Polymer nanocomposites have recently been attracting attention among researchers in electrical insulating applications from energy storage to power delivery. However, partial discharge has always been a predecessor to major faults and problems in this field. In addition, there is a lot more to explore, as neither the partial discharge characteristic in nanocomposites nor their electrical properties are clearly understood. By adding a small amount of weight percentage (wt%) of nanofillers, the physical, mechanical, and electrical properties of polymers can be greatly enhanced. For instance, nanofillers in nanocomposites such as silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3) and titania (TiO2) play a big role in providing a good approach to increasing the dielectric breakdown strength and partial discharge resistance of nanocomposites. Such polymer nanocomposites will be reviewed thoroughly in this paper, with the different experimental and analytical techniques used in previous studies. This paper also provides an academic review about partial discharge in polymer nanocomposites used as electrical insulating material from previous research, covering aspects of preparation, characteristics of the nanocomposite based on experimental works, application in power systems, methods and techniques of experiment and analysis, and future trends.

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Managing waste is becoming more challenging than ever with the rate of increase of the global population and industrialization. The need for an optimal waste management system, offering added value to the population and industrial growth, is of utmost importance with the increase in energy and food demand, particularly that for organically grown food. In this study, waste generated by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was taken as a case study. The waste was converted to electricity and compost for use on farmland and the environmental effect of both processes was determined by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach using GaBi™ software. The impacts analyzed were based on the level of emissions from each process. During the comparison, it was found that, if the waste generated by the UTM were used to generate electricity, the outcome would be a reduced emissions profile throughout the cycle as compared to using the waste as compost. However, the saving in emissions from indirect inputs was not considered for the purpose of this study.

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