A renewable energy based water purification system | |
| Author | Das, Prakash |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-05-12 |
| Subject(s) | Renewable energy sources Drinking water Water--Purification |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation is the major cause for many water related diseases. On other hand, in most rural communities of developing counties, people not only lacking in hygienic drinking water but also lack electricity access. Under these circumstances, water purification system with renewable power supply such as photovoltaics could be an attractive stand-alone solution for this problem. A PV pumping based water purification system was designed and fabricated for producing safe drinking water. Performance studies on this system were carried out which consists of PV pumping system and OF membrane with water distribution system and results were found to be satisfactory. The performance of the PV pumping system was evaluated in terms of subsystem efficiency, PV array efficiency and overall efficiency under different sky conditions. Results showed the maximum efficiency of the PV array was 8.5 % and overall efficiency was 0.3%, which is quite low due to the low sub-system efficiency (4.3 %). However, on clear sky day, maximum sub-system efficiency obtained as high as 5.8 and overall efficiency of 0.42 %. The PV pump can pump about 0.68 m'/day water with a maximum flow rate of 300 liters/hour. Results of OF membrane showed that maximum permeate flow rate was 96 liters/hour and maximum filtrate flux was 177 L/h.m2 when canal water was used as a feed for the system. The system recovery of the system was above 89 %, which is quite satisfactory. The treated water quality complied with WHO and Thailand's drinking water guide line and successfully removed E-coli and partly removed some bacteria from the canal water. This research also incorporate GIS based study on Maung Pathumthani for identifying suitable areas that are remote which don't have access to safe drinking water as well less access to grid electricity supply. It also includes estimation of water demand, energy demand for the renewable energy based water treatment system and theoretical estimation of electricity production from 75 Wp panel. Results showed that GIS can be easily incorporate with such renewable energy base research |
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kumar, S. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Visvanathan, C.;Tripathi, Nitin |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |