MICRO SCALE DISTILLATION PLANT

Epiphany’s solar water systems are modular in nature, making them easily scalable to serve the needs of entire municipalities. One primary application for larger systems consisting of several Epiphany water purification units is for entire rural communities that have water needs ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 gallons per day. The example below illustrates a system capable of distilling up to 50,000 gallons per day, using energy gathered by 300 solar concentrating dishes and stored in a 10,000 gallon thermal reservoir. Epiphany has partnered with Chester Engineers, a leading infrastructure firm specializing in water and waste water treatment, to help implement such a system. The solar concentrating dishes heat the large reservoir of heat transfer fluid, which is designed to contain enough heat to keep the distillation unit running 24/7. That is, the heat stored in the reservoir during the day can be used at night to continue to distill water. In the unlikely event that there should be limited sun for a sustained period of time (e.g. monsoon season), the water purification system can make use of an auxiliary heat source, such as compressed natural gas (CNG) or Propane (LPG). As the complexity increases over individual units, Epiphany has also designed a custom monitoring system which alerts operators in real time on the operational status of the system. This system will make use of regionally available 3G cellular communication networks and/or satellite uplinks. A schematic of what such a system might entail is shown above.

To construct these systems, Epiphany has again paid close attention to utilize COTS and to keep construction and maintenance as simple as possible. In fact, the time required from ordering to full deployment (i.e. the system is turn-key ready) is estimated to be as little as three months, far less than comparable centralized solutions (e.g. R/O plants) which may take years to build before coming fully operational.