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CHAPTER1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 ENERGY SCENARIO

India spends millions and millions of rupees to meet the supply and
demand crisis. All the energy resources viz. thermal, hydro, biomass, and nuclear
energy, have been utilized to generate power to meet the demands of the growing
population.
All the above energy sources are costly and some of them are polluting our
environment creating global warming. Being the next most populated country in the
world, India neither has the resources, to feed the energy needs of the huge population
nor can it afford to pollute the environment.
So the solution is to tap energy from sources which are affordable and non-
polluting viz. tidal, wind and solar. All the above sources are abundantly available and
renewable.
Considering the steep energy crisis facing our country, all the research process
should concentrate only on renewable and non polluting energy sources.

1.1.1 SOLUTION TO ENERGY CRISIS – SOLAR ENERGY

The non-renewable energy resources like fossil-fuels sources are costly and
pollute our atmosphere through the emission of green house gases which cause global
warming. Solar energy which is abundantly available, cheap and non-polluting is a
viable solution for the energy crisis.

1.1.2 SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNOLOGY

Photovoltaic systems are developed using specific combinations of solar cells. A

PV cell is made up of one or more layers of semi conducting material, which is
normally silicon. When the cells receive sunlight, an electric field develops across the
layers resulting in a flow of electricity. The intensity or strength of PV cells is measured
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in terms of the energy they generate in maximum sunlight and is referred to as kilowatt
peak or kWp.
1.1.3 ADVANTAGES

This technology is environmentally benign. Though the manufacturing process

of PV panels is polluting to a certain extent, these panels are eco friendly to use. Solar
photovoltaic power does not emit greenhouse gases.
PV systems require hardly any maintenance apart from ensuring that they are
kept clean and are not in the shade from surrounding trees.
PV Solar panels do not necessarily need direct sunlight, they can function in
daylight. Hence, photovoltaic technology can produce some electricity even under
cloudy conditions.
Photovoltaic technology can be used to power consumer appliances as well as
large electrical systems in the commercial sector. Solar PV water pumping systems are
used for irrigation and drinking water distribution. Solar panels can be installed on roof
or wall so long as it is not in the shadow of other buildings or large trees. Shade reduces
the output of solar modules. Also, these panels light in weight and can be installed
almost anywhere, where there is sunlight.

1.2 WATER SCARCITY

Water, the most precious natural resource, is being threatened by a

multitude of contaminants, resulting in an unprecedented water contamination crisis
with local and national implications. This is a problem that can't be ignored.
It is the quality that differentiates drinking water from any other water. In this
sense, there are many habitations which have severe quality problems like iron, salinity,
fluoride and chloride contamination and also bacteriological contamination. Due to
geo-hydrology, growing population, depletion of ground water, rapid industrialization
etc. the drinking water quality is deteriorating day by day and this has become a major
threat for drinking water provisioning.
The contamination of municipal water and tap water by chemicals and bacteria
is far bigger than most people think. It is polluted, containing many toxic substances
that might attack our health system. Scientists state that it is no longer safe to drink tap
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water, which is unfiltered. The municipal water system adds chlorine, ammonia,
fluoride and other dangerous substances to disinfect and "clean" the water. However,
drinking that water can cause major health risks.
The US Council of Environmental Quality mentioned that the cancer risk among
people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those who drink water
without chlorine. The American Academy of Microbiology warns of global threats to
drinking water, even in developed countries.

Fig 1.1 Per capita Water availability

The reason for this alarming development is due to booming population that
demands safe water, but pollutes the environment at a constantly rising rate. The
availability of water is reducing rapidly over the past few years, as you can see in the
Fig 1.1, which shows the per capita availability of water per person. The need to
effectively filter water is continually rising.
Above that, the purification of tap water at home with effective water filtration
systems or water purifiers eliminates the need to buy bottled water. It is the duty and
responsibility of any government to ensure that the poor and downtrodden people living
in remote villages which are the backbone of our country get the basic necessity of
potable drinking water without any contamination. To support a country's population
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and economic goals, there needs to be a steady supply of high quality fresh water.
Desalination and water purification is just one of the many technologies being explored
to harness the water for potable use.

1.3 REVERSE OSMOSIS PURIFIER

The safest solution at hand to get pure drinking water is Reverse Osmosis (RO)
System. In an RO System the water passes through semi-permeable membrane of
0.0001 micron gauge which filters out even tiniest of microbes or soluble or insoluble
pollutants.
Reverse osmosis is the process of pushing water through a semi permeable
membrane, with a certain pressure, that allows only water to go through it and traps the
impurities on the other side, as you can see in fig 1.2.

Fig. 1.2 Reverse Osmosis Process

Reverse Osmosis System can be used for filtering bore well, municipal and tap
water. If you are located near an industrial belt or any contaminated source, your ground
water must be having harmful chemicals such as heavy metals,
The difference between conventional Ultra Violet Purifiers and Reverse
Osmosis water Purifier is that, Ultra Violet water purifier only inactivates microbes, that
too they cannot remove protozoan cysts of amoebae and giardia. Also it does not reduce
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salt content of water while reverse osmosis water purifiers can virtually make any water
potable. Reverse osmosis purifiers give us sweet, pure and safe drinking water
eliminating the harmful chemicals, microbes and excess salt and hardness from the
water.

1.4 PHOTO VOLTAIC OPERATED WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEM

In this system solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are used for absorbing solar energy
and provide the electrical energy needed to charge the battery, which in turn provides
the energy to the RO water purifier. This gives the system a unique advantage of
providing cheap and clean energy for purifying water through the Reverse osmosis
process.The system can be assembled without any complex process and huge cost
commitments comparing to other non-renewable sources.
With rising oil prices and growing awareness of the need to adopt environment
friendly energy sources, the market for photovoltaic technology is poised for healthy
growth.

1.5 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

The major objective of the project is to design a photovoltaic operated water

purification system. In order to achieve these objectives, the following tasks are
envisaged.
• Design of PV system along with panel sizing and battery sizing
• Integration of water purifier with the PV system
• Performance test of PV system and water quality test
• Economic analysis.
The successive chapters deal with the design of the system and the tasks completed in
order to achieve the objectives of the project.

CHAPTER 2
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LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 PV BASICS

The principle of photovoltaics and various dimensions of solar energy are

described by Sukhatme(1996). A better insight on the economics of PV systems is given
by A.J. Jude and P.N.Fernando(2004).They gave the economic and practical view point
of PV systems. They also gave information about various existing PV systems and their
economics.

2.2 CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

There are a few journals and articles and journals published about integration of
photovoltaics and water treatment. Most of them are large scale systems, which are used
for treatment of industrial wastes and effluents.
There are a wide variety of design configurations. John Ward(2003) described a
solar water purifier which contains no moving parts, no electronics, no filters and no
other external connections. The purifier consists of several layers of plastic and glass
placed over each other and water is allowed to flow in between those layers. The solar
radiation which is incident on the glass is focused on very small areas through which
the water flows. And this radiation disinfects any micro organisms present in the water.
The water output of this particular type of water purifier is 9 litre per day per
square metre surface area. This is very small compared to PV operated systems.
Also this type of purifier is not effective against inorganic impurities. The
radiation causes some of the water to vaporize and precipitates are formed in pipes.They
are not completely removed and hence this type of system is considered highly
inefficient.
E.Tzen et al.,(1998) proposed the basic idea for using RO water purifier for a
standalone PV system. The system was designed in the country of Morocco. The
latitude of Morocco is 23o, which is very near to the place under consideration, which is
Chennai at 13o. Also the weather conditions prevailing in both the places are more or
less similar. The RO system they used requires 9kW power. The output flow rate of the
system was 4000 litres/day.
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The economic analysis of that system showed that PV systems are efficient
along with RO system. Based on this result we decided to use RO water purifier for our
system.The economic analysis also revealed that PV systems are efficient only when
used for large scale applications.
The reason behind selecting RO type water purifier is that it is compact
compared to other desalination systems like ion exchanger etc. Also it is capable of
giving high output rates and the RO system is very reliable in providing water of the
highest quality in terms of inorganic as well as organic impurities. Also the RO systems
require very low maintenance making it highly suitable for application in rural areas
where only limited technical resources are available.
Conceptual design

Fig 2.1 Conceptual design

Ali Al- Karaghouli et al., (2009) gave the essential idea about the conceptual
design of a PV driven water treatment system as shown in Fig2.1
The design proposed is simple in which storage batteries are used to store the
power produced by the PV panels through a charge controller. Then the power from the
battery is converted to alternating current and is used to operate the pump of the Ro
purifier.
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The design of PV operated Water purification system is similar to this one

except that the DC to AC invertor is not used. Also since the RO water purifier pumps
available in the markets are rated at 24 V DC and storage batteries are rated at 12 V two
12 V batteries connected in series to get 24V. For that two charge controllers are
required. And two charge controllers are used.
Since the batteries are connected to the charge controllers, the load terminals of
the charge controller are connected in series to get the desired 24 V DC output.

2.3 SYSTEM SIZING

The IREDA/ World Bank/Siemens Solar PV training manual tells the design
methodology and concepts adopted in the design of the photovoltaic operated water
purification system. This book also contains the necessary information that an engineer
must know before designing a PV system.
It also contains other information needed to design a standalone PV system like
the battery sizing calculation steps, IV characteristics of PV panel, working of PV
panels, common type of materials used etc.
The book also provided illustrated PV design problems, which we referred to do
the design calculations necessary for our system.

CHAPTER 3
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SYSTEM DESIGN AND FABRICATION

3.1 SELECTION OF PURIFIER

A commercially available water purifier which has 4 stages of purification

which also includes Reverse Osmosis technology is selected. The power rating of the
purifier is 24 W.
Reverse osmosis, also known as hyper filtration, is the finest filtration available
today. It is the most common treatment technology used by premium bottled water
companies. It is effective in eliminating or substantially reducing a very wide array of
contaminants. And of all technologies used to treat drinking water in residential
applications, it has the greatest range of contaminant removal. Reverse osmosis will
allow the removal of particles as small as individual ions.
The RO water purifier uses four cartridges for the removal of impurities and for
the enhancement of the water quality.
The four cartridges used are
• Clarity cartridge

• Organic Remover Cartridge

• Reverse Osmosis cartridge

• Taste enhancer cartridge

The purpose of using each cartridge is listed below:

• Clarity cartridge to remove finer suspended particles.

• Organic Remover Cartridge to remove excess chlorine and organic impurities. It

also absorbs bad taste and odour from the water.

• Reverse Osmosis cartridge to reduce TDS, hardness, pesticides, heavy metals

and micro-organisms.

• Taste enhancer cartridge to remove organic impurities and to revive the original
taste of water.
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The RO membrane is considered as the important part of the purifier.RO membrane

that is semi-permeable, allowing pure water to pass through it, while rejecting the
contaminants that are too large to pass through the tiny pores in the membrane.

Quality reverse osmosis systems use a process known as cross flow to allow the
membrane to continually clean itself. As seen in fig 3.1, some of the fluid passes
through the membrane the rest continues downstream, sweeping the rejected
contaminants away from the membrane and down the drain. The process of reverse
osmosis requires a driving force to push the fluid through the membrane.
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Fig 3.1 Cross flow

Since the cross flow technology does not allow the accumulation of the
contaminants inside the purifier, the Ro purifier requires very less maintenance and has
long life.
Thin film composite membrane (RO membrane) characteristics:
• 0.0001 micron pore size.
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• Good salt rejection, temperature tolerance capacity.

• Pressure withstanding capacity.

• High resistance to Bacteria.

• Wide pH range tolerance.

Technical specifications of purifier

 Power Rating : 24 Watts

 Power Supply to pump : DC

 Purifying Technology : Reverse Osmosis

 Reverse Osmosis : Thin Film Composite Spiral

Membrane

 Percentage Recovery : 25% minimum

 Purified Water Flow Rate : 8 litres/hr

 Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) : 90% Reduction

3.2 SOLAR PANEL

The first parameter to be decided while designing a PV system is the no. of days
of autonomy, which is the maximum no. of days the system can run without solar
insolation. No. of days of autonomy is taken as two days.

Total energy consumption of water purifier for 2 days = power x time in hours
= 24 x 48
= 1152 WH
No. of days for full charging is taken as 2 days.
The average no. bright sunshine hours for Chennai is 8.
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Total Energy
Power required from Solar panel = -------------------
No. of hours

1152
= ------------
8x2

Average Power required in PV cell = 72 W.

Thus two mono-crystalline PV panels with a capacity of nominal power 36 W

and 40 Watts peak are selected.

The technical specifications of the solar panel are given.

Open circuit voltage - 21 V
Peak power voltage - 17 V
Peak power current - 2.3 A
Nominal power output - 36 W
Dimensions - 0.65 × 0.55 m²

3.3 BATTERY

The battery has to be designed so that it is capable of storing the energy require
for the water purifier to operate for
Power of water Purifier = 24 W
Voltage = 24 V (DC)
No. of Reserve Days =2
No. of hours = 48 hrs
Temperature de-rating factor =1
(Since average temperature is near 30 °C).
Rate Factor = 1.1
(For 10 hour capacity, interpolated from the standard rate factor for 5 days capacity
from IREDA SPV manual.)
Depth of discharge = 80 %.
Since the application requires deep discharge.
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(Power of water purifier x No. of hours)

Battery capacity = ------------------------------------------------
(Voltage x % Discharge x Temperature
De-rating factor x Rate factor)

24 x 48
Battery Capacity = ---------------------------
24 x 0.8 x 1 x 1.1

= 54.5 AH
No. of Batteries in series = 24/12
=2

The calculated battery capacity is 54.5 AH. Commercially available batteries are
available at 60 AH. Hence two 12v 60AH lead acid batteries are selected.
Lead acid batteries are selected because they are maintenance free and deep
cycling.

3.4 CHARGE CONTROLLERS

The power available at the solar panels is not controlled. The excessive current
could damage the batteries. A charge controller is used to maintain the proper charging
voltage on the batteries and they limit the maximum charging voltage. As the input
voltage from the solar array rises, the charge controller regulates the charge to the
batteries preventing any overcharging. The charge controllers also prevent the water
purifier from excessive current and shot circuit.

Charge controllers
• Are used to couple the PV panel, battery and water purifier.

• Maintains constant output at 12V.

• Regulates battery charging voltage.

• Protects battery from over-charging and over-discharging.

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• Adequate protections and indications

• Negligible voltage drop

• Self consumption less than 5mA

• Offers long life to batteries

Commercially available charge controllers are rated at 12V capacity. Also we

have two batteries of 12 V capacities. So, two charge controllers with 12 V capacities
are selected. Each solar panel is provided with a charge controller of 12V capacity,
which is connected to the battery. The fig 3.2 shows a single charge controller unit.
Charge controller

Fig 3.2 Charge controller

The two charge controllers are connected in series so that the voltage from both
the batteries is added to get the net voltage of 24V.

3.5 FABRICATION AND ASSEMBLY

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The system is fabricated on an appropriate mounting.

3.5.1 PV PANEL INCLINATION

The solar panel should be kept at particular inclination to get optimum power
according to our requirements. Since the system can be turned, the inclination is
provided so that optimum power is obtained for one season. Then for the other season
the panel is turned 180o so as to obtain optimum power during next season.
Latitude of Chennai is 13o N.
For optimum power during summer,
Solar panel Inclination = latitude + 10°
= 23°
The solar panels are kept inclined at an angle of 23° to the horizontal, with its
surface facing north during summer and facing south during winter.
To obtain the inclination of 23 degrees one side of the panel is elevated to a
certain height as shown in fig 3.2.
Elevation

Fig 3.3 Elevation

The panels are inclined at 23° with the help of an L-clamp of length ‘a’ which is
calculated as
a= (sin 23o) x 550
a=210mm.
Therefore, the height of the L- clamp should be 210mm.

Panel inclination
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Fig 3.4 Panel inclination

As it is shown in Fig 3.4, the panels are inclined to an angle of 23° with respect
to the base with the help of the L-angles.
Since, the system needs two panels they are oriented in the same direction
facing north.
As they are going to be inclined in the same direction there should be sufficient
gap between the two panels so that the shadow of one will not fall on the other.
Thus, the distance between the two is calculated as follows
The maximum angle of inclination of sun to the vertical is 23o. Since the
horizontal is already inclined at an angle of 13o, which is the latitude of Chennai, net
inclination becomes 10 o. As seen in fig 3.5 the distance b is the minimum distance that
should be provided between the panels.

Minimum distance between panels

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Fig 3.5 Minimum distance between panels

The minimum distance between the panels is ‘b’ which is
b = (tan 10°) x 210
b = 37mm.
Thus, the two panels are fixed at a distance of 100mm from each other, which is
well above the minimum distance of 37 mm.

3.5.2 ASSEMBLY

The assembly mainly involves the electrical connections between charge

controllers, solar panels, batteries and water purifier. The panels are connected to the
two charge controllers individually across their respective terminals. The batteries are
also individually connected to the two charge controllers. Then the negative load
terminal of one charge controller is connected to the positive load terminal of the other
charge controller. Then the positive and negative terminals of the water purifier are
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connected to the remaining terminal, with a switch. The system configuration is shown
in Fig3.6

Assembly of components

Fig 3.6 Assembly of components

3.5.3 STEPS INVOLVED IN ASSEMBLY

The precautions to be considered while assembling the system are

• Each solar panel is connected to one charge controller. (Connected to solar panel
terminals only).

• Connect each battery to the charge controller (connected to battery terminals

only).

• One of the load terminals of one charge controller is connected to the opposite
terminal of the other controller to ensure that both are connected in series.

• Then, the remaining two terminals from each of the charge controller are
connected to the water purifier power terminals.
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• All the electrical connections are well sealed using an insulator tape thus
preventing any possibility of short circuit.

• The entire system with all the connection is placed on a portable stand so that it
can be moved from place to place easily thus making the system convenient.

• The inlet water supply to the purifier is given from the storage tank using a feed
pipe.

• The concentrated water from the water purifier is collected separately.

• As the flow rate of the water purifier depends on the input water pressure,
proper pressure of feed water is necessary.

Thus, the whole system is fabricated and shown below in Fig3.7

PV System

Fig 3.7 PV system

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CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 EXPERIMNTAL STUDIES

The system is assembled successfully and worked fine. A few experiments

were conducted to evaluate the performance of the system.
The system is kept in bright sunlight and the charging current of the batteries are
measured by digital multimeter for the whole day from 6 am to 6 pm and a graph is
drawn between time and charging current.
The charging current multiplied by 12V, which is the battery voltage gives the
power. The power vs. time curve is also obtained.

Fig 4.1 Charging current curve

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Fig4.2 Power curve

The total area under the power curve gives the total energy stored into the
battery, which if divided by 24 WH, gives no. of hours of operation of the system. The
calculations were done using Matlab. The total energy output is 0.38 kWH. The results
show that no. of hours of operation is 16 hours.

4.2 OUTPUT WATER

The purifier is operated for a time of five hours and the water output and input
are measured.

Input water = 186 litres

Pure water = 60 litres.
Output water flow rate = 12 litre/hour.
Percentage water recovery = 35 %.

The rated water output flow rate of the purifier is 8 litre/hour. But the
experimental values are high. This is due to the fact that output water flow rate depends
on the input water quality and pressure.
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Input, output and reject water samples are collected and sent for chemical
testing. The results are shown in the table.
The main parameter for measuring the purification capacity of a water purifier is
the Total Dissolved Solids reduction or TDS reduction.
Percentage TDS reduction = 206 - 66
206
= 70 %.

4.3 ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

4.3.1 TOTAL EXPENDITURE

Solar Panels (2 x Rs.8825) =Rs.17650

Rechargeable Batteries (2 x Rs.3100) =Rs.6200
Water Purifier (1 x Rs.9990) =Rs.9990
Charge Controllers (2 x Rs.1560) =Rs.3120
Installation =Rs.2000
Total expenditure =Rs.38960

4.3.2 PAYBACK PERIOD

Average water output per day =200 litre.

Cost of 200 litres of mineral water =Rs.200.
Total amount for one month =Rs.200x30
=Rs.6000.

Time to recover Rs.38960 = 38960

6000

= 6.5 months.
Therefore, the payback period for the total investment of Rs.38960 is about 7 months.
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4.3.3 CARBON EMISSIONS

Since the PV systems are renewable and nonpolluting, we can avoid the
emission of carbon into the atmosphere, which would otherwise cause a number of
problems like global warming, air pollution etc.
Average energy output of the PV system = 0.38 kWH.
Transmission efficiency of power grids in India = 65 %.
To obtain the equivalent power from grid = 0.38
the power produced in power plant is 0.65
= 0.58 kWH.
Carbon emissions for one kWH produced in power plant = 0.9 kg
Carbon emission saved per year = 0.58 x 0.9 × 365
= 191 kg.
Hence 191 kg of carbon emissions is saved per year per system.

4.4 CONCLUSION

As you can see in table 4.1 the RO water purifier is very effective in eliminating
the inorganic impurities.
Table 4.1 Contamination levels
Parameter Input water Purified water IS 10500- %
improvement
1991
pH 7.6 6.7 6.5-8.5 -
TDS 206 mg/l 66 mg/l 500 mg/l 70
Total Hardness 70 mg/l 24 mg/l 300 mg/l 66
Calcium (as Ca) 16 mg/l 4.4mg/l 75 mg/l 73
Magnesium (as Mg) 7.3 mg/l 3.2 mg/l 30 mg/l 57
Iron (as Fe) 0.18 mg/l 0.1mg/l 0.3 mg/l 45
Calcium Hardness 40 mg/l 11 mg/l 73
(as CaCo3) ---
The output water impurities level is well below the drinking water quality
standard-IS 10500-1991.
The important parameter for a water purifier is the TDS reduction percentage.
TDS reduction percentage is the ratio of the total dissolved solids in mg/l removed from
the water to the quantity present in the input water in mg/l.
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The TDS reduction depends on a number of factors like input water quality,
pressure. But in general TDS reduction signifies the performance of a water purifier.
The TDS reduction for the RO water purifier is found to be 70 percent, which indicates
the sound working of the purifier.
Copies of the water test are attached in the appendix.
Thus this system is working well with an average water output of 200 litres per
day and the water quality is well above the standards.