Abstract
A novel environmentally-friendly decentralized Solar Distillation Unit (DSDU) has been designed and developed for the extraction of organoleptically superior essential oil from different valuable aromatic crops. It comprises of multi-functional hydraulic trolley with a drawbar body, a foldable hydraulic solar structure with a tilting gear that captures solar energy by lowering and raising the solar panel structure operated by lever, hydraulic arm jack at four sides of hydraulic trolley, and new solar distillation apparatus. This DSDU effectively traps the solar energy at different angles during the daytime (maximum at 24° angle). The results of extraction studies of citronella, lemongrass and ocimum by DSDU revealed improved oil yield, i.e., 0.53%, 0.33%, and 0.20% respectively as compared to wood-fired distillation unit (WDU). The oil composition analysis was also performed using GC/MS which showed variation in composition of major and minor chemical constituents. A cradle-to-grave life cycle approach for greenhouse gas emission showed that WDU has higher emissions (45.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalents) in comparison to DSDU. System efficiency, performance, environmental and cost-economic impact of DSDU were also studied and found superior over WDU. In addition, DSDU is an easy-to-move green sustainable technology which may empower rural India and meet increasing energy demands.
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