An adaptive control portable air water generator powered by solar photovoltaic

This work develops an adaptive control portable air-water generator (AWG) powered by a solar photovoltaic system to resolve water scarcity in remote areas. An AWG extracts water from humid air, which contains a mixture of gases and water. Water is extracted from humid air using a condensation process. The design materials for the proposed models include a solar PV module, a DC heater, a heat sink, a DC brushless fan, and an intelligent controller programmed in C+ + to optimize the water extraction process. A feed-forward incremental conductance (FFINC) control technique extracts maximum power from the solar PV module. It pulses the DC-DC zeta converter at maximum power, and the output is controlled using the converter's duty cycle. It charges the 12 V battery at a constant voltage, supplying energy to the DC heater. Additionally, a small DC heater with a 4-ampere, 12-volt is designed using a ceramic plate and tungsten conducting material. It generates heat on the surface of the ceramic plate, which is then transferred to the heat sink. Meanwhile, the fan extracts humid air to cool the surface of the heat sink. When moist air strikes the surface of the heat sink without colliding with the nearest particles, it condenses the water molecules on the surface of the heat sink, and they eventually drain into the vessel. Moreover, it presents a cost-benefit analysis of one liter of water and the performance of an intelligent controller, utilizing MATLAB/SIMULINK and a hardware model, which provides the trade-off value of the proposed model.