Experimental Study and Performance Analysis of a Portable Atmospheric Water Generator

Abstract

Found in some specific scenarios, drinking water is hard for people to get, such as during expeditions and scientific investigations. First, a novel water generator with only two thermoelectric coolers (Model A) is designed for extracting water from atmospheric vapor and then experimentally studied under a small inlet air flow rate. The impact of operating conditions on surface temperatures of cold/hot sides and water yield are investigated, including the air flow rate and humidity. Alternately, to determine the super performance of Model A, a comparative experiment between Model A and a reference model (Model B) is carried out. The results suggest that both the cold/hot temperature and water yield in Model A increases with the humidity and air flow rate rising. Seen in comparisons of Model A and Model B, it is found that, at an air humidity of 90% and air flow rate of 30 m3/h, the total water yield was increased by 43.4% and the corresponding value reached the maximum increment of 66.7% at an air humidity of 60% and air flow rate of 30 m3/h. These features demonstrate the advantage of Model A especially in low air humidity compared to Model B.

Performance Investigation of 18 Thermoelectric Cooler (TEC) Units to Supply Continuous Daily Fresh Water from Malaysia’s Atmosphere

“…TWFG produced a maximum water yield of 240 mL per 10 h at an indoor controlled ambient temperature of 30 • C and a controlled rate of maximum relative humidity of 90%. In 2020, He et al [8] designed and fabricated an atmospheric water generator (AWG) using two TEC units in India and the influence of the variations in relative humidity and the air inlet flow rate on the water production of the AWG system under controlled indoor atmospheric conditions was investigated. The total cold surface area over the internal heat sinks was 180 cm 2 [8].…”

“…In 2020, He et al [8] designed and fabricated an atmospheric water generator (AWG) using two TEC units in India and the influence of the variations in relative humidity and the air inlet flow rate on the water production of the AWG system under controlled indoor atmospheric conditions was investigated. The total cold surface area over the internal heat sinks was 180 cm 2 [8]. An indoor experiment with a period of 10 h was prepared and controlled under a constant dry bulb at a temperature of 24 • C. The total water yields of 85.5, 135.5, 186.7, 245.8 mL/10 h were obtained within the controlled relative humidity rates of 60, 70, 80 and 90%, respectively, using an air humidifier.…”

“…The cumulative water production values of 85.5, 94.4 and 109.6 mL/10 h were also gained via vacuuming the air flow rates of 30, 50 and 70 m 3 /h respectively into the system. The researchers concluded that the AWG produced the maximum amount of water under the indoor controlled conditions of a relative humidity rate of 90% and an air flow rate of 70 m 3 /h in a period of 10 h [8]. In 2013, Tian et al [9] experimentally studied the parameters affecting the amount of extracted water by a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) unit with a cold surface area of 579.6 cm 2 .…”

Increasing the efficiency of a Peltier device by assessing the thermal performance of liquid-cooled microchannel heat sinks

“…Atmospheric water generation has become increasingly popular in the developing world where potable water is scarce and electricity production is limited [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In these climates, Thermoelectric Coolers (TECs) are commonly used as they provide a feasible and sustainable solution to the growing demands of the inhabitants [3][4][5][7][8][9]. In response to the dwindling of fresh water supplies due to climate change, many countries are researching alternate solutions for potable water production.…”

“…In the case of cooling condensation, a compressor circulates coolant through a system, which reduces the temperature at a capture surface where water can condense onto [5]. Modern investigations explore the cooling condensation method, however, rather than a refrigerant circulating, the system utilises the Peltier effect to more efficiently cool the water capture surface [4,5,10].…”