Design and Parametric Optimization of the High-Speed Pico Waterwheel for Rural Electrification of Pakistan

Abstract

This research study presents an approach for analysis of pico hydro waterwheels by both experimental and numerical methods. The purpose of this research is to harness the energy efficiently from flowing water of irrigation channels and other shallow water sources in rural areas because the electrification of rural areas through connection to grid electricity is very costly. The novelty of this research work lies in testing of the waterwheel as a high-speed device, which is not usually explored. The review of existing literature reveals that pico waterwheels have been extensively studied but without changing the blade profile immersed in the water stream ot the inclination angle of the water stream. In this study, a pico scale waterwheel was tested with three different types of blade profiles, namely a C-shape blade, V-shape blade and straight blade, through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for different tip speed ratios (TSR), varying the immersed depth of the blade in the stream and changing the angle of the water conduit while keeping the number of blades and the diameter of the wheel constant. The numerical and experimental results were validated for the C-shape blade profile. A substantial improvement in performance is observed with a C-shape blade profile at a TSR of 0.88. The results show that by varying the angle of the water conduit, the maximum performance is achieved at inclination φ = 45°, with an overall improvement of 4.87% in the efficiency.

Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable Energy Utilization in Pakistan

“…Hydropower is a primary household energy source. Pakistan has a hydropower capacity of almost 60,000 MW [49], most of which is in Gilgit-Baltistan (21,125 MW), KPK province (24,736 MW), Punjab (7291 MW), and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (6450 MW) as shown in Table 4.…”

Techno-economic assessment of energy and environmental impact of waste-to-energy electricity generation

“…Energy contributes a dynamic role in the social and economic growth of a nation and the energy demand has an ever-increasing trend globally (Asim et al, 2022a). Global renewable energy generation has experienced a rapid acceleration in the last two decades mainly because of a sharp decline in the associated capital and manufacturing costs, particularly for solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power (Asim et al, 2022d;Rehman Tahir et al, 2018).…”

Investigation of Mono-Crystalline Photovoltaic Active Cooling Thermal System for Hot Climate of Pakistan

“…CO 2 emission accounts for more than 60% of total greenhouse gases emitted in the atmosphere [4], and 25-30% of CO 2 is emitted by the transport sector of a country [5]. To avoid the worst climatic impact of fossil fuels [6], renewable energy resources [7,8], particularly solar energy, is attracting greater attention for electricity generation due to clean, sustainable, and cost-effective sources [9][10][11] with a worldwide capacity of 733 GW by 2020, and accounted for 26% of renewable sources [12]. Furthermore, the earth atmosphere receives 1367 W/m 2 of energy from the Sun [13] and earth absorbs 1.8 × 10 11 MW which is enough to meet the global energy demands [14].…”