JOURNAL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT (JREE)
Year:2017 | Volume:4 | Issue:2-3|Papers Count:7

The continuous and batch transesterification of linseed oil were examined in order to maximize the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) yield. The continuous process was conducted in a packed bed reactor using calcium oxide as a heterogeneous catalyst. In addition, the impact of two variables, the molar ratio of methanol to oil and the flow rate (ml/min), on the FAME yield were studied. Also, the reaction was performed in the Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR) by using KOH as a homogeneous catalyst in the batch process. Moreover, the influence of the molar ratio of methanol to oil and the catalyst concentration (wt. %) were investigated on the FAME yield. In the both batch and continuous process, FAME yield was optimized by using the Design Expert (Ver. 7. 0. 0) software. The optimum conditions for the continuous method were reported as follows: the molar ratio of methanol to oil of 11. 75: 1, a flow rate of 1. 07 ml/min and a temperature of 50 oC. Under the optimum conditions, the FAME yield was achieved to 94. 94%. Under the optimum conditions, the FAME yield was reached to 95. 0672% in the batch process. Also, the optimum conditions for the batch process were as follows: the molar ratio of methanol to oil of 9. 12: 1, a catalyst concentration of 1. 52 wt. %, a temperature of 40 oC, an agitation rate of 650 rpm and a reaction time of 60 minutes.

The energy insecurity, environmental pollution, climate change and a reduction of rainfall in some countries are the prime examples of consequences of the excessive dependence on the fossil fuels in the world. This study suggests that in some of southern islands and coastal areas of Iran, two main problems, the growing shortage of potable water and air pollution, can be solved by building a windpowered seawater desalination plant in the area. To evaluate such project, the sites that may provide the highest efficiency should be identified. In this study, 10 ports and 5 islands, which suffer from water shortage but have access to seawater, are identified as preliminary candidate sites for such project in south of Iran. The criteria influencing the suitability of a location are wind power density, economic feasibility, topographic condition, frequency of natural disasters, population and distance between the wind farm and the desalination facility. After calculating the value of each criteria, the locations are ranked using the ELECTRE III method and the results are validated using the PROMETHEE method. In conclusion, the results of ranking techniques show that Qeshm Island is the best location for construction of a wind-powered seawater desalination plant.

India seeks to achieve 175 Giga-watts (GW) of renewable power by 2022. By December 2017, almost 62 GW of the total installed capacity of electricity (333 GW) came from renewable sources. In order to achieve the targets for renewable power, capacity of renewable energy would need to be increased as expeditiously as possible. However, the local utilities (or distribution companies) have been suffering from financial losses in the recent past. These utilities, act as the primary purchasing authorities of such power, and hence the financial losses are posing as a threat to the success of the renewable industry. This paper highlighted that even though the cost of renewable power has gone down significantly in the recent years, the worsening of financial health of utilities remained a key concern. Data was presented to prove that the distribution companies/utilities were suffering from high gaps between the Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and the Average Revenue Requirement (ARR). Revenues of the electricity supplying utilities were going down due to the long-term subsidization in the Indian electricity sector. The tariff applicable for electricity consumption for agricultural and residential consumers was lower than the commercial and industrial consumers. Therefore, a case is presented for implementation of tariff setting, based on the evidences of willingness to pay for “ green electricity” by end consumers. Under the suggested framework, electricity tariffs for different consumer categories could be charged with a premium for green power, based on their willingness to pay for such electricity. Collected funds could be used for purchasing of green energy by the mentioned utilities, consequently helping to develop the green energy footprint in the country. Also, this study presented limited empirical evidence and documented the willingness to pay for such premiums, and across different categories of paying consumers.

Soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) could generate electricity from the organic matters in the soil. We focused on the soil ecosystems, specifically the earthworms which were known to improve the soilfertility. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of earthworm on power generation of the SMFC. The maximum power density and the internal resistance were compared to the SMFC with and without earthworms. The power density increased 9 times and the internal resistance decreased by 8. 5 times. The soil structure of the SMFC with and without earthworms was different and the clear soil aggregate structure was found in the SMFC with earthworms, which had been made with the passage of soil through the earthworm gut. The results indicated that adding earthworms had a significant effect on the SMFC performance, especially the power, internal resistance and soil structure. It was considered that the soil environments were changed biologically and physicochemically by adding earthworms into SMFC and these changes had a positive influence on the SMFC.

In this manuscript, a solar cavity packed with the thermoelectric generator modules has been investigated numerically. The hot plate of TEG modules makes the inner surface of the cube, and the cold plate is the outside the cavity, under natural convection. The TEG modules are electrically in series. The solution algorithm using the equations of heat transfer and generated power of TEG modules is developed via MATLAB and simulated under various non-concentrated irradiation levels. The variation of generated power in solar thermoelectric cavity shows that increasing of the solar irradiance caused increasing the growing rate of the generated power. The radiation varies from 700 to 1200 W/m2, and the generated power is increased from 0. 26 mW to 10 mW in the side of TEGs and up to 30 mW in the bottom of TEGs. The evaluation of aperture size indicates although the generated power of fully open cavity is 2. 25 times higher than the generated power in 0. 05×0. 05 m2 aperture size cavity, its efficiency is 46% lower than the small aperture cavity. Heat transfer analysis of cavity depicts that 91% of heat transferred by conduction in the cube surfaces. Only 6% and 3% of input energy are lost by re-radiation and convection through the aperture, respectively.

In Iraq, solar radiation field measurements are available in limited locations such as some universities and research centers. In this article, the measured data of monthly average global solar radiation in Iraqi provinces and cities was compared with the available data in the literatures and studies over the internet especially Google Scholar, Research Gate and IASJ. The selected locations were Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit, Rutba, Nasiriya, Kirkuk, Haditha, and Najaf. The measured data was compared with the corresponding available satellite data from NASA and Meteonorm software and root mean square error was calculated to investigate NASA and Meteonorm performance. The review results showed that the maximum GSR was in Haditha in July (8. 3 kWhr/m2), while the minimum GSR was in Mosul in December (1. 68 kWhr/m2). The measured monthly average data of Baghdad was about 5. 20 kWhr/m2. The data of satellites in some cities, such as Mosul, Rutba and Nasiriya, had a large deviation in summer, while the measured data nearly agree with the satellite data in the other months. The satellite data were not reliable and might not be suitable for the design consideration. The measured data of Baghdad, Kirkuk and Tikrit were acceptable since the mean deviation between measured and satellite data were less than 1 MJ/m2.

The amine regenerator of acid removal unit in South Pars Gas Complex, Assalouyeh, Iran was modeled. This model was fitted to assess the large scale columns and allow application of solar thermal energy for production of low pressure steam. Heat transfer fluids including Therminol oil, sulfur, or salt melt could be applied to yield thermal energy from a solar collector and to store and transfer it to the reboiler of columns. The Angstrom model was adopted here to simulate solar irradiance. Solar irradiance data for the city of Assalouyeh, during the years of 2009-2014, were collected and applied. The results indicated that based on a reboiler duty of around 21. 8 MW, a solar collector area of 148, 000 m2 was required with a mass of heat transfer and storage medium of 1247255 kg oil, 1787732 kg salt melt and 3803686 kg sulfur, respectively. This model was applied as an analytical tool to explore and describe the following two problems encountered during real plant operation: fouling in the amine heat exchangers and increasing regenerator pressure.