005156   Rao K S;Rao Y S;Al-Jassar H K (Physics Dep, Kuwait Univ, Kuwait, Email: ksrao@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw) : Polarimetric properties of various features using SIR-C data. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(2), 123-6.

Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR-C) data acquired over Gujarat, India in 1994 were processed and analysed using differnet techniques applicable to polarimetric SAR data such as polarization signatures, polarization index, decomposition of the signal and polarization phase difference and limited groundtruth data. It has been observed that multi-frequency polarimetric data enhances the potential of retrieving geo-physical parameters. The polarization signatures are found to vary with the nature of the target. Target decomposition of the returned signal will be useful for the classification of various features. Polarization Phase Difference (PPD) gives good information about the vegetation parameters.

7 illus, 5 tables, 13 ref

005155   Rao K S;Rao Y S;Al-Jassar H K (Physics Dep, Kuwait Univ, Kuwait, Email: ksrao@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw) : Retrieval of soil moisture using SIR-C polarimetric data. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(2), 109-22.

Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR-C) po-larimetric data acquired over Gujarat test site, India, during April and October 1994 were processed to retrieve soil moisture and surface roughness using multi-polarization techniques. Synchronous field data were collected and compared with the results obtained using SIR-C data. Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) images in visible region were used for locating groundtruth points. Multi-polarization inversion techniques are found to be sensitive to retrieval of soil moisture and surface roughness parameters. However, the accuracy is not adequate. There is a need to improve the existing inversion models to suit to the Indian agricultural fields.

6 illus, 4 tables, 33 ref

005154   Rajesh Kumar;Gupta R A;Bansal A K (Electrical Engineerig Dep, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, Jaipur-302 017) : Identification and control of PMSM using ANN. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 20-5.

Rotor speed in permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) suffers from accuracy due to variation of motor parameters, such as, stator resistance, stator inductance or torque constant. The conventional linear estimators are not adaptive. Artificial neural networks (ANN) have shown better results when estimating or controlling non-linear systems. In this paper, an artificial neural network based high performance speed control system for a PMSM is introduced. The rotor speed of the PMSM can be made to follow an arbitrarily selected trajectory. The main purpose is to achieve accurate trajectory control of the speed, when the motor and load parameters are unknown. The unknown non-linear dynamics of the motor and the load are captured by the ANN. The performance of the identification and control algorithm are evaluated by simulating them on a typical PMSM motor model.

4 illus, 1 table, 10 ref

005153   Rajderkar V P;Chandrakar V K (Eelectrical Engineering Dep, G H Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur-440 016) : Optimal location of thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC) for congestion management. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Dec), 30-5.

Presents the optimal location of thyristor-controlled series compensators (TCSC) with firing angle control device used for congestion management. It is represented in simple and effective way by controlling the TCSC parameter, which is a function of firing angle. It requires a two-step approach. First, the optimal location of the device in the network must be ascertained and then, the settings of the control parameter optimized. The effectiveness of the sensitivity method and genetic algorithm has been tested on IEEE 5-bus and IEEE 7-bus system using Matpower 3.0 and the results validated by using Power World Simulator Software version 10.0.

10 illus, 4 tables, 11 ref

005152   Rahman M R;Saha S K (Geography and Environmental Studies Dep, Rajshahi Univ, Rajshahi, Bangladesh-6205, Email: sksaha@iirs.gov.in) : Multi-resolution segmentation for object-based classification and accuracy assessment f land use/land cover classification using remotely sensed data. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(2), 189-201.

A World Bank-aided project on sodic land reclamation in Uttar Pradesh is being executed by U.P. Bhumi SudharNigam, Lucknow, and Remote Sensing Applications Centre, U.P., Lucknow has the responsibility of sodic land mapping for the execution of land reclamation programme at the cadastral level. Sodic lands are mainly concentrated in the Gangetic alluvial plains but the problem of sodicity is particularly acute in the canal-irrigated areas. A study of the distribution pattern of sodic lands in canal and non-canal command areas in a reclamation site (covering 60 villages out of which sodic lands were mapped in 51 villages) of Etah district in Uttar Pradesh, indicates that 18.39 per cent area of the canal command villages was barren sodic which was 13.41 per cent of the total geographical area of the site (15417 ha), however, 11.69 per cent area was recorded to be barren sodic in the non-canal command villages which was only 3.16 per cent of the geographical area of the site. The results of soil chemical analysis indicate that barren sodic lands of canal command area are saline-sodic with higher concentration of soluble salts (pH₂ <60>8.5, EC₂ <60>4 dSmr^-1), however, those of non-canal command area are sodic (pH₂<62>8.5, EC₂ <60>4 dSm^-1). The post-monsoon ground level in the canal-irrigated areas was in the critical and semi-critical zone (<60> 3.0 mbgl) whereas it was well below the semi-critical zone in the non-canal command area, which indicates that the high ground water level is a major factor to higher the area under sodicity.

7 illus, 4 tables, 14 ref

005151   Quesada J;Olivares P (Chemical Engineering Dep, Faculty of Chemistry, Murcia Univ, Spain, Email: quesamed@um.es) : Supercritical biodiesel production from raw soybean oil. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 115-22.

Describes the supercritical methanol transesterification of raw soybean oil for biodiesel production in a batch stirred tank reactor without catalyst and looks at the main variables affecting the yield of biodiesel: the methanol-to-oil molar ratio and reaction temperature. Experiments were carried out for 20 min in the temperature range 250-350°C at methanol-to-oil molar ratios of between 20:1 and 53:1. The reactions were monitored by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) to determine the content of monoglycerides, diglycerides and triglycerides, and by gas chromatography (GC/FID) to analyse the individual methyl esters and to calculate the yield of biodiesel. The reaction conditions that led to good yields of biodiesel (72%) were a temperature of 350°C and a methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 45. There was no undesirable thermal decomposition of the fatty acid chains in these conditions. Due to the risk of thermal cracking above 350°C, reaction times need to be lengthened to complete the transesterification of monoglycerides and diglycerides remaining in the medium and so provide greater yields of biodiesel.

9 illus, 3 tables, 12 ref

005150   Prince C D M;Chandiveera P;Bose P L C M (NO, National Law School of India Univ, P.O. Bag 7201, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore, Karnataka, Email: churchill@inbox.com) : Laws relating to biofuel green jobs and influence of the international labour organization to develop global energy. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 97-108.

The growth of Green Employment in many countries is very significant with interests having infectious optimism regarding the potential of Green Employment and the Biofuel Technologies are rapidly improving. The Biofuel Green jobs are the wave of the future, and every municipality, village, town, city, state, and governments are looking at ways to create Biofuel Green jobs - jobs that will help the Global Environment and Global Energy. The Biofuel Green Jobs Initiative is launched to assess, analyze and promote the creation of decent jobs as a consequence of the needed environmental policies. It supports an intensive effort by Governments, Employers and Trade Unions to promote environmentally sustainable jobs and development in a climate challenged world. The paper discusses the Laws relating to Biofuel Green Jobs to develop energy and to sustain environment. The paper begins with the discussion of influence of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the role of regulatory mitigation to develop Global Energy. The paper proceeds with Legal research on the effects of Climate Change and Opportunities available through Biofuels. The renewable Biofuels can create Green Jobs and contribute to a new Energy Economy. The new research and development programs initiatives and extension of Tax Credits for clean energy production could contribute to the completion of renewable energy projects that create Green Jobs and generate economic activity through the Biofuel Industry. This paper also discusses various issues in related to Quality Norms, Risk Management and Modern Corporate Governance pertaining to Biofuels. Collectively, this paper will address a long-term enhanced action on mitigation in Biofuel for Global Environmental Stability and Global Energy Management.

21 ref

005149   Prasad R;Vishwakarma C B (Electrical Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247 667) : Linear model order reduction using mihailov criterion and cauer second form. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Dec), 18-21.

The authors present a mixed method for the order reduction of large-scale linear dynamic systems taking the advantages of the Mihailov criterion and Cauer second form. The denominator of the reduced model is found by using Mihailov criterion and the coefficients of the numerator are determined by Cauer second form. The method is simple and guarantees stability of the reduced model if the original system is stable. The proposed method is illustrated with the help of examples and relative integral square error is calculated for the comparison of reduced models using Matlab/Simulink.

2 illus, 1 table, 17 ref

005148   Pandey A K;Bhargava P;Mandal A K (NO, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jobalpur, Email: akpandey10@rediffmail.com) : Performance evaluation of superior accessions of Jatropha curcas in tropical climate of Madhya Pradesh, India. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 131-9.

Escalating petroleum prices and alarmingly depleting fossil fuel reserves have brought biofuel to the forefront of energy crisis management plans in many developing countries. Due to stagnating domestic crude oil production, India imports approximately 72 percent of its petroleum requirement. The best alternatives are bio-fuels (non-toxic and biodegradable) and among them, bio-diesel have immense potential to mitigate the current and future energy needs of the country. To meet this challenging and catastrophic situation, Jatropha can act as an environmental friendly alternative feedstock for bio-diesel production. The 'Jatropha oil' can be easily processed to partially or fully replace petroleum-based diesel fuel. Thus, the use of this plant for large-scale biodiesel production is of great interest with regard to solving the energy shortage, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rural employment generation and increasing the income of farmers. For this, vast area should have to be brought under Jatropha plantation with quality planting material particularly in terms of higher yield and oil content of the seeds. With the objective of evaluating the potential and performance of superior accessions of Jatropha under tropical climate, a systematic research has been conducted at Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur under the national network programme of National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development Board. In the study 33 accessions were evaluated for their growth performance (height, collar diameter, no. of branches, fruiting pattern, fruit yield, seed characteristics and oil percentage). The trials were established during 2005 in randomized block design with three replications. Growth data was recorded regularly and statistically analyzed. The study revealed that IGAU-l, TNMC-5 and TFRI-2 accessions are performing better among all other accessions. This study will provide baseline information for planning further Jatropha curcas improvement programmes.

6 illus, 6 tables, 14 ref

005147   Omkar S N;Senthilnath J;Mudigere D;Manoj Kumar M (Aerospace Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560 012, Email: omkar@aero.iisc.ernet.in) : Crop classification using biologically-inspired techniques with high resolution satellite image. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(2), 175-82.

The goals of this paper are to discriminate between clear sky and clouds in an 8 x 8 pixel array of 1.1 km AVHRR data. If clouds are present then classify them as low, medium or high range. This scheme can effectively segregate clouds and non-cloud features in the visible and IR bands of the imagery. It can also classify clouds as low, medium or high range with a success rate of 70-90%. Computer-based snow and cloud discrimination and automatic cloud classification system will help the forecaster in various climatological applications, viz., energy balance estimation, precipitation forecasting, landslide forecasting, weather forecasting and avalanche forecasting etc.

9 tables, 21 ref

005146   Nanda A K;Anil Kumar (Engineer-in-Chief, Army Headquaters, New Delhi) : Construction of passighat bridge on NH-52 in Arunachal pradesh. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 71-81.

2 illus, 2 tables, ref

005145   Nagasubramanian V;Radhadevi P V;Ramachandran R;Krishnan R (Space Dep, Advanced Data Processing Research Institute, Government of India, Hyderabad-500 009, Email: nasman@rediffmail.com) : 3D reconstrution with rational function model. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(1), 27-35.

Rational Function Model (RFM) is the alternate sensor Model to the rigorous sensor model that allows end user to perform sensor-independent photogrammetric processing. Nowadays, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) digital photogrammetric work stations have incorporated RFM as a method for image restitution. It is technically applicable to all types of airborne and space borne sensors. In this paper, we describe the derivations of the algorithmic procedure for third order inverse and forward RFM method for 3-D reconstruction. Model accuracy is evaluated for aerial image, TK-350 Russian image and IRS-1C PAN image. The results ensure that properly constructed RFM are accurate enough to be used in place of the original rigorous models. The test results are reported and summarised.

2 illus, 2 tables, 20 ref

005144   Mustafa S B;Acharya S;Banu Parkash;Singh S B (Defence Institute of High Altitude Research, (DIHAR), Leh-Ladakh, Email: mustafabasharat@rediffmail.com) : Physico-chemical parameters analysis, storage studies and performance evaluation of biodiesel under cold desert condition. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 46-50.

The major part of all energy consumed worldwide comes from fossil sources (petroleum, coal and natural gas). However, these sources are limited, and will be exhausted by the near future. Biodiesels are among those alternative fuels, which promise a harmonious correlation with sustainable development, energy conservation, efficiency and environmental preservation. Ladakh is situated at an altitude of 8,500 to 15,000 ft which is one of the most inhospitable terrains of its kind in the world. It remains cutoff from rest of the world during winter months for about six months. Hence diesel fuels have to be stored for a long period of time to avoid shortage of fuel during winter. Keeping in view the aim of the study was to carry out some physico-chemical parameter analysis, effect of storage conditions and performance evaluation of different biodiesel blends with winter diesel under subzero cold desert conditions of Ladakh. Different biodiesel blends were tested according to the ASTM standards. The storage study indicated that biodiesel blends with winter diesel upto B₂₀ does not freeze even at a temperature of -17°C and can be used safely. Viscosity study at -5°C showed that, kinematic viscosity of different blend were slightly higher than winter diesel. Cloud and pour point of B₂₀ was -9.5 and -13°C respectively. With the use of antifreezing agents like DMSO or glycerol biodiesel blends with ATF upto B₂₀ can be safely used even at a temperature of -30°C. The study showed the feasibility of biodiesel blends usage (upto B₂₀) in different vehicles upto a temperature of -17°C in cold desert conditions of Ladakh.

3 illus, 2 tables, 12 ref

005143   Murtuz Z H K;Swarup K S (Electrical Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600 036) : Optimal exonomic dispatch using ant colony optimization. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 33-8.

In this paper problem formulation and solution methodology of economic dispatch using ant colony optimization is presented. Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a meta-heuristic approach for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems. The procedure and implementation details of ant colony search algorithm (ACSA) for power system economic dispatch are presented. The problem solving process of ACO lies in the trail laying and following behaviour of real ants which use pheromones. The pheromone trails in ACO serve as distributed, numerical information which the ants use to probabilistically construct solutions to the problem being solved and which the ants adapt during the algorithm's execution to reflect their search experience. The suitability of the ant colony optimization algorithm for a typical hard problem like economic dispatch was carried out for two systems consisting of three and six generating units. It was later extended to standard IEEE 14, 30 and 57 bus systems. The suitability of ACO for economic load dispatch appears to be more effective for large scale systems.

6 tables, 12 ref

005142   Mohan P M;Kumar M V;Reddy O V R;Subbarayudu D (Electrical Engineering Dep, Krishna's Pragati Institute of Technology, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradehs) : Novel zero voltage transition (ZVT) technique based closed loop control of boost power factor correction (PFC) converter with EMI filter. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 13-15.

A novel zero voltage transition (ZVT) technique based closed loop control of boost power factor correction (PFC) converter with electro magnetic interference (EMI) filter is presented in this paper. It operates at a fixed frequency while achieving zero voltage turn-on of the main switch and zero current turn-off of the boost diode. This is accomplished by employing resonant operation only during switch transitions. During the rest of the cycle, the resonant network is essentially removed from the circuit and converter operation is identical to its non-resonant counterpart. A prototype of 1000 W is built to test the proposed topology. The input voltage is from 170 V rms to 250 V rms. The output voltage is 400V. The operation frequency is 250 kHz. This technique increases the efficiency upto 95% and power factor upto 0.99.

8 illus, 17 ref

005141   Masimalai S K;Tazerout M;Ndayishimiye P (Automobile Engineering Dep, M.I.T. Campus, Anna Univ, Chromepet, Chennai, Email: msenthilk@annauniv.edu) : Performance and emission studies on a CI engine using methyl ester of palm oil and waste cooking oil mixture as fuel. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 51-6.

Palm oil (PO) is considered as one of the promising feed stocks for bio-diesel production due to its low cost and good production output. However, it is in solid form at ambient temperature. Mixing PO with waste-cooking oil (WCO) helps to reduce viscosity of PO significantly. This has the potential to reduce disposal of waste cooking oil. Making esterified fuel from this mixture of PO + WCO can be an effective method of preparing bio-diesel from waste which can be used as fuel in diesel engines. In this work refined palm oil was used as main fuel for preparing the methyl ester. Waste cooking oil was used as an inter esterification agent to reduce overall viscosity and cloud point of the blend and the ester. A single cylinder, direct injection, air cooled diesel engine was tested using neat diesel, neat PO and the methyl ester of the mixture (PO +WCO) as fuels under variable load operating conditions. Results showed increased specific fuel consumption with neat PO and methyl esters of PO+WCO mixture as compared to neat diesel. Specific hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions were significantly reduced with the methyl esters of PO+WCO mixture as compared to neat PO. The specific hydrocarbon emission was found as 2 g/kW.hr. with the methyl esters of the mixture of PO+WCO and 5.2 g/kW.hr with neat PO at the maximum power output. Whereas it was 3.8 g/kW.hr. with neat diesel. The reduction in HC and CO emissions with the methyl esters of the mixture of PO+WCO was due to the better combustion of the ester as compared to neat PO. NO and NOx emissions were found higher with the methyl ester of PO+WCO as compared to neat PO due to increased cycle temperature as a result of improved combustion rate. On the whole it is concluded that methyl esters of the mixture of PO+WCO can be used as fuel in diesel engines without modification in engine design.

7 illus, 1 tables, 10 ref

005140   Mandal P;Bhanagale U D;Tyagi D (International Centre for Automotive Technology, IMT, Manesar, Gurgaon, Email: mondal.pinaki@gmail.com) : Cellulosic ethanol and first generation bio-fuels: a potential solution for energy security of India. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 140-50.

Diminishing world petroleum reserves and the impact of environmental pollution of increasing exhaust emissions have led to search for suitable alternative fuels. Scorching prices of petroleum based fuel (before global economic recession) and reduced biofuel cost due to advanced technological breakthrough, made biofuel competitive with conventional petro-fuel. India is fifth in the world in terms of primary energy consumption, accounting for 3.5% of world commercial energy demand. Rapid economic expansion will continue to drive up India's energy needs. India is projected to be the third in the world by 2025 in net oil import. It is a huge task to manage the energy security for meeting the aspirations of growing economy in India. The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of energy requirements in transport sector and the future projections. Paper further analyzes the role and the advantages of distributed energy based on Bio-fuels which may ensure India's energy security. Around 1% of the world's arable land, i.e., 14 million ha are used in 2005 for biofuel production. In 2030 the share is expected to rise to 2.5% and 3.8% for reference and alternative policy scenario, respectively. These projections are expected to evoke the famous 'food-Vs-fuel' debate more critically for developing countries like India with huge population load. Therefore it is the need of the time for integrated approach combining conventional bio-fuel with the next generation bio-fuel to provide a sustainable energy-food-environmental security for a country like India. Paper discusses in detail how and to what extent the conventional bio-fuel, and the second generation bio-fuel, lignocellulosic ethanol can help to arrive a balance between food and fuel requirements of growing Indian economy. The scientific analysis presented here, may serve as interesting basis for future energy policy formulation in this area.

4 illus, 3 tables, 26 ref

005139   Lohani B;Bhatnagar N;Roshan A (NO, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208 016, Email: blohani@iitk.ac.in) : Return pulse waveform simulation for LLRI Instrument onboard chandrayan-I. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(1), 1-11.

ISRO is launching a LiDAR instrument (LLRI) onboard Chandrayan-I. The LLRI will collect topographic data of lunar surface. Flying at an altitude of 100km the LLRI will have a footprint of 100m on the moon surface. Time of travel measurement, which is fundamental for topographic coordinate computation, depends upon the shape of the return pulse. This shape in turn is a function of the characteristics of footprint, i. e. its geometry, reflectance and roughness. This paper uses a mathematical model to simulate the return waveform at the receiver for different conditions of said characteristics within the footprint. Mathematical equations are employed to generate footprints that vary in their characteristics in terms of reflectance, geometry and roughness. A footprint is divided into small bins so that each bin has uniform property. Energy distribution in transmitted pulse is considered Gaussian. Energy irradiated over footprint is approximated using the assumed distribution. For each bin the energy incident is computed and accordingly the quantum and distribution of reflected energy is determined. The final waveform is generated by integrating the energy returned from all the bins according to their time of arrival and spread. Some results are presented to show the performance of the developed system.

10 illus, 1 table, 7 ref

005138   Kumar N (Electrical Engineering Dep, Delhi College of Engineering, New Delhi-110 042) : New SVS control strategy for damping torsional oxcillations due to SSR in a series compensated power system. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 3-12.

This paper is concerned with the application of SVS control technique to examine the efficacy of auxiliary control signal for reactive power modulation of a midpoint located static var system (SVS) in damping the electro-mechanical oscillations in the turbine generator unit of the power system and to enhance the power transfer capability of long transmission line. A new auxiliary signal designated voltage angle and reactive power (VARP) is proposed alongwith induction machine damping unit (IMDU) that is coupled with IP turbine to enhance the effectiveness of SVS in damping out the torsional electro-mechanical oscillations. The proposed control strategy has been validated using a system model similar to IEEE first benchmark model^1,3. Dynamic study using eigenvalue analysis has been performed and optimal parameters of controller have been obtained using extensive study of system root loci. The digital simulation results under large disturbance conditions are correlated with those obtained from eigenvalue analysis.

10 illus, 2 tables, 20 ref

005137   Kumar M G;Agarwl A K;Bali R (Centre of Advance Study in Geology, Lucknow Univ, Lucknow-226 007) : Delineation of potential sites for water harvesting structures using remote sensing and GIS. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(4), 323-34.

Availability of groundwater varies spatially and temporally depending upon the terrain. The scarcity of water affects the environmental and developmental activities of an area. Construction of small water harvesting structures across streams/ watersheds is gaining momentum in recent years. In the present study, potential sites for construction of rainwater harvesting structures in the Bakhar watershed of Mirzapur District, Uttar Pradesh, India have been identified by using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Various thematic maps such as Landuse/Landcover, geomorphology and lineaments, etc. were prepared using remote sensing. These layers along with geology and drainage were integrated using GIS techniques to derive suitable water harvesting sites. Each theme was assigned a weightage depending on its influence on ground water recharge (for example weightages 20,18,15,25,25 and 0 were assigned to geomorphology, landuse, geology, lineament, drainage and road and villages respectively). Each class or unit in the map was assigned a knowledge based ranking of one to four depending on its significance in storage and transmittance of groundwater, and these values were multiplied with layer weightage to form score. The average score for excellent region is greater than 200, for good 121 to 200, for moderate 81 to 121 and the other polygon having value less than 80 (excluding zero) were assigned to poor category. The final map showing different categories of suitability sites for water harvesting structures such as Check dams.

6 illus, 2 tables, 16 ref

005136   Ksrividhya P;Tamizharasan T;Jayaraj S; Muralledharan C (Mechanical Engineering Dep, Periyar Maniammai Univ, Vallam, Thanjavur, Email: sriara_99@yahoo.com) : Characterization and gasification using-Jatropha curcas seed cake. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 30-6.

Deals with investigation on Jatropha seed cake (non edible de-oiled cake) for thermo chemical conversion processes (combustion, gasification) for thermal application. Physical and chemical characteristics analysis on seed cake were done and the data has been reported in this paper. The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) has been done on it using a thermal analyzer from room temperature to 1000°C in air, nitrogen atmosphere at a heating rate of 20°C/min. It showed that it took temperature of 243°C for ignition and there was a very little fraction of thermal decomposition occurred after 530°C with burn out residues of 11.68% in air atmosphere. Gasification studies were conducted with laboratory model downdraft gasifier using Jatropha seed cake for thermal application. The performance of the feedstock was determined by measuring gasifier zone temperature sensing with thermocouple throughout the main zones of the gasifier, at the gasifier outlet and also the flame temperature of the producer gas at burner. The maximum temperature of the bottom flame was recorded as 910° C and the flame length was about from 1ft to 1.5 ft with yellowish colour. The studies revealed that it is a good feed stock for gasification and combustion. Because of its fuel characteristics this can be compared with other woody biomasses.

6 illus, 2 tables, 12 ref

005135   Kapila K K;Sikdar P K (NO, M/s. ICT Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) : Road safety scenario and proposed action plan. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 51-9.

5 illus, 2 tables, 6 ref

005134   Kamei W;Singh I P;Sharma M L;Singh K;Singal S K (NO, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun-248 005, Email: wittison@iip.res.in) : Performance and emissions of biodiesel blends in an automotive diesel engine. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 92-6.

Biodiesel has advantages over conventional diesel fuel in terms of lesser pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. It has the capability to partially replace diesel fuel and thereby reduces the dependence on. dwindling crude oil resources. Biodiesel can be used in diesel engines with little or no modification. It is renewable and can be produced from non-edible oil seeds such as jatropha carcus and pongamia pinnata, which can be grown on wasteland. In this paper, results of a study on performance and mass emissions of an automotive diesel engine using jatropha curcus derived ethyl ester (JEE) blends are reported. The physico-chemical properties of the biodiesel, teseted as per ASTM methods, were within the standard limits. The mass emissions of NOx showed 4-9% increase with 10-20% JEE blends. PM emission for JEE-20 was almost same as that of diesel. There was no significant change in brake horse power (bhp) of both blends when compared to that of diesel.

5 illus, 3 tables, 6 ref

005133   Kadasamy C (NO, Chief Engineer MoRT& H, New Delhi) : Breaking the frontiers, the smart way for the integrated development of the country. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 65-6.

The National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) has shown that seemingly insurmountable hurdles like Land Acquisition (LA), funding and implementation can be sorted out by appropriate Acts, Cess, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and Programme Approach (instead of Project Approach). Phase I & II were successfully implemented accordingly. Recently, an Expressway network of over 17,000 km are being considered in the Ministry. The lessons learnt in the earlier phases of NHDP can be put to effective use for the implementation of these Expressways.

005132   Jindal S;Nandwana B P;Rathore N S (Mechanical Engineering Dep, College of Technology & Engineering, Udaipur, Email: sjindals@gmail.com) : Comparative study of performance, combustion and emissions of diesel, jatropha methyl ester and karanj methyl ester in a DI-CI engine. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 20-9.

Biodiesel produced from different vegetable oils and fats are likely to have some comparative advantages and disadvantages. Two major oil varieties, considered suitable for biodiesel making are 'Jatropha curcas' and 'Pongamia pinnata'. This study targets at making a comparison of the methyl esters of these oils in a diesel engine vis-a-vis diesel fuel. The performance of the fuels was evaluated in terms of thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption, power output and mean effective pressure, cylinder pressure, rate of pressure rise and heat release rates. The emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), unburnt hydrocarbon (HC), oxides of nitrogen (NO ) and Smoke opacity with the three fuels were also compared. Both the varieties of the oil, after transesterification, exhibit the major properties within acceptable limits of biodiesel standards set by many countries. Karanj methyl ester (KME) performed better than Jatropha methyl ester (JME) whereas shortest ignition delay is observed with JME. Both the esters performed poorer than diesel but emissions of HC, NO and smoke were found lower with esters. The three fuels delivered almost same brake power even when the indicated power was higher with diesel.

8 illus, 2 tables, 16 ref

005131   Jain T;Gerpen J V;Donald A M (Idaho Univ, Moscow, Idaho, USA, Email: jain6843@vandals.uidaho.edu) : Production of fuel ethanol from woody biomass. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 109-14.

The most abundant bioenergy feedstock in the world is lignocellulosic material. This material can be categorized in three main parts; agricultural, forestry and recycled materials. The key steps in lignocellulosic bioethanol production are pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and recovery of non-fermentable fractions (e.g. lignin). Out of the many available lignocellulosic feedstocks some have been considered to be less tractable because the pretreatment required to make them usable includes acid hydrolysis or steam explosion with an acid catalyst. These pretreatments may lead to negative impacts on downstream processing and may lower ethanol yield or lower the value of the recoverable by-products. Also, the acidic reactants may cause corrosion and require expensive materials. Another technology for producing bioethanol from woody materials is the gasification of biomass, followed by fermentation to ethanol using anaerobic bacteria. This eliminates the need for hydrolysis to break up the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions of the biomass. In this process, the lignin fraction can also be converted into ethanol. The choice, of conversion method is based on the properties of feedstock. This study will categorize and compare the lignocellulosic feedstock options for lignocellulosic bioethanol plant.

1 illus, 4 tables, 5 ref

005130   Hota P K;Barisal A K;Dash S D (NO, University College of Engineering, Burla, Sambalpur-768 018) : Artivicial neural network method for optimal generation dispatch with multiple fuel options. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Dec), 3-10.

This paper presents an artificial neural network method to solve the optimal generation dispatch problem with multiple fuel options. Traditionally, in the optimal generation dispatch problem, the cost function for each generator is approximately represented by a single quadratic function. However, it is more realistic to represent the generation cost function for fossil fired plants as a segmented piece-wise quadratic functions, as in the case of valve point loading. Some generation units especially; those units which are supplied with multiple fuel sources (gas and oil) are faced with the problem of determining which is the most economical fuel to burn. The proposed method has applications to fossil fired generating units capable of burning gas and oil, etc, as well as, other problems which result in multiple intersecting cost curves for a particular unit. An advantage of this method is the capability to optimize over a greater variety of operating conditions. The simulation results show that the solution method is practical and valid for real time operation.

3 illus, 4 tables, 20 ref

005129   Gupta P (Genetics Div, IARI, New Delhi, Email: pritigupta.du@gmail.com) : Bioethanol production from biomass of Saccharum spontaneum. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 1-6.

Sustainable development is the underpinning principle in the panacea for almost every environmental concern. Generation of energy from the biomass can solve the purpose of environmentalists. Bioethanol and biodiesel that comprises biofuel is one such form of green energy. The major drivers for bioethanol production in India are energy security, slower potential for global warming and converting waste to energy. For Bioethanol lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant renewable resource that can serve as substrate for its production. Bioethanol may be produced by three different modes - synthetically, direct fermentation of sugars (1st generation fuels) and from other carbohydrates that can be converted to fermentable sugars (IInd generation fuels). Synthetically, ethanol can be produced by hydration of ethylene either directly in one step or indirectly in three steps. Fermentation of sugars to ethanol is a very old and well - known process, which has great industrial importance. This process is still the subject of much research and development in research institutes with the aim of getting higher product and lower by - product yields. The present work deals with the fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass (Saccharum spontaneum) to ethanol by Pichia stipitis. This process comprises of four steps viz. pretreatment of substrate, hydrolysis, detoxification and eventually fermentation to produce Bioethanol. Hydrolysates are produced by either chemical or enzymatic methods with recovery rate of 60% in chemical method and 88% in enzymatic method. Chemical hydrolysis in turn can avail various physical, chemical and biological pretreatment methods for easy hydrolysis. Hydrolysates are nasty solutions that microorganisms are not necessarily pleased to stay with; hence required detoxification by employing various procedures like direct neutralization, activated charcoal, overtiming or enzymatic detoxification. This detoxified hydrolysate of Saccharum spontaneum is then subjected to fermentation by Pichia stipitis for the production of ethanol.

4 illus, 21 ref

005128   Gupta K K;Gupta R (Instrumentation Group, B.I.T.S., Pilani-333 031, Email: kgupta@bits-pilani.ac.in) : Feature preserving speckle filtering of the SAR images by wavelet transform. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(1), 51-60.

Synthetic Aperture Radar, (SAR) images are corrupted by speckle noise due to random interference of electromagnetic waves. The speckle degrades the quality of the image and makes it difficult to interpret, analyse and classify. This paper proposes a method that reduces the speckle and preserves the features by using scale-space correlation between the scales. The results show that the proposed method is better than the widely used filters based on the spatial domain, such as Lee, Kuan, Frost, Ehfrost, Median, Gamma filters in terms of feature preservation. Moreover the proposed method achieves a wide range of balances between speckle reduction and feature preservation, and thus is applicable in different applications such as road detection, detection/ identification of bridge, and ribbon like structures. Furthermore, the proposed method does not require prior modeling of either the image or noise statistics. It uses the variance of the detail wavelets coefficients to estimate noise variance.

6 illus, 3 tables, 12 ref

005127   Gupta D P (Road Development & Additional Secretary, Ministry of Raod Transport and Highways, New Delhi) : Capacity enhancement in the road sector. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 35-8.

The overall Indian construction industry, of which the road construction is a subset, is highly unorganized. Yet, it provides a vital link between the upstream activities of production of building materials, stone aggregates, industrial products including bitumen, steel, cement and engineering and technology transfer services and the downstream activities of creating social and economic infrastructure - roads, rail, ports, airports, dams, power plants (both hydro and thermal), canals, pipelines, gas. Any investment in construction leads to a spurt in the activities of ancillary industries. Eleventh Five Year Plant (2007-12) envisages an investment of Rs.20,60,193 crore in the infrastructure Share of roads is Rs. 3,14,152 crore, i.e. an annual average investment of Rs. 60,000 crore (compare this with annual average of Rs. 29,000 crore in the 10th Plan). Apart from multi-lane highways under the NHDP, it includes an annual average expenditure of Rs.20,000 crore for rural roads alone to provide the much needed connectivity to our villages. Bulk of investment in the road sector would translate into the construction activities.

1 table, ref

005126   Ghosh J K;Somvanshi A (Civil Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247 667, Email: gikumfce@iitr.ernet.in) : Fractal-based dimensionality reduction of hyperspectral images. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(3), 235-41.

The spectral reflectance of any pixel in a remote sensing image depends on the characteristics of the particular land cover (LC) present in the Instantaneous Field of View (IFOV) of the sensor. The fractal dimension of the spectral reflectance curve (SRC) of any pixel can thus be visualized as a representation of the characteristics of the LC. Based on this, a fractal-based method for reduction of the dimensionality of Hyperspectral (HS) images has been investigated. The fractal dimension (FD) of SRC has been calculated by adopting a method based on Hausdorff metric that reduces the dimensionality from N HS bands to a single feature incorporating the characteristics associated with each of the bands. Further, it has been established that FD values can be used as a feature to identify anomaly in water cover.

4 illus, 2 tables, 12 ref

005125   Ghosh J K;Singh A (Geomatics Engineerig Group, Civil Engineerig Dep, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand-247 667, Email: gikumfce@iitr.ernet.in) : Fractal compression of satellite images. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 2008, 36(4), 299-311.

Fractal geometry provides a means for describing and analysing the complexity of various features present in digital images. In this paper, characteristics of Fractal based compression of satellite data have been tested for Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) images (of different bands and resolution). The fidelity and efficiency of the algorithm and its relationship with spatial complexity of images is also evaluated. Results obtained from fractal compression have been compared with popularly used compression methods such as JPEG 2000, WinRar. The effect of bands and pixel resolution on the compression rate has also been examined. The results from this study show that the fractal based compression method provides higher compression rate while maintaining the information content of RS images to a great extent than that of JPEG. This paper also asserts that information loss due to fractal compression is minimal. It may be concluded that fractal technique has many potential advantages for compression of satellite images.

11 illus, 6 tables, 14 ref

005124   Gangopadhyay S (NO, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi) : Innovative methods and appropriate technologies for development of rural roads. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 67-70.

7 ref

005123   Ganapathy T;Balasubramanian R;Gakkhar R P; Murugesan K (Engines Laboratory, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Dep, Indian Institute of Technolog, Roorkee, Email: tganappathi@gmail.com) : Optimization of injection system parameters and EGR on jatropha biodiesel engine using taguchi approach. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 123-30.

The diesel engine injection system parameters apart from the operating parameters such as load and speed significantly affect its performance and exhaust emissions. The effect is even adverse sometimes when the engine is tried with some alternative fuels, such as Jatropha biodiesel due to its physico-chemical properties. For better performance and to meet out stringent emission norms, these parameters have to be optimized. An experimental investigation and analysis carried out to simultaneously optimize injection system parameters and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels of small direct injection diesel engine for lower fuel consumption and higher thermal efficiency and peak cylinder pressure is presented in this paper. During the experiments, the different parameters such as fuel type, injection timing, injector opening pressure, nozzle configuration, nozzle tip protrusion, percentage of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), load torque and speed were changed. Taguchi 's signal-to-noise ratio approach was applied to obtain an optimal setting of these parameters. From the experimental results and further analysis it is concluded that under 95% confidence interval the injection timing 340°CA, injector opening pressure 250 bar, nozzle configuration 5x0.18, EGR 0%, load torque 15Nm, speed 1800rpm with Jatropha biodiesel, gave the maximum peak cylinder pressure, while the lowest BSFC with diesel fuel was obtained with nozzle configuration 4x0.18, load torque l5Nm and speed 1800rpm and the highest brake thermal efficiency with nozzle configuration 4x0.18, tip protrusion 2mm, load torque 15Nm and speed 1800rpm. However, the significant control parameters responsible for brake thermal efficiency with their percentage contribution were load torque (79.13%), speed (17.54%), nozzle configuration (1.33%) and tip protrusion (0.96%).

2 illus, 9 tables, 13 ref

005122   Deshpande D B;Nashikkar J T;Sabnis S M (Indian Roads Congress, MSRDC Ltd, Mumbai) : Large diameter pile foundations for Rajiv Gandhi sea link (Bandr-Worli) project Mumbai. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 25-33.

Bandra Worli Sea Link (named now as Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link) is a 4.7 km long eight lane bridge constructed over the Arabian Sea to facilitate speedy travel between the western suburbs and the island city of Mumbai and the first phase of the West Island Freeway. The bridge constructed using pre cast segmental technology comprises two large cable stayed bridges. The entire bridge is provided with large diameter pile foundations socketted in rock. The present Paper describes the general features of the pile foundations (over 600 piles of 1.5 and 2 m dia.) including the highlights of the Osterberg's Load Cell Test, which was carried out for the first time in this country.

7 illus, 2 tables, ref

005121   Deora B S;Singh R V (NO, S.D. Agril. Univ, S.K Nagar, Gujrat-385 506) : Stochastic modelling of water deficit. J Agrometeorol 2009, 11(1), 19-28.

A stochastic model for weekly water deficit series, using 28 years climatological data, under climatic condition of S.K. Nagar has been developed. The turning point test and Kendall's rank correlation test are applied for detecting the trend. Correlogram technique is used to detect the periodicity, which is then analyzed by Fourier series method. Significant harmonics were also identified. The statistical properties of the generated water deficit series were compared with observed series. The developed model was validated by predicting two years ahead and compared with the observed water deficit series, The test results indicated the high degree of model fitness. The developed model may be used for representing the time-based structure of the water deficit time series.

6 illus, 8 tables, 7 ref

005120   Chaturvedi D K;Malik O P;Choudhury U K (Electrical Engineerig Dep, Faculty of Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra-282 005) : Polar fuzzy adaptive power system stabilizer. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 39-45.

A neuro fuzzy logic based adaptive power system stabilizer (AFPSS) has been developed using angular speed deviation and angular acceleration as the input variables. It consists of two main parts, namely, fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and generalized neuron (GN) based identifier. The inference mechanism of the fuzzy logic controller is represented by rule-base and a data-base. Three parameters have been introduced to tune the FPSS. These parameters are decided on the basis of GN-identifier output and present system conditions. This mechanism of tuning the AFPSS makes the fuzzy logic based power system stabilizer adaptive to changes with the operating conditions. Therefore, the degradation of the system response, under a wide range of operating conditions, is less compared to the system response with a fixed-parameter conventional power system stabilizer (CPSS). Performances of the CPSS and the AFPSS are compared for different operating conditions.

4 illus, 20 ref

005119   Chakraborty S S (NO, M/s. Consulting Engineering Services (India) Private Limited, New Delhi) : Sustainable road transport for India-a need of today and challenge for tomorrow. Indian Highw 2009, 37(11), 45-50.

3 tables, ref

005118   Bianchini R V;Franke H J;Fu P;Martins J M F; Cavedal L E;Schott F S;Rigo E;Souza C C D (NO, Climate-Consulting Ltd., Brazil) : Brazilian roadmap for sustainable bioenergy production: proposals for development and deployment. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 74-82.

Brazil has potential to lead the world in biofuels production and exportation, supplying foreign markets and consolidating its position among developed economies. Possessing a vast agricultural area, innumerable freshwater aquifers and a dominant tropical climate, this nation has the resources and vocation to establish its bioenergy industries along with the ongoing effort to reduce deforestation and promote food security. However, Brazilian sugarcane ethanol still faces resistance in gaining access to foreign markets, under allegations that there is no scientific proof that it is an efficient option for climate change mitigation. Despite that fact that new practices adopted by ethanol producers (harvest mechanization & co-generation of electricity) have recently reduced CO. emissions in Brazilian ethanol's life cycle, there is still one key process from the whole productive chain not yet developed in Brazil: CO, emissions from fermentation tanks. As a large stationary source of nearly pure C0₂ capture and separation is not prohibitive from an economic point of view. Once separated, one finds himself in front of a technological revolution originated from climate change issues. Even though Carbon Capture and Recycling/ Storage has potential to impose drastic cuts to ethanol life cycle and force its acception in any foreign market, it is important to identify the fittest technologies among the booming industry of "low carbon techs". Therefore, deploying an extensive Roadmap to both assess novel technologies and identify existing gaps at domestic industries is an effective strategy to perform such task. The project consists in a series of workshops with academy, industries, government and society to gather all data. The information will be processed in charts, graphics and tables that help managers to priorize actions and establish efficient strategies to implement a new industry in Brazil without facing undetected bottlenecks.

6 illus, 1 table, 11 ref

005117   Benerji A;Balakrishnan M;Kishore V V N (NO, TERI Univ, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110 070, Email: aditi@teriuniversity.ac.in) : Comparison and evaluation of two pretreatment processes for enhancing enzymatic saccharification of sweet sorghum bagasse. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 15-19.

With world reserves of petroleum fast depleting and growing environmental degradation concerns, ethanol has emerged as an important alternative transportation fuel. Lignocellulosic biomass is a readily available resource that can be used for ethanol production after breaking the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions into their component monosaccharides. In this study, investigated the release of reducing sugars from sweet sorghum bagasse using a two - stage chemical pretreatment (dilute acid hydrolysis followed by alkaline-peroxide delignijlcation) and steam pretreatment; the solid residue obtained in both cases were further subjected to enzymatic saccharification. The results show that steam pretreatment followed by enzymatic saccharification is more promising. It released 75.7% of the total sugars originally present in the bagasse, compared to 66.1% obtained with two-stage chemical pretreatment-enzymatic saccharification.

3 illus, 10 ref

005116   Barisal A K;Hota P K;Dash S K (Electrical Engineerig Dep, University College of Engineering, Burla, Sambalpur-768 018) : Short-term generation schedulig with take-or-pay fuel contract using an evolutionary programming technique. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 46-51.

Describes an evolutionary programming based optimization technique for solving the short-term generation scheduling problem with take-or-pay fuel contract. The load constraints, operation constraints and the fuel constraints are fully taken into account, and the proposed methodology handles them effectively. The methodology described in this paper is a general methodology based on evolutionary programming technique which is capable of providing the global optimum generation schedule under take-or-pay fuel contract irrespective of any kind of heat-rate functions including the effect of valve-point loadings. The solution methodology is demonstrated through a test example, in which the generation loadings of a fuel-constrained and an equivalent steam unit are scheduled in a 24-h schedule horizon. The proposed method has been applied to the various test cases and the results obtained are discussed. The evolutionary programming based technique in obtaining optimal generation dispatch can considerably make the automatic generation control strategy convenient and less time consuming.

3 illus, 3 tables, 12 ref

005115   Barisal A K;Hota P K;Chakrabarti R (Electrical Engineering Dep, University College of Engineering, Burla, Sambalpur-768 018) : Large scale economic load dispatch by clonal selection algorithm. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Sep), 26-32.

Presents a new optimization approach involving artificial immune system (AIS) applied to economic load dispatch (ELD) with non-smooth fuel cost functions. The approach utilizes the clonal selection principle and evolutionary approach wherein cloning of antibodies is performed followed by hypermutation. AIS utilizes the sum of total generation cost and penalty multiplier with violation of constraints as the objective function. The proposed method easily takes care of non-smoothness of cost function arising due to ramp rate limits, prohibited operating zones and valve point loading effects. To verify the robustness and superiority of the proposed AIS, it is applied in ELD problem with 40 generating units and the result reveals that the proposed AIS provides optimal solution as compared to the results of other existing techniques.

3 illus, 6 tables, 16 ref

005114   Anil Kumar;Valoyi R;Ochieng A;Onyango M (Chemical and Process Engineering Dep, MOI Univ, Kenya, Email: akumar@mu.ac.ke) : Acid-base transesterification of oil with high free fatty acid content. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 7-14.

Biodiesel has emerged as one of the alternative biofuels to non-renewable fuels, and the typical method of producing biodiesel is by transesterification process. This process was employed in the present work to synthesize biodiesel from waste vegetable oil using acid and base catalysis methods to improve the yields and to identify the optimum operating conditions. Response surface methodology was used to determine the optimum operating parameters. The free fatty acids (FFAs) in the oil were reduced using acid catalyst (H₂SO₄) before a base catalyst (NaOH) was added. The duration for acid catalyzed process was determined such that it was just short enough to esterify the FFAs that were in the oil. The subsequent base catalyzed synthesis results showed that biodiesel was formed and the highest biodiesel yield was at 2% weight catalyst, 50°C and reaction time of 1.5 h. A further increase in temperature at 2% catalyst weight favoured the formation of soap and had a negative impact on the yield of biodiesel. The yield increased with an increase in temperature, catalyst weight and reaction time. The highest yield was at 3% weight catalyst, 60°C and reaction time of 2 h. The results of the acid-base catalyzed synthesis showed that biodiesel yield was improved as compared to the base catalyzed synthesis alone due to the fact that acid catalyst was responsible for esterifying the FFAs, and subsequently when the base catalyst was added, more biodiesel was formed because no soap formation took place in the reaction. The kinematic viscosity of acid-base catalyzed biodiesel satisfied the standard test method for kinematic viscosity (ASTM D445).

6 illus, 2 tables, 11 ref

005113   Altenburg T (German Development Institute, Bonn, Germany, Email: tilman.altenburg@die-gdi.de) : Biodiesel policies for India: achievig optimal socio-economic and environmental impact. J Biofuel 2010, 1(1), 163-71.

Production of biodiesel from tree-borne oilseeds is often praised as a solution to many problems of rural development in India: employment generation on wastelands; afforestation of eroded land; soil conservation; a new source of energy, etc. Whether and to what extent these goals are achieved depends on the selected oilseed species, and, more importantly, the mode of production. We found many different ways of organising the biodiesel value chain that have emerged on the basis of varying local conditions and power relations among interest groups in five Indian states. Each mode has different socio-economic and environmental impacts, and there are manifold trade-offs. The article highlights the pros and cons of different modes of value chain organisation. It also discusses policies to improve their development effects. To choose the right policy-mix, policymakers need to be clear about their objectives and potential trade-offs. The article further emphasizes the need for better research before poor farmers are encouraged to plant oilseeds; and it discusses a number of supply and demand-side policies to accelerate the use of oilseeds for biodiesel in India.

9 ref

005112   Ali M H;Adham A K M;Rahman M M;Islam A K M R (Agricultural Engineering Div, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, P.O. Box-4, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh, Email: mha_bina@yahoo.com) : Sensitivity of Penman-Monteith estimates of reference evapotranspiration to errors in input climatic data. J Agrometeorol 2009, 11(1), 1-8.

The Penman-Monteith (P-M) equation with its new definition of reference crop evapotranspiration (ET₀) is recommended by FAO as the standard method of crop water requirement calculation, and also to compare other methods. The ET₀ component of the CROPWAT model, which is based on the P-M equation, was examined for sensitivity to errors in input data under the environment of a semi-humid sub-tropic region of Bangladesh. The results showed that the ET₀ estimates are most sensitive to maximum temperature and least sensitive to minimum temperature. The order of sensitivity noticed is: maximum temperature <62> relative humidity <62> sunshine duration <62> wind speed <62> minimum temperature. The sensitivity coefficients showed seasonal variation. The model parameter 'Angstrom's coefficients' showed sensitivity to errors in single or pair values. The implications of sensitivity to ET₀ estimates and in selecting appropriate method for ET₀ estimation in a data-short environment are discussed.

2 illus, 5 tables, 5 ref

005111   Ali M H (Agricultural Engg. Div, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, P.O. Box-04, Mymensingh 2200, Bangladesh, Email: mha_bina@yahoo.com) : Irrigation-yield response factor of winter wheat for different growth phases. J Agrometeorol 2009, 11(1), 9-14.

The yield response factor of semi-dwarf winter wheat was determined from field experimental data conducted during three consecutive years (2002-03 to 2004-05). The yield response factor (k_y) varies depending on growth phases and also among seasons. On an average, the k for early, vegetative, booting-heading, and flowering-soft dough stages were 0.27, 0.21, 0.25, and 0.17, respectively. According to the value of yield response factor, the most sensitive growth stages were in the order: CRl<62> booting-heading<62>maximum tillering<62> flowering-soft dough. For the alternate deficit strategies (deficit at tillering + flowering -soft dough; deficit at CRI + booting-heading stages), the k_y values were 0.77 and 0.61, respectively. For the whole growing period, the k_y values were 1.58, 0.43, 2.29, and 0.61 for deficit at early, vegetative, booting-heading, and flowering-soft dough stages, respectively. The sensitivity index (lembda i, of Jensen model) for early, vegetative, booting-heading, and flowering-soft dough phases were 0.35, 0.22, 0.31, and 0.14, respectively. A more sensitive growth stage has a higher value of lambda i, and therefore water supply is more important at early and booting-heading phases.

1 illus, 4 tables, 18 ref

005110   Agarwal P;Pandey A K;Verma V K (Electrical Engineering Dep, I I T, Roorkee-247 667) : Implementation of SVM technique in modified self-commutating CSI-fed induction motor drive. J Instn Engrs-Pt EL 2009, 90(Dec), 11-7.

The paper presents the implementation of space vector modulation technique in modified self-commutating CSI-fed induction motor drive. The principle of space vector modulation technique and its digital implementation is discussed in detail. Software of the proposed method of implementation is described through flow charts. The simulation results of the drive are shown at the different operating frequencies and compared with the experimental results to validate the implementation.

10 illus, 7 ref

023778   Venkatesan M V;Manickavasagam A;Rajadurai A (Technical Training Centre, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai) : Poka - yoke in welding. Indian Weld J 2007, 40(3), 28-30.

Poka-Yoke is a tool which achieves 100% defect free product at low cost with the aid of low cost equipments. These low cost equipments aids the employee to manufacture defect free product. The aim of this study is to develop Poka-Yoke methods in a welding application. Few parameters which affect the quality of the weld are identified, and various methods are developed to control these parameters and eliminate defects. The parameters identified are shielding gas flow rate, pre and post heat temperature, welding sequence and electricity. These parameters are recorded in a standard format. Poka-Yoke Techniques were applied to control the above said parameters and ensure error free welding in ICF.

3 tables

023777   Torabi Poudeh H;Fathi-Moghadam M;Ghomeshi M; Shafaei M (School of Water Sciences Engineering, Shahid Chamran Univ, Ahvaz, Iran, Email: fathi49@gmail.com) : Motion of a density current head in a diverging channel. J envir Sci Engng 2008, 50(1), 63-8.

Velocity of density current head in the diverging channel, where a river enters a dam reservoir, lake, or sea, is a key parameter when evaluating the extent to which suspended material travels, and determining the type and distribution of sediment in the reservoir. Effects of the channel degree of divergence on the density current head velocity were experimentally evaluated. Experiments were conducted in a 6.0m long and 0.72m wide flume at two slopes of 0.009 and 0.016. Head velocity was measured at three diverging degrees of 8,12,26, also in a uniform cross section channel 0.2 m wide for various discharges. For the same slope and density current discharge, results showed that head velocity is higher in the diverging channels compared to that in the uniform cross section channel. As the channel degree of divergence was increased, the head velocity also increased. The increase of head velocity was insignificant beyond 12 degrees of divergence. In consent to the previous studies, the current head velocity increased as the bed slope increased. Using theory of dimensional analysis supported by experiments, a mathematical model was developed to calculate the head velocity for a variety of slopes and degrees of divergence.

6 illus, 19 ref

023776   Srinikethan G;Shri Hari S;Pradeepan V S (Chemical Engineering Dep, NITK, Surathkal-575 025, Email: pradeepaec@yahoo.co.in) : Effect of media characteristics on performance of upflow aerobic biofilters. J envir Sci Engng 2008, 50(1), 75-82.

Laboratory studies were conducted to assess the influence of media related factors such as porosity, pore size, particle size and specific surface area on the performance of upflow aerobic biofilters (ABFs). Three simple models of 8 litre capacity upflow submerged ABFs packed with support media of size 40 mm, 20 mm and 10 mm respectively were installed. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) was maintained as 12 hours. The study was carried out for a period of 90 days. The reactor performance indicated that the aerobic biofilter (ABF-3), associated with media of lowest porosity, pore size, particle size and highest specific surface area, demonstrating the highest BOD and COD removal efficiency of 93.32% and 85.01% respectively.

2 illus, 3 tables, 16 ref