IIM-A prof on solar desalination mission

AHMEDABAD: If everything goes on as planned for an IIM-A professor and his team, cost-effective solar desalination units will come up in arid regions in Gujarat, to change brackish ground water suitable for irrigation.

Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor, Girja Sharan and his team have been working for the last one year to help the farmers in arid and semi-arid regions, especially those near the sea with high salinity ingress.

The team has been working on developing a prototype of solar assisted low temperature thermal desalination system in the Kothara village of Abdasa taluka in Kutch district.

"We have been successful in producing drinking water with the solar energy powered desalination system. Now we are working on a prototype, which can process large quantity of brackish water that can be used for agriculture," he said.

Greenhouse technology for cultivation in arid regions has potential. But, one major impediment for this is the lack of cost-effective desalination procedure to produce fresh water from the brackish groundwater.

Though thermal desalination system uses various fuels, this is a unique attempt using the solar energy, which is cost-effective for farmers, he added.

"Low temperature thermal desalination system, which has been successful in producing drinking water from sea water on some islands of the country was selected on a trial basis," Sharan said, adding, "The system was later modified and solar hot water unit was introduced to heat brackish water."