V/F control speed of IM based on second-life of UPSs for E-tuk-tuk

Since 2016, the increase of LPG tuk-tuks in Phnom Penh has caused a significant rise in LPG gas consumption and prices, alongside increased noise and air pollution. Maintenance and disposal of tuk-tuk issues have also emerged due to prolonged operation. Furthermore, in the context of urban living in a developing country, electronic devices are required for use in households and offices, resulting in a high amount of e-waste. To address these issues, this study proposes to reuse some e-waste equipment (batteries, UPS=Uninterruptible Power Supplies, and electrical machines) to create a fully electric drive train and replace the LPG chain. The project not only repurposes UPS as a three-phase inverter to control the speed of the induction motor (IM) with low prices but also aims to minimize the global ecological impact of a tuk-tuk. To construct the inverter to drive the three-phase IM, three units of single-phase UPSs have been modified to convert DC voltage to three-phase AC voltage. A new structural inverter from UPSs has been used with V/F close-loop control. Experimental results for variable speed control, including no load, constant load, and constant speed control with variable load, have been analyzed. The repurposed UPS effectively regulates the speed of the IM.