Desalination of Seawater Using Lab Scale Solar Plant

Abstract

The current study describes the desalination of sea water using solar energy with particular focus on the design and fabrication aspects for single slope solar still. The purpose of this study was to present a novel, economically feasible methodology along with the equipment to overcome the water shortage particularly in the remote areas along the coastal belt in Pakistan. In order to achieve these objectives, a laboratory scale solar still was fabricated made of galvanized iron having basin area of 5490 cm2 (length of 90 cm and width of 61 cm), front height 15 cm and back height 32 cm. The Inclined angle was kept at 15o. The experiments were conducted during typical winter days. Results showed that when the highest ambient temperature was 29.9 °C, the maximum value of the average solar intensity was 1,080 W/m2. A remarkable decrease in terms of total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), thermal conductivity, hardness, turbidity, and pH was observed. The value of TDS decreased from 29,100 mg/L to 385 mg/L, TSS from 0.07 g/100mL to 0.00086 g/mL, thermal conductivity from 45,500 μs to 595μs, hardness 133 meq/L to 2.7 meq/L, turbidity from 29.3 NTU to 19.3 NTU, and pH from 9.36 to 6.22, respectively. Furthermore, temperature profile against the intensity was drawn to identify the peak efficient hours with highest heat intensity. The suggested technique cannot only give a solution for the domestic level use rather it can be utilized in commercial scale in solar desalination facilities.