My Solar Distillation Tower is designed to operate as a stand-alone self-powered bulk water desalination/purification system. The tower works on the principle of holding the water under a strong vacuum and controlling the temperature which the incoming brine vaporizes to get the most fresh water output. The vacuum will be maintained by “suspending” the rise of water in to an elevated tank. The inlet or outlet of each water connection to the tank would be atmospheric pressure at the source, and be increasing in measured vacuum towards the working portion of the elevated tank. The specifics of tower height and internal water baffle construction would be somewhat location dependent as to how much Solar or waste heat was available for the incoming water, the cooling potential of the tower dome, and the density of water in versus water out. The Tower will operate from Solar heating panels and/or waste heat sources. As the input heating and dome cooling scenarios change, the water levels could be automatically adjusted by adjusting the vacuum in the system for optimum fresh water output. The system will be designed to automatically start with the input of heat, and shut down once the heat source drops below a specified level.

The self-contained solar desalination tower would require minimal external energy to operate control systems. A demand based vacuum air pump would hold the water at a specified level in the tank, and remove trapped gasses released from the incoming water supply. Other uses of external electrical power would be UV lights in the tank to inhibit algae and bacteria growth and various other system monitoring options. These functions that require external electricity would ultimately be powered by PV solar panels mounted on top of the tower.

Maintenance of the tower would be comparable to other water storage options already used all over the globe. Using internal UV light systems would reduce algae and other growth; hard mineral scale would be reduced using commercial frequency generating scale inhibiting systems, and the tank would be constantly purging the stronger condensed brine and solids out the bottom of the tank.

I believe my Solar Desalination Tower could have a great beneficial impact on the ability to increase the availability of fresh water to many locations of the world. Many communities are already used to seeing large water storage towers placed across the landscape, my idea of water purification tower would look much the same as those. Availability of water drives industry and improves daily life. If we improve the cost and availability of clean and Green fresh water sources, we might be able to take a little pressure off Mother Nature’s resources we have been depleting for years. The jobs available from constructing sights for towers, piping systems, and canal systems would be a great benefit to the current economy, and more fresh water available will help improve industrial operations and growth for the future.