ABSTRACT

As the world population is increasing gradually, the need of energy resources is also
increased, so the utilization of fossil fuel based energy resources such as fuel oil, natural gas
and coal came into existence. This usage of fossil fuel in turn started causing an environmental
issue due to emission of harmful gases such as carbon dioxide, Sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide
methane gas etc. Thus leading to depletion of environment by causing global warming,
climatic changes and environmental pollution. So to overcome this environment depletion the
use of clean energy resources which are replenishable in nature are used to generate energy.

Clean energy technology is a process or technology which utilizes the natural or

renewable resources such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, biomass,
hydropower, biofuels and other natural sources to produce energy which can be utilized to
replace the fossil fuels. These sources mainly help to reduce the rate of pollution by lowering
the emission of harmful gases and thus this technology provides a sustainable and reliable
energy sources. Hence this technology is also called as a ‘Green energy technology’.

Keywords: Green Energy Technology, Renewable Resources, Sustainable Energy, Energy

Resources.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Clean energy sources have been an important source for humans since the beginning
of civilization. For centuries biomass was used for cooking, steam raising, and power
generation such as hydropower and wind energy and later on used for electricity production.
This renewable or clean energy depends on the energy flow through the Earth's ecosystem. If
applied to the modern period, clean energy sources are considered highly responsive to
reduction in pollution caused by non-renewable sources. The natural energy flows through the
Earth's ecosystem are vast, and the theoretical potential of clean energy can exceed the needs
of humans by many times. For example, solar power plants on 1% of the world’s desert area
would generate the world's entire electricity demand today [1].

The energy revolution creates opportunities for technologies and systems with superior
performance and reduces the costs. The common ground of many energy sectors -such as the
electric grid, electricity production, buildings, manufacturing, fuels, and transportation this all
are linked through Information and Communications Technologies(ICT), advanced
technology and simulation, and controls, has the potential to revolutionize energy services
throughout the economy. These advanced technologies can enable India to move further with
national energy challenges such as security, economic vitality, and climatic change [1].

While impressive progress has been made in developing clean energy technologies in
recent years, the success stories are cloaked by increase in demand for fossil fuels, which are
leading to the deployment of clean energy technologies. Coal has reached 47% of the global
electricity demand since this beginning of the last century, putting aside the efforts made to
bring clean energy into picture. This also has led to implementation of energy efficiency
measures [1,2].

The IEA (International Energy Agency) clearly stresses that the world needs a clean
energy revolution in order to reduce or to overcome the dependence of fossil fuels. Such a
revolution will improve the growth of global energy security, tackle environmental challenges
such as climate change and economic growth. It will also the break the long standing bound
between economic growth and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. But to succeed with this clean
energy technology, the idea should be truly global in scope.

There are many renewable technologies which are commercially available, most of
them are still in early stage of development and demonstration efforts. With little resources
and technologies at hand for renewable energy use, the question arises of future development
with economic and political competitiveness with other energy resources. Many government
and private organization have come forward and taken up the initiation for the development of
this clean energy technology and uplifting of it. National energy agencies have taken up certain
measures to overcome the excess usage of non-renewable energy [1].

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Non-renewable energy resources
Non-renewable energy sources are the energy resources which are non-replenishable
in nature and takes millions of years to produce the energy sources. These are the resources
which are formed by burial of plants and animals for millions of years and they give out an
organic carbon material and over a millions of years it gets heated up from internal earths heat
and changes into natural gas and crude oil. And these resources are of limited supply and they
also emit out harmful gases into atmosphere when they undergo combustion. Hence the usage
of clean energy technologies came into existence, which mainly utilizes the renewable
resources to replace the use of fossil fuels and to move the earth towards sustainability [3].

Renewable energy resources

Renewable energy resources are the natural resources which are of great economic
importance, because of their replenishable nature and these resources are obtained infinitely,
and can be retained in short period of time. And some resources are produced with endless
supply(sunlight) and thus can be replaced easily in the place of non-renewable energy
resources and also these resources are said to be eco-friendly and sustainable energy resource.
This renewable energy resources are mainly obtained from sunlight only in one or the other
way. Because, solar energy is the direct utilization of sunlight for the purpose of heating and
electricity, whereas wind energy is by differential heating of the earth’s surface which leads to
the formation of air (wind) hydroelectric power is generated and biomass energy is the stored
sunlight within the plants. Hence renewable energy can also be called as alternative energy
resources [3].

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Some of the clean energies and their importance are as follow:

2. Solar energy
Solar energy is the prominent source of inexhaustible energy for the planet earth. This
energy can fulfill the needs of energy to the entire world if properly planned and utilized.
About 4 million joules of solar energy reaches the earth annually. History of solar energy
usage can be seen from 7th century BC only, it tells that humans used magnifying glass
materials to harness the sunlight and then to light fires. Later the Greeks and Romans in 3rd
centuries were also started to harness the solar power with mirrors to light torches for religious
ceremonies and they are generally called as “burning mirrors”. In late 1700 and 1800’s
researchers and scientists successfully started using the sunlight to power ovens for long
voyages and also solar powered steamboats were discovered [4].

A French scientist Edmond Becquerel is the one who identified that light can be used
as source for electricity generation, if two metal electrodes were placed into a conducting
solution. This is identified as a photovoltaic effect and were further used for PV developments
with the elements such as selenium. But later in 1873 Willoughby Smith found the
photoconductive potential of selenium material, this lead to the discovery of solar cells
consisting of selenium wafers which is used to generate electricity. But as days moved on, the
selenium was replaced by silicon and the PV cells have been developed [4,5].

As we all know sun is the major source for all other energy sources. The energy that is
obtained directly from sun is called solar energy. This solar energy is mainly of two categories.
They are:

2.1 Active solar technology: It is the technology in which the solar energy is directly utilized
for the purpose of heating and to produce electricity. They include the use of photovoltaic cells
which consists of a two different semiconductor and when the light strikes this cells, the
electricity is generated. And they also consist of solar thermal technology in which the thermal
radiations are trapped into the opaque black solar panel and the trapped heat is used for the
purpose of boiling the water, which is commonly called a solar water heater. For large
commercial application we have concentrated solar power(CSP) technology, where the
sunlight is trapped into a small blackened area and the intensity of the light is increased by
arranging the arrays or lenses in a series carefully such that the enough amount of thermal
radiations are trapped within the arrays to reach the temperature of about 2000C, which is
mainly required to operate the boiler and to run steam turbine and generate electricity [8].

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2.1.1Photovoltaic cells

These are the devices which utilizes the direct sunlight as the source of energy to
generate electricity based on the principle of photovoltaic effect, where the electrons flow in a
semiconductor due to absorption of photons from the sunlight and they also eject electrons
leaving a hole, that is filled by surrounding electrons and now the photovoltaic cell(PV) directs
the electrons to move in one direction and this forms a current. The amount of current
generated is directly proportional to the total amount of photons absorbed from the sunlight.
Here the commonly used semiconductor is silicon based material to achieve high efficiency
but it is quite costly.

Fig 1. Photovoltaic cell [28]

Here monocrystalline and polycrystalline cells are used in the construction of PV cells.
Monocrystalline cells are high efficient type of PV cells because they are made up of perfect
single silicon crystal structure which are arranged in series and hence they obtain a free space
for the movement of electrons and also generates high amount of electricity. These type of
cells are in black form and they are comparatively costly. Polycrystalline cells are less
efficient type of PV cells because, here the silicon of many fragments are melted and together
a single panel is made hence no electrons cannot move freely in the cells and they are generally
of blue in color. So the efficiency is less and it is cheaper also [9].

But due to high cost of silicon Thin film photovoltaic cells are designed where the
amount of silicon required is reduced for the manufacturing of solar cells. And now in third
generation solar cells we obtained:

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2.1.2 Dye Sensitized Solar Cells(DSSC), which is a combination of concentrators and organic
solar cells. The main components of DSSC are a dye sensitized transparent conducting
substrate semiconductor film (Titanium dioxide TiO2) zinc oxide (Zno) electrolyte and a
counter electrode(CE). [11] Here TiO2 nanoparticles acts as a heart of DSSC, which provide a
pathway for the electrons to cross from the cathode to anode and the size of nanoparticles vary
between 10 to 30 nm and the thickness of the film is around 10µm. For absorbing the photons
from the sunlight it is doped with a dye. This TiO2 is deposited over a glass coated with
Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) and this acts as a substrate. Sunlight passes through the
transparent electrode into the dye layer where it excites the electrons that then flow into the
titanium dioxide. The electrons flows towards the transparent electrode where they are
collected for powering a load. After flowing through the external circuit, they are re-introduced
into the cell on a metal electrode on the back, flowing into the electrolyte. The electrolyte then
transports the electrons back to the dye molecules. By this action of electrons, the electricity
is generated [10].

Fig 2: Dye sensitized solar cell [29]

2.2 Passive solar technology: It is the technology in which the solar energy is not converted
into electricity or any other form directly instead the heat energy is stored and distributed for
the purpose of heating of home (during winter season). In this technique the indirect utilization
of the heat is carried out and is stored for future purposes.

2.2.1 Solar thermal energy is a type in which the suns heat energy is harnessed to produce
hot water, this consists of a solar energy collector on a roof top and the collector takes up the

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sunlight and changes it into heat from which the water gets heated up and thus a pollution free
heating up process is carried out. It consists of three main components: a solar collector, heat
storage hot water tank and an insulated heat transport piping. Here solar thermal collectors act
as a heart of a solar thermal energy system. It is of simple design consists of straight or coiled
length of plastic or copper tubing. There are different type collectors have been used, they are
flat plate, evacuated tube, integral collector storage(ICS), thermosiphon and concentration
solar power(CSP) [8].

Fig 3: Solar water heater [30]

And it is also utilized to produce the salt from sea water by evaporation and also used
for the purpose of desalination. Solar energy can also produce the hydrogen by an artificial
process by undergoing photosynthesis using silicon based devices and thus breaks down the
water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen without giving rise to any other pollutants and thus
solar energy becomes a clean energy technology by reducing the amount of pollution [9].

Recent advancements in this technology is the development of thin film technology, an

alternative for solar panels where the paper acts as a substrate with a vacuum chamber and the
solar cells or panels are evenly distributed in five layers within the chamber. This was
developed for obtaining the solar cells at lower cost. And transparent solar cells are invented
by MIT researchers, which harness the infrared light as the source of energy. They can be
easily applied to the interior of existing window panes and thus they don’t require any land or
rooftop and also reduces the installation costs [12].

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Case Study

Welspun solar power plant located in Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh which is
the largest solar power plant in Asia. It is spread across a land of 800 acres on uncultivated
land at a cost of 180 million USD and they produce a net power of 150MW. So the energy
produced by this plant in year is around 1.37*1012 KJ (3.83*108 KWH) for the plant
functioning for 7 hours daily. Whereas we require 80590.01 tons of coal to generate 150MW
of power and that would give out a 230970 tons of CO2 into the environment [13].

Advantages

 They reduce the amount of pollution and the release of pollutants by reducing the usage
of fossil fuels.
 Solar plants last longer duration (30 to 40 years).
 It is of continuous supply & also replenishable within a short period of time.
 It doesn’t require any work to store, extract or transport.

Disadvantages

 Installation cost is high.

 It requires engineering expertise to design & install the system.
 It mainly depends upon the weather conditions.
 The pollutants present in the atmosphere can also effect the efficiency of panels.

Applications

 Solar photovoltaic cells for electricity generation.

 Solar cooking.
 Solar desalination.
 Solar drying.
 Heating and cooling of buildings.
 PV mobile network towers.
 Solar engines for water pumping.

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3. Hydropower energy
The history for hydropower plants can be seen from Greek peoples, where they used
to spin the water wheels for crushing the wheat flour before 2000 years ago. In 1700 the
hydropower was used for pumping water for irrigation purposes. Then in 1882 the first
electricity was generated from hydropower plant from US, they generated about 12.5 KW of
power. Then the rapid growth was seen when hydraulic reaction turbines came into picture. So
as a result in 1900 the hydropower plants were established and they also fulfilled about 40%
of total US electricity requirement. In India the first hydropower plant was established at
mountains of Darjeeling in 1898 and then in Shivanasamudra at 1902. The leading hydropower
plant of India was located at Naptha Jhakri of Himachal Pradesh and they produce an electricity
of 1500MW [14,15].

It is the cheapest way to produce electricity, which employs a clean energy source such as
water flow to generate the power source. This hydropower is generated by the flow of water
from higher elevations to lower elevations due to gravity and this water falls on installed setup
which consists of a turbine, and due to the flow of water the blades within the turbine pushes
away and this in turn rotates the turbine and thus electricity is generated. This hydropower
generates about one fifth of world electricity supply. The main components of hydropower
plant are as follows:

 The water reservoir is where the water is collected from rain and stream for continuous
availability of water for hydroelectric power plants. Generally, the water reservoirs are
dams where they store and regulate the outgoing flow of water.
 Spillway is the one which avoids the excess accumulation of water in the dam during
heavy rainfall seasons. It acts as a passages for excess water to flow to large storage
area away from the dam.
 Gate is the one which is used to regulate the flow of water from the dam.
 Pressure tunnel acts as a passage to carry water from the reservoir to surge tank
 Surge tank is a small tank which determines the change in pressure due to water level
rise or fall.
 Penstock is a steel pipe which supplies the water to turbine under pressure. The water
passes from the penstock to the turbine through the inlet valve this valve can be either
partially closed or opened thereby regulates the pressure of water flowing into the
turbine.
 Hydraulic turbine is a turbine which converts the water energy into mechanical energy.
This mechanical energy obtained from the rotation of turbines is coupled to the shaft
of electric generator and this produces the electricity.
This water utilized are then discharged through the draft tube, which is connected to
the outlet of the turbine. Generally, the common type of turbines used here are Francis
turbine, Pelton turbine, Kaplan turbine.

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Hydropower generation mainly depends on the rainfall pattern and it varies from year to year
based on the amount of rain, because more waterfall generates more electricity.

Fig 4: Hydropower plant [31]

Working: When water flows through the turbine, the turbine shaft rotates thus in turn coupled
to the electric generator. This generator consists of an electromagnet called as rotor and also a
stationary port known as stator. This rotor creates a magnetic field that in turn produces an
electric charge in the stator. This charge obtained is transmitted as electricity [16].

Case Study

Shivanasamudra hydroelectric power plant is the second hydroelectric power plant

in Asia, established at 1902. It is situated in Mandya district of Karnataka. The installed
capacity as on 31st March 2011 was approximately 37567.40MW (21.64%). Out of total hydro
generation the state sector contributes the highest 27257.00MW [17].

Advantages

 It is the cheapest way to produce the electricity.

 They produce high efficient type of electricity.
 Lower maintenance costs and is not much expensive.
 They can prevent the uncontrolled flooding.
 Electricity can be generated constantly.

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Disadvantages

 Dams are very expensive to build.

 Droughts effects production.
 Fishes like salmon are prevented from swimming upstream to spawn.
 They also affect the nearby wildlife.

Applications

 Hydroelectric power generation

 Storage of irrigation water.
 They control the floods in rivers.
 Storage of water in dams for future purpose.

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4. Wind energy

The history of wind mills can be observed from 9th century AD in Persia where they
used wind mills for the purposes such as grinding of grain and pumping of water from the
ground. The windmill that is used to generate electricity was firstly invented in 1887 by
Charles F Brush in Cleveland Ohio, he used wind turbines to generate electricity. The blades
of this turbines are 17 meters in diameter and they produced 12 KW of electricity. And in
1920’s wind turbines were made with blades similar to that of airplane propellers and were
easier to construct because of their much smaller size and were able to produce around 3
kilowatts of electricity. In 1941 in Vermont, the most powerful wind turbine was built. It was
constructed mostly out of steel with a 175-foot diameter rotor blade, and produced 1.25
megawatts of electricity. This special turbine, knows as the Smith-Putnam turbine, did not
have a very long lifespan due to its grand size and weight. In the 1970s and 1980s it was
common to see wind turbines with power capabilities of 1-50 KW that were easily constructed,
more affordable, and easier to maintain. These efficient horizontal axis wind turbines are the
kind of turbines we can see on wind farms Denmark [19].

Wind energy is the part of solar energy, due to differential heating of earth’s surface
the wind flow is caused and this is implied over the wind plants which in turn converts the
kinetic energy into electricity and thus electricity is generated. This wind energy mainly
depends on wind speed, density of air and swept area of turbine. Initially windmills were used
for the purpose of grinding corn and pumping water. Now they are modified and are used to
generate the electricity by attaching a generator to the rotating shaft of the windmill sails and
they are called as wind towers. This wind tower can be placed either on land or offshore, but
offshore produced wind energy is strong and reliable than compared to onshore wind energy
and their impact is also quite low. These wind turbines are fixed to higher heights because the
wind energy is more at higher altitudes and thus electricity generated is also increased [19].

The kinetic energy contained in the wind can be converted into both mechanical and
electrical energy by the windmill. A modern type of windmill that uses the kinetic energy of
the wind to produce an electrical energy output is called a Wind Turbine. Wind turbines that
are in use today are a type of wind generator which operates differently and more efficiently
from a conventional sail windmill. Multiple wind turbines that are arranged together in clusters
to capture large amounts of wind energy at the same time and convert it into electrical power
feeding this power into the electrical grid are known as Wind Farms. Wind turbine technology
may look simple but there are many mechanical parts to a modern wind turbine. The wind
rotates the turbines rotor blades around a central hub, which turns a low speed gearbox shaft,
which rotates a generator at a higher speed and makes electricity. The electrical generator
converts the kinetic energy of the rotating blades into electrical energy were electrical cables
carry this energy to an electrical sub-station for distribution to the utility grid [18].
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 Fig 5: Wind turbine [32]

Working: A wind turbine turns energy in the wind into electricity using the aerodynamic force
created by the rotor blades, which work similarly to an airplane wing or helicopter rotor blade.
When the wind flows across the blade, the air pressure on one side of the blade decreases. The
difference in air pressure across the two sides of the blade creates both lift and drag. The force
of the lift is stronger than the drag and this causes the rotor to spin. The rotor is connected to
the generator, either directly (if it's a direct drive turbine) or through a shaft and a series of
gears (a gearbox) that speed up the rotation and allow for a physically smaller generator. This
translation of aerodynamic force to rotation of a generator creates electricity [20].

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 Fig 6: Wind farm [33]

Case Study

The wind farm present in Muppandal of Tamil Nadu has 20 wind turbines and they
produce 25.5 MW of power between March to April 2005. This was a project of €10.5m and
the blades, turbines and components for the wind farms were assembled by Pioneer Asia. This
wind farm mainly reduces the emission of CO2 by 50,000 tons per year [21].

Advantages

 It is a clean and sustainable energy resource.

 The land used for wind farms can also be used for other profitable activities (i.e.
farming and foresting).
 Low maintenance cost.
 Wind blows day and night so the electricity is produced throughout the day.
 It supplies power to remote areas.

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Disadvantages

 The turbines on rotating may create a lots of noise.

 Wind turbines do not produce the amount of electricity all the time.
 Threat to wildlife in remote locations.
 Harm to bird and bat populations.

Applications

 They produce electricity for agriculture and fishery industries.

 For street lighting.
 For telecommunication.
 For marine industry power supply.
 Electricity for housing.

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5. Biofuels

The solid form of biofuel wood usage was started from the discovery of fire and it
became the first biofuel that was used by ancient peoples. Rudolf Diesel is the German inventor
of the diesel engine. He designed his diesel engine to run in peanut oil and later Henry Ford
designed the Model T car which was produced from 1903 to 1926. This car was completely
designed to use hemp derived biofuel as fuel. During the period of World War II, the high
demand of biofuels was due to the increased use as an alternative for imported fuel. In this
period, Germany was one of the countries that underwent a serious shortage of fuel. It was
during this period that various other inventions took place like the use of gasoline along with
alcohol that was derived from potatoes. Britain was the second country which came up with
the concept of grain alcohol mixed with petrol. The wars frames were the periods when the
various major technological changes took place. The constant shortage of fuel attracted the
attention of the various academics and governments to the issues of energy crisis and the use
of biofuels. The twentieth century came with the attention of the people towards the use of
biofuels. Some of the main reasons for the people shifting their interest to biofuels were the
rising prices of oil, emission of the greenhouse gases and interest like rural development [22].

Biofuels are the fuels which are produced utilizing a biomass mainly, because they
reduce the rate of greenhouse gases emission and in turn reduces the rate of pollution. These
biomasses are organic matter of plants and living or recently dead sources of animals which
are used to produce the thermal energy, combusting fuel or electricity out of it. Biomass
generally includes wood waste, agricultural waste, algae, animal and human sewage and other
organic residues. This biomass is converted into a liquid and is called as biofuel. The biomass
used here is called as feedstock and this feedstock undergoes for a process such as
fermentation, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, gasification to produce a usable energy source
(biofuel). These biofuels produced from biomass are of great impact because they are carbon
neutral and hence they become a sustainable fuel for usage. This covers 10% of energy total
world energy demand [22].

Ethanol (CH3CH2OH) is a renewable fuel that can be made from various plant
materials, collectively known as biomass. It is used as a blending agent with gasoline to
increase octane and cut down carbon monoxide and other smog-causing emissions. The most
common blend of ethanol is E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline). Some vehicles, called flexible
fuel vehicles, are designed to run on E85 (a gasoline-ethanol blend containing 51% to 83%
ethanol). It is an alternative fuel with much higher ethanol content than regular gasoline.
Roughly 97% of gasoline in the United States contains some ethanol. Today, most ethanol is
made from plant starches and sugars, but scientists are continuing to develop technologies that
would allow for the use of cellulose and hemicellulose, the non-edible fibrous material that
constitutes the bulk of plant matter. The common method for converting biomass into ethanol

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is called fermentation. During fermentation, microorganisms (e.g., bacteria and yeast)
metabolize plant sugars and produce ethanol [23].

Biofuel production techniques widely vary, depending on the type of raw material, efficiency
level, production volume, surrounding situation and end-user’s requirement etc.

Raw material Technique Product

Algae Fermentation, extraction Biodiesel

and Esterification

Vegetable oil and animal Hydro treatment Biodiesel

fat

Lignocellulosic material Advance hydrolysis and Cellulosic bioethanol

fermentation

Table 7: Biofuels production process [34]

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel used instead of crude oil. They are generally
manufactured by a simple process such as transesterification process using the raw materials
such as vegetable oil, animal fat, algae and certain oil crops like pongamia seeds, rapeseeds,
palm seed and soybean. The Transesterification process is the reaction of a triglyceride
(fat/oil) with an alcohol to form esters and glycerol. A triglyceride has a glycerine molecule as
its base with three long chain fatty acids attached. The characteristics of the fat are determined
by the nature of the fatty acids attached to the glycerine. The nature of the fatty acids can in
turn affect the characteristics of the biodiesel. During the esterification process, the triglyceride
is reacted with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst, usually a strong alkaline like sodium
hydroxide. The alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form the mono-alkyl ester, or biodiesel
and crude glycerol. In most production methanol or ethanol is the alcohol used (methanol
produces methyl esters, ethanol produces ethyl esters) and is base catalyzed by either
potassium or sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide has been found to be more suitable for
the ethyl ester biodiesel production, either base can be used for the methyl ester [23,24].

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 Fig 8: Transesterification process [35]

Biofuels from microalgae

Microalgae is a single celled microscopic organism, commonly found in fresh and

marine water. For their growth they require a temperature of 20-30 C, light, CO2, water and
inorganic salts such as nitrogen(N), phosphorous(P), iron(Fe) and silicon(Si). They also have
a short doubling time of 24 hours and hence they act as an ideal renewable source for biofuels
production. Some algal species and their oil content within them are as follows:

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 Fig 9: Microalgae species with their oil contents [36]

There are several methods followed for the cultivation of microalgae, such as suspended
cultures and immobilized cultures. For large scale production of microalgae algal ponds are
used for cultivation. After complete growth of microalgae, they are sent for the harvesting
process for recovering of the suspended algae. The methods used for harvesting are chemical,
mechanical and biological methods, where simple methods such as centrifugation is generally
applied for harvesting of cells. Then they are send for chemical treatments such as pyrolysis,
liquefaction for the obtaining the products such as bio-oil, biofuels and biodiesel. By these
method biofuels are extracted in an easiest method and to overcome the problems faced by
first and second generation biofuels [25].

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 Fig 10: Biofuel production process from microalgae [37]

Case Study

Bioethanol production in Brazil: In brazil sugarcane is being grown in large amount,

so the sugar bagasse was used for the production of ethanol firstly. 50 years ago, the price of
1 litre of ethanol was 3times more than 1 litre of gasoline. But most of the nations doesn’t
consider to investigate on biofuel. Than due to international oil crisis government made
additional of ethanol to gasoline compulsory. In 1975 subsidies were introduced to lower the
prices and reduce the taxes for ethanol. Over 30 years, production of ethanol was escalated
from 0.6 billion litres in 1975 to 11 billion litres in 1990. Now 45% of vehicles in Brazil use
ethanol as fuel [26].

Advantages

 Bio degradable and non-toxic.

 It mainly reduces the amount of CO2 emission.
 They can be used in any vehicles engine without any modifications.
 High cetane number and flash point.
 It has minimum Sulphur content.

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Disadvantages

 Biodiesel gels in cold weather.

 It is quite expensive.
 They have low energy output then traditional fields.
 There stability is less.

Applications

 They are mainly used for the purpose of transportation.

 They are also used for power generation.
 They are used to produce bio heat.

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6. Microbial Fuel cells
The first microbial cells were discovered in 20th century by botany professor at the
University of Durham. A scientist M C Potter, first came with the idea of utilizing the microbes
to produce electricity in 1911.While Potter succeeded in generating electricity from E. coli, his
work went unnoticed for another two decades before Barnet Cohen created the first microbial
half fuel cells in 1931. By connecting his half cells in series, he was able to generate a meager
current of 2 milliamps. By 1999, researchers in South Korea discovered a MFC milestone.
B.H. Kim et al developed the mediator less MFC greatly enhanced the MFC's commercial
viability, by eliminating costly mediator chemicals required for electron transport. Microbial
fuel cells have come a long way since the early twentieth century [27].

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bio-electrochemical device that harnesses the power
of respiring microbes to convert organic substrates directly into electrical energy. At its core,
the MFC is a fuel cell, which transforms chemical energy into electricity using oxidation
reduction reactions. The key difference is in the name, microbial fuel cells rely on living
biocatalysts to facilitate the movement of electrons throughout their systems instead of the
traditional chemically catalyzed oxidation of a fuel at the anode and reduction at the cathode.

Microorganisms like anaerobic and facultative anaerobes can be used to generate

electricity. Some species include Shewenalla onedensis, Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella oxytoca,
Klebsiella pneumonia and many more are used [27].

Working: Microbial fuel cells work by allowing bacteria to do what they do best,
oxidize and reduce organic molecules. Bacterial respiration is basically one big redox reaction
in which electrons are being moved around. Whenever you have moving electrons, the
potential exists for harnessing an electromotive force to perform useful work. A MFC consists
of an anode and a cathode separated by a cation specific membrane. Microbes at the anode
oxidize the organic fuel generating protons which pass through the membrane to the cathode,
and electrons which pass through the anode to an external circuit to generate a current. The
trick of course is collecting the electrons released by bacteria as they respire. This leads to two
types of MFCs: mediator and mediator less [27].

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 Figure 11: Microbial fuel cells (MFC) [38]

Mediator MFC's: Prior to 1999, most MFCs required a mediator chemical to transfer
electrons from the bacterial cells to the electrode. Mediators like neutral red, humic acid,
thionine, methyl blue, and methyl viologen were expensive and often toxic, making the
technology difficult to commercialize [27].

Mediator less MFC's: Research performed by B. H. Kim et al in 1999 led to the

development of a new type of MFC's mediator less MFCs. The Fe (III) reducer Shewanella
putrefaciens, unlike most MFC bacteria at the time, were electrochemically active. This
bacterium had the ability to respire directly into the electrode under certain conditions by using
the anode as an electron acceptor as part of its normal metabolic process. Bacteria that can
transfer electrons extracellularly, are called exoelectrogens [27].

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7. Conclusion
It is clear that there is a strong need to incorporate more renewable energy sources into
the grid of the future. These kinds of energy sources, when merged with energy storage, can
greatly benefit the grid by offering a variety of primary services and daily peak load reductions.
These storage technologies will vary according to various renewable sources, also cost
minimization models have been proposed to overcome the cost of buying these sources.
Renewable energy source will still face heavy road to full integration with the present future.
Although this paper focused mostly on application of renewable energy resources and their
utilities, with increasing government approach toward greenhouse gas emission reductions and
their storage the idea of renewable energy sources and storage technologies will undoubtedly
increase rapidly in the next decade. This will continue to be a major topic of future research as
developing countries and will face different challenges when it deals with energy and power
systems.

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9. Review and Research Papers

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