Bachelor’s Thesis
Installation of a Submersible Pump to Supply Water to a Tanzanian Village Using a Renewable Energy Source
Name:
Sergio Gallego de la Sacristana López de Pablo
Year: 2016
Degree:
Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Tutor(s):
José Antonio Mancebo Piqueras
OBJECTIVES
The project is framed within the framework of development cooperation. The main objective of a development cooperation project is to establish a series of programmes and actions that contribute to economic and social development in countries whose current conditions or situation do not allow it.
that contribute to the economic and social development in countries whose current conditions or situation do not allow it.
The aim of this project is to build a water pumping system to supply a neighbourhood in the town of Msanga to cover the water needs of its inhabitants. Due to a lack of water supply in a sector of the village located in the western part, the inhabitants do not have access to drinking water. It is therefore necessary to build a pumping system to supply water to this sector and thus avoid the consequences of not having access to drinking water.
Thanks to this system, people will be able to get drinking water without having to travel very far, which will improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the village, as it will reduce illnesses caused by a possible deficient state of the water. In addition, it will reduce the workload on the female and child population, who are usually the ones who have to travel to fetch water.
To ensure that the pumping system is viable for the population, it will be powered by natural energy sources, such as the sun or wind, thus significantly reducing costs once the installation is completed. The great advantage of these energy sources is the non-dependence of developed countries as there is no need for fossil fuels such as oil.
Therefore, every effort should be made to provide access to clean drinking water and thus improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of intermediate developing countries. This would avoid the long distances people have to travel to get drinking water and reduce preventable diseases such as acute diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
ABSTRACT
This project develops all the stages to be carried out in order to provide drinking water to the neighbourhood under study, located in the western part of Msanga town. The project covers all the stages involved in supplying drinking water to the target area, located in the western part of Msanga town, from the selection of the appropriate pump to the distribution of the pumped water, including the photovoltaic installation that will be used to power the pump.
The project is divided as follows:
– Firstly (Part 1), all the parts of which the installation is composed will be studied theoretically. The installation consists of a pumping station that will be used to pump the necessary water to a tank located at a sufficient height and then be distributed throughout the village via different supply points. The characteristics of the groundwater and the problems affecting it will also be studied.
The water will be pumped from a well built deep enough to reach the groundwater. The pumping is done by means of a submersible pump that lifts the water through a pipe located along the well. This pipe passes through a series of valves that control the water supply and ends at the reservoir where the pumped water is discharged.
To power the pump, different forms of renewable energies will be studied and their benefits and disadvantages for an installation of these characteristics. In addition, a brief environmental impact study will be carried out. The type of energy selected will be used to generate the electricity needed to operate the pump.
Finally, the existing distribution systems will be defined in order to be able to distribute the water from the reservoir to the village in the most convenient way for the installation.
– Secondly (Part 2), all the calculations necessary for the correct dimensioning of the installation will be carried out. For this purpose, a flow rate in accordance with the number of inhabitants affected by the lack of supply will be provided, taking into account the growth of the village in the coming years. In addition, the pipes that carry the water to the reservoir and those that distribute the water around the village will also be sized by analysing different diameters and taking into account the load losses that occur.
Afterwards, we will select the most suitable pump for the installation and once the pump has been selected, we will study how to feed the installation through wind and photovoltaic energy, calculating the energy that we can obtain from both.
Finally, we will calculate the distribution from the tank to the different points selected in the village.
– In Part 3 the plans of the installation will be defined. Within these plans will be the location of Tanzania within the African continent, the location of the Dodoma region, and the location of the village of Msanga as well as the neighbourhood affected by the lack of water supply. A plan of the installation will also be made defining the parts of which it is composed, and a plan of the electrical schematic of the installation chosen to supply electricity.
– In Part 4, the budget necessary to carry out the installation will be broken down, taking into account all the components from the pump itself to the photovoltaic installation.
