Can We Use the Sun’s Energy to Clean Water?

Water, wherever it is found, contains contaminants. Some are harmful. Others are not. When harmful contaminant levels climb too high, we need to clean water for drinking, but how?

Can the Sun’s Energy Clean Water?

The sun is a natural source of energy, and one that can indeed clean water. We can use the sun’s energy to clean water in small or large amounts.

John Ward, Australian developer of the Solar Water Purifier, may be the first man to use the sun’s energy to clean water. Ward’s Solar Water Purifier changes contaminated water to clean water with nothing but sunlight. The brighter the sunlight, the better Ward’s Solar Water Purifier works, but the unit will clean water even on slightly cloudy days.

How Does the Sun’s Energy Clean Water?

* Ward’s solar water purifiers consist of input sources, output collectors, and a purifier unit between them. The input source may be a bottle, a small hose, or a large industrial size pump. The output collector might be anything to hold clean water, from a one gallon plastic jug to a large holding tank. The purifier unit is a box or group of boxes made up of cascading black trays, somewhat resembling large ice cube trays. The trays are covered with a sheet of glass, and are set at a slight incline.

* Dirty, impure water enters through the input source. Flowing slowly, it descends across the cascading black trays.

* The sun shines through the glass, radiating heat into the box. The black plastic cells absorb the sun’s heat, and conduct it to the water. The heat causes the water to turn to vapor.

* As it vaporizes, the water condenses on the inside of the purifier’s glass cover. Contaminants no longer remain in it. It is clean water now. The clean water flows down the tilted glass and into the collection channel.

* Clean water leaves the solar water purifier at the opposite end from which it entered, and drips into the collectors.

Clean Water with Small Carbon Footprints

If we use the sun’s energy to clean water, we can remove almost every harmful contaminant - at very low cost and without fuels. Those interested in shrinking their personal carbon footprints could make great strides in that direction by using Ward’s Solar Water Purifier.