School of Engineering (SEng.) Collections
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ItemTechno-economic analysis of a hybrid solar PV-wind system powering an off-grid community( 2024)With continuous population increase in the rural communities of Uganda, there has been an increase in demand for electricity to foster socio-economic development. However, access to the national grid has been a challenge for most rural areas in Uganda, hence the need to explore the use of distributed renewable energy sources. This project report aims at assessing the technical and economic feasibility of implementing a sustainable energy source for electricity generation, by integrating a solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine technologies into a hybrid system powering an off-grid community. In order to implement the hybrid system, a review was carried out on the main components of the systems which include the PV modules, wind turbines, batteries, inverters and the backup generator. In order to achieve the project objectives, meteorological data was obtained from the NASA POWER website as well as the HOMER Pro software resources tab. Furthermore, field survey of the case study location was carried out to determine the energy demand. The HOMER Pro software was used to carry out the cost and technical analysis. The last phase of this project involved the design of a low voltage distribution network to carry out power systems analysis using DIgSILENT Power Factory, with the aim of evaluating the technical performance of the developed solar PV-wind system.
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ItemDesign and implementation of a ground control station of an unmanned aerial vehicle for agricultural applications in Uganda(Makerere University, 2019)This project examined the importance of a ground control station (GCS) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be used by farmers in Kasese and Kiboga districts. There is a high cost of constructing a UAV. To safe guard this investment, Ground control stations are employed to which provide UAV control via an interface. Furthermore, the GCS allows the farmers to easily monitor the large farms in less time. The objectives of this project were development of a database and a UAV interface that is based on android technologies. To achieve these objectives, the rapid application development methodology was followed to guide this study. Through this process, three main functional requirements were analyzed to assist in the design of the database and the system using UML diagrams. Programming languages such as Java and Javascript were used to implement these design models. Results indicated that the GCS must have three main components which are a vehicle companion computer, a database and a UAV interface (android application). A system test was conducted to check the functionality of each component and they were all working properly. The project concluded with recommendations that the GCS should consist of security measures and a failsafe mechanism.
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ItemAssessing the potential for the use of reinforced masonry as an alternative to reinforced concrete lintels in building construction(Makerere University, 2024)This study focuses on the experimental and numerical comparison of the flexural behavior of concrete beams and masonry beams. Different specimens for the construction of lintels with concrete block masonry have been tested for comparison with their reinforced concrete counterparts. Reinforced masonry beams with three hollow cell concrete blocks and with steel reinforcement have been built and tested in a three-point loading test configuration. Numerical modeling of the masonry beams was then performed using Abaqus software, based on the Finite Element Method, and compared with experimental results to validate the simulation, this was followed by a parametric study of masonry beams to better understand their flexural behaviour. Span-to-depth ratios and reinforcement ratios are the main parameters analyzed in this study. In conclusion, it was verified that the span to depth ratio and reinforcement ration greatly affect flexural behaviour of masonry beams. It was clear that horizontal bed joint reinforcement increases the flexure strength of masonry beams. However, the masonry beams showed lower ductility than the reinforced concrete beams under similar loading and span conditions. It was also noted that a deeper analysis should be made regarding the would-be effect of vertical reinforcement on the global flexural behavior of the masonry beams.
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ItemEvaluation of the potential of anaerobic co-digestion of scum produced from settling-thickening tanks with faecal sludge(Makerere University, 2022)Poor hygiene and sanitation is a major public health concern mainly due to lack of proper method of disposal of faecal sludge. However, Lubigi combined wastewater and faecal treatment plant has attempted to provide safe disposal measures of faecal sludge with use of settling thickening tanks of an effective volume of 1250m3 to separate the solids and liquids in the faecal sludge. In the tank, faecal sludge settles at the bottom while the scum accumulates at a rate of 0.033m3/m3.day per faecal sludge inflow at the top. This project attempts to characterise the scum and faecal sludge formed, to evaluate the biogas potential of the scum and faecal sludge and to determine the quality of the slurry produced. In this regard, samples of faecal sludge and scum were picked from Lubigi combined wastewater and faecal treatment plant and analysed for total solids (TS), total volatile solids (TVS), BOD5, COD, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), lipid content, pH and E coli. Biomethane potential experiments with and without pH adjustment were also run at 5 different volatile solids concentration: faecal sludge and scum ratios of 1:0, 4:1, 3:1, 1.5:1, 0:1. Each bottle was added with 80mL of seeding sludge picked from the Nakivubo biogas reactors. Alkalinity, volatile fatty acids, pH and ammonia were monitored while running the experiments. Scum quality parameters obtained were as follows: TS; 198010-263986.6mg/L, TVS; 42.30 64.68%TS, BOD; 5000mg/L, COD; 100000-148400mg/L, E. coli; 3.16x105- 1,73x107, TN; 0.97%, lipid content; 11.45% of dry matter, TP; 2006mg/L, pH 8.65-8.88. While the faecal sludge quality parameters gave the following results: TS; 117890-210993.33mg/L, TVS; 55.48-62.63 %TS, BOD; 3400-3900mg/L, COD; 88000-122000mg/L, E. coli; 555.56- 1.76x105, TN; 0.61-0.79, TP; 620-1368mg/L, pH 8.37-8.43. Before adjusting the pH, the biogas accumulated per grams of volatile solids were as follows: (inoculum) ISR 4:1 gave the highest accumulated biogas of 134mL/g VS of scum, followed by ISR of 3:1 with 73.51 mL/g VS of scum and lastly ISR of 1,5:1 with 33 mL/gVS of scum. The scum control reactor produced 4 mL/g VS. Biogas yield increased with a decrease in the scum loading but faecal sludge was not able to produce biogas when scum was not added. With pH adjustment, the gas produced increased by 145% for ISR 4:1. For ISR 1.5:1, the gas produced increased by over 200%. For the FS control, the gas produced increased from 0 to 166.5 mL. For the scum control, gas production increased by 54%. However, this trend wasn’t the same for ISR 3:1, which needs to be proven by further experiments.
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ItemLifecycle assessment of polyethylene terephthalate plastic recycling in Uganda(Makerere University, 2025)This report presents a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling in Uganda. The environmental impacts associated with each stage of the recycling process are quantified using OpenLCA software. Data collected from a local PET recycling facility was used to carry out this assessment. The assessment focused on key impact categories including global warming potential, eutrophication, and terrestrial eco-toxicity among others. The results were calculated using different methods such as CML IA Baseline and ReCiPe 2016 Method 2016. The GWP was determined to be 6.6169 kg eq and the eutrophication potential was determined 0.00241 kg eq. The results produced indicate that the hot washing stage is the most environmentally intensive due to the use of a diesel- powered steam boiler and other inputs in that process. The highest contributors across all impact categories were found to be the same for example diesel fuel, electricity and sodium hydroxide among others. These findings show the need for cleaner energy sources and better adapted LCA datasets tailored to the Ugandan context. The study recommends further development of the localized inventory datasets that will provide more reliable modeling for enhanced LCA results. This in turn will support sustainable plastic recycling operations in future developments.