Solar still – Water Purifying Mechanical Project
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this project is to design a water distillation system that can purify water from nearly any source, a system that is relatively cheap, portable, and depends only on renewable solar energy.
The motivation for this project is the limited availability of clean water resources and the abundance of impure water available for potential conversion into potable water, In addition, there are many coastal locations where seawater is abundant but potable water is not available. Our project goal is to efficiently produce clean drinkable water from solar energy conversion. Distillation is one of many processes that can be used for water purification. This requires an energy input as heat, electricity and solar radiation can be the source of energy. When Solar energy is used for this purpose, it is known as Solar water Distillation. Solar Distillation is an attractive process to produce portable water using free of cost solar energy. This energy is used directly for evaporating water inside a device usually termed a „Solar Still‟. Solar stills are used in cases where rain, piped, or well water is impractical, such as in remote homes or during power outages. Different versions of a still are used to desalinate seawater, in desert survival kits and for home water Purification. 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 is an attractive alternative because of its simple technology, non-requirement of highly skilled labour for maintenance work and low energy consumption. The use of solar thermal energy in seawater desalination applications has so far been restricted to small-scale systems in rural areas. The reason for this has mainly been explained by the relatively low productivity rate compared to the high capital cost. However, the coming shortage in fossil fuel supply and the growing need for fresh water
in order to support increasing water and irrigation needs, have motivated further development of water desalination and purification by renewable energies.
Water Purification:-
It is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants,suspended solids and gases from contaminated water. The goal is to produce water fit for a specific purpose. Most water is purified for human consumption (drinking water),but water purification may also be designed for a variety of other purposes, including meeting the requirements of medical, pharmacological, chemical and industrial applications. In general the methods used include physical processes such as filtration, sedimentation, and distillation, biological processes such as slow sand filters or biologically active carbon, chemical processes such as inoculation and chlorination and the use of electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light.
Options for water purification:-
There are four possible ways of purifying water for drinking purpose:-
- 1. Distillation
- 2. Filtration
- 3. Chemical Treatment
- 4. Irradiation Treatment
Benefits of Distillation:-
Finally we decided to go by distillation method owing to the following benefits:-
1. It produces water of high quality.
2. Maintenance is almost negligible.
3. Any type of water can be purified into potable water by means of this process
4. The system will not involve any moving parts and will not require electricity to Operate.
5. Wastage of water will be minimum.
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