Automobile Industry

Case study – Automobile Industry MVML, Chakan, Pune

Introduction:

The Automobile industry is one of the major industries in India which have huge energy requirements in the form of both thermal and electrical energy. The manufacturing process includes many applications that require thermal energy in the low or medium temperature range (60 – 150°C) for e.g. component cleaning, component drying, 7 tank process etc. These processes are quite suitable for integration of solar thermal concentrators. The first pilot installation of ARUN®160, concentrated solar thermal system, in the automobile manufacturing was carried out at MVML, Chakan. The solar heat is utilized for automobile engine components washing process.

Schematic:

The flow of operation of the system is presented in this figure.

Operation philosophy:

One ARUN®160 solar boiler generating system generates hot water under pressure, which is used for engine component cleaning process. The water circulates @ 3m³/hr through the receiver coil, which is placed at the focus of the dish transferring the thermal energy from the sun to the circulating water in a concentrated manner. The water gets heated by continuous circulation. Once the temperature of the water reaches 115°C, the hot water from ARUN®160 solar boiler is delivered to Plate Heat Exchanger (P.H.E.). The heat exchange takes place at the heat exchanger and the water temperature drops to 90°C; which is again circulated back through ARUN®160’s coils. The water is circulated at18m³/hr on the cold side of heat exchanger. The inlet side temperature of cold side of heat exchanger is 80°C, which is heated to 90°C using solar energy. This water is the circulated through a coil in washing tank, in which water used for spraying is placed. Once the water is sprayed over the component for maintaining the ‘Millipore value’ the water temperature drops. The water temperature is maintained at required level using the heating coils.

Clique Solar has received developmental support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and I.I.T. Bombay for its ARUN Solar Boiler Technology