Abstract
Desalination is a technique used to produce potable water from water sources containing dissolved chemicals contamination. Water with TDS value (mg/L) less than 1000 is called potable and water with TDS value (mg/L) >1000 is called brackish water. There are several methods of water desalination like ion exchange, electro dialysis, reverse osmosis, distillation, solar desalination etc.
Solar desalination is a process in which solar energy is used to evaporate brackish water in an air-tight chamber and allowed to condense on a condensing surface, leaving behind the dissolved impurities to make it suitable for drinking. States of India like Rajasthan with highly contaminated ground water and ample solar radiations may use this technique to produce drinking water from the available brackish water.
In this paper a mathematical model is presented to theoretically predict the output of a solar desalination system by enhancing the evaporative surface area which is verified experimentally. It is observed that efficiency of solar desalination system may be increased by increasing the surface area available for evaporation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.