Innovators Of the "TwEnTiEs" #ENGINEERS#

  HYDROGEN- THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE “I have a dream!” - Martin Luther King Jr. The terms climate change, carbon footprint, ambiguous policies have garnered a lot of attention since the start of the 20th century and especially in the last decade, many countries have come forth and have taken strides in making the whole planet sustainable again. The Paris climate pact or Fit for 55 package or the upcoming COP26 initiatives are small examples of how ambitious and desperate the EU and the rest of the world is to handle this crisis. Desperate situations call for desperate measures and hence the climate crisis brought one of its oldest allies back into the game: Hydrogen, ironically one of the most abundant elements in the universe and yet one of the scarcest elements on earth crust (making up to 0.14% of crust). There has been a renewed interest in hydrogen after almost 20 years since it began to be used as lift-off fuel in aircraft. This time it is likely to last, with most of the innov...

  SMART GRIDS & IoT Internet Of Things (IoT) has ventured into almost every field of engineering and now it is at the peak of revolutionizing electrical networks.  A recent survey has concluded that there are currently 30.73 billion devices ranging from home appliances to vehicles that are augmented with Sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags/devices, etc which can connect to the Internet and IoT is a network where such devices can interchange data and commands to identify, locate and control objects in the physical world. Fig 1: IoT (Image Credits: Zdnet ) One such concept I’d like to share in this article is an IoT based application known as Smart Grid. A Smart grid is the next-generation electrical network allowing devices to communicate between the suppliers and the consumers bidirectionally, thereby empowering all the players to manage the demand power, protect the distribution network, save ...

  CLIMATE, ENERGY & POLICIES “Collaboration & Augmentation are the foundational principles of innovation” - Vaclav Smil  Hello readers! Caution : It is always interesting to view what you are very passionate about from the opposite pole to understand things better. This article is one such attempt. All I wrote here is healthy criticism and I am not taking any sides or proposing anything here. Thank You for understanding in advance!! There has been a pressing need to transition towards renewable resources in order to avert the current climate crisis, which in long run is even more catastrophic than any pandemic, and create a sustainable globe. Interestingly, all the key stakeholders involved in the energy sector, i.e., Engineers, Scientists, Financiers, Policymakers etc. are elucbrating . Nonetheless, there always seems to have a significant gap between the targets set and the results achieved despite the constant evolution in the technology, owing to many factors...

OFFSHORE WIND FARMS “Collaboration & Augmentation are the foundational principles of innovation” - Vaclav Smil There is a pressing need to shift towards renewables in order to avoid climate crisis, which is more catastrophic than the covid-19 pandemic, for a sustainable future. Interestingly, every solution induces its own challenges in the system. In the course of this article, one such solution, offshore wind farms, would be discussed. What are Offshore wind farms? Offshore wind farms mean taking advantage of the high-speed winds available in the seas or oceans in order to harvest electricity. These technologies usually offer a higher capacity. Until a water depth of 60m, the turbines could be directly placed on the sea beds and are fixed however, for depths deeper than 60m the turbines are affixed onto structures called floaters which are further anchored to the ocean floors are employed. The first commercial offshore wind farm was established in Denmark in 1991. Consequently, i...