Integrating Daylighting with Task-Ambient Lighting for Enhanced Energy Savings in Office Spaces

Daylighting has been widely studied as a fundamental aspect of spatial illumination and energy efficient façade design. Effective installation and control of shading devices diminishes the adverse effects of prevailing climatic conditions on building envelope performance and reduces resultant lighting and cooling energy consumption. Task-ambient lighting as a free-standing approach has also been proven to reduce lighting energy consumption compared with typical general ambient lighting. This study estimates the energy saving potential of integrating daylighting through fixed external horizontal shading slats with task lighting. Spot measurements were taken in a test room to validate a daylight calculation program. Full year indoor work plane daylight simulations were performed for office spaces of different floor areas and varying window to wall ratios. Indoor daylight quality was assessed using the Useful Daylight Illuminance metric and three different task lighting schemes explored. Lighting energy savings of 10% to 90% were estimated under the three schemes in comparison to similar office spaces with common unshaded heat reflective glazing.

Heat Exposure and Physiological Changes among Cooks

Cooks who are exposed to heat produced from stoves when working in the kitchen are at risk of thermal stress and heat-related illness. Physiological changes such as increased heart rate, sweat production and blood pressure may also affect them. This study aimed to determine the area heat exposure levels and physiological changes including core body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate during pre-, mid- and post-shift among cooks and its association, and to compare the mean difference of physiological changes between the shifts. This cross-sectional study utilised the purposive sampling method and recruited 30 cooks from food stalls and cafeterias in Kelantan. Area heat measurements were collected from 14 sites (7 inside and 7 outside the USM Health Campus). Wet-bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) monitor was mounted on a tripod at 1.1 m height near the source of heat for 8 hours. The core body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate were taken three times per day during pre-, mid- and post-shift for physiological changes measurement. Respondents’ personal information, health history, work description, and symptoms of heat-related illness were collected using a questionnaire. The overall WBGT area levels at each sampling site were homogeneously distributed. There was significant increase in core body temperature and heart rate from pre-shift to post-shift. However, there was no significant correlation (p>0.05) between heat exposure (WBGT index) established with the physiological changes. This may suggest that the increase in core body temperature and heart rate might be attributed to other factors and needed further investigation.

A Techno-Economic Analysis of Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) and Solar Power Tower (SPT) as Solar Energy in Malaysia

Malaysia receives an annual average of 2200 hours of solar radiation, making her abundant renewable resources to generate electricity. Thus, a good planning is required to manage the resources efficiently and to utilize the abundant resources fully. Concentrating solar power (CSP) technology is a possible approach to manage renewable resources in Malaysia. Using a techno-economic analysis, the researchers, engineers, industries, or government agencies will be able to identify contributing and discouraging factors of building the CSP technology. This paper presents a techno-economic analysis of two CSP technology: parabolic trough collector (PTC) and solar power tower (SPT), for potential implementation in Malaysia. This paper provides information on two CSP technologies to researchers and industries prior to the planning and design stages. The techno-economic analysis begins with identifying potential locations based on the direct normal irradiation (DNI). Kuah, Kuantan, Miri and Labuan are identified as the potential locations using the RETScreen Expert software. Labuan could be the most promising PTC and SPT technology project because it has the highest DNI received annually. Next, the techno-economic analysis uses two reference projects, ANDASOL-1 and PS-10 systems in Spain, as references for all locations. The techno-economic analysis consists of annual electricity generation, unit cost of electricity, net Present Value (NPV), benefit-to-cost ratio (B/C), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period calculated in Microsoft Excel. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to measure the impact of uncertainties of one or more input variables, leading to uncertainties on the output variables. Two sensitive factors are the annual electricity generation and the initial cost, affecting the construction, installation, and implementation of PTC or SPT technology.

Development of Emergency Response Team Technical Competency (ER2TC) Assessment Tool for Offshore Process Safety

The importance in identifying safety critical task in high-risk industries for competence assessment is greatly emphasised to ensure the personnel is well equipped with high level of competence and assurance in certain safety critical tasks. Lack of competency had resulted in various accidents in oil and gas industry. Failure in escape, evacuation, and rescue (EER) operation in history has led to tragic consequences associated with high number of fatalities, such as Alexander L. Kielland platform collapse, Piper Alpha disaster and tragedy of Ocean Ranger. Although competency assessment is widely implemented in offshore industry, accident still occur which indicates that reliable competency assessment is highly essential. In this research, a technical competency assessment tool is developed to assess the technical skills of each individual in emergency response team during EER activities. Case studies are selected to evaluate the designed Emergency Response Team Technical Competency (ER2TC) assessment tool where a range of different inputs and parameters are designed and tested on the designed tool. Analysis is conducted to identify how the overall output is affected by the uncertainty from the designed tool’s input and discover the impact of potential errors in the tool towards the output generated from the tool. The ER2TC assessment tool overcomes personal subjectivity and biasness of assessors, thus, producing reusable and reliable tool for decision makers in the evaluation of candidates. This tool has also implemented stricter assessing criteria to evaluate the performance of candidates in EER activities. This is seen as necessary due to the critical nature and the must to ensure the successful for EER operations as any failure could potentially results in loss of lives. Thus, this ER2TC assessment tool has indeed sufficient to assess the technical skills of personnel in ensuring the success of EER operations in offshore installations.

Optimization of Cold Flow Properties of Biodiesel by Addition of Cold Flow Improver

Despite the renewable and sustainable characteristics, biodiesel is poor in cold flow property (CFP) which causes a significant drawback that have limited its application. Thickening or crystallization of biodiesel in low temperature can readily result in the clogging of fuel pipes and fuel filters. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimum properties of blended biodiesel that gives the most accurate simulation results of blended biodiesel’s CFP. TmoleX18 and COSMOthermX were used to identify the viscosities and densities of pure palm oil biodiesel and pure ethanol under different temperatures. The densities, viscosities and pour points of ethanol blended biodiesel was then calculated by using Grunberg-Nissan and, Riazi and Daubert equations. The simulation results were obtained under different compositions of ethanol added from 0 to 0.2 mole fraction at temperature range of 30 °C to -5 °C. The optimum combination of viscosities and densities of blended biodiesel for the blended cold flow properties was at 10 °C and 30 °C respectively. The simulation error at 0.1 mole fraction of ethanol was 0.92 %.

Torrefaction of Oil Palm Frond Petiole: Effect of Particle Sizes, Sections and Batches

This study aimed to investigate the effect of batches (1, 2 and 3), particle sizes (<250 µm, range of 300 µm to 500 µm), and sections (bottom, middle and top) on combustion performance of the oil palm frond (OPF) petiole after torrefaction at 275 °C. The higher heating value (HHV), mass yield, energy yield, HHV yield and proximate analyses of the untorrefied and torrefied OPF petiole for all cases were determined. The comparison between the untorrefied and torrefied OPF petiole as well as an international benchmark was also performed. In this study, the highest HHV of the torrefied OPF petiole (22.85±0.07MJ/kg) was obtained at the bottom section with the particle size of < 250 µm. Furthermore, the fixed carbon content of the torrefied OPF petiole increased, whereas the volatile matter, moisture content, mass and energy yields decreased for all cases after torrefaction. HHV yield of OPF petiole was recorded up to 141% after torrefaction. The ash content was sufficiently satisfied the international benchmark for most cases, except for top section (300-500µm). The changes in combustion properties of the torrefied OPF petiole for all cases were found to be insignificant whereas significant improvement could be observed when compared to untorrefied OPF petiole. Overall, the study revealed that the appropriate particle size for torrefaction can promote it to be a vital source for energy production from oil palm biomass.

Control Banding: The New Approach of Risk Assessment in Malaysia

The control banding method is a simplified risk assessment for chemical handling tasks. It has been integrated into Malaysian risk assessment tool called Simple Risk Assessment and Control (SiRAC). A brief introduction of SiRAC is narrated with small medium enterprises (SMEs) as the initial target audience. SMEs are lacking in occupational safety and health knowledge and resources yet contributed 66% to employment in Malaysia. Purpose of study is to elaborate on this new tool of risk assessment. There are seven steps in the assessment where bands of hazards grouped with bands of exposure to select one of the appropriate four control approaches. Appropriate control guidance sheet will be selected based on task under each approach. SiRAC has its limitation in scope of coverage and only chemicals in liquid or solid forms can be assessed. SiRAC is using hazard classification introduced by the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) which has been embedded in the local legislation. Person to conduct SiRAC should be trained by approved training provider. SiRAC Online is under development to complement the tool. Despite its limitation and anticipated weaknesses, SiRAC is expected to be sufficient as an initial tool to assist SMEs in chemical risk management in Malaysia.

Risk Assessment of Horizontal Wet Etching Equipment System in Manufacturing Plant Industry

Maintenance is one of the important roles in the high technology manufacturing industry. It is related to the key performance factors of the company such as quality, productivity, and cost. To achieve these factors, a reliability plan should be implemented which helps to maximise production value by implementing successful asset maintenance. This research project aims to focus on the critical process equipment known as Horizontal Wet Etching Equipment (HWEE) used in the wet etching process. The components in the HWEE system were identified by referring to the process and instrumentation diagram (PID) of the equipment and were categorised in different modes. Data on mean time to repair (MTTR) and mean time between repairs (MTBF) were collected based on previous company records. The data were analysed using MAROS software. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) was done to understand the risk of each of the components. The result shows that piping and gearbox have the highest RPN with 126 and 105, respectively. This study helps to identify critical components and is able to help the company to improve equipment reliability and reduce maintenance cost. Corrective action can be implemented to reduce the RPN for both components. Thus, it would help the industry to increase the key performance and become more competitive in the business environment.

Sunshine-based Global Solar Radiation Modelling: Case Study of Putrajaya, Malaysia

Electricity demands are on the rise and with it, carbon dioxide emissions from many conventional power plants are increasing. In the efforts to mitigate such phenomena, the Malaysian government seeks to implement Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) projects. Early stage studies on Global Solar Radiation (GSR) have been carried out in several states in Malaysia including Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bharu. Afterward, data from the Malaysia Meteorological Department and the Malaysia National University have been used to estimate the monthly average daily global radiation in various locations in Malaysia. Putrajaya, a location which is implementing Malaysian Building Integrated Photovoltaic (MBIPV) is among the locations where a GSR study is currently absent. Conventional methods exist for GSR estimation with the aid of pyranometer. However, this method of GSR estimation is time consuming and not cost-effective practice. The main objective of this study is to estimate the GSR in Putrajaya. This is achieved in this study by utilizing sunshine-based data with calculated monthly average daily extraterrestrial radiation on a horizontal surface and monthly average maximum possible daily sunshine to plot a linearly fitted graph. Coefficients in the Angstrom-Prescott (A-P) model was generated from the plotted graph and was used for GSR estimation where a = 0.5 and b = 0.11. The mean percentage error (MPE) of the GSR estimation was found to be 3.4. Therefore, the estimation of GSR in Putrajaya have been successful for the first-time using sunshine-based data from dual locations method. The GSR estimation of Putrajaya in this study could benefit stakeholders in civil development sectors, policy and energy authorities.

Altered Properties of TiO2 for Photocatalytic Oxidative Desulphurisation

Photocatalytic oxidative desulphurisation has become a promising technique as a result of its high capability, mild reaction conditions, economical, and low energy usage. In the present study, copper oxide doped on titanium dioxide (CuO/TiO2) was prepared by facile electrolysis method. The presence of mesoporous materials with high surface area was confirmed by nitrogen (N2) adsorption-desorption analysis where the band gap energies were determined by ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-Vis DRS). The photoactivity testing on desulphurisation of 100 mg L-1 dibenzothiophene (DBT) revealed the highest extraction (7.5 x 10-3 mM min-1) and photooxidation rates (1.8 x 10-3 mM min-1), which were acquired by 0.8 g L-1 Cu0.1T0.9 after 2 h under visible irradiation. This is attributed by the well dispersion of CuO on TiO2, suitable band gap energy, and better charge carrier separation by the synergistic interaction of both materials.