Aashman Solar Solution (P) Ltd Alwarpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Steam is an essential part of our daily lives even though we may not notice it as much. Let’s say you go to a restaurant for lunch, there is a very high chance that some of your food is prepared using steam and not to forget the cleaning of all the utensils. Not only in restaurants, steam has extensive applications in Spas, saloons and gyms. Residential complexes also use steam for daily chores like ironing, community kitchen cooking. Steam is vital to a number of commercial industries. A huge amount of it is necessary for the successful production of moulded bricks. We’ve all seen the uses of steam in cleaning, whether it’s hot water to remove stains and dirt from our clothes, or the ejection of steam from an iron. You can see the benefits of this quite simply – on a commercial scale, steam can greatly increase the efficiency of processes like pressing and ironing. And also beer producers have been making the most of steam production for a long time. The mash of a beer – made up malt, hops and water – must be heated to various temperatures between two and four hours long. Steam generated from a steam boiler is used in the process, of course, but that’s not where the usefulness of steam ends – breweries also use steam to clean barrels and bottles again before they are refilled. Steam is also used in Hospitals and hotels for laundry and cooking, in Textile industry for swivelling dryers, dyeing, rolling and weaving.  With the advent of Clean-In-Place and Steam-In-Place processes the cleaning of interior systems without disassembly has proven to be a boon for many industries like Beverage, Brewing, Processes foods, Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics

Solar energy can be used to provide hot water for domestic or industrial purposes. Low temperature water heating is an important contributor to lowering energy demand for heat in the residential, public and industrial sectors. In hot water storage systems for residential buildings, hot water must be heated to a minimum of 60° Celsius to prevent the growth of bacteria such as Legionella. A tempering device ensures that hot water is delivered to taps at a maximum 50° Celsius. This temperature is considered sufficient for domestic hygiene purposes and effectively reduces the risk of scalding-related injuries from hot water use. Community kitchens, cafeteria’s in Hostels, swimming pools in residential complexes and hotels also require hot water.

Hot air generated through solar energy has many applications with one of the main one being Agricultural Drying. Solar drying is distinctly different from open air “sun drying,” which has been used for thousands of years. A good solar food dryer dries food much faster than air drying. It can achieve higher food drying temperature, control airflow and temperature, and keep food protected while drying as well as improve the quality of the produce savings its nutrients, flavour and aromas difficult in other processes. Food drying is a practice used to preserve fruits and vegetables. The water content of food is usually very high, typically 80% to 95% for various fruits and vegetables and 50% to 75% for various other crops. Removing moisture from food restrains various bacteria from growing and spoiling food. Many coastal regions in the world need a low cost and hygienic method to process fish for long term storage. India is blessed with 8041 km long coastline and an exploitable marine fish reserve of 4.57 million tons in our country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Hot air is very useful in fish drying where fresh fish rapidly deteriorates unless all the water content is removed. Most foods are dried at 54 degrees centigrade which can easily be supplied through solar energy.

Quadsun-CST H3500 The CST H3500 is a concentrated solar thermal hot water system. It generates an equivalent of 750 ltrs per day FPC/ ETC system. The H 3500 System consists of the following main components The Receiver – this houses the absorber The Concentrator – This subsystem tracks the sun and concentrates the light at 800x onto the receiver. The concentrator has the following subsystems The Chassis – structure that holds everything in place The Mirrors – Reflects the light The tracker – points the mirrors towards the sun The System controller – electronics to track the sun and power management The Field Controller – controls several units and the cooling system. Publishes information regarding status of the units.

There might be a space constraint for many industries to install a complete system for solar steam or heat generation for their processes. In such scenarios, they should consider using a boiler feed water heater. Make up water temperature is usually at 25-30 degrees centigrade and it can be heated up to 100 degrees centigrade where water gets converted to steam but by pressurizing the tank with Nitrogen we can regulate the temperature effectively. Since solar heating systems have higher efficiency and lower cost at low temperature, boiler feed water heater offers one of the best paybacks, hence this can easily be taken as a first step towards using solar energy as fuel for heating needs.

Solar PV (or photovoltaic) modules directly convert sunlight into electricity. These are third most popular renewable energy source, only after hydro and wind power. These modules generate power during daytime and whenever there is sunlight. Solar PV modules are used both in homes and in industrial settings. At homes, it can be used to fulfill the power reqirement.   Grid Tied Solar PV Modules These types of modules are linked to your power grid. Your electricity needs will be fulfilled by the generated electricity first. If there is excess, it will sent to the grid for consumption by others. You are effectively selling excess electricity as per tariffs. A typical grid tied solar PV module includes the following components: PV modules Inverter Balance of system – PV operating system, including the inverter, mounting structures, cables, and connectors Net metering A two-way meter will be used to calculate the amount of electricity consumed from the grid that you consumed and the amount of excess electricity generated by the consumer that was sent back to the grid. The difference will be adjusted in the next billing cycle. The biggest benefit of using a solar PV module is long operational life with very little maintenance costs. Normally the investment will be gained back in 7-9 years. The useful life of the system is at least 20 years and can go up to 30 years, working hard every shiny day to save (and make) you money.