Portable solar powered water distiller is an excellent new innovation, that allows anyone to add water from any source which is perhaps, dirty, salty or unfit for drinking on one side and over the course of the dayturns it into clean safe drinking water out the other side.
The trick here has been the forming of a medium size parabolic mirror that uses flexible aluminized mylar sheet. The aluminum frame is built using 1 inch wide by 1/8 inch thick strips. These run around the edge of the mirror and a pair of wires at each end draw the frame into a parabola. The mirror is actually sandwiched between an upper frame and a lower frame.
The frame may be made from wood or plastic, as aluminium can be expensive. The frame holds the mylar sheet and also provides stiffness to the wire.
The length of the wire determines the steepness or shallowness of the parabola. And this determines how theclose or far the focus of the mirror is. The mirror is cheap. Put together it should cost $10 to make the mirrors in any serious volume.
The mirror, then is kept under an evaporation chamber. This is where the water gets purified. The chamber has an aluminum pan which is painted black to absorb the sunlight/heat. ‘Dirty’ water is added to this, and it is heated until it evaporates. The pan has a clear plastic cover and it captures and condenses the water vapor. And an interior lip channels this water out of the distiller. This is a simple device which can produce up to a gallon of pure water.
Source – TheSietch
