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Home » Blog » Solar Controllers » Make Your Own Rapid Sea Water Desalination Plant at Home

Make Your Own Rapid Sea Water Desalination Plant at Home

LAST UPDATED ON JUNE 8, 2020 BY SWAGATAM — 34 COMMENTS

A simple, low cost set up presented in this article will give you a clear idea regarding how to desalinate sea water at a
fast rate and in large quantities.The conventional method of solar sea water desalination process is quite sluggish and
cumbersome. A simple, low cost but effective idea presented here will show you how to desalinate sea water much
ef ciently.

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A Simple Sea Water Desalination Apparatus Ampli ers (59)
A simple and a low cost set up (Exclusively Developed By Me) as shown in the diagram should be able to convert sea Arduino Engineering Projects (83)
water into fresh drinking water in large quantity, depending upon the size of the sphere. Audio Projects (94)

The main feature of this system unlike other conventional ways is the fast conversion rate of waste water into fresh Battery Chargers (83)

water. Car and Motorcycle (94)

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Also, since the whole process is solar operated, cost incurred is zero. Another great advantage of this design is that it's
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not dependent on the position of the sun and will work throughout the day as effectively.
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Let’s study how to desalinate sea water through a simple the set up: The system is basically made up of a large hollow Electronic Components (99)
glass sphere with a “T” shaped glass tube extension coming out of its top portion. The sphere is made up of solid glass at Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory (36)
the bottom, up to the focal point of the sphere. Electronics Tutorial (115)
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This base surface may be painted black to increase the ef ciency of the unit. As can be seen in the diagram, the short
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vertical arm of the tube which extends upwards terminates into a funnel.
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The funnel carries a valve in the form of a tap. The long horizontal arm is bent at 90 degrees and terminates inside the GSM Projects (9)
reservoir tank. Health Related (20)

The whole set up is placed outdoors in an open area where clear sunlight is accessible throughout the day. Heater Controllers (28)
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Sea water is poured through the funnel and the glass sphere is allowed to ll completely, only up to the circumference of
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the globe. Now the tap is closed.
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How the Desalination System Works? Industrial Electronics (28)

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Once the sphere is lled with water, it behaves like a big, solid and a powerful convex lens. In our childhood days we all SG3525 IC (5)
have played with this amazing piece of lenses. Simple Circuits (76)

We have seen how it is able to focus and concentrate sun rays at one single point when placed at a particular angle SMPS (29)

under sunlight. Solar Controllers (60)

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(Click Image to Enlarge) The created focal point is in fact a concentrated beam of the sun rays collected and de ected at
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a small point.
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This point is very hot, and is able to produce burning effect over anything placed under it. The above principle has been
simply exploited in the present design.

Without water the sphere is ineffective and will act just like a normal glass. The sunrays entering into it thus cannot
generate much of a heat. But the moment it is lled with water, it is transformed into a big solid convex lens having a
focal point exactly at its center.
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Sun rays hitting the glass sphere are instantly refracted through the entire curvature of the lled water to reach exactly
at the center. AWG to Millimeter Converter
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Here the rays concentrate into single hot spot. Water at this point starts heating up instantly and the heat is gradually
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transferred to the whole mass of the lled water.
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As the temperature rises, water molecules are converted into vapor. The water vapor formed, rise through the “T” shaped IC 555 Monostable Calculator
glass tube and the reservoir tank. Inductance Calculator
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The tank being relatively much cooler helps in converting the received water vapor into clean, drinkable water* (see
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comments) on its roof.
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Water molecules accumulated on the roof of the reservoir tank slowly gather to form water drops which ultimately fall Phase Angle Phase Shift Calculator
into the tank and pure water is thus collected inside the tank. Power Factor (PF) Calculator

This water is absolutely pure, and free from viruses, bacteria or dust particles. The ef ciency of this apparatus will Reactance Calculator

decrease if the lled water is murky or muddy. Small Signal Transistor(BJT) and Diode Quick
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Because in such a case the focal point will be comparatively dull and won’t be able to create enough heat. The above Transistor Astable Calculator
method should have certainly made you understand regarding how to desalinate sea water simply and ef ciently.
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UPDATE: Voltage Divider Calculator

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Th above design looks quite inef cient since the apparatus is cumbersome and dif cult to implement for large scale
desalination process. A much better and simpler design can be seen below. The diagram is self explanatory:

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About Swagatam
I am an electronic engineer (dipIETE ), hobbyist, inventor, schematic/PCB designer, manufacturer. I am also the
founder of the website: https://www.homemade-circuits.com/, where I love sharing my innovative circuit ideas
and tutorials.
If you have any circuit related query, you may interact through comments, I'll be most happy to help!

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Paull Kirk says

July 23, 2022 at 7:03 pm
sadly solar won’t work year round here in the U.K. Perhaps just in a hot summer.

REPLY

Swagatam says
July 23, 2022 at 7:20 pm
You are right!

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Luke says
June 16, 2022 at 2:31 am
Does the diameter of pipe/tube between the sun-still and the collection tank matter?

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Swagatam says
June 16, 2022 at 8:39 am
Yes, the diameter should not be less than an inch

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Prince says
May 27, 2022 at 11:26 am
Very nice system.
Can it treat up to 8,000 litres in 8 hours.
Send me your WhatsApp contact number.
Thanks
Prince

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Swagatam says
May 27, 2022 at 12:11 pm
Thank you, yes it can do it.

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Fred Raia says

August 2, 2021 at 8:36 pm
Can this setup be done using a water tanker truck

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Swagatam says
August 2, 2021 at 8:59 pm
Your question is not clear, please elaborate?

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Devin Filo says

June 19, 2021 at 10:22 pm
This is the perfect webpage for everyone who really wants to understand this topic. You realize so much its almost tough
to argue with you (not that I really will need to…HaHa). You certainly put a brand new spin on a topic that’s been
discussed for decades. Excellent stuff, just great!

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Dennis Krieg says

May 5, 2021 at 7:07 am
In your Desalination System, where could I obtain such a glass water tank & glass funnel? Would a sh tank work?

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Swagatam says
May 5, 2021 at 10:54 am
any circular glass vessel should work better than rectangular…so may be a large glass bubble bowl, or a cylindrical
tube type glass vessel might do the job.

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Margareta Petru says

October 19, 2020 at 5:02 pm
WONDERFUL Post.thanks for share..extra wait .. …

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j says
October 24, 2019 at 10:19 am
Your updated design is known as a solar still. The idea is the evaporate the salt water and let it condense on the bottom
of the glass and trip into the clean water vessel. I have modi ed this design to great effect as follows: I replaced the 2
chambers with 5 gallon buckets. There is a spigot on the bottom bucket. The upper bucket is painted black to absorb
solar radiation. The glass is replaced with a high temperature oven bag such as used to bake turkeys. The bag is
positioned on an angle such that one corner naturally acts as a drip guide into the funnel. Now for the major
improvement. Add a third bucket as a salt water reservoir to the stack. This bucket has holes drilled in the bottom to
allow the contaminated water to ll the upper portion of the oven bag. You must seal the top bucket to the middle
bucket to prevent leaking. Note that this arrangement provides a cool oven bag surface to promote condensation in the
middle bucket. The water in the bag is also being preheated during the condensation process making more ef cient use
of the captured solar energy. All that remains is to add a tube to transfer water from the bag up and out of the upper
chamber Into the evaporation chamber. Note, all chambers are sealed air tight to prevent a rapid siphoning from the
upper to middle chambers. The ow should drip into the evaporator in an ‘as needed’ manner. I have achieved production
rates of nearly one gallon of fresh water per day with this system. Hope this helps.

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Swagatam says
October 24, 2019 at 10:49 am
Thanks for the valuable feedback, appreciate it very much!

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Linc says
June 9, 2019 at 4:26 pm
This idea won’t work. If you want to heat water using the sun, look to rooftop solar hot water systems. None use a round
glass ask and for good reason.
Surface area presented to the sun is what matters. There is no lensing effect that heats water up at a concentrated point
inside the ask. If the water is clear enough to make an ef cient lens, then the sunlight and it’s infrared heat will pass
right through. If the water is too cloudy to make a lens then it will heat up but only proportional to the surface area of
the ask that’s seen by the sun (so a circle).
A hot water system, however, uses a at black panel with water pipes on the back. That works.

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Swagatam says
June 9, 2019 at 6:27 pm
Thank you for your opinion. I have updated a better design at the bottom of the post.

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Craig says
February 2, 2018 at 4:17 am
Dear Sir,
I am emailing from Cape Town. Cape Town (about 4 million people) has less than 100 days water left at 1 Feb 2018.
Please can I ask about your brilliant home desalinsation plant? I live near the sea.
Where would I get the correct glass sphere? Must it be round like a ball or oval? What size or type of opening should the
sphere have at the top?
Just trying to think of the best type of supplier to source the glass sphere?
Is it best that the other components are glass?
I am keen to try build your desalinization plant, but just want to get a feel for the correct components?
Especially the size and shape of the sphere and where best to source it?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and invention.
Kind regards Craig Cape Town email address as below 🙂 🙂

REPLY

Swagatam says
February 2, 2018 at 2:39 pm
Dear Craig, I think glass sphere method has too many limitations, rst of all you cannot desalinate large amounts of
water at one go, and being glass it could be vulnerable to damages.

Instead you could try the following concept

https://www.homemade-circuits.com/make-free-drinking-water-from-sea-water/

this one will be much more effective

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Craig says
February 3, 2018 at 11:54 pm
Dear Swagatam,
Thank you very much for your time and valuable guidance.
I am not a technical person so I am trying to nd ways to understand evaporation and condensation and then how to
speed up process. It is said 97% of water on Earth is sea water. To change sea water into fresh water cheaply would
make a huge difference. Easier said than done. I see some researchers at Alexandria University have made some
interesting discovery re converting sea water into fresh water. All the best and thank you so much for your valuable
guidance 🙂 🙂 Craig Cape Town

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Swagatam says
February 4, 2018 at 11:26 am
You are most welcome Craig!

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Swagatam says
May 15, 2017 at 2:33 am
salt cannot evaporate with water molecules, salt will remain in the ask and only water molecules will evaporate and
pass through the tube and nally condense in the reservoir tank.

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govind rajan says

May 14, 2017 at 1:00 pm
after water become stream it ows through the pipe towards the reservior tank.but the salt still intact with the
stream,so salt never been removed from water.atually in sea the sun rays evoporate the seawater as stream that goes up
and form the cloud., the distance between the seawater and cloud is appriciable ,the sea wind remove the salt from the
stream.but in ur project the stream never been exposed to wind and the salt and orid neverbeen removed completly
.ultimately the water from the reservior tank is not drnikable.is it?

thoomsati@gmail.com

REPLY

Talon p.s. says

February 6, 2017 at 7:44 pm
quick question,
Provided a person could nd the necessary equipment to do this, (thinking along the lines of an event that would
decimate drinking water) Approx. how many times do you think the aparatice would work before clouded out by the salt
which doent disappear, but would remain inside the heating cyphere? Thanks in advance.

Okay another question, (since realisticly if someone were under such harsh conditions, a local lab supplier is not likely to
available), What alternative items would you consider to build the apparatise? I can imagine a coffee pot being used and
a sh tank for the resevoir, but how could they be attached to creat the T tubing. Thanks again.

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Unknown says
October 30, 2016 at 6:24 pm
Seems like this tech is no outdated. Try doing a search for "large scale solar desalination" and you will see why…

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Swagatam says
October 31, 2016 at 4:05 am
it needs to be extremely cheap, extremely effective and within layman's reach

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Sirvglam says
May 18, 2016 at 4:30 pm
Can I share this article?

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thewanderlust says
October 4, 2015 at 4:59 am
Hi Swagatam,

This certainly seems to be a very good idea. Would like to go into more details of this.
Will it be possible for me to get in touch with you?

Regards
Sameer

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Swagatam says
October 4, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Thank you Sameer,

You can also read the following article which shows an alternative method of achieving the same, but in a more
ef cient way:

https://www.homemade-circuits.com/2015/09/make-free-drinking-water-from-sea-water.html

Please feel free to contact me at:

admin @ homemade-circuits.com

REPLY

LymeThrive says
October 19, 2015 at 3:42 pm
Unclear regarding how much to ll sphere.Fill to top or to middle?

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Swagatam says
October 20, 2015 at 7:38 am
it should be full from the top,

the inner bottom concave surface of the dome could be made mirror nish so that this issue is permanently solved.

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yousef alotay says

March 22, 2014 at 5:18 am
A demester layer above heated sea water should contribute reduces salty droplet carrying over to Reservoir tank.

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Swagatam says
March 22, 2014 at 3:05 pm
OK, thanks for the input!

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irfan hossain says

September 19, 2013 at 5:31 pm
How can i make a RO system for desalination at home easily ?have u any idea?…

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Swagatam says
September 20, 2013 at 12:28 pm
sorry i do not have idea regarding RO systems.

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