Solar Energy Engineering

Chapter eight

Solar Desalination Systems

8.1 Introduction

The provision of freshwater is becoming an increasingly important issue in many areas of the world. In arid areas, potable water is very scarce and the establishment of a human habitat in these areas strongly depends on how such water can be made available. A brief historical introduction to solar desalination is given in Chapter 1, Section 1.5.2.

Water is essential to life. The importance of supplying potable water can hardly be overstressed. Water is one of the most abundant resources on earth, covering three fourths of the planet’s surface. About 97% of the earth’s water is saltwater in the oceans and 3% (about 36 million km³) is freshwater contained in the poles (in the form of ice), ...