Green Self Powered Air Water Harvester

Clean water and sustainable sources are needed for social and economic progress in society. Pakistan is facing an era of scarcity of energy and freshwater. According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan ranks third in the world among countries facing acute water shor

Project Title

Green Self Powered Air Water Harvester

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

Clean water and sustainable sources are needed for social and economic progress in society. Pakistan is facing an era of scarcity of energy and freshwater. According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan ranks third in the world among countries facing acute water shortage. Researches have predicted that Pakistan is on its way of becoming the most water-stressed country and will “run dry” by the year 2040. Per capita water availability has been decreasing in Pakistan and has reached to 1017 cubic meters while if it is less than 1000 cubic meters, a country is declared suffering from water shortage. Moreover, 1017 cubic meters availability of water is not evenly distributed. People in Thar and other such cities may not even be having 100 cubic meters per capita availability. This alarming consumption pattern and water shortage adds to the urgency of the problem and key integral steps have to be taken without delay.

Green Self-Powered Air-Water Harvester is the solution to this grave problem. Renewable energy technologies such as wind turbine and solar panel, when used to generate power, not only require less overall maintenance but help in saving money long term, as there are no operating costs. Moreover, renewable energy generation sources emit little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air, contributing to an overall healthier atmosphere. Instead of generating water conventionally, the technique of Thermo-Electric Cooling (TEC) is adapted that is powered by best suitable renewable energy technology, keeping in mind the geographic limitations.

Thermo-Electric Cooler operates by the Peltier Effect; When direct electric current passes through the device, temperature difference is created by the transfer of heat between the two electrical junctions. Humid air or in other case, artificially made hot air gets in contact with the cold surface and water is produced. Air-Water Harvester is designed to produce maximum amount of water from air as it is operable in three different modes depending on the weather and environmental conditions.

Existing solutions are either using vapor compression techniques that are costly, require maintenance and high input power, or are TEC based but only work in particular weather conditions. Green Self-Powered Air-Water Harvester requires no maintenance and runs on green energy. It is cheap and capable of producing maximum amount of water in all weather conditions.

Project Objectives

Listed below are the project objectives:

1. To contribute to the struggle of eliminating water scarcity.
2. To make clean drinkable water accessible to millions of people.
3. To enhance the quality of life and contribute to healthier future.
4. To help women and girls who bear the greatest burden of hauling water to their homes every day. On average, a woman walks six to ten kilometers to haul 40 pounds of water each day.
5. To design a device that is capable of producing enough water per capita throughout the year.
6. To design a portable and cheap device that requires no maintenance and is self-powered.
7. To power the device with renewable energy technologies such as wind turbine and solar panel, to eliminate operating costs and contribute to overall healthier atmosphere by emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants.
8. To make the device remotely monitorable using cloud storage, which will help in remotely observing the performance of the device and facilitating fault detection.

Project Implementation Method

Two methodologies were used to complete this project – Agile and Waterfall. We started with the literature review of the existing systems. A brief document was prepared at the end of literature review. Details and types of different components to be used in the Air-Water Harvester were studied and best fits among all were chosen for the project.

Detailed market visit was done and all the components available were bought. Few were ordered from China as they were not available in Pakistan. Meanwhile, a detailed study was done on different types of harvesters already available. As all the harvesters were only targeting a single season water production and were very costly, a design that was cheap and capable of producing water throughout the year was made and created on CAD software, SolidWorks. First, a prototype of harvester was made by us in our university lab to test the feasibility of the design and once confirmed, the body of the harvester was manufactured in the market and required components were installed.

After this, a detailed study was done on renewable energy technologies. To test Air-Water Harvester, a small-scale turbine capable of producing enough power was designed and integrated with Air-Water Harvester. A detailed testing was done in a controlled environment and final document was prepared.

Benefits of the Project

According to the Daily Times report, Pakistan has the total population of 207 million, out of which 21 million people don’t have access to clean water. World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet states that 785 million people lack even a basic drinking water service and at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with human and animals waste, globally.

Through this project, we will be able to provide such communities with enough clean drinking water. Green Self-Powered Air-Water Harvester is capable of producing water throughout the year and does not cause health risk; Instead, by using renewable energy technologies as power source, it contributes to an overall healthier atmosphere by not emitting pollutants. The product is even affordable by the poverty-stricken people as it only requires the initial investment and no operating or maintenance costs for many years.

We believe that through this project, we will be able to help end water crisis and daily challenges for young girls and women who lift burden of fetching water from far away. Drinking clean water will help people live longer, healthier, more productive lives, with much more time to work, study, play and simply enjoy together. It will also help cut child deaths by more than half, as drinking dirty water results in the deaths of nearly 1000 children every day. We believe in making clean water available to everyone every day.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Technical Details of Green Self-Powered Air-Water Harvester:

DC Fans (Required Voltage):

12 V x 0.16 A = 1.92 Watts

(x2) = 3.84 Watts

Peltier Coolers 40x40 mm (Required Power):

60 Watts

(x2) = 120 Watts

Microcontroller ESP32 (Required Voltage):

3.3 V x 0.5 A = 1.65 Watts

Nextion NX4024T032 - Generic 3.2 inches LCD Touch Display Module (Required Voltage):

5V x 0.085A = 0.425 Watts

Total Input Power:

3.84 Watts + 120 Watts + 1.65 Watts + 0.425 Watts = 125.915 Watts ~ 126 Watts

Water Production:

Production of water increases exponentially as delta t increases (delta t is the temperature difference between the hot and cold side of Peltier Cooler). Humidity, temperature, input current, air flow at cold side, type of heat sink used and no. of Peltier Coolers installed also affect the production of water. Shown below are the parametric experiments on Peltier Cooler.

Concept Diagrams (3 Modes):

Condenser Design (2D CAD):

Condenser Design (3D CAD):

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Health

Other Industries

Energy

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Clean Tech

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com