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Experimental study of atmospheric water collection powered by solar

energy using the Peltier effect
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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

Experimental study of atmospheric water collection powered

by solar energy using the Peltier effect
Thualfaqir J. Kadhim, Abdalrazzaq K. Abbas and Hayder Jawad
Kadhim
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering College, University of Kerbala,
Kerbala, Iraq

Abstract. A small-scale prototype with one thermoelectric module was constructed to collect
water from the atmosphere, and studied experimentally. It was driven by a solar panel module
and operated by reducing the cold side temperature to less than the dew point temperature of
ambient air. The system was designed and assembled depending on the capacity of the Peltier
device, of dimension (4×4 cm^2), and energy needed. The system consisted of a heat sink,
extended cold surface, Peltier device and fan, which were housed in a vertical rectangular
section duct and used with different air temperatures, airflow rates, and humidity levels. A
numerical model was used to study the temperature distribution on the cold side, which was
applied to size the cooler to estimate the water production rate. The results suggest that the
water production rate increased with the increasing of the moisture level in the air. The tests
also showed that increasing the amount of air flowing on the heat sink increased the amount of
water collected and enhanced the transfer of heat on the hot side. The achieved results show
that the collection of water is reasonable with the proposed thermoelectric method using solar
energy.

Keywords: Peltier effect, solar energy, water production

1. Introduction
A lot of water is wasted in the air in the forms of vapor or moisture. This water can be retrieved by
condensing it into drops of water using special devices designed and manufactured for this purpose.
One of the most important methods in condensation is the Peltier effect [1, 2]. A Peltier module
simply consists of two layers of ceramic, representing the cold and the hot sides, along with two
different types of semiconductor, connected in series. When the DC electrical source is connected to
the device, the temperature of one side starts to increase while the other side becomes cold [3, 4].
When the cold side temperature reaches the dew point, the vapor in contact with cold surface begins to
condense [5, 6].

Nandy et al. [7] designed a system to collect water from the atmosphere using a thermoelectric cooler
and depending on solar panels as an energy source. They proposed that use of this device in regions of
high humidity would allow users to collect one liter of water per hour during the day. An experimental
investigation to develop a portable thermoelectric water generator was carried out in [8] and the results
showed that the quantity of condensed water is influenced by the humidity level, the amount of
electric current passing through the Peltier modules and mass flow of wet air.

Water condensation systems in which the solar panel is used as an energy source have a significant
economic benefit, because the power source is free and the need for maintenance is virtually
nonexistent [9, 10]. Another model has been tested under climate conditions in Thailand, research
results have shown that the prototype can save two persons lives during water crises by producing one
liter of water per day under specific conditions [11]. Haujun and Chengying [12] studied the effect of
various energy sources on the performance of the thermoelectric cooler and its variation with time.
Bagheri [13] has experimentally studied a commercial water collection system using a new

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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

experimental setup and his results showed that the energy intensity ranged from 1.02 kWhr/L for
warm and humid to 6.23 kWhr/L for cold and humid climates.

Srivastava and Yadav [14] used various composite materials to produce water from atmospheric air,
the maximum amount of water they could collect was 90 mL/day. Shourideh et al. [15] experimentally
investigated the impact of the variation in airflow velocity, humidity, and thermoelectric cooler current
on the water generation rates using a prototype of a small-scale atmospheric water generator, and
concluded that increasing the current of the individual thermoelectric cooler results in an increased
water generation rate. The water yield is observed to increase with relative humidity.

In this work, a portable water collector device using one thermoelectric model attached to two
extension surfaces and driven by solar energy was built and experimentally tested, to estimate water
production rates. The prototype was studied by analyzing the impact of thermoelectric model cooling
capacity on temperature distribution of the cold side to achieve low temperature difference between
the Peltier model’s cold side temperature and condensation surface temperatures. With the help of a
developed numerical solution, the temperature range of the condensation surface was estimated to
determine its dimensions and manufactured as a cone shape to easily collect condensation water. The
effects of ambient temperature between 24 °C and 31 °C, relative humidity between 60% and 75%,
energy consumption and flow rate of cooling air through the hot side on the amount of condensation
water have all been investigated.

2. Experimental setup and procedure

2.1. Experimental setup
The collection of water from atmospheric humid air with a Peltier module is based on the concept of
condensation phenomena on the cold surface. The experimental condenser is represented
schematically in Figure 1, and an actual picture that shows how the components of the system were
located on the frame is given in Figure 2(a). The condensate drops of water on the wetted cone surface
are shown in Figure 2b.

Figure 1. Scheme representing the water collector.

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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

(a) (b)
Figure 2. (a)The photo of the experimental rig, (b) generated water from the air.

In this work, the experimental system consisted of a thermoelectric module, heat sink fin, cold side fin,
fan, vertical housing duct, solar panel, storage battery bank, charge controller and metal structure
made of tubes to hold all of these components. The specifications of the experimental components are
detailed in Table 1. The components that formed the condenser (thermoelectric cooler, heat sink fin,
cold side fin, and fan) were arranged in a polycarbonate PVC rectangular cross-section duct, safely
enclosed in the device.

Table 1: Specification of the experimental components.

Equipment specification
Heat Sink Material : Aluminum - 6063T-5
Dimension : 13 cm x 10 cm x 2.5 cm
Surface Area : 1270 cm^2
Cold Side Material : Aluminum
Dimension : 6cm Diameter and 13cm Height
Surface Area : 150 cm^2
Roughness :300μm
Peltier Module Max. Current : 5(A)
Max. (∆T) : 65(C°)
Max. Voltage: 15(V)
Solar panel Max. Power : 80.54W
Max. Voltage : 17 (V)
Max. Current : 4 (A)
Battery Max. Voltage :12 (V)

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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

The duct was placed on a metal structure to protect the entire condenser and to hold other components.
The housing duct holds one fan at the top which sucks the air out directly through the heat sink,
installed on the hot side of the Peltier module. The duct was divided into two chambers: a cold one,
where the cooler fixed, and the second was the hot space, where the heat sink and fan were assembled.
The chambers were separated by the polycarbonate sheet with the Peltier module. The housing duct
was 30 cm length and 10 cm × 10 cm cross-sectional area which was manufactured in a way that
forced the air to pass through the heat sink before exiting into the surrounding fluid.
2.2. Experimental procedure
The system was tested in different working conditions, in a room prepared for this purpose where the
temperature and humidity are controlled. The experiments were divided into groups of different fan
airflow velocities that varied between 0.59 m/s and 1 m/s, relative humidity (RH) levels ranging from
60% to 80%, and different dry air temperatures that varied between 24 °C and 31 °C. The experiment
covered more than thirty tests.

Different RH levels were controlled by the humidifier, then the humidified air made contact with the
cooler side into the lower part of the housing duct. The upper part of the vertical duct involved a fan to
decrease the temperature of the hot side by sucking air through fins of the heat sink, while the lower
one contained the aluminum cone by placing it in contact with the cold side of the Peltier module.

As a current (DC) passes through Peltier device, heat transfers from one side to the other one, resulting
in one side becomes warmer and the other side colder. Once the air which is in contact with the cooler
becomes cold enough, the condensate droplets grow when the ambient air temperature falls below its
dew point and these fall down into the water pan. In our study the collected water was measured every
hour by measuring the volumetric of water quantity. The temperatures of the surrounding air and cone
base (cold side) were measured by thermocouples and recorded by a data acquisition instrument. All
thermocouples were calibrated over a temperature range between 0 °C and 100 °C with a maximum
error of ±0.6◦C. Five measured flow rates were used in this work. Input power was measured
throughout the experiments. Since the system needs some time to reach a steady state, the actual tests
were performed after half an hour of operation. Most of the tests were carried out twice, to confirm
stability and repeatability.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. The effect of air velocity
An axial fan was used to draw out air from the rectangular duct over the heat rejecting side with the
stated mass flow rate. The amount of water generated during one hour of operation for the different
velocities of the air flow with constant RH and surrounding fluid temperature (Tam ) is shown in
Figure 3. The model was tested in two values of ambient temperature, to determine the optimum
velocity of air in the case whereby the maximum quantity of water is generated. In each test, the
ambient conditions were controlled to be constant. This figure implies that the generated water
increased as the air velocity increased. Also, there was a significant increase in water collection after
using air velocity of 0.8 m/s and this reveals the impact of air velocity on water collection in both
cases of different ambient temperatures with a relative humidity of 65%.

The model worked more efficiently with increased airflow, which improved the heat transfer
coefficient. The amount of condensed water was 9.5 mL/hr at an air velocity of 1 m/s and as a result,
this air velocity has been chosen to cover a good range of relative humidity and ambient temperature.
Performance was better when the ambient temperature was high, especially for higher air velocity,
due to the increment in air dew point temperature.
As is shown in figure 4, the air flow rate has a great impact on cold side temperature. The rising of
the fan flow rate led to a decrease in cold side temperature and as a result, a growing condensation

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 3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

rate. With a decrease in contact time between the cooling air and a hot side surface, the temperature
difference between the hot side and cold side, which are in contact with the Peltier device surfaces,
will decrease. According to the outcomes shown in this figure, again the best air velocity with various
dry air temperatures (24, 27 & 31 °C) will be 1(m/s).
Frame 001  31 May 2019  | | Frame 001  31 May 2019  | |

11 18
Tam = 31 C
Tam = 30 C 16 Tam = 27 C
10

Cooler Base Temperature (Celsius)

Tam = 27 C
Water Generated Volume (mL/ hr)

Tam = 24 C
14
9
12
8
10
7
8

6 6

5 4

4 2

0
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Air Velocity (m/s) Air Velocity (m/s)

Figure 3.The effect of air velocity on water Figure 4. The temperature of the cold side with
production (RH=65%). different fan air velocity for 65% RH and
temperature between 24 and 31 °C.

3.2. The impact of relative humidity level

Figure 5 shows the amount of water that was collected at different RH. After around half an hour for
most cases, gradually that quantity of water became constant. This behavior supports the notion that
the condensate droplets were small at first, and that the gravitational effect cannot compensate for
adhesion. Therefore, the droplets adhered on the cooler surface. A small thermoelectric cooler
capacity and the property of the cooler surface were the most important reasons for the low efficiency
of condensation. Naturally, on a cooler surface, in order to separate water droplets from the surface,
their diameter should be between 2 and 3 mm although they have a negative impact on the
condensation process. To promote droplets’ departure and improve the condensation process, the
condensation surface properties require modification, such as the reduction of roughness to 250 μm
[16]. Increased ambient air temperature is associated with an increase in relative humidity and as a
result, the water generation rate will increase. About 20 mL/hr of fresh water can be produced from
atmospheric air using this system with 75% RH. Because of higher relative humidity and
temperature, more water is expected to be produced in a climate of high temperature and humidity
[17].

The moisture content in the surrounding air is shown in Figure 6. When the ambient temperature is
constant, the increase in relative humidity leads to an increase in the water vapor content in the air. In
our study the water content in the air was determined by using the psychrometric chart. Increasing
relative humidity also increases the dew point of the surrounding air. As a result of that, the
difference in temperature between the dew point and the ambient air decreases with increasing
relative humidity, as is shown in Figure 7. This decrease facilitated condensation. In summary,
increased moisture content has an important role to play in increasing the condensation rate and
volume of generated water, which agrees with the result shown in Figures 5 and 6.

A comparison between the present work and various studies was performed. The experimental

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 3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

system in our study, with one cooler, achieved well with a low rate of RH and moderate energy
consumption for all RH levels (65% to 75%). This is relevant because power consumption is the
important condition for evaluating productivity. The comparison results are shown in Table 2.
Frame 001  31 May 2019  |
Frame 001  31 May 2019  |

24 0.022

22 Tam = 31 C 0.021 Tam = 24 C

Tam = 24 C Tam = 31 C
Water Generated Volume (mL/ hr)

Moisture Content (Kg/Kg Dry Air)

20 0.02

0.019
18
0.018
16
0.017
14
0.016
12
0.015
10 0.014

8 0.013

6 0.012

4 0.011

0.01
55 60 65 70 75 55 60 65 70 75
Relative Humidity (%) Relative Humidity (%)

Figure 5. Variation of generated water with Figure 6. Ambient moisture content at different
different RH levels. RH.

Table 2: Atmospheric water generator comparison

Study Water Power Tam(C°) RH (%) Number of
generation rate consumption thermoelectric
(mL/hr) (W) coolers
Present study 8.1 70 31 60 One
10.1 70 31 65
16 70 31 70
20 70 31 75
[15] 32 60 30 60 Four
66 61 33 80
[18] 45 100 27 80 Two
65 100 27 90
74 100 32 90
[19] 20 30 80 Ten
24 30 90

3.3. The impact of dry air temperature

The vapor compression method is used to extract water from humid air by condensation. When the
surface of the cold side has a temperature below the dew temperature, the steam condensation will
occur on that part, and as a result, small droplets or a thin film of water will form and finally be
gathered in a bowl of water. Throughout the condensation and cooling operation, a large amount of
heat is dissipated by wet air down to the temperature of the dew point. The effect of ambient
temperatures on the cooler base temperature as a function of time is depicted in Figure 8. It is clear
that the time increases with increasing temperature of the surrounding air. The cone base temperature

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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

gradually decreased and after 15 minutes it reaches the minimum value of 1 °C with 17.5 °C for
ambient temperature, while for 24 °C was 2.6 °C after 37 minutes. This happened because the cone
temperature decreased over time and the rising surrounding air temperature increased the time
required to reach the coldest cooler surface.
Frame 001  31 May 2019  |

30
9 Tam = 31 C
Tam = 24 C Tam = 24 C
25
Tam = 17.5 C

Cooler Base Temp. ( Celsius)

Temp. Difference (Celsius)

8
20

7
15

6 10

5
5

0
60 65 70 75 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39
Relative Humidity (%) Time (min.)

Figure 7.Temperatures difference between dew Figure 8. Temperature of cold side fin at
point and ambient air at different RH %. different ambient temperatures.

The temperatures of the dew point were found using the psychrometric chart, as shown in Figure 9, for
a range of dry air temperatures between 24°C and 31 °C and relative humidity of 65–75%. The
increase in dew point temperature is due to the increase in relative humidity of the ambient air. As a
result, the difference in temperatures between dry air and dew point decreases with increasing of
relative humidity. As shown in this figure, the dew point of moist air increased (15.8℃ to 19.3℃) for
a dry air temperature of 24℃ and increased (22.3℃ to 26℃) for a dry air temperature of 24℃ with the
increasing of the relative humidity (60% to 75%).

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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

Figure 9.The relation between dry outdoor and dew

point temperatures with relative humidity.

The fabrication of the cold side (aluminum cone) was influenced by the selection of the Peltier
module. A suitable surface was needed, to condensate the water from the surrounding fluid. Therefore,
a numerical solution was performed using the finite volume method based commercial software
ANSYS Fluent 16.2, in order to find the distribution of temperature on the surface of the cone. In
general, the increase in the area of the cooling part resulting in an increasing amount of water
generated. However, the increase in the length of the cold part increases in the temperature of the
surface, which adversely affects the process of water generation. When the cooler elongates it will
have a temperature higher than the dew point. Reducing the effective surface area reduces the amount
of condensed water. This method was adopted as an alternative to using optimum fin dimensions or fin
efficiency. Figure 10 gives the temperature map on the cooler surface with dry temperatures of 23 °C
and RH of 65% conditions. A small drop in temperature between the cone base and its surface was
found. The maximum difference of value below than 1 °C at most has been found where condensation
can certainly occur on the total surface.

Generally, a small portable water collector would not be expected to consume much energy. And from
the experimental results, the device’s total power requirement per liter of collected water in specified
air conditions is shown in Figure 11. It accounts for a fan and Peltier energy consumption, of which a
large proportion of energy is consumed by the fan. The changes in consumption of energy of the
system are demonstrated in Figure 11, and proportional to a change in fan power (9 - 20 watt) with
constant Peltier power of 50 watts. By referring to this figure, the results provided are the amount of
energy and power required to collect one liter of water. The minimum power consumption in the
system at a velocity of 0.6 m/s and the maximum required power with 1 m/s air flow rate. When solar
energy is not available, the excess energy that has been stored in the battery will be used. The results
shown above are for one air temperature and one relative humidity. During experimentation, the input
power to the system increased as the airflow velocity increased. Hence, the rate of energy
consumption only increases when the velocity increases.

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3rd International Conference on Engineering Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

Frame 001  31 May 2019  |

0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

90 90
Power Consumption
80 80
Energy Consumption
70 70

Energy Consumption (Kw.hr/L)

Power Consumption (watt)
60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Air Velocity (m/s)

Figure 10. Shows the temperature Figure 11. Demonstrates the impact of air velocity
distribution on the cooler surface for 65% on energy and power consumption for 65% RH and
RH and 23 °C ambient temperature. 23 °C ambient temperature.

4. Conclusion
An experimental study with one thermoelectric module powered by solar photovoltaic energy has been
designed and tested. This system represents a portable device consisting of solar photovoltaic, Peltier
module, cold side, heat sink, and fan assembled to maximize the capacity of condensed water from the
humid air with minimal energy consumption.

The components were assembled in housing which enabled air to flow from the entrance through the
heat sink to improve the dissipation of heat. The system was tested experimentally under different
inlet air flow rates, dry air temperature, and RH. The following conclusions can be drawn:

- Increasing air temperature and relative humidity in a hot and humid climate, result in a higher water
generation rate.
- With a small capacity for cooling, the low condensation efficiency was a result of adhesion of
droplets on the cone surface and receding condensation surface.
- The presence of fins on both sides of the Peltier increased the rate of heat transfer and enhanced the
water condensation rate.
- The rate of water generated was positively affected by increasing airflow velocity on the hot side in
most cases, and the maximum generated water was 20 mL/hr with a maximum airflow velocity of 1
m/s.
In future work, the system should be developed and more thermoelectric modules used, to increase the
contact surface between the cold side and humid air. Also, future experiments should test the system
under different weather conditions for the course of a year.

5. References
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NewYork) 1962. Chap. 3.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 671 (2020) 012155 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/671/1/012155

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