Modeling of cotton dust effects using indigenously designed experimental setup for solar powered textile industry in Pakistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The performance improvement of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is envisaged to be one of the prime concerns for today’s energy sector to ensure optimal power yield. This paper investigates the impact of cotton dust on the solar-powered PV plant in the textile industry. In the first stage, using HM3301, the hourly data of cotton dust (6759 µg/m3) has been collected from an installed 250 kW system of a textile industry located in the hot-humid area of Pakistan. In the second stage, to model the same collected data, an indigenous experimental chamber has been constructed. The chamber has been designed to facilitate the fixed and moveable PV module. In the former type, the panel orientation was fixed at 30°, while the later configuration incorporates the moveable module that rotates with respect to the sun rotation. The experiment has been conducted for 96 hours spread over 12 days for each configuration, which collects the hourly data of humidity, temperature, voltage, current, and dust through five different dedicated sensors. The observed results show that the power output from the fixed PV configuration is 5.32% lesser than the movable configuration. PV panel power output efficiency of fixed configuration decreases from 0.134% to 0.102%. Similarly, the power output efficiency of movable PV module decreases from 0.147% to 0.115%.This illustrates cotton dust reduces the power output greater in fixed configuration as compared to movable configuration. Furthermore, linear regression analysis has been used on acquired data of power output and cotton dust accumulation that shows both quantities are highly correlated up to 97.6% and 95.1%, respectively. Also, by using the regression equation maximum quantity of cotton dust has been computed, which shows 0.116 grams for fixed and 0.129 grams for moveable configuration that will minimize the power output of the PV module. Through this study, textile units can devise periodic cleaning and assessment patterns that will help to maintain the power output and increase the life of the PV power plant.