Sustainable System Solutions: RAK Research and Innovation Center

SWES, volume-05, Issue 2 (2013) , PP 67 - 76

Published: 22 Nov 2015

DOI: 10.5383/swes.5.02.010

by Mousa Mohsen, Zaki Iqbal, Uday Kumar, Waqar Ullah, Omar Akash from RAK Research and Innovation Center, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Abstract: Achieving sustainable development requires collaboration between different sectors and institutions, as well as the participation of all relevant stakeholders and individuals. The major contribution of institutions of higher education and research Center to society's efforts at achieving sustainability is well recognized. RAK Research and Innovation Center is a state of art research and development Center specializing in sustainable system solutions. This Center is the succession of research platform developed by the CSEM in 2007 when the Government of Ras Al Khaimah allocated to CSEM-UAE 87000 m2 of land in the industrial zone to build world unique Solar R&D facilities open to co-operation with world leading academic, technology and industrial development Centers. Recently, the Center became one of the major research facilities of the American University of Ras Al Khaimah. Today this facility includes seven R&D test platforms focusing on Photovoltaic, Solar cooling, Solar Hybrid Minigrip, green building, solar water desalination, Solar Island and Concentrated Solar Power. One of the most promising applications of renewable sources, in UAE is to harness the energy required to supply fresh water. Water desalination using renewable energy technologies, such as solar is possible. Employing such new systems to produce fresh potable water in the future give solutions from feasibility, sustainability, environmental and safety issues to national economy, and social benefits. The need for sustainable approach to tackle the issue of bottled water has motivated us to develop an in-house water purification unit based on Membrane Distillation (MD) technology. MD is a novel process that could be adapted effectively for many water purification applications. A difference in partial pressure serves as the driving force, and the presence of a hydrophobic membrane ensures high water quality regardless of feedstock parameters. Hot-side temperatures below 90 C are suitable and this process has been proven ideal for exploiting waste heat or solar thermal resources for small scale applications. There is an acute increase in the energy utilization as well as its production in the world over in general and in particular in UAE. This is because of increase in population and economy. As a result of this there is an increase in global warming and CO2 emission. To reduce the generation and also to mitigate its effect on the climate, one has to reduce the utilization or need of the energy use in the society. Share of buildings in total energy consumption and its utilization is huge around 20%-40% depending upon country and it is used in cooling, heating, hot water, home appliances, lighting and cooking etc. In UAE 40% is the buildings share of total energy consumption of which Cooling is around 70% of building load, Lighting is the next and all the others will account for 20%. Hence, thermal insulation of building represents a big potential in Energy Saving in UAE. A theoretical study is done at site on different cost-effective and thermally efficient solutions, related to solar insulation materials for the buildings. To perform a real outdoor test for savings obtained with solar insulating materials, a solar calorimeter test facility has been designed and builds. The present design is aimed to determine the heat flux reduction and the energy savings of different measures with similar indoor conditions, with and without solar insulating materials for the same ambient conditions. RAK research and Innovation Center has one the world's first high precision solar tracking platform which can be used for concentrating solar panels. The platform floats on a cushion of air and is equipped with state of art rotating systems to track the movement of the sun in the order of 10-2. This platform has been tested for the load rotation test and it can take up to 150 tons of loads distributed over its top. This high precision structure is study various technology requiring high precision tracking for the optimum energy production. This platform has the potential to be deployed on land or offshore. Both versions are based on the principle of a torus floating on water and rotating to track the sun’s azimuth, thus ensuring optimal use of primary solar radiation received on earth. Solar radiation being concentrated can be used in solar thermal processes or photovoltaic applications. This paper describes the basic research platforms at RAK Research and Innovation Center, and the main results that have been achieved. read more... read less...

Keywords: Sustainable System Solutions,Concentrated Solar Power

Agents and Sensors System for Monitoring Sandstorms

SWES, volume-05, Issue 2 (2013) , PP 59 - 65

Published: 26 Jun 2015

DOI: 10.5383/swes.05.01.009

by Elhadi M. Shakshuki, Tarek R. Sheltami from Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, B4P 2R6, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 31261

Abstract: Saudi Arabia highways, especially in the eastern region, are subject to several sandstorms and sand dunes that yield to reduced visibility, unsafe roads and sometimes it is life threatening. This makes wireless sensor networks bring very promising, desired and effective natural solution to provide safe roads. This paper presents agent-based system architecture approach for data dissemination in a wireless sensor network (WSN) for sandstorm monitoring. This system architecture consists of three layers of agents, including the interface, routing and data collection layer. The interface agent responsibility is to interact with the users to fulfil their interests. The routing agent generates the optimized query plan to the cluster agent. At the routing layer, the routing agents perform data dissemination and efficient in-network processing with the other agents in the same layer; it also captures the required data through the data collection layer that has direct access to sensor nodes. This paper provides the agents’ architecture, design and implementations that enable them to communicate and work together to disseminate and gather data in WSNs. read more... read less...

Keywords: Agents, data dissemination, query optimization, sensor networks.