Effects of temperature and salt concentration on distilled water production

The paper studies the influence of salt concentration and temperature on the distillation flow rate in a single effect multi-stage system for small water distillation units for low purchasing communities of 50 to 100 people. The distillation process has been evaporation-condensation under variable conditions: temperature of the evaporation and salt concentration. The results have shown there is a dependence of the amount of the distilled water on temperature and salt concentration whose effects are more significant as the temperature rises and salt concentration lowers, The amount of the distilled water has been increased with the use of the multistage system, 103% for sea water, and 56% for brackish water. The ratio of the quantities of distilled water for both cases, sea water and brackish water, has increased from 15.8% for one single stage to 55.7% for the four stages. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.