By Emilee Leaman

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Desmond Villalba

Abstract

The focus of this project is the desalination of water through solar distillation. Over half the population of the earth suffers from water scarcity, yet the world’s oceans contain more than enough water. This project aims to work towards developing a small scale solar still that removes salt from water. Solar distillation evaporates sea water using the heat of the sun and collects this distilled water. Over the course of the fall 2024 semester, I mathematically modeled the expected amount of distilled water output given that the initial temperature of the water and the intensity of solar radiation were known. In the spring 2025 semester, I designed and constructed a solar still system that consists of a 3D printed solar still and temperature and solar irradiance sensors. I conducted multiple trials of this experiment with the data being recorded as a function of time to compare the distilled water output to the mathematical model.