Preliminary Studies on the Application of Laboratory Scaled Stepped Solar Still for Seawater Treatment in Ukm, Bangi

摘要

The usage of solar energy in water treatment processes is one of the promising alternatives to tackle water problems all around the globe. Solar still applications show huge potential to tackle water problem as it can produce clean water by purification of contaminated water. A study on the application of a laboratory scaled stepped solar still was conducted in UKM, Bangi to investigate the feasibility of solar still for seawater treatment. The fabricated stepped solar still has 11 trays and has a total evaporation area of 0.8 m~2. The seawater with the following characteristics was used as feed: TDS at 372.2 ± 12.97 mgL~(-1), TSS at 303.80 ± 5.26 mgL~(-1) and turbidity at 7.96 ± 0.19 NTU. The results show the average TDS concentrations for the condensate were between 3.88 ± 0.26 mgL~(-1) with removal efficiency greater than 98.92 ± 0.09%. It was also shown that the solar still condensate quality in terms of TDS, turbidity, pH and elemental parameters matches the quality for drinking water standards set by the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH). The method was also successful in removing bacterial colonies, the Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) parameter with an efficiency removal of more than 60.40 ± 3.03%. The solar still was able to produce an average of 1.50 ± 0.18 Lm~(-2) per day of distillate for daytime monitoring.