Solar Distillation

SOLAR DISTILLATION
Gowri Shankar R
Department of Chemical Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhaptnam-530003, India.
Email: [email protected]; Tel: +91-9985348146
Abstract
There is an important need for clean, pure drinking water in many developing countries. Often water sources are
brackish (i.e. contain dissolved salts) and/or contain harmful bacteria and therefore cannot be used for drinking. In
addition, there are many coastal locations where seawater is abundant but potable water is not available. Pure water
is also useful for batteries and in hospitals or schools. Distillation is one of many processes that can be used for
water purification. This requires an energy input, as heat, solar radiation can be the source of energy. In this process,
water is evaporated, thus separating water vapour from dissolved matter, which is condensed as pure water. 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.
Introduction
There is an important need for clean, pure drinking water in many developing countries. Often water sources are
brackish (i.e. contain dissolved salts) and/or contain harmful bacteria and therefore cannot be used for drinking. In
addition, there are many coastal locations where seawater is abundant but potable water is not available. Pure water
is also useful for batteries and in hospitals or schools.
Distillation is one of many processes that can be used for water purification. This requires an energy input, as heat,
solar radiation can be the source of energy. In this process, water is evaporated, thus separating water vapour from
dissolved matter, which is condensed as pure water.
Solar water distillation is a solar technology with a very long history and installations were built over 2000 years
ago, although to produce salt rather than drinking water. Documented use of solar stills began in the sixteenth
century. An early large-scale solar still was built in 1872 to supply a mining community in Chile with drinking
water. Mass production occurred for the first time during the Second World War when 200,000 inflatable plastic
stills were made to be kept in life-crafts for the US Navy.
There are a number of other approaches to water purification and desalination, such as photovoltaic powered
reverse-osmosis, for which small-scale commercially available equipment is available. These are not considered
here.
In addition, if treatment of polluted water is required rather than desalination, slow sand filtration is a good option.
The purpose of this technical brief is to provide basic information and direct the reader to other, more detailed
sources.
Materials and methods
Energy requirements for water distillation

The energy required to evaporate water is the latent heat of vaporisation of water. This has a value of
2260 kilojoules per kilogram (kJ/kg). This means that to produce 1 litre (i.e. 1kg since the density of water
is 1kg/litre) of pure water by distilling brackish water requires a heat input of 2260kJ. This does not allow
for the efficiency of the heating method, which will be less than 100%, or for any recovery of latent heat
that is rejected when the water vapour is condensed.
It should be noted that, although 2260kJ/kg is required to evaporate water, to pump a kg of water through
20m head requires only 0.2kJ/kg. Distillation is therefore normally considered only where there is no local
source of fresh water that can be easily pumped or lifted.
How a simple solar still operates
Figure 1 shows a single-basin still. The main features of operation are the same for all solar stills. The
incident solar radiation is transmitted through the glass cover and is absorbed as heat by a black surface
in contact with the water to be distilled. The water is thus heated and gives off water vapour. The vapour
condenses on the glass cover, which is at a lower temperature because it is in contact with the ambient
air, and runs down into a gutter from where it is fed to a storage tank. Solar distillation Practical Action 2
Design objectives for an efficient solar still

For high efficiency the solar still should maintain:
• a high feed (undistilled) water temperature
• a large temperature difference between feed water and condensing surface
• lowvapour leakage.
A high feed water temperature can be achieved if:
• a high proportion of incoming radiation is absorbed by the feed water as heat. Hence low absorption
glazing and a good radiation absorbing surface are required
• heat losses from the floor and walls are kept low
• the water is shallow so there is not so much to heat.
A large temperature difference can be achieved if:
• the condensing surface absorbs little or none of the incoming radiation
• condensing water dissipates heat which must be removed rapidly from the condensing surface by, for
example, a second flow of water or air, or by condensing at night.
General arrangement
Results and discussion
Output of a solar still

An approximate method of estimating the output of a solar still is given by:
Q=ExGxA
2.3
where:
Q = daily output of distilled water (litres/day)
E = overall efficiency
G = daily global solar irradiation (MJ/m²)
A = aperture area of the still ie, the plan areas for a simple basin still (²)
Solar distillation Practical Action 4

In a typical country the average, daily, global solar irradiation is typically 18.0 MJ/m² (5 kWh/m²). A simple
basin still operates at an overall efficiency of about 30%. Hence the output per square metre of area is:
daily output = 0.30 x 18.0 x 1
2.3
= 2.3 litres (per square metre)
The yearly output of a solar still is often therefore referred to as approximately one cubic metre per square
metre.
Conclusions
Human beings need 1 or 2 litres of water a day to live. The minimum requirement for normal life in
developing countries (which includes cooking, cleaning and washing clothes) is 20 litres per day (in the
industrialised world 200 to 400 litres per day is typical). Yet some functions can be performed with salty
water and a typical requirement for distilled water is 5 litres per person per day. Therefore 2m² of still are
needed for each person served.
Solar stills should normally only be considered for removal of dissolved salts from water. If there is a
choice between brackish ground water or polluted surface water, it will usually be cheaper to use a slow
sand filter or other treatment device. If there is no fresh water then the main alternatives are desalination,
transportation and rainwater collection.
Unlike other techniques of desalination, solar stills are more attractive, the smaller the required output.
The initial capital cost of stills is roughly proportional to capacity, whereas other methods have significant
economies of scale. For the individual household, therefore, the solar still is most economic.
For outputs of 1m³/day or more, reverse osmosis or electrodialysis should be considered as an alternative
to solar stills. Much will depend on the availability and price of electrical power.
Solar distillation Practical Action 5
For outputs of 200m³/day or more, vapour compression or flash evaporation will normally be least cost.
The latter technology can have part of its energy requirement met by solar water heaters.
Fig.2. Isometric View of the Solar Water Distiller

Design Specifications
The Distiller is made of the following parts:
1. Tempered Glass Plate
Glass has the property of selectively allowing only the higher energy radiation to
pass through and blocking the longer wavelengths. This particular property aids
in the distiller as it captures most of the incoming higher energy radiation but
does not allow it to radiate back. This also serves as a condensing surface being
open to atmosphere it will always be at a lower temperature than the water
inside. It is made slanting so that any water droplets that are formed finally move
along the gradient where they finally deposit the condensate into collector.
2. Top water reservoir
Water is stored on top just under the glass plate. This water needs to be
recharged everyday. The floor of the container is painted black to maximize the
irradiation capture. The paint needs to be not water soluble and dried in sun
In many parts of the world, fresh water is transported from another region or location by boat, train, truck
or pipeline. The cost of water transported by vehicles is typically of the same order of magnitude as that
produced by solar stills. A pipeline may be less expensive for very large quantities.
Rainwater collection is an even simpler technique than solar distillation in areas where rain is not scarce,
but requires a greater area and usually a larger storage tank. If ready-made collection surfaces exist
(such as house roofs) these may provide a less expensive source for obtaining clean water.
For the purpose of design we will assume a very low conversion efficiency of around
20%.
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) oC)/(1 kW/m2 * 3600 s/hour *6
hours/day)*(0.2)
= 0.8 m2
So we need total area of 0.8 m2 for the distillation of 30 liters of water daily.
References
• Malik A S et al - 'Solar Distillation' - Pergamon Press - 1982. Provides a comprehensive technical text.
• Waterlines Journal Volume 7 No 2. Developing Appropriate Technologies in Peru 1988.

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Email: [email protected]; Tel: +91-9985348146

Materials and methods

Energy requirements for water distillation

Design objectives for an efficient solar still

Output of a solar still

Solar distillation Practical Action 4

Fig.2. Isometric View of the Solar Water Distiller

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