PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF ATMOSPHERIC WATER GENERATORS USING BUCKINGHAM PI THEOREM AND DIMENSIONLESS ANALYSIS

Mahmoud S. Baioumi, Ahmed A. Hanafy, Hassan A. ElGamal

Abstract


Access to clean drinking water remains a global challenge, exacerbated by population growth, urbanization, and climate change. This issue is particularly critical in maritime environments, where ships, ports, and offshore facilities face limited access to freshwater resources. Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs), which extract water from air humidity, offer a sustainable solution. Rising demand for AWGs in regions such as the Middle East and Asia Pacific highlights their importance in addressing water scarcity. The present study presents the development of an AWG prototype using the Vapor Compression Cycle (VCC), designed to enhance water production efficiency and minimize energy consumption. The system integrates a PCB and DHT-22 sensors to monitor temperature and humidity, with data collected via Arduino and displayed using LabVIEW. To ensure a fair comparison with similar AWG systems, Buckingham Pi Theorem was applied for dimensionless analysis, normalizing variables such as temperature, humidity, air velocity, surface area, and water collection rate. The performance of the developed prototype was systematically compared to other AWG systems from the literature, all evaluated under similar average environmental conditions of 22–24°C temperature and 60–63% relative humidity. Reported performance metrics from studies on AWG systems indicate water generation rates ranging between 0.95 and 1.78 L/hr, with energy consumption values of 0.75– 0.84 kWh/L. In contrast, the developed AWG prototype demonstrated a water generation rate of 2.1 L/hr with an energy consumption of 0.73 kWh/L, showing significantly improved performance. These results validate the efficiency of the improved design and demonstrate its superiority under equivalent conditions. The findings underscore the potential of the developed AWG prototype to advance AWG technology, providing a sustainable solution to water scarcity in maritime contexts while conserving energy and minimizing reliance on external water sources. 

Keywords


Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG); Water scarcity; Buckingham Pi Theorem; Sustainable water solutions; Vapor Compression Cycle (VCC); Dimensionless Analysis.

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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21622/MARLOG.2025.14.1.51

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The International Maritime Transport and Logistics Journal (MARLOG)

E-ISSN: 2974-3141
P-ISSN: 2974-3133

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