Welcome! We are team # 3 “Elevated Industry”, Arnoldo, Lino, Richard, and Thomas worked on this project during the Spring and Fall of 2024. Our project is titled Solar powered water distillation. The problem we tackled was to create a way for commercial fisherman, military, off the grid homes, or simple outdoor survivalist to be able to gather contaminated water and make it drinkable. We hope that you enjoy this project as much as we did.

Watch the Welcome Video!

This video shows how Solar Distillation works, click here.

https://youtu.be/qeitNQZbmuc?si=OY3xcflIAGDwsPre

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WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WE ARE TRYING TO SOLVE?

Year-round Commercial fisherman are out in the ocean and limited to the supplies they take from shore, because of this problem we want to make a portable solar powered water distillation system that will allow for sailors to be able to create drinkable water from the abundant amount of salt water

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IMPORTANT TO KNOW

Solar panels -

A sun powered charger, otherwise called a photovoltaic (PV) board, changes over daylight into electrical energy through a cycle known as the photovoltaic impact. Here is an improved-on clarification of how a sunlight-based charger function:

Photons Ingestion: Sunlight powered chargers are comprised of numerous little units called sun-based cells, normally made out of semiconductor materials like silicon. At the point when daylight, which is made out of photons (particles of light), strikes the outer layer of the sun-oriented cells, these photons are consumed.

Age of Electron-Opening Matches: The semiconductor material loosens electrons from their atoms as a result of the sunlight's absorbed energy. This makes electron-opening matches, where the electrons gain energy and become allowed to move.

Electric Field Development: The semiconductor material is deliberately doped to make an electric field inside the sunlight-based cell. This electric field goes about as a power that drives the free electrons towards a specific bearing.

Current Stream: The development of electrons makes an electric flow. Metal contacts on the top and lower part of the sun-oriented cell permit this flow to stream out as usable electrical power.

Direct Current (DC) Age: Direct current (DC) is the type of electricity produced. The majority of electronic devices and batteries generate this kind of electricity.

Inverter Change: Since a large portion of our domestic devices and the power framework work on rotating flow (AC), an inverter is utilized to change over the DC power produced by the sunlight-based charger into AC power.

Power Dissemination: The changed over AC power can then be utilized to drive homes, organizations, or be taken care of into the electrical framework for more extensive appropriation.

The effectiveness of sunlight-based chargers is affected by elements like the nature of the sun powered cells, the point and direction of the boards, and ecological circumstances. Propels in sun-oriented innovation keep on working on the productivity and cost-viability of sun powered chargers, making them an undeniably well-known and supportable wellspring of sustainable power.

Water Distillation process

Water refining is a cycle that isolates parts of a fluid blend in view of contrasts in their limits. Here is a fundamental clarification of how water refining functions:

Warming the Water: The initial step includes warming the polluted or tainted water to its limit. This is generally finished in a holder called a bubbling chamber or still.

Vaporization: As the water arrives at its limit, it goes through a stage change from fluid to fume. The intensity makes the water atoms gain sufficient energy to break the bonds holding them in the fluid state and change into steam.

Steam Assortment: The steam, which presently contains just water particles, rises and gets away from the debasements, abandoning pollutants, minerals, and different substances with higher limits in the bubbling chamber.

Condensation: After that, the steam is sent into a cooling system, usually a condenser, where it changes from vapor to a liquid. This cycle is worked by cooling the steam quickly.

Saltwater is 35,000 parts per million

Current solutions involve 1 gallon plug in water distillers.

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WHY IS THIS PROBLEM IMPORTANT?

Our main motivation for working on this water distillation project is to provide drinking water to people who are not as fortunate to have drinkable water access and can use the desalination process to purify a contaminated water they may have nearby

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OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION

“We propose the design of a novel energy capture mechanism that transforms the natural ocean wave motion energy into electrical energy for unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) extended operations.”

After understanding the problem in depth, we explored various potential solutions and selected the best concept (Pahl and Beitz, 1996). This is how our product solution works:

A solar panel gathers energy from the sun powering a heating element to boil a small amount of water that is constantly refilled using a dripper mechanism. This steam travels and condenses on the slopped roof of the product. These water droplets collect and run down into the clean water container.

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FROM IDEA TO REALITY

Once we defined a clear solution idea (i.e. concept), we applied our engineering knowledge to transform it into a real product. These were some of the important design challenges and how we approached each one of them:

1. The power needed to heat a large amount of water is too much

To solve this problem, we changed from heating the whole container of water to only heating a much smaller amount in increments using a dripper mechanism.

2. Salt water is very corrosive and specific materials are needed

To solve this problem, we opted to use plastics and stainless steel with a non-corrosive coating to maximize the life of the material as well as frequent cleaning to remove remaining salt

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PROTOTYPE EARLY AND OFTEN

We found that physical prototyping was very helpful to increase our understanding of the problem and the feasibility of our solutions. Our first prototypes were simple but useful and we continued evolving into more complex ones.

This was our first prototype, it may be simple, but it helped us understand ….

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FINAL PRODUCT

After much work, this is our final product: it will be powered by direct sunlight to boil saltwater that will be placed in our condensing unit and collected in a freshwater container

A wooden house with foil on it

Description automatically generated

SK12 | Solar Cooking | Fandom

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FUTURE WORK

We plan on continuing to work on our project and begin by purchasing or constructing our parabolic mirror to the specifications we need as well as continue to improve our condensing unit to improve our yield of freshwater collection

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IN CONCLUSION

Our senior design 1 experience was like no other, we experienced how drastically a design can change over the course of a semester as well as how we can adapt and change the setup depending on the results of test and looking at existing products. We had a great time working on this project and hope to continue improvement over the summer.

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REFERENCES

· Pahl, G., and Beitz, W., 1996, Engineering design: A systematic approach, London: Springer.

· Riser, Stephen. NASA Salinity: Salinity Explained, salinity.oceansciences.org/science-salinity.htm. Accessed 23 April 2024.

· Muralidhar, K., & Khandekar, S. (2013). Dropwise condensation on inclined textured surfaces. Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

· Simonson, Scott Louis. “Saltwater Materials in Industrial Applications.” Tameson.Com, 27 Mar. 2024, tameson.com/pages/salt-water-resistant-materials#:~:text=For%20instance%2C%20stainless%20steel%20316,of%20salt%20and%20other%20chemicals.

· Foundation, W. E. (2007). Finding the focal point. Finding the Focal Point. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/pdf/3406_solar_03.pdf

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR DESIGN PROCESS

We went through a meticulous design process to arrive to the final solution. The information on this page is a summary intended for the public. To learn about the project details, contact Dr. Noe Vargas Hernandez at noe.vargas@utrgv.edu

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dr. Noe Vargas
Mr. Gregory Potter

Dr. Nadim Zgheib

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