Fresnel Lens Technology for Distillation of Water with LDR Sensor Based Tracking System

Abstract

Fresnel lens reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens. By employing this technology to two of the ubiquitous resources available almost everywhere – sunlight and brine water - we produce steam. Focused sunlight by sun tracking was used to boil water from a copper tube while a spiral piping is used as a condenser. With LDR sensors and a high torque servo motor, the solar irradiance was maximised. This was done using ‘Adruino Uno’ micro controller coded to use real time data obtained from the LDR sensors. The apparatus was tested on sunny, partially cloudy and cloudy days in manually set to North – South direction manually. The amount of water distilled was proportional to the solar irradiance and were highest, mediocre and lowest respectively for three sample days of varying solar albedo. Though black paint on copper boiler helped to increase distilled water productivity, loss in heat from the system was evident. An average of 1.6 litres of water was produced per day by the system with boiler volume 3.18 litres and rectangular Fresnel lens of size 345 x 345 mm. Heat loss from system may be further controlled by larger aperture lens and selective insulation of copper duct. Addition of baffle for heating and fins at condenser may increase heat transfer rate.

Advancements in Fresnel Lens Technology across Diverse Solar Energy Applications: A Comprehensive Review

“…Furthermore, the CSS and the CSSFL at 1 cm depth had a daily average thermal efficiency of 21% and 36%, respectively. Johnson and Srinivas (2020) [38] used a Fresnel lens to concentrate sunlight and salt water, two resources that can be found almost anywhere, into steam. Water was heated in a copper tube using concentrated sunlight from a sun tracker, and the heat was transferred to the water via a condenser made of spiral tubing.…”