Development of solar desalination system from seawater by using basin solar energy

Abstract

Desalination process is a water distillation that purifies seawater in a system that is relatively cheap, potable, and dependable only on renewable energy. Solar distillation is a process of producing desalinated water using cost free solar energy. This research for a solar still construction was conducted to develop and improve the current single slope solar still, which is usually made of waste material. The result showed that there was an increment in temperature, as the current solar still gained an extra 5°C after it was improved; this affected the volume of desalinated production, which increased almost up to 150mL from the current solar still. The pH reading of the desalinated water had been reduced to a neutral pH that ranges from 5 to 7, suggesting that it meets the drinking water quality standard. Temperature also affected conductivity as it increased. The conductivity of seawater contains ions in high value, but after the desalination process, this value was reduced and only retains pure water characteristics. Heavy metal element concentration in the seawater was reduced after the desalination process before the water was purified to a safer drinking-water standard for each of the element analysed in this research.