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H. Sharon
K. Srinivas Reddy
Solar Thermal
Desalination
Technologies
for Potable Water
Exploring Viable Options for Reliable
and Sustainable Water Production
Solar Thermal Desalination Technologies
for Potable Water
H. Sharon · K. Srinivas Reddy
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
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The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
The world its course maintains through life that rain unfailing
gives;
Thus rain is known the true ambrosial food of all that lives
—Thirukkural
Fresh water demands in various sectors are rising rapidly due to increasing popu-
lation, improved life style, and continuous industrial and agricultural expansion.
“World Water Day” an annual United Nations (UN) observance day will be held
on 22 March to highlight the importance of fresh water. Due to uneven fresh water
distribution, rising water pollution, and lack of proper wastewater treatment infras-
tructures at least two billion people have no access to clean and safe drinking water.
Desalination technology seems to be a promising option in addressing water scarcity
problems and is thus expanding rapidly all over the globe. However, desalination
is an energy-intensive process, thereby low-income nations with no/little fossil fuel
resources will not be able to procure and operate large-scale desalination systems
in an economical way to meet their rising water demands. In addition, the entire
globe is driving towards energy transition from conventional to clean fuels to limit
global warming and its adverse impacts. Seventeen sustainable development goals
have been set by the United Nations (UN) for its member countries to achieve a
sustainable society by 2030. Enhancing access to affordable clean energy and clean
water to all are some among the important goals.
Learning from the nature and utilizing nature seems to be the best way to solve
water scarcity in a sustainable way. Hydrological cycle occurring in nature can be
replicated in thermal desalination systems with the aid of solar energy to produce
potable water. Numerous researches have been conducted in this area around the
globe to develop efficient, economical, and highly productive desalination systems.
This book consisting of 13 chapters makes an attempt to transfer knowledge to the
scientific community and general public about the various aspects of solar thermal
desalination systems. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with the basics of water-related issues
vii
viii Preface
The authors would like to thank the contributors of various peer-reviewed research
articles in the area of solar thermal desalination systems without which the contents
of this book are highly impossible. Thanks are also extended to Prof. Tanongkiat
Kiatsiriroat, Chiang Mai University, Thailand; Prof. Sarada Kuravi, New Mexico
State University, USA; and Prof. Hiroshi Tanaka, National Institute of Technology,
Kurume College, Japan for permitting us to use figures from their research works.
The authors are thankful to the publishers, namely, Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, and
Taylor & Francis for permitting them to reuse the necessary figures and data from their
database. The authors are highly thankful to Mr. Rathinam, General Manager, ANE
Books Pvt. Ltd., India for coordinating this book work and publisher Springer-Nature
for agreeing to publish this book work.
H. Sharon would like to acknowledge the continuous encouragement and moral
support of his parents J. Hilary Doss and N. Thangam and brother H. John. R. Sunil
during the course of this book work. He also remembers and extends his thanks to
Prof. K. S. Reddy and Prof. Ligy Philip of Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Thanks are also extended to the authorities of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras;
National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh; and Indian Institute of Petroleum
and Energy, Visakhapatnam for providing access to useful online resources for this
book preparation. Last but not the least, the author would like to remember and
thank the Lord Almighty for providing sufficient strength, good health, knowledge,
and wisdom to complete this book.
K. S. Reddy is grateful to the Curriculum Development Cell of Centre for Contin-
uing Education (CCE), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras for providing him
ix
x Acknowledgements
financial support to carry out this book work. He also acknowledges the encour-
aging atmosphere in the Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras that favors this
process.
H. Sharon
K. Srinivas Reddy
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Water Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Water Scarcity and Water Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Desalination: Effective Solution for Addressing Water
Scarcity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Conventional Desalination Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.1 Multi-stage Flash Desalination (MSF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.2 Multi-effect Distillation (MED) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.3 Vapor Compression Desalination (VC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.4 Reverse Osmosis (RO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4.5 Electro-Dialysis (ED) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Emerging Desalination Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5.1 Adsorption Desalination (AD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5.2 Membrane Distillation (MD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5.3 Forward Osmosis (FO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5.4 Desalination Battery (DB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 Utilization of Solar Energy for Desalination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.7 Commercial Solar Thermal Desalination Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.8 Classifications of Small-Scale Solar Thermal Desalination
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.9 Features of Small-Scale Solar Thermal Desalination
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Solar Radiation Potential: Modeling, Measurement,
and Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1 Solar Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Structure of the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.1 Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.2 Radiation Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
xi
xii Contents
K. Srinivas Reddy obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
in Energy Studies in 1999. Presently, Dr. Reddy is a Professor of Mechanical Engi-
neering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and he is also an honorary
professor at the University of Exeter, UK. Professor Reddy is a Fellow of the National
Academy of Engineering (FNAE) and a Fellow of the World Society of Sustainable
Energy Technologies (FWSSET). He is a specialist in renewable energy with special
research interests in concentrating solar power, energy efficiency, and the environ-
ment. He has 9 patent applications and more than 300 publications with more than
8000 citations and an h-index of 50. He has secured research funding of about USD15
Million as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI in more than 30 research projects.
Dr. Reddy has received the WSSET Innovation Award, the Mid-Career Level Insti-
tute Research and Development Award (IRDA), the Shri J. C. Bose Patent Award,
and twice, the Bhagyalakshmi and Krishna Ayengar Awards. As a part of human
resource developmental activities, he has supervised over 200 UG, PG, and Ph.D.
students.
xxi
Chapter 1
Introduction
Water is one of the unique resources which are available above and below the earth’s
surface. However, this essential resource is not uniformly distributed throughout the
earth. For example, India holds nearly 16.0% of the world’s total population but
has only 4.0% of the global renewable water. Renewable water refers to the water
reserves that are continuously replenished by natural water cycle. Moreover, water
quality also varies from location to location. Nearly, 97.5% of the water available on
the earth is saline in nature and the remaining 2.5% is fresh water. All the available
fresh water reserves cannot be accessed easily because around 68.7% of the total
fresh water reserves are trapped in glaciers and ice caps. Nearly, 30.0% of the total
fresh water reserves are ground water and the remaining 1.2% is available as surface
water in lakes and rivers (Manju & Sagar 2017). Fresh water is an essential ingredient
in agricultural, industrial, and energy sectors. Moreover, fresh water is also essential
for quenching the thirst of living beings in Mother Earth (Reif & Alhalabi 2015).
Current global water demand in agricultural sector, industrial sector (including power
generation sector), and domestic sector is distributed as 69.0%, 19.0%, and 12.0%,
respectively. By 2050, the global water demand is expected to increase by about 20.0
to 30.0% from the current demand (United Nations 2019).
are called water-scarce regions. Water scarcity can be quantified by estimating the
water requirement by an individual to meet all his/her needs and the amount of
water actually available. Minimum water requirement of an individual in a year has
been estimated to be about 1700.0 m.3 and it also includes the per capita demands
in all sectors (domestic, industrial, energy, and agricultural sectors). Nations which
are not capable of providing this minimum water to the citizens come under water
stress zones. If water supply in nations falls below 1000.0 m.3 /capita/year and 500.0
m.3 /capita/year then those nations are said to be under water scarcity and absolute
water scarcity, respectively (Rijsberman 2006).
Water scarcity is of two types, namely, physical and economical water scarcity.
Physical water scarcity refers to the non-availability of water resources or disability
of the countries to meet the required water demands even after taking necessary
actions to tackle water stress through economical and technical means. North African
countries, Middle East, China, Pakistan, and some portions of the United States of
America and India suffer from physical water scarcity. Economical water scarcity
refers to the lack of necessary water treatment or water supply-related infrastructures
to make the water resources available for peoples’ use. Most of the countries in the
African continent and some portion of the Indian sub-continent are under economical
water scarcity. Global physical and economical water scarcity zones are shown in
Fig. 1.1. Most of the water-scarce zones in the globe have poor rainfall and/or densely
populated such that the per capita water supply per year falls below 1000 m.3 .
Estimated least water requirement for satisfying the domestic needs per capita is
around 50.0 L/d, which is just, 20.0 m.3 /capita/year and is lower than the limit set
for water scarcity (1000.0 m.3 /capita/year). Hence, it should be understood that the
Fig. 1.2 Global water stress zones based on water withdrawal to availability ratio (Alcamo et al.
2003)
water scarcity not only refers to the lack of water for meeting the domestic water
requirements of people (Rijsberman 2006). Only 54.0% of the urban population and
16.0% of the rural population in India receive tap water supply to their houses. Water
supply to urban India is much lower than any other developing countries in the globe.
In addition, piped water supply in India has fallen from 10–15 h/d in 1980 to 1.5
h/d in 2006 (Tortajada 2016). According to the United Nations Organization, most
of the people on the globe are living in severe water scarcity zones. Moreover, the
lack of clean and safe drinking water is a major reason for the spread of most of the
communicable diseases (Nandi et al. 2017).
Water stress zones are generally identified by calculating the criticality ratio.
Criticality ratio is defined as the ratio of annual water withdrawal to the annual
available water resources and is generally expressed in terms of percentage. Water
withdrawal refers to the water withdrawn from the rivers, lakes, and groundwater
reserves to meet the water demands of mankind. If criticality ratio of a region lies
within 20% to 40%, the region is said to be under water stress. If criticality ratio
lies above 40%, the region is said to be under high water stress. Global water stress
zones are shown in Fig. 1.2. Regions that are slightly above and around tropic of
cancer are under water stress. Nearly, 54.0% of the Indian states fall under high to
extremely high water stress zones (Alcamo et al. 2003).
4 1 Introduction
Naturally available fresh water reserves are not capable of meeting the rising fresh
water demands of mankind because of its less availability and manmade pollution
(Gude et al. 2010). Moreover, large quantities of water received by rainfall are not
collected and stored properly because most of the Asian countries lack finance for
construction of dams. Hence, the occurrence of floods and drought in same location
is always noticed (Rijsberman 2006). In addition, due to climate change, rainfall pat-
tern is also not uniform; as a result, most of the over-exploited ground water reserves
are not replenished. Hence, the available ground water reserves are not able to meet
the growing water demands in agricultural, industrial, domestic, and energy sectors
(Manju & Sagar 2017). This situation can be tackled only if mankind finds some
other ways to produce fresh water from the available saline water reserves in oceans
and polluted wastewater. Luckily, desalination technology which was developed long
back resembling natural hydrological cycle has the capability to tackle this problem.
Desalination is the process of separating salts and minerals from saline water (Reif &
Alhalabi 2015). The salinity of potable water must be around 500 ppm as per World
Health Organization’s (WHO) drinking water standards (Reif & Alhalabi 2015).
Ocean water has salinity above 35,000 ppm making it non-potable but it can be
desalinated to recover potable water (Reif & Alhalabi 2015). Commercial biological
wastewater treatment plants are found to be ineffective in treating wastewater up to
the required standards set by the water agencies (Kaur et al. 2012). Mostly, industrial
and domestic wastewaters are saline in nature, hence desalination technology can be
utilized for treating wastewater too (Rebhun 2004).
Desalination capacity in different regions of the globe along with the type of feed
water used is displayed in Table 1.1. Desalination technology is widely adopted in
Middle East, Arab countries, North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Central Amer-
ica, South America, and Australia to meet their drinking water and process water
demands. Seawater is used as a major feed for desalination plants in Gulf and North
African countries. American continent and European countries use brackish water
as major feed water for their desalination process. Industrial wastewater has been
majorly used as feed for desalination systems in Asian countries. However, from
the reported data, it could be seen that the wastewater desalination process is less
practiced and is at the emerging stage in most of the countries. The available data
revealed that desalination is widely practiced in Asian continent and least practiced
in Australia.
Table 1.1 Global desalination capacity based on feed water type (Escobar & Schafer, 2009)
Continent Region/country Desalination feed water Cumulative Distribution of global desalination capacity
desalination
Seawater Brackish Waste capacity
(%) water (%) water (%) (m.3 /d) Region wise (%) Continent wise (%)
Australia Australia-Pacific 0.80 1.10 5.40 4,61,266 1.05 1.05
Asia Japan, Korea and 1.20 3.20 12.10 27,39,212 6.21 60.45
Taiwan
East Asia 3.40 2.80 21.00 19,10,142 4.33
West Asia 2.20 4.40 2.30 10,57,340 2.40
Gulf countries 61.40 21.10 19.00 1,93,60,853 43.89
Middle East (Rest) 3.10 4.50 2.70 15,95,763 3.62
Europe Northern Europe 1.70 4.40 4.30 15,99,545 3.63 13.62
Southern Europe 10.60 12.80 9.70 4,40,5024 9.99
Africa North Africa 7.30 3.20 – 23,59,769 5.35 6.31
1.3 Desalination: Effective Solution for Addressing Water Scarcity
Heated feed water is allowed to flash in successive vessels maintained at low pressure,
thereby vapors are generated and are then condensed with the help of condensers
to obtain condensate. Feed water after flashing in one vessel enters the next vessel
which is maintained at a pressure lower than the previous one and the same process
continues in a number of vessels. The vapor formed in one vessel is collected as
condensate in the same vessel.
Feed water is sprayed inside the first vessel containing heat exchanger tubes carrying
hot heat transfer fluid. The sprayed water evaporates within the vessel to form hot
vapor which is utilized as heat source for generation of vapors in the next successive
vessel. The successive vessels are maintained at pressures lower than the previous
vessel. Feed water is sprayed inside each vessel separately. The vapor formed in one
vessel is collected as condensate in the next successive vessel.
In vapor compression desalination, the vapors generated in one vessel are compressed
with the help of mechanical or thermal compressor to raise its temperature and this
high-temperature vapor is used as heat source for the feed water to be evaporated in
the next vessel. The vapor formed in one vessel is collected as condensate in the next
successive vessel.
1.4 Conventional Desalination Technologies 7
In reverse osmosis process, feed saline water pressurized above the osmotic pres-
sure is allowed to pass through semi-permeable membrane thereby the fresh water
permeates across the membrane and the highly concentrated brine is rejected.
The electro-dialysis system consists of anode, cathode, and a number of anion and
cation exchange membranes which are placed alternatively to form a number of
chambers. The chambers are filled with saline water to be treated. When direct
current is applied across the electrodes, the negative ions in feed water pass through
the anion exchange membrane and the positive ions pass through the cation exchange
membrane and the feed water in the chamber becomes free from these ions and is
taken out as treated water. The ions get accumulated in the feed water of the chambers
adjacent to its both sides. This concentrated brine is rejected as brine.
The energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions of conventional fos-
sil fueled commercial desalination technologies along with the quality of distil-
late produced by them are tabulated in Table 1.2. The minimum thermodynamic
energy required for desalting saline water of salinity 33000 ppm at .25 ◦ C is about
0.77 kWh/m.3 . However, the actual energy consumed for desalination process will
be about 5 to 26 times higher than this theoretical limit due to the requirement of
extra energy for sustaining the process at a finite rate. The energy requirement and
greenhouse gas emissions of thermal energy-based systems are very much higher
than membrane-based systems (Ali Al-Karaghouli & Kazmerski 2013). Recovery
rate is the ratio of distillate produced to the feed water supplied and is about 35
to 50% for RO system and around 10 to 25% for thermal systems (Moosa et al.
2022). Low recovery ratio is preferred in thermal systems to mitigate the corrosion
effect and high energy consumption. However, distillate quality obtained by thermal
desalination is very much superior to the distillate quality obtained by membrane-
based separation process. In addition, feed water pre-treatment requirement is also
nearly nil for thermal desalination systems because it can tolerate feed water of high
salinity which is not possible with membrane-based separation systems. Moreover,
for treating feed water of salinity above 50000 ppm, high pressure of at least 80 bar is
required in RO membrane systems. The commercial RO membranes cannot sustain
this high pressure as of now (Ahmed et al. 2021).
Low energy consumption of RO systems in comparison to thermal-based desali-
nation systems is due to the better developments in membranes, pumps, and better
scale formation control techniques. Feed water generally used in desalination sys-
tems are, namely, seawater (20000 to 50000 ppm), brackish water (3000 to 20000
ppm), river water (500 to 3000 ppm), brine (greater than 50000 ppm), and wastewa-
ter. Fresh water (less than 500 ppm) is also desalinated for obtaining double distilled
8 1 Introduction
Table 1.2 Energy requirements, harmful gas emissions, and distillate quality of conventional large-
scale desalination technologies desalting seawater (Ali Al-Karaghouli & Kazmerski 2013; Gude
et al. 2010)
Plant Desalination MSF MED TVC RO ED
characteristics technology
Plant capacity (m.3 /d) 50000– 5000– 10000– Up to 2–145000
70000 15000 30000 128000
Thermal energy (MJ/m.3 ) 190–282 145–230 227 – –
Electrical (kWh/m.3 ) 2.5–5.0 2.0–2.5 1.6–1.8 4.0–6.0 2.7–5.5
energy
Electrical (kWh/m.3 ) 15.83–23.5 12.2–19.1 14.5 – –
equivalent
of consumed
thermal energy
Total electricity (kWh/m.3 ) 19.58– 14.45– 16.26 4.0–6.0 2.64–5.5
consumption 27.25 21.35
Harmful gas (kg of 13.5–22.5 7.2–18.1 9.9–10.8 4.5–8.1 2.3–5.0
emissions CO.2 /m.3 )
Distillate (ppm) .<10 .<10 .<10 400–500 150–500
quality
Recovery rate (%) 22.0 25.0 42.0
No No No Yes Yes
Feed water pre-treatment
requirement
water for industrial and chemical applications (Moosa et al. 2022). RO and ED are
suitable for brackish water desalination. ED is more suitable and cost-effective for
desalting feed water of salinity less than 5000 ppm (Ali Al-Karaghouli & Kazmerski
2013).
Fig. 1.3 Atlas showing global horizontal solar radiation potential (Solargis 2022)
Table 1.3 List of well-known commercial solar thermal desalination systems in operation (Bund-
schuh et al. 2021)
Location, country Process Capacity (m.3 / d)
Arabian gulf MED 6000.00
El Paso, Texas, USA MSF 19.00
La Desired island, France MED–14 effects 40.00
Gran Canaria, Spain MSF 10.00
Almeria, Spain MED-TVC–14 effects 72.00
Berken, Germany MSF 10.00
Al Azhar University, Palestine MSF–4 stages 0.20
Takami Island, Japan MED–16 effects 16.00
La Paz, Mexico MSF-10 stages 10.00
Islands of Cape Verde, Cape Auto-flash 300.00
Verde
Margarita de Savoya, Italy MSF 50.00–60.00
University of Ancona, Italy MED 30.00
Lampedusa Island, Italy MSF 0.30
Tunisia MSF 0.20
Abu Dhabi, UAE MED–16 effects 16.00
Dead Sea, UAE MED–18 effects 120.00
Safat, Kuwait MSF 10.00
Kuwait MSF 100.00
Dead Sea, Jordan MED 30.00
Hzag, Tunisia Solar still 0.10–0.35
Fig. 1.4 Solar still at Las Salinas, Chile (4700 m.2 aperture area, Distillate-23000 L/d) (Hirschmann
1975)
Fig. 1.5 Solar still at Awania Village, India (1867 m.2 aperture area, Distillate–5000 L/d) (Natu
et al. 1979)
person living in rural and remote region is estimated to be about 40 L/d. Hence, solar
still can be considered as a better option for application in rural, remote, and coastal
regions. Large-scale single-slope solar still of capacity 23,000 L/d has operated suc-
cessfully for continuous 40 years in mines of Chile whose photograph is shown in
Fig. 1.4. Double slope solar still shown in Fig. 1.5 of capacity 5000 L/d has been used
to treat fluorine-contaminated well water of Awania Village in India. Photograph of
solar still named “water pyramid” shown in Fig. 1.6, which has the capability to
14 1 Introduction
Fig. 1.6 Water pyramid developed by aqua aero water systems, BV Netherlands (650 m.2 aperture
area, Distillate—1250 L/d, rain water harvest—600 m.3 /year) (Tukker et al. 2010)
produce distillate of about 1250 L/d and collect 600 m.3 of rain water/year in tropical
climate conditions has been designed and successfully implemented in various parts
of the globe by Aqua Aero Water Systems, BV Netherlands.
In the past few decades, researchers throughout the globe have significantly con-
tributed to enhance solar thermal desalination systems’ distillate productivity. More-
over, compact, high productive, and hybrid-type solar thermal desalination systems
have also been developed. Solar thermal desalination systems (non-membrane type)
can be broadly classified into direct and indirect type. In direct type, solar radiation
enters the aperture of the system directly and initiates evaporation of saline water
kept within it to produce potable water. In indirect type, solar radiation is utilized
by solar collectors to produce hot heat transfer fluid/hot feed water which is then
transferred to the desalination system for initiating water evaporation. Generally, in
indirect type, the aperture of the system is not exposed to direct solar radiation. Solar
thermal desalination systems can also be further classified based on their shape, ori-
entation, and mode of operation. General classification of compact/small-scale solar
thermal desalination systems is shown in Fig. 1.7. The type of solar thermal desali-
nation systems most suitable for various locations based on solar radiation potential
and ambient temperature is listed in Table 1.5.
1.8 Classifications of Small-Scale Solar Thermal Desalination Systems 15
Table 1.5 Suitable solar thermal desalination systems based on climatic conditions (Xiao et al.
2013)
Climatic conditions Suitable solar thermal
desalination system
Yearly cumulative solar Yearly average ambient
radiation potential (MJ/m.2 d) temperature (.◦ C)
.4200−5000 .∼4.5 to 22.2 Reflector or solar collector
assisted system
.5000−5400 .∼5.8 to 22.2 Heat energy storage
assisted system
.5400−6700 .∼5.2 to 12.9 System with increased
evaporating surface area
.>6700 .∼6.5 to 14.4 System integrated with
enhanced condensing surfaces,
Multi-effect/stage systems
16 1 Introduction
Daily demand
Maximum area required =
. (1.1)
Minimum yield of the still per m2
References
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18 1 Introduction
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Chapter 2
Solar Radiation Potential: Modeling,
Measurement, and Utilization
Solar energy is clean, non-toxic, and it cannot be exhausted and thereby it falls under
renewable energy category. Moreover, solar energy is the primary source for most of
the renewable energy sources (wind energy, biomass, hydro-energy, and tidal energy)
available in Mother Earth. Even fossil fuel is also considered a stored form of solar
energy in early ages. However, due to high greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution,
and limited reserves of fossil fuel, there is always an urgent call for incorporating
renewable energy in various sectors of nations around the globe. Among all sectors,
energy and water sectors are more essential for sustaining the improved life style of
mankind and they also play an important role in enhancing socio-economic better-
ment of nations. Solar energy can be utilized effectively to address the demands in
energy and water sectors. Global annual energy demand is about .4.1 × 1020 Joules
and the amount of solar energy reaching earth’s surface per hour is about .4.3 × 1020
Joules. Moreover, cumulative annual solar energy reaching earth’s surface is esti-
mated to about ten times higher than the total energy content of available fossil and
nuclear fuel reserves in Mother Earth.
The sun is a middle-aged star of diameter, mass, and luminosity of .1.36 × 106 km,
.2.0 × 10 kg and.4.0 × 1026 W, respectively. It is a nuclear fusion reactor containing
30
high-pressure plasma (ionized gases) retained by its own gravitational forces. The sun
is mainly made of hydrogen atoms and it currently has about 70 to 73 wt% hydrogen
atoms, 25 wt% helium atoms, and remaining 2 to 5 wt% other elements. The sun
consists of a central core which is then followed by radiation zone, convection zone,
and solar atmosphere (Garg and Prakash 2009).
2.2.1 Core
The core of the sun extends to a radius of about .0.2R and it has a density, pressure,
and temperature of about 15,000 kg/m.3 , .1.5 × 107 K, and .250 × 109 bar. The high
pressure is due to high gravitational force. Approximately, the core contains about
40 to 50% of the total mass of the sun. Nuclear fusion reaction occurs inside the core
where four hydrogen atoms combine to form one helium atom. Mass of the formed
helium atom is about 0.72% less than combined hydrogen atoms. This loss in mass
is converted into tremendous energy as per Einstein’s equation .(E = mc2 ). Rate at
which energy is released from the sun is about .4.0 × 1026 J/s.
It lies between .0.2R and .0.7R and in this zone energy released from the core
is transmitted by radiation. The temperature and density of this zone are about
.5 × 10 K and at least 100 kg/m. , respectively. It takes at least 1000 years for the
6 3
This zone extends between .0.7R and . R and its temperature and density are about
2 × 106 K and .10−5 kg/m.3 , respectively. Turbulent motion of hot gases occurs in this
.
zone where hot gases rise, irradiate their energy, gets cooled off, and sink down in a
cyclic manner.
The atmosphere of the sun consists of photosphere, chromosphere, and the corona.
– Photosphere: It is the lowest and denser (.10−4 kg/m.3 ) part of the solar atmosphere
and is about 300 km thick. It is the only visible surface of the sun (to the naked
eye) and its temperature is about 4600 K (top) to 6400 K (bottom). Photosphere is
usually considered as the surface of the sun below which it is not possible to view
through.
– Reversing layer: It is formed of a several hundred km thick cooler gases and it lies
between the photosphere and chromosphere.
– Chromosphere: It is about 2000 km thick and it lies between the corona and the
reversing layer. The chromosphere can be seen as a reddish line during total solar
2.3 Sun-Earth Geometric Relations 21
eclipse day. The reddish line is due to the burning of superheated hydrogen present
in this hot layer.
– Corona: It is a very thin and outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere whose
temperature is about .106 K. It has very low density (of about .10−3 kg/m.3 ) and it
appears as white plumes of ionized gases flowing into the space which can be seen
only on total solar eclipse day. The sudden high temperature in this region is still
a mystery and the heating process causing this temperature rise is believed to be
due to the magnetic activity occurring in the sun’s atmosphere.
Each latitude of the sun rotates at slightly different speed. It takes about 25 earth
days and 36 earth days for completion of one rotation by the sun’s surfaces near its
equator and the poles, respectively, due to the fact that the sun is not a solid body
like the earth. Moreover, the sun also revolves around the center of the Milky Way
Galaxy at a speed of 8,00,000 km/h. It takes about 250 million years for the sun to
complete one revolution.
The earth has a mass and diameter of about .5.97 × 1024 kg and .12.7 × 103 km,
respectively. The earth completes one rotation about its own axis in 24 h and com-
pletes one revolution about the sun in about 365 days. Earth revolves around the
sun in an elliptical path with an eccentricity of only about 0.0167 (closer to cir-
cular path). Thereby, the distance between the center of the sun and the center of
the earth varies throughout the year and its maximum and minimum value is about
.15.2 × 10 km (occurs during early July) and .14.7 × 10 km (occurs during early
9 9
January), respectively. The position in which earth is closer to the sun is called per-
ihelion and the position in which earth is far from the sun is called aphelion. The
earth is closer to the sun by about 4.0% in perihelion than the aphelion. The mean
earth-sun distance is about .14.9 × 107 km and is called one Astronomical Unit (1
AU). The angle subtended by the sun’s disk over any point in the earth is about .0.54◦
or 32., . The earth-sun distance (. E o in AU) for each day in a year can be estimated by
the following equation (Foster et al. 2010):
( [ ])
360n
. E 0 = 1 + 0.033 cos (2.1)
365
where “.n” is the day number of the year. For January 30, .n = 30; February 29,
n = 60.
.
The earth’s axis of rotation is tilted by about .23.45◦ from the perpendicular to the
ecliptic plane. The rotational axis of the earth in North Pole always faces the North
Star Polaris and earth’s tilt angle does not vary during its rotation and revolution. The
tilt angle of the earth is a major reason for the occurrence of different seasons like
winter, spring, summer, and autumn. The position of the earth around the sun during
Another random document with
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— Hélas ! Seulement deux canards et une oie ; mais nous avons
vu un Patagon !
— Pas possible.
— Mais si, vraiment. Vu, de nos yeux vu, ce qui s’appelle vu…,
là-bas, sur le sommet de cette montagne, une grande silhouette, très
grande, qui a paru nous observer quelques minutes et qui, malgré
nos démonstrations pacifiques, s’est éclipsée. Nous avons voulu
l’atteindre, mais c’est trop loin et trop haut. Et nous vous sommons
de consigner l’incident sur vos tablettes ; il est assez extraordinaire
pour que le public en soit informé, d’autant plus qu’on affirme que
cette partie de la côte est déserte.
— Comment donc ! Mais certainement… Très intéressant. Oh ! je
le relaterai. Grande silhouette sur une grande montagne…; c’était
sûrement un Patagon. Que vous êtes heureux !
Avant de regagner la Junon, nous relevons les inscriptions
suivantes, plantées un peu partout, sur la terre et dans les îles :
Ramsès, 23/6/78. — Ariadne, 19 Jan. 78. — H.M.S. Penguin, Jan.
5th 78. — Aiguillette (les autres caractères effacés, la planche
trouvée à terre). — Patagonia, 8 nov. 73. — Canonera peruana
Pilcomayo, comm. D. A. S. Muñoz, 11 Diciembre 74. — Christopho
Columbo, 11/9/78.
La nuit est venue, et une fois réunis à bord, nous constatons
l’absence de notre camarade Ed. S…, un robuste enfant de l’Alsace,
voulant toujours « donner la main » aux manœuvres et toujours le
premier aux excursions. Nous l’avons surnommé le « matelot ». On
crie, on appelle. Pas de réponse… On hisse deux fanaux en tête du
mât. Pendant qu’on envoie un canot à terre pour l’attendre et allumer
un feu qui lui montre la direction, les commentaires vont leur train : il
a perdu son chemin, — il est tombé dans un précipice, — il a été
enlevé par les indigènes… — et mangé peut-être ! Enfin, un coup de
fusil se fait entendre du rivage, nous répondons au signal et
quelques minutes après notre ami est à bord. Mais dans quel état !
Le visage et les mains déchirés par les épines, les vêtements en
lambeaux, trempé, meurtri… Il nous raconte qu’ayant escaladé la
plus haute montagne, il s’est égaré dans les bois au retour et s’est
vu forcé de traverser presque à la nage un des lacs pour ne pas se
perdre de nouveau dans les fourrés.
— Alors, c’était bien vous qui étiez là-haut sur la montagne ?
— Oui, et je suis redescendu pour explorer le versant opposé.
Je m’adresse aux chasseurs :
— En narrateur fidèle, je crois, messieurs, qu’il convient de
rectifier l’apparition du Patagon.
— Hélas ! oui. Rectifiez, mais expliquez qu’avec ce gaillard-là on
ne sait jamais à quoi s’en tenir. Qualifiez-le de passager-matelot-
patagon, avec la réserve de bien d’autres qualifications qui lui seront
probablement données avant le retour.
Le 7, au point du jour, la Junon repartait, non sans avoir envoyé
le charpentier clouer sur un arbre bien en vue, à l’entrée de la baie,
une planchette avec l’inscription : Junon, vap. français, commandant
Biard, 7/10/78.
Le petit lac d’eau douce que nous avons découvert, étant à peine
indiqué sur les cartes et ne portant aucun nom, le commandant,
après en avoir relevé approximativement le contour, lui a donné le
nom de lac d’Aunet [7] .
[7] Mme Biard, née Léonie d’Aunet, a fait en 1839,
avec son mari, à bord de la corvette de l’État la
Recherche, un voyage au Spitzberg.
Il y a là, par 80° de latitude nord, une petite crique
qu’on a appelée alors l’anse Léonie ; en sorte que deux
points situés aux extrémités du monde portent aujourd’hui
le nom de la célèbre voyageuse.
Mme Biard est morte à Paris le 21 mars 1879.
En mer, 26 octobre.
A LA MÉMOIRE
DES VICTIMES IMMOLÉES PAR LE FEU
LE 8 DÉCEMBRE 1863
L’AMOUR ET LA DOULEUR INEXTINGUIBLES
DE LA POPULATION DE SANTIAGO