Volume 22: Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Post-COVID Recovery towards a Better Future: Part V

Development of Hybrid Source Thermal Desalination System using Thermoelectric Module as a Powerful Heat Pump Atmanandmaya, Umanand Loganathan, Subba Reddy B

Abstract

Due to the natural calamities and pandemics, the
need for a decentralized freshwater system is the need
for a better future. Solar still is the only decentralized
thermal desalination system whose efficiency depends
on various parameters like solar insolation, thermal
insulation, water depth from the glass covers, etc.
Thermoelectric modules are employed to increase the
efficiency of solar still. The proposed study presents a
disruptive approach of using the thermoelectric module
to develop a new decentralized desalination system for a
freshwater generation. In the proposed research, the
thermoelectric module is used as a powerful heat pump
by ensuring a very low-temperature difference between
the hot surface and the cold surface of the
thermoelectric module. The latent heat released after
condensation is utilized in a closed-loop operation to
enhance the system’s efficiency. The efficiency of the
proposed method is 288% and 167% when operating the
thermoelectric module at the mid-current region and
maximum current region of the cooling curve of the
thermoelectric module. A MATLAB simulation is
conducted to evaluate the system by considering valid
assumptions, further a prototype of the system is
fabricated, experiments are in progress.

Keywords thermal desalination, latent heat, thermoelectric, energy conversion, coefficient of performance (COP), efficiency