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Energy Procedia 109 (2017) 161 – 166

International Conference on Recent Advancement in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration,

RAAR 2016, 10-12 November 2016, Bhubaneswar, India

Experimental investigations on a portable fresh water generator

using a thermoelectric cooler
V. P. Joshi, V. S. Joshi, H. A. Kothari, M. D. Mahajan, M. B. Chaudhari, K. D. Sant*
Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Bibwewadi, Pune-411037, India

Abstract

The main objective is to develop and experimentally investigate a thermoelectric fresh water generator (TFWG) based on the
fundamental of Thermoelectric Cooling Effect by condensing the moisture from the ambient moist air. It can be made useful to
the people in coastal and humid regions with relative humidity above 60 % having scarcity of drinking water. A prototype of the
generator consisting of a 0.7 m long cooling channel along with ten thermoelectric modules of dimension 0.04 * 0.04 m2 each
placed linearly in an array is fabricated and experimented. An internal heat sink of surface area 0.2m² and length 0.65m is placed
on the cold side of the modules to enhance heat transfer rate. The observations from the experiments show that with the use of
internal heat sink, the quantity of water generated per 10 hours increases by 81% as compared without internal heat sink. Electric
current, air mass flow rate and humidity of moist air were varied to understand their impact on the quantity of water generated.
Based upon the observed results, the quantity of water generated is directly proportional to all the three parameters in the domain
of experimentation.
© 2017
© 2017TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd. is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Ltd. This
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of RAAR 2016.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of RAAR 2016.
Keywords: Thermoelectric cooling; dehumidification; fresh water production; peltier;

1. Introduction

The world is facing the era of scarcity of fresh water. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking
water. By 2030, almost half the world’s population will be living in water stressed conditions [1]. Water scarcity is
both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. The areas having water shortages contribute to poverty.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +9120 24202244.

E-mail address: kedar.sant@vit.edu

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of RAAR 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.085
162 V.P. Joshi et al. / Energy Procedia 109 (2017) 161 – 166

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of system

One of the methods of generation of fresh water is by condensing the moisture from the atmosphere, which can be
made useful to the people in humid and coastal regions of world having scarcity of water. A sustainable solution for
condensation of moisture is by using thermoelectric cooling technology.
Very few researchers have examined thermoelectric dehumidification. J.G. Vian et al. [2] have designed and
developed a prototype of a low power (100W) thermoelectric dehumidifier using three peltier modules. Their system

Nomenclature

A ampere of current
ml millilitre
V volts
COP coefficient of performance

was optimized using (AERO) computational calculation model. M.A. Muñoz-García et al. [3] have developed a
system which can be made useful for water harvesting for young trees by using peltier modules powered by
photovoltaic solar energy. M. Jradi et al. [4, 5] have developed of a prototype of an integrated thermoelectric-
photovoltaic renewable system to dehumidify air and produce fresh water using thermoelectrically cooled TEC
channels. They have also demonstrated the feasibility of implementing five TEC channels in Beirut, Lebanon
climate for producing 10 liters of water per day over the summer months wherein each TEC channel consists of
twenty peltier modules.
The objective of the current work is to experimentally investigate a thermoelectric fresh water generator
and enhance its performance by using internal heat sink.

2. System Description

The schematic diagram of thermoelectric fresh water generator (TFWG) is presented in Fig 1.TFWG consists of a
0.7m long cooling channel of cross section 0.05m*0.045m, made up of Peltier modules, external heat sink, cooling
fan on the external heat sink, axial fan and an internal heat sink. The weight of the setup shown in Fig 2(c) is 10.6kg.
 V.P. Joshi et al. / Energy Procedia 109 (2017) 161 – 166 163

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2 (a) and (b) computer aided model of the prototype; (c) actual model of the prototype

2.1. Peltier effect and modules

Peltier effect or thermoelectric cooling effect can be defined as heat absorbed or liberated when current crosses
an interface between two dissimilar semiconductors. Peltier module consists of several thermocouples connected
thermally in parallel and electrically in series, and integrated between two ceramic plates [6]. Total ten peltier
modules of dimensions 0.04*0.04 m² are used which are placed linearly in an array on one side of the cuboid
channel by keeping a distance between two modules to be 0.02m. An external heat sink of surface area 0.7m² is
placed in contact with the hot side of the peltier modules for heat rejection along with four cooling fans of 0.025m³/s
each to increase the convection heat transfer between the ambient air and the heat sink. An internal heat sink of
surface area 0.2m² is placed in contact with the cold side of the peltier module. Its importance is to increase the
surface area for cooling and condensation and also for increasing the turbulence of the moist air flowing through the
channel. An axial fan of 0.014m³/s is placed on the top end of the channel which helps in generating the suction of
moist air into the system. The cooling channel is enclosed on other three sides by using acrylic for making a closed
cuboid channel for the flow of the moist air.

Fig. 3. Experimental setup

164 V.P. Joshi et al. / Energy Procedia 109 (2017) 161 – 166

2.2. Mechanism of generation of fresh water

The moist air enters the system from top end due to the suction generated by the axial fan. After which the air
starts goes through the thermoelectric cooling channel wherein heat is being absorbed from the moist air by the
peltier modules (powered via electrical energy) at the cold side, so the air starts cooling and its temperature reaches
to the dew point while flowing through the channel and condensation begins. Finally the air exits from the bottom of
the channel. Water gets condensed over the internal heat sink (cold) and starts to flow downward because of gravity.
It is then collected at the bottom of the channel.

3. Experimental Setup

Experimental setup is composed of three main things: air conditioning test rig, Direct Current (DC) power source
and thermoelectric fresh water generator. The setup is presented in the figure 3. Air conditioning test rig helps in
controlling the ambient air temperature and humidity in the room of experimentation. Electric power is supplied to
the ten peltier modules by three variable DC power sources of rating 30V and 2A in a manner that each power
source will be responsible to power four, four and two modules in series respectively. K type thermocouples of
accuracy ±2.5ºC are used to measure the temperature of the air and the temperature at the internal and external heat
sinks. Anemometer of accuracy ±3% is used to measure the mass flow rate of moist air flowing through the channel.

4. Experimentation

Experiments are carried out with TFWG in order to study the effect of mass flow rate of moist air, electric current
and humidity on the amount of water condensed. And also to study the effects of placing the internal heat sink in
contact with the cold side of the modules. For experimentation TFWG is placed inside the air conditioning test rig
and powered via the DC power source. The following steps are taken into consideration while performing the
experiments: The experiments are carried out at 30ºC ambient temperature for ten hours running of each individual
test. For studying the effect of mass flow rate of moist air on the amount of water condensate, electric current and
humidity are kept constant at the maximum possible value of 1.5A and 90% relative humidity respectively and the
mass flow rate is varied by varying the voltage of the axial fan from 1.5V to 7.5 V at an interval of 1.5V. The mass
flow rate at which the amount of water condensate is observed to be maximum, which is taken into consideration for
studying the effects of electric current and humidity. For the effect of electric current, humidity is kept constant at
90% relative humidity and the current is varied as 0.5A, 0.8A, 1A, 1.3A, 1.5A. For the effect of humidity, electric
current is kept constant at which the water condensate is observed to be maximum and the humidity is varied as
60%, 63%, 71%, 80%, 90%.

5. Results and Discussions

As per the steps discussed in the last section, experiments are performed and the observed results are shown in
the Fig. 4 (a)(b)(c). Based upon the observed experimental results, the amount of water generated is directly
proportional to air mass flow rate as the amount of water content in the channel increases for increase in mass flow
rate of moist air, and so the quantity of water condensed increases. The water condensate is directly proportional to
the humidity of the moist air as the water vapour content in the same mass of air increases. The water condensate is
also directly proportional to the electric current given to the peltier modules because of increase in heat absorbed by
the modules. The experimental results presented by M Jradi et al [4] exhibit the similar trend (as observed during
current work) for variation in air mass flow rate and also in electric current input to the peltier modules. The
experimental results presented by J G Vian et al [2] exhibit the similar trend (as observed during current work) for
variation in relative humidity.
The maximum water condensate obtained without using internal heat sink was found to be 45 ml while after
 V.P. Joshi et al. / Energy Procedia 109 (2017) 161 – 166 165

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 4. (a)The variation of amount of water condensate with respect to current; (b) The variation of amount of water condensate with respect
to relative humidity; (c) The variation of amount of water condensate with respect to mass flow rate.

placing the internal heat sink in contact with the cold side of the peltier modules the maximum condensate was 240
ml. So the quantity of water generated increases by 81%. The reasons for increase in the water condensate are:
increase in surface area for convection heat transfer between the cold side of module and the moist air, increase in
the turbulence of the flowing air. The maximum COP observed is 0.437 for air mass flow rate 0.011 kg/s and 90%
relative humidity. COP obtained experimentally by J G Vian et al [2] is between 0.33 to 0.44 for atmospheric
conditions between 22ºC to 32ºC and 90% relative humidity. It is observed that as the electric current supplied to the
modules increases the COP of the system decreases even though the heat absorbing capacity increases.

6. Conclusion

The experimental investigation of a portable thermoelectric fresh water generator is presented. The mass flow
rate of moist air, humidity and electric current supplied to the peltier modules are directly proportional to the amount
of water generated. It is found that the placement of internal heat sink on the cold side of the peltier modules in the
cooling channel increases the water generated by the system by 81%. The maximum water generated is found to be
240ml for 10 hours running of the system. The proposed system is a small step towards solving the problem of
scarcity of fresh water of the coastal and humid regions of the world.

Acknowledgements

Authors wish to express their gratitude to the Refrigeration and Air conditioning (RAC) lab under Mechanical
Department of Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune for rendering the facilities and support where the
experimentation was carried out.
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References

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