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This research work deals with the examination of the techno-economic, exergy, and energy analyses of biomass gasification of the invasive weed Parthenium hysterophorus (PHP) using Steam - Carbon dioxide (CO2) as a gasifying agent with the support of simulation modeling for sustainable energy conversion process. The aim of this work is to simulate the gasification process through consideration of the impacts of various operating factors on gasification. This study attains the gradual increase in hydrogen (H2) concentration from 51% to 63% along with the rise in carbon monoxide (CO) from 14.5% to 19% using Aspen Plus simulation. CO2 falls concurrently from 24% to 13.5%. The findings demonstrate significant advancements over earlier studies in terms of both gas composition and overall system performance. A computational model has been developed for the estimation of energy performance indicators such as total energy input, and energy consumed per mass of biomass gasified, which are used in the determination of the system's energy efficiency. The exergy analysis of the system is performed to assess the system's total losses in terms of efficiency gathered from the system's exergy ratios. The economic analysis evaluates the system's economies of scale by gas production at ₹.15/kg and long-term sustainability. The proposed system has been found with the potential to produce a high yield of alternative energy from PHP with increased economic efficiency and lower environmental impact.

The spray coating technique is used in this study to spread a thin layer of nanoparticle on a large flat substrate. The proposed spray coating techniques has a great potential for large scale productions, as these techniques have no restrictions on the substrate size and low utilization of the process parameters. In this study, a simple airbrush spray coating technique is used to deposit the multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on copper substrates with a decent deposition control. The microstructures, surface roughness, and wettability of the coated substrates were tested and compared with the pure copper substrates. The MWCNTs coated copper substrates exhibits a significant enhancement of the mechanical properties compared to the normal surface. The thickness of the copper substrates increases with increase in coating weight concentrations, the maximum thickness 1.43 microns achieved at 0.4 wt. % of MWCNTs. The usage of copper and MWCNTs based thin film signifies a inspiring but possibly a sustaining chance for developing the future generation heat transfer materials [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the photothermal conversion performance of solar glycol – multiwall carbon nanotubes based nanofluids were studied with various weight concentrations and time. A broad investigation was performed with various nanofluid samples with the help of a sun simulator. The measurement was conducted with solar glycol-MWCNTs based nanofluids with 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% volume concentration respectively. The heat loss was reduced by insulation material, whereas the nanofluid samples were heated with the help of a sun simulator. The difference in temperature of 7.7°C was attained for the 0.3 vol.% nanofluid as compared with solar glycol. Compared with solar glycol the temperature of MWCNT-SG based nanofluid at the volume concentration of 0.3% was augmented by about 69.21% with a light irradiation time of 10 min. The experimental results confirm that the SG\MWCNTs based can be used as the right replacement for heat transfer fluids for direct absorption solar collector system applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the thermal-hydraulic performance of a flat plate solar collector (FPSC) whose copper absorber plate and copper tubing surface are shot-peened to increase the fatigue life, strength, and roughness through a pressurized steel grit shot peening mechanism, to enhance the performance of FPSC. The objective of this experiment is to increase the convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) with lowest possible pumping power by augmenting the heat transfer between the absorber plate and the heat transfer fluid. The increase in surface area of the absorber tube and absorber plate made of the copper enables an increment in a specific length for "h" from the absorber area to the heat transfer fluid; this ensures that the surface area exposed to solar irradiance is increased. The experimental results show that the maximum thermal efficiency of the shot peened FPSC was about 54.24% when the flow rate was maintained at 0.02 kg/s. The cost per liter of hot water produced using FPSC whose absorber tube and absorber plate were painted black was about US $0.3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]