DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IIT Ropar

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROPAR

RUPNAGAR-140001, INDIA

Development Engineering Project (CP301)

End-Sem Report

Solar Seawater Desalination Machine

Including RO UV Purifier

2019meb1302
Tushar Raj

Under the Supervision of -

Dr. Ravi Kant

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Ropar
Date of Submission – 21st July 2022
Table Of Contents
1. Introduction and Objectives ............................................................................6

2. Theoretical and Conceptual Aspects of the Our model ................................. 7

3. Cost of Our Model and The Component List ................................................. 8

4. Our Approach in this course ...........................................................................9

5. Discussion .....................................................................................................10

6. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 11

7. Reference ..................................................................................................... 11
1. Introduction and Objectives

There is an increasing demand for advancing typical desalination technologies

and developing novel solar powered desalination processes. The increasing
demand for solar powered desalination systems is driven by the increasing
value of fossil fuels for thermal and electricity generation. Falling value of
renewable energy technologies, need for small scale localized desalination
systems to work in remote areas that lack access to the electrical grid, and
therefore the concern over global climate change. Solar powered desalination
is particularly necessary in remote and rural areas with low infrastructure, close
to the coast and without connection to a grid.

To solve the problem of “Water Scarcity” among people which is a one of the
biggest engineering problems. From a Mechanical engineering perspective, we
will develop a transportable solar seawater desalination machine to resolve the
water downside with a sensible, innovative thought.
Solar desalination process is a technique to supply water with low salt
concentration from seawater or brine using solar energy. Desalination refers to
a process that involves taking the salt out of water to form it potable.
Desalination process involves either treating ocean or salt water with the target
to form fresh or potable water. so as to try and do this, desalination process
plants involve multiple technologies, from pre-treatment to pumps and
membranes.

There are 2 common strategies of solar desalination:

1. using the direct heat from the sun.
2. using electricity generated by solar cells to power a membrane method.

Only three percent of the water on the earth is fresh. Two thirds of this H2O is
present in frozen glaciers. That is why a serious a part of the population fails
to get pure water to drink. Thus, we will develop portable solar powered
seawater desalination as well as water purifier to solve the water problem with
a smart innovative thought.

The objective behind all these things is listed below –

 To provides everyone near coasts a clean & freshwater for drinking.
 To use this water for agricultural purposes provides a risk to anyone, such
as plant and animal.
 To preserve current fresh provides for next generations.
 To use unlimited ocean / sea water as a supply for drinking/daily routine
purpose with not compromising with any environmental protection.
 To complete above objective desalination of water is necessary but there
are several reasons why we tend to desalinization is very important these
days however we will cross-check the two significant reasons first:
2. Theoretical and Conceptual Aspects of the Our model

◈ We can have two types of working models on the basis of the diagram given
in the previous slide. The first working model (Model 1) will exclude the
energy recovery system and the Brine water evaporation pond. The second
working model (Model 2) will consist of all the components given in the
diagram. So firstly, we will explain the working of Model 1:
◈ The solar panel will be charged through the solar energy and with the help
of the solar panel the battery of our purifier will be charged.
◈ We can use among all the 3 pumps that are HP pump or Feed pump or
Flushing pump, but in our case, we will be using the HP pump. Firstly, the
HP pump will pull out the water from the groundwater well and that water will
go into the Pretreatment system.
◈ In the Pretreatment system the massive waste like plastic granules or
stones, weed, etc., gets separated. Now the physical waste of the water has
been separated.
◈ This water is then pumped-up into a giant-sized purification chamber with
three layers of purifiers for filtering weed, small sand particles and massive
salt particles.
◈ The output from this Pretreatment system remains salty water, however,
without waste particles.
◈ Finally, this water is passed on to the second filtration, where we use reverse
osmosis to filter the salt from the water.
◈ So finally, the fresh water will be passed to the freshwater tank for the usage.
◈ Now we will be talking about the Model 2 in which the Brine water
evaporation pond and energy recovery system are also used.
◈ All the process are same as the working of Model 1, however in this model
because of the presence of an energy recovery system we will be having
more freshwater in less time.
◈ Energy recovery includes any technique or method of minimizing the input
of energy to an overall system. To minimize the energy of the system and to
get more freshwater we will be using Brine evaporation ponds with the
Reverse osmosis system.
◈ Evaporation ponds are shallow, lined earthen basins in which concentrate
evaporates naturally as a result of solar irradiation. As fresh water
evaporates from the ponds, the minerals in the concentrate are precipitated
in salt crystals, which are harvested periodically and disposed off-site. So, in
the diagram we are using both the Reverse osmosis and Brine water
evaporation pond.
◈ If we use the Brine water evaporation pond and Reverse osmosis system,
we can be more freshwater at less time.
◈ But we will not use the Brine water evaporation pond as to construct one can
cost us a lot of money.
◈ So, we will be practically focusing on Model 1.

3. Cost of Our Model and The Component List

To calculate the cost of our model, first we must make the list of components
which we are required to make our final product.
Components Price in Rs
Solar Panels of 200 watt/ 12 V (Luminous) 9700
Water Tank 500
Water Pump (Hp Pump) 6000
Pre-treatment System 4800
Reverse Osmosis System 8000
12V Battery (Exide) 11000
UV Tube and Membrane Filters 750
Steel Tap and Steel Handle 300
Base and Supporting Frame 1000
Nozzle and Pipe Connector 250
Piping and Pipe Fittings and Supporting Rod Pipes 500
 Note – This price is taken entirely from the online shopping website or
online store like amazon, flipkart etc as we cannot go for local shop in this
pandemic.

When we sum this then Rs 42800 come, and we can also add some
Instalment charge and technician charge then cost of our model is around
Rs 45000.

This Cost can be minimized by purchasing the component in large amount

so that we can get the discount in price and this price is taken from online
market where price is always much higher as compared to local market so
our cost can be minimized by 30-40%.

4. Discussion

 It was a nice experience to work on some development regarding the water

scarcity problem.

 Many new things learnt during this like working model of reverse osmosis
and what are the thing entrepreneur thing while start-up.
  If we can manufacture this thing then it can be good or profitable start-up.

 We can ensure that Everyone has given equal no. hours in this project.

5. Conclusion

 We can conclude that it will solve the water scarcity problem which is the
biggest problem in world society.

 It has many advantages like easy to use everywhere in daytime.

 Yes, it has some disadvantage like timely maintenance and the cost is high
but looking the advantage it can be ignored.

6. Reference
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis
 From research paper of DESALINATION

1. Reverse Osmosis Technology, its Applications and Nano-Enabled Membrane.Ahamefula

A. Ahuchaogu1 , Okonkwo Joseph Chukwu2 , A. I. Obike1 , Chitua E. Igara3 , InnocentTitle:
Solar Seawater Desalination Machine including RO UV Purifier
Page 8 of 7.

2. Chidi Nnorom1 , John Bull Onyekachi Echeme2.International Journal of Advanced Research

in Chemical Science (IJARCS).Volume 5, Issue 2, 2018, PP 20-26
https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijarcs/v5-i2/5.pdf

3. Application of reverse osmosis in purifying drinking water.Lei Jiang, Yue Tu, Xiangmin Li,
Haixiang Li*.College of Environmental Science and Engineering，Guilin University of
Technology，Guilin 541006，China.2018
https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2018/13/e3sconf_icemee2018_01037.pdf