Performance Investigation of Ethiopian Local Drinking Alcohol Distillation System Using Solar Dish Concentrator

In Ethiopia, in addition to the large quantity of biomass consumption per year for daily cooking, production of the traditional local “Areke” consumes large amounts of fire wood which further accelerates deforestation. This study introduces solar-based technology for distillation of the local “Areke” using an indirect heating system. A solar parabolic dish collector with an aperture diameter of 0.9 m and an improved truncated cone cavity absorber were installed. The heat transfer process is governed by the principle of natural circulation, boiling, and condensation between a receiver and a distillation column. The experiment was conducted in Debre Birhan city at 20°C ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure of 0.722 atm. The surface temperature of the truncated cone cavity absorber attained a maximum temperature of 300.3°C, and the thermal efficiency attained by the collector was 54.6%. The production efficiency of the solar thermal local alcohol “Areke” distillation system was found to increase by 1.67% compared to the traditional firewood distillation system.