2nd Inter-American Conference on Climate Change (CICC 2016), Mexico City,
14-16 March, 2016, Mexico
The productivity of a solar dryer was evaluated, focusing on reducing the amount of brine obtained from a seawater desalinization system. The dried evaluated worked as a solar still made up of a solid heated concrete base, a sunroof that was made of glass or policarbonate, and was oriented to the north. Five factors that can affect the productivity of the vaporization of the brine were studied using a Fractional Factorial Design 2k-1. The evaluated factors were: A) the heated base B) the sunroof, C) the mirror, D) the extractor and E) the black paint. The results showed that the main significant factors were: C>A>BD>D>BC>E. Considering these results, we then evaluated the evolution of the mass and temperature of the brine submitted to solar drying and the brine exposed to direct sun (not in the solar dryer), measuring the solar irradiation. There was a reduction of the mass of the brine exposed to the solar dryer, going from 300 g to 190 g. This reduction was higher than that obtained for the brine exposed to the sun (non solar dryer condition), going from 300 g to 258 g. The temperature of the brine exposed to the solar dryer experienced an evolution during the process, going from 12.2 °C to 33.8 °C over which period the accumulated solar energy was 898 kJ/L. The brine exposed to the sun outside of the solar dryer showed a less marked temperature increase, going from 12.2 °C to 20.1 °C.