Abstract
A significant portion of the world’s rural population does not have access to adequate sources of electricity and fuel to produce healthy food and clean water. Many rural areas, however, have an abundance of solar radiation which can be harnessed for cooking and water treatment. This paper presents the design and testing of a solar radiation and biosand filtration system that can provide cooking and water treatment capabilities. The proposed system addresses a need for a solar cooker that is durable, theft resistant, and efficient for use by an entire village. Thermal pasteurization is used for water treatment in the proposed system, and a built prototype is analyzed for heat transfer and water treatment efficiency. Water treatment is assessed through turbidity testing and Escherichia coli + other coliform counts. Given proper sunlight exposure, the proposed system reaches adequate temperatures to pasteurize water as documented with thermocouples, but testing in central Pennsylvania is difficult because of relatively low direct normal irradiance. A decrease in Escherichia coli and other coliform counts has been observed for post-treatment versus pretreatment water samples, but the counts are not sufficient to meet the Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards. This correlates with the inability to maintain the warmer temperatures in central Pennsylvania during the cooler nights.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and materials
Some or all data, models, or code that supports the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Abraham JP, Plourde BD, Minkowycz WJ (2015) Continuous flow solar thermal pasteurization of drinking water: methods, devices, microbiology, and analysis. Renew Energy 81:795–803. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2015.03.086
Aramesh M, Ghalebani M, Kasaeian A et al (2019) A review of recent advances in solar cooking technology. Renew Energy 140:419–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2019.03.021
Baumgartner J, Murcott S, Ezzati M (2007) Reconsidering ‘appropriate technology’: the effects of operating conditions on the bacterial removal performance of two household drinking-water filter systems. Environ Res Lett 2:024003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/2/2/024003
Burch JD, Thomas KE (1998) Water disinfection for developing countries and potential for solar thermal pasteurization. Sol Energy 64:87–97
Carielo G, Calazans G, Lima G, Tiba C (2017) Solar water pasteurizer: productivity and treatment efficiency in microbial decontamination. Renew Energy 105:257–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2016.12.042
Carielo da Silva G, Tiba C, Calazans GMT (2016) Solar pasteurizer for the microbiological decontamination of water. Renew Energy 87:711–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2015.11.012
Chaúque BJM, Rott MB (2021) Solar disinfection (SODIS) technologies as alternative for large-scale public drinking water supply: advances and challenges. Chemosphere 281:130754. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CHEMOSPHERE.2021.130754
Cuce E, Cuce PM (2013) A comprehensive review on solar cookers. Appl Energy 102:1399–1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.09.002
Davies CM, Roser DJ, Feitz AJ, Ashbolt NJ (2009) Solar radiation disinfection of drinking water at temperate latitudes: inactivation rates for an optimised reactor configuration. Water Res 43:643–652. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WATRES.2008.11.016
Duke WF, Nordin RN, Baker D, Mazumder A (2006) The use and performance of BioSand filters in the Artibonite Valley of Haiti: a field study of 107 households. Rural Remote Health 6:570. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH570
El Moussaoui N, Talbi S, Atmane I et al (2020) Feasibility of a new design of a Parabolic Trough Solar Thermal Cooker (PSTC). Sol Energy 201:866–871. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SOLENER.2020.03.079
Elliott MA, Stauber CE, Koksal F et al (2008) Reductions of E. coli, echovirus type 12 and bacteriophages in an intermittently operated household-scale slow sand filter. Water Res 42:2662–2670. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WATRES.2008.01.016
HACH (2019) m-ColiBlue24® Broth, Plastic Ampules, PK/50|Hach USA—overview. https://www.hach.com/m-coliblue24-broth-plastic-ampules-pk-50/product?id=7640249626. Accessed 25 Jun 2019
IDEXX (2019) Colilert Test. https://www.idexx.com/en/water/water-products-services/colilert/. Accessed 25 Jun 2019
Kabir E, Kumar P, Kumar S et al (2018) Solar energy: potential and future prospects. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 82:894–900. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RSER.2017.09.094
Kumar N, Vishwanath G, Gupta A (2012) An exergy based unified test protocol for solar cookers of different geometries. Renew Energy 44:457–462. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2012.01.085
Liang K, Sobsey M, Stauber C et al (2010) Improving household drinking water quality: use of BioSand Filters (BSFs) in Cambodia. World Bank: Water and Sanitation Program
Loo SL, Fane AG, Krantz WB, Lim TT (2012) Emergency water supply: a review of potential technologies and selection criteria. Water Res 46:3125–3151. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WATRES.2012.03.030
Mahmood Q, Baig SA, Nawab B et al (2011) Development of low cost household drinking water treatment system for the earthquake affected communities in Northern Pakistan. Desalination 273:316–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.DESAL.2011.01.052
Manz DH (2007) Biosand water filter technology. Manz Water Info, Calgary, AB, Canada
Mathews IV G, Abu-Mahfouz I, Young M (2016) Heat transfer optimization of a solar radiation concrete oven for rural areas. In: COMSOL conference, Boston, MA
McGuigan KG, Conroy RM, Mosler H-J et al (2012) Solar water disinfection (SODIS): a review from bench-top to roof-top. J Hazard Mater 235–236:29–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JHAZMAT.2012.07.053
Mendoza JMF, Gallego-Schmid A, Schmidt Rivera XC et al (2019) Sustainability assessment of home-made solar cookers for use in developed countries. Sci Total Environ 648:184–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2018.08.125
Murphy HM, McBean EA, Farahbakhsh K (2010) A critical evaluation of two point-of-use water treatment technologies: can they provide water that meets WHO drinking water guidelines? J Water Health 8:611–630. https://doi.org/10.2166/WH.2010.156
NASA (2020) POWER data access viewer. https://power.larc.nasa.gov/data-access-viewer/. Accessed 4 May 2020
Nkhonjera L, Bello-Ochende T, John G, King’ondu CK, (2017) A review of thermal energy storage designs, heat storage materials and cooking performance of solar cookers with heat storage. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 75:157–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.10.059
Palmateer G, Manz D, Jurkovic A et al (1999) Toxicant and parasite challenge of Manz intermittent slow sand filter. Environ Toxicol 14:217225. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1522-7278(199905)14:2
Regattieri A, Piana F, Bortolini M et al (2016) Innovative portable solar cooker using the packaging waste of humanitarian supplies. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 57:319–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.199
Sharshir SW, Elkadeem MR, Meng A (2020) Performance enhancement of pyramid solar distiller using nanofluid integrated with v-corrugated absorber and wick: an experimental study. Appl Therm Eng 168:114848. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.APPLTHERMALENG.2019.114848
Shollenberger H (2019) Effectiveness of a biosand filter and solar radiation oven for drinking water treatment. Penn State Harrisburg
Sobsey MD, Stauber CE, Casanova LM et al (2008) Point of use household drinking water filtration: a practical, effective solution for providing sustained access to safe drinking water in the developing world. Environ Sci Technol 42:4261–4267. https://doi.org/10.1021/es702746n
Spinks AT, Dunstan RH, Harrison T et al (2006) Thermal inactivation of water-borne pathogenic and indicator bacteria at sub-boiling temperatures. Water Res 40:1326–1332. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WATRES.2006.01.032
Strauss A, Dobrowsky PH, Ndlovu T et al (2016) Comparative analysis of solar pasteurization versus solar disinfection for the treatment of harvested rainwater. BMC Microbiol 16:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12866-016-0909-Y/FIGURES/3
Sulaiman C, Abdul-Rahim AS, Chin L, Mohd-Shahwahid HO (2017) Wood fuel consumption and mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from a dynamic panel study. Chemosphere 177:224–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.03.019
US EPA O (2019) National primary drinking water regulations. https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations. Accessed 25 Jun 2019
Wentzel M, Pouris A (2007) The development impact of solar cookers: a review of solar cooking impact research in South Africa. Energy Policy 35:1909–1919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2006.06.002
World Bank Group (2019) Global Solar Atlas. https://globalsolaratlas.info/?c=40.832515,-77.2229,8&s=40.747257,-76.992142. Accessed 5 Jul 2019
World Bank (2017) Access to electricity (% of population) | data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS. Accessed 4 May 2020
World Health Organization (2018) Drinking-water. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water. Accessed 26 May 2019
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Penn State Harrisburg for their generous support of this project.
Funding
The project was funded internally by Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Science, Engineering, and Technology.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
HS, GM IV, and MY helped in data curation, conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft preparation. SC and YC performed data curation and writing—reviewing and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interests
The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: Parveen Fatemeh Rupani.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shollenberger, H., Mathews, G., Young, M. et al. A solar radiation and biosand filtration system for cooking and water treatment. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 5983–5994 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04391-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04391-6