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Scarcity of potable water is one of the major problems faced in the world today. Majority of this problem can be solved if technology is developed to obtain potable water from brackish or saline water. The present desalination methods face challenges such as high costs in terms of energy consumption

Scarcity of potable water is one of the major problems faced in the world today. Majority of this problem can be solved if technology is developed to obtain potable water from brackish or saline water. The present desalination methods face challenges such as high costs in terms of energy consumption and infrastructure, physical size of the system, requirement of membrane and high pressure systems and hence have been facing various issues in implementation of the same.

This research provides a new low pressure, low energy, portable method to desalinate water without the need for separation membranes, heat or chemical reactions. This method is energy efficient, cost effective, compact, environment friendly and suitable for portable desalination units. This technology, named as Polyphase Alternating current Bi-Ionic Propulsion System (PACBIPS) makes use of polyphase alternating current source to create a gradient in salt concentration. The gradient in salt concentration is achieved due to the creation of a traveling wave which attracts anions on its positive peak (crests) and cations on its negative peak (troughs) and travels along a central pipe thereby flushing the ions down.

Another method of PACBIPS is based on Helmholtz capacitor which involves the formation of an electric double layer between the electrode and electrolyte consisting of equal and opposite ions which can be approximated as a capacitor. Charging and discharging this capacitor helps adsorb the ions onto a carbon electrode which has high surface area and electrical conductivity. This desalinates seawater and provides pure water. Mathematical modeling, analysis and implementation of the two methods have

been presented in this work. The effects of zeta potential, electric field screening, electric mobility on desalination have been discussed.
ContributorsKrishna Kashyap, Suhas (Author) / Hui, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Rodriguez, Armando A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
This thesis investigates the viability of a solar still for desalination of a personal water supply. The end goal of the project is to create a design that meets the output requirement while tailoring the components to focus on low cost so it would be feasible in the impoverished areas

This thesis investigates the viability of a solar still for desalination of a personal water supply. The end goal of the project is to create a design that meets the output requirement while tailoring the components to focus on low cost so it would be feasible in the impoverished areas of the world. The primary requirement is an output of 3 liters of potable water per day, the minimum necessary for an adult human. The study examines the effect of several design parameters, such as the basin material, basin thickness, starting water depth, basin dimensions, cover material, cover angle, and cover thickness. A model for the performance of a solar still was created in MATLAB to simulate the system's behavior and sensitivity to these parameters. An instrumented prototype solar still demonstrated viability of the concept and provided data for validation of the MATLAB model.
ContributorsRasmussen, Dylan James (Author) / Wells, Valana (Thesis director) / Trimble, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05