The link between Energy and Environment in Pakistan
Because of the recent mismanagement and lack of investment into infrastructure Pakistan has become acutely short of energy. While before it was just rural communities who used wood as a fuel, now large industries have started preferring wood as a primary fuel due to its availability (we are facing chronic gas shortages) and price (its cheaper than oil and diesel). Its important to provide these industries as alternate heat source if we are to start conserving forests. I am working on developing solar concentrators that can be constructed by semi skilled labor working on street side workshops.
The other consumers of wood as a fuel are rural communities. In my opinion improving their livelihood will reduce their direct dependence on the land. For this I am working to get a solar light into every home that does not have an electricity connection.
Details of both projects are given below. I hope to shift focus onto remediation of our natural resources once these projects are of the ground.
The other consumers of wood as a fuel are rural communities. In my opinion improving their livelihood will reduce their direct dependence on the land. For this I am working to get a solar light into every home that does not have an electricity connection.
Details of both projects are given below. I hope to shift focus onto remediation of our natural resources once these projects are of the ground.
Industrial Concentrated Solar thermal power
Cane troughs, made by existing expertise
did not work out
In this project our aim is to find the best design geometry of a linear parabolic trough solar collector based on the following criteria:
1. Robustness to Error
2. Cost
3. Efficiency
Taking into account the required output temperature, volumes and the weather conditions of a specific application. For a developing country the first two parameters become equally important as the third. We have taken this from the basic physics (we wrote a detailed optical and thermal model) that we did in our thesis to constructing sample troughs to see the range of errors that go into these specific parts of the construction processes (receiver mis-location, focus mis-location, parabolic profile errors etc).
We are in the process of writing a paper based on our findings and also plan to complete an open source standalone software that users can use to determine the best trough that they should construct given their requirements and resources. Our end goal is to start a local industry that constructs troughs.
BS Thesis
1. Robustness to Error
2. Cost
3. Efficiency
Taking into account the required output temperature, volumes and the weather conditions of a specific application. For a developing country the first two parameters become equally important as the third. We have taken this from the basic physics (we wrote a detailed optical and thermal model) that we did in our thesis to constructing sample troughs to see the range of errors that go into these specific parts of the construction processes (receiver mis-location, focus mis-location, parabolic profile errors etc).
We are in the process of writing a paper based on our findings and also plan to complete an open source standalone software that users can use to determine the best trough that they should construct given their requirements and resources. Our end goal is to start a local industry that constructs troughs.
BS Thesis
Hasna Lite
Crowd financed solar lights for rural Sindh currently under development. Visit the website: www.hasna.pk
This idea grew out of the original micro-finance idea (explained below) which I hope to get to at some point.
This idea grew out of the original micro-finance idea (explained below) which I hope to get to at some point.
Water Infiltration in Ayubia National Park
Site Locations
The Coca Cola Foundation wishes to become water neutral. Therefore they have undertaken several water saving measures throughout the world. In Ayubia National Park springs had been drying up due to intense deforestation in the surrounding areas and within the park as well. Coca Cola decided to undertake afforestation efforts in collaboration with WWF Pakistan in the region but they wanted to know the volume of water saved by their work. Our undergraduate group went to Ayubia and measured infiltration rates of forested and deforested land in the park and estimated the change due to increased forest cover and submitted the report to WWF.
The sites chosen were in the Namli Mera District located at the northern border of the Park. This area forms the catchment area of a stream that runs between these two (forested and deforested) slopes.
Project Proposal
Submitted Paper
The sites chosen were in the Namli Mera District located at the northern border of the Park. This area forms the catchment area of a stream that runs between these two (forested and deforested) slopes.
Project Proposal
Submitted Paper
International Conference on Water Resources Engineering and Management 2011
Presentation at the Conference
The WWF paper was rather restricted and focused on extracting the amount of water saved somehow from the data. Therefore we submitted a paper to this conference which detailed the low cost methods we had used for our experiments in Ayubia and the good fit of the linear regression model given our parameters. Infiltration was related to slope, tree cover, shrubs, vegetation and other variables. Our paper was accepted, presentation well received, and was the only undergraduate presentation at the conference. I was the first author and presenter.
Submitted Paper
Conference Presentation
Schedule
Submitted Paper
Conference Presentation
Schedule
Senior Year Thesis Proposal: Domestic Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plants
Pakistan has not yet been commercially introduced to solar thermal power. Solar thermal power is cheaper, allows for local construction and co-generation thereby becoming more feasible for a developing country like Pakistan. Secondly, current solar collector producers are placed in technologically advanced settings and therefore can produce system with low error, and can so focus their design focus on improving efficiencies. In developing countries however, practical production is far from optimum and errors are significant given limitations in production and maintenance. Hence, there is a different optimal design for such construction environments.
Therefore our project objectives are two fold the first being industry related and second academic.
1. Produce a commercially viable and replicable ~1KW co generation plant.
2. Model the system and suggest optimal parameters for such a system in the developed world.
We have submitted our proposal and defended it successfully! We will be working in close collaboration with Convergence, a Lahore based company looking to market the product as a social service.
Project Proposal
Presentation
Therefore our project objectives are two fold the first being industry related and second academic.
1. Produce a commercially viable and replicable ~1KW co generation plant.
2. Model the system and suggest optimal parameters for such a system in the developed world.
We have submitted our proposal and defended it successfully! We will be working in close collaboration with Convergence, a Lahore based company looking to market the product as a social service.
Project Proposal
Presentation
Hasna Project Proposal - Micro Credit through crowd sourcing
The social entrepreneurship course with the business school has been a pleasure (though listening to the MBA students can become a bit tiresome). My original idea to grow nutritional algae has evolved into a wonderful project about crowd sourced micro finance. We will use the crowd to generate a credit pool and build the capacity of local NGOs to distribute it! The project presentation was a success and several people are interested in working with us and seeing the thing through.
Proposal Presentation
Report
Proposal Presentation
Report