The Design and Prototyping of Interface Technologies for Integrated Renewable Energy Systems

O’Brien, Michael (2023) The Design and Prototyping of Interface Technologies for Integrated Renewable Energy Systems. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Integrated renewable energy systems (IRES) form part of the solution to providing equitable water, energy and food production. Intended for use by organisation and communities with utility infrastructure accessibility issues, and locations suffering from water stress.

The inherent issues of renewable energy generation prohibiting large scale roll out, namely, the intermittent nature of renewable energy and thus the additional energy storage needs are addressed. A batteryless, poly-generation, poly-production system is proposed that incorporates renewable energy technologies with desalination. Thus, photo-voltaic reverse osmosis (PVRO) forms a key part of IRES development and take up.

Due to the stochastic element of solar irradiance, PV systems would greatly benefit from a real-time performance estimation model based on dynamic system inputs.

A lab based test-rig emulating a PVRO desalination system was designed and constructed, for the purposes of developing a modelling framework based upon the frequency response of the system. Along side the model development, interface technologies that improve system performance were also investigated.

A suite of sensors capable of capturing flows, pressures, temperature, salinity and pH were incorporated into the system. An Arduino based high-speed data-logger was designed and developed capable of capturing eight data streams at 5 kHz. An energy recovery prototype that captures embedded ‘waste’ energy from the reverse osmosis reject flow was designed, constructed and tested. The prototype increased user agency and permeate production by embedding controllable load management capabilities into the system.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Engineering (former - to 2024)
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2024 09:31
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2024 09:31
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96296
DOI:

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