Efficient and sustainable electric power supply is needed for effective healthcare delivery, provision of quality education system, and building of impactful social/human infrastructures. Unrestricted access to reliable and affordable electricity will improve people's welfare and enhance quality healthcare delivery globally. The need to reduce the harmful impact of Greenhouse gas emissions along with its fossil fuel emissions have necessitated the need for the numerous research interests in low-carbon power generation systems. The feasibility and techno-economic analysis of an off-grid Solar Photovoltaic (PV)/Biomass (BG)/Diesel (DG)/Battery (BB) hybrid system for a rural village-Kajola, Nigeria was conducted in this paper. Renewable energy sources (RES) parameters such as irradiation data, biomass resources, and DG parameters were collected from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’ database, Ekiti State Ministry of Agriculture and manufacturers’ price lists respectively. The load demand assessment of the area was conducted and analyzed through the use of questionnaires. All the relevant data collected were used as input into the HOMER software. The optimal configuration is the PV-BG-BB combination. The Levelized Cost of Energy (COE) is $0.178/ kWh, with renewable energy fraction (RF) of 100%. This means that nearly all of the energy used by the hybrid system to meet the load is generated from renewable sources. The proposed solar PV/Biomass generator/Battery bank hybrid energy system can supply electricity to the village under consideration at an hourly average of approximately 52.7 kW and with an average daily energy need of 483.71 kWh. The study will serve as a template for all electric power system stakeholders and potential investors on the feasibility and optimal design of hybrid renewable energy system for rural electrification.
Availability of diverse renewable energy sources (RES) in Nigeria makes their large penetration into the electricity supply mix reasonable. The increasing energy demand, and limited fossil fuel resources (with their negative environmental impacts) support the need for energy from RES. The conventional system of centralized power generation can no longer meet up with the growing demand for electrical energy. Hence, the need for a robust decentralized energy system incorporated with computer and automated systems, for information analysis and response to network operations. Smart Grid Technology (SGT) can be used to address some of the issues and challenges inherent in the traditional grid system for efficient and reliable power supply. This work reviewed the current electricity supply status in Nigeria and the existing policies. The existing network was studied and compared with such in some countries. It identified most of the major problems and challenges in the electricity sector and proposed the integration of RES with SGT into the network. Major policy recommendations were made. Some of the barriers that may likely affect the integration of RES with SGT were also discussed. The outcomes are useful for government and renewable energy developers in formulating effective policies for the smooth integration of renewable energy with SGT into the electricity supply mix.
The present research focuses on application of thermal energy storage on a convectional refrigerator to enhance its performance. Salt hydrate was used as latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) material to convert the convectional refrigerator to a LHTES material-based refrigerator. The cabinet of the convectional refrigerator was loaded with 10 kg of water at a temperature of 28℃ and experiments were conducted on it to know the time taken for the evaporator temperature (TE) to reach -5℃, and determine the performance characteristics of the convectional refrigerator. The experiments were repeated on the LHTES material-based refrigerator to compare its performance characteristics with those of the convectional refrigerator. The results reveal that the evaporator of the LHTES material-based refrigerator attains the temperature of -5℃ forty minutes before the same temperature (-5℃) was attained in the evaporator of the convectional refrigerator. For the interval of evaporator temperature (−5∘C≤TE≤−1∘C) considered for evaluation of the performance characteristics of the refrigerators in this work, when TE drops from 1℃ to -5℃, the coefficient of performance (COP) for the LHTES material-based refrigerator and convectional refrigerator decreases from 7.36 to 4.62 and 6.44 to 4.15, respectively; the refrigerating effect decreases from 118.41 kJ/kg to 111.80 kJ/kg and 113.37 kJ/kg to 106.69 kJ/kg, respectively; the compressor work increases from 15.10 kJ/kg to 23.18 kJ/kg and 17.60 kJ/kg to 25.68 kJ/kg, respectively. The higher value of the COP and refrigerating effect, and the lower value of the compressor work of the LHTES material-based refrigerator compared with those of the convectional refrigerator imply that there is an improvement in the performance of the refrigerator with the LHTES material. The current work broadens research on the use of a LHTES materials to enhance the performance of a refrigerator.
This paper reports the effect of convective heat on plantain (Musa paradisiaca). Ripe and unripe plantains were bought from Eremi-adale local market in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The samples were washed, peeled, sliced into mass sizes of 20g each, and load into the chamber of a fabricated convective dryer. Samples were removed from the chamber after every hour for measurement to determine their moisture losses. The plantain samples were dried at various drying time and with regulated drying temperatures of 333K, 343K, and 353K. Results of the laboratory analysis review that, the viable microbial counts decrease when the drying temperatures increase. Ripe samples were found to have higher percentage of crude fibre, fat and protein, than the unripe samples while unripe samples have higher percentage of carbohydrate and ash than the ripe samples, at the drying temperatures. It was equally reported from the proximate analysis test that, the percentage amount of moisture content, carbohydrate and crude fibre decreases when the regulated drying temperatures increase while the amount of protein, fat and ash increases with an increase of the regulated drying temperatures.
Aim: This work gives the reports on experimental study of the effects of drying on some selected vegetables, namely fluted pumpkin (specimen I), spinach (specimen II), lettuce (specimen III), and waterleaf (specimen IV). Methodology: The vegetable specimens were dried at regulated drying temperatures of 323K, 333K, and 343K, and the percentage amount of water, fat, crude fibre, ash, protein, and carbohydrate, as well as the fungi and bacteria counts in the vegetable specimens was determined at these temperatures. Results: The results revealed that the amount of water in the vegetable specimens reached 0% earlier at the regulated drying temperature of 343K than at the other regulated drying temperatures. The results also indicated that the dried vegetable specimen II has highest fat content of 8.2%, the dried vegetable specimen III has highest crude fibre content of 14.5%, the dried vegetable specimen IV has highest ash content of 18.6%, the dried vegetable specimen I has highest protein content of 30.3%, and the dried vegetable s specimen III has highest carbohydrate content of 42.2% at the regulated drying temperature of 323K. The same trend of results was obtained for the regulated drying temperatures of 333K and 343K. Furthermore, the results showed that at the regulated drying temperature of 323K, the dried vegetable specimen III has the lowest bacteria counts of 4.3 x 107 CFU/g. The trend of result obtained for the regulated drying temperatures of 333K and 343K is similar to that of the 323K. At the regulated drying temperature of 323K, the dried vegetable specimen II has the lowest bacteria counts of 1.7 x 107 CFU/g. The same trend of results was obtained for the regulated drying temperatures of 333K and 343K. Conclusions: Drying has effects on the percentage amount of fat, crude fibre, ash, protein, and carbohydrate in the vegetable specimens. The microbial counts and the fungi counts decrease when the temperature increases. The present work can be applied in food engineering industries, and engineering in agriculture.
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