University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

About: University of Petroleum and Energy Studies is a education organization based out in Dehra Dūn, Uttarakhand, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Cloud computing. The organization has 1766 authors who have published 2975 publications receiving 17309 citations.

A review on harvesting, oil extraction and biofuels production technologies from microalgae

Abstract: Microalgae are receiving increasing attention worldwide as an alternative and renewable source for energy production. Through various conversion processes, microalgae can be used to produce many different kinds of biofuels, which include biodiesel, bio-syngas, bio-oil, bio-ethanol, and bio-hydrogen. However, large scale production of microalgal biofuels, via many available conversion techniques, faces a number of technical challenges which have made the current growth and development of the algal biofuel industry economically unviable. Therefore, in addition to algae culture and growth, it is also essential to develop cost-effective technologies for efficient biomass harvesting, lipid extraction and biofuels production. This review aims to collate and present an overview of current harvesting, oil extraction and biofuels production technologies from microalgae. Since much of the current studies on oil extraction are focused on biodiesel production from microalga, this study, apart from discussing the various biodiesel production techniques in the later sections, has also done a detailed discussion on the production techniques of other biofuels.

Hydrogen: A sustainable fuel for future of the transport sector

Abstract: Mobility (transport of people and goods) is a socio-economic reality and need for which is bound to grow in the coming years. Modes of transport should be safe, economic and reasonably environmental friendly. Hydrogen could be ideal as a synthetic energy carrier for transport sector as its gravimetric energy density is very high, abundantly available in combined form on the earth and its oxidation product (water) does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. However, its sustainable production from renewable resources economically, on-board storage to provide desirable driving range, usage in durable energy conversion devices and development of infrastructure for its delivery remain significant challenges. In this article, recent developments in the field of production, storage, transport and delivery of hydrogen along with environmental and safety aspects of its use as an energy carrier are presented. Almost any energy source can be used to produce hydrogen. Presently, non-renewable sources dominate hydrogen production processes but the need of the hour is to develop and promote the share of renewable sources for hydrogen production to make it completely sustainable. Hydrogen may be used as fuel for almost any application, where fossil fuels are used presently and would offer immediate benefits over the conventional fuels, if produced from renewable sources. For achieving a successful "hydrogen economy" in the near future, the technical and economic challenges associated with hydrogen must be addressed quickly. Finding feasible solutions to different challenges may take some time but technological breakthrough by way of on-going efforts do promise hydrogen as the ultimate solution for meeting our future energy needs for the transport sector.

IoT based smart parking system

Abstract: In recent times the concept of smart cities have gained grate popularity. Thanks to the evolution of Internet of things the idea of smart city now seems to be achievable. Consistent efforts are being made in the field of IoT in order to maximize the productivity and reliability of urban infrastructure. Problems such as, traffic congestion, limited car parking facilities and road safety are being addressed by IoT. In this paper, we present an IoT based cloud integrated smart parking system. The proposed Smart Parking system consists of an on-site deployment of an IoT module that is used to monitor and signalize the state of availability of each single parking space. A mobile application is also provided that allows an end user to check the availability of parking space and book a parking slot accordingly. The paper also describes a high-level view of the system architecture. Towards the end, the paper discusses the working of the system in form of a use case that proves the correctness of the proposed model.

Machine Learning Applications for Precision Agriculture: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract: Agriculture plays a vital role in the economic growth of any country. With the increase of population, frequent changes in climatic conditions and limited resources, it becomes a challenging task to fulfil the food requirement of the present population. Precision agriculture also known as smart farming have emerged as an innovative tool to address current challenges in agricultural sustainability. The mechanism that drives this cutting edge technology is machine learning (ML). It gives the machine ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. ML together with IoT (Internet of Things) enabled farm machinery are key components of the next agriculture revolution. In this article, authors present a systematic review of ML applications in the field of agriculture. The areas that are focused are prediction of soil parameters such as organic carbon and moisture content, crop yield prediction, disease and weed detection in crops and species detection. ML with computer vision are reviewed for the classification of a different set of crop images in order to monitor the crop quality and yield assessment. This approach can be integrated for enhanced livestock production by predicting fertility patterns, diagnosing eating disorders, cattle behaviour based on ML models using data collected by collar sensors, etc. Intelligent irrigation which includes drip irrigation and intelligent harvesting techniques are also reviewed that reduces human labour to a great extent. This article demonstrates how knowledge-based agriculture can improve the sustainable productivity and quality of the product.