Suitability of solar mirrors for water desalination system in winter

The objective of this study is to check the possibility of producing potable water from seawater using low cost technique depends on concentrated solar rays by mirrors specially in autumn and winter seasons. The study erected a pilot plant in Faculty of Eng. pilots open site, ASU. The system used 3 concave mirrors and directed to let mirrors receives sunrays and concentrated it on the pilot for the whole sunny period. The measurements for quantities, temperature and TDS for the inlet and outlet waters were made with the measuring of air temperature and sunshine period among the day. The tests covered three months between autumn and winter to be in the worst climate for the system operation that depends mainly on sun and temperature. The results were good for product quantity and quality. The study shows that the fresh water quantity is proportional with air temperature and its TDS is between 20-40 ppm even how much the salinity of the influent seawater that ensure the system high efficiency to remove salts.