Search results for: environmental degradation
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1855

Search results for: environmental degradation

685 The Integration of Iranian Traditional Architecture in the Contemporary Housing Design: A Case Study

Authors: H. Nejadriahi

Abstract:

Traditional architecture is a valuable source of inspiration, which needs to be studied and integrated in the contemporary designs for achieving an identifiable contemporary architecture. Traditional architecture of Iran is among the distinguished examples of being contextually responsive, not only by considering the environmental conditions of a region, but also in terms of respecting the socio-cultural values of its context. In order to apply these valuable features to the current designs, they need to be adapted to today's condition, needs and desires. In this paper, the main features of the traditional architecture of Iran are explained to interrogate them in the formation of a contemporary house in Tehran, Iran. Also a table is provided to compare the utilization of the traditional design concepts in the traditional houses and the contemporary example of it. It is believed that such study would increase the awareness of contemporary designers by providing them some clues on maintaining the traditional values in the current design layouts particularly in the residential sector that would ultimately improve the quality of space in the contemporary architecture.

Keywords: Contemporary housing design, Iran, Tehran, traditional architecture.

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684 Hybrid RANS-LES Simulation of In-Cylinder Air Flow for Different Engine Speeds at Fixed Intake Flow Pressure

Authors: L. V. Fui, A. Ulugbek, S. S. Dol

Abstract:

The in-cylinder flow and mixture formations are significant in view of today’s increasing concern on environmental issues and stringent emission regulations. In this paper, the numerical simulations of a SI engine at different engine speeds (2000-5000 rpm) at fixed intake flow pressure of 1 bar are studied using the AVL FIRE software. The simulation results show that when the engine speed at fixed intake flow pressure is increased, the volumetric efficiency of the engine decreases. This is due to a richer fuel conditions near the engine cylinder wall when engine speed is increased. Significant effects of impingement are also noted on the upper and side walls of the engine cylinder. These variations in mixture formation before ignition could affect the thermodynamics efficiency and specific fuel consumption that would lead to a reduced engine performance.

Keywords: AVL FIRE, fuel mass, IC engine, LES, RANS, turbulent intensity.

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683 Tourism Planning in Developing Countries: Review of Concepts and Sustainability Issues

Authors: Patrick B. Cobbinah, Rosemary Black, Rik Thwaites

Abstract:

Globally, issues of sustainable development have become the fulcrum around which current international discourse revolves. Many governments in both the developed and the developing countries are focusing on strategies to achieve sustainable growth. Tourism has been identified as a major sector in safeguarding a sustainable future. However, research has shown that tourism if not properly managed can be detrimental. This paper posits tourism in the sustainable development discourse, exploring how the historical evolution of tourism and issues of sustainability have informed the state of tourism activities in the developing countries. Using secondary data analysis, the paper reveals that current conceptual explanations of tourism are linked to sustainable development. However, tourism activities in developing countries are usually driven by profit without adequate consideration for environmental and social factors. The paper raises two questions and further recommends that tourism activities should be informed by sustainable development principles.

Keywords: Developing countries, mass tourism, sustainable development, sustainable tourism.

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682 New Concept for the Overall use of Renewable Energy

Authors: Chang-Hsien Tai, Uzu-Kuei Hsu, Jr-Ming Miao, Yong-Jhou Lin

Abstract:

The development and application of wind power for renewable energy has attracted growing interest in recent years. Renewable energy sources are attracting much alteration as they can reduce both environmental damage and dependence on fossil fuels. With the growing need for sustainable energy supplies, a case is made for decentralized, stand-alone power supplies (SAPS) as an alternative to power grids. In the era which traditional petroleum energy resource decreasing and the green house affect significant increasing, the development and usage of regenerative resources is inevitable. Due to the contribution of the pioneers, the development of regenerative resources already has a remarkable achievement; however, in the view of economy and quantity, it is still a long road for regenerative energy to replace traditional petroleum energy. In our prospective, in stead of investigate larger regenerative energy equipment, it is much wiser to think about the blind side and breakthrough of the current technique.

Keywords: regenerative resources, hybrid system, transfer, storage, phase change

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681 Function Approximation with Radial Basis Function Neural Networks via FIR Filter

Authors: Kyu Chul Lee, Sung Hyun Yoo, Choon Ki Ahn, Myo Taeg Lim

Abstract:

Recent experimental evidences have shown that because of a fast convergence and a nice accuracy, neural networks training via extended kalman filter (EKF) method is widely applied. However, as to an uncertainty of the system dynamics or modeling error, the performance of the method is unreliable. In order to overcome this problem in this paper, a new finite impulse response (FIR) filter based learning algorithm is proposed to train radial basis function neural networks (RBFN) for nonlinear function approximation. Compared to the EKF training method, the proposed FIR filter training method is more robust to those environmental conditions. Furthermore , the number of centers will be considered since it affects the performance of approximation.

Keywords: Extended kalmin filter (EKF), classification problem, radial basis function networks (RBFN), finite impulse response (FIR)filter.

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680 Identification of an Appropriate Alternative Waste Technology for Energy Recovery from Waste through Multi-Criteria Analysis

Authors: Sharmina Begum, M. G. Rasul, Delwar Akbar

Abstract:

Waste management is now a global concern due to its high environmental impact on climate change. Because of generating huge amount of waste through our daily activities, managing waste in an efficient way has become more important than ever. Alternative Waste Technology (AWT), a new category of waste treatment technology has been developed for energy recovery in recent years to address this issue. AWT describes a technology that redirects waste away from landfill, recovers more useable resources from the waste flow and reduces the impact on the surroundings. Australia is one of the largest producers of waste per-capita. A number of AWTs are using in Australia to produce energy from waste. Presently, it is vital to identify an appropriate AWT to establish a sustainable waste management system in Australia. Identification of an appropriate AWT through Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of four AWTs by using five key decision making criteria is presented and discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Alternative waste technology (AWT), Energy fromwaste, Gasification, Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA)

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679 Physical Modeling of Oil Well Fire Extinguishing Using a Turbojet on a Barge

Authors: M. Abbaspour, D. Mansouri, N. Mansouri

Abstract:

There are reports of gas and oil wells fire due to different accidents. Many different methods are used for fire fighting in gas and oil industry. Traditional fire extinguishing techniques are mostly faced with many problems and are usually time consuming and needs lots of equipments. Besides, they cause damages to facilities, and create health and environmental problems. This article proposes innovative approach in fire extinguishing techniques in oil and gas industry, especially applicable for burning oil wells located offshore. Fire extinguishment employing a turbojet is a novel approach which can help to extinguishment the fire in short period of time. Divergent and convergent turbojets modeled in laboratory scale along with a high pressure flame were used. Different experiments were conducted to determine the relationship between output discharges of trumpet and oil wells. The results were corrected and the relationship between dimensionless parameters of flame and fire extinguishment distances and also the output discharge of turbojet and oil wells in specified distances are demonstrated by specific curves.

Keywords: Burning well, fire extinguishment, gas/oil industry, simulation.

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678 A Method to Predict Hemorrhage Disease of Grass Carp Tends

Authors: Zhongxu Chen, Jun Yang, Heyue Mao, Xiaoyu Zheng

Abstract:

Hemorrhage Disease of Grass Carp (HDGC) is a kind of commonly occurring illnesses in summer, and the extremely high death rate result in colossal losses to aquaculture. As the complex connections among each factor which influences aquiculture diseases, there-s no quit reasonable mathematical model to solve the problem at present.A BP neural network which with excellent nonlinear mapping coherence was adopted to establish mathematical model; Environmental factor, which can easily detected, such as breeding density, water temperature, pH and light intensity was set as the main analyzing object. 25 groups of experimental data were used for training and test, and the accuracy of using the model to predict the trend of HDGC was above 80%. It is demonstrated that BP neural network for predicating diseases in HDGC has a particularly objectivity and practicality, thus it can be spread to other aquiculture disease.

Keywords: Aquaculture, Hemorrhage Disease of Grass Carp, BP Neural Network

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677 The Cadmium Adsorption Study by Using Seyitomer Fly Ash, Diatomite and Molasses in Wastewater

Authors: N. Tugrul, E. Moroydor Derun, E. Cinar, A. S. Kipcak, N. Baran Acarali, S. Piskin

Abstract:

Fly ash is an important waste, produced in thermal power plants which causes very important environmental pollutions. For this reason the usage and evaluation the fly ash in various areas are very important. Nearly, 15 million tons/year of fly ash is produced in Turkey. In this study, usage of fly ash with diatomite and molasses for heavy metal (Cd) adsorption from wastewater is investigated. The samples of Seyitomer region fly ash were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) then diatomite (0 and 1% in terms of fly ash, w/w) and molasses (0-0.75 mL) were pelletized under 30 MPa of pressure for the usage of cadmium (Cd) adsorption in wastewater. After the adsorption process, samples of Seyitomer were analyzed using Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). As a result, it is seen that the usage of Seyitomer fly ash is proper for cadmium (Cd) adsorption and an optimum adsorption yield with 52% is found at a compound with Seyitomer fly ash (10 g), diatomite (0.5 g) and molasses (0.75 mL) at 2.5 h of reaction time, pH:4, 20ºC of reaction temperature and 300 rpm of stirring rate.

Keywords: Heavy metal, fly ash, molasses, diatomite, adsorption, wastewater.

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676 Elicitation of Requirements for a Knowledge Management Concept in Decentralized Production Planning

Authors: S. Minhas, C. Juzek, U. Berger

Abstract:

The planning in manufacturing system is becoming complicated day by day due to the expanding networks and shortage of skilled people to manage change. Consequently, faster lead time and rising demands for eco-efficient evaluation of manufacturing products and processes need exploitation of new and intelligent knowledge management concepts for manufacturing planning. This paper highlights motivation for incorporation of new features in the manufacturing planning system. Furthermore, it elaborates requirements for the development of intelligent knowledge management concept to support planning related decisions. Afterwards, the derived concept is presented in this paper considering two case studies. The first case study is concerned with the automotive ramp-up planning. The second case study specifies requirements for knowledge management system to support decisions in eco-efficient evaluation of manufacturing products and processes

Keywords: Ramp-up, Environmental impact, Knowledge management.

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675 Regression Analysis of Travel Indicators and Public Transport Usage in Urban Areas

Authors: M. Moeinaddini, Z. Asadi-Shekari, M. Zaly Shah, A. Hamzah

Abstract:

Currently, planners try to have more green travel options to decrease economic, social and environmental problems. Therefore, this study tries to find significant urban travel factors to be used to increase the usage of alternative urban travel modes. This paper attempts to identify the relationship between prominent urban mobility indicators and daily trips by public transport in 30 cities from various parts of the world. Different travel modes, infrastructures and cost indicators were evaluated in this research as mobility indicators. The results of multi-linear regression analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between mobility indicators and the daily usage of public transport.

Keywords: Green travel modes, urban travel indicators, daily trips by public transport, multi-linear regression analysis.

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674 Health Post A Sustainable Prototype for the Third World

Authors: Chizzoniti Domenico, Beggiora Klizia, Cattani Letizia, Moscatelli Monica

Abstract:

This paper concerns the study of sustainable construction materials applied on the "Health Post", a prototype for the primary health care situated in alienated areas of the world. It's suitable for social and climatic Sub-Saharan context; however, it could be moved in other countries of the world with similar urgent needs. The idea is to create a Health Post with local construction materials that have a low environmental impact and promote the local workforce allowing reuse of traditional building techniques lowering production costs and transport. The aim of Primary Health Care Centre is to be a flexible and expandable structure identifying a modular form that can be repeated several times to expand its existing functions. In this way it could be not only a health care centre but also a socio-cultural facility.

Keywords: Low costs building, sustainable construction materials, green construction system, prototype, health care, emergency.

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673 Adaptive Path Planning for Mobile Robot Obstacle Avoidance

Authors: Rong-Jong Wai, Chia-Ming Liu

Abstract:

Generally speaking, the mobile robot is capable of sensing its surrounding environment, interpreting the sensed information to obtain the knowledge of its location and the environment, planning a real-time trajectory to reach the object. In this process, the issue of obstacle avoidance is a fundamental topic to be challenged. Thus, an adaptive path-planning control scheme is designed without detailed environmental information, large memory size and heavy computation burden in this study for the obstacle avoidance of a mobile robot. In this scheme, the robot can gradually approach its object according to the motion tracking mode, obstacle avoidance mode, self-rotation mode, and robot state selection. The effectiveness of the proposed adaptive path-planning control scheme is verified by numerical simulations of a differential-driving mobile robot under the possible occurrence of obstacle shapes.

Keywords: Adaptive Path Planning, Mobile Robot ObstacleAvoidance

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672 Using Ultrasonic and Infrared Sensors for Distance Measurement

Authors: Tarek Mohammad

Abstract:

The amplitude response of infrared (IR) sensors depends on the reflectance properties of the target. Therefore, in order to use IR sensor for measuring distances accurately, prior knowledge of the surface must be known. This paper describes the Phong Illumination Model for determining the properties of a surface and subsequently calculating the distance to the surface. The angular position of the IR sensor is computed as normal to the surface for simplifying the calculation. Ultrasonic (US) sensor can provide the initial information on distance to obtain the parameters for this method. In addition, the experimental results obtained by using LabView are discussed. More care should be taken when placing the objects from the sensors during acquiring data since the small change in angle could show very different distance than the actual one. Since stereo camera vision systems do not perform well under some environmental conditions such as plain wall, glass surfaces, or poor lighting conditions, the IR and US sensors can be used additionally to improve the overall vision systems of mobile robots.

Keywords: Distance Measurement, Infrared sensor, Surface properties, Ultrasonic sensor.

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671 Confidence Intervals for the Difference of Two Normal Population Variances

Authors: Suparat Niwitpong

Abstract:

Motivated by the recent work of Herbert, Hayen, Macaskill and Walter [Interval estimation for the difference of two independent variances. Communications in Statistics, Simulation and Computation, 40: 744-758, 2011.], we investigate, in this paper, new confidence intervals for the difference between two normal population variances based on the generalized confidence interval of Weerahandi [Generalized Confidence Intervals. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 88(423): 899-905, 1993.] and the closed form method of variance estimation of Zou, Huo and Taleban [Simple confidence intervals for lognormal means and their differences with environmental applications. Environmetrics 20: 172-180, 2009]. Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that our proposed confidence intervals give a better coverage probability than that of the existing confidence interval. Also two new confidence intervals perform similarly based on their coverage probabilities and their average length widths.

Keywords: Confidence interval, generalized confidence interval, the closed form method of variance estimation, variance.

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670 Contemplating Preference Ratings of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices for Supply Chain Performance System Implementation

Authors: Mohit Tyagi, Pradeep Kumar

Abstract:

The objective of this research work is to identify and analyze the significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices with an aim to improve the supply chain performance of automobile industry located at National Capital Region (NCR) of India. To achieve the objective, 6 CSR practices have been considered and analyzed using expert’s preference rating (EPR) approach. The considered CSR practices are namely, Top management and employee awareness about CSR (P1), Employee involvement in social and environmental problems (P2), Protection of human rights (P3), Waste reduction, energy saving and water conservation (P4), Proper visibility of CSR guidelines (P5) and Broad perception towards CSR initiatives (P6). The outcomes of this research may help mangers in decision making processes and framing polices for SCP implementation under CSR context.

Keywords: Supply chain performance, corporate social responsibility, CSR practices, expert’s preference rating approach.

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669 Heat Recovery System from Air-Cooled Chillers in Iranian Hospitals

Authors: Saeed Vahidifar, Mohammad Nakhaee Sharif, Mohammad Ghaffari

Abstract:

Few people would dispute the fact that one of the most common applications of energy is creating comfort in buildings, so it is probably true to say that management of energy consumption is required due to the environmental issues and increasing the efficiency of mechanical systems. From the geographical point of view, Iran is located in a warm and semi-arid region; therefore, air-cooled chillers are usually used for cooling residential buildings, commercial buildings, medical buildings, etc. In this study, a heat exchanger was designed for providing laundry hot water by utilizing condenser heat lost base on analytical results of a 540-bed hospital in the city of Mashhad in Iran. In this paper, by using the analytical method, energy consumption reduces about 13%, and coefficient of performance increases a bit. Results show that this method can help in the management of energy consumption a lot.

Keywords: Energy management, air-cooled chiller, heat exchanger, hospital laundry system.

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668 Numerical and Experimental Assessment of a PCM Integrated Solar Chimney

Authors: J. Carlos Frutos Dordelly, M. Coillot, M. El Mankibi, R. Enríquez Miranda, M. José Jimenez, J. Arce Landa

Abstract:

Natural ventilation systems have increasingly been the subject of research due to rising energetic consumption within the building sector and increased environmental awareness. In the last two decades, the mounting concern of greenhouse gas emissions and the need for an efficient passive ventilation system have driven the development of new alternative passive technologies such as ventilated facades, trombe walls or solar chimneys. The objective of the study is the assessment of PCM panels in an in situ solar chimney for the establishment of a numerical model. The PCM integrated solar chimney shows slight performance improvement in terms of mass flow rate and external temperature and outlet temperature difference. An increase of 11.3659 m3/h can be observed during low wind speed periods. Additionally, the surface temperature across the chimney goes beyond 45 °C and allows the activation of PCM panels.

Keywords: Energy storage, passive ventilation, phase changing materials, solar chimney, solar energy.

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667 Recycling of Sclareolide in the Crystallization Mother Liquid of Sclareolide by Adsorption and Chromatography

Authors: Xiang Li, Kui Chen, Bin Wu, Min Zhou

Abstract:

Sclareolide is made from sclareol by oxidiative synthesis and subsequent crystallization, while the crystallization mother liquor still contains 15%~30%wt of sclareolide to be reclaimed. With the reaction material of sclareol is provided as plant extract, many sorts of complex impurities exist in the mother liquor. Due to the difficulty in recycling sclareolide after solvent recovery, it is common practice for the factories to discard the mother liquor, which not only results in loss of sclareolide, but also contributes extra environmental burden. In this paper, a process based on adsorption and elution has been presented for recycling of sclareolide from mother liquor. After pretreatment of the crystallization mother liquor by HZ-845 resin to remove parts of impurities, sclareolide is adsorbed by HZ-816 resin. The HZ-816 resin loaded with sclareolide is then eluted by elution solvent. Finally, the eluent containing sclareolide is concentrated and fed into the crystallization step in the process. By adoption of the recycle from mother liquor, total yield of sclareolide increases from 86% to 90% with a stable purity of the final sclareolide products maintained.

Keywords: Sclareolide, resin, adsorption, chromatography.

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666 The Effect of Fly Ash in Dewatering of Marble Processing Wastewaters

Authors: H. A. Taner, V. Önen

Abstract:

In the thermal power plants established to meet the energy need, lignite with low calorie and high ash content is used. Burning of these coals results in wastes such as fly ash, slag and flue gas. This constitutes a significant economic and environmental problems. However, fly ash can find evaluation opportunities in various sectors. In this study, the effectiveness of fly ash on suspended solid removal from marble processing wastewater containing high concentration of suspended solids was examined. Experiments were carried out for two different suspensions, marble and travertine. In the experiments, FeCl3, Al2(SO4)3 and anionic polymer A130 were used also to compare with fly ash. Coagulant/flocculant type/dosage, mixing time/speed and pH were the experimental parameters. The performances in the experimental studies were assessed with the change in the interface height during sedimentation resultant and turbidity values of treated water. The highest sedimentation efficiency was achieved with anionic flocculant. However, it was determined that fly ash can be used instead of FeCl3 and Al2(SO4)3 in the travertine plant as a coagulant.

Keywords: Dewatering, flocculant, fly ash, marble plant waste water.

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665 Isolation of Biosurfactant Producing Spore-Forming Bacteria from Oman: Potential Applications in Bioremediation

Authors: Saif N. Al-Bahry, Yahya M. Al-Wahaibi, Abdulkadir E. Elshafie, Ali S. Al-Bemani, Sanket J. Joshi

Abstract:

Environmental pollution is a global problem and best possible solution is identifying and utilizing native microorganisms. One possible application of microbial product -biosurfactant is in bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated sites. We have screened forty two different petroleum contaminated sites from Oman, for biosurfactant producing spore-forming bacterial isolates. Initial screening showed that out of 42 soil samples, three showed reduction in surface tension (ST) and interfacial tension (IFT) within 24h of incubation at 40°C. Out of those 3 soil samples, one was further selected for isolation of bacteria and 14 different bacteria were isolated in pure form. Of those 14 spore-forming, rod shaped bacteria, two showed highest reduction in ST and IFT in the range of 70mN/m to <35mN/m and 26.69mN/m to <9mN/m, respectively within 24h. These bacterial biosurfactants may be utilized for bioremediation of oil-spills.

Keywords: Bioremediation, biosurfactant, hydrocarbon pollution, spore-forming bacteria.

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664 Using Strategic CSR to Achieve the Hybrid Middle Ground in Social Entrepreneurship: The Case of Telenor Hungary

Authors: Peter Hardi, Bala Mulloth

Abstract:

To be considered a socially entrepreneurial organization today requires achieving what can be termed a “hybrid middle ground” equilibrium, comprising of economic as well as social sustainability. This middle ground requires some blend of both business and social commitments. In this paper, we use the case of Hungary's second ranked mobile operator, Telenor Hungary to illustrate an example of a company that is moving to the hybrid middle ground by transitioning from a for-profit company to a socially responsible business using the concept of strategic CSR. In this line of thinking, the organization explicitly supports programs and initiatives that have a direct link to the core business and bring operational and/or financial advantages for the company, while creating a positive social and/or environmental impact. The important lessons learned from the company transition are also discussed. 

Keywords: Hybrid middle ground, social entrepreneurship, strategic corporate social responsibility.

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663 Critical Terrain Slope Calculation for Locating Small Hydropower Plants

Authors: C. Vrekos, C. Evagelides, N. Samarinas, G. Arampatzis

Abstract:

As known, the water energy is a renewable and clean source of energy. Energy production from hydropower has been the first, and still is today a renewable source used to generate electricity. The optimal location and sizing of a small hydropower plant is a very important issue in engineering design which encourages investigation. The aim of this paper is to present a formula that can be utilized for locating the position of a small hydropower plant although there is a high dependence on economic, environmental, and social parameters. In this paper, the economic and technical side of the problem is considered. More specifically, there is a critical terrain slope that determines if the plant should be located at the end of the slope or not. Of course, this formula can be used for a first estimate and does not include detailed economic analysis. At the end, a case study is presented for the location of a small hydropower plant in order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed formula.

Keywords: Critical terrain slope, economic analysis, hydropower plant locating, renewable energy.

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662 Investigating Real Ship Accidents with Descriptive Analysis in Turkey

Authors: İsmail Karaca, Ömer Söner

Abstract:

The use of advanced methods has been increasing day by day in the maritime sector, which is one of the sectors least affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is aimed to minimize accidents, especially by using advanced methods in the investigation of marine accidents. This research aimed to conduct an exploratory statistical analysis of particular ship accidents in the Transport Safety Investigation Center of Turkey database. 46 ship accidents, which occurred between 2010-2018, have been selected from the database. In addition to the availability of a reliable and comprehensive database, taking advantage of the robust statistical models for investigation is critical to improving the safety of ships. Thus, descriptive analysis has been used in the research to identify causes and conditional factors related to different types of ship accidents. The research outcomes underline the fact that environmental factors and day and night ratio have great influence on ship safety.

Keywords: Descriptive analysis, maritime industry, maritime safety, marine accident analysis.

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661 Electrolysis Ship for Green Hydrogen Production and Possible Applications

Authors: Julian David Hunt, Andreas Nascimento

Abstract:

Green hydrogen is the most environmental, renewable alternative to produce hydrogen. However, an important challenge to make hydrogen a competitive energy carrier is a constant supply of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and hydropower. Given that the electricity generation potential of these sources vary seasonally and interannually, this paper proposes installing an electrolysis hydrogen production plant in a ship and move the ship to the locations where electricity is cheap, or where the seasonal potential for renewable generation is high. An example of electrolysis ship application is to produce green hydrogen with hydropower from the North region of Brazil and then sail to the Northeast region of Brazil and generate hydrogen using excess electricity from offshore wind power. The electrolysis ship concept is interesting because it has the flexibility to produce green hydrogen using the cheapest renewable electricity available in the market.

Keywords: Green hydrogen, electrolysis ship, renewable energies, seasonal variations.

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660 Evaluating the Interactions of Co2-Ionic Liquid Systems through Molecular Modeling

Authors: S. Yamini Sudha, Ashok Khanna

Abstract:

Owing to the stringent environmental legislations, CO2 capture and sequestration is one of the viable solutions to reduce the CO2 emissions from various sources. In this context, Ionic liquids (ILs) are being investigated as suitable absorption media for CO2 capture. Due to their non-evaporative, non-toxic, and non-corrosive nature, these ILs have the potential to replace the existing solvents like aqueous amine solutions for CO2 separation technologies. Thus, the present work aims at studying the important aspects such as the interactions of CO2 molecule with different anions (F-, Br-, Cl-, NO3 -, BF4 -, PF6 -, Tf2N-, and CF3SO3 -) that are commonly used in ILs through molecular modeling. In this, the minimum energy structures have been obtained using Ab initio based calculations at MP2 (Moller-Plesset perturbation) level. Results revealed various degrees of distortion of CO2 molecule (from its linearity) with the anions studied, most likely due to the Lewis acid-base interactions between CO2 and anion. Furthermore, binding energies for the anion-CO2 complexes were also calculated. The implication of anion-CO2 interactions to the solubility of CO2 in ionic liquids is also discussed.

Keywords: CO2, Ionic liquids, capture, molecular modeling, sequestration.

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659 Viability Analysis of the Use of Solar Energy for Water Heating in Brazil

Authors: E. T. L. Cöuras Ford, V. A. C.Vale, J. U. L Mendes

Abstract:

The sun is an inexhaustible source and harness its potential both for heating and power generation is one of the most promising and necessary alternatives, mainly due to environmental issues. However, it should be noted that this has always been present in the generation of energy on earth, only indirectly, since it is responsible for virtually all other energy sources, such as generating source of evaporation of the water cycle, allowing the impoundment and the consequent generation of electricity (hydroelectric power); winds are caused by atmospheric induction caused by large scale solar radiation; petroleum, coal and natural gas were generated from waste plants and animals that originally derived energy required for their development of solar radiation. This paper presents a study on the feasibility of using solar energy for water heating in homes. A simplified methodology developed for formulation of solar heating operation model of water in alternative systems of solar energy in Brazil, and compared it to that in the international market. Across this research, it was possible to create new paradigms for alternative applications to the use of solar energy.

Keywords: Solar energy, solar heating, solar project.

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658 Antioxidant Capacity of Maize Corn under Drought Stress from the Different Zones of Growing

Authors: Astghik R. Sukiasyan

Abstract:

The semidental sweet maize of Armenian population under drought stress and pollution by some heavy metals (HMs) in sites along the river Debet was studied. Accordingly, the objective of this work was to investigate the antioxidant status of maize plant in order to identify simple and reliable criteria for assessing the degree of adaptation of plants to abiotic stress of drought and HMs. It was found that in the case of removal from the mainstream of the river, the antioxidant status of the plant varies. As parameters, the antioxidant status of the plant has been determined by the activity of malondialdehyde (MDA) and Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma (FRAP), taking into account the characteristics of natural drought of this region. The possibility of using some indicators which characterized the antioxidant status of the plant was concluded. The criteria for assessing the extent of environmental pollution could be HMs. This fact can be used for the early diagnosis of diseases in the population who lives in these areas and uses corn as the main food.

Keywords: Antioxidant status, maize corn, drought stress, heavy metal.

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657 Compression Strength of Treated Fine-Grained Soils with Epoxy or Cement

Authors: M. Mlhem

Abstract:

Geotechnical engineers face many problematic soils upon construction and they have the choice for replacing these soils with more appropriate soils or attempting to improve the engineering properties of the soil through a suitable soil stabilization technique. Mostly, improving soils is environmental, easier and more economical than other solutions. Stabilization soils technique is applied by introducing a cementing agent or by injecting a substance to fill the pore volume. Chemical stabilizers are divided into two groups: traditional agents such as cement or lime and non-traditional agents such as polymers. This paper studies the effect of epoxy additives on the compression strength of four types of soil and then compares with the effect of cement on the compression strength for the same soils. Overall, the epoxy additives are more effective in increasing the strength for different types of soils regardless its classification. On the other hand, there was no clear relation between studied parameters liquid limit, passing No.200, unit weight and between the strength of samples for different types of soils.

Keywords: Additives, clay, compression strength, epoxy, stabilization.

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656 Effect of Adaptation Gain on system Performance for Model Reference Adaptive Control Scheme using MIT Rule

Authors: Pankaj Swarnkar, Shailendra Jain, R.K Nema

Abstract:

Adaptive control involves modifying the control law used by the controller to cope with the fact that the parameters of the system being controlled change drastically due to change in environmental conditions or in system itself. This technique is based on the fundamental characteristic of adaptation of living organism. The adaptive control process is one that continuously and automatically measures the dynamic behavior of plant, compares it with the desired output and uses the difference to vary adjustable system parameters or to generate an actuating signal in such a way so that optimal performance can be maintained regardless of system changes. This paper deals with application of model reference adaptive control scheme in first order system. The rule which is used for this application is MIT rule. This paper also shows the effect of adaptation gain on the system performance. Simulation is done in MATLAB and results are discussed in detail.

Keywords: Adaptive control system, Adaptation gain, MIT rule, Model reference adaptive control.

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