Solar dish concentrator for desalting water

The purpose of this study was to build, characterize and analyze the performance of a solar dish concentrator for desalinating water. To build this device, an equatorial mount was adapted to track the sun, a satellite dish was mirrored and the distillation system was assembled using a glass flask, a copper tube and a silicone tube. The system was characterized experimentally based on the main parameters that define a solar concentrator. However, to determine the potential energy of the device, dynamic heating was simulated by computer and validated experimentally. Finally, to analyze the performance of the solar dish concentrator in terms of water desalination, experiments were conducted with semi-continuous insertion of saline solution containing concentrations of 0-4% of sea salt. The yield of distilled water varied of 4.95 kg/m2day (0%) to 4.11 kg/m2day (4%), a consequence of colligative effects. Therefore, a solar dish concentrator was built with a simplified distillation system whose yield per square meter provided sufficient drinking water to meet the daily needs of at least two adults.