Hybrid of solar dish concentrator, new boiler and simple solar collector for brackish water desalination

This work presents a design and installation of solar dish concentrator (SDC), simple solar collector and modified boiler for brackish water desalination. The design of two axes tracking system is performed using an open-loop control based on programmable logic controllers (PLC). Glass mirrors are used as reflective surface for dish concentrator. A coiled black rubber hose is used to preheat brackish water before feeding to the boiler. A mini single slope-air tight solar still is designed and installed at the focus of dish concentrator which is used as a boiler. The automatic tracking system, new boiler design; and with and without preheating of brackish water are investigated. The developed desalination system is evaluated and compared with the conventional solar still (CSS). The results indicated that, the daily average of distillate water was 6.7 1/m(2)/day for SDC with preheating of brackish water, while the distillate productivity was 1.5 1/0.5 m(2)/day for CSS. In the present study, the daily average efficiency of SDC and CSS was 68 and 34%, respectively. The increase in distillate production for SDC is about 244% and 347% higher than that of CSS without and with preheating, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.