Distillation of treated dairy effluent using integrated solar dish collector and solar still: A case study of distillate output enhancement
Vivek Koshta, B.P. Shah, Himanshu R. Patel, Anil R. Chaudhari
Abstract
A solar thermal distillation system was designed to be compatible with electrically powered conventional laboratory distillation assembly. Its efficacy was checked in converting the treated dairy effluent into distilled water. The experimental setup comprised of a solar parabolic dish collector (aperture area 4.15 m2) and a solar still (basin area 1 m2) and was designed such that both can be used separately or in the combination. The study was conducted during March – June 2023. The solar dish collector was tested with two receivers with different bottom materials viz., stainless-steel and brass, thereby an average daily yield of 6.5 litres and 6.9 litres were obtained for both receivers, respectively. Simultaneously, solar still produced 2.08 litres of water individually per day. Thus, the highest yield obtained for whole setup was 8.9 litres per day considering individual performances of both the systems. The daily average thermal efficiency of dish collector for was found 65.59% with steel receiver and 63.33% with brass receiver. Similarly, thermal efficiency of solar still was 35%. The quality of distillate was analysed on 10 parameters viz., pH, TDS, TSS, COD, BOD, Oil & Grease, SPC, Coliform count, electrical conductivity, and chloride content which showed promising results.