Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Science & Technology) – May 21, 2020

Central Electricity Authority.

The technology for manufacture of ethanol (dehydrated/Anhydrous Alcohol) involves special processing of alcohol/rectified spirit. The technology for ethanol production from rectified spirit using azeotropic distillation is well established in India as a number of plants exist in the country based on this technology. This technology involves distillation system employing benzene as the third component has been in use in India since World War II.

The Linear Fresnel technology uses long, flat or slightly curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto a linear receiver located at a common focal point of the reflectors. The receiver runs parallel to and above the reflectors and collects the heat to boil water in the tubes, generating high-pressure steam to power the steam turbine (water/direct steam generation, no need for heat exchangers). The reflectors make use of the Fresnel lens effect, which allows for a concentrating mirror with a large aperture and short focal length. This reduces the plant costs since sagged-glass parabolic reflectors are typically much more expensive. Since the optical efficiency as well as the working temperatures is considerably lower than with other CSP concepts, saturated steam conditions have to be considered for this technology.

A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical potential energy (energy stored in molecular bonds) into electrical energy. By converting chemical potential energy directly into electrical energy, fuel cells avoid the “thermal bottleneck” (a consequence of the 2nd law of thermodynamics) and are thus inherently more efficient than combustion engines, which must first convert chemical potential energy into heat, and then mechanical work. Direct emissions from a fuel cell vehicle are just water and a little heat. This is a huge improvement over the internal combustion engines litany of greenhouse gases. A PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) cell uses hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2) as fuel.

The weekly updated Hague Express Database includes bibliographical data and – as far as international registrations governed exclusively or partly by the 1999 and/or by the 1960 Act(s) of the Hague Agreement are concerned – reproductions of industrial designs relating to published international registrations bearing a registration date as from January 3, 1985.

BIO is the world’s largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world.

As the wind energy industry expands and larger-scale projects are developed, wind turbines are becoming larger in rotor diameter as well as in hub height. Accordingly it is becoming difficult to accurately assess the wind resource with standard cup anemometers mounted on standard height (60m) meteorological (met) towers. For this reason, attention is being directed to other methods of wind speed measurement, such as SODAR (Sonic Detection and Ranging). Since the SODAR can measure wind speed as a function of height and is relatively easy to transport and assemble, the technology is very appealing.

Statement 1 is incorrect: NARL is an autonomous research laboratory fully funded by the Department of Space, Government of India and involved in carrying out fundamental and applied research in Atmospheric and Space Sciences. It had its humble beginning in 1992 as the National Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility. Over the years several complementary techniques such as Rayleigh/Mie lidars, wind profilers have been added.

Statement 2 is incorrect: National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) located at Gadanki near Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

The Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST).

Statement 1 is correct: Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST), a telescope for the detailed study of the solar activity including its magnetic field.

Statement 2 is correct: MAST has recently been operationalised at the Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an autonomous unit of the Department of Space. MAST is an off-axis Gregorian-Coude telescope with a 50 cm aperture.

The Thirty Meter Telescope is being designed and developed by the TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO). The TIO is a non-profit international partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology of India, and the National Research Council (Canada). The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a TIO Associate and major funding for TMT has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. The TIO will also run the TMT operations once the telescope is completed.