Australian engineers have created a device that promises to innovate the solar energy and drinking water market. The idea is a desalination plant that uses solar energy to generate fresh water from sea water.

Engineers in Australia have developed a desalinator that uses solar energy to extract clean, drinkable water from salt water. The engineers did some demonstrations, proving that the desalinator can supply fresh water from sea water, brackish water and, most amazingly, contaminated water.

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Engineers create desalinator that promises to change the solar energy market

Each desalinator is capable of providing enough clean water for a family of four using just one square meter of water source per day.

According to a Haolan Xu, professor at the University of South Australia, and also one of the engineers responsible for the project, all the old techniques were aimed at using evaporation with solar energy to produce clean and drinkable water, however, these techniques were insufficient to be useful in the practice.

He says the market-changing Australian project has overcome all previous inefficiencies and its technology can provide enough clean water to meet many practical needs.

Understand how the solar powered desalinator works

The basis of the desalinator system is a highly efficient solar heat generating structure that is mounted on the surface of a water source. The device converts sunlight into heat, focusing the energy precisely on the surface so that the upper part of the liquid evaporates more quickly.

Despite seeming to be a very easy and simple process, the other attempts that were similar to this one were not as efficient, due to the loss of energy, since the heat from solar energy was dissipated in the air when passing through the collector to the water source. According to engineers, the oldest solar energy evaporators were basically two-dimensional, that is, they were just a flat surface and could lose 10% to 20% of the solar energy to the water that would be evaporated.

Australian engineers have developed a technique that not only prevents the loss of solar energy, but also extracts additional energy from the surrounding environment and water volume, making the device operate at 100% efficiency so that solar energy enters and consumes other 170% energy from the water itself and the surrounding environment.

Desalter tests show good results

During the tests, the rods of the device were placed inside a glass dome, which was exposed to the sun, without using any type of concentrator or lens.

As a result, excess heat is distanced from the upper surfaces of the evaporator, distributing heat to the surface of the stick and favoring water evaporation, making the device reach zero loss during evaporation.