BIO DIESEL FUEL
WHAT IS BIODIESEL? Biodiesel is a renewable fuel which is produced from vegetable oil or animal fat through a chemical process and can be used as either direct substitute, extender or as an additve to fossil diesel fuel in compression ignition engines. The most promising feature of biodiesel is that it can be utilized in existing design of diesel engine with no or very little modifications. It has positive energy balance and is enviornmtally benign.
CHIEF RATIONALE OF BIODIESEL ADAPTATION : Energy sources are the main driver of economic growth and social development of a country. Oil and gas still provide more than half of the total global energy demands. There is a widening gap between the supply and demand of fossil fuels owing to rapid industrialization and urban development. In India, the interest in biodiesel has grown vividly during
the last few years. The chief rationale for biodiesel in India is energy security, fuel independence and rural
employment. Better environmental performance, greening of wastelands and creation of new business opportuniti
es - are seen as some of the other advantages of biodiesel.
SELF RELIANCE : The production of crude petroleum in India in 2006-07 was 33.99 as against its consumption of 144.88 million tonne showing a self reliance of 23.46% only . Government of India has spent 2199.91 billion rupees towards import of crude petroleum in 2006-07 causing a heavy burden on Indian foreign reserves.
BIODIESEL RESEARCH AT DCE : Considering the national need, Delhi College of Engineering started its biodiesel research program in year 2000 and has since emerged as a leading technological institution of India which has been accredited as the hub of advanced level research in propagation of petro-plants or oil bearing plants, their improved agro-practices, development of indigenous biodiesel production technology, design and development of small to medium capacity biodiesel processing unit, quality assurance of biodiesel and trial of biodiesel in diesel engines and vehicles. Biodiesel from a variety of feed stocks such as Mahua, Linseed, Rice Bran, Waste Cooking oil from the Mc Donalds, Crude Palm, Castor, Jatropha , Karanja and Thumba have already been prepared an
d process optimization completed.
These biodiesel have been tested in diesel engines & vehicles. The research team has also developed technology to convert high FFA, low quality feed stocks to quality biodiesel. The college developed small capacity biodiesel reactors of 5 & 10 liters in 2003. The reactor being capable of producing quality biodiesel are economically viable solution for making biodiesel for the replacement of the costly fossils in the rural areas. The college developed its 100 litre per batch biodiesel processing unit in 2004. As a part of capacity enhancement, the college developed a 600 liter per day biodiesel processing unit as a part of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt of India research project. To provide indigenous technology to biodiesel Entrepreneur, DCE has commissioned a high capacity biodiesel unit which can produce around 4000-5000 liters of biodiesel in a day in three shifts of 8 hours each. This unit has been developed as a part of PCRA sponsored project granted to DCE. It has created interest in many industries and many of them are willing to collaborate with DCE.
Broadband on Power Lines
Efforts of Prof. Vishal Verma in inventing Broadband on Power Line (BPL) technology, a major project at DCE has been completed successfully in 8 months by with support of NDPL team headed by Mr. S. Banager from communication department, under central government. BPL technology has been developed first time in India. It has been applied and is working smoothly in the whole of Electrical Department and Admin Block of Delhi College of Engineering, with more than 135Mbps transfer rate. To use this facility you should have electrical LAN modem which initially costs around Rs. 5000. Research is going on to lower this modem cost to Rs. 1000. Installation is very easy and can be done in few hours. Only one connection has to be made in the main electrical line and the whole building can use the facility through power plugs. It is very secure and LAN based control cannot be preached at all says Prof. Vishal Verma. A very useful and strong point of the development at a time 1024 connections can be made without division of speed, where as in normal LAN division speed is shared. The broadband signals are transferred at the rate of 2MHz to 34MHz with the electrical power line in which electrical signals travel at 50Hz, due to which there is no interference between two signals.
It supports all services like wi-fi, wipe, camera support, LAN etc. Fully featured Network Management can be used on BPL with all services from chat to video conferencing.
For testing purpose BPL technology is applied in a Alipur Village within a radius of 1km where the whole village is connected via BPL technology and the network facility can be used anywhere through power plugs. It is operating successfully with no problems till date under very hostile conditions.
SPIE DCE Chapter
SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. The combined talents of everyone involved in SPIE contribute to new scientific discovery. Collective knowledge provides the base on which the next generation of scientists and engineers can explore the promise of light.
Established in the 2004, SPIE DCE Chapter has made an impact in the associated communities. The chapter has successfully entered into its fifth year of functioning with a team of newly elected office bearers in place. SPIE DCE Chapter aims at inculcating temperament of research and development among scholars and faculty members in the area of optics and photons at Delhi College of Engineering. SPIE provides wonderful opportunities to everyone who is interested in the enchanting world of optics, by providing a gateway to resources in the form of research, a vast digital library, many conferences, exhibitions and seminars, many different online courses imparted through videos, CDs and DVDs and much, much more.