Development of Experimental Model for Water Desalination by Harvesting Solar Energy

In the South west areas of Pakistan especially Karachi and internal Sindh, unsafe drinking water is one major problem since the water is saline and is not up to the standards defined by W.H.O. Because Pakistan lies on the Sun Belt and receives quite vast amount of solar energy through the year, solving the problem harvesting solar energy proved a great prospect. Therefore, the focus of our work concentrated on development of a water desalination system using low grade solar energy to convert saline water into drinkable water. The final design consisted of a solar still coupled with parabolic trough, evacuated tubes and storage tank. Final testing showed that 12litres of drinking water can be produced per 8hours of operation giving it an overall efficiency of 68%. Final comparison of water samples in the laboratory with the initial samples showed removal of 97% of containments.