Solar water distillation

Practical Action Consulting (PAC) is the consulting arm of Practical Action, an international non-governmental organisation that uses technology to challenge poverty in developing countries. Through technology PAC enables poor communities to build on their skills and knowledge to produce sustainable and practical solutions - transforming their lives forever and protecting the world around them. Every year PAC uses technology to help over 1 million people out of poverty.

The Global Environment Centre Foundation (GEC) is an entity that supports the UNEP’s International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), based in Japan. GEC is dedicated to the transfer of environmentally sound technologies, in both developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The foundation aims to contribute to Japan’s international efforts on the environment, sharing project collaborations as well as promoting Japan’s rich conservation knowledge and experience in developing nations.

Distillative separation particularly of thermolabile volatile substances is often associated with a significant reduction in quality due to the thermal degradation of the substances being distilled. For example many substances containing plant matter such as essential oils can scarcely be distilled without degradation. State-of-the-art distillation methods are based mainly on steam distillation as a carrier steam distillation for primary extraction which merely results in a complex mixture of substances as essential oil.

Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) is a premier research institute that aims to improve the quality of life and to create a better future. KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. Since that, KIST has been on the forefront of national development. KIST's research in the field of environment and climate change focuses on clean energy and greening cities through technology.

The production of oil and juice from limes on a commercial scale requires the use of a range of equipment which is described in this brief.

WOCAN  is  a  women-led  international  membership  network  of  over  1200  women  and  men professionals  in  113 countries  that  provides  expertise  to  assist  organizations  achieve  women´s empowerment objectives and mainstream gender, through capacity building for women´s leadership and gender integration, and monitoring and evaluation. Our mission is to achieve women´s equal access to and control of resources and benefits to improve the  livelihoods of rural people.

L’industrialisation des pays en voie de développement engendre l’augmentation des déchets liquides que sont les huiles de vidange, tout en se heurtant au problème de déficit énergétique. D’autre part, elle s’accompagne d’une forte croissance démographique qui accentue et augmente la quantité de déchets, particulièrement les déchets ménagers solides. Ce qui constitue une réelle menace pour l’environnement et les populations.

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Summary:

One third of the world’s population lacks sufficient water. The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2050 over two thirds of the world’s population will face severe water shortages. The effects of water shortage are well documented: food shortage poor health hunger and disease.

Isopropanol (IPA) is an important solvent and cleaning agent with wide applications in semiconductor microelectronic and pharmaceutical industries. IPA is primarily produced by combining water and propene in a hydration reaction. The IPA produced is usually in a mixture with water and distillation is used to obtain IPA with 87.9% purity. Higher purity IPA can only be achieved through azeotropic distillation with cyclohexane or diisopropyl ether. In both cases large amount of energy is used for the purification process.