A photocatalytic system for decolorization of double azo reactive black 5 (RB5) dye and water disinfection of E. coli was developed. Sol gel method was employed for the synthesis of Fe-TiO2 photocatalysts and were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. Results showed that photocatalytic efficiency was greatly influenced by 0.1 weight percent iron loading and 300 °C calcination temperature. The optimized reaction parameters were found to be the ambient temperature, working solution pH 6.2 and 1 mg g−1 dose to completely decolorize RB5. The isotherm studies showed that RB5 adsorption by Fe-TiO2 followed the Langmuir isotherm with maximum adsorption capacity of 42.7 mg g−1 and Kads 0.0079 L mg−1. Under illumination, the modified photocatalytic material had higher decolorization efficiency as compared to unmodified photocatalyst. Kinetic studies of the modified material under visible light irradiation indicated the reaction followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics. The illumination reaction followed the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model as the rate of dye decolorization increased with an incremental increase in dye concentration. The L-H constant Kc was 1.5542 mg L–1∙h–1 while Kads was found 0.1317 L mg–1. The best photocatalyst showed prominent percent reduction of E. coli in 120 min. Finally, 0.1Fe-TiO2-300 could be an efficient photocatalyst and can provide a composite solution for RB5 decolorization and bacterial strain inhibition.

Along with economic dispatch, emission dispatch has become a key problem under market conditions. Thus, the combination of the above problems in one problem called economic emission dispatch (EED) problem became inevitable. However, due to the dynamic nature of today’s network loads, it is required to schedule the thermal unit outputs in real-time according to the variation of power demands during a certain time period. Within this context, this paper presents an elitist technique, the second version of the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSAGII) for solving the dynamic economic emission dispatch (DEED) problem. Several equality and inequality constraints, such as valve point loading effects, ramp rate limits and prohibited operating zones (POZ), are taken into account. Therefore, the DEED problem is considered as a non-convex optimization problem with multiple local minima with higher-order non-linearities and discontinuities. A fuzzy-based membership function value assignment method is suggested to provide the best compromise solution from the Pareto front. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified on the standard power system with ten thermal units.

Appropriate modeling and accurate parameter identification of solar cells are crucial in the optimization of photovoltaic (PV) systems. The single-diode model (SDM), consisting of an ideal current source, an ideal diode, a shunt resistor and a series resistor, is widely used to simulate the behavior of PV cells/panels. In this article, a hybrid approach for identification of solar cell SDM parameters is presented. This approach uses the inverse of the slope of the I-V curve under short-circuit and open-circuit conditions and combines numerical and analytical solutions. Indeed, knowing that numerical methods require appropriate initial values, the main idea of the proposed approach is to provide these solutions by analytical methods. The comparison of obtained results with experimental ones, based on manufacturer’s datasheet, proves that the algorithm thus obtained requires less information from the manufacturer and improves significantly the parameter identification accuracy.

No abstract