Volume 1, Issue 1, December 2014

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
EPEC Core Group
Dr Ravinder Kumar : Chair
Mr Ali Abdullah Hamed Al Mahruqi : Vice Chair
Dean : Ex Officio Member
Deputy Dean : Ex Officio Member
Dr Venkateswara Sarma Mallela : Internal Advisor
Professor A Vallavaraj : Internal Advisor
Professor Feroz S : Internal Advisor
Mr Shaji Jalal : Central Services
Mr Baburajan : Project Consultant
Mr Asraf Elamana Yusef : Occupational HSE
Mr Paul Padayatty : CATALYSE

EPEC Volunteers
Dr Achuthan : Mechanical Engineering
Dr Saravanan : Mechanical Engineering
Mr D Raghavesh : Electrical & Computer Eng
Mr Asif Syed Khurshid : CuTPD
Mr Adeeb Mohammed Salim : Academic Assessment
Ms Deepthi Jayasankar : TB, SoFS
Ms Anuradha Girish : TB, SoFS
Mr Priy Brat Dwivedi : Mechanical Engineering
Mr Parimal Sharad : Mechanical Engineering
Mr Pradeep K Krishnan : Mechanical Engineering
Mr Hassan Al Wahabi : Central Services
Mr Mansoor Ali : Electrical & Computer Eng
Ms Amritha Ajeej : BNE
Dr Balamuralikrishnan : BNE
Dr Susamma Chacko : Central Quality Office
Mr Athar Azeez : Electrical & Computer Eng
Mr Shyam Agasthya : BNE
Ms Anila Vijay Nair : TB, SoFS
Ms Rita Debray : TB, SoFS
Ms. Janani Alagappan : Student Representative
Ms. Sanjana Balachandran : Student Representative

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Message from
Dr. Ahmed Hassan Al Bulushi
Acting Dean
Climate change is a
major concern for the
present world due to
the man-made pollution
caused by burning fossil
fuels for all their energy
needs. Time has come to
adapt to less polluting
renewable energy
sources. Caledonian College has been in the
forefront in bringing awareness among the
people in the region by conducting several
international conferences in harnessing
technologies. EPEC is one such group
in college who are involved in bringing
awareness among the CCE family members.
Saving Energy is one of the major objectives
of organizations. However, being economic
and wise use of energy does not only have
benefits on the environment but also help
businesses to become more efficient in their
operations. I am pleased to know that the
group is bringing out a quarterly newsletter
that would carry articles written by faculty
and students of the college on green
initiatives. I wish them all success.
Message from
Mr. A Nizamuddin Ahmed
Deputy Dean and Registrar
Congratulations to Dr
Ravinder and EPEC
Team for bringing this
Quarterly newsletter.
This will certainly go
a long way in raising
the awareness of
challenges faced by
CCE and to highlight
EPEC initiatives. Green initiatives, Energy
conservation and Environmental protection
have been at the heart of Caledonian agenda
for a long time. A small group called Energy
2
Efficiency Group (EEG) started way back
in 2003, has now been re-constituted and
renamed to form a larger Environmental
protection and Energy Conservation (EPEC)
group with wider remits. Caledonian has
won Green Awards for Education for
3 consecutive years and recently won
special commendation this year. It shows
CCEs commitment and resolve for the
environmental protection activities which
is engrained in our mission. CCE have the
potential to achieve more by channelizing
its resources for higher achievements. With
our resolve to make a difference, we have
supported the Antarctica mission, use Solar
Energy, participate in recycling, adopted
paperless office, changed to LED lights and
finally we inch closer to our long term goal
of achieving the 1st Carbon Neutral campus
status in the country. We have a long way
to go and I am sure the EPEC Group will
have your support and blessings. We have
plans to open a student chapter of the EPEC
group to create awareness and develop a
culture of caring the environment and to
find innovative solutions involving students
in Green initiatives. I am pleased to see that
this newsletter would be addressing several
issues related to Energy conservation,
renewable energy and green initiatives.
I wish the entire team the very best in
successful launching of the newsletter and
the Green projects.
Together Towards Excellence
Message from
Ms. Jenny Walker
Associate Dean (PD)
Five years ago we
brought the words
environmentally-aware
into our college mission
statement and we set
about the process of
making our actions as
green as our words.
Since then the College
has established a healthy reputation for its success in bringing out this inaugural issue.
work in promoting renewable energy and
conserving precious resources, as recognised Message from
by the national annual Green awards. Our Mr. Shyam and Mr. Pradeep
strategic goals in this area have involved Newsletter Editors
big ticket initiatives in terms of research
Energy Misused Cannot Be Excused.
and international conferences but there has
Protection of Environment has become an
also been a groundswell of involvement in
integral part of any sustainable civilization.
the green agenda from staff and student
It is significant that we understand the role of
groups, such as EPEC, who are looking to
nature and empathise with the environment,
be part of the international debate on issues
as it is the mirror of our attitudes, thoughts
such as climate change, global warming and
and expectations. The energy which is
resource depletion. This growing interest
found abundantly in nature is vital in
in the issues is very encouraging. The long-
determining our life. So it is fundamental
term health of the environment is in the
that we save this energy for a better
hands of our graduates, as future engineers
tomorrow, a better life. We at Caledonian
and as decision-makers in industry. This is
have understood this importance and have
why it gives me great pleasure to applaud
created the Environmental Protection and
student involvement in this excellent new
Energy Conservation Group (EPEC). This
initiative that seeks to inform, as well as to
newsletter is a small step taken by the group
inspire comment and reflection. I trust the
to educate and inform the staff and students
CCE community will continue to engage
of CCE on how to protect our environment.
in the subject and look forward to reading
We hope that the EPEC Group Quarterly
many future editions of this important new
Newsletter will bring a substantial change
bulletin.
in the way we think on how we reduce the
Message from utilization of resources available on campus.
Dr. Ravinder Kumar
EPEC Group Chairman
It is with great
pleasure we announce
the launching of our
quarterly Newsletter
to serve our CCE
community to bring
awareness among the
faculty and students of About EPEC Group
the green initiatives Caledonian College of Engineering (CCE)
taken at the college. This would be the has won Oman Green Awards for THREE
communication channel for both faculty and consecutive years and received Special
students to express their ideas in energy commendation in the fourth year. It shows
conservation and green initiatives that CCEs commitment towards environmental
would make our environment safer and protection activities which is engrained in
cleaner. I take this opportunity to thank the the college mission. To some extent the old
editorial team for their innovative ideas and Energy Efficient Group (EEG) has taken
hard work in designing the first issue of our forward some initiatives in past. In order to
Newsletter. I wish the entire team a great give recognition to staff contribution, provide
3
encouragement, and develop environmental
friendly habits the EEG is now re-formulated
into Environment Protection and Energy
Conservation (EPEC) Group. The re-
introduction of the EPEC Group is in line
with the college Mission & Commitment to
environmental friendly activities. The main
Objectives of the EPEC Group are outlined
below.
Assess CCE Carbon footprint and to
make CCE the First Carbon Neutral
Campus in Oman.
To enhance awareness of Environmental
challenges (local and Global)
To enhance awareness of impact of
CCE activities to Environment and its
Protection
To be Nodal point for coordinating all
CCE environmental friendly activities
including recycling and reuse
Conduct periodic energy audits and
analyze the energy usage pattern
Study the viability and replacing the
conventional lights with energy saving
LED lights
Installing programmable Timers at
suitable location to automate switching
on and off of the AC
Waste management Recommended
Reduce, Reuse and Recycling
Demonstrate CCE commitment of usage
of Alternate Energy
Proper and complete Usage of Installed
Solar panel capacity at CCE
To enquire the feasibility for green
building certification to both the campus
EPEC Projects on Campus
EPEC Paper and Font
Standardization Initiative
As per the data from paper manufacturing
industry, about 73,000, A4 papers of 80
GSM (grams per square meter) quality can
be produced from a tree that is 1 FOOT
4
in diameter and about 60 FEET in height
(equal to about 5 to 6 floor tall building). To
grow a tree of this size, it takes several years
of nurturing. As per the data about paper
consumption at CCE campuses (both Al Hail
and Airport Heights), we have consumed
about 2,589,857, A4 papers from August
2013 to January 2014. These papers would
have come from about 36 trees. At this rate,
CCE alone is responsible for felling of about
72 trees, annually. If similar data is compiled
for the whole country of Oman, one may
arrive at astounding figure. In the existing
topography of Oman, it is possible to count
the number of trees that are 60 feet tall.
If all the papers consumed in Oman were
to be manufactured in Oman with the trees
of Oman, the trees would have long gone
from the face of Oman. Many of us are using
PPTs as a teaching aid and uploading them
to CCE Learn. The students download these
materials and print them for their use. Most
of the slides would be rich in texture with
colored background that would consume
excess toner ink for printing. Following are
the suggestions that may be adopted for
conserving paper and ink:
1. Remove colored background from your
slides
2. Use the GARAMOND font for your
text. This font is supposed to use less
ink for printing
3. Place two slide materials on to one
page
4. Convert your slide into a PDF document
and upload them to CCE Learn
5. Advise students to print on both sides
of the paper. This would reduce the
consumption of paper by 75%, and thus
reduce the carbon footprint
EPEC Energy Load Optimization
Initiative
EPEC Group is in the process of optimizing
the lighting load at the CCE campus. In
both the CCE campus, a bulk of energy is
consumed for operating Air Conditioners.
These are poorly monitored resulting in
wastage of energy. EPEC has found on
several occasions that the air conditioners
are being ON in empty class rooms, wasting
energy. Hence we are planning to install
sensors and timers for monitoring these
air conditioners. Lighting load consumes
the rest of the energy. We have carried out
several measurements during last semester
about the LUMENS in a class room and
found that the classrooms have excess
lighting. To give a simple example, every
classroom and staff room has several light
fixtures. Each light fixture has 4 small tubes.
Each tube is rated at 18 watts. Hence, each
light fixture has rating of 18 x 4 = 72 watts.
If you observe closely, most of the staff
rooms would have about 12 to 15 fixtures
having power rating of 864 watts to 1080
watts. In Oman, the electricity tariff is
highly subsidised and hence we all pay very
small amount for our electricity usage. Very
few people in this country think about saving
energy and optimization of its usage. Now,
in terms of lumens, each tube is supposed to
give 900 lumens. Hence, a fixture would give
about 3600 lumens. Multiply this with 12 to
15, one would get the total lumens in a room
from 43200 to 54000. Divide this quantity
with the floor area of the room to get the
light intensity in lumens/m2 (Lux). We
Dr. Ahmed Hassan Al Bulushi, Acting Dean of CCE receiving the
Oman Green Awards in September 2014
first reduced the lighting load of classroom
R209 last semester by 50%. We got positive
feedback from the students that prompted us
to carry forward this experiment. We chose
R203 and R205 for this experiment, recently.
Approximate dimension of R205 is about 75
m2. R205 has about 12 fixtures giving out
43200 lumens. Hence the lux level in R205
is about (43200/75) = 576 lumens/m2. It is
way above the level required for comfortable
reading. This was confirmed when we
reduced the lighting load in R203 and R205
by 50% and got a positive feedback from
the staff members in a survey about the
new lighting arrangement. This exercise will
be taken up for all the staffroom and class
rooms across both the campus.
Articles from Faculty
Suitability of Solar and Wind Strengths
for Power Generation in Oman by
Dr. Dharmasa, E&C Engg. Dept.
In Oman actual generating cost of one
kilowatt of electricity is around 205 USD.
The electricity is provided to people in
Oman with 70% subsidy. It is fact that,
oil and gas form of energy is unsure and
also have an impact on environmental like
emissions of CO2, Sulfur, etc. Subsequently,
the relevance of solar and wind energy exits
for Oman, which offer energy independence
and sustainable development and in addition
creates long-term local jobs and industries.
5
The weather data were taken from the
monthly climate summary reports issued
by the Directorate General of Meteorology
and Air Navigation (DGMAN), Oman. The
solar radiation varies from place to place
onto a horizontal surface. The average solar
insolation of country varies from 4.52 to
6.09 kWh/m2/day. This translates into 1650
to 2223 kWh of energy per year. Researchers
also have evaluated five (2004-2008) years
hourly wind data from twenty-nine weather
stations to identify the potential location
for wind energy applications in Oman. It is
clearly seen that few stations have annual
theoretical power density above 150 W/m2.
These stations are with twelve-monthly wind
speeds above 4.5 m/s. The local company
Oman Solar System Co. LLC (www.
omansolar.com) has designed supplied
and installed the first 10kW for Ministry
of Water Resources (MWR) at Heelat Ar
Rakah Camp, Thumrait in December 1996.
In Oman, Rural Area Electricity Company
(RAEC) in its five year plan (2013-2017) is
taking care to work on two other wind farms
in Masirah and Thumrait, which can produce
200 kW to 300 kW of power. They are
already in a move head step to start building
a 350 kW solar project and a 750 kW wind
power project in Al Mazyuona and Masirah.
My Green Contribution by Mr. David
Gordon Bowker, Lecturer, Language
and Learning, TB SoFS
If you were in Agadir in 1995, in Funchal in
2005, in Turin in 2011, in Pusan in 2014, or
Muscat last weekend, you may have seen an
individual initially relatively young, latterly
somewhat longer in the tooth stooping
down in mid-street, apparently picking up
items of litter off the ground. Your eyes
were not deceiving you. You were witnessing
at first hand the retrieval of the jetsam
and flotsam of city life by said individual.
This individuals unpaid and unofficial work
for those cities hygiene and cleansing
departments was part of the process
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of collage creation, an artistic pursuit
dependent on the collection, selection,
placement and fixing of various types of
concrete matter onto various grounds, such
as in the case of this individual empty
and flattened Weetabix and Barilla pasta
boxes. Indeed, this individuals continued
support today for attempting to breathe new
life into the discarded and unloved detritus
of everyday life, through the considered
juxtaposition of shape, texture, color and
line, continues to kill two birds (not literally,
one hopes) with one stone: artistic works
are facilitated and the environment is
partially cleansed. And what of the cost?
Grubby fingernails are easily scrubbed,
tubes of UHU dont break the bank, and the
legwork involved in touring city streets in
search of heartbreakingly forsaken fast food
wrappers is a benefit (to the health) rather
than a cost. This individuals favorite color,
by the way, is green.
Scheffler Type Solar Cooker a
Promising Green Technology by Dr. R
Amuthakkannan, M&I Engg. Dept.
Cooking accounts for high share of energy
consumption in Sultanate of Oman. More
percentage of the total energy consumed in
Oman is for transport and next is for cooking.
Most of the cooking energy requirement
is meeting by only petroleum gas which is
not renewable source. The solution for this
problem is the harnessing of solar energy
for cooking purposes. Among many solar
devices, Scheffler solar cooker has come
to be the most acceptable one in view of
that cooking. The construction of a primary
reflector consists of a parabolic dish with
mirrored acrylic sheets, the rays from this
reflector are concentrated to a secondary
reflector which is made from aluminium
strips covered with household aluminium
cooking foil. The light is concentrated
through an opening in the kitchen wall, then,
it will reflect second time by a secondary
reflector to the bottom of the cooking vessel
to cook the food. The temperature variation
in cooking vessel is directly proportional
to the intensity of solar. The tracking
mechanism is a combination electronic and
mechanical design which tracks the sun
automatically. There are many advantages
in Scheffler such as possible to cook for
more than 100 people at a time, possible
to cook in nights, more efficiency, easy
installation, more life cycles etc. So, we can
say, Scheffler will give a promising result in
solar cooking which will solve the cooking
requirements of this nation. It is our duty to
publicise about this technology to our society
to improve the green environment and also
to save non-renewable sources.
Articles from Students
Energy Conservation by Buthaina Al
Harrasi (Student ID 140062)
Energy Conservation means saving energy in
our environment by decreasing the amount
of energy used while achieving a similar
outcome of end use. The importance in
saving energy in our lives is related to saving
our environment as well, because most of
the energy comes from the green house. If
we use less energy, we would save the rest of
it for the next generation. And there would
be no energy problems. For example: the
non-conventional energy resources are very
common to use this days but because of the
progress, people are using this resources
more than before to get energy, so they
started to think about other resources
such as, (Water-geothermal-solar-wind-
biomass). These are the renewable energy
resources started to be used more than
before nowadays. There are many things you
can do around your house to save money and
energy all year long
Turn off the lights, ACs, and the fans
always before you leaving the room
Make it a habit to switch off the DVD
players, TVs, computers, and more
electronics equipment when they are
not in use
If you are thinking of buying a new
washing machine, try to get the modern
one, because its use less electricity
Try to change your normal traditional
incandescent bulb with the compact
fluorescent light bulb
Energy Conservation by Muataz Al
Mawali (Student ID 140032)
Energy Conservation refers to using less
energy such as electricity, oil etc. Since we
rely on energy for everything we do every
single day it is very easy to take energy
for granted. Energy conservation saves the
environment from pollution and also saves
your money, but most energy resources
are limited. We depend heavily on fossil
fuel, coal and oil all which is going to be
consumed completely and the lack of a more
reliable energy resource is going to make
it hard to produce energy. There are many
ways to conserve energy. Firstly you should
start from your homes. During the day you
shouldnt use unnecessary light sources when
the biggest source of sunlight is available.
So embrace the natural light. Light bulbs
are the main consumers of energy around
the house. While purchasing light bulbs,
many consumers go for cheap light bulbs
just to save money, not realizing the higher
energy cost and lower life span of these light
bulbs. These should be changed to modern
compact fluorescent and LED light bulbs to
save energy. You should always keep an eye
out for Eco labels and Energy Star Labels
while shopping because these products are
energy saving. Conserving energy isnt just
about saving money every month on bills by
reducing energy consumption; its also about
saving the environment. Everything we
do affects the world in some way. And the
more we consume non-renewable energy;
its cost will most likely increase. Teach
yourself how to save energy this way you
can give researchers more time to come up
with solutions and alternatives. Small things
can make a difference so start making a
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difference, save energy for a better future DISCLAIMER: This Document is intended
and a cleaner environment. for CCE Internal Circulation only for Staff
Energy Conservation Week at Airport and Students. Copyrights of all Articles,
Heights Campus Pictures and Diagrams rest with the
The 4th Science Fair in Airport Heights was respective authors and CCE do not claim
based on the theme Energy Conservation, any Monetary Benefit on the same. This is a
which was an integrated program involving Not for Profit Document.
Techno Basics, L&L and various clubs
from SOFs. This year our neighboring This is the FIRST EDITION of the EPEC
colleges Al Zahra and International Newsletter in the printed form. All further
College of Engineering and Management Editions will be circulated to all students and
competed with SOFs and won prizes too. staff through their CCE Emails Only.
The activities include display of Science
Projects (Still/Working Model), Quiz,
Debate, Documentary, on the Spot Poster/
Painting and Photography Competitions. It
was a 3-day program, which was held on
28th, 29th and 30th of Oct 2014. Dr. Martin
Brown, Dean of International College of
Engineering and Management inaugurated
the Science Fair. Ms. Jenny Walker
welcomed the gathering in the Assembly
Hall. The event was graced by two
eminent speakers of the Research
department (CCE-Al Hail) Prof.
Joseph V. Thanikal and Prof. S
.Feroz. The Head of Techno
Basics and the Campus
Manger concluded the
program on 30th Oct
2014, with prize
distribution.
Overall it was a
wonderful program
wherein the chief guest
and every visitor witnessed
the events appreciated the
innovative skills and the team
work presented by SOFs students.
Some of the Pictures from the Event
are shown.

If you have any Innovative Idea on how to

Conserve Energy on Campus and to Send
Articles, please Email shyam.agasthya@
caledonian.edu.om OR p.krishnan@caledonian.
edu.om.

8 This Newsletter is printed on the RECYCLED PAPER