The US Government Should Streamline the Production of Eco Friendly Engines

Categories: Eco Friendly Products Pollution Technology

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Environmental protection and safety have been a major concern to all stockholders that engage in activities that involve emission of materials that can negatively impact the environment. For instance, most manufacturing companies strive towards ensuring that their waste is controlled in a manner that minimizes environmental pollution (Davies, & Mazurek, 2014).

Power generation is one of the major polluting activities in the world. That is, the processes of power generation involve the production of greenhouse gasses that results in global warming which as a result leads to various health problems on human beings.

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Also, the produced sources of energy emit greenhouse gasses that may result in environmental pollution and jeopardize the safety of the environment with regards to human habitat. Therefore, there are numerous agencies and corporations that have been formed to ensure that most of activities of factories are environmental friendly. In relation to the military forces, the generation of emergency power is expected to be more efficient in that the process conserves environmental resources as well as ensuring that the environment is protection from pollutants (Davies, & Mazurek, 2014).

Thus, this study will focus on the efficient generation and use of the backup power generation by forward-deployed U.S. military forces. The information will focus on the theater of Afghanistan, specifically Bagram Airfield since it has the largest and the most complex infrastructure. The purpose and importance of such a research proposal are listed below.

There are hundreds of backup generator systems that are used in the theater of Afghanistan. A large 30-plus MW power plant with electrical grids provides the primary power throughout large bases.

On the largest base, Bagram Airfield, 406 generators are in active use, including 391 lighting generators (which basically telescope light units' sets with built-in generators) where most sizes of generators range from 4 KW to 1 MW. Most of the 406 generators that are in active use are solely purposed for the provision of emergency and backup power. However, the quantity of the lighting generators that are in use is unknown.

In Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, the primary fuel that is used is diesel and Jet Propellant 8 in which their cost is quite high than in the United States of America (Lee, Chu, Choi, & Min, 2015). It is because of the fact that there are transport security requirements as well as the presence of the extended supply chain in Afghanistan. The fuel used to run generators are reported to have a shelf life which when the shelf life of a fuel expires it is pumped out of the generator and disposed as waste and are normally referred to as the off-spec fuel. The most used methods of disposal include incineration and recycling by the host nation. These methods ensure that the environment if protected as well as kept safe from pollutants such as oils, petroleum, and lubricants as well as the off-spec fuel.

All the activities that occur in the military force involve the use of power and other power related resource. Therefore, there is the increasing need to ensure that these resources are utilized and that their usage and production assure protection and safety of the environment. Therefore, this paper focuses on how to ensure that the emergency power generation is more efficient in regards to the safety and protection of the environment by the United States military forces. Hence, the question to be answered in this paper is: "How can U.S. military forces make emergency power generation more efficient in regards to environmental protection and safety?".

Power generation requires a lot of resources and involve numerous activities that expose the environment to harmful material as well as exhaustion of materials. The emergency power generation requires a lot of funding as well as fuel supplies to run the generators that are for lighting purposes. Places like the military forces require a constant supply of power which is the actual purpose why the manner in which efficient power generation for emergency purposes needs to be devised with the consideration of environmental protection and safety. The following literature reviews attempt to answer the research question as well as provide an insight of how the United States forces ensure environmental sustainability in emergency power generation.

In a document written be the Applied Technology Council and the United States (2014), several guidelines are provided for emergency power production. The information provided in the book focuses mainly on the United States, but its contents can be applied in general. The information in the book is useful in addressing power issues in critically mobile facilities such as those that are located in military installations. The book provides an overview of the common emergency systems of power generation where the main power sources mainly include supplies of fuel, generators, and devices for stored energy as well the controls that are used to operate these devices.

Most of the aspects of the distribution systems for emergency power are similar to the distribution system for normal power. However, the main variation is that distribution of emergency power can be supplied from either emergency power source or normal power source. Therefore, to ensure that the emergency power systems operates reliably for sustained periods, emergency power generation should be made more efficient and effective (Weber, Wenzhong-Gao & Zhai, 2013).

Also, the Applied Technology Council and the United States (2014) asserted that critical facilities such as the military accesses emergency power through emergency/standby generators and devices for storing energy. As a result, the emergency power source should be properly sized and installed to ensure that they constantly work without encountering technical problems as well as avoiding exposing the surrounding environment to risk-related situations. Installation of emergency generators should be in exterior enclosures or within facilities to ensure that they are not exposed to damages that result from environmental hazards.

Another way of maintaining reliability and effectiveness of the emergency power generators and devices include performing frequent maintenance of the generators either when on an operation or idle. It will ensure that the generators provide required services without incurring any extra costs on performing repairs or acquiring a new one in a situation that there is a breakdown.

Also, emergency generators that are fuel-fired should be supplied with the appropriate fuel that is JP-8 or diesel and must be supplied from reliable sources to ensure that they support the effective functioning of the generators rather than causing problems such as clogging fuel lines and filters and causing fuel spills. Also, to ensure efficiency of the emergency power generation in regards to protection and safety of the environment, the planning and design of the facilities are the most crucial. The designs should consider that required power loads that should be powered when there is a failure with the normal power source (Qazi & Young, 2014).

In another research by Peter Schihl and Laura Hoogterp (2008), the issues in practical engine systems are discussed where Jet Propellant and DF-2 are compared in regards to combustion differences. Experiments were conducted to determine the difference in combustion between JP-8 and DF-2. It purposed with helping the suppliers of military engines in either converting the current engines that utilize commercial off-the-shelf fuel to operate on Jet Propellant 8 fuel or in the development of new generation engines that are constraint towards fully operating in JP-8. To ensure efficiency in emergency power generation military engine suppliers mainly focus on conforming to the emission standards of the EPA (Moghaddas, Bennett, Eisazadeh-Far, & Metghalchi, 2012).

The emergency generator engines are designed in a way that they are able to operate on commercial diesel fuel with ultra-low Sulfur. Emissions from Ultra-low Sulphur diesel fuel are quite minimal, which makes it the most reliable and effective fuel source for running emergency generator engines. It is because they are not quickly depleted while optimally reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emission hence ensuring that the environment protected from pollution as well as free from health related problems. Cooled EGR that utilizes ultra-low Sulfur Diesel designed with 50 percent cooling capacity when to compare with other engines that were sold and designed in the late 1990's which prevent damages on the emergency generator and, in turn, promotes efficiency.

In a research by Feng (2011), the strategy of the U.S Air Force to ensure environmental conservation is discussed. That is, strive to competitively facilitate 50 percent of its domestic aviation fuel from greener domestic sources instead of producing fuel from conventional petroleum (Feng, 2011).

According to Pahl Greg (2004), most power outages disables all the operations within any facility that fully depend on normal power sources. However, having an emergency power source will greatly help in solving problems that are related to power outages. For instance, installing a wind generator or solar PV system will provide a green energy that lets one cut ties with sources of power that result in environmental pollution such as nuclear power and fossil fuels. With regards to the military forces and in particular Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, installing backup generators for emergency power generation is vital. To ensure efficiency and durability of the emergency backup power generators, it is imperative to match the size of the generator to the electrical needs of a facility. This will ensure that the generator functions efficiently and for the longest period, it must be operated at 70 percent of its actual capacity.

Also, the speed of the engine of a generator greatly determines the duration of a Genset. The most common example it the air-cooled engine with 1,800 rpm, which can last longer compared to the one whose operation is at 3,600 rpm. Also, efficiency in regards to protecting the environment involves acquiring an emergency power generator that utilizes natural gas or propane since they are much quieter. Thus, the U.S military forces should seek for engines that are water cooled and a good muffler since they are less noisy thus conserving a sustainable environment (Cavalcante & Lopes, 2014).

Another research that is aimed at determining military spending on fuel is "Department of Defense Fuel Spending, Supply, Acquisition, and Policy (Andrews, 2009)." According to this research, the fuel consumption of DOD varies yearly as a result of the changes in the tempo of operations as well as mission. DOD is reported to consume up to 1 percent of the total products of petroleum that is refined in the United States of America. The majority of fuel purchases for DOD are purposed for jet fuel which is approximated as 101 million barrels yearly. Refineries that are located in the United States of America supplies 50 percent of the demands on jet fuel.

One major issue that surround the supply and acquisition of fuel for the military and DOD is their increasing prices where the prices of JP-5 and JP-8 fuel (military specification fuel) has gone beyond the normal prices of equivalent fuel that is for commercial purposes (Park, Bae, Mounaïm-Rousselle, & Foucher, 2014). Therefore, to ensure that the supply of jet fuel to both military and DOD, the contract is awarded to refineries that use light sweet crude that is easier to refine because of their hydrocarbons that are lighter regarding the weight (Army, U. S. 1997).

Also, military is collaborating with the EPA in ensuring that the contents of the refined fuel are of low Sulfur while making sure that all refineries periodically report their emissions of greenhouse gas as a preface to the anticipated laws that will ensure controlled emission. It ensures that the generation of emergency power within military bases and Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan is more efficient in regards to the safety and protection of the environment.

The research question is: How can U.S. military forces make the emergency power generation more efficient in regards to environmental protection and safety? From the research question, it is clear that the main variables are the emergency power generation and environmental protection and safety. The emergency power generation is the independent variables with regards to research while environmental protection and safety are the dependent variable. That is, the study will investigate on how the United States military will vary the generation of the emergency power with the aim of ensuring that they efficiently consider the protection and safety of the environment. It means that strategies that are applied to the emergency power generation will directly have an impact on its efficiency in regards to conserving the environment.

On the other hand, any changes in the environment protection and safety will have no impact on the emergency power generation by the United States Military. Therefore, the data that will be collected in this research is done through the survey on the existing sources of emergency power for the U.S military. Questionnaires will be administered to get an insight on whether the currently used sources of emergency power are efficient in regards to protecting and conserving the environment as well as ensuring that it is kept safe (Robson, & McCartan, 2016).

Also, the data acquired from this study will be safeguarded to ensure that it protected from unscrupulous access where the information may be utilized for selfish gains that are all the data acquired are treated confidentially. Responses from the respective personnel from the Unites States military forces will be collected and analyzed to provide solutions to the study research problem. The data obtained will be presented in a form of charts and tables to ensure that the comparisons are clearly presented. The proposed method of research is quantitative research where the main tools for collecting data include collecting information from different sources to understand fully the problems involved in the emergency power generation (Creswell, 2013).

Sources of information included peer-reviewed journals, technical manuals, design-layout manuals, raw data from the field, interviews with field technicians and subject-matter experts, and studies of fuel and fuel systems. Reviewing existing literature in the field of emergency power generation helps in gaining further understanding of what is already researched and documented regarding the research question. It also shows how the research question that is about to be researched will add to the existing body of knowledge.

Also, questionnaires will be submitted to various military personnel to get their responses to the challenges they encounter in an event of power outage. There are several advantages that accompany the use of the quantitative research method compared to using the qualitative research method. For instance, it is possible to get the most reliable data through surveying of a wider range of participants and also ensures that hard facts are obtained. Also, quantitative research allows the use of online surveys where the respondents are able to input information, or the researcher can perform the information input themselves via mall intercept and phone survey.

It makes it quite easier to obtain data from surveys because of the current advancement in technology which creates additional options for delivery via wireless devices such as smartphones (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013).

After the data has been collected and stored, it will be analyzed to organize properly, summarize and perform exploratory analysis on them. It will enhance the communication of meaning to readers by presented the collected data as graphical analysis, tables and summary statistics (Treiman, 2014). Packages like SPSS will be used in analyzing the data collected from the questionnaires, interviews, and surveys. Using SPSS provides the opportunity for fully analyzing data which is more effective than using Microsoft Excel programs such as the spreadsheet.

The functionality of SPSS is equipped with more embedded advanced features than the ones found in the Spreadsheet program. In SPSS, each column is set up to act as a separate variable that is defined then the data is entered in this column. The entered data are the worked upon with the aid of the features in the menus to output graphs, statistics, and tables that will act as the final information to be presented to readers (Sullivan-Bolyai, Bova, & Singh, 2012). Also, other analysis tools such as ANOVA will be used to ensure the reliable and accurate presentation of the gathered data.