Development of a Solar Water Distiller and Laboratory Analysis of the Product

Abstract

In spite of the significance and availability of water, only an approximate value of about 1% is portable. Distillation processes which comprise evaporation and condensation in a box like machine called Solar Water Distiller was adopted for distilling unsafe to safe drinkable water in our homes. The design method adopted for the machine was energy method/balancing equation. The developed machine is a single stage distiller which is fabricated using local available materials. The heat energy required for powering the solar water distiller was 337.2 W/m2. This was the quantity of energy per unit time and area required for distilling the water based on average room temperature of 28.6 oC. The machine has capacity of average daily capacity of 28 litres as distillate water volume within 6.68 hours. It has design capacity of producing 4.2 litres per hour at minimum wind speed of 5.75m/s. The results show that produced machine has 75% efficiency with quality drinkable water that satisfied condition of Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality NSDWQ (2007) rating.