Renewable photovoltaic (PV) energy is a primary contributor to sustainable power generation in microgrids. However, PV grid-tied generators remain functional as long as the grid voltage and the input PV source remain normal. Abnormal conditions like transient grid sags or solar irradiation flickering can make the grid-tied inverter go offline. Simultaneous shut down of PV generators residing in the distribution grid may lead to an overall grid instability or outage. Therefore, PV generators must be equipped with fault-ride-through mechanisms in order to remain connected and operational during faults. This paper presents a PV-inverter with low-voltage-ride-through (LVRT) and low-irradiation (LR) compensation to avoid grid flickers. The single-phase inverter rides through the voltage sags while injecting reactive power into the grid. The proposed control strategy ensures a steady DC-link voltage and remains connected to the grid during AC-side low voltage and DC-side low-irradiation faults. Unlike other PV inverters, the controller maintains the maximum-power-point-tracking (MPPT) in all conditions. LVRT, constant power output, and robust MPPT are the noticeable features of the proposed system. Frequency analysis, simulations, and a laboratory prototype validate the proposed control strategy.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management has always been a challenge for the community impacting environmental sustainability. The anticipated reasons include an increase in population and prosperity. Among all the viable methods for MSW management, incineration technology is the most matured and feasible method. Incineration technology is based on combustion process of waste assisted by fossil fuels. These fuels are not only depleting with every day, but also a source environmental hazards upon burning. Current study investigates the feasibility of hydrogen as a primary combustion fuel for municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration. A vertical shaft type incinerator has been designed with the ability to operate on pure hydrogen. A pre-mixed hydrogen and oxygen fuel in the stoichiometric ratio has been fed through specially designed burners. The burners have been so designed to achieve homogenous heat distribution. To determine the working of incinerator at maximum allowable moisture content, a variety of homogeneous and heterogeneous MSWs with high moisture percentages between 60 and 90% have been tested. The maximum temperature of the incineration has been recorded to be 850°C. A high reduction in weight percent i.e., 86-94%, and loss on ignition (1.74%-6.41%) have been observed. The hydrogen-based incinerator exhibited the highest performance for homogenous paper and food waste (1kg) with 60% and 87% moisture content respectively. The energy consumption was 118Wh and 353Wh respectively and achieved 97.14% and 88.88% reduction in weight respectively. Increase in moisture content of the waste leads to decrease the performance of hydrogen based incineration system.

Production of hydrogen by means of renewable energy sources is a way to eliminate dependency of the system on the electric grid. This study is based on a technique involving coupling of an oxyhydrogen (HHO) electrolyzer with solar PV to produce clean HHO gas as a fuel. One of objectives of this study was to develop a strategy to make the electrolyzer independent of other energy sources and work as a standalone system based on solar PV only. A DC-DC buck convertor is used with an algorithm that can track the maximum power and can be fed to the electrolyzer by PV while addressing its intermittency. The electrolyzer is considered to be an electrical load that is connected to solar PV by means of a DC-DC convertor. An algorithm is designed for this DC-DC convertor that allows maximization and control of power transferred from solar PV to the electrolyzer to produce the maximum HHO gas. This convertor is also responsible for operating the electrolyzer in its optimum operating region to avoid overheating. The DC-DC converter has been tested under simulated indoor conditions and uncontrolled outdoor conditions. Analysis of this DC-DC convertor based on maximum power tracking algorithm showed 94% efficiency.

E-mobility is an emerging means of transportation, mainly due to the environmental impact of petroleum-based fuel vehicles and oil prices’ peak. However, electric vehicles face several challenges by the nature of technology. Consequently, electric vehicles have a limited travel range and are extremely heavy. In this research, an investigation is carried out on different measures to reduce the DC-link capacitor size in the drive train of an electric vehicle. The investigation is based on software simulations. The DC-link capacitor must be dimensioned with regards to relevant points of operation, which are defined by the rotation speed and torque of the motor as well as the available DC-link voltage. This also includes the field-oriented control (FOC). In order to optimally operate a three-phase inverter in the electric drive train, a suitable type and sizing of the capacitor was studied based on mathematical equations and simulations. Two measures were examined in this study: firstly, an auxiliary passive notch filter introduced in the electric drive train circuit is explored. Based on this measure, an advanced modulation scheme exploiting the control of individual currents within segmented windings of the PMSM is investigated in detail. It was seen that saw-tooth carrier modulation used in the parallel three-phase inverter is found to reduce DC-link capacitor size in the electric drive train circuit by 70%.

Nickel–chrome coatings are widely used to improve surface properties and service life of engineering components made from different ferrous and non–ferrous alloys. Herein, an attempt has been made to investigate the impact of various voltages ranging from 26–30 V and spray–off distances ranging from 100–300 mm of electric-arc spray technique on the surface properties of Ni–Cr coating developed on 304L stainless steel. Thickness, porosity, surface morphology, surface roughness, and hardness of Ni–Cr coatings were determined to study the impact of deposition parameters. Coating deposition at 26 V exhibited the lowest porosity and the highest percentage of Cr nodules among all samples. The comparison study showed that coating deposit developed at 26 V and 100 mm spray–off distance has a maximum thickness, followed by coating developed at 30 V and 100 mm spray–off distance. This indicated that coating deposit developed at 100 mm spray–off distance results in thicker coatings. Maximum hardness was achieved at 30 V and 300 mm spray–off distance. The shorter spray–off distance revealed that coatings tend to be thicker and harder resulting in longer coating life.