Optimal Design of a Solar Desalination Unit with Heliostats

الملخص EN

The objective is to improve the yield of a solar desalination cell using concentration of solar rays by means of automatically controlled heliostats.

The vertical cell is orientated towards the north.

It is mainly composed of two plates; the one being heated by the solar rays reflected by the mirrors is used for evaporation of a falling water film; the other one is used for water vapor condensation.

Each heliostat consists of an altitude-azimuth mount having two degrees of freedom and supporting a plane mirror.

The heliostat permanently follows the sun trajectory and reflects the solar rays on the cell by means of automatic control implemented in a control card based on a microcontroller.

Model predictive control allows us to maximize the distilled water production.