“Design and Development of Solar Assisted Power Supply System for Multi-Services in Railway Transportation System

Shravanth Vasisht, M. and Raghu, H.S. and Deepak, S. (2011) “Design and Development of Solar Assisted Power Supply System for Multi-Services in Railway Transportation System. [Student Project Report]

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Abstract

This Dissertation / Report is the outcome of investigation carried out by the creator(s) / author(s) at the department/division of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore mentioned below in this page.

Item Type:	Student Project Report
Additional Information:	Energy plays a major role in the human effort to meet the basic needs of life, improves its quality and increases the standard of living. The severe limitations of fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal - many of the shortcomings of these sources and their utilization, not noticed earlier, were brought to light namely that they, (a) pollute the environment, (b) are unevenly distributed over the earth‟s surface resulting in unequal economic opportunities, (c) require millions of years to be formed but can be totally consumed in hundreds of years, and (d) are best used mainly for high temperature applications and the recovery of chemicals. These factors make one to look back to the early usage of energy from the sun, wood, wind and water and also to discover other sun-based sources of energy such as those exploiting the ocean thermal gradient, tides, and waves as potentially viable for economic power generation as well as for other needs. The energy problem of the developing countries has remained grossly under researched, yet developing country energy developments are important not only because they affect the future of the largest groups of humanity, but also because their energy consumption patterns have vital implications for the depletion of global energy resources. Official forecasts for India indicate that the quantity of traditional forms of energy consumed will decline in absolute terms by the year 2020. The idea of solar energy is attractive. It touches the instinctive hopes of many private as well as Government circles which consider that it could be the solution to the present energy crisis, and a way of overcoming several modern environmental problems. This view is rather an idealistic one. In spite of remarkable technical successes and interesting recent developments, present solar technology is not yet ready for economic and generalized use, or capable of satisfying the energy needs of all human groups, especially those of developing countries. Solar energy is clean, renewable, abundant and widely distributed in a global sense. Nearly all the other sources of energy in the world derive directly or indirectly from solar energy. Although affected by atmospheric conditions and intermittence solar energy is convertible into mechanical and electrical energy with reasonable efficiency. It is thus a unique source of energy which can be used successfully to meet the energy need of mankind. India is a country facing many challenges. The nation of more than 100 million people has a wide transportation system in particular railway system to meet its massive economic and travel problems. With the demand for human comfort is increasing day by day while travelling such as better air-conditioning system and prepared or processed foods, the conventional systems operating in the present day transportation system consumes a lot of electrical energy, which lead to depletion of the precious fossil fuel resource as well as production of lot of greenhouse gases. These economic and environmental implications of growing energy use makes the development of renewable energy resources and the improvement of the end-use energy efficiency to be included as a strategy to cope up with the growing energy demand. The use of solar energy for many services such as for space cooling, refrigeration, lighting, and cooking in a railway transportation system is a promising avenue for utilization of solar energy and can be an alternative to reduce the CO2 emissions and the electricity demand when they are driven by solar energy. The objective of the proposed project involves the design and development of a solar assisted power system, to cater the needs of space cooling, refrigeration, lighting and cooking including the temperature controlling system for Indian Railways system that utilizes the solar energy during its movement and meeting the electrical energy demand required during rail transportation. Advantages envisaged from the study are:  Incorporation of solar assisted units for multiple services in a railway transportation system holds a promising avenue for utilization of solar energy and can be an alternative to reduce the CO2 emissions and the electricity demand when they are driven by solar energy.  Provides summer air conditioning as well as warming in tropical zones where there are difficulties with the supply of electricity and fossil fuels during summer and winter while travelling Owing to the high solar radiation in India installation of solar assisted units in trains and similar transportation systems can be one of the solutions to the country‟s energy problems. Utilization of solar energy is considered to be more balanced way of conserving the conventional energy, since rail transportation system represents one of the major consumers of thermal energy.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	power consumption, solar auto-tracking mechanism, coaching stock
Subjects:	600 Technology > 02 Engineering & allied operations
Divisions:	Food Engineering
Depositing User:	Food Sci. & Technol. Information Services
Date Deposited:	07 Jul 2011 10:41
Last Modified:	28 Dec 2011 10:25
URI:	http://ir.cftri.res.in/id/eprint/10247

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