Design of a Portable Solar Desalination System

Abstract

Despite the ocean covering more than half of the planet, many places directly next to the sea lack drinkable water. This is due to the salt content found in the water. Desalination is the process of removing salt from the ocean water and making it pure enough for general use by people, whether for cooking, cleaning, or other purposes. The process of desalinating water can be very energy intensive and take up large amounts of space. Certain coastal regions are not capable of sustaining the costs or do not have the space to install such a system. To fix this problem, this work proposes a design for a portable solar desalination system. This system will be powered using a linear Fresnel lens focused onto a heat sink in thermal contact with the water. Once the water is evaporated, it will be pumped into a coiled cooling pipe. The condensed water will then be deposited into a collection tank with a nozzle for easy access. The system will be small enough to fit on the bed of a pickup truck in order for it to be transported to locations near the ocean in need of water. Calculations were conducted and it was seen that in an ideal case, the system was capable of producing 16.4 liters of water a day, which would be capable of sustaining 8 people drinking 2 liters per day. Experiments were designed to test the essential stages of the process and to gather data to design the system. From the experiments conducted, it was seen that the process can generate steam to condense into portable water. The experiments conducted lacks the accuracy that the planned experiments offer due to the lack of materials. From the experiments conducted, errors were found to be improved upon in future works. Simulations were conducted to determine the output of the Stirling engine and the storage system. The Stirling engine was seen to produce 36W of power with an efficiency of 10.53%. A Li-Ion battery storage system was shown to be capable of storing the energy generated.