Desalination of brackish water using dual acting solar still

Abstract

Desalination of the brackish water is a very suitable approach to augment the exponentially increasing fresh water demands due to uncontrolled population growth in the developing countries. Keeping in view the local needs of small families residing in the remote areas of the country and having no access to fresh water availability, this research has been carried out for the development of locally fabricated dual acting solar still having lower initial cost for desalination purpose. The system consists of a flat plate collector, an evaporation chamber equipped with heat exchanger made of 5 mm copper tube, 60 W_p solar PV panel and water circulation mechanism. The result shows that the fresh water production was found to be 3.8 l/m² in 8 hours a day. The drinking quality water tests have also been performed and compared with International standards. The result shows that EC, pH, TDS, Na¹⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg was found to be 0.15 dsm^-1, 6.1, 105 ppm, 0.47 mg/l, 0.65 mg/l and 0.54 mg/l respectively and at par with International standards. The result showed that the dual acting solar still can be used for desalination purposes under favorable climatic condition and high amount of solar insolation in the region.