Improving Lifetime of Domestic Compressor Subjected To Repetitive Internal Stresses

To enhance the lifetime of a mechanical system such as compressor, parametric accelerated life testing (ALT) as a systematic reliability method is proposed. It consists of (1) a parametric ALT plan formed on BX lifetime, (2) load examination for ALT, (3) a customized parametric ALTs with design alternatives, and (4) assessment of the compressor design to secure the objective BX lifetime is fulfilled. As an experiment instance, newly designed reciprocating compressors for French-door refrigerators returned from the marketplace were investigated. The refrigerators had been making disagreeable noise and vibrations, creating the consumer to ask for replacing their refrigerators. As the vibration level of the problematic refrigerators was recorded in an anechoic chamber, the result was 0.35g. Upon closer inspection of the refrigerator, the noise originated from the reciprocating compressor where there was interference between the compressor upper shell and the stator frame. To reproduce the compressor problem from the marketplace, a parametric ALT was performed. The failure mode during the ALTs for the compressor was alike to those of the failed refrigerators from the field. As a corrective action, the stator frame in the compressor system was redesigned to increase the minimum gap between the compressor upper shell and the stator frame. During the second ALT, there were no issues. After parameter ALTs were used to develop corrective action plans, the lifetime of the compressor was reassured to have a B1 life 10 years

Biomass Gasification

This chapter discusses the state of the art in biomass gasification studies. It initially gives a brief account on the energy potential and characterization of different biomass fuels. A review of the mechanisms of biomass gasification process and influence of major operating conditions on syngas composition and heating value (HV) was presented. Consideration of syngas quality requirements for different downstream applications and the means of achieving the same through optimum operation were highlighted. The theoretical studies of gasification process mainly focused on prediction of syngas composition and investigating influence of various operating conditions on process output. The equilibrium modeling assumes conditions of the ideal, well-stirred reactor with sufficiently long residence time to allow the reactions to reach equilibrium. Kinetic models present detailed information on the residence time and kinetic limitations; however, equilibrium models were widely used as a valuable tool in predicting the thermodynamic limits of chemical processes

A Comprehensive Review on Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Energy Control and Management Strategies

We show a new technology to manage solid waste services through optimization methods (on sectoring, routing costs, and resources). This technology is called optimized planning and integrated logistics management (OPILM). It is being applied to Brazilian municipalities as it attends to their major natural features. The technology is formed by a framework of computational systems that uses optimization methods from sector arc routing and scheduling, fleet and staff scheduling, using also mobile smartphone apps. We present some of the results of real cases evaluated for residential refuse collection and selective waste collection in two Brazilian cities (Petrópolis/RJ and Bom Jesus dos Perdões/SP). The plan implementations achieved 17.9% from actual fixed and variable cost savings for sectors (vehicles and workers) and routes (time and distances) for residential refuse collection in Petrópolis/RJ. For the selective waste collection, we detail how we made our project to Bom Jesus dos Perdões/SP. We also present the returns considering costs involved in the management of the operational level and amortized by the investment required to use and apply the proposed technology for Petrópolis/SP

Study on Tar Generated from Downdraft Gasification of Oil Palm Fronds

One of the most challenging issues concerning the gasification of oil palm fronds (OPF) is the presence of tar and particulates formed during the process considering its high volatile matter content. In this study, a tar sampling train custom built based on standard tar sampling protocols was used to quantify the gravimetric concentration of tar (g/Nm3) in syngas produced from downdraft gasification of OPF. The amount of char, ash, and solid tar produced from the gasification process was measured in order to account for the mass and carbon conversion efficiency. Elemental analysis of the char and solid tar samples was done using ultimate analysis machine, while the relative concentration of the different compounds in the liquid tar was determined making use of a liquid gas chromatography (GC) unit. Average tar concentration of 4.928 g/Nm3 and 1.923 g/Nm3 was obtained for raw gas and cleaned gas samples, respectively. Tar concentration in the raw gas sample was found to be higher compared to results for other biomass materials, which could be attributed to the higher volatile matter percentage of OPF. Average cleaning efficiency of 61% which is comparable to that of sand bed filter and venturi scrubber cleaning systems reported in the literature was obtained for the cleaning system proposed in the current study

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PERFORMANCE AND EMISSION CHARACTERISTICS OF METHANOL-ETHANOLGASOLINE BLENDING WITH ISO-BUTANOL ADDITIVE ON THE SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE

Nowadays, alternative fuels for internal combustion engines (IC) have gained traction due to environmental concerns and the necessity to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Iso-butanol is an alternative fuel with low emissions that can be used in IC engines. The performance and emissions of a single-cylinder spark-ignition (SI) engine running on pure gasoline and iso-butanol additives (iB) at various engine load and blending ratios of EM10, EM10iB3, EM10iB5, and EM10iB10 were investigated experimentally in existing dual ethanol-methanol-gasoline blended fuel (EM10). The calorific value of the fuel sample containing iso-butanol additive is 6.3% higher than that of the EM10 blended fuel. As per engine performance and emissions, iso-butanol additive blended fuel had a better brake power than the EM10 blended fuel, with a mean increase of 3.1%, 1.2%, and 3.8% for the EM10iB3, EM10iB5, and EM10iB10, respectively. The EM10iB5 significantly increased brake thermal efficiency (BTE) by 5.4% higher than EM10 blended fuel. The CO and HC emissions from iso-butanol additive blends were reduced by 1.8% and 7.1%, respectively, compared to EM10 blended fuel. When combined with existing lower ratios of EM10 blended fuel, the iso-butanol additive is found to be a viable alternative fuel for SI engines

On the Diversification of Feedstock in Gasification of Oil Palm Fronds

Co-gasification of biomass can be beneficial since relying on only one type of biomass can interrupt operations if the supply of feedstock is disrupted for any reason. Despite this a gasifier system is usually designed for operation with only one specific feedstock. The gasifying of different biomasses can lead to failure or inefficiency. In this work the gasification of different forms of feedstock derived from oil palm frond was tested in an updraft gasifier that was specially designed for oil palm fronds. The feedstocks considered were dried frond blocks, briquetted fronds and overdried (at 150°C) frond blocks. The air flow rate was maintained to the value set for dried fronds in order to investigate the robustness of such configurations. The resulting syngas from the gasification was analyzed in terms of the composition of combustible gases and higher heating value (HHV). Overall, it was found that the altered forms of feedstock caused degradation in the syngas quality, which resulted in a decrease in the HHV of up to 65%

Design and development of solar desalination plant

Direct sunlight has been utilized long back for desalination of water. The desalination process takes place in solar still. Solar still is a device that converts saline water to potable water. This process requires seawater and sunlight which are widely available on Earth. However, the current solar desalination generation capacity is generally low and has high installation cost. Hence, there is a need for the enhancement of the productivity which can be achieved through few modifications. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of solar water desalination worldwide. It presents a comprehensive review of solar desalination technologies that have been developed in recent years which covers the economic and environmental aspects

Application of Computer Aided Process Planning in Manufacturing Industries

In today’s economy, products and processes tend to increase in complexity of design and functionality. Furthermore, they are in need of high-sophisticated manufacturing and assembly processes. On the other hand, increasing competition results in the demand for shorter product life cycles and forces companies of cut down development and delivery times. Thus, modern manufacturing has to adapt to new requirements of this dynamic environment. In this context, innovative information technologies in general and flexible as well as adaptive concepts for process planning and production control in particular are of increasing importance for business success. Among the whole manufacturing cycle of a product, a sequence of manufacturing stages needs to be optimized using the increasingly available computing resources. Computer aided process planning is seen as the missing link between CAD and CAM, which relates to the translation of design tolerances into manufacturing tolerances to be executed in the shop floor. In this paper, the general topic of process planning, the implementation and theoretical foundation of CAPP, the role of CAPP in concurrent engineering (CE), various classifications of CAPP systems and its application in job shop type of industries is presented

Improving Energy Efficiency for the Vehicle Assembly Industry: A Discrete Event Simulation Approach

This paper presented a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model for investigating and improving energy efficiency in vehicle assembly line. The car manufacturing industry is one of the highest energy consuming industries. Using Rockwell Arena DES package; a detailed model was constructed for an actual vehicle assembly plant. The sources of energy considered in this research are electricity and fuel; which are the two main types of energy sources used in a typical vehicle assembly plant. The model depicts the performance measurement for process- specific energy measures of painting, welding, and assembling processes. Sound energy efficiency model within this industry has two-fold advantage: reducing CO2 emission and cost reduction associated with fuel and electricity consumption. The paper starts with an overview of challenges in energy consumption within the facilities of automotive assembly line and highlights the parameters for energy efficiency. The results of the simulation model indicated improvements for energy saving objectives and reduced costs

Study on Co-Gasification of Oil Palm Fronds and Wood

Over the decade, gasification experiment on different biomass materials has been carried out to investigate the biomass potential as one of the alternative sources of fuel. Although gasification has been proven to be successful in bringing out the potential of different biomass fuels, it commonly involves conversion of only one type of biomass materials for a single run. This paper discusses the co-gasification experiment of different composition of oil palm fronds (OPF) and wood using a downdraft gasifier. The conducted study focuses on the temperature profile within the reactor and also the characteristic of the dynamic temperature profile in each zone within the gasifier reactor. The temperature profile in the drying, pyrolysis, oxidation and reduction zone of the reactor was experimentally investigated. Effect of bridging on the temperature profile is also observed. The temperature profiles obtained are compared with literature result. In addition, syngas production was monitored by observing the flare produced during the operation. However, further experiment need to be done to investigate the composition of syngas produced during the co-gasification experiment