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Engenious: Shaastra 2 0 0 4
Engenious: Shaastra 2 0 0 4
design to inspire...
M a n o j S h a r m a
K a r t i k S r i v a t s a
IIT Madras
shaastra
2004
Introduction
Distillation is one of many processes available for water purification, and sunlight is one of
several forms of heat energy that can be used to power that process. Sunlight has the
advantage of zero fuel cost but it requires more space (for its collection) and generally more
costly equipment.
To dispel a common belief, it is not necessary to boil water to distill it. Simply elevating its
temperature, short of boiling, will adequately increase the evaporation rate. In fact, although
vigorous boiling hastens the distillation process it also can force unwanted residue into the
distillate, defeating purification. Furthermore, to boil water with sunlight requires more
costly apparatus than is needed to distill it a little more slowly without boiling.
Many levels of purification can be achieved with this process, depending upon the intended
application. Sterilized water for medical uses requires a different process than that used to
make drinking water. Purification of water heavy in dissolved salts differs from purification
of water that has been dirtied by other chemicals or suspended solids.
For people concerned about the quality of their municipally-supplied drinking water and
unhappy with other methods of additional purification available to them, solar distillation of
tap water or brackish groundwater can be a pleasant, energy-efficient option.
Solar distillation systems can be small or large. They are designed either to serve the needs of
a single family, producing from to 3 gallons of drinking water a day on the average, or to
produce much greater amounts for an entire neighborhood or village. In some parts of the
world the scarcity of fresh water is partially overcome by covering shallow salt water basins
with glass in greenhouse-like structures. These solar energy distilling plants are relatively
inexpensive, low-technology systems, especially useful where the need for small plants exists.
Solar distillation of potable water from saline (salty) water has been practiced for many years
in tropical and sub-tropical regions where fresh water is scare. However, where fresh water is
plentiful and energy rates are moderate, the most cost-effective method has been to pump
and purify.
Prelude
There are four possible ways of purifying water for drinking purpose:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Distillation
Filtration
Chemical Treatment
Irradiative Treatment
Considering the areas where the technology is intended to be used we can rule out few of
the above mentioned methods based on the unavailability of materials or costs. Chemical
treatment is not a stand alone procedure and so is irradiative treatment. Both can act only
remove some specific impurities and hence can only be implemented in coordination with
other technologies.
This analysis leaves us with two methods Distillation and Filtration. By weighting the
positive and negatives of both the methods we decided to go by the first one. The most
important considerations were that of complexity, higher maintenance and subsequent costs
coupled with need of other sophisticated supporting equipments.
Finally we decided to go by distillation method owing to the following benefits:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Before proceeding further we would like to mention a few assumptions that we made for the
design:
1. The system will serve a family of 5. The number is assumed to be the average size of
a rural household. Data has also been confirmed with the census data.
2. Average requirement of water per person in a house is assumed to be around 1.5
liters/day. This gives the total water consumption to be around 7.5 liters/day. Also
considering the requirement for cooking we roughly evaluate net water consumption
per household is around 30 liters/day.
3. The solar constant equals 1.3 kW/m2 but owing to losses incurred while passing
through atmosphere we can consider the solar irradiation to be 1kW/m2.
Some other important data required for design is given below.
Specific heat of water = 4.2 kJ/kg
Latent heat of vaporization = Latent heat of condensation = 2260 kJ/kg
In the design we have incorporated a pump which is a simple manually operated vacuum
pump to reduce air pressure inside the distillation chamber. We are looking at operating
conditions of about 60 oC to ensure low heat transfer losses. At this temperature the
vapor pressure of water is 20 kPa. So we need to operate the pump to reduce the pressure to
this value and then leave it in the sun for distillation. This will ensure boiling of water inside
the distiller as soon as the temperature reaches 60 oC, which is pretty low and easily
achievable by using simple designs. Actually we plan to use a slight modification of the
regular cycle pump that is available everywhere.
For the purpose of design we will assume a very low conversion efficiency of around 20%.
This will ensure that water is available in excess and also when there is not ample sunlight.
Given the highly erratic supply of sunlight which depends greatly on weather conditions we
have to over design it for high factor of safety in this case 2. In real life we expect the
efficiency to be higher than 40%.
The first step in design is to calculate the aperture area.
Aperture Area = Energy required for distillation of 30 liters of water / Solar energy
available per m2 * conversion efficiency
= (30 kg/day * 4.2kJ/kg oC * (60-30)
hours/day)*(0.2)
= 0.8 m 2
So we need total area of 0.8 m 2 for the distillation of 30 liters of water daily.
before use to prevent any sort of oil or volatile contents. The side reservoir walls
are insulated and the bottom is conducting.
Fig. 4. Structure of the multi-stage reservoirs also showing the lowermost reservoir and
the collector tubes.
4. Lowermost Reservoir
The lowermost reservoir is designed differently than the above 3. We need to
make it different so that evaporation takes place from this and then condenses
on the first stage and delivers heat to it. Then it repeats with the second stage
and so on. For achieving higher temperatures we have added tubes coated with
black joining the deeper water level to the surface water. This will ensure that the
cooler water at bottom is heated up by absorbing solar radiation and added to
the surface where it can evaporate faster. There is no need of a pump for
maintaining the circulation natural convection induced because of density
difference will take care of that.
5. Pump
The pump used is an ordinary cycle pump with a few minor modifications. We
have introduced three one way valves
a. one on the inlet,
b. one on the piston and
c. one on the exit.
6. Finally after the whole procedure is over the glass cover is installed on top. This is
the last step as glass is the most fragile material we are using for the design.
4. Provide holes for transport of distilled water
and saline water
6. Finally put the glass cover
8. The same process as described in 7 repeats in the next two stages. This ensures
maximum utilization of the captured heat and finally all the water falls into a
common collector system which is so designed to minimize any sort of losses.
Materials
1. The side and bottom walls need to be insulated. This can be achieved by using multilayered insulator. Glass wool will be sand-witched between two metallic plates. This
will ensure negligible heat loss to the surroundings.
2. The main frame is composed of steel owing to its corrosion resistance, low weight,
long life and easy cleanability.
3. The outside of the complete distiller is coated with carbon black to increase
absorption of radiation.
4. The cover on the top is made of tempered glass so that the birds cant see their
reflection and hence avoid nuisence.
Usage
The usage will involve following steps:1. The user will fill the reservoir tank with water that needs to be purified.
2. Attach the vacuum pump to the apparatus and operate it till the pressure inside
drops to around 20kPa. Then remove the pump.
3. Attach the pipe for collecting the purified water.
4. Then he will lift the whole device up a few meters above the ground (around 2.5 m).
This will ensure no shadows fall on the apparatus during any part of the day.
5. Leave it there till evening.
6. Remove the purified water for use.
7. Remove the plates for cleaning and dispose of the remaining water.
8. Ready for use on the next day.
Maintenance
1. The only maintenance that the device requires is replacement of the glass in case of
accidental breakage.
2. Daily cleaning of the plates is required.
3. Sometimes the pump will need to be oiled and serviced. This cost might occur once
in 6 months or so.
Cost Analysis
The total area of the steel plates used = 4.5 m2
Rate of steel plate of thickness 1mm = 60/Kg
Total cost of steel = Rs 400
Second Design
We would also like to present a second design that does not require vacuum pressures to
operate. This will make the system much simpler and cheaper. For achieving better
evaporation at lower temperatures in this case we make use of the phenomena called
atomization. This is achieved as follows.
The water is stored at a higher location under high pressure. The water is heated at this
location by using the solar radiation entrapment using glass plate for green house effect.
When water comes down to the distillation chamber both pressures and temperatures are
high because of pgh term or pressure head and solar heating. This water is made to pass
through a fine nozzle. This will ensure fine droplet formation and consequently very high
rates of evaporation.
The walls of the chamber are cooled by means of evaporative cooling of water on the layer
of clay, as demonstrated in the diagram. When this moisture laden air comes in contact with
the cool walls of the chamber condensation takes place and the water moves down to the
collector drain.
Distillation Column