• Energy Research
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Natural gas is cheaper than fuel on an energy basis, making it an alternative ship fuel which leads to a reduced operating cost and clean gas environmental conditions. The current study analyses the retrofit of an ageing multi-purpose ship to use liquefied natural gas as a primary ship fuel in the context of a short-ship sea operation. The objective is to transform an existing commercial ageing ship propulsion system into a green energy propulsion one and to analyse the economic feasibility considering the high volatility and increased LNG price. Four scenarios were analysed based on the net present value representing Denying, Disinterested, Good and Acceptable financial cash outflow. It was concluded that in the present economic instability and price of LNG fuel and CO2 taxes, the ship owner needs to rely on the long-term contract of buying LNG fuel to implement measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep good benefits in shipping.

Natural gas is cheaper than fuel on an energy basis, making it an alternative ship fuel which leads to a reduced operating cost and clean gas environmental conditions. The current study analyses the retrofit of an ageing multi-purpose ship to use liquefied natural gas as a primary ship fuel in the context of a short-ship sea operation. The objective is to transform an existing commercial ageing ship propulsion system into a green energy propulsion one and to analyse the economic feasibility considering the high volatility and increased LNG price. Four scenarios were analysed based on the net present value representing Denying, Disinterested, Good and Acceptable financial cash outflow. It was concluded that in the present economic instability and price of LNG fuel and CO2 taxes, the ship owner needs to rely on the long-term contract of buying LNG fuel to implement measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep good benefits in shipping.

The research of safety applications in vehicular networks has been a popular research topic in an effort to reduce the number of road victims. Advances on vehicular communications are facilitating information sharing through real time communications, critical for the development of driving assistance systems. However, the communication by itself is not enough to reach the most desired target as we need to know which safety-related information should be disseminated. In this work, we bring passive sensors and backscatter communication to the vehicular network world. The idea is to increase the driver (or vehicle) awareness regarding the presence of pedestrians in a crosswalk. Passive sensors and backscatter communication technologies are used for the pedestrians' detection phase, while the vehicular network is used during the dissemination of the detection information to surrounding vehicles. The proposed solution was validated through end-to-end experimentation, with real hardware and in a real crosswalk with real pedestrians and vehicles, demonstrating its applicability.

The research of safety applications in vehicular networks has been a popular research topic in an effort to reduce the number of road victims. Advances on vehicular communications are facilitating information sharing through real time communications, critical for the development of driving assistance systems. However, the communication by itself is not enough to reach the most desired target as we need to know which safety-related information should be disseminated. In this work, we bring passive sensors and backscatter communication to the vehicular network world. The idea is to increase the driver (or vehicle) awareness regarding the presence of pedestrians in a crosswalk. Passive sensors and backscatter communication technologies are used for the pedestrians' detection phase, while the vehicular network is used during the dissemination of the detection information to surrounding vehicles. The proposed solution was validated through end-to-end experimentation, with real hardware and in a real crosswalk with real pedestrians and vehicles, demonstrating its applicability.

The current era of computing is witnessing a huge amount of data being generated with every passing moment. This massive data if nourished effectively can open new horizons for the computing world. The modern world is slowly but surely moving towards the automation age where every entity and object is being automated to perform desired tasks without the need of human interventions. This has made the lives of people more convenient and comfortable. Automation has taken over every single field of computing and even beyond. Smart mobility is one such example of automation wherein the users get real time information about the traffic conditions as well as alternate route suggestions in case of traffic jams. Transportation is considered as the backbone of every business. The automated intelligent transportation system (ITS) has completely transformed the way how people, goods and services are transported and is quite important for achieving sustainability. This paper provides an overview of the existing ITS system, concept of smart mobility and existing vulnerabilities in these systems. Their security concerns and scenarios are also analyzed. Furthermore, in this paper the importance and need for securing these intelligent systems is highlighted and future trends in ITS is also suggested. Although ITS and smart mobility technology are already providing convenient transportation and navigational facilities, there is still a huge scope to improve these facilities for the end users. The suggested future trends if integrated in an effective manner can provide exemplary means to provide state-of-the-art navigational facilities and smart mobility in a true sense.

The current era of computing is witnessing a huge amount of data being generated with every passing moment. This massive data if nourished effectively can open new horizons for the computing world. The modern world is slowly but surely moving towards the automation age where every entity and object is being automated to perform desired tasks without the need of human interventions. This has made the lives of people more convenient and comfortable. Automation has taken over every single field of computing and even beyond. Smart mobility is one such example of automation wherein the users get real time information about the traffic conditions as well as alternate route suggestions in case of traffic jams. Transportation is considered as the backbone of every business. The automated intelligent transportation system (ITS) has completely transformed the way how people, goods and services are transported and is quite important for achieving sustainability. This paper provides an overview of the existing ITS system, concept of smart mobility and existing vulnerabilities in these systems. Their security concerns and scenarios are also analyzed. Furthermore, in this paper the importance and need for securing these intelligent systems is highlighted and future trends in ITS is also suggested. Although ITS and smart mobility technology are already providing convenient transportation and navigational facilities, there is still a huge scope to improve these facilities for the end users. The suggested future trends if integrated in an effective manner can provide exemplary means to provide state-of-the-art navigational facilities and smart mobility in a true sense.

The Bike Sharing System is a sustainable urban transport solution that consists of a fleet of bikes placed in various stations. Users will be satisfied if they find available bikes at their departure station and free docks at the destination. Despite the regulation operations of the system provider (i.e., redistribution of bikes by truck) deeper modifications (bike fleet size or station capacity) are often necessary to ensure a satisfactory service rate. In this paper, we model a sub-graph of a Bike Sharing System using the closed queuing network with a Repetitive-Service-Random-Destination blocking mechanism. This model is solved using the Maximum Entropy Method. This model faithfully reproduces the system dynamics considering the limited capacity of stations. We analyze the performance, particularly, via an overall performance indicator of the system. The various control and monitoring decisions (fleet-size, capacity of stations, incoming and outgoing flow of bikes) are applied to find out the best performance levels. The results demonstrate that the overall performance is robust enough regarding the fleet size changes but it degrades with the increase of the stations’ capacity. Finally, the arrival and departure flows control is an efficient and powerful operational leverage.