Chlorine has been an industry standard agent for disinfection of swimming pools and spas. Tests showed that the electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) panels can be used directly to generate liquid chlorine using a specially designed electrolysis cell. Using control circuit, a number of experiments were conducted to test the effect of applied voltage, current level, water flow rate, salt concentration, and duration of chlorination. Various parameters were measured along with the chlorine concentration and pH level. Results showed that optimum matching can be achieved by carefully selecting the PV array parameters with respect to the electrolysis load parameters. In addition, solar radiation matches well the need for chlorine production during the day. This technique offers environmental benefits and savings in electricity bills. The proposed PV chlorinator promises to make a valuable contribution to the renewable energy industry.
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