Previously we covered Renewable and Non Renewable Energy resources. Let’s dive into some of the trending energy resources in this article, which are as follows:
Fuel Cell/Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Fuel cell helps convert chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction of positively charged hydrogen ions with an oxidizing agent called oxygen. We get water as the by-product of this chemical reaction. Electrolytes are used for chemical reactions. Some of the fuel cell applications are:
Power Generation
Powering temporary buildings
Material Handling
Transportation
The advantages of Fuel Cells are as follows:
As long as the fuel is there in the cell it will keep on creating power.
The amount of energy generated is directly proportional to the amount of oxygen and hydrogen.
There is no need for recharging.
Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs)
As Hydrogen is used in Fuel cells, sewage water or organic waste is used in MFCs and bacteria act as a catalyst. MFCs can also be used in water treatment due to the presence of organic substances.
Lithium-ion Battery
It’s a battery that came in the 1970s and was introduced by M Whitingham. It became a trendy battery, whose main components are Cathode, Anode, and Electrolytes. It is used in mobile phones, laptops, e-readers etc.
Some challenges include a lack of local production, high capital cost, lack of infrastructure, India's dependency on the import of Lithium Ion batteries, etc.
Waste to Power
Wastes like Urban waste, Industrial waste, Biomass waste, and Biomedical waste can be converted into a resource that can provide us with energy. Through these waste-to-energy technologies, we can also fight the rising amount of solid and liquid waste and hence can nurture the environment.
Such technologies are thermal conversion, thermo-chemical conversion, biochemical conversion, and electrochemical methods.
Polycrack is one of the first government-owned Waste-to-Energy Plant in Odisha. A very large amount of mixed
Biogas
Solid waste like rice husk, coffee husk, coconut shell, and other industrial waste when undergoing gasification, can be produced that can be used for heating and generation of electricity. When the waste is heated at 400-500 degrees, it produces Biochar which can be used to increase the fertility of soil and protect the soil against some of the soil diseases.
Biofuel
Material such as fuel wood, fuel chips, and pellets are primarily used for producing biofuel. There are 4 generations of Biofuel:
First-generation: food-crop derivatives are used
Second-generation: feedstock of first-generation biofuels is used
Third-generation: called algol-oil or algoil, algae plants are used for production
Fourth-generation: a combination of photovoltaic or inorganic water-splitting catalysts is used
Ethanol is also a kind of biofuel that is produced as a by-product of sugarcane. It can be used for blending in petrol. It supports the agricultural sector, reduces import dependency, and is an environmentally friendly fuel.
Methanol is another biomass being looked upon as a fuel that can be used with petrol and whose gaseous version can be mixed up with LPG. It has so much scope as it is a clean source of energy and also very affordable.
Flex-fuel Vehicles (FFV)
This is the kind of vehicle that can be used which can work in hybrid mode i.e on petrol, mixed petrol with Ethanol and Methanol, and also on gasoline. With many advantages which are attached to FFVs, there are some disadvantages like customer acceptance, high cost, higher cost for hybrid engines, etc. The government is working continuously towards a green environment and efforts to bring vehicles more into people’s lives are being made.
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