Development of Solar Desalination System by Using Basin Solar Energy

Abstract

Solar desalination is a process of removing salt content in brackish or saline water and converting it into fresh water by the aid of solar energy. The portable solar basin was utilized to undergo this process and the collected desalinated water was to be compared with the Drinking Water Quality Standard in order to identify the safety and cleanliness of the water produced. The main purpose of this study is to improve the solar basin designs which yield the optimum volume of purified water that achieve the quality of drinking water and low cost. The solar basin was designed with the angle tilt of 15° which it able to achieve maximum sun ray exposure. The solar basin that was used is the conventional type single slope with different component inside the solar basin (without stages and rocks; with stages and without rocks; and with both stages and rocks. The source of water be used in this process is seawater (Pengkalan Balak Beach), ground water (Cherana Puteh Hot Spring) and river (small stream of Sungai Siput). The basin solar design with steps and rocks able to produce maximum desalinated water up to 1120 ml per day with average temperature of 59.7 °C, almost 100% reduction of COD, TDS, conductivity, element traces of Ca, Mg, Na and K with BOD level of 1.55 mg/l which mostly comply with the drinking water standard. KEYWORDSBasin solar energy, desalination, solar still.This project required to design and constructing the device system for the process of desalination (solar still) which at the end of the project, the yield and quality of water for three different solar still being compared. The main type of solar still used is a conventional solar still without any i TECH MAG