Design and development of a solar parabolic concentrator and integration with a solar desalination system

Project Report from the year 2016 in the subject Energy Sciences, grade: 8, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, language: English, abstract: The Indian subcontinent is blessed with an ample amount of sunlight almost all through the year. There is an urgent need of switching over to a perennial source of energy as an alternative to replace all the quickly depleting fossil fuels. There is much interest in non-conventional energy nowadays, so as to tap energy from unassuming but promising quarters like Solar, Wind and Tidal energy. Of those, tapping the heat and infra-red rays from the sun, using air and water as appropriate mediums, separately and together as a whole, is the most easiest and versatile way of energy capture.

This book is concerned with the designing of an efficient solar parabolic collector to trap the solar heat in the receiver through the combination of concave mirrors. A small scale parabolic dish was fabricated with locally available material like stainless steel for the boiler, and painting it black to increase the absorption. As a matter of application of the project, a solar desalination system was integrated with the project to test the feasibility of the research. The desalination system worked successfully in conjunction with the experimental setup and a reduction in the TDS level of the feed water was observed at the condensation end. Thus, the project is feasible for cleaning or purifying the water by renewable sources.