Manoj Kumar Rawat, Prasanta Kumar Sen, Himadri Chattopadhyay, Subhasis Neogi / International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com Vol. 3, Issue 4, Jul-Aug 2013, pp.2543-2547 2543 | P a g e Developmental and Experimental Study of Solar Powered Thermoelectric Refrigeration System Manoj Kumar Rawat 1 , Prasanta Kumar Sen 2 , Himadri Chattopadhyay 3 , Subhasis Neogi 4 1 (PPE, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur -09, West Bengal, India) 2 (PPE, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur -09, West Bengal, India) 3 (Mechanical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University Kolkata-700032, West Bengal, India) 4 (School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur University Kolkata-700032, West Bengal, India) ABSTRACT Design and developmental methodology of thermoelectric refrigeration has been explained in detail also the theoretical physical characteristics of thermoelectric cooling module used in this research work have been investigated. Authors have been designed and developed an experimental prototype of thermoelectric refrigeration system working on solar photo voltaic cells generated DC voltage. The developed experimental prototype having a refrigeration space of 1liter capacity is refrigerated by using four numbers of Peltier module (Supercool : PE- 063-10-13, Q max =19W) and a heat sink fan assembly used (Model No: TDEX6015/TH/12/G, R th =1.157 o C/W ) to increase heat dissipation rate from hot side of Peltier module. The experimental result shows a temperature reduction of 11 o C without any heat load and 9 o C with 100 ml water kept inside refrigeration space in 30 minute with respect to 23 o C ambient temperature. Also the COP of refrigeration cabinet has been calculated and it is 0.1. The developed thermoelectric refrigeration system is having potential application of storage and transportation of life saving drugs and biological materials at remote areas of our country where grid power is unavailable. Keywords - Peltier effect, Thermoelectric module, Figure of merit, Coefficient of Performance, Solar Photo voltaic cells. I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, with the increase awareness towards environmental degradation due to use of CFCs and HCFCs refrigerants in conventional refrigeration systems has become a subject of great concern. Besides, these kinds of refrigeration systems having limitation of use of grid power and same cannot be utilised for remote applications. Researchers are continuously giving efforts for development of eco-friendly refrigeration technologies like thermoelectric, adsorption, magnetic and thermoacoustic refrigeration. Dai et al. [1] developed a thermoelectric refrigeration system powered by solar cells and carried out experimental investigation and analysis. Researchers developed a prototype which consists of a thermoelectric module, array of solar cell, controller, storage battery and rectifier. The studied refrigerator can maintain the temperature in refrigerated space at 5–10 o C, and has a COP about 0.3 under given conditions. Wahab et al. [2] have designed and developed an affordable solar thermoelectric refrigerator for the desert people living in Oman where electricity is not available. In this study, they used 10 nos. of thermoelectric module in design of refrigerator. The experimental results indicated that the temperature of the refrigeration was reduced from 27 o C to 5 o C in approximately 44 min. The coefficient of performance of the refrigerator was calculated and found to be about 0.16. Abdullah et al. [3] have carried out an experimental study on cooling performance of a developed hybrid Solar Thermoelectric- Adsorption cooling system. The developed system produced cooling via the Peltier effect during the day, by means of thermoelectric elements, and through adsorption (activated carbon-methanol) process at night. They evaluate the coefficient of performance by using derived equations, the average COP values of the hybrid cooling system were found about 0.152 for thermoelectric system and about 0.131 for adsorption. Thermoelectric cooling works on the principle of Peltier effect, when a direct current is passed between two electrically dissimilar materials heat is absorbed or liberated at the junction. The direction of the heat flow depends on the direction of applied electric current and the relative Seebeck coefficient of the two materials. A Peltier module or thermoelectric cooling module (Fig.-1) is a solid-state active heat pump which consist a number of p- and n- type semiconductor couples connected electrically in series and thermally in parallel are sandwiched between two thermally conductive and electrically insulated substrate. The performances equations (1-3) of a thermoelectric cooler are expressed as follows and are described in many handbooks and papers [4- 6],