Design and optimization of a pico turbine for water disinfection systems

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Formarum is a Toronto-based company focused on the development of water disinfection systems. They are developing a small independent unit which can be mounted inline to disinfect water for swimming pools and drinking water applications. Their innovative and award winning technology requires no external power or control inputs. As such, the system is required to generate it's own power from the water flowing through the device using a pico-hydro turbine. The company would benefit from an improved turbine to extract energy from the water flow more efficiently. The Water and Energy Research Laboratory (WERL) at the University of Toronto has both expertise in the development of hydro turbines for the parallel application of reverse osmosis desalination systems and applied optimization methods. In this research project, the WERL will work with Formarum to develop methodology for the design of pico-hydro turbines for their water-disinfection application. The project will consist of a trade-study to determine the appropriate system configuration, analysis of the configuration using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools, then systematic design optimization studies. The design studies will be used to configure a prototype which will be tested at the University of Toronto and then at the Formarum facility in Richmond Hill, Ontario.