Newton Fund-Integrating water cooled concentrated photovoltaics with waste heat reuse
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Highly concentrated photovoltaic (HCPV) systems exploit concentrated solar flux using cheap optical components in lieu of large area, expensive photovoltaic cells. However, HCPV chips - due to their higher energy flux - generate considerable amount of waste heat which lowers their energy conversion efficiency. Novel microscale water cooling systems (i.e. microfluidic chips) can effectively regulate the photovoltaics cell temperature, thereby enhancing the cell energy efficiency. Additionally, the heat extracted by the coolant can be reused in:
a. Food and Pharmaceutical stage: to run an absorption refrigeration unit (where evaporation of a working fluid causes cooling) for food preservation and storage of vaccines, that require considerable energy use.
b. Water: membrane based water desalination processes to make saline water suitable for domestic and agricultural use
c. Fuel: for efficient production biodiesel
Integrating water cooled HCPV systems with one or more of these waste heat recovery technologies can have major positive impact on water, energy, food, healthcare and environmental challenges faced by Brazil - this is very well-aligned with the 'Food energy water environment nexus' theme.
a. Food and Pharmaceutical stage: to run an absorption refrigeration unit (where evaporation of a working fluid causes cooling) for food preservation and storage of vaccines, that require considerable energy use.
b. Water: membrane based water desalination processes to make saline water suitable for domestic and agricultural use
c. Fuel: for efficient production biodiesel
Integrating water cooled HCPV systems with one or more of these waste heat recovery technologies can have major positive impact on water, energy, food, healthcare and environmental challenges faced by Brazil - this is very well-aligned with the 'Food energy water environment nexus' theme.
Planned Impact
The impact of our proposed international collaboration, we believe, is perfectly in synch with the proposal call, and can be summarised as follows.
ODA relevance: The proposed vision to integrate (combine) an efficient renewable energy system - water cooled HCPVs - with waste heat recovery technologies for food and pharmaceutical storage, fresh water production and efficient biodiesel production, will demonstrably contribute in solving the multi-prong food, energy, water and environment nexus problems. Thus, the project will facilitate unique scientific expertise - both for the UFRJ team and the Brazilian industrial partners to be engaged in at the project end. UK funds will help develop microscale diagnostics and thermofluidics expertise, vital to realize our vision. The integrated system will promote sustainable Brazilian growth, and be well-suited for communities with lack of electricity/water/fuel/conservation and/or remote locations without infrastructure for research/humanitarian/mining/extractive activities. It can also serve as an alternative self-contained system for future sustainable urban or rural housing/small buildings and/or emergency system kits in natural disaster affected areas. Thus, the work is very well aligned with the ODA objectives.
Global Impact: According to the UN, global energy and food demand are predicted to increase by around 50% by 2030 while that of water by 30%. The depleting earth resources and increasing demand due to projected rise in global population and its urbanization make it imperative to develop novel sustainable technologies. The proposed research on a combined system - harnessing electrical energy from high efficiency, water cooled HCPVs and using the resulting waste heat for food and pharmaceutical storage, water desalination and efficient biodiesel (fuel) production - offers a holistic approach to address the complex nexus challenges from humanities demand for food, water, energy and need for environmental care.
Impact on the UK and Brazil Economy and Society: Brazil is world's the 8th largest energy consumer and 10th largest producer (US EIA 2010). Wind and solar power are expected to account for 33% of its power generation in the next decade - this clearly makes the research on HCPV systems useful. 20% of the Brazil's GDP is agriculture based. Despite ready access to water, prolonged and recurring droughts are a threat to Brazil's energy security. UK has a target to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and obtaining 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020, according to the 2012 UK Renewables Energy Roadmap. Thus, the nexus theme has direct relevance to both countries and there is clear need for developing a knowledge base on the topic - many government initiatives have recognized the need, for example, UK Energy programme, Food security programme etc. As a direct confirmation of its timeliness, the proposed vision is perfectly aligned with the EPSRC sandpit on water energy food nexus (http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/sandpitwaterenergyfoodnexus/) and, we believe, an excellent match to the nexus theme in current call, focused on Brazil's development.
Establishment of international collaboration: Given the truly global nature of problems pertaining to food, water, energy and environment nexus, they require a geographically informed approach to solutions that leverages the complementary experiences, skill-set and expertise of researchers from different countries. The current short term project will initiate a fruitful sharing of expertise between the UK (UCL) and Brazilian (UFRJ) team on this timely subject and lay the foundation for a longer term collaboration between the two partner institutions. The UFRJ team's expertise heat transfer modelling and renewable energy system is complementary to UCL team's strong expertise in diagnostics and nanotechnology - the complementarity will help capture the full scope of the proposed vision.
ODA relevance: The proposed vision to integrate (combine) an efficient renewable energy system - water cooled HCPVs - with waste heat recovery technologies for food and pharmaceutical storage, fresh water production and efficient biodiesel production, will demonstrably contribute in solving the multi-prong food, energy, water and environment nexus problems. Thus, the project will facilitate unique scientific expertise - both for the UFRJ team and the Brazilian industrial partners to be engaged in at the project end. UK funds will help develop microscale diagnostics and thermofluidics expertise, vital to realize our vision. The integrated system will promote sustainable Brazilian growth, and be well-suited for communities with lack of electricity/water/fuel/conservation and/or remote locations without infrastructure for research/humanitarian/mining/extractive activities. It can also serve as an alternative self-contained system for future sustainable urban or rural housing/small buildings and/or emergency system kits in natural disaster affected areas. Thus, the work is very well aligned with the ODA objectives.
Global Impact: According to the UN, global energy and food demand are predicted to increase by around 50% by 2030 while that of water by 30%. The depleting earth resources and increasing demand due to projected rise in global population and its urbanization make it imperative to develop novel sustainable technologies. The proposed research on a combined system - harnessing electrical energy from high efficiency, water cooled HCPVs and using the resulting waste heat for food and pharmaceutical storage, water desalination and efficient biodiesel (fuel) production - offers a holistic approach to address the complex nexus challenges from humanities demand for food, water, energy and need for environmental care.
Impact on the UK and Brazil Economy and Society: Brazil is world's the 8th largest energy consumer and 10th largest producer (US EIA 2010). Wind and solar power are expected to account for 33% of its power generation in the next decade - this clearly makes the research on HCPV systems useful. 20% of the Brazil's GDP is agriculture based. Despite ready access to water, prolonged and recurring droughts are a threat to Brazil's energy security. UK has a target to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and obtaining 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020, according to the 2012 UK Renewables Energy Roadmap. Thus, the nexus theme has direct relevance to both countries and there is clear need for developing a knowledge base on the topic - many government initiatives have recognized the need, for example, UK Energy programme, Food security programme etc. As a direct confirmation of its timeliness, the proposed vision is perfectly aligned with the EPSRC sandpit on water energy food nexus (http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/sandpitwaterenergyfoodnexus/) and, we believe, an excellent match to the nexus theme in current call, focused on Brazil's development.
Establishment of international collaboration: Given the truly global nature of problems pertaining to food, water, energy and environment nexus, they require a geographically informed approach to solutions that leverages the complementary experiences, skill-set and expertise of researchers from different countries. The current short term project will initiate a fruitful sharing of expertise between the UK (UCL) and Brazilian (UFRJ) team on this timely subject and lay the foundation for a longer term collaboration between the two partner institutions. The UFRJ team's expertise heat transfer modelling and renewable energy system is complementary to UCL team's strong expertise in diagnostics and nanotechnology - the complementarity will help capture the full scope of the proposed vision.
Publications
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Lisboa K
(2019)
Heat and mass transfer in hollow-fiber modules for direct contact membrane distillation: Integral transforms solution and parametric analysis
in International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
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Costa Junior J
(2019)
Innovative Metallic Microfluidic Device for Intensified Biodiesel Production
in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
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Lisboa K
(2021)
Computational-analytical simulation of microsystems in process intensification
in High Temperatures-High Pressures
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De Souza J
(2015)
Conjugated Heat Transfer Analysis of Heated Aeronautical Pitot Probes With Flight Tests Experimental Validation
in Heat Transfer Engineering
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Naveira-Cotta C
(2015)
MICROREACTORS FOR BIODIESEL SYNTHESIS: DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION
in Heat Pipe Science and Technology, An International Journal
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Cotta R
(2017)
Recent advances in computational-analytical integral transforms for convection-diffusion problems
in Heat and Mass Transfer
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Iwaya LH
(2023)
On the privacy of mental health apps: An empirical investigation and its implications for app development.
in Empirical software engineering
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Iwaya LH
(2023)
On the privacy of mental health apps: An empirical investigation and its implications for app development.
in Empirical software engineering
![publication icon](/resources/img/placeholder-60x60.png)
Zhang S
(2023)
Flow dynamics and mixing past pairs of confined microfluidic cylinders
in Chemical Engineering Science
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Costa J
(2019)
Estimation of kinetic coefficients in micro-reactors for biodiesel synthesis: Bayesian inference with reduced mass transfer model
in Chemical Engineering Research and Design
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Zhang S
(2020)
Mixing in flows past confined microfluidic cylinders: Effects of pin and fluid interface offsetting
in Chemical Engineering Journal
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Marques Lisboa K
(2021)
Analysis of the membrane effects on the energy efficiency of water desalination in a direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system with heat recovery
in Applied Thermal Engineering
![publication icon](/resources/img/placeholder-60x60.png)
Lisboa K
(2020)
Analysis of the mass transport in corrugated membraneless flow batteries
in Applied Mathematical Modelling
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Padet J
(2015)
Mixed thermal convection: fundamental issues and analysis of the planar case.
in Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias
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Massa TB
(2023)
Fusel oil reaction in pressurized water: characterization and antimicrobial activity.
in 3 Biotech
Description | Three major achievements resulted form this award: the development of optimal micro-thermal devices for waste removal from HCPV panels, the development of micro-reactors for continuous biodiesel synthesis with integrated micro-heat exchangers for waste heat reuse, and the development of membrane distillation unit for water desalination with waste heat from solar energy. These were accomplished through fundamental analysis around three major paths: miniaturization of heat exchange devices, thus bringing transport characteristic dimensions to the micro-scale, functionalization of the materials (solids and fluids) at the nano-scale, thus augmenting thermophysical properties, and geometrical structuring of micro-systems and passages, thus altering the transport or mixing mechanisms. |
Exploitation Route | The technologies developed can be applied individually or integrated addressing the energy, water, food, environment nexus in least developed regions of countries like Brazil that was the partner in the project; they can also find application in the context of more sustainable small scale production units in agricultural, urban or even remote military demands in other more developed regions of Brazil or other countries. The analytical and experimental tools developed in the study can also be useful to other researchers in various aras of transport phenomena. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology,Transport |
Description | The Newton Fund project has enabled important projects in Brazil, with relevant academic, economical and social regional impacts. The collaboration with UCL has always been active on these topics, such as: 1. Continuous Biodiesel Synthesis through Micro-reactors with Waste Heat Recovery: Design, 3D Printing, and Prototype Demonstration - Prof. Carolina Cotta has coordinated projects sponsored by CNPq (federal sponsoring agency - concluded) and FAPERJ (State sponsoring agency - on going). This line of research has a focus on oils obtained from small farm-based agriculture with regional native plants, but also considers the employment of waste cooking oil as the source of triglycerides. It also proposes the ethanol route for the transesterification reaction, which is already plently available in Brazil from sugar cane crops, for a full biomass-based production. 2. Research and Development of Micro Channel Heat Sinks for High Concentration Photovoltaic Cells with Recovery of Rejected Heat for Desalination, sponsored by ANP and Petrogal Brasil S.A., coordinated by Prof. Carolina Cotta, 2020-present. This is a three years project for the design and prototype demonstration of active cooling of HCPV panels with waste heat recovery in direct contact membrane distillation. The outcome is a poli-cogeneration island that can be installed in small countryside villages, isolated mining or prospection installations, or in natural disasters areas. 3. Aqua Vitae project: Design and testing of desalination unit with direct contact membrane distillation with waste heat recovery. Coordinated by Prof. Renato M. Cotta through CNPq (concluded) and FAPERJ (on going) projects, aimed at the optimization of direct contact membrane distillation for waste heat recovery in desalination. This line of research is also aimed at the design of compact optimized membrane distillation units in ships, through waste heat recovery from internal combustion engines, for either fishing, tourism or humanitarian purposes. 4. Icing, anti-acing and de-icing of water droplets for safety and thermo-economical analysis. This is a continuation of studies initiated after the AF447 accident in 2009, which was initially aimed at understanding the triggering of the accident through the icing of the Pitot probes, and more recently extended to safety and thermoeconomical analysis in electricity transmission lines, renewable energy generation, and sensors operation. Projects coordinated, under different sponsorships, by Prof. Renato M. Cotta. The employed methodologies are also related to the RAEng project coordinated by Prof. Manish Tiwari on omniphobic coatings for solar panels self-cleaning. The impacts were not limited to Brazil but also India. Through a Royal Academy of Engineering Frontiers follow-on grant Manish K Tiwari and Renato Cotta from this team have linked with two renewable energy deployment institutions in India, Muni Seva Ashram (a non-government organisation) and The Energy Research Institute (TERI). These are going to deploy self-cleaning coatings for solar panels in order to minimise water usage during cleaning. This project is delayed and in year 2 of 3 year cycle. TERI will also perform technoeconomic analysis to determine the feasibility of large scale deployments and potential economic and sustainability impact. Finally, Manish K Tiwari received an ERC Proof of Concept grant to develop links with companies such Airbus, TWI and Ozo Innovations. These links are exploring options for exploitation of sustainable coatings for aerospace, wind turbines and food production applications. |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Energy,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Description | Frontiers of Engineering |
Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Royal Academy of Engineering |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 03/2018 |
Description | Leverhulme Visiting Professorship |
Amount | £73,200 (GBP) |
Funding ID | VP1-2017-028 |
Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2017 |
End | 12/2018 |
Description | NOVEL SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES FOR EFFICIENT UTILISATION OF AGRICULTURAL WASTE STREAMS IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY |
Amount | £1,457,225 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/W019132/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2022 |
End | 12/2025 |
Description | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) |
Organisation | Federal University of Rio de Janeiro |
Country | Brazil |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The project is about developing a long term collaboration with our partners in Brazil in order to tackle issues pertaining to the energy, water and environment nexus. Our contribution is on developing the experimental capability to study microscale heat and mass transfer processes to complement the numerical capability of our partners and in particular to take advantage of their inverse methods expertise to optimise transport processes. |
Collaborator Contribution | Theoretical methods, inverse design and basic experimentation on biodiesel production using microscale reactors. |
Impact | Two academic visits for knowledge transfer, development of new experimental tools to facilitate the research. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Visiting academic |
Organisation | State University of Pará |
Country | Brazil |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | AN academic visitor form University of Para has been hosted by myself and funded by CAPES a Brazilian funding agency working on various modelling tools implemented during the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Modelling tools |
Impact | Two journal publications are currently in preparation; this collaboration is in engineering but it complements the expertise available in our lab. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | A plenary talk- 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERS: Energy, Water, Health, Agriculture and Environment for Sustainable Development |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A number of women scientists from all over the world gathered to discuss their work on Energy, Water, Health, Agriculture and Environment for Sustainable Development as well as gender equlaity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Oral presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Paper presented in 24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering. December 3-8, 2017, Curitiba, PR, Brazil. This is the annual mechanical engineering conference in Brazil.Title of paper: VORTEX SHEDDING COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS FOR A PIN FIN CONFINED IN A MICROCHANNEL by Phillippe R. d'Egmont, Vinícius Z. Martins, Carolina P. N. Cotta, Fernando P. Duda, Renato M. Cotta, Manish K. Tiwari, Stavroula Balabani |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://abcm.org.br |
Description | Oral presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | RESIDENCE TIME CONTROL IN MICROMIXERS WITH VORTEX SHEDDING Shigang Zhang, Manish K Tiwari * Stavroula Balabani Carolina P. Naveira-Cotta, Renato M. Cotta 9th World Conference on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics 12-15 June, 2017, Iguazu Falls, Brazil |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://exhft9.org |
Description | conference presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Abstract accepted, and paper submitted to 6th International Heat Transfer Conference, IHTC-16 August 10-15, 2018, Beijing, China. Title: VORTEX INDUCED TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN FLOWS PAST MICROPINS, Shigang Zhang, Neil Cagney, Stavroula Balabani, Manish K Tiwari. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |