Using Solar Energy in the Cleaning of Swimming Pools in North Cyprus

D. Ibrahim* and M. Altunc

<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Abstract: </strong>Currently there are over 5,000 swimming pools in operation in North Cyprus. The paper briefly investigates the solar&nbsp;energy availability in North Cyprus, and proposes the use of solar electricity to operate the pumps used for circulating the water and&nbsp;cleaning swimming pools. The paper concludes that electrical energy can be saved if solar energy is used during the pool cleaning&nbsp;process.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Photovoltaic panel, renewable energy pool pump, solar energy, swimming pool.</p>

Effects of Biodiesel Fuels Use on Vehicle Emissions

L.G. Anderson

<p><strong>Abstract:</strong> Many countries are using and considering the increased use of biodiesel blended fuels to slow their growth of fossil fuel&nbsp;use for transportation purposes. Before the use of these fuels increase, it is critical that we understand the effect of using biodiesel&nbsp;blends on vehicle emissions, so that we better understand what air quality impacts to expect. Many previous reviews of biodiesel&nbsp;effects on emissions have combined all of the emissions data available to find a single value for the effects of a biodiesel blend on&nbsp;pollutant emissions. This includes combining emissions data from both light-duty (LD) and heavy-duty (HD) diesel vehicles and&nbsp;engines, combining vehicle data from chassis dynamometer and on-road emissions testing, and combining data using different oil&nbsp;feedstocks for producing biodiesel fuels.<br />In this review, the effects of switching from petroleum diesel fuel to biodiesel blended fuels on relative vehicle emissions for LD and&nbsp;HD vehicles are determined separately. We will not include engine emissions data in this analysis. For HD vehicles, we will also&nbsp;separate results for on-road emissions testing from chassis dynamometer testing. For HD vehicles, hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were&nbsp;significantly lower for B20 and B100 fuels from dynamometer and for B20 fuels from on-road emissions testing. For LD vehicles,&nbsp;there was no significant effect on HC emissions for B5, B10, B20, B30, B50 or B100 fuels. Nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emissions for HD&nbsp;dynamometer data was significantly higher for both B20 and B100, but no significant difference was found for the HD on-road&nbsp;emissions data. The NO_x emissions for the LD vehicles were significantly higher for B10, B20, B30, B50 and B100 blends. For&nbsp;carbon monoxide (CO) emissions there was no significant effect for B20 and a significant decrease for B100 based on HD&nbsp;dynamometer data, and a significant decrease for B20 based on HD on-road emissions data. LD dynamometer data found a&nbsp;significant decrease in CO emissions only for B20 blends. No significant effect was found for carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions for&nbsp;HD vehicles using B20 fuels based on dynamometer or on-road emissions data. For LD vehicles a significant decrease in CO₂&nbsp;emissions was found only for the B10 blend. Particulate matter (PM) emissions were significantly lower for B20 fuel in HD vehicles&nbsp;for both types of emissions tests. PM emissions decreased significantly for LD vehicles for B10, B20, B30 and B50 blends only. The&nbsp;HD dynamometer data showed a significant decrease in fuel economy for the B20 blend, but no significant effect was observed for&nbsp;either the HD on-road or LD dynamometer data. When the effects of a biodiesel blend on vehicle emissions in different categories<br />were not significantly different, the results were combined to assess the effect of biodiesel use on the broader class of vehicles.<br /></p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Renewable fuels, Biodiesel, Vehicle emissions, Regulated air pollutants, Hazardous air pollutants.</p>