SOLAR
DESALINATION
VISHNU TEJAVATH
19NA60R11
SCOP
E
● Introduction
01 Different types of Solar Desalination
●
Introduction to Solar Desalination
● Introduction to mechanism and process
02 Thermally localised multistage solar
still and heliostat
● Parameters , design considerations.
03 Result and Conclusion
2
INTRODUCTIO
N● Sea water desalination is a promising field for solving water scarcity.
● Large scale approaches require good infrastructure, significant energy consumption
thus tend to be costly.
● Solar desalination (off-grid) would be of greater importance considering the
greenhouse emissions and accessibility for the poor.
● Such an approach can be used by Middle Eastern Nations , groundwater depleted
regions , coastal regions having scarcity of fresh drinking water.
● So we have to choose an optimum technology for such an application
considering the section of society it has to cater with minimum impact to
environment. 3
DESALINATION
TECHNOLOGIES
1. REVERSE OSMOSIS
● A semipermeable membrane which separates pure water from saline
water.
● Low energy consumption , easy to use.
● Needs pre filtration and chemical treatment to avoid membrane scaling.
● Provides around 500 ppm outlet and discharge has very high salinity.
Schematic diagram for Reverse 3
Osmosis
DESALINATION
TECHNOLOGIES
2. MULTI STAGE FLASH PROCESS
● Water is heated and transferred
to low pressure stages thus
boils and condensed .
● High reliability , No
pre- treatment
needed.
● High investment cost.
● Provides around 50
ppm outlet
4
and low flexibility of Schematic diagram for MSF
DESALINATION
TECHNOLOGIES
3. MULTI EFFECT DISTILLATION
● Latent heat of condensation
of one stage is used by the
next stage.
● Highly reliable and easy to
start.
● No need for pre treatment.
● Provides below 50 ppm
outlet and can use low
temperature heat (like 60
5
degree celsius) Schematic diagram for MED
DESALINATION
TECHNOLOGIES
4. SOLAR STILL
● Solar radiation absorbed by
basin and evaporation
happens in airtight
compartment.
● Simple and first technology.
● No need for pre-treatment but
needs flushing after some
SOLAR
time. STILL
● Modifications are available
6
with
DESALINATION
TECHNOLOGIES
● Concentrating solar power
○ Parabolic trough
○ Linear Fresnel reflector
systems.
○ Central tower receiver
Comparison of running cost per m3 of fresh
water
Central tower Linear Fresnel Parabolic 7
receiver reflector trough
A NEW
TECHNOLOGY
● THERMALLY LOCALISED
MULTISTAGE SOLAR STILL (TMSS)
○ Passive vapour generation system
○ Vaporisation enthalpy recycling (in
multistage)
○ Interfacial solar heat localisation
○ Low cost and free of salt accumulation
○ High solar to vapour conversion efficiency with
total production rate of 5.78 Lm-2hr-1 Schematic of TMSS
device
○ Portable and affordable drinking water
9
Contd…..
● THERMALLY LOCALISED MULTISTAGE SOLAR STILL (TMSS)
○ Simple configuration and off grid operation
○ First stage facing sun has an optically transparent silica gel
thermal insulation followed by an absorber plate.
○ Then follows a capillary wick , air gap and a condenser
plate.
○ Absorber plate and wick are separated rather being a Vapourisation enthalpy recycling by
single material increases flexibility of material selection. multistage , last condenser is immersed in
brine at ambient temperature.
○ Silica aerogel suppress heat loss from absorber plate.
○ Less parasitic loss due to negligible area of contact
between 1
0
PARAMETE
RS
● Parameters are width of device and height. ( ‘a’ for a square section)
● Air gap thickness ( b )
● Number of stages ( n )
○ Reducing ‘b’ can increase vapour transport resistance but decrease conduction resistance thus
efficiency of stage gets reduced.
○ Increasing ‘n’ can increase efficiency ( enthalpy reutilisation ) but the effect gets diminished when large
number of stages are added beyond particular number of stages.
○ Theoretical analysis of a 10x10 cm2 gives optimum air gap as 2.5mm and no significant improvement in
efficiency after 20 stages. Considering the droplet size a higher ‘b’ value was selected as 5 mm for
experimental model.
○ Teflon coatings were given to condenser plates to accelerate the removal of condensed water and to
avoid flooding, paper towel was used as wick which had a wicking length of 10 cm. 10
12
Evaporator (wick) attached to back of
Prototype of Evaporator/condenser plates
condenser
TMSS and absorber plate
Schematic of TMSS
Experimental
setup
setup
13
PARAMETE
RS
Solar to vapour conversion efficiency ( 𝜼 )
𝜼 = mhfg/(qsolarA)
m = vapour production rate ( Kg/s )
hfg = Enthalpy of water vapourisation ( kJ/Kg )
qs ol ar = Input solar flux ( Wm-2 )
A = Effective absorption area ( m2 )
TMSS under steady state produced 5.78 Lm-2h-1 and solar to vapour conversion efficiency was 385 %
which represent a Gained Output Ratio ( GOR ) of around 4 ( No. of times Vapourisation enthalpy was
reused)
14
PARAMETE
RS
a) Salinity before and after desalination (b) Salt diffusion cycle
Salinity of water produced by TMSS prototype was two order of magnitude less than the standard provided
by WHO.
Day time salt accumulates and night time accumulated salt diffuses away.
15
SYSTEM FOR SOLAR
CONCENTRATION
HELIOSTAT: Includes a mirror, usually a plane mirror, which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a
predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky.
Normally heliostat requires a adjustable mirror which work by a sensor and actuation mechanism thus makes it
a bit costly.
STRETCHED MEMBRANE HELIOSTAT is a possible low cost option for the same purpose.
Schematic of a stretched membrane
reflector
16
Design Elements of Heliostat
FRAME: Provides strength of structure and a raised planar surface for attachment of reflective [Link]
clearance for deformation of membrane.
Cross Section of a unit with
backplate support at
bottom
FILM WRINKLING : Reflective films tend to wrinkle badly as it is deformed by vacuum. Which can be eliminated
by using a floating batten around the film surface.
Floating batten attached to
Wrinkling defect
outside surface of reflective film
17
Design Elements of
Heliostat
THERMAL STABILITY : If the supporting structure is not heated properly by the radiation it will lead to the loss
of tension of the stretched membrane .
Solar heating applied to a
stretched membrane support.
VACUUM LEAK : It will cause the shift of focus of the stretched membrane.
MATERIALS :Metallised polyester sheets are example of a reflective membrane which is low cost like 200 ₹/Kg
,silicone and polyurethane sealants are used.
18
SELECTED
CONFIGURATIONS
From the results of prototype TMSS device we can select a 100 x 10 cm 2 for our application which has a
production rate of 5.78 Lm-2h-1 .
To keep the TMSS device illuminated above 1 solar illumination we can use a stretched membrane 100 x 40
cm2 which was selected considering the following factors,
● Figure shows a reflection region of light 200 before noon to
500 past noon, blue lines show reflected light converging at a
focus of 50 cm and aperture of the surface is also 50 cm.
● So we have to set up a reflecting mirror that will transfer
light to TMSS ( which is set up at 300 to vertical and facing
sun before noon ) which has to be in the red shaded zone
to be reflecting light throughout the selected period of
time.
SELECTED
CONFIGURATIONS
● Increasing the height of reflecting mirror(18cm in given example)/ reducing the focus of
stretched membrane will increase the intensity of light at reflecting mirror.
● Similarly selected an aperture of 40cm and focus of 30 cm gave a height of usable area 16cm and after
considering the 90% reflectivity for membrane and got around 1.4 times the normal illumination which
was selected .
Stretched membrane
Supporting structure
Air
Water
Valve Vacuum pump
Schematic of a stretched membrane 18
heliostat
20
SELECTED
CONFIGURATIONS
● Water is used so that vacuum can be created using a simple hand pump and sealed off by the valve.
● Whole setup of stretched membrane can be assembled on site using the parts and some kind of sealant.
Thus making the transport and installation easier.
● TMSS is made up if individual casings of nylon frame in which the evaporator/condenser plate is
fixed, and thus can be also assembled onsite and transport is easier.
21
RESULT &
DISCUSSION
● Thermally-localized multi stage solar still was scaled up from prototype and
coupled with a heliostat.
It was ensured that the TMSS module now 100 x 10 cm2 is all time supplied with
more than the normal solar
illumination thus providing slightly better output than 5.78 Lm-2h-1
The stretched membrane heliostat was selected and provides an 1.4 times the
normal illumination , which is transferred to TMMS module by a reflecting
mirror.
So with more than 6 hrs of operation and more than normal solar illumination
we can expect a production of more than 3.4 L per day.
Even though concave mirrors can be used instead stretched membrane is
used for the ease of transport , assembly and simplicity.
22
CONCLUSION
● A TMSS module was selected which had highest efficiency among others and provide fully off
grid performance.
● Material cost of both the TMSS and Heliostat were low , 1.54$ for TMSS and Heliostat material
cost are also
are low. But the labour cost involved is comparatively high.
● This setup provides a high efficiency ( enthalpy reuse ) and low cost solar desalination plant for a
person’s
daily need.
● The system need not be attended during operation during day because of the heliostat. However
vacuum leakage of stretched membrane is to be monitored.
● Low maintenance because of the simple and modular construction used , the salt rejection during
non operating time.
23
FUTURE
SCOPE
● Design parameters have to be optimised for better performance
● Parasitic loss has to be reduced in TMSS module
● Cost effective production and maintenance of the system is needed
● It has the potential to provide safe drinking water to the most affected
areas
24
REFERENCES
1. Ultrahigh-efficiency desalination via a thermally-localized multistage solar still, Zhenyuan Xu, Lenan
Zhang,Lin Zhao, Bangjun Li,Bikram Bhatia,Chenxi Wang, Kyle L. Wilke, Youngsup Song,Omar Labban, John H.
Lienhard,Ruzhu Wang and Evelyn N. Wang Journal of energy and environment science 3,2020
2. [Link]
3. Solar Energy for Water desalination, Pascale Compain, 1st International Symposium on Innovation
and Technology in the Phosphate Industry[SYMPHOS 2011]
THANK YOU!!
QUESTIONS??
