Institute for Energy Studies (IES) is involved in Teaching, Research and Consultancy in the areas of Conventional and Renewable Sources on Energy.

The main objectives of the Institute are :

* To train Manpower with strong basics in energy related areas.

* To provide sustainable support for the integration of higher engineering education with its energy related research activities

* To provide consultancy to industries in the areas of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation and Management.

* To focus on R &D of new technologies for efficient harnessing of both conventional and renewable sources of energy.

* To offer various short term training programmes, seminars, workshops etc. to the industry executives managers for their knowledge updatement.

Hall Marks

• Approved Energy Auditor of Tamilnadu Electricity Board (TNEB), Petroleum Conservation and Research Association ( PCRA), Govt. of India, Kerala Electrical Inspectorate, Govt. of Kerala, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, Govt. of India.
• MNRE approved Detailed Project Report consultant for biomass gasification systems
• Provides academic fellowships sponsored by MNRE and MHRD
• Consultant to many industrial houses / Govt. organizations in Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Areas
• Technical backup cell to Tamilnadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA), Govt. of Tamilnadu on Sustainable Development of Energy Security in Remote villages

IES activities

Academic : The Institute offers Ph.D, M.E and M.S programmes in Energy Engineering
Research : Broad areas of research are : Renewable energy based heating and cooling systems, Bio-energy conversion techniques, Solar passive Architecture, Energy Efficient buildings, Thermal energy storage systems, Energy systems simulation and modeling etc.
Consultancy : Focused , Specific and Detailed Energy Audits, Feasibility studies, Performance evaluation of renewable energy systems, Integrated rural energy palnning, Assessment of MSW, Emission studies for thermal power plants
Training : Workshops, Seminars are conducted for the benefit of Engineers from TNEB, Training program on specific energy related topics are covered for industry personals.

Energy Management Phase Change Material Based Thermal Storage

With the devastating of Tsunami of December 20004 that torn the coast of Tamil Nadu, Department of Planning initiated a joint studio project aiming at the prepare a “Sustainable Development plan for Tsunami affected coastal stretch of Cuddalore” with the students of M.Plan, March (Landscape) of School of Architecture and Planning and the students of Department of Environmental Planning, students of the Department of Landscape Architecture of School of Planning and Architecture(Under the MHRD, Government of India), New Delhi. The results of the project were presented in a chain of seminars organized at New Delhi, Chennai and Pondicherry. It was highly appreciated by the Government, NGOs and the departments alike.

The energy needs for a wide variety of applications are time dependent but in a different pattern and phase from the supply. This implies that the supply and demand must be matched dynamically both at the source point and application point. The thermal storage system provides a valuable solution for correcting the mismatch that is often found between the supply and demand of energy.

The Institute for Energy Studies has been doing lot of research in the field of Latent heat thermal storage system to provide useful solution for various industrial and commercial applications. Some of the research work carried out in the field of building energy management, thermal storage for solar water heating applications and cool thermal storage for air conditioning and refrigeration applications are shown in the photographs.

Brief Write up of Most Successful Research Projects:

A. Renewable Energy Based Cooling Systems

The cold storages meant for increasing shelf life of vegetables, fruits and food grains need to be maintained at temperatures in the range of –20C to 100C. As the refrigeration systems for this application are operated for long hours, vapour absorption systems are most economical.

Biomass gasifier direct fired sorption cooling system of 3 TR capacity using ammonia - water as working fluid is developed.  The pictorial view of the prototype is as shown in Figure 1. Here the producer gas generated from the gasifier is used as the energy source for sorption system. It is found that the real co-efficient of performance of the system is around 0.2 - 0.4, considering the source-site factor for auxiliary power consumption. The cost / TR for the biomass based cold storage system is lower than the presently available conventional compression based units. Cost savings of about 25 - 30 % per ton of refrigeration is achieved. Using the existing fabricated facility it is possible to store fruits and vegetables up to 10 MT at 2-4oC.

Half effect – Double stage vapour absorption refrigeration system using an environment friendly working fluid pair working with low temperature heat sources has been developed to operated with solar energy as heat input. The pictorial view of the system is as shown in Figure 2.

Experimental investigation on half effect vapour absorption refrigeration system with R134a-DMAC proves that it is possible to utilize low temperature heat source such as waste heat at temperatures as low as 550C for applications such as process cooling, cold storages etc.  It has been shown that the half effect system with this working fluid pair is capable of producing chilled water at temperature as low as 8oC with heat source temperatures as low as 55oC.  The system had a COP of about 0.33 at a condensing temperature of 250C with solution leaving the low and high absorbers at 250C and 300C respectively at a low generation temperature of 550C. However the suitability of the system at high sink temperatures needs to be carefully analyzed.