Brackish water desalination using solar energy

Abstract

Sizeable amounts of brackish water resources are found and distributed over vast cross-national regions in the Sahara desert of Northern Africa. These salty waters can be found sometimes as natural spring water on the surface while the underground aquifers, which can be reached at a hundred meters deep, represent in essence a sea of brackish water beneath the searing desert sands and rocks. These regions of the Sahara desert are characterized by very limited or total lack of rainfall which makes these underground aquifers invaluable and at the same time extremely vulnerable since the natural replenishment process is for all practical purposes inexistent. The brackish waters of these aquifers contain high levels of salt which makes them inappropriate for domestic usage and detrimental to plants or other gardening/agricultural activities. However, the abundant sunshine of the desert can be harnessed to operate solar distillation equipments to produce fresh water. This study presents a theoretical analysis of a new solar desalination equipment that is based on the evaporation/condensation process. Performance results as well as a cost evaluation are reported.