Optimal design of an atmospheric water generator (AWG) based on thermo-electric cooler (TEC) for drought in rural area

Abstract

Drinking water availability is a major issue in some rural area in Indonesia during the summer season due to lack of rainfall, which peoples in this area have to fetch the water a few kilometers away from home. The Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) is one of the alternative solution for fresh water recovery from atmosphere which is directly condensed the moisture content of water vapor from the air. This paper presents the method to develop a prototype of an AWG based on Thermo-electric cooler (TEC) that used 12 Volt DC, hence its suitability for using renewable energy resource. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is utilized to optimize the design process in the flow region only, it's not suitable for recent CFD software to use in Multi physics, because inaccuracy, cost and time saving. Some parameters such as temperature, moisture content, air flow, pressure, form of air flow channel and the water productivity per unit input of energy are to be considered. The result is presented as an experimental prototype of an AWG based on TEC and compared with other conventional commercial products.