Ecosense
Installs Solar Thermal Parabolic Trough Collector based system and Wind Energy
Training System in Department of Renewable Energy at College of Agriculture
Engineering and Technology, Godhra, Gujarat.
Ecosense’s Solar Thermal Parabolic Trough Collector Based
System consists of parabolic reflectors, absorber tube, sun tracker, piping,
storage tanks and a heat exchanger. A control panel would control different
devices and also measure the different parameters of the system. The system can
be used to perform experiments in heat transfer, parabolic trough
characteristics and heat loss at different parts of the system. The system is
highly flexible – it can be used with different working fluids, different absorbing
materials, different piping insulation thickness and different types of storage
tanks. This gives a lot of scope for research in heat transfer and related
fields. Wind speed variation and flow velocity are other parameters which can
be changed to show their impact on heat transfer and heat loss.
Ecosense’s Solar
Parabolic Trough Training system enable students to learn about Solar thermal
technologies in easy and interactive manner. It enables user to understand the
following Solar thermal technology-based concepts:
• Basics on
solar thermal Solar Parabolic Trough Collector technology
• Basic
terminologies used for solar thermal technology like temperature, pressure,
flow measurement installs collector/receiver mounting structures on the
foundations
•
Efficiency evaluation at different parts of the system
• Study the
effect of change in parameters such as wind speed, irradiation and ambient
temperature
• Measure
and compare the pressure in various tubes with design values.
Wind Energy Training System is a scaled down version of actual standalone Wind Turbine power plant. This system facilitates the students with working and configurable model of wind turbine. This system gives the insight about individual components and consequences of changing the operating points of any wind turbine defined in terms of wind speed and pitch angle. Students can learn concepts like I-V characteristic, cut-off, cut-in speed etc.
This system is developed such that it can work inside a closed laboratory with
an artificial wind generating unit, which makes it weather proof. User can
access and utilize the system capability at any time of the day without
worrying about the actual climatic conditions. This system uses a big fan
mounted on top of an Induction motor, the speed of which can be controlled by a
Variable Frequency Drive. User can control the speed of motor which further
controls the Wind speed using the Variable Frequency Drive. The variable wind
speed prompts Wind Turbine to convert Wind Energy into Electrical energy and
outputs three phase electrical output. The three-phase electrical output is
connected with a three-phase rectifier which converts electrical output from AC
to DC. The DC output is then further connected to a Charge controller and
Battery. A DC load can be connected at Charge controller output. The Battery is
further connected to a home inverter which provides clean useable AC
electricity.
After
successful installation of systems, a short 1-day master’s training program is conducted.
This master’s training was focused on how to efficiently utilize the system in
core-curriculum development and practical experimentations.
The faculty members and students really enjoyed our two-day
training programme and loved to work on our lab equipment. Professors will
further conduct experiments on the system to understand it more deeply and
incorporate this lab set up as part of their regular curriculum.