DESIGN OF SOLAR-POWERED INSULIN THERMOELECTRIC-COOLING BOX

• Main Author: AIRLANGGA (NIM : 131 05 085); Pembimbing I : Ir. Ign. Pulung Nurprasetio, MSME; Pembimbing II :, RIO
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/17032
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Exogenous insulin needs in Indonesia is high. According to statistics, in 2000 there were about 8.4 million of Indonesia's population suffered Diabetes Mellitus. Exogenous insulin must be stored within 2-8oC of temperature, and must not be frozen, avoid from sunlight. Because there are still many areas that do not have electricity, public health centers in those area difficulties in keeping the insulin at the required temperature. Therefore, an insulin cooling box is <br /> <br /> <br /> designed using thermoelectric cooling (TEC) module and photovoltaic module as the energy source. <br /> <br /> <br /> The insulin cooler is designed as a box to hold 20 pieces of 10 ml vial. The vial are kept in cylindrical shells inside the cooling box. The air gaps among the shells will surpress heat transfer from TEC to the vial due to the air’s low thermal conductivity. Therefore, the air gaps are filled with water, where the thermal conductivity of water is higher than that of the air. To enhance the heat transfer between the TEC and water, the contact surface is extended by implementing aluminum inner wall. In addition, a composite of thermal insulator and outer thermal insulating wall were applied in order to minimize heat transfer from enviroment into the box. <br /> <br /> <br /> The main goal of the cooling box design is to find the optimum wall thickness from eight variation of wall thickness based on the minimum thickness available. Life Cycle Cost analysis is used to determine the optimum wall thickness. <br /> <br /> <br /> The cooling box design analysis includes the heat transfer rate during transient and steady state, the daily electric power required by the thermoelectric module, the battery capacity, and photovoltaic surface area. <br /> <br /> <br /> It is concluded that the optimum design thickness is 10 mm of outer wall and 12 mm of insulator wall. It takes a 291 Ah of battery’s capacity and 1.89 m2 of photovoltaic surface area.