Browsing by Author "Miguntanna, N"

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Open Access
Climate Variation and Hydropower Generation in Samanalawewa Hydropower Scheme, Sri Lanka
(Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 2020-07) Laksiri, K; Rathnayake, U. S; Dabare, G; Gunathilake, M. B; Miguntanna, N
Climate variation is a challenging scenario on water resources. Therefore, runoffbased hydropower development stations are at an alarming situation across the world and the hydropower industry has significantly been affected. Therefore, it would be interesting to understand the impact of climate change on hydropower development in a country, where a significant energy contribution takes place by the renewable hydropower. However, such studies in Sri Lanka are limited mainly due to data scarcity. Nevertheless, this study was carried out to understand the relationships between the rainfall and the hydropower development in one of the major hydropower developments in Sri Lanka, Samanalawewa hydropower station. Non-parametric statistical trend analyses were carried out to the monthly rainfall over 26 years for the catchment rainfall. As the initial step, the link between rainfall and hydropower development was tested using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Interestingly, results revealed positive rainfall trends over the catchment. The correlation coefficient suggests that there is an acceptable correlation between the rainfall and the hydropower development. However, non-linear analysis is proposed to achieve more sound conclusions. Initial results revealed that there is no adverse impact to the inflow of the reservoir due to the on-going climate change
Open Access
Vertically constructed wetlands for greywater reuse: Performance analysis of plants
(Elsevier, 2023-10-02) Siriwardhana, K.D; Miguntanna, N; Jayaneththi, D. I.; Kantamaneni, K; Rathnayake, U
Vertical Flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs) are environmentally feasible engineered systems that mimic the functions of natural wetlands. They are alternative engineering systems that are economical, and simple in structure with reduced land area compared to Horizontal Flow Constructed Wetlands (HFCW). Thus provides a sustainable solution for greywater treatment to a considerable extent. However, VFCWs feasibility and plant performance were not tested in the context of Sri Lanka for the greywater treatment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of household greywater treatment using a pilot-scale VFCW and examine the performance characteristics of different types of plants. Three types of plants, the Canna plant (Canna indica), Ferns plant (Matteuccia struthiopteris), and Cattail plant (Typha latifolia) were used as emergent plants and a retention tank was constructed to retain solid particles in the greywater as primary treatment. The experiments were carried out for two months using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) for three replicates. The quality of the influent and effluent was tested fortnight for a number of water quality parameters. Results revealed that the removal efficiency of contaminants was increased. Cattail plants showed higher removal efficiency for dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrates (NO3 1-), turbidity, and electrical conductivity. In addition, Canna plants had higher efficiencies for the removal of total dissolved solids (TDS) and phosphates (PO4 3-). Furthermore, Ferns plants presented higher efficiency only for removing sulphate (SO4 3-). Conclusively, Cattail plants presented the overall best performance in treating greywater. This can be attributed to the ability of the Cattail’s dense fibrous root system to absorb more contaminants from greywater. This research also discussed the importance of microplastic analysis in greywater treatment which is a vital part of the current day research. The results of this study will be helpful to the further advanced research. Furthermore, this methodology can be implemented to other similar plants across the globe irrespective of geographical area.