Collector heat loss coefficient W/m2K
Ut Top heat loss coefficient W/m2K
Ub Bottom heat loss coefficient W/m2K
y Twist ratio -

Greek Symbols
μ Dynamic viscosity of fluid Ns/m2
τ Transmissivity of glass -
α Absorptivity of plate -

2. Experimental Investigation

2.1 Solar water heating system

The solar water heater consists of a collector panel in which a black absorbing plate absorbs solar radiation
and transfers the heat energy through an array of highly conductive thin tubes attached to the underside of
absorber plate to water flowing through it. Water from a storage tank circulates through the liquid tubes, absorbs
energy from the heated absorber plate and returned back to the storage tank. The geometry of a conventional
solar water heater is shown in fig. 1.

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 Insolation

Water Out
Transparent cover

Absorber
plate

Water In
Copper
tubes
Insulation

Fig.1. Geometry of Solar water heater.

2.1 Experimental data collection

The experimental data in the form of surface temperature of the tube, inlet and outlet temperature of the fluid,
fluid flow rate and pressure difference across the tube are collected under varied operating conditions and
parameters of the system. The test setup consists of copper test tube of 15 mm inner diameter and 1000 mm
length. Heating element is wrapped uniformly over the outer surface of the tube to obtain uniform heat flux over
the entire surface. Water is used as working fluid which is continuously supplied from the constant head water
tank situated at 2.5 m height from the ground. The rotameter is employed for the measurement of flow rate of
water. The thermocouples are used to measure the surface temperature of tube and fluid temperature. The heated
fluid is allowed to get mixed thoroughly before measuring the exit temperature of fluid. The micro-manometer
is used to measure the pressure difference across the test section.

2.2 Geometry of tube inserts

The aluminium twisted tapes of different width and twist pitch are inserted in the circular tube to collect the
data pertaining to heat transfer and friction. The inserts are placed in five different arrangements, namely single
twisted tapes (STT), twin co-swirl twisted tapes (CoTT), twin counter-swirl twisted tapes (CTT), four co-swirl
twisted tapes (4CoTT) and four counter-swirl twisted tapes (4CTT). The twist ratio (y) of twisted tapes is kept
as 3. Fig. 2 (a) shows the arrangement of multiple twisted tapes in circular tube and fig. 2 (b) exhibits the
twisted tapes with different twist ratio.

a b

Fig.2. (a) Arrangement of multiple twisted tapes; (b) Twisted tapes with different twist ratio.

3. Data Reduction and Validation

Experimental data pertaining to heat transfer and friction have been used to estimate the values of
dimensionless numbers like Reynolds number, Nusselt Number and friction factor. The experimental setup is
validated by comparing the heat transfer and fluid flow data for the smooth tube without insert with the data

663
obtained from Dittus-Boelter and Blasius correlations [8]. The average absolute deviations of Nusselt number
and friction factor were found to be 2.4 % and 5.6 %, respectively which confirms that the experimental data is
in good agreement with the standard data.
The thermal performance of solar water heater having multiple inserts inside the collector tubes is determined
under different system and operating conditions. The performance of a solar water heater can be estimated by
considering the thermal and fluid flow network of the system. The following procedure has been followed to
estimate the thermal performance of solar water heater with and without inserts. The system and operating
properties of solar water heater are tabulated in Table 1.

Table1. System and operating parameters

Parameter Symbolic Value/Range

representation
Collector Area, m2 Ac 1

Thickness of insulation, m δi 0.05

System parameters

Thermal conductivity of insulation, W/mK ki 0.037

Fixed

Number of glass covers N 1

Emissivity of absorber plate εp 0.9

Emissivity of glass cover εg 0.88

Transmittance-absorptance product (τα) 0.8

Ambient air Temperature, K Ta 300

Operating parameters

Fixed

Wind velocity, m/s vw 1.0

Intensity of Solar radiations, W/m2 I 1000

Temperature rise parameter, Km2 /W ∆T/I 0-0.05

Variable

Reynolds number, Re Re 3000-20000

Assuming the absorber plate temperature (T p ) and intensity of solar radiation (I). Using the assumed value of
mean plate temperature (T p ), the value of collector loss coefficient (U l ) is evaluated as:
U l = Ut + Ub (1)
where U t is referred as collector top loss coefficient while U b is bottom loss coefficient.

Based on the value of U l , the useful heat gain of the collector is estimated as:
Q u = A c [I (τα) – U l (T p – T a )] (2)

The mass flow rate and Reynolds number are determined using the value of useful heat gain as:
ṁ= Q u / C p (T o – T i ) (3)

Re = 4ṁ / π D μ (4)

The experimental value of Nusselt number is used to find the convective heat transfer coefficient as:

h = Nu k/D (5)

The plate efficiency factor (F’) and heat removal factor (F r ) are then calculated to find the Q u as:

664
 Q u = F r A c [I (τα) – U l (T i – T a )]
(6)

By using this new value of Q u , the corrected value of plate temperature (T p ) is calculated as:

T p = T a +[I (τα) – (Q u /A c )]/U l (7)

This new plate temperature is compared with the old plate temperature (assumed), and if the difference
between two is found greater than the acceptable limit, the calculation is repeated with new plate temperature.
The iteration terminates when the difference between the input and output plate temperatures falls under
0.001o C. The useful heat energy gain and thermal efficiency is then determined by using the correct value of
mean absorber plate temperature.
η = Qu / I Ac (8)

The above procedure is adopted for computing the thermal efficiency of solar water heater with different sets
of system and operating parameters.

4. Results and Discussion

Figures 3(a) and 3(b) show the plots of Nusselt number and friction factor as function of Reynolds number
for a smooth circular tube with different types of twisted tape inserts having twist ratio (y) of 3 and without any
insert. It is evident from the plots that the Nusselt number increases and friction factor decreases with an
increase in the Reynolds number for all cases. The maximum values of Nusselt number and friction factor
correspond to the four counter-swirl twisted tape inserts (4CTT) at all the values of the Reynolds number. These
plots reveal that the application of multiple inserts brings out significant enhancement in the heat transfer and
the friction.

250 0.3
STT
0.25
200 COTT

CTT 0.2
150
4COTT
0.15
Nu 4CTT f
100
Smooth 0.1
tube
50 0.05
(Twist ratio: 3)

0
0 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
Re Re
(a) (b)

Fig.3. (a) Nusselt number as function of Reynolds number; (b) Friction factor as function of Reynolds number.

The thermal efficiency of twisted tape inserted solar water heater for 1000 W/m2 of insolation is plotted in
figs. 4-6 with respect to the temperature rise parameter (T i – T a )/I for different values of Reynolds number by
considering different types of inserts. The plots also show the variation of thermal efficiency for smooth tube
without insert. It can be seen that the thermal efficiency in all cases decreases as collector inlet fluid temperature
is increased. A notable improvement in thermal performance has been achieved by employing the multiple

665
inserts over a smooth tube solar water heater for relatively lower range of Reynolds number. At higher values of
Reynolds number, the effect of multiple inserts on the thermal efficiency is diminished and the performance of
smooth tube solar water heater comes closer to it. The maximum value of thermal efficiency is attained by using
four counter-swirl twisted tape inserts (4CTT) irrespective of the change in collector inlet fluid temperature. The
thermal efficiency variation was found to be in the range of 33- 68 % and 39 -74 % in case of conventional solar
water heater tube and tube with four counter-swirl twisted tape inserts (4CTT), respectively.

0.8 0.8
STT STT
y :3, Re: 3800 y : 3, Re: 6500
0.7 0.7
COTT COTT

0.6 Smooth 0.6 Smooth

tube tube
η η
CTT CTT
0.5 0.5

4CO TT 4CO TT
0.4 0.4
4CTT 4CTT

0.3 0.3
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
∆T/I ∆T/I
Fig. 4. Effect of temperature rise parameter on thermal efficiency Fig. 5. Effect of temperature rise parameter on thermal efficiency of
of Solar water heater for Re =3800. Solar water heater for Re =6500.

0.8 0.8
STT STT
y : 3, Ti = Ta
y : 3, Re: 9800
0.7
COTT COTT

0.7
0.6 Smooth Smooth
tube tube
η η
CTT CTT
0.5
0.6
4CO TT 4CO TT
0.4

4CTT 4CTT

0.3 0.5
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 4000 8000 12000 16000 20000
∆T/I Re
Fig. 6. Effect of temperature rise parameter on thermal efficiency Fig. 7. Effect of Reynolds number on thermal efficiency of Solar
of Solar water heater for Re =9800. water heater.

666
 In order to determine the effect of Reynolds number on the thermal performance of solar water heater, Fig. 7
is plotted between the thermal efficiency and Reynolds number for different cases. It can be observed that the
thermal efficiency increases with an increase in the Reynolds number up to a certain limit beyond which it
becomes independent of the change in Reynolds number. The thermal efficiency corresponding to the tube with
four counter-swirl twisted tape inserts (4CTT) has distinctly higher values at lower Reynolds number.

5. Conclusions

The present study concludes the following points:

• The values of Nusselt number and friction factor for a circular tube with multiple inserts were substantially
higher than those of smooth tubes. This observation confirms the suitability of multiple inserts in achieving
higher heat transfer rates in solar water heaters.
• A notable enhancement in the thermal efficiency has been found as a result of the use of multiple inserts
inside the tubes of solar water heater.
• The use multiple inserts is relatively more effective at low Reynolds number.

References

[1] A. Kumar , B.N. Prasad, Investigation of twisted tape inserted solar water heaters-heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance
results, Renewable Energy 19 (2000) 379-398.
[2] S.W. Chang, K.W. Yu, M.H. Lu, Heat transfers in tubes fitted with single, twin, and triple twisted tapes, Exp. Heat Transfer 18 (4)
(2005) 279–294.
[3] S. Jaisankar, T. K. Radhakrishnan, K.N. Sheeba, S. Suresh, Experimental investigation of heat transfer and friction factor characteristics
of thermosyphon solar water heater system fitted with spacer at the trailing edge of Left-Right twisted tapes, Energy Conversion and
Management 50 (2009) 2638-2649.
[4] S.Y. Yan, R. Tian, W.Y. Yu, S. Li, Analysis on factors influencing fluid flow in an all-glass vacuum tube solar water heaters, Journal of
Engineering Thermophysics 31 (2010) 641-643.
[5] R.H. Martin, J. Perez-Garcia, A. Garcia, F. J. Garcia-Soto, E. Lopez-Galiana, Simulation of an enhanced flat-plate solar liquid collector
with wire-coil insert devices, Solar Energy 85 (2011) 455–469.
[6] A. Garcia, R.H. Martin, J. Perez-Garcia, Experimental study of heat transfer enhancement in a flat-plate solar water collector with wire-
coil inserts, Applied Thermal Engineering 61 (2) ( 2013) 461–468.
[7] Y.R. Sekhar, K.V. Sharma, R.T. Karupparaja, C. Chiranjeevia, Heat Transfer Enhancement with Al 2 O 3 Nanofluids and Twisted Tapes
in a Pipe for Solar Thermal Applications, Procedia Engineering 64 (2013) 1474 – 1484.
[8] F. P. Incropera, D.P. Dewitt, T.L. Bergman, A.S. Lavine, Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer, John Wiley and Sons, Sixth Edition,
2011.

667
 ICAER-2015

Optimization of bagasse utilization for ethanol production in a

sugar mill
Payala Venkat Vikasha, Khushboo Singhb, Yogendra Shastria*1
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India
b
Department of Chemcial Engineering, BITS Pilani, Pilani-403726, India

Abstract

India is one of the major producers of sugarcane, and consequently has a significant number of sugarcane processing mills.
Sugarcane processing produces significant quantities of bagasse as its by-product (approximately 240 kg of bagasse with
50% humidity per ton of sugarcane). Bagasse, a lignocellulosic material, is therefore one of the most promising non-food
feedstocks for producing a transportation grade ethanol. However, existing sugar mills mostly burn bagasse to produce
process heat or electricity. An effective utilization of bagasse is, therefore, required to produce ethanol while compensating
for the heat requirements of the entire facility. This requires a careful process integration and optimization of the various
available resources. This work has developed a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model to optimize
the distribution of bagasse in an existing sugar mill that is integrated to second generation ethanol producing facility. A
superstructure of different processing routes capturing the mass and energy balances is first developed. A three step
hydrolysis method (pre-hydrolysis of hemicellulose, Organosolvent delignification and cellulose hydrolysis) followed by
fermentation, and product recovery is considered for a sugar mill processing 500,000 kg/hr of sugarcane feedstock.
Economic analysis of the model was done by evaluating the Break Even Selling Price (BESP) of ethanol. Process integration
of lignin and trash was performed, and its consequent effect on the economics was evaluated. Conversion route of lignin to
vanillin and syringaldehyde was evaluated. The base case results from the optimization problem indicated a BESP value of
ethanol to be ₹ 165.65/l when trash and lignin was available for heat production. Without trash availability, the BESP
increased to ₹ 319.16/l. Conversion of lignin to vanillin was very expensive and hence not recommended. Sensitivity
analysis was done with respect to key cost and process parameters.
Keywords: Bagasse; Break Even Selling Price (BESP); Lignocellulose; Optimization

1. Introduction

Fossil fuels have traditionally been the drivers of development in a country. Essential sectors of economy, like
industrial, energy, and transportation sectors, consume a significant portion of the nation's crude oil. Taking
account of the annual global economic and population growth, this demand is much more likely to rise in the
upcoming years. As predicted by IEA 2008 World Energy Outlook, the annual growth in global energy demand
is likely to increase by 45% between 2006 and 2045 [1]. This growth splurge is expected to be even more
significant for developing countries [1]. However, in the case of global oil supplies the trend is quite opposite. It
is predicted that the global production of crude oil is likely to decline from 25 billion to 5 billion barrels
between 2002 and 2050 [2]. This progressive decline exhibited in the global oil reserves and the additional
problems concerning to pollution and climate change from its use, has prompted the world to view renewable
energy source as a potential replacement to conventional fossil fuel.
Amongst all renewable sources, ethanol from lignocellulose is particularly seen as an effective energy resource
[3]. Owing to its abundant availability at cheaper prices, it is considered to be very desirable for a standalone
large scale second generation facility [3]. In addition, its use does not interfere with food security.
Lignocellulosic feedstocks can be categorized in terms of industrial wastes, agricultural wastes (e.g. corn stover,
sugarcane bagasse, straw), and forestry residues (e.g. saw dust from saw mills, wood chips, branches from dead
trees) [4,5]. Among these different feedstocks, sugarcane bagasse in particular is seen as a promising feedstock
for lignocellulosic ethanol, especially as per Indian scenario [6]. The country's high availability of sugarcane
and the presence of several sugarcane processing facilities manifests an excellent opportunity to coproduce
sugar and ethanol form bagasse. It is approximated that for every metric tonne of sugarcane that gets processed
in mills, about 240 Kg of bagasse can be recovered [4]. This high availability presents an opportunity to
integrate a second generation ethanol producing facility alongside to the sugar mill. Despite this favourable
opportunity exhibited by the sugarcane bagasse, the development of a dedicated large scale second generation

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-22-2576-7203; fax: +91-22-2572-6895.

E-mail address: yshastri@iitb.ac.in

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facility is poised by several technical and economical challenges [7].
Indian distilleries, presently utilize molasses to synthesize ethanol. Sukumaran et al. [8] reported that even with
an annual supply of 2.4 million tonnes of ethanol (molasses derived ethanol) the 5% blending target cannot be
achieved. Steep production price of ethanol above the base line price is credited to be the primary reason. This is
more likely to worsen once the government subsidies are lifted [8]. Further, the Indian Chemical Council
projected a deficit of 2040 million litres (for the year 2014) for a blending target of 5% with the current annual
supply of ethanol from molasses [9]. This recent development has further bolstered the importance of bagasse as
a source of ethanol in India.
Bagasse, being a lignocellulose, constitutes a complex matrix of cellulose (40%-45%), hemicellulose (30%-
35%), and lignin (20%-30%) as its components [3,10]. Unlike the first generation feedstock, their
polysaccharides are not readily susceptible to enzymatic attacks. As a consequence, a combination of several
processing steps is implemented to synthesize ethanol from lignocellulose. The overall ethanol production route
from lignocellulose includes five main processing steps, namely, preprocessing, pretreatment, detoxification,
distillation and dehydration [3]. Literature suggests several process alternatives to each of these steps in the
processing route [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. But, despite the presence of numerous technological alternatives
and huge feedstock availability, the economic barrier associated with the second generation facility problem has
still not been capped. However, this complication can be mitigated by better optimization and process
integration (mass and energy) strategies [19].
On the field of process design and optimization, several authors have contributed different tool and approaches
to design an optimal configuration for an ethanol producing facility. Furlan et al. [20] demonstrated a
computational tool developed with an equation-oriented process simulator to simulate the workings of an
integrated first and second generation ethanol facility. Their study illustrated the importance of effective bagasse
utilization upon the energy self sufficiency of different case studies. Work presented by Dias et al. [21] accessed
the prospects of process improvements with efficient cogeneration systems, and with the recovery of lignin and
trash. Furthermore, a systematic evaluation considering different levels of process integration between different
process configurations, enumerated the advantages of a second generation facility [22]. Another feature that is
also likely to affect the economics is the consideration of coproduction of by-products [23].
The objective of the present work is to synthesize an integrated biorefinery with emphasis on the annual fixed
(CAPEX) and operating (OPEX) expenses. In this work an existing sugarcane mill, processing 500,000 Kg/h of
sugarcane, was integrated to a second generation facility. Fig. 1 illustrates the schematics of the process. The
overall process was classified into seven processing sections, which included sugarcane juice and molasses
extraction, pre-hydrolysis of hemicellulose with acid treatment method, delignification with Organosolvent,
saccharification, fermentation, product recovery, and boiler/turbogenerator. A Mixed Integer Linear
Programming (MILP) optimization model was developed which optimized the distribution of bagasse for an
integrated system of sugar mill and a second generation ethanol facility. The model development was based on
the biorefinery concept, which apart from producing primary products (like ethanol and sucrose) also produces
value added by-products (like lignin, vanillin and syringaldehyde). The model features mass and energy
balances of the various aforementioned processing sections, with requisite parameters obtained from literature.
Feasibility between different process configuration was analyzed by Break Even Selling Price (BESP) of
ethanol.

2. Process Description

The present work utilizes an existing sugar mill that receives 500 Mg/hr of sugarcane as its feedstock. This
throughput capacity is comparable to the several available large scale first generation ethanol producing
facilities at present [20].The bagasse obtained after sugarcane processing is utilized by the second generation
ethanol producing facility as its feed. Together, this integrated setup coproduces both sucrose and second
generation ethanol.
The superstructure demonstrated in Fig. 1, describes the different unit operations considered for the present
work. Each of these blocks represents an individual or a collection of unit operations (or process configuration).
The overall process was classified into seven major processing sections that include sugarcane juice and
molasses extraction, pre-hydrolysis of hemicellulose with acid treatment method, delignification with
organosolvent, saccharification, fermentation, boiler/turbogenerator, and Vanillin and Syringaldehyde
production. Block B1, represented in Fig. 1, is a collection of many unit operations ranging from mills, dry
cleaning system to process units for juice treatment. Together these unit operations are responsible for sucrose
production. Apart from sucrose, this unit is also responsible for producing molasses and sugarcane bagasse as a
by-product. Sucrose production technology is mature and several studies has already reported its optimal
operational configuration, hence, the entire sucrose synthesizing operation is clubbed into a single block as
shown in Fig. 1. Conventionally bagasse is sold in the market or has its use as a fuel for the boilers. Another by-
product molasses, is utilized by the distilleries as source of feedstock to produce ethanol. In this work, both

669
bagasse surplus and molasses is used as a feedstock source to produce ethanol.

Fig. 1. Flowsheet of integrated sugar mill and second generation ethanol producing facility

The surplus bagasse from the sugar mills is sent as a feed to the second generation ethanol facility, where it is
processed by a series of operations to synthesize ethanol. Bagasse is initially pre-hydrolysed using a dilute
sulphuric acid solution at moderate conditions (between 100°C–150°C). This reaction specifically attacks the
hemicellulosic portion of the polysaccharides, which as a consequence increases the recovery of cellulose. A
fraction of hemicellulose, in this step, gets decomposed into xylose, which is later co-fermented with glucose
obtained after enzymatic hydrolysis to ethanol. A conversion of 81.4% is maintained for hemicellulose
converting to pentose, and decomposition by 1.8% and 1.4% to furfural and acetic acid, respectively is assumed
[25]. About 1.7% of the hemicellulose fraction gets converted to glucose, which is a by-product obtained in this
acid hydrolysis process. The prehydrolysed reaction mixture is then mixed with a 40 wt% aqueous ethanol
solution at a rate of 5 m3/Mg of feed. This step constitutes the pretreatment step, which is represented by
block B3 in Fig. 1. This pretreatment reaction frees the lignocellulosic matrix of lignin and residual
hemicellulose, thereby making cellulose more susceptible to the enzymatic attacks (represented as B4 in Fig. 1).
The present work uses a SHCF (Separate Hydrolysis and Co-Fermentation) configuration, represented as B4 in
Fig. 1, to synthesize ethanol. Following enzymatic hydrolysis, as mentioned above glucose and xylose are co-
fermented in a fermentor, block B5 indicates the fermentor in the assumed superstructure. Lignin, obtained as a
by-product from organosolv pretreatment, is utilized both as a source of boiler feed and as a raw material for
vanillin and syringaldehyde. Lastly, the concentration of ethanol following SHCF step is accomplished by a
combination of distillation and dehydration step.

3. Optimization Model Formulation

An optimization model was formulated using a flowsheet superstructure demonstrated in the previous section.
The mass and energy balances for each of the process configurations constituted the constraints of the
optimization model. Data pertaining to different process parameters such as raw material requirement, yield,
efficiency, were taken from literature. Apart from mass and heat balances, the model also incorporates the
economics and equipment costing models for the developed model. The model in particular consists of three
types of constraints, which are as follows:

 Mass based constraints

 Energy based constraints
 Cost based constraints

3.1. Mass balance constraints

670
These constraints utilize the input/output mass balances of the various processing units demonstrated in the
flowsheet, shown in Fig. 1. A brief description of few important mass balance constraints governing the model
are considered below:

x1  x 2  total bagasse (1)

where, x1 is the amount of bagasse (in Mg/hr) channeled as a feed to boiler, while x2 is the amount of bagasse
(in Mg/hr) that goes for ethanol production. The lignin produced in organosolvent delignification is divided into
three possible streams.

x3  x 4  x5  total lignin (2)

where, x3 is the amount of lignin (in Mg/hr) going to boiler, x4 is the amount of lignin (in Mg/hr) going for
vanillin production, while x5 is the amount of lignin (in Mg/hr) that gets sent to market. The quantity of
sugarcane trash available for energy production is modeled as:

x6  η*trash per Mg of cane*Feed (3)

where,  represents the trash recovery efficiency. The present work assumes 50% trash recovery efficiency (i.e.
 = 0.5), where the trash considered usually constitutes 14% of stalk mass. x6 is the amount of trash (in Mg/hr)
that gets assigned for energy production in boiler.

3.2. Energy balance constraint

For a facility to be energetically self-sustaining, it is crucial that the heat demands of the various processing
units in that facility gets satisfied. Eqn. 4 represented below, illustrates one such energy constraint, wherein
bagasse, lignin, and trash are used to supply the heat requirements of the integrated facility.

This important energy balance constraint ensured that the total required energy demand of the integrated facility
was provided through the available raw materials (bagasse, lignin or trash). This was modeled as follows:

Cp1*x1  Cp3 *x3  Cp6 *x6  Q1  x2 *Q2 (4)

where, Cp1 , Cp3 and Cp6 are the values of heat of combustions for bagasse, lignin, and trash, respectively. Q1 is
the assumed energy demands (in kW) of sugar processing mill, while Q2 is the assumed energy (in kW/Mg)
demand of second generation ethanol production facility.

3.3. Cost constraint:

These constraints account the project and operating cost of the various entities described in the flowsheet
(shown in Fig.1). A brief description of few important cost based constraints governing the model is considered
below:

The fixed cost of an equipment or a process configuration is either estimated by Aspen Economic
Analyzer or on the basis of linearized cost expression represented below:

x65  Eth _ Capex _ Slope * x32  Eth _ Capex _ Intercept * Y111 (5)

where, x65 represents the overall CAPEX cost for a second generation ethanol facility, x32 is amount of bagasse
that gets assigned to the pretreatment step, and Y111 is the binary variable ( Y111 {0,1} ) associated to the second
generation facility. Here, Y111  1 indicates the selection of a second generation ethanol facility, while
Y111  0 indicates that no second generation ethanol facility is selected.

671
Eth _ Capex _ Slope on the other hand, indicates the slope of the linearized equation to estimate the CAPEX
price of ethanol producing facility, and Eth _ Capex _ Intercept illustrates the intercept of the corresponding
equation.

x78  Fannual * f Sulphuric Acid * CSulphuric Acid * x14 (6)

where, Fannual represents the annual expenses due to the procurement of dilute sulphuric acid (H 2SO4 ) for
pretreatment and prehydrolysis steps, f Sulphuric Acid indicates the coefficient which annualizes the hourly cost to
yearly costs, CSulphuric Acid indicates the concentration of sulphuric acid in its solution, and lastly, x14 indicates
the amount of H2SO4 used for both pretreatment and prehydrolysis processes.

3.4. Objective function:

The objective function was the maximization of the annual profit for the optimal flowsheet configuration.

Maximize z  SP * x  T.P.C

i
i i (7)

th
where, z is the annual profit, SPi is the selling price of i commodity (including ethanol and other value added
by-products), xi is the quantity (in tonnes/hour) of that commodity, and T.P.C is the total production cost.

The profit (optimal solution) variations were studied as a function of changing BESP ethanol prices. The results
of the simulations determined the break even selling price (BESP) of ethanol at which the profit is zero.
Screening of an optimal design is based on the values of BESP, which in practice favors a process configuration
with lower BESP values. A lower BESP values credits better cost-based competitiveness to the ethanol
produced from the biorefinery. BESP of ethanol in this study is considered an important design parameter.

4. Results

4.1. Base case

Given the importance of process integration and optimization in improving the feasibility of a process, an
optimization model based approach was adopted to analyze the effect of different process configurations on the
process's feasibility. For the base case conditions, the present work utilized an integrated facility (sugar mill and
ethanol production facility) which received a 50000 kg/hr of sugarcane feedstock. Fig. 1. shows the different
unit operations assumed for the base case. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation was
implemented to optimize the allocation of bagasse, in such a way that it maximizes the profit of the facility.
Relevant data pertaining to process parameters such as raw material requirement, yield, efficiency were obtained
from literature. To compensate for the bagasse that goes to the boiler as a fuel source, the model utilized lignin
and trash. The base case condition, however did not considered the use of lignin to synthesize vanillin and
syringaldehyde. Sucrose obtained after sugarcane processing was sold in the market. Feasibility assessment of
the base case condition was performed by Break Even analysis method, wherein Break Even Selling Price
(BESP) was used as an economic indicator. BESP is the minimum assigned selling price of ethanol at which the
net overall profit becomes zero, as described in Eq. 6.

Total fixed cost

BESP   variable cost per unit (8)
Volume of production

4.2. Base Case Results

The results from the base case conditions indicated a BESP value of 165.65 Rs/litre, which is comparatively
much higher than the market price of conventional fuels [24]. Fig. 2 indicates the point of BESP where the total
net revenue becomes zero. With base case assumptions, about 68.4 % of the total available sugarcane bagasse
gets allocated to the second generation ethanol production facility, while the remaining goes to boiler. Since, the

672
base case assumption did not include the production of vanillin and syringaldehyde, almost all of the lignin gets
assigned to the boiler. Table 1 illustrates the values of few important variables in an optimized configuration.

Fig. 2. Comparison of Profit (in Rs) with selling price of ethanol

Table 1: Key variables values obtained at breakeven point

Variable Value (in tons/hr)
Bagasse to pre-treatment 41.89
Bagasse to boiler 19.33
Lignin to boiler 11.34
Lignin sold 0
Lignin to vanillin 0
Trash utilized 34.84
Ethanol produced 32.43

To investigate the impact of lignin and trash integration to the base case assumption, two scenarios are
evaluated.

4.3. Scenario 1

This scenario uses the same optimization model and parameters which were implemented for the base case
conditions. Trash utilization which was the characteristics of the base case was neglected in this scenario.
Simulation of this scenario yielded a BESP of Rs 319.16/litre, which is even higher than the base case
assumptions. The present scenario indicated an allocation of 24.3 % of the total available sugarcane bagasse to
the second generation ethanol production facility, while the remaining gets assigned as a boiler feed. The model
indicated a 64.4% decrease in the bagasse that gets assigned to second generation ethanol production facility
from the base case. The relative quantity of lignin that gets assigned to boiler, is however, lower than those
values represented in the base case conditions. This however, can be explained by the lower specific combustion
values of lignin than bagasse. These findings, thereby underlines the importance of process integration of trash
as a fuel source to boiler. Table 2 compares the optimized values of the key variables obtained for this case with
the base case.

Table 2: Comparison of the key variable values of scenario 1 with base case
Variable Base Case (With Trash) Scenario 1 (Without Trash)
Bagasse to pre-treatment 41.89 14.88
Bagasse to boiler 19.33 46.35
Lignin to boiler 11.34 4.03
Lignin sold directly 0 0
Lignin to vanillin 0 0
Trash utilized 34.84 0

673
 Ethanol produced 32.43 16.12

4.4. Scenario 2

The present scenario, similar to scenario 1, uses the same optimization model and parameters which were
implemented for the base case conditions. Unlike the case of Acid Pretreatment, lignin obtained as a by-product
from the organosolvent reaction is free of sulphur. This makes it an efficient fuel for boiler. Simulation of this
scenario yielded a BESP of Rs 188.34/litre, which is though higher than the base case assumptions, the overall
difference is not that significant. The present scenario indicated an allocation of 57.02 % of the total available
sugarcane bagasse to the second generation ethanol production facility, and the remaining goes to boiler. The
model based indicated a decrease of 16.66 % decrease of the bagasse that gets assigned to second generation
ethanol production facility. This difference was attributed to the assumption wherein the lignin gets sold in the
market as value added product. Table 3 compares the values of the key variables obtained for this case with the
base case.

Table 3: Comparison of the key variables values of scenario 2 with base case
Variable Base Case (lignin to boiler) Scenario 2 (not sending lignin to boiler)
Bagasse to pre-treatment 41.89 34.91
Bagasse to boiler 19.33 26.32
Lignin to boiler 11.34 0
Lignin sold directly 0 9.45
Lignin to vanillin 0 0
Trash utilized 34.84 34.84
Ethanol produced 32.43 28.21

4.5. Sensitivity Analysis

Sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the impact of changes in trash utilization and costs of different
chemicals (NaOH, H2SO4, ethanol-organosolvent, yeast, and cellulase) upon Break Even Selling Price (BESP)
of ethanol. The present work incorporates a 30% variation in the actual values of trash recovery efficiency,
and the cost of different chemicals.
Fig. 3 illustrates the variation of Break Even Selling Price (BESP) with the variations in trash. A 30%
variation in the trash recovery efficiency is considered to measure its effect on BESP. The sensitivity study
indicated that with a 5% decrease in trash recovery efficiency the BESP values of ethanol increases by
approximately 2.36 %. values.

Fig. 3. Variation of BESP of ethanol (in Rs) with % Change in trash recovery efficiency

Fig. 4 represents the extent of variation in the BESP due to the variations in the cost price of different raw
materials. Among all the raw materials whose costs are included in the sensitivity analysis, the cost of ethanol
has much more impact on BESP. Fluctuations in the prices of Yeast and cellulase do contribute to a certain

674
extent upon BESP, but not as significantly as the price of ethanol. These findings suggested in adopting a better
utilization method for organosolvent, since ethanol constitutes 40% of its composition [4]. In contrast to these
findings, NaOH price variations has very less effect on BESP.

Fig. 4. Variation of BESP of ethanol (in Rs) with % Change in cost of raw materials

Fig. 5 represents the variation in the BESP values of ethanol due to the variations in the glucose conversion. The
present analysis highlights the importance of glucose conversion on the overall feasibility of the facility (sugar
mill integrated to second generation ethanol facility). Though the optimization model utilizes xylose and
molasses, in addition to glucose, to synthesize ethanol, their effect on the BESP is not as significant. The study
indicated an average change of 8.6 % for a 20% change in glucose conversion values.

Fig. 5. Variation of BESP of ethanol (in Rs) with % Change in glucose conversion

5. Conclusion

The work evaluated the economic viability of a sugarcane facility that is integrated to a second generation
ethanol producing facility. Break Even Analysis method was utilized to access the economic feasibility of the
integrated facility. The method accesses the changes in Break Even Selling Price (BESP) of ethanol to compare
and validate between different process configurations. The results from the base case indicated a BESP value of
ethanol to be 165.65 Rs/litre. This BESP value of ethanol is comparatively much higher than the market price of
conventional fuels. Hence, for lignocellulosic ethanol to emerge as an effective alternative to conventional fuel a

675
much more efficient process integration and optimization technologies have got to be adopted. The
extrapolation of base case conditions to the two scenarios i.e. Scenario 1 and Scenario 2 (as described in the
previous section) already ascertains the impact of trash and lignin integration upon the economic viability of the
integrated facility. A drop of 64.4 % is seen for scenario 1, wherein the utilization of trash as a energy source is
neglected, while a drop of 16.66 % is seen in scenario 2, wherein the use of lignin as an energy source is
neglected. Among the two scenarios the effect of trash on BESP value is more significant.
Sensitivity analysis performed with respect to the cost of different raw materials (ethanol, cellulase, yeast,
H2SO4, and NaOH) indicated expenses due to ethanol to be much more sensitive to the BESP values of ethanol.
These findings suggests of efficient utilization method for organosolvent pretreatment, since ethanol constitutes
40% of its composition. The price variations in yeast and cellulases have overall less significant impact on the
overall BESP values of ethanol. In addition to the cost based sensitivity analysis, BESP dependence upon the
glucose conversion values is also verified. The study indicated an average change of 8.6 % for a 20% change in
glucose conversion values. These findings indicate a strong dependence of BESP value of ethanol with changes
in glucose conversion values.

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 ICAER-2015

Numerical Study of Latent Heat Storage System for ORC-based Solar

Thermal Power Plant for Extension of Electricity Generation
Asmita Shinde, Sandip Kumar Saha*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-
400076, INDIA.

Abstract

Latent Heat Thermal energy storage (LHTES) system plays an important role to reduce the gap between energy supply and
demand. It also improves the thermal efficiency of solar energy storage system. In the present study, shell and tube heat
exchanger is considered for the design of Latent heat thermal energy storage system using phase change material (PCM) for
Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) based solar thermal plant for extending the electricity generation after sunset. The PCM
(A164) is filled in shell side and heat transfer fluid (Hytherm 600) is in tube side. As the thermal conductivity of HTF is low,
which results in high thermal resistance, fins are attached to inner wall of the HTF tube to enhance heat transfer. Also PCM
possesses high energy density but low thermal conductivity, hence there is a need to use thermal conductivity enhancers to
enhance heat transfer within PCM. There are several ways to improve heat transfer in PCM, however in the present study,
fins are chosen for improving the heat transfer. The study numerically investigates the solidification of PCM using enthalpy
technique. Different parametric cases are studied to evaluate their effect on the thermal performance of PCM-based thermal
energy storage system, such as fin thickness, fin height, number of fins. It is found that fin length and number of fins play a
significant role on the outlet HTF temperature during the solidification process.
Keywords: Organic Rankine Cycle; Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage; Solidification; Phase Change Material; Liquid fraction.

1. Introduction

In recent years, the effective utilization of latent heat thermal energy storage system and development of new
PCM in the range of 120 – 300 ⁰C solar applications are the active research areas. The latent heat thermal
storage system can be used to remove the mismatch between the demand and supply of energy. The main
advantage of this system is the ability of storing a large amount of energy in relatively small volumes at a
constant transition temperature. The organic Rankine cycle (ORC)-based solar thermal power plant can be used
to produce electricity from low (temperature range < 300 °C) and medium temperature (temperature range >
300 °C) heat sources. In low temperature applications, the inlet temperature of turbine is typically ~150 °C for
working fluid R245fa.

Shell and tube heat exchanger is used for thermal energy storage system as it has high thermal efficiency [1].
In this heat exchanger, PCM is filled in the shell side and heat transfer fluid (HTF) flows through tube.
However, the major problem of PCM (organic and salts hydrate) is its low thermal conductivity, which limits its
applications. Various techniques are used to enhance the PCM thermal conductivity, like multitube heat
exchanger, insertion of metal matrix into the PCM, bubble agitation in PCM and to attach the fins in HTF tube.
In this study, fin is used as the thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE) due to convenience in manufacturing and
cost effective.

Lamberg et al. [7] presented a one-dimensional analytical model based on Neumann solution, which gives
solid-liquid interface location and temperature distribution of the fin. Analytical model is compared with the
numerical model and finally they concluded that the one-dimensional analytical solution is better than the
numerical solution. Stritih et al. [8] studied the solidification process and pointed out that it is effectively
enhanced with fins. In their case, a 40% reduction in the solidification time was achieved due to the fin
effectiveness. Rahimi [9] conducted experiment to investigate melting and solidification process considering
design and operational parametric study. Paraffin RT35 was used as a phase change material. Regin [10]
analysed the performance of the packed bed thermal energy storage system for phase change temperature
numerically. The effect of different parameters, like the Stefan number, size of the capsule, and mass flow rate

678
on melting and solidification process was studied. Author concluded that the complete melting time has reduced
due to phase transition temperature range.

Higher Stefan number plays an important role to reduce the charging time. Hosseini et al. [11]
demonstrated that the total melting time decreases if inlet HTF temperature increases. They noted that the mode
of heat transfer is a combination of conduction and convection in the molten PCM. They observed that
theoretical efficiency of the heat exchanger in discharging processes increases from 79.7% to 81.4% if inlet
HTF temperature increases from 70 to 80 ºC. Al-Abidi [12] investigated the solidification process for RT82
(PCM) numerically for thermal conductivity enhancement technique, which include the number of fins, fin
length, fin thickness and PCM unit geometry. The time to discharge the PCM is significantly affected by these
parameters. Ismail et al. [14] used numerical and experimental study for investigation of solidification of PCM
around vertically axial fins. They concluded that different parameters play a significant role in solidification
process. They found that fin length and fin number impact the solidification process significantly than fin
thickness. He and Zhang [1] analysed shell and tube performance theoretically and experimentally. Their
parametric study showed that velocity of fluid, inlet temperature and the length of flow (400 mm) gives
significant effect on the performance of output power and heat transfer. Zhang [16] investigated the melting
process numerically using internal longitudinal fins. They found that increasing number of fins, thickness and
height have a significant effect on melt fraction of latent thermal energy storage system. Velraj et al. [17]
investigated the optimization of fins with respect to number of fins, fin thickness, fin height and paraffin tube
radius numerically and experimentally. Total discharging time reduces when number of fin and paraffin tube
radius is 0.02 m and 4, respectively.

Most of the investigated work on solidification of PCM in a shell and tube heat exchanger uses two-
dimensional analysis, where the melt convection in PCM and the effect of fluid flow in HTF tube are ignored in
the length-wise direction. However, HTF flow through tube significantly affects the thermal performance of
latent heat thermal energy storage system, for which two-dimensional study is not appropriate. Therefore, the
objective of the present study is to design, develop and investigate thermal energy storage technologies using
phase change material (PCM) for a medium temperature (~ 200 ⁰C) solar thermal power plant with medium
power application (~ 200 kW). The aim is to maintain the heat exchanger inlet temperature at ~ 200 ⁰C during
the requirement of electricity generation from sunset to midnight. A164 PCM is selected as PCM as its melting
point is 168.7 °C. In the primary loop, Hytherm 600 is chosen as the HTF. Using enthalpy technique, a three-
dimensional numerical model is developed to investigate the solidification of PCM. In the present study, fins are
incorporated in PCM to enhance heat transfer. The effect of fins on the solidification process is investigated.
Different parametric cases are studied to evaluate their effect on the thermal performance of PCM-based latent
heat thermal energy storage system, such as number of fins, fin height, fin thickness.

Nomenclature
A Area (m2)
Cp Specific heat capacity (J/kg.K)
C Morphology constant
di Inner diameter of HTF flowing tube (m)
do Outer diameter of HTF flowing tube (m)
Di Inner diameter of the LHTES (m)
E Enthalpy (J/kg)
∆E Latent heat content (J/kg)
g Acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
h Heat transfer coefficient of the fluid (W/m2 K)
H Fin height (m)
k Thermal conductivity (W/m.K)
L Length of the HTF flowing tube (m)
L latent Latent heat of fusion (J/kg)
̇ Mass flow rate (kg/s)
N Number of fins
Nu Nusselt Number
P Pressure (Pa)
q″ Heat flux (W/m2)
̇ Thermal energy storage capacity (J/s)
R Resistance
Re D Reynolds number based on diameter

679
Si Source term in momentum equation (equation 10)
Se Source term in energy equation (equation 6)
t Time (s)
t discharge Discharge time
th Fin height (m)
tf Fin thickness (m)
∆t Time step (s)
T Temperature (°C)
T HTF Temperature of heat transfer fluid at outlet (°C)
T mean Fluid mean temperature (°C)
∆T Temperature difference (°C)
∆T HTF Temperature difference between HTF1 and HTF2 (°C)
U Velocity (m/s)
V Volume of the Storage tank (m3)
Greek symbols
β Thermal expansion (K-1)
λ Liquid fraction
μ Dynamic viscosity (kg/m.s)
ρ Density (kg/m3)
α Thermal diffusivity (mm2/s)
η Efficiency
Subscripts
c Corrected
f fin
final Final
HTF Heat transfer fluid
in Inlet
ini Initial
l Liquid
liquidus Liquidus temperature
o Overall
out Outlet
m Melting
PCM Phase Change Material
ref Reference value
s Solid
solidus Solidus temperature

2. Design of Latent Heat thermal energy storage system

In the present study, shell and tube heat exchanger is considered for the design of thermal energy storage
system using phase change material (PCM) for Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) based solar thermal plant for
extending the electricity generation after sunset. Organic phase change material (A164) is filled in the shell and
the heat transfer fluid (Hytherm 600) flows inside the inner tube. The melting temperature of the PCM is 167.8
⁰C. The thermophysical properties of the PCM and heat transfer fluid (HTF) are listed in table 1. The thermal
conductivity of HTF (0.1161 W/m.K) is lower than that of PCM (0.45 W/m.K), which means HTF offers higher
thermal resistance than PCM. Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the Latent Heat of thermal energy storage
system (LHTES). If the discharging period is t discharge , therefore the thermal energy storage capacity � ̇ �of
LHTES containing PCM can be calculated as,

̇ ℎ = 𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑙 (1)

In the above equation, the latent heat of fusion ( 𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑙 ) is only considered as the outlet temperature of HTF can
be stabilized during phase change of PCM. The inner diameter (D i ) of the LHTES can be found as,

(2)
4
𝑖𝑖 =� + 𝑖𝑖
2
𝜋𝜋

680
Table 1: Thermophysical properties of PCM (A164), HTF (Hytherm 600), SS316 and Quartz sand.

Material ρ C p (J/kgK) k L latent Tm µ β

(kg/m3) (W/m.K) (kJ/kg) (°C) (kg/ms) (K-1)

Hytherm 600 720.9 3097.4 0.116 - - 0.0195 -

A164 1500 2013.3 0.45 249.7 168.7 0.0063 0.0015

SS316 8030 502.48 16 - - - -

Quartz sand 2650 732.7 8.4 - - - -

In the present analysis, the discharging period � ℎ � is taken as 3600 s. The inner diameter (d i ) of pipe
through which HTF is flowing is taken as 0.0104 m (standard diameter) with the outer diameter (d o )
corresponds to 0.0137 m. For simplicity, the thickness of the pipe is neglected and the inner diameter of pipe is
considered in the calculations. Therefore the inner diameter of LHTES can be calculated from equation (2), if
V PCM and L are known. To calculate the dimensions of LHTES, the following expression is written by
considering the energy balance between HTF and PCM as shown in fig. 1,

� 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 − ℎ 𝑡𝑡 , � � ℎ 𝑡𝑡 , − 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 � (3)

̇
ℎ 𝑔𝑔 𝑒𝑒 = ̇ ( 𝑜𝑜 − 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 )= =
1
� � � �
ℎ
2

For given ℎ = 1100 ℎ , for 1 hr of storage and inlet HTF temperature ( 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 ) of 30 °C, the mass flow
rate of HTF is found as 0.00256 kg/s for T out = 168.7 °C. The resistance (R HTF ) of the heat transfer fluid (HTF)
can be found as,

1 1 0.629 (4)
= = =
ℎ 𝑖𝑖 ( 𝜋𝜋 )

The Nusselt number (Nu) for the HTF is taken as 4.36 for constant surface heat flux � 𝑠𝑠 " � as the flow is laminar
( = 16.09). Therefore, the resistance per unit length is R HTF = 0.629 from equation (4). Similarly, the
resistance of PCM (R PCM ) can be determined as,

4 (5)
� + 2
�� ��
ln � �
= =
2 ( 𝜋𝜋 ) 2 ( 𝜋𝜋 )

PCM

Tin Tout
HTF Di
di
Tmean
L/2
y

Thtf,o
PCM

z Tsurface
L

Fig.1. Cylindrical Latent hear thermal energy storage unit

681
In the above equation, equation (2) is substituted in place of D i . In the calculation, it is assumed that R HTF >R PCM
by considering the effective thermal conductivity of PCM as 2 W/m.K, as the objective of the present study is to
enhance the thermal conductivity of PCM. The fluid mean temperature in equation 3 can be calculated for
constant surface heat flux � 𝑠𝑠 " � as,

𝑜𝑜 + 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 (6)
𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 � �=
2 2

By trial and error method, the length of the LHTES is found as 11.2 m for a single pass from equation (3)
assuming 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 168.7 °C .The outer diameter of LHTES is obtained as 26.86 mm.
2.1 LHTES length with fins in HTF side
The length of LHTES can be reduced by incorporating fins in the inner pipe through which HTF flows.
As the thermal conductivity of HTF is low, the thermal resistance of HTF is high. Hence, there is a need to
enhance heat transfer from HTF, which can be obtained by following ways, viz. (i) increase in surface area, (ii)
laminar to turbulent flow regime. The second option is not possible for thermic oil. Hence the surface area of
heat transfer is increased by addition of fins on the inner wall of the HTF pipe, thereby reducing the thermal
resistance of HTF (R HTF ). The fins are made of SS316.
Therefore the resistance of HTF can be found by calculating the overall fin resistance, which is given as,

1 (7)
𝑓𝑓 , =
ℎ 𝑡𝑡

The overall fin efficiency can be determined as,

𝑓𝑓 (8)
η = [1 − (1 − 𝑓𝑓 )�
𝑡𝑡

where heat transfer coefficient of the HTF is found as 48.67 W/m2K, A t = fin surface area + exposed portion of
base = A t = NA f + A b , N = number of fins , A f = fin surface area = (2H c L) and A b = exposed portion of base =
(πd i L) – (Nt f L). Therefore, the total surface area can be calculated as,

= [(2 ) + ( ) – ( 𝑁𝑁 )] (9)

where the fin efficiency is given by,

𝑡𝑡 ℎ( 𝑐𝑐 ) (10)
𝑓𝑓 =
𝑐𝑐

To approximate the convective fin tip as insulated one, the corrected fin height (H c ) can be written as,

𝑓𝑓 (11)
𝑐𝑐 = +
2

where H is the fin height. In equation (10), m is calculated as,

ℎ (12)
=�
𝑓𝑓 𝑐𝑐

where mH c is taken as 0.31. P = 2 (length of fin + thickness of fin) = 2 (L f +t) = 2 L f as t« L f for slender fin. The
thickness of a fin is taken as (t f ) 0.001 m.
In the present work, the total number of fins is chosen as 6. Therefore, the length of LHTES is reduced
to 6.1 m for a single pass with the addition of fins. For multipass of HTF pipes in LHTES, the length of the
LHTES is estimated as 0.8 m for 7 parallel HTF tubes and the outer diameter is found as 99.5 mm. However, in
numerical simulations, slightly higher outer diameter is taken (110 mm) to accommodate thermal conductivity
enhancers (TCEs). Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of the LHTES with fins inside HTF tubes.

682
3. Description of physical problem
The latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTES) consists of multiple tubes enclosed by a
cylinder as shown in fig. 2 (a). It is basically a shell and tube heat exchanger where the HTF flows through the
tubes and the shell side contains PCM. One HTF tube is placed at the centre of LHTES and it is surrounded by
another six tubes located equally distant (i.e. 60°) on the pitch circle diameter (PCD) of 37 mm. The schematic
diagram of the numerical domain is shown in fig. 2(a) along with boundary conditions, the numerical domain of
L =800 mm and the inner diameter (D i ) of LHTES is taken as 110 mm which is greater than calculated one to
accommodate the fins as a thermal conductivity enhancer. The LHTES is divided into six symmetrical parts and
to analyse heat transfer and fluid flow, one symmetrical segment is chosen as the numerical domain to reduce
the computational cost. The gravity acts in the direction of fluid flow through HTF tubes as shown in fig. 2 (b).
The centrally located HTF tube is designated as HTF1 and another one, which is located at a distance from the
HTF1 tube, is named as HTF2.

Direction of flow

z 800

All dimensions are in mm

(b) Side View

(a) Front View
Fig. 2. (a) Front view and (b) Side view of the LHTES with fins inside the HTF tubes

4. Numerical modelling of phase change with fins

As two-dimensional model of cross-section of LHTES is insufficient to capture the flow and heat transfer
behaviour along the length, three-dimensional model is considered in the present numerical study. Enthalpy
method (Brent et al. 1988, Voller and Prakash, 1987) is used to study the phase change behaviour during
solidification of PCM in the shell and tube heat exchanger. Appropriate assumptions for solidification of PCM
are made in the numerical modelling, viz. (i) flow is considered unsteady, laminar, Newtonian and
incompressible, (ii) the effect of natural convection during solidification is considered by invoking the
Boussinesq approximation which is valid for the density variations in buoyancy term, otherwise they are
neglected, (iii) thermophysical properties of the HTF and PCM are assumed to be constant over a range of
temperature. Accordingly, the continuity, momentum and energy equations using the single domain approach
are written as,
Conservation of mass:

𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 (13)
+ ∇. � 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 �=0
𝜕𝜕

Conservation of momentum:

� 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 � (14)
+ ∇. � 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 � = −∇ + ∇. (�∇ ) + 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 + 𝑖𝑖
𝜕𝜕

Conservation of energy:

( ) (15)
+ ∇. ( 𝜌𝜌 ) = ∇. ( ∇ ) + 𝑒𝑒
𝜕𝜕

For fins, S e = 0, as these absorb only sensible heat. The source term ( 𝑒𝑒 ) in equation 5 is written as,

683
 ( Δ ) (16)
𝑒𝑒 = + ∇. ( Δ )
𝜕𝜕

where ∆E is the latent heat content. In this definition,

∆ = 0 for ≤ 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (17)

= 𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑙 for 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 ≥ ≥ 𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 (18)

In case of pure material, for isothermal phase change, T solidus = T liquidus = T m . The liquid fraction that occurs
during phase change can be determined as,

∆ (19)
=
𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑙

Source term, S i in the momentum equation (equation 4), is defined as,

(1 − )2 (20)
𝑖𝑖 =− 3 + 𝑒𝑒

where C is a morphological constant whose value is sufficiently large (~108) and e is a computational constant
to avoid division by zero.
4.1 Boundary and Initial condition
Initially, PCM is at liquid state (λ = 1) and the initial temperature (at t =0) of the PCM is considered as 168.8
°C, for conservative analysis.

1. At inlet: ̇ = ̇ 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 and = 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 (11)

2. At outlet: 𝜕𝜕 𝜕𝜕 (12)
= 0 and =0

"
3. At walls: No slip (𝑈𝑈 = 0) and adiabatic conditions ( = 0) (13)

A commercial software ANSYS Fluent 14 (FLUENT Manual, 2012) is used to solve the governing
equations. The governing equations are solved iteratively using finite volume method (FVM) according to the
SIMPLE algorithm (Patankar, 1980). Coefficients in the momentum and energy equations are calculated by the
power law. The convergence criterion for continuity and momentum equations is set as 10-3, whereas it is 10-6
for the energy equation. Details of the numerical formulation can be found elsewhere (Nayak et al., 2006).
4.2 Validation
The present two-dimensional numerical model is developed to analyse the solidification process of the PCM
with experimental result reported by Al-Abidi et al., 2013. Water was used as a HTF and RT82 was used as
PCM. Melting temperature range of PCM is 70 to 82 °C, PCM was filled in a triplex tube heat exchanger with
internal fins. To calculate the temperature of PCM at the entrance fifteen thermocouples were used in the
experiment. The initial condition of PCM was 93 °C. The HTF temperature was maintained at 68 °C in
experiments. In this solidification occurs from both the HTF tubes. Fig. 3 shows the variation in average PCM
temperature at the entrance of HTF tube with time. It can be observed from the figure that an excellent
agreement between the present numerical result and reported experimental results.
4.3 Grid independence study
In a numerical analysis, grid or meshing forms a very crucial aspect of any geometry, hence the grid
dependence study is conducted to identify the appropriate grid size to be used in the numerical simulation. Three
different grid sizes are chosen, viz. i) coarse, ii) fine and iii) finer grid keeping time step (Δt) constant (0.1 s).
For fine grid, the number of nodes in the numerical domain is 791012. In other cases, the number of control
volumes is changed by a factor of 2 compared to the fine grid. At 3600 s the HTF outlet temperature of HTF 1
are 126.2, 127.2 and 128 °C for coarse, fine and finer grids. It can be observed that the difference of outlet HTF

684
temperature between fine and finer grid is less (0.63%) than coarse and fine grid (0.8%). Hence, fine grid size is
selected for further Numerical simulation.
95

Average Temperature
90 Present Model
85 Experimental (Al-Abidi et al.,2013)

(°C)
80
75
70
65
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time(s)

Fig. 3. Validation of the present numerical model with the experimental results reported by Al-Abidi et al., 2013

5. Result and Discussion

5.1 Thermal Performance of LHTES system filled with PCM and Quartz
Numerical study of the LHTES system is performed to investigate its thermal performance. PCM (A164)
and Quartz are considered for the numerical simulation. Quartz is used as a storage medium that stores energy in
the form of sensible heat and PCM (A164) store heat in the form of latent heat. LHTES system is initially at
168.8 °C which is above the melting temperature of PCM. The inlet temperature of heat transfer fluid (HTF) is
30 °C for solidification process. Fig. 4(a) shows that the outlet HTF temperature decreases faster with time in
case of quartz than PCM. The temperature difference at the end of the solidification at the outlet of storage is
more in case of quartz (123.67 °C) compared to PCM (41.63 °C). Hence, it can be concluded that the PCM can
be effectively used to stabilize fluctuations in the incoming HTF temperature.
5.2 Addition of TCE in the form of fins in LHTES System
Thermal conductivity of PCM is low which affects the heat transfer rate and this limits the potential
application of LHTES. Addition of fins to the PCM side of the LHTES system is an effective way to enhance
the heat transfer rate in the LHTES system. Finned tube are incorporated in the LHTES to improve the effective
thermal conductivity of PCMs. Twelve longitudinal fins are added to PCM on the outer diameter of HTF tubes
to improve the heat transfer from the PCM. Fig. 4(b) shows the temporal variation in HTF temperature at the
outlet for LHTES with and without fins. The HTF temperature at the outlet are 127.2 and 140.49 °C for LHTES
with no fin and 12 fins of thickness 1.2 mm and fin height of 7 mm, respectively, at 3600 s. Hence addition of
fins augments heat transfer in PCM, as a result of that, uniformity in temperature distribution is maintained.

170 170
150
Temperature (°C)

160
Temperature (°C)

130
110 150
HTF1:Quartz
90 140 HTF1:No fin
HTF2:Quartz
70 HTF2:No fin
HTF1:PCM
130 HTF1:12 fin
50 HTF2:PCM HTF2:12 fin
30 120
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time(s) Time(s)

(a (b)

Fig. 4. (a) HTF outlet temperature for Quartz and PCM as a storage material, (b) variation of HTF outlet temperature with time for no fin
and 12 fins of thickness 1.2 mm and height 7 mm.

5.3 Parametric studies

In the present section, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of number of fins, fin
thickness, fin height and the effect of number of fins for a given volume fraction of thermal conductivity
enhancer (TCE) on the HTF outlet Temperature. The number of fins is varied as 6, 12 and 24. The fin thickness

685
and height are chosen as 1.2 and 7 mm, respectively. Fig. 5 (a) shows that temporal variation in heat transfer
fluid (HTF) temperature at the outlet for different number of fins during the solidification of PCM. As number
of fins increases, the outlet HTF temperature (T HTF ) increases to 138.17, 140.48, 143.23 °C respectively for fin
number of 6, 12 and 24, during solidification. Hence, the addition of fins improves the effective thermal
conductivity of PCM and enhance heat transfer rate.
The effect of fin thickness is studied on the thermal performance of LHTES for given fin number and fin
height. Six longitudinal fins with height of 7 mm are considered for this study for different fin thickness. Three
sizes of fin thickness are considered, viz. 1.2, 2.4, 3.6 and 4.8 mm. Fig. 5 (b) shows the variation at the outlet
HTF temperature with time for different fin thickness. As the fin thickness increases from 1.2 to 3.6, the outlet
HTF temperature increases, and reaches to 138.17, 139.74, 139.75 °C, respectively. This can be attributed to the
increase in thermal conductivity in PCM. However, in case of fin thickness 4.8 mm, the outlet HTF temperature
slightly decreases (138.52°C) which is due to reduction in PCM content in the LHTES. Hence, it can be
concluded that after specific fin thickness, the outlet HTF reduces. The fin height is varied as 1.75, 3.5 and 7
mm, keeping the thickness and number of fins constant, i.e. 1.2 mm and 6 fins, respectively to study its effect on
the thermal performance of LHTES.
Fig. 5 (c) shows the HTF temperature at the outlet with time for different fin height. The HTF temperature
increases with increasing fin height. It shows the significant influence of the fin height on the solidification
process.
The effect of number of fins for a given volume fraction of thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE) on the
HTF outlet temperature are investigated. The volume fraction of TCE is kept constant at 12.4%. Five cases are
studied keeping fin height and fin length constant at 7 and 800 mm, viz. (i) 6 fins, 1.2 mm thickness, (ii) 12 fins,
thickness 0.6 mm, and (iii) 24 fins, fin thickness 0.3 mm, (iv) 36 fins, fin thickness 0.2 mm and (v) 48 fins, fin
thickness 0.15 mm. Fig. 5 (d) shows the temporal variation of HTF temperature at outlet for five different cases.
It can be observed from the figure that there is slight difference in HTF outlet temperature if the number of fin is
increased from 6 to 48 with reduction in fin thickness. The corresponding liquid fractions at 3600 s are 0.13,
0.12, 0.1, 0.1 and 0.09. This can be attributed to increase in solidification sites due to more number of thin fins,
although the thermal resistance of LHTES remains same.

170 170
Temperature (°C)

Temperature (°C)

160 160

150 150 1.2 mm

6 fin
2.4 mm
12 fin
140 140 3.6 mm
24 fin
4.8 mm
130 130
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s) Time (s)

(a) (b)

170
170
160
Temperature (ºC)

160
6 fins, 1.2mm
Temperature (°C)

150 150 12 fins, 0.6mm

1.75mm
140 140 24 fins, 0.3mm
3.5mm
36 fins, 0.2mm
130 7mm 130
48 fins, 0.15mm
9mm
120
120
600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600 Time (s)
Time (s)

(c) (d)

Fig. 5. (a) Variation of HTF1 outlet temperature with time for number of fins (b) Variation of HTF outlet temperature with time for different
fin thicknesses (c) Variation of HTF outlet temperature with time for different fins height with 1.2 mm fin thickness and 6 number of fins
(d) Effect of number of fins for a given volume fraction of thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE) on the HTF outlet temperature

686
Conclusion
Latent Heat Thermal energy storage (LHTES) is essential for extending the electricity generation after
sunset, as there is no sun radiation. Latent heat storage through phase change material (PCM) is a superior way
of storing the energy because of its high energy density per unit volume. An elemental PCM-based LHTES is
designed analytically for storing 1100 W for an hour. A numerical model using enthalpy technique is used to
characterize LHTES system. Parametric studies are performed to investigate the effect of various parameters viz.
fin width, fin height, number of fins on temporal variation of exit temperature of HTF. Simulated result shows
that these geometrical parameters play a significant role on the solidification process. The temperature
distribution is improved using thermal conductivity enhancer, which enhances the heat transfer rate in PCM.
The heat transfer rate increases with increase in fin width, fin height and number of fins.
Acknowledgement
This work is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), INDIA through the scheme
number: DST/TM/SERI/2k12/59(G).
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multitube heat transfer array, Renew. Energy 35 (2010) 198–207.
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PCM thermal storage system, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 50 (2014) 128–136.
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solidification in a triplex tube heat exchanger with internal and external fins, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 61
(2013) 684–695.
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 ICAER-2015

Comparison Study of Aqua-Ammonia and LiBr-Water Solar

Cooling Cogeneration Cycle
Shankar. R 1* and T. Srinivas2
1, 2
Energy Division, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore. Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Cooling needs are increasing rapidly at hot climatic countries with increased global warming. Some commercial
units and industries need more amount of cooling than the power such as cold storage, shopping complex etc.
The existed vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) system demands electricity for its operation which is more
expensive. The available combined power and cooling cycle (Goswami cycle) operates with ammonia-water
mixture as working fluid having low cooling due to the saturated vapor at the inlet of evaporator. It also
demands high ammonia concentration at turbine inlet to get cooling effect and suitable only at low sink
temperature (10-12 °C). In this work, a new cooling cogeneration cycle has been proposed and solved to
generate more cooling with adequate power generation from single source of heat with two options in working
fluids i.e. ammonia-water mixture and LiBr-water mixture. The resulted cycle energy utilization factor (EUF),
plant EUF, specific power, specific cooling and solar collector area are 0.27, 0.10, 15 kW, 220 kW and 10 m2/
kW for ammonia-water mixture plant and 0.82, 0.33, 25 kW, 180 kW and 3 m2/kW for LiBr-water mixture
plant respectively.

Keywords: Aqua-Ammonia, LiBr-Water, Cooling, Cogeneration, Solar thermal etc.

1. Introduction

It is difficult to erect conventional power plants to meet the increased power and cooling loads due to its
exhaustive in nature. Decentralized power system, waste heat recovery and cogeneration system etc. are the
alternative routes to solve this problem. In cooling cogeneration (common plant for power and cooling) a
considerable save in power consumption is due to generation of cooling without electrical input. It is not
possible to operate a steam power plant at low temperature heat source but steam can be generated in a low
temperature and low pressure operated by LiBr-H2O based vapor absorption refrigeration (VAR) system with a
high coefficient of performance (COP) compared to aqua ammonia mixture. If the configurations of power and
cooling are clubbed together, it is possible to generate power and cooling with low temperature heat source. This
type of integration of power and cooling increases the overall system performance. In 1984 Alexander Kalina
transferred the ammonia vapor absorption refrigeration cycle to power cycle known as Kalina cycle [1]. In
which the cycle is able to perform 50% efficiency by using low temperature geothermal brine solution of 150-
210 °C [2]. It shows maximum performance of 20% efficiency for high temperature source like turbine exhaust
gases, fired boiler etc. The first Kalina demonstration plant was implemented in Canoga Park and run
successfully. Kalina highlighted the Kalina cycle’s higher exergy efficiency, no need of maintaining the vacuum,
low operating temperature etc. Another important advantage is that having flexibility in condensing pressure
with a change in ammonia concentration. Ishida et al. [3] invented a new power cycle by modifying the LiBr-
water based VAR plant. This is a typical vapor absorption power cycle similar to Kalina cycle system which
generates the power at 300 °C of source temperature. This proves that VAR cycle working fluid is well suitable
for the power generation.

Many analyses on externally integrated power and cooling cycle in both theoretical and experimental shows
an improvement in efficiency with the integration. Xu et al. [4] modified the Kalina cycle system to achieve both
power and cooling. But it demands 0.999 ammonia concentration to get the cooling effect. In this cycle, a low
temperature of saturated ammonia vapor is obtained at the exit of the turbine and it is used for refrigeration
purpose. Srinivas and Reddy [5] developed a cooling cogeneration cycle by coupling the KCS and VAR system

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +919788197582.

E-mail address:gentlewise26@yahoo.com

688
without changing the base cycles. They divided the working fluid which is common to both power cycle and
cooling cycle to meet the demand. High turbine inlet concentration maximizes the cooling output when the
cooling requirement is high. The rectification with internal and external cooing is analyzed by Fontalvo et al. [6]
and concluded that the internal cooling reduces the irreversibility and increases both first and second law
efficiency. Jawahar et al. [7] resulted 225 kW of cooling and 80 kW power from aqua ammonia based integrated
system. They attained a maximum combined thermal efficiency of 35-45% and coefficient of about 0.35 at the
optimum conditions. Lopez-Villada et al. [8] made the simulation for the split cycle for three working pair of
NH3/H2O, NH3/LiNO3 and NH3/NaSCN with the option in split ratio. The comparison shows that the first law
efficiency is less than the Goswami cycle but having the option of choosing the power to cooling ratio and also
suitable for different absorption pair. The development performance studies of combined power and cooling
cycle working at both LiBr-water and aqua-ammonia pair is the main objective.

2. Working Principle

Fig.1 Schematic layout of common (LiBr-water and aqua-ammonia) cooling cogeneration cycle.

The common cycle for both aqua-ammonia and LiBr-water cooling cogeneration cycle is shown in the Fig.1.
The binary fluid cycle is the separation of absorbent and refrigerant at the source temperature and the mixing of
these two at sink temperature.

689
 A saturated vapor is generated in the boiler/generator and undergoes a subsequent superheating process. The
superheated vapor expands in the mixture turbine to generate power from high pressure (HP) to intermediate
pressure (IP). The IP is determined from the sink temperature. It is condensed in a condenser from wet vapor to
saturated liquid condition. The condensate liquid cools after rejecting heat to low temperature vapor at
subcooler. The subcooled liquid throttles to low temperature wet mixture. Depending upon the operational
conditions, the exit temperature of throttling may be negative or positive. Since the state is above the saturated
liquid condition, there is no practical issue of crystal formation at negative temperature for aqua-ammonia which
is severe problem in case of LiBr-water mixture. The throttled and low temperature liquid mixture can absorb
the heat from the surroundings of the evaporator coils. The evaporator exit temperature is fixed to analyze the
other operational parameters. The mixture (absorbent+refrigerant) liquid solution is pumped to HP through
solution heat exchanger. Dephlegmator is used to increase the concentration of ammonia vapor and it is not
necessary for LiBr-Water cycle. The hot fluid from solar concentrating collectors is used to generate wet vapor
and superheated vapor at generator and superheater respectively. The liquid mixture will absorb the vapor from
the evaporator due to low temperature maintained at absorber by rejecting heat to circulating water. These
processes repeat in cycle and generate power and cooling.

3. Results and Discussions

The aqua-ammonia and LiBr-Water cooling cogeneration cycle are simulated by fixing the beam and global
radiation of 700 and 960 W/m2. The separator temperature of 80-200 °C and cooling water temperature of 24-30
°C are varied and the performances are analyzed. The cycle power efficiency of the LiBr-Water cooling
cogeneration is as high as 3-13% where as it s low of 1-6.5% for aqua-ammonia cooling cogeneration cycle as
shown in the Fig. 2. The working temperature and pressure is different for both the cycle. At the low
temperature of 90 °C itself the LiBr-water cooling cogeneration cycle starts operating but high temperature of
140 °C is required for the operation of aqua-ammonia cooling cogeneration cycle due to its turbine and cooling
working pressure. At high strong solution concentration and low sink temperature the aqua-ammonia cycle will
operate at low separator temperature. The COP of the cycle should not change when it is integrated with another
cycle. Fig. 2 (b) shows the COP of the proposed cooling cogeneration cycle and it is in the range of 0.46-0.54
for the aqua-ammonia cycle and 0.74-0.82 for the LiBr-water cycle. Maximum cooing water temperature for
LiBr-water cycle is 30 °C due to requirement of low sink pressure for the cooling. Operating at high sink
temperature is made possible by increasing LiBr concentration in the water.

Fig. 2. Performance of (a). Cycle power efficiency and (b). COP of cooling cogeneration cycle

690
 Fig. 3. (a) Cycle Energy Utilization Factor and (b) Plant Energy Utilization Factor of the cooling cogeneration
cycle.
The performance of the combined power and cooling are expressed in Energy Utilization Factor (EUF) due
to two different outputs. The cycle and plant EUF are studied to find the optimum working condition of the
proposed cooling cogeneration and it is shown in the Fig.3. In case of LiBr-water working pair the cooling
output is high compared to the aqua-ammonia pair because of its high latent heat of refrigerant. Hence both the
cycle and plant EUF is high for LiBr-water working pair. Vijayaraghavan and Goswami [9] showed more than
0.25 cycle EUF and Wang et al. [10] resulted 20.45% of cycle thermal efficiency from integrated plant. The
current model results high compared to existing combined power and cooling cycle at maximum separator
temperature and concentration due to more cooling output. The cycle and plant EUF for the LiBr-water cooling
cogeneration 0.86-0.9 and 0.34-0.38 respectively are obtained and for aqua-ammonia cycle lies in the range of
0.52-0.56 of cycle EUF and 0.2-0.22 of plant EUF achieved. But both the cycle EUF increases when the cooling
water temperature/sink temperature is low.

Fig. 4 Comparisons of aqua-ammonia and LiBr-water cooling cogeneration cycle on (a) power+cooling output
and (b) area of collector.

691
 Fig. 4 (a) shows the combined power and cooling output of both aqua-ammonia and LiBr-water cooling
cogeneration cycle and Fig. 4 (b) shows the solar collector area required for the operation of the cycle with
respect to separator temperature and cooling water temperature. The cogeneration output (power+cooling)
shows increment with respect to separator temperature for both aqua-ammonia and LiBr-water mixture but is
decreased by increasing the cooing water temperature. The LiBr-water cycle will able to operate for the
separator temperature range of 80-200 °C and aqua-ammonia cycle will operate within the range of 140-180 °C.
Maximum cogeneration output of 610 kW is produced for the LiBr-water cycle at separator and cooling water
temperature of 200 and 24 °C respectively. The LiBr-water cycle will produce the cooling temperature more
than 4 °C due to its ice formation in the evaporator whereas the aqua-ammonia cycle will produce both negative
and positive cooling temperature. The solar collector area requirement for the operation for the aqua-ammonia
cogeneration cycle is less due its operating temperature range and it requires maximum of 3.3m2/kW but for the
LiBr-Water cycle more than 5m2/kW as shown in the Fig. 4(b). High separator temperature consumes more
solar collector area and it is less for low cooling water temperature for both aqua-ammonia and LiBr-Water
cooling cogeneration cycle.

Table 1. Comparisons of cooling cogeneration cycle for 100 TR of refrigeration

Aqua-Ammonia LiBr-Water
Description cogeneration cycle cogeneration cycle
Separator temperature, °C 150 150
Strong solution concentration, kg/kg 0.422 0.65
Weak solution concentration, kg/kg 0.258 0.555
Vapor fraction 30 16
Turbine concentration, kg/kg 0.883 0
Evaporator temperature, °C -7.36 6
Pump load, kW 10.61 0.04
Absorber heat load, kW 940.21 464.94
Solution heat exchanger heat load, kW 48.92 109.81
Heat load in generator, kW 1119.8 466.74
Heat load in dephlegmator, kW 128.75 ----
Heat load in superheater, kW 15.08 2.77
Condenser heat load 569.44 329.03
Sub cooler heat load, kW 8.70 6.05
Turbine power output, kW 28.95 51.16
Cooling output, kW 350.49 (100 TR) 349.85 (100 TR)
COP 0.30 0.75
Cycle power efficiency, % 2.55 11.40
Cycle Energy Utilization Factor 0.32 0.86
Plant Energy Utilization Factor 0.13 0.35

Table. 1 shows the comparisons of LiBr-water and aqua-ammonia cooling cogeneration cycle at fixed
cooling output of 50 TR with 150 °C of separator temperature and 30 °C of atmosphere temperature. More than
double of vapour fraction is required for the aqua-ammonia compared to LiBr-water working fluid for
producing the same cooling output. 15.21 kW and 26.27 kW of additional power are produced for aqua-
ammonia and LiBr-water cycles. The generator load and absorber load are high for aqua-ammonia cycle for the
same separator and cooling water temperature. The cycle EUF and plant EUF also high for the LiBr-Water
cogeneration cycle compared to the aqua-ammonia cycle whereas the evaporator temperature of aqua-ammonia
is -8 °C and for LiBr-water is 6 °C.

4. Conclusion

The comparison study of solar combined power and cooling cycle working with aqua-ammonia and LiBr-
water pair are analyzed at different cooling water temperature. The LiBr-water mixture shows better
performance in terms of power and cooling output and ammonia water mixture shows better performance in
terms of solar collector area and cooling temperature. Maximum power+cooling output of 610 and 510kW are
produced for LiBr-water and aqua-ammonia cooling cogeneration cycle respectively. Aqua-ammonia cooling
cogeneration cycle has been recommended for industrial use where the cooling requirement is below 0 °C such
as cold storage, medicine etc. LiBr-Water cooling cogeneration cycle is suggested for domestic and commercial
applications where the cooling requirement is above 0 °C such as refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Science and Engineering Research Board for financial sanction No:
SB/S3/MMER/008/2014

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 ICAER-2015

Time evolution Second Law Analysis of Latent Heat Thermal

Storage for ORC-based Solar Thermal Power Plant
Ashish Kumara, Sandip K Sahab,*
a
Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-
400076, INDIA.
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai- 400076,
INDIA.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 22 25767392; fax: +91 22 2572 6875.
E-mail address: sandip.saha@iitb.ac.in

ABSTRACT
In this paper, the second law efficiency of shell and tube latent heat thermal storage system using phase change material
(PCM) is presented. Heat transfer fluid flows through the tubes, whereas PCM is stored inside the annular space of the shell
side. As the thermal conductivity of PCM is low, metal matrix is used to increase the heat transfer rate through PCM. A
storage system will not be effective if it is not efficiently managed, especially in case of large-scale utilization like solar
thermal energy storage. At the same time, analysis of the quality of energy in a thermodynamic system is important in order
to obtain better efficiency. Second law of thermodynamics assessment of the storage system provides the quality of energy
and also helps to find the causes of irreversibility. The effect of porosity of metal matrix is evaluated to obtain entropy
generation and second law efficiency during charging and discharging process. The enthalpy technique is adopted for
modelling convection-diffusion phase change in the storage system.
Keywords: Phase change material, Thermal energy storage, Metal matrix, Second law efficiency, Solar thermal power plant

Introduction
Solar energy is one of the major sources of energy which can be used for different purposes such as
electricity generation, room heating etc. The major problem in usage is its intermittent behaviour, which
fluctuated throughout the day. Thermal energy storage system can be useful to enhance the capability of power
plant running on solar energy. Thermal storage system stores the energy when it in excess and discharges the
same when it is needed later. Although amount of energy needed to be stored determine the size of storage
system. A good storage system is that which can store large amount of energy with in low space, thus energy
storage per unit volume also plays significant role. Traditionally, energy was stored in the form of sensible heat,
which requires large volume of storage material. The storage volume can be significantly reduced if energy is
stored in the form of latent heat and thus can benefit enormously practical applications [1]. In this context, Phase
change material (PCM) is one of the effective ways to backup thermal energy in latent heat storage system
(LHTS) as PCM possesses high latent heat of melting. PCM are the substances, which melt and solidify at
almost constant temperature and also have ability of absorbing and realizing sufficiently large amount of energy
during phase change within a small temperature difference. Though PCMs have high energy density and nearly
isothermal nature of storage process, its low thermal conductivity (~0.2–0.5 W/m-k) [2] and irreversibility in
course of operation degrades the performance of the system. Therefore, it becomes important to improve the
effective thermal conductivity of PCMs. Various types of thermal conductivity enhancers are available to
enhance the heat transfer in PCM such as using shell and tube arrangement [3], finned tube configuration, metal
matrix insertion in PCM [4], PCM encapsulation [5], using PCM dispersed with high conductivity particles [6]
etc. In the present work, PCM is embedded in the porous matrix to enhance heat transfer. Among various heat
exchanger configurations, the most intensely analyzed LHTES unit is the shell and tube system, accounting for
more than 70% [7]. Mesalhy et al. [8] developed a numerical model to study the effect of adding a high thermal
conductivity matrix on the performance of the PCM based TES. They found that the heat transfer and melting
rate of the PCM energy storage augment by inserting the porous matrix in the PCM. The melting rate of PCM
can be increased by decreasing porosity of the matrix, as the conduction heat transfer is more dominant. The
thermal conductivity of metal matrix plays an important role on the response of the PCM storage. From the
literature review, it can be concluded that researchers studied various techniques for enhancing the thermal
conductivity of PCM for the low temperature application (< 100 °C). For medium or high temperature
applications (> 100°C), these enhancement techniques are required to be explored. Also there is a need for a
systematic study to evaluate the thermal performance of the phase change material (PCM) based thermal energy
storage system using the thermal conductivity enhancers.

694
 The assessment of performance and efficiency of LHTS systems is performed using law of conservation of
energy or by energy balance. Hence the performance analysis is generally based on the first law of
thermodynamics, which is used to identify the ways to improve the quantity of energy. Bejan [9] noted that the
primary purpose of a thermal energy storage system is to store useful work. Several investigations have been
found related to the estimation of second law-based performance of thermal storage system. Bejan [9]
investigated a LHTS and obtained an optimal temperature of melting and solidification at which maximum
exergy from the PCM can be extracted. Ereck and Dincer [10] performed exergy analysis and calculated global
entropy generation. Flucekiger and Garimella [11] investigated a cyclic operation of a molten-salt thermocline
tank numerically and performed second-law analysis to estimate efficiency and performance of the system.
Authors concluded that presence of external convection introduces radial temperature gradients which leads to
increased thermal diffusion (a cause of irreversibility) and hence entropy generation. Guelpa et al. [12]
performed second law analysis on a shell and tube LHTS unit and investigated the design improvement of the
system. Authors numerically solved solidification of finned and un-finned configuration. Authors studied time
evolution of entropy generation. Modification of finned arrangement is suggested to improve the second law
efficiency. However literature related to study of exergy and entropy generation with evolution of time is found
to be very rare. Accordingly, In this paper, the thermal performance of a thermal energy storage system (TES)
using phase change material (PCM) is investigated based on first law and second law of thermodynamics
numerically for the medium temperature organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based solar thermal power plant (~ 200
°C) under fluctuating inlet condition of heat transfer fluid (HTF) to the power generating unit such as turbine or
heat exchanger. A cycle comprising of charging and discharging period of 1800 s each is considered to represent
fluctuations in the inlet temperature of HTF. During charging and discharging period, the inlet temperature of
HTF is taken as (Tin) 200 and 137.4 °C, respectively. Based on the requirement of the HTF temperature to be
maintained at 168.7 ⁰C, a commercial grade organic material A164 as PCM is selected with an isothermal
melting temperature of 168.7 ⁰C. The HTF is selected as Hytherm 600. The container material is chosen as
SS316 to prevent corrosion. A numerical model taking into account of the phase change behaviour is developed
to characterize the storage system. The heat transfer enhancement of PCM with TCE in TES is further evaluated
and compared with the base case, which is, TES filled with PCM. The effect of porosity of metal foam and
matrix on the thermal performance of PCM-based TES is also investigated.
Nomenclature
a Coefficient in the discretised energy equation
A Porosity function for the momentum equations
c Specific heat, J/kg.K
d Computational constant
g Acceleration due to gravity, m/s2
h Sensible enthalpy, J/kg
k Thermal conductivity, W/m.K
L Latent heat of fusion
Ns Entropy generation number
P Effective pressure, N/m2
q Heat flux, W/m2
Sgen,local Local entropy generation
S Total entropy generation
Sb Buoyancy source term for v momentum equation
Se Source term for energy equation in terms of temperature
t Time, s
T Temperature, ˚C
U Velocity vector
V Volume
u, v Velocity component in x and y directions, m/s
x, y Coordinates
α Thermal diffusivity, m2/s
β Coefficient of volume expansion, K-1
Γ Diffusion coefficient
ΔE Nodal latent heat
Greek symbols
ε Porosity of computational cell, ∆H/ L
λ Latent heat of fusion, J/kg
µ Dynamic viscosity, kg/m.s
ρ Density, kg/m3

695
σ Entropy flux
η Efficiency
Subscripts
m Melting point
ref Reference condition
in Inlet
gen Generation
II Second law

2. Description of physical problem

The cylindrical shell and tube configuration is chosen as a basic configuration of the TES and is shown in fig.
1. The length of the configuration is taken 800m. The inner diameter (di) of 7 pipes through which HTF flows is
taken as 10.4 mm with the outer diameter (do) corresponds to 13.7 mm. For simplicity, the thickness of the pipe
is neglected and the inner diameter of pipe is considered in the calculations. The annulus is filled with PCM. A
commercial-grade organic material A164 is used as PCM and HTF is chosen as Hytherm 600. The tank is made
up of SS316. Thermophysical properties of PCM, HTF and SS 316 are mentioned in table 1. As the thermal
conductivity of HTF is low, fins are incorporated in the inner HTF pipes to enhance the heat transfer rate from
HTF to PCM. The total number of fins is taken as 6 and the thickness of a fin is considered as 1 mm.
The LHTES can be symmetrically divided in six parts. For the simulation, one symmetrical part is chosen as
the numerical domain, as shown in fig. 1, as the thermal behaviour of any symmetrical part can represent the
whole TES. The PCM is embedded in metal matrix of steel. To accommodate PCM inserted into metal matrix,
the inner diameter is taken as 100 mm. A three dimensional numerical analysis is essential for this case, as two
dimension analysis is not well enough to find the effect in the lengthwise direction. The effect is gravity is also
considered and its direction is along the direction of flow of HTF. The mass flow rate is taken as 0.00295 kg/s.
Maximum energy stored capacity of the LHTS is 285.99 W.
Table 1: Thermophysical properties of PCM (A164), HTF (Hytherm) and Stainless steel
PCM (A164) HTF (Hytherm 600) Stainless steel
cp 1485 J/kg.K 3097.4 J/kg.K 502.48 J/kg.K
ρ 2010 kg/m3 720.9 kg/m3 8030 kg/m3
k 0.425 W/m.K 0.116 W/m.K 16 W/m.K
ν - 2.70 × 10-5 m2/s -
µ 0.003 kg/ms 0.0195 kg/ms -
Llatent 272 kJ/kg - -
𝛽 0.00066 K-1 - -
Tm 166 oC - -

Numerical
Domain

All dimensions in mm

All dimensions in mm
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. (a) Front view and (b) side view of the LHTES with fins inside the HTF tubes

3. Mathematical Modeling
Numerical model of metal matrix is considered as porous media. To model the PCM embedded in metal
matrix as porous medium, volume-averaging technique is used. The enthalpy-porosity technique is used to
model the phase change and fluid flow in TES [6]. Phase change is assumed to be isothermal. Volume
averaging of mass, momentum and energy conservation equations are take in order to obtain governing partial
differential equation for assumptions such isometric porosity and single phase flow [5]. Two-energy equation
model is used to solve the energy conservation equation, as the properties of PCM and metal matrix are far

696
different. No change in properties of PCM and metal matrix during the entire course of heat transfer is assumed
also the change in volume during melting is considered negligible. The equivalent governing equations in the
vector form are given by,
Conservation of mass:
! (1)
+ ∇. ! =0
𝜕𝑡
Conservation of momentum:
1 ! 1 (2)
+ !
∇. ! = −∇ + ∇. ∇ + !
𝜕𝑡

PCM energy equation:

! !" ! (3)
+ . ! !" ! = . ! ,!"" ! + !"
𝜕𝑡
Solid matrix energy equation:
! !" ! (4)
1− = . ! ,!"" ! + !"
𝜕𝑡
For cylindrical coordinate system, V and () and . () are defined as follows:
= ! ! + ! ! + ! !
1 1
. = + +
𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝜃 𝜕𝑧
= + !
! + !
𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝜃 𝜕𝑧
In equations 12-13, ε is defined as δ×liquid fraction of PCM. The source terms (Si, STf and STs) mentioned in the
equations are presented in table 2. In table 1, ΔE in STf is defined as,
△ = 0 for T <Tsolidus (5)
(6)
△ = 0 for Tsolidus ≥ T ≥ Tliquidus
For a pure material, isothermal phase change occurs, i.e. Tsolidus = Tliquidus = Tm. When fl = 1, PCM is in fully
liquid state, and when fl = 0, PCM is in solid phase. To simulate phase change problem without porosity i.e.
TES filled with PCM, the momentum equation (equation 11) is solved by taking ε = 1 and ! = 𝜌𝑔 ! ! −
! ! ∆!
!"# , whereas in the PCM energy equation (equation 12), STf is set to − .
!"

The interfacial surface area asf and the permeability of the porous matrix (K) in table 2 are determined by
taking the following relations given by Fourier and Du Plesis [13].

3 (7)
!" = 3− −1
! !
(8)
=
36( − 1)

The relation between d and dp can be written as [9],

! 3− (9)
=

The value of dp is assumed to calculate of d. The tortuosity can be obtained as [7],

4 1 ! ! (10)
= 2 + 2𝑐𝑜 + 𝑐𝑜 ( 2 − 1)
3 3
The drag coefficient is found by the following expression [16],

10 (11)
! ,! =1+
𝑅𝑒 ! .!!"

697
 !" # (12)
where, 𝑅𝑒 =
!

The inertial coefficient (C) can be written as [11],

! .! (13)
! ,!
= (3 − )( − 1) !
24
The effective thermal conductivity (ke) of porous medium can be determined by [5],

1− 1− 1−
! + − ! − ! ! + ! − !
3 3 3 (14)
!"" =
4 1− 1−
! + 1− + − 1− ! − !
3 3 3
Table 2: Source term definitions
Sr 𝜌𝐶
− ! + !

Momentum 𝜌𝐶
Sθ
Equation − ! + !

Sz 𝜌𝐶
− ! + ! + 𝜌𝑔 ! ! − !" #

STf ∆
ℎ!" !" ! − ! − 1−
𝑑𝑡
Energy Equation STs ℎ!" !" ! − !

The density, specific heat and latent heat of the porous medium are calculated by the volume-averaged
technique [8],

= 1− + (15)
!"" ! !
(16)
𝜌𝑐 !"" = 1− ! ! + ! !

= (17)
!" #$%#,!"" !" #$%#

The interfacial heat transfer coefficient (hsf) between the PCM and the metal matrix is determined by
assuming quasi-steady heat conduction between the porous matrix and the PCM where motion of liquid phase is
neglected [14]. The Nusselt number is defined as,

!
2
ℎ!" !" ! (18)
𝑁𝑢 = =
! !
𝑙𝑛 1 − + 𝑙𝑛(1 + )
!

For small values of A and B, the relation between A and B is,

! (19)
=
!

3.1 Energy Efficiency

Efficiency is measured to quantify the effectiveness of LHTS in storing and releasing energy. Hence the
charging (melting) efficiency, discharging (solidification) efficiency, overall efficiency is the measure of
efficiency of LHTS systems. Charging efficiency can be expressed as:

!" # − !" #$
! = (20)
𝑇𝑜 𝑆𝑡 𝑎𝑔 𝑐𝑎 𝑐𝑖

While discharging efficiency is,

!" #$ − !" #
! = (21)
𝑇𝑜 𝑆𝑡 𝑎𝑔 𝑐𝑎 𝑐𝑖

698
Total energy storage capacity of PCM tank is estimated by,

= ! ( !" − !" #) (22)

where ( !" − !" #) is taken 31.3 oC for both charging and discharging process by taking melting point of PCM
as reference value.
3.2.Entropy generation analysis
Entropy is the measure of irreversibility as any irreversible process is accompanied by increase in entropy
generation. When equilibrium between system and surrounding arise, the value of entropy generation attains it
maximum value. Also with increase in entropy, exergy of system degrades, thus entropy generation of a system
need to calculate in order to estimate the irreversibility of a LHTS system. Assuming isothermal phase change,
the energy equation (equation 3) can be written in form of temperature as,

( ! T) ( Δ )
+ ∇. 𝜌𝑈( ! T = ∇. ∇ − (23)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡

Considering incompressible flow, from equation 1 and 23, energy equation can be written as,

( ! T) ( Δ )
+ .∇ ( ! T = ∇. ∇ − (24)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡

The entropy transport equation in the form of temperature can be written as,

! (T) ∇ ( Δ )
!"# ,!" #$ ! = − ∇. + (25)
𝐷𝑡 𝑇𝜕

Expanding divergence of heat flux over temperature gives:

! (T) ∇. ∇ (∇T)! ( Δ )
!"# ,!" #$ ! = − + !
+ (26)
𝐷𝑡 𝑇𝜕

Comparing equation 33 and 26 local entropy generation can be calculated as,

(∇T)!
!"# ,!" #$ ! = !
(27)

Total Entropy generation ( ) over the entire domain of a phase change problem can be subsequently calculated
as,

= !"# ,!" #$ ! 𝑑𝑉 (28)

where V is volume of the domain.

The exergy input for charging and discharging can be expressed as,

!" ,! !"
!" #$ %,! ! !"# = ! !" [ !" ,! !" − ! − ! ln (29)
!

!
!" #$ %,!" #! ! !"# = ! !" [ !"# − !" #,!" 1− (30)
!"#

3.3 Entropy generation number and Second law efficiency:

Entropy generation number (Ns) can be defined as ratio of exergy destroyed or anergy to the input exergy
and be expressed as,

699
 !
! = (31)
!" #$ %

Second law efficiency is the amount of useful energy to the maximum possible energy that can be used.

!! = (1 − !) (32)

3.4 Boundary and Initial Conditions

At t = 0, T(r,θ,z,0) = 168.6 °C which is slightly below the Tm in order to reduce sensible heating. The
boundary conditions are,
i) No slip and impermeability condition at the walls, i.e. ui = 0.
ii) At inlet, z = 0, ! = !" and ! = !"
iii) At outlet, z = L, pressure outlet boundary condition.
!
iv) Insulated sidewalls and outer surface of the TES at = ! .
!
v) Symmetric boundary conditions are taken for the symmetry planes at θ = 0 and θ = 60°.
The inlet temperature (Tin) of HTF is maintained at 200 °C for 1800 s during charging period and at 137.4 °C
for the same duration during discharging period. A commercial software Fluent 14 is used in the simulations.
The governing equations are solved iteratively using finite volume method (FVM) according to the SIMPLE
algorithm. Coefficients in the momentum and energy equations are determined by power law.

4. Grid independence Study

The grid independence study is performed to identify the grid size to be used in the numerical simulation. In
this study, three grid sizes are taken viz. (i) coarse grid, (ii) fine grid and (iii) finer grid keeping the time step
(Δt) constant at 0.1 s. The total number of cells in the domain is 544047 for the fine grid (second case) case. In
other two cases, the number of control volumes is changed by a constant factor of 1.5 times compare to the fine
grid. The outlet temperature of the HTF flowing through the center pipe (HTF 1) is plotted with time for the
three cases during charging period in fig. 2. One can observe that the temperature difference (ΔT) between
coarse and fine grids is much higher (maximum 1.8 °C) compared to that between fine and finer grids
(maximum 0.25 °C). Hence the fine grid size is chosen for the further simulations.
190
Average Outlet HTF temperature ( C)

185
0

Finer grid
180 Coarse Grid
Fine Grid

175

170

165
0 600 1200 1800
Time (s)

Fig. 2. Grid independence study with three different grid sizes

5. Model Validation
The present numerical model is validated by comparing it with the results reported by Khillarkar et al. [14]
who simulated the melting of PCM in an irregular geometry. In their study a finite element computational study
was performed for a free convection dominated melting of a pure phase change material, which is kept in

700
concentric horizontal annuli. The configuration of their geometry is a square external tube with a circular tube
inside it. The inner cylinder wall is subjected to uniform temperature higher than the melting temperature of the
PCM and the outer wall is adiabatic. n-Octadecane was used as the PCM. The initial temperature is taken as 27
oC and the hot wall temperature is taken as 43 oC. The non-dimensional domain used in the present study is
taken as 1 (x/d) × 2 (y/d) with d = 1 mm. For Fourier number (Fo) 0.1296 (corresponding to 360 s) and Ra =
2.844×106, the solid liquid interface reported by Khillarkar et al. [14] and the present numerical model is shown
in fig. 3(a). As evident from the streamlines plot in fig. 3(b), two convection cells are formed and the PCM is
melted more at the top of heated wall of the inner cylinder due to upward rise of melt front along the heated
cylinder. There exists a good agreement between the location of solid-liquid interface and the streamlines
predicted by Khillarkar et al. [14] and the present model.

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Comparison of Khillarkar et al. [14] and the present model: (a) Solid liquid interface, (b) Streamlines at Fo = 0.1296 (corresponding
to 360 s) and Ra = 2.844×10 6

6. Result and Discussions

a. Comparison of latent heat and sensible heat storage system
The thermal performance of LHTES containing PCM and steel is numerically analyzed. Initial temperature
of the numerical domain is taken as 168.6 °C which is slightly lower than melting temperature of PCM, i.e.
168.7 °C, whereas the outer walls of the storage system are kept insulated. The charging and discharging period
is half an hour each and the inlet temperature for the former and later process is maintained at 200 °C and 137.4
°C, respectively. The outlet temperature of both HTF with time is shown in fig. 4, for both charging and
discharging processes. Outlet temperature of HTF is observed to be increasing from initial temperature, which
becomes constant after 60 s as the melting of PCM starts. There is also a difference in the outlet temperatures of
HTF passing through the center pipe and surrounding pipes. The difference is due the arrangement of pipes, as
the center pipe is surround by PCM and six outer pipes, which affects heat transfer and subsequently outlet
temperature of HTF in center pipe. The maximum difference in outlet temperature of HTF between outer and
center pipes is found to be 2.2 °C in a cycle. During the discharging period, PCM releases heat to the HTF, as
HTF is at lower temperature. The figure shows that the drop in HTF outlet temperature starts after 40 s of the
commencement of the discharging period due to low thermal diffusivity of the PCM. Afterwards a sudden drop
is observed in HTF outlet temperature to 158.74 °C at 1840 s. Subsequently, HTF outlet temperature reduces
gradually till the end of discharging process and reaches 147.07 °C at 3600 s.
To evaluate the efficacy of latent heat thermal storage, it is compared to a sensible heat thermal storage filled
with steel. Fig. 4 shows the temperature histories of HTF1 and HTF 2 at outlet. The HTF outlet temperature in
case of steel increases monotonically as compared to PCM. At the end of the charging period, the outlet
temperature of HTF is 198.63 °C and the same is found to be 139.94 °C after the discharging period. The
difference in outlet temperature of HTF after charging and discharging processes (∆T) is 39.42 °C for PCM and
58.69 °C for steel. The overall energy efficiency of PCM is 9.6%, which is far more than the energy efficiency
of steel, i.e. 5.6%. Fig. 5 shows the time evolution second law efficiency of PCM and steel. Although average
exergy efficiency of steel shows the higher value for charging and discharging (99% and 97%) as compared to
PCM i.e. 92% and 82.6% for charging and discharging respectively, the net amount of useful storing and
extracting energy for PCM will be higher. Thus PCM is better than steel or any other sensible heating material
for TES, and also it stabilizes the temperature fluctuations of the incoming HTF effectively.

701
 210
Pure PCM(HTF 2)
Steel (HTF 1)
Pure PCM(HTF 2)

Average Outlet HTF temperature ( C)

195 Steel (HTF 2)

0
180

165

150

135
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)

Fig. 4. HTF outlet temperature for Steel and PCM as a storage material
105
PCM
Steel
100

95
ηII (%)

90

85

80

75
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig. 5. Time evolution second law efficiency plot for PCM and steel

b. Effect of TCE
For enhancement of effective thermal conductivity, metal matrix is used with PCM. The amount of thermal
conductivity enhancer (TCE) determines the porosity of storage system. An addition of 5% of TCE in PCM
crossponds to the porosity of 0.95, which leads to the thermal conductivity enhancement and subsequntly
increses heat tranfer in TES. The variation of HTF outlet temperature with time is shown in fig. 6 for PCM and
for porosity (δ) 0.95. In this study, the pore diameter is taken as 1 mm. The charging, discharging and overall
energy efficeincy ! for δ= 0.95 is found to be 33.5%, 32.6% and 11%, respectively. The average exergy
efficeincy for the charging and discharging period is 97.2% and 88.16%, respectively. Since, it is observed that
the addition of a small amount of metal matrix can increase heat transfer in PCM, hence different amount of
TCE is added to PCM in order to find its effect on the enhancement of heat transfer in PCM. Three other
porosity are used, viz. δ= 0.99, 0.9, 0.85 in order to compare the thermal performance and subsequently heat
transfer in TES. The variation of HTF outlet temperature is plotted in fig. 6 with time during charging and
discharging process. It is found that charging efficiency from first law of thermodynamics for δ=0.99, 0.9, 0.85
and PCM is found to be 32%, 34.2%, 35.2%, respectively, whereas the corresponding discharging efficiency is
30.7%, 34.4% and 35.5%. Fig. 7 shows the comparisons of charging discharging and overall energy
efficiencies. With the decrease in porosity, energy efficiency for charging and discharging increases, which will
collectively increase the overall efficiency. The increase in energy efficiency is due to the enhancement of
effective thermal conductivity and decrease in Stefan number and thus heat transfer rate increases.

702
 190
Pure PCM
δ=0.99
δ=0.95

Average Outlet HTF temperature ( 0 C)

180 δ=0.9
δ=0.85

170

160

150

140
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig. 6. HTF outlet temperature plot for PCM and porosity 0.99, 0.95, 0.9 and 0.85

The time evolution of second law efficiency and entropy generation are also calculated for different porosity
viz. δ= 0.99, 0.95,0.9 and 0.85. Fig. 8 shows the volumetric entropy generation for different porosity with time
for the course of charging and discharging. The entropy generation is lowest in cas of δ= 0.85. Entropy
generation is directly related to the irreversibilty the system. It can be concluded that for the porosity 0.85, the
irreversivilty decreses, which subsequently increases the avialabilty of energy as the heat trasfer increses with
decreses in porosity witch is explained above. Variation of exergy efficency !! with time is shown in fig. 8 for
all porosity. Second law efficiency provides the estimation of useful part of energy, which is calculated from the
first law of thermodynamics. The average second law efficiency !! of charging after 1800 s for δ= 0.99, 0.9,
0.85 are 96.23%, 97.7% and 97.94%, whereas same for the discharging period, it is 84.1%, 90.5% and 91.52%,
respectively. Fig. 9 shows the average second law efficiency of all porosity. During charging and discharging
process, the average exergy efficiency is the highest for the lowest porosity studied. However during charging,
the efficiency is higher that means the exergy transfer from the HTF to PCM is efficient in charging. While for
discharging, the transfer of stored energy from PCM to HTF is low and with the decrease in porosity, this can be
made efficient as it decreases the irreversibility in the storage unit.
0.355
0.35
0.345
0.34
Efficeincy (ῃ )
I

0.335
0.33
0.325
0.32
0.315
0.31
0.305
PCM δ=0.99 δ=0.95 δ=0.9 δ=0.85
Porosity
(a)
0.36

0.35

0.34
Efficeincy (ῃ )
I

0.33

0.32

0.31

0.3

0.29

0.28

0.27
PCM δ=0.99 δ=0.95 δ=0.9 δ=0.85
Porosity
(b)

703
 0.14

0.12

0.1

Efficeincy (ῃ )
I
0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0
PCM δ=0.99 δ=0.95 δ=0.9 δ=0.85
Porosity
(c)
Fig. 7. (a) Charging, (b) discharging, and (c) overall energy efficiency of Pure PCM and porosity 0.99, 0.95, 0.9 and 0.85
105
δ=0.85
δ=0.9
100 δ=0.95
δ=0.99
PCM

95
ηII (%)

90

85

80

75
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)

Fig. 8. Time evolution second law efficiency plot for PCM and porosity 0.99, 0.95, 0.9 and 0.85

0.985

0.98
Efficeincy (ῃ )

0.975
II

0.97

0.965

0.96

0.955

0.95
PCM δ=0.99 δ=0.95 δ=0.9 δ=0.85
Porosity
(a)
0.92

0.9

0.88
Efficeincy (ῃ )
II

0.86

0.84

0.82

0.8

0.78

0.76
PCM δ=0.99 δ=0.95 δ=0.9 δ=0.85
Porosity
(b)
Fig. 9. (a) Charging, (b) discharging second law efficiency of Pure PCM and porosity 0.99, 0.95, 0.9 and 0.85

704
Conclusion
In this paper, the thermal performance of a thermal energy storage (TES) system using PCM is investigated
for the medium temperature application (~ 200 °C) such as ORC based solar thermal power plant. Metal foam
and matrix is used as the thermal conductivity enhancers (TCE). A numerical model using enthalpy porosity
technique is used to characterize the thermal storage system. The fluctuations in the inlet temperature of HTF
are introduced by a cycle consisting of charging and discharging period. The heat transfer enhancement of PCM
with TCE in TES is also evaluated and compared with TES filled with PCM. The effect of porosity of metal
matrix on the thermal performance of PCM-based TES is investigated. It is found that PCM can be used in more
effective way compared to sensible heat storage. Addition of TCE in PCM improves the temperature
distribution in PCM, which enhances the heat transfer rate in PCM due to augmentation in the effective thermal
conductivity of PCM. The charging, discharging and overall efficiency are found to increase with decrease
porosity and the lowest value is recorded for δ = 0.85 for a given pore diameter which can be attributed to
maximum thermal diffusivity. In order to calculate useful part of energy, time evolution second law analysis is
done for different porosity and it is found that in lower porosity energy can be extracted more efficiently as
entropy generation is found minimum for porosity 0.85.
Acknowledgement
This paper is based on work supported in part under the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy-
Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), funded
jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy under Subcontract DE-AC36-08GO28308 to the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory and the Government of India, through the Department of Science and Technology under
Subcontract IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012 dated 22nd Nov. 2012.
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June 14-17, 2009.
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(PCM) storage using high thermal conductivity porous matrix”, Energy conservation and Management, 46, 847-867, 2005
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[10] A. Eric and I. Dincer, A new approach to energy and exergy analyses of latent heat storage unit, Heat Transfer Eng Vol 30, pp 506,
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[12] E.Guelpa , A.Sciacovelli , V.Vittorio, Entropy generation analysis for design improvement of a latent heat storage system, Energy,
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705
 ICAER-2015

Harmonics Estimation Using OFDM Principle

Srihari Mandava1, Ramesh Varadarajan2
1,2
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore – 632014, India

Abstract

The harmonics injecting into power systems are increasing from day to day with the increasing use of power electronics and
nonlinear loads. These harmonics are to be monitored and analyzed to measure their impact on the quality of the power
flowing through the lines during normal and abnormal conditions. Many literature works exists for measuring the
fundamental frequency and it’s off nominals of power signal. When the power system frequency is stable, the discrete
fourier transform (DFT) is shown in many works, as one of the fine estimator of frequency. But, the stability of the power
system frequency is not assured in some power system networks like micro-grids and smart grids. During these times, it is
not good practice to make use of DFT directly, as it leads to errors in measuring the frequency of power system. To measure
the frequency under such cases, certain changes are to be made to Fourier transform and this work deals with such changes
in FFT technique. The idea of this work looks like the OFDM transmitter principle which is modified accordingly to the
power system requirements. The harmonics of power signal are measured looking like the harmonics in power system are
frequency division multiplexed orthogonally.

Keywords: Harmonics; demodulation; FFT; orthogonal; OFDM

1. Introduction

With the increase in technology, the use of power electronics is increasing in the modern power system
networks. Along with this, the use of non-linear loads is increasing at the load side [1]. The use of this power
electronics and the non-linear loads incorporate switching action which produces series of current interruptions.
These switching operations gives rise to current which will have not the fundamental component but also the
multiples of it. The multiples of the fundamental frequency component are called harmonics [2]. These
harmonics affects the power system network steering to increase servicing cost, mal-operation of the protection
system or reduces the capability of the power system devices. The principal problem being faced in the
microgrid is the change in the frequency and the difficult in controlling it [3]. Along with the change in
frequency, the total harmonic distortion in the micro-grid is also increasing.
Many techniques are available in literature for providing the protection and analyzing the power system in
which they assume that the frequency of the power system is always stable [4][5]. Also, various techniques of
identifying the off nominal frequencies of signal processing are also used to monitor the signals having the
multiples of fundamental frequency in the power system signal. The measured signals are then compensated by
some compensating devices and these compensating techniques are completely dependent on the measured
frequency component of fundamental and multiples of it. The correct estimation of frequencies is not that much
easy and various literature works are present on this which has some margin in estimating the fundamental
frequency. The continuous change in the power system configuration, load condition and the operational
framework leads to change in the frequency of the harmonic components. So, one of the key point in the modern
power system network which is aiming to smart grid in near future is to identify the changes in the fundamental
frequency and the multiples of it accurately and make proper adjustments to the protection system and to the
monitoring algorithms so that the mal-operations, the servicing costs and the derating of the power system
components comes down.
The technique used frequently in measuring the frequency of power system is Discrete Fourier Transform
(DFT). This is because of its simplicity and lower computational complexity. But, whenever there are changes in
the system, the frequency of power system changes. There are other techniques which are proposed in literature
some of which are wavelet transforms[6], phase locked loops [7], least square techniques [8], kalman filters [9],
neural networks[10], gauss gradient newton methods[11]. The LS and Kalman have proven to be better than fast
fourier transform, but when there is a sudden change in amplitude, frequency or phase, these methods are not

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 975 129 6300.

E-mail address: mandavasrihari@vit.ac.in

706
good enough as they take more time for estimating the parameters of the signal. The proposed technique is based
on the demodulation part of OFDM receiver technique for estimating the phase and the amplitude of the
fundamental frequency component of the power signal. The demodulation methods used for estimating the
fundamental frequency is also presented in [12] , [13]. In this paper, the principle of OFDM receiver is used to
estimate the the harmonics of power signal. The demodulation method on the power signal not only estimates
the fundamental component but also the harmonics of it.

2. Problem Formulation

Let the power signal from the power system is

𝑁ℎ

𝑥(𝑡) = ∑ Am (t) cos[mΩo t + ∅m (t)] + η(t) (1)

𝑚=1
Where 𝐴𝑚 (𝑡) is the amplitude, ∅m (t) is the phase of the m-th harmonic, 𝑁ℎ is the maximum harmonic order,
𝜂(𝑡) is the additive noise, and Ω𝑜 denotes the angular fundamental synchronous frequency. From [14], [15], the
m-th harmonic frequency is given by

d[mΩo t+∅m (t)] d∅m (t)

ψm (t) = = mΩo + (2)
dt dt

𝑑∅ (𝑡)
Let Ω𝑜 be constant, so any change in 𝜓𝑚 (𝑡) can be shown by using the term 𝑚 . If 𝜓𝑚 (𝑡) is the m-th
𝑑𝑡
harmonic, its frequency is m times the fundamental frequency i.e. 𝜓𝑚 (𝑡) = 𝑚𝜓1 (𝑡). Substituting this in (2)
𝑑∅𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑑∅1 (𝑡)
𝑚Ω𝑜 + = 𝑚[Ω𝑜 +
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

𝑑∅𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑑∅1 (𝑡)

∴ =𝑚 (3)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

Let the demodulation signal of the k-th harmonic is

𝑑𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) = cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (4)

and
𝑑𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) = sin[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (5)

where k ∊{1,2,…….,Nh} and 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) is

phase of 𝑑𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) and 𝑑𝑠𝑘 (𝑡). The frequencies for both the demodulation signals is then

𝑑[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] 𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)

𝑣𝑘 (𝑡) = = 𝑘Ω𝑜 + (6)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) 𝑑𝜑1 (𝑡)
Let 𝑣1 (𝑡) be the fundamental angular demodulation frequency, then from (6) =𝑘
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
Multiplying 𝑥(𝑡) by (4) and (5), 𝑦𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) and 𝑦𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) are obtained as

𝑁ℎ

𝑦𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) = ∑ 𝐴𝑚 (𝑡) cos[𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡)] cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] + 𝜂(𝑡) cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (7)
𝑚=1

𝑁ℎ

𝑦𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) = ∑ 𝐴𝑚 (𝑡) cos[𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡)] 𝑠𝑖𝑛[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] + 𝜂(𝑡) 𝑠𝑖𝑛[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (8)
𝑚=1

1 1 1
From trigonometric relations, cos 𝑎 cos 𝑏 = cos(𝑎 + 𝑏) + cos(𝑎 − 𝑏), and sin 𝑎 cos 𝑏 = sin(𝑎 + 𝑏) +
2 2 2
1
sin(𝑎 − 𝑏) in (7) and (8), in which 𝑎 = 𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏 = 𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡)
2

ℎ𝑁 ℎ 𝑁
𝑦𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) = ∑𝑚=1 𝐴𝑚 (𝑡) cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) + 𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡)]+∑𝑚=1 𝐴𝑚 (𝑡) cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) − 𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 +
∅𝑚 (𝑡)] + 𝜂(𝑡) cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (9)

707
 N
h 𝑁ℎ
𝑦𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) = ∑m=1 Am (t)sin [𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) + 𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡)] + ∑𝑚=1 𝐴𝑚 (𝑡)𝑠𝑖𝑛 [𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) − 𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 −
∅𝑚 (𝑡)] + 𝜂(𝑡) sin[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (10)

Thus,

Nh 1 𝑁ℎ 1
𝑦𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) = ∑m=1 A (t) cos[mΩo t + kΩo t + ∅m (t) + φk (t)]+∑𝑚=1 𝐴 (𝑡) cos[𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 − 𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡) −
2 m 2 𝑚
𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] + 𝜂(𝑡) cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (11)

𝑁ℎ 1 𝑁ℎ 1
𝑦𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) = ∑𝑚=1 𝐴 (𝑡)𝑠𝑖𝑛 [𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡) + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] − ∑𝑚=1 𝐴 (𝑡)𝑠𝑖𝑛 [𝑚Ω𝑜 𝑡 − 𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 (𝑡) −
2 𝑚 2 𝑚
𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] + 𝜂(𝑡) 𝑠𝑖𝑛[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] (12)

For any value of k, the frequencies of first and second terms of both signals of (14) and (15) are

𝑑∅𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)

𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) = 𝑚Ω𝑜 + 𝑘Ω𝑜 + + (13)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

𝑑∅𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)

𝜓𝑘 (𝑡) = 𝑚Ω𝑜 + 𝑘Ω𝑜 + − (14)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
for m=1,2,………,Nh .
Substituting (3) and (7) in (13),(14)

𝑑∅𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)

∅𝑘 (𝑡) = (𝑚 + 𝑘)Ω𝑜 + 𝑚 +𝑘 (15)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

𝑑∅𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)

𝜓𝑘 (𝑡) = (𝑚 − 𝑘)Ω𝑜 + 𝑚 −𝑘 (16)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝜑 (𝑡) 𝑑∅ (𝑡)
for m=1,2,………,Nh . If 𝑘 is an estimate of 𝑘 , (15) and (16) will be
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

𝑑∅1 (𝑡)
∅𝑘 (𝑡) ≅ (𝑚 + 𝑘) [Ω𝑜 + ] = (𝑚 + 𝑘)𝜓1 (𝑡) (17)
𝑑𝑡

𝑑∅1 (𝑡)
𝜓𝑘 (𝑡) ≅ (𝑚 − 𝑘) [Ω𝑜 + ] = (𝑚 − 𝑘)𝜓1 (𝑡) (18)
𝑑𝑡
for m=1,2,………,Nh. As, (m-k) can assume negative values in (18), 𝜓𝑘 (𝑡) can also be negative. To work with
only positive values, the second term of (12) and (13) is taken as |𝜓𝑘 (𝑡)| for the frequencies. From ∅𝑘 (𝑡) and
|𝜓𝑘 (𝑡)| , it can be said that 𝑦𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) and 𝑦𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) will consist of a constant current i.e. the DC value (at m=k) and
frequency components at 𝜓1 (𝑡), 2𝜓1 (𝑡), 3𝜓1 (𝑡) … ….,max(k-1, Nh –k) 𝜓1 (𝑡), (k+1) 𝜓1 (𝑡), (k+2) 𝜓1 (𝑡),…….,
(Nh + 1) 𝜓1 (𝑡) . Using low pass filter on 𝑦𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) and 𝑦𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) gives

1
𝜓𝑐𝑐𝑘 (𝑡) = 𝐴 (𝑡) cos[∅𝑘 (𝑡) − 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] + 𝜂𝑐 (𝑡) (19)
2 𝑘
1
𝜓𝑠𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) = − 𝐴𝑘 (𝑡) sin[∅𝑘 (𝑡) − 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)] + 𝜂𝑠 (𝑡) (20)
2
Where 𝜂𝑐 (𝑡) and 𝜂𝑠 (𝑡) are respectively the low pass component values of 𝜂(𝑡)cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑑𝑘 (𝑡)] and
𝜂(𝑡)sin[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑑𝑘 (𝑡)] . If the low pass filter possess good attenuation in the stop band, the 𝜂𝑐 (𝑡) and
𝜂𝑠 (𝑡) are negligible and hence the value of amplitude and phase of the k-th order harmonic component are
estimated using
𝐴̂𝑘 (𝑡) = 2√𝑦𝑐𝑐
2 (𝑡) + 𝑦 2 (𝑡)
𝑘 𝑠𝑠𝑘 (21)
𝑦 (𝑡)
∅̂ 𝑘 (𝑡) = −𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛 [ 𝑠𝑠𝑘 ] + 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) (22)
𝑦𝑐𝑐𝑘 (𝑡)
In power systems, the phase angle difference between two signals is given by [16] (22), in which ∅̂
𝑘𝑎 (𝑡) and

̂ 𝑘 (𝑡) = ∅̂
∆∅ ̂
𝑘𝑎 (𝑡) − ∅𝑘𝑏 (𝑡) (23)

708
 𝑘𝑏 (𝑡) are the phase values of 𝑥𝑎 (𝑡) and 𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) . But, in an present modern interconnected power system, the
∅̂
demodulating signal is same for all signals and so, the ∅ ̂ 𝑘 (𝑡) will be independent of 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡). Hence, 𝜑𝑘 (𝑡) is
subtracted from (21) as this won’t affect the phase difference. So, ∅
̂ 𝑘 (𝑡) is given by

𝑦 (𝑡)
̂∅𝑘 (𝑡) = −𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛 [ 𝑠𝑠𝑘 ] (24)
𝑦𝑐𝑐𝑘 (𝑡)

The block diagram of the technique presented so far is shown in Fig. 1. The LPF are the low pass filters and the
cos and sin gives the demodulation signals expressed by (4) and (5). The Amplitude and Phase are the values of
the expressions (21) and (24). In this, the demodulation signals are controlled and the frequency of the low pass
filters by the Freq block. This demodulation method is different from the prior methods in two ways.
i) The Sin and Cos block are fixed in the old methods where as these blocks vary in this method
according to the frequency value .
ii) The low-pass filter coefficients vary in this method while they remain same in the old methods.
This technique is a part of the OFDM receiver principle. The OFDM receiver is as shown in Fig. 2. The real and
the imaginary values of Fig. 2 are the amplitude and phase values of Fig. 1. The amplitude is the magnitude of
harmonic signal and the phase value is the angle of the harmonic signal. Then, the FFT is implemented on the
amplitude and the plot of this gives the frequency of the harmonic.

cos
Freq

LPF Amplitude ̂𝑘 (𝑡)

𝐴

x(t)

LPF Phase ̂𝑘 (𝑡)

∅

sin

Fig. 1. Modulation principle

Fig. 2. OFDM receiver

3. Basic Principle of OFDM Principle and Application to Power System

OFDM principle is used mostly in 3G system to take off the signal attenuation problem. The main function
of OFDM technique is to reduce the multi path transmission using multi carrier system and proper guard band.

709
This principle of OFDM is modified for analyzing the power system off nominal frequencies. In
communication, the data transmitted in the form of bits is to be received without any error. The OFDM uses
multiple carriers and generate orthogonal frequencies without making use of any oscillatory circuit. The guard
band insertion along with the orthogonal frequencies receives the transmitted data efficiently. This principle is
used as base in power system to estimate the off nominal frequencies and is quite challenging. The sub carriers
used in OFDM are considered as harmonics in this work. The harmonics are orthogonal to each other as like the
sub carriers are orthogonal in OFDM technique.
In OFDM, inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) is used in transmitter and fast fourier transform (FFT) is used
in receiver part. This work makes use of the receiver part of actual OFDM technique and the transmitter part of
OFDM is considered as a power signal containing harmonics. The harmonics of power signal are nothing but
various sub carriers in OFDM. The sub carriers in the OFDM are estimated at the receiving end which is equal
to estimation of harmonics using FFT in power line. OFDM has two modulation stages, the base band
modulation having many sub carriers and carrier modulation having only one frequency. The frequency in the
carrier modulation is higher than the sub carrier frequencies of the base band modulation. Since, the
fundamental frequency of Indian power system is 50Hz, the harmonics are viewed as base band modulation
using many orthogonal frequency signals. The actual OFDM transmitter and receiver are as shown in Fig. 3 and
Fig. 4.

Data Serial to Parallel Mapping IFFT Parallel to serial To channel

Fig. 3. OFDM Transmitter

From Channel Serial to Parallel FFT Parallel to serial DE mapping Data

Fig. 4. OFDM Receiver

4. Technique Implementation

The expression (1) in discrete form is

𝑁ℎ

𝑥[𝑛] = ∑ 𝐴𝑚 [𝑛] cos[𝑚𝜔𝑜 𝑡 + ∅𝑚 [𝑛]] + 𝜂[𝑛] (25)

𝑚=1
Ω𝑜
Where 𝜔𝑜 = is the synchronous angular frequency in discrete mode and 𝑓𝑠 is the sampling rate. The
𝑓𝑠
demodulation signals from expression (4) and (5) are given by (26) and (27).

𝑑𝑐𝑘 [𝑛] = cos[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑛 + 𝜑𝑘 [𝑛]] (26)

and
𝑑𝑠𝑘 (𝑡) = sin[𝑘Ω𝑜 𝑛 + 𝜑𝑘 [𝑛]] (27)

The discrete version of continuous derivative is

𝑑𝜑𝑘 (𝑡)
<=> 𝑓𝑠 (𝜑𝑘 [𝑛] − 𝜑𝑘 [𝑛 − 1]) (28)
𝑑𝑡

The discrete version of (6) for the demodulation frequency is given by

𝑣𝑘 [𝑛] = 𝑘Ω𝑜 + 𝑓𝑠 (𝜑𝑘 [𝑛] − 𝜑𝑘 [𝑛 − 1]) (29)

Let the demodulation frequency of (29)be 𝑣𝑘 [𝑛] = 𝑘𝑣1 [𝑛] which is the frequency of 𝑘𝜓1 [𝑛]. So, from (29)

𝑘
𝜑𝑘 [𝑛] = 𝜑𝑘 [𝑛 − 1] + (𝜓 [𝑛] − Ω𝑜 ) (30)
𝑓𝑠 1

From (30), it is clear that𝜓1 [𝑛], the fundamental frequency of signal x(n) is identified, then the value of phase
𝜑𝑘 [𝑛] of the demodulation signals is easily modified for each sample period . Then, the frequency of both the

710
demodulation signals is changed to match the frequency of the respective harmonic. Several approaches are
present for finding 𝜓1 [𝑛] and in this work, phase locked loop (PLL) is used to identify it.

Generally, the power system frequency will not remain constant and changes slowly in time. This change
in frequency will change the harmonic components in the same proportion. By using this technique, these
changes are clearly observed. The final diagram of the logic used to identify the harmonics is shown in Fig. 4.
The technique of Fig. 4 resembles the OFDM receiver technique shown in Fig. 2.

cos

Freq
̂𝑘 (𝑡)
𝐴
FFT Harmonic Detection
LPF Amplitude

x(t)

LPF Phase ̂𝑘 (𝑡)

∅

sin

Fig. 4. Proposed OFDM receiver principle for harmonic detection

5. Results

The sampling frequency is taken as 6400 Hz. The test signal considered is
𝑥[𝑛] = 𝐴1 [𝑛]cos(𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅1 [𝑛])] + 𝐴3 [𝑛]cos(3𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅3 [𝑛]) + 𝐴5 [𝑛]cos(5𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅5 [𝑛])
+𝐴7 [𝑛] cos(7𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅1 [𝑛]) + 𝐴9 [𝑛] cos(9𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅9 [𝑛]) + 𝐴11 [𝑛] cos(11𝜔11 𝑛 + ∅11 [𝑛])
+𝐴13 [𝑛] cos(13𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅13 [𝑛]) + 𝐴15 [𝑛] cos(15𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅15 [𝑛]) + 𝐴17 [𝑛] cos(17𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅17 [𝑛])
+𝐴19 [𝑛] cos(19𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅19 [𝑛]) + 𝐴21 [𝑛] cos(21𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅21 [𝑛]) + 𝐴23 [𝑛] cos(23𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅23 [𝑛])
+𝐴25 [𝑛] cos(25𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅25 [𝑛]) + 𝐴27 [𝑛] cos(27𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅27 [𝑛]) + 𝐴29 [𝑛]cos(29𝜔0 𝑛 + ∅29 [𝑛])]
2𝜋50
Where 𝜔0 = . The amplitudes and phases considered for each harmonic are as shown in Table .1.
𝑓𝑠
Table 1. Amplitudes and Phase angles for each harmonic signal
Amplitude Phase angle
A1[n] 1 ∅1 [𝑛] -3.0
A3[n] 1/3 ∅3 [𝑛] -2.5
A5[n] 1/5 ∅5 [𝑛] -2.0
A7[n] 1/7 ∅7 [𝑛] -1.5
A9[n] 1/9 ∅9 [𝑛] -1.0
A11[n] 1/11 ∅11 [𝑛] -0.5
A13[n] 1/13 ∅12 [𝑛] 0.0
A15[n] 1/15 ∅13 [𝑛] 0.5
A17[n] 1/17 ∅14 [𝑛] 1.0
A19[n] 1/19 ∅15 [𝑛] 1.5
A21[n] 1/21 ∅17 [𝑛] 2.0
A23[n] 1/23 ∅19 [𝑛] 2.5
A25[n] 1/25 ∅21 [𝑛] 3.0
A27[n] 1/27 ∅22 [𝑛] 3.5
A29[n] 1/29 ∅23 [𝑛] 4.0

The phase angles and the amplitudes of up to 29th order the harmonics obtained after implementing the OFDM
principle is as shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. The magnitude and phase angles of each harmonic signal is
approximately same with the given table values.

711
 Fig. 5. Phase angle of each harmonic signal Fig. 6. Amplitude of each harmonic signal

The phasor plot of all the harmonics is shown in the Fig. 7.The fft is applied to the amplitude of all the
harmonics and the fft plot for the harmonics 7th, 13th and 17th is shown in the Fig. 8. The frequency observed
from the fft plot is matching with the frequency of the harmonic signal.

Fig. 7. Phasor plot of each harmonic signal

Fig. 8. FFT plot of amplitude for 7th, 13th, 17th harmonic signal

6. Conclusion

In this work, the OFDM receiver principle is successfully implemented for detecting the harmonics of the
power signal. A novel demodulation technique is introduced for detecting harmonics which is a part of OFDM
receiver. The outputs, amplitude and phase angles of each harmonic signal are almost matching with the
harmonic input values. The phasor plot of each harmonic is also plotted and then the FFT plot of the Amplitude

712
for all the harmonics has given the frequency value for each harmonic signal. The frequency identified through
FFT plot exactly matched with the input harmonic frequency.

References

[1] M.I.Abu Bakar “Assessments for the Impact of Harmonic Current Distortion of Non Linear Load In Power System Harmonics” ,
Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition: Latin America, 2008 IEEE/PES, 2008 , Page(s): 1-6.
[2] N. R. Watson and J. Arrigala, “Harmonics in large systems,” Electr.Power Syst. Res., vol. 66, pp. 15–29, 2003.
[3] R Majumder, A Ghosh, G Ledwich ,“Load Frequency Control in a Microgrid: Challenges and Improvements”, - Smart Power Grids
2011, pp 49-82.
[4] L. L. Lai, W. L. Chan,C. T. Tse, and A. T. P. So, “Real-time frequency and harmonic evaluation using artificial neural networks,” IEEE
Trans.Power Del., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 52–59, Jan. 1999.
[5] Leon M. Tolbert, Harold D. Hollis and Peyton S. Hale, Jr, Survey of Harmonics Measurements in Electrical Distribution Systems, IEEE
IAS Annual Meeting, Oct. 6-10, 1996, San Diego, CA, pp. 2333-2339.
[6] W. Jianze, J. Yanchao, W. Fei, and R. Qiwen, “New method for transient harmonics measurement based on wavelet transform,” in
IECON’98 Proc. 24th Annu. Conf. IEEE. Ind. Electron. Soc., Aug.1998, vol. 2, pp. 636–639.
[7] M. K. Ghartemani and M. R. Iravani, “Measurement of harmonics/interharmonics of time-varying frequencies,” IEEE Trans. Power
Del.,vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 23–31, Jan. 2005.
[8] Chawasak Rakpenthai,, Sermsak Uatrongjit, Neville R. Watson, and Suttichai Premrudeepreechacharn, On Harmonic State Estimation
of Power System With Uncertain Network Parameters, IEEE Transactions on power systems 1 0885-8950 © 2013 IEEE.
[9] F. F. Costa,A. J. M. Cardoso, and D.A. Fernandes, “Harmonic analysis based on Kalman filtering and Prony’s method,” in Proc. Int.
Conf.Power Eng., Power Electr. Drives, Apr. 2007, pp. 696–701.
[10] P. K. Dash, D. P. Swain, A. Routray, and A. C. Liew, “Harmonic estimation in a power system using adaptive perceptrons,” IEEE
Proc.Gene. Transm. Distrib., vol. 143, no. 6, pp. 565–574, Nov. 1996.
[11] H. Sun, G. H. Allen, and G. D. Cain, “A new filter-bank configuration for harmonic measurement,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol.
45, no.3, pp. 739–744, Jun. 1996.
[12] I. Kamwa, M. Leclerc, and D. McNabb, “Performance of demodulationbased frequency measurement algorithms used in typical
PMUs,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 505–514, Apr. 2004.
[13] M. Akke, “Frequency estimation by demodulation of two complex signals,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 157–163, Jan.
1997.
[14] M. M. Begović;, P. M. Djurić, S. Dunlap, and A. G. Phadke, “Frequency tracking in power networks in the presence of harmonics,”
IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 480–486, Apr. 1993.
[15] B. Boashash, “Estimating and interpreting the instantaneous frequency of a signal. I. Fundamentals,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 80, no. 4, pp.
520–538,Apr. 1992.
[16] P. M. Djurić, M. M. Begović, and M. Doroslovaˇki, “Instantaneous phase tracking in power networks by demodulation,” IEEE Trans.
Instrum. Meas., vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 963–967, Dec. 1992.

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 ICAER-2015

Application of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents in Biomass

Pretreatment, Enzymatic Saccharification and Cellulosic Ethanol
Production
Adepu K Kumara,1, Bhumika S Parikha, Lewis Z liub, Michael A Cottab
a
Bioconversion Technology Division, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, Post Box 2, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat –
388120, India. Email: kiranbio@gmail.com; Tel: +91-9099137446
b
Bioenergy Research Unit, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, USDA-ARS, Peoria, Illinios-61604, USA

Abstract

Currently a revolutionary transition is needed in use of greener solvents in chemical industries for a more sustainable world.
Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) are recently developed as one of these types of new solvents considered as bio-
based Ionic liquids (ILs) or Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES). Foreseeing the potential applications of NADES in diverse areas
of research, here we have evaluated the applicability of NADES reagents in cellulosic ethanol production from
lignocellulosic biomass residue rice straw using Cellic Ctec2 and cellobiose-fermenting yeast strain Clavispora NRRL Y-
50464. Enzymatic saccharification of NADES pretreated rice straw produced maximum reducing sugars of 389 g/L was
achieved at 40 % solids loading and 12 FPU/g of cellulase enzyme in 48 h. This was marginally less when compared to
mild-alkali pretreated rice straw where maximum reducing sugars of 414 g/L was achieved at similar solids and enzyme
loading. Besides, increase in solids loading from 10 % to 40 % increased the rate of sugars production significantly in both
batch and fed-batch saccharification. Subsequently with the yeast strain NRRL Y-50464 an ethanol production of 36.7 g/L
was achieved within 36 h from the so-formed reducing sugars (at 8 % measured glucose concentration) with a conversion
efficiency of 90.1%.

Keywords: NADES; biomass pretreatment; saccharification, fermentation, cellulosic ethanol

1. Introduction

At present naturally available resources are getting depleted at a rapid pace for sustainability of the world
population and equal demand for industrial development. This needs a serious attention of new technologies
which utilizes minimum energy and must not have any impact on ecosystem. In this process, major role is from
chemical industries and developing ‘green solvents’ is a suitable option to replace the currently existing
conventional harsh organic solvents for synthesis of a wide range of products [1-3]. In this process, natural deep
eutectic solvents (NADES) have recently emerged as a new class of green solvents which have similar physico-
chemical properties to ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DES) [4]. These reagents are composed of
two or more chemical compounds that are generally plant based primary metabolites, i.e. organic acids, sugars,
alcohols, amines and amino acids [1]. In contrary to ILs and DES, the NADES reagents are entirely
biorenewable, biodegradable, non-toxic, highly specific, low-cost compounds [5]. Besides these, synthesis of
NADES reagents is simple and nearly 100 % of the reagent could be recovered after application with no loss in
efficiency for reuse [4]. These properties make the NADES reagents superior and most advanced green solvents
over the currently existing organic solvents.
In biorenewable energy production from lignocellulosic biomass is not yet economically viable. There are a
number of factors that make second generation technologies very expensive [6]. One of these includes the high
energy costs associated with biomass pretreatement step in the production of cellulosic ethanol. However, to
enhance the sustainability of biofuel production, there is a desire to move from applicability of hazardous
organic chemicals to biodegradable green solvents [1]. The selection of such green solvents must be besides
being eco-friendly and low-cost; they should not produce any waste by-products which may further possess an
environmental concern for safe disposal. The biggest challenge associated with ILs and DES is their negative
effect on cellulose degrading enzymes and ethanol fermenting yeasts. Most of the commercially available
cellulase enzymes are not stable in high concentrations of these reagents [7, 8]. Thus there is a need to develop
suitable NADES reagents which does not have any effect on either cellulase enzymes or the yeast strains. Here,
we have presented synthesis of few NADES reagents for selective pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass and

714
also evaluated the applicability of these green solvents on biomass pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and
cellulosic ethanol production.

Nomenclature

NADES Natural deep eutectic solvents

ILs Ionic liquids
DES Deep eutectic solvents
CC-GLY Choline chloride/glycerol
FPU Filter paper unit
DNSA Dinitro salicylic acid
NRRL Northern regional research laboratory
YP Yeast peptone
HPLC High performance liquid chromatography
rpm rotations per minute
mm millimetre
h hour
min minute
w/w weight by weight
v/v volume by volume
NREL National renewable energy laboratory

2. Methods

2.1. Biomass feedstock and NADES synthesis

In the present investigation, rice straw was selected as the lignocellulosic feedstock. Rice straw biomass was
procured from local agricultural fields of Anand, Gujarat. Before pretreatment, the biomass was extensively
washed with water, dried and then pre-sized to 2-10 mm length using a mechanical hammer mill. The detailed
procedure of preparation of NADES reagents was reported by us recently [7, 9]. In brief, two different chemical
components at selected molar ratios were physically mixed in a closed container and then incubated at 50 oC
under constant shaking for a period of 30 min to 2 h till a clear liquid is formed. Choline chloride and betaine
were used as hydrogen acceptors while a range of different types of natural acids were selected as hydrogen
donors. The acids tested in this study were malic acid, 2-propanediol, citric acid, tartaric acid, glycerol,
ethanediol, lactic acid and oxalic acid, respectively (Table 1).

2.2. Biomass pretreatment and lignin extraction

CC-GLY at a molar ratio of 1:1 was selected for biomass pretreatment based on our recent cellulase enzyme and
yeast stability studies in NADES reagents [7]. In brief, the NADES reagent was mixed with 5 % (w/w) rice
straw and incubated at 121 oC for 15 min. The pretreated solid biomass residue was then separated from the
NADES reagent using glass fiber filtration method. For lignin extraction, the liquid fraction was diluted with
distilled water (~ 6 to 7-fold) and incubated at 4 oC till the lignin was precipitated. The precipitated lignin was
separated from NADES reagent and dried to powder. Detailed procedures of biomass pretreatment and lignin
extraction were described in our recent report [9].

2.3. Enzymatic saccharification

Enzymatic hydrolysis of the NADES pretreated ricestraw was performed in batch and fed-batch modes (Table
2). The solids loading and enzyme loading tested were 10, 20, 30 and 40 % (w/w) and 9, 12 and 15 FPU of
Cellic Ctec2, respectively. For batch mode, the biomass and enzyme were added into the reactor at the start of
the hydrolysis, whereas in fed-batch, the biomass loading was increased gradually in steps of 5 % at 8 h, 24 h
and 36 h, respectively. The saccharification experiments were conducted in a horizontal free falling reactor
(Bangalore Genei, India) at 50 oC with a constant agitation speed of 16 rpm for 48 h. Samples were collected at
regular intervals and then the reducing sugars concentration was measured following DNSA method [10]. The
glucose and xylose contents in the reducing sugars were also quantified using HPLC.

715
2.4. Ethanol fermentation

Ethanol production from the reducing sugars was carried out using Clavispora NRRL Y-50464 in submerged
fermentation. The glucose concentration in the reducing sugars was adjusted to a final concentration of 8 % with
sterile deionized water. The growth of yeast strain Y-50464 was maintained on YP+ media and was described
previously [11, 12]. Freshly grown overnight culture was used as inoculum (3% v/v) for ethanol fermentation.
The reactor was then incubated at 37 oC for 24 h. Samples were withdrawn at regular intervals and measured the
ethanol production and glucose consumption using HPLC.

2.5. Analytical experiments

Physico-chemical characterization of the NADES reagents was evaluated. Conductivity tests were performed at
ambient temperature (27 oC) using a Eutech PCD650 conductivity instrument (ThermoFischer Scientific Inc.,
USA) equipped with pH and temperature measurement facility. Viscosity tests were measured using Redwood
Viscometer (Model no: CS504, make: Haryana Co., India) at atmospheric pressure at 30 oC. Qualitative and
quantitative analysis of the lignin extract was performed by UV-Vis spectroscopy method. Compositional
analysis of the lignocellulosic biomass was done following standard NREL protocol. The detailed procedure of
all the analytical experiments were described previously [7, 9].

3. Results and Discussion

Due to the surplus availability of rice straw in the Asian region [13], in the present study rice straw was
selected as the lignocellulosic biomass for cellulosic ethanol production. Different types of natural deep eutectic
solvents were prepared and tested for biomass pretreatment. A detailed list of NADES reagents and its
components and molar ratio is shown in table 1. The preparation, conductivity and viscosity properties of the
NADES reagents were recently described in our earlier report [7]. Based on our previously research results on
stability studies of cellulic ctec2 and Y-50464 in different NADES reagents, In our earlier studies, we have
reported that cellic ctec2 was stable with no loss in enzyme activity in 30% of CC-GLY, CC-ED and CC-PD,
respectively. Besides, we have also reported that the growth profile of clavispora NRRL Y-50646 was also
found not be not affected in 10% CC-GLY and CC-PD reagents [7]. Based on these observations, CC-GLY was
selected as suitable NADES reagent for biomass pretreatment, reducing sugars production and ethanol
fermentation.

Table 1. List of NADES reagents evaluated in the present study

S. No NADES reagent Molar ratio Legend
Component 1 Component 2
1 Betaine Malic acid 1:1 BMA
2 Betaine Citric acid 1:1 BCA
3 Betaine Lactic acid 1:1 BLA
4 Betaine Tartaric acid 1:1 BTA
5 Citric acid Malic acid 1:1 CA-MA
6 Choline chloride Glycerol 1:1 CC-OA
7 Choline chloride Lactic acid 1:1 CC-MAL
8 Choline chloride 1,2-propane diol 1:1 CC-PD
9 Choline chloride Glycerol 1:1 CC-GLY
10 Choline chloride Ethanediol 1:1 CC-ED

Biomass pretreatment with CC-GLY resulted in more than 60% extraction of lignin into the liquid fraction
which was recovered by precipitation with water and dried to powder form. The water is recovered by vaccum
distillation process and reused for next cycle of lignin precipitation. Unlike acid pretreatment, where
hemicelluloses are degraded, no effect on either cellulose or hemicellulose fraction was observed with the
NADES reagent. It was reported that choline chloride stabilizes the celluloses by forming strong hydrogen bond
interactions and thus has no role in hydrolysis of celluloses [14].

716
 Table 2: Summary of saccharification conditions for hydrolysis of NADES pretreated rice straw
Solids Time Batch type Fed-batch type
loading (h) solids concentration Enzyme concentration Solids concentration Enzyme concentration
(g) (FPU/g) (g) (FPU/g)
Initial Final Initial Final Initial Final Initial Final
10 % 0 1 1 9 9 0.5 0.5 18 18
8 -- -- -- -- 0.5 1.0 18 9
24 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
36 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20 % 0 2 2 9 9 1.0 1.0 18 18
8 -- -- -- -- 0.5 1.5 18 13.5
24 -- -- -- -- 0.5 2.0 13.5 9
36 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30 % 0 3 3 9 9 1.0 1.0 27 27
8 -- -- -- -- 1.0 2.0 27 18
24 -- -- -- -- 1.0 3.0 18 9
36 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 % 0 4 4 9 9 1.5 1.5 36 36
8 -- -- -- -- 1.5 3.0 36 18
24 -- -- -- -- 1.0 4.0 18 9
36 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The solid residual biomass enriched in holocellulose when subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis released high
yields of reducing sugars. Detailed set-up enzymatic hydrolysis experiments of the NADES pretreated rice straw
in both batch and fed-batch type is shown in Table 2. There were several reports on achieving high sugar yields
from fed-batch saccharification [15, 16]. This was mainly due to the presence of high concentrations of total
enzyme loadings at the start of the experiment and also effective mixing of the enzyme with the biomass,
especially at high solids loading. Although with mild-alkali pretreated rice straw marginally higher reducing
sugars are released compared to NADES pretreated rice straw, recovery and reuse of mild-alkali after
pretreatment was not economical and involves several steps of post-processing. The concentration of reducing
sugars increased with biomass loading and maximum sugars of 479 g/L was observed at 40 % solids loading of
mild-alkali pretreated rice straw at 15 FPU of cellic ctec2 enzyme. While, with NADES pretreated rice straw,
maximum reducing sugars of 389 g/L was observed at 40 % solids loading in batch mode. Thereafter increase in
enzyme loading decreased the reducing sugars in both batch and fed-batch type saccharification. The reason of
decrease of reducing sugars is not clear. The detailed reducing sugars and its efficiency from mild-alkali and
NADES pretreated rice straw is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw pretreated with mild-alkali and NADES reagents
Saccharification type Enzyme loading Solids loading Alkali treated NADES treated
(w/w) Sugars (g/L) Efficiency (%) Sugars (g/L) Efficiency (%)
Batch 9 FPU 10 % 146 99 101 90
20 % 187 61 172 66
30 % 262 42 263 56
40 % 313 13 332 85
Fed-batch 10 % 152 99 106 99
20 % 269 95 152 56
30 % 283 46 239 46
40 % 321 17 306 24
Batch 12 FPU 10 % 148 99 128 81
20 % 281 84 247 79
30 % 386 56 292 50
40 % 412 22 389 18
Fed-batch 10 % 148 99 128 81
20 % 324 88 294 94
30 % 422 54 302 45
40 % 422 23 336 21
Batch 15 FPU 10 % 141 99 111 99
20 % 255 55 208 67
30 % 389 57 307 39
40 % 457 19 383 18
Fed-batch 10 % 141 99 102 85
20 % 283 77 168 64
30 % 434 47 220 37
40 % 479 19 314 15

The reducing sugars were collected and then diluted with citrate buffer (pH 6.5) to obtained final 8 % glucose
concentration. These sugars when subjected to typical submerged fermentation with Clavispora NRRL Y-50464
yielded 36.7 g/ L of ethanol within 36 h at conversion efficiency of 90.1 %. The glucose was completely

717
consumed within 24 h (Fig. 1). Lower level of ethanol was obtained when the glucose concentration was
maintained at 5 % [7]. However, increasing the glucose concentration does not show any significant increase in
ethanol yields (data not shown). Besides, these irrespective of the solids loading, all the ethanol yields were
found to be nearly similar. With both mild-alkali and NADES pretreated rice straw, increasing the cellulase
enzyme loading decreased the ethanol yield marginally. This was mainly due to high enzyme concentrations that
interfere with the yeast growth and concomitantly the rate of ethanol production.

Fig 1. Ethanol production and reducing sugars consumption by Clavispora NRRL Y-50464

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Director, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, Gujarat, India,
for support of this research and Novozymes Inc Lts for providing Cellic Ctec2. The research work is financially
supported by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), AICRP-EAAI, Govt. of India.

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[16] K. Liu, X. Lin, J. Yue, X. Li, X. Fang, M. Zhu, J. Lin, Y. Qu, L. Xiao. Biores. Technol. 101 (2010) 4952-4958.

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 ICAER-2015

Controlled Electrochemical Growth of Spinel NiCo 2S 4

Nanosheets on Nickel Foam for High Performance
Supercapacitor Applications

Surjit Sahooa, Kusha Kumar Naika, and Chandra Sekhar Routa,*

a
School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar-751013, India

Email: csrout@iitbbs.ac.in

Abstract

Spinel metal oxides/sulfides possess higher reversible capacity, better electronic conductivity and have been investigated for
high performance electrode materials for supercapacitors. Herein, we report a facile, low-cost and one-step electrodeposition
approach for the synthesis of thin film NiCo 2 S 4 (NCS) nanosheet arrays on Ni foam substrate. The elemental composition
and morphology of the materials are characterized by energy dispersive x-ray analysis and field-emission scanning electron
microscopy. The supercapacitor performance of the NCS nanosheets are studied in three electrode configuration in 2M KOH
electrolyte. The as-prepared binder free electrode showed a high specific capacitance of 1500 F/g at 3 A/g with excellent
cycling stability even after 1000 charge/discharge cycles. Obtained energy density and power density of the NCS nanosheets
are 50.58 Wh/Kg and 12.978 Kw/Kg respectively. The superior electrochemical performances are mainly attributed to its
nanosheet like structure which provides large reaction surface area, fast ion and electron transfer rate.

Keywords: Nanosheet; Electrodeposition; Supercapacitor; NiCo 2 S 4

1. Introduction

The disastrous effects of global warming, climate change, insufficiency of fossil fuels and other non -renewable
energy sources manifest the urgency of clean alternative eco-friendly energy sources [1,2]. So undersupply of
these energy sources and the tricky situation in 21st century are compelled to evolution on unconventional energy
sources and to manufacture devices with enrich energy density and power density like solar cells, fuel cells, battery
and supercapacitor. The remarkable benefits exceeding batteries with regard to power density and cycling
stability, supercapacitor is a fast growing class of energy storage device. Supercapacitors merge the advantages
of high power density of electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) and the high specific energy density of
pseudocapacitors.[3] The evolution of novel nanostructered materials are significant for the enhancement in
specific capacitance (Csp) due to their high surface area. The transition metal oxides and sulfides usually have a
wide range of oxidation states which facilitate the faradic reactions to achieve high specific capacitance.[4,5] The
ternary transition metal oxides and sulfides also show superior electrochemical performance.[6] Driven by the
superb electrochemical performances of the bimetallic oxides, transition metal sulfides such as CoS[7], NiS[8]
and ternary nickel cobalt sulfides (NiCo 2 S 4 )[9] also acquire higher electrical conductivities and also show
promising electrodes for high performance supercapacitors.

Recently, substantial research efforts have been dedicated on the development of NiCo 2 S 4 (NCS)
supercapacitor electrodes because of their excellent electrochemical property. The ternary NCS shows much
higher conductivity than ternary nickel cobalt oxide (NiCo 2 O 4 ) due its lower band gap.[10] Similarly NCS
possess higher redox ability than the single phase metal sulfides because of its synergistic effect of both nickel
and cobalt ions.[7] Wan et al. synthesized porous NiCo 2 S 4 nanotubes by sacrificial template method based on
the kirkendall effect.[11] Xiao et al. prepared 3D cauliflower-like NiCo 2 S 4 architectures by facile one-step and
template-free microwave method.[12] Herein, we have developed a cost effective and simple strategy to fabricate

719
NCS sheet like structure on Ni foam by facile electrodeposition method and studied its supercapacitance
performance for energy storage applications.

2. Experimental section

2.1 materials

In a typical process, Ni(NO 3 ) 2 .6H 2 O (0.01M), Co(NO 3 ) 2 .6H 2 O (0.02M), KCl (0.01M) and Thiocetamide
(0.06M) were first dissolved in 10ml DI water and then the solution was ultrasonicated for 10 min at room
temperature. Prior to electrodeposition, the Ni foam of cross sectional area 1 x 1 cm2 was cleaned by
ultrasonication in ethanol and DI water for 10 min to remove surface contaminant.

2.2 Growth of Nanosheets on Ni foam

The electrodeposition of NCS nanosheets on Ni foam substrate was carried out by chrono-amperometric
technique in a glass cell with three electrode configuration using a PG 262A potentiostat/galvanostat (Techno
Science Ltd. Banglore). The three electrodes of the electrodeposition set-up consist of Pt wire as counter electrode,
Ag/AgCl as reference electrode and Ni foam as working electrode. During electrodeposition, the working
electrode (Ni foam) was dipped in to the solution and a potential of 1.1V was applied for 180s and the as prepared
electrolyte solution was maintained at a temperature of 70°C. After electrodeposition, the NCS coated Ni foam
was dried at room temperature followed by annealing at 60°C for 2h. Mass of the NCS sample fabricated on the
1x1 cm2 Ni foam substrate was found to be 1.7 mg. The morphology and elemental composition of the NCS
nanosheets was investigated by FESEM (MERLIN compact with GEMENI I electron column, Zeiss Pvt.Ltd,
Germany)

2.3 Evaluation of electrochemical properties

The electrochemical measurements for supercapacitor studies were performed in a three electrode
electrochemical cell in 2M aqueous KOH solution. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) and charge-discharge (CD)
measurements were carried out at different scan rates and different current densities by keeping the potential
window 0.5V (-0.1V to 0.4V) vs Ag/AgCl at room temperature. The specific capacitance (C sp ), energy density
and power density were calculated by using the formulas reported elsewhere [8-11]. The specific capacitance
(C sp ) was calculated from cyclic voltammetry curves using the following equation;

∫ ( ) 𝑑𝑑
= (1)
𝑚𝑚 2� − �

Where the integral part in the numerator gives the area under the CV curve, m is the mass of the sample deposited
on the Ni foam surface, s is the scan rate and [V f -V i ] is the potential window (V f and V i are the final and initial
potential values respectively). From the charge/discharge curves, specific capacitance of the material was
calculated using the following equation;

= (2)
( )

Where I is the discharge current, m is the mass of the sample deposited on the Ni foam surface and dV/dt is the
slope of the discharge curve.

3. Results and discussion

NCS nanosheets are grown on Ni foam substrate. From FESEM images shown in Fig 1a and b it is evident that
the nanosheets are uniformly covered on the substrate. The electrodeposition process was accomplished via
chrono-amperometric technique, in which the potential was maintained at -1.1 V. Under this condition Ni2+ and
Co2+ ions are readily deposited on to the Ni foam substrate at UPD (under potential difference) values of ̴ -0.85
V and ̴ -0.74 V respectively. Subsequently sulfurization occurs due to the presence of thiocetamide. Fig 1(c)
displays the EDAX spectrum and elemental composition of NCS.

To signify the electrochemical performance of the NCS nanosheets as an electrode material for supercaapcitors,
cyclic voltametery (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements were executed using 2M KOH as

720
electrolyte. For CV and CD measurements, the potential window was kept to 0.5V (-0.1V to 0.4V) vs Ag/AgCl
in 2M KOH. Fig 2(a) shows the CV curves of NCS at different scan rates (mV/s). The CV curves are nearly
uniform and showing a pair of redox peaks. These peaks mainly arise from the redox reactions happening with
the Co2+/Co3+ and Ni2+/Ni3+ ions and possibly mediated by the OH- ions in the alkaline electrolyte.[13] These
distinct peaks are caused by the reversible redox processes based on the following proposed reactions:

CoS + OH- ↔ CoSOH + e-

CoSOH + OH- ↔ CoSO + H2O + e-

NiS + OH- ↔ NiSOH + e-

The oxidation peak shifts towards positive potential with increase in scan rate and in a similar manner
the reduction peak shifts towards negative potential which is due to the contribution from the internal resistance
of electrode.[15] From Fig 2(c) it is observed that with increase in scan rate, the specific capacitance decreases
gradually. From the CV curves by using equation 1 we found specific capacitance of 1461 F/g at 1 mV/. Fig 2(b)
shows the charge-discharge curves at different current density and with increase in current density the specific
capacitance decreases moderately. From the CD curves, the calculated highest specific capacitance is 1500 F/g at
3A/g current density. For all the specific capacitance calculation, the mass of NCS loaded on Ni foam is 1.7 mg.
Likewise, we observed decrease in specific capacitance with increase in current density (Fig 2(d)).

Stability of the supercaapcitor electrodes is a factor of immense priority for its use in practical applications for
energy storage applications. In this regard, a long cycle charge-discharge measurement was performed in which
the stability of the hybrid was tested for about 1000 cycles. Fig 3(c) shows the capacitance retention curve of NCS
sample over 1000 cycles with the inset showing the 1000 CD curves. The CD curves of 1000 cycles were carried
out at constant current density of 15 A/g and which shows the excellent cycling stability that means the specific
capacitance calculated from the 1st cycle is nearly equal to the specific capacitance obtained from the 1000th cycle.
Fig 3(b) shows the CD curves of last 5 cycles of 1000 cycles. Fig 3(a) displays the curve between power density
and energy density, which is also known as Ragone plot. From the Ragone plot we found energy density of 50.58
Wh/Kg and power density of 12.97 Kw/Kg. The specific capacitance of the NCS nanosheets is found to be 1500
F/g at 3A/g, which is very much comparable to previous reported values in literature. Zhang et al. have synthesized
NCS by hydrothermal method exhibiting specific capacitance of 1048 F/g at a current density of 3 A/g .[14] Shen
et al. prepared NCS nanosheets grown on nitrogen doped carbon foam showing specific capacitance of 877 F/g
at 20 A/g.[15]

The origin of high supercapacitive performance of NCS nanosheets can be described by the following
observations: (1) the discharge curves of NCS consist of a nonlinear portion, which verifies the pseudocapacitive
behavior of the electrode. Similarly, in CV curves the voltammetry characteristics deviate from the parallelogram,
which also indicates the pseudocapacitive nature of the nanosheets. Hence, the material possesses good
pseudocapacitive behaviour which is contributing to the total electrochemical charge storage. (2) The open and
porous nanosheets increase the specific capacitance due to the high utilization of the electrode material and fast
ion and electron transfer rate. As a consequence, NCS nanosheet showed superior electrochemical behavior, which
was successfully synthesized by a simple electrodeposition method also has a great prospective to be used as a
supercapacitor electrode for next age energy storage devices.

4. Conclusion

In summary, we have developed NCS nanosheets by a facile electrodeposition method on conducting Ni foam
substrate. The electrodeposition and growth mechanism of the NCS nanosheets was discussed and its
supercapacitor performance was tested in 2M KOH aqueous solution. The specific capacitance of the NCS found
to be 1500 F/g at current density of 3A/g with energy density of 50.58 Wh/Kg. Also the nanosheets based
supercapacitor electrodes showed excellent cycling stability even after 1000 charge discharge cycles. The superior
electrochemical performance of the NCS nanosheets demonstrates its possible applications in energy storage
devices.

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5. Figures

Fig. 1. (a, b) SEM images of NCS, (c) EDAX pattern of NCS nanosheets with inset showing percentage of elements.

722
Fig. 2. (a) Comparison of CV curves, (b) comparison of CD curves of supercapacitors based on NCS nanosheets. Change in specific
capacitance with respect to (c) scan rate and (d) current density.

Fig. 3. (a) Ragone plot, (b) charge-discharge curves of last 5 cycles and (c) change in specific capacitance with respect to number of cycles
with inset 1000 cycles.

723
Acknowledgments

Dr. C.S. Rout would like to thank DST (Government of India) for the Ramanujan fellowship. This work was
supported by the DST-SERB Fast-track Young scientist (Grant No. SB/FTP/PS-065/2013), UGC-UKIERI
thematic awards (Grant No. UGC-2013-14/005) and BRNS-DAE, (Grant No. 37(3)/14/48/2014-BRNS/1502).

References

[1] Garg N, Basu M and Ganguli A K 2014 Nickel Cobaltite Nanostructures with Enhanced Supercapacitance Activity J. Phys. Chem.
C 118 17332–41

[2] Zhang S and Pan N 2015 Supercapacitors Performance Evaluation Adv. Energy Mater. 5 n/a – n/a

[3] Zhang Y, Sun C, Su H, Huang W and Dong X 2015 N-doped carbon coated hollow Ni x Co 9− x S 8 urchins for a high performance
supercapacitor Nanoscale 7 3155–63

[4] Wang X, Yan C, Sumboja A and Lee P S 2014 High performance porous nickel cobalt oxide nanowires for asymmetric
supercapacitor Nano Energy 3 119–26

[5] Meher S K, Justin P and Rao G R 2011 Nanoscale morphology dependent pseudocapacitance of NiO: Influence of intercalating
anions during synthesis Nanoscale 3 683–92

[6] Sun M, Tie J, Cheng G, Lin T, Peng S, Deng F, Ye F and Yu L 2015 In situ growth of burl-like nickel cobalt sulfide on carbon
fibers as high-performance supercapacitors J. Mater. Chem. A 3 1730–6

[7] Li J, Xiong S, Liu Y, Ju Z and Qian Y 2013 High electrochemical performance of monodisperse NiCo2O4 mesoporous microspheres
as an anode material for Li-ion batteries ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 5 981–8

[8] Zhang X, Shi W, Zhu J, Zhao W, Ma J, Mhaisalkar S, Maria T L, Yang Y, Zhang H and Hng H H 2010 Synthesis of porous NiO
nanocrystals with controllable surface area and their application as supercapacitor electrodes Nano Res. 3 643–52

[9] Chen W, Xia C and Alshareef H N 2014 One-step electrodeposited nickel cobalt sulfide nanosheet arrays for high-performance
asymmetric supercapacitors ACS Nano 8 9531–41

[10] Chen H, Jiang J, Zhang L, Wan H, Qi T and Xia D 2013 Highly conductive NiCo 2 S 4 urchin-like nanostructures for high-rate
pseudocapacitors Nanoscale 5 8879–83

[11] Wan H, Jiang J, Yu J, Xu K, Miao L, Zhang L, Chen H and Ruan Y 2013 NiCo 2 S 4 porous nanotubes synthesis via sacrificial
templates: high-performance electrode materials of supercapacitors CrystEngComm 15 7649–51

[12] Xiao Y, Lei Y, Zheng B, Gu L, Wang Y and Xiao D 2015 Rapid microwave-assisted fabrication of 3D cauliflower-like NiCo 2 S 4
architectures for asymmetric supercapacitors RSC Adv. 5 21604–13

[13] Peng S, Li L, Li C, Tan H, Cai R, Yu H, Mhaisalkar S, Srinivasan M, Ramakrishna S and Yan Q 2013 In situ growth of NiCo 2 S
4 nanosheets on graphene for high-performance supercapacitors Chem. Commun. 49 10178–80

[14] Zhang Y, Ma M, Yang J, Sun C, Su H, Huang W and Dong X 2014 Shape-controlled synthesis of NiCo 2 S 4 and their charge
storage characteristics in supercapacitors Nanoscale 6 9824–30

[15] Shen L, Wang J, Xu G, Li H, Dou H and Zhang X 2015 NiCo2S4 Nanosheets Grown on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Foams as an
Advanced Electrode for Supercapacitors Adv. Energy Mater., DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201400977

724
 ICAER-2015

Subcritical water hydrolysis of spent Java Citronella biomass for

production of reducing sugar
Robinson Timunga, Vaibhav V. Goudb*
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
a,b

Abstract

The present study investigate the production of reducing sugars from spent Java citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus Jowitt)
biomass using subcritical water (SCW) treatment in a batch reactor. The effect of process parameters such as temperature
(140-220 °C) and reaction time (5-40 min) on total reducing sugar (TRS) yield was studied. The production of TRS increased
with an increase in the temperature from 140-160 °C and decreased thereafter. The maximum amount of TRS 132.09 mg.g-1
biomass was obtained at 160°C and 30 min reaction time. The formation of sugar inhibitors (5-HMF or Furfural) was almost
insignificant upto 160°C, but increased subsequently with an increase in the reaction temperature and time. The maximum
inhibitors concentration of 16.70 mg.g-1 was obtained at 220°C and 30 min reaction time, which includes 5.77 mg.g-1 of 5-
HMF and 10.93 mg.g-1 of furfural. The crystallinity index (CI) value of biomass sample increased from 35.30% to 52.68%
with an increase in the temperature from 140-180°C, further increased in temperature to 220°C decreases the CI abruptly to
20.15% thereby altering the biomass to relatively amorphous. The porous external surface as observed in scanning electron
microscopic analysis of the sample after SCW treatment showed significant removal of sugars and lignin.

Keywords:Subcritical water; Java citronella; Reducing sugars; Inhibitors; X-ray diffraction.

1. Introduction

Biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass being sustainable fuels are potential feedstock for bioenergy
production to meet the increasing energy demand. There has been worldwide extensive research on the utilization
of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of biofuels such as bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas, alongside
reducing greenhouse-gas emissions [1]. Additionally aromatic spent biomasses such as citronella, mentha etc. are
the most abundant and underutilized biological resources due to its cooked condition during essential oil extraction
(mostly distillation), and also a non-cattle feed. The spent biomass of aromatic plants are generally burnt
haphazardly or disposed as waste, leading to environmental problems. India alone produces more than 6.0 million
tons per annum of aromatic spent biomass [2]. Lignocellulosic biomass are composed of structural
polysaccharides; cellulose and hemicellulose wrapped inside lignin. The production of fuels from biomass
requires pretreatment for conversion of holocellulose to their constituent sugars and removal of lignin prior to
hydrolysis and fermentation. Pre-treatment is necessary before hydrolysis in order to provide easy access for
enzymes to convert cellulose to chains of glucose and its isomers, and hemicellulose to xylose and arabinose [3].
The efficiency of conversion of biomass to reducing sugars depends on the choice of biomass and pretreatment
method employed. An ideal biomass for the production of bioenergy should possess high holocellulose content
and calorific value [4]. Different pretreatment methods such as chemical (acid, alkali, organosolv), physical
(ultrasound, milling), physico-chemical (steam explosion, AFEX, liquid hot water) and biological (using
microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria) techniques have been practiced since decades [5], and in this work
subcritical water (SCW) extraction technique was investigated. SCW is defined as hot water in a liquid state at
temperature between 100°C to 374°C maintained under high pressure. SCW hydrolysis technique is an efficient
and one step process for converting biomass to reducing sugars. SCW technology is considered as a green
technique and provides extensive advantages over conventional methods. It is a one-step auto hydrolysis process

* Corresponding author. Tel: (+91) 361 2582272, Fax: (+91) 361 2582291
E-mail address: vvgoud@iitg.ernet.in

725
with less reaction time, non-toxic, non-corrosive etc. and provides wide range of dielectric constant, density and
viscosity to extract desired polar and non-polar compounds by tuning the operational temperature and pressure.
The water at subcritical condition targets the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions of biomass to solubilize and
liberate hexose and pentose sugars, while disrupting lignin and crystalline structure of cellulose [6]. However the
hydrolysis rate and sugar yield depends on the biomass cell structure and composition. SCW extraction has gained
significant interest towards extraction of saccharides from different feedstocks such as cellulose, oil palm fronds,
coconut meal, bamboo, sugarcane bagasse, cotton stalk, tobacco stalk, wheat stalk and sunflower stalk etc. [7-11].
In the SCW treatment of biomass, polysaccharides degrades to oligosaccharides (Degree of polymerization (DP)
<10) or monosaccharides, and monosaccharides decompose to degradation products depending on the operational
temperature and reaction time [12]. This work is an endeavour to evaluate the importance of spent biomass of
aromatic plants. Spent citronella biomass has been chosen due to its abundance as raw material in the North
Eastern India. The present work aims at optimizing the process parameters of SCW hydrolysis of spent citronella
biomass to produce maximum reducing sugars. The physical and chemical changes in the biomass sample after
SCW treatment were evaluated. The results obtained in this study will also helps in understanding the potential
usage of spent aromatic biomass as a feedstock for TRS production.

Nomenclature

CI Crystallinity Index
SCW Subcritical water
TI Total Inhibitors
TRS Total reducing sugars

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Materials
Spent Java citronella biomass (after citronella oil extraction) obtained from Karbi Anglong, Assam (India)
were initially dried, chopped into small pieces, grinded, sieved to 1 mm sizes using 16 BSS mesh screen and then
stored in zipped plastic bags at ambient temperature until used. High pressure bath reactor (Model: 1734, M/s
Amar equipment Pvt. Ltd., India) equipped with stirrer and reactor vessel (500 ml) made of stainless steel with
160 mm height and 75 mm internal diameter was used. The reactor was equipped with pressure gauge and
thermocouple. The standard sugars such as Maltohexaose, Maltopentaose, Raffinose, Cellobiose, Glucose,
Xylose, Arabinose and Erythrose, as well as HMF and furfural (all ≥ 95% purity) were obtained from M/s Himedia
and M/s Sigma Aldrich. Nitrogen gas with 98% purity was purchased from Guwahati, Assam.

2.2. Methodology
Hydrolysis of biomass was carried out in a 500 ml capacity high pressure batch reactor (maximum working
temperature and pressure of 500°C and 350 kg.cm-1respectively) using the procedure as adapted by Mohan et al.,
(2015) [7], at various temperature ranging from 140-220°C, biomass loading (3 wt%) and reaction time 5-40 min.
The nitrogen gas was used to maintain the required pressure such as 52, 89, 145, 225, 335 psi or slightly more for
140, 160, 180, 200 and 220 °C respectively, to keep water at liquid state and also to prevent unnecessary reaction
in the process. Before achieving a set temperature, stirring was performed to disperse the biomass uniformly in
the water. The extraction time was considered from the moment desired reaction temperature was achieved. The
hydrolysate samples were collected through sample outlet at subsequent 5 min interval. At the completion of
reaction, the whole system was cooled to room temperature; residual biomass was collected, dried at 65°C for 48
hr and then characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and
Scanning electron microscope (SEM). The collected liquid samples were filtered using 0.2 µm nylon filter paper
and analysed for sugar content in High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The experiments at
specified conditions were repeated twice and the average values were reported. At the end of every experiment,
the whole system was flashed using millipore water at approximately 220 psi to prevent choking of sample port
and gas inlet port by residual biomass.

726
2.2.1. HPLC analysis of hydrolysate
The hydrolysate were analysed for the estimation of sugars such as maltohexaose, maltopentaose, raffinose,
cellobiose, glucose, xylose, arabinose etc. and inhibitors such as 5-HMF and furfural using HPLC (Perkin Elmer
Series 200) equipped with RI detector, vacuum degasser and network chromatography interface (NCI) 900.
SUPECOGEL Ca column (dimensions, 300 mm length and 7.8 mm inner diameter) connected to Ca* guard
column purchased from Sigma-Aldrich was used. The system was operated at 80°C using a column oven. Milli-
Q water was used as mobile phase at flow rate of 0.8 ml.min-1 and retention time of 30 min. The peaks obtained
were identified by comparing the retention time of standard sugars and quantified using the calibration plots
standardized with at least 5 points of different concentrations.

2.2.2. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis

The biomass crystallinity was estimated using wide angle X-ray diffractometer (Bruker D8 Advanced X-ray
diffraction measurement systems) at the radiation supplied by the accelerated current of 40 mA and voltage of 40
kV. The diffraction angle (2θ) scan range was 10-28° at a scan speed 1°.min-1 and step size of 0.05° [7].
Crystallinity Index (CI) was calculated based on the intensity of amorphous region at ~18.5±0.05° of 2θ (I amp )
and the maximum intensity obtained from crystalline fraction at ~ 22.2±0.1°of 2θ (I 002 ) according to Eq. (1).
I 002 - I amp (1)
CI (%) = ×100
I 002

2.2.3. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis

FTIR spectra of biomass samples were obtained from FTIR spectrometer “IR Affinity1” (Shimadzu
Corporation, Japan), measured at the range between 4000-400 cm-1 with nominal resolution of 2 cm-1 and 30 scans
per spectrum. IR grade potassium bromide (KBr) was used as reference. 20 mg of biomass sample was mixed
with 30 mg of spectroscopic grade dried KBr, grinded well for proper mixing and directly taken for the FTIR
analysis. The baseline corrections and variations of frequency was applied using Shimadzu IR solution 1.5
software supplied with the equipment [7, 13].

2.2.4. Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) analysis

The dry biomass samples were fixed with a conducting adhesive carbon tape on an aluminum sample holder.
Sputter gold coating was performed 2–3 times to prevent charging. All the specimens were qualitatively examined
in scanning electron microscope (LEO 1430vp, Germany) [7], under vacuum condition at accelerating voltage of
8 kV and 10 kV, and the working distance of 15 mm or 13 mm. The image was taken at the magnification of 1.78
KX.

3. Results and Discussions

The spent aromatic biomass with cellulose and hemicelluloses as major components in its compositions was
hydrolysed using SCW treatment at varying conditions to produce TRS. Different oligo and mono saccharides
such as maltohexaose, maltopentaose, raffinose, cellobiose, glucose, xylose, arabinose and erythrose were
released at different reaction conditions. The release of total sugars initially increased with an increase in the
hydrolysis time and temperature up to 30 min and 160°C, but decreased further. This may be attributed to the fact
that oligosaccharides and monosaccharides degrades much faster than the cellulose or hemicellulose or lignin
[14]. Hence before the complete conversion of total sugars from holocellulose, the oligosaccharides or
monosaccharides which were released disintegrate to other degradation products [15]. The overall degradation
profile can be explained as – polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose) converts into oligosaccharides
(maltohexaose, maltopentaose, raffinose, cellobiose etc.) and monosaccharides (glucose, xylose, arabinose etc.),
afterwards as temperature increases the oligosaccharides degrades to di, tri or monosaccharides and later
monosaccharides degrades to sugar inhibitors (5-HMF, Furfural etc.) with further increase in the reaction
temperature and time (Fig.1).

727
Fig. 1. HPLC chromatogram of hydrolysate samples for different temperatures at 30 min reaction time; A:
Maltohexaose, B: Maltopentaose, C: Raffinose, D: Cellobiose, E: Glucose, F: Xylose, G: Arabinose, H: Erythrose,
I: 5-HMF, J: Furfural.

Temperature remains the most influencing factor in the SCW hydrolysis process. The increase in reaction
temperature provides higher mass transfer and reduces surface tension of water thereby increases the solubility of
the targeted compounds and provides high diffusivity through the sample matrix [8, 16]. The increase in TRS
production with an increase in the temperature from 140-160 °C revealed that hydrolysis rate increases with an
increase in the temperature. However, with further increase (180°C up to 220°C) in the temperature TRS
production decreased, which suggests that the degradation rate of monosaccharides was higher than the conversion
rate of saccharides from the lignocellulosic material at higher temperature. Reaction time is another important
factor which affects the TRS formation and is dependent on the temperature and matrix of targeted compounds
[17]. The effect of reaction time (i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 min) on the release of reducing sugars was
evaluated. The degradation of polysaccharide to oligosaccharide and monosaccharide at lower temperature
increases the production of TRS, but further increase in the reaction time and temperature resulted to decrease in
TRS production which might be due to the degradation of saccharides to inhibitors (i.e. 5-HMF and furfural) as
can be seen from Table 1.

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Table 1. Effect of time and temperature on release of TRS and total inhibitors (TI)
Time 140°C 160°C 180°C 200°C 220°C
(min) TRS TI TRS TI TRS TI TRS TI TRS TI
5 68.38 0 70.82 0 80.83 1.47 40.22 4.30 34.43 10.23
10 72.96 0 81.60 0 97.15 2.73 52.76 9.47 38.15 13.20
15 81.84 0 92.93 0 99.34 5.07 71.58 10.97 45.55 13.67
20 89.52 0 105.89 0 108.49 6.07 86.60 11.73 59.87 14.17
25 95.57 0 119.16 0 119.83 7.00 90.68 12.80 82.83 15.43
30 97.99 0 132.09 0 124.97 7.97 89.53 13.10 81.18 16.70
35 95.73 0 108.83 0 123.51 6.83 88.55 11.07 73.59 14.93
40 72.25 0 85.60 0 102.45 6.13 85.75 10.17 66.84 11.47
All calculations are based on mg.g-1 of biomass

The maximum TRS (132.09 mg.g-1) was obtained at 160°C and 30 min, which includes 52.24 mg.g-1 of
maltohexaose, 0.70 mg.g-1 of maltopentaose, 1.13 mg.g-1 of raffinose, 10.37 mg.g-1 of cellobiose, 26.01 mg.g-1 of
glucose, 26.33 mg.g-1 of xylose (maximum release amount of xylose) and 15.33 mg.g-1 of arabinose. The release
of glucose increases with temperature producing maximum (27.01 mg.g-1) at 200°C and 30 min. Maximum
maltohexaose, maltopentaose, raffinose, cellobiose and arabinose obtained were 54.10 mg.g-1 (at 160°C, 25 min),
5.86 mg.g-1 (at 180°C, 15 min), 7.85 mg.g-1 (at 160°C, 5 min), 25.73 mg.g-1 (at 160°C, 30 min) and 20.67 mg.g-1
(at 160°C, 30 min) respectively. On the other hand, maximum inhibitors (16.70 mg.g-1) were produced at 220°C
and 30 min reaction time, which includes 5.77 mg.g-1 of 5-HMF and 10.93 mg.g-1 of furfural. Decreased in the
concentration of 5-HMF and furfural after 30 min reaction time suggested that these compounds are not stable up
to longer time in the reaction mixture and degrades to levulinic acid and 1-2-4 benzenenitrol [18].

3.1. XRD analysis

The XRD analysis was performed to estimate the crystallinity index of hydrolysed biomass. The degradation
of hemicellulose and amorphous cellulose occurs at lower temperature followed by higher degradation of
crystalline cellulose at higher temperature [19]. The XRD pattern and CI (%) of SCW treated sample at different
temperature can be observed from Fig. 2. The CI (%) of spent citronella biomass was 34.91%. The CI of SCW
treated biomass sample increased from 35.30% to 52.68% with an increase in the temperature from 140-180°C.
This may be attributed to the effective removal of certain amount of lignin and hemicellulose from biomass and
not necessarily due to changes in the crystalline structure of the spent biomass. Further increase in the temperature
decreases the CI, which indicates the disruption of crystalline structure of cellulose. The CI at 200°C and 220°C
were 29.57% and 20.15% respectively,

Fig. 2. XRD pattern of SCW treated sample at different temperature.

729
3.2. FTIR analysis
FTIR of untreated, spent and SCW treated citronella biomass (at 140°C, 180°C and 220°C) was performed
to compare the chemical changes in distribution of different functional groups which might have altered due to
degradation of the biomass (Fig. 3). There was an intense strong and sharp peak in the range of 3800-3200 cm-1
particularly at 3764.42 in all samples, which mostly represents the polymeric free hydroxyl (O-H) stretch. Another
intense and diverged peak observed in the range of 2935-2915 cm-1 corresponds to the aliphatic alkyl group C-H
methyl and methylene asymmetric stretch. Terminal aldehydic C-H stretch was found at around 2830 cm-1. A
characteristic medium peak was noticed at around 2372.28 cm-1 which may corresponds to certain cyano carbons.
Another distinct and sharp peak at 1750-1705 cm-1 in all the samples signifies un-conjugated xylan as well as aldo,
keto, estero and or acido (C=O) stretch. A medium peak at 1529.47 cm-1 corresponding to aromatic C=C ring and
lignin ring stretch was also observed. On the other hand, methylene C-H stretch (1485-1445 cm-1) and methyl C-
H symmetric band in cellulose and hemicellulose (1380-1371 cm-1) is present in all the samples. Moreover
CH=CH trans-unsaturated (910-860 cm-1) functional group with sharp peaks are also observed. Boeriu et al.,
(2004) reported most of the above stretches for lignin, which indicates that lignin is dispersed in the residue [20].
The peak at ~1450 and ~894 cm-1 represents the crystalline and amorphous fractions of cellulose respectively [13,
21]. Miniscule changes was observed in all the samples except the disappearance of the peaks at 899 cm-1 at 200°C
and 220°C revealed the maximum degradation of cellulose fractions to sugars.

Fig. 3. FTIR analysis of Citronella biomass (Untreated biomass, spent biomass and SCW treated biomass at
140°C, 180°C and 220°C).

3.3. SEM analysis

SEM analysis of the samples showed significant morphological changes after subsequent treatment. SEM
images of untreated plant material showed smooth surface, and the cells of untreated plant material are intact (Fig.
4 (a)). After the extraction of oil it was observed that the cellular content of plant tissues distorted due to extensive
thermal stress on the oil glands causing rapid expansion extending to disruption and releasing the oil as represented
in Fig. 4 (b). Comparing the structural changes of untreated sample image with the insoluble fraction of treated
sample after SCW treatment, exposed pores can be seen on the surface of hydrolysed biomass as depicted in Fig.
4 (c), revealed de-polymerization of holocellulose and removal of significant amount of lignin [22].

730
Fig. 4. SEM images of Citronella biomass; (a) Untreated (b) Spent biomass and (c) after SCW treatment.

4. Conclusion
In the SCW hydrolysis of spent citronella biomass, the released of oligosaccharides such as maltohexaose,
maltopentaose, cellobiose etc. increased with reaction time at lower temperatures (140-160°C), but decreased at
higher temperature, because of its disintegration to monosaccharides (glucose, xylose and arabinose). Further
increased in the reaction temperature and time degraded the monosaccharides to sugar inhibitors such as 5-HMF,
furfural etc. SCW technology which is relatively simple, efficient and environment friendly remains a promising
process for the production of TRS from lignocellulosic biomass.

Acknowledgement
The work reported in this article was financially supported by a research grant received under Fast Track
Scheme from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India (No. SR/FTP/ETA-
0018/2010). Authors would like to thank Mr Mood Mohan and Mr Narendra Naik for their help during this work.
The authors also wish to thank the Central Instrument Facilities of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for
providing analytical facilities.

References
[1] M.A.Rostagno, J.M.Prado, R.Vardanega, M.A.Meireles, Chem. Eng. Trans.37(2014) 403–408.
[2] P.K.Rout, A.D.Nannaware, R.Rajeasekharan, (2013) WO2013102911A1.
[3] V.B.Agbor, N.Cicek, R.Sparling, A.Berlin, D.B.Levin, Biotechnology Advances. 29(2011) 675-685.
[4] M.Carrier, A.Loppinet-Serani, D.Denux, J.M.Lasnier, F.Ham-Pichavant, F.Cansell, C.Aymonier,Biomass & Bioenergy. 35(2011) 298–
307.
[5] Y.Zheng, Z.Pan, R.Zhang, Int J Agric & Biol Eng. 2(2009) 51-65.
[6]G.Zhu, Z.Xiao, X.Zhu, F.Yi, X.Wan,Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy.15(2013) 55–61.
[7] M.Mohan, T.Banerjee, V.V.Goud, Bioresource Technology. 191 (2015) 244–252.

731
[8] O.Akpinar, K.Erdogan, S.Bostanci, Carbohydrate Research. 344(2009) 660-666.
[9] M.Sasaki, Z.Fang, Y.Fukushima, T.Adschiri, K.Arai, Ind. and Eng.Chem Res. 39 (2000) 2883-2890.
[10] R.Norsyabilah, S.Hanim, M.Norsuhaila, A.Noraishah, S.Kartina, Malays J Anal Sci. 17 (2013) 272-275.
[11] P.Khuwijitjaru, A.Pokpong, K.Klinchongkon, S.Adachi, Int J Food Sci Technol. 49 (2014) 1946-1952.
[12] F.P.Cardenas-Toro, S.C.Alcazar-Alay, T.Forster-Carneiro, M.A.A.Meireles, Food and public health. 4 (2014) 123-139.
[13] R.Timung, M.Mohan, B.Chilukoti, S.Sasmal, T.Banerjee, V.V.Goud, Biomass & Bioenergy. 81 (2015) 9-18.
[14] M.Khajenoori, A.HaghighiAsl, F.Hormozi, M.H.Eikani, H.Noori, Journal of Food Process Engineering. 32 (2009)804–816.
[15] S.M.Zakaria, S.M.M. Kamal, Food Eng Rev. (2015) ISSN: 1866-7910.
[16]Y.Zhao, W.J.Lu, H.T.Wang, D.Li, Environmental Science & Technology. 43(2009) 1565–1570.
[17]Z.Chao, Y.Ri-fu, Q.Tai-qiu, Separation and Purification energy. 120(2013)141-147.
[18] R.Norsyabilah, S.Hanim, M.Norsuhaila, A.Noraishah, S.Kartina, Malays J Anal Sci, 17(2013)272-275.
[19]E.Quintana, C.Valls, A.G.Barneto, M.B. Roncero, Carbohydrate polymers. 119 (2015) 53-61.
[20] C.G. Boeriu, D. Bravol, R.J.A. Gosselink, J.E.G. Dam, Industrial crops and products. 20 (2004) 205-218.
[21] S.Y. Oh, D.I.I. Yoo, Y. Shin, G. Seo, Carbohydrate research. 340 (2005) 417-428.
[22] E.C. Giese, M. Pierozzi, K.J. Dussán, A.K.Chandel, S.S. Da Silva, J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 88(2013) 1266–1272.

732
 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HYBRID SOLAR
COOKING AND WATER HEATING SYSTEM

Jignesh N. Patel a, Sukritindra Soni b, Dr.Dipak M. Patel c

a,b
Merchant Institute of Technology, Piludara, India
c
L.C. Institute of Technology, Bhandu, India

Abstract

The energy obtains from the solar radiation by the Concentrating system. Here design and analysis is carried out for combined
hybrid system of solar cooker and water heater. Hybrid system develops and fabricate for three research objectives ENERGY,
ECOLOGY & ECONOMY. Study the effects of the solar cooker on its performance with wrapping water circulating copper tube
for heat recovery system. More than 85% of the incoming solar energy is either reflected or absorbed as heat energy. The hybr id
concentrating collector technology using water as the heat recover has been seen as a solution for improving the energy
performance. The study was carried out to evaluate the combined effect of solar cooker with water heating system. Our observation
is that very few studies and design appropriate recommendations are made which will aid solar cooker with water heating systems
(thermosyphonic) to improve their overall, thermal efficiency and reducing their cost and utilize energy for making combination
of solar cooker with water heating system. With this type of hybrid system saving increased and return on investment is faster so
payback period of investment is reduced. System is utilized for more hours/day for cooking as well as water heating.

Keywords: Solar energy; Solar water heater, Solar cooker, Hybrid system

1. Introduction

Solar cooking offers an effective method of utilizing solar energy for meeting a considerable demand for cooking
energy and hence, protecting environment. Solar energy can make a major contribution to the energy needs for cooking
food. Cooking with solar cookers is an energy-efficient, pollution-free way to help fight global warming and take
advantage of nature’s free, inexhaustible energy supply. The solar radiation directly falls on the collector surface and
the solar energy is converted into thermal energy. Water is circulated in tube and gets heated by solar energy. Heated
water is then stored in the storage tank for use in the process. The majority of renewable energy technologies are
directly or indirectly powered by sun, and account for over 99.9% of the renewable energy on the earth. Solar energy
- a perfect solution of 3 E’s: energy, ecology and economy.

Ali A. Badran et al. [1] have been designed, built and tested to A portable solar water heater and solar cooker. A higher
collector efficiency and cooking power was achieved in glass cover pot comparison with and bare pot. After to using
alternate system cooking and water heating that increase the performance of system.M. R. Riazi, et al. [2] have been
investigated the performance and rate of heat transfer in copper tubes in solar water heaters with thermosyphonic flow.
We also show a comparison between performances of three kinds of tubes: copper, polypropylene and steel under
similar conditions. A comparison of experimental data showed that performance of copper tubes is slightly better than
polypropylene tubes while both of these tubes are significantly better than steel tubes.

733
Antonio Lecuona et al. [3] reviews relevant issues on solar cooking in order to define and evaluate an innovative
layout of a portable solar cooker of the standard concentrating parabolic type that incorporates a daily thermal storage
utensil. This utensil is formed by two conventional coaxial cylindrical cooking pots, an internal one and a larger
external one. The void space between the two coaxial pots is filled with a phase change material (PCM) forming an
intermediate jacket. The results indicate that cooking the lunch for a family is possible simultaneously with heat
storage along the day. Keeping afterwards the utensil inside an insulating box indoors allows cooking the dinner with
the retained heat and also the next day breakfast. This expands the applicability of solar cooking and sustains the
possibility of all the day around cooking using solar energy with a low inventory cost.Maxime Mussard et al. [4] have
been investigated comparative experimental study of two solar cookers. The first is the widespread SK14 cooker; the
second is a prototype of a solar concentrator (parabolic trough) using a storage unit. The SK14 is a direct solar cooker
where the cooking pot is placed on the focal point of a parabolic dish; in the trough system heat is transported from
an absorber to a storage unit by means of a self-circulation loop filled with thermal oil. Following these experiments,
simulations are conducted to optimize and improve the system. Cooking on a heat storage with optimized surface
contact is proved to be less effective as competitive with standard solar cookers or other cooking devices.

M.M. Valmiki et al. [5] presents a novel design and the prototyped solar cooking stove which uses a large Fresnel lens
for the concentration of sunlight. The technology demonstrates high safety and efficiency of solar cooking and heating
using Fresnel lenses which are low cost and available from off-the-shelf. The stove has a fixed heat-receiving area
located at the focal point of the lens. The sunlight tracking system rotates the Fresnel lens about its focal point in both
zenith and azimuth angles. The tracking is accomplished through a revolving motion of two rotation arms that hold
the lens and a horizontal rotation of a platform that the lens system stands on. The rotation of the arms tracks the
sunlight in zenith plane, while the rotation of the platform tracks in the azimuth plane. Since the solar tracking allows
the Fresnel lens to concentrate sunlight to a fixed small heat-receiving area, relatively low heat loss and high energy
efficiency is made possible. The heat is used to maintain a stovetop surface at temperatures around as high as 300°C,
which is practical for cooking applications in a very safe, user-friendly, and convenient manner. The system also
demonstrates the possibility of transferring heat using a working fluid for indoor heating and cooking. Wider
applications using the system for solar thermal collection and utilization are also undergoing development.

Ibrahim ladan mohammed et al. [6] has been investigated the design and development of a parabolic dish solar water
heater for domestic hot water application (up to 100°C) is described. The heater is to provide 40 litres of hot water a
day for a family of four hot water per day. Experimental test runs carried out showed that the overall performance of
the solar water heater was satisfactory. Thermal efficiencies of 52% - 56% were obtained, and this range of efficiencies
is higher than the designed value of 50%.Ibrahim Ladan Mohammed et al. [7] have been design and fabricated the
parabolic dish solar thermal cooker having aperture diameter 1.8 m, depth 29.0 cm and focal length 69.8 cm.The
cooker was designed to cook food equivalent of 12 kg of dry rice per day, for a relatively medium size family. The
main research points of this paper are food-water volume and mass ratios, cooker component design and development,
material and labour economy, and energy cost savings
.
S. Lokeswaran et al. [8] is investigated an experimental analysis of the heat transfer enhancement of solar parabolic
dish cookers by a porous medium made of scrap material. Using the stagnation temperature test and water boiling test
are conducted on the cooking vessel with and without porous medium. Experimental results are compared for both
cases in terms of thermal performance, optical efficiency, heat loss factor and cooking power. If porous medium is
used, the convection losses can be reduced by the porous container side walls and radiation loss is reduced by the
internal reflectance of the solar radiation. So that overall efficiency will improve.

Xue Xiaodi et al. [9] have been investigated A new solar boiling water system with conventional vacuum-tube solar
collector as primary heater and the holistic solar funnel concentrator as secondary heater had been designed. In this
paper, the system was measured out door and its performance was analyzed. The configuration and operation principle
of the system are described. Variations of the boiled water yield, the temperature of the stove and the solar irradiance
with local time have been measured. Main factors affecting the system performance have been analyzed. The
experimental results indicate that the system produced large amount of boiled water. And the performance of the
system has been found closely related to the solar radiance. When the solar radiance is above 600 W/m2, the boiled
water yield rate of the system has reached 20 kg/h and its total energy efficiency has exceeded 40%.

734
2. Data reduction

In order to be able to measure the performance of the hybrid system, the following equations were used, the first of
which [1] defines the useful power, in Watts, for the device in the water heating mode:

qu = ɳoGAa - Ul (Tr -Ta) Ar (1)

where ɳo is the optical efficiency, G is the solar radiation, in W/m2,Ul is the overall loss coefficient of the device, in
W/m2 °C, Aa and Ar are the aperture (concentrator) and the receiver (absorber) areas, Ta and Tr are their temperatures,
respectively.
Dividing Eq. (1) by GAa gives the instantaneous efficiency of the device in the water heating mode:
ɳc = ɳo – ul (Tr – Ta) / GC (2)
where C is the concentration ratio=Aa /Ar
For the cooking mode of operation, the cooking power, P is defined [1] as:
P = mCpΔTw /t (3)

where m is the mass of liquid in the cooking pot, Cp is its specific heat and ΔTw is the temperature rise of water
during time period t of the test.
The efficiency of the system in the cooking mode may be defined as:
ɳ = mCpΔTw /Aa G (4)

3. Experimental apparatus and procedure

A design of hybrid system developed in solid work show in fig.1:

1. Base
2. Support Pipe
3. Square Pipe
4. Balance Rod
5. Pedestal
6. Lock Guide
7. Concentrator Segment Assembly
8. Reflector
9. Concentrate or Flanged Pipe
10. Basket Holder
11. Receiver
12. Copper Tube

Fig. 1. Design of hybrid system

735
A schematic view of the hybrid system constructed with double effect of solar cooking with water heating is shown
in fig 2. In this study the basic function of a parabolic dish solar cooker have diameter 1.8 m is to collect solar radiation
over a larger area and concentrate it into a small area, the focal point, where the receiver containing the food is located.
The material for collector used electro polished aluminium whose reflectivity more than 90 %. The temperature of the
absorber and the food rises and after some time the food is cooked.

Fig.2 Experimental set-up Fig.3 Receiver of hybrid system

The water circulated copper tube wrapped around receiver as shown in fig.3. The wrapping copper tube around the
solar cooker that heated water by absorbing loss of concentrated heat (when cooking period is over) and improves the
performance of system. After cooking time over we can’t utilize the system during day period so we can utilize system
in water heating mode. During cooking period inlet and outlet valve closed but in water heating mode both valve fully
open and heated water flow in tank operated thermosyphonic principle.

The water tank is providing for collect the heated water. The capacity of tank is 65 litre with protecting insulation.
The tank painted by black colour for reducing conduction and convection losses. The taper cock provided that helps
to use hot water for general purpose from the tank.
After the cooking period over the system utilize for water heating by stored in insulated water tank that have to be
used for cooking purpose in dinner or other purpose also. Our design appropriate recommendations are made which
will aid solar cooker with water heating systems to improve their overall and thermal efficiency and reducing their
cost and utilize energy for making combination of solar cooker with water heating system.
With this type of hybrid system saving increased and return on investment is faster so payback period of investment
is reduced. System is utilized for more hours/day for cooking as well as water heating.

4. Results and discussion

Tests for the collector mode were performed to show the tank temperature rise with time, Fig. 3 shows that the tank
temperature was raised from 25 °C to 57 °C in time about 5 hour, which is acceptable in month of May. In general as
the tank water temperature increases with time by increases radiation intensity and after end of sunny day maximum
temperature of 65 liter was 57 °C achieved at 3:00 PM.

736
 60
50
40

Ttank [oC]
30
20
10
0
10:00 AM11:00 AM12:00 AM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM

Time (hh:min)

Fig. 3. Tank water temperature rise vs. time, the water heating mode.

1600.00
Cooking power (Watt)

1400.00
1200.00
1000.00
800.00
600.00
400.00 Cooking Power
200.00
0.00
10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00
AM AM AM PM PM PM PM
Time (hh:min)

Fig. 4. Cooking power vs. time, the cooking mode.

Cooking efficiency (%)

36.00
35.00
34.00
33.00
32.00
31.00
30.00 Cooking Efficiency
29.00
28.00
10:0011:0012:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00
AM AM AM PM PM PM PM
Time (hh:min)

Fig. 5. Cooking efficiency vs. time, the cooking mode.

737
 1800.00

Power & useful energy (Watt)

1600.00
1400.00
1200.00
1000.00
800.00 Cooking Power(P)
600.00
Water heating useful
400.00 energy
200.00
0.00
10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00
AM AM AM PM PM PM PM
Time (hh:min)

Fig. 6. Cooking power & water heating useful energy vs. time.

70.00
Cooking & Water heating

60.00
50.00
efficiency (%)

40.00
30.00
cooking efficiency
20.00 water heating efficiency
10.00
0.00
10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00
AM AM AM PM PM PM PM
Time (hh:min)

Fig. 7. Hybrid system efficiency vs. time.

Fig. 4 shows considerable cooking power performance with time.The result shows the when radiation intensity for a
day increased with time that decrease time period for cooking and cooking power was increases. During afternoon
period of time cooking power was achieved higher due to higher radiation intensity.The cooking power is almost
tripled achieved in agreement with results obtained [1] previously.

Fig. 5 shows the cooking efficiency of hybrid system. During afternoon period of time cooking efficiency higher due
to higher radiation intensity. The cooking efficiency of the device is higher than that of similar devices obtained [1]
previously.

Fig. 6 shows the cooking power & water heating useful energy of hybrid system. Hybrid system power and useful
energy was maximum during afternoon period due to higher radiation intensity. The cooking power & water heating
useful energy of the device is higher than that of similar devices obtained [1] previously.

Fig. 7 shows that the efficiency for the cooking mode and water heating mode in hybrid system. A different trend in
the slope is noticed when comparing the performance curve for the cooking mode with that for the water heating mode
shown in Fig. 7. They do not have to be the same, however, because they are for different processes. Hybrid system
efficiency was maximum during afternoon period due to higher radiation intensity.

738
4.1 Cost Analysis chart for hybrid system

40 37.44
35
Cost Rs/day 30
22.32
25
20
15
10
5
0
Cooking 0.775 Kg of food Water heating of 65 liter
for medium size family per day temperature at 60 °C per day

Hybrid system saves Rs/day

Fig. 8. Cost analysis of Hybrid system saves rupees per day.

Hybrid system cost analysis carried out that saves around 60 Rs/day for medium size family.

5. Conclusions

An earlier works in which the basic idea of a hybrid solar cooker and water heater device were reviewed. A working
of hybrid system fabricated and tested. A hybrid system power and efficiency was improved in comparison with earlier
works, it was found that:

1. Power and efficiency of hybrid system increases with time due to increases radiation intensity. During afternoon
period of time radiation intensity higher and maximum power obtained. When system does not used for cooking
than energy can utilized by water heating and that gives system in operation more hours/day period of time and
return on investment is faster.

2. Through effective & efficient design of solar hybrid system of Three E’s can be saved.
 Energy.
 Ecology.
 Economy.

3. Cooking efficiency was improved that of comparison result of similar cooking device.

4. The water heating efficiency of the device in water heating mode was improved. The temperature of 65 liter of
water was raised from 25 °C to 57 °C in about 5 hour in april-may.

5. Hybrid system saved almost around 60 Rs/day.

6. In Hybrid system benefit during cloudy day when radiation intensity very lower than heated water in storage tank
works on next day morning as buffer stock that helps to cook food.

7. With this type of hybrid system saving increased and return on investment is faster so payback period of investment
is reduced.

6. References

[1] Ali A. Badran , Ibrahim A. Yousef, Noureddine K. Joudeh, Rami Al Hamad, Hani Halawa,Hamza K.
Hassouneh, “Portable solar cooker and water heater”, Energy Conversion and Management 51 (2010) 1605–
1609, April 2010.

739
[2] M. R. Riazi,J. Razavi, A. Sadeghi and A. Javaheri, “An Experimental Evaluation of Copper, Steel and
Polypropylene Tubes in Solar Water Heaters with Thermosyphonic Flow”, Applied Solar Energy,ISSN
0003-701X, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 65–69,2009.
[3] Antonio Lecuona, José-Ignacio Nogueira, Rubén Ventas, María-del-Carmen Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Mathieu
Legrand,“Solar cooker of the portable parabolic type incorporating heat storage based on PCM”, Applied
Energy 111 (2013) 1136–1146, March 2013.
[4] Maxime Mussard , Alexandre Gueno, Ole Jørgen Nydal, “Experimental study of solar cooking using heat
storage in comparison with direct heating”, Solar Energy 98 (2013) 375–383, November 2013.
[5] M.M. Valmiki, Peiwen Li, Javier Heyer, Matthew Morgan, Abdulla Albinali, Kamal Alhamidi, Jeremy
Wagoner, “A novel application of a Fresnel lens for a solar stove and solar heating”, Renewable
Energy36(2011) 1614-1620, November 2010.
[6] Ibrahim ladan mohammed,“design and development of a parabolic dish solar water heater”, International
Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ,Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 822-830, ISSN: 2248-9622,
Jan-Feb 2012.
[7] Ibrahim Ladan Mohammed, “Design and Development of a Parabolic Dish Solar Thermal Cooker”,
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications,Vol.3, Issue 4, pp.1179-1186, ISSN: 2248-
9622, Jul-Aug 2013.
[8] S. Lokeswaran and M. Eswaramoorthy, “Experimental Studies on Solar Parabolic Dish Cooker with
Porous Medium”, ISSN 0003_701X, Applied Solar Energy, 2012, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 169–174, May 2012.
[9] Xue Xiaodi, Zheng Hongfei, He Kaiyan, Chen Zhili, Tao Tao, Xie Guo, “Experimental study on a new solar
boiling water system with holistic track solar funnel concentrator”, Energy 35 (2010) 692–697, November
2009.
[10] S.P.Sukhatme,Solar Energy, Tata McGraw Hill Pub.,New Delhi,2006.
[11] G.D.Rai,Energy Sources,Khanna Publishers,2008.
[12] Yunus A. Cengel, Heat and Mass Transfer by Tata mcgraw-hill publication third edition.
[13] Dr.D.S.KUMAR, Heat and Mass Transfer by s.k kataria & sons publication 6th revised edition.

740
 ICAER-2015

Polyaniline/Nickel Oxide –a Core/Shell Structured

Nanocomposite as Electrode Material in Supercapacitor
Applications.

Mini.V, Devendrappa. H*
Dept. of Physics, Mangalore University, Mangalagangothri-574199, India

Abstract

In this paper, the supercapacitor electrode properties of a core/shell multifunctional nano composite, with unique
physiochemical properties, is presented. The synthesis method of polyaniline /NiO (PAESNI) with polyaniline (PANI) shell
on NiO core, their morphological studies including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron
Microscopy (TEM) to know their surface chemistry and most important property required for explaining super capacitor
properties like Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Charging Discharging studies (GCD) are explained. TEM and SEM images
reveal that the polyaniline shells as-prepared are narrowly dispersed on NiO nano particles and possess uniform
morphologies. CV shows that the PAESNI exhibits multiple redox behaviour during potentiodynamic cycling in acidic
media at different potentials. A simple and cost-effective preparation technique with hierarchical structure and good
capacitive behaviour (362 Fg-1 at 1Ag-1 current density and 372 Fg-1 at 20 mVs-1 scan rate), Energy density (50.2WhKg-1 at
1Ag-1 current density), Power density (2kWKg-1) and 99% coulombic efficiency at 4Ag-1 current density encourages its
commercial use as a high performance supercapacitor electrode.

Keywords: Polyaniline; Nano composite; Nickel Oxide; Core/shell; Supercapacitor.

1. Introduction

Supercapacitors have emerged as energy storage devices by virtue of their low cost, environment friendly
nature, long lifespan, and their high power density [1]. Based on the type of charge storage mechanism,
supercapacitors are categorized into two classes: electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) where
electric charge is stored in a capacitor through charge separation at the electrode–electrolyte interface without
any electron transfer; and pseudocapacitors governed by reversible redox and/or electro-sorption/ desorption
reactions occurring at the surface of electroactive materials [1]. EDLC’s with activated carbon as one
component have been successfully commercialized. They have the advantages of excellent power density and
long-term cycling stability, but very limited energy density which has hindered their wide application in electric
vehicles (EVs) [2]. Pseudocapacitors based on transition metal oxides, such as RuO 2, Mn3O4, SnO2, V2O5,
Fe3O4, NiO/Ni(OH)2, Co3O4/Co(OH)2 and NiCo2O4, exhibit much higher energy density compared with EDLCs
but shows reduced power density and lower service durability [3–12].

The present trend in the ongoing research on supercapacitors is to develop economical electrode materials
with a high energy density [13]. Cheap metal oxides like NiO with comparable characteristics with above
mentioned high performing metal oxides are being investigated [14] and conducting polymers are another class
of material under investigation due to their excellent electrochemical properties and low cost. Among the
various conducting polymers, polyaniline (PANI) has been studied extensively because of its easy synthesis
procedure and has good environmental stability, redox reversibility, and electrical conductivity [15, 16].

_______________________________________
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 08242888707, Fax: (+91)-0824-2287289
E-mail: dehu2010@gmail.com

741
 Using nano structured materials is advantageous in energy conversion materials, but it is also associated with
some problems. Their surface energy contribution is too high. So they have a tendency to agglomerate to reduce
the surface energy, which normally leads to deterioration of performance with time. One way to overcome this
effect is the encapsulation of the nanostructures by coating with another matrix, which prevents agglomeration
of the nanomaterials.

The objective of our work was to synthesise such a hierarchical structured nano composite of polyaniline and
NiO and to check its suitability for supercapacitor electrode. The core includes the inexpensive metal oxide –
NiO and the shell includes the noble polymer polyaniline. Polymer shell onto the metal oxide nanoparticle is
attractive based on the stability of the core/shell structure and its wide applications. As compared with the nano
particle electrode materials a core/shell have the following advantages. Polymer shell can prevent the
agglomeration of nano particles, can fabricate the nanoparticle through the layer-by-layer method and can be
made compatible with or functionalized with other electrode materials by selectively choosing the polymer
materials. Volumetric changes of the polymer during repeated cycling can be reduced by the presence of nano
particles. These expected changes we achieved in our study; the overall properties of the electrode enhanced due
to the higherarchical nano structure (core/shell) of the composite in it.

There have been only a few reports on the synthesis of NiO/PANI composites so far. The incorporation of
NiO into PANI has shown synergistic properties such as enhancement in thermal stability, electrical
conductivity and electrochemical cyclability properties. NiO/PANI nanobelts [17], NiO/PANI rectangular tube
powders [18] via chemical polymerization, PANI/NiO rectangular tubes [19] through a self-assembly process in
the presence of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate are some examples of PANI/NiO composites available as per
literature. Our composite showed enhanced properties compared to these reports.

The properties including optical, thermal, electro chemical, electrical, structural studies and the surface
chemistry of the nano composites are thoroughly studied. All these properties are enhanced in nano compsite
(Polyaniline Emaraldine Salt and Nickel Oxide-PAESNI) compared to PANI. In this paper we are presenting
morphological study (SEM, TEM) and electro chemical study [cyclic voltammetry (CV) and charge–discharge
(GCD)] in detail. For vehicle applications of super capacitors, high power density greater than 1 kWkg-1 is
preferred [15]. Porous distribution favoring the larger micro pore in electrode is important for the ionic
transport of the electrolyte ions and is necessary to achieve the high energy density requirement. We could
achieve both of these in our PAESNI core/shell nano composite electrode.

2. Synthesis and characterization

2.1. Materials

Aniline was purchased from Sigma Aldrich and distilled prior to each experiment. Ammonium
peroxydisulfate (APS) as the oxidant, hydrochloric acid, NiO Nano particles~50 nm size and other chemicals
were purchased from Merck and Aldrich and used as-received.

2.2. Preparation of Polyaniline salt (PANI)

The conducting PANI was synthesized by oxidative chemical reaction method [20]. The aniline monomer
was doubly distilled prior to use. The 0.22 M aniline monomer was dissolved in 240 ml of 1M HCl. 0.8 M
(NH4)2S2O8 (APS) was dissolved in 80 ml 1M HCl solution. These two solutions were pre cooled to ~ 0◦C using
ice bath. APS solution was then added to the aniline solution drop wise over a period of 2 hrs with constant
stirring to ensure thorough mixing. The mixture was continuously stirred 24 hours and filtered, the green
powder, Polyaniline [PANI], was exhaustively rinsed with distilled water in order to eliminate the excess of HCl
and finally dried in an oven at 50°C for 24 h.

742
2.3. Preparation of PAESNI (Polyaniline /NiO) nano composite

PANI is synthesised by in-situ polymerisation with HCl as dopant [20]. Aniline monomer (0.22 M) was
dissolved in 240 ml of HCl (1M). A solution is prepared by mixing it with 20 ml of sonicated 2g NiO
nanoparticles. 0.8 M of (NH4)2S2O8 (APS) dissolved in 80 ml of HCl (1M) solution is made, both the solutions
were pre cooled to ~ 0 ºC using ice bath. APS was then slowly added drop wise to suspension mixture of aniline
and NiO for 2 hours with continuous stirring. The precipitate was removed by filtration and washed repeatedly
with deionized water and named it as PAESNI. PAESNI with different weight percentage were synthesized
using 0.5g, 1g and 2g NiO to 5 ml aniline monomer and these were abbreviated as PAESNI (0.5), PAESNI (1)
and PAESNI (2) respectively. We selected PAESNI (2) for this study due to its enhanced properties and
core/shell structure. Scheme of preparation and nearly connected structure of PAESNI formed is shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 1. Scheme of preparation of Polyaniline Emeraldine Salt/ Nickel Oxide binary (PAESNI) -Core/Shell composite.

2.4. Characterization of PAESNI

The core/shell natured highly dispersed porous morphology of PAESNI sample was investigated by TEM
analysis (JEOL, JEM-2100) and SEM by (JEOL Model JSM - 6390LV). The electrochemical properties of the
PAESNI were studied in a three-electrode system using CH instrument (Model CHI 660 E) with cyclic
voltammetry (CV) and charge–discharge (GCD) methods.

3. Results and analysis

3.1. Morphology-SEM and TEM

Fig.2 (b) shows spherical nano structure of PAESNI and their connected structures as shown in Fig.1. NiO
nano particles are entrapped in PANI. The nanocomposite shows macroporous structure, whereas PANI is in the
form of a nano fibrous mat like structure [Fig.2(a)]. Core/shell structures formed by the coating of PANI on
NiO is too small in size due to narrow coating of PANI on NiO. At this concentration of PAESNI, no loose NiO
nano particles can be seen, and a continuous path and uniformity to the surface is very clear in SEM image.
SEM images also reveal that the polymerization of aniline in the presence of NiO provides sufficient porosity
that enables more feasible diffusion of solvent, protons and sulphate ions in electrochemical study [21].

(a) (b)

743
 (c)

Fig. 2. (a&b) SEM images of mat like nanostructured PANI and PAESNI nano composite showing uniform, nano structured morphology
and (c) TEM images of PAESNI ( NiO encapsulated by polyaniline -Core/Shell structure).

Further, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies were performed to investigate the nano composites
in greater detail, and the results are shown in Fig. 2(c). Very high charge and discharge currents are important
for the performance of supercapacitors. For that core /shell nano structures are one of the best choices as an
electrode material. The HR-TEM image of PAESNI [Fig.2 (c)] also suggests the formation and high dispersion
of core/shell particles. NiO nanoparticles are nearly 10-15 nm size and nearly spherical structure and polyaniline
shell thickness is nearly1-2 nm in the composite. Each core/shell particle has single NiO particle and the
polyaniline shell evenly encapsulated the core.

3.2 Electro chemical study

The structure and morphology of the electrode material greatly influence on the electrochemical performance
[22]. Electrochemical experiments were carried out in a CH instrument (CH 660E) with a three-electrode system
and solution of 1 M H2SO4 as electrolyte. In this conventional three-electrode cell, PAESNI-modified electrode
(PAESNI 80%+acetylene black 10%+ PVDF10%) on a stainless steel electrode of 1 cm2 area is used as
working electrode; Platinum (Pt) wire and Ag/AgCl as, counter and reference electrodes, respectively. The
working electrode was prepared by mixing nano composites with acetylene black and polyvinylidene fluoride in
NMP. The above slurry was pasted onto a steel electrode (SS 304) and dried at 60°C for 8 h.

Different electrochemical techniques were used to characterize the supercapacitive performance and
efficiency of supercapacitor electrodes. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) were performed between –0.6 and 1 V at
different scan rates (20 mVs−1 to 100 mVs−1). A galvanostatic charge-discharge experiment was carried out
between 0 and 1 V at the current density range from 1 to 4 Ag-1.

CV gives the correct information about the reversible nature of the electrode in a suitable electrolyte and also
the effect of scan rate on specific capacitance. Normally, both inorganic and polymer components of a nano
composite possess oxidation–reduction properties, which is used for manufacturing electrode materials in
supercapacitors.

Cyclic voltammetry studies were performed to analyze the capacitance behavior. CV curves of PAESNI
electrodes for different scan rates (20, 40, 80,100 mVs-1) are shown in Fig.3 (a). Figure shows the area of CV
curve of PAESNI increases with increasing scan rate. This is because charge mobility per unit time increases
with increasing scan rate, which leads to the less accumulation of electrolyte ions. The non-rectangular shape of
the obtained CV curves indicates the redox behaviour due to the presence of functional groups and/or to broad
pore size distribution [24]. The curves exhibit well-defined redox peaks confirming the faradic nature of the
PANI and NiO. The oxidation (A1 and A2) and reduction peaks (C1 and C2) of their respective anodic and
cathodic scans are not symmetric. This is due to kinetic irreversibility of the redox process [23]. The specific
capacitances(C) of the electrode material were calculated by using the following equation:

744
 ∫
C= (1)

where the numerator signifies the total charge under the CV curve, V 1 and V2 are the lower and upper voltage
limits, v is the scan rate, and m is the mass of the electrode material. The results of CV curve were quantified by
calculating the specific capacitance and it is found to be 372, 273, 248 and 210 Fg-1 for scan rates (20, 40, 80
and 100 mVs-1) respectively. The capacitance values decreases with increasing scan rate.

1.2
20 mV/s 1A/g
2.0
40 mV/s (a) (b) 2A/g
80 mV/s 3A/g
100 mV/s
1.0
4A/g
1.5
Current density (A/g)

0.8
1.0

Voltage(V)
A2 0.6
0.5

A1
0.4
0.0
C2
C1 0.2
-0.5

-1.0 0.0
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0 200 400 600 800 1000
Voltage (V) Time(S)

Fig.3. (a) Cyclic voltammogram of PAESNI nano composite at different scan rates 20,40,80 and 100 mVs-1 (b) GCD plots at different
current densities of 1, 2,3 and 4 Ag-1 in 1M H2SO4 electrolyte.

The charge−discharge measurement was carried out at different current densities from 0 to 1 V using 1 M
H2SO4 as the electrolyte. Fig.3 (b) shows the charge−discharge curve of PAESNI electrode. At lower current
densities (1 and 2 A g−1), during charging a non-linear increasing behaviour is observed whereas at higher
current densities 3 and 4 Ag−1 behaviour was linear. The symmetry of the charging and discharging
characteristics at higher current densities indicates good charge release behaviour showing nearly perfect
supercapacitive behaviour. The nonlinear charge−discharge curves confirm that the prominent electrochemical
process is pseudocapacitance type, which is in agreement with the CV results [22].

The specific capacitance, energy density; power density and coulombic efficiency were calculated from the
formulae given below:
The specific capacitance value of the electrode materials was determined from charge/discharge profiles by
using the following equation

C= (2)

Where (C) is the Specific Capacitance, i and m represent the current density in Ag -1 and mass loaded, ΔV is the
potential range, and t represents the discharge time in seconds.

The supercapacitive properties of an electrode material also depend on energy density as well as power
density. The energy density of the electrode materials was calculated by using the equation (3)

Energy Density (E) = (CV2) (3)

where C is the specific capacitance obtained from the GCD profile, and V is the operating voltage.

The power density of all the electrode materials was obtained by using the following equation

745
 Power Density (P) = (4)

Where t is the discharge time obtained from GCD profile. Coulombic efficiency [η (%) = (td/tc) ×100] where, td
is discharge time, tc charge time. The observed values show that both the transition metal oxide and polyaniline
play a vital role for enhancement of the electrochemical behaviour. The calculated specific capacitance, Energy
Density, Power Density and Coulombic efficiency of the PAESNI electrode material and their values at current
densities [1-4 Ag-1] are given in Table 1. The high specific capacitance value of PAESNI is mainly because of
transition metal doping and the resultant structure as shown in SEM and TEM analysis. From the values it is
inferred that the nano composite material appear to be a promising electrode material for supercapacitor
application.

Table 1. Specific capacitance, Energy Density, Power Density and Coulombic Efficiency of the PAESNI electrode material at different
current densities.

Current Density Specific capacitance Energy Density Power Density Coulombic Efficiency (%)
( Ag-1) (Fg-1) (Whkg-1) (kWkg-1)
1 362 50.2 0.50 70.8
2 340 47.2 1.00 97.1
3 330 45.8 1.57 99.1
4 300 41.6 2.03 99.3

3.3 Comparative study

Nanostructured polyaniline electrode materials are also showing good electrochemical capacitance
performances. Lack of stability during cycling is the main disadvantage of PANI. Volumetric change and low
conductance at de-doped state are the other major problems PANI has which create high ohmic polarization in
supercapacitors. The cyclic voltammograms (CV) of PANI and PAESNI composites at a scan rate of 5mVs-1 is
shown in Fig. 4(a) and GCD of PAESNI and PANI at a current density of 1 Ag-1 is shown in Fig. 4(b).

0.9
0.8 (a) 1.2 (b) PANI
0.7 PANI
PAESNI PAESNI
0.6
1.0
0.5
0.4
Current density(A/g)

0.3
0.8
0.2
Voltage(V)

0.1
0.0 0.6
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3 0.4
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6 0.2
-0.7
-0.8
0.0
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 -100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Voltage(V) Time(S)

Fig.4. (a) Cyclic voltammogram of PANI and PAESNI nano composite at a scan rate of 5 mVs-1 (b) GCD plots of PANI and PAESNI at a
current density of 1 Ag-1 in 1M H2SO4 electrolyte.

It is observed that PAESNI nanocomposite show higher specific capacitance of 455 Fg-1 at a 5 mVs-1 scan
rate, whereas pure PANI showed 400 Fg-1 at the same scan rate. From GCD, PANI showed the specific
capacitances of 303 Fg-1 at the same current density.The enhancement of the specific capacitance compared to
PANI can be attributed to the presence of NiO nanoparticles in the PAESNI , which act as a support for growth

746
of the polymer chains and modify the microstructure and morphology of the polymer allowing PANI and NiO to
be available for facile electrochemical reactions. Thus the presence of NiO nanoparticles enhances the
conductivity as well as stability of the nanocomposite by interlinking the PANI chains and provides a high
active surface area for the electrochemical reaction [25, 26]. The enhanced specific capacitance may be
attributed to the NiO nanosize effect and the synergic effect between NiO and PANI. This might be derived
from different morphology as shown in SEM and TEM. The structure of PAESNI is advantageous to ensure a
high utilization of electrode materials by shortening the diffusion path of electrolyte during charge/discharge
process and providing a larger electrochemical available surface. Polymer coatings should be thin, not to inhibit
mass transfer in electrochemical studies. This condition is very much satisfied in our composite.

4. Conclusion

A simple and fast approach for preparation of metal oxide – PANI core/shell nano composite was described
in the present work. Microscopic methods were employed to characterize their morphology and confirmed the
formation of Core/shell structure. These nanocomposites were used as electrode material for supercapacitive
purposes. Electrochemical tests conducted indicate high specific capacitance (362Fg-1), energy density
(50.2Whkg-1 at 1Ag-1), power density (2.03kWkg-1 at 4Ag-1) and coulombic efficiency (99.3% at 4Ag-1) to
PAESNI. These values are much greater than that of individual components PANI or NiO and many reported
results of PANI/NiO nano composites. These results indicate that the binary PAESNI composite will be a
promising electroactive material for supercapacitor applications. More detailed impedance studies, cyclic test,
conductivity and dielectric studies of PAENI–nanocomposites are in progress.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the University Grant Commission, New Delhi, for selecting Mrs. Mini. V for
UGC-BSR research fellowship [UGC Letter No F, 4-1/2006 (BSR) /7-405/2012(BSR) dated 25.02.2013] for
meritorious students. The authors thank Mangalore University for providing the electro chemical facility and
the Director, STIC, Cochin, for providing the SEM facility. The authors also thank the TEM Facility-Centre for
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Mahathma Gandhi University, KERALA for TEM data.

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 ICAER-2015

Performance Evaluation of Algal Photobioreactors using CFD and

Growth Modeling

Durga Raja1, Yogendra Shastri1*

1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

Abstract

The growing energy requirements and fast depleting fossil fuels have made renewable and sustainable sources of energy, the
need of the hour. Algae based biofuels have been identified as potential replacements for conventional diesel. However, due
to high material costs and energy demands of the existing photobioreactors (PBRs), the large scale cultivation of algae and
algal biofuel production are currently very expensive. Development of novel as well as better PBR designs and modelling of
algal growth in PBRs under diverse growth conditions can aid large scale production mircoalgal biofuels. In this work we
evaluated the performance of a conventional airlift PBR and a novel hybrid PBR in terms of their light holding capacity and
realisable algal biomass productivity, using the technique of CFD. An integrated algal growth model and Beer-lambert’s
light attenuation model were incorporated in the CFD simulation studies. The changes in microalgal productivity in both the
PBRs under varying growth conditions were also studied. Airlift PBR was found to be more efficient than novel PBR in
allowing light penetration Even though the biomass productivity in the PBRs was comparable, the time to complete algae
growth in conventional PBR was 100% more than that in novel PBR.

Keywords: Microalgae; photobioreactor; kinetic modeling; CFD.

1. Introduction

High installation and operating costs of photobioreactors (PBRs) are impeding the commercial production of
algal biofuels in PBRs. Development of novel as well as better PBR designs and modelling of algal growth in
PBRs under diverse growth conditions can aid large scale production mircoalgal biofuels [1]. Significant
amount of experiments have been conducted to evaluate hydrodynamics and attainable biomass productivities of
PBRs [2, 3]. However, experiments fail to predict the problems faced while scaling up and retard large scale
algae production [4]. Assumptions of spatial homogeneity of parameters such as turbulence and heat transfer
might be valid at lab scale level, but might give erroneous results at large scale [5]. Computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) is a useful tool to evaluate different reactor designs and also study properties of scaled-up
designs. The application of CFD technique in simulating microalgal growth in PBRs has not yet become very
prevalent. The objectives of this work were to: 1. Study light attenuation in PBRs using CFD technique; 2.
Develop a methodology to predict microalgal biomass productivity in PBRs using CFD technique and existing
kinetic growth models; 3. Implement the methodology to assess and compare the performances of two PBRs.

2. Configuration of PBRs

In this work, a conventional airlift PBR (PBR-I) and a novel hybrid PBR (PBR-II) were used for the CFD
simulation and growth studies. PBR-I is a plexiglass draft tube internal airlift PBR developed by Luo & Al-
Dahhan [6]. The outer column of this PBR is 1.5 m tall and has a diameter of 0.13 m. A 1.05 m tall, 0.09 m
diameter draft tube functions as the riser. A ring sparger of diameter 5cm is present at the bottom of the column.
PBR-II is a novel reactor proposed by Soman & Shastri [7] (Fig.1). It is a merger of two prevailing designs - the
airlift and flat plate reactors. The novel design comprises of a cylindrical, opaque draft tube bounded by a
cuboidal casing. The outer wall is also a cuboid. Transparent Baffles adjoining the corners of the draft tube aid
in even distribution of flow to the four compartments in the downcomer region [7].

3. Simulation Approach

One of the major hindrances in using CFD in biological systems is that the time step used to solve biological
models are several orders of magnitude higher than that used in physical models [5]. Even though integrated
physical-biological models can be solved simultaneously for short time periods, solving the models for

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 22 25767203.

E-mail address: yshastri@iitb.ac.in
748
processes such as algal growth (whose reaction time are weeks or even months), using small time steps, may not
be realizable. A feasible two step approach was by developed by Wu [8] to solve biological processes such as
algal growth and it is as follows:

 Solve the physical model using a small time step to obtain a steady state solution to fluid flow and heat
transfer characteristics.
 Based on the steady state conditions, estimate the biological process using a large time step. Each
computational cell would be considered as a discrete reactor with its own residence time and
temperature [5].

A similar two step approach was developed using the commercial CFD software ANSYS Fluent 14.5(ANSYS,
Cecil Township, PA, USA) and Mathworks Matlab. The partial differential equations pertaining to the physical
model were solved using finite volume approach under steady state conditions. The motion of algal cells was
traced via algae velocity streamlines in CFD POST. One such streamline was chosen as a representative
streamline. The fluid flow, heat transfer and irradiance characteristics of the computational cells that are part of
this streamline were exported to Mathworks Matlab. The computational cells were assumed to be independent
continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs) connected in series (closed loop) [9].The ordinary differential
equations for the biological model were solved for each computational cell using ODE 15s solver in Matlab.

All simulations were executed in commercial CFD software ANSYS Fluent 14.5, on Windows operating system
on an I7, 3.4 Hz, 4 GB RAM desktop. The geometries were created in ANSYS Design Modeler and meshed in
ANSYS Mesh. Unstructured tetrahedral mesh comprising of 68864 elements and 312874 elements were
generated in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively. Water, algae and air were considered as the three fluid phases.
Algae was assumed to be a granular fluid phase of constant size, 2 µm [7]. The air bubble diameter was set as 3
mm [6]. The Implicit Eulerian approach was used for multiphase modelling. k-ε turbulence equations were
considered for turbulence modelling. The Schiller-Naumann drag model was incorporated. The Discrete
Ordinate (DO) model was adopted for solving radiation transport equations. The absorption coefficient of algae
was specified using a user-defined function (UDF) written in language C. The UDF was based on the Beer –
Lambert model. First order upwind scheme was used for discretization and pressure-velocity coupling was
achieved using Phase Coupled SIMPLE scheme.

3.1. Boundary Conditions

A velocity inlet condition was selected at the top of the sparger through which air (containing CO2) was
assumed to be sparged. A turbulent intensity of 10% was specified at the inlet. A degassing boundary condition
was set at the outlet. The outer light wall was chosen to be a semi-transparent wall and was subjected to
irradiation in both X and Y directions. One of the simulations was considered as base case. The base simulation
assumed 0.3 m/s velocity at sparger, 0.1 volume fraction of CO 2 in inlet air and 0.05g/l nitrogen in culture
medium. The initial value of algae volume fraction was set to 0.0001, which corresponds to an algal
concentration of 0.1 g/l. The PBRs were assumed to be exposed to day/night (D/N) cycle in the base simulation.
The PBRs were exposed to diurnally varying light to mimic natural sunlight exposure. The inner riser wall as
well as bottom surface were assumed to be opaque and non-emissive. The results of the CFD simulations were
analysed in CFD Post

3.2. Simulation Set-up

Two different sets of simulations were performed in this work. The CFD simulations were carried out with two
different motives: 1.to study light attenuation in PBRs 2.to study algal growth in PBRs. While simulation set-I
focused on light characterization of PBRs, simulation set-II concentrated on simulating algal productivity.

749
3.2.1. Light attenuation in PBRs (Set-I)

The PBRs were simulated for two different algal concentrations (1 g/l, 5g/l) to examine light attenuation
occurring in PBRs due to absorption of light by algal cells. The simulations were run at steady state. Air inlet
velocity at the sparger was chosen to be 0.3 m/s. Air volume fraction at inlet was set to 0.5. Incident irradiation
received at outer walls in both X and Y direction was set to 100 W/m2. The simulations were initialized with
0.01 air volume fraction and 0.01 air inlet velocity.

Fig.1. Design of novel photobioreactor: (a) Overall design (b) Top view (c) Schematic representation
Adapted from Soman & Shastri [7]

The initial value of algae volume fraction was set as 0.001 and 0.005 for algal concentrations of 1 g/l and 5 g/l,
respectively.

3.2.2. Algal growth simulations (Set-II)

Simulation set-II was carried out to study algal growth in PBRs. The PBRs were simulated for different air
velocities at sparger, varying volume percent of CO2 in the inlet air, different nitrogen concentrations in culture
and outer wall irradiations to investigate algal growth under diverse conditions. One of the simulations was
considered as base case. The base simulation assumed 0.3 m/s velocity at sparger, 0.1 volume fraction of CO2 in
inlet air, 0.05g/l nitrogen in culture medium. The PBRs were assumed to be exposed to D/N cycle in the base
simulation.

4. Kinetic Model

The kinetic model developed by Adesanya et al. [10] with certain modifications was adopted in this work. It
integrates the influence of all the factors namely, light, CO2, and nitrogen on algal growth. Moreover, this model
describes synthesis of storage molecules (lipids and starch) under various growth conditions. Lipid and starch
content in algae are of considerable interest as they are major raw materials for biofuel production [10].

In this model, algal biomass is considered to consist of two parts: the functional biomass (non-lipids or starch)
and the storage molecule (lipids and starch). Light and inorganic carbon (sparged CO 2) are the main energy and
carbon sources, respectively. The functional biomass growth is monitored by the availability of intra-cellular
nitrogen concentration. Losses due to respiration are also considered in this model. The growth of algal biomass
can be analysed using six ordinary differential equations consisting of six state variables, namely: the functional
biomass concentration, storage molecule synthesis, extracellular nitrogen concentration, extracellular carbon
concentration, intracellular nitrogen quota and intracellular carbon quota.

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5. Results and Discussion

5.1. Set-I simulations

PBR-I and PBR-II were simulated for algal concentrations of 1g/l and 5g/l to compare light attenuation. It was
seen that for both algal concentrations, light intensity was found to decrease exponentially with increase in
distance from the outer wall (Fig.2). This was anticipated since light distribution in the PBRs was assumed to
follow Beer-Lambert model. Irradiation at any point in the downcomer was dependent on the distance of the
point from light sources as well as the algal concentration at the point. Light intensity in the riser was negligible
235
230
Light Intenisty (W/m2)

225
220 PBR-I (1g/l)
215 PBR-II (1g/l)
210
PBR-I (5g/l)
205
PBR-II (5g/l)
200
195
0.65 0.75 0.85 0.95 1.05
Radial Distance

Fig.2. Plot of variation of Light in the downcomer along X-direction (y=0, z= 0.5m) in PBR-I and PBR-II for two different algal
concentrations. The radial distance is represented as a fraction of actual radius where a value of 0.7 represents outer edge of riser
and 1 represents outer edge of PBR

(~ 0 W/m2) in both PBRs. This was expected since the riser was assumed to be opaque. The volume average
light intensity in PBR-II, was about 30% more than that of PBR-I. It was seen that PBR-I allows better light
penetration than PBR-II (Fig.2). However, it was observed that at low concentrations (<1%), the difference
between the geometries is negligible (~1%). This is line with the results reported by Fernandes et al. [11].
Fernandes et al. [11] had compared light distribution in two air-lift reactors with circular and planar downcomer
geometries, respectively. It was found that the circular geometry is efficient in light penetration and was
attributed to the effect of curved surface and high intensity scattering phenomena occurring in circular reactors
at high concentrations [11].

5.2. Base case simulation

It was observed that the axial liquid velocity in PBR-I was about twice as that of PBR-II. The overall gas holdup
in PBR-I was about half of that in PBR-II. The presence of baffles might have reduced liquid circulation
velocity in PBR-II [12]. Low liquid circulation velocities can lead to high gas holdup values in PBRs [12]. The
results of growth simulation of base case in PBR-I and PBR-II have been shown in Fig.3. Even though the
steady state value of biomass productivity was comparable in the PBRs, the time required to complete algal
growth and reach steady state was found to be 40 days and 20 days in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively. The
growth rate and rate of accumulation of storage molecule was seen to be less in PBR-I when compared to PBR-
II. This was due to the dramatic effect of gas holdup in PBRs. Higher gas holdup values lead to better mass
transfer rates and greater productivities. The algal productivity curves varied daily with change in light intensity.
The growth was found to slow down in the nights. The nitrogen concentration dropped drastically and
diminished by day 8 and day 4 in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively (Fig.3(c)). However, the algae underwent
growth up to day 40 and day 20 in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively. This trend can be attributed to the
assimilation of intracellular nitrogen in the first 8 days and 4 days in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively, and its
utilization for algal growth beyond those days [10]. It can be seen from Fig.3(b) that the production of storage
molecule was low up to day 8 (PBR-I) and day 4 (PBR-II) and rose steeply beyond that. This is due to the fact
that nitrogen deficiency stimulates storage molecule accumulation [10]. Fig.3(d) represents daily, cyclic

751
variation of CO2 caused due to the two opposing phenomena, photosynthesis and respiration. One of the
shortcomings of the current model is that it does not account for lipid and starch accumulation separately.
According to Adesanya et al. [10], 75% of storage molecules accumulate as starch until day 8, where after
starch remains constant or decreases, while lipid concentration shoots up. On applying this theory to the current
study, about 22-27% of total biomass produced at the end of day 40 and day 20 in PBR-I and PBR-II,
respectively would be in the form of lipids.

Fig.3 Concentration of (a) functional biomass, (b) storage molecule, (c) extracellular nitrogen and (d) CO2 in PBRs (base case simulation)

5.1. Effect of aeration rate

Algal growth was simulated under varying conditions of aeration rate (0.1m/s, 0.2m/s, 0.3m/s) or superficial
velocity of inlet air in PBR-I and PBR-II. The gas holdup in PBR-I and PBR-II were found to increase with
increase in superficial velocity. It was observed that aeration rate and gas holdup have significant effects on
biomass productivity and storage molecule synthesis. With increase in superficial gas velocity, gas holdup in the
riser goes up, leading to better mass transfer rates. In PBR-I and PBR-II, gas holdup and thus steady state
biomass productivity increased linearly with increase in sparger velocity (Fig.4). It was seen that percentage of
storage molecule in algal biomass increased with increase in aeration rate in PBR-I (Fig.5). When the aeration
rate of 0.1 m/s was doubled, the percentage of storage molecule went up by 25% in PBR-I. However, variation
of percentage of storage molecule with aeration rate was negligible in PBR-II. Irrespective of the aeration rate,
the percentage of storage molecule was about 30% in PBR-II. In PBR-I, sparger velocity and mass transfer rate
had noticeable impact on rate of depletion extracellular nitrogen. With increase in sparger velocity, extracellular
nitrogen was found to deplete at a faster rate. When sparger velocity was increased from 0.1 m/s to 0.2 m/s, the
time taken for complete depletion of extracellular nitrogen went up by 75 hours. Faster the rate of depletion of
nitrogen, greater would be the rate of accumulation of storage molecule. Hence percentage of storage molecule
increased with increase in sparger velocity in PBR-I. The effect of sparger velocity on nitrogen depletion rate
was found to be less in PBR-II. When sparger velocity was increased from 0.1 m/s to 0.2 m/s, the time taken for
complete depletion of extracellular nitrogen went up only by 18 hours. Hence the rate of accumulation of
storage molecule was comparable for all three sparger velocities in PBR-II.

5.2. Effect of CO2 concentration

Algal growth in the PBRs was studied under varying conditions of CO 2 concentration (2% (v/v), 5% (v/v), 10%
(v/v)) in the inlet air. It was found that decrease in CO 2 concentration can cause significant decrease in biomass
productivity. Varying the CO2 fraction in inlet air from 5% to 2% led to a decrease in steady state biomass
productivity by 51% and 62% in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively. Even though productivity went down on
changing CO2 fraction from 10% to 5%, the percentage decrease was lesser (19% in PBR-I and 7% in PBR-II).

752
This is in good agreement with observations made by Hanagata et al. [13]. Hanagata et al. [13] reported
negligible change in productivity when CO2 concentration was increased from 10% to 20%. Maedal et al. [14]
observed that the most favourable CO2 concentration for algal growth was 10%.

Fig.4 Biomass productivity

in (a) PBR-I (b) PBR-II
0.1 m/s 0.2 m/s 0.3 m/s
under varying sparger
velocity 34% 33% 32%
30% 30%
24%

PBR-I PBR-II

Fig.5 Percentage of storage molecule obtained under varying air sparger velocity.

5.3. Effect of CO2 concentration

Algal growth in the PBRs was studied under varying conditions of CO 2 concentration (2% (v/v), 5% (v/v), 10%
(v/v)) in the inlet air. It was found that decrease in CO 2 concentration can cause significant decrease in biomass
productivity. Varying the CO2 fraction in inlet air from 5% to 2% led to a decrease in steady state biomass
productivity by 51% and 62% in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively. Even though productivity went down on
changing CO2 fraction from 10% to 5%, the percentage decrease was lesser (19% in PBR-I and 7% in PBR-II).
This is in good agreement with observations made by Hanagata et al. [13]. Hanagata et al. [13] reported
negligible change in productivity when CO2 concentration was increased from 10% to 20%. Maedal et al. [14]
observed that the most favourable CO2 concentration for algal growth was 10%.

5.4. Effect of nitrogen concentration

Algal growth in the PBRs was studied under varying conditions of nitrogen concentration (0.01g/l, 0.03g/l, 0.05
g/l) in the culture medium. It was observed that nitrogen concentration has considerable impact on algal
productivity. When nitrogen concentration was decreased from 0.05g/l to 0.01g/l, productivity dropped by
200% and storage molecule percentage dropped by 17% (Fig.6). Under nutrient deficient conditions, algal cells
channel the excess carbon to storage molecule synthesis [10]. Hence, the storage molecule content should have
increased with decrease in nitrogen concentration [10], yet it was found to decrease in PBR-I (Fig.7). However,
the drop in storage molecule percentage was very less when compared to the drop in total productivity.
Similarly, in PBR-II, even though the biomass productivity decreased when nitrogen concentration was
decreased (Fig.6), there was no significant increase in percentage of storage molecule (Fig.6). Hence, the model
fails to predict storage molecule accumulation under varying nitrogen concentration. As reported by Adesanya

753
et al. [10], a single set of parameters could not be used to study growth under different concentrations of
nitrogen.

Fig.6 Variation of productivity in (a) PBR-I (b) PBR-II with extracellular nitrogen concentration

5.5. Effect of light intensity

Algal growth under varying light intensities of 50 W/m2, 100 W/m2 and D/N cycle were studied. It was found
that there was approximately 4% and 9% increase in productivity in PBR-I and PBR-II, respectively, when
exposed to constant artificial irradiation instead of diurnally varying light source (Fig.8). When PBRs are
exposed to day/night cycle, the amount of time when there is sufficient light to support growth is less. In such
situations, during the night time, algal cells metabolize cell components for maintenance and respiration [15].
Ogbonna & Tanaka [16] observed that 17-35% of biomass produced during the day time was lost via respiration
in the night time. Hence, better productivities are obtained in constant light conditions. However, the difference
in productivity obtained when the value of artificial light intensity of 50 W/m2 was doubled was negligible
(~1%). The algal kinetic model used in the current study is applicable to light intensities less than 25 W/m 2.
Hence, the model fails to capture the effect of light intensity on algae growth at relatively high irradiance of 50-
200 W/m2. Béchet et al. [17] had reported that most of the models proposed to predict the effect of light
intensity on productivity are accurate only within a short range.

6. Conclusions

A conventional PBR (PBR-I) and a novel PBR (PBR-II) were compared on the basis of light attenuation and
algal biomass productivity. PBR-I was found to be more efficient than PBR-II in allowing light penetration. A
two-step approach was implemented to analyze algal growth in the PBRs under different growth conditions. It
was observed that under similar growth conditions, the productivities in the PBRs were comparable. However,
time required in completing growth in PBR-I was twice as that in PBR-II. Hence, PBR-II could be considered as
a better design than PBR-I for algal cultivation. The productivity in the PBRs was seen to increase linearly with

0.01 g/l 0.03 g/l 0.05 g/l

34% 34% 33% 33%

29% 28%

PBR-I PBR-II

Fig.7 Percentage of storage molecule obtained under varying extracellular nitrogen concentration.

754
 Fig.8 Effect of light intensity on biomass production in (a) PBR-I (b) PBR-II
increase in sparger velocity. The growth in PBRs was affected by CO 2 and nitrogen concentration. There was a
three-fold increase in productivity when the nitrogen concentration in culture medium was reduced by five-fold.
The algal kinetic model used in this study failed to predict the effect of light intensity on algal growth. This
study implemented a non-conventional technique to determine algal growth in PBRs and to analyse the
influence of different driving forces on algal growth. Future work in this area may include solving of differential
equations pertaining to the biological model in CFD software instead of exporting to Matlab. User-defined
functions that incorporate ODE solver methods such as Runga- Kutta method could be written in C language
and could be used to solve algal growth models in CFD software. Algal growth could also be modelled under
spatially and temporally varying light intensities in order to mimic natural sunlight conditions more accurately.

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 ICAER-2015

Optimized process synthesis of biodiesel production from

microalgae
Soumyajit Sen Guptaa, Sharad Bhartiyaa, Yogendra Shastria,1
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India

Abstract

Microalgae are promising candidates as non-conventional source of energy. Biodiesel can be produced from the lipid
fraction of microalgae. Although technically feasible, the process of producing biodiesel from microalgae is not
commercially economical, necessitating systematic optimization studies. In this work, a superstructure optimization model,
involving the crucial steps of growth of microalgae, harvesting of the culture, extraction of lipid and conversion of lipid to
biodiesel is developed. Various possibilities in terms of design variables and operating conditions are considered for each of
these steps, with the objective being minimization of annualized life cycle cost. The resulting Mixed Integer Linear
Programming (MILP) model is solved using CPLEX solver on GAMS platform to meet a daily demand of 30,000 kg of
biodiesel from phototrophic strain of microalgae Chlorella sp. The cost of biodiesel for the optimal case is found as US
$13.286/l. The optimal process consists of growth in a medium of chicken waste as nutrient, followed by settling with
ACTIPOL-FB1 polyelectrolyte as flocculant. The lipid extraction is carried out with chloroform: methanol 1:1 mixture. The
transesterification reaction, yielding biodiesel from lipid, is facilitated by alkali catalyst. Detailed information on equipment
at each step is also obtained. Several other cases are studied for an in-depth understanding on cascading effects of the crucial
decisions. The lipid extraction is the most critical step, as evident from the sensitivity analysis.
Keywords: Biodiesel; Microalgae; Superstructure; Optimization

1. Introduction

The challenges associated with the depleting reserves of conventional sources of energy as well as the
incremental environmental damage due to their sustained usages justify the need to search for their alternative
sources. Energy from biomass is one such plausible choice, with microalgae being a potential candidate due to
their various worthwhile attributes. Their cultivation requires minimal quantity of resources, while providing us
with a way to mitigate industrial flue-gases and waste water. The species of microalgae generally exhibit a high
growth rate, with the biomass becoming doubled in 3.5 h during certain stages of growth [1]. Their cells, having
been composed of lipid, protein and carbohydrate, are the source of the varieties of valuable end-products.
Biodiesel from lipid fraction of microalgae can be treated as a replacement of petro-diesel. The numerous
benefits notwithstanding, commercial implementation of microalgae as a source of energy has not yet been
realized, owing to the cost-intensive processing steps [2-3] to attain the final product from microalgae. An
additional challenge lies in the appropriate selection of the processing pathway from numerous alternatives.
Hence, a systematic approach needs to be undertaken to this end in order to realize the potential and bottleneck
of each possible alternative and accordingly, to come up with an optimal scenario for certain desired objective
[4]. Superstructure based optimization is a very promising tool in this perspective. This has been applied by
various researchers to study different process systems including those involved in manufacturing end-products
from microalgae [5-8]. This study applies a superstructure-based approach to the system of biodiesel production
from phototrophic strain of microalgae Chlorella sp., with the objective of designing an economically optimal
process flowsheet for a certain fixed demand of biodiesel. The different steps of the entire process are described
in brief in section 2, along with the superstructure. The model is discussed in section 3, while the results are
presented in section 4. Section 5 summarizes the study.

2. Biodiesel from microalgae: Superstructure-based approach

The four major steps in connection with production of biodiesel from microalgae are tabulated in Table 1
which also highlights the different alternatives for each model decisions, considered in the present study.
Firstly, the chosen species is cultivated in an open pond or closed photobioreactor. The critical parameters of

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-22-2576-7203; fax: +91-22-2576-6895.

E-mail address: yshastri@iitb.ac.in

757
interest such as concentration of cell as well as its composition change over the period of growth, as evident
from the experimental findings [9-10]. On achieving satisfactory yield, the dilute solution (0.0005-0.005 kg/l of
dry cell weight) [11] is concentrated by a step called harvesting, which can be achieved by different
conventional as well as modern solid-liquid separation methods. The performance of harvesting is assessed by
parameters such as harvesting efficiency and concentration factor; these are measures of any loss of cell during
harvesting and the corresponding dryness achieved respectively. On achieving desired dryness of the microalgae
paste, the intra-cellular lipid is extracted. Organic compounds such as hexane, chloroform, chloroform-methanol
mixture as well as supercritical carbon dioxide or methanol can be regarded as solvent in this respect [12]. Lipid
being an intracellular metabolite, a higher yield of lipid is facilitated by disruption of cells by agents such as
microwave, and ultrasound. The efficiency of lipid extraction is the most crucial parameter in this step. The
neutral fraction of the lipid, thus extracted, can be converted to biodiesel, a mixture of fatty acid alkyl esters,
through transesterification reaction in which the lipid is made to react with methanol in presence of acid or
alkaline catalysts. The performance of this step is governed by the measure of reaction yield.
Since we aim to find out the optimal combination of process options in order to attain an economically
optimal process flowsheet, the model is formulated based on the different relevant information for varieties of
processing alternatives at each of the steps. For example, as evident from Table 1, in case of lipid extraction, the
model is aimed at finding out optimal set of decisions for the enlisted attributes of the lipid extraction process
such as extraction solvent, duration of extraction, and the operating pressure. Thus, the associated relevant
information such as lipid extraction yield, required dose of solvents, and economic data for each combination of
different alternative cases are incorporated in the model.

Table 1. The steps for biodiesel production from microalgae along with the varieties of decisions considered.
Steps of biodiesel production Model decisions Alternatives in superstructure

Growth of microalgae cells Medium of growth Cowdung and chicken waste

Duration of growth 6, 12, 15, 18 and 20 days

Area of pond 8 and 10 hectare

Harvesting of cultivated solution Harvesting protocol Settling, Centrifugation and Settling followed by
Centrifugation

Stages of settling tank Primary and Primary followed by Secondary

Flocculant used during PGA, ACTIPOL FB1, ACTIPOL EM1 and no

settling flocculant

Volume of settling tank 2000 and 2500 m3

Capacity of centrifuge 100 and 150 gallon/min

Lipid extraction from harvested paste Extraction solvent Chloroform-Methanol 1:1 mixture, Methanol and
Carbon dioxide

Duration of extraction 20 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours

process

Operating pressure 1, 350 and 600 bar

Cell disruption technique Microwave, Ultrasound and no disruption

employed

Volume of extraction vessel 4000 and 20000 gallon

Transesterification reaction of extracted Type of catalyst Acidic (Sulphuric acid) and Alkaline (Caustic
lipid soda)

Amount of catalyst 4, 6 and 8 wt %

Amount of reactant alcohol Twice and thrice the stoichiometric requirement

Duration of reaction 2, 3 and 4 hours

758
3. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation

Here, we discuss, in brief, the genesis of the superstructure based model. In the present study, we aim to
design the optimal process flowsheet for meeting a target of a fixed demand of biodiesel. Since biodiesel is
produced from the lipid fraction of microalgae, the model needs to inter-relate the lipid present in the
microalgae cell in the step of growth to the final quantity of biodiesel at the outlet of reaction. These are
mutually connected through the process parameters at each of the intermediate steps such as harvesting
efficiency, concentration factor of harvesting, efficiency of lipid extraction and yield of reaction. Since there are
multiple alternatives present at each step of the process, all these parameters are function of those alternatives,
which are tabulated as model decisions in Table 1. For example, in case of reaction, the yield is dependent on
choice of catalyst and its quantity, amount of reactant alcohol, and the duration of reaction. Thus, all the
different model decisions get involved in the model and yield of the final product, biodiesel, depends upon these
model decisions. Further, as some of the decisions in connection to a certain step have impact on the
performance of the downstream steps, we need to study the entire system in an integrated manner with a holistic
model such as the one formulated here.
Since most of the processes such as settling, extraction with conventional solvent, and reaction are batch in
nature, the notion of batch time as the slowest of all the process times for the steps following growth was
incorporated in the model. The capital and operating cost of the equipment involved in the process as well as the
cost of different chemicals such as flocculant, and alcohol are expressed as function of the concerned variables
such as mass or volume of solution, as appropriate for the specific case. All these expressions of cost data are
combined to represent the net annualized life cycle cost (ALCC) of biodiesel production, which is minimized.
The constraints present in the formulation serve different purposes. Some of them take care of the material
balance necessary chemicals such as flocculant, and extraction solvent at the relevant steps as well as that of
water across all the steps in series. Demand of biodiesel is also related to relevant variables through a constraint.
The constraints on the synthesis of each of the individual steps as well as the connectivity of the flowsheet are
also invoked. The constraints on selection of equipment at each of the steps determine the number of equipment
based on the throughput and the capacity. Few of the constraints are dedicated to express the economics of the
process.

4. Results and discussion

The model was applied to simulate and optimize the scenario of meeting a fixed daily biodiesel demand of
30,000 kg from phototrophic strain of Chlorella sp. For these options, the model consisted of 637,498 equations
and 1,104,770 variables, out of which, 554,461 variables were integer in nature. The computations were
performed with a machine with Intel Core i7-2600 CPU @3.40 GHz with 8 GB RAM. The convergence was
achieved in 35,113 iterations and the search was performed over 58 nodes, with a computation time of 11
minutes. The production cost for biodiesel based on the net ALCC for this optimized case was found out to be
US $ 13.286/l. Table 2 presents a detailed segmentation of the net cost over the individual steps of the entire
process, along with the contribution of each different major cost components.

Table 2. Distribution of production cost across the different components involved over the four steps of operation.
Steps Growth of microalgae Harvesting of cultivated solution Lipid extraction Transesterification reaction of
cells from harvested extracted lipid
paste
% of 87.78 6.24 0.98 5.00
net cost
Cost Capital Electricity Capital Operating Flocculant Capital Solvent Capital Reactant Catalyst
distribu
tion
Cost 9.855 1.807 0.102 0.027 0.700 0.082 0.048 0.041 0.620 0.004
($/l)

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4.1. Operating conditions for the optimal scenario

The optimal set of model decisions as available from the solution of the model is depicted in Fig. 1, which
provides us with the relevant information on optimal flowsheet and the associated equipment. The values of the
crucial variables such as concentration of biomass at the end of growth and harvesting, and lipid extracted are
also reported.

Fig. 1. Optimal protocol of operation.

As observed from Table 2, the step of growth was the major contributor (87.78 % of the net ALCC) to the net
production cost. The major reasons for such a skewed nature of individual cost contribution of the steps were
the factors such as dilute nature of cultivated solution of microalgae cells, and a low neutral lipid content in the
phototrophic strain, as per the experimental studies [9]. As a consequence, a large volume of solution was
necessary to be cultivated to meet the demand, and this in turn, required a higher number of ponds, as evident
from Fig. 1. The optimal decisions in connection with growth duration and medium were also available from the
model. These optimal choices corresponded to a high concentration of microalgae biomass as well as that of
neutral lipid in the cell.
Among the available options for harvesting, the model selected settling for the optimal scenario, thereby
resulting in a low share of harvesting cost in the net ALCC. The polyelectrolyte, ACTIPOL FB1 was chosen as
the optimal flocculant. The selection of flocculant is challenging and non-intuitive due to mutually conflicting
criteria such as harvesting efficiency, concentration factor as well as flocculant dose. In terms of the dimension
of settling tank, the model selected the one with higher value as the cost per unit area was less for such an
option.
The lipid extraction was performed with the equimolar mixture of organic solvents chloroform and methanol.
Although the corresponding extraction yield was less as compared to that for supercritical carbon dioxide, the
absence of expensive step of solvent compression ensured the decision in its favour. Extraction was performed
for 2 h. No external assistance for cell disruption was predicted. The difference between the net amount of
extracted lipid and that sent for the reaction was due to the assumption that only the neutral lipid, being the
precursor to biodiesel, was sent to the next step.
For the step of reaction, the model selected optimal values of decisions for which the reaction yield was
higher as that would require lesser amount of microalgae to be cultivated for meeting the biodiesel demand. The
reaction was the slowest among all the post-cultivation steps and thus, the duration of reaction (4 h)
corresponded to the batch time for the entire process.
The detailed optimal protocol of operation, as depicted by Fig. 1 is indeed a deterministic tool to enable one
with best decision making under the given conditions and desired objective, which emphasizes the usefulness

760
and applicability of the superstructure model being studied.
On comparing the model results, particularly the optimized production cost of biodiesel with those available
from similar other studies reported in the literature, we observed a substantial variation. The estimates of
microalgae biofuels was found to be within US $ 2.5-21.8/l [13], whereas biodiesel cost for an open system was
estimated to be US $ 1.318/l based on a separate aggregated model-based study [14]. Yet another research in
this domain predicted the selling price of fuel to be US $ 2.6/l for a 10 % net return [15]. Thus, one can notice a
great variability among the findings from various studies, and this variation can be attributed to the different
assumptions in the individual model. Moreover, in some studies, the values of the model parameters were
assumed at a very optimistic number, whereas, the realistic scenario is entirely different. For example, in a study
[15], the lipid extraction efficiency had been assumed to be 90% for a case of phototrophic strain, while the
experimental values was only about 25% even with expensive step of external cell disruption for conventional
solvent [16]. In this study, an effort was made to make use of the experimentally reported parameters with the
possible extent of scale-up. This, potentially, could have raised the values of the individual cost components.
This fact emphasizes the necessity to find out the accurate values of the different parameters from the
experiments.
Further, our finding of comparatively higher cost value of biodiesel production is supported by the
infeasibility of a large-scale production of biodiesel from microalgae as per present technological scenario [17].
The research finding predicting a requirement of ten-fold reduction of production cost to achieve a practically
feasible scenario [18] also highlights the challenges involved to this end.

4.2. Studies on different scenarios

Since our desired product biodiesel is dependent on the amount of neutral lipid present in the inlet stream to
the reactor, we carried out three separate case studies each of which would alter the neutral lipid content in the
reactor inlet. Such a change can be accomplished by cultivating a heterotrophic strain of microalgae which has
higher content of neutral lipid [10] or by enforcing the model to select an efficient extraction protocol such as
extraction by supercritical carbon dioxide or that with the external assistance of cell disruption. These case
studies were performed with an aim to have a more detailed understanding of the cascading impact of any model
decision on the entire process.
Table 3 presents a detailed comparison of the cost values as well as the optimal protocol of operation for all
these three cases in contrast to the base case scenario.

Table 3. Comparison of base case with three different case studies based on optimal operations and economics.
Steps Base Case Case A Case B Case C
Heterotrophic strain Supercritical extraction of External agent-assisted
lipid lipid extraction

Growth

Medium Chicken waste Chicken waste Chicken waste Chicken waste

Duration (days) 18 18 18 20

Pond number 3024 648 756 960

Dimension of 10 10 10 8
each pond
(hectare)
Biomass at outlet 2.2 2.6 2.2 2.2
(x 10-3 kg/l)
Harvesting
Technique Settling Settling Settling Settling + Centrifugation
Flocculant used ACTIPOL FB1 ACTIPOL FB1 ACTIPOL FB1 ACTIPOL EM1

Flocculant amount 1635.4 340.22 404.31 1017.53

(kg/batch)
Settling tank 218 46 54 51

761
number

Dimension of 2500 2500 2500 2500

each settling tank
(m3)
Centrifuge - - - 90
number
Capacity of each - - - 150
centrifuge
(gallon/min)
Biomass at outlet 71.28 84.24 71.28 1200
-3
(x 10 kg/l)

Lipid Extraction

Extraction Solvent Chloroform: Chloroform: Methanol Supercritical CO2 Supercritical CO2

Methanol 1:1 1:1 mixture
mixture
Solvent amount 4662.99 l 1146.39 l 9.6 x 105 kg 8.65 x 105 kg
per batch

Duration (h) 2 2 3 1

Operating 1 1 600 600

pressure (bar)
Cell disruption None None None Microwave
technique

Extraction tank 223 47 275 16

number

Dimension of 20000 20000 4000 4000

each tank (gallon)

Net lipid extracted 20807.75 7269.47 6117.48 6117.48

(kg/batch)

Transesterification Reaction

Alcohol to lipid Twice the Twice the stoichiometric Twice the stoichiometric Twice the stoichiometric
ratio stoichiometric

Alcohol amount 1241.06 1233.93 1241.06 1241.06

(kg/batch)

Catalyst NaOH NaOH NaOH NaOH

Catalyst amount 6 6 6 6
(wt %)
Catalyst amount 341.57 333.61 341.57 341.57
(kg/batch)

Duration (h) 4 4 4 4

762
 Number of 18 5 1 1
reactors
Desired lipid at 5692.93 5560.19 5692.93 5692.93
inlet (kg/batch)

Batch time (h) 4 4 4 4

Total cost of 11.662 (87.78) 2.499 (75.02) 2.916 (19.39) 3.114 (10.67)
growth in $/l
(% of net cost)
Total cost of 0.829 (6.24) 0.173 (5.19) 0.205 (1.38) 7.96 (27.29)
harvesting in $/l
(% of net cost)
Total cost of lipid 0.13 (0.98) 0.029 (0.88) 11.285 (75.07) 17.473 (59.89)
extraction in $/l
(% of net cost)
Total cost of 0.665 (5.00) 0.63 (18.91) 0.626 (4.16) 0.626 (2.15)
reaction in $/l
(% of net cost)
Net production 13.286 3.331 15.032 29.173
cost (US $ /l)

As observed from Table 3, in case of heterotrophic strain, the optimal model decisions remained same as
those for the base case for all the steps. Since this case corresponded to a higher content of neutral lipid in the
cell, required quantity of microalgae culture was lesser than the base case. This resulted in a reduced number of
equipment at each of the steps. The share of cost across the steps also remained similar, with growth remaining
the most expensive step. Although the net cost was found out to be only around 25 % of that for base case, the
heterotrophic strain would not be suitable for a large-scale implementation. This is due to requirement of a high
dose of glucose (0.01 kg/l) [10] during cultivation, which would enhance the production cost substantially,
alongside inviting the potential debate of food versus fuel. Hence, we considered this case as a separate scenario
and not in the primary study.
For the case of lipid extraction by supercritical carbon dioxide, we noticed no change in model decisions in
any of the steps other than extraction. In case of extraction, the decisions were different as the model was forced
to select a different solvent. As a result of the expensive step of compression of solvent, the relative contribution
of individual steps also varied from the base case, with lipid extraction becoming the most expensive step. The
requirement of lesser culture volume due to enhanced extraction efficiency resulted in a reduction in number of
equipment.
In case of extraction assisted by external cell disruption agent, we noticed a major change in almost all the
model decisions apart from those for reaction. The selection of expensive step of cell disruption by microwave
ensured decisions in favour of expensive yet efficient steps such as harvesting by centrifugation, and lipid
extraction by supercritical carbon dioxide. The decisions on reaction remained same as the inlet to the reactor
and the final demand remained unaltered.
These case studies were useful to obtain a quantitative understanding of the impact of crucial model
decisions on the entire process. Lipid extraction, along with numerous decisions involved, was found to be most
crucial one as the many of changes observed on altering the extraction decisions were far-reaching and non-
intuitive in nature. The step of growth was also very critical for having the ability to impact all the downstream
processes. These findings undoubtedly emphasize the importance of undertaking an integrated model-based
study such as this one to predict the optimal scenario as well as to locate the bottlenecks for possible
improvement.

763
4.3. Sensitivity analysis on the base case result

We also analysed the sensitivity of the base case results with respect to the model parameters. This was to
ascertain the criticality of determining the accurate numerical values of these parameters during experiments and
while applying them in a model based study such as this one. The parameters were changed by a value of 10 %
on either side and the subsequent impact on the net production cost is tabulated in Table 4.

Table 4. Sensitivity analysis of the base case results

Parameter whose sensitivity is studied Percent change in net ALCC for Percent change in net ALCC for
10 % increase in parameter value 10 % decrease in parameter value
Cell composition and growth parameters

Biomass concentration -10.05 10.20

Lipid content in the cell -10.08 10.24
Fraction of neutral lipid in cell -10.08 10.24
Growth rate -8.77 8.79
Harvesting parameters
Flocculant dose 0.53 -0.53
Concentration factor by settling - 0.07 0.09
Harvesting efficiency by settling -10.05 10.20
Rate of settling No change No change
Lipid extraction parameters
Ratio of extraction solvent to microalgae biomass 0.03 -0.04
Extraction efficiency -10.08 10.24
Rate of extraction No change No change
Reaction parameters
Alcohol amount in the reaction 0.007 -0.01
Catalyst quantity No change -0.007
Reaction yield -6.68 10.25
Rate of reaction -0.88 -2.07

The results from sensitivity analysis (Table 4) help us to categorize the parameters as per their effect on the
model results in terms of sensitivity. Model was most sensitive to parameters such as concentration of biomass
as well as neutral lipid, and efficiency of harvesting as well as extraction. On the other hand, concentration
factor of harvesting, and dose of extraction solvent had very minimal impact on the process economics.
Moreover, we did not notice any change in the optimal model decisions for any of these cases for a 10 % change
in parameter values.

5. Conclusion

Microalgae, though being promising candidates for alternative source of energy, have their own economic
and technological challenges in terms of large-scale implementation. A superstructure based study
encompassing all the possible alternatives such as the one discussed here is a suitable tool to address the system
in order to find out the optimized scenario as well as to direct focus on possible areas of improvement. As per
the findings from our study, the cost of biodiesel production for the optimal scenario was US $ 13.286/l, with
growth being the most expensive step. The optimal configuration of processing steps along with information on
equipment to be used was also available in the solution. Several separate case studies were performed in order to
ascertain the effect of lipid content in the inlet stream to the reactor on the entire process. These case studies
provided us with novel insight to the system and the step of lipid extraction was determined to be most crucial
one in this respect. The sensitivity analysis of the results was also carried out and this assisted us to categorize
the parameters on their impact on the model decision and process economics. Model was adjudged to be most
sensitive to the parameters that have a direct consequence on the concentration of neutral lipid in the reactor
inlet.

764
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765
 ICAER-2015

Modelling and optimization of dilute acid pre-treatment processing of lignocellulosic feedstock

Suryanarayana Vegia, Sumit Kumar Vermaa, Yogendra Shastria,1

a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Bombay, Mumbai, India

Abstract

Lignocellulosic feedstock is one of the potential renewable sources for producing ethanol. However, technological
bottlenecks and economic viability are primary concern in producing ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks. The objective
of this study is to optimize the dilute acid pre-treatment of lignocellulosic feedstock, which is the first major processing step
in the biochemical route of ethanol production. The reaction scheme of acid pre-treatment shows the decomposition of
feedstock component into the desired product, which further decomposed into degradation products. A batch reaction kinetic
model for acid pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse has been considered for this study. Subsequently, the kinetic model is
augmented with the heat balance equation in order to develop a comprehensive batch reactor model. An optimal control
strategy has been implemented after the verification of augmented batch reactor model. Three different objective functions
namely, maximizing concentration of xylose, minimization of batch time, and maximization of profit, have been considered
for this study. The control variables include the hot and cold utility flow rates in the jacket of the reactor. All three optimal
control problems were solved using Pontryagin’s maximum principle. The results have provided the optimal operating
strategies to improve techno-economic feasibility of dilute acid pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse.
Keywords: Lignocellulosic Biomass; Dilute Acid Pretreatment; Optimal Control; Maximum Principle; lignocellulosic ethanol

1. Introduction

Lignocellulosic feedstocks typically are non-food plant biomass such as wheat straw, corn stover, sugarcane
bagasse, switch-grass, and rice husk. The biochemical route for the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic
biomass consists of following steps namely, pre-treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and separation.
Among all, pre-treatment is being considered most challenging processing step due to technoeconomic
perspective. The major objective of the pre-treatment is to disrupt the structural matrix of lignocellulose to
enhance cellulose accessibility for enzyme in subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis step. In dilute acid pretreatment,
xylan (major fraction in hemicellulose) is hydrolyzed into xylose. It also leads to the conversion of lignin into
acid soluble lignin [1]. Both these reactions lead to the disruption of the lignocellulose structure and enhance
cellulose accessibility for enzyme hydrolysis, which is the second processing step in the route of ethanol
production from lignocellulosic feedstock. This step has a significant role in further processing of the feedstock
and has a significant share of about 33% of the total operating cost [2]. A variety of pre-treatment techniques
have been explored [3,4], but dilute acid pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis has been found more
favourable towards the economics and environmental impacts [5,6].
In the literature various feedstocks has been investigate at laboratory and pilot scale facilities but
sugarcane bagasse have considerable attention in Indian context due to established sugar industries [7]. As
mentioned earlier, acid pre-treatment becomes more challenging when economic feasibility of process has been
considered. Therefore optimal control approach is proposed to optimize dilute acid pretreatment of bagasse, for
which the reaction system model is developed with an assumption of batch mode operation. In general, optimal
control problems solution results in optimal operational strategies, which improves the performance of the
dynamic system. The optimal control of batch reactors [8, 9, 10] concerned with the maximizing concentration,
minimizing the batch time, and maximizing the profit with similar approach to produce biodiesel by
transesterification [11].
In general, there are two methods followed to solve optimal control problems, direct method and
indirect method. The direct method involves transforming the optimal control problem in to nonlinear
programming problem along with direct collocation methods [12]. On other hand, the indirect method includes
the maximum principle, which was first developed by Pontryagin. However, maximum principle is preferred
over direct method because it provides relatively accurate solution. And also maximum principle avoids the use
of second order differential equations [11], which is unavoidable using calculus of variation for solving optimal

1
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 22 25767203, Fax: (+91) 22 25726895,
E-mail address: yshastri@iitb.ac.in

766
control problems. In this study, all problems are solved using the maximum principle approach with steepest
ascent/ descent method of Hamiltonian [13]. The article is organized as: batch reaction system of the
pretreatment process is modeled in section 2, using this model, the optimization problem formulation with
different objectives as discussed earlier is presented in section 3 and the solution strategy to solve these
optimization problems is discussed in section 4. Finally the simulation results and conclusions obtained by
solving these optimization problems are discussed in section 5 and section 6 respectively.

Nomenclature

ci concentration of the ith species, γi stoichiometry coefficient, + sign for[g/g

of dry bagasse], where i = {xy, xl, xd...} products and – sign for reactants
xi (t ) state variable, where for i = 1...17 represents rj reaction of the jth reaction, [g/g s]
respective concentrations ϕ biomass loading, [g/g of liquid]
Tr (t) reactor temperature, [oC] Ca acid concentration [% w/w of liquid]
k0,lm frequency factor for mth polymer reaction, klm reaction rate of lth step for mth polymer
where m= {xylan (x), Arabinan (a),cellulose (ce), reaction [1/s]
glucuronic acid (g), lignin(l)}, and l = {1 ,2},[1/s] nlm order of mth polymer reaction in lth step
Elm activation energy for the mth reaction in lth step, w.r.t acid concentration
[KJ/mol]
U overall heat transfer coefficient, [KW/m2 K] A heat transfer area, [m2]
Vj jacket volume, [m3] Vr reaction mixture volume, [m3]
cpi , Ci specific heat and mass concentration of ith substance, ∆Hr,j heat of reaction for jth reaction, [KJ/Kg]
[KJ/Kg K], here ith substance refers to bagasse,water mb quantity of dry bagasse, [Kg]
and acid ρj density of jacket fluid, [Kg/ m3]
Tj(t) jacket temperature, [oC] uh ,uc hot and cold utilities, [Kg/min]
Th , Tc hot and cold utilities temperature respectively, [oC] J performance index /objective functional
S terminal cost function H Hamiltonian
x, p state vector and costate /adjoint vector u control vector
Pxl, Pb cost of xylose and bagasse respectively, [Rs/Kg] P c, P h cold and hot utility cost in [Rs/Kg] and
[Rs/KJ] respectively

2. Modelling of acid pretreatment process

The kinetic models reported in the literature [14, 15, 16] for acid pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass have
been considered in this study. In practice, the thermal control plays a significant role in the reactor performance
than the reaction system, which necessitates the inclusion of the energy model [17]. Hence, an integrated model
of dilute acid pre-treatment was developed by considering both mass and energy balance equations. The kinetic
model is primarily based on the first order kinetics proposed by [14]. Accordingly, all the reactions are modelled
as consecutive irreversible pseudo-homogeneous first order reactions type. The general representation of
reaction scheme is:
k k
Polymer(s) 1p
H SO
 Monomer(aq ) 
 2p
H SO

 degradation product (1)
2 4 2 4

In general, the polymer species of lignocellulose consist of cellulose, hemicellulose (xylan/Arabinan/glucuronic

acid), and lignin and their respective monomers are glucose, xylose / arabinose/glucose, and acid soluble lignin.
Apart from this, reaction scheme (Eq. 1) also consists of direct degradation of pentosan (the combination of
xylan and Arabinan) to furfural at higher combined severity conditions (reaction time, acid concentration, and
temperature) and furfural decomposed into degradation product. The reaction scheme for the same is presented
in eq. 2
k k
Pentosan(s)  1
H SO
 Furfural(aq ) 
 2
H SO

 degradation product (2)
2 4 2 4

The component mass balance of each reaction species is modelled according to eq. (3).
dc
xi (t )  i 
dt 
 i , j rj
j
(3)

As an illustration, the hydrolysis of xylan (xy) producing xylose (xl), which further decomposes into
degradation product (xd) is represented by the following component balance equations (state equations),

767
 dcxy
x1 (t )   k1x cxy  k1f cxy (4)
dt
dc
x2 (t )  xl  k1x cxy   k2x cxl (5)
dt
dc
x3 (t )  xd   k2x cxl (6)
dt

Similarly, the mass balance equation for other components can be derived. Hence, total 17 state equations are
formed, which represents the time dependent concentration of each species. The standard Arrhenius equation is
used to model the temperature dependency of the reaction rate constants:

 Ea ,lm 
 
klm  k0,lm e RTr (t )  C nlm (7)
a

It is assumed that the reaction is carried out in a batch reactor and there is perfect mixing in entire reaction
mixture. To model the batch reactor, the reaction kinetic model is augmented by the heat balance model for the
reactor and the heating/cooling jacket. The batch reactor is an agitated vessel with jacketing to provide the
necessary heating and cooling requirements by hot and cold fluids circulating through the jacket as shown in
Fig.1.

Fig. 1 Batch reactor schematic representation with both heating and cooling fluids.

The heat balance [13] equation for the reaction mixture to maintain at desired temperature of Tr (t) is given by,
n
dTr UA mb
x18  
dt Vr
 c p ,i C
T j (t )  Tr (t )   V
i r  c p,i Ci
 H r 
j 1
r, j j (8)
i i
Similarly for the jacket, the heat transferred from the jacket fluid considering overall heat transfer coefficient
across the reactor wall with the assumptions that, the jacket fluid is well mixed and fills the entire jacket
volume, Vj containing inert fluid and also the properties of the fluid are assumed to be invariant with the process
temperature range.
dT j 1 UA
x19  
dt V j  j

uh (t )(Th  T j (t ))  uc (t )(T j (t )  Tc ) 
c p, j

T j (t )  Tr (t ) 
(9) 
This integrated model is established after the verification for a typical bagasse composition as shown in Tab. 1
with kinetic parameters [15, 16]. The simulation was performed in MATLAB® using ode45 as a solver at 1%
H2SO4, and hot utility of 60Kg/min for 300 minutes of batch time to result xylose concentration of 0.2005g/g of
biomass. This is referred as base case in the further study.
Table 1. Typical sugarcane bagasse composition on dry basis
Component Composition [mg/g]
Xylan 274.8
Arabinan 30.2
Cellulose 445.5
Glucuronic acid 27.0
Lignin 222.5

768
3. Optimal control problem formulation

The acid pretreatment processing of the sugar cane bagasse in dilute acid environment is intended to optimise by
evaluating the time dependent optimal profile of state variables and control variables. In acid pretreatment, more
xylose formation in less time is more advantageous, which is considered as the objectives of maximizing the
xylose concentration, minimizing the batch time, and maximizing the profit [11,18], which is analogous to
minimizing the processing cost. These three different problems formulation and solution strategy is shown in
the following subsections. The equations Eq. (3)-(9) are used as the state variable equality constraint for the
optimal control problem and hot and cold utility is considered as the control variables. For this study, it is
assumed that states are not bounded, while controls are bounded with upper and lower limits.

3.1. Maximum concentration problem (MCP)

The maximum concentration problem is formulated with an objective to maximize the xylose concentration
at the final time (tf = 300min). The concentration maximization (Eq. 10) should be subjective to the plant
dynamics which act as constraints. This problem is approached using the maximum principle and Hamiltonian
formulation to avoid solving of partial and second order differentials [11,13].
max J c  cxy (tf )
u
s.t. x(t)  F (x(t), u(t), t ) x(t0 )  x0  Rn
umin  u(t)  umax where uh & uc  u(t) (10)
where, F(x(t), u(t),t) is the RHS of the respective state equations (eq. (3)-(9)) and uh and uc are hot and cold
utility flow rates equivalent to mh and mc in Eq. (9), respectively.
The initial conditions of the state variables are:
x(t0) =[0.27477; 0; 0; 0.030225; 0; 0; 0.44625; 0; 0; 0.027; 0; 0; 0.2225; 0; 0; 0; 0; 30; 30].
During the Hamiltonian formulation (Eq.11) new variables called costate or adjoint variables are involved and
generate ‘n’ first order differential equations called costate equations.
n
Hc (x(t ), p(t ), u(t ), t )  p F
i 1
i i , where n  119 (11)

The final values of the costate variables are derived from the boundary or transversality conditions (Eq.12).
S
x
 
x  tf  , tf  p  tf   0 (12)


where, S x  tf  , tf  is the terminal function of objective function in Eq.10. Using Eq.12, the final time costate
values are, pf = [ 0;1;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0]. This problem is solved to maximise xylose concentration
by implementing the solution procedure discussed in later section.

3.2. Minimum time problem (MTP)

The minimum time problem is formulated with an objective to minimize the dilute acid pretreatment batch
time for obtaining a fixed final xylose concentration of the base case (0.2005 g/g of biomass).
min J t  t (cxy,f )
u

s.t. x(t)  F (x(t), u(t), t ) x(t0 )  x0  Rn (13)

umin  u(t)  umax where uh & uc  u(t)
Since all the state equations given by Eq. (3)-(9) are defined in the time horizon (t), these equations are
reformulated [7] such that they are defined in xylose concentration horizon (cxl) by introducing a new state
variable as time (t) itself. The state equations transformation is shown as follows,
dxi dx dcxl dt
 i  , where x20
 Fi x20   (14)
dcxl dt dt dcxl
dci F dT F dT F
Therefore xi   i are for concentrations and x18   j  19
  r  18 and x19 are for reactor
dcxl x2 dcxl x2 dcxl x2
and jacket temperatures respectively.

769
Similar to previous case, the maximum principle application results in an equivalent number of costate variables
corresponding to the state variables (which are 20 including the new variable time). Further the Hamiltonian
formulation for this problem is shown in the Eq. 11 as
n
Ht (x(cxl ), p(cxl ), u(cxl ), cxl )   p F 
i 1
i i , where n  120 (15)

This Hamiltonian is minimised w.r.t to u(t) along with initial conditions of state variables, x(cxl,0) =[0;27477; 0;
0; 0:030225; 0; 0; 0:44625; 0; 0; 0:027; 0; 0; 0:2225; 0; 0; 0; 0; 30; 30;0] and the terminal values of the costate
values are given by the Eq. 8 in cxl domain to result pf = [ 0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;1]. The solution
method is explained in the later section.

3.3. Maximum profit problem (MPP)

Since the pretreatment operation is not economically effective, this problem is formulated to optimize the
process such that the profit is maximized. The profit is defined in terms of operating cost involved and revenue
generated from the xylose production. Though xylose formation is not the only final processing step, still the
xylose has commercial value as a raw material for other chemical processes such as xylitol production and furan
derivatives synthesis[]. Therefore, the final xylose formed is valued based on the commercial selling price. In
general the factors that have a significant impact on the economy are revenue generated from the product
formed, raw material cost and the energy invested in the system in the form of heat to drive the reaction. The
maximum problem can therefore be given by the Eq. 16 as,
tf tf

max J
u
E 
0

 mb  Pxl cxl  Pb   Ph uh (t )c p, j (Th  Tamb )dt  Pc uc (t )dt
0
s.t. x(t)  F (x(t), u(t), t ) x(t0 )  x0  Rn (16)

umin  u(t)  umax where uh & uc  u(t)

There are also certain assumptions involved in formulating the objective function for maximum profit. The
separation step of xylose from the reactor effluent is assumed to be ideal and also the recirculation of the return
hot utility is not considered and all the energy supplied will be utilised for heating the reaction mixture and even
all the heat loses to the ambient are neglected. The initial conditions of the state variables are : x(t0) =[0;27477;
0; 0; 0:030225; 0; 0; 0:44625; 0; 0; 0:027; 0; 0; 0:2225; 0; 0; 0; 0; 30; 30]. Again the maximum principle
application and Hamiltonian formulation (Eq.17) involving costate or adjoint variables generating n costate first
order differential equations called costate equations.
n
HE (x(t ), p(t ), u(t ), t )  p F  P c
i 1
i i h p,juh (t )(Th  Tamb )  Pc uc (t ) , where n  119. (17)

The final values of the costate variables are derived from the boundary or transversality conditions using Eq.8 to
get, pf = [ 0;mrPxy ;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0]. All these problems are solved to optimise the objective
functions are solved through numerical method as discussed in the next section.

4. Solution method

The optimization problems formulated by the application of maximum principle in the previous section are
optimal control problems (OCP) in a continuous single independent variable horizon with state variable equality
constraints. For fix-final-time (or fix-final-concentration, for minimum time problem) condition, these problems
result in two point boundary value problems (TPBVP), where the both state and costate equations of 2n ODEs
along with initial values x(t0) and the terminal time values pf are integrated in an iterative algorithm as shown
in the Fig. 2. The solution strategy involves assuming initial guess of control variables profiles u(t) and
integrating the n ODEs to get the state profiles. Further n costate ODEs are integrated backward using terminal
time values. Then checking for optimality criteria as defined and violation of which updates the u(t) profile by
following steepest ascent (or descent for minimization problem) method (Eq.18). This algorithm is implemented
in MATLAB using inbuilt ODE functions for integration of ODEs combined with u(t) updation strategy.

H
uk 1 (t )  uk (t )   (p(t ), x(t ), u (t ), t ) (18)
u

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 Fig. 2. Flowchart of iterative solution strategy to solve optimal control problem using maximum principle

5. Results and discussion

The simulation results for the maximum concentration, minimum time problem and maximum profit problem
for dilute acid pretreatment processing of sugarcane bagasse are discussed in this section and compared with
that of the base case results. The maximum concentration problem solution has resulted xylose
concentration at the final time of about 0.2140 g/ g of biomass with a yield of 77.87%. This corresponds to
an increase of about 6.83% compared to that of the base case as shown in the Fig. 3. Almost after one
third of the batch time the hot and cold utility flows (Fig.4 and Fig.5) have changed immediately in order
to maximize the xylose concentration by lowering the degradation rate. Subsequently to maintain the
reactor temperature at optimal to get the maximum final concentration of xylose, the utility flows are
adjusted. The similar observation is found in the reactor temperature which has increased in the initial
phase to increase the rate of formation of xylose. As the degradation reaction also competes, the
temperature decreases (Fig .6) instead of increasing which is the regular phenomenon for irreversible
reaction. This decrease is well magnified in the jacket temperature because the onset of cold utility flow
would decrease the jacket temperature (Fig. 7) at a faster rate relative to the reactor temperature decrease.
The profit generated by implementing the maximum concentration optimal control operational strategy is
around INR 7100/- per batch

Fig. 3. Xylose concentration profile (MCP) Fig. 4. Hot utility mass flow profile (MCP)

771
 Fig. 5 Cold utility mass flow profile (MCP) Fig. 6 Reactor temperature profile (MCP)

Fig. 7 Jacket temperature profile (MCP) Fig. 8 Xylose concnetration profile (MTP)

Fig. 9 Hot utility mass flow profile (MTP) Fig. 10 Cold utility mass flow profile (MTP)

The minimum time optimal control problem is solved for fixed final concentration of 0.2005 [g/g of biomass]
and the solution of the problem has resulted in a final time of about 171.1006 min (Fig.8) against 300min (for
base case, where no optimal control is adopted). With this result there is a reduction of almost 42.9% to obtain
the same xylose final concentration of 0.2005 g/g of biomass. The control variable (Fig. 9), hot utility flow rate
is observed to be at maximum possible in the initial phase to drive the reaction faster. And also for some time
duration the optimal hot utility profile is observed to ride on its upper limit (360Kg/min). Due to the inherent
kinetics of the reaction, the degradation of the monomer rate again forces the hot utility flow to decrease rapidly
and sustain at a lower value for rest of the time. The cold utility usage shown by the Fig. 10 also simultaneously
increased while decreasing the hot utility flow to in order to limit the reactor temperature (Fig. 11) at optimal.
Similar to previous case this temperature lowering is clearly seen in the jacket utility temperature profile shown
in (Fig.12) by a sharp decrease and further maintained at relatively lower temperature.

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 Fig. 11 Reactor temperature profile (MTP) Fig. 12 Jacket temperature profile (MTP)

The maximum profit problem solution has resulted the xylose final concentration (Fig. 13) of about 0.2054
g/g of biomass with a yield of 74.74 %. The hot utility profile (Fig. 14) is such that the heat load is completely
taken by the optimal trajectory of the hot utility without any aggressive heating that might in turn require cold
utility. The maximum profit optimal control problem has resulted in no flow of cold utility (Fig.15) throughout
the batch time to minimize utility cost and also for some time period the hot utility is also zero. The
temperatures of reactor and jacket as shown in Fig. 16 and Fig. 17 respectively are at ambient during the process
start and are raised gradually without any intense heating to optimize the cost of heating. Both of the
temperatures have shown a constant trend towards the end of the batch time. This constancy is due to the zero
flow of the hot and cold utility and under the assumption that no heat loss or gain from the surroundings

Fig. 13 Xylose concentration profile (MPP) Fig. 14 Hot utility mass flow profile (MPP)

Fig. 15 Cold utility mass flow profile (MPP) Fig. 16 Reactor temperature profile (MPP)

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 Fig. 17 Jacket temperature profile (MPP)

The comparison of optimal control problems simulation results with that of the base case simulation results
are shown in the Tab. 2
Table 2. Summary of simulation results

Xylose Xylose
Time Profit
S.No. Objective Final conc. Yield Remarks
[min] [INR/batch]
[g/g of biomass] [%]
1 Base case (BC) 300 0.2005 72.96 11394 without optimal control
2 Final conc. improved by
Max. Conc. 300 0.2140 77.87 7100
6.7% w.r.t. BC
3 Batch time reduced by
Min.Time 171 0.2005 72.96 -617
43% w.r.t. BC
4 Profit improved by
Max. profit 300 0.2054 74.74 15905
124% w.r.t max conc.

6. Conclusions

The work has presented the optimization and control of batch reactor for performing dilute acid pretreatment
of sugarcane bagasse. The different objective functions are formulated and solved to analyze the process and
economic performance. Optimal control theory with Pontryagin's maximum principle approach has been
implemented in solving the dynamic system and optimal operational strategies are determined with a criterion to
improve economic performance.
Three different objective functions, maximum concentration, minimum time and maximum profit are solved to
find the economically most feasible operational strategy. From the simulation results, the maximum profit
optimal control strategy is found to be relatively superior. It is also evident that for improving the economic
performance, considering maximum conversion alone is not the best choice. The dynamic factor like the energy
expended and static factor like raw material cost are also as equally important as raw material conversion for
assessing the economic performance.
It has been also found that the optimal operational strategies are better as compared to the base case where no
optimal control in implemented. From the simulation results, it is evident that each of these optimal control
strategies is superior in one or more of the aspects than the base case scenario.

Acknowledgements

This work has been funded in part by Industrial Research and Consulting Centre (IRCC), IIT Bombay
(12IRCCSG025) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India
(SB/S3/CE/015/2013).

References

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technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, Bioresource technology 96 (2005), 673–86.
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different feedstocks, Bioresource Technology 99 (2008), 5270–5295.
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perspectives, Bioresource Technology 101 (2010), 4754–4766.
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materials: a review. Bioresource technology 2 (2007),472–499
[6] A.K. Chandel, R.K. Kapoor, A.K. Singh, R.C. Kuhad. Detoxification of sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate
improves ethanol production by Candida shehatae NCIM 3501. Bioresource technology 98 (2007a), 1947–
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[7] J.K. Gehlawat, Modernization of Indian sugar industry, Arnold Publishers (1990), pp. 256–267, New Delhi.
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Curvelo, Dilute Acid Hydrolysis of Sugar Cane Bagasse at High Temperatures: A Kinetic Study of
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[17] H. Scott Fogler, Elements of chemical reaction engineering, Pearson Education Inc, 4th edition, 2006
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 ICAER-2015

A numerical investigation of fluid flow maldistribution in inlet

header configuration of plate fin heat exchanger
Appasaheb raula , B. N. Bhasme1b, Dr. R.S. Mauryac
a
P.G. student, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, India
b
Assistant Proffesor, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, India
c
Associate Proffesor, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, India

Abstract

The common assumption made for the design of heat exchangers is that the fluid flow in the header and core part is uniform.
It is found that the flow maldistribution is very significant in the direction normal to the flow direction in inlet header of the
plate fin heat exchanger. In the present work numerical analysis of a plate fin heat exchanger accounting for the effect of fluid
flow maldistribution in inlet header configuration of the heat exchanger is investigated. Various inlet configuration has been
studied for various Reynolds Number. A modified header configuration with double baffle plate having two arrangements are
proposed and simulated. The two dimensional parameters are used to evaluate the flow non-uniformity in header, gross flow
maldistribution parameter (Sg), velocity ratio (θ). A validation of numerical work is done by comparing results of numerical
analysis for conventional header with the experimental results from the literature. A series of velocity vectors and streamline
graphs at different cross-section. The numerical results indicate that the flow maldistribution is serious in conventional header,
while in the improved configuration less maldistribution occurs. The flow maldistribution parameter (Sg) and velocity ratio
(θ) is less in improved configuration as compared with conventional header. The improved header can effectively enhance the
efficiency of plate fin heat exchanger and uniformity of flow distribution.

Keywords:flow maldistribution, plate fin heat exchanger, velocity ratio, inet header.

1. Introduction

Plate-fin heat exchangers are employed in a wide variety of energy conversion applications such as power
plants, petrochemical plants, radiators of transport vehicles to name a few and they exchange heat energy among
two-fluids with different supply temperatures. A large extent of energy transfer takes place in these types of heat
exchangers which are used in different applications. The heat exchangers used in these applications consume
significant portion of energy, so improvement in the efficiency of plate and fin heat exchangers will save
significant amount of energy. A major advantage of the plate fin heat exchanger over a conventional heat
exchanger is that the fluids are exposed to a much larger surface area because the fluids spread out over the plates.
In the design of the plate fin heat exchanger, it is generally assumed that the fluid flow distribution is uniformly
distributed among all the parallel fin passages through the heat exchanger core. But in actual practices, it is
impossible to distribute the fluid flow uniformly because of flow maldistribution. Flow maldistribution is a non-
uniform distribution of mass flow rate in a heat exchanger core. Flow maldistribution depends on several factors
such as heat exchanger’s geometrical configuration (i.e. mechanical design, channel and header geometry and
dimensions, manufacturing tolerances or imperfections), operating conditions (flow velocity changes along the
headers, fluid viscosity, and multiphase flow). Flow maldistribution is a very important factor and it affects the
performance of heat exchanger to large extent [1-2]. Jian Wen and Yanzhong Li [3] analysed the fluid flow
maldistribution for the conventional header used in industry. According to him, a baffle with small holes of three
different kinds of diameters was recommended to be installed in the header to control the flow maldistribution in
the heat exchanger. The numerical result obtained effectively improved the performance of the heat exchanger.
Zhang and Li Yanzhong [4] proposed a two modified headers with a two stage distributing structure to reduce the
flow non-uniformity. They proved that the fluid flow distribution in plate-fin heat exchangers was more uniform
if the ratios of outlet and inlet equivalent diameters for both headers are equal. Ranganayakulu and K. N.
Seetharamu [5] studied a cross flow plate-fin compact heat exchanger, accounting for the combined effects of
two-dimensional longitudinal heat conduction through the exchanger wall and non-uniform inlet fluid flow and

1
Corresponding author. Tel.:+91 9769160850
E-mail address: b_bhasme@spce.ac.in

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temperature distribution was being carried out by using a finite element method. Jiao et al. [6] experimentally
investigated the header configuration on flow maldistribution in plate fin heat exchanger. Their study suggests
that the performance of flow distribution in plate fin heat exchanger has effectively improved by optimum design
of the header configuration. Zhang and Yanzhong Li [7] studied analytically two stage flow distribution in header
with inlet equivalent diameters in plate fin heat exchanger. It was verified that the fluid flow distribution in plate-
fin heat exchangers was more uniform if the ratios of outlet and inlet equivalent diameters for both headers were
equal. L. Sheik Ismail et al.[8] performed CFD analyses for three different types of heat exchanger with fin
geometries in order to study the effect of flow maldistribution on the performance of heat exchanger. Modified
header was proposed for improving the flow maldistribution for three heat exchangers. Three offset strip fins and
16 wavy fin used in for thermal simulation and j and f vs. Re design data are generated using CFD analysis only
for turbulent flow region. M. A. Habib et al. [9] did CFD investigation on the flow maldistribution in air-cooled
heat exchangers. The effects of the number of nozzles, nozzle location, nozzle geometry, nozzle diameter, and
inlet flow velocity and the incorporation of a second header on the flow maldistribution inside the tubes of an air-
cooled heat exchanger. The results indicate that incorporating a second header, a significant reduction in the flow
maldistribution. In present work a modified header with different arrangement of baffle plate is proposed. The
flow characteristics in the modified header are studied numerically.

Nomenclature

Sg gross flow maldistribution parameter

𝜃 velocity ratio
N channel number
Vmax maximum Velocity
Vmin minimum Velocity
Vi local Passage velocity
Vavg average Passage velocity

2. Physical Model and Mathematical Model

2.1 The Physical Model
Four types of headers of plate fin heat exchanger are analysed using the CFD software FLUENT in order to
study the flow maldistribution effect. The four types namely case 1, case 2, case 3 and case 4 are modelled in
Design Modular. Case 1 shown in fig. 01 (a) is a conventional header which has the geometrical dimensions as
follows, The Diameter of the inlet pipe is equal to 200 mm, the radius of the header is 154 mm and the length of
the header is equal to 905mm. The case 2 is a double pass header with punched inline baffle plate inserted between
the header. The holes in the baffle plate are of three different diameters as shown in figure 2 (a) in which the inline
arrangement of holes is used. The diameters of hole used was10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm respectively. In case 3
and case 4 shown in fig. 01 (b) the two types of baffle plates are used. The first baffle plate used is same as that
of the case2 and second baffle plate is made of five holes with gradually increasing diameter and arranged along
the centre axis of the header.

a b

Fig. 1 Schematic drawing of header configurations (a) Conventional header (b) Modified header

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Fig. 2 Baffle plate arrangement used in inlet header configuration a) Inline arrangement [3] b) staggered arrangement [3] c) second baffle
plate.

2.2 The mathematical model

Following are some the assumptions made in the CFD simulations; 1. The flow is stable in the extracted fluid
domain. 2 The Fluid flow meets the boussinesq assumption and 3. The fluid in the domain is incompressible.
In this work CFD software FLUENT was employed to simulate the fluid flow distribution in the header of the
plate fin heat exchanger. In FLUENT the conservation equation of mass, momentum and energy are solved using
finite volume method. There are several turbulence models available in the code. The turbulence flow is calculated
by the Semi-implicit SIMPLER method in the velocity and pressure conjugated problem and second order upwind
differential scheme applied for the convective term. A realizable K-ε model was used to predict the turbulence
flow in the header. The conservation equations are,
Mass Balance,
u v w (1)
   0
x y z
Momentum Balance
x- momentum equation,
u u u p   2 u  2u  2u 
u v w    x 2  y 2  z 2 
x y z x  
y- momentum equation,
v v v p   2v  2v  2v 
u v w    x 2  y 2  z 2 
x y z y  
z- momentum equation,
u u u p   2 u  2u  2u  (2)
u v w    x 2  y 2  z 2 
x y z x  

Boundary condition and convergent condition are as follows; At the Inlet fluid velocity is given and the
pressure at the outlet vent is given. Adiabatic wall condition is applied and no slip occurs at the wall. Convergent
criteria is specified to absolute residuals ≤ 1.0 x 10^-6.

2.3 Evaluation of flow maldistribution

In this work for the calculation of flow maldistribution two parameters are used, namely gross flow
maldistribution parameter, and velocity ratio, which are denoted as S g and θ respectively. They are defined as
follow [4].
1
Sg= √ ∑𝑁
𝑖=1(𝑉𝑖 −𝑉𝑎𝑣𝑔 )
2
(3)
𝑁−1
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝜃= (4)
𝑉𝑚𝑖𝑛

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Where N stands for the passage number, Vi stands for local passage velocity, Vavg stands for Average passage
velocity. Vmax and V min is the maximum and minimum velocity of all passage.

2.4 Grid Intendancy Test

A grid independency study is performed to see that grid size do not affect the results of numerical
simulation. Three grid sizes of tetra mesh were used for simulation of case 1 header viz. (i) course grid (ii) fine
grid and (iii) Finer grid, the total number of fine grid element nearly 320000. The average velocity with course,
fine and finer grid are 0.76332, 0.72773 and 0.73286 resp. One can observe that average velocity for three cases
almost overlaps and nature of graph is also similar. This shows that the grid size do not affect the results of the
simulation. Hence the fine grid size is chosen for further simulations.
4
3.5
3
2.5
velocity

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
ch. no.
fine grid course grid finer grid
Fig. 3 Grid independency study.

3. Results and discussion

In this section results obtained by simulation are discussed. Firstly the numerical simulation for case1
(conventional header) is presented for three different Reynolds number. These results are then compared with the
experimental work of Jian Wen et al. [3] for the validation of the model used in simulation. After this three cases
of modified header with different arrangement of baffle plates are discussed. The two parameters are calculated
for flow maldistribution analysis for all cases.

3.1 Results of Conventional Header

The results of conventional header are presented in this section and these results are used for the validation of
the model. The result are split into two group; 1. Qualitative Result and 2. Quantitative Result. So as in qualitative
analysis the velocity vectors and streamline graph are plotted along the four cross section as shown in fig.02.

Fig. 4 Schematic diagram of plane location for testing.

The analysis is performed under the similar Reynolds number used in experiment done in literature (Re=60000,
50000, 40000). The velocity vectors and streamline graphs are plotted and compared with the experimental data.
In the experimental work the velocity vectors and streamline graphs are plotted with the help of PIV (Particle
Image Velocimetry) technique. These graphs show the inlet flow and vortex generation in the domain. The figure
5 and figure 6 shows the velocity vectors and streamline for different cross sections as shown in fig. 4. In the cross
section 1 (fig. 4) the results shows that the flow maldistribution is very serious in normal direction to the flow
velocity. The velocity is high at the central part of the header and reduces along the length of the header. Due to
the sudden enlargement of the geometry the flow behaviour varies from inlet and the main flow separates from

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the surface resulting the generation of vortex. There is loss of Kinetic energy and pressure due to the generation
of vortex. The cross section 2 (Fig.4) is shifted along the length of the header. As the distance increases from inlet
tube a small vortex enlarges gradually into a large scale vortex. So it can be concluded that the fluid is mainly
distributed by the diffusion of vortex. The cross section 3 and cross section 4 is at the boundary of the header and
observed that the distance between the section and inlet tube is increases the vortex may vanish at the end.
a b

Fig. 5 Velocity vectors and streamline graph of case 1 header configuration for cross section 1 (a) experimental [3] (b) CFD

a b

Fig. 6 Velocity vectors and streamline graph of case 1 header configuration for cross section 2 (a) experimental [3] (b) CFD

Table 01 represents the quantitative comparison between the CFD and experimental work. The flow
maldistribution parameter along the header length of header configuration is calculated by using the equations 3-
4. The results are used for the validation of the model used in simulation.

Table 1. Flow maldistribution Parameter comparison with literature.

Reynolds Number 60000 50000 40000

CFD Jian Wen[3] CFD Jian Wen[3] CFD Jian Wen[3]
Sg 1.176 1.210 0.964 1.118 0.7411 0.778

3.2 Results of modified headers.

The fluid flow distribution in header configuration with gross flow maldistribution parameter for all the cases
of header for three Reynolds number (Re= 60000, 50000, 40000) is illustrated in table 2. The velocity of fluid is
maximum in the centre part of the header and less in two ends of the conventional header and hence the flow
maldistribution is high in conventional header. The results show that the maldistribution is serious in case1 header.
In case 2 the distribution of flow along the length is improved by addition of punched baffle plate in the header
and reduces the velocity at the centre part of the header. The velocity is nearly uniformly distributed in the
improved header configuration but in case 2 type headers due to baffle plate the average velocity is reduced
significantly that means the loss of kinetic energy. The flow maldistribution parameter in case 2 is less as
compared with case 1 type header. The double baffle plate having inline and staggered arrangement of punched
hole of case 3 and case 4 type modified header the flow is well distributed with improved average velocity so the
gross flow maldistribution parameter is less as compared with conventional header. The difference between the
two values shows that the flow distribution is uniform in modified header of case 3 and case 4. As the values of
Sg for case 4 is smaller as compared with the case3, case2. The case 4 configuration is better than the all other
configurations of header and is because of insertion of two baffle plate with different punched holes into the

780
header which improves the flow distribution. Also it is observed that in analysis effect of Reynolds number on
the performance of flow maldistribution parameter, the flow maldistribution parameter reduces simultaneously
with the reduction in Reynolds number.

Table 2. Flow maldistribution parameter for all case and different Reynolds Number.

Reynolds Number 60000 50000 40000

Sg Case 1 1.1760 0.9635 0.7411
Sg Case 2 0.3363 0.2812 0.2134

Sg Case 3 0.3974 0.3649 0.2998

Sg Case 4 0.2934 0.2536 0.2317

Different velocity contours for all header configurations is shown in fig. 7. The velocity contours shows that
the velocity distribution at the centre part of a conventional header is high which results a non uniformity of flow
in conventional header while improved header configuration with punched single baffle plate improves the non
uniformity along the length but reduces the velocity at the end of header length. Fig. 7 (c) and (d) shows the
velocity contours of the case 3 and case 4 arrangement. Two baffle plates are inserted into the header in each cases
with inline arrangement for case 3 and staggered arrangement in the case 4 respectively. The baffle plates are
inserted to see the effect on the flow distribution. Velocity contours of case 3 and case 4 shows that the velocity
distribution is uniform along the header length. This is because of insertion of the plate and modification of the
header.
a b c d

Fig. 7 velocity contours of all header configurations. (a) Conventional baffle plate (b) header with single baffle plate (c) modified header with
double baffle plate (inline arrangement) (d) modified header with double baffle plate (staggered arrangement)

Table 3 shows the average velocity for three Reynolds number for all types of the header configurations. As
can be seen from the results of case 2, which is a header with single baffle plate inserted into the header, the
average velocity decreases from 1.64418 (Conventional header) to 1.029307. Reduction in average velocity is
because of punched hole arrangement in single baffle plate, which results in the reduction in kinetic energy. As
shown in table 3, the average velocity for all the Reynolds number for case 2 is less as compared with case 3 and
case 4. Increase in average velocity in case 3 and case 4 is due to the double baffle arrangement. So, we can say
that in case 3 and case 4, the loss in kinetic energy is recovered significantly, which in turn will increase the
effectiveness of the heat exchanger for these cases.
Table 3 Average velocity for all cases and all Reynolds number
Case Re=60000 Re=50000 Re=40000
Case 1 1.64418 1.308917 0.842614
Case 2 1.029307 0.914393 0.747628
Case 3 1.743004 1.327429 1.141219
Case 4 1.829282 1.414296 1.126841

781
 The velocity ratio θ for all cases and Reynolds number is shown in table 4. The velocity ratio is high in
conventional header as compared with modified header. Because of velocities at the extreme ends of case 1 header
are lower for most of the fluid which is been flowing in centre part. So the velocity ratio is maximum in case1. In
the modified header case 2 type velocity at the end of header length is reduced which leads to loss of kinetic
energy. By the use of baffle plate the uniform velocity is distributed and the velocity ratio reduces.
Table 4 velocity ratio for all cases and all Reynolds number.

60000 50000 40000

Case1 12.581 6.25114 29.2286
Case2 3.0111 4.8167 4.9375
Case3 2.07172 2.2847 2.5818
Case4 1.98187 1.9693 2.27026

4 Conclusion:
In the present work the fluid flow maldistribution in conventional as well as modified inlet header
configuration of plate-fin heat exchanger is studied numerically. Steady state computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) models was simulated by using ANSYS Fluent. Simulations are done for the Reynolds number of 40000,
50000 and 60000. It can be concluded from the present study that Modified header configuration gives better
velocity distribution in axial as well as radial direction. The results validate that CFD is well suitable to investigate
complex flow pattern. The use of modified header configuration with double baffle plate having arrangement of
inline and staggered, leads to the uniform flow distribution and improved flow maldistribution parameter. With
the use of modified header with double baffle plates the kinetic energy is recovered which in turn will improve
the effectiveness of heat exchanger. This type of modified header configuration can be used for the design of heat
exchanger for effective performance. The conclusion of this paper is of great significance in the improvement of
plate-fin heat exchanger.

References

[1] Shah R. K, Fundamentals of Heat Exchanger Design, John Wiley & Sons Publication, 2003.
[2] Kays W. M., A. L. London, Compact Heat Exchangers, reprint 3rd ed., Krieger Publish- ing, Malabar, FL 1998.
[3] Jian Wen, Yanzhong Li, Experimental investigation of header configuration improvement in plate–fin heat exchanger, Applied Thermal
Engineering, 27 (2007) 1761–1770.
[4] Zhang Zhe, Li Yanzhong, Experimental Research on flow maldistribution in plate-fin heat exchanger, Chinese J. Chem. Eng., (2004)12
(1) 7-13.
[5] C h. Ranganayakulu, K. N. Seetharamu,The combined effects of wall longitudinal heat conduction and inlet fluid flow maldistribution in
crossflow plate-fin heat exchangers, Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2000) 247 ± 256.
[6] Anjun Jiao ,Rui Zhang , SangkwonJeong, Experimental investigation of header configuration on flow maldistribution in plate-fin heat
exchanger, Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1235–1246.
[7] Zhe Zhang, YanZhong Li, CFD simulation on inlet configuration of plate-fin heat exchangers, Cryogenics 43 (2003) 673–678.
[8] L. Sheik Ismail, C. Ranganayakulu,Ramesh K. Shah, Numerical study of flow patterns of compact plate-fin heat exchangers and generation
of design data for offset and wavy fins, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 52 (2009) 3972–3983.
[9] M. A. Habib, R. Ben-Mansour, S. A. M. Said, Correlations of flow maldistribution parameters in an air cooled heat exchanger, Int. J.
Numer. Meth. Fluids 2008 56:143–165.
[10] Li-Zhi Zhang, Flow maldistribution and thermal performance deterioration in a cross-flow air to air heat exchanger with plate-fin cores,
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 52 (2009) 4500–4509.
[11] Anjun Jiao, SeungwookBaek, Effects of Distributor Configuration on Flow Maldistribution in Plate-Fin heat exchanger, Heat Transfer
Engineering, 2005 26(4) 19–25.
[12] SeungwhanBaek, Cheonkyu Lee, SangkwonJeong, Effect of flow maldistribution and axial conduction on compact microchannel heat
exchanger, Cryogenics 60 (2014) 49–61.
[13] R.Manikanda Kumaran, G. Kumaraguruparan, T. Sornakumar, Experimental and numerical studies of header design and inlet/outlet
configurations on flow mal-distribution in parallel micro-channels, Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 205e216.
[14] M.A. Habib, R. Ben-Mansour, S.A.M. Said, M.S. Al-Qahtani, Evaluation of flow maldistribution in air-cooled heat exchangers,
Computers & Fluids 38 (2009) 677–690.
[15] J.N. Mao, H.X. Chen, H. Jia, Y.Z. Wang,H.M. Hu, Effect of air-side flow maldistribution on thermal-hydraulic performance of the multi-
louvered fin and tube heat exchanger, International Journal of Thermal Sciences 73 (2013) 46e57.
[16] A.A. Aganda, J.E.R. Coney, C.G.W. Sheppard, Air flow maldistribution and the performance of a packaged air conditioning unit
evaporator, Applied Thermal Engineering 20 (2000) 515-528.

782
 ICAER-2015

Synthesis and Characterization of Two Dimensional Copper

Selenide (CuSe) Nanosheets
Senthilkumar Muthua, Moorthy Babu Sridharana*
a
Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University, Chennai-600 025, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

Two dimensional metal chalcogenides are promising candidate for optoelectronics owing to their interesting Physical and
Chemical properties. In the present work, 2-D layer structured CuSe nanosheets were developed by simple hot injection
method. Oleic acid has been employed as solvent as well as capping agent and CuCl, elemental sulfur have been used as
precursors at the reaction temperature of 220OC. Crystallinity and Phase of the products were characterized by X-ray
diffraction (XRD). XRD patterns confirm the presence of hexagonal Klockmannite (CuSe) with space group of P63/mmc.
Morphological analyses were carried out through SEM analysis which depicts the 2-D layered nanosheets of CuSe with two
different orientations of nanosheets. Elemental composition of copper to selenium ratio was confirmed through Energy
dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) which reveals the stoichiometry of CuSe nanosheets. The EDS results are in line with
the XRD results. Optical properties were analysed through UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy in the wavelength range of 350
nm to 900 nm. The presence of capping agent over the CuSe nanosheets were confirmed from Fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy (FT-IR).
Keywords: Copper selenide; hot injection method; Oleic acid; Stoichiometric CuSe; layered Nanosheets;

1. Introduction

Interesting properties of graphene (2-D layered structure) turned the interest in other kind of layered
structures. 2-D structured transitional metal chalcogenides attracted tremendous attention among the other
layered structures [1]. Recently 2-D structures of MoX2 and WX2 (X=S, Se and Te) are studied in numerous
reports [2-3]. The growth mechanism of 2-D layered structures mainly originates from the self assembly of
nanoparticles building blocks in controlled manner into large area with the restriction in any one dimension.
However, the controllability of nanoparticles building blocks into self assembled 2-D structure is practically
difficult process. Long chain organic ligands and capping agents play crucial role in self assembling of
nanoparticles into 2-D nanostructures. The tendency of capping agents is selective absorption on the surface of
the nanoparticles along the particular orientation and results in the modified 2-D nanostructures. Here, the
formation mechanism involves oriented attachment and self-organization of nanoparticles followed by
recrystallization [4].

Among the other 2-D nanostructures of metal chalcogenides, there are very few reports available on 2-D
copper selenide. Copper selenide (Cu2-XSe) nanoparticles are p-type semiconductor with stoichiometric
dependent physical and chemical properties. Copper selenide has stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric phases
that range from Cu deficient CuSe (Klockmannite) to copper rich Cu2Se. It has direct band gap and indirect band
gap energy which relies on the stoichiometry of the copper selenide nanoparticles. The direct band gap energy of
bulk Cu2-XSe is 2.2 eV and indirect band gap energy is 1.4 eV for the stoichiometric factor X = 0.2 [5]. Cu2-XSe
is a potential material which has applications in many fields such as solar cells [6], lithium ion batteries [7],
Photothermal therapy [8], Photocatalytic activity [9].

*Corresponding author. Tel.: 044-2235 8333

E-mail address: smoorthybabu@gmail.com

783
 In the present work, copper selenide nanosheets are synthesized by single step hot injection process without
using toxic alkylphosphines and without using the metal complexes as precursor material. Klockmannite (CuSe)
nanosheets are obtained by employing less toxic OLA as solvent as well as capping agent. CuCl and elemental
Se are only used as precursors to simplify the synthesis by avoiding the additional steps for preparing special
copper or selenium precursor material. Prepared nanosheets are characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, UV-Vis
absorption spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy.

Nomenclature

2-D two dimensional

OLA Oleic acid
rpm rotations per minute

2. Experimental procedures

2.1. Materials

Copper (I) chloride (CuCl, 97%) and Oleic acid (OLA, 70%) from Alfa-Aesar. Chloroform (A.R. > 99%),
Isopropanol (A.R. > 99%) and Selenium (Se, 99%) from SRL were used as the precursor materials. All the
chemicals were used without further purification.

2.2. Synthesis of 2-D CuSe nanosheets

Synthesis of CuSe nanosheets was carried out by hot injection method, under N2 atmosphere using a
Schlenk-line setup equipped with a reflux condenser. Initially, the reaction flask was purged with N2 gas for
minimum of 10 min before it was heated to reaction temperature. In a typical synthesis procedure, 5 mM of
CuCl was dissolved in the solvent of OLA (30 ml) in a three neck flask under vigorous stirring at the
temperature of 1800C for 1 h. Here the Oleic acid (OLA) plays dual role as solvent as well as capping agent.
The colour of the solution changed from deep yellow to brownish black, which indicates the formation of
copper oleate (the co-ordination compound). Then, elemental selenium in oleic acid was swiftly injected into the
above hot copper solution. The reaction temperature was maintained as 2200C for 4 h to get the klockmannite
copper selenide nanosheets. After the solution was allowed to room temperature, the colloidal nanoparticles
were precipitated using 30 ml of Isopropanol and centrifuged at 5000 rpm. The supernatant was then decanted,
and the CuSe nanosheets were washed several times with ethanol to remove the excess capping agent as well as
by products and then redispersed in chloroform for further characterization.

2.3. Characterizations

The phase and crystal structure of the synthesized sample was analysed by powder X-Ray diffraction
technique. PXRD analysis was carried out using PANalytical X’Pert Pro X-Ray diffractometer using Cu Kα
radiation (λ =1.54 Å) with the scan rate of 0.020/S in the range of 20-700. The accelerating voltage and the
applied current were 40 KV and 30 mA respectively. The surface morphology was analysed using Scanning
electron microscopy (SEM). SEM analysis was carried out using Carl Zeiss MA15/ EVO-18 at the applied
voltage of 300 KV. Energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS) were obtained using the attachment available with
the SEM instrument for confirming the elemental composition. The optical properties were analysed through
UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy (JASCO: V650 analytical instrument) in the range of 200-900 nm. Fourier
transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was performed with JASCO spectrometer in the range of 400 - 4000
cm-1.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Structural analysis

The crystallinity and the phase purity of the synthesized CuSe nanosheets were confirmed from XRD pattern
as shown in Fig.1. XRD pattern matches well with the JCPDS file no. 86-1240 for hexagonal Klockmannite
CuSe with space group of P63/mmc. The major reflection peaks from the XRD patterns are 26.47o, 27.91o,
31.07 o, 32.03 o, 45.72 o, 49.88 o, 56.41 o, 72.72 o. The peaks are assigned to the lattice planes (1 0 1), (1 0 2),
(0 0 6), (1 0 4), (1 1 0), (1 0 8), (1 1 6), (1 0 12) respectively [10-11]. From the XRD pattern, some peaks from

784
secondary phase of Cu2Se were observed. However, the quantity of secondary phase is in negligible fraction
which does not affect the stoichiometry of CuSe. This was confirmed from EDS analysis, the stoichiometry
ratio of Cu: Se was found as nearly 1:1.

Fig. 1. XRD pattern of the CuSe nanosheets

Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was used to determine the Cu to Se compositional ratio of the
synthesized nanosheets. EDS spectrum (Fig. 2) confirms the Cu:Se ratio as approximately 1:1, which closely
matches the theoretical stoichiometry of Klockmannite CuSe phase. The EDS results (Table 1) are consistent
with the XRD results and confirms that the prepared sample exhibits CuSe stoichiometric phase.

Fig. 2. EDS spectrum of CuSe nanosheets

Table 1. Elemental composition of CuSe nanosheets by EDS analysis.

Element Intensity Weight (%) Atomic (%)

Cu 1.0327 48.98 54.40
Se 0.4552 51.02 45.60
Total 100.00

3.2. Structural analysis

Morphological analysis was carried out through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The SEM images are
as shown in fig.3. The micrographs clearly depict the morphology of the prepared CuSe nanosheets. It also
reveals that the presence of hexagonal faceted thin 2-D nanosheets. Fig. 3(a) and 3(c) shows the different
orientation of nanosheets such as stacked hexagonal nanosheet arrays and bundle like arrangement of CuSe
nanosheets. With addition to that, Fig. 3(c) depicts the interesting hierarchical morphology of the formation of

785
CuSe nanosheets with two different stacking arrangements. Thickness and size of the nanosheets were also
estimated through the ImageJ software and shown in Fig. 3(c) and 3(d) respectively. The thickness of CuSe
nanosheets were about approximately 100 nm. The average size of the CuSe nanosheets was found to be
~ 5.45 μm.

Fig. 3. SEM images of CuSe 2-D nanosheets with different magnifications

3.3. Optical properties

The optical absorption of the CuSe nanosheets were analysed in the wavelength range of 200-900 nm and is
shown in Fig.4. The UV-Vis absorption spectrum clearly shows the absorption maximum at 329 nm in the ultra-
violet region and shows broad absorption in between 450 nm to 650 nm. The bandgap value and nature of
optical band-band transitions are also analysed through the Tauc’s plot by relating absorption coefficient (α) to
photon energy (hν) from the Tauc’s relation.

n
(h )  A( h  Eg ) (1)

Where A is a constant, hν is the photon energy, Eg is the band gap energy. The nature of optical band-band
transition is a most controversial statement, in the case of Cu2-xSe. Linearity in the plot for (αhν)n vs. hν will
give the nature of optical band transition. The linearity would arise for (αhν)1/2 vs. hν which is indirect
transition, whereas the linearity arises for (αhν)2 vs. hν indicates direct transition [12].

786
 Fig. 4. UV-Vis absorption spectrum of 2-D CuSe nanosheets

For our case, the exploration of the linearity for plotting a graph between hν and (αhν)1/2 confirms the indirect
bandgap nature of CuSe nanosheets. The bandgap value is calculated as 2.8 eV from the Tauc’s plot as shown in
fig. 5.b. The bandgap value of synthesized CuSe nanoparticles is larger than the bulk value (2.2 eV), which is
due to the quantum confinement effect [13].

Fig. 5. Band gap energy of 2-D CuSe nanosheets by Tauc’s plot

3.4. FTIR analysis

FTIR analysis was carried out to confirm the presence of oleic acid as capping agent. The FTIR spectra for
pure oleic acid and OLA capped CuSe nanosheets are shown in fig.4. The peaks at 2853 and 2920 cm-1 are
characteristic peaks of pure oleic acid that corresponds to the symmetric and asymmetric C-H stretching modes
of CH2 group of oleic acid and peak at 3003 cm-1 are assigned to the stretching vibration of (C-H) bond adjacent
to the C=C bond. The characteristic peak for carboxylic acid group of OLA was found at 1680 cm-1.
Furthermore, broad shoulder peak in the range 3100 and 3500 cm-1 is attributed to the dimers of OLA [14-15].
The FTIR spectrum (6.b) of CuSe contains all the vibrational assignments of OLA that confirms the adsorption
of oleic acid over the surface of the nanosheets.

787
 Fig. 6. FTIR spectra of OLA and OLA capped CuSe nanosheets.

4. Conclusions

Two dimensional layered copper selenide (CuSe) nanosheets are synthesized by hot injection method by
employing OLA as solvent as well as capping agent. Crystallinity and phase of the prepared CuSe nanosheets
were confirmed from XRD analysis, which clearly depicts that the prepared samples are stoichiometric
hexagonal CuSe nanosheets with space group of P63/mmc. Morphological analysis clearly confirms the 2-D
layered CuSe nanosheets with two different stacking arrangements. EDS analysis confirms the stoichiometric
ratio of Cu to Se as nearly 1:1, and confirms the formation of CuSe phase. UV-Vis absorption measurement
clearly depicts the absorption edge in UV region. The band gap energy was calculated as 2.8 eV from the Tauc’s
plot. FTIR analysis clearly confirms the presence of OLA as capping agent over the surface of CuSe nanosheets.
The p-type hexagonal CuSe nanosheets with high surface energy due to the layered structure may be useful in
solar energy conversion and storage applications.

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank DST (DST/TMC/SERI/FR/90), Govt. of India for providing financial support.
M. Senthilkumar sincerely thanks Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India for providing
fellowship under (DST-INSPIRE) scheme.

References

[1] M. Osada, and T. Sasaki, Advanced Materials, 24 (2012), 210-228.

[2] M. Chhowalla, H. S. Shin, G. Eda, L.J. Li, K.P. Loh. H. Zhang, Nature Chemistry, 5 (2013) 263-275.
[3] Y. Jung, J. Shen, J.J. Cha, Nano Convergence, 1 (2014) 1-8.
[4] X. Chen, Y. Zhou, Q. Liu, Z. Li, J. Liu, Z. Zou, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 4 (2012) 3372−3377.
[5] W. Wang, L. Zhang, G. Chen, J. Jiang, T. Ding, J. Zuo, Q. Yang, Cryst Eng Comm, 17 (2015) 1975–1981.
[6] W.S. Chen, J.M. Stewart, R.A. Mickelsen, Appl. Phys. Lett., 46 (1985) 1095–1097.
[7] D. Chen, G. Chen, R. Jin and H. Xu, Cryst. Eng. Comm., 16 (2014) 2810–2817.
[8] C.M. Hessel, V.P. Pattani, M. Rasch, M.G. Panthani, B. Koo, J.W. Tunnell, B.A. Korgel, Nano Lett., 11 (2011) 2560–2566.
[9] W. Shi, J. Shi, S. Yu, P. Liu, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 138–139 (2013) 184–190.
[10] S.S. Dhasade, S. Patil, M.C. Rath, J.V. Thombare, V.J. Fulari, Materials Letters, 107 (2013) 265-268.
[11] Y. Gu, Y. Su, D. Chen, H. Geng, Z. Li, L. Zhang, Y. Zhang, Cryst. Eng. Comm., 16 (2014) 9185–9190.
[12] A.I. Kryukov, S.Y. Kuchmii, A.V. Korzhak, N.N. Zinchuk, A.E. Raevskaya, A.L. Stroyuk, Theor. Exp. Chem. 35 (1999) 89-94.
[13] S. Sonia, P. Suresh Kumar, D. Mangalaraj, N. Ponpandian, C. Viswanathan, Applied Surface Science, 283 (2013) 802–807.
[14] I.O.P.D. Berti, M.V. Cagnoli, J.L. Pecchi, J.L. Alessanddrini, S.J. Stewart, J.F. Bengoa, S.G. Marchetti, Nanotechnology, 24 (2013)
175601-175611.
[15] W. Bu, Z. Chen, F. Chen, J. Shi, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 113 (2009) 12176-12185.

788
 ICAER-2015

Internalising the External Cost of Electricity Generation- An

Approach for the Economic Viability of Renewable Energy
Based Power Generation.
P.Srinivasana,1, Satish Kumar Dubeyb
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering,Birla Institute of Technology &Science,Pilani, Pilani Campus, 333031,India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology & Science,Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, 500078, India

Abstract

Unit cost of electricity generation is one of the major factors influencing the decision of installing new power plants. In India
more than 65% of electricity demand is met by thermal power plants attributed to low cost electricity generation and large
availability of coal.The cost of electricity is primarily obtained by taking into account the different costs associated with the
installing and running a power plants. This leads to cheaper cost of power from coal based thermal power plants when
compared to renewable based power plants. Hence, the growth rate of renewable energy based power plants is considerably
less when compared to coal based thermal power plants. However, the environmental damage caused during the process of
power generation has not been accounted in the present system. European Union has developed a model to internalise the
external cost of power generation by taking into consideration the environmental impact of power generation such as release
of CO2, SO2 and NOx, Land usage, water requirements particulate emission, land usage etc.,.However in the present work
internalizing the external cost is restricted to gaseous emissions from thermal power plants.This model suggest an approach
to arrive at the cost of electricity generation taking into consideration the environmental impact caused by the power plants.
This will lead to increased cost of electricity generation from thermal power plant when compared to renewable energy
based power plants. In the present work an attempt is made to internalize the external cost of electricity generation from coal
based power plants in India and predict the future trend in increase in cost of electricity generation by different sources to
arrive at the time in which the renewable energy based power plant may be cheaper than conventional coal based thermal
power plants. This may help the energy planner to plan the use of different energy resources to meet the future electricity
demand through green power.
Keywords:External Cost, Emissions, Solar PV, Sequestration, Future Estimates

1. Introduction

The Indian electricity sector has been growing rapidly. The current generation capacity is around 295.8 GW
with thermal power plants contributing up to 68.14% . Power from fossil fuels is available at lower costs
compared to renewable energy sources mainly due to low capital costs. But there are hidden costs in power
production as it involves a number of undesirable side effects such as pollution of water, soil, release of green
house gases, particulate emission etc.,. These impacts may be local as, for example, the noise pollution from a
wind power plant or geographically widespread such as the acidification caused by the emissions of sulphur
dioxide from fossil-fuelled power production. In the economics literature these types of effects are termed
externalities. Externality is a cost or benefit which affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or
benefit [1].
There some studies regarding external costs for European countries [2,3]. The main aim of these studies is to
estimate the costs incurred to the society to mitigate the effects of power generation and to internalise them by
estimating the cost per unit power. Similar studies carried out for India thus far have produced external cost
estimates that range from very high to almost insignificant for the various sources of electricity. But if
calculated accurately, the total cost of thermal power after inclusion of external costs will increase significantly
almost up to the level of renewable energies. Renewable energy tariff like that of solar PV, which is currently
expensive due to high capital costs, is expected to reduce in future due to technological advancement. There will

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 91-1596-515214; fax: 91-1596-241183.

E-mail address: psrinivasan@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

789
be a time in near future when thermal power plants will be more expensive than renewable power if the external
cost of power generation is internalised in arriving at the cost of production.
The theme of this work is to estimate external costs due to emissions from thermal power plants and compare
future trends to that of solar photovoltaic.

2. EXTERNALITY COSTS

 Major externalities along the fuel-cycle in a coal fired power plant are:
 Local impacts of emissions from power plants
 Impacts of mining, particularly pronounced in densely populated areas
 Global warming damages associated with power plant emissions
 Fly ash, given the high ash content of Indian coal.
 Environmental impacts like destruction of natural habitat, alteration of water tables etc.
 Pollution sources increases like sewage effluent from sites, release of methane, effluents from mineral
processing operations.
 Occupational Health Risks like dust inhalation, exposure to asbestos, cyanide, vibrations, noise.
 Social, Economic and Cultural impacts like dislocation of local population, effects on ethnic groups,
changes in infrastructure and transportation etc.
Out of these, emission effects are more dangerous as they cause direct damage to health of human beings and
pollute air and cause adverse effects like global warming. Emissions majorly include particulate matter, SOx,
NOx, CO2, fly ash and hydrocarbons. Fine particulates are the primary mechanism implicated in premature
mortality from air pollution and cardio vascular diseases, chronic bronchitis. SO2, NOX and VOCs imposes
health impacts by contributing to ambient levels of particulates and ground level ozone. In this paper, we
consider only emissions effects while estimating the external costs. The values adopted by ACROPOLIS [5] are
used in this paper. In those studies, India comes under high population countries and the external costs of
emissions should be multiplied by a factor of 1.5 to compensate the high population density. The external cost
per ton of emission of each gas is tabulated below.

Table 1. Cost per tonne of emissions

Average cost SOx Nox CO2
Euro/tonne 7000 8000 19

2.1. Methodology

The emission data for Indian thermal power plants is taken from M.L.Mittal [6]. According to this study,
total CO2 emissions from thermal power plants have increased from 323474.85 Gg for the year 2001-02 to
498655.78 Gg in 2009-10. SO2 emissions increased from 2519.93 Gg in 2001-02 to 3840.44 Gg in 2009-10,
while NOx emissions increased from 1502.07 Gg to 2314.95 Gg during this period. The emissions per unit of
electricity are estimated to be in the range of 0.91 to 0.95 kg/kWh for CO2, 6.94 to 7.20 g/kWh for SO2, and
4.22 to 4.38 g/kWh for NOx during the period 2001-02 to 2009-10. The future emission scenario is also
estimated, based on the projected coal consumption in Indian thermal power plants by Planning Commission of
India under ‘Business-as Usual (BAU)’ and “Best case Scenario (BCS). It predicts that the emission would be
in the range of 714976 to 914680 Gg CO2, 4734 to 6051 Gg SO2 and 366 to 469 Gg NOx in the year 2020-21.

2.2. External cost for 2009-10

Sample calculations of external costs for the year 2009-10 is carried out based on the available data..
Multiplying the emission in g/kWh with the costs euro/ton will give external cost per kWh. Total emission per
year divided by total production will result in emission g/kWh.
Calculation of external cost for 2009-10 is given in the table below. Power generated in that year is
550000GWh. Based on the calculations, the external cost for the year 2009-10 was 0.1078 Euro/kWh.

Table 2. Cost per tonne of emissions

Emissions External cost per year Net value (Euro/kWh)
CO2 520000 9.88E9 0.018
SOx 4000 32E9 0.058

790
 NO 2500 17.5E9 0.0318
Total 0.1078(Euro/kWh)

2.3. DESOx and DEDUST

As can be observed from the above calculations, SOx alone contribute to more than half of external costs.
Thus if we can reduce sulphur dioxide emissions, we could reduce the external costs. One technique is sulphur
dioxide sequestration which can be achieved by DESOx and DEDUST equipment. It is noted that by achieving
50% DESOx and 80% DEDUST, we can reduce the external cost incurred to one-third [4]. This technology
increases the capital costs but reduces external costs and thereby overall cost of production. This technique is
already being employed in some power plants. Hence we assume that as future technological estimate, this
technology will be used by almost all thermal power plants in India thus reducing the external cost to one third
value.

3. RESULTS

3.1. Emission trends

As given in M.L.Mittal, there are two power scenarios given by power commission of India, Best case
scenario and Business as usual. Based on these two scenarios, two different future estimates were given. The
two cases are shown in the graphs below
a b

Fig. 1. (a) Power generation trend; (b) CO2 emission (in Gg).

a b

Fig. 2. (a) SO2 emission (in Gg) trend; (b) NO emission (in Gg) trend.

3.2. Power Tariff

The power tariff of solar photovoltaic is taken from Central Electricity Regulatory Commission of India
reports [7], [8], [9]. Based on data for five years, future costs of solar photovoltaic tariffs are estimated by using
growth trend extrapolation. In the tariff determination, two scenarios are considered which are levelled total
tariff and net levelled tariff upon adjusting for accelerated depreciation benefit (if availed).

Table 3. Solar PV tariff trend in past 5 years

Year Cost per unit(Rs/kWh) Cost per unit (Rs/kWh) with accelerated depreciation
2009-10 18.44 17.14
2010-11 17.91 14.95

791
 2011-12 15.39 12.94
2012-13 10.39 9.35
2013-14 8.75 7.87
a b

Fig. 3. (a) PV tariff; (b) Tariff comparison between Thermal and PV

The values are given in the table 3. The extrapolated costs of both scenarios are given in the figure 3 (a).

3.3. Tariff comparison between Thermal and PV

Using the data we can calculate tariffs of thermal and solar photovoltaic. For the sake of simplicity, we
neglect cost of Thermal power as this cost is varying considerably based on the location and type of coal used
and take only external cost into consideration. By calculating external cost for emissions predicted for each year,
we get a trend for external costs of TPP. The results are tabulated below. From 3 (b) it is clear that after 2018,
the unit cost of solar PV will be less than that of thermal sources even if we assume sulphur dioxide
sequestration. If there is no sequestration employed, then the external costs of thermal will be higher.

Table 3. External cost per unit of thermal power

External cost under BAU scenario assuming Desox, External cost under BCS scenario assuming Desox, Dedust
Year Dedust Rs./kWh Rs./kWh

2009-10 3.06 3.06

2010-11 3.00 2.97

2011-12 3.11 3.05

2012-13 3.07 3.03

2013-14 3.08 3.02

2014-15 3.10 2.91

2015-16 3.22 2.92

2016-17 3.29 2.93

2017-18 3.34 2.97

2018-19 3.40 2.98

2019-20 3.48 3.03

2020-21 3.55 3.08

2021-22 3.55 3.00

2022-23 3.60 3.00

4. CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results it is observed that the hidden external costs, the unit cost of power from thermal sources
is much higher than what is being charged. But the remaining money is indirectly collected in terms of health
toll, premature deaths and environmental pollution. As electricity demand is increasing day by day, the
emissions from the power plants are also increasing thus increasing the external costs. Instead if we opt for

792
renewable sources like solar PV which are available at comparable prices and even lesser than that of
conventional sources in near future, it is possible to reduce environmental damage.

References

[1] T.Sundqvist, “What causes the disparity of electricity externality estimates?” Energy Policy, vol. 32, pp. 1753-1766, 2004.
[2] European Commission (EC), “ExternE: Externalities of Energy”, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
Luxembourg, Vol. 1–6, 1995
[3] European Commission (EC), “ExternE: Externalities of Energy”, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
Luxembourg, Vol. 7-10, 1999
[4] ACROPOLIS (Assessing Climate Response Options: PoliIcy Simulations), 2003. Final report, April 2001–September 2003. Prepared
by IER, Germany and IPTS-JRC, Spain, Contract No: ENK6-CT-2000-00443, Framework Programme V (1998–2002)
[5] Mittal, Moti L., Chhemendra Sharma, and Richa Singh. "Estimates of Emissions From Coal Fired Thermal Power Plants in
India." International emission inventory conference, Tampa, Florida. 2012.
[6] P.Deo, S.Jayaraman, V.S.Verma, M.DeenaDayalan, "Petition Determination of generic levellised generation tariff under Regulation 8
of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission" 28 Feb 2012.
[7] P.Deo, S.Jayaraman, V.S.Verma, M.DeenaDayalan, "Petition Determination of generic levellised generation tariff under Regulation 8
of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission" 28 Feb 2013
[8] P.Deo, S.Jayaraman, V.S.Verma, M.D.Dayalan, "Petition Determination of generic levellised generation tariff under Regulation 8 of
the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission" 09 Nov 2010.

793
 ICAER-2015

Coaxial Surface Junction Thermocouple for Transient

Measurements in the Combustion Chamber of an Internal
Combustion Engine
Sumit Agarwala1, Niranjan Sahoob
a
Sumit Agarwal, Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
b
Niranjan Sahoo,Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India

Abstract

The present study focuses on the measurement of transient heat flux in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion
(IC) engine. The work includes the novel design methodology of the in-house fabricated heat sensors and thereafter its
application in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine. The main idea behind the development was to
successfully test the fabricated coaxial surface junction thermocouple (CSJT) in the robust environment such as that of an
internal combustion engine. For the proposed experiment, a spark ignition engine head was designed and fabricated in-
house. The obtained results indicated the successful application of coaxial surface junction thermocouple in the combustion
chamber.
Keywords: Coaxial surface junction thermocouple; Measurement; Engine head; Heat flux.

1. Introduction

Investigation on the heat transfer phenomena in the internal combustion engine has been studied since decades
throughout the world. The accurate measurement of transient heat flux in the combustion chamber of an internal
combustion engine is very essential to accurately determine the efficiency, emissions, power of the engine. The
past studies of transient heat transfer in internal combustion engines have been reported by several researchers
[1-2]. Alkidas 1980 carried out study to measure heat flux on certain location on the wall of the combustion
chamber. While measuring steady-state temperatures, the conventional thermocouples are routinely used in the
cylinder walls of IC engines [3], aerodynamics facilities [4], gun barrels [5] and in boiling experiments etc. [6].
The transient heat flux in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine has been adequately studied
with the use of various probes. Although, the available instruments certainly meet the requirements, but they are
more expensive and there are difficulties associated with maintaining the set up. Pertaining to transient
temperature of exhaust gas, one of the recent cost-effective methods is to use coaxial surface junction
thermocouples (CSJT) that can capture the temperature signals within a very short test time [7]. Moreover, they
have high response time which is in the range of few micro seconds. Furthermore, these thermocouples offer
advantages of being capable of operating over a large temperature range and also from economic point of view.

The present work incorporates the design, fabrication and standard calibration of the coaxial surface junction
thermocouple of E-Type (Chromel-constantan). Thereafter, the fabricated thermal sensor was used to check its
workability in the environment such as that of the combustion chamber of the spark ignition (SI) engine. For
carrying out the experiment, GK 100 Honda engine, having a compression ratio of 4.8, was considered; for
which the head of the engine was designed and fabricated in-house so as to mount the coaxial sensors.

Nomenclature

CSJT Coaxial Surface Junction Thermocouple

SI Spark Ignition
TDC Top Dead Centre
BDC Bottom Dead Centre

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-361-269-2135; fax: +0-361-258-2699.

E-mail address: sumit.agarwal@iitg.ernet.in

794
2. Design Methodology

Accurate measurement of heat flux in the combustion chamber is very critical with regard to the design aspect
of the chamber. Keeping this vista in mind, a chromel-constantan CSJT of 3.25 mm, diameter has been
fabricated in the laboratory in view of its accuracy, sensitivity, reproducibility, cost and its use in the harsh
environment. Basically, it has a unique design in the sense that, one thermocouple element is swaged over the
other material with a typical electrical insulation of an epoxy resin (Fig. 1-a). For the present case, a mixture of
sodium silicate (NaSi) and alumina was chosen for its application in the high temperature region. The mixture of
NaSi and alumina is resistant to high temperature and has low thermal conductivity. The paste of sodium silicate
and alumina gives more stability when compared with its application in the high temperature environment of the
combustion chamber. The process of fabrication includes a constantan wire of 0.8128 mm and chromel wire of
3.25 mm, respectively. A hole is drilled in the chromel wire with an appropriate drill bit and the constantan wire
is inserted with an insulating layer of a paste of sodium silicate and alumina on it. The sensing junction of the
order of few microns is created on the surface with the help of scalpel blade, thus creating a plastic deformation
of one material over the other [4]. After creating the junction, the connecting wires are connected on the two
thermocouple wires. Before fabrication of the coaxial thermocouple, the bare thermocouple wires are calibrated
so as to determine the sensitivity of the thermocouple. The calibration is basically carried out to check the
linearity of the thermocouple with the change in temperature. By calibration, it is intended to find the sensitivity
of the thermal sensor. The E-type thermocouple was calibrated using an oil-bath calibration technology [8]. The
calibration was carried out by heating the air from 30ºC to 75ºC with a step change of 5ºC and the process is
repeated during cooling with the same step change in temperature. Three sets of readings were taken for the
present calibration run (Fig. 1-b). A linear trend is observed from voltage-temperature history and the slope of
the curve determines the sensitivity (58.96 µV/ºC) of the CSJT.

a
b H (1, 2, 3): Heating (Run 1, 2, 3); C (1, 2, 3):
Cooling (Run 1, 2, 3); HAV: Heating
Average; CAV: Cooling Average

Fig. 1 (a) Schematic of the in-house fabricated E-type coaxial surface junction thermocouple; (b) Typical
calibration of the fabricated thermocouple

3. Experimental Facility

The experimental investigation was carried out using a side valve, four stroke, air cooled, horizontal shaft, and
single cylinder, GK100 Honda engine, having a compression ratio of 4.8. The engine has a rated horse power of
1.3 kW and maximum torque of 3.92 N.m, at 3000 rpm. The head of the engine was designed and fabricated in-
house which has a provision of mounting four sensors at a time (Fig. 2). In the present experiments, only one
CSJT was mounted along with its amplifier while the voltage signals are captured in the oscilloscope. A petrol
engine head having cross section of 120 mm95 mm10 mm, was chosen for the present study keeping in mind
the design constraints of the engine. The spark-plug is mounted at the centre of the head (Fig. 2-a) while the
barrel of CSJT mountings is shown in Fig. 2-b. The fabricated CSJT was flush mounted on the engine head.
Furthermore, proper care needed to be taken when dealing with the engine head, as leakage plays a very pivotal
role. Figure 3 shows the schematic of the experimental set-up used for the present investigation.

795
 4 0 .0 4 .0
8 .0
a Ø 1 4 .0
Ø 2 6 .0 b
( M 8 x 4 N o s .)
Ø 4 0 .0
Ø 8 .0

2 .0
Ø 5 2 .0

9 .0
9 5 .0

1 7 .0
7 .0

H E X /S q u a r e
1 5 .0

3 .0
H ead

4 .6 1 0 .0
1 2 0 .0 2 .4
1 2 .0

A ll d im e n s io n s a r e in m m All dimensions
A ll d im e n sare
io n s in
a r emm
in m m
M a te r ia l: M S
M a te r ia l: M S
Fig. 2 Schematic of the (a) petrol engine head for the mounting of the CSJT; (b) insert for the CSJT

4. Results and Discussion

Once the design, fabrication and standard calibration of the CSJTs are done, the fabricated thermal sensor is
ready to be tested in the environment of the internal combustion engine, for checking its real time applicability.
The CSJT is flush mounted on the designed engine head and is fitted on the engine. An isothermal ambience
was maintained during the test time by wrapping the connecting leads of the sensor and the cold junction of the
thermal sensor inside the engine head. An op-amp instrumentation amplifier box (Techno Science make, INA
128), having 6 channels (4 channels with fixed 500 gain factor and 2 channels with fixed 1000 gain factor was
used to amplify the output obtained from the CSJT. The amplifier has an operating bandwidth frequency in the
range of 1-40 kHz. The output from the sensor is connected to the amplifier. From the amplifier; it is connected
to the oscilloscope (Tektronix make having a bandwidth of 70 MHz and a sampling rate of 1 GS/s) and then to
the PC interfaced LabView (version 2.5.1) software. All the signals obtained where passed through the RC
filters to tackle the noise obtained from the CSJTs. The typical voltage signals and the corresponding rise in
temperatures from the E-type CSJT are shown in Figs. 5 (a) and (b) which is captured for a duration of about 2
ms. The experiment was conducted for four number of runs. A sharp shoot (step rise) can be seen in the
obtained voltage signal justifying the cyclic movement of the piston as its moves from BDC to TDC [9]. The
obtained voltage signal is converted to the temperature-time history with the help of the sensitivity of the
thermal sensors. Figure 4 (a) and (b) shows the overall variation inside the combustion chamber for time
duration of 100 ms captured using the fabricated CSJT. From the graph, it can be seen that there is a cyclic
variation in the signal, justifying the actual process undergone by the engine such that as soon as the engine
attains the power stroke there is a step rise in the obtained signal; hence validating the application of CSJT in the
combustion chamber of the SI engine.

Amplifier
Data Acquisition
INA 128
System

PC
Interface

Engine Honda GK100 SI

Head Engine Head
E-Type CSJT Spark plug

Fig. 3 Schematic of the petrol engine set-up used for the experiment

796
 a b

Fig. 4 (a) Transient voltage signal obtained from the mounted CSJT showing the cyclic variation inside the
combustion chamber for duration of 100 ms; (b) typical rise in surface junction temperature obtained from the
voltage signal
a b

Fig. 5 (a) Showing the voltage signal captured from the CSJT for duration of 10 ms; (b) rise in surface junction
temperature obtained from the typical voltage signal

5. Heat Flux Estimation

The performance of CSJT can only be estimated, when heat flux can be predicted from the obtained transient
temperature signal. The working principle has been successfully reviewed in the reference [4, 8]. The coaxial
surface junction thermocouple does not predict heat flux directly. The CSJT captures voltage-time signal and
subsequently converted to temperature-time history of the body on which it is mounted using the calibration
factor of the sensor. The heat flux is predicted from the temperature-time history using the theory of one-
dimensional heat conduction into a semi-infinite body [8]. For obtaining the heat flux, a numerical algorithm
was developed using MATLAB® [10]. The effective mean values of density,    specific heat capacity  c  and
thermal conductivity  k  of the individual thermocouple materials i.e. chromel and constantan was considered
for evaluating the thermal product value i.e.  c k .Figure 6 shows the obtained heat flux signal evaluated from
the temperature-time history. An average heat flux value of about 217 W/cm2 was obtained from the
experiment.

  2c2 k 2 
 Wi  2
3 3
 a 4 ,i  5 5
 

P 
M 1

1/ 2 1/ 2
2 V i i
 Ri  iP  R i
2
  P
 i
2
 R i
2
  
i 1
  

3   10 
 

q L (t )    St (1)
1 3 5
  2c2 k 2  WM a 4 ,i  
2  V M  PM 
2
PM2  PM 
2
 

  3 10  

797
where,
2
a 3 ,i 2
a 4 ,i 3 d Fi d Fi
Pi   M  1   i ; R i   M  1   i  1 ; F i  a1, i  a 2 , i Pi  Pi  Pi ; V i  ;W i  ; S t  tim e s c a lin g fa c to r
2 6 d  M 1 2
d  M 1

Fig. 6 Typical heat flux signal obtained from the temperature signal

6. Conclusion

An E-type coaxial surface junction thermocouple was designed and fabricated in-house. The thermal sensor was
calibrated using an oil-bath set-up. A sensitivity value of 58.96  V /  C was obtained from the calibration. The
fabricated CSJT was then flush mounted on the head of the petrol engine (designed and fabricated in-house) in
order to examine the workability of the thermal sensor in the environment such as that of the combustion
chamber of an internal combustion engine. The designed head has a provision to mount four sensors at a time,
but for the present study, only one CSJT was chosen. From the obtained signal, it was seen that there is a sharp
rise in the voltage signal captured by the CSJT, in turn validating the use of CSJT in the environment of the
engine. It can also be justified from the fact that as the piston moves from BDC to TDC i.e. just at the power
stroke of the engine, the CSJT gives impulsive response. A heat flux of about 217 W/cm 2 was estimated from
the voltage-time history captured by the thermal sensor. The obtained result validates the working of the CSJT
in the environment of the internal combustion engine. The developed thermal sensor is rugged, reasonable,
reproducible, robust, have high response time and sturdy.

References

[1] A.C. Alkidas, J.P. Myers, Transient heat-flux measurements in the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine, Journal of Heat
Transfer, 104(1) (1982), 62–67.
[2] D. Assanis and E. Badillo, Evaluation of alternative thermocouple designs for transient heat transfer measurements in metal and ceramic
engines, SAE Technical Paper,(1989), 890571.
[3] A. C. Alkidas, Heat transfer characteristics of a spark – ignition engine, Trans. ASME, J Heat transfer, 102(2), (1989), 189-193.
[4] K.J. Irimpan, N. Mannil, H. Arya and V. Menezes, Performance evaluation of coaxial thermocouple against platinum thin film gauge for
heat flux measurement in shock tunnel, Measurement, 61 (2015), 291–298.
[5] K.K. Hsu and J.C. Chen, Heat Transfer during Liquid Contact on Superheated Surfaces, J. Heat Transfer, 117(3) (1995), 693-697.
[6] L.W.Y. Lee, J.C. Chen and R.A. Nelson, Surface probe for measurement of liquid contact in film and transition boiling on high-
temperature surfaces, Review of Scientific Instruments, 53(9) (1982), 1472.
[7] V. Menezes and S. Bhat, A coaxial thermocouple for shock tunnel applications, The Review of Scientific Instruments, 81(10) (2010),
104905.
[8] R. Kumar and N. Sahoo, Dynamic calibration of coaxial thermocouples for short duration transient measurements, Journal of Heat
Transfer, (2013) 135, 1–7.
[9] Y. Enomoto and S. Furuhama, Study on thin film thermocouple measuring instantaneous temperatures on surface of combustion
chamber wall in internal combustion engine (2nd Report, Study on thin film thermocouples embedded in combustion chamber wall ,
Bull. Jpn. Soc. Mech. Eng., 29 (256) (1986), 3434–3441.
[10] W. J. Cook, and E. J. Felderman, Reduction of data from thin film heat transfer gauge: a concise numerical technique. J. AIAA , 4(3)
(1996), 561–562.

798
 ICAER-2015

Numerical Study of Thermal Storage using Encapsulated Phase

Change Material for Solar Thermal Power Plant
Kunal Bhagat, Sandip K Saha1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai- 400076, India

Abstract

Concentrated solar thermal (CST) power plant is among the clean energy sources for electricity generation, however it is
subjected to intermittent intensity of solar energy through-out a day, affecting integration with national grid for large scale
production as well as integration with turbine for small scale Organic Rankine cycle (ORC). Integrating tailored designed
latent thermal energy storage system with CST to cope up with fluctuations at turbine inlet can lead to increase in efficiency
of turbine. In this work, a latent heat thermal storage system filled with encapsulated phase change material. A numerical
model using enthalpy-porosity technique is developed to analyze fluid flow of heat transfer fluid (HTF) through porous
media and thermal non-equilibrium between HTF and PCM during solidification and melting of PCM. Model validation is
performed to test the reliability of developed model. Parametric study is performed to identify influence of parameters, such
as Reynolds number, Stefan number, porosity, and tank dimension and encapsulation diameter.
Keywords: PCM encapsulation, Enthalpy-Porosity, Packed bed latent heat thermal energy storage

1. Introduction
Renewable energy is very important sources of energy but some of these sources are associated with high
equipment cost and intermittent nature of source, e.g. Solar energy. In order to deal with such intermittency,
various forms of storage solution are developed which in turn will make this non-conventional source of energy
a very reliable options in future. The storage solution can be of sensible energy storage type or latent thermal
storage type. Molten salt thermocline integration with CST power plant can offer tremendous advantage to the
operation of power plant [1]. Packed bed latent energy storage system is modelled using similarity of
fundamental molten salt thermocline model. Peng et al. [2] analysed latent thermal energy storage system by
developing numerical model based on energy equation. Developed model uses concentric dispersion equation to
deal with heat transfer between heat transfer fluid (60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3) and spherical encapsulated
PCM (NaNO2). Phase change process inside sphere is analysed by enthalpy method. Key findings obtained from
study are effect of capsule diameter, fluid inlet velocity, storage tank height on temperature profile of packed
bed system. Similar trend is established as was obtained in sensible thermocline system that charge efficiency of
latent system also increases when particle diameter is reduced and tank height is increased. Nithyanandam et al.
[3] developed a finite-volume model of a latent heat thermocline tank with encapsulated PCM for molten-salt
CSP plants to find the effect of encapsulated radii, Reynolds number of flow, Stephan number, capacitance ratio,
PCM melt temperature on system utilization of energy. Izquierdo-Barrientos et al. [4] experimentally studied the
storage behaviour by conducting several experiments of micro encapsulation of packed bed and fluidized bed
PCM (RUBITHERM GR50) system, packed bed and fluidized bed of sand. Velraj et al. [5] performed
investigation of thermal storage system (TES) system, which is a combination of sensible and latent heat storage
systems for constant and varying heat sources by using active solar flat plate collector. Regin et al. [6] developed
a finite-difference model of an encapsulated PCM-filled tank for solar water-heating applications. Paraffin wax
was used as PCM in the study. Developed model is based on fundamental equations as proposed by Schumann
[7] with phase change phenomena inside spherical capsules is analysed by enthalpy technique. Key findings
include charging and discharging time dependency on radius of encapsulation, inlet temperature of heat transfer
fluid and mass flow rate. Important take away from this study is that melting time is increased by 31.6% for the
PCM that melts within a range of temperature as compared to PCM with sharp melting temperature. Flueckiger

1 Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 22 2576 7392; fax: +91 22 2572 6875.
E-mail address: sandip.saha@iitb.ac.in

799
et al. [8] developed a new finite volume model to simulate mass and energy transport in a latent heat thermocline
tank. They carried out assessment of latent thermocline storage system integration with 100 MWe molten salt
power tower plant to simulate realistic solar collection and power production process. It has been found that with
introduction of PCM inside tank over quartzite rock ability of thermocline system to utilize stored heat energy
decreases but ability to support steam generation increases. This was critical finding from the study. One of
solutions proposed for betterment of latent thermocline system is modification of porous bed system with
cascaded PCM structure. Such cascaded system either reduce tank diameter or increase power output relative to
quartzite filled tank. More research is still required to identify suitable PCM, type of encapsulation required and
suitable molten salt (HTF), as cascaded system is sensitive to the melting points of selected PCM relative to the
steam generation and solar heating of whole system.
Many of the findings from the reviewed literatures are fundamental to the understanding of thermocline
storage system. However, several critical issues in designing of encapsulated phase change material thermal
energy storage, such as diameter of particle, storage tank height, mass flow rate are required to be investigated
thoroughly. Also, studies for removing fluctuations in temperature of HTF exiting at the outlet while discharging
of storage tank, needs attention as well. The scope of present work lies in investigating packed bed latent heat
thermal storage using encapsulated PCMs to achieve the minimal variation in temperature of HTF at the outlet
of thermal energy storage system during charging and discharging period of a cycle. Encapsulation of PCM is
assumed to provide enhanced heat transfer with increase in surface area so that obtained latent energy can be
useful in stabilizing the heat transfer fluid temperature at outlet.

Nomenclature
Cl Specific heat of storage material in liquid phase, J/kg.K
Cs Specific heat of storage material in solid phase, J/kg.K
Cc Charging rate, kW
Cd Discharging rate, kW
Ceff Volumetric effective specific heat, J/kg.K
dp Particle diameter (mm)
El Total energy of fluid (kJ)
Es Energy Stored (kJ)
Er Energy Released (kJ)
fl Liquid fraction of PCM
g Acceleration due to gravity, m/s2
∆H Enthalpy content in PCM during phase change, J/kg
hf Interstitial heat transfer coefficient, W/m3.K
kl Thermal conductivity of fluid, W/m.K
ks Thermal conductivity of solid, W/m.K
L Length, m
Llatent Latent heat of fusion, J/kg
Mass flow rate of heat transfer fluid, kg/s
ReD Reynolds number based on diameter D
P Pressure, Pa
!!!
Pr Prandtl number =
!!
! ! (! !" #$%! ! !"#$ )
St Stefan number =
!
Ts Temperature of the solid medium, °C or K
Tl Temperature of the fluid, °C or K
Ti Initial temperature, °C or K
Tm Melting temperature, °C or K
Tin Inlet temperature of heat transfer fluid, °C or K
Tout Outlet temperature of heat transfer fluid, °C or K
∆T Difference between maximum and minimum temperature of heat transfer fluid at outlet, °C or K
t Time, s

800
tc Charging time, s
td Discharging time, s
∆t Time interval, s
!
U Superficial velocity of heat transfer fluid = , m/s
! !!
!
U0 Interstitial velocity = , m/s
!
u Velocity vector, m/s
Greek symbols
ε Porosity
µ Dynamic viscosity, Pa-s
α Permeability, m2
β Inertial coefficient, m-1
λ Relaxation factor
ρ Density, kg/m3
Subscript
HTF Heat transfer fluid
l Liquid
n nth time step
PCM Phase change material
s Solid
2. Design of preliminary porous medium
For the present analysis, a cylindrical shape storage system is considered. In the thermal energy storage
(TES), phase change material (PCM), which is a commercial-grade organic PCM (A164), is encapsulated in the
spherical shells. This forms the solid medium of the packed porous bed. In order to exchange heat with the
porous structure, Hyptherm 600 is used as heat transfer fluid (HTF). It should be noted the minimum porosity
that can be achieved for normal random packing is 0.375 [9]. Few assumptions are made in order to calculate
the design values, (i) steady state analysis for the charging of the system, (ii) material properties for HTF and
PCM remains constant with the temperature change and (iii) operating conditions for given PCM and HTF is
obtained from heat transfer enhancement studies. The thermophysical properties of PCM and HTF are tabulated
in table 1. For designing the storage system, the capacity of the storage tank, rate of charging, rate of
discharging and charging as well as discharging time for the system considered are listed in table 2.
Table 1. Thermophysical properties of PCM and HTF

PCM (A164) Hyptherm 600

Density kg/m3 1500 720.9
o -
Melting Point C 171
Heat Capacity J/kg/K 2013.4 3097.4
Latent Energy kJ/kg 272 -
Thermal Conductivity W/mK 0.425 0.116
Latent Heat of Fusion kJ/kg 272 -
Viscosity kg/ms 0.003 0.01946

Table 2. Tank Specification and Input parameters

Storage Capacity (kWh) 0.155
Charging time ( ! ) (h) 0.5
Discharging time ( ! ) (h) 0.5
Diameter of encapsulation ( ! ) (cm) 3

The energy conservation for thermal energy storage and PCM can be expressed as,
!" # (1)
! T!" − !" # = ! =
!

In the above equation, the initial condition is chosen close to the melting point of PCM, hence the sensible
heating is neglected and only latent heat energy is considered to calculate the mass of PCM required for the

801
storage. For Tin = 200 °C, Tout = 132 °C and = . 𝟑𝟏 𝒌𝑾, the mass flow rate of HTF ( ) is found as 0.0029
kg/s. The porosity (ε) of the system is considered as 0.5, therefore the TES volume is obtained as,

!"# (2)
!"#$ =
(1 − )

The dimensions for cylindrical TES is found as length (L) = 25 cm for diameter (D) = 12 cm.
3. Numerical Modelling
3.1 Description of Physical Domain
The TES contains a commercial-grade organic PCM (A164), encapsulated in spherical shells. This forms the
solid medium of the packed porous bed. In order to exchange heat with the porous structure, Hytherm 600, is
used as HTF. The schematic diagram shown in fig. 1 represents the physical domain of thermal energy storage
system (TES). While charging, hot HTF is introduced into the tank, which exchanges heat with the PCM,
thereby PCM melts, which results in energy storage. The discharging of TES i.e. energy retrieving process is
carried out by flowing cold HTF into the charged TES which results in solidification of molten PCM. The two-
dimenisonal axisymmetric domain is considered in the numerical simulation as shown in fig. 1 by dotted line.

Fig. 1. Physical domain

3.2 Transport Equation in Porous region

Transport equations for flow though the thermal storage system is set of modified equations. The equations
describe the flow of heat transfer fluid (HTF) in the porous medium. During the flow, HTF exchanges heat with
filler object in the porous medium. In the packed bed, encapsulation of PCM forms the filler object and HTF
fluid flows through the pores. Equations that govern the flow through this system is stated as follows,
Continuity Equation:

! (3)
+ ∇. ! =0
𝜕𝑡

Momentum Equation:

𝑢𝜌! 𝑢𝑢 𝜇𝑢 ! | | (4)
+ ∇. ! = − ∇ + ∇. + 𝑔𝜌! − + !
𝜕𝑡 2

! ! !
where the deviatoric stress tensor is defined as, =2 − 𝑡𝑟 , where = ∇ + is the rate of strain
! !
tensor.
Energy Equation: Two-temperature non-equilibrium model is used to model heat transfer between HTF and PCM.
(a) Heat transfer fluid,

! ! ! (5)
+ ∇. ! ! ! = ∇. !∇ ! + ℎ! ! − !
𝜕𝑡

(b) Encapsulated PCM structure,

802
 (1 − ) ! ! ! ( 1 − ∆𝐻𝜌! ) (6)
= ∇. (1 − ) ! ∇ ! + ℎ! ! − ! −
𝜕𝑡 𝑑𝑡

where ∆ is calculated by enthalpy-porosity technique. Melting and solidification of encapsulated PCM in the
packed bed is modelled using enthalpy porosity approach [10]. In this approach, the convection of melt PCM
inside encapsulation is neglected (equation 6). For an isothermal phase change, ∆ is defined as follows,

∆ = = > ! (7)
=0 < !

Numerical implementation of this technique is done by first discretizing the equation 6 in the form as follows,

ℎ! = ℎ!" + !
ℎ!! + (8)
! !" !

Hence, the enthalpy update equation at (n+1)th iteration is simplified as,

! (9)
[∆ ! ]! ! ! = [∆ ! ]! + ! ! {[ ! ]! − ! }
!

Setting the limits for the equations in order to discard non-realistic values,

[∆ ! ]! = 0 if [∆ ! ]! ! ! <0 (10)
[∆ ! ]! = L if [∆ ! ]! ! ! >

In the above equations, , ! , ! , are temperature, melting point, sensible heat capacity and latent heat
capacity respectively of the PCM. is the relaxation factor. The final form of ! , !! after discretization of
equation 8 is as follows,

!
! = ∆ ∆𝑦𝜌! /∆ (11)
!
! = 4Γ + ℎ! ∆ ∆ ! + !

where is diffusivity of PCM. From source term in momentum equation, and using definition of permeability,
viscous and inertial coefficients can be found as,

! ! (12)
!
𝑃𝑒 = !
175 1 −

Here, 175 is chosen as empirical constant for the present case based on Blake Kozeny Model.

𝑉𝑖 𝐶𝑜 𝑛𝑡 = 1/𝑝𝑒 𝑏𝑖 (13)

1.75 1 − (14)
𝐼𝑛 𝑡𝑖 𝐶𝑜 𝑛𝑡 2 = 2× !
!

(15)
𝑆𝑢𝑝𝑒 𝑓𝑖 𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑐 =
!

The interfacial volumetric heat transfer coefficient [11] can be determined as,

6(1 − ) 2 + 1.1𝑅𝑒!! .! 𝑃𝑟 ! /! ! (16)

ℎ! = !
!

! !! ! ! !!!
where 𝑅𝑒! = , 𝑃𝑟 = .
!" !!

803
3.3 Solution method for flow through storage tank
Two-dimensional representation of TES tank inside PCM is modelled as porous zone in a commercial
software Ansys Fluent 14. Axisymmetry of TES is utilized in order to reduce computational cost. Two
temperature (non-equilibrium) energy equations of HTF and PCM are modelled using User Defined Scalar
(UDS) equations in FLUENT. The default transport equation using UDS solved by FLUENT is as follows,

𝜕𝜌 ! ! (17)
+ ∇. ! ! = ∇. Γ!
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥
! ( ! ! ! ∆!"
! )
Source terms ℎ! ! − ! and are added to the system of UDS equations using User Defined
!"
Function. Enthalpy-Porosity technique is used to model Melting and Solidification of PCM and this is
implemented using fluent FLUENT defined macros. Table 3 summarizes the solution methodology adopted in
the numerical simulation.
Initial and boundary conditions:
(a) !" ! = 443.9 at t = 0 (charging)
(b) Condition at the end of charging is taken as initial condition for discharging.
(c) Inlet: during charging !" # = 473 , = 0.0029 𝑘𝑔/ , during discharging !" # = 415 ,
= 0.0029 𝑘𝑔/
!" !!
(d) Outlet: = 0, !"# = 0
!" !"
! ! !"# ! ! !"#
(e) Surface (Wall): = 0, = 0, u = v= 0
!" !"
! ! !"#
(f) Axisymmetry: =0
!"

Table 3. Solution method in the numerical simulations

Grid size Spatial ∆ = ∆Y = 0.05 and ∆ = 0.1
Convergence criteria Residual < 10! ! for UDS equations
Residual < 10! ! for flow variable
Pressure velocity coupling SIMPLE
Spatial discretization Gradient: Least square cell based
Pressure: Standard
Momentum: Second order upwind
UDS equation : First order upwind
Transient formulation First order implicit

3.4 Model Validation

The model validation is performed based on the experimental work reported in [5]. In this work, a
cylindrical tank having dimension of H= 46 cm and D= 36 cm was used as TES. Paraffin was used as PCM and
water was used as HTF. Water at constant mass-flow rate and constant temperature was flown through inlet. In
order to validate the model, an experimental case is simulated in which, charging of TES is carried out with
mass flow rate of 6 lpm. Temperature of water (HTF) at location 23 cm from the inlet is compared with the
experiment results and this can be seen in fig. 2. The melting point of Paraffin is 60 oC and hence, the rise of
water temperature around 60 oC is slowed due to melting of Paraffin. An isothermal melting of PCM is
considered while implementing enthalpy-porosity technique. The uncertainty in heat losses from experiment,
non-isothermal melting of paraffin and neglecting properties of encapsulation material (HDPE) leads to some
error in the agreement for the melting region around 60 oC. After the completion melting of PCM, due to
sensible heating of liquid PCM, rise in temperature of matches well with the experiment results.
3.5 Grid independence study
The grid independence study is performed to ensure the results are independent of size of meshing of the
geometry. Uniform grid with grid size of 0.025, 0.05, and 0.1 is used and the temperature difference, ∆ =
(maximum temperature - minimum temperature), is compared for three grid size cases in order to determine the
apt grid size for the study. Grid sizes with 0.025, 0.05, 0.1 have 240,000, 60,000 and 15,000 cells, respectively.
∆ for grid size of 0.1, 0.05 and 0.025 are 3.38 , 3.39 and 3.41 oC, respectively. The change in ∆ between
finer (size 0.025) and fine grid (size 0.05) is 0.29% and fine (size 0.05) and coarse grid (size 0.1) is 0.6%. As a
results, grid size of 0.05 is used for all the simulation.

804
 80

70

Temperature (oC) 60

50

Experimental
40
Numerical
30
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Time (min)
Fig. 2. Variation in HTF temperature with time at 23 cm for flow rate of 6 lpm

4. Results and Discussion

After validating the numerical model, few parametric studies are carried out which comprises of effect of
mass flow rate, tank dimension, inlet temperature, porosity and encapsulation diameter on the HTF outlet
temperature in a cycle of charging and discharging period of 1800 s each.
4.1 Effect of mass flow rate
Fig. 3 shows the effect of the mass flow rate on the temperature difference at the HTF outlet (∆ ). For this
study, volume of the TES system is fixed to 2.735×10-3 m3. The dimension of TES system is chosen as D =12
cm, H= 25 cm. The other parameters are kept same with respect to the base case. The mass flow rate (0.00290
kg/s) is scaled with factor of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2, viz. 0.00145 kg/s, 0.0029 kg/s, 0.00435 kg/s and 0.0058 kg/s, for
this study. The corresponding Reynolds numbers (ReD) obtained are 0.4, 0.8, 1.16 and 1.58. The temperature
difference (∆ ) is found to be 0.92, 3.39, 6.03 and 8.76 oC, respectively. It can be observed from the figure that
temperature of HTF starts rising early and also reaches higher value for the cases with higher mass flow rate.
This effect diminishes when flow rate is reduced. As higher temperature is attained after charging with high
mass flow rate, there is also faster decline in the HTF temperature during the discharging for high mass flow.
The mass flow rate has influence on heat transfer between HTF and PCM and this is also justified by increasing
volumetric heat transfer coefficient. The respective values of volumetric heat transfer coefficient for increasing
mass flow rate are 2732.56 W/m3.K, 3742.97 W/m3.K, 44560.88 W/m3.K, and 5274.26 W/m3.K. The effect of
mass flow rate on the melt fraction is presented in fig. 4 at the end of charging period of 1800 s. It can be
observed from fig. 4 (a) that the melt fraction of PCM is 1 only near the inlet and most of the PCM remains non-
melted in the TES system during charging period for the mass flow rate of 0.00145 kg/s. Comparing with fig. 4
(b), it can be concluded that less mass flow rate implies less charging.

176

174
Temperature (oC)

172

170
0.00145 kg/s
0.00290 kg/s
168
0.00435 kg/s
0.00580 kg/s
166
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig. 3. Variation in outlet temperature of HTF with time for different mass flow rate

805
 The melt fraction plot for PCM at the end of discharging period at 3600 s for different mass flow rates is
shown in fig. 5. The melt fraction in TES is in the range of 0-0.06 in both the cases of ReD = 0.4 and 1.58.
However, the rate of solidification is faster for ReD = 1.58 compared to ReD = 0.4. The rate of solidification
depends on the amount of melting occurred at the end of charging. Hence, it can be concluded that the mass
flow rate affects the rate of solidification significantly.

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. Melt fraction of PCM for (a) ReD = 0.4 and (b) ReD = 1.58 at the end of charging period (1800 s)

(a) (b)

Fig. 5. Melt Fraction of PCM at the end of discharging period (3600 s) for (a) ReD = 0.4 and (b) ReD = 1.58

4.2 Effect of inlet charging temperature

Fig. 6 shows the effect of inlet charging temperature on the maximum and minimum temperate difference
(∆ ). For this study, the volume of TES system is fixed to 2.735×10-3 m3. Four cases with inlet charging
temperature of 180, 200, 220 and 240 oC are considered for evaluating the effect of inlet charging temperature
on ∆ . Others parameters are kept same with respect to the base case. The Stefan number (St) which is the ratio
of sensible energy to latent energy for the cases obtained are 0.067, 0.214, 0.363 and 0.511. The temperature
difference (∆ ) obtained are 19.84 oC, 3.39 oC, 5.52 oC and 9.79 oC. The temperature of the HTF for all four
cases starts rising at the same time, however the maximum temperature attained is decreased with decrease in
the inlet temperature for charging. Discharging of the system in all four cases is carried out with the same inlet
temperature of 415 K while the others parameters are same. The minimum temperature attained in all four cases
is same ~ 169 oC. In case of charging inlet temperature 180 oC, the melting of PCM is minimal leading to very
small amount of release of latent heat which is evident from comparison of fig. 7 (a). The stabilization in HTF
temperature is minimal due to low latent heat energy when this system is discharged. The temperature of HTF
reaches 169 oC where it remains constant for some time like other three inlet temperature cases. After that, due
to sensible heat absorption of PCM, HTF temperature decreases very rapidly. The faster decrease in the HTF
temperature in the discharging phase is associated with the sensible heat exchange between PCM and HTF.

806
 180

175

Temperature (oC) 170

165
180 oC
160
200 oC
155 220 oC
240 oC
150
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig. 6. Variation in outlet HTF temperature with time for different inlet charging temperature

(a) (b)

Fig. 7. Melt fraction of PCM for (a) St = 0.067 (b) St = 0.511 at end of charging (1800 s)

4.3 Effect of TES dimension

Fig. 8 shows the effect of tank dimension on the temperature difference (∆ ) for a given volume of TES of
2.735×10-3 m3. Three more cases are chosen, viz. (a) D =24 cm, H= 6 cm, (b) D =8 cm, H= 55 cm, and (c) D =4
cm, H= 219 cm, keeping other parameters constant with respect to the base case (D =12 cm, H= 25 cm). The
temperature differences (∆ ) for all cases obtained are 16.36, 7.08, 0.92 and zero oC, respectively, as compared
to the base case of 3.39 oC. Hence, it can be concluded that TES with large diameter and small height has a large
∆ and in case of TES with large length, the HTF travels a larger length to reach the outlet. Volumetric heat
transfer coefficient increases as the system diameter reduces and the system length increases. The reduction of
system diameter leads to increase in Reynolds number. As a result, heat transfer between HTF and PCM
increases, which results in uniform melting of the PCM over a large length of TES as visible from the melt
fraction contours at the end of charging period as shown in fig. 9 (a) for TES with D = 8 cm and H = 55 cm.
However, for larger diameter and shorter length TES, there exists a thermal stratification in PCM due to poor
thermal conductivity of PCM which results in non-uniform melting of PCM as evident from fig. 9 (b) for the
TES with D = 24 cm and H = 6 cm. Therefore, the stabilization in the HTF outlet temperature is a result of
enhanced heat transfer achieved due to large length, small diameter of the TES system.

807
 180

175

Temperature (oC) 170

D=24 cm, H=6 cm

165 D=12 cm, H = 15 cm
D=8 cm, H = 55 cm
D=4 cm, H = 219 cm
160
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig. 8. Variation in HTF temperature with time at the outlet for different tank dimension

(a) (b)

Fig. 9. Melt fraction of PCM for (a) D = 8 cm, H = 55 mm and (b) D = 24 cm, H = 6 cm at the end of charging period of 1800 s

4.4 Effect of porosity

Fig. 10 shows the effect of porosity on the temperature difference (∆ ). In this case, to study the effect of
porosity, the TES volume is fixed to 2.735×10-3 m3, whereas mass of the PCM is varied. For normal packing
inside cylinder, the minimum void that can be obtained is 0.375 [11], hence, four different cases with porosity
of 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8 are considered keeping remaining parameters constant. The temperature difference(∆ )
for the cases obtained are 0.81, 3.39, 8.68 and 27.61 oC, respectively. With increase in porosity, the amount of
HTF content increases, whereas the amount of PCM content decreases in the TES. Thus, for the cases with low
porosity (i.e. more PCM), the isothermal melting of PCM results in better stabilization of HTF temperature. It is
evident from the figure that the rise in HTF temperature is least for porosity = 0.4 and highest for the
porosity, = 0.8. The volumetric heat transfer coefficient for the above cases is found to be 5002.1 W/m3.K,
3743.0 W/m3.K, 2748.2 W/m3.K and 1205.3 W/m3.K, respectively. The initial time, for which the temperature
of HTF is constant at the outlet, increases with the increase in porosity. This is owing to the decrease in the
volumetric heat transfer coefficient, which in turn decreases heat transfer between HTF and PCM. The rise in
the HTF temperature at the outlet can be understood by the temperature contours shown in fig. 11. The
minimum temperatures attained by the HTF at end of charging for = 0.4 and = 0.8 are 444 and 452 K,
respectively.
4.5 Effect of encapsulation diameter
Fig. 12 shows the effect of encapsulation shell diameter on the temperature difference (∆ ). The particle
diameter is varied viz. 1, 3 and 5 cm keeping TES volume constant at 2.735×10-3 m3. The temperature
differences (∆ ) obtained are 0.1, 3.39 and 24.66 oC, respectively. With increase in particle size, the outlet
temperature of HTF rises faster and while discharging, there is rapid decline in HTF outlet temperature. The
permeability of system is increased when the particle size is reduced. This has an effect on the velocity of HTF
in the porous medium. HTF velocity is higher in a system with greater particle diameter as compared to that

808
with smaller diameter. Also the system is charged more when particle diameter is small than the case of when
particle diameter is large, which is evident from fig. 13. Thus, the outlet temperature of HTF is stabilized more
and shows less rise when particle diameter is less. This can be attributed to the melting of the PCM. The melting
of PCM is due to enhanced heat transfer, which is a result of increased volumetric heat transfer coefficient with
decrease in particle size. The volumetric heat transfer coefficients are 16837.31 W/m3.K, 3742.97 W/m3.K and
1316.12 W/m3.K, respectively for particle diameters of 1, 3 and 5 cm.
190

185
Temperature (oC)

180

175

170
ε = 0.4
165 ε = 0.5
ε =0.6
160
ε = 0.8
155
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig. 10. Variation in outlet temperature of HTF for different porosity

(a) (b)

Fig. 11. Contours of HTF temperature (K) for (a) ε = 0.4 and (b) ε = 0.8 at the end of charging period of 1800 s

185

180 dp= 1 cm
Temperature (oC)

dp= 3 cm
175 dp= 5 cm

170

165

160
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
Time (s)
Fig.12. Variation in HTF outlet temperature with time at the outlet for different encapsulation shell diameter

809
 (a) (b)

Fig. 13. Melt fraction of molten PCM at 1800 s when encapsulation diameter (a) 1 cm and (b) 5 cm

5. Conclusion
The present work is composed of numerically modelling the latent thermal energy storage wherein flow
equations are solved for HTF in the porous region besides solving two temperature (non-equilibrium) energy
equations for PCM and HTF. The parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of mass flow rate, inlet
charging temperature, tank dimensions, encapsulation shell diameter and porosity on the charging and
discharging of the system.

Acknowledgement
This paper is based on work supported in part under the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy-
Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), funded
jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy under Subcontract DE-AC36-08GO28308 to the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory and the Government of India, through the Department of Science and Technology under
Subcontract IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012 dated 22nd Nov. 2012.

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[5] N. Nallusamy, S. Sampath, R. Velraj, Experimental investigation on a combined sensible and latent heat storage system integrated
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[8] S.M. Flueckiger, S.V. Garimella, Latent heat augmentation of thermocline energy storage, Applied Energy 116 (2014) 278-287.
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810
 ICAER 2015
A Two Stage Increase-Decrease algorithm to Optimize
Distributed Generation in a Virtual Power Plant
K. Prakash Kumara, B. Saravanana*, K.S. Swarupb
a
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore-632014, India.
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai-600036, India.

Abstract

A two stage algorithm is proposed in this paper to optimize cost of generation with application to a virtual power plant. First
stage of the algorithm presents a methodology to draw a hierarchy for the choice of distributed generators based on the cost
of generation. Second stage of the algorithm optimizes generation to minimize cost. An Additive Increase and Multiplicative
Decrease algorithm, which is already used for optimization in microgrids is improved further and is presented as Modified
Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease algorithm and is applied in the second stage of the algorithm for optimization. The
Modified Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease algorithm is validated by implementing to schedule generation of
distributed generators with intermittent power availability in a Virtual Power Plant in grid connected mode to optimize the
cost of generation. The Modified AIMD algorithm is proved to be much more effective than the original AIMD algorithm.

Key words– Optimization;generation schedule; cost of generation;Increase Decrease algorithm;Virtual Power Plant.

1.Introduction

Fast dwindling conventional energy sources worldwide is pushing forward the need for harnessing energy from
the renewable energy sources (RESs) and distributed generators (DG), paving path for decentralization of
generation. The quest to reduce distribution losses in such decentralized generation systems developed the
concept of small scale generation in the proximity of loads. The operation and control of such distributed
systems comprising of small generation units along with local loads fed from them have led to the formation of
Virtual Power Plants (VPP). A VPP is a cluster of DG units, loads both controllable and uncontrollable, storage
systems and communication, aggregated to mimic a "single virtual generating unit" that can act as a conventional
one and capable of being visible or manageable on an individual basis [1]. Autonomous or grid connected mode
of operation of a VPP with intermittent generation and demand is quite a demanding task as balancing the
generation and demand is essential for the stability of the system. The words VPP and microgrid are used
interchangeably in the sections to follow.

The policy shift of governments in many countries towards slowly withdrawing themselves from playing a
direct role in energy sector and inviting private parties into active role, augmented by technological advances in
operation and control of microgrids for profit maximization are proving attractive for smaller investors. In
addition, harnessing energy form RESs is gaining importance due to many reasons like improved efficiencies of
PV units, reduced costs of generators, substantial increase in capacities of wind turbines from kW to MW,
improved energy storage facilities and attractive subsidies by the governments [2]. These developments enabled
even smaller investors to venture in energy sector in the fields of generation and distribution on smaller scales,
particularly in microgrids, enforcing a strict competition among them. Offering generation and distribution at
lower prices is the key to success in business and is the need of the hour, which requires reduced costs of
generation. Of the many methods to reduce the cost of generation, optimum generation scheduling has a major
role. Thus the role of optimization of generation is vital in energy market and is prompting a lot of research.
Optimization in a VPP is more challenging in view of uncertainty of loads and intermittent power availability
from RESs. Deviations between forecasted and real time power availability from solar and wind generators add
to the complexity.

Many optimization techniques based on linear programming, fuzzy logic and heuristic search methods etc
are developed and are being developed for application in microgrids to different optimization problems. A few
applications of optimization techniques in a microgrid operation and control are optimal power flow, load
shedding, demand side management, emission reduction, etc. [3]. A heuristic algorithm is used in [4] to optimize
the fuel consumption and cost of emission in adjusting generation to demand on-line in a microgrid when
connected to grid. A two stage stochastic based algorithm is used in [5] to optimize the size of energy storage
facility in different forms of hydrogen, thermal and battery type to balance the generation and demand over 24
hours. A Genetic Algorithm based technique is applied to optimize the energy and power delivery/charging
capacity of a battery storage facility in a microgrid to reduce the cost of operation [6]. A modified Bacterial
Foraging Algorithm based energy management system is proposed in [7] to optimize the cost
*
Corresponding author: Tel: (+91) 9659954979, E-mail: bsaravanan@vit.ac.in

811
 of operation of a microgrid having uncertain RESs and energy storage facilities. A Fuzzy logic based energy
management system is formulated in [8] to control the charging/discharging of a energy storage system under
day ahead generation scheduling in a microgrid with intermittent energy sources. All the methods proposed [3-8]
are heuristic search based methods requiring complex computational processes.

The present paper proposes a Linear Program based two stage algorithm, to schedule the generation task in a
microgrid for optimization of a utility function of interest. The DGs considered are given a priority index based
on the function to be optimized in the first stage. A Modified Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease
(MAIMD) algorithm is used in the second stage for generation scheduling among the available DGs.

The original Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) algorithm, which is a simple linear increase-
decrease algorithm, is well adopted and tested for congestion avoidance in communication networks [9, 10].
As a communication network resembles a distribution network in many operational principles, the AIMD
algorithm, which is proven effective in communication network, is adopted for solving the problem of optimum
generation scheduling in a microgrid environment with intermittent renewable energy sources [11]. This paper
identifies a few drawbacks in the AIMD algorithm as applied to microgrids and proposes a few improvements to
it to enhance its performance.

2.1 Problem statement

It is assumed that the microgrid considered operates in grid connected mode and always supplies the demand, by
drawing grid power if required i.e., at any given time t the demand is supplied totally.

∑ . ( )= ( ) (1)

where is the power available with ith DG, i=1,.....x is the priority number of the DGs in the order of priority, x
is the total number of DGs considered in the microgrid, d (t) is the demand at time interval t. Eq. (1) offers a
choice of DGs to the Energy Management System (EMS) for generation to match the demand at any given time.
It also gives the EMS a choice to fix the ratio of how much power that ith DG should generate (Si) to the total
power generation of all DGs (∑ ) at any given time.

The utility function considered in this paper for optimization is the cost of generation.

( )= ∑ ( ) ( ) (2)

Where C is the currency unit, ci is the cost of energy generation per kWh of the ith generator.

2.2 AIMD algorithm

In AIMD algorithm, the EMS gently increases the power generation of ith DG cumulatively in the additive phase
until the generation exceeds the demand. The condition is an indication of a stage where the total generation
exceeds the demand. At this stage, the EMS senses excess generation condition and signals the generators to
gradually decrease their generation in a multiplicative progression by a constant until a stage is reached when the
generation equals demand or until when an accepted error (difference between total generation and demand) is
reached. The increment is by an additive constant and decrement is by a multiplicative factor.

Basic AIMD algorithm

Initialize the generator and demand

Repeat

= +1

if

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 ( )< ( )

( + 1) = min [ ( ) + , ( )] , ∀ = 1, … … . , (Additive Increment phase)

Else

( + 1) = max [ ( ) ∗ , ( )] , ∀ = 1, … … . , (Multiplicative Decrement phase)

end

Where α is the additive parameter in increment phase and β is multiplicative parameter in the decrement phase.
The condition for faster convergence is 0 < < 1.

Preferably the value of should be closer to ‘1’ for faster convergence [9]. The quantities and
indicate the minimum and maximum power availability of the DGs considered.

The short comings of the AIMD algorithm are discussed in section 2.2. stage II.

2.2 Proposed two stage algorithm

The proposed algorithm is implemented in two stages.

Stage 1
1. Classify the DGs based on any utility parameter of interest, for example, wind, PV etc. If no
classification is required, go to step 2.
2. Prioritize the DGs based on their utility value, for example cost of generation and assign a priority
index to each. If the classification is carried out in step 1, then prioritize the classes first and then
prioritize DGs within each class.

The purpose of stage 1 is to ensure that the DGs are used in the process of optimization in the order of
their priority. To ensure this, one has to use the DGs with highest priority first, and proceed to usage of DG
with next priority, only when the DG with highest priority is utilized completely. However in the event of
classification in stage 1, if the DGs within a class do not differ much or if there are more than one DG with
same utility value, a more liberal choice may be made keeping in view the fairness of allocation. If the
reader feels no importance for fairness of allocation, the DGs may be used allocated in the sequential order
of priority index.

Stage II ( MAIMD algorithm)

The shortcomings that are observed in the original AIMD algorithm [11] and the modifications proposed in this
paper to overcome the shortcomings are as follows

1. The AIMD algorithm considers a single additive parameter α in the increment phase for all the DGs
present. This allocates an equal share of allocation of utility function, say power generation, among all
the DGs irrespective of their utility value, say cost of generation. This is not economical in view of
widely varying utility value of the DGs. As a classical example, the cost of generation per unit of
energy varies widely among the wind and PV generators. Scheduling generation among the wind and
PV generators on equal basis will not yield the optimized cost of generation. The DGs with lower cost
of generation should be allocated more power generation compared to the DGs with higher cost of
generation. To achieve this, we propose that different additive parameters shall be used for different
DGs in inverse proportion to their cost of generation. This ensures that the cheaper sources are utilized
more in comparison to the costlier sources. Implementation of this modification is required only in the
event of classification of DGs in stage 1 and if there is significant difference in utility value of the DGs
classified into one group. Different additive parameters may not be required in case of no classification
2. At the end of additive increment phase, if the total allocation to all the DGs exceeds what is required,
the original AIMD algorithm [11] implements decrement phase on each of the DGs, which is not fair
because the allocation to the higher priority DGs should not be decreased unless the decrement in the
lower priority DGs is not sufficient. In other words the allocation to least priority DG should be
decreased first , and if there is no chance to decrease its allocation further, then the DG with next higher
priority should be decreased. To achieve this we propose that at the end of increment phase, if the total

813
 allocation is more than what is required, the decrement phase should be implemented in reverse order of
priority index.

Modified AIMD algorithm

Initialize the generations

Repeat
= +1

If

( )< ( )

( + 1) = min [ ( ) + , ( )] , ∀ = 1, … … . , (AI)

( is not constant for all the generators and is in inverse proportion to cost of generation of ith unit)

Else

( + 1) = max [ ∗ ( ), ( )] , ∀ = , … … … .1 (MD)

( i is in reverse order)

until end of simulation

It is assumed that the EMS has a record of priority indices and implements it. It is also assumed that the
increment /decrement signal given by the EMS to the ith generator is received by only that generator.

3. Simulation setup

The utility optimization function considered in this paper is the cost of generation. The cost function can be
stated by

( ) =∑ ( )∗ ( )

(3)

The optimization problem can be stated as

( )

. . ∑ ( )= ( ) and ( )< ( )< () (4)

For evaluating the performance of the proposed two stage

algorithm, a VPP scenario investigated in [7] is considered for Table 1. Details of DGs
Type of DG Pmin (kW) Pmax (kW)
optimization of cost of generation. The VPP is considered to have a MT 6 30
micro turbine (MT), a wind turbine (WT), a fuel cell (FC) and a FC 3 30
solar PV module (PV) of capacities 30 kW, 20 kW, 30 kW and 15 PV 0 15
kW respectively in grid connected mode with other details as WT 0 20
tabulated in Table 1. The hourly demand and maximum power availabilities ( ) of the WT and PV
generators are as tabulated in Table2. The hourly bidding of energy generation of the different DGs and the
hourly cost of energy drawn from grid are as given in Table 3 in Euros per kWh. The load and generation are
sampled every hour over a period of 24 hours. The grid power is drawn under deficit generation.

Since there is no possibility for classification of DGs as each one is of different nature, the DGs are
prioritized each hour in stage1 because the cost of generation for each DG is not constant over 24 hours. In

814
stage2 the generations are scheduled among DGs in order of priority using MAIMD. To validate the
performance of the proposed two stage algorithm, the original AIMD is also implemented for the same problem.

4. Simulation results

Figure 1 (a) shows that the proposed two stage algorithm effectively schedules generation to match demand. The
results of optimal generation scheduling obtained by implementing the proposed two stage algorithm are as
tabulated in Table 4 and the results obtained by AIMD are tabulated in Table 5. The hourly costs of generation
calculated by AIMD algorithm and the proposed two stage algorithm are consolidated in Figure 1(b). It shows
that wherever there is a choice of DGs, i.e., when the total power availability is more than demand, the proposed
algorithm schedules generation very economically compared to AIMD algorithm. A detailed comparison of
Figure 2 (a) and Figure 2 (b) shows that at each hour, the cheapest source, MT is best exploited in the proposed
algorithm as compared to AIMD algorithm. The AIMD algorithm schedules generation among the DGs equally,
except for the reason that the minimum power allocation for MT source is 6 kW and that for FC source is 3kW.
If the minimum power allocation is made zero, then all the DGs will be scheduled generation equally. On the
other hand Table 4 shows that the proposed two stage algorithm is very effective in tapping the cheaper source
first and the costlier sources are tapped only when the cheaper sources exhaust. Both the algorithms give same
cost when there is no choice of generation possible, i.e., when the demand is more than the total maximum
generation. Under these conditions, both the algorithms are using all the sources completely and the additional
power required is drawn from grid. This is the reason why both the algorithms are giving same result under this
condition. When the VPP operates under excess generation condition, i.e., when the total power available is
more than the demand, the AIMD algorithm schedules generation equally among all DGs except for the
minimum power to be generated, where as the proposed algorithm schedules generation in priority basis such
that the cheaper sources are utilized first and the costlier sources are utilized only when the cheaper sources are
completely exhausted.

The total cost of generation over 24 hours is165.2139 Euros using proposed algorithm as given in Table 4
where as it is 170.7947 Euros, when AIMD algorithm is used as shown in Table5. A net saving of 3.27 % over
24 hours, which is significant, is an endorsement for the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Table 2. Hourly demand and the max power availabilities of DGs (kW)
Hour Demand WT PV Hour demand WT PV
1 52 16.01 0 13 72 11.67 10.7
2 50 16.08 0 14 72 10.15 9.7
3 50 16.16 0 15 76 14.75 8.12
4 51 16.17 0 16 80 16.21 4.95
5 56 17.68 0 17 85 16.14 1.1
6 63 16.17 0 18 88 19.13 0.1
7 70 14.73 0 19 90 17.53 0
8 75 14.56 0.1 20 87 18.95 0
9 76 14.65 0.59 21 78 19.04 0
10 80 13.16 1.98 22 71 19.11 0
11 78 11.67 7.75 23 65 19.93 0
12 74 10.15 9.8 24 56 19.15 0

Table 3 Hourly biddings of energy generation of DGs in Euros per kWh

Hour MT FC PV WT P grid Hour MT FC PV WT P grid
1 0.0823 0.1277 0 0.021 0.033 13 0.0885 0.1308 0.0662 0.138 0.215
2 0.0823 0.1277 0 0.017 0.027 14 0.0885 0.1308 0.0654 0.135 0.572
3 0.0831 0.1285 0 0.0125 0.02 15 0.0885 0.138 0.0646 0.132 0.286
4 0.0831 0.129 0 0.011 0.017 16 0.09 0.1315 0.0638 0.114 0.279
5 0.0838 0.1285 0 0.051 0.017 17 0.0908 0.1331 0.0638 0.11 0.086
6 0.0838 0.1292 0 0.085 0.029 18 0.0915 0.1331 0.0662 0.0925 0.059
7 0.0846 0.1292 0 0.091 0.033 19 0.0908 0.1338 0 0.091 0.05
8 0.0854 0.13 0.0646 0.11 0.054 20 0.0885 0.1331 0 0.083 0.061
9 0.0862 0.1308 0.0654 0.14 0.215 21 0.0862 0.1315 0 0.033 0.181
10 0.0862 0.1315 0.0662 0.143 0.572 22 0.0846 0.1308 0 0.025 0.077
11 0.0892 0.1323 0.0669 0.15 0.572 23 0.0838 0.13 0 0.021 0.043
12 0.09 0.1315 0.0677 0.155 0.572 24 0.0831 0.1285 0 0.017 0.037

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 Table 4. Hourly generation scheduling of DGs and the cost of generation by implementing proposed algorithm
Hour PMT PFC PPV PWT PGrid PTotal Cost (Euro)
1 30 5.992 0 16.01 0 52.002 3.5703
2 30 3.9221 0 16.08 0 50.0021 3.2432
3 30 3.8421 0 16.16 0 50.0021 3.1887
4 30 4.8322 0 16.17 0 51.0022 3.2942
5 30 8.3217 0 17.68 0 56.0017 4.485
6 30 16.8283 0 16.17 0 62.9983 6.0627
7 30 25.2667 0 14.73 0 69.9967 7.1429
8 30 30 0.1 14.56 0.34 75 8.0884
9 30 30 0.59 14.65 0.76 76 8.763
10 30 30 1.98 13.16 4.86 80 11.3239
11 30 30 7.75 10.2513 0 78.0013 8.7012
12 30 30 9.8 4.203 0 74.003 7.9599
13 30 30 10.65 1.3528 0 72.0028 7.4707
14 30 30 9.7 2.3023 0 72.0023 7.5242
15 30 23.1267 8.12 14.75 0 75.9967 8.318
16 30 28.835 4.9 16.21 0 79.945 8.6556
17 30 30 1.1 16.14 7.76 85 9.2299
18 30 30 0.1 19.13 8.77 88 9.0316
19 30 30 0 17.53 12.47 90 8.9567
20 30 30 0 18.95 8.05 87 8.7119
21 30 28.9564 0 19.04 0 77.9964 7.0221
22 30 21.8902 0 19.11 0 71.0002 5.879
23 30 15.0716 0 19.93 0 65.0016 4.8918
24 30 6.852 0 19.15 0 56.002 3.699
Total cost of generation over 24 hours 165.2139

100 12

11
90
10
80
9
70
8
demand / Ptotal (kW)

60 7
Cost (Euro)

demand AIMD
50 Ptotal 6 Proposed
5 algorithm
40
4
30
3
20 2

10 1

0
0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
hour
hr

Figure1 (a) Figure1(b)

Figure1. (a) Plot showing the demand and Ptotal generation using proposed two stage algorithm
(b) Plot showing the generation cost computed using AIMD and proposed two stage algorithms.

32 32
30 30
28 28
26 26
24 Pwt
24 Ppv
22 Pwt 22 Pfc
Ppv
20 20 Pmt
Pfc
18 Pgrid
18 Pmt
Pgwind

Pgwind

Pgrid 16
16
14 14

12 12

10 10

8 8
6
6
4
4
2
2
0
0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
hr
hr

Figure 2 (a) Figure 2(b)

Figure 2. (a) Plot showing generation scheduling using AIMD algorithm
(b). Plot showing generation scheduling using proposed two stage algorithm

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 Table 5. Hourly generation scheduling of DGs and the cost of generation by implementing AIMD algorithm
Hour PMT PFC PPV PWT PGrid PTotal Cost (Euros)
1 20.3204 17.3321 0 14.3438 0 51.9964 4.1869
2 19.6606 16.6666 0 13.6726 0 49.9998 3.9788
3 19.6606 16.6666 0 13.6726 0 49.9998 3.9464
4 19.9814 16.9991 0 14.0168 0 50.9973 4.0075
5 21.6609 18.6663 0 15.6717 0 55.999 5.0131
6 24.9325 21.9406 0 16.1263 0 62.9994 6.2948
7 29.1445 26.1502 0 14.702 0 69.9968 7.1821
8 30 30 0.1 14.56 0.34 75 8.0884
9 30 30 0.59 14.65 0.76 76 8.763
10 30 30 1.98 13.16 4.86 80 11.3239
11 29.991 28.5914 7.7477 11.6665 0 77.9966 8.7261
12 28.5399 25.5462 9.7794 10.1287 0 73.9943 8.1599
13 26.3551 23.3602 10.6319 11.6502 0 71.9974 7.6995
14 27.5807 24.5828 9.6932 10.1429 0 71.9996 7.6595
15 28.0719 25.0749 8.1119 14.7353 0 75.9939 8.4138
16 29.976 28.8769 4.946 16.197 0 79.996 8.6572
17 30 30 1.1 16.14 7.76 85 9.2299
18 30 30 0.1 19.13 8.77 88 9.0316
19 30 30 0 17.53 12.47 90 8.9567
20 30 30 0 18.95 8.05 87 8.7119
21 29.985 28.9855 0 19.0305 0 78.001 7.0243
22 27.456 24.4608 0 19.0794 0 70.9962 5.9992
23 24.6605 21.6653 0 18.6701 0 64.9958 5.2751
24 21.6609 18.6663 0 15.6717 0 55.999 4.4651
Total cost of generation over 24 hours 170.4971
5. Conclusion

The advances in profitable utilization of DG and RESs in VPPs along with the liberalised policies of the
governments are very promising to the small investors to invest in the energy markets, particularly in generation
in small scale. The cost of generation from the different DGs and RESs is different. Profitability increases when
the energy is generated at least possible cost. Optimal generation scheduling is one of the methods used for this
purpose. This paper has introduced a novel two stage algorithm, which prioritizes the available sources in first
stage and uses a modified AIMD algorithm in the second stage for optimization. The effectiveness of the
proposed algorithm is tested and validated by using it to optimize the cost of generation in a VPP comprising of
DGs and RESs along with the intermittency of load and RESs generation on hourly basis over 24 hours. The
proposed algorithm is found to be very effective in reducing the total generation cost considerably over 24 hours,
to an extent of 3.27% approximately when implemented in the test case. Reactive power management, sizing of
energy storage devices, emission reduction etc are some of the areas, where the proposed algorithm finds
application.

References:
[1] K. El Bakari, W. L. Kling, (2010), Virtual Power Plants: an Answer to Increasing Distributed Generation, IEEE
Proceedings. PES conference on Innovative smart grid technologies Conference (Europe), 11-13 Oct, 2010,
Gothenburg, pp. 1-6.
[2] P. Fox-Penner,(2010), Smart power-Climate change, the Smart grid and the future of Electric utilities, Island
press, Wahington DC, USA.
[3] Luis I Minchala-Avila, Luis E. Garza-Casta, Adriana Vargas-Martinez, Youmin Zhang,(2015) A review of optimal
control techniques applied to the energy management and control of microgrids, SIET 2015, Procedia Computer
Science, vol.52, pp. 780-787.
[4] Eduardo Alvarez, Antonio M. Campos, Pablo Arboleya, Antonio J. Gutierrez,(2012), Microgrid management with
a quick response optimization algorithm for active power dispatch, Electrical Power and Energy systems, vol.43,
pp. 465-473, 2012.
[5] Sirus Mohammadi, Ali Mohammadi,(2014), Stochastic scenario-based model and investigating size of battery
storage and thermal energy storage for micro-grid, Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 61, pp. 531-546.
[6] Juan P. Fossati, Ainhoa Galarza, Ander Martin-Villate, Luis Font an,(2015), A method for optimal sizing of
energy storage systems for microgrids, Renewable Energy, vol. 77, pp. 539-549, 2015.
[7] Mehdi Motevasel, Ali Reza Seifi,(2014), Expert energy management of a microgrid considering wind energy
uncertainty, Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 83, pp. 58-72.
[8] Juan P. Fossatii, Ainhoa Galarza, Ander MartinVillate, Jose M. Echerirra,(2015), Optimal Scheduling of a
microgrid with a fuzzy logic controlled storage system, Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 68, pp. 61-70.
[9] M. Corless and R. Shorten,(2012), An Ergodic AIMD algorithm with application to high speed networks,
International Journal of control, vol. 85, pp. 746-764, 2012.
[10] R. Shorten, D. Leith, J. Foy and R. Kilduf,(2005), Analysis and design of AIMD congestion control algorithms in
communication networks , Automatica, vol. 41, pp. 725-730.
[11] Emmanuel Cristoni, Marco Raugi and Robert Shorten,(2014) Plug-and-Play distributed algorithm for Optimized
Power generation in a Microgrid, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 4, pp. 2145-2154.

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 ICAER-2015

Experimental studies on combined two stage desalination and

cooling plant
C. Chiranjeevi1*, T. Srinivas2
CO2 Research and Green Technologies Centre, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore 632014, India

Abstract

This work evaluates a two-stage humidification-dehumidification (HDH) process for combined air cooling and desalination
for fresh water production from salt water experimentally. A pilot scale plant is designed and constructed with 16 m2 solar
collector area for salt water heating. The operational parameters identified are hot saline water supply to humidifiers and
it’s temperature. The saline water is heated in a solar water heater (SWH) and supplied to the two humidifiers and air
preheaters. Main performance parameters i.e. desalinated water generation, cooling effect and energy utilization factor
(EUF) of the plant is studied in the light of hot water inlet temperature and its flow rate. It is observed that a maximum of
2.5 LPH of fresh water is produced at a water and air flow rates of 300 LPH and 10 m3/hr respectively. At low inlet water
temperatures the resulted cooling effect is more compared with high temperatures and an average of 120 W of cooling effect
is produced. The energy utilization factor (EUF) of combined two stage desalination and cooling plant is more compared
with individual single stage plants and an average value of 0.4 is attained for combined plant. On overall basis, maximum
possible water flow rate in humidifier and also high temperatures are recommended to yield more desalination output.

Keywords: desalination, humidification, dehumidification, cooling effect etc.

1. Introduction

In past recent years energy conservation and management became a major research area. A lot of research has
been done on using renewable energy sources as energy source. Solar energy is major renewable energy source
which falls on earth and return back unused is used to get hot water for humidification. Many researchers are
looking for systems which can utilize low temperature sources with renewable energy. The proposed plant
produces distilled water and cooled air for room cooling with a nominal electric power input for running
auxiliary units. Humidification can be done by hot water spray and dehumidification by circulating water,
atmospheric air and chilled water. This makes the plant less dependent on electricity, which is ideal for hot
places where sun radiation is high and having water scarcity.
Nomenclature

EUF energy utilization factor

h specific enthalpy, kJ/kg of dry air
m mass flow rate, kg/s
Q heat, kW
W work, kW

Suffix
APH air preheater
chw chilled water
da dry air
ds double stage
dw desalinated water
fg laten heat
fs first stage
ss second stage
hw hot water

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-7845190906; fax: +91-416-2243092.

E-mail address: chiranjeevi.c@vit.ac.in

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 The process of air humidification-dehumidification (HDH) is based on the natural water cycle. This
technique is studied and applied by many researchers due to low temperature energy (solar, geothermal, waste
heat) use, simplicity, low cost and less payback period. HDH is a best suitable choice for producing fresh water
when the demand is decentralized. Orfi et al.[1] did theoretical study on solar desalination system using HDH
technique and showed an optimum water to air mass ratio ranges from 1.6 to 2.2 for a maximum yield of 0.05
grams of fresh water per unit kg of dry air. Chiranjeevi and Srinivas [2] developed a model for parametric study
of a combined two stage HDH desalination plant integrated with cooling system. Yamli and Solmus [3] did
experiment on humidification and dehumidification (HDH) process and concluded that with increase in mass
flow rate of the air fresh water productivity remains same. Prakash Narayan et al. [4] constructed and carried out
on a pilot scale HDH unit and validated the design models developed. Further the optimization of heat and mass
exchange devises have been studied with the experimental data. Dai and Zhang [5] have investigated the
performance of a solar desalination system experimentally. It is found that the performance of the system is
strongly depends on the salt water temperature of inlet to the humidifier, the mass flow rate and the mass flow
rate of air. Farhad et.al. [6] conducted an experimental and theoretical energy and exergy analysis of a solar
desalination system consisting of a solar collector and a humidification tower. The developed model is validated
against the experimental data, an effective design of a humidification tower can be designed from the results.
Orfi et al. [7] conducted an experiment on a water desalination system using solar energy and compared the
results with the mathematical model. The results show that there exists an optimum mass flow rate ratio
corresponding to a maximum fresh water production. Zamen et al. [8] designed, constructed and conducted
experiments on a two-stage pilot plant. Experimental results show that the productivity can be increased by 20%
compared with single stage unit. Mehrgoo and Amidpour [9] used the Lagrangian multipliers and genetic
algorithm (GA) methods to optimize the production rate in HDH system subject to global constraint (fixed
volume). Kabeel and El-Said [10] developed a laboratory experiment for a hybrid solar desalination system
consisting of a HDH and single stage flashing evaporation using solar air heater and solar water heater (SWH)
and obtained a good agreement between simulated and measured variations for water production and
performance ratio. Chang et al. [11] developed the performance characteristics of multi-effect HDH system with
the use of packed porous plastic balls and finned heat exchangers. Kang et al. [12] also simulated two stage
multi-effect HDH desalination plant with nine equations and nine parameters. By varying different parameters
experiments were conducted and compared with the simulation results to validate the developed models.
Yıldırım and Solmus [13] extended their work with the use of fourth order Runge–Kutta method for
mathematical modelling of HDH system using solar air heater and solar water. Nada et al. [14] designed and
constructed a test rig of HDH desalination plant to study the performance under different operating parameters.
Hamed et al. [15] investigated the HDH plant theoretically and experimentally with solar water heating system.
They proved that the highest desalination yield is in the afternoon time of operation. Chiranjeevi and Srinivas
[16] developed a pilot plant and analysed the experimental results with simulation results on a combined two
stage humidification-dehumidification desalination and cooling plant. Li et al. [17] conducted an experiment on
HDH pilot plant with solar air heaters using vacuum tubes with air heating and cold water spray into hot air for
humidification.
The literature published indicates that most of the researchers focussed on desalination systems and
integrated desalination and cooling systems were not focussed much. In the present work the main objective is
to conduct experiments for different flow rates and temperatures of saline water to prove the feasibility of
possible increase in desalination yield with added cooling benefit.

2. Methodology

Thermodynamic design is carried out on two stage desalination and cooling and developed an experimental
integrated pilot plant. It is tested experimentally to highlight the dual benefits of increased desalination yield
with an addition of air cooling. In present work an open air closed water (OACW) arrangement of HDH system
is designed and constructed.
Fig.1. shows a schematic layout of the proposed two stage OACW tow stage HDH desalination and cooling
plant using solar thermal supply. The air is supplied to the desalination plant from a blower (1-2) or alternately
solar air expander can be used from the air turbine without the use of blower. The first stage desalination
consists of 1st air pre heater (APH) (2-3), 1st humidifier (3-4), and 1st dehumidifier (4-5). Similarly the second
stage desalination plant has 2nd APH (5-6), 2nd humidifier (6-7), 2nd dehumidifier (7-8), and 3rd dehumidifier
(8-9). APH is a concentric tubular heat exchanger located at the inlet of humidifier to increase the
humidification capacity of the air. Humidifier is a vertical cylindrical container connected with hot water inlet,
outlet and air inlet, and outlet pipes. Two layers of inner plastic packing is kept inside the humidifier to increase
the contact between hot water and air. First stage dehumidifier is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which
humid air condenses y rejecting latent heat to circulating water. In second stage the humid air is condensed in
the 2nd dehumidifier (plate finned heat exchanger) by rejecting heat to air by natural convection and the

819
subsequent condensation of humid air takes place in 3rd dehumidifier (shell and tube heat exchanger) by
rejecting heat to chilled water. The condensation of humid air in second stage by air cooling decreases the
cooling load on chilled water in the 3rd dehumidifier and hence reduced size of the water cooler. The
desalinated water is collected at points 10 and 13 from first and second stage respectively. The cooled air by
chilled water in 3rd dehumidifier is below the room temperature, so it can be used for room air conditioning.

Fig.1. Line diagram of two stage desalination and cooling plant.

Vapour absorption refrigeration (VAR) plant (24-27) is designed and constructed for generating chilled
water. This plant works on the principle of absorption of refrigerant (ammonia) into absorbent (water) at low
temperature and low pressure by rejecting heat to air or water and separation of refrigerant and absorbent at high
temperature and high pressure by the latent heat addition. A solution pump circulates the working fluid and
creates the high pressure in the vapour generator [18]. But the study of VAR plant is beyond the scope of
current study.

Fig. 2. Experimental setup of two stage HDH desalination and cooling plant.

Photograph of combined two stage HDH desalination and cooling plant experimental test set up is shown in
Fig.2. Saline water is heated indirectly with glycol-water mixture in SWH, installed on the rooftop of the
laboratory. The advantage with indirect type heating of saline water saves the SWH from corrosion and
increases the life. The hot water is supplied to two air preheaters and two humidifiers connected in parallel

820
mode which ensures the same temperature of hot water for all four components. The air is supplied to the first
stage HDH plant from an air turbine passes through APH increases the temperature without changing in specific
humidity (SH) resulting in moisture absorbing capacity. In the 1st humidifier, hot water is sprayed at the top
over the plastic packing, collected at the bottom and drained to the water collecting tank for recirculation to
SWH. Heated Air from 1st APH enters the bottom of 1st humidifier and gains moisture from the thin film of hot
water flow down the packing by evaporation. The packing provides more contact area between hot water and air
with an increase in residence time resulting in high relative humidity (RH). The plastic packing arranged in
humidifiers is a honey comb structure and lain in two layers. The RH and SH levels of air increases in the
humidification process. The heated humid air is then enters the top of 1st dehumidifier is cooled with circulating
water supplied at ambient conditions. As described dehumidifier is a vertical shell and tube heat exchanger
having tubes to flow water and baffles were arranged on shell side to direct the humid air on to the outer surface
of tubes. At the bottom of the dehumidifier, a space is provided to collect the desalinated water periodically
through a drain valve. The dehumidified air flows from the 1st dehumidifier to the 2nd APH for the second
stage processes. Individual flow control valves are provided to the main water pipe line coming from SWH to
vary the flow control in two APH and two humidifiers. For current study volume flow rate of air is fixed and
mass flow rate of hot water is varied. In the second stage approximately similar process takes place in 2nd APH
and 2nd humidifier. The second stage dehumidification process starts in air cooled plate finned heat exchanger
and 3rd dehumidifier by chilled water. The 3rd dehumidifier is also a vertical shell and tube heat exchanger
similar to the 1st dehumidifier. The air coming from the 3rd dehumidifier is cooled below the atmospheric
temperature, so it can be used for room air conditioning. To visualize the dehumidification process, 1st and 3rd
dehumidifiers are enclosed in cylindrical acrylic pipes. APHs, humidifiers and chilled water pipe lines are
insulated to minimize the heat losses or gain. A standby water cooler operated by 0.5 hp hermitically sealed
compressor is used for the generation of chilled water. For circulating the hot saline water between SWH and
desalination plant 1 hp centrifugal pump is used. A 0.5 hp piston pump is used for the circulation of chilled
water from water cooler to the 3rd dehumidifier. As mentioned before the air for the desalination plant is taken
from solar air expander, which is beyond the scope of the current study. All the components are assembled and
erected over a 1.5 m high stand for easy collection of hot water, circulating water, chilled water and desalinated
water in appropriate containers. Air leakages are arrested properly by placing the gas cuts at the flanged joints.
Experiments are conducted on the proposed plant by controlling the hot water supply to humidifiers and hot
water inlet temperature to desalination plant. A fixed mass flow rate of air 10 m3/h is maintained during the
experimentation. The hot water flow rate to the two humidifiers is maintained same with independent flow
control valves located at the inlet of humidifiers. The temperature of the hot water supplied to APHs and
humidifiers is same as the hot water is supplied from the same SWH. The hot water flow rate (1150 LPH) to
APHs, normal circulating water flow rate (310 LPH) to 1st dehumidifier and chilled water flow rate (125 LPH)
to 3rd dehumidifier are fixed during the experimentation. The hot water pump is switched on after closing the
vent valve in SWH for closed loop circulation of hot water. Once the hot water circulated to the desalination
plant and sufficient water gets stored at the bottom of humidifiers, air is supplied gradually to the desalination
plant. The plant is allowed to reach steady state and the initial desalinated water level in the collecting column is
noted separately for the two stages. Air temperatures and water temperatures at the inlet and outlet of each
component are measured using thermo-couples. Air flow rate and water flow rates are noted from the respective
rotameters. Humidifiers pressure is noted from the bourdon tube pressure gauges. The RH values of air at
different stages are measured by digital humid meters.
Thermo-physical properties of wet air and water are taken from standard thermodynamic relations.
Desalinated water is directly measured from the experimentation at an interval of 20 minutes and converted
them to ml/hr.
The amount of energy contained by desalinated water is,

. (1)

The cooling effect from the plant is calculated with simple energy equation.

. (2)

The performance of the desalination plant is solved with energy utilization factor (EUF) for first stage,
second stage and combined desalination cycle.
The EUF of the first stage without cooling effect,

821
 (3)

The EUF of the second stage with cooling effect,

( )
(4)

The EUF of the double stage pant with cooling effect,

(5)

3. Results and discussions

The key process variations identified are hot saline water flow rate in humidifiers and its inlet temperature to
desalination plant. Separate flow control valves are used to control the hot fluid flow into the two humidifiers.
Whereas hot water flow rate to two APHs, circulating water flow rate in 1st dehumidifier and chilled water flow
rate in 3rd dehumidifier are kept constant. The hot water temperature is followed with the change in solar
radiation. The overall plant performance can be assed with desalination yield, cooling effect and EUF of the
plant.

Fig. 3. Desalinated water (a) the 1st stage, (b) the 2nd stage, and (c) combined two stage from experimentation.

Fig.3. presents the role of hot water flow rate in humidifiers and its inlet temperature on desalination yield
from experimentation and the corresponding second order curve fit. The results shown are (a) the first stage
desalination, (b) the second stage desalination, and (c) the combined two stage desalination. The first stage
desalination is by circulating water supplied at ambient temperature and the second stage desalination is by
atmospheric air followed by chilled water cooling. The desalinated water yield is increased from Fig.3a to Fig.
3b with the proposed concept of cooling integration. In addition to the increased desalination yield, extra
cooling benefit is resulted from second stage. In the first stage, water yield changed from 0.4 to 1.3 LPH per 10
m3/hr flow of air. For the same quantity of air in the second stage a desalination yield changed from 0.5 to 1.5
LPH. The combined two stage plant yield a maximum of 2.5 LPH per 10 m3/hr of air, which is an equivalent of
250 mL/m3 of air. From the figure it is also noticed that at lower flow rates though the temperature of hot water
is increased there is not significant change in desalination yield in first stage. Whereas in second stage the
desalination yield increases with increase inlet hot water temperature for low hot water flow rates. This may be
because in second stage the humid air cooled by chilled water to temperatures below atmosphere, so that
desalination takes place below atmospheric temperature.
The influence of hot water flow rate to the humidifiers and its temperature on the desalination and cooling
effect is shown in Fig. 4. The cooling effect maintained in the range of 50 W to 150 W for an air flow of 10
m3/hr with 45 to 65 °C of humidifier hot water inlet temperature range. A maximum of 150 W cooling effect is
observed for 250 LPH at 57 °C of hot water temperature. It is observed that the cooling effect is maximum at
lower flow rates of water compared with high flow rates of water. This is because at low water flow rates
humidification is less and hence the cooling load shared for desalination less resulting in more cooling effect. It
is suggested an optimum cooling effect can be obtained at a hot water flow rate of 200 LPH and 55 °C at 10

822
m3/hr of air flow rate. A high desalination output results less cooling effect due to more cooling absorbed by
desalinated water.

Fig. 4. Influence of hot water flow to humidifiers and its temperature on the desalination and cooling effect.

The effect of EUF with the changes in hot water inlet temperature and hot water flow rate for the (a) first
stage, (b) the second stage and (c) the combined desalination and cooling plant is shown in the Fig. 5. In the first
stage plant only desalinated water is obtained as output, where as in second stage both cooling and desalinated
water are obtained as output. In the combined plant first and second stage desalinated water along with cooling
effect in second stage is obtained as output. Hence the EUF for the first stage is high compared to EUF in
second stage due to usage of chilled water pump and cooler. But in the combined plant the overall EUF is high
due to desalinated water out from the first stage without any extra energy input for hot water pumping. An
average value of 0.35, 0.3 and 0.4 EUF are obtained for the first, second stage and combined desalination
cooling plant respectively. It is also observed that the EUF is increased with respect to hot water inlet
temperature and a higher EUF is observed for higher water flow rates.

Fig. 5. Influence of EUF with respect to hot water flow rate and its inlet temperature

4. Conclusions

The performance of first, second stage and combined cooling and desalination plant are studied
experimentally by varying the input parameters of hot water flow rate and its inlet temperature for a fixed air
flow rate. The operating temperature of 55 °C and 250 LPH of hot water flow rate are suggested to yield
maximum output both in single and combined cooling and desalination plant. Maximum desalination output of

823
2.5 LPH is obtained at 60 °C of hot water temperature with 300 LPH of inlet hot water flow for an air flow rate
of 10 m3/hr and approximately 150 W of cooling effect is produced. An average EUF of 0.4 is obtained for the
proposed combined cooling and desalination plant. The plan has an advantage of operating desalination plant
single stage and combined desalination and cooling, with an additional cooling effect which can used for air
conditioning application.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the project grant from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
New Delhi, India (22(0627)/13/EMR-II).

References

[1] J. Orfi, N. Galanis, M. Laplante, Air humidification-dehumidification for a water desalination system using solar energy, Desalination
(2007), 203, pp. 471-481.
[2] C. Chiranjeevi, T. Srinivas, Combined two stage desalination and cooling plant, Desalination (2014), 345, pp. 56-63.
[3] C. Yamali, I. Solmus, A solar desalination system using humidification -dehumidification process: experimental study and comparison
with the theoretical results, Desalination (2008), 220, pp. 538–551.
[4] G. Prakash Narayan, Maximus G St. John, Syed M Zubair, John H. Lienhard V, Thermal design of humidification dehumidification
desalination system: An experimental investigation, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (2013), 58, pp. 740-748.
[5] Y.J. Dai, H.F. Zhang, Experimental investigation of a solar desalination unit with humidification and dehumidification, Desalination
(2000), 130, pp. 169-175.
[6] Farhad Nematollahi, Amir Rahimi and Touraj Tavakoli Gheinani, Experimental and theoretical energy and exergy analysis for a solar
desalination system, Desalination (2013), 317, pp. 23-31.
[7] J. Orfi, M. Laplante, H. Marmouch, N. Galanis, B. Benhamou, S. Ben Nasrallah, C.T. Nguyen, Experimental and theoretical study of a
humidification-dehumidification water desalination system using solar energy, Desalination (2004), 168, pp. 151-159.
[8] M. Zamen, S.M. Soufari, S. Abbasian Vahdat, M. Amidpour, M.A. Zeinali, H. Izanloo, H. Aghababaie, Experimental investigation of a
two-stage solar humidification dehumidification desalination process, Desalination (2014), 332, pp. 1-6.
[9] M. Mehrgoo, M. Amidpour, Constructal design and optimization of a direct contact humidification–dehumidification desalination unit,
Desalination 293 (2013) 69–77.
[10] A.E. Kabeel, E.M.S. El-Said, A hybrid solar desalination system of air humidification, dehumidification and water flashing
evaporation: part II. Experimental investigation, Desalination 341 (2014) 50–60.
[11] Z. Chang, H. Zheng, Y. Yang, Y. Su, Z. Duan, Experimental investigation of a novel multi-effect solar desalination system based on
humidification–dehumidification process, Renew. Energy 69 (2014) 253–259.
[12] H. Kang, Y. Yang, Z. Chang, H. Zheng, Z. Duan, Performance of a two-stage multieffect desalination system based on humidification–
dehumidification process, Desalination 344 (2014) 339–349.
[13] C. Yıldırım, I. Solmus, A parametric study on a humidification–dehumidification (HDH) desalination unit powered by solar air and
water heaters, Energy Converson Management 86 (2014) 568–575.
[14] S.A. Nada, H.F. Elattar, A. Fouda, Experimental study for hybrid humidification–dehumidification water desalination and air
conditioning system, Desalination 363 (2015) 112–125.
[15] M.H. Hamed, A.E. Kabeel, Z.M. Omara, S.W. Sharshir, Mathematical and experimental investigation of a solar humidification–
dehumidification desalination unit, Desalination 358 (2015) 9–17.
[16] C. Chiranjeevi, T. Srinivas, Experimental and simulation studies on two stage humidification-dehumidification desalination and
cooling plant, Desalination (2015), 376, pp. 9-16.
[17] X. Li, G. Yuan, Z. Wang, H. Li, Z. Xu, Experimental study on a humidification and dehumidification desalination system of solar air
heater with evacuated tubes, Desalination 351 (2014) 1–8.
[18] I. Horuza, T.M.S. Callander, Experimental investigation of a vapor absorption refrigeration system, Int. J. Refrig. 27 (2004) 10–16.

824
 ICAER-2015

Development of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics

for a Plate Type Offset-Fin Compact Heat Exchanger using
Numerical Investigation Methodology
Rushikesh Kekarea, R. S. Mauryab
a,b
Sardar Patel College Engineering Mumbai-58, India.

Abstract

Present investigation deals with a compact plate type offset fin heat exchanger which is mostly used as intercooler in heavy
duty vehicles. Current practice of designing such system is purely based on trial and error with little experimental
investigation on generic arrangement of fins. A customized system needs exhaustive experimentation to characterize the
system in terms of pressure drop and heat transfer. The objective of the current investigation is to develop a simple
numerical approach to accelerate the investigation using numerical tools. Simultaneously it aims at developing correlations
to predict heat transfer and pressure drop of two flow streams for a compact heat exchanger of size 425mm×492mm×48mm
whose alternate stacks has offset and plain rectangular fin arrangement. Work has been executed using commercial software
(ANSYS Fluent) under flow conditions. Investigation reveals a number of interesting results which is useful to make the
device more efficient in terms of its performance.
Keywords: offset fins, plate-fin heat exchanger, pressure drop, heat transfer.

1. Introduction

The plate fin compact heat exchanger are widely used as the automobile radiators, charge air coolers, air
conditioning evaporators and condensers, aircraft applications, cryogenics exchanger and electronic cooling
devices for desired thermal performances, resulting to reduce space and weight, save energy and resources,
ultimately the cost. The offset fins is widely used as it is characterized by high degree of surface compactness
and significant heat transfer enhancement due to its periodically interrupted flow, and leading to creation of
fresh boundary layers which enhances heat transfer. The present thesis is on the compact plate-fin cross flow
heat exchanger which is called as automotive intercooler consisting of alternate stacks of offset fin and plain
fins. In this intercooler the charged air is passed over the offset fins and the forced induced atmospheric air is
passed through plain fins which act as a coolant. The offset strip fin is one of the most widely used finned
surfaces, particularly in high effectiveness heat exchangers used in cryogenic, aircraft applications and
automotive heat exchangers.
The Mangik and Bergles [2] carried out experimental research on OSFs and developed correlations for all 3
regions and these correlations were validated with kays and London [3]. Hu and Herold [1] performed
experimentation on OSFs to show effect of Prandtl number on heat transfer and pressure drop, concluded that
there is significant effect on heat transfer but no effect on pressure drop. Patankar and Prakash [6] presented a
two dimensional analysis for flow and heat transfer in an interrupted plate passage, which is idealization of the
OSFs heat exchanger. They concluded that thick plate situation leads to significantly higher pressure drop while
heat transfer doesn’t sufficiently improve. Joshi and Webb [4] developed an analytical model to predict heat
transfer coefficient and friction factor of offset fin geometry. They conducted flow visualization experiments,
thus developed correlations and modified correlations of Weiting [5]. Michna et al. [7] investigated the effect of
increasing Reynolds number on the performance of OSFs. He conducted the experiment at Reynolds number
between 5000 to 120000 and found that both heat transfer and pressure drop increased with increasing Reynolds
number. Dong et al [8] made experiments and analysis to get better thermal and hydraulic performance from the
OSFs. Sixteen types of OSFs and flat tube heat exchangers were used to make the experimental studies on heat
transfer and pressure drop characteristics. Fangjun Hong and Ping Cheng [10] carried a 3-D numerical
simulation. The simulation was done under laminar forced convection with an objective to study thermal
performance of offset strip fin for microelectronic cooling application. H. Bhowmik and Kwan-Soo Lee [9]
studied the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of an offset strip fin heat exchanger and developed

825
general correlations to compute f and j factors. These factors are used to analyse fluid flow and heat transfer
characteristics of offset strip fins in the laminar, transition, and turbulent regions of the flow.
Literature review shows that most of the studies are concerned to only pure forced or free convection flow
regimes with a single type of fin in alternate stack arrangement for a compact heat exchanger. In reality
industrial practices for many application of compact plate fin heat exchanger demands alternate stack of offset
fins and plain fins in cross flow configuration.

Nomenclature

Dh Hydraulic Diameter, m
∂p Pressure Drop, Pa
Cp Coefficient of Heat Capacity, j/kg-K
f Fanning’s friction factor
G Flow Velocity, m/s
h Heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K
j Colburn’s Factor
L Length, m
Pr Prandtl Number
Re Reynolds Number
T Temperature, K
ρ Density, kg/m3
u Velocity in x direction, m/s
v Velocity in y direction, m/s
w Velocity in z direction, m/s

2. Description of Problem and Geometry

The core of intercooler and stacking arrangement with cross flow configuration is as shown in the fig 1. It is
made of aluminium. The charged air is passed through offset fin and the air which is acting as a coolant is
passed through the plain fins in cross direction. Geometrical dimensions are: intercooler size-
425mm×492mm×48mm, stack size 11.3mm, fin dimension are as shown in Table 1. and the schematic diagram
shown in fig 2 and fig 3 respectively. The flow velocity through per stack for hot stream between range 11 m/s
to 41 m/s and for cold stream the flow velocity is 3m/s at 285.8 k. It is aimed to investigate the thermal
performance of this heat exchanger.

Fig. 1. Heat exchanger core Fig. 2. Cross flow arrangement

l l

Fig. 3. Schematic Diagram of Offset Fin Fig. 4. Schematic Diagram of Plain Fin

826
 Table 1. Fin Dimensions of Heat Exchanger
Fin Parameter Offset Fin (mm) Plain Fin (mm)
Height (h) 3.50 7.00
Fin pitch (s) 1.38 4.00
Spacing (k) 0.69 ---
Thickness (t) 0.08 0.08
Fin length (l) 7.00 492

The objective of the investigation is to predict hydrodynamic and thermal behaviour of flow, and to develop
a correlation to predict heat transfer and pressure drop of hot and cold streams under following two cases.

Case 1: Hydrodynamic study

The case 1 is a pure hydrodynamic study where only pressure and velocity profile developing after
simulation is desired. On analysis we get the pressure drop for the domain, thus it can be used to obtain the
fanning’s friction factor (f) by conventional formula by Kays and London [5] as,
4 fLG 2 (1)
∂p =
2D h ρ
Thus it is used to develop correlation so as to get the pressure drop for the whole heat exchanger.

Case 2: Thermal study

The case 2 needs involvement of energy equation to capture temperature data. After conjugate analysis on
the domain, temperature is obtained at the outlet which used to find the colburn's friction factor (j) using
conventional formula by Kays and London [5] as,
2
hPr 3
j= (2)
GCp
Thus it is used to develop correlation so as to get the temperature at the outlet for the whole heat exchanger.
Considering the objective of the problem, dimension of the flow domain and the order of complexities involved
in experimentation, the numerical approach is found to be suitable to carry out the investigation.

3. Mathematical and Numerical Modelling

Flow passes through narrow channels created in between fins and sandwiched between the stacks. This flow
configuration is bound to be of laminar nature with dominating viscous effect. So the viscous and pressure
gradient are major driving for available for the flow. Following assumptions are applicable to set the governing
equations.
• Flow is steady, laminar and incompressible.
• Gravity effect is negligible.
• Viscous dissipation is neglected.

3.1. Governing Equations

(1) Mass Balance,

∂u ∂v ∂w
+ + = 0 (3)
∂x ∂y ∂z

(2) Momentum Balance

x- momentum equation,
∂u ∂u ∂u ∂p  ∂ 2u ∂ 2u ∂ 2u  (4)
u +v +w =
− +ν  2 + 2 + 2 
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂x  ∂x ∂y ∂z 
y- momentum equation,
∂v ∂v ∂v ∂p  ∂ 2v ∂ 2v ∂ 2v  (5)
u +v +w =
− +ν  2 + 2 + 2 
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂y  ∂x ∂y ∂z 

827
 z- momentum equation,
∂u ∂u ∂u ∂p  ∂ 2u ∂ 2u ∂ 2u  (6)
u +v +w =
− +ν  2 + 2 + 2 
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂x  ∂x ∂y ∂z 

(3) Energy Balance

∂T ∂T ∂T k  ∂ 2T ∂ 2T ∂ 2T  (7)
u +v + w=  ∂x 2 + ∂y 2 + ∂z 2 
∂x ∂y ∂z ρ C p  

3.2. Computational Domain and Boundary Conditions

Due to the repetition of the flow geometry, the computation domain is selected in such a way that all flow
features are captured without loss of any significant information. Also this strategy helps to save the
computational time.
So, considering the geometrical similarities and periodicity of the heat exchanger the selected domain is
shown in fig 2-3. Boundary conditions are used according to the need of the model. The inlet and outlet
conditions are defined as velocity inlet and pressure outlet. As this is a cross-flow heat exchanger so there are
two inlets and two outlets. The walls are separately specified with respective boundary conditions. No-slip
condition is considered for each wall. Use of symmetry boundary condition is done wisely as per the
geometrical similarities. The boundary conditions to the respective domain are represented in fig. 2 and fig. 4.

Fig. 5. Domain and Boundary Conditions for Case 1 Fig. 6. Domain of Case 2

(a) (b)
Fig. 7. Boundary Condition for Case 2, (a), (b)

3.3. Numerical Modelling

Commercial software ANSYS Fluent 14.5 has been used for investigation. Governing equations are
discretised using finite volume method. A 3D-formulation with pressure based scheme using laminar flow
model for steady state condition is used. The pressure velocity coupling is done using SIMPLER algorithm. The
convective effect is captured by using second order upwind differential scheme. Relaxation factors used are the
default values. Convergence is ensured by setting residue in mass and velocity (10-3) and energy (10-6). Meshes
are refined to ensure the availability of all primary variables without any interpolation.

828
4. Results and Discussion

The result pertaining to the cases mentioned above discussed here. To ensure grid independence solution a
grid sensitivity test has been carried out. Uniform grid size of mesh sizes: 0.12mm, 0.10mm, 0.08mm and
0.06mm is selected for sensitivity test. The effect of mesh size on pressure drop is depicted in fig. 9. A minor
variation in pressure drop is observed which goes on increasing with the fineness of the grid and finally almost
remains same. Thus grid size of 0.08mm is chosen for further investigation after the test.

183.5
183
182.5
182
Pressure Drop ,Pa

181.5
181
180.5
180
179.5
179
178.5
0 0.05 0.1 0.15

Mesh Size

Fig. 8. Grid Independence Study Fig. 9. Velocity Contour

4.1. Hydrodynamic Study

Hydrodynamic study includes the effect of Reynolds number on pressure drop occurring in the flow
geometry. Velocity contour developing in the flow domain is depicted in fig. 9. Pressure contours at different
Reynolds numbers are shown in fig. 10. In an experimental work done on similar geometry by Mangik and
Bergles [3], it was proved that friction factor (f) goes on decreasing with Reynolds number. Present work
validates this result with it which is depicted in fig.11. A good agreement can be observed. The present work
results in a correlation for fanning friction factor f = 1.8314Re-0.567 which can be used for practical application.

Re=1512 Re=2987 Re=4316 Re=5337

Fig. 10. Pressure Contours at Different Reynolds Number

829
 0.035

0.03
f = 1.8314Re-0.567

Fanning Friction Factor

0.025 Present work

0.02

0.015
Exp. work_Mangik
0.01
and Bergles [3]
0.005

0
0 2000 4000 6000
Reynolds Number

Fig. 11. Effect of Re on Fanning’s Friction Factor (f)

4.2. Thermal Study

Thermal study is done to find Colburn's factor (j) for the configurations selected for the study. Fig. 12 shows
the contours of temperature field evolving by applying boundary condition. The contour shows that at leading
edge of the each fin there is formation of fresh thermal boundary layer. The interruption in the flow prevents the
growth of continuous thermal boundary layer by periodically interrupting it. The thinner boundary layer offers
lower thermal resistance compared to continuous plain fins. The variation in the flow field along the flow
enhances the local heat transfer by continuously bringing in fresh fluid towards the heat transfer surfaces.

(a) Re = 5337 (b) Re = 1512

Fig. 12. Temperature Contours, (a) Re = 5337, (b) Re = 1512

0.03 0.02
j = 10.224Re-0.818 j = 7.2764Re-0.818
0.025
Colburns Factor

Colburns Factor

R² = 0.9999 0.015 R² = 0.9999

0.02
0.015 0.01
0.01
0.005
0.005 j at hot side
j at cold side
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 2000 4000 6000
Re Re

Fig. 13. Correlation for Colburn’s Factor (j) at Hot Side Fig. 14. Correlation for Colburn’s Factor (j) at Hot Side

The Coburn’s factor j for hot and cold side is obtained for different Reynolds number using conventional
equations as shown in fig. 13 and fig. 14 respectively.

830
5. Conclusion

Following conclusion can be drawn from the above analysis:

• Present investigation proves the capability of numerical technique to predict heat transfer and pressure drop
characteristics of flow in the cross flow configuration.
• Correlation for j and f are obtained which can be used to predict heat transfer and pressure drop for the flow in
the range of Re =2000 to 10000 which is the common range of application.

References
[1] Hu S and Herold K. E. A Prandtl Number Effect on Offset Strip Fin Heat Exchanger Performance: Predictive Model for Heat Transfer
and Pressure Drop. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (1995) 38(6) 1043-1051
[2] Manglik and Bergles A. E. Heat Transfer and Pressure drop Correlations for Rectangular Offset Strip Fin Compact Heat Exchangers.
Experimental Fluid Science (1995) 10:171-180.
[3] Kays, W. M. and London A. L. Compact Heat Exchangers, McGraw-Hill, New York(1984)
[4] Joshi H. M. and Webb R. L. Heat Transfer and Friction in Offset Strip Fin Heat Exchanger, International Journal of Heat and Mass
Transfer. (1987) 30(1) 69-80.
[5] Wieting A. R. Empirical Correlations for Heat Transfer and Flow Friction Characteristics of Rectangular Offset-Fin Plate-Fin Heat
Exchangers ASME J. Heat Transfer (1975) 97 488-490
[6] Patankar S. V. and Prakash C. An Analysis of Plate Thickness on Laminar Heat Exchanger Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer (1981) 30(1) 69-
84
[7] Michna J. G., Jacobi A. M. and Burton L. R. Air Side Thermal- Hydraulic Performance of an Offset Strip Fin Array at Reynolds
Number up to 12 0000. Fifth International Conference on Enhanced Compact and Ultra Compact Heat Exchangers. Science,
Engineering and Technology (2005) 8-14
[8] Dong J., Chen J., Chen Z. and Zhou Y. Air Side Thermal hydraulic Performance of Offset Strip Fin Heat Exchangers Fin Aluminium
Heat Exchangers”. Applied Thermal Engineering (2007)27:306-313
[9] H. Bhowmik and Kwan-Soo. Analysis of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics in an Offset Strip Fin Heat Exchanger.
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (2009) 259-263
[10] Fangjun Hong & Ping Cheng. Three dimensional numerical analyses and optimization of offset strip-fin micro- channel heat sinks.
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer volume 36, (2009)651–656

831
 ICAER-2015

Study of degradation of quality of soyabean biodiesel with

storage time and its emissions on various loads
Sunil Kumara, S.K.Shuklaa,1
a
Centre for Energy and Resources Development, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, (Banaras Hindu
University), Varanasi, 221005, India.

Abstract

With many of its properties matching with that of the diesel oil and its possible applicability in the existing compression-
ignition engine, biodiesel production and commercialization has gained enough popularity. The main disadvantage of
biodiesel is its quality degradation with storage time which is mainly due to the rancidity that the biodiesel faces upon
storage. This paper investigates on the degradation of the burning characteristics namely: - calorific value and viscosity of
Soyabean methyl ester (SBME) over a storage period of 15 days; stored in polyethylene tank in a dark place. The emissions
of the biodiesel blended at different proportion with the conventional diesel oil were also observed for varying load and
compression ratios of the CI engine. A decreasing curve for the calorific value and an increasing curve for kinematic
viscosity were observed for the SBME sample at different storage period. The carbon monoxide decreases with increase in
load, while hydrocarbon almost constant in the emission. Nitrogen monoxide and carbon dioxide content increases with
increase in load to a particular point of maxima and then decreases with further increase in the load. The oxygen content
shows exactly the opposite behaviour with respect to carbon dioxide.
Keywords: Biodiesel; Transesterification; Viscosity; Calorific value; Compression ratio.

1. Introduction

With the increase in the population all across the globe, the need for the energy has increased and fossil fuels
like coal, petroleum etc. have still been the sole caterer of energy demand since time immemorial. Increase in the
demand leads to the increase in the rate of extraction of these fossil fuels, which are naturally originated and take
thousands of years to form, results in loss in the amount of these stored resources. This crisis in energy
availability and adverse environmental effects have led to the discussions and experiments among the research
enthusiasts from all over the world to find out the various renewable energy sources whose lifetime is limitless
and have very minimal effect on the environment. Storage of biodiesel is the main matter of concern along with
the production of the same. This leads to inevitable commercialisation problems. Vegetable oils and their esters
(biodiesel) undergo oxidation and degenerate more quickly than mineral diesel. Contact with ambient air,
exposure to sunlight, metals, and exposure to high temperature conditions accelerate the oxidation reactions
leading to lower oxidation stability of biodiesel [2].
Several studies have been done regarding the storage of the biodiesel and investigation of various types of
antioxidants on various flow properties and burning characteristics of different biodiesels with respect to the
storage time. The stability of the blend depends on both the contents and the factors affecting the stability of
biodiesel and petro diesel. Factors affecting the stability of petro diesel can also be determining factors for the
stability of the blend, such as the sulphur content, catalytically cracked compounds, etc [3]. Marta Serrano et.al
[4] used different anti-oxidants namely AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4, first three being the synthesised and the latter
being natural-based, in different biodiesel samples namely: - Soyabean methyl ester (SBME), rapeseed methyl
ester (RME), high oleic Sunflower oil (HOSME) and palm oil methyl ester (PME) and compared their oxidative
stability in terms of induction period prior to 6 months of storage time.
Siddharth Jain and M.P.Sharma [5] experimented on the various effects of metal contaminants and anti-
oxidants on the jatrophacarcus biodiesel with respect to the storage time. They investigated on the kinematic
viscosity, acid value and peroxide value of the biodiesel and measured it from time to time over 6 months.
Sarah.S.Damascenoet et al. [6] investigated the effect of anti-oxidants namely:- felluric acid (FA) , tert-buty
hydroquinone (TBHQ) and Caffeic Acid (CA) on the storage stability of the Soyabean biodiesel. According to
the induction period of the biodiesel added with the different aforesaid antioxidants separately, the order of
effectiveness of the antioxidants were found out to be:- CA>FA>TBHQ. Cherng-Yuan Lin et al. [7] investigated

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-542-6702825; fax: +91-542-2368428.

E-mail address:shuskla@gmail.com

832
on the burning characteristics of the biodiesel in the terms of flash point, cetane index and carbon residue with
the storage time and storage temperature. They concluded from this experiment that the oxidative stability of the
biodiesel decreases with increase in the storage temperature which leads to lowered flash point , lower cetane
index and higher carbon contained along with the degrade effects with the storage time alone.
Asir Obadiah et al. [8] investigated the effectiveness of different anti-oxidants namely:-
BHA,BHT,TBHQ,GA and PY on Pongamia pinnata (karanja) biodiesel at different proportion which ranged
from 500ppm to 3000 ppm and noticed that PY with 3000ppm concentration in the biodiesel sample showed the
best antioxidant characteristics by increasing the induction point of the biodiesel. Georgios Karavalakis et al.
[12] investigated on the storage stability of various biodiesel blends :-7,10,20% v/v with the commercial diesel
oil for a period of 10 weeks and their results revealed that antioxidants TBHQ,PG and PA were most effective
additives in the neat methyl esters and BHT and BHA were least effective. Vu H. Nguyen , Phuong X. Pham [9]
studied the relationship between the oxygen content and engine performance and also emission concentrations of
different biodiesel blends: - B0 (pure diesel oil), B10 and B20.They found that increase in the fuel oxygen
content decreased the High Heating Value (HHV) and the characteristic was almost proportional to the fuel
oxygen content, enhanced the Cetane Number (CN) of the fuel, decrement in indicated specific particle mass
(ISPM) and NOx concentration(for B10 but have an elevated value in B20 blend as compared to the fossil fuel
oil).
Abderrahim Bouaid et al. [10] studied the effects of long storage in different storage conditions on oxidation
stability of biodiesel extracted through transesterification process from high oleic sunflower oil (HOSO), high
and low erucic Brassica carinata oil (HEBO and LEBO) respectively and used frying oil (UFO). Therefore,
limited access of oxygen, prevention from exposure to light and moisture would ensure better storage results and
retention of quality of biodiesel for long storage duration. Zeyu Yang et al. [11] studied the chemical and mass
composition change of neat biodiesel samples sourced from Soyabean and canola oil in B5 and B20 blends with
commercial diesel oil at ambient temperature and air exposure for 190 days. Avinash Kumar Agarwal and
Deepak Khurana [2] investigated the effectiveness of five antioxidants viz. 2,6-di-tert butyl-4-methylphenol
(BHT), 2-tert butyl‐ 4-methoxy phenol (BHA), 2-tert butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), 1,2,3 tri-hydroxybenzene
(PY) and 3,4,5-tri hydroxybenzoic acid (PG) on the long-term storage oxidation stability of Karanja oil methyl
esters (KOME).
Amir Khalid et al. [12] investigated the effects of storage duration of variant blending biodiesel ratio under
different storage temperature on fuel properties and exhaust emissions. The storage time was for 60 days and
blending of biodiesel varied from B5 to B45 and storage temperature from 5 0C to 300C.Increase in storage time
influence fuel density resulting in increased biodiesel viscosity especially under high storage temperature
(3000C) and higher biodiesel blending ratio (B45). Also, high blending ratio exhibit small variant in CO
emissions, therefore, storage duration, blending ratio and the oxygenated fuel contents responsible for the
physical fuel properties is also the mechanism responsible for the decreased CO emissions. Among the
antioxidants investigated [3], i.e., BHT, BHA and TBHQ, lowering of NO emission has been is played by BHA
and TBHQ; but their high concentrations in the fuel blends increased the NO levels.
A lot of studies have been made in the determination of alteration in flow properties of the biodiesel with
respect to the storage period and storage condition but, not much on the change in the burning characteristics.
Therefore, this paper describes the study results of change in the burning characteristics like brake specific fuel
consumption (bsfc), emissions, flash point etc. along with viscosity as the flow property of Soyabean methyl
ester (SBME) biodiesel produced through transesterification process from edible Soyabean oil over a storage
period of 15 days; stored in polyethylene tank in dark room temperature condition.

2. Experiment

2.1. Experimental setup

The SBME is prepared from the parent edible Soyabean oil by the process of transesterification which is to
be carried out in the transesterification unit. Figure.1 shows the entire biodiesel production unit.
For the measurement of viscosity, Capillary flow viscometer is used (Fig.3). It works on the principle that
when a fluid flows through a tube or on any surface, it experiences shear stress at the boundary which hinders
the flow of fluid.

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 Fig. 1. Experimental setup for production of biodiesel through transesterification process installed in IIT (BHU).

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of experimental setup of biodiesel transesterification unit.

Name of parts (Fig.1, 2):

 1 = Caustic mixing tank
 2 = Reactor
 3 = Condenser
 4 = Receiver
 5 = Washing tank
 6 = Wash water holder
 7 = Centrifugal pump
 8 = Reciprocating pump
 9 = Storage tank

For the measurement of the calorific value of the sample oil, Bomb calorimeter (Fig.4) is used. A bomb
calorimeter is a type of constant-volume calorimeter used in measuring the heat of combustion of a particular
reaction. Electrical energy is used to ignite the fuel; as the fuel is burning, it will heat up the surrounding air,
which expands. The heat released upon combustion is conducted to the surrounding water and the rise in
temperature is noted and therefore, using energy balance equation, the calorific value of the sample is
determined

834
 a b

Fig.3. (a) Experimental setup of capillary flow viscometer installed in IIT (BHU); (b) Schematic representation of experimental setup of
capillary flow viscometer.
Name of parts Fig. 3:
 1 = Caustic mixing tank
 2 = Reactor
 3 = Condenser
 4 = Receiver
 5 = Washing tank
 6 = Wash water holder
 7 = Centrifugal pump
 8 = Reciprocating pump
 9 = Storage tank

a b c

Fig. 4. Experimental setup of bomb calorimeter installed in IIT (BHU); (a)Power supply and display unit; (b) Bomb Calorimeter Unit;
(c) Oxygen cylinder unit
Name of parts Fig. 4-(a):
 1 = Printer
 2 = Stirrer connection
 3 = Thermocouple connection
 4 = Power supply

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 Name of parts Fig. 4-(b):
 1 = Thermocouple
 2 = Stirrer
 3 = Tank (houses water and oil pressurized combustion chamber containing sample oil)
Name of parts Fig. 4-(c):
 1 = Oxygen Cylinder
 2 = Pressure regulator
 3 = Pressure indicator

The variable compression ratio engine consists of a changeable head, hydraulic dynamometer connected to
the crankshaft of the engine and sensors to measure the temperature of the inlet and outlet water. The control
panel consists of display of load and speed (in rpm), load control knob, electronic control unit (ECU), water
flow rotameter, oil reservoir and manometer. It also has the key way for electric start of the engine. The gas
chromatographer consists of a display unit for the display of different proportions of gas compositions and
sensors to measure the proportions.

a b c

Fig. 5. Experimental setup of Variable Compression Ratio engine installed in IIT (BHU); (a) VCR engine setup; (b) Research test setup-
Control panel; (c) Gas chromatographer setup.

Name of parts Fig. 5-(a):

 1 = Exhaust pipe
 2 = Flywheel housing
 3 = Dynamometer
 4 = Water pipelines
Name of parts Fig. 5-(b):
 1 = Reservoir
 2 = Oil level
 3 = Load application knob
 4 = Rotameter
 5 = Speed

2.2. Methodology

The biodiesel for the experiments was produced from the parent Soyabean oil by the process of
transesterification in the transesterification unit (Fig.1). The experimental conditions and outputs are described
in Table 1. The biodiesel produced was washed twice in the washing temperature and was heated for removal of
dissolved moisture and was, the, stored in polyethylene tank which was placed in a dark place for the entire
experiment steps. Fig.6 describes the procedure for the production of biodiesel from the parent oil. The viscosity

836
of SBME measured at different storage period is indicated in Table-2. For the measurement of calorific value,
bomb calorimeter setup (Fig.4) was used. The block diagram representation of the experimental procedure of
the measurement is given in (Fig. 7). Table 3 indicates the calorific values of SBME at different storage periods.

Fig. 6. Block diagram of methodology of production of Soyabean biodiesel (Soyabean Ethyl Ester)

Table 1. Experimental data of production of SBME

S.No Reactants/parameters/outputs Values/Name
01 Parent oil – volume Soyabean Oil – 5 litres
02 Alcohol – volume Methanol - 833ml
03 Alcohol : oil ratio 1:6
04 Catalyst – amount NaOH – 1% (w/v) of oil
05 Reaction temperature 75-80oC
06 Reaction time 1 hour 30 minutes
07 Settling time 28 hours
08 Biodiesel output 3.45 litres
09 Density of biodiesel 866 kgm-3

Fig. 7. Block diagram of methodology of measurement of kinematic viscosity of Soyabean biodiesel (SBME)

837
 Table 2. Kinematic viscosity of SBME at different storage period

S. No Day Room temperature in Dynamic viscosity (μ) Kinematic viscosity (ν)

(in pa s) (in mm2/s)
(0C)

01. 0 36.8 3.957 X 10-3 4.57

02. 4 34.5 0.03428 39.5
03. 8 34.8 0.040490 46.76
04. 10 34.4 0.04164 48.08
05. 14 35.1 0.08774 101.33

Fig. 8. Block diagram representation of methodology of measurement of calorific value of Soyabean biodiesel

Table 3. Calorific value of pure biodiesel at different storage period

S.No Day Calorific value in
(MJ/kg)
01 0 30.957
02 4 29.140
03 8 30.977
04 10 30.886
05 14 30.520

3. Results and discussion

With the increase in the storage time, the viscosity of SBME sample increases (Table 2). The reason of this
variation is owing to the formation of the peroxide and secondary products like ketones, aldehydes which is due
to the oxidation of sample [12]. The variation of the kinematic viscosity with the storage time is shown in (Fig.
9).

Fig. 9. Variation of kinematic viscosity with the storage time

838
 A marginal decrease in the calorific value of the sample of SBME was observed with the storage time in first
4 weeks but the value increases to a value greater than the initial reading (Table 3).The variation in calorific
value with storage time has shown in (Fig. 10). The general trend of variation of calorific value of biodiesel with
storage time is a decreasing curve. The increase in the calorific value at the end of 8 th day of storage is
accounted for error in the measurement from the bomb calorimeter equipment
Larger amounts of water, impurities, and polymers were produced during the storage time and the kinematic
viscosity and specific gravity increase with time. As a result, the amount of heat releases from the sample with
the storage time. Water produced in biodiesel through the per oxidation chain mechanism, following the
occurrence of oxidative instability and hence the amount of water in the samples increased with the extent of
oxidative instability. The amount of heat releases thus also decreases with storage time in the samples because
of the production of water during the per oxidation chain reaction [12].

Fig. 10. Variation of calorific value with storage time

Fig. 11 indicates that the variation of carbon monoxide with respect to various loads at different compression
ratios. It can be seen that the percentage of carbon monoxide in the emissions decreases with increase in the load
as well as compression ratio. The amount of carbon monoxide decreases even for the compression ratio 16:1
whose no load carbon monoxide emission percentage is less than that of 17:1 but with increase in load, the
percentage value carbon monoxide is more for the compression ratio 16:1 than that of 17:1. Fig. 12 indicates the
variation of hydrocarbon concentration with various loads at different compression ratios.
It is observed that there is not much variation in the percentage of hydrocarbon at higher loads and at lower
compression ratios. Fig.13 indicates that the variation of nitrogen monoxide concentration at various load
conditions and at different compression ratios. It can be seen that in each case of compression ratio, the
concentration of nitrogen monoxide increases with increase in load to a maximum point and then decreases with
further increase in load but the concentration of nitrogen monoxide decreases with decrease in the value of
compression ratio. Fig. 14 indicates that the variation of oxygen concentration in emission with various loads at
different compression ratios. It can be seen that for each compression ratio, the profile of variation of the oxygen
with increasing load, follows an upward parabola contour. It can also be seen that the oxygen concentration in
the emission is minimum for the compression ratio 17:1 and maximum for 15:1. In Fig.15, it can be seen that
the concentration of carbon dioxide in emission increases to a maximum value and then decreases with increase
in load irrespective of compression ratio. It can also be seen that maximum carbon dioxide is emitted at the
compression ratio 15:1 and minimum at 16:1. Fig. 16-25 shows the emission of B20 and B30 Soyabean
biodiesel blend with conventional diesel oil for various loads at different compression ratio.

839
Fig. 11. Variation of carbon monoxide emission with various loads at different compression ratios for
B10 soyabean biodiesel blend

Fig. 12. Variation of hydrocarbon emission with various loads at different compression ratios for B10
soyabean biodiesel blend

NO versus load
500
400
NO (in %vol)

300 18:01
200
17:01
100
0 16:01
0 5 10 15 15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig. 13. Variation of nitrogen monoxide emission with various loads at different compression ratios
for B10 Soyabean biodiesel blend

840
 Oxygen versus load
19

oxygen (in %vol)

18 18:01
17 17:01
16 16:01
0 5 10 15 15:01
Load(in kg)

Fig. 14. Variation of oxygen emission with various loads at different compression ratios for B10
Soyabean biodiesel blend

CO2 versus load

4
CO2 (in %vol)

3
18:01
2
1 17:01
0 16:01
0 5 10 15
15:01
load (in kg)

Fig. 15. Variation of carbon dioxide emission with various loads at different compression ratios for
B10 Soyabean biodiesel blend

CO versus load
0.3
0.25
0.2
18:01
0.15
CO (in %vol)

0.1 17:01
0.05
0 16:01

0 5 10 15 15:01

Load (in kg))

Fig. 16. Variation of carbon monoxide emission with various loads at different compression ratios
for B20 Soyabean biodiesel blend

841
 HC versus load
400
300
18:01
200

HC (in ppm)
100 17:01
0 16:01
0 5 10 15 15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig. 17. Variation of hydrocarbon emission with various loads at different compression
ratios for B20 Soyabean biodiesel blend

NO versus load
500
NO (in ppm)

400
300 18:01
200
17:01
100
0 16:01
0 5 10 15 15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig.18. Variation of nitrogen monoxide emission with various loads at different compression
ratios for B20 Soyabean biodiesel blend

CO2 versus load

4
CO2 (in %vol)

3
18:01
2
1 17:01
0 16:01
0 5 10 15 15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig. 19. Variation of carbon dioxide emission with various loads at different compression
ratios for B20 Soyabean biodiesel blend

842
 O2 versus load
19

O2 (in %vol)
18 18:01
17 17:01
16 16:01
0 5 10 15
15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig.20. Variation of oxygen emission with various loads at different compression ratios for
B20 Soyabean biodiesel blend

CO versus load
0.4
CO (in %vol)

0.3
18:01
0.2
0.1 17:01
0 16:01
0 5 10 15
15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig. 21. Variation of carbon dioxide emission with various loads at different compression
ratios for B30 Soyabean biodiesel blend

HC versus load
300
200 18:01
HC (in ppm)

100 17:01
0 16:01
0 10 20 15:01
Load (in kg)

Fig. 22. Variation of hydrocarbon emission with various loads at different compression ratios
for B30 Soyabean biodiesel blend

843
 NO versus load
500
400

NO (in ppm)
300 18:01
200
17:01
100
16:01
0
0 5 10 15 15:01

Load (in kg)

Fig. 23. Variation of nitrogen monoxide emission with various loads at different compression ratios
for B30 Soyabean biodiesel blend

CO2 versus load

3.5
3
CO2 (in %vol)

2.5
2 18:01
1.5
17:01
1
0.5 16:01
0 15:01
0 5 10 15
load (in kg)

Fig. 24. Variation of carbon dioxide emission with various loads at different compression ratios for
B30 Soyabean biodiesel blend

O2 versus load
19
18.5
O2 (in %vol)

18 18:01
17.5 17:01
17 16:01
16.5 15:01
0 5 10 15
Load (in kg)

Fig. 25. Variation of oxygen emission with various loads at different compression ratios for B30
Soyabean biodiesel blend

844
4. Conclusion

The following conclusions are drawn by conducting the mentioned experiments:

 The kinematic viscosity of the biodiesel increases with storage time. This is due to the formation of different
oxidized products including hydro peroxides and aldehydes, ketones etc.
 The calorific value of the biodiesel drops down at a slow rate for the observational intervals of 2-4 days.
Therefore, the storage time affects the calorific value of the biodiesel.
 The carbon monoxide content in the emission decreases with the increase in the load, while the hydrocarbon
content remains nearly constant. Nitrogen monoxide and carbon dioxide content increases with increase in
load to a particular point of maxima and the, decreases with further increase in the load. The oxygen content
shows exactly the opposite behaviour with respect to carbon dioxide. The nature of the emission curve for
B10, B20and B30 curve remains similar with respect to different loads at various compression ratios.

The following research works can be further done on this area:

 The measurement of flash point of biodiesel at different storage period can be done. Furthermore, the
emissions of the biodiesel blends at different storage periods can also be observed along with brake specific
fuel consumption at various loads and at various compression ratio.
 Mixture of different biodiesel can be made and blended with diesel and the emission quality can be checked
and performance graphs can be plotted and compared with that of conventional diesel oil and mono-diesel
blends.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the MHRD New Delhi for financial support under Centre for Energy and
Resources Development (CERD) to perform this study.

References

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[6] Sarah S. Damasceno, Nataly A. Santos, Ieda M.G. Santos, Antônia L. Souza, Antônio G. Souza, NeideQueiroz, Caffeic and ferulic acids:
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845
 ICAER-2015

A Review of Research and Policy on Using Different Biodiesel

oils as Fuel for C.I. Engine
Ajeet Kumara, Dr. S.K. Shuklab, Dr. J.V. Tierkeya,b,1
Centre for Enengy and Resources Development, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi-
221005, India

Abstract

The increasing demand of energy for rapid industrialization and domestic needs are putting an additional
pressure on existing conventional energy sources. These are already producing more hazardous emissions into
the environment than its prescribed limits. So we need some kind of energy source which must be easily
available, cost effective and most importantly it must be environmental friendly. Many researches worked on
this and found an alternate fuel i.e. biodiesel which can be produced from the various feed stocks. This may be
the best substitute for the conventional energy and having almost negligible effect on environment and also a
solution to one of the most challenging environmental issues. This paper analyses the various aspects such as
performance and emission of biodiesel. The main focus area of this review is to discuss the reduction of major
pollutants like carbon monoxide (CO), unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC), particulate matter (PM) and effect of fatty
acid composition on performance and emission characteristics. Biodiesel can be used as fuel without
modification in CI engine, it means biodiesel replaces the diesel fuel. The various results show that the different
chemical composition of biodiesel lead to the variation in performance and emission characteristics based on
their source of origin. The biodiesel obtained from saturated feedstock shows low emission of NOx and high
resistance to oxidation, however to improve the atomization further research and policy issues is required to
understand the complex relationship between biodiesel feedstock and its characteristics & use.
Keywords: Edible and non edible oil ; Biodiesel ; transesterification; engine performance and emissions

1. Introduction

The overwhelming demand for diesel and its scarcity due to exhaust use incites the researchers to look for an
alternative fuel which can replace or supplement the fossil fuels. Moreover there is a huge uncertainty in diesel
oil reserves. So it was required to have a more research on developing an alternate fuel source. The first time
peanut oil was used by Rudolf Diesel on August 10, 1893 in the engine designed by him [1]. Since then
vegetable oils were used as the substitute of diesel oil whenever needed as it was not having the good
characteristic as diesel oil. Around a century later first time the primary concerns like cost, effect on
performance of engine, durability and standardization of fuel production were discussed in International
conference on plant and vegetable oils as fuels, held in Fargo, North Dakota in August 1982[2]. Vegetable oils
have a great potential to fulfill the requirements of an alternative source of energy. Although it is in its primary
phase of development of efficient fuel for the diesel engine [3,4]. The main concerns with the vegetable oils are
low volatilities, inadequate cold flow properties and high viscosities. The various derivatives were produced
from the vegetable oils using various methods in response to improve the characteristic of vegetable oils. Fatty
acid methyl esters is one of the most important derivatives, also known as Biodiesel, obtained from triglycerides
through the trans-esterification process [5,6]. The word biodiesel was used for Fatty acid methyl esters for the
first time by national bio diesel board (earlier National Soy diesel Development Board) during 1992 in USA.
Biodiesel is better than that of petroleum diesel in terms of renewable, biodegradable, non-toxic, exhaust
emission, substantially free from sulfur and aromatics nature. Since biodiesel holds very similar characteristics
to petroleum diesel, so it can be mixed homogenously in any proportion. The exhaust emission of petroleum
diesel gets reduced when biodiesel is mixed with it, henceforth it can be considered as key to reduce the
pollutants level and probable carcinogens in petroleum diesel [7]. According to Ma et al. [8] Biodiesel has turn
into the centre of attraction due to its environmental and renewable benefits. The sunflower, rapeseed, coconut,
soybean, linseed, jatropha, caster, neem, mahua etc are used as crude for the production of Biodiesel [9].

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-542-6702825; fax: +91-542-2368428.

E-mail address:shuskla@gmail.com

846
Nomenclature

NOx nitrous oxides CO 2 carbon dioxide

CO carbon monoxides HC hydrocarbons
UHC unburn hydrocarbons THC total hydrocarbons
BSFC brake specific fuel consumption Vol% percentages of volume
CN cetane number CAD crank angle degree
FAC fatty acid composition FFA free fatty acid
FAME fatty acid methyl ester SOI start of injection
IMEP indicated mean effective pressure SOC start of combustion
PPM parts per million SVO straight vegetable oil
RPO Rapseed plant oil BTE brake thermal efficiency
HRRmax maximum heat release rate EGT exhaust gas temperature
B0 pure diesel B10 10% biodiesel
B20 20% biodiesel B30 30% biodiesel
B40 40% biodiesel B50 50% biodiesel
B100 100% biodiesel TG tri-glycerides
DDCL Diesel from direct coal liquefaction ME methyl esters

2. Production of biodiesel

The researchers have consistently trying to produce the vegetable oil derivatives which hold approximately
similar characteristics as conventional diesel fuels. Methyl alcohol is most frequently used however sometimes
ethyl alcohol is also used in the production of biodiesel. In general any primary secondary and tertiary alcohol
can be used only the constrained is that higher alcohol leads to higher cost. The fatty-acid ethyl esters (FAME)
produced from Methyl alcohol is more volatile than that of fatty-acid ethyl esters (FAEE). FAEE also shows
higher viscosity, lower cloud and pour points in comparison to FAME [10].Methyl alcohol is cheaper and more
reactive than ethyl alcohol. However in terms of toxic nature and renewable, ethyl alcohol shows good
characteristics. Presently major source of production of Methyl alcohol are non renewable fossils. A catalyst is
also required to speed up the production of biodiesel. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or potassium hydroxide
(KOH) is used as a base catalyst in this reaction. The main issues with the use of triglycerides as substitute for
conventional diesel fuel are higher viscosity, lower oxidation stability and lower volatility [11].These
characteristics can be improved though mainly four methods namely Direct use and blending, Micro-
emulsification Pyrolysis/Cracking and Transesterification.

2.1 Direct use and blending

First method is very simple. In this biodiesel and diesel fuel is mixed in a specified proportion and it can be
used directly in CI engine. The several experiments have been done successfully regarding the blending of
vegetable oil with conventional diesel fuel. In 1980 Caterpiller Brazil Company mixed 10% vegetable oil with
80% diesel oil and tested it for pre-combustion chamber engines. It was found that this blended fuel retained it’s
total power without modification in the engine [12]. Subsequently 95% cooking oil and 5% diesel was tested in
1982. Later on it has been proved that the 100% vegetable oil can also be used in engine with little
modifications. High viscosity was major problem with blended fuel while used in compression ignition engines.
The high viscosity can be improved by Micro-emulsification, pyrolysis and transesterification.

2.2 Micro-emulsification

In micro-emulsion process methanol, ethanol and butanol are used as solvent to reduce the high viscosity
problem of vegetable oil fuel. A micro emulsion is a colloidal equilibrium dispersion of optically isotropic fluid.
According to Ramadhas et al. / Ramadhas et al. / Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 727–742 , microstructures in
liquids have the dimensions ranges from 1 to150 nm. Both liquids are immiscible and at least one of them must
be ionic or non-ionic amphiphiles. It helps in improving the spray characteristics through explosive vaporization
of constituent in micelles.
The micro emulsions show maximum viscosity limitation when butanol, hexanol and octanol are used as a
solvent for CI engine. Czerwinski [13] produced an emulsions which consist 13.3% ethanol, 33.4% butonal and

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of 53% sunflower oil. It had cetane number of 25 and viscosity 6.3 centistokes at 40oC. It was also observed that
increasing the butanol percentage leads to better spray patterns and lower viscosities.

2.3 Pyrolysis/Cracking

Cracking can be defined as conversion of one substance into another by application of heat in presence of
catalyst. In this process heating is done in absence of air which leads to smaller molecules. The methyl esters of
fatty acids, vegetable oils, natural fatty acids and animal fats can be used as pyrolyzed substances. For more
than 100 years ago pyrolysis of fats was done where there was scarcity of petroleum [14]. After the World War I
various researchers have been trying to study the pyrolysis process to obtain the engine fuel from vegetable oil.

2.4 Trans-esterification

Transesterification can be defined as the reaction of vegetable oil and alcohol in presence of catalyst. The
reaction rate and yield gets improved with the use of catalyst[15]. It is also known as alcoholysis.
CH 2 OOCR CH 2 OH

Catalyst (NaOH /KOH )

CHOOCR + 3CH 3 OH ���������������� 3CH 3 OOR + CHOH

CH 2 OOCR (Methanol) (Methyl ester) CH 2 OH

(Vegetable oil) (Glycerol)

Fig. 1 Transesterification Reaction

Due to low cost, physical and chemical advantages methanol and ethanol are used in the tranesterification
process. These alcohols react quickly with tri-glycerides in presence of catalyst (NaOH). Generally 3:1 molar
ratio of oils and alcohol is used in transesterification process. Acid (H 2 SO 4 ) / Base (NaOH or KOH) / Enzymes
(Lipase) are used as the catalyst.
Out of these base catalyst gives the faster transesterification and hence it used commercially as well. Firstly
methanol (used as alcohal) and NaOH (used as catalyst) are mixed. After proper mixing it is transferred to
reactor. In reactor mixture of vegetable oil, methanol and NaOH are heated and kept at 65 oC for 1-1.5 hour. At
this temperature reaction takes place and alcohol starts vaporizing. This vaporized alcohol is separated through
condenser in tank. After the separation of alcohol this mixture is transferred to washing tank where it is mixed
by water. This mixture is kept for 24, 48, 72 hours depending upon the types of vegetable oil. After this
specified period three layers are formed namely at top Vegetable Oil methyl ester (Biodiesel), in middle
glycerin and at bottom waste water. Finally this biodiesel (Vegetable Oil Methyl ester) is transferred to storage
tank.

Fig. 2 Transesterification unit

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3. Performance and emissions of biodiesel from various feedstock

3.1 Non Edible Oils

3.1.1 Jatropha curcas

Jincheng Huang et al. [16] have conducted the experimental work on diesel engine using jatropha biodiesel
at two working condition at the engine speed of 1500 rpm (maximum torque point) and at engine speed of 2000
rpm (state of rated power). The thermal efficiency and engine performance for jatropha biodiesel, other
biodiesel and diesel fuel are comparable to each other. The BSFC (brake specific fuel consumption) for diesel
fuel is slightly lower than jatroha and other biodiesel. At engine high load the carbon monoxide (CO) and
hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from jatropha and others biodiesels are lower than that of diesel fuel and at low
loads comparable to each others. Mostly reduction in NOx emissions (specially at engine high loads) from
jatropha biodiesel than diesel fuel. At all load smoke emission from jartopha and other biodiesels are lower
than diesel.
T.Ganapathy et al.[17] studied the influence of injection timing on performance, emission and combustion
characteristics of a single-cylinder, four stroke, air cooled, vertical, Greaves Cotton model GL 400 II A, diesel
engine fuelled with jatropha biodiesel. For the advance injection timing BSFC, CO, HC and smoke levels
reduces and increases the BTE, Pmax, HRRmax, NO emission with Jatropha biodiesel as a fuel. But opposite
trends for retarded the injection timing .BSFC, peak pressure and NO are more with Jatropha biodiesel than that
of diesel at any given injection timing, load torque and speed, but reduction in BTE,HC,CO and smoke levels.
For the maximum BTE ,peak pressure, HRR max and minimum BSFC, CO, HC and smoke the best injection
timing is found to be 340 CAD(crank angle degree). However for minimum NO emission 350 CAD is an
optimum injection timing.

3.1.2 Castor oil

Osmano Souza Valente et al.[18] studied on fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of a diesel power
generator fuelled with castor biodiesel. Under variable (9.6 to 35.7 kW) engine load with blending
(5%,20%,35%) of castor oil and diesel oil tested on diesel power generator. With increasing the castor biodiesel
contents in fuel SPC (specific fuel consumption) increases. High CO 2 emission at low load and low at high load
with castor biodiesel fuel blends as compare to diesel oil.Generally for castor biodiesel blends shows higher HC
emission .At any load higher CO emission for castor biodiesel as compare to diesel.

3.1.3 Mahua oil

H. Raheman et al.[19] studied the Performance and emission evaluation of a single cylinder, four stroke,
water cooled Ricardo E6 engine fuelled with mahua biodiesel and its diesel blends. After conducted the test it
has found that the increasing the proportion of biodiesel in the blends BSFC increases and BTE decreases.
However for injection timing and compression ratio with increasing engine load a reverse trend was found.With
increasing the proportion of mahua biodiesel in the blends it was found that the smoke level and CO in exhaust
emissions reduced, whereas NOx increased.However for all tested fuels the emission levels increased with
increasing in engine load. Without noticeable affecting the engine performance (BSFC, BTE, EGT) and
emissions (Smoke, CO and NOx) pure mahua biodiesel (B100) could be safely blended with diesel up to 20%.
Swarup Kumar Nayak et al.[20] demonstrated that the performance and the exhaust gas emissions on four
stroke single cylinder vertical water cooled diesel engine fuel with mahua biodiesel and mahua biodiesel using
additive. The brake thermal efficiency increased with increasing additive proportion in mahua biodiesel.For
pure biodiesel it is lower. Because of high density, volatility and low heat content of biodiesel BSFC is higher,
but with increases the proportion of additive BSFC deceases. Because of high oxygen content and due to high
combustion temperatur ,highest EGT for biodiesel. It was founded that with increasing the percentage of
additives in biodiesel EGT decreases. Because of its higher oxygen content in biodiesel CO and HC emission
are lowest.It was concluded that CO and HC emission decreases with increasing the additive percentage in
Mahua biodiesel. Because of high viscosity ,volatility and low heat content, Smoke and NOx emissions are
higher as compare to pure diesel.It was founded that increasing the percentage of additives in mahua biodiesel
both smoke and NOx emissions decreases.

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3.1.4 Pongamia Pinaata / Karanja

S.Jaichandar et al. [21] studied the effect of varying the combustion chamber geometry (of four stroke water
cooled single cylinder diesel engine) on the performance of a diesel engine using 20% Pongamia Oil Methyl
Ester blends with pure diesel. Engine tests have been conducted with three types of combustion chambers
namely Hemispherical combustion chamber (HCC),Toroidal combustion chamber(TCC) and Shallow depth
combustion chamber (SCC) without changing the compression ratio.After conducted the experiment TCC
shows higher brake thermal efficiency as compare to other two types of combustion chamber(CC). For TCC
noticeable improvement in reduction of CO,UHC, and particulates as compare to the other two CC .Though
slightly higher oxides of nitrogen for TCC.
Atul Dhar and Avinash Kumar Agrawal[22] studied the effect of 20% karanja biodiesel blends on engine
wear in a Four stroke, in-line, naturally aspirated, water cooled, direct injection, compression ignition SUV
engine.High carbon deposits on engine components (cylinder head, injector tip and piston top) biodiesel for
fuelled engine. It was observed for biodiesel fuelled engine comparatively lower wear of pistons, piston rings,
liners, valves and small end bearing of connecting rods. For main bearings, big end of connecting rods, bearings
and crank pins was found to be higher wear. The endurance tests showed that the surface texture of cylinder
liners in acceptable condition with Karanja biodiesel blends and diesel. In spite of the higher carbon deposits
and increase the wear of vital engine components, any defect was not observed during the test of resistance in
the long run the engine with biodiesel.
Atul Dhar and Avinash Kumar Agrawal[23] studied the performance ,emissions and combustion
characteristics of a naturally aspirated, Four stroke in-line water cooled diesel engine fuelled with karanja
biodiesel,blend of karanja biodiesel (BD50,BD20,BD10 &BD05) with pure diesel and diesel fuel at different
speed and load. Lower blends have achieved higher maximum torque than diesel,while higher blends produced
less torque. BSFC for diesel and lower blends comparable to each other.For higher biodiesel blends BSFC
increased. At lower engine load for higher biodiesel blends have lower BTE and at higher engine loads BTE for
all blends is comparable to pure diesel. The reduction in CO emissions was comparable for biodiesel blends and
diesel at high speeds and loads.However higher CO for high biodiesel blends at lower loads.
HC emissions and Smoke opacity of biodiesel blends were lower as compare to pure diesel. At higher engine
loads higher biodiesel blends produces high NOx emission than pure diesel. At lower engine speeds for higher
blends low cylinder pressure observes. Due to higher bulk modulus of compressibility of biodiesel fuel-line
pressure of higher blends was slightly higher than pure diesel. The Combustion started earlier for lower blends
but slightly delayed for higher blends. Shorter combustion duration for low blends than pure diesel and higher
blends shows longer combustion duration.

3.1.5 Cannola oil

D.H. Qi et al.[24] demonstrated that the Performance and combustion characteristics of two cylinder four
stroke DI diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel-diesel methanol blend(BDM). The test results showed that the
combustion starts almost identical at high engine load but at low engine load combustion starts later for BDM5
and BDM10 than for BD50.BDM5 and BDM10 have shown the similar peak cylinder pressure at low engine
load of 1500 rpm and peak of pressure rise rate and peak of heat release rate higher than that of BD50. BDM5
and BDM10 showed the peak of pressure rise rate and peak cylinder pressure are lower than those of BD50 at
low engine load of 1800 rpm, but similar heat release rate. The crank angles at which the peak values occur are
earlier for BD50 than for BDM5 and BDM10. The peak of pressure rise rate, peak of heat release rate and the
peak cylinder pressure at higher engine load for BDM5 and BDM10 are higher than those of BD50, and almost
similar crank angle of peak value for all tested fuels.BDM5 and BDM10 have shown the slightly lower torque
and power outputs than BD50.Smoke emission dramatically reduces for BDM5 and BDM10.At speed
characteristic of full engine load NOx and HC are similar and CO emissions are slightly lower than those of
BD50.

3.2 Edible oils

3.2.1 Coconut oils

H.G. How et al.[25] studied the performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of coconut biodiesel
in a direct injection four stroke (turbocharged) high-pressure common-rail diesel engine, fuelled with coconut
biodiesel and its blend at various load. The results have shown that the biodiesel blended fuels increase the
BSFC and reduction in BSEC (brake specific energy consumption) at all engine loads. With increasing the

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proportion of biodiesel in blends and engine load BSCO (brake specific carbon monoxide) decreases. Smoke
emission decreases regardless of load condition for increasing the blends ratio. Generally BSNOx (brake
specific nitrogen nitrous oxide) emission increases with increasing in engine load and biodiesel blend ratio.
Large reduction in smoke opacity at engine load of 0.86 MPa with B50.Under all loading conditions a longer
combustion duration and slightly shorter ignition delay were found with biodiesel blends. Generally it was
found lower peak heat released rate for biodiesel blends than that of diesel.
M. Habibullah et al. [26] studied biodiesel production and performance evaluation of coconut, palm and their
combined blend with diesel in a single-cylinder diesel engine.The test results showed that the average engine
brake power respectively lower 3.92%, 4.71%, and 4.10% for (palm biodiesel)PB30, (coconut biodiesel)CB30,
and PB15CB15 and higher BSFC values (8.55–9.03%) than that of diesel fuel. Because of their lower HHV the
BTE values are much lower compare to diesel.BTE for PB15CB15 showed slightly higher than PB30 and
slightly lower BTE and BP compare to CB30 fuel.By contrast, BP slightly improved by 0.63% than that of
CB30 and slightly reduced by 0.20% than that of PB30. For all the biodiesel blends average NOx emissions are
higher than that of diesel. For CB30 and PB15CB15 the NOx emission slightly higher compare to PB30.
PB15CB15 showed slightly lower emission compare to CB30. High reduction in CO and HC for CB30 ,PB30
and PB15CB15 as compare to diesel.

3.2.2 Rapeseed oils

L. Labecki et al.[27] studied the Combustion and emission of Multi-cylinder turbo-charged DI diesel engine,
fuelled with Rapeseed plant oil, its blends and pure diesel oil.The tests showed that the soot emissions for
(Rapeseed plant oil) RSO and its blends are higher, however the NOx emissions lower than that of diesel. By
simultaneously retarded the injection timing up to 3o bTDC and increased the injection pressures up to 1200 bar
for blend of 30% RSO it was achieved equivalent levels of soot emission as diesel. Under the diesel equivalent
soot operating levels for 30% blend of RSO it was found that the reduction in NOx emission again by 22%.
With retarded injection timing and an increase in injection pressure for 30% RSO blend the exhaust soot particle
number concentrations reduces. For 30% RSO blend the exhaust soot particle number concentration were still
more as compare to diesel, even the equivalent level of soot emission was already achieved by diesel.
Hanbey Hazar et al. [28] studied the Performance and emission evaluation of a( Rainbow–186 diesel) single
cylinder direct injection diesel engine fueled with preheated raw rapeseed oil (RRO)–diesel blends. Preheated
raw rapeseed oil (RRO)–diesel blends have shown some positive effects on engine emissions and performance.
Smoke density reduces, NOx emissions increases and CO emissions reduces for all fuels, BSFC remarkably
reduces. The high viscosity of raw rapeseed oil (RRO)–diesel blends and vegetable oil can be reduced by
preheating.

3.2.3 Palm oil

Pedro Benjumea et al.[29] demonstrated the Effect of altitude and palm oil biodiesel fuelling on the
performance and combustion characteristics of a HSDI diesel engine. The results have shown that the increases
the altitude from 500 to 2400 m fuel consumption also increased. From test results it was found an additive
effect on the advance in injection and combustion timing for biodiesel fuelling and altitude as compare to diesel
fuel. The duration of the premixed combustion stage depending upon altitude and biodiesel, increases with
altitude and decreases with biodiesel. With increasing the height which leads to reduction in combustion
duration, increasing the cylinder pressure and air-fuel equivalence ratios while operating with biodiesel. With
increasing the altitude for both fuels Brake thermal efficiency decreased, but very high for B0. The increasing in
altitude the exergy destruction decreased with biodiesel.
M.J. Abedin et al.[30] studied the Performance, emissions, and heat losses of a four-cylinder diesel engine at
full load and in the speed range of 1000 to 4000 RPM, fuelled with palm, jatropha biodiesel blends and pure
diesel oil. For 10% and 20% blends of palm and jatropha biodiesel the brake power was decreased on average
2.3% to 10.7% respectively. BSFC for PB20 and JB20 blends were increased by 26.4%. The carbon monoxide
(CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were reduced by 30.7% and 25.8% respectively for B20. The NOx
emission was increased by 3% while fuelled with JB10 and JB20 blends, whereas it reduced by 3.3% while
fuelled with on PB10 and PB20 blends.

3.2.4 Soybean oil

Orkun Ozener et al.[31] studied the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a single
cylinder four stroke naturally aspirated air cooled direct injection diesel engine fuelled with soybean biodiesel

851
and B10, B20, B50 blends diesel oil. The test results have shown that reduces the premixed peak and ignition
delay while addition of biodiesel to diesel fuel .The biodiesel and its blends (up to B50) were comparable
Combustion, performance and emission to diesel fuel. Due to the lower heating value of biodiesel increased (2-
9%) in BSFC and decreased (1-4%) in torque. Reductions in the CO emission and unburned THC. Slightly
increased in NOx and CO2.
D.H. Qi et al.[32] have studied the combustion characteristics and performance of a single cylinder four
stroke direct injection diesel engine fueled with soybean biodiesel and diesel blends. Due to the lower heating
value of biodiesel BSFC increases with increased in proportion of biodiesel in the blends.At low engine loads
the BTE of biodiesel and its blends were slightly lower as compare to diesel, while at high engine loads keep
almost same. Due to oxygen content in biodiesel better combustion and increased the combustion chamber
temperature .Because of this higher NOx emissions, especially at high engine loads .There have little differences
in HC emissions between biodiesel, diesel and its blends. At high engine loads noticeable reduction in CO and
smoke emissions. For biodiesel and its blends combustion starts earlier as compare to diesel. Generally the peak
cylinder pressure of diesel is lower as compare to biodiesel and its blend, while almost same at high engine
loads. At low engine loads the peak heat release rate and peak pressure rise rate of biodiesel are higher as
compare to diesel, but inversely at high engine loads.

3.2.5. Mustard oil

Sanjid Ahmed et al.[33] studied the of biodiesel production, characterization, engine performance, emission
and noise of Brassica juncea methyl ester and its blends. The test results showed that the superior cloud point,
oxidation stability and calorific value (40.40 MJ/kg) for MB (Mustard oil) as compare to others biodiesel. The
blended (MB10 and MB20) mustard biodiesel have shown the lower (7-8%) brake power and higher (8-13%)
BSFC as compare to diesel.During engine emissions and noise tests it was found that the lower (19-40%) CO,
(24-42%) HC, (2-7%) noise and higher (9-12%) NO emissions for MB blends than that of diesel fuel. From
above it was found that MB10 and MB20 can be used as a fuel for diesel engine without modifications.

3.2.6 Sunflower oil

G. Antolın et al.[34] studied the Optimization of biodiesel production by sunflower oil transesterification.
The tests showed that the Methanol and catalyst quantity were gave the major influences. Due to large quantity
of methanol conversion of the TG and ME was maximum but slowed down separation of two phases during
production of biodiesel. The calorific value of biodiesel was lower (12%) than that of diesel fuel, but lesser (6%)
loss of energy. As compare to diesel sunflower biodiesel showed similar CO, HC, NOx and CO 2 emissions.
Cumali Ilkılıç et al.[35] studied the production of biodiesel from sunflower and its application to diesel
engine. Performance and emission tests were conducted on a single cylinder diesel engine to fuel with biodiesel
blends and diesel fuel. The test results showed that the reduction in performance for B5, B20 and B50 fuels
were 2.2%, 6.3% and 11.2% respectively than that of diesel fuel. These low reductions can be neutralizing by
increase in BSFC. For biodiesel blends B5, B20 and B50 increased in BSFC by 2.8%, 3.9% and 7.8%
respectively. Biodiesel showed that the slight reductions of PM and smoke emissions. NOx and HC emissions
increased and CO emissions decreased for biodiesel blends. But increases in HC emissions can be ignored
because it has very low amounts of all types of fuel test. It can be concluded that the use of biodiesel fuel
safflower has beneficial effects in terms of reducing emissions and alternative diesel oil.

3.2.7 Rice bran oil

Lin Lin et al.[36] studied the Biodiesel production from crude rice bran oil and properties as fuel. The engine
test showed slightly higher fuel consumption rate and similar power output for rice bran biodiesel as compare to
diesel fuel. NOx emission slightly increased, while CO, HC and PM emissions reduced as compare to diesel
fuel. The production of biodiesel from rice bran oil was more economical as compare to production from refined
vegetable oil.

3.3 Waste cooking oils

Jinlin Xue [37] studies the Combustion characteristics, engine performances and emissions of waste edible
oil biodiesel in diesel engine. With no or minor modification on diesel engine reduction in PM, HC and CO
emissions accompanying with minor loss of power, increase in consumption of fuel and NOx emissions than
that of diesel. And also the combustion characteristics such as heat release rate, peak pressure, rate of pressure

852
rise, and ignition delay for the WEO biodiesels showed slight differences as compare to diesel. Despite what
was taken from the conflicting conclusions on the CO 2 emission of WEO biological, it reduces to a large extent
from the point of view of the trading life cycle CO 2 . Although the WEO has similar engine performances,
combustion characteristics and emissions as compare to various biodiesels and blends of WEO biodiesel could
replace the standard diesel to help in controlling the air pollution. Also motivating the storage and reusing of
waste edible oil for production of biodiesel and relieve pressure on scarce resources, largely without greatly
sacrificing emissions, economy and the engine power.
G.R. Kannan et al.[38] studied the performance emission and combustion characteristics of single cylinder
water cooled direct injection diesel engine operated at a constant speed of 1500 rpm at different operating
conditions fuelled with biodiesel. For production of waste cooking palm oil biodiesel ferric chloride (FeCl3)
used as a fuel borne catalyst. 20 lmol/L dosage of metal based additive was added to biodiesel. Due to mixing
of fuel borne catalyst with biodiesel it was observed that the slight increment of brake thermal efficiency, BSFC
and BSEC at optimized operating condition. Also with addition of fuel borne catalyst slight increment in
emission of NO and CO 2 at optimized operating conditions .It can also seen that the significant reduction in
emission of CO,UHC and smoke emission. Due to addition of fuel borne catalyst with biodiesel showed the
higher cylinder gas pressure, heat release rate and shorter ignition at optimized operating conditions.

4. Effect of free fatty acids on properties of biodiesel

The fatty acid methyl or ethyl ester known as biodiesel, made from vegetable oils or animal fats. Hence, we
can say that the fatty acid ester contributing to the properties of the fuel. In this section, the discussion has been
carried out in connection with the fatty acid composition of the bio-diesel fuel properties. The structure of its
component fatty esters and the nature of its minor components are strongly affected the biodiesel properties like
ignition quality, cold flow, viscosity, and lubricity oxidative stability. While biodiesel using as a fuel in diesel
engine these properties are very critical. The cetane number ranges from 48 to 65 for different biodiesel derived
from various feed stock. The chemical structure, oil processing technology and climate condition of the area
where oil is collected are responsible for variation in cetane number [41]. Both composition of biodiesel and
oxidative aging have been affecting the cetane number. Depending on condition of oxidation, with oxidation
derived cetane number increases [42].Cetane number of biodiesels increases with increasing chain length and
decreases with increasing unsaturation. A high cetane number is obtained by one long straight chain. The cetane
number affected by alcohol while it used in production of biodiesel. Methyl or other straight chain alkyl esters
have competitive cetane number with branched esters [39,40,43]. Canakci et al. [44] have demonstrated that
saturated compounds (stearic acid, palmitic acid, myristic acid etc.) having high cetane number. Further due to
variation in temperature they tend to crystallize indefensibly. Due to the formation of low cetane number
compounds during pre-combustion Some fatty compounds (especially more unsaturated esters) have shown
lower cetane number [45]. The production of biodiesel from saturated oil (tallow and frying oil) having higher
cetane number. According to degree of unsaturation, the carbon/hydrogen ratio will be slightly difference for
biodiesel from different sources. Around 10–12% (by weight) oxygen contains in biodiesel which are
responsible for lower heat of combustion and reduced particulate emission as compare to diesel. The important
parameter of fuel is calorific value or heat of combustion which shows the amount of heat liberated by the fuel
within engine.Moreover, the energy in the chemical signals. Calorific value, which determines the energy value
of the fuel is important property [46].Generally with increases in chain length heat of combustion increases. The
major problems during the use of biodiesel as a fuel for engine is cold flow properties such as cloud points and
pour points. The variation in feed stock influences the cold flow properties of biodiesel and strongly affected by
level of saturation of fat [47].Unsaturated esters act as solvents because of their very low melting point while
saturated ester dissolved in it. Consequently, with decreasing temperature, unsaturated fatty compounds in a
crystallize mixture at lower than saturated fatty compound [48].That is why, a noticeable amounts of saturated
fatty compounds presents in biodiesels shows higher pour point and cloud point. Highly saturated oil such as
coconut, palm and Animal fats have higher cetane number, higher cloud point. Viscosity, volatility, flow ability
and filterability are affected by the presence of solid crystals in the biodiesel. Moreover, branched chain alcohol
ester improves cold flow properties [49]. Viscosity and density of biodiesel and diesel fuel are the two main
fuel quality standards. Pratas et al. [50] have measured the viscosities and densities at atmospheric pressure and
temperatures (0oC to 90oC) for eight methyl esters and seven ethyl esters. The results indicate that the viscosity
decreases with level of unsaturation and increases with ester chain length for all ester. For equivalent fatty acid
composition methyl ester shown the lower viscosity than ethyl esters. The nature and number of double bonds
achingly affected kinematic viscosity of unsaturated fatty compounds, although effect of double bond is not
much .Significantly higher viscosity of compounds with hydroxyl groups or free fatty acid [51]. Biodiesel have
higher viscosity and spray penetration than that of diesel. The higher viscosity of biodiesel prevents the breaking

853
of the spray jet, consequently the size of the spray droplets increases. Due to increasing the size of the spray
droplets momentum increases and hence decreases resistance preventing penetration [52]. Injection system, the
pump and the nozzles properly adjusted to provide the proper amount of fuel for combustion as fuel density is
remarkable properties [53].In spite of higher density of biodiesel, the energy content is lower than that of diesel.
As a result of that more fuel injected and hence increases in fuel consumption for biodiesel in order to gain the
same power [42]. The level of unsaturation is measure by the iodine number of fuel [56].Due to increase in level
of unsaturation increase in number of double bonds and therefore increase in iodine number [55].Biodiesel has
oxidative stability problems due to the presence of polyunsaturated fatty esters [54]. CN of DDCL can be
effectively improved with 1 vol% addition of fatty acids. Various ester like methyl myristate (C14:0M), methyl
palmitate (C16:0M), methyl stearate (C18:0M),ethyl stearate (C18:0E), and methyl oleate (C18:1M) can
increased the CN of DDCL from 44 to 45. And also various factor like chain length, unsaturation, and esters
generated by different alcohols can improved the CN. In such a way that clearly visible improvement in cetane
number when increases the length of carbon chain. On the contrary, increases the unsaturation of fatty acid
esters less effect on cetane number [57]. At lower blend (below 5%) fatty acid profile did not affect the cold
flow properties. The high percentage of long chain (C16 and above) saturated FAME can affect the cold flow
properties[58]. D.H. Qi et. al.[59] have worked on soybean biodiesel and evaluated high percentage of biodiesel
in the blends shows high cloud point, cold filter plugging point and acid value. And also with increases the
content of biodiesel calculated cetane index decreases slightly. Due to complex nature of vegetable oils and fats
very difficult to correlate the properties of biodiesel with fatty acid profile. Palm oil, animal fats, coconut oil etc.
comprise insignificant unsaturated fatty acids, lower molecular weight fatty acids and high very degree of
saturation .As a results of that the ester have higher viscosity, calorific value and high cloud point. Opposite of
this, Rapeseed, safflower etc. have insignificant saturated fatty acid and lower cloud point, with very high
percentage of unsaturated fatty acids.

5. Conclusion

Researchers in various countries carried out many experimental works using vegetable oils as I.C. engine fuel
substitutes. These results showed that thermal efficiency was comparable to that of diesel with small amounts of
power loss while using vegetable oils. The particulate emissions of vegetable oils are higher than that of diesel
fuel with a reduction in NOx. Vegetable oil methyl esters gave performance and emission characteristics
comparable to that of diesel. Hence, they may be considered as diesel fuel substitutes. Raw vegetable oil can be
used as fuel in diesel engines with some minor modifications. The use of vegetable oils as I.C. engine fuels can
play a vital role in helping the developed world to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels. Since
biodiesel holds the most promising features like renewability, sustainability, and lesser impact on environment
so it it can play a vital role in transport sectors in forthcoming years. It possesses the all properties of diesel with
added advantages. The performance and emission characteristics of biodiesel obtained from different feedstock,
affect the performance of CI engine. A relation established for nature of feedstock, performance and emission
characteristics of biodiesel enable us to produce more efficient fuel. Apart from this other factor which
influences the properties of biodiesel such as free fatty acid composition of vegetable oils and fats. Higher
saturated esters have higher cetane number, lower density and lower iodine number in comparison to
unsaturated esters. The low carbon chain compound has higher density and higher carbon chain compound has
lower density. The viscosity and cold flow property of unsaturated biodiesel is better than saturated, however it
shows low oxidation stability. Biodiesel obtained from saturated feedstock produces less NOx and also more
resistive to oxidation. It is highly viscous in nature so exhibit poor atomization. Lower carbon saturated esters
produces more NOx than higher carbon saturated esters. So slightly on compromising the performance
characteristics of biodiesel the animal fat may be the better solution to reduce the NOx emission.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the MHRD New Delhi for financial support under Centre for Energy and
Resources Development (CERD) to perform this study.

854
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856
 ICAER-2015

Silicon Micro-Nanopillars as Solar Tracker for Thin Crystalline

Photovoltaic Application
ArijitBardhan Roya,Arup Dhara, Mrinmoyee Choudhurib,Sonali Dasa,Pritam Banerjeea,
Avra Kundu*a
a
Centre of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems(CEGESS), Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology(IIEST),
Shibpur,711103, India
b
Department of ECE, Dr. Sudhir Chandra Sur Degree Engineering College, Dumdum,700074, India

Abstract

Silicon micro-nanopillars are fascinating structures which can increase the light trapping phenomenon in solar photovoltaic
applications. In this work focus is kept on reducing the reflection for wider ranges of incidence angle. By implementing this wide
angle light collection phenomenon the conventional solar tracking system can be replaced which is currently being used to
enhance the overall efficiency of the solar photovoltaic system. Further as the solar tracker is having rotating parts it needs
regular maintenance which makes them expensive and even prone to hazardous weather conditions. If a similar performance as
that of a solar tracker system can be achieved without using conventional mechanical tracking system then cost per watt can be
significantly reduced. Here we demonstrate that by using silicon micro-nanopillars we can achieve similar performance reduced
reflection at wide variations of incidence angle. Simulations have been carried out to optimize the geometry in COMSOL
MULTIPHYSICS, where TE (Transverse Electric) and TM (Transverse Magnetic) polarized light are made incident over the
geometry and reflection is observed at different angle of incidence. A simple technique of using silica nanoparticles as the
masking layer in the gold assisted chemical etching process has been proposed for fabrication of silicon micro-nanopillars. A
reduced reflection of ~5% over a spectral range of 300-1100 nm is obtained by the micro-nanopillars over silicon substrate.
Keywords: Wide angle lightcollection, solar tracking system, Micro Nano pillars.

1. Introduction

A solar tracker is basically a device on to which solar panels are fitted which tracks the motion of the sun across
the sky ensuring that the maximum amount of sunlight strikes the panels throughout the day. It is observed that at
37.6 degrees latitude 32.5% more energy is obtained from the PV panels which tracks the sun. Sun tracking can
increase the power output for PV solar power plants by about 25% to 40%, depending on the geographic location. A
single axis tracker will increase power output by 26%, while a dual axis tracker increases power by 32% [1]. Single
axis trackers follow the sun from east to west, while two axis trackers also track the sun altitude (up/down). Since the
sun moves across the sky throughout the day, in order to receive the best angle of exposure to sunlight for collection
of energy, a tracking system is often incorporated into the solar arrays to keep the array facing towards the sun. So
for this reason solar tracking method is very well established and popular method to increase the power output of PV
solar power plants. But it is not so cost effective and also complicated mechanical processes are involved in this
method for efficient tracking of the sun. It consists of many rotating parts which need regular maintenance and are
even prone to hazardous environments.
It is important to point out here that the primary scaling factor in photovoltaics is the thickness of the absorber
layer [2]. As the absorber thickness goes on decreasing so will its light trapping capability. Therefore it is very
important to make the physically thin layer optically thick. Tapered Silicon nanostructures [3] have gained
significant research attention due to their light trapping ability but we will demonstrate that on properly choosing the
dimensions of the nanostructures it is possible to overcome the morning, evening and winter light losses in a solar
cell. The reflection characteristics have been studied at various incidence angles and it is observed that the reflection
remains low for wide angular variation of incidence angles. The geometry has been fabricated with the help of
nanosphere lithography and MacEtch technique.

857
2. Simulation and Optimization

Simulations have been done on COMSOL Multiphysics to evaluate the Electric fields and Reflection of the
geometry [3]. Fig 1 shows the geometry in which a Silicon micro nanopillar has a height ‘h’ and a base of‘d’. The
geometry drawn is a unit cell structure and without losing generality the periodic boundary conditions are used
which make the geometry continuous in x and y axis. Two ports have been used to obtain the results, one of which is
placed at a certain height above the structure and another at the bottom of the geometry. Scattering parameters (S-
parameters) in terms of electric field have been defined in the wavelength region of 300-1100nm. Incident light with
Transverse Electric (TE) and Transverse Magnetic (TM) polarizations have been considered.
We investigate a tapered nanopillar of different Aspect Ratio (AR) which is the ratio of ‘h’ and‘d’. We take
different aspect ratios keeping the width of the base 200 and 800 nm and observe the integrated reflectance response
in different angle of incidence of light [Fig2]. It is seen that for very high values of AR the reflectance becomes
almost independent of the base width. However, for small values of AR the reflection losses are significantly
dependent on the base of the nanopillar and therefore the absolute height. Therefore the actual value of the ‘third
dimension’ is very much important for the wide angle light collection. However, it is very important to point out
here that structures having a very high value of absolute height will also offer higher surface area to volume ratio
and will therefore be detrimental for the performance of the solar cell due to enhanced charged carrier recombination
at the surfaces. It is seen that for base widths of ~200nm and AR of 4 a total integrated reflection loss of ~5% is
obtained. It is interesting to note the unique dimensions of the device as the base radius is 200nm and the height is
1µm giving them a unique nomenclature of micro-nano structures.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the optimized geometry

858
 0.35 200 nm base
800 nm base
0.30

0.25

Reflectance
0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
AR

Fig. 2. Reflectance response of 200 nm and 800 nm base silicon nanopillar

Figure 3 shows the reflection characteristics of a 200nm base tapered pillar with an AR of 4. It is seen that the
reflection values remain quite low for very high angles of incident light as compared to that of bare silicon [Figure
4].

60

50

40
Reflection (%)

30 0 degree angle of incidence

20 degree angle of incidence
40 degree angle of incidence
20 60 degree angle of incidence
80 degree angle of incidence

10

0
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100
Wavelength (nm)

Fig3. Reflection characteristics of a 200nm base tapered pillar with an AR of 4

859
 100
90
80
Reflection (%) 70
60
50
40
30
0 degree angle of incidence
20 20 degree angle of incidence
40 degree angle of incidence
10 60 degree angle of incidence
80 degree angle of incidence
0
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100
Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 4. Reflection characteristics of a bare silicon

3. Fabrication of Optimized Structure

The nanopillars of the optimized geometry are fabricated on thin (~20µm) crystalline silicon wafers obtained by a
patent pending process. Thereafter the micro-nano pillars are formed by nanosphere lithography and MacEtch
technique as described in [3]. Figure 4 shows the FESEM image of the fabricated micro-nanopillar. The base width
is approximately 200nm with a height of 1µm. The tapering of the pillar is obtained by carefully controlling the
reaction parameters. The slight orthogonal movement of the gold nanoparticles leads to the tapering of the micro-
nanopillars. To have an overall idea on the optical behavior of the system in a real solar cell configuration a back
reflector is evaporated on the thin crystalline wafers. It is seen that the reflection is in the range of ~5% till 850nm
demonstrating not only its immense capability of reducing reflection at wide angles but also suppressing back
reflection from the metal interface [Figure 5]. It is mainly due to the combined effect of the scattering within the
micro-nanopillar and the substrate housing the same which leads to such advanced light trapping capabilities [3].
The reflection from a bare silicon wafer is also superimposed on the figure.
The authors would like to point out here that the reflection measurements at wide angle of incidence are from a
structure having a diffractive/refractive/reflective is immensely difficult. It may be done by the means of a sample
being placed inside an integrating sphere and rotating the substrate holder with respect to the incident light. The
fabrication of the measurement system is presently being actively pursued by the authors.

860
 Fig. 5.SEM image of fabricated silicon micro nanopillar

60
55 Bare Silicon Surface
Nanopillar embedded Silicon Surface
50
45
40
Reflectance (%)

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100
Wavelength (nm)

Fig6. Reflectance comparison between Bare and nanopillar embedded silicon surface

861
 4. Conclusion

It is seen that optimally designed micro-nano pillars can not only provide ultra-low reflection but also provide
wide angle light collection. Such geometries will therefore enable a thin crystalline solar cell to overcome the
morning, evening and winter light losses. The optimized geometry has been fabricated and it is seen that very low
values of reflection are obtained even when the 20µm thin silicon wafer is coated with a back reflector. This work
demonstrates tremendous potential of micro-nano structures for solar cell applications.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge all members of CEGESS. The work is supported by Department of
Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India.

References

[1]Tian Pau Chang, Applied Energy. 86 (2009) 2071–2078.

[2]Sonali Das, Avra Kundu, Hiranmay Saha, Swapan K. Datta (2015) Investigating the Potential of Nanoplasmonics for Efficiency Enhancement
of Wafer Based Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Plasmonics DOI 10.1007/s11468-015-0009-0.
[3]Avra Kundu, Sonali Das , S. M. Hossain , Swapan K. Datta , Hiranmay Saha. (2014), Energy Procedia, 54 ( 2014 ) 389 – 399.
[4] Comsol Multiphysics, www.comsol.co.in.

862
 ICAER-2015

Metamaterial Mirror as Back Reflector for Thin Silicon Solar Cell

Application

Arup Dhara+,Mrinmoyee Choudhurib+,Arijit BardhanRoya, Pritam Banerjeea, Avra

Kundua*
a
Centre of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems (CEGESS), Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST),
Shibpur,711103 India
b
Department of ECE, Dr.Sudhir Chandra Sur Degree Engineering College, Dumdum,700074 India
+
Equal contribution
*
Corresponding Author. E-mail: kunduavra@gmail.com

Abstract

Metamaterial mirrors as back reflector is an innovative design for light trapping phenomenon in thin silicon solar cells. An
optimized design for achieving maximum reflection in such metamaterial mirror is presented in this paper. In conventional
metallic mirrors when light is reflected a phase reversal occurs and thus the intensity is reduced at the reflective surface. This
effect is highly undesirable in thin solar cell applications where metal is used both as an electrical contact and an optical mirror.
A mirror whose reflection phase can be varied from a perfect electric mirror (conventional metallic mirror) to that of a perfect
magnetic mirror can be used to overcome this challenge in thin silicon solar cells. In a magnetic mirror no phase reversal of the
incident electromagnetic wave occurs resulting in maximum electric field enhancement at the mirror surface. Such magnetic
mirrors are classified as metamaterial mirrors. Simulations have been done with ComsolMultiphysics to obtain electric field and
reflection for both TE (Transverse Electric) and TM (Transverse Magnetic) polarized light to obtain the optimized geometry. The
generation rate and phase conservation has been observed from simulation when magnetic mirror is placed at the back of silicon
substrate. The enhancement in the electric field is significantly increased which will lead to an enhanced absorption in the thin
solar absorber resulting in high efficiencies.

Keywords:Metamaterial mirror, phase reversal, magnetic mirror, electric mirror, solar cell

863
1. Introduction

In optoelectronic devices, mirrors are essential components which are used as back reflectors in variety of
devices. A major drawback of such metallic mirrors is that phase reversal of the incident electromagnetic wave
occurs when light is reflected with a standing wave with reduced intensity near the reflective surface. The electric
field strength in the region within a quarter wavelength of the metal is significantly lowered [1]. The problem can be
overcome by using a different type of mirror which has highest electric field right at its surface by flipping the
magnetic field of an incident wave rather than electric field upon reflection. Such type of mirror is called magnetic
mirror [2]. To optimize the light matter interaction in a device, spatial distribution of electric field in the active layer
is not sufficient and it is required to maximize the overall intensity. Metal films as back reflectors manipulate both
field distribution and the optical resonance by controlling the reflection phase of the incident wave. It is important to
point out here that the primary scaling factor in photovoltaics is the thickness of the absorber layer [3]. When a
conventional metallic mirror is used as a back reflector/ contact, the reduction in thickness of silicon solar cell is
limited by the fact that metallic mirror reverses the phase of the incident light and reduces the intensity near the
reflecting surface and hence a thicker solar absorber is needed to absorb sufficient light. It has been shown how
metamaterial mirrors can be tuned for any desired reflection phase. A thoughtful solution is to therefore to choose
the geometry in such way so that maximum field enhancement can be achieved. In this paper investigate the
performance of metamaterial mirrors made of different materials and geometry for ultra- thin solar cell applications.

1.1 Structure and Simulation

The geometry of the magnetic mirror as a back reflector for a silicon absorber is shown in figure 1. ‘w’ is
width of the unit cell, ‘s’ is the height of the silicon substrate with mirror from horizontal plane, ‘b’ is height of the
base metal, ‘a’ is the height of the air above the silicon substrate and ‘g’ is the groove depth in the metal surface.
Simulation of the geometry is done with ComsolMultiphysics[4] to optimize the material and groove depth of the
metamaterial mirror. Two polarized lights have been made incident on the geometry, one is TE (Transverse Electric)
and another is TM (Transverse Magnetic). Two ports have been given, one at the air and another at the bottom of the
geometry. For simulations in the solar spectrum it is necessary to define the scattering parameters (S-parameters) in
terms of electric field [5].

Fig1. Geometry of the proposed structure

864
1.2 Optimization of reflector material

The choice of the rear reflector metal is very critical to achieve the best reflection characteristics from the
mirror surface for solar cell applications. Mirrors are inherently lossy in the solar spectrum region of 300-1100nm
due to the imaginary portion of the refractive index of the metal. Here we compare the reflection characteristics of
three (3) different materials viz. gold, silver and aluminium which are commonly used as contacts for solar cell
applications. To start with, the simulations have been done neglecting the silicon absorber to better understand the
performance of the mirror. The simulations have been carried out at a wavelength of 550nm where the photon flux
of the solar spectrum is the highest. The groove depth is being varied from 10nm to 190nm and illuminated with
both Transverse Electric (TE) andTransverse Magnetic (TM). Figure 2 shows the total reflection characteristics from
the mirror surface as a function of the groove depth in the metal surface. One may note here that for small heights
the groove the metal surface will resemble that of a conventional electric mirror. It is seen that the gold surface has
the minimum reflection (maximum losses) and the silver surface has the maximum reflection (minimum losses).
More importantly it is seen that the reflection characteristics can be varied as a function of the groove height to
either have a perfect reflector (for solar applications) or a lossy reflector (for sensing applications). Further, the
grooves will also lead to efficient coupling of the incident planewave to the gap surface plasmon polariton (SPP)
modes supportedby the grooves and funnelling of light into the grooves. As our paper will focus on the use of the
metal as back reflector in solar cells, parasitic losses would be detrimental for the solar cell performance and hence
we have focussed our subsequent studies using silver as the metal material.

Fig2. Reflection characteristics vs. grove depth for different metals at a wavelength of 550nm

2. Results

The reflection profile of silver magnetic mirror is observed in detail for both TE and TM polarization along
with the total reflection in figure 3. For a groove depth of 70nm the parasitic losses in the metal is seen to be highest
(lowest) while for larger and smaller groove depths the parasitic losses are lower (higher values of reflection).
Highest losses in the metal arise due to the electromagnetic field enhancement in the metal. Thus if we place an
active absorber close to such a grooved mirror the electromagnetic field enhancement would lead to increased
absorption in the absorber thickness (silicon in our case). But, it is very important to note that the absorption in the
ultra-thin absorbing layer should be more than that obtained with a conventional mirror and the parasitic loses in the
metal should not dominate over the increased absorption due to field enhancement.

865
 Fig3. Reflection profile of magnetic mirror with TE incident wave at various groove depth

To understand the electromagnetic field distribution at the mirror surface it is important to understand the
behaviour of the reflected wave. The complex reflection coefficient for a light reflected from a surface is given by:

Zs − ηm
= e iφ
r r0= ....(1)
Zs + ηm

Where r 0 and φ are the reflection amplitude and phase, η m is the characteristic impedance of the incident medium,
and Z S is the surface impedance of the reflector surface. As we can see from the equation lower value of Z S will
lead to complete phase reversal i.e. φ=π. But by judicious patterning the surface impedance and the reflection phase
from the metal surface can be tailored. Due to groove array structure current has to follow convoluted path, thus the
surface impedance can be increased. The impedance Z S can be accurately controlled by varying groove dimension
resulting negligible phase reversal [1]. To study the effect of grove depth on the performance of the silver mirror the
simulations are again performed without the active silicon absorber.
From fig 4 it can be seen that when light (Transverse Electric /Transverse Magnetic) is incident on a planar
silver mirror, it results in suppressed electric field. A similar field is observed in fig 4(b) with periodic groove array
(depth=80nm) when TE polarized light is incident over the geometry. But result dramatically changes when the
grooved mirror is illuminated with TM polarized light shown in fig 4(c). A maximum field enhancement can be
observed around the surface of the grooves.

866
Fig4.Normal Electric Field (V/m) at wavelength 550nm for (a) Planar metallic (Silver) mirror illuminated by TE and
TM polarized light (TE and TM response for planar surface is same) (b) Grooved mirror illuminated by a TE
polarized light (c) Grooved mirror illuminated by a TM polarized light

Further, it can be clearly seen from fig 5 that the normal electric field at 80nm groove depth is highest as
compared to shallower groove depth (40nm) and deeper groove depth (120nm). This also collaborates with the
reduction in reflection due to increased absorption in the metal itself. Thus one can easily tune the properties of
magnetic/metamaterial mirror by varying the groove depth from a perfect electric mirror to a perfect magnetic
mirror.

Fig5. Normal electric field (V/m) for magnetic mirror at (a) 40nm groove depth (b) 80nm groove depth (c) 120nm
groove depth when illuminated with TM polarized light

Simulations are now being performed using silicon substrate (200nm thin)having both plane metallic mirror
and magnetic mirroras the rear reflector with both TE and TM polarized light. Simulation results are shown for
higher wavelength regions as for an ultra-thin absorber it is essential to make it optically thick for larger
wavelengths. Fig6 and Fig7 shows the normal electric field of both metallic and magnetic mirror at wavelength of

867
700nm and 900nm where magnetic mirror enhances the electric field value to a noticeable extent for both the
wavelength.

Fig6. Normal Electric field profile (V/m) at 700nm wavelength for(a) Plane metallic mirror (b) Magnetic mirror
with TE polarized light (c) Magnetic mirror with TM polarised light.

Fig7. Normal Electric field profile (V/m) at 900nm wavelength for (a) Plane metallic mirror (b) Magnetic mirror
with TE polarized light (c) Magnetic mirror with TM polarised light.

From Fig 8, it can be observed clearly that the electric field near the surface of the mirror in case of
magnetic mirror is considerably high as compared to that of a plane metallic mirror at both the wavelengths of
700nm and 900nm. Moreover the phase change phenomenon in case of plane metallic mirror can be seen by the
nature of the normal electric field plot which is comparable to sine function whereas magnetic mirror plot is
comparable with cosine function. The enhancement in the electric field is due to the addition of electric field
occurring in magnetic mirror as it reflects the electric field in same phase while flipping the magnetic field.

868
 (a) (b)

Fig8. Electric field profile of a plane metallic mirror and a magnetic mirror placed at the back of silicon substrate at
wavelengths of (a) 700nm (b) 900nm.

Further, with the use of magnetic mirror generation rate is seen also seen to enhance proportionally which
will finally result in an increased efficiency of thin silicon solar cells. Generation rate is a function of wavelength
and power flow within the geometry. Figure 9 shows the generation within the silicon substrate having a thickness
of 200nm for a wavelength of 550nm. It is seen that the parasitic losses in the metal are indeed negated by the
increased absorption by the silicon layer due to the confinement of the electromagnetic filed in the vicinity of the
reflecting surface.

2.0x1032
Generation rate of magnetic mirror
Generation rate of plane mirror
Generation rate (1/(m^3*s)

1.5x1032

1.0x1032

5.0x1031

0.0
0 100 200 300
Arc length (nm)

Fig9. Generation rate of plane metallic mirror and magnetic mirror placed at the back of silicon substrate.

869
3. Conclusion

In this work the potential of magnetic mirrors for ultra-thin silicon solar cell (200nm and lower) has been
shown by simulation. The key geometric metrics like the groove depth and period are taken up from parametric
optimization. From the paper it can be concluded that magnetic mirror preserves the electric field and thus
enhancement can be seen at the surface of the mirror. It is been shown on how absorption within an ultra-thin silicon
layer can be increased with the help of such mirrors.

4. Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement of all members of CEGESS. Arijit Bardhan
Roy would like to acknowledge Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for financial
support.

5. References

[1] MajidEsfandyarpour,ErikC.Garnett,YiCui,MichaelD.McGehee, Mark L.Brongersma (2014)Metamaterial mirrors

for optoelectronic devicesNature Nanotechnology, DOI:10.1038/NNANO.2014.117.
[2] Schwanecke, A. S. et al. (2007) Optical magnetic mirrors, J. Opt. A Pure Appl, Opt.9, L1–L2 (2007).
[3] Sonali Das, Avra Kundu, Hiranmay Saha, Swapan K. Datta (2015)Investigating the Potential of
Nanoplasmonics for Efficiency Enhancement of Wafer Based Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Plasmonics
DOI 10.1007/s11468-015-0009-0.
[4] www.comsol.co.in
[5] Yang Liu , Yitung Chen , Jichun Li , Tzu-chen Hung , Jianping Li. (2012) Study of energy absorption on solar cell using
metamaterials, Solar Energy, 86 (2012) 1586–1599.

870
 ICAER-2015

Thermodynamic Analysis of Two Stage Metal Hydride Based

Hydrogen Compressor
Vinod Kumar Sharma, E. Anil Kumar*
Discipline of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore-453446, India

Abstract

A pair of high pressure metal hydrides La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 H x and La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 H x were used for the thermodynamic analysis of
two stage metal hydride based hydrogen compressor (MHHC). The PCIs of these metal hydrides were measured at different
temperatures and thermodynamic properties were estimated using van’t Hoff plots. Later, the performance of MHHC was
determined based on the driving pressure differential, and the rate of hydrogen transfer between coupled metal hydride beds
using PCIs and thermodynamic property data. In addition, the actual variation in pressure difference during hydrogen
transfer processes of MHHC was studied by plotting thermodynamic cycle with pressure variations.
Keywords:metal hydride based hydrogen compressor; pressure concentration isotherms; thermodynamic property; pressure differential

1. Introduction

Environmental concerns in recent years have led researcher’s interest towards the thermodynamic systems
based on environmental friendly working fluids. Metal hydrides can be successfully employed as working
materials in many thermodynamic devices, where hydrogen is a working fluid, which significantly contribute
towards environmentally clean energy technology [1]. LaNi 5 based metal hydrides are widely used for
‘hydrogen storage’ and ‘non-hydrogen storage’ applications due to their favourable PCI properties near
atmospheric conditions. The non-hydrogen storage applications include metal hydride based thermodynamic
devices such as heat transformers, heat pumps, hydrogen compressors and cooling systems, which can operate
using low-grade energy such as solar heat, industrial waste heat, geothermal heat, etc.

Nomenclature

C alloy Specific heat of alloy; kJ/kg K

CR Specific heat of reactor material; kJ/kg K
ΔH Reaction enthalpy; kJ/mol
m alloy Mass of alloy; g
m H2 Mass of hydrogen; g
n Moles of hydrogen; mol
pd Discharge pressure of gas; kN/m2
Ps Supply pressure of gas; kN/m2
Q Total heat supplied; kJ
R Characteristic gas constant; kJ/kmol K of H 2
T Absolute temperature; K
W Isentropic compression work; kJ
Subscripts:
abs Absorption
d Discharge
des Desorption
R Reactor
s Supply

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 7324 240730; fax: +91 7324 240761.
E-mail address:anil@iiti.ac.in

871
 Several experimental and theoretical studies on performance evaluation of various thermodynamic devices,
using metal hydride properties, are available in literature [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15, 16]. Recently, series
of Ce substituted La 1-x Ce x Ni 5 x = 0 - 0.5 hydrides were used to study the performance of multi stage hydrogen
compressor. The obtained compression ratio was 21 [17]. In 2014, a broad review on metal hydride based
hydrogen compressors [18] was published. They have discussed different single stage and multi stage hydrogen
compressors and also reported the procedure for selection of alloys pairs as well as the possible ways for
improving system performance. Thus, the study of literature revealed that several studies on thermodynamic
performance of metal hydride based hydrogen compressors were conducted whereas only few attempts were
made to study the effect of metal hydride properties on the performance of metal hydride based hydrogen
compressor. In view of this, metal hydride based hydrogen compressor was thermodynamically analysed using
PCI and thermodynamic property data. In the present study, metal hydride pair of La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 and
La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 hydrides was used for the development of metal hydride based hydrogen compressor.

2. Details of experimental setup and reactor

The details of experimental setup, procedure and data reduction for PCI measurements were given in the
author’s previous article [8]. The setup consists of pipelines for gas flow, which were fabricated using ¼-inch
seamless stainless steel tubes, high pressure bellow sealed valves at different locations to control gas flow and
stainless steel calibrated cylinders for storage of hydrogen gas. Piezoresistive pressure transducers with an
operating range of 0-100 bar were used to measure the pressures. A thermostatic bath with an operating
temperature range of 5 to 200°C (stability: ±0.01°C) with water as working fluid for 5-80ºC and thermal bath
fluid (Polydimethyl Siloxan, boiling point above 315ºC) as working fluid for 80-200ºC was used to maintain
isothermal conditions in the reactor. ‘K’-type thermocouples with an accuracy of ±0.1°C and a time constant of
0.2 s were used to measure the temperature of hydrogen gas at different locations in the experimental setup and
reaction bed. Hydrogen gas of 99.99% purity was used for PCI measurements, and argon of 99.99% purity was
used for volume measurement and in leak tests of the entire experimental setup. A vacuum pump was used to
evacuate the system to a final pressure of 5 ×10-3 mbar, and a digital Pirani gauge with an accuracy of ±0.5%
was used to measure the vacuum level. For the measurement of PCIs, a perfectly sealed reactor was fabricated.
The reactor was fabricated with a SS-316 tube with an inner diameter of 12 mm and wall thickness of 2 mm.
The details of reactor were given in authors’ previous article [8]. The gas pressure and temperature at different
locations in the system were recorded continuously using a data acquisition system. All the volumes in the
experimental setup were accurately calculated during fabrication of the experimental setup.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Metal hydride based hydrogen compressor

A thermally driven hydrogen compressor can be constructed without mechanical moving parts using metal
hydride beds. The systematic dependence of absorption and desorption pressures on temperature facilitates the
absorption of hydrogen at low pressure and low temperature, and desorption of hydrogen at high pressure and
high temperature. In 2013, Odysseos et al. [17] reported that by using series of La 1-x Ce x Ni 5 (x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4
and 0.5) hydrides, hydrogen can be compressed from 2 bar to 42 bar using cold (20°C) and hot (80°C) water. A
conceptual illustration of thermally driven metal hydride based two stage hydrogen compressor is shown in Fig.
1. The advantages of metal hydride based hydrogen compressor are utilisation of low grade energy, absence of
mechanical moving parts and discharge of high pure hydrogen. The metal hydride properties required for
hydrogen compressor are good resistance to impurities, fast reaction kinetics and cyclic stability.
Fig. 2 shows the PCIs of the metal hydrides used for thermodynamic analysis of MHHC, the metal hydride
pair is La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 – La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 with the operating temperatures T l = 20°C (low pressure side temperature)
and T h = 80°C (high pressure side temperature). Fig. 3 shows the ideal thermodynamic cycle for the metal
hydride based hydrogen compressor. Formation of metal hydride takes place at lower pressure (P s ), where MH1
absorbs hydrogen at T l , during this process a certain amount of heat releases at lower temperature (T l ). Then,
MH1 bed is heated to higher temperature (T h ), where the MH1desorbs hydrogen which is absorbed by the MH2
bed at T l . Now the metal hydride (MH2) which is charged with hydrogen is heated to higher temperature (T h ),
where the system is ready to deliver hydrogen at high pressure. During endothermic decomposition of metal
hydride takes place at higher pressure (P d ) where a certain amount of heat is supplied at T h to maintain the
desorption process. By sensible cooling of metal hydride beds, the system is ready for absorption of hydrogen at
Tl.

872
 100
Th=80 C
MH-1

10
MH-2 Chiller/

Pressure (bar)
L
P Heater Tl=20 C

T 1
Absorption
Desorption

H La0.9Ce0.1Ni5
La0.8Ce0.2Ni5
P
0.1
T 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Storage Capacity (wt%)

Fig. 1 Scheme of Two-stage hydrogen compressor Fig. 2 PCIs of metal hydrides chosen for hydrogen compressor

3.2. Thermodynamic analysis of metal hydride based hydrogen compressor

In the present study hydrogen gas is compressed in two stages first by La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 and then by
La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 in series. The lower temperature for hydrogen supply was taken as 20°C and the higher
temperature for hydrogen delivery was 80°C. Generally, van’t Hoff plots for thermodynamic analysis are
constructed using mid-plateau pressures of the metal hydrides employed. However, due to the existence of
plateau slope in actual PCIs of metal hydrides, the thermodynamic cycle using mid-plateau pressures does not
represent the actual pressure difference between the metal hydride beds. Therefore, to understand the actual
variation of pressure difference between the metal hydride beds, the construction of actual thermodynamic cycle
showing variation of the pressure difference between metal hydride beds is required.

Pd 4 1-2 and 3-3' La0.9Ce0.1Ni5

D Th D +Q 4-4' and 5-5' La0.8Ce0.2Ni5
Q h'
Pd 2
+Q
B Th 4'
lnPe

C Tl B C
P (bar) Qh
2'
Pe Ql'
3'
-Q Tl -Q ∆Pmax
Ps
A A 1'
Absorption
Ql
wt%rev Desorption
3
Hydrogen Transfer
Heat Flow
Sensible Heating
a Hydrogen Storage Capacity (wt%) b Th 1/T Tl Ps Sensible Cooling 1

Th=80°C Tl=20°C
1/T

Fig. 3 Ideal thermodynamic cycle for two-stage MHHC Fig. 4 Actual thermodynamic cycle for two stage MHHC

Figure 4 shows the actual thermodynamic cycles for the MHHC constructed using PCI data. The actual
thermodynamic cycle was constructed using the pressures of the metal hydrides with respect to start (α→α+β)
and end (α+β→β) of the plateau regions of PCIs of chosen metal hydrides at required temperatures. The process
starts at point 1, where hydrogen is supplied to La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 at 20°C. Due to supply of hydrogen the pressure of
La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 hydride bed increases as its state changes from 1 to 1′. During this process, Q l amount of heat is
rejected at lower temperature (20°C). Thereafter, La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 bed is sensibly heated from 20°C (point 1′) to
80°C (point 2). During second stage of compression, the maximum available pressure difference between the
metal hydride beds is ΔP max . Due to this large pressure difference the rate and amount of hydrogen transfer
between metal hydride beds is high. The initial conditions of La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 and La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 hydride beds are 2
and 3 respectively and hydrogen transfer takes place from La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 bed (point 2) to La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 bed
(point 3). During this process, the pressure of La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 hydride bed decreases as its state changes from 2 to
2′, while the pressure of La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 hydride bed increases as its state changes from 3 to 3′. During this
process, the pressure difference between the coupled metal hydride beds gradually decreases with hydrogen
transfer and the process stops when both metal hydride beds reach equilibrium pressures P e as shown in Fig. 4.
During this process, the Q h amount of heat is supplied to La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 hydride at 80°C, whereas Q l ′ amount of
heat is rejected by La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 hydride to 20°C. Thereafter, La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 bed is sensibly heated from 20°C
(point 3′) to 80°C (point 4). At 80°C, La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 hydride delivers hydrogen at required high pressure as its

873
state changes from 4 to 4′. Thereafter, La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 and La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 hydride beds are sensibly cooled from
80°C (point 4′ and 2′) to 20°C (point 3 and 1). The system is ready for new compression process.
The thermodynamic performance of metal hydride based hydrogen compressor can be calculated using
following equations.
The isentropic compression work is given by

γ −1
γ  R   Pd  γ 
W m T     − 1 (1)
γ − 1 H 2 abs  M H 2   Ps 
 

The total heat supplied is given by

n∆H des + ( malloy Calloy + mR CR ) (Tdes − Tabs ) 

Q= (2)

The compression efficiency is given by:

Isentropic compression work W

ηc = (3)
Heat input to compressor Q

The thermodynamic performance of metal hydride based hydrogen compressor was calculated using
thermodynamic relations and using PCI and thermodynamic data. The calculated isentropic compression work
(W), heat supplied (Q) and compression efficiency (η c ) are 39.8 kJ, 316.16 kJ and 12.6% respectively.

4. Conclusions

Based on this study, the following observations are made:

• Using series of La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 and La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 , hydrogen can be compressed from 4.5 bar to 75 bar at
supply temperature of 20°C and discharge temperature of 80°C.
• Driving pressure differential showed significant affects on rate and amount of hydrogen transfer.
• Two-stage MHHC based on La 0.9 Ce 0.1 Ni 5 and La 0.8 Ce 0.2 Ni 5 exhibits compression ratio and efficiency
of 15 with 12.6% respectively.

References

[1] A. Satheesh, P. Muthukumar, A. Dewan, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy . 34 (2009) 3164-3172.
[2] S. S. Ahmed, S. Srinivasa Murthy, Renewable Energy. 29: 615-631.
[3] A. Satheesh, P. Muthukumar, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 35 (2010) 6950-6958.
[4] B. S. Sekhar, S. P. Pailwan, P. Muthukumar, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 38 (2010) 7178-7187.
[5] S. Mazumdar, M. Ram Gopal, S. Bhattacharyya, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 30 (2005) 631-641.
[6] M. Ram Gopal, S. Srinivasa Murthy, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 20 (1995) 911-917.
[7] M. Ram Gopal, S. Srinivasa Murthy, International Journal of Refrigeration. 18 (1995) 413-420.
[8] Vinod Kumar Sharma, E. Anil Kumar, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 39 (2014) 5888-5898.
[9] Vinod Kumar Sharma, E. Anil Kumar, Intermetallics. 57 (2015) 60-67.
[10] Vinod Kumar Sharma, E. Anil Kumar, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 39 (2014)19156-8.
[11] Vinod Kumar Sharma, E. Anil Kumar, M. P. Maiya, S. Srinivasa Murthy, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 39 (2014) 18940-
18951.
[12] Vinod Kumar Sharma, E. Anil Kumar, S. Srinivasa Murth, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 40 (2015) 1108-1115.
[13] M. Balakumar, S. Srinivasa Murthy, M. V. K. Murthy, M. V. C. Shastri, Heat Recovery Systems. 5 (1985) 527-534.
[14] E. Willers, M. Groll, International Journal of Refrigeration. 22 (1999) 47-58.
[15] E. Willers, M. Groll, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 24 (1999) 269-276.
[16] D. W. Sun, Applied Energy. 54 (1996) 29-47.
[17] M. Odysseos, P. D. Rango, C. N. Christodoulou, E. K. Hlil, T. Steriotis, G. Karagiorgis, G. Charalambopoulou, T. Papapanagiotou, A.
Ampoumogli, V. Psycharis, E. Koultoukis, D. Fruchart, A. Stubos, Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 580 (2013) S268-S270.
[18] M. V. Lototsky, V. A. Yartys, B. G. Pollet, R. C. Bowman Jr., International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 39 (2014) 5818-5851.

874
 ICAER-2015

Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer Analysis of an Adiabatic

Dehumidifier – Unique Approach
B. Kiran Naika, Ankit Sonia, Amit kumara, P.Muthukumara1, C. Somayajia
a
Deparment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institue of technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India

Abstract

Liquid desiccant dehumidifier is one of the most desirable systems for dehumidification of air when compared to
conventional refrigeration system and solid desiccant based dehumidifier. In the present study, a finite difference model is
developed to simulate the coupled heat and mass transfer processes occur in a counter flow adiabatic dehumidifier
employing lithium chloride (LiCl) as a desiccant solution. Mat-lab R13 is used as a simulation package for solving the
aforementioned model. This model has taken into the consideration of thermal effectiveness, effective height and moisture
effectiveness as variable parameters for obtaining the correlation of the desired operating parameters. The predicted
numerical parameters for absorption process have good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature. This
model unique and can be extended to any type of liquid desiccant solution by changing the solution properties. The
performance analysis of adiabatic counter flow dehumidifier is also carried out by varying the operating parameters and the
detailed results are presented in the full manuscript.

Keywords: Desiccant, dehumidification, heat and mass transfer, moisture effectiveness, condensation rate

1. Introduction

In the traditional vapour compression or vapour absorption refrigeration system, process air is dehumidified
by cooling below its dew point temperature and then reheating to the desired comfort temperature (required
indoor conditions). This method is more energy consuming and is limited to lower cooling load capacity. The
best and economical way of dehumidification is by means of liquid desiccant solution. This method is very
popular due to its capability of removing latent load thereby minimizing the energy demand. Dehumidifier is one
of the important component of a liquid desiccant air conditioning system in which the concentrated solution is
diluted. The schematic of heat and mass transfer process that occurs across the dehumidifier is shown in Fig. 1.
Initially, the concentrated solution is sprayed from the top of the packed tower and air (high RH) is circulated
from bottom of the tower (in a counter flow direction). When the process air comes in contact with concentrated
solution, desorption of moisture present in the process air occurs. During this process, latent heat is released due
to condensation of water vapor to solution side and chemical heat is released due to exothermic reaction (water
vapor absorption by desiccant solution). Therefore remarkable rise in temperature of both air and desiccant
solution takes place.

Nomenclature

at specific surface area per unit volume (m2/ m3)

cp specific heat at constant pressure (kJ/kg-K)
G specific mass flow rate (kg/m2-s)
h specific enthalpy (kJ/kg)
T temperature (°C)
z height of the tower (m)

Greek letters

β concentration of the desiccant by mass (%)

γ solution to air flow rate ratio

* Corresponding Author. Tel.: (+91) 361-2582673; Fax: (+91) 361-2690762.

E-mail address: pmkumar@iitg.ernet.in

875
ξ effectiveness
λ condensation rate (kg/m2-s)
δ latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg)
ω air specific humidity ratio (kg v /kg da )
∝m mass transfer coefficient (kg/m2-s)
∝h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-K)

Subscripts

a air
e equilibrium
i inlet
m moisture
o outlet
s liquid desiccant solution
T thermal
v water vapour

Fig. 1. Energy and mass balance across the dehumidifier.

During absorption (dehumidification) process, heat and mass interactions occur between the air and the liquid
desiccant solution. The driving force for heat transfer is due to temperature difference whereas for mass transfer
is their vapour pressure difference [1]. The complicity of heat and mass transfer dealt way back from 1969 and
Treybal [2] was the first person to describe the heat and mass transfer process occurred during dehumidification
process by proposing a simple mathematical model. From then, many researchers have developed various
mathematical models for predicting the coupled heat and mass transfer characteristics occurred during
dehumidification process using finite difference model [3-5], ɛ-NTU model [6-7] and simplified models [8-9].
Fumo and Goswami [3], Babakhani et al. [4] and Liu et al. [5] compared their analytical solution with the
experimental data and concluded that their models were valid only with some reasonable assumptions.
Gandhidasan [8] introduced the dimensionless parameters such as moisture and thermal effectiveness and
formulated the condensation rate in terms of heat exchanger effectiveness, mass flow rate of air and thermal
effectiveness. The proposed model has been compared with the experimental findings and found that the
prediction matched within 10.5% with the experimental data. Chung et al. [10] developed a model for obtaining
dimensionless heat and mass transfer correlations for both structured and random packing’s. They found that the

876
heat transfer coefficients were stronger function of the air flow rate than the solution flow rate. Also, increasing
the desiccant concentration reduces the heat transfer coefficients.
Many researchers developed the finite difference model for predicting the coupled heat and mass transfer
characteristics of an adiabatic dehumidifier [2-5]. The uniqueness of the proposed model is the development of a
correlation between the heat transfer coefficient and thermal effectiveness as well as for mass transfer coefficient
and moisture removal effectiveness. No one has correlated the moisture effectiveness and thermal effectiveness
with the height of the dehumidifier which defines the performance as well as desired design conditions of a
dehumidifier. Also, using these correlations one can predict the exit parameters with known operating conditions
very precisely.

2. Heat and mass transfer analysis of liquid desiccant dehumidifier

A schematic of a counter flow heat and mass transfer processes occurred between air and desiccant solution is
represented in Fig.1.
To simplify the analysis, the following assumptions are made;
• dehumidification process is adiabatic
• change in mass flow rate of air is negligible
• properties of desiccant solution and ambient air is assumed to be constant with respect to the temperature
• the moisture condensation rate is negligible compared to flow rates of fluid
• heat and mass transfer interaction at the interface area are equal to the specific area of packing.

2.1 Air side

The enthalpy on air side is given by

C p ,aTa + ω (C p ,vTa + δ )
ha = (1)

On differentiation Eq. 1

(C p ,a + ωC p ,v )dTa + d ω (C p ,vTa + δ )
dha = (2)

Energy balance across the air side flow is written as

Ga ( ha + dha ) − Ga h=
a α h at (Ts − Ta )dZ + Ga d ω ( C p ,vTa + δ ) (3)

Combining Eqs. (2) & (3), the air temperature gradient is obtained as

dTa α h at (Ts − Ta )
=
dZ Ga (C pa + ωC pv ) (4)

Eq. 4 can be integrated as

Ta ,o z
dTa −α h at
∫
Ta ,i
=∫
(Ta − Ts ) 0 Ga (C pa + ωC pv )
dZ (5)

After integrating Eq. 5, final equation can be obtained as

(Ta ,i − Ta ,o )  −α h at z 
= 1 − exp   (6)

(Ta ,i − Ts ,i )  Ga (C pa + ωC pv ) 

The most common performance measures for evaluating the dehumidifier potential to dehumidify the ambient
air are thermal and moisture effectiveness.

2.1.1 Thermal effectiveness

877
A dimensionless parameter given by Gandhidasan [8] in terms of outlet air temperature and inlet temperatures
of ambient air and solution is

(Ta ,i − Ta ,o )
ξT = (7)
(Ta ,i − Ts ,i )

From Eqs.6 & 7, the thermal effectiveness (ξ T ) in terms of heat transfer coefficient (α h ), height (h) and flow rate
of air is formulated as

 −α h at z 
ξT = 1 − exp 
 G (C + ωC ) 
(8)
 a pa pv 

2.1.2 Heat transfer coefficient

From Eq.8, heat transfer coefficient in terms of thermal effectiveness and height is introduced as

Ga (c p ,a + ωC p ,v )  1 
αh = ln   (9)
at z  1 − ξT 

2.1.3 Mass balance for air side

The mass transfer rate across the interface is equal to the change in humidity ratio and the equation is written as

Ga d ω α m at (ωe − ω )dZ
= (10)

Eq. 10 is integrated as
ωa ,o z
dω α a
∫
ωa ,i
= ∫ m t dZ
(ωe − ω ) 0 Ga
(11)

After integrating Eq.11, final equation can be obtained as

(ωi − ωo )  −α m at z 
= 1 − exp   (12)
(ωi − ωe )  Ga 

2.1.4 Moisture effectiveness

The moisture effectiveness based on specific humidity difference across the dehumidifier is given as follows [8]

(ωi − ωo )
ξm = (13)
(ωi − ωe )

From Eqs. 12 & 13 the moisture effectiveness (ξ m ) in terms of mass transfer coefficient (α m ), height (h), specific
surface area of packing (a t ) and flow rate of air (G a ) is formulated as

 −α m at z 
ξ m = 1 − exp   (14)
 Ga 

2.1.5 Mass transfer coefficient

From Eq.14, mass transfer coefficient in terms of moisture effectiveness and height is introduced as

Ga  1 
αm = ln  
at z  1 − ξm  (15)

878
2.2 Solution side

Energy balance across the solution side flow is written as

(Gs + dGs )( hs + dhs ) − Gs h=

s
α h at (Ta − Ts ) dZ − Ga d ω (C p , vTa + δ ) (16)

The enthalpy on the solution side is given by

dhs = C p , s dTs (17)

2.2.1 Condensation rate

The rate of water vapour condensed (absorbed) from the ambient air to the solution side is referred as
condensation rate (λ) and is given by

d λ = −Ga d ω (18)

The change in the solution side flow rate is equal to the rate of water vapour condensed from the ambient air, it
is written as

dGs = d λ (19)

By combining Eqs. (16), (17) & (19) the solution side temperature gradient is obtained as

where γ = Gs
dTs 1  dT dω
(20)
dZ
=
− (C + ωC p ,v ) a −
γ C p , s  p ,a dz dZ
( C p ,sTs − (C p ,vTa + δ ) )  Ga


2.2.2 Mass balance for solution side

Since the mass of the desiccant is constant during the desorption process, the mass balance across the solution
side is written as

Gs ,i β i = Gs ,o β o (21)

The rate of water vapour condensed from the ambient air is transferred to the desiccant solution by a process
known as absorption. Simply, the condensation rate represents the amount by which the desiccant solution
diluted. So, Eq. 21 can be formulated as

Gs ,i β i =(Gs ,i + Ga (ωi − ωo )) β o (22)

From Eq.22, the solution concentration at the outlet in terms of inlet flow rate, solution concentration and
condensation rate is given by

 
 1  (23)
βo =   βi
 1 +  Ga (ωi − ωo ) 
  
Gs ,i  
 

3. Validation of model

In order to use the developed mathematical model, with confidence, a proper validation is essential. A
comparison is made between the predicted values calculated from the developed mathematical model and
experimental values presented by the Chung and Gosh [10]. During the experimental studies, a packed column
of height 0.41m with the specific area of 223 m2/m3 was considered. Table 1 lists the inlet parameters considered
for validating the developed model [10] and a comparison of typical experimental data for 16 cases [10] with the
results obtained from the present study is presented in Table 2. With reference to the results presented in Table 2,
it is found that the predicted results obtained from the present model match well with the experimental data
reported by Chung and Gosh [10] for the desiccant solution outlet temperature and concentration, the ambient

879
air outlet temperature and humidity ratio and the water condensation rate. In all the cases, the present
mathematical model predict the air outlet temperature and specific humidity ratio and the desiccant solution
outlet temperature slightly less than the experimental values less than 5 %. Since, Chung and Gosh [10] didn’t
report the results of desiccant outlet concentration and the mass flow rate, in this paper, the details about the
same have been provided using the developed model (Table 2).

Table 1 Inlet parameters that are used for validating the developed mathematical model [10]

ṁ a,i T a,i ωi ṁ s,i T s,i βi

(kg/s) (°C) (kg wv /kg da ) (kg/s) (°C) (% by mass)
0.0231 21.8 0.0112 0.3071 16.8 31
0.026 21.6 0.0111 0.3071 16.6 31
0.0289 20.4 0.0115 0.3071 16.4 31
0.0318 21 0.0117 0.3071 17 31
0.0318 24.1 0.0149 0.1919 16.9 31
0.0318 23.4 0.0147 0.2303 17.5 31
0.0318 23.3 0.0147 0.2687 17.7 31
0.0318 24.1 0.0147 0.3071 17.1 31
0.0231 23.3 0.0127 0.3071 19.5 37
0.026 22.9 0.0126 0.3071 18.9 37
0.0289 20.9 0.0101 0.3071 19.4 37
0.0318 20.8 0.0105 0.3071 19.1 37
0.0318 21.1 0.0103 0.1919 17.6 38
0.0318 20.9 0.0103 0.2303 17.5 38
0.0318 20.8 0.0103 0.2687 17.5 38
0.0318 20.7 0.0103 0.3071 17.7 38

Table 2 Comparison of present outlet parameters with the predicted outlet parameters of Chung and Gosh [10]

T a,o T s,o ωo ṁ a,o βo

(°C) (°C) (kg wv /kg da ) (kg/s) (% by mass)
Exp. Present % diff. Exp. Present % diff. Exp. Present % diff. Present Present
17.8 17.930 -0.73 16.9 16.982 -0.49 0.0064 0.0065 -1.56 0.30699 30.989
17.6 18.170 -3.24 16.6 17.172 -3.45 0.0063 0.0064 -1.59 0.30698 30.987
17.3 17.430 -0.75 16.6 16.615 -0.13 0.0066 0.0067 -1.52 0.30696 30.986
17.8 18.072 -1.53 17.2 17.429 -1.33 0.0067 0.0068 -1.49 0.30694 30.984
19.1 19.533 -2.27 18.3 18.604 -1.66 0.0080 0.0081 -1.25 0.19168 30.965
19.1 19.426 -1.71 18.6 18.748 -0.80 0.0077 0.0078 -1.30 0.23008 30.970
19.1 19.320 -1.15 18.5 18.675 -0.95 0.0075 0.0076 -1.34 0.26847 30.974
18.9 19.128 -1.21 18 18.578 -3.21 0.0073 0.0074 -1.37 0.30687 30.976
20.6 21.199 -2.91 19.8 20.168 -1.86 0.0058 0.0059 -1.72 0.30694 36.981
19.9 20.075 -0.88 19 19.218 -1.15 0.0058 0.0059 -1.72 0.30692 36.979
19.8 20.126 -1.65 19.4 20.126 -3.74 0.0051 0.0052 -1.96 0.30696 36.983
19.5 19.829 -1.69 19.2 19.616 -2.17 0.0052 0.0053 -1.92 0.30693 36.980
18.9 19.521 -3.29 18.4 19.133 -3.98 0.0049 0.0050 -2.04 0.19173 37.966
18.6 19.091 -2.64 18.2 18.981 -4.29 0.0047 0.0048 -2.13 0.23012 37.971
18.5 19.418 -4.96 18.1 18.623 -2.89 0.0046 0.0048 -4.35 0.26852 37.974
18.4 19.017 -3.35 18 18.699 -3.88 0.0045 0.0046 -2.23 0.30692 37.977

Fumo & Goswami [3], Gandhidasan [8] and Babakhani & Soleymani [4] studied the effects of various design
parameters such as the inlet air temperature and humidity ratio, the inlet desiccant temperature and
concentration, the air and the desiccant flow rate on the condensation rate in detail. Hence, in this paper, the
influences of air flow rate and the inlet temperature on both thermal effectiveness and moisture effectiveness
during the dehumidification process is presented in Figs. 2(a) & 2(b) and 3(a) & 3(b), respectively. A
comparison between the experimental results presented by Chung and Gosh [10] and the present model is shown
in aforementioned Figs. Further, the effects of moisture effectiveness and thermal effectiveness and relative
humidity on the condensation rate as well as the influence of solution to air flow ratio on the desiccant solution
concentration are investigated using the present model. Slope of thermal effectiveness and moisture
effectiveness curve provides an estimation of the influence of these variables on the thermal and moisture
effectiveness. The thermal effectiveness and moisture effectiveness increase with the decrease in air flow rate
with a slope of -1.0 & -0.9 (Figs. 2(a) & 2(b)). It may be noted that at high flow rate, the air will be in contact
with the desiccant solution for a shorter period of time, giving a lower change in temperature and specific
humidity difference ratio (Figs. 2(a) & 2(b)). The thermal effectiveness and moisture effectiveness enhance with
the decrease of air inlet temperature with a slope of -0.42 & -0.6 (Figs. 3(a) & 3(b)) and there is a linear
increment of air inlet temperature for lower temperature and specific humidity difference ratio. Since the
temperature of the air and solution are highly dependent on the vapour pressures, at lower air inlet temperatures,

880
the difference in vapour pressure of ambient air and desiccant solution is high therefore higher tendency of heat
transfer from the ambient air to the solution side.

45
39
Chung and Gosh [10] Chung and Gosh [10]
40
34 Present study
35 Present study

Air flow rate (g/s)

Air flow rate (g/s)

30
29
25

24
20

15
19
10

14
5
0.68 0.7 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.78
0.76 0.77 0.78 0.79 0.8 0.81
Moisture effectiveness
Thermal effectiveness

Fig. 2. Comparison of present model with the experimental data of Chung and Gosh [10]: a) Influence of thermal
effectiveness on air flow rate and b) Influence of moisture effectiveness on air flow rate

32 30

30 Chung and Gosh [10] Chung and Gosh [10]

28
28 Present study Present study
26
Air inlet temperature (°C)
Air inlet temperature (°C)

26
24
24
22
22
20
20
18
18

16 16

14 14
0.68 0.7 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.78 0.68 0.7 0.72 0.74 0.76
Thermal effectiveness Moisture effectiveness

Fig.3 Comparison of present model with the experimental data of Chung and Gosh [10]: a) Influence of thermal
effectiveness on air inlet temperature and b) Influence of moisture effectiveness on air inlet temperature

4. Results and discussions

The operating parameters that are kept constant during the analysis are listed in Table 3. Fig. 4 illustrates the
moisture effectiveness obtained for different mass transfer coefficients at different tower height from 0.1 to 0.6
m. In Fig. 4, the variation of moisture effectiveness is determined using a new correlation developed in terms of
mass transfer coefficient, tower height, air mass flow rate and specific area (Eq. 14). For the given operating
conditions, as the mass transfer coefficient increases, the moisture effectiveness is also found to increase. Low
the mass transfer from the ambient air to the solution side yields the lower value of moisture effectiveness. This
is due to the fact that as the mass transfer coefficient decreases the change in the solution concentration is also
decrease and hence there is a decrease in the moisture effectiveness. From Fig. 4, it is also observed that the
moisture effectiveness increases exponentially as a function of mass transfer coefficient with the increase in
tower height. This may be explained, as the height increases, contact time between the ambient air and solution
side increases. Hence, increase in moisture effectiveness takes place. For a given α m of 0.4 g/m2-s, increasing
the tower height from 0.1 to 0.6 m, increases the moisture effectiveness by 69 %.

881
 Table 3 Dehumidifier parameters used in the analysis

Operating parameters Unit Operating range

Air inlet temperature °C 22

Specific humidity kg v /kg da 0.012
Air flow rate Kg/s 0.0296
Desiccant inlet temperature °C 17.7
Desiccant flow rate at the inlet kg/s 0.2783
Desiccant concentration % by mass 34
Mass transfer coefficient g/m2s 0.444
Heat transfer coefficient W/ m2K 0.4
Specific area m2/m3 223
Tower height m 0.1-0.6
Moisture effectiveness - 0.70
Thermal effectiveness - 0.70

100 100
90 90
80 80

Moisture effectiveness
Thermal effectiveness

70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
∝h - 0.6 (W/m2K) ∝m - 0.6 (g/m2s)
30 30
∝h - 0.5 (W/m2K) ∝m - 0.5 (g/m2s)
20 ∝h - 0.4 (W/m2K)
20 ∝m - 0.4 (g/m2s)
10 10

0 0
0.04 0.14 0.24 0.34 0.44 0.54 0.64 0.04 0.14 0.24 0.34 0.44 0.54 0.64
Tower height (m) Tower height (m)

Fig. 4 Effect of heat transfer coefficient on thermal Fig. 5 Effect of mass transfer coefficient on moisture
effectiveness effectiveness

The effect of heat transfer coefficient on the thermal effectiveness is illustrated in Fig. 5, by varying the tower
height (0.1 to 0.6 m) for different heat transfer rates (0.4 to 0.6 W/m2-K). A new correlation which has been
developed for thermal effectiveness (Eq. 8) in terms of heat transfer coefficient, air mass flow rate, specific area
and tower height is used for determining the variation of temperature difference ratio across the height of the
dehumidifier. Two defined tendencies have been observed from Fig. 5. One tendency is the apparent exponential
increment of the thermal effectiveness for an increase in the tower height. This is due to the fact that, as the
tower height increases, the ambient air temperature (function of vapour pressure) increases, giving a lower
change in heat transfer rate. For a given α h of 0.6 W/m2-K, increasing the tower height from 0.1 to 0.6 m,
increases the thermal effectiveness by 61 %. The second defined tendency is the apparent increase in thermal
effectiveness with increase in heat transfer rate. This can be explained from Fig. 5 that lower the thermal
effectiveness, lower the change in ambient air temperature and hence there is an apparent decrease in heat
transfer coefficient.
The influence of relative humidity (R.H.) on the condensation rate (λ) is shown in Fig. 6. To investigate this
effect, the relative humidity is varied from 70 % to 90 % that can be obtained during the peak summer seasons
in a humid climate. As illustrated, when the relative humidity is increased, the condensation rate is increased. It
happens because higher the R.H. implies a higher air vapour pressure and consequently higher potential mass
transfer. From Fig. 6, it is also observed that for a length 0.5 m, the condensation rate is constant in case of a
relative humidity 90 % or 80 % or 70 %. This is due to the fact that as the height increases, the difference in
humidity ratio approaches to zero, which results in apparent decrease of heat and mass interactions between the
ambient air and the desiccant solution and hence there is a constant condensation rate beyond a particular tower
height for different relative humidity’s. Therefore, it is advisable to have an optimum tower height depending
upon the operating conditions. Figure 7 shows the results obtained for the concentration at different solution to
air flow rate (L/G ratio) ratios, by varying the tower height from 0.1 to 0.6 m. For any given flow rate ratio, as
the height increases the solution concentration decreases. Since the concentration is highly dependent on vapour
pressure, the higher the solution vapour pressure, the lower the condensation rate and consequently gives the
lower potential for mass transfer interaction. From Fig. 7, it is also observed that as the flow rate ratio increases

882
desiccant solution concentration decreases. This happens because as the flow rate ratio increases, the solution to
air contact will be for shorter period of time, giving a lower change in concentration. For a given γ = 0.5,
increasing the tower height from 0.1 to 0.6 m, increases the solution concentration by 3.3 %.

0.25
34.5
R.H. - 90 %
R.H. - 80 % 34.3 γ - 1.5
0.2 R.H. - 70 % γ-1
34.1
γ - 0.5
Condensation rate (g/m2s)

Concentration (kgLiCl/kgsolution)
33.9
0.15 33.7
33.5
0.1 33.3
33.1
0.05 32.9
32.7
0 32.5
0.04 0.14 0.24 0.34 0.44 0.54 0.64 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Tower height (m) Tower height (m)

Fig. 6 Influence of relative humidity on condensation rate Fig.7, Effect of concentration on solution to air flow ratio

5. Conclusions

Ambient air dehumidification process using strong desiccant solution (LiCl- H 2 O) has been studied by
proposing a unique mathematical model using dimensionless parameters such as thermal effectiveness and
moisture effectiveness in terms of heat and mass transfer coefficient. The developed mathematical model has
been shown very good agreement with the available experimental data [10]. It is observed that operating
variables such as solution to air flow rate ratio, air inlet temperature, relative humidity and heat and mass
transfer coefficients have greater impact on dehumidifier performance. It is also found that for a constant area
beyond a certain tower height, the condensation rate for any relative humidity is nearly the same. For a detailed
study of absorption process across an adiabatic dehumidifier, this model gives more accurate prediction
reducing computational time with some reasonable assumptions.

References

1 J. D. Killion and S. Garimella, A critical review of models of coupled heat and mass transfer in falling-
film absorption, International Journal of Refrigeration, 24 (2001) pp.755–797.
2 R.E. Treybal, Mass transfer operations, 3rd ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, pp.186–211, 1969.
3 N. Fumo and D.Y. Goswami, Study of an aqueous lithium chloride desiccant system: Air
dehumidification and desiccant regeneration, Solar Energy, 72 (2002) pp.351–361.
4 D. Babakhani and M. Soleymani, An analytical solution for air dehumidification by liquid desiccant in a
packed column, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 36 (2009) pp. 969–977.
5 X Liu, Y Jiang, J Xia and X Chang, Analytical solutions of coupled heat and mass transfer processes in
liquid desiccant air dehumidifier/regenerator, Energy Conversion and Management, 48 (2010) pp. 2221–
2232.
6 D.I. Stevens, J.E. Braun and S.A. Klein, An effectiveness model of liquid-desiccant system heat/mass
exchangers, Sol. Energy, 42 (1989) pp. 449–455.
7 R. Chengqin, J. Yi, and Z. Yianpin, Simplified Analysis of Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer Processes in
Packed Bed Liquid Desiccant-Air Contact System, Sol. Energy, 80 (2006) pp. 121-129.
8 P. Gandhidasan, A simplified model for air dehumidification with liquid desiccant, Solar Energy, vol.
76, pp. 409–416, 2004.
9 C. Ren, Y. Jiang, and Y. Zhang, Simplified analysis of coupled heat and mass transfer processes in
packed bed liquid desiccant-air contact system, Sol. Energy, 80 (2006) pp. 121–131.
10 T.W. Chung, T.K. Ghosh, Comparison between random and structured packings for dehumidification of
air by lithium chloride solutions in a packed column and their heat and mass transfer correlations, Inds.
& Eng. Chem. Research, 35 (1996) pp. 192-198.

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 ICAER-2015

Long-term Performance Analysis of CdTe PV module in real

operating conditions
Rahul Rawata*, S. C. Kaushika, O. S. Sastryb, Birinchi Borab, Y. K. Singhb
a
Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi (India)-110016
b
National Institute of Solar Energy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Gwal Pahari, Gurgaon, Haryana (India)-122003
*
Corresponding Author: Tel: +91-11-26596465; Email: rawatktp@gmail.com

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has gained ample attention with the continuously increasing electricity demand and climate
concerns. The Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) based PV technology is the leading and foremost technology among rapidly growing
thin film PV industry because of its lower energy and economic payback period and energy efficiency competitive to the wafer
based technology. Although, these modules undergo a series of indoor qualification tests specified by IEC61646, the long-
term performance analysis in real operation conditions is essential in order to ensure long term stability, robustness and
reliability. In this paper, performance analysis of 80W P CdTe PV module has been carried out on the basis of long term time
series data of short circuit current (I SC ) and open circuit voltage (V OC ) measured in outdoor conditions. The measured electrical
parameters has been translated to alternate reporting conditions i.e. 800W/m2 irradiance over the module surface and 40°C
module temperature. The monthly averaged and normalized V OC and I SC of the module is found to be degraded by 2.86% and
2.29% after 23 months of outdoor exposure. The parameters are translated to standard test conditions for diurnal analysis
which shows the degradation of 2.91% for V OC while no deviation in the value of I SC .
Keywords: Solar Photovoltaic; CdTe PV Module; Performance Analysis; Degradation

1. Introduction

The electricity demand is increasing worldwide and major part of it is coming from fossil fuels which directly
causes the environmental pollution. According to the international energy agency (IEA), global primary energy
supply was 13,555 million tonnes of oil equivalent in year 2013 and out of which about 80.4% is fulfilled from
fossil fuel and 13.5% from renewables [1]. Since 1990 to 2013, the annual growth of renewables and solar
photovoltaic is 2.2% and 46.6% respectively. The photovoltaic market is developed considerably by adding 38.7
GW in year 2014 to make the total installed capacity of 177 GW P which constitutes about 1% of the global
electricity generation [2]. Due to climate change concern, the solar PV market is expected to increase at more pace
in future. Recently, India has revised the target of deploying grid connected solar power plants under Jawaharlal
Nehru National solar mission from 20 GW P of to 100 GW P to be achieved by 2022.
The solar PV technologies can be broadly classified into wafer based and thin film PV technology. The wafer
based technology includes mono and multi-crystalline silicon while thin film includes Cadmium Telluride (CdTe),
CIGS, amorphous silicon and micromorph. The CdTe PV technology is one of the fast developing industry among
thin film PV technologies because of low cost, competitive solar energy conversion efficiency, higher absorptivity,
the size of modules, monolithic cell integration, and less energy embodied [3]. Although, the CdTe PV modules
are tested under lab conditions as per standard IEC 61646 in order to assess their reliability and durability, but still
performance degradation in real outdoor operating conditions is a major problem for 25 year of reliable life time
operation [4]. Therefore, it is critically important to investigate the performance and degradation of in outdoor
conditions [5-7]. The outdoor performance of PV can be determined by several parameters such as performance
ratio, energy yield, efficiency, short circuit current, open circuit voltage, voltage and current at maximum power
point [8-10]. The international standard IEC 61724 provides the detailed methodology for the outdoor performance
monitoring of PV modules/systems [11].
Jordan and Kurtz (2013) have analytically reviewed the reported degradation rates of different field aged
photovoltaic technologies [12]. They had reported the degradation rate of CdTe module and system to be 0.4%
and 0.3% per year respectively of the systems which were installed after year 2000. Marion et al. (2001) has
reported the efficiency loss rate of 0.6%/year during field measurement of 1 kW P First Solar CdTe PV system
after 5.5 years [13]. During single module analysis they found that efficiency of some modules has been increased
while some have been degraded. Ross et al. (2006) have reported the loss rate of 0.8%/year of power in the First
Solar CdTe system after 2.7 years of field operation [14]. Makrides et al. (2014) determines performance loss rate

884
of twelve different PV technologies deployed in the outdoor field conditions of Nicosia, Cyprus [15]. They found
the performance loss rate of CdTe PV systems for 5 years measured data was 2.27%/year. Moreover, they also
found that the performance of CdTe and a-Si systems did not stabilize at the end of 5 years. In a similar study,
Deline et al. (2011) found that the variation and losses in parameters during initial exposure of CdTe modules are
metastable and a large portion of it recovers back [16]. Ye et al. (2014) studied the performance degradation of 10
different PV module technologies in tropical environment conditions of Singapore and found about 2%/year
degradation in CdTe, PV systems after 3 year of field exposure [17].
In this paper, the performance of CdTe module has been assessed on the basis of 23 months of per minute data
of short circuit current and open circuit voltage measured in outdoor conditions. The long-term data have been
translated to alternate reporting conditions (ARC) and compared with the name plate values and initial values.

2. Experimental Setup of CdTe Module

The CdTe is leading and foremost growing technology among the thin film PV technologies with highest
reported cell and module efficiency of 21.0±0.4% and 17.5±0.7% respectively by First Solar Inc [18]. The CdTe
is a direct band gap semiconductor material having the band gap of 1.5eV and high absorption coefficient
(≈105/cm) which is used with n-type CdS window layer for manufacturing PV modules forming the superstrate
type structure of Glass/TCO/CdS/CdTe/Metal/Glass as shown in fig 1.

Fig. 1. Layer diagram and experimental test setup of CdTe module

The energy band gap of CdTe material is optimum for the highest theoretical solar energy conversion efficiency
meant for single junction solar PV cells on the basis of Shockley-Queisser thermodynamic efficiency limit. In
2013, First Solar Inc. has launched ‘Series 3 Black’ (S3 Black and S3 Black Plus) modules with improved
encapsulating material for long term stability, robustness and reliability [19]. The name plate value of 80 W P
CdTe module being assessed is given in table 1 which shows that the PV module provides 48.5 V of voltage and
1.65 A of current while operating on maximum power point at stand test conditions (STC) i.e. 1kW/m2 irradiance
over the PV module, 25°C module temperature and 1.5 air mass.

Table 1. Name plate values of the test CdTe module

Sr. No. Parameter Name Plate Value
1. Technology Cadmium Telluride
2. Model FS-380
3. Power at MPP (P M ) 80 W
4. Voltage at MPP (I M ) 48.5 V
5. Current at MPP (V M ) 1.65 A
6. Open circuit Voltage (V OC,STC ) 60.8 V
7. Short Circuit Current (I SC,STC ) 1.88 A
8. Temperature Coefficient of Voc for T m <25°C (TC V ) –0.25%/°C
9. Temperature Coefficient of Voc for T m >25°C (TC V ) –0.27%/°C
10. Temperature Coefficient of Isc (TC I ) 0.04%/°C
11. Number of Cells 154
12. Area 0.72 m2

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 The National Institute of Solar Energy (Formerly Solar Energy Centre) had installed an outdoor test bed of
CdTe thin film PV module technology in collaboration of First Solar Inc. at location defined by latitude 28.424N
and longitude 77.154E which is considered to be composite climatic zone. The Campbell Scientific CR-3000 data
logger has been used to continuously log the I SC , V OC , module temperature (T m ) and environmental parameters
at the interval of 10 second. The data for the test period of 23 months, i.e. July 2012 to May 2014 has been
collected and averaged over the minute.

3. Translation of parameters to alternate reporting conditions

The electrical parameters measured in outdoor conditions cannot be compared as the measured parameters are
at different solar radiation and temperature. In order to study the time based performance degradation, the
measured V OC and I SC are translated to the ARC as given by V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC using translation equations
[20].

VOC _ ARC =
VOC + TCV (TARC − Tm ) (1)

G 
I SC _ ARC = I SC  ARC  + TCI (TARC − Tm ) (2)
 GT 

Here, TC V and TC I are temperature coefficients of V OC and I SC respectively, G T is the measured incident solar
irradiance over the tilted surface of PV module, Tm is the measured module temperature, G ARC and T ARC are the
alternate solar irradiance and module temperature respectively on which the measured parameters is to be
translated. The temperature coefficients for V OC (TC V ) is 0.25%/°C and 0.27%/°C of V OC for T m less and more
than 25°C respectively and the temperature coefficient for I SC is 0.04%/°C as provided by the manufacturer at
name plate.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Long term Analysis

The long term measured V OC and I SC has been filtered for irradiance range of 780-820W/m2 over the PV
module because the irradiance range is readily available for almost all months at the location. The dependence of
these parameters on irradiance and module temperature has been taken into account and normalized by using
translation equations for the G ARC and T ARC to be 800W/m2 and 40°C respectively. The minute indexed time
series data from July 2012 to May 2014 of V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC have been presented in fig.2. It shows that V OC
degrades at more rate initially than in later time frame while no significant degradation in I SC .

Fig. 2. Long term translated data of V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC for 23 months of test period (per minute index)

886
 For further analysis, the monthly average values of the V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC of the above filtered data have
been calculated and then normalized to their maximum value during the test period as shown in fig. 3. The average
degradation of V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC after 23 months of outdoor exposure have been calculated to be 2.86% and
2.29% respectively.

Fig. 3. Normalized monthly average of V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC

The percentage frequency of the occurrences of the range of V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC for the month of initial month
(July 2012) and after 23 months of outdoor exposure (May 2014) have been calculated for the above filtered data
as shown in fig. 4. The frequency plot of V OC_ARC of first and 23rd month of outdoor exposure are separated and
the parameter range shows a significant shift towards left as well as broadness after the outdoor exposure.
Whereas, the frequency plots of I SC_ARC almost overlapped each other and shows a very small shifts towards left
along with a very less broadening of range. According to the frequency plots, the V OC of the test module is mainly
degraded by the outdoor exposure over the test period.

Fig. 4. Frequency plot of V OC_ARC and I SC_ARC for the month of July 2012 and May 2014

4.2. Diurnal Analysis

The most clear sky day of initial month July 2012, September 2013 and final May 2014 have been selected for
the diurnal performance degradation analysis, however, the data of July 2012 is scattered because of the partly
cloudy day. The minute average data of data have been filtered for irradiance range more than 700 W/m2 and
translated to STC. The irradiance range, ambient temperature range, module temperature range, average V OC_STC
and I SC_STC is given in table 2.

887
 The diurnal average of V OC_STC shows a deviation of -2.91% while there is no deviation I SC_STC with reference
to the diurnal average of the initial month. If the name plate value provided by the manufacturer is taken as
reference condition, then it shows that the V OC is degraded by -5.67% while I SC is increased by +3.19%. The
measure and translated diurnal I SC and V OC of initial month (July 2012), after 14 month (September 2013) and
finally after 22 month (May 2014) of outdoor exposure is presented in fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Translated V OC and I SC at STC for a most clear sky day of the months after outdoor exposure

888
Table 2. Outdoor parameter ranges and averaged V OC and I SC at STC over the day of the month
Sr. Month Irradiance Range Ambient Module Translated to Standard Test
No. over the module Temperature Range Temperature Range Conditions (Average)
(W/m2) (°C) (°C)
V OC_STC I SC_STC

1. July 2012 700–930 33.4–37.4 48.6–62.2 59.07 1.94

5. September 2013 700–920 30.8–34.8 52.4–58.4 57.73 1.93
6. May 2014 700–960 31.7–37.7 46.2–57.2 57.35 1.94

5. Conclusions

The long term and diurnal performance degradation study of 80WP S3 black CdTe module has been carried
out by using 23 month of outdoor measured data of V OC , I SC , module temperature and environmental parameters.
According to the study, it can be concluded that the V OC of the module has been degraded by about 2.9% over the
test period but the deviation of I SC is ambiguous. The diurnal analysis of I SC shows improvement of 2.66% with
respect to the name plate value and no deviation with respect to the initial translated value while the long term
analysis shows degradation of 2.29% with respect to the monthly average value of the initial month of exposure.
Based on the overall analysis, it can also be concluded that the nameplate value of the V OC is on higher side while
I SC is on lower side for the studied module.
The percentage deviation of the electrical parameters for different reference and environmental conditions is
summarized in table 3.

Table 3. Deviation of the parameters after 23 months of outdoor exposure

Reference Condition Deviation of the Parameter
V OC (%) I SC (%)
Long Term Analysis
Initial Value -2.86 -2.29
Diurnal Analysis
Name Plate Value –5.77 +2.66
Initial Value –2.91 –0.51

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) for
fellowship and National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) for data. Data analysis part of the work has been carried
out under the Stability and Performance of Photovoltaic (STAPP) project executed jointly by Indo-UK consortium
partners.

References

[1] IEA Key Renewables Trends from excerpts from Renewable Information, 2015 edition. Report online available at:
www.iea.org/statistics/topics/electricity.
[2] IEA PVPS “2014 Snapshot of Global PV Markets” Report IEA PVPS T1-26:2015 Report online available at: http://www.iea-
pvps.org/index.php?id=trends0
[3] A.V. Shah, H. Schade, M. Vanecek, J. Meier, E. Vallat-Sauvain, N. Wyrsch et al., Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications
12 (2004) 113–142. doi:10.1002/pip.533.
[4] IEC 61646. Thin-film terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) modules – Design qualification and type approval. 2nd Ed., 2008-05
[5] V. Sharma, A. Kumar, O.S. Sastry, S.S. Chandel, Energy 58 (2013) 511–518. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2013.05.068.
[6] V. Sharma, O.S. Sastry, A. Kumar, B. Bora, S.S. Chandel, Energy 72 (2014) 536–546.
[7] O.S. Sastry et al., Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 94 (2010) 1463–1468. doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2010.03.035.
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[10] W.B. Júnior, W.N. Macêdo, J.T. Pinho, Energy Procedia 57 (2014) 4–13.
[11] IEC 61724. Photovoltaic system performance monitoring – Guidelines for measurement, data exchange and analysis. CEI/IEC
61724:1998.
[12] D.C. Jordan, S.R. Kurtz, Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 21 (2013) 12–29. doi:10.1002/pip.1182.

889
[13] B. Marion, J. del Cueto, P. McNutt, and D. Rose, In: CPV Program Review Meeting, Lakewood, Colorado, 14-17 October 2001,
NREL/CP-520-30942, pp. 1-2.
[14] M. Ross, G. Rich, L. Petacci, J. Klammer, In: 4th World Conf. Photovolt. Energy Convers 2006, pp. 2148–2151.
[15] G. Makrides, B. Zinsser, M. Schubert, G.E. Georghiou, Solar Energy. 103 (2014) 28–42. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2014.02.011.
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[17] J.Y. Ye, T. Reindl, A.G. Aberle, T.M. Walsh, IEEE J. Photovoltaics 4 (2014) 1288–1294.
[18] L. Kranz, S. Buecheler, A.N. Tiwari, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 119 (2013) 278–280. doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2013.08.028.
[19] N. Strevel, L. Trippel, C. Kotarba, I. Khan, Photovoltaic International 22 (2014) 1–8.
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21 (2013) 702–712. doi:10.1002/pip.2154.

890
 ICAER-2015

First Principles Study of hydrogen adsorption on electron doped

monolayer: Bond exchange mechanism
E. Mathan Kumar, S. Sinthika, Ranjit Thapa*
SRM Research Institute, SRM University, Kattankulathur603203, Tamil Nadu, India

*Corresponding author: ranjit.phy@gmail.com, ranjit.t@res.srmuniv.ac.in, Tel: +91-44-2741-7918, Fax: +91-

44-2745-6702

Abstract

The hydrogen molecule interaction with light element based doped and pristine h-BN monolayer has been studied.

It has been found that to initiate the spillover mechanism on 2D materials, the splitting of H 2 molecule to H atoms can be

realized on the doped h-BN structures but the migration of H atom onto the surface is in question because of higher barrier

energy and it need to be solve. So, we proposed secondary catalyst and provide the mechanistic in order to spillover of

hydrogen on such 2D material.

Keywords: Storage, Dopants, Splitting, Migration, Spillover Mechanism.

Introduction

Hydrogen is a clean alternative energy carrier because of its high energy content, availability, and

environmental friendliness. A serious bottleneck for the full usage of hydrogen is the lack of suitable storage

materials. The recent steps to develop the hydrogen storage have shifted to nanostructured materials via

physisorption. Materials of two dimensional nanostructures have advantages of large surface area and

intermediate binding energy. Graphene, carbon nanotubes are the main examples of low element based

nanostructure have been tested as a hydrogen storage for the past several years.1–3 Still, the desorption

temperature and storage capacity of H 2 have not been in the range of Department of Energy (DOE).4–7 The goal

for hydrogen storage is about the gravimetic density of 9.0 wt%, volumetric density of 81g/L, operating

temperature in the range of -40 to 850C and applied pressure in the range of 1-100 atm. The key is therefore to

find materials that have the hydrogen binding energy of 0.2–0.7 eV.8 Moreover spillover mechanism also

participate to enhance the hydrogen storage capacity and it has been explained by both theoretical and

experimental groups. But still there is a controversy among experimentalist about the migration of H atom from

the catalyst to receptor surface.9-11 Also from our previous work we determine the prospect of the splitting of H 2

molecule and migration of H atom along the substrate during spillover process. 12

891
Computational Details

We performed the calculations using spin polarized density functional theory as implemented in the

Cambridge Serial Total Energy package (CASTEP).13 The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) was

employed for the exchange and correlation effects at Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE).14 For long-range van

der Waals interactions, the parameter-free Tkatchenko–Scheffler (TS)15 was used with PBE functional. We used

(4×4) and (5×5) supercells and 20 Å vacuum along c-axis as the model geometry to explain our results.

Result and Disscussion

The adsorption energy for H 2 molecule on all the sites (B, N, C, O) are calculated in case of both the

pure and doped h-BN monolayer, all the information about the system are already worked out in our previous

work.12 In comparison with the entire possible doping configuration, the CO co-doped h-BN system has the

higher binding energy with the molecular hydrogen. The cause of higher binding energy is mainly due to

presence of donor defect state below the Fermi level.16,17 It has been found that the donor state is mainly

contributed by the electron in p z orbital of carbon and oxygen atoms. The normal bandstructure and p z orbital

projected Fat band of O atom are shown in Figure 1 for more clear understanding. The contribution from the C

atom is also similar. In the previous work, we explained that the spillover mechanism18 on the surface of h-BN

are not possible without any secondary catalyst. Here we confirm that the bond exchange mechanism play a

dominant role during spillover (both splitting and migration) mechanism.

Figure 1: (a) The normal bandstructure and (b) P z orbital projected Fat band of O atom for CO doped h-BN

monolayer.

The energy required for the migration of H atom using BH 3 as an external mediator via bond exchange

mechanism is about 0.57 eV.12 In order to test the possibility of bond exchange splillover, we calculated the

892
binding energy of BH 3 , defined as the differences in the total energies of a BH 3 molecule far from the H-COBN

surface (COBN surface with two dissociated H atoms) [Fig 2(b)] and a BH 3 molecule in close proximity with a

dissociated H atom [Fig 2(a)]. The binding energy was estimated to be around -1.40 eV, which is quite high,

implying that the strong adsorption of BH 3 molecule to the surface and it is expected to be stable at finite

temperatures also. Moreover, we calculated the energy required for the complete dissociation of BH 4 molecule

from the surface. This was calculated as the differences in total energies between a BH 4 molecule far from the

surface [Fig 2(c)] and a BH 3 molecule chemically bonded with the H atom [Fig (b)]. The dissociation energy is

found to be around 2.56 eV. So the bond exchange mechanism will prefer in comparison to the formation of

BH 4 molecule.

Figure 2: Optimized structures of (a) BH 3 near to a dissociated H atom (b) BH 3 far from the H-COBN surface

(c) BH 4 far from the H-COBN surface.

In summary, the light element based nanostructures are always good for hydrogen storage in the

binding energy point of view. The donor state created by electron doped elements is mainly contributed by the

electron in p z orbitals. To make a spillover on such light element based nanostructure, the secondary catalyst

play a vital role to lowering the activation barrier and also the dissociation of BH 4 is not favour in compare to

the migration of H atom.

Reference

893
[1] A. C. Dillon, K. M. Jones, T. A. Bekkedahl, C. H. Kiang, D. S. Bethune, and M. J. Heben, Nature (London) 377 (1997) 386.

[2] P. Chen, X. Wu, J. Lin, and K. L. Tan, Science 91 (1999) 285.

[3] C. Liu, Y. Y. Fan, M. Liu, H. T. Cong, H. M. Cheng, and M. S. Dresselhaus, Science 1127 (1999) 286.

[4] F. E. Pinkerton, B. G. Wicke, C. H. Olk, G. G. Tibbetts, G. P. Meisner, M. S. Meyer, and J. F. Herbst, J. Phys. Chem. B 9460

(2000) 104.

[5] R. T. Yang, Carbon 623 (2000) 38.

[6] A. Züttel, Ch. Nützenadel, P. Sudan, Ph. Mauron, Ch. Emmenegger, S. Rentsch, L. Schlapbach, A. Weidenkaff, and T.

Kiyobayashi, J. Alloys Compd. 676 (2002) 330-332.

[7] M. Hirscher, M. Becher, M. Haluska, U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska, A. Quintel, G. S. Duesberg, Y.-M. Choi, P. Downes, M.

Hulman, S. Roth, I. Stepanek, and P. Bernier, Appl. Phys. A: Mater. Sci. Process. 72, 129 (2001).

[8] Y. Guo, K. Jiang, B. Xu, Y. Xia, J. Yin and Z. Liu, J. Phys. Chem. C, 116 (2012) 13837–13841.

[9] Y. Li, R. T. Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128 (2006) 726–727.

[10] Y. Li, R. T. Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128 (2006) 8136–8137.

[11] M. A. Miller, C-Yu. Wang, G. N. Merrill, J. Phys. Chem. C, 113 (2009) 3222–3231.

[12] E. M. Kumar, S. Sinthika, R. Thapa, J. Mater. Chem. A, 3 (2015) 304-313.

[13] M. D. Segall, P. J. D. Lindan, M. J. Probert, C. J. Pickard, P. J. Hasnip, S. J. Clark and M. C. Payne, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter,

14 (2002) 2717–2744.

[14] J. P. Perdew, K. Burke and M. Ernzerhof, Phys. Rev. Lett., 77 (1996) 3865–3868.

[15] A. Tkatchenko and M. Scheffler, Phys. Rev. Lett., 102 (2009) 073005.

[16] S. Sinthika, E. M. Kumar, R. Thapa, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2 (2014) 12812 - 12820.

[17] D. Shin, R. Thapa, N. Park, Curr. Appl. Phys, 15 (2015) 727–732.

[18] G. Kim, S.-H. Jhi, S. Lim and N. Park, Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Mater. Phys., 79 (2009) 155437.

894
 ICAER-2015

Microencapsulation and characterization of Agar gel based phase

change materials for thermal energy storage in cooling towers
Abhishek1*, Sudipta Sarkar2
1
Undergraduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee- 247667, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee- 247667, India

Abstract

A novel microencapsulated phase change material (PCM) based on agar gel with ethyl cellulose/methyl cellulose (EC/MC with
weight ratio 2:1) polymer shell was synthesized. A novel liquid to liquid encapsulation and in-situ polymerization method was
adopted for the synthesis of microparticles and their various thermo-physical properties were studied for their use as latent heat
thermal energy storage (LHTES) system in the cooling tower units. Two different heating and cooling cycles of differential scale
calorimetry (DSC) thermograms indicated the successful encapsulation of the PCM. Scanning electron microscope (SEM)
images showed that the particles are spherical in shape with smooth and compact encapsulation and there is negligible volume
change during phase transition of the PCM. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) revealed the uniform size distribution [average size ≈
12 µm] of the encapsulated particles. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) indicated good thermal stability of the fabricated
microcapsules. Moreover, good thermal conductivity was observed, thus overcoming two major concerns of existing organic
PCMs viz. low thermal conductivity and large volume change during phase change from liquid to solid and vice-versa.
Furthermore, the encapsulated microparticles showed good water dispersion ability thus making them suitable for use (dispersed
in circulating water) in cooling tower units.

Keywords: Agar gel, encapsulation, phase change material, thermophysical properties.

1. Introduction

Depleting conventional energy resources, socio-economic and environmental impacts, increasing population and
development have consistently increased the imbalance between energy demand and supply after the energy crisis of
1973-74. This ubiquitous problem of global energy gap has motivated the researchers all over the world to look after
energy storage devices in order to serve as a cost-effective remediation alternative. Significant number of materials
and methods has been developed for exploring the energy storage as a function of sensible heat and/or latent heat.
Out of these, Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have been a better option for assessing effectiveness of the thermal
energy storage devices over a wide range of temperature because of PCM’s inherent property of high thermal energy
storage density. Major categories of existing PCMs include non-paraffins [1, 2] salt hydrates [3, 4], metallic [5],
eutectic PCMs [6] with variable combination of thermophysical properties viz. thermal conductivity, density,
volume change, toxicity. The PCMs have been practiced for their usages in various applications; solar energy
storage systems [7-10], refrigeration [11], building air conditioning [11-14, 23], electronics cooling [15-17], waste
heat recovery [18-19], textiles [20] and fabrics [21]. The aforementioned phase change materials rarely include the
PCMs having all the governing properties altogether; good thermal conductivity, less volume change during phase
transition, non-toxic, non-inflammable, high latent heat of fusion and economic. And the characterization of PCMs
for their use in cooling tower units is also not covered in the above findings.
Therefore, in this study, Agar gel was selected as a novel phase change material because of its following inherent
properties over existing organic PCMs: a) good thermal conductivity in both liquid and solid state. b) negligible

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9897674598.

E-mail address: abhishekiit95@gmail.com

895
volume change during solidification as revealed by SEM images c) gelling temperature of 34-38 °C, a melting
temperature of 75-81°C and high latent heat of fusion (indicated by DSC thermograms), thus offering relatively
greater energy storage density d) Chemically inert and non-corrosive nature i.e. no harm to the surrounding
atmosphere if gets leaked from the shell material e) Cost effective. Furthermore, in-situ polymerization with novel
liquid to liquid encapsulation method was adopted using Ethyl Cellulose/Methyl Cellulose (EC/MC) polymer [22]
as the shell material.
Figure 1 shows the typical water losses/demand from a cooling tower unit as water and wastewater discharge in
three major forms viz. make-up, blowdown and evaporated water. For particular working parameters (e.g. shown in
table 1), it is evident that there is considerable water loss from such units as shown in table no.2. These encapsulated
PCMs dispersed in circulating water of the cooling tower units will reduce the water demand in all three forms and
also the scaling of the flow pipe. In this regard, objective of the current experimental study includes synthesis and
characterization of microencapsulated agar gel particles with EC/MC polymer as the shell material their use for
thermal energy storage and checking their suitability for above mentioned use. Thus using agar gel as PCM will
diminish the issue of volumetric expansion during phase change, poor thermal conductivity and high cost of the
PCMs.

Fig. 1 Flow diagram of a typical cooling tower unit showing water losses.

Table 1 Operating conditions of the cooling tower. Table 2 Estimated water losses from the unit.

Total water flow 1000 m3/h Evaporation 10.35 m3/h

Hot Water Temperature 35 °C Drift 0.05 m3/h

Cold Water Temperature 29.44 °C Blow Down 5.52 m3/h

Drift Rate 0.005% Total Loss 15.92 m3/h

In the following, the term microparticles is used interchangeably as microcapsules and shell material as encapsulant
with no explicit distinction.

896
2. Materials and methods

Ethyl cellulose (99.99 % pure, 20 % wt. loss at 110 °C), methyl cellulose (low viscosity, 99.99 % pure) were
purchased from KPL International Limited, India. Agar-agar powder (Type 1) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich
Chemicals Pvt. Ltd, India. All the aforementioned chemicals were used without further purification.

2.1. Preparation of Agar-gel

Water-Agar gel with various agar concentrations viz. 0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 % (w/v ratio of agar to water) was
prepared using doubly distilled water and the concentration was optimized at 1 % w/v ratio for thermal conductivity
and density (data not shown here).

2.2. Synthesis of encapsulated microcapsules

Ethyl Cellulose/Methyl Cellulose with a weight ratio of 2:1 was chosen as the shell material. Ethanolic solution of
EC (150 mg EC + 20 mL ethanol) was dissolved in the aqueous solution of MC solution (75 mg of MC + 10mL of
distilled water) and stirred to get a clear transparent solution. Subsequently, the in-situ prepared agar gel was added
into the polymeric solution and the solution was sonicated for 30 minutes by using water-bath sonicator. The
medium of the solution was changed from ethanolic to aqueous by slow drop wise addition of hot water while being
continuously stirred at 1400 rpm at 60 °C using hot plate magnetic stirrer. After that, the emulsion was cooled down
to room temperature and was subjected to freeze drying to get the particles for their characterization.

2.3. Characterization

Morphologies of the synthesized particles were examined using FEI Nova Nano-Scanning Electron Microscope 650.
The samples were prepared by putting the dry particles on the glass supports and were sputter-coated with gold
before analysis. Thermal storage properties like melting point and latent heat of fusion were studied using a Q200
DSC (differential scanning calorimeter, TA Instruments) and the measurements were carried out at a heating or
cooling rate of 10 °C/min with the sample weight of around 10 mg under N2 atmosphere. The first heating scan was
carried out from 20 to 50 °C and the sample was held at this temperature for 5 min to diminish the thermal and
processing history before formal measurements. Thermogravimetric analysis for the micro- capsules was carried out
at a heating rate of 5 °C /min under N2 atmosphere from 23 to 330 °C by using a simultaneous DSC / TGA Q600
thermal gravimetric analyzer. Thermal conductivity measurement was performed using an EKO HC-110 (Heat Flow
Meter Method; ASTM-C518, ISO8301) thermal conductivity tester. The average particle diameter and their size
distribution were measured using a DLS PCCS (dynamic light scattering, photon-cross correlation spectroscopy),
Nanophoxe Sympatec Instruments.

3. Results and discussion

The various thermo-physical properties of the synthesized microparticles were analyzed and the results are
discussed as below:

3.1. Thermal conductivity

The thermal conductivity of the synthesized microcapsules was measured at various temperatures as a function of
EC/MC concentration (w/w % of agar gel to EC/MC). The results obtained are shown in Fig. 2. Thermal
conductivity showed a linear increase with increasing temperature for all concentrations of the shell material.
Moreover, a slight decrease in the thermal conductivity of the composites was noticed as the relative wt. % of
EC/MC increases from 10 to 20 % attributing to slight lower thermal conductivity of EC/MC polymer as compared
to agar-gel.

897
 3.2. Water dispersion ability

The synthesized microcapsules were re-dispersed in the distilled water and heated up to 75 °C. Good dispersion
ability was observed with no waxy appearance accounting for no leakage of the core PCM through the shell
material, thus making the encapsulated PCMs suitable for use in the circulating water of the cooling tower units in
the temperature range of 35-75 °C.

3.3. Size distribution

The particle size distribution of EC/MC encapsulated agar gel microparticles was measured by Dynamic light
scattering (DLS). Majority of the particles were lying in the range of 8-14 µm (Fig. 3) with an average diameter of
12 µm which is very close to the results as revealed by SEM images.

0.53 30
0 w t.% of EC/MC
10 w t.% of EC/MC
20 w t.% of EC/MC
0.52 24
Thermal conductivity, W/mK

Distribution, %
18
0.51

12
0.5

6
0.49

0
0.48 0 5 10 15 20 25
30 40 50 60 70
Di ameter, µm
Temperature, °C
Fig. 4. Thermal conductivity of microencapsulated agar-gel/EC/MC v/s temperature at various loadings ratios.

Fig. 2 Thermal conductivity of agar gel with various loadings of Fig. 3 Size distribution of the microencapsulated agar gel
EC/MC polymer. particles.

3.4. Material compatibility study

The compatibility of the core and shell material and the thermal behavior of the encapsulated microparticles was
analyzed by DTA-DTG-TG analysis (Fig. 4) with air (200 ml/min.) atmosphere. The occurrence of a little weight

318Cel 2.00
1.42 mg/min 300.00
100.0
1.00

80.0 0.00
319Cel 250.00
58.7 uV

60.0 -1.00
176Cel
41.4 uV
200.00 -2.00
40.0 -101 mJ/mg

-3.00
DTG mg/min
DTA uV

20.0 -138 mJ/mg

TG %

150.00
-4.00
0.0
26Cel
-5.00
99.97 % 200Cel
95.37 % 100.00
-20.0
300Cel -6.00
100Cel 64.03 %
97.56 %
-40.0 -7.00
50.00

-60.0 -8.00
327Cel
19.35 %
-9.00
-80.0 0.00

50 100 150 200 250 300

Temp Cel

Fig. 4 DTA-DTG-TG analysis of the sample at heating rate of 5°C/min. Fig. 5 Representative DSC thermograms for 0 wt. %
and 20 wt. % of EC/MC.

898
loss of about 3% up to 100 °C was mainly because of the moisture content present in the sample. Further loss in
weight (about 22%) from 100 °C to 260 °C may be attributed by the gradation of shell material i.e. EC/MC polymer
(wt. loss agrees with the w/w ratio of agar-gel to EC/MC polymer taken i.e. 80:20). Furthermore, an abrupt weight
change after 260 °C signals the further decomposition of the agar-agar gel.

3.5. Thermophysical properties

The phase transition temperature and latent heat of fusion of encapsulated microparticles (0 wt. % and 20 wt. % of
EC/MC) were studied by differential scale calorimeter (DSC) at a heating rate of 5 °C/min (Fig. 5). The enthalpy of
phase change for 20 wt. % of agar gel is derived as 238 J/g which is lower than that of 0 wt. % EC/MC (256 J/g).
The difference was attributed by the presence of EC/MC, which have 10-15 % weight loss at a temperature ≥ 110
°C. Moreover slight shifting in melting and gelling temperature of agar gel was also noticed due to the presence of
EC/MC polymer shell.

3.6. Morphology

As shown in Fig. 4, the microparticles were perfectly spherical in shape under scanning electron microscope. The
microparticles with 10 wt. % of EC/MC (Fig. 4b) had uneven and disfigured encapsulation. On the other hand,
smooth and compact encapsulation was observed at 20 wt. % of EC/MC (Fig. 4c & 4d). As 80:20 w/w % of agar-gel
to EC/MC was more suitable, therefore these microparticles were selected for the further experiments. Moreover, as
shown in Fig. 4(e), some very small irregular-shaped flakes were observed which were resulted from the free
EC/MC polymer that failed in encapsulation of PCM. No dents were observed in the microspheres indicating
negligible volume change of the PCM (agar-gel) after solidification.

Fig. 4(a) Fig. 4(b) Fig. 4(c)

Fig. 4(d) Fig. 4(e)

Fig. 4(a) Agar-gel particles without encapsulation (at 500X); 4(b) Encapsulated microparticles with 10 wt. % of EC/MC (at 1.0K X);
Fig. 4(c) & 4[d]. Encapsulated microparticles with 20 wt. % of EC/MC (at 1.5K X & 2.0K X respectively).
Fig. 4(e). Encapsulated microparticles in bulk with 20 wt. % of EC/MC (at 500 X).

899
4. Summary and conclusion

Here we demonstrate a unique phase change material (PCM) i.e. agar gel having good thermal conductivity, high
latent heat of fusion and negligible volume change during phase change. In-situ polymerization and liquid to liquid
encapsulation process successfully results in the encapsulation of the PCM with EC/MC polymer. Various tests for
thermo-physical and structural properties revealed the smooth and compact encapsulation with good thermal
stability and uniform spherical morphology of the synthesized micro capsules. Moreover, good water dispersion
ability of the synthesized encapsulated microparticles made them suitable to use in cooling tower units for thermal
energy storage in temperature range of 35-75 °C. These phase change particles will serve as the short term latent
heat storage devices and will prevent the water and wastewater losses from the cooling tower units. The inference
drawn from the present experimental work has encouraged us to further study quantitative heat transfer model for
encapsulated PCM in water composite system and to develop metallic shell material for enhanced thermal
conductivity resulting in quick response time for heat transfer and also the comparative study between the heat
transfer trends between metallic and non-metallic encapsulant by using COMSOL simulation techniques.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for providing financial support to this research as part
of Summer Undergraduate Research Award (SURA) 2015.

References

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[10] Sokolov M, Keizman Y. Performance indicators for solar pipes with phase change storage. Solar Energy 1991;47[5]:339–46.
[11] Kuznik F, David D, Johannes K, Roux J. A review on phase change materials integrated in building walls. Renewable and Sustainable
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2004;27: 839–49.
[13] Pasupathy A, Velraja R, Seeniraj RV. Phase change material-based building architecture for thermal management in residential and
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[19] Nomura T, Okinaka N, Akiyama T. Waste heat transportation system, using phase change material [PCM] from steelworks to chemical
plant. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2010;54:1000–6.
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[21] Sarier N, Onder E. The manufacture of microencapsulated phase change materials suitable for the design of thermally enhanced fabrics.
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[2011] 379–391.

901
 ICAER-2015

Performance analysis of wavy finned solar air heater compared to

offset rectangular finned solar air heater
Abhishek Priyama,*, Dr. Prabha Chandb
a,b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, N.I.T Jamshedpur, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand-831014

Abstract: In this paper an attempt has been made to analyze the thermal efficiency, outlet air temperature and exergy efficiency
on a comparative basis. Thermodynamic assessment of the proposed solar air heater, shows that thermal efficiency of the wavy
finned solar air heater to be 1.34 times higher than offset rectangular finned solar air heater and 2.66 times higher than plane solar
air heater. The maximum exergy efficiency has been found to be 5.99% for the wavy finned solar air heater. It has also been
observed that the wavy finned solar air heater delivers higher outlet temperature and thermal efficiency in comparison to offset
rectangular finned solar air heater for the same fin spacing. Design plot shows that at fixed value of temperature rise parameter,
wavy finned solar air heater shows higher thermal efficiency followed by offset finned solar air heater and then plane solar air
heater. Overall, both thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of wavy finned solar air heater is superior.

Keywords: Wavy Fin; Solar air heater; Thermal efficiency; Heat transfer

1. Introduction

Flat plate solar air heaters transform solar radiant energy into heat energy of flowing air through the channel duct.
These are commonly used for space heating and crop drying applications. Due to their simple construction, cost
effectiveness and easy maintenance it is more accepted as compared to solar water heater. It also eradicated the
freezing and leakage problem which may encountered by solar water heating systems. The low thermal efficiency
and the low heat storage capacity leads to major drawback of solar air heating systems. Various methods have been
examined with various designs for the enhancement of the performance of solar air heater [1].

Nomenclature
ρ Density of air (kg/m3) k GI Thermal conductivity of G.I sheet (W/mK)
σ Stefan-Boltzmann Constant L' Actual length of wavy fin (m)
λ Wavelength of wavy fin (mm) ka Thermal conductivity of air (W/mK)
(τα) e Effective transmittance absorptance product l Offset length (m)
Ac Collector area (m2) p Porosity
A fr Frontal area (m2) Ub Bottom loss coefficient (W/m2K)
Amp Amplitude of wavy fin (mm) T bm Mean temperature of bottom plate
Ap Area of absorber plate (m2) T pm Mean temperature of absorber plate
Ar Total heat transfer area (m2) S Absorbed Solar Energy (W/m2)
Dh Hydraulic diameter (m) T fo Outlet air temperature (°C)
hr Radiative heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K) Ut Top loss coefficient (W/m2K)
I Intensity of Solar radiation (W/m2) Ts Temperature of Sun (5762K)
hf Height of fin (m) η pm Pump -motor efficiency(0.88)

An effective way to enhance thermal efficiency is the addition of fins along the flow direction. A large number of
comparative studies with various fin geometries have been done under various system and operating conditions. An
effort was made by Garg et al.[2] on the theoretical analysis of finned solar air heater. They evaluated the thermal
performance of the air heater and compared with the conventional air heater with the same duct depth and length.
Better performances were found with the finned solar air heater. Theoretical investigation were done by H.M Yeh

* Corresponding author. Tel. +91-8797181859.

E-mail address:priyamanik06@gmail.com

902
 [3] to find the effect of internal recycle on upward type flat plate solar air heater with fins attached. They found that
the device operated with internal recycle showed better performance than the same size device operated with
external recycle. A mathematical model was developed for solar air heater with slats and improved thermal
performances were found as compared to the conventional type [4]. A steady state mathematical model was
presented for the performance evaluation of single pass solar air heater with fins and baffles attached over the
absorber plate[5]. Their study showed an enhanced performance in comparison to simple conventional device.
Finned and v-corrugated air heaters air heaters were investigated as an effort to improve the performance of
conventional solar air heater and the v-corrugated solar air heater was the efficient among them[6]. A mathematical
model was developed by Youcef Ali et al. to study the performance of solar equipped offset rectangular plate fin
absorber plate[7]. Their study showed that offset strip could provide high convective heat transfer area per unit air
flow volume and low pressure losses of the air heater. Also, an optimization of the thermal performance of the offset
rectangular plate fin was reported with various glazing[8]. A series of steady stage test were conducted by Ming et
al. to show the thermal performance of optimized offset strip fin solar air heater[9]. Higher thermal efficiency were
found with the optimized solar air heater. In many studies, offset fins [10-11] and wavy fins [12-14] were tested and
examined in the heat exchangers. An exergetic performance of a baffled type solar air heater was evaluated to
investigate the effect of variation of fin and baffle parameters[16]. The performance and entropy generation of the
double pass solar air heater with longitudinal fins were studied numerically for a range of system and operating
parameters[17].
In this paper, a theoretical model has been developed to compare the thermal performance of wavy finned solar air
heater to the offset rectangular finned solar air heater. Also an exergy analysis has been done that deals with
irreversibility minimization or maximum energy delivery. Exergy analysis gives more realistic sight of process as
well as more helpful results. The fluid channel is formed by two transversely positioned fins attached to the absorber
plate, bottom side thermally insulated and upper surface of absorber is subjected to uniform heat flux. The thermal
efficiency, outlet air temperature and the exergy analysis efficiency determined for the various fin spacing and the
different mass flow rates for the wavy fin solar air heater and compared with offset fin solar air heater as well as
plane solar air heater.

2. Theoretical analysis

Consider a solar air heater, which has an absorber plate of length 'L' and width 'W' and it is provided with 'n' number
of fins of uniform thickness 'δ f ' and height 'h f ' are spaced at a mean distance of 'w' as shown in fig.1. The geometric
description of a fins have been shown in fig.2.The distance between the absorber plate and bottom plate is 'H'. The
solar air heater used is a single pass between the absorber plate and bottom plate. The steady state efficiency of solar
air heater is given by the following equations, known as Hottel-Whiller-Bliss equation [1]:

Qu
ηth =
Ac xI (1)

The expression for useful energy gain [1] in terms of collector heat removal factor, collector overall loss coefficient
based on the absorber plate and the ambient temperature is expressed as:

Qu = FR Ac ( S − U L (T fi − Ta ) )
(2)

and the absorbed solar energy is defined as:

S = I (τα) e (3)

Also, the collector heat removal factor (F R ) is expressed as [1]:

 p 
mC  − A F 'U L 
=FR 1 − exp  c  
U L Ac   mC 
  p  (4)

903
An empirical relation has been used for calculation of top loss coefficient (U t ) is given by Klein, bottom loss
coefficient (U b ) and side loss coefficient (U s ) [ 18].

and the total loss coefficient is given as:

U L =U t +U b +U s
(5)
Also the collector efficiency factor is expressed as:
−1
 U 
F'= 1+ L 
 he  (6)
Where, h e is the equivalent heat transfer coefficient and can be derived from energy balance equations.

2.1. Conventional solar air heater

The configuration of flat plate collector is shown in fig.1. Energy balances for absorber plate, bottom plate and air
stream are shown in equations (7-9) ;

S - U t (Tpm -Ta ) - h fp (Tpm - Tf ) - h r (Tpm -Tbm ) = 0 (7)

h r (Tpm -Tbm ) - h fb (Tbm - Tf ) - U b (Tbm - Ta ) = 0 (8)
Q u - h fp (Tpm -Tf ) - h fb (Tbm -Tf ) = 0 (9)

Solving the above equations the expression for T bm is

hrTpm + h f bT f
Tbm =
hr + h fb
(10)

Substituting this expression of T bm into equation (7) , we have

S + U LTa + heT f
Tpm =
he + U L
(11)
hr h fb
where, h=
e h fp + (12)
hr + h fb

2.2. Rectangular offset finned solar air heater

The configuration of rectangular offset finned solar air heater is shown in fig.1. Step by step method is used to study
the offset finned air heater. The temperature conditions at the outlet of the previous section is considered as the inlet
of the next section. Considering a single offset section energy balances for absorber plate, bottom plate and air
stream are shown in equations (13-15);

S - U t (Tpm -Ta ) - h fp (Tpm - Tf ) - h r (Tpm -Tbm ) - (2/w)*h f φf h ff (Tpm - Tf ) = 0 (13)

h r (Tpm -Tbm ) - h fb (Tbm - Tf ) - U b (Tbm - Ta ) = 0 (14)
Q u - h fp (Tpm -Tf ) - h fb (Tbm -Tf ) - (2/w)* h f φf h ff (Tpm - Tf ) = 0 (15)

Solving the above equations for the expression of T bm and substituting the expression of T bm in ( 13 ), the
expression for T pm is computed as above and the expression for h e is given as :

904
  2h f φ f h ff  hr h fb
he =
h fp 1 +  +
 wh fp
  hr + h fb (16)

Fig.1 Solar air heater without fin, with offset fin and with wavy fin

Where Φ f is the fin efficiency and can be expressed as

tanh mh f
Φf = (17)
mh f
1
 2h ff  2

where, m =  
 kaδ f 

Fig.
Fig.2 Geometric description and flow representation of an offset fin and a wavy fin

905
 2.3. Wavy finned solar air heater

The configuration of wavy finned solar air heater is shown in fig.1. Let β is the area enhancement factor which is
defined as the heat transfer surface area of wavy fins to that of a plane (flat) rectangular fins of the same height and
length [15]. Energy balances for absorber plate, bottom plate and air stream are shown in equations (18-20).

S - U t (Tpm -Ta ) - h fp (Tpm - Tf ) - h r (Tpm -Tbm ) - (2/w)*h f φf β h ff (Tpm - Tf ) = 0 (18)

h r (Tpm -Tbm ) - h fb (Tbm - Tf ) - U b (Tbm - Ta ) = 0 (19)
Q u - h fp (Tpm -Tf ) - h fb (Tbm -Tf ) - (2/w)* h f φf β h ff (Tpm - Tf ) = 0 (20)

Solving the above equations for the expression of T bm and substituting the expression of T bm in (18), the expression
for T pm is computed and the expression for h e is given as :

 2h f φ f β h ff  hr h fb
he =+
h fp  1 +
 wh fp  hr + h fb (21)

The heat transfer coefficients between air and three sides of duct walls may be assumed to be equal i.e.

Nu.ka
h=
ff h=
fp h=
fb
(22)
Dh

For air the following correlation may be used for laminar flow in a rectangular duct [18],

Dh
0.00398(0.7 Re )1.66
Nu
= 4.4 + L (23)
Dh
1 + 0.00114(0.7 Re )1.12
L
For turbulent flow the correlation may be derived from Kay's data with the modification of Mc Adams for a
rectangular channel as follows [18].

=Nu 0.0158 Re0.8 [1 + ( Dh / L)0.7 ] (24)

and for calculating the Nusselt number, the correlation of the colburn factor (j) is recommended by Manglik and
Bergles[19] and used for rectangular offset fin.

 
−0.1541 0.1
−0.0678 −1.055
w δ f  δ f  −5  w  δf  δf 
0.504
 
0.1499 00.456
−0.5403
j = 0.6522 Re       1 + 5.269 x10       
 hf   l   w    hf   l   w  
(25)

and for calculating the Nusselt number, the correlation of the colburn factor (j) is recommended by Dong et al.[13]
and used for wavy fin.

906
 0.1284 −0.153
−0.2309
w   w  L
−0.326

j = 0.0836 Re       (26)
 hf   2.amp  λ

where j=Nu/Re.Pr1/3

The hydraulic diameter, D h for Plane, offset rectangular and wavy finned solar air heater is;

D h = 4(H x W)/2(H + W) (For plane solar air heater)

(27)

D h = 4(w x h f x l)/[2{(δ f x h f )+(h f x l)+(l x w )} + (δ f x w)] (for offset fin solar air heater)
(28)

D h =4pA fr L/A r (For wavy fin solar air heater)

(29)

where A r , cross sectional area for wavy fin solar air heater;

Ar = ( n x L'x δf ) + ( 2n x L'x h f ) + ( (n+1) x L x w ) (30)

An iterative procedure is established to calculate the mean plate temperature [1].

Qu (1 − FR )
Tpcal= Ta +
APU L FR (31)
First an assumption of mean plate temperature is made from which U L is calculated, with approximate values of F R ,
F' and Q u , a new value of mean plate temperature is obtained from equation (31) and used to calculate a new value
of top loss coefficient and this is repeated until the accuracy of 0.01% is achieved.
The outlet temperature of the collector can be obtained as;

T fo − Ta − S / U L  −A U F '
= exp  C L 
T fi − Ta − S / U L  mC P 
(32)

The friction factor along the collector is:

f=0.079Re-0.25 (Plane solar air heater) (33)

For offset rectangular plate fin Manglik and Bergles [19]developed the expression for f- factor;

 δ f  δ f  
−0.1856 0.1
−0.2659
w δ f  δ f  4.429  w 
0.920

0.3053 3.767 0.236
−7422 −8
f = 9.6243 Re       1 + 7.669 x10 Re       
 hf   l   w    hf   l   w  
(34)

and for wavy fin Dong et al. [13]developed the correlation for f- factor
0.3703 −0.25
−0.309
w   w  L
−0.1152

f = 1.16 Re
 h f   
 2amp 
 
λ
  (35)
The Pressure drop along the collector can be calculated for all three solar air heaters from the relation [1].

907
 4 fL ρ v 2 (36)
∆P =
2 Dh

The exergy efficiency, also called second law efficiency(η II ), of solar air heater is calculated as [16];

  T   T  m ∆P 
mC
 p (To − Ti ) − Ta ln  o   − a  

  Ti   Ti  ρη pm 
η II = (37)
 4  T  1  T 4 
IAp 1 −  a  +  a  
 3  Ts  3  Ts  
 
3. Results and Discussions

In the following section, results of the heat transfer characteristics, thermal performance and exergetic efficiency of
the solar air heater with wavy fin are presented. The numerical calculations were carried out by the suitable values
of the relevant parameters and also taken into account as follows:

I = 900 W/m2, W = 1 m, L = 1.2 m, H = 2.5cm, h f = 2cm, (τα) e = 0.85, δ ins = 5cm, amp= 7.5 mm, λ= 70 mm,
L'=1.725m ,T a = 30°C, T fi = 30°C, l =5cm and V w = 2.5m/s. For the fin spacing (1cm -5cm) and the mass flow
range of 0.0138 kg/s- 0.0833 kg/s, the various performance curves (fig. 3-10) has been plotted.

Fig.3 shows the plot for outlet air temperature as a function of mass flow rate and fin spacing. It clearly indicates ,
the increase in mass flow rate decreases the outlet air temperature for the different fin spacing. Minimum fin spacing
leads to maximum outlet temperature. Upon increasing the air mass flow rate, it picks up less heat and results in low
outlet temperature. It can be seen from fig.4 that the outlet temperature is maximum for the wavy finned solar air
heater followed by offset rectangular finned solar air heater and then plane solar air heater. A maximum of 1.08
times enhancement has been found with the use of offset rectangular finned solar air heater and 1.12 times with the
use of wavy finned solar air heater.

Fig. 5 shows the thermal efficiency curves for wavy finned solar air heater at different fin spacing. It is obvious that
slopes of the efficiency curves increased with increase in fin spacing. wavy fin offers maximum heat transfer area as
well as maximum heat transfer coefficient due to main flow impingement and flow separation along the flow
direction. It can be seen from fig.6 that the heat loss is highest in the plane solar air heater, followed by offset
rectangular finned solar air heater and least in wavy finned solar air heater for the same fin spacing and same mass
flow rate. A maximum enhancement of 1.95 times has been found with the use of offset rectangular fins and

908
 360 wavy fin spacing=1cm 360 wavy fin
wavy fin spacing=2cm offset rectangular fin
wavy fin spacing=4cm plane solar air heater
350 wavy fin spacing=5cm 350
Outlet air temperature (K)

Outlet air temperature (K)

340
340

330
330

320
320

310
310
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09
Mass flow rate (kg/s) Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig.3 Outlet air temperature as a function of mass flow rate Fig.4 Outlet air temperature as a function of mass flow rate
and wavy fin spacing for different solar air heaters (Fin spacing=1cm)

80 80
75
75
70
70 65
Thermal efficiency (%)
Thermal efficiency (%)

65 60
55
60
50
55 45

50 40
35
45 wavy fin spacing=1cm
wavy fin spacing=2cm 30 wavy fin
40 wavy fin spacing=4cm offset rectangular fin
25
wavy fin spacing=5cm plane solar air heater
35 20
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09

Mass flow rate (kg/s) Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig.5 Thermal efficiency as a function of mass flow Fig.6 Thermal efficiency as a function of mass flow rate for
rate and wavy fin spacing different solar air heaters (Fin spacing=1cm)

80 80
wavy fin spacing=1cm wavy fin
wavy fin spacing=2cm offset rectangular fin
wavy fin spacing=4cm 70 plane solar air heater
70 wavy fin spacing=5cm
Thermal efficiency (%)

Thermal efficiency (%)

60
60

50

50
40

40
30

30 20
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
2
[(To-Ti)/I] (W/m K) [(To-Ti)/I] (W/m2K)

909
 Fig. 7 Thermal efficiency as a function of temperature rise parameter Fig.8 Thermal efficiency as a function of temperature rise
and wavy fin spacing parameter for different solar air heaters (Fin spacing=1cm)

6 6
wavy fin spacing=1cm wavy fin
wavy fin spacing=2cm offset rectangular fin
wavy fin spacing=4cm 5
plane solar air heater
5
wavy fin spacing=5cm

Exergy efficiency (%)

4
Exergy efficiency (%)

3
2

2
1

1 0
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09

Mass flow rate (kg/s) Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig.9 Exergy efficiency as a function of mass flow rate and Fig. 10 Exergy efficiency as a function of mass flow rate
wavy fin spacing for different solar air heaters(Fin spacing=1cm)
reaches 2.62 times with the use of wavy fins as compared to plane solar air heater.

Fig.7 shows the plot for thermal efficiency as a function of temperature rise parameter and the wavy fin spacing. It
can be seen from curve that for entire range of temperature rise parameter, wavy fin spacing of 1cm yields
maximum thermal efficiency. For a particular value of wavy fin spacing, thermal efficiency decreases with the
increase in temperature rise parameter. It can also be observed from fig.8 that for the entire range of temperature rise
parameter, maximum thermal efficiency has been obtained for wavy finned solar air heater. The waveforms in the
flow direction provides effective interruptions to flow and induces very complex flows. The augmentation is due to
Goertler vortices which form as the fluid passage over the concave wave surfaces.

Fig.9 shows the variation of exergy efficiency with mass flow rate for various fin spacing. It shows that the
decreasing the fin spacing leads to increase in exergy efficiency at the mass flow rate less than 0.054 kg/s. The
improvement is due to enhanced heat transfer area as well as enhanced heat transfer coefficient. From the fig.10 it
clearly states that for the entire mass flow rate, exergy efficiency decreases for wavy finned solar air heater as well
as offset rectangular finned solar air heater. This may be due to increase exergy destruction in the flow channel due
to high pressure drop. Noninterrupted walls in each flow channel of wavy fins are likely to catch particulates and
foul than the offset fins. The competitive performance of offset fins with wavy fins continues to fall friction factor
leads to increase in pressure drop at higher mass flow rates for wavy fins.

4. Validation

In order to verify the accuracy & reliability of the present results, a comparison is made with the results available in
the literature. Fig. 11 shows the variation of thermal efficiency for the plane, offset finned and wavy finned solar air
heater. Although an underestimation is observed but the agreement between the present result and that of Youcef Ali
et al. [7] and Karim et al. [6] is good. A deviation of 4.72% has been found as compared to the analyzed plane solar
air heater of Karim et al. Also a deviation of 6.48% has been found as compared to the analyzed offset fin solar air
heater of Youcef Ali et al. The variation is because in the case of forced convection, the physical properties of air as
a function of temperature plays the main role. Therefore, this underestimation can be imputed to the difference
between the function which are used by Youcef Ali et al. and Karim et al. to evaluate physical properties of air and
operating conditions, which are employed in this study.

910
 80

70

60

Thermal efficiency (%)

50

40

30 Plane SAH(Karim et al.)

Offset fin SAH(Youcef Ali et al.)
20 Offset fin SAH (Present work)
Plane SAH (Present work)
Wavy fin SAH (Present work)
10
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08

Fig.11 Comparison of Plane, offset and wavy fin solar air heater with the available results in literature

5. Conclusion

In this paper, a comparative performance study of solar air heaters with offset rectangular fins and wavy fins has
been done. On the basis of the present study the following conclusions are made:-

1. The wavy finned solar air heater lengthen the air flow path which results better air flow mixing and thus
increased heat transfer and results to high efficiency.
2. Considerable improvement in air outlet temperature and thermal efficiency has been obtained in the both
solar air heaters for the same spacing.
3. For a particular value of temperature rise parameter, wavy finned solar air heater showed highest thermal
efficiency followed by offset rectangular fin solar air heater and plane solar air heater respectively.
4. Exergy efficiency decreases with the increase in mass flow rate in all solar air heaters.
5. It is found that wavy fin solar air heater is the most promisable for high temperature output, thermal
efficiency and exergy efficiency.

6. References
1. Duffie J.A and Beckman W.A. Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes, New York: Wiley; 1980.
2. Garg H.P, Datta G, Bhargava A.K. Performance studies on a finned- air heater. Energy. 1989; 14(2): 87-92.
3. Yeh H.M. Upward-type flat-plate solar air heaters attached with fins and operated by an internal recycling for improved performance.
Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. 2012;43: 235–240
4. Ammari H.D. A mathematical model of thermal performance of a solar air heater with slats. Renewable Energy.2003:28; 1597–1615
5. Mohammadi K, Sabzpooshani M. Comprehensive performance evaluation and parametric studies of single pass solar air heater with
fins and baffles attached over the absorber plate. Energy. 2013; 57: 741-750.
6. Karim M.A and Hawlader MNA. Performance investigation of flat plate, v- corrugated and finned air collectors. Energy. 2006; 31:
452-470.
7. Youcef Ali S., Desmons J.Y. Numerical and experimental study of a solar equipped with offset rectangular plate fin absorber plate.
Renewable Energy. 2006; 31: 2063-2075.
8. Youcef-Ali S. Study and optimization of the thermal performances of the offset rectangular plate fin absorber plates with various
glazing. Renewable Energy. 2005;30(2):271–80.
9. Ming Yang, Xudong Yang, Xing Li, Zhifeng Wang, Pengsu Wang. Design and optimization of a solar air heater with offset strip fin
absorber plate. Applied Energy. 2014;113: 1349–1362 .
10. London AL, Shah RK. Offset rectangular plate-fin surfaces-heat transfer and flow friction characteristics. Journal of Engineering for
Power. 1968; 90:218–28.
11. Joshi HM, Webb RL. Heat transfer and friction in the offset strip-fin heat exchanger. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 1987;30:69–84
12. Junqi Dong, Jiangping Chen, Wenfeng Zhang, Jinwei Hu. Experimental and numerical investigation of thermal -hydraulic
performance in wavy fin-and-flat tube heat exchangers. Applied Thermal Engineering. 2010; 30: 1377–1386.
13. Dong Junqi, Chen Jiangping, Chen Zhijiu, Zhou Yimin, Zhang Wenfeng. Heat transfer and pressure drop correlations for the wavy fin
and flat tube heat exchangers. Applied Thermal Engineering. 2007; 27: 2066–2073.

911
14. Junqi Dong, Lin Su, Qian Chen, Weiwu Xu. Experimental study on thermal–hydraulic performance of a wavy fin-and-flat tube
aluminium heat exchanger" Applied Thermal Engineering. 2013; 51: 32–39.
15. Choudhary C., Andersen S.L and Rekstad J.A solar air heater for low temperature applications. Solar Energy. 1988; 40(4): 335-343.
16. Sabzpooshani M., Mohammadi K, Khorasanizadeh H. Exergetic performance evaluation of a single pass baffled solar air heater.
Energy. 2014:64 ;697-706.
17. Paisarn Naphon. On the performance and entropy generation of the double- pass solar air heater with longitudinal fins. Renewable
Energy. 2004; 30: 1345-1357.
18. Krieder J.F and Krieth. Principles of Solar Engineering. 2nd Edition, New York: McGraw Hill Book Company;1978
19. Shah R.K , Sekulic D.P Fundamentals of Heat Exchanger Design. Wiley: pp-516.

912
 ICAER-2015

Thermohydraulic performance of solar air heater equipped with

wavy fin absorber plate
Deepika Shaw1*, Abhishek Priyam2 , Raviranjan Kumar Singh3
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, R.T.C Institute of Technology, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

Department of Mechanical Engineering, N.I.T Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India

2,3

Abstract

In the present paper, thermohydraulic performance of plane as well as wavy fin absorber solar air heater has been
investigated. A mathematical model is presented and compared with the plane solar air heater. Wavy fin has been used as an
extended surface which increases the heat transfer area simultaneously increasing heat transfer coefficient due to its wavy
shape without increasing the size. The effect of mass flow rate and the fin pitch were investigated on the thermohydraulic
performance. A maximum enhancement of 1.86 times in thermal efficiency and 1.65 times in thermohydraulic efficiency
has been found for higher mass flow rate and the lower fin spacing. For all the cases, the thermal and effective efficiencies
increased with the increase in mass flow rate and decrease in fin spacing. The mathematical model provides reasonable
predictions of the performance of wavy fin solar air heater and can be a useful in designing such type of solar air heater with
wavy fins within the investigation range.

Keywords: Solar air heater; Wavy fin; Friction factor; Thermohydraulic efficiency

1.Introduction

Energy is an essential requirement for the social and economical growth of any country. The flat plate collectors
converts the insolation into heat energy which is then extracted by the fluid flow in the collector.[18] Due to the
lower thermo physical properties of air (used as fluid in solar air heater) extended surfaces like fins and baffles,
roughened absorber or packed bed are used to enhance the heat transfer rate without the increase in size[19].

Thermal performance of three different absorber plate double flow solar air heaters by using aluminium cans in
zig-zag way, order and without cans were investigated experimentally for different mass flow rates[15].
Another investigation were also carried on three different solar air heaters of without fins and double glass
cover, double glass cover with fins and single glass cover with fins[5].The energy and exergy analysis of these
solar air heaters showed that the double glass cover with fins was most effective and the highest difference
between the inlet and outlet temperatures were achieved. El-Khawajah et al.[7] investigated on a double pass
solar air heater using 2,4 and 6 transverse fins and wire mesh as an absorber. Results showed that the efficiency
enhanced with the increase in number of fins. An investigation on double pass- finned plate solar air heater with
finned and v-corrugated plate to determine the thermal performance. [8]An experimental investigation were
done to analyse performance of five types of solar air collectors viz. corrugated , reverse corrugated, trapeze,
reverse trapeze and base air heater.[1] Performance of the single pass air heater with fins and baffles attached
over the absorber plate were evaluated by Mohammadi et al[14]. Theoretical and experimental studied by
Choudhary and Garg[4] , Garg and Dutta[9] to investigate five types of configuration and fin type solar air
heater respectively. Double pass finned, double glazing and the conventional solar air heater were analysed and
the highest efficiency for the double pass finned were achieved[2]. Thermal performance of a single pass solar
air heater with and without fins were investigated on different mass flow rates. In many studies, [5,10-13,16-
17]wavy fins were tested in heat exchangers experimentally as well as theoretically or both. In the view of
above the present work has been chosen to study the thermal performances of solar air heater with the use of
plate and wavy fins below the absorber plate.

In this paper, a numerical study of a solar collector is presented. The studied collector is provided with wavy
fins placed in the air channel duct. These wavy fins are oriented along the air flow and are below the absorber
plate. They are characterized by high heat transfer area per unit volume i.e Compact heat Exchangers[21]. These
increases the heat transfer area as well as heat transfer coefficient by swirl flow inside duct
Corresponding author, Tel.: +91 8102367547.
E-mail address: shawdeepika6@gmail.com (Deepika Shaw)

913
 .
A C++ program code is developed for the theoretical model to determine the thermal performances of solar air
heater. It determines the collector efficiencies, friction factor and the temperature difference along the collector
at different mass flow rate. A comparative analysis of the results obtained in the case of finned solar air heater
and those of base flat plate solar air heater is also presented.

Nomenclature
Ac Collector area (m2) η tr Transmission efficiency (0.92)
A fr Minimum free flow area (m2) Vw Wind velocity (m/s)
Ap Area of absorber plate (m2) T pcal Calculated Mean plate temperature (K)
Ar Total heat transfer area (m2) N Number of fins
G Mass velocity (kg/s/m2) N gc Number of glass covers
Cp Specific heat at constant pressure (J/kgK) p Porosity
Dh Hydraulic diameter (m) Pm Mechanical Power (W)
Hw Wind heat transfer coefficient T fo Outlet air temperature (°C)
I Intensity of Solar radiation (W/m2) S Absorbed Solar Energy (W/m2)
ka Thermal conductivity of air (W/mK) Ta Ambient Temperature (°C)
h fb Convective heat transfer coefficient between air T fi Inlet air temperature (°C)
and bottom plate(W/m2K)
h ff Convective heat transfer coefficient between air ∆P Pressure drop (N/m2)
to air(W/m2K)
h fp Convective heat transfer coefficient between air ρ Density of air (kg/m3)
and absorber plate(W/m2K)
k ins Thermal conductivity of insulating material m Mass flow rate (kg/hr)
(W/mK)
L Pitch of the fin (m) β Collector tilt angle (°)
L1 ' Actual length of wavy fin (m) ηm Motor efficiency (0.88)
T pm Mean plate temperature (K) εP Absorber plate emissivity(0.95)
T sky Sky temperature (K) δ ins Thickness of insulation (m)
Ub Bottom loss coefficient (W/m2K) (τα) e Effective transmittance absorptance
product
UL Total loss coefficient (W/m2K) εC Emissivity of glass cover (0.88)
Ut Top loss coefficient (W/m2K) η eff Effective efficiency/ Thermohydraulic
efficiency
v Average air velocity (m/s) Φf Fin efficiency
η Th Thermal efficiency of power plant (0.35) δf Thickness of fin (m)
η th Thermal efficiency of solar air heater ηf Fan efficiency (0.65)

2. Theoretical analysis

The flat plate collector solar air heater used is a single pass between below the absorber plate and the bottom
plate. The wavy fin increases the thermal performances of the flat plate collector, which increases the outlet
temperature.

By introducing the collector overall loss coefficient between the absorber and the ambient air U L , the useful
energy gain is given as[18];

QU = AP FR [ S − U L (T f i − Ta )] (1)

the collector heat removal factor is given by

 P 
 mC  −U L AP F '  
=FR   1 − exp  
 U L AP    mC P  (2)

the collector efficiency factor can be expressed by

−1
 U 
F = 1 + L 
'

 he  (3)

914
The effective heat transfer coefficient can be calculated from the energy balance equations of wavy fin solar air
heater.
Consider a solar air heater has an absorber plate of length 'L1' and width 'L2' and provided with 'n' number of
wavy fins of uniform thickness 'δ f ' and height 'h f ' are spaced at a mean distance of 'L' as shown in fig.1 and the
geometrical description of a wavy fin has been shown in fig.2.The distance between the absorber plate and
bottom plate is 'w'.

Fig.1 Solar air heater with wavy fin absorber Fig.2 Geometrical description of wavy fin

Let β' is the area enhancement factor which is defined as the heat transfer surface area of wavy fins to that of
plane (flat) rectangular fins of same height and length [19]. Consider a slice of average width L and thickness
dx at a distance x from inlet, then the energy balance equations for the absorber plate, the bottom plate and the
air flowing in between can be written respectively as:

S .L.dx U t .L.dx(Tpm − Ta ) + h fp .L.dx(Tpm − T f ) + h ff .2.L f .dx.β '.Φ f (Tpm − T f ) + hr .L.dx(Tpm − Tbm ) (4)
=
hr .L.dx(Tpm=
− Tbm ) h fb .L.dx(Tbm − T f ) + U b .L.dx(Tbm − Ta ) (5)

 L 
  m .C=
p .dT f h fb .L.dx(Tbm − T f ) + h fp .L.dx(Tpm − T f ) + 2 L f .dx.Φ f .β '.h ff (Tpm − T f ) (6)
 L2 
Where Φ f is the effectiveness of fins and can be expressed as
tanh mLf
Φf = (7)
mLf
1
 2h ff  2

where, m =  
 kaδ f 
On solving the above energy equations Substitution of the value of T bm in equation (6) yields to the plate
temperature
 2 L f .Φ f .β '.h ff    hrTpm − h fbT f  
S U L (Tpm − Ta ) + h fp +
=  (Tpm − T f ) + hr Tpm −    (8)
 w    hr + h fb  

915
 S + U LTa + heT=
f Tpm (U L + he ) (9)
Where h e is an effective heat transfer coefficient between the absorber plate and air stream which can be written
as;

  2 L f β ' φf h ff  hr h fb 
 h + +
  h + h 

1
 
he= fp
L h fp  r fb 
(10)
For the plane solar air heater, β=0 and the equation (10) reduces to

hr h fb
h=
e h fp + (11)
hr + h fb

An empirical relation for calculation of top loss coefficient is given by Klein [20]

−1
   
   
 N gc 1   σ (Tpm + Ta )(Tpm + Ta )
2 2

=Ut  + +
 
H N + f + 
  C   Tpm − Ta 
0.33
W  1 2 ' 1
   + gc − N gc 
  Tpm   Ngc + f '    ε p + 0.05 N gc (1 − ε p ) εc 
   (12)
where
f '=
(1 + 0.04 HW + 0.0005 HW2 )(1 + 0.091N gc )
C= 365.9(1 − 0.00883β + 0.0001298β 2 )
H=
W 5.7 + 3.8VW
The radiative heat transfer coefficient hr is calculated by

( )
hr =σε p Tpm2 + Tsky2 (Tpm + Tsky ) (13)

where

Tsky = 0.0552Ta1.5

The bottom loss coefficient is given by

K ins
Ub = (14)
δ ins
Total loss coefficient is

U=
L Ut + Ub (15)
An iterative procedure is established to calculate the mean plate temperature.

Qu (1 − FR )
Tpcal= Ta + (16)
APU L FR
First an assumption of mean plate temperature is made from which U L is calculated, with approximate values of
F R , F' and Q u , a new value of mean plate temperature is obtained from equation (16) and used to calculate a new
value of top loss coefficient.

916
 The outlet temperature of the collector can be obtained from an energy balance as

T fo − Ta − S  −A U F '
(17)
UL
= exp  C L 
T fi − Ta − S  mC P 
UL
For the forced convection heat transfer, average heat transfer coefficient is given by
NuK a
h=
fp h f=
f h=
fb
(18)
Dh
For calculating the Nusselt number, the correlation of the colburn factor (j) is recommended [22] and used for
wavy fin and plate heat exchangers.

j = 0.24 Re −0.425 ; for 400<Re<3000; Pr= 0.699 (19)

Reynolds number is defined as

GDh
Re = (20)
µ
Mass velocity is given by Kays and London[21]

m
G= (21)
3600 * A fr * P
Total heat transfer area is given as,

=Ar (n * L1' * δ f ) + (2* n * L1' * L f ) + ((n + 1) * L1 * L) (22)

The hydraulic diameter is given by the relation[21]

4* P * Af r * L1
Dh =
Ar
(23)
Thermal efficiency of the collector is given as
Qu
ηth =
AC * I (24)
The fanning friction factor[22] which is responsible for pressure drop is given as
f = 1.08 Re −0.425 (25)

Thermohydraulic performance of a solar air heater can be evaluated based upon effective efficiency as per the
following relationship reported by Ahmed et al.,[25] ;

Pm
Qu −
ηeff = c
IAC (26)

where "P m " is mechanical energy consumption to overcome the friction and computed by the relation

m ∆P
Pm = (27)
3600* ρ
Factor "c" is used to convert mechanical energy in to thermal energy which can be calculated as[25];

917
c = ηThη frηmη f (28)

Pressure drop across the duct can be computed as;

4 fL v 2 ρ
∆P = 1 (29)
2 Dh
where ν can be calculated by the relation

m
v=
3600* ρ * Afr
(30)

3.Validation of mathematical model

Thermal efficiency determined from computational data for plane solar air heater and wavy finned solar air
heater have been compared with the experimental values obtained from Karim et al.[23]and Karwa et al.[24] for
the thermal efficiency. The comparison of theoretical and available experimental results of thermal efficiency
for the same parameters have been shown in fig.3. The average deviation of theoretical values of thermal
efficiency is ±5.2% from the experimental results of Karwa et al. [23] and ±6.92% from the experimental
values of Karim et al.[24] for plane solar air heater. This shows good agreement between the calculated results
and the available experimental results, which makes sure the perfection of the data collected with mathematical
modelling.

Fig.3 Efficiency comparison between wavy finned solar air heater with some solar air heaters in literature

4. Results and discussion

With the help of mathematical modelling, the effects of mass flow rate and fin spacing on the collector
efficiency factor, collector heat removal factor, outlet temperature, thermal efficiency and thermohydraulic
efficiency has been found. For the fin spacing of 0.01m - 0.04m and the mass flow range of 0.006kg/s-
0.0194kg/s, the various graphs (fig.4-8) has been plotted. System and operating parameters used in the analysis

918
are listed in table 1.

Table-1 System and operational parameters

System Parameters Range/Value Operational Parameters Range/Value
Collector Length/ Absorber Length (L 1 ) 1.2m Ambient Temperature(T a ) 30°C
Collector width/ Absorber width (L 2 ) 0.4m Wind Velocity(V w ) 2.5 m/s
Distance between Absorber plate and 0.025m Intensity of solar radiation (I) 950 w/m2
bottom plate (W)
No. of glass cover 1 Air inlet temperature(T fi ) 30°C
(τα) e 0.85 0.006kg/s-
Mass flow rate 0.0194kg/s
ε p =ε b 0.95
Fin height (L f ) 0.022m
Fin thickness (δ f) 0.008m
Actual length of fin (L 1 ') 1.5m
Thermal conductivity of insulation (k ins ) 0.1W/mK
Thermal conductivity of air (k a ) 0.029W/mK
Thickness of insulation(δ ins ) 0.05m
εc 0.88
Thickness of glass cover (δ gc ) 0.004m
Fin pitch (L) 0.01m-0.04m

Fig.4 indicates that as the mass flow rate increases the collector efficiency factor also increases. This may
because the effective heat transfer coefficient increases as the fluid temperature increases with the increase in
mass flow rate although the increase in total loss coefficient is very low. The maximum value of F' is found as
0.9928 for the mass flow rate of 0.0194 and fin spacing of 0.01m as compared to 0.70 for the same mass flow
rate and without fins. For the higher fin spacing the collector efficiency factor decreases.

1.0
0.9
0.9
Collector heat removal factor (FR)
Collector Efficiency Factor (F')

0.8
0.8
0.7
0.7
0.6
0.6
wavy fin(L=0.01m)
wavy fin(L=0.01m) 0.5 wavy fin(L=0.02m)
wavy fin(L=0.02m) wavy fin(L=0.025m)
0.5 wavy fin(L=0.025m) wavy fin(L=0.04m)
wavy fin(L=0.04m) without fin
without fin
0.4
0.4
0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020
Mass flow rate(kg/s) Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig.4 Collector efficiency factor vs Mass flow rate Fig.5 Collector heat removal factor vs Mass flow rate

Collector heat removal factor indicates the thermal resistance encountered by the absorbed solar radiation to
reach collector fluid. It also increases with increasing mass flow rate and fin spacing. The maximum value
obtained is 0.9284 for 0.01m fin spacing and mass flow rate of 0.0194kg/s (fig.5).

Based on the data collected through the computational process for a range of various mass flow rate and fin
spacing, the graphs for thermal efficiency has been plotted. Fig.6 shows that for entire range of mass flow rate ,
fin spacing of 0.01m yield maximum efficiency in a range of 66.6% to 78.9% with the wavy fin. It can be
observed that for the entire range of mass flow rate and fin spacing, maximum mass flow rate with the minimum

919
fin spacing shows maximum efficiency. Because at this value the heat transfer area (due to fin) as well as the
heat transfer coefficient (due to swirl flow) is maximum. It can be observed from the fig. that an enhancement of
59.0% to 41.95% of the thermal efficiency when increasing mass flow from 0.006 kg/s to 0.0194 kg/s as
compared to plane solar air heater.

80 50
wavy fin(L=0.01m)
wavy fin(L=0.02m)
45 wavy fin(L=0.025m)
wavy fin(L=0.04m)
70 without fin
40
Thermal Efficiency (%)

60
35

Tfo-Tfi(K)
30
50
25

20
40
wavy fin (L=0.01m) 15
wavy fin (L=0.02m)
wavy fin (L=0.025m)
30 wavy fin (L=0.04m) 10
without fin

0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020
Mass flow rate (kg/s) Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig.6 Thermal efficiency vs Mass flow rate Fig.7 Temperature rise vs Mass flow rate

A numerous data has been obtained by the computational process. For a range of mass flow rate, the difference
between outlet fluid temperature and the inlet fluid temperature, graph (fig. 7) has been plotted. For all spacing,
the temperature differences decrease with the increase in mass flow rate. This is because with the increase in
mass flow rate the inlet fluid is unable to pick up the heat from the collector which leads to lower outlet
temperature. But as the fin spacing decreases the heat transfer area enhances and leads to higher outlet
temperature at lower mass flow rate. The maximum difference in temperature is calculated as 46.89K and
minimum as 17.37 K for the fin spacing 0.01m.However This value is 22.73K and 9K respectively. So an
enhancement of 52.6% and 48.18% has been found with spacing 0.01m and mass flow rate of 0.006kg/s and
0.0194kg/s respectively.

80
80

70

60 60
Efficiency(%)
Efficiency (%)

50

40
40
Thermal efficiency Thermohydraulic efficiency
of wavy fin(L=0.01m) of Plane surface
30 Thermohydraulic efficiency Thermal efficiency of
of wavy fin (L=0.01m) wavy fin(L=0.0125m)
Thermohydraulic efficiency Thermohydraulic efficiency of
of Plane surface
wavy fin(L=0.0125m)

20
0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020
Mass flow rate (kg/s) Mass flow rate(kg/s)

Fig. 8 (a) Efficiency vs Mass flow rate (Pitch=0.01m) Fig. 8 (b) Efficiency vs Mass flow rate (Pitch=0.0125m)

Based on the data collected by using computational method, for an entire range of various mass flow rate and fin
spacing, graphs has been drawn as shown in fig.8. It can be seen in fig.8 (a-d) that the thermohydraulic
efficiency increases with increase in mass flow rate. However the thermohydraulic efficiency of the plane
surface also follow the same trend. It can be seen from fig.8(a), there is a separation between thermal and
thermohydraulic efficiencies from initial at mass flow rate of 0.006kg/s, but for all other [8(b-d)]cases
separation starts after at higher mass flow rate. This may happen due to the fact that up to maxima the effect of
heat transfer surface area and the heat transfer coefficient was dominating as compared to friction. But as the
maximum efficiency is reached, reverse domination starts. For the fig.8(b-d), the domination of friction is more
from initial itself but as the spacing is increased the thermohydraulic efficiency start overlapping the thermal
efficiency up till some mass flow rate. But after reaching the maximum value friction domination starts.

920
 80
70

70 65

60

60 55
Efficiency (%)

Efficiency (%)
50
50
45

40
40
Thermohydraulic efficiency Thermal efficiency
35 of wavy fin (L=0.04m)
of Plane surface
Thermal efficiency of Thermohydraulic efficiency
wavy fin(L=0.016m) of wavy fin (L=0.04m)
30 Thermohydraulic efficiency of
30 Thermohydraulic efficiency
wavy fin(L=0.016m) of Plane surface

25
0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.020
Mass flow rate(kg/s) Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig. 8(c) Efficiency vs Mass flow rate (Pitch=0.016m) Fig. 8(d) Efficiency vs Mass flow rate (Pitch=0.04m)

5. Conclusions

In this paper the effect of mass flow rate and fin pitch on the thermal and thermohydraulic performance of plain
as well as wavy fin absorber solar air heater has been investigated numerically. Thermal efficiency and
effective efficiency have been used to evaluate the thermal and thermohydraulic performance of solar air heater.
On the basis of previous discussions the following conclusions may be drawn :

1. The developed mathematical model provides reasonable predictions of the performance of a plate and
wavy fin solar air heater.
2. The value of temperature rise, thermal efficiency, collector efficiency factor, collector heat removal
factor and the thermohydraulic efficiency has been obtained from analytical equations for wavy fin
solar air heater.
3. The various performance parameters of wavy finned solar air heater has been compared with the
corresponding values of plane solar air heater.
4. It has been found that the wavy finned absorber solar air heater give higher values of thermal efficiency
and temperature rise in comparison to corresponding flat plate collector operating under similar
conditions. The percentage enhancement of these parameters has been found to be 59.0% to 41.95%
and 52.6% to 48.18% at mass flow rate of 0.006kg/s and 0.0194kg/s with fin spacing of 0.01m.
5. Increasing the air flow rate through the solar air heater results in higher collector efficiency but also
increase in pressure drop.
6. The use of plate and wavy fins increased the heat transfer surface area as well as heat transfer
coefficient in order to improve the thermal performance of solar air heater.

References
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Renewable Energy,2013, 50: 58-67.
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922
 ICAER-2015

Li adsorption and diffusion on 3D metallic T6 Carbon: First

Principles study
A. Rajkamal, V. Kathirvel, Ranjit Thapa*
SRM Research Institute, SRM University, Kattankulathur603203, Tamil Nadu, India

*Corresponding author: ranjit.phy@gmail.com, ranjit.t@res.srmuniv.ac.in, Tel: +91-44-2741-7918, Fax: +91-

44-2745-6702

Abstract

The 3d metallic carbon allotropes can be used as a new class of anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. However,

the existing carbon allotropes are not stable after few intercalation and de-intercalation process and hence the technology

need further development of new anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. In this work, the energetics and dynamics of

lithium atoms in a unique phase of T6 carbon have been studied on the basis of first principles calculation and it is found to

be capable of storing lithium. The adsorption energy of a lithium atom on (001) surface of T6 carbon structure is higher than

the pristine graphene surface and the diffusion along the surface is more feasible.

Keywords: Lithium Ion Battery, 3D Carbon structure, Adsorption, Diffusion, DFT.

Introduction

The most promising types of rechargeable Lithium ion battery (Lib) usages are increasing drastically in systems

such as electric vehicles, space and aircraft power system1-2 and even stationary power storage due to their reliable, safe,

long life time and high energy density. The higher charge capacity and better cycling performance for Lib’s are the main

challenge in this field to search new materials. The carbon in graphite material can feasibly intercalate with Li atom, due to

this reason graphite has been widely used as an anode material in Lib’s since it is commercialized by sony in 19903-4. Even

though lithium intercalated graphite of anode materials in Libs have low theoretical capacity of 372 mAhg−1 with

stoichiometry of LiC 6 ,5-7 the motivations of choosing carbonaceous material are low-cost, environmental friendly, higher

cycle life and the low operational voltage8. So, demands are increasing for practical electricity production for a new substrate

of anodes is expected to be explored to show better kinetics and adsorption energy of Li atom. With this discrepancy of

anode materials based on carbon in Lib’s, we have carried out the first-principles calculations based on DFT to study the

lithium adsorption and diffusion on T6 (001). In this work, we report that the unique phases of 3D metallic T6 Carbon with a

high symmetric space group (P42/mmc) structure that has the metallic behaviour. To confirm this, we calculated the band

structure and density of state (DOS) of unit cell of T6 carbon structure. Then, we try to unveil T6 carbon as anode materials

of Lib’s by considering (001) plane and studied the adsorption and diffusion aspects of Li adsorption.

923
2 computational details

We performed the calculations using spin polarized density functional theory based PWSCF code as in Quantum

ESPRESSO distribution.9 The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) was employed for the exchange and correlation

effects at Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE).10 The nudged elastic band (NEB) method11 was used to find the barrier energy

and the images are relaxed until the forces perpendicular to the minimum energy path are less than 0.05 eV/Å. We used

(3x3x1) supercells and 20 Å vacuum along c-axis as the model geometry to explain our results.

3 Results and discussion

3.1 metallicity of T6 carbon

The relaxed structure of T6 carbon unit cell is shown in fig.1, which is tetragonal cell containing six carbon atoms.

This structure has two chemically non-equivalent atomic Wyckoff positions, in which 2f (1/2,1/2,1/4) site is occupied by the

sp3 hybridized carbon atoms denoted as C1 and 4i(1/2,0.1118) site is occupied by sp2 hybridized carbon atoms denoted as

C2. In the relaxed structure of T6 carbon unit cell, the bond lengths of C1-C2 and C2-C2 atoms are 1.542 and 1.342 Å

respectively. So it has been clear from the results that the C1-C2 atoms have elongated single σ bonds and C2-C2 atoms

have double (σ + π) bonds. The metallic nature of the T6 carbon could be confirmed from the band structure and density of

states as shown in fig.1 (b) and fig.2. The Fermi level crosses the highest occupied band in the Brillouin zone. From the

projected density of states (PDOS) of C1 and C2 type atoms, it has been observed that the state of C2 atoms (sp2 hybridized)

mainly contributed near/at Fermi level, whereas almost there is no state of C1 atoms (sp3 hybridized) at the Fermi level. Our

results agree with the previous work12 and we establish the origin of metallicity of T6 carbon. In the calculation of charge

density, we found out that the main contribution to the charge density comes from the C2 atoms, and the electrons in their p y

orbitals form a delocalized network respectively along the (001) directions. Due to this reason, we calculated the energetics

and kinetics of Li along the T6 (001) surface.

3.2 Adsorption and diffusion on T6 (001) surface

The geometry and adsorption energy of lithium atom along the T6 (001) surface are obtained by relaxing the

structure. Fig.2 shows the potential energy curve of Li atom approaching towards the top site of T6 (001) surface and it

shows that the minimum potential energy is at a distance of 2.17Å. We consider three adsorption sites on T6 (001) surface

viz. top, tetrahedral and centre C 4 sites. Li atom tends to adsorbed more strongly on the top site of T6 (001) surface among

all the three sites. Henceforth we consider the case for Li diffusion from the one site to the neighbouring site. Fig 3

demonstrate the diffusion energy of Li atom from centre-C 4 site to top site, top site to tetrahedral site and tetrahedral site to

centre-C 4 site. We can see that the energy barrier for Li diffusion from top site to tetrahedral site is less (0.03 eV) when

compared to Li diffusion from top site to centre-C 4 site 0.16 eV, but both are in lower range. This suggests that the Li atom

924
can diffuse easily from the one site to another neighbouring site of T6 (001) surface, which will help in easy migration along

the plane.

Conclusion

The first principles calculations were performed to study the Li adsorption and diffusion on T6 (001) surface. Our

results show that Li atom prefers the centre of tetragonal four carbons. The point defects enhance the Li adsorption energy

significantly. From the energy barrier calculation, we find that the in-plane migration of Li atom from top site to centre C4

site is feasible with very low energy barriers. Form these kinematics and energetics study we suggest that the T6 (001)

would be a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries with high mobility.

References

[1] G. Pistoia Ed, Elsevier 5 (1994) 137-165.

[2] J.R. Dahn, T. Zheng, Y. Liu, J.S. Xue, Science 270 (1995) 590–593.

[3] T. Nagaura, K. Tozawa, Prog. Batteries Sol. Cells 9 (1990) 209–213.

[4] Y. Nishi, Chem. Rec. 1 (2001) 406–413.

[5] J.M. Tarascon, M. Armand, Nature 414 (2001) 359-367.

[6] Y. Nishi, J. Power Sources 100 (2001) 101-106.

[7] K. Persson, V.A. Sethuraman, L.J. Hardwick, Y. Hinuma, Y.S. Meng, A. van der Ven, V. Srinivasan, R. Kostecki, G. Ceder

J. Phys.Chem. Lett. 1 (2010) 1176-1180.

[8] Jiajun Chen, Materials 6 (2013) 156-183.

[9] Paolo Giannozzi, Stefano Baroni, Nicola Bonini, Matteo Calandra, Roberto Car, Carlo Cavazzoni, Davide Ceresoli, Guido L Chiarotti,

Matteo Cococcioni, Ismaila Dabo, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 21 (2009) 39.

[10] J. P. Perdew, K. Burke, M. Ernzerhof, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 (1996) 3865-3868.

[11] G. Henkelman, B. P. Uberuaga, H. J´onsson, J. Chem. Phys. 113 (2000) 9901-9904.

[12] S. Zhang, Q. Wang, X. Chen, P. Jena, PNAS 110 (2013) 18809-18813.

925
Figure 1. (a) Represents simple tetragonal primitive cell of T6 carbon containing six C atoms. Yellow
coloured sphere represent the sp3 hybridized carbon atom denoted as C1 and C2 carbon atoms are sp2
hybridized which is represented as grey colour. (b) Electronic band structures of T6-carbon structure
and (c) & (d) demonstrate the PDOS of C1 and C2 atoms of T6-carbon respectively. The red, violet,
black, green and dash lines are indicates PDOS of s, p x , p y & p z states of the carbon atom and Fermi
level position respectively.

926
Figure 2: Potential energy curve for Li approaching towards the T6 (001) surface considering the top

site. The reaction coordinate (Z) was chosen to be the vertical distance of Li atom from the carbon

atom.

927
Figure 3: Diffusion energy barrier of Li atom on T6 (001) surface along the path Centre-C 4 site →
Top site → Tetrahedral site → Top site → Centre-C4 site. The inset structure are relaxed structure of
Li adsorbed T6 (001) systems. The x-axis represents the different adsorbed site.

928
 ICAER-2015

Bio-gasification based Externally Fired Combined

Cogeneration Plant: Thermo-economic Performance Analyses
P Mondal, S Ghosh 1
Deoartment of Mechanical Engineering, IIEST, Shibpur, Howrah-711103, W.B., India

Abstract

Thermo-economic performance analyses of an externally fired biomass gasification based combined cogeneration plant (EF-
BGCCP) is reported in the present paper. The plant is capable of producing 700-800 kW electrical power, the Gas turbine
(GT) providing a fixed output of 500 kWe and the bottoming steam turbine (ST) providing the rest. Utility heat of 100 kW
or more is also available from the plant. Saw dust is considered as fuel feed to the plant which undergoes gasification in a
downdraft gasifier. A combustor-heat exchanger (CHX) duplex unit is used in the topping GT cycle to heat up the working
fluid. Effects of plant design parameters, such as, topping cycle pressure ratio (r p =4-12), gas turbine inlet temperature
(TIT=900-1100 oC), cold end temperature difference (CETD=230-280 oC) of the heat exchanger of CHX unit and outlet
temperature of the economizer (EOUT=130-180 oC) on the energetic and techno-economic performance is reported in the
study. Energetic performance of the EF-BGCCP reveals that, plant efficiency along with fuel energy savings ratio (FESR) is
maximized at a particular value of r p , for a given GT TIT. Higher TIT results in higher efficiency and FESR value. However
increased CETD value results in decreased overall area (UA HX ) of the exchanger. Also, increased value of EOUT results in
decrease in plant efficiency and increase in FESR of the plant. Techno-economic analysis of the plant suggest that levelized
unit cost of electricity (LUCE) and levelized unit cost of heat (LUCH) change with changes in operating conditions of the
plant. LUCE value is minimized at a particular value of pressure ratio, for a fixed GT TIT. Also, higher TIT results in higher
LUCE and LUCH delivered to the consumers. Again, higher CETD value of the heat exchanger results in decreased LUCE
value as the size of the heat exchanger decreases with increase in CETD. Delivered LUCH value as well as heat to power
ratio of the plant is found to be decreased at higher economizer outlet temperature.

Keywords: Gasification, externally fired, combined cogeneration, thermo-economic, FESR, LUCE, LUCH.

1. Introduction

Biomass gasification based combined heat and power plants are becoming promising option for site
dependent, efficient and environment friendly mode of power generation technique in now a day's [1]. Biomass
integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) plants offer good overall efficiency although, their economic
performance to be studied in detail in accordance to the thermodynamic plant performance, i.e., thermo-
economic performance to be evaluated in detail. Again, complex gas cleaning and cooling systems are essential
for the usage of producer gas in the combustion chamber of a conventional gas turbine cycle, to protect the
downstream components from corrosion and deposition related problems [2]. Design of the combustion
chamber is also required to be modified as the calorific value of the producer gas is low [2,3]. These problems
can be sorted out by implementing the indirect heating/external firing of the gas turbine cycle working fluid
through a heat exchanger. Although many researchers have reported the thermodynamic performance study of
externally fired bio-gasification based combined cycle systems but their thermo-economic performance is not
reported in the literature [2-4]. Also, thermo-economic analysis of such system is need to be studied in detail in
to check economic viability of such systems.
Tripathi et al., 1997, had carried out financial analyses of biomass gasifier based dual fuel engines of
different capacities in Indian scenario. They had reported that unit cost of electricity is much higher for
generation capacity bellow 40 kWe and the same decreases with increase in generation capacity [5]. Nouni et al.,
2007, carried out the techno-economic analysis of biomass gasifier-gas engine projects for grid independent
power generation in India. Capital cost calculation, as well as, LUCE delivered by diesel generator (DG), dual
fuel (DF) engines and 100% producer gas (PG) engines are reported in their study. LUCE delivered to the
consumer is attractive for DF engines, lies in the range of INR 13.4-24.49/kWh [6]. Rodrigues et al., 2003, had
analyzed the techno-economic aspects of biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) plants [7].

1 Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 33 2668 4561/62/63 Ext 279, Fax: (+91) 33 2668 2916.
E-mail address: sudipghosh.becollege@gmail.com

929
 Thermodynamic First Law and thermo-economic analyses of an externally fired biomass gasification based
combined cogeneration plant (EF-BGCCP) is carried out in the present study. The plant is capable of producing
700-800 kW electrical power along with utility heat. Gas turbine (GT) provides fixed 500 kWe power output
along with bottoming steam turbine (ST) output. Utility heat of about 100 kW or more is also available form the
plant. Saw dust is considered as fuel feed to the plant which undergoes gasification in a downdraft gasifier. A
combustor-heat exchanger (CHX) duplex unit is used in the topping GT cycle to heat up the working fluid.
Schematic diagram of the proposed plant is shown in Fig. 1. Effect of plant design parameters in terms of
topping cycle pressure ratio (r p =4-12), gas turbine inlet temperature (TIT=900-1100 deg C), cold end
temperature difference (CETD=230-280 deg C) of the heat exchanger of CHX unit and outlet temperature of the
economizer (EOUT=130-180 deg C) on the energetic and techno-economic performance is reported in the study.
Energetic performance of the plant is evaluated via energy efficiency, required biomass consumption and fuel
energy savings ratio (FESR) of the plant whereas, techno-economic performance is evaluated via levelized unit
cost of electricity (LUCE) and levelized unit cost of heat (LUCH) delivered to the consumers. The FESR
calculation method is significant for indicating the savings in fuel of a combined power and heating plant instead
of separate plants for power and process heat. These parametric investigations are very important to analyze the
overall systems performance and to monitor the systems economic performance in terms of thermodynamics and
economics.

Nomenclature Abbreviation
C Capital Cost ($) EF-BGCCP Externally fired biomass
gasification based combined
cogeneration plant
. Cost per unit exergy ($/MJ) GT Gas turbine
c
. Mass flow rate (kg/s) ST Steam turbine
m
p Pressure (bar) CC Combustor
T Temperature (K/ 0C) HX Heat exchanger
rp Pressure ratio (-) Cond. Condenser
R Capital recovery factor (-) P Pump
FESR Fuel energy savings ratio (-) CW Civil works
CETD Cold end temperature difference (oC) UFP Utility feed pump
m Fraction of capital cost (%) USG Utility steam generator
ESBC Electrical specific biomass Subscripts
consumption _kg/kWh)
P Total power output (kW) b Biomass
Q Total utility heat (kW) F Fuel
W Work (kW) P, Q Power and heat
η Efficiency-energy conversion (%) in/i Input
CUF Capital utilization factor (%) out/o Output
LUCE Levelized unit cost of electricity LHV Lower heating value
($/kW e h)
LUCH Levelized unit cost of heat ($/kW t h) WB Wet bulb
EOUT Economizer outlet temperature (oC) d Destruction

2. Proposed plant configuration and parametric assumptions

Schematic diagram of the proposed EF-BGCCP is shown in Fig.1. Saw dust as biomass feed enters (point 7)
the downdraft gasifier (G) and gets gasified in the presence of sub-stoichiometric condition of atmospheric air
(point 8) supply. After the gasification process, producer gas is generated (point 9) and enters the combustion
chamber (CC). The producer gas mixture gets combusted in the presence of recirculated gas turbine (GT)
exhaust (point 4) and thus flue gas is generated. Flue gas then enters the shell side of a heat exchanger (HX)
(point 10) which in turn, heats up the working medium of the topping gas turbine cycle. The combustion
chamber and heat exchanger together constitutes a combustor-heat exchanger duplex (CHX) unit [8].
Atmospheric air (at 1) enters the compressor (C) and after being compressed enters the tube side of the heat
exchanger ( at 2) and gets heated. The hot and compressed air then enters the gas turbine (at 3) and gets
expanded. The gas turbine exhaust (at 4) is recirculated to the combustion chamber for better combustion of
producer gas. The gas turbine drives the compressor and the excess shaft power drives an electric generator to
produce electricity. Exhaust from CHX unit enters a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) (at 11) to run a

930
bottoming Rankine cycle. The HRSG unit consists of three sub units viz. superheater (SUP), evaporator
(EVAP) and economizer (ECO). The Rankine cycle is constituted of the HRSG, steam turbine (ST), condenser
(COND) and a pump (P). Then the HRSG exhaust (at 12) enters a low pressure and temperature utility steam
generator (USG) to produce utility steam. Thus together topping GT cycle, bottoming ST cycle and USG acts as
combined cogeneration cycle. Finally the flue gas form HRSG is exhausted to atmosphere through stack (at 21).

7 9
CC
G
8
10

HX

3
2

5
GT
6
C
1

Stack 4
13
11
14
HRSG ST
21

25 SUP
26 USG
EVAP
15
17
24 ECO COND

22 P 12 16

23 P
20 18
19

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed plant

2.1. Parametric assumptions

The following assumptions are made for the analyses:

• The biomass gasifier is fixed bed downdraft type and chemical equilibrium model is considered.
• Ultimate analysis of biomass is presented in Table 1. Moisture content is 16 %. The equivalence ratio
for the gasification is 0.35 and gasification temperature is 6800C [2,8].
• Tar formation is negligible and not considered here. Ash is represented by SiO2 for this model [3].
• Heat loss and pressure loss is considered as per the available literatures [2,3, 9]
• The bottoming cycle consists of non reheat Rankine cycle operating at 10 bar and 4500C. The
condenser pressure is 0.1 bar [4].
• The isentropic efficiencies of air compressor and GT are 90%, while the same for bottoming ST is
85%.
• The process steam block operates at 1.5 bar. For the HRSG, minimum pinch point temperature
difference is set to100C. The stack temperature is 1200C.

931
• Biomass cost rate is 0.0022$/MJ [10].

Table 1 Ultimate analysis of saw dust [1]

Composition Mass Percentage on Dry Basis (%)

C 52.28
H 5.2
N 0.47
O 40.85
Ash 1.2

3. Model development and formulations

Model development of the proposed EF-BGCCP is carried out in two subsequent ways. First, thermodynamic
model development is done followed by thermo-economic performance analysis.

3.1. Thermodynamic analysis

Detailed thermodynamic analysis of the proposed EF-BGCCP is carried out by following the earlier works of
the authors [4]. However, modified analysis in terms of scaling up the topping cycle output and CETD of the
heat exchanger is done in this study and summarized below.
3.1.1 Gasification block
The gasifier is a fixed bed downdraft type and chemical equilibrium model is considered during calculations.
The generalized global gasification reaction is presented as:
CH P OQ N R + wH 2O + X 0 (O2 + 3.76 N 2 ) → X1 H 2 + X 2CO + X 3CO2 + X 4 H 2O + X 5CH 4 + X 6 N 2 (1)

Where X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 , X 5 and X 6 are the number of moles of the respective gas species. X 0 is the moles of O 2
in gasification air and w is the moisture associated with every mole of the biomass. The producer gas
temperature and gas composition are calculated from the elemental mass balance, reaction equilibrium for
methanation and shift reactions as well as overall energy balance of Eq. 1.
3.1.2 Compressor and gas/air turbine block
Compressor and the Gas turbine units are modelled following standard thermodynamic relations and
accordingly power inputs and outputs are calculated. Required work input and outputs per unit mass basis are
calculated as:
wC = c p,air (Tc.o − Tc,i )
(2)
wGT = c p,air (TGT,i − TGT,o )

3.1.3 Combustor-heat exchanger duplex (CHX) block

Hot producer gas gets combusted in the combustion chamber of the CHX unit in the presence of recirculated
GT exhaust air. Complete combustion of all combustible elements is considered and accordingly heat evolved as
well as gas temperature is calculated by model. The difference between shell side gas outlet temperature and
tube side air inlet temperature is known as cold end temperature difference (CETD) of the heat exchanger and is
considered as a a design parameter in the study. The combustion equation across the combustor can be written
as follows:

X 1 H 2 +X 2 CO+X 3 CO2 +X 4 H 2 O+X 5 CH 4 +X 6 N 2 +X ' 0 (O2 +3.76N 2 )

(3)
→ X 7 CO2 +X 8 H 2 O+X 9 O2 +(X 6 +3.76X 0' )N 2

Where X 7 , X 8 and X 9 are the number of moles of CO 2 , H 2 O and O 2 present in the flue gas X 0 ' denotes mol of
O 2 entering the combustion chamber. The post combustion temperature is calculated using energy balance
equation of the streams and considering the adiabatic condition.
3.1.4 Steam turbine block
The exhaust from the topping heat exchanger is recovered through a bottoming Rankine cycle. Work

932
input/output is calculated using standard thermodynamic relations. Steam turbine electrical output can be
calculated as:

WST = X S ( hST ,i − hST ,o )η G (4)

Where Xs represents the mole of steam flowing through the bottoming cycle.
3.1.5 Utility steam generation block
The CHX exhaust is further utilized for saturated steam generation purpose at 1.5 bar. The process steam
generation rate is calculated as:
X fg (hUSG,i − hUSG,o ) = X US (h fg )1.5bar = QU (5)
Where, Q U represents the utility heat and X PS is the moles of process steam.
3.2. Thermo-economic analysis
Capital cost calculation of the individual plant components along with LUCE delivered to the consumers is
carried out in this section [5, 6, 10, 11]. The analysis is carried out, considering the plant operation life of 15
years.
3.2.1 Annualized electricity and heat delivered by the plant
Annualized electricity (P AE ) and heat (Q A U ) delivered by the plant, having power output (P) and heat output
(Q U ) with capacity utilization factor (CUF) is determined as follow:
=PAE P.( 8760 .CUF ).( 1 − a ).( 1 − l )
(6)
Q AU = QU .(8760.CUF ).(1 − a ).(1 − l )
Where, a and l represent the power consumption of auxiliary plant components and electrical losses in the
distribution network, respectively. Hence auxiliary power loss is considered as zero here. Also, the loss in
distribution network is neglected as the plant is designed for community scale application. The value of CUF is
0.25 [5, 6].
3.2.2 Capital cost of the plant components (in USD)
Capital cost of the different plant components at reference year of calculation are calculated using Marshal
and Swift equipment cost index [10-14] as follow:
Cost at reference year =Original cost X Cost index at reference year/Cost index at the year when original cost
was calculated. Reference year of cost calculation is considered to be 2013 in the present study. Equations for
capital cost calculation of different plant components is tabulated in Table 2.
Table 2 Capital cost of the plant components [10-14]

Component Capital cost equation (in USD)

Gasifier .
CGasifier = 1600.( mbiomass [ kg / hr ])0.67
Compressor .
k .m air
CComp = ( c1 ).( rp ).ln( rp )
kc 2 - ηisen,C
=kc1 75
= /( kg / s ); kc 2 0.93
Combustion chamber of the CHX unit CCC= kcc1 .mair( gas ) .( 1 + exp( kcc 2 .Tout − kcc3 )).( 0.995 − rb )
= ); kcc 2 0.018 K −=
kcc1 48.64 /( kg / s= 1
; kcc 3 26
=.4; rb 0.985
CHX = khx1 .A0.6 hx
Heat exchanger of the CHX unit and USG

=khx1 4122
= ; U hx 0.029kW /( m 2 K )
Gas turbine .
k gt1 .m air
=CGT ( ).( rp ).( 1 + exp( k gt 3Tin − k gt 4 ))
k gt 2 - ηisen,GT
−1
=k gt1 800 & 1000 /( kg /=
s ); k gt 2 0=
.93; k gt 3 0.036 K= ; k gt 4 54.5

933
Steam turbine . 0.7 0.05 T − 866 K
CST =
k st1 .W ST .( 1 + ( )3 ).( 1 + 5.exp( in ))
1 − ηisen,ST 10.42 K
k st1 = 3880.5 kW −0.7
HRSG .
Qi
CHRSG = khrsg1 .∑ ( f p,i . fT .steam,i . fT .gas,i .( )0.8 )
i LMTDi
. 1.2
+ khrsg 2 .∑ ( f p, j . fT .steam, j ) + khrsg 3 .m gas
j

pi
=f p,i 0.0971. + 0.9029
30
T − 830 K
fT .steam,i = 1 + exp( out.steam,i )
500 K
Tout.gas,i − 990 K
fT .gas,i = 1 + exp( )
500 K
khrsg1 = 4131.8( kW K )0.8
khrsg 2 = 13380( kg s )−1
khrsg 3 = 1489.7( kg s )−1.2
Condenser .
Qcond .
CCOND kcond 1 .(
= ) + kcond 2 .mcw +
2.2.LMTD
. −
70.5 .Q cond .( −0.6936.ln( T cw − Twb ) + 2.1898 )
kcond 1 = 280.74m −2
kcond 2 = 746 ( kgs )−1
. 0.71
Pump/s
0.2
=CP k p1 .W pump ( 1 + )
1 − ηisen,P
k p1 = 705.48 ( kg s )−1
Civil works Ccw=USD 46650 [5, 6]
Distribution network C DN = USD 62500 [5, 6]

Total capital cost (C EF-BGCC P ) of the plant is given by:

(7)
CEF − BGCCP= CGasifier + CComp + CCC + CHX + CGT + CHRSG + CST
+ CCOND + CP + CUSG + CUFP + CCW + CDN

Where, Cj represents the capital cost of the plant components. However during LUCH calculation, only
capital cost of USG and UFP is considered in this study. Total annualized capital cost (AC c ) of the plant is
calculated considering the recovery factors of individual components and is expressed as:
n
ACC = ∑ C j .R j + CCW .RCW + CDN .RDN (8)
j =1

Where, multiplication factor R j represents the capital recovery factor for jth component. R cw and R DN represent
the capital recovery factors for the civil works and distribution network respectively. Discount rate for each
plant component as well as distribution network and civil works is considered to be 10%. R is calculated as:
d( 1 + d )T
R= (9)
( 1 + d )T − 1
Where, d is the discount rate and T is the useful lifetime
3.2.3 Annualized operation and maintenance cost of the plant components

934
 Input parameters for calculation of Operation and Maintenance Cost of the plant components are shown in
Table 3.
Annualized O&M cost of the EF-BGCCP is calculated as:
n
ACO&M = ∑ C j .m j + Ccw .mcw + Cdn .mdn + 8760.CUF .Cl .n (10)
j =1

Where, multiplication factor m represents the O & M cost as fraction of capital costs of the individual plant
components. C l represents the manpower salary rate and n is the numbers of manpower required.

Table 3. Input parameters for O&M Cost calculation [5,6]

Input parameter Fraction value of Capital cost

Annual O& M Cost of Gasifier 0.05
Annual O& M Cost of Compressor 0.05
Annual O& M Cost of Combustor of CHX unit 0.1
Annual O& M Cost of HX of CHX unit 0.1
Annual O& M Cost of Gas turbine 0.05
Annual O& M Cost of HRSG 0.1
Annual O& M Cost of Steam turbine 0.05
Annual O& M Cost of Condenser 0.1
Annual O& M Cost of Pump/s 0.05
Annual O & M Cost of the USG 0.05
Annual O& M Cost of Civil Works 0.03
Annual O& M Cost of Distribution Network 0.02
Manpower Cost 0.25 USD/man-hr
Manpower required Twenty

3.2.4 Annualized fuel cost

Annualized biomass cost of EF-BGCCP is calculated as:
(11)
ACF = 8760 * CUF( Cb * ESBC * PAE )
Where, C b represents the cost of biomass.

3.3. Performance parameters

Net power output from combined cycle in each case is the sum of power outputs from gas turbine and
from vapor turbine, as is the case for bottoming cycle.
WCC Wnet.GT + WST
= (12)

The overall electrical efficiency of the combined cycle plant is expressed as:
WCC
ηe.CC = (13)
mb LHVb

Electrical specific biomass consumption-ESBC (kg/kWh) is expressed as:

3600mb
ESBC = (14)
WCC
The fuel saving for the plant is expressed considering against a pair of bio-gasification based separate heating
and power plants as [4, 15] :
W Q
ΔF = ( CC + U ) − mb LHVb (15)
ne,ref nQ,ref

The reference efficiency values are set to be 25 percent and 80 percent for the individual power and heat
plants respectively. The FESR [4, 15]is given by:
ΔF
FESR =
WCC Q
( + U ) (16)
ηe,ref nQ,ref
LUCE (in $/kW e h) delivered to the consumer is calculated as:

935
 ACC + ACO&M + AC F
LUCE = (17)
PAE
LUCH (in $/kW t h) delivered to the consumer is calculated as:
ACUFP&USG + ACO&M ,USG & UFP
LUCH = (18)
Q AU

4. Results and discussions

Effects of operational parameters on the thermodynamic and thermo-economic performance of the modelled
EF-BGCCP are reported in this section. First sub-section reports the thermodynamic performance of the plant
whereas the following subsection reports the thermo-economic performance of the plant.

4.1. Thermodynamic plant performance

Performance of the modelled downdraft gasifier is shown in Table 4. Product gas composition of the gasifier
on dry basis is validated with commercially available gasifier (M/s. Ankur Gasifier [16]) data.
Table 4. Composition of gas data of the modelled gasifier and model validation with operational gasifier.

Gas Composition
Present Model Ankur Gasifier
(% mole fraction)
H2 22.75 18±3
CO 23.6 19±3
CO 2 11.27 10±3
CH 4 0.575 Upto 3
N2 41.68 45-50
Air-fuel Ratio 1.6 1.5-1.8
LHV (MJ/kg) 5.04 4.40-5.40
Gasification efficiency (%) 82 78-80

It is evident from the table that, producer gas composition, LHV of gas mixture and gasification efficiency of
the gasifier, as obtained from the model, match well with the operational gasifier data, excepting the methane
data. However, modelling result shows that gasifier predicts very low rate of gas fraction compared to the
operational gasifier. A deviated equilibrium model, described by Barman et al., 2012 [9] is found to yield better
match for the methane.
Variation in overall electrical efficiency with topping cycle pressure ratio and GT inlet temperature at a
particular value of cold end temperature difference (CETD=230 oC) and economizer outlet temperature
(EOUT= 150 oC) is shown in Fig. 2.
40
40.5
EOUT=130 oC
38 EOUT= 150 oC
40.0 EOUT=180 oC
36
Electrical Efficiency (%)
Electrical Efficiency (%)

39.5

34
39.0
32
38.5
30
38.0
28 TIT=900oC
TIT=1000oC 37.5
26 TIT=1100oC

4 6 8 10 12 230 240 250 260 270 280

Topping Cycle Pressure Ratio Cold End Temperatur Difference (oC)

Fig. 2. Variations in overall electrical efficiency with topping cycle Fig. 3. Variations in overall electrical efficiency with CETD and
pressure and gas turbine inlet temperature. EOUT.

It is observed form Fig. 2 that, overall electrical efficiency of the plant changes with the change in topping

936
 cycle pressure ratio for individual TITs. The figure also reveals that, the efficiency value is maximized at a
particular value of r p , at individual TITs. Again, higher TIT results in better electrical efficiency of the plant.
This is because the required biomass consumption is minimized at a particular value of topping cycle pressure
ratio. Also, higher TIT results in lower biomass consumption by the plant, as shown in Fig. 8.
Again, variation in overall electrical efficiency of the plant with CETD of the indirect heat exchanger and
economizer outlet temperature is shown in Fig. 3. Performance variation is predicted considering r p value of 6
and TIT=1100 oC as the efficiency plot shows that plant efficiency is maximized at the same r p and at higher
TIT. It is observed from Fig. 3 that, increased value of CETD results in decreased efficiency value of the plant
as at higher CTED, required biomass consumption by the plant is also higher, as seen from Fig. 8. It is also
found from the graph that, at lower economizer outlet temperature, the plant performs more efficiently. This is
because at lower economizer outlet temperature, more amount of heat is utilized by the bottoming Rankine
cycle and therefore more power output from the bottoming cycle is achieved. Now as the topping cycle power
output is fixed in the present study, hence the plant offers more efficient performance, at lower economizer
outlet temperature.

TIT=900 oC
0.22
TIT=1000 oC 0.28
EOUT=130 oC
TIT=1100 oC
EOUT=150 oC
0.24
0.20 EOUT=180 oC

Heat to Power Ratio

Heat to Power Ratio

0.20
0.18

0.16
0.16
0.12

0.14
0.08

0.12 0.04
4 6 8 10 12 230 240 250 260 270 280
Topping Cycle Pressure Ratio Cold End Temperature Difference (oC)

Fig. 4. Variations in heat to power ratio with topping cycle pressure Fig. 5. Variations in heat to power ratio with variation in CETD and
and gas turbine inlet temperature. EOUT.

Fig. 4 reveals the variation in heat to power ratio of the plant with variation in topping cycle pressure ratio
and gas turbine TIT, keeping fixed CETD value of 230 oC and EOUT=150 oC. It is observed that heat to power
ratio decreases with increase in r p for a fixed TIT. This is because with increase in pressure ratio the ST output
as well as utility heat output from the plant increases. It is also found from the graph that, lower TIT results in
better heat to power ratio of the plant. From Fig. 8 it can be seen that at lower TIT, required biomass
consumption by the plant is more which results in more heat and power output from the plant which effects the
heat to power ratio to increase at lower TIT. Variation in heat to power ratio with variation in CETD of the heat
exchanger at different EOUT is shown in Fig. 5, keeping r p fixed at 6 and TIT=1100 oC. It is observed from Fig.
9 that, at higher EOUT more amount of biomass is consumed by the plant. Also, at higher OUT, the utility heat
output from the plant is more. This ultimately results in more heat to power ratio of the plant, when it is
operated at higher EOUT.
Variations in fuel energy savings ratio, as the combined heat and power plant performance is depicted in Fig.
6, keeping CETD value fixed at 230 oC and economizer outlet temperature fixed at 150 oC. It is clearly
understood from Eq. 26 and Eq. 27 that lower biomass consumption by the plant shows better FESR value of
the plant. Fig. 8 shows that the biomass consumption is minimized at a particular value of topping cycle
pressure ratio, depending on the gas turbine inlet temperature and therefore the FESR value is also minimized at
a particular value of r p and higher TIT results in better combined cogeneration (in terms of FESR) performance
of the plant. Fig. 7 reveals the variation in FESR of the plant with variation in CETD of the heat exchanger and
economizer outlet temperature. Higher CETD value shows more biomass consumption by the plant and
therefore the FESR value is lower at higher CETD. It is also observed from the graph that lower economizer
outlet temperature results in low FESR value of the plant. Although the steam turbine output is higher and
required biomass consumption is lower at lower economizer outlet temperature but the FESR value is also lower
at lower economizer outlet temperatures. This is because lower biomass consumption adversely affects the
utility heat output from the plant. Hence the FESR value is lower at lower economizer outlet temperature.

937
 42.5 EOUT= 130 oC
40
EOUT= 150 oC
42.0
EOUT= 180 oC

Fuel Energy Savings Ratio (%)

Fuel Energy Savings Ratio (%)

41.5
35
41.0

40.5
30
40.0

39.5
25
o
TIT=900 C 39.0
TIT= 1000 oC
TIT=1100 oC 38.5
20
4 6 8 10 12 230 240 250 260 270 280
o
Topping Cycle Pressure Ratio Cold End Temperature Difference ( C)
Fig. 6. Variations in FESR with topping cycle pressure and gas turbine Fig. 7. Variations in FESR with variation in CETD and EOUT.
inlet temperature.

Variation in electrical specific biomass consumption and topping cycle air consumption with variation in
topping cycle pressure ratio and at individual turbine inlet temperature is shown in Fig 8 at CETD= 230 oC and
EOUT=150 oC. It is clear from the graph that required ESBC value is minimized at a particular value of topping
cycle pressure ratio, depending on the gas turbine inlet temperature. Also if the plant is operated at higher TIT it
requires less biomass compared to lower TIT. This is because required air consumption through the topping
cycle decreases with increase in TIT, as seen from the figure. Power output from the topping cycle is considered
to be fixed in the present study. Hence the specific work output from the topping cycle is maximized at certain
values of pressure ratio and then decreases with further increase in pressure ratio. This results in required air
consumption (on basis) of the topping cycle initially decreases, gets minimized at certain pressure ratio and then
increases with increase in pressure ratio, as seen from Fig. 8. This ultimately results in the required ESBC to
decrease initially and then to increase with increase in pressure ratio. Again, higher TIT results in less biomass
consumption by the plant. Higher value of TIT results in lower required heat input to plant and this influences
the required biomass consumption to decrease at higher TITs.
Topping Cycle Specific Air Consumption-by Mass (kg/kWh)

12.5
Electrical Specific Biomass Consumption (kg/kWh)

0.64 15.0

17.5
0.60

20.0
0.56
22.5

0.52
25.0

TIT=9000C TIT=9000C
0.48 27.5
TIT=10000C TIT=10000C
TIT=11000C TIT=11000C
30.0
4 6 8 10 12
Topping Cycle Pressure Ratio
Fig. 8. Variations in ESBC and topping cycle air consumption with pressure ratio and TIT

Variation in ESBC with CTED of the heat exchanger at different economizer outlet temperatures is shown in
Fig. 9. It is observed that ESBC increases with increase in CETD of the heat exchanger, for the individual
ECOT. Although CETD does not effect the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger but the LMTD of the same
increases with increase in CETD. Now to satisfy the energy balance equation across the heat exchanger the
required biomass consumption also increases. It is also found from the graph that higher EOUT results in more
biomass consumption by the plant.

938
 Electrical Specific Biomass Consumption (kg/kWh)
EOUT=130 oC
0.570
EOUT=150 oC
0.564
EOUT=180 oC

0.558

0.552

0.546

0.540

0.534

0.528

230 240 250 260 270 280

Cold End Temperature Difference ( oC)

Fig. 9. Variations in ESBC with variation in CETD and economizer outlet temperature.

Table 5. Energetic performance of the EF-BGCCP at different operating conditions

Scenario Scenario 1: r p =6, Scenario 2: r p =6, Scenario 3: r p =6, Scenario 4:r p =6,
TIT=9000C , TIT=11000C , TIT=11000C , TIT=11000C ,
CETD=2300C & CETD=2300C CETD=2800C CETD=2300C &
Parameter EOUT=1500C &TOUT=1500C &EOUT=1500C EOUT=1300C

Biomass flow (kg/s) 0.139 0.107 0.117 0.107

Air flow (kg/s) 3.38 2.36 2.36 2.36
ST output (kW) 308.15 217.63 257.06 231.11
Utility heat (kW) 130.15 91.88 92.92 30.57
Energy efficiency (%) 34.51 39.73 38.33 40.44
FESR (%) 32.77 41.14 38.89 40.69
UA HX (kW/K) 14.32 15.19 11.81 15.19
UA HRSG (kW/K) 17.12 12.09 12.32 15.79
UA USG (kW/K) 1.86 1.31 1.32 0.58

Performance of the plant at different thermodynamic terminal conditions is shown in Table 5. It is clear that,
increase in TIT both the efficiency and FESR of the plant increase, for a fixed value of EOUT. However, overall
heat transfer area of the heat exchanger and HRSG increase and decrease respectively with increase in TIT.
Again, increase in CETD marginally decreases the plant efficiency and FESR, however, overall heat transfer
area of the heat exchangers decreases. Also, Energy efficiency and FESR increases at lower economizer outlet
temperature. Although at lower EOUT, the overall heat transfer area of the topping heat exchanger does not
change however, overall heat transfer area of the HRSG increases and that of the USG decreases.

4.2. Thermo-economic plant performance

Effect of plant operational parameters on the thermo-economic performance is reported in this sub-section.
Fig. 10 shows the variation in LUCE and LUCH delivered with variation in topping cycle pressure ratio and
TIT, keeping a fixed EOUT of 150 oC and CETD=230 oC. It is clear form Fig. 10 that, LUCE value is
minimized at a particular value of pressure ratio for a fixed TIT and CETD. Now, the required biomass
consumption and air consumption through topping cycle is minimized at particular value of r p . This results in
capital cost of the major plant components to be minimized at a particular value of r p and thus LUCE value to
be minimized at particular value of r p and for fixed turbine inlet temperature. It is also seen from the graph that
LUCH value increases with increase in r p . This may be due to the fact that, with increase in pressure ratio the
capital cost along with O&M cost of the USG and UFP increases which results in the LUCH delivered value
increases with increase in r p . Also, LUCE and LUCH delivered to the consumers increase with increase in TIT.
This is because with increase in TIT, the capital cost, as well as, operation and maintenance cost of the plant
component decreases. However, total electricity and heat delivered from the plant also decrease which
ultimately results in LUCE delivered increases (shown in Table 6).

939
 0.076 0.066

0.075
0.068

0.074

LUCE Delivered ($/kWeh)

LUCH Delivered ($/kWth)

0.070
0.073

0.072
0.072

0.071 0.074

0.070 0.076
TIT=9000C TIT=9000C
0.069
TIT=10000C TIT=10000C
0.078
TIT=11000C TIT=11000C
0.068
4 6 8 10 12
Topping Cycle Pressure Ratio
Fig. 10. Variations in LUCE and LUCH delivered with variation in pressure ratio and TIT

Variation in delivered LUCE and LUCH value with variation in CETD of the heat exchanger at different
economizer outlet temperatures is shown in Fig. 11, at r p =6 and TIT=1100 oC and at CETD=230 oC.
0.0728 0.05

0.0726
EOUT=1300C EOUT=1300C 0.06
EOUT=1500C EOUT=1500C
0.0724 EOUT=1800C EOUT=1800C
0.07
LUCE Delivered ($/kWeh)

LUCH Delivered ($/kWth)

0.0722

0.0720 0.08

0.0718 0.09

0.0716
0.10
0.0714
0.11
0.0712

0.0710 0.12
220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290

Cold End Temperature Difference (oC)

Fig. 11. Variations in LUCE and LUCH delivered with variation CETD and EOUT

It is observed from the above graph that delivered LUCE and LUCH decreases with increase in CETD since
the capital cost of the heat exchanger decreases with increase in CETD. Also, higher value of EOUT of the plant
results in lower delivered LUCE and LUCH value. This is because at higher EOUT, the heat to power ratio is
also higher, which ultimately results in delivered LUCH value to decrease at higher EOUT.
Thermo-economic performance of the EF-BGCCP at different terminal operating conditions is shown in
Table 6, at optimized value of topping cycle pressure ratio. It can be seen form the table that, capital cost as well
as operation and maintenance cost of the plant component decrease with increase in TIT. Again, net electricity
and utility heat delivered from the plant decreases. This results in both LUCE and LUCH value to increase.
However, higher CETD value of the heat exchanger results in reduced heat exchanger area concluding the
decreased LUCE value for fixed GT TIT. It is also observed form the table that, for a fixed value of TIT and
CETD lower EOUT value results in higher LUCE and LUCH of the plant. This is due to the fact that decreased
value of EOUT results in capital as well as O & M cost of the plant to increase. Hence overall, it can be say
from the techno-economic analysis that, the plant can be operated at lower TIT, as well as, at higher CETD and
higher EOUT to achieve best techno-economic performance of the plant. Also, at lower TIT and higher EOUT
provides more heat output from the plant along with low LUCE and LUCH value.

940
 Table 6. Economic performance of the EF-BGCCP at different operating conditions

Scenario Scenario 1: r p =6, Scenario 2: r p =6, Scenario 3: r p =6, Scenario 4: r p =6,

TIT=9000C, TIT=11000C, TIT=11000C, TIT=11000C,
CETD=2300C & CETD=2300C & CETD=2800C & CETD=2300C &
Parameter EOUT=1500C EOUT=1500C EOUT=1500C EOUT=1300C
Capital Cost ($)
C 9.10035E+04 6.35089E+04 6.35089E+04 6.35089E+04
HX 1.70311E+05 1.76467E+05 1.51761E+05 1.76467E+05
GT 5.41763E+05 3.80451E+05 3.80451E+05 3.80451E+05
CC 1.65529E+04 1.36229E+04 1.36229E+04 1.36229E+04
G 1.04442E+05 8.80189E+04 9.33027E+04 8.80189E+04
HRSG 1.09675E+05 8.19555E+04 8.38064E+04 1.00791E+05
ST 2.34425E+05 1.83770E+05 2.06488E+05 1.91666E+05
Cond. 8.78735E+04 6.20595E+04 7.33022E+04 6.59035E+04
P 1.65311E+03 1.29886E+03 1.46063E+03 1.35026E+03
UFP 2.93602E+02 2.20158E+02 2.20158E+02 1.34587E+02
USG 2.12941E+04 1.62341E+04 1.63779E+04 8.62651E+03
System 1.38E+06 1.07E+06 1.08E+06 1.09E+06
Maintenance Cost ($) 1.09060E+05 9.09611E+04 9.12152E+04 9.32417E+04
Fuel Cost ($) 3.58249E+04 2.77517E+04 3.02746E+04 2.77517E+04
Annul Electricity 3.43221E+06 2.73822E+06 2.82457E+06 2.76774E+06
Delivered (kW e h)
Annual Heat Energy 3.29E+05 2.32E+05 2.35E+05 7.82E+04
Delivered (kW t h)
LUCE ($/kW e h) 7.11245E-02 7.20041E-02 7.11800E-02 7.26125E-02
LUCH ($/kW t h) 6.8E-02 7.4E-02 7.40E-02 1.18E-01

5. Conclusions

Thermodynamic modelling and thermo-economic analyses of a EF-BGCCP is carried out in this study. Effect
of operating parameters viz. topping cycle pressure ratio (r p ), gas turbine inlet temperature (TIT) and cold end
temperature difference (CETD) of the heat exchanger on the thermal and economic performance is carried out.
The study reports that, overall plant efficiency is maximized at r p =6, CETD=2300C, TIT=11000C and at
EOUT=130 oC. Energy efficiency and FESR value of the plant are about 40 % each at this point of operation.
Plant efficiency and FESR value are maximized at a particular value of r p and at individual TIT. Again, higher
TIT results in higher efficiency and fuel energy savings of the plant. However, plant efficiency and FESR
decrease with increase in CETD of the heat exchanger. Again heat to power ratio of the plant decreases with
increase in r p . At lower TIT and higher EOUT the plant shows offers better heat to power ratio value. Hence,
although the steam turbine output as well as FESR of the plant increases at lower EOUT, however it is not
feasible to operate the plant at this point when heat requirement is higher.
From thermo-economic study it is found that, delivered LUCE value is minimized at about r p value of 6 for
individual TIT. Again, higher TIT, lower CETD and lower EOUT value result in higher delivered LUCE value.
Also, at lower TIT and higher EOUT, delivered value of LUCH is lower. From thermo-economic viewpoint it
can be concluded that, at r p =6, TIT=900 oC, CETD=280 oC and EOUT=180 oC, the plant offers minimum
delivered value of LUCE and LUCH. Minimum value of LUCE is 0.071 $/kW e h and that for LUCH is 0.051
$/kW t h of the plant.

Acknowledgements

The first author acknowledges the support provided by the Thermal Simulation and Computation (TSC) Lab at
Mechanical Engineering Department of IIEST, Shibpur for carrying out the research work.

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[16] Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Website: http://www.ankurscientific.com (website)

942
 ICAER-2015

Thermodynamic Evaluation of Two Repowering Schemes for an

Old Coal Fired Power Plant Through Integration of Molten
Carbonate Fuel Cell
Samiran Samantaa, Sudip Ghoshb∗
a
Automobile Engineering Department, MCKV Institute of Engineering , 243 G. T. Road (N), Liluah, Howrah - 711204, West Bengal, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah -711103, West Bengal,
India

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of two repowering scheme for an existing 250MW coal fired power plant through
integration of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) system at the downstream of the existing boiler. In both the cases, the old
configuration of the steam cycle remains the same. The cathode side is fed with the boiler while the anode side is fed with
hydrogen-rich syngas generated from natural gas in an external reformer. The utilization of spent fuel from anode exhaust is
done in two different ways in two schemes. In scheme-A, anode exhaust is burnt with air and goes to atmosphere after waste
heat recovery. In scheme-B, anode exhaust is burnt with 98% pure oxygen and goes to a CO 2 compression unit for CO 2
sequestration and storage after waste heat recovery like scheme-A. Scheme-A increases the capacity and overall efficiency
of the plant by about 37% and 11%, respectively and decreases the specific CO 2 emission by about 22%. Scheme-B
increases the capacity and overall efficiency of the plant by about 27% and 3%, respectively and decreases the specific CO 2
emission by about 66%.
Keywords: Repowering, power plant, MCFC, efficiency, emission.

1. Introduction

To maintain a constant growth rate of economic and social development in developing countries like India
and China increase in energy consumption is unavoidable. It is projected that by 2040 there would be 56 %
increase in world energy consumption [1]. Electricity is one of the major modes of energy consumption. About
40% of the total worldwide electricity generation comes from coal [1]. Power industry is identified as the major
source of CO 2 emission. It is projected predicted that carbon dioxide emission would increase by 46% from
2010 to 2040 [1]. Therefore, the main challenge is to satisfy the thrust of increasing electricity demand along
with reduction of CO 2 emission. The performance characteristics of old, yet running, plants are poor in terms of
efficiency and emission. In this context, repowering of old existing plants can address the present need of
capacity augmentation and performance improvement in an environment friendly way. Among different possible
solutions Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFC) have the potential to act as ‘‘CO 2 concentrators’’ and “power
producer” in the downstream of a conventional power plant and act like a post-combustion approach [2 - 6].
Milewski et al. [7] showed that the use of an MCFC could reduce CO 2 emissions from a coal fired power plant
by 61%. Malzolini et al. [8] showed that integration of MCFCs in natural gas fired combined cycles (NGCC)
helps to avoid CO 2 emission 70-80% and increase the plant output by about 40%. Carapellucci et al. [9] made
different case studies to show the capabilities of MCFC to act as a CO 2 separator in NGCC plant. Milewski and
Lewandowski [10] made a numerical simulation to estimate the possible CO 2 emission reductions, from a coal
fired power plant, achievable through use of the MCFC. Rossi et al. [11] investigated an innovative
configuration for CO 2 capture by using MCFC and made theoretical analysis for energy consumption per kg
CO 2 captured which is lower than conventional sequestration technology. Rexed et al. [12] made an
experimental investigation of lab scale MCFC, fed with simulated flue gas, to show the feasibility of MCFC as a
CO 2 separator for gas turbine and coal fired power plants and effects of operational parameters on fuel cell
performance.
This paper deals with repowering of an old operating 250MW coal fired power plant through integration of a
MCFC system at the downstream of the existing boiler. Two different schemes of integration have been

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 33 2668 4561/62/63 Ext. 279; fax: +91 33 2668 2916
E-mail address: sudipghosh.becollege@gmail.com

943
investigated and possible improvement has been predicted through thermodynamic analysis by using Cycle
Tempo simulation software. In both the cases, the old configuration of the steam cycle remains the same. The
flue gas from steam plant, mixed with fresh air, is preheated in a heat exchanger prior to entry to cathode side by
utilizing the heat of the cathode exhaust of MCFC unit. The anode side of MCFC unit is fed with a hydrogen-
rich syngas generated from natural gas in an external reformer. In scheme-A the anode exhaust is burnt in a
combustion chamber with air. Before going to the stack it goes through a heat exchanger network to produce
steam for reforming process, fuel preheating and supply of heat for the chemical reaction in the reformer. In
scheme-B the anode exhaust is burnt in a combustion chamber with 98% pure oxygen supplied from an air
separation unit (ASU). The after combustion gas from combustion chamber goes through a heat exchanger
network and moisture separator and finally CO 2 compression unit for CO 2 sequestration. A comparative study
has been done among the performances of existing and repowered plants in terms of capacity, efficiency and
emission perspective.

2. Existing plant description

For this study a 250 MW Indian coal fired thermal power plant is considered. Schematic diagram of the plant
is shown in Fig.1. The figure shows all the major components of the plant i.e., high-pressure turbine (HPT),
intermediate pressure turbine (IPT), low pressure turbine (LPT), generator (GEN), condenser (CON), high
pressure heaters (HPH 1 & 2), low-pressure feed water heaters (LPH1, 2 & 3), deaerator (DEA), condensate
extraction pump (CEP), boiler feed pumps (BFP), cooling water circulation pump (CWCP), furnace (CC),
evaporator (EVP), superheater (SPH), reheater (RH) & economizer (ECO), circulating water pump (CWP), air
pre-heater (APH), forced draft (FD) fan, induced draft(ID) fan and stack. Steam is generated in the boiler and
then it is expanded in three turbines. Before going to IPT the steam is reheated. Steam is extracted from the
reheat line and also from different stages of IPT and LPT for feed water heating. The feed water heaters are
cascaded to each other. The condensate from the HPH and LPH is fed to deaerator and condenser, respectively.
AIR

FD FAN

STACK H
ID FAN APH HPT IPT
LPT GEN
H
ECO

H
RH
CON

H
SH
HPH1 LPH1 LPH2
EVP CWCP
H F F F F F
HPH2 LPH3 CEP
DEA
CWP CC
BFP
COAL

ASH

Fig.1. Schematic of the existing plant in Cycle Tempo software interface

3. Repowered plant configuration

Two different schemes of integration have been investigated here. In both the cases, the old configuration of
the steam cycle remains unaltered. A high temperature molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) unit is placed after
the boiler exit. The cathode side is fed with the boiler exhaust from the steam plant after desulphurization. Prior
to entry to the cathode side the flue gas is mixed with fresh air and preheated up to 600º C by utilizing the heat
of the cathode exhaust of MCFC. The anode side is fed with a hydrogen-rich syngas generated from natural gas
in an external reformer. The utilization of spent fuel from the anode exhaust is done in two different ways in the
two schemes. In scheme-A the anode exhaust is burnt with normal air as shown in the Fig. 2. Before going to
the stack, the heat in the burn out gas is utilized in downstream to generate the steam for reforming process,
preheating of the natural gas and supplying the heat for chemical reaction in the reformer. In the scheme-B the
anode exhaust is burnt with 98% pure oxygen supplied from an air separation unit as shown in the Fig. 3. Heat
recovery is done in downstream in similar way like scheme-A. The exhaust from the reformer goes through a
moisture separator unit and CO 2 compression unit for CO 2 sequestration and storage at 110 bar.

944
 Fresh Air

Stack

Combustion Flue Gas

Air Desulphurization
Reformer
Boiler Flue
Gas
Stack
H

H
Air Preheater

A C
MCFC

Combustion
Chamber

Fuel H H H H
Preheater
Steam Generation
circuit

Water
Natural
Gas

Fig.2. Schematic of the MCFC integration circuit (Scheme-A) in Cycle Tempo software interface

Moisture Fresh Air

CO2 compression Unit Seperator

To Storage

Stack
FGD

Flue gas
from steam cycle
Reformer
H

MCFC A C

Oxygen
Combustion from ASU
Chamber

H H H H

Steam
Generation Unit

Natural Gas

Water

Fig.3. Schematic of the MCFC integration circuit (Scheme-B) in Cycle Tempo software interface

4. Assumptions

The lower heating value (LHV) of coal is 17000kJ/kg. The isentropic efficiency values for the turbines,
pumps, fans are considered as 88%, 86% and 86%, respectively whereas the generator efficiency has been
considered as 95%. The following composition (by mass) of coal is considered: 34.46% C, 2.43% H 2 , 0.69%
N 2 , 6.97% O 2 , 0.45% S, 12% H 2 O and 43% ash [13]. The molar composition of the natural gas is taken as
follows: 89% CH 4 , 7% C 2 H 6 , 1% C 3 H 8 , 0.1% C 4 H 10 , 2% CO 2 , 0.89% N 2 and LHV is 46.502 MJ/kg [8]. The
fuel utilization factor, CO 2 utilization factor, O 2 utilization factor are taken as 75%, 75% and 11%, respectively.
Steam is added to achieve steam to carbon ratio is 3.5 in the reforming charge. Current density of MCFC is
1500 A/m2. Cell voltage at nominal condition 0.7V, MCFC cell working temperature is 650º C [8].

5. Plant performance modeling

The existing steam power plant (ST) and the repowered plant (RP) are modeled in Cycle Tempo [14] flow
simulation software. The operating parameters of the steam cycle are taken from existing plant data. The
performances of the existing steam power plant as well as repowered plant are analyzed using first law analysis
and heat balance calculations. The net power output (W) of the existing steam power plant is given as follows:
(Wnet )st = (Wgross )st − (Wauxiliary )st (1)

The net efficiency (η) of the steam plant is given as follows:

945
 (Wnet )st
ηst = × 100% (2)
mcoal × LHV
For the processes that occur without losses within the fuel cell, the cell voltage is identical to the reversible
voltage or Nernst voltage ‘E’ and is given as:

RTcell  yO22,c × y H 2 ,a × yCO2 ,c 

1
1 
E=E + 0
T
ln  × Pcell2  (3)
2 F  y H 2O ,a × yCO2 ,a 

Where R is resistance, T is the temperature of the fuel cell, F is Faraday constant, y is the mole fraction, P is
the pressure of the fuel cell and ‘ET0 ’ is the standard reversible voltage for hydrogen, which only depends on the
temperature, and is calculated from the change in the Gibbs energy (ΔG) as:

∆GT0
ET0 = − (4)
2F
The real cell voltage V is given as follows:

V = E - ∆V (5)
where ∆V is the voltage loss.
By analogy with Ohm’s law, the voltage loss is given as follows:

∆V = i × (Rohm + η an + η ca ) (6)
Where R ohm , η an , η ca and i are the Ohomic loss, anodic and cathodic over potential and current density
respectively.
The Ohomic loss is calculated from the following expression [8]:

  1 1 
Rohm = 0.5 × 10 −4 × exp 3016 ×  −  (7)
  TFC 923 
where T FC is the fuel cell temperature.
The anodic and cathodic over potential can be determined using the following empirical relations, which are
valid for cell operating temperature range of 600-700°C [8]:

 6435  −0.47
η an = 2.27 × 10 −9 × exp  × pH × pCO−0.17
× pH−1.O0 (8)
 TFC 
2 2 2

 9298  −0.43
η ca = 7.505 × 10 −10 × exp  × pO × pCO−0.09
(9)
 TFC 
2 2

where p is the corresponding partial pressure.

The electrical output power (W MCFC ) of the fuel cell stack is given as:

W MCFC = V × i × A × η DCAC (10)

where A is the total area of the MCFC unit and η DCAC is the DC to AC conversion efficiency.
The net rate of power output from the fuel cell unit is given as:

(Wnet )MCFC unit

= WMCFC − (Wauxiliary )MCFC unit
(11)
The net rate of power output from the repowered power plant ‘(W net ) RP ’ is given as follows:

(Wnet )RP = (Wnet )st + (Wnet )MCFCunit (12)

The total rate of heat input for the repowered plant is given by the following equation.

(Qin )RP = mcoal × LHVcoal + mNG × LHVNG (13)

946
 Where m NG and LHV NG are the mass flow rates and lower heating value of natural gas.
The net efficiency of the repowered plant is given as follows:

(Wnet )RP
ηRP = × 100%
(Qin )RP (14)

Specific CO 2 emission of existing plant is calculated based on simulated flue gas data analysis of the existing
plant in Cycle Tempo interface. The total rate of CO 2 emission ‘(χ CO 2 ) st ’ from the existing plant can be
expressed as follows:
mFlue gas
(χ )
CO2 st =
M Flue gas
× molar % of CO2 × M CO 2 (15)

where m is the mass flow rate and M is the molecular weight of the corresponding gas.
The specific CO 2 emission rate of existing steam plant ‘(ξCO2)st’ is given as follows:

(χ )
(ξ )
CO2 st =
CO2 st

(Wnet )st
(16)

The rate of CO 2 emission from the repowered plant is estimated by applying the eqn. (11) separately for
cathode exhaust and anode burnout gas stream and taking their sum. For scheme-A, CO 2 emission is considered
to be happening from both the cathode and anode side of the MCFC unit. Whereas, for scheme-B CO 2 emission
is considered to be happening only from the cathode exhaust stream because CO 2 present in the anode burnout
gas is considered to be captured and stored.
The total rate of CO 2 emission through the cathode exhaust stream from MCFC unit is expressed as follows:

(χ CO )cathode exhaust = Mmcathode exhaust × molar % of CO2 × M CO

2 2
(17)
cathode exhaust
The total rate of CO 2 emission through the burnout gas stream of anode exhaust from MCFC unit is
expressed as follows:

(χ CO )anode burnout gas = Mmanode burnout

2
gas
× molar % of CO2 × M CO 2 (18)
anode burnout gas
The total rate of CO 2 emission ‘(χ CO2 ) RP ’ from repowered plant is given by the following equation.

(χ CO )RP = (χ CO )cathode exhaust + (χ CO )anode burnout

2 2 2 gas (19)

The specific CO 2 emission rate ‘(ξ CO2 ) RP ’ from repowered plant is given by the following equation.

 χ CO2 
(ξ )
CO2 RP =  
 (20)
 Wnet  RP

6. Results and discussions

The existing plant and the repowered plants (scheme-A and B) are simulated in Cycle Tempo software
interface. The major operating and performance parameters of the existing plant at full load are given in Table 1.
In the repowering scheme, additional air is added to the flue gas, exiting boiler, prior to entry into the cathode
side of MCFC because the quantity of oxygen is too low for total CO 2 sequestration. Additional airflow is
assumed at value which gives a ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide is 2.75 (mass based) or 2.0 (mole based) even
more [6]. Two schemes are investigated for the application of an MCFC unit in the existing coal fired plant. The
temperature of boiler exhaust is too low for the MCFC to be fed directly. Prior to entry into the cathode, a heat
exchanger is added to heat up the flue gas by utilizing the waste heat of the cathode exhaust stream.

947
Table 1. Major operating and performance parameters of the existing steam plant

Parameters Description Quantity Units

Mass flow rate 220.031 kg/s
Pressure 152 bar
Main Steam Parameters
Temperature 540 °C
Coal flow rate per mill 8.24 kg/s
Rate of Energy Input
No. of mill operating 5
Total rate of input Energy 700740 kW
Primary 40.56 kg/s
Air requirement
Secondary 230 kg/s
Gross Delivered Power Steam Generator 260920.69 kW
BFP 5079.81 kW
CEP 194.64 kW
Auxiliary Power Consumption CWP 418.71 kW
CWCP 3524.01 kW
FD Fan 837.11 kW
ID Fan 856.42 kW
Net Delivered power 250009.98 kW
Efficiency Net 35.67 %

The anode side of MCFC is fed by syngas generated in an external reformer. In scheme-A the non-oxidized
anode exhaust is burned in a combustion chamber fed with fresh atmospheric air. The after burnout gases go
through a waste heat recovery circuit and the reformer as shown in fig.2. In scheme-B the non-oxidized anode
exhaust is burned in a combustion chamber fed with 98% pure oxygen. Before going to the CO 2 compression
unit, the after burnout gases go through a waste heat recovery circuit and the reformer as shown in fig.3. The
specific energy consumption for the ASU unit to produce 98% pure oxygen is taken as 0.295 kWh/kg of pure
O 2 supplied [3]. A comparison of performance of the plant before repowering and after repowering in terms of
both energy and emission perspective is given in Table 2.

Table 2. The major performance parameters of the existing and repowered plant

Parameters Units Reference Coal Repowered plant

fired Plant Scheme-A Scheme-B
MCFC fuel utilization factor % - 75 75
CO 2 utilization factor % - 52.06 52.06
MCFC surface area m2 - 119084.39 119084.39
Steam cycle Gross power output MW 260.92 260.92 260.92
MCFC Gross power output MW - 100.3 100.3
Steam cycle Auxiliaries power MW 10.92 10.92 10.92
MCFC unit Auxiliaries power MW - 8.3 8.3
ASU power consumption MW - - 3.83
CO 2 compression unit power consumption MW - - 19.7
Net power out put MW 250 342 318.5
Fuel input in steam cycle MW 700.74 700.74 700.74
Fuel input to MCFC MW - 165.55 165.55
plant Efficiency % 35.67 39.5 36.76
CO 2 emission Ton/MW-h 0.835 0.648 0.282

Table 2 shows that scheme-A helps to increase the total capacity and overall efficiency of the plant about 37%
and 11%, respectively whereas scheme-B helps to increase the total capacity and overall efficiency of the plant
about 27% and 3%, respectively. Table 2 also shows that specific CO 2 emission of the plant decreases by about
22% and 66%, respectively by Scheme-A & B. It is clear from the results that though the improvement in total
capacity and net efficiency of the plant is less in scheme-B, it is better in reduction in emission perspective.

7. Conclusion

In this paper theoretical investigation of two different repowering scheme of an old existing 250MW coal
fired power plant is done through integration of MCFC unit with the existing plant in the downstream of the
boiler exit. The addition of MCFC helps to increase the net output of the plant. The net output and efficiency of
the plant increase by about 37% and 11%, respectively and specific CO 2 emission of the plant decreases by
about 22% in Scheme-A. Whereas, the net output and efficiency of the plant increase by about 27% and 3%,
respectively and specific CO 2 emission of the plant decreases by about 66% in Scheme-B. The obtained results

948
clearly indicate that the proposed repowering scheme helps in augmentation of the capacity and overall
efficiency of an existing plant, as well as reduction in the specific CO 2 emission of the plant. From the study, it
is concluded that it is possible to reduced CO 2 emission from the plant without penalty to the net power output
and efficiency of the plant.

References

[1] U.S. Energy Information Administration (2013) International Energy Outlook 2013, DOE / EIA-0484(2013), July 2013,
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/pdf/0484(2013).pdf
[2] P. Chiesa, S. Campanari, G. Manzolini, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 36(16) (2011), 10355–10365.
[3] A. Amorelli, M. B. Wilkinson, P. Bedont, P. Capobianco, B. Marcenaro, F. Parodi, A. Torazza, Energy. 29 (9) (2004), 1279–1284.
[4] S. Campanari, Journal of Power Sources. 112(1) (2002), 273-289.
[5] J. Wee, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 32(2014), 178–191.
[6] M. Lusardi, B. Bosio, E. Arato, Journal of Power Sources. 131(2004), 351–360.
[7] J. Milewski, J. Lewandowski, A. Miller, Chemical and Process Engineering. 30(2009), 341–350.
[8] G. Manzolini, S. Campanari, P. Chiesa, A. Giannotti, P. Bedont, F. Parodi, Journal of Fuel Cell Science and Technology. 9(2012),
11018(1-8).
[9] R. Carapellucci, R. Saia, L. Giordano, Energy Procedia. 45 (2014), 1155–1164.
[10] J. Milewski, J. Lewandowski, IERI Procedia. 1(2012), 232 – 237.
[11] F. Rossi, A. Nicolini, M. Palombo, B. Castellani, E. Morini, M. Filipponi, Sustainability. 6 (2014), 6687-6695.
[12] I. Rexed, M. Pietra, S. McPhail, G. Lindbergha, C. Lagergren, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. 35 (2015), 120–130.
[13] M. V. J. J. Suresh, K. S. Reddy, A. K. Kolar, Proc IMechE, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy. 226(1) (2012), 5-16.
[14] Cycle Tempo Release 5.0 (2005) A program for thermodynamic modeling and optimization of energy conversion systems, TU Delft,
Postbus, Delft, The Netherlands.

949
 ICAER-2015

An Experimental Approach towards Blending Multiple Nanoparticles in

Diesel Fuel for Cleaner Emissions and Enhanced Performance of CI
Engines
Libin P. Oommen 1, Geo Sebastian2, Sajnulal Franc3
1
Research Scholar, NITK Suratkal
2
Assistant Professor, Saintgits College of Engineering, Kerala
3
Graduate Student, Saintgits College of Engineering, Kerala

Abstract
Compression Ignition Engines are a significant source of power, both for stationary and mobile applications. The diesel engine
presents itself as an attractive source of energy due to their relatively smaller size and lighter weight compared to the magnitude
of power it produces. The major concern in harvesting energy from such engines is the nature and amount of toxic pollutants that
get released during their operation. Ever since the advent of Clean Air Act in 1970, stringent measures have been in practice to
exercise control over the pollution of our planet. Thus the ethics towards preserving the nature has posed the greatest of
challenges for engine designers by putting a limit on the extraction of energy from the fossil fuels. Nanotechnology has provided
the researchers around the world with an opportunity of overcoming this limitation. Many efforts have been put forward in
studying the physical, chemical and thermal properties of a number of species of nanoparticles and their effect when employed as
an additive to diesel fuel or its derivatives. However, no valid works have been effected in blending multiple nanoparticles in the
fuel, integrating the positive effects of both the species at one go. In this work, we present the combined effect of Alumina and
Cobalt oxide nanoparticles, blended in different dosages with neat diesel, on the combustion, performance and emission
characteristics of a four stroke, single cylinder diesel engine. The analysis of experimental results revealed a substantial
enhancement in brake thermal efficiency of the engine and a marginal reduction in the emission of toxic pollutants.

Keywords: Alumina; CobaltOxide; Combustion; Emission; Nanoparticles; Pollutants;

1. Introduction

Due to the exponential growth of population, high energy consumption and resultant global warming concerns,
the importance for the green engineering sector is on the increase. In this regard, automobiles being one of the
primary reasons for the environmental pollution and energy consumption, the design and improvement in engines
have received substantial attention. Compression Ignition engines are considered as prime movers, not only in
automobiles but also in power plants, industrial sectors and marine sector due to its reliable operation. So it is
required in the present scenario to implement engines of high energy efficiency, low energy consumption and low
hazardous emissions in automobiles. Governments throughout the world have also implemented stringent rules for
engine manufactures and customers to follow emission norms to save the environment from the harmful emissions.

In this regard, various techniques have been employed such as fuel modification, engine design alteration and
exhaust gas treatment in this field. Various researchers have put their valid efforts to improve the performance while
reducing the pollutants in the compression ignition engines. Fuel modification techniques are widely adopted since it
doesn’t require any major hardware modifications. Most of such fuel modification techniques are materialized by
adding some fuel additives. Nanoparticles are employed as one of the critical diesel additives due to its unique

1* Corresponding author. Tel.: 8281709979;

E-mail address: libinpanavelil@gmail.com

950
property which improve the fuel properties, combustion and reduce the level of deleterious pollutants
simultaneously. Nanoparticles are the simplest form of particles of the order of nanometers. Nanoparticles are
already proven to have some enhanced properties by virtue of their smaller size and greater surface area to volume
ratio. For the reason itself it has found various applications in the field of research and industries. Currently
researches are accelerated in the automobile sector to revolutionize the enhancement of engine efficiencies with
application of nanoparticles as fuel and lubricant additives. The present work is an advancement to earlier
researches, making use of multiple nano additives in the diesel fuel. The objective of the present investigation is to
study the synergetic effect of multiple nanoparticle additives in a CI Engine in order to enhance the combustion
characteristics, improve the performance of engine and to reduce the harmful emissions. Global environmental and
economic scenario itself clearly defines the scope of our present work. By incorporating a suitable combination of
nanoparticles, we can satisfy these requirements at low cost itself. When compared with the advantages obtained, the
cost is negligible and it could satisfy the impending emission regulations.

2. Theory

Nanoparticles are the simplest form of particles of a chemical compound, of the order of nanometers ranging
up to a size where they lose their unique properties. They can be derived from several sources such as metals, metal
oxides, and carbon nanotubes. The current investigation is carried out by selecting Alumina and Cobalt Oxide as the
particles to be blended. The selection of these two particles has been made on the basis of a review of literature
featuring the earlier researches that were carried out using individual particles. Thermal conductivity is the most
important parameter which aids in the enhancement of thermal efficiency of an engine. Since alumina can bring out
more uniform temperature distribution, it can bring about significant changes in emission levels. The unique
property for the Alumina nanoparticles in bringing out desirable outcomes as a fuel additive is due to its ability to
produce micro explosions in the cylinder, which in turn reduces the peak temperature. Cobalt Oxide acts as the
better oxygen buffer when used as a fuel additive. Thus the Oxygen atoms can enhance the combustion reaction so
as to produce a cleaner combustion. As the temperature increases, the mobility of active oxygen atoms increases and
the oxidation of CO become easier. The lattice oxygen on CO 3 O 4 is more active than active oxygen and form
bidentate carbonate which can oxidize CO to produce CO 2 . The present paper investigates the synergetic effect
which the Alumina supported cobalt oxide could give as a potential fuel additive.

3. Experimental Methodology

The investigation is carried out in an experimental setup as shown in figure 1. The set up consists of a single
cylinder, four stroke, direct injection diesel engine coupled to an AC alternator for loading. The engine cooling was
done by normal air cooling.

951
 Fig 1: Experimental Setup

The instrumentation includes AVL 444 Di-gas analyzer, AVL 415 smoke meter, Data acquisition system
consisting of AVL pressure transducer (model: GH14D/H01) and AVL365C angle encoder. The AVL 444 Di-gas
analyzer measures the exhaust emission such as NO x , CO, CO 2 , O 2 and unburned HC. The smoke opacity and soot
concentration is measured by the AVL smoke meter. The details of the test engine and the technical specifications of
allied instruments are listed in table 1.

Table 1. Engine Specifications

Make &Model Kirloskar, TAF1

Type Single cylinder, four stroke, air cooled, direct
injection
Bore x Stroke 87.5x 110mm
Compression Ratio 17.5:1
Swept volume 661cc
Combustion Chamber Open hemispherical
Nozzle holes 3holes
Spray hole diameter 0.25mm
Cone angle 110degree
Rated output 4.4kW,1500rpm
Injection timing 23obtdc
Injection pressure 200 bar

3.1 Preparation of Blended Fuel

The diesel fuel was obtained from an approved dealer of Indian Oil Corporation Limited. The Alumina
nanoparticles (40nm) were supplied by the manufacturer M/s Plasma Chem; Berlin, Germany and CO 3 O 4

952
nanoparticles (50nm) were supplied by M/s Sigma Aldrich, USA. The detailed specifications of the particles are
listed in table 2.

Table 2. Particle Specifications

Particle Al2O3 CO3O4

Manufacturer Plasma Chem Sigma Aldrich
Shape Spherical Spherical
Average size 40nm <50 nm
Full range 5-150nm 10-150 nm
Purity >99.8% 99.5%
Appearance White Black

In general the nanoparticles possess excellent dispersion in all fluids such as water, ethylene glycol and oil to
form stable suspensions for long periods, weeks or months. Hence for the present work ultrasonication technique
was adopted to disperse both the particles in diesel fuel. This would help in preventing the agglomeration of
particles. Both the particles were weighed separately in a predefined mass fraction and dispersed in the neat diesel
with the aid of an ultrasonicator for 30 minutes .Thus the multiple nanoparticle blended diesel fuel (D5000, D0050,
D3515, D2525, D1535) was prepared. Moreover the prepared samples were kept undisturbed and found to be stable
for more than a week.

4. Results and Discussions

This section describes the combustion, performance and emission attributes of the CI engine using virgin diesel,
five blended samples namely D5000, D0050, D3515, D2525, D1535 and the sample with commercial diesel
additive. The combustion characteristics are presented as heat release rate and cylinder pressure plotted against
crank angle. The performance characteristics are plotted in the form of brake thermal efficiency and specific fuel
consumption against brake mean effective pressure. The emission parameters are plotted against load.

4.1 Combustion Characteristics

The variations of cylinder pressure and heat release rate were plotted with respect to crank angle for the tested
fuels from no load to full load conditions as depicted in figure 2. Among the various test samples, D3515 was found
to have higher peak pressure. It was found that for the sample with Al 2 O 3 and Co 3 O 4 particles in equal proportion
(D2525) shows a lesser value of peak pressure when compared with other fuel samples. At higher loads, the peak
pressure was found to be higher for commercially available additive doped fuel than that of D2525. When compared
with neat diesel, D2525 was showing similar and lesser trends in peak pressure.

953
 Similar results were obtained when the heat release rate was plotted against the crank angle for the test fuels.
Figure 3 shows the heat release rate Vs. crank angle for the fuel samples. It was found that heat release rate for the
sample with equal proportion of both the particles was lesser when compared with other samples and commercial
additive. At higher loads, sample D2525 have similar and better results with neat diesel.

Fig. 3. Variation of Heat Release with Crank Angle

This could be due to the improved ignition which has accelerated the combustion leading to better catalytic
activity. Thus the pressure of nano sized particles in the diesel has enhanced the ignition and produced low heat
release rate when compared with other sample and especially the commercial additive. Due to the greater surface
area to volume ratio, the nanoparticles could have improved the fuel- air mixing , leading to shorter ignition delay.

4.2 Performance Characteristics

The variation of brake thermal efficiency with respect to break mean effective pressure is shown in figure 4. It
is observed that brake thermal efficiency of samples with particle additives show significant increase in brake mean
effective pressure. The samples especially D2525 shows a considerably higher brake thermal efficiency at all loads,
particularly at higher loads. This could be due to the better combustion characteristics of the alumina particles which
allowed more fuel to interact with air. Co 3 O 4 particles also supplies sufficient active oxygen which helps in
enhancing the efficiency. Similar trend was obtained in case of specific fuel consumption. Figure 5 shows the
change in brake specific fuel consumption with respect to bmep. The specific fuel consumption was found to be
decreasing at medium loads. This could be due to proper mixing of air with fuel and shortened ignition delay. It
means that at medium loads, a lesser amount of fuel was consumed for producing the same amount of work when
compared to the neat diesel.

954
 Fig. 4. Brake Thermal Efficiency vs. BMEP

Fig 5. Specific Fuel Consumption vs. BMEP

4.3 Emission Characteristics

For a compression ignition engine, the major emissions consist of oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide,
unburned hydrocarbons, soot and smoke.

955
 The variation of NO X with respect to load is shown in figure 6. At higher loads NO X emissions show a
marginal decrease with sample D2525. The combustion characters associated with sample, such as lower heat
released, caused the reduction in oxides of nitrogen as NO X formation is directly proportional to cylinder
temperature. Also it is noticeable that at every load, NO X emissions produced by sample D2525 are lower compared
to neat diesel and commercial additive-blended diesel. The variation of HC emissions for the particle doped diesel
fuels, neat diesel and commercial additive added fuel is depicted in figure 7. It can be inferred from the figure that,
even at medium and higher loads, the HC emissions showed a significant reduction with nanoparticles. Especially
the sample with equal amount of both particles, D2525 showed an almost consistent emission rates at lower as well
as higher loads. This is because of Al 2 O 3 acting at lower loads and CO 3 O 4 acting at higher loads.

Fig. 7: Variation of Hydrocarbons with load

It is a major concern to note the percentage of carbon monoxide in engine emissions. It is shown in figure 8 that the
CO emission marginally decreases with D2525 sample and possesses a great extent of difference with neat diesel
and commercial additive doped diesel.

Fig 8 : Variation of Carbon Monoxide with load

956
There was a slight reduction in smoke opacity level for D2525 sample at all loads, particularly at higher loads. This
could be due to better fuel- air mixing in presence of Al 2 O 3 and CO 3 O 4 nanoparticle which have led to improved
combustion. The variation of smoke opacity for the neat diesel, particle blended diesel and additive samples are
illustrated in figure 9.

Fig. 9: Variation of Smoke Opacity with load

5. Conclusions

The present work investigated the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a single cylinder four
stroke direct injection diesel engine using Al 2 O 3 - CO 3 O 4 nanoparticles blended diesel fuel. The fuel samples were
made with five different proportions of additives. The combustion, performance and emission characteristics of
these samples were studied and compared with that of neat diesel and diesel which is doped with commercial diesel
additive. The results were in supportive with application of nanotechnology in the area of internal combustion
engines for improving performance and reducing emissions.

The major conclusions of investigations are as follows:

1) The alumina- cobalt oxide nanoparticles blended diesel fuel was stable for more than a week under idle
conditions.
2) Due to the shortening of ignition delay of nanoparticles blended diesel fuel, the peak pressure and peak
heat release rate reduced.
3) There was a noticeable improvement in the brake thermal efficiency of the particle blended sample.
Especially when the Al2O3 and CO3O4 nanoparticles where blended in equal ratio, the results were
considerably advantageous. There was a reduction in specific fuel consumption when compared to neat
diesel.
4) There was a marginal reduction of NO X , HC, CO and smoke emissions for D2525 sample. HC emissions
were found to have 15-20% reduction when compared with neat diesel and 20-25% reduction with
commercial additive additive doped diesel at full load. The CO emission had almost 20% decrease than
neat diesel in low and medium loads. NO X emissions were also found to be lesser when compared at all
load conditions. The smoke opacity and soot concentration were also satisfactory for the tested samples.

957
References

[1] Mu-Jung Kao, Chen-Ching Ting, Bai-Fu Lin, and Tsing-Tshih Tsung, "Aqueous Aluminum Nanofluid Combustion in Diesel Fuel" Journal
of Testing and Evaluation, Vol. 36, No. 2 Paper ID JTE100579

[2] Sadhik Basha, J., "An Experimental Analysis of a Diesel Engine Using Alumina Nanoparticles Blended Diesel Fuel," SAE Technical Paper
2014-01-1391, 2014, DOI:10.4271/2014-01-1391.

[3] V. Sajith, C. B. Sobhan, and G. P. Peterson., "Experimental Investigations on the Effects of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticle Fuel Additives on
Biodiesel" Advances in Mechanical Engineering Volume 2010, Article ID 581407, 6 pages DOI:10.1155/2010/581407

[4] J. Sadhik Basha & R. B. Anand., " An Experimental Study in a CI Engine Using Nanoadditive Blended Water–Diesel Emulsion Fuel",
International Journal of Green Energy Volume 8, Issue 3, 2011.DOI:10.1080/15435075.2011.557844

[5] Ajin C. Sajeevan and V. Sajith, "Diesel Engine Emission Reduction Using Catalytic Nanoparticles: An Experimental Investigation",
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Engineering, Volume 2013, Article ID 589382, 9 pages

[6] Ajay Kumar and Sumeet Sharma, "Role of Emulsion and Nanotechnology in Alternative Fuel for Compression Ignition Engine",
International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, E-ISSN 2277 – 4106, P-ISSN 2347 - 5161.

[7] Srinivasa Rao M. and Anand R. B., "Techniques To Improve The Performance While Reducing The Pollutants Level In The Exhaust Gases
Of Compression Ignition Engines - A Review", ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, VOL. 9, NO. 5, MAY 2014, ISSN
1819-6608.

958
 ICAER-2015

Comparative Studies on CO2 Adsorption Isotherms by Solid

Adsorbents
Vinod Kumar Singh*, E. Anil Kumar
Discipline of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore-453446 India

Abstract

The present study provides the necessary thermodynamic data required for the design of CO2 based adsorption
systems using the activated carbon (Norit type RB3 steam activated rod) and zeolite 5A (Si/Al = 1.33). In this work, the CO2
adsorption isotherms of activated carbon and Zeolite 5A are studied at different temperatures (298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 338
K) and pressures (0-30 bar) using a Sievert’s type experimental setup. Experimental data of CO2 adsorption isotherms on
adsorbents are modelled using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Coefficient of correlation and normalized
standard deviation are estimated, which revealed that the Freundlich isotherm model is well suited with the experimental
data of CO2 adsorption isotherms than Langmuir model. The thermodynamic parameters are estimated and these parameters
indicated that the adsorption process is spontaneous, exothermic and physisorption in nature. Isosteric heat of adsorption and
limiting heat of adsorption are calculated using the Clausius-Clapeyron and Vant’ Hoff equations respectively.

Keywords: Adsorption Isotherms; Carbon dioxide; Isosteric heat of adsorption; Thermodynamic properties.

1. Introduction

Development of modern civilization has led to rapid utilization of fossil fuels. As a consequence CO 2
concentration level has continuously increased year by year. CO2 is an important greenhouse gas released from
various industries like power plants, gas processing industries, cement industries, iron and steel industries, etc. is
responsible for global warming and climate change [1]. Carbon capture and sequestration is one of the options to
reduce the anthropogenic emission of CO2. Physical adsorption is considered as the most suitable technique for
CO2 separation due to lower regeneration energy requirement, increased CO2 carrying capacity, faster reaction
rates and minimum pressure drop etc. when compared with other processes like absorption, cryogenic and
membrane separation. Property data like adsorption isotherms and isosteric heat of adsorption is very essential
for the design of any adsorption system. Adsorption processes based on solid adsorbents are widely used for
room and moderate temperature applications mainly using inorganic porous materials such as activated carbon
and zeolite due to large surface area, porosity, surface chemistry, easy to design pore structure, availability and
lower cost [2].

Saha et al. [3, 4] and Himeno et al. [5] performed the CO2 adsorption isotherms on different activated
carbons at various temperatures. They have found that the CO2 adsorption capacity decreased with increase in
adsorption temperature. Singh et al. [6] measured the CO2 adsorption isotherms on Darco type activated carbon
at different temperatures and pressure range of 0-45 bar. They have observed that the CO2 adsorption capacity
decreased with increase in adsorption temperature from 298 to 338 K. Garcia et al. [7] and Yu et al. [8]
measured the CO2 adsorption isotherms on activated carbons at different adsorption temperatures. They have
also found that the adsorption capacity dropped from 440.14 to 264.08 as the temperature increased from 298 to
338 K and 462.15 to 374.12 mg/g with increase the adsorption temperature from 298 to 323 K respectively. Lee
et al. [9] performed the CO2 adsorption isotherms on zeolite 13X and zeolite 13X/activated carbon at various
temperatures with low pressure range of 0-1 bar. They have observed that at low pressure the amount of CO 2
adsorbed on zeolite 13X is higher than that of activated carbon. Liu et al. [10] measured the CO2 adsorption
isotherms on zeolite 5A at different temperatures (303 to 423 K) with a pressure range of (0-1 bar). They have
observed that the adsorption capacity of CO 2 adsorbate is more as compare to N2 adsorbate.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 7322 4240773; fax: (+91) 7322 4240761.
E-mail address: phd12120304@iiti.ac.in, vinod.1016singh@gmail.com

959
Nomenclature

b equilibrium constant of adsorption

ΔHst isosteric heat of adsorption (J/mol)
KF Freundlich constant related to the adsorption capacity of adsorbent
m1 mass of CO2 transferred to reactor (g)
m2 mass of gas present in void volume of the reactor (g)
mad equilibrium amount of CO2 adsorbed (g of CO2/g)
n indication of the tendency of the adsorbate to be adsorbed
Pe equilibrium pressure (N/m2)
Ps supply pressure (N/m2)
Praad reactor pressure after adsorption (N/m2)
Prbad reactor pressure before adsorption (N/m2)
ΔP pressure drop between reference and sample cylinder (N/m2)
Qο maximum amount of CO2 adsorbed (g/g)
qe equilibrium adsorption capacity (g of CO2/g)
Δq normalized standard deviation (%)
R universal gas constant (8.314 J/mol K)
RCO2 characteristic gas constant (J/mol K)
T absolute temperature (K)
Vr void volume of reactor (m3)
Vs supply volume (m3)
Z compressibility factor

Siriwardane et al. [11] and Zhang et al. [12] experimentally performed comparative studies of CO2
adsorption isotherms on activated carbon and zeolite at 298 K and pressures up to 20 bar, they observed lower
CO2 adsorption capacity of activated carbon compared to that of zeolite at pressure less than 1.7 bar whereas at
the pressure above 1.7 bar, the adsorption capacity of activated carbon is obtained more than that of zeolite.
Published data [3-6, 13-16] reveals that the isosteric heat of adsorption slightly decreases with increase in
surface loading. Isosteric heat of adsorption is an important parameter which is useful for designing of gas
storage systems. In this work, Sievert’s type experimental setup is used for measurement of adsorption isotherms
at different temperatures and pressures on activated carbon and zeolite 5A. Adsorption isotherms data are fitted
by the Langmuir and Freundlich model. Thermodynamics properties are estimated using adsorption isotherms
data.

2. Experimental Measurements

In this work, commercially available adsorbents, namely activated carbon (Norit RB3 type steam
activated rod) and Zeolite 5A (45/60 mesh size) (Si/Al = 1.33) procured from Sigma Aldrich in powder form are
used for CO2 adsorption. CO2 gas of Purity 99.999% is used for adsorption isotherms measurement. The details
of experimental setup, reactor design, procedure and maximum uncertainties associated with measured
quantities for CO2 adsorption isotherms measurement of activated carbon are given in the author’s recent article
[6]. The schematic of experimental setup used to measure the adsorption isotherms is shown in Fig. 1. Seamless
stainless steel ¼̎ tube and Swagelok tube fittings are used for the fabrication of the experimental setup. The
adsorption cell is made of stainless steel (SS-316) with a functioning length of 100 mm, inner diameter of 16
mm and 2 mm wall thickness used for the measurement of adsorption isotherms.

Before starting experiments the adsorption cell is filled with adsorbent and kept in a thermostatic bath.
Prior to adsorption isotherms measurements, activation of adsorbent is required for the removal of undesirable
gaseous substances present in the surface of adsorbent. During activation, the adsorbent was degassed at 10 -3
mbar pressure using vacuum pump at 373 K for 4 hours then cooled to the required temperature and maintained
at that temperature throughout the adsorption experiment. CO 2 gas is supplied to the adsorbent present in the
adsorption cell in steps. In each step the amount of CO2 adsorbed is calculated by mass balance of the gas in a
known volume.

960
 Fig. 1 Schematic of experimental setup for CO2 adsorption isotherms measurement

3. Data Reduction of Adsorption Isotherms

3.1 Adsorption Isotherm Modelling

The experimental CO2 adsorption isotherm data is examined by fitting it to isotherm models like
Langmuir and Freundlich which are given in Table 1.

3.1.1 Langmuir Isotherm Model

Assumptions of Langmuir model is based on the theory that maximum adsorption relates to monolayer
shape of adsorbate layer on the adsorbent surface. The adsorption energy during the adsorption process is
assumed to be constant and no migration of adsorbate on the adsorbent surface [17]. The nonlinear and linear
mathematical expressions are given in Table 1. The value of Qο and b are estimated from the slope and intercept
of the plots, which are given in Table 1.

3.1.2 Freundlich Isotherm Model

Unlike Langmuir model, Freundlich isotherm assumes multilayer formation of adsorption, non-uniform
distribution of adsorption heat and affinities over the heterogeneous surface [18]. The mathematical expression
form of the Freundlich isotherm is given in Table 1. The slope (1/n) and intercept ln (KF) of the plot between ln
(qe) versus ln (Pe) are given in Table 1. The slope ranges between 0 and 1 is a measure of surface heterogeneity.
The value of 1/n above one indicates physical adsorption, less than one implies chemisorption and close to zero
indicates heterogeneous adsorption [19].
Table 1 Adsorption isotherm model

Isotherm Nonlinear Linear equation Plot Slope and Intercept Reference

model equation
Slope = 1
Q bPe Pe 1 P Pe vs Q
Langmuir qe    e Pe [17]
1  bPe q e bQ Q qe Intercept = 1
bQ 
Slope = 1
Freundlich
qe   F Pe1 n ln q e  ln  F 
1
ln Pe ln q e vs ln Pe n
[18]
n Intercept = ln  F

961
3.2 Adsorption Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics properties provide useful information for better understanding of an adsorption

mechanism. Adsorption is a spontaneous process if adsorption is characterized by a reduction in the total free
energy of the system. Change of Gibbs free energy is an important measure of spontaneity. The main
thermodynamic parameters for adsorption are the standard Gibbs free energy (ΔG°), standard enthalpy change
(ΔH°) and entropy change (ΔS°). ΔH° and ΔS° are estimated from the slope and intercept by plotting ln (K F)
versus inverse temperature (1/T) by using Eq. (1). The ΔG° values are determined using Eqs. (2).

S H
ln K F   (1)
R RT

G  RT ln(KF ) (2)

In addition, Clausius-Clapeyron equation is used to find out the isosteric heat of adsorption as a
function of surface coverage at different isotherms data, which is given by Eq. (3) [16]. It provides the binding
strength is required during the adsorption process.

RT ln P
H st  (3)
1
 
T mad

The values of Gibbs free energy change (ΔG) and entropy change (ΔS) are evaluated from the following Eqs.
(4)-(5) [16]:
Ps
G  RT ln (4)
P

G  H  TS (5)
`
where, P is the equilibrium pressure of the adsorbate, P s is the saturation pressure of the adsorbate at a
temperature T. For adsorption below critical temperature (T C) of CO2 (K), Ps is chosen to be saturation pressure
at corresponding temperature of CO2. Above TC, Ps is defined as pseudo vapor pressure and estimated by using
Dubinin’s empirical equation given by Eq. (6) [20]. ΔG, ΔHst and ΔS are the standard free energy, isosteric heat
of adsorption under isothermal conditions, and entropy change in the adsorption process respectively.

2
 T 
Ps    PC (6)
 TC 

3.4 Validity of Adsorption Isotherms Models

The experimental data of adsorption isotherms are fitted with the isotherm models to describe the
adsorption process. The validation criterion of these models is based on the value of coefficient of correlation
(R2) and the normalized standard deviation (Δq (%)), which is given by Eq. (7) defined as:

 
2
  q exp  q mod q exp 

q  %   100 (7)
N 1

where qexp and qmod are the adsorption capacities obtained from experimental and model data respectively and N
is the number of adsorption isotherms data points.

962
4. Results and Discussion

Figure 2(a-b) shows the adsorption isotherms of CO2 on the activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different
temperatures and over a pressure range of 0-30 bar. It is observed that the adsorption capacity increases with
increase in equilibrium pressure, which is attributed to the exothermic nature of adsorption. With the increase in
temperature, the interactive binding forces between adsorbate and adsorbent decreases. Fig. 2(c) shows the
comparison of CO2 adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at very low pressures, it is observed that the
amount of CO2 adsorbed on zeolite 5A is higher than that of activated carbon, as more active pores are available
on the zeolite 5A. It is also seen that at above 1.7 bar equilibrium pressure, activated carbon adsorbed more CO2
as compare to zeolite 5A. With the increase of pressure, the amount of CO2 adsorbed on activated carbon
increased gradually and exceeded significantly that of zeolite 5A which is owing to the large surface area and
high pore volume as compared to zeolite 5A.

The CO2 adsorption isotherms data on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are fitted with Langmuir and
Freundlich isotherm models. The constants of these isotherms models along with the coefficient of correlation
and normalized standard deviation are estimated and presented in Table 2. It shows that the Freundlich isotherm
model gives the best correlation with high R2 values and normalized standard deviations. The slope (1/n) values
greater than unity are obtained for Freundlich model indicating high surface heterogeneity. The Freundlich
constant (KF) values for the adsorbent decrease with increasing temperature, it is observed that the CO2
adsorption on adsorbents are more favorable at lower temperature and adsorbent surface was energetically
heterogeneous. It is also observed that all the isotherms on both the adsorbents are reproducible and we have
also performed the repeatability measurement of isotherms. The amount of CO2 adsorbed on the adsorbent is
compared with other available activated carbons reported in the literature which is summarized in Table 3. It
shows that the reported value of CO2 adsorbed is quite similar to that of measured values in the present study.
The maximum cumulative uncertainty in the measurement of amount of CO 2 adsorbed on activated carbon and
zeolite 5A are 9.35 and 5.83 mg of CO2/g of adsorbent respectively.

Table 2 Adsorption isotherm coefficients for different models

Table 3 Comparison of amount of CO2 adsorbed, heat of adsorption at zero loading and isosteric heat of adsorption at surface loading on different
activated carbons and zeolites

Activated Pressure Temperature Amount of CO2 ΔH0 ΔHst Reference

carbon P (bar) T (K) adsorbed (mg/g) (kJ/mol) (kJ/mol)
Activated carbon 30 298 841.10 15.99 18.16 This Study
Zeolite 5A 30 298 220.20 11.51 20.93 This Study
Norit R1Extra 30.30 298 454.63 22.0 - [5]
BPL 48.21 298 323.57 25.7 - [5]
Activated carbon 45 298 377.22 24.07 20.82 [6]
G32-H 20.74 298 234.27 - - [11]
AC-h 30 298 900.00 - - [12]
Zeolite 13X 30 298 243.34 - - [12]
Eucalyptus wood 1 303 131.28 - 11.1 [15]
Activated carbon
0.4 303 - - 28.0 [16]
sample D

The van’t Hoff plot for both the adsorbents is shown in Fig. 3. The plot of ln (KF) versus inverse
temperature (1/T) is obtained by using Eq. (1), from the slope and intercept of the plot (ΔH°/R) and (ΔS°/R) are
estimated respectively. The calculated values of ΔH°, ΔS° and ΔG° are listed in Table 4. The negative values of
ΔG° for both the adsorbents indicate that the adsorption process is thermodynamically spontaneous in nature.
The ΔG° values for the adsorbents decreased with increase in temperature, which shows a decrease in
adsorption feasibility at higher temperatures. The ΔH° values for the activated carbon and zeolite 5A are
obtained 15.99 and 11.51 kJ/mol respectively. The ΔH° value for both the adsorbent indicates that the
adsorption process is exothermic in nature and its magnitude gives the information about the process. In the

963
 present study, the value of ΔH° for both the adsorbents indicates the adsorption process is physisorption process.
The positive values of ΔS° for both the adsorbents indicate that the CO2 molecules interaction with adsorbent
surface increased the disorderness or randomness during the adsorption process. The ΔH° of adsorbent is
compared with other available activated carbons and zeolites reported in the literature, which is given in Table 3.

Fig. 2(a-c) Adsorption isotherms of CO2 on activated carbon and zeolite 5A with ±5% error bars in adsorption capacity and ±0.3% pressure error bars

The isosteric heat of adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are estimated from the isotherm
data using Clausius-Clapeyron equation which is given in Eq. (3). The isosteric heat of adsorption for the
adsorbents is obtained from the slope of the plot of ln (P) versus inverse temperature (1/T) at a constant amount
of CO2 adsorbed (concentration). Figures 4(a-b) show that the plot between ln (P) and 1/T for CO2 adsorption
capacities on activated carbon (100 mg/g, 150 mg/g, 200 mg/g, 250 mg/g, 300 mg/g and 350 mg/g) and zeolite
5A (90 mg/g, 110 mg/g, 130 mg/g, 150 mg/g, 170 mg/g and 190 mg/g) respectively. The negative slope obtained
by the Clausius-Clapeyron plot as shown in Figs. 4(a-b) indicates that the adsorption process is exothermic in
nature on both the adsorbents. The Zeolite 5A has large number of vacant pores available at lower pressure and
the CO2 molecules comes into direct contact with the adsorbent and cause a stronger Vander Waals forces during
adsorbate-adsorbent interactions as compare to activated carbon. At higher pressures, the pores of activated
carbon and zeolite 5A are occupied, causing weak binding forces between adsorbate-adsorbent interactions, as a
consequences the isosteric heat of adsorption is decreased. Isosteric heat of adsorption on zeolite 5A is more
than that of activated carbon. Isosteric heat of adsorption plays an important role for the study of adsorption
kinetics process because the heat released during adsorption process is partially adsorbed on the adsorbent,
which cause a rise in adsorption cell temperature and thus the rate of adsorption decreases. The isosteric heat of

964
 adsorption value is lower than 80 kJ/mol with physisorption while for chemisorption it is greater than 80 kJ/mol
as reported by Zhou et al. [21]. The isosteric heat of adsorption values is obtained for both the adsorbents are
smaller than 80 kJ/mol, it shows that the CO2 adsorption is influenced by the physical adsorption. The isosteric
heat of adsorption values of adsorbents are compared with other available activated carbons and zeolites cited in
the literature, which are given in Table 3. The maximum uncertainty in the estimation of isosteric heat of
adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are ±2.60% and ±2.42% respectively.

Fig. 3 Plot of ln (KF) versus (1/T) (van’t Hoff Plot)

Table 4 Thermodynamic properties at zero loading and surface loading for CO2 adsorption on the activated carbon and zeolite 5A

965
 Fig. 4(a-b) ln (P) versus (1/T) for various amount of CO2 adsorbed on activated carbon and zeolite 5A

Fig. 5 Variation of the isosteric heat of adsorption with surface loading on activated carbon and zeolite 5A

Fig. 5 shows that the variations of isosteric heat of adsorption with surface loading (adsorption
capacity). The values of isosteric heat of adsorption decreased from 41.67 to 11.30 kJ/mol with increase in
surface loading from 100 to 350 mg/g for activated carbon and 30.49 to 10.64 kJ/mol for zeolite 5A with
increase in surface loading from 90 to 190 mg/g respectively. The variations of isosteric heat of adsorption for
activated carbon and zeolite 5A with increase in surface loading may be due to increases the surface
heterogeneity during the adsorbate-adsorbent interactions. It is also shows that the activated carbon is more
stable during the adsorption process as compare to zeolite 5A. The estimated values of isosteric heat of
adsorption, entropy change and Gibbs free energy are in given in Table 4.

5. Conclusions

CO2 adsorption isotherms of activated carbon and Zeolite 5A are studied at different temperatures and
pressures by a Sievert’s type experimental setup. Amount of CO 2 adsorbed on the zeolite 5A at lower pressures
are higher than that on the activated carbon due to availability of large number of vacant pores on zeolite 5A.
However, with increase in pressure, the amount of CO 2 adsorbed on the activated carbon increased quickly than

966
that of zeolite 5A. Isotherms data of CO2 adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are modelled using
Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm model, which revealed that the Freundlich isotherm model well describes the
experimental data of CO2 adsorption isotherms than Langmuir model. The thermodynamic parameters indicated
that the adsorption process is physisorption phenomenon. Isosteric heat of adsorption and limiting heat of
adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are calculated using Clausius-Clapeyron and Vant’ Hoff equations
respectively. Isosteric heats of adsorption on zeolite 5A are higher than that of activated carbon which is due to
stronger binding forces between adsorbate-adsorbent interactions.

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technology-The U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Sequestration Program, International Journal of
Greenhouse Gas Control, 2, pp. 9-20.
[2] Sircar, S., Golden, T.C. and Rao, M.B. (1996) Activated carbon for gas separation and storage, Carbon, 34,
pp. 1-12.
[3] Saha, B.B., Koyama, S., EI-Sharkawy, I.I., Habib, K., Srinivasan, K. and Dutta, P. (2007) Evaluation of
adsorption parameters and heat of adsorption through desorption measurements, Journal of Chemical and
Engineering Data, 52, pp. 2419-2424.
[4] Saha, B.B., Skander, J., Shigeru, K. and EI-Sharkawy, I.I. (2011) Carbon dioxide adsorption isotherms on
activated carbons, Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 56, pp. 1974-1981.
[5] Himeno, S., Komatsu, T. and Fujita, S. (2005) High-pressure adsorption equilibria of methane and carbon
dioxide on several activated carbons, Journal of Chemical Engineering Data, 50, pp. 369-376.
[6] Singh, V.K. and E., Anil Kumar (2015) Measurement and analysis of adsorption isotherms of CO 2 on
activated carbon, Applied Thermal Engineering. (DOI:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.10.052)
[7] García, S., Pis, J.J., Rubiera, F. and Pevida, C. (2013) Predicting mixed-gas adsorption equilibria on
activated carbon for Precombustion CO2 capture, Langmuir, 29, pp. 6042-6052.
[8] Yu, H., Wang, X., Xu, C., Chen, D-L., Zhu, W. and Krishna, R. (2015) Utilizing transient breakthrough for
evaluating the potential of Kureha carbon for CO2 capture, Chemical Engineering Journal, 269, pp. 135-147.
[9] Lee, J.S., Kim, J.H., Kim, J.T., Suh, J.K., Lee, J.M. and Lee, C.H. (2002) Adsorption equilibrium of CO 2 on
zeolite 13X and zeolite 13X/activated carbon composite, Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 47, pp.
1237-1242.
[10] Liu, Z., Grande, C.A., Li, P., Yu, J. and Rodrigues, A.E. (2011) Adsorption and desorption of carbon
dioxide and nitrogen on zeolite 5A, Separation Science and Technology, 46, pp. 434-451.
[11] Siriwardane, R.V., Shen, M.S., Fisher, E.P. and Poston, J.A. (2001) Adsorption of CO 2 on molecular sieves
and activated carbon, Energy and Fuels, 15, pp. 279-284.
[12] Zhang, Z., Zhang, W., Chen, X., Xia, Q. and Li, Z. (2010) Adsorption of CO 2 on zeolite 13X and activated
carbon with higher surface area, Separation Science and Technology, 45, pp. 710-719.
[13] Mofarahi, M. and Gholipour, F. (2014) Gas adsorption separation of CO2/CH4 system using zeolite 5A,
Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 200, pp. 1-10.
[14] Deng, H., Yi, H., Tang, X., Yu, Q., Ning, P. and Yang, L. (2012) Adsorption equilibrium for sulfur dioxide,
nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen on 13X and 5A zeolites, Chemical Engineering Journal, 188, pp. 77-
85.
[15] Heidari, A., Younesi, H., Rashidi, A. and Ghoreyshi, A.A. (2014) Evaluation of CO2 adsorption with
eucalyptus wood based activated carbon modified by ammonia solution through heat treatment, Chemical
Engineering Journal, 254, pp. 503-513.
[16] Guo, B., Chang, L. and Xie, K. (2006) Adsorption of carbon dioxide on activated carbon, Journal of
Natural gas Chemistry, 15, pp. 223-229.
[17] Langmuir, I. (1916) The constitution and fundamental properties of solids and liquids, Journal of the
American Chemical Society, 38(11), pp. 2221-2295.
[18] Freundlich, H.M.F. (1906) Over the adsorption in solution, Journal of Physical Chemistry, 57, pp. 385-471.
[19] Haghseresht, F. and Lu, G. (1998) Adsorption characteristics of phenolic compounds onto coal-reject-
derived adsorbents, Energy and Fuels, 12, pp. 1100-1107.
[20] Dubinin, M.M. (1975) Physical adsorption of gases and vapours in micropores. In: J.F. Danielli, M.D.
Rosenberg, and D.A. Cadenhead (Eds.), Progress in Surface and Membrane Science, 9, Academic Press,
New York, pp. 1-70.
[21] Zhou, X., Yi, H., Tang, X., Deng, H. and Liu, H. (2012) Thermodynamics for the adsorption of SO2, NO
and CO2 from flue gas on activated carbon fiber, Chemical Engineering Journal, 200-202, pp. 399-404.

967
 ICAER-2015

Comparative Studies on CO2 Adsorption Kinetics by Solid

Adsorbents
Vinod Kumar Singh*, E. Anil Kumar
Discipline of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore-453446 India

Abstract

Adsorption kinetics of carbon dioxide (CO2) on activated carbon (Norit RB3 type steam activated rod) and zeolite
5A (Si/Al = 1.33) are compared at different temperatures (298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 338 K) and pressures (1 bar, 5 bar, 10
bar and 20 bar). Sievert’s type experimental setup is used for adsorption kinetics measurement. The experimental data on
activated carbon and zeolite 5A are subsequently modelled using a pseudo first and second order kinetics model, which
revealed that the pseudo second order model well fitted the CO2 adsorption kinetics data than pseudo first order model. The
rate constants and activation energies of CO2 adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are estimated. It is found that at
1 bar supply pressure, the rate of CO2 adsorbed on zeolite 5A is more than that of the activated carbon, while at higher
pressure, the rate of CO2 adsorbed on the activated carbon is greater than the zeolite 5A due to large surface area and pore
volume. Activation energies on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are calculated at different pressures by fitting the Arrhenius
equation to the adsorption kinetics data. It is observed that the activation energies of activated carbon are slightly more than
that of the zeolite 5A.

Keywords: Activation energy; Activated carbon; Adsorption kinetics; Carbon dioxide; Zeolite 5A.

1. Introduction

Nowadays global warming and climate change is the major challenges all over the world. Carbon capture and
sequestration is suggested as one of the options to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Physical adsorption on
porous solid adsorbents is widely used for different applications like water treatment, adsorption based cooling
system, gas storage and purification and separation of flue gases [1]. Published data of several researchers [2-6]
on CO2 adsorption isotherms of various solid adsorbents at different temperatures reveals that the amount of
CO2 adsorbed decreases significantly with increase in adsorption temperature owing to low binding forces
between the adsorbate-adsorbent interactions. Shen et al. [7] measured CO2 adsorption isotherms and kinetics on
pitch-based activated carbon beads at different temperature (303 to 423 K) with a pressure range of 0-1 bar.
They have suggested that the designing of any gas storage system requires the knowledge of adsorption
isotherms and kinetics data for increasing the adsorption capacity. Balsamo et al. [8] reported that the adsorption
rate increases with increasing CO2 gas pressure, but with increasing temperature the adsorption rate decreases.
Zhang et al. [9] measured the adsorption isotherms and kinetics of CO 2 on activated carbon and zeolite 13X at
different temperatures (298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 328 K) and pressures up to 30 bar. They have observed that the
adsorption rate of zeolite 13X is more at lower pressure than activated carbon whereas at high pressure the
adsorption capacity is higher in activated carbon than that of zeolite 13X.

Most of the researchers studied adsorption capacity of solid adsorbents by measuring adsorption
isotherms, a few researchers studied the CO2 adsorption kinetics on solid adsorbent. Adsorption kinetics is
useful for better understanding the phenomenons involved during adsorbent-adsorbate reaction and also to
estimate the time require to complete the adsorption process. Adsorption process time is one of the criteria to
select the solid adsorbents used in gas storage and adsorption based cooling system. The motivation of the
present work is to compare the adsorption kinetics of CO2 on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different
temperatures (298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 338 K) and pressures (1 bar, 5 bar, 10 bar and 20 bar). The rate constant
and activation energies of CO2 on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different pressures and temperatures are
also estimated.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91) 7322 4240773; fax: (+91) 7322 4240761.
E-mail address: phd12120304@iiti.ac.in, vinod.1016singh@gmail.com

968
Nomenclature

A Arrhenius factor
Ea activation energy (J mol-1)
ƙ1 pseudo-first order rate constant (min-1)
ƙ2 pseudo-second order rate constant (g mg-1min-1)
m1' amount of CO2 available in supply volume before adsorption (g)
m2' amount of CO2 available in supply volume after adsorption at any time (g)
mad,t amount of CO2 adsorbed at any time (g of CO2/g)
Ps supply pressure (N/m2)
qe equilibrium adsorption capacity (g of CO2/g)
qt adsorption capacity at any time (g of CO2/g)
Δq normalized standard deviation (%)
R universal gas constant (8.314 J/mol K)
RCO2 characteristic gas constant (J/mol K)
T absolute temperature (K)
t time (sec)
V volume (m3)
Z compressibility factor

Subscripts

ad adsorption
i initial

2. Experimental Measurements

CO2 adsorption kinetics are measured at pressures of 1 bar, 5 bar, 10 bar and 20 bar and at different
temperatures (298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 338 K). Before starting the experiments, volume of supply cylinder and
adsorption cell along with the connecting tubes are measured using a high purity argon gas (99.999%). The
schematic of experimental setup for adsorption kinetics measurement is illustrated in Fig. 1. The adsorption cell
is made of stainless steel (SS-316) with a functioning length of 100 mm, inner dia. of 16 mm and 2 mm wall
thickness is used for adsorption kinetics measurements. Before starting of adsorption kinetics measurements,
activation of solid adsorbents is required for the removal of unwanted gaseous substances present in the surface
of adsorbent. For activation, the adsorbent was degassed at 10-3 mbar pressure using a vacuum pump at 373 K
for 4 hours then cooled to the specify temperature and maintained at that temperature throughout the adsorption
experiment.

After evacuation, valve v3 and v6 are closed and CO2 is supplied to the supply volume V2 and V3 at a fixed
pressure through opening a valve v1 and then valves v1 and v4 are closed. After attaining equilibrium the pressure
and temperature of CO2 in the supply volume is recorded. Then valve v6 is opened and then CO2 is allowed to
pass into the adsorption cell. The amount of CO 2 adsorbed as a function of time is calculated using a mass
balance by measuring pressure reduction. The pressure and temperature data is recorded continuously till no
variation is observed in supply volume.

The total amount of CO2 available in the supply volume at the beginning of the experiment is calculated as
follows:

 3 pi Vi 
m1 '     (1)
 i  2 Z  pi , Ti  R CO Ti 
 2 

Total amount of CO2 available in the volume of V2-V4 at any time t is calculated as follows:

 4 pi,t Vi 
m2 '     (2)
 i  2 Z  pi,t , Ti,t  R CO Ti,t 
 2 

969
 Fig. 1 Schematic of experimental setup for CO2 adsorption kinetics measurement

At any time (t), the amount of CO2 adsorbed in the adsorbent is estimated by the following equation.

mad,t  m1 ' m2 ' (3)

3. Data Reduction of Adsorption Kinetics Modelling

3.1 Adsorption Kinetics Model

The experimental CO2 adsorption kinetics data is examined by fitting it to pseudo first order and
pseudo second order kinetics models which are given in Table 1.

3.1.1 Pseudo-first Order Kinetics Model

Pseudo-first order kinetics model is based on assumptions that the rate of adsorption is proportional to
the number of available free active sites on the adsorbent surface. The pseudo-first order kinetics model is
basically used for liquid-solid phase is given in Table 1. The mathematical expressions for nonlinear and linear
pseudo-first order are given in Table 1 [10]. The value of k1 and qe are obtained from the slope and intercept of
the plots, which is given in Table 1.

3.1.2 Pseudo-second Order Kinetics Model

An assumption of pseudo-second order kinetics model based on the rate of adsorption is related to the
square of the number of free available sites on the adsorbent surface. Many researchers [11-13] have used this
model to fit the experimental kinetics data of CO2 adsorption. The nonlinear and linear mathematical
expressions are given in Table 1 [13]. The value of qe and k2 are estimated from the slope and intercepts of the
plots, which is given in Table 1.

970
3.2 Validity of Adsorption Kinetics Models

The experimental data of adsorption kinetics data are fitted with the kinetics models to describe the
adsorption process. The validation criterion of these models is based on the value of coefficient of correlation
(R2) and the average relative error (ARE), which is given by Eq. (4) defined as [14]:

100 n q e exp  q e mod

ARE(%)   (4)
n i 1 q e exp
where qexp and qmod are the amount of CO2 adsorbed obtained from experimental and model data respectively
and N is the number of adsorption kinetics data points.

Table 1 Adsorption kinetics models

Kinetics model Nonlinear equation Linear equation Plot Slope and Intercept Ref.
1
dq t    Slope =
Pseudo-first order  1  q e  q t  log  q e  q t   log  q e    1  t log  qe  q t  vs t 2.303 [10]
dt  2.303  Intercept = log  q e 

1
Slope =
Pseudo-second dq t t 1 t t qe
 2  q e  q t 
2
  vs t [13]
order dt q t 2q e 2 q e qt 1
Intercept =
2qe 2

4. Results and Discussion

Figure 2(a-d) shows the adsorption kinetics of CO2 on the activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different
temperatures (298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 338 K) and pressures (1 bar, 5 bar, 10 bar and 20 bar). The amount of
CO2 adsorbed on adsorbents increased with increase in CO 2 supply pressure. It is observed that at the beginning,
the amount of CO2 adsorbed on the adsorbents are fast and it’s gradually decreases as the adsorption progresses
till it reaches equilibrium stage. These figures demonstrate that the amount of CO 2 increase with increase in
supply pressure and adsorption process reached equilibrium in about an average time of 120 sec. It is found that
in the initial stage, the reaction rate is high. CO2 molecules come into direct contact of adsorbent causing a
stronger binding force. After all the pores get occupied by the adsorbate no more CO 2 molecules are adsorbed.
Fig. 2(a) shows at supply pressure of 1 bar the amount of CO 2 adsorbed on zeolite 5A is higher than that of
activated carbon which is due to availability of more active sites to adsorb more CO2 molecules on zeolite 5A as
compare to activated carbon. With the increase of supply pressures (5 bar, 10 bar and 20 bar), Fig. 2(b-d) shows
that the amount of CO2 adsorbed on activated carbon increased significantly than that of zeolite 5A, owing to
the large surface area and pore volume. It is also observed that the amount of CO2 adsorbed on the adsorbents
decrease with increase in adsorption temperature due to decrease in adsorbent density during the adsorbate-
adsorbent interactions. The amount of CO2 adsorbed on the activated carbon and zeolite 5A is compared with
other available activated carbons and zeolites cited in the literature and summarized in Table 2. It shows that the
reported value of amount of CO2 adsorbed on activated carbon and zeolite 5A is quite similar to that of
measured values in this study. The maximum uncertainty in the estimation of amount of CO 2 adsorbed in
kinetics measurements on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are 2.81 and 3.21 mg of CO2/g respectively.

The CO2 kinetics data on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different supply pressures and
temperatures are fitted with pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetics models. The kinetics
parameters at different pressures and temperatures of these models along with coefficient of correlation (R2) and
average relative errors are estimated and summarized in Table 3 and Table 4 respectively. Based on calculation
shown in Table 3 and Table 4, it is found that the pseudo-second order kinetics model are well fitted to
adsorption kinetics data as compared to pseudo-first order kinetics model. The experimental and calculated
amount of CO2 adsorbed showed large deviations in case of pseudo-first order kinetics model. It is also
observed that the pseudo-second order kinetics model well fitted with the adsorption kinetics data at different
pressures and temperatures, with high R2 values as shown in Table 3. Based on the R2 value and average relative
error, the above two kinetics models are found to be suitable for fitting the present adsorption kinetics data in
the following order: pseudo-second order > pseudo-first order kinetics model.

971
 Fig. 2 (a-d) Adsorption kinetics curves of CO2 on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at 1 bar, 5 bar, 10 bar and 20 bar with different temperature

Table 2 Comparison of amount of CO2 adsorbed and activation energy of different activated carbons and zeolites

Amount of CO2 adsorbed (mg/g)

Pressure P Activation Energy
Adsorbents Temperature T (K)
(bar) (Ea) (kJ/mol) Reference
298 308 318 338
1 103.05 94.44 89.48 78.96 23.74
Activated carbon 5 226.68 215.96 203.40 151.18 22.92
This study
10 310.89 287.32 258.12 225.28 20.73
20 405.21 366.60 341.48 291.49 18.97
1 119.71 107.76 104.85 96.98 12.25
5 146.90 140.65 136.48 126.17 11.42
Zeolite 5A This study
10 164.21 148.88 144.56 134.46 9.27
20 165.31 155.74 152.62 146.21 7.23
AC-h 0.5 71.12 59.32 46.43 23.67 - [9]
AC-h 3.0 269.45 224.65 190.32 173.47 - [9]
AC-h 20.0 807.34 656.76 643.34 605.34 - [9]
Zeolite 13X 0.5 91.23 85.45 78.33 73.34 - [9]
Zeolite 13X 3.0 122.23 110.23 105.45 101.78 - [9]
Zeolite 13X 20.0 202.34 189.34 167.34 155.34 - [9]
Corncob-derived AC-h 0.01 (301 K) 116.74 25.50 [15]
Coconut shell - - 17.00 [16]

972
 Table 3 Pseudo first and second order kinetics model parameters of CO2 adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A

Table 4 Values of average relative error in amount of CO2 adsorbed on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different temperatures

Activated carbon Zeolite 5A

Temperature (K) Temperature (K)
Kinetics Pressure
Models (bar) 298 308 318 338 298 308 318 338
Average relative error (%) Average relative error (%)
1 0.03 0.002 0.009 0.03 0.15 0.11 0.12 0.10
Pseudo first 5 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.04 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.06
order model 10 0.07 0.07 0.05 0.04 0.10 0.08 0.07 0.06
20 0.06 0.05 0.07 0.05 0.08 0.06 0.07 0.06
1 0.14 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.008 0.009 0.007 0.005
Pseudo
5 0.001 0.003 0.001 0.001 0.006 0.006 0.008 0.006
second order 10 0.019 0.012 0.010 0.016 0.007 0.045 0.009 0.063
model
20 0.013 0.005 0.005 0.004 0.004 0.002 0.004 0.003

The activation energies of CO2 on activated carbon and zeolite 5A at different pressures are obtained
from the slope (-Ea/R) of the plots of (ln ƙ2) versus the inverse temperature (1/T) (Arrhenius-type plot) which is
given by Eq. (5). The plots of (ln ƙ2) and (1/T) fitted with coefficient of correlation (R2) are more than 0.95, are
showing good linear relations. Figure 3(a-b) shows that the activation energy values decreased with increase in
supply pressure which indicates that the adsorbate-adsorbent interaction of the adsorbent for CO2 adsorption is
stronger at higher pressure due to increase in adsorbate density. It is found that at supply pressure of 1 bar, the
activation energy is more for both the adsorbents which is due to more energy is required to start the adsorption
process. It is also observed that the activation energies on activated carbon and zeolite 5A decreased with
increase in adsorption temperature due to heterogeneity of adsorption sites during the adsorbate-adsorbent
interactions. In the physisorption process, the value of activation energy is usually low due to weak Vander
Waals forces between adsorbate-adsorbent interactions. In the present investigation, it is found that the
activation energies of activated carbon and zeolite 5A are 23.74 kJ/mol, 22.92 kJ/mol, 20.73 kJ/mol and 18.97
kJ/mol and 12.25 kJ/mol, 11.42 kJ/mol, 9.27 kJ/mol and 7.23 kJ/mol at 1, 5, 10 and 20 bar pressures
respectively. The activation energy values for the activated carbon and zeolite 5A are in the range of that of
physisorption processes. The activation energy values obtained in the present study are compared with other
activated carbons and zeolites and found that they are quite similar as shown in Table 2. The maximum
uncertainty in the estimation of the activation energy of CO2 adsorption on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are
±1.55% and ±1.74% respectively.

973
 Ea
ln 2  ln A  (5)
RT

Fig. 3(a-b) ln (ƙ2) versus (1/T) with different temperature and pressures on (a) activated carbon and (b) zeolite 5A

974
5. Conclusions

Adsorption kinetics of CO2 on activated carbon and zeolite 5A are compared at different temperatures
(298 K, 308 K, 318 K and 338 K) and pressures (1, 5, 10 and 20 bar). The amount of CO2 adsorbed on zeolite
5A at 1 bar supply pressure is more as compared to activated carbon which is due to availability of more active
sites on the surface of adsorbent. At high pressures, the amount of CO2 adsorbed on activated carbon is higher
than that of zeolite 5A due to high surface area and pore volume. CO 2 adsorption kinetics data on the adsorbents
are described using the pseudo first and second order kinetics models. It is found that the pseudo second order
model is well suited to the CO2 adsorption kinetics data than pseudo first order model. The rate constants for
both the adsorbents increased with increase in temperatures. Activation energies of CO 2 adsorption on activated
carbon and zeolite 5A slightly decreased with increase in CO2 supply pressure.

References

[1] Lal, R. (2008) Sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in global carbon pools, Energy Environmental Science, 1,
pp. 86-100.
[2] Saha, B.B., Koyama, S., EI-Sharkawy, I.I., Habib, K., Srinivasan, K. and Dutta, P. (2007) Evaluation of
adsorption parameters and heat of adsorption through desorption measurements, Journal of Chemical and
Engineering Data, 52, pp. 2419-2424.
[3] Saha, B.B., Skander, J., Shigeru, K. and EI-Sharkawy, I.I. (2011) Carbon dioxide adsorption isotherms on
activated carbons, Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 56, pp. 1974-1981.
[4] Himeno, S., Komatsu, T. and Fujita, S. (2005) High-pressure adsorption equilibria of methane and carbon
dioxide on several activated carbons, Journal of Chemical Engineering Data, 50, pp. 369-376.
[5] Singh, V.K. and E., Anil Kumar (2015) Measurement and analysis of adsorption isotherms of CO 2 on
activated carbon, Applied Thermal Engineering. (DOI:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.10.052)
[6] García, S., Pis, J.J., Rubiera, F. and Pevida, C. (2013) Predicting mixed-gas adsorption equilibria on
activated carbon for Precombustion CO2 capture, Langmuir, 29, pp. 6042-6052.
[7] Shen, C., Grande, C.A. and Rodrigues, A.E. (2010) Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of CO2 and N2 on
activated carbon beads, Chemical Engineering Journal, 160, pp. 398-407.
[8] Balsamo, M., Budinova, T., Erto, A., Lancia, A., Petrova, B., Petrov, N. and Tsyntsarski, B. (2013) CO2
adsorption onto synthetic activated carbon: Kinetics, thermodynamic and regeneration studies, Separation and
Purification Technology, 116, pp. 214-221.
[9] Zhang, Z., Zhang, W., Chen, X., Xia, Q. and Li, Z. (2010) Adsorption of CO2 on zeolite 13X and activated
carbon with higher surface area, Separation Science and Technology, 45, pp. 710-719.
[10] Trivedi, H.C., Patel, V.M. and Patel, R.D. (1973) Adsorption of cellulose triacetate on calcium silicate,
European Polymer Journal, 9, pp. 525-531.
[11] Demirbas, E., Kobya, M., Senturk, E. and Ozkana, T. (2004) Adsorption kinetics for the removal of
chromium (VI) from aqueous solution on the activated carbons prepared from agricultural wastes, Water SA,
30(4), pp. 533-539.
[12] Ho, Y.S. (2006) Second-order kinetic model for the sorption of cadmium onto tree fern: A comparison of
linear and non-linear methods, Water Research, 40, pp. 119-125.
[13] Ho, Y.S. Mckay, G. Wase, D. and Foster, C.F. (2000) Study of the sorption of divalent metal ions on to peat,
Adsorption Science Technology, 18, pp. 639-650.
[14] Kapoor, A. and Yang, R.T. (1989) Correlation of equilibrium adsorption data of condensable vapours on
porous adsorbents, Gas Separation and Purification, 3, pp. 187-192.
[15] Wang, Y.X. Liu, B.S. and Zheng, C. (2010) Preparation and adsorption properties of corncob-derived
activated carbon with high surface area, Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, 55, pp. 4669-4676.
[16] Rashidi, N.A. Yusup, S. and Hameed, B.H. (2013) Kinetic studies on carbon dioxide capture using
lignocellulosic based activated carbon, Energy, 61, pp. 440-446.

975
Investigating and Improving the Cold Flow Properties of Waste
Cooking Biodiesel Using Winterization and Blending
Mukesh kumar*, M.P. Sharma**
*, **Biofuel Research Laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand-247667, India
Mukeshdce07@gmail.com
Abstract

Waste cooking oil (WCO) can be used as a potential feedstocks for biodiesel production owing to its availability and cheap price. The
main obstacle of using waste cooking biodiesel (WCB) as a fuel in engine is its cold flow properties (CFP) such as cloud point (CP) and pour
point (PP). The CFP of biodiesel results in gum formation which is further leads to solidification of fuel, fuel line and filter which ultimately
resulted in starting problem of engine. The CFP can be improved by adding cold flow improvers, blending and winterization. The present study
investigates and improves the CFP of WCB using blending, and winterization. The result of the present study shows that CP and PP are
improved from 14.1 to 8.6 °C and 10.3 to 2.1 °C respectively by using three steps winterization. The result also concluded that drastic
improvement in CFP of WCB by 20% ethanol blending. It is found that ethanol as cold flow improver plays major role in enhancement of CFP
of WCB as it improve both by 8 °C. The result of investigation recommends the use of WCBE20 blend of WCB with ethanol for engine
operation under cold climatic condition without any fuel quality problem. Out of various methods for improving cold flow properties addition of
cold flow improver is best method to achieve the desired values of cold flow properties for biodiesel.

Keywords: Waste cooking biodiesel (WCB), Cloud point (CP), Pour point (PP), winterization, ethanol.

1. Introduction

The demand of diesel is increases exponetionally as it used for transportation, power generation and
agricultural, industrial sector and associated environmental emissions, the search for renewable biofuels, like
bioethanol and biodiesel has become inevitable in these days [1, 2]. Biodiesel, a mixture of mono-alkyl esters
produced from edible, non-edible oils or animal fats can be produced by transesterification processes [3]. Due to
inherent problems of low oil productivities requiring huge land area for growing the edible and non-edible oil
resources, the microalgae has attracted the attention of researchers all over the world as future source of biodiesel.
Its disadvantages are that it requires less land area, less maturity time and its ability to grow in highly saline water,
waste water from domestic/commercial/agricultural sectors [4]. The main lynch problem associated with the use of
biodiesel as engine fuel is its poor cold weather properties, which lead to crystallization of biofuel at low
temperatures. When such fuel is used for engine operation, it can clog the filters or even become so viscous causing
its pumping difficult from the fuel tank to the engine and the engine starts facing the fuel starvation and operational
problems [6-7]. It is reported that the presence of saturated fatty acids in biodiesel helps to lower crystallization
temperature causing the deterioration in the cold flow properties (CFP) of biodiesel. Literature reports that very little
work on assessing/predicting the CFP of different oils on the basis of fatty acid compositions and recommending
most suitable oils for biodiesel production from fuel quality point of view [8].

The main hinder with the use of biodiesel as fuel is its poor cold weather characteristics causing
crystallization of biofuel at low temperatures that led to the clogging of filters or cause fuel pumping difficult due to
viscosity during engine operation, thereby, creating [9] fuel starvation and operational problems [10]. This is due to
the presence of saturated fatty acids in biodiesel and reduces the crystallization temperature resulting in the
deterioration of its CFP [11]. To overcome and improve these problems, Dwivedi et al. [9] suggested methods like
blending of biodiesel with diesel, use of cold flow improvers and winterization. Veríssimo et al. [12] improved low
temperature properties of vegetable oil using ethanol as a cold flow improver. Usta et al. [13] improved the CFP of
tobacco seed biodiesel from 7º to 2 ºC by using Ethylene Vinyl acetate copolymer. Joshi et al. [14] reported the
reduction of CP and PP from 5º to 1 °C and 4º to 1 ºC respectively using Ethyl Levulinate. Pérez et al. [15] further
improved the CFP of peanut biodiesel from 8º to -17 ºC using winterization. This literature reveals that considerable
work is available on improving the CFP of biodiesel experimentally but very little work is available on improving of
CFP properties of WCB.

976
 The present paper attempts to investigating and improving the CFP of WCB using winterization and blending
with ethanol.

2. Cold flow properties (CFP)

CFP of diesel and other fuels consists of: cloud point (CP), cold filter plugging point (CFPP) and pour point
(PP) and is briefly discussed below:

a. Cloud Point (CP)

CP is the temperature, at which crystallization begins and first small solid crystal becomes visible when the
fuel is cooled continuously [17]. It is the temperature, at which liquid fuel becomes cloudy due to the formation of
crystals and solidifications of saturates. With continuous lowering of temperature, more and more solids are
produced [18].

b. Pour Point (PP)

PP is the temperature at which the fuel becomes solid and no longer flow freely. Hence, it is a measure of
the fuel gelling point. The PP is always lower than CP [17, 19].

c. Cold filter plugging point (CFPP)

It is the lowest temperature, at which a given volume of liquid fuel still passes through a standardized
filtration device in a specified time when cooled under certain conditions [19].

3. Experimental Investigation

a. Material

WCO was procured from hostel messes of IIT Roorkee campus. All the chemicals like KOH, methanol,
H 2 SO 4 , anhydrous Na 2 SO 4 , etc. used were of analytical grade (A.R.) and 99% pure. WCO was filtered to remove
all insoluble impurities followed by heating at 100 °C for 10 min to remove all the moisture.

b. Conversion of waste cooking oil into biodiesel using transesterification

Owing to low FFA content (as shown in Table 1) base catalyst (KOH) is used from transesterify WCO into
WCB. A mixture of methanol (5% v/v) and KOH (1% w/w of oil) was prepared and heated at 50°C then this hot
mixture was further mixed with WCO and stirred at 50°C for 2 hours. After that the mixture was allowed to settle
down in separating funnel for overnight. Two layers were formed, the upper layer contained biodiesel while the
lower glycerin. The biodiesel was separated from glycerin by gravity separately. A biodiesel yield of 97.05% was
obtained was neutralized by H 2 SO 4 and excess methanol was removed by vacuum distillation. The resulting
biodiesel was washed thrice with hot water to remove excess impurities and dried over anhydrous Na 2 SO 4 .

977
 Table 1: Fuel properties of WCO and its methyl ester

S. No. Properties Unit WCO WCB

1 Density Kg/m3 930 882
2 Kinematic viscosity @ 40 °C cSt 46 4.2
3 Flash point °C 235 168
4 FFA % 0.9 0.7
5 Gross calorific value MJ/kg 31.5 30.5

c. Fuel properties
The biodiesel samples were tested for physicochemical properties as per ASTM D-6751 and Indian IS
15607 specification and the properties are given in Table 1, which shows that although the WCB meets most of the
specifications but according to Indian Climate, cannot be used in winter season.

4. Experimental Investigation of Cold Flow Property of Waste Cooking Biodiesel

The CP and PP were measured as per the American standards ASTM D-6751 test methods ASTM D2500,
D97 respectively. The biodiesel sample in a definite volume was cooled in a glass tube and inspected at definite
intervals of 1°C until a cloud appeared. The temperature at which first cloud or haze appeared was recorded as CP
and when sample was no longer flow is recorded as PP. All data was taken in triplicate and the mean of all is used.
Subsequent analysis showed no statistically significant difference among the measurements. For winterization the
sample was weighted and cooled to 0.2ºC below its PP. The lower layer of biodiesel was solidified. The solid and
liquid fractions were separated by using filter paper and pump. The weight of liquid and solid fractions were
calibrated and the liquid portion was subjected to further test for calculating CP and PP as per ASTM D-6751. The
CP and PP of liquid show the improvement. This process was repeated thrice to achieve three stage winterization of
WCB.

5. Winterization
Winterization process was employed earlier to improve the quality of oils and fats, especially vegetable
oils, not to become cloudy at low temperatures. It is a physical process of cooling a liquid fuel to undergo
crystallization followed by fractionalization of fuel to remove its high melting components [9]. Extending this
approach to biodiesel has been found to significantly reduce the CP and PP of the biodiesel. Biodiesel is cooled to
0.2°C below its CP and PP and any crystals formed are separated and reported. This process is repeated thrice until
the crystals are no longer formed when the sample is held at that temperature for more than three hours. The solids
formed are usually the crystals of the high melting point saturated fatty esters and the resultant liquid biodiesel is
made to contain lower percentage of saturated fatty acids. The process of winterization results in the loss of
biodiesel yield from 5.4% to 15 % at each stage as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Winterization of WCB

S. No. Blend %Solid Mass %liquid Mass %Yield CP (°C) PP (°C)

(g) (g)
1 WCB-100 0 50 100 14.1 10.3
2 WCB-100 (1st) 2.7 47.3 94.6 11.6 7.6
3 WCB-100 (2nd) 2.5 44.8 89.6 10.1 5.8
4 WCB-100 (3rd) 2.3 42.5 85 8.6 2.1

978
 Fig. 1 Variation of CP and PP with % yield loss.

Fig. 1 shows the variation of CP and PP with %yield loss during the 3 step winterization process. The R2=0.98 and
0.97 is obtained for CP and PP respectively which shows that the experiment results are hold good and significant
for waste cooking biodiesel. Table 2 shows the improvement in CP and PP of WCB by 5.5°C and 8.2°C respectively
but the biodiesel yield reduction of 15% reduction in three step winterization. During winterization at every step
there is loss of saturated fatty acids which have an adverse effect on the cetane number of the biodiesel because of
these saturated fatty acid, biodiesel have better ignition qualities and higher cetane numbers [9]. Moreover, the
various steps required achieving a significant reduction in cloud point and the low yield translates into a higher
production cost which impedes the widespread use of this particular method.

5.1 Blending of Waste Cooking Biodiesel with Ethanol

Waste cooking biodiesel (WCB) and ethanol were blended in weight percent 100:00 (WCB), 98:02, 95:05,
90:10, 85:15, and 80:20 (Ethanol). Fig. 2 shows that high CP and PP of WCB was lowered after blending with the
ethanol having low CP and PP. It is due low CP and PP value of ethanol.

979
 Fig. 2 Effect of ethanol blending with WCB on CP and PP.

The result of experiment shows the improvement in cloud point and pour point of waste cooking biodiesel blended
with ethanol. The results show that as the biodiesel concentration percentage decreases the value of CP and PP is
improved from 14.1°C to 6.8°C and 10.3 °C to 3.2°C respectively. It shows that fuel WCBE20 can be recommended
for cold climatic condition.

6. Conclusion

The experimental investigation shows that the cloud point and pour point of WCB is 14.1°C and pour point
is 10.3°C. The investigation includes the three step winterization of WCB. The effect of ethanol as blending agent
for WCB is also investigated. The result of winterization shows the improvement in CP and PP of WCB by 8.6°C
and 2.1°C respectively but the biodiesel yield reduction of 12.6 % reduction in three steps while the ethanol
remarkably improved the CP and PP of WCB. The CP and PP of WCB is improved from 14.1°C to 6.8°C and
10.3°C to 3.2°C respectively by blending with ethanol. Blending of biodiesel is simple but effective method to
improve the low temperature flow properties, of biodiesel. The result shows that WCBE20 fuel can be recommended
for cold climatic condition.

Acknowledgement
One of the authors (MK) greatly acknowledges the financial support from Ministry of human resources and
development, Govt. of India in the form of research scholarship.

References
[1] Bozbas K. Biodiesel as an alternative motor fuel: production and policies in the European Union. Renew Sust Energ Rev 2008;
12:542–52.
[2] Kumar M, Sharma MP. Status of biofuel production from microalgae in India. J Integr Sci Technol 2014; 2:72-75.
[3] Kumar M, Sharma MP. Production Methodology of Biodiesel from Microalgae. IJAER 2013; 8:1825-1832.
[4] Chisti Y. Biodiesel from microalgae. Biotech Advances 2007; 25:294–06.
[5] Miao X, Wu Q. Biodiesel production from heterotrophic microalgal oil. Biores Tech 2006; 97:841–46.
[6] Chhetri AB, Tango, MS, Budge SM, K. Watts KC and Islam MR. Non-Edible Plant Oils as New Sources for Biodiesel Production. Int
J Mol Sci 2008; 9:169-180.
[7] Kumar M, Sharma MP, Dwivedi G. Algae Oil as Future Energy Source in Indian Perspective. IJRER 2013; 3:913-921.

980
[8] Kumar M, Sharma MP. Assessment of potential of oils for biodiesel production. Renew Sust Energ Rev 2015; 44:814-1823.
[9] Dwivedi G, Sharma MP. Investigation and Improvement in Cold Flow Properties of Pongamia Biodiesel. Waste Biomass Valor 2015;
6:73–79.

[10] Kumar M, Sharma MP. Potential assessment of microalgal oils for biodiesel production: A review. J Mater Environ Sci 2014; 3:757-
766.

[11] Singh SP, Singh D. Biodiesel production through the use of different sources and characterization of oils and their esters as the
substitute of diesel: A review. Renew Sust Energ Rev 2010; 14:200-16.

[12] Veríssimo M, Teresa M. Assessment on the use of biodiesel in cold weather: pour point determination using a piezoelectric quartz
crystal. Fuel 2011; 90:2315–2320.

[13] Usta N, Aydogan B. Properties and quality verification of biodiesel produced from tobacco seed oil. Energ Convers Manag 2011; 52:
2031–2039.

[14] Joshi H, Moser BR, Toler J. Ethyl levulinate: A potential bio-based diluent for biodiesel which improves cold flow properties.
Biomas bioenerg 2011; 35: 3262-3266..

[15] Perez A, Casas A. Winterization of peanut biodiesel to improve the cold flow properties. Bioresour Technol 2010; 101:7375–7381.

981
 ICAER-2015

An Optimisation-based Negotiation Framework for Energy

Systems in an Eco-Industrial Park
Viknesh Andiappana, Raymond R. Tanb, Denny K. S. Nga,
a
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering/Centre of Sustainable Palm Oil Research, The University of Nottingham,
Malaysia Campus, Broga Road, Semenyih 43500, Malaysia
b
Chemical Engineering Department, De La Salle University, 2401Taft Avenue, 0922 Manila, Philippines.

Abstract

To achieve sustainability goals, various strategies have been used which include symbiotic strategies with other companies.
Such symbiotic strategies are based on the concept of industrial ecology (IE). IE emphasises on the importance of symbiotic
interactions among various companies as it would reduce overall waste emission, raw material and energy consumption.
Since symbiotic relationships readily occur among processes co-located within the same vicinity, the concept of eco-
industrial parks (EIPs) emerged. Companies in an EIP engage in material and energy exchange programmes in a mutually
beneficial manner. In this sense, a biomass-based tri-generation system (BTS) could serve as a facilitator for an EIP as it
produces heat, power and cooling energy simultaneously on-site. However, it is arguable whether a BTS-driven EIP would
be economically viable since each company would have its own profit-oriented goals. To address such issue, this work
presents an optimisation-based negotiation framework for plants in an EIP. Such framework combines both cooperative
game model and stability analysis. To illustrate the proposed framework, a case study on energy systems in a palm oil eco-
industrial park (PEIP) is presented.

Keywords: Cost Savings Allocation; Industrial Ecology; Eco-Industrial Park; Cooperative Game Theory; Stability Analysis.

1. Introduction

Industrial development has brought immeasurable wealth and prosperity over the past few centuries.
However, it has also resulted in unintended environmental problems such as global warming, ozone depletion,
deforestation, etc. [1]. In response to such problems, governmental decision makers have implemented
pollution taxes and regulations in order to push corporations to seek a more sustainable approach toward
industrial development. Building a sustainable industry often links to the term industrial symbiosis (IS), which
in turn originates from the concept of industrial ecology (IE). The latter was popularised by Frosch and
Gallopoulos [2] based on analogies with symbiotic flows in natural ecosystems. IE emphasises on the
importance and the potential benefits of symbiotic interactions among various companies (or plants). For
instance, waste generated from one production process may be used as raw materials in another process. When
successfully implemented, IE would reduce overall waste and emission from the entire system as well as the raw
material and energy consumption to other systems [3]. Since symbiotic relationships normally occur among
processes co-located within the same vicinity, the concept of eco-industrial parks (EIPs) emerged [4]. Due to
the geographic proximity, companies in an EIP facilitate cooperation through infrastructure, material, water and
energy exchange programmes. In this respect, several systematic approaches have been developed for designing
shared infrastructure in EIPs [5]. However, the aforementioned approaches may prove unsuccessful if the
(conflicting) self-interests of each participating plant are not met. In reality, every participant plant in an EIP
has unique individual goals that may conflict with those of potential partners. To address this issue, game
theory-based approaches have been presented to consider conflicting interests in EIPs [5]. Game theory is a
suitable framework that mathematically models the behaviour of multiple parties with potentially conflicting
interests in various domains [6]. Chew et al. [7] presented a game theory approach for inter-plant water
networks and demonstrated how incentives assist in inducing cooperation in an EIP. Hiete et al. [8] proposed an
approach based on the Shapley value [9] to allocate energy savings between partners based on their marginal
contributions in a pulp and woody bioenergy EIP. Zhang et al. [10] presented mathematical formulation based
on Nash bargaining solution approach to fairly allocate cost amongst facilities in a general micro-grid.

More recently, Tan et al. [11] developed a game theoretic approach using the cooperative game model
of Maali [12] for allocating benefits among participants in an EIP. The previous work concluded that that
method can be used as an alternative approach to Shapley value [9] for allocating benefits (e.g., energy savings,

982
cost savings, profits, etc.) in an EIP. However, the allocating benefits alone would be inadequate to guarantee a
stable EIP coalition. Stability in the context of EIPs, refers to the robustness of an EIP coalition toward changes
in cost associated with investment and operations [13]–[15]. In a coalition, each plant is prone to deviations in
symbiosis costs. Symbiosis cost is defined as the investment cost each plant requires to engage in material and
energy exchange with other plants in an EIP. Symbiosis costs may include expenditure transportation, piping
and instrumentation, shipment, labour, conveyor systems, etc. If deviations in symbiosis costs are ignored,
changes in profit may cause dissatisfaction among plant stakeholders and consequently disrupt the overall
stability of the coalition. Thus, this work extends the contribution in Tan et al. [11] by proposing an
optimisation-based negotiation framework which is able to analyse the stability of EIP coalitions. In this
enhanced framework, Maali’s cooperative game model is adapted to rationally and fairly allocate the pooled
cost savings among participating plants in an EIP based on their respective contributions [12]. Following this, a
stability analysis developed by Wang et al. is applied to introduce and investigate the stability threshold of each
plant in an EIP. The stability threshold measures the robustness of the coalition to deviations in key
assumptions pertaining to symbiosis costs; thus, there are significant practical implications of the enhanced
framework. Moreover, the stability threshold functions as a basis of negotiation when symbiosis costs fall
outside the feasible range or when changes in costs are anticipated in the future. Such functions allow
stakeholders to make informed managerial decisions concerning the current or future plant interactions in an
EIP.

2. Optimisation-based Negotiation Framework

As mentioned earlier, this work proposes an optimisation-based negotiation framework for cooperative
partnerships in EIPs. As shown in Fig. 1, the framework begins by defining the plants interested in forming a
cooperative partnership within an EIP [Step (a)]. Next, all plants discuss the initial terms of interaction in the
EIP [Step (b)]. From these initial discussions, the price of raw materials, energy and subsidies offered to one
another are agreed upon. These interactions are then mathematically formulated (discussed in the next section)
and solved via Maali’s cooperative game model to fairly allocate cost savings each plant deserves [Step (c)]
[12]. If all plants are satisfied with the allocation [Step (d)], the cost savings can be finalised [Step (e)]. On the
other hand, if one (or more) plant(s) is not satisfied, all plants can renegotiate the initial terms of interaction in
the EIP [Step (j)]. With the allocated cost savings alone, it cannot be assumed that the synthesised EIP will be a
stable one. Stability in the context of EIPs, refers to the viability of a given configuration with respect to
internal and external changes [13]–[15]. Each participating plant is prone to specific internal and external
changes in symbiosis cost (e.g., transportation costs, piping and instrumentation costs, shipment costs, labour
costs, conveyor system, etc.), which may affect the overall EIP stability. If such characteristics of an EIP are
ignored, its viability could be severely weakened. Hence, this framework extends the stability analysis approach
developed by Wang et al. [16] to investigate the range of symbiosis cost (e.g., transportation costs, piping and
instrumentation costs, conveyor systems, etc.) each plant can absorb in order to maintain stability [Step (f)]. In
this framework, the aforementioned range of symbiosis cost is defined as the stability threshold. Following the
stability analysis, all plants then define their respective symbiosis cost and consult the stability threshold [Step
(g)]. If the symbiosis cost for any plant falls within the stability threshold, the EIP is considered stable and can
be finalised. In cases where at least one plant is not stable, it is possible to seek a mutual agreement among
plants to share additional symbiosis cost based on the stability threshold [Step (h)]. If an agreement is reached
[Step (i)] and the stability of each plant is within the threshold, the EIP is considered stable. Otherwise,
participating plants can renegotiate initial terms as stated in Step (j). At this point, if no agreement [Step (k)],
dissatisfied plants may choose to withdraw from the cooperative partnership [Step (l)]. In the case where an
agreement can be achieved, Step (c) is revisited and the subsequent steps are followed. The proposed
framework can be repeated as long as a mutual decision among all plants can be achieved.

983
3. Model Formulation

2.1 Cost Savings Allocation

As mentioned previously, Maali’s cooperative game model [12] is used to determine the fair allocation of
cost savings for an EIP. In this model, u represents a set of plants in an EIP (u = 1, 2,…., U). In addition, z is a
set of plants which form a coalition (z =1, 2; 1, 3; 1, U). Equation 1 is included in the optimisation model to
determine the weightage (Cu) of cost savings allocation (SAu) for plant u. The weightage is determined based on
the incremental contribution of plant u in a coalition as shown in Equation 2, where CSz represents the cost
savings for a coalition while CSz-u is the cost savings of a coalition without plant u. Equation 3 is included in the
model to determine SAu for each plant u. In Equation 3, SAu for each plant u must be greater than the savings
attained individually by each plant u (CSu). Meanwhile, Equation 4 is included to ensure that the sum of all SAu
is equal to CSv. The objective function for this model is shown in Equation 5, where λ is maximised to give the
optimum allocation of savings in Equation 1.

1 (1)
SAu   u
Cu
where Cu is given by;

U
Cu   CS z  CS zu 
z
 CS
u 1
u u (2)

where w is the coalition without plant u

SAu  CS u u (3)
U U

 SA   CS
u 1
u
u 1
u (4)

Maximise λ (5)

2.2 Stability Analysis

In this work, the stability analysis is conducted by measuring incremental investment return (IIR). The IIR
measure is used to indicate if the incremental cost savings from the EIP is sufficient to offset the symbiosis cost
required. The total symbiosis cost (SIOVERALL) is determined by the summation of the symbiosis cost of
participating plants u (SIu) in the EIP (Equation 9).

U
(6)
SI OVERALL   SI
u 1
u

The total symbiosis savings (CSOVERALL) is then determined by the summation of CSu of the participating plants
in the EIP is:

U
(7)
CS OVERALL   CS
u 1
u

Following this, the overall distribution coefficient (DCOVERALL) which is defined as the ratio of total symbiosis
savings (CSOVERALL) and the total symbiosis cost (SIOVERALL) can be determined. DCOVERALL is:

CS OVERALL (8)
DC OVERALL 
SI OVERALL

The DCOVERALL functions as a basis for fair or symmetrical distribution of cost savings among plants in an EIP.
Ideally, each plant u would aim to achieve distributions equal to DCOVERALL. This would mean that distribution
of cost savings is symmetry, whereby each plant u can obtain the same allocation, making this an ideal status for

984
plants u to strive for. However, in reality, the distributions of symbiosis savings and symbiosis cost of each
plant u may deviate from DCOVERALL. The deviation from ideal status is measured via the asymmetric
distribution coefficient [16] of each plant u (ADCu). ADCu is:

DC u (9)
ADCu  OVERALL
1 u
DC
In Equation 12, DCu represents the distribution coefficient of each plant u and is:

CSu (10)
DC u  u
SI u

Note that ADCu can be positive, negative or zero and is highly dependent on the cost savings associated with the
symbiosis cost required for implementation of the EIP. Based on Equation 13, higher ADCu represents higher
symbiosis savings can be obtained and thus results in higher DCu for plant u and vice versa. In the event where
ADCu is equal to 0, it means that plant u experiences no deviation of the distribution coefficient from the ideal
status (when DCu is equal to DCOVERALL). In cases where ADCu is negative, the symbiosis savings of plant u
gained from EIP is below the ideal status. Meanwhile, if ADCu = -1 (and DCu = 0), plant u does not gain any
savings from being in the EIP. In this respect, it would be desirable for ADCu to be greater than 1 in order to
encourage plants cooperation in the EIP [16]. To ensure a stable EIP coalition, ADCu is bounded within
maximum ( ADCumax ) and minimum ( ADC umin ) limits that are predefined by the participating plants, whereby
ADCu ∈ ( ADC umin , ADCumax ). As such, the coalition is considered stable if their respective ADCu of each plant
u is located within the predefined limits. On the other hand, if ADCu falls out of the given range, the stability of
the EIP will be compromised due to unreasonable distribution of cost savings [16]. As mentioned by Wang et
al. [16], ADC umin and ADCumax might not be the same for all plants u, and the limits can be altered based on
plants’ requirements or company policies. It is imperative that all plants u negotiate and reach a consensus on
the ADC umin and ADCumax limits to maintain a stable EIP coalition [16]. In the case where the ADCu of a
particular plant falls outside the agreed range, stakeholders can consider to renegotiate and discuss the next step
forward for the coalition. During negotiations, the affected plant(s) can suggest sharing some of the additional
costs among cooperating plants in the EIP with respect to the agreed upon range. If no agreement can be
achieved at this stage, plants can renegotiate the initial terms of the coalition and reallocate the cost savings. If
this step still fails to yield an agreement, then the affected plant(s) can opt to withdraw from the coalition.

985
 (a) Define interested plants to
form cooperative partnership in
EIP

(b) Discuss initial terms of EIP

interactions

Resolve
(c) Solve Maali’s cooperative Model
game model to fairly allocate
cost savings among plants

No
(d) Are all plants
satisfied? (j) Renegotiate initial terms of
EIP interactions with all plants

Yes

(e) Finalised allocation of cost

savings (k) Agreement Yes
Reached?

No
(f) Empirical stability analysis
to determine range of symbiosis
cost or stability threshold each
plant can absorb (l) Dissatisfied plants to
withdraw from cooperative
partnership in EIP

No (h) Seek mutual agreement

(g) Is symbiosis
among plants to share additional
cost within
symbiosis costs based on
threshold?
stability threshold

Yes

(i) Agreement No
Reached?

Yes

Finalised Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) Configuration

Fig. 1. Optimisation-based Negotiation Framework for Cooperative Partnerships in EIPs

986
4. Case Study

The Malaysian palm oil industry generates high amounts of palm-based biomass (e.g. empty fruit
bunches (EFB), palm kernel shells (PKS), palm mesocarp fibre (PMF), and palm oil mill effluent (POME)) as
waste. Palm-based biomass contain useful amount of energy which can be recovered to meet energy demands
in the industry and export to the national grid, and to produce renewable biofuels. In this respect, a palm-based
eco-industrial park (PEIP) would provide the palm oil industry an opportunity to turn waste products into
valuable renewable energy and biofuels. As such, this case study aims to analyse the cost savings allocation
among participating plants in a PEIP coalition and evaluate its stability threshold. The PEIP consists of an
existing POM, a newly synthesised biomass-based tri-generation system (BTS) and palm-based biorefinery
(PBB), each plant having its respective owner. The interaction between these plants is illustrated in Figure 2.

FFB Chilled Water (External)

Notation
Cooling Water PBB – (1)
Power (External) BTS – (2)
Palm Oil Mill LPS POM – (3)
Cooling Water
(POM) (External) FFB
Chilled Water Power LPS (External)
(From Grid)
PKS Power (From Grid)
POME MPS (External)
PKS
PMF PMF
EFB
Biomass-Based Tri- POME
LPS
generation System LPS
(BTS) MPS
EFB Power
Power Cooling Water
(To Grid) Chilled Water
Cooling Water (External)
MPS Chilled Water (External)
Palm-Based Biorefinery DME
Power
(PBB) MPS FT-Fuel
(External) MeOH
CO2
Cooperative partnership
DME FT-Fuel MeOH CO2

Fig. 2. PEIP Case Study

Based on Figure 2, a mathematical model is formulated according to mass and energy balance, gross
profit and cost savings equations, allowing for quantitative screening and optimisation. The optimised results
shown in Table 1 indicate that the deserving cost savings allocation for BTS, PBB and POM are 38% (USD
2,100,000), 14% (USD 800,000) and 48% (RM 2,600,000) of the total cost savings respectively. These
allocations are then compared to cost savings of each plant when no coalition takes place in the PEIP. As
shown in Table 2, the BTS, PBB and POM savings are increased by USD 1,700,000, USD 600,000 and USD
1,700,000 respectively when a coalition formed in the PEIP. Such increase generally shows that cost savings
allocated to each plant within the coalition is significantly higher compared to when there is no coalition. This
is because subsidies in raw materials offered by each plant provides significant savings in costs for the entire
PEIP coalition. Hence, this results in a much higher cost savings among its coalition members.

On the other hand, the stability analysis determined the stability threshold for each plant in the PEIP.
As shown below, the BTS will be stable as long as its symbiosis investment fall within 37 to 46% of its raw
material costs. Meanwhile, the PBB and POM will stable provided their symbiosis investments are within 10 to
30% and 20 to 25% respectively. If the symbiosis cost of one (or more) plant(s) fall outside the
abovementioned stability threshold, the stability of the PEIP coalition is compromised and further action must
be taken as stipulated in Figure 1. The affected plant(s) can opt to share some of the additional costs with other
plants in the EIP subject to the aforementioned stability threshold. If an agreement cannot be achieved at this
stage, plants can renegotiate initial terms of the coalition and reallocate the cost savings or in the worst case,
consider a complete withdrawal from the PEIP scheme. The knowledge of these thresholds provides a rational

987
starting point for stakeholders to analyse and engage in future cooperative partnerships in EIPs. Moreover,
these thresholds give insight on the behaviour of each plant in the PEIP, especially when variations in symbiosis
investment arise in the future.

Table 1. Savings Allocation between BTS, PBB and POM in PEIP

Savings Allocation, SAu (106 USD/yr) Allocation (%)

BTS 2.10 38

PBB 0.80 14

POM 2.60 48

Total 5.50 100

Table 2. Savings Comparison of PEIP

Savings without Coalition (106 Savings with Coalition (106 Increase/Decrease

USD/yr) USD/yr) (+/- 106 USD/yr)

BTS 0.40 2.10 + 1.70

PBB 0.20 0.80 + 0.60

POM 0.90 2.60 + 1.70

Total 1.50 5.50

5. Conclusion

In this work, an optimisation-based negotiation framework towards fair allocation of total cost savings
of a cooperative partnership within an eco-industrial park has been demonstrated. The proposed framework is
based on Maali’s cooperative game model [12] and Wang et al.’s stability analysis [16]. The framework can
used as a negotiation tool for companies to analyse and engage in future cooperative partnerships, as it can
provide a rational basis for an initial profit-sharing EIP scheme.

Acknowledgement

The financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia through the LRGS Grant
(Project Codes: LRGS UPM Vot 5526100 and LRGS/2013/UKM-UNMC/PT/05) are gratefully acknowledged.

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[3] J. Korhonen, “Co-production of heat and power : an anchor tenant of a regional industrial ecosystem,” J.
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 ICAER-2015

Techno-economic assessment of carbon mitigation options for

existing coal-fired power plants in India
Udayan Singha, Anand B. Raob, 1
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela 769008, INDIA
b
Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) and IDP in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai,
Mumbai 400076, INDIA

Abstract

India’s developmental needs in the near and long-term future will be strongly interlinked with the need to provide steady
electricity to its cities and villages. The current fleet of Electricity Generating Units (EGUs) in India is mostly coal-based.
These coal-fired power plants lead to a substantial amount of CO 2 emissions. Due to international climate obligations, there
might be a need to limit the amount of unmitigated CO 2 emissions being emitted into the atmosphere. Mitigation of such
emissions at coal-fired power plants offers an easily controllable way of reducing such emissions. The mechanisms to reduce
emissions in coal-fired power plants may be through installation of super-critical units, repowering the plant with Integrated
Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), use of coal blended with biomass. More radical emission cuts may be obtained by
retrofitting the existing plants with CO 2 Capture and Storage (CCS), a technology with the ability to reduce the emissions by
80-85% of the current emissions levels. This paper begins with a brief insight into some of the mechanisms to cause
emission reductions in coal-fired power plants. It focuses mainly of how retrofitting the power plants with CCS technology
will affect the techno-economic of the plant. Three types of plants will be analyzed, viz, Low performance, medium
performance and high performance; the categorization being based on the current Indian fleet of EGUs. We analyze five
pathways for mitigation, with two focusing on efficiency improvements and three on CCS technology. The results show that
overall cost of avoidance for CCS ranges from US$ 59.54 to US$ 85.41 per tonne of CO 2 . There is a strong incentive for
repowering of old plants to supercritical units and their subsequent retrofitting with CO 2 capture systems than direct
retrofitting of low performance plants.
Keywords: Indian coal-fired power plants; Carbon mitigation; CO 2 Capture and Storage; Cost of Electricity (COE)

1. Introduction

India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2014 exceeded US$ 2 trillion, which accounts for more than 2.6%
of the world’s GDP. Currently, the global per-capital CO 2 emissions of India are less than 35% of the global
per-capita emission levels [1]. With the need to pull out a large section of the country of poverty and due to the
challenges of industrial expansion, agricultural growth, education and healthcare, there is an ever-increasing
need of rising power capacity in the country. The power sector in India has seen a substantial increase in the past
seven decades, with the coal-fired capacity in the country increasing from 756 MW at the time of independence
to more than 160 GW today [2]. Further expansion in the coal-based power sector is also expected as several
models predict the GDP of India to increase upto US$ 12-80 trillion by the end of the 21st century [3].
Coal-fired power plants are essential to the energy security of India, as they contribute to more than 67% of
India’s total installed power generation capacity [4]. Due to the low efficiency of Indian power plants, high ash
content of Indian coal and liberal environmental regulations, such plants have come under a lot of scrutiny for
high environmental pollution [5, 6]. Recently, the Prime Minister of India spoke in the favor of Clean Coal
Technologies (CCTs) and invited investments for the same. The Government of India has committed to the
reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity by 33-35% by 2030, as compared to the 2005 levels. A major part
in such reductions of emission levels of the economy will have to be played by the power sector, which
contributes to around half of the all-India CO 2 emissions. Already, there are concrete plans towards reduction of
emissions through renovation and modernization (R&M), shifting to supercritical boilers and other
environmental friendly measures. Another major recent development has been the newly proposed
environmental regulations of coal-fired power plants, with regards to the emissions and water use. Currently,
there are no prescribed limits on the gaseous emissions from such plants and existing norms only specify the

1
Corresponding author. Tel.:+91-22-2576-7877; fax: +91-22-2576-7874
E-mail address :a.b.rao@iitb.ac.in

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stack height for SO 2 and NO x . However, the government has proposed to put limits to these gaseous emissions
by prescribing norms for emissions in terms of their flue gas concentration [7].
Carbon mitigation is an important part of shaping the future of the technology and policy of power plants in
India. Reduction in CO 2 emissions often comes with substantial costs [8] and thus there is a need to analyze the
effects of reduction mechanisms to the techno-economic output of the plant. This paper attempts to do the same
with regard to India’s coal-fired power plants.

Nomenclature

CCS Carbon Capture and Storage

CLC Chemical Looping Combustion
IECM Integrated Environmental Control Model
LCOE Levelized Cost of Electricity
ref Reference or Base Plant
η Net Power Plant Efficiency
ECBM Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery
EOR Enhanced Oil Recovery
LP1 Low Performance Plant operating for 10 years
LP2 Low Performance Plant at the end of its economic lifetime
MP Medium Performance Plant
HP High Performance Plant

While there is an aggressive planning for setting up of new power plants with lower carbon emissions, the
existing power plants may also be modified/retrofitted in a manner so as to reduce the carbon emissions from
these plants. This may be done in the following manner:
1. Improving the coal quality by using imported coal
2. Blending of coal with carbon neutral fuels like biomass
3. Efficiency improvement through process modification (e.g. upgradation, repowering with Integrated
Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC)
4. Retrofitting the plants with CO 2 capture units
There is a general interest in Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology worldwide, where
existing coal plants can be retrofitted with CO 2 capture systems. However, such retrofitting leads to a
significant energy penalty on the plant, thus reducing the net power output from the plant. This may be
countered in several ways, if possible:
a) New units could be setup in the power plant to compensate for the energy penalty.
b) Auxiliary natural gas boilers can be used to prevent the reduction in gross size for solvent-based
capture processes.
c) Use of advanced capture technologies such as chemical looping technologies, which generate additional
power using waste heat recovery.
The choice of a particular carbon mitigation option – typically governed by the technical feasibility and
economic viability - depends on several factors including the fuel used, boiler condition (type, boiler efficiency),
operational conditions of the plant (heat rate, load factor), financial parameters (fixed charge factor, carbon tax),
etc.

1.1. Objectives and scope of this paper

This paper attempts to understand the implications of the proposed carbon mitigation methods on the
performance and economic aspects of the existing coal plants. The study has been performed using the
Integrated Environment Control Model (IECM-cs), developed at the Carnegie Mellon University. It is hoped
that the study will provide useful insights for prioritizing the carbon mitigation options for the coal-fired power
plants in India. The costs of amine-based CO 2 capture shall be analyzed. We shall then carry out a detailed
analysis of CCS in Indian power plants by categorizing the plants into low efficiency, medium efficiency and
high efficiency, based on the current fleet of Indian EGUs.
Three categories of power plants are simulated i.e. Low Performance, Medium Performance and High
Performance. This is followed by the understanding of their possible transitions to lower carbon emissions. In
this process, the effects on plant efficiency and cost of electricity are studied.

991
 A more extended version of this work can undertake detailed analysis of all the coal-fired power plants in
India and helping to identify exactly which plants shall be suitable for CCS and other carbon mitigation
avenues. However, such an expansive work is much beyond the scope of this study, which focuses on a plant-
level analysis only. This work may of course be developed further to do a more complete analysis of all the
Indian power plants, a study similar to the one performed by Zhai et al [9] in respect to the plants in USA.

2. Background

2.1. Coal-fired power in India: the present scenario

Coal-fired power plants, along with lignite based plants were responsible for 77.14% of the total thermal
power generation in India [10]. This, along with the fact that the power sector accounts for around 50% of the
total CO 2 emissions from India [11], with coal having a much higher emission factor than gas based stations,
shows the high amount of importance coal-fired power plants in the energy-environment intermix of India.
As of 2013-14, the total number of coal-fired units (above 25 MW capacity) in India exceeded 500,
comprising of 143 power plants [10]. Most of these power plants consisted of subcritical units. However, steps
have been taken recently to shift to more efficient supercritical units. The Sipat Thermal Power Station (STPS)
of the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) and the Mundra Power Plant of Adani Group were
power plants that first used supercritical technology in India. This technology is expected to receive further
thrust with most new plants of the state-owned NTPC, being commissioned with supercritical units. The
Government of India has also taken steps towards large-scale expansion of the power sector, with the setting up
of Ultra Mega Power Plants (UMPPs), which are super-critical power plants of around 4 GW capacities. Each of
these plants are expected to emit 28-29 million tones of CO 2 annually [12]. Such supercritical plants are
expected to emit significantly lesser amount of CO 2 than their subcritical plants. More steps pertaining to the
improvement of efficiency and performance of coal-fired power plants include renovation and modernization
(R&M), retirement of old and obsolete units, reduction in transmission losses, enhancement in coal blending,
washing, etc [13]. This is necessary because many researchers have pointed out towards the highly
environmentally degrading performance of these power plants [14, 15].
The future deployment of coal-fired power plants depends on a number of factors, ranging from the overall
growth of the economy to the cost-effectiveness of other sources of energy such as renewable and nuclear
power. It is expected that atleast in the near term coal shall continue to play the primary role in providing
electricity in India [16]. The Planning Commission [17] suggests that the cumulative coal based power capacity
in India may increase upto 250 GW by 2047 in the least effort scenario and upto 600 GW in the heroic effort
scenario.
As pointed out earlier, a very large proportion of the all-India CO 2 emissions are from the power sector. The
contribution of the power sector to the national emissions inventory was 50.1% in 2000 and is expected to
remain between 48-53% upto 2030 [18]. The contribution of pulverized coal plants may reduce slightly as some
of the future plants may be powered by the IGCC technology as well. The contribution of the power sector to
the national CO 2 emissions was just about one-third in 1985 [19]. However, large-scale electrification has
increased the prominence of the power sector in the CO 2 emissions inventory of IndiaThe power sector is
expected to expand by 3.5 times between 2000 and 2035 [20], leading to considerable additions in the CO 2
emissions.

2.2. Improvements in Coal-fired power plants in view of lower CO 2 emissions

Several technical factors affect the amount of CO 2 emissions. These include coal type, boiler efficiency,
excess air etc. Therefore, for improvements in plant efficiency, it is desirable the operational levels are close to
the design levels of parameters. However, that is not the case for several power plants in India. For instance, in a
survey carried out by the Indo-German Energy Network, it was found out that almost 25% of the 210 MW units
operated at a boiler efficiency of less than 80% and almost 42% of these operated at less than 82% boiler
efficiency. Similarly, close to 22% of the 210 MW units operated with an auxiliary consumption of more than
10% [21]. Due to these factors, higher amount of losses occur, which lead to more coal consumption and
therefore higher CO 2 emissions. Thus, most old units should be renovated and modernized to achieve higher
efficiency.
Modern technologies such as adoption of supercritical boilers lead to a reduction in the heat rate of the plant.
Thus, while the capital costs of such units are higher, the incentives lie in the lower coal costs. The use of
imported coal with higher heating value is also beneficial in reducing the per unit CO 2 emissions. Integrated
Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is another mechanism which can lead to more efficient use of coal by

992
gasifying it. Research on IGCC in India started in the late ‘80s itself. However, its use as a commercial
technology could not be established in India due to technical and policy-based challenges.
Biomass can also be co-fired with coal for production of power. Since, carbon dioxide is utilized in growth of
the biomass plant, its combustion only leads to the neutralization of the atmospheric CO 2 and therefore, biomass
is treated as a “carbon-neutral” fuel.
If the reductions achieved by the aforementioned mechanisms are not able to achieve the desired emission
levels, it will require more stringent technology and policy adoption. This includes the use of CO 2 capture and
storage (CCS) technology. Currently, the technology is mostly in the research/demonstration phase globally and
there is a large degree of caution for use of CCS in India due to high costs and accompanying energy penalty.
However, CCS will offer a mechanism for continued use of coal without environmental damage and in view of
the international climatic obligations; it will offer India a way to retain its coal-based energy security [18]. For
an excellent review of CCS, the reader may refer to IPCC Special Report on CCS [22]. Amine based capture
[23] of CO 2 is the most talked-about and economic way of CO 2 separation from flue gas, as per the recent
levels of technological development. Other mechanisms include oxyfuel separation [24] and pre-combustion
capture 25], which combines IGCC with CCS. Similarly, biomass cogeneration may also be used in conjunction
with CCS, which leads to negative CO 2 emissions. This technology is called as Biomass with Carbon Capture
and Storage (Bio-CCS or BECCS).
While several technologies associated with low-carbon power shall be analysed in this paper, a major thrust
will be placed upon the CCS technology and its potential in the Indian power sector. There has been some
research in the area of CCS in India. Most of this research deals with the energy sector.
The research carried out in this area so far deals with energetic, economic and environmental analysis of CO 2
capture in power plants [26-29], assessment of storage capacity in geologic formations [30-32], modeling and
experimental work relating to CO 2 sequestration [33-35], source sink mapping [36-37] and combined studies
making complete assessments for CCS in India [18, 38]. The level of deployment of the CCS technology and
the role it shall play to mitigate the climate change crisis will depend on several factors such as carbon taxes,
coal prices, level of penetration by the renewable energy sources, emission reduction targets and so on. It is
predicted that in a scenario with high carbon prices, CCS will play a larger role in emission mitigation [39].

3. Methodology

In this paper, we simulate various configurations of coal-fired power plants using the Integrated
Environmental Control Model (IECM-cs), developed at the Carnegie Mellon University, USA [40]. This model
provides a multiple-parameter, multiple-output based software platform to simulate a power plant unit.
The initial step is to simulate the base plant against which the plant with CO 2 capture will be compared. We
consider three types of base plants:
• High Performance (HP) Plant: Categorized by high boiler efficiency, high load factor, low auxiliary
consumption. This will be modeled as a 660 MW supercritical plant. It is noteworthy that CCS is not
likely to begin before 2020 even in the most optimistic scenario. At that point of time, a number of
supercritical plants will be under operation. Thus, the ‘existing’ word is used from that time perspective.
• Low Performance (LP) Plant: Categorized by low efficiency, low load factor and high auxiliary
consumption. This will be modeled as a 500 MW subcritical plant with relatively poor performance.
• Medium Performance (MP) Plant: Categorized by properties in between that of high and low
performance plants. This will be modeled as a 500 MW subcritical plant with good performance.
As we mentioned earlier, shifting to supercritical plants is one of the ways to reduce carbon footprint of the
power plants. As we shall model the high performance plant as a supercritical plant, comparison of the same
with medium performance plant will help us compare the two types of boilers. The parameters using which the
three categories of plants will be modeled are shown in Table 1. This is done by using the parameters used by
Singh and Rao [41] to model a typical Indian power plant.

Table 1. Parameters used for simulating the reference plant. The values have been taken from Singh and Rao [41] after
categorization into LP, MP and HP Plants
Parameter LP MP HP
Nominal Value Range Nominal Value Range Nominal Value Range
Net Size (MW) 500 660
Gross Size (MW) 537.2 537.2 702.6
Boiler Efficiency (%) 80 78-82 83 82-84 86 84-88
Plant Load Factor (%) 75 70-80 85 80-90 95 90-100

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Coal linkage Talcher Coal. HHV: 16360 kJ/kg; C: 40.56%; S: 0.38%;
Boiler Type Sub-critical Sub-critical Supercritical
Fixed charge factor (%) 11.42 10.60-11.42 11.42 10.60-11.42 11.42 10.60-11.42
Delivered coal cost ($/t) 25 20-35 25 20-35 25 20-35

3.1. Simulating the CO 2 capture system (Advanced amine technology)

Our objective here is to model a plant with CO 2 capture system retrofitted on it after certain years of
operation. The time already passed will be represented using the parameter of amortization of capital costs i.e.
the percentage of capital costs already recovered after the initial operation without CO 2 capture. It is assumed
that the CO 2 capture efficiency is 90%, a value commonly reported in a variety of studies, including the
previous Indian studies [26-28]. The advanced amine based capture system (FG+) is opted for since it is the
most technologically developed and economic method of CO 2 capture, at this point of time. The pipeline length
is assumed to be 100 km.
An important point we need to understand here is that when a unit is retrofitted with CO 2 capture system (or
any other technology which uses additional power), the net size of the plant remains constrained to its initial
size because the mass flow rate of coal remains the same, due to the boiler design. Since, the CO 2 capture
system uses a substantial amount of power and also because of the losses due to solvent regeneration; the gross
size of the plant reduces. Also, power plants cause an additional economic penalty or “retrofit factor”, which is
multiplied to the capture plant cost. We choose a retrofit factor of 1.2 for all the pulverized coal-fired power
plants. The additional parameters used in simulating the amine based capture unit are mentioned in Table 2.

Table 2. Parameters for the amine based capture system

Parameter Unit Value
CO 2 removal efficiency % 90
SO 2 removal efficiency % 99.5
NO 2 removal efficiency % 25
Amine scrubber power requirement %MWg 9.99
Maximum train capacity Tonne/hr 208.7
Sorbent concentration Wt% 30
Lean CO 2 loading Mol CO 2 /Mol sorb 0.19
Outlet Pressure MPa 10.30

3.2. Modeling the carbon mitigation strategies for power plants

Direct CCS Retrofitting to LP Plant

Plant at end of High Performance Plant

economic life (LP2) 2
Low Performance Plant

Plant after 10 years 1

(LP1) Medium Performance Plant

4 5

CCS on MP Plant CCS on HP Plant

Fig. 1. Options considered for reduction of CO 2 emissions from Indian power plants.

The basic modeling framework assumed in this study with respect to reduction strategies of Indian coal-fired
power plants is shown in Fig. 1. A low performance subcritical plant is treated as the main reference plant.
When it is approximately 10 years old, it may be renovated and modernized to improve its working conditions,

994
 a scenario where it functions as a medium performance plant. Alternatively, if it is at the end of its economic
life, the same land area may give rise to a new supercritical plant.
For more radical reduction in emissions, each of these configurations may be retrofitted with a CO 2 capture
unit. While it is true that CO 2 capture is more effective on plants with better efficiency, an LP plant at the end of
its plant life despite the relatively large energy penalty that would be incurred. This is so because at the end of
the economic life, all of its capital cost will be amortized and as a result, its final COE will be lower.

4. Results

The results obtained after carrying out the modelling exercise are shown in Table 2. The various
configurations are compared on the basis of efficiency, cost of electricity, coal consumption and CO 2 emission
levels. For CO 2 capture, the incremental COE, cost of CO 2 capture and cost of CO 2 avoidance are calculated.

Table 3. Simulation results for various configurations of power plant

Parameter LP1 LP2 MP HP LP2-CCS MP-CCS HP-CCS
Gross Size (MW) 537.2 537.2 537.2 702.6 412.3 416.9 566.6
Net Size (MW) 500 500 512.7 660 331 346.9 471.5
Net Plant Efficiency (%) 31.84-33.84 31.84-33.84 34.31-35.09 36.40-39.20 20.84-22.36 23.10-23.87 25.80-28.30
Coal consumption (kg/kWh) 0.659-0.691 0.659-0.691 0.627-0.642 0.578-0.604 0.988-1.051 0.924-0.951 0.805-0.850
CO 2 emission rate (kg/kWh) 0.98-1.03 0.98-1.03 0.93-0.95 0.86-0.89 0.15-0.16 0.14 0.12-0.13
Cost of Electricity ($/MWh) 47.0-69.0 34.5-55.6 43.2-63.1 45.8-64.8 95.3-130.0 99.2-131.0 89.8-119

Now, as per Fig. 2, there are several pathways to reduce the carbon emission from a LP plant. These include:
• Pathway 1: LP1 → MP
• Pathway 2: LP2 → HP
• Pathway 3: LP2 → LP2-CCS
• Pathway 4: LP1 → MP → MP-CCS
• Pathway 5: LP2 → HP → HP-CCS

This is denoted in the COE versus emissions curve in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Graph of Cost of Electricity against the CO 2 emission rate of various plant configuration. The arrows depict the emission
abatement pathways that maybe followed. Arrows of the same color represent the fact that the pathway depicting the latter arrow is used as a
continuation of the pathway depicting the former arrow..

995
 Table 4 presents the incremental cost of electricity, the cost of CO 2 avoidance and the energy penalty for all
the emission abatement pathways.

Table 4. Cost and energy implications of the various carbon mitigation pathways for a power plant
No. Pathway Increase in COE Cost of avoidance Energy Penalty
Unit $/MWh $/t-CO 2 %
1 LP1 → MP (3.8-5.9) (80.82-80.85) (7.20-9.26)
2 LP2 → HP 9.2-11.3 76.67-81.29 (12.5-13.67)
3 LP2 → LP2-CCS 60.8-74.4 73.07-85.41 51.34-52.78
4 LP1 → MP → MP-CCS 52.2-62 61.75-69.98 37.83-41.77
4.2* MP → MP-CCS 56-67.9 70.44-83.51 47.00-48.53
5 LP2 → HP → HP-CCS 55.3-63.4 64.38-70.37 19.58-23.41
5.2* HP → HP-CCS 44-54.2 59.54-71.13 38.51-41.08
Step with * marks the second leg of a combined pathway.
Costs are in constant 2011 US Dollars.
Figures within parentheses indicate negative value

It is seen that for a low performance plant at the end of its economic life, a shift to supercritical technology
leads to a substantial reduction in the energy consumption and the COE does not increase by a very large
amount. When direct CCS retrofitting for such a plant is done, it leads to a very high energy penalty of more
than 50%. However, the final cost of electricity with CCS is US$ 95-130/MWh, which is US$ 5-10/MWh more
than that of a HP plant retrofitted with CCS. Therefore, there is a greater incentive for construction of a new
supercritical unit altogether replacing an old supercritical plant and then retrofitting it with CO 2 capture system,
than its direct retrofitting to utilize the high amortization that has already occurred.
For a low performance plant, with close to 10 years into its operation, performance improvement through
renovation and modernization gives substantial improvements in COE as well as efficiency. As a result, it is
definitely preferable for such a plant to be handled better, such that it can operate at efficiency close to the
design efficiency. When further conversion to CCS is considered, the COE increases by US$ 52.2-62/MWh.
In addition, when we consider MP or HP plant as the reference plant, and then retrofit these with CO 2
capture unit (pathways 4.2 and 5.2), an improvement is definitely seen in the reduction of energy penalty. Direct
conversion of HP plant to HP-CCS offers the best possible cost of CO 2 avoidance out of all CCS scenarios. This
again reiterates the advantage of CO 2 retrofitting on better performing plants over the low performing ones.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, we analyze the carbon mitigation for existing Indian coal-fired power plants. The impacts on
cost of electricity and net plant efficiency are studied. Overall, three techniques to reduce carbon footprint are
covered in this paper, viz, renovation and modernization, shifting to supercritical plants and CCS. Considering
these technologies, five pathways are constructed and evaluated on the basis of incremental COE, energy
penalty and cost of CO 2 avoidance.
Apart from these technologies, other mechanisms such as cofiring the coal plants with biomass and IGCC
also exist. Research on IGCC in India has largely been laboratory based so far [42, 43]. For success of the IGCC
technology, incentives on the policy front must be given so as to compensate for the high capital cost (~INR 9
Crore/MW) [44].
Co-firing with biomass also has the ability to reduce atmospheric load of CO 2 . This is so because biomass
acts as a carbon neutral fuel and can also act as a carbon negative fuel when CCS is employed. The future of
biomass based cofiring depends upon a number of factors, from availability of fuel to carbon taxes [45]..
At the current stage, the CO 2 capture and technology remains economically infeasible. However, it is
expected that with improvements in technology, the cost of CCS can come down and power plants can provide
centralized avenues of substantial reductions in emission levels. It is hoped that the metrics presented in this
paper will be useful to the policy-makers to understand the impact of carbon abatement mechanisms to the
techno-economic output of the power plant.

996
Acknowledgements

The authors thank the IECM team at the Carnegie Mellon University, USA, for making the software tool
freely available.

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Dhanbad, 2014, pp. 165-174.
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Gale and K. Thambimuthu (eds.) Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies 7, Elsevier, Oxford, 2005, pp. 573-581.
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Sustainable Energy Future, Narosa, New Delhi, 2008, pp. 153.
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997
 ICAER-2015

Design of a venturi type biogas mixer for a four stroke spark

ignition engine
S. K. Hottaa*, R. Singhb, N. Sahoob, K. Mohantyc, P. Mahantab
a
Centre for Energy, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India

Abstract

In the present work a venturi type biogas mixer has been designed for converting the commercially available small capacity
Spark Ignition (SI) engines to independently operate with biogas. A GK-100 Honda engine was chosen for the study because
of its wide use in agricultural, commercial and household appliances as a driver to water pump or as a gen-set. The preliminary
design of the biogas mixer was based on fundamental correlation of fluid mechanics and reported methods in the literature.
The final dimensions are obtained through exhaustive computational analysis using ANSYS Workbench 14.5. With these
proposed dimensions, exhaustive analysis is performed for the variable flow mixer to check the extent of homogeneous air-
fuel mixing. The optimum dimensions of biogas mixer have been identified which is supposed to be attached to the engine
intake system along with the existing carburettor so as to enable the engine to run with biogas and gasoline independently.

Keywords: Biogas mixer; Spark ignition engine; Computational fluid dynamics

1. Introduction

The interest of utilizing renewable fuels derived from non-fossil carbon source like municipal wastes, cattle
dung, agricultural wastes and other biomasses is gaining importance day by day. It is not only because of the
energy crises but also due to the environmental pollution raised by the use of fossil fuels. These resources can be
utilized to produce biogas and producer gas, which can be used as the fuel in Internal Combustion (IC) engines
[1]. Gaseous fuels are attractive, because they have a wide range of flammability limit (7.5-14 % vol in the air)
and can easily form a homogeneous mixture with air. Having higher hydrogen to carbon ratios, the gaseous fuels
have low level of emission, when used in IC engines [2]. Biogas is an attractive source of energy for rural areas
because of abundant availability of renewable energy sources like cattle dung, agricultural waste and biomasses.
On volume basis, it is typically composed of 60% of methane (CH4), 40% carbon dioxide (CO2) and rest being
the traces of other gases like nitrogen (N2) and various minor impurities including hydrogen sulfide (H2S) [3].

Fig. 1 Gas mixer for diesel engines proposed by researchers: (a) T-junction inlet [6]; (b) Inclined inlets [7].

The technology for converting small capacity SI engine that can run on 100% biogas is hardly available. In
order to run a SI engine with gaseous fuels, suitable modification on engine intake system is required. It includes

* Santosh Kumar Hotta. Tel.: +0-995-763-0275

E-mail address: h.santosh@iitg.ernet.in

998
design and installation of a gas mixer at the inlet manifold of the engine [4-5]. For converting a SI engine into
biogas engine, the major modification is to attach a gas-air mixer instead of the carburettor. The engine control is
performed by variation of the mixer supplied. This is achieved by operation of a butterfly valve situated in between
the mixing devise and the engine intake manifold. The mixing device has to ensure the provision of constant
air/fuel ratio irrespective of the actual amount sucked into the engine, i.e. irrespective of the butterfly valve
position. This is achieved by adequate design of the mixing device along with the precise control of butterfly
valve. The design of a gas mixer for a particular engine mainly depends on its rated power, specific fuel
consumption, speed, volumetric efficiency, swept volume and manifold connection diameter [5]. In most of the
cases, a T-junction gas mixer is preferred when diesel engine is modified to dual fuel engine. The existing biogas
mixer has two inlets, one for gas and other for air and has one outlet of air-gas mixer [5]. The gas inlet either
makes an angle 90o with the air inlet or placed parallel along with the air inlet and the exhaust is connected to the
inlet manifold as shown in Fig. 1(a). This simple design creates a huge energy loss because of the collision made
by the two stream of fluid. Hence, in order to reduce the loss of collision another design was adopted [6] where
the gas inlet inclined at 45o to the air inlet as shown in Fig. 1(b). However, these designs are unable to asymmetric
mixing of the two fluid stream. In order to create a homogenous air/fuel mixing in a dual fuel engine a new design
is proposed with three inlets out of which two for fuel and one for air. The fuel inlets are inclined at 35o with the
air inlet, thereby, promoting a homogenous mixing of biogas and air. However, these gas mixer were designed
for dual fuel engine partially operated with diesel [2].

In order to facilitate the utilization of biogas it is essential to use a suitable energy conversion device which
will efficiently convert biogas energy to required mechanical/electrical forms. Presently, biogas is used in limited
scales in dual fuel engine, which partially utilizes the diesel fuel. Hence, there is a strong need to have engine
running with complete biogas mode. For gaseous fuel, it is essential to use Spark Ignition (SI) mode with premixed
combustion. Since biogas has a higher antiknock index (130), biogas fuelled SI engine can operate at higher
compression ratio, for which the enhancement of the thermal efficiency of the engine is expected [1]. In this
direction, the present work is about converting a SI engine to biogas engine with simple engine modifications. A
mixer is designed specifically to use biogas in small capacity SI engines. For this purpose, a single cylinder, four
stroke SI engine (Honda, GK-100) was chosen for the present investigation. This variable speed SI engine has a
fixed compression ratio of 4.8:1 and a transistor coil ignition (TCI) system. The displacement volume, rated speed
and power was 97 CC, 3600 rpm and 1.4 HP respectively. Generally the small capacity SI engines are designed
by the manufacturer for agricultural and house hold applications for gasoline and kerosene as fuels. Because of
the twin crises of fuel depletion and environmental degradation the use of renewable fuels are increasing day by
day. Hence the present attempt is to device a biogas mixer for converting the Honda made GK-100 SI engine to
independently operate with biogas.

2. Design of the biogas mixer

The proposed designed of the biogas mixer uses the concept of venturimeter and follows the Bernoulli’s
principle as mentioned in equation (1). It is clear from the equation (3) that pressure drop is inversely proportional
to the square of the area when all other parameter kept constant. Hence, at the throat the pressure is minimum and
velocity is maximum. The venturi gas mixer composed of two gas inlet, one air inlet and one biogas-air outlet. As
reported [3] it consist of a smooth contraction and expansion section which reduces the prominence of irreversible
pressure loss. The function of the converging section is to enhance the velocity of the fluid by virtue of loss in its
static pressure. The lower pressure region will drag in more biogas and enrich the turbulence with air. Hence there
is a pressure difference created between inlet and throat.
v22  v12
p1  p2   (1)
2
Applying continuity equation,

A1v1  A2 v2  Q (2)
A12  A2 2
P  2 2
Q (3)
A1  A2
2.1. Analytical method

The analytical method suggested by Mitzlaff (1988) was adopted to obtain the base dimensions of the biogas
mixer [5]. The biogas mixer is designed for the four stroke, single cylinder SI engine with rated power and speed
of 1.4 HP and 3600 rpm respectively. The swept volume and manifold connection diameter of the engine was 97

999
CC and 19 mm respectively. The outlet diameter of the biogas mixer was fixed to be 19 mm to easily attach with
the engine intake. Due to dimensional constraint the air inlet diameter of the biogas mixer was also fixed to be 20
mm as shown in Fig. 2. The volumetric efficiency and the break thermal efficiency of the engine was assumed to
be 61% and 20% respectively, which was obtained while operating the engine with gasoline. The design of the
biogas mixer is based on the methods reported in the literatures [5, 7]. There are some critical designing parameters
of the mixer namely converging angle, diverging angle, nozzle angle, nozzle diameter, number of nozzle, throat
diameter and the length of the diverging section, which has also been considered carefully while designing the
biogas mixer.

..
Fig. 2 Different parameters of venturi type biogas mixer

The flow in the mixer is assumed to be incompressible and unidirectional. The pressure is assumed to be
constant throughout the length of the throat. The volumetric air intake to the engine was calculated from equation
(4) assuming that the volumetric efficiency of the engine is 61%. Where Vd is the swept volume of the engine
and V2 volumetric air intake to the engine in liter. N is the speed of the engine in rpm. The volumetric air intake
to the engine was found to be 0.00177 m3/sec at the section 2 as shown in Fig. 2. As mentioned earlier the outlet
diameter of the biogas mixer was fixed to be 19 mm at section 2 as shown in Fig.2. Flow velocity at the
corresponding section was calculated from the continuity equation as V2 is known. The flow velocity at section 2
was found to be 6.26 m/sec.
A1min v1max  V2 (4)

The flow velocity at section 1 could not be lesser than or equal to the velocity at section 2 because there may
be chances of back flow or no flow at the above mentioned condition. The maximum velocity at section 1 could
not cross 150 m/sec because the flow becomes compressible (Mach no exceeds 0.33) above this range. To
determine the possible range of throat diameter, continuity equation is applied across section 1-2 with two imposed
conditions. Since the volume flow rate at section 2 and the maximum and minimum velocity at section 1 is known,
the possible range of throat diameter at section 1 can be found out from the equations (5 and 6). From the below
mentioned equations the range of throat diameter has been found out and it varies between 4 to 18 mm.
Vd
V2   vol N (5)
2000  60
A1max v1min  V2 (6)

The velocity of air flow at section 3 was calculated from the data obtained by the air consumption column and
was recorded to be 4.81 m/sec during earlier experiments. The air intake diameter was fixed to be 20 mm and the
pressure was assumed to be atmospheric at section 3 and 5. The volumetric fuel demand (Fcvol) of the engine was
found out to be 0.936 m3/h from equation (7), assuming the break thermal efficiency (ηBTH) of the engine to be
20%. Flow velocity just before the biogas inlet pipe (section 5) was found to be 3.3 m/sec by fixing the connecting
biogas pipe diameter as 8 mm.
BP
 BTH  (7)
Fcvol  Cv
The diameter of the throat (dt) of the biogas mixer is lying in the range of 4 to 18 mm. Hence for each possible
throat diameter the diameter of biogas pipe (dbp) along with the pressure and velocity at each section was
calculated and the required values are placed in the Table 1. As shown in Table 1 at throat diameter (dt) of 8 mm,
the velocity difference across section 1-4 is observed to be minimum. However, the throat pressure is found to be

1000
100.672 kN/m2 and considered to be uniform throughout the throat. Since, the velocity variation across section 1-
4 is minimized at throat diameter of 8 mm, it is considered to be the optimized throat diameter. The corresponding
diameter of biogas pipe was found to 3.09 mm which is approximately 3mm. It has been suggested in literature
[3] for asymmetric mixing of air and biogas or gaseous fuel the venturi gas mixer should contain two gas inlets.
Hence, the diameter of each biogas pipe has been proposed to be 1.5 mm for throat diameter of 8 mm. d t max and
dt min is already defined earlier in this section and dt max is 18 mm and dt min is 4 mm. But as observed from Table 1
the pressure (Pv) at throat diameter 10 mm is 101.097 kN/m2 which is close to the pressure at section 3 i.e. 101.325
kN/m2. Hence, beyond this point there will be no flow if the throat diameter will be increased. So dt and dbp are
fixed to be 8 mm and 1.5 mm respectively for further computational analysis using ANSYS 14.5. The converging
angle (θ) of the biogas mixer has been found to be 21.34o from the geometry by fixing the length of the converging
section to be 2.7*(D – dt). Hence the obtained converging angle is consider to be optimized for the throat diameter
of 8 mm. It was also reported [7] the diverging angle (ϕ) should very in between 7-15o. So, the diverging angle
was arbitrarily fixed to be 8o and the inclination angle of biogas pipe (α) along with its position at throat is
optimized for the above fixed parameters by rigorous simulation and described in the section of computational
method.

Table 1. Diameter of biogas pipe, velocity and pressure at required section at each throat diameter
Throat Velocity at Velocity at Difference in Throat Velocity of Diameter of
diameter section 1 section 4 velocity at pressure biogas pipe biogas pipe
(dt) m/sec m/sec section 1and 4 (𝑃𝑣 ) at section 6 mm
mm m/sec kN/𝑚2 m/sec
4 141.241 120.49 20.75 90.636 278.8 0.77
5 90.410 77.118 13.256 96.54 178.41 0.96
6 62.77 53.54 9.23 99.225 123.76 1.15
7 46.045 39.33 6.75 100.2 90.696 1.35
8 35.25 30.118 5.135 100.672 69.6 1.5
9 27.854 20.68 7.168 100.988 51.78 1.79
10 22.56 16.756 5.804 101.097 - -

2.2. Computational method

The converging angle and the dimeter of the throat of the biogas mixer was optimized to be 21 o and 8 mm
respectively by analytical method in section 2.1. But, the diverging angle was fixed to be 8o, which was chosen
arbitrarily from the specified range 7o-15o as suggested in the literature. The position and orientation of biogas
pipe plays an important role in preparing the homogeneous mixture of air and biogas itself in the diverging section
of the mixer. Hence, its position and orientation at the throat of the mixer was optimized for the above fixed
parameters in this section. For the specified purpose the position of the biogas pipe was evaluated at two different
locations on the throat along with a range of orientation of biogas pipe from 30o-150o. The position of the biogas
pipe was evaluated both at the inlet and middle of the throat. ANSYS Workbench 14.5 was chosen to study the
effect of the position and orientation of biogas pipe on different parameters at each section of the biogas mixer.
The 2-D geometry of the biogas mixer was modelled using the tool of Fluent (design modeler) and the 2-D
geometry was divided into 1573 unstructured grids along with 1748 nodes while meshing using ANSYS ICEM
CFD. The mesh file of the 2-d geometry is then analyzed in Fluent [ANSYS CFD]. The simulation is based on
2D space, steady and pressure based solver. The flow is considered to be 2D, viscous and incompressible. The
realizable k-ϵ model with standard wall function and species transport model was used to solve the flow problem
governing inside the gas mixer for three inlets; one was air inlet and other two were for biogas inlet. The TKE
Prandtl number, TDR Prandtl number and Energy Prandtl number along with C2-Epsilon were fixed to be 1, 1.2
0.85 and 1.9 respectively. The basic equations (8, 9 &10) governing the flow model along with the equation of
mass conservation, momentum and energy were summarized in the conservative form of the Navier-Stokes
equations [8]. Since in the present the flow is steady and incompressible density (ρ) is assumed to be constant and
time variation of any property is zero. Where ‘Si’ is the externa force per unit mass, ‘h’ is the thermal enthalpy,
‘QH’ is the heat source or sink per unit volume, ‘Sij’ is the viscous shear stress tensor, ‘qi’ is the diffusive heat
flux. The subscripts are used to denote summation over the three coordinate direction.

1001
  
  Ui   0 (8)
t xi
  p 
t
 Ui  
xi

UiU j  
xi x j
 
 ij   ji  Sij ,i  1, 2,3 (9)


t

  H    Ui H  
xi

xi
   
U j  ij   ji R  qi 
P
t
  ij R
U i
x j
   SiU j  QH (10)

 u2 
H  h 
 2
 

2.2.1 Boundary condition and initial condition

The boundary conditions as shown in Fig. 3 was used to represent the flow in the mixer for the CFD analysis.
To match the flow at high speed with turbulent modeling, the boundary conditions should be appropriately defined
[9]. The turbulent intensity was considered to be 2%. The pressure and velocity at air inlet were considered to be
101325 N/m2 and 4.81 m/sec respectively. The pressure and velocity at biogas inlet were considered to be 101325
N/m2 and 69.6 m/sec respectively. The mass fraction of CH4, N2, O2, CO2 and H2O at biogas inlet were considered
to be 0.6, 0.01, 0.005, 0.38 and 0.005. The outlet pressure was assumed to be atmospheric. The outer wall is
assumed to be adiabatic.

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of the biogas mixer with Initial and boundary conditions

3. Results and discussion

To optimize the position and orientation of the biogas pipe with the defined parameters of the venturi type
biogas mixer as shown in Fig. 3, the position and orientation of the biogas pipe has been varied and the effect of
its position and orientation on the pressure, velocity at different sections of biogas mixer along with homogeneous
mixing of air with biogas has been analyzed and reported in this section. The position of the biogas pipe has been
evaluated both at the inlet and middle of the throat. At each throat position the orientation of the biogas pipe has
been varied in-between 30o-150o. After well defining the boundary conditions for each geometrical modeling as
mentioned in the section 2.2.1 the coupled scheme was adopted for pressure velocity coupling and second order
upwind scheme was chosen for spatial discretization in Fluent solution method. The solutions were converged to
an accuracy level of 1e-6 and the pressure, velocity and mass fraction contours were analyzed to find out the
optimum position and orientation of biogas pipe. While the position of biogas pipe was at the inlet of the throat,
the pressure and velocity of the biogas mixer at different sections were found out and reported in Table 2. Similarly
Table 3 represents the variation of velocity and pressure at different section of the biogas mixer while the position
of the biogas pipe was placed at the middle of the throat.

As it is clear from Table 2 that, the difference of pressure and velocity across the throat is increasing along
with increasing in orientation of biogas pipe at the throat which is not acceptable because of the constant cross
section and low pressure zone of the throat. The length of the throat is 8 mm and the stream of biogas entering
with in the specified range will mostly diffuse near the boundary and will not affect much to the center line
pressure and velocity. Hence the orientation of the biogas pipe at which the pressure and velocity fluctuation is
minimum across the throat may be treated as the optimized condition. It was also observed that at 30 o and 40o
orientation of the biogas pipe the pressure difference is negative. Which signifies the pressure at section 1 is higher
than the pressure at section 4, which will initiate the back flow. Hence the orientation creating back flow were

1002
rejected and the orientation at which the pressure and velocity difference is minimum is proposed to be the
optimized orientation for the corresponding position of biogas pipe. Similar trend is also observed when the
position of the biogas pipe was placed at the middle of the throat. As observed from Table 3, the pressure and
velocity difference was increasing along with the orientation of the biogas pipe at the throat which is undesirable.
The pressure and velocity difference were also observed to be negative at an orientation of 30o and 40o of biogas
pipe which is again not acceptable due to back flow. The minimum fluctuation of pressure and velocity were
observed across the throat at an orientation of 50o of the biogas pipe.

The fluctuation of pressure and velocity across the throat was observed to be minimum at an orientation of 50o
of the biogas pipe at both of the position of throat. Hence, the comparison of both cases at the same orientation
were made to find out the optimized position. Minimum fluctuation of velocity and pressure across the throat
were observed when the biogas pipe was placed at the middle of the throat. Hence the best possible orientation
and position were proposed to be 50o orientation of the biogas pipe at the middle of the throat. But the velocity,
pressure and homogeneous mixing contours still need to be verified to approve the proposed condition to be
optimized.

Table 2. Centre line pressure and velocity at different sections of the biogas mixer while the biogas pipe position is at throat inlet
Pressure at different sections of Velocity at different sections of Pressure Velocity
Venturi type biogas mixer in N/m2 Venturi type biogas mixer in m/sec difference difference
Orientation of

across across
Biogas Pipe

throat throat
N/m2 m/sec
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section Section Section Section Section Section
1 2 3 4 4-1 1-4
30o 100205.8 101323.3 100176.3 100120 3.129 11.957 4.819 10.66 -85.86 -7.53
40o 100750.5 101323.4 100792.9 100726.1 13.91 13.42 4.819 11.63 -24.45 2.28
50o 100908.9 101323.4 101009.6 100952 21.44 14.81 4.819 11.24 43.08 10.2
60o 100928.3 101321.8 101298 101215.4 31.25 18.88 4.819 12.91 287.1 18.33
70o 100877.8 101323.1 101516.8 101428.9 38.22 18.2 4.819 13.15 551.1 25.06
80o 100706.8 101323.1 101726.7 101639 46.64 18.47 4.819 13.06 932.18 33.57
90o 100830.8 101323.2 101878.5 101797.3 42.78 15.66 4.819 12.74 966.5 30.04
140o 100329.7 101323 102387.3 102253.2 59.71 16.89 4.819 16.56 1923.49 43.15
150o 100106.3 101322.9 102603.4 102330.1 67.2 16.41 4.819 21.85 2223.83 45.35

Table 3. Centre line pressure and velocity at different sections of the biogas mixer while the biogas pipe position is at middle of throat
Pressure at different sections of Velocity at different sections of Pressure Velocity
Venturi type biogas mixer in N/m2 Venturi type biogas mixer in m/sec difference difference
Orientation of

across across
Biogas Pipe

throat throat m/sec

N/m2
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section Section Section Section Section Section
1 2 3 4 4-1 1-4
30o 100207.7 101233.3 100205 100143.6 4.58 11.98 4.81 11.56 -64.1 -6.98
40o 100904.4 101233.2 100749.2 100683.8 20.4 15.41 4.81 11.59 -220.59 8.81
50o 100879.5 101233.4 62 100882.1 16.192 14.74 4.81 11.39 2.55 4.8
60o 101226.3 101233.5 101209.6 101313.7 24.46 18.28 4.81 11.60 87.4 12.85
70o 100969.3 101233.3 101451.7 101382.8 34.62 19.131 4.81 11.84 413.44 22.77
80o 100759 101232.6 101807.2 101738.6 48.19 17.91 4.81 11.86 1453.47 36.33
90o 100555 101232.3 102080.4 102008.5 55.91 16.21 4.81 12.07 1453.47 43.83
140o 100500 101232.7 102445.7 102373.3 62.32 16.43 4.81 12.15 1873.29 50.17
150o 100266.1 101232 102736.3 102666.8 66.69 15.66 4.81 11.96 2400.65 54.73

3.1 pressure analysis

Fig. 4(a) shows the pressure contour of the biogas venturi mixer when the biogas pipe is placed at the middle of
the throat at an angle of 50o. Fig. 4(b) represents the variation of static pressure across the length at the center
line of the biogas mixer. The pressure shown in both of the figure are gauge pressures. For a venturi biogas mixer,
the mixing of the fuel and biogas will be proper if the pressure drop is uniform throughout the throat of the biogas
mixer. As shown in Fig. 4(a) the contour of static pressure is almost uniform in the throat section. However the
maxim pressure drop was observed at section 4 (inlet of the throat) and is almost 62.6 N/m2 as shown in Fig. 4(b).
This improved pressure drop enhances the flow rate of biogas into the biogas mixer [10]. This lead to the
homogenous mixing of biogas and air which would result a proper combustion of air-fuel mixture. Similar kind
of pressure distribution is also observed in the literature [11].

1003
3.2 Velocity analysis

The contours of velocity across the biogas mixer is shown in Fig. 5(a) when the biogas pipe is placed at the middle
of the throat at an angle of 50o. As shown in Fig. 5 (b) the centerline velocity is increasing across the converging
section and is maximum at the throat. The velocity fluctuation across the throat was found minimum compared to
other cases enlisted in Table 2 and 3. Since velocity of the mixing species is important from the point of view of
fuel air transport which comprises an integral part of combustion. As shown in Fig. 5(a) the velocity profile of the
biogas demonstrates the formation of wider velocity stream. With closure observation it has been noticed that due
to the high stream velocity of biogas (69.6 m/sec) entering to the mixing zone the flow becomes turbulent and the
mixture will be homogenous.

Fig. 4 (a) Pressure contour of the biogas venturi mixer (b) Static pressure variation at the center line along the biogas venturi mixer with
biogas pipe placed at middle of the throat and oriented at 50o

Fig. 5 (a) velocity contour of the biogas venturi mixer (b) velocity variation at the center line along the biogas venturi mixer with biogas
pipe placed at middle of the throat and oriented at 50o

Fig. 6 (a) CH4 mass fraction contour of the biogas venturi mixer (b) Mass fraction of CH4 at the center line along the biogas venturi mixer
with biogas pipe placed at middle of the throat and oriented at 50o

1004
3.3 Analysis of mass fraction of CH4

Fig. 6(a) express the counter of CH4 for the venturi type biogas mixer with biogas pipe inclination angle 50o. For
superior combustion the air-fuel mixture need to be homogeneous and uniform. As shown in Fig. 6(a) at the throat
there are two distinct stream of biogas which slowly mixes with the air in the diverging section and disappears. It
has been observed from Fig. 6(b) that the biogas is supplied at the throat and the CH4 mass fraction starts diffusing
slowly in the divergent section and became steady in the rest of the section. It signifies the homogenous mixing
since the CH4 is diffused completely in air along the diverging section.

4. Conclusion

From the above enlisted observations it has been proposed that the optimum throat diameter of the venturi type
biogas mixer should be 8mm provided that the inlet and out let diameter of the biogas mixer are 20 and 19 mm
respectively. Basis on the throat diameter of the mixer the diameter biogas supply pipe is optimized and found to
be 1.5 mm with two biogas inlet at the throat. The position and orientation of the biogas pipe is also optimized in
this study. The inclination angle of the biogas pipe is proposed to be 50o and the middle position of the throat is
suggested to utilize for superior mixing of air and biogas. The optimized dimensions of biogas mixer have been
identified which is supposed to be attached to the engine intake system along with the existing carburetor so as to
enable the engine to run with biogas and gasoline independently.

Acknowledgments

The work reported here forms a part of the sponsored research project “Development and performance evaluation
of a 3 kWe biogas based power generation system utilizing lignocellular biomass”. The authors gratefully
acknowledge the financial contribution from “Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India”.

References

[1] E. Porpatham, A. Ramesh, B. Nagalingam, Effect of swirl on the performance and combustion of a biogas fuelled spark ignition engine,
Energy Conversion and Management, 76, (2013) , pp. 463-471.
[2] B. J. Bora, B. K. Debnath, N. Gupta, U. K. Saha, N. Sahoo, Investigation on the flow behaviour of a venturi type gas mixer designed for
dual fuel diesel engines, Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Adv. Eng 3 (3), (2013) pp. 202-209.
[3] B. J. Bora, U. K. Saha, S. Chatterjee, V. Veer, Effect of compression ratio on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a
dual fuel diesel engine run on raw biogas, Energy Conversion and Management, 87 , (2014) pp. 1000-1009.
[4] B. B. Sahoo, U. K. Saha, N. Sahoo, Effect of load level on the performance of a dual fuel compression ignition engine operating on
syngas fuels with varying hydrogen and carbon monoxide content, Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 133(12), (2011)
pp. 122802.1-122802.11.
[5] V. K. Mitzlaff, Engines for Biogas (GTZ-Gate), Vieweg and Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Bertelsmann Publishing Group, Eschborn,
Germany (1988).
[6] B. B. Sahoo, Clean Development Mechanism Potential of Compression Ignition Diesel Engines Using Gaseous Fuels in Dual Fuel Mode,
Ph.D. thesis, Centre for Energy, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India (2011).
[7] IS 14615-1, Measurement of Fluid Flow by Means of Pressure Differential Devices, Part 1: Orifice Plates, Nozzles and Venturi Tubes
Inserted in Circular cross-section conduits running full [WRD 1: Hydrometry], Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi (1999).
[8] J. Stewart, A. Clarke, R. Chen, “An Experimental Study of the Dual-Fuel Performance of a Small Compression Ignition Diesel Engine
Operating with Three Gaseous Fuels”, Proc. of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering, 221
(8): (2007), pp 943 - 956.
[9] M. Gorjibandpy, M. K. Sangsereki, “Computational Investigation of Air-Gas Venturi Mixer for Powered Bi-Fuel Diesel Engine”,
International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, 1: (2010), pp 68 - 72.
[10] C. Arcoumanis, T. F Kamimoto, Combustion in Reciprocating Engines, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2009.
[11] K. S. Umesh, V. K. Pravin, K. Rajagopal, P. H. Veena, 2012, “Development of A CFD 3D Model to Determine the Effect of the Mixing
Quality on the CNG-Diesel Engine Performance”, International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) 1:1 - 12.

1005
 ICAER-2015

Fuel Quality Assessment of Biodiesels Produced through

Alcoholysis from Pongamia glabra, Mesua Ferrea and their
blend: A novel yet cinch approach
Anuchaya Devia, Vijay K. Dasb, Velentina Dasc and Dhanapati Dekaa,c,1
a cBiomass Conversion Laboratory, Department of Energy,Tezpur University, Napaam-784028, Assam, India
b Department of chemical sciences , Tezpur University,Napaam-784028,Assam,India

Abstract

There are many non-edible oil seed bearing trees like Ratanjyot (jatropha curcas), mahua (madhuca indica), rubber seed
(hevea brasilensis), nahor (mesua ferrea), karabi (thietiva peruviana) and karanja(pongamia glabra) etc have been found to
be a prominent source of oil for biodiesel production. Among these species Pongamia glabra and Mesua ferrea satisfy the
most convincing species due to their various attributes like annual seed yield, life span of the seed bearing tree, and most
importantly the oil content of the seeds. The oil contents of Mesua ferrea and Pongamia glabra are 72% and 37%
respectively. As the acid value of both the oils are high, hence, it has been reduced via esterification before going to
alcoholysis. Here biodiesel was produced individually from both the seeds and blending both the oils in 1:1 ratio. We have
compared the results of blended [(1:1) oil] biodiesel with the individual biodiesel prepared from Mesua ferrea, Pongamia
glabra and also with the standards. The FAME (Fatty Acid Monoalkyl Ester) produced by this method gives data in
accordance with the results determined as per the ASTM and EN 14214 standards for evaluating the biodiesel fuel qualities
like density at 15°C (gm/cc), cloud point (°C), pour point (°C), acid value (mg/KOH/g), kinematic (cst), viscosity at 40 °C,
flash point (°C), oxidation stability (hours), calorific value (MJ/kg) and carbon residue(%wt). We recorded remarkable fuel
quality enhancement in the blended biodiesel which can used as a better fuel than the individual biodiesel prepared from
both the oils.
Keywords: Mesua ferrea; Pongamia glabra; blend; transesterification;biodiesel

1. Introduction

The interest of mankind towards biodiesel production is prevailing as the petroleum reserve and conventional
fuel are diminishing day by day. Biodiesel is defined as the fatty acid monoalkyl ester (FAME) of animal fat,
vegetable oil or waste oil. Globally, it has been accepted that biodiesel is the future fuel and appeared as
technically viable possibility for replacing petro diesel.[1] Without requiring major engine modification
biodiesel can compete with conventional diesel fuel. Moreover, biodiesel is also preferred due to its favourable
lubrication properties, low carbon emission, environment friendly, biodegradable and non-toxic nature.
Regardless of the fact that poor oxidation stability, higher density and lower calorific value of biodiesel as
compared to diesel are some of the drawbacks, therefore, most of the shortcomings associated with the use of
biodiesel are addressed by adding suitable additives or by blending with petro diesel and use of renewable
resources.[2]
Vegetable oil feedstock for biodiesel production is an important parameter which determines the cost of
biodiesel. The cost of the fat/oil used to produce biodiesel clearly affects the cost of the finished product,
constituting up to 60-75% of the overall financial burden; hence, inexpensive raw materials are preferred. In
view of the potential properties of the vegetable oils, a large number of investigations have been carried out to
establish the suitability of different feedstock available for biodiesel production. The raw materials being
exploited commercially predominately include soybean, rapeseed/canola, palm, corn, sunflower, cottonseed,
peanut, and coconut oils. Biodiesel source is expected to fulfil the requirements arise due to high demand in
terms of large production scale and low manufacturing costs. However, there are serious concerns regarding the
use of edible oil in biodiesel. The different non edible oil feedstocks which have been explored include Jatropha
curcus, Pongamia glabra, Mesua ferrea, Camellia oleifera, Abel oil and Datura stramonium L. attributing to its
low cost. Waste cooking oil has also been tried to develop biodiesel.[3]

* Corresponding author. Ph. No. 03712275301(O), +919435380897 (m).

E-mail address: dhanapati@tezu.ernet.in

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 Viscosity of vegetable oil is quite high for direct use in engines and its low volatility affects the atomization
and spray pattern of fuel leading to incomplete combustion, severe carbon deposits, injector choking and piston
ring sticking. Various methods used for reducing viscosity are blending with diesel, emulsification, pyrolysis
and transesterification. Transesterification (alcoholysis) is the reaction of a fat/oil triglyceride with an Alcohol
to form esters and glycerol i.e. commonly used as commercial process to produce environment friendly and
clean fuel.[4] The transesterification reaction proceeds well in the presence of some homogeneous catalysts such
as potassium hydroxide (KOH)/sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and heterogeneous catalysts such as metal oxides or
carbonates. A catalyst is employed to improve the reaction rate and biodiesel yield while excess alcohol is used
to shift the equilibrium towards the product because of reversible nature of reaction. The transesterification
process consists of sequences of three consecutive reversible reactions which include conversion of triglycerides
to diglycerides followed by the conversion of diglycerides to monoglycerides. Finally, the monoglycerides are
converted into glycerol and yielded one ester molecule in each step.[5]

O O

+ R// OH + R/OH
R OR / R OR//

Scheme 1. General equation of Transesterification reaction

1.1. Pongamia glabra

Pongamia glabra is a medium-sized tree grown mostly in the plain humid regions of Assam, lower parts of
Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Northern Bengal in India. It is commonly known as Koroch in Assam. The tree
grows to a height of 18-20 m. It bears a seed which is usually harvested from the month of December to March.
The oil obtained is pale yellow, non-edible and contains 30-40% of oil. The natural distribution is along coasts
and riverbanks in lands and native to the Asian subcontinent. It is also cultivated along roadsides, canal banks
and open farm lands. It is preferred for controlling soil erosion and binding sand dunes because it has dense
network of lateral roots. Its root, bark, leaves, sap, and flower have medicinal properties which are traditionally
used as medicinal plants gaining importance as a biodiesel plant. Pongamia glabra is one of the most suitable
species in India being widely grown nitrogen-fixing tree, non edible by animals with non consumable oil. It can
be planted on degraded lands farmer’s field boundaries, wastelands/fallow lands etc. It is a middle-sized
evergreen tree. It is recognized as traditional medicine which can be used for the treatment of different human
ailments.[6]

1.2. Nahar (Mesua ferrea L.)

Nahar (Mesua ferrea L.) known as Indian ironwood or Indian rose chestnut is a moderate sized tree
belonging to tropical Sri Lanka but they are also cultivated in Assam, southern Nepal, Indo-china, and the
Malay Peninsula. The tree bears flowers between the month of April and July. It has linear 3-6.5 inches loner
leaves having white flowers from the uppermost leaf axils. At the base, the diameter of the stem is one foot and
height about 40 feet. Nahar timber is also one of the hardest and heaviest. The seeds of Mesua ferrea (Nahar)
plants contain a large amount of oil about (70-75%), which is non-edible. Biodiesel from Mesua ferrea seeds
have immense scopes in the North-Eastern region of India and more than lakh quintals of Nahar seeds are
produced annually in the state of Assam. Nahar trees can be planted everywhere including the wasteland,
roadside and in the forests where the yield would be high enough.[7] With these directions in mind, an
experimental investigation of production and characterization of biodiesel from Mesua ferrea and Pongamia
pinnata seed oil as well as their blends along with fuel quality enhancement have been reported in this paper.

2. Experimental Section

2.1 Extraction of Oil

About 2 kg of ripe oil seeds were collected from the vicinity of the Tezpur University Campus and dried 1 kg
each of oil seeds separately in oven for 4 h at 100 °C to reduce its moisture content up to 2%. The dried oil
seeds were shelled and milled separately by grinding to powdery through mixer-grinder. 100 g of oilseed
powder was placed inside the soxhlet apparatus. The flask was filled half with hexane, placed appropriately
upon the heater and waited until the temperature reaches to the boiling point of hexane. The extraction process
completed within 6 h and then the solvent was distilled using rotary vacuum evaporator to collect oil.

1007
2.2 Synthesis of biodiesel and its testing

Since the initial free fatty acid content of both the oils were found to be high i.e. 19.5 mg KOH/g for Mesua
ferrea and 6.27 mg KOH/g for Pongamia glabra, therefore, a two step acid-base catalysed transesterification
process was used to prepare biodiesel.[11] Methanol (70:30% by volume oil: alcohol) was mixed with H 2 SO 4
(1 wt.% of oil) and added slowly to the reactor containing oil along with stirring. The reaction mixture was
heated at 65 °C for 2-4 h and the resulting low FFA products of the reaction were subjected to base catalyzed
transesterification. After completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was transferred to separating funnel
and both the phases were separated. Upper phase was biodiesel and lower phase contained glycerin. Alcohols
from both the phases were distilled off under vacuum. The glycerine phase was neutralized with acid and stored
as crude glycerine. Upper phase i.e. methyl ester (biodiesel) was washed with the water twice to remove the
traces of glycerin, unreacted catalyst and soap formed during the transesterification. Finally it was passed over
heated magnesium oxide to remove trace of water present in it.

Figure 3. Process flow chart of the experiment performed

3. Results and discussion

Quality of fuel is an important parameter for the long-term success (without technical problems) of a bio fuel.
Biodiesel quality depends on different factors that reflect its physicochemical properties. These properties of
biodiesel can be influenced by a number of factors that can be the quality of the feedstock, the fatty acid
composition of the parent vegetable oil or animal fat, the production process, the other materials used, the
postproduction parameters, the handling and at last storage. It is given the fact that most current diesel engines
are designed to be powered by diesel fuel; the physicochemical properties of biodiesel should be similar to those
of diesel fuel.[8]

Table 1. Fatty acid composition of extracted Mesua ferrea and Pongamia glabra oil

Oil or fat Oil/fat Myristic Acid Palmitic Stearic Acid Oleic Acid Linoleic Acid Linolenic Acid
content C14:0 Acid C18:0 C18:1 C18:2 C18:3
(%) C16:0
Mesua ferrea 72 1.3 18.1 13.6 60.0 13.0 3.42
P. glabra 37 - 15.8 6.2 72.2 11.8 4.51

The fatty acid profile of Mesua ferrea and Pongamia glabra oil are depicted in table 1. It is found that
Mesua ferrea has 33% saturated oil comprising myristic acid, palmitic acid , stearic acid, arachidic acid and
67% is unsaturated acids comprising mainly oleic acid and others. In Pongamia glabra it is found that 22% oil
is saturated and 78% oil is comprised of unsaturated fatty acids. Saturation in fatty acid methyl ester increases
the cloud point and cetane number whereas more unsaturated fatty acids reduce the cloud point, cetane number,
calorific value and stability.[9] Here it is found that mesua ferrea have high saturated fatty acid content
compared to the pongamia glabra. Fatty acid composition of both the oils have been modified as they were
blended in 1:1 ratio. Biodiesel was synthesised from all the three feedstock i.e. mesua ferrea oil, pongamia
glabra oil and from their blend in 1:1 ratio.

1008
 Sometimes the product of incomplete transesterification and separation may produce biodiesel of low quality.
To avoid this, reaction should be complete and the glycerol as well as methyl esters should be separated
completely. Therefore conditions for conducting reaction should be optimized to get good quality of biodiesel.
Substances for base catalysed transesterification reaction should be anhydrous and FFA content of oil should be
minimum. All the above possible conditions were maintained for preparation of the biodiesel and to assure the
fatty acid methyl ester formation the yield was calculated from 1H NMR which was found to be 98% for all the
three biodiesels produced.

Figure 1. 1H NMR of 1:1 blend (Mesua ferrea : pongamia glabra ) fatty acid methyl ester

With these positive outcomes, next the fuel properties of the blends were studied.[10] Here it can be seen that
all the three biodiesel properties are found to be in accordance with the standards, therefore it is safer and
greener to use biodiesel. Here it can be seen that all the three biodiesel are meeting the standards and the blend
(1:1 ratio) significantly presenting relatively good results. It was derived that the mixing of fatty acid helped in
enhancing the fuel qualities like density, kinematic viscosity, cloud and pour point, oxidation stability, flash
point, calorific value and carbon residue of the produced biodiesel.[12]

It can be observed that the properties like density, cloud point, pour point and acid value are found to be in
accordance with the standards (Table 2, entries 1-4). Since density is strongly influenced by temperature,
modification of the density affects the fuel mass that reaches the combustion chamber and thus, the energy
content of the fuel dose altering the fuel/air ratio along with the engine’s power.

Table 2. Comparison of prepared biodiesel with standards

Entry Properties with units Mesua Pongamia Blend ASTM D Europe (EN
ferrea glabra (1:1) 6751 14214:200)

1 Density at 15°C(gm/cc) 0.87 0.89 0.86 --- 0.86-90

2 Cloud point (°C) 6 7 6 --- ---
3 Pour point (°C) -1 4 -2 --- ---
4 Acid value (mg/KOH/g) 0.21 0.4 0.33 0.5
5 Kinematic (cst) viscosity at 40 °C 4.76 7.75 3.7 1.9-6.0 3.5-5.0
6 Flash point (°C) 129 127 133 93 min 120 min
7 Oxidation stability (h) 9 7 10 --- 6 h min
8 Calorific value (MJ/kg) 39.56 40.23 40.56 --- 35 min
9 Carbon residue (%wt) 0.21 0.31 0.23 0.050max 0.3
Knowing the density is also necessary in the manufacture, storage, transportation and distribution process of
biodiesel as it is an important parameter to be taken into account in the design of these processes. The density of
the fuel also affects the quality of atomization and combustion. The cloud point and pour points indicates the

1009
property of fuel whether it can be used in low temperature region or not, because at low temperature the fuel can
solidify and might not flow properly affecting the performance of the engine. The blend of both the oil is safer
and can be used in low temperature region.

Fig 3. Enhencement of fuel properities in 1:1 blend

Figure 3 is revealing the enhancement in flash point, oxidation stability and kinematic viscosity in 1:1
blend which are amongst the most important properties of biodiesel fuel quality. Flash point indicates the
temperature at which a fuel ignites when exposed to spark. The flash point is higher in blend (1:1) than petro
diesel and it does not affect the combustion directly. Higher values make fuels safer with regard to storage, fuel
handling and transportation. Biodiesel quality can be affected by oxidation during storage; therefore, oxidation
stability should be higher. The oxidation stability for blend (1:1) is high compared to the individual pongamia
glabra and mesua ferrea biodiesel, which makes blend (1:1) more suitable for the purpose of storage. The listed
fuel properties from experimental results adumbrate that the BFAME (blended fatty acid methyl ester ) is most
suited as per the ASTM D and ENE14214 standards for using as fuel in pure as well as it can be blended with
petrodiesel.

4. Conclusion

In this critical period where the diminishing fossil fuel is pressuring mankind to think for an alternative fuel
which can be used in transportation and industries, therefore, researchers are exploring various alternative
feedstocks for biodiesel production. Here, we have demonstrated the fuel quality of biodiesel produced from
Mesua ferrea, Pongamia glabra and Blend of both oils in 1:1 ratio. This study suggests that Blend of both oils
in 1:1 ratio can be the best alternative showing the best fuel properties among these prepared biodiesel samples.
Moreover blending can help in increasing total feedstock amount with better quality of fuel rather than using
them individually with relatively lower fuel quality.

Acknowledgements

Anuchaya Devi thanks Tezpur University for the institutional fellowship to her.

References

[1] M. Balat, H.A. Balat, Enegry Conversion and management. 49 (2008) 272-274.
[2] C. Boshui, S. Yuqiu, F. Jianhua, W. Jiu, W. Jiang, Biomass and Bioenergy. 34 ( 2010) 1309-1313
[3] J. Boro, D. Deka, Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy. 6 (2012) 1-17
[4] F. Ma, M. A. Hanna, Biosource technology.70(1999) 1-15
[5] B. Freedman, R. O. Butterfield, E. H. Pryde, J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 63 (1986) 1375-1380.
[6] Vivek, A. K. Gupta, Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research. 63 (2004) 39-47.
[7] S. Basumatary, Journal of chemical, Biological and physical Sciences. 3 (2013) 551-558.
[8] S. N. Bobade, V. B. Khyade, Research journal of chemical sciences. 2 (2012) 43-50.

1010
[9] G. Knothe, Energy & Fuels. 22 (2008) 1358-1364.
[10] A. Demirbas, Energy Conversion and Management 50 (2009) 14-34.
[11] S. Jain, M. P. Sharma, International journal of energy and environment. 2 (2011) 533-542.
[12] A. Devi, V. K. Das, D. Deka, Research journal of chemical sciences. 5 (2015) 60-65..

1011
 ICAER-2015

Fugitive methane emissions from Indian coal mining and

handling activities: estimates, mitigation and opportunities for its
utilization to generate clean energy
Ajay K Singh, Jaywardhan Kumar
Methane Emission and Degasification Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research,Barwa Road, Dhanbad 826 015, India

Abstract

Fugitive methane emissions from fossil fuel extraction accounts for significant contribution towards greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions in India. Out of total GHG emissions of 1.4 million Gg-CO 2 equivalent in 2007 from India’s energy sector,
approximately 34,000 Gg-CO 2 equivalent belonged to fugitive emissions from fossil fuel extraction. Methane emission from
coal mining and handling activities has increased from 0.555 Tg in 1991 to 0.772 Tg in 2010, as per national emission
factors developed by CIMFR. These estimates have been prepared as a part of India’s Second National Communication to
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Biennial Update Report (BUR).

With increasing demand of coal, current production is likely to touch around a billion tons by 2020. In this paper, projections
have been made about the future coal production and also the future trend of methane emissions from coal mining and
handling activities. The methane released from coal mining and also coalbed methane can supplement India’s scarce natural
gas reserves and also act as a GHG mitigation opportunity. There are several technologies to achieve this in India, which
include:

1. Coalbed methane (CBM): There exists an estimated potential of 400 BCM of coalbed methane of CBM in three
provinces viz. Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhatisgarh. Commercial scale exploitation of CBM has already
begun in India.
2. Coal Mine Methane (CMM): Three coalfields in the Damodar River Basin (Raniganj, Jharia and Bokaro) were
studied as part of a project funded by the US EPA for feasibility of CMM. Kalidaspur and Ghusick collieries in the
Raniganj Coalfield, Murulidih, Amlabad, Sudamdih and Parbatpur mines in the Jharia Coalfield and Jarangdih and
Sawang collieries in the East Bokaro Coalfield appear to be favourable sites for CMM recovery. Opportunities for
CMM recovery in these collieries shall be covered in details in this paper.
3. Ventilation Air Methane (VAM): Methane diluted by ventilating air in underground coal mines is vented to the
atmosphere and may be captured for its gainful utilization. CIMFR, in association with Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale, USA, completed a collaborative project on VAM utilization in India. The study revealed
that that installation of just two rotary kilns can lead to revenue generation of US$ 2.8 million in two years.
4. Abandoned Mine Methane (AMM): There has been no effort to quantify the potential of AMM resource in India
so far. It is imperative; therefore to initiate a study for evaluation of AMM resource potential in India.

Such mechanisms may serve as a valuable instrument to mitigate atmospheric methane emissions to the atmosphere and to
find new pathways of clean energy deployment in India. This paper shall present an analysis for policy-makers and the
stakeholders by providing a technological overview for augmenting clean energy resources in India.

Keywords: mining & handling activities; Clean Coal Technology;Coalbed Methane; Coal Mine Methane

1. Introduction

In the last four decades, a substantial growth has been recorded in commercial primary energy consumption
in India. Energy usage in India is expected to grow at an exponential rate because of India’s developmental
goals. Though the renewable energy consumption has grown from 9.2 MTOE in the year 2011 to 13.9 MTOE in
the year 2014 [1], coal is likely to remain the main source of energy in India in the foreseeable future because
renewable sources have a high establishment cost, are location-dependent and their pricing has not been
competitive enough [2]. It has been reported that over 70% of electricity generated in India is from thermal
power plants [3]. Coal is considered as vital to India's energy security [4]. The Geological Survey of India [5]
has estimated proven coal reserves of the country at 131.61 billion tonnes. Estimates of total coal resources are
much higher at 306.59 billion tonnes up to a depth of 1200 metres as on 1st April 2015. The coal resources

1012
reported above are coal in-situ and all of them are not extractable at the present status of economics and
technology. The proved recoverable reserves of 60.6 billion tonnes [6] are capable to supply coal for over 100
years at current level of production and more than 50 years at double the existing rate of production. This
appears to be a very comfortable situation and should enable coal mining industry in India to meet increasing
demand despite some technological and financial barriers.
Methane is invariably found within coal seams and associated rocks. Coal normally stores substantial
quantities of methane within its micro pores. Underground coal mining was plagued by the gas hazards and had
been a continual source of anxiety and inconvenience to the miners throughout the long history of the industry.
The ventilation air along with the mine gases is released into the atmosphere. Although, the levels of methane in
the vented air is frequently less than 0.02 per cent in the Indian context; a significant amount of the gas is added
to the atmosphere every year, as the quantity of vented air is quite large. Methane present in coal is not a safety
problem in the case of surface mining. However, a considerable amount of the gas is emitted to the atmosphere
during surface mining of coal also. Besides the emission during mining, coal still contains some remnant gas
that is released slowly with time during handling activities such as processing in washeries and coal handling
plants and subsequent utilization.
In this paper, current methane emissions from Indian coal mining and handling activities have been
estimated. The basic calculations for estimating emissions have been carried out following the methodologies
very similar to those recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [7,8]. Methane
emission factors during mining and post mining for different categories of coal mines have been determined.
Annual coal production data for different category of mine is collected, which is multiplied by the corresponding
methane emission factor and the conversion coefficient of 0.67 × 10-6 Gg m-3 to obtain estimates of methane
emission from coal mining. Estimates based on IPCC emission factors [7,8] have also been obtained and are
compared with the present results. Besides the estimates of methane emission from coal and handling activities,
various options for extraction of this gas for its utilization as a clean source of energy have been discussed.

2. Generation, storage and transport of methane in coal

Methane and small quantities of some other gases are native in coal seams. Various theories have been
postulated to explain the physical and chemical changes during coalification [9,10]. Some of them relied on the
formation of methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water as the products of devolatilization during
coalification [11]. The quantity of methane generated depends on degree of coalification and several other
geological parameters. However, a large amount of gas (mostly methane) is stored in the micro porous network
of coal. Coal is, therefore, both a source and reservoir rock for the gas. Most coals have large surface areas of
about several hundred square meters per gram [12]. Micro-pores in coal through a microscopic view are shown
in Fig 1.(a). Coal has a natural fracture system also called cleat that is formed during coalification with
deplugging and devolatalisation of the Coal [13]. Two perpendicular sets of fractures termed as face and butt
cleats are generally found in coal. Fractures and cleats which provide permeability for transport of gas in coal
are shown in Fig 1.(b). For a more detailed understanding of methane transport in coal reservoirs, the reader
may refer to [14].

Fig. 1. (a) Microscopic view of the micro-pores structure of coal; (b) Fracture system and cleats in coal

3. Gassiness of coal seam in India

Based on mine specific measurement of rate of emission, all the underground coal mines in India have been
categorized into Degree I, Degree II and Degree III by the Directorate General of Mines Safety [15].
“Degree I Seams” means a coal seam in which the percentage of methane in the general body of air does not
exceed 0.1 and the rate of emission of methane does not exceed one cubic meter per tonne of coal produced.

1013
 “Degree II Seam” means a coal seam in which the percentage of methane in the general body of air at any
place in the workings of the seam is more than 0.1 or rate of emission of methane per tonne of coal produced
exceeds one cubic metre but does not exceed ten cubic metres.
“Degree III Seams” means a coal seam in which the rate of emission of methane per tonne of coal produced
exceeds ten cubic metres.
Distribution of working mines having different degree of gassy seams in different states in India is shown in
Table 1.
Table 1. Underground Working Mines Having Different Degree of Gassy Seam – 2012.
State Degree I Degree II Degree III Total
Andhra Pradesh 41 ... … 41
Assam … …. 02 02
Chhatisgarh 42 ... 01 43
Jharkhand 61 26 07 94
Jammu and Kashmir 01 02 … 03
Madhya Pradesh 39 16 … 55
Maharashtra 22 … … 22
Orissa 07 03 … 10
West Bengal 24 56 03 83
All India 237 103 13 353

4. Methodology to estimate methane emission from coal mining and handling activities

The simple methodology defined in [7,8] is represented in equation (1). Coal production data is considered as
Activity data which is multiplied by methane emission factor of respective category and the conversion factor of
0.67 × 10-6 Gg m-3 of methane to obtain estimates of methane emission from coal mining.

𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 ( 4) = 𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴 (𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 𝑝𝑝 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 𝑜𝑜 𝑛𝑛 ) 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 …..(1)

In order to obtain the methane emission factor, the following measurements were made in the underground
mines of three different degrees of gassiness:

• The velocity of air passing through the return airways separately in each ventilating districts and in the main
return with the help of Von Anemometer.

• Cross sectional area of each return airway by multiplying the average width and height of the airway.

• Percentage of methane in the air samples collected in the return airway and also in the general body air by
Gas Chromatography.
Quantity of air was calculated by multiplying the air velocity and cross sectional area of the return airway.
This was further multiplied by the percentage of methane in the return airways to obtain daily make of methane
in the mine. Daily coal production data was collected during the period of investigation. Methane emission
factor was calculated by dividing the daily make of methane by the daily coal production [16].
For surface mines a rectangular chamber (Fig.2) with internal dimensions of 50 × 40 × 15 cubic cm, closed
from five sides but open floor and fitted with a nozzle for gas collection were used to measure methane flux.
These chambers were placed on the benches of surface mines for a known period of time. Methane percentage
inside the chamber was determined by Gas Chromatograph. Area of freshly exposed coal face was also
measured in the surface mines to calculate methane flux. Daily coal production data was collected during the
period of investigation.

Fig. 2. Plastic rectangular chamber for methane flux measurement.

4.1 The activity data

Activity data on coal production from surface and underground mines was collected. Coal production data in
respect of the underground mines are also available from different categories of Degree I, Degree II and Degree

1014
III seams from the year 1980 onwards in the Directorate General of Mines Safety, Government of India
publications for various years [17](DGMS, 1990; various years; 2012). National coal production data by the
type of mine workings of each category of gassiness is presented in the Table 2 for the years 1990–2012.

Table 2: National Coal Production by Type of Mine Workings in Years 1990–2012.

Year Surface Underground (u/g) Total Coal

Degree I Degree II Degree III Total u/g Production
1990 143.21 46.80 20.06 2.67 69.53 212.74
1991 167.03 44.92 22.56 3.25 70.73 237.76
1992 178.88 45.78 21.99 3.30 71.07 249.95
1993 186.94 49.62 20.48 3.58 73.68 260.62
1994 196.88 48.41 19.13 3.10 70.64 267.52
1995 216.07 46.59 18.95 2.97 68.51 284.58
1996 233.97 48.92 18.59 2.62 70.13 304.10
1997 247.62 48.53 17.98 2.55 69.06 316.68
1998 251.32 48.00 18.17 2.40 68.57 319.89
1999 247.09 47.22 18.61 2.26 68.09 315.18
2000 268.09 46.17 17.36 2.69 66.22 334.31
2001 277.38 45.97 15.73 2.43 64.13 341.51
2002 297.98 46.65 16.34 2.33 65.32 363.30
2003 315.56 45.64 16.13 1.86 63.63 379.19
2004 347.35 44.46 15.42 2.03 61.91 409.26
2005 356.76 44.03 18.18 1.88 64.09 420.85
2006 369.12 43.57 16.00 1.65 61.22 430.34
2007 387.33 44.87 17.43 1.86 64.16 451.49
2008 440.00 49.77 15.37 1.13 66.27 506.27
2009 491.98 53.76 12.17 0.89 66.82 558.80
2010 531.88 55.31 13.82 0.85 69.98 601.86
2011 538.24 55.40 11.54 2.08 69.031 607.27
2012 553.62 51.36 12.28 0.68 64.34 617.96

4.2 National Emission Factors for Coal Mining and Handling Activities
National methane emission factor for coal mining and handling activities have been determined. Emission
factor for surface mining and also from underground mining for different degrees of gassiness are evaluated.
These National methane emission factors for different categories of mines in India are presented in Table 3.
These are also referred to as CIMFR emission factors.
Table 3. National Emission Factors for Coal Mining and Handling Activities in India.
Operation (Mining/ Post Methane Emission factor (m3/tonne)
Mining) Surface Mining Underground Mining
Degree–I Degree–II Degree–III
Mining 1.18 2.91 13.08 23.68
Post Mining (Handling) 0.15 0.98 2.15 3.12

However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [7] has provided methane emission factors
for low, average and high cases. These emission factors are the same as those described in [8] and are presented
in Table 4.
Table 4. IPCC Emission Factors for Coal Mining and Handling Activities.
Operation (Mining/ Post Methane Emission factor (m3/tonne)
Mining) Surface Mining Underground Mining
Low Average High Low Average High
Mining 0.3 1.2 2.0 10.0 18.0 25.0
Post Mining (Handling) 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.9 2.5 4.0

It may be observed from Tables 3 and 4 that national methane emission factors for surface coal mining and
handling activities are comparable to those of the average value of IPCC. But the difference is significant, when
we compare the national emission factors for underground coal mines with the values of IPCC default emission
factors.

1015
 5. Estimates of methane emission

Earlier estimates of methane emission such as [18] reported value of 0.4 Tg for the year 1990. In the present
measurement study, measurements have been made in 25 surface and 67 underground mines of different degrees
of gassiness. Estimates for methane emission to the atmosphere were prepared for the years 1990 to 2012 is
shown in Fig.3. These estimates were prepared using new emission factors determined in Indian context and
also using the IPCC emission factors [7,8] for low, average and high cases. Coal production for the year 2012,
emission factors and estimates of methane emission have been presented in the Table 5.
Table 5. Methane Emission from Indian Coal Mining and Handling Activities for the Year 2012.
STEP 1 STEP 2
A B C D E
Amount of Coal Emission Methane Conversion Methane
Produced Factor Emissions Factors Emissions

(Million tons)
(m3 CH 4 /t) (million m3) (Tg CH 4 )

CIMFR EMISSION FACTORS C = (A × B) E=(C × D)

Underground Mines Mining Deg. I 51.36 2.91 149.457 0.67x 10-6 0.100
Deg. II 12.28 13.08 160.622 0.67x 10-6 0.107
-6
Deg.III 0.68 23.64 16.075 0.67x 10 0.010
Post-Mining Deg. I 51.36 0.98 50.332 0.67x 10-6 0.033
-6
Deg. II 12.28 2.15 26.402 0.67x 10 0.0177
Deg.III 0.68 3.12 2.121 0.67x 10-6 0.001
-6
Surface Mines Mining 553.62 1.18 653.271 0.67x 10 0.438
Post-Mining 553.62 0.15 83.043 0.67x 10-6 0.0555
Total 0.765

IPCC EMISSION FACTORS

Underground Mines Mining Low 64.34 10 634.4 0.67x 10-6 0.431
Average 64.34 18 1158.12 0.67x 10-6 0.777
-6
High 64.34 25 1608.5 0.67x 10 1.079
Post-Mining Low 64.34 0.9 57.960 0.67x 10-6 0.0388
Average 64.34 2.5 160.85 0.67x 10-6) 0.107
-6
High 64.34 4 257.36 0.67x 10 0.172
Surface Mines Mining Low 553.62 0.3 166.086 0.67x 10-6 0.111

Average 553.62 1.2 664.344 0.67x 10-6 0.445

High 553.62 2 1107.24 0.67x 10-6 0.743
Post-Mining Low 553.62 0 0 0.67x 10-6 0.00
-6
Average 553.62 0.1 55.362 0.67x 10 0.0371
High 553.62 0.2 110.724 0.67x 10-6) 0.07431
Low Emission 0.618 Average 1.425 High Emission 2.069
Emission

2.5

2
CH4 emission (Tg)

1.5
CIMFR
1 IPCC Low

0.5 IPCC Avg

IPCC High
0

Fig. 3. Trend of methane emission from coal mining and handling activities in India.

1016
6. Mitigation strategies

From mitigation perspective, methane in coal may be recovered for its utilization. It has been identified as a
clean fuel resource. The extraction technology of methane from coal mines is classified into the following three
categories.
• Coal Mine Methane (CMM) or Degasification of working seams: When methane is recovered
simultaneously during mining of coal with an objective of reducing the methane concentration in the
mine workings and for its utilization, it is known as coal mine methane. Various mine degasification
techniques are followed to recover CMM [19].

• Ventilation Air Methane (VAM): Methane present in the ventilation air is known as the ventilation-air-
methane. Although, the concentration of methane in the ventilation air is generally very low, new
oxidation technologies have come up which burn the VAM and produce useful energy from it [20].
Ventilation air typically contains low and variable methane concentration and large quantity of the
ventilation air make it difficult to handle and process it into useable forms of energy.

• Abandoned Mine Methane (AMM): Methane that continues to be emitted from the left over coal and
the adjoining strata and is accumulated in the mine voids even after the abandonment of an
underground mine, is known as AMM. The abandoned mines emit gas to the atmosphere through mine
openings or factures that connect the mine void to the surface and through leaking or vented seals that
are placed over ventilation shafts and other openings [21].

7. Options for methane recovery and energy generation

7.1. Coal mine project opportunities in some of the selected collieries in India

In a recent feasibility study funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), Kalidaspur
and Ghusick collieries in the Raniganj Coalfield, Murulidih, Amlabad, Sudamdih and Parbatpur mines in
the Jharia Coalfield and Jarangdih and Sawang collieries in the East Bokaro Coalfield appear to be
promising sites for CMM recovery at first glance. CMM resources in the above collieries in the Damodar
River Basin in India have been estimated and are presented in Table 6. Gas resources in Ichhapur [22],
Kulti and Sitarampur blocks in the Raniganj Coalfield and Asnapani and Kathara blocks in the East Bokaro
Coalfield have been estimated and are presented in Table 7.
Table 6. Important collieries for coal mine methane extraction
Name of the colliery Name of Coal field Degree of Mine CMM resource
(Billion cubic meter)
Kalidaspur Raniganj III 3.783
Ghusick Raniganj III 2.58
Murulidih Jharia III 4.98
Amlabad Jharia III 0.76
Sudamdih Jharia III 0.80
Central parbatpur Jharia III 5.31
Jarangdih East Bokaro III Not available
Sawang East Bokaro III Not available

Table 7. Important blocks for coal mine methane extraction

Name of the block Name of Coal field Area Status of the block CMM resource
(Sq. km) (Billion cubic meter)
Ichhapur Raniganj 12 Virgin 3.83
Kulti Raniganj 7.8 Virgin 1.77
Sitarampur Raniganj 9 Virgin 1.63
Kapuria Jharia 6.4 Virgin 1.51
Asnapani East Bokaro 4 Virgin 6.64
Kathara East Bokaro 6 Virgin 8.62

Kalidaspur colliery is a degree III mine in the Raniganj coalfield with an average production of 350
tonnes per day. The rate of methane emission found was more than 10 cubic meters per ton of coal mined.
The maximum and minimum values of rate of methane emission per ton of coal production were 8.78 and
19.27 cubic meter per ton respectively. The CMM resource estimated for Kalidaspur Colliery including the
adjoining virgin Bakulia Block was 3.783 billion cubic meters (BCM). Thus, it qualified to be a potential
site for a small scale CMM project. The projected coal production and methane emission for Kalidaspur
colliery are presented in Table 8.

1017
 Ghusick colliery is also a degree III underground coal mine in the Raniganj coalfield. This colliery was
found with very high level of gas at shallow depth. During the investigation period it was found that make
of methane varied between 11.02-14.2 m3/minute even when the production was only 70 tons of coal per
day. Also the gases obtained from the sealed off areas, when analyzed were containing 50-65% of methane.
An estimated CMM resource of 2.58 billion cubic meters (BCM) was found at the Ghusick colliery. Thus
the venture of CMM degasification and Gob degasification can be accomplished at the Ghusick colliery.
Ichhapur, Kulti and Sitarampur are the virgin coal blocks of Raniganj coalfield having a maximum value
of in-situ gas content of 7.06 m3/t, 9.16 m3/t and 7.21 m3/t respectively. The CMM resource of Ichhapur
Block was found to be 3.83 BCM and it is suitable for small scale CMM project. The total gas resource of
3.40 BCM is present in the Kulti and Sitarampur Blocks, therefore these blocks can be developed as a site
for medium scale CMM project.
In the Jharia coalfield, Murulidih, Amlabad, Sudamdih and Parbatpur are important collieries for CMM
extraction. Murulidih mine lies in the Mahuda sub-basin area and is designated as degree III mine. With a
CMM resource of 4.98 BCM in the Raniganj and deep Barakar formations, Murulidih colliery can be
considered for medium scale CMM project. Amlabad and Sudamdih Collieries also have high levels of gas,
and at relatively shallow depths. Both the mines are Degree III gassy mines. The rate of methane emission
is 25 m3/t of coal production at the Amlabad Colliery making it very difficult for coal mining. It has an
estimated gas resource of 0.76 BCM. The nearby Sudamdih mine is having a gas resource of 0.80 BCM.
Therefore these two collieries can be modeled as small scale CMM ventures.
Central Parbatpur is located to the South of Damodar River in the South Eastern part of Jharia coalfield,
covering an area of about 9 sq. km. This area is characterized by significant tectonic disturbance and is cris-
crossed by 11 major faults. Central Parbatpur is having a CMM resource of 5.312 BCM, representing a rich
site for CMM extraction and recovery.
East Bokaro Coalfield is a huge store house of high rank medium coking metallurgical coals. Jarangdih
and Sawang are two underground Degree III collieries with known history of gassiness. The rate of
methane emission per tonne of coal produced at Jarangdih 6 ft seam at the Jarangdih colliery mine was
insignificant but a value of 17.12 m3/t methane emission was observed in the Jarangdih 6 ft seam at the
Sawang colliery.
Two important virgin blocks namely Asnapani and Kathara located in the south central part of East
Bokaro Coalfield, having a surface area of 4 sq km and 6 sq km respectively provide an option for CMM
extraction and recovery. The Asnapani block is containing a CMM resource of 6.64 BCM and Kathara
Block with a CMM resource of 8.62 BCM can be easily chosen for CMM projects location.
There are four collieries namely Kalidaspur Colliery and Ghusick Colliery in West Bengal, Bhatdee
Colliery mine and Murulidih 20/21 Pits in Jharkhand, where the detailed study was accomplished to find
the potential of CMM extraction and recovery. The projected coal production and the methane emission for
all the four collieries are presented in Tables 8, 9. and 10.
Table 8. Projected coal production and methane emission for Kalidaspur colliery
Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Coal
(tons/year) 140000 145000 150000 155000 160000 165000 170000 175000
Methane Emission (Mm3/year)
Emitted
from
Ventilation 1.68 1.45 1.5 1.395 1.44 1.32 1.19 1.225
systems
Liberated
from
1 2 3 4 5 6 6.4 6.4
drainage
systems
Vented to
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
atmosphere
Total
methane 1.68 1.45 1.5 1.395 1.44 1.32 1.19 1.225
emission

Table 9: Projected coal production and methane emission for Ghusick colliery.
Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Coal
(tons/year) 29500 30000 32000 34000 36000 38000 40000 42000
Methane Emission (Mm3/year)

1018
 Emitted
from
Ventilation 2.087 2.122 2.264 2.405 2.547 2.688 2.830 2.971
systems
Liberated
from
1 2 3 4 5 5.5 5.635 5.635
drainage
systems
Vented to
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
atmosphere
Total
methane 2.087 2.122 2.264 2.405 2.547 2.688 2.830 2.971
emission

Table 10: Projected coal production and methane emission for Bhatdee colliery Mine and Murulidih 20/21 pits.
Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Coal
(tons/year) 131000 131000 131000 131000 131000 131000 131000 131000
Methane Emission (Mm3/year)
Emitted from
Ventilation
0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44
systems
Liberated from
drainage systems 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7.75
Vented to 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
atmosphere
Total methane 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44 0.44
emission

7.2. VAM project opportunities in India

India has about 16 degree III mines and there is a scope of utilization VAM in these mines. CIMFR along
with Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) completed a study to evaluate the resource base and
potential of utilization of VAM at Moonidih and Sudamdih mines in the Jharia Coalfield [23]. Further studies
were conducted by CIMFR for assessment of quantity and quality of Gas and Characteristics of washery
middling at Moonidih mine. Moonidih Mine of Coal India Limited is a gaseous mine of Degree III, and
concentration of Methane in the evasee exhaust air varies from 0.3 to 0.5%. Further, Moonidih Mine has its own
washery and has surplus middling too. Hence, Moonidih was chosen for feasibility study for implementation of
Hybrid Coal Gas Technology (HCGT) developed by CSIRO, Australia wherein washery middling is combusted
along with methane in a rotary kiln to produce hot gas for production of electric power. The process includes
collection of air with minimum 0.3% methane concentration at the rate of 4000 m3/min from the evasee of the
mine and feeding it to 2 Rotary Kilns where it may be combusted with washery middling at the rate of 11.75
tonne/hr. The hot gas coming out of the Rotary Kiln will be supplied to a waste heat recovery boiler (WHRB).
The steam produced by the boiler at the rate of 60 tonnes per hour will be used in a steam turbine generator
which will produce nearly 12 MW power.

7.2.1. Calculation of net emission reduction for VAM project at Moonidih Mine [24].

Air flow rate from the evasee is 12000 m3/min and ventilation air methane consumption per rotary kiln is
considered as 4000 m3/min.
Then the Air flow rate per annum
= 4000×60×24×365
= 2102400000 m3/year
Considering the minimum concentration of 0.3% methane in VAM, methane consumption per annum will be
(0.3×2102400000)/100
= 6307200 m3 CH 4 /year
This will be the fed to one rotary kiln. Therefore, methane consumption per annum for one rotary kiln can be
calculated as below:
CH 4 consumption per annum per rotary kiln
= 6307200 m3CH 4 /year
= 6,307,200,000 Liters/year
= (6,307,200,000/22.4) g-moles per year

1019
 = 281,571,428.6 g-moles per year
= 281,571,428.6×16 gram/year
= 4505.142857 Tons/year
The complete oxidation of methane takes place, according to the following chemical reaction.
CH 4 + 2O 2 → CO 2 +2H 2 O
It means 16g of CH 4 is produces 44g of CO 2 .
Therefore, 4505.142857 Tons/year of methane will generate 4505.142857×44/16
= 12389.14286 tCO 2 eq/ year
Thus a quantity of 12389.14286 tCO 2 eq/ year will be generated by one rotary kiln.
Now, GCV of methane
= 33402 kJ/SCM
Net GCV available
=33402× 6307200 kJ/year
=2.10673 ×1011 kJ/year
Assuming an efficiency of 26%, the heat that is available for power generation
= 0.26×2.10673 × 1011 kJ/year
= 5.477498×1010 kJ/year
We know that
1 kJ = 2.7×10-4 kWh
Therefore, electricity generation possible with the available heat per kiln
= 5.477498×1010 ×2.7×10-4 kWh/year
= 14789244.6 kWh/year
If 14789244.6 kWh/year of electricity were purchased from the Eastern Region Grid of India, the amount of
CO 2 generated, considering the carbon intensity of grid as 0.822kg CO 2 /kWh will be equal to
0.822×14789244.6 kg CO 2 eq/year
=12156759.06 kg CO 2 eq/year
=12156.759 tCO 2 eq/year

This means we are able to reduce the emission of 12156.759 tCO 2 eq/year by installing the one rotary kiln.
Since we are consuming the available 4505.142857 Tons/year of methane to the VAM power plant
Therefore, an equivalent amount of 4505.142857×21 = 94608 tCO 2 eq/ year
will be prevented from escaping to the atmosphere.
Net emission reduction will be:
(94608+12156.759−12389.14286)
tCO 2 eq/ year.
= 94375.61614 tCO 2 eq/ year
Now we can see, installation of one rotary kiln of the VAM project is capable of reducing the emission of
green house gas to a value of 94375.61614 tCO 2 eq/year.
Therefore, with the installation of two rotary kilns a quantity of (2×94375.61614)
= 188751.2323 tCO 2 eq/year green house gas emission can be prevented.
Revenue generation by carbon credit, Considering 1 carbon credit = $7
= $ 7×94375.61614
= $ 660629.313
= ` 39637758.78/year (Considering $1= ` 60)
Cost saving for electricity purchased (Considering ` 3 per kWh)
= ` 14789244.6×3/year
= ` 44367733.8/year
= $ 739462.23
Total revenue generated
= $(660629.313+739462.23)
= $ 1400091.543/year
= ` 8,40,05,492.58/year
With the installation of two rotary kiln the revenue generation will be
=$(2×1400091.543)
=$ 2800183.086

Therefore, significant amount of methane which is otherwise vented to the atmosphere may be captured for its
gainful utilization.

1020
8. Conclusion

Coal production in India is dominated by surface mining. While production from surface mines is increasing
annually, the underground production is almost stagnant. Methane emission to the atmosphere from coal mining
and handling activities in the country has increased from 0.504 Tg in the year 1990 to 0.765 Tg in the year 2012.
In some gassy mines, drainage of methane will be helpful in reducing methane concentration inside the
underground mine, thus making safer working environment for the miners and reduction of downtime due to gas
problems. As a result of lower emission of methane into the underground working, the air required for
ventilation also gets reduced, thus, lowering the ventilation cost for the mine. The coalbed gas can be recovered
and utilized for various uses depending on the quality and quantity of the gas produced. Moreover, the recovery
and use of the CMM leads to reduction of emission of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and help in
mitigation of a potent greenhouse gas. The reduction in emission of methane can be monetized and Carbon
Credit can be earned. Opportunities for CMM, VAM and AMM recovery and utilization do exist in some gassy
mines in India to support alternative sources of clean energy and such options have the potential of contributing
towards stabilization of atmospheric methane concentrations.

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to the Director, CSIR-CIMFR, Dhanbad; US EPA, Washington DC and NATCOM Project,
InsPIRE Network for Environment, New Delhi, India for financial support. Technical collaboration with Prof.
Satya Harpalani, SIUC, USA is gratefully acknowledged. Help and cooperation provided during the field
investigation by the authorities of various coal companies, are sincerely acknowledged.

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[13] Levine, J.R., Coalification: The evolution of coal as source rock for oil and gas. In Hydrocarbons from Coal, AAPG studies in Geology,
38 (1993) 39-78.
[14] A.K. Singh, Modeling Methane Transport in Coal Reservoirs, First Indo-US Workshop on Coal Mine Methane, Dhanbad, 2011, pp
141-149.
[15] The Coal Mines Regulations, Directorate General of Mines Safety, Dhanbad, India, 1967
[16] A.K. Singh, in: Mitra AP et al. (Eds.), Methane emission from coal mining and handling activities in India, Climate Change and India:
Uncertainty Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Inventory Estimates, University Press, Hyderabad, 2004.
[17] Statistics of Mines in India Vol. I (Coal), The Directorate General of Mines Safety, Dhanbad, India, 2012.
[18] B.D. Banerjee, A.K. Singh, J. Kispotta, B.B. Dhar, Trend of methane emission to the atmosphere from Indian coal mining,
Atmospheric Environment. 28 (1994) 1351-1352.
[19] B.K. Prusty, Mine Degasification and Recovery of Coal Mine Methane – Worldwide Practice. Proceedings of the First Indo-US
Workshop on Coal Mine Methane. Dhanbad, India, October 17-20, 2011. pp.107-118.
[20] J. Somers, and R. Collings, Coal Mine Ventilation Air Methane: Project Development and Mitigation Option. Proceedings of the First
Indo-US Workshop on Coal Mine Methane. Dhanbad, India, October 17-20, 2011. pp.19-32.
[21] R.Collings, Abandoned Coal Mine Methane: Estimating Emissions, Resource and Reserves Prior to Development. Proceedings of the
First Indo-US Workshop on Coal Mine Methane. Dhanbad, India, October 17-20, 2011. pp.149-164.
[22] U. Singh, Carbon capture and storage: an effective way to mitigate global warming. Current Science, 105 (2013) (7) 914-922.
[23] B.K. Prusty, S. Harpalani , A.K. Singh, Quantification of Ventilation Air Methane and its utilization potential at Moonidih
Underground Coal Mine, India, Ninth International Mine Ventilation Congress, India, 2009, pp 567-577.
[24] J. Kumar, Determination of National Emission Factor for Estimation of Current Fugitive Methane Emission from Coal Mining and
Handling Activities in India and Its Abatement Strategies. M.Tech Thesis Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, CSIR-
CIMFR. Dhanbad. India. 2014.

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 ICAER-2015

Investigation on Thermal Efficiency via Entropy

Generation Analysis Within Cavities with Curved Walls
Subjected to Differential/Rayleigh-Benard Heating
Pratibha Biswal, Tanmay Basak*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai - 600036, India

Abstract

The computational study of natural convection within enclosures with curved (concave/convex) walls (curved side walls or
top and bottom walls) is carried out via entropy generation analysis. Two heating strategies are considered such as: (a)
differential and (b) Rayleigh-Benard heating. The numerical simulation has been carried out for air at Prandtl numbers, Pr =
0.7 for various Rayleigh numbers (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 105) with different wall curvatures. A comparative study of the heating
strategies is carried out in detail for a number of test cases with different wall curvatures. Finally, the optimal situation is
recommended based on the less entropy production and and high heat transfer rate.
Keywords: Rayleigh-Benard heating, Differential heating, Entropy generation, Energy efficiency, Curved walls

1. Introduction

Investigation of natural convection heat flow for various physical systems has been carried out extensively to
receive significant attention due to numerous industrial and technological applications. However, significant
number of research works on natural convection within closed cavities has been reported in the literature for
various engineering and technological applications. The shapes and geometrical configurations of enclosed
cavities play a vital role in various applications such as thermal processing of fluids, air flow in building
structures, maintaining ventilation in buildings, heat exchangers etc. In many industrial or process applications,
the cavities with the irregular shapes play a significant role and the complexity of the walls significantly affects
the characteristics of flow and heat transfer rates. As observed in the literature, very few works on natural
convection within enclosures with curved/wavy walls were reported.

In addition to the analysis of the heat and fluid flow characteristics with the heat transfer rates, the analysis of
natural convection with an energy efficient approach is highly desirable based on the current energy crisis
situation. A few works on the entropy generation analysis in the enclosures with the curved or wavy walls are in
the literature [1-3]. A comprehensive review on the entropy generation analysis for natural convection in cavities
is also reported by Oztop and Al-Salem [4]. However, the comparison of various heating strategies and wall
curvatures/wavyness based on the entropy generation analysis are not carried out till date. The current work
attempts to investigate natural convection heat transfer within complex cavities with curved walls via the energy
efficient approach based on the entropy generation minimization. Further, the optimal situation during natural
convection in cavities involving (a) concave/convex side walls with differential heating and (b) concave/convex
top and bottom walls with Rayleigh-Benard heating based on the minimum entropy generation and maximum
heat transfer rates was chosen.

3. Mathematical modeling and simulations

2.1 Governing equations

The computational domain based on the semi-infinite approximation assumption is shown in the Figs. 1(a-d)
for the concave and convex cases with the differential and Raylegh-Benard heating. The thermophysical
properties of the fluid are assumed to be constant except the density in the body force term of the Y-component

* Corresponding author. Tel: 91-44-2257-4173; Fax: 91-44-2257-0509 E-mail: tanmay@iitm.ac.in

1022
Nomenclature

g acceleration due to gravity, m s−2

L height or base of the cavity, m
Nu local Nusselt number
Nu average Nusselt number
p pressure, Pa
P Dimensionless pressure
Pr Prandtl number
Ra Rayleigh number
S dimensionless entropy generation
Sθ dimensionless entropy generation due to heat transport
Sψ dimensionless entropy generation due to fluid friction
S total dimensionless total entropy generation due to heat transfer and fluid friction
T temperature of the fluid, K
Th temperature of hot wall, K
Tc temperature of cold wall, K
u x component of velocity, m s-1
U x component of dimensionless velocity
v y component of velocity, m s−1
V y component of dimensionless velocity
x distance along x coordinate, m
X dimensionless distance along x coordinate
y distance along y coordinate, m
Y dimensionless distance along y coordinate

Greek symbols
α thermal diffusivity, m2 s−1
β volume expansion coefficient, K−1
θ dimensionless temperature
ν kinematic viscosity, m2 s−1
ρ density, kg m−3
ψ dimensionless streamfunction

Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of the enclosure with the concave/convex walls involving (a-b) differential heating
and (c-d) Rayleigh-Benard heating.
of the momentum equation. The relationship between the variation in the density and temperature is given by
the Boussinesq approximation and hence, the temperature and flow fields are coupled. The fluid is assumed to
be incompressible and Newtonian. The flow field is assumed to be steady state and laminar. The no slip
boundary condition is assumed at the solid boundaries. The governing equations for the steady two-dimensional
natural convection flow in terms of conservation of mass, momentum and energy may be written as the
following dimensionless forms [continuity: Eq. (1), momentum balance: Eq. (2) and (3) and energy balance: Eq.
(4)]:
∂U ∂V
+ =0 (1)
∂X ∂Y
∂U ∂U ∂P  ∂ 2U ∂ 2U 
U +V =− + Pr  2 + 2  (2)
∂X ∂Y ∂X  ∂X ∂Y 

1023
 ∂V ∂V ∂P  ∂ 2V ∂ 2V 
U +V =− + Pr  2 + 2  + RaPrθ (3)
∂X ∂Y ∂Y  ∂X ∂Y 
∂θ ∂θ ∂ 2θ ∂ 2θ
U +V = + (4)
∂X ∂Y ∂X 2 ∂Y 2
with following dimensionless variables or numbers:

x y uL vL T − Th
X= , Y= , U= , V= , θ= ,
L L α α Th − Tc
pL2 υ gβ (Th -Tc )L3 Pr
P = , Pr = , Ra = (5)
ρα 2 α υ2
and the governing equations [Eqs. (2)-(4)] are subjected to the following boundary conditions;
(a) Differential Heating
∂θ
U = V = 0, = 0, for Y = 0, 0 ≤ X ≤ 1 (Bottom wall)
∂Y
∂θ
U = V = 0, = 0, for Y = 1, 0 ≤ X ≤ 1 (Top wall)
∂Y
U = V = 0, θ = 1, for X = aY 2 + bY + c (Left wall)
U = V = 0, θ = 0, for X = a 'Y 2 + b'Y + c' (Right wall) (6)
(b) Rayleigh-Benard Heating
U = V = 0, θ = 1, for Y = aX 2 + bX + c (Bottom wall)
U = V = 0, θ = 0, for Y = a ' X + b' X + c' (Top wall)
2

∂θ
U = V = 0, = 0, for X = 0, 0 ≤ Y ≤ 1 (Left wall)
∂Y
∂θ
U = V = 0, = 0, for X = 1, 0 ≤ Y ≤ 1 (Right wall) (7 )
∂Y
Here, a, b, c, a’, b’ and c’ are dimensionless numbers used in the quadratic equation of the curved walls [5].
Galerkin finite element method [6] is used to solve the momentum and energy balance equations [Eqs. (2)-(4)]
and the detailed solution procedure is given in an earlier work [7].

2.2 Streamfunction, Nusselt number, heatfunction and entropy generation

The relationship between streamfunction (ψ) and velocity components for two dimensional flows yield a single
equation
∂ 2ψ ∂ 2ψ ∂U ∂V
+ = − (8)
∂X 2 ∂Y 2 ∂Y ∂X
where positive sign of ψ denotes anticlockwise circulation and clockwise circulation is represented by negative
sign of ψ. The no-slip condition is valid at all solid boundaries as there is no cross flow. Equation (8) has been
solved by finite element method [6] as discussed in an earlier work [7]. The heat transfer rate in terms of the
local Nusselt number (Nu) is defined as:
 ∂θ ∂θ 
NuS = −n ⋅ δS  eX + eY  (9)
 ∂X ∂Y 
Where, n denotes the normal vector drawn in the outward direction from a plane. In the above equation, δ s of a
surface is either positive or negative, which is dependent on the direction of the unit outward normal vector and
direction of the heat flux. It may be noted that, the value of δ s for a surface is −1, if the direction of the heat flux
and direction of the unit outward normal are opposite. Similarly, δ s for a surface is considered as +1, if the heat
flux and unit outward normal vectors are in the same direction. The expressions of the local Nusselt numbers
can be derived by substituting the expressions of n and δ s for the curved walls involving both the heating
strategies. The normal derivative is evaluated by the bi-quadratic basis set based on the finite element method
[6]. The average Nusselt numbers at the curved walls can be calculated by integrating the local Nusselt numbers
along the as follows walls are:
l
Nu s = ∫ s Nus ds (10)
0

where ds denotes the elemental length and l s denotes total length along the curved wall. In a natural convection
system, the associated irreversibilities are due to heat transfer and fluid friction. According to local
thermodynamic equilibrium of linear transport theory [8], the dimensionless total local entropy generation for a
two-dimensional heat and fluid flow in Cartesian coordinates in explicit form may be given as:

1024
  ∂θ 2  ∂θ 2     ∂U 2  ∂V 2   ∂U ∂V 2 
Stotal =   +   + φ 2   +  + +   (11)
 ∂X   ∂Y      ∂X   ∂Y    ∂Y ∂X  

The first term on the right hand side (square bracketed) represents the local entropy generation due to heat
transfer (S Ө ). The second term on the right hand side (square bracketed) represents the local entropy generation
due to fluid friction (S ψ ). In the above equation, ϕ is called the irreversibility distribution ratio defined as
follows:
µT0  α 
2

φ=   (12)
k  L∆T 
The value of ϕ is considered as 10-4 as reported in the literature [9]. Based on velocity and temperature fields at
each node, the known temperature and velocity fields are incorporated in the derivative terms of the expression
for entropy generation. The derivatives terms in the entropy generation expression are calculated using the
elemental basis set which is based on the finite element method [5,6]. After the derivative calculation, the total
entropy generation due to natural convection flow (S total ) is given by the summation of total entropy generation
due to heat transfer (S θ,total ) and fluid friction (S ψ,total ). After the derivative calculation, S total is obtained via
integrating the local entropy generation rates over the considered domain and the detailed explanation is
mentioned elsewhere [5]. To study the relative dominance of heat transfer and fluid friction irreversibility, a
dimensionless parameter, Bejan number (Be av ) is used in the current work. The average Bejan number is
defined as follows,
Sθ ,total S
Beav = = θ ,total (13)
Sθ ,total + Sψ ,total Stotal

Therefore, Be av > 0.5 implies dominance of heat transfer irreversibility and Be av < 0.5 implies dominance of
fluid friction irreversibility.

3. Results and discussion

The numerical simulations are carried out for a range of the Rayleigh numbers (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 105) for Prandtl
number, Pr = 0.7 (air). The results are presented in terms of the spatial distribution of the temperature (θ),
entropy generation due to heat transfer (S θ ), streamlines (ψ) and entropy generation due to fluid friction (S ψ ).
Also, the influence of Ra on the total entropy generation (S total ), average Bejan number (Be av ) and average heat
transfer rates of the cold walls (����� or �����) is presented for all the cases and both the heating strategies. Three
cases based on less (case 1), moderate (case 2) and high (case 3) concavity or convexity are considered for the
study.

3.1 Isotherms, streamlines and entropy generation maps for the differential heating

The figures for low Ra are not presented to maintain the brevity of the manuscript. At the low Ra, the
isotherms are smooth and monotonic for all the concave cases with the differential heating. The isotherms for
the case 3 (concave) are significantly compressed at the middle portions of the side walls. The entropy
generation due to heat transfer (S θ ) was almost similar throughout the cavity for the cases 1 and 2, whereas, the
heat transfer irreversibility was significant t the middle portions of the side walls for the case 3. The maximum
magnitudes of S θ (S θ,max ) is observed at the top portion of the right and bottom portion of the left wall for the
cases 1 and 2, whereas, that is observed at the middle portions of the side walls for the case 3. The single
streamlines are seen in the cavity for all the concave cases. The fluid from the bottom portion of the left wall
moves upward and that further falls down to make clockwise fluid circulation cells for all the cases. In the case
3, the streamlines are segregated at the throat based on the presence of the highly concave side walls. The
magnitudes of S ψ,max is observed at the middle portions of the side walls for all the cases.

Fig. 2(a-c) illustrates the isotherms (θ), entropy generation due to heat transfer (S θ ), streamlines (ψ) and
entropy generation due to fluid friction (S ψ ) at Pr = 0.7 and Ra = 105. The isotherms are strongly compressed
towards major portions of left and right walls for all the cases. This results in larger entropy generation due to
heat transfer irreversibility at those regions. Entropy generation due to heat transfer is significant at the lower
half of left wall and upper half of right wall as seen from dense S ψ contours in those regions for the cases 1 and
2. In contrast, due to very high wall curvature in the case 3, isotherms are highly compressed at the throat
depicting high entropy generation due to heat transfer at the throat region. However, S θ,max is seen near the
bottom portion of left wall and top portion of right wall for all the cases Thermal mixing is larger at the core of
the cavity mainly for cases 1 and 2 due to high convective effects. Thus, isotherms are highly distorted at the

1025
core for cases 1 and 2. The distorted isotherms at the core lead to very less thermal gradients and that results in
insignificant S θ in the cases 1 and 2. In contrast, due to larger temperature gradient at the core, heat transfer
irreversibility is significant at the core for the case 3.

Fig. 2: Isotherms (Ө), entropy generation due to heat transfer (S Ө ), streamlines (ψ) and entropy generation due
to fluid friction (S ψ ) at Pr = 0.7 and Ra = 105 for the concave cases [(a) case 1, (b) case 2 and (c) case 3] with
the differential heating.

The magnitude of streamfunction is found to be significantly larger and streamline cells take shape of
enclosure for all the cases as seen from the third column of Fig. 2(a-c). The streamlines adjacent to the boundary
walls take the shape of the enclosure and streamlines near the core are found to be segregated due to high wall
curvature in the case 3. Entropy generation is significant along the left and right walls and S ψ,max is found to
occur at the middle portions of side walls in all the cases. Significant amount of entropy generation due to fluid
friction is also observed at the top and bottom walls for all the cases. Overall, the entropy generation due to fluid
friction dominates the entropy generation due to heat transfer for the cases 1 and 2 which is in contrast to the
case 3 where the heat transfer irreversibility dominates over the fluid friction irreversibility.

Fig. 3(a-c) presents the distributions of the isotherms, streamlines and entropy generation maps for the
differential heating of the enclosure with the convex side walls at Pr=0.7 and Ra=105. The isotherms are
strongly compressed towards almost entire left and right walls for all the cases due to very high momentum
diffusivity. As a result, both left and right walls act as active regions for entropy generation due to heat transfer
in all the cases. The maximum magnitudes of S θ are found at the top right corner and bottom left corner of the
enclosure for all the cases due to the high temperature gradient based on densely clustered isotherms at those
regions for all the cases. Due to the larger convective effect in the case 3, the isotherms are largely compressed
towards the bottom left corner and top right corner. As a result, the highest value of S θ,max is observed for the
case 3. The thermal mixing is found to be enhanced at the core for all the cases and thus, the isotherms are
highly distorted. Hence, S θ is negligible at the core and at the horizontal walls based on very less temperature
gradients at those regions in all the cases. Due to the presence of the uniform temperature zone at the core in all
the cases, the temperature gradient is negligible at the core. Consequently, S θ is very less at the core for all the
cases. S θ,max is significantly larger for the convex cases than those of corresponding concave cases. On the other
hand, S θ at the interior region of the cavity is larger in the concave cases compared to that in convex cases [Figs.
2(a-c) and 3(a-c)].

1026
 Fig. 3: Isotherms (Ө), entropy generation due to heat transfer (S Ө ), streamlines (ψ) and entropy generation due
to fluid friction (S ψ ) at Pr = 0.7 and Ra = 105 for the convex case [(a) case 1, (b) case 2 and (c) case 3] with the
differential heating.

The single streamline cell span the entire enclosure and that attain the shape of the cavity based on enhanced
convection due to higher momentum diffusivity and higher available area in the convex cases [see Fig. 3(a-c)].
The active zones of frictional irreversibilities are found near all four walls due to the effect of strong fluid flow
cells resulting in large velocity gradients. The maximum entropy generation due to fluid friction is observed at
the upper portion of right wall and bottom portion of left wall for all the convex cases. This is due to the
horizontal elongation to fluid circulation cells in all the cases and that further results in compression of
streamline cells towards the side walls. Thus, the velocity gradients are quite high at the side walls. The
magnitude of S ψ,max is found to be larger for the case 1 compared to the cases 2 and 3. Due to the less velocity
gradients at the core, S ψ is less and that is found to be almost identical for all the convex cases. It may be noted
that, due to comparatively lesser velocity gradients, S ψ,max for the cases 1 and 2 (convex) are lesser than those of
the corresponding concave cases [see Figs. 2(a-b) and 3(a-b)]. On the other hand, the magnitudes of S ψ are
larger for the case 3 (convex) than those for the case 3 (concave) due to high convective effect for the case 3 of
the convex cavity [see Figs. 2(c) and 3(c)]. It may be noted that, S ψ at the core is smaller for all convex cases
compared that for the concave cases [see Figs. 2(a-c) and 3(a-c)]. Similar to the concave cases, the fluid friction
irreversibility dominates over the heat transfer irreversibility for the cases 1 and 2 (convex) which is in contrast
to the case 3 of the convex cases.

3.2 Isotherms, streamlines and entropy generation maps for the Rayleigh-Benard heating

During the Rayleigh-Benard heating, the isotherms are parallel to the top and bottom walls at the low Ra
[Figure not shown], whereas, they are significantly distorted within the cavity for all the concave cases [see Fig.
4(a-c)]. Various zones of the compressed isotherms are seen at the top and bottom walls for the cases 1 and 2. It
may be noted that, the isotherms are highly compressed at the left and right portions of the horizontal walls and
central portion of the cavity for the cases 1 and 2. In the case 3, the isotherms are highly compressed at the
middle portions of the top and bottom walls. It may be noted that, S θ,max is observed at the central portion of the
cavity for the cases 1 and 2 whereas, S θ,max for the case 3 is seen at the middle portions of the top and bottom
walls. In addition to the central portion, the entropy prone regions are also seen at the left and right portions of
the top and bottom walls for the cases 1 and 2. Based on the presence of the lesser temperature gradients, S θ at
the left and right halves of the cavity are found to be significantly lesser for all the cases. The magnitude of

1027
S θ,max is the largest for the case 3 followed by the cases 1 and 2. The comparison of the Rayleigh-Benard
heating with the differential heating depicts that, S θ,max is larger for the differential heating for all the cases. It
may be noted that, the magnitudes of S θ along the solid walls are larger for the differential heating case
whereas, the magnitudes of S θ at the core are larger for the Rayleigh-Benard heating involving all the concave
cases [see Figs. 2(a-c) and 4(a-c)].

Fig. 4: Isotherms (Ө), entropy generation due to heat transfer (S Ө ), streamlines (ψ) and entropy generation due
to fluid friction (S ψ ) at Pr = 0.7 and Ra = 105 for the concave case [(a) case 1, (b) case 2 and (c) case 3] with the
Rayleigh-Benard heating.

Based on the presence of the concave top and bottom walls, the temperature gradients between the hot and
cold walls are largest at the middle portion of the cavity for all the concave cases. Thus, fluid moves upward
from the middle portion of the cavity and further moves towards the side walls. Thereafter, fluid falls to the
bottom walls along the side walls forming a pair of anticlockwise and clockwise streamline cells at the left and
right halves at the bottom portion, respectively. Further, at the top half of the cavity, fluid moves with the
inertia force towards the side walls along the bottom half fluid circulation cells. Further, fluid moves upward
along the top portions of the side walls and falls down forming a pair of clockwise and anticlockwise streamline
cells at the left and right portions of the top half, respectively for all the cases. The velocity gradients are found
to be significant along all the solid walls for all the cases. However, S ψ,max is observed near the left and right
portions of the horizontal walls for all the cases. In addition, S ψ is also large near the top and bottom portions of
the side walls for all the cases. Based on the presence of the intense streamline cells for the case 2, S ψ,max is
largest for the case 2 followed by the case 1. However, due to significantly lesser velocity gradients, S ψ,max is
significantly lesser for the case 3. At the core, the magnitudes of S ψ are significantly smaller than those near the
walls for all the cases. The magnitude of S ψ at the middle portion is largest for the case 1 followed by the cases
2 and 3. The comparison of the differential and Rayleigh-Benard heating depicts that, S ψ along the solid walls
are larger for the differential heating involving all the concave cases [Figs. 2(a-c) and 4(a-c)]. Note that, S ψ at
the core is larger with the Rayleigh-Benard heating involving the cases 1 and 2, whereas S ψ at the core is larger
with the differential heating involving the case 3.

In contrast to the concave cases, the temperature gradients between the top and bottom walls are larger at the
left and right portions of the cavity in the convex cases [Fig 5(a-c)]. It may be noted that, the isotherms are
highly distorted at the top and bottom halves of the cavity for all the convex cases. The isotherms are highly

1028
compressed at the middle portions of the convex walls and at the middle portion (along the mid-horizontal axis
of the cavity) for all the cases. The plume shaped isotherms are seen at the top and bottom halves of the cavity
for all the cases. Based on the compressed isotherms, the temperature gradients are large at the middle portions
of the convex walls and near the left and right portions at the core for all the cases. Thus, S θ is large at the
middle portions of the convex walls and at the left and right portions of the central core (along the mid-
horizontal axis of the cavity) for all the cases. However, S θ,max is observed at the middle portions of the convex
walls for the case 1 and at the left and right portions of the central core (along the mid-horizontal axis of the
cavity) for the cases 2 and 3. Overall, S θ,max is almost similar for all the cases and that is slightly larger for the
case 1. The lesser temperature gradients exist at the top and bottom halves of the cavity for all the cases. Thus,
S θ near the top and bottom halves of the cavity are significantly lesser for all the convex cases. It may be noted
that, the magnitudes of S θ for the convex cases are lesser compared to the concave cases with the Rayleigh-
Benard heating as seen from Figs. 4(a-c) and 5(a-c). In addition, the comparison with the differential heating of
the convex cavity depicts that, S θ along the walls are significantly larger for the differential heating compared to
the Rayleigh-Benard heating involving all the convex cases. In addition, S θ at the core is slightly larger for the
differential heating compared to the Rayleigh-Benard heating involving all the convex cases.

Fig. 5: Isotherms (Ө), entropy generation due to heat transfer (S Ө ), streamlines (ψ) and entropy generation due
to fluid friction (S ψ ) at Pr = 0.7 and Ra = 105 for the convex case [(a) case 1, (b) case 2 and (c) case 3] with the
Rayleigh-Benard heating.

Based on the presence of the larger temperature gradient at the left and right portions of the cavity, fluid
rises from the left and right portions of the bottom wall for all the cases [Fig. 5(a-c)]. Further, fluid moves
toward the central axis and falls down forming a pair of clockwise and anticlockwise streamline cells at the left
and right portions of the bottom half, respectively for all the cases. At the top half, fluid is drawn with the
inertial force towards at the central portion and then towards the top wall of the cavity, forming a pair of
anticlockwise and clockwise streamline cells at the left and right portions of the top half, respectively for all the
cases. The velocity gradients are larger at various zones along the solid walls for all the cases. Note that, S ψ is
large at the left and right portions of the convex walls and at the top and bottom portions of the side walls for all
the cases. However, S ψ is maximum near the left and right portions of the convex walls for all the cases. At the

1029
core region of the cavity, S ψ is quite lesser for all the cases. It may also be noted that, S ψ along the solid walls
are larger for the convex cases compared to the concave cases. At the core, S ψ for the concave and convex cases
are similar for the lesser curvatures (cases 1 and 2) with the Rayleigh-Benard heating [Figs. 4(a-b) and 5(a-b)].
At the high wall curvature (case 3), S ψ is larger for the convex case compared to the concave case [Figs. 4(c)
and 5(c)]. Similar to the concave cases, S ψ along the walls are larger for the differential heating compared to the
Rayleigh-Benard heating for all the cases [Figs. 3(a-c) and 5(a-c)]. At the core of the cavity, S ψ is lesser for the
differential heating involving all the cases [Figs. 3(a-c) and 5(a-c)].

Fig. 6: Variation of total entropy generation (S total ), average Bejan number (Be av ) and average Nusselt number
(����� or �����) of the cold wall with Rayleigh number for (a) differential and (b) Rayleigh-Benard heating [(- - - -
): case 1, (— — —): case 2 and (———): case 3].

3.3 Average heat transfer rate vs total entropy generation

Fig. 6(a) represents the distributions of S total , Be av and ����� for Pr=0.7 for the concave and convex cases with
the differential heating. As Ra increases from 103 to 105, S total increases for the concave and convex cases and
the largest value of S total is observed for Ra=105. The rate of increase of S total at the low Ra is significantly lesser
compared to the high Ra for all the concave and convex cases. At the low Ra, the minimum S total is observed for
the cases 1-2 (concave) and cases 1-3 (convex). At the high Ra, the minimum S total is observed for the case 3
with the high wall concavity. The distribution of the average Bejan number (Be av ) indicates the dominance of
entropy generation due to heat transfer or fluid friction irreversibilities during natural convection. As mentioned
earlier, Be av <0.5 indicates entropy generation is mainly due to heat transfer and Be av >0.5 indicates entropy
generation is mainly due to fluid friction. A generalized decreasing trend in Be av with Ra may be observed for
both the concave and convex cases (see the middle panel plots of Fig. 6(a)). The maximum value for Be av
(Be av =1 for concave and Be av =0.9 for the convex cases) is observed at the low Ra, which signifies that the
entropy generation in the cavity is mainly due to heat transfer irreversibility. It may be noted that, the rate of
decrease of Be av is larger for the convex cases compared to the concave case. In addition, at the specific Ra, the
magnitudes of Be av are larger for the concave cases compared to the convex cases. Overall, Be av is largest for
the concave case with the largest wall curvature (case 3). The average Nusselt number of the right wall (�����)
also increases with Ra throughout the range of Ra for both the concave and convex cases except for the highly
concave case (case 3). In the case 3, ����� is maintained constant with Ra<104 and further, that increases till
Ra=105. Overall, at low Ra, ����� is largest for the case 3 with the high wall concavity. At the high Ra, ����� is
largest for the case 1 with the less wall concavity and convexity.

Fig. 6(b) illustrates the trends of S total , Be av and ����� at Pr=0.7 for the concave and convex cases with the
Rayleigh-Benard heating. As Ra increases from 103 to 3×104, S total remain constant for the cases 1 and 2 of the
concave cases followed by an increasing trend till Ra=105. On the other hand, S total remain constant throughout

1030
the range of Ra in the case 3. In the convex cases, S total remain constant as Ra increases from 103 to 104
followed by a sharp increasing trend till Ra=105. At the low and moderate Ra, the minimum S total is observed for
all the convex cases. At the high Ra, the minimum S total is observed for the case 3 with the high wall concavity.
The distribution of the average Bejan number (Be av ) shows that, Be av remains constant (Be av =1) till Ra=3×104
and Ra=104 for the concave and convex cases, respectively followed by a sharp decreasing trend till Ra=105. At
low Ra, Be av is almost identical for all the concave and convex cases. At higher range of Ra, the magnitude of
Be av is largest for the case 3 of the concave case. The qualitative trends of average Nusselt number of the top
wall (�����) and S total are almost similar for all the concave and convex cases. Overall, ����� is largest for the case
3 with the high wall concavity.

4 Conclusion

The higher heat transfer rates (����� or �����) with lower values of S total or higher values of Be av may be
maintained for the efficient heat transfer processing. At the low Ra, the total entropy generation, average Bejan
number and average heat transfer rates for the differential and Rayleigh-Benard heating are almost similar
involving the enclosures with the concave walls. Thus, either one of the heating strategy may be chosen as the
optimal criteria for the concave cases with the less Ra. At the high Ra, the minimum entropy generation rate
with the larger average Bejan number is observed for the Rayleigh-Benard heating strategy involving the
concave walls. Thus, eventhough the heat transfer rate is lesser, the Rayleigh-Benard heating may be
recommended for natural convection in concave domain at the high Ra based on significantly lesser entropy
generation rate. In the cavities with the convex walls, the Rayleigh-Benard heating is more efficient at the low
Ra whereas, the differential heating strategy is more efficient at the high Ra. Overall, the heat and fluid flow
characteristics are studied successfully for the concave and convex walled cavities subjected to the differential
and Rayleigh-Benard heating. In addition, the optimal cases with the lesser energy wastage (entropy generation)
and larger heating effect are identified for various wall curvatures and Rayleigh numbers for the natural
convection of air.

References

[1] S. Mahmud, A.K.M.S. Islam, Laminar free convection and entropy generation inside an inclined wavy
enclosure, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 42 (2003) 1003–1012.
[2] S. Mahmud, R.A. Fraser, Free convection and entropy generation inside a vertical inphase wavy cavity, Int.
Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 31 (2004) 455-466.
[3] B.M. Ziapour, R. Dehnavi, Finite-volume method for solving the entropy generation due to air natural
convection in C-shaped enclosure with circular corners, Math. Comput. Modell. 54 (2011) 1286–1299.
[4] H.F. Oztop, K. Al-Salem, A review on entropy generation in natural and mixed convection heat transfer for
energy systems, Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 16 (2012) 911–920.
[5] P. Biswal, T. Basak, Entropy generation based approach on natural convection in enclosures with
concave/convex side walls. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 82 (2015) 213–235.
[6] J.N. Reddy, An Introduction to the Finite Element Method, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993.
[7] T. Basak, S. Roy, Role of Bejan’s heatlines in heat flow visualization and optimal thermal mixing for
differentially heated square enclosures, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 51 (2008) 3486–3503.
[8] A. Bejan, Entropy Generation Minimization, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1996.
[9] G.G. Ilis, M. Mobedi, B. Sunden, Effect of aspect ratio on entropy generation in a rectangular cavity with
differentially heated vertical walls, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 35 (2008) 696–703.

1031
 ICAER-2015

Effects of Partial Addition of Butanol in a Rubberseed Oil Methyl

Ester Diesel Blend
V.V.Patila, R.S. Patilb
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa campus, Zuarinagar 403726, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa campus, Zuarinagar 403726, India

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to obtain the performance and emission characteristics of rubber seed oil methyl ester (ROME)
- diesel blend with partial addition of butanol [ROME (40%) + Diesel (40%) + Butanol (20%)] in a single cylinder four
stroke diesel engine at constant speed. Performance and emission characteristics of butanol added in ROME-diesel blend
were compared with the characteristics of diesel-butanol blend [Diesel (80%) + Butanol (20%)] and diesel (100%), by
varying the load on engine [no load (0%) to full load condition (100%)] for the compression ratio at 18:1. It is observed that,
performance characteristics of butanol added in ROME-diesel blend like mechanical efficiency and brake thermal efficiency
increases with increasing the load percentage. Volumetric efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption decreases with
increasing load. The exhaust gas temperature also increases with increasing load percentage. It is also observed that, carbon
monoxide emissions were less for all the selected oils. Carbon dioxide emissions were increased with increase in load. NOx
emissions obtained using butanol added in ROME-diesel blend was found to be less than diesel-butanol blend and diesel.

Keywords: Butanol; Emission; Characteristics; Load; Performance Characteristics; R u b b e r Seed Oil Methyl Ester;

1. Introduction

Rubber seed oil methyl esters (ROME) have comparable properties with diesel. Performance and emission
characteristics of duel fuel engine were compared with diesel engine at different load conditions [1]. Pure rubber
seed oil, diesel, and biodiesel were used as a fuel in compression ignition engine, the performance and emission
characteristics of ROME were analyzed [2]. A single cylinder constant speed direct injection diesel engine was
used to analyze the emission characteristics of jatropha and rubber seed oil blends and diesel engine for various
fuel injection pressures (210 bar, 220 bar and, 240 bar) at no load to full load condition [3]. Pollutant emissions
and combustion noise of diesel, biodiesel, and diesel-butanol blend by using turbocharged diesel engine, and
observed that the smoke opacity decreases significantly with n-butanol blend [4]. Combustion and exhaust
emission characteristics were reported for cottonseed oil methyl ester blend with n-butanol (20% by volume)
and cottonseed oil methyl ester blend with diethyl ether (20% by volume); these blends were combusted in a
single cylinder four stroke high speed direct injection diesel engine [5]. Diesel-microalgae biodiesel-butanol
blends combusted in a direct injection diesel engine shows slight reduction in torque, brake power, and emission
values [6]. Performance characteristics of n-butanol diesel blend combusted in a turbo-charged compression
ignition engine. Presents slight decrease in torque, brake power with increase in speed [7].
Literature review reveals that, rubber seed oil has comparable properties with diesel. Literature review also
reveals the effects of adding butanol in the blends of biodiesel. It also reveals that the effects of adding butanol
in rubber seed oil have not reported. It reveals that blends of rubber seed oil formed with diesel [ROME (40%) +
diesel (40%)] were not tested by adding n-butanol (20%) in their blends. Hence present work focus to study the
effects of adding butanol in the blend of esterified rubber seed oil and to compare its performance and emission
characteristics with the characteristics of diesel-butanol blend [diesel (80%) + butanol (20%)] and only diesel
(100%).

Nomenclature

CO2 Carbon dioxide

NOx Nitrogen Oxide
ROME Rubber seed oil methyl ester
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-832-2580-209, E-mail address: ranjitp@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in

1032
2. Experimental Investigations

2.1 Experimental set up

a b

Fig. 1. (a) experimental set up; (b) schematic diagram of setup.

The experimental set up consist of single cylinder, four stroke variable compression ratio diesel engine as
shown in Fig.1 (a) and schematic diagram of set up as shown in Fig. 1 (b). The variable compression ratio diesel
engine (VCR) connected to water cooled eddy current dynamometer for no load condition (0%) to full load
condition (100%). The compression ratio changed without altering the combustion chamber geometry by
specially designed tilting cylinder block arrangement. Experiment setup is provided with essential instruments
for combustion pressure and TDC pulse crank-angle measurements. Experimental arrangement is also prepared
for interfacing parameters measurement like air flow, fuel flow, temperatures, and load to computer. Experiment
set up has consist of mild steel fabricated air box with orifice meter and manometer, fuel tank with glass fuel
metering column, DP type fuel flow transmitter, pressure air flow transmitter, digital load indicator, strain gauge
type load cell sensor, and water rotameters. These enable the experimental setup to study different performance
and combustion characteristics. Lab view based engine performance analysis software package “Engine soft
LV” was used for performance analysis. Table 1 shows specifications of diesel engine setup. Accuracy for the
different instruments used was known and it was used further to predict the uncertainties. Kline and McClintok
method has been used to predict the uncertainties in the measurement of different powers or efficiencies. Root
mean square value of uncertainty was not more than ± 5% for the different measurements. AVL DIGAS 444
with diesel application probe type of exhaust gas analyzer used for this experimental emission investigation.
Presented values of pollutants are based on dry basis.

Table 1. Diesel engine specifications.

Sr. No. Engine part Specifications
01 Make and code Kirloskar (234)
02 Number of cylinder 01
03 Number of stroke 04
04 Bore 87.5 mm
05 Stroke 110 mm
06 Rated power 4.6 kW at 1500 rpm
07 Combustion chamber Tilting cylinder block

1033
 Table 2. Meaning of symbols.
Symbols Meaning
F1 Fuel flow
F2 Air flow rate
F3 Flow rate of water to jackets
F4 Flow rate of water to calorimeter
T1 Temperature of jacket inlet water
T2 Temperature of jacket outlet water
T3 Temperature of inlet water of calorimeter
T4 Temperature of outlet water of calorimeter
T5 Temperature of exhaust gas before calorimeter
T6 Temperature of exhaust gas after calorimeter
E VCR engine
N Speed of engine
D Eddy current dynamometer

Table 3. Properties of fuel.

Sr. No. Name of blend Density of blend Calorific value of
(kg/m3) blend (kJ/kg)
01 Rubberseed oil methyl ester (40%) + 838.45 39850
Diesel (40%) + Butanol (20%)
02 Diesel (80%) + Butanol (20%) 814.18 34500
03 Diesel 829 42000

2.2 Experimental methodology

The Performance and emission analysis were carried out by using ROME (40%) + diesel (40%) + butanol
(20%) blend. Performance and emission characteristics of butanol added ROME-diesel blend were compared
with the characteristics of diesel-butanol blend and diesel by varying the load on engine from no load condition
(0%) to full load condition (100%) at compression ratio 18:1. Experiments were conducted by using single
cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio diesel engine at constant speed without any modifications in
engine. For every operating conditions different performance characteristics (like brake power, indicated power,
brake thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption) and emission characteristics
(like exhaust gas temperature, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and NOx) were investigated.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Performance characteristics of rubber seed oil methyl ester butanol diesel blend, butanol-diesel blend,
and diesel

Fig. 2(a) shows, the variation of mechanical efficiency with load percentage at constant speed engine.
Mechanical efficiency is the ratio of brake power to indicated power. Performance characteristics like brake
power for ROME-butanol-diesel, butanol-diesel and, diesel were almost same for compression ratio 18:1 and
these characteristics increases with increase in load on the engine. Brake power is proportional to the torque and
speed of engine. Torque characteristics of ROME-butanol-diesel blend increases from 0.4 Nm to 29.15 Nm,
diesel-butanol blend from 0.4 Nm to 29.25 Nm, and for diesel from 0.43 Nm to 29.39 Nm as the load increases
hence brake power increases with increase in load. Also brake power is the function of brake mean effective
pressure if stroke length, area of piston, revolutions per minute were maintained constant during the experiment.
As shown in Fig. 3(a), for three different oils, brake mean effective pressure values were almost same at
particular load condition; hence brake power values were also same at that load. Variation of indicated power
with load was showing same trend as like brake power. Hence mechanical efficiency of each fuel was increasing
with increase in load percentage from no load condition to full load condition and it was almost same for all
fuels.

1034
 a b
ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20 ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20
Diesel80 + Butanol 20 Diesel80 + Butanol 20
Diesel 40 Diesel
60

Brake Thermal Efficiency (%)

35

Mechanical Efficiency (%) 50

30

40 25

30 20

15
20
10

10
5

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 2. (a) variation of mechanical efficiencywith load; (b) variation of brake thermal efficiencywith load.

Variation of brake thermal efficiency with load on the engine for ROME-butanol-diesel, butanol-diesel, and
diesel is as shown in Fig. 2(b). Brake thermal efficiency of each fuel was increasing with increase in load
because for given value of calorific value, the brake thermal efficiency is the function of ratio of brake power
and mass flow rate of fuel and this ratio was increasing with increase in load. It is also observed that for a given
load, brake thermal efficiency for diesel-butanol blend was more than ROME-butanol-diesel blend because
mass flow rate of diesel-butanol blend was smaller than ROME-butanol-diesel blend while the ratio of brake
power to calorific value of fuel was almost same for both the fuels. Fig. 3(b) shows the variation of volumetric
efficiency with load. The volumetric efficiency decreases at higher load conditions and volumetric efficiency of
diesel is more than diesel-butanol and ROME-butanol-diesel blend. The volumetric efficiency of diesel-butanol
is slightly more than ROME-butanol-diesel blend. Average exhaust gas temperature from no load to full load
condition for diesel remains low which is shown in Fig. 5(a). Hence cylinder wall temperature also will be low
than while using ROME-butanol-diesel blend, and butanol-diesel blend. Hence when fresh air adds to the
cylinder, its density remains high and hence volumetric efficiency remains higher than ROME- butanol-diesel
and butanol-diesel blends. With increase in load percentage volumetric efficiency decreases, this is because of
increase in generation of gases and subsequently amount of gases left back in the cylinder of the previous cycles
increases which do not allow sucking more fresh air inside the cylinder. Hence volumetric efficiency decreases
with increasing load percentage.

a b
ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20 ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20
Diesel80 + Butanol 20 82.0
Diesel80 + Butanol 20
600000 Diesel 81.5 Diesel
Brake Mean Effective Pressure (N/m2)

81.0
80.5
Volumetric Efficiency (%)

500000
80.0
79.5
400000
79.0
78.5
300000
78.0
77.5
200000
77.0
76.5
100000
76.0
75.5
0 75.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 3. (a) variation of brake mean effective pressure with load; (b) variation of volumetric efficiencywith load.

1035
 a b
ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20 ROME40+Butanol20+Diesel40

Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (kg/kWh)

7 Diesel80 + Butanol 20 Butanol+Diesel
Diesel 80 Diesel
6
70
90%

Cylinder Pressure (bar)

5
60
50%
50%
4 50
90%
3 40 10%
30 EOC
2
EOC
20 SOC
1
10
0 SOC TDC
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0
-350 -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Load (%)
Crank angle

Fig. 4. (a) variation of brake specific fuel consumption with load; (b) comparison of cylinder pressures

The brake specific fuel consumption variation with load for ROME-butanol-diesel, butanol-diesel, and
diesel was shown in Fig. 4(a). Brake specific fuel consumption is related with the ratio of fuel flow rate (kg/hr)
to the brake power. The brake specific fuel consumption of diesel is less than ROME–butanol-diesel blend and
butanol-diesel blend. It is observed that brake specific fuel consumption was more at lower load conditions,
because brake power generated was smaller at no load condition, but after increase in load from 25% to full load
(100%) condition, increase in brake power takes place, this increment was comparatively very larger than
increment took place in amount of mass of fuel consumed per unit hour. Mass of different fuel consumed per
unit hour was in the range of 0.35 kg/h to 1.46 kg/h from no load to full load condition. This range is
comparatively smaller than range of brake power generated from no load to full load condition.
Fig. 4(b) shows the comparison of cylinder pressure for ROME-butanol-diesel blend, butanol-diesel blend,
and pure diesel. For all the fuels peak pressure occurs suddenly after top dead center (TDC). The peak pressure
for diesel (73 bar) was more than ROME-butanol-diesel (55bar) and butanol-diesel (53bar) blend. It is observed
that pressure in the cylinder rises rapidly after start of combustion (SOC) with movement of piston from bottom
dead center (BDC) to TDC. As shown in fig. 4(b), it is observed that for each fuel, peak pressure was generated
just after TDC because complete combustion of fuel droplets took place due to already generated high pressure
and temperature in the cylinder and due to proper mixing of fuel droplets with air due the turbulnce created
when piston moves from TDC to BDC. SOC for ROME-butanol-diesel and butanol-diesel blends occurs nearly
at 20⁰ before TDC and end of combustion (EOC) occurs at 30⁰ after TDC. SOC of ROME-butanol-diesel and
butanol-diesel occurs very close to TDC because addition of low Cetane number (25) fuel – butanol in ROME-
diesel blend and in pure diesel. This also indicates that ignition delay period was lesser for pure diesel hence
pressure generated in the cylinder was maximum (73 bar) after the combustion of pure diesel. Due to increased
ignition delay period, possibilities of knock also increases with addition of butanol. Hence looking into this
main disadvantage i.e knocking and other advantages discussed earlier, it will be worthful not to increase the
butanol percentage beyond certain limit (20%) in the pure diesel and in the ROME-diesel blend.

3.2 Emission characteristics of rubber seed oil methyl ester butanol diesel blend, butanol-diesel blend, and
diesel.

Fig. 6(a) shows the comparison of carbon dioxide emissions of ROME-butanol-diesel blend, butanol-diesel,
and diesel. It is observed that, carbon dioxide content in the exhaust gas was not more than 2.1% at full load
condition. This is being justified by percent content of carbon monoxide present in the exhaust gas shows the
complete combustion of blends in combustion process. As shown in Fig. 5(b), carbon monoxide content was
almost nil (maximum 0.05%).It clearly indicates that there was complete combustion of fuel. This is because of
lean mixture used for combustion i.e air-fuel ratio for three different fuels was calculated and found to be
around 20 at full load condition. However very small amount of carbon monoxide generation is there (upto
0.05%) which may be because of poor mixing of air and fuel, local rich fuel regions inside the cylinder.

1036
 a b
ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20 ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20
Diesel80 + Butanol 20 Diesel80 + Butanol 20
650
Diesel 0.050 Diesel

Carbon Monoxide (% by volume)

0.045

Exhaust Gas Temperature (K)

600 0.040

0.035
550
0.030

500 0.025

0.020
450
0.015

0.010
400
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 5. (a) variation of exhaust gas temperature with load; (b) variation of carbon monoxide with load.

Fig. 6(b) shows the variation of nitrogen oxide (NOX) with load on the engine. NOx emission increases with
increase in load percentage. This is because as shown in Fig. 5(a), exhaust gas temperature increases with
increase in load because of increase in fuel combusted at higher load conditions. It means that combustion
chamber temperature was more at higher load conditions. Hence more diatomic nitrogen (N2) will dissociate to
monoatomic nitrogen (N), and the more NOX will be formed. Although average temperature value inside the
cylinder over the range from no load to full load condition after diesel combustion is lower (this may be guessed
from Fig. 5(a) than other two fuels (ROME-butanol-diesel blend and butanol-diesel blend) but NOX emissions
of diesel fuel was found to be more than other two fuels as shown in Fig. 6(b). This is because Cetane number
of diesel is more than other two fuels hence after the injection of fuel, combustion of diesel starts early i.e at
lower position of piston measured with respect to top dead center during the compression stroke than other two
fuels. It means that combustion of diesel starts early than other two fuels hence reaction time for diesel was
more hence amount of diesel combusted during the compression stroke remains more than amount of other two
fuels combusted, hence NOX generation and heat loss to the walls of cylinder during the compression stroke will
be more in case of diesel combustion than other two fuels. Hence at higher loading, exhaust gas temperature for
diesel found to be lower than other two fuels as shown in Fig. 5(a). Calorific value of diesel (42 MJ/kg) is
greater than other two fuels (39.85 MJ/kg). But at the lower loading conditions as shown in Fig. 5(a), effect of
calorific value of fuel on temperature will be more rather than Cetane number because amount of fuel
combusted at lower loading conditions will be low. In the expansion stroke, temperature and pressure in the
cylinder decreases and hence a chance of formation of NOX also decreases.

a b
ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20 ROME40+Diesel40+Butanol 20
2.2
Diesel80 + Butanol 20 Diesel80 + Butanol 20
Diesel 450 Diesel
2.0
Carbon Dioxide (% by volume)

400
Nitrogen Oxide (ppm)

1.8 350

1.6 300

250
1.4

200
1.2
150

1.0
100

0.8 50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Load (%) Load (%)

Fig. 6. (a) variation of carbon dioxide with load; (b) variation of nitrogen oxide with load.

1037
 Volumetric efficiency and air fuel ratio for diesel is more than other two fuels hence subsequently NOx
generation were also more in case of diesel. Cetane number of diesel has on an average value of 50 while
butanol has 25 hence Cetane number of blended fuels (ROME-butanol-diesel blend and butanol-diesel blend)
was lesser than diesel. Hence butanol was not added more than 20% as reported in the literature otherwise
problems of knocking will increase.

4. Conclusions

The conclusions related with the characteristics of ROME-butanol-diesel blend are listed below.
 The performance characteristics of ROME-butanol-diesel blend like mechanical efficiency and brake
thermal efficiency increases as the load increases.
 The volumetric efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption decreases at higher load conditions.
 The emission characteristics like exhaust gas temperature, CO2, and NOx increases with increasing load
condition.
Conclusions regarding comparisons of characteristics of ROME-butanol-diesel with diesel-butanol and diesel
at compression ratio 18:1 are listed below.
 The mechanical efficiency of ROME-butanol-diesel, butanol-diesel, and diesel were almost same for
compression ratio 18:1.
 Brake thermal efficiency of ROME-butanol-diesel blend was less than diesel-butanol blend and diesel.
 Volumetric efficiency of diesel was more than diesel-butanol and ROME-butanol-diesel blend. The
volumetric efficiency of ROME-butanol-diesel blend was slightly less than diesel-butanol.
 Brake specific fuel consumption of ROME-butanol-diesel is more than butanol-diesel and diesel for
compression ratio 18:1
 The carbon dioxide emissions of diesel and ROME-butanol-diesel blend were almost same after 50% load
condition but were more than diesel-butanol blend.
 The average exhausts gas temperature of diesel was less than ROME-butanol-diesel blend and butanol-
diesel blend.
 NOx emissions of diesel were much higher than ROME-butanol-diesel blend and butanol-diesel blend. NOx
emissions of ROME were slightly less than butanol-diesel blend. The partial addiction of butanol in blend
reduces NOx emissions.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Indian Biodiesel Corporation, Baramati and Mrs. Supriya Bobade for the
oil preparation support.

References

[1] A. S. Ramadhas, S. Jayaraj, C. Muraleedharan, Duel fuel mode operation in diesel engine using renewable fuels: rubberseed oil and
coir-pith producer gas, Renewable Energy, 2008, pp. 2077-2083.
[2] A. S. Ramadhas, S. Jayaraj, C. Muraleedharan, Performance and emission evalution of a diesel engine fueled with methyl esters of
rubber seed oil, Renewable Energy, 2005, pp. 1789-1800.
[3] S. Mahalingam, B. R. Rameshbabu, B. Balaji, Emission analysis of di-diesel engine at different injection pressures using jatropha and
rubberseed oil blended with diesel, Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 2014, pp. 78-80.
[4] C. D. Rakopoulos, A. M. Dimaratos, E. G. Giakoumis, D. C. Rakapoulos, Study of turbocharged diesel engine operation, pollution
emissions and combustion noise radiation during starting with bio-diesel or n- butanol diesel fuel blends, Sciencedirect Applied Energy,
88, 2011, pp. 3095-3916.
[5] D. C. Rakopoulos, Combustion and emission of cottonseed oil and its bio-diesel in blends with either n-butanol or diethyl ether in
HSDI diesel engine, Sciencedirect Fuel, 105, 2013, pp. 603-613.
[6] T. Gokhan, O. Tayfun, A. Kadir, Effect of diesel-microalgae biodiesel-butanol blends on performance and emissions of diesel engine,
Sciencedirect Fuel, 132, 2014, pp. 47-52.
[7] S. Lennox, K. Lukacs, A. Torok, B. Akos, P. Antal, M. Makame, and A. Kolesnikov, Performance characteristics of n-butanol- diesel
fuel blend fired in a turbo-charged compression Ignition engine, Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 1, 2013, pp. 77-83.

1038
 ICAER 2015

Effect of particle size on the parameters of Supercapacitor

Puneet Kumara,Priyankab,Shruti Choudharyc,P.B. Karandikard
Department of Electronics and telecommunications,Army Institute of Technology,Pune,India
Email: puneetkumarait@gmail.com,bpriyanka_14437@aitpune.edu.in,cshrutichoudhary_14153@aitpune.edu.in,
a
d
pbkarandikar@gmail.com

Abstract

Energy storage is the major issue in today’s era. Recent development has shown that supercapacitors has high power density and
energy as compared to conventional capacitors. It has unlimited cycle life, on hand charging methods, quick charging times etc.
Supercapacitors has many applications including power for hybrid electric vehicles such as cars, buses, trains, cranes , elevators
and also short term energy storage. Decreasing the particle size of activated carbon and manganese dioxide with the help of ball
mill to make electrode can be one of the method to increase the flexibility of supercapacitors in terms of energy and power density.
This paper deals with varying the particle size of powder in the making of electrode and it also gives the detailed analysis of various
parameters related to supercapacitor. It presents the effect of particle size of activated carbon and manganese dioxide on the
capacitance and energy density of supercapacitor .Results shows that the particle size of electrode material are an important factor
in the capacitance value of supercapacitors.
Keywords- Supercapacitor; ball mill; particle size

1. Introduction

The energy storage is the key component in making sustainable energy systems. Energy storage technologies have the potential to
offset the problem of renewable energy source by storing the generated intermittent energy and then making it accessible upon there
requirement. The charge/discharge process in batteries is a slow process and can detoriate the chemical components inside the
battery over running life cycle. As a result, batteries have a low power density and lose their ability to retain energy throughout
their lifetime mainly due to material degradation.

The principal expectations for the performance of supercapacitor for energy storage and delivery are excellent recyclability with
cycle lives of hundreds of thousands of cycles; greater power densities of operation than those achievable with regular batteries at
the same operating voltages; and good state of charge indication during discharge and recharge [1]. Major interest has been
manifested in commercial development of energy storage devices in so-called ‘supercapacitors’ or ‘ultra-capacitors’ based on the
large double-layer capacitance achievable at high-area, carbon powder electrodes [2]. Electrochemical supercapacitors are currently
under development for applications as alternative to energy storage devices due to their higher specific power and long cycle life
compared with rechargeable batteries and higher specific energy conventional capacitors[3]. The Capacitance value of capacitor is
very important in energy storage system because it is possible to store a large amount of charge by means of electrochemical double
layer capacitor [4]. Supercapacitor is same as regular capacitor in operation, however it offers a very high capacitance in a small
package for attaining the requirement of power supplies. Capacitance, internal resistance, self-discharge, ageing, pulse current, size,
shape are some of the parameters for the selection of supercapacitor in various applications. Capacitance value of capacitor is very
important in energy storage system as amount of energy stored by capacitor is directly proportional to its capacitance value. Nature
of electrode material plays an important role in the capacitance, energy density etc. of supercapacitor. The capacitance value of
supercapacitor depends on types of carbon material and method of construction of supercapacitor [5]. Carbons chemically modified
from strong oxidation treatment represents very well defined pseudo capacitance properties due to the faradaic redox reactions of
their rich surface functionality. Good cyclability was observed in hybrid Carbon/manganese dioxide cells investigated through
techniques like alvanostatic and electrochemical impedance [6]. It has been found that aqueous metal oxide based supercapacitors
are more compatible with battery [7]. Previous research has also been done on enhanced supercapacitor performance of manganese
oxide by atomic doping [8]. The increasing worldwide interest in MnO2 for supercapacitor applications is due to Manganese
dioxide-based high-voltage aqueous supercapacitors that will ultimately serve as a safe and low-cost alternative to state-of-the-art

1039
commercial organic-based electrochemical double-layer capacitors [9]. It is also presented that electro active polymers such as
polyaniline exhibit analogous pseudocapacitative behavior [10]. Experiments involving electrodeposition of the layered manganese
oxide were conducted in a colloidal crystal template formed by self-assembly of polystyrene particles on an indium tin oxide
substrate and as a result good pseudo capacitive behavior in neutral electrolyte was observed [11]. The capacitance value of
supercapacitor depends on types of carbon material and method of construction of supercapacitor. Various kinds of activated carbon
materials are available which has different pore size, pore density and specific surface area, and are found more suitable to get
higher values of capacitor. [12]. Supercapacitors assembled with treated aluminum foil and active material containing activated
carbon/carbon nanotubes with different compositions have been studied. Galvan static cycling measurements show that when
carbon nanotubes content increases, both equivalent series resistance and specific capacitance are decreased. [13]. Research has
also been done on carbon-based nanostructured materials as electrodes in electrochemical capacitors and also distinguished the
carbon-based electrode materials according to their primary applications [14]. Porosity measurements made on activated carbon
powders and electrode provided a better understanding of the electrochemical behavior of these activated carbons.so, in this way
the PICACTIF SC carbon was found to be an interesting active material for supercapacitors, with a specific capacitance as high as
125 F/g [15]. Recent researches has also shown that the electrophoretic ally deposited thin film layer has adequate porosity with
ultrafine pores (pores with diameter ranging from 20 Å to 100 Å) that contribute to majority of number of pores (>95%) and hence
contribute to the surface area of the carbon for charge storage purposes to a maximum extent[16]. Electrode materials along with
all the other input parameters play an integral part in deciding the output parameters of the ultra-capacitor. [17]. There are various
types of supercapacitors. On the basis of construction, they can be stacked type or rolled type. However, the laboratory research can
be done with stacked type of construction as it does not require any machine equipment, so stacked type can be considered for
present research work. An aqueous type is taken for research as it is simple to construct, it has quick stabilization and construction
is also less costly [18]. Highly corrugated graphene sheets have been prepared by a rapid, scalable and low cost approach through
the thermal reduction of graphite oxide at 900 °C and it is rapidly cooled using liquid nitrogen. Various tests shows that can be a
promising alternative for next generation high performance supercapacitor [19].
Various experiments has been done on electrochemical and cycling characterizations of a supercapacitor cell using a micro porous
activated carbon as the active material and N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide ionic liquid as the
electrolyte [20]. Past research on nature of solvent shows that the optimal carbon pore size for obtaining the largest energy density,
while keeping a high power density is wide when strongly solvated cations like Li+ are used then for conventional organic
electrolytes using acetonitrile as solvent and tetra ethyl ammonium as salt cations [21]. The paper states that there will be maximum
conduction when the particle size of Vulcan and manganese dioxide is comparable, because particle size of Vulcan is much greater
than the particle size of manganese dioxide and therefore the particle do not interact with each other for proper conduction. So the
material is ball milled so that particle size is comparable. . Specifically processing of the electrode material (Carbon and Manganese
dioxide) is the main aspect. Since ball milling for processing of the material has not yet been accounted for, this experiment has
been done in that regard.

2.Input and output parameters

The specific capacitance of the capacitor is affected by many parameters such as electrode material, electrode making process,
electrolyte, current collector, terminals as shown in figure:

(a)
Terminal
connecti
ons Material
Current of
collector electrod
e
SUPER
CAPACITOR
INPUT Nature
Seperator PARAMETE Of
used
RS Electroly
te

Dimensions
Packagin
g

1040
 Capacitance
per unit area

Capacitanc
Energy
e per unit
Density SUPER gram
CAPACITOR
OUTPUT
PARAMETERS

Pulse Power
Current Density

(b)

Fig 1: (a) input parameters; (b) Output Parameters

Since there are a too many parameters to be varied in a single experiment, in this experiment focus has been on the electrode making
process, varying some of the factors. Specifically processing of the electrode material (Carbon and Manganese dioxide) is the main
aspect. Since ball milling for processing of the material has not yet been accounted for, this experiment has been done in that regard.
The factors which can be considered for analysis are:

2.1 Electrode material: Electrodes are thin coatings applied on a metallic current collector. The material which is to be used to
manufacture the electrodes must be of high conductivity, high temperature stability, and chemically stable, large surface area etc.
besides secondary considerations namely cost. Activated carbon being porous, spongy, having high surface area is generally
considered as an electrode material. Other than that the other electrode was coated with manganese dioxide because it has low
resistance besides exhibiting high pseudo capacitance.

2.2 Current Collector: The current collector material used for loading of electrode powder must be a good conductor and less porous
so that applied powder does not shed away through the pores after drying. Current collector can be of any porosity such as 400 or
6400 or 10,000 holes per square inch. A wire mesh of 6400 holes per square inch has been used which is made of stainless steel.
Aluminum metal coated with silver water can also be used as a current collector.

2.3 Shape: The shape of the electrodes has an effect on the material distribution and the resulting capacitance. In such a case square
shape is the most efficient bearing higher capacitance with same amount of electrode powder. It was decided to choose the shape
of the electrode to be a square of dimensions 225 millimeter square area.

2.4 Electrolyte: It is one of most essential components in the working of the capacitor since the energy is stored at the junction of
electrolyte and electrode. 0.6 molar potassium sulphate solution has been taken as the electrolyte.

2.5 Separator: It is used to isolate the electrodes from each other to prevent any electrical contact between them. The material used
is a polymer of 60% porosity to allow the seepage of electrolyte in to the cavity around the electrode material simultaneously
preventing leakage of the electrode material out of the separator and into the solution. The capacitor can be stacked type or rolled
type .The laboratory research can be done with stacked type of construction as it does not require machinery.

2.6 Milling: Ball mill is a process used to grind and blend materials using balls of strength higher than the material to be milled. In
the process material to be grinded is put together with balls in a cylinder which is rotated about its axis continuously using motor.
The crushed electrode material possesses increased surface area. The extent of milling can vary from a few minutes up to hours,
such as 30 hrs. tops was taken for this experiment in which both the electrode material were crushed separately even though

1041
combined material can also be milled but due to high difference in the specific densities of the material considered, they were taken
separately. The size of the balls being used can vary from few mm to cm depending upon the need. In this experiment steel balls of
size 8-12mm were used. The number of balls taken for crushing were 11, because for crushing adequate amount of volume of ball
mills is required otherwise the material will not be crushed properly. Due to variation in the input parameters, the output values also
change whether the effect is desirable or undesirable. Important output parameters which are to be considered are in the next section.

3. Experimentation and results

In this section, first thing is milling the electrode materials i.e. activated carbon and manganese dioxide. Both the materials were
milled for 10, 20, 30 hours separately because of large difference in their specific densities. Results shows that super capacitors
made from 20 hour ball milled activated carbon with manganese dioxide ball milled up to 30 hours shows appreciable change in
parameters, for capacitors made of material ball milled for more than 30 hours it went towards saturation level. So, it was decided
to consider these up to 30 hours only. Other thing that could have been done is mixing of both the materials and then used for
capacitor making but there is a huge difference in particle size of activated carbon and manganese dioxide therefore that is also
avoided. This way we get 16 combinations of activated carbon and manganese dioxide as shown in table 1.
Table 1: Various super capacitors

S No. Activated Manganese

Carbon (hrs.) Oxide (hrs.)

1. 0(uncrushed) 0(uncrushed)
2. 0(uncrushed) 10
3. 0(uncrushed) 20
4. 0(uncrushed) 30
5. 10 0(uncrushed)
6. 10 10
7. 10 20
8. 10 30
9. 20 0(uncrushed)
10. 20 10
11. 20 20
12. 20 30
13. 30 0(uncrushed)
14. 30 10
15. 30 20
16. 30 30

Now we will see all the output parameters for all the possible super capacitors made of these combinations of activated Carbon and
Manganese Oxide one by one.

3.1 Pulse current: It is the initial discharge current for 2 seconds. Super capacitor is a pulse current device and hence its pulse
current delivering capability is very important. Many researches are focusing on capacitance and ESR however it is more logical to
consider pulse current. Values of pulse current for all the capacitors are indicated by graph. Maximum pulse current is in the case
of super capacitor number 9 I.e. capacitor made of 20 hours crushed activated carbon and non-crushed Manganese Oxide and value
for its pulse current is 37.37mA.Similarly minimum is in case of capacitor number 1 as expected. Here value of peak current is just
11.08mA.

1042
 45
40
35
30
Peak Current

25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
CApacitor no.

Graph 1: peak current vs capacitor number

3.2 Capacitance:
It is the most important parameter out of all. It has been calculated through basic formula of capacitance-

q
c=
v ………(1)

Capacitance of all the capacitors is shown in following graph:

120

100

80
Capacitance

60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Capacitor no.

Graph 2: capacitance vs capacitor number

3.3 Internal Resistance: Internal resistance is the resistance considered in series with the ideal capacitor in practical situations.
It is very important to keep check on it as it causes thermal effects. It is usually an AC resistance measured with specific
frequencies. Since power is dissipated in internal resistance when the capacitor is charging or discharging, hence it should be
negligible and need to be stable over time otherwise it can cause component malfunction or even damage. Internal resistance
is calculated by finding time constant of exponentially varying quantity. Internal resistance values for all the super capacitors
are shown through following graph-

1043
 100

90

80

70
Internal Resistance

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Capatinance no.

Graph 3: internal resistance vs capacitor number

3.4 Energy density: It is the mass of energy stored per unit volume. It is measured in Watt hours/ liter. The higher the energy
density, the more energy can be stored. To calculate this simple formula-

1
EnergyDensity = cv 2 ………….(2)
2M
Energy density values of different super capacitors are plotted in following graph-
2.5

2
Energy Density(J/gm)

1.5

0.5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
capacitor no.

Graph 4: energy density vs capacitor number

3.5 Power density: The power stored by the capacitor per unit volume of the electrode is important consideration in determining
the efficiency of the capacitor when space is constrained. Hence it has to be as high as possible. More volume of electrode can be
applied when the surface area of electrode particles is more. For this parameter we can use the formula-

1044
 V2
PowerDensity = ……….(3)
RM

Power densities of different super capacitors are shown in the following graph-

1.8

1.6

1.4
Power Density(Watt/gm)

1.2

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
capacitor no.

Graph 5: power density vs capacitor number

4. Conclusion
MnO 2 particles are large in size as compared to activated carbon. In the graph of capacitance we can see that capacitor number 9,
12 and 13 show high capacitance as compared to other capacitors. Thus we can conclude if the specific surface area of the particle
of two electrode material i.e. MnO 2 and activated carbon are comparable.

5. Acknowledgement
Financial support and research facilities provided by Army Institute of Technology, Pune are acknowledged. Authors want to
specially thank Dr. Sujata Marathe, Head of Applied Science Department for her unconditional support.

6. Reference
[1] B.E. Conway, ‘The electrolyte factor in supercapacitor design and performance: conductivity, Ion pairing and solvation’ pp 335-
375.

[2] B.E. Conway,V.Birss, J. Wojtowicz ,’The role and utilization of pseudo capacitance for energy storage by supercapacitors’
Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 66, Issues 1–2, May–June 1997, pp 1–14.

[3] B.E. Conway. Electrochemical supercapacitors, Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, 1999.

[4] L. S. Godse, P. B. Karandikar, Suresh Gosavi ‘Effect of ball milling on capacitance of electrochemical double layer capacitor’
presented in 2013 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, pp 209 – 212.

[5]. Elzbieta Frackowiak, Francois Beguin ‘Carbon material for the electrochemical storage of energy in supercapacitors’, Vol.
39, Issue 6, may 2001, pp 937–950.

[6] Alexander J. Roberts, ,Robert C.T. Slade ‘Effect of specific surface area on capacitance in asymmetric carbon/α-Manganese
dioxide supercapacitors’ in Electrochimica Acta ,Vol. 55, Issue 25, Oct. 2010, pp 7460–7469.

1045
[7] Power and Energy (PECon), 2010 IEEE International Conference on 29 november 2010-1 december 2010, pp 485-488.

[8] Dr. Jianli Kang, Dr. Akihiko Hirata, Lijing Kang, Dr.Xianmin Zhang, Ying Hou, Dr. Luyang Chen, Cheng Li, Dr. Takeshi
Fujita Dr. Kazuto Akag and Prof. Mingwei Chen, ‘Enhanced Supercapacitor Performance of Manganese dioxide by Atomic
Doping’ ,Angewandte Chemie ,Vol. 125, Feb. 2013, Issue 6, pp 1708–1711.

[9] Chengjun Xu, Feiyu Kang, Baohua Li and Hongda Du, ‘Recent progress on manganese dioxide based supercapacitors’, Journal
of Materials Research ,Vol 25, Issue 08, 2010, pp 1421-1432.
[10] B.E. Conway, V. Birss,J. Wojtowicz ‘The role and utilization of pseudo capacitance for energy storage by supercapacitors’
in Journal of Power Sources Vol. 66, Issues 1–2, May–June 1997, pp 1–14.

[11] Masaharu Nakayama, Taku Kanaya, Ryota Inoue, ‘Anodic deposition of layered manganese oxide into a colloidal crystal
template for electrochemical supercapacitor’ Electrochemistry Communications Vol. 9, Issue 5, May 2007, pp 1154–1158.

[12]L.S. Godsea, P.B. Karandikar, M.Y. Khaladkar, ‘Study of carbon materials and effect of ball milling on capacitance of
supercapacitor’ proceedings of 4th International Conference on Advance in Energy Research (ICAER 2013) vol.54,pp1-804 .

[13] C. Portet, P.L. Taberna, P. Simon, , E. Flahaut, C. Laberty-Robert, ‘High power density electrodes for carbon supercapacitor
application’ Electrochimica Acta ,Vol. 50, Issue 20, July 2005, pp 4174–4181.

[14] Xin Li,Bingqing Wei, ‘ Supercapacitors based on nanostructured carbon’ , Nano Energy ,Vol. 2, Issue 2, March 2013, pp 159–
173.

[15] J Gamby, P.L Taberna ,P Simon ,J.F Fauvarque, M Chesneau ‘Studies and characterisations of various activated carbons used
for carbon/carbon supercapacitors’ in Journal of Power Sources Vol. 101, Issue 1, Oct. 2001, pp 109–116.

[16] R Nandhini, P.A. Mini, B. Avinash, S.V. Nair, , K.R.V. Subramanian ‘Supercapacitor electrodes using nanoscale activated
carbon from graphite by ball milling’ in Materials Letters Vol.87,Nov 2012, pp 165–168.

[17] Hema Upreti,Akanksha Dixit,Shailendra,Amal Paul,Sintu Kumari,P.B. Karandikar, ‘Optimization of electrode parameters of
stacked structured ultracapacitors’ Vol. 54, 2014, pp 367–375 4th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research
(ICAER 2013).

[18] P. B. Karandikar, D.B. Talange, U.P. Mhaskar, Ramesh Bansal, Investigations in to Material and Manufacturing Aspects of
Aqueous Supercapacitor,Material and manufacturing processes.

[19] Jun Yan, Junpeng Liu ,Zhuangjun Fan, Tong Wei ,Lijun Zhang ‘High-performance supercapacitor electrodes based on highly
corrugated graphene sheets’ Carbon Vol. 50, Issue 6, May 2012, pp 2179–2188.

[20] A. Balducci,R. Dugas,P.L. Taberna,P. Simon,D. Plée,M. Mastragostino,S. Passerini, ‘High temperature carbon-carbon
supercapacitor using ionic liquid as electrolyte’ , Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 165, Issue 2, March 2007, pp 922–927.

[21] C. Decaux, C. Matei Ghimbeu, M. Dahbi, M. Anouti, D. Lemordant, F. Béguin, C. Vix-Guterl, E. Raymundo-
Piñero, ‘Influence of electrolyte ion–solvent interactions on the performances of supercapacitors porous carbon electrodes’ in
Journal of Power Sources Vol. 263,Oct. 2014, pp 130–140.

1046
 ICAER-2015

MICROALGAE CHLORELLA: A POTENTIAL FEEDSTOCK FOR BIODIESEL

PRODUCTION - A REVIEW

Velentina Dasa, Anuchaya Devib,Vijay kumar Dasc and Dhanapati Dekaa,b,1

ab
Biomass Conversion Laboratory, Department of Energy,Tezpur University, Napaam-784028, Assam, India
c
Department of chemical sciences ,Tezpur University -784028,Assam,India

Abstract

Microalgae are unicellular autotrophic/heterotrophic photosynthetically efficient organisms that use light energy and carbon
dioxide (CO 2 ). Biofuel production from Microalgae Chlorella species have long been identified as potentially good source
because of their high oil content, fast growth, easy cultivation, short life span. Traditional terrestrial crops are currently being
utilized as a feedstock for biofuels but resource requirements and low yields limit the scalability and sustainability of the
species. Comparatively, next generation feedstocks, such as microalgae, have enormous advantages to other terrestrial crop
biomass feedstocks, which are like higher solar energy efficiencies, utilization of waste carbon dioxide, larger lipid fractions,
cultivation on poor quality land and ability to survive in lower nutrient medium in laboratory set conditions. Chlorella
vulgaris, Chlorella conductrix, Chlorella gonglomerata and Chlorella parasitca are the common Indian microalgae species
as reported by many researchers. In this paper, a study on the aspects of biodiesel productions from the above cited strains of
microalgae species has been presented with their physical properties, biomass productivity, lipid content, fatty acid methyl
ester (FAME) components and prospects for bioethanol production. This paper will also highlight the potentiality and
comparable viability on various features of making micro algal biodiesel as compared to petro diesel. It’s an approach to
green and clean environment.

Keywords: Microalgae; Chlorella; Physical Property;Biomass Productivity; FAME

1. Introduction

The rising demand for energy is expected to be 59% by 2035 and for that of petroleum has forced the experts to assume that by 2025
the petroleum needs will reach up to 40%. It is obvious that increasing demand will outstrip the supply; to fill this energy void renewable
and more environmentally benign source can be a satisfactory alternative. The present era is in search of clean environment; therefore, the
inclination towards green energy can be witnessed. Thus, biomass derived fuel is the most suited alternative. Sustainability and
environmental benefits have added more values to the use of biomass energy. In the last 10 years, researchers have been immensely
devoting efforts for production of liquid biofuels, such as biodiesel ethanol, butanol, and green diesel. Use of bio fuels can be the most
encouraging and least destructive approach to achieve this objective. It is now considered that algae can be the most promising feedstock for
biodiesel production compared to other oil crops. Algae are potential in generating 30 times more oil per acre than the oil crops. Microalgal
biofuel production has not reached at commercial level yet but extensive research is progressing to find out the ways to solve the issues
related to the manufacture, harvesting and oil extraction. The use of microalgae as bio-energy feedstock seems to be promising because:
doubling times of Biomass in microalgae during exponential growth are commonly 3.5 h [1], Microalgae have higher rates of biomass and
oil production than conventional crops due to their simple cellular structure [2], if the growth media composition is altered their lipid content
could be adjusted [3]. The photosynthetic and cellular membranes of algae also contain polar lipids, such as glycolipids, phospholipids and
sterols. Oils from algae can yield good biodiesel through transesterification process. There are several advantages of producing microalgal
biodiesel, such as microalgae can be cultivated on marginal non-agricultural land, has high lipid productivity, can be merged up with
wastewater treatment process, and able to bio-mitigate CO 2 from atmosphere and flue gases [4,5,7–9]. Both Salty and waste water can be
utilized for the culture of microalgae and can be harvested nearly all-around the year providing continuous supply of oil. For growth of
microalgae atmospheric carbon dioxide is the source of carbon [4]. Various species of microalgae can produce many kinds of lipids,
hydrocarbons and other complex oils [5, 6, and 7]. Algae exceed energy per hectare 30–100 times more as compared to terrestrial crops [8].
The capability biomass yield depends on the various chemical and physical properties of the species. Few microalgae strains which are
capable to accumulating significant amount of lipids within their cells, such as Botryococcus braunii (lipid content of 25–75%), Chlorella
sp. (28– 32%), Scenedesmus sp. (20–21%) and Nannochloropsis sp. (31–68%).Including these there is another more advantage of
microalgae biodiesel is that it does not compete with food crops production and thus, promotes a more sustainable energy development for
the future.

* Corresponding author. Ph. No. 03712275301(O), +919435380897 (m).

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 E-mail address: dhanapati@tezu.ernet.in

Figure1. Lipid accumulation in the microalgal cell [30]

2. Portrayal of the species

Microalgae chlorella is generally found in fresh water of ponds and ditches, in moist soil or other damp
situations such as the surfaces. Chlorella is a single celled, spherical non-motile green alga 2.0–10.0 lm in
diameter. Chlorella occurs in both fresh and marine water. Chlorella is omnipresent since it occurs in various
different habitats. Chlorella parasitca is found to have symbiotic association in the cells of Paramecium and
Hydra. Chlorella vulgaris, Chlorella conductrix, Chlorella Gonglomerata and C. parasitca are the common
Indian species. Chlorella is represented by only eight species [9]. Out of all these species, Chlorella vulgaris is
one of the prominent algae species for producing biofuel because of its fast growth and easy cultivation [31].The
cells are small and solitary surrounded by a thin cellulosic wall, with a cup shaped chloroplast. The cells are
without flagella, stigma and contractile vacuoles, but contain a nucleus located at the centre. Dried biomass
contains 45% protein, 20% fat, 20% carbohydrate, 10% various minerals and vitamins. Chlorella has enormous
economic significance for the mankind. Biofuel generation from Chlorella is a boon. According to Illman et al.
calorific values of Chlorella strains four fresh water strains (Chlorella Protothecoides, C. vulgaris, Chlorella
Eemersonii and Chlorella Sorokiniana) and one marine strain (Chlorella minutissima) grown in low nitrogen
medium is a substitute for diesel replacements [10].Chlorella sp. based biodiesel contains relatively high
amounts of polyunsaturated FAMEs and therefore its oxidative and thermal stability are slightly lower
compared to soybean based biodiesel. In Chlorella sp. there are lipids like polyunsaturated fatty acids which can
also be used as a source for health promoting agents. Chlorella sp. contains typically both saturated and
unsaturated fatty acids [4], being analyzed as methyl esters. Different Chlorella strains have been reported to
contain varying amounts of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, being for example 27
wt. %, 8.9 wt. % and 64 wt. %, respectively. The growing condition of the algae decides the distribution of fatty
acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are valuable compounds applied in pharmaceuticals and several acids, such as
palmitoleic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid exhibit antimicrobial activity. In addition to fatty acids, algae
contain also valuable carotenoids, which are polyeneic compounds, and also contain two cyclohexyl groups.
Some of them contain also hydroxyl groups. The main carotenoids in alga are carotenes, lutein and zeaxanthin.
It is known that Chlorella sp. is rich in lutein, which prevents cardiovascular diseases, some types of cancer and
retinal degeneration. Carotenoids also shows antioxidative effects and they can be added for example in food to
prevent its oxidation.Alongwith, carotenoids, such as lutein, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin are used as dyeing
agents [10]

1048
 Table 1. Chemical composition of algae expressed on a dry matter basis (%) [1]

Strain Protien Carbohydrate Lipids Nucleic Acid

Scenedesmus obliquus 50-56 10-17 12-14 3-6

Scenedesmus quadricauda 47 - 1.9 -

Scenedesmus dimorphus 8-18 21-52 16-40 -

Chlamydomonas rheinhardii 48 17 21 -
Chlorella vulgaris 51-58 12-17 14-22 4.5
Chlorella pyrenoidosa 57 26 2 -
Spirogyra sp. 6-20 33-64 11-21 -
Dunaliella bioculata 49 4 8 -
Dunaliella salina 57 32 6 -
Euglena gracilis 39-61 14-18 14-20 -
Prymnesium parvum 28-45 25-33 22-38 1.2
Tetraselmis maculata 52 15 3 -
Porphyridium cruentum 28-39 40-57 9-14 -

Spirulina platensis 46-63 8-14 4-9 2-5

Spirulina maxima 60-71 13-16 6-7 3-4.5
Synechoccus sp. 63 15 11 5
Anabaena cylindrica 43-56 25-30 4.7 -

Figure 2 Schematics of an innovative integrated multidisciplinary process [36]

3. Strain selections

Identifying algal strain for biofuel production is easier because of its immense diversity, which has diverged
over billions of years. Algae have a potential genetic pool that is larger than that of animals or plants, but this
diversity has gained interest in recent times. This importance is reflected in the variety of algal species being
explored for biofuel generation, which includes cyanobacteria, diatoms and green algae. To ensure cost-
effective operations finding algal strains that grow rapidly to high-cell densities and produces high levels of

1049
lipids using as less energy as possible will be essential. In any cultivation system contamination is a significant
factor because of its stringent sterilization will almost certainly be expensive, strains must have sufficient
defence against the pathogens and should have tolerance to achieve high yields [14]

4. Algal Cell Isolation

Advanced methods are used for algal cell isolation. The single-cell is done by isolation using agar plates,
isolation by micropipette, gravimetric separation, dilution techniques, atomized cell spray technique, media
enrichment etc. while micromanipulation, flow cytometry are advanced methods for micro algal cell isolation.
For better result of the fuel isolation and purification is very important. For which microalgae were subjected to
purification by serial dilution followed by streaking. The individual colonies were isolated and inoculated into
liquid medium. The purity of the culture is maintained by repeated streaking and routine microscopic
examination. [14]

5. Microalgal cultures for microalgal biomass

Microalgal biomass production for making biodiesel has been extensively evaluated in raceway ponds in
studies sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. Raceways are known to be the less expensive
than photo bioreactors, because they require less cost for its installation. Although raceways are low-cost, they
have a low biomass productivity compared with photo bioreactors. A raceway pond is made of a closed loop
recirculation channel that is typically about 0.3 m deep. A paddlewheel in the raceway pond does the mixing
and circulation and also prevents sedimentation. Baffles placed in the flow channel helps in guiding the flow
around the bends. Raceway channels are built in concrete or compacted earth. During daylight, the culture is
nourished continuously in front of the paddlewheel where the flow begins. Broth is harvested behind the
paddlewheel, on completion of the circulation loop. But unlike raceway ponds photo bioreactor helps in culture
of single species for a longer duration of time so to get more biomass yield and avoid contamination of
Chlorella sp., photo bioreactor is the most appropriate one. [35]

6. Extraction of oil from algal biomass for biodiesel Production

There are many methods which are used for the extraction of oil from algal biomass, such as mechanical
extraction, enzymatic extraction, chemical extraction through different organic solvents, Ultrasonic extraction,
and supercritical extraction using carbon dioxide above its standard temperature and pressure [15]. A list of oil
contents from different species of microalgae has been presented in table 2.

Table 2. Oil content in Microalgae in % dry weight [1]

Microalgae Oil content (% dry weight)

Botryococcus braunii 25-75
Chlorella sp. 28-32
Crypthecodinium cohnii 20
Cylindrotheca sp. 16-37
Dunaliella primolecta 23
Isochrysis sp. 25-33
Nannochloropsis sp. >20
Neochloris sp. 31-68
Monolanthus salina 35-54
Nitzchia sp. 45-47
Phaeodactylum tricornutum 20-30
Schizochytrium sp. 50-77
Tetraselmis sueica 15-23

1050
6.1. Enzymatic extraction

In the process of enzymatic extraction water as solvent is used with cell degrading enzymes to facilitate an
easy and mild fractionation of oil and proteins. Oil is linked with proteins and a wide range of carbohydrates.
Down-stream processing makes fractionation of the compounds possible to a degree which can be achieved by
enzymatic extraction. This is the biggest advantage of enzymatic extraction process over other extraction
methods. The high cost of extraction is one of the limiting factors of this process for its utilization in large scale
[16].

6.2. Chemical extraction

The Soxhlet method is widely used for the extraction of oil from various algal strains and plants. In this
method, oil and fat from biomass are extracted by repeated washings with an organic solvent, usually n-hexane
or petroleum ether, with a glassware called Soxhlet extractor. With many advantages there are certain
limitations like, extraction of polar lipids are slow, long time required for extraction and hazards of boiling
solvents. Above all this method is the most popular and generally used in all oil extraction laboratories [17].

6.3. Ultrasonic extraction

Intense sonication required for ultrasonic extraction of algae which generates sound waves that propagate
into the liquid substrate resulting in alternating higher-pressure and lower-pressure cycles and produce oil. As
ultrasound breaks mechanically the cell wall by the cavitations shear forces which facilitates the transfer of
lipids from the cell into the solvent. The oil is dissolved in the cyclohexane so that the pulp/tissue is filtered out.
Distillation required for separation of the oil from hexane. It has many advantages like it improves the extraction
of oil from the algae cells and also helps in the conversion of oil into biodiesel [18]. Cost of this method is the
limiting factor which makes it not feasible as it is not cost effective with the amount of oil production.

6.4. CO 2 Supercritical Extraction

The CO 2 supercritical extraction is one of the most advanced oil extraction method, besides some
disadvantages like high capital investment and elevated pressure requirement for equipment. It has got large
number of advantages i.e. the biomass residues that remains after extraction of oil could be used partly as high-
protein animal feed. The algal biomass residues leftover after oil extraction can also be used to production of
biogas by anaerobic digestion and can be further utilized for the primary source of energy. The technology is
well developed for anaerobic digestion and the technology for converting biogas to mechanical and electrical
power is well established [19]. The carbon dioxide generated from combustion of biogas can be reutilized
directly for the production of the microalgae biomass.

7. Algal oil characteristics for Biodiesel Production

The lipid constituents of microalgal oils are quite different compared to different plant oils; microalgae
sources contain a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids. A high level of unsaturation for biodiesel
will result in oxidation of the fuel and will helps in specification. The fatty acid chains in the lipids present in
micro- algae can range from C11 to C26, but the common chain length is usually observed in C14 to C22. After
identification of algal strains, to check the potential of biodiesel fuel as substitute of diesel fuel analysis of the
lipid content analysis and fuel properties are important parameters. For this various fuel properties are
considered such as density, cold filter plugging point, cetane number (CN), oxidative stability, ignition quality,
lubricity and combustion heat. Chain length, number of double bonds and amount of each fatty ester
components determines both fatty acids and triglycerides. Ignition quality of fuel and occurrence of unsaturated
fatty acids are represented by the saponification values (SV) and iodine value (IV) respectively. If the iodine
values is higher than it means higher unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) present in the oil and upon heating of higher
unsaturated fatty acids produces the polymerization of glycerides, which have devastating effect on lubrication
properties. And it is not suitable for biodiesel production. With the help of empirical equations the CN, SV and
IV can be determined from FAME of oils. Biodiesel feedstock which has a higher degree of saturation is more
resistant to oxidation. Micro- algae can be used as a source of feed stocks for the production of biodiesel,
methane; ethanol, butanol, and hydrogen depending on the constituents of the microalgae (starch, sugar, or
oil).The lipid portion of microalgae can be converted for biodiesel production, and the sugar primarily of
cellulose can be hydrolyzed and fermented to bioethanol. [35]

1051
8. Transesterification of the algal oil

The transesterification is defined as the reversible reaction of fat or oil (which is composed of triglyceride)
with an alcohol to form fatty acid alkyl ester and glycerol. Stoichio-metrically, the reaction requires a 3:1 molar
alcohol to oil ratio, but more of alcohol is (usually methyl alcohol is used) added to drive the equilibrium toward
the product side [20]. This ample of methyl alcohol ensures that the reaction is driven in the direction of methyl
esters, i.e. towards biodiesel (FAME). The common method of biodiesel production from microalgal oil is base
catalyzed transesterification with alcohol and yield of methyl esters exceeds 98% on a weight basis [21]. The
reaction occurs stepwise: triglycerides are initially converted to diglycerides, then to monoglycerides and finally
to glycerol [22]. The alkali-catalyzed transesterification is about 4000 times speedy than the acid catalyzed
reaction and to prevent yield loss due to saponification reactions (i.e. soap formation), the oil and alcohol is
needed to be dried and the oil should have a minimum of free fatty acids. Biodiesel is regained by repeated
washing with water to remove glycerol and methanol [23]. This process of biodiesel production is found to be
most efficient of all the processes as the reaction rate is reasonably high even at a low temperature of 60 °C
consequently; alkalis such as sodium and potassium hydroxide are commonly used as commercial catalysts at a
concentration of about 1% by weight of oil. Other alcohols can be used, but methanol is the least expensive.

OCOCR1 R1 COOCH3 OH

Catalyst
OCOR2 + 3 CH3OH R2 COOCH3 + OH

OCOR3 R3 COOCH3 OH
Triglyceride Methanol Methyl ester Glycerol
(Parent oil) (alcohol) (Biodiesel)

Figure 3: Transesterification of Microalgal oil

9. Algal Biodiesel performances

The microalgal biodiesel have many advantages as it can reduce net carbon dioxide emission by 78% on a
life-cycle basis as compared to traditional diesel fuel [24, 25]. Microalgal biodiesel also contain little or no
sulphur or aromatic compound but in conventional diesel, the sulphur lead to formation of sulphur oxide and
sulphuric acid, while the aromatic compound also increase particulate matter and are considered carcinogens.
The lubricity of biodiesel is also more than conventional diesel, and blending biodiesel with low sulphur fuel
restores lubricity [27]. However, the biggest advantage of algal biodiesel is that, it's a sustainable source of
liquid transportation fuel and derives energy from sun [24]. The combustion of biodiesel in place of
conventional diesel fuel can also reduce green house gas emission up to 40% [28]. In addition to reduce CO 2
and particulate emission, the use of biodiesel confers additional advantages, including a high flashpoint, rapid
biodegradation and greater lubricity. The higher flashpoint helps in proper handling and storage, whereas
biodegradability of biodiesel is particularly advantageous in environmentally sensitive areas [26].

10. Lipid and fuel quality

Lipid quality describes many properties of the resultant fuel, like cetane number (which is a measurement of
combustion quality in compression engines), viscosity, oxidation stability and cold flow. The common sources
of biodiesel basically contain unsaturated C16 and C18 fatty-acid methyl esters. Algae produce lipids between
C14 and C20 in length. Unsaturated lipids usually yield fuels with a poor cetane number with low oxidation
stability, whereas saturated fatty acids produce fuels at a high cetane number and with high stability but at the
expense of their capacity to be used at low temperatures. Chemical methods to improve the properties of
biodiesel, such as reacting fatty-acid esters with alcohols other than methanol (ethyl and isopropyl esters have
developed low-temperature properties), hydrogenation of lipids to increase the saturation, catalytic cracking and
using additives to raise the biofuel properties, can be used.[29].

11. Fermentation

Commercially production of ethanol in different countries from and starch crops and sugar crops by the
process of fermentation70.with corn containing maximum of 70% of starch, and for ethanol based bio industry

1052
one of most valuable feedstock. Large variety of carbohydrates is used for ethanol production. Here microalgal
biomass can also be used for bioethanol production as it also contains cellulosic membrane. Sucrose present in
the feedstock is fermented using commercial yeast such as, Invertase, Saccharomyces ceveresiae and zymase
enzymes. The hydrolysis of sucrose can be performed in the presence of invertase enzyme that converts it to
glucose and fructose. [35]

12. Biosequestration of CO 2 by algae

Among all described importance of microalgae, there is another crucial role played which is Biosequestration
of CO 2 in which CO 2 can be sequestered by filtering processes and subjected for storage of the huge amount of
CO 2 released in the air. Microalgae are more photosynthetically efficient compared to C4 plants which form
four carbon stable intermediates in the photosynthetic process. Microalgae have faster proliferation rates, wider
tolerance to extreme environmental conditions. The CO 2 from stack gases can be removed by long term
sequestration of CO 2 by microalgae ponds which is greenhouse gas mitigation. The raceway algal farm can be
located anywhere even nearby power plants. The flue gases coming out from power plants which burns lots of
fossil fuels into these raceway ponds helps in recycling of waste CO 2 .The idea of construction of a coal fired
power plant with an algal farm is an unique approach for mitigation of the CO 2 from combustion of fossil fuels
into a useable liquid fuel. The microalgae technology seems to be the sustainable way in harnessing energy from
combustion of fossil fuels and simultaneously reducing carbon emissions and converting it to clean biodiesel
[34].

13. Researches and Development of Algal-Biofuel Production

In 1979 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a research program called the Aquatic Species
Program (ASP) under which research in algal biofuel came into existence. However the program could not go
ahead due to budget reduction. And in a 16 year period, ASP pursued research in three vital areas. First was the
study of the biological aspect of microalgae which included screening and collecting a variety of algal species
to access their potential for high oil production of the algae, and using applied biology techniques to enhance the
oil yield, secondly it was the development of algal mass-production systems. However there was no successful
result due to contamination of several undesired native varieties of species. And finally DOE suggested open
ponds as the major system for algal-biofuel production as it cut down the cost effect. But enclosed photo
bioreactors was still not in use due to high capital and more maintenance costs, precisely for production of
biofuels. The third area was analysis of the resource availability, which included land, water, and CO 2
resources. Later DOE had drawn a conclusion that there were significant amounts resources to support the algal-
biofuel technology. And further decided that algal biofuel technology is too costly to commercialize in near
future. But after that period been over there was a renewed interest of algal biofuel due to enormous energy
demand with sustainability temperament. So, various university research groups and Indus tries are developing
new methods to improve algal-process efficiency, with a final goal of commercializing the algal-biofuel
production. And the research and development efforts are discussed as:
1. Increasing the oil content of microalgal strains or selection of new varieties with high oil content;
2. Increasing the growth rate of algae;
3. Development of novel algal growth systems both in open and closed systems of environment.
4. Development of biorefinery aspects such as other biotechnology products from microalgae other than oil;
5. Using algae in bioremediation and mitigation of the environment; and
6. Development of unique methods for extraction of oil. [33]

14. Economics of Algal - Biofuel Production

The production cost of micro algal oil basically relies on factors, like yield of biomass, oil content,
production systems scale, and cost of extracting oil from algal biomass. Presently, algal-oil production is still
expensive than petro diesel. For example the estimated the production cost of algae oil from a photo bioreactor
with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons per year. According to Chisti 2007 used the following
equation to estimate the cost of algal oil where it can be a great substitute for petroleum diesel:
Calgal oil = 25.9 x 10-3 Cpetroleum [Equation- 1]

Where: Calgal oil is the price of microalgal oil in dollars per gallon and Cpetroleum is the price of crude oil
in dollars per barrel. This equation assumes that algal oil has roughly 80 percent of the caloric energy value of

1053
crude petroleum. For example, with petroleum priced at $100 per barrel, algal oil should cost no more than
$2.59 per gallon in order to be competitive with petroleum diesel. [1]

Conclusion
Conventionally, when we are assuming of producing biodiesel from a feedstock that is rich in free fatty acids
like microalgal oil, then Chlorella seems to be the dominating species in this field. Chlorella is found interesting
for the development of second generation biofuel and because of being immense diversification among the other
microalgal species found in different habitats of North East India. It can grow in salt water, freshwater or even
contaminated water, or in ponds, and even on land which are not suitable for food production. On top of those
advantages, algae can grow even better when fed extra carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) and organic
material like sewage. If so, along with biofuel production it can deal up with cleaning up other problems.
Proving that the algae can thrive with increased inputs of either carbon dioxide or untreated sewage solids will
confirm its industrial ecology possibilities to help with wastewater treatment which is a clean and green
environment approach. Powered by sunlight, microalgae are tiny biofuel generators that soak up carbon dioxide
to produce energy-rich lipids, which are showing promise as a potential source of clean energy. Maximizing
lipid production is the focus of many research efforts, but the material remaining after lipid extraction can also
be utilized for other biorefinery products.

Acknowledgements

VD is thankful to Tezpur University for the institutional fellowship to her.

Reference

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[27] http://www.indianchild.com/population_of_india.htm.
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1054
 ICAER-2015

Utilization of wind shear for powering unmanned aerial vehicles

in surveillance application: A numerical optimization study
Harshal Kaushika,1, Ranjith Mohanb, K. Arul Prakashc
a
Graduate student, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, Chennai, India
b
Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, India
c
Associate Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, Chennai, India
1
Corresponding Author, Tel.: +91 9962487149, E-mail: harshaldkaushik@gmail.com

Abstract

Dynamic soaring is the rationale behind the prolonged flights of a seabird Albatross. It involves utilization of energy from the wind shear
present near the earth surface. Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be kept loitering without any external power input by dynamic
soaring. In this work, dynamic soaring is used to power UAVs for the surveillance application. A set of 6-DoF point mass equations governing
the aircraft motion is used in the optimal control problem formulation. Appropriate constraints considering material properties of a UAV and
loiter pattern of dynamic soaring, are imposed on state variables and control parameters. Trajectories are optimized by using GPOPS-II,
MATLAB based optimal control software. The problem is optimized for the efficacy of area under surveillance. Variation in the surveillance
area is analyzed with the change in view angle of camera, wind strength, and nature of wind shear profile. Surveillance by dynamic soaring
becomes effective with increase of wind strength and also with change of wind shear boundary layer profile towards logarithmic variation.
The minimum requirement of wind strength to perform dynamic soaring has been identified by considering various boundary layer profiles.
Finally it is concluded that small UAVs (comparable with the size of Albatross) can be constantly kept on surveying using wind energy as
the sole power source, as long as free stream wind velocity is greater than minimum requirement for dynamic soaring.

Keywords: Wind energy; Dynamic soaring; Optimal control algorithm; Trajectory optimization for surveillance

1. Introduction

Wind shear near the earth surface is effectively used by seabirds to fly thousands of kilometres without flapping
of wings. It can be very useful for the UAVs meant for prolonged surveillance. Mission capabilities of UAVs are
mainly limited by their inability of carrying sufficient fuel. Although improvements of battery technology can
enhance their capabilities, immediate performance gains can be obtained by energy utilization from the
atmosphere. There are several ways to extract energy from atmosphere and dynamic soaring is one such technique.
Energy extraction from the wind shear present near the earth surface is referred as dynamic soaring. The primary
objective of this paper is to demonstrate the propulsion of small UAVs by dynamic soaring through simulations,
considering surveillance application.

Constant surveillance is required for many applications such as patrolling, monitoring shipping lanes,
commercial fisheries etc. In many potential civilian and military UAV missions, the power requirements reduce
their range and endurance, diminishing their utility. As a consequence UAVs have become primarily limited to
short range observation missions. There is plenty of energy available in the atmosphere where UAVs fly. This
energy can be useful to increase their range and endurance. If an aircraft is able to extract kinetic or potential
energy from soaring flight, the consumable energy carried on board in the form of batteries or fuel would last
considerably for prolonged period, thereby increasing their range or endurance. Capabilities of small UAVs can
be increased significantly by utilizing the wind energy present in surrounding ambience in the form of wind shear.

Rayleigh [1] is known to be the first person to propose that energy extraction is possible in a horizontal but
non-uniform wind field. After him, many scientists, specifically Turcker and Parrott [2], Weimerskirch et al [3]
worked on this subject. Gradually theory of dynamic soaring was evolved. In early 2000s to 2010s, computational
algorithms on optimal control were developed rapidly. Sachs [4] found the trajectory for minimum wind shear
requirement to perform dynamic soaring by using a software ALTOS. Zhao [5] solved problem of dynamic
soaring by using the collocation method in combination with software NPSOL. However, in this sequence of

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9962487149.

E-mail address: harshaldkaushik@gmail.com

1055
Nomenclature

A = wind shear parameter

AR = aspect ratio (= b2/S), m
CD0 = parasite drag coefficient
CL = coefficient of lift
CD = coefficient of drag
β = average slope of wind shear over [0,htr], s-1
µ = banking angle, clockwise from backside of glider, degree
ψ = heading angle, measured clockwise from north, degree
ρ = density of air, kg/m3
γ = flight path angle relative to air, degree
V = velocity of glider, m/s
K = induced drag factor
S = wing area of glider, m2
m = mass of glider, kg
g = acceleration due to gravity, m/s2
n = load factor of glider
x, y = east and north position of glider, m
z = altitude of glider, m
Wz = wind velocity variation with altitude, m/s
Wmax = maximum wind velocity, m/s
htr = boundary layer thickness, m
L = lift force, N
D = drag force, N
θ = view angle of camera mounted on UAV

development, optimization of trajectories with respect to surveillance was not focused and explored. Current work
is devoted to accomplish the optimization of trajectories utilizing wind shear for surveillance purpose.

In first part, the methodology behind formulation of an optimal control problem is given. Governing equations
of dynamic soaring and equation to capture variation of wind profile with altitude are specified. Constraints are
obtained considering material properties of a UAV and the loiter pattern of dynamic soaring. Later, objective
functions are defined for two purposes: to find the minimum requirement of wind strength and to improve the
surveillance area by reducing the abandoned portion inside the trajectory. Numerical optimization procedure of
GPOPS-II is explained in brief. Finally, variation in the surveillance area is discussed by varying other parameters.

2. Methodology:

2.1. Mathematical modeling

A point mass model is used for a UAV flying in spatially varying winds. Inertial North, East and Down (NED)
reference frame is selected, where the x, y, and z axes are in the direction of North, East, and Down respectively.
Wind field is assumed to be varying with space, and constant with time. Line of action of forces and the angles
are as shown in the Fig. 1. The orientation of the aerodynamic forces on the aircraft are defined by a set of three
successive angular rotations, heading angle (ψ), air relative flight path angle (γ), and bank angle (μ). Thrust force
is neglected in the governing equations, since UAV is not generating any propulsive force itself. Dynamic soaring
is used for propulsion of a UAV.

The flight dynamics model includes six states variables: horizontal positions [x(t), y(t)], altitude z(t), airspeed
V(t), flight path angle γ(t), and azimuth angle 𝜓(t). Control parameters are coefficient of lift CL(t), and bank angle
μ(t). Lift and Drag forces on the aircraft structure are expressed as,
1
L = ⍴ S 𝐶𝐿 𝑉 2 (1)
2
1
D = ⍴ S 𝐶𝐷 𝑉 2
(2)
2

The governing equations of dynamic soaring [10] are given as follows. These are first order non-linear
differential equations, which have six states and two control parameters.

1056
 Fig. 1: Forces on UAV

Equation 3-5 can be derived by applying Newton’s second law in North, East and Down directions in Fig.1.
Equation 6-8 are the kinematic equations.

m 𝑉̇ = – D – mg sin (γ) – m 𝑊̇ 𝑧 cos (γ) sin (ψ) (3)

m V cos (γ) 𝜓̇ = L sin (μ) – m 𝑊̇𝑧 cos (ψ) (4)

m V 𝛾̇ = L cos (μ) – mg cos (γ) + m 𝑊̇ 𝑧 sin (γ) sin (μ) (5)

𝑧̇ = V sin (γ) (6)

𝑥̇ = V cos (γ) sin (ψ) + 𝑊𝑧 (7)

𝑦̇ = V cos (γ) cos (ψ) (8)

Key trajectory optimization results are obtained for a number of different wind profiles. In wind gradient
model, horizontal wind speed is assumed to be zero at the ground level, which increases gradually over the
altitude. To capture the variation in the wind velocity, Equation 9 is used. For simplicity curvature effect of earth
and variation of density with altitude are neglected. Mathematical model of the wind gradient profile (Equation
9) is used in the studies of soaring flights.

(1−𝐴) ×(𝑧)2 𝑊𝑚𝑎𝑥

𝑊𝑧 = 𝛽 [𝐴 (𝑧) + ]; β = (9)
ℎ𝑡𝑟 ℎ𝑡𝑟

Where ‘β’ is the average slope of the wind shear (0, ℎ𝑡𝑟 ). In this problem, terrain is assumed to be water
surface. Boundary layer thickness over this is assumed to be 213 meters [9]. Depending on values of ‘A’, different
wind profiles can be obtained from Equation 2 (shown in Fig. 2). It is required to have 0<A<2 in order to ensure
the wind component is between (0, 𝑊𝑚𝑎𝑥 ). For 0<A<1, wind profile is similar to the exponential curve and for
1<A<2 it looks like logarithmic profile.

2.2. Constraints

Trajectory optimization problem is formed with the goal of finding the state and control time histories, that
minimize the selected cost function while satisfying 6-DoF point mass equations of motion. There are mainly two
patterns of dynamic soaring: travelling and loiter pattern. In this study, loitering motion of a UAV is considered
for surveillance application. Common constraint for dynamic soaring trajectories is the requirement of periodicity.

1057
 Fig. 2: Wind profile for β = 0.2

For the loiter pattern, periodic boundary conditions are imposed on all six state variables. Also limits on the
manoeuvres of UAV are imposed to avoid the excessive loading of UAV structure.
1
⍴ 𝑆 𝐶𝐿 𝑉 2
Load factor (n) = 2
(10)
𝑚𝑔

In addition to satisfying the equations of motion, the solution must satisfy additional equality and inequality
constraints. Table 1 lists all the constraints that are used throughout the problem.

Table 1: List of trajectory optimization constraints

Constraints State variables = or ≤

Equations of motion All =
State bounds x, y, z, V, γ, ψ ≤
Control bounds CL, μ ≤
Load factor V, CL ≤
Initial condition All =
Periodicity condition All =

Dimensions of UAV used in simulations are taken similar in shape and size to albatross (see Table 2). It is
equipped with a camera, which always remains horizontal irrespective of rolling or pitching motions of aircraft.
Gliding is an essential phase while performing dynamic soaring. For smooth gliding, lightweight UAV with high
aspect ratio is selected. In subsequent analysis the vehicle makes use of the assumption that it has a quadratic drag
polar of the form: CD = CD0 + K 𝐶𝐿 2

Table 2: Specifications of UAV (similar in dimensions to albatross)

Parameter Value Unit Explanation

AR 16 Aspect Ratio
b 3 m Wing span
CD0 0.00873 Parasite drag coefficient
CLmax 1.5 Maximum coefficient of lift
CLmin −1 Minimum coefficient of lift
K 0.045 Induced drag factor
m 10 kg Mass of UAV
S 1 m2 Wing area

1058
2.3. Development of objective function

First objective is to calculate minimum required wind strength for dynamic soaring to take place. By knowing
the wind strength requirement, possibility of dynamic soaring in the present wind condition can be predicted.

While surveying, the glider traces a periodic orbit (which implements dynamic soaring) and uses a camera to
capture the image on ground. In this process some area on ground may not be captured. This area is termed here
as grey area, shown in Fig. 3(a). Our second objective is to minimize this grey area. In order to achieve this,
appropriate objective function is defined. As stated earlier, the camera mounted on a glider always remains
horizontal, and it captures images in the plane parallel to earth surface, irrespective of pitching or rolling motions
of aircraft. Assuming the images captured are circular in cross section. In Fig. 3(b), ‘z’ is the altitude of the glider
and ‘θ’ is the view angle of camera.

Grey area

Fig. 3: (a) Grey area; (b) area captured by camera

Radius (r) of the image captured in Fig. 3(b) is given as, r = z × tan (θ/2)

To minimize the grey area, distance ‘d’ in Fig. 3(a) has to be minimized. Objective function for this purpose is
formulated as:

d = √𝑥 2 + 𝑦 2 – z × tan (𝜃⁄2) (11)

2.4. Construction of codes

Solving an optimal control problem requires the approximation of three types of mathematical objects:
integration of cost function, differential equation of control system, and state-control constraints. An ideal
approximation method should be efficient for all three approximation tasks. In this work, codes for optimization
are constructed in MATLAB based optimal control software, GPOPS-II [7, 8], which employs Legendre Gauss
Radau quadrature orthogonal collocation method. In this method, continuous time optimal control problem is
transcribed to a large sparse nonlinear programming problem. In pseudo-spectral method, the continuous functions
are approximated to a set of carefully selected quadrature nodes. The quadrature nodes are determined by the
corresponding orthogonal polynomial basis. In Pseudo-spectral optimal control method, Legendre and Chebyshev
polynomials are commonly used. Mathematically, quadrature nodes are able to achieve high accuracy with a small
number of points.

3. Results and discussion:

From governing equations of dynamic soaring (Equation 3-8), the primary characteristics of unpowered flight
by using dynamic soaring are well explained. In general, during the motion of aircraft, there should be turning of
aircraft from upwind to downwind in the portion of maximum wind speed region. On the other hand, at the lowest
wind speed region, it should turn upwind from downwind. Additionally, there should be an increasing headwind
while climbing, and while diving down it should go through a decreasing tailwind. Along with satisfying the
constraints imposed for a particular problem, the optimal trajectories are expected to have these general
characteristics.

In this section, trajectory optimization results for dynamic soaring problems are presented. At first, trajectories
are optimized for minimum required free stream wind speed considering a linear and logarithmic boundary layer.

1059
 In the following section, flight trajectories for the reduction of inner grey portion in the surveillance area are
presented. All the results are obtained by using a MATLAB based optimal control software GPOPS-II.

3.1. Minimum wind strength requirement

Time (sec)
Fig. 4: variation of states and control for calculation of minimum required wind shear for linear variation of boundary layer

Linear wind shear is modelled by Equation 9. Various wind shear profiles can be obtained just by varying the
value of a parameter ‘A’. Variation of states and controls for minimum wind shear requirement is shown in Fig.
4. For linear wind shear profile, requirement of minimum wind shear coefficient (β) is 0.0879. Correspondingly
minimum required wind speed is 10.81 m/s.

Time (sec)

Fig. 5: Variation of States and controls for logarithmic boundary layer (A = 1.9)

In Fig. 4, all state varibles and control parameters are varying periodically. On Y-axis, state and control
parameter scales are represented. X-axis shows time variation. All the parameters are plotted for the time duration
of a cycle.

Next, the value of minimum required wind shear (β) is found for the logarithmic variation of boundary layer.
For logarithmic variation, A = 1.9 in Equation 10.

1060
 In Fig. 5, maximum attained air speed of UAV in logarithmic profile is less than that of linear boundary layer
profile. Likewise the range for other state variables and control parameters of logarithmic boundary layer profile
is less than that of linear boundary layer. For the case of optimization for minimum wind shear calculation, all the
state variables and control paramters are periodic in nature. For different wind shear profiles, required values of
wind shear coefficient and free stream wind velocity are shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Comparison of minimum wind speed requirement for different wind profiles

Nature of wind shear profile: Minimum wind shear coefficient Minimum required wind speed
Governed by ‘A’ ‘β’ (Sec -1) (m/s)

1.0 0.08786 10.81015

1.3 0.07571 9.17826
1.5 0.06885 8.6375
1.7 0.06297 8.27792
1.9 0.05794 8.02221

From Table 3, we can say that, as the profile tends towards the logarithmic variation, the requirement of
minimum wind shear decreases. For the first entry in Table 3, the profile is linear and as we go down, profile
gradually tends towards logarithmic. Correspondingly, the values of minimum required wind shear coefficient ‘β’
and ‘minimum required wind speed’ decrease. Information in Table 3 can be useful to predict the terrain type for
implementation of dynamic soaring to power UAVs. If there is a steep change in the slope of wind shear profile
(A→2), it becomes easier to perform dynamic soaring. In practice, steep changes in slope (A→2) are observed at
the edge of sharp ridge. For surveillance in the hilly terrain, dynamic soaring can be implemented in order to
power UAVs, since there is formation of shear layers at many places in the terrain due to sharp ridges.

3.2. Area under surveillance:

The second objective of optimal control problem is to optimize for the efficacy of surveillance area (reduce
the grey portion present inside). Objective function defined (Equation 11), is used for optimization. Simulations
are run in a software GPOPS-II for the selected glider’s model (Table. 1). In the first case, wind shear is assumed
to be varying linearly with altitude, with wind shear coefficient 𝛽 = 0.2. The view angle of camera (θ) is taken as
25 deg.

Fig. 6: Area under surveillance for β = 0.2, A = 1.0, θ = 250

1061
 States & Controls

Time (sec)
Fig. 7: States and control parameters for β = 0.2, A = 1.0, θ = 250

In Fig. 6 inside white portion is the grey area which is to be minimized. Yellow portion is the area under
surveillance. For this optimization, variation of states and controls is shown in Fig. 7. In this case the variation of
all state variables and control parameters is also periodic in nature.

Variation in the surveillance area, state variables and control parameters are studied by varying different
parameters in optimal control problem formulation. Mainly, variation of two parameters is considered here:

1. wind shear coefficient ‘β’

2. Nature of wind profile governed by the parameter ‘A’

In Fig. 8, trajectories are obtained for different wind strength (β) keeping wind profile logarithmic (A = 1.5)
as constant. As the wind strength increases, trajectories contract inwards and there is significant reduction in the
grey portion

. .
. .

. .
.
Fig. 8: Variation in the area under surveillance for different .
strengths of the wind considering wind profile as logarithmic (A = 1.5)

1062
 From Fig. 9, it can be seen that with change of boundary layer profile from linear to logarithmic (A2 in
Equation 9) while keeping the wind strength as constant (β = 0.5), the grey portion in the surveyed area reduces.
In other words, when there is steep change in the slope of boundary layer profile, it is beneficial to perform
surveillance by dynamic soaring. In hilly terrains there is always formation of shear layers due to sharp ridges,
which is a promising mechanism for surveillance.

Fig. 9: Variation in the area under surveillance for different wind shear profiles considering wind strength as constant (β = 0.2 S-1)

4. Summary and conclusion:

In the past, study of dynamic soaring was mainly focused on understanding the performance of seabirds like
albatross who use dynamic soaring for propulsion. Recently researchers have started checking the possibility of
dynamic soaring as an alternative energy source for small UAVs (comparable to albatross size). This paper
extends those studies by considering dynamic soaring as the energy source for propulsion of small UAV in
surveillance application. In this work, effects of wind gradient slopes and non-linear profile variations on the loiter
pattern of dynamic soaring are studied. In the analysis a set of 6-DoF point-mass equations of motion is used. The
state variables include airspeed of UAV, heading angle, flight path angle, altitude, east and north locations in
horizontal plane; control variables are coefficient of lift and bank angle. Dynamic soaring flights are formulated
as non-linear optimal control problems with two objective functions. First one finds out the minimum requirement
of wind shear for dynamic soaring and the second one reduces the abandoned grey portion inside trajectory for
efficient surveillance. All formulations are subject to glider equations of motion, initial conditions, path
constraints on states and controls and appropriate terminal constraints. Terminal constraints enforce the periodic
dynamic soaring flights for loiter pattern. These optimal control problems are converted into parameter
optimization via a collocation approach and solved numerically with software GPOPS-II.

The value of minimum required wind shear to perform dynamic soaring decreases as the wind shear profile
approaches towards logarithmic variation. In other words, steep change in the slope of wind profile causes efficient
dynamic soaring. This is the reason why seabirds fly near the sea surface where there is steep change in wind
boundary layer profile. As long as the wind shear is greater than the minimum requirement, small UAVs can
sustain flight using energy present in wind shear as the sole power source.

Abandoned grey portion in the area under surveillance reduces with increasing wind shear coefficient which
makes surveillance efficient. Similarly, inside grey portion increases with the decrease of wind shear coefficient,
affects area under surveillance badly. Surveillance becomes efficient with the increase in free stream wind
velocity. Inside grey portion decreases when wind shear profile approaches from linear to logarithmic. In hilly
terrain steep changes in slope of boundary layer can be found easily due to sharp ridges and hence there is huge
deployment of UAVs tuned for dynamic soaring.

1063
References

[1] Rayleigh, L. (1883). The soaring of birds. Nature (London), 27(1), 534–535.
[2] Turcker, V. A. and G. Parrott (1970). Aerodynamics of gliding flight in a falcon and other birds. Journal of Experimental Biology, 52(2),
345–367.
[3] Weimerskirch, H., T. Guionnet, and J. Martin, Fast and fuel efficient, optimal use of wind by flying albatrosses. In Royal Society of
London B. 267(1455), 1869-1874.
[4] Sachs, G. (2005). Minimum shear wind strength required for dynamic soaring of albatrosses. IBIS. 147(1), 1-10.
[5] Zhao, Y. J. (2004). Optimal patterns of glider dynamic soaring. Optimal control application and methods, 25(2), 67–89.
[6] Gao X. Z., Z. X. Hou, Z. Guo, R. F. Fan, and X. Q. Chen (2014). Analysis and design of guidance-strategy for dynamic soaring with
uavs. Elsevier-Control Engineering Practice, 32(1), 218–226.
[7] Rao, A. and M. Patterson (2013). GPOPS-II: MATLAB software for solving multiple phase optimal control problems. ACM Transaction
on Mathematical Software, 39(3).
[8] Rao, A., D. Benson, and C. Darby (2010). Algorithm 902: GPOPS, a MATLAB software for solving multiple-phase optimal control
problems using the gauss pseudo spectral method. ACM Transaction on Mathematical Software, 1(2).
[9] Wai-Fah, C. and E. Lui, Handbook of Structural Engineering. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1997.
[10] Bower, G. C. (2011). Boundary Layer Dynamic Soaring for Autonomous Aircraft: Design and Validation. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford
University.

1064
 ICAER-2015

Sizing Curve for the design of thermal stabilizer of a diesel

engine powered trigeneration system
Mahesh. N. Shelara1* Prasad Gaikwada, G.N. Kulkarnib
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering,KKWagh Institute of Engineering,Nashik 422003,India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering,College of Engineering,Pune,411005,India

Abstract

Integrating absorption chillers with diesel engine generators makes possible the use of its rejected energy for meeting
cooling energy demand. The performance of such an absorption chiller is sensitive to the temperature at its desorber section.
In hot water driven double effect absorption system, the temperature of hot water is to be maintained between 170 0C and
165 0C. A hot water storage tank is therefore proposed to be integrated so as to maintain the water temperature within
allowable limits. Sizing of such a hot water storage referred to as a thermal stabilizer is therefore an important objective. One
such technique proposed is a sizing curve method based on thermal stability time. A generalized methodology for generating
a sizing curve for a cooling load is presented in this paper. The method offers a simplified approach for sizing of thermal
stabilizer for a given diesel generator catering to combined power and thermal demands. This sizing methodology is
illustrated for a 180 kW diesel engine based trigeneration system catering to fluctuating cooling and power loads.

Keywords: Diesel generator,Trigeneration,Thermal stabilizer,Sizing curve.

Nomenclature

A st surface area of insulated storage tank [m2]

Cp specific heat of water [kJ/kgK]
C pg specific heat of engine exhaust gases [kJ/kgK]
COP coefficient of performance
d diameter of storage tank [m]
DG diesel generator
h height of storage tank[m]
mg mass flow rate of exhaust gases of the engine [kg/s]
ms mass flow rate of hot water entering and exiting high temperature desorber [kg/s]
mf fuel consumption rate of engine [kg/s]
m sr mass flow rate of hot water entering and exiting low temperature desorber [kg/s]
mw mass flow rate of engine jacket water [kg/s]
Pc Cooling load in TR
TR tons of refrigeration
T g1 Temperature of exhaust gases entering exhaust gas heat exchanger [0C]
T g2 Temperature of exhaust gases exiting exhaust gas heat exchanger [0C]
Ts Temperature of water in the low temperature storage tank [0C]
T sh Temperature of water in the high temperature storage tank [0C]
Ta Temperature of ambient air [0C]
q stl rate of energy losses from storage [kJ/s]
qr rate of recovered energy [kJ/s]
ql rate of heat energy removed from the storage tank for input to the desorber [kJ/s]
V sh storage volume of high temperature storage tank[m3]
ρ= density of water [kg/m3]

1* Corresponding author. Tel.: 9822052351.

E-mail address: mnshelar@kkwagh.edu.in

1065
1. Introduction

Trigeneration with reciprocating engines as prime movers involve recovery of energy rejected from engines and
using this energy to satisfy cooling and heating demand of a given load.This is known to be beneficial in
reduction in energy use and carbon emissions [1].Energy recovered from exhaust gases is commonly harnessed
using suitably designed heat exchangers[2,3].Absorption chillers come in different configurations and types
which affects its performance [4].Systems approach in analyzing trigeneration systems has been used in many
studies indicating the desirability of trigeneration [5]. Trigeneration systems are required to satisfy the variable
power demand or variable thermal demand depending on the load curve and the mode of operation of diesel
generator. Diesel generators operating in electricity demand following mode would operate at part loads at
times. Part load behavior of engines would result in corresponding reduction in output of absorption chillers. To
compensate for this an hybridization strategy of using a compression chiller along with absorption chiller has
been recommended [6].This strategy makes it possible to operate the diesel generator closer to its rated capacity
while catering to the combined heating, cooling and power demand. For variable thermal demand, trigeneration
systems should include a thermal storage. A reduced thermal demand would require the surplus recovered
energy to be dumped. Thermal storage should be sized to reduce the energy to be dumped. Larger thermal
storage volumes would however mean more surface heat losses. Thermal storage sizing has to be done
remembering these constraints. This paper proposes a sizing methodology for sizing a thermal storage of diesel
engine based trigeneration system integrated with hot water based absorption chiller via a thermal storage for
applications with simultaneous heating, cooling and power demand.

2. Proposed Trigeneration configuration

Diesel engine trigeneration system considered for analysis is shown in Fig. 1. The proposed trigeneration system
would comprise of diesel generator, exhaust heat recovery unit, hot water storages and hot water fired single and
double effect absorption chiller. The absorption chillers are of lithium bromide water type.The energy recovered
from exhaust gases in the form of high temperature water is routed through a high temperature storage tank.This
high temperature hot water is input to the desorber of double effect chiller.Similiarly the energy recovered from
the engine jacket water is routed through low temperature storage tank.This low temperature hot water is input
to the desorber of single effect chiller. Thus, the high temperature storage tank is to be designed as a thermal
stabilizer for double effect chiller. Similiarly the low temperature hot water storage would act as thermal
stabilizer for single effect chiller.The design of high temperature storage (thermal stabilizer) using design space
approach and the related concepts are explained in the following text.

Fig. 1. Trigeneration with thermal storage.

3.Thermal storage as stabilizer and its sizing

Thermal storage is an insulated hot water storage tank whose temperature is controlled within a desirable range.
For operating the absorption chiller at maximum COP controlling the input temperature at the desorber section
of chiller is vital. Thermal storage communicates with the desorber section of absorption chiller and performs
this function. It must be stated at the outset that the thermal storage is more of a stabilizer than an energy storage
tank as it does not allow the delinking of thermal load from production for a considerable period. Stabilization
means maintaining the thermal storage temperature within allowable limit. When the diesel engine is integrated
with hot water absorption chiller via the thermal storage,the temperature at the desorber inlet changes gradually
w.r.t time.This time for which the required temperature at its desorber can be maintained within the allowable

1066
limit is the function of storage volume of the water in the tank. Increase in storage volume reduces the
fluctuations in storage temperatures.Stable temperature enables the operation of chiller.Moreover increase in
storage volume allows the energy to be stored which otherwise would have been rejected to the atmosphere as
hot flue gases. However increase in storage volume increases storage surface area and increases surface thermal
losses in addition to increase in capital costs. The design objective for trigeneration systems is the estimation of
the thermal storage volume for meeting variable cooling demand. Design space approach is used to size thermal
storage. This approach is unique in the sense that instead of giving a single design, it helps a designer to
visualize all possible designs from which an optimum solution could be obtained. Kulkarni et al (7) one of the
authors proposed this approach while designing a solar water heater. P.Arun et al (8) applied this approach for
sizing diesel generator battery system.

4. Mathematical model for high temperature stabilizer

Consider the well insulated thermal recovery tank with water. It receives energy recovered from the engine and
discharges energy to the heating and refrigeration load when needed. The change in internal energy of water in
thermal storage per unit time depends on the energy recovered from the diesel engine body or exhaust gases
(which increases the internal energy) and energy transferred to the absorption chiller and heating load (causing a
decrease in internal energy) and is expressed as (1). Energy Balance for storage volume can be represented by
(1). The heat losses from the storage tank are determined from the equation (2). The energy recovered from
exhaust gases is calculated by (3)

dT
qr = ρVsh Cp +qstl +ql (1)
dt
2
h
qstl = Astl (Tsh − Ta ) where, Astl =1.845* �2+ � *Vsh 3 (2)
d
qr =mg *Cpg *�Tg1 -Tg2 � (3)

5. Design Space and thermal stability time

The concept of design space involves identifying all possible and feasible designs of thermal stabilizer volume
subject to the availability of recovered energy and demand for hot water by absorption chiller. So instead of
identifying a single design that is a single storage volume the design space approach identifies a range of storage
volumes for varying thermal loads. The concept is illustrated for a trigeneration system whose parameters are
specified in Table 1 and 2. In the considered configuration, the volume of insulated hot water high temperature
storage is required to be sized. The sizing criterion is the thermal stability time which is the time for which the
high temperature storage can be maintained in the allowable temperature range. In the designed system, heat of
exhaust gases of the diesel generator is used to heat the water in the high temperature thermal stabilizer. The hot
water in thermal stabiliser is used for providing heat to hot water fired vapour absorption machine. The
temperature of water is supposed to be in between a certain temperature range for the vapour absorption
machine to function at maximum COP. When the system operates with the thermal stabilizer, both the cooling
loads and power demand are met by the diesel generator based trigeneration system. Even after assuming that
the engine and the absorption chiller operate at the rated capacity, the temperature in the storage tank would
vary considering the impossible task of matching the recovered energy with demand. The time for which the
storage temperature can be maintained within the allowable temperature range when the system caters to the
cooling demand is the stability time. In other words, the time required for water in stability tank to exceed the
upper temperature limit or fall below the lower limit is defined as stability time. Once the stability time is
exceeded, it becomes necessary for the system to control the system by altering the storage temperature. These
control strategies would involve dumping the exhaust gases to the atmosphere if the storage temperature is
exceeded or switching to an auxiliary heating source if the storage temperature falls below lower limit. Short
stability times results in unsteady operation of system due to requirement of frequently dumping the energy of
exhaust gases to atmosphere or switching on the auxiliary source. On the other hand, longer stability times
would necessitate use of larger storage volumes. Choice of stability time depends on the nature of load curve
and the loading duration. For example if the trigeneration is a backup system to the grid, lower stability times
would be desirable. In situations where trigeneration systems have longer and continuous hours of operation
longer stability times might be attractive.Based on the concept of stability time, feasible and unfeasible storage
volumes could be identified. Thermal storage volume which results in storage temperature variation within
allowable limits during stability time of an hour is the feasible volume. If the temperature exceeds the limit it is
considered unfeasible volume. These concepts and the sizing methodology is explained first for constant loading
conditions and then by considering variation in power and cooling loads.

1067
Table 1.System parameters and input data for illustrative example

Load Peak power demand is 180 kW and may vary .Cooling demand vary after an hour. Heating load is zero.

Engine V type turbocharged water cooled diesel engine with 180 kW capacity at 1500 rpm and compression ratio of 16.7.

Absorption chiller Thermax make, hot water operated double effect lithium bromide water system of maximum capacity 30 TR and
COP=1.4.Single effect chiller has a COP =0.7

Storage Cylindrical,well mixed,always full,Mild steel,wall thickness 6 mm,h/d=1.2,insulated with glass wool
(k=0.4W/mK) and 0.2 m thick.

Table 2.Specifications of Diesel engine generator at full load

Parameter Value
Rating in kW 180
Mass flow rate of jacket water 2.08kg/s
Heat carried away by jacket water 40 kW
Mass flow rate of exhaust gases 0.25kg/s
Temperature of exhaust gases 540°C
Jacket water inlet temperature to DG 90°C
Specific fuel consumption 210g/kWh
Air fuel ratio 22

6.Sizing on the basis of thermal stability

Based on this criterion of a thermal stability time, sizing was done. Stability time of a hour was considered.Two
terms, feasible and unfeasible storage volumes are defined. In the illustrative example the allowable temperature
of water is between 170oC and 165 oC. These constraints of allowable temperatures are introduced in the
desorber section of absorption chiller. Expression (1) is employed for calculating the temperature of water in the
storage for the considered time interval. For a given trigeneration load, if the storage volume is increased it
would correspondingly reduce the storage temperature. If this storage temperature falls below 1650 C, chiller
cannot operate. Thus the minimum temperature of water at the absorption chiller desorber puts an upper limit on
the storage volume. On the other hand, for the given trigeneration load, when the storage volume is reduced, the
storage temperature would increase and if that exceeds the saturation temperature, evaporation would result.
This is not desirable for hot water operated chiller. This requirement puts a lower limit on storage volume. Thus,
for a given diesel generator set operating to satisfy a rated power demand and given cooling cum heating
demand, there are two storage volume limits corresponding to 1650C and 1700C respectively.To illustrate this
we assume a constant power and cooling load on trigeneration system closer to rated capacity . For the diesel
generator delivering 180 kW and loaded for an hour with 30 TR cooling load, trigeneration system with 2.6 m3
storage volumes (Fig 2a) would imply feasible design, but a 1.5 m3 storage volume becomes an infeasible case
(Fig 2b). The lower limit volume when selected for 30 TR load would minimize surface losses from storage
tank .The upper limit means an increase in storage volume beyond it would make this trigeneration system
infeasible/unacceptable As seen in Fig 3a, trigeneration system with storage volume of 11m3 with a 180 kW
diesel generator subjected to load profile of 180 kW power, 30 TR cooling and negligible heating demand for an
hour makes the design feasible (upper limit). This means that a trigeneration system can operate for one hour
satisfying the cooling load of 30 TR even without exceeding the temperature range. We can say that the storage
acts as a stabilizer for an hour when the cooling load is 30 TR.
However that does not mean that a larger storage volume would increase the stabilizer time indefinitely. The
reason is as follows. An increase in storage volume would lead to increase in surface losses beyond an
acceptable minimum. Thus a storage volume of 20 m3 is an infeasible case (Fig 3b).Based on these thermal
storage temperature limits, a design space region is identified and a sizing curve is obtained (Fig. 4).The sizing
curve has been obtained for the minimum stability time of 1 hour .It therefore helps us chose a range of storage
volumes under varying cooling loads based on stability criterion. This sizing curve gives the range of feasible
storage volumes when the cooling load on the absorption chiller capacity varies near its rated capacity.Thus for
an engine based trigeneration system when the cooling load changes from 30 TR to 25 TR in a hour then a 2.6
m3 storage volume becomes infeasible. However if instead a 10 m3 storage is chosen this fluctuations in cooling

1068
load for a hour is stabilised.Thus a 10m3 storage is the feasible storage volume if the cooling load fluctuates
from 30 TR to 25 TR with a time interval of a hour.Choice of storage volume would depend on the nature of
load curve.For applications where the load curve is variable, longer stability times would be necessary
especially because then the stabilizers might also serve as thermal battery. The role of thermal stabilizer as a
thermal battery is explained in the following section.

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. (a) Variation of storage temperature 2.6m3 storage, 30 TR cooling ; (b) Variation of storage temperature 1.5m3 storage,30 TR
cooling.

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. (a) Variation of storage temperature for 11m3 storage, 30 TR cooling ; (b) Variation of storage temperature 20m3 storage,30 TR
cooling.

25

20 Infeasible design space

Storage volume in m3

15

10 Feasible design space

5
Infeasible design space
0
25 25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30
VAM Capacity in TR

Figure 4. Sizing Curve for high temperature stabilizer system

1069
7. Thermal stabilizer as a battery
A hot water tank sized as a stabilizer also acts as a thermal battery for a smaller duration.This becomes obvious
from the data included in Table 3 .The thermal battery time of a diesel engine integrated chiller system catering
to 30 TR load increases with an increase in storage volume. The upper limit volume of 11 m3 allows the thermal
stabilizer to act as a thermal battery for more than half an hour. This means the thermal stabilizer can cater to the
cooling demand while the diesel generator takes a shut down for the time equal to battery time. It however needs
to be emphasized that the storage cannot be sized to act as a thermal battery for a longer duration due to the
lower specific heat capacity of water. However the main advantage of introducing a storage is the capacity to
withstand fluctuating cooling loads. It is seen that a storage volume of 11 m3 originally sized for 30 TR system
can cater to varying loads with stable operation. Choosing a 2.5 m3 size would not give this stability during
fluctuating cooling loads.
It would be of interest to size the thermal storage volume under variable loads. The load curve under
consideration is Fig 5 and Fig 6. It is seen that there are variations in the power demand as well as cooling
demand per hour which results in part loading of diesel generator and absorption chiller.This dynamic situation
alters the feasible storage volumes because the rate of energy input and withdrawal from thermal storage
changes.As an example, consider a time interval of 4pm to 5 pm where the cooling load is 32TR.In this
period,the recovered energy is 75kW due to part loading of diesel generator. The desorber input required for
cooling load of 32TR is greater than the recovered energy.In this particular time interval thermal stabilizer
functions as a battery and supplies the deficit heat energy required to be supplied to the desorber of chiller.
Similarly in the time interval of 6pm to 7 pm the recovered energy is 50kW due to part loading of diesel
generator while the cooling load is 23TR.In this case, the recovered energy is less than the energy required to
be supplied to absorption chiller, Hence the thermal stabilizer again functions as a battery and supplies deficit
heat to absorption chiller.Based on the above,upper and lower feasible volume are to be identified..For 32 TR
peak load with similar hourly variation in cooling demand ,feasible storage volumes are in the range of 6m3 to
8m3.for the trigeneration system subjected to variable power and cooling demands.Sizing curve is generated for
variable load inputs assuming a similar nature of load curves with lower peaks .(Fig 7).

Table 3.Stabilizer as a thermal battery for 30 TR chiller integrated with diesel generator

Volume(m3) Stability time(hours) Battery time(hours) Time for charging(hours)

DG ON , Chiller ON DG OFF, Chiller ON DG ON, Chiller OFF
2.6 1 0.17 0.27
8 9.7 0.48 0.58
10 38.4 0.59 0.75
11 624 0.64 0.85

120

100
Load on DG(kW)

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time(pm)

Fig 5.Typical power load curve to be met by diesel generator

1070
 40

Cooling load(TR)
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
time(pm)

Fig 6. Typical cooling load curve on Trigeneration

12
Volume of storage(cubic metre)

10

8 Infeasible region

6 Feasible space

4
infeasible space
2

0
30.5 31 31.5 32 32.5 33 33.5 34 34.5 35 35.5
VAM capacity(TR)

Fig 7.Sizing curve under variable loads

8. Conclusions
Trigeneration system with pressurized storage would aid in harnessing the exhaust energy in double effect
absorption chiller resulting in better coefficient of performance. Introducing a high temperature thermal storage
would aid in managing the mismatch between the thermal demand and energy recovered. Design space
methodology for sizing such storage is described and the feasible design space is identified. The design space
gives an upper and lower storage volume limit for a stable and steady state operation of the system for a definite
period termed as stability time. The upper feasible storage volume gives a larger stability time period beyond
which the system becomes unstable. It was shown that the trigeneration system with a larger stabilizer size also
serves as a thermal battery for a smaller period.

9. References
[1] K.F.Fong, C.K Lee, Performance analysis of internal-combustion-engine primed trigeneration systems for use in high-rise office
buildings in Hong Kong Energy Procedia 61, 2014, pp. 2319 – 2322.
[2] N.H.Shekh, B.Saiful, Waste heat recovery from a diesel engine using shell and tube heat exchanger, Applied Thermal Engineering
61,2013,pp. 355-363.
[3] N.H.Shekh, B.Saiful, Waste heat recovery from the exhaust of a diesel generator using Rankine Cycle, Energy Conversion and
Management 75, 2013,pp.141–151.
[4]K.Herold, S. Klein, R. Radermacher, Absorption Chillers and Heat Pumps, CRC Press, Florida, United States of America,1995.
[5]D.Gewald, S. Karellas, A. Schuster, H.Spliethoff, Integrated system approach for increase of engine combined cycle efficiency Energy
Conversion and Management 60, 2012, pp. 36–44.
[6]Shelar Mahesh, Bagade Sunil , Kulkarni Govind. Trigeneration for a typical Indian Hospital: An assessment considering compulsory load
management scenario, Proceedings of International conference on advances in energy research, 2009, pp.338-342, IIT Bombay, India
[7]G.N.Kulkarni,S.B.Kedare,S. Bandyopadhyay, Determination of design space and optimization of solar water heating systems, Solar
Energy, 81, 2007,pp. 958–68.
[8]P.Arun,Rangan Banerjee,Santanu Bandyopadhyay,Sizing curve for design of isolated power systems, Energy for Sustainable
Development, 11,2007,pp.21-28.

1071
 ICAER-2015

Energy Efficient Jaggery Making using Freeze Pre-concentration

of Sugarcane Juice
M V Rane a, D B Uphadea
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, INDIA 400 076

Abstract

Conventional jaggery making with a pan furnace consumes all bagasse for evaporation of water. Hot spots during boiling of
juice causes caramelization of sugar. It gives dark brown colour to jaggery, which has low market value. Chemicals like lime,
phosphoric acid and hydros powder are used as clarificant to enhance colour of jaggery. Traces of these chemicals in jaggery
are harmful to human health. Freeze pre-concentration of sugarcane juice from 20°Brix to 40°Brix using a reversible heat
pump saves bagasse during initial 63% water removal. Water is removed in the form of ice. It requires 335 kJ/kg heat removal,
which is equivalent to 15% of heat addition during evaporation. Recycling of saved bagasse in field improves the yield of
sugarcane. Juice is exposed to -5°C during pre-concentration. It reduces inversion of sucrose and expected to improve the
quality of jaggery by reduced exposure time to high temperature. Simple cycle analysis for FPCS of juice shows that COP c is
18 with R22 as refrigerant at -8°C evaporator and 3°C condenser temperature. Overall system COPc is expected, to be in the
range of 9 to 12 after accounting for losses like cycling of thermal mass and heat gain from ambient. Power required for 1.5
TR FPCS is 0.5 to 0.6 kW e, which is about 0.1 INR/kg of jaggery produced. Payback period for FPCS is one year. Sugar
inclusion in ice is estimated using empirical correlations for flow of solution over flat surface and it is 19.1°Brix. Energy
consumption, sugar loss and cost of system are estimated. Ways of reducing sugar loss are investigated along with repercussion
on energy consumption and system cost.
Keywords: Freeze Pre-concentration System; reversible heat pump; COP; bagasse saving; sugar inclusion.

1. Introduction

Jaggery making is the oldest cottage industry in India. Jaggery and khandsari making crushed more than 20 to
30% of sugarcane [1]. It is reported that 7 million ton jaggery was produced in 2004. Per capita consumption of
jaggery and sugar is 8.1 kg and 14.2 kg respectively [2]. It indicates that about 36% sweetener need is provided
by jaggery. Conventionally jaggery is produced by evaporation of water in open pan/s. Furnace is fired using
bagasse, which is residue of sugarcane, obtained during juice extraction. Furnace heat utilization efficiency is
very low, which is ~15% for single [3], ~30% for two [4], and 50 to 60% for four pans [5]. It also depends on
number of parameters like sizes of pan, furnace and chimney, flue gas flow patterns, orientation and air inlets,
bagasse firing practices, etc. In addition to this, these units are mainly designed and developed through past
experiences. Saving of bagasse gives additional revenues to the farmers. Chemicals like lime, phosphoric acid
and hydros powder are used by jaggery makers to clarify juice [1,6,7]. Traces of these chemicals in the jaggery
are harmful for human health. These key issues are addressed by Energy Efficient Freeze Pre-concentration
Process. In this process, water is selectively freezed and separated from juice to form ice and concentrated juice.
o o
Freezing point of juice changes from -1.5 to -4.6 C [8] for 20 to 40 Brix. During this initial 63% water removal,
bagasse is saved and that can be recycled in field for composting. Concentrated juice is obtained at low
temperature. This juice is further concentrated using steam jacketed pan with vegetative clarificants. Altogether,
it improves colour of jaggery from dark brown to golden yellow which has higher market value.

In the present work, improved freeze concentration system for energy efficient jaggery making is investigated
for energy consumption, sugar loss and system cost. Different ways of reducing sugar loss are investigated along
with repercussion on energy consumption and system cost.


Corresponding author. Tel: +91 22 2576 7514; fax: +91 22 2576 6875.
E-mail address: ranemv@iitb.ac.in

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 Nomenclature Greek Symbols

ADC average distribution coefficient, unitless  density, kg/m3

c concentration, oBrix  efficiency, %
cp specific heat at constant pressure, kJ/kg.K
d diameter, m
h enthalpy, kJ/kg
IGR ice growth rate, micron/s Abbreviations
mf mass flow rate, kg/s CJ_HE Concentrated Juice Heat Exchanger
p pressure, bar COP Coefficient of Performance
Q heat duty, kW EV Expansion Valve
t temperature, oC FPCS Freeze Pre-concentration System
thk thickness, m LHE Latent Heat Exchanger
v velocity, m/s LL_HE Liquid-Liquid Heat Exchanger
x quality, % R22 Refrigerant 22
W power, kW SP State Point

Subscripts
av average i inlet
c cooling ice ice
crnt carnot ini initial
cj concentrated juice ise isentropic
cmp compressor lat latent
cnd condenser/condensation o outlet
cw cold water r refrigerant
e electrical rj raw juice
evp evaporator/evaporation ss sugar solution
fpd freezing point depression vol volume/volumetric

2. Overview of Conventional Jaggery Making Process

In conventional jaggery making process, harvested sugarcane from field is stored near the crushing area. Juice
is extracted by horizontal roller crusher operated using electric motor or diesel engine. Conventional jaggery
making process with typical number of quantity is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Conventional Jaggery Making

Typical extraction efficiency ranges from 60 to 70%. Residue of juice extraction, bagasse, contains about 45
to 55% moisture. It is sun dried upto 15 to 25% by spreading in open space. Juice is filtered to remove suspended
fine bagasse particles and pumped to settling cum storage tank. As the earlier batch finishes, filtered juice is
preheated to 70 to 85oC in pan and first scum is removed. Clarificants like milk of lime, phosphoric acid, hydros
powder, mucilage of lady’s finger are added to improve clarification and quality of jaggery. Frothing and bubbling

1073
of juice is reduced by continuous stirring using manual scrapping at bottom of pan or rotating horizontal rod
mechanism. Second scum is removed as concentration progresses. Total scum quantity ranges from 1.5 to 4%
of juice [5]. Continuous stirring helps to prevent frothing, spillage of juice from pan and caramelization of sugar
[9] by reducing hot spot formation as turbulence in juice instead of pool heating. Viscosity of syrup is tested by
skilled person. Syrup from pan is poured in cooling and crystallizing pot. This cooled syrup is poured in moulds
covers with wet cotton cloth or gunny bags. It facilitates easy removal of solid jaggery from moulds. This
conventional jaggery making process may slightly vary from region to region. Quality of jaggery depends on
variety of sugarcane, its cultivation, farming, practices applied in usage of water and fertiliser, boiling practices
like use of clarificants, furnace firing practices, pan and furnace specifications etc.
The number of open pan/s used for concentrating juice depends on severity of bagasse use. Some cane varieties
are sugar rich while some are fibre rich. Single pan jaggery making with sugarcane having low fibre and high
sugar content may require additional fuel other than bagasse. This issue was addressed by increasing number of
pan for preheating and concentration. Two, three and four pan furnaces are reported in literature. It shows that
furnace heat utilization efficiency increases with number of pans. Initial investment also increases with increase
in number of operators. Quality of jaggery is still being questioned, as chemical clarificants are used to enhance
colour of juice and hence colour of jaggery. Organic sugarcane cultivation and crushing same sugarcane for
organic jaggery making using only vegetative clarificant showing huge potential in Indian market as well as for
export. India has exported 1.4% of total jaggery and confectionary exported by all countries in 2012 [10]. This
huge opportunity can be met by continuous and automated operation of small jaggery units. It will offer addition
employment and help to improve status of debt ridden sugarcane farmers. These issues are addressed by Energy
Efficient Freeze Pre-concentration of Sugarcane Juice using a Reversible Heat Pump.

3. Freeze Concentration Systems

Water is removed in the form of ice from sugarcane juice by selective freezing. This process of water removal
is shown by freezing curve in sucrose-water phase equilibrium diagram, Figure 2.

Figure 2: Sucrose-Water Phase Equilibrium Diagram (Mathlouthi and Reiser, 1995)

Sugarcane juice at room temperature and 20oBrix [5] is subcooled from point ‘a’ to ‘b’. Solidification of water
commences, at point ‘b’, at -1.5oC, simultaneously concentration of remaining juice increases, during process ‘b’

1074
to ‘c’. Due to dissolved sucrose in water, water gets freeze out at -1.5oC instead of 0oC if the water is pure. This
drop in freezing temperature of water in juice is called as freezing point depression. Concentration of outlet juice
depends on quantity of water frozen out and it is limited by eutectic temperature, which is -13.9oC at 63oBrix.
Beyond this point, the whole juice gets solidified and aim of concentration of juice cannot be achieved.

Process a to b: subcooling of solution, temperature reduces from 30 oC to -1.5oC

Process b to c: freezing of water, temperature reduces from -1.5oC to -4.6oC for 20 to 40oBrix of solution

Ice formed by concentrating 1 kg solution from 20 to 40oBrix is estimated by mass and concentration balance,
mice = mss.i . (1 - css.i / css.o) …(1)

= 1 kg (1 - 20oBrix / 40oBrix) = 1 kg (1 - 0.5) = 1 kg x 0.5 = 0.5 kg

This shows that from 1 kg solution at 20oBrix, out of 800 g of water, 500 g water is removed in the form of ice,
which is 63% of total water in the initial solution.

Freezing of water inside the tube is reported by Miyawaki et al., 2005 [11] for coffee extract, tomato juice and
sucrose solution. Solution is recirculated in closed loop arrangement. Water freezes layer by layer inside the
circular tubes, subcooled from outside and after sufficient ice deposition, the whole system is dismantled to
remove ice from the tubes. Sugar solution is concentrated from 8.9 oBrix to 20.7oBrix in 90 min with 5.49 mm/h
ice growth rate, inclusion is 0.65oBrix. Second sample of solution is concentrated from 41.4 oBrix to 54.8obrix in
130 min with 3.04 mm/h ice growth rate, inclusion is 18.7oBrix.

Auleda et al., 2011 [12] developed a calculation methodology to design a multi-plate freeze concentrator for
fruit juice concentration. Juice flows over the vertical parallel plates under gravity. Rane and Jabade 2005
[13,14] proposed freeze concentration of sugarcane juice using a heat pump and have shown that concentration
of juice from 20 to 40oBrix saves about 77% bagasse with improvement in quality. Specific power requirement
is 17.2 kWhe/m3 water removal. Rane and Padiya, 2010 [15,16] showed two stage heat pump with external
condenser for freeze concentration of seawater desalination requires 9 to 11 kWh e/m3 water at COPc 8 to 12.
Improved freeze pre-concentration system is investigated and compared for sugar inclusion, energy consumption
and system cost.

4. FPCS using Reversible Heat Pump

Schematic of Freeze Pre-concentration System for sugarcane juice pre-concentration from 20oBrix to 40oBrix
is shown in Figure 3. This system consists of heat exchangers namely Liquid-Liquid Heat Exchanger, LL_HE,
two Latent Heat Exchangers, LHE and Concentrated Juice Heat Exchanger, CJ_HE. Process of cooling and
heating in LHE is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Process of Cooling or Heating in LHE during Each Half Cycle

LHE Work / In/Out First Half Cycle Process Second Half Cycle Process
LHE1 Work as Evaporator Condenser
Inlet Subcooling of raw juice, freezing Sensible and latent heating of ice
of water, concentration of juice, Melting of ice
subcooling of ice
Outlet Concentrated juice Water

LHE2 Work as Condenser Evaporator

Inlet Sensible and latent heating of ice Subcooling of raw juice, freezing of
Melting of ice water, concentration of juice,
subcooling of ice
Outlet Water Concentrated juice

LL_HE precools the sugarcane juice using streams of concentrated juice coming from CJ_HE and cold water
coming from LHE during each half cycle. One LHE is used freezing of water from juice flow and another for
melting of ice. They are operated alternately as evaporator and condenser. CJ_HE recovers the superheat of
refrigerant for heating of concentrated juice coming from evaporator.

1075
 Figure 3: Heat Pump based Freeze Pre-concentration of Sugarcane Juice

This system consists of 1 three way valve, V1, for directing juice flow to LHE, working as evaporator and 3
four way valves, V2, V3 and V4. Valve, V2, for directing concentrated juice flow coming from evaporator to
LL_HE and two valves, V3 and V4 for directing refrigerant flow in heat pump circuit. R22 compressor with 1.5
TR is selected for investigations on inclusion and its repercussions on system cost. SS circular tube OD 9.52, 1
mm thick, 6 m long tubes in series are used in Tube-Tube type Heat Exchanger.

4.1 Working Principle

Fresh sugarcane juice at room temperature about 27oC enters in the evaporator, LHE1, through LL_HE where
it gets pre-cooled to -1.5oC before entering into the evaporator, LHE1. At freezing temperature of juice, which is
-1.5oC, ice layer starts to build up inside the tube. It will start to build up pressure drop, as a result pressure drop
across the evaporator will increase. This reduces the evaporator temperature, as ice thickness has low thermal
conductance. Expected thickness of formed ice in the system is 1 to 3 mm. Simultaneously, in condenser, LHE2,
ice gets heated in two steps, comprising sensible heating from -4.6oC to 0oC, followed by latent heating, at 0oC.
At certain low evaporator pressure, all three way and four way valves are operated for the second a half cycle of
the system. During second half cycle, LHE1 acts as condenser and LHE2 will acts as evaporator.
Refrigerant circuit removes heat from the evaporator and rejects it into condenser. Sugarcane juice circuit
gives heat in evaporator and ice receives back in condenser. Compressed refrigerant enters into the CJ_HE and
dissipates superheat for heating concentrated juice coming out from evaporator, LHE1, and then used to precool
incoming juice. Refrigerant vapour are further cooled by melting ice in condenser, LHE2. Liquid refrigerant
from LHE2 is directed to four way valve, V3 and expanded into the evaporator, LHE1, through expansion valve.
It receives heat from precooled juice. Saturated vapours of refrigerant are sucked by compressor and half cycle
repeats after switching of valve for back to the first half cycle.

5. Calculations

Analysis of Freeze Pre-concentration System is presented here for mass flow rate, heat duty and inclusion
estimation. Following are the assumptions to simplify calculations.
1. Negligible superheat in evaporator and subcooling in condenser, negligible pressure drop in heat exchanger
2. Minimum temperature approaches in LHE, 3oC

1076
3. Compressor isentropic efficiency is 70%
4. Heat transfer across streams of fluids in valves is neglected
5. Ambient heat gain is neglected

Temperature of juice at inlet of evaporator is -1.5oC and it is to reduce to -4.6oC using evaporator. Refrigerant
temperature in evaporator becomes -7.6oC. Melting temperature of ice in condenser is 0oC. Refrigerant
condensation temperature becomes 3oC. Temperature lift of cycle is 10.6 oC.

Mass balance of material across evaporator,

Raw juice = concentrated juice + ice/water
mfrj = mfcj + mfice

Rearranging for water/ice flow, mfice,

mfice = mfrj - mfcj …(2)

Concentration balance of material across evaporator,

mfrj . crj = mfcj . ccj + mfice . cice …(3)

Initially, it is assumed that negligible sugar inclusion in ice. Hence, Eqn 3 may reduce to,
mfrj . crj = mfcj . ccj

Rearranging for concentrated juice flow, mfcj,

mfcj = mfrj . crj / ccj …(4)

Mass flow rate of water, mfice, during pre-concentration, using Eqn 2 and 4,
mfice = mfrj . (1- crj / ccj) …(5)

Heat balance across evaporator,

Refrigerant cooling effect = subcooling of concentrated juice + ice formation
Qc = Qcj + Qice …(6)

Cooling capacity of compressor at evaporator -8oC and condenser 3oC is estimated from manufacturers chart,
Qc = Qcj + (Qlat.ice + Qice.sen)

Qc = mfcj . cpcj . (trj.evp.i - tcj.evp.o) + mfice . [hlat.ice + cpice . (trj.evp.i - tcj.evp.o)] …(7)

Mass flow rate of raw juice, mfrj is calculated using eqn 4.

Qc
mfrj= c c …(8)
rj rj
. cpcj. (trj.evp.i - tcj.evp.o ) + (1- ) .[ hlat.ice + cpice . (trj.evp.i - tcj.evp.o )]
ccj ccj
Ratio of sensible enthalpy of concentrated juice to the latent heat of ice is 2.0%, hence ice growth rate is not
affected much by subcooling of concentrated juice. Similarly, sensible enthalpy of ice to latent heat of ice is
2.4%. Hence, both sensible heat can be neglected to get a rough estimate of mass flow rate of raw juice, mfrj.

Mass flow rate of refrigerant, mfr,

mfr = Qc / (hd - hc) …(9)

Compressor work, Wcmp, heat duty of concentrated juice, Qcj_he, and condenser duty, Qcnd, are calculated from
known mass flow rate of refrigerant.
Cooling coefficient of performance, COPc,
COPc = Qc / Wcmp …(10)

Carnot efficiency, hcrnt,

hcrnt = COPc / COPcrnt …(11)

Heat duty of sugarcane juice in LL_HE, Qrj.llhe, is calculated as follows,

Qrj.llhe = mfrj . cprj . (trj.llhe.i - trj.llhe.o) …(12)

Heat duties of concentrated juice, Qcj.llhe, and cold water, Qcw.llhe, are estimated assuming 50% contribution to

1077
heat transfer by each flow stream.

Power loss in cycling of thermal mass,

Qth.lhe = [(mflhe.ss . cpss + mflhe.cu . cpcu) . (trj.lhe.i - tcj.lhe.o)]/timehlf.cyc …(13)

It is deducted from cooling effect, Qc, to obtain actual cooling available for freezing of water.
Heat pump cycle on t-s and p-h diagrams for R22 refrigerant are shown below,

Figure 4: t-s and p-h diagrams for FPCS with RHP

Based on ASHRAE, 2013 [17] data, performance of cycle is estimated. Carnot COP for lift of 10.6 oC is 25.1.

Sugar Inclusion of Ice

Average Distribution Coefficient, ADC, is defined as the ratio of concentration of sugar in ice to the
concentration of solution.
ADC = cice / css …(14)

Average Distribution Coefficient, ADC, is estimated using empirical correlation provided by Chen et al., 2014
[18]. It applies for flow of solution over vertical flat surface.
vice … (15)
ADC = -0.1 + 0.32 . tfpd - 0.04 . tfpd 2 + 0.12 0.5
vss

Average distribution is calculated for different juice velocity and ice growth rates. It is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: ADC vs Sugarcane Juice Velocity at different IGR

1078
 Low ice growth rate, IGR, at any velocity of juice favours low inclusion. Mass transfer of sugar gets sufficient
time to travel from ice-juice interface to the juice. Faster the ice formation, less will be the sugar transport time
and sugar get included in the ice. This is not favourable situation, as sugar get lost in water. Higher velocity than
2 m/s has not more effect on inclusion for 1 micron/s IGR. Case 1, 2 and 3 are discussed in next section.

6. Results and Discussions

Water removal rate for different outlet concentrations is analyzed. Ways of reducing the sugar inclusion in ice
are investigated and analyzed for their effect on sugar loss and system cost. Benefits of freeze pre-concentration
are discussed.

6.1 Limiting Concentration for Freeze Concentration System

Freeze concentration from 20obrix to 33obrix removes about 50% of total water available in juice. Figure 6
shows the variation in water quantity removed during change in concentration starting with 20 oBrix. Dotted line
indicates the water quantity remaining in juice. Shaded portion shows the area of freeze pre-concentration from
20oBrix to 40oBrix. During this concentration change, 62.5% water is removed in the form of ice and remaining
37.5% water is to be removed by steam jacketed boiling. Increase in outlet concentration from 40oBrix to 50oBrix,
13% more water get removed. This rate of water removal may not be justified by increase in sugar loss. Three
cases are presented in the next section.

FPCS Zone Open

Pan Boiling

Figure 6: Water Removed/Remained from/in Juice vs Outlet Concentration

Limiting factors for outlet concentration are inclusion in ice and eutectic point, 63 oBrix. Inclusion increases
as the inlet juice concentration increases. It also depends upon velocity of juice and ice growth rate. Hence,
freezing close to the eutectic point is not considered due to high sugar loss in water.

6.2 Analysis of Sugar Loss and System Cost

Mass flow of juice is estimated using Eqn 9 for known cooling capacity of compressor. Inclusion is estimated
using correlation given by Chen et al., 2014. Weighted average of inclusion is calculated at inlet and outlet flow
for half cycle. As the inclusion for initial condition is 19.1oBrix and 47.9% of actual available sugar in raw juice
is lost. It is too high and reduces recovery of jaggery. This operation is not economical. Hence, velocity of juice

1079
is increased to 1.0 m/s by recirculation of same juice using small capacity pump. MathCAD program was run to
calculate inclusion and system cost.

Table 3: Comparison of Inclusion and System Cost

Case Condition vjc.evp.i vice vcj.evp.o cice cice.av losssug.ice dcice.av Costini
m/s μm/s m/s Brix
o o
Brix % %, wrt case 1 %, wrt case 1

Initial 0.60 3.65 0.60 17.0

1 19.1 47.9 -- --
Final 0.82 3.65 0.82 40.4
Initial 1.00 3.65 1.00 14.5
2 16.9 42.2 -11.5 4.5
Final 1.35 3.65 1.35 36.1

Initial 2.00 1.82 2.00 10.1

3 12.9 32.3 -32.5 58.0
Final 2.70 1.82 2.70 28.6

Inclusion is reduced to 16.9oBrix from 19.1oBrix, sugar loss in water is 42.2% of total available sugar in raw
juice. Energy consumption increased by 19% due to an additional pump. Hence, next option is to decrease ice
growth rate by increasing heat exchange area. It increases cost of heat exchanger with recirculation pump to
overcome pressure drop. Program was run for this condition, it indicates that cost of latent heat exchangers get
doubled with sugar loss of 32.3% of available sugar in raw juice. Further reduction in inclusion requires additional
heat exchange area. Loss of sugar gets reduced from 47.9% to 42.2% and to 32.3% in above investigated cases.
Theoretical system COPc is 18, accounting cycling of thermal mass and ambient heat gain expected COP c is 9 to
12. Specific energy consumption is 9 to 11 kWhe/m3 water. Carnot efficiency of heat pump cycle is 35 to 48%.

6.3 Advantages of FPCS are as follows,

1. Low specific power consumption 9 to 11 kWh e/m3 water removal

2. Saving of bagasse upto 77% of produced bagasse. It gives additional revenue to farmers
3. Reduction in area required for jaggery making unit by 60%
4. Quality of jaggery gets improved. Colour of jaggery gets improved without using chemicals
5. Reduction in pan size, which is required for boiling of concentrated juice
6. Operation of system is also possible using solar photo-voltaic cells
7. Automated operation reduces number of workers required to handle boiling process

7. Conclusions

Conventional jaggery making process consumes large quantity of bagasse due to low furnace heat utilization.
Boiling of juice at high temperature causes hot spots, it leads to caramelization of sugar. It gives dark brown
colour to jaggery. Hence, jaggery makers uses chemicals to improve clarification of juice. These issues are
addressed by improved Freeze Pre-concentration System. It shows better prospects for efficient way of jaggery
making. Researchers reported use of heat pump for concentration of juice, but sugar lost in inclusion and system
cost are high. Energy consumption of improved FPCS system is 9 to 11 kWhe/m3 water removal at COPc 9 to 12.
Partial heat removal of condenser heat helps to maintain condenser temperature at 3 oC and it is used for heating
concentrated juice. It improves cycle COP and overall energy efficiency of FPCS. Challenge of excess condenser
heat to melt ice is overcome by this improved FPCS. Quality of jaggery is improved by reducing exposure of
juice to low temperature during 63% water removal. Recycling of saved bagasse in field improves organic content
of soil and productivity of sugarcane improves. Further study on effect of removal of juice composition like
proteins and polyphenols in syrup, after pre-concentration, on quality of jaggery and experimental investigations
for actual specific energy consumption and inclusion will be done in future.

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[16] Rane M V and Padiya Y S (2010), “Heat Pump Operated Freeze Concentration System with Tubular Heat Exchanger for Seawater
Desalination”, Journal of Energy for Sustainable Development, vol 15, pp 184-191.
[17] American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers, “Handbook of Fundamentals” (2013), pp 30.4-30.5.
[18] Chen X D, Wu W D, 2014, “An Analytical Relationship of Concentration-Dependent Interfacial Solute Distribution Coefficient for
Aqueous Layer Freeze Concentration”, Journal of American Chemical Engineers’, pp 1-11.

1081
 ICAER-2015

Numerical Investigations for Optimal Design and Development of

a Small-Scale HAWT using CFD
1
Umesh Chaudhary, Praveen Tripathy, and Sisir Kumar Nayak
Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India

Abstract

In this presented work, geometric parameters like chord length and twist angle of the blade, and aerodynamic forces are
optimized using MATLAB programming. The basic airfoil shape has been taken as NACA 63-415. The optimization has been
done using classical blade element momentum theory with the aid of the Prandtls tip loss correction factor. The optimized
design was then imported and modeled in Pro/ENGINEER. This optimal design, the dynamic simulations have been carried
out by ADAMS software to measure the torque characteristics. The torque performance data of ADAMS simulation has been
compared with 3D unsteady simulation using CFD software ANSYS/Fluent at a wind speed of 10 m/s. The flow properties
around the 3D solid model of wind turbine rotor have also been analyzed in ANSYS/Fluent. The performance and flow
properties has been analyzed at rotating condition. The SST k   turbulence model is implemented to solve the RANS
equations. The turbine performances are analyzed in respect of average torque and power coefficient. The results obtained
from both ADAMS and ANSYS/Fluent seems to be quite encouraging as the percentage error is found negligible. Furthermore,
the various flow patterns analysis around these turbines is carried out in terms of velocity magnitude counter and pressure
counter.
Keywords: Blade element momentum (BEM) theory, horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), power coefficient, and chord and twist
distribution;

1. Introduction

The development activities in the field of renewable energy are increasing due to the rising energy
requirement and also for the fast diminution of the fossils fuels. Furthermore, fossil fuels emit high rate of
greenhouse gases, which is a great threat to our world [1]. Wind energy is one of the best options, as far as the
demands for the environmentally clean and safe energy is concerned. In order to achieve better performance in
the field of small size applications, small-scale horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) is a good option as because
of their capability to operate in on as well as off grid mode, ease to install and low cost of maintenance. Though
substantial advancement has been achieved, in spite of that, the existing technological designs for small-scale
implementations are not sufficient. In general cost-effective rationalization for a probable wind farm depends upon
the wind turbine efficiency. Therefore, it is essential to develop some tactics that may predict the overall
performance and economic feasibility of the turbine.
The blade element momentum (BEM) theory has been used for performance analysis. The two dimensional
airfoil shapes are the elemental cross sectional shape for the HAWT blades. By calculating the forces exerted on
a 2D airfoil element of the blade and integrating it along the length of the blade span, thrust and torque were
calculated for the whole turbine. Here, differential element wise analysis has been done using BEM theory [2]. It
is possible to optimize the distribution of the geometric parameters like chord length and twist angle along the
blade span according to the design parameters like tip speed ratio, angle-of-attack, number of blades and rated
value of wind speed [3, 4]. Many papers have recently described how to deal with the blade structural optimization
problems using different techniques.
In this study, a basic airfoil shape NACA 63-415 has been chosen. This presented work concentrates on
modelling and designing of a small-scale HAWT and investigate the aerodynamic behavior of it. Analysis of the
turbine has been carried out with the help of ADAMS and commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
software ANSYS/Fluent. The results have been compared for both ADAMS and ANSYS/Fluent simulation at the
wind speed of 10 m/s. This paper is optimal design of aerodynamic rotor geometry for smooth starting torque
behavior.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: (+91)-361-258-2528; fax: (+91)-361-258-2542.

E-mail address: c.umesh@iitg.ernet.in

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 This paper is well organized as follows. Section 2 presents the mathematical model of aerodynamic design of
blade design of wind turbine under consideration. Section 3 presents Pro/ENGINEER modeling, ADAMS and
ANSYS/Fluent simulations of wind. Section 4 shows the ANSYS/Fluent Simulation of the Designed Turbine. In
section 5 result has been discussed.

2. Mathematical Model of Aerodynamic Design

The classical investigation approach is mainly developed by Betz and Glauert in 1930s [5, 6]. In this approach,
BE and BEM theory are combined into a strip theory. These theories implements the calculation of the
performance characteristics of an annular ring section of the rotor.

2.1 Blade geometry

For designing the optimal blade geometry parameters of wind turbine, there are several factors which should
be considered first, which is shown in Table 1. From Fig. 1, it has been clearly seen that the normal ( N f ,ri ) and
tangential ( T f , ri ) forces acting on the airfoil is generated by the lift ( L f ,ri ) and drag ( D f , ri ) forces, the relative
wind angle ( ri ) consists of the local angle of attack (  d ) and the twist angle (  ri ), considering a zero pitch angle.
The elemental values of forces are calculated using BEM theory, furthermore it is integrated along the blade span
and then value of torque and thrust are determined. The optimum local angle, twist angle and chord length of
particular blade element are
2  1  ari 
ri  tan 1   (1)
3  (1  ar )r d 
 i i 
ri  ri   d (2)
8ri
cri  (cos ri  1) (3)
nb Lcd
where, ri is the radial distance of the ‘ith’ blade airfoil section from the hub and ri d is designed tip speed ratio (i.e.
r d  d ri / R ),  d is the designed angle of attack, Lcd is the lift coefficient at designed angle of attack of that
i

particular blade element and nb is the number of the blade [1],[5, 6].

Fig. 1. Different forces and angles on one differential element of the turbine blade.

Table 1. Specification of the wind turbine.

Specification of the wind turbine Specification Unit
Rated value of wind speed (  o ) 10 m/s
Diameter of the blade (D) 10 m
Designed tip speed ratio (  ) 7.5 ---
Number of blades ( nb ) 3 ---
Designed angle of attack (  i ) 5.25 o
Designed lift coefficient ( L f , r ) 0.946 ---
i

Basic airfoil structure NACA 63-415 ---

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2.2 Aerodynamic performance calculation

For determining the aerodynamic performance, it is required to find the axial induction factor and tangential
induction factor first. Induction factors are calculated in the form of an iterative scheme. Prior to that the following
unknowns should be solved, which are relative wind angle angle of attack, tip-loss correction factor respectively.
The Prandtls tip loss correction factor is
  nb  ri  
    1  
2  2 R  
Ptf ,ri  exp    (4)
   ri sin  
 ri 
  R
 

The induction factors are calculated by:
1
ari  (5)
4 Ptf ,ri sin ri tan ri
1
ri Lc,ri
1
and ari  (6)
4 Ptf ,ri cos ri
1
ri Lc,ri
where Lc, ri is the lift coefficient of the airfoil section and ri  nb cri / 2 r is the local solidity ratio. For
determining the induction factors, a and a  are arbitrarily chosen and then (5) and (6) are solved iteratively. The
successive values of a and a  should be small enough (less than 0.001) to converge and get the solution.
The torque is calculated for the airfoil section is
M ri  (L f ,ri sin ri  D f ,ri cos ri )ri (7)
The drag force is neglected in this present work as it is very small [Willson-Lissaman].

3. Pro/ENGINEER Modeling, ADAMS AND ANSYS/Fluent Simulations

The modeling of the turbine blade in Pro/ENGINEER is based on co-ordinates of the airfoil obtained from
UIUC Airfoil Coordinates Database [7]. Pro/ENGINEER is considered as pre-processor of ADAMS simulation.
A simulation model can be created in Pro/ENGINEER directly or imported from other CAD software packages.
In this section, airfoils NACA 63-415 are selected. The 3-bladed model in Pro/ENGINEER has been imported in
the ANSYS workbench for the purpose of flow simulation. The following procedure has been adapted for flow
simulation, which are discussed in details below.

3.1. Turbine design by Pro/ENGINEER

The geometrical parameters are determined using MATLAB software. The coordinates of the NACA 63-415
airfoil are obtained from UIUC Airfoil Coordinates Database which formed the basis of the modelling of the
turbine blade in Pro/ENGINEER. The coordinates of the airfoil are imported into Pro/ENGINEER and a 2D sketch
is generated. The twist angle and the chord length (blade geometry) are already been calculated for each sections
of the blade. The 2D sketch has been implemented on various datum planes with different blade geometry and,
finally a solid model of 3-bladed wind turbine is constructed. After modelling, ADAMS software is being used
for simulation purpose. Fig. 2 shows the smooth 3-bladed wind turbine using Pro/ENGINEER cad software.

3.2. ADAMS simulation of the designed turbine

Pro/ENGINEER is being considered as Pre-Processor for ADAMS. The 3-bladed model has been imported
into the ADAMS for simulation purpose. The aerodynamic forces which were calculated before is being
implemented on this model in ADAMS as shown in Fig. 3. The details like termination time, and number of finite
steps has been defined in the ADAMS simulation dialogue box. After simulation in ADAMS, and ANSYS/Fluent
is being used for verification purpose.

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 Fig. 2: Design Pro/ENGINEER model of wind turbine. Fig. 3: Forces applied on wind turbine with ADAMS model.

3.3. ANSYS/Fluent simulation of the designed turbine

The flow around the small-scale wind turbine is the time dependent and complex in nature i.e. separation and
vortex formation are common phenomena. The torque can be obtained from the velocity and pressure distribution
using CFD analysis. For the investigation of aerodynamic performance of a small-scale HAWT, CFD is a
satisfactory method. In this work, Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations inclusion with the SST
k   turbulence model has been used. The 3-bladed model in Pro/ ENGINEER has been imported in the ANSYS
workbench for the purpose of flow simulation.

3.4. Numerical modelling of the flow simulation

The flow around the airfoil is assumed to be unsteady and turbulent, operating at a free steam wind speed of
10 m/s. The common trend of computing turbulence flows over the airfoil is resolved applying the finite volume
method into the computational domain. The RANS equation is then solved with the inclusion of Reynolds stresses
into the original full Navier-Stokes equations. The governing equations for mass conversion and momentum are
presented in (9) and (10).

A. RANS equation

The RANS equations are primarily used to describe turbulent flows. These equations can be used with
approximations based on knowledge of the properties of flow turbulence to give approximate time-averaged
solutions to the Navier Stokes equations. For a stationary, incompressible Newtonian fluid, these equations can
be written in Einstein notation as
ui
0 (8)
xi
 p    u u j  
 (ui u j )     i     (uiu j )  (9)
x j xi x j   x j xi  
   

where the term uiu j is designed as the Reynolds stresses, from Boussinesq assumption:
 u u j  2
uiu j   t  i    k (10)
 x j xi  3 ij
 
where k is the turbulent kinetic energy and t is turbulent viscosity.
By applying the RANS equations [8], the fluctuating and average terms of velocity and pressure increases the
number of unknown terms as compared to number of equations. The turbulence models are introduced to solve
the unknown terms of RANS equation.

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 B. The SST k-ω equation

The SST k   is developed [9] to effectively blend the robust and accurate formation of the k   model in
the near wall region. The transport equations of SST k   is given as
   k
( k )  (  kui )  (k )  Gk  Yk  Sk (11)
t xi x j x j
   
(  )  (  kui )  ( )  G  Y  D  S (12)
t xi x j x j
where D is cross-diffusion term, k is turbulence kinetic energy,  is specific dissipation rate, Gk is generated
turbulent kinetic energy due to mean velocity gradient, G is generated  ;  k and  are effective diffusion of
k and  , Yk and Y is dissipation of k and  ; S k and S is user defined function for k and  , respectively.
In the present work, the SST k   turbulence equation has been used to provide the required Reynolds stresses
to resolve the turbulent flow. The numerical solver is tested with a subsonic flow over a small-scale HAWT model
to assess its computational capabilities. The computed results are discussed in subsequent section.

4. ANSYS/Fluent Simulation of the Designed Turbine

The three bladed model in PRO/ENGINEER has been imported in the ANSYS workbench for the purpose of
flow simulation. The following procedure has been adapted for flow simulation, which are discussed in details
below.

4.1. Computational domain for flow simulation

Selection of appropriate computational domain is an important part of flow simulation. It should not be too
small to reproduce the flow accurately around wind turbine. It should not be too large so that it takes large
computational resource and hence large computation time [10].
The cylindrical domain chosen for the present study is quite suitable for the rotation of the turbine and hence
it seems that the domain has been chosen appropriately. The computational domain has been generated using
ANSYS Design Modeller. The dimensions of the domain chosen are 2.5 D upstream, 15 D downstream, and a
radial span of 5 D. To capture the rotational effect of the wind turbine, sliding mesh technology has been used.
Two sub-domains-‘rotor interface’ and ‘stator interface’ has been created in ANSYS ‘Design modeller’ as shown
in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b). The ‘rotor interface’ rotates while the stator interface’ and the large cylinder remain
static.

Fig. 4 Schematic diagram of the computational domain (a) Top view; (b) ANSYS side view.

4.2. Meshing procedure

Meshing procedure is important for proper flow simulation. A dense meshing might provide better result
consuming more computational time whereas a coarse meshing might take less computational time but may
compromise with the result [11]. Normally, dense meshing and coarse meshing are combined appropriately that
suits the flow domain. In this work, dense mesh has been generated for the turbine and the small cylinder. An
unstructured, triangular mesh is implemented for it and the mesh element size is 0.002 m. A relatively coarser
mesh has been generated for the large cylindrical domain. An unstructured, tetrahedron shape has been chosen

1086
for this large cylinder. The maximum mesh element size permissible for the large domain is 0.08 m. The meshing
of the large domain and is shown in Fig. 5(a) and the meshing configuration of the turbine with the small cylinder
are shown in Fig. 5(b).

Fig. 5: Meshing (a) whole computational domain; (b) turbine and small cylinder.

The pressure far-field condition was utilized in both (structural and unstructural) meshing methods as the
computational domain. Airfoil is treated as stationary WALL condition with NO SLIP SHEAR condition. The
computational data is given in Table 2.

Table 2. Computational conditions of 3D wind turbine simulation.

Parameter Values
Analysis type 3D Transient Simulation
Turbulent model SST k 
Fluid material Air
Flow type Incompressible flow
Temperature 30o C
Kinematic viscosity 1.4607 × 10-5 m2/s
Reynolds number 1000000
INLET boundary condition Flow velocity = 10 m/s
OUTLET boundary condition Gauge Pressure = 0 Pa
CFD algorithm SIMPLE (default option)
Interpolating scheme Pressure (Standard)
Density (Second Order Upwind)
Momentum (Second Order Upwind)
Modified turbulent viscosity
(Second Order Upwind)
Boundary condition Velocity Inlet and Pressure
Outlet Moving Wall
with NO SLIP SHEAR condition
Blade 22 kW at 10 m/s wind turbine blade
design using NACA 63-415 airfoil
Number of mesh cells 546214

4.3. Solver settings

ANSYS/Fluent solver in a transient version has been used as solver settings for transient analysis. The
pressure based solver has been chosen with absolute velocity formation. SST k   turbulence model has been
used to simulate the turbine.
Boundary conditions (BC) are well defined. The circle on the left hand side of the domain signifies the BC,
VELOCITY INLET. The circle on the right hand side of the domain signifies the BC, PRESSURE OUTLET. The
three blades and the hub of the turbine are defined as WALL type BC which is further classified as MOVING

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WALL with NO SLIP SHEAR condition. An INTERFACE type BC is used between two sub domains for sliding
mesh methodology [ANSYS USER GUIDE]. The whole setting has been shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Reference values.

Parameters Specification Unit
Area 78.5398 m2
Density 1.225 Kg/m3
Enthalpy 0 j/kg
Length 10 m
Pressure 0 Pascal
Temperature 30 o
C
Velocity 9.999 m/s
Viscosity 1.789e-5 kg/m-s
Ratio of specific heats 1.4 ---

The Solution scheme implemented here is SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations).
[ANSYS USER GUIDE].

5. Results and Discussion

5.1. Graphical plots of geometric parameters

The optimal geometric parameters of the small-scale HAWT (twist angle and chord distribution) are
calculated using (2) and (3), and illustrated in Fig. 6. These results are obtained using MATLAB programming.
The variation of the chord distribution along the blade span has been presented in Fig. 6(a). The curve is plotted
using radius ratio ( ri / R ) in x -axis and chord length in the y -axis. The curve shows that as the radial distance
increases, the chord length decreases.
Fig. 6(b), present the tip loss correction factor, it is shown that the variation of tip loss. The curve is plotted
using radius ratio ( ri / R ) in x -axis and tip loss factor in the y -axis. The curve shows that as the radial distance
increases, the tip loss factor decreases and it approaches near to zero.

Fig. 6: Distribution along the blade span (a) Chord length; (b) Tip loss factor

5.2. ADAMS simulation results

The calculated tangential force of each blade section has been applied along the blade span, when the solid
model of turbine is imported to ADAMS environment for simulation purpose.
The starting torque and the angular velocity are nearly smooth and up to 10 s the curve seems to be rising
smoothly. Beyond 10 s, the torque gains a constant value of about 1300 Nm having an angular velocity of 17 rad/s
as shown in Figs. 7(a) and 7(b) respectively. This corresponds a power of 22 kW. This simulation shows that the
design approach considered and it gives a nearly smooth starting torque which is very important for reducing the
mechanical vibration of the wind turbine. The results of simulation seem to be good. The present simulation
provides an effective way to estimate the torque of the turbine, and hence, the mechanical power. Further, the
simulation process is found to be quite simple and less time consuming.

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 Fig. 7. Output plot using ADAMS with wind speed 10 m/s (a) Angular velocity (b) Torque

5.3. ANSYS simulation results

Fig. 8 shows the velocity contours and pressure counter of designed small-scale HAWT blade. Fig. 8(a) shows
the velocity contours magnitude of small HAWT. The low velocity region nearer to the hub of small-scale HAWT.
This indicates a better velocity field in the rotational conditions and also a prominent attached flow effect on the
turbine blades that accounts for the late separation. It obvious increase in the lift force contribution is expected
for the designed turbine, which necessarily increase the power output of the turbine. The pressure counter across
the small-scale HAWT blade is shown in Fig. 8(b). It is observed that for small-scale HAWT, the adverse effect
on the returning blade is prominent. However, for small-scale HAWTs, this adverse effect is much lesser.

Fig. 8. Design small-scale HAWT blade (a) Velocity counter; (b) Pressure counter.

The velocity contours (m/s) around a small HAWT is shown in Fig. 9. Velocity contours in xz plane at y = 0
around the turbine is shown in Fig. 9(a). The turbine is rotating in the clockwise direction. The turbulent flow
structures across the turbine are clearly observed in the region nearer the trailing edge of the blades. The flow near
the leading edge of the turbine blade is free of large eddies. The intensity of turbulence is greatly reduced in the
region closer to the hub.
The velocity contours in xy plane at z = 0 around the turbine is shown in Fig. 9(b). The flow in the wake due
to turbine hub and blades is clearly seen. The wake includes the core region, transitional region and fully
developed wake region. At the near downstream of the turbine, it shows that the turbine interacts with incoming
fluid flows. Closer the center, the turbine hub blocks the fluid flow. The high velocity fluid speed is obtained near
to the tip of the turbine blades.
The performance of small HAWT has analyzed through 3D transient ANSYS/Fluent simulations at V. In
above sections, an attempt is made to analyze the flow around turbine to have a proper justification on the
performance improvement of the designed small HAWT. In contrast, for the small HAWT, a low velocity region
downstream to the turbine blades is observed. This indicates an early flow separation and a reduced influence of
attached flow. Thus a less lift force contribution is expected for the small HAWT.

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 Fig. 9. Velocity counter (m/s) around a small-scale HAWT (a) xz plane at y=0; (b) xy plane at z=0.

For 3D velocity streamline around the rotor and turbine is shown in Fig. 10. The flow is nearly uniform
upstream of the turbine while the wale flow downstream and low velocity region at the small HAWT. This
indicates a better velocity field in the rotational conditions and also a prominent attached flow effect on the
turbine blades that accounts for the late separation. The velocity contours near the turbine region show the
complex 3D flow structures.

Fig. 10. Velocity counter (m/s) (a) Velocity streamline across the rotor and turbine; (b) Velocity streamline across the turbine blade.

In ANSYS/Fluent, pressure based solver and 3D transient solution were used for small HAWT modelling.
The turbulence model SST k   model has used because it works more accurate and reliable for a wider class of
flows. When simulation is over, torque and thrust has displayed in Fig. 11. Finally mechanical power has been
calculated using the value of torque. The theoretical torque can calculated using BEM theory. The turbine torque
using ANSYS/Fluent and it quite similar to the torque generated by ADAMS software.

Fig. 11. Torque calculation using ANSYS/Fluent with wind speed 10 m/s.

6. Conclusion

An optimal aerodynamic blade design has been proposed for small-scale HAWT. An approach is given
proper shape of blade, which is believed to reduce mechanical vibration of the coupling between the turbine shaft
and the generator shaft respectively. The application of BEM theory helped in analyzing the aerodynamic behavior

1090
of the wind turbine. With the help of the MATLAB geometry generated parameters. The 3D simulation study has
been carried out on the optimum small-scale HAWT at 10 m/s. The results shown are satisfactory, relative with
the 3D simulations of ANSYS/Fluent and ADAMS software. An improved velocity region at the downstream of
the blades is obtained for optimum small-scale HAWT. The Coanda effect, the increased contribution of the lift
force on the small-scale HAWT is expected to increase the power output of the turbine. The adverse effect of
pressure is much lesser in case of small-scale HAWT.

References

[1] N. K. Tony Burton, D. Sharpe and E. Bossanyi, Wind Energy Handbook, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Ltd, 2011.
[2] S. N. W. Robert E. Wilson, Peter B. S. Lissaman. Aerodynamic performance of wind turbine, National Renewable Energy Laboratory,
Tech. Rep., 1976.
[3] C. Bai, F. Hsiao, M. Li, G. Huang, and Y. Chen. Design of 10 kW horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) blade and aerodynamic
investigation using numerical simulation, Proc. Engg., vol. 67, no. 0, pp. 279 – 287, 2013.
[4] R. Lanzafame and M. Messina, Fluid dynamics wind turbine design: critical analysis, optimization and application of BEM theory,
Renewable Energy, vol. 32, no. 14, pp. 2291 – 2305, 2007.
[5] Betz, “A. Windenergie und Ihre Ausnutzung durch Windm¨ullen”, Gottingen, Germany, 1926.
[6] Glauert H., “Airplane Propellers : Aerodynamic Theory”,(ed. W. F. Durand), Springer.
[7] “UIUC airfoil coordinate database”.
[8] N. C. Nguyen, P. olof Persson, and J. Peraire. RANS solutions using high order discontinuous galerkin methods. 45th AIAA Aerospace
Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. 2007.
[9] F. Menter. Two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering application. 45th AIAA Jour-nal, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 1598 â A
¸S 1605. 1994.
[10] R. Lanzafame, S. Mauro, and M. Messina, “2D CFD modeling of h-darrieus wind turbines using a transition turbulence model,” Energy
Procedia, vol. 45, no. 0, pp. 131 – 140, 2014.
[11] H. Cao, “Aerodynamics analysis of small horizontal axis wind turbine blades by using 2D and 3D CFD modelling,” Masters thesis,
University of Central Lancashire, 2011.

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 ICAER-2015

Energy and Exergy Analysis of CI Engine for Karanja Biodiesel

Deepak Kumara, Anupama Singhb, Dr. Anil Kumar Sarmac
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta-801103, India
a
b
Centre for Energy & Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta -801103, India
c
Chemical Conversion Division, Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy Kapurthala, Punjab-144601, India

Abstract

Biodiesel is renewable energy resources that can be derive from numerous sources. In the current study, energy and exergy
analysis of variable compression ratio (VCR) diesel engine for Biodiesel has been performed. The Biodiesel is prepared
from karanja (Pongamia Pinnata) vegetable oil by two-step transesterification process. A comparative energy and exergy
analysis of different blends (petroleum diesel with 0% karanja biodiesel (KB0), petroleum diesel with 10% karanja biodiesel
(KB10), petroleum diesel with 20% karanja biodiesel (KB20), and petroleum diesel with 30% karanja biodiesel (KB30),) of
biodiesel with petroleum diesel are also been studied on four stroke constant rpm CI diesel engine. Energy and exergy
analysis include various calculation of net heat release rate, cumulative heat release rate, net energy destruction rate, first law
efficiency, shaft input, available input, second law efficiency, cooling water and exhaust availability respectively. The
energy and exergy balance sheet analysis has proof that KB30 blend of karanja biodiesel is most suitable than other karanja
biodiesels for CI diesel engine. Due to greater, first law efficiency and second law efficiency KB30 was found to be the most
suitable blend for utilization in CI engines.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Transesterification, Energy, Exergy, Diesel engine;

1. Introduction

For the fast technological developed world, transport becomes the important part for its existence. Because of
withdrawing stocks of fossil fuels and increase in number of vehicles in transport sector there is sharp rise in
energy demand. To maintain the stroke of high growth rate of world economy, it is necessary to maintain these
inputs of energy resources. With the fast rate of depletion of crude oil deposits, alcohol blends on conventional
fuels, LPG, CNG have come to the forefront and have been extensively studied and being implemented but are
non renewable. These blended fuels are not the final solution to fuel crisis, as are only a compromise for
marginal increase in fuel supply. Alternate fuels are only promising hope of future, which has tremendous
potential to energize fuel revolution in transport sector [1]. Likewise the petroleum diesel, the biodiesel operates
the combustion ignition engines. Though the various edible and non-edible oils can be used for manufacturing
biodiesel, out of which karanja (Pongamia pinnata) is one of the best oil suitable for production of biodiesel. The
non-renewability of conventional fuels apart from deteriorating land, water and air quality has led to the lookout
for better alternatives. Because of the demand for imported oil peaks up, the production of alternate fuels like
biodiesel [2] will definitely become more competitive in the markets thus enabling the use of such cleaner fuels
in mere endeavor for the environment protection for sustainable development.

* Deepak Kumar. Tel.: +91-9006742748.

E-mail address:dkumar.pme14@iitp.ac.in

1092
Nomenclature

KB 10 Blend of Karanja Biodiesel (10% Biodiesel + 90% Diesel)

KB 20 Blend of Karanja Biodiesel (20% Biodiesel + 80% Diesel)
KB 30 Blend of Karanja Biodiesel (30% Biodiesel + 70% Diesel)
BP Brake Power (KW)
BMEP Brake mean effective pressure (bar)
Q in Fuel energy supplied per unit time (KW)
Qs Shaft Power (KW)
Qw Energy in cooling water per unit time (KW)
Qe Energy in exhaust gas per unit time (KW)
Qu Unaccounted energy losses per unit time (KW)
mf Fuel flow rate (Kg/s)
mw Water flow rate (Kg/s)
LHV f Lower heating value of fuel (KJ/kg)
C pw Specific heat of water (KJ/kg.K)
C pg Specific heat of gas (KJ/kg.K)
T exit Exit temperature (0C)
T in Inlet temperature (0C)
A in Input availability (KW)
As Shaft availability (KW)
Aw Availability of Cooling Water (KW)
Ae Exhaust gas availability (KW)
Ad Destructed availability (KW)
Re Gas constant (KJ/kg.K)
R 1st Law Efficiency (%)
R 2nd Law Efficiency (%)
S Entropy generation (KW/K)

2. Experimental Set up and procedure

2.1. Experimental setup for Karanja Biodiesel production [3, 4]

Karanja Biodiesel is produce by the help of two step transestrification process in Redleys reactor. In the first
step of transesterification process, 1500 ml of karanja vegetable oil, 350 ml of Sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) and 750
ml Methyl alcohol (CH 3 OH) are mixed and continuously stirrer (600 rpm) to obtain a homogenous solution at a
constant temperature of 650C in the Redley reactor. The reactor will run until the pH of the solution reaches the
range of 1 to 0.5. The esterified karanja oil and remaining Methanol of the reaction solution was separated by
using separating funnel. Now in second step of transesterification process in Redleys reactor, 1000 ml of
esterified karanja oil mixed with 10 gm of catalyst Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 350 ml of Methanol. The
mixture continuously stirred at 600 rpm for 1 hour.
The transesterification reaction yield crude biodiesel with various impurities, which can damage the engine
like glycerin and salts fatty acids. These impurities are separated by settling the biodiesel in hot air oven at
100°C for 24 hours and collected in the separate breaker. After resting for 24 hrs, the glycerine was taken to a
beaker. Hence, the pure karanja biodiesel is ready to use in the engine testing.

2.2. Experimental setup for Engine testing

An experimental test rig which is facilitated by Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable
Energy Kapurthala, Punjab was used to evaluate the thermal performance and emission characteristics. The
variable compression ratio CI engine is used to test the Karanja Biodiesel and its different blends with
petroleum diesel (KB0, KB10, KB20 and KB30). In this test rig various experiments runs under different
working conditions to evaluate the thermal performance and emission characteristics of bio diesel in comparison
of diesel engine. In the experimental procedure, the engine was first set at 1500 rpm with full load (10 Kg)
capacity and the compression ratio 18:1 for data acquisition system IC Engine Soft User with software version
9.0 and measure different variables and parameter (torque, engine speed, fuel consumption, exhaust gas
temperature and cooling water temperatures) used in energy and exergy analysis.

1093
3. Energy and Exergy analysis

3.1. Energy analysis [5]

3.1.1. Basic Performance Parameters Calculations

2πNT
• Break Power , BP(KW) = (1)
60000
∗60
• Break Mean Effective Pressure, BMEP (Bar) = π 2 N (2)
D L∗� �∗No.of cyc le ∗100
4 n
 n = 2 for 4 stroke
 n = 1 for 2 stroke
π w d en
• Air flow (Kg/hr) = Cd ∗ d2 ∗ �2gh ∗ � � ∗ 3600 ∗ Aden (3)
4 A d en
Air flo w
• Air fuel ratio (A/F) = (4)
Fu el flo w

3.1.2. Heat Balance Calculation

• Fuel energy supplied per unit time (Q in ) = mf ∗ LHVf (5)

• Shaft Power (Q s ) = BP (6)
• Energy in cooling water per unit time (Q w ) = mw ∗ Cpw ∗ (Tex it − Tin ) (7)
• Energy in exhaust gas per unit time (Q e ) = (mf + ma ) ∗ Cpg ∗ (Tin − Tex it ) (8)
• Unaccounted energy losses per unit time (Q u ) = Q in − (Q s + Q w + Q a ) (9)

3.2. Exergy analysis [5,6]

The exergy can also be termed as available energy. The availability can be described as the ability to
perform useful amount of work by the supplied energy. In the CI engine the availability of fuel ( ) supplied is
converted into different types of exergy, like exhaust availability ( ) and destructed availability ( ) in the
form of radiation, heat transfer to the surrounding, and operating auxiliary equipments, etc.

3.2.1. Calculation of various forms of exergy and 2nd law of efficiency

• Input availability of fuel ( )= � ∗ LHVf ∗ {1.0401 + 0.1728(H/C) + 0.0432(O/C) +

0.2169(S/C)} ∗ {1 − 2.0628(H/C)}� (10)
Where H, C, O and S are the mass fractions of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and sulfur contents.
• According to KOTAS formula , 1985[8]
Ain�
CV = φ, [when less than 0.667 ] , The value of φ for biodiesel varies from 1.04 to 1.08 (11)
• Shaft availability (Ain ) = BP (12)

T wo e
• Cooling water availability ( ) = Energy in cooling water (Q inw ) – mw e ∗ Cpw ∗ Tam b ∗ ln � �(13)
T wi e

T am b
• Exhaust gas availability ( ) = Energy in exhaust gas (Q e ) + (mf + ma ) ∗ Tam b ∗ �Cpe ∗ ln � �−
T ei n
P am b
R e ∗ ln � �� (14)
Pe

• Destructed availability ( ) = Ain − (As + + ) (15)

• Second law efficiency ( ) = [1 − ( / Ain )] (16)

• Entropy generation rate ( ) = [ /Tam b ] (17)

1094
4. Results and Discussions

In recent years, exergy analysis method has been widely used in the design, simulation and performance
assessment of various types of engines for identifying losses and efficiencies. Energy analysis of Karanja
biodiesel include net heat release rate, cumulative heat release rate, net energy destructed rate, 1st Law
efficiency while exergy analysis was done to study shaft input, availability input, 2nd Law efficiency and
destructive exergy is recovered in the water jacket and gas exhaust. Special attention is given to identification
and quantification of second-law efficiencies and the irreversibility of various processes and subsystems. From
the Energy and Exergy balance sheet shown in Table 1 and Table 2, we can say that KB30 blend of karanja
biodiesel is most suitable than other karanja biodiesels for CI diesel engine due to its high 1st and 2nd law
efficiency. Also the oxygen content of Biodiesel helps in better combustion of the blend.

Fig. 1. (a) first law efficiency ; (b) second law efficiency.

5. Conclusions

From the thermodynamic point of view, energy and exergy analysis of CI engine is an important tool for
finding better available energy management. Due to this fact, a single cylinder, constant speed diesel engine was
run with different blends of karanja biodiesel fuels at constant compression ratio and variable load condition.
According to the existing study; using exergy as a measure of quality, the petroleum diesel fuel is a greater
quality fuel than biodiesel. Because of the net calorific value of diesel is greater than that of the biodiesel. It
means that to cover the same distance, greater amount of biodiesel is needed. In addition to this, comparison of
different blends of karanja biodiesel fuels shows that KB 30 is having highest energetic and as well as exergetic
performance values. The most important factor of the system inefficiency is the destruction of exergy by
irreversible processes. This is mainly occurred by the combustion. Exergy losses due to the exhaust gas and heat
transfer are other contributors in decreasing order. In addition to these results; this study reveals that a combined
energy and exergy analysis provides a much better and more realistic answer for the comparison of biodiesels.

1095
Table 1. Energy Balance Sheet for Karanja Biodiesels
Load Q in Q Shaft QW Qe Q unc Total 1st
(Kg) (KW) Or (%) (%) (%) Heat Law
BP (%) Eff.
(%) (%)
KB 0

3 6.42 13.70 46.26 20.40 19.62 100 13.71

6 8.17 21.54 42.59 20.07 15.78 100 21.54

9 9.92 26.41 38.81 20.06 14.71 100 26.41

12 12.3 28.04 35.61 19.59 16.74 100 28.05

15 16.7 27.96 28.08 15.74 28.20 100 27.96

KB 10

3 6.29 13.99 52.46 22.73 10.81 100 14.00

6 8.58 20.51 41.84 19.34 18.29 100 20.51

9 9.73 27.03 41.83 20.45 10.68 100 27.03

12 11.40 30.35 40.35 21.40 7.89 100 30.35

15 13.70 31.24 37.95 21.16 9.63 100 31.24

KB 20

3 6.73 13.22 47.10 21.24 18.42 100 13.22

6 8.42 21.49 42.28 20.19 16.03 100 21.50

9 9.54 27.46 41.82 21.48 9.22 100 27.46

12 11.8 29.23 37.62 20.42 12.71 100 29.23

15 13.5 31.63 36.51 21.11 10.74 100 31.63

KB 30

3 6.05 14.71 54.54 28.26 2.47 100 14.71

6 7.15 24.47 47.13 25.59 2.79 100 24.48

9 9.35 27.59 40.21 22.78 9.41 100 27.59

12 11 31.27 37.72 22.36 8.63 100 31.27

15 12.7 33.54 37.63 23.54 5.27 100 33.54

1096
Table 2. Exergy Balance Sheet for Karanja Biodiesels
Load A in A Shaft AW Ae Ad Net 2nd
(Kg) (KW) Or (%) (%) (%) Exergy Law
BP (%) Eff.
(%) (%)
KB 0

3 6.80 12.94 0.58 8.38 77.79 99.70 22.10

6 8.65 20.34 0.69 14.79 64.16 100 35.88

9 10.51 24.93 0.66 16.93 57.37 99.90 42.64

12 12.98 26.58 0.77 17.41 55.23 100 44.78

15 14.22 32.84 1.61 17.15 48.31 99.93 51.64

KB 10

3 6.80 12.94 0.13 2.32 84.55 100 15.39

6 9.27 18.98 0.18 8.11 72.70 100 27.27

9 10.51 25.02 0.29 11.10 63.55 100 36.42

12 12.36 27.99 0.41 12.59 58.98 100 40.98

15 14.84 28.84 0.52 12.92 57.68 100 42.29

KB 20

3 9.27 9.60 0.46 1.86 88.11 100 11.93

6 10.51 17.22 0.54 7.46 74.78 100 25.23

9 12.98 20.18 0.58 9.16 70.11 100 29.91

12 14.84 23.24 0.64 10.35 65.75 100 34.24

15 14.84 28.77 0.81 12.76 57.65 100 42.34

KB 30

3 8.03 11.08 1.21 3.49 84.30 100 15.78

6 10.51 16.65 0.97 7.71 74.68 100 25.32

9 12.36 20.87 0.99 9.76 68.42 100 31.61

12 14.22 24.19 1.01 10.94 63.86 100 36.14

15 14.84 28.70 1.23 13.19 56.86 100 43.13

1097
References

[1] Mashelkar, R.A, (2002) The Report of expert committee on Auto fuel policy, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India,
India.
[2] Bio-Fuel, (2003) Report of the committee on development of bio-fuel, Planning Commission Govt. of India, India.
[3] Vivek and Gupta A.K, (2004) Biodiesel production from Karanja oil, Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research, 63, pp. 39-47.
[4] Bajpai S., Sahoo P.K. , Das L.M. (2009) Feasibility of blending karanja vegetable oil in petro-diesel and utilization in a direct injection
diesel engine , Journal of Fuel, 88, 705-711.
[5] Perihan S. and Zeki Y., (2011) Application of energy and exergy analyses to a CI engine using biodiesel fuel, Mathematical and
Computational Applications, 16(4), pp. 797-808.
[6] Saidur R.,et. al, (2012) A review on exergy analysis of biomass based fuels, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ,
16, pp. 1217-1222.
[7] Moran,M.J, Availability analysis: A guide to efficient energy use., New Jersey, Prentice Hall New, 1982.
[8] Kotas T.J., The energy method of thermal plant analysis, Krieger Publishing Company, 1995.

1098
 ICAER-2015

Daylight performance of a naturally ventilated building as

parameter for energy management
Ramit Debnatha, Ronita Bardhanb
a
Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India
b
Cantre for Urban Science and Engineering (CUSE), IIT Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India

Abstract

Daylighting is an important element of energy efficient building. It not only adds to energy sustainability, but
also has profound impact on the behavior and performance of occupants residing in the building. This paper is an
investigation of daylight usability of a naturally ventilated residential building in an urban built environment
through computer simulations. Annual light exposure and useful daylight illuminations (UDI) are analyzed by
varying orientation and window to wall ratio (WWR) of the building. This aim of this study is to provide
information on the impact of building orientation and WWR on the overall daylight performance, so that better
daylight designs can be promoted and evaluated. Daylight performance analysis have shown maximum
illuminance usability in the southwest direction, and its optimization with 50% WWR, increased the overall
ambient illuminance in the room by 67%.

Keywords: Urbanization; daylighting, energy management; useful daylight illuminances; window-to-wall ratio

1. Introduction

India is experiencing urbanization faster than the anticipated rate. Non-compliances to building codes and
inefficient building designs have transformed the building sector into one of the biggest energy guzzler. The
building energy demand is growing at an unpreceded rate of 8%, due to extensive use of air conditioning and
lighting in the urban built environment in India[1]. On the contrary, about two-third of the buildings are naturally
ventilated. Thus, there is an acute need for rigorous building performance analysis.
Daylighting is a useful strategy for energy efficient buildings. It can be a key driver of energy sustainability in
residential as well as commercial buildings, with energy saving potential upto 45%[2]. It has a positive impact on
the occupants by providing a sense of cheeriness and brightness [3]. The prediction of daylighting illuminance is
a key stage in daylighting design. Traditional methods in predicting daylighting illuminance such as daylight
factor (DF) approach has limitations in terms of its flexibility in illuminance calculation pertaining to the dynamic
nature of sky condition and the sun path[4]. On the other hand, climate based approach, such as the Useful
Daylight Illuminance (UDI), not only predicts hourly daylight data for the sensor points, but also reduces the
computation time of the overall simulation [4].
Mumbai, in India, being one of the most densely populated cities in the world, is facing huge challenges in
catering to the growing housing demands. This has resulted in the sprawling of compact multi-storied high rise
buildings all through the city. While such development is better from the point of minimizing energy usage for
transportation, the close proximity of the high-rises pose severe threat to sky and daylight penetration. This in turn
effect the quality and the quantity of the daylight received, especially at the lower floors [5]. Using the principles
of building designing for maximizing daylight, multiple scenarios are designed to simulate the performance of
buildings based on various combination of building design elements like orientation and window-to-wall ratio
(WWR). These simulations are performed to study the overall effect of such design elements on the useful daylight
illuminance on the building. The hypothesis of the study is that with more useable daylight illuminance inside
the room lighting needs can be optimized for better energy management.

Table 1. Physical parameters of the building

Parameters Values
Building type Residential, T-B2
Construction Type, No. of floors RCC, 11
Location IIT Bombay, Mumbai
Coordinates 19.137834(N),72.916371(E)

1099
 Floor area 839.63 m2
Orientation North
Window-to-wall ratio 20%

Nomenclature

UDI Useful Daylight Illuminance

WWR Window-to-wall ratio

2. Data and Methodology

The residential building chosen for this study is located within the residential cum academic campus of Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai at 19.137834(N), 72.916371(E). the details of the study area is given
in table 1. The building is a multistoried apartment named Type-B2, with eleven floors. We have chosen the
ground floor apartment, for the daylight analysis. This paper involved the study of daylight performance
parameters such as useful daylight illuminance (UDI) and annual light exposure on the rooms of the building.
Analysis of the simulated result involved UDI to annual light exposure trend along the different orientations of
the rooms with different window to wall ratios. The reference WWR is 20% and the orientation is NS.

The first batch of orientation study involved the analysis and visualization with default window to wall ratio.
The second batch of study includes UDI 100-2000 (%) along different WWR. Understanding the relationship between
useful daylight illuminance and annual light exposure with respect to different orientations and window to wall
ratios, can be a key design parameter, while designing sustainable house for urban built environment

Fig 1. Computer rendering of T-2B residential building at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India.

The methodology that has been followed is indicated in the figure 1:

Fig 2. Flow diagram of the adopted methodology

1100
2.1 Modelling and simulation:

A commercial modelling package used in this work was licensed version of SKETCHUP 8.0 which can be
used to draw 2D layout plans of buildings and also to perform 3D rendering of buildings. SKETCHUP is widely
used by professional architects and engineers to draw and render commercial as well as residential buildings. The
building annotations are illustrated in figure 3b. Moreover, in order to make the model simulation more realistic,
true materials of the building were applied on the 3D mode. The SKETCHUP model was imported using a
DAYSIM plugin, ‘su2ds1’. Photo sensor points were created using this plugin with a grid spacing of 0.5m (refer
to Fig. 4). DAYSIM uses RADIANCE engine for the daylighting calculations. RADIANCE uses ray tracing
technique for the calculation of annual illuminance and useful daylight illumination [6][7][8][9]. The assumptions
that are used in the simulations includes user description and site description, which are stated in Table 2. In order
to accurately calculate UDI, DAYSIM recommends to use its own material library for the modelling of the
building. Therefore, before initializing simulation, the modelled building was re-assigned with the DAYSIM
materials.

a b

Fig 3. a) Building elevation model- only ground floor b) Building interior floor layout, the nomenclature of the rooms
are depicted with the arrows.

Fig 4. Photo sensor points for daylighting analysis.

1
su2ds was created by Josh Kjenner for Manasc Isaac Architects, and is supported in part by the National Research
Council's IRAP. Available online at https://code.google.com/p/su2ds/

1101
 Table 2. Assumptions for simulation.
Site description
Site Mumbai (19.14 N/ 72.92 E)
Weather file IND_Mumbai.430030_ISHRAE
Daylight savings time April 1st to October 31st
User description
Zone occupancy time 8:00 to 17:00
Occupancy days Monday to Friday
Total annual hours 1563
Minimum illuminance level 500 lux
Lighting and blind control No dynamic shading devices

Table 3. RADIANCE Simulation Parameters

Parameter Values
ab ambient bounce 5
ad ambient division 1000
as ambient super samples 20
ar ambient resolution 300
aa ambient accuracy 0.1
lr limit reflection 6
st specular threshold 0.15
sj specular jitter 1
lw limit weight 0.004
dj direct jitter 0
ds direct sampling 0.2
dr direct relays 2
dp direct pretest density 512

2.2 Daylight analysis in DAYSIM v3.1:

The DAYSIM version 3.1software package has its own set of header files for the calculation of illuminance
and UDIs. Reinhart (2009) had validated this software package and carried out further daylighting analysis using
the simulated results [10], [11]. DAYSIM produced three metrics - UDI, Daylight Factor (in percentage) and
annual illuminance level. DAYSIM evaluates UDI (e.g. hourly) illuminance levels according to three illuminance
ranges: 0-100 lux, 100-2,000 lux and above 2,000 lux. Studies suggests that if the daylight illuminance is within
100 lux needs for supplementary light while UDI-within 100-2,000 lux indicates that daylight alone is sufficient
for carrying out daily work. UDI >2000 signifies direct sun exposure, due to no roofing in those regions and its
usability within the habitable space is debatable. This study assumes that the minimum light level in the room is
500 lux, which is the bare minimum for visual comfort, without straining the eyes for carrying out daily activities
[12]. Therefore, we have taken UDI 100-2000 as the key daylight performance indicator for the rooms. Annual
illuminance levels is the sum of available illuminance in the room throughout the year over a range of sunny,
overcast and clear skies. However, the amount of usable illuminance light levels is determined by the UDI.
DAYSIM combines a daylight coefficient approach with the all-weather sky model and the RADIANCE
backward ray-tracer. The resulting illuminances can be used to derive climate-based daylighting metrics and
calculate annual electric lighting use for different lighting controls based on available daylight. Here we use
annual illuminance level as a surrogate to electrical lighting.

2.3 Visualization of results:

For the visualization of the results, a commercial software package was used, VELUX DAYLIGHT
VISUALIZER 2 version 2.8.4 [17]. The main aim of this building visualization is to capture the daylight transport

1102
phenomena in the rooms [13]. The analysis results have been exported to ARCGIS version 10.2.2 as delimited
text layers, and their raster images were created, which showed the varying light gradients in the room.

3. Results and discussion

The intention here is to see the variation in useful daylight illuminance UDI 200-1000 (%) with respect to
orientation of the building and window-to-wall ratio (WWR) through examination of the photo-sensor points
receiving utilizable light. In this study, the minimum luminance level is 500 lux. This will provide information
about the usability of the daylight, inside the room from 8:00 to 17:00 hours. The data was analyzed in two sets:
firstly UDI 100-2000 (%) was analyzed for different orientation, to check the most suitable orientation for harnessing
the daylight. Secondly, optimization of this UDI was investigated by varying WWR for different orientations.

3.1 Daylighting Analysis:

3.1.1 Useful daylight illuminance based on the orientation of the building

Pertaining to the dynamic nature of the sun, the distribution of sunlight in the room, varies greatly throughout
the day. The size of the windows and the orientation of the room plays a major role in the distribution of light in
the room. The CIE uniform overcast sky model, which is widely used in the daylight factor calculations, becomes
non convergent when realistic time varying daylight illuminances are needed [4]. It can be seen that in the usability
pattern of UDI100-2000(%) to annual light exposure level (luxh) of Fig.5 that even though all the rooms receive
similar amount of daylight, throughout the year, their usability varies with the orientation.

Table 4. UDI variation on the basis of building orientation

Parameter Building orientation

UDI (%) N S E W NE SW SE NW
<100 54.74 54.18 47.99 46.56 69.11 71.71 73.52 79.03
100-2000 5.55 4.89 6.07 5.71 7.87 9.38 7.23 6.54
>2000 39.58 40.80 45.791 47.53 22.93 18.84 19.17 14.4
Mean annual light exposure (luxh) x107 56.47 58.61 70.57 73.12 19.30 19.59 19.30 16.17

Table 4 shows the percentage of mean useful daylight illuminance inside a room. The room is rotated as per
the cardinal points and also along 45° angle. 54.74 % of the photo sensors detected illuminance below 200 lux in
the original orientation of the building: North, which can cause visual discomfort and mood changes [12]. On the
contrary, the same building configuration has 39.58 % of areas over exposed by sunlight, with lux levels above
2000. Meanwhile, the ambient light levels which is between 100-2000 lux is 5.55% of the total floor area. Similar
trend follows the South, West and East directions. But when the entire floor is rotated by 45° angle, the rooms in
NE, SE and SW orientation had the highest percentage of lux levels below 200 lux. Fig 7 shows this trend with
the annual light exposure levels. RADIANCE calculates the annual exposure levels based on the weather file
provided and the assumptions that have been taken during the inception of the simulation, as mentioned in table
2 and table 3.
Fig 6 shows the paradigm between UDI100-2000 (%) and the annual light exposure level. The lighter shades of
the UDI 100-2000(%) shows that the region near the windows and balcony, has the higher percentage of useful
daylight. The annual light exposure levels highlights living room with a light exposure of upto 30%. East and
West oriented living rooms have annual illuminance levels upto 30% (fig. 5). But, as per table 4, these orientations
have higher percentage of UDI<100 and UDI >2000. This indicates that irrespective of higher annual illuminance
levels, the room fails to distribute ambient illuminance of UDI 100-2000. Orientation of the building plays a
significant role in the availability of UDI 100-2000. The SW orientation shows the maximum percentage of UDI 100-
2000 availability, which means 9.4% of the photo sensors could detect the availability of useful daylight throughout
the analysis span of 10 hours. High UDI levels can not only affect the occupant behavior, but can also cater to
higher solar gains. This could lead to higher air conditioning requirements. Thus, putting more pressure on the
electric grids.
Simulation results have shown that the annual light exposure on the ground floor is about 18 X 10 7 luxh
irrespective of the orientation. But the UDI varies over a great range as evident from table 4. In fig 3b and 6, the
living room has fair amount of illuminance, with east and west orientation, being most illuminated one. Bedroom
1 and bedroom 2, on the other hand are highly susceptible to drop in illuminance levels, as per the change in the

1103
orientation. In east and west configuration, the bedroom receives almost equal share of daylight, whereas UDI 100-
2000 (%) reduces upto 20% as the orientation is changed from south to east.

Annual light exposure x10^7

20
20 South
Annual light exposure x10^7 Annual light exposure x10^7

15 North 15

(luxh)
10
10
(luxh)

5 5

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
UDI 100-2000 (%) UDI 100-2000 (%)

Annual light exposure x10^7

20 East 20
West
15 15

(luxh)
(luxh)

10 10

5 5

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
UDI 100-2000 (%) UDI 100-2000 (%)
Annual light exposure x10^7 Annual light exposure x10^7

20 20 Southwest
Annual light exposure x10^7 (lux) Annaul light exposure x10^7

Northeast
15 15
(luxh)

10 10
(luxh)

5 5
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
UDI 100-2000 (%) UDI 100-2000 (%)
20 20

15
Northwest 15 Southeast
(luxh)

10 10
5 5
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
UDI 100-2000 (%) UDI 100-2000 (luxh)

Fig 5. Usability of exposed light as per the orientation of a room in the building.

Another distinct pattern that can be inferred from the daylight analysis of the building is the inverse relationship
between the useful daylight illuminance and the annual light exposure, when the building in rotated by 45° angle.
Fig 8 represents this trend, with South-West side having the highest percentage (approx. 10%) of lux levels
between 200 and 1000. UDI 100-2000 (%) is 40% higher than that of North’s. The building is oriented towards north
at its actual location. Fig 7. Illustrates the illuminance levels in the living room. The living room is a well-lit zone
in apartment (shown in fig 6). The iso lines in the fig 7 shows the variance of useful illuminance from the windows
towards other rooms. Similar pattern of UDI <100 can be seen in this figure. The blue contour lines shows the
region of extremely low illuminance, which cause visual discomfort. In this study, we have assumed the threshold
illuminance to be 500 lux for a visually ambient condition. As, we move away from the room the illuminance
level drops, hence, the blue lines in the hallway, which, again justifies the illuminance patterns of fig 6.

1104
 Fig 8. Trend between mean annual exposure level and UDI 100-2000 (%) based on the orientation.

An overall trend has been calculated and is illustrated in fig 9, which infers that the usability of indoor
illuminance due to daylighting increases drastically in the northeast, southwest, southeast and northwest
respectively. This means that the photo-sensors of our simulation model, could detect higher light levels between
100 to 2000 lux in the above mentioned orientations. Therefore, we visualized each room under a clear October
sky at 12:00 hrs, and obtained the ISO patterns (fig. 7). And this validates our UDI<100, UDI 100-2000, UDI >2000
analysis.

Fig 9. Ratio between UDI 100-2000 (%) and mean annual light exposure.

3.1.2 Useful daylight illuminance based on the WWR of the building

After analyzing the usefulness of the illuminance inside the rooms based on the orientation, figure 8 shows the
ratio to light in a room to its usefulness is highest in the south-western direction. Therefore, this section analyses
the WWR with respect to different orientations. Table 5 represents the mean value of usable daylight as per the
changing WWR. 50% window–to-wall ratio in the south-western direction shows an increase of 42% in the useful
daylight illuminance levels, as compared to the default window to wall ratio of 20%. This means, 42% of the
photo-sensors were able to detect illuminance levels between 200-1000 lux. Increasing the WWR beyond 50%
makes the building structurally unstable and interior spaces unusable as per the design functions.

Table 5. Mean UDI 100-2000 (%) with respect to change in WWR

WWR UDI 100-2000 (%)

NS EW SW
20% 2.15 3.33 3.5
30% 3.77 3.1 2.53
40% 2.85 4.59 2.58
50% 4.63 5.58 6.02

1105
Fig 6. Useful daylight illuminance (%) and annual light exposure (luxh) in the room at different orientations

1106
North South East West

North-east South-west North-west South-east

Fig 7. ISO contours of illuminance in the living room at 12:00, Clear October Sky at different orientation.

1107
 There is a general dip in the ambient illumination level inside the room, when WWR is raised to 30% from its
original 20%. This pattern is illustrated in fig 9 and fig 10, which can be an indicator that, just by allowing more
light into the room cannot be a sustainable lighting solution. The quality and quantity of light is the key for an
effective and efficient naturally lighted house.
Since in this study, a naturally ventilated building is considered, therefore, optimizing the availability of light
with its usability can facilitate better energy management. WWR is also a crucial element of thermal comfort
inside the house. Larger windows can lead to higher solar gains throughout the day. This could cause discomfort
to the occupants, along with increase in cooling needs.

Fig 10. Change in UDI 100-2000 with respect to different WWR.

Table 6. Floor area (m2) having UDI 100-2000 (%) greater than the 500 lux with respect to different WRR and orientations.

WWR NS EW SW
20% 12 26 25
30% 15 30 22
40% 22 27 30
50% 30 31 67

The above table shows the variation in the ambient lighting inside a room with respect to different WWR and
orientation. The reference orientation of the building is North-South, as stated in table 1. Upon varying the
window-to wall ratio, from 30% to 50%, there is a significant increase in the amount of area getting ambient
daylighting. And as mentioned earlier, in this study 500 lux is taken as the base value for visual comfort in the
rooms. Figure 11 is quantified in table 6, and validates the visualization pattern. With the default window to wall
ratio of 20%, the difference between illuminated floor space with more than 500 lux illumination was 54% and
52% in the east west and south-western direction respectively. But upon comparing the increase in the UDI 100-
2000 detection within the same orientation, after increasing the window to wall ratio from 20% to 50%, the photo
sensors could detect 63% more ambient illumination levels inside the room. Hence, both the annual illumination
and UDI 100-2000 increased significantly. Therefore, optimizing WWR can lead to a cost effective energy saver.
Although, further research is needed for comparing the cost-benefits from UDI 100-2000 and WWR.

1108
WWR North-South East-West Southwestern

20%

30%

40%

50%

Fig 11. UDI 100-2000 (%) pattern with different WWR.

1109
 3.1.3 Discussion

This study was an attempt to gather more information about energy sustainability using natural light in
buildings. We have studied the daylight performance on the ground floor of a recently built high raise apartment
in the campus of IIT Bombay. The building is inherently naturally ventilated. The paper explored the paradigm
between illumination levels and its usability. By, the end of this study, it became evident that a well illuminated
room, need not necessarily be a visually comfortable room. This statement was well supported by the analysis
results, tabulated in table 4 and table 5. We have done analysis on two level, first, by changing the orientation of
the apartment, and secondly, on the basis of light usability pattern, the window to wall ratio was changed and
again daylighting performance was checked. Results, were coherent with the objective of the study, increase in
WWR from generic 20% to 50% increased the useful illuminance in the room upto 67%. However, we could not
increase WWR further 50%, due to structural infeasibility in the building. This, study can help architects,
researchers and engineers, to understand and evaluate daylight performance of buildings, which is a good strategy
for energy management [14]. Harnessing the utilizable daylighting inside the room, can improve performance and
mood of the occupants, as stated by Galasiu (2006) [12]. This will facilitate a more livable indoor environment.
Moreover, optimizing WWR with passive architecture, can improve thermal comfort of the occupants [15], even
in dense urban built environments. Thus, reducing dependence on mechanical ventilations and air conditioning.

4. Conclusion

In India, 42% of total residential electrical energy is spent on lighting whereas the other 58% of electricity is
consumed by household appliances that also includes air conditioning energy demands [16]. Moreover, building
energy sector is growing at 8% per annum [1] as a consequence of rapid urbanization in India. On the other hand,
a recent study by Hellström (2014), showed that optimal integration of daylighting in buildings, can save upto
45% residential energy needs [2]. But, can a well illuminated room be the sole driver for energy efficiency in
buildings for long run. This aspect of daylighting is studied in this paper. This study have showed that annual
illuminance levels in a room cannot be the only parameter for a good passive architecture. Usability of this
illuminance, plays an important role for determining the sustainability of an energy efficient building design.
Therefore, we have studied a daylight performance parameter named useful daylight illuminances or UDI. The
simulation software DAYSIM v3.1, categorizes UDI into three categories : <100 lux, 100-2000 lux and >2000
lux. However, Nabil in 2006, suggested that UDI between 100-2000 lux is the optimal range for carrying out day
to day tasks, without straining the eyes [4]. Moreover, another study by Galasiu (2006), suggested 500-760 lux as
the most preferred indoor illuminance in office environment [12]. Hence, in this paper we have considered 500
lux as the minimum illuminance for an ambient visual environment. Subsequent analysis have shown building
orientation and window-to wall ratio plays a critical factor in determining useful daylight illuminances. This is
evident from the daylight performance analysis on the basis of orientation, which shows in spite of having uniform
annual illuminance levels in the rooms, the UDI values varied as per the orientation of the building (as shown in
table 4 and fig 5). Therefore, we decided to analyze UDI 100-2000 (%) by varying both the orientation and window
to wall ratios (WWR). And the result have shown an increase of upto 68% useful daylight illuminances at a certain
orientation and WWR (refer to table 6). This is visualized in figure 11.

Although, this study emphasizes on the importance of useful daylight illuminances for designing sustainable
housing, but further research is needed to quantify energy savings in terms of UDI. Moreover, analysis of daylight
performance parameters in terms of WWR, shows a linear trend of increase in UDI 100-2000 (%). But, thermal
comfort studies are needed to assess the efficacy of this trend. Increasing the dependency of housing sector on
renewable energy, is the only way to tackle global challenges like climate change and energy accessibility, which
will inturn tackle poverty and help to the global health dynamics.

5. References

[1] A. D. Yu, S, M Evans, “Building Energy Efficiency in India: Compliance Evaluation of Energy
Conservation Building Code,” no. March, 2014.
[2] B. Hellström, “Daylighting utilization in the window energy balance metric : Development of a holistic
method for early design decisions Daylighting utilization in the window energy balance metric : Development of
a holistic method for early design decisions,” 2014.
[3] D. H. W. Li, “A review of daylight illuminance determinations and energy implications,” Appl. Energy,
vol. 87, no. 7, pp. 2109–2118, 2010.
[4] A. Nabil and J. Mardaljevic, “Useful daylight illuminances: A replacement for daylight factors,” Energy

1110
Build., vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 905–913, 2006.
[5] D. H. W. Li, S. L. Wong, C. L. Tsang, and G. H. W. Cheung, “A study of the daylighting performance
and energy use in heavily obstructed residential buildings via computer simulation techniques,” Energy Build.,
vol. 38, no. 11, pp. 1343–1348, 2006.
[6] J. H. Kämpf, M. Montavon, J. Bunyesc, R. Bolliger, and D. Robinson, “Optimisation of buildings’ solar
irradiation availability,” Sol. Energy, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 596–603, 2010.
[7] E. Y.-Y. Ng, L. K. Poh, W. Wei, and T. Nagakura, “Advanced lighting simulation in architectural design
in the tropics,” Autom. Constr., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 365–379, 2001.
[8] C. Ehrlich, K. Papamichael, J. Lai, K. Revzan, E. Orlando, and L. Berkeley, “PHOTOSENSOR-BASED
LIGHTING CONTROLS Environmental Energy Technologies Division 1 Cyclotron Road PHOTOSENSOR-
BASED LIGHTING CONTROLS,” Energy, no. February, 2001.
[9] G. G. Roy, “A Comparative Study of Lighting Simulation Packages Suitable for use in Architectural
Design,” Sch. Eng. Murdoch Univ., p. 43, 2000.
[10] C. F. Reinhart and P.-F. Breton, “Experimental Validation of 3ds Max® Design 2009 and Daysim 3.0,”
Elev. Int. IBPSA Conf., vol. 2724, no. October, pp. 1514–1521, 2009.
[11] J. A. Jakubiec and C. F. Reinhart, “A method for predicting city-wide electricity gains from photovoltaic
panels based on LiDAR and GIS data combined with hourly Daysim simulations,” Sol. Energy, vol. 93, pp. 127–
143, 2013.
[12] A. D. Galasiu and J. a. Veitch, “Occupant preferences and satisfaction with the luminous environment
and control systems in daylit offices: a literature review,” Energy Build., vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 728–742, 2006.
[13] R. Labayrade, H. W. Jensen, C. Jensen, U. De Lyon, F. Ecole, T. Publics, D. Etat, D. Génie, and M.
Audin, “Validation of Velux Daylight Visualizer 2 Against Cie 171 : 2006 Test Cases,” Build. Simul. 2009, Elev.
Int. IBPSA Conf., vol. 3, pp. 1506–1513, 2009.
[14] M. Bodart and a. De Herde, “Global energy savings in offices buildings by the use of daylighting,”
Energy Build., vol. 34, pp. 421–429, 2002.
[15] B. Givoni, “Indoor temperature reduction by passive cooling systems,” Sol. Energy, vol. 85, no. 8, pp.
1692–1726, 2011.
[16] U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Issues in International Energy Consumption Analysis:
Electricity Usage in India’s Housing Sector,” no. November, 2014.
[17] VELUX, 2014, Velux Daylight VIisualizer, Horslom, Denmark,http://viz.velux.com

1111
 ICAER-2015

Elimination of Lower order Harmonics in 11-level CMLI feeding

an Induction Motor Drive using Modified Cat-PSO Technique
Brijesh Kumara1, A.K.Pandab, Bibhu Prasad Panigrahia, M.K.Chaudhurya
a
IGIT Sarang, Dhenkanal, Odisha and 759146, India
b
NIT Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha and 769008, India

Abstract

This paper reports the elimination of Lower Order Harmonics (LOH) in 11-Level Cascaded Multilevel Inverter (CMLI)
feeding a 3-Phase Induction Motor Drive using Modified Cat – Particle Swarm Optimization Technique. 11-Level CMLI has
been simulated in Matlab 7.12.0 feeding a 3-Phase IM Drive. The switching pattern has been formulated and coded using
SHE Technique. For the minimization of lower order harmonics, Modified Cat PSO algorithm has been coded in Matlab to
solve a system of nonlinear transcendental equations. In this proposed method, Cat-PSO algorithm has been modified to
increase the search space and obtain global minima. The results show elimination of harmonics up to 19th order for the
Modulation Index (MI) between 0.6 and 1.08.
Keywords:Cascaded Multilevel Inverter; Cat-PSO; Lower Order Harmonic; Selective Harmonic Elimination

1. Introduction

The quality of the power available from the various non-conventional sources cannot be used directly for the
household or industrial applications. Neither can be synchronized with the grid. Thus, smart power converters
are required to obtain sinusoidal controlled ac voltage waveform. Cascaded Multilevel Inverter (CMLI) has been
a topic of research due to its feasibility and popularity in converting power from variable dc sources to
controlled sinusoidal ac voltage sources. Increase in the number of levels in multilevel Inverter with multiple
switching control results in smooth and precise control of the AC drives, good power quality using STATCOM
[1]-[3]. Hardware implementation has been performed using single DC Source [4], non-integer variable DC
Source [5], constant DC source [6] and with zigzag connection transformer [7].
However, the output voltage waveform contains dominant lower order harmonics up to 19th harmonics.
LOH can be eliminated by increasing the number of level of CMLI, else using sinusoidal pulse width
modulation technique, but this leads to increase in the number of switching devices as well as increase in
switching losses and electromagnetic interference. Thus, Selective Harmonic Elimination (SHE) technique has
been used in CMLI to elimination the LOH and decrease the total harmonic distortion. SHE is feasible due to
availability of high speed and multi-functioning processors. As SHE involves, nonlinear transcendental
equations, thus various numerical as well as soft computing techniques have been evolved as a solution. The
algorithm that can calculate the switching angles in less time can be used for real time hardware implementation,
such as trained neural network [8], fuzzy logic [9] or pattern generation from the offline calculated switching
angle [10].
The solution of non-linear transcendental equation has been investigated using PSO [11], modified species
based PSO [12], Imperialist Competitive Algorithm [13], stochastic Newton method [14], modified discrete PSO
[15], Bee Algorithm [16]. Solving transcendental equation using Genetic Algorithm takes more time but chances
of falling into local maxima or minima is less as compare to particle swarm optimization [17]. However the
drawbacks of particle swarm optimization can be overcome by MA technique i.e. Mesh adaptive direct search
method [18], Hybrid optimization algorithm [19], where cat mapping and cloud model proves to be faster and
accurate. Thus increases the global exploration and sharpen the local refinement.
In Modified Cat-PSO, the advantage of cat mapping and real coded mutation improves the ability of PSO
technique for faster global optimization, as all the particle undergo seeking mode i.e. they find their local best
position instead of flying to the new positions.
In this paper, Modified Cat-PSO optimization technique has been programmed to solve the nonlinear
transcendental equation for the modulation index from 0.2 to 1.1, in the offline mode. A 11-level, three single
phase, phase displaced by an angle of 120 degree, Cascaded Multilevel Inverter, feeding a 3-Phase Induction

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9040260770.

E-mail address: brijesh@igitsarang.ac.in

1112
Motor drive has been simulated in Matlab 7.12.0 and the calculated switching angles has been used to obtained
desired output voltage waveform, where the harmonics up to 19th order has been eliminated for the modulation
Index (MI) between 0.6 and 1.08.

2. 11-level Cascaded Multilevel Inverter

A single phase cascaded Multilevel Inverter can be simulated using five separate DC Voltage source. Each
separate DC source is associated with single phase H-bridge Inverter. The ac terminal of different H-bridge
Inverter has been connected in series resulting in 11-level staircase waveform. Three such 1-Phase staircase
waveforms, phase displaced by an angle of 120 degree, with their neutral shorted can form a 3-Phase CMLI.
The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the line voltage waveform of the three phase CMLI will give the
fundamental, 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th and 19th lower order harmonics. The multiple of 3rd harmonic world be zero for
an isolated neutral load. SHE technique has been implemented in an 11-level cascaded MLI, where five
different levels have been obtained at five different switching states in each phase.
Let ‘K’ is the number of switching per quarter cycle per phase and ‘N’ is the number of separate DC voltage
sources. Thus, for N-separate voltage sources, (2 × − 1)levels can be obtained in each phase and if number
of switching in each phase will be K, then fundamental output voltage can be controlled and ( − 1) harmonics
can be eliminated by solving the non-linear transcendental equation. The modulation Index (MI) is the ratio of
desired output line voltage and sum of separate DC voltage source multiplied by square root of three.
The fundamental line voltage V 1 and other LOH can be expressed in generalized form as given in equation
(1).

�√3�4×
= (cos 1 + cos 2 +. … . + ) (1)

The non-linear transcendental equation can be solved using Modified Cat-PSO technique such that the
desired fundamental voltage can be obtained and LOH will be eliminated. The 440V, 50Hz, 1440rpm, 2HP, and
3-Phase Induction Motor drive fed from three single phase CMLI supply, phase displaced by an angle of 120
degree has been simulated. The simulated diagram has been shown in Fig.1.
The Line voltage at MI=1.037 and its normalized harmonic spectrum, of a 3-Phase 11-level CMLI has been
shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3 respectively.

Fig.1. Simulation of 3-phase 11-Level CMLI feeding IM Drive

Fig.2. Output Line voltage waveform of 11-level CMLI with V dc =5×60V/Phase and MI=1.037.

1113
 Fig.3. Harmonic Spectrum of Line Voltage waveform of an 11-level CMLI, THD=6.01% and MI=1.037.

3. Modified Cat-PSO Technique

Cat PSO has been evolved from the PSO technique suggested by James Kennedy and Russell Eberhart, for
solving the optimization problems. The PSO technique results quick solution but the chance of getting into local
minima increases due to the limitation of fixed step size while exploring nearby search space in the result
domain. To overcome the premature convergence problem, variable step size has been suggested. As the
searching is limited to the small region that is near the local minima, Cat PSO has been suggested to improve
the search region. Where few particles undergo seeking mode, i.e. few particle undergo multiple copies and each
copied particle undergo real coded mutation.
In this paper, Cat-PSO has been modified by allowing entire particle to undergo seeking mode in every
iteration and also step size has been varied while proceeding towards global minima, thus maximizing the
exploration of search space. Since the switching angles are calculated in offline mode, increase in simulation
time will not affect the performance of the 11-level CMLI.
A mathematical formulation of this technique has been illustrated. Let ‘Np’ be the number of particles or the
population size. Each particle is having number of switching angles, denoted as 1 , 2 … … . Let the initial
position of each particle be 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 0 . The Pbest or the Particle best will be the best position obtained by that
R

particle in ith iteration. And Gbest or global best particle is the best position obtained by the particle among all
the Pbest position. The position of the particle in next iteration depends on its relative distance between the
previous Pbest and Gbest position. The velocity vector is given by equation (2),

+1
= + 1 × () × ( 𝑃𝑃 − 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 ) + 2 × () × ( 𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺 − 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 ) (2)

Where ‘i’ is the no of iterations so far, υi is the velocity at ith iteration and υi+1 is the velocity of the particle at
(i+1)th iteration. c 1 =2, and c 2 =2.1, are the cognitive and social coefficient respectively. Posi is the present
position of the particle. After obtaining the new velocity, the new position of the particle can be given by
equation (3),

+1 +1
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 + (3)

Applying the modified Cat-PSO, at the new position, the particle will go for the seeking mode. In seeking
mode each particle will be copied for ‘Nc’ times and each copied particle will go for real coded mutation and
updated to the new position depending on the variable ‘d’ , whereas ‘d’ can be obtained by the equation (4)
given as,

1
� �
(2 × ) +1 −1 > 0.5
𝑑𝑑 = � 1 � (4)
� �
1 − (2 × (1 − )) +1 < 0.5

Where ‘r’ is the random number between 0 and 1, and ‘γ=20’ is the mutation operator. This new position of
the copied particle is given by equation (5),

+1 +1
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 + 𝑑𝑑 (5)

1114
 Each mutated copied particle and the original particle will go for the fitness test. The best position obtained
among them will replace the original particle. Thus, all the ‘Np’ population of particle will go for seeking mode
and perform local search. This decreases the chances of local minima and gives the best solution. The flow chart
of the Modified Cat-PSO Technique has been shown in Fig.4.

Create a random initial population for switching

angles between 00 & 900

Correct the solution for satisfying inequality

constraints by using pseudo code based algorithm.

Initialize , , velocity, iteration

Update iteration count

Update velocity and position using the Eqs. (2)-(3)

Copy each particle and apply real coded mutation to

the copied particle using Eqs. (4)-(5)

Evaluate the fitness function for entire particle using

the Objective function

Update and

Is stopping No
criteria
reached?

Yes

Select the best solution

End

Fig.4. Flow chart of Modified Cat-PSO Algorithm

4. Computation Results

The calculated switching angles obtained from the Modified Cat-PSO programming has been used to
calculate the switching time for the 11-level Cascaded MLI feeding 3-Phase Induction Motor drive. The

1115
variation of switching angles with the change in modulation index has been tabulated in Fig.5. The variation in
5th, 7th , 11th , 13th and 19th order harmonics normalized to fundamental voltage for various MI has been shown
in Fig.6. The Line current waveform of a 3-Phase 11-level CMLI has been shown in Fig.7. And the harmonic
spectrum in percentage of fundamental has been shown in Fig.8.

Fig.5. Variation of switching angles using Modified Cat-PSO technique

Fig.6. Harmonic contents in percentage of fundamental of 11level CMLI using Modified Cat-PSO technique

Fig.7. Output Line Current waveform of an 11-level CMLI feeding an IM Drive with V dc =5×60V/Phase and
MI=1.037.

1116
 Fig.8. Harmonic Spectrum of Line Current waveform of an 11-level CMLI, THD=3.05% and MI=1.037.

5. Conclusion

Modified Cat-PSO technique has been used to evaluate the switching angles in offline mode, for the 11-level
CMLI feeding a 3-Phase Induction Motor drive, such that desired output voltage can be obtained and LOH up to
19th order can be eliminated. However from the results obtained it has been observed that LOH has been
eliminated for the MI 0.6 to 1.08 and minimized between 0.4 to 0.6. The THD can be further reduced, if the
higher order harmonics above 23rd can be filtered out using small size filter circuit.

References

[1] L.K.Haw, M.S.A.Dahidah and H.A.F.Almurib, “SHE-PWM Cascaded Multilevel Inverter with Adjustable DC Voltage Levels Control
for STATCOM Applications.” IEEE Trans. Power Electrons., vol.29. no.12, pp.6433-6444, Feb 2014.
[2] V.Jegathesan and J.Jerome, “ Elimination of lower order harmonics in Voltage Source Inverter feeding an induction motor drive using
Evolutionary Algorithms.” in Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 692-699, Jan 2011.
[3] D.Ahamadi, K. Zou, C. Li, Y. Huang and J.Wang, “ A universal selective harmonic method for high-power inverters.” IEEE Trans. On
Power Electronics, vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 2743-2752, Oct. 2011.
[4] Y.Suresh and A.K.Panda, “Research on a cascaded multilevel inverter by employing three-phase transformers.” IET Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 561-570, May 2012
[5] B.Diong, H.Sepahvand and K.A.Corzine, “Harmonic Distortion Optimization of Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters Considering Device
Voltage Drops and Noninteger DC Voltage ratios.” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electrons., vol. 60, no.8, pp.3106-3114, April 2013.
[6] Brijesh Kumar, A.Dasgupta, B.Patra and J.Yadgiri, “Hardware implementation of three-phase VSI using PIC16F877A microcontroller
and optimization using PSO.” Int. J. Power and Energy Conversion, vol.4, no.2, 2013. pp.182-192.
[7] Chung-Ming Young and Sheng-Feng Wu, “Selective harmonic elimination in multi-level inverter with zig-zag connection
transformers.” IET Power Electrons., vol.7, no.4, pp.876-885, April 2014.
[8] J.Kumar, J.Gambhir and A.Kumar, “Control of switching angles for a CMLI using ANN.” in Proc. RAECS 2014, pp. 1-6, March 2014.
[9] Z.Bayat, E.Babaei and M.Badamchizadeh, “Low order harmonics elimination in multilevel inverters using fuzzy logic controller
considering the variations of dc voltage sources.” Proc. IEEE Conf. ICEMS 2011, pp.1-6, Aug. 2011.
[10]C.Buccella, C.Cecati, M.G.Cimoroni and K.Razi, “Analytical Method for Pattern Generation in Five-level Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter
using Selective Harmonic Elimination.” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electrons., vol.61, no.11, pp.5811-5819, Nov.2014.
[11]R.N.Ray, D.Chatterjee and S.K.Goswami, “Harmonic elimination in a multilevel inverter using the particle swarm optimization
technique.” IET Power Electrons., vol.2, no.6, pp.646-652, Nov. 2009.
[12]M.T.Hagh and H.Taghizadeh and K.Razi, “Harmonic Minimization in Multilevel Inverters using modified species-based particle swarm
optimization.” IEEE Trans. Power Electrons., vol.24, no.10, pp.2259-2267.
[13]H.M.Etesami, N.Farokhnia and S.H.Fathi, “A method based on Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA), aming to mitigate harmonics
in multilevel inverters.” 2nd IEEE Conf. PEDSTC 2011, pp.32-37, Feb. 2011.
[14]Liu Chang, W.Jianze, Luo Dan and Fei Sha, “Elimination of harmonics in multilevel converters using stochastic Newton method.”
Proc. IEEE Conf. APPEEC 2010, pp.1-4, March 2010.
[15]C.M.Hutson, G.K.Venayagamoorthy and K.A.Corzine, “Optimal SVM switching for a multilevel multi-phase machine using modified
discrete PSO.” Proc. IEEE SIS 2008, pp.1-6, Sept. 2008.
[16]A.Kavousi, B.Vahidi, R.Salehi and M.Bakhshizadeh, “Application of the Bee Algorithm for selective harmonic elimination strategy in
multilevel inverters.” IEEE Trans. Power Electrons., vol.27, no.4, pp.1689-1696, Aug. 2012.
[17]S.Dabnath and R.N.Ray, “Harmoni elimination in multilevel inverter using GA and PSO: A comparison” in IEEE Students’ Conf. on
SCEECS 2012, pp. 1-5, March 2012.
[18]A.K. Niknam, S.H.Fathi and S.S.H.Yazdi, “ A noval memetic algorithm approach for selective harmonic elimination in multi-level
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1117
 ICAER-2015

Novel Concept of Fuel Feeding Toward Pure Oxy-Combustion in

a Circulating Fluidized Bed
Azd Zayoud*a, U. K. Sahaa, P. Mahantaa
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: +91 8473894240, Fax: +91 361 2690762, E-mail: a.zayoud@iitg.ernet.in

Abstract

Carbon Capturing and Sequestration (CCS) is dawning to mitigate the environmental anthropology impacts. Unfortunately,
as reported, applying CCS decreases the overall efficiency of power plant by almost 10. More development of circulating
fluidized bed (CFB) oxy-combustion, which services CCS, is needed to compensate the decrement in efficiency. The
maximum oxygen concentration for combustion is limited by the maximum service temperature of bed material. The present
study suggests new arrangement of fuel feeding in CFB power plants toward using pure oxygen and zero or near zero
exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The novel feeding arrangement commences the third generation of CFB oxy-fuel
combustion with zero EGR. The concept behind this fuel feeding arrangement lies with the control of temperature by excess
oxidant and higher stoichiometric ration λ>1, while the oxidant is pure oxygen, and then, at later stages decreasing (λ) with
decreasing oxygen concentration. Adapting this concept can catalyze adapting oxy-fuel combustion in CFB power plant for
CCS.

Keywords: Biomass, CO2 neutral fuels, Oxy-fuel combustion, CFB, Green-House Gases (GHGs), pure oxygen, novel feeding arrangement.

1. Introduction

Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere occurs naturally or anthropologically as Vostok station
inland Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica records show [1]. Vostok data display oscillated pattern of Carbon
dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Now a days, the unprecedented levels of greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions are a result of overlapping both natural and anthropological GHG emissions. Interestingly, the fossil
fuel will increase two times in 2040 as compared to 2010 [2], and the coal counts at least two times of any other
energy source like gas or oil. More than 57% carbon dioxide’s GHGs comes from fossil fuel usage [3-4]. CCS is
raised to mitigate GHGs, and oxy-fuel combustion is considered as one of the most effective CCS techniques.
First and second generations of CFB oxy-fuel power plants use CO2 EGR to control temperature of the riser [5].
This leads to additional costs pertain to installing Air Separation Unit (ASU), Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)
and their operating costs.
Toward enhancing the overall efficiency, many research groups and industrial companies adopted enriched
oxy-combustion (OC) [6-9]. This technique has many advantages viz. compactness, utilizing low rank of fuel,
improved temperature stability and heat transfer, increase efficiency due to minimizing exhaust gas flue, and
lower emissions; Therefore, oxygen concentration in CFB combustor is being increased gradually [10].
Moreover, CFB has pluses viz. uniform temperature, in situ desulfurization, high combustion efficiency, and
fuel flexibility. As a result, oxy-fuel in CFB has advantages over pulverized combustion. More than 1000
industrial and pulverized coal furnaces were converted from air-combustion mode to oxy-combustion without
EGR [11]; and the fact that using pure oxygen combustion could save fuel between 10-70% within flue gas
temperature 260-1650 [12]. To the best of authors’ knowledge, there is no single CFB power plant operating
under pure oxygen condition.

Nomenclature
EGR: Exhaust Gas Recirculation
AFT: Adiabatic Flame Temperature GHG: Greenhouse Gas
ASU: Air Separation Unit ID: Inner Diameter
CCS: Carbon Capturing and Sequestration λ : stoichiometric ratio
CFB: Circulating Fluidized Bed η: combustion efficiency

1118
2. Gap and Aims of the work

Applying oxy-fuel CFB combustion technique decreases the overall efficiency of the power plant by 30%
[13]. On the other hand, using enhanced oxy-combustion increases the efficiency drastically [14]. The main
barrier of increasing oxygen concentration is the maximum temperature of the flame, which could exceed the
design limits. So far, researchers working on rising up the oxygen concentration for CFB with controlling of
temperature by enhancing solid recirculation to absorb the generated heat [9], maximum oxygen concentration
has been achieved is 70%, and still they are using EGR to regulate temperature of the CFB unit. In this work,
we are aiming to use pure oxygen for oxy-CFB combustion, with new temperature controlling method
depending on stoichiometric ratio (λ) rather than using EGR. Supplying excess oxidant (λ>1) decreases the
temperature, and for the reason, this excess oxidant absorbs heat and does not take part in the reaction. In the
following, the method and experimental results are described in the following sections.

3. Controlling Temperature by Stoichiometric ratio using Multiple Fuel Feeding

Combustion is a rapid chemical reaction, liberating energies viz. thermal (high-temperature gases),
electromagnetic (light), electric (ions), and mechanical (noise). Controlling rate of heat release (RoHR) in
combustion engines – both internal and external – is essential to control parameters namely temperature,
emissions and performance. Multiple injection system was used in internal combustion engines with pre-
injection, post-injection, and split-injection, aiming to control RoHR, temperature, NOx, and Sox [15-17]. On the
other hand, pure oxy-coal pulverized burners are installed to stabilize flame, to capture high concentration of
CO2, and to recover latent and sensible heat from exhaust. The number of oxy-coal pulverized burners increased
[18, 19]. The concept for pure oxy-fuel CFB combustion is being explained below.

3.1. Hypothesis

In the conventional CFB power plant, solid fuel is being fed into the (reactor) riser, where the combustion
takes place. In case of oxy-fuel CFB combustion, EGR is used to control the temperature. Additionally, Bolea et
al. [7, 9] and Seddighi et al. [7, 9] used external heat exchanger with enhanced solid circulation rate for
controlling the bed temperature. In this work, the control of temperature is attempted using stoichiometric ratio
(λ), Fig. 1 illustrates the effects of oxygen percentage in oxidant (mixture of O 2-N2) with range of [21%~100%
O2] and stoichiometric ratio [1~5] over the adiabatic flame temperature (AFT) of carbon combustion. These
AFTs are calculated for non-equilibrium single reaction (Eqn. 1), carbon reaction with oxygen. It is a simple
theoretical reaction, which is used for calculating theoretical AFT. Dissociation effect at high temperature is
neglected here for the sake of simplification.
C  O2  CO2 (1)
In all the cases, increased stoichiometric ratio decreases the adiabatic flame temperature (AFT), since the
excess oxygen absorbs the heat energy, and is not like the reacted oxygen which takes a part in exothermic
reaction. Our hypothesis suggests controlling AFT by stoichiometric ratio rather than applying EGR.

6000 %21 O₂
Adiabatic Flame Temperature, C

%35 O₂
5000
%50 O₂
4000 %75 O₂
%100 O₂
3000

2000

1000

0
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
λ, stoichiometric ratio
Fig. 1 Estimated flame temperature in a conventional boiler for air and oxy-combustion with different oxygen concentrations
and Stoichiometric ratios.

1119
 As shown in Fig. 1, AFT of 100% of oxygen in the oxidant at λ=4 gives almost the same AFT of 21% of
oxygen case in the oxidant at λ=1. This thermodynamic principle is the basis of controlling temperature, which
allows to control the temperature, and minimizing the exhaust flow rate. As a result, the overall efficiency is
enhanced. Furthermore, the combustion process is partitioned into several stages at the first stage, pure oxygen
with high (λ) are being used, and the exhaust enriched oxidant of the first stage is being used as an inlet for the
second stage. Stage-by-stage oxygen concentration in the oxidant and stoichiometric ratio (λ) decreases.
Stoichiometric ratio (λ) itself is controlled by feeding of fuel as explained below.

3.2. Fuel feeding

The main fuel feeding is split into multiple fuel feeding along the riser by using n-feeders (Fig. 2).
Cyclone

Cyclone
O2/CO2 %
34% - 66%
1-X1-X2 λ=1

Feeder
Return Leg

Return Leg
Riser-1

Riser-2

Riser Height
O2/CO2 %
X2 66% - 34%
λ=2
Feeder

O2/CO2 %
100% X1 100% - 0%
λ=3
Feeder Feeder
λ 0 1 2 3
A B C D O2 0% 33% 66% 100%

Fig. 2 Proposed fuel injection strategy for oxy-fuel CFB combustor

Rather than feeding the required fuel once at the lower part of the riser-1 and releasing the heat rapidly under
high oxygen concentration, we can feed Xn % fractions of the whole fuel feeding rate where the fuel combustion
starts and increase the temperature. In this case, λ (oxygen/fuel ratio) becomes higher than 1. Controlling λ leads
to control flame temperature in the riser-2. Two or more feeders could be fixed along the height of the riser; the
reactants of the first reaction contain excess oxygen which will react with fresh fuel at higher level of the riser
under conditions of lower (λ) and oxygen concentration. Finally, the ratio of oxygen to accumulative fuel
becomes nearly 1. Fig. 2 also shows the general predicted profile of oxygen concentration and λ along the riser
height, where both of oxygen concentration and λ decrease gradually. The available mini-CFB having a height
of 2 m (Fig. 2, C) shows alternative arrangements to simulate combustion in CFB of 6 m riser height, with three
stages. On the other hand, the absorbed heat by water jacket, radiation and convection sections decreases the
temperature. This technique can be used side by side with a high solid recirculation rate of inventory (sand) to
control the temperature in the CFB.

3.3. Experimental Setup and Procedure

The CFB unit used to conduct the experiments is illustrated in 1- Distributor plate, 2-Riser, 3-thermocouples,
4-Aero-Cyclone Separator, 5-Exhaust outlet, 6-Stand pipe,
7-Feeder, 8-Return Leg, 9-Aeration inlet, 10-Pre-heater, 11-Riser heater, 12-Thermal insulation.
Fig. 3 Photograph and sketch of the Hot CFB unit
. The mini-CFB is made up of stainless steel 415. It has a riser of 2000 mm height and 54 mm ID. Along the
riser eight thermocouples ‘K’ type are fitted at levels from distributor plate (50, 250, 350, 500, 750, 1000, 1500,
2000 mm). Two thermocouples are fitted at the top and bottom of the stand pipe, which has 19 mm ID.

1120
Aerocyclone with rectangular inlet is connected to exit of the riser. Return-leg is connected to the bottom of the
riser at 25 mm height. Fuel feeder is fitted to feed fuel to the riser through return-leg. A preheater is fixed before
the riser, and side by side, an auxiliary external heater is fixed along the riser height. The riser is insulated by
ceramic wool of 150 mm thickness.

40mm

160mm
2000 mm

160mm

1- Distributor plate, 2-Riser, 3-thermocouples, 4-Aero-Cyclone Separator, 5-Exhaust outlet, 6-Stand pipe,
7-Feeder, 8-Return Leg, 9-Aeration inlet, 10-Pre-heater, 11-Riser heater, 12-Thermal insulation.
Fig. 3 Photograph and sketch of the Hot CFB unit

A mixture of bottled O2 and CO2 (primary mixture) is supplied to the riser and is heated up using preheater
during start up. Meanwhile, pure CO2 is supplied as aeration for safety purpose and to avoid oxidant leakage to
the fuel feeder. A temperature of 600 °C is sufficient to start up the unit with biomass fuel (sawdust). The
mixture concentrations of O2-CO2 are controlled by rotameters, and atmospheric pressure maintained using
regulators. Both of fuel and inventory (sand of 350 µm particle size) are fed using screw feeder connected to the
return leg. Air is used for heating up the unit, and for starting up mixture of O 2-CO2 are used directly. Once the
stable combustion is achieved, the temperature profile along the riser is measured using series of ‘K’ type
thermocouples fitted along the riser. Since the setup is a mini-CFB, a barrier of minimizing and fitting three
feeders appeared. As a result, it is decided to simulate a CFB of 6 m height as per the following:

(a) simulating the lower part by using the mini-CFB of 2 m height setup with pure oxygen primary inlet and
fuel feeding to meet stoichiometric ratio of λ=3. In other words, the excess oxidant is taken twice of the
required one for combustion for mitigating the temperature.
(b) Simulating the middle part by using the mini-CFB of 2 m height setup with 2/3 O2 concentration and 1/3
CO2 as a primary inlet and fuel feeding to meet stoichiometric ratio of λ=2.
(c) last stage simulate the combustion at the upper part of 6 m CFB by using the mini-CFB of 2 m height
setup with 1/3 O2 concentration and 2/3 CO2 as a primary inlet and fuel feeding to meet stoichiometric
ratio of λ=1.

1121
 Fig. 2, D and Table 1 show the cases of experiments with percentages of mixture and stoichiometric ratios
for mini-CFB to simulate the combustion along the riser of CGB if 6 m height. The rate of solid recirculation
was in range of 10-15 kg.m-2.sec-1.

Table 1 Experiments’ mixture concentrations and stoichiometric ratios

Case 1 2 3
O2/CO2 % 100% - 0% 66% - 34% 34% - 66%
Stoichiometric ratio, λ 3 2 1

4. Results and Discussion

Preheater and external heater are used to start up the unit, and are switched off after getting a stable flame.
Solid circulation was stable and smooth during experiments, and pressure was atmospheric during experiments.
The main objective of the experiments was the temperature profile which mitigated by stoichiometric ratio and
solid circulating rate (Fig. 4). Generally for all cases, temperature at the lower part was low because of
comparatively cold primary flow increased at the lower part of the riser to reach a peak. In case of
stoichiometric ratio of λ=3 with pure oxygen, the peak of combustion was clear and temperature touched 1100
°C, that is pertained to high reaction activity under pure oxygen combustion condition, simultaneously,
recirculated inventory was absorbing the released heat and mitigated the temperature. This agrees with findings
by Bejarano et al. [20], where the combustion time decreased with increasing O2 concentration.

1150
1100 1-2 (O₂-CO₂) 3-0 (O₂-CO₂) 2-1 (O₂-CO₂)

1050
1000
950
T C

900
850
800
750
700
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
CFB riser height [cm]

Fig. 4 temperature profile along the mini-CFB riser height with different oxygen concentrations

Correspondingly, Maffei et al. [21] observed that the initial temperature (for heating up and devolatilization)
for single coal particle combustion was independent of oxygen concentration. This explains the close initial
temperature of three cases under three different oxygen concentration. Second case of combustion, under
conditions of stoichiometric ratio of λ=2 with 66%-34% of O2-CO2 showed the same trend of first case with
slight decrement of temperature in lower part of the riser. This lower temperature is a result of lower diffusivity
of oxygen through the mixture of O2-CO2 as compared to pure oxygen case. Meanwhile, at the upper
temperature decreases, since, majority of the fuel is burned up at the lower part of the riser.
The third case of combustion, under conditions of stoichiometric ratio of λ=1 with 34%-66% of O2-CO2
shows lower temperature profile along the riser height comparing with cases of λ=2 and λ=3. The combustion
efficiency (η) decreases with decreasing O2 in the mixture [22], and the heat specific capacity of O2 is lesser as
compared to CO2. This leads to lower temperature with increasing of CO2 concentration [23]. In all cases,
temperature is controlled and the result confirm our hypothesis of using stoichiometric ratio rather than CO 2
recirculating.

5. Conclusions

A novel concept for pure oxy-combustion in CFB power plant has been proposed and subjected to
experiments. Controlling temperature by using stoichiometric ratio sounds to be promised toward pure oxygen

1122
combustion. Side-by-side, high solid recirculation rate can be used to control and mitigate oxy-fuel combustion
for future generation. Consequently, the overall cost of installing and operating CFB power plants is being
minimized in case of adapting this concept, where exhaust gas recirculation hardware and cost of operating also
are being avoided. Moreover, avoiding CO 2 recirculation improves the efficiency of combustion. This agrees
with results of Lunbo et al. [22]. This proposed pure oxy-fuel combustion opens the door widely for future
generation of oxy-fuel combustion in CFB power plants. Additionally, the designed experiments gives an
alternate arrangement of pure oxy-combustion of CFB plants by operating series of CFBs as shown in (Fig. 5).
In this case series of sub-CFB units with single conventional feeder can be used rather than using single CFB
unit with multi-feeders.

Outlet Outlet Outlet

Inlet Inlet
Primary Inlet
O2/CO2 % O2/CO2 % O2/CO2 %
100% - 0% 66% - 34% 34% - 66%
λ=3 λ=2 λ=1

Fig. 5 Alternative arrangement of multiple fuel feeding technique.

Units

Rate of solid recirculation kg.m-2.sec-1

Temperature °C

Acknowledgments

We are gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Marie Curie Actions. This publication form is a part of
iComFluid— International Collaboration on Computational Modelling of Fluidised Bed Systems for Clean
Energy Technologies.

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1124
 ICAER-2015

Insights into the Interaction Energy for Cs+–Crown Ether

complex by Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Rima Biswasa, TamalBanerjeea,*, Pallab Ghosha, Sk. MusharafAlib
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, Assam, India
b
Chemical Engineering Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai 400085, India

Abstract

Cesium is a major fission product in spent nuclear wastes. Crown ethers are used as extracting agent for the removal of
Cesium ions from aqueous media. We report the interaction energies between the individual complexing species i.e. crown
ether and Cs+ metal ion. In order to understand the mechanism of complexation and the behavior of crown ether ligand,
crown ether (CE) molecules and Cs+NO 3 - ions were inserted randomly in the Ionic Liquid-water/methanol biphasic
system,where Ionic Liquid is carrier solvent for CE. It was observed that the interaction energies which comprised of the
non-bonded interaction during initial stages of the simulation have a value close to zero. This suggests that the Cs+ cation is
not present in the crown ether. After the formation of Cs+–CE complex ,it is very clear that the electrostatic interactions are
particularly attractive in nature and are crucial in realizing complexation.

Keywords: Crown Ether, Cs+–CE complex, Interaction energies of Cs+–CE complex

1. Introduction

Cesium is a major fission product in spent nuclear wastes. Its removal from these wastes is a key part
of waste remediation strategies. Cesium ion extraction using crown ethers has been investigated by
McDowell1and Horwitz2. Removal of cesium ions from nuclear wastes is essentially safe and cost effective
procedure for the removal of associated wastes. Macrocyclic crown ether3 and calix[n] arene4 compounds are
being recently used for the removal of Cs+ ion from the nuclear wastes solution. Recently, application of crown
ethers has become very efficient for separation of metal ion especially cesium and strontium. The use of Ionic
Liquids as an extracting agent for heavy metal ions has been reported earlier4. Ionic liquids (ILs) are generally
salts of organic cations (such as imidazolium, pyridinium, etc.) and inorganic anions (such as [BF 4 ]-, [PF 6 ]- and
[CF 3 SO 3 ]-) exist in liquid state at relatively low temperatures. Extraction of various metal ions has been studied
with imidazolium based ILs . The extraction of metal ions into the hydrophobic ILs phase was found to be
irrelevant because metal ions which are to be extracted from the aqueous phase are strongly hydrated. Thus, an
extractant should be used, which generally forms hydrophobic complexes with the metal ions and subsequently
facilitates their transfer from aqueous to the ILs phase.Luo et al.5observed that BOBCalixC6 (calix [4]arene-
bis(tert-octylbenzocrown- 6)) is an efficient extractant . Along with the imidazolium–based ILs it is able to
extract higher amounts of Cs+ ion from aqueous phase, as compared to other organic solvents like 1,2-
dichloroethane or chloroform6.

In this work, we have reported the extraction mechanism for ion selectivity of crown ethers in aqueous
solutions. We have also attempted to study the interaction energies during complexation of Cs+ cation with
crown ether. The solvent extraction process were carried out for the extraction of Cs+ ion from the
[BMIM][Tf 2 N] Ionic liquid-Water/Methanol binary system by DB18C6. To understand the mechanism of
complexation and the behavior of crown ether ligand: dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6), Cs+NO 3 - ions were
inserted in the IL–water methanol biphasic system.

2. Computational Methods

The MD simulation were performed with NAMD (version 2.9)7 where the potential energy is described by a
sum of bond, angle and dihedral deformation energies, and (electrostatic + van der Waals) interactions between
nonbonded atoms.

1125
 k r ,ij kθ ,ijk vm ,ijkl
( rij − r0,ij ) + (θ − θ 0,ijk ) + 1 + ( −1)m cos ( mϕijkl )  +
bonds angles dihedrals 4

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑
2 2
=U
2  
ijk
ij 2 ijk 2 ijkl m =1 (1)
  σ 
12
 σ ij  
6

'  1 qi q j 
∑ i ∑ j ≠i 4ε ij  r ij  −   +
 rij   4πε 0 rij 
  ij     

The parameters used for the ILs were taken from the OPLS force field8 which were earlier used by Margulis et
al. to simulate ILs.9 Water was described by the TIP3P model.10 Parameters of the Cs+ cations were fitted on the
hydration free energies by Aqvist.11 The parameters for DB18C6 were taken from Weiner et al.12 The systems
were represented with 3D periodic boundary conditions. The nonbonded interactions were calculated using a 12
Å atom-based cutoff correction for the long-range electrostatics using the Ewald summation method (PME
approximation).11 The MD simulations were performed at 300 K starting with random velocities. The solutes
(219 [BMIM][Tf 2 N] molecules, 1200 H 2 O molecules and 750 methanol molecules) were initially immersed in
cubic boxes of 45 Å lengths. After 1000 steps of energy minimization, the systems were equilibrated in NVT
ensemble. The temperature was monitored by Langevin thermostat, while the pressure was maintained by
Langevin piston. All C-H and O-H bonds were constrained with SHAKE, using the Verlet algorithm with a time
step of 2 fs to integrate the equations of motion. Typical snapshots were taken by VMD software.13

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Cs+–DB18C6 Complex in [BMIM][Tf 2 N]-Water Methanol Binary Systems

To understand the mechanism of complexation and the behavior of dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6), Cs+NO 3 –
ions and DB18C6/Cs+ were inserted in the IL–water biphasic system. Six molecules of DB18C6 crown ether
and six molecules of Cs+NO 3 – were randomly introduced into the biphasic systems. The insertion was
performed using PACKMOL14 by randomly inserting the 12 molecules in the same system. The subsequent
dynamics, pursued for 40 ns, and snapshots taken at regular intervals, are presented in Figure 1. During the
simulation, liquids separated into two clean bulk phases after 40 ns with the free crown ether moieties migrating
to the IL phase and Cs+NO 3 – ions to the water+methanol phase. As expected some methanol molecules also
migrate into the IL phase because of its partial solubility. It should be noted that methanol, has been added so as
to reduce the dipole moment of the aqueous phase which results in lesser electrostatic interactions. The
complexation of Cs+ ion with DB18C6 was observed during the13th ns run only. Since the constituent solvents
are immiscible in nature, the system is expected to form a flat interface in the process to minimize its interfacial
energy.

0 ns

40 ns

Figure 1: Snapshots of configurations at 0 and 40 ns for cesium nitrate as Cs+NO 3 −and DCH18C6 inserted in the
[BMIM][Tf2N]-Water/Methanol system.

1126
3.2. Solvated structure of Cs+–DB18C6 complex

The structure of the solvent molecules around an ion is described by the radial distribution function (RDF). The
formation of Cs+–DB18C6 complex was confirmed from the RDF of the Cs atom and one of the ether oxygen
atoms in the crown ether, calculated over the final 10 ns (i.e. from 30 ns to 40 ns). The optimized distance of
3.14 Å is closely reciprocated by the equilibrium RDF (Figure 2) with the first peak value of 3.94 Å. This
suggests that the complexation indeed took place and the entity remained physically stable till the end of the
simulation. Figure 2(a) shows the molecular structure of the Cs+–DB18C6 complex optimized at the same DFT
level of theory by using the SDD basis set. Figure 2(b) is the RDF plot of the same Cs–O interaction calculated
over a trajectory from 30-40 ns of the simulation. The peak position at 3.94 Å is close to the optimal distance
suggesting the formation of complex, and its large magnitude reinforces the stability of the complex. The large
magnitude of the RDF peak between cesium and oxygen is similar to that obtained by Pooja et al.15 for their
study on liquid–liquid extraction of Li+ ion using crown ether.

600

(a) (b) 3.948, 534.514

Cs-CrownEther
500

400

g(r)
300

200

100

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
r (Å)

Figure 2: (a) Optimized geometry of Cs+–DB18C6 complex (b) RDF of Cs-O over the trajectory run from 30
to 40 ns.

Figure 3 shows the RDF plot of Cs+ with water, methanol and IL calculated over a trajectory from 30-40 ns of
the simulation. It is observed that the RDF value of Cs+-IL is zero for the first solvation shell when compared to
∼1.72 Å in bulk solution(Cs+- water ,Cs+-methanol) . In other words, the value of Cs+- IL in the first solvation
shell is observed at ∼2.2 Å, and is equivalent to the second solvation shell (∼4.4 Å) in bulk water (Fig. 3).
Also, the peak height of the RDF in the IL is lower than that of bulk water and methanol. This indicates weaker
coordination of Cs+ with IL molecules in comparison to Cs+ with water and methanol. The interaction between
Cs+ with water is much higher than that of IL and methanol. This is evident because the formation of the
complex takes place at the interface (figure1),which is again confirmed by a RDF value ~500 for the captured
cesium ion (figure 2b).

5
Cs+-water
Cs+-methanol
4
Cs+-IL

3
g(r)

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
r (Å)

Figure 3. Comparison of RDF of Cs+ with bulk water ,methanol and IL

1127
3.3. Interaction Energies of Cs+–DB18C6 Complex

The interaction energies between Cs+–Crown ether complex( figure 4a), Cs+-Bulk water( figure 4b), Cs+-IL(
figure 4c) and Cs+ -Methanol ( figure 4d) have been plotted for 0–40 ns of the trajectory. Values of negative
interaction energies imply stronger attraction for the desired ion. These values are negative throughout for Cs+-
IL( figure 4c),implying a strong affinity in the IL medium. The interaction energies during initial stages of the
simulation have values close to zero suggesting that the Cs+ cation is not present in the sphere of influence of
the crown ether( figure 4a) .It is interesting to observe that the capture of the ion takes place at the point where
its interaction with the crown ether starts ~13 ns (figure 4a).A contrary transition is observed for both water(
figure 4b) and methanol ( figure 4d) where the values change to positive at 13 ns.

The attractive interactions between Cs+-bulk water are suddenly found to rise by an order of 200 kcal/mol as
shown in Figure 4(b). This rise is much higher than what the BPC6 crown ether can offer through its binding
energies (i.e. 53.4 kcal/mol). The interaction energies between Cs+–DB18C6 Complex and IL were also around
150-200 kcal/mol, as shown in Figure 4(c). The interaction energies between Cs+–DB18C6 Complex and
methanol were around 200-350 kcal/mol,as shown in Figure 4(d) which is much higher than that of others.It is
thus confirmed that the addition of methanol to the aqueous phase enhances the stability and extraction
efficiency of the complex.

100 100
(a) Elec
80
VdW 50
Inter action Ener gy (kcal/mol)

NonBond
Interaction Energy (kcal/mol)

60
0
40

20 -50

0
-100
-20
-150
Elec
-40 VdW
NonBond
-60 -200

-80
-250
-1000 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Time (ns)
Time (ns)

100 500
(c) Elec Elec
50 VdW 400
VdW
NonBond
Interaction Energy (kcal/mol)

Inter action Ener gy (kcal/mol)

300 NonBond
0

200
-50
100
-100
0
-150
-100
-200
-200

-250
-300

-300 -400
0 6 12 18 24 30 36 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Time (ns) Time (ns)

Figure 4: Interaction energies of (a) Cs+–DB18C6, (b) Cs+–water and, (c) Cs+–[BMIM][Tf2N] (d) Cs+-Methanol
with time.

1128
4. Conclusions

The MD simulations were carried out for the extraction of cesium ions using dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6)
with ionic liquids .The complexation took place well before the phase separation, and the complexing entities
were found to be in good contact with both IL, water and methanol.It is observed that the addition of a modifier
with low dipole moment such as methanol to the aqueous phase has enhanced the stability and extraction
efficiency of the complex.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS, Government of India) vide
scheme no. 2013/36/30-BRNS/2352, dated 26.11.2013

References

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1129
 ICAER-2015

Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 Films using an Eco-friendly Direct Liquid Coating

Approach for Solar Cell Applications
Atul Kumara, Anup V. Sanchelab, C. V. Tomyb, Ajay D Thakura,c
Center for Energy and Environment, IIT Patna, Bihta 801118, INDIA
a
b
Department of Physics, IIT Bombay, Mumbai 400076, INDIA
c
Department of Physics, School of Basic Sciences, IIT Patna, Bihta 801118, INDIA

Abstract Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) is a promising candidate as an absorber material for thin film solar cells. The reported wet
chemical synthesis approaches often have a high environmental impact due to the usage of abrasive solvents such as
hydrazines, hydroxylamines, etc. We report an eco-friendly solvent based approach for making CZTS thin films with
desirable absorption characteristics for solar cell applications.

Keywords: CZTS; solution processed; Non Vacuum deposition.

1. Introduction

With increasing energy demand, cost of energy becomes an important factor [1]. The current need of energy
at low cost is one of the many driving forces for the renewable energy industry. CuIn x Ga 1-x S 2 (CIGS) absorber
layer based photovoltaic (PV) technology with an efficiency of 21.7% [2] appeared to be the best low cost
replacement for expensive Si PV technology (efficiency 25.6%) [3]. However critical issues including In price
fluctuation and the toxicity associated with Ga processing severely hampered its prospects. In view of this,
Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) presents itself as a viable alternative [4] to CIGS based PV technology. CZTS has an
expanded chalcopyrite structure where the trivalent In/Ga is replaced by bivalent Zn and tetravalent Sn. The
primary methods used for fabricating CZTS thin films include co-evaporation [5], PLD [6], sputtering [7], CVD
[8], electrodeposition [9], SILAR [10], photochemical deposition [11], solvothermal [12], ball milling/solid state
route [13], microwave [14], inert-atmosphere based chemical route [15], sol-gel [16], spray pyrolysis [17],
nanoparticle [18] and nanoink [19] based techniques. The environmental impact of the above processes in light
of energy input and processing techniques along with infrastructural requirements and scalability issues are
detrimental to the success of CZTS based PV technologies. For example, sputtering, PLD and co-evaporation
suffer from issues like high energy input, non-scalability and intensive infrastructural costs, phase formation is a
critical issue with electrochemical synthesis and co-evaporation. The reported wet chemical approaches for
making CZTS thin films suitable for solar cell have a high environmental impact due to the usage of abrasive
solvents such as hydrazines, hydroxylamines, etc. Scalable techniques with low energy input and nontoxic
precursor/solvent with versatile deposition of phase selective CZTS films is an indispensable requirement.
Solution processed CZTS film have advantages of low cost, high throughput, less energy intensive over non
vacuum techniques. Solution/liquid processed techniques can be broadly characterized into two categories: (i)
nanoink based approach where nanoparticles of kestrite CZTS are dispersed in a volatile solvent, and (ii) direct
liquid coating (DLC) based approach where molecular precursors in solvent form a correct phase upon
annealing. Good account of work is reported in the reviews by Romanyuk et al [20] and Abbermann [21]. The
highest efficiency solar cells based on CZTS are solution processed but they utilize toxic solvents like hydrazine
(record efficiency of 12.6 [1]) and more recently hexylamine [22]. Other solvents such as DMSO [23],
methoxyethanol [24], pyridine [25], ethylcellulose [26] have been reported which too have a considerable degree
of toxicity. De-ionised water-ethanol mixture [27] and ethanol-methanolamine mixture [28] are reported with
relatively less toxicity for solution processed CZTS, but stability of solution is an issue. In this respect a safer
and stable solvent becomes an important step to be addressed for direct solution processed CZTS film. Here we
report a comparatively eco-friendly solvent system, viz., isopropanol-polyethylene glycol for synthesis of
solution processed CZTS using DLC technique.

2. Experiment details

Thin films were deposited by DLC approach using isopropanol and polyethylene glycol as solvents
respectively. For this, precursors CuCl 2 , ZnCl 2 , SnCl 4 , and a sulphur source (thioacetamide) are used in

1130
ratio 1.5:1.02:1.8:5.5. Copper, Zinc and Tin salts are dissolved in isopropanol to obtain a greenish
solution. Thioacetamide is dissolved in polyethylene glycol and stirred to form a yellowish solution. A small
amount of methanolamine is added to this solution. Under stirring the isopropanol solution is added to the latter
solution to form a molecular precursor solution (labeled OT) and stored for drop casting/spin coating deposition
of CZTS films. For the other synthesis, CuCl 2 , ZnCl 2 , SnCl 2 in ratio 2:1:1 was dissolved in isopropanol.
To this, 3mM thioacetamide is added with methanolamine resulting in another molecular precursor
solution (labeled ST). After coating of films using the two precursor solutions, annealing is done at
2200C in open air for 30 minutes. Data for films labeled OT24 and ST21 grown using precursors OT
and ST, respectively are reported here. The crystallographic study is done using Rigaku TTRX-IV XRD
employing Cu K. The Raman spectroscopy is done using the Jobin-Yvon Raman setup using 632.8 nm He:Ne
laser in the micro-Raman configuration. EDAX for Elemental composition and SEM for surface morphology
are done by Hitachi 480 with accelerating voltages of 15kV and 10kV, respectively.

3. Result and discussion

Figure 1 (a) shows the x-ray diffraction (XRD) data for the film ST21. Prominent peaks at 28.280, 47.380,
56.340 are indexed to 112, 220, 312 peaks of the kesterite CZTS phase (ICCD 01-075-4122). As the binary
compound Cu 2 S (ICDD 01-073-6078) has XRD peaks located at overlapping locations, XRD alone is not a
conclusive proof for the formation of CZTS. Furthermore, there is a large propensity for the formation of Cu 2 S
as a major phase during synthesis of CZTS. Thus Raman measurement is done to declassify any binary present
in sample and confirm its phase purity. The Raman data for ST21 is shown in Fig. 1 (b) along with the multi-
peak fits. Raman peaks at 272 cm-1, 333 cm-1 corresponds to CZTS [29-31]. The minor peak at 424 cm-1
corresponds to Cu 2 S indicating the presence of a secondary Cu 2 S phase [32]. This peak can be eliminated by
further optimization of synthesis process, like annealing and sulfurisation. The EDAX data show the elemental
composition as 2.4:1:1.03:4.07 (see Fig. 1(c)). The Cu/Zn+Sn ratio is 1.19 which suggests it to be a Cu rich, Zn
poor film. The final film is continuous as shown in the SEM image in Fig. 1 (d). Figure 2 (a) shows the x-ray
diffraction (XRD) data for the film OT24. The major peaks at 28.340, 47.360, 56.020 340 are indexed to 112,
220, 312 peaks of the kesterite CZTS phase (ICCD 01-075-4122). A minor peak at 14.320 corresponding to
ternary phase Cu 3 SnS 4 is seen. This is seen to get suppressed upon increasing the annealing temperature. Figure
2 (b) shows the Raman data for OT24. The multi-peak fit shows de-convoluted Raman peaks at 266 cm-1, 295
cm-1, 332.7 cm-1, 365 cm-1 and 435cm-1. The peaks at 266 cm-1, 332.7 cm-1, 365 cm-1 corresponds to CZTS [29-
31]. Peak at 295 cm-1 corresponds to the ternary phase Cu 3 SnS 4 [33]. The EDAX data shows elemental a
composition of 2.7:4.21:1:4.24 (see Fig. 2(c)). This corresponds to a Cu poor sample with a Cu/Zn+Sn ratio of
0.52. The drop casted film is continuous and well connected as shown in SEM image in Fig. 2 (d). The current
solvent system showed a degree of flexibility in optimization the composition ratio. The films are open air
annealed at 2200C and are not further sulfurised. The minor binary and ternary impurity phases could be
eliminated using suitable sulfurization and work is under progress in this direction.

Fig. 1. The XRD, Raman, EDAX and SEM graph of sample ST21.

1131
 Fig. 2. The XRD, Raman, EDAX and SEM graph of sample OT24.

4. Conclusion

The presented synthesis technique shows that direct coating with non toxic solvent mixture can be used to
deposit CZTS films. The film processing involves a low temperature non-vacuum method which is easily
scalable. The benign solvent can increase the acceptability of the CZTS thin film fabrication route. Further work
is in progress for using these thin films in solar cell applications.

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[3] Panasonic Press Release, 10 April 2014. Panasonic, Hit Solar Cell Achieves World’s Highest Energy Conversion Effciency of 25.6.
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[5] Hironori Katagiri, Masato Nishimura, Takeshi Onozawa, Shinichi Maruyama Masato Fujita, Toshiyuki Sega and Taku Watanabe,
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Alloys and Compounds, 509 (2011) 7439-7446.
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Chem., 22 (2012) 4021.
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Electrodeposited Czts Thin Films: Effect of Duty Cycle., Materials Letters, 108 (2013) 316319.
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[18] Michael Edler, Thomas Rath , Alexander Schenk, Achim Fischereder, Wernfried Haas, Matthias Edler, Boril Chernev, Birgit
Kunert, Ferdinand Hofer, Roland Resel, Gregor Trimmel, Materials Chemistry and Physics, 136 (2012) 582-588.
[19] Pay-Yu Lee, Sheng-Po Chang, En-Hao Hsu, Shoou-Jinn Chang, Solar Energy Materials Solar Cells, 128 (2014) 156165.
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(2013) 181189.
[21] Stephan Abermann, Solar Energy, 94 (2013) 3770.
[22] Ruihong Zhang, Stephen M. Szczepaniak, Nathaniel J. Carter, Carol A. Handwerker, and Rakesh Agrawal, Chem. Mater., 2015, 27,
2114−2120.
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Edler, Robert Saf, Ferdinand Hofer and Gregor Trimmel, Chem.Mater. 22, 2010, ,3399-3406.

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[26] Jie Shen, Dingwen Zhang, Junjie Li, Xiaodong Li, Zhuo Sun, Sumei Huang, Nano-Micro Letters 5 (2013) 281.
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1133
 ICAER-2015

Impact of Solar Panel Configuration on Large Scale Rooftop

Solar Photovoltaic Scenario for Mumbai
Rhythm Singha,b,1, Rangan Banerjeeb
a
National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Balewadi, Pune - 411045, India
b
Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai - 400076, India

Abstract

Application of solar photovoltaic systems at a large scale is becoming increasingly interesting for researchers, policymakers
and investors. Singh and Banerjee (2015) [1] have presented a methodology for estimation of the rooftop solar photovoltaic
potential of a city. The methodology has been applied and illustrated for the Indian city of Mumbai (18.98 0N, 72.830E). In
this paper, different configurations of the solar panels to be used for the Mumbai rooftop solar photovoltaic scenario have
been analyzed and compared in terms of their impact on the generation from the scenario. The three possible configurations
studied and compared in this study are – fixed tilt configuration, two-point system configuration, and horizontal N-S axis E-
W tracking.
The results show that for the fixed tilt configuration, the best tilt angle for year-round optimal performance is same as the
latitude of the place, i.e. 190. However, optimization of seasonal output would warrant another tilt angle. Further, it has
been found that, as compared to the fixed tilt at 19 0, the two-point system gives 2.21% higher annual plane-of-array
insolation; and horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking gives 10.18% higher annual plane-of-array insolation. However, in terms
of the annual generation from the large scale Mumbai rooftop scenario, the gain is only 1.97% with the two-point system,
and 9.62% with the horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking configuration, as compared to the fixed tilt at 19 0. Incremental cost-
benefit analysis for the excess capital expenditure on the tracking equipment has also been done. For this analysis, the
Average Unit Cost of Power Supply for India has been taken into account, which is found to have a CAGR of 8.57% over the
last decade; discount rate has been estimated as per the Renewable Energy Tariff Regulations passed by the Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and has been found to be 10.76%. The ensuing analysis gives a discounted
payback period of around 13 years for the excess capital expenditure due to the tracking equipment costs.
Keywords: rooftop solar photovoltaic scenario; solar panel configuration; fixed tilt; two-point system; horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking.

1. Introduction

The rooftop solar photovoltaic scenario presented for Mumbai in Singh and Banerjee (2015) [1] is the basis
for this paper. In the scenario presented in Singh and Banerjee (2015) [1], standard system configuration was
chosen as fixed tilt panels at 190 tilt angle (same as the latitude of the place). In this present paper, the various
possible panel configurations have been analyzed and compared. These include fixed tilt panels at angles other
than the latitude angle, two-point system configuration and horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking configuration.

Nomenclature

POA plane-of-array
DNI Direct Normal Irradiance
DHI Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance
ASHRAE American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers
PTC Power Temperature Coefficient
PVA Photovoltaic-Available-Area
AUCPS Average Unit Cost of Power Supply
CAGR Compounded Annual Growth Rate
CERC Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
ROE Return on Equity

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-876-753-4185; +91-20-6685-9302.

E-mail address: rsingh@nicmar.ac.in, rhythm@iitb.ac.in

1134
 Kacira et al (2004) [2] have conducted a study on determining the optimum tilt angles and orientations of
solar photovoltaic panels in Sanliurfa, Turkey. They have estimated the total solar radiation on the tilted PV
surface using a mathematical model developed from inputs from Duffie and Beckman (1991) [3] and Lunde
(1980) [4]. Using the mathematical model they have estimated the monthly and seasonal optimal tilt angles.
They have estimated that there by adopting monthly optimal tilt angles, there is a 1.1% increase in annual solar
radiation received as compared to the seasonal optimal tilt angles; and that there is a 3.9% increase as compared
to the tilt angle same as latitude angle. Lubitz (2011) [5] has studied the effect of manual adjustments to the tilt
angle on fixed and tracking solar photovoltaic panels. He has used hourly irradiance data with Perez radiation
model to compare the insolation received on fixed tilt, azimuth tracking and two-axis tracking panels, at diverse
locations across the United States of America. He has found that the optimal tilt angle varies from the latitude
angle at low-latitude, high-clearness sites, to up to 140 less than the latitude angle at high-latitude, low-clearness
sites. He also reports that azimuth tracking increases the incident annual solar radiation by around 29%, as
compared to a fixed tilt panel; and that two-axis tracking increases the incident annual solar radiation by 34% as
compared to a fixed tilt panel. Kelly and Gibson (2009) [6] have analyzed and compared panel orientations for
cloudy and overcast conditions. They have found that during such sky conditions, horizontal module orientation
is the best, and that it increases the incident solar energy by about 50% as compared to two-axis tracking
systems. Helwa et al (2000) [7] have made practical studies to evaluate and compare the performance of
different types of solar trackers. They report that the gain in incident solar energy is the highest for two-axis
tracking, followed by vertical-axis tracking, and lastly by tilted-axis tracking. Lave and Kleissl (2011) [8] have
determined the optimal tilt angle for solar photovoltaic panels in different states of the United States of America.
They have estimated that, compared to the global horizontal irradiation, these optimal tilt angles give 10% - 25%
higher annual incident solar radiation; whereas, two-axis tracking panels give 25% - 45% higher annual incident
solar radiation.
In this present paper, the variations in the annual average plane-of-array (POA) incident solar radiation have
been studied for different tilt angles, as well as two-point system and horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking system.
Further, taking into account the effective sunshine hours for the Mumbai rooftop scenario, the impact of these
different configurations on the generation profile from the rooftop photovoltaic scenario has been studied. This
has also been compared with the existing generation and load profiles for the Mumbai region.

2. Methodology

The Liu-Jordan transposition model has been used for estimating the plane-of-array (POA) incident
radiations for the different configurations. It makes use of the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and the Diffuse
Horizontal Irradiance (DHI) data for this. The irradiance data has been taken from Climate Design Data 2009
ASHRAE Handbook (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, 2009) [9].
This data has been generated from observations made over 30 years. The irradiance data is on an hourly
timescale. Liu-Jordan model (Liu and Jordan, 1960) [10] can be mathematically expressed as:

1 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛽 1 − 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛽
𝐼𝑡 = 𝐼𝑁 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃𝑖 + 𝐼𝑑 + 𝜌 𝐼𝑁 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃𝑧 + 𝐼𝑑 (1)
2 2

𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃𝑖 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜑 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛽 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜑 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝛽 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑧𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛿 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔

+ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛿 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜔 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝛽 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑧𝑠 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜑 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛽 − 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜑 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝛽 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑧𝑠
× 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝛿 (2)

𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃𝑧 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜑 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛿 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜑 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝛿 (3)

where It = Plane-of-Array irradiance (kW/m2)

IN = Direct Normal Irradiance (kW/m2)
θi = Angle of incidence on the panel (Angle between a beam incident on a surface and the line perpendicular
to the surface)
Id = Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (kW/m2)
β = Fixed Tilt Angle of the panel
ρ = Albedo (Generally taken as 0.2 for urban landscape)
θz = Zenith Angle (Angle between Sun’s rays and the normal to the horizontal plane (at a place))

1135
 φ = Latitude Angle
zs = Surface Azimuth Angle (taken as 0 with the assumption of South-facing panels)
δ = Solar Declination Angle
ω = Hour Angle
Eq. (1) – (3) gives the general form of the Liu-Jordan model, for a plane at a fixed tilt angle of β. However,
for a horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking configuration, the cos θi and β terms in the above model get modified as
shown in Eq. (4) – (5) (Duffie and Beckman, 1991) [3]. The cos θz term remains unchanged.

cos 𝜃𝑖 = cos 𝜃𝑧 2 + cos 𝛿 sin 𝜔 2 (4)

2
cos 𝛿 sin 𝜔
tan 𝛽 = tan 𝜃𝑧 1− (5)
sin 𝜃𝑧

As far as the two-point system is concerned, it is simply a fixed tilt system having β = β 1 for some months of
the year, and β = β2 for the rest of the months. In the present case, for the two-point system, β1= 290 has been
chosen for the months October – February, and β2= 90 has been chosen for March – September.
For estimating the effective sunshine hours for Mumbai, simulations have been carried out in PVSyst to
determine the cut-off and cut-in values of the Solar Elevation Angle for the rooftop photovoltaic systems
installed on buildings of different heights. It is known that Solar Elevation Angle γ is given by

𝛾 = 90 − 𝜃𝑧 (6)

Also, it is known that,

𝜔 = 𝑆𝑇 − 12 × 15 (7)

Thus, substituting Eq. (6) and Eq. (7) in Eq. (3) and rearranging, the cut-off and cut-in solar time can be
estimated as

1 sin 𝛾𝐶𝑢 /𝐶𝑖 − sin 𝜑 . sin 𝛿 180

𝑆𝑇𝐶𝑢 /𝐶𝑖 𝑕𝑟𝑠 = × cos −1 × + 12 (8)
15 cos 𝜑 . cos 𝛿 𝜋

where STCu/Ci = Cut-off / Cut-in Solar Time (for the rooftop panels)
γCu/Ci = Cut-off / Cut-in Solar Elevation Angle
ST = Solar Time
Thus, using Eq. (8) the mean effective sunshine hours for the rooftop photovoltaic systems has been
estimated, and based on that, the mean monthly generation profile for the rooftop photovoltaic systems has been
estimated for the different configurations in consideration.
For estimating the electricity output for different configurations, a reference solar panel having rated solar
conversion efficiency of 14.5% and a Power Temperature Coefficient (PTC) of -0.4383 % / 0C. The output from
the solar panel has been estimated as

𝑃𝑇𝐶 × 𝑇𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑙 ,𝑕 (℃) − 25

𝐸𝑃𝑉 𝑘𝑊𝑕 = 𝐸𝑠𝑜𝑙 𝑘𝑊𝑕 𝑚2 × 𝐴 𝑚2 × 𝜂𝑃𝑉 1 + × 𝜂𝑃𝐶𝑈 9
100
𝑁𝑠𝑕 𝑁𝑠𝑕

where, EPV = electricity output of the solar PV panel in an hour (kWh)

Esol = incident solar energy, in an hour, on a unit area (kWh/m2)
A = area of the panel (m2)
ηpv= rated efficiency of the PV panel (= 0.145)
ηpcu= efficiency of the power conditioning unit including the inverter (= 0.85, estimated by simulations in
PVSyst)
Nsh = number of effective sunshine hours
PTC = Power Temperature Coefficient (= -0.4383 % / 0C, for the reference panel)
Tpanel is the panel temperature, which is estimated from the ambient temperature by Eq. (10)

1136
 𝑁𝑂𝐶𝑇 − 20
𝑇𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑙 ,𝑕 (℃) = 𝑇𝐴𝑖𝑟 ,𝑕 (℃) + 𝐸𝑠𝑜𝑙 (𝑊 𝑚2 ) (10)
800

where NOCT = Nominal Operating Cell Temperature (= 480C, as per Ross & Smokler (1986) [11])
Since this paper is focused for evaluating the impact over the large scale rooftop scenario for Mumbai region,
the analysis has been carried out on an aggregate level, for the whole of Mumbai city. For the aggregate
analysis, the panel area A has been replaced by the Photovoltaic-Available-Area (PVA) estimated in Singh and
Banerjee (2015) [1]. Temporal analysis is also on an aggregate level, taking into account the monthly mean of
the hourly values for Esol, TAir and Tpanel.

3. Results

3.1. Two-point system

For fixed tilt configuration, the plane-of-array (POA) insolation is at its year-round optimal value at a tilt of
190. The logic behind the two-point system is that it has been observed, from the results, that the POA insolation
at a tilt of 90 is higher than that at 190, for the months of March – September; whereas, the POA insolation at a
tilt of 290 is higher than that at 190 for the months of October – February. This has been shown graphically in
Fig.1. Hence it makes sense to create a configuration which can tap the best of these differences, with minimal
adjustments required in the on-site installation. The only adjustment needed would be to design the mounting
structure to have two-possible tilt angles, 90 and 290, and to change the tilt of the panel only twice a year, on 30 th
September and on 28th February.

180.00
Mean Monthly POA Insolation

160.00
140.00
(kWh/m2/month)

120.00
100.00 Fixed Tilt @ 19 deg.
80.00 Fixed Tilt @ 9 deg.
60.00
Fixed Tilt @ 29 deg.
40.00
20.00
0.00
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Fig. 1. Seasonal variation of POA insolation with tilt angle.

3.2. Impact on Plane-of-Array Solar Insolation

The plane-of-array (POA) insolation for fixed tilt angles of 90, 190, 290 and horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking
have been estimated for different months. Some of the comparative results are shown in Fig.2 – Fig.4. Fig.2
shows the comparison of the above configurations, in terms of the monthly mean hourly POA insolation for the
month of February (month with highest solar insolation for Mumbai).

1137
 1200

Mean Hourly POA Insolation

1000
800
(Wh/m2/h) 1-axis tracking
600
Fixed tilt @ 29 deg.
400
Fixed tilt @ 19 deg.
200
Fixed tilt @ 9 deg.
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23
Hour of Day

Fig. 2. Monthly mean hourly POA insolation for the month of February.

Fig.3 shows the comparison of the annual average daily POA insolation for these configurations.

5.400
5.300
Insolation (kWh/m2/day)
Annual Ave. Daily POA

5.200
5.100
5.000
4.900
4.800
4.700
4.600
4.500
9 deg. 19 deg. 29 deg. 2-point 1-axis tracking

Fig. 3. Annual average daily POA insolation.

Fig.4 shows the comparison of mean monthly POA insolation for the three scenarios – fixed tilt at 190, two-
point system, and horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking system.

200.00
Mean Monthly POA Insolation

180.00
160.00
(kWh/m2/month)

140.00
120.00 1-Axis Tracking
100.00 2-Point System
80.00 Fixed Tilt @ 19 deg.
60.00
40.00

Fig. 4. Mean monthly POA insolation for the three configurations.

1138
 The results show that, as compared to the best fixed tilt configuration (tilt angle of 19 0), the annual POA
insolation is 2.21% higher with two-point system, and 10.18% higher with the horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking
configuration.

3.3. Impact on the Large Scale Mumbai Rooftop Scenario

Using the Eqs. (1) – (5) and Eqs. (8) – (10), along with the Photovoltaic-Available-Area (PVA) estimated in
Singh and Banerjee (2015), the impact of the panel configurations on the large scale Mumbai rooftop scenario
has been estimated. The comparison is shown in Fig.5.
The results show that, as compared to the best fixed tilt configuration (tilt angle of 19 0), the total annual
generation from the large scale Mumbai rooftop scenario is 1.97% higher with two-point system, and 9.62%
higher with the horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking configuration.

350
300
Monthly PV Generation

250
(Million kWh)

200 N-S axis E-W Tracking

150 2-point System
100 Fixed tilt @ 19 deg

50
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Fig. 5. Monthly PV Generation for Mumbai rooftop scenario for the three configurations.

As can be noticed, the gain in the annual generation for the latter two configurations is not as high as the gain
in the annual POA insolation for these configurations. The reason, for the differential gain in terms of annual
POA insolation and in terms of annual generation at large scale, is the differential impact of the reduction
factors which come into play while converting POA insolation to PV generation. The most prominent of these
reduction factors, with respect to the panel configurations, are – i) Reduction due to decrease in effective
sunshine hours, and ii) Reduction due to effect of temperature on PV panels. These factors affect the three panel
configurations to different extent, and hence the gain in POA insolation is not translated fully to gain in the net
PV generation. Table.1 summarizes the differential impact of these reduction factors on the three panel
configurations.

Table 1. Differential impact of the reduction factors on the panel configurations.

% Change in POA
% Gain in POA % Change in PV % Gain in annual PV
insolation due to
Panel Configuration insolation (w.r.t. fixed generation due to generation (w.r.t. fixed
decrease in effective
tilt at 190) temperature-effect tilt at 190)
sunshine hours
Fixed tilt at 190 0 -3.20 -10.91 0
Two-point system 2.21 -3.22 -11.10 1.97
N-S Axis E-W Tracking 10.18 -3.07 -11.47 9.62

3.4. Capacity Factor

Capacity factor is defined as the ratio of the energy output, in a given time period, from an installation having
a rated capacity, to the theoretically maximum energy output possible from that rated capacity in the same time
period. It can be expressed mathematically as

1139
 𝐸𝑜𝑢𝑡 (𝑘𝑊𝑕)
𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 = (11)
𝐼𝐶 (𝑘𝑊) × 365 × 24

Capacity factor, for the large scale Mumbai rooftop scenario, has been evaluated for the three panel
configurations under consideration. The results show that the fixed tilt (at 19 0) configuration has a capacity
factor of 14.80%. The two-point system configuration has a capacity factor of 15.09%; and the horizontal N-S
axis E-W tracking system has a capacity factor of 16.22%.

3.5. Incremental Cost-Benefit Analysis

The incremental cost-benefit analysis compares a) the increase in the electricity generation by using a single-
axis tracking mechanism vis-à-vis the fixed-tilt system, with b) the incremental cost of a single-axis tracking
system over and above the fixed-tilt system.
From the analysis done in the previous section, the capacity factors for fixed tilt (at 19 0) configuration and
the horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking system have been found to be 14.80% and 16.22% respectively, for
Mumbai.
We know that the annual generation from a solar PV system is related to its capacity factor by Eq. (11).
Hence, for Mumbai, we get annual generation from 1Wp fixed-tilt (at 190) system as 1296.48 Wh; and annual
generation from 1Wp N-S axis E-W tracking system as 1420.87 Wh. Thus, over a period of 1 year, a 1Wp
installation of N-S axis E-W tracking system generates 124.39 Wh more electricity than a 1Wp fixed-tilt (at
190) configuration. This can be denoted by the symbol E1yr_tracking-fixed.
As far as the incremental cost is concerned, quotations invited from several vendors of fixed-tilt and tracking
mounting systems show an extra cost of 0.1 $/Wp – 0.15 $/Wp for single-axis tracking systems, over and above
the fixed-tilt systems. Thus for every Wp, there is an incremental capital cost of 0.125 $/Wp for the single-axis
tracking systems (taking the mean value of the excess quoted prices). This incremental cost leads to an
incremental benefit of 0.124 kWh/year excess generation.
For the purpose of this incremental cost-benefit analysis and the estimation of the payback period, the cost of
electricity and the discount rate needs to be taken into consideration. Table.2 gives the Average Unit Cost of
Power Supply (AUCPS) in India for the period 2003-04 to 2012-13 [12-13].

Table 2. Average unit cost of power supply in India.

Year AUCPS (₹/kWh)
2003-04 2.39
2004-05 2.54
2005-06 2.60
2006-07 2.76
2007-08 2.93
2008-09 3.40
2009-10 3.55
2010-11 3.98
2011-12 4.55
2012-13 5.01

The average unit cost of power supply in India has been found to be growing at a Compounded Annual
Growth Rate of 8.57% over the 9 year period shown in Table.2.Assuming this trend of average costs to continue
in the future, the incremental benefit has been converted to monetary equivalent by taking into account the
avoided cost due to the excess electricity generated.
As far as the discount rate is concerned, the Renewable Energy Tariff Regulations [14] passed by the Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in March, 2015 state that “For the purpose of levelized tariff
computation, the discount factor equivalent to post-tax weighted average cost of capital shall be considered.”
The Regulations further stipulate the normative debt-equity ratio to be 70:30. As per the Regulation norms and
the prevailing base rates of lending by the State Bank of India, the Interest Rate for the debt component has been
fixed at 13%; whereas the Return on Equity (ROE) has been taken as 24%. Further, the Income Tax rate has
been stipulated as 33.99% (comprised of 30% Income Tax + 10% Surcharge + 3% Education Cess). The final
value of the discount rate is to be determined by Eq. (12).

1140
 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 =
𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 × 𝐷𝑒𝑏𝑡 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 + 𝑅𝑂𝐸 × 𝐸𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 × 1 − 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑥 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 (12)

Using the above values and Eq. (12) the discount rate comes out to be 10.76%. For the incremental cost-
benefit analysis, discounted payback period has been used as a metric. The analysis has been done for 1Wp of
single-axis tracking installation as compared to fixed-tilt installation. The incremental capital cost and
incremental benefit have been taken as described before.
If C0 is the capital cost and Bi is the monetary value of the benefit accrued at the end of the ith year, then the
discounted payback period ndp is the time period such that

𝐵1 𝐵2 𝐵𝑛 𝑑𝑝
+ + ⋯ + = 𝐶0 (13)
(1 + 𝑑) (1 + 𝑑)2 (1 + 𝑑)𝑛 𝑑𝑝

where, d = Discount Rate, and

𝐵1 = 𝐴𝑈𝐶𝑃𝑆2014 −15 × 𝐸1𝑦𝑟 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 −𝑓𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑑 (14)

𝐵𝑛 (𝑛≠1) = 𝐵𝑛 −1 × (1 + 𝐶𝐴𝐺𝑅𝐴𝑈𝐶𝑃𝑆 /100) (15)

Solving the Eqs.(13) – (15) with the values of the parameters as detailed above gives the discounted payback
period of around 13 years for the extra capital expenditure due to the tracking equipment costs.

4. Conclusion

The paper attempts to study the impact of different panel configurations on the annual plane-of-array (POA)
insolation received and the annual generation from the large scale rooftop scenario for Mumbai. Different fixed
tilt angles have been compared, and it has been found that the tilt angle equal to the latitude angle (190), for
Mumbai, gives the highest annual POA insolation for fixed tilt configuration. However, tilt angles higher than
this value give higher POA insolation in the months October – February; and tilt angles lesser than the latitude
angle give higher POA insolation in the months March – September. This observation led to the formation of an
alternative configuration, capable of giving slightly better annual POA insolation, with minor adjustments in the
mounting structures of the panels. This configuration has been defined as the two-point system, and has a tilt
angle of 290 for October – February, and a tilt angle of 90 for March – September.
It has been found that, as compared to the fixed tilt (at 19 0), the two-point system configuration gives 2.21%
higher annual POA insolation; and the horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking configuration gives 10.18% higher
annual POA insolation. However, in terms of the annual generation from the large scale Mumbai rooftop
scenario, the gain, with respect to the fixed tilt (at 190) configuration, is 1.97% for the two-point system
configuration, and 9.62% for the horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking configuration. The decrease in the gain, in
terms of the annual generation, for the latter two configurations, is due to the relatively larger reduction in POA
insolation due to decrease in effective sunshine hours, and larger reduction in PV generation due to temperature
effects, for these two configurations. The capacity factors for the three configurations have been found to be
14.80% for fixed tilt (at 190), 15.09% for two-point system and 16.22% for horizontal N-S axis E-W tracking.
Incremental cost-benefit analysis for the excess capital expenditure on the tracking equipment has also been
done. For this analysis, the Average Unit Cost of Power Supply for India has been taken into account, which is
found to have a CAGR of 8.57% over the last decade; discount rate has been estimated as per the Renewable
Energy Tariff Regulations passed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and has been
found to be 10.76%. The ensuing analysis gives a discounted payback period of around 13 years for the excess
capital expenditure on the tracking equipment costs

References

[1] Singh, R., & Banerjee, R. (2015). Estimation of rooftop solar photovoltaicpotential of a city. Solar Energy, 115, pp. 589-602.
[2] Kacira, M., Simsek, M., Babur, Y., &Demirkol, S. (2004). Determining optimumtilt angles and orientations of photovoltaic panels in
Sanliurfa, Turkey.Renewable energy, 29(8), pp. 1265-1275..
[3] Duffie, J. A., & Beckman, W. A. (1991). Solar engineering of thermal processes. New York etc.: Wiley.
[4] Lunde, P. J. (1980). Solar thermal engineering: space heating and hot water systems.New York: Wiley.

1141
[5] Lubitz, W. D. (2011). Effect of manual tilt adjustments on incident irradiance onfixed and tracking solar panels. Applied energy, 88(5),
pp. 1710-1719.
[6] Kelly, N. A., & Gibson, T. L. (2009). Improved photovoltaic energy output forcloudy conditions with a solar tracking system. Solar
Energy, 83(11), pp. 2092-2102.
[7] Helwa, N. H., Bahgat, A. B. G., El Shafee, A. M. R., & El Shenawy, E. T. (2000).Maximum collectable solar energy by different solar
tracking systems. Energy sources, 22(1), pp. 23-34.
[8] Lave, M., &Kleissl, J. (2011). Optimum fixed orientations and benefits oftracking for capturing solar radiation in the continental United
States.Renewable Energy, 36(3), pp. 1145-1152.
[9] American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (2009). Climate Design Data 2009 ASHRAE Handbook.
[10] Liu, B.Y., Jordan, R.C. (1960). The interrelationship and characteristicdistribution of direct, diffuse and total solar radiation. Solar
Energy 4(3), pp. 1-19.
[11] Ross Jr, R. G., &Smokler, M. I. (1986). Flat-Plate Solar Array Project: Final Report: Volume 6, Engineering Sciences and Reliability
(No. DOE/JPL-1012-125-Vol. 6). Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (USA).
[12] Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power, Government of India (2015). Executive Summary of the Power Sector, August-15.
[13] Buckley, Tim (2014). IEEFA Briefing Note – Indian Power Prices. Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, USA.
[14] Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (2015). Determination of generic levelized generation tariff for the FY 2015 – 16 (Petition
No. SM/004/2015). New Delhi.

1142
 ICAER-2015

Design and Experimental Analysis of 15 kW Down Draft Gasifier

V.H. Patel1, Dr. V. N. Singh2, Mr. B. J. Sheth3
1
Student, Thermal engineering, A. D. Patel Institute of Technology New V V Nagar, Gujarat, India.
Professor and Head, Mechanical engineering, A. D. Patel Institute of Technolog, New V V Nagar, Gujarat, India.
2
3
Assistant professor, Mechanical engineering, A. D. Patel Institute of Technolog, New V V Nagar, Gujarat, India.
Tel: (+91) 9909805449, Email: vaibhav.patel04@gmail,com

Abstract

Wood based down draft gasifier is capable to produce tar free and clean gas. The operation of down draft
gasifier is trouble free compare to the other types of gasifier. Based on these facts, a down draft gasifier of 15
kW thermal power is designed to evaluate its performance using neem, babul and mixed wood as feed stocks.
The size of babul and neem wood are 30 mm*20 mm* 20 mm and mixed wood are of 20-25 mm diameter and
30-35 mm length. The performance of gasifier is evaluated by comparing the thermal efficiency, temperature
analysis and gas chromatography using three woods in the experimentation of gasifier.

Keywords: Design, Gasifier, Gasification, Down draft gasifier.

1. Introduction

Gasification:

Gasification is thermo-chemical process by which carbonaceous materials like coal, biomass, coke etc. can be
converted to synthesis or producer gas by means of partial oxidation with air, oxygen and steam. The producer
gas contains mainly of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H 2 ) and traces of methane (CH 4 ). Gasification is
highly efficient process. Gasification process occurs at a temperature around 600 - 10000C and decomposes the
complex hydrocarbons of wood.

Nomenclature

Bg Hearth load
dt Throat diameter
dr Reactor diameter
dn Nozzle diameter
d nt Nozzle tip ring diameter
h nt Height of nozzle above the throat
Vb Air blast velocity
Hg Lower heating value of gas
Hs Lower heating value of fuel
Qg Volume flow of gas
Ms Solid fuel consumption
Cp Specific heat of producer gas
ρg Density of producer gas
∆t Temperature difference
CO 2 Carbon dioxide
H2 Hydrogen
N2 Nitrogen
CO Carbon monoxide
CH 4 Methane

1143
Gasifier:

Gasifier is a chemical reactor where various complex physical and chemical processes take place. The task of
gasifier is to pyrolyze the biomass to produce volatile matter, gas and carbon to convert the volatile matters in to
permanent gases like CO, H 2 and CH 4 .
Main types of gasifier:
Bubbling
fluidized bed
gasifier
Flidized bed
gasifier
Circulating
fluidized bed
gasifier

Gasifier
Up draft gasifier
Throat less down
draft gasifier
Down draft
Fixed bed gasifier
gasifier
Throated down
draft gasifier
Cross draft
gasifier

Fig. 1 Types of gasifier

Fixed bed gasifier are discussed in below;

1. Up draft (counter current) gasifier:

Up draft gasifier is the simplest and oldest type of gasifier. In up draft gasifier the direction of fuel and gas are
in opposite direction so it is also called as “counter current” gasifier. The four zones from the top of the gasifier
are; drying zone, pyrolysis zone, reduction and oxidation zone. The air intake is from the bottom of gasifier and
gases leaves from the top in the updraft gasifier. Up draft gasifier is suitable for direct firing and for the
application where moderate amount of dust in fuel gas is acceptable and a higher flame temperature is required.

2. Down draft (Co-current) gasifier:

In down draft gasifier air is introduced at or above the oxidation zone and producer gas is removed from the
bottom of the gasifier. The fuel and gas are move in the same direction so this gasifier is known as “co-current”
gasifier. The four zones from the top of the gasifier are; drying zone, pyrolysis zone, oxidation zone and
reduction zone. A down draft gasifier requires a shorter time to ignite and bring the plant up to working
temperature compared to the time required by an updraft gasifier.

Fig. 2 Up draft gasifier, Cross draft gasifier, throated down draft and throat less down draft gasifier

3. Cross draft gasifier:

In cross draft gasifier air enters the reactor from the side and leaves the reactor from the same height level. Because
of this arrangement the temperature in oxidation zone goes up to 20000C. The producer gas leaves the reactor at
a temperature 800 – 900 0C. The overall efficiency is low due to high gas exit temperature. The gas contains a lot
of tar and dust.
Reaction chemistry of gasification:
As the feed stocks proceeds through a different section of the gasifier the following physical, chemical and thermal

1144
processes may take place simultaneously or sequentially depending on the properties of feed stocks and design of
gasifier. The four zones of gasifier with its temperature are listed below;
Zone Temperature

Drying zone 1500C

Pyrolysis zone 150 - 700 0C
Oxidation or combustion zone 700 - 2000 0C

Reaction or reduction zone 800 - 1100 0C

2. DESIGN OF GASIFIER

Design of down draft gasifier includes the dimensions of the various components of the gasifier like throat
diameter, throat inclination, reactor diameter, nozzle tip ring diameter, nozzle diameter, nozzle inclination etc..
Assumptions:
Thermal power of gasifier is 15 kW.
Heating value of biomass is taken to be 14500 kj/kg.
Bulk density of wood is 300 kg/m3.
A throated down draft gasifier of 15 kW (Thermal) capacity is designed and detailed design is described in below;
1. Biomass consumption of gasifier:
The biomass consumption of the gasifier can be estimated as;
ℎ 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐
𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡 ℎ 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔 =
𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 𝑜𝑜 𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏
15
= = 3.7241 kg / hr = 4 kg / hr
14500 /

2. Hearth load:
The hearth load, B g is defined as the amount producer gas reduced to normal (P,T) conditions, divided by the
surface area of throat at the smallest circumstances and is expressed in m3/cm2.h [1]. This may be referred to as
the specific gasification rate (SGR), which is the volumetric flow rate of gas per unit area based on throat diameter,
the gas volume being measured at the standard conditions.
The hearth load can also be expressed as the amount of dry fuel consumed divided by the surface area of the
narrowest constriction, Bs, and is expressed in kg/(cm2.h) [1]. This may also be referred to as the specific solid
flow rate (SSR) which is the mass flow of fuel measured at throat [5, 6].

One kilogram of dry fuel under normal circumstances produces about 2.5 m3 of producer gas [1, 3, 4]. Thus,
Heart load B g = 2.5 B s
Where, Bs = 4 / Area of throat
So, B g = 2.5 x 4 / area of throat
The recommendation value for the B g is in the range of 0.30 to 1.0 [10, 12, 14]. By taking the value of B g as
0.3,

0.3 = 2.5 x 4 / Area of throat

3. Throat sizing:

From above equation cross sectional area of throat is calculated as,

2.5 ∗ 4
Area of throat = = 33.333 cm2
0.3

1145
 But area of throat = π/4 x d2 t

So, throat diameter can be calculated as;

33.333 = π/4 x d2 t
33.333×4
d2 t = = 42.4624 cm
3.14

d t = 6.516352 cm = 6.6 cm = 66 mm
4. Throat angle:

After comparison of the design characteristics of a number of gasifier, Venselaar recommended that the throat
inclination should be around 45° to 60° [8].

Sivakumar et al. [5] discovered from their model that for throat angles of about 45°, the cumulative conversion
efficiency is increased while larger angles of about 90° decrease the cumulative conversion efficiency because
of a decreased temperature for larger throat angles due to the divergent effect and the reaction rate.

A throat angle of 600 is used in design of throated down draft gasifier.

5. Sizing of fire box or hearth:

Diameter of the fire box or hearth, d h is a function of throat diameter and can be calculated from figure3, using
the ratio of reactor diameter to the throat diameter as,

= 3.6 So, d r = 3.6 x 66 = 238 mm

Fig. 3 d r as a function of d t Fig. 4 h nt as a function of d t

Fig. 5 A n /A t as a function of d t Fig. 6 d nt as a function of d t

1146
6. Nozzle design and air blast velocity:
The height of nozzle plane above the smallest cross section of the throat is a function of the throat diameter and
can be evaluated from Figure 4.
h nt /d t = 1.4
So, h nt = 1.4 x 66
= 92.4 mm
The ratio between nozzle flow area and throat area is a function of throat diameter and is given from figure 5.
= 0.07
𝐴𝐴

So, d2 n = 0.07 x d2 t
= 0.07 x (66)2
= 304.92 mm
So, d n = 17.46 mm
Number of nozzles = 1
Sivakumar et al. [3] suggested that optimum results are obtained when the angle of inclination of the nozzle is
between 100 and 250.

An inclination of 350 is used for nozzle

The nozzle tip ring diameter is also a function of throat diameter as seen in figure 6. The ratio between the
nozzle tip ring diameter and the throat diameter is,
𝑑𝑑
=3

So, d nt = 3 x 66 = 198 mm
The air blast velocity (V b ) can be estimated by equating the volumetric flow rate of the producer gas through the
throat to the volumetric flow rate of air through the nozzle.
Q=AxV
The volumetric flow rate of producer gas through the throat is estimated using,
Q = 2.5 m3/kg x 4 kg/h
= 10 m3/h
= 2.777 x 10-3 m3/s
Using this flow rate as the flow of air through nozzle we get air blast velocity,
Q = 2.777 x 10-3 = A x V b
So, V b = 2.777 x 10-3 x 4 / 3.14 x (17.46)2 x 10-6
= 11.6042 m/s
7. Length of reduction zone:
Sivakumar et al. [5] proposed that for a throat diameter of about 100 mm and for a throat angle of between 45
and 90 degrees, the reduction zone with a length above 150 mm gives optimum cumulative conversion
efficiency.
However, SERI [7] proposes that the height of the reduction zone should equal the diameter of the throat.
The reduction zone is designed with a length, 300 mm.

8. Height of hopper:

The height of the hoper is decided on the basis of the feedstock which it will be required to hold within the
period of operation. The period of operation is taken to be 2 hours since it is small scale. Biomass consumption
rate is 4 kg/hr; therefore the total biomass consumption to be consumed in 2 hr is 8 kg. The bulk density of
wood is between 300 and 500 kg/m3 depending on the moisture content.

Assuming the value of the bulk density is to be 300 kg/m3, the total volume of the hopper is estimated as,
Volume =
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
8
= = 0.02666 m3 = 26666.66 cm3
300

1147
 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣
The height of the cylinder reactor is, Height =
𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎
26666.66 4
=
3.14 (23.8)2

= 59.9715 cm = 599.71 mm.

Cad and actual model
The cad model of whole system containing gasifier, cyclone separator and grate with blower is shown in below
figure 7,

Fig 7. Cad and actual model of gasifier

A gasifier is made of mild steel IS-2062 of thickness 4 mm and the cyclone separator is also made from mild
steel of 2.5 mm thickness.
Cyclone separator dimensions are taken from a reference, based on gas generation rate and the dimensions of
cyclone is shown in figure 8;

Dimension Value
A (mm) 68
D (mm) 155
De (mm) 62
B (mm) 62
H (mm) 604
S (mm) 77
H (mm) 217

Fig. 8 Cyclone separator dimensions

Giovanni Stoppiello [9]

3. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

The biomasss which is used as a feed stock during experimentation of gasifier are babul, neem and mixed woods
;

1148
 Babul wood Neem wood Mixed wood
[30 mm*20 mm*20 mm (l*b*h)] [30 mm*20 mm*20 mm [20-25 mm diameter, 30-35 mm
(l*b*h)] length]

The proximate analysis was done at Institute of studies and research in renewable energy (ISRRE), new v v nagar.
It includes measurement of;
1. Moisture content:
To measure moisture content, a biomass is placed in hot air oven at a 105 0C for about four hours.

2. Volatile matter:
To measure Volatile matter, the sample after moisture content measurement is placed in muffle furnace at a
temperature 550 0C for about five to six minutes.

3. Ash content:
To measure ash content the sample is placed in muffle furnace at a temperature 950 0C for thirty minutes.

4. Fixed Carbon:
The fixed carbon on percentage basis can be calculated by subtracting the moisture content, volatile matter and
ash content from the 100.

FC (%) = 100 – {(Volatile matter (%) + ASH (%)}

Hot air oven Muffle furnace Petridish containing Crucible containing

biomass VM and ASH

The various instruments used during experimentation of down draft gasifier are:

1. K – type thermocouples
2. Digital temperature indicator
3. Hot air oven and muffle furnace
4. Gas chromatograph
5. Anemometer
6. Blower
7. Weighing machine

A M.S rod is inserted from the top of the gasifier to avoid fuel flow problem in the gasifier.

1149
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Proximate analysis:
The results of proximate analysis for babul, neem and mixed wood is shown in below table 1;

Table 1. Proximate analysis of woods

Biomass MC (%) VM (%) ASH (%) FC (%)
Babul wood 6.62 80.66 3.73 15.61
Neem wood 8.352 76.21 3.9 19.89
Mixed wood 8.909 76.49 3.8 19.71

From table it is clear that babul wood contains lower moisture content, ash content and fixed carbon compare to
neem wood and mixed wood. Babul wood contains higher volatile matter compare to other two woods.

4.2. Gas generation rate:

The gas generation rate for each wood is shown in below table 2;

Table 2. Gas generation rate

Biomass Biomass consumption (kg/hr) Gas generation rate (Nm3/hr)

Neem wood 3.8 9.5

Babul wood 4.4 11
Mixed wood 4.6 11.5

4.3. Temperature analysis:

To measure temperature in various zones of gasifier k type thermocouples are inserted in gasifier. The height of
first, second, third and fourth thermocouples are 160 mm, 330 mm, 510 mm and 710 mm from the grate.

The temperature is measured in interval of 10 minutes during experimentation of gasifier using each type of
wood is shown in below table.

Table 3. Gasifier temperature using babul wood

Drying zone temp. Pyrolysis zone temp. Oxidation zone Reduction zone
Time (min) (°C) (°C) temp. (°C) temp. (°C)
10 85 293 758 597
20 89 301 801 625
30 97 319 1078 853
40 104 328 935 739
50 112 289 888 719

Table 4. Gasifier temperature using neem wood

Drying zone temp. Pyrolysis zone temp. Oxidation zone Reduction zone
Time (min) (°C) (°C) temp. (°C) temp. (°C)
10 83 282 717 575
20 86 290 789 609
30 92 307 1024 835
40 100 318 905 713
50 109 284 872 708

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 Table 5. Gasifier temperature using mixed wood
Drying zone temp. Pyrolysis zone temp. Oxidation zone Reduction zone
Time (min) (°C) (°C) temp. (°C) temp. (°C)
10 81 278 708 534
20 85 285 768 597
30 95 304 1009 809
40 107 313 899 703
50 110 280 859 693

The maximum temperature attained in oxidation zone during experimentation of gasifier using babul, neem and
mixed wood are 10780C, 10240C and 10090C respectively.
Exit gas temperature is measured by k type thermocouple which is provided after cyclone separator. The exit
gas temperature of gasifier using babul, neem and mixed wood are 2980C, 2680C and 2840C respectively.

4.4. Gas chromatography:

The composition of producer gas in % volume can be estimated through gas chromatograph. The gas
chromatography was done at Institute of studies and research in renewable energy (ISRRE), new v v nagar. The
producer gas composition for each wood is shown in below table 6.

Table 6. Gas composition

Producer gas Babul wood (%) Neem wood (%) Mixed wood (%)
components

H2 13.3 12.7 11.8

O2 0.49 0.56 0.68
N2 49.8 50.3 46.8
CH 4 2.58 1.98 1.58
CO 18.9 17.7 17.2
CO 2 14.5 13.3 12.9

4.5. Gasifier efficiency:

Thermal efficiency of gasifier is calculated by following equation;
( 𝐻𝐻 ∗ 𝑄𝑄 )+( 𝑄𝑄 ∗ρ g∗Cp ∗∆t)
Ƞ=
𝐻𝐻 ∗ 𝑀𝑀
Where,
Hg = Lower heating value of gas (KJ/m3)
Qg = Volume flow of gas (m3/sec)
Hs = Lower heating value of fuel (KJ/kg)
Ms = Solid fuel consumption (Kg/sec)
Cp = Specific heat of producer gas (KJ/kg.k)
ρg = Density of producer gas (Kg/m3)
ΔT = Temperature difference (k)

Thermal efficiency of gasifier using babul, neem and mixed wood as a feedstock are 76.3416%, 67.1631% and
70.3859% respectively.

5. CONCLUSION

• Moisture content, volatile matter, ash content and fixed carbon for babul wood are 6.62%, 80.66%,
3.73%, 15.6%, for neem wood 8.352%, 76.21%, 3.9%, 19.89% and for mixed wood 8.909%, 76.49%,
3.8%, 19.71% respectively.
• Gas generation rate for babul wood, neem wood and mixed wood are 11, 9.5 and 11.5 Nm3/hr
respectively. Gas generation rate of mixed wood is higher compare to babul and neem wood.
• Fuel flow problem arise during experimentation of babul and neem wood and it is avoided by poking
arrangement, for that a M.S bar is inserted from the top of the gasifier.

1151
 • Thermal efficiency of gasifier using babul, neem and mixed wood as a feedstock are 76.3416%,
67.1631% and 70.3859% respectively.
• Babul wood is more efficient as a fuel compare to neem and mixed wood as it contains lower moisture
and higher volatile matter.
• It is suitable to use stainless steel as a material for gasifier to sustain higher temperature.

6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am very thankful to the A. D. Patel Institute of Technology, New V. V. Nagar-388121 for Providing fund for
research work.

7. REFERENCES

[1] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, The State of Food and Agriculture – Bio
fuels Prospects Risks and Opportunities, Rome, 2008.

[2] S. Sivakumar, K. Pitchandi, E. Natarajan, Design and analysis of down draft gasifier using computational
fluid dynamics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Guindy,
India, 2006.

[3] A. Jain, Design Parameters for a Rice Husk Throat less Gasifier, Agricultural Engineering International: the
CIGR Journal, Manuscript EE 05 012. 8, 2006.

[4] T.B. Reed, A. Das, Handbook of Biomass Downdraft Gasifier Engine Systems, Solar Energy Research
Institute, USA, 1988.

[5] S. Sivakumar, K. Pitchandi, E. Natarajan, Modelling and simulation of down draft wood gasifier, Journal of
Applied Sciences 8 (1) (2008) 271-279.

[6] Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, Wood Gas as engine fuel, Italy, 1986.

[7] SERI, Generator gas-the Swedish experience from 1939-45 (translation), Solar Energy Research Institute
(1536 Cole Boule Varch, Golden Colorado 80401, USA), reproduced by US Department of Commerce, NTIS,
SERI, 1979, SP-33-140.

[8] J. Venselaar, Design rules for down-draught gasifier, a short review, IT Bandung, Indonesia, 1982.

[9] Giovanni Stoppiello, “Biomass Gasification - Process analysis and dimensioning aspects for downdraft units
and gas cleaning lines” 2010

[10] N.S. Rathore, N.L. Panwar, Y.V. Chiplunkar, Design and techno economic evaluation of biomass gasifier
for industrial thermal applications, African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 3 (1) (2009) 6-12.

[11] Jigisha Parikh et al. “A correlation for calculating HHV from proximate analysis of solid fuels”.

[12] Kaup A. and Gauss J.R., State of art for small scale (up to 50 kW) gas producer engine systems, University
of California, Davis.

[13] Catharina Erlich et al “Down draft gasification of pellets made of wood, palm oil residues respective
bagasse: Experimental study”

1152
 ICAER-2015

Experimental Study and Comparison of Paddy Drying in

Natural Convection and Rotating Fluidized Bed in a Static
Geometry Dryer (RFB-SG)
Jnyana Ranjan Pati*a, Pinakeswar Mahantab, Subhajit Duttac
a
Centre for Energy, bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering.
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
c
Chemical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur
Durgapur, West Bengal, India

Abstract

This article is concerned with the performance of natural convection and a rotating fluidized bed in a static geometry (RFB-SG)
dryer for drying of paddy. The experiments were in batch drying. The drying vortex chamber diameter has 24 cm and length 5
cm. The experiments were conducted on drying of paddy with 4.95 mm length, 3.0 mm diameter with density of 1111 kg/m3. The
inlet drying air temperature was 50, 55, 60 and 650C with air mass flow rate 400,500, 600 and 700Nm3/h. The inventory of paddy
for drying was 300, 400, 500 and 600g. The performance with respect to drying rate, product uniformity and process
intensification was evaluated. In case of RFB-SG dryer, drying process intensified, drying time less, more quantity of paddy dried
in less time and uniformity, quality of the drying particle were maintained. The drying of paddy in a natural convection dryer was
0.03 kg/m3.s in compare to RFB-SG dryer was 0.8 kg/m3.s. The process intensification (PI) factor was 24 to 27 in RFB-SG dryer.
The cost in terms of increased and less efficient air utilization can be minimized by optimized the RFB-SG drying chamber
design.

Keywords: Paddy drying; Rotating fluidized bed; Process intensification; uniformity; Quality

1. Introduction

In the present scenario, conservation of agricultural products and minimization of grain losses is a challenging
issue. For maintaining quality drying of paddy and other cereals, effective thermal energy is required. Drying is one
of the most energy intensive unit operations in post harvest processing. The purpose of reducing the moisture
content of paddy is to prolong the shelf-life of the products. Due to reducing the moisture content allows reducing
the related biological activity, that is the growth of microorganisms and enzymatic reactions therefore, paddy drying
facilitates its storage and transport [1]. High moisture promotes the development of insects and molds that are
harmful to grain. For safe storage, paddy is kept between 13-14 % moisture content (MC) on a dry basis [2].

Conventionally, both direct and indirect paddy drying is applied. In direct dryers, the heat source is contact with
the paddy being dried, as in open solar energy. In direct dryers, the heat is exchanged through walls. For continuous
drying, a forced or hybrid dryer is frequently used, sometimes combined with the use of solar energy [3]. The most
widely used paddy dryer is the forced conventional dryer. It consists of a slowly moving belt in which wet paddy
enters at the top and flows continuously through the dryer. Hot air is passed through the typically 5-20 cm thick
paddy layer. During the drying, temperature is maintained around 50-600C but the capacity of dryer is 4-12 tons/day
and 8 hour is required to reached equivalent moisture content(EMC) [4]. Fluidized beds or risers are also used to
dry paddy and wheat [5]. Temperature is an important parameter for quality drying of paddy. At high temperature,
the nutritional value of paddy, color, texture and high rice yield (HRY) are decreased [8]. To avoid that, hot air is
injected at temperature between 50 -700C. Other types of dryers are conveyors and microwave dryer [6]. Paddy
dryers can operate at atmospheric pressure. Air is as a common medium for drying, but heat can also be supplied by
super heated steam or by using heater.

*Jnyana Ranjan Pati. Tel.: +0-953-104-4396.

E-mail address: jnyana@iitg.ernet.in

1153
 Generally drying occurs in two stages, the constant rate period and the falling rate period. In the first stage, the
vapor pressure of the particle surface equals the saturated vapor pressure at the surface temperature. The drying rate
is determined by interfacial heat and mass transfer [7]. The second stage of drying starts once the vapor pressure
decreases below the saturated vapor pressure at the particle surface. The drying rate is than determined by intra
particle diffusion limitations depends on the structure of the product to be dried and also depends on its pore size
distribution [8]. To improve the economy of paddy based process and to facilitate local treatment prior to transport,
smaller and more efficient dryers are required.

Rotating fluidized bed can be generated by means of a rotating chamber or a (static) vortex chamber.
Commercial application of rotating chambers is challenging because of problems with sealing, vibration and
continuous feeding and withdrawal of particles, required for continuous operation. In a vortex chamber, the rotating
motion of the particle bed results the tangential injection of the gas through multiple inlet slots shown in Fig.4 [11,
12, 13]. Particles can be easily fed and removed through one of the end walls of the vortex chamber. The gas,
separated from (most of) the particles, leaves the vortex chamber via centrally positioned chimney. The particle bed
is tangentially fluidized. Radial fluidization occurs in some cases, depending on the vortex chamber design
and the type of particles, but is not necessary to ensure good radial mixing of the particles. A certain similarity
between rotating fluidized beds in vortex chambers and vibrational fluidized beds exists. As such, radial fluidization
can occur even in case the radial gas - solid drag force is smaller than the centrifugal force [14]. The balance
between these two forces is crucial to be able to build up a dense rotating particle bed and avoid
excessive particle losses via the chimney. Guidelines for the design of vortex chambers were given by Kochetov et
al. [13], Dutta et al. [15] and Trujillo and De Wilde [16]. Rotating fluidized bed is operated in high-gravity field
(high G) to intensify the fluidized bed processes [17]. The rotating fluidized bed in a static geometry allows
maintaining a dense and uniform bed at high gas solid slip velocity and related intensified interfacial heat and mass
transfer. It opens the perspective for developing dryers of reduced size and small, cohesive particles for fluidization.

This article presents experimental result of paddy drying in both RFB-SG (vortex chamber) and Natural
convection dryer (NCD). Comparison of its performance allows the quantifying the process intensification, moisture
content, uniformity and destruction of shell by shear that can be achieved by using vortex chamber and product
quality are also analyzed.

Nomenclature

HRY High Rice Yield

RFB-SG Rotating Fluidized Bed in a Static Geometry
NCD Natural Convection Dryer
PCM Phase Change Material
SHSM Sensible Heat Storage Material
MC Moisture Contain
EMC Equivalent Moisture Content

2. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND PROCEDURE

Batch-wise paddy drying experiments were carried out using both a natural convection dryer and a vortex
chamber generated high‐G rotating fluidized bed. A schematic view of the experimental set‐up is shown in Figure 2.
The air is fed through a compressor (Roots Blowers) and heated by means of a PID‐controlled 12 kW resistance
(Kamenev). The air mass flow rate can be set by means of a mass flow controller (Bronkhorst model F‐106EI).
After reaching a steady air flow rate, the paddy particles are conveyed from the container to the drying chamber
using a screw feeder (Acrison model AI‐105‐00) and a calibrated sealing rotary valve (TBMA MAX‐150), so
that the paddy feeding is not instantaneous. The paddy feeding time of about less than one minute is, however,
small compared to the paddy drying time. The air leaving the drying chamber is sent through a cyclone to
separate eventually entrained particles prior to venting. The operating conditions of drying are given in Table 1. A
0.24 m diameter, 0.05 m long vortex chamber with a 0.12 m diameter chimney was used for this study
(Figure 4). For the natural convection dryer, rectangular with 145×117×115 cm was used shown in Figure 3. Note

1154
that, due to the increased bed density (on average about 4 times) and improved bed uniformity when operating
high‐G, comparable solids loadings could be treated in the 2.26 × 10‐3 m3 vortex chamber and in the 1.95 m3 NCD
[10]. In the vortex chamber, balancing the radial gas‐solid drag force and the counter‐acting centrifugal force is
crucial to generate a dense and uniform rotating particle bed and to avoid particle losses via the chimney. Trujillo
and De Wilde [16, 18] showed that for a given gas flow rate, that is, given superficial radial gas velocity,
the rotational speed of the gas can be increased by decreasing the number of gas inlet slots and/or their
size. A sufficient number of gas inlet slots are, however, required to guarantee a uniform gas and particle
distribution. Furthermore, reducing the slot 6 size below the particle size is detrimental for the crucial tangential
gas‐solid momentum transfer in the vicinity of the gas inlet slots. Therefore, a vortex chamber with 24 gas inlet
slots, 3 mm wide each, was used for drying the mm‐sized paddy particles, implying a relatively large fraction λ
= 0.1 of the vortex chamber circumference is taken by gas inlet slots. Using a vortex chamber with 72 x 0.2 mm
slots, no stable rotating bed of paddy particles could be built up, due to poor momentum transfer between the air
injected and the 3‐5 mm sized paddy particles at the exit of the gas inlet slots. With the finally used vortex chamber
with 24 x 3 mm gas inlet slots, a dense and uniform rotating bed of paddy particles could be obtained (Figure
5), but particle losses via the chimney could not be completely eliminated, especially during solids feeding. A
device with large perforations to avoid blockage by articles was placed into the chimney outlet and allowed
nearly completely eliminating solids losses via the chimney (Figure 4). The air flow rate, air inlet temperature and
solids loading were varied as shown n Table 1. The paddy particles have a particular, strongly non‐isotropic
shape with an average length of 4.95 mm and diameter of 3 mm. With a density of about 1111 kg/m3on a dry
basis, they can be classified as Geldart D‐type particles. The minimum fluidization‐ and terminal velocity in the
earth gravitational field were estimated to be 0.91 and 9.55 m/s. Prior to an experiment, the paddy was wetted in
water for 24 hours to reach an absolute moisture content of about 0.52 kg water /kg dry paddy after removal of the
superficial moisture using a towel. Paddy loadings between 300 and 600 g on a dry basis were dried in the vortex
chamber. The gauge pressure upstream of the air distributor was maximum 300 mbar. Using a vortex chamber, air
flow rates of 400, 500, 600 and 700 Nm3 /h were used, at 50°C corresponding to average superficial radial
velocities between 3.5 and 6.1 m3 g/m2 r.s at the outer radius of the vortex chamber. In the gas distribution
chamber, a gauge pressure between 200 and 300 mbar was measured, depending on the air flow rate. The vortex
chamber could be operated at even higher gas‐solid slip velocities with a more powerful compressor, but the
air usage efficiency has to be kept mind. The applied operating conditions, the specific air flow rate, that is, the
air flow rate per unit mass paddy, is much higher in the vortex chamber. This is also partly explained by the
significantly higher cross sectional surface area of the rotating fluidized bed. To avoid degradation of the
paddy, low‐temperature drying was focused on. Experiments with air inlet temperatures of 50, 55, 60 and 65 °C
were carried out. The air temperature and humidity at the inlet and outlet of the drying chambers were
measured continuously with Rotronic HC2 and PT100 probes. The relative humidity was measured and the
corresponding calculated absolute humidity verified by means of the water mass balance. The pressure drop over
the drying chambers was also measured on‐line using Gefran TSA probes. During the experiments with the
vortex chamber, the particle losses via the chimney and the particle bed rotational speed were continuously
monitored. To measure the evolution in time of the particle moisture content, particle bed uniformity and eventual
damage to the shell, samples were collected from the particle bed using a sampling device with double sealing,
initially every 30 s, evolving to every minute to every 3 minutes, as the drying rate decreased. The mass of
particles removed for analysis remained small compared to the solids loading. To determine the particle moisture
content, the weight of the particles was measured on a balance (Mettler AE‐260) immediately after sampling and
after complete drying in a furnace (GFL 7104, D3006, Burgweldel) at 105°C for 24 hours. In specific vortex
chamber experiments, the evolution in time of the moisture content uniformity in the particle bed and of eventual
damage to the paddy shell was evaluated for different gas flow rates, the latter determining the particle bed
rotational motion and associated mixing and shear and normal stresses. For a given particle sample, each
individual particle was analyzed in terms of moisture content and shell damage. The air flow rate is controlled
within ± 2% of the set value. The relative error on the temperature measurements is less than 1%, that on the air
humidity measurements less than 4%. To determine the experimental error, repetitive experiments were carried out.
The relative difference of the measured 8 paddy moisture content was typically less than 3% at higher moisture
content and less than 8% at lower moisture content.

Paddy was obtained from South France shown in Fig. 1 and all experiment was performed at IMAP laboratory,
UCL, Belgium using rotating fluidized bed in a static geometry (RFB-SG). The initial moisture contain of the paddy
was determined by oven drying method. The sample was dried at 105±2oc for 24 hour inside the oven.

1155
 Fig.1. Paddy particles (Drying materials).

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of experimental set-up RFB-SG. Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of NCD.

Table 1. Operating conditions of the RFB-SG.

Operating conditions Unit Value

Air flow rate [Nm3/h] 400, 500, 600, 700
Inlet Pressure [mbar] 200, 250, 275, 300
Air inlet Temperature [oC] 50, 55, 60, 65
Solid to be dried [/] paddy
Average particle Size [m] Length- 495.10-5
Diameter -300.10-5
Particle density(dry basis ) [Kgm-3 ] 1111
Air absolute Humidity [g water/kg air] 4-5
Solids Loading/Inventory [g] 300,400,500,600

Table 2. Operating conditions of the NCD

Sl No Particulars Ranges
1 Ambient air temperature 15⁰C -17⁰C
2 Relative humidity 55%-75% (increment of 5%)
3 Amount of paddy per batch 10-25 kg (increment of 5 kg)
4 Drying air temperature 45⁰C -75⁰C
5 Particular of dryer Simple natural convection dryer with PCM and SHSM
6 Initial moisture content of paddy grain 30% (approx)
7 Final Moisture content of paddy grain 14-15%

1156
 Fig.4. View of the air distribution, vortex chamber and Fig.5. Rotating fluidized bed of paddy using the vortex
chimney outlet with a device to eliminate solid losses. chamber.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Experiments were carried out at different time at Belgium climate. The temperature of atmosphere air varies from
17 to 190C and relative humidity 30 to 40%. The drying air temperature varies from 50 to 650C. The initial moisture
content of paddy was 52±2.38 % (dry basis) and drying was continued until the sample of paddy reached the desired
safe MC level (13±.68%db).

3.1. Influence of air flow rate, air inlet temperature and paddy loading on the drying rate

According vortex design, a dense and uniform rotating particle bed could be obtained. No pronounced alignment
of the strongly anisotropic paddy particles in the tangential direction was observed (Figure5). This is explained by
the efficient particles bed mixing and flow path of the air through the particles bed, the air being deflected rapidly
radially inwards upon contact with the particles bed [19, 20].

Figure 6 shows, for given paddy loading, air inlet temperature and the influence of the air flow rate on the batch
drying of paddy in a vortex chamber as shown Fig.4. The air flow rate was varied between 400 and 700 Nm3/h.
Rapid initial drying is observed, removing the superficial moisture in less than 2-3 minutes. The faster and deeper
initial drying is achieved at higher air flow rate results from higher gas-solid slip velocity and corresponding
coefficient of gas-solid mass and heat transfer. Figure 6a clearly shows that during final drying of paddy, intra-
particles diffusion limitation reduce the drying rate without completely rate determining, so the t advantage is still
taken of a higher air flow rate and intensified interfacial mass and heat transfer. A higher air flow rate supplying
more heat, resulting in faster paddy drying and it is observed in the fast initial drying

The influence of the air inlet temperature is shown in Fig.6 (b).the evolution of time of paddy drying is shown for
an inlet temperature 50 to 650C, each for different air flow rate. Increasing the air inlet temperature significantly
increases the paddy drying rate and decreased drying time. Fig.6 (b) is directly compare the drying time required to
reach a moisture content of 0.13 kg H2O /kg dry paddy with values between 20 to 85 minutes. The drying times for paddy
are significant, mainly due to presence of a shell and a fine pore structure. The drying time reduced by about a factor
3 by increasing the air flow rate from 400 to 700 Nm3/h or the air inlet temperature from 50 to 650C.

When increasing the paddy loading in the vortex chamber, a decrease of the specific drying rate [kg H2O /(kg dry
paddy .min)]
and an increase in the drying time is expected., the air moving radially inwards through the bed gradually
being humidified and the additional paddy as such being with already humidified and cooler air. This is confirmed
by the measurements. Fig. 6(c) shows data for an air flow rate 400 Nm3/h and air inlet temperature of 600C and
paddy loading between 300 and 600g the drying time increases, however, significantly less than proportionality with
the paddy loading. An increase by 100% of the paddy loading increases the drying time 30% only.

1157
 Fig. 6 (a) Time vs Moisture content at different flow rate. (b) Air flow rate vs Drying Time at different inlet temperature

Fig. 6(c) Time vs Moisture content at different loading. Fig. 7. Drying Time vs Moisture content (RFB-SG,NCD).

Fig. 8(a) MC (bulk) VS Percentage of particles at different time. Fig. 8(b) Drying Time vs Percentage of damage particles.

1158
3.2 comparison of drying time between RFB-SG and NCD

Figure 7 represents the drying time comparison to reach a moisture content of 0.13 kg H2O /kg dry paddy. In case of
RFB-SG dryer, the air inlet temperature 650C, loading of paddy .4kg and air flow rate 700Nm3/h , the drying time is
20 minute but in NCD dryer, the air inlet temperature 62.90C, loading 10 kg and air velocity 0.2m/s, the drying time
is 240 minutes. The drying time is 12 times higher than RFB-SG dryer.

3.3 Uniformity of Drying

Drying of agricultural product, uniformity of drying is highly required. In RFB-SG, the drying characteristics of
paddy were measured in different way. Figure 8(a) shows the uniformity of drying was measured in different drying
time. The paddy sample was taken after 13 and 26 minutes of drying in a vortex chamber with an air flow rate of
600 Nm3/h and air inlet temperature at 650C. The bulk sample moisture was measured. Each particle (100 Particles)
contains how much moisture content was measured separately. That value is compared with bulk sample moisture
content. Finally at 13 and 26 minutes, there was 82% and 91%, respectively of particles same moisture content as
measured from bulk sample. The good uniformity is due to the efficient mixing in the fast rotating particle bed, the
drying rate as such being relatively low compared to the mixing rate.

3.4 Product quality

After drying, the quality of product should be checked. Shear and normal stresses in the fast rotating particle bed
can lead to attrition and damage to the paddy shell. In this case, different air flow rate used for drying the paddy in
RFB-SG. After drying, the damaged percentages of the particles are measured. Figure 8(b) is shown the evolution
with time of the fraction damaged particles for given operating condition and different air flow rate. As expected,
attrition occurs faster at higher air flow rates. As less time is needed to reach the desired moisture content of 0.13
(kg H2O /kg dry paddy ) in higher air flow rate, so the damaged percentage is very less compared to lower air flow rate.

Process Intensification (PI) is defined as improvement of drying by specific drying rate.

(specific drying rate)RFB − SG
PI factor = = 24 − 27
(specific drying rate)Natural Convection
The specific drying rate (kg water/m3.s) is the quantity of water transferred per unit time and per cubic meter
drying chamber. In this case the PI factor is 24 to 27 times better then natural convection dryer. But air utilization is
more.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The drying of paddy using natural convection and vortex chamber based rotating fluidized bed in a static
geometry was experimentally studied. In RFB-SG, high gravity (G) operations allows denser more uniform bed with
higher gas –solid slip velocity consequently , intensification paddy drying process significantly. Drying time was
drastically reduced and quality of drying also up to mark, uniformity is promising. In terms of cost, the setup is
costly and less efficient air utilization occurs so outlet hot air can be reutilized. Different cascading drying vortex
chamber can be used for drying purpose to minimize the cost.

Acknowledgments

The authors expressed deepest gratitude to Prof Juray De Wilde, Prof P. Mahanta for their inestimable guidance
and support and also acknowledge Philippe Eliaers, Luc Wautier for their suggestion, technical support. The authors
also thank the Marie-Curie project FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES, project no. 312261, project name, I Com Fluid
(Belgium, UCL, IMAP) for financial support and special thanks to centre for energy IIT Guwahati.

1159
References

[1] A.S. Mujumdar, Handbook of Industrial Drying, 3rd ed., CRC, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, (2007).
[2] International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Determining the physical properties of Paddy Module 3. 2002c. Rice Knowledge Bank.
[3] A. Sreekumar, P.E. Manikantan, K.P. Vijayakumar, Performance of indirect solar cabinet dryer, Energy Convers. Manage. 49, (2008)
1388–1395.
[4] S. Syahrul, F. Hamdullahpur, I. Dincer, Energy analysis in fluidized-bed drying of large wet particles. Int. J. Energy Res. (2002) 26:507-
525.
[5] N.K. Leyle, S. Serpil, S. Gulum, Spouted bed and microwave-assisted spouted bed drying of parboiled wheat, Food and bioproducts
processing ISSN 0960-3085 , (2012), vol. 90, 301-308.
[6] C.J. Roos, Biomass Drying and Dewatering for Clean Heat &Power; WSU Extension Energy Program: Olympia, WA, (2008).
[7] E.U. Schlunder, Drying of porous materials during the constant and the falling rate period: A critical review of existing hypotheses. Drying
Technology, (2004), 22(6), 1517–1532.
[8] Jnyana R Pati, Santosh K Hotta, P.Mahanta Effect of waste heat recovery on drying characteristics of sliced ginger in a natural convection
dryer, procedia engineering 105, (2015) 145-152
[9] Y.M. Chen, Fundamentals of a centrifugal fluidized bed. AIChE Journal , 33, .(1987) 722–728
[10] S.S. Mohapatra, P. Mahanta, Experimental investigation of an indirect type of natural convection dryer for thin layer paddy drying,
(2011), ISSN 2248-9347; pp. 47-54
[11] L.M. Kochetov, B.S. Sazhin, E.A. Karlik, Experimental determination of the optimal ratios of structural dimensions in the whirl chamber
for drying granular materials. Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, (1969), 5(2), 106–108.
[12] L.A. Anderson, S. Hasinger , B.N. Turman , Two Component Votrex Flow Studies , with Implications for Colloid Core Nuclear Rocket
Concept, A.I.A.A Paper, 71, 637, (1971).
[13] J. De Wilde, A. de Broqueville, Experimental investigation of a rotating fluidized bed in a static geometry. Powder Technology, (2008),
183(3), 426–435.
[14] E.P. Volchkov, N.A. Dvornikov A.N. Yadykin, Characteristics features of heat and mass transfer in a fluidized bed in a vortex chamber,
heat transfer Res., 34(7–8), p. 486–498, (2003).
[15] A. Dutta, R.P. Ekatpure, G.J. Heynderickx, A.de Broqueville, G.B. Marin, Rotating fluidized bed with a static geometry , guideline for
design operating conditions, Chem. Eng. Sci., 65(5), p. 1678‐1693, (2010).
[16] W. Rosales Trujillo, J. De Wilde, Experimental study of the fluidization of Geldart A type catalyst in a rotating fluidized bed in a static
geometry. In Proceedings of the AIChE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, October 16–21, (2011).
[17] N.K. Leyle,S. Serpil, S. Gulum, Spouted bed and microwave‐assisted spouted bed drying of parboiled wheat, Food and Bioproducts
Processing, 90, p. 301‐308, (2012).
[18] J. De Wilde, Gas‐solid fluidized beds in vortex chambers, Chem. Eng. Proc.: Process Intensification, 85, p. 256‐290, (2014).
[19] Philippe Eliaers, J. De wilde. ‘Drying of Biomass particles: Experimentally Study and Comparison of the performance of a conventional
fluidized bed and rotating fluidized bed in a static geometry’, drying technology, 31: (2013) 236-245.
[20] Philippe Eliaers , Jnyana Ranjan Pati , Subhajit Dutta , Juray De Wilde ‘Modeling and simulation of biomass drying in vortex chambers’,
Chemical Engineering Science 123 ,(2015) 648–664.

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 ICAER-2015

Sustainable Recycling Model for Municipal Solid Waste in Patna

Anupama Singha 1 and Papia Rajb
a Research Scholar
Center for Energy and Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta – 801103, India.
b Assistant Professor
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta – 801103, India.

Abstract

Sustainable development is a major concern for developing nations as they strive to preserve their ecological balance along
with economical growth. It has been noticed that economical growth results in environmental degradation as it influences
lifestyle practices and leads to increased consumption of goods thus generating large volume of M unicipal Solid Waste.
Patna, the capital city of Bihar, is an ideal example of this condition. Here, Central and local Government and pollution
committees fail to effectively tackle the large and increasing volume of M SW. Such scenario of M unicipal Solid Waste
M anagement (M SWM ) in the city can cause serious health hazards, environmental degradation and ecological destruction.
Recycling the inorganic fraction of M SW can reduce the threat. In the present study, based on an extensive literature review
we propose a theoretical Sustainable Recycling M odel for Patna. This model is based on the recommendations provided for
achieving sustainable development and its similarities with sustainable recycling. We contend that if this proposed model is
effectively applied then we can efficiently address the problem of M SW.

Keywords: Sustainable Recycling; Municipal Solid Waste Management ; Patna; Sustainable Development ; Sustainable Recycling Model.

1. Introduction

The World Co mmission on Environment and Develop ment (W CED) in 1987 published a report Our Co mmon
Future, addressing the pioneer concept of sustainable development and framed three dimensions of the same -
environment, society, and economy [7, 10]. Uiterkamp et.al, (2011) identified certain requirements to attain
sustainable development such as, effective public part icipation in decision making; surplus income generation of
economical system; self harmonizing social system; product development with respect to ecological
preservation; technology progress for searching new solutions; international trade and financ ial gro wth; and
legal flexib ility and amend ments. Sustainable development action plan has been influential in Municipal Solid
Waste Management (MSWM) as it deals with ecological preservation. Hence, a holistic and systematic
approach to integrated and sustainable MSWM is an essential requisite for sustainable development [10].
Integration of MSWM with sustainability in all three dimensions has put the ‘3Rs’ technology (reduce, reuse,
recycle but now a fourth R (recovery) is frequently added) on the priority. Though recycling is recog nized as
most environment friendly method for MSWM [1], Troschinetz et.al, (2009) have found that there are various
barriers hindering recycling processes . These in turn restrict recycling towards achieving sustainable MSWM. In
our study, we focus specifically on sustainable recycling for addressing MSWM practices in Patna.

1.1 Sustainable recycling in Patna

Patna, the capital city of Bihar, has been identified as the ‘Garbage city’ with a high volume of MSW
production and very low rate of recycling. Although 30% of the total MSW in Patna is recyclab le in nature, only
a negligib le portion is recycled. The major factors responsible for this situation are lack of recycling facilit ies
coupled with attitude of the community. To overcome this grave scenario it is very important to develop certain
sustainable recycling practices in Patna. Such practices will not only reduce environmental degradation but will
certainly lead towards sustainable development through ecological preservation. The current study follo ws the
basic requirements of sustainable development as discussed earlier to develop sustainable recycling model for
Patna [8].

1* Corresponding author. Tel.:( +91)9204222107.

E-mail address: anupama.phs14@iitp.ac.in, singh.anupama.anupama5@gmail.com

1161
These six are same as the once you have mentioned after proposing the model, so need to discuss what are these
and why are they mentioned here.
 Central and local governmental aspect: A review of literature suggests that there is lack of
coordination between the Bihar Pollution Control Board (BPCB) and Central Po llution Control Board
(CPCB). Though amendments are suggested by CPCB (2015) about community collection and
segregation of waste but Patna Municipal Corporations (PMC) is still p lanning for door-to-door
collection system. That can hinder the suitability of recycling.
 Economical consideration: Informal scavenging should be properly organised to obtain the surplus
income fro m recycling. Sustainable recycling can create employment to the informal sector that in urn
could add to the GDP (Gross Do mestic Product) of country.
 Involvement of stakeholders: Various players in the informal sectors, such as ‘Nidan’, which is a NGO
(Non-Govern mental Organizat ion), are working separately on the collection of recyclable with min imal
involvement of the formal sector in Patna [2].
 Public and social aspects: Public apathy and irresponsible attitude of community have worsened the
situation of recycling, as there is no segregation of MSW at source [9]. Though, certain awareness
programs through workshops targeting different stakeholders have been conducted in Indian Institute
of Technology Patna and initiatives have been taken to start segregation at source with help of different
colour-coded and labelled dustbins, yet the results are not very satisfactory.
 Manufacturing technology: BUIDC (Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation) and
UD&HD (Urban Develop ment & Housing Department) Govern ment of Bihar (2014) have planned to
establish waste to energy plant, proper implementation of these technologies will influence the
sustainability of recycling.
 Institutional and research development: Academic institutions such as, IIT Patna, NIT Patna and
Depart ment of Environ ment and Water Management, A.N. Co llege [Magadh University], Patna are
conducting research towards developing sustainable recycling practices for overall sustainable
development.
 Trade aspect: Unorganized trade of recyclables has been identified however, there is lack of formalized
channelization of these recyclables to specific recycling units [1].

Nomenclature
1.1.
MSW Municipal Solid Waste
MSWM Municipal So lid Waste Management
WCED World Co mmission on Environ ment and Develop ment
3Rs’ Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
BPCB Bihar Pollution Control Board
CPCB Central Po llution Control Board
PMC Patna Municipal Corporations
GDP Gross Do mestic Product
NGO Non-Govern mental Organizat ion
BUIDC Bihar Urban Infrastructure Develop ment Corporation
UD&HD Urban Develop ment & Housing Department
NSPL Nidan Swachdhara Private Ltd.
SRM Sustainable Recycling Model
SR Sustainable Recycling

2. Method

In this paper, we have proposed a Sustainable Recycling Model (SRM ) for Patna, Bihar. The proposed model is
theoretical in nature and is based on an extensive review of current theoretical studies of MSWM in Patna. For
the verification of sustainability gears for SRM a preliminary survey, interview and two different workshops had
been conducted.

1162
3. Result and discussion

3.1 Sustainable recycling model (SRM)

Uiterkamp et.al, (2011) have identified six crit ical similarities between sustainable development and sustainable
recycling. Taking these into consideration we have studied the current scenario of recycling in Patna and
relevant variables for sustainable recycling have been identified in p revious section. Sustainability gears are
sub-divided into variables to examine their existence and nonexistence alo ng with their desirability in Patna to
attain certain degree of sustainable recycling.

Table 1: Sustainable Recycling Model for Patna city.

Non existing but

Sustainability Gears Variables Existing
desirable
Public participation in decision-
making
Amend ments in rules and laws
Rules for sustainable recycling
Enforcement of rules for sustainable
Govern mental recycling
Coordination between local and
central governments on sustainable
recycling
Enforcement of coordination in terms
of sustainable recycling
Surplus income fro m recycling
Resource conservation due to
Economical
recycling
Energy conservation due to recycling
Assuring public health
Assuring health of workers involved
Social Aspects
in recycling
Public awareness towards recycling
Manufacturing Ecological preservation
Technology Environmental protection
Research efforts for more sustainable
Research & Development recycling
Scaling up of current recycling units
Sustainable trade of recyclable should
Trade be organized and connected at the
national level

3.2 SRM in Patna: MSWM in Patna comes under two agencies PMC and Nidan. Where, PMC comes under the
local govern ment of Bihar and handle the major portion of MSW. Nidan has registered a MSWM company
named Nidan Swachdhara Private Ltd (NSPL) at Patna in 2008 handling only 10% of total MSW generated per
day (5.6- 7.3 tonne/day) in 2015. SR of MSW has been analyzed for each sustainability gear of SRM.

i. Governmental aspect: Based on analysis of data collected through survey it is evident that PMC does
not show any interest in public participation in decision-making; amend ments in rules and laws for the
sustainability of recycling. Recycling is not considered within the purview of MSWM for the city
hence sustainability rules for recycling are not proposed. In Patna, only Nidan is playing a small ro le in
recycling. Hence, slight enforcement for sustainable recycling has been reported from the informal
sector. Coordination is one of the major gaps between two authorities, i.e, local and central

1163
 governments for SR. While CPCB is planning to replace door to door collection system by
encouraging community bin collection , on the other hand, PMC is on the edge of investing a huge
amount of money on door-to-door collection system. As mentioned in the introduction section, such
replacement of collection system enhances the source segregation of recyclables that ultimately
positively affect the current trade system of recyclables. Even no enforcement on the coordination
between local and central government for SR has been reported. At the same time as PM C is
complainting for lack of fund for MSWM, CPCB is in favour of saving money fro m door to door
collection and transportation system and invest in strengthening the safe disposal and treatment of
MSW. This strategy will also have strengthening effect on SR but it does not exist in Patna. Therefore,
it can be concluded that in government sustainability gear only existence of single varia ble is found
that is enforcement in rule for SR.

ii. Economical consideration: Current survey of Patna shows that recyclables are not only found as
surplus income fro m recycling but also income for different dealers of recyclables and ragpickers .
Recyclables are surplus income for the NSPL sanitation workers as they earn about (10-12 kg of
recyclable) 150-200 rupees per trip of door -to-door collection on a daily basis. The recyclables selling
rates are different for different material as show in table 2. Apart fro m income, recovering the
recyclables fro m waste stream is another way of material recovery. Using the secondary material will
reduce utilization of v irgin materials and hence, resource conservation due to SR is reported in Patna.
Virgin material consume more energy than recycled material for any product formation in other words
it is energy conservation due to recycling [5]. So, it can be said that it is the only SRM gear to have all
three variables existing in Patna.

Table 2: Selling price of recyclables collected by sanitation workers to small dealers and small dealer
to mediu m dealer in the Patna city.

Recyclables Selling price of sanitation worker to small Selling price of

dealer small dealer to
( /kg) med iu m dealer
Selling frequency ( /kg)

Plastic bottles and 10 Per day 10.50

materials (HDPE)
Cardboard 04 Per day 4.50
Newspaper 09 Per day 9.50
Plastic Po lythene 03 Per day 04
Paper and book 03 Per day 04
Rubber 04 Per day 04.50
Glass 01 Per day 03
Iron 15 Per day 15.50
Aluminu m 05 Per week 06

Source: Derived based on field study

iii. Social aspects: There is lack of public awareness in Patna. It had been clear from the survey and
interviews with stakeholders that 90% recovery of material can easily be achieved in Patna in people
are made aware about the processes and usefulness of the same. Ho wever, it need a strong integration
of different stakeholders involved in material recovery. People used to preserver recyclables in their
houses and wait for the maximu m selling price. No ro le has been reported by PMC. Remains goes to
the land dumping sites where ragpickers used to recover the recyclables. Public health is another very
important aspect when the recyclables shows 90-100% recovery then there will be negligible public
health issue due to MSW. However, to ensure 90-100% recovery at source is almost impossible.
Hence, materials use to mix up with the organic fraction of MSW with its decayable nature. That force

1164
 to create some serious reaction with reacting material and contamination will u ltimately pass to the
environmental and create health hazards. For example, heavy metals dissolved in leachate that
contaminates ground and surface water bodies [11]. In such a situation ragpickers, sanitation workers
and other workers involve in material recovery can face serious health hazards. For example, typhoid,
respiratory tract infection [6]. If there is public awareness then your research question is invalid.
iv. Manufacturing technology: BUIDC and UD&HD suggested waste to energy plants, which is yet to be
implemented. Ramchak area is currently used as open land dumping ground where the huge amount of
MSW is hindering the ecological preservation and causing environmental degradation [2]. Currently
there are no recycling technology existed in Patna according , only the segregated recyclables are
transported to other states like Gujarat. Previously during 2003 to 2009, Nidan use to operate a
recycling unit, which recycle paper and plastic. Paper recycling machine requires three phase current,
hence utilize mo re electricity. In th is mach ine, input value exceeds the output value in terms of mo re
energy and electricity bill. Similarly, the local government provides no subsidy. for plastic recycling
mach ine Hence, recycling unit shutdown due to energy and economical crisis. Nevertheless, such
technologies are not checked for environmental protection. PMC do not have any authorized recycling
unit for Patna. Technologies need the serious up gradation which shutdown due to huge energy
utilizat ion and environmental degradation hence this revels non-existence behaviour in SRM.

v. Institutional and research development: As mention in the introduction various institutes are working
on MSWM, material recycling but sustainable recycling is currently not reported in any of institute at
Patna except IIT Patna. Whereas s caling up of recycling unit is required at higher priorit ies beside very
small recycling units are existed without any environmental protection.

vi. Trade aspect: Sustainable trade of recyclab le should be organized and connected at the national level to
economic demand of M SWM. Whereas, the trade system of recyclables in Patna currently connected to
national level with help of unauthorized dealers and in unorganised manner as shown in Fig. 1. Every
colony at the end has at least 2to3 small dealers so that particular areas have approximately 10 to 12
small dealers such as Patliputra area of Patna. Ragpickers, sanitation workers fro m PM C and NSPL
(collected door-to-door waste in given area, segregated the recyclable in different packets) sell the
separated materials to small dealers. This large amount of recyclables is purchased by mediu m dealers
scattered at different places in Patna. Majority of mediu m dealers use to transport different materials to
their respective recycling unit in other states.

Recycling Trade

Door-to- Door
NSPL Direct NSPL collector
transport Recycling
Unit
Outside P atna

Open land dumping

MSW Generators Ragpickers Small dealer Medium dealer

P atna P atna Transported
Outside P atna

P MC Community Bins

Door-to- Door
P MC collector

Figure 1: MSW transportation and recycling trade chain for Patna city [1].

1165
Conclusion

The theoretical SRM has been analysed for the six identified sustainability gears. Economical gear is the most
sustainably efficient with all three variab les surplus income resource and energy conservation for SR existence
in Patna. Social aspect and Research & development gear both the gear only have single variable existence
where research and development gear have weak existence of research efforts for SR. However, social aspect’s
public awareness is weak influence, which can hinder to drive the SRM successfully in Patna city. On the other
hand with trade factor have strong influence but unorganised and unauthorized trade of material have less
chances to revert back to the MSWM in Patna. Governmental gear have very weak influence in SRM because
only a single variable, enforcement of SR shows the existence and this influence is due to NGO. Other SR gear
manufacturing technologies show no existence, which is required to setup recycling unit in the city rather going
for the transportation to other states. Trade, economical, social aspects are the strong gears for SRM to establish
successfully but without governmental intervention, trade cannot be organised and authorized. Manufacturing
technology need serious up gradation without this trade, economical, social aspect influence will become zero
because every recycle of material have great degradation of environment and excess energy loss .

Acknowledge ments

This paper is based on an ongoing interdisciplinary project on “Waste Management Training to Reduce Health
Hazards of Solid Wastes in Patna” at the Center for Energy and Environment, Indian Institute of Technology
Patna. Dr. Pap ia Raj is the Principal Investigator of this project.

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Conservation and recycling, 55, 344-355.
[9] Vij D (2012) Urbanization and solid waste management in India: Present practices and future challenges. Procedia - Social and
Behavioral Sciences 37: 437 – 447.
[10] Wilson D C, Velis C A, Rodic L (2013). Integrated sustainable waste management in developing countries. Proceedings of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, Waste and Resource Management, volume 166, Issue WR2, May 2013: 58-62.
[11] Zurbrugg C (2003) Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries. Duebendorf: Scientific Committee on Problems of the
Environment (SCOPE), Urban Solid Waste Management Review Session, Durban: South Africa.

1166
 ICAER-2015

Load Shedding in Deregulation Environment and Impact of

Photovoltaic System with SMES
,Shailendra Singha, Deepak Tyagib Ashwani Kumarb,Saurabh Chananab
a
Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT-(BHU),Varanasi India
b
Department of Electrical Engineering NIT-,Kurukshetra, India

Abstract

With the continuous increase in the load, frequency of the system goes on decreasing and it reaches to its minimum
allowable value after further increase in load will result in more frequent drop resulting in the need of load shedding. To
avoid load shedding and control of frequency of the systems some approach have discussed here. Paper includes modeling of
SMES with solar PV array for frequency control of three areas interconnected thermal system in deregulated environment. A
comparative analysis of different load frequency control scheme such as:
i) Using conventional integral controller
ii) Using PID controller,
iii) Using additional sources of energy (PV with SMES) on the basis of load to be shed have been discussed.
The effects of bilateral contracts on the dynamics of a system including three areas, each of which consisting of two
GENCOS and two Discos has been discussed. A case study of contract violation of DISCO‘s also being incorporated. For all
the three strategies the critical load at which frequency of the areas tries to go below minimum allowable range also has been
to calculated. With the help of MATLAB software, using Simulink results have been obtained. From the comparison results
indicates that on using third strategy (with additional sources) we are increasing the efficiency of the system. When using
system with PID controller and additional sources, frequency of the system doesn’t go below minimum allowable range and
there is requirement of load shedding has been eliminated
Keywords:Load shedding;load frequency control; SMES; Photovoltaic; Deregulation

1. Introduction

The electric power industry is moving towards a deregulated framework in which consumers will have an
opportunity to make a choice among competing provider of electric energy [1]. Deregulation is the collection of
restructured rules and economic incentives that the government set up to control and drives the electric power
industry [1-6].Deregulated system consists of generation companies (Gencos), distribution companies (Discos),
Nomenclature
ΔPd1 Change in the load demand for thermal area 1
ΔPd2 Change in the load demand for thermal area 2,
ΔPd3 Change in the load demand for thermal area 3,
Δf1 Incremental Frequency of thermal area 1,
Δf2 Incremental Frequency of thermal area 2,
Δf3 Incremental Frequency of thermal area 3,
Tps1, Tps2, Tps3 Power system time constant of area 1, area 2 and area 3 respectively,
Kps1, Kps2, Kps3 Power system gains of area 1, area 2 and area 3 respectively,
Tt1, Tt2, Tt3 Turbine time constants of area 1, area 2 and area 3 respectively,
Tg1, Tg2, Tg3 Governor time constants of area 1, area 2 and area 3 respectively,
R1, R2 Governor speed regulation parameter of area 1,
R3, R4 Governor speed regulation parameter of area 2,
R5, R6 Governor speed regulation parameter of area 3,
T12, T23, T31 Synchronizing coefficients of area1, area2 and area3 respectively,
B1, B2, B3 Frequency bias constant of area 1, area 2 and area 3, respectively,
Ki1, Ki2, Ki3 integral gains of area1, area 2 and area 3, respectively,
Kp1, Kp2, Kp3 proportional gains of area1, area 2 and area 3, respectively,
Kd1, Kd2, Kd3 differential gains of area1, area 2 and area 3, respectively

* Corresponding author.,E-mail address: ssingh.rs.eee14@itbhu.ac.in

1167
Genco, Transco, Disco, the ISO as a provider of many ancillary services of a vertically integrated utility will
have a different role to play and therefore have to be modeled differently. In the deregulation system, AGC has
been identified as an important ancillary service and the ISO has a major responsibility to provide this service
for operation. The basic approach to AGC is based on the earlier concept with the addition of new concepts of
deregulated electricity markets [2],[ 3].In deregulated electricity markets, a Disco can contract individually with
any Genco for power and these transactions are made under the supervision of the ISO. To understand how these
contracts are implemented, the Disco participation matrix concept is introduced in [2],[3]. The information flow
of the contract is superimposed on the traditional AGC system to obtain the response of the AGC with the
addition of contracts. If we use some energy storage system or some other source of power supply in addition to
the power generated by the system itself then, the need of load shedding can be eliminated [7-9]. Keeping this
fact in mind, in this paper study with SMES (super conducting magnetic energy storage device) [15-18] and PV
(photo voltaic) array [11-14] has been carried out. As PV array is a non-conventional source of energy and
SMES is a storage device, SMES can be charged by PV array whenever, the power requirement in the system is
met by other sources and at the time of need, SMES and PV both can supply power to reduce the load
curtailment[19]. In this paper, PV-SMES combination is used in an interconnected three area thermal- thermal-
thermal system. These additional sources are added in such a manner that they will supply when there is a need
(i.e., PV array will supply when the frequency of the system to which PV array is connected, tries to go less than
the minimum allowable limit otherwise it will charge SMES). The frequency of the systems can be maintained
at 57.6 Hz thus, eliminating the need of load shedding. The results are discussed and developed for getting the
best strategy to minimize the load to be shed. The effects of bilateral contracts on the dynamics of a system
including three areas, each of which consisting of two Gencos and two Discos has been obtained.

2. Modeling of Systems

In this section, a mathematical model of the system under observation has been derived. An interconnected three
area thermal-thermal-thermal system has been taken for study. Three strategies have been developed in this
paper as shown below:
 Model of system with conventional integral controller
 Model of system with PID controller
 Model with PV array and SMES
To minimize the frequency deviation corresponding to the same amount of load disturbance after finding the
transfer function of the system between changes in frequency to change in load disturbance. The time at which
frequency deviation is maximum, is found out by using maxima-minima concept and then the maximum
deviation in frequency can be found out. According to the deviation in the frequency amount of load to be shed
is now can be calculated.

2.1. Model of system with conventional integral controller:

In this model, a block diagram of three areas interconnected thermal-thermal-thermal system with the
conventional integral controller used for controlling ACE is shown in Fig. 1. The transfer function of this system
is given by:
∆F1 (s) N
= (1)
∆Pd1 (s) D
Where,
N=0.0001s13 + 0.0006s12 + 0.0047s11 + 0.0286s10 + 0.1329s 9 + 0.4744s 8 + 1.2895s 7 + 2.5881s 6 +
3.6748s 5 + 3.3759s 4 + 1.8908s 3 + 0.5830s 2 + 0.0914s
D =0.002s14 + 0.012s13 + 0.070s12 + 0.322s11 + 1.227s10 + 3.843s 9 + 9.784s 8 + 19.846s 7 + 30.925s 6 +
34.540s 5 + 25.502s 4 + 12.558s 3 + 4.003s 2 + 0.772s + 0.070

DISCOS LOAD

AREA CONTROL
ERROR (ACE)
CHANGE IN
+ - FREQUENCY
CONVENTIONAL
INTEGRAL ∑ GENCOS ∑
CONTROLLER

Fig.1 System with conventional integral controller

1168
 2.2. Model of system with PID controller:
In this model, PID Controller is used for minimizing the frequency deviation corresponding to load disturbances.
PID controller is taking an ACE as its input. The impact of using this in the system is examined by using
simulation. The corresponding system is shown in Fig. 2.The transfer function of this system is given by:

∆F1 (s) N
= (2)
∆Pd1 (s) D
Where,
N=0.0001s13 + 0.0006s12 + 0.0047s11 + 0.0286s10 + 0.1330s 9 + 0.4747s 8 + 1.2905s 7 + 2.5904s 6 +
3.6514s 5 + 3.3791s 4 + 1.8923s 3 + 0.5933s 2 + 0.0914s
D=0.002𝑠14 + 0.012𝑠13 + 0.070𝑠12 + 0.323𝑠11 + 1.228𝑠10 + 3.846𝑠 9 + 9.792𝑠 8 + 19.866𝑠 7 + 30.959𝑠 6 +
34.580𝑠 5 + 25.531𝑠 4 + 12.570𝑠 3 + 4.006𝑠 2 + 0.773𝑠 + 0.070

DISCOS LOAD

AREA CONTROL
ERROR (ACE)
CHANGE IN
+ - FREQUENCY
PID CONTROLLER ∑ GENCOS ∑
Fig.2.System with PID Controller

2.3. Model with PV array and SMES:

Modelling of photovoltaic and SMES has been discussed in section2.3.1 and 2.3.2 respectively. In this system,
PV array has been connected to area1 and area 2 while SMES which is being charged by PV array during low-
load condition is connected in area 3. These additional sources start supplying power when the frequency of the
corresponding system decrease and tries to go below the minimum allowable frequency limit of 57.6 Hz. For an
instant lets temperature is 300C, so power generation will be constant. The transfer function of this system is
given by:

∆F1 (s) N
= (3)
∆Pd1 (s) D
Where,
N =0.0001s14 + 0.0007s13 + 0.0044s12 + 0.0230s11 + 0.0985s10 + 0.2906s 9 + 0.7011s 8 + 1.2611s 7 +
1.6201s 6 + 1.4074s 5 + 0.7750s 4 + 0.2545s 3 + 0.0454s 2 + 0.0023s
D =0.002s15 + 0.011s14 + 0.056s13 + 0.232s12 + 0.802s11 + 2.292s10 + 5.347s 9 + 9.964s 8 + 14.277s 7 +
14.858s 6 + 10.637s 5 + 5.232s 4 + 1.729s 3 + 0.365s 2 + 0.043s + 0.002

DISCOS LOAD

AREA CONTROL
ERROR (ACE)

+ - CHANGE IN
PID CONTROLLER ∑ GENCOS ∑ FREQUENCY

+ +

SOLAR PV
SMES
ARRAY

Fig.3.System with PID-LFC using solar PV array and SMES

1169
2.3.1 Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system
The PV system is the assembly of PV arrays, connections, protective parts and supports. Arrays are the
combination of solar cells. Equivalent circuit of a solar cell is the combination of a current source in parallel
with a diode. The output of the current source is directly proportional to the light falling on the cell. Equation
of ideal solar cell [13], [17] that represents the ideal solar cell model is:
V
I = IL − IR [exp ( ) – 1] (4)
AVi
where:
“IL” is photocurrent (A); “IR” is reverse saturation current(A);
“V ”is diode voltage (V); “ Vi ” is thermal voltage, “A” is diode ideality factor.
The photocurrent (IL) in equation (5) depends on solar irradiance intensity and temperature that is described as:
λ
IL = [Isc,ref + μIsc (T − Tref )] (5)
λref
where:“Isc,ref” is solar cell short –circuit current at reference condition.“μIsc” is the solar cell short-circuit
temperature coefficient.
On the other hand, the cell’s reverse saturation current is described as:
3
T
) exp [qEg (1⁄T − 1⁄T) /kA] (6)
A
IR = IR,ref (
Tref ref
Voc,ref
IR,ref = Isc,ref ⁄[exp ( ⁄AV ) − 1] (7)
i
Where: “Voc, ref” is solar cell open circuit voltage at reference condition; “ E g” is a band-gap energy in the solar
cell, (1.12-1.15eV).Modified voltage-current characteristic equation of solar cell is given as:
V+IRSe V+IRSe
I = IL − IR [exp ( ) – 1] − (8)
AVi RSh

A solar PV module is the shape of an assembly of solar cells in series and parallel combination, with their
protection device. Current-voltage characteristic equation of equivalent circuit for a PV module arranged in
series Ns and parallel Np can be described as [3]:
V M ⁄N s + I M ⁄N s (Np⁄Ns)VM + IM RSe
IM = Np IL − Np IR [exp (
AVi
)] −
RSh
(9)
“ Np” is cells parallel number; “ Ns ” is cells series number
The SESG-ND-216u1F PV module is taken for example, which provides .21 p.u maximum power, and has
series connected polycrystalline silicon cells. The key specifications are in Table 1. The model is evaluated-
using Matlab/Simulink. The parameters are evaluated during execution using the equations (4-9) listed in the
previous section using the data points from Table 1.Detail modelling of PV array has been discussed in previous
research work referred to ref.[17].

2.3.2. Configuration of the SMES in the power system

In the SMES unit, a dc magnetic coil is connected to the ac grid through a Power Conversion System (PCS)
which includes an inverter/rectifier. The superconducting coil is contained in a helium vessel. Heat generated is
removed by means of a low-temperature refrigerator[19]. Helium is used as the working fluid in the
refrigerator as it is the only substance that can exist as either a liquid or a gas at the operating temperature
which is near absolute zero. The current in the superconducting coil will be tens of thousands or hundreds of
thousands of amperes. No ac power system normally operates at these current levels and hence a transformer is
mounted on each side of the converter unit to convert the high voltage and low current of the ac system to the
low voltage and high current required by the coil. The energy exchange between the superconducting coil and
the electric power system is controlled by a line commutated converter [16],[19]. To reduce the harmonics
produced on the ac bus and in the output voltage to the coil, a multi pulse converter or high quality power
condition system is preferred. In this study a 12 pulse converter has been considered for the operation of the
system [20],[21]. The superconducting coil can be charged to a set value from the grid during normal operation
of the power system. Once the superconducting coil gets charged, it conducts current with virtually no losses as
the coil is maintained at extremely low temperatures. When there is a sudden rise in the load demand, the
stored energy is almost released through the PCS to the power system as alternating current. As the governor
and other control mechanisms start working to set the power system to the new equilibrium condition, the coil
current changes back to its initial value.
The control of the converter firing angle α provides the dc voltage appearing across the inductor to be
continuously varying within a certain range of positive and negative values. The inductor is initially charged to
its rated current Id0 by applying a small positive voltage. Once the current reaches its rated value, it is
maintained constant by reducing the voltage across the inductor to zero since the coil is superconducting.
Neglecting the transformer and the converter losses, the dc voltage is given by [16]:

1170
Ed = 2Vdcos α – 2IdRC. (10)
Where Ed is the dc voltage applied to the inductor in kV, α is the firing angle in degrees, Id is the current
flowing through the inductor in kA, RC is the equivalent commutating resistance in kΩ and Vd0 is the
maximum circuit bridge voltage in kV. Charging and discharging of the SMES unit is controlled through the
change of commutation angle α. If α is less than 90°, converter acts in the converter mode (charging mode) and
if α is greater than 90°, the converter acts in the inverter mode (discharging mode)[16].

2.3.2.1. Control Unit of SMES:

When power is to be pumped back into the grid in the case of a fall in frequency due to sudden loading in the
area, the control voltage Ed is to be negative since the current through the inductor and the thyristors cannot
change its direction. The incremental change in the voltage applied to the inductor is expressed as:

KSMES
ΔEd = [ ] ΔError1 (11)
1+sTdc

where, ΔEd is the incremental change in converter voltage; TDC is the converter time delay; KSMES is the
gain of the control loop and ΔError is the input signal to the SMES control logic. The inductor current
deviation is given by:

ΔEd
ΔId = (12)
sL

Fig. 4SMES block diagram with negative inductor current deviation feedback [21]
Here, area control error (ACE) of area 1 is considered as the input signal to the SMES control logic (i.e.,
ΔError1 = ACE1).
The area control error of the two areas is defined as:

ACEi = BiΔfi + ΔPtieij, i,j=1,2 (13)

Where Δfi is the change in frequency of the area i and ΔPij is the change in tie-line power flow out of area i–j.
Thus, from above eqs:
𝐾𝑆𝑀𝐸𝑆
ΔEd = (B1Δf1+ΔPtie12) (14)
1+𝑠𝑇𝑑𝑐

The inductor current in the SMES unit will return to its nominal value very slowly only if Eq. (13) is used. But,
the inductor current must be restored to its nominal value quickly after a system disturbance so that it can
respond to the next load perturbation immediately. Hence, the inductor current deviation can be sensed and
used as a negative feedback signal in the SMES control loop so that the current restoration to its nominal value
can be enhanced. Thus the dynamic equations for the inductor voltage deviation and the current deviation of
the SMES unit area are:
[𝐾𝑆𝑀𝐸𝑆 (B1Δf1+ΔPtie12)−Kid ΔId ]
ΔEd = (15)
1+𝑠𝑇𝑑𝑐

Values of parameters used in SMES model have been described at Appendix B.

1171
3. Results and Discussion

This section discussed the analysis of obtained results from Modelling of systems. Models are developed in
Matlab / Simulink environment. A case of contract violation is also discussed in this section. DISCO violates a
contract by demanding more than that specified in the contract. For obtaining a situation where frequency goes
below 57.6 Hz and to show elimination of need of load shedding 1.5p.u. excess load demand is taken in all three
areas. Due to large mismatch between demand and generation, so there is need of load shedding is required.
Total local load in area 1 = Total local load in area 2 = Total local load in area 3 = 2.0 p.u.
The results obtained for frequency deviations, tie line power deviations, and Gencos power, are shown in Figs 5-
16. Figs. 5-7 show frequency response of the three areas corresponding to load disturbance of 2.0 p.u in all the
three areas. Figs. 8-10 show tie line power response of the three areas corresponding to load disturbance of 2p.u
in all the three area.
60.5 60.5

60 60

59.5 59.5

59 59
Frequency in Hz

Frequency in Hz
58.5 58.5

58 58

57.5 57.5

57 57

WITH PID CONTROLLER WITH PID CONTROLLER

56.5 56.5
WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
56 56
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time in seconds Time in seconds
Fig 5 Frequency response of area 1 Fig 6 Frequency response of area 2
60.5
-0.008
60
Tie Line Power Deviation (Ptie12) In p.u

59.5 -0.01

59
-0.012
Frequency in Hz

58.5

-0.014
58

57.5
-0.016

57
-0.018 WITH PID CONTROLLER
WITH PID CONTROLLER
56.5
WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
56 -0.02
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Time in seconds Time In Seconds
Fig 7 Frequency response of area 3 Fig 8Variation in tie line power Ptie12

Table 1 Parameters of PV module

Solar Cell Poly-crystalline silicon.

Rated output power 203 KW (+10% / -5%)

Open circuit Voltage Voc,ref 30V
Short circuit Current Isc,ref 8.10A
Shunt Resistance RSh 50 ohm
Series Resistance RSe 5 mohm
Diode Ideality factor 1.45
Inverse diode saturation current IR 3.047e-7 A
S.C current temperature coefficient,μIsc 1.73e-3 A / oK
Reference Temperature Tref 300C
Dimensions 164 cm * 99.40 cm * 4.6 cm

1172
 -0.01 0.025

-0.015 0.02
Tie Line Power Deviation (Ptie23) In p.u

-0.02 0.015

Tie Line Power Deviation (Ptie31) In p.u

-0.025 0.01

-0.03 0.005

-0.035 0

-0.04 -0.005

-0.045 -0.01

-0.05 -0.015
WITH PID CONTROLLER
WITH PID CONTROLLER
-0.055 WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER -0.02
WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
-0.06 -0.025
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Time In Seconds
Time In Seconds
Fig 9Variation in tie line power Ptie23 Fig 10Variation in tie line power Ptie31

1.6 1.5

1.4
Generation Of Genco 2 In p.u MW
Generation Of Genco 1 In p.u MW

1.2
1
1

0.8

0.6
0.5

0.4

0.2 WITH PID CONTROLLER WITH PID CONTROLLER

WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time in seconds Time In Seconds
Fig 11 Variation in power generated by Genco 1 Fig 12 Variation in power generated by Genco2

1.6
1.5

1.4
Generation Of Genco 4 In p.u MW

1.2
Generation Of Genco 3 In p.u MW

1 1

0.8

0.6
0.5
0.4

WITH PID CONTROLLER 0.2 WITH PID CONTROLLER

WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time In Seconds Time In Seconds
Fig 13 Variation in power generated by Genco 3 Fig 14 Variation in power generated by Genco 4

1173
 1.6 1.6

1.4 1.4
Generation Of Genco 5 In p.u MW

1.2 1.2

Generation Of Genco 6 In p.u MW

1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 WITH PID CONTROLLER 0.2 WITH PID CONTROLLER

WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time In Seconds Time In Seconds
Fig 15 Variation in power generated by Genco 5 Fig 16 Variation in power generated by Genco 6

Figs. 11-16 show generation response of Gencos connected in all three areas corresponding to load disturbance
of 2.0 p.u. From above Figs. 5-16 we can see that in the third strategy (using additional sources of energy),
waveforms obtained are best. Also, when due to excess load, frequency of area 1, 2 and area 3 tries to go below
57.6 Hz additional sources supply additional power to maintain frequency within its minimum allowable limit
of 57.6 Hz. In the above Figs. 5-16 a comparison between the three strategies discussed has been given. From
the comparison it can be conclude that on using third strategy (with additional sources), the efficiency of the
system is increased. This can be evidently understood from the above Figs.
With the help of MATLAB, using Simulink we can find out the critical load at which frequency of the areas
tries to go below 57.6 Hz for all the three strategies discussed above.
 When using conventional integral controller, for equal load disturbance of 2.0p.u in all areas, we get,
 For area 1 critical load is 1.288 p.u amount of load to be shed is 0.712 p.u.
 For area 2 critical load is 1.295 p.u amount of load to be shed is 0.705 p.u.
 For area 3 critical load is 1.225 p.u amount of load to be shed is 0.775 p.u.

 When using PID controller, for equal load disturbance of 2.0 p.u in all areas, we get,
 For area 1 critical load is 1.5 p.u amount of load to be shed is 0.5 p.u.
 For area 2 critical load is 1.51 p.u amount of load to be shed is 0.49 p.u.
 For area 3 critical load is 1.433 p.u amount of load to be shed is 0.567 p.u.
 When using system with PID controller and additional sources like PV array and SMES frequency of the
system doesn’t go below57.6 Hz, because whenever system frequency tries to go below 57.6 Hz additional
sources gives additional power to the system which stops further declination in frequency. Solar system is
supplying 0.2 p.u power for maintaining frequency up to 57.6 Hz. From this strategydeviation in frequency is
not more than -2.4 Hz so a requirement of load shedding is eliminated.

4. Comparison of the Strategies:

Comparisons of the given strategies named as 1) Using conventional integral controller, 2) Using PID
controller, 3) Using additional sources of energy on the basis of load to be shed.
On using PID controller behaviour of waveforms are improved as there deviation becomes less and there
settling time decreases in comparison of system with conventional integral controller.
By using second strategy load to be shed is minimized in each area by amount
Saved amount of load in area 1 is 0.512 p.u.
Saved amount of load in area 2 is 0.515 p.u.
Saved amount of load in area 3 is 0.508 p.u.
By using third strategy load shedding is eliminated Figs. 5-8.
From below Fig. 18 Graph showing minimum frequency of area 1 for different cases it can be seen that for
different loads the minimum frequency in first two systems is less than 57.6 Hz while in third system the
frequency is at its critical value (57.6 Hz) for same value of load disturbances. Similar graphs can be obtained
for remaining two areas also. Thus, eliminating need of Load Shedding.

1174
 0.5 60

0.4
50
0.3

Minimum Value Of Frequency In Area 1

0.2
40
Power Generated Inp.u

0.1

0 30

-0.1
20
-0.2

-0.3
10
WITH INTEGRAL CONTROLLER
-0.4 WITH PID CONTROLLER
WITH PV-SMES SOURCES
-0.5 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3
Time In Seconds Local Load Of Area 1 In p.u
Fig. 21Waveform of power generated by solar PV array Fig 18 Graph showing minimum frequency of area 1 for different cases

5. Conclusion

In this paper, issue of maintaining frequency in deregulated power system has been presented. The model of
power system in deregulated regime of power system using different controllers has been explained. In this
paper three different strategies have been developed 1) using conventional integral controller, 2) using PID
controller, 3) using non-conventional sources of energy are applied on the three cases of contracts violation.
Tie line power deviations are almost zero and settling time of waveforms decreases on using PID controller. On
using these sources, the frequency deviation below 57.6 Hz has been avoided which in turn, eliminates need of
load shedding because our under-frequency load shedding scheme applied to those loads for which frequency
goes below 57.6 Hz.

Appendix A.

System Data
Kps1 = Kps2 = Kps3 =120 Hz/p.u. MW
Tg1 = Tg2 = Tg3 =0.08 s
R1 = R2 = R3 = R4 = R5 = R6 =3 Hz/p.u. MW
B1 = B2 = B2 = 0.4249
Tt1 = Tt2= Tt3=0.3
Tps1 = Tps2 = Tps3 =20 sec
Ki1= Ki2= Ki3=0.06
Ki=0.6
Kp=0.001
Kd=0.15
2ΠT12 = 0.0866
a12 = a23 = a 31 = −1.0

Appendix B.

SMES Data
L = 2.65 H.
TDC = 0.03 s.
KSMES = 100 kV/unit MW.
Kid = 0.2 kV/kA.
Id0 = 4.5kA.

1175
References
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[2]. Horowitz SH, Polities A, “Gabrielle AF. Frequency actuated load shedding and restoration Part II—implementation.” IEEE
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[8]. Zhao Q, Chen C. “Study on a system frequency response model for a large industrial area load shedding”. Electrical Power Energy
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[9]. Bhatt P, Roy R, Ghoshal SP. “Optimized multi area AGC simulation in restructured power systems.” Article accepted 25 September
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[10]. Donde V, Pai MA, Hiskens I.A. “Simulation and optimization in an AGC system after deregulation.” IEEE TransPowerSyst 16
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“China Photovoltaic Module Simulink Model for a Stand-alone PV System.” physics procedia 24 (2012): 94-100.
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Paper Code: 286

Experimental studies of permeability measurement and hydrodynamics study of

all-Vanadium redox flow battery

S. Kumar1, T. Jyothi Latha1, S. Jayanti1*,

1
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 44 22574168, Fax: (+91) 44 22574152, E-mail: sjayanti@iitm.ac.in

Abstract: In this paper, we present hydrodynamic studies of conventional, parallel and serpentine flow field and
electrochemical studies of conventional flow field pertaining to all-vanadium redox flow batteries. Computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) simulations of electrolyte flow distribution in the flow fields have been carried out; these show that a
non-uniform flow distribution is established in parallel flow field and that a very large pressure drop occurs in
conventional flow; serpentine flow fields offer optimal solution in terms of nearly-uniform flow distribution with
reasonably low pressure drop. The key to both pressure drop in conventional flow fields and under-the-rib convection in
serpentine flow fields is the permeability of the electrode under compression. These have been determined
experimentally for two commercially available carbon felts. In-situ measurements of pressure drop have also been
conducted with both felts in serpentine flow fields. The result show that SGL carbon felt gives 55% higher-pressure
drop as compared to the carbon felt from Alfa Aesar. Electrochemical studies with the conventional flow field show this
is compensated by higher energy efficiency with the SGL carbon felt..

Keywords: Permeability, Compression Ratio, Flow field, Pressure drop, Cross-flow, Redox flow battery.

1. INTRODUCTION

The world’s ever increasing need for electrical energy is driven by issues such as growing population and rising energy
demand per capita from developing nations. One of most pressing challenges that we are facing today is the need to
design energy storage systems that can satisfy these swelling demands for energy in peak hours in a sustainable manner,
that is, without contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Among various flow battery systems, the all-vanadium redox
flow battery (VRFB) has demonstrated greatest potential for large-scale storage technology owing to its high
efficiencies, flexibility, transportability and modularity [1]. All-vanadium redox flow batteries employ VO2+/VO2+ as
the positive electrolyte and V+2/V+3 redox couple in sulphuric acid as the negative electrolyte [2].

Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is an energy conversion and storage device that converts chemical energy into
electrical energy and stores it in the liquid electrolyte. The liquid diffusion layer is an important component in VRFB
for transporting the solution from input to output [2-3]. In VRFB, porous carbon felt is used as liquid diffusion layer
both at the anode and the cathode in the cell because of its wide operating range and stability as anode and cathode
material. Good distribution of the electrolyte in the entire surface of the electrode is required for optimal performance of
the cell [4-5]. Due to the very nature of carbon felt, which is both permeable and compressible, it is expected that the
in-situ porosity in a cell or a stack would be different from that of an uncompressed felt and this may have an effect on
the circulation of the electrolyte through the flow battery. The permeability characteristics of different carbon felts from
different sources may also be different. Given the possible effect that it may have on the cell performance, it is
important to determine the electrode permeability under different conditions related to VRFB. The carbon felt may also
have an effect on the electrochemical performance; an activated carbon felt is likely to have improved polarization
characteristics. These twin issues form the focus of the present study. Comparative experimental characterization of the
hydrodynamics (in terms of in situ permeability and pressure drop measurements) and electrochemistry (in terms of
polarization curve and round-trip energy efficiency) have been carried with two commercially available carbon felts in
otherwise identical conditions.

2. PERMEABIILTY MEASUREMENTS

In the present study, the permeability of two commercially available carbon felts is compared by direct measurement. A
special set-up has been fabricated to provide a well-defined flow path for the liquid through the porous medium as
shown in Figure 1. A rectangular cavity of 80 mm × 51 mm channel and a depth of 3 mm was created in a Perspex
(acrylic) plate. The cavity was filled with one or more layers of carbon felt. A silicone gasket was kept around the
cavity to prevent the leakage of solution and also to control the depth of the cavity. A flat end-plate was placed over it

1177
and tightened with nut and bolts. Electrolyte was pumped into an inlet header and was taken out through an outlet
header and the pressure drop between the two was measured. By varying the gasket height and the number of layers of
felt placed in the cavity, the compression ratio (final height to initial height) of the felt could be varied. The
permeability under compression was determined from Darcy’s law from the measured pressure drop. The permeability
values obtained for SGL carbon felt Alfa Aesar are found to be 1.2 × 10-10 and 2.3 × 10-10 m2, respectively for a
compression ratio of 0.19. The measured value for SGL carbon compares well with the measured value of 9.2 × 10-9 m2
by Knehr et al. [6].

Fig. 1 Experimental setup of permeability measurement for conventional way.

3. HYDRODYNAMIC STUDIES

The pressure drop for circulation of the electrolyte is an important parameter in the design of flow batteries. The
pressure drop for a given flow rate depends on the permeability of the electrode as well as the flow field, if any.
Apart from pressure drop, cross-flow through the porous electrode and flow distribution over the plate are
important considerations [5, 7]. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show these characteristics (obtained through computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the type described in [3, 5] for conventional, parallel and serpentine flow
fields for plate of dimensions 80 mm × 51 mm with a 6.3 mm thick carbon felt with a permeability value K=
7.5×10-11 m2 at a Reynolds number of 619. In each case, the flow geometry and the contours of the pressure drop
with carbon felt from Alfa Aesar and SGL are given. These show that the pressure drop is very high in the
conventional flow field; it is about lower by a factor of about 4 to 6 in the serpentine flow field and by factor of 70
to 100 in the parallel flow field. It is also of interest to note that the decreased permeability of the carbon felt has
an inversely proportional effect on the pressure drop in the conventional flow field while it does not make any
difference in the parallel flow field. The case of serpentine flow field is in between these two extremes because
only part of the flow goes through the porous medium in this case.

A comparison is made in Figure 5 of the velocity profiles at mid-height of the channels in serpentine (Figure 5a)
and parallel (Figure 5b) with the two carbon felts. One case see that, apart from the first channel, the flow passing
through all other channels is nearly constant. The distribution is highly skewed in the case of the parallel channel.
Thus, a serpentine flow field gives an optimal distribution in terms of having uniform distribution over the plate,
some convective flow through the electrolyte and reasonably low pressure drop [8]. Therefore, the serpentine
flow field was used to conduct in situ pressure drop experiments using carbon felts from SGL and Alfa Aesar in
which the pressure drop between the inlet and the outlet was measured over a range of flow rates. In these
experiments, the working plate was of dimensions 80 mm × 51 mm × 6.3 mm and the channel cross-section was 3
mm × 3 mm with a rib width of 3 mm. The pressure drop variation with flow rate with the two carbon felts is shown in
Figure 6. It can be seen that the SGL carbon felt gives 55% higher pressure drop when compared to the carbon felt of
Alfa Aesar.

1178
 (a) (b) Alfa (c) SGL
-10
Fig. 2 (a) Schematic representation of conventional flow field (b) pressure contour of Alfa at K= 2.314 × 10 m2 (c)
-10 2
pressure contour of SGL at K= 1.209 × 10 m (Rein = 619 )

(a) (b) Alfa (c) SGL

-10
Fig. 3 (a) Schematic representation of Parallel flow field (b) pressure contour of Alfa at K= 2.314 × 10 m2 (c)
-10 2
pressure contour of SGL at K= 1.209 × 10 m (Rein = 619 )

(a) (b) Alfa (c ) SGL

-10
Fig. 4 (a) Schematic representation of Parallel flow field (b) pressure contour of Alfa at K= 2.314 × 10 m2 (c)
-10 2
pressure contour of SGL at K= 1.209 × 10 m (Rein = 619 )

1179
Fig. 5 Comparison of the velocity profiles at mid-height of the flow channels for serpentine (top) and parallel (bottom)
flow fields with Alfa Aesar and SGL carbon felts.

Fig. 6 Experimentally studies of pressure drop in serpentine flow field with carbon felts from Alfa Aesar and SGL.

4. ELECTROCHEMICAL STUDIES

The effect of the carbon felt on the flow distribution in the reaction zone is shown in Figure 7 where the predicted flow
velocities at mid-height of the carbon felt are compared for the two carbon felts for the same inlet flow rate. One can
see that due to the higher permeability of the carbon felt from Alfa Aesar, higher cross-flow velocity is obtained in the
crucial reaction zone. This might indicate that improved electrochemical performance could be expected from a cell
fitted with Alfa Aesar carbon felt. However, the SGL carbon felt contains activated carbon and this may have a
beneficial effect. In order to see the influence of the latter, comparative electrochemical studies have been conducted in
a cell with conventional flow field fitted with carbon felts from Alfa Aesar and SGL. These are described below.

4.1 Experimental details

The single-cell VRFB conventional flow field consisted of a perspex end plate followed by a copper current collector,
graphite plate (SGL R7510, 10 mm thick) with conventional flow field, electrodes made up of carbon felt and a proton
exchange membrane (Nafion 117, 0.18 mm thickness- Alfa Aesar) on the positive side and an identical distribution on
the negative side. The membrane also serves to separate the two sides. One electrolyte tank and one peristaltic pump
each were connected with the positive and the negative sides of the cell. Graphite plates having engraved conventional

1180
flow field over a 100 cm2 active area served as electrolyte distributors. The total active area of single cell is 10 cm × 10
cm and total graphite plate size is 15 cm × 15 cm. A 3 mm thick silicone gasket was provided to prevent leakage from
the flow fields. The electrodes on the anode and the cathode sides were made up of one-layer of carbon felt of
dimensions 10 cm × 10 cm.

0.02
0.016
Vm/Vin

0.012
SGL
0.008
0.004 Alfa

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Mid porous velocity along width of the plate (m)

Fig. 7 Comparison of the predicted cross-flow in the porous medium with the two carbon felts.

The electrolyte solution (containing vanadium in V4+ oxidation state) was prepared by dissolving 2M VOSO4. xH2O
(99.9% wt. purity, Alfa Aesar) in 5M sulfuric acid solution with Millipore water. Two peristaltic pumps were used to
circulate 80 ml of electrolyte solution to the positive and negative electrodes at a constant flow rate during charging and
discharging . A constant current density of 50 mA cm-2 was applied during charging and discharging in each cycle. A
cut-off charging voltage of 1.8 V and a discharging voltage 0.8 V were fixed with constant current mode (50 mA.cm-2)
operation. During the first stage of charging, V 4+ gets converted to V5+ and V3+ in the anolyte and catholyte solutions,
respectively. The anolyte solution was then removed and was replaced with fresh electrolyte solution and the process of
charging was repeated until the battery was charged to 1.8 V. At this stage, V4+ was converted to V5+ on the anode side
and to V2+ on the cathode side. Nitrogen gas continuously purge on the cathode side to minimize the oxidation of V2+ .
All experiment were conducted at a room temperature of 30oC . No significant change in temperature was observed
during the experiment. Electrochemical characterizations were performed using the Biologic (SP150 with external
booster) Galvanostat/Potentiostat, connected to the Cu current collectors.

4.2 Results and discussion

The electrochemical performance data obtained with the conventional flow field are shown in Figures 8 and 9. Figure
8a shows the polarization curve and Figure 8b shows the peak power density curves for the VRFB with the two carbon
felt at two electrolyte flow rates. One can see that increasing the flow rate from 28 ml min-1 to 58 ml min-1 increases the
limiting current density for both carbon felts. The limiting current density increased from 110 to 115 mA.cm -2 in case
of Alfa Aesar and from 140 to 180 mA.cm-2 case of SGL felt as the flow rate was increased from 28 ml min-1 to 58 ml
min-1. This shows that concentration polarization becomes significant at current densities in excess of about 100 to 150
mA.cm-2. Of the two, the cell with Alfa Aesar carbon felt showed lesser performance than the one with the SGL carbon
felt, despite the latter having less cross-flow in the felt. Figure 8b shows power density curves for the two carbon felts at
the two flow rates. The power density value was obtained by multiplying the value of current with the corresponding
value of voltage. Increasing the flow rate from 28 ml min-1 to 58 ml min-1 led to an increase in the peak power density
value from 69 to 96 mW.cm-2 in the case of Alfa Aesar felt and from 80 to 102 mW.cm-2 for SGL felt. Figure 9 shows
the charge-discharge curve of the cells using Alfa Aesar and SGL felt as carbon felts, both at a constant electrolyte
circulation rate of 58 ml.min-1. These charge-discharge curves are widely used to evaluate the electrochemical
performance of the VRFB cell. It can be seen that the discharging time is 51 % higher in case of SGL felt as compared
to Alfa carbon felt.

5. CONCLUSION

In this paper, we reported on the hydrodynamic and electrochemical characterization of VRFBs using Alfa Aesar and
SGL carbon felts. Of the two, the former has higher permeability while the latter contains activated carbon.
Experimental results confirm that the pressure drop in the former is considerably less (by about 30%) while the latter
showed considerably improved electrochemical performance. The peak power density was higher by about 25% and
the discharging time by about 50%. These results show that considerable improvements can be made in performance of
the VRFB by using activated carbon felt. The corresponding increase in the pressure drop is compensated by improved
electrochemical performance.

1181
 1.6
1.4
1.2 28 ml min-1 Alfa
Voltage (V)

1 58 ml min-1 Alfa
0.8 28 ml min-1 SGL
0.6
58 ml min-1 SGL
0.4
0.2
0
0 50 100 150 200
Current density (mA.cm-2)

100
90
Power density (mW/cm2)

80 28 ml min-1 Alfa
70
60 58 ml min-1 Alfa
50 28 ml min-1 SGL
40
30 58 ml min-1 SGL
20
10
0
0 50 100 150 200
Current density (mA/cm2)

Fig. 8 Effect of flow rate on (a) the polarization curve and (b) the power density curve for conventional flow field
with two different electrode ( Alfa Aesar and SGL).

1.6
Voltage (V)

1.2
SGL
0.8 Alfa

0.4

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Time (s)

Fig. 9. Charge-discharge curve for using Alfa Aesar and SGL company provided carbon felt effect (flow rate = 58 ml.
min-1 and current density = 50 mA.cm-2)

1182
 6. REFERENCES

[1] M. Skyllas-Kazacos, D. Kasherman, D.R. Hong, M. Kazacos, Characteristics and performance of 1kW UNSW
vanadium redox flow battery, J. Power Sources 35 (1991) 399-404.
[2] C. Ponce de Leon, A. Frias-Ferrer, J. Gonzalez-Garcia, D.A. Szanto, F.C. Walsh, Redox flow cells for energy
conversion, J. Power Sources 160 (2006) 716-732
[3] T. Jyothi Latha, S. Jayanti, Ex-situ experimental studies on serpentine flow field design for redox flow battery
system, J. Power Sources 248 (2014) 140-146.
[4] H. Al-Fetlawi, A.A.Shah, F.C. Walsh, Non-isothermal modeling of all-vanadium redox flow battery,
Electrochimica Acta, 55 (2009) 78-89.
[5] K.B.S. Prasad, S. Jayanti, Effect of channel-to-channel cross-flow on local flooding in serpentine flow fields, J.
Power Sources, 180 (2008) 227-231.
[6] K.W. Knehr, E. Agar, C.R. Dennison, A.R. Kalidindi, E.C. Kumbur, A transient vanadium flow battery model
incorporating vanadium crossover and water transport through the membrane. J. Electrochem. Soc., 159 (2012)
A1446-A1459.
[7] T. Jyothi Latha, S. Jayanti, Hydrodynamic analysis of flow fields for redox flow battery applications, J. Appl.
Electrochem, 44 (2014) 995-1006.
[8] K.B. Shyam Prasad, P.V. Suresh, S. Jayanti, A hydrodynamic network model for interdigitated flow fields Int.
Hydrogen Energy, 34 (2009) 8289-8301.
[9] Q. Xu, T.S. Zhao, C. Zhang, Performance of vanadium redox flow battery with and without flow field,
Electrochimica Acta ,142 (2014), 61-67.

1183
 ICAER-2015

Development of anion exchange membrane from polyvinyl alcohol

functionalized with quaternary ammonium groups via flexible alkyl
spacers.
K. Hari Gopi, Santoshkumar D. Bhat*, Akhila Kumar Sahu
CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute-Madras Unit, CSIR Madras Complex, Taramani, Chennai- 600113

Abstract

Hydroxide ions conducting solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) are becoming important materials for

electrochemical technology. Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) are the key materials for electrochemical

devices such as fuel cells, electrolyzers etc. Anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolytes are prepared for its

application in alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells. To prepare an anion conductive membrane electrolyte for

alkaline fuel cell applications, series of quaternized polymer functionalized with quaternary ammonium groups

containing long alkyl side chains to the nitrogen-centered cation were synthesized to form comb-shaped

structure. We have attached quaternary ammonium (QA) moiety to polyvinyl alcohol via flexible and stable

decyl side chains by using a straightforward synthetic route of quaternization. Membranes based on these route

showed efficient phase separation, enhanced ionic conductivity in relation to corresponding polymers with QA

groups placed directly on the backbone.

Alkaline fuel cells (AFCs) one of the first fuel cell technology to be developed were widely used by

NASA in the Apollo-series missions to produce electrical energy and water on-board spacecraft’s by using

liquid electrolyte (i.e., aqueous KOH solution) for ion conduction. The disadvantage of using liquid electrolyte

is that, it is easily poisoned by carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The alkaline solution which is used is highly concentrated

aqueous KOH solution, which can react with CO 2 from oxidant to form carbonate salts that will block the pores

of catalyst, thus reducing the performance of fuel cell. To eliminate carbonation, research has been focused on

developing solid polymer electrolytes for its use in alkaline fuel cell.

SPEs are the polyelectrolytes having charge carriers (usually quaternary ammonium or quaternary

phosphonium type) grafted on the polymer backbone. Polymer electroneutrality was maintained by attaching a

mobile counter-ion to each ionic functional group. Polymers with this kind of anchored organic cation are

1184
promising candidates as anion exchange membranes. The choice of AEM to be employed as solid electrolyte

demands high OH- conductivity with excellent methanol tolerance and good chemical stability. There are

several different cationic head-groups chemistry available in the literature based on quaternary ammonium,

quaternary phosphonium, guanidinium and imidazolium type.

Chloromethylation and quaternization of aromatic polymers is a widely used and accepted method for

the preparation of AEMs. Anion exchange membranes were usually prepared by using three different steps: 1)

Chloromethylation, 2) Quaternization and 3) Alkalization. In the first step, the base polymer undergoes

electrophilic substitution to give the desired chloromethylated polymer. In the second step, the chloromethylated

polymer reacts with trimethyl amine to form the quaternized membrane with chloride ion as counterion. In the

final step, the membranes were ion-exchanged to give the alkaline membrane with OH- ions. One of the main

limitations of using aromatic polymers is its chemical instability at longer runs due to the degradation of

backbone by nucleophilic attack of OH- ion.

Herein we attempt to develop AEM from an aliphatic polymer (PVA) to address the issue of

nucleophilic attack. Aliphatic polymers are directly quaternized unlike the aromatic polymers which undergo

chloromethylation in addition to quaternization. In the present study, a series of AEMs are prepared from

polyvinyl alcohol via flexible alkyl spacer group in different weight percentages with respect to PVA. The

fabricated membrane was further cross-linked thermally and by chemical process, studied for its ionic

conductivity, ion exchange capacity and water uptake.

1185
 ICAER-2015

Pyrolysis of Dried Black Liquor Solids and Characterization of

the Bio-Char and Bio-Oil

S. Chutia, R. Narzari, N. Bordoloi, R. Saikia, L. Gogoi, D. Sut, R. Kataki*

Biofuel Laboratory, Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784028, Assam, India

Abstract

Black liquor is a high energy content by-product of paper mill industries which can be processed to generate energy and help
in energy sustainability. In this study, experimental analysis were carried out to find various properties of black liquor and
characterization of its bio-oil and bio-char obtained through pyrolysis of dried black liquor solids. It was observed from the
present study that the temperature has a significant effect on the distribution of products yields. The bio-oil yield was found
to be maximum at 500°C temperature with the heating rate of 40°C/min. The bio-oil obtained from Dry black liquor solids
(DBLS) has a calorific value of the 29.86 MJ/kg. Chemical composition of the bio-oils was investigated by using FTIR and
1H NMR analysis. Bio-chars obtained as by-product were also analysed by using SEM-EDX, FTIR and XRD. It was found

that the bio char obtained were basic in nature. Hence, it may be used as a potential liming agent for reclamation of acidic
soil.

Keywords: Biomass energy; Dry black liquor solids (DBLS); Pyrolysis; Bio-oil; Bio-char

1. Introduction

Energy demand is gradually increasing in the present day world, however the demand is running ahead of the
supply. Non-renewable sources are diminishing gradually and are harming the environment to a great extent. In
response to this, research on areas of renewable energy and utilization of waste and by products are gaining
tremendous importance. Manifold increase in the quantum and variety of waste materials generated by
Industrial activities and their potentially harmful effects on the general environment and public health, have led
to an increasing awareness about an urgent need to adopt scientific methods for safe disposal of wastes. While
there is an obvious need to minimize the generation of wastes and to reuse and recycle them, the technologies
for recovery of energy from wastes can play a vital role in mitigating the problems. Besides recovery of
substantial energy, these technologies can lead to a substantial reduction in the overall waste quantities requiring
final disposal, which can be better managed for safe disposal in a controlled manner while meeting the pollution
control standards [1].

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 3712 275308; fax: +91 3712 267005/6.
E-mail address: rupamkataki@gmail.com

1186
Pulp and Paper industry produces varieties of wastes and has been considered as one of the major polluting
industries in the world. Black liquor, a by–product of the papermaking alkaline Kraft process (or sulfate
method), is an important lignin rich liquid in the pulp and paper industry. During the production of 1 ton of
pulp, approximately 7 tons of black liquor is produced. The main composition of black liquor is lignin,
hemicellulose, cellulose, other carbohydrates and the inorganic chemicals [2]. Black liquor contains chemicals
and energy in its organic part which can be recovered and reused in pulp and paper production through special
treatment technologies [3]. Though the conventional recovery boiler (Tomlinson recovery boiler) has been used
for generating energy and reusing chemicals, however, it has some safety and environment related problems.

Therefore, there is a need for an alternative recovery technology which is much safer, easier and more energy
efficient than conventional technology [4]. Fast pyrolysis is one of the important themochemical conversion
processes which convert a lignocellulosic feedstock into liquid, solid and gaseous product. Thermal
characterization studies of black liquor as a source of energy has been reported in various literatures.
Bhattacharya et al. [5] reported the studies on the pyrolysis of black liquor solids in a fixed bed reactor and
determines the composition of the gaseous product. A reaction model was proposed, in which the black liquor
solids decomposed into gas, tar and char by three parallel first-order reactions. They also determined the
frequency factors and activation energies of the rate constants. Gairns et al. [6] reported char residue yields for
20 mg droplets of kraft black liquor pyrolyzed in N2 at temperatures from 500°C to 900°C. The yields decreased
from 70% at 500°C to 65% at 700°C, but then dropped to 41% at 800°C. Demirbas, 2008 [7] performed the
pyrolysis of black liquor in temperature range of 600 to 950K to investigate the effect of temperature, heating
rate and particle size on the yields of liquid and gaseous product. Song et al. [8] reported the thermal analysis of
reed black liquor in N2 atmosphere at six different heating rates. TGA and DTG curves were obtained and
kinetic parameters were also determined by Coats-Redfern method. The above studies point towards the
feasibility of using black liquor as a source of energy. In view of the above, thermochemical conversion of black
liquor to biooil and biochar and their characterization has been studied. The present experiment aims to produce
bio-oil and biochar by pyrolysis of dried Black Liquor Solid (DBLS) sample at a temperature range of 300- 500
ºC with heating rate of 10 and 40 ºC/min. The effect of pyrolysis temperature on liquid, char and gas yield was
also investigated. The solid byproducts i.e. biochar were analysed for different properties by using SEM, EDX,
FTIR whereas liquid products were analyzed for chemical properties by using FT-IR, GC-MS and 1H NMR
technique.

2. Materials and methods

2.1 Raw Material

Black liquor used in experiment was obtained from a local paper mill situated at Nagaon, Jagiroad, Assam. The
black liquor comprises 15% solids by weight of which 10% are organic chemicals and 5% are inorganic
chemicals. Black liquor has solidify by using the following methods

(a) Oven drying at controlled temperature: In this method, the liquid sample has kept at 60°C for 3 hours and
gradually increased the temperature by 20° at 3 hour interval until it reached 120°C. In this method, the sample
was uniformly dried and there was no compound breaking. The dried sample had 76% total solid.

(b) Drying by using a lyophilizer: Lyophilizer has a very high power vacuum which sucks the moisture out of
the sample. At first the sample was deep freeze at -20°C in a round bottom flask and then installed in the
lyophilizer machine. The total dried solid in this method was found to be 92%.

Proximate analysis of DBLS was carried out using ASTM D3172-07a method to determine moisture content,
ash content, volatile matter content and fixed carbon content of the sample. Ultimate analysis was carried out
using Euro EA elemental analyzer to determine C, H, N, S and O content of the sample. Calorific value was
determined using a bomb calorimeter (5E-1AC/ML, Auto bomb calorimeter) according to ASTM D2015.
Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) of the sample was done using a DTG60 instrument. Around 0.006 - 0.008 g
of sample were taken and heated to 600 ºC for 1 min at heating rate of 20°C/min in N2 atmosphere with flow

1187
rate 35 ml/min. An XRD (D/max-IIIA, made by Rigaku Corporation, Japan) was used to investigate the carbon
structure of the char samples.

2.2 Experimental procedure

The pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a fixed bed tubular reactor system in which the temperature was
controlled by Ni–Cr thermocouple which was placed in the center of pyrolysis reactor as described elsewhere
[9]. The DBLS sample (20g) were placed into the reactor and was heated in a muffle furnace with a temperature
increment of 10 and 40 ºC/min to final temperature of 300, 350, 400, 450 and 500 ºC, under constant flow of N2
at 100 ml/min. Vapors were condensed by using a condenser and liquid was collected in a jar at the other end of
the condenser.

2.3. Characterization of char

Proximate analysis and ultimate analysis of the bio-char were carried out according to ASTM D3172-07a. The
calorific value of bio-char was determined using a bomb calorimeter (5E-1AC/ML, Auto bomb calorimeter).
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) of the obtained
char were taken with a JEOL (JSM-6390 LV) microscope with an acceleration voltage of 20 kV. SEM analysis
was performed to find out the surface morphology of the bio-chars. Images of DBLS char were taken at 5500×
magnifications. EDX was performed to analyse the presence of mineral matters in the biomass. Main elements
other than carbon and oxygen Na (sodium), Si (silicon), Cl (Chlorine), K (Potassium), Ca (Calcium) and S
(Sulphur) were also found in the selected samples. Functional groups were determined by using Nicolet Impact
I-410 model IR spectrometer. pH values were measured by adding bio-char to de-ionized water in a mass ratio
of 1:20. The solution was then hand shaken and allowed to stand for min before measuring the pH with a pH
meter (EUTECH Instruments pH 700).

2.4. Characterization of liquid product

The calorific value of bio-oil was determined using a bomb calorimeter (5E-1AC/ML, Auto bomb calorimeter).
pH of the biooil at different temperature was determined with a pH meter (EUTECH Instruments pH 700). Bio-
oil obtained at optimum temperature as characterized by using following techniques. Euro EA elemental
analyzer was used to determine their elemental contents of C, H, N, and S. Fourier transforms infrared
spectroscopic analysis of the bio-oil was recorded on a Nicolet Impact I-410 model IR spectrometer to
determine its functional groups. The 1H NMR spectra of the bio-oil was recorded in a 400 MHz NMR
spectrophotometer (JEOL, JNM ECS) by using deuterated chloroform (CDCl3) as the internal standard. The bio-
oil samples were analyzed by GC–MS (Perkin Elmer Claurus 600) equipped with TCD detector and DB-5ms
column (60.0×250µm).

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Pyrolysis product yields of DBLS

Pyrolysis of DBLS was carried out at two different heating rates i.e. 10°C/min and 40°C/min in relation to the
five different temperature 300°C, 350°C, 400°C, 450°C and 500°C respectively under N2 atmosphere. Pyrolysis
of DBLS were conducted to investigate the effect of temperature and heating rates on the products yield and to
characterize the properties of the bio-char and biooil derived from it. Table 1 shows the product yield from
pyrolysis of DBLS. The char yield declined from 43.78% to 35.42% for 10°C/min heating rates and 39.16% to
32.43% for 40°C/min as the final temperature increases from 350°C to 500°C. However, the bio-oil yield
increased from 17.43% to19.57% for the 10°C/min heating rate and from 18.21% to 21.86% for the heating rate
of 400C/min. The yield of bio-oil obtained at 500ºC with heating rate of 40º C/min is maximum and taken for
the further analysis in the present study. The yield of char decreases with increasing temperatures, due to greater
primary decomposition of biomass at increasing higher temperature or by the secondary decomposition of the
char residue [10]. The decreased yield of char with increasing of heating rate may be related to the fact that
rapid heating leads to a fast de polymerization of solid material to primary volatiles while at lower heating rate
dehydration to more stable an-hydrocellulose is limited and very slow [11]

1188
The gas product yield increased with the increase of pyrolysis temperature in both the heating rate. SensÖz &
Angin [12] also observed increased in gas production with the increase of temperature from wood species and
biomass materials. The gas yield of DBLS obtained was found to be minimum 15.11% at 300 ºC and maximum
20.66% at 500 ºC for heating rate of 10 ºC/min. For 40 ºC/min, the gas yield increased from 16.94% to 21.19%.
The increase in gas yield is due to secondary cracking of the pyrolysis vapors at higher temperatures [13].

Table 1. Effect of temperature and heating rate on product yield

Temperature (ºC) Char (%) Bio-oil (%) Gas (%) Aqueous phase (%)

Heating rate 10ºC/min

300 43.78 17.43 15.11 25.76
350 39.43 17.90 17.34 25.33
400 37.14 18.11 19.21 24.54
450 37.06 18.76 20.05 24.13
500 35.42 19.57 20.66 23.35

Heating rate 40ºC/min

300 39.16 18.21 16.94 26.69
350 36.13 19.34 18.32 26.21
400 34.65 20.24 19.57 25.54
450 33.72 20.96 20.53 24.79
500 32.43 21.86 21.19 24.52

3.2. Characterization of biomass and biochar

In the present investigation it was found that the DBLS possess the following properties as shown in Table 2.
The moisture content was found to be 5.76% supporting its suitability for thermochemical conversion [14]. The
elemental analysis reveals that the C, H, N and O percentage were found to be 34.12%, 4.21%, 0.41% and
32.99% respectively on dry ash free basis. The organics, lignin and cellulose content of the raw sample are
36.30%, 22.71% and 8.5% respectively.

Table 2: Properties of DBLS sample

Proximate analysis
Component Weight Moisture Ash Volatile Matter Fixed Carbon
(wt.%) 5.76 3.12 53.92 37.20

Ultimate analysis
Element Weight C H N O S H/C O/C Na K
(wt.%) 34.12 4.21 0.46 32.99 5.60 1.48 0.73 19.56 2.67

Component Analysis
Constituents (wt.%) Organics Lignin Lignin Carbohydrate cellulose Organic Inorganics as NaOH
Complexes Acids 21.6
36.30 22.71 10.65 8.5 10.92

Thermo gravimetric analysis is used to determine the thermal stability of the biomass samples material. Fig. 1
shows the thermal behaviour of the feedstock. According to Yang et al., 2007 at temperature range of 220–
315°C hemicellulose decomposition occurs and cellulose at 315–400°C after the initial weight loss due to
moisture evaporation at 30–150°C [15]. The degradation of lignin occurs in temperature range of 150–900°C
[16]. The DTG curve of DBLS shows that the active pyrolytic zone was in between the temperature range of
350°C–500°C where maximum weight loss (61.84%) was observed. In the first stage degradation, a small
weight loss of 6.71% was observed due to the loss of moisture and light volatile compounds present in the
biomass sample since the temperature increased from ambient temperature to about 150°C. Second
decomposition indicates the formation of volatiles mainly CO and CO2. Due to high decomposition rates per
unit time, the rapid decomposition zone or second stage of decomposition was treated as active pyrolytic zone.
Breakdown of the hemicellulose and cellulose molecule present in the biomass is the reason behind the weight
loss in this stage [17]. During the third stage, the pyrolysis residue slowly decomposed, with the weight loss

1189
velocity becoming smaller and smaller and the residue ratio tends to be constant at the end the decomposition of
hydrocarbon. The three stage weight loss was observed. During the third stage at higher temperature chemical
bonds were broken and the parent molecular skeletons were destroyed. As a result, the larger molecule
decomposes to smaller molecules in the form of gas phase. By investigating this result it has been found that
most of the weight loss occurs due to the volatilization of the hydrocarbons at temperature lower than 600°C.
Therefore 500°C temperature is the appropriate temperature for the bio-oil production from DBLS.

Fig.1. Thermogravimetric (TG) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves at 10°C/min heating rate.

Table 3 shows the proximate and ultimate analysis of DBLS bio-char. Volatile matter decreases from 25.75 to
17.42 and from 22.87 to 16.29 for heating rate 10 and 40°C/min, respectively. While the fixed carbon increased
with increase in temperature in both the heating rate. Fixed carbon in bio-char came from lignin content in the
original biomass. Therefore, there is smaller change in fixed carbon at higher temperature. The ash content in
bio-char, increase with increase in temperature and heating rate. This is likely to be related to the increase in
relative concentrations of Ca, Mg, K, P, S and Zn in ash content as the temperature increased [18]. The high
heating value was increased in both the heating rates as temperature increases. From the Table 4 it was observed
that, pH of bio-char increases with increasing temperature in both the heating rates 10°C/min, 40°C/min
respectively. The increase in pH may be attributed to separation of alkali salts from organic materials [19].

Table 3: Proximate analysis of bio-char at different temperatures and heating rates

Pyrolysis temperature (°C)

Heating rate of 10 °C/min 300°C 350°C 400°C 450°C 500°C
Moisture content (%) 7.16 6.87 5.43 4.98 4.63
Volatile matter (%) 25.75 25.18 18.24 18.04 17.42
Ash (%) 6.80 7.21 8.12 8.41 9.87
Fixed carbon (%) 59.15 61.24 66.15 68.57 70.67
Higher Heating value (MJ/kg) 25.11 25.68 26.15 26.79 27.09
pH 7.92 8.11 9.01 9.75 10.17
Heating rate of 40 °C/min
Moisture content (%) 8.59 8.07 6.26 5.89 5.37
Volatile matter (%) 22.87 21.65 19.22 17.51 16.29
Ash (%) 6.72 7.89 8.90 9.76 11.32
Fixed carbon (%) 60.64 62.36 65.12 66.84 69.43
Higher Heating value (MJ/kg) 25.69 25.81 26.74 26.87 27.23
pH 8.01 9.63 9.92 10.01 10.39

1190
Fig. 2 shows the SEM images of the biochars obtained at temperatures 350°C, 400°C and 500°C at heating rate
of 40°C/min. The surface morphology of the bio-char was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
which confirmed the porous, amorphous and heterogeneous structures of the bio-chars. The result was found
similar to findings of bordoloi et al. [20].

Fig. 2. SEM microgram of biochar at (a) 350°C (b) 400°C and (c) 500°C with heating rate 40°C/min

The FTIR spectra of biochars obtained at 350 °C, 400 °C and 500 °C with heating rate of 40 °C/min are shown
in Fig.3 (a), (b) and (c) respectively. Carbon chemical assigned to frequency range 3600 cm-1 to 3200 cm-1 were
O-H stretching and N-H stretching of hydroxyl groups, from the FTIR spectra results two peaks were found in
between this ranges are 3542 cm-1, 3406 cm-1 and it indicates the presence of polymeric O-H, water and NH2.
The peak obtained at 2920 cm-1 of C-H stretching indicates the presence of alkanes. C≡C stretching vibration
2376 cm-1 peak shows the alkynes and cyanides. Alkenes group present to C=C stretching vibration at peak
1625 cm-1are of aromatic C. At 1403 cm-1 frequency, C-H bending vibration with class of compounds alkanes.
The peak 1046 cm-1 with C-O stretching and O-H bending indicates the alcohol and ether. Aromatic compound
were at peak 781 cm-1 with C-H in plane benching. The spectrum of the char (Fig. 3) obtained at 500 ºC showed
the disappearance of most of the bands and suggested that the char becomes mainly an aromatic polymer of
carbon atom [20].

(a) Biochar at 350°C (b) Biochar at 400°C

(c) Biochar at 500°C

Fig 3: FTIR of char at different temperature at 40°C/min (a) Biochar at 350°C (b) Biochar at 400°C (c) Biochar at 500°C

1191
From the EDX analysis of biochar (Fig.4) obtained at 500°C with heating rate 40°C/min, it was observed that
the biochar from DBLS mainly consists of Na, K and S which are important inorganic nutrient for soil fertility
and crop production [10]. X-ray diffraction is a use to analyse the crystallinity and structure of biochar. The
XRD spectra of bio-char (Fig.5) show a broad peak at the 2θ values of around 20-30 indicating the presence of
graphitic structure developed due to formation and successive ordering of aromatic carbon in the bio-char [21].

Fig 4: EDX analysis of bio-char at 500°C Fig. 5. XRD of bio-char at 500°C

3.3. Characterization of the liquid product

Table 4 shows the elemental composition, empirical formula, H/C and O/C ratio of the bio-oil obtained at
optimum temperature. There occurs a significant decrease in oxygen content of the bio-oil compared to the
original feedstock while calorific value of the bio-oil was 29.86 MJ/kg . The H/C molar ratio of the bio-oil is
1.57 which is quite comparable with the H/C of petroleum product ranging from 1.5 to 2.0.
Table 4: Ultimate analysis of Bio-oil obtained at optimum temperature at heating rate of 40°C/min

Parameter DBLS biooil

C 68.76
H 8.99
N 6.69
O 15.56
H/C 1.57
O/C 0.17
HVV (MJ/kg) 29.86
pH 3.8

In the Figure 6(a), 6(b) and 6(c), shows the FTIR spectra of bio-oil obtained at 350°C, 400°C and 500°C
respectively. The O-H stretching, N-H stretching vibrations at frequency range 3414 cm-1 and 3278 cm-1
indicates the presence of polymeric O-H, water and NH2. Peak obtained at 2930 cm-1shows presence of alkanes
with C-H stretching which was sharp and weak. The very low intensity peak at 2370 cm-1, C≡C stretching,
indicates the Alkynes and cyanides groups. The C═O stretching vibrations with absorbance 1720 cm-1 shows
presence of aldehyde, ketone, carboxylic acid and esters. The presence of alkenes was detected by C-C
stretching vibration at 1648 cm-1. The presence of nitrogenous and aromatic compounds detected by N-H
bending and C═C stretching vibration at 1512 cm-1. C-H bending vibration at peak 1462 cm-1and 1369 cm-
1
shows the presence of alkanes. The peaks at frequency range of 1260 cm-1and 1120 cm-1with C-O stretching
and O-H bending shows the presence of alcohol and ether groups. C-H in plane benching at frequency 617 cm-1
and 618 cm-1 indicates the presence of aromatic compounds.

1192
 (a): Bio-oil at 350°C (b): Bio-oil at 400°C

(c): Bio-oil at 500°C

Fig. 6: FTIR spectra of biooil at different temperature (a): Bio-oil at 350°C, (a): Bio-oil at 400°C, (a): Bio-oil at 500°C

1
H NMR spectroscopy was applied to bio-oil obtained at 500°C at 40°C/min heating rate. The 1 H NMR spectra
of DBLS bio-oil is shown in the Fig.7. Table 6 shows the percentages of different types of hydrogen present in
the bio-oil obtained from chemical shift with the selected regions. In the spectra, regions between 6.0 and 9.0
ppm is assigned due to protons of the aromatic ring (14%). The integrated region between 4.0 and 6.0 ppm is
due to the phenolic and olefinic protons (29%). The resonances of protons obtained in the integrated region 3.0–
4.0 ppm are due to the aromatic ring-joining methylene groups (7%). CH3, CH2, CH proton present in alpha or
further from an aromatic ring resonates in the range 1.5–3.0 ppm (19%). Theregion between 0.5-1.5 ppm
corresponds to protons of alkane groups present in the compounds. The protons between 0.5 and 3.0 ppm
corresponds to the aliphatic protons (27%)

Table 6:1H NMR results of bio-oils of DBLS

Type of hydrogen Chemical shift (ppm) Total hydrogen (%)

Alkanes 0.5-1.5 7.53
Aliphatic α hetero atoms 1.5-3.0 19.86
Ring-join methylene (Ar-CH2-Ar) 3.0-4.0 7.21
Phenolic (OH) or olefinic proton 4.0-6.0 29.75
aromatics 6.0-9.0 14.01

1193
Fig 7: 1H NMR spectroscopy of bio-oil obtained at 500 °C at 40 °C/min heating rate

Concurrent analysis using GC/MS was performed for quantification of compounds present in liquid fraction.
Since lignin is the major constituents of woody biomass, therefore, black liquor contains almost 22% by weight
of lignin fraction. On conversion into liquid product reveals that the black liquor contains a variety of aromatic
and long chain aliphatic compounds were identified. Some major compounds are toluene, naphthalene, cresol,
guaiacol, vanillin, p-hydroxy benzaldehyde etc result from thermal decomposition of lignin and reformation of
the lignin-derived constituents.

4. Conclusion
The bio-oil yield was maximum at 500°C temperature with the heating rate of 40°C/min. It has H/C
atomic ratio of 1.57 with a heating value of 29.86MJ/kg. The study showed that temperature has a significant
effect on the distribution of products yield. When temperature increases the char yield decreases and it leads to
higher yield of gases and liquids. The content of carbon increases with increase in temperature while oxygen
and hydrogen content decreases. The study showed that the bio-char with high carbon content has high calorific
value and was suitable as energy source. The pH of bio-char also found to increase with increasing temperature.
It has been found that char obtained at 40°C/min has more pH then the char obtained at 10°C/min heating rate
irrespective of four terminal temperatures. The SEM image showed the morphological structure of the DBLS
biochar at different magnification and was found to be heterogeneous in nature. Bio-chars from the pyrolysis
process were found to be highly basic in nature. They may be potentially used in the agricultural soils of north
eastern region of India for liming, where the soil is predominantly acidic in nature. The present study confirms
DBLS as a suitable feedstock for pyrolytic conversion to biooil and biochar.

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[7] A. Demirbas, Recovery of oily products from organic fraction of black liquor via pyrolysis, Energ Source, 30(2008)1849–1855.

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1195
Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag–TiO 2 hybrid nanostructures prepared by a facile wet
chemical method

Jaspal Singh1 and Satyabrata Mohapatra1*

1
University School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka, New

Delhi 110078, India.

*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 11 25302414, E-mail: jaspal2125@gmail.com , smiuac@gmail.com,

Abstract: In this work we developed Ag nanoparticles modified TiO 2 nanoparticle aggregates for sun light
driven photocatalysis by a facile wet chemical method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron
microscopy (FESEM), Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and UV-visible absorption
spectroscopy were used to study the structural, optical, and photocatalytic properties of the hybrid
nanostructures. The photocatalytic activities of the Ag-TiO 2 hybrid nanostructures were examined in the
degradation of methylene blue and methyl orange dyes in water under sun light. We found that the Ag-TiO 2
nanostructures prepared with highest silver concentration exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity. The
results indicated that decoration with Ag nanoparticles is responsible for the higher photocatalytic activity of
Ag-TiO 2 hybrid nanostructures as it improves the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes. The
mechanism of photocatalytic activity of Ag-TiO 2 nanostructures is tentatively proposed.

Keywords: Ag-TiO 2 , Nanostructures, Photocatalysis, Methylene Blue, Methyl orange.

1196
 INTRODUCTION
Recent advancement in synthesis of metal oxide nanostructures have provided wide application in environment
remediation, water purification, and water disinfection [1-4]. Among different metal oxide semiconductors, TiO 2
has proven to be the most promising material for environmental applications due to its outstanding optical
chemical and electrical properties[5,6]. which gives excellent ability of degradation of organic
pollutant[7].However, the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO 2 is substantially limited due to wide band-gap energy
(3.2 eV) which typically requires exposure in ultraviolet light. When TiO 2 is exposed under the UV light, the
electron in the valance band jumps to the conduction band and create conduction band electron and valance band
hole. However these conduction band electron and valance band hole recombine with each other and generates
light or heat. The high rate of recombination of photogenerated electron-hole in the TiO 2 is responsible for the
low quantum yield which results decrease in photocatalytic efficiency. The photocatalytic activity can be
enhanced by various methods such as doping with non metal ions, surface sensitization and decorating with
metal nanoparticles[8,9]. Decoration with the metal nanoparticles (Ag, Au, Pt) is one of the promising methods
to reduce the rate of charge recombination in TiO 2 and increase the photocatalytic activity[10-12]. Metal
nanoparticles were act as a electron reservoirs which help to reduced the recombination rate in TiO 2 matrix. The
noble metal nanoparticles can forming a Schottky barrier on the surface of TiO 2 effectively enhance the charge
carrier separation.
In the present article we report a facile way to obtain the highly efficient Ag-TiO 2 nanostructure. The
photocatalytic activity of Ag-TiO 2 nanostructure was carefully investigated by the degradation of two organic
dyes methylene blue and methyl orange under the natural sun light irradiation.

Figure: Kinetics of photocatalytic degradation of (a) methylene blue and (b) methyl orange dyes in water using
as-synthesized Ag-TiO 2 hybrid nanostructures with different Ag concentration as photocatalysts.

From the photocatalytic experiments it was found that 97 % degradation of MB within 60 min and 93 %
degradation of MO within 40 min was achieved by Ag-TiO 2 nanostructures under sun light illumination

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are thankful to Srikanth and Gurpreet for their help during XRD and Raman measurements,
respectively. The authors are grateful to Prof. S. Annapoorni for extending the facility for PL measurements. SM
is thankful to Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi for providing XRD facility under the
Nano Mission program. JS gratefully acknowledges the support from UGC, New Delhi in the form of Maulana
Azad National Fellowship.

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1197
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1198
 ICAER-2015

CFD AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON A

CYCLONE SEPARATOR PERFORMANCE FOR
FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIER

N. P. Shaha, Dr. V. N. Singhb, Mr. B J. Duttc

a
Student, ME-Thermal engineering, A D Patel Institute of Technology, New V V Nagar-388120, Gujarat, India.
b
Professor and Head, Mechanical engineering, A D Patel Institute of Technology, New V V Nagar-388120,
Gujarat, India.
c
Assistant professor, Mechanical engineering, A D Patel Institute of Technology, New V V Nagar-388120,
Gujarat, India.
Tel: (+91) 9428491282, Email:nikhil_shah2141992@yahoo.com

Abstract:
Cyclone separator is a stationary mechanical cleaning device. Objective of the present study involves development
of experimental cyclone model for fluidized bed gasifier. An experimental model developed in laboratory and
investigation was performed on a laboratory scale model of a gas cyclone separator. The cyclone separator design
is stairmand high efficiency cyclone separator and experiment investigations on the flow field characterization and
collection efficiency of the Stairmand cyclone separator. The barrel diameter D = 190mm and all other dimension
are define from barrel diameter. Approach of CFD modeling in ANSYS Fluent 15.0 has been employed to simulate
the three dimensional, unsteady turbulent gas solid flows in a cyclone separator. The effect of the tangential
velocity on the performance and flow field pattern has been investigated computational fluid dynamic using the
Reynolds stress turbulence model for fluidized bed gasifire. Collection efficiency of cyclone separators has been
numerically investigated using the Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSTM).
Key Words:
Cyclone separator, Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSTM), Experimental model, Collection efficiency.

1. Introduction

Cyclone separator is used for the separate fluid and solid particles from fluid mixture or fluid solid mixture
under the influence of centrifugal and gravitational forces. In cyclone separator swirl turbulent flow is used to
separate liquid and solid phase with different density. The flow enters nearby the top of the cyclone through the
tangential inlet, which gives rise to an axially descending spiral of gas and a centrifugal force field that causes the
incoming particles to concentrate along, and spiral down the inner walls of the cyclone separator and collected the
dustbin located at the bottom of the conical section of the cyclone body. The cleaned gas are exit through the
vortex finder at the top. Swirl and turbulent flow are the two opposite phenomenon in the separation process. First
swirl induces a centrifugal force on the solids phase which is the motivating force behind the separation process
and turbulence included the solid particles and improve the possibility that particles get collected in the exit stream.
Both are connected to the particle size, and the flow conditions in the cyclone separation.
Gas solid cyclones separator are widely used in industries to separate dust or west from gas or for product recovery
because of its geometrical easiness, relative economy in power usage, flexibility and more efficient. While the
cyclone separator is simple and robust mechanical cleaning devices but the complexity of the gas solid flow pattern
in cyclone separator of many experimental and theoretical works. As for the theoretical work, computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) codes have proven to be a useful tool for simulating cyclonic flows. The tangential velocity and
particle size affected the flow pattern and performance of cyclone.

Nomenclature

D Cyclone Body diameter (m)

De Diameter of gas (vortex finder) exit (m)
Dd Diameter of the dust outlet (m)

1199
 g Acceleration of gravity
H Cyclone height of inlet
Lb Length of body (m)
Lc Length of cone (m)
P Pressure (N/m2)
S Length of the vortex finder (m)
∆t Time step
ui Instantaneous velocity
ʋi Gas inlet velocity
ʋr Radial gas velocity
ʋt Tangential gas velocity
W Cyclone width of inlet (m)
x Particle size in cyclone
X 50 Cut size of the cyclone
Greek letter
ƞ Total collection efficiency
ρg Gas density (kg/m3)
ρs Solid density (kg/m3)
µ Dynamic viscosity (kg/m s)
µt Turbulent eddy viscosity (kg/m s)
Abbreviations
CFD Computational fluid dynamics
TRANS Simulation of the transient Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
URANS Simulation of the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
LES Large eddy simulation
FBG Fluidized bed Gasifier
RSM Reynolds Stress Model

2. Experimental set-up description

An experimental model developed in lab and investigation was performed a laboratory scale model of a gas solid
cyclone separator for fluidized bed gasifier. The experimental set up is schematically shown in the Fig.1. The
Cyclone separator was made of MS body diameter 190mm and total height 1005mm. Mixture of gas solid particle
was supplied top of the cyclone inlet with the help of blower. The cyclone separators along with the ash bin were
provide to reduce the particulates in the producer gas. The cyclone separators along with the ash bin were provide
to separate particle and reduce the particulates in the producer gas.

1200
 Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of Experimental setup

2.1 Experimental Procedure

Starting stage 1kg of talcum powder and 1kg of ash filled in reactor. When air velocity applied through
centrifugal blower and velocity 14.6 and 11 m/s supplied through blower talcum powder-air and ash-air
mixture carried on and enter the cyclone separator tangential inlet. Cyclone and turbulence will be created in
cyclone separator. Which time to be noted 4 minute to completed separation.

3. Description of the numerical method

3.1 Mathematical model

3.1.1 Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations

The most applicable turbulent model for cyclone flow is Reynolds stress turbulent model (RSTM). The fluid
flow in gas cyclones separator may be assumed as unsteady, isothermal and incompressible turbulent flow.
The Reynolds averaged equations for conservation of mass and Navier–Stokes equations without body forces
can be expressed as in Equation (II) and (III), when the instantaneous velocity u i is decomposed into its mean
Ui and fluctuation u’ i as given in Eq. (I).
′
= + , (1)

= 0, (2)

′ ′
+ = − + �2 𝑖𝑖 − 𝜌𝜌 �, (3)
Where x i is position, t is time, ρ is the constant gas density, P is the mean static pressure, µ is the molecular
gas viscosity, 𝑖𝑖 = − , , is the Reynolds stress tensor and S ij is mean strain rate tensor such that S ij is
mean strain rate tensor such that
1 𝑈𝑈 𝑈𝑈
𝑆𝑆 𝑖𝑖 = ( + ).
2 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥

3.1.2 Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSTM)

The RSTM Solves the transport equations of all the six independent component of Reynolds stress tensor
derived from Navier-Stokes equations. The transport equation of RSTM model written as
𝑖𝑖 𝑖𝑖 𝑈𝑈 𝑈𝑈 𝑖𝑖
+ = − 𝑖𝑖 − 𝑖𝑖 + 𝑖𝑖 − ∐ + [ + 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 ] (4)
𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥
Where
, ,
,
𝑖𝑖 =2 + is dissipation tensor, ∐ = + is pressure-strain correlation tensor and 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 =
𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥
, ,, , ,
+ 𝑗𝑗 +
,
𝑗𝑗 is turbulent-transport tensor. Here p is the fluctuating pressure and is the
Kronecker delta. The pressure–strain correlation redistributes the turbulent kinetic energy amongst the normal
components of Reynolds stress tensor and is expected to be significant for high swirl flow inside gas cyclones.
The linear pressure–strain model along with wall reflection effects was applied to model this term.
2
𝑖𝑖 = 3 𝜌𝜌 𝑖𝑖 (5)
Where the scalar dissipation rate is obtained from a model transport equation as
𝜖𝜖 𝑈𝑈 𝜖𝜖
+ = 1 𝑖𝑖 − 1 + [� + � ] (6)
𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥
2
, , 𝑖𝑖 1
Where 𝑡𝑡 = is eddy viscosity and = is the turbulent kinetic energy. However, if the value of
𝜖𝜖 2
turbulent kinetic energy is required at the boundary, it is determined from the transport equation of k as
𝜕𝜕 𝜕𝜕 𝑈𝑈 𝜕𝜕
+ = 𝑖𝑖 − + [� + � ] (7)
𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥 𝑥𝑥
The model coefficient in this equation are C €1 = 1.44, C €2 = 1.92, σ € = 1.0, C µ =0.09 and σ k = 0.82[3]

3.1.3 Discrete phase model equations

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In this study, the Euler-Lagrange approach for discrete phase modeling has been applied. The air was treated
as a continuum by solving the trapped Navier-Stokes equation. The discrete phase is solved by trapping a
large number of particles through the calculated flow field. Hence, the particle-particle interactions and the
effect of discrete phase on constant phase can be safely ignored in the simulation of cyclone separator. The
trajectory of a dispersed particle can be determined by integrating the force balance equation on the particle
in the Lagrangian reference frame.

3.2 Design of cyclone separator

The cyclone design is stairmand high efficiency cyclone experimental investigations on the flow field
characterization and collection efficiency of the Stairmand cyclone separator. The barrel diameter D =
190mm. All other dimension are define from barrel diameter illustrate Table 1.

Table 1
Detail of cyclone separator configuration used in this study a
D H W De S Lb Lc Dd

190 95 38 95 95 285 475 71.25

a
The cyclone separator barrel diameters D was 190 mm corresponding to experimental studies

3.3 Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Method

The investigation was performed cyclone separator and effect different parameter on the behaviour discuss
which are efficiency of cyclone separator, gas inlet velocity. The effect of modeling of velocity fluctuations
on the prediction of collection efficiency of cyclone separators has been numerically investigated using the
Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSTM). The Eulerian–Lagrangian modeling approach of CFD code Fluent
has been employed to simulate the three dimensional, unsteady turbulent gas–solid flows in a Stairmand high
efficiency cyclone. In cyclone investigation air was continuous flow and particle were spread inside the
cyclone. Then, the trajectories of the particles were determined by tracking a large number of spherical
particles through the converged flow fields of the continuous phase by Lagrangian particle tracking using one
way coupling method via discrete phase model.

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 Fig 2 Schematic and grid representation of the cyclone considered

3.4 Meshing

In numerical simulation is the proper placement of nodes in the computational domain are very important. In
this study, multi-block structured hexahedral grids were generated in the entire domain of the cyclone
separator Fig 2 Shows the outline of the generated grid used in this study. The essential features of the grid
should be observed, firstly the grids have been setup so that they are parallel to the flow direction in the entire
computational domain.

3.5 Boundary conditions of cyclone

An equal velocity corresponding to the air flow rate or velocity was identified inlet face it called velocity inlet
boundary condition. In this study the inlet velocities of 11 and 14.6 m/s taken to the experimental study in
stairmaned high efficiency cyclone separator. An overflow boundary condition was applied at the outflow and
a no-slip boundary condition was at wall boundaries. The air viscosity of 1.7894E-05 kg/m s and density of
1.225 kg/m3 and Talcum powder and ash density are 2700 kg/m3 and 670 kg/m3 respectively. The pressure
velocity coupling algorithm scheme used SIMPLE and the first order up winding (FOU) scheme for Reynolds
stresses were implemented in the RSTM. The particle parameters used in this numerical simulation for
corresponding with experimental data are given in Table 2.

Table 2 Particle parameters used in the simulation and experiment present investigation.

Material Inlet velocity Density Mean Diameter

Talcum Powder 11 2700 5µm

Talcum Powder 14.6 2700 5µm

Ash 11 670 5µm

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 Ash 14.6 670 5µm

Whereas turbulence at the inlet was declared by specifying turbulent intensity I as 10% and turbulent length
scale ls as hydraulic diameter 4A/P, Where A and P are inlet area and perimeter, respectively. Reynolds
stresses at the cyclone inlet were specific by the assumption of isotropic turbulence in RSTM model i.e. the
shear stresses as zero and normal stresses as 2k/3. The particle diameters between from 1 to 7 μm were injected
from the cyclone inlet for talcum powder particle.

3.6 Simulation manoeuvre

The solution of the cyclone setup was start first steady solver using the RSTM model in 2500 iterations and
start exhibit periodical residual oscillations. Then after the Transient options were enabled and a fixed time
step size of 0.001 s was employed in simulation of the cyclone. The solution converged are each time step
with present scaled residuals of 1* 10-4 as convergence criterion for continuity, energy, etc. The simulation
with RSTM technique was carried out until the flow becomes statistically steady. The converged flow field
obtained from the RSTM technique was used as initial solution. The simulation with RSTM technique was
carried out until the flow becomes statistically steady. The simulation was run until the monitored facet
average static pressure both at the inlet and overflow became stable and constant.

The CFD simulation on an Intel Core i7 @ 3.40 GHz processor with 4 GB RAM and 1 TB Hard drive memory.
RSTM model required for one setup around 90 and 100 h processing time.

4. Results and discussion

4.1 Particle flow pattern

4.1.1 The effect of tangential velocity on collection efficiency

The phenomenon that the tangential velocity inlet with the increase of collection efficiency was found in
experiment investigation. In cyclone separator two material used for experimental analysis with two different
inlet tangential velocity. Talcum powder and ash both material analysis when velocity 11 m/s and 14.6 m/s.
From experimental investigation talcum powder separation efficiency high compare to ash material. Illustrate
Fig. 3 it can be seen that the tangential velocity increase with the increase of collection efficiency in both case.

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 Fig 3 Experimental results and simulation results

4.1.2 Particle trajectories

Illustrate figure are that different trajectories path line inside the cyclone separator. When particle size and
tangential velocity were changed particle path line are different in cyclone separator. Talcum powder and ash
in both path line are different when tangential velocity is same. Figure 5 and 6 are illustrate talcum powder
trajectories particle size 1µm and 3 µm when tangential velocity 11m/s and 14.6 m/s respectively.

(I) (II)

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 Fig 4 Particle trajectories with residence time (second) at different particle diameter 1µm and 3µm talcum
powder 11m/s and 14.6 m/s velocity respectively

(I) (II)
Fig 5 Particle trajectories with residence time (second) at different particle diameter 0.5µm and 1µm ash
11m/s and 14.6 m/s velocity respectively

4.1.3 The effect of particle diameter on residence time

Figure 9 illustrate change in position inside cyclone with respected to time(s). It can be seen from this figure
that the trajectory of the biggest particles (red) concentrates in the upside of the cone, and the trajectory of the
lowest particles (green and blue) is in the downside of the cone. The other three sized particles are largely in-
between the two extremes. Here figure 10 shown as ash particle density less compare to talcum powder
therefore particle flow fast in the cyclone separator. Talcum powder and Ash particle position show with
different time(s).

Fig. 6 Animation if particle flow talcum powder 11 m/s with respect to time.

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 Fig. 7 Animation if particle flow ash 11 m/s with respect to time

4.1.4 Comparison of velocity profile for different inlet velocity for talcum powder

In simulation the contour of dimensionless velocity magnitude and tangential velocity profile predicted by
using RSTM in vertical plane difference between 11m/s and 14.6m/s velocity for material is talcum powder.
The tangential velocity profile at section shown where tangential velocity increase with radius then after
reaching its high point the velocity decreases with radius in the cyclone. The maximum tangential velocity
may reach twice in cyclone separator.

Fig. 8 Contour of velocity magnitude, tangential velocity for talcum powder at 11m/s and 14.6 m/s velocity

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 Fig. 9 Contour of velocity magnitude, tangential velocity for ash at 11m/s and 14.6 m/s velocity

4.1.5 Total Pressure

Fig. 10 Contour of total pressure for talcum powder at 11m/s and 14.6 m/s velocity

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 Fig. 11 Contour of total pressure for ash at 11m/s and 14.6 m/s velocity

4.1.5 Validation of experimental result with simulation result

Figure 12 shows experimental and simulation results of talcum powder. In experimental collection efficiency
is 85% to 88% when velocity 11 m/s and 14.6 m/s respectively. In simulation analysis collection efficiency
is 97% to 99% when velocity 11 m/s and 14.6 m/s respectively. Also Figure 12 Illustrate collection efficiency
increase in both experimental and simulation when cyclone velocity is increase. Particle size increase
separation efficiency increase. Figure 12 shows experimental and simulation results of ash. In experimental
collection efficiency is 83% to 84% when velocity 11 m/s and 14.6 m/s respectively. In simulation analysis
collection efficiency is 95.88% to 99% when velocity 11 m/s and 14.6 m/s respectively. Also Figure 12
Illustrate collection efficiency increase in both experimental and simulation when cyclone velocity is increase.
Density of material increase performance of cyclone separator increase.

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 Fig. 12 Validation experimental results with simulation results.

5. Conclusion

 In talcum powder when tangential velocity increase 11m/s to 14.6m/s collection efficiency increase 85%
to 88.3% respectively.
 Particle density also effect collection efficiency.
 When particle size increase cyclone separator collection efficiency increase.
 In Ash tangential velocity increase efficiency also increase but comparison talcum powder not drastically
change.
 In computation fluid dynamic analysis when tangential velocity increase velocity fluctuation inside the
cyclone separator.
 Inlet velocity increase then cyclone performance increase.
 Analysis in CFD particle size change 1µm to 7µm then particle efficiency increase in talcum powder.
Particle size effect the on efficiency but particle size 1µm to 3µm drastically change in efficiency.

6. Acknowledgments

I am very thankful to the A. D. Patel Institute of Technology, New V. V. Nagar-388121 Providing of the
Research Fund.

7. References

1. W. P. Martignoni,S. Bernardo and C. L.Quintani, “Evaluation of cyclone geometry and its influence on
performance parameters by computational fluid dynamics (CFD)” (Brazilian Journal of Chemical
Engineering 24 (2007) 83-94).

1210
2. Giulio Solero, Aldo Coghe, “Experimental fluid dynamic characterization of a cyclone chamber”
(Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 27 (2002) 87-96).
3. Sujeet Kumar Shukla, Prashant Shukla, Pradyumna Ghosh, “The effect of modeling of velocity
fluctuations on prediction of collection efficiency of cyclone separators” (Applied Mathematical
Modelling 37 (2013) 5774–5789).
4. Mi-Soo Shin, Hey-Suk Kim a, Dong-Soon Jang “A numerical and experimental study on a high efficiency
cyclone dust separator for high temperature and pressurized environments” (Applied Thermal
Engineering 25 (2005) 1821-1835).
5. David Leith, Dilip Mehta, “CYCLONE PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN” (Atmospheric Environment
Pergamon Press 7 (1972) 527-549).
6. Cristobal Corteis, Antonia Gil, “Modeling the gas and particle flow inside cyclone separators” (Progress
in Energy and Combustion Science 33 (2007) 409–452).
7. Bingtao Zhao, “Development of a new method for evaluating cyclone efficiency” (Chemical Engineering
and Processing 44 (2005) 447–451).
8. Khairy Elsayed, Chris Lacor, “The effect of cyclone inlet dimensions on the flow pattern and
performance” (Applied Mathematical Modelling 35 (2011) 1952–1968).
9. Khairy Elsayed, Chris Lacor “The effect of cyclone vortex finder dimensions on the flow pattern and
performance using LES” (Computers & Fluids 71 (2013) 224–239).
10. K.W. Chu, B.Wang, D.L.Xu, Y.X.Chen, A.B.Yu, “CFD–DEM simulation of the gas–solid flow in a
cyclone separator” (Chemical Engineering Science 66 (2011) 834-847).
11. Hesham M. El-Batsh “Improving cyclone performance by proper selection of the exit pipe” (Applied
Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 5286-5303).
12. B. Wang, D.L. Xu, K.W. Chu, A.B. Yu, “Numerical study of gas–solid flow in a cyclone separator”
(Applied Mathematical Modelling 30 (2006) 1326-1342).
13. Khairy Elsayed, Chris Lacor “The effect of the dust outlet geometry on the performance and
hydrodynamics of gas cyclones” (Computers & Fluids 68 (2012) 134–147).

14. Gujun Wan, Guogang Sun, Xiaohu Xue, Mingxian Shi “Solids concentration simulation of different size
particles in a cyclone separator” (Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94–104).

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 ICAER-2015

Design and development of downdraft gasifier to generate

producer gas
Nikhil Ashok Inglea,Sanjay Shridhar Lakadeb
a
PG Student, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, University of Pune, Pune, India
b
Head Of Mechanical Engineering Depatment, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, University of Pune, Pune, India

Abstract

Utilization of waste is the need of hour today. The waste which cannot be degraded by bio-chemical route like agricultural
waste, wood waste can be converted into useful fuel through the process called Gasification. Gasification is a thermo-
chemical process which converts solid biomass into a mixture of combustible gases that can be used in various applications.
In this project, a prototype of downdraft gasifier is designed and developed of 20 KWthcapacity for generating producer gas
for fulfilling heating requirement of a heat treatment furnace. Wood blocks of varying sizes are used as a feed stock in the
gasifier. The performance characteristics of the gasifier are studied at different air flow rates. A reduction in the overall cost
for replacing fuel oil and LPG is estimated. Performance of gasifier with other feed stocks such as agricultural waste
briquettes is checked and their results are compared. It is found that wood block of size less than 50mm has higher calorific
value of 3.978 MJ/Nm3 and when coconut shells are mixed with wood, the calorific value obtained is highest i.e. 4.865
MJ/Nm3.
Keywords:Biomass; gasifier; producer gas; performance.

1. Introduction

The use of wood to provide heat is as old as mankind, but by directly burning the wood we only utilize about
one-third of its energy. Two-thirds is lost into the environment with the smoke. Gasification is the method of
collecting the smoke and its combustible components. The laws which govern combustion processes also apply
to gasification. The solid biomass fuels suitable for gasification cover a wide range, from wood and paper to
peat, lignite and coal. All of these solid fuels are composed primarily of carbon with varying amounts of
hydrogen, oxygen and impurities such as sulphur, ash and moisture. Thus, the aim of gasification is the almost
complete transformation of these constituents into gaseous form so that only the ashes and inert materials
remain. [1]
Biomass can be formed from living species like plants and animals. Biomass does not take millions of year to
develop unlike fossil fuels. Every year, vast amount of biomass grow through photosynthesis by absorbing CO2
from atmosphere. When it burns, it releases the CO2 that the plants had absorbed from the atmosphere recently.
Thus, the burning of biomass does not make any net addition to the earth’s carbon dioxide levels.Gasification is
the thermochemical phenomenon in which chemical transformation occurs along with the conversion of energy.
In a sense, gasification is a form of incomplete combustion. Heat from the burning solid fuel creates gases which
are unable to burn completely, due to insufficient amounts of oxygen from the available supply of air.
In the gasification process, solid biomass is broken down to produce a combustible gas by the use of heat in
an oxygen-starved environment. Heat for gasification is generated through partial combustion of the feed
material. The resulting chemical breakdown of the fuel and internal reactions result in a combustible gas usually
called "producer gas" [1]. The main combustible gases are H2 and CO, but small amounts of methane, ethane
and acetylene are also produced. Overall gasification efficiency is generally dependent on the specific gasifier
used, fuel type, fuel moisture content and fuel geometry. Fuel gas from air blown gasifier has low calorific value
(around 5MJ/m3) and fuel gas from oxygen fed gasifier has a medium calorific value (10 – 20 MJ/m3). This gas
can either be used on site to produce heat, electrical or mechanical energy or can be converted into substitute
like methane and methanol.
The main objective of the present work is to design and develop a down draft gasifier that uses wood as a
feed stock to generate producer gas which will help to fulfill heating requirement for heat treatment furnaces. An
experimental study [2] was carried out on a 75kW downdraft biomass gasifier system to obtain temperature
profile, gas composition, calorific value and trends for pressure drop across the porous gasifier bed, cooling-
cleaning train and across the system as a whole in both firing as well as non-firing mode. In the reactor, both gas
and biomass feedstock move downward as the reaction proceeds. While biomass flows because of gravity, air

1212
was injected with the help of a blower. Experiments were conducted to obtain fluid flow characteristics of the
gasifier and also to obtain the temperature profile in the reactive bed, the gas composition and calorific value.
An experimental study was carried out on producer gas generation [3] from wood waste in a downdraft
biomass gasifier. They used sesame wood or rosewood as biomass. They observed that biomass consumption
rate decreased with an increase in the moisture content and it increased with an increase in the air flow rate. The
performance of the biomass gasifier system was evaluated in terms of producer gas composition, the calorific
value of producer gas, gas generation rate, zone temperatures and cold gas efficiency. Thermocouples were
placed inside the gasifier at different locations to measure the temperature of various zones of gasifier. They
found the producer gas composition using gas chromatograph.
The paper [4] showed that the thermo-chemical reaction in gasification may vary with varying parameters
and the size of biomass. For a particle size below 1mm diameter, thermo-chemical reaction shows a sharp
increase in the fuel conversion which could be used in conventional entrained flow gasifier. A reduction in the
fuel particle size led to an improvement in the gas quality and thus to a higher producer gas heating value.
Maximum fuel conversion was obtained for the smallest particle size tested (0.5mm). The thermo-chemical
characterization of the char-ash residue showed that as the fuels particle size was reduced, the release of volatile
matter during pyrolysis stage along with particle carbonization, gradually increased, which suggest that pyrolysis
reaction took place to a great extent. For fuel particle size of 1mm, the reaction of char gasification became more
relevant which contribute in the improvement of conversion of fuel and the composition of producer gas. It is
necessary to cool biomass-based producer gas to ambient temperature, and clean it of tar and particulates before
it could be used as a fuel. The unit gave a clean gas with tar and dust content below the limit of 150 mg/nm3 as
long as the inlet gas tar and dust content was below about 600 mg/Nm3. The system was being tested to supply
gas to a dual-fuel engine, and solve any operating problems in this application. It was developed further to study
its maintenance requirements, and increase the number of hours of continuous use of the sand filter with no
operator attention. The system was mainly developed for small scale gasifier–engine system applications. It can
be scaled up to larger sizes to provide a compact unit. The scale up can be done by increasing the cross-sectional
areas of the various beds and the water flow rate in proportion to the producer gas flow rate.

Nomenclature

LDO light diesel oil

FO Fuel oil
SSF Specific Solid Flow
CV Calorific value

2. Experimental Method

2.1. Experimental Setup

The setup was built in company named DECK INDIA Engineering Pvt. Ltd. Fig 1 shows the schematic of
the downdraft gasifier. It consists of hopper, reactor, grate, ash handling system, air blower. The hopper is made
up of MS material with 650 mm OD and 500mm ID. It is used to hold the biomass into it. The biomass is fed
through hopper into the reactor. The reactor is a cone shaped cylinder made up of SS 304 material in which the
actual reactions take place. The gas is generated in this region and then comes out from the bottom. The feed
material is held on grate also made of SS 304. The remaining ash is collected in the ash pond. Air blower of 1
Hp motor with variable air flow rates is used to provide sufficient quantity of air for combustion. Three air
nozzles are provided at 120º each.

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 Fig1. Schematic of gasifier

Table 1Specifications of the different components of the gasifier

Gross Dimensions

Height 1900 mm Diameter 650

mm

Hopper ID 500 mm Height 800 mm

OD 650 mm

Reactor Throat Diameter Height 750 mm

200mm

Nozzles Diameter 12.5 Nos. 3

mm

Grate Diameter 330 Nos. 1

mm

Ash Pond Diameter 650

mm

2.2 Experimental Procedure

In the present work K type thermocouples, hot wire anemometer is used to measure temperature and velocities
respectively. Gas analyser is used to measure the constituents of the gas. In this work, first the feedstocks used
are wood pellets of sizes 100-150 mm, then of size 30-50 mm, and agricultural waste of 70-80 mm.
At the cold start phase, the gas produced initially is of low quality and so it is released to the atmosphere.
When the reactor temperature reaches near to 500º C-600º C, sample of gas is checked for the quality. Near
about half an hour is required at the initial stage to get a good quality gas continuously. After that the air
velocity is checked and maintained for optimum performance.

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 Fig 2. Experim
mental setup of gasiifier

2.3 Processs Technology

The combuustible substan nce of a solid fuel
f is usually composed of elements
e carboon, hydrogen and
a oxygen. Thhe
producer gas
g is formed by b the partial combustion
c of solid biomass in a vertical fl
flow packed beed reactor. In thhe
conventionnal theory of producer gas, gasification reaction takess place in fouur zones. Theyy are oxidatioon,
reduction, pyrolysis andd distillation zo ones. The Gassification proceess technologyy is based on production off a
highly commbustible gas by b controlled reeactions of Bioomass viz. ricee husk, wood, palm
p nut shell etc. with air annd
water vapoour. A numberr of chain chem mical reactions are believed to take place in the gas gennerator from thhe
bottom to the
t top, a propeer mixture of air
a water vapouurs pass throug gh channel free compact fuel bed b ensuring thhe
following reactions
r to takke place.
• Oxidation
O Zonee: In the oxiddation zone, thhe oxygen in the air-stream m reacts with the carbon annd
hyydrogen in the fuel to reducee carbon and hyydrogen to form m carbon dioxxide and water. Carbon dioxidde
is obtained from m carbon and water
w is obtained from the hyddrogen in the fuuel.
C + O2 = CO2 (+3393 MJ/kg molle) (1))
2H2 + O2 = 2H2O (-24 42 MJ/kg molee) (2))
• Reduction
R Zonee: The partial combustion prroducts CO2, H2O obtained from oxidatio on zone are noow
paassed through reduction zonne. Here CO2 aand H2O are reduced to form m carbon monnoxide (CO) annd
hyydrogen (H2) by b absorbing heat
h from the oxidation zon ne. Oxidation zone raise thee temperature of
reeduction zone to t promote thee carbon/steam m gasification reaction
r whichh has higher acctivation energgy.
Thhis reaction reequires tempeerature of 9000C and abovee. Over 90% of CO2 is redduced to CO at
teemperatures above 900ºC. It is i an endotherm mic reaction.
C + CO O2 = 2CO (- 1664.9 MJ/kg molle) (3))
C + H2O = CO + H2 (- ( 122.6 MJ/kg mole) (4))
C + 2HH2O = CO2 + 2H H2 (-88 MJ/kg mole) (5))
CO + H2O = CO2 + H2 (+42 MJ/kg mole) (6))
C + 2HH2 = CH4 (+75 MJ/kg
M mole) (7))
• Pyyrolysis zone:
In pyroolysis zone, upp to the temperature of 2000 0C only water is driven off anda between thhe
teemperature 20000C to 2800C carbon dioxidde, acetic acid and water are given off. Thhe real pyrolysiis,
sttarts between 2800C
2 to 50000C, produces laarge quantitiess of tar and gasses containing carbon dioxidde.
Besides light tarrs, some methyyl alcohol is allso formed. Between 5000C tto 7000C the gas g production is
smmall and contaains hydrogen. From the reason mentioned above, updraft ft gasifier produuces much moore
taar than downd draft one becau use in downdrraft gasifier th he tars have too go through combustion annd
reeduction zone anda are partiallly broken downn.

1215
 • Distillation zone:
In the distillation zone, raw fuel like tar is preheated and carbonized giving of condensable
and non-condensable gases.

2.4 Composition of Gas : Though for different biomass fuels, there may be little variation in gas composition as
well as the heating value, the gas composition and calorific value in general are as follows :-
CO2 = 8 ~ 10%, O2 = Less than 1.0%, CO = 24 ~ 26%,
CH4 = 1.5 ~ 2%, N2 = 54 ~ 56%, H2 = 10 ~ 12%.
CV. (Gross) = 1200 ~ 1250 kCal/Normal cubic meter
Sp. Gravity = 0.92
Yield of Gas: 2.0 ~ 2.5 Normal cubic meter per kg of biomass.

2.5 Economic Benefits

• Fuel saving: Switching from furnace oil to biomass generates fuel Replacement of 6588 kg per month
of furnace oil with 22 tonnes of wood consumption in gasifier monthly.
• Electricity saving: The new Biomass Gasifier would save 150 units of electricity per month.
• Reduction in other losses: The combustion of producer gas is a more efficient process than burning
furnace oil. It reduces the amount of wastage in fuel while performing the process.
• Monetary benefits: The monetary benefits of the unit are mainly due to the lower price of wood chips
compared to furnace oil. This amounts to monetary savings of Rs. 75000 /month. A detailed estimate
of the saving has been provided in the table 2 below:

Table 2Energy and monetary benefit

Sr. No Parameter Value
1 Amount of FO used in furnace (kg/hr) 9.15
2 Amount of FO used in furnace (kg/month) 6588
3 Calorific value of FO(MJ/kg) 42.3
4 Cost of FO (Rs/kg) 35
5 Cost of FO in present system (Rs/month) 2,30,580
6 Amount of wood required by gasifier (kg/hr) 30
7 Amount of wood required by gasifier 22,204
(kg/month)
8 Cost of wood (Rs/kg) 7
9 Cost of wood for the gasifier (Rs/month) 1,55,433
10 Monetary saving (Rs/month) 75,147
11 Total investment cost (Rs in Lakhs) 1.75 – 2.25
12 Return on investment (months) 4-6

• Reduction in effluent generation: There would be less effluent generation since there would less fuel
burned in the furnace.
Producer gas burns more cleanly than furnace oil and produces less ash. The ash produced from wood could be
used for fertilizers. Moreover, the generation of dross is reduced due to better temperature regulation.
• Reduction in GHG emission: The measure helps in reducing CO2 emission. The sustainable use of
biomass as fuel would have zero net emission of CO2 into the environment.
• Reduction in other emissions like SOX: Significant amount of SOX will be reduced due to application of
the bio-gasification process. The corresponding SOX emission would also be reduced.

3. Results and discussion

Experiments were carried out to find out the composition of gas for various feed materials. Also the optimum
velocity at which the maximum CV of the fuel will be obtained is found out.

3.1 Effect of Grate design

Grate design is of much importance in designing of gasifiers. Grate is a component which holds the biomass
material in it. Grate design and spacing has direct impact on the generation of gas. The gap between rods
governs the flow of material downward into the ash pond. Here two different grate designs are tested and the
suitable one is adopted. The comparison among the two is done based on the performance and gas quality.

1216
 Fig. 3(aa) Grate with gap 24
2 mm (b) Grate with
w gap 12 mm

Fig 3a shows
s the gratee used for the wood blocks oof size more thhan 50 mm andd for biomass briquettes.
b It has
gap of 24 mm
m between eache rod. This gap
g ensures thhat the ash formmed by this feeedstock goes sm
moothly througgh
the grate without
w any choocking. Fig 3b shows the graate having gap of 12 mm. In this grate, it was
w very difficuult
to keep thee feed flow uniform as there was chockingg. This grate was only suitablle for wood bloocks of size leess
than 40 mmm.

3.2 Gas coomposition of various feedsttocks

Effect of
o various feedsstocks on the composition
c off gas is obtainedd and comparisson is done. Teests were carrieed
out using three
t kinds of feedstock, woood pellets, biom mass briquettees, and wood pieces.
p The resuults are depicteed
in Fig 4. The
T graph show ws variation off percentage of
o gas constitueents on verticaal axis and gass constituents on o
horizontal axis. It is obseerved that the COC and H2 conntent are higheest in the gas frrom wood piecces of size 30-550
mm with coconut
c shells added
a to it. Thhese CO and H2 contents are responsible forr the calorific valve
v of the gaas.
Agriculturaal waste briqueette has lowest content of COO and H2.

F 4. Gas compossition of various feeedstock

Fig

3.3 Effect of air velocity on CO contennt

Figures 5a and 5b deppicts the effecct of air velociity on CO con ntent. As the ccalorific value of gas is mucch
dependent on CO contennt, it is conveenient to plot variation of velocity
v with CO
C contain. Graph
G shows thhe
percentagee of CO on verttical axis and velocity
v on horrizontal axis. Itt is observed thhat CO contentt is highest at air
a
velocity off 2.9 m/s for wo
ood material. Similarly
S air veelocity of 3.88 m/s is optimum m for biomass material.

1217
 Fig
g 5a.Effect of air velocity
v on CO conntent for wood Fig 5b. Effect of air veloccity on CO contennt for biomass

3.4 Compaarison of wood

d with coconut shells

It was founnd that wood blocks

b of smalller sizes the 500mm diameterr are the most suitable for thiis gasifier. Aftter
this the reaadings on cocoonut shells mixxed with woodd were taken. Coconut
C shellss have much higher
h contain of
fixed carboon in it near abbout 75%. So iti was found thhat the compossition of produucer gas was evven higher in H2
and CO containt than thee wood alone. The
T calorific vaalue obtained isi 4.865 MJ/Nm m3 .

Fig. 6 Compaarison of calorific values

4. Conclussions

A downndraft gasifier is
i designed andd experimentall study has beeen carried out tto produce the required qualiity
of gas. Following conclusions are madee from the expeerimental studyy and is detaileed below:
• Woodd pieces of size 30-50 mm aree best suitable aas a feedstock than t of the sizee greater than that.
t
• Caloriific value of gaas from wood blocks
b of 100-1150mm size is 3.213 MJ/Nm3.
• Caloriific value of gaas from biomasss briquettes is 2.447 MJ/Nm3.
• Caloriific value of gaas from wood blocks
b of <50m mm size is 3.978 MJ/Nm3.
• Caloriific value of gaas from coconuut shells mixed with wood is CV= C 4.865 MJJ/Nm3
• Woodd has more caloorific value than n agricultural bbiomass briqueettes as it has more
m CO and H2 content.
• When coconut shellss are mixed in wood
w its caloriific value increeases.
• Air veelocity of 2.9 m/s
m is optimum for wood and air velocity off 3.88 m/s is opptimum for biom mass briquettees.

Acknowledgment

The Autthors would liike to thank Mr.M D. K. Salunnkhe, MD of DECK

D INDIA
A Engineering Pvt.
P Ltd. for his
h
valuable suupport in manuufacturing the gasifier.
g

1218
References

[1] ParbirBasu, “Biomass Gasification, Pyrolysis, and Torrefaction, Practical Design and Theory”, Dalhousee University and Greenfield
Research Incorporated, Academic Press, Boston, 2013.
[2] Jan Venselaar, “Design rules for downdraft gasifier”, Institute of Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, August 1982.
[3] Sharma K.A. Experimental study on 75 kWth downdraft (biomass) gasifier system, Renewable Energy, 34 (2009), pp. 1726-1733.
[4] ShethN.Pratik, Babu V.B. Experimental studies on producer gas generation from wood waste in a downdraft biomass gasifier,
Bioresource Technology, 100 (2009), pp.3127- 3133.
[5] Mohamed Ali Masmoudi, M. Sahraoui, N. Grioui, K. Halouani, “2-D Modeling of thermo-kinetics coupled with heat and mass transfer
in the reduction zone of a fixed bed downdraft biomass gasifier”, Renewable Energy, vol. 66 (2014), pp. 288-298.
[6] S. J. Ojolo ,J. I Orisaliye, "Design and development of a laboratory scale biomass gasifier", August 31, 2010.
[7] N. Striugas, K. Zakarauskas, R. Paul, “An evaluation of performance of automatically operated multi-fuel downdraft gasifier for energy
production”, Applied thermal engineering, 73 (2014), pp. 1151-1159.

1219
 ICAER-2015

Preservation of Sand and Building Energy Conservation

Avijit Ghosh1,*, Surajit Gupta2, Arup Ghosh2, Subhasis Neogi3
1
Maintenance Division, CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata
2
Refractory Division, CSIR-Central Glass and Cer amic Research Institute, Kolkata
3
School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Abstract :Due to developmental need of humankind, growing trend of energy generation and consumption
results more and more Green House Gas emissions, which contribute significantly to the phenomena of Climate
Change and Global Warming. The issue is further compounded by huge ash generation from thermal power
plants. Judicious utilization of such waste in a greener way is another challenge. It is estimated that by 2030,
40.8% of Indian population shall be living under Urban environment , and huge no. of dwelling units would be
required. Sand, being one of the conventional constituent of Concrete, and also the non-renewable soft mineral,
is being mined mindlessly across the Globe. The energy consumed by building sector is around 40% of global
energy use. HVAC load is the major contributor in overall energy profile in buildings situated under Hot &
Humid climatic zones in tropical countries. Solar heat gain is resulted through building envelope, and the
conventional concrete and plastered masonry surfaces contribute significantly to the same. An experimental
work has been carried out to produce sustainabl e energy efficient concrete with Portland Pozzolana Cement,
Sand, Coal Ash from Thermal Power Plant, Stone aggregate and water. Test samples are prepared with
reducing quantities of Sand and increasi ng quantities of Coal Ash for a Design Mix Concrete. While
chara cteristic strength of concrete could be achieved with replacement of Sand by Coal Ash, thermal
conductivity value of concrete is reduced, while compared with normal concrete of same Mix.

Keywords : Sand , Energy , F l y ash , Bo t tom Ash, The rmal conduc t i v i t y

1. Introduct ion

1.1 Climate change and effect of thermal energy generation

Human activities are influencing the climate and the trend in recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse
gases is found to be the highest. Fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes together attributed around 78%
of total Green House Gas (GHG) emission’s increase during the period from 1970 to 2010. Considering the
global scenario, population increase and economic growth are the two key contributors in CO2 emission from
fossil fuel combustion. [1] Coal based thermal power plants contribute around 65% of the total electricity
generation in India, and the ash content in the coal used in Indian thermal power plants vary between 25-45%
[2]. Considering various sectors (Transport, Industry, Cooking, Building, Telecom, Pumps and Tractors) from
electricity demand point of view in India, Building Sector demand is projected to touch 2287 TWh in 2047 from
a figure of 238 TWh in 2012 (around 49% of total electricity demand shall arise from Building sector alone).
The projected total installed capacity of Coal based power stations shall stand at 333 GW, which will generate
around 1963 TWh of electricity in 2047 . [3].

1.2 Coal as h generatio n and its impact

In India, 130 Coal based power plants are producing around 165 M.T. of ash per year [4]. The pulverized
coal when burnt, produces ash in the category of flay ash 80% and bottom ash (coarser variety) 20% [5]. The
effective disposal of fly ash is a critical proposition. Fly ash is being used widely as constituent of Portland
Pozzolanan Cement, as Building Blocks / Bricks, Landfill and Embankment constructions, and to some limited
extent for agriculture purpose. Disposal of ash in slurry state in low lying areas / dumping yards cause leaching

*Corresponding Author.Tel.(+91) 33 24730615

Email : avijit@cgcri.res.in

1220
and serious ground water pollution in adjoining areas. It also create a state of suspended respiratory particulate
matter under dry state in the air, which is extremely hazardous for human health.

1.3 Sand, a major constituent of concrete and masonry in construction industry

With the above projection in Building Sector, huge quantities of concrete would be required, and as a natural
consequences, sand, one of the key ingredient would also be required in justified proportions. With the mindless
sand mining from the river bed, ecological balances are disturbed in the form of depletion in ground water table,
lesser availability of water for agricultural, industrial and drinking purposes, destruction of agricultural land,
damage to roads and bridges etc.[6].

1.4 Other works and Energy conservation

P. Aggarwal et al. [7] had investigated about the effect of bottom ash in concrete, as partial replacement of
fine aggregate component. Dan Ravina et al. [8] had studied the role of Class F fly ash in properties of concrete
as partial replacement of fine sand. Kadam et al. [9] had made an experimental study to see the effects of coal
bottom ash as fine aggregates in place of sand in varying proportions in concrete and various physical
parameters viz. Compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, density, water
permeability etc. were noted. Fine aggregate replacement by low Calcium ash in plain concrete, and the
resultant effect on mechanical properties of concrete was studied by Siddique et al.[10] Deo et al. [11] had
undertaken long term comparative study on concrete mix design procedure for fine aggregate replacement by fly
ash with the help of Minimum Voids Method and Maximum Density Method. . Rajamane et al. [12] had
evolved formulation with respect to prediction of compressive strength of concrete when sand is replaced by fly
ash. Demirboga et al. [13] had noted the influential effect of mineral admixtures on thermal conductivity and
compressive strength of mortar. To address the issues listed at 1.1-1.3, reduction in sand content and replacing
the same by coal bottom ash can be proved beneficial from energy conservation point of view.

2. Experi menta l Stu dy

2.1 Considerations

In the present research work, a comparison has been made with normal concrete and sand replaced by coal
bottom ash concrete from strength point of view and heat conductivity point of views respectively.. In the
experimental study, the mix has been designed as per IS Code, and the proportions of various ingredients have
been arrived at accordingly.
A cement concrete design mix of arrived proportion was considered. Bottom ash concretes with bottom ash
as sand replacement with varying proportions were undertaken. Samples were prepared for each proportion and
were tested to find out the compressive strength at 7 Days, 28 Days and conductivity values respectively.
Change in conductivity value with changed proportion of bottom ash as sand replacement were noted.

2.2 Materials for experiment

Cement used was Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) from commercially available brand, complying with IS
1489 (Part.1) : 1991 [14], Fly ash (FA) / Bottom ash (BA) conforming IS 3812 (Part 1) : 2003 [15], Sand,
and10 mm down aggregate conforming to IS 383 : 1970 (Reaffirmed 2002) [16] and potable water were used
for this work.

Table 1 Chemical composition of PPC, FA & BA

Chemical constituent Portland Pozzolana Cement Fly ash Bottom ash

SiO2 32.38 54.07 60.71

Al2O3 10.21 26.73 25.86

Fe2O3 3.97 6.87 6.81

CaO 41.67 0.97 0.89

1221
 MgO 1.49 0.7 0.63

Na2O 0.32 0.39 0.38

K2O 1.25 1.86 1.28

TiO2 0.71 2.56 1.97

SO3 3.73 0.71 0.15

LOI 3.21 3.74 0.92

Free Moisture 0.96 0.28 0.14

Table 2 Sp. Gravity values of PPC, FA, BA, Sand and Coarse aggregate
Description PortlamdPozzolana Fly ash Bottom ash Sand Coarse
Cement aggregate

Sp. Gravity 3.15 2.43 2.46 2.65 2.70

Specific gravity test was performed following IS 1122-1974 (Reaffirmed 2003) [17]

2.3Mix Calculations done as per IS 10262 : 2009[18] , the steps are described broadly, a s below -

Target strength for Mix :f′ck = fck + 1.65 s (1)

f’ck= target average compressive strength at 28 days, fck = characteristic compressive strength at 28 days, ands =
standard deviation.

Selection of Water-Cement Ratio – From Table 5 of IS 456: 2000 [19],

Selection of Water & Cement content –
From Table-2 of IS 10262, Maximum Water content for 10 mm aggregate is taken and Cement content is
calculated accordingly.
Selection of Sand content – Corresponding to W/C& Workability (Applicable for Concrete grade up to M 35)
,according to IS 10262.
Adjustment of values in Sand content & Water content , as applicable –
Entrapped Air content is considered as per IS 10262 .
Determination of Coarse & Fine aggregate content was possible by solving Equations 2 and 3 below–

C 1 fa 1
V= W+ + ∙ ∙ (2)
Sc p Sfa 1000
C 1 Ca 1
V= W+ + . . (3)
Sc 1-p Sca 1000

Where, V = absolute volume of fresh concrete = gross volume (1 m3) minus the volume of entrapped air, Sc=
specific gravity of Cement, W = mass of water (kg) per m3 of Concrete, C = mass of Cement (kg) per m3 of
Concrete, P = ratio of fine aggregate to total aggregate by absolute volume, fa , Ca = total masses of fine
aggregate and coarse aggregate (kg) per m3 of Concrete respectively, and Sfa , Sca = specific gravities of
saturated surface dry fine aggregate and coarse aggregate respectively.
Solving Equations (2) and (3), the Mix proportion becomes -
C : f a : C sa :: 1 : 1 . 5 : 2 . 5
By repeating the above steps, but without adjustment in Sand Or Water Content, the Mix proportion worked out
C : f a : C sa :: 1 : 1 . 6 : 2 . 4

1222
2.4 Pre parati on of Samples and Testing

Concrete samples with above proportion was prepared as Controlled one, and thereafter reducing the Sand
content by 10% in each successive mix, and replacing the same by bottom ash of equal weight . Conductivity
value (k) was measured for samples of above Mix by Hot Disk [20], based on Transient Plane Source
Technique.
Two inches Concrete cubes were prepared for determination of compressive strength at 7 days and at 28 days
respectively as per IS 516 – 1959 (Reaffirmed 2004) [21]. The Compressive strength of concrete cube samples
were tested under compression loading in Universal Testing Machine.
Samples of size 50 mm by 50 mm and thickness 25 mm / 12 mm were used to determine thermal
conductivity value by Transient Plane Source (TPS) method. This is one of the most precise and less time
consuming techniques for studying thermal transport properties. The method uses transiently heated plane
sensor, which consists of an electrically conducting pattern in double spiral shape, etched out of a thin Nickel
foil. The spiral remains in between two thin layers of insulating material -Kapton, Mica etc. The Hot Disk
sensor is fitted between two identical sized samples, each one with a plane surface, touching the sensor. Electric
current of pre-determined value is passed to increase the temperature of the sensor, and simultaneously
recording the resistance increase as a function of time.

Fig.1 Thermal Conductivity Test Set up

Table 3 Details of Concrete Mixes

Sl. Identification Remarks

of Mix

1. CC Controlled Concrete
with Cement, Sand,
Aggregate and Water for
Mix 1:1.6:2.4.

2. D-1 Having 10% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix.

3. D-2 Having 20% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

4. D-3 Having 30% of Sand

quantity replacement by

1223
 Ash, for same Mix

5. D-4 Having 40% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

6. D-5 Having 50% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

7. D-6 Having 60% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

8. D-7 Having 70% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

9. D-8 Having 80% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

10. D-9 Having 90% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

11. D-10 Having 100% of Sand

quantity replacement by
Ash, for same Mix

Fig.2 Graphical presentation about variations in Compressive Strength of different Concrete Mixes.

1224
Fig.3 Graphical presentation about variations in Thermal Conductivity (k) values of different Concrete Mixes.

Similarly Cement- Sand and Cement – Fly ash / Cement – Fly ash – Lime Mortar Mix proportions were also
studied, and “k” value reduction results were obtained.

Table 4 Details of Mortar Mixes

Sl. Identification Remarks

of Mix
1. A1 Cement : Sand is 1:6, Grade
MM3
2. A2 Cement : Sand is 1:4, Grade
MM5
3. A3 Cement : Fly ash is 1:6.
4. A4 Cement : Fly ash is 1:4.
5. A5 Cement : Fly ash : Lime =
1:3:3
6. A6 Cement : Fly ash : Lime =
1:2:2

1225
.

Fig.4 Graphical presentation about variations in Compressive Strength of different Mortar Mixes

Fig.5 Graphical presentation about variations in Thermal Conductivity (k) values of different Mortar Mixes.

1226
3. Results an d di scussions

From the graph in Fig.2, it may be observed that from compressive strength point of view, samples marked
CC to D 3, have attained more than M-25 strength at 28 days curing condition and D 4 sample has attained M 20
strength at 28 days curing conditions respectively. D 5 and D 6 samples have attained more than M 15 strength
at 28 days curing condition and M 20 strength at 90 days curing conditions respectively. D 7 to D 10 samples
have attained more than M 10 strength at 28 days curing condition and M 12 strength at 90 days curing
conditions respectively.
From the graph in Fig.3, it may be observed that ,for 40% replacement case (D 4) , thermal conductivity
value has been reduced by around 35%, for 60% replacement case (D 6), thermal conductivity value has been
reduced by 36.5% , and for 100% replacement case (D 10), thermal conductivity value has further been reduced
by around 51%. All are compared with the base case sample (CC).
Similarly, from the graph in Fig.4, it is observed that samples marked A 3 and A 4, both attained compressive
strength values at 28 days curing conditions around M 3 and M 5 respectively, which conforms to IS 2250 :1981
(Reaffirmed 2000) [22]. For mixes with marking A 5 and A 6, the compressive strength values at 28 days curing
conditions are around M 4 and M 5.5 respectively. Compressive strengths for samples marked A 1 and A 2 for
28 days curing conditions are also shown.
From the graph in Fig.5, it is observed that for cement- sand mortar with 1:6 proportion (A 1) is compared
with cement - fly ash with same proportion (Sample mark A 3), and found the same with 46% lesser
conductivity than the base case sample (A 1). Cement - sand mortar with 1:4 composition (Sample mark A 2) is
compared with cement - fly ash identical composition (Sample mark A 4). It is observed that the thermal
conductivity value is reduced by 61% than the base case sample (A 2).

4. Energy impact out of this f inding

Considering a room size of 3m by 4m in plan dimension, and outside room temperature as 400C (exposed to
direct Solar radiation) and inside electro-mechanically controlled temperature as 250C, and thermal conductivity
of screed concrete layer of 25 mm in the base case scenario (Cement : Sand : Stone aggregate :: 1:1.6:2.4) for
sample CC and for Ash concrete sample D 6, the conductive heat gain through the exposed roof are worked out
as 10879 Watts and 6913 Watts respectively. For a 8 hour use room under controlled temperature condition and
considering 26 working days in a month, the difference in energy quantity is worked out as 825 kWh. The
corresponding monthly saving in monetary term is Rs.6930.00 (@ Rs.8.40/- per kWh) , and CO2 emission
avoided shall be in the tune of 660 kg monthly at the user end.

5. Conclus ion

From the above experimental data, it may be concluded that by replacing sand with Coal ash, natural soft
mineral can be preserved, and the water table balance can be ensured. Further, Energy Conservation in Building
industry is possible up to a considerable extent, by reducing Solar heat ingress through Building envelope, and
resultant reduction in mechanical cooling load.

Ackn owledgement
Prof. Indranil Manna, former Director of CSIR-CGCRI (current Director of IIT-Kanpur) immensely
encouraged and permitted initially to undertake such work for Ph.d. study. Dr. K. Muraleedharan, present
Director of the Institute kindly permitted to submit the full paper for ICEAR-2015. The Colleagues in Material
Characterization Division and Refractory Division of the Institute also helped , without which various
experimental tests would not have been possible to carry out.

Refere nces
[1] Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers.
[2] Ujjwal Bhattacharjee, Tara Chandra Kandpal, Potential of fly ash utilization in India, Energy 27 (2002) 151-
166
[3] India Energy Security Scenarios 2047 ; niti.gov.in
[4] Fly ash scenario in India by R.K.Joshi, Scientist D, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. Of India.
[5] Indian fly ash : Production and consumption scenario, Internat .J. Waste Resources, Vol.3 (1) 2013:22-25,
Md Emamul Haque ISSN 2252-5211. http:/ / www.ijwr.co
[6] M. Naveen Saviour, Environmental impact of soil and sand mining : a review, , International Journal of
Science, Environment and Technology, Vol.1, No.3, 2012, 125-134.

1227
[7] P. Aggarawal, Y. Aggarwal, S. M.Gupta, Effect of bottom ash as replacement of fine aggregate in concrete,
Asian journal of Civil engineering (Building and Housing) Vol.8, No.1 (2007) Pages 49-62.
[8] Dan Ravina, Properties of fresh concrte incorporating a high volume of fly ash as partial fine sand
replacement, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions, Vol. 30, October 1997, pp 473-479.
[9] M.P.Kadam, Dr.D.Y.Patil, Effect of coal bottom ash as sand replacement on the properties of concrete with
different w/c ratio, International Journal of Advanced Technology in Civil Engineering, ISSN : 2231-5721,
Volume 2, Issue 1, 2013.
[10] Effect of fine aggregate replacement with Class F fly ash on the mechanical properties of concrete, Rafat
Siddique, Cement and Concrete Research 33 (2003) 539-547.
[11] A.D.Pofale and S.V.Deo, Comparative long term study of concrete mix design procedure for fine aggregate
replacement with fly ash by Minimum Voids Method and Maximum Density Method, KSCE Journal of Civil
Engineering (2010) 14 (5) : 759-764.
[12] N.P.Rajamane, J.Annie Peter, P.S.Ambily, Prediction of compressive strength of concrete with fly ash as
sand replacement material, Cement and Concrete Composites 29 (2007) 218-223.
[13] Ramazan Demirboga, Influence of mineral admixtures on thermal conductivity and compressive strength of
mortar, Energy and Buildings, 35 (2003) 189-192.
[14] IS 1489 Part 1 (1991) Indian Standard Portland Pozzolana Cement – Specifications Part-1, fly ash based
(Third Revision)
[15] IS 3812 (Part 1) 2003 Indian Standard Pulveried fuel ash –Specification Part-1 for use as Pozzolana in
Cement, Cement mortar and Concrete (Second Revision)
[16] IS 383 1970 (Reaffirmed 2002) Indian Standard Specification for Coarse and Fine Aggregates from Natural
Sources for Concrete (Second Revision).
[17]IS 1122 1974 (Reaffirmed 2003) Indian Standard Method of test for determination of true specific gravity of
natural building stones (First Revision)
[18]IS 10262 : 2009 Indian Standard Concrete Mix Proportioning – Guidelines (First Revision)
[19] IS 456 : 2000 Indian Standard Plain and Reinforced Concrete – Code of Practice (Fourth Revision)
[20] Hot Disk Thermal Constants Analyser (Hot Disk TPS2500)
[21] IS 516 : 1959 (Reaffirmed 2004) Indian Standard Methods of tests for strength of concrete .
[22] IS 2250 :1981 (Reaffirmed 2000) Indian Standard Code of practice for preparation and use of masonry
mortars (First Revision).

1228
 ICAER-2015

Optimal Placement of DG in Distribution network for Power

loss minimization using NLP & PLS Technique
P. Vijay Babua & S.P. Singhb
a
Research scholar, bProfessor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, UP,221005, India

Abstract

A new application of General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) software has been reported in this paper to determine the
load flow solution for both radial and mesh distribution network. With interfacing of GAMS and MATLAB, optimal sitting
and sizing of Distributed Generator (DG) in radial/mesh distribution systems is efficiently done in order to reduce power
loss and improvement of voltage profile in distribution systems. The results are obtained on IEEE 33-bus and IEEE 69-bus
radial distribution systems and also compared with other existing methods. The test results demonstrate that the proposed
method produced comparable results in respect of loss reduction, improvement in voltage profile and computational time.
Keywords: Radial/mesh distribution system; GAMS; Distributed Generator.

1. Introduction

Distribution networks are either radial or weakly meshed. High R/X ratio of distribution system causes more
power losses and voltage drop. Large amount of total power losses in power system occurs in Distribution
system. Power loss minimization plays a crucial role for economic operation and energy cost reduction. There
are many ways to reduce the losses such as like capacitor placement, Distributed Generation placement, load
management and network reconfiguration. A thorough description of the state-of the- art models and
optimization methods applied to the optimal DG placement problem, analyzing and classifying current and
future research trends was presented in [1].

Nomenclature

n total number of nodes (buses)

br total number of branches
Vi ,V j voltage at ith node and jth node respectively
Rij , X ij resistance and reactance of branch connected between ith node and jth node respectively
i ,  j voltage angle at ith node and jth node respectively
Plij , Qlij active and reactive power loss in branch connected between ith node and jth node respectively
Sij apparent power flow in a branch connected between ith node and jth node
Pgi , Qgi active and reactive power generation at ith node respectively
Pdi , Qdi active and reactive power demand at ith node respectively
Pgimax , Qgimax maximum generation limit of active and reactive power at ith node respectively
min min
Pg i , Qg i minimum generation limit of active and reactive power at ith node respectively
max max
Vi , i maximum limit of voltage and voltage angle at ith node respectively
min min
Vi , i minimum limit of voltage and voltage angle at ith node respectively
max
S ij maximum apparent power flow limit in a branch connected between ith node and jth node
Pj , Qj active and reactive power injection at jth node respectively
Ploss , Qloss , Sloss , active, reactive and apparent power loss in the system
Pdg j , Qdg j DG active and reactive power injection at jth node respectively
max max
Pdg i , Qdg i maximum limit of DG active and reactive power demand at ith node respectively
min min
Pdg i , Qdg i minimum limit of DG active and reactive power demand at ith node respectively

1229
pfdgiup , pfdgilo upper and lower limit of power factor of DG at ith node

Several techniques have been recently proposed for the optimal placement of DG in a distribution system for
power loss minimization. These techniques involve analytical method [2-5], Genetic Algorithm (GA) [6],
Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) [7,8], Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) [9] and Simulated Annealing (SA)
[10].
In [2,3] for minimization of real power loss in a primary distribution network, proposed an improved
analytical (IA) expressions to determine the optimal size of different types of distributed generators at optimal
power factor for both single and multiple DG allocation in a distribution system. An analytical approach has
been presented in [4] to identify the location to optimally place single DG with unity power factor in radial as
well as meshed networks to minimize losses. However, in this approach, the optimal sizing is not considered. A
novel power flow solution method and also analytical method for optimal allocation of multiple DGs in
distribution system for loss reduction was proposed in [5]. Optimal location of DG based on exact loss formula
and optimal sizing of DG by GA was proposed in [6] to minimize power losses. Combination of GA and PSO
for optimal location and capacity of DG, considering multi- objective constraints like voltage stability, losses
and improved voltage regulations has been proposed in [7]. An approach for the multiple-DG planning was
proposed in [8], by using constriction factor based PSO. Minimization of power loss in a distribution system by
considering simultaneously network reconfiguration and DGs placement based on Harmony Search Algorithm
(HSA) has been presented in [9]. Simulated Annealing (SA) was used in [10] for optimal size of DGs and power
loss sensitivity factor (LSF) for optimal sitting. Comparison of different loss sensitivity methods for single DG
placement has been presented in [11]. However, this method does not consider the optimal power factor of DG.
A mixed-integer linear programming approach was proposed in [12] to solve the problem of optimal type, size
and allocation of DGs. In [13], a direct search approach was proposed for DG allocation in radial distribution
networks to reduce power loss. A novel hybrid combination of particle swarm optimisation (PSO), and
gravitational search algorithm (GSA) was introduced in [14] to solve the multi-objective index-based approach
for determining the optimal placement and size of multi-DG units in distribution system for power loss
reduction. However, search based techniques depends on tuning parameters. If these parameters are not carefully
chosen, these techniques lead to a sub-optimal solution. In [15] a two phase algorithm was proposed, in first
phase optimal location of DG and next phase optimal DG size were determined respectively.
However, many methods considered the minimization of real power loss but not reactive power loss. In this
paper, minimization of both real and reactive power loss has been considered. Proposed a new load flow solution
by GAMS software [19] can be easily applied for both radial and mesh distribution networks. Besides a new
algorithm for optimal placement of DG have been proposed, which is carried out in two phases. In first phase,
optimal location of DG is determined based on the Power Loss Sensitivity (PLS) and in second phase, optimal
size of DG has been obtained by CONOPT solver of GAMS, that solves Non-Linear programming (NLP).
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: section 2 describes about the General Algebraic
Modeling System (GAMS) software and its interface with MATLAB, proposed load flow solution and power
loss sensitivity (PLS). Section 3 presents algorithm for optimal placement of DGs. Section 4 portrays the case
studies results and discussions and along with some observations. Finally, Conclusion is presented in section 5.

2. Problem formulation

2.1. GAMS software and interfacing of GAMS and MATLAB

General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is a high-level algebraic modeling system for large scale
optimization. It is specifically designed for modeling linear, nonlinear and mixed integer optimization problems.
GAMS is a combination of a modeling system and a library of solvers and has its own programming language
syntax. It allows the user to write any optimization problem in the syntax of GAMS as shown in Fig.1. Any
optimization problem can be written in GAMS syntax, which is independent of the type of solver to be used to
solve it. This allows the user to solve and test a given optimization problem using several solvers from the
GAMS solvers library. Thus, if user wants to utilize different solvers, there is no need to remodel the problem.
Hence user can solve one model with several solvers and compare performances of algorithms based on their
results. GAMS solver is capable to solve up to millions of variables in a given optimization problem. First and
most important thing is modeling, in which formation of an accurate GAMS model for an optimization problem
is done, and then selects an appropriate GAMS solver to solve the model. Interfacing of GAMS and MATLAB
[20] is also necessary. It can be easily done as shown in Fig. 2. It has assists in following.

1230
 If user has developed a simulation program in MATLAB, which requires to solve a complex optimization
problem.
 For better demonstration of the results such as Matrix form or plot

Sets
Correspond to indices in a
ce
fa
er
problem
in
t MATLAB Ma
b tla
la b
Data
Can be: parameters, tables and at in
te
scalar M rfa
ce

Can be: free (-inf.+inf), +ve, -ve,

Variables
binary, integer
GAMS Input File GAMS Compilation GAMS Output File
(name.gms) (name.lst)
Equations Equalities and inequalities

Model &
LP,NLP,MIP,MINLP
Call Solver

Optimization Solver
Display Display of results

Fig. 1. Basic components of GAMS model Fig. 2. Structure of GAMS and MATLAB interface

2.2. Load flow solution by GAMS software

Minimization of both real and reactive power losses in the distribution system is the objective function
which is given in equation (1),

br br
Min F   Plij   Qlij (1)
ij 1 ij 1

Subjected to the following constraints

(i) Power flow Equations: The real and reactive power balance equations are taken as load flow constraints
as given in equation (2-3) at the node i respectively

n
Pi  Pgi  Pdi  VV
i 1
   
i j Gij cos  i   j  Bij sin  i   j   (2)

n
Qi  Qgi  Qdi  VV
i 1
   
i j Gij sin  i   j  Bij cos  i   j   (3)

Where i  1,2,........n
(ii) Limits of voltage: This includes minimum and maximum value limits of voltage at node the node i

Vi min  Vi  Vi max ; i  1, 2,......n (4)

(iii) Limits of voltage angle: This includes minimum and maximum value limits of voltage angle at node the
node i

imin  i  imax ; i  1, 2,......n (5)

(iv) Limits of Capacity of Distribution substation: This includes real and reactive power generation limit at
root node as represented in equation (6) & (7) respectively.

0  Pgi  Pgimax ; i  1( Root node) (6)

Qgimin  Qgi  Qgimax ; i  1( Root node) (7)

The constraints from equation (2) to equation (7) and objective function in equation (1) are needed to write in

1231
the form of GAMS syntax in the model to solve the load flow solution of a distribution system.
(v) Limits of Capacity of DG at optimal location: This includes real and reactive DG power generation limit
at node i other than root node can be represented as equation (10) & (11) respectively

Pdgimin  Pdgi  Pdgimax ; i  1( Root node) (10)

Qdgimin  Qdgi  Qdgimax ; i  1( Root node) (11)

(vi) Limits of power factor of DG at optimal location:

pfdgilo  pfdgi  pfdgiup ; i  1( Root node) (12)

(vii) Limits of branch power flow: This includes the maximum power flow in a branch ij which should not
exceed the thermal limit of that branch represented as

Sij  Sijmax ; ij  1,2,.......br (13)

In addition to above constraints, equation (10) to equation (13) are included in the GAMS model for
determining optimal DG size after selection of optimal location by using PLS technique, which is explained in
section 2.3.

2.3. Power loss sensitivity (PLS)

In this phase, Power Loss Sensitivity (PLS) is used to determine the potential nodes for DG placement [15,
20]. Thus reduce search space and computational burden.
Active Power Loss Sensitivity (APLS) of each node is obtained by differentiating power loss with respect to
active power injection at a node

Sloss Ploss Qloss 

 j 
Pj Pj Pj 
(14)
Sloss 2* Pj * Rij 2* Pj * X ij 
 j
Pj V j2 V j2 


Reactive Power Loss Sensitivity (RPLS) of each node is obtained by differentiating power loss with respect to
reactive power injection at a node

Sloss Ploss Qloss 

 j 
Q j Q j Q j 
 (15)
Sloss 2* Q j * Rij 2* Q j * X ij 
  j
Q j V j2 V j2 


PLS at each node can be calculated as

Ploss Qloss
Pj Pj
PLS= (16)
Ploss Qloss
Q j Q j

1232
 2* Pj * Rij 2* Pj * X ij
2
V j V j2
PLS= (17)
2* Q j * Rij 2* Q j * X ij
V j2 V j2

Node with higher PLS value is selected as potential nodes for DG placement. The algorithmic steps as discussed
in the section 2 are given in section 3 and the flow chart of the proposed method as explained in the previous
sections is shown in Fig. 3.

3. Algorithm for optimal placement of DG

The computational steps involved in finding the optimal DG location and size to minimize the total power
loss in distribution system are summarized as:
Step 1:Run the load flow program and obtain the base case total power losses.
Step 2:Obtain the Power Loss Sensitivity (PLS) at each node. Select the node having highest PLS factor as
optimal DG location.
Step 3:Transfer control parameters to GAMS by interfacing MATLAB with GAMS.
Step 4:Solve the optimal DG size using CONOPT solver of GAMS in GAMS software.
Step 5:Transfer all variables from GAMS to MATLAB.
Step 6:Print the results.

Start

Read System Data

Run the Load flow, calculate Ploss & Qloss

MATLAB
Obtain the Power Loss Sensitivity (PLS) at each node.
Select the node having highest PLS factor as optimal DG
location

Transfer control parameters to GAMS by interfacing

MaTLAB with GAMS

Solve optimal DG size using CONOPT solver of GAMS

GAMS

Transfer all variables from GAMS to MATLAB

MATLAB

Print the results

Stop

Fig. 3. Flow chart of proposed method

4. Results and Discussions

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Proposed Load flow solution by GAMS optimization tool has been
tested on several test systems, and then planning of optimal sitting and sizing of DG has been determined.

4.1. Validation of Proposed Load flow Solution by GAMS

Proposed Load flow solution is tested on both radial/ mesh distribution systems, which include 10-bus
system, 12-bus system, 15-bus system, 33-bus system, 69-bus system, and 85-bus system. The 33-bus, 69-bus
radial distribution system and 33-bus mesh distribution system load flow results are presented in this paper due
to limitation of pages.

1233
  33-bus radial distribution System

The first case study is a 100 kVA, 12.66 kV, radial distribution system; it has 33 buses and 32 branches. The
total load on 33-bus radial distribution system is 3.715+j*2.3 MVA [17]. The voltage profile, total active and
reactive power losses obtained by Proposed Load flow method is given in Table.1 and also compared with
existing direct approach method. Minimum voltage is 0.90377 p.u occurred at bus 18 and total active and
reactive power losses are 211 kW and 143.13 kVAR respectively. From results it can be observed that proposed
load flow solution gives accurate results in less computational time compared to direct approach method.

Table 1. Comparison of Proposed and Direct approach [21] method of Load flow solution for 33 bus radial distribution system

Direct approach [21] Proposed Direct approach [21] Proposed

Node Voltage Angle Voltage Angle Node Voltage Angle Voltage Angle
no (pu) (radian) (pu) (radian) no (pu) (radian) (pu) (radian)
1 1 0 1 0 18 0.90378 -0.012089 0.90377 -0.012107
2 0.99703 0.0002549 0.99703 0.0002377 19 0.9965 6.58E-05 0.9965 4.87E-05
3 0.98289 0.0016898 0.98289 0.0016728 20 0.99292 -0.0011032 0.99292 -0.0011204
4 0.97538 0.0028437 0.97538 0.0028268 21 0.99221 -0.0014411 0.99221 -0.0014582
5 0.96796 0.0040161 0.96796 0.0039992 22 0.99158 -0.0017962 0.99158 -0.0018134
6 0.94948 0.0023727 0.94948 0.0023557 23 0.97931 0.0011494 0.97931 0.0011323
7 0.94596 -0.0016709 0.94595 -0.0016881 24 0.97264 -0.0003994 0.97264 -0.0004165
8 0.9323 -0.0043498 0.9323 -0.0043672 25 0.96931 -0.0011622 0.96931 -0.0011793
9 0.92597 -0.0056502 0.92597 -0.0056677 26 0.94755 0.0030616 0.94755 0.0030447
10 0.9201 -0.0067632 0.92009 -0.0067807 27 0.94499 0.004042 0.94499 0.0040251
11 0.91923 -0.006634 0.91922 -0.0066515 28 0.93355 0.0054902 0.93354 0.0054734
12 0.91771 -0.0064293 0.91771 -0.0064468 29 0.92533 0.0068504 0.92532 0.0068337
13 0.91154 -0.0080551 0.91153 -0.0080727 30 0.92177 0.0086884 0.92177 0.0086718
14 0.90925 -0.0094564 0.90924 -0.0094741 31 0.91761 0.0072147 0.9176 0.0071979
15 0.90782 -0.010127 0.90782 -0.010145 32 0.91669 0.0068124 0.91669 0.0067956
16 0.90644 -0.010542 0.90643 -0.010559 33 0.91641 0.0066774 0.9164 0.0066606
17 0.90439 -0.011918 0.90439 -0.011936
Ploss 210.98 211 Qloss 143.02 143.13
Time(s) 0.061 0.047

 69-bus radial distribution System

The second case study is a 100 kVA, 12.66 kV, radial distribution system; it has 69 buses and 68 branches.
The total load on 69-bus radial distribution system is 3.8013+j*2.6936 MVA [18]. The voltage profile, total
active and reactive power losses obtained by Proposed Load flow method is given in Table.2 and also compared
with existing direct approach method. Minimum voltage is 0.90919p.u occurred at bus 65 and total active and
reactive power losses are 224.95 kW and 102.12 kVAR respectively. From results it can be observed that
proposed load flow method gives accurate results in less computational time compared to direct approach
method.

Table 2. Comparison of Proposed Method and Direct approach [21] method of Load flow solution for 69 bus radial distribution system for
selected nodes

Direct approach [21] Proposed Direct approach [21] Proposed

Node Voltage Angle Voltage Angle Node Voltage Angle Voltage Angle
no (pu) (radian) (pu) (radian) no (pu) (radian) (pu) (radian)
1 1 0 1 0 61 0.91235 0.019522 0.91235 0.019525
2 0.99997 -2.14E-05 0.99997 -2.14E-05 62 0.91206 0.01957 0.91206 0.019572
3 0.99993 -4.28E-05 0.99993 -4.28E-05 63 0.91168 0.019633 0.91167 0.019636
4 0.99984 -0.0001027 0.99984 -0.0001027 64 0.90978 0.019945 0.90977 0.019948

1234
 5 0.99902 -0.000323 0.99902 -0.000323 65 0.9092 0.020039 0.90919 0.020041
Ploss 224.87 224.95 Qloss 102.10 102.121
Time(s) 0.071 0.065

 33-bus mesh distribution System

Proposed load flow solution method is also easily adaptable for mesh distribution system, the third case study
is a 100 kVA, 12.66 kV, mesh distribution system; it has 33 bus, 32 branches and 5 tie lines. The total load on
33-bus mesh distribution system is 3.715+j*2.3 MVA [17]. The voltage profile, total active and reactive power
losses obtained by Proposed Load flow solution is given in Table 3. and also compared with existing direct
approach method. Minimum voltage is 0.95322p.u occurred at bus 32 and total active and reactive power losses
are 123.36kW and 88.44kVAR respectively. From results it can be observed that proposed load flow solution
gives accurate results in less computational time compared to direct approach method.

Table 3. Comparison of Proposed and Direct approach [21] method of Load flow solution for 33 bus mesh distribution system for selected
nodes

Direct approach [21] Proposed Direct approach [21] Proposed

Node Voltage Angle Voltage Angle Node Voltage Angle Voltage Angle
no (pu) (radian) (pu) (radian) no (pu) (radian) (pu) (radian)
1 1 0 1 0 29 0.96026 -0.0002875 0.96025 -0.0003199
2 0.99709 0.000249 0.99708 0.0002323 30 0.95702 0.000897 0.95701 0.0008602
3 0.98633 0.0009683 0.98632 0.0009489 31 0.9538 -0.0015297 0.9538 -0.0015766
4 0.98271 0.0010889 0.9827 0.0010691 32 0.95322 -0.0022479 0.95322 -0.002298
5 0.97933 0.0011687 0.97932 0.0011485 33 0.95341 -0.0027683 0.95341 -0.0028223
Ploss 123.357 123.36 Qloss 88.33 88.44
Time(s) 0.084 0.047

4.2. Distribution systems with DG

In this paper work, two types of DG are considered. Although proposed method can handle all types of DG, but
for comparison purpose the results of Type 1 and Type 3 are presented in this paper
 Type 1(operates at unity power factor): DG is capable of injecting real power only
 Type 3(operates at lagging power factor): DG is capable of injecting both real and reactive powers
The proposed method is compared with different methods, which are Exhaustive Load flow (ELF) [3],
Improved Analytical (IA) [3], Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming (MINLP) [15], Particle Swarm
Optimization (PSO) [8], Combined Power Loss Sensitivity (CPLS) [11], Voltage stability index (VSI) [16],
Novel Method (NM) [11] and Modified Novel method (MNM) [11] for DG placement.

 33 Bus system with DG

From Fig. 4. it is observed that 6th node is having high PLS factor, it means this node is most sensitive for
real and reactive power loss for 33 bus system, DG placement on this node is more beneficial to the system.

0.03 0.012

0.025 0.01

0.02 0.008
PLS
PLS

0.015 0.006

0.01 0.004

0.005 0.002

0 0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
Bus number Bus number

Fig. 4. PLS profile for 33-bus radial distribution system Fig. 5. PLS profile for 69-bus radial distribution system

1235
 a. DG Type 1:
Comparison of the proposed method and existing methods is shown in Table 4. Expect CPLS method,
optimal location of DG unit is same for all methods. Percentage loss reduction is same for all methods expect
CPLS and NM. However computational time required by the proposed method is less.

Table 4. Comparison of existing methods and proposed method with DG Type 1 for 33-bus system
Method Optimal Optimal DG Losses(kW) Loss Time (sec)
Location size (kW) Wodg/Wdg reduction(%)
ELF[3] 6 2600 211.2/111.10 47.39 1.06
IA[3] 6 2600 211.2/111.10 47.39 0.16
MINLP[15] 6 2590 211/111.01 47.38 0.09
PSO[8] 6 2590 211.2/111.10 47.39 ----
NM[11] 6 2494.8 210.98/111.14 47.32 ----
CPLS[11] 8 1800 210.98/118.12 44.01 ----
Proposed 6 2565.563 211.00/111.00 47.39 0.047

Wodg*-Without DG, Wdg*-With DG

b. DG Type 3:
Table 5, compares the existing methods and the propose method. Except in CPLS and MNM, optimal power
factor of DG by all methods is almost same. Proposed method yields almost same percentage loss reduction,
even though optimal DG size by proposed method is slightly less. It is observed that least percentage loss
reduction in case of CPLS method since optimal location and size with optimal power factor is not provided.
Computational time required by proposed method is less. However, computational time of remaining method is
not provided.

Table 5. Comparison of existing methods and proposed method with DG Type 3 for 33-bus radial system
Method Optimal Optimal DG size Total power Optimal Losses(kW) Loss Time (sec)
location. (kVA) Power Wodg/Wdg reduction(%)
kW kVAR
factor
IA[3] 6 2547.74 1778.33 3107 0.82 211.2/67.90 67.85 ----
MINLP[15] 6 2558 1761 3105 0.823 211/67.854 67.84 ----
PSO[8] 6 2558.12 1745.68 3097 0.8259 211.2/67.90 67.85 ----
MNM[11] 6 2710.17 1312.595 3011.3 0.9 210.98/70.9072 66.391 ----
CPLS[11] 8 1890 915.368 2100 0.9 210.98/84.472 59.962 ----
Proposed 6 2533.266 1749.361 3078.588 0.823 211/67.8 67.86 0.047

Wodg*-Without DG, Wdg*-With DG

 69Bus system with DG

Similarly as in 33 bus system, from Fig. 5. it is observed that 61st bus is having highest PLS factor, that
means this node is most sensitive for real and reactive power loss, DG placement on this node is more beneficial
to the system.

a. DG type 1:
Comparison of the existing methods and the proposed method is given in Table 6. Optimal location of DG
unit is same for all methods. Percentage loss reduction is slightly high by PSO method but in this method
computational time consume for solution is not provided. CPLS and Proposed method yields same percentage
loss reduction. However, CPLS consumes more computational time when compare to Proposed method, since
optimal DG size in CPLS method was determined by variation technique.

Table 6. Comparison of existing methods and proposed method with DG Type 1 for 69-bus system
Method Bus no. DG power (kW) Losses(kW) Loss Time (sec)
Wodg/Wdg reduction(%)
ELF[3] 61 1900 219.28/81.33 62.91 7.75
IA[3] 61 1900 219.28/81.33 62.91 0.28

1236
 MINLP[15] 61 1870 225.27/83.48 62.94 ----
PSO[8] 61 1806.2 219.28/78.74 64.09 ----
NM[11] 61 1832.536 224.88/83.19 63.00 ----
CPLS[11] 61 1850 224.88/83.15 63.02 ----
VSI[16] 61 1870 224.86/83.14 63.02
Proposed 61 1887.767 224.95/83.15 63.03 0.078

Wodg*-Without DG, Wdg*-With DG

b. DG Type 3:
Comparison of the existing methods and the proposed method is given in Table 7. In CPLS and MNM,
percentage loss reduction is almost same but less than other methods. Since, in these methods optimal power
factor is not provided. PM method yields slightly high percentage loss reduction and also consumes less
computational time.

Table 7. Comparison of existing methods and proposed method with DG Type 3 for 69-bus radial system
Method Bus DG power Total power Optimal Losses(kW) Loss Time (sec)
no. (kVA) Power factor Wodg/Wdg reduction(%)
kW kVAR
IA[3] 61 1839 1284 2243 0.82 219.28/22.62 89.68 ----
MINLP[15] 61 1828 1300 2244 0.815 225.27/23.31 89.65 ----
PSO[8] 61 1818 1250 2207 0.824 219.28/22.62 89.68 ----
MNM[11] 61 2013.0336 974.956 2236.704 0.9 224.88/27.38 87.82 ----
CPLS[11] 61 1980 958.95 2200 0.9 224.88/27.91 87.59 ----
VSI[16] 61 1814 1313.6 2240 0.81 224.86/23.12 89.71 ----
Proposed 61 1843.992 1311.221 2262.654 0.8149 224.95/23.12 89.72 0.078
Wodg*-Without DG, Wdg*-With DG

4.3. Results of minimum and maximum voltages

The impact of DG Type 1 and DG Type 3 on the minimum and maximum voltages in both the 33-Bus and
69-Bus distribution networks are shown in Table 8. In all the methods after placement of DG, the total losses
can reduce significantly while satisfying all the voltage and power constraints. However, percentage loss
reduction and improvement in voltage profile by Type 3 is more compared to Type 1. Since, optimal
deployment of both real & reactive powers from the DG operating at optimal power factor.

Table 8. Results of minimum and maximum voltages by different methods for 33-bus & 69-bus radial systems
Method 33 bus radial system 69 bus radial system
Minimum voltage (Bus no) Maximum voltage (Bus no) Minimum voltage (Bus no) Maximum voltage (Bus
no)
Type 1 Type 3 Type 1 Type 3 Type 1 Type 3 Type 1 Type 3
IA[3] 0.9425(18) 0.9575(18) 1.0000(1) 1.0007(1) 0.9692(27) 0.9732(27) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)
MINLP[15] 0.9424(18) 0.9584(18) 1.0000(1) 1.0010(1) 0.9682(27) 0.9724(27) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)
PSO[8] 0.9424(18) 0.9598(18) 1.0000(1) 1.0029(1) 0.9681(27) 0.9724(27) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)
NM & 0.9412(18) 0.9566(18) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1) 0.9685(27) 0.9728(27) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)
MNM[11]
CPLS[11] 0.9433(18) 0.9534(18) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1) 0.9685(27) 0.9726(27) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)
VSI[16] ----- ------ ------ ----- 0.9686(26) 0.9727(26) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)
Proposed 0.9420(18) 0.95788(18) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1) 0.9684(27) 0.9726(27) 1.0000(1) 1.0000(1)

5. Conclusion

This paper has presented a new application of GAMS software to perform load flow solution for both
radial/mesh distribution systems. A two-phase scheme is proposed. In first phase, sensitive candidate node are
selected as optimal DG location based on Power Loss Sensitivity (PLS) and second phase, optimal DG size is

1237
computed by using CONOPT solver of GAMS. The proposed method is tested on IEEE 33-bus and IEEE 69-
bus test systems. A comparative analysis also has been done with existing methods. It is observed that the
proposed method produced comparable results in respect of loss reduction, improvement in voltage profile and
computational time.

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support received by CPRI Bangalore, Ministry of Power,
Govt. of India, Under RSOP scheme to pursue this research.

References

[1] Georgilakis P. S., Hatziargyriou N. D., ‘Optimal Distributed Generation Placement in Power Distribution Networks: Models, Methods,
and Future Research’, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 2013;28(3), pp. 3420-3428.
[2] Hung D.Q., Mithulananthan N., Bansal R.C. ‘Analytical expressions for DG allocation in primary distribution networks’, IEEE
Transactions on Energy Conversion 2010; 25 (3), pp.814-820.
[3] Hung, D.Q., Mithulananthan N., Bansal R.C. ‘Multiple distributed generators placement in primary distribution networks for loss
reduction’, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2013; 60 (4), pp. 1700-1708.
[4] Wang Caisheng, Nehrir M.H. ‘Analytical approaches for optimal placement of distributed generation sources in power systems’, IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems 2004; 19 (4), pp. 2068-2076.
[5] Elsaiah S., Benidris M., and J. Mitra J. ‘Analytical approach for placement and sizing of distributed generation on distribution
systems’, IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution 2014; 8(6), pp. 1039-1049.
[6] Shukla, T.N., Singh, S.P., Srinivas Rao, V., and Naik, K.B. ‘Optimal sizing of distributed generation placed on radial distribution
systems’, Electric Power Components and Systems 2010, 38, (3), pp. 260–274.
[7] Moradi MH, Abedini M., ‘A combination of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization for optimal DG location and sizing in
distribution systems’, International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, 2012; 34, 66-74.
[8] Naveen J., Singh S. N., and Srivastava S. C., ‘A Generalized Approach for DG Planning and Viability Analysis Under Market
Scenario’, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 2013; 60(11), pp. 5075-5085.
[9] Srinivasa Rao R., Ravindra K., Satish K., and Narasimham S.V.L. ‘Power Loss Minimization in Distribution System Using Network
Reconfiguration in the Presence of Distributed Generation’, IEEE Transtions on Power Systems 2013; 28, pp. 317-325.
[10] Injeti Satish K., Prema Kumar N. ‘A novel approach to identify optimal access point and capacity of multiple DGs in small, medium
and large scale radial distribution systems’, International Journal Electrical Power and Energy Systems 2013; 45, pp. 142-151.
[11] Murthy V.V.S.N., Ashwani Kumar., ‘Comparison of Optimal DG Allocation Methods in Radial Distribution systems based on
Sensitivity Approaches’ , International Journal Electrical Power and Energy Systems 2013; 53, pp. 450-467.
[12] Rueda-Medina A.C., Franco J.F., Rider M. J., Feltrin A. P., and Romero R. ‘A mixed-integer linear programming approach for optimal
type, size and allocation of distributed generation in radial distribution systems’, International Journal Electric Power Systems
Research 2013; 97, pp. 133- 143.
[13] Vijay babu P., Dahiya R., ‘Direct search approach for multiple distributed generator allocation in radial distribution systems’, In
Proceedings of power india international conference 2014, pp. 1-6.
[14] Tan W. S., Yusri Hassan M., Rahman H. A., Md Pauzi Abdullah, Hussin F., ‘Multi-distributed generation planning using hybrid
particle swarm optimisation- gravitational search algorithm including voltage rise issue’, IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution
2013;7(9), pp. 929-942.
[15] Kaur S., Kumbhar G., Sharma J., ‘A MINLP technique for optimal placement of multiple units in distribution systems’, International
Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 2014, 63, pp. 609-617.
[16] Murthy V.V.S.N., Ashwani Kumar., ‘Optimal placement of DG in radial distribution systems based on new voltage stability index
under load growth’ , International Journal Electrical Power and Energy Systems 2015; 69, pp. 246-256.
[17] Kashem M. A., Ganapathy V., Jasmon G.B., Buhari M.I., ‘A novel method for loss minimization in distribution networks, in Proc.
IEEE Int. Conf. Elect. Utility Deregulation Restruct. Power Technology 2000, pp. 251-256.
[18] Baran, M.E., Wu, F.F. ‘Optimal sizing of capacitors placed on a radial distribution system’, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery 1989; 4 (1),
735-743.
[19] Brooke A., Kendrick D., Meeraus A., Raman R., Rasenthal R.E. A user’s guide, Gams software’ (gams development corporation,
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1708.

1238
 ICAER-2015

Investigation of Various Wall and Window Glass Material

Buildings in Different Climatic Zones of India for Energy
Efficient Building Construction

G. Kiran Kumara, S. Saboora*, T. P. Ashok Babua1

a
Mechanical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal,
Mangalore-575025,India.

Abstract

The commercial and residential buildings consume about 33% of energy for cooling and day lighting in India. This paper
presents the thermal performance of buildings constructed with various building and window glass materials in five different
climatic zones of India such as hot and dry (Ahmedabad), moderate (Bangalore), cold (Guwahati), warm and humid
(Madras) and composite (New Delhi) climatic zones. In this study, four building materials such as laterite stone, dense
concrete, burnt brick and mud brick were selected and four window glass materials such as clear, bronze, green and bronze-
reflective glasses were selected. The spectral optical properties of four glass materials were measured experimentally using
Perkin-Elmer lambda 950 spectrophotometer from wavelengths ranging from 300 nm- 2500 nm. Total eighty building
models were designed using Design builder 4.3.0.039 and thermal analysis was carried out in Energy plus 8.1 simulation
tool. From the results, it is observed that mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window buildings were found to be energy
efficient from the least heat gain point of view among eighty building models studied in five climatic zones of India. The
results of the study helps in selecting the best combination of building and window glass materials for reducing cooling
loads in buildings of five different climatic zones of India.
Keywords: Energy efficient glass; Passive cooling; Building simulation; Solar optical properties; Building materials.

1. Introduction

The Building sector is responsible for 33% of energy consumption in India with commercial building sector
and residential building sector responsible for 8% and 25%, respectively [1]. The building enclosures such as
walls, floors, roofs and windows are important part of building. These building envelopes/enclosures help in
blocking or attenuating the heat transfer, airflow and day lighting in the buildings. Glass is the main building
element in the construction of residential and commercial buildings and it also accounts for a higher
conductance coefficient than other building enclosures. Hence, it is mandatory to study the thermal behavior of
the walls and window glasses to reduce heat gain in buildings. The numerical computations of design of
windows to reduce solar radiation in buildings with clear and brown glass materials were reported [2]. Thermal
and optical properties of glazing were studied [3]. The simulations were carried out on peak summer day of the
cities studied [4,5,6]. The heat transfer modeling on clear glass windows under the exposure of solar radiation
were studied earlier [7]. Optimization studies of the insulation location inside the flat roof were reported in the
literature [8]. The evaluation of thermal and optical properties of color and low emissivity glasses was studied
[9]. The present study presents the suitable wall and window glass material combinations for the enclosures in
different climatic zones of India. The five major cities were selected in the five different climatic zones of India.

Nomenclature
D density (kg/m3) ρλ spectral reflectance
C p specific heat (J/kgK) τλ spectral transmittance
K thermal conductivity (W/mK) τs solar transmittance
ρs solar reflectance ∆λ wavelength interval (nm)

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9880452903; fax: +91-0824-2474000-3664.

E-mail address: saboor.nitk@gmail.com

1239
2. Experimental procedure

The spectral optical properties of clear, bronze, green and bronze-reflective glass materials were measured
using Perkin Elmer Lambda 950 Spectrophotometer facility available at UGC DAE consortium scientific
research, INDORE as per the standard procedure given in ASTM-E 424 and BS EN 410 [10,11]. The spectral
optical properties of glass materials are essential to evaluate the direct solar radiation passing through the glass
material. The thickness of the glass is 6 mm. The experiments were conducted for four glass materials at 00 tilt
angle of incidence and at wavelengths ranging from 300-2500 nm. The spectral optical properties such as
transmission and absorption of clear, bronze, green and bronze-reflective glass were measured at different
wavelengths. Fig. 1. (a) shows the Perkin-Elmer lambda 950 spectrophotometer with PC integrated software.
Fig. 1. (b) shows the spectral transmission properties of glass materials and from this, it is observed that the
bronze-reflective glass has the least spectral transmission values among four studied glass materials and clear
glass has the highest spectral transmission values among four studied glass materials. The experimentally
measured spectral properties help in computing the solar thermal properties using British Standard method BS
EN: 410-1988. The transmittance and absorptance of single glazing glass materials were evaluated using Eqs.
(1) and (2).
2500
∫300 ( )∆
= 2500 (1)
∫300 ∆

2500
∫300 ( )∆
= 2500 (2)
∫300 ∆

(a) (b)

Fig. 1.(a) Perkin Elmer lambda 950 spectrophotometer with PC integrated software; (b) Spectral transmission of glass materials

3. Thermal Analysis

The building models with different building and window glass materials were designed in Design builder
version 4.3.0.039. The dimensions of the building models are 5 m X 5 m X 3.2 m with 0.22 m wall thickness.
Total eighty building models were designed with different building materials (laterite, dense concrete, burnt
brick and mud brick) and with different window glass materials (clear glass, bronze glass, green glass and
bronze-reflective). The floor was designed with dense concrete with 0.15 m thickness and the roof was designed
with reinforced concrete of 0.15m thickness. The walls of the building models were covered inside and outside,
by 0.0125 m plaster. Table 1. shows the solar thermal properties of glass materials.
The window glass allows sun’s shortwave infrared radiation into the building. The radiation entered through
window glass will be trapped inside the building and will increase the heat gain in buildings. The heat gain in
buildings through window glazing can be reduced by using appropriate glasses for windows. Window to wall
ratio is the ratio of the net glazing area to the gross exterior wall area [12]. The window to wall ratios
maintained for building models are 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. In this study window glass for all the
building models is placed in south orientation due to less solar radiation in the South direction of the building as
compared to the other directions. The thermal analysis of the building models with the above building

1240
dimensions and materials were carried out using licensed Energy plus 8.1 simulation software in different
climatic zones of India. The major city is selected in the each climate zone. India has mainly five types of
climatic zones such as hot and dry (Ahmedabad (23.07ON, 72.63OE)), moderate (Bangalore (12.97ON,
77.58OE)), cold (Guwahati (26.10ON, 91.58OE)), warm and humid (Madras (13ON, 80.18OE)) and composite
(New Delhi (28.57ON, 77.12OE)). The heat gain in buildings of five different cities on the peak summer day was
computed. Fig. 2. (a) shows the images of building materials and Fig. 2. (b) shows the images of glass materials.
Table 2. shows the thermo physical properties of building materials. Thermo physical properties of building
materials are as per the Indian standards [13]. Thermo physical properties of laterite stone are taken from the
literature [14]. Fig. 3. Shows sun path diagram of five climatic regions of India. The Sun path diagram is a
graphical illustration of sun paths in the sky for various days in the year. The thermal simulations were carried
out on the peak summer day of each city in four different climatic zones. The peak summer days in Ahmedabad,
Bangalore, Guwahati, Madras and New Delhi are May 15th, April 15th, June 21st, April 15th and June 21st,
respectively.

Table 1. Solar thermal properties of glass materials

Glass material Transmittance ( ) (%) Reflectance ( ) (%) Absorptance ( ) (%)
Clear glass (CGW) 77 11 12
Bronze glass (BGW) 48 9 43
Green glass (GGW) 43 9 48
Bronze-reflective glass 35 34 31
(BZRGW)

Fig. 2. (a) Images of building materials; (b) Images of glass materials

Table 2. Thermo physical properties of building materials.

Building material Thermal conductivity k (W/mK) Specific heat C p (J/kgK) Density D (kg/m3)
Laterite stone 1.3698 1926.1 1000
Dense concrete 1.74 880 2410
Burnt brick 0.811 880 1820
Mud brick 0.75 880 1731
Reinforce cement concrete 1.58 880 2288
Cement plaster 0.721 840 1762

1241
Fig. 3. Sun path diagrams on peak summer day: (a) Ahmedabad region on May 15th; (b) Bangalore region on April 15th; (c) Guwahati region
on June 21st; (d) Madras region on April 15th ; (e) New Delhi region on June 21st

4. Results and Discussions

4.1 Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 20% WWR in five different Indian
climatic zone cities

Fig. 4. shows heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 20% WWR in five
different Indian climatic zone cities. In hot and dry (Ahmedabad) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 39.89 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 35.43 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In moderate (Bangalore) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 24.26 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 21.64 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In cold (Guwahati) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 26.94 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 23.06 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In warm and humid (Madras) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 23.58 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 20.45 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In composite (New Delhi) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window glass
buildings gain maximum heat of 46.01 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings gain
39.93 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. From the results, it is observed that for all five climatic zones of India and at 20%
WWR, mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window glass buildings were observed to be energy efficient
from the least heat gain point of view among studied material combinations.

1242
Fig. 4. Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 20% WWR in five different Indian climatic zone cities

4.2 Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 40% WWR in five different Indian
climatic zone cities

Fig. 5. shows heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 40% WWR in five
different Indian climatic zone cities. In hot and dry (Ahmedabad) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 41.93 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 36.56 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In moderate (Bangalore) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 26.96 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 23.29 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In cold (Guwahati) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 29.23 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 24.20 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In warm and humid (Madras) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 25.75 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 21.60 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In composite (New Delhi) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window glass
buildings gain maximum heat of 48.08 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings gain
40.82 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. From the results, it is can be noticed that for all five climatic zones of India and at 40%
WWR, mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window glass buildings were observed to be energy efficient
from the least heat gain point of view among studied material combinations.

1243
Fig. 5. Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 40% WWR in five different Indian climatic zone cities

4.3 Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 60% WWR in five different Indian
climatic zone cities

Fig. 6. shows heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 60% WWR in five
different Indian climatic zone cities. In hot and dry (Ahmedabad) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 44.10 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 37.72 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In moderate (Bangalore) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 29.79 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 24.95 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In cold (Guwahati) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 31.67 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 25.39 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In warm and humid (Madras) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 28.08 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 22.80 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In composite (New Delhi) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window glass
buildings gain maximum heat of 50.34 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings gain
41.74 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. From the results, it is noticed that for all five climatic zones of India and at 60% WWR,
mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window glass buildings were observed to be energy efficient from the
least heat gain point of view among studied material combinations.

1244
Fig. 6. Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 60% WWR in five different Indian climatic zone cities

4.4 Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 80% WWR in five different Indian
climatic zone cities

Fig. 7. shows heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 80% WWR in five
different Indian climatic zone cities. In hot and dry (Ahmedabad) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 46.39 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 38.91 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In moderate (Bangalore) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 32.75 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 26.64 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In cold (Guwahati) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 34.23 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 26.60 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In warm and humid (Madras) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 30.54 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 24.02 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In composite (New Delhi) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window glass
buildings gain maximum heat of 52.73 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings gain
42.72 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. From the results, it is noticed that for all five climatic zones of India and at 80% WWR,
mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window glass buildings were observed to be energy efficient from the
least heat gain point of view among studied material combinations.

1245
Fig. 7. Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 80% WWR in five different Indian climatic zone cities

4.5 Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 100% WWR in five different
Indian climatic zone cities

Fig. 8. shows heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 100% WWR in five
different Indian climatic zone cities. In hot and dry (Ahmedabad) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 46.74 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 39.09 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In moderate (Bangalore) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass
window glass buildings gain maximum heat of 33.20 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass
buildings gain 26.89 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings
with four window glass materials. In cold (Guwahati) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 34.65 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 26.80 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In warm and humid (Madras) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window
glass buildings gain maximum heat of 30.92 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings
gain 24.22 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. In composite (New Delhi) climatic zone, dense concrete with clear glass window glass
buildings gain maximum heat of 53.11 kWh and mud brick with bronze-reflective window glass buildings gain
42.88 kWh of heat among studied laterite, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick buildings with four
window glass materials. From the results, it is noticed that for all five climatic zones of India and at 100%
WWR, mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window glass buildings were observed to be energy efficient
from the least heat gain point of view among studied material combinations.

1246
Fig. 8. Heat gain in buildings of various building and window glass materials at 100% WWR in five different Indian climatic zone cities

5. Conclusions

The mud brick with reflective glass window glass buildings are found to be energy efficient from the least heat
gain point of view among studied buildings. Hence, this combination of building and window glass materials is
recommended for reducing cooling loads in buildings. The order of preference of window glass materials from
the least heat gain point of view are reflective, green, bronze and clear, respectively among studied window
glass materials. The order of choice of building materials for reducing cooling loads are mud brick, burnt brick,
laterite and dense concrete, respectively among studied materials.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge our sincere thanks to UGC DAE consortium scientific research Indore and SAIF Cochin,
India for providing the necessary facilities to carry out experimental work at their research center for measuring
the spectral optical properties of the glass materials.

References

[1] ECBC, Energy Conservation Building Code. Bureau of Energy Efficiency, New Delhi, 2009, India.
[2] A.M. Taleb, A.J.H. Al-Wattar, Design of windows to reduce solar radiation transmittance into buildings. Solar & Wind Technology
(1988) (5) 503-515.
[3] I.Singh, N.K. Bansal, Thermal and optical properties of different window systems in India. Int. J. Ambient Energy (2011) 23(4) 201–
211.
[4] IS 11907 Recommendations for calculation of solar radiation on buildings CED 12: Functional Requirements in Buildings. Bureau of
Indian Standards, New Delhi, 1986, India.
[5] NBC (2005). National Building Code of India 2005, Section 1 Building and Services Lighting and Ventilation. Part 8, Bureau of Indian
Standards, New Delhi, India.
[6] A. Mani, Solar radiation over India. Allied publishers private limited.1982,India.
[7] P. Sujoy, R.Biswanath, N. Subhasis, Heat transfer modelling on windows and glazing under the exposure of solar radiation. Energy
Build. 41 (2009) 654–661.
[8] S.Saboor, T.P. Ashok Babu, Optimizing the position of insulating materials in flat roofs exposed to sunshine to gain minimum heat into
buildings under periodic heat transfer conditions. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. (online) (2015). DOI 10.1007/s11356-015-5316-7.
[9] J. Mohelnikova, A. Hasim, Evaluation of Optical and Thermal Properties of Window Glazing. Wseas Transactions on Environment and
Development. 2009, 86-93.
[10] ASTM E424, Test for Solar energy Transmittance and Reflectance (terrestrial) of sheet materials. Washington DC, 1971, USA, 1320-
1326.
[11] BS EN 410 Glass in Building-Determination of luminous and solar characteristics of the glazing. British Standards, 1998, 1-24.

1247
[12] GRIHA. Green rating for integrated habitat assessment. .Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, New Delhi, India; 2011.
[13] SP: 41. (S&T) Handbook on functional Requirement of Buildings other than industrial buildings. Bureau of Indian Standards, India,
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[14] S. Saboor, T. P. Ashok Babu, Study of Unsteady State Thermal Characteristics of Homogeneous and Composite Walls of Building
and Insulating Materials for Passive Cooling. 30th International Plea conference, 2014, 516-523.

1248
 Rice husk-Derived Porous Carbon as Cathode Material for
High Performance Lithium-ion Hybrid Electrochemical
Capacitor

Binson Babu a, Lashmi P.G a, M. M. Shaijumon a *

a
School of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, CET Campus, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala,
India 695 016

Abstract

Advanced high energy density Li-ion based hybrid supercapacitors (Li-HSCs) are fabricated with rice husk derived porous

carbon chemically activated by H 3 PO 4 and KOH, as positive electrode material and insertion type Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 (LTO) as

negative electrode material. The as-prepared porous carbons exhibit very high surface area of 1754 m2 g-1 and 2303 m2 g-1

for RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 and RHDPC- KOH respectively. By adjusting the mass balance based on single electrode performance

with Li for both electrodes, the constructed Li-HSC delivered a maximum energy density of ~ 61 Wh kg-1 and ~ 46 Wh kg-1

for LTO/RHDPC-KOH and LTO/RHDPC-H 3 PO 4 configuration respectively, which is much higher than the commercially

available LTO/Activated carbon (~ 36 Wh kg-1). Moreover, the hybrid device shows a very high energy density of

52 Wh kg-1 at 4 kW kg-1, much better than previously reported works. Further, the fabricated Li-HSC devices exhibit

excellent cyclability and rendered ~ 92% of initial capacity even after 2000 cycles. The obtained results are promising and

such activated porous carbon derived from natural resources could be a potential candidate for high performance hybrid Li-

ion capacitors.

Keywords: Li-ion hybrid supercapacitor; Cathode; Chemically activated porous carbon; Energy density.

1. Introduction

Development of energy storage systems with high energy, power density and long cycle life is very essential, as

the global energy demand continues to grow with the growing dependence on portable electronic devices,

electrically driven vehicles and smart grids. Lithium-ion battery (LIB) and supercapacitor (SC) are the obvious

choices, with LIB exhibiting higher energy density, but having lower power density [1,2]. Supercapacitor, on

the other hand, exhibits much higher power density and better cyclic stability, however, suffers with its limited

energy density [3]. To address this issue, a major effort has been focussed on the development of hybrid energy

devices that would combine the best properties of LIB and SC, resulting in improved energy and power

densities, along with good cycle life [4-7]. There is great interest in Lithium-ion hybrid electrochemical

capacitors (Li-HEC), which in principle combine a high-energy LIB intercalation electrode with a high-power

*Corresponding author: shaiju@iisertvm.ac.in

1249
electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC) electrode, wherein the synergistic effects from the combined

faradaic and non-faradaic configuration results in improved device performances [8-11]. The concept first

introduced by Amatucci et al.,[12] integrating the high surface area carbonaceous material as a cathode and the

crystalline Li-intercalating material as an anode in the Li-based non-aqueous electrolyte looks very promising.

The cathode (positive) part of the hybrid capacitor provides high power density as the anions from the

electrolytes adsorbed on the surface of carbon performs double layer reaction whereas the cations intercalated

into the counter anode (negative) part gives higher energy density [13-17]. There have been several attempts to

build Li-HECs with different Li-intercalation anodes and porous carbon cathodes. However, it is very important

to develop efficient carbon electrodes with tailored porosity characteristics to achieve the better overall

performance of the hybrid device [18-22]. The present study describes a high-energy and high-power density

hybrid supercapacitor based on Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 (LTO) anode and a chemically activated porous carbon cathode.

Highly activated porous carbon has been obtained by chemical activation of rice husk derived carbon by using

H 3 PO 4 (RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 ) and KOH (RHDPC-KOH).

2. Experimental

The morphology of RHDPC-H 3 PO 4 and RHDPC-KOH were analysed by Transmission Electron Microscopy

(TEM) JEOL JEM-2100 LaB6 Transmission Electron Microscope. The surface area of the porous carbon was

obtained from Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area measurements using N 2 adsorption-desorption

isotherms measured at 77 K up to a maximum relative pressure of 1 bar, with the Micromeritics 3-Flex surface

characterization analyzer. The electrochemical measurements in non-aqueous medium were carried out by using

standard CR 2032 coin cell fabricated inside MBraun (Unilab, Germany) glove box (H 2 O < 0.1 ppm, O 2 < 0.1

ppm) in argon atmosphere.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Materials synthesis and characterization

Porous carbon derived from rice husk (RHDPC) which is chemically activated with H 3 PO 4 (RHDPC-

H 3 PO 4 ) and KOH (RHDPC-KOH) (Fig. 1 a, b respectively), exhibit very high surface area of 1754 m2g-1 and

2303 m2g-1, respectively. Fig. 2. shows the N 2 adsorption isotherm of RHDPC-H 3 PO 4 & RHDPC-KOH

measured at 77 K up to a maximum relative pressure of 1 bar.

1250
 Fig. 1. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of (a) RHDPC-H3PO4 and (b) RHDPC-KOH

Fig. 2. The N 2 adosption/desorption isotherms for RHDPC-KOH & RHDPC-H3PO4

3.2. Electrochemical characterization

Individual half-cell measurements vs. metallic Li are performed for both Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 and RHDPC

electrodes to balance the mass loading between the electrodes in full Li-HEC cell. Fig. 3a shows the typical

voltage profiles of spinal phase Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 tested in a range of 1 - 3V vs. Li/Li+ and RHDPC-H 3 PO 4 , RHDPC-

KOH tested between 3 and 4.5 V vs. Li/Li+ at a current density of 100 mA g-1. The Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 shows a reversible

specific capacity of 155 mAh g-1 that is attributed to the intercalation of Li+ ions [23]. At the cathode, the PF 6 ˉ

ions from the electrolyte adsorb on the surface of porous carbon during charging and forms anionic double layer

across the electrode/electrolyte interface which results in a linear increase of capacity with respect to the

potential. The observed specific capacity of RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 and RHDPC-KOH is 40 mAh g-1 and 58 mAh g-1

respectively at 100 mA g-1. The high capacity obtained for RHDPC-KOH electrode is attributed to its large

1251
surface area, as it could adsorb more anions at a particular potential. This electrochemical performance of both

porous carbons measured individually conform their suitability as promising cathode material for high energy

density Li-HSC. Li-HSC was fabricated with the insertion type Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 (LTO) as anode and the porous

carbon RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 and RHDPC-KOH as cathode by using 1 M LiPF 6 in EC-DMC (1:1 v/v) organic

electrolyte solution.

Fig. 3. Typical galvanostatic charge - discharge curves of RHDPC-H3PO4 and RHDPC-KOH tested between 3 and 4.5 V vs. Li and LTO
tested between 1 and 3.0 V vs. Li in half-cell configuration at a constant current density of 100 mA g-1.

LTO/ RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 and LTO/ RHDPC-KOH hybrid supercapacitor was constructed by taking the

mass ratio as 1:3 and 1:4, respectively and electrochemical measurements were carried out between 1 and 3 V.

Fig. 4. a, b shows the galvanostatic charge-discharge profile of LTO/ RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 and LTO/ RHDPC-KOH

at different current densities (the current densities were calculated based on the total active mass loading).

During charging the Li-ions present in the electrolyte intercalate into the spinel lattice of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 (faradaic

reaction), simultaneously the anions from the electrolyte adsorb on the surface of porous carbon (non-faradaic

reaction) in order to maintain the charge neutrality in the electrolyte solution and the reverse reaction process

happens during discharging [24,25]. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) is another technique used for analyzing the

reaction mechanism, Fig. 4. c, d shows the CV spectrum of Li-HSC at different scan rates. There is a drastic

increase/decrease in current response at above/below 1.5 V that is attributed to the Li-insertion/extraction in

to/from the Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 spinel lattice. From the ragone plot (Fig. 5.), it is obvious that the Li-HSCs performances

are superior to the symmetric capacitor and LTO/ RHDPC-KOH has higher energy density than RHDPC-

H 3 PO 4 based Li-HSC, which is attributed to the high surface area of RHDPC-KOH, since it can adsorb more

anions. The hybrid device demonstrates excellent electrochemical performance, delivering a maximum energy

density of ~ 52 Whkg-1 at a maximum power density of 4 kWkg-1, with the RHDPC-KOH cathode. Also, the

study shows excellent cyclability of the device, with capacity retention of ~92% after more than 2000 cycles.

1252
The present work thus demonstrates a careful and systematic approach to realizing a high-performance hybrid

electrochemical energy storage device.

Fig. 4. Galvanostatic charge-discharge curves of Li-HSC fabricated by using (a) LTO/RHDPC-H 3 PO 4 (b) LTO/RHDPC-KOH between 1
and 3 V at various applied current densities. Cyclic Voltammogram of Li-HSC devices (c) LTO/RHDPC-H 3 PO 4 (d) LTO/RHDPC-KOH
measured at different scan rates.

Fig.5. Ragone plot of Li-HSC and Symmetric capacitor.

1253
4. Conclusions

In conclusion, a high energy density Li-HSC was fabricated with rice husk derived porous carbon chemically

activated with H 3 PO 4 (RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 ) and KOH (RHDPC-KOH) as cathode and the commercially available

intercalation material Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 as anode. The RHDPC-KOH, having high surface area than RHDPC- H 3 PO 4 ,

based Li-HSC (LTO/ RHDPC-KOH) exhibits an exceptional performance of ~ 61 Wh kg-1 at 500 W kg-1 which

is far better than many porous carbon based materials and also shows 52 Wh kg-1 even at a high power density

of ~ 4 kW kg-1. This study shows that the high surface area cathode materials like RHDPC-KOH must be

needed for the development of new high energy density hybrid supercapacitor with high power capability.

Acknowledgements

The work has been supported by Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)

Thiruvananthapuram and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India.

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1255
 ICAER-2015

Power rating of six different photovoltaic technology modules as

per IEC 61853-1 under real outdoor condition
Avinash Kumara, Birinchi Borab, Manandar Bangarb, Supriya Raib, Rashmi Singhb,
Renub,Sadhan Mahapatraa, O.S. Sastryb
a
Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784028, India
b
National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon, 122003, India

Abstract

Long term outdoor performances and assessment of six different PV technologies CdTe, CIGS, Micro-morph, amorphous
silicon, HIT and multi-crystalline silicon modules under natural sunlight (outdoor conditions) has been analyzed and studied.
A temperature and irradiance matrix of power and efficiency for these PV technologies as per IEC 61853-1 are presented. It
has been observed that the PV technologies are not linear with respect to the irradiance and temperature.The study also presents
the efficiency of these technologies at 23 different conditions with respect to the rated value.
Keywords: CdTe; CIGS; Micromorph; a-Si; HIT; mc-Si; performance;IEC61853

1. Introduction

Study of power rating and reliability of photovoltaic module technologies is important in order to enhance the
commercial feasibility of using specific technology suitable for a particular site or location. The module
performance is rated under Standard Test Condition (STC) i.e. Air mass 1.5 spectral distributions, irradiance level
of 1000 W/m2 and module temperature of 25 0C at 00 angle of incidence as per IEC 61215 [1]. However, modules
have to perform in the real outdoor condition where power output is not only depends on STC factors but also on
atmospheric factors like wind speed and direction, humidity etc. [2]. In real field conditions, modules are
experienced wide range of irradiance and its spectrum, temperature and these operating conditions varies with the
time of the day, day of a year, season and location. The performance analysis of the modules at these varying
operating conditions is not an easy task. Every parameter which affects the power output changes continuously
over time. Performance evaluation is based on I-V characteristics of the modules in which key parameters Isc (short
circuit current), Voc (open circuit voltage), Imax (maximum current at maximum power point), Vmax (maximum
voltage at maximum power point) and Pmax (maximum power in I-V curve) depends on the environmental factor.
Due to this reason, STC rating of the module never able to provides the actual performance of the module in real
outdoor condition at different temperature and irradiance.

Behavior of various module technologies in the field also varied in the same climatic condition. The
performances of different module technologies are also different in the same climatic conditions. Sharma et al
found the performance of three different photovoltaic modules technologies under similar testing condition [4].
Silverman et al. reported the comparison of indoor and outdoor test result of thin film technology with
different aspects. This study reported the stabilization issue, performance and characterization of thin film
multi-junction solar cell and issues of filed analysis regarding spectrum variation [5]. Mani et al. has worked
on IEC61853-1 and provided different methods for the power calculation and technique to find out the
spectrum effect in a particular day by using different type of filters. This study has used IEC60891 and
NREL translational method for the calculation of power output in a particular condition of temperature and
irradiance [6]. Nakada et al. reported on the seasonal variation in the output of the amorphous silicon
modules in the outdoor condition. This study has shown the variation in the spectrum on the output power [7].
The work has been done by the Minemoto et al. has tried to find out the spectral distribution effect on the
outdoor performance of the module [8]. Spectral variation and distribution assessment is very important to find
out the actual behavior of the modules and the photovoltaic plant in the outdoor condition. Ebert et al.
reported the impact of angle of incidence modifier on the module performance and tried to find out the energy
yield. This study measured the influences of angle by three different methods in which two of them is
outdoor measurement and other one through solar simulator [9]. Mondola et al find out the impact of array

1256
inclination and orientation on the performance of grid connected PV system [10]. The orientation and array
inclination is very important for maximum power generation. There are number of methods used by various
authors for the estimation of power output from field data. IEC has formulated IEC 60891 standard which deals
with 3 methods for the performance calculation [11]. NREL also developed a method which directly translated
the I-V curve to the corresponding I-V curve at desired irradiance and temperature. This method does not need
any temperature coefficient and other correction coefficient for the calculation. Marion et al. has reported the
procedure to find out the current-voltage translation using bilinear interpolation. This method has ability to
find out the relations between lower and higher irradiances [12]. Tsuno et al. has work on the comparison between
IEC 60891 methods and found that procedure 2 and 1 depends on the various parameters of the technology but
the procedure 3 provides more accurate results. However, temperature determination is an issue in the method 3
[13]. Temperature coefficient and curve correction factors which affect the output of the modules at a particular
temperature is described in firth two methods. IEC 60891 have given the procedure to find out the temperature
coefficient. However, the main problem is to calculate the temperature coefficient from the real field data.
King et al. reported the temperature coefficient calculation methods and find out the real difficulty during the
calculation. This study was able to find out that temperature coefficient which varies with irradiance and the life
of the module [14]. IEC-61853 standard is more relevant standard procedure based on 23 conditions of irradiance
and temperature measurements to estimate the power rating of PV modules [3]. This study presents the
performance of six module technologies (Cadmium telluride (CdTe), Copper indium gallium (di) selenide (CIGS),
Micro-morph, amorphous silicon (a-Si), Hetero-junction with Intrinsic Thin-layer (HIT) and multi-crystalline
silicon (mc-Si)) modules. The performance parameters are measured or estimated under 23 different temperature
and irradiance conditions as per IEC 61853 standard. The study also provides operating efficiency in real outdoor
conditions, with respect to the rated power rating of the module.

Nomenclature

Ir / I m rated current or desired point current / measured current (A)

Vr / Vm rated voltage or desired point voltage / measured voltage (V)
Gr / G m rated irradiance or desired point irradiance / measured irradiance
Tr / Tm rated temperature or desired point temperature / measured temperature
α short-circuit current temperature coefficient (A/ºC)
αrel relative short-circuit current temperature coefficient (1/ºC)
β open circuit voltage temperature coefficient (V/ºC)
βrel relative open circuit voltage temperature coefficient (1/ºC)
κ curve correction factor for the 1st Procedure
κ’ curve correction factor for the 2nd Procedure
a irradiance correction factor for procedure 2 for open circuit voltage of diode thermal voltage of the p-n
junction and interpolation constant for procedure 3 in IEC 60891.
Voc m open circuit voltage measured at particular point.

2. Experimental setup

An experimental test-bed facility consisting modules was setup at NISE (National Institute of Solar Energy),
Gurgaon (Latitude 280 37 N, Longitude 7704 E), New Delhi as shown in the Fig 1 to study the performance of the
different module technologies. It consists of different types of modules, an I-V tracer for continuous monitoring
of power output, along with a reference cell fixed co-planer with the tilt of modules to measure global tilt radiation
and a temperature sensors attached to the rear of the module to record the module temperature data. Modules are
mounted on manual dual axis tracking structure and I-V tracer data is recorded from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM at every
10 minutes intervals. All the modules are cleaned everyday morning before performing the experiment to avoid
dust deposition effect on the output.

3. Methodology

There are number of methods used by various authors for module performance estimation based on field data.
IEC has formulated IEC60891 standard which deals with 3 methods for the performance calculation [11].
NREL also developed a method which directly translated the I-V curve to a corresponding I-V curve at desired
irradiance and temperature. The various methods used in the study are presented below.

1257
 Fig. 1. Showing part of modules mounted on structure

3.1. IEC 60891: Procedure 1

In this method the current and voltage needs to find out through the I-V characteristics and uses the equation 3.2
and 3.3.
𝐆𝐫
𝐈𝐫 = 𝐈𝐦 + 𝐈𝐬𝐜 ( − 𝟏) + 𝛂(𝐓𝐫 − 𝐓𝐦 ) [1]
𝐆𝐦

𝐕𝐫 = 𝐕𝐦 − 𝐑 𝐬 (𝐈𝐫 − 𝐈𝐦 ) − 𝛋𝐈𝐫 (𝐓𝐫 − 𝐓𝐦 ) + 𝛃(𝐓𝐫 − 𝐓𝐦 ) [2]

Where, Ir is the rated current, Im is the measured current, Isc is the short circuit current, Rs is the series resistance,
Vr is the rated voltage, Vm is the measured voltage, k is the curve correction factor and α is the temperature
coefficient of the module.

3.2. IEC 60891: Procedure 2

In this method relative value of coefficient and correction factor needs to be used.

𝐆𝐫
𝐈𝐫 = 𝐈𝐦 (𝟏 + 𝛂𝐫𝐞𝐥 (𝐓𝐫 − 𝐓𝐦 )) ( ) [3]
𝐆𝐦
𝐆𝐫
𝐕𝐫 = 𝐕𝐦 + 𝐕𝐨𝐜 𝐦 (𝛃𝐫𝐞𝐥 (𝐓𝐫 − 𝐓𝐦 ) + 𝐚 ∗ 𝐥𝐧 ( )) − 𝐑′ 𝐬(𝐈𝐫 − 𝐈𝐦 ) − 𝛋’ ∗ 𝐈𝐫 (𝐓𝐫 − 𝐓𝐦 ) [4]
𝐆𝐦

Where, a is the irradiance correction factor. The value of R’s, βrel, α rel and k’ are measured from relative
irradiance range for the calculation. We have to use separate value of internal resistance, temperature coefficient
and curve correction factor for the estimation.

3.3. IEC 60891: Procedure 3

This method provides freedom from the temperature coefficient. We have to choose three irradiance data in which
two are measured and other one is desired irradiance. From these three irradiance data, we have to calculate the
irradiance correction factor and after that we have to calculate the temperature on the desired irradiance. The
following equations are used in this method.

𝐕𝐫 = 𝐕𝐦𝐚𝐱 + 𝐚(𝐕𝐦𝐚𝐱 − 𝐕𝐦𝐢𝐧 ) [5]

𝐆𝐫 = 𝐆𝐦𝐢𝐧 + 𝐚(𝐆𝐦𝐚𝐱 − 𝐆𝐦𝐢𝐧 ) [6]

𝐈𝐫 = 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐱 + 𝐚(𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐱 − 𝐈𝐦𝐢𝐧 ) [7]

𝐓𝐫 = 𝐓𝐦𝐢𝐧 + 𝐚(𝐓𝐦𝐚𝐱 − 𝐓𝐦𝐢𝐧 ) [8]

In this case, (Vmin, Imin) and (Vmax, Imax) must be chosen with the condition
𝐈𝐦𝐢𝐧 = 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐱 + (𝐈𝐬𝐜𝐦𝐢𝐧 − 𝐈𝐬𝐜𝐦𝐚𝐱 ) [9]

1258
3.4. NREL method

Bilinear interpolation method is used by NREL where an I-V characteristic is used for interpolation. In this
method, about 4 data in which 2 of them are at same irradiance level (G1=G2) and at different temperature (T1,
T2). Other two are also at same irradiance level (G3=G4) with different temperature (T3, T4). First interpolation
has done between T1and T2 and find out the I-V profile between T1and T2 at G1=G2 irradiation. Same process
applied for T3and T4. After that interpolating the data for desired intensity and temperature is carried out [12].

4. Results and discussion

All the experiments are carried out during clear sky conditions. It is very important to translate the data to the
particular condition which is not attained as it is not possible to achieve all 23 test conditions as per IEC 61853-
1in outdoor condition. This is done by using the correction procedure 1 of IEC60891 standards. Table 1-6 presents
the measured or estimated values of power and efficiency of various module technologies as per IEC 61853-1
standard.
Table 1 Power and efficiency matrix under IEC 61853 of CdTe module
Temperature (0C)

Irradiance 15 25 50 75
(W/m2) Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency
(W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%)
1100 NA NA 94 11.86 87.75 11.07 82.25 10.38
1000 84.75 11.75 85 11.80 80.5 11.18 74 10.27
800 69 11.97 69.5 12.06 64.5 11.19 60.5 10.50
600 51.25 11.85 51.25 11.86 48 11.11 45 10.41
400 35 12.15 34.75 12.06 32.5 11.28 NA NA
200 17.25 11.97 17 11.80 16 11.11 NA NA
100 8.5 11.80 8.25 11.45 NA NA NA NA

Table 2 Power and Efficiency Matrix under IEC 61853 of CIGS module
Temperature (0C)
Irradiance
(W/m2) 15 25 50 75
Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency
(W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%)
1100 NA NA 143 12.12 133 11.27 124 10.51
1000 128 11.93 124 11.56 115 10.72 107 9.97
800 102 11.88 99 11.53 92 10.72 86 10.02
600 76 11.81 74 11.49 68 10.56 64 9.96
400 49 11.42 47 10.95 44 10.25 NA NA
200 23 10.72 22 10.25 21 10.79 NA NA
100 11 10.25 10.5 9.79 NA NA NA NA

Table 3 Power and Efficiency Matrix under IEC 61853 of Micro-morph module
Temperature (0C)
Irradiance
(W/m2) 15 25 50 75
Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency
(W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%)
1100 NA NA 143 9.28 133 8.63 124 8.08
1000 135 9.64 134 9.57 124 8.85 112 8
800 109 9.73 108 9.64 98 8.75 92 8.21
600 83 9.88 78 9.28 72 8.57 69 8.21
400 53 9.46 51.5 9.19 48 8.57 NA NA
200 26 9.28 25.25 9.01 23.5 8.39 NA NA
100 12.2 8.71 11.8 8.42 NA NA NA NA

Table 4 Power and Efficiency Matrix under IEC 61853 of amorphous silicon module

1259
 Temperature (0C)
Irradiance
(W/m2) 15 25 50 75
Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency
(W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%)
1100 NA NA 90 6.76 82 6.16 71.7 5.38
1000 83 6.68 80 6.60 72 5.95 65.6 5.42
800 64 6.6 57 5.89 55 5.68 54 5.57
600 44 6.06 41 5.64 38 5.23 35 4.82
400 25 5.16 24 4.95 22 4.55 NA NA
200 12 4.95 11 4.54 11 4.55 NA NA
100 4 3.30 5 4.14 NA NA NA NA

Table 5 Power and Efficiency Matrix under IEC 61853 of HIT module
Temperature (0C)
Irradiance
(W/m2) 15 25 50 75
Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency
(W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%)
1100 NA NA 215 15.64 210 15.27 204 14.84
1000 193 15.44 191 15.28 186 14.88 181 14.48
800 172 17.20 171 17.10 161 16.10 157 15.70
600 123 16.40 122 16.27 113 15.07 110 14.67
400 79 15.80 77 15.40 67 13.40 NA NA
200 40 16.00 34 13.60 29 11.60 NA NA
100 15 12.00 13 10.40 NA NA NA NA

Table 6 Power and Efficiency Matrix under IEC 61853 of Multi-crystalline module
Temperature (0C)
Irradiance
(W/m2) 15 25 50 75
Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency Power Efficiency
(W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%) (W) (%)
1100 NA NA 128 10.11 125 9.88 121 9.57
1000 125 10.87 124 10.78 121 10.52 118 10.26
800 112 12.17 111 12.06 104 11.30 88 9.56
600 87 12.60 86 12.46 79 11.44 78 11.30
400 79 13.04 77 12.82 67 10 NA NA
200 27 11.73 24 10.43 20 8.69 NA NA
100 13 11.30 10 8.69 NA NA NA NA

Table 1-6 performance matrix provides the better working conditions of each module technology. However,
these matrices do not provide the degradation of the modules. Fig 2-7 presents the histogram analysis for each
technology modules. These Figures 2-7 shows the behavior of each technology under outdoor conditions. The
figures indicates the generated power outputs (extrapolated to STC) and the frequency or time operated at that
power rating at outdoor conditions during the study periods measurements. The actual data is corrected to STC
only for comparison purpose. The Figures also indicates the rated power output of the module under STC which
represents in red for comparisons. It can be observed that CdTe modules efficiency under outdoor condition at
1000 W/m2 and 250C is around 11.80%, which is different from indoor STC estimation of 13%. CdTe module
shows maximum efficiency in the irradiance range of around 400 W/m2 to 800 W/m2. Hence, it can be concluded
that CdTe module performs better in diffused irradiance. Further, the extrapolated data indicates that the module
operated near or above the STC in most of the time during the outdoors. In case of CIGS module, the efficiency
at STC at indoor environment is 12% and in case of similar conditions the efficiency at outdoor conditions it is
11.56%. It is also found that CIGS modules performs better in the irradiance range of 800 W/m2 to 1100 W/m2 or
it works better in clear sky conditions. In case of Micro-morph and amorphous silicon module also the irradiance
range for better working condition is similar to CIGS module. The indoor and outdoor efficiency is 11% and
9.57% for Micro-morph module at STC. In case of amorphous silicon module the indoor and outdoor efficiency
at STC are 8% and 6.6% respectively. The range of working irradiance is from 400 W/m2 to 1100 W/m2 which
shows that amorphous silicon module can perform better in clear sky condition as well as in overcast condition
also. Indoor efficiency of HIT module is 17% and its efficiency in outdoor condition is estimated as 15.28% at

1260
STC. Multi-crystalline modules working irradiance is in the range of 400 W/m2 to 800 W/m2. It can be concluded
that Multi-crystalline modules performs better in normal as well as overcast condition. Its indoor and outdoor
efficiency at STC is 14 % and 10.78% respectively. Table 7 summarizes the indoor and outdoor efficiency at STC
of various module technologies and the working irradiance range at which various module technologies performs
better. The major finding of this study is that different module technologies are not behaving linearly and they are
not similar to each other when extrapolated to STC under outdoor conditions.

Fig 2. Histogram for Power for CdTe module

Fig 3. Histogram for Power for CIGS module

Fig 4. Histogram for Power for Micro-morph module

1261
 Fig 5. Histogram for Power for amorphous silicon module

Fig 6. Histogram for Power for HIT module

Fig 7. Histogram for Power for multi-crystalline module

Table 7 Indoor and outdoor efficiency at STC and working irradiance of different module technologies

Module Efficiency (%) Working

technology Indoor Outdoor irradiance (W/m2)
CdTe 13 11.8 400-800
CIGS 12 11.56 800-1100
Micro- morph 11 9.57 800-1000
Amorphous Silicon 8 6.6 800-1100
HIT 17 15.28 400-1100
Multi - crystalline 14 10.78 400-800

1262
5. Conclusions

All six module technologies are tested for all 23 test condition for different temperature and irradiance in
outdoor condition as per IEC61853-1 standard. It is observed from the study that all the module technology except
CIGS is not working as per their rated capacity in outdoor conditions. Different technology performed differently
in different outdoor conditions. This study concludes the suitability of a particular module technology for
particular climatic conditions is depending not only STC performance, needs to check out for a range of irradiance
and temperature. It is also found that each of these module technologies provides better performance in different
range of temperature and radiation conditions.

Acknowledgement

This research is based upon work supported in part by the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the U.S.
(SERIIUS) funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy subcontract DE AC36-08G028308 (Office of
Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Energy
Technology Program, with support from the Office of International Affairs) and the Government of India
subcontract IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012 dated 22nd Nov. 2012

References

[1] International Electro technical Commission 61215 Second edition, 2005-04. Crystalline silicon terrestrial photovoltaic (pv) modules –
design qualification and type approval.
[2] O.S.Sastry et al. Performance analysis of field exposed single crystalline silicon modules, Solar Energy materials & Solar Cells, 94(9),
1463-1468, 2010.
[3] International Electrotechnical Commission. (2011). IEC 61853-1, Photovoltaic (PV) module performance testing and energy rating.
[4] V. Sharma, A. Kumar, O.S. Sastry, S.S. Chandel, 2013, Performance assessment of different solar photovoltaic technologies under
similar outdoor conditions Energy. 58, 511- 518.
[5] J.Silverman. Characterisation of Performance of Thin-film Photovoltaic Technologies, IEA-PVPS T13-02, 2014, ISBN 978-3-906042-
17-6
[6] Mani et al. Photovoltaic Reliability Laboratory (PRL) Photovoltaic Module Power Rating per IEC 61853-1 Standard: A Study Under
Natural Sunlight, 2011.
[7] Nakada et al. Seasonal variation analysis of the outdoor performance of amorphous Si photovoltaic modules using the contour map,
Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 93(3), 334–337, 2009.
[8] T. Minemoto et al. Effect of spectral irradiance distribution on the outdoor performance of amorphous Si//thin-film crystalline Si
stacked photovoltaic modules, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 91(2-3), 120–122, 2007.
[9] Ebert et al. The impact of angular dependent loss measurement on PV module energy yield prediction.29 th EPVSEC 2014.
[10] Mondola et al. The impact of array inclination and orientation on the performance of a grid-connected photovoltaic system, Renewable
Energy 32 (1) 118–140, 2007.
[11] International Electrotechnical Commission. (2009). IEC 60891 (ed.2). Photovoltaic devices—Procedures for temperature and
irradiance corrections to measured I-V characteristics.
[12] B. Marion et al. Current-Voltage Translation using Bilinear Interpolation, Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 12, 593–607, 2004.
[13] Y.Tsuno & Y. Hishikawa , Comparison of Curve Correction Procedures for Current–Voltage Characteristics of Photovoltaic
Devices. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 51, 10NF02, 2012.
[14] L.King et al. Temperature Coefficients for PV Modules and Arrays: Measurement Methods, Difficulties, and Results, 26 th IEEE
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1183 – 1186, 1997.

1263
 ICAER 2015
Estimation of Dynamic resistance of HIT technology module in
dark and illuminated condition
Rashmi Singha, Birinchi Boraa, O. S. Sastrya1, Kamlesh Yadava, Renua, Manandar
Bangara, Supriya Raia, Yogesh Kumar Singha, Ramayan Singha Avinash Kumarb
a
National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon 122003, India
b
Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784028, India

Abstract

For any environmental condition, obtaining the maximum power output of photovoltaic power system in real time operation
is very crucial. The point of maximum power is the desired operating point for a PV array to obtain maximum efficiency.
Focusing on the parasitic power consuming effect of resistance, we dedicated our effort on determining a simple method to
determine the dynamic resistance of PV modules from the illuminated current – voltage characteristics curve. In this
experiment, illuminated and dark characteristics of a 210 Wp HIT module at 22-250C along with the different ranges of
irradiance and temperature has been measured. The ability to determine the dynamic resistance with a combination of finite
series and shunt connected resistance has been developed in this method. Comparison between the series resistance and
shunt resistance determined from the single and double IV curve are also reported.
Keywords: Dynamic resistance; Hetrojunction Intrinsic technology; series resistance; Dark IV; Shunt resistance.

1. Introduction

Installations of photovoltaic systems are rapidly growing in the country and its reputation as matured power-
generation technology is building up. Despite the fact that solar panels have high manufacturing cost and low
energy conversion efficiency, its economics of power generation can lower down. Many researches on
photovoltaic (PV) energy for various applications have been conducted in recent years [1-4]. The basic
component of a PV module is the solar cell. A photovoltaic (PV) array under uniform irradiance exhibits a
current-voltage characteristic with a single maximum power point (MPP) where the array produces maximum
output power, which changes as a consequence of the variation of the irradiance level and temperature. The PV
modules exhibit an extremely nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) characteristic that varies continuously with module
temperature and solar irradiance [1]-[2]. Since the photovoltaic electricity is expensive as compared to the
electricity from conventional sources, use of all maximum extraction output power is of interest. Therefore,
photovoltaic systems should be designed to operate at their maximum output power in any environmental
conditions [3]. The main electrical parameters of the solar cell such as the short-circuit current, Isc; open-circuit
voltage, Voc; maximum power, Pmp; fill factor, FF; and maximum conversion efficiency are functions of the
resistance of solar cells, i.e., series resistance, shunt and dynamic resistance [5]. The series resistance is a
parasitic power consuming phenomenon. Resistances of a PV module may be concluded as follows: resistance
of contact strip; contact resistance between the diffused layer and fingers; resistance of fingers; resistance of
diffused layer for carriers following the fingers; resistance of bulk region; contact resistance between the bulk
region and bottom electrode; and resistance of bottom electrode [6]-[7].The series resistance (Rs) can be
determined by different methods under various illuminated conditions, such as dark, constant illumination, and
varying illumination, yielding different results [6]. In the standardized measurement method for solar cells, Rs is
normally determined by two different illumination levels, so-called two-curve method [6]-[7]. On the other
hand, the Rsh usually results from any channel that bypasses the p-n junction. This bypass can be brought about
by damaged regions in the p-n junction or surface imperfections. The term is widely used to describe an
undesirable short circuit path between front and back. It represents a parallel high-conductivity path across the
p–n junction and decreases the efficiency of the cells by increasing the leakage current that lowers the
maximum output power, open-circuit voltage and fill factor [8]-[9]. These are due to crystal damage and
impurities in and near the junction and give rise to the shunt current. Low Rsh means large fragment of
photocurrent (Iph) prefer to pass through shunt and high shunt current means less photocurrent is vanished
through shunt. Very high value of Rsh [10] reduces, short-circuit current, current density (Jsc) and open circuit

1264
voltage. Rs and Rsh is crucial to PV performance, especially at reduced irradiance level. In order to operate plant
at the maximum power point and analyses the performance of the solar power plant there’s a need to recognize
and understood dynamic resistance of solar PV. The dynamic resistance of solar cells and modules can be
determined by an I-V characteristics curve. Being a dynamic quantity the dynamic resistance is normally taken
to be slope or the derivative of the I-V characteristics curve of module or cell and is defined as the derivative of
the voltage with respect to the current [5]. Furthermore dynamic resistance is composed of the series resistance
and shunt resistance. However due to not having an accurate and precise method to estimate both the resistance
leads to the inaccuracy of the determination of the dynamic resistance.
Focusing on the resistance effect of the solar module, in this paper we proposed a method to determine the
dynamic resistance of the PV modules from one point on an irradiated current voltage characteristics curve. This
method is based on the basic theory and equation of the solar cell. Through this estimation, we enlighten the
effect of dynamic resistance on the performance of PV module in the varying solar irradiance and ambient
temperature. The effect of varying solar irradiance and temperature is also studied on the HIT module.

2. Experimental Setup

In order to study the performance of PV module, an experimental test-bed facility consisting of HIT module
arrays was setup in 2009 at NISE (National Institute of Solar Energy), Gurgaon (Latitude 280 37 N, Longitude
770 4 E) through a joint project between NISE and AIST (Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology), Japan.
HIT modules are installed at the fixed tilt equal to latitude facing towards south i.e. 280. PV array comprises of 8
modules of 210 Wp each. Instant I-V data is collected for two individual PV modules with 10 minutes interval.
The weather data collected at an interval of 1 minute by using CR1000 data logger. The parameters recorded
include ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, sun spectrum and solar radiation.
Data were filtered for spurious values for the instant and in-plane irradiance taken above 100 W/m2.The
schematic figure of the HIT array is represented as in fig.1 (a) and the I-V characteristics curve is shown at STC
condition (1000 W/m2 at 25 0C and A.M is 1.5) fig. 1 (b).

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of test bed facility for HIT technology (b) I-V curve of a HIT module

3. Methodology:

The simple equivalent circuit is sufficient for most applications. Likewise, the PV generator current and,
consequently, the power vary with the cells’ operation temperature and Irradiance. The following procedures are
used for the estimation of series resistance.

3.1 Using Single illuminated condition

I-V curve of HIT module dark and illuminated is represented in Fig.2. In determining dynamic resistance,
measurement is made between terminals of the panel. The dynamic resistance RD is generally taken to be the
slope ΔV/ΔI of an I-V curve. The electrical parameters is calculated from the available methods of literature [6]-
[7]-[10]. After finding the values of the electrical parameter, estimation of series and shunt resistance is done
using the mathematical equation as well as single slope method and double curve method. Solar cell diode
equation can be determined over three different location of the curve, i.e one on open circuit condition, a short
condition and any load condition. The equation for the above condition is respectively follows:
Condition 1; for the open circuit condition;

1265
 Iph  Id  Ish Where
Voc
Iph  Io(e Voc  1) 
Also, Rsh
q

nNkT
Condition 2; for short circuit condition;
Iph  Id  Ish  Isc

Iph  Io(e IscRs  1)  IscRs / Rsh  Isc

Condition 3; for load condition the equations;

Iph  Id  Ish  Il
Vl  IlRs
Iph  Io(e  (Vl  IlRs  1)   Il
Rsh
From the above, the combined differential equations formed to be;
dVl 1 [ Rsh  Rs]
 .  Rs
dIl   Rsh( Iph  Io  Il ) 
  IlRs 
V 1  V 2  1 Rsh.Io Rsh( Iph  Io  I1)  I1Rs 
Rs   ln
I 2  I1  ( I 2  I1)  Rsh( Iph  Io  I 2)  I 2 Rs 
Above equation can be simplified as below. Thus,

Rsh( Iph  Io  I 1)   I1Rs

Rsh( Iph  Io  I 2)   I 2 Rs
V1  V 2 1  Iph  Io  I1 
Rs   ln 
I 2  I1  ( I 2  I1)  Iph  Io  I 2  
 dIsc 
Rsh     Rsh0
 dVoc 
3.2 Under dark condition

Similarly under dark condition, Iph is zero, I-V characteristics of the PV modules is shown as below;
V1  V 2 1  ( Io  I1) 
Rs    ln 
I 2  I1  ( I 2  I1)  ( Io  I 2) 
4. Result and Discussion

Dark and illuminated I-V characteristics of the modules are measured. The real outdoor condition data is taken
using array tester and has been translated over different irradiance and temperature by procedural IEC 60891
[11].The illumination level which are reported in this paper are 600 W/m2, 800 W/m2 and 1000 W/m2.
Temperature and irradiance dependent characteristics are shown in Fig 2 (a) and (b).

The dark and light illuminated I-V curves are presented in Fig 3. Io is found to be 7.7284 ×10-07 A,
1.4006 ×10-06 A and 8.9331×10- 08 A respectively for the radiation range 1000 W/m2, 800 W/m2 and 600 W/m2.
The resistance calculated by using double curve method is also plotted in the Fig 3 (b). The value of resistance is
calculated by the slope at the desired point of I-V characteristic curve. It should be noted that we refer to the
generative maximum power in the case of module under illumination and dissipative maximum power for the
module under dark condition.

1266
Fig. 2. (a) I-V characteristics under different intensities and temperature of 25 0C and (b) under different temperature and 1000 W/m2

The dependence of characteristic parameters and resistances for the PV modules on different irradiation under
ambient temperature of 25 0C is plotted in the figure. Test results were experimentally measured and estimated
by the method given in [7]. Result is presented in the form of Table 1 and Table 2. The resistance including the
series, shunt and dynamic is compared and it is found out that there is a variation in the data from the single
curve and double curve resistance obtained.
Table 1. The estimated and experimental resistance value for the illuminated curves.

Irradiance Prediction model Experimental Results

2
(W/m ) Series Shunt Dynamic Series resistance Shunt Dynamic
resistance resistance resistance Ω resistance resistance
Ω Ω Ω Single Double Ω Ω
Curve ( Ω) curve
(Ω)
1000 3.246 523.01 8.25 2.845 2.781 350.42 10.589
800 3.815 458.25 9.41 2.989 2.703 328.15 10.221
600 3.945 333.21 9.58 3.789 3.432 314.75 9.586

Fig.3. (a) Double slope method for estimation of solar cell (b) Dark and illuminated IV curves of HIT modules

1267
 Table 2. The estimated and experimental resistance value for the dark I-V characteristics of HIT
Dark condition
Forward bias
Maximum Power point 210Wp 81.2118V 4.1676A

Single curve method

Rs(Ω) Rsh (kOhm) RD (Ω) Rd(Ω)

1.77 400 1.09 0.67

5. Conclusion

In the study, we investigated the effectiveness of the method to determine the dynamic resistance RD of
photovoltaic modules based on one illuminated curve functioning under different irradiation and temperature
condition. The dynamic resistances of the PV module are compared with the predicted values. The values of Rs
is highly depends upon the estimation technique.

Acknowledgement

This research is based upon work supported in part by the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the U.S.
(SERIIUS) funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy subcontract DE AC36-08G028308 (Office of
Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Energy
Technology Program, with support from the Office of International Affairs) and the Government of India
subcontract IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012 dated 22nd Nov. 2012.

Nomenclature

HIT Hetrojunction Intrinsic technology

Rs Series resistance
Rsh Shunt Resistance
MPP Maximum power point
Isc Short-circuit current
Voc Open-circuit voltage
Pmp Maximum power,
FF Fill factor
Iph Photocurrent
Jsc Current density
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracker
RD Dynamic resistance

References

[1] O.S. Sastry, Sriparn Saurabh, S. K. Shil, P.C Pant, Rajesh Kumar, A. Kumar and B. Bandyopadhyay, Performance analysis of field
exposed single crystalline silicon modules, Solar Energy materials & Solar Cells, 94, 2010, pp. 1463-1468.
[2] Vikrant Sharma, Arun Kumar, O.S. Sastry and, S.S. Chandel, Performance Assessment of different Solar Photovoltaic Technologies
under Similar Outdoor Conditions, Energy, Volume 58, 1 September 2013, pp511-518.
[3] Takigawa, K. Okada, N. Kuwabara, N. Kitamura, A. Yamamoto, F, Development and performance test of smart power conditioner for
value-added PV application. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells, 75, 2003 pp. 5 47-55.
[4] S. Sopitpan, P. Changmuang, S. Panyakeow, Monitoring and data analysis of a PV system connected to a grid for home applications,
Solar Energy Material Solar Cells, 67, 2001, pp. 481-90

1268
[5] J. Thongpron, K. Kirtikara, C. Jivacate, A method for the determination of dynamic resistance of photovoltaic modules under
illumination. Solar Energy Material Solar Cells, 90, 2006, pp 3078-84.
[6] Bashahu, M and Habyarimana., A Review and test of method for determination of the solar cell series resistance, Renewable Energy, 6,
1995 pp 129-38
[7] M. Wolf, H. Rauschenbach, Adv. Energy Conv. 3 (1963) 455
[8] T.J. McMahon, T.S. Basso, S.R. Rummel, in: Proceedings of the 25th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996, pp. 1291–1294.
[9] K.R. McIntosh, C.B. Honsberg, in: Proceedings of the 16th Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, Glasgow, 2000.
[10] K. Bouzidi, M. Chegaar_, A. Bouhemadou,” Solar cells parameters evaluation considering the series and shunt resistance”, Solar
Energy Materials & Solar Cells 91, 2007, 1647–1651.
[11] IEC 60891 Edi.2.0

1269
 ICAER-2015

CFD Investigation of Air Velocity and Temperature

Distribution in a Room Equipped with Active Chilled Beams
Adarsh Gajmala, Prof. K Y Bhavsarb 1
a
Post graduate student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai 400058, India
b
Workshop superintendant, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai 400058, India

Abstract

Air flow distribution inside the room was studied by numerical simulation of a full scale room ventilated by active chilled
beams. The test room with dimensions of 5.4 X 4.2 X 2.5 m [1] was considered for the present study. ANSYS® Design Modeler
was used to create the geometric model and subsequently meshed in meshing module. Conservation equations such as mass,
momentum, energy and turbulence equations were solved by fluent commercial flow solver. RNG k-ε based model with
standard wall functions was applied to calculate air flow velocities and air temperature in the model room. Two thermal
manikins, desk computers, displays and windows were taken as heat sources. Post processing was carried out in standard
ANSYS® CFD postprocessor. This study deals with the numerical investigation of impact of supplied flow rate of primary air
and heat load strength on thermal environment developed in occupied zone by active chilled beams. From results it is observed
that the temperature was almost uniform in the occupied zone. The risk of draught discomfort increased when heat load in the
room and flow rate of supplied primary air increased. The flow rate of primary air have higher impact on occupants comfort
in comparison with the impact of heat load.
Keywords: HVAC; Active Chilled Beam; Thermal Comfort; Draught Discomfort; CFD-simulation.

1. Introduction

The development in active chilled beams since their introduction in 1980s has been extensive. The cooling
outputs and supply air flow rates have been increased. Subsequently, heating, adjustment of air velocity as well as
build-in service features have been included and enhanced up until today. For the purpose of ventilation of rooms
and offices, the chilled beams have been increasingly used. Air distribution and flow pattern in rooms with chilled
beams when people are present have not been studied sufficiently using numerical investigation techniques.
Working principle of an ACB terminal unit is depicted in Fig. 1. It contains primary air supplying duct, number
of nozzles, mixing chamber and cooling coils. Primary air is forced through nozzles, to the mixing chamber and
finally in to the conditioned zone by maintaining certain fixed amount of pressure. Due to velocity of the primary
air, a negative pressure kernels are generated behind the Cooling coils. By virtue of the negative pressure, the
secondary air is brought to the mixing chamber by induction through the cooling coils. This effect is called the
entrainment effect which is governed by the design of nozzles. The secondary air is then cooled when it passes
over the cooling coils. The secondary and primary air mix up in mixing chamber and then supplied to the
conditioned zone through the linear slots on the edge of the unit. The air then flows over the ceiling and finally to
the room. For parallel positioning of the beams, the jets lose momentum due to collision in the middle and drop
down to the occupied zone.
Free convection flow is created in upward direction around the human body in comfortable room environment.
The airflow becomes faster from lower end of the body to the higher end. Thus the laminar thin boundary layer is
formed at lower parts while at the height of head it becomes turbulent and thick boundary layer. The mean air

Nomenclature

CFD Computational fluid dynamics

ACB Active chilled beam
k Turbulent kinetic energy
ε Turbulent dissipation rate

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-898-384-0682; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .

E-mail address: adarshgajmal16@gmail.com

1270
 Fig. 1. Working principle of active chilled beam.

velocity in the free convection flow is governed by the parameters such as body shape, room air temperature etc.
The thickness of the boundary layer may measure 0.2 m or more. Because of that moderately strong thermal plume
is created above the human body [1]. Additional heat sources such as computers, desk/table lights, etc. that also
generate upward free convection flow as well.
Air distribution in a room may substantially change due to these upward flows, if combined and may result in
local draught discomfort for the occupants. The objective of this study was to identify the effect of amount of heat
load strength of heat sources on the airflow distribution in rooms ventilated by chilled beams. The effect of the
control of the supplied flow rate of primary air was studied as well. The simulation results were consistent with
the experimental research.
In the modern society, people spend more than 90% of their time in an artificial environment, for instance
inside buildings. Because of this reason, indoor air quality and thermal comfort for occupants of conditioned space
become very actual interest for the researchers. A great part of studies present in literature on this subject are
experimentally conducted. However, during the last few years more and more interest has been paid to the CFD
approach for predicting air flows in ventilated rooms.
The history of using CFD as a tool to analyze indoor airflows dates back to 1974 with Neilsen being the pioneer
in initiating such studies. Jelena and Qingyan [1], ASHRAE Members, demonstrated the several steps involved in
the verification, validation and reporting of CFD simulation of indoor air flows. They cited the references of
numerous papers published in Roomvent (2000). Zhu, Li, Yuan [2] investigated indoor airflow by cold air
distribution systems. For the appropriate simulation of indoor airflow, we require feasible mathematical model
and boundary conditions. They threw light on some of these. They carried out simulation in FLUENT. Their
numerical simulation results matched very well with the experimental results. This research validated the
appropriate way of setting up indoor airflow problems in a commercial CFD code like FLUENT. Juan, Daniel,
Marcelo, Benoit [3] researched airflow modelling and comfort levels in a computer room by using GAMBIT for
pre-processing the model and FLUENT 6.0.2 to carryout numerical simulations and Vu for post-processing the
results. They used realizable k-ε model. Their investigation revealed that boundary conditions and inclusion of
real-world geometries like diffuser inlets have a major impact on fluid-flow.
Ristom, Pekka, Hannu and Alex [4] researched the impact of heat load location and strength on air flow patterns
in a mock-up office fitted with two passive chilled beams, three light fittings and a swirl diffuser. They used human
dummies and computers as heat sources inside the room. The point of occurrence of the maximum velocity in the
occupied zone depends on the strength of the heat source and its distribution in the room. Layout of internal
equipment had a minor impact on air distribution. Cammarata and Petrone [5] studied the thermodynamic and
fluid dynamic performance of an active chilled beam for indoor air-conditioning by investigating 2D and 3D
models in an FEM based software, COSMOL Multiphysics. Three different typologies of those air conditioning
systems were considered. Special attention is paid to the evaluation of indicative parameters of comfort for human
occupants, like maximum value of velocity airflow in the occupied portion of the room and horizontal and vertical
temperature gradient. They concluded that there is an almost constant velocity distribution in the occupied portion
of the conditioned space. Kotani, Yamanaka, Momoi [6] investigated airflow in a room consisting of multi-cone
ceiling diffuser by the use of 3-D CFD simulation. They validated the results with the measurements obtained
from an experimental setup. They concluded that the airflow pattern inside the room can be predicted by the CFD
simulation using measured values as the supply boundary conditions in the box method, except for the decay of
axial jet velocity in the heating condition.

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2. Physical model and meshing

In numerical simulations, the computational efforts can be eased by the approximations and simplification of
the geometry in an analysis. Because of much smaller dimensions compared to room and complicated geometry,
diffusers, nozzles, vents etc. are very hard to model particularly for the indoor air simulations. It increases the
computational effort because of the increased number of nodes and meshed elements making the problem set-up
complicated. Srebric and Chen said, “The user should not be afraid of making assumptions. Good assumptions
can simplify the complex physical phenomena in the real world with negligible effect on the accuracy of the CFD
prediction” [1].
Keeping this in mind, the inlets and the induction unit of the chilled beams were modeled as flat, plane openings
through which the fluid flows at an angle set by the real geometry of the chilled beam unit. While the chilled beam
units were modeled as faces along the ceiling of the room. For the 3-D simulation, the room was modeled in
ANSYS® Design Modeler with the dimensions of 5.4m X 4.2m X 2.5m which is shown in Fig. 2. The persons
were modeled as cylinders analogous to those defined in DIN (1995) (height 1.1 m; diameter 0.3 m) [7]. The room
also consist two PCs, two computer displays, two windows and a table. Direct solar load was simulated by placing
heater panels on the floor.

Window Manikin
ACB Unit PC

Display Table

Heating
Panel

Fig. 2. Physical model of the test room.

Mesh generation is a major challenge for CFD analysis. It is a time consuming task. Despite steady
developments in automatic mesh generation, it still requires the skill of a CFD expert to produce a suitable mesh.
We can create both structured and unstructured meshes within the current pre-processor. In case of structured
meshes, all internal nodes of the mesh have an equal number of adjacent elements. For the 3D case, this indicates
hexahedral elements. For unstructured meshes it allows any number of elements to join at a single node. The
tetrahedron is the most common element for unstructured meshes. The type of the grid is mainly governed by
complexity of the geometry and the physics of the problem. The structured mesh would be the clear choice in case
of an empty room as the physical phenomena and near-wall boundary layers will be depicted very well with
aligned elements. However, when many objects (tables, PCs, mannequins, etc.) are added, the simplicity and
beauty of the regular mesh is lost and unstructured mesh generation is required to address the more complex
topology.
For the current simulation, tetrahedral elements were taken. Once the mesh was generated, various faces of the
domain were given names for easy understanding and for setting the appropriate boundary conditions while
solving. The continuum type (fluid/solid) was also specified. The mesh obtained have 1127185 number of
elements and 198003 number of nodes. The meshed geometric model is shown in Fig. 3.

a b

Fig. 3. Meshed model of the test room (a) the room; (b) occupants and table.

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3. Mathematical model and boundary conditions

This paper simulated three-dimensional model of indoor air by turbulence model. To perform the simulation,
we must lay out some rules that affect the physics of the problem. The problem is then set-up based on these
under-lying assumptions. The study was based on the following assumptions:

• The indoor air was considered as incompressible, finite volume approach and coincidence with the basic
assumption of Boussinesq.
• It was considered as steady-state summer air conditioning simulation of the room environment.
• Negligible air leakage throughout the conditioned space.
• Negligible amount of radiation and almost no species transport.
• Room boundaries were considered as adiabatic walls.

The turbulence model adopted two equation model considering the influence of buoyant force. Following
equations govern the flow inside the domain:
Mass Balance

∂u ∂v ∂w
+ + =
0 (1)
∂x ∂y ∂z

X- Momentum Equation

 ∂u ∂u ∂u  ∂p  ∂ 2 u ∂ 2 u ∂ 2u 
ρ u +v +w   = − + μ     + 2 + 2  + ρ gx (2)
 ∂x ∂y ∂z  ∂x  ∂x ∂y ∂z 
2

Y- Momentum Equation

 ∂v ∂v ∂v  ∂p  ∂ 2 v ∂ 2 v ∂ 2v 
ρ u +v +w   = − + μ     + 2 + 2  + ρ gy (3)
 ∂x ∂y ∂z  ∂y  ∂x ∂y ∂z 
2

Z- Momentum Equation

 ∂w ∂w ∂w  ∂p  ∂2w ∂2w ∂2w 

ρ u +v +w   = − + μ     + 2 + 2  + ρ gz (4)
 ∂x ∂y ∂z  ∂z ∂ ∂y ∂z 
2
 x

Energy Equation

 ∂T ∂T ∂T   ∂ 2T ∂ 2T ∂ 2T 
ρ cp   
u +v +w =     + 2 + 2  + μ∅ + q
∂z 
  k (5)
 ∂x ∂y  ∂x ∂y ∂z 
2

Where,

  ∂u ∂v ∂w  2  ∂u  2  ∂v  2  ∂w  2  
µ∅  
= µ  + +  + 2     +  +  
  ∂y ∂z ∂x   ∂x   ∂y   ∂z   

Turbulence energy equation (k equation)

∂ ( ρk ) ∂ ( ρ vk ) ∂  µ t  ∂k  ∂u  ∂u ∂v 
+ =  µ +   + µ t    
 +  – ρε (6)
∂t ∂y ∂y  σ k  ∂y  ∂y  ∂y ∂x 

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 Turbulence energy dissipation equation (ε equation)

∂ ( ρε ) ∂ ( ρ vε ) ∂   µ t  ∂ε  ε ∂u  ∂u ∂v  ε2
+ =  µ +  + c µ t  +  − c ρ
∂y   cε  ∂y  k
     1   2 (7)
∂t ∂y ∂y  ∂y ∂x  k

Ideal Gas Law

p = ρ RT (8)

In the equations, C 1 , C 2 , C u , σ ε , σ k , σ t were all constants. Their values are shown in table 1 according to B. E.
Launsder’s and D. B. Spalding’s recommendations.

Table 1. Empirical constants of k-ε model.

Cu C1 C2 σk σε σt
0.09 1.44 1.92 1.0 1.3 0.9 ~ 1.0

3.1. Boundary conditions

When solving Navier-Stokes equations and continuity equations, appropriate initial and boundary conditions
need to be applied. Boundary conditions are crucial components of the mathematical model because they give
direction to the motion of flow. Table 2 shows various boundary conditions imposed and table 3 shows various
heat sources.

Table 2. Details of boundary conditions employed for analysis.

Surface Type of boundary Details
Inlet Velocity inlet 1.2778 m/s (294 K)
Outlet Pressure outlet 0 gauge (297 K)
Room walls Wall Adiabatic wall (300 K)

Table 3. Details of wall conditions employed for analysis.

Heat source Heat generation rate/ Heat flux
PCs 987.6543 W/m3
Displays 828.5714 W/m3
Manikins 964.5806 W/m3
Windows 095.8333 W/m2
Heating floor panels 152.7348 W/m2

4. Numerical computation

Solving is an important phase in CFD analysis. The software used for solving in the present study is FLUENT.
In essence, the CFD approach comprises the numerical solution of a set of partial differential equations describing
the fundamental laws of fluid motion. The values of velocities, temperature, etc. at a point or region can be
obtained from the solution of the discrete algebraic system of these equations rather than over the continuum. The
indoor airflow simulation falls under the category of low-speed incompressible flow, which can be deduced from
extensive literature survey .The air velocities at the inlets, also indicate the same. So a pressure based solver has
been used in the present study. Once the grid is checked, the pressure based implicit solver is applied.
To make the most appropriate choice of model for our application, we need to understand the capabilities and
limitations of the various options. The optimal choice of the turbulence model will be governed by the factors
such as the physics involved in the flow, recommendations for the specific class of problem, level of accuracy
required, available computational resources and amount of time available for the simulation. By considering most
of these factors, the k-ε realizable model is the most suitable model which consist of new formulation for turbulent
viscosity and a new transport equation formulation for the dissipation rate. Hence realizable k-ε turbulence model
is exercised with the standard wall treatment option enabled to treat turbulence near the air supply.

1274
 A summary of the options set in FLUENT are included in Tables 4 and 5. The rest of the options were all set
to default. These settings and boundary conditions were utilized to initiate the solution and then finally iterated
till the convergence occurred.

Table 4. Solver settings for 3-D simulation.

Feature Status
Space 3D
Formulation Implicit
Time Steady
Energy equation Enabled
Turbulent model Realizable k-ε model
Near-wall treatment Standard wall function
Viscous heating Disabled

Table 5. Discretization scheme for 3-D simulation.

Variable Discretization scheme
Pressure Second order
Momentum Second order upwind
Turbulent kinetic energy Second order upwind
Turbulent dissipation rate Second order upwind
Energy Second order upwind
Pressure-velocity coupling SIMPLE

5. Numerical simulation results

Three cases were selected in the simulation, which were shown in table 6.

Table 6. Different types of cases studied.

Cases Primary air flow rate (L/s/m2) Heat load (W/m2)
Case 01 1.5 50
Case 02 3 50
Case 03 1.5 80

Fig. 4 demonstrates the temperature field and the velocity field for different cases. The temperature contours
were taken at the mid plane of thermal manikins for different cases. Here the temperature variation due to heat
fluxes of computers and manikins is clearly seen. There is an almost uniform temperature distribution inside the
occupied zone as can be seen from the temperature counters. Thermal plumes arising from the human manikins
can also be seen. The temperature scale in the image shows that most of the room is at 298 K. The minute variation
in temperature can only be detected through numerical simulations and may not be detected at all in experimental
results. In case 02 there is lesser temperature at most of the places in the room than the case 01, while in case 03
there is higher temperature at floor level in the room because of the additional heat load due to solar heating in
summer case.
The velocity contours were also taken at plane above the thermal manikins. Velocity is more near inlets and
near the walls. The flow comes out through the inlet, hits the wall and cascades down along the wall. The part of
flows coming from two opposing chilled beam nozzles meet at the mid-section of the room; they reinforce and
cascade down which effectively cools the room. Other part of flows coming from two opposing chilled beam
nozzles get diverted to the outlet because of the thermal plumes arising from the thermal manikins. The air then
diffuses to the rest of the room and then goes through the outlet inducer where it is re-treated and sent back into
the occupied space. In case 02, velocity in occupied zone is more as compared to case 01 because of higher mass
flow rate of primary outdoor air, while in case 03, velocity in occupied zone is slightly more as compared to case
01.

1275
 a Case 01 b
Case 01

Case 02 Case 02

Case 03 Case 03

Fig. 4. Contours above thermal manikins for different cases (at X=0.75m) (a) temperature contours; (b) velocity contours.

6. Draught rate calculations

The air speed and temperature measurements in the occupied zone were used to analyze and compare the
impact of the studied factors on the air distribution and thermal comfort in the occupied zone. The Draught rating
(DR) index (ASHRAE Standard 113 2005) [8] was calculated with the obtained data. The percentage of people
predicted to be dissatisfied because of a draught may be calculated by utilizing the following equation:

( 34 ta ) * (  0.05
DR =− va − ) * ( 0.37 * Tu *Va + 3.14 )
0.62
(9)

Where,
DR = predicted percentage of people dissatisfied due to Draft [%];
t a = local air temperature [°C];
Va = local average air speed [m/s]; and
Tu = local turbulence intensity [%]
The standards and guidelines (ISO7730 1994, ASHRAE 55 2004) define critical value for the draught rating
in the occupied zone. Above that value it is considered that the quality of the thermal environment in regard of
draught discomfort is low and uncomfortable [9, 10]. Average, maximum and minimum values for the velocity,

1276
temperature and draught rating in the occupied zone obtained from the analysis of the collected database are listed
in table 7.

Table 7. Minimum, maximum and average temperature, velocity and DR in occupied zone.
Flow rate Heat load V max V min V avg T max T min T avg DR max DR min DR avg
(L/s/m2) (W/m2) (m/s) (m/s) (m/s) (0C) (0C) (0C) (%) (%) (%)
3 50 0.3752 0.0574 0.1458 26.4 24.6 25.1 31.8692 2.6100 12.432
1.5 50 0.2185 0.0312 0.1083 26.8 24.7 25.5 18.8906 0.2370 6.9892
1.5 80 0.2614 0.0488 0.1372 27.1 23.9 25.1 22.8829 0.9483 10.307

Relatively high velocity was identified in the occupied zone, up to 0.37 m/s at 3 L/s/m2. The results show that
the lowering of the supply flow rate leads to reduction in the maximum and average values of air velocity. The
temperature does not vary substantially in both conditions. The supplied flow rate has major impact on the draught
rating index (DR). DR was determined at each of the measured points inside the occupied zone. This is to say that
at high flow rate of the supplied air from the chilled beams had high momentum which counteracts better the
thermal flow from the increased heat load. However the increase of the flow rate resulted in high velocities and
increased draught rating in the occupied zone. This is revealed by the comparison of the results shown in Fig.
5(a). The calculated values of DR increased almost twice when the flow rate was increased from 1.5 L/s/m2 to 3
L/s/m2.
The impact of the strength of the heat load on the parameters of the thermal environment is significant and can
be seen for all maximum, minimum and average values. The maximum and average values of air velocity are
increased as result of higher heat load. The minimum temperature decreased slightly but the average and the
maximum temperatures did not change too much. The decrease of the temperature can be explained with the lower
supply air temperature. Average and maximum draught rating at 80 W/m2 were increased due to higher velocity
and lower temperatures. The values for the calculated draught rating increases substantially when the heat load is
increased from 50 W/m2 to 80 W/m2. This is demonstrated by the results shown in Fig. 5(b). Comparing the results
in Fig. 5 (a) and (b), it could be deduced that the flow rate has the bigger impact on the occupants’ comfort in
comparison with the impact of the heat loads.

a b

Fig. 5. Impact of the strength of (a) flow rate and (b) the heat loads on the DR in the occupied zone.

7. Validation of numerical simulation

This section contains information about the data obtained from numerical simulations and experiments which
were compared with each other for the validation the numerical model. By analysis of the different parameters
obtained, the error was well below 12% of the absolute values, which indicated that the temperature and velocity
fields were simulated reasonably. Table 8 illustrates the comparison of parameters obtained and table 9 shows the
errors in predicted values from numerical simulation.

Table 8. Comparison of parameters obtained from experiment and numerical simulation.

Parameters Experimental values Predicted values by numerical simulation
Maximum Minimum Average Maximum Minimum Average
Velocity 0.201 m/s 0.034 m/s 0.1 m/s 0.2185 m/s 0.0312 m/s 0.1083 m/s
Temperature 298.4 K 296.2 K 297.3 K 299.8 K 297.7 K 298.5 K
Draught rate 17 % 0% 6.5 % 18.8906 % 0.2370 % 6.9892 %

1277
 Table 9. Errors in predicted values by numerical simulation.
Parameters Error values (%)
Velocity 11.11
Temperature 0.51
Draught rate 11.18

8. Conclusion

CFD, an important tool in HVAC engineering, was used to analyze the data generated by models representing
the complexity of the flow patterns that evolve inside the ventilated spaces of a test room. Based on analysis
above, the conclusions are as follows:

• The heat load and supply flow rate have significant impact on the air distribution and thermal comfort inside
the room.
• As heat load increases, the draught rate inside the occupied zone increases substantially.
• Maximum draught rate value gets almost doubled as mass flow rate of primary air was increased twice.
• Supply flow rate had major impact on draught rate values inside the occupied zone in comparison with the
heat loads.

References

[1] Srebric, J. and Chen, Q., An example of verification, validation, and reporting of indoor environment CFD analyses, ASHRAE
Transactions, 2002, 108(2), pp. 185-194.
[2] Zhu, L., Li, R., and Yuan, D., Numerical analysis of a cold air distribution system, HVAC Technologies for Energy Efficiency, 2006,
Vol.IV-2-3.
[3] Abanto, J., Barrero, D., Reggio, M., and Ozell, B., Airflow modeling in a computer room, Building and Environment, 2004, 39, pp. 1393-
1402.
[4] Kosonen, R., Saarinen, P., Koskela, H., and Hole, A., Impact of heat load location and strength on air flow pattern with a passive chilled
beam system, International Conference on Building Energy and Environment COBEE2008, 2010, Vol.42 (1), 34-42.
[5] Cammarata, G., and Petrone, G., A numerical investigation on active chilled beams for indoor air conditioning, COSMOL Conference,
Hannover, 2008.
[6] Kotani, H., Yamanaka, T., and Momoi, Y., CFD simulation of airflow in room with multi-cone ceiling diffuser using measured velocity
and turbulent parameters in large space, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Air Distributions in Rooms (RoomVent2002),
Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002, pp. 117-120.
[7] DIN, (1995), DIN Standard 4715-1, chilled surfaces for rooms, Part 1. Germany.
[8] ISO Standard 7730 (1994)”Moderate thermal environments - Determination of the PMV and PPD indices and specification of the
conditions for thermal comfort”, International Standardisation Organization, Geneve.
[9] ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 113 (2005) “Method of testing for room air diffusion”, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air
Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, GA.
[10] ASHRAE Standard 55 (2004)”Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy”, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
and Air Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, GA.

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 ICAER-2015

Intrinsic p-type Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film for hetero-structure solar

photovoltaic device application
Goutam Kumar Gupta1, and Ambesh Dixit*1
1
Department of Physics & Centre for Solar Energy, Indian institute of technology Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India-342011

Abstract

A low cost non-vacuum solution process has been developed for Cu 2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin film synthesis without any external
sulfurization steps. The metal chloride salts are used to prepare CZTS sol and its viscosity has been tailored for
homogeneous thin films using spin coating. The spin coated thin films are treated under optimized thermal conditions to
achieve the right stoichiometry and kesterite CZTS phase in thin film structures. The structure and stoichiometry of CZTS
thin films are confirmed using X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurements. The films are Tin (Sn)
rich and Copper (Cu) deficient, causing the p-type carries in synthesized thin films. The optical band gap of these thin films
is ~ 1.52 eV with hole concentration ~ 2.98 x10 16 cm-3.

Keywords: Cu2ZnSnS4, Sol-gel, structural properties, optical properties.

1. Introduction

There is a continuous demand to design and develop low cost eco-friendly materials suitable for next
generation solar photovoltaics devices. The group I2-II-IV-VI4 compound semiconductor Cu2ZnSn(S/Se)4,
commonly known as CZTS has shown promise due to its optimal band gap ~ 1.45eV and possible band gap
engineering in the range of 1.0 – 1.5eV with possible germanium ‘Ge’ alloying at Tin ‘Sn’ site. This also
suggests the possibility of integrating different band gap absorber layers to absorb the maximum incident
radiation for enhanced Solar PV response. This system is analogous to CIGS system, where In and Ga are
replaced by Zn and Sn, which are earth abundant, environmentally friendly and low in costs. In addition, all
elements are non-toxic, making CZTS, a very potential candidate for low cost solid state solar photovoltaic
devices. Recent progress on CZTS based solar photovoltaics has demonstrated ~ 8.4% efficiency, which is low
with respect to the existing GaAs (~28.8%), CIGS (~20.5%), CdTe (~21%) solar photovoltaic technologies [1,
2], yet comparable to the widely used amorphous silicon based thin film solar cells. This has been attributed to
the materials and interface defects, causing unwanted recombination centers and lower carrier mobilities.

The development of high efficiency CZTS solar photovoltaic devices will rely on the development of high
quality right phase materials in thin film geometries. The kesterite phase is thermodynamically more stable than
its stannite and wurtzite crystal phases, yet it has low thermal stability under typical synthesis conditions and is
vulnerable to form impurity phases of binary sulfides and metal complexes [3]. There are numerous reports on
synthesis of CZTS thin films, including both physical and solution processes. The solution process techniques
provide a low cost process for CZTS synthesis, but synthesized thin films suffer with defects such as large area
non-uniformity, surface roughness, micro-cracks, large grain boundaries, and sulfide based binary and ternary
secondary phases. These defects hamper materials properties and result in poor optical and electronic properties.
The aim of this work is to design and develop novel low cost solution processable approach for the synthesis of
large area CZTS thins films with optimal electronic and optical properties for enhanced solar photovoltaic
performance.

2. Experimental details
The sol-gel precursor solution was prepared using chlorides of copper, Cu, zinc, Zn and Tin, Sn, metals. A
0.04M molar solution of copper (II) chloride di-hydrate (CuCl2.2H2O, ≥99% Alfa Aesar), 0.02M molar
solution of anhydrous zinc chloride (ZnCl2,≥98% Alfa Aesar) and 0.02M molar solution of Tin (II) chloride
(SnCl2.2H2O,≥98%, Sigma Aldrich) were dissolved in same order in 2-methoxy ethanol (2-metho) (≥99%

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-2912449045

E-mail address: ambesh@iitj.ac.in

1279
Sigma Aldrich) with 50 ppm butylhydroxytoluene (BHT) as stabilizer to maintain the stoichiometric ratio of
desired CZTS compound semiconductor system. BHT was used to improve the stability of CZT solution. The
solution was vigorously mixed using a magnetic stirrer. 0.16M thiourea ((NH 2)2CS, ≥99% Himedia) was added
into the as prepared homogeneously mixed metal chloride solution and the solution was kept under continuous
stirring for 1 hour to ensure the homogeneous mixing and completion of any possible reaction before using it for
thin film synthesis. All chemical mixing and reactions were carried out at room temperature. Finally, a
transparent yellow color stable solution was observed. The stability of solution was monitored over a period of
several months continuously and no degradation was noticed. This stable solution was used to prepare thin films
using a spin coater. The solution was drop casted on cleaned glass substrates (26mm x 26mm x 1mm) for spin
coating at 2600 rpm and spin coated sample was dried at 250 0C on a hot plate. The spin coating and drying
process was repeated 3 times to achieve desired film thickness (1.5 ± 0.2 μm). The heating process was
optimized in air environment and samples were covered with a transparent container to minimize the sulfur loss
and also to ensure the uniformity of temperature locally. The optimized process is free from additional heat
treatment under excess sulfur conditions, usually adopted in such synthesis process, which we call sulfurization
free process for synthesis of CZTS thin films. The synthesized thin films were investigated using X-ray
diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) to understand the development of structural and
microstructural characteristics of CZTS materials. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurements were used to
characterize the stoichiometric conditions such as elemental atomic fraction of synthesized materials and UV-
Vis measurements were used to carry out absorption studies to understand the optical band and electronic
properties of materials. Current – voltage and Mott – Schottky measurements are carried out to probe the
electrical response and carrier dynamics in CZTS thin film structures.

3. Characterization

The crystalline structure of synthesized CZTS thin film structures on glass and molybdenum coated glass
(MO/glass) was investigated using X-ray diffractometer (Bruker D8 Advance) with a Cu (λ=1.5406Å)
monochromatic radiation source, operating at 40.0KV and 40.0 mA. XRD data were collected in detector scan
mode with X-ray source fixed at a glazing angle of 0.3° and the detector moving for the observation interval 2θ
ranging from 20° to 80° with a step size of 0.02° per second. SEM imaging is done using EVO 18, especial
edition, Carl Zeiss scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Elemental composition and film thickness of the
coatings were calculated by using EDAX (OXFORD instrument attached with SEM) and Dektak XT stylus
surface profiler (Bruker). Diffuse spectral reflectance of these CZTS thin films were were measured with a
Carry 4000 UV-Vis spectrophotometer in the 200-900 nm (UV-visible) wavelength range. Spectral reflectance
of these structures was collected with 110 mm integrated sphere, a diffuse reflectance accessories attached with
spectrophotometer. A polytetarfluroethylene (PTFE) sample was used as reference for diffuse reflectance
measurements. Electrochemical characterization is done in IVIUMSTATE (Lab View based) electrochemical
workstation equipped with IVIUM software for current – voltage and Mott – Schottky measurements and used
to calculate the carrier type and concentration for CZTS thin films.

3. Result and discussion

The measured XRD graph is plotted in Fig. 1 for CZTS/glass thin films, suggesting the kesterite CZTS
phase. All diffracted peaks are indexed with reference JCPDS # 00-026-0575. The observed kesterite phase was
achieved by tailoring (i) the initial thiourea content in the solution to get the stable solution and (ii) post
annealing conditions, especially isothermal air annealing to achieve the desired stoichiometry and crystallinity.
We used thiourea nearly twice to that required for stoichiometric CZTS thin films, to compensate any sulfur loss
during post annealing. Also this additional, thiourea was essential to get the stable yellow solution. The
synthesized CZTS thin films are highly textured along (1 1 2) plane, as explained in Fig 1. We observed that
grain size of CZTS thin films was increasing with increase in post annealing temperature and is ~ 8.27 nm for
3000C air annealed thin films, suggesting nanostructured CZTS thin films. The dislocation density in these
CZTS thin films was decreasing with increase in post annealing temperature and ~ 1.46 x 1016 cm-3 was
observed for 3000C air annealed sample. The respective SEM microstructure graph is shown in Fig 2,
suggesting granular deposition of CZTS thin films, in agreement with large FWHM in XRD peaks. The
deposited films are uniform and nearly stoichiometric in nature, as explained in EDX spectrum of CZTS thin
films, shown in Fig 2(b) with inset representing atomic and weight fraction of respective elements. We observed
that films are Cu deficient and Sn rich, as evident from the atomic fraction of Sn and Cu in CZTS thin films.
The observed Cu deficiency is the main source of p-type carriers in these CZTS thin films. The intrinsic nature
has been confirmed from Mott-Schottky measurements and is discussed later.

1280
 The diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) were collected using Carry 500 UV-Vis spectrophotometer in 200 nm
– 900 nm wavelength range in normal incidence configuration and were used to calculate absorption coefficient
for CZTS thin films. The measured (.h)2 verses Photon energy (eV) is plotted in Fig 1(b) and high absorption
region was extrapolated to (.h)2 = 0 to estimate the optical band gap of CZTS thin films and is ~ 1.52 eV, as
explained in Fig. 1(b). The observed bandgap is in agreement with the reported values in literature; however this
value is highly susceptible to the impurities, especially binary and ternary sulfides. The measured optical band
gap suggests that the synthesized CZTS thin films are phase pure without any binary and ternary sulfides
impurities in the system.

20 30 40 50 60 70 80
5

-1 
(h) (x 10 )(eV cm )
(b)
(a)
(112)

4
Intensity (arb. units)

10
(220)

2
(312)


1

0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
2 (degree) Photon Energy (eV)
Fig 1: (a) XRD micrograph (b) (αhν)2 vs. photon energy graph for CZTS thin film.

(a)

Fig. 2 (a) SEM micrograph of CZTS thin film (b) EDX spectra with inserts showing elemental compositional details of CZTS
thin film

We deposited CZTS thin films on Mo/Glass substrates to understand the electronic properties of these thin film
structures. CZTS/Mo/Glass structures are processed similar to CZTS/Glass structures and structural, optical and
microstructural properties are similar. Further, room temperature electrochemical measurements are carried out
in three electrode configurations, taking CZTS/Mo working electrode (WE) in 0.5M Na 2SO4 electrolyte solution
with Ag/AgCl (3M KCl) reference electrode (RE), and Platinum wire as a counter electrode (CE). In
electrochemical current voltage characterization voltage is taken between WE and RE while current is measured
between WE and CE. The details of electrochemical characterization are discussed detail in Goutam et al [10].
The measured current-voltage (I-V) curve is plotted in Fig 3(a) and capacitance-voltage measurements were
carried out in Mott Schottky configuration and 1/C2 versus V results are summarized in Fig. 3(b). The I-V
measurements are shifted on voltage axis by -0.30 V. This is because of the three electrode configuration with
electrolyte. The observed -0.10 V offset may be due to the interface states, yet the complete origin of this is not
well understood. The Mott Schottky relation, obtained from the solution of Poisson equation for potential
1 2 𝑘𝑇
distribution, 2 = (𝑉 − 𝑉𝑓𝑏 − ) is used for calculating carrier concentration
𝐶𝑆 𝑒𝜀0 𝜀𝐶𝑍𝑇𝑆 𝑁𝐴 𝑒
2 𝑑 1
𝑁𝐴 = [ ( )], where CS is space charge region capacitance in the depletion region of CZTS and
𝑒𝜀0 𝜀𝐶𝑍𝑇𝑆 𝑑𝑉 𝐶𝑠2
electrolyte interface, CZTS is dielectric constant of CZTS material and is considered ~ 7 for calculations [11], 0

1281
 is free space dielectric constant = 8.85 x 10-12 F/m, Vfb is flat band potential, kT/e is thermal equivalent voltage
𝑑 1
at temperature T K and NA is carrier density. The negative slope ( ) of Mott-Shottky curve, Fig. 3(b),
𝑑𝑉 𝐶𝑠2
suggests the p-type carriers in these CZTS thin films. This slope value is used to calculate the carrier
concentration and observed hole concentration is ~ 2.98x1016 cm-3. The flat band potential was calculated using
linear extrapolation of negative slope region for 1/C2 = 0 on V-axis and calculated Vfb is ~ -0.30 V, as shown in
Fig 3(a). These room temperature measurements suggest that as fabricated CZTS/Glass and CZTS/Mo/Glass
films are p-type, with optimal 1.5 eV band gap value, suitable for solar photovoltaic applications.

10 5
(a)
(b)
4
1

1/CS (x10 )
Current (mA)

10
3

2
0.1 2

1
0.01
0
-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 -1.00 -0.75 -0.50 -0.25 0.00 0.25 0.50
Potential (V vs Ag/AgCl) Potential (V vs Ag/AgCl)
Fig 3: Electrochemical characterization of CZTS/Mo/Glass working electrode (WE) in three electrode configurations with (a) current-voltage
(I-V) characteristics (b) Mott-Schottky (1/C2 – V) characteristics.

4. Conclusion

CZTS thin films are successfully deposited using low cost solution process without any additional
sulfurization steps. The synthesized CZTS thin films exhibit kesterite phase with Cu deficiency and Sn rich
atomic fractions. The optimized optical band gap of these thin films is ~ 1.52 eV with hole carrier concentration
~ 2.98 x1016 cm-3. These results suggest that optimized process has potential for high quality p-type CZTS thin
film synthesis, minimizing the cost and time with a possibility of scaling up on the larger substrate to realize the
CZTS thin film based photovoltaic applications.

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Department of Science and Technology
(DST) through grant # DST/INT/ISR/P-12/2014.

References

[1] Martin A. Green, Keith Emery, Yoshihiro Hishikawa, Wilhelm Warta and Ewan D. Dunlop, Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2015, 23, pp.1–
9.
[2] Byungha Shin, Oki Gunawan, Yu Zhu, Nestor A. Bojarczuk, S. Jay Chey and Supratik Guha, Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2013, 21,
pp.72–76.
[3] David B.Mitzi, Oki Gunawan,Teodor K. Todorov, Kejia Wang, Supratik Guha, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 1421–
1436
[4] E. Mahé, F. Rouelle, I. Darolles, D. Devilliers, Journal of New Materials for Electrochemical Systems 9, 257-268 (2006).
[5] K. Gelderman, L. Lee, and S. W. Donne, Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 84 No. 4 April 2007.

[6] Kunihiko Tanaka, Yuki Fukui, Noriko Moritake, Hisao Uchiki, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 2011, 95, pp.838–842.
[7] Y.E.Romanyuk, C.M.Fella , A.R.Uhl, M.Werner , A.N.Tiwari , T.Schnabel , E.Ahlswede , Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 2013,
119, pp.181–189.
[8] K. D. Zhang, Z. R. Tian, J. B. Wang, B. Li, X. L. Zhong, D. Y. Guo, S. M. He, J Sol-Gel Sci Technol (2015) 73:452–459.
[9] KunihikoTanaka, Masatoshi Oonuki, Noriko Moritake, Hisao Uchiki, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 93 (2009) 583–587.
[10] Goutam Gupta, Ambesh Dixit, AIP Conference Proceedings 2015 (ICC 2015 October 30 – 31, 2015 Bikaner Rajasthan,
http://www.iccindia15.com/)
[11] Tara P. Dhakal, Chien–Yi Peng, R. Reid Tobias, Ramesh Dasharathy, Charles R. Westgate, Solar Energy 100 (2014) 23–30.

1282
 ICAER-2015

CdTe Sensitized Nano Porous Electrode for Photovoltaic

Application
Anurag Sahu a,b, Ajoy K. Sahaa, K. R. Hiremathb, Ambesh Dixita,*
a
Department of Physics and Centre for Solar Energy, IIT Jodhpur, Jodhpur 342011, India
b
Centre for System Science, IIT Jodhpur, Jodhpur 342011, India
c
Department of Mathematics, IIT Jodhpur, Jodhpur 342011, India

Abstract

CdTe quantum dots were synthesized using water as a solvent medium. Synthesized quantum dots were used to integrate
into TiO2 nano-porous electrode using a combination of linker assisted direct adsorption and chemical bath deposition
process. Sensitized electrodes were characterized to understand their physical and optical properties for photovoltaic
application.
Keywords: CdTe quantum dot; nano porous electrode.

1. Introduction

Quantum Dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) are promising next generation solar photovoltaic devices due to
their low cost, high efficiency and solution processable synthesis of related QDs and electrode structures. In
addition, QDs are not only used for solar photovoltaic applications, but also getting application in diverse fields
such as sensors [1], color displays [2], biomedical applications [3] etc and provide rich physics at low
dimensions, where properties of materials are significantly different from their bulk counterpart [4]. For
example, the increased surface to volume ratio provides larger surface area for interaction with surrounding
medium, onset of energy gap in metallic QDs, increase in band gap for semiconducting QDs, and respective
change in physical properties provide a wider avenue to design and develop new low dimensional systems for
desired chemical, physical and electronic properties. In QDSSCs applications, quantum dots act as a sensitizer,
and are attracting attention because of their strong absorbing properties with high extinction coefficient,
essential for solar photovoltaic applications [5]. QDs also offer the possibility of bang gap engineering in the
desired wavelength range to absorb the maximum incident radiation [6].

In this work, we synthesized CdTe QDs using novel solution route based on water medium and integrated these
homogeneously mono-dispersed Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) QDs (~ 4 nm diameter) into nano-porous TiO2
electrode for QDSSCs applications. The structural, micro structural, optical and electronic properties of
quantum dots and quantum dots integrated TiO2 electrodes are investigated and discussed.

2. Experimental Details

Homogeneous and mono-dispersed CdTe QDs are synthesized using phosphine free route [3]. Water is used
as solvent to dissolve cadmium salt and N-acetyl-cysteine (C5H9NO3S, NAC) organic material is used as
capping agent to stabilize quantum dots. In a typical synthesis, 27mg Cd salt (CdCl 2) was weighed in a three
neck flask and 61mg of NAC was added to it in 50 ml volume of water. 1M NaOH was used to adjust the
desired pH of solution to accomplish the synthesis. This solution with different pH was added in Te solution to
achieve CdTe quantum dots of different sizes. For example, 10 mg of Te was dissolved in 1 ml of water and
reduced using 16mg of NaBH4 under N2 and a freshly prepared NaHTe solution was added to CdCl2 solution to
initiate the nucleation for CdTe quantum dots. A brown color solution was observed during this process and this
solution was transferred into an autoclave for heating at 160°C. The heating time was optimized to achieve
different diameter CdTe QDs, where growth was assisted through Ostwald ripening growth mechanism [7]. A
schematic diagram of NAC capped CdTe quantum dot is shown in Fig 1(a). TiO2 nano-porous electrodes were
prepared using TiO2 anatase powder supplied form sigma Aldrich. A paste of 0.5g TiO2 anatase powder was
prepared in 1.5g poly-ethylene glycol (C2nH4n+2On+1), with 20,000 m.w. and 2 ml water, followed by 24 hours of
continuous magnetic stirring to get the right viscosity of TiO2 paste.

* Ambesh Dixit. Tel.: +91-2912449045.

E-mail address: ambesh@iitj.ac.in
1283
 a b

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Figure 1: (a) Schematic diagram of NAC capped CdTe QD. (b) Schematic diagram of sensitized electrode

This TiO2 paste was uniformly coated on ITO glass using the doctor blade technique and dried at room
temperature for 15 minutes in air ambient. The dried nano-porous TiO2/glass samples were sintered at 450 °C in
air for 30 minutes. These TiO2 nano-porous electrodes were dipped into autoclave during the CdTe QDs growth
process to complete sensitization. The CdTe QDs sensitized TiO2 nano-porous electrodes were characterized to
understand their physical, optical and electronic properties.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. CdTe QDs characterization

Synthesized colloidal CdTe quantum dots were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement,
UV-Visible and fluorescence spectrometer to understand the structural and optical properties. XRD graph of
CdTe quantum dot powder is shown in Fig 2(a), where all the peaks are indexed with reference JCPDS 01-089-
3011 XRD spectrum. The reference peaks are marked with red colour inside XRD graph, Fig 2(a) top axis, and
identified (hkl) planes are indexed with their respective (hkl) values. The observed broad XRD peaks confirm
nanostructured geometry of synthesized CdTe QDs. The optical properties, such as absorbance and fluorescence
spectra are recorded using UV-Vis spectrophotometer (CARY 4000) and florescence spectrophotometer
(Perkin-Elmer) in 300 – 900 nm wavelength range and results are plotted in Fig 2(b). A clear fluorescence
emission spectra peak at ~ 548 nm has been observed, Fig 2(b), consistent with observed absorbance spectrum,
as shown in Fig 2(b).

2 (degree)
The calculated
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 (b)
(a)

JCPDS 01-089-3011
Intensity(arb. unit)

(Absorbance)

Absorbance
Emission
(210)

CdTE QDs Emission

(220)
(111)

548nm

10 20 30 40
2 (degree)
50 60 70 80 400 500 (nm)600 700

Figure 2: (a) XRD graph of CdTe QDs powder (b) absorbance and emission spectra of CdTe QDs

The calculated optical band gap is ~2.26 eV for these synthesized CdTe quantum dots. The diameter of these
CdTe quantum dots was estimated using effective mass approximation model [9], where optical band gap is
expressed as
ℎ2 1.8𝑒 2
𝐸𝑔𝑛(𝑅) = 𝐸𝑔𝑏 + ∗ 2
− (1)
8𝑚 𝑅 4𝜋𝜀𝜀0 𝑅

* Ambesh Dixit. Tel.: +91-2912449045.

E-mail address: ambesh@iitj.ac.in
1284
Here Egn is band gap of quantum dot, Egb is band gap of bulk material and R is radius of quantum dot. After
using effective mass for exciton (me*=0.11, mh*=0.35) [10] and relative dielectric constant of CdTe = 7.1 [11]
in Eq. (1), simplified expression for radius of CdTe quantum dots is

−0.3649 + √0.1331 + 17.864 ∗ ∆𝐸𝑔 (𝑒𝑉)

𝑅(𝑛𝑚) = (2)
2 ∗ ∆𝐸𝑔 (𝑒𝑉)
The radius of CdTe QDs with Eg ~ 2.26 eV has been calculated using Eq. (2) and is ~ 2.15 nm, in agreement
with reported literature values for such optical band gap [12].

3.2. TiO2 Electrode characterization

Structural characterization of sintered TiO2 electrode was carried out using XRD measurements. XRD graph
for pristine nano-porous TiO2 and CdTe sensitized nano-porous TiO2 electrodes are shown in Fig 3(a), with
JCPDS 03-065-5714 reference peaks and their (hkl) values (bottom panel). We do not observe CdTe quantum
dots diffraction peaks in TiO2 nano-porous electrode matrix, and all observed peaks are indexed to anatase TiO2
crystal phase. For clarity, CdTe JCPDS XRD reference peaks are also plotted in Fig 3(a) top panel. Strong peak
at 2θ ~ 25.260 correspond to (101) planar orientation of anatase TiO2 crystal phase. The grain size of nano-
porous TiO2 was estimated using Scherrer equation [8] and is ~ 20 nm. The observed granular nature is also
supported from SEM micrograph measurements, as shown in Fig 3(b). We clearly observe the spherical nano-
structures of TiO2 electrodes, consistent with XRD results.
JCPDS 01-089-3011 (b)
(a)
Intensity(arb. unit)

Sensitized TiO2 electrode

TiO2 electrode
(101)

(200)
(004)

(105)
(211)

(204)

(220)
(112)

(107)
(116)
(103)

(213)

20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
2(degree)

Figure 3: XRD graphs for (a) nano porous electrode before and after sensitization and (b) SEM micrograph of
TiO2 electrode.

Optical reflectance measurements were carried out on TiO2 and CdTe sensitized TiO2 electrodes using diffuse
reflectance spectra (DRS) and Kumbelka-munk model was used to calculate absorbance, and results are plotted
in Fig 4[11].
2.5 1.0
(a)
(b)

2.0 0.8
(bsorbance)

Dipped for 1.5 hr

 (Absorbance)

1.5 0.6 Dipped for 2 hr

Dipped for 2.5 hr

1.0 0.4 QDs absorbance

in TiO2 nanoporous
electrode
0.2
0.5

0.0
0.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
Energy (eV) Energy (eV)

Figure 4: Absorbance versus energy for (a) TiO2 nano-porous electrode and (b) CdTe QDs sensitized TiO2
nano-porous electrode

* Ambesh Dixit. Tel.: +91-2912449045.

E-mail address: ambesh@iitj.ac.in
1285
The measured absorption data, Fig. 4(a), suggests that the optical band gap of pristine nano-porous TiO2
electrodes is ~ 3.3 eV. The absorption spectra of CdTe QDs sensitized nano-porous electrode is shown in Fig.
4(b), for three different sensitization time intervals 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 hours. The onset of ~ 2.3 eV absorption edge
in conjunction with 3.3 eV TiO2 absorpiton edge, in Fig. 4(b), suggests that CdTe QDs are integrated with TiO2
nanoporous electrode material during sensitization process. The relative absorbance increases with increasing
sensitization time, as shown in Fig. 4(b), suggesting a simple sensitization process can be integrated with CdTe
QDs growth process for desired absorbnce properties.

4. Conclusion

We successfully synthesized homogeneously mono-dispersed CdTe quantum dots ~ 2 nm radius, using water
solvent, exhibiting ~ 2.26 eV optical band gap. The observed high band gap of these CdTe quantum dots is due
their small size. These studies provide an efficient process for sensitization of CdTe QDs in nano-porous TiO2
electrode to realize CdTe QDs sensitized Solar Cells and can be extended to other II-VI QDs sensitized solar
cell.

5. Acknowledgement

Authors Anurag Sahu, K. R. Hiremath and Ambesh Dixit, greatly acknowledge the financial support from
Department of Science and Technology (DST) through grant # DST/INT/ISR/P-12/2014. Authors A. K. Saha
and Ambesh Dixit acknowledge support from Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) through grant #
15/40/2010-11/ST.

6. References

[1] C. J. Murphy, “Peer Reviewed: Optical Sensing with Quantum Dots,” Anal. Chem., vol. 74, no. 19, p.
520 A–526 A, 2002.

[2] E. Jang, S. Jun, H. Jang, J. Lim, B. Kim, and Y. Kim, “White-Light-Emitting Diodes with Quantum Dot
Color Converters for Display Backlights,” Adv. Mater., vol. 22, no. 28, pp. 3076–3080, 2010.

[3] A. K. Saha, P. Sharma, H.-B. Sohn, S. Ghosh, R. K. Das, A. F. Hebard, H. Zeng, C. Baligand, G. a.
Walter, and B. M. Moudgil, “Fe doped CdTeS magnetic quantum dots for bioimaging,” J. Mater. Chem.
B, vol. 1, no. 45, p. 6312, 2013.

[4] a. P. Alivisatos, “Semiconductor Clusters, Nanocrystals and Quantum dots,” Science, vol. 271, no.
5251. pp. 933–937, 1996.

[5] W. W. Yu, L. Qu, W. Guo, and X. Peng, “Experimental Determination of the Extinction Coefficient of
CdTe , CdSe , and CdS Nanocrystals,” vol. 125, no. 17, pp. 2854–2860, 2003.

[6] P. Wang, S. M. Zakeeruddin, J. E. Moser, R. Humphry-Baker, P. Comte, V. Aranyos, a. Hagfeldt, M. K.

Nazeeruddin, and M. Gratzel, “Stable New Sensitizer with Improved Light Harvesting for
Nanocrystalline Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells,” Adv. Mater., vol. 16, no. 20, pp. 1806–1811, 2004.

[7] S. V. Kershaw, M. Harrison, A. L. Rogach, and A. Kornowski, “Development of IR-emitting colloidal

II-VI quantum-dot materials,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 534–543, 2000.

[8] A. Monshi, “Modified Scherrer Equation to Estimate More Accurately Nano-Crystallite Size Using
XRD,” World J. Nano Sci. Eng., vol. 02, no. 03, pp. 154–160, 2012.

[9] B. Pejova and I. Grozdanov, “Three-dimensional confinement effects in semiconducting zinc selenide
quantum dots deposited in thin-film form,” Mater. Chem. Phys., vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 35–46, 2005.

[10] T. Trindade, P. O’Brien, and N. L. Pickett, “Nanocrystalline semiconductors: Synthesis, properties, and
perspectives,” Chem. Mater., vol. 13, no. 11, pp. 3843–3858, 2001.

* Ambesh Dixit. Tel.: +91-2912449045.

E-mail address: ambesh@iitj.ac.in
1286
[11] Madelung, Otfried. (2004) Semiconductors:Data Handbook, Springer, Berlin, Germany

[12] S. Baskoutas and A. F. Terzis, “Size-dependent band gap of colloidal quantum dots,” J. Appl. Phys., vol.
99, no. 1, pp. 1–4, 2006.

* Ambesh Dixit. Tel.: +91-2912449045.

E-mail address: ambesh@iitj.ac.in
1287
 ICAER-2015

Influence of injection timing and nozzle opening pressure on the

combustion, performance and emission analysis of small CI
engine fueled with biodiesel

Rajesh Kumara, Dr. R.P. Gakkharb

a,b
Mechanical and Industrial engineering Department, IIT Roorkee, uttarakhand (247667), India
b
Second affiliation, Address, City and Postcode, Country

Abstract

The demand of renewable products is increasing due to fierce depletion of fossil fuels. On the other side fuel economy and
air pollution control are two challenging issues for the world. A major part of the pollution is generated by industrial
resources and vehicular emission. As the fossil fuels are depleting at an alarming rate to avoid the crises of fuel, bio fuels are
the only hope. Biodiesel is the alternative fuel used as the replacement of diesel in CI engines. High viscosity and density of
biodiesel is main problem of using biodiesel in directly in diesel engines. These properties of biodiesel directly affect the
injection system of engine which results poor combustion in combustion chamber.
In the present study biodiesel is prepared using waste cooking oil collected from institute cafeteria. The combustion,
performance and emission from a water cooled variable speed DI engine was observed by varying the injection timing of the
injection system. In case of bio diesel there is slight increase in engine performance brake thermal efficiency and brake
specific fuel consumption. CO, HC and smoke are decreased while a slight increase in NOx emission. For advance injection
timing better combustion is observed for different blends of biodiesel.

Keywords: WCO biodiesel, Diesel engine, Injection timing ;

1. Introduction

Today, the world is facing two major challenges which include the energy (fuel) crisis and environment
degradation. The costs of crude oil products depend on international markets and petroleum reserves are limited
to nearly 40 years with current consumption rate [1]. Many countries all over the world have been developing
new crops since the mid-1970s in order to increase the biomass resource base for production of bio energy.
India’s economy has often been unsettled by its need to import about 70% of its petroleum demand from the
highly unstable and volatile world oil market. India is projected to become the third largest consumer of
transportation fuel in 2020, after the USA and China, with consumption growing at an annual rate of 6.8% [1].
In India, 90% of imported oil is consumed for the transportation and energy generation and its economy is
highly dependent on the import of crude oil. Therefore the role of bio fuel as a transportation fuel will play a
very vital role.
The idea of using vegetable oil as a substitute for diesel fuel was demonstrated by the inventor of the
diesel engine, Rudolph Diesel, around the year 1900, when vegetable oil was proposed as fuel for engines. The
use of vegetable oil was limited due to its high viscosity (near 10 times of petroleum diesel). In order to adapt
the fuel to the existing engines the properties of vegetable oil had to be modified. Various products derived from
vegetable oils have been proposed as an alternative fuel for diesel engines [2].

Nomenclature

WCO waste cooking oil

CI compression ignition
DI direct injection

1288
1.1. biodiesel

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), International defines biodiesel as the “mono alkyl esters
of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable lipid feedstocks, such as vegetable oils and animal fats, for use
in compression ignition engines.” In the 80’s and 90’s significant Research was conducted to evaluate a variety
of biodiesel blending stocks, studying emissions from diesel engine, assess engine/vehicle performance, and
develop cost-effective manufacturing processes.
The sources of biodiesel in India are non edible oils obtained from plant species such as Jatropha,
Pongamia pinnata, karanja and thumba etc [3]. Biodiesel can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to
create a biodiesel blend or can be used as straight oil. Just like petroleum diesel, biodiesel operates in
compression ignition engine; which essentially requires very little or no engine modifications because biodiesel
has properties similar to petroleum diesel fuels. The use of biodiesel in conventional diesel engines results in
substantial reduction of un-burnt hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matters [4]. But
use of biodiesel slightly increases nitrogen oxide (NOX) emission. Biodiesel is considered as a clean fuel since it
has almost no sulphur, no aromatics and has about 10% built in oxygen, which helps it to burn fully. Its higher
cetane number improves the ignition quality even when blended with the petroleum diesel. Due to the fact that
vegetable oils are produced from plants, their burning leads to a complete recyclable CO2 (green house gas).
In India, there are about 100 varieties of oil seeds but only 10-12 varieties have been tapped so far,
amongst which Jatropha and Pongamia are the key wild plant species identified as the potential feedstock for
biodiesel production. Their cultivability in wasteland and relatively adverse climatic conditions are the key
attribute for their promotion as a feedstock material. According to the Economic Survey of Government of
India, out of the total cultivated land area, about 175 million hectares of land is classified as waste and degraded
land. It is perceived at various levels of government that encouraging sustainable cultivation of Pongamia and
Jatropha trees on these lands can meet part of the country’s energy requirements. With this background, the
Planning Commission of India, along with the Ministries of Petroleum, Rural Development, Poverty Alleviation
and Environment, has conceptualized a national mission that recommends a major multi-dimensional program
to commercialize the biodiesel industry in India. One prime objective is the progressive replacement of petro-
diesel by blending in 5%, 10%, and, eventually, 20% of biodiesel.

1.2. chemistry of biodiesel

Biodiesel is made using the process of transesterification. In the transesterification of different type of oils,
triglycerides react with an alcohol, generally methanol or ethanol, to produce esters and glycerine. To make it
possible, a catalyst is added to the reaction.
CH2-OOC-R1 R1-COO-R’ CH2-OH
| Catalyst |
CH-OOC-R2 + 3R’OH R2-COO-R’ + CH-OH
| |
CH2-OOC-R3 R3-COO-R’ CH2-OH

Glycerides Alcohol Esters Glycerin

Here, term R represents to different alkyl groups.

1.3. biodiesel from waste cooking oil

Presently, India produces only 30% of the total petroleum fuels required and the remaining 70% is imported,
which costs about Rs. 80,0000 million per year. It is evident that mixing of 5% of biodiesel fuel to the present
diesel fuel can save Rs. 40,000 million per year. It is also estimated that India can supplement 41.14% of the
total diesel fuel consumption, if resources like waste cooking oil and other bio wastes were used as raw material
for biodiesel production [14]. Due to renewable in nature, low cost and green house gas reduction potential
biodiesel is nowadays incorporated all over the world especially in developed countries like USA, France,
Brazil in different proportions with diesel. Waste cooking oil cannot be used directly in diesel engines as it has
higher viscosity, free fatty acid and moisture content with low volatility leading to severe engine deposits,

1289
injector coking and piston ring sticking [15,16]. These undesirable effects can be removed by transesterification
of waste cooking oil. The process of transesterification removes glycerin from the triglyceride molecules present
in waste cooking oil and replaces it with alcohol used in the process. The viscosity is decreased without much
affecting the cetane number and the heating values. The chemical reaction of transesterification is shown in Fig.
1. Product of the reaction is methyl ester. In stoichiometric reaction, three moles of carbinol is required for one
mole of triglycerides, however this being a reversible reaction, excess carbinol is required to shift the
equilibrium to the product side. The base catalyzed transesterification has been selected rather than an acid
catalyzed transesterification due to high conversion rate [4–6]. The data on requirement of petroleum diesel and
availability of waste cooking oil in any country indicate that biodiesel obtained from waste cooking oil may not
replace petroleum diesel completely. However, a substantial amount of biodiesel fuel can be prepared from
waste cooking oil, which would partially decrease the dependency on petroleum based diesel.

2 Raw material and production of biodiesel

2.1 Source

Waste cooking used to produce the biodiesel was collected from hostel mess and local canteens. Impurities
present in rough oil were filtered by using a very thin cloth.

2.2 Transesterification
WCO collected from the different sources has very high viscosity and density. To improve the viscosity and
other properties of transesterification process was adopted. Methanol is used for the transesterification and KOH
(potassium hydroxide) is used as catalyst. Molar ratio of 6:1 is selected for methanol to wco oil ratio for which
catalyst is mixed by (1% by wt.) of the total amount of the fuel. After tree step reaction which is also mentioned
earlier, biodiesel and end products like glycerin etc. were separated. Biodiesel obtained from the above process
was washed with distilled water after that biodiesel is ready to use in diesel engine.

2.3 properties of WCO biodiesel

Properties of biodiesel produced in shown in table 1.

Table 1. Fuel properties.

properties Diesel Wco biodiesel
Density at 20 °C (kg/m3)
Viscosity at 30 °C (cP)
Cetane number
Flash point (°C)
Calorific value (MJ/kg)

2 Experimental setup:
Experiments were carried out on a single cylinder, 4 stroke, water cooled and DI engine. Schematic diagram of
engine setup arrangement is shown in figure no. For the measurement of torque engine is coupled with AVL
alpha-20 eddy current dynamometer. The diesel engine is loaded with this eddy current dynamometer and
related Torque is monitored with AVL control panel DYCON 201A. Engine combustion chamber pressure was
measured with the help of a piezoelectric transducer (AVL GM12D), which is connected to the engine cylinder
vertically with amplifier. A crank angle calculator (AVL 3069A02) was installed on the engine shaft for crank
angle position. Both these sensors were connected with combustion analyser (AVL make DPM 802) for data
acquisition. Specifications of test engine are given in table no. 1.

1290
 Schematic diagram of test engine setup
For the measurement of exhaust gas emission, exhaust gas analyser AVL Digas 480 is used to measure CO,
CO2, HC and NO in exhaust pipe and smoke opacity was measured by using using AVL Dismoke 480. RTD type
thermocouples were used for all types of temperatures.

Specifications of test engine setup

Parameters Specifications
Engine Single cylinder inline, 4-stroke, water cooled, direct
injection Diesel engine.
Bore (mm) 92
Stroke (mm) 92
Displacement (cc) 611
Compression Ratio 18:1
Maximum rated power (kW) 8.1
Rated rpm 3000

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1291
2. Equations

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
J C (T = const.) × P ×  + (1 − P )

 E 
  C  

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References

[1] J. Van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2000) 51–59.
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan, New York, 1979.
[3] G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp.
281–304.

1292
 ICAER-2015

Preparation and Characterization of Zinc Doped CdS Thin

Films for Photovoltaic Applications
S. Rajathia, R. Vasukiab, N. Sankarasubramaniani, and M. Senthamizhselvid
a,b,c,d
Thinfilm Research Laboratory, Department of Physics,
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai – 625 015, Tamilnadu, India.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Abstract:

Zinc doped Cadmium Sulfide (CdZnS) thin films were deposited onto glass substrates from alkaline solutions
containing Cadmium Chloride, Zinc Chloride and Thiourea at different deposition temperature (325˚ to 450˚ C). These
films were characterized using X-ray diffraction, UV-visible spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy techniques.
Using the X-ray diffraction spectra the lattice parameter, grain size, average grain, number of crystallites per unit area
and dislocation density are calculated and revealed cubic crystal structure of the Zinc doped CdS films. With increase in
film thickness the optical band gap was found to be decreased from 2.98 to 2.44 eV. It was observed that presence of
small amount of zinc results in marked changes in the optical band gap of CdS. The range of band gap energy for the
mixed films may be helpful in designing a suitable window material in fabrication of solar cells. The transmittance of the
Zinc doped CdS films were found in the range of 55 to 75%. The CdZnS thin films exhibited the particle size in the
range of 40 – 250 nm. The calculated band gap energy of the CdZnS films lies between 2.38 eV (for Zn concentration
0.01 mol %) and 2.24 eV (for Zn concentration 0.002 mol%)A comparison of the results revealed that Zinc doped CdS
thin films prepared at lower temperature improves transmittance and makes them suitable for application as window
layer of CdTe/CIGS solar cells.

Keywords:CdZns thinfilms; Spray pyrolysis technique; Optical constants;

1. Introduction and Experimental:

Compound semiconductors formed from II–VI or III–VI elements are key materials in plans to
harvest energy directly from sunlight in photovoltaic devices. Cd 1-x Zn x S ternary compounds are promising
materials for a variety of optoelectronic device applications, such as electroluminescent and photocoductor
devics [1,2] and especially in photovoltaic cells with different polycrystalline absorber materials like Cu x S
[3], CuInSe 2 [4], CdTe[5], CuGaSe 2 [6]. The reason is the possibility of tailoring its semiconductor
properties between the values corresponding to the pure binaies. This fact allows us to adapt the material
properties to the device requirements. In recent years there have appeared several papers on fabrication of
these compounds by different methods.However, only few papers on preparation of Cd 1-x Zn x S thin film by
Chemical Sprau Pyrolysis [7] can be found, despite being one of the most common methods used for the
deposition of II-VI compound semiconductor thin films.
Current work has significant potential for low-cost, scalable solar cells. The cadmium zinc sulfide
(CdZnS) thin film is one of the promising materials which is used as a wide band gap (larger than 2.5 eV)
window material in hetrojunction solar cells and in photoconductive devices. The higher band gap of ternary
CdZnS has led to less window absorption loss, which makes it an effective replacement for CdS, in thin film
solar cell system.
Cadmium zinc sulfides Cd 1-x Zn x S have properties in between CdS and ZnS. Addition of Zn to the
most widely used CdS buffer layer material enhances the electronic and optical properties of optoelectronic
devices. The CdZnS thin film band structure has a larger energy gap than CdS. This makes the material
much more attractive for the fabrication of solar cells. It has been widely used as a wide bandgap window
material in hetero-junction photovoltaic solar cells and photoconductive devices. Keeping these aspects
inview, more attention is being given in producing good quality CdZnS thin films for comprehensive optical
studies and their various applications. A number of film deposition methods such as spray pyrolysis,
sputtering, electro deposition, vacuum evaporation, chemical vapour deposition and chemical bath
deposition (CBD) have been used for preparing II-VI compounds.[8-11] In this study, we were prepared the

1293
Cd 1-x Zn x S thin films for varying Zn content by a modified Spray Pyrolysis Technique. The effects of Zn
content on structural, morphological and some optical properties have been investigated. Our intension is to
employ this material for suitable device fabrication.

2. Experimental detals.

Spray pyrolysis is basically a chemical process, in which a precursor solution is sprayed onto a
substrate held at high temperature. At first the aqueous solution of Cadmium Chloride (CdCl 2 .H 2 O),
thiourea (CH 4 N 2 S) and Zinc chloride (ZnCl 2 ) has been prepared by dissolving 10.066 grams of CdCl 2 .H 2 O,
3.806 grams of CH 4 N 2 S and 0.0819 grams of ZnCl 2 in 100 ml of double distilled water respectively. The
precursor solution has been prepared by mixing aqueous solution of CdCl 2 .H 2 O and CH 4 N 2 S in the ratio
1:1. Then aqueous solution of ZnCl 2 corresponding to 0.006 mole have been added into the above mixture,
to prepare CdZnS thin films with the stochiometry Cd 1-x Zn x S (x = 0, 0.002, 0.004, 0.006, 0.008, 0.01 and
0.02M). The mixed solution has been sprayed onto a cleaned and pre heated mineral glass substrate
maintained at different temperatures between 325 °C and 450 °C. The Cd1-xZnxS thinfilms have been spray
deposited using the optimized coating parameters viz., Substrate – Nozzle distance – .25 m, volume flow
rate of the precursor solution – 15 CC/minute, Carrier gas – Air and spray time – 80 Sec. The apparatus of
spray pyrolysis technique is diagrammed in Figure.1 and has been described in references [12, 13]. The
deposited films have annealed in an air furnace at 300 °C for 1 hour. The structural properties of the CdZnS
thinfilms have been studied using philips pananalytical X-Ray Diffractometer. Optical transmittance of the
films have been measured in the wavelength region 300 nm – 800 nm using Perkin and Elmer UV-Visible
spectrophotometer. From the transmittance data, band gap energy of the films has been evaluated. Surface
morphological features of the films have been investigated using Scanning Electron Microscope. Sheet
resistance, resistivity of the films have been evaluated using conventional four-probe setup.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the spray coating apparatus.

3. Results and Discussion:

The XRD profile of the CdZnS thin films spray coated at various Zn concentrations have been
shown in the Fig.2. The variation of different crystallographic parameters viz., lattice constant, mean gain
size, number of reflections per unit area, lattice strain, dislocation density, texture coefficient and standard
deviation with different Zn concentration have been calculated from the experimentally observed XRD data
and give in the Table-1.

1294
 The XRD pattern of all the CdZnS thinfilms deposited at different Zn concentrations confirms the
hexagonal structure with the preferred orientation along the (101) plane[14]. The other characteristic
orientation of CdZnS corresponding to the plane (100), (002), (400), (110), (220) and (112) have also been
observed. The film deposited at Zn concentration (0.001 M) shows the amorphous nature and the crystallites
of all the orientations begin to grow gradually with the steady increase in the Zn concentration. A steep
increase in the intensity peak of the planes (100), (002) and (101) with Zn concentration may be attributed to
the heat induced orientated growth of crystallites. The fig.(1) also illustrates the slow growth of crystallites
along the planes (400), (110), (220) and (112) with the gradual increase in the Zn concentration, which has
been confirmed from the weak intensity profile of these planes.
The lattice constant “a” and “c” are calculated using the following equation [15]

1 4 h2 + hk + k2 l2
--- = ---- ---------------- + ---- (1)
d2 3 a2 c2

The peak profile analysis and lattice parameter determination has been carried out JCPDS – data. The strain
and dislocation density in the samples have been analyzed using the formula

β 1/2 Cosθ

Strain(ε)= ------------- (2)

Dislocationdensity(δ)=1/D2 (3)

shown in the Table – 1 have been found to be well in agreement with the standard JCPDS data PDF
file number 80.0006[16]. The mean grain size (D) evaluated from the XRD data lie between 20 nm and 80
nm. The mean grain size have been found to decrease with the increase in the Zn concentration and this may
be due to the segregation of crystallite aggregate in the films, deposited at higher concentration.

Table.1 indicates a gradual decrease in micro strain of the crystallites with the increase in the Zn
concentration. As the Zn concentration increases, more thermal stress acts on the crystallites. As a
consequence the lattice vibrational energy increases and this causes an increase in the microstrain. The
preferred orientation and the crystallite growth at a particular orientation of the CdZnS films have been
studied from the texture coefficient(TC).
The calculated texture coefficient has been found to the maximum for the (101) plane indicating it
as the preferred orientation. Further, the increase in the TC(101) [17] value with the Zn concentration
signify, the gradual increase in the oriented overgrowth of the crystallites along this plane, as evidenced in
the XRD profile. The standard deviation(σ) value and number of reflection per unit area (N) have been found
to increase with the increase in the Zn concentration indicating the excessive crystallite growth along the
preferred (101) direction. The (101) diffraction peak gives the lattice matching to the chalcogenide
semiconductor material, which are used in photovoltain devices and optoelectronic applications. The grain
size of the samples has been estimated by ‘Debye-Scherrer’ relation:

0.94λ
D = ---------- (4)
Β cosθ

Where λ is the wavelength of the X-ray source, β is the broadening of the diffraction line measured at half
of its maximum intensity (FWHM) and θ is the Bragg’s angle in degrees, The average crystallite size has
been calculated by resolving the intense peak. The estimated size of CdZnS crystallites was 20nm.

1295
 Fig. 1 XRD pattern of CdZnS thinfilms deposited with different Zn concentration
Table.1 Structural Parameters of CdZnS thin films

Zinc
strain Dislocation Texture Standard
concen Grain
ε Density (δ) N Lattice Constant Coefficient deviation
tration size
(TC)

10-3 1015
Mol % nm 10 -16 a Ǻ c Å (σ)
lin-2 m-4 lin/m2

0 79 2.116 4.87 0.1542 4.1218 6.6963 1.0000 2.0844

0.002 35 2.416 6.08 0.1592 4.1185 6.6962 1.0000 2.1026

0.004 33 2.266 7.02 0.3002 4.1107 6.6869 1.0000 1.3133

0.006 26 0.891 1.05 0.1603 4.1095 6.6710 1.0000 2.3049

0.008 25 0.788 7.38 0.0803 4.1051 6.6642 1.0000 2.0951

0.01 20 0.765 5.48 0.4242 4.1026 6.6627 1.0000 1.9405

1296
 The transmission spectra of the CdZnS thin films deposited at different Zn concentration have been
shown in the Fig.2a. For all the films, at any wavelength, the optical transmittance has been found to
increase with the increase in the Zn concentration. This may be attributed to the gradual reduction in the
light scattering effect offered by the fine crystallites with the steady increase in the Zn concentration. For all
the films the absorption edge lies in the UV region. The maximum transmittance of 85% (at λ = 800 nm)
has been observed, for the CdZnS[15] thin film spray deposited at the Zn concentration 0.008 mol. The
optical band gap has been evaluated from the x-axis intercept of the extrapolated line in the Fig. 2b . The
direct band gap energy calculated from the Fig. 2b lie between 2.2 eV (for Zn concentration 0.01 mol %) and
2.38 eV (for Zn concentration 0.002 mol %). The band gap energy has been found to decrease with the
increase in the Zinc concentration of the film. Enhancement in band gap dur to zinc incorporation has been
reported for CBD films and this indicates solid solution formation. The absorption edges of the films were
observed to shift towards shorter wavelengths (blue shift) with respect to the sinc enrichment in the rilm.
This is strongly evident that the band gap tuncability is mainly due to Zn2+ concentration in the formation of
cdzns thin films.

Fig. 2a. Transmission spectra of CdZnS thinfilms deposited with different Zn concentrations
Fig. 2b. Determination of band gap energy of CdZnS thin films

The electrical resistivity has been evaluated from the sheet resistance measurements. The electrical
resistivity has been found to decrease with the increase in the dopant concentration. This may be attributed
to the gradual decrease in the lattice scattering of charge carriers with the increase in the Zinc concentration.

1297
A minimum electrical [18] resistivity of 3.1 X 103 Ω – cm is observed for the CdZnS film deposited at the Zn
concentration at 0.008 mol %.

2000

1500

1000
0.002 - 450
500

Intensity (a.u)
0

6000 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100

5000
4000
3000
2000
0.002 - 400
1000
0

300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100

Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 3 Shows Photoluminecence emission spectra of Al doped CdS thin films with different concentrations

20000
0.002 - 450
15000

10000

5000

0
%T

0 500 1000 1500 2000

10000
8000
6000 0.002 - 400
4000
2000
0

0 500 1000 1500 2000

-1
Wavenumber (cm )
Fig.4 Raman spectra of Zn doped CdS thin film with different concentrations

The Photoluminescence emission spectra of the Zn doped CdS this prepared with different
concentrations at different temperatures is shown in fig.4 Photoluminescence have been recorded at roo,
temperature with wavelength between 300 and 1100nm exhibits the band of emission peaks around 550 and
800nm. The figure shows the rise in the intensity level of the peaks at higher temperatures for all the
concentrations.

The Raman spectra of Zn doped CdS thinfilms prepared with different concentrations at various
substrate temperature is shown in fig.5. The figure shows the Raman spectra over wide frequency range for
the Zn doped CdS thinfilms at various temperatures and at Zn Doping concentrations. The peak observed at
300 cm-1 coincided with Aluminium doped CdS thinfilms.

1298
 The FT-IR spectra of Zn doped CdS thinfilms prepared with different concentrations at various
substrate temperature is shown in fig. 5. The fig.5. shows the absorption peaks obtained at 2500, 3700 and
5000 cm-1 as found for un doped CdS thinfilms which represents CdS stretching. There are variations in the
intensities of the absorption peaks during the change in the temperatures and the dopant concentrations. The
observed intensity levels are very low for certain concentrations like .002 M concentrations. The absorption
band present at 3700 cm-1 is due to OH stetching vibrations of water molecules.

25
20
15
0.002 - 450
10
5
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
%T

25
20
15 0.002 - 400
10
5
0

70 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000

60
50
40 0.002 - 325
30
20
10
0
-10
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
-1)
Wavenumber (cm

Fig. 5 FT-IR parameters of Zn doped CdS Thin Flim with different concentrations

The SEM micrograph of the CdZnS thinfilms deposited with the Zn concentration 0.002 mol% to
0.01 mol% have been shown in Fig. 4. All the images show uniform surface pattern associated with large
accumulation of fine grains. The figure also illustrates lesser surface roughness, without any dark pits and
pin holes. The grain size estimated from the SEM analysis lies between 50 nm and 150 nm.

Fig. 63 SEM image of the CdZnS thin films deposited with different Zinc concentrations

AFM is the one of the best technique than SEM since the scanning resolution is in nm. Moreover
it gives detailed picture on the surface roughness as well as the grain growth in the Zn doped CdS thin
films. To understand the effect of Zn concentrations at high temperatures, AFM images at 400 °C and 450

1299
°C are recorded and is shown in Figure - 7 (a-f). The observed surface roughness and the grain sizes are
decreased. It could also be observed that the surface roughness for the Zn doped CdS thin films at higher
temperature decreases as the concentration increases.

The Figure - 4(a-f) shows the 3D images of Zn doped CdS thin films prepared via Spray pyrolysis
method. It confirms the effect of Zn concentration on surface roughness. But the high value of surface
roughness is observed for higher concentration Zn doped CdS film and reduced value is observed with
consecutive doping. These changes may be due to the presence of hexagonal phase instead of CdS phase in
(002) orientation. However the surface roughness is found to be decreased for the film at higher substrate
temperature and this is mainly due to the effect of Zn doping. But the observed results clearly indicate that
this effect depends on the Zn concentration. So, a reduced surface roughness is observed for higher Zn
concentration and higher substrate temperature.

Figure-7 (a-f) AFM image of Zn doped CdS thin films deposited at the substrate temperature 350 °C and 450 °C

1300
4. Conclusions

CdZnS thinfilms have been prepared on mineral glass substrate by spray pyrolysis method. The
XRD profile of the films confirms hexagonal wurtizite structure with preferred orientation along the (101)
plane. The mean grain size have been found to decrease with increase in the Zinc concentration and this may
be due to the segregation of crystallite aggregate in the films, deposited at higher dopant concentration. The
gradual increase in microstrain with the dopant concentration may be due to the increase in thermal stress
and the lattice vibrational energy, with the rise in the dopant concentration. The direct band gap energy
calculated from the transmittance measurements lies between 2.28 eV (for Zn concentration 0.01 mol %) and
2.4 eV (for Zn concentration 0.002 mol %). The range of band gap energy for the mixed films may be
helpful in designing a suitable window material in fabrication of solar cells and sensors. However, for high
Zn-content film, excess doping agent precipitates resulting in zinc coalescence in certain regions resulting in
enhanced absorption which has adverse effect in window layers in solar cells. It appears from our present
study that low value of Zn concentration, although present a band gap value slightly higher than that of CdS
bulk, is suitable for application due to its higher transparency and better surface morphology.The electrical
resistivity is found to be low with the value 3.1 X 103 Ω – cm for the film deposited at the Zn concentration
0.008 %m0l. The SEM and AFM micrographs of the films show uniform surface pattern associated with
large accumulation of the grains.

References

[1] Abrahams, M.S., Buiocchi, C.J., 1988. J. Electrochem. Soc. 135 (6), 1578.
[2] Torres, J., Gordillo, G., 1992. Thin Solid Films 207, 231.
[3] Burton, L.C., Hetch, T.L., 1976. Appl. Phys. Lett. 29, 612.
[4] Potter, R.R., Sites, J.R., 1983. Appl. Phys. Lett. 43 (9), 843.
[5] Hussain, O.M., Reddy, P.S., Naidu, B.S., Uthanna, U., Reddy, P.J., 1991. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 6, 690.
[6] Reddy, K.T.R., Reddy, P.J., 1992. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 25, 1345.
[7] Akyuz, Idris, Kose, Salih, Atay, Ferhunde, Bilgin, Vildan, 2007. Mat. Sci. Semicon. Proc. 10, 103.
[8] J.M. Dona, J. Herrero, Thin Solid Films, 268(1995).
[9] Saliha Ilican, Muhsin Zor et al, Optica Applicata, Vol XXXVI, 1(2006).
[10] D.N. Okoli, A.J. Ekpunobi and C.E. Okeke, Academic Open Internet Journal, 18(2006).
[11] P.K.Nair, M.T.S. Nair et al J. Phys, D22 , 829 (1989).
[12 ] Leonid V. Azaroff, Elements of X-ray Crystallography, McGraw-Hill Company, Japan, 1968, p. 485.
[12] Ashour,A, H.H. Afify. H.H and Mahmoud . S.A, 1994, Effect of some spray pyrolysis parameters on electrical and optical
properties of ZnS films, Thin Solid Films, 248, 253, doi.org/10.1016/0040-6090(94)90020-5
[13] Monica-Loredana ENESCU, Iulia-Florentina ENESCU, 2008, The Automatized systems for spray pyrolysis deposition,

1301
 ANNALS of the ORADEA UNIVERSITY, Fascicle of Management and technological Engineering, Volume VII (XVII), 1385-
1388.k
[14] R. U. Osuji, Nig. J. of Solar Energy, 2003, 14, 90.
[15] S.C. Ezugwu, F.I. Ezema, P.U. Asogwa, Chalcogenide Letters, 2010, 7(5), 3415.
[16] Y. Raviprakash, V. Kasturi, V. Bangera and G. K. Shivakumar, Sol.Ene., 2009, 83, 1645.
[17] M.A. Jafarov, and E.F. Nasirov, Solar Ene. Con. by cells using CdZnS and CdTe films,
2012 Int. conf.on Power and Energy Systems, Lecture Notes in InformationTech., Vol.13.
[18] Metin Bedir, Refik Kayali and Mustafa oztas, effect of the Zn concentration on the
characteristic parameters of ZnxCd1-xS thin films developed by spraying pyrolysis method
under the Nitrogen atmosphere, Turk J.Phys. 2002, 26, 121.
[19] V.B. Sanap and B.H. Pawar, Journal of Optoelee. and Biomedical materials,2011,3(2),44.

1302
 ICAER-2015

Soiling Effect on Crystalline and Thin-film Technology PV Modules for

Composite Climatic Zone of India

Shivendra kaundilyab, O.S. Sastry*a, Birinchi Boraa, Supriya Raia, Manander Bangara, Renua,
Rashmi Singha, Avinash Kumarc, Kamlesh Yadava, Mithilesh Kumara, R. Arun Prasathb
a
National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon, Haryana,122003, India
b
Pondicherry University, Puducherry, 605014, India
c
Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam,784028, India

Abstract

The effect of soiling on thin film and crystalline technology has been studied for composite climate. Three test setup structures with dual axis manual tracking
have been installed at outdoors for exposure of modules at different tilt angles 130, 280 & 430. In the same structure with different inclinations, clean and dust
module of each technology is installed to study the effect of variation in current, spectrum and temperature. The natural cleaning of non-dusty modules is done on
daily basis in the early morning. The short circuit current of all modules are measured through a programmable digital multi-meter on continuous basis. There is a
drop in Isc current for the dust module with the increase of dust accumulation. A change in spectrum is also observed for each day and drop in average photon
energy was observed due to change in transmissivity.

Keywords: Dust; Soiling ratio; transmissivity; spectrum

1. Introduction

India is a vast country having six different climatic zones e.g. cold and cloudy, composite, hot & dry, warm & humid, moderate
and Cold & sunny. The intensity and ambient temperature varies throughout the year. So to find the actual energy output of a
particular module before installation it is very much difficult to estimate. As per IEC standards, PV modules are tested at STC.
But in a tropical country like India this conditions is rarely or never happened throughout the year. To estimate the energy output
it is very much needed to find the performance of PV module in real weather conditions. It has been proved by various studies that
the performance of PV modules depends on their technology, on the location, the weather conditions and the mounting
configuration. However energy estimation based on the performance of PV module in controlled environment is different as that
in real weather conditions. One of the major factors of low accuracy of performance estimation, is the dust effect. For India the
quality and quantity of dust is different from place to place as it has different climatic zone as stated above. The soil mitigation
varies throughout the year, exposure time, tilt of the mounted structure and technology of PV module [1 - 4]. Analysis of soiling
effect for all PV technology is very important to select the suitable technology and feasible cleaning method for all the six climatic
zones of India. The re- suspension of dust particles in outdoor environmental condition is difficult to predict the module
performance and reliability [2]. The performance of the SPV (Solar photovoltaic) technology is rated under STC (Irradiance
1000W/m2, Temperature 25 0C & Air mass 1.5) whereas in real outdoor the environmental parameters are quite different, and it’s
very difficult to predict the variation in these parameters. Deposition of dust on module surface affects the spectrum, intensity of
radiation and module temperature as well. This paper presents the effect of soiling on four PV technologies (CdTe, CIGS, Multi-
crystalline and Mono-crystalline silicon). The effect on the performance of PV module has been analyzed by using transmissivity
of incidence light, variation of spectrum and temperature. There are different factors which influence the efficiency of
photovoltaic module: Tilt angle plays a major role in the determination of dust decomposition and accumulation. As the tilt
increases, due to gravitational force dust accumulates in the bottom part of the panel. Cleaning of the panel due to rain and wind
strongly get effected by the orientation structure. Accumulation of dust plays a critical role for degradation of power and energy
yield. Decomposition of dust depends on the particle size, deposition rate, type of dust and time interval of cleaning.

1303
 2. Experimental Setup

The experimental setup established for analyzing the effect of dust deposition on the performance at NISE is shown in the Fig 1.
The three test structures with dual axis manual tracking has been installed at three different fixed tilt at 130, 280 & 430 (Fig. 1). In
same mounted structure, clean and dust module of same technology has been installed to study the effect in variation of short
circuit current, spectrum. The cleaning of one module from each technology is done on daily basis in the early morning. The short
circuit current of all modules are measured through a digital multi-meter on continuous basis as shown in figure. The instant I-V
in outdoor is measured by using I-V tracer (Amprobe Solar 4000) near solar noon every day. For the quantification of dust
deposition in the module surface 30 glass slides has been installed on each structure. The transmissivity in terms of intensity and
irradiance at different wavelength range of each glass slides has been checked before installation in the outdoor by using the
ORIEL NEWPORT class AAA Solar Simulator and LICOR Li-1800 Spectroradiometer. All the testing are done at intensity 1000
W/m2, AM 1.5 and 25 0C. Rayan et al [6] studied a methodology for dusting of solar collector in Eugene which focuses majorly in
calculating soiling ratio. As current is directly proportional to the irradiance so it is easy to compare and predict the performance
ratio between clean and unclean module. The short circuit current is calculated by the measured voltage drop across low shunt
resistance and monitored periodically. The calculated short circuit current along with irradiance under normalized condition
estimate the soiling ratio. Instantaneous measurement of irradiance can help to calculate energy yield and eliminate the common
mode of error such as temperature and spectral response. Initially I-V measurement of both unclean and clean module for one
month are taken before undergoing dusting condition, which helps to calculate an offset condition. The performances of modules
needs to be normalized as the performances of two modules installed are not same in real outdoor conditions. So, the offset of the
modules needs to be done from the STC data. As I-V data taken in outdoor condition is different from STC condition (Irradiance
1000W/m2, Temperature 250C & Air mass 1.5) in indoor so extrapolation of data is done using correction procedure 1 of IEC
60891 [3,5].

Fig.1. (a) & (b) Experimental Setup for calculating Soiling Ratio

For reference condition one month data is analyzed by outdoor I-V characterization after cleaning both tested and normal
module. Still, after doing the normalization in STC, there is a change in Isc and Voc conditions in both module with same rating.
The offset value determined for this condition will be useful for further interpretation. Determination of the short circuit current
and irradiance under normalized condition estimates the soiling ratio.
Different type of glass is installed in different tilt and each glasses are removed everyday for I-V, and spectral characterization
under STC condition. Every month both modules are cleaned up and I-V characterization is analyzed to study the effect in current
and power rating.

1304
3. Result and Discussion

Although the same technology module installed in the same structure are of same rating, however in real condition the output may
differ. To make the comparison of dust, offset value of each module needs to be estimated by exposing all modules in outdoor
condition and checking the I-V curve each day. At the end of the month variations of different parameters has been ploted for each
day. It has been observed that same module there are variations in different electrical parameters. These are because of the
estimation error of the correction procedure. However, the performance of different module of same technology are different and
offset value is used for further estimation of the effect of dust.

The effect of dust on the performance of PV module has been analyzed by using three procedure:
 Transmissivity
 Spectrum
 Soiling ratio

3.1. Transmissivity
The main effect of the dust accumulation on the surface of PV module is the loss of transmissivity. For the quantification of the
effect the transmissivity, each slides taken out from the outdoor test set up are checked every day. In the Fig. 2.the transmissivity
of different glass slides from three different structures has been plotted.

The change in transmissivity is calculated by using the Isc value of secondary reference cell. The Isc value of reference cell was
measured by sun simulator at 1000 W/m2, AM 1.5 and 250C. The drop in Isc due to clean glass and dusty glass was measured
using the formula below

1000 / G 
I SC ofreferencecell (1)
I SC ofrefrencecellwithglass

Where G, is the extrapolated radiation at which the reference cell will give the same Isc as it is with glass on it.
In the Fig. 2. drop in extrapolated radiation versus the number of days for different tilt has been shown. It has been found that
as the dust accumulation increases the transmissivity goes on decreasing. However during the experiment there were rainfalls due
to which there are variations in the graph. On an average with the increase of tilt angle the accumulation of the dust is decreasing.
However for the same tilt there may be change in the dust accumulation with the change in azimuth angle.

Fig. 2 : Transmittance in terms of radiation found by extrapolating the Isc (found by putting glass slides on reference cell)

1305
3.2. Spectrum

The effect of dust on the spectrum transmitted through the glass has been analyzed by using spectrometer. The measurement
range of the spectrometer is 300 to 1100 nm. In the figure below, the spectrum at AM 1.5 of solar simulator has been plotted (fig).
The change in the transmitted spectrum with respect to AM 1.5 spectrum after accumulation of dust can be visualized from the fig
3.

Fig. 3: Indoor Spectrum study of glass slides kept in outdoor condition

3.3. Soiling ratio

Soiling ratio can be calculated from the formula shown below

Soilingratio  (( I SC ( CLEAN )  I SC ( DUST ) ) /( I SC ( CLEAN ) ) *100 (2)

The Isc for various modules were measured using 5 1/2 multi-meter and data was logged on continuous basis to a computer
attached to it. From the measured data the soiling ratio for various modules was calculated and is shown graph below

Fig. 4: Relative Soiling Ratio

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It has been observed that with the increase of the outdoor exposure of the slides the soiling ratio increases. However there are
sudden drops in soiling ratio as due to rain and high speed wind at the outdoor the dust accumulation goes down. A highest of 6%
loss has been observed during the testing period.

4. Conclusion

The effect of dust on all the four technology modules were observed for change in performance, spectrum, transmissivity, and
temperature distribution. During the study it has been observed that there is a drop in performance of the dust module as
compared to the module cleaned daily. The drop in performance is directly proportional to the density and size of the dust
particles. The accumulation of dust is more on modules at 160 tilt and least at 430 tilt as the bigger dust particles are rolled down.
It has been found that the temperature of the clean module is more than that of dusty one because the dust is not allowing enough
radiation to reach the cell.

Acknowledgements

This research is based upon work supported in part by the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the U.S. (SERIIUS)
funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy subcontract DE AC36-08G028308 (Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy
Sciences, and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Energy Technology Program, with support from the Office of
International Affairs) and the Government of India subcontract IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012 dated 22nd Nov. 2012.

Reference

[1]El-Nashar, A. M., Seasonal effect of dust deposition on a field of evacuated tube collectors on the performance of a solar desalination plant Desalination, vol.
239, no. 1-3, 2009, pp. 66-81,
[2]Lengweiler, P. ,Modelling Deposition and Resuspension of Particles on and from Surfaces Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, 2000
[3]IEC 60891
[4]Qasem, Hassan. Betts, Thomas R. Müllejans, Harald. Busairi, Hassan Al. and Gottschalg, Ralph.,Dust-induced shading on photovoltaic modules, Progress in
Photovoltaics: Research and Applications Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl, 22, pp. 218–226, 2014.
[5]Cotfas, D.T. Cotfas , P.A. Kaplanis, () S. Methods to determine the dc parameters of solar cells: A critical review, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
28, 2013, pp. 588–596.
[6]C. P. Ryan, F. Vignola, and D. K.McDaniels, “Solar cell arrays: Degradation due to dirt,” in Proc. Amer. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc., Denver, CO,1989, pp.
234–237.

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 ICAER-2015

Effect of Extended Surfaces and Fluid Structure Interaction

on the Performance of Triangular Receiver using Compound
Parabolic Concentrator
Kaustubh Chavana*, Jitendra Satputea, Nitin Gulhanea, Dhanaji Kaleb, Sudhir Panseb
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Matunga, Mumbai, India-400019
b
Department of Physics, Institute of Chemical Technology, Matunga, Mumbai, India-400019

Abstract

Solar energy is a clean and promising renewable source of energy having huge potential to fulfill the future energy
requirement. Comparative study of triangular receiver (TR) with and without extended surfaces using compound parabolic
concentrator (CPC) systems is presented in this paper. The CPC is introduce in this present experimental work in order to
concentrate solar radiations on the receiver surfaces. The extended surfaces (square fins and Y fin) and TR are made up of
aluminum to promote heat transfer between receiver surface and working fluid. The thermal performance with and without
fins configurations of TR are investigated numerical simulation and experimentally during outdoor actual test conditions.
The experimental study is accomplished to explore the thermal performance characteristics of TR under concentrated solar
radiations. To study fluid structure interaction (FSI) phenomenon requires modeling of fluid flow and solid structures
interaction with an internal fluid. This phenomenon is helpful to examine effect of solar fluxes on TR surfaces. The present
work investigates crucial study of structural deformation and stress concentration for different mass flow rates of water
during higher solar fluxes. The structural analysis is taken into account to investigate effect of temperature distribution and
mass flow rate of water on TR. The result shows that substantial enhancement in thermal performance of TR with fin
arrangement.

Keywords: solar energy; fins; FSI; thermal efficiency; receiver;

1. Introduction

The forthcoming global energy crisis due to depleting fossil fuel reserves, pollutant emissions due to the use
of fossil fuels increases the cost of conventional fuels. The planet is progressively marching towards a serious
electric energy crisis, due to the increasing need of electric energy becoming greater than its supply. We always
accepted that the energy we use each day is not unlimited; still we take it for granted. Present study reveals that
coal, petroleum, electrical power, even water has inadequate availability. But, we have not taken sufficient
precautions to the handle a possible energy crisis. The researcher and engineers need to study and investigate the
developing alternatives energy sources [1]. The research work is in progress in that direction. The renewable
energy sources like wind, tidal, solar etc. provides most important benefit over conventional energy sources like
coal, petroleum etc. It provides important benefit over conventional energy sources such as: available at free of
cost, non-polluting, inexhaustible and are beneficial. One of the potential options is to make wide use of
renewable sources of energy derived from sun. The solar energy is the most promising energy source used
widely in a variety of applications [2]. The solar photovoltaic system and thermal system are two primary types
of solar application. Solar collector is designed to absorb solar radiation and converts it into heat. Major area of
research about different types of collectors design to improve the amount of radiation redirected to a receiver or
absorber surface [3].
The present commercial solar thermal installations includes Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTCs), Compound
Parabolic Collector (CPC), parabolic dishes, Fresnel lenses, flat plate collector. However, CPC provides
advantage over other solar concentrating collectors such as, it does not require continuous tracking arrangement;
and thus the ease of operation [4]. The usefulness of CPC for solar energy collection was noted by Winston, but
commercial development was not significant [5]. The CPC comes under non-imaging type collector, and
frequency of tracking adjustment depending upon the concentration ratio. Apart from flat plate absorber surface,
a CPC shape is advantage of not having back side through which heat can be lost. The CPC system has been
increasingly investigated in recent years as researchers seek examine potential enlacement to improve
performance of the systems. Numerous studies on various design, analysis and application of CPC have been
reported in recent years. The modeling and simulation in the CPC is necessary for the design of the receiver and
study the performance of the system [4,5]. The various aspect which are relevant to thermohydraulic aspects of

1308
design, i.e. flow pattern or velocity distribution in the receiver, temperature distribution over the absorber
surface and working fluid, structural deformation and thermal stress which are most critical to evaluate and
important parameter to improve the receiver reliability before experimentation [3,5]. In one of the investigation
by Roldan et al. [6] on three dimensional CFD modeling to calculate temperature profile on the wall absorber
tube using steam as heat transfer fluid. The simulated and experimental results show maximum 15% deviation in
thermal gradient.
The numerical analysis was conducted on parabolic trough collector with plain absorber tube to determine the
effect of heat transfer and pressure drop by Natarajan et al. [7]. The triangle insertion inside the absorber tubes
gives optimized results and reduces thermal fatigue even pressure drop was relatively high compared to the plain
absorber tube. The heterogeneous solar flux generates temperature difference and heat losses on the absorber
surface as investigated by Munoz et al. [8]. The helical internal fins are used to reduce thermal stress and
homogenizing the temperature profile on the absorber wall. Lertsatitthanakorn et al. [9], performed
experimentation and thermal modeling to study the thermoelectric (TE) effect by using CPC. Due to lower
absorber area the electrical power generation efficiency does not show higher output but, system can produce
maximum hot water capacity of 450 lit./day at 0.24 kg/s water flow rate. Rene et al. [8], developed mathematical
equations to investigate thermal performance of CPC. The effect of various parameters was studied like selective
coating; reflector material to improves the performance of the system. Also, examined the effect of increase in
inlet temperature with decreases the outlet heat transfer coefficient of the fluid. Scampoli [10] has done the
modeling and FSI simulation between CFD and structural solvers with implicit sequential coupling. Gim [11]
conducted numerical analysis to determine FSI in U shaped heat exchanger. The correlation between pressure
drop & surface roughness derived to analyzed flow pattern. The maximum deformation of U shape pipe was
four times the inner surface roughness and its one digit larger than roughness in conventional tubes. Romero et
al. [12] performed numerical and experimental study of temperature distribution inside the solar dryer. The
obtained results are compared with experimental results shows good arrangements and reduce weight of vanilla
by 62% with respect to time.
From the literature review, it is clear that researchers have been carried out in order to investigate on the
thermal performance of the CPC system, but the comparison of thermal performance of the CPC system with fin
and without fin arrangement in TR is rare. In this paper, the research scope was to investigate thermal
performance of receiver with integrated internal extended surfaces inside the fluid domain to enhance heat
transfer between fluid and receiver surface. To escalating heat transfer by gathering more radiation from the sun,
but increasing solar fluxes affects the receiver structure. Thus, the thermal stress in the receiver is higher when
solar fluxes are maximum even at higher mass flow rate. Therefore to investigate the percentage increase in the
thermal performance, and effect due to concentrated absorbed radiation on the TR is presented in this paper. In
this study, FSI modeling is used to examine the consequence on TR structure. The FSI modeling is divided into
two parts: in the first part three dimensional CFD model has been simulated to calculate the temperature profile
of the working fluid and absorber surface of the TR with fin and without fins arrangements. In the second part,
after CFD simulation the surface load was transfer through fluid-structure interface and solid domain gets solved
with FEM model.
In section 2 where details characteristics of the experimental set up and section 3 is to describe the FSI
(CFD+FEM) modeling approach adopted to simulate the experimental test facility. In section 4 depicts the
boundary conditions considered to run simulation tests to reproduce experimental data available and section 5
includes the discussion of results obtained.

Nomenclature

m mass flow rate of cooling fluid (water) kg/s

cp specific heat J/kg.K
T out outlet temperatures of the fluid, (°C)
T in inlet temperatures of the fluid, (°C)
Ib solar incident radiation power per unit area, (W/m2)
A aperture absorber aperture area (m2)
A fins fin area in meter square, (m2)
θ angle of incidence (degree)

2. Experimental Set-up and procedure

In compound parabolic collector (CPC), incident solar radiation is converted into heat and passed on to a
working fluid such as water. In CPC system reflected radiation concentrate on receiver surface, therefore

1309
effective heat transfer is important in energy conversion process. The heat transfer enhancement can be achieved
by affecting the boundary layer, which provides the resistance to heat transfer, and by increasing the heat
transfer interface area. The variety of heat transfer enhancing techniques was investigated and described in
literature.
The experimental set-up was designed and fabricated to investigate and compare its thermal performance of a
TR with and without extended surfaces using CPC system. The basic components of the setup and measuring
equipments are as follows: (1) the CPC collector for concentrating solar radiation on receiver The standard
parameters of the CPC and TR as shown in table 1; (2) the TR with fins arrangements is to extract heat between
fluid and receiver ; (3) the TR without fins arrangements to enhance heat transfer between fluid and receiver; (4)
the anemometer for wind speed measurement; (5) the thermocouple for temperature measurement; (6) the
pyranometer for solar radiation measurement; (7) the data logger for data acquisition; and (8) the rotameter for
water flow rate measurement. The actual figure of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Actual experimental setup

The unit was operational from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm, and tilt adjustments were done manually twice a day
and, ensuring that the incident radiations are parallel to the axis of parabola at those times. The CPC was locked
in its position with the help of chain fixing arrangement after every tilt adjustment. The temperatures at the inlet
and outlet of the TR were recorded at regular half hours intervals of time. Also, global and diffused solar
radiations were recorded at regular intervals of time. As the hot water passes through triangular absorber, its
sensible heat starts rising. The thermal efficiency of the system was calculated by considering the sensible heat
utilized for temperature rise of water during a specific time interval, and corresponding solar input on the
aperture area of CPC during the same time interval. The aperture area was corrected by the ‘cosine factor’,
which arises because of the incident rays are nearly normal at around noon time; and which inclined at large
angles in the morning and evening hours. The experiments were performed on considered days for different
water flow rates (0.50 to 0.83 kg/sec).
The effect of performance parameters on receiver is obtained in terms of thermal efficiencies tested during
outdoor test conditions. The the performance criterion includes the thermal output (Q Thermal ) and thermal
efficiency (ɳ Thermal ) of the system [13,14, 15] are calculated as follows:

QThermal = m.c p .(Tout − Tin )

(1)

QThermal
ηThermal =
AAperture .Ib. cos θ
(2)

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 QThermal
η Thermal =
(AAperature + AFins ).Ib.Cosθ (3)

3. Methodology of Fluid Structure Interaction

A solid structure makes contact with a flowing fluid when it subjected to higher solar fluxes which may
cause deformation in the structure, which causes change in flow field. The interaction between solid structure
and fluid is called as Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI). FSI plays crucial role in many engineering applications
due to growing challenges in recent times. In FSI, both fluid domain (CFD) and structural domain (FEM) are
synchronized to exchange elucidation data to obtain an FSI solution. The analysis of TR with and without fins
performance has been done by numerical simulation from the structural- thermal point of view, evaluating its
structural behavior and the thermal stress. The main objective of this work is to show a methodology for FSI
simulation, in order to study the behavior of solar TR with and without fins using water as heat carrier fluid. The
procedure used includes an experimental development and a numerical analysis. Numerical model is use to
examine behavior of previous experimental test carried out at defined operating conditions.
In the commencement of the FSI analysis, initially the fluid domain is modeled then required boundary
conditions are applied. After fluid domain is solved, then surface load is transferred to the solid domain using
fluid-structure interface and solid domain gets solved. Whereas, the FSI algorithm can solves the fluid and solid
domains independently.

3.1 Numerical modeling of fluid domain

The 3-dimensional, turbulent flow is consider for heat flow analyses of the two different configurations of
TR with fins and without fins is simulated by solving the appropriate governing equations for CFD Simulation.
For CFD modeling governing equation need to be solve with the help of following equation like (1) continuity
equation [6], (2) momentum equation [16], and (3) energy equation [17] are expressed as follows:
Continuity equation:

∂ρ
+ ∇.(ρ .ν ) = S m
∂t (4)

Where ρ is the density of the fluid, ν is the velocity of the fluid with respect to 3D coordinate system, and S m is
the mass source.

Momentum equation:

∂
(ρ .ν ) + ∇.(ρ .ν .ν ) = −∇. p + ∇.(τ ) + ρ .g + F
∂t (5)

Where p is the static pressure, τ is the share tensor and g and F are the gravitational and external forces,
respectively.

Energy equation:

∂
(ρ .Ε ) + ∇.(ν (ρΕ + p )) = ∇. keff .∇T − ∑ h.J + (τ eff .ν ) + S h
∂t   (6)

Where E is the total energy of the fluid, k eff is the effective conductivity which includes the turbulence thermal
conductivity, h is enthalpy, J is the diffusion flux, τ eff is the viscous stress tensor and S h is volumetric heat
sources.

The following assumptions were used for CFD analysis:

• Steady state heat transfer.
• Uniform heat flux at the wall surface does not change with respect to time.

1311
 • The thermophysical properties (thermal conductivity, sp. Heat, density) of Aluminium material are
uniform and constant.
• The fluid flow through the triangular receiver is uniform and fully developed.
• The contact thermal resistance between the wall and the fluid is not considered.

3.2 Numerical modeling of solid domain

For solid modeling governing equation need to be solving with the help of following equation:
Heat conduction equation [18,20]:

∂ρC pT
= ∇.(λ∇T ) + S E (7)
∂t
The heat transfer in the solid domain is the conduction mode in triangular receiver. Where ρ is the density of the
solid, c p is the specific heat capacity of the solid, λ is the thermal conductivity of the solid and S E is the heat
generation in the solid.

Structural dynamic equation [19]:

The structural dynamic solution is solved which are subjected to external forces is given by:

[M ]{ X } + [C ]{ X } + [K ]{ X } = {F }
.. .

(8)

Where [M], [C] and [K] are the matrices of mass, damping, and stiffness, {X} is the vector of the generalized
coordinates, and {F} is the vector of the resultant external forces.

3.3 Coupling of the Equations for Fluid and Solid domain

The fluid and structure equations can be coupled by using fluid-structure interfacial boundary conditions
[20]. The fluid velocity exerts the force on the surface due to this distortion takes place in the flow field.

λ f (∇T • n ) f = λs (∇T • n )S
(9)

In case, the heat balance at the interface of both solid and fluid domain as shown in equation (8).

3.4 Geometry creation, meshing, boundary conditions for FSI Simulation

The schematic diagrams of the TR with and without fins are shown in fig. 2 (a) & (b), in which a piece of the
TR in horizontal position is 3000mm long, each face is 85mm width and 3mm in thickness.

Schematic diagram of the Fig. 2(a) TR without fins and Fig. 2(b) TR with Square and Y fins

The commercial software was used to create the grid and domain is discretized by a 3D mesh of tetrahedral
elements is shown in fig. 3 (a) & (b) with 3,75,000 (4,93,493 Nodes) volume cells for TR without fins and
20,19,520 (26,42,505 Nodes) volume cells for TR with fins. The mesh quality is evaluated by the type of

1312
specifications such as the skewness and the aspect ratio. The skewness is evaluated by means of 0≤ skewness≤
1, when skewness is 0 the mesh element is equilateral and if it is 1 then mesh element with a poor shape.

Mesh geometry of the Fig. 3 (a) TR without fins and Fig. 2(b) TR with Square & Y fins

For FSI solution the SOLID186 is used for higher order 3-D, 20-node solid element to inspect quadratic
displacement behavior for stress stiffening, deflection, and strain capabilities. In solid structure analysis the 20
nodes used to define element having three degrees of freedom per node for translations in the nodal x, y, and z
directions with tetrahedral-shaped elements are formed.
The horizontal position of the TR used for simulation since influence of the gravitational force has been
neglected in this case. For CFD simulation water is preferred as a working fluid passing through the TR used to
extract heat from receiver surface. The mass flow range considered was from 0.50 to 0.83 kg/s. The
thermophysical properties of the water at the different operating temperature can be illustrated by the following
equations, derived from the available water properties in the literature are considered [21]:

ρ = 999.85108 + 0.05453 * T - 0.00752 *T2 + 4.03756E-5 *T3 - 1.21005E-7 *T4 (kg/m3)

k = 0.56869 + 0.00188 *T -5.76598E-6 *T2 -4.86629E-8 *T3 + 3.09985E-10 *T4 (W/m-K)
μ = 0.00175 -5.20526E-5 *T + 8.8987E-7 *T2 -7.97078E-9 *T3 + 2.81447E-11 *T4 (kg/m-s)
Cp = 4209.3557 - 1.82473 *T + 0.03053 *T2 -1.23894E-4 *T3 + 1.27826E-7 *T4 (J/kg-K)

The TR is made up of aluminium (Al) material, and properties are considered at the operating temperature
range. The density and thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity of Al was considered as a constant value of ρ
= 2719 kg/m3 and k = 202.4 W/m-K, Cp = 871 J/kg-K [22].
The TR is divided into the two continuum zones: fluid zone were working fluid passing through the inner
side of the TR, and the solid (TR) zone which receives concentrated and global solar radiation. The solar fluxes
are influence due to many factors like: mirrors reflectance, wind speed, surrounding temperature, angle of
incidence etc. The TR has been divided independently according to the boundary conditions for the bottom
portion influenced by concentrated radiation, whereas top portion of TR absorb the global radiations. The solar
flux value on the lower outside surfaces of TR are subjected to concentrated solar fluxes calculated in term of
effective radiation is multiplied by the concentration ratio. The mass flow rate is specified at the inlet and
outflow at fluid outlet of fluid zone. The direction of the working fluid are defined in the Cartesian coordinate
system with vector components (1,0,0). In this current analysis, it is considered that the working fluid (water as
single phase) is under steady-state turbulent flow condition. The k-ε (k- epsilon) viscous model used to solve
Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS), because of its relatively low computational cost related to the
computation of the turbulent viscosity [8]. The k-ε model involves two parameters like: k is for turbulent kinetic
energy and ε is for turbulence dissipation rate. The computational domain has been solved as a steady state
problem and the solution process is performed until convergence with an accurate balance of mass and energy
are achieved.
After CFD simulation get solved, then surface load is transferred to the FEM simulation through fluid-
structure interface and structural part gets solved with steady state simulation. In FEM analysis both end of the
receiver surface is fixed support, considered gravitational force, body temperature and pressure forces imported
from CFD simulation.

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4. Result and Discussion

The experiments were conducted in the month of January- April 2015, on the CPC system with water as
working fluid using TR at Mumbai with latitude 19.0216°N and longitude 72.8646°E. The parameters measured
during experimentation are inlet and outlet temperature of the working fluid; inlet mass flow rate, winds speed,
global and diffuse radiation reading which are continuously monitored after every 30 minutes time interval from
10.30 am to 15.30 pm on considered days. The CPC was oriented towards the north-south direction to absorb
maximum solar radiations on the receiver surface.

4.1 Thermal performance of TR with and without fins arrangements

The thermal performance of the system is depends upon the various factors such as inlet and outlet fluid
temperature, incident solar radiations, wind velocity and mass flow rate of the water. Based on experiment
performed on TR with and without extended surface results show that change in mass flow rate effect heat
transfer coefficient which affects the thermal performance of the system. The temperature difference increases
with change in mass flow rate, solar global and diffuse radiation. The maximum value of radiation arises at noon
which increases in average temperature difference (ΔT). Hence, the maximum surface temperature occurs at
noon when solar fluxes hit the highest point. In TR extended surfaces are used in order to extract the maximum
heat from receiver surface, which affect the thermal performance of the system. The heat extraction rate or inlet
and outlet temperature is improved considerably by using fins.
To improve thermal performance of the system the different arrangement are used such as square fins
attached on inner conduit of the receiver surface and Y fins to extract heat at corners of the receiver. The main
objective of this work is to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of the triangular receiver by employing
different arrangements to enhance heat from receiver surfaces. In experimental setup TR were arranged with and
without fins in sequential manner, in order to compare both receivers the performance simultaneously. Based on
the experiments performed on TR systems with and without fins during sunny days, results show that for TR
system with fins are more efficient at higher mass flow rate of water (0.83 lit/sec), as we are aware about facts
that as mass flow rate affects the heat transfer coefficient. Fig.4 shows the effect of change in mass flow on the
temperature difference (ΔT) of TR system with and without fins.

Fig. 4 Average temperature difference at different mass flow rates of water

The rise in temperature increases due to insertion of square and Y fins. The average temperature rise is seen
at the mass flow rate of 0.50 lit/sec is 0.65 °C with fin configuration & without fin configuration temperature
rise of 0.59 °C is observed. It is seen that, the increases of mass flow rate decrease the temperature difference
which consequently increases the heat extraction rate from the receiver surface. In another investigation it is
found that, the outlet temperature of the fluid does not increase significantly with increase inlet temperature. The
fluid inlet temperature increase with increase in solar intensity and then augmentation of the outlet fluid
enthalpy is reduced due to increases in thermal losses. The average rise in temperature difference by the
working fluid from the receiver surface depends on the time for which fluid remains in contact with hot surface.
When fluid passes through the absorber conduit, it accumulates heat from receiver and fluid temperature
increases. The energy gain by the fluid decreases continually as fluid temperature rises. The fluid inlet
temperature is diminutive, it draw maximum amount of heat from the absorber surface per unit area of the
receiver.

1314
 Fig. 5 Thermal efficiency at different mass flow rate with and without fins
The thermal efficiency increases or decreases in well delineated manner with the fluid flow rate. The effects
of mass flow rate on the thermal performance of the TR systems with and without fins configuration with
respect to time as shown in fig. 5. It was found that, the rate of thermal energy extraction is more if the amount
of heat sink by the water will be more at higher mass flow rate. It is observed that, due to increase in working
temperature of the fluid (water) and receiver surface temperature, the heat extraction rate decreases during
evening hours (14:30 to 15:30 pm) resulting in decrease in thermal efficiency. The result shows that, the thermal
efficiency is at its peak value in the afternoon hours (12:00 to 13:00 pm). In practice, thermal efficiency
increases due to two facts: (i) decrease in solar flux which makes less heat available for thermal conversions; (ii)
an increase of mass flow rate of the fluid (water) which improves the heat transfer coefficient from receiver
surface. In fact, thermal efficiency decreases due to increase of radiative and convective losses.

Table 1 Average Thermal efficiency at different mass flow rates

Different mass flow rate 0.50 kg/sec 0.67 kg/sec 0.83 kg/sec
Average Thermal Effi- With fins Without fins With fins Without fins With fins Without fins
ciency 38.1 % 33.5 % 41.5 % 36.6 % 45.7 % 40.6 %

Due to the dissimilar working conditions like change in solar fluxes the wall absorber temperature
distribution will be influenced. The calculated and measured maximum temperature gradients computed and
measured along the receiver surfaces and inside the working fluid are compared. The CFD tool can use to get
temperature, velocity, pressure profiles at any cross section of triangular receiver piping along the collector
loop. The fig. 6 (a) and (b) shows the flow pattern and temperature distribution at 0.83 kg/sec without fins
arrangement and fig. 7 (a) & (b) shows the flow pattern and temperature distribution at 0.83 kg/sec without fins
arrangement.

Fig. 6 TR without fins (a) flow pattern and (b) temperature distribution at 0.83kg/sec without fins

1315
 Fig. 7 TR with fins (a) flow pattern and (b) temperature distribution at 0.83kg/sec with fins

The Experimental data are compared with CFD for temperatures at outlet of the receiver. The experimental
data shows a random behavior affected by weather conditions making is challenging task difficult to estimate
the heat transfer coefficient along the day and for the simulation this coefficient is considered as a constant;
however, the experimental data shows great similarity behavior with simulations.

4.2 FSI performance of TR with and without fins arrangements

The TR structure is deformed when the concentrated solar radiation fluxes continuously following on the
receiver surface to heat the working fluid inside the TR. The applications of CAD simulation in FSI analysis of
TR system with and without fins were reviewed. The review revealed that, CAD simulation is significant seen it
provides better enhancement understandings to examine various parameters like structural deformation, strain
and stress concentration during actual operating conditions. Two different cases were studied during FSI
analysis of TR system with and without fins for same operating conditions. The effect on TR with and without
fin arrangement on structural deformation is investigated. No sensors are installed in the experimental test
facility to measure the structural deformation, stress, and strain distribution for receiver material, so this output
cannot be validated directly.
In fig. 8 (a) & (b) shows that, the variation of structural deformation for same mass flow rate of water (0.83
kg/sec) for different TR geometry with and without fins. It is observed in with square and Y fin arrangement;
the static structural deformation (0.22225 mm) is greater than without fin (0.17672 mm) arrangement. In TR
system with square fins arrangement absorber maximum heat from receiver surface shows better heat gain by
the water at maximum mass flow rate than without fins. But, the deformation in TR with square and Y fins
shows allowable deformation (3 mm) range according to IS standard code.

Fig. 8 Static structural deformation (a) without fins and (b) with fins at 0.83kg/sec

In fig. 9 (a) and (b) shows that the variations in stress concentration with and without fins for 0.83 kg/sec
mass flow rate at maximum solar concentration. It is again observed that the stress concentration is maximum in
with fin arrangement due to maximum heat extracted by fins.

1316
 Fig. 9 Static stress concentration (a) without fins and (b) with fins at 0.83kg/sec

In the fig.10 (a) and (b) shows the variations in strain concentration with fins and without fins for 0.83 kg/sec
of water mass flow rate and at maximum solar concentration. It is again observed that the strain concentration is
maximum in with fin arrangement due to maximum thermal stress takes place by fins. The heat extracted
improved due to extended surface is improve very high when compared to other models and also maximum
temperature gradient was observed with depth of water which indicates maximum heat gain. The various
properties of solid material (Al) after simulation and acceptable limit are shown in table 2.

Fig. 10 Static strain concentration (a) without fins and (b) with fins at 0.83kg/sec

Table 2 various structural properties

Structural Deformation Static Stress Distribution Static Strain Distribution
Mass flow rate Permissible limit
3 mm 125 Mpa 0.001785
Without fins 0.17672 mm 63.01 Mpa 0.0003178
0.83 kg/sec With fins 0.22225 mm 83.23 Mpa 0.0004362
Without fins 0.16671 mm 59.025 Mpa 0.0002976
0.50 kg/sec With fins 0.22138 mm 77.86 Mpa 0.0004081

5. Conclusion

In this study, the experiments were carried out on triangular cavity receiver was designed to evaluate
performance at different operating conditions experimentally and numerically. To examine several different
operating conditions like: the effect of change in solar radiation, mass flow rate, and temperature distribution on
the thermal performance of the triangular receiver with fins and without fins arrangements. Numerically, the
temperature distribution and structural deformation in the TR with different arrangements is scrutinized with
help of FSI software simulation. Experimentally, the temperature difference in TR with and without fins is
observed by means of temperature measurement on the inlet and outlet of the absorber. To validate the test
model comparison between simulation and experimental results between measured and calculated temperatures.
However, the temperature difference between measured and calculated is due to constant convection and
radiative heat transfer to the surrounding. The simulation results developed using same inputs from
experimental results in order to measured temperature at outlet region. The FSI analysis has been carried out on
a horizontal receiver with and without fins arrangements placed at concentrated solar flux. The complete FSI
analyses have been performed for two different cases of the structure with different mass flow rates of water and

1317
effect of concentrated solar radiations for the purpose of reaching the fluid and structural response during
operating conditions. The CFD surface loads acting on receiver are plotted and its corresponding reaction forces
extracted from the structural surfaces.
The thermal efficiency of the TR with fin increases as the solar radiation and heat condition coefficient
between absorber surface and the working fluid increases. However, it decreases with the change in wind speed,
solar radiation and rise in inlet temperature. The thermal effectiveness increases as the mass flow rate increases,
due the fact that increase the amount of heat extraction rate increases. In TR with fin arrangement increase the
rate of heat extraction between the fluid and absorber, as the mass flow rate increases. The fluid mass flow rate
increase when thermal resistance between absorber surface and fluid is low which lead to significant increase in
the thermal performance of the system. The increase in thermal performance at higher solar flux is due to the
increase in the absorber which involve that more heat will be transfer to the water at higher mass flow rate. The
increase in ambient temperature and wind speed results in decrease in thermal efficiencies. In fact at higher
ambient temperature leads to reduces the rate of heat extraction, which increases inlet water temperature.
During FSI study of with and without fin structure it seems that higher mass flow rate and with fin
arrangement increase the structural deformation cause due to concentrated solar radiations. But, as seen in table
2 structural deformation, stress distribution and strain distribution is in acceptable limits.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Mumbai-19 for providing
financial support under Technical education quality improvement programme (TEQIP-II). The authors wish to
thanks Dr. A. B. Pandit for providing technical support and guidance.

References

[1] Francesco Calise, Laura Vanoli, Energies, vol. 5, 2012, pp. 4186-4208.
[2] Sukhatme, S. P., Nayak, J. K.,Tata McGraw- Hill Education Private Limited, New Delhi, Third Edition, 2009, pp. 37-310.
[3] Ming Li, Xu Ji, Guoliang Li, Shengxian Wei, YingFeng Li, Feng Shi, Applied Energy, vol. 88, 2011, pp 3218-3227.
[4] John W. Allen, Norman M. Levitz , Ari Rabl, Kent A, Reed, William W, Schertz, George Thodos, and Roland Winston, Progress
Report For The Period July—December 1975.
[5] Winston, R., Johnston, B., and Balkowski, K., Proc. AIP Conf. Proc., 1401, 2011, pp. 406–412.
[6] M.I. Roldán, L. Valenzuela, E. Zarza, Applied Energy, vol. 103, 2013, pp. 73–84.
[7] M. Natarajan, R. Thundil karuppa Raj, Y. Raja Sekhar, T. Srinivas and Pranay Gupta, ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied
Sciences, vol. 9 (5), 2014, pp. 674-681.
[8] Javier Muñoz, Alberto Abánades, Applied Energy, vol. 88, 2011, pp. 4139–4149.
[9] C. Lertsatitthanakorn, J. Jamradloedluk, M. Rungsiyopas, Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 42 (7), 2013, pp. 2119-2126.
[10] Scampoli, ANSYS advantage, vol. 6 (1) 2012, pp. 14-16.
[11] Gyun-Ho Gim, Se-Myong Chang, Sinyoung Lee, Gangwon Jang, Nuclear Engineering and Technology, vol.46(5), 2014, pp. 1-8.
[12] Romero, V.M., Cerezo, E., Garcia, M.I, Sanchez, M.H., Energy Procedia, vol. 57, 2014, pp. 1651 – 1658.
[13] Coventry, J.S., Solar Energy, vol. 78, 2005, pp 211-222.
[14] Atul S. Jadhav, Ajitkumar S. Gudekar, Ramchandra G. Patil, Dhanaji S. Kale, Sudhir V. Panse, Jyeshtharaj B. Joshi, Energy
Conservation & Management, vol 66, (2013), pp 56-65.
[15] M. Y. Othman, B. Yatim, K. Sopian, M. N. A. Bakar, Journal of Energy Engineering, vol. 132 (3), 2006, pp. 116-120.
[16] Batchelor GK. An introduction to fluid dynamics. Cambridge (England): Cambridge Univ. Press; 1967, pp. 73–173.
[17] Fluent-Inc., Fluent 6.2 user’s guide. Modeling heat transfer, Lebanon, NH, chapter. 12, 2005.
[18] Kittel C, Introduction to solid state physics, 6th edn., Wiley, New York, 1986.
[19] Shoufei Wu, Zonghuai Wang, 22nd International Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue, 1131, (2014), pp. 1-7.
[20] Jong Chull Jo, Pressure Vessels and Piping Systems - Fluid-Structure Interactions, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), pp.
1-62.
[21] Thermophysical Properties of water, Appendix.E, pp. 1-6.
[22] Thermophysical Properties of Matter, Appendix.1, pp.983-1010.

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 ICAER-2015

Models for Deployment of Solar PV Lighting Applications

in Rural India
Saumya Ananda, Anand B. Raob,*
a
Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, INDIA
b
Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, INDIA
*
Corresponding Author. Tel: (+91) 22 25767877, Fax: (+91) 22 25767874, E-mail: a.b.rao@iitb.ac.in

Abstract

Promotion of solar energy is one of the major steps taken by the Government of India in its pursuit of sustainable
development in recent years. In spite of the growth in electricity generation capacity reaching to 272.5 GW, 75.02
million households, mainly in rural areas, are not yet electrified. Out of these, 72.4 million rural households use kerosene
as primary lighting source whereas, only 0.92 million rural households use solar energy as primary lighting source
(Census, 2011). Although solar PV lighting applications are better alternative in terms of quality of illumination,
durability and versatility of use, there has been limited success with the deployment of this technology. This study has
analyzed various business models for deployment of solar PV lighting applications to identify the determinants of
success and failure in rural areas. The study is based on case studies, survey and interaction with various stakeholders. A
variety of socio-economic, technical and market barriers have been identified. Those included are individual ownership
models (Kattiwada in Madhya Pradesh, Hadi in Sindhudurg, Chavani in Raigad and SELCO) and fee for service models
(Amle in Palghar and Darewadi in Pune). The study shows that the major factors affecting the deployment of solar PV
applications in rural areas are: the presence of local market for SPV based products to create linkage between energy
service providers and beneficiaries, availability of innovative financing mechanism to make product/ service affordable
to the customers, awareness among people w.r.t. SPV or other renewable energy technology, the reputation of vendor (or
NGO) in the respective region which drives the acceptance of the product/ service, and willingness to pay for the product
and its maintenance. Although an initial capital subsidy helps in acceptance of SPV product/ service, the sustained use of
product/ service is observed only when the users contributed fully or substantially towards the same. The lessons from
the study can be extended to similar situations for other applications of solar PV technology (e.g. water pumping) or
other renewable energy technologies.

Keywords: Solar PV Deployment; Individual Ownership Model; Fee for Service Model; Primary Lighting Source

1. Introduction

India ranks fourth in energy consumption in the world. Since 1950s starting from installed electricity
generation capacity of 1,713 MW, India is now standing with capacity of 272.5 GW as on May 31, 2015 [1].
However inspite of such huge capacity, the nation is still facing the challenge of providing a reliable energy
access to its people. Because of increasing population and hence increasing energy demand, there has been
over-dependency on fossil fuels for power generation. This has in turn made the future of fossils such as
coal, lignite, petroleum etc. very uncertain. In India, 61% of total installed power generation is from
coal/lignite whereas renewable energy sources hold a contribution of only 13% [1].With respect to these
issues of energy security and excessive burden on fossil fuels and simultaneously, considering India’s high
solar insolation which is 4-5 kWh per square meter with an average of 300 sunny days in a year, solar power
generation (both on-grid and off-grid) is being looked upon as one of the possible solutions. Also, in 12th
five year plan, the potential for renewable energy in the country has been estimated to be over 100 GW [2].

2. Cases Studied For Solar PV

So far in India, solar is mostly encouraged via three different modes: Individual Ownership Model
(beneficiary owns the whole system which is provided to him at full/ subsidized cost), Rental or Fee-for-
Service Model (a third party is involved who is responsible for operation and maintenance of solar lanterns
whereas cost of services is paid by end user) and Micro-grid Model. It should be noted here that the

1319
discussion for deployment models is being carried w.r.t. focus on lighting application of solar PV in this
paper.

2.1. Case Study on Individual Ownership Model

2.1.1. Hadi Village in Sindhudurg (Maharashtra)

Hadi village is situated in Sindhudurg district in Mahrashtra, India. It has 330 households with a population
of 1144 [3]. The main occupation of these people is farming and labor. The villagers have been using biogas
for cooking purpose for last 8 years which was installed by local NGO, thus already have prior knowledge
about renewable energy sources. In January, 2013, 101 households in the village purchased SPV based
products. 81 households purchased solar lantern whereas rest of the 15 households purchased solar home
systems on which they can run AC appliances also. The deployment process for SPV products followed in
Hadi is shown in figure 1. Ten households were surveyed in Hadi. 7 out of 10 households have purchased
SPV product.

Figure 1 Deployment Process in Hadi

As per the survey results, households who purchased SPV products, have experience a reduction of 35% to
100% in their monthly expense for lighting. A minimal subsidy of INR 2,000 was given to each of the SPV
product user by Hadi gram panchayat to encourage SPV technology in the village.

Figure 2 Effect on Solar Intervention on Monthly Energy Expense for Lighting (Hadi)

Here the villagers were well aware of the technology. Also, transactions had taken place directly between

1320
beneficiaries and vendors (no NGO/ third party is involved). Also, here in this case the villagers also had the
freedom for choosing specific products. This scenario for solar PV applications’ deployment seems
successful as long as people will be willing to pay for post-sale services (in case of damage) because they
are well aware of place where services will be provided and also the service centres are in nearby locality,
just like it is for some other product or service in market.

2.1.2 Kattiwada in Alirajpur (Madhya Pradesh)

Kattiwada tehsil is located in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh. It has 126 tribal villages out of which 40
villages are unelectrified. 16 out of these 40 villages have become solar villages i.e. each household is using
a solar lamp. In May 2014, the local NGO has deployed solar lamp (INR 750) at a discounted price of INR
310 in these villages. The deployment process for Kattiwad is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3 Deployment Process in Kattiwada

3 out of 16 solar villages were visited, where 22 households were surveyed. As per the survey results, the
villagers have experienced a reduction from 50% to 100% in monthly kerosene consumption used for
lighting. Currently the project is in run, so O&M services are being provided by the vendor via NGO by
training and skill development of local people.
2.1.3 Chavani Village in Raigad (Maharashtra):

Chavani village is located in Khalapur Taluka of Raigad district, Maharashtra, India. The population of
Chavani is 1230 comprising of about 274 households. The village used to live in dark till year 2007 when
solar home lighting systems (SHS) were provided to 274 households of the village at 100% subsidy by
Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA).The villagers were not given any information regarding
operation, handling or post-sales services of the product. The solar home lighting systems consist of 2 CFL
(8 W each), 1 battery (12 Volts) and 1 solar panel (37 W) and was in warranty period for next 3 years. The
home lighting systems were procured from Reliance Industries Limited, Solar Group. As it has been almost
7 years, since installment of SHS, many of the SHS have gone dysfunctional because of limited battery life.
It has to be noted that grid electricity had reached the village in year 2011. Though the project ran well in its
initial years, the SPV product usage could not be sustained because of alternative available in form of grid
electricity, absence of operation and maintenance services and unawareness among people for the
technology.

2.1.4 SELCO Model

SELCO INDIA is a rural energy service company founded by Dr. Harish Hande in 1995. The company is
registered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The company has started with their mission to provide reliable
energy services to poor in a sustainable way through solar home systems (SHS) in under-served rural
households of India. Until October 2014, SELCO has installed more than 2,00,000 solar home systems, thus
reaching a population of about 1.2 million including 40,000 students. SELCO initiated the first end user loan
program in India in association with several of the country’s largest commercial banks, rural development
banks and non-banking finance institutions. SELCO’s products meet the needs of poor and enable the poor

1321
to pay for better energy services from savings or extra money earned. SELCO’s business model is to
combine door-step service with door-step financing. To provide door-step services SELCO has opened 45
energy service centres, run by local youth over last 20 years. SELCO has created long-standing partnerships
with similar minded organizations like financial institutions, micro-finance institutions and NGOs in order to
scale up its ability to reach the poor.

The key factors responsible for SELCO’s success are: (i) The major factor for SELCO’s success is its tie ups
with different financing institutions including commercial banks, regional rural banks (grameen banks), rural
farmer cooperatives and micro-finance institutions; which makes the products and services affordable to its
customers. (ii) The four level well organized operational structure of SELCO provides excellent post sale
services to its customers. (iii) Focus on customer needs: The need of customer (be it a student or a street
hawker) is the very primary focus of SELCO India. SELCO has designed different payment criteria
depending up on the income flow of its customers. (iv) Decentralized model: SELCO provides SHS service
to its customers, which is decentralized and independent from grid. Hence it is not effect by poor reliability
and poor quality of service from grid.

2.2 Case Studies on Micro-grid Model

2.2.1 Darewadi Solar Micro-grid

Darewadi is a small village of 220 population and 39 households. It is situated in Junnar taluka of Pune
district, Maharashtra, India. Because of its hilly terrain grid has not reached the village yet. Gram Oorja has
set up a solar micro-grid of 9.36 kW in the village based on metered connection service. The project was
initially set up by Gram Oorja partnership with Bosch Energy in 2012 as a corporate social responsibility
(CSR) activity. Since its installation the project has been running successfully. Bosch has covered the
upfront cost for micro-grid, but 15% of the total project cost is to be recovered from villagers so as to ensure
that villagers can pay for the battery replacement cost in five years. At present apart from solar home
lighting systems in each of the households, 2 computers, 2 water pumps, 1 flour mill and 10 TV sets are
running on electricity from micro-grid. The monthly expenditure on electricity from micro-grid generally
ranges between INR 120 to 150 as per the unit cost of INR 20/kWh. The cost of electricity generation from
the micro-grid is INR 14.5/kWh. It should be noted here that unlike most of the solar micro-grids, the project
provides LED based lighting to the households. Each of the households is provided with sufficient energy to
run 3 LEDs (2 W each). There has been 100% electricity bill collection rate from the villagers so far.
Though electricity from the micro-grid is available for 24 hours, but villagers still have to manage their
power usage at night due to battery storage limitations. At present the project has been handled over to
Vandev Gramudyog Nyas, which is village’s energy committee.
The committee consists of three women and four men which is responsible for any major decision
concerning the micro-grid. Gram Oorja has also trained one local person from village to clean solar panels
and to perform the basic maintenance work. In this case, deep interaction with the village community helped
in assessing the needs and willingness of targeted group. It also created awareness which in turn has built
trust among people for solar PV applications. The villagers contribution to project cost (100% electricity bill
collection rate so far in village), the very low likelihood for reaching of grid electricity to village and
availability of post-sale services ensures the self-sufficiency of the micro-grid and hence its sustainability.

2.2.2 Amle Solar Micro-grid

Amle is a tribal village of 65 households with a population of 350 households. It is located in Tansa wildlife
sanctuary in Palghar district of Maharashtra, India. The village is unelectrified. In July 2012, Siemens in
cooperation with Samved Energy has installed a 12 kW solar micro-grid in the village under CSR activity.
The upfront cost of the micro-grid has been covered by Siemens. Each household is provided with 2 CFL
(12 W each). There are 20 street lights (15W each), one drinking water pump (2 hp) and one irrigation pump
(5 hp) also running on electricity from micro-grid. The grid provides 6 hours of electricity. The cost of
generation of electricity at full grant is INR 4.1/kWh. The villagers pay INR 50/month/household for the
service from the micro-gird, out of which INR 20/month/household is utilized for regular maintenance of
grid. The rest of the amount is being saved for battery cost after 5 years. However, the difference between
required and collected amount for battery replacement is substantial which may hinder the sustainability of
the micro-grid in future.

3. Results

Based on the study, the criteria identified to define the success or failure of a project is shown in Table 1 [4].

1322
Table 1 Criteria for Success or Failure for Deployment of Solar PV Lighting Applications

Criteria for Success/

S.No. Indicators
Failure
Current Status of CSP1. Is the project still running/ project period is over?
1. Project CSP2. Current number of product users
LP1. Rate of increase in number of users
LP2. Level of saturation
2. Level of Penetration
LP3. Number of places (nearby) where similar deployment
models have been replicated
SCN1. Stakeholders currently active (manufacturer, vendor/
retailer, supplier, third party (NGO), fund provider, system
Evolution of Supply operator, O&M service provider, village committee, end-user)
Chain Network
3. SCN2. Local presence of market for SPV based products
SCN3. Customer satisfaction
QoL1. Reduction in energy expenses
Impact on Quality of QoL2. Experience of improved comfort (better lighting)
4. Life QoL3. Improvement/ flexibility in working hours for
livelihood/ domestic activities

Based on these criteria, the cases discussed in this paper can be categorized as successful, may be successful
and failed ones. The drivers identified for the success/ failure of these projects have been listed in Table 2.

Table 2 Drivers for Success or Failure

Cases Success/Failure Drivers for Success/Failure

 Prior knowledge of RE technology
 Local vendors and service centers
Hadi
 Minimal Subsidy
 NGO’s good reputation
Success
 Local presence of market for SPV product
Selco
 Customized financing mechanism
 Villagers’ contribution to project cost and 100% fee collection
Darewadi
 Presence of post-sale services
 Huge gap between collected and required amount for battery
Kattiwada
replacement
May be a success
 Huge gap between collected and required amount for battery
Amle
replacement
 Absence of local market/ O&M services
Chavani Failure  Inactiveness of stakeholders (later)
 Availability of reliable grid connection

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

The three major challenges that can be listed as being the key determinants for success/ failure for solar PV
application deployment w.r.t. Indian context are:
1) Financing mechanism,
2) Post-sale services (capacity building),
3) Awareness among people and adoption among people.

Recommendations and insights derived from the case studies discussed are summarized as follows:
1) Creating infrastructure for distribution, installation, maintenance and repair of PV systems in rural areas
can be done successfully in a for-profit model and this has been proved by SELCO’s 20 years of
experience on field.
2) As per observations from Chavani case, full subsidy should be avoided i.e. substantial contribution from

1323
 users should be encouraged to save for battery replacement cost.
3) Institutional setup needs to be in established for post-sale services after completion of project to ensure
sustained usage of solar PV products (as in case of Hadi).
4) For remote areas, involvement of local skills for O&M of the product/ service should be encouraged (as
in Kattiwada case).
5) However availability of alternatives may hinder the sustained usage of SPV products for lighting.

5. Acknowledgments

This work was produced with the financial assistance of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India. The
authors would like to thank CTARA family, the villagers and other stakeholders interviewed, for their useful
discussions and cooperation.

References

[1] CEA (2015). All India Installed Capacity (in MW) of Power Stations, Ministry of Power GoI,
http://www.cea.nic.in/installed_capacity.html Last accessed on 07/07/2015
th
[2] Planning Commission (2014). 12 Five Year Plan New Delhi 2012,
http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/12th/pd f/12fyp_vol2.pdf, Last accessed on 04/09/2014
[3] Census (2011). Population Census 2011,
http://www.census2011.co.in/ Last accessed on 30/06/2015
[4] S. Anand (2015). Alternative Business Models for Deployment of Solar PV Applications in Rural Areas, M.Tech.
[4]Dissertation, Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay, pp110.

1324
 ICAER-2015

Thermal influences on rotordynamic coefficients of a rotating

gas turbine seal
Sivakumar Subramaniana, A.S. Sekharb, B.V.S.S.S. Prasadc
a,b
Machine Design Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
c
Thermal Turbomachines Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to assess the influence of radial thermal growth on the rotordynamic coefficients for a
typical rotating gas turbine seal. Towards this, a labyrinth seal clearance-leakage model based on combined 3D-FE/CFD
methodology, along with an appropriate rotordynamics model have been employed to predict the rotordynamic coefficients
of seal. A six-tooth straight-through labyrinth seal, having teeth-on-rotor is investigated for a wide-ranging pressure ratios
and temperature conditions for a particular initial clearance and rotational speed. The computed rotordynamic coefficients
are compared to the one without considering thermal growth (ambient condition), as a function of pressure ratio and
temperature. The results show significant variation of the crucial seal coefficients and thereby highlight the importance of
considering the seal thermal growth, while performing rotordynamic analysis of any practical rotor system of concern.
Keywords: Gas turbine; labyrinth seal; rotordynamic coefficients; thermal growth; CFD/FE.

1. Introduction

Nomenclature

b width of the seal tooth, mm

Cr initial (static cold) clearance, mm
C direct damping, N-s/m
CG centrifugal radial growth of the rotor/seal, mm
c cross-coupled damping, N-s/m
Fr radial component of the seal force, N
Ft tangential component of the seal force, N
h height of the seal tooth, mm
L length of the shaft/disk, mm
K direct stiffness, N/m
K cross-coupled stiffness, N/m
M direct inertia, kg
m cross-coupled inertia, kg
p pitch of the seal tooth, mm
PR Pressure Ratio = Pi/Po
Pi inlet pressure, Pa
Po outlet pressure, Pa
R radius of the shaft/disk (also inner radius of seal), mm
T air temperature, °C
Tref reference temperature, °C
TG thermal radial growth of the rotor/seal, mm
Ω whirl speed of the rotor, rad/s
ω angular speed of the rotor, rad/s
δ eccentricity of the rotor/seal, mm

------------------------
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 91-44-2257-4709; fax: +91-44-2257-4652.
E-mail address: as_sekhar@iitm.ac.in

1325
 Clearance seals, having teeth-on-rotor are extensively used in the low pressure side of a typical gas turbine
engine for reducing the air leakages, as well as to have a control over the parasitic secondary air for cooling the
critical components in a specified manner. When the engine is under operation, these seals are likely to
experience both centrifugal and thermal deformations largely in the radial direction, which has a profound
impact on the seal clearance. As the radial clearance of the seal under operation is different from the initial
clearance, this tends to modify both the leakage flow and rotordynamic characteristics of seal dramatically.
Further providing larger initial clearance leads to significant amounts of secondary loss, which drastically
affects the efficiency of the engine. On the other hand, tighter clearance may cause a potential rub results in
rotordynamic instability, depending on the operating conditions. Thus any serious secondary air system design
must take into account these both mechanical and thermal effects during the preliminary stage, which also aids
in deciding the right initial clearance at the component level. Ideally, the seal has to be characterized accurately,
both for its leakage performance and rotordynamic characteristics to ensure not only the seal effectiveness, but
also for the overall efficiency of the engine.

To date, there is hardly any study reported on thermal influences on rotordynamic coefficients for rotating gas
turbine seals. Xi and Rhode [1] employed a CFD-perturbation model to study the influence of rotor axial shifting
during start-up and shut-down process due to thermal expansion in a typical steam turbine labyrinth seal for a
range of seal clearances. They reported that axial-shifting significantly alters the flow pattern and the flow-
induced rotordynamic forces in labyrinth seals, which in turn, can considerably affect the rotor-seal system's
performance. More recently, the authors widely investigated the influence of centrifugal growth alone; and
combined centrifugal/thermal radial growth on initial clearance and leakage flow characteristics of a rotating
labyrinth gas turbine seal under various circumstances [2-3]. The influence of centrifugal growth on the
rotordynamic stability of the same seal configuration at various flow and operating conditions are reported in
[4]. Towards their ensuing general objective of rotordynamic characteristics of seal and its relative stability, the
present investigation is an attempt to assess the thermal influence on the rotordynamic coefficients for a typical
rotating labyrinth gas turbine seal (see Fig. 1.) considering the radial growth A critical compilation on the
methods of experimental estimation of the rotor dynamic parameters for various seals can be found in Tiwari et
al. [5]. With the advent of computers, two major approaches namely, Bulk flow model based codes and CFD
based codes have been used to predict the rotordynamic coefficients. The commonality between the approaches
is both works on the analogy of perturbation techniques for obtaining the dynamic coefficients. However, the
bulk flow models need to be calibrated with the experimental data owing to the assumptions involved in
simplification [6].

Fig. 1. Labyrinth gas turbine seal configuration (All dimensions in mm).

2. Computational methodology

A labyrinth seal clearance-leakage model based on combined 3D-FE/CFD methodology, established by the
authors [7], have been extended to predict the rotordynamic coefficients of seal, for a wide-ranging pressure
ratios and rotational speed for an initial clearance of 500 micron and the subsequent operating clearances. In the
CFD analysis performed, the rotor gets displaced at an eccentricity e of 50 micron along the positive Y-axis to
facilitate perturbation. Accordingly, the flow analysis is carried out for the eccentric seal first with the initial
clearance using three-dimensional CFD techniques. Secondly, the centrifugal growth of the seal is predicted
using a three-dimensional FE model. Subsequently, the flow analysis is repeated with the reduced seal clearance
considering the centrifugal growth of the seal. Thirdly, the thermal growth of the seal is predicted for varying
solid–fluid temperature difference representing engine conditions. The flow analysis is repeated again with the
net reduced seal clearance considering both the centrifugal and thermal growth of seal. It may be noted that the
stator growth is presumed to be negligible and not considered in the present study.

1326
2.1. Centrifugal and thermal growth prediction

The true radial deformation of the seal subjected to different temperature conditions at an angular speed of
3000 rad/s is provided in Table 2. These values are obtained using an established 3D-FE model [3]. Inconel 718,
a Ni-based super alloy is used as the rotor/ seal material. The details regarding the FE model, including the
boundary conditions and material properties are described in [3]. Figure 2 depicts a typical deformation contour
obtained from FEA for a particular operating condition of the seal.

Table 2. True radial deformation at different operating conditions

Seal operating conditions Radial growth (mm)
ω =3 = 0.0104
ω =3000 rad/s; T = 20 0.1675
ω =3 = 0.2698
ω =3000 rad/s; T = 426 C 0.3785

Fig. 2. Resultant deformation t ω = 3000 rad/s; T = 315 C

2.2. CFD model

The problem under consideration is unsteady in nature, considering the motion of rotor-stator system from a
stationary frame. To facilitate easy computations, the unsteady whirling motion of the rotor is converted into a
steady state problem by employing a rotating frame of reference attached to the whirling rotor. Accordingly, the
ot tin g e l pin t n n gul pee ω, whe e the t t o pin t whi l pee Ω oppo ite to the ot tin g
f me. F o m t t ion y f me of efe ence, thi implie th t oto pin t n ngul pee ω n whi l t
speed Ω imult neou ly, while the t to i i le. he et il eg ing the FD mo el inclu ing the g i , olve
details are given in [4]. Grid sizes of about 2 million nodes have been used for the present analysis.

2.3. Rotordynamics model

Based on the authors’ previous experience [4], the second order model as given in Eq. (1) - (3) is employed
for the present work. The intercepts and the slopes from the radial force equation (2) are called direct stiffness
and cross-coupled damping, respectively and the one from the tangential force equations (3) are called cross-
coupled stiffness and direct damping.

𝐹𝑧 𝑀 𝑚 𝑧̈ 𝑪 𝒄 𝑧̇ 𝐾 𝑘 𝑧
{𝐹 } = [ ]{ } + [ ]{ }+[ ]{ } ( )
𝑦 −𝑚 𝑀 𝑦̈ −𝒄 𝑪 𝑦̇ −𝑘 𝐾 𝑦

=𝑀 −𝒄 −𝐾 (2)
𝑡
=−𝑚 −𝑪 +𝑘 ( )

Here z and y define the motion of the rotating seal relative to the stator, and Fz and Fy are the reaction force
components acting on seal, which corresponds to radial (Fr) and tangential (Ft) forces, respectively. The
coefficients (M, m, K, k, C, and c) represent the direct mass, cross-coupled mass, direct stiffness, cross-coupled
stiffness, direct damping, and cross-coupled damping respectively.

1327
3. Results and discussion

The circumferential pressure distributions are obtained and integrated to calculate the subsequent reaction
forces for all the cases considered. It may be mentioned that the rotor is perturbed at five different presumed
whirl speeds within the range of the specified angular speed and a CFD solution is obtained individually. The
thus computed rotordynamic coefficients are compared to the one without considering thermal growth and the
detailed comparisons are reported. The validation of numerical models and method adopted for predicting the
oto yn mic coefficient c n be een in the u tho ’ ecent public tio n [ ].

3.1. Seal forces

Figure 3 and 4 shows respectively the computed radial and tangential seal forces normalized by eccentricity
of rotating seal as function of whirl speeds at a particular angular speed of 3000 rad/s for varying temperatures
and pressure ratios. As seen from these figures, generally, both the radial and tangential forces vary in
magnitude and direction (depending on flow condition) with an increase in whirl ratio. Besides, the magnitudes
of the tangential forces are larger than the radial forces. An abrupt change in behaviour of both the radial and
tangential force is noticed at elevated temperature, especially with increasing pressure ratio. The detailed force
characteristics are discussed in the following.
(a) (b)
3.0E+4 3.0E+4
PR = 1.1 PR = 1.5
1.0E+4 1.0E+4

-1.0E+4 -1.0E+4
Fr / δ (N/m)

Fr / δ (N/m)

-3.0E+4 -3.0E+4

-5.0E+4 -5.0E+4

-7.0E+4 -7.0E+4

-9.0E+4 CG alone @ T=27 °C -9.0E+4 CG alone @ T=27 °C

CG+TG @T=204 °C CG+TG @T=204 °C
-1.1E+5 CG+TG @T=315 °C -1.1E+5 CG+TG @T=315 °C
CG+TG @T=426 °C CG+TG @T=426 °C
-1.3E+5 -1.3E+5
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Ω (rad/s) Ω (rad/s)
(c) (d)
3.0E+4 3.0E+4
PR = 1.9 PR = 2.5
1.0E+4 1.0E+4

-1.0E+4 -1.0E+4
Fr / δ (N/m)

Fr / δ (N/m)

-3.0E+4 -3.0E+4

-5.0E+4 -5.0E+4

-7.0E+4 -7.0E+4
CG alone @ T=27 °C
-9.0E+4 CG alone @ T=27 °C -9.0E+4 CG+TG @T=204 °C
CG+TG @T=204 °C CG+TG @T=315 °C
-1.1E+5 CG+TG @T=315 °C -1.1E+5 CG+TG @T=426 °C
CG+TG @T=426 °C
-1.3E+5 -1.3E+5
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Ω (rad/s) Ω (rad/s)

Fig. 3. Computed radial force normalized by eccentricity of seal as function of whirl speeds at an angular speed of 3000 rad/s for different
temperature conditions (a) PR = 1.1; (b) PR = 1.5; (c) PR = 1.9 and (d) PR = 2.5.

3.1.1. Radial force

At low pressure ratio PR = 1.1 (see Fig. 3 (a)), the radial force is initially positive (except at high
temperature), becomes negative with increasing whirl speed and then changes back to positive while
approaching towards the full-whirl speed (Ω = ). This quadratic trend remains the same, of
temperature except for a considerable change in magnitude noticed at higher temperatures.
As pressure ratio increases (PR = 1.5), the radial force is predominantly negative and becomes more negative
with increasing whirl speed and then decreases towards the full-whirl, except for a distinct trend at high
temperature. That is, at 426 °C, the magnitude is initially more negative, and increases slightly up to the one-
fou th whi l p ee ( Ω = 750 rad/s) in the negative direction and then drop progressively towards the full-whirl.

1328
 As the pressure ratio increases further (PR = 1.9), the radial force is negative and the magnitude increases
almost linearly in the negative direction with increasing whirl speed, except at high temperature. As the
temperature increases (T = 204 °C) from ambient, the magnitude tends to decrease slightly and then increases
noticeably at T = 315 °C. At high temperature, the trend is same as that of PR =1.5, except for a larger
magnitudes.
At high pressure ratio (see Fig. 3 (d)), the radial force exhibits distinct characteristics. At ambient, the trend
is same as that of PR = 1.9 with a slight increase in magnitude. As temperature increases (T = 204 °C) from
ambient, the magnitude initially increases slightly in the negative direction and then drops noticeably after
crossing the half-whirl speed (Ω = 00 rad/s). With the further increase in temperature (T = 315 °C), the same
trend is noticed, except for a larger magnitudes. At elevated temperature, magnitude is initially more negative,
and drops almost linearly towards the full-whirl speed.

(a) (b)
6.0E+4 6.0E+4
PR = 1.1 PR = 1.5
4.0E+4 4.0E+4
Ft / δ (N/m)

2.0E+4

Ft / δ (N/m)
2.0E+4

0.0E+0 0.0E+0

-2.0E+4 -2.0E+4
CG alone @ T=27 °C CG alone @ T=27 °C
-4.0E+4 CG+TG @T=204 °C CG+TG @T=204 °C
-4.0E+4
CG+TG @T=315 °C CG+TG @T=315 °C
CG+TG @T=426 °C CG+TG @T=426 °C
-6.0E+4 -6.0E+4
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Ω (rad/s) Ω (rad/s)
(c) (d)
6.0E+4 6.0E+4
PR = 1.9 PR = 2.5
4.0E+4 4.0E+4
Ft / δ (N/m)

Ft / δ (N/m)

2.0E+4 2.0E+4

0.0E+0 0.0E+0

-2.0E+4 -2.0E+4
CG alone @ T=27 °C CG alone @ T=27 °C
CG+TG @T=204 °C CG+TG @T=204 °C
-4.0E+4 -4.0E+4
CG+TG @T=315 °C CG+TG @T=315 °C
CG+TG @T=426 °C CG+TG @T=426 °C
-6.0E+4 -6.0E+4
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Ω (rad/s) Ω (rad/s)

Fig. 4. Computed tangential force normalized by eccentricity of seal as function of whirl speeds at an angular speed of 3000 rad/s for
different temperature conditions (a) PR = 1.1; (b) PR = 1.5; (c) PR = 1.9 and (d) PR = 2.5.

3.1.2. Tangential force

At low PR (see Fig. 4 (a)), the tangential force is initially positive and increases with whirl speed until half-
whirl speed is reached and then drops and becomes negative towards the full-whirl speed. This trend almost
remains the same except for varying magnitudes at higher temperatures.
As the PR increases (PR = 1.5), the tangential force initially decreases linearly with whirl speed until the
half-whirl speed is attained; thereafter increases linearly with whirl speed in the negative direction. As
temperature increases from ambient, the tangential force drops further and becomes negative even before the
half-whirl speed is reached, afterwards tends to slightly drop towards the full-whirl. As temperature increases
further, the trend remains same with a noticeable increase in magnitude, which retains the force positive always.
At elevated temperature, tangential force exhibits a quadratic variation, initially increases in the positive
direction until the half-whirl speed is attained; thereafter drops and alters direction towards the full-whirl.
As the PR gets increased further, almost the same trend is repeated with an increased magnitude, but with an
earlier change in direction, which occurs even before the half-whirl speed. As temperature increases from
ambient, the tangential force drops further and becomes negative even before the half-whirl speed is reached,
afterwards increase progressively in the negative direction. With further increase in temperature, the trend

1329
remains same almost same until half-whirl speed, afterwards exhibits quadratic variation tends to drop slightly
towards the full-whirl. At elevated temperature, the trend is same as that of PR =1.5, except for a larger
magnitudes before half-whirl and smaller magnitudes towards full-whirl.
At high pressure ratio (see Fig. 4 (d)), at ambient, the trend is same as that of PR = 1.9 with a slight increase
in magnitude in both the directions. As temperature increases (T = 204 °C), the magnitude drops slightly in the
positive direction and then increases sharply in the negative direction before crossing the half-whirl speed. With
the further increase in temperature (T = 315 °C), the same trend is noticed, except for a larger magnitudes and
far before crossing the half-whirl. At elevated temperature, tangential force exhibits almost a linear variation,
initially drops gradually in the positive direction before crossing the three-fou th whi l pee ( Ω = ad/s);
thereafter alters direction towards the full-whirl.

3.2. Rotordynamic coefficients

The seal coefficients were extracted using the second-order rotordynamics model, as discussed earlier. A
detailed comparison between the extracted coefficients with the radial growth considerations at different
temperatures for varying flow conditions (pressure ratios) is furnished in Table 3. Figures 5 and 6 respectively
show the thermal influences on the stiffness and damping coefficients under varying flow conditions (PR).

Table 3. Rotordynamic coefficients for the seal operating at an angular speed of 3000 rad/s at different temperatures,
considering radial growth.
T (°C) PR K (N/m) k (N/m) C (N-s/m) c (N-s/m)
27 1.1 -9620 6611 -5.8 26.5
1.5 -1091 14352 9.5 21.9
1.9 3750 23518 24 9.8
2.5 4819 25246 21.6 10.3
204 1.1 -7981 1904 -9.0 18.8
1.5 -4330 8146 17.2 17.3
1.9 2112 19171 22.4 10.7
2.5 12466 24516 26.6 6.2
315 1.1 -3237 3732 -8.2 13.1
1.5 9382 11401 10.9 12.3
1.9 18589 19912 25.7 6.1
2.5 18037 27736 37.8 0.5
426 1.1 4937 959 -4.9 9.2
1.5 42550 6091 -28.7 8.13
1.9 78883 9809 -23.2 10.72
2.5 128421 25397 8.1 -2.37

3.2.1. Stiffness

Figure 4 portrays the direct stiffness K and cross-coupled stiffness k plotted versus temperature gradient for
various flow conditions. In general, K increases with T. The magnitude of K is found to be larger at high PR and
elevated T. At low pressure ratio (PR = 1.1), K is initially negative at ambient; and then almost increases with T
and becomes positive only at elevated T. As PR increases (PR = 1.5), the same trend continues except for K
becomes positive from mid T onwards. Also, the magnitude of K increases. As PR increases (PR = 1.9) further,
K remains always positive and increases with T and with an increasing magnitude at high PR (PR = 2.5).

In general, the cross-coupled stiffness k is positive and increases with PR. However it exhibits a varying
trend with respect to T. That is, initially k decreases from ambient to low T and then increases towards mid T
and again drops towards elevated T. This trend is same almost for all the flow conditions.

1330
 (a) (b)
1.3E+5 PR = 1.1 1.3E+5 PR = 1.5 K
K
1.1E+5 1.1E+5
k k
9.0E+4 9.0E+4

K, k (N/m)
K, k (N/m)

7.0E+4 7.0E+4

5.0E+4 5.0E+4

3.0E+4 3.0E+4

1.0E+4 1.0E+4

-1.0E+4 -1.0E+4
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
T / Tref T / Tref
(c) (d)
1.3E+5 PR = 1.9 K 1.3E+5 PR = 2.5
K
1.1E+5 1.1E+5
k
k
9.0E+4 9.0E+4

K, k (N/m)
K, k (N/m)

7.0E+4 7.0E+4

5.0E+4 5.0E+4

3.0E+4 3.0E+4

1.0E+4 1.0E+4

-1.0E+4 -1.0E+4
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
T / Tref T / Tref

Fig. 5. Direct stiffness (K) and cross-coupled stiffness (k) as function of pressure ratio and temperature.

(a) (b)
40 40
PR = 1.1 PR = 1.5
C C
30 30

20
c 20
c
C, c (N-s/m)

C, c (N-s/m)

10 10

0 0

-10 -10

-20 -20

-30 -30
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
T / Tref T / Tref
(c) (d)
40 40
PR = 1.9 PR = 2.5
C C
30 30

20
c 20
c
C, c (N-s/m)

C, c (N-s/m)

10 10

0 0

-10 -10

-20 -20

-30 -30
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
T / Tref T / Tref

Fig. 6. Direct damping (C) and cross-coupled damping (c) as function of pressure ratio and temperature.

1331
3.2.2. Damping

Figure 6 shows the direct damping C and cross-coupled damping c plotted versus temperature gradient for
various flow conditions. Both the direct damping C and cross-coupled damping c exhibits varying trend with
temperature T and the trend largely depends on PR.
In general, the magnitude of C almost increases with PR, except for a noticeable reduction at high PR at
ambient and elevated temperature conditions. At low PR, C is negative and varies in a quadratic fashion i.e.
initially increases from ambient to low T and then drops in the negative direction, towards increasing T. As PR
increases (PR = 1.5), C becomes positive at ambient and increases at low T and then drops gradually at mid T
and drops sharply reaching the largest magnitude in the negative direction. At PR = 1.9, C is positive initially
and slightly drops at low T and then slightly increases towards mid T and then drops sharply at elevated T
reaching a larger magnitude in the negative direction. At high PR, C remains always positive and slightly
increases at low T and then peaks at mid T before drops sharply at elevated T.
In general, the cross-coupled damping c remains positive except at high PR and elevated T combination.
Besides, it decreases linearly with T, except for PR =1.9, where it exhibits a fluctuating trend. The magnitude of
c almost decreases with PR, except for a noticeable change at high PR at ambient and elevated temperature
conditions.

4. Conclusions

A computational methodology based on combined CFD/FE is employed to predict the rotordynamic

coefficients of a rotating gas turbine seal considering both the centrifugal and thermal growth of seal. A six-
tooth straight through labyrinth seal has been investigated for a varying temperatures and flow conditions. Both
the radial and tangential seal forces exhibit distinct variation in magnitude and direction with increasing whirl
ratio, depending on the temperature and pressure ratio. Besides, the magnitude of the tangential forces is
relatively larger. An abrupt change in behaviour of both the radial and tangential force is noticed at elevated
temperature and higher pressure ratio combinations. The rotordynamic seal coefficients shows distinct
characteristics when the thermal growth is accounted for. The temperature difference has substantial influence
on both the crucial coefficients, namely, cross-coupled stiffness and direct damping; and the influence largely
varies with both temperatures and pressure ratios.
The results emphasize that prior understanding of thermal influences on rotordynamic coefficients may
enable the Gas Turbine engineers to design secondary air systems more efficient for the right initial clearance
and operating/flow conditions thereby ensuring stability. Towards this, further studies on the stability analysis
can be carried out with the presented seal coefficients to examine the onset of instability and thereby identifying
the safe operating zones, which is presently under investigation.

References

[1] Xi, J. and Rhode, D. L. (2006) Rotordynamics of turbine labyrinth seals with rotor axial shifting. International Journal of Rotating
Machinery, Volume 2006, Article ID 9362: 1–11.
[2] Subramanian, S., Sekhar, A. S. and Prasad, B. V. S. S. S. (2015) Influence of combined radial location and growth on the leakage
performance of a rotating labyrinth gas turbine seal, Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, 29(6), pp. 2535-2545.
[3] Subramanian, S., Sekhar, A. S. and Prasad, B. V. S. S. S. (2015) On the choice of initial clearance and prediction of leakage flow rate for
a rotating gas turbine seal, IMechE Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, doi: 10.1177/0954406215581692. pp. 1-16.
[4] Subramanian, S., Sekhar, A. S. and Prasad, B. V. S. S. S. (2015) Influence of centrifugal growth on the rotordynamic stability of a
ot ting l by inth e l”, he n Inte n tion l ongress on Sound and Vibration, ICSV22, July 12-16, 2015, Florence, Italy; 8 pages
(“Accepte ”)
[5] Tiwari, R., Manikandan, S. and Dwivedy, S. K. (2005) A review of the experimental estimation of the rotor dynamic parameters of
seals, Shock & Vibration Digest, 37, (4), pp. 261-284.
[6] Kirk, G. and Gao, R. (2012) Influence of preswirl on rotordynamic characteristics of labyrinth seals, Tribology Transactions, 55(3), 357-
364, 2012.
[7] Subramanian, S., Sekhar, A. S. and Prasad, B. V. S. S. S. (2013). Performance analysis of a rotating labyrinth seal with radial growth,
Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2013, V03CT18A005: paper no. GT2013-95708.

1332
 ICAER-2015

Comparative study of lanthanum strontium cobaltite cathode

material for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell synthesized by
different methods
Baijnatha, Pankaj Tiwaria, Suddhasatwa Basua,1
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi-110016, India

Abstract

Lanthanum Strontium Cobaltite (LSCO) has been synthesized using different synthesis route i.e., Sol-gel, Glycine-nitrate
and Solid state method to use as cathode in low temperature solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). As prepared cathode material has
been characterized by XRD, SEM and EDX to assess the phase purity, particle size, morphology and dispersion of
constituent metals homogenously. Cathodes, half-cells (Cathode/Electrolyte) and symmetric cells
(Cathode/Electrolyte/Cathode) have been fabricated using palletization technique. The electrical conductivity measurements
for cathodes have been carried out using 2-probe AC conductivity method (Electrochemical Impedance Spectra, EIS).
Electrical conductivity value is 0.4 S/cm at 873 K for the cathode prepared by sol-gel method, which is highest among three
synthesis route. Area specific resistance (ASR) for half-cell and symmetric cell has been calculated using EIS between 673-
1073 K. It is observed that ASR value decreases with the increase in temperature, which shows decrease in polarization
losses and enhanced performance of cell. Physical characterization such as SEM, XRD and EDX have been done before and
after cell testing to assess the performance of electrodes.

Keywords: LSCO cathode; SOFC; Synthesis technique; Sol-gel; Solid state; Glycine nitrate.

1. Introduction

In recent years low/intermediate temperature range (773-1073 K) SOFCs are developed to produce energy at
a lower cost. Degradation of components used in SOFCs can be reduced by lowering the operating temperature.
At low temperature there are many anode, cathode and electrolyte material available for SOFCs which reduce
the system cost and improve the fuel cell durability. But interfacial polarization resistances of these materials
increases because of decrease in electrode kinetics due to reduction of the operating temperature. Electronic
conductivity, ionic conductivity and high catalytic activity for oxygen reduction must be maintained at the
cathode for reduction of the polarization resistance at lower temperature [1,2,3].

Perovskites with general formula ABO3 (where A = earth metal, B = transition metal and O = Oxygen) have
excellent electric, optical, magnetic and catalytic properties. Strontium-substituted lanthanum cobalt oxide
La1−xSrxCoO3 used in the catalytic decomposition of environmental pollutant NO x, and oxidizes carbon
monoxide, ammonia, methane and other light hydrocarbons [4,5]. Oxygen vacancies in the oxide bulk created by
partial substitution of La3+ by Sr2+ increases. Electronic conductivity in the material leads by the electron hops
between Co3+ to Co4+[2,6]. High purity, phase homogeneity, narrow particle size distribution and fine crystalline
size can be obtained in powder form of material which is required for the preparation of electrodes and dense
ceramic membranes [7]. Solid state reaction at high calcination temperatures results in low surface area and easy
loss of volatile elements, non-uniform particle size distribution, lack of phase homogeneity, presence of impurity
[4,8]. Cathode material are prepared by chemical methods but in recent years some new methods have been
developed, such as sol-gel method and glycine-nitrate method [2,4]. The reactants are mixed in the molecular
level by these methods, which makes the material in homogeneous phase composition and further during
calcination diffusion barrier eliminates resulting fine particle size and high specific surface area [4,9,10]. In
present work a comparative study is done for synthesis of nano size cathode material La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (LSCO) by
different techniques at a low temperature. Among these methods sol-gel method has been found to be more
promising to prepare mixed metal oxides. The effect of calcination conditions on the phase formation was
investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Electrical conductivity was measured by electrochemical impedance
spectra (EIS).

1333
2. Experimental

2.1 Powder synthesis and characterization

In this study, LSCO powder was prepared by three different methods as described below in the first method,
that is sol-gel method, for the preparation of LSCO powder, La(NO3)3.6H2O (99.9% Alfa Aesar), Sr(NO3)2
(99.9% Alfa Aesar) and Co(NO3)2.6H2O (97.7% Alfa Aesar) were used as source material. The three powder
((La(NO3)3.6H2O, Sr(NO3)2 and Co(NO3)2.6H2O in stoichiometric ratios) were dissolved in distilled water.
C6H8O7 (anhydrous pure Merck) was dissolved in distilled water in a separate container. Both the solution was
mixed in a flask and heated on a hot plate at 353 K for 3 h in stirring condition. The gel-like powder precursors
were obtained after heat treatment at 373 K for 1 h and at 393 K for 2 h. Finally, the obtained powder was
calcined in a muffle furnace at different temperatures (at 1073 K for 2 h and at 1123 K for 10 h).

Second method, glycine-nitrate method, for preparing LSCO powder, La(NO3)3.6H2O (99.9% Alfa Aesar),
Sr(NO3)2 (99.9% Alfa Aesar) and Co(NO3)2.6H2O (97.7% Alfa Aesar) were used as source material. All three
material (La(NO3)3.6H2O, Sr(NO3)2 and Co(NO3)2.6H2O are taken in stoichiometric ratios) were dissolved in
distilled water. C2H5NO2 (purified Merck) dissolved in distilled water was added to it. The solution mixture was
heated and stirred continuously for 1 h to evaporate the water. The gel structure obtained was heated to 473 K to
start the combustion process and finally LSCO powder was obtained.

Third method, solid state route, for the preparation of LSCO powder, La(NO3)3.6H2O (99.9% Alfa Aesar),
Sr(NO3)2 (99.9% Alfa Aesar) and Co(NO3)2.6H2O (97.7% Alfa Aesar) were used as source material. The three
types of powder (La(NO3)3.6H2O, Sr(NO3)2 and Co(NO3)2.6H2O taken in stoichiometric ratios) were mixed
thoroughly in a agate mortar and pestle for 2 h. This powder was kept in furnace at 1523 K for removing volatile
components for 12 h.

2.2 Cathode pellet fabrication and characterization

Cathode pellets of LSCO powder were fabricated using die press to evaluate the electrochemical properties of
LSCO cathode. Pellets were sintered at 1523 K for 12 h. The morphology/elemental analysis of the sintered
pellets was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
The electrical conductivity of cathode pellets have been measured by electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS)
in the temperature range of 673-1073 K. The activation energy of cathode pellets was calculated using Arrhenius
plot.

3. Results and discussion

In fig. 1 major peaks show presence of perovskite phase of LSCO cathode material. Some small peaks
correspond to strontium oxide and cobalt oxide. No significant impurity was found after sintering. Table 1
shows activation energy for cathode material prepared by sol-gel, glycine-nitrate and solid state methods. The
activation energy for LSCO prepared by sol gel method is low between temperature range of 873 to 1073 K and
ionic conductivity is high.

Table 1. Activation energy of LSCO cathode material prepared by different methods.

Sol gel method Glycine nitrate method Solid state route

Temp Range (K) Ea (J/mol) Temp Range (K) Ea (J/mol) Temp Range (K) Ea (J/mol)

648-848 62.94 823-923 69.15 823-973 56.55

873-1073 1.41

1334
 Fig. 1. XRD patterns for La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 as synthesized by three different methods sintered at 1250 °C for 10 h.

Fig. 2. Electrical conductivity of LSCO prepared by different methods.

Fig. 2 shows that electrical conductivity of LSCO prepared by sol-gel method initially increases with increase in
temperature up to 873 K then it becomes constant till 948 K. The electrical conductivity of LSCO prepared by
sol-gel method is 0.4 S/cm between temperature range 873-948 K. The electrical conductivity of LSCO prepared
by glycine-nitrate method and solid state route was found to be 0.18 S/cm at 998 K, which is much lower than
that by sol-gel method. Morphology of synthesized LSCO cathode is shown by SEM images in fig. 3. A uniform
particle size of approximately 0.5 microns LSCO is visible, which might be the reason for high electrical
conductivity.

1335
 Fig. 3. SEM images of LSCO prepared by sol-gel method before operation.

4. Conclusions

Nano-crystal size LSCO cathode material synthesized at low temperature by three different methods. LSCO
material prepared by sol-gel method have highest electrical conductivity for cathode pellet, which is 0.4 S/cm
between temperature range of 873 to 948 K. The activation energy of LSCO prepared by sol-gel method found
to be 1.41 J/mol, which is much lower than LSCO prepared by glycine-nitrate and solid-state synthesis routes.

References

[1] C. Sun, R. Hui, J. Roller, J. Solid State Electrochem. 14 (2009) 1125–1144.

[2] H.J. Kweon, S.T. Kuk, H.B. Park, D.G. Park, K. Kim, J. Mater. Sci. Lett. 15 (1996) 428–430.
[3] M. Morales, F. Espiell, M. Segarra, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 39 (2014) 6454–6461.
[4] Z.P. Shao, G.X. Xiong, Y.J. Ren, Y. Cong, W.S. Yang, J. Mater. Sci. 35 (2000) 5639–5644.
[5] R. Maric, S. Ohara, T. Fukui, H. Yoshida, M. Nishimura, T. Inagaki, K. Miura, J. Electrochem. Soc. 146
(1999) 2006–2010.
[6] J. Sacanell, M.G. Bellino, D.G. Lamas, A.G. Leyva, Phys. B 398 (2007) 341–343.
[7] X. Yang, H. Tu, Q. Yu, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 40 (2015) 607–614.
[8] H.J. Choi, K. Bae, D.Y. Jang, J.W. Kim, J.H. Shim, J. Electrochem. Soc. 162 (2015) F622–F626.
[9] H. Jung, K. Bae, D.Y. Jang, Y.H. Lee, S.-W. Cha, J.H. Shim, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 39 (2014) 17828–
17835.
[10] S. Javorič, M. Kosec, B. Malič, Integr. Ferroelectr. 30 (2000) 309–316.

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 ICAER-2015

Li Functionalized Hydrogenated h-BN Sheet: A Promising

Candidate for Efficient Hydrogen Storage
P. Banerjeea*, B. Pathakb, G. P. Dasa
a
Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata - 700032, India
b
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore - 453331, India

Abstract

On the basis of first principles density functional theory (DFT) based approach, the structure, stability and hydrogen storage
efficiency of a hydrogenated hexagonal boron nitride sheet (BHNH chair conformer) functionalized by the lightest alkali
metal atom Li has been explored here. One of the hydrogen atoms from both B and N sides of a 3x3 corrugated BHNH sheet
have been replaced by a Li atom. The binding energy of the Li atom with this BHNH sheet on both B and N atoms being
significantly higher compared to the cohesive energy of bulk Li (~1.63 eV), any possibility of cluster formation between Li
atoms can be ruled out. Ab-initio Molecular Dynamics (AIMD) simulation confirms the stability of this Li doped BHNH
sheet upto 400K. While binding with the BHNH sheet, each Li atom becomes cationic and acts as an anchor to adsorb
maximum four H2 molecules. The van der Walls corrected binding energy of these H 2 molecules fall in the desired energy
window (~ 0.18-0.32 eV/H 2 molecule) required for hydrogen storage. When Li atoms are doped on both B and N sides
simultaneously, the system yields a gravimetric density of hydrogen ~ 6 wt %. AIMD simulation reveals complete
dehydrogenation from this system at ~ 400K, thereby establishing the suitability of this system from the point of view of
efficient hydrogen storage.
Keywords: Hydrogenated h-BN (BHNH) sheet; Hydrogen storage; Substitutional doping; DFT; Molecular Dynamics

1. Introduction

Rapidly expanding demand of energy all over the world, limited supply of presently existing fossil fuels as
well as their adverse effect on the environment caused by the emission of CO 2 and other pollutants, have
catalyzed the attention of the scientific community towards the environment friendly hydrogen economy [1,2].
However, hydrogen being not freely available in nature, it becomes necessary to store it for transportation and
other static/mobile applications. The non-viable energy costs of storing hydrogen in liquid or in gaseous form
has motivated the researchers to continue their searching for a perfect solid state material which could act as an
efficient host to store hydrogen. The main criteria for hydrogen storage as set by the U.S. department of energy
(DOE) [3] are: (a) achieving a storage capacity of at least 5.5 wt % at ambient conditions with an adsorption
energy range ~ 0.2-0.6 eV/H 2 molecule and (b) hydrogen desorption temperature ~1000C.
Carbon and BN based nanostructures such as nanotubes, fullerenes, planar graphene and BN sheet [4] have
been investigated for the purpose of hydrogen storage, due to their desirable binding with hydrogen (between
physisorption and chemisorption) and favorable hydrogen desorption kinetics. h-BN sheet has been found to be
the most promising analogue of graphene due to their similar lattice parameters [5] and complementary
properties. Two dimensional h-BN sheet is a chemically inert insulating material with a wide band gap of ~7
eV. It has been synthesized recently in laboratories in single and multiple layers [6,7] with different methods.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using borazine as the precursor, has shown its efficiency to
synthesize large-area single layered h-BN sheet [8]. After full hydrogenation, this sheet (BHNH) becomes
slightly corrugated and the band gap reduces to ~ 3 eV. Hydrogenation of this BN sheet gives rise to various
conformers such as chair, boat and stirrup, whose relative stability have been studied theoretically [9]. This
study by Bhattacharya et al indicated the possibility of synthesizing all of these BHNH conformers
experimentally via nonequilibrium roots. In 2013, Thapa et al [10] investigated the optical, IR and Raman
spectroscopy of differnt BHNH conformers using first principles density functional theory (DFT) based
calculations in order to confirm the formation of BHNH sheet and to differentiate between different BHNH
conformers viz. Chair, Boat and Stirrup. Due to its riveting electronic and structural properties, BHNH sheet can
be an area of immense interest in the field of nanotechnology, like its counterparts graphane (CH) and silicane
(SiH). On full hydrogenation, a BHNH sheet accounts for 7.5 wt% hydrogen. However, the hydrogen atoms

*
Corresponding author:
E-mail address: paramitabanerjee07@gmail.com

1337
being strongly bound (binding energy > 2 eV/H atom), can not be detached from the sheet easily. Our strategy is
to dope the BHNH sheet with Li (which replaces one of the H atoms of the BHNH sheet) and then use this Li-
doped BHNH sheet for storing molecular hydrogen. We report here the results of our first principles density
functional theory (DFT) based investigation of Li-substituted BHNH without and with H 2 adsorbed on the
surface. The stability of this Li doped system has been investigated upto 400K via Ab-initio Molecular
Dynamics (AIMD) simulation. We found that each Li atom doped on BHNH sheet can act as an anchor to
adsorb maximum four H 2 molecules. When Li is doped with ~ 10% doping concentration, the system yields a
gravimetric density of hydrogen ~ 6 wt% with the desired binding energy (between physisorption and
chemisorption) for hydrogen storage.
Furthermore, we have also investigated the desorption kinetics of the H 2 molecules attached to the Li atoms
by employing AIMD simulation and have estimated their desorption temperature. Finally, we have critically
analyzed the suitability of this metal functionalized hydrogenated h-BN sheet as efficient hydrogen storage
material.

2. Computational Methods

The full geometry optimizations and total energy calculations have been carried out by using first principles
DFT based electronic structure program Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP) with Projector-
augmented wave (PAW) potentials and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for exchange-correlation.
We have carried out our calculations using a 3x3 supercell of hydrogenated h-BN sheet, resulting in a formula
unit B 9 H B9 N 9 H N9 , where H B denotes the H atoms bonded to B atoms and H N denotes the H atoms bonded to N
atoms. A plane-wave energy cut-off of 500 eV is used here. Charge transfer in all the atoms have been
investigated via bader charge analysis method. 4x4x1 k-mesh has been generated via Monkhorst-Pack method
for all the geometry optimizations. Density of states (DOS) are obtained by using 25x25x1 k-points mesh. For
better treatment of our weakly interacting systems, we have calculated van der Waals corrected interaction
energies of the attached H 2 molecules using Grimme’s DFT-D2 dispersion correction [11] as implemented in
VASP. For the total energy calculations of all the structures reported here, self-consistency has been achieved
with 0.0001 eV convergences in total energy. Ground state geometries have been optimized until the atomic
forces (Hellman−Feynman forces) are minimized to 0.001 eV/Å. We have investigated the stability and
hydrogen desorption kinetics of these systems using the ab-initio MD simulation up to 8 ps runtime with a time
step of 1 fs and 8000 SCF runs as implemented in VASP. All the initial and optimized geometries have been
visualized using the graphical software namely Vesta.

3. Results and Discussions

3.1. Geometrical structure and stability of Li doped BHNH sheet

Bhattacharya et al [9] had earlier shown that, in chair conformer of BHNH sheet, the H atoms of each
hexagon alternate singly on both sides of the BN plane. As a result, in the BHNH (chair) structure all the H B
atoms lie on one (B) side and all the H N atoms lie on the other (N) side of BN plane. Bader Charge analysis
reveals that in chair B 9 H B9 N 9 H N9 system, each B atom loses electron, which is gained by the H B and N atoms
of the sheet. Each H N atom loses electron which is gained by the N atoms of the sheet. So, the two opposite
surfaces of this BHNH sheet becomes oppositely charged with cationic H N atoms and anionic H B atoms. The
bader charge transfer mechanism in BHNH sheet is schematically shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Charge transfer per atom (Bader mechanism) in chair BHNH sheet

In 2012, Bhattacharya et al had tried to explore the hydrogen storage efficiency of Li-adsorbed (not

1338
substituted) BHNH sheet [12], where the binding of Li atom was significantly low (~ 0.88 eV). Moreover, the
stability and hydrogen adsorption efficiency of this system at higher temperature was not addressed. Instead, if
we substitute one of the H atoms (either H B or H N ) by Li, the resulting Li-doped BHNH systems (viz.
LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 and LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 systems) will have stronger bonding, and hence higher stability. We have
explored, using our first principles approach, the electronic structure, bonding mechanism and hydrogen storage
efficiencies of these Li-doped BHNH sheets. The optimized structures of these LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 and
LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 systems are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 (a) Side view and (b) top view of optimized LiB9HB8N9HN9 system, (c) side view and (d) top view of optimized LiB9HB9N9HN8 system.

The binding energy (E B ) of the doped Li atom in LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 and LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 systems are estimated
using Eq. (1) and (2) respectively and are found to be ~1.88 eV and ~1.92 eV respectively.

E B (Li) = E(LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 )–E(B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 )–E(Li), (1)

E B (Li) = E(LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 )–E(B 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 )–E(Li), (2)

Here, E(LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ), E(LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 ) and E(B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ) are the energies of LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ,

LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 and B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 systems respectively. E(Li) is the energy of an isolated Li atom. These values
are significantly higher compared to the cohesive energy of bulk Li (~1.63 eV). The minimum Li-Li separation
in these systems being > 7 Å, there is no possibility of Li clustering in our Li doped BHNH systems. Further
more, using 8 ps ab-initio MD simulation at 400K with 1fs time step and 8000 SCF runs, we have ensured that
our newly designed Li doped BHNH systems remain stable upto 400K as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 Total energy per atom as a function of time step via molecular dynamics simulation for (a) LiB9HB9N9HN8 and (b) LiB9HB9N9HN8
system. The small deviation in total energy ensures the stability of these systems.

1339
 3.2. Charge transfer mechanism of Li doped BHNH sheet

In order to get a clear idea about the origin of Li binding with the BHNH sheet, we have performed Bader
charge analysis which reveals that in both LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 and LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 systems, Li atom donates its
electron to the sheet and becomes cationic. As a result, the electro negativity of the other atoms on the sheet
increases compared to undoped B 9 H B9 N 9 H N9 sheet. Table 1 shows the charge transfer (Bader) in each atom of
the undoped and Li doped BHNH system.

Table 1. Bader charge analysis of undoped and Li doped BHNH systems

System Average bader charge transfer per atom

Li HB B N HN

B 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 - -0.47 +1.92 -1.74 +0.30

LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 +0.88 -0.61 +1.20 -1.79 +0.22

LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 +0.86 -0.47 +1.93 -2.13 +0.24

Now, this Li+ generates an electrostatic attraction with N- and H B - (which are in the closest vicinity of the Li
atom), which is responsible for the Li binding with the sheet. In LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 system, due to the electrostatic
repulsion between positively charged B atom and positively charged Li atom, the Li-B distance increases
compared to H B -B distance (1.2 Å) and becomes 2.15 Å . Similarly, in LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 system due to the
electrostatic repulsion between positively charged H N atoms (which are in the closest vicinity of the Li atom)
and positively charged Li atom, the Li-N distance increases compared to H N -N distance (1.07 Å) and becomes
1.85 Å. This bonding mechanism is further evidenced by isosurface plotting of the differential charge density
(Fig. 4) for LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 and LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 systems estimated using Eq. (3) and (4) respectively.

δρ_LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 = ρ(LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ) – ρ[(B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ) + Li] (3)

δρ_LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 = ρ(LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 ) – ρ[(B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ) + Li] (4)

Here, ρ(LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ), ρ(LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 ) and ρ(B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ) are the charge densities of LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ,
LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 and B 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 systems respectively. ρ(Li) is the charge density of an isolated Li atom.

Fig. 4 Isosurface of the differential charge density (a) side view and (b) top view for LiB9HB8N9HN9 system, (c) side view and (d) top view for
LiB9HB9N9HN8 system. Yellow and green colors indicate accumulation and depletion of charges respectively.

1340
3.3 Hydrogen adsorption and desorption in the Li doped BHNH sheet:

After convincing ourselves about the stability of these LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 and LiB 9 H B9 N 9 H N8 systems, we have
explored the hydrogen storage efficiency by attaching molecular hydrogen. Bader charge analysis reveals that Li
atom loses its electron to the BHNH system, thereby becoming cationic and then binds upto four H 2 molecules
via “Anti-Kubas interaction” [12]. The average binding energy of these H 2 molecules are estimated using Eq.
(5)

E B (H 2 ) = E(LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 +nH 2 ) – E(LiB 9 H B8 N 9 H N9 ) – nE(H 2 ), (5)

After including Grimme’s DFT-D2 dispersion correction, these values are found to be in between ~ 0.18-0.32
eV/H 2 molecules. These estimated binding energy values of the adsorbed H 2 molecules fall in the right energy
window for efficient hydrogen storage.
When two Li atoms are doped in the B 9 H B9 N 9 H N9 system both on the B and N atoms simultaneously, the
resultant Li 2 B 9 H B8 N 9 H N8 system corresponds to ~10 % doping concentration of Li. The system can adsorb
maximum eight H 2 molecules with ~ 6 wt % gravimetric density of hydrogen with a binding energy ~ 0.21
eV/H 2 molecule (dispersion correction included).
In order to get a clear idea about the desorption temperature of the H 2 molecules in our system, we have
performed 8 ps ab initio MD simulation by varying the temperature from 0 to 500 K. Fig. 5. shows the variation
of average Li-H 2 bond length and total no. of H 2 molecules attached to the system as a function of temperature.

Fig. 5 Variation of (a) average Li-H2 bond length and (b) total no. of H2 molecules (n) attached to the system with the increase of temperature

The results describe that a total six H 2 molecules remain attached to this Li 2 B 9 H B8 N 9 H N8 system upto room
temperature (300K) and complete dehydrogenation occurs at ~ 400 K, thereby establishing the suitability of this
system as a potential candidate for hydrogen storage.

4. CONCLUSIONS

We have reported first principles design of a stable hydrogenated h-BN sheet functionalized by ~10% Li
doping, that can adsorb molecular hydrogen with ~ 6 wt % gravimetric efficiency. The binding energy of these
adsorbed H 2 molecules are falling in the desirable energy window (~ 0.1-0.4 eV) required for optimum
adsorption and desorption of hydrogen. Ab-initio MD simulation reveals a favourable hydrogen desorption
temperature of ~ 400 K, thereby establishing the suitability of this system from the point of view of an efficient
hydrogen storage materials.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge many useful discussions with Prof. R. Ahuja and Dr. S. Bhattacharya.

References

[1] L. Schlappbach, A. Züttel, Nature 414 (2001) 353-358.

1341
[2] P. Jena, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2 (2011) 206-211.
[3] U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Website.
https://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/storage/current_technology.html.
[4] A. H. M. Abdul Wasey, S. Chakrabarty, G. P. Das, C. Majumder, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 5 (2013) 10404−10408.
[5] M. Topsakal, E. Aktürk, S. Ciraci, Phys. Rev. B, 79 (2009), 115442.
[6] A. Nag, K. Raidongia, K. Hembram, R. Datta, U. V. Wagmare, C. N. R. Rao, ACS Nano, 4 (2010) 1539-1544.
[7] C. Jin, F. Lin, K. Suenaga,S. Iijima, Phys. Rev. Lett., 102 (2009), 195505.
[8] A. Ismach, H. Chou, D. A. Ferrer, Y. Wu, S. McDonnell, H. C. Floresca, A. Covacevich, C. Pope, R. Piner, M. J. Kim, R. M. Wallace,
L. Colombo, R. S. Ruoff, ACS Nano, 6 (2012), 6378−6385.
[9] A. Bhattacharya, S. Bhattacharya, C. Majumder, G. P. Das, Phys. Status Solidi RRL, 4 (2010) 368-370.
[10] R. Thapa, G. P. Das, Applied Surface Science, 284 (2013) 638– 643.
[11] S. Grimme, J. Comput. Chem. 27(2006) 1787-1799.
[12] S. Bhattacharya, A. Bhattacharya, G. P. Das, J. Phys. Chem. C, 116 (2012) 3840-3844.

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 ICAER-2015

Investigation on Synthesis of Biodiesel from Distillery Spent Wash using Oleaginous

Yeast Metschnikowia Pulcherrima
Anbarasan.Ta, Dr Jayanthi .Sb, Yasmin Regina a,b,1
a
Research scholar, GCT, Coimbatore – 641013,India.
b
Associate Professor in Civil Engineering, GCT, Coimbatore-13. India.
Abstract: The study was aimed at producing bio-diesel from lipids accumulated by micro-organisms grown in
distillery wastewater. The raw waste was inoculated with Metschnikowia pulcherrima and was grown under
varying conditions of pH, temperature, culture times etc. The raw wastewater had a COD of 86 g/l and total
dissolved solids of 46.9 g/l. The conditions for maximum growth were analysed for the available C/N ratio of
11.4 . The culture conditions for maximum growth were found to be pH 6.2, 300 C and 120 hours. The lipid
extraction was done and lipids were used for Bio-diesel conversion. In-situ trans-esterification reaction was
effected by base-catalysis using NaOH and methanol to form fatty acid methyl esters. The yield reached up to
1.4 g/l.
Keywords: Distillery spentwash; Microbial lipids; C/N ratio; Bio-diesel.
1. Introduction
Climate change, global warming and depleting fossil fuel reserves have driven the interest of research
into renewable energy in the second half of the 20thcentury[6]. The various alternative energy sources include
solar energy, wind energy and hydrogen. But for the same with transportation fuels there exists bio-diesels
namely Fatty Acid Alkyl Esters. Bio-diesels are derived from vegetable oils, waste cooking oils and microbial
lipids. Using bio-diesel as fuel can reduce the pollutant emissions, since they do not add extra carbon dioxide or
NO X to the atmosphere. It emits no net carbon or sulphur to the atmosphere since the assimilated carbon is
returned [10]. The bio-diesel from the vegetable oils requires land for cultivation and hence competes with food
crops and 70 % of the cost of Bio-diesel goes into bio-mass cultivation. [10,].Hence the alternative sources for
feedstock such as microbial lipids have been looked for bio-diesel production. Especially microbes that can be
grown in industrial wastewaters offers dual advantage of serving feedstock sources and cleaning of the effluent
for meeting standards. So turning the organic material into lipids for bio-diesel production presents a clean
energy alternative(9, 30).
Distillery spent wash is one of the most recalcitrant wastes with high COD, colour, solids and organic
material. After the alcohol distillation, the liquid that is leftover is called spentwash. The spent-wastes are highly
caramelized and consume high loads of water for both alcohol production and other processes. Distilleries are
one of the most Polluting industries in the world with COD and BOD levels running in lakhs per litre. They also
generate lot of waste water in the range of 9 – 15 L of waste per litre of alcohol produced. The high amounts of
organic matters make DSW very hard to treat. The degree of effective treatment increases with increasing
dilution[14].Extensive treatment are required for Industrial wastewater containing organic matter in the form of
COD and Solids (dissolved and suspended),mostly anaerobic or aerobic-anaerobic treatment. The colour
removal is also very difficult due to the presence of the recalcitrant melanoidin. Recent technologies include

1343
electro-coagulation and membrane reactors for removing COD. With wastes containing high organic materials,
Oleaginous yeasts have shown promising potential in producing lipids.
Oleaginous microbes are those that can accumulate 20 – 80 % of their dry mass as lipids. Bacteria, microalgae
and fungi fall into this category, since they can accumulate TAGs in their cells. These TAGs are similar in
composition to plant and vegetable oils but they do not compete with food crop production. Oleaginous yeasts
are a subgroup of unicellular fungi that are widely found in the environment. All are heterotrophic, feeding on a
wide variety of food sources. They can reproduce rapidly and form appreciable biomass within 3 – 7 days. They
are less affected by climate and other factors that affect plant growth. They are good candidates for the
production of Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids. They can survive and produce lipids from variety of carbon sources
including agro-industrial waste ligno-cellulosic bio-mass and industrial waste water [24].This study observed
the lipid productivity of oleaginous yeasts in real wastewater obtained from distillery.
The chosen organism was Metschnikowia pulcherrima, a non-saccharomyces terrestrial yeast that occurs in
fruits, nectars, pollen and flowers. They reproduce by budding. While the marine members of the
Metschnikowia genus are pathogens [29], the terrestrial ones are mostly used as bio- control agent for inhibiting
other microbes. With the presence of glucose, the organism can grow on any substrate.
M.pulcherrima is classified as non-oleaginous yeast [28],but with suitable conditions it too can accumulate
lipids that can put in the oleaginous range. The organism was chosen for its ability to tolerate high sugar content.
This organism absorbs iron from its surroundings and produces a complex called pulcherriminic acid [25,26].
The reddish pigment produced is called pulcherrimin that has microbe inhibiting properties. Thus the need for
sterilization is not strictly required [28, 29].
2. Materials and methods
2.1 DSW physicochemical analysis
Distillery spent wash was collected from the anaerobic reactor used for methane production from a distillery
plant located at Bhavani. It was dark brown in colour with a smell of burnt sugar and had elevated temperature.
It was stored at -40C in a cold storage chamber. The waste water were characterised according to procedures laid
down by APHA standards. The carbon and nitrogen content were measured using Shimadzu Total Organic
Carbon Analyser. The lipids and FAMEs were identified and analysed in FTIR instrument.
2.2 Micro-organism Culturing and Revival
The target organism M.pulcherrima was selected on the basis of its habits. The organism survives on high sugar
environments where other microbes maybe slowed down. The seed culture was ordered from microbial type
culture and gene bank (MTCC) Chandigarh, in a freeze dried form in ampoules. The ampoules were broken and
the dried cultures were revived by suspending in distilled water in an eppendorf tubes.
After 24 hours of suspension, a part of the culture was transferred to the standard liquid broth in a
standard 250 ml conical flask. This was used as the source for further studies on distillery spent wash and
control. The cultures were placed in a shaker at 160 rpm and at 250 C. All inoculation procedures were done
under the laminar hood to prevent contamination from other organisms. The organisms were grown on both
liquid and solid media with control and with DSW.
2.3 Culture Medium
The YEPD culture medium was prepared by adding the following chemicals.
Malt extract – 10.0 g

1344
 Peptone – 10.0 g
Glucose – 10.0 g
Yeast Extract – 3.0 g
NaCl – 5.0 g
Distilled water –1.0 litre
The organisms that were grown on solid agar media were observed for growth of colonies.
2.4 Growth Curve Analysis
The growth curve based on biomass dry weight was observed every 24 hours. The biomass was separated from
the medium by filtration and dried under mild conditions. The dried up biomass was observed in both synthetic
and distillery waste.
2.5 Growth Conditions
The organisms were grown under varying conditions of
1. pH – from 3 to 8.
2. Temperature from 25 – 350 C
3. Static and shaking.
4. Hours of growth from 24 to 120.

2.6 Microbial Cell Disruption

The microbial cell walls were burst open with the help of 0.25 M HCl and homogenised in a mortar and
pestle for 20 mins. HCl was then evaporated slowly and disrupted biomass was subject to lipid separation by
treating with hexane and iso-propanol in the ratio 3:2. It was further subject to complete disruption using glass
beads for 3 hours [18].
2.7 Bio-mass Separation
The biomass was separated from medium by both centrifugation and filtration. Filtration was done using
Whatman filter paper. Centrifugation was done at 8000 rpm for 15 min, for biomass separation.
2.8 Lipid Extraction
For isolation of lipids, the mixture containing cell bio-mass, organic solvents was subject to centrifugation. The
three layer separation was observed. The top layer contained organic solvents the middle layer contained non-
lipid components and the bottom layer contained proteins. The top layer containing lipids and organic solvents
was pipetted out and the lipids were isolated. The top layer was vacuum dried to remove the solvents and the
remaining lipids were collected. The collected lipids were weighed and analysed for their contents.
2.9 Ethanol Emulsion Test
A pinch of the lipid mass was used for the confirmation by suspending in ethanol, to form a cloudy emulsion
[19].
2.10 Trans-Esterification
Trans-esterification is usually done under a strong acid or base in the presence of a catalyst. The carboxylic
acids in the lipids react with a short chain alcohol to form fatty acid alkyl esters. The dried lipids were subject to
trans-esterification by reaction via base catalysis. The strong base used for trans-esterification was sodium
hydroxide and the short chain alcohol used was methanol. Sodium methoxide was the catalyst prepared by

1345
adding 4 gms of sodium hydroxide to 110 ml of methanol. The Trans-esterification reaction was carried out on
heating mantle at 550C for 15 mins.
2.11 FTIR Analysis
After the reaction proceeded to completion the formed esters were recovered and analysed in PerkinElmer FTIR
instrument. The carboxylic compounds exhibit characteristic peaks due to their double bonds and the ester
groups show absorption at specific wavelengths. Presence of such peaks confirms the presence of esters
[12,17].The samples after Trans-esterification were subject to HATR analysis using both flat plate and trough
plates.
The spectra was obtained with the help of PerkinElmer FTIR with a resolution of 2 cm-1over the mid infra-red
region ranging from wavenumbers of 4000 – 400 cm-1. The scanning accumulations were kept at 16. The
reacted trans-esterified samples were analysed as per the above procedure.
3. Results and Discussions.
3.1 DSW Characteristics
The collected DSW was analysed for its characteristics by standard procedures.
The analysed parameters are listed in Table 1
Table 1 : Physico-Chemical Characteristics of DSW
S. No. PARAMETERS VALUES*
1. Colour Dark brown
2. Odour Burnt Sugar smell
3. pH 3.3 - 4.2
4. Conductivity 26 - 35 mS/cm
5. DO Nil
6. BOD 32000 – 39000 mg/L
7. COD 83000 – 100000 mg/L
8. Total solids 65323 - 68260 mg/L

9. 21254 - 22358 mg/L

Total suspended solids
10. Total dissolved solids 44069 - 45902 mg/L
11. Alkalinity 13453 -14560mg/L
12. Sulphates 5568- 6200 mg/L

3.2 TOC Analysis of DSW

The TOC analysis in triplicate was carried out for raw DSW and the results were tabulated below.
Table 2 : TOC analysis results of the waste water
S. No. PARAMETERS VALUES* (mg/l)
1. Total carbon 40574
2. Total organic carbon 39867
3. Inorganic carbon 707.1
4. Total nitrogen 3558
5. C/N ratio 11.4

3.2 Yeast Biomass Growth Analysis

The growth of M.pulcherrima in both control and DSW was observed by weighing the dry bio-mass every day.
The culture was filtered using Whatman filter paper, after the specified time of inoculation and dried. The

1346
growth continued till the 4th day reaching a maximum at the fourth day and declined afterwards. This implies
that the culture had started reaching death phase of cell growth. Table 2 shows the dry weight on a daily basis.

Table 3 Yeast Biomass Growth Analysis

S.No Hours of growth Biomass Dry Weight (g/L)
1. 24 1.55

2. 48 5.64

3. 72 10.95

4. 96 33.7

Biomass dry weight (g/L)

40
30
Biomass dry weight
20
(g/L)
10
0
1 2 3 4

Fig 1 Yeast Biomass Growth Analysis

The growth of M.pulcherrima in DSW was similar to that of control medium except it was slower. The
maximum growth reached around 5th day compared to control medium. The maximum growth was around 1.33
g of dry bio-mass per litre of waste. The values are given in Table 4.
The slower growth and lower maximum dry weight can be attributed to the presence of inhibitors and
complexity of the waste [6].

Table 4: Yeast growth in DSW

S. No. Hours of growth Biomass Dry Weight (g/L)

1. 24 0.312

2. 48 0.46

3. 72 0.752

4. 96 1.3325

5. 120 1.151

1347
 1.4

1.2

0.8
biomass
growth g/l
0.6

0.4

0.2

0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Time(days)
Fig 2: Yeast Dry Weight in DSW

3.3 Lipid yield

Lipid extraction from the dry biomass was done as per the standard methods [5]. The lipids
constituted about 35 % of the dry weight of biomass (Control medium and DSW). Highest lipid yield of 11.8
g/L and 0.47 g/L in the control medium and distillery spent wash were obtained as shown in Table 5.
Table 5: Lipid Yield from M.pulcherrima in Control and DSW

S. No. Time (hours) Control medium (g/l) Distillery spent wash(g/l)

1. 24 0.54 0.11
2. 48 1.97 0.16
3. 72 3.83 0.26
4. 96 11.8 0.47
5. 120 1.31 0.40
6. 144 0.45 0.11

3.5 Effect of Static and Shaking Conditions.

Static conditions and shaking conditions also have an effect on aerobic organisms as it serves to distribute the
needed oxygen for their growth. Effects of Static conditions on Lipid accumulation were evaluated for four days
of incubation at 25ºC. The shaking conditions were maintained at 160 rpm and for static (non-shaking)
conditions; the standard flasks were kept in an incubator for 6 days. High growth of M. pulcherrima occurred at
shaking conditions, when compared to static conditions. Biomass dry weight of 33.7 g/L and 1.33 g/L for
control medium and distillery wash was obtained respectively. The effect was studied with both control medium
and DSW in duplicate.
Table 6 Bio-Mass Dry Weight in Control Medium

Incubation Period Biomass Dry Weight (g/L) In Control Medium

Static Shaking
24 0.45 1.55
48 3.76 5.64
72 6.87 10.96
96 16.74 33.7
20 0.82 3.76

1348
144 0.46 1.28

Table 7 Bio-Mass Dry Weight In DSW

Incubation period Biomass Dry Weight (g/L) In
(hours) Distillery Spent Wash
Static Shaking
24 0.29 0.31
48 0.44 0.46
72 0.61 0.75
96 1.03 1.33
120 0.48 1.15
144 0.25 0.32

3.5 Bio-Diesel Yield

The trans-esterification reaction was carried out as per the protocol cited above. The reaction gave FAAE and
glycerol. The Bio-diesel formed was viscous and further analysis confirmed the presence of esters. The bio-
diesel yield reached upto 1.5 g/L.

3.6 FTIR Analysis

FTIR is a qualitative analysis which is used to find the types of fatty acids esters present in the sample obtained
from the trans-esterification of lipids. According to the FTIR reports, the following fatty acids esters are present
in a sample is shown in table. The samples after trans-esterification were subject to HATR analysis using both
flat plate and trough plates. The presence of esters of unsaturated fatty acids confirms earlier finds of lipid
profiles. The unsaturated fatty acids characteristic peaks were obtained and the ester bond peaks were also
obtained, indicating the presence of FAAEs in the sample.

Table 2 FTIR Results of ester analysis

FTIR Results Compound Ester types
Methyl Linoleate Linoleic acid esters with methyl Fatty Acid Methyl Esters
alcohol

Butyl Stearate Stearic acid esters of normal butyl Fatty acid esters
alcohol

Ethyl Myristate Ethyl esters of myristic acid Fatty acid ethyl esters
Ethyl Palmitate Ethyl esters of palmitic acid
Ethyl Linoleate Ethyl esters of linoleic acid

3.7 Effect of pH

This effect of initial pH on the biomass dry weight was found out by culturing the organisms at various pHs [1].
The pH of the culture medium was adjusted before autoclaving at different pH values ranging from pH 3.0 – pH
8.0 with 1 N HCl or 1 N KOH. From the experiment, pH- 6.0 was found to be optimum pH for obtaining higher
biomass, but growth can be seen on lower pH also.

1349
Table 3 Effect of pH on Growth of Yeast
pH Biomass dry weight (g/L)
Control medium Distillery spent wash
3 0.44 0.004
4 0.69 0.16
5 5.7 0.49
6 16.7 1.03
7 0.7 0.27
8 0.6 0.12

4. Future Study
The study on the presence of inhibitors and their effect will improvise the lipid yield. Limiting the
nitrogen content would increase the C/N ratio for better accumulation of lipids. The C/N ratios will be studied
for optimization along with other parameters.
5. References

1. Atul Thakkar, 2013, “Chemical Study on Distillery Effluent to Assess Pollution Load”,
International Journal on Emerging Technologies 4(2), 121-123.
2. Anger Bauer C., Siebenhofer M., Mittelbach M., Guebitz G. M., 2008, “Conversion of sewage
sludge into lipids by Lipomyces starkeyi for biodiesel production”, Bioresource Technology, 99,
pp 3051–3056.
3. Biofuels Research Advisory Council (BIOFRAC), 2006, “Biofuels in the European Union: A
Vision for 2030 and Beyond”, URL:/http://europa.eu.Int/comm/research/energy/S
(Acc. 2006-03-31).
4.Benjamas Cheirsilp, Warangkana Suwannarat and Rujira Niyomdecha, 2011, “ Mixed culture of oleaginous
yeast Rhodotorula glutinis and microalga Chlorella vulgaris for lipid production from industrial wastes and its
use as biodiesel feedstock”, New Biotechnology, 28, pp 211-215.
5. Benjamin Caballero, 2006, “Lipids”, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of public health.
6. Bo Liu and Zongbao Zhao, 2007, “Biodiesel production by direct methanolysis of oleaginous microbial
biomass”, J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol., 82, pp 775-780.
7. Thevenieau, F., Le Dall, M. T., Hapala, I., Papanikolaou, S., Chardot, T., & Nicaud, J. M. (2008)
C control of lipid accumulation in the yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima. Applied and Environmental
microbiology. Vol. 74, No. 24, pp. 7779- 7789, ISSN 0099-2240.
8. Cherubini F., 2010, “The bio refinery concept: Using biomass instead of oil for producing energy ooand
oochemicals”, Energy Conversion and Management, 51, pp 1412–1421
9. Dr.Rakhi Chaudhary and Ms Mahima Arora, “Study on distillery effluent: chemical analysis and impact
ooon environment”, International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology.
10. Emilie EL Muller, Abdul R Sheik and Paul Wilmes, “Lipid-based biofuel production from wastewater”,
ooScienceDirect.
11. Encinar JM, Snchez N, Martinez G, Garcia L. 2011. “Study of biodiesel production from animal oofats
oowith high free fatty acid content”, Bio resource Technology 102 (2011) 10907–10914.
12. Fangrui Ma and Milford A. Hanna, “Biodiesel production: a review”, Bioresource Technology 70 oo (1999)
oo1-15.
13. Freedman, B., Pryde, E. H., & Mounts, T. L. 1984. “Variables factors affecting the yields of fatty ooesters
oofrom Trans esterified vegetable oils”. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, Vol.61, ooNo.10,
(erd(October 1984), pp. 1638-1643, ISSN 0003-021X.
14. Farid Ansari, Ajay k. Awasthi and Bhawana P. Srivastava, 2012, “Physico-chemical
ooCharacterization of Distillery Effluent and its Dilution Effect at Different Levels”, Archives of ooApplied
ooScience Research
15. Thevenieau, F., Le Dall, M. T., Hapala, I., Papanikolaou, S., Chardot, T., & Nicaud, J. M. (2008) ooControl
ooof lipid accumulation in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. Applied and Environmental ooMicrobiology. Vol. 74,
ooNo. 24, pp. 7779- 7789, ISSN 0099-2240.

1350
16. Cherubini F., 2010, “The bio refinery concept: Using biomass instead of oil for producing energy ooand
oochemicals”, Energy Conversion and Management, 51, pp 1412–1421
17. Dr.Rakhi Chaudhary and Ms Mahima Arora, “Study on distillery effluent: chemical analysis and impact on
ooenvironment”, International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology.
18. Emilie EL Muller, Abdul R Sheik and Paul Wilmes, “Lipid-based biofuel production from wastewater”,
ooScienceDirect.
19. Encinar JM, Snchez N, Martinez G, Garcia L. 2011.“Study of biodiesel production from animal oofats with
oohigh free fatty acid content”, Bio resource Technology 102 (2011) 10907–10914.
20. Fangrui Ma and Milford A. Hanna, “Biodiesel production: a review”, Bioresource Technology 70 oo (1999)
oo1-15.
21. Freedman, B., Pryde, E. H., & Mounts, T. L. 1984. “Variables factors affecting the yields of fatty ooesters
oofrom Trans esterified vegetable oils”. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, Vol.61, ooNo.10,
(October 1984), pp. 1638-1643, ISSN 0003-021X.
22. Seraphim Papanikolaou, Oleaginous Yeasts: Biochemical Events Related with Lipid Synthesis ooand
ooPotential Biotechnological Applications, Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Biotechnology, department of
ooFood Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos, oo11855 - Athens, Greece
ooPapanikolaou, Ferment Techno 2011, and 1:1
23. Ramanaiah et al., 2007
24. Thanaa H. Ali, Dina H. El-Ghonemy Optimization of Culture Conditions for the Highest Lipid production
oofrom some Oleaginous Fungi for Biodiesel Preparation, Asian Journal of Applied sciences (ISSN: 2321 –
oo0893).
25. Matthias Sipiczki, Metschnikowia Strains Isolated from Botrytized Grapes Antagonize Fungal and bacterial
ooGrowth by Iron Depletion, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Oct. 2006,
26. Sezai Türkel, Mihriban KorukluoLlu and Mümine Yavuz, Biocontrol Activity of the Local Strain ooof
ooMetschnikowia pulcherrima on Different Postharvest Pathogens, Biotechnology Research international,
ooVolume 2014, Article ID 397167.
27. Pervin Kinay, Mehmet Yildiz, The shelf life and effectiveness of granular formulations of metschnikowia
oopulcherrima and Pichia guilliermondii yeast isolates that control postharvest decay ooof citrus fruit, Elsevier
28. Fabio Santamauro, Fraeya M Whiffin, Rod J Scott and Christopher J Chuck,Low-cost lipid ooproduction by
ooan oleaginous yeast cultured in non-sterile conditions using model waste resources, ooSantamauro et al.
ooBiotechnology for Biofuels 2014.
29. Gillian c. Turton and Alastair c. Wardlaw, Pathogenicity of the Marine Yeasts Metschnikowia zobelli and
ooRhodotorula rubra for the Sea Urchin, Echinus eseulentus,
30. Marjan Enshaeieh, Azadeh Abdoli, Iraj Nahvi and Mahboobeh Madani, Selection and optimization of single
oocell oil production from Rhodotorula 110 using environmental waste as substrate, Journal of Cell and
ooMolecular Research (2012-2013).

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 ICAER-2015

Absorber Tube with Internal Hinged Blades for Solar Parabolic

Trough Collector
B Kalidasana R Shankarb T Srinivasb Priyank Agarwalb
a)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam-63801, India
b)
Energy Division, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore-632014, India

Abstract

Solar parabolic collectors exploit solar energy for both thermal and power generation applications. But, they
demand long arrays of reflective concentrating surfaces with receiver tube throughout the length of axis of the concentrators.
For one and half meter long parabolic trough with aluminium sheet as reflective surface, experimental analysis was done
attempting to increase the energy transfer rate and reduce the length of arrays. Two absorber tubes were fabricated and
distilled water was used as the working fluid in the tubes. The modified absorber tube with hinged blades delivered an
average efficiency of 69.33% compared to 60.82% obtained for simple conventional absorber tube. Plots for performance
results of the tubes with varying direct normal irradiance and mass flow rates were obtained. Slope and intercept values of
70.887 and -0.419 respectively were obtained for the collector equation of absorber tubes hinged blades compared to slope
and intercept values of 61.571 and -0.401 respectively. The present work delivers better performance compared to earlier
works Thus, the proposal present its scope for both domestic and industrial applications.
Keywords: Absorber tube; parabolic trough; aluminium reflective sheet; hinged blades; solar thermal

1. Introduction

Solar energy presents itself as a highly potential source of energy for sustainable progress. But, high
investment, requirement of large area for installation of solar energy devices and wavering availability of
radiations has restrained its development. Solar parabolic trough collector (SPTC) provides an effective way to
harness solar energy providing “one-axis concentration” such that distilled water flowing through the absorber
tube, gains the concentrated energy and accomplish the work as per required application. Since years,
researchers and scientists have been trying to optimize the performance of SPTC so that rapid heat transfer can
take place and overall length of the trough collector can be reduced.
Tao et al. [1] introduced design method and working principle for new type of trough collector with
efficient performance of SPTC by introducing widely opened concentrating collectors. However, increase in the
width of concentrating apparatus may result to unbalanced design and higher probability of back reflection with
spillage loses of the incident solar radiations. To avoid such hindrances, requirement of precise design and
tracking will be needed, that adds some more minuses to the proposed design. Cobalt electrode position on
absorber tubes by Barrera et al. [2] and effort on solar selective coatings by Farooq and Raja [3] resulted in
enhancement of the efficiency for operation of solar apparatuses. But with increase in coating temperature,
radiation thermal losses may increase, thus high thermal stresses may develop in the receiver tube.
The implementation and development of recirculation operation mode for SPTC by Valenzuela et al.
[4] showed increase in output temperature and performance of the apparatus. But, the system possesses minor
drawbacks concerning the use of steam at high pressures, risk for steam leakage and higher stresses on tube. An
innovative numerical model evaluation of heat transfer characteristics for porous disc receiver by Ravi Kumar
and Reddy [5] presents an efficient design of absorber tube, but flow across the tube is very high and also the
system will require only pure fluid to avoid accumulation of particles on the tube walls and porous disc, than
can be caused by highly interrupted flow through the receiver tube. Selectively coated receiver with U-tube was
analyzed by Ma et al. [6] that demonstrated better performance, but with very mass flow rate of fluid flowing
through the tube.
Although ample research and development have been done to improve performance efficiency of
parabolic trough concentrators, the authors presents innovative design of absorber tube with internal hinged
blades. The experimental analysis and fabrication procedure for the modifications done in the receiver tube are
presented. The proposed absorber tube is well suitable for application in various solar energy devices, linear and
line focus concentration systems with various advantages as well. Experimentation was performed at VIT

1352
University, Vellore (12.92 °N, 79.13 °E) twice, once on October 24th, 2014 and on October 26th, 2014, to verify
the consistency of the obtained results.

2. Materials and Methods

Copper tubes with 1 mm thickness and 1.5 cm outer diameter were used to fabricate the absorber tubes.
The specifications of cylindrical axis trough collector, absorber tubes and the apparatus are given in Table 1. All
the tubes were made of 1.5 m long copper tubes. Parabolic trough with rim angle of 120° and focal length 26.25
cm, was used which has reflective surface of aluminium alloy and reflectivity of about 85%. Details for
fabrication processes of the tubes have been included.

Table 1. Specifications of apparatus.

Sl. No. Component Dimension
1 Length of SPTC, L 1.5 m
2 Width of SPTC, W 0.91 m
3 Rim angle of SPTC, θ r 120 degree
4 Focal length of SPTC, f 26.25 cm
5 Concentration ratio, C 19
6 Specific heat of distilled water, C p 4182 J/kgK
7 Tilt factor for beam radiation, R 1.00 ± 2%
8 Inner diameter of glass tube 3.4 cm
9 Thickness of glass tube 4.5 mm
10 Vacuum pressure in glass tube 600 mm of Hg

The enclosed volume in the glass tube was evacuated to develop a low pressure vacuum, thus reducing the
heat transfer losses. Absorber tube with internal hinged blades had 2 mm drill holes along a straight line with
pitch distance of 50 mm. Galvanized iron sheets of 49 mm2 (7 mm x 7 mm) were made to hinge internally from
the drilled holes, such that the blades don’t make contact with tube’s inner surface. This ensured the continuous
flow of distilled water. The drill holes were welded using gas welding to make the tube leak proof. With flow of
distilled water, the blades provide hindrance to flow along the tube, creating turbulence in the flow. Increase in
turbulence increased the contact time between distilled water and absorber tube’s inner surface, hence the heat
transfer increased. The experimental setup and design of hinged blades is presented in Fig. 1.
Initially, absorber tube was fixed on SPTC’s axis and the trough was adjusted such that axis of focus and the
absorber tube accords. Then the tube was connected to the pump through a hose and distilled water, used as
working fluid, was collected in tank. The pump was switched on, leaving the system for 10 minutes with
specified volume flow rate, controlled by valves. Parabolic trough collector was adjusted frequently to align the
absorber tubes with focus of reflected radiations to maintain tilt factor with the value of 1.00 ± 2%.
Pyrheliometer, with sensitivity of 4.95 mV/W/m2, was used to measure the beam radiation. The performance
parameters for each tube were obtained every 10 minutes and then the flow rate was altered. The experiment for
each tube was conducted for a span of 50 minutes.
A tank of 15 litres capacity was employed to store distilled water that was pumped across the tubes through
a valve. Thus, volume flow rates could be varied and experimentation was done with varying mass flow rates.
Digital thermocouples were used to measure the temperature values and stop watch for measuring time required
to fill a litre capacity collecting jar, thus determining the volume flow rate.

a) b)

Fig.1. (a) Experimental Set up (b) Design of blades

1353
3. Results and Discussion

Experimental results and observations for the experimentation done by the authors are tabulated in Table 2.
Based on these results, plots were obtained for instantaneous efficiency with varying volume flow rate (Fig. 2),
direct normal irradiance (Fig. 3) and (T in -T amb )/I b (Fig. 4). Increased performance results were obtained for the
absorber tube with internal hinged blades for almost same mass flow rates and solar beam flux. Ma et al. [6]
maintained very low mass flow rates of 0.001 kg/s, 0.002 kg/s and 0.003 kg/s and obtained efficiency of about
35-40% with higher radiation densities of about 950 W/m2. In the present work, better instantaneous efficiencies
were obtained at a lower solar beam flux. Variation of temperature difference across the absorber tubes with
varying DNI presents direct proportionality relation amongst the two parameters i.e. with increase in DNI,
temperature difference for the distilled water also increments.

Table 2. Results and Observation

v Ib T fi T fo T amb (T fi – T amb )/I b Ƞ

(litre/min) (W/m2) (°C) (°C) (°C) (°C m2/W) (%)
24-10-201, Simple absorber tube
1.22 747.95 42.5 49.9 31.6 0.0146 61.70
1.08 818.52 48.5 57.6 31.7 0.0205 61.38
1.00 790.29 56.3 65.4 31.6 0.0313 58.77
0.97 776.18 63.9 73.4 31.5 0.0417 60.54
0.89 776.18 72.0 82.3 31.6 0.0520 60.07
24-10-2014, Absorber tube with hinged blades
1.21 747.95 44.3 52.8 31.5 0.0171 70.22
1.05 797.59 50.8 61.1 31.4 0.0243 69.50
1.01 804.40 59.2 70.0 31.5 0.0344 69.28
0.96 762.07 67.9 78.7 31.6 0.0476 69.68
0.90 733.84 76.6 87.5 31.6 0.0613 67.97
26-10-2014, Simple absorber tube
1.20 620.94 41.1 47.3 31.6 0.0153 61.42
1.07 677.39 46.0 53.4 31.7 0.0211 59.57
1.00 635.06 52.0 59.5 31.6 0.0321 60.40
0.97 663.28 58.2 66.2 31.5 0.0403 59.52
0.90 635.06 64.7 72.9 31.6 0.0521 59.45
26-10-2014, Absorber tube with hinged blades
1.22 649.17 43.2 50.5 31.5 0.0180 69.77
1.05 592.72 48.4 56.2 31.4 0.0287 70.82
1.02 635.06 54.3 62.7 31.5 0.0359 68.84
0.95 649.17 60.8 70.0 31.6 0.0450 68.85
0.90 620.94 68.0 77.2 31.6 0.0586 68.39

The calculated instantaneous efficiency values are plotted against a parameter (T in -T amb )/I b in Fig. 4.
Although the sets of results are scattered, they together yield a straight line with negative slope. This scattering
of experimentally acquired points and deviation from the straight line can be determined by obtaining the best
fit line using least square method. Equation 1 presents the equation for the collector with simple absorber tube
while equation 2 gives collector equation for absorber tube with hinged blades.

Fig. 2. Instantaneous efficiency vs. Volume flow rate.

1354
 Fig. 3. Instantaneous efficiency vs. Direct normal irradiance.

Fig. 4. Instantaneous efficiency vs. (T in -T amb )/I b .

The calculated instantaneous efficiency values are plotted against a parameter (T in -T amb )/I b in Fig. 4.
Although the sets of results are scattered, they together yield a straight line with negative slope. This scattering
of experimentally acquired points and deviation from the straight line can be determined by obtaining the best
fit line using least square method. Equation 1 presents the equation for the collector with simple absorber tube
while equation 2 gives collector equation for absorber tube with hinged blades. Fig. 5 presents the variation of
total incident energy on the absorber tube with useful heat gain by the distilled water. The plot clearly indicates
the increment in heat gain by the new absorber tube compared to simple conventional absorber tube, for almost
equal values of total incident energy.

 T fi − Tamb 
η = 61.571 − 0.401 

(1)
 Ib 

 T fi − Tamb  (2)
η = 70.887 − 0.419 
 Ib 

1355
 Fig. 5. Useful heat gain vs. Incident energy on absorber tubes.

Slope and intercept values for the collector equation of simple absorber tube were obtained more or less
equal to the values obtained by Arasu and Sornakumar [7]. The proposed design appears to have substantial
application in the developing fields as well. It can be used for thermal applications, involving heat transfer,
organic rankine cycles and even in absorption power and cooling cycles, making performance of system
efficient. The experimental investigation of a natural circulation heat pipe for steam generation by Zhang et al.
[8] uses high pressure of 7.5 bar for steam generation securing nearly 38.52 % thermal efficiency which can be
optimized to a great extent, if the proposed absorber tube with internally hinged blades is used.

4. Conclusion

Vellore is 216 m above sea level and receives two periods of monsoons mostly during June – August
and October – December. As the experiments were conducted during the second phase of monsoon, intensified
solar flux was not available compared to that obtained in summer season, slightly affecting the performance
curves of the absorber tubes. Increment in heat transfer rate required for harnessing of solar energy, especially
for application of direct steam generation in solar thermal power plants, was the prime aim of this project. With
the obtained results, it can be concluded that the modification of introducing hinged blades in the absorber tubes
of solar parabolic concentrating collector can deliver highly efficient performance compared to that of
traditional tubes. Average instantaneous thermal efficiency of 69.33% was obtained for internally hinged blades.
Slope and intercept values of -0.419 and 70.887 respectively for the collector equation obtained of modified
tube verifies the improved efficiency of the SPTC.

References
[1] T. Tao, Z. Hongfei, H. Kaiyan and A. Mayere, “A new trough solar concentrator and its performance analysis,” Sol. Energy, vol. 85,
pp. 198–207, 2011.
[2] E. Barrera, I. Gonzalez and T. Viveros, “A new cobalt oxide electrodeposit bath for solar absorbers,” Sol. Energy Mater. and Sol.
Cells, vol. 51, pp. 69-82, 1988.
[3] M. Farooq and I.A. Raja, “Optimisation of metal sputtered and electroplated substrates for solar selective coatings,” Renew. Energy,
vol. 33, pp. 1275–1285, 2008.
[4] L. Valenzuela, E. Zarza, M. Berenguel and E.F. Camacho, “Control scheme for direct steam generation in parabolic troughs under
recirculation operation mode,” Sol. Energy, vol. 80, pp. 1–17, 2006.
[5] K. Ravi Kumar and K.S. Reddy, “Thermal analysis of solar parabolic trough with porous disc receiver,” Appl. Energy, vol. 86, pp.
1804–1812, 2009.
[6] Ma, Z. Lu, J. Zhang and R. Liang, “Thermal performance analysis of the glass evacuated tube solar collector with U-tube,” Build. and
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[7] A. Valan Arasu and T. Sornakumar, “Performance characteristics of parabolic trough solar concentrator system for hot water
generation.” Int. Energy J., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 137-145, June 2006.
[8] L. Zhang, W. Wang, Z. Yu, L. Fan, Y. Hu, Y. Ni, J. Fan and K. Cen, "An experimental investigation of a natural circulation heat pipe
system applied to a parabolic trough solar collector steam generation system,” Sol. Energy, vol. 86, pp. 911–919, 2012.

1356
 ICAER-2015

Combustion Characteristics and Cyclic variation of a LPG fuelled

MPFI Four cylinder Gasoline Engine
Vighnesha Nayaka*, Rashmi G.S.b, Parashuram Chitragarc, P. Mohanand
a,b,c,d
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Istitute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal – 575025, INDIA

Abstract

Present study deals with to investigate the effect of dual mode of operation on combustion characteristics of engine and
cyclic variation in a modified multi-cylinder SI engine. Experiments will be conducted with baseline gasoline and later with
dual fuel mode of experiments i.e., gasoline with LPG with different ratios (25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of LPG by mass).
Experiment will be carried out with varying speed from 2000 rpm to 4500 rpm in steps of 500 rpm at full load condition
with factory set static ignition timing of 5 deg. bTDC to investigate combustion characteristics and cyclic variations. Results
revealed that as the LPG percentage increases the peak pressure also increases and it is maximum for 100% LPG for all the
speed. At 4500 rpm the percentage increase in peak pressure is 20% for 100% LPG, 9% for 25%LPG, 3% for 50%LPG, 1%
for 75%LPG when compared to gasoline at full load. This increase in peak pressure will indicate the LPG will give better
combustion properties compared to that of gasoline. Compared to peak pressure, the variation in cycle to cycle for IMEP is
less.Net heart release rate shows that gasoline will give the more heat release compare to all other fuels, but LPG will release
the heat little earlier than gasoline. Since peak pressure is near to TDC for LPG which results in NHRR to occur earlier than
gasoline. Final outcome of the research is LPG will have better combustion properties compared to gasoline but cyclic
fluctuations are more for LPG.
Keywords: LPG, Petrol, Combustion, Cyclic variations.

1. Introduction

T Hydrocarbon fuels are currently meeting more than 90% of the total energy demand. Use of renewable
alternatives comes first while thinking about sustainable, long lasting energy sources, which also will have little
or no environmental impact on usage. Recently, much research has been conducted on alternative fuels due to
increasing demand for lower fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. And also they focused on improving the
combustion efficiency of the engine with conventional fuels [1]. The increasing cost of liquid hydrocarbons in
recent years accompanied by the stringent rules and regulations regarding exhaust emissions has stimulated
interest in alternative fuels for automotive engines. However, the selection of an alternative fuel is not the end of
the task. The selected fuel has to be exploited to its best capacity to serve the task for which it was chosen. Fuel
consumptions and heat losses from the engine are related; by reducing the amount of heat lost to the
surroundings the fuel consumption can be improved [2]. The introduction of alternative fuels is beneficial to
help alleviate the fuel shortage, better combustion properties and reduce engine exhaust emissions. LPG, as a
relatively clean fuel, is considered one of the most promising alternative automotive fuels worldwide because of
its improved combustion properties, emission reduction potential and lower fuel price compared to gasoline [3].

Nomenclature

LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas

bTDC Before Top Dead Centre
IMEP Indicated Mean Effective Pressure
NHRR Net Heat Release Rate
CA Crank Angle
MGT Mean Gas Temperature
_____________________________________
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9916917177;
E-mail address: nayakviggu@gmail.com

1357
 A major disadvantage of the LPG is the NOx emission which is greater than that for liquid fuels because of
its higher peak temperature and high flame velocity compare to gasoline. LPG is well known as a clean
alternative fuel for vehicles because it contains less carbon molecules than gasoline or diesel. Its higher ratio of
carbon (C) to H reduces the amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and other non-regulated emissions, such as
formaldehyde andacetaldehydes. LPG also has other many advantages such as high octane number, high
combustion value, little carbon accumulation, easy storage, and low cost. LPG is a mixture of commercial
butane and commercial propane having both saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons [4,5]. LPG marketed in
India shall be governed by Indian Standard and properties of LPG are described below listed in table 1.

Table 1. Properties of LPG

Sl.No. Particulars Propane Butane LPG
1. Chemical Formulae C3H8 C4 H10 60% C4 H10+40% C3H8
2. Max. Vapour Pressure Saturated in bar at 65 ºC 22.66 6.32 16.87
3. Gross calorific value in kJ/kg. 49980 49560 49728
4. Specific gravity (liquid) at 15 ºC Water =1 0.504 0.582 0.543
5. Specific gravity (vapour) at 15 ºC air=1 1.50 2.01 1.75
6. Ideal combustion Ratio (Air to Gas) 24 to 1 31 to 1 28 to 1
7. Flammability limits (Upper) 9.60% 8.60% 9.1%
8. Flammability limits (Lower) 2.15% 1.55% 1.90%
o
9. Ignition Temperature ( C) 493-504 482-537 488-502
10. Volume of gas produced per unit volume of liquid 274 233 250
11. Volume of air required to burn unit volume of gas 23 30 26
12. Volume of oxygen required to burn unit volume of gas 4.8 6.25 5.5
o
13. Max. flame temperature ( C) 1979.44 1990 1985
14 Volatility: evaporation temp. in oC at 760 mm Hg -38 2 2
pressure max.
15. Boiling Point (oC) -45 -2 -22
16. Percent Gas in air for Maximum Flame Temperature 4.4 3.5 3.9
17 Limits of Flammability (Lower) 2.0 1.9 1.95
(% Gas in Gas /Air Mixture)( Upper) 11.0 8.5 9.75

Today, lots of technologies and strategies are being proposed to improve engine performance and to reduce
emissions. Among them, only those measures which can meet stringent emission regulations with comparable
engine power and economy can be adopted [6]. Cyclic variation has been known as a limit to the operating
conditions of spark ignition engines, in particular, to highly diluted EGR conditions. Several investigations have
been carried out to study cyclic variation in spark ignition (SI) engines by means of experiment or simulation.
Ozdor et al. [7] reviewed about cyclic variation in a SI engine and concluded that flame propagation depends
greatly on early flame development, mixture condition, and airflow in the spark region at spark time, which
greatly influence the occurrence of cyclic variation. Jianjun Zheng et al. [8] investigated the effect of
compression ratio on cyclic variation in a direct injection natural gas engine. They found that in cylinder
combustion would be faster with the increase of compression ratio, which decreasing cyclic variation. But the
flow field information cannot be given by their experiment. Galloni [9] studied parameters that affect cyclic
variation by means of the CFD simulation method and the simulation results were validated by the experiment.
This paper proposed that mean laminar flame speed, turbulence intensity, and velocity are the three main factors
that affect cyclic variation. The degree of the influence was also demonstrated by an empirical equation. Ceviz et
al. [10] investigated the effect of air-fuel ratio (AFR) on cyclic variation in a FORD MVH-418 lean-burn SI
engine. Results revealed that cyclic variation would increase with the increase of AFR. This cyclic variation in
the combustion process is generally accepted to be caused by variations in the mixture motion, in the amounts of
air and fuel fed into the cylinder and their mixing, and in mixing with residual gases and exhaust gas
recirculation (EGR), especially in the vicinity of the spark plug. Fuel lean operation is desired in spark ignition
engines to reduce nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon emissions as well as to improve fuel efficiency. Cycle by
cycle (CBC) variation occurs more frequently with lean fueling and EGR, resulting in large number of misfires
and partial burns thus limits the potential benefits which can be derived from these operating modes. Therefore,
minimization of CBC variations is a key requirement for operating near to or extending the effective lean limit.
A small amount of CBC variations (slow burns) can produce undesirable engine vibrations. CBC variations are

1358
recognized as a limit for operating conditions with lean and highly diluted mixtures. Previous studies showed
that if CBC variations could have been eliminated, there would be a 10% increase in the power output for the
same fuel consumption [11]. Since the birth of the engine there has been a fundamental problem, the cycle to
cycle variation. This limits the engine performance and gives rise to increased emissions. The combustion
process in a spark ignition engine is not repetitive from engine cycle to engine cycle. This can easily be noted if
the pressure trace in the cylinder is measured. The peak pressure obtained can change in 30% from cycle to
cycle in a well-functioning engine [12].
Historically it is the cylinder pressure that has been used to measure the fluctuations. This has led to the use
of pressure related parameters to quantify the fluctuation intensity. The maximum pressure and its crank angle
location are frequently used parameters [13]. The variation in indicated mean effective pressure, IMEP,
produced per engine cycle is also a well-used parameter. The standard deviation is usually normalized with the
average value to give a coefficient of variation, COV of IMEP. These parameters have the benefit of requiring
no modeling and the COV of IMEP shows how much torque fluctuation that the transmission etc. must tolerate.
COV of IMEP is thus a good parameter to be used for transmission design and a general indicator of engine
behavior. The major drawback with the parameters derived from the pressure directly is the lack of knowledge
on the ongoing process. The only reasonable way the pressure can change from cycle to cycle is variation in the
combustion process. Hence, there is every reason to use the pressure in a heat release model and analyze the heat
release function instead of the pressure trace, especially if the origins of fluctuations are of interest. If even more
detailed information on the combustion process is required, the heat release calculation should be replaced by
some form of flame location detection.
In general, the combustion in a spark ignition can be expected to fluctuate during the entire flame propagation
process. The fuel and residual gases are generally not well mixed with air and hence the laminar flame speed
will differ depending on location and time. The same argument can be used for the flow situation. The level of
turbulence can not be expected to be homogeneous and the mean flow situation will also change from cycle to
cycle and from location to location. But even though fluctuations are expected for large flames, these flames will
have the benefit of integrating out in homogeneity in the fuel, residual and flow fields. The very small flame in
the early part of the combustion does not have this possibility to average out the flame speed setting parameters.
Thus, this part of the combustion is expected to have the greatest problem with cycle to cycle variation [14].
Strong cycle-to-cycle variations of engine flows often prohibit SIDI engines from reaching their full potential of
efficient and clean combustion. It is because the variations of air flow, fuel and temperature distributions in the
vicinity of spark plug prior to ignition all affect the early flame formation, propagation and the subsequent
combustion processes.
Bizon et al. [15] studied the reducing cyclic variability of parameters, seeking thus to modify the appropriate
design and operating parameters. A qualitative analysis of cycle-to-cycle variation may aid better understanding.
In diesel engines, cyclic variability is due to unsteady in-cylinder flow and injection variations [16]. Zhong et al.
[17] showed that the amount of fuel injected may vary by 23%, resulting in a cyclic variation of indicated mean
effective pressure (IMEP). In literature review work related to cycle by cycle variation and combustion
characteristics of LPG fuel is very less. Based on literature review, present work investigates experimentally
combustion characteristics and cyclic fluctuations in LPG fueled MPFI engine.

2. Experimental setup and Methadology

The engine setup consists of a four-stroke, four cylinder, SI engine of Maruti Zen (MPFI) make connected
to eddy current type dynamometer for loading as shown in the figure 1. It is provided with necessary
instruments for combustion pressure and crank-angle measurements. These signals are interfaced to computer
through engine indicator for Pθ−PV diagrams. Provisions are also there for interfacing airflow, fuel flow,
temperatures and load measurement. The setup has stand-alone panel box consisting of air box, fuel tank,
manometer, fuel measuring unit, transmitters for air and fuel flow measurements, process indicator and engine
indicator. Rota meters are provided for cooling water and calorimeter water flow measurement.
National Instruments (NI) based USB-6210 data acquisition system for combustion analysis software
package „IC Engine Soft‟ is provided for on-line performance and combustion evaluation. The software also
evaluate the combustion parameter for Heat Release Rate, Mass fraction Burned, In-cylinder pressure with
cylinder volume for each crank angle deg. rate of pressure rise and mean gas temperature. Figure 2 shows the
schematic diagram of the experimental setup which has been used for the experiment with LPG. The gasoline
MPFI engine has been modified to operate in 100%LPG fuel. Four separate gas injectors used for injecting LPG
has been fixed on the inlet manifold near the engine inlet. The gas injectors are solenoid valves which allow the
gas to pass through it when deactivated. The electrical signals from the gas ECU controls the activation period
of the gas injectors.

1359
 F1 F2
F1 Fuel flow differential pressure unit
LPG
Fuel Air F2 Air Intake DP unit
F3 Rotameter (Engine)
F3 F4 F4 Rotameter (Calorimeter)
PT
T2
T1 Engine Cooling water inlet temperature
Wt T2 Cooling water outlet temperature
Water out
T1
T3 Calorimeter water inlet temperature
T4 Calorimeter water outlet temperature
Water in
T5 Exhaust gas Calorimeter inlet
N T4
temperature
T5 T6
T6 Exhaust gas outlet Calorimeter
temperature
Exhaust N RPM decoder
DYNAMOMETER ENGINE
T3 out
PT Pressure transducer
Wt Load on Dynamometer
Fig. 1. Experimental Test rig

Fig. 2. Line diagram of LPG setup.

2.1 Determination of IMEP and COV of IMEP

Number IMEP is a measure of the indicated work output per unit swept volume, a parameter independent of
the size and number of cylinders in the engine and engine speed. By knowing experimental pressure and volume
data for 0-720 deg. crank angle IMEP can be computed. A IC Engine Soft Software is used to determine the
combustions studies which is a pre programmed NI based software where 100 consecutive cycles from the
experimental pressure volume data history calculate the IMEP by knowing the engine configuration. Initially
indicated power is calculated by finding out the area under pressure volume diagram for each cycle. The
cylinder swept volume is calculated by the engine geometry. Finally the IMEP is calculated by dividing
indicated power by swept volume. The Software also computes the mean IMEP and maximum IMEP.
The coefficient of variation (COV) was found out by knowing the mean and Standard deviation of IMEP
for 100 cycle. Cycle by cycle variations in the combustion process is important for two reasons. First, since the
optimum spark timing is set for the average cycle, faster than average cycles have effectively over advanced
spark timing and slower than average cycles will have retard timing, so losses in power and efficiency results.
Second, it is the extremes of the cyclic variations that limit engine operation. Therefore it is necessary to reduce
the cyclic variation in the engine. COV is measurement for the cyclic variation in the engine. The COV is
standard deviation in IMEP divided by the mean IMEP [18] and is usually expressed in percent. It is defined as
(1)

1360
Where  is the standard deviation and  is the mean value.
The standard deviation is given by
∑
√ (2)
Where n= Number of combustion cycles.

3. Results and Discussion

A four cylinder, multipoint fuel injection engine has been modified to work on LPG injection system. A set
of experiments has been done on the engine operated at six engine speed conditions for full load with factory set
static ignition timing being 5 deg. bTDC to analyze the cyclic variations and combustion characteristics of
engine fuelled with petrol and LPG.

3.1 P-θ Diagram

Figures 3 to 8 show the variation of the average cylinder pressure for 100 consecutive combustion cycles
with all the fuel at full load and all speed conditions. It is observed that there is considerable variation in the
pressure for the same operating conditions from one cycle to another. As the LPG percentage increases the peak
pressure also increases and it is maximum for 100% LPG for all the speed. Since IMEP getting inside the
combustion chamber is more as well as flame speed is high for LPG therefore maximum peak pressure will
occur. At 4500 rpm the percentage increase in peak pressure is 20% for LPG, 9% for 25%LPG, 3% for
50%LPG, 1% for 75%LPG when compared to gasoline at full load. This increase in peak pressure will indicate
the LPG will give better combustion properties compared to that of gasoline. But at lower speed the percentage
increase in the peak pressure is very less. Figures 9 and 10 respectively show the variation of the maximum
cylinder pressure of each cycle (Pmax) and IMEP of each cycle for 100 consecutive combustion cycles with
gasoline fuel. It is clear from the figures that there is considerable variation in the pressure related parameters
for the same operating conditions from one cycle to another. Compared to peak pressure, the variation in cycle
to cycle for IMEP is less.

p-θ at 4500 rpm p-θ at 4000 rpm

Petrol 100% LPG 25%LPG Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG
50 50 50% LPG 75% LPG
50% LPG 75% LPG

40 40

30 30
p (bar)

p (bar)

20 20

10 10

0 0
300 330 360 390 420 450 480 300 330 360 390 420 450 480
θ (deg.) θ (deg.)
Fig. 3 Cylinder pressure vs crank angle at 4500 rpm Fig. 4 Cylinder pressure vs crank angle at 4000 rpm
p-θ at 3500 rpm p-θ at 3000 rpm
Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG
50 40 50% LPG 75% LPG
50% LPG 75% LPG
35
40
30

30 25
p (bar)

p (bar)

20
20 15
10
10
5
0 0
300 330 360 390 420 450 480 300 330 360 390 420 450 480
θ (deg.) θ (deg.)

1361
 Fig. 5 Cylinder pressure vs crank angle at 3500 rpm Fig. 6 Cylinder pressure vs crank angle at 3000 rpm
p-θ at 2500 rpm p-θ at 2000 rpm
Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG
35 30 50% LPG 75% LPG
50% LPG 75% LPG
30 25
25
20
20
p (bar)

p (bar)
15
15
10
10

5 5

0 0
300 330 360 390 420 450 480 300 330 360 390 420 450 480
θ (deg.) θ (deg.)
Fig. 7 Cylinder pressure vs crank angle at 2500 rpm Fig. 8 Cylinder pressure vs crank angle at 2000 rpm
COV of Pmax vs Speed COV of IMEP vs Speed
16 Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG 14 Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG
50% LPG 75% LPG 50% LPG 75% LPG
14 12
12
10
COV of IMEP (%)
COV of Pmax (%)

10
8
8
6
6
4
4
2 2

0 0
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Speed (rpm) Speed (rpm)
Fig. 9 COV of Maximum pressure vs Speed at full load Fig. 10 COV of IMEP vs Speed at full load

3.2 COV of IMEP and Pmax

Figure 9 and shows the variation in maximum peak pressure with 100 consecutive cycles at full load and
different speed. It will give the how the variation in the peak pressure will occur from cycle to cycle.
Combustion variations are presented with the generalized plots of peak pressure (Pmax) and indicated mean
effective pressure (IMEP) for 100 consecutive. Cyclic variation in the engine will considerably effect the
emission formation and combustion stability. Considerable variations in the peak pressure and IMEP trends are
observed for various fuels. From the peak pressure trends it can be observed that the fluctuations are high for
gasoline and 75% of LPG usage level and it is lower for LPG and 50% of LPG usage level at lower speed. But
higher speed the fluctuations are high compared to lower speed for all fuels except for 50% usage of LPG. The
100% LPG show relatively low fluctuations in both Pmax and IMEP for all speed conditions.

3.3 Net Heat Release Rate (NHRR)

The net heat release trends for various speeds at full load are given in figures 11 to 16 respectively. Heat
release calculations are an attempt to get some information about the combustion process in an engine. Heat
release rate is used in both engine performance influences in various operating conditions and same engine
performances under the equal conditions. Moreover, physical and chemical properties of the fuel used in
internal combustion engines are one of the main parameters which affect the heat release rate. As seen in the
figures, with the increase in percentage usage of LPG in gasoline the heat release began to raise earlier than that
of gasoline fuel at all the speed conditions and it is earliest for the 100% LPG. And also, the peak locations of
heat release rate of increases with increase in percentage of LPG usage are wider than that of pure gasoline. This
may be due to the fact that LPG has one type of hydrocarbon which will work in lean combustion. Due to this
Combustion chamber contains contain oxygen which improve combustion and a large amount of fuel burn takes
place in the areas close to TDC. For the all test fuels, heat release rate takes place in the areas close to TDC with
the increasing speed for pure LPG [19].

1362
 25 Net Heat Release Rate at 4500 rpm 25 Net Heat Release Rate at 4000 rpm

20 Petrol 20 Petrol
100% LPG 100% LPG
25% LPG 25% LPG
NHRR (J/deg. CA)

NHRR (J/deg. CA)

15 15
50% LPG 50% LPG
75% LPG 75% LPG
10 10

5 5

0 0
300 340 380 420 460 500 300 340 380 420 460 500
-5 CA (deg.) -5 CA (deg.)
Fig. 11 Variation of NHRR at 4500 rpm Fig. 12 Variation of NHRR at 4000 rpm
30 20
Net Heat Release Rate at 3500 rpm 18
Net Heat Release Rate at 3000 rpm
25 Petrol 16 Petrol
100% LPG 100% LPG
14
20 25% LPG 25% LPG

NHRR (J/deg. CA)

NHRR (J/deg. CA)

12
50% LPG 50% LPG
15 75% LPG
10 75% LPG
8
10 6
4
5
2

0 0
300 340 380 420 460 500 -2 300 340 380 420 460 500
-5 CA (deg.) -4 CA (deg.)
Fig. 13 Variation of NHRR at 3500 rpm Fig. 14 Variation of NHRR at 3000 rpm
20 20
18 Net Heat Release Rate at 2500 rpm 18 Net Heat Release Rate at 2000 rpm
16 Petrol 16 Petrol
100% LPG 100% LPG
14 14
25% LPG 25% LPG
NHRR (J/deg. CA)

NHRR (J/deg. CA)

12 12
50% LPG 50% LPG
10 75% LPG
10 75% LPG
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 0
-2 300 340 380 420 460 500 -2 300 360 420 480
-4 CA (deg.) -4 CA (deg.)
Fig. 15 Variation of NHRR at 2500 rpm Fig. 16 Variation of NHRR at 2000 rpm

3.4 Mean Gas Temperature (MGT)

Figures 17- 22 show the variation of MGT for different speed at full load conditions. MGT will tells about the
incylinder temperature data which is calculated from the pressure crank angle history. From the graph it is clear
that mGT is maximum for 100% LPG compared to other fuels. This is because LPG having higher flame
propagation speed and higher adiabatic flame temperature when compared to petrol, hence combustion duration
will be less, MGT will be maximum. At higher speed condition there is not much significance difference in
MGT this is because of LPG will work in richer region at higher speed which will reduce the incylinder
temperature hence MGT is not having much difference. Also peak location of MGT for 100% LPG will occur
slightly prior to petrol which tells the good combustion characteristics of LPG. Since MGT is more for 100%
LPG fuel it will affect the formation of NOx emission. Hence LPG will have higher NOx emission.

1363
 MGT at 4500 rpm MGT at 4000 rpm
Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG Petrol 100% LPG
3000 3000
50% LPG 75% LPG 25% LPG 50% LPG
75% LPG
2500 2500
2000 2000
MGT (°C)

MGT (°C)
1500 1500
1000 1000

500 500

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
CA (deg.) CA (deg.)
Fig. 17 Variation of MGT at 4500 rpm Fig. 18 Variation of NHRR at 4000 rpm
MGT at 3500 rpm MGT at 3000 rpm
2500 Petrol 100% LPG Petrol 100% LPG
25% LPG 50% LPG 2500 25% LPG 50% LPG
75% LPG 75% LPG
2000 2000

1500
MGT (°C)

MGT (°C)
1500

1000 1000

500 500

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
CA (deg.) CA (deg.)
Fig. 19 Variation of NHRR at 3500 rpm Fig. 20 Variation of NHRR at 3000 rpm
MGT at 2500 rpm MGT at 2000 rpm
Petrol 100% LPG Petrol 100% LPG 25% LPG
25% LPG 50% LPG 2500
2500 50% LPG 75% LPG
75% LPG

2000
2000
MGT (°C)

1500
MGT (°C)

1500

1000 1000

500 500

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
CA (deg.) CA (deg.)
Fig. 21 Variation of NHRR at 2500 rpm Fig. 22 Variation of MGT at 2000 rpm

4. Conclusion

The extensive experimental study conducted on the MPFI 4 cylinder SI engine with gasoline with different
percentage usage of LPG on combustion characteristics and cycle by cycle variations. The major findings of the
experimental based research work can be summarized as follows:
 Increase in LPG ratio will give higher peak pressure and higher IMEP and combustion will take
place nearer to TDC. 20% increased peak pressure can be obtained for 100% LPG at 4500 rpm at
full load condition.
 Cyclic fluctuation in maximum pressure is more for petrol and it is minimum for 100% LPG at
lower operating speed. But in Fluctuation in maximum pressure is more for 75%LPG all speed
conditions.

1364
  Cyclic fluctuations in maximum pressure are more when compared to fluctuations in IMEP. COV of
IMEP is more for petrol when compared to 100% LPG for all speed conditions.
 Cycle by cycle fluctuations can be reduced by using 100% LPG and better combustion stability can
be achieved..
 NHRR is maximum for LPG and shifting towards TDC when compared to petrol for all speed at full
load conditions. But for other LPG-gasoline ratio it not much difference when compared to gasoline.
 MGT is maximum for 100% LPG compared to petrol for all speed conditions.
With 100% usage of LPG will reduce the cycle by cycle variations within the cylinder and, improves the
combustion characteristics and combustion stability.

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[12] E. Johnson, “LPG: a secure, cleaner transport fuel? A policy recommendation for Europe”, Energy Policy, 31, (2003), pp.1573–1577.
[13] J. B. Heywood, “Internal combustion engines fundamentals”, McGraw Hill Book Company, New York, 1988.
[14] Hao Chen , Min Xu , L.S. David, Hung, Hanyang Zhuang, “Cycle-to-cycle variation analysis of early flame propagation in engine
cylinder using proper orthogonal decomposition”, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 58, (2014), pp48–55.
[15] K. Bizon, G. Continillo, K.C. Leistner, E. Mancaruso, B.M. Vaglieco, “POD-based analysis of cycle-to-cycle variations in an optically
accessible diesel engine”, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 32, (2009), pp2809–2816.
[16] Z. Long, T. Ueda, T. Takatsuki, K. Yokota, “ A Study of Cycle to Cycle Variation of In-Cylinder Flow in a Motor Engine Through
Digital Image Processing of Visualized Images”, SAE Paper No. 950727, (1995).
[17] L. Zhong, I.P. Singh, J. Han, M.C. Lai, N.A. Henein, W. Bryzik, “Effect of Cycle to Cycle variation in te Injection Pressure in a
Common Rail Diesel Injection system on Engine Performance”, SAE Paper No. 2003-01-0699, (2003).
[18] M.A. Ceviz, F. Yuksel, “Cyclic variations on LPG and gasoline-fuelled lean burn SI engine”, Renewable Energy, 31, (2006), pp1950–
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[19] M. Eyidogan, A. N.Ozsezen, M. Canakci, A. Turkcan, “Impact of alcohol–gasoline fuel blends on the performance and combustion
characteristics of an SI engine”, Fuel, 89, (2010), pp2713–2720.

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 ICAER-2015

Hydrogen Sorption Mechanism of Magnesium (Hydride)

Sweta Shriniwasan 1*, Nikhil Gor, Sankara Sarma V Tatiparti
Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, India.

Abstract

Hydrogenation mechanism of magnesium involves hydride nucleation and growth by interfacial movement followed by H-
atom diffusion limited hydride growth. Using the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogrov (JMAK) equation, the transition from
interfacial to diffusional growth is studied during hydrogenation at several temperatures. The growth dimensionality (n)
decreases with time from n>0.50 to n<0.50. Constant interface velocity (U) suggests interfacial growth in the n>0.50 regime.
Diffusional growth in the n<0.50 regime is supported by decreasing U, core-shell (Mg-MgH 2 ) structure and the estimated
diffusion coefficient (D). Hydride growth transits from interfacial to diffusional growth at n ≈ 0.50.

Keywords: MgH 2 , hydrogen sorption, JMAK, interfacial growth, diffusional growth

1. Introduction

Magnesium is a promising candidate for on-board hydrogen storage [1,2]. However, its practical use is
limited by its slow kinetics of (de)hydrogenation [1,3]. Hydrogenation of Mg involves chemisorption, nucleation
and growth of the hydride phase [4]. Hydride phase growth can occur by interface movement followed by diffusion
limited growth [5]. However, these mechanisms of growth are not easily distinguishable due to variations in
experimental conditions, particle size/shape irregularities, different catalyst additions etc. E.g. In a study,
hydrogenation of Mg at 300 °C suggests that 3D diffusion is the governing mechanism [6]. In another study,
dehydrogenation of MgH 2 -Ni exhibiting different morphologies were investigated using in-situ ultra-high voltage
transmission electron microscopy [1,7]. The results suggest that dehydrogenation in bulk (~2 μm) particles is
governed by the growth of pre-existing Mg crystallites (interfacial growth with constant velocity); whereas, it is
governed by shrinking core mechanism (1D diffusion) in thin sheets (~nm) [1]. Thus, understanding the growth
mechanism during (de)hydrogenation is necessary.

Hydride growth mechanism is studied using the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogrov (JMAK) equation (Eq. 1)
[8,9].
α= 1 − exp(−kt n ) (1)

where, α: hydride volume fraction at time t, k: rate constant, and n: exponent denoting the hydride growth
dimensionality (n ε (0-3)). Hydrogenation initiates with growth of hydride colonies in the higher dimensions (n≈3).
With impingement of these colonies, the growth in the lateral dimensions are arrested leading to decrease in n (i.e
n<3). With the growth arrest in lateral dimensions, the particle surface is completely hydrided leading to a core-
shell structure Mg-MgH 2 [5,10]. Core shell structure necessitates H-atom diffusion through hydride for further
hydrogenation. In literature n≈0.5-1 is uncertainly ascribed to 1D interfacial and/or 1D/2D diffusional growth [11].
However, the n at which transition from interfacial to diffusional growth occurs is not known. The reason being n
alone cannot describe the growth mechanism as previously described by Fernández and Sánchez [11].

To understand hydride growth mechanism and the transition from interfacial to diffusional growth during Mg
hydrogenation a combined analysis of growth dimensionality (n), interface velocity (U), diffusion coefficient (D)
and microscopic observations are undertaken in this study.

2. Experimental

Hydrogenation of 2 wt. % Ni (Argonide ®) coated Mg powder (Alfa Aesar®, 44 μm) was carried out

* Corresponding author
E-mail address: sweta_s@iitb.ac.in.

1366
in a Sievert’s type apparatus as described earlier [12,13]. Hydrogenation was carried out at 180 °C, 210 °C and
250 °C at PH = 1 MPa. At 210 °C, partial hydrogenation was carried out for 7.5 min, 15 min, 75 min and 300
2

min. The cross-section of the hydrogenated magnesium samples were prepared by metallography [12,13] and
were examined using a JEOL-6400 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in backscatter mode. Hydrogen
absorbed by Mg is estimated in terms of change in system pressure and the volume fraction is evaluated using the
ideal gas equation [12] and is represented in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Hydrogenation curves at 180 °C, 210 °C and 250 °C, P H2 = 1 MPa.

Fig. 2. Cross-section of Mg hydrided at 210 °C for (a) 7.5 min, (b) 15 min, (c) 75 min and (d) 300 min.

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3. Results and discussions

Fig. 1 represents the hydrogenation (α-t) curves at 180 °C, 210 °C and 250 °C. It is observed that higher
temperature facilitates higher hydride formation. This is represented by the steeper α-t curves at higher
temperatures during the initial hydrogenation duration. We develop the analysis specifically for hydrogenation at
210 °C and apply it to other temperatures.

At 210 °C (Fig. 1), the α-t curve is initially steep and shows a linear trend. Eventually, the slope decreases
suggesting decrease in the hydrogenation rate. The intermittent SEM images of hydrogenation carried out at 210
°C are represented in Fig. 2. Hydrogenation after 7.5 min shows hydride nucleation and growth near the particle
surface and in the interior near-surface regions (Fig. 2(a)). A few colonies appear circular while others appear
irregular. The irregular shape can be attributed to the impingement of neighbouring hydride colonies (which were
earlier growing circular, Fig. 2(a)). Further hydrogenation to 15 min shows increased surface hydride coverage
and depth of the hydride colonies into the particle. However, some portions in the near surface regions remain
unhydrided. An increase in the hydrogenation time to 75 min results in increased impingement of hydride colonies
growing in the Mg particle. The complete hydrogenation to 300 min shows almost completely hydride Mg particle
with a very small fraction of unhydrided Mg in the interior. This represents a core-shell structure of Mg-MgH 2 .
Thus, the transformation of growing hydride phase occurs initially by near-circular hydride growth followed by
impingement and a resultant core-shell structure which would facilitate further hydride growth by H-atom
diffusion.

The hydride growth mechanism is studied by JMAK equation (Eq. 1). The growth dimensionality was
estimated by dividing the α-t curves into several durations for different temperatures (Fig. 3(a)). Based on the
slope of the α-t curves are divided into smaller segments as described in Ref. {Shriniwasan, 2015 #255}. The
growth dimensionality (n) decreases with time for all temperatures. At 210 °C, n is initially 0.73 (2.5 min) and
decreases to 0.55 around 15 min and eventually decreases to 0.23 at the end of hydrogenation (300 min). For all
values of n>0.50, growth mechanism is attributed to 1D interfacial growth and/or 1D/2D diffusional growth [11].
Fernández and Sánchez [11] also state that n alone cannot determine the dimensionality of the growing hydride
and it should be supported by microscopic observations.

Mechanism of Mg hydrogenation can be further analysed by estimating the velocity of interface

movement (U) from Eq. 2, where k g : geometric factor (=4π/3: spheres; =8: cubes), N o : number of available
nucleation sites per unit volume of the particle [4,9].

k = k g N oU n (2)

The ln(k ) − n (from Eq.2) plot is shown in Fig. 3(b). The slope of the plot ln(k ) − n (ln U ) yields the interface
velocity and is shown in Fig. 4. Two distinct regimes of slope are observed at 210 °C (Fig. 3(a)), namely, n>0.50
regime (2.5-15 min) and n<0.50 regime (20-300 min). In the n>0.50 regime, interface velocity (U) is estimated to
be 1.09 ×10−2 µm/s by a linear fit (Fig. 3(b)). The n<0.50 regime, is fit with a polynomial, on the basis of the
decreasing hydrogenation curve (Fig. 1) with increasing hydride thickness (Figs. 2(c) and (d)).

Fig. 3 (a) Growth dimensionality (n) vs time. (b) ln (k)-n

1368
 In the n<0.50 (20-300 min) regime, a decrease in the slope in observed in the α − t (Fig. 1) and the
SEM images show higher amount of surface coverage leading to a core shell structure towards the end of
hydrogenation (Figs. 2(c) and (d)). Core-shell structure results in H-atom diffusion through the hydride region to
necessitate further hydrogenation. Increasing hydride thickness slows down hydride formation as the diffusion
coefficient of H-atom through hydride is several orders smaller than that through Mg [14,15]. The concentration
gradient is mainly expected across the radially inward direction. Hence, the H-atom diffusion is expected to be
mainly in this direction. Thus, the diffusion coefficient, is estimated here using Fick’s 2nd law in 1D (radial) as
shown in Eq. 3. Eq. 3 is re-written by variable transformation [16] in terms of the velocity (U) as shown in Eq. 4.

∂ 2α 1 ∂α
= (3)
∂r 2 D ∂t
 ∂ 2α 1 ∂α ∂  1   1 1 ∂α
 2 ⋅ + ⋅  ⋅ = (4)
 ∂t U ∂t ∂t  U   U D ∂t

From Fig. 5(b), it is observed that in the n>0.50 (2.5-15 min) regime, the D values are about ~5-orders
higher than the literature value. Eventually, the D values decrease gradually to the expected literature value (H-
atom diffusion coefficient through hydride) in the n<0.50 (20-300 min) regime. This suggests that in n>0.50
regime diffusion is several orders faster than that in n<0.50 regime.

The above analysis is extended to 180 °C and 250 °C. At 180 °C, the hydride growth dimension is
initially n=1.66 and it decreases below 0.50 after 45 min of hydrogenation (Fig. 3(a)). Also the plot of Eq. 2 (Fig
3(b)) shows the two distinct regimes for n>0.50 and n<0.50. The slope of the n>0.50 regime is linear while the
slope of n<0.50 is decreasing and fit using a polynomial function. The interface velocity is constant during n>0.50
regime (9.64 ×10−3 μm/s) and it decreases to 7.95 × 10−6 μm/s towards the end of hydrogenation (300 min) as seen
in Fig. 4. The numerical values of the diffusion coefficients initially indicate significant variation from the
literature value of the diffusion coefficients of H-atom through hydride phase. With the progress of hydrogenation
time, the estimated diffusion coefficients tend to their literature counterpart (Fig. 5(a)).

The hydride growth dimension at 250 °C is initially 1.65 (2.5 min) and decreases to below 0.50 beyond
2.5 min (Fig. 3(a)). The ln (k)-n plot shows a distinct decreasing interface velocity regime (Figs. 3(b) and 4). The
interface velocity decreases from 1.4 × 10−2 μm/s (2.5 min) to 1.71× 10−4 μm/s (120 min). In the n<0.50 regime,
H-atom diffusion through hydride is confirmed with the diffusion coefficients matching with their literature
counterparts (Fig. 5(c))

Fig. 4 Interface velocity (U) vs time

Higher temperature facilitates faster growth of hydride by interfacial movement. This growth takes place
initially at higher dimensions (n=3). With impingement resulting in growth arrest in the lateral dimensions, the n

1369
decreases with time to result in 1D growth (n=0.5-1). Following this, a considerable surface coverage of the
hydride takes place rendering a core-shell (Mg-MgH 2 ) structure. This core-shell structure necessitates H-atom
diffusion through hydride for further transformation. Faster transformation of Mg to MgH 2 by interfacial
movement of the metal-hydride interface is facilitated at higher temperatures due to faster growth by interfacial
movement.

The activation energy for H-atom diffusion through hydride, estimated from D values at different
temperatures in n<0.50 regime, is ~91 kJ/mol H. This is comparable with the literature value 100±10 kJ/mol H
[2]. Hence, mostly H-atom diffusion through hydride governs hydrogenation in n<0.50 regime. This analysis
shows that the transition from interfacial to diffusional growth occurs around n≈0.50. Thus, the hydride growth
mechanism can be described through the combined analysis of growth dimensionality (n), interface velocity (U),
diffusion coefficient (D) and microscopic observations.

Fig. 5 Change in diffusion coefficient (D) with time at (a) 180 °C, (b) 210 °C and (d) 250 °C.

4. Conclusions

During hydrogenation of Mg, the growth dimensionality (n) from Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov

equation decreases from n>0.50 to n<0.50 with time. When n>0.50, hydrogenation occurs by interfacial growth
as suggested by the estimated constant interface velocity (U). In n<0.50 regime, hydride growth is facilitated by
H-atom diffusion through the hydride as suggested by the core-shell (Mg-MgH 2 ) structure, decreasing U and the
estimated diffusion coefficients (D). The transition from interfacial to diffusional growth occurs at n≈0.50.
Transition from interfacial to diffusional growth is faster at higher temperatures.

Acknowledgements

Support from Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology (grant number
SB/FTP/ETA-0044/2014), India is appreciated.

1370
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1371
 ICAER-2015

Investigation of Solar Heat Pipe Collector Using Nanofluid and

Surfactant.
Gargee.A. Pisea, Sanjay.S.Salveb, Ashok.T.Pisea,b,1, Amey.A.Pisea,b,2

a
PG Student, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering University of Pune, Pune, India-
b
Faculty of Engineering, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering ,Univeristy of Pune, Pune, India-
a,b,1
Deputy Director, Directorate of Technical Education, Mumbai, India
a,b,2
UG Student,University of Pune,India

Abstract

The basic aim of conducted experiments was to investigate the thermal performance of serpentine shape thermosyphon heat
pipe flat plate solar collector under real operating conditions. Distil water, (Al2O3-water) nanofluid with varying concentrations
(0.05, 0.25 and 0.5 by wt ) , (Al2O3-water) + surfactant , water + surfactant were used as working fluids. Effect of coolant
rate, concentration of nanomaterial on performance of solar heat pipe collector was studied experimentally for different tilt
angles. Collector was tested for tilt angles (18.53, 33.5, 40, 50 and 60˚) Nanofluids of Al 2O3 nanoparticles by wt having
average size <50 nm dispersed in water with different concentrations by two step process. Two step process comprising of
magnetic string and ultra sonication is used. Surfactant (0.01wt % SDS) was added to enhance stability of nanoparticle in
water. From results it is observed that as the efficiency of the collector increases as coolant flow rate increases upto certain
limit, then decreases. Also similar trend is observed for tilt angle and it is found maximum at 50˚. Surfactant , Surfactant-
Nanofluids , nanofluids as working fluid in the heat pipe collector gives better performance as compared pure water and
performance enhances with increase in the concentration of the nanofluid.
Keywords: Heat Pipe, Nanofluid, Collector, Tilt angle , Surfactant

1. Introduction

Solar heat is being widely used for providing heat for many houses. Solar water heating is an effective method
of using solar heat to perform many useful tasks. In a conventional solar collector, the absorber plate is often
backed up with a grid or tubes containing water as working fluid in it. The solar energy is absorbed by the working
fluid and transferred to the storage tank either by natural or forced circulation. The drawbacks associated with
conventional solar collectors include the pump and its power requirement, more space to obtain the natural
circulation of working fluid, night cooling due to reverse flow of cooled water, pipe corrosion and limited heat
carrying capacity of working fluid, high heat loss factor. Heat pipes are found to provide an alternative solution
to the above problems.
Heat pipes, contain small amount of vaporizable fluid, transfers heat by evaporating the working fluid in
a heating zone and condensing vapor in the cooling zone. Subsequently, the return flow of condensate to the
heating zone occurs through the capillary structure (wick) which lies in the inner wall of the heat pipe. However,
in certain applications, the return flow of the condensate to the heating zone occurs due to the gravity force and
termed as gravity assisted heat pipes, wickless heat pipes or thermosyphon. Because of its ability to transfer large
quantity of heat energy, the heat pipes have been widely used in several industrial applications, namely boilers,
air-conditioning system, heat exchangers and solar water heating system. The wickless heat pipes are usually
integrated with flat absorber plate of the solar heating system, to enhance the thermal performance. Numerous
studies have been carried out to understand the thermal performance of two phase thermosyphon used in solar
water heaters. Karagholi et al.[1] obtained 38% average efficiency which is enhancement in collector efficiency
with thermosyphon compared to conventional solar collector. Nada et al [2] reported the results obtained through
experimental investigation of a TPCT solar collector. They investigated the performance for different coolant rate
and found that collector efficiency increases with increasing flow rate from 0.0.125 kg/s to 0.0292 kg/s and further
increase in coolant rate reduces the performance. The thermal performance of a two-phase thermosyphon solar
collector with various refrigerants was reported by Esen and Esen [3] The thermal performance of the heat pipe
with R410A as working fluid was found to be better compared to other refrigerants. The maximum collector
efficiencies of solar collector throughout the day were found to be 50.84%, 49.43% and 48.72% for R410A, R407C
and R-134a, respectively. The thermal performance of solar collector by using various refrigerants such as: R-

1372
134a, R12, and ethanol was reported by Enaburekhan and Yakasai [4]. The heat pipe that utilizes R-134a as
working fluid exhibits maximum collection efficiency compared to other working fluids. Since thermosyphon
utilizes phase change of the working fluid to transfer heat, selection of a working fluid is essential to achieve the
maximum heat transfer capacity. Initially, Choi [5] had made an attempt to use nanofluid (nanofluid-suspension)
in thermal engineering due to its anomalous heat transfer characteristics. The colloidal suspension of nanoparticles
in the base fluid with uniform dispersion is termed as nanofluid. Because of its enhanced heat transfer
characteristics, nanofluids have been used in thermosyphon to improve the thermal performance. Hung et al. [6]
reported effect of concentration on heat pipe performance charge with water/Al 2O3 nanofluid with three different
concentrations (0.5, 1.0, and 3.0 wt %), the maximum heat flux apparently increase with the increase of the mass
concentration when the mass concentration is less than 1.0 wt. %. Then, they begin to decrease slowly after the
mass concentration is over 1.0 wt. %,they also studied the thermal performance of a heat pipe with charged volume
ratio of the working fluid (20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%). Results show that 40% charge heat pipe shows better
performance The thermal performance of the closed two-phase thermosyphon by using various nanofluids
(titanium- ethanol and titanium-water suspension) was reported by Naphon et al. [7]. The heat transfer
enhancement of the thermosyphon with titanium-ethanol suspension was found to be 10.6% higher compared to
the heat pipe with ethanol. Moravej et al. [8] investigated the effect of aluminum oxide nanofluid on the thermal
efficiency enhancement of a heat pipe. It observed that Al203 nanofluid has remarkable potential as a working fluid
for heat pipe and thermosyphon of higher thermal prefaces. Manimaran et al [9] has been conducted experiment
on the heat pipe for various parameters such as angle of inclination and fill ratio. The thermal efficiency for DI
water and nanofluid increases when the fill ratio increases and the maximum efficiency are obtained for 75% fill
ratio and for an angle of 30 o Choughule et al [10] investigated the thermosyphon heat pipe for nanofluids ,
surfactant at different inclination angles and found that the performance of the collector increases from 20˚ to 50˚
and further increase in tilt angle reduces the performance.They compared the results of pure water with (2EH)
surfactant as working fluid and found an average efficency of 54% Jung et al. [11] evaluated the effect of 1-
octanol, 1-heptanol, 3-octanol and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (9000 ppm) on mass transfer in aqueous LiBr solution in a
falling f