Solar System Using Parabolic Trough Collector for Water Desalination Unit

Abstract

In this research, a parabolic trough solar collector was used for brackish water desalination. The aim of this research was to investigate the desalination characteristics of this solar system under variable operation parameters and to determine the most efficient design configuration. The experiments were performed on a locally fabricated parabolic trough collector composed of mirror collector, solar energy absorption system, steam-brine separation vessel, heat exchanger, electrical panel, and sun tracking device. The efficiency of the system was tested by changing the main parameters, namely, solar collector slope angle, brackish water feed flow rate, heat exchanger, incident angle, ambient temperature, and receiver temperature. The results showed that the maximum distilled water was 10.4 Lt/(5 hrs. (11:00 am to 16:00 pm)). This water production was achieved at feed water flow rate 4.8 Lt/hr, the incident angles were in the range of 10o to 54o, the ambient temperature was in the range of 30-32 oC, collector efficiency was in the range of 48-38%. In conclusion, this system proved to be promising and can be further developed to achieve better results.