Electricity Generation from Micro Hydro
Turbine: A Case Study of Crossflow Turbine
Yuttachai Keawsuntia
Abstract-- From the energy crisis situation in the present,
renewable energy becomes the main choice of national energy.
Hydropower is a renewable energy as very clean source energy.
Especially small hydropower, the renewable energy which still
has large potential and low cost of installation. Micro hydro
turbine is an alternative technology for electricity generating that
does not cause pollution from small hydropower. The crossflow
turbine was studied experimentally in this project because of it is
low cost, small sized, the materials used in construction are cheap
and the technologies involved are conventional. At testing of
micro crossflow turbine with 0.6 meter diameters of wheel and a
20 blades water turbine which has a semi-circle shape at 0.1
meter diameters of blade, connected with generator at gear up
ratio of 1:3 and 1:5 respectively, was undertaken. The results
from the test run of crossflow turbine b y varying flow rate from
60 to 120 L/min at 0.0127, 0.0190 and 0.0254 meter diameter of
nozzle respectively , showed that at water flow rate 120 L/min,
0.017 meter diameter of nozzle and gear ratio of 1:3 give the
maximum electric power of 121 watts at generator speed of 468
rpm.
Index Terms-Micro hydro turbine, Crossflow turbine,
Electicity generating from micro hydro turbine
I. INTRODUCTION
ROM the energy crisis situation in the present, renewable
F energy becomes the main choice of national energy.
Hydropower is a very clean source of energy. It does not
consume but only uses the water, after use it is available for
other proposes. The conversion of the potential energy of
water into mechanical is a technology with a high efficiency.
The use of hydropower can make significant saving no
exhaustible energy sources. The hydropower plant can be
classified according to the size of electrical power it produce
[1] as shown in Table I. High electricity demand for industry
and household require the plant to produce as large power as
possible to justify the capital it use. As a result most
hydropower available around the world can be categorized as
large hydro. This large reservoir or dam leads
environmental damages and remove people from their roots.
Furthermore the capacity of this large plant will be reduced
after a number of years due to sedimentation built up [2].
This work was supported for financial from Vongchavalitkul University,
Nakhonratchasima, Thailand.
Yuttachai Keawsuntia is from the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Vongchavalitkul University, Thailand, 30000 (e-mail:
keawsa2000@yahoo.com).
This leads most experts to agree that hydropower of more
than 1 MW cannot be considered as renewable. While the
capacity of micro may be small compared to other higher
hydropower classes, they have made significant contribution
in electrification program to remote and off-grid settlements.
This small- scale hydro power ensures the community is light­
up at night continuously. The system does not require dam,
which is one of the advantages, meaning no environmental
problem.
TABLE I
CLASSlFlCATlON OF HYDROPOWER BY SIZE
Power Class
>10MW Large
<10MW Small
<lMW Mini
<100 kW Micro
Hydro turbine or Water turbine [3] is equipment for
transform the water potential energy to mechanical rotation
energy. There are two types of turbine to be considered,
impulse turbine and reaction turbine. In most case impulse
turbines are used for high head site, and reaction turbines are
used for low head site. Impulse turbine is embedded in the
fluid and powered from the pressure drop across the device.
Penton and Turgo turbines are suitable for high head.
Crossflow turbine is suitable for medium and low head, which
is less than 10 m. reaction turbines operate with the flow, hits
the turbine as a jet in an open environment, with the power
deriving from the kinetic energy. Francis turbine is used in
medium head scheme while the propeller and Kaplan turbines
are suitable for low head applications. Figure 1 show the
range of suitability of various types of turbines base on the
flow rate and net head [4]. Propeller, Kaplan and crossflow
turbines are suitable for low head and low flow application.
Figure 2 shows the efficiency of typical small scale hydro
turbines relative to turbme flow relative to their design flow
to [5]. Crossflow turbine has significant advantages over other
turbines if the flow rate varies a lot during seasonal variation.
From the advantage of crossflow turbine, in this paper will
focus on the testing of the micro crossflow hydro turbine for
choices of turbine in low flow and low head environment and
its application in renewable energy system set-up.
Copyright Notice: 978-1-4673-6008-1Il11$3l.00 ©2012 IEEE
 III. CONFRIERATION OF THE CROSSFLOW TURBINE
TUrbine Application Chart
1000 For this test, the micro crossflow hydro turbine system
consists of a crossflow turbine, generator, nozzle, gear system,
�p.1ronTurb
,
Inn
.. " water tank, water pump and a set of battery as storage, as

I-
Ij" I
/I �
I ."....."
.....
.- shown in Fig 3. The crossflow turbine with 0.6 meter
20 blades water turbine which has a
100 A • diameters of wheel and a

r semi-circle shape at 0.1 meter diameters of blade and the

...
! K �
" l...oo" """
length of the blade is 0.1 meter. Each blade made from PVC

Kro�flow� �liI
• :iI pipe. Generator is handmade three phase generator. It was
J:

altered DC with in all wave rectifier by using diodes. Speed

I�
10 up gear was assembled using pulley. Pulleys were linked by
� belt. Two gear ratios were used for generator; the ratios were
,�.�lt."1 Turbin�' 1: 3 and 1:5, to find the optimum arrangement for charging the
./
0.0127,
1Hl.l
battery. The nozzles used in the experiment were at
0.0190 and 0.0254 meter diameter, 3 sizes. The battery in this
10 Flow Ilft'Is) 100 1000 test is rated at 12 V and has a capacity 30 Ah. The
characteristic of water pump in this test, at volume flow rate
Fig. I. Head and flow ranges of hydro turbine. of 60 Umin to 120 Umin, water pump has water head, h,
about 15 m.
EFFICIENCY OF lYPICAl SMALL HYDRO TURBINES
l00' r-

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. -4==��··�.= ��-�.- ,�..39= ,-.
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70.J----l+ �+________:
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:"" -+_____-
_I -
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,/
�L-�-+
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t1
!E II
w , I---f.:�+---f---+----t--;,L-+--+---t-----t----
110 +---+
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,i
lO +--+'++',- ' --+---H----t---Tj----f---f---t---t-----
- -j
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: --+f/--+--tl----t----+---+-----t------t----j
J ' K.l�"1 ,i .... ·PlIt., Fra"", ---·crosstIaf -·-' �I"

10 +----l.'+.- ;
II
� : II ./
0.1 0.2 O.l 0.4 0. 5 .. 0.7 0.8

Turbine Flow Relative to Design Flow

Fig. 2. Efficiency of small hydro turbines.

II. CROSS FLOW HYDRO TURBINE

Fig. 3. Cross flow turbine for this test.
Crossflow turbine [6] is known as wide range of heads
overlapping those of Kaplan, Francis and Pelton. It can IV. TEST PROCEDURE
operate with heads between 5 and 200 m. It allows the water
For test procedure, water was pumped up from the water
to pass through the runner and crosses it two times before tank to supply pipe by water pump, flows into the nozzle, and
leaving the turbine. This simple design makes it cheap and
move the cross flow turbine passing through it. After that the
easy to repair in case of runner brakes due to the important water flows down to the water tank. Test of the micro cross
mechanical stresses. The crossflow turbines have low
flow turbine and generator were conducted under flow rate
efficiency compared to other turbines and the important loss condition of 60, 90 and 120 litre/minute. For volume flow rate
of head due to the clearance between the runner and the
measured by using water meter compare with time, the
downstream level should be taken into consideration when hydraulic power can calculate by Eq. (1) Then measure
dealing with low and medium heads. Moreover, high head
electric power by measuring voltage and current for calculate
crossflow runners may have some troubles with reliability due the total efficiency of system by (2) and (3). After that has
to high mechanical stress. It is an interesting alternative when
changed the nozzles, volume flow rate and speed up gear
one has enough water, defined power needs and low ratio, respectively.
investment possibilities, such as for rural electrification
programs. In the above scenario, a crossflow micro turbine is P..v = pghQ (1)
designed developed and tested for its performance.
Pe = lV (2)
Copyright Notice: 978-1-4673-6008-11111$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
 pe
11= (3)
�v
_

TABLE III
POWER GENERATION ATO.0190 METER DIAMETER OF NOZZLE AND GEAR
RATIO 1'3
Where
Q n V 1 Pe
his head, m.
(Umin) (rpm) (V) (A) (Watt)
2
g is gravitation of constant, m / s 60 102 15.9 1.25 19.88
90 140 19.95 4.50 89.78
3
Q is Volume flow rate, m / s 120 144 20.61 4.93 101.61

�v is hydraulic power, Watt TABLE IV

Pe is electric power, Watt POWER GENERATION AT 0.0254 METER DIAMETER OF NOZZLE AND GEAR
RATIO 1'3
1 is current, Amp
Q n V I Pe
V is voltage, V
(Umin) (rpm) (V) (A) (Watt)
11 is total efficiency 60 82 14.25 0.97 13.82
90 105 16.14 1.43 2308
120 107 16.33 2.40 39.20
V. RESULTS

From the experimental, the results of small scale crossflow TABLE V

hydro turbine for electricity generating at gear ratio 1:3 and

POWER GENERATION ATO.0127 METER DIAMETER OF NOZZLE AND GEAR
RATIO 1'5
0.0127, 0.0190 and 0.0254 meter diameter of nozzle, as
Q n V I Pe
shown in table II to IV, and at gear ratio 1:5 and 0.0127, (Umin) (rpm) (V) (A) (Watt)
0.0190 and 0.0254 meter diameter of nozzle, by varying 60 75 19.3 3.26 62.92
volume flow rate from 60 to 120 Umin, as shown in table V 90 85 20.1 5.03 101.10
to VII respectively, and the generator testing result is shown 120 88 20.7 5.70 118.00

in Fig. 4. TABLE VI
POWER GENERATION AT 0.0190 METER DIAMETER OF NOZZLE AND GEAR
PO"t1'olllplll RATIO 1'5
(\oVall)
Q n V 1 Pe
140 ,----- (Umin) (rpm) (V) (A) (Watt)
60 52 14.45 1.25 19.88
120 +--------------_-'----
- 90 77 19.17 4.00 76.71
120 81 19.20 4.15 79.80
100t-------------..".'------

TABLE VII
8 0t-----------��----- POWER GENERATION AT 0.0254 METER DIAMETER OF NOZZLE AND GEAR
RATIO 1'5
60 +---------��-------
Q n V I Pe
4 0+-------��---------- (Umin) (rpm) (V) (A) (Watt)
60 43 14..47 0.52 7.52
90 60 16.13 1.21 17.7
20 t---����------------------
120 62 16.33 1.26 20.57

200 250 300 350 400 450 500 Where n is speed of turbine, rpm

g�lIerator spe�d (rpm) 5, it can be

From Tables II to VII, and also shown in Fig.
seen that at the gear ratio of1:3, 0.0127 meter diameter of
Fig. 4. Generator speed and electrical power output. nozzle and volume flow rate of 120 Umin provide the best
output. The generator produces a maximum of 20.80 V in 12
TABLE II
V DC systems, current of 5.8 A, power output of 121.68 Watt,
POWER GENERATION AT 0.0127 METER DIAMETER OF NOZZLE AND GEAR
RATIO 1'3 for charge the battery system.

Q n V 1 Pe For water head, h, of 15 m., can be calculating the total

(Umin) (rpm) (V) (A) (Watt) efficiency of the system as shown in Fig. 6. From Fig. 6 it can
60 125 28.50 3.69 68.27 be seen that the maximum total efficiency about 47
90 145 20.66 5.04 104.13 percentage.
120 162 20.80 5.85 121.68

Copyright Notice: 978-1-4673-6008-11111$31.00 ©2012 IEEE

 rlrftrirpow"l" VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
("..It)
I�O
�r;(liu 1::'.@60Umiu The author would like to thank Vongchavalitkul University,
Nakhonratchasima, Thailand, for financial assistance on this

�r<ttiol:�.tji;90Lmiu
research project
100
�r�tio 1:.1,�; 90 limin
VIII. REFERENCES
80 �r .. liul:�/�1120Lmju
[I] Introduction to hydropower [Online]. Available:
http://www.microhydropower.netibasics/intro.php
60 [2] A Survival international report "What is the problem with large
hydroelectric dam?" [Online]. Available:
http://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/3 73/Serious_Damage_f
inal.pdf
[3 ] Turbine [Online]. Available:
20
http://www.microhydropower.net/basics/turbines.php
[4] Water Turbine [Online]. Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_turbine
11.1112 lUlU 11.016 IUIIX 11.02 IUlll O.1I2� lUlU, 1I.IIlX [5] Kaldellis, J.K., Vlachou, D.S. and G. Korbakis.2005. Techno-economic
Ilozzlt(m.) evaluation of small hydropower plants in Greece: a complete sensitivity
analysis. Energy Policy 33: 1969-1985.
[6] Crossflow turbine [Online]. Available:
Fig. 5. Power output from the experimental. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossflow_turbine

IX. BIOGRAPHY
t.otal efficiency
50
-+-"atio 1 :5,@60Umin
Yuttachai Keawsuntia was born in Nakhonratchasima,
45
...... l'atiol:3,@60L/min Thailand, on April 10, 1977, and graduated Master Degree
40 of Mechanical Engineering from Kasetsart University,
...... l'atio 1:5,@90 Umin
Thailand. At the present, he works in the Department of
35 _l'atlol:3,@90Umln Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Vonchavalitkul University, Nakhonratchasima,Thailand
30 ",,*,"l'atio 1:5,@)120Umin

25 ...... l'atiol:3,@120Umill

20

15

10

0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

1Iozzle (m)

Fig. 6. Total efficiency of the system.

VI. CONCLUSION

From the study and testing the small crossflow hydro

turbine for electricity generating in this test found that the
transmission ratio, the size of the nozzle and the volume flow
rate of water, affect the electricity generating. The results from
the test run of crossflow turbine by varying flow rate from 60
to 120 Umin at 0.0127, 0.0190 and 0.0254 meter diameter of
nozzle respectively, showed that at water flow rate 120
litre/minute, 0.017 meter diameter of nozzle and gear ratio of
1:3 give the maximum electric power of 121 watts at
generator speed of 468 rpm. The results show that the small
crossflow hydro turbine could play important role in
providing the basic necessity to the off-grid rural area.

Copyright Notice: 978-1-4673-6008-11111$31.00 ©2012 IEEE