Sadhan Mahapatra
Department of Energy
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Sadhan Mahapatra
Ph D (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
Professor
Department of Energy
Tezpur University
Napaam, Tezpur 784028, Assam, India,
Tel: +91-3712-275306, Fax: +91-3712-267005/6
E-mail: sadhan@tezu.ernet.in; sadhan.mahapatra@gmail.com
Education
Research Identity
PhD
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
PhD Topic: Experiments and Analysis on Wood Gasification in an Open Top Downdraft Gasifier
MTech (Energy Science and Technology)
Jadavpur University, Calcutta
MTech Project : A Study on Performance Analysis of a Slow Speed Wind Turbine
MSc (Physics)
Visva-Bharati, Shantiniketan
Research Project
Off-grid Solar Power Plant at Tezpur University, AICTE, 20 lakhs, 2021-2022 (PI)
Rural Hybrid Energy Enterprise Systems, UKRC-DST, 198 lakhs, 2013-2022, (Co-PI)
Demonstration of Bamboo based Gasification technology at Tezpur University, National Mission on Bamboo Application, TIFAC, 2004.
Design Optimisation of a bamboo fan used as forced-air paddy cleaner, GIAN-NE, 2003 (completed) (Co-investigator).
Energy Consumption Pattern in Tea processing Unit and Scope for Energy Conservation, UGC Minor Research Project. 2002 (Completed)
Research Areas
Biomass Gasification
Gasification, a sub-stoichiometric combustion process, converts solid fuel to gaseous fuel. Unlike in combustion, where the primary intention is to release all the energy as sensible heat, in the case of gasification, the energy of solid fuel transferred to combustible gaseous species. The entire process occurs under fuel rich conditions. In the case of a packed bed, depending upon the air flow rate, propagation flame front moves into the virgin fuel. The propagation rate, which is influenced by air flow, combustion and heat transfer, depends on the fuel properties like size, density, thermal conductivity, moisture content, ash content and calorific value. Our work focuses on the experiments and numerical analysis towards establishing the effect of air mass flux on the propagation rate, bed temperature, gas composition and related aspects under the sub-stoichiometric operating conditions in downdraft packed bed configuration. It is important to state that the combustion processes occurring in a packed bed area resultant of both homogenous and heterogeneous reaction process. Depending upon the air flow rate for a given volume and surface area of the bed, the overall process varies between gasification (rich) and combustion (lean) regimes. The broad areas in this field are establishment of the operating regime of downdraft gasification system, production of hydrogen generation and electricity generation by using biomass gasification systems etc.
Climate Responsive Buildings and Thermal comfort
Climate responsive building design is a concept that integrates the micro-climate and architecture with human thermal comfort conditions. This concept takes into account the solar passive techniques, micro-climatic conditions and thermal comfort conditions that improve the building energy efficiency. Thermal comfort not only makes the occupants comfortable but also decides the energy consumption in the building. Naturally ventilated vernacular architecture of North-Eastern India which perfectly represents the principle of climate-oriented architecture still lacks experimental validation and quantitative analysis. Our study starts with climatic classification of entire northeast region into three bioclimatic zones (warm and humid, cool and humid and cold and cloudy), thermal performance analysis of the vernacular buildings of the region. Since, it is not possible to monitor all the buildings due to limited accessibility; so predictive formula has been developed to predict the indoor temperature of these buildings. Our study also focused to develop adaptive thermal comfort models and energy performance analysis of these the buildings at different climatic zones.
Decentralized Energy Systems
Access to Energy to every household is a great challenge in India. Low load factors, long distribution lines, low load densities and associated high transmission and distribution losses make many of the rural electrification programme economically unattractive. During grid availability, the supply is found to be erratic and poor quality. This calls for the need of hybrid decentralized power systems, which can cater to local communities in much effective manner. Apart from providing better quality of life to rural communities, it could have significant effect in the livelihood of the rural economy. Harnessing energy from solar photovoltaic and biomass gasification route could be the most promising towards access to electricity. Decentralized power system is the most viable option for isolated sites that are located far off from the existing grid supply. This would involve accelerating the overall development of the under developed areas with a number of programs like entrepreneurship development and employment generation opportunities. Hybrid energy systems (PV, biomass gasification etc.) can also integrate with grid based electricity to make the system cost effective and reliable.
Photovoltaic Systems
National Solar Energy Mission has an ambitious target of 100 GW Solar Power by the year 2022. This translate large number of PV power plants installations in the country. Different module technologies performance at various climatic zones within India differs due to the variation in solar radiation spectrum and ambient temperature. Our work primarily focused on the module performance in different climatic zones in the country, suitability of types of module technology for different locations, dust effect on the module power output, mismatch losses due to the shading of the cells or modules and simulation based performance evaluation of large grid connected power plants.
