Development of a Hybrid Water Desalination System

Abstract

With the scarcity of freshwater in some parts of the world, water desalination is becoming a necessity. Water desalination is a process that converts saltwater into drinkable potable freshwater is becoming human necessity. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a hybrid-water desalination system using vacuum tubes solar collector and supplemented by electrical energy. We will be using thermal evaporation/condensation method. The water evaporator is a modified 40-gallon water heater in which we inserted a copper coil and pumping glycol to a vacuum tube solar collector located on the building roof. Through solar radiation, the vacuum tubes heats up the glycol which in return heats up the seawater in the 40-gallon hopefully to boiling temperatures. The tank is also equipped with two inserted heating elements to supplement the solar energy needed for evaporate the seawater. The boiling tank is further equipped with two insulated drum heater - fixed Temp 145 F as a supplement heat source on the evaporation thank. In the condensation tank, the water vapor flowing in another copper coil heat exchanger will be cooled by the seawater being pumped from the source, causing the vapor inside the tube to condense and be stored separately from any brine byproduct.. The timing of the pumps, solenoid pumps, heating elements and other system components controlled by a Raspberry Pi controller.