Subject: Re: Solar Desalinization

From: [email-masked] (Ray Bahm)
Date: 31 Mar 1995 04:14:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (William B. Warren) says:
>
>Has anyone here experimented w/ Solar Desalinization of sea water? I 
Lots of folks have.  There should be a fair amount of literature available.
I remember one in Pureto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico about 30 years ago
that was operated by the University of Arizona.  I seem to remember that
there was a major one on Malta, or some other island in the Medeterranian
which has no supply of fresh water.  Mobil has installed one which is PV
powered on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia.  The foregoing is all from 
memory - may not be too acccurate, but you get the idea.

I once built a small solar still out of a box lined with styrofoam and black 
plastic with a fibreglass cover -  about 2 by 3 feet.  It produced about 
1/2 gallon per day  not very exciting, but the concept worked.

I think the reall problem with solar stills is the maintenance.  They need
it, and also take up a lot of area.  The stills I've seen condense the water
vapor on the bottom side of the window, and then it runs down that side
until it is caught in a trough.  In mine lots of water never made it to the 
trough, but instead dripped back into the original pool, losing efficiency.

Ray Bahm

---

From: Lee Butler <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 09:13:53 GMT

>would like to do  some food production
>(aquaculture/mariculture/hydroponics)  experiments on my "Biobarge" this
>summer and would like to be able to meet my freshwater needs through
>this method of desalinization.  Any input would be greatly appreciated...
>
>Thanks in advance,
>William
>
>
>Solar Desalinization

Passive solar glass houses can be designed to desalinize water at the same
time they provide an environment in which the water can be used to grow
plants, fish, shrimp.etc. I have prototype designs, based on Israeli work
in this field.
Essentially, we are talking about an evapotative condensor. Not too
complicated I presume. Hope this is helpful to you. Your floating
hydroponic plant producing "barge" which gets it's water from local
availible indigeneous sources sounds suspiciously similiar to my Ekotecture
designs. You could refer to my floating Ekotecture houses as barges.I like
your idea.

Lee Porter Butler

Lee Porter Butler
620 Biscayne Drive
West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
407-659-7656

Re: Solar Desalinization