Technology, Sustainability, and Marketing of Battery Electric and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Medium-Duty and Heavy-Duty Trucks and Buses in 2020-2040

The objective of this study is to project the introduction of battery-electric and fuel cell technologies into the medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicle markets and to identify which markets will be most suitable for each of technologies and the factors (technical, economic, operational) which will be most critical to their successful introduction. The use of renewable energy sources to generate electricity and produce hydrogen are key considerations of the analysis. The present status of the battery-electric and hydrogen/fuel cell technologies are reviewed in detail and the futures of these technologies are projected. The design and performance of various types of buses and trucks are described based on detailed simulations of the various electrified vehicles. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of each bus/truck type were calculated using EXCEL spreadsheets and their market prospects projected for 2020-2040. It was concluded that before any of the electrified vehicles can be cost competitive with the corresponding diesel powered vehicle, the unit cost of batteries must be $80-100/kWh and the unit cost of the fuel cell system must be$80-100/kW. The long term economics of battery-electric buses and trucks looks more favorable than that for the fuel cell/hydrogen option if the range requirement (miles) for the vehicle can be met using batteries. This is primarily due to the significantly lower energy operating cost ($/mi) using electricity than hydrogen.View the NCST Project Webpag

Groundwater Marketing in Nalanda District of Bihar State: A Socio-economic Appraisal

The cost and marketing of groundwater have been assessed in the Nalanda district, which is one of the most agriculturally advanced districts of the Bihar state. For the study, 60 farmers have been randomly selected from the district. It has been found that small and marginal farms use their tubewells mainly for hiring, whereas, large and medium farms use them mainly for their own purposes during the main crop seasons, i.e. kharif and rabi. The average installation cost on a tubewell has been found highest on large size of holdings (Rs 33,130), followed by medium (Rs 27,240), small (Rs 23,850), and marginal (Rs 19,610) holdings. The capital budgeting techniques, viz. net present value (NPV), benefit-cost ratio (B:C ratio) and internal rate of return (IRR) have been used for evaluating the investment on tubewells. The NPV has been found positive (Rs 1440) and B:C ratio more than one (1.05:1). The IRR has been estimated to be more than the capital cost (10.95%). But, the tubewells have failed to generate income flow equal to the investment by marginal farms. Farm size-wise analysis has revealed that the owner-seller farms category predominates in the water market in the study area. The participation in water market has been found to decline with increase in the size of farms. Financial analysis has revealed that the installation of tubewells is financially viable on large and medium farms but not on small and marginal farms. However, with the development of water market in the area, adoption of modern technologies in crop production and cultivation of cash crops would make the installation of tubewells on marginal and small size of farms financially viable.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Technology, Sustainability, and Marketing of Battery Electric and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Medium-Duty and Heavy-Duty Trucks and Buses in 2020-2040

The objective of this study is to project the introduction of battery-electric and fuel cell technologies into the medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicle markets and to identify which markets will be most suitable for each of technologies and the factors (technical, economic, operational) which will be most critical to their successful introduction. The use of renewable energy sources to generate electricity and produce hydrogen are key considerations of the analysis. The present status of the battery-electric and hydrogen/fuel cell technologies are reviewed in detail and the futures of these technologies are projected. The design and performance of various types of buses and trucks are described based on detailed simulations of the various electrified vehicles. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of each bus/truck type were calculated using EXCEL spreadsheets and their market prospects projected for 2020-2040. It was concluded that before any of the electrified vehicles can be cost competitive with the corresponding diesel powered vehicle, the unit cost of batteries must be $80-100/kWh and the unit cost of the fuel cell system must be$80-100/kW. The long term economics of battery-electric buses and trucks looks more favorable than that for the fuel cell/hydrogen option if the range requirement (miles) for the vehicle can be met using batteries. This is primarily due to the significantly lower energy operating cost ($/mi) using electricity than hydrogen.View the NCST Project Webpag

A rapid spectrophotometric method for measuring arsenic in water after enrichment of arsenomolybdate on polyurethane foam and complexation with Rhodamine B

Simple, rapid and accurate spectrophotometric method is presented for the determination of arsenic in water. The method is based on the preconcentration of arsenomolybdate on polyurethane foam followed by its elution in acetone and formation of ion association complex of arsenomolybdate with Rhodamine B. The absorbance of the complex is measured at 560 inn. The colour system obeys Beer's law from 0.5-5.0 ng mL(-1) of arsenic. The detection limit has been found to be 0.10 ng mL(-1) of As. The molar absorptivity was found to be 2.25 x 10(6) L mol(-1) cm(-1). Under optimized conditions, the proposed method was applied to the determination of arsenic present in surface and ground water samples collected from lakes and tube wells. The method has been applied successfully to determine arsenic in NIST standard water sample and the result is in good agreement with the certified value

Groundwater Marketing in Nalanda District of Bihar State: A Socio-economic Appraisal

The cost and marketing of groundwater have been assessed in the Nalanda district, which is one of the most agriculturally advanced districts of the Bihar state. For the study, 60 farmers have been randomly selected from the district. It has been found that small and marginal farms use their tubewells mainly for hiring, whereas, large and medium farms use them mainly for their own purposes during the main crop seasons, i.e. kharif and rabi. The average installation cost on a tubewell has been found highest on large size of holdings (Rs 33,130), followed by medium (Rs 27,240), small (Rs 23,850), and marginal (Rs 19,610) holdings. The capital budgeting techniques, viz. net present value (NPV), benefit-cost ratio (B:C ratio) and internal rate of return (IRR) have been used for evaluating the investment on tubewells. The NPV has been found positive (Rs 1440) and B:C ratio more than one (1.05:1). The IRR has been estimated to be more than the capital cost (10.95%). But, the tubewells have failed to generate income flow equal to the investment by marginal farms. Farm size-wise analysis has revealed that the owner-seller farms category predominates in the water market in the study area. The participation in water market has been found to decline with increase in the size of farms. Financial analysis has revealed that the installation of tubewells is financially viable on large and medium farms but not on small and marginal farms. However, with the development of water market in the area, adoption of modern technologies in crop production and cultivation of cash crops would make the installation of tubewells on marginal and small size of farms financially viable

A comprehensive mechanistic basis of prostate cancer advancement & its personalized implementation-bridging the gap: present state and future prospect

Despite significant achievements in prostate cancer mechanistic understanding and its targeted therapies, currently there exists several major challenges that mainly arises during the therapy of advanced prostate cancer. Present prostate cancer precision medicine strategy principally suffers from several practical concerns, particularly in point of therapeutic resistance, tumor heterogeneity, complex clinical & pathological behavior and an extensive genomic perturbation landscape. Prostate Cancer Systems-Medicine Initiative is a global trans-disciplinary movement taken from corresponding scientific domains to critically determine the nature of this major existing challenges and its corresponding most possible solutions by systematically accumulating the present existing knowledge. Basically, it explains the importance of broad spectrum cancer hallmark based integrative approaches for development of combination therapy associated strategic measures for metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. The major findings of this initiative can be summarized by identification of 136 therapeutic resistance mediators, 103 prostate cancer driver oncogenes and 8 progression pathways along with 5 terrain factors which centrally drives the basic events in prostate cancer pathogenesis, its further metastatic propagation and ultimate therapeutic resistance. In addition, it also attempts to summarize the critical features and basic challenging aspects of current therapeutic options

ExScal: Elements of an Extreme Scale Wireless Sensor Network

Project ExScal (for Extreme Scale) fielded a 1000+ node wireless sensor network and a 200+ node peer-to-peer ad hoc network of 802.11 devices in a 1.3km by 300m remote area in Florida, USA during December 2004. In comparison with previous deployments, the ExScal application is relatively complex and its networks are the largest ones of either type fielded to date. In this paper, we overview the key requirements of ExScal, the corresponding design of the hardware/software platform and application, and some results of our experiments

Structure of the state government ministries and offices and respective roles in the deworming programme in Bihar state.

<p>Leveraging of the existing state government structures was critical for the successful rollout of large-scale operations, including drug procurement and delivery, training, community sensitization, and reporting.</p