How Much Water Does An Air Conditioner Produce

Quality Testing of Air Conditioner Condensate and Its Potential in Water Conservation ()

Apurva Sabnis¹, Madhuvanti Kale^two, Manik Dhanorkar¹, Sharad P. Kale^1,3
¹Symbiosis Centre for Waste product Resource Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed) Academy, Pune, India.
^twoJ 709, Aparna Cyberzon, Nallagandla, Hyderabad, India.
^threeEx Bioscience Grouping, Bhabha Diminutive Research Heart, Bombay, Bharat.
DOI: ten.4236/jwarp.2020.122006 PDFHTML XML 761 Downloads ii,699 Views Citations

Abstract

A major part of globe is facing h2o shortages today. While the globe's population has grown to more than 7.75 billion, the quantity of sugariness water has remained the same. The ever increasing use of water by such a large population has resulted in pollution of many water sources. The developing world where a large fraction of total world population is located faces water scarcity in a more than astringent fashion than the developed world. The developed globe has managed to command human being population and preserve natural water resources more than effectively. As a result of this and also due to stabilized population, they face lesser problems for water availability. Indian population stands at 1.386 billion as nowadays. The erratic monsoon rains over last few years take resulted in floods and subsequent water shortages in summer months in major part of the land. A similar situation is faced by many Asian and African countries. The means of recycling and using every possible source of water are ever welcome in these countries. Since many of these countries lie in tropical or semitropical zone, the boilerplate relative humidity is more l% for near of the year. Changing life styles in these countries and spread of information technology based sectors have resulted in a growth spurt in air conditioning facilities. An air conditioner draws heat from surrounding air and cools the premises to desired temperature. During this process, a large amount of wet in the atmosphere gets condensed and is tuckered out. There are no efforts fabricated to recover this water in India and neighbouring countries. We have undertaken studies to check the quality of this water and see the feasibility of its use in a decentralized simply constructive manner. The results testify that this water condensate from air conditioners is highly pure, substantial and available most circular the year. This tin help in recovering millions of litres of good quality water daily. This water would discover uses in industries, laboratories, households and farming. It would also create good business opportunities.

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Sabnis, A. , Kale, G. , Dhanorkar, Thou. and Kale, S. (2020) Quality Testing of Air Conditioner Condensate and Its Potential in H2o Conservation. Journal of Water Resources and Protection, 12, 93-101. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2020.122006.

1. Introduction

The growing human population is exerting incredible stress on natural resources. Make clean water, in item, is an essential resource which is condign more and more scarce by the twelvemonth. The thickly populated developing world feels more of the force per unit area due to express access to clean water. Erratic rains, aggravated by climatic change, and poor storage facilities make things worse for h2o availability in countries like India. Thus, efforts towards conservation of water are essential for private livelihoods and national economies alike. Here we report on a novel concept for obtaining significant amounts of pure h2o by utilizing the condensate generated from domestic and industrial air conditioning units. Information technology is surprising to note that at that place has been no effort made then far in India and nearly of the developing world to tap this resource of very expert quality water except for few publications in Heart E Asia. Almost of this condensate water is immune to get drained. There are only few reports available from USA where it is suggested that this water tin be used for gardening (Aliso Air Inc Report, 2015) [1]. Khan and Zubaidy [2] have shown how twenty story buildings in Dubai were able to use well-nigh 78,000 L of condensate every calendar month reducing the overall 0.v Kg carbon dioxide emissions per kWh of electricity. Magrini et al. [3] take shown that in United Arab Emirates, it is possible to harvest water condensate from key air status systems on a large calibration helping conserving precious drinking water resources. Arafat Ali et al. [4] have tried to quantify the water condensate from air conditioners. They showed that quantity of condensate collected was role of fourth dimension of performance, temperature difference betwixt outside and inside where air-conditioning is working and humidity divergence betwixt inside and exterior environment. A shopping mall in USA could collect near 875 L of condensate water while a fundamental library building could collect monthly 151,200 50 of condensate from central air condition system (Guz [5] ). Bryant and Ahmed [six] take shown feasibility of effectively collecting and using the condensate h2o from central air conditioner in an Institutional arrangement in Doha, Qatar.

In tropical countries, air coolers and air conditioners are used in very large numbers for condolement. Air coolers utilise water for cooling hot, dry out air while air conditioners draw oestrus from surrounding areas and cool the interiors to desired temperature. Ane metric tonne air conditioners draw 12,000 BTU (3070 Kcal) heat per hour. Since the relative humidity in many of these tropical and semitropical places is more than lx% for most of the year, air conditioners, while drawing the heat, condense this moisture. The water that drains from a central air conditioning unit or private unit is condensate that has accumulated on the cooling coils within the unit of measurement. Air conditioners pull humidity out of the air and funnel the resulting water, or condensate, into a drain. The quantity of condensate which the air conditioner unit produces varies, increasing as the outdoor humidity level rises. Well-nigh modern air conditioners will produce betwixt fifteen and 70 litres of h2o per day depending on the capacity of the unit. A one tonne air conditioner operating for about 7 - viii hours generates up to x L of pure water which if nerveless aseptically, can exist considered every bit distilled or demineralized water. This depends on the relative humidity. This condensate is typically discarded from the unit through a bleed connection or left unattended and gets evaporated in the atmosphere.

Nosotros suggest that this water, being generated past condensation of atmospheric moisture, is make clean and pure and tin can be used, if collected and stored properly, for industrial besides as domestic purposes. In this report, we accept collected and analyzed condensate from domestic air conditioning units, proving the purity and suitability of the h2o for domestic such as household and gardening, laboratory and industrial uses such equally in batteries and many other applications. It can fifty-fifty exist used equally drinking water by adding minerals in appropriate quantities. All nosotros would demand is to provide a good collection and storage arrangement.

two. Materials and Methods

Sample collection: Condensate was nerveless from domestic air conditioning units located in Bombay, Pune Anjar (Gujrat), Kochi, Madurai and New Mumbai. The Ac unit was run continuously until i 50 of water was collected in second week of November 2019 in make clean sterile mineral h2o bottles. Samples were analyzed within 24 hours of collection. They were stored in refrigerator at 8˚C before analysis.

Water analysis: Microbiological and chemic analysis of the h2o was performed at National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration recognized Laboratories (NABL) viz. (Vipanan Laboratory, Pune, Universal Purity Testing Laboratory, Borivli, Mumbai and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board District Water Testing Laboratory, Madurai. Welpsun Laboratory, Anjar is an inhouse testing facility for Welspun cloth mill recognized by Gujrat Pollution Control Board.) Specifically, the water quality was measured in terms of pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), organic carbon (T. O. C) contents, electric conductivity, hardness, E. coli count and total coliform count. All the analytical methods are listed in Table 1 and approved by NABL, Bharat except for total organic carbon (TOC) analysis. Though TOC assay does non figure in IS (Indian Standard) x,500 protocol [seven] for drinking water testing, it was included here considering the overall significance of this project. TOC may be considered every bit an

Table 1. Analytical procedures for various parameters in NABL accreditated labs.

indirect fast indicator of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemic Oxygen Demand (COD). Given that the condensate formation and its outflow are almost instantaneous, it is unlikely that there would be time for dissolution of any organics unless the tube through which information technology flows out is highly contaminated with biological growth. Table ane lists the analytical parameters used for Air conditioning water testing and their maximum permissible limits.

three. Results and Discussion

Air conditioner water condensate from private window or divide air conditioners were nerveless from diverse cities in Republic of india. Table 2 shows the meterological information nerveless from official cyberspace portals with respect to average relative humidity circular the year in various cities in India. These figures might vary to some extent simply can requite us full general thought about their potential. These cities account for more than lxx% of the country'south air conditioners. Peculiarly the coastal cities like Mumbai, Panjim, Kochi, Bhavnagar, Chennai, Vijag, Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata and others (Marked yellow) where relative humidity is more than than sixty% throughout the twelvemonth accept a bang-up potential for use of air workout systems. A huge water resource can be collected from these systems.

These cities with some other metro cities in Fundamental Bharat similar Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Indore, Bhopal, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gwalior, Kanpur and smaller citied in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Gujrat and Karnataka contribute to more than 35% of Indian population. These cities are growing and are becoming hubs for many industrial and software activities resulting in e'er increasing demands for ac. The use of air conditioners has gone up considerably in concluding decade. The information engineering science sector and tourism accept contributed for increased demand for the air conditioners across the country.

At that place are several private and regime sectors where primal air conditioning systems are used for 24 hours a mean solar day and 365 days a year. These point sources volition contribute to recovery of very large quantities of good quality water. The air conditioned buses, cars, trucks and trains are another of import sources for condensate h2o. While big scale drove and utilize of such a decentralized resource will nigh certainly not be economical, the use of this water at

Table 2. Meteorological information on average relative humidity in important Indian Cities round the year (average of terminal ten years 2009-2019).

source for domestic and industrial purposes is easily possible. Large industrial and building-scale primal HVAC systems generate much larger amounts of condensate, which can then be collected and used at source every bit advisable. In many such places, air conditioner condensate is nerveless centrally only to be drained off! The present written report hopefully will help in changing the mindset and systems volition be evolved to collect this condensate and apply information technology effectively.

Table 3 shows the results of analysis of water condensate samples collected from various locations in Bharat during the month of November 2019. The theoretical collection rate every bit calculated using bones thermodynamic principles is included for reference. It is clear that in nearly tropical climates, where relative humidity is ofttimes higher up sixty%, a daily collection of upwardly to 10 L liters of water is feasible from a single ac unit of 1 MT capacity and up to 25 - 30 L for 2 MT air conditioner unit. We take actually collected 40 - 50 Fifty water condensate from a location in Vashi in vi hours (New Mumbai) where 5 air conditioners of one MT capacity each are continued on line.

Assay of the h2o quality of samples generated from domestic air conditioners is summarized in Table iii. Microbiologically all the samples were bacteria free except the sample in Kochi where it was collected from an open tank which collects air conditioner condensate centrally. Since it is an open tank, the aerial bacterial contamination is not unexpected. It is encouraging to annotation that none of the samples showed presence of E. coli which is indicator of water quality for potability. The chemic parameters similar TDS, organic carbon and hardness as well showed that the air conditioner condensate is extremely pure and might exist comparable with distilled or demineralized water. The maximum permissible limit for TDS in drinking water equally per Indian standards is 500 mg/50 while the results testify that information technology varies from 10 to 91 mg/L in these condensates. The values obtained for hardness quality also are indicative of high purity of these

Table 3. Analysis of quality of AC condensate h2o (ane MT unit) collected from unlike locations in November 2019.

Sample was taken from open tank where AC condensate is collected centrally.

condensates. If a practiced closed loop collection system is developed, these levels tin be brought to almost zero. Whatever pocket-size impurities reflected in TDS and the observed conductivity values were mainly due to contamination during collection. Since none of the air conditioner unit of measurement in India is designed to collect this condensate water aseptically and most all of this condensate is flowing out into surround, it is expected that the bleed cease of the unit will not be maintained specifically for collection purpose. If the air conditioner manufacturers have up this issue seriously and design a pocket-size tank of maximum daily output capacity, it would boost the utilise of this very pure resources which is getting wasted.

There are few reports about fungal contaminations and bacterial infections due to their growth about outlets. The bacterium Legionella pneumophila is responsible for most cases of Legionnaires' illness. Outdoors, legionella bacteria survive in soil and water, but rarely cause infections. However, legionella bacteria can multiply in water systems fabricated past humans, such as air conditioners [13]. In a written report published in 2005, a good number of hospital infection cases were linked to contamination from AC units in Republic of india [14]. These possibilities can be eliminated if a good drove and storage system is provided along with the air conditioning unit of measurement.

iv. Conclusions

Air conditioning units generate significant amounts of chemically and microbiologically pure water during their normal operations. This report shows the feasibility of collecting and using this water at source for both domestic and industrial purposes. Big industrial AC systems, trains and cars can likewise potentially bottle the condensate and catechumen a waste stream into a revenue source. Current Air-conditioning unit designs include a drainage tube to remove the condensate. A simple h2o drove system can exist designed and included in the unit at the time of manufacture in club to facilitate its use. At that place are roughly about 6 meg air conditioner units active in Indian houses and establishments and the number is rise exponentially. The high purity water condensate collected from all these units will exist between fifty and 100 1000000 litres a day for most function of the year. We tin can no more ignore this result and allow this precious resources to get drained. An aesthetically good looking storage tank near the air conditioner unit inside the hall would maintain the purity of this condensate and loftier value applications like bombardment or drinking water. It would certainly encourage the people to collect this condensate.

Every bit the dual challenges of population growth and climatic change stress the planet's resources and threaten livelihoods, uncomplicated, decentralized technologies will form a major part of the solution to the problem of h2o scarcity. Fifty-fifty as we collectively focus scientific and engineering resources on big, revolutionary technologies to mitigate our challenges, it is valuable to invest in hands executable technologies that can have a meaningful impact on the way the general public gets involved in solving these problems. In addition to the obvious impact on reducing water waste material, the sociological impact of this technology volition also be significant, every bit it volition encourage more people to focus on the ideals of conservation and minimizing our environmental footprint. Ultimately, simple technologies with widespread adaptation will accept the virtually impact on our collective efforts to survive on a crowded and climatically changing planet.

Information technology is high time that leading manufacturers of air conditioners like Voltas, BPL, LG, Hitachi, Godrej and many others take cognizance of this report not only in Bharat but worldwide and help in developing a proficient drove system for water condensate. This would besides offer skilful business organisation opportunities.

Acknowledgements

The authors limited their deep gratitude to Dr. Ramesh Kumar (Welspun, Anjar) in collecting and analyzing samples. We are thankful to Dr. Shubhada Nayak (Vice Principal, KBP College, Vashi), Dr. Anu Appukuttam (Kochi Refineries), Dr. Varsha Kelkar, Mumbai University, Dr. Sukruta Pethe and Ms. Varsha Bapat, Andheri, Mumbai, Mr. Chiliad. T. Karnani Bandra, Shri Avinash Gavankar, Goregaon, Mumbai and Mr. Sivakumar (Madurai) for their assist in collecting samples in Anjar, Vashi, Kochi, Mumbai and Madurai.

Conflicts of Involvement

The authors declare no conflicts of involvement regarding the publication of this newspaper.

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