This chapter presents a numerical model to estimate the performance of solar basin-type distillation systems, both for conventional passive solar stills and active (forced circulation) stills with enhanced heat recovery. It also analyzes the factors affecting the distillate outputs of the still, including environmental factors (external factors or natural), elements of the design and operation (subjective factors). The subjective elements as well as the measures taken to optimize these factors are thoroughly analyzed. With these measures, the distillate yields of solar stills are increased from 30 to 68% compared with traditional distillation systems. This has scientific significance and practicality enabling the application of this technology to solar water distillation using a source of clean and renewable energy. It provides a viable way to alleviating the problem of the availability of clean water, especially in those areas and communities in countries where water resources are increasingly polluted and salty.
Part of the book: Desalination and Water Treatment
This chapter presents a numerical model for calculating basin-type solar water distillation. The model is used to calculate solar distillation for both passive natural convection and forced convection with external condensers. For passive systems, the numerical model allows to simulate and calculate more complex parameters than previous models. For active-forced convection systems, this model allows the simulations of the heat transfer and mass process inside both the distillation unit and the internal heat exchanger. Comparison of numerical simulation results and experimental results shows that the numerical model achieves the acceptable accuracy in calculating the parameters of the fluid flow inside the distillation and the condenser-type heat recovery as well as estimation of the distillate output corresponding to both types of solar distillation.
Part of the book: Distillation