Design and Simulation of a Solar Brine Dryer for the Production of Sea Salt

Abstract

With a view to ensuring the sustainable development of Third World countries, the protection of mangroves is essential insofar as mangroves play an important role in the maintenance of ecosystems. Opting for sustainable development strategies and policies aimed at promoting the production of solar salt on tarpaulins in Africa will help achieve this objective while curbing the destruction of the mangrove. It is therefore for this purpose that the present research aims to develop a solar salt production device called solar brine dryer for the production of sea salt. The device is supported on the ground by a parallelepipedic granite block constituting the foundation of the whole and whose role is to store the heat and restore it in low sunlight. The side walls and the roof are made of polymethyl methacrylate (plexiglass). The different vertical faces are connected by posts which are made of aluminium. The device makes the production of salt sustainable and prevents any contamination due to contact with the sand. Also the results of simulation obtained thanks to the model of Luis and Jordan for the estimation of the solar irradiance and to the model of Rohwer for the calculation of the rate of evaporation, show that the device optimizes the production of salt with an average of 7.55 kg of salt per day in an area of 12 m against an average production of 1.4 kg of salt per day in an area of 250 m 2 with the solar cover method.