Performance of Mylar and Teflon as compound parabolic concentrators in solar desalination system

Abstract

The water-energy nexus is an important and difficult issue and must be resolved for present and also for the future. The process of producing freshwater requires a lot of energy, therefore a workable solution to this issue is crucial. In the current situation, solar energy is one of the best options for desalination as it is inexpensive, environment friendly, and widely accessible. In general, flat plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors have been used as solar collector for desalination. In this study, a single-stage hybrid groundwater solar desalination system has been used for experimental investigation. Compound parabolic concentrator is positioned to gather solar radiations and transfer heat to evacuated tubes, for improving the performance under various weather conditions in Pune, India. The ideal distance between evacuated tube collector and compound parabolic concentrator was 20 mm. The current study primarily fo-cuses on the performance of two polymeric materials, Teflon and Mylar, as reflector, on the rate of soft water production. It was observed that when mylar was used reflecting material the rate of soft water production amounts to be 3.5 litres per day whereas teflon was used as reflecting material the rate of soft water prodcution amounts to be 3.0 litres respectively. As per the validation of results for hybrid solar desalination system gives better results than solar-wind hybrid energy system. Thus Mylar shows more promising result than Teflon for production of soft water. It shows 20 % increase soft water production using mylar material on compound parabolic concentrator as comparied to the teflon.

Keywords

• Compound Parabolic Concentrator
• Evacuated Tube Collector
• Reflectivity
• Solar Energy

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