Design of an intelligent controller for a renewable energy efficient bulk storage tank
Abstract
The national electricity supplier in South Africa is experiencing difficulty in providing the
required electricity, due to compliance with environmental regulations and the continuous price
increase of commercial fuels. Making use of renewable energy solutions and energy efficient systems
in everyday applications would address this problem. This project focusses on cooling systems, and
illustrates an energy efficient cooling system by making use of a pre-cooler for a bulk storage tank.
The cooling tank uses thermoelectric cooling modules (TECMs) to cool the milk before it is added to
the actual bulk tank, and is controlled by a programmable logic controller (PLC). A small scale model
of an actual tank was used to perform tests, which indicated the abilities of the cooling system.
Further Solidworks® simulations were done by implementing the measured results, where after it was
decided to make use of a pre-cooler, instead of adding the system to a traditional cooling system. A
solar power system to power the TECMs was also designed by making use of PVSyst® simulations
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/18214https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305527248_Design_of_an_intelligent_controller_for_a_renewable_energy_efficient_bulk_storage_tank