Numerical and experimental investigation of an exhaust air energy recovery Savonius wind turbine for power production

World energy consumption is continuously increasing due to rising industrialization and demands especially in developing countries. The crisis of power outage is a common occurrence in many developing countries. To meet the demand of world energy more emphasis is given on all available energy resources such as exhaust air energy. The main aim of this research was utilizing industrial exhaust air energy as source of electric power with the help of savonius wind turbine to convert exhaust air energy to electrical energy. The actual exhaust air data at the fan outlet were collected from central air conditioning station of a composite textile mill (Kombolcha Textile Share Company). The measured exhaust air speed in the outlet of exhaust air fans using anemometer varied between 6 and 12 m/s. When an enclosure with a drag force blocker plate was attached at the outlet side of the exhaust air fans, the turbine speed doubled than the initial speed. An enclosure with a drag force blocker plate hads the ability to improve the overall efficiency of the system by 86.83%. In addition to this, using the collected data, the turbine blades were analyzed and simulated using Solid-work-2015 and Ansys-2019 software. As a result, the minimum and maximum generated power output from the system was 10kWs and 140kWs, respectively. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering for Sustainable Developments-2020.