Studies on a single-stage solar desalination system for domestic applications

In this paper, an attempt has been made to study a single stage solar desalination system to get a daily yield of 10 l of potable water. The experimental system consists of a flat plate collector, an evaporator, a single stage vacuum pump and a condenser. The input parameters such as solar irradiance and vacuum pressure in the flash evaporator are varied to find its influence on the performance output viz., system efficiency and yield per day. Efficiency of this plant is found to vary from 15% to 26% for the variation in beam solar radiation from 400 W/m(2) to 900 W/m(2). A maximum distillate yield of 8.5 l/d is obtained with collector area of 2 m(2). The frequency of operation of the vacuum pump and the yield of desalinated water for various beam solar radiations is carried out from which the cost of water is determined. The cost of desalinated water is found to be 0.9 phi/l. The desalinated water is tested for various parameters and the results indicate that the quality of water is satisfactory and well below the permissible limits.