This is a 7-years old video and there are some new ideas in the industry since then. One noticeable improvement is solar energy interface evaporation, which is a technic to heat up only the top layer of the water surface instead of the full water body. Despite that, I still like the design shown in the video for its simplicity. A simple design means that it can be implemented anywhere. However, I would like to suggest two little improvements borrowed from recent advances: First, instead of pouring the salt water into the evaporator, you can add a small pump to drip the saltwater drop by drop. This is to make solar energy concentrate on a small amount of water at a time so that evaporation is more efficient. Second, add some coarse, dark material into the evaporator. This adds up more surface for the water to evaporate. The material can be carbon fiber, or even waste coffee grounds.

This is actually a very efficient technology, since it uses sunlight - pollution free and no energy cost. You can also collect the salt and sell it. Deserts have very strong sunshine.

You don't spend on salary, power or other inputs man. Just some wiping of scales on the black surface would for. Hats off for your brilliant idea bro.

Remodel Calculator Brother.. Your model is impressive. If you can make like a tower of 4 or 5 level of that thing. You can get 40 to 50 litters per day. Keep going brother. Your invension will save a lot of people and also the world. 👍

Salt can be used if heated up to boiling point of water then allow it to form crystals, salt can be used to make a saltwater battery with copper and steel or iron, this could make electricity for lights fans etc be inverted for ac power

LOVE IT! YES! Got the research for the good friends that are family.

I've heard about this but yours is a good design for people.

Perhaps a home can have them on their rooftops. Then they are sharing footprint with the house. Or good for boats too. Just suggesting. I think it is an elegant design. Thank you for sharing.

that s what im looking for , great job.

This is useful for countries suffering from drought and natural disasters

great idea and simple to make! There is another way where you put some greenhouse plastic over the square and place a weight in the center so that it creates an inverted cone. Then all the water is collected at the center. This was from a survivorman episode where he was stranded in a beach and used a pan and some plastic with a rock in the middle

If it was made into a carport or roof, the space wouldn't be a problem.You could even make part of the bottom clear for skylights that allow you to see when it needs cleaning.

10 liters per day is really impressive, honestly.

build the evaporator on roof tops, or above tree tops. With the use, of a solar powered pump, would be needed to bring the sea to it.

You should have colder seawater circulating inside (a condenser) to create a more productive dew point, then your seawater is also slightly warmer before it evaporates. A solar powered pump would be needed.

This is really cool, I need to buy one if these

Great video, thank you.

A person needs to drink about 2 liters of water a day, so the fact that this can purify 10 liters of water a day is very good!

Awesome implementation!

Try using Stirling engines to pump sun heated liquids through the insides of the pyramids thus increasing the speed of desalination and a float valve connected to a reservoir inside so that it stays full of water. Only other concern I can think of is that the salts will collect on bottom of container so will need to clean it regularly but you can reach much higher than the boiling point of water easily.

With a vertical access solar water heating panel in front of your pyramid the water entering will be much hotter thereby increasing production. Simple to make and maintain, if built in a slight arc there would be no need to track the sun, the idea being the heated water will rise first. Plywood base with two to three inch frame, black paint on wood surface, your heating tubes and dual pane glass sealed in front. Preheat the water using solar panel, increase production.

I think that is the best idea ever

Well done man

Brilliant idea thank you for sharing this experience with us..

Amazing! Are the blue prints freely available to make this?

Very good system to get clean drinking water! And in dessert areas like the Sahara there should be more then enough space. Get seawater and turn it into fresh water and seasalt you can sell.

i don't see how this is bad ? we need lots of these !

It might be interesting to have some of the water tested. If it works as well as it seems that it would, I might build one for my own home.

Brilliant design

Successful experiment have been in works in Somalia with the same method except its on a large scale. Water collection channels are covered with screens to prevents bugs sand stuff getting in the evaporated water going down in collection tanks. I've seen the largest size glass pyramid of 40ft x 40ft with height over 6 feet. Lower the height in ratio with the width and the length of the pyramid is the method effectively collecting more volume than the higher elevation of the dome!

You could build a shade structure covered with solar collectors on its roof top, That way it serves a doble purpose. Making double use of the space.

If you slowly distributed the water onto the surface overtime would it increase the rate of evaporation?

What are the materials? And what about if you put more beams inside the pyramid so the water can also be collected feom the inside

How about using a solar panel as surface? The panel itself is under glass. So, it is water proof as long you build it at the frame of the panel. You get energy for a pump or for additional filtering. And it cools the panel for higher efficiency.

This will handy in tropical regions like where i'm belong

Can you post the blueprints for this still somewhere?

Can you do salt harvest in this equipment? As byproduct

Hola , tuviste algun avance en este proyecto ? cuantos centimetros de agüa tenes en la bandeja ? me refiero a la profundidad ... y veo que pusiste un flotante mecanico , asi que el nivel de agüa es el mismo todo el tiempo ... El salitre o sarro que le sacas al agüa queda en la bandeja ? cada cuanto la limpias ?

Wouldn't it be better if it wasn't shape like a pyramid but hat the cross section of it? Or 30-45 degree? angle?

But where can you buy those individual parts?

how does it affect the environment if it uses space ? Don't we have enough wastelands ?

Nice work would like to know more about how the fresh water is collected or how its drains into container and if there is waste like salt

Great technology

Hi, great work there. Do you have any construction plans for this solar still? I would be really interested to build one myself.

What material did you use for the water basin? If it's not a food grade material, it will very likely vaporize over time with the water.

I think it will be better if you do not use piramid shape! Because standard glass would be rectangular! If you make it 2 pieces rectangular glass, you need only two pieces of triangle glasses! You can face it in where sunlight expose most!!! Thank you for your genius idea!!!

Great concept, with a few questions and suggestion. Figure out a way to employ a fresnel lens to increase heat. What do you do with the leftover salt and minerals? Is the leftover salt food grade? How often do you have to clean the leftover residues? Will this work in high humidity?

By heating the water with a small coal fire of sticks in a container then drop the water onto the black absorbant mesh in the center water tank the additional heat will help the black mat to evaporate the water so it can collect onto the glass and run into containment vessel. The salt removed from water can be combined with carbon from the heating fire to make a salt battery. A copper steel thermo couple battery on heat source can run a fan inside the pyramid to help evaporate the water.

How the water vapour s condensed so the water will come through the glass of pyramid

Very nice setup. What are the yellow rectangular blocks material kept in side in each corner and what is its purpose...?

Wondering if these could be made larger and floated in the ocean and be pumping water to shore to a storage tank?

I came up with the same idea yesterday in bed - but as you say this requires close proximity to sea water. But. Do you think it would work with dirty water from a water pit/well? You'll end up with way more residual matter like clay, but if that is scraped off from time to time I see no reason why it wouldn't work as long as water evaporates, condensates and is collected.

A larger heat sink would hel but this idea is great.

Can you make video of this on working day? I think the most problem you will faced is the water drops on the glass surfaces. Drops will decrease the solar energy effecientcy. The boiling water should keep in a separate place.

How did you build this?

What do you do with the brine?

Great design! Very neat and simple. I was just thining if this process can be made more efficient by having some water running over the outsode of the dome and thus helping to cool the glass. This should increase condensation to create a lower humidiry and water vapor pressure inside. With the lower water vapor pressure, the rate of vaporozation would then increase at same temp of the water. Thoughts anyone?

Is it necessary for us to use a glass dome?

10 liters/day is too small to commercialize. What are the ways to improve efficiency?

I am curious about your calculations of Litres per person per day. As a desert man, we only use water for drinking and use sand to clean ourselves.

California has a lot of empty desert space a bit inland from the coast ... just dig a channel and build huge solar desalination plants. Why don't they do it? How does this scale? Also: what do you do with the accumulated salt?

how to make it . by using what things

In the US we say that people need 1 gallon of water per person per day, so 10 liters would be enough for 2 people.

WHAT WOULD THE YIELD BE IF YOU REDUCED ATMOSPHERIC PRESS UNDER THE PYRAMID? USING A WIND DRIVEN/PV PANEL DRIVEN VACUUM PUMP?

How do you make one? That's the most important thing.

thanks

Is it available or you made it yourself

I have yet to see this type of design, (a box with dark surface at bottom with condensing glass above) make very much water each day. they all seem to be low volume producing. the sun will only provide so much heat in a given area so finding the best way to absorb that heat is step one. then designing the container, box so all the heat the sun provides stays with in the box, (insulate) the only place where heat can escape ( unavoidable) is where the glass surface is. And the glass is where the condensing takes place so the cooler you can make the glass it would seem the better and faster the condensing process would be. can the shape or height of the glass add more heat to the box? or can the shape and height provide faster cooling for the condensing process, yes. when we study evaporation we know the heat energy is used to break the bonds that hold water molecules together, and the more heat the faster the evaporation. but there is a saturation point where there can be no more evaporation because the air above is saturated. so tuning the system is needed. get as much heat as possible into the water, then remove the water saturated air fast enough so you don't slow the evaporation process down due to saturation and surface pressure. and then you must be able to cool the evaporated water fast enough through the condensing process so the evaporation process can continue unobstructed due to over saturation. (not getting the water saturated air removed fast enough). And remember evaporation is also done with air flow. in these systems I don't see how air flow is helping. you are relying on the warm moisture containing air to rise to the surface of the glass in order to be condensed. To increase efficiency I would experiment with getting as much heat as possible into the water, then removing the saturated air as fast as possible to the condensing stage. and having enough condensing ability to keep up with the evaporation. the heated steam is also heating the glass and so are the suns rays to some extent so we know it's the air flow past the glass which is really doing the condensing. think how to increase the air flow on the glass. and a dome or pyramid would allow this to happen but remember the moisture containing air has to rise to reach the glass for condensing , before pressures force the air to become saturated and you get no more evaporation. maybe try hot air flow across the water surface, this should help liberate the now single water molecules off the surface and the air flow can now push them through a opening to channel them through a better , faster condensing system, a simple shaded metal tank that air can flow around would be better than that glass lid. or you can channel the steam to a condensing coil and then to a underground storage. I am thinking let the sun be your heat source but use another source for the cooling condensing process. And experiment with hot air flowing through the box, make a small solar hot air ex-changer and use maybe natural hot air convection to push the steam out of the box and through a better condenser.

have you considered using solar panels in conjunction to use to heat electric heat coils under the black surface to add to the temperature and produce more evaporation.

Increase the pitch to 72 degrees for a larger internal volume and greater surface area, uses same footprint. I am building one that is 4x4 footprint and height 6 ft from base to peak. I will be using sponges in the tray to increase surface area for evaporation. I wonder why we can't find more examples of this type of useful tool

Looks a good and simple design, however, you may be able to increase its efficiency even more by having the glass pyramid more steep, (height of pyramid) and that way more area for water to condense and run off more easier towards the collecting channel. Insulate the collector so that water can remain cool in there. 10 liters is more than enough for at least 3 to 5 people if they were marooned on a broken boat in the middle of ocean,

If the problem is space, can you build taller?

Is the salt water poured in manually? How much salt water is required to produce your 10L of fresh water? How is the remaining concentrate dealt with?

in which country do you live! Spain?

This concept was first used ages ago for emergency survival of military personnel in the ocean, it doesn't necessarily make pure water, other things can evaporate with the water, RoundUp evaporates off of fields and comes down with the rain for example. Running water like this through a charcoal filter should make you more confident in it.

Why not devise a way to stack several units on top of the other? What you lose in sunlight maybe more than matched in increased production with the same amount of land used.

Hardly can make 10 litres a day but maybe yes! Also it's power of the black bottom is gonna drop because of the minerals and salt that will build so..... So even 5 litres of saltwater is gonna be covered in salt with a white bottom....i think so. Like the automatic fill valve I would like to see a automated surface cleaning. Good job 👍

If You can create a river and a pond.. You can eat plant and fish .. how about a very low pressure polycarbonate glass dome? Water can already evaporate @ 8c then..

Cool, why don't you use reflectors/mirrors, to produce even more heat?

If the drawback is space. Why not build a floating one on the ocean itself, or in a desert where no one would build anyway?

Is there any research paper related to this design???

No jokes. Try to sell one of these to some water needed African countries using a bigger scale.

Hi.. Very useful video. Can you please help me find such solar distiller? Who manufactures this?

When he said solar village I thought of Elon musk LOL....

What is this called so I can buy it.

nice😇

this is all good but there is one problem. what about in winter? does it work in northern climates?

That's the best it uses the sun ☀️

How to make this one

how can i build this?

Neat construction. However based on solar insolation of 1000W/m2 (i.e. full summer sunlight at tropical latitudes), solar stills are unlikely to produce more than 2 litres per square metre per day. Add some clouds and distillate production would fall to

what is the water temperature in the container for it to start evaporated?

why does that water look dirty?

This is great can we feel free to build one or since have you copy righter the rights , I would also be Interested in buying I'd you have a site Ray.

What tools to flow water from the glass to the tank?

You could do a elec vaccy pump running on solar and use straight sola hot water panels to heat water to boil well below 100°c in the vacuum, would love to know if anyone has tried this in a small scale

I am curious, you say no energy apart from the sun and no mechanical parts! How does the contaminated water, (salt or otherwise) magically jump up into the pan? John,Australia.

I have a desalination setup in my barn. I'm not near saltwater but I would to have some to prove my point. I use zero fossil fuels, only solar/wind

Проблема в очистке черной поверхности от солей. Через 5 минут работы из черного цвета станет белый.

Nice desalination per personal use. You can improve it applying Plastic Fersnel Lenses over the Glass