Research Title: A Unified Approach for Designing a Photovoltaic Solar System for the Underground Water Pumping Well-34 at Disi Aquifer

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2013

Energy Conversion & Management, 75

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: This paper aims to present a detailed design of a standalone photovoltaic system used to power continuously a submersible water pump from a selected well, (Well-34 of a current static water level, SWL=147.3 m), out of 55 production wells located at the Disi aquifer, where each of these wells should have a continuously-operating water flow rate of 80 liters/sec (288 m3/hour) according to the Disi project specifications. Initially, solar irradiation calculations on horizontal and tilted surfaces were carried out to identify the potential of solar energy available in kWh/m2 /day in the Disi aquifer. Then, a system design approach based on the worst month of the year (December) was carried out to choose and size the components of photovoltaic system that is required to operate the submersible pump over the 25-year operation period. The system sizing implies defining the number and type of solar panels required to capture the available solar energy, the capacity and number of batteries, inverter rating, cable sizing, charge controller numbers and rating to ensure the maximum reliability of the system. Furthermore, beyond the design conditions of the worst month (December), extra energy can be produced by the PV system during the rest of the year time, which can be used for many purposes. Also, the design process considers the problem of dust accumulation on PV surfaces and this can be dealt with by periodic cleaning.

Keywords: Photovoltaic panel, batteries, charge controller, inverter, solar irradiation, motor pump.

Research Title: A comprehensive study of photovoltaic power system application for the underground water well pumping at Disi area

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2013

Australian Journal of Basic and Applied sciences, 7

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the possible use of solar photovoltaic system to power underground water well pumps, which are intended to be used at the Disi Water Conveyance Mega Project in south of Jordan. The work in this paper is divided into four parts: Firstly, an overview of the Disi area was studied and it was found that temperatures ranged between 43°-22°C, wind speed 5.6-9.1 m/s and a total of number sunny days reaching 330 days/year. These values formed ideal conditions for harvesting solar energy. Secondly, Irradiation levels were calculated (Pyranometer was not available on site) and found ranging between 5.5-8.7 kWh/m2/day. This case prevails throughout more than 330 days/year and with around 10-12 shinning hours/day. These values formed an ideal opportunity to construct a photovoltaic solar system. In addition to that, the method of the worst month of radiation and the peak sun hours were studied and analyzed. Thirdly, for this study purposes, system flow and head requirements of the selected four wells are to be determined, and finally the complete system was designed starting with the determination of water pumping requirements (continuous flow rate of 80 liters/sec per well) and then water drawdown effect on the required motor power was investigated throughout the 25-years of the study period. After that, the main photovoltaic PV components’ sizing and selection were conducted. This includes the PV panels, batteries, inverter, charge controllers and cables. The results of this study showed that application of solar energy in Disi area for underground water pumping system is practically and theoretically applicable.

Keywords: Photovoltaic panel; Irradiation levels; batteries; inverter; charge controller

Research Title: Green Building Design Solution for a Kindergarten in Amman

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2014

Energy and Buildings, 75

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: Buildings in Jordan consume a significant amount of energy for heating, cooling and lighting purposes. Therefore, improving energy performance of the existing building in Jordan will significantly reduce national electrical consumption. In this work, an existed kindergarten in Amman was redesigned moving towards low energy performance, in doing so, the proposed design studied the use of applying lighting saving lamps, adding thermal insulation for walls, solar water heater for domestic hot water, on grid photovoltaic system as a source of electrical power to generate free solar electricity to cover the electrical load demand of the kindergarten, and finally a heat recovery system for the exhaust air in air conditioning and ventilation. Also, a suitable economic evaluation criterion was used to estimate the payback period of all systems applied. The results showed energy saving fluorescent lamps can reduce the energy use by about 15%, and reduce the heating load up to 10%, achieved by using thermal insulation and 61.3 % by using exhaust air heat recovery system. Furthermore, suitable energy conversion using solar systems were sufficient to cover the domestic hot water heating demand to reach zero of domestic hot water heating energy during sunshine days. The annual reduction achieved in Carbon Dioxide CO2) emission was 11.7 Ton.

Keywords: Green building, Energy consumption, photovoltaic, heating load, carbon emission

Research Title: Numerical investigation of fully developed laminar flow in irregular annular ducts: Triangular–circular combinations

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2014

Energy Conversion & Management, 85

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: The aim of this study is to reduce the required pumping energy by obtaining accurately the friction factor – Reynolds number product (fRe) of the steady fully developed laminar flow in annular ducts. The study is focused on the annular region between equilateral triangular and circular ducts under all possible combinations. For this purpose, the governing equations are solved using high order finite element method. For regular annuli, it is found that higher values of area ratio lead to monotonic increase in (fRe) value, with (fRe)max = (24, 42.67,96) at the respective values of (Dh) = (0.5,0.75,1) regardless of the particular geometry. For irregular annuli, higher values of area ratio lead to an increase followed by a decrease in (fRe) value, with (fRe)max = (79.631,35.392,19.921) at the respective values of (Dh) = (0.5, 0.75, 1) for the (CT) case, and correspondingly (fRe)max = (91.02,40.45,22.85) for the (TC) case. On the other hand, it is found that (fRe) value inversely proportional with the hydraulic diameter (Dh). For all cases considered in this study, the largest (fRe) at the representative values (AR) = 30% is found for the (CC) case with (fRe)max = 95.43 whereas the smallest (fRe) is found for the (CT) case with (fRe)min = 17.544. More importantly, irregular annuli outperformed the regular annuli and thus are recommended to replace the classical regular annuli currently used in double duct heat exchangers. This in turn will significantly decrease the pumping energy required in such applications in industry.

Keywords: Pumping EnergyIrregular annuliAnnular ductsFinite element methodLaminar flowFriction factorHydraulic diameter

Research Title: Large scale Grid Connected (20MW) Photovoltaic System for Peak Load Shaving in Sahab Industrial District

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2014

”, Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering JJMIE, 9

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: In the daily electrical load cycle, peak load that last for few hours is the most expensive electrical production cost. In this current work, Sahab Industrial District, as an example, has its peak load occurring during the daylight hours. Therefore, it is suggested to install a PV plant to shave off the peak load. The location of the proposed PV generation system will be in the Al-Risha area because of the land low cost, and a link to the national grid is available. Large-scale grid-connected PV system is designed with 20 MW installed capacity. It is found that the generation cost for all power was found to be US$ 0.172 per kWh which is much lower than the electrical production cost of the peak load generation. In addition, a cost comparison is conducted between kWh generated from conventional units (gas turbine in this case) and that generated from PV system. The result of this work illustrated clearly that it is possible to use photovoltaic generation at large-scale for peak load shaving and could be generalized to other industrial districts, and to other load types such as Industrial, and economic loads.

Keywords: Peak load shaving, photovoltaic system, life cycle cost, net present value, on grid system

Research Title: “THE POSSIBILITY OF APPLYING QUALITY COSTS AND COMPETITION STRATEGIES APPROACH TO ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF PUBLIC SHAREHOLDING INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES IN JORDAN”

Author: Ali Ahmad Masadeh, Published Year: 2018

Global and Stochastic Analysis, 5

Faculty: Business

Abstract: This study aimed to identify the possibility of applying quality costs with its role in the developing and improving production processes to achieve the competitive advantage of public shareholding companies in Jordan, especially, under the rapid changes in the economic environment in field of design and production technology.Quality costs have become one of the most important strategic tools to enhance competitive advantage. To achieve the study objectives, a questionnaire was designed, and distributed to the managers of finance, production and sales by three questionnaires per company. 156 questionnaires were distributed for analysis. The study achieved the following results: The approach of quality costs play an important role in providing the information to implement the strategic and competitive steps of public shareholding companies in Jordan and that companies apply this competitive advantage strategies in medium and weak rates. This study has provide a set of suggestions and recommendations which is: the possibility of applying the approach of quality costs in companies through the following basic factors: the desire of the companies to apply this approach as well as the availability of basic skills to apply advanced systems and approach and the industrial management companies seeking to reduce damage costs as well as to reduce the startup time and that reflected positively on competitive advantage.

Keywords: Cost of Quality Approach, Competition Strategies, Competitive Advantages

Research Title: Analysis of Thermal Performance Of Building Attached Sunspace

Author: Nadia Fayez Badarneh, Published Year: 2011

Energy And Buildings Journal-Elsevier, Vol 43

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: The thermal performance of a sunspace attached to a living room located in Amman-Jordan has been investigated. Six configurations that differ by the ratio of glazed surface area to opaque surfaces area are studied. A novel configuration that utilizes an inclined front surface is thermally investigated. The effect of orientation of the sunspace, opaque wall and floor absorption coefficients and number of glass layers on the thermal performance is evaluated. Results show that the sunspace reduces the heating load during the winter, while it creates a serious overheating problem during summer. The contribution of reducing heating requirements increases with increasing the ratio of glazed surface to opaque surface area. Also, the optimal contribution was obtained when the sunspace was oriented to the south. Two passive cooling techniques are proposed and evaluated to overcome the summer overheating problem. Additionally, a passive heating technique is proposed to minimize the thermal losses during winter nights. Internal shading and night ventilation successfully minimize the overheating problem. Employing the three passive techniques with sunspace, results show that as high as 42% reductions in annual heating and cooling load can be achieved. Utilizing an inclined front surface with double layer of glass can further reduce heating and cooling load requirements.

Keywords: Thermal Performance-Green energy-passive technique -Building-Solar-Energy Consumption

Research Title: Comparative economic viability and environmental impact of PV, diesel and grid systems for large underground water pumping application (55 wells) in Jordan

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2015

Renewables: Wind, Water, and Solar , 2

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: The current work was based on four selected underground water production wells (W25, W29, W34 and W47), out of 55 wells available in total, at Disi water project located south of Jordan to power underground water pumping using a stand alone solar photovoltaic (PV) system for an operation period of 25 years. The economic viability of large stand alone solar PV system of 13 MW in total had been analyzed through life-cycle cost computation compared with other four possible powering options, i.e. genset-powered, grid-networked systems, PV-grid, and PV-genset. Individual cost banks were identified and studied based on previous practical experiences. Results of the life cycle costs per kWh in the order from best to worst alternative is the PV (0.136 USD/kWh), PV/grid (0.140), (grid (0.144 USD/kWh) PV/genset (0.185, and genset (0.239 USD/kWh), respectively. This proved that the PV solar system is more cost effective and suitable to use over other conventional types of energy for such large power system. Following, the environmental aspects of using clean PV energy were discussed. The resulting savings in CO2 emission reached 30 thousand tons per well throughout the study period, which summed up to about 1.5 million tons of CO2 for all Disi wells. A briefed risk assessment was conducted for the intended project. Risk levels associated to several hazards were identified as well. The work in this paper can be generalized to other cases world wide under similar conditions.

Keywords: Photovoltaic, economic viability, life cycle cost, CO2 emission, risk assessment

Research Title: THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS OF COMBINED CYCLE POWER PLANTS

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2015

Mechanical Engineering Research, 5

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: Several modifications have been made to the simple gas turbine cycle in order to increase its thermal efficiency but within the thermal and mechanical stress constrain, the efficiency still ranges between 38 and 42%. The concept of using combined cycle power or CPP plant would be more attractive in hot countries than the combined heat and power or CHP plant. The current work deals with the performance of different configurations of the gas turbine engine operating as a part of the combined cycle power plant. The results showed that the maximum CPP cycle efficiency would be at a point for which the gas turbine cycle would have neither its maximum efficiency nor its maximum specific work output. It has been shown that supplementary heating or gas turbine reheating would decrease the CPP cycle efficiency; hence, it could only be justified at low gas turbine inlet temperatures. Also it has been shown that although gas turbine intercooling would enhance the performance of the gas turbine cycle, it would have only a slight effect on the CPP cycle performance. :

Keywords: gas turbines, steam turbines, CPP power plants, thermal efficiency.

Research Title: THERMO ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PV AND HYDROGEN GAS TURBINE HYBRID POWER PLANT OF 100MW POWER OUTPUT

Author: Munzer Ebaid, Published Year: 2015

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 40

Faculty: Engineering and Technology

Abstract: The design of a PV- hydrogen gas turbine hybrid power plant is proposed to generate 100 MW electrical load. This electrical power is supplied directly from PV solar panels, and in the case of shortage or lack of solar radiation, it is supplied by a gas turbine power plant working on hydrogen fuel which is produced through using electrolysis of water by a PV generator. The hydrogen produced is stored directly in gas tanks under appropriate pressure. In the case of inability in supplying the load from PV generator, hydrogen fuel will be used through gas turbine. This study is examined in two cases; case (a): the design of the PV power plant based on worst case scenario; which corresponds to the minimum solar radiation and minimum sunshine hours during the year), and case (b): the design of the PV power plant based on average case scenario; which corresponds to the average solar radiation and average sunshine hours during the year. In both cases, the size of the gas turbine power plant and the size of the photovoltaic arrays required for operating day load, the number of water electrolysers, the capacity of hydrogen tanks required for storage purposes; all were calculated. The economic cost in each individual case was analysed taking into account, a profit of 25% of the initial cost. It was found that the price of the electricity produced is 0.12$/kWh for worst case scenario, and 0.16$/kWh for the average scenario. The payback period is 13 years and 15 years for the worst and the average scenarios respectively based on 8% interest rate.

Keywords: Hybrid power plant, PV system, hydrogen fuel, gas turbine, economic cost.