Power sector development in India with CO2 emission targets: Effects of regional grid integration and the role of clean technologies

The power sector in India at present comprises of five separate regional electricity grids having practically no integrated operation in between them. This study analyses the utility planning, environmental and economical effects of integrated power sector development at the national level in which the regional electric grids are developed and operated as one integrated system. It also examines the effects of selected CO₂ emission reduction targets in the power sector and the role of renewable power generation technologies in India. The study shows that the integrated development and operation of the power system at the national level would reduce the total cost including fuel cost by 4912 million $, total capacity addition by 2784 MW, while the emission of CO₂, SO₂ and NO_x would be reduced by 231.6 (1.9%), 0.8 (0.9%), 0.4 (1.2%) million tons, respectively, during the planning horizon. Furthermore, the study shows that the expected unserved energy, one of the indices of generation system reliability, would decrease to 26 GWh under integrated national power system from 5158 GWh. As different levels of CO₂ emission reduction targets were imposed, there is a switching of generation from conventional coal plants to gas fired plants, clean coal technologies and nuclear based plants. As a result the capacity expansion cost has increased. It was found that wind power plant is most attractive and economical in the Indian perspective among the renewable options considered (Solar, wind and biomass). Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Small-scale CDM projects in a competitive electricity industry: How good is a simplified baseline methodology?

Setting baseline emissions is one of the principal tasks involved in awarding credits for greenhouse gas emission (GHG) mitigation projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). An emission baseline has to be project-specific in order to be accurate. However, project-specific baseline calculations are subject to high transaction costs, which disadvantage small-scale projects. For this reason, the CDM-Executive Board (CDM-EB) has approved simplified baseline methodologies for selected small-scale CDM project categories. While the simplified methods help reduce the transaction cost, they may also result in inaccuracies in the estimation of emission reductions from CDM projects. The purpose of this paper is to present a rigorous economic scheduling method for calculating the GHG emission reduction in a hypothetical competitive electricity industry due to the operation of a renewable energy-based power plant under CDM and compare the GHG emission reduction derived from the rigorous method with that obtained from the use of a simplified (i.e., standardized) method approved by the CDM-EB. A key finding of the paper is that depending upon the level of power demand, prices of electricity and input fuels, the simplified method can lead to either significant overestimation or substantial underestimation of emission reduction due to the operation of renewable energy-based power projects in a competitive electricity industry.     

Snowpack response in the Assiniboine-Red River basin associated with projected global warming of 1.0 °C to 3.0 °C

This study assesses snow response in the Assiniboine-Red River basin, located in the Lake Winnipeg watershed, due to anthropogenic climate change. We use a process-based distributed snow model driven by an ensemble of eight statistically downscaled global climate models (GCMs) to project future changes under policy-relevant global mean temperature (GMT) increases of 1.0 °C to 3.0 °C above the pre-industrial period. Results indicate that basin scale seasonal warmings generally exceed the GMT increases, with greater warming in winter months. The majority of GCMs project wetter winters and springs, and drier summers, while autumn could become either drier or wetter. An analysis of snow water equivalent (SWE) responses under GMT changes reveal higher correlations of snow cover duration (SCD), snowmelt rate, maximum SWE (SWE_max) and timing of SWE_max with winter and spring temperatures compared to precipitation, implying that these variables are predominantly temperature controlled. Consequently, under the GMT increases from 1.0 °C to 3.0 °C, the basin will experience successively shorter SCD, slower snowmelt, smaller monthly SWE and SWE_max, earlier SWE_max, and a transition from snow-dominated to rain-snow hybrid regime. Further, while the winter precipitation increases for some GCMs compensate the temperature-driven changes in SWE, the increases for most GCMs occur as rainfall, thus limiting the positive contribution to snow storage. Overall, this study provides a detailed diagnosis of the snow regime changes under the policy-relevant GMT changes, and a basis for further investigations on water quantity and quality changes.     

Assessing terrestrial wildlife populations in the Toronto and Region Area of Concern

Beneficial use impairments (BUIs) under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement identify environmental issues requiring remedial action within the Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). We conducted this study to support the assessment of the wildlife component of BUI 3: degradation of fish and wildlife populations. We compared bird and amphibian (frogs and toads) data from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s Terrestrial Long-term Monitoring Program in the Toronto and Region AOC to an adjacent, but otherwise similar, reference watershed, Duffins Creek. Twelve of 13 targets were met within the AOC for forest bird, wetland bird, meadow bird and amphibian populations based on averages of mean annual values at sites within the AOC that were within two standard deviations of averages at sites in the Duffins Creek reference watershed between 2008 and 2017. Even though wildlife populations within the AOC were within the normal range of variability expected from a reference watershed, they were often at lower levels than within the Duffins Creek reference watershed. In addition, forest bird and amphibian populations were negatively affected by urbanization within the AOC and meadow bird indices declined. We conclude that while wildlife populations within the AOC currently meet targets for BUI 3, they continue to be negatively impacted by numerous stressors that are primarily related to past and ongoing urbanization. Thus, continued restoration of wildlife habitat and protection of existing habitat within the AOC is highly recommended.     

Seasonal variation in light penetration and subsurface chlorophyll-α in southern Lake Michigan observed by a glider

The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) in collaboration with the Great Lakes Observing System and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (NOAA GLERL) deployed an autonomous underwater glider in southern Lake Michigan several times per year between 2012 and 2019 to collect offshore (>30 m depth) limnological measurements, including temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (beginning during 2015), and chlorophyll-α fluorescence. From these data, we calculated mixed layer depth, several measures of light penetration (diffuse attenuation coefficient, first optical depth, euphotic zone depth), and depth of the subsurface chlorophyll-α maxima. During summer, mean offshore mixed layer depth was typically 10–15 m, K_d for PAR was 0.1–0.17 m^?1, first optical depth was 6–9 m, euphotic zone depth was 35–40 m, and depth of subsurface chlorophyll-α maxima was 30–35 m. We also observed substantial spatial and temporal variation in these values across the basin and within and among seasons. Glider-based observations provide a wider horizontal and vertical perspective than other methods (e.g., ship- and satellite-based observations, buoys, and fixed moorings), and are therefore a valuable, complementary tool for Great Lakes limnology. The set of observations reported here provide seasonal and basin-scale information that may help to identify anomalies useful for future glider-assisted investigation into the role of biophysical processes in Great Lakes limnology and ecology.     

Plackett-burman design for determining the preference of Rhizomucor miehei lipase for FA in acidolysis reactions with coconut oil

The preference of lipase (EC 3.1.1.3) from Rhizomucor miehei in the incorporation of 11 FA, ranging from C10∶0 to C22∶6, into coconut oil TAG during acidolysis was studied by applying the Plackett-Burman experimental design. Enzymatic acidolysis reactions were carried out in hexane at 37°C for 48 h with coconut oil (0.1 M) and a mixture of 11 FA at a TAG to FA molar ratio of 1∶1. Lipase was used at the 5 wt% level. The incorporation of FA into coconut oil TAG was determined by GC. The lipase showed preference for long-chain saturated FA for incorporation into coconut oil TAG. The FA with 18 carbon atoms showed a high incorporation rate (18∶1>18∶1>18∶3). The lipase showed the least preference for the incorporation of 12∶0, which occurs in maximal concentration (46%), whereas the most preferred FA, 18∶0, occurs at a very low concentration (<2%) in coconut oil. The overall preference of lipase for the incorporation of different FA into coconut oil TAG was 18∶0>18∶2, 22∶0>18∶1, 18∶3, 14∶0, 20∶4, 22∶6>16∶0>12∶0≫10∶0.     

A reclaimer scheduling problem arising in coal stockyard management

We study a number of variants of an abstract scheduling problem inspired by the scheduling of reclaimers in the stockyard of a coal export terminal. We analyze the complexity of each of the variants, providing complexity proofs for some and polynomial algorithms for others. For one, especially interesting variant, we also develop a constant factor approximation algorithm.     

Effect of Ni Doping at Pd Site in Nb<Subscript>2</Subscript>PdS<Subscript>5</Subscript> Superconductor

The superconducting properties of Nb₂PdS₅ superconductor have been investigated with Ni doping at Pd site All the bulk polycrystalline Nb₂Pd_1?xNi_x S ₅ (0 = x ≤ 0.10) samples are crystallized in singlephase monoclinic structure. The electrical resistivity and magnetic measurements of Nb₂Pd_1?xNi_x S ₅ (0 = x ≤ 0.15) were carried out to study the variation of superconducting critical parameters with Ni doping. Superconductivity in Nb₂PdS₅ sample completely disappears for x ≥ 0.15. We observed that the ratio of upper critical field to transition temperature decreases with increasing Ni concentration. Also, the magnetization study of Nb₂Pd_1?xNi_x S ₅ (0 = x ≤ 0.15) samples shows similar superconducting behaviour. In summary, the superconductivity in Nb₂PdS₅ sample is slightly varying with partial doping of Ni at Pd site in Nb₂PdS₅ superconductor.     

Synchronization of Multiple Camera Videos Using Audio-Visual Features

Digital video capturing is getting popular with the decreasing price of camcorders and the increasing availability of devices with embedded video cameras such as digital-still cameras, mobile phones and PDAs. While a raw home video is considered as visually non-appealing, having multiple recordings of the same event provides the opportunity to combine audio and video segments from different cameras for improving quality and aesthetics. Mixing content from different recordings requires precise synchronization among the recordings. In most present applications, synchronization is done manually and considered as a very tedious task. In this paper, we propose a novel automated synchronization approach based on detecting and matching audio and video features extracted from the recorded content. We assess experimentally three realizations of this approach on a common data set and make recommendations on the usability of the different realizations in practical use cases. The realizations have no limitations on the number and movement of the cameras. Moreover, they are robust against various ambient noises and audio-visual artifacts occurring during the recordings.