Solar Energy Vol. 72, No. 5, pp.

415–426, 2002
 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon PII: S 0 0 3 8 – 0 9 2 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 0 6 – 3 All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
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CORROSION-FREE SOLAR COLLECTORS FOR THERMALLY DRIVEN

SEAWATER DESALINATION
MICHAEL HERMANN † , JOACHIM KOSCHIKOWSKI and MATTHIAS ROMMEL
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany

Received 23 January 2001; revised version accepted 30 November 2001

Communicated by BRIAN NORTON

Abstract—Seawater desalination can be carried out by a variety of techniques, some of which are thermally
driven at operating temperatures in the range of 70 to 1208C. At this temperature level, these systems can be
supplied with thermal energy gained from solar flat-plate collectors. In order to increase the efficiency of such
systems and simultaneously reduce costs, a heat exchanger between the collector loop and the desalination unit
can be omitted if the seawater flows directly through the collector absorbers. Since hot seawater is very
aggressive, this configuration requires corrosion-free absorbers. We developed collectors which fulfil this
requirement. They were installed in a pilot plant in Pozo Izquierdo, Gran Canaria, which produces about 600 l
of drinking water per day. The main task was to find materials which are resistant to seawater and can
withstand stagnation temperatures up to 2008C, out of which appropriate absorber constructions had to be
developed. Moreover, it had to be ensured that it was possible to apply a selective coating on the absorber. A
further limitation was given by the aim for the resulting water costs. After investigating different materials and
collector designs, we developed a prototype consisting of an array of selectively coated glass tubes mounted in
a conventional flat-plate collector housing. The efficiency was increased by adding a specially shaped reflector.
The design was developed by carrying out various optical and thermal simulations, and indoor as well as
outdoor tests. We obtained appropriate collectors which fulfil the technical and economical requirements.
Finally, first results of the in-situ measurements in Gran Canaria will be presented.  2002 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. INTRODUCTION disadvantage of these systems is the fact that

usually there is no heat recovery included, which
In many areas of the world, the desalination of
means that the energy which is needed to produce
seawater is a common method of producing
a certain amount of distilled water is approximate-
drinking water, which is currently increasing in
ly equal to its heat of evaporation ( ¯ 2270 kJ / kg
importance. Many techniques have been de-
or 630 kWh / m 3 ); the heat of solution to separate
veloped during the past decades, some of which
the water from the salts is much less ( ¯ 2.52 kJ / kg
are thermally driven such as multi-stage flash
or 0.7 kWh / m 3 ) and can therefore be neglected
distillation (MSF), multiple effect distillation
¨
(Homig, 1978). If a desalination plant is to be
(MED or ME), vapour compression (VC) and
powered by solar energy, the specific energy
membrane distillation (MD). The operation tem-
consumption is one of the crucial values, because
peratures of these thermally driven and conven-
the area of the collector field needed for the plant
tionally powered processes are in the range of
is directly proportional to the required thermal
about 70 to 1208C. Higher temperatures are
power. However, often this area cannot be pro-
avoided due to the danger of scale deposition in
vided due to economic or geographical reasons. In
the pipes (European Commission THERMIE,
practice, experience has shown that the mainte-
1998) and often the limit is set to 808C. In
nance costs and needs were always drastically
principle, thermal energy at this temperature level
underestimated, so that today solar stills are only
can be provided by solar collectors. The simplest
rarely in operation (Delyannis and Belessiotis,
solar desalination plants are the so-called solar
2000).
stills, which are basically built like a greenhouse.
More advanced technologies such as MSF,
The seawater is evaporated in a basin and con-
MED and VC have a lower specific energy
denses on the inside of the transparent cover. A
consumption due to a reduction in pressure and an
†
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: implemented heat recovery system. The ‘gained
149-761-4588-5409; fax: 149-761-4588-9409; e-mail: output ratio’ (GOR) is a measure of the regenera-
hermann@ise.fhg.de tive effect of the plant (Homig,¨ 1978). It is

415
416 M. Hermann et al.
defined as the ratio of the heat of evaporation plus
the heat of solution for a given quantity of
seawater to the energy which is actually needed
for the distillation. In other words: it describes the
ratio of the amount of distillate produced in the
plant to the amount which would have been
produced without heat recovery if the same
energy were provided. In large, well established
desalination plants which are thermally driven, the
GOR can amount to 20 or more.
A combination of a common desalination plant
and a solar collector field is described by El-
Nashar and Samad (1996). They present a multi-
ple effect distillation plant which is connected to a
bank of evacuated tube solar collectors (effective
collector absorber area: 1862 m 2 ). It was designed
for a production rate of 80 m 3 / day with a GOR of
about 13. The MED distillation unit is very
sophisticated. When the paper was written, the
plant had been operated successfully for 10 years,
which shows that solar thermally driven desalina-
tion systems are technologically feasible. How-
ever, the long-term experience also revealed that
the need for maintenance was rather high and that
the collector performance had decreased due to
dust accumulation on the glass tubes and corro-
sion on the inside surface of the copper tubes. It
should be noted that in this case corrosion had
occured although only ordinary water (not sea-
water) with an additional corrosion inhibitor had
been used as collector fluid.
The performance of solar stills can be improved
if a considerable part of the heat of evaporation
can be recovered. To mention one of the numer-
ous articles in the literature, Mink et al. (1998)
propose an air-blown solar still with heat re-
cycling to accomplish this requirement. They
report on a threefold increase in yield using the
heat recovery. However, the paper does not
describe the materials used for the prototype
except for the casing material, which is copper. If
the still is intended to desalinate seawater — the
authors only talk about ‘feedstock’ — readily
corroding materials such as copper will most
likely cause problems because hot seawater is
extremely aggressive. It seems that the laboratory-
scale solar still (1 m 2 ) was not fully investigated
with respect to practical application. However,
concerning a prototype plant under real condi-
tions, the choice of appropriate materials is one of
the most important issues.
2. SODESA PROJECT
Before the collector development is described
— which is the actual topic of the article — some
information on the corresponding project and the
desalination system is given. The objective of the
international project, SODESA, which is funded
by the European Commission DG XII within the
Joule programme, is to develop and assess a
solar-thermally driven desalination system with
corrosion-free collectors and storage over 24 h a
day. The project is coordinated by the Fraunhofer
Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). Apart
from the collectors, we also developed a disinfec-
tion and mineralisation unit, which will ensure
drinking water of a high quality. The system as a
whole was designed by ZAE Bayern, Germany
¨
(Muller-Holst et al., 2000). This project partner
was also responsible for the basic dimensioning of
the collector field as well as the integration of a
6 m 3 storage tank, which allows the distillation
unit to be operated 24 h per day. The multi-effect
humidification (MEH) distillation unit was built
by the T.A.S. company (Munich, Germany). The
pilot plant (Fig. 1) was installed at the test site of
our Spanish partner CIEA-ITC in Pozo Izquierdo,
Gran Canaria. The Agricultural University of
Athens (AUA) carries out studies concerning the
potential for SODESA systems in Mediterranean
countries.
In contrast to the above-mentioned techniques
such as MSF, MED or VC, which are usually
applied in conventionally powered desalination
plants with production rates of some 100 up to
500,000 m 3 per day due to their very sophisticated
concept and high maintenance requirements, the
MEH desalination is also applicable for small-
scale, decentralized systems as are needed for
instance in rural areas with little infrastructure.
¨
The MEH system (Muller-Holst et al., 2000) can
be explained best by referring to Fig. 1. The
distillation unit consists of an evaporator and a
condenser which are located in the same insulated
chamber. The unit operates at ambient pressure.
Hot seawater (80 to 858C) is distributed on the
evaporator where it slowly trickles downwards.
The air moves in a countercurrent flow driven by
natural convection and is thereby humidified due
to partial evaporation. As a result, the brine is
concentrated and cooled down to about 458C. The
humid air flows to the condenser where the steam
condenses and is collected. In the SODESA
system, the produced distillate is subsequently
mixed with a certain amount of seawater in order
to add the minerals needed for potable water.
Finally, the water is disinfected by means of a
PV-driven ultraviolet lamp.
A substantial part of the heat of evaporation is
recovered in the condenser which acts as a
preheater to the seawater flowing through it. Thus
 Corrosion-free solar collectors for thermally driven seawater desalination
417
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the SODESA pilot plant in Pozo Izquierdo, Gran Canaria.
418 M. Hermann et al.
a GOR of about 5 can be obtained (up to 8 in the
laboratory). As can be seen from Fig. 1, there is
no heat exchanger between the collector loop and
the distillation unit. Therefore the collectors can
operate at a lower temperature and heat losses due
to the presence of a heat exchanger are avoided.
Thus the efficiency of the system can be increased
and simultaneously the resulting water costs are
reduced, because heat exchangers for hot seawater
have to be built of very expensive materials such
as titanium. It is one of the aims of the SODESA
project to investigate the effect of this fundamen-
tal modification on the resulting water costs. The
seawater is preheated in the condenser up to about
758C, and flows directly through the solar collec-
tors, where it is further heated up to the final
temperature of about 908C. Afterwards it is stored
in a large buffer tank to allow the distillation
module to operate also during the night. The
SODESA system is designed to produce about
600 l of drinking water per day.
3. REQUIREMENTS FOR PROTOTYPE
COLLECTORS
Hot seawater is extremely aggressive and can
affect even materials such as stainless steel,
especially if there is no continuous but intermit-
tent flow as is the case in solar driven systems.
Therefore the main challenge in the development
of a collector with a corrosion-free absorber was
to find appropriate absorber materials. An im-
portant requirement was the possibility of selec-
tively coating the absorber because without a very
good selective coating (´ ¯ 5%), the collector
efficiency would not be high enough at an oper-
ating temperature of 908C. Due to this coating, the
stagnation temperature is expected to rise up to
about 2008C. At the beginning of the project, we
focused on polymer materials, since they seemed
to be a good choice concerning both the resistance
against hot seawater and the possibility of apply-
ing a selective coating. We had coated polymers
successfully in earlier projects using the technolo-
gy of sputtering. However, problems arose with
the demand for temperature resistance: polymers
which can withstand 2008C are extremely expen-
sive. Furthermore, semi-finished products such as
tubes or plates and techniques for connecting
them to construct fluid-guiding structures are not
always available.
Our next step was to make different absorber
structures using epoxy sheets, fibreglass matting
with epoxy resins and a special ceramic material.
The main disadvantage of these constructions —
besides technical problems which could not be
solved in the time available — was the necessity
for extensive manual work.
4. DESIGN OF THE SODESA COLLECTOR
4.1. Flow distribution
We finally designed a collector with an ab-
sorber of selectively coated glass tubes (a 593%,
´ 55%). The tubes have an outer diameter of
16 mm and a length of 1.5 m. They are manufac-
tured by the company SCHOTT Rohrglas, Mitter-
teich, Germany. Silicone hoses reinforced with
aramid fibres act as headers, to which the glass
tubes are attached. This absorber made of selec-
tively coated glass tubes and silicone collecting
channels is mounted in a conventional flat-plate
collector housing. Since connecting many tubes in
parallel can lead to a non-uniform flow distribu-
tion, we chose a parallel–serial configuration of
the tubes. This configuration is obtained by
introducing a separating wall into each of the
headers and arranging these in opposite directions,
so that three arrays of parallel-connected tubes are
formed (Fig. 2).
We carried out simulations with a computation-
al fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation tool (CFX-4)
to investigate the flow distribution in the absorber
(3-dimensional simulation without heat transfer,
standard k– ´ -model, steady state, vinlet 50.52 m / s).
The results of a simulation of an absorber with
three arrays of 10 tubes (Fig. 3) reveal that the
flow speed in the centre of the tubes (maximum
speed) rises from the first to the tenth tube. As the
absorber consists of a series of three arrays, this
flow distribution is repeated twice. The values
also show that the speed in all tubes is high
enough to ensure that the absorbed heat is re-
moved by the fluid.
In contrast to the above-mentioned simulations,
the individual arrays of the final SODESA collec-
tor consist of 14 tubes. Furthermore, we increased
the effective tube length to 4.5 m by joining three
tubes. Thus we could triple the aperture area per
header pair, which saved time and costs, im-
proved the absorber-to-aperture ratio and de-
creased heat losses as large-area collector mod-
ules (6.96 m 2 gross area) could be built.
Moreover, we expected to obtain a more uni-
form flow distribution because the fraction of the
pressure drop caused by the flow from the tubes
into the headers and vice versa was reduced in
relation to the total pressure drop.
 Corrosion-free solar collectors for thermally driven seawater desalination 419

Fig. 2. Configuration of the absorber tubes and headers.

4.2. Optical investigations by side without gaps. A configuration with tubes

lying side by side would also have caused the heat
As the tubes had to be stuck into holes in the capacity of the collector to become too high
headers, it was not possible to arrange them side because of the amount of water in the tubes. Thus,

Fig. 3. Flow speed in the centre of the tubes (results from CFD simulation).
420 M. Hermann et al.
we had to compensate for the gaps by adding a
reflector behind the tubes. Theoretically, a CPC
reflector (compound parabolic concentrator)
would have been the best choice. However, the
small dimensions of the numerous mirrors needed
would have caused problems concerning accuracy
during production, resulting in poor optical prop-
erties. Furthermore, such a complex shape would
have been very difficult and expensive to produce.
Instead, we decided to use a simple zigzag
mirror, because such a construction was easier to
build. We chose a gap of one tube diameter
between two tubes and positioned a 908-reflector
beneath each tube. We investigated the optical
behaviour of this reflector by means of the ray-
tracing programme OptiCAD (Fig. 4). The results
of these simulations were used to determine the
optical efficiencies of an ideal absorber (a 51) at
different incidence angles, from which the inci-
dence angle modifier (IAM) was subsequently
calculated.
Since the pilot plant is installed at a very windy
site on the coast, the glass cover of the collector
can get dusty very quickly, which will — apart
from reducing the transmittance considerably
(Mastekbayeva and Kumar, 2000) — increase the
Fig. 4. Ray-tracing simulations at different incidence angles.
diffuse fraction of the radiation penetrating the
glass cover. However, the use of a zigzag mirror
only makes sense if the fraction of beam radiation
is dominant. Therefore we also carried out simula-
tions with a flat diffuse reflector as an alternative.
We varied the distance between the diffuse reflec-
tor and the tubes in order to investigate the
influence on the IAM. The optical efficiencies of
various absorber constructions are shown in Fig.
5. A comparison between calculated and mea-
sured values of the IAM for the zigzag reflector
can be drawn from Fig. 6. It has to be kept in
mind that the real absorber has an absorptance of
a 5 93% whereas in the simulation an ideal
absorber with a 5 100% was assumed. Therefore
multiple internal reflections from non-absorbed
radiation were not considered. Also the angular
dependence of the absorptance was neglected.
The results show that the zigzag mirror will
lead to higher optical efficiencies than the diffuse
reflector at incidence angles up to 308. However,
the values decrease at angles between 308 and 608
with a minimum at 458, which is caused by the
fact that the rays which do not reach the absorber
hit the mirror at a relative incidence angle of 08
and therefore leave the collector again (see Fig. 4
 Corrosion-free solar collectors for thermally driven seawater desalination 421

Fig. 5. Calculated optical efficiencies.

for 458). Since the tubes are positioned horizontal-
ly and the collectors are mounted at an inclination
angle of 278 — which is equal to the latitude of
Pozo Izquierdo — the incidence angle at solar
noon will only vary between 123.58 and 223.58
over the whole year. However, the angles around
458 will also be relevant in the morning and in the
afternoon. The optical efficiencies of the diffuse
reflector are lower up to 308 but higher in the
range between 308 and 608. Only in-situ measure-
ments at the pilot plant, which also take into
consideration external effects such as dust, will
allow us to identify the better reflector design for
the specific conditions prevailing at the test site of
the pilot plant in Pozo Izquierdo.
4.3. Natural convection
Since the natural convection of air in the gap

Fig. 6. Calculated and measured IAM values with zigzag mirror.

422 M. Hermann et al.

Fig. 7. CFD simulations of natural convection.

between the cover pane and the absorber has a
large influence on the efficiency curve, we also
carried out CFD simulations comparing the ther-
mal behaviour of collectors using a zigzag mirror
and a diffuse reflector. As a simplification for the
simulations, we assumed the temperature of the
glass cover and the absorber to be constant at 60
and 1008C, respectively (2-dimensional simula-
tion with heat transfer, standard k– ´ -model,
steady state). The results in Fig. 7 reveal that the
maximum air speed in the absorber with the
zigzag mirror is much lower than in the construc-
tion with the diffuse reflector, because the mirror
acts as a barrier for the air flow. So we came to
the conclusion that the zigzag mirror will not only
improve the optical properties for beam radiation
but also the thermal behaviour of the SODESA
collector.
5. COLLECTOR CONSTRUCTION AND TESTS
Based on the previous investigations, we built

Fig. 8. Collector constructions. Upper diagram, collector with 908 zigzag mirror; lower diagram, collector with diffuse reflector.
 Corrosion-free solar collectors for thermally driven seawater desalination
Fig. 9. SODESA collector on the tracker of the test facility at Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg.
collectors with zigzag and diffuse reflectors,
respectively. The zigzag mirror of aluminium is
attached to insulation of foamed melamine resin
which has the same profile as the mirror. For the
diffuse reflector, the insulation material itself
could be used as a reflector due to its white colour
and its fine porous structure. We measured a
reflectivity of 90% for diffuse radiation. The
collector housing is insulated with a polyurethane
material. Both constructions are shown in Fig. 8.
We built 10 SODESA collector modules (gross
dimensions: each 4.77 m long and 1.46 m wide) at
our institute. We developed techniques to connect
the glass tubes with each other and with the
headers. These connections proved to be suitable
during our tests at more than 2 bar and 958C. We
carried out measurements to determine the ef-
ficiency of the collectors using the test facility of
our institute (Fig. 9), which is one of the certified
national test laboratories for collector tests in
Germany. The tests were conducted following the
standard ISO 9806-1 (flow rate: 187 kg / h; re-
sulting flow speed in each tube: vtube 50.026 m / s).
Fig. 10 shows the efficiency curves of the mea-
sured collectors with a zigzag mirror and a diffuse
reflector, respectively, for an irradiance of 950 W/
m 2 . Obviously, the efficiency of the collector with
the diffuse reflector is lower than that with zigzag
mirror. A typical operating point can be calculated
from DT 5 T fluid 2 T ambient 5 808C2258C5558C
423
and I 5 950 W/ m 2 , leading to DT /I 5
0.058 K m 2 / W.
6. THE PILOT PLANT IN GRAN CANARIA
AND FIRST OPERATING RESULTS
The SODESA pilot plant was installed in May
2000 in Pozo Izquierdo, Gran Canaria, Spain (Fig.
11). The collector field consists of eight collectors
which are connected in series. The distillation
module and the tank as well as the units for
mineralisation and disinfection are located in the
house behind the collector field. The photovoltaic
module to supply electricity for the mineralisation
and disinfection unit is situated beside the house.
In this project, it was decided that all other
pumps, valves and control units as well as the
data acquisition system for the pilot plant would
use electric power from the grid. However, it is of
course possible to supply these components with
power from a PV system to achieve an autonom-
ous desalination plant. This step is planned in
further development projects.
Relevant data to assess the long-term perform-
ance of the plant are being monitored. During the
first months it was necessary to adjust the control
system and make various changes and repairs.
Therefore the data on the system performance will
not be evaluated in detail before the end of the
424 M. Hermann et al.

Fig. 10. Efficiency curves of SODESA collectors.

measuring period which will last 1 year. Never-
theless, some information on the collector per-
formance can already be given. In Fig. 12, the
averaged collector efficiencies determined during
a measuring interval of 3 h around solar noon
(quasi steady state—indicated as measurement
points) are compared with the efficiency curves
determined on the test facility in Freiburg (indi-
cated as lines, taken from Fig. 10). A good
agreement between the values can be observed;

Fig. 11. SODESA pilot plant in Pozo Izquierdo, Gran Canaria.

 Corrosion-free solar collectors for thermally driven seawater desalination
Fig. 12. Efficiencies measured during operation in comparison to efficiency curves determined with the test facility in Freiburg.
even under the dusty conditions in Gran Canaria,
the six collectors with zigzag mirrors show higher
efficiencies than the two collectors with diffuse
reflectors, in spite of the reduced fraction of beam
radiation due to dust accumulation. The efficiency
of the whole collector field — including the
influence of heat losses in the piping between the
collectors — amounted to 47.9% at a mean DT /I
5 0.0525 K m 2 / W and an irradiance of I 5
955 W/ m 2 (measured in the collector plane). It
has also to be mentioned that the wind speeds in
Pozo Izquierdo are much higher than those pre-
vailing while the efficiency curves were mea-
sured, leading to an increase in heat losses. The
typical operating conditions are: T inlet 568 8C,
T outlet 585 8C, flow rate Q5480 kg / h (leading to
vtube 50.07 m / s in each tube), wind speed vwind 5
3–6 m / s. In the pilot plant eight collectors are
connected in series, thus leading to a small DT per
collector. During the collector tests in Freiburg a
lower flow rate was used (Q 5 187 kg / h, vtube 5
0.026 m / s), because such a small DT would have
led to high relative measurement errors. This has
to be kept in mind when the results from Freiburg
and Pozo Izquierdo are compared.
7. CONCLUSIONS
New collectors with corrosion-free absorbers
were developed. They can withstand stagnation
425
conditions and have a good efficiency at the
operating temperatures of about 908C required for
thermal desalination systems. The seawater is
directly heated up in the collector absorbers. No
heat exchanger is needed between the collector
and the desalination loop. This increases the
collector system efficiency considerably. Inves-
tigations on materials, thermal and optical simula-
tions, and indoor and outdoor collector tests, were
carried out to develop the collector.
The collectors were installed in the SODESA
pilot plant which was successfully taken into
operation in May 2000. The first operating ex-
perience with the collector field is good. The
evaluation of the data from the collector field
shows good agreement between the efficiencies
measured on the collector test facility of Fraun-
hofer ISE and the values determined during
operation of the pilot plant in Pozo Izquierdo,
Gran Canaria. The measurements also show that
even under the dusty conditions prevailing at the
test site, the collector with a zigzag reflector
operates better than the collector with a diffuse
reflector.
The new collectors with corrosion-free ab-
sorbers are in principle suitable for all thermally
driven desalination techniques (multi-stage flash,
multi effect distillation, vapour compression,
membrane distillation, multi-effect humidifica-
tion). They may also be used in PV-driven RO
(reverse osmosis) systems to preheat feed water.
426 M. Hermann et al.
Acknowledgements—The SODESA project is supported by the
European Commission, DG XII, Science, Research and De-
velopment, within the JOULE programme, contract number
JOR3-CT98-0229. We also thank all project partners for their
good collaboration.
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