Solar
Available ONLINE www.vsrdjournals.com
VSRD-MAP, Vol. 2 (5), 2012, 166-173
Distillation of Water by Solar Energy 1Anirudh Biswas* and 2Ruby
RESEARCH ARTICLE RESEARCH ARTICLE
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to design a water distillation system that can purify water from nearly any source, a system that is relatively cheap, portable, and depends only on renewable solar energy. From the results of project calculations a truthful estimate was made to prototype the most effective geometries of the distiller and trough concentration system, one that will maximize evaporation/condensation and re capture waste heat to minimize thermal losses. To achieve this goal, a system was designed incorporating a parabolic solar trough coupled with a custom designed distillation device. The incoming solar radiation from the sun is focused and concentrated onto a receiver pipe using a parabolic trough, heating the incoming impure water, at which point it is sprayed into our custom designed distillation device where it evaporates and is re-condensed into pure potable water. Future goals for this project include calculation refinement, material research/testing, and fabrication.
Keywords : Solar Collector, Distillation, Glass Basin, Flask.
1. INTRODUCTION
Solar distillation is a tried and true technology. The first known use of stills dates back to 1551 when it was used by Arab alchemists. Other scientists and naturalists used stills over the coming centuries including Della Porta
(1589), Lavoisier (1862), and Mauchot (1869).The first "conventional" solar still plant was built in 1872 by the
Swedish engineer Charles Wilson in the mining community of Las Salinas in what is now northern Chile
(Region II). This still was a large basin-type still used for supplying fresh water using brackish feed water to a nitrate mining community. The plant used wooden bays which had blackened bottoms using logwood dye and alum. The total area of the distillation plant was 4,700
VSRD-MAP, Vol. 2 (5), 2012, 166-173
Distillation of Water by Solar Energy 1Anirudh Biswas* and 2Ruby
RESEARCH ARTICLE RESEARCH ARTICLE
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to design a water distillation system that can purify water from nearly any source, a system that is relatively cheap, portable, and depends only on renewable solar energy. From the results of project calculations a truthful estimate was made to prototype the most effective geometries of the distiller and trough concentration system, one that will maximize evaporation/condensation and re capture waste heat to minimize thermal losses. To achieve this goal, a system was designed incorporating a parabolic solar trough coupled with a custom designed distillation device. The incoming solar radiation from the sun is focused and concentrated onto a receiver pipe using a parabolic trough, heating the incoming impure water, at which point it is sprayed into our custom designed distillation device where it evaporates and is re-condensed into pure potable water. Future goals for this project include calculation refinement, material research/testing, and fabrication.
Keywords : Solar Collector, Distillation, Glass Basin, Flask.
1. INTRODUCTION
Solar distillation is a tried and true technology. The first known use of stills dates back to 1551 when it was used by Arab alchemists. Other scientists and naturalists used stills over the coming centuries including Della Porta
(1589), Lavoisier (1862), and Mauchot (1869).The first "conventional" solar still plant was built in 1872 by the
Swedish engineer Charles Wilson in the mining community of Las Salinas in what is now northern Chile
(Region II). This still was a large basin-type still used for supplying fresh water using brackish feed water to a nitrate mining community. The plant used wooden bays which had blackened bottoms using logwood dye and alum. The total area of the distillation plant was 4,700