UNIT- IV

ENERGY SOURCES

Syllabus:

Solar Energy: Introduction- green house effect-causes, consequences, and remedies,

harnessing of solar energy, thermal conversion-solar water heater, parabolic dish parabolic
trough and solar tower, solar power plant-construction and working, photo voltaic
conversion- construction and working of Photo voltaic cell, applications of solar energy.
Ocean thermal energy: Introduction, closed-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion
(OTEC), open cycle OTEC- schematic diagram and explanation.

GREEN HOUSE EFFECT: The process of heating of globe is called ‗Global warming‘.
This phenomenon is similar to that of green house or glass house in which glass roof allows
solar radiation inside but prevents the escape of the terrestrial radiation (heat) generated
inside the green house. As a result, inside temperature of the green house will rise and allow
tropical plants to grow on temperature soils without any discomfort hence; it takes the name
of ―green house effect‖. J.FOURIER – a French scientist first recognized in 1827. But
ANTHES differ to use the name green house effect as there was no perfect analogy between
CO2 and glass. They preferred to call ‗atmospheric effect to green house effect‘. The earth‘s
surface partly absorbs sun rays, while emits long wave infrared radiation. CO2 and water
vapour in the atmosphere strongly absorb infrared radiation and effectively block a large
fraction of the earth‘s emitted radiation. The radiation thus absorbed by carbon dioxide and
water vapour is partly returned to the earth‘s surface. The net result is that the earth‘s surface
gets heated and the phenomenon is known as Green house effect. The gases which are cause
for the global warming are known green house gases. Surface of the earth is about 15°C; this
is about 33° C higher than it would be in absence of greenhouse effect. Without this
background temperature, our earth would have remained as any other lifeless cold planet with
—18°C.

a)Carbon dioxide (CO2): It is the most important green house gas. It contributes more than
60 per cent to the warming of the globe. It stays in the atmosphere, on average, for about 500
years. Prior to industrial revolution, the CO2 concentration in the earth‘s atmosphere was 280
ppm and by 1994 it was 358 ppm with an annual increase of 1.5 ppm. If the same trend

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continues it is estimated that by the end of the 21st century the carbon dioxide concentrations
may cross 600 ppm mark.
b) Methane (CH4): It is estimated that domestic cow can produce 73,000 liters of methane
per year. Its concentration is around 1 .7 ppm and increasing at a rate of 1.1% each year.
Though one molecule of Methane is 25 times as effective as CO2 molecule at trapping heat,
it contributes around 15% of the total global warming. It stays in the troposphere for7- 10
years.
C) Nitrous oxide (N2O): Unlike other oxides of nitrogen N2O has longer life span (140 –
190 years) and its concentration in the atmosphere is 380 pp is rising at a rate of about 0.3 %
per year, because of the increased use of fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers. One molecule of
N2O is 250 times as effective as CO2 molecule at trapping heat. It accounts for 4% of the
total global warming.
d) Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): These are man-made, long-lived, stable and inert wonder
chemicals, which are responsible for the majority of the modern man‘s comforts. Now these
are mainly blamed for the destruction of protective ozone layer in the stratosphere. In
addition to this, they can act as GHGs and can bring about 11% of total global warming.
They are rising at the rate of 5% in the atmosphere. One molecule of CFC is 20,000 times as
effective as CO2 molecule at trapping heat.
e) Troposphere ozone (03): It is produced through photochemical reactions involving
Hydrocarbons and Nitrogen oxides that are coming from automobile exhaust gases. It
concentration in the atmosphere is about 0.02 ppm. It is 2000 times as effective as CO2, in
heat retention property. This gas along with water vapour and other gases may contribute 9%
of the total global warming effect.

Consequences of global warming: .

1. Melting of polar ice caps, glaciers.
2. Sea level rise, submergence of low lying areas — sinks coastal cities and islands. Maldives
may vanish by the end of this century.
3. By the year 2080, Manhattan and Shanghai could be underwater.
4. Salt water inundation, intrusion into fresh water aquifers, Water crisis.
5. Shift in rainfall pattern, Change in cropping pattern.
6. Crop failures, Starvation, hunger deaths.
7. Beach erosion, Loss of biodiversity (species extinction).
8. Corals bleaching.
9. Coastline change-disputes with maritime boundaries.
10. 1°C rise is equal to a change in latitude by 100km.
11. 2-5 rises is enough to have in Europe the climate of Africa today.
12. Drought, Desertification, Climate change, Severe storms, floods, winters, heat waves,

Green solutions to control global warming:

1. Greening of the globe can save the planet and its life: 600 million forests are necessary to
prevent global warming.
2. Enriching oceans with iron could help to absorb phytoplankton more carbon dioxide.
3. Locking carbon in tropical forest biomass is the only cost effective remedy. Seriously think
about Carbon capturing and Carbon burying.
4. Switching over to carbon free fuels. Car pooling, Mass transport, Cycle and recycle. Create
market to C02. Carbon trading
5. Adopting low carbon lifestyles and economies. Promote Veg. diets, No car days, No-car
incentives, No night time crickets.
6. Alternative energy sources or Renewable energy.

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7. Solar and Nuclear power rather than thermal power.
8. Less Carbon intensity of fossil fuels.
9. Installing fluorescent lights or natural skylights. evelopment of new technologies, such as
hydrogen cars, may reduce the consumption of petroleum and emissions of carbon dioxide.
10. Increased use of biofuels (such as ethanol fuel and biodiesel.
11. New buildings can be constructed using passive solar building design, using renewable
heat sources.
12. Reforestation and avoided deforestation.
SOLAR ENERGY:
Introduction: Solar energy is the most readily available source of energy. It is also the most
important of the non-conventional sources of energy because it is non-polluting and,
atherefore, helps in lessening the greenhouse effect. When we hang out our clothes to dry in
the sun, we use the energy of the sun. In the same way, solar panels absorb the energy of the
sun to provide heat for cooking and for heating water.

Thermal conversion
Flat plate heat collector
Solar water Heater
1. A flat plate made up of copper is coated with black colour placed in presence of sunlight
2. Due to copper which is good conductor of heat and black being a good absorbent, the
plate is heated quickly Copper plates coated with black colour are welded to the copper
plate. Through the pipes water (or) gas is passed.
3. The transfer of heat takes place between the pipes and water. The water gets heated The
hot water is stored in a insulatory tank
4. During the process high frequency radiation is emitted. To prevent this the arrangement is
protected with glass.
5. It is non-concentrating heat collector
6. It is most economic design

Uses
1. Used in hotels, hostels, hospitals, apartments
2. Used in domestic purposes

HARNESSING THE SUN'S ENERGY: Solar energy can be converted to electricity in two ways:
1. Solar photovoltaic cells (SPV): Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity,
either directly using solar photovoltaic cells (SPV). Photovoltaic cells convert light into
electric current using the photoelectric effect.

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2. Concentrated solar power plants (CSP): Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or
mirrors and tracking systems to reflect and concentrate slight on to receivers. That collects
solar energy and converts into heat. This thermal energy can then be used to produce
electricity via a steam turbine driving a generator. Two draw backs of solar energy: 1. The
amount of Sunlight that arrives at the Earth‘s surface is not constant. It depends on location,
time of day, time of year and weather
conditions. 2. Because the Sun doesn‘t
deliver large amount of energy to any one
place at any one time, a large surface area
is required to collect the energy at a useful
rate.

PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL or SOLAR

CELL:
A photovoltaic cell, commonly called a
solar cell or PV, is the technology used to
convert solar energy directly into electrical
power. A photovoltaic cell is a non
mechanical device usually made from
silicon alloys. The photo diode is madeup of semiconductor materials like silicon,
cadmium, telluride, gallium, arsenide etc which are capable of absorbing the photons of
sunlight. A p-n junction diode is formed by doping a portion of this wafer with a trivalent
impurity (for p- type) and another portion with a pentavalent impurity (for n-type). The n-
type silicon is on the front side and the p-type silicon is on the backside. An anti-reflection
coating of silicon nitrade or titanium oxide of abou 0.1um thickness is applied on the top
surface. When photons strike a photovoltaic cell, only the absorbed photons provide energy
to generate electricity. When enough Sunlight (energy) is absorbed by the material (a
semiconductor), electrons are dislodged from the material‘s atoms, Special treatment of the
material surface during manufacturing makes the front surface of the cell more receptive to
free electrons, so the electrons naturally migrate to the surface. When the electrons leave their
position, holes are formed. When many electrons, each carrying a negative charge, travel
toward the front surface of the cell, the resulting imbalance of charge between the cell‘s front
and back surfaces creates a voltage potential like the negative and positive terminals of a
battery. When the two surfaces are connected through an external load, such as an appliance,
electricity flows. The photovoltaic cell is the basic building block of a photovoltaic system.
Individual cells can vary in size from about 0.5 inches to about 4 inches across. However, one
cell only produces 1 or 2 watts. To increase power output, cells are electrically connected into
a packaged weather-tight module. Modules can be further connected to form an array. Array
is made up of one or several thousand modules. Most modern modules are about 10%
efficient in converting Sunlight. Further research is being conducted to raise this efficiency to
20%.

Some advantages of photovoltaic systems are:

I. Conversion from Sunlight to electricity is direct, so that bulky mechanical generator
systems are unnecessary.
2. PV arrays can be installed quickly and in any size.
3. The environmental impact is minimal.
4. Requiring no water for system cooling.
5. Generating no by-products

DR. PONDALA SEETHA RAM APPLIED CHEMISTRY CSIT

SPV can be used for a number of applications such as:
1. Domestic lighting. Street lighting.
2. Village electrification.
3. Water pumping.
4. Desalination of salty water.
5. Powering of remote telecommunication repeater stations.
6. Railway signals.

Solar thermal power plants: It uses the Sun‘s rays to heat a fluid to very high temperatures.
The fluid is then circulated through pipes so it can transfer its heat to water produce steam.
The steam, in turn, is converted into mechanical energy in a turbine and into electricity by a
conventional generator coupled to the turbine. The three main types of solar thermal power
systems are:
1. Parabolic trough (the most common type of plant).
2. Solar dish.
3. Solar power tower.
1. A parabolic trough: It is a type of solar thermal
energy collector. It is constructed as a long parabolic
mirror (usually coated silver or polished aluminum)
with a Dewar tube running its length at the focal point.
Sunlight is reflected by the mirror and concentrated on
the Dewar tube. The trough is usually aligned on a
north-south axis, and rotated to track the sun as it
moves across the sky each day.
Heat transfer fluid (usually oil) runs through the tube to
absorb the concentrated sunlight. This increases the
temperature of the fluid to some 400°C. The heat
transfer fluid is then used to heat steam in a standard
turbine generator. The temperature of the heat transfer
fluid quickly reaches 750 degrees as the sun's energy is
captured by the Parabolic Troughs. The overall process is very economical and thermal
efficiency ranges from about 60% to as high as 80%.
2. Parabolic Dish Systems:
1. A polished aluminium sheet shaped into a
parabolic dish and placed in sunlight.
2. Due to its reflecting surface and parabolic shape
the rays gets reflected to a point foci.
3. A metal box coated with black colour is placed at
the foci of the parabolic dish, water is filled in the
box and gets heated and converted into steam.
4. This steam used to run turbine and electricity is
generated.
5. During this process high frequency radiation is
emitted to prevent this the box is covered with a
glass material.
6. Most loss of energy in this collector is due to imperfection in the shape and imperfect
reflection.
6. In these heat collectors it is very difficult to track the sun. If we're able to track the sun by
the position, then the efficiency of this heat collector is high.

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3. Solar Power Tower:
Solar power towers generate electric power
from sunlight by focusing concentrated solar
radiation on a tower-mounted heat exchanger
(receiver). The system uses hundreds to
thousands of sun-tracking mirrors called
heliostats to reflect the incident sunlight onto
the receiver. In a molten-salt solar power
tower, liquid salt at 290ºC (554ºF) is pumped
from a Cold‘storage tank through the receiver
where it is heated to 565ºC (1,049ºF) and then
on to a ‗hot‘ tank for storage. When power is
needed from the plant, hot salt is pumped to a
steam generating system that produces superheated steam for a conventional Rankine- cycle
turbine/generator system. From the steam generator, the salt is returned to the cold tank
where it is stored and eventually reheated in the receiver.

Applications of Solar energy :

As heat for making hot water, heating buildings and cooking.
To generate electricity with solar cells or heat engines
To take the salt away from sea water.
To use sun rays for drying clothes and towels.
It is used by plants for the process of photosynthesis.
To use in cooking (Solar cookers).

Ocean thermal energy conservation

Ocean thermal energy conservation is a process that can produce electricity by using the
temperature difference between cold ocean water and warm tropical surface water. Ocean
Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is to turn the solar energy trapped by the ocean into
useable energy.This kind of energy is found in tropical oceans where the water temperature
differs from surface to deeper into the sea. On the ocean surface it can be at least 20°C hotter
or cooler than the temperature at a deeper sea level. OTEC plant pump large quantities of
deep cold sea water and surface sea water to run a power cycle and produce in 1880 and
constructed in 1926. An amount of large quantity of cold water is a by – product, that can be
used for air conditioning and refrigeration.
Working Principle:-
OTEC generates electricity by using the temperature difference of 20°C(36°F) or more than
that exists between the warm tropical waters at the sun warmed surface, and cold water drawn
from the depth of 1000 meters. To convert this thermal gradient into electrical energy, the
warm water can be used to heat and vaporize a liquid.The working fluid develops pressure as
it is caused to evaporate. This expanding vapor runs through a turbine generator and is then
condensed back into a liquid by cold water brought up from depth and the cycle is repeated.
There are three types of OTEC
1. Closed Cycle OTEC
2. Open Cycle OTEC
3. Hybrid Cycle OTEC
Q. Explain the construction and working of Closed Cycle OTEC?
Closed Cycle OTEC employs a low-boiling-point liquid like propane or ammonia (B.P=-
33℃) as an intermediate fluid. In OTEC plant first warm surface sea water is pumped

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through a heat exchanger to vaporize the fluid. The expanded vapour turns the turbo
generator. Cold water pumped through a second heat exchanger condenses the vapour into a
liquid which is then recycled. The first closed cycle OTEC was built by French Ministry of
Colonies and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1942.

Q. Explain the construction and working of Open Cycle OTEC?

Open cycle OTEC uses warm surface water directly to make electricity. The warm sea water
is first pumped into a low pressure container, which causes it to boil. In some processes, the
expanding steam drives low pressure turbine attached to an electrical generator. The steam
leaves its salt and contaminants in the low pressure container to give pure fresh water. It is
condensed to a liquid by exposure to cold temperatures from deep – ocean water. This
method produces desalinated fresh water, suitable for drinking, irrigation and agriculture.
In other systems the rising steam is used in a gas lift technique of lifting water to significant
heights. Depending on the embodiment such steam lift pump techniques generate power from
a hydro electric turbine either before or after the pump is used.

constructed in 1926. An amount of large quantity of cold water is a by – product, that can be
used for air conditioning and refrigeration.

An OTEC system application

1. Hydrogen can be produced via electrolysis using electricity generated by the OTEC
process.
2. Desalination of seawater
3. It reduces the financial & energy coasts of pumping large volumes of water from Deep
Ocean.
4. Deep ocean water contains high concentration of essential nutrients that are depleted in
surface water due to biological consumption.
5. Mineral Extraction
Advantages of OTEC
1. Warm surface sea water and cold water from the ocean from the ocean depths replace
fossil fuels to produce electricity.
2. OTEC plants will produce little or no carbon dioxide or other polluting chemical

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3. OTEC systems can produce fresh water as well as electricity. A lot of fish & other
nutritious sea-food will be collected in outlet flow.
4. OTEC can also be used to produce ammonia, hydrogen, aluminium, chlorine and other
chemicals.
Disadvantages of OTEC
1. OTEC produced electricity at present would cost more than electricity generated from
fossils fuels at their current costs.
2. No energy company put money in this project because it only had been tested in a very
small scale.
3. Construction of OTEC plants and lying of pipes in coastal waters may cause localized
damage to reefs and near-shore marine ecosystem.

DR. PONDALA SEETHA RAM APPLIED CHEMISTRY CSIT

DR. PONDALA SEETHA RAM APPLIED CHEMISTRY CSIT