Siddhast Technique: a new vegetative multiplication and water conservative technique for Jatropha curcas

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
pp. 236-240
Author(s):  
Kshitij Malhotra ◽  
Dinesh Kumar ◽  
Vidya Dhar Pandey

Energy security is one of the prime concerns of any developing/developed nation and India ranks sixth in the world in terms of energy demand. The Indian economy is expected to grow at a rate of over 6 per cent per annum. The petroleum imports are expected to rise to 166 MT by 2019 and 622 MT by 2047, hence there is a growing need for energy security. Jatropha curcas has the potential to become a significant source of renewable energy if improved varieties are developed which can achieve its potential in terms of oil yield per hectare in marginal land. For vegetative multiplication, we have successfully carried out air layering in Jatropha curcas through siddhast technique, where a stem is induced to form roots using Rooter Strand while branch is still intact on the parent plant. Virtually no extra water is required to be given to the parent tree to produce a rooted plant. Here, we examined the competency of eight Rooter Strands vis-à-vis two conventional techniques of air layering i.e. tourniquet and gootee. Results showed that time for root initiation did not vary with treatments. In branches tied with Rooter Strand rooting started in minimum 3 weeks; the average root initiation period with Rooter strand was 4.56-6.66 weeks of installation. However, both conventional techniques T9 and T10 required 8.05 weeks and 6.40 weeks, respectively, to start root initiation. Significantly better rooting observed as compared with tourniquet technique and highest 100 per cent rooting was recorded in Rooter Strand-2, 31 and 41 along with control. Significant difference also observed among all the treatments representing Rooter Strand showed usually 83 per cent or higher for survival percent. This technique is very easy and does not require much skill. This technique has the advantages of air layering i.e. less need for physical inputs (water, electricity, infrastructure, etc). It reduces water consumption up to 90 per cent and electricity 100 per cent as compared to tissue culture. Thus, this technique is very conservative from cuttings and much faster than normal procedure of air layering for producing true-to-type plant material and can be adopted for multiplication of superior varieties of this species for their large-scale deployment for biodiesel production to ensure sustainable development with least water requirement.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1440
Author(s):  
Aamir Shehzad ◽  
Arslan Ahmed ◽  
Moinuddin Mohammed Quazi ◽  
Muhammad Jamshaid ◽  
S. M. Ashrafur Rahman ◽  
...  

The world’s need for energy is increasing with the passage of time and the substantial energy demand of the world is met by fossil fuels. Biodiesel has been considered as a replacement for fossil fuels in automotive engines. Biodiesels are advantageous because they provide energy security, they are nontoxic, renewable, economical, and biodegradable and clean sources of energy. However, there are certain disadvantages of biodiesels, including their corrosive, hygroscopic and oxidative natures. This paper provides a review of automotive materials when coming into contact with biodiesel blended fuel in terms of corrosion. Biodiesels have generally been proved to be corrosive, therefore it is important to understand the limits and extents of corrosion on different materials. Methods generally used to find and calculate corrosion have also been discussed in this paper. The reasons for the occurrence of corrosion and the subsequent problems because of corrosion have been presented. Biodiesel production can be carried out by different feedstocks and the studies which have been carried out on these biodiesels have been reviewed in this paper. A certain number of compounds form on the surface of materials because of corrosion and the mechanism behind the formation of these compounds along with the characterization techniques generally used is reviewed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 251 ◽  
pp. 02042
Author(s):  
Ying-Xuan Li ◽  
Yun-Qi Zhang

With the continuous increase of world’s population, rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, and rapid growth of economy, the fossil fuel consumption is also increasing continuously to meet growing energy demand. The unsustainability of fossil fuels and the issues of national energy security make it very urgent to develop the appropriate and sustainable replacement for fossil fuels. Biodiesel is one of appropriate alternatives for diesel engine due to its renewable and eco-friendly nature. This greener fuel has been used in many countries across the continents in a blending range up to 20% with petrodiesel. However, the high biodiesel production cost is still a major obstacle to market acceptance. Non-edible woody oils can be considered as low-cost substitutions for traditional edible vegetable oils for biodiesel production. In order to make biodiesel into reality in much wider scope, a growing number of relevant researches focused on: (1) evaluating the biodiesel properties; (2) optimizing the production process; and (3) assessing the environmental impact. This article reviews these three aspects in order to reflect the research status and development potential of non-edible woody oil-based biodiesel.


Subject The social and environmental implications of Africa's rising energy demand. Significance Africa’s energy development poses fundamental social and environmental challenges. Rapid population growth combined with industrialisation and urbanisation imply large increases in energy demand, much of which is expected to be met by fossil fuels, undermining sustainability goals. Yet increased energy use is critical for the economic development of a continent much of which still has to move away from a dependence on traditional biomass and gain modern levels of access to electricity. Impacts The poor state of electricity infrastructure will retard large-scale electrification, encouraging recourse to off-grid renewables. Weak infrastructure will also increase the degree to which future energy demand is met by fossil fuels. Distributed solar and micro-solar use will expand most rapidly where mobile banking has already penetrated.


2020 ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Jatinder Kataria ◽  
Saroj Kumar Mohapatra ◽  
Amit Pal

The limited fossil reserves, spiraling price and environmental impact due to usage of fossil fuels leads the world wide researchers’ interest in using alternative renewable and environment safe fuels that can meet the energy demand. Biodiesel is an emerging renewable alternative fuel to conventional diesel which can be produced from both edible and non-edible oils, animal fats, algae etc. The society is in dire need of using renewable fuels as an immediate control measure to mitigate the pollution level. In this work an attempt is made to review the requisite and access the capability of the biodiesel in improving the environmental degradation.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wölfle-Roos JV ◽  
Katmer Amet B ◽  
Fiedler J ◽  
Michels H ◽  
Kappelt G ◽  
...  

Background: Uncemented implants are still associated with several major challenges, especially with regard to their manufacturing and their osseointegration. In this study, a novel manufacturing technique—an optimized form of precision casting—and a novel surface modification to promote osseointegration—calcium and phosphorus ion implantation into the implant surface—were tested in vivo. Methods: Cylindrical Ti6Al4V implants were inserted bilaterally into the tibia of 110 rats. We compared two generations of cast Ti6Al4V implants (CAST 1st GEN, n = 22, and CAST 2nd GEN, n = 22) as well as cast 2nd GEN Ti6Al4V implants with calcium (CAST + CA, n = 22) and phosphorus (CAST + P, n = 22) ion implantation to standard machined Ti6Al4V implants (control, n = 22). After 4 and 12 weeks, maximal pull-out force and bone-to-implant contact rate (BIC) were measured and compared between all five groups. Results: There was no significant difference between all five groups after 4 weeks or 12 weeks with regard to pull-out force (p > 0.05, Kruskal Wallis test). Histomorphometric analysis showed no significant difference of BIC after 4 weeks (p > 0.05, Kruskal–Wallis test), whereas there was a trend towards a higher BIC in the CAST + P group (54.8% ± 15.2%), especially compared to the control group (38.6% ± 12.8%) after 12 weeks (p = 0.053, Kruskal–Wallis test). Conclusion: In this study, we found no indication of inferiority of Ti6Al4V implants cast with the optimized centrifugal precision casting technique of the second generation compared to standard Ti6Al4V implants. As the employed manufacturing process holds considerable economic potential, mainly due to a significantly decreased material demand per implant by casting near net-shape instead of milling away most of the starting ingot, its application in manufacturing uncemented implants seems promising. However, no significant advantages of calcium or phosphorus ion implantation could be observed in this study. Due to the promising results of ion implantation in previous in vitro and in vivo studies, further in vivo studies with different ion implantation conditions should be considered.


Author(s):  
Ibrahim Awad ◽  
Leila Ladani

Due to their superior mechanical and electrical properties, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have the potential to be used in many nano-/micro-electronic applications, e.g., through silicon vias (TSVs), interconnects, transistors, etc. In particular, use of MWCNT bundles inside annular cylinders of copper (Cu) as TSV is proposed in this study. However, the significant difference in scale makes it difficult to evaluate the interfacial mechanical integrity. Cohesive zone models (CZM) are typically used at large scale to determine the mechanical adherence at the interface. However, at molecular level, no routine technique is available. Molecular dynamic (MD) simulations is used to determine the stresses that are required to separate MWCNTs from a copper slab and generate normal stress–displacement curves for CZM. Only van der Waals (vdW) interaction is considered for MWCNT/Cu interface. A displacement controlled loading was applied in a direction perpendicular to MWCNT's axis in different cases with different number of walls and at different temperatures and CZM is obtained for each case. Furthermore, their effect on the CZM key parameters (normal cohesive strength (σmax) and the corresponding displacement (δn) has been studied. By increasing the number of the walls of the MWCNT, σmax was found to nonlinearly decrease. Displacement at maximum stress, δn, showed a nonlinear decrease as well with increasing the number of walls. Temperature effect on the stress–displacement curves was studied. When temperature was increased beyond 1 K, no relationship was found between the maximum normal stress and temperature. Likewise, the displacement at maximum load did not show any dependency to temperature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Cheng ◽  
Zeyi Liu ◽  
Guangquan Cheng ◽  
Jincai Huang

AbstractBeginning on December 31, 2019, the large-scale novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China. Tracking and analysing the heterogeneity and effectiveness of cities’ prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic is essential to design and adjust epidemic prevention and control measures. The number of newly confirmed cases in 25 of China’s most-affected cities for the COVID-19 epidemic from January 11 to February 10 was collected. The heterogeneity and effectiveness of these 25 cities’ prevention and control measures for COVID-19 were analysed by using an estimated time-varying reproduction number method and a serial correlation method. The results showed that the effective reproduction number (R) in 25 cities showed a downward trend overall, but there was a significant difference in the R change trends among cities, indicating that there was heterogeneity in the spread and control of COVID-19 in cities. Moreover, the COVID-19 control in 21 of 25 cities was effective, and the risk of infection decreased because their R had dropped below 1 by February 10, 2020. In contrast, the cities of Wuhan, Tianmen, Ezhou and Enshi still had difficulty effectively controlling the COVID-19 epidemic in a short period of time because their R was greater than 1.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 788
Author(s):  
Zulqarnain ◽  
Muhammad Ayoub ◽  
Mohd Hizami Mohd Yusoff ◽  
Muhammad Hamza Nazir ◽  
Imtisal Zahid ◽  
...  

Dependence on fossil fuels for meeting the growing energy demand is damaging the world’s environment. There is a dire need to look for alternative fuels that are less potent to greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuels offer several advantages with less harmful effects on the environment. Biodiesel is synthesized from the organic wastes produced extensively like edible, non-edible, microbial, and waste oils. This study reviews the feasibility of the state-of-the-art feedstocks for sustainable biodiesel synthesis such as availability, and capacity to cover a significant proportion of fossil fuels. Biodiesel synthesized from oil crops, vegetable oils, and animal fats are the potential renewable carbon-neutral substitute to petroleum fuels. This study concludes that waste oils with higher oil content including waste cooking oil, waste palm oil, and algal oil are the most favorable feedstocks. The comparison of biodiesel production and parametric analysis is done critically, which is necessary to come up with the most appropriate feedstock for biodiesel synthesis. Since the critical comparison of feedstocks along with oil extraction and biodiesel production technologies has never been done before, this will help to direct future researchers to use more sustainable feedstocks for biodiesel synthesis. This study concluded that the use of third-generation feedstocks (wastes) is the most appropriate way for sustainable biodiesel production. The use of innovative costless oil extraction technologies including supercritical and microwave-assisted transesterification method is recommended for oil extraction.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 4018
Author(s):  
Guglielmina Mutani ◽  
Valeria Todeschi

It is common practice, in the production of photovoltaic energy to only use the south-exposed roof surface of a building, in order to achieve the maximum production of solar energy while lowering the costs of the energy and the solar technologies. However, using the south-exposed surface of a roof only allows a small quota of the energy demand to be covered. Roof surfaces oriented in other directions could also be used to better cover the energy load profile. The aim of this work is to investigate the benefits, in terms of costs, self-sufficiency and self-consumption, of roof integrated photovoltaic technologies on residential buildings with different orientations. A cost-optimal analysis has been carried out taking into account the economic incentives for a collective self-consumer configuration. It has emerged, from this analysis, that the better the orientation is, the higher the energy security and the lower the energy costs and those for the installation of photovoltaic technologies. In general, the use of south-facing and north-facing roof surfaces for solar energy production has both economic and energy benefits. The self-sufficiency index can on average be increased by 8.5% through the use of photovoltaic installations in two directions on gable roofs, and the maximum level that can be achieved was on average 41.8, 41.5 and 35.7% for small, medium and large condominiums, respectively. Therefore, it could be convenient to exploit all the potential orientations of photovoltaic panels in cities to improve energy security and to provide significant economic benefits for the residential users.


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