Grassmere Dynamics, LLC of Gurley, Alabama and ZanAqua Technologies, Inc of Hudson, New Hampshire have teamed together to develop a rapidly deployable solar powered vapor compression distiller. The system will produce 200 gallons per day of potable water from seawater or NBC-contaminated water using a solar concentrator as the only power source. It will be delivered to the site in several components and assembled on site and made operational within two hours by four persons. No individual component of the system weighs more than 80 lbs and all the components can be transported to the site in a standard military truck or H-53 type helicopter. Using proprietary materials and fabrication techniques, the team expects the system to be lower in cost than any competing system on the market today. The systems low cost will make it accessible to local and state humanitarian and disaster relief organizations, as well as individuals and companies requiring water purification in remote locations that have no electrical power utilities.
Benefit: The proposed low-cost solar powered vapor compression distiller will provide individuals and organizations (military or civilian) a means of obtaining pure potable water from practically any contaminated source of water. The team plans to market the system globally, particularly to areas where pure water resources are scarce. Additionally, the high quality solar concentrator, used as the power source for the vapor compression distiller, can be used for other commercial applications. These include; decentralized electrical power generation by home-owners, swimming pool heating and water pumping, refrigeration in remote locations using the ammonia cycle, and high temperature thermochemical processes
Keywords: VCD, VCD, water purification, solar concentrator, vapor compression distiller
