Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi!
I am doing a project on solar-powered water desalination. I need help with my experiment.
What materials should I use? How should I use them? HELP!!!
Korry

Hi Korry,
Welcome to the Ask an Expert forum. What materials and methods you use will depend on the specifics of your project. Have you developed a scientific question and a hypothesis? Have you tried to find information on the web or in the library?
Looking forward to hearing more,
Chris

Hi Korry,

I found the following paper very instructive: http://www.idadesal.org/pdf/ABCs1.pdf
It's from the International Desalination Association. The paper has a section on solar powered desalination. (Solar stills and solar power for electricity).

If you are not sure how to get started, I would recommend trying to read more about your subject. You can then post questions on parts you don't understand.

Good luck and hope to hear from you soon...

William

Check this website out. It has something that may help you a lot. http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair- ... ?from=Home

It is an actual solar desalination project materials, and procedure. You could change things around to make your own project and use this link as a reference to get your project started.



Thanks,
Yasin

Hi:
Thanks for your help everyone who replied. I will be using 2-liter plastic bottles and plastic wrap, if anyone is wondering. My method is going to be distillation (evaporation).
Thanks.
Korry

Does Anyone have any other suggestions? PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!
Thanks.
Korry

Hi Korry,
What is the status of your project? Have you developed a hypothesis, or a procedure? The more info you provide, the better we will be able to help.
Thanks,
Chris

The three designs for my project are one with tin foil, one with black construction paper and foil, and one with no foil at all.
My procedure follows the one on the Science Buddies website: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ?from=Home. I will only be using the second design(see picture on link) with the three different variables^^^(see above) .
THANK YOU!!!

Korry,
Thanks for giving that information about your experimental design. It sounds like you have settled your original question about what materials to use and what procedure to follow. Now, what can we help you with? What kind of advice or guidance do you need? We'll be glad to help.
Chris

Hi:
I need help mostly on finding things to measure like how much condensate is collected. I don't have many things to measure besides the amount of collected condensate.

Korry,
It sounds like you need help coming up with a scientific question. Is that right?
I would recommend reading this part of our web site.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tion.shtml
It will give you some good ideas about how to come up with a question to be addressed by your experiment. Once you have a question, then you can develop a hypothesis and a complete experimental design.
As far as what can be measured, you will want to have at least two variables, so that you can test the effects of one variable (so called "independent variable") on the other (dependent variable).
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml
Your dependent variable could be the amount of condensation collected. The independent variable could be humidity, or temperature, or barometric pressure. All of these are relatively easy to measure.
There are many other possibilities as well for independent and dependent variables to measure.
I hope that helps. Good luck!
Chris

Should I test something like the salinity of the collected water and the salinity of the water that is being evaporated?

Thanks to everyone who posted replies to help me. I really appreciated the extra help!

You're welcome! Sorry I didn't get back to you on that last question. It fell through the cracks. If you still have any questions, please let us know.

Chris

Should I test something like the salinity of the collected water and the salinity of the water that is being evaporated?

If you have a means of testing something like the ion concentration in the source water and your condensate water, that would certainly prove that your apparatus is doing what you expect of it. If you have access to an electronic ion test unit, be sure to wash off the probe with distilled water between tests so as to avoid cross contamination between samples and be sure to test the distilled water to prove it isn't contaminated. There are other ways of testing the water samples; however, most methods require some knowledge of basic chemistry lab practices. Talk to your teacher or advisor about what is available in your school in terms of equipment and any testing methods they are familiar with. When you mix AgNO3 (silver nitrate) in an aqueous (water based) solution with most acqueous chlorine salt compounds (such as NaCl), forms an AgCl precipitate and is often used for a test for chlorine ions in solution. Note this is a "qualitative" test and not a "quantitative" test.

If you don't have the equipment or test kits or test reagents or knowledge of how to test with them, then you could visually demonstrate the decontamination by putting a sufficient amount of food coloring into the source water. If the condensate is clear, then you have at least eliminated the food coloring with your distallation apparatus.