Design and implementation of a robotic active solar distiller based on a Fresnel concentrator and a photovoltaic system

In this article, an active solar distiller is designed and implemented. The distiller consists of a Fresnel lens concentrator with an auxiliary photovoltaic energy collector, which supplies an electrical water preheating process. The light concentrator and the photovoltaic system are oriented through a three-degree-of-freedom robotic system, achieving the sun tracking and focus tasks of the concentration process. The design uses concurrent engineering tools to improve the general behavior of the system for energy collection and water distillation. This approach demands some different analyses such as optical, structural, thermal, and dynamic, modeling, which yield to the main design. The system is validated through different tests concerning the energy collection process and the resulting water quality, leading to an energetically autonomous effective system that can provide an alternative distillation process.