Utilization of Waste Heat Recovered from a Petrol-Powered Generator for Textile Drying

Abstract

The efficiency of a typical petrol-powered generator ranges between 18% to 20%, the remaining heat energy produced in the cylinders of the generators goes through the exhaust to the atmosphere. The increasing use of petrolpowered generators due to the nations epileptic public power supply and the lack of proper waste heat management leads to increased global warming and new environmental challenges. This concerns have led to increased efforts at improving efficiencies of petrol generators. This paper therefore presents an investigation at improving the efficiency of petrol-powered generators by utilizing its waste heat for clothes drying. The generator exhaust channel was modified to incorporate a waste heat recovery (WHR) drying chamber, energy balance and heat transfer equations was used in analyzing the effectiveness of the drying chamber, actual tests were carried out to compare the effectiveness of drying with the WHR dryer and conventional air drying. It was observed that a cloth with a 0.3kg moisture content dried completely within 6 hours using the experimental device amounting to an average of 0.001972kg of moisture removed from the cloth per minute (0.118kg/hr.) while the conventional method gave an average moisture removal rate of 0.002367kg of moisture per minute (0.142kg/hr.) for a similar cloth. Results from experiment showed that drying rate increased with an increase in temperature. Finally, based on obtained results, about one-third (1/3) of input energy of most petrol generators are wasted and emitted to the atmosphere, however, this waste heat can be viably and effectively harvested for clothes drying.