Development of a localized solar water purifying system.

Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology.

Dept. of ME.
Thesis Adviser:
Dr. Md. Rabiul Islam Sarker.
Submitted by:
Md. Tanvir Rahman (132072)
Lailatul Nehar (132074)
CONTENTS:

Abstract..

Introduction.....

Thesis Statement

Methodology and Approach ..

Implications.

Workplan

Expected Outcome

References .
Abstract:
The necessity for fresh water is at the top of the international schema of serious issues. As the
fresh water shortage becomes an issue, the application of desalination plants is rapidly rising on
a large scale. Also, membrane technologies are gaining high importance for their great
performance and their economic viability. Membrane distillation as a novel thermally-driven
separation process can be adapted for water desalination, due to its simplicity and ability to
couple with a sustainable source of energy. Here a brief explanation of the concept of the
membrane distillation (MD) system is illustrated. Additionally, the possibility of desalinating high
saline water with zero brine discharge will be investigated. Moreover , the efficiency of the solar
still will be investigated by increasing evaporation and condensation rate by using the
combination of solar energy collector and extended condensation surface.

Introduction:
Potable water and energy are basic needs which influence the civilized life on the planet earth.
Due to recent global industrialization, potable water above and below ground level has been
polluted badly. In cities of Bangladesh especially, Dhaka, there are lot of polluted sources of
water like damp, sewers, industrial waste water, even water of Buriganga is largely polluted. To
solve this problem, an energy intensive desalination system has been installed by WASA which
is not eco-friendly. At present, the use of solar stills (also known as solar distillers) is an
environmentally friendly solution for getting potable water in remote area for purifying
underground brackish water. The solar distillers are also more economical and need unskilled
labor to maintain and hence most suitable for underdeveloped and developing countries and
hence useful in current perspective of Bangladesh where energy is scarce and expensive.
Solar distillation is the use of solar energy to evaporate water and collect its condensate within
the same closed system. Unlike other forms of water purification it can turn salt or brackish
water into fresh drinking water (i.e. desalination). The structure that houses the process is
known as a solar still and although the size, dimensions, materials, and configuration are varied,
all rely on the simple procedure wherein an influent solution enters the system and the more
volatile solvents leave in the effluent leaving behind the salty solute behind[1].
Solar distillation differs from other forms of desalination that are more energy-intensive, such
as methods such as reverse osmosis, or simply boiling water due to its use of free energy.[2][3]
A very common and, by far, the largest example of solar distillation is the natural water cycle
that the Earth experiences.

Regular solar distillation stills are usually slow and operates at low temperature. As operating at
low temperatures, the daily yield is comparatively low. Recent researches have shown that
increasing the condensation area and temperature gradient between the glass plat or
condensation surface and the water will increase the yield. In active solar still, an external
thermal energy is fed into a basin to increase the water temperature in the basin for fast
evaporation for higher yield. This can be done through many ways but one of the most
recommended methods is to integrate panel of flat plate collector into the basin either directly
or through heat exchanger. It is also well established that active solar still gives better
performance under forced mode and hence the water pump is needed between flat plate
collector and solar still.
So introducing a hybrid water purification system solely based on solar power will not only
solve costly purification system problems but also make the traditional solar stills work a lot
faster and efficiently. The hybrid solar stills are mainly helpful for localized water purification
system that will consume less water from main water supply of the water distribution system.
The unused water can be fed into the main water supply chain for complete usage.
Membrane distillation is a promising new corner to distillation processes which can be couple
to low-grade and renewable energy source such as wind and solar energy.
Membrane distillation is a thermally driven separational program in which separation is
enabled due to phase change. A hydrophobic membrane displays a barrier for the liquid phase,
allowing the vapour phase (e.g. water vapour) to pass through the membrane's pores. The
driving force of the process is given by a partial vapour pressure difference commonly triggered
by a temperature difference.
Many different membrane distillation techniques exist. The basic four techniques mainly differ
by the arrangement of their distillate channel or the manner in which this channel is operated.
The following technologies are most common:

Direct Contact MD (DCMD)

Air Gap MD (AGMD)
Vacuum MD (VMD)
Sweeping Gas MD (SWGMD)
Vacuum multi-effect membrane distillation (V-MEMD)
Direct-contact MD
In DCMD, both sides of the membrane are charged with liquid- hot feed water on the
evaporator side and cooled permeate on the permeate side. The condensation of the vapour
passing through the membrane happens directly inside the liquid phase at the membrane
boundary surface. Since the membrane is the only barrier blocking the mass transport,
relatively high surface related permeate flows can be achieved with DCMD. A disadvantage is
the high sensible heat loss, as the insulating properties of the single membrane layer are low.
However, a high heat loss between evaporator and condenser is also the result of the single
layer. This lost heat is not available to the distillation process whereby its efficiency is lowered.

Air-gap MD:
In air-gap MD, the evaporator channel resembles that in DCMD, whereas the permeate gap lies
between the membrane and a cooled walling and is filled with air. The vapour passing through
the membrane must additionally overcome this air gap before condensing on the cooler
surface. The advantage of this method is the high thermal insulation towards the condenser
channel, thus minimizing heat conduction losses. However, the disadvantage is that the air gap
represents an additional barrier for mass transport, reducing the surface- related permeate
output compared to DCMD. A further advantage towards DCMD is the fact, that volatile
substances with a low surface tension such as alcohol or other solvents can be separated from
diluted solutions, due to the fact that there is no contact between the liquid permeate and the
membrane with AGMD.
Sweeping-gas MD:
Sweeping-gas MD, also known as air stripping, uses a channel configuration with an empty gap
on the permeate side. This configuration is the same as in AGMD. Condensation of the vapour
takes place outside the MD module in an external condenser. As with AGMD, volatile
substances with a low surface tension can be distilled with this process. The advantage of
SWGMD over AGMD is the significant reduction of the barrier to the mass transport through
forced flow. Hereby higher surface-related productwater mass flows can be achieved than with
AGMD. A disadvantage of SWGMD caused by the gas component and therefore the higher total
mass flow, is the necessity of a higher condenser capacity. When using smaller gas mass flows
there is a risk of the gas heating itself at the hot membrane surface, thus reducing the vapour
pressure difference and therefore the driving force. One solution of this problem for SWGMD
and for AGMD is the use of a cooled walling for the permeate channel, and maintaining
temperature by flushing it with gas.
Vacuum MD
Vacuum MD contains an air gap channel configuration. Once it has passed through the
membrane, the vapour is sucked out of the permeate channel and condenses outside the
module as with SWGMD. VCMD and DWGMD can be applied for the separation of volatile
substances from a watery solution or for the generation of pure water from concentrated salt
water. One advantage of this method is that undissolved inert gasses blocking the membrane
pores are sucked out by the vacuum, leaving a larger effective membrane surface active.
Furthermore, a reduction of the boiling point results in a comparable amount of product at
lower overall temperatures and lower temperature differences through the membrane. A lower
required temperature difference leaves a lower total- and specific thermal energy demand.
However, the generation of a vacuum, which must be adjusted to the salt water temperature,
requires complex technical equipment and is therefore a disadvantage to this method. The
electrical energy demand is a lot higher as with DCMD and AGMD. An additional problem is the
increase of the pH value due to the removal of CO2 from the feed water.

Permeate-gap MD
In the following, the principle channel configuration and operating method of a standard DCMD
module as well as a DCMD module with separate permeate gap shall be explained. The design
in the adjacent image depicts a flat channel configuration, but can also be understood as a
schema for flat-, hollow fibre - or spiral wound modules.
The benefit is considered one of the amazing advantages of MD process, since the large vapour
space required in conventional distillation column is replaced in MD by pore volume of
amicroporous membrane, which is generally of 100 m thick.

Solar energy collector coupled with membrane distillation:

Solar collectors can be used to provide the heat or electrical energy requirements to operate a
membrane distillation system. The main solar collectors that could be coupled with membrane
distillation:
Flat plate solar collector:
A typical flat-plate collector is a metal box with a glass or plastic cover (called glazing) on top
and a dark-colored absorber plate on the bottom. The sides and bottom of the collector are
usually insulated to minimize heat loss.
Sunlight passes through the glazing and strikes the absorber plate, which heats up, changing
solar energy into heat energy. The heat is transferred to liquid passing through pipes attached
to the absorber plate. Absorber plates are commonly painted with "selective coatings," which
absorb and retain heat better than ordinary black paint. Absorber plates are usually made of
metaltypically copper or aluminumbecause the metal is a good heat conductor. Copper is
more expensive, but is a better conductor and less prone to corrosion than aluminum. In
locations with average available solar energy, flat plate collectors are sized approximately one-
half- to one-square foot per gallon of one-day's hot water use

Photovoltaic solar collector:

A parabolic trough solar collector uses a mirror in the shape of a parabolic cylinder to reflect and
concentrate sun radiations towards a receiver tube located at the focus line of the parabolic cylinder.
The receiver absorbs the incoming radiations and transforms them into thermal energy, the latter being
transported and collected by a fluid medium circulating within the receiver tube. This method of
concentrated solar collection has the advantage of high efficiency and low cost, and can be used either
for thermal energy collection, for generating electricity or for both, therefore it is an important way to
exploit solar energy directly

Thermoelectric modules coupled with membrane distillation:

Thermoelectric Modules Work On Two Different Principals
1. Peltier Effect: This effect introduces power to the module with a resultant cooling of one side
and heating of the other. These types of modules are low amp (typically in the 6 amp range,
running at 12V) and are designed for low temperature exposure of no more than 70C to 80C
hot side. Higher temperature exposures will cause the module to either break apart, couples
joints to melt and are not good power generators!

2. Seebeck Effect: This effect creates a temperature differential across the module by heating
one side of the module and cooling the opposite (heat removal side). These modules have been
specifically designed to operate at temperatures in the 320C (BiTe). 360C Hybrid modules
(Combination of BiTe and PbTe) designed to take advantage of hot side temperatures in the
260C to 340C range, PbTe designed for 450C to 600C (842F to 1112F) of which we have 2
selections (PbTe only and PbTe/TAGS) and finally CMO Oxide modules (from 600C to 850C)
(1112F 1562F) hot side. To see our selection click on Shop.
Thesis statements:
One of the objectives of this thesis project is to design a localized water purifying system mainly
based on solar power mostly effective for current energy condition of Bangladesh. Another
objectives are to make minor design improvement for higher operating temperatures of the still
and hence increasing the efficiency. The water fed system is modified which will be clear while
experimenting.

Methodology:
The proposed water purifying system has a centrifugal pump at first draws impure water from
source and then bigger sized particles are filtered out in primary filtering step. After that, the
water is preheated through a flat plat solar collector and fed into the solar still.
The solar still design is improved in minor ways. In the figure, No- denotes the glass plate
inclined at an angle 15 degree. The solar still is active type which has its condensation surface
increased as per previous researches.

Fig 1.1: Effect of extended condensation surface for improved production of solar still.

As the extended curvy surface causes sun rays not to fall directly at the water basin the
temperature of the water isnt raised to expected level to have higher temperature gradient. To
solve this problem, several rectangular shaped mirrors angled at particular directions
concentrating sunrays at water basin working like parabolic solar collector. The concentration
of solar rays are stored by using copper absorber which are very good at heat absorbing. As a
result the water is heated in total of 4 ways indicating by the point 1,2,3,4. The vapor is
condensed at glass surface and produce pure water which is collected by pipe 1 to final pure
water storage tank. This is primary water collecting process. So a double fan system is
introduced one of which is evacuating the solar still by pulling the vapor or saturated air to a
secondary condensation box kept below the ground which is maintained at very low
temperature and another is pulling fresh air of low partial pressure from the environment to
the sill. The fans are self-sustained with the usage of TEG (thermoelectric generator) working on
Seebeck effect where the heat probes are installed in the high temperature copper absorbers
and low temperature condensation box under-ground.
Fig 1.3: Thermoelectric Generator for running a Fan.
The primary and secondary water collector pipes are connected to purified water storage tank.
Before depositing pure water to storage tank a final filtering step using flat-sheet cross flow
membrane module fitted with a hydrophobic polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) direct membrane
for 100% arsenic free water.

Fig 1.4: Arsenic filtering using PVDF.

A control system is used to sense unused water and connect it to the main water supply chain.
Implications:

Work plane:

The proposed project will be worked out experimentally in the 7 th and 8th semester.

Expected outcome:

Studying the previous researches and with the theoretical design, it is expected to increase the
productivity for using copper absorbers (18.5-20%). The evacuating system normally increase
productivity by 30.3%., in addition we introduced a new second fan to inlet fresh air of low
partial pressure. So, the productivity will be increased more. The increased condensation
surface is expected to be 7.5 times the normal and the addition of under-ground condensation
unit will increase the efficiency by 50% roughly. The Arsenic filtering step will eliminate 100%
arsenic. The preheating by flat plat solar collector will increase the efficiency by 32.7% to 40%.

References:
1. A review on recent developments in solar distillation units (PANKAJ KALITAANUPAM
DEWAN)
2. Removal of arsenic from contaminated groundwater by solar-driven membrane
distillation (Ajay K. Manna , Mou Sen , Andrew R. Martin , Parimal Pal)
3. Exergoeconomic and enviroeconomic analyses of partially covered photovoltaic flat
plate collector active solar distillation system (G.N. Tiwari , J.K. Yadav , D.B. Singh , I.M.
Al-Helal , Ahmed Mahmod Abdel-Ghany)
4. Experimental characterization of a multi-effect distillation system coupled to a flat plate
solar collector field: empirical correlations (Aicha Chorak,Patricia Palenzuela, Diego-
Csar Alarcn-Padilla, Abdellatif Ben Abdellah)
5. Experimental Analysis of different absorber plates on performance of Double slope Solar
Still (Hitesh N Panchal)
6.