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Essay on Energy Efficiency in India
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to the Energy Efficiency in India
- Essay on the New Demands in the Field of Energy
- Essay on the Present Scenario of Energy Efficiency in India
- Essay on the Fuel Cell Technology
- Essay on the Recent Developments in Energy Efficiency in India
- Essay on the Conclusion to the Energy Efficiency in India
Essay # 1. Introduction to the Energy Efficiency in India:
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India is essentially an agricultural country with bulk of its population living in 5, 64, and 276 small and big villages scattered all over the land. The post-independence uneven development and industrialization has created moral, mental and spiritual degradation and frustration among rural population in India, who have remained isolated from the economic planning and growth.
Transportation of commercial fuels like coal, diesel and petrol over long distances is very difficult and transmission and distribution of electricity through power grids to far flung areas are prohibitively expensive. The farmers and craftsman are not in a position to pay for high costs of energy; thus small scale industries in rural areas are reduced and there are limited irrigation possibilities in agriculture.
There is a continuous flux of population to new urban economic centres which has created the problem of mushrooming of slums and destruction of social life. The urban infrastructures have been overstretched and chaotic conditions in the cities can explode with serious consequences.
The problem must be tackled by checking the migration of rural population to cities by creating opportunities in the villages. At the same time, new cities with fully planned, adequate infrastructure based on modern technologies must be created. A continuous and dependable power supply must be ensured for comfortable living, entertainment, efficient commutation, communications, commercial and industrial activities in a pollution and noise free environment.
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The fuel cell has all the virtues of high efficiency, low pollution and silent operation. The paper describes a conceptual design of a city where local transport, personal cars, domestic, commercial, municipal and industrial power supply have been planned using different types of fuel cells.
Essay # 2. New Demands in the Field of Energy:
Indian societies are rapidly urbanising. The growth of urbanisation is projected in Table 1. While per capita energy consumption in India as a whole is abysmally low, the growing rate of urbanisation will put pressure on the energy sector. The cities accommodate an energy intensive urban society with per capita energy consumption five times or more than the national average energy consumption.
The energy intensity of urban society will increase multifold as there will be demand for multi-dimensional space conditioning of houses and offices. The efficiency and creativity of the blue-collared as well as white-collared manpower in industries and commercial houses can be lifted by Environmental Conditioning of working and living space.
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The audio-visual system and air-conditioning system would be integrated to artificially create natural situations of hill stations, waterfalls, forests, sea coasts or other work-friendly environment in the houses, offices and factories. Specially prepared videotapes would be projected on the walls and ceilings of the living and work space; audiotapes would be played to create complimentary music and sounds of trees, waterfalls sea waves, breeze, etc.
The temperature, humidity, wind velocity would be controlled by air-conditioning system which would also be integrated to a fume spray system to create matching odours for the selected situations. The integrated environmental conditioning system could be programmed for creating different natural situations on the same day or different days.
Essay # 3. Present Scenario of Energy Efficiency in India :
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Near chaotic conditions prevail in all the metropolis and big cities of the country due to population explosion. All the infrastructural systems including energy and power supply systems for domestic, commercial, transport and industrial needs, commutation, water supply, health services, communications, civic life, etc. have been overstretched and broken down.
The power generated in 35 percent inefficient thermal power plants have to be transported over long and tedious transmission and distribution lines to the cities and only 75 percent of the power generated reaching the consumers. The low voltage and frequency is available only for a fraction of a day.
The power supply is therefore supplemented by small, noisy and highly polluting gensets even installed inside the apartments, offices and on the crowded streets, roads and industries. The roads are in bad shape, flooded with stinking water with no drainage whatsoever, overcrowded with all types of vehicles, trucks, buses, cars, scooters fuming and contributing maximum to the chemical and thermal pollution of the city life.
The problem can be relieved by planning new cities and economic centres with proper and sufficient infrastructural systems.
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One such city planned with fuel cell technology is described in the following paragraphs:
Essay # 4. Fuel Cell Technology:
If an electric current is passed through a dilute solution of an acid or an alkali by means of two platinum electrodes, hydrogen is produced at the cathode and oxygen is evolved at the anode. If this process is reversed by removing the power supply and connecting the two electrodes through a suitable resistance, the presence of hydrogen at one electrode and oxygen at the other will produce a small current in the external circuit, water being produced as a by-product.
This reverse process of electrolysis is the essence of the fuel cell technology as chemical energy stored in hydrogen and oxygen has been combined to produce electricity.
Unlike other heat engines, fuel cells do not have moving components. Therefore, the fuel cell will be quieter and should require less maintenance and attention in operation. The manufacturing costs should also be less, as close tolerances as in pistons are not required. Because the fuel cells convert chemical energy directly to electrical energy, the conversion efficiency can be much higher; they may be cheaper to operate, and there will be less heat produced, resulting in small radiator and exhaust systems.
Although much of the interest in the fuel cells is due to their efficient use of fuel, there are considerable pollution control advantages to be gained as well. Because the fuel reacts electro-chemically rather than by combustion with air, no nitrogen oxides are formed. For the same reason, emissions of unburned and partly burned gaseous and particulate products are essentially nil.
There is relatively little thermal pollution because less heat is lost as waste. Energy conversion via fuel cells, therefore, represents one of the best ways to achieve this goal, because it is possible, simultaneously, to obtain more work and less pollution from a rupee’s worth of fuel with a cell than any other energy conversion device.
With this impressive list of advantages, it is perhaps surprising that fuel cell has not been more readily accepted. Cheap, practical and long-lasting devices are still not available in the market. Fuel cells have not been widely used or developed as terrestrial energy sources because of their high costs (partly due to expensive catalysts) and short operating lifetime (due primarily to degradation of electrode materials). The early development of fuel cells/for electrical power generation was overshadowed by the steam turbine generator and for mobile applications; it could not compete with internal combustion engines.
The biggest boost to fuel cell development has been space power applications where high power density and low weight are important. Fuel cells have been an integral part of the Gemini and Apollo manned space flight systems. It is only recently that some of the problems of high cost and short lifetime may be overcome and fuel cell batteries may be commercially viable within short period.
Hydrogen and oxygen were selected as reactants for the fuel cells used for spacecraft power supplies because of relatively high reactivity of hydrogen. Presently hydrogen is a relatively expensive fuel. The reactants for commercial fuel cells should be as cheap and readily available as possible, for example, air as oxidant and natural gas or petroleum derivatives as fuel. As coal gasification technology matures, very satisfactory feed streams for fuel power plants will be available.
The output of fuel cell is low voltage dc power, cells may be connected in various series and parallel arrangements to get whatever voltage and power are desired, and highly efficient inverters are available for conversion to ac.
Fuel cells have been proven as practical power sources in certain specific applications, such as space missions and remote site operations. The development of fuel cells for widespread commercial applications is now underway. Although advantages of fuel cells over other heat engines could swing the balance in favour of fuel cells, the relatively high development costs involved means that substantial markets must be sought by finding new applications.
City life depends upon continuous and reliable power supply for comfortable living, entertainment, efficient commutations, communications, commercial and industrial activities in a pollution and noise free environment. The characteristics and requirements of different types of fuel cells for their applications in individual houses, apartments, commercial buildings, street lighting, industrial sites, communication systems, electric vehicles for rail and road transport so that total power requirements of a city can be planned on fuel cell batteries only.
Fuel Cell as Power Generation Unit:
The fuel cell converts chemical energy directly to electrical energy, electrical power generation is the most natural application of fuel cells. For this application, fuel cells must compete with steam turbine, which are remarkably efficient devices with efficiency approaching 40 percent at rated load. However, demand for electrical energy is far from constant. Over the course of a year, the actual output of a power plant may vary by a factor of four, and the daily variation in load can be almost a factor of three.
To adjust to this changing demand, either the large base load plants must sometimes operate at part load, or smaller cycling or peaker units must be used during periods of high demand. Either way, efficiency suffers or pollution increases. On the other hand, the fuel cell system not only has a greater efficiency at full load, but this efficiency is retained and even increases as load diminishes, so that inefficient peaking/standby genesets may not be needed.
A fuel cell system, unlike a steam turbine, need not be big to be efficient. This characteristic, taken together with two others, low emissions and capability of operation on a variety of fuels, allows fuel cell system to be operated almost anywhere. A small power plant for a community can be operated on the optimum fuel available locally with nearly the same efficiency achieved by a large central power plant.
An electric supply company of a large metropolis can disperse a number of generators throughout its area and match capacity to local demand, substantially reducing the expense and other problems associated with transmission and distribution of electricity. Costs and other problems involved with local distribution of electrical energy are likely to be greater with the adoption of underground lines in urban areas.
i. Efficiency:
Fuel cells have high conversion efficiency especially at low power levels as they are not subject to Garnet limitation on efficiency. It is a one-step process without moving parts and both mechanical and heat losses are absent. This indicates that these systems have the potential for very high reliability and silent and unattended operation.
The hydrocarbon fuel cells operate at much the same efficiency in the 100 kW range is large multi-megawatt units. Efficiency may be further increased to about 55 percent if pure hydrogen is used in place of processed fossil fuels, and again to about 60 percent when oxygen is additionally substituted for air. While the efficiency of fuel cell increases as the power level is decreased to about 40 percent load.
ii. Pollution:
In conventional power plants, a considerable amount of NOx‘ SO2‘ H-C and particulates are emitted due to combustion of fuel. Fuel cells emit mostly nontoxic and harmless air, CO2‘ water vapour and small heat as exhaust. Noise is low because of absence of moving parts.
Thermal pollution of waterways is not a problem because fuel cells are air cooled and are few restrictions on site locations. Air pollutants are reduced by a factor of more than 10 over conventional systems. The environmental impact of fuel cells is compared with code requirements of conventional systems in Table P.2.2.
iii. Scale:
Fuel cell efficiency is insensitive to size. Scale up in power output is accompanied by interconnecting of fuel stacks (modules) due to the limit to the size of thin electrodes. There is a saving in cost due to mass production of identical components for scale-up.
The fuel cell is a very simple device with no moving parts except a few fuel and coolant pumps. Controls are simple and automatic.
iv. Modularity:
Fuel cell units can be added to a power plant system incrementally over a period of time and built rapidly. There is no need to tie up considerable capital in unused initial capacity which is a very serious drawback of large power plants with long construction periods.
v. Versatility:
Fuel cells have inherent adaptability towards a broad range of applications. The direct nature of electro-chemical process minimizes the effects of both scale and load level on operating characteristics.
The power plant modular construction and ease with which units can be linked permits matching of capacity to demand. Increased capacity can be added quickly and simply. Because the power plant is air cooled it is not dependent on cooling water availability and thus has few location restrictions. It has the capacity to operate on a variety of fuels as given in Table P.2.3.
Small-scale fuel cells power units can be used with advantage for planning the complete power requirements of a city. For individual houses, apartments, commercial buildings and industrial sites, independent on-site power units could meet power demands from a kW to several kWs. They can be integrated into total energy packages that not only generate electricity, but provide control of temperature, humidity and cleanliness.
They could also decentralize the generation of electricity and trim the expenses of transmission over networks by serving as substations. Fuels can be processed on site or supplied to individual power units through underground pipelines.
Co-Generation Units:
Co-generation presents an efficient way of utilising our limited energy resources because the same fuel source is used simultaneously to produce two forms of useful energy including electricity and heat. Co-generation applications are process and site specific for a given industry or a commercial building.
The phosphoric acid fuel cell can be used for a co-generation system. It is capable of operating on a variety of fuels, including natural gas, light distillates, propane, and coal-derived synthetic fuels. Synthetic fuels include hydrogen/carbon monoxide/methane mixtures and methanol that can be refined, reformed and/or shifted to produce hydrogen.
The co-generation system incorporates fuel cell stacks, turbo-compressor for supply of pressurised air to the cell cathodes, and for recovery of pressure and heat energy from the cell exhaust streams, a desulphurizer for removal of sulphur from the raw fuel, a steam reformer for conversion of hydrocarbon fuels to hydrogen and carbon monoxide, shift convertors for reaction of carbon monoxide and water to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and a heat recovery system for generation of process steam for the industry and reformer steam from waste heat transferred from the fuel cell.
The overall process in the fuel cells consists of the continuous electrochemical reaction of hydrogen in the fuel stream and oxygen from air to produce electric power and by-product hot water and heat. Electric efficiency of the system, after parasitic power, is in the range of 0.38 to 0.41. If process steam generated at 6 bars is not sufficient for the industry, supplementary firing may be used.
Mobile Units:
Fuel cells may provide practical, low-pollution vehicles with useful performance and range. Batteries, fuel cells and combination of both have been tried for electrically powered vehicles. The most practical systems will probably be hybrid power plants in which batteries provide peak power and the fuel cells act as charging units during low power periods.
In transport industry, high efficiency and low pollution make the fuel cell attractive. Fuel cells are expected to meet the requirements of high energy density (available energy/weight ratio) handily since the amount of energy available is determined by the size of fuel tank. A fuel cell powered vehicle can have a good long range without re-fuelling, and can be re-fuelled rapidly, just as can present day internal combustion vehicles.
Fuel cell systems of adequate performance can be built to propel local trains for the city. It would be very smooth, and quiet, virtually pollution-free, and could operate on conventional fuels. The fuel cell could replace the conventional diesel engine/generator set directly or small fuel cell with a motor could be fitted to each wheel.
It is possible to meet the high power density (power/weight ratio) criteria for large buses and trucks. To propel a vehicle of the weight comparable to an intermediate car with speeds and accelerations usable in present traffic conditions (almost instant starting characteristics and very intermittent use), it is probably necessary to achieve a power density of about 220 W/kg, which is equivalent to 6kg/hp. It may be possible to meet that goal by hybridising a fuel battery with one of several high goals by hybridising a fuel battery with one of several high power storage devices such as one of new generation flywheels.
The criteria of high power density are more difficult to achieve for small personal cars. Changed driving patterns of decreased speed and acceleration requirements can help to introduce low power vehicles. In case of a new city, roads can be planned with multi-lane and un-level crossing to mitigate the necessity for high power densities.
Essay # 5. Recent Developments in Energy Efficiency in India:
It was reported in the Times of India dated 24th October, 1997 that a fuel cell stack producing 50 kW (power needed to operate a car) has been successfully developed by Plug Power LLC, latham. New York. It produces electricity from many fuels such as gasoline, ethanol, methanol and natural gas. A fuel processor developed by Arthur D Little, Cambridge, converts the raw fuel into hydrogen, which is run through a carbon monoxide removal system before it is fed into a fuel cell to produce electricity.
The carbon monoxide removal system was developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The technology can be used for powering vehicles and in homes and apartments to provide heat and electricity. To match the internal combustion engines now in use, the fuel cell system must be reduced in size, weight and cost. A six fold reduction in cost was needed which is possible if there were high-volume production.
Technorama of October, 1997 describes a fuel cell of 1.5 kW capacity developed recently by an Australian Company for meeting the power requirements of a house. The power/efficiency ratio shows a significant advantage for the Ceramic Fuel Cell-up to 200 percent as compared with traditional technologies.
Essay # 6. Conclusion to the Energy Efficiency in India :
It may be concluded that fuel cells have all the virtues of efficiency, low pollution and silent operation for meeting all the power/energy requirements of a city, may it be individual apartments, commercial buildings and other complexes by on-site power units or street lighting and other municipal consumptions by scattered substations, or industrial estates by co-generation plants based on fuel cells, or local trains and buses, trucks or personal cars propelled by methanol fuel cells. Future cities can be planned on fuel cell systems for their power and energy requirements.
The above discussions prove the existence of huge markets for fuel cells. These should be seriously considered for our future power requirements. The commercial power units are technically feasible. Research and development should be aimed at reducing costs and increasing life so that its full potential for power generation as well as engines for all types of vehicles may be exploited.