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The increasing cost of fuel oil forced the industry to search for alternate fuels, and biomass. In general, rice husks were considered an appropriate substitute for producing energy. Because, the use of rice husk offered lot of benefits such as reduction in emission of sulfur and other pollutants connected with the use of other fossil fuel, cheaper than coal (approx. 36%), and carbon neutral. Hence, in this paper, water, Fuel and Steam generation data of husk-based Boiler has been measured, numerically analyzed and plotted graphically. The results revealed that husk based thermal power plant has huge potential. Further, it is supposed that exploiting the renewable energy potential and utilizing agricultural waste will be useful to the country’s energy portfolio while adding numerous environmental and social benefits (reducing CO2 emissions, improving air quality, and diminishing the unemployment rate).

Five bacterial strains for biodegradation study were initially isolated from quinalphos exposed soil from cotton field of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India by Serial dilution and enrichment technique. Amongst them, two strains Pantoea agglomerans and Acinetobacter sp. dcm5A were exposed to different concentrations (50-250 ppm, parts per million) of quinalphos to evaluate their tolerance and the optimum concentration of quinalphos supported growth. Growth kinetics of the isolates was studied by means of optical density of the culture media (150 rpm, rotation per minute) at 30oC for 15 days. The optimal concentration of quinalphos for the growth of Pantoea agglomerans was 100 ppm, while for Acinetobacter sp. dcm5A was 200 ppm. Bacterial strains Pantoea agglomerans and Acinetobacter sp. dcm5A degraded quinalphos 60% and 79.7% respectively in 7 days incubation and 100% degradation by both strains was observed after 13 days of incubation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current investigation is presented the prospective substitution of cement and fine aggregates with fine slag material (Alccofine 1203) and coal bottom ash, respectively. The investigation was carried out in two steps, viz. Phase I and Phase II. In Phase I, a control mix was designed with basic ingredients of concrete, and then fine aggregates were partially replaced with five percentages (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%) of coal bottom ash (CBA). To improve the characteristics of coal bottom ash concrete mixtures, ultra-fine slag material, i.e., Alccofine 1203 (an innovative ultra-fine slag material, low calcium silicate, which offers reduced water demand depending upon the concrete performance) was used as a partial replacement of cement. In Phase II, the inspected effect of replacing 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% cement with Alccofine, a concrete mix containing 40% coal bottom ash, on concrete properties such as workability, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, pulse velocity, rapid chloride penetration along with a microstructural analysis using SEM was studied. It was concluded from cost analysis that the 15% replacement of cement with ultra-fine material Alccofine in 40% coal bottom ash concrete achieved the properties of high-strength concrete, with an 8.14% increase in cost compared to the control increase. The significance of this work lies in the fact that we achieved a high-strength concrete by using 40% industrial waste, i.e., coal bottom ash, as a partial replacement of fine aggregates in combination with the 15% Alccofine inclusion as a partial replacement of cement. About 58% improvement in compressive strength was recorded for 40% coal bottom ash and 15% Alccofine mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out of various strategies to extenuate the diesel engine emissions, use of water-blended diesel fuel in emulsified form is found to be a prominent option. The studies carried out by various researchers give quite inconsistent results for optimum water concentration, surfactant concentration, and HLB value. An effort has been made in this paper to analyze this inconsistency of water concentration and surfactant for engine emissions and performance along with the effect of compression ratio. The work has been carried out on a non-road, constant rpm, VCR (variable compression ratio) diesel engine. Different emulsions of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% water-in-diesel with 3% emulsifier concentration were tested on the diesel-optimized engine at CR 21. The results showed that emulsion of 15% water-in-diesel is optimal on the basis of emissions and performance. Further, the selected 15% emulsion is tested with 4% emulsifier concentration. It improved the stability of emulsion and performance of the engine with slight adverse effects on the NOx emissions. Then, emulsion with 4% surfactant and 15% water is tested to determine optimum compression ratio for emulsified fuels. CR 20 is found in optimum. Remarkably 9.28% improvement in BTE is observed reaching up to 23.89% as compared to 21.86% with bare diesel. 25.1% reduction in NOx and more than 50% reduction in smoke is observed. Overall, it is concluded that the water-blended diesel emulsion could serve as a fuel-efficient cleaner combustion technology and needs to be standardized. Abbreviations HLB: Hydrophile–Lipophile Balance; Cv: Calorific Value; W/D: Water in Diesel; PM: Particulate matter; RPM: Rotation per minute; HC: Hydrocarbon; CR: Compression Ratio; EGT: Exhaust Gas Temperature; BTE: Brake Thermal Efficiency; NOx: Oxides of Nitrogen; BSFC: Brake specific fuel consumption [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sampling constant was applied for the estimation of uncertainty in sample processing, carried out through double steps in two different processing equipments. The efficiency of both the sample processing equipment was determined by chlorpyriphos as internal standard. Samples analyzed were orange, lettuce, and mango. These matrixes were spiked with the treating solution prepared by mixture of pesticides (10 mg each) and were processed through two sets of experiment. The first set of experiment involved processing of sample at ambient conditions and in the second experiment processing was carried out at lower temperature conditions using dry ice. The recovery of multiresidues from the matrixes was above 70%, but the captan recovered lowest around 55-68%. The total uncertainty was below 2% from both the experiments. Second step of processing increased the extraction efficiency and 5 g analytical portion recovered highest from both the experimental conditions. Orange and mango recovered efficiently at ambient conditions and lettuce recovered better at lower temperature conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy demand increases continuously with rapid increase in the world's population. Continuous depletion of limited non conventional energy resources forces the move towards alternate energy solution. Hydrogen is the environment-friendly and most promising source to meet future energy demand. Non-toxic, non-metallic and high energy content make the hydrogen as a future generation fuel. The main sources of hydrogen production are hydro, biomass, nuclear, wind, geothermal, and solar. Hydrogen can be produced from different methods like thermal, biological, electrical, and photonic. This review article provides detailed information about the production processes of hydrogen, and performance and emissions analysis of hydrogen when it is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. Brake thermal efficiency of the engine increases with the increase of hydrogen energy share at high and moderate loads. However, at low loads, the efficiency decreases. Carbon-based emissions (HC, CO and CO2) under dual-fuel mode decreases substantially at all loads due to carbon content in the fuel. This review will help researchers to get the significant details of hydrogen production processes and its optimum utilisation in internal combustion engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous growing population and a rise in living standards are creating widespread use of vehicles. Motor vehicle emissions contribute significantly to air pollution and other adverse environmental and health effects. The primary contaminants from internal combustion (IC) engines are NOx, CO, CO2, unburnt hydrocarbons (HC), and PM. Their control strategies were considered seriously throughout the discussion. This analysis summarises emissions from both compression ignition (CI) and spark ignition (SI) engines with government-setting emission regulatory standards. This article also gives detailed insight into pollution monitoring methods and their control policy for both CI and SI engines. Emissions from SI engines are more harmful to human health, with more CO and HC emissions in comparison with CI engines. CO emissions are insignificant in CI engines due to lean-burn nature. High temperatures and significant oxygen supply in the combustion chamber make CI engines prone to NOx emissions. This analysis will help researchers to obtain comprehensive emission and their reduction methodologies information for IC engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aligning to water-in-diesel emulsion technology, a newer work has been proposed in this study by introducing gomutra-in-diesel emulsion (GMD emulsion) fuel for application in CI engine. Experimental investigations have been performed in this study for ignition delay and combustion duration to understand the underlying mechanisms of combustion with this fuel. The complete work has been performed over a variable compression ratio (VCR) stationary diesel engine. Emulsions of different gomutra-in-diesel (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) concentrations were taken for the study. The ignition delay was found to be 24°, 27°, 29°, 32°, and 34° crank angle (CA) with diesel, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% water-in-diesel emulsions respectively. The effect of injection timing on the engine performance was also analysed. It was observed that the combustion duration got decreased by a maximum of 12 degrees CA with 20% GMD emulsion. It is estimated that after the optimisation of other engine parameters like injection pressure and compression ratio, the performance of the engine could further be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract:Photoacoustic spectrophotometer (PAS) has emerged as the most promising technology with its promise to resolve unmet issues in various domains. The advantages of PAS are nonvulnerability of the sample, trace quantity sample analysis, and short response time. Though it showed distinguished features close to its emergence, it is bereft of its importance in the present scenario. Certainly, there exists a transparent gap in understanding the current situation in forensic crime scene management and the application of PAS within the same discipline. This article aims to consolidate all this information to fill an existing knowledge gap and tries to establish trajectory of research done up to now. This article will also pinpoint the reasons behind why this advanced technique could not accomplish its respectable feat inside the market and restraint of optical business toward inventing and commercializing this merchandise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Various agricultural wastes such as peels of pea (Pisum sativum) pod, tea (Camellia sinensis), and ginger (Zingiber officinale) and banana (Musa lacatan) waste were used to adsorb Cr(VI) from the aqueous solutions. A comparative adsorption efficiency study for all these adsorbents was done in laboratory for various pH, adsorbent doses, initial chromium concentrations, contact time, adsorbent sizes, temperature, and mixing speeds up to the optimization. The equilibrium sorption data were fitted into Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherms and also the various thermodynamic parameters were determined. The value of R2 was determined for Freundlich, Langmuir, and Temkin as 0.964, 0.963, and 0.858 (pea pod peels waste (PPP)), 0.969, 0.986, and 0.841(tea & ginger waste (T&G)), 0.985, 0.982, and 0.886 (banana peel waste (BW)). The maximum monolayer coverage (Q0) from Langmuir isotherm model for pea pod, tea & ginger and banana peels waste were found to be 4.33 mg/g, 7.29 mg/g, and 10 mg/g, respectively, with separation factors (RL) 0.0331, 0.0343, and 0.0756 which are well within favorable sorption. From Freundlich isotherm model, the sorption intensity (n) for the same adsorbents was also less than unity showing normal sorption. The heat of sorption (B) was also determined from Temkin isotherm model as 0.215, 0.271, and 0.271, respectively, vividly proving a favorable physical sorption. The Gibbs free energy was found maximum for BW as 6.0679 joule/ mole. Out of the above said combination, BW was found the best low-cost adsorbent with high potential for the removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with industrialization and transportation, the higher living standard is also the main reason for the increase in energy demand. This increasing energy demand motivates researchers to find new alternative fuels that are eco-friendly and sustainable. In this concern, to analyze the performance, emissions, and combustion characteristics of an SI engine fueled by petrol-acetylene under DF mode is the main purpose of this study. For this purpose, a VCR spark ignition engine was used and operated at the engine maximum speed (1800 rpm). The experimental study was carried out at different acetylene gas flow rates and spark timing.In this study, the acetylene gas flow rate was first optimized on a performance basis. Furthermore, the engine was run at an optimized acetylene gas flow rate (100 LPH) to find out the optimum value of spark timing. In further experimentation, it is also found that the BThE to be maximum and emissions were significantly low or comparable at spark timing 20º CA bTDC (at 100 LPH) as compared to other spark timing and baseline case at all loads. The effects of NOx and smoke are not considerable. Hence, it is not covered in this study. The heat release rate and peak cylinder pressure are found to increase with the advancement of spark timing. But knocking was observed at higher spark advance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latest research on fuels focused on exploring better alternatives for compression ignition engines. A large number of studies reported that the properties of biodiesel are comparable with traditional diesel fuel, which makes it a suitable alternative source of energy. Among various available feedstocks, waste cooking oil is considered as the most viable source for biodiesel production. Apart from being economical, it also reduces waste disposal issues. High free fatty acids and water content in waste cooking oil cause the production of biodiesel difficult. In order to overcome this difficulty, two-step transesterification method is preferred for commercial-scale biodiesel production. Several factors like catalyst concentration, alcohol to oil molar ratio, reaction temperature, and time of reaction affect the yield of biodiesel. This article provides a comprehensive review of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil and its use in compression ignition engines. In this review, fatty acid composition, pre-treatment process, catalytic and non-catalytic approaches of biodiesel production with their advantages and limitations are included. The effect of transesterification reaction parameters on biodiesel yield is also covered. The high viscosity of biodiesel than diesel fuel causes an increase in brake specific fuel consumption and a decrease in brake thermal efficiency of engines. Significant reduction in CO, HC, PM, and smoke emissions are identified; however, NO X and CO 2 emissions found increased due to the oxygenating nature of biodiesel. Overall, it could be concluded that biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil serves as a cleaner and economical alternative source of fuel for compression ignition engines. [Display omitted] • Approximately 30% of per capita edible oil consumption is generated as waste. • Two-step transesterification is the most efficient method for biodiesel production. • Yield of biodiesel is most influenced by the type of catalyst and its concentration. • Brake specific fuel consumption increases due to poor atomization of biodiesel. • CO, HC, PM, and smoke emissions from engine exhaust are reduced significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Classification of biodiesel generations on the basis of the type of feedstocks is covered. • Botanical description and growth condition requirements of jatropha are discussed. • Physicochemical properties and fatty acid profile of jatropha biodiesel are analyzed. • Production of biodiesel from jatropha oil with different techniques is summarized. • Performance and emissions characteristics of C.I. engine fuelled with jatropha biodiesel are reviewed. Due to limited reserves of conventional fossil fuels and their negative impact on global climate and human health, researches are focused to find the alternate energy substitute. Comparable properties of biodiesel make it one of the most promising alternatives of conventional diesel fuel. Jatropha curcas oil (non-edible oil) belongs to the second-generation of biodiesel. In this review, the physicochemical properties, fatty acids distribution, stability of jatropha oil are discussed in detail. The change in fatty acid profile affects the fuel properties, performance and emissions of diesel engines operated on jatropha biodiesel. Oxidation stability of jatropha biodiesel is poor due to the high amount of unsaturated fatty acids. Blending, thermal cracking, micro-emulsification, and transesterification are four basic approaches for production of biodiesel. Transesterification is the most adoptive method due to less expensive operation and high product yield. This article also highlighted the performance and emissions of compression ignition engines operated on jatropha biodiesel and its blends. The lower calorific value of jatropha biodiesel is responsible for the decrease in brake thermal efficiency and an increase in brake specific fuel consumption. High availability of oxygen in jatropha biodiesel reduces HC, CO, and PM emissions, while NOx emission increases significantly. This article provides the most of details of optimum parameters for jatropha biodiesel production and its efficient use in diesel engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]