Smart Home System for Energy Saving using Genetic- Fuzzy-Neural Networks Approach

Home energy saving is very important to realize sustainable improvement. This can be achieved by designing a smart home system that provides a productive and cost-effective environment through optimization of different factors that will be explained in this paper. In this paper, an adaptive smart home system for optimal utilization of power will be designed. The system is based on genetic-fuzzy-neural networks technique, which can capture a human behavior patterns and use it to predict the user's mood. This technique will improve the intelligence of the smart home control to minimize the power losses.

A Novel Low-Energy Ventilative Cooling System for Sustainable Built Environment

A numerical investigation into determining the thermal and ventilation capability of wind towers integrated with the heat pipe technology was carried out in this work. The water-charged copper heat pipes were systematically arranged in a horizontal orientation and integrated inside a modern roof-mounted wind tower. Water was used as the working fluid instead of synthetic refrigerants in order to make the system carbon-neutral alongside maintaining the indoor air quality of the built environment. The three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations along with the momentum, continuity and energy equations were solved using the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ANSYS code for velocity and pressure field simulations. Using the inlet wind speeds ranging from 1m/s to 5m/s, the results of the study showed that the proposed cooling system was capable of meeting the regulatory fresh air intake requirements per occupant of 10L/s. In addition, the findings determined that a passive cooling capacity of up to 11K was achievable when the system was subjected to inlet temperatures of 310K or 37°C. The work characterised the sustainable operation of wind tower in delivering energy-free ventilative cooling in regions encompassing hot and dry climatic conditions. The technology presented in this work is currently under an Intellectual Property (IP) protection (GB1321709.6).

Beyond Zero Waste Concept: A Revolution for Sustainable Community

A community reflects a big number of citizens grouped in an area, sharing common characteristics, traditions, lifestyle and daily needs. People within a community will affect the area and surrounding citizens as per their daily acts and traditions as well as being affected by the surrounded environment too; meaning that the community and the people living within are interconnected where the action of one end will lead to a reaction in the other. Thus there is a need to introduce the concept of sustainable communities, which focuses on water, air quality, wastes, energy and materials being more of a marketing word nowadays to companies, industries, governments and communities. However, since natural resources are being abused to a big extend that currently some living categories cannot access. This leads to widening the gap between the rich and the poor thus diversifying the community. In addition to, negative actions are impacting the surrounding environment leading to an undesired living standards and lifestyle like the accumulation of wastes and the consequent rise of diseases and pollution. In brief, the objective of this paper is to propose a zero waste practical approach for urban communities, hoping to reach a common ground of understanding. While also having defined set of actions towards having a balanced environment and ecosystem for a better, balance, pollution-free life and natural resources management for future generations’ needs.

Seawater Biorefinery of Avicennia Marina –Biomethane Potential at Seawater Conditions

Lignocellulose is considered as an abundant source of carbohydrates that can be used to produce renewable fuels and chemicals such as biomethane, which have economic and environmental advantages over fossil resources. However, conventional bioprocesses are based on the use of fresh water. Finding a new way to minimize the need for fresh water is economically important. This study focuses on the feasibility of bioenergy production from local mangroves plant using sea water biorefinery concept. Samples of Avicennia marina were collected from the coastal areas in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Based on anaerobic fermentation, inoculum was added to batch system that had sea water and the sampled biomass of 1.09g. Gas chromatography analysis had showed an increment in the biomethane production over an incubation period of initially of forty eight days at 37 ̊C and the last and highest reading reached 52.8 mlCH4/gVS by day 48.

Design Optimisation of Marine Wastewater Outfalls

This work presents a method that optimises the manifold pipe of a marine wastewater outfall under various hydraulic principles and cost considerations. Costing data from 37 international pipe supply companies providing pipes of various diameters for HDPE, steel and concrete were used to develop hybrid design equations for these three main materials used for outfall construction. These equations optimise the trade-off between pumping head and pipe size as well as the compromise between cost of material and favourable hydraulic characteristics. Various grades for each material were considered if relevant to marine outfalls. The resulting equations are very useful for outfall design, as oversizing of a project can incur unnecessary cost and under-sizing will not fulfil an outfall’s intended hydraulic purpose and will increase the operational cost in terms of energy

Biomethane Potential of Salicornia Sinus-Persica at Seawater Conditions

It is essential to find alternatives to fresh water to produce biofuels in the UAE where the consumption per capita of water is almost double that of global consumption. This study uses a local halophyte plant Salicornia sinus-persica found in the arid region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The objective of the work is to determine the biomethane potential using seawater as media and anaerobic sludge as inoculum. The experimental work was carried out in batch mode and Gas Chromatography was used to analyze the biomethane production. The results showed an increment of biomethane potential over a period of 48 days, the maximum value obtained was 22.12 mlCH4/gVS.

Effect of Temperature and Time of Carburizing Treatment on the Structure and the Hardness of Steel 20MC4

Carburizing technique has recently been developed to engineer the surfaces of the low steels for combined improvement in wear and fatigue resistance. The resultant carburized surface region is characterized by the high saturation of carbon in austenite lattices of steel. The duration and temperature of carburising surface hardening treatment can be chosen in agreement with the thermal treatment for obtaining optimal bulk hardness in the precipitation hardening steel. Characterization point of view structural and mechanical of the samples using X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and micro indentation testing was then introduced in this work. It was found that the incorporation of carbon resulted in a hardened additional compounds consisting of a combination of martensite and expanded austenite.

Performance Evaluation of Small-Scale Solar Powered Wastewater and Grey Water Treatment Systems

Onsite wastewater treatment systems are the most economical way of dealing with used water in an isolated environment. And because of the variability normally associated with the operation of these systems is linked to either varying hydraulic loading or the nature of the environment in which the system was installed, the performance of these systems needs to be evaluated to find out the optimum operating condition. In this work, the performance of two small-scale treatment systems used for wastewater and gray water was evaluated. This was done by comparing the measure of some physical, chemical and biological parameters in the effluent to the standards of effluent discharge sets by Dubai Municipality. The performance was also measured from other angles using the proposed Swedish Water and Wastewater Association performance indicators so as to give the analysis a wider coverage of economic and energy consumption. The result shows that the performance of the installed solar-powered treatment systems was enough to meet the requirements set by Dubai municipality for effluent discharge except for Ammonia-Nitrogen. Also, the deployment of solar power energy supply, coupled with a low energy usage of the two systems, has made this particular setting an environmentally sustainable setting for such an isolated site.

Synergistic Degradation of 4-Nitrophenol Using Hydrodynamic Cavitation in Combination with Hydrogen Peroxide

p-Nitrophenol (PNP), a widely utilized intermediate, is a persistent pollutant present in industrial effluent streams. The inherent toxicity of PNP necessitates its treatment before releasing it in the environment. The conventional approach pertaining to degradation of PNP is based on chemical and biological methods for decomposition. Alternatively, Hydrodynamic Cavitation (HC) is emerging as a promising technology for waste water treatment. This study investigates HC as an alternative technology to degrade PNP and subsequently enhance efficiency by varying involved parameters. The HC-H2O2 system is reported to exhibit synergism for pollutant oxidation, the applicability of which is also investigated for degrading PNP. A PNP solution of fixed concentration was subjected to HC using a circular Venturi. Degradation was studied by varying time, pressure, pH and H2O2 concentration. Decompostion of p- Nitrophenol was quantified by UV-Visible Spectroscopy at 405nm. Degradation of PNP was observed to be directly proportional to time at constant pressure and an initial increase in pressure led to higher degradation. However, on achieving a peak decomposition level, the extent of decomposition declined with further increase in pressure. Experiments done at acidic pH resulted in over two times the decomposition than those done at basic pH. The PNP- H2O2 system exhibited 91% more degradation than the sum of degradations affected by PNP and H2O2 individually. Moreover, subjecting PNP:H2O2 in a molar ratio of 1:5 to HC resulted in near-complete (>95%) degradation. This study proposes variations of parameters for optimum decomposition of PNP using HC and explores the HC-H2O2 system as a promising alternative for the degradation PNP.

Sewage Quality Assessment of Various Places in Bilaspur City

The quantity, strength and type of sewage depends upon the population, Life style of people and the existence of different types of industries respectively and the amount of treatment required to be given to sewage depends very much upon the source of disposal. In Bilaspur the source of disposal of municipal as well as industrial waste water is Arpa River (Non perennial) which is known as life line of Bilaspur city. The climatic change has already turned the perennial Arpa River into non Perennial River and at this time the Urbanization, Industrial growth and improved standard of living of people of Bilaspur have increased the strength and quantity of sewage in recent years to a point where dilution alone can no longer be relied upon to prevent the undesirable effect of pollution. Hence it is absolutely necessary to study the characteristics and behavior of sewage, to ensure its safe disposal. This study will help us in determining the degree and type of treatment required to a given sewage according to its characteristics and thus to avoid the pollution of the source of its disposal i.e. Arpa river so that the adverse effect of pollution on human health, aquatic life, animals and plants can be eliminated. For the present study we have selected 4 places in Bilaspur City for collection of sewage hence Sample 1 was collected at Vasant Vihar S.E.C.L. Colony, The sample 2 was collected from M/S Narmada Drinks Pvt. Ltd. Sirgitti, The sample 3 was collected at Pachrighat drain. The sample 4 was collected from Nalla near Bannak Chowk Sirgitti. The Chemical tests namely Suspended Solids, Dissolved Solids, Chloride Content, Chemical Oxygen Demand and Physical tests namely pH value, Temperature, Threshold Odour Number (TON) had been performed and the tests results were compared with Indian standards permissible limits. Priority of this journal is to provide our important and valuable information to all people who show interest. The test results indicated that the Sample-1Vasant Vihar is less polluted, Sample-2 Narmada Drinks only requires neutralization of Chloride Content, Sample-3 Pachrighat was polluted and required treatment in summer season for reducing Solids whereas Sample-4 Bannak Nalla was highly polluted and required throughout treatment of higher degree. Out of the four samples the Sample-4 (Nalla near Bannak Chowk) was found to be most polluted sample in terms of Suspended solids, Chloride content, C.O.D., B.O.D. & T.O.N. and the drain containing this sample is being used by local public and is being discharged untreated into Arpa River. This Wastewater must be treated to prevent the Environment and the water bodies.