Development of a solar energy based desalination system using a hyperboloid concentrator

Abstract

Solar concentrating technologies are still relevant due to innovative designs, materials and manufacturing methods. With an increased demand for fresh water, such technologies can be effectively utilized for sea water desalination. Desalination methods utilizing solar energy can significantly contribute towards sustainable and renewable energy solutions.In this work, an attempt is made to design, develop and experimentally analyse the performance of a desalination unit with a hyperboloid concentrator and a helical copper coil receiver. The elliptic hyperboloid concentrator is a special design for concentrating and capturing radiation over a wide incident angle and thus eliminates tracking. Further a CFD analysis was carried out to design and optimize the helical coil receiver dimensions. The optimized receiver was then fabricated.Results showed that, using the hyperboloid concentrator, acceptable quality of potable water, with a salinity of 190 PPM was obtained. The system performance was also impressive with an efficiency improvement of 30% compared to the traditional parabolic dish concentrator. The output temperature obtained was 109 0C using the combined system comprising ETC, parabolic dish and hyperboloid concentrator.