^{Renewable Energy & Emerging Technologies}

Sustainable power source is a standout amongst the best devices we have in the battle against environmental change, and there is each motivation to trust it will succeed. An on-going New York Times segment appears to suggest that sustainable power source speculations set back endeavours to address environmental change—nothing could be further from reality. In addition, inexhaustible innovations can progressively spare clients cash as they uproot discharges from petroleum derivatives. Environmental change can truly have a ton of negative outcomes. It is vital to make a move to help diminish the measure of progress that happens and make it not occur so quickly. Eventually, the earth will be excessively hot for individuals, making it impossible to live serenely on the off chance that we don't roll out a few improvements. It is as of now having sway on the plant and creature life, and in the event that you truly would prefer not to see it deteriorate the time has come to become environmentally friendly. The nonstop increment of nurseries gases in the air have made temperature rise which is called as nursery impact. In spite of the fact that nursery impact is fundamental for survival of every one of us on this planet however increment of these gases past a point of confinement will just make hurtful impacts for us and this condition. Amid a century ago, earth's normal temperature ascended by 1 degree Fahrenheit which in itself is a reason for concern.

 

One of the advantageous factors for the use of the renewable energy is that it is naturally generated. These sources are constantly replenished such as sunlight, wind, heat and water. The common energy sources are Hydropower, Biomass, Biofuels, Wind, Geothermal and Solar Energy. It often includes commodities such as wood, paper and leather. The sources of renewable energy are present in the natural environment comprising the largest component of ecosystem. These sources are capable enough to replace the conventional sources of energy such as fossil energy by serving into distinct areas such as generation of electricity, Hot water/space heating, motor fuels, and the rural grid off energy services. 

 

One of the most prominent and promising renewable energy Biofuels can be converted directly to the liquid fuels. Biofuels is widely used for the transportation. There are various types of Biofuels such as Ethanol, Biodiesel, Bioalcohols, Green Diesel, and Biofuel gasoline, Vegetable Oil, Bioethers, Biogas, Syngas and Solid Biomass Fuels. Ethanol and Biodiesel are the commonly used biofuels. The main aim for introducing Biofuels was to replace Gasoline, Diesel Fuel and Coal. Green Diesel, Biogas. It is having enormous advantage when compared with the fossil fuels such as less greenhouse gases providing greater fuel securities. The use of Biofuel is widely dependent on the land availability. It is made from biological agents such as plant oils or animal through the set of chemical reactions. One of the major advantages for using the Biofuel is that they are renewable energy and don not lead to global warming unlike the fossil fuels. According to few facts, Biofuels is the only renewable energy which c

One of the most important and large source of renewable energy, Hydropower contributes to 10% of world electricity generation. The flowing water energy is converted to electricity in the hydropower plants. Most commonly the dam water is used. Flowing water through turbines ii used for the power generation. Although there is no air emission however water quality and wildlife habitats can be affected. Work is going on to design the power plants in such a way that it causes minimum affect to the river water. Undoubtedly it improves the wildlife’s river habitat but at the same time cause the reduction in power plant output. Sometimes this power plant hinders the life of the fishes so different approaches are employed such as fish ladders and improved turbines to assist the migration of fishes and lower their death rate.

 

Sun is the ultimate and the natural source of energy for all the available fuels. From thousands year suns ray has been used for providing warmth and serving the purpose of drying. The solar system don not produces air pollutants and they also have the minimum impact on environment. There is quite variation in the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth surface depending on the location, time of day, season of the year and weather conditions. Various solar technologies are there that directly tap the infinite power of sun and which is further used to produce heat, light and power. There are various Solar techniques such as Passive Solar Lighting and Heating, Solar Water Heating, solar Electricity and Solar Thermal Electricity. Solar Thermal electricity not only provides the heat but also generates the electricity. Solar energy can be converted to electricity in two ways i.e, Photovoltaic and Solar Power Plants. Photovoltaic (PV devices) or “solar cells” that change sunlight directly into electricity. PV systems are often used in remote locations that are not connected to the electric grid.  They are also used to power watches, calculators, and lighted road signs. Solar Power Plants indirectly generate electricity when the heat from solar thermal collectors is used to heat a fluid which produces steam that is used to power generator.

 

Nuclear Energy is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2. Generating electricity from fusion power remains the focus of international research.

Most nuclear power plants use thermal reactors with enriched uranium in a once-through fuel cycle. Fuel is removed when the percentage of neutron absorbing atoms becomes so large that a chain reaction can no longer be sustained, typically three years. It is then cooled for several years in on-site spent fuel pools before being transferred to long term storage. The spent fuel, though low in volume, is high-level radioactive waste. While its radioactivity decreases exponentially it must be isolated from the biosphere for hundreds of thousands of years, though newer technologies (like fast reactors) have the potential to reduce this significantly. Because the spent fuel is still mostly fissionable material, some countries (e.g. France and Russia) reprocess their spent fuel by extracting fissile and fertile elements for fabrication in new fuel, although this process is more expensive than producing new fuel from mined uranium. All reactors breed some plutonium-239, which is found in the spent fuel, and because Pu-239 is the preferred material for nuclear weapons, reprocessing is seen as a weapon proliferation risk.

 

A renewable form and sustainable form of energy that is used for the generation of electricity or other forms of power is called as Biomass. Sun is the main source for Biomass. Through the process of photosynthesis, plant absorbs the suns energy. When this biomass is burned , due to the chemical energy certain heat is released. It can be directly converted to liquids biofuels or biogas or even burned directly. Burning is the only process for releasing energy in biomass. This renewable form of energy can be converted to other useable forms such as methane gas or for transportation purposes like ethanol and Biodiesel. Around 5% of the prime usage of energy is served by Biomass. Wood, Wood waste, Straw, Manure, Sugarcane and many other agricultural goods are the prime source for the Biomass. Municipal solid waste also comprises of the biomass. Biomass in the form of dead plants, trees, grass, leaves, crops, manure, garbage’s, animals waste can be a great source of alternative fuels that can be used to replace fossil fuels. Burning either fossil fuels or biomass releases carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. However, the plants that are the source of biomass capture a nearly equivalent amount of CO2 through photosynthesis while they are growing, which can make biomass a carbon-neutral energy source.

 

Tidal Power or Tidal energy is the form of energy that converts the energy generated through the tides into the useful form mainly electricity. Tidal energy is not so common as compared to other forms of renewable energy. Tidal steam generators are there that converts the energy into electricity. There is kinetic energy present in the flowing water which is generated due to the change in tide. Same kinetic energy is converted into electricity. The energy form the tidal is could decrease the usage of nuclear power if associated to the radiation risks. Nearly 3,800 terawatt-hours energy is produced by tidal power yearly. However it’s expensive to derive the electricity from tidal energy costing around US$15 Billion. South Korea, France, United Kingdom, Scotland tops in the list of world’s biggest tidal power. Although not used widely, tidal power can be used in the future for the electricity generation. Tidal power has less availability as compared to other renewable sources due to the high cost and limited availability of sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges or flow velocities. There has been many technological developments and improvements which has resulted in the higher availability of the tidal power plants. Many revised design(e.g. dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons) and Turbine technology(e.g. new axial turbines, cross flow turbines) have been introduced with aim of promoting the availability and accessibility of the tidal plants across.

 

One of the alternatives used against fossil fuels. Wind power is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean without any emission of greenhouse gases. It often uses less land with less water consumption. Air flow through the wind turbines is converted to the electrical energy using the power generators. The energy in the wind turns two or three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to create electricity. This form of energy is used for the electricity generations which either uses the warm surface water or boiling the sea water turning it to the turbine further activating the generator. There are no fuel costs, no harmful gases are produced but it may cause noise pollution to the surrounding people. Starting from the ancient times, wind energy has been used for water pumping, drying and grinding. With the advancement in technology, the wind energy generated from the wind turbine can be used for the electricity generation. Wind energy doesn't contaminate the air like power plants that depend on burning of petroleum products, for example, coal or gaseous petrol. Wind turbines don't deliver air discharges that lead to medical issues like asthma or make corrosive rain or nursery gasses.

 

This form of energy is produced when the electricity generators are placed on the surface of the ocean. The energy is widely applied for the desalination purpose in the power plants and water pump. Output of the energy is calculated by the wave height, wave speed, wavelength and the water density. Energy generated by waves is converted into electricity through the electric generator. Wave movement is harnessed and converted to electricity. It’s a reliable source of energy as it can be harnessed enormously and there is no shortage. Depending on the method used for the capture of wave energy, it can be characterised into hydraulic ram, elastomeric hose pump, and pump to shore, hydroelectric turbine, air turbine and linear electric generator. Being a renewable source of energy, wave energy can have certain disadvantages to the marine animals. There are chances that the marine animal may be struck to the tidal turbine blades, causes noise pollution, effect on the life of marine animal, affecting the sediment transport and water quality.

 

Biodiesel is an alternative clean-burning renewable fuel similar to conventional diesel. It is produced using animal fats, vegetable oils, and waste cooking oil. Due to its biodegradable nature, it is used as a replacement for fossil diesel fuel. It can also be mixed with petroleum diesel fuel in any proportion.

Important Features of Biodiesel

Below are certain features of the fuel:

1) Biodegradable and Renewable Fuel.

2) Safer to use and has low toxicity compared to fossil diesel fuel.

3) Lower exhaust emission rate than normal diesel fuel.

4) As per ASTM D 6751 quality parameters, the quality of diesel is analyzed.

5) Using biodiesel doesn’t require any diesel engine modification.

 

Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel is produced from tallow, vegetable oil or animal fat, and waste oils. There are three stages of this transformation of oil and fats to biodiesel.

a) Transesterification of the oil in which it is base-catalyzed.

b) The direct acid-catalyzed transesterification

c) Finally conversion of oil to fatty acid and then the formation of biodiesel.

The production of biodiesel involves a chemical reaction. This chemical reaction is known as transesterification.

Transesterification is the chemical process, which converts natural fats and oils into Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) or Biodiesel. Some of the major sources of suitable oil (to make biodiesel) come from crops like palm, soybean or rapeseed. High-quality biodiesel is made from rapeseed, but nowadays most of the biodiesel is produced from waste vegetable oils obtained from chip shops, restaurants, and industrial food producers

Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel is produced from tallow, vegetable oil or animal fat, and waste oils. There are three stages of this transformation of oil and fats to biodiesel.

a) Transesterification of the oil in which it is base-catalyzed.

b) The direct acid-catalyzed transesterification

c) Finally conversion of oil to fatty acid and then the formation of biodiesel.

The production of biodiesel involves a chemical reaction. This chemical reaction is known as transesterification.

Transesterification is the chemical process, which converts natural fats and oils into Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) or Biodiesel. Some of the major sources of suitable oil (to make biodiesel) come from crops like palm, soybean or rapeseed. High-quality biodiesel is made from rapeseed, but nowadays most of the biodiesel is produced from waste vegetable oils obtained from chip shops, restaurants, and industrial food producers.

Benefits of Biodiesel

Biodiesel has the following benefits:

1) Biodiesel and biodiesel blends are used in almost all diesel engines and vehicles.

2) It is a carbon-neutral liquid, which means that the combustion of biodiesel never produces the net output of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide like other mineral diesel.

3) In 2007, British Royal Train ran its train with 100% biodiesel fuel.

4) Used as heating oil – In many commercial & domestic boilers, biodiesel is also used as heating fuel

Heat generated from the earth s surface is called as geothermal heat. This form of energy is the clean and sustainable. They can be from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found beneath the earth surface, also found extremely deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma. It is the clean energy. Usually the heat pumps have 3-4.5 COPs that means 3-4.5 unites are used for supplying the heat. Geothermal heat pump is having 400% efficiency as compared to the fossil fuel furnace which is having the energy efficiency of 78-90 %. With all the possible advantages there is a con with the geothermal heat that in the extreme conditions it can also cause earthquake. The sustainability of geothermal energy is highly dependent on proper management of the reservoirs. With these minor issues, Geothermal is having the massive worldwide potential of 2 terawatts (TW). It also gives the less fluctuation cost with stable electricity cost.

 

Also called as Solar Cells, Photovoltaic cells (PV Cells) convert the sunlight directly into the electricity. By using the cells, Solar PV systems convert the sunlight into electricity. The cell system comprises of one or two layers of a semi conducting material mainly Silicon. Electric field is generated as soon as the light shines on the cells. At the point when light energy strikes the sunlight based cell, electrons are thumped free from the particles in the semiconductor material. In the event that electrical conveyors are joined to the positive and negative sides, framing an electrical circuit, the electrons can be caught as an electric current - that is, power. PV system comprises of PV Modules, Books on PV, Disconnects, Solectria inverter on a Prewired Power Panel, Deep Cycle Battery, C40 Charge Controller and a Midnight PV3 Combiner Box. The performance of a Solar cell is measured depending on it productivity to transform daylight into power. Just daylight of specific energies will work productively to make power, and quite a bit of it is reflected or consumed by the material that makes up the cell. Along these lines, a run of the mill business sun oriented cell has a proficiency of 15%-around one-6th of the daylight striking the cell produces power. Low efficiencies imply that bigger clusters are required, and that implies higher cost.

 

Thermal energy and mechanical energy are the two energy forms produced by the ocean energy. Thermal energy is produced by the suns heat whereas the mechanical energy produced by the tides and waves. The energy is carried by ocean waves, tides, salinity, and ocean temperature differences. Oceans carry an incredible amount of power and energy potential with the potential to develop 20,000–80,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity generated by changes in ocean temperatures, salt content, movements of tides, currents, waves and swells. Despite the fact that the marine vitality innovation has not completely conveyed on its potential, there have been, in late time, various ranges in marine vitality that has commenced. This vitality can be saddled to create power to control homes, transport and ventures. Sea vitality has the capability of giving a significant measure of new sustainable power source around the world. Energy from the sea is otherwise called hydroelectricity.

 

Oftenly called as efficient energy, Energy Efficiency aims to reduce the energy required for proving the products and services. Nowadays, with the so many innovations and advancement in technologies it is becoming essential to make the proper usage of energy which is achieved by energy Efficiency. Energy Efficiency helps to maintain the environment by protecting the air and preventing the change of climate. It also helps by reducing the emission from power plants. With the decrease amount of energy usage less energy will be needed to generate the power plants resulting in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improving the quality of air. Energy efficiency plays an important role in the balancing of the economy. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy policy and are high priorities in the sustainable energy hierarchy.

With the rise in the usage of solar energy and the wind energy there is an immediate need for the more energy storage at low cost and efficient methods. For example, batteries – that gives utilities the adaptability of managing an account sustainable power source for later utilize. Likewise saving the energy can give influence and empower home and entrepreneurs to save the money by putting away energy from the matrix when electric rates are low, and in addition utilizing the stored energy throughout the day. Energy Storage is becoming important as it not only preserves and conserves the energy but also can be used and switched further to different forms depending on the need and utilities.

 

A type of electrical grid that is having various features such as smart meters, smart appliances, renewable energy resources and energy efficient resources is termed as smart grids. Smart grids have smart meters, smart appliances, renewable energy resources and energy efficient resources. The main motive of smart grid is to manage the demand of electricity in a sustainable and economic way. To satisfy both the increasing demand for power and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we need smart grid that can handle these challenges in a sustainable, reliable and economic way. Important aspects of the grids are electronic power conditioning and the production control. An ideal smart grid should be reliable, flexible in network topology, efficient, load adjustment, load balancing, peak curtailment and sustainable.

Power that is generated during the time of consumption is known as distributed renewable energy. These form of energy is stored in small, gird connected device called as distributed energy resources or distributed energy resource systems. These systems are decentralized, modular and more flexible, that are located close to the load they serve, having capacities of only 10 megawatts (MW) or less. This is generated onsite and is having severe advantages such as eliminating the cost of production, complexity, interdependencies, and inefficiencies associated with the transmission and the distribution. For meeting the regular demand of power supply, small power sources are set up known as distributed renewable energy systems. Solar Panels on the roof of homes and buildings, small wind turbines and electric vehicles are the common examples of distributed renewable energy systems. This form of energy creates the clean, renewable electricity wherever generated. They can be in various forms such as geothermal systems, micro hydroelectric systems.

 

 

One of the most abundant element and high in energy Hydrogen does not occur naturally occur as gas on the Earth. Hydrogen Economy is defined as delivering energy using economy. Hydrogen consists of one atom and one electron. Industrial production of Hydrogen is 4 trillion cubic feet annually. Hydrogen is produced through extraction process called as reforming where heat is applied for the separation of Hydrogen from Carbon. It is transported through the pipeline from its production unit over the road in cryogenic liquid tanker trucks or gaseous tube trailers or rail or barge. However research is going on to produce hydrogen naturally form the natural gas using the process of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel. Hydrogen is used as fuel good as the energy extracted from it is stored and used further. Energy derived from Hydrogen can be delivered to fuel cells and further for the generation of electricity and heat or even for the combustion process. Being good source of energy Hydrogen is also used as fuel for “zero emission’’ vehicles and even fuels the aircraft. Vehicles fuelled with Hydrogen are more energy efficient and use nearly 60% of the fuels energy with 50%reduction in fuel consumption as compared to the conventional vehicle with a gasoline internal combustion. In future, there are chances of using Hydrogen for the electricity generation.

 

With the current increasing population, it is becoming huge necessity for using the sustainable energy. It focuses on the future needs. The objective behind the Sustainable energy is to meet the present need without compromise for the future generation on the energy usage. Renewable energy is the type of sustainable energy which is naturally occurring and easily replenished without getting depleted. It is inexhaustible.  Renewable energy and energy efficiency are the two main key components for the sustainable energy. All renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and ocean energy are sustainable as they are stable and available in plenty. Bioenergy is also a kind of sustainable energy which is the energy generated from the biological masses such as straw, corns, manures and other agricultural plants. For the sustainability of energy we can go for energy conservation and its efficiency. Sustainable energy is not only inexhaustible but also causes no damage to the environment as there is no release of pollutants.

 

Nature itself provides a lot of natural sources such as sunlight, wind rain, tides, plant, heat and geothermal heat. All the energies derived from these natural sources can be termed as green energy. Green energy includes solar energy, hydropower, wind energy, wave energy, tide energy, geothermal energy and many more naturally occurring. This form of energy is renewable; easily available that is they can be replenished naturally as compared to fossil fuels which are finite with diminishable period. With the emerging development in this field we can see a future scope with the less dependence on the conventional sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. Green energy can be termed as clean energy with minimal impact on the environment as compared to fossil fuels which produce pollutants such as greenhouse gases which leads to the climatic changes.  It often uses the sources present worldwide including the rural and remote areas. With the advancements in the development of renewable technologies, there has been a downfall in the cost of solar panels, wind panels, wind turbines and other sources of green energy resulting in the more dependence on renewable sources. It won’t be wrong to say in coming time ahead, green energy may replace the major area of application of fossil fuels such as electricity, water and heating.

 

Waste-to-Energy (WTE) or energy-from-waste is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the incineration of waste. In the U.S., some cities primarily in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic, burn part of their municipal solid wastes. Hemmed in by major population centers, landfill space in these areas is at a premium, so burning wastes to reduce their volume and weight makes sense. Combustion reduces the volume of material by about 90 percent and its weight by 75 percent. The heat generated by burning wastes has other uses, as well, as it can be used directly for heating, to produce steam or to generate electricity.

With the on-going increase in the energy demand and with the fossil fuel depletion there has become a need to create a sustainable energy alternative which is sustainable as well as renewable. It is therefore essential to incorporate material abundance, eco-efficient synthetic processes and life-cycle analysis into the design of new electrochemical storage systems. At present, a few existing technologies overcomes these issues, but in each case, some or the other fundamental as well as technological hurdles remains there.  Lithium Ion Batteries, saltwater and Lead Acid is widely used for the energy storage process. The common points of considerations while choosing the type of batteries are Capacity and Power, Depth of Discharge, Round Trip Efficiency, Battery Life and Warranty.

 

Energy comes in various structures including radiation, compound, gravitational potential, electrical potential, power, raised temperature, dormant warmth and dynamic. For example, we can’t generate the solar while the sun is not shining or we can’t generate wind while the wind isn't blowing. It becomes important to save the energy that produce at one time and use at a later time. Power-to-gas, Storing wind and sun in natural gas and Redox Flow Batteries are some of the smart ways to store the energy. Some traditional methods to store the energy like: Mechanical storage systems, electrochemical storage systems, Chemical energy storage, Electrical storage systems, Thermal storage systems, Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage and Methane.