T.I.M.E EUROPEAN SUMMERSCHOOL

ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

STAND-ALONE SYSTEM FOR SUPPLY OFENERGY AND WATER FOR A REFUGEE

CAMP

REPORT

Ismail BILGEN

Fatma ARAS

Contents

1 Introduction 2

2 Refugee Camps in Turkey 3

2.1 Suruc / Sanlıurfa Refugee Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Information about Suruc / Sanlıurfa 6

4 Methods 12

4.1 Stand-alone Energy Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4.1.1 Solar Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4.1.2 Wind Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.1.3 Biomass Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.2 Stand-alone Water Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2.1 Slow Sand Filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2.2 Ultrafiltration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.2.3 Waste Water Purification using Aerobic Bacteria . . . . . . 17

5 Results 18

5.1 Energy Consumption in Suruc Refugee Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5.2 Alternative Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5.2.1 Photovoltaic (PV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5.2.2 Water Purification Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6 Conclusion & Discussion 22

1

1 Introduction

Today, two factors required for people to continue their life are energy and water.

These sources are usually provided by the government economically and suitably.

But in case of exceptional circumstances like forced migrations, natural disasters,

fires and so on , it becomes difficult to supply these sources. Therefore, the govern-

ment and non-governmental organisations (ngos) should transmit these sources to

disaster area as quickly as possible. However, considering the long-term require-

ments, sustainability become prominent.

One of the most important social economic issues in Turkey is the refugees that

immigrate because of the economic and security problems. Turkey meets many

requirements of refugees as sheltering, nutrition, healthcare, education, energy,

clean water, and etc.

As the research result of Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of

Turkey in 2013 [1], the most important problems of the refugees living in the tent

and container cities are the quality of that water used and air conditioning. The

second one especially for the refugees living in the tents is warming issue. However,

three out of four refugees claim that their shelters are not suitable for the climate

conditions. Considering the severe weather conditions, this is a crucial issue that

should be found sustainable and economic solutions.

The purpose of this project is developing sustainable systems for supply of en-

ergy and water for a refugee camp. In order to select a refugee camp, we considered

the populousness and development level of present refugee camps. Consequently,

we decided to choose Suruc Refugee Camp found in Sanlıurfa city of Turkey.

Sanlıurfa has the most number of refugees with about 73.3 thousand in three

camps. Thus 36.6 percent of the total refugees in the camps are in Sanlıurfa. If

we consider the average number of refugees per camp, we observe that the camps

in Sanlıurfa are the most populated with an average of about 24 thousand people

per camp.

2

2 Refugee Camps in Turkey

The total number of refugees increased the population of many Turkish cities. The

camps and the population of refugees living in those camps are seen in Figure 1.

Sanlıurfa is the most populous city with percentage of %36.69 of refugees living in

the camps. There are 73295 refugees residing in the camps in Sanlıurfa.

The rise in the population is above their natural rate of population growth.

Therefore, the social structure and market of employment in these cities are ef-

fected significantly.

Figure 1: Geographical distribution of the Syrian Refugees in Turkey [1].

The demographic characteristics of the Syrian refugees is as follows.

• The percentage of %51.4 of refugees is male, %48.6 is female

• The age of the most of the refugees is between 19-54. We can conclude that

a high percentage of the Syrian refugees are of working age.

• The %54 of refugees are graduated at primary school or less, %21 of them

have high school education or more, and other are illiterate. The rate of the

illiterate people are very high.

3

• About %32.8 of people in camps claim that their homes are completely de-

stroyed, %33.4 of them say partially damaged and others don’t know about

their homes.

• The percentage of %34 refugees in camps have lost at least one of their family

members and %32 of them had at least one injured as reported.

2.1 Suruc / Sanlıurfa Refugee Camp

Sanlıurfa-Suruc refugee camp has a capacity of 35000 individuals, and it hosts

25000 people of which the majority of women and children. It has 7000 modern

tents where each of them takes space of 16 m2, 4 schools, 1 hospital, 1 fire station,

physiological support units, playgrounds, play-fields, and markets [1].

Figure 2: Sanlıurfa Suruc Multeci Kampı.

Fresh water is provided from dam sourced on Fırat River. Refugee camp hav-

ing a water purification unit contains 101 containers of scullery consisting of 12

divisions, 476 toilettes having 6 divisions, 79 containers of laundry in which there

are 1250 washing machines in total. In addition, there is an infrastructure built

4

by TOKI. Energy is supplied from national electrical grid to refugee camp via

transformers. Generators are also used for extra electric consumption in camp [1].

5

3 Information about Suruc / Sanlıurfa

Sanlıurfa city is located in the south-east of the Turkey (3).

Figure 3: The location of Sanlıurfa in Turkey.

It is one of the neighbour cities to Syria. The length of the border between

Sanlıurfa city and Syria is more than 200 km (4). Suruc is the district of Sanliurfa,

46 km far from center of Sanlıurfa through the south-west. It is near to branches

of Fırat river. Despite this, the source of water is limited.

Suruc is the district of Sanliurfa, 46 km far from center in the south-west of

the city of Urfa near to Syrian border and near to ayn Al-arab region in Syria. Its

altitude is 537 m.

There is almost no forest. Agriculture is limited due to lack of water sources

so the agricultural waste is less. Present waste is used mostly used to feed animals

mostly in type of small cattle Rain is quite low and wind is weak

Sanlıurfa has a continental climate where the summer is hot and arid, and the

winter is cold and snowy/rainy.

Extreme maximum, minimum and average temperatures of Sanlıurfa measured

in long period is shown in the Table 1. We can conclude that the average tem-

perature of Sanlıurfa is 18.3 C. Average temperature of summer is 37.2 C and of

winter is 5.1 C.

6

Figure 4: Sanliurfa city in the picture in details.

In Table 2, average rainy day and average of monthly total precipitation (kg/m2)

is given for Sanlıurfa. We can deduce that the average of monthly total precipi-

tation is 38.2 kg/m2. It is a quite low value. Average precipitation in summer is

4.4 kg/m2 where in winter 234.9 kf/m2. Especially in summer, the precipitation

is dramatically low [13].

Table 1: Extreme Maximum, Minimum and Average Temperatures Measured in

Long Period [11].

January February March April May June

Maximum Temp. 21.6 22.7 29.5 36.4 40 44

Minimum Temp. -10 -11.4 -7.3 -3.2 6 10

Average Temp. 5.6 6.9 10.9 16.2 22.1 28.1

July August September October November December

Maximum Temp. 46.8 46.2 42 37.8 29.4 26

Minimum Temp. 15.2 16 11.2 2.5 -6 -6.4

Average Temp. 31.9 31.3 26.8 20.1 12.6 7.5

7

Table 2: Average rainy day and average of monthly total precipitation (kg/m2) in

Sanlıurfa [11].

January February March April May June

Average Rainy Day 12.4 11 10.9 9.6 6.7 1.6

Average of Monthly

Total Precipitation (kg/m2)84.8 70.5 65.9 49.6 29.4 4

July August September October November December

Average Rainy Day 0.3 0.2 0.9 5 8 11.3

Average of Monthly

Total Precipitation (kg/m2)0.6 0.8 2.9 25.3 46 79.6

The global radiation values of months are shown in Figure 5. It provides

enough radiation values to be able to set-up solar power systems. In Figure 6, the

sunlight duration is given. The mean sunlight duration of Sanlıurfa is 8.3 hours

and of Turkey is 7.2 hours. It is clear that the sunlight duration of Sanlıurfa is

high comparing to Turkey.

Figure 5: Global Radiation Values (KWh/m2-day) [14].

Solar potential of Sanlıurfa can be inferred from Figure 7. It is seen that the

total solar irradiation of Sanlıurfa is between 1600 and 1650 KWh/m2 per year.

8

Figure 6: Sunshine Duration (Hour) [14].

Figure 7: Solar Potential of Sanlıurfa [14].

9

The wind power of Sanlıurfa is shown in Figure 8. Measurement are performed

at 50 meter. Wind speed in Sanlıurfa is about 4.5 – 5 m/s, where in Suruc it is

lower. Capacity factor in Sanlıurfa is about 15 – 25%. It requires at least 7 m/s

of wind speed and 35% of capacity factor for an economic wind energy system.

Figure 8: Wind Power in Sanlıurfa [10].

It is obvioues from Figure 9, forest source for Biomass is under the value of 500

tons. In addition, the agro-waste is also limited since it is an arid area.

10

Figure 9: Biomass in Sanlıurfa.

11

4 Methods

4.1 Stand-alone Energy Systems

Stand-alone system is an off-the-grid electricity system which provides secure, eco-

nomic, and ecological solutions for locations that are not fitted with an electricity

distribution system. It supplies energy for the requirement of appliances.

In some cases, due to high investment costs for expanding the public grids

and low power requirements, it would be uneconomical to connect these remote

areas to the utilities. Under these circumstances stand-alone PV systems present

a logical alternative.

4.1.1 Solar Energy

Solar power has become one of the preferred energy systems since it is eco-friendly

and has low operating cost. Solar power is converted to electricity in two ways,

directly or indirectly. Using photovoltaic (PV) systems, the electricity is obtained

directly from sunlight (Figure 10). On the other hand, concentrated solar power

(CSP) systems produce heat by focusing the sunlight into a small beam, then the

concentrated heat is used as a heat source for conventional power plant (Figure

11). Thus the solar power is converted to electricity indirectly. Since the PV

Figure 10: An example of Photovoltaic (PV) [6].

system is more convenient than the CSP system in our project, we will mention

12

Figure 11: An example of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) [7].

about it in details. A stand-alone PV system is made up of four basic components:

a power generator (e.g., PV generator), a storage battery, a charge controller, and

an inverter. The battery packs are used to supply system the sun is absent. The

most important factor for determining the capacity of the battery system is to

calculate the number of sunless days. Charge controller (or charge regulator) is

used to save the batteries by preventing overcharge and discharge. It regulates the

voltage and current coming from the solar panels going to the battery. Inverter

converts the direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic (PV) solar panel into

a utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be given to AC-powered

equipments [4, 5].

4.1.2 Wind Energy

Wind is a clean source of renewable energy. Once a turbine is erected, operational

costs are nearly zero Smaller turbines can produce enough electricity for a single

home while the bigger ones can feed many houses simultaneously [9].

Wind energy systems requires small wind tribune, charger, batteries, inverter,

regulator, mounting and cabling (Figure 12). Some inverters will perform charging,

regulating and metering functions all together. In some cases where normal 240 v

13

AC electricity is not required, an inverter is not needed.

Figure 12: Requirements of wind energy systems.

4.1.3 Biomass Energy

Biomass is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms.

Biomass energy can be used in the areas where the grid power is absent.

Energy forest and agricultural land can be created as a source of biomass

energy. However, this is not economic for the short-term energy requirements.

Biomass atıklardan enerji uretmekte encok kullanılan ekipman gasifierdir.Ozel-

likleri asagıdaki gibidir;

Gasifier is commonly used devices for producing energy using biomass in de-

veloping countries (Figure 13). Dry biomass is transformed into combustible gases

in processes of Gassifier. Household biomass gasifier are used in rural areas of

developing countries. It is heavily dependent on wood and other biomass fuels

for domestic thermal energy requirements such as cooking, room heating, heating

14

water for bathing and boiling water for drinking. It can also be utilized in refugee

camps as in our case.

Figure 13: Producing electricity from biomass. It can kick out up to 20 KW of

electricity.

4.2 Stand-alone Water Systems

When the source of fresh water is insufficient, and the cost of the opening well water

is expensive due to the geographical obstacles, the stand-alone waters should be

used. These systems can purify the water of which the salinity is high such as sea

water. In this project, we will present following two options for stand-alone water

systems.

4.2.1 Slow Sand Filtration

Slow sand filtration is a technique to obtain potable water. It is preferred tech-

nology in many developing countries because of their low energy requirements. It

uses a complex biological film that grows naturally on the surface of the sand. The

water is transferred through the fine sand where the flow rate of the filtration is

between 0.1-0.2 m3/m2 hour. Unlike other filtration methods, slow sand filters use

15

biological processes to clean the water. It can also destroy pathogenic bacterium

in the water. It doesn’t require pressure, chemicals or electricity to operate. The

disadvantage of the system is that of requiring large land area. An example of

slow sand filtration system can be seen in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Slow sand filtration.

4.2.2 Ultrafiltration

A microfiltration filter has a pore size around 0.1 micron, so when water undergoes

microfiltration, many microorganisms are removed. But viruses remain in the

water.

An ultrafiltration filter has a pore size around 0.01 micron. And maximum

pressure of it is 3 bars. Ultrafiltration would remove these larger particles, and

may remove some viruses. Neither microfiltration nor ultrafiltration can remove

dissolved substances unless they are first adsorbed (with activated carbon) or

coagulated (with alum or iron salts) [12].

Each module used in ultrafiltration has approximately capacity of 1 m3/day.

16

By increasing the diameter of the module and membrane area, the amount of

water to be able to filtered can be enhanced.

4.2.3 Waste Water Purification using Aerobic Bacteria

In the system, dirty water in which the organic waste is intensive are cleaned by

utilization of bacterial colonies. The organic waste is decomposed by bacteria.

While consuming the organic waste, the bacteria increases its population. The

increased bacterial population is then filtered using the hollow fibre membrane.

An example system is seen in the Figure 15.

Figure 15: Waste water purification using aerobic bacteria.

17

5 Results

5.1 Energy Consumption in Suruc Refugee Camp

We follow the steps for finding the annual energy consumption of a product, as

well as the cost to operate it as follows [2]:

• We use a rough estimation for the number of hours per day an appliance

runs.

• We find the average wattage of the product since we don’t have a specific

instance of the product.

• We find the daily energy consumption using the following formula:

(Wattage×Hours Used Per Day) ÷ 1000 = Daily kW–hour (kWh) (1)

• We find the annual energy consumption using the following formula:

Daily kWh Consumption×Number of Days Used per Y ear =

Annual Energy Consumption(2)

• We calculate the annual cost to run the appliance using the following formula:

Annual Energy Consumption× Utility Rate per kWh =

Annual Cost toRun Appliance(3)

When we calculate the energy consumption of a tent or container in a refugee

camp, we assumed that each tent or container has following appliances:

• 3 lamp

• 1 mini refrigerator

• 1 fan

This results with an energy consumption as in the Table 3. We assumed a fan

should be run about 9 hours in a day and about 180 days in a year by considering

the sunshine duration and the climate conditions of the Sanlıurfa city (see Section

18

Table 3: The average energy consumption of a tent or container in a refugee camp

for three lamps, a fan, a refrigerator. Total amout of consumption of washing

machine is calculated for 1250 number.

ApplianceWattage

(W)

Energy

Consumption

(kWh/day)

Energy

Consumption

(kWh/year)

Camp Total

Consumption

(MWh/year)

Lamp (x3) 15 0.225 93.075 651.525

Fan 45 0.405 72.9 510.3

Refrigerator 15 0.36 131.4 919.8

Washing Machine 2000 0.9 187.4 123.687

3). The energy consumption of washing machine is calculated annually for the case

of running four times a week (about 208 days a year), and refrigerator is assumed

to run always. Total consumption is calculated for 7000 tents. However, there

are 1250 washing machines in total as to be one for 20 individuals [3] which are

served in a separate container. Therefore, daily and annual energy consumption

of washing machine is calculated for a washing machine where the camp total is

for 1250 ones. As a result, daily energy requirement of a tent is about 1 kWh

without considering the usage of washing machine. For energy consumption of

mini refrigerator, we used Vestel SB90 A+ 90 Lt office type refrigerator as basis.

In 2015, the cost of 1 kWh electricity is about 0.40 TL including taxes [8]. It

corresponds to 0.148 USD.

From Table 3, the average total daily consumption of the camp is 6033 kWh/day.

Multiplying this with 1 kW unit price of electricity cost for Turkey, we get 893

USD/day. In conclusion, the main electricity costs 325,896 USD/year to the camp.

5.2 Alternative Solutions

5.2.1 Photovoltaic (PV)

The battery or stand-alone power inverter ensures that generated and load power

are balanced at all times. If too much energy is generated, the inverter stores this

surplus energy in the batteries. If energy demand exceeds supply, the inverter

discharges energy from the batteries.

19

We assumed that the number of sunless day is 2 and calculated the average

daily energy consumption of a tent is 1.3 kWh. Therefore, we require a battery

pack that can store the energy of 2 kWh. For the voltage of 12 V, the battery

pack of 12 V and 1200 Ah is sufficient.

To convert DC to AC, it is required an inverter. The total wattage of the

appliances which run simultaneously gives the power of inverter. Since it is quite

low in our case, an inverter whose wattage is less than 1000 watt is convenient.

We need breaker and cables to complete the circuit ensuring the safety.

The cost of the complete kit of solar panel system of 1 kW is shown in the

Table 4. To obtain 1 kW of energy, we need 6 PV cells having capacity of wattage

of 175. Sunlight duration is taken 4 hours in winter and 12 hours in summer. In

addition, the length of the panel is determined as 1290 mm and width of 990 mm.

Hence, total area of 6 PV cells is 7.8 m2. The market price of the panel is about

2.8 euro/W. That is, a panel of 175 W costs 400 Euro.

Table 4: The cost of PV solar panel system.

Equipments Features Prices

Photovoltaic Cells 6 x 175 W = 1050 W 2400 Euro

Battery-pack 6 x 12 V 200 Ah = 12 V 1200 Ah 1700 Euro

Battery Charge Controller 12 V 60 Ah 200 Euro

Inverter 12 V DC - 230 V AC / 50 Hz 2500 W 460 Euro

Total Cost 4760 Euro + Taxes (0,18) 5616 Euro

5.2.2 Water Purification Systems

For water purification, there are several solutions that can be used based on the

water quality. Since the source of the water in Suruc camp is supplied from dam,

the salinity of the water is very low. Therefore, it doesn’t require reverse osmosis

filtering. However, it is almost convenient to domestic usage but drinking. To

obtain potable water, we can apply physical filtering (e.g slow sand filtering) and

chlorination. If the result of experimental analysis of the water results with high

population of the viruses and bacterium, we can also apply ultrafiltration.

20

We assumed that the water consumption per person is approximately 75 litre/day.

Total water consumption of Suruc Refugee Camp is 75 litre/day × 365 days ×25000 person × (1m3/1000 litre) = 684375 m3/year. Total potable water con-

sumption of Refugee Camp is 2 litre/day × 365 day × 25000 person × (1m3/1000

liter) = 18250 m3/year. Overall water consumption is 702625 m3/year

21

6 Conclusion & Discussion

For stand-alone power system, we propose to set-up Photovoltaic Solar Panel sys-

tem. We calculated its whole cost for our refugee camp consisting of 7000 tents in

previous section and found an installation cost of 5616 × 700 = 3.931.200 Euro in

total corresponding to 4,324,320 US-dollar, since the PV system can feed 10 tents

in summer session.

The annual cost of main grid to the camp is 325,896 USD/year. As our calcu-

lation, this solar power system will meet the energy requirement of the camp in for

six months. For the rest of six months where the sunlight duration is less, it can

meet about half of the grid cost. Therefore, this PV panels will decrease the grid

cost to its quarter of 81,474 USD. This indicates that the period of time of return

for the PV investment is about 18 years. It is infeasible for the refugee camp.

Using wind power is not reasonable considering its high setting up cost. Be-

cause the wind speed in Sanlıurfa is between 4.5 - 5 m/s and the capacity factor

is between 15-25% where for an economic and sustainable wind power system, it

requires at least 7 m/s wind speed and 35% capacity factor.

Biomass energy is not suitable for Sanlıurfa, because forest source for Biomass

is under the value of 500 tons. In addition, the agro-waste is also limited since it

is an arid area.

We proposed two methods for the supply of potable water in refugee camp,

ultrafiltration and slow sand filtration. Ultrafiltration is a powerful system for

purification of water. Using the modules, it can clean water from micro-organisms

including viruses. Daily consumption of potable water is 50 m3 in the camp. For

ultrafiltration process of this amount, it is needed 50 modules, of which capacity is 1

m3/day. Purchase cost of the module exceed 50,000 USD. So, it is not viable for the

camp. The second option is slow sand filtration which has several disadvantages.

The filtration quality is less comparing with ultrafiltration. And it requires large

land area. Despite these disadvantages, it can be applied to our problem. Because

the water supplied from dam doesn’t need a high level purification. And this

system is economic.

The suruc refugee camp has already an infrastructure built by TOKI. Hence, it

is not required a waste water purification system additionally for sustainability. If

there weren’t a system, we would suggest purification system using aerobic bacteria

22

mentioned in section 4.

In concluding, we didn’t suggest PV system for electricity demand because of its

high costs. In the present situation, using the main is more reasonable. For water

purification, we propose to use slow sand filtration rather than ultrafiltration.

23

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