Research and design of an improved solar still for desalination

Tóm tắt

Water is one of the most important resources on Earth because of its vital role
for human beings and other living creatures. During the devastating drought
in the Mekong Delta in 2016, millions of people had no access to the secure
source of fresh water. This issue cautioned and influenced the Vietnamese
government to find an effective desalination process for the coastal areas impacted
heavily by salinization. However, desalination processes require large
amounts of energy which can be a problem for the coastal areas due to the lack
of energy and high cost. The main purpose of the study herein was to find an
alternative solution for desalination by designing a desalination system using
solar energy. The design was expected to provide a small size desalination system
for households. The average output of the system was about 854 ml/day
with the productivity at 2223.54 ml/day/m2. The average water capture efficiency
was 80.5%, the salt elimination efficiency of the system was about
99.99%, and the salinity of the output water was below 2 ppm. The results are
still far from ideal, but they indicate a potential solution for coping with the
shortage of fresh water in coastal areas.