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The recent trend in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) has increased the need for vehicle charging stations (VCS) in the distribution system. In this condition, the additional load in the system leads to an increase in power loss, reduction in voltage and reliability of the system. The drawbacks of introducing this additional load can be rectified by integrating distributed generation (DG) into the distribution system. In this paper, the ideal location for placing DG is identified through the voltage stability index. The power loss minimization objective function is formulated with all the required constraints to estimate the size of DG required for the distribution system. Moreover, loss of load probability is used as a reliability assessment technique, through which the system reliability is analyzed after assessing the impact of integrating VCS and DG. Simulations are carried out to compare the following cases: a system without VCS and DG, a system that has only VCS and a system that has both VCS and DG. The IEEE 12-bus and 33-bus test systems are considered. In the 12-bus system with both VCS and DG, the power loss is reduced by 56% when compared with the system with only VCS, while the net reliability is also improved. The reliability of the system is evaluated for a 24 h load variation. The proposed work provides an efficient tool to improve the reliability of the system with support from DG.

Nanoparticles are potential candidates for wastewater treatment especially for the removal of heavy metals due to their strong affinity. Many biopolymers are used as adsorbents and encapsulation of nanoparticle onto them can increase their efficiency. In this study, SPIONs, alginate, and SPIONs incorporated on alginate beads have been synthesized and characterized both microscopically and spectroscopically. These were then used for the removal of chromium metal and the percentage of removal was evaluated using a batch adsorption study. The percent removal of chromium using SPIONs, alginate and alginate–SPIONs beads were recorded to be 93%, 91% and 94%, respectively. The adsorption of chromium using SPIONs and alginate–SPIONs beads followed the Tempkin isotherm, whereas adsorption of chromium metal by alginate beads was found to be homogeneous in nature and followed the Langmuir isotherm with an R2 value of 0.9784. An in-vivo study using Danio rerio as a model organism was done to examine the toxicity and the removal efficiency of the samples. It was observed that chromium water treated with alginate–SPIONs beads, which were removed after water treatment showed less damage to the fishes when compared to SPIONs and alginate beads treated with chromium water where the SPIONs and alginate beads were not removed after the treatment period.

A modified single-stage Quasi-Z-Source (QZS) boost DC-DC converter using a single MOSFET switch with a single-stage switched-inductor (SI) network is proposed in this paper. The DC-DC converter proposed in this study provides an extra voltage gain compared to the traditional QZS DC-DC converter. An additional capacitor and diode circuit are added to the existing QZS converter to decrease the voltage stress on the MOSFET switch. Therefore, compared to the traditional QZS boost converter, the proposed Modified QZS (MQZS) converter provides large voltage gain under a low duty ratio, less voltage stress, and continuous input current. Moreover, the reliability and the conversion efficiency can be increased. The derivation of the proposed MQZS converter and its operation, selection of parameters, and comparison with another similar converter are discussed in this paper. Lastly, the simulation and experimental results are illustrated to prove the notional deliberations of the proposed MQZS converter.