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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #355364
Research Project: Precipitation and Irrigation Management to Optimize Profits from Crop Production

Location: Soil and Water Management Research

Title: Implementing sustainability with a solar distillation project

Author
item ISSA, ROY - West Texas A & M University
item LEITCH, KENNETH - West Texas A & M University
item CHANG, BYUNGIK - University Of New Haven

Submitted to: Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Gulf-Southwest Conference
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2017
Publication Date: 3/13/2017
Citation: Issa, R.J., Leitch, K., Chang, B. 2017. Implementing sustainability with a solar distillation project. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Gulf-Southwest Conference. http://aseegsw.com/newproceedings2.html

Interpretive Summary: Advances in farming nationwide (US) and the High Plains will require the development of capable and skilled labor force. However, many students are “booked learned” and gain little practical experience in the design and production of farm equipment. Therefore, professors from West Texas A&M University and University of New Haven in the ARS led Ogallala Aquifer Program had students in the mechanical and civil engineering programs work on a variety engineering projects. This specific project designed, built and evaluated a solar distillation apparatus that can “clean up” wastewater from livestock production systems on farm. Students gain practical experience in engineering design and equipment production that should prepare them better for future agricultural related jobs.

Technical Abstract: Students in the mechanical and civil engineering programs at West Texas A&M University are exposed to sustainability in a wide variety of required courses in the freshman through senior level coursework. The projects in these courses are carefully selected to provide an in-depth understanding of sustainability through analytical and experimental studies. In thermal-fluid design, students were asked to build an environmentally friendly and energy efficient system for the distillation of wastewater produced in agricultural processing facilities in west Texas. The solar still was to be augmented with evacuated solar tubes collector to enhance the solar performance of the still and increase the daily production yield rate. West Texas is a dry land area with an annual rain fall of less than 20 inches per year. This project addresses the need set into effect by water management practices for this region regarding water conservation, reuse and reclamation of wastewater to extend the life time of the Ogallala Aquifer, a major source for water irrigation. Due to having low investment and operation cost, students learned that solar distillation is a feasible system for use in semi-arid and arid regions where solar energy is abundantly available. Field tests show the augmentation of the still with evacuated solar tubes increased its production rate by 263%. The maximum daily production was 1.4 kg square meter per day for the passive distillation system, and 3.6 kg per square m per day for the active distillation system.