Solar Desalination Technology

368 Pages·2019·16.72 MB·English

by  Anil Kumar

Green Energy and Technology
Anil Kumar
Om Prakash Editors
Solar
Desalination
Technology
Green Energy and Technology
Climate change, environmental impact and the limited natural resources urge
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Anil Kumar Om Prakash
(cid:129)
Editors
Solar Desalination
Technology
123
Editors
Anil Kumar OmPrakash
Department ofMechanical Engineering Department ofMechanical Engineering
DelhiTechnological University Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Delhi, India Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
ISSN 1865-3529 ISSN 1865-3537 (electronic)
Green Energy andTechnology
ISBN978-981-13-6886-8 ISBN978-981-13-6887-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6887-5
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Foreword I
Desalinationisoneoftheimportantenergy-intensiveprocessesfor producing pure
water from saline water. Technologically, a wide range of desalination processes
are being developed; however, most of the methods need intensive thermal or
electrical energy. Considering the cost of energy and environmental factors to
generateheatorenergy, thedevelopmentofsolardesalinationisbeingprogressed.
Energy experts Dr. Anil Kumar and Dr. Om Prakash edited this important book
encompassing different aspects of desalination technology. These authors have a
strongbackgroundinthethermalandsolartechnologiestocompilethisbook.This
book provides details of different types with designing, performance assessment,
modeling, simulation, and optimization of solar desalination. In addition, discus-
sionsontheuseofdifferentthermalsoftwaretodesignsolardesalinationandbrine
disposal methods are included. This book would be interesting for the graduate
students and professionals working in the field of solar desalination.
Seeb, Oman Prof. Mohammad Shafiur Rahman
July 2018 Sultan Qaboos University
v
Foreword II
Considering the actual rate of population and continuous economic growth is
obviousthatoneofthechallengesinthefutureishowtoensurebasicneedssuchas
energy,food,cleanairandwater.Manyregionsinworldwideconsumingmoreand
more energy to aliment its growing economy. At the same time, 15% of the world
population have no access to electricity. Of course, the majority is coming from
rural areas in less developed regions. One of the promising solutions is to use
renewable energy resources. Not only to provide the energy security but also to
save our precious environment from several pollutants such as greenhouse gasses.
Thesecondaspectisalsoveryimportantsincewemayobservestillmoreandmore
agro-environmental problems on the planet caused by climate change in the last
decades.Oneofthemisthescarcityoffreshwater,especiallythepotablewater.Itis
no confidence that the above-mentioned issues are clearly addressed in the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
Solar energy emerges as one of the prominent renewable energy sources. By
proper utilization of solar radiation, various important activities such as water
purification, drying, electricity generation, space heating, and crop cultivation can
be achieved.For thedeveloping nationslike India,solar desalination is thenewest
andanefficient,advanced technologyintroducedforaddressingdifferent problems
faced by the citizens of this country. The technology which includes desalination
usingsolarenergycandirectlyaidinremovingashortageofpurewater.Thereare
several aspects of solar science and engineering which the students, teachers,
researchers,andindustrypersonnelhavetostudysuchassolarpowergenerationby
PV and solar thermal, solar refrigeration, solar cooking, solar cooling and heating,
solar desalination, and solar architecture. Out of these, solar desalination finds a
special place.
The book Solar Desalination Technology edited by my friends Dr. Anil Kumar
and Dr. Om Prakash will fulfill the long-felt need of the book in this vital area. It
will prove to be a good text/reference book.
vii
viii ForewordII
The main strength of this book is, its beauty of combining theory and case
studies in various chapters written by the well-known international experts in the
area. I am fully convinced that the readers will immensely benefit from this book.
Prague, Czech Republic Jan Banout, Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
Preface
The tremendous rise in demand for energy has led to a scarcity of conventional
sources of energy like fossil fuels, thereby pushing us to search for alternative
sources of energy. Sun being the ultimate source of energy, there is a need to
harnessitforsustainablegrowthofmankind.Solardesalinationhasbeeninpractice
sinceagestopurifytherawwater.Duetoadvancementinscienceandtechnology,
inexpensive and efficient solar desalination devices have been developed for dis-
tilling the raw water using solar power.
In Chapter “Desalination and Solar Still: Boon to Earth,” authors discussed the
fundamental concepts of desalination, its classification, its advantages and disad-
vantages, its future prospects, and its economic aspects. The fundamental knowl-
edge in desalination will enable a better understanding of any solar desalination
systems.
In Chapter “Feasible Solar Applications for Brines Disposal in Desalination
Plants,”authordiscussedthesustainablebrinedisposalmethodswithmorefocuson
solar-assisted technologies. Now several commercial ways are implementing
worldwidetoharvestsaltfrombrineeffluentdischarge.Solarenergyasarenewable
source of power can both imitate the environmental impacts of the conventional
brine disposal methods and enhance the evaporation rate of the solar evaporation
ponds. Evaporation pond is relatively easy to construct and operate with minimal
mechanical or operator input. The ponds should spread over large surface areas to
increase the evaporation rate. If the rate of evaporation is enhanced, an amount of
land would be reduced. An enhanced rate of evaporation would have two advan-
tages: the flexibility to increase the amount of brine wastewater “pushed” through
anevaporationpondandareducedamountoflandthatwouldbeneededtoachieve
the same rate of evaporation.
In Chapter “Effect of Design Parameters on Productivity of Various Passive
Solar Stills,” authors discussed the various designs of solar stills with a special
focusondifferentshapesofthetopglasscoverandbasindesign.Itisevidentfrom
theresearcher’sworkthatthereisnoclear-cutpossibilitytooptimizethedesignas
the yielding of different solar stills is different. But, this study will pave a path to
researchers to come up with new optimum designs which could have a better
ix
x Preface
performance.Itisalsoobservedthatthetopiscriticalinenhancingtheproductivity
of the solar still. Different designs of the top glass cover help in absorbing the
maximum possible radiation. Basin material, depth of water and energy-absorbing
material,inclinationofglasscoverplate,andinsulationalsoplayanimportantrole
in enhancing the performance of the solar still. However, none of the researchers
consideredalltheinfluencingparameterstostudytheperformance.Hence,thereis
a lot of scope for improvement in the performance of the solar stills.
In Chapter “Performance Analysis of Solar Desalination Systems,” authors
discussed the theoretical approach to assess the thermal performance of a simple
solar desalination system. This chapter also presents the performance analysis of
simple solar still along with a case study. It is concluded that various designs and
operating parameters highly influence the productivity of solar still.
InChapter “Application ofSoftware inPredicting Thermal BehavioursofSolar
Stills,” authors explained the different software used for the design and testing of
various models of solar still. It also gives an overall idea regarding the kind of
software being used and its feasibility. Software like MATLAB, ANSYS, and
FLUENT has been taken into account here for the modeling and development of
various solar stills. Moreover, software such as SPSS is often used for statistical
data analysis. All recently used software are reviewed, and the benefits are
explained.
In Chapter “Simulation, Modeling, and Experimental Studies of Solar
Distillation Systems,” authors conferred the details of design software to develop
efficient solar stills. Software for developing suitable computer code based on
mathematical models topredict thermalperformance solar stillsare discussed. The
application of CFD simulations technique is being done with the help of ANSYS,
FLUENT, and TRNSYS. MATLAB and FORTRAN are very useful tools for the
parametricstudyofpassiveandactivesolarstills.COMSOLMultiphysicscodingis
also a useful tool for numerical simulations for solar still.
InChapter“ProgressinPassiveSolarStillforEnhancementinDistillateOutput,”
authorshighlightedtheadvancemodificationsinthedesignofpassivesolarstill.The
developmentofsingle-andmulti-effectsolarstillwithexpansionofdifferentenergy
absorbing materials and insulators to reduce the heat loss and enhance the produc-
tivityofsolarstillarestudied.Toincreasetheoutputofsolarstillnowadays,theuse
ofgreennanotechnologyisoneofthepromisingtoolsanditisanticipatedthatinthe
nearfuturemorevigorwillbeaddedinthisareawiththemodificationsindesignsof
solar stills.
InChapter“ThermalModellingofSolarStill,”thermalmodelingofsolarstillis
discussed,whichisapowerfultoolthatcanbeutilizedtooptimizetheperformance
of the solar still for the given set of parameters. It will be helpful to predict the
behavior of a particular type of solar still to understand its suitability and
techno-economic viability. The tremendous improvement in the area of software
givesalotofopportunitiesformodeltestinganddesignchangesforsolarstills.Itis
suggested that thermal models should be developed for the solar stills and the
influencing parameter values must be selected by simulation methods suitable for
local weather conditions before its fabrication and implementation.