Facilities

General purpose equipment

  1. Two automated meteorological stations

    • Total solar irradiation on horizontal and on the slope of the PV arrays
    • Diffuse solar irradiation
    • Dry bulb temperature
    • Relative humidity
    • Wind speed
    • Perspiration
    • Hail

  2. Three temperature data loggers (pico tech TC-09)
  3. Two general purpose data loggers (pico tech ADC-24)
  4. Rugged and Reconfigurable Control and Monitoring System (NI CompactRIO)

Biomass

  1. Biofuels engine testing
    1. Engine testing bed for one-cylinder engines up to 7.5 kW

      • Electronic data logging system
      • Εxhaust gas analyser
      • One-cylinder petrol engine 7.5 kW
      • One-cylinder diesel engine 7.5 kW
      • Oneengine cylinder pressure transducer adjusted with the spark
      • Oneengine cylinder pressure transducer adjusted with the glow plug
      • Calorimeter

    2. Diesel agricultural engine (CNH 100A, 73.5 kW)
    3. Εxhaust gas analyser (MRU 1600L)
  2. Biofuels chemical and physical properties testing
    1. flash point
    2. density
    3. total contamination
    4. atomic absorption spectrometer
    5. rancimat
  3. Solid biofuels testing

    Biomass boiler and thermal circuit (fuel: pellets, thermal capacity 10 kW)

  4. Biogas production and quality testing

    Fully equipped biogas production and quality testing lab

  5. Field energy crop testing

    Mechanical equipment for energy crop cultivation in the AUA owned agricultural land

Solar Technology

  1. Experimental Polygeneration Microgrid
    1. SMA Sunny Island topology
    2. 2.5 kWp PV array
    3. 1.8 kWp PV array
    4. 1 kW wind turbine
    5. 1.2 kW PEM fuel cell
    6. 350 W PEM electrolyser
    7. 800 W electrolyser
    8. 2.5 Nm3 H2 metal hydride tank
    9. 750 W desalination unit with energy recovery
    10. Labview based energy management and device controller
    11. 2.2 kW programmable electronic load
    12. 350 Wh hybrid ultracapacitor bank
    13. Various loads (heaters, motors, pumps, air to air heat pumps etc.)
    14. DC to DC converter (1.5 kW)
    15. Electronic Programmable power supply (1.5 kW)
  2. Grid connected PV arrays
    1. 3 kWp monocrystalline silicon
    2. 2.99 kWp multicrystalline silicon
    3. 2.178 kWp micro and amorphous silicon thin film
    4. 3.6 kWp CIS thin film
    5. 5.4 kWp CIS thin film (façade)
    6. 2 axis tracker with PV modules equipped with micro inverters
    7. Power quality tester
    8. I-V curve tracer

ORC technology

  1. Experimental organic Rankine cycle Engine (4 Items)

    • Custom made equipped with appropriate measurement instruments
    • net power production from 1 up to 10 kW
    • heat supply from 77 up to 140 oC
    • subcritical and supercritical cycle

  2. Vacuum tube solar thermal array (216m2)

    • THERMOMAX SOLAMAX 300
    • max. heat production: 100 kW


Desalination

  1. Desalination Unit (2,5m3/day)

    Custom made (750 W)

  2. Desalination Unit (4m3/day)

    Custom made (750 W)

  3. Desalination Unit (50m3/day)

    Custom made 1.5 kW (composed of three identical sub-units and equipped with the Danfoss APP/APM energy recovery unit)