Innovative thermal distillation method using solar heat localization

The thermal distillation uses energy to evaporate water and subsequently condense the vapor to liquid form. Waste energy from industrial processes, electricity, or solar energy are the examples of an input energy for thermal distillation systems. In this paper, we have designed, fabricated, and tested an eco-friendly and low-cost distillation system which uses solar heat localization for evaporation of water and later condense the vapor back to liquid as liquid water. The unique feature of this method is the high rate of evaporation when compared to other thermal solar distillation/desalination systems. In this method, the incoming heat is confined to the porous media where bottom layer acts a porous insulator. The capillary force in the porous structure pumps up the liquid water to the hot surface, within the porous medium, where liquid heats up and changes to vapor phase. Since there is no moving part in this method, and due to its independency to electricity, it a great candidate for deployment in remote areas that access to grid power is limited and maintenance is not feasible.