Construction and
Testing of a High-Efficiency Solar Water Still
Paul A. LaViolette
03-07
EISG Project
Title: Construction and Testing of a High-Efficiency Solar Water Still
EISG Grant Number: 03-07
PIER Area: Industrial/Agricultural/Water End-Use
Efficiency
Principal Investigator: Paul A. LaViolette
Contact Information: Phone:
(703) 256-4887, email: starcode@aol.com
Organization: The Starburst Foundation
Grant Amount: $74,998
Grant Term: 12 Months
Project Description:
§ Proposes to determine the feasibility of developing a novel multi-effect solar still design that is capable of cost effectively desalinating agricultural drainage water for reuse in crop irrigation.
Proposed Outcomes:
§ A prototype will be fabricated and tested as part of the project.
Anticipated Benefits:
§ Potential to provide significant power savings since the proposed technology consumes only about 500-kilowatt hours per acre-foot of processed water, which is about 7 times less power than reverse osmosis.
§ Potential to desalinate drainage water with up to 10,000 total dissolved solids at a cost of $490/AF, which is comparable to reverse osmosis, but with considerably less power consumption and waste brine volume.