A UK-India project led by Dr Singh aimed at developing a novel compact solar thermal concentrator run MED system for water desalination. The solar concentrator will have annual photo-thermal efficiency of >50% whilst requiring half of the installed area. The developed solar optical concentrator including the glass receiver and nano heat transfer fluid is currently being tested at NIT Trichy, the Indian partner.
Fuelled by the population growth and high economic development rates India and the UK both have a large demand for low temperature heat for desalination, water purification and industrial (for example food, chemical industry) and commercial processes. India’s conventional sources of energy are already overstretched, in which case it must look for locally available alternative sources of energy to meet the heat and power demand of its population through cost effective greener sources. The work will benefit UK (or UK‐based) and India (or India based) companies, such as BHEL, as well as academic beneficiaries and collaborators. India produces ~25 million tons of sugar per year making the availability of Myo-inositol, a derivative of the sugar industry.
This project creates an opportunity to use this locally available heat storage material for meeting energy demand. New industrial investment opportunities in the solar thermal concentrators, desalination and nHTF will be created leading to significant economic benefits and employment.
Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project
Dr Harjit Singh - Dr Singh received his BEng, and MEng (IIT Roorkee, India) with specialisation in Mechanical and Thermal Engineering disciplines and PhD (University of Ulster, UK) in experimental evaluation of natural convective heat transfer in CPC solar collector cavities. He was a Senior Lecturer in Renewable Energy at the Kingston University London (2009-2011) prior to accepting the current position. He has six years of research experience on various EU, EPSRC, the Carbon Trust and Defra funded projects. Dr Singh was previously a Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, India. His research focuses on various aspects of solar energy systems, energy use in built environment. Topics currently being researched into include design and development of novel concentrating solar collectors, vacuum insulation panels and building retrofit for improved energy efficiency.
Partnering with confidence
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Project last modified 13/10/2023