Clean Water Peru Project #53923

Solar Distiller, Clean Water Access for Lobitos

by EcoSwell

Project Report | May 5, 2022
Solar Distiller - New and Improved!

By Natasha Cooper | Project Contributor

The solar distiller design project aim remains to produce a low cost and high impact renewable energy technology for turning seawater into distilled drinking water. Throughout the testing and modifying of the distiller the simplicity and robustness was maintained due to it being crucial for the end use of the distiller in rural communities. With the end goal of the project to create a technology which can help the water scarcity crisis in communities all over the world, using an open-source construction guide.

Andrés is one of the four directors at EcoSwell and heads all the renewable initiatives at EcoSwell. Andrés is lead in this solar distiller project, with many volunteer interns helping him along the way from the initial research in 2016 to the most up to date Model 3.3 now in 2022.

The main changes from the first solar distiller report are the reduction of the empty space (air) inside the distiller, because the large empty space increased the time taken to reach the temperature at which the seawater evaporated, and distillate was produced. However, it must be mentioned that Erich’s design (a professor at the University of Lima) is still the basis of the solar distiller design. To further improve the design, black materials were used inside the distiller, due to their heat storage properties, and any leaks were reduced/ removed. The trays are important as they hold the sea water level inside the sloped solar distiller, they are also made of geomembrane because it is a material resistant to UV rays whilst increasing the rate of evaporation.

Using feedback from a community member in Lobitos the trays were modified to be removable from the solar distiller to improve ease of maintenance, by reducing the time it took to extract the remaining salt from the trays. To further improve the practicality of the solar distiller a large container is left by the distiller to hold seawater which is filled using smaller buckets poured through muslin cloth. This therefore allows the geomembrane trays to be easily topped up whilst also increasing the seawater’s input temperature, with the aim to improve evaporation rate. The larger bucket also allows the seawater to be pre-treated using muslin cloth to remove any sediment which also improves the salt produced.

The solar distiller is in its final stages of design but more testing will be carried out to ensure the usability of the distiller and to maximise the distilled drinking water produced. EcoSwell continues to modify and produce documentation in the development of the solar distiller, and your continued support is greatly appreciated.

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Jan 11, 2022
First Solar Distiller Report

By Henry Suarez | Project Contributor

The Solar Distiller Project is a low-cost, high-impact initiative by EcoSwell. Spearheaded by our renewable energy team, the end goal of this project is to provide the foundation for an open-source construction guide that people around the world can easily download, edit, and utilize to their advantage. The guide will include a list of materials, instructions on how to assemble the parts, advice on how to use the final product, and insight on how it relates to scientific research. Therefore, this project will enable everyone that is interested in building a distiller to do so, thus facilitating a vast distribution of knowledge and heavily impacting arid regions throughout the world.

For the past few months, EcoSwell has been redesigning a new model of the solar distiller in hopes of deploying the final prototype to the community of Lobitos. Our director Andrés, who has been leading the project, is very excited about the progress made so far. He has been receiving help from Eric, a physics professor at the University of Lima, for the past three years, and the two of them are continuing to make breakthroughs in the construction of the solar distiller. Eric has been studying solar distillers for 10 years and has been a big help for EcoSwell. Other contributors to the project include Sten, who interned with us from September to November, and Ussaid, who just arrived this past week to volunteer as a renewable energy intern.

The new model (Model 3.2) is currently in progress and will utilize what we learned in our in-house testing and feedback from the previous model. The new model includes altered design, quantity, and position of water containers, which will reduce the cost of materials, increase the efficiency of distillation, and allow the construction of the distiller to be more eco-friendly. We also decided to use a geomembrane, a material that resists UV rays yet increases the rate of water evaporation. Additionally, we screwed the transportation pipe directly onto the container for distilled water, which will eliminate the potential harm of rust and external contamination. Essentially, the new design is easier to maintain, so it will surely generate fewer challenges for the community once it is installed.

Andrés expects that the construction of the newly designed solar distiller will finish this week, but it will require a series of tests before it is deployed into the Lobitos community. Once the prototype is completed, the EcoSwell team will develop an operations plan and determine the scalability of the project. EcoSwell is continuing to work hard to make the Solar Distiller Project possible, and we really appreciate your help.

Links:

Video Report - Solar Distiller Project

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