scholarly journals Energy Calculator for Solar Processing of Biomass with Application to Uganda

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Green ◽  
Opio Innocent Miria ◽  
Rolf Crook ◽  
Andrew Ross
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Hydrothermal Carbonization ◽  
Resource Assessment ◽  
Animal Manure ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Steam Treatment ◽  
Waste Biomass ◽  
Local Supply

Rural areas of developing countries often have poor energy infrastructure and so rely on a very local supply. A local energy supply in rural Uganda frequently has problems such as limited accessibility, unreliability, a high expense, harmful to health and deforestation. By carbonizing waste biomass streams, available to those in rural areas of developing countries through a solar resource, it would be possible to create stable, reliable fuels with more consistent calorific values. An energy demand calculator is reported to assess the different energy demands of various thermochemical processes that can be used to create biofuel. The energy demand calculator then relates the energy required to the area of solar collector required for an integrated system. Pyrolysis was shown to require the least amount of energy to process 1 kg of biomass when compared to steam treatment and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). This was due to the large amount of water required for steam treatment and HTC. A resource assessment of Uganda is reported, to which the energy demand calculator has been applied. Quantitative data are presented for agricultural residues, forestry residues, animal manure and aquatic weeds found within Uganda. In application to rural areas of Uganda, a linear Fresnel HTC integration shows to be the most practical fit. Integration with a low temperature steam treatment would require more solar input for less carbonization due to the energy required to vaporize liquid water.

Moving ahead from Hydrogen to Methanol Economy: Scope and challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankit Sonthalia ◽  
Naveen Kumar ◽  
Mukul Tomar ◽  
Edwin Geo V ◽  
Thiyagarajan S ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Liquid Fuels ◽  
Gasoline Engines ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Methanol Economy

Abstract Energy is the driver in the economic development of any country. It is expected that the developing countries like India will account for 25% hike in world-wide energy demand by 2040 due to the increase in the per capita income and rapid industrialization. Most of the developing countries do not have sufficient oil reserves and imports nearly all of their crude oil requirement. The perturbations in the crude oil price, sanctions on Iran and adverse environmental impacts from fossil fuel usage are some of the concern. Therefore, developing countries have started investing heavily in solar and wind power and are considering hydrogen as a future energy resource. Hydrogen is possibly the cleanest fuel and produces only water vapour upon combustion. However, to tap the potential of hydrogen as a fuel, an entirely new infrastructure will be needed for transporting, storing and dispensing it safely, which would be expensive. In the transportation sector, a liquid alternate to fossil fuels will be highly desirable as the existing infrastructure can be used with minor modifications. Amongst the possible liquid fuels, methanol is very promising. Methanol is a single carbon atom compound and can be produced from wide variety of sources such as natural gas, coal, and biomass. The properties of methanol are conducive for use in gasoline engines since it has high octane number and flame speed. Other possible uses of methanol are: as a cooking fuel in rural areas, and as a fuel for running the fuel cells. The present study reviews the limitations in the hydrogen economy and why moving towards methanol economy is more beneficial.

scholarly journals Assessing wind energy development in Uganda: Opportunities and challenges

2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2098576
Author(s):  
Benard M Wabukala ◽  
Jacob Otim ◽  
Geoffrey Mubiinzi ◽  
Muyiwa S Adaramola
Keyword(s):  
Wind Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Resource Assessment ◽  
Energy Development ◽  
Resource Data ◽  
Wind Energy Development ◽  
Electricity Access ◽  
Wind Resource

In this paper, we utilize a systematic review to assess opportunities and challenges in wind energy development in Uganda. Apart from being an environmentally friendly and renewable energy resource, development of wind energy could boosts economic growth and creates jobs. For Uganda, rising energy demand, need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing electricity access to rural areas, emerge as rational opportunities to invest in wind energy. The main obstacles to wind energy development in Uganda are insufficient wind resource data, high initial investment cost, inadequate research and development, weak infrastructure, and unsupportive policies. For policy, comprehensive wind resource assessment, energy infrastructure investment, financial de-risking, capacity building, and deliberate wind power policy incentives could accelerate wind energy development and consequently contribute to the country’s energy security.

scholarly journals Renewable Energy based Green Power Generation for Rural Electrification

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 3904-3911
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Matlab Simulink

A major challenge for developing countries is access to electricity in rural area for accelerating its growth. There are significant impediment from the utilities to extend either improved service to the rural user or provide extended hours of supply through conventional grid supply. In developing countries, the most significant challenges are technologies used to upgrade and methods for electrification, which results in poor reliability of supply and high distribution losses, leading to hindering both economic and social development, so energy planners have suggested a hybrid energy system for the electrification of rural areas. This study investigates green energy based integrated generation for rural loads. This proposed system can orchestrate with the grid as well as with the renewable energy-based generator. The wind energy has a natural variance, to satisfy the energy demand during the nocturnal and overcast period a complementary renewable energy generator is critical, or an energy storage mechanism is needed to meet the energy demand. This type of pooled exploitation and interconnection is used to improve the reliability and resilience of the grids. The integration of distributed and clean energy resource like wind generation will reduce fossil fuel emissions and provides electricity in areas which are limitedly served by unified electrical infrastructure. Hence, it is expected to develop/modify technologies available for harnessing renewable energy sources. A MATLAB/Simulink is used to build a model for a grid-wind based integrated generation. Results obtained from MATLAB/Simulink are a close match with a practical system.

scholarly journals Sewage Sludge Treatment by Hydrothermal Carbonization: Feasibility Study for Sustainable Nutrient Recovery and Fuel Production

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2697
Author(s):  
Gabriel Gerner ◽  
Luca Meyer ◽  
Rahel Wanner ◽  
Thomas Keller ◽  
Rolf Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Phase ◽  
Sewage Sludge ◽  
Hydrothermal Carbonization ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Phosphorus Recovery ◽  
High Yield ◽  
Nutrient Recovery ◽  
Waste Biomass ◽  
Sludge Treatment ◽  
Sewage Sludge Treatment

Phosphorus recovery from waste biomass is becoming increasingly important, given that phosphorus is an exhaustible non-renewable resource. For the recovery of plant nutrients and production of climate-neutral fuel from wet waste streams, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has been suggested as a promising technology. In this study, digested sewage sludge (DSS) was used as waste material for phosphorus and nitrogen recovery. HTC was conducted at 200 °C for 4 h, followed by phosphorus stripping (PS) or leaching (PL) at room temperature. The results showed that for PS and PL around 84% and 71% of phosphorus, as well as 53% and 54% of nitrogen, respectively, could be recovered in the liquid phase (process water and/or extract). Heavy metals were mainly transferred to the hydrochar and only <1 ppm of Cd and 21–43 ppm of Zn were found to be in the liquid phase of the acid treatments. According to the economic feasibility calculation, the HTC-treatment per dry ton DSS with an industrial-scale plant would cost around 608 USD. Between 349–406 kg of sulfuric acid are required per dry ton DSS to achieve a high yield in phosphorus recovery, which causes additional costs of 96–118 USD. Compared to current sewage sludge treatment costs in Switzerland, which range between 669 USD and 1173 USD, HTC can be an economically feasible process for DSS treatment and nutrient recovery.

Relating Household Consumption Expenditures to Road Traffic Fatalities: A Rural–Urban Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110332
Author(s):  
Ruchika Agarwala ◽  
Vinod Vasudevan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Household Consumption ◽  
Household Expenditure ◽  
Traffic Fatality ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
The Relationship

Research shows that traffic fatality risk is generally higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In developing countries, vehicle ownership and investments in public transportation typically increase with economic growth. These two factors together increase the vehicle population, which in turn affects traffic safety. This paper presents a study focused on the relationship of various factors—including household consumption expenditure data—with traffic fatality in rural and urban areas and thereby aims to fill some of the gaps in the literature. One such gap is the impacts of personal and non-personal modes of travel on traffic safety in rural versus urban areas in developing countries which remains unexplored. An exhaustive panel data modeling approach is adopted. One important finding of this study is that evidence exists of a contrasting relationship between household expenditure and traffic fatality in rural and urban areas. The relationship between household expenditure and traffic fatality is observed to be positive in rural areas and a negative in urban areas. Increases in most expenditure variables, such as fuel, non-personal modes of travel, and two-wheeler expenditures, are found to be associated with an increase in traffic fatality in rural areas.

scholarly journals Aquaculture Feeds Can Be Outlaws for Eutrophication When Hidden in Rice Fields? A Case Study in Qianjiang, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (22) ◽  
pp. 4471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu ◽  
Hu ◽  
Song ◽  
Chen ◽  
Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Material Balance ◽  
Rice Production ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
Output Analysis ◽  
Water Eutrophication

Water eutrophication caused by agricultural production has become one of the most important factors that impede sustainable rural environmental governance in China. As a result, the Chinese central and local governments want to reduce the use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer and gain socioeconomical profit simultaneously by promoting crayfish and rice integrated system (CRIS) in the rural areas with abundant water resources. In this article, we investigated whether CRIS in Qianjiang, Hubei, the origin place of the system in China, contributes to fulfilling the governments’ expectations. We found that CRIS efficaciously cuts the fertilizer rate in rice production and boosts farmers’ incomes because crayfish has a demand for water quality and holds a large internal market requirement. However, higher profit encourages farmers to expand crayfish production and thus discourages the initiatives in rice production. The area of the ditch for crayfish production expands ceaselessly and exceeds the limit of regulation of CRIS. As a result, the CRIS in the areas has emerged as a practice of aquaculture but in farmland. This is a regulatory gap. The input–output analysis of CRIS by material balance method can also reveal that excessive feed for crayfish has become a new source of agricultural pollution. Beyond that, due to the changed irrigation system and increased water exchange frequency of CRIS, the pollution has transformed from passive distribution to active, which will increase the risk of water eutrophication on a large area.

scholarly journals The Extent of Heat on Health and Sustainable Farming in Ghana –Bawku East

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frimpong Kwasi ◽  
Jacque Oosthuizen ◽  
Eddie Van Etten
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Wet Bulb Globe Temperature ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Outdoor Work ◽  
Globe Temperature

<p>Little is known about the health effects of heat in outdoor work and appropriate work and rest schedules for farmers working in developing countries. As temperatures continue to increase in tropical regions, such as Northern Ghana, it is necessary to evaluate how farmers experience and respond to high heat exposures. In this study, WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) estimates and the ISO work / rest standards were applied to a cohort of farmers in the rural areas of Bawku East, Northern Ghana, to assess how farmers respond to high heat and how much they rest to protect their health, as well as the level of heat on their productivity. WBGT data was recorded over a period of 6 months among vegetable, cereals, and legume farmers. The ISO proposed and actual rest regimes observed by farmers in the same time period were evaluated. In the dry season the dry bulb temperature rose as high as 45 ºC, while during the humid months of March and April WBGT rose to levels as high as 34 ºC. Farmers worked for nine hours a day during these hot periods with insufficient rest, which has adverse consequences on their health and productivity.</p>

Acute Pituitary Apoplexy following Snake Bite: A Rare but Treatable Complication

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (06) ◽  
pp. 397-399
Author(s):  
Narendrakumar Barad
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Acute Kidney Injury ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Pituitary Apoplexy ◽  
Kidney Injury ◽  
Snake Bite ◽  
Important Public Health ◽  
Russell’S Viper ◽  
Public Health Hazards

AbstractPoisonous snake bite is one of the important public health hazards in developing countries, such as India, where majority of the population resides in rural areas. Among various poisonous species of snakes, Russell's viper venom causes neurotoxicity, myotoxicity, hemolysis, and coagulopathies leading to shock and acute kidney injury. Pituitary apoplexy causing acute hypopituitarism is an extremely rare but treatable complication following viper bite. Here in, we report the case of a 14-year-old boy admitted with Russell's viper bite complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), acute kidney injury, and pituitary apoplexy with secondary acute hypopituitarism.

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