Inflatable boat desalination system based on inflatable non-imaging solar concertrator

Abstract

A portable floating sea water desalination system is presented to realize ultra-high efficiency and extremely low cost water purification. The disclosed system comprises an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based compact desalinator subsystem, a photovoltaic powered distillation subsystem, and an inflatable rubber boat system. The inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator concentrates both beam light and diffuse light into an envelope type evaporator to evaporate the brine water to realize extremely low cost. A nano materials absorber is incorporated into the evaporator to realize ultra-high efficiency. A portion of the heated brine water contained in the evaporator is circulated to the photovoltaic powered distillation subsystem for further evaporation. Both of the subsystems above are mounted on the inflatable rubber boat subsystem for portability.

Claims

1. An inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based water desalination system, comprising: a. an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based compact desalinator subsystem; b. a photovoltaic powered water distillation subsystem; c. an inflatable rubber boat subsystem; wherein, the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based compact desalinator subsystem heats up the brine water feed in the subsystem and evaporate a portion of the brine water, then transports the rest of the heated brine water to the photovoltaic powered water distillation subsystem for further evaporation, both of the two subsystems are mounted onto the inflatable rubber boat subsystem to form a portable floating system.

2. The inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based compact desalinator subsystem of claim 1 consists of an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator, an envelope type evaporator, and circulation pipes.

3. The envelope type evaporator of claim 2 contains a nano materials absorber.

4. The photovoltaic powered water distillation subsystem consists of a photovoltaic panel array, a battery storage, a thermal storage, and a water distillation system.

5. The thermal storage of claim 4 has an electric heater.

6. The water distillation system of claim 4 has an electric heater.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

[0016] FIG. 1 is the overview of the assembly of the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based compact desalinator. It is a combination of an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator and a envelope type evaporator with the heated sea water circulation pipes.

[0017] FIG. 2 is the cross section view of the assembly of the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based desalinator. Where, the close structure of the solar concentrator, the structure of the evaporator, the nano materials absorber, the circulation pipes, the house formed by inner and outer holders, and the combined condenser and collector, are shown.

[0018] FIG. 3 is the cross section view of the dismantled evaporator with the nano materials absorber and the circulation pipes.

[0019] FIG. 4 is the demonstration of the work principle of the non-imaging concentrator, which concentrates both of beam light and diffuse light.

[0020] FIG. 5 is the assembly of the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based desalinator subsystem mounted on a rubber boat.

[0021] FIG. 6 is the assembly of the photovoltaic powered distillation subsystem mounted on a rubber boat.

[0022] FIG. 7 is the overall system assembly.

[0023] FIG. 8 is the schematic configuration of the entire desalination system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] Reference will now be made in detail to the present exemplary embodiment, example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[0025] Referring to FIG. 1, the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator water desalination system comprises three major components: (1) inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator 100, which is a close structure stationary solar concentrator and is able to concentrate both beam light and diffuse light; (2) evaporator 200 as an envelope surrounding the concentrator 100; (3) circulation pipes 300. The bottom of the concentrator 100 is directly sitting on the bottom of the evaporator 200 to concentrate the incident light to the absorber located on the bottom of the evaporator 200. The brine water feeding in evaporator 200 is partially evaporated by the absorber, and the rest part is circulated out to the photovoltaic powered distillation subsystem for further evaporation through the circulation pipes 300.

[0026] Referring FIG. 2, the evaporator 200 consists of the outer holder 220, the freshwater collector 230, the condenser 240, the inner holder 250, and the absorber 260. The inner holder and outer holder form a house for evaporation. When in operation, the brine water is feed in the bottom of the outer holder 220; the incident sunlight is concentrated to the absorber 260, which is merged into the brine water, to evaporate the water; the vapor generated on the surface of the brine water rise in the house formed by the inner holder 250 and outer holder 220, and arrive at the condenser 240, and get condensed there and collected in the collector 230.

[0027] Referring FIG. 3, the nano materials absorber 260 is positioned at the bottom of the outer holder 220, which serves as the container of the brine water.

[0028] Referring FIG. 4, the inflatable non-imaging concentrator has two portions, the upper transparent cover, and the lower Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC). When in operation, both the beam light I.sub.b and the diffuse light I.sub.d are concentrated onto the bottom of the CPC, as long as they fall into the half acceptance angle θ.sub.c.

[0029] Referring FIG. 5, the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based desalinator array is mounted on a rubber boat 400 to form the compact desalinator array subsystem.

[0030] Referring FIG. 6, the photovoltaic panel array 500 is mounted on the rubber boat 400 to form the photovoltaic powered distillation subsystem with electric storage and thermal storage.

[0031] Referring FIG. 7, a few of the desalinator modules and photovoltaic powered distillation system modules are assembled together to form the entire desalination system.

[0032] Referring FIG. 8, the entire system consists of: (1) the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator based compact desalinator subsystem which comprises the concentrator 100 and the evaporator 200; (2) the photovoltaic powered distillation subsystem which comprises the photovoltaic panel array 500, battery storage 700, thermal storage 600 with electric heater 610, and distillation system 800 with the electric heater 810. When in operation, the brine water contained in the evaporator 200 is heated up with the sunlight concentrated by the concentrator 100, a portion of water evaporate directly, and the rest portion of water is pumped to the thermal storage 700 heated by the electric heater 610 powered by the photovoltaic system consists of the photovoltaic panel array 500 and the battery storage 600, or the distillation system 800 with electric heater 810 powered by the photovoltaic system for further evaporation.

[0033] In the preceding specification, various preferred embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, be evident that various other modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the broader scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.

[0034] Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.