This paper presents the results of a field study undertaken all over the Punjab, Pakistan, to evaluate the socio-economic and climatic impact of photovoltaic-operated high-efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS), i.e., drip and sprinkler irrigation systems. Nearly half of the rural population relies on agriculture for a living, and the recent energy crisis has had a negative impact on rural communities. Farmers’ reliance on fossil fuels for the operation of irrigation systems has increased exponentially, resulting in the high costs of agricultural production. Primary data regarding on-farm agriculture and irrigation practices used in this study were collected through an intensive on-farm survey, while secondary data were taken from published reports and statistics. The results of the current investigation show that the installation of PV systems has resulted in the increased adoption of high-efficiency irrigation systems, a reduction in the high operational costs incurred on account of old diesel-powered pumping systems (with an annual saving of 6.6 million liters of diesel), a 100% increase in farmer’s income, a reduction of 17,622 tons of CO₂ emissions per annum, and 41% savings in water. The unit cost of PV-powered HEIS was found to be 0.1219 USD/kWh, which was 4% and 66% less than subsidized electricity cost and diesel cost, respectively.

In this present study, cold flow properties of biodiesel produced from palm oil were improved by adding cotton seed oil into palm oil. Three different mixtures of palm and cotton oil were prepared as P50C50, P60C40, and P70C30. Among three oil mixtures, P60C40 was selected for biodiesel production via ultrasound assisted transesterification process. Physiochemical characteristics—including density, viscosity, calorific value, acid value, and oxidation stability—were measured and the free fatty acid composition was determined via GCMS. Response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) techniques were utilized for the sake of relation development among operating parameters (reaction time, methanol-to-oil ratio, and catalyst concentration) ultimately optimizing yield of palm–cotton oil sourced biodiesel. Maximum yield of P60C40 biodiesel estimated via RSM and ANN was 96.41% and 96.67% respectively, under operating parameters of reaction time (35 min), M:O molar ratio (47.5 v/v %), and catalyst concentration (1 wt %), but the actual biodiesel yield obtained experimentally was observed 96.32%. The quality of the RSM model was examined by analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANN model statistics exhibit contented values of mean square error (MSE) of 0.0001, mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.1374, and mean absolute deviation (MAD) of 2.5088. RSM and ANN models provided a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.9560 and a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.9777 respectively.

This paper presents the optimal design of a photovoltaic (PV) drip irrigation system. Designing a PV system is based on calculated motor power, solar irradiance level and other meteorological parameters at a certain geographical location. Therefore, a simulation study of the designed PV system were performed by a PVGIS simulation tool. The PVGIS simulation tool analyzes the potential of power generation with optimal PV modules tilt angle and orientation on a monthly and annual basis, and an analysis of the overall shading situation (horizon) as well as the internal shading between the PV module rows. The selection of water pump and motor depends upon the depth of water table and desired discharge and head to operate the irrigation system. Furthermore, a locally developed Solar-Drip Simulation Tool (SoSiT) was used for load and supply optimization. Based on ambient temperature, solar irradiation and water requirements, SoSiT calculates net generation by a PV system and resultant water output of the irrigation system. The particular drip irrigation site has two zones; the maximum water requirement for zone 1 (row crop) is 50,918.40 Liters/day and for zone 2 (orchards) is 56,908.80 L/day. From PVGIS simulation results, the maximum daily energy production of the designed PV system was 6.48 kWh and monthly energy production was 201 kWh in the month of May. SoSiT results showed that the PV system fulfilled the required crop requirement by only using 28% of the potential water supply, and 72% of the potential water supply from a solar-powered pump was not used. This value is high, and it is recommended to grow more or different crops to utilize the fuel-free electricity from the PV system. The unit cost of PV-powered drip irrigation is USD 0.1013/kWh, which is 4.74% and 66.26% lower than the cost of subsidized electricity and diesel, respectively.

With the depletion of traditional fossil fuels, their disastrous impact on the environment and rising costs, renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) energy are rapidly emerging as sustainable and clean sources of power generation. The performance of photovoltaic systems is based on different factors such as the type of photovoltaic modules, irradiation potential and geographic location. In this research, PVsyst simulation software is used to design and simulate a hybrid photovoltaic system used to operate energy-efficient street lightning system. The simulation is performed to analyze the monthly/annual energy generated (kWh) by the hybrid system and specific power production (kWh/KWp). Additionally, various PV system losses are also investigated. The hybrid PV system has 4 parallel strings, and each string has 13 series-connected (mono crystalline 400 W Canadian Solar) PV modules. The energy storage system consists of 16 Narada (AcmeG 12 V 200) batteries with a nominal capacity of 1600 Ah. The simulation results show that the total annual energy production and specific energy production, were calculated to be 26.68 MWh/year and 1283 kWh/kWp/year, respectively. Simulation results also show the maximum energy injected into the utility grid in the month of June (1.814 MWh) and the minimum energy injected into the utility grid in the month of January (0.848 MWh). The battery cycle state of wear is 84.8%, and the static state of wear is 91.7%. Performance ratio (PR) analysis shows that the highest performance ratio of the hybrid system was 68.2% in December, the lowest performance ratio was 62.7% in May and the annual average performance ratio of a hybrid PV system is 65.57%. After identifying the major source of energy losses, the detailed losses for the whole year were computed and shown by the loss diagrams. To evaluate the cost effectiveness of the proposed system, a simple payback period calculation was performed.

Electric discharge machining with a powder mix dielectric is a promising technique to harden a work piece’s surface using electricity with a high energy density. The quality of the electrical discharge-machined surface is related to its surface integrity in which the surface’s roughness, residual stresses, micro hardness and surface micro cracks are some of the major factors. In this research, graphite powder was mixed in a dielectric with a particle size of 20 µm, 30 µm, and 40 µm, with the concentration of the graphite powder ranging from 2 g/L to 4 g/L. Moreover, the peak current and pulse time on were also coupled with an additive of graphite powder to investigate the effect on the surface quality, i.e., the recast layer thickness, micro hardness and crater depth as well as the material removal rate (MRR) and tool wear rate (TWR). A Box–Behnken design was employed to design the experiments and the experimental results revealed that the graphite powder size and concentration coupled with the electrical parameters (peak current and pulse time on) significantly influenced the recast layer thickness, micro hardness, crater size, MRR and TWR. The crater depth and micro hardness were maximized at a higher concentration and particle size, while the recast layer thickness was reduced with a higher gain size.