Adda Avendaño
The ILAN (Israel+Latin American Network) Awards for University Innovation recognize and promote the talent of young university students who, through their ideas, projects, and ventures, contribute to sustainability, social responsibility, learning, integrity, peace, and the well-being of global society.
In its 2023 edition, three polytechnic projects received top evaluations based on criteria including concept development, addressing an existing need, communicating an innovative message, as well as the immediate and long-term impact on the country's economic development and positive effects on the population.
A multidisciplinary group developed an innovation to the thermosyphonic water heating system using glass tubes, which involves introducing granular blocks of sand with the ability to retain heat generated throughout the day. This allows for showers even in the early hours of the following day, potentially eliminating reliance on gas.
The idea originated from studies on heat energy in granular media by Dr. Abraham Medina, a postgraduate researcher at the scuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica (ESIME), Azcapotzalco Unit, inspiring the youth to experiment with various materials such as quartz marbles and water, although sand proved to be the most cost-effective and with the best potential.
After two years of research, they found a composition of sands, analyzed by spectrometry and calorimetry at the Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Química e Industrias Extractivas (ESIQIE) of the IPN and at the Laboratory of Crystallography and Natural Materials of the Institute of Physics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), to characterize the materials qualitatively and quantitatively.
"A conventional solar tube of thermosyphonic type for water heating reaches a temperature of up to 300 degrees Celsius, but when connected to the water tank, an element with very high heat capacity, it does not manage to raise its temperature so much, so it cools down as night falls. In contrast, our sand-based system achieves a temperature of around 80°C, but decreases slowly without exceeding 45°C," explained the team leader, Allan Ronier Diez Barroso Agraz, a graduate of the Master's in Thermo-fluid Sciences from ESIME Azcapotzalco.
Also a doctoral candidate in Mechanical Engineering Sciences at ESIME Zacatenco, he enlisted engineers Jaziell Arath de Jesús Silva Godínez and Javier Ignacio Saucedo Flores, current students of the Master's in Manufacturing, and student Oliver Francisco Sánchez Hernández, all from ESIME Azcapotzalco, who, with their knowledge of robotics, mechatronics, and systems, conducted test installations and created a web platform to generate databases and graphs automatically.
"With this platform, we saved a lot of time because we no longer needed a person to be measuring the data every day, at all hours, but everything was done automatically, even remotely. Now we have a mobile application that allows us to see in real-time or historically, the behavior of the system," clarified Jaziell Silva.
Thermosyphonic technology utilizes different heat transfer mediums such as solar radiation, conduction, and convection, through which the introduced air heats the tube, but its heat capacity is so low that it loses energy very quickly. "With our proposal, we introduce agglomerated blocks of sand, with a particular geometry, allowing the air to flow concentrically around a central tube which is the thermosyphon, which changes the phase from liquid to vapor. By filling the space with a granular mass, heat energy can be conserved for a longer time," they commented.
Energy Innovation
Research indicates that gas is primarily used to heat water for showers, with Energy Innovation, it would be feasible to reduce LP or natural gas consumption by around 80 percent.
This project obtained copyright two years ago for the programming code, both for the web system and the mobile application. The patent for the chemical composition and geometry of the blocks is currently pending with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI).
Selección Gaceta Politécnica #170. (January 31st, 2024). IPN Imagen Institucional: Read the full magazine in Spanish here.
INSTITUTO POLITÉCNICO NACIONAL
D.R. Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN). Av. Luis Enrique Erro S/N, Unidad Profesional Adolfo López Mateos, Zacatenco, Alcaldía Gustavo A. Madero, C.P. 07738, Ciudad de México. Conmutador: 55 57 29 60 00 / 55 57 29 63 00.
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