NON-CONVENTIONAL

ENERGY SOURCES
7th SEM –B Section
Mechanical Engg Department
PDACEK
Energy
Energy is the capacity of doing work.
Energy is defined as the ability of doing work.
It is a primary requirements of day to day activities of
human beings.
Energy produces electricity from which we can cook
food, light our homes, make computers, TV and
machine to work.
In simple words we use energy to do work and make
all movements.
Most of the energy that we have been using now
comes from natural sources like, coal, oil, natural
sources like coal, oil, natural gas and water that are
being used from a very long time.
 The energy sources available can be divided
into three types.

1. Primary energy sources (Coal, oil, Uranium

etc)

2. Secondary fuels( wind, tide, wave,

geothermal, ocean thermal and hydroelectric
application)

3. Supplementary sources.( are defined as

those whose net energy yield is zero and those
requiring highest investment interms of energy
insulation (thermal) is an example for this
source.
 Energy Sources and their availability:

We can broadly categorize these sources as

commercial and con-commercial.

Commercial sources include the fossil fuels ( coal,

oil and natural gas) hydroelectric power and nuclear
power,

Non-commercial sources include wood, animal

waste and agricultural wastes.

In an industrializes country like USA most of the

energy requirements are met from commercial
sources, while in industrially less developed county
like INDIA , the use of commercial and non-
commercial sources are about equal.
 Commercial or Conventional energy sources:

Major sources of energy include:

1.Fossil fuels : Solid fuels, liquid fuels and gaseous

fuels including petroleum and its derivatives and
natural gas.
2. Water power or energy stored in water.
3. Energy of nuclear fission.

Minor sources of energy include:

Sun, wind tides in the sea, geothermal, ocean

thermal electric conversion, fuel cells, thermionic
thermoelectric generators etc.
Non-Conventional Sources
Fossil fuels will be the main fuels for thermal power ,
there is a fear that they will get exhausted eventually in
the next century.

Solar energy can be a major source of power. Its

potential is 178 billion MW which is about 20000 times
the worlds demand.

Wind energy uses the high wind velocity available in

certain parts. About 0.7 million wind pumps are in
operation in different countries.

A minimum wind speed of 3 m/s is needed.

This is considered to have a high efficiency. Coastal ,

hilly and valley areas are suitable for this process.
Potential in INDIA is estimated between 20000 and
25000MW.

Coastal areas of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are

considered as favorable.

A number of experimental stations have been set up. The

maximum power generated from any single unit is about 1
MW.

Geothermal energy derives the heat in the centre of the earth

It is stated that potential to the extent of 3400 MW exists in

new Zealand , USA, Japan and Iceland.

700 MW of power is generated in Philippines and China.

India does not appear to have any major exploitable source.

Energy from sea can be utilized as wave, tidal or
ocean thermal energy.

A plant to make 445000 KWh/ year of energy is

being set up in Kerala state.

This station will generate 75kw in calm months and

120 to 150 kw in June-September.

Ocean thermal energy conversion utilizes the

temperature difference between warm surface sea
water at about 28°c and the cold deep sea water at 5
– 7°c at a depth of 800 -1000 m in tropical areas.

India`s potential is large along the coastal length

form Bombay to Vishakhapatnam.
Tidal energy is energy that can be trapped from sea.

In India, the Gulf to Kutch, Gulf to Cambay and

Sunderbans are potential sites.

The total potential from sea is estimated as 50000MW

from Ocean thermal energy conversion 40000 MW
from wave energy and 8000MW form tidal.

Biomass is another renewable energy source in the

form of wood, agricultural residues etc.

The potential for agricultural residues alone is

estimated as 480MT with residues form food grains
contributing about 100MT.
These can be burnt directly to generate steam for use in
steam turbine for power generation or they can be
gasified and the gas used in an internal combustion
engine for agricultural pumping or power generation.

Power generation is being tried on a small scale up to

1MN or so, but large scale applications is yet to be
shown.

The main problem with agricultural residues is their

collection.
In this case of forest wood, the requirement of fuel
wood alone is between 250 and 300mt and this
quantity is not readily available.

Efforts are being made for cultivating quick growing

trees for use in power generation.

Similarly biogas obtained by anaerobic digestion of

animal dung and sewage is also suitable for use in
internal combustion engines.

Biomass may prove a useful fuel for localized power

generation in rural areas where electric transmission
lines have not reached.
Advantage of Renewable
energy(need for non-conventional
energy sources)
The renewable energy resources are non-exhaustible.

Most of them are readily available in nature and are

environment friendly.

Low maintenance costs.

Has less energy transmission costs.

Helps to achieve self sufficiency, especially in rural

areas.
Continued..
Except the biomass energy sources, all other
renewable energy resources offer pollution free
environment and also help in maintaining the
ecological balance.

Rapid scientific and technological advantages are

expected to expand the economic range of
renewable energy applications over the next 8- 10
years, making it imperative for international
decision makers and planners to keep abreast of
these developments
 Obstacles to the implementation of
renewable energy systems
The intermittent nature of the availability of the energy
from the renewable energy resources such as, solar, wind,
tidal etc is a major setback in the continues supply of
energy.

Although the supply of energy from the sun is limitless,

there is a definite limit to the rate at which the solar
energy is received at the earth as it is dependent on the
local atmospheric conditions, time of the day , part of the
year and also on the latitude of the place.

Some of the renewable energy resource such as wind,

tidal etc although available in large quantities they are
concentrated only in certain regions.
Continued..
The state of the art in harnessing the renewable
energy resources is not yet fully developed to meet
the present day energy requirements.

Some of the renewable energy conversion systems

such as solar cells, automatic tracking systems for
solar concentrators etc require technologies, hence
costlier.

The application of renewable energy resources to

transport sector has been found to be not viable as
on today.
Energy Alternatives
Alternative energy refers to energy sources other
than fossil fuels (such as coal, petroleum, and
diesel) and includes all renewable and nuclear
energy sources.

Solar
Wind
Biogas
Geothermal
Biomass
Wave and tidal power
Low-impact hydroelectricity
Non-Conventional Sources
Solar, Wind, Sea , Geothermal and Biomass are
renewable energy sources being tried in many
countries.

Solar
Solar energy has the greatest potential of all the
sources of renewable energy and if only a small
amount of this form of energy could be used it will be
one of the most important supplies of energy
specially when other sources in the county have
depleted.

Energy comes to earth from the sun.

The solar power where sun hits atmosphere is 10^17 watts,
whereas the solar power on earths surface is 10^16 watts.
The total world wide power demand of all need of
civilization is 10^13 watts. Therefore the sun gives us
1000 times more power than we need.

If we can use 5% of this energy. It will be 50 times what the

world will require.

The energy radiated by the sun on a bright sunny day is

approximately 1 kw/m² attempts have been made to make
use of this energy in raising steam which may be used in
driving the prime movers for the purpose of generation of
electrical energy.

However on account of large space required, uncertainty of

availability of energy at constant rate, due to clouds, winds,
haze etc there is limited applications of this source in the
generation of electric power.
Now a days the drawbacks as pointed out that energy
cannot be stored and it is a dilute form of energy, are
out dated arguments, since the energy can be stored
by producing hydrogen or by storing in other
mechanical or electrical devices, or it can be stored in
containers of chemicals called eutectic or phase
changing salts.

These salts which store large quantities of heat in a

relatively small volume, melt when they are heated
and release heat later as they cool and crystallize.

The energy can be concentrated in solar furnaces, for

example which can achieve temperatures in the
region of 5000°c.
Solar thermal energy:

In solar thermal power production system the energy is

first collected by using a solar pond, a flat plate
collector, focusing collector or heliostats( turnable
mirrors).

This energy is used to increase the internal energy or

temperature of a fluid.

This fluid ,may be directly used in any of the common

or known cycles such as rankine, or through a heat
exchanger to heat a secondary fluid ( working fluid)
which is being used in the cycle to produce mechanical
power from which electrical power can be produced
easily.
Solar thermal power cycles can be broadly classified
as low medium and high temperature cycles. Low
temperature cycles generally use flat plate collectors
or solar pond, maximum temperature are limited to
above 90° to 100°c.

Medium temperature cycles work at maximum

temperature ranging from 150° to 300°c, using
concentrating or focusing collectors.

High temperature cycles works at maximum

temperature above 300°c.
 Photo voltaic or electricity from solar
energy
Electricity can be produced from the solar energy by
photo voltaic solar cells, which convert the solar
energy directly to electricity.

The most significant applications of photo voltaic cell

in India are the energisation of pump sets for
irrigation, drinking water supply and rural
electrification covering street lights, community TV
sets, medical refrigerators and other small power
loads.

Electricity is directly generated by utilizing solar

energy by the photo voltaic process.
When photons from the sun are absorbed in a
semiconductor, they create free electrons with higher
energies than the electrons which provides the bonding in
the base crystal.

Once these free electronics are created , there must be an

electric field to induce these higher energy electrons to
flow out of the semiconductor to do useful work.

The electrical field in most solar cells is provided by a

junction of materials which have different electrical
properties.

The photovoltaic effect can be described easily for P-n

junction in semiconductor materials of solar cells which
are silicon, cadmium, sulphide copper sulphide, gallium
arsenite etc.
Water Energy or Power
Water power is developed by allowing water to fall under the force of
gravity. It is used almost exclusively for electric power generation.

In fact , the generation of water power on a large scale became

possible around the beginning of the twentieth century only with the
development of electrical power transmission.

Potential energy of water is converted into mechanical energy by

using prime movers known as hydraulic turbines.

Water power is quite cheap where water is available in abundance.

Although capital cost of hydraulic power plants is higher as compared

to other types of power plants but their operating costs are quite low,
a no fuel is required in this case.

Hydro electric power is one of the indirect ways in which solar energy
is being used.
Wind Energy
Energy of wind can be economically used for the
generation of electrical energy. Winds are caused
from two main factors.

1. Heating and cooling of the atmosphere which

generates convection currents. Heating is caused by
the absorption of solar energy on the earths surface
and in the atmosphere.

2. The rotation of the earth with respect to

atmosphere and its motion around the sun.
The potential of wind energy as a source of power is
large.

The energy available in the winds over the earths

surface is estimated to be 1.6 x 10^7 MW, which is of
the same order of magnitude as the present energy
consumption on the earth.

Wind energy which is an indirect source of solar energy

conversion can be utilized to run wind mill which in
turn drives a generator to produce electricity.
Tar Sand and Oil Shale
As supplies of crude oil are getting depleted,
attention is increasingly being focussed on
two naturally occurring sources, called tar
sands and oil shale.

Tar sand is an expression generally used to

describe porous sandstone deposits
impregnated with heavy viscous oils called
bitumen.
The sands obtained from surface mining are first passed
through a conditioning drum where water, steam and
caustic soda are added and a slurry is formed.

The slurry passes into a separation tank where the

coarse sand settles at the bottom and a forth of bitumen,
water and fine mineral matter forms on the top.

The forth is diluted with naphtha and subjected to

centrifugal action.

As a result, fine mineral matter and water is removed.

After this, naphtha is recovered and recycled, and the

bitumen obtained is subjected to hydro processing and
desulphurization to produce synthetic crude oil.
Estimates of the world`s resources of the oil
available in tar sands have ranged form 2500 to
6000 billion barrels, the recoverable reserves come
out to be 900 billion barrels, the recoverable to the
currently estimated oil reserves of 1000 billion
barrels.

The largest deposits of tar sand are in Canada and

Venezuela. No significant deposits have been
located in India.
Oil shale
The term oil shale is refers to a finely textured rock
mixed with a solid organic material called kerogen.

When oil shale is heated , the kerogen decomposes and

yields crude oil.

Pilot plants for producing crude oil form oil shale have
been in operation in a few countries for many years and
some commercial production is also going on.

The worlds deposits of oil shale are quite large. High

grade known reserves expected to yield 25 to 100 gallons
per ton of shale are alone estimated to be about 900
billion barrels.
Total resources of this yields quality may
contain as much as 17000 billion barrels.

India has significant resources in the north

east.

It is estimated that these could yield about

500 billion barrels, an amount hundred
times the present proved oil reserves
Major problem associated with the use of both
tar sands and oil shale is the environmental
degradation associated with surface mining
and with disposal of large amounts of sands
and spent shale rock which remain after the
crude oil is obtained.

This problem would need careful attention if

either of these energy alternatives is to be
used on a large scale in the future.
Energy form Biomass and Bio-
gas
The potential for application of bio-mass as an
alternative source of energy in India is very great.

We have plenty of agricultural and forest resources

for production of bio-mass.

Bio mass is produced in nature through

photosynthesis is achieved by solar energy
conversion.

As a word clearly signifies, bio-mass means organic

matter.
It its simplest form the reaction is the process of
photosynthesis in the presence of solar radiation can
be represented as follows.

H2 O + CO2 solar energy CH2 O + O2

In the reaction, water and carbon dioxide are

converted into organic material i.e. CH2O which is the
basic molecule of forming carbohydrate stable at low
temperature, it breaks at high temperature releasing
an amount of heat equal to 112000 cal/ mole (469 kj/
mole).

The absorbed energy of photons should be at lest

equal to this amount.
India`s Production and
Reserves

Estimates made by the Geological survey of India

over the years are given in table.
It can be seen that the reserves have been increasing
because of the location of more coal fields.
In 1992 estimates give the total reserves to be
193800 Mt and the proved reserves to be 64800 Mt.
This value is about 6% of worlds proved reserves.
Coal:

It is seen that there has

been a six-fold increase
in production sine 1951
and that in the eighties
the annual growth rate
has been nearly 7 %.

In 1990, India`s
production was 223Mt,
which was about 4.7%s
of the worlds production.
 In 1951 the consumption of
Oil petroleum products was
only 3.89 Mt, most of which
were imported.
The consumption was
17.59 Mt in 1970, 30.90 Mt
in 1980 and 57.9 Mt in
1990 with most of the
products being refined
from India.
From 1951 to 1970, the
annual increase in the
consumption of petroleum
products is a source of
worry, because a
substantial part of crude oil
required for refining has to
be imported.
This import costs the
 Present data on the annual
Natural Gas useful production of natural
gas in India from 1969
onwards, the production
was 0.516 billion m³.
It did not change much till
1973.
However, subsequently the
annual increase in
production has been quite
large and has an average
value of 18.2 %.
Proved recoverable reserves
of natural gas estimated to
be 352 billion m³ in 1980
and 686 billion in 1990.
Major gas fields have been
discovered in the seventies
and eighties, and the
prospects of finding more
gas reserves are good.
Water Power

Data on the installed capacity of water power and

electricity produced for some selected representative years
is presented in table above.
It will be seen that the installed capacity was only 560 MW
at the beginning of the first five year plan 1951.
It increases rapidly in the fifties and sixties at an average
rate of about 14 %.
Thereafter the growth rate was slower.
Nevertheless , over a forty year time span, the installed
capacity increased at an average rate of about 9 %.
In addition one unit of 235 MW is likely to be operational at
kakrapara soon, while two units of 235MW are under
construction in kaiga in Karnataka.

Data on electricity production from nuclear power is plotted

in fig.

It is seen that although the electricity production has been

generally increasing over the years, as more units are getting
commissioned , there have been sharp falls in production in
certain years when some units have been down.

India`s resources of uranium are not extensive.

It is estimated that proved recoverable reserves are around

50000t with perhaps another 20000 t of recoverable
resources.
Annual Production of
Energy