Stand-Alone Photovoltaic System to Mitigate Pollution in Bodies of Water CASE Study: Laguna Del Carpintero, Tampico, Tamaulipas

Abstract

One of the main environmental issues at present times is the pollution of hydrological resources. Water quality is a major factor to ecosystems, mostly those that support human health, food production and biodiversity. The utilization of renewable energy sources as solar energy through Photovoltaic Cells is a competitive and consolidated option to approach the solution of this kind of issues. This document is intended to introduce a prototype powered by photovoltaic cells to aerate a body of water and increase the amount of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in water. The body of water studied is the lagoon Laguna del Carpintero in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. A Stand-alone Photovoltaic System (SPS) prototype was designed for this matter with the purpose of powering a pumping system to sprinkle water to the lake's surface. This system is a way of ventilating the water so that it gets in direct contact with the surrounding atmosphere obtaining mean values compared to prevailing values of DO contained in the lagoon. We obtained DO concentration values going from 7 to 8 mg/L of O2 in different tests which can be considered an appropriate parameter for this body of water. The efficiency of the SPS was proved as it showed good performance by supplying power to the oxygenation system compared to the dimensional estimate. Improving the SPS prototype is the main goal of this work so that this oxygenation system could be used in other urban lagoons in the surrounding area without being powered by electrical grid. This makes possible to locate it at any point of the body of water to mitigate the pollution by increasing the amount of DO.

Environmental Policy in Mexico

“…The most prominent of these pieces of legislation are as follows: the (Castro-Ruiz & González-Ávila, 2012). Even with the presence of all of these laws -and multiple regulatory bodies and associated architectures -air pollution remains a serious concern (most especially in southern Tamaulipas) (Zumaya Escobedo, 2017), while bodies of water such as the Laguna del Carpintero in Tampico, Tamaulipas, have been degraded and debased by high concentrations of waste produced (in part) by human activity (Hernández-Sánchez, García-Navarro, BautistaVargas, Gómez-Carpizo, & Hernández-Martínez, 2015). It is an old refrain by now, but an esoteric medley of laws means nothing if the enforcement mechanism is not aggressive, comprehensive and generates significant penalties for those who act recklessly.…”