Design And Development of Pico Hydro Turbine
Rural and Northern or hilly areas of Pakistan have limited to no availability of grid-supplied electricity, however many locations have significant hydro potential. Pico hydro has been identified as a promising means for rural electrification in Pakistan. Low rural electrification rates currently ex
2025-06-28 16:31:24 - Adil Khan
Design And Development of Pico Hydro Turbine
Project Area of Specialization Mechanical EngineeringProject SummaryRural and Northern or hilly areas of Pakistan have limited to no availability of grid-supplied electricity, however many locations have significant hydro potential. Pico hydro has been identified as a promising means for rural electrification in Pakistan. Low rural electrification rates currently exist in Pakistan despite great energy resources within the country.Research work is presented that Electricity generated by Pico hydro turbine is very useful especially to rural community village, Northern and hilly areas of Pakistan that has approximately 30 houses which have small electricity consumption for example, fluorescent lights and TV or radio. Pico hydro also able to upgrade the living standards of people in poor countries and in rural areas where it is difficult for the government to setup the transmission grid lines.Our research work will presented that Hydropower system of this size benefits in terms of cost and simplicity from different approaches in the design, planning and installation than those which are applied to larger hydro power.In this case pico hydro turbine is best for hilly areas where is hydro potential is more then grid supply.Our project work on low head and least in cost then other sources of electricity and have great marketablilty not work only in hilly areas our project is portable we can use it on canals and tubewells and other places.
Project ObjectivesA majority of rural household in Pakistan is not connected to the national grid, so they are compelled to seek alternative source of electricity. Many mini and micro hydropower plants have addressed this problem. However those communities which are not in the vicinity of potentially large water resources have been deprived of electricity. For these small and remote communities, pico-hydro can be the best energy solution.In most cases, in Pakistan, hydro projects (peltric sets) use low flow rate and high head (40m). Unfortunately, many smaller villages do not have suitable sites for peltric set units. However, these villages do have existing irrigation canals. Also many hill communities use traditional water mills. These canals and mills can be suitable sites for pico-hydro. For these types of situations, pico hydro turbines that run at high flow rate (0.021-0.023 m3/sec) and low head (1-2m) can be applicable. Agricaltural reforms, villages, Northern areas of Pakistan will be transform by the installation of pico hydro turbine farmers will be easily run their tubewell pumps charge their agricultural machines, People in rural are will easily run their household appliances such as washing machine, pumps, televisions, refrigerators etc. depends on the requirement.Pico hydro turbine is the combination of two turbine (Vortex turbine + Propeller or Kaplan turbine). Pico hydro produce electicity at low heads by the use of flowing energy of water as in kaplan turbine and and its propeller design in this way that he also uses vortex energy + gravitational energy of water and as a result it manages to produce electricity at low heads (1m-2m). it can be install easily in rivers, canals, and areas where the water have sufficient flow rate.Most of the turbines used are medium or high head turbines. These types of turbines such as francis , Bulb , Kaplan Pelton turbine are efficient but limited for rivers and streams in the mountain and hilly region which have considerably high head. But at Low head these turbines are inefficient. Rural and Northern or hilly areas of Pakistan have limited to no availability of grid-supplied electricity, however many locations have significant hydro potential. Pico hydro has been identified as a promising means for rural electrification in Pakistan. Low rural electrification rates currently exist in Pakistan despite great energy resources within the country.
Project Implementation MethodThe starting point is the suitable selection of village where we will implement our project. Our goal is to install pico hydro turbine in village for rural electrification. After the selection of suitable area we will measure water flow rate and water head where we will install our turbine. After these measurements we will design 3-D model of our turbine Vortex and other components using Autocad and creo parametric. When 3-D modeling will complete then we will analyze our turbine operation in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics).And then we will turn on to our next step is the manufacturing of our turbine with suitable materials with the collaboration of different turbine manufactures. When the manufacturing of our turbine will complete our next step is to install but before installation first we have to make vortex and draft tube for the turbine operation.When the construction work will complete we will install our turbine that has ability to generate 300W at their maximum speed and 150-200W at their average speed. We will use Alternator voltage regulator to protect our turbine and home appliances from any damage. After the complete installation our goal is to run house hold fan and few LED bulbs.
Benefits of the ProjectRural and Northern or hilly areas of Pakistan have limited to no availability of grid-supplied electricity, however many locations have significant hydro potential. Pico hydro has been identified as a promising means for rural electrification in Pakistan. Low rural electrification rates currently exist in Pakistan despite great energy resources within the country. Research work and our project is presented that Electricity generated by Pico hydro turbine is very useful especially to rural community village, Northern and hilly areas of Pakistan that has approximately 30 houses which have small electricity consumption for example, fluorescent lights and TV or radio. Pico hydro also able to upgrade the living standards of people in poor countries and in rural areas where it is difficult for the government to setup the transmission grid lines.Our research work will presented that Hydropower system of this size benefits in terms of cost and simplicity from different approaches in the design, planning and installation than those which are applied to larger hydro power
Technical Details of Final DeliverableWe will expected that pico hydro turbine will generate (150W-200W) but our generator has ability to generate 250W at their maximum speed depends on the flow conditions. We will expected that pico hydro turbine are very useful for low heads than other turbines it require less maintenance and it has low cost and it can be install easily than other low head turbine like vortex, Bulb, Kaplan. We will expected that pico hydro are very helpful for rural electrification and hilly areas. Pico hydro also able to upgrade the living standards of people in poor countries and in rural areas where it is difficult for the government to setup the transmission grid lines.
Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry Energy Other IndustriesCore Technology Clean TechOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Affordable and Clean EnergyRequired Resources| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 55000 | |||
| Turbine motor and overall fabrication of turbine and its parts | Equipment | 1 | 45000 | 45000 |
| Wooden cost and miscellaneous | Miscellaneous | 1 | 10000 | 10000 |