This project was commissioned to examine a useful project that helps in reducing the effects of two essential problems UAE and world suffer from which are water and energy consumption. Further investigations reveal several ways to support saving water. One of these ways is the automatic faucets, where these kinds of faucets have the ability of shutting off automatically, therefore they can control the amount of water used, consequently saving water. Moreover, knowing that water is a source of energy, a renewable energy; these automatic faucets can be upgraded to provide some sufficient energy.
The project is Energy harvesting from tap water flow which employs the flow of water in the automatic faucet. Consequently, the main parts of the system's design are hydro turbine and power electronics circuit where the output voltage of the turbine feeds the power electronics circuit which includes a full wave bridge rectifier with RC filter and a buck-boost converter. The kinetic energy of the tap's water flow is converted to electrical energy by the turbine as it rotates due to water pressure and that will generate a satisfactory amount of power that will charge the battery. Therefore, the objective of the project is to design a compatible faucet which easy to use for all people by modifying an infra-red electronic faucet with a sensor’s battery. In addition, the disadvantage of this type of electronic faucets represented in un-rechargeable sensor's battery will be solved and enrich the benefits of these faucets. Two programs were used to support the theoretical calculations, save time and effort for turbine and power electronics parts which are Automation studio 5.6 and OrCAD 10.5 programs respectively and that is one of any engineering design constrains.
The market of automatic faucet is large and that illustrates a huge challenge to deliver an environmentally friendly infrared faucet that can be considered as sellable product used in resident, commercial areas and industrial building. The project draws attention to importance of Energy Harvesting in the technology field in the recent time, since it’s a way to invest in renewable energy and preserve the environment from pollution.
Working on this project involves physics, mathematics, electronics, computer engineering and other technical skills that help in each stage of the project.
The deliverables of the project were:
- Calculation of the turbine, full wave bridge rectifier with RC filter and buck-boost converter
- The circuits of the full wave bridge rectifier with RC circuit and the buck-boost converter were implemented and the turbine was replaced with a 6-0-6v transformer.
- The turbine and power electronics circuits' simulations were done using Automation Studio 5.6 and OrCAD 10.5, respectively.
- The power electronics circuits were built using Diptrace program in order to be converted to a printed circuit board.
Finally, some modification can be added to the project such as
- Design a suitable turbine that provides sufficient energy from water flow.
- Try to produce an amount of voltage that feeds more than re-charging the sensor's battery.
