An Extremely Cost Efficient
Solar Powered Water Purification System
For Small Community, Village and Relief Applications.

Ministry and Missions

The roll and impact that the LWSS will have in ministry and missions is incalculable. As a team of missionaries goes forth to plant the seeds of God's Love in the peoples hearts, the LWSS technology will underscore the depth of His Love, by watering their souls.

Technology Licensing and Training
(All amounts are negotiable. Cooperatives or Sponsorships may be necessary.)

Lodestone will site license its proprietary design and molding technology to private individuals, commercial enterprises, NGO and/or governmental agencies, in exchange for, a one time Initial License Fee of Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000 USD) (Our cost for the tooling) and thereafter annually, a license renewal fee of $1,000 for each licensing entity. For this amount, the licensee will receive 10 LWSS thermal collector molds with 100 liners, and instruction manuals and all the basic tools and equipment necessary to begin building an array.
The licensee will purchase the requisite liners for $1 over our cost to produce and additional molds will be made available at a price of $1,500 each, plus reasonable S&H. Our representatives for on site training, compliance and quality control activities, will require reasonable travel expense per diem and compensation.
Lodestone will also provide instructions, as well as on-site training required to implement manufacturing and initial technical support to train local laborers in the setting up of manufactured systems at selected sites in the region. Its design requires little to no technical expertise to manufacture, set-up, operate or maintain. Pictorial instructions obviate the need for literacy skills for users, allowing the unit to be installed and operated reliably and safely in remote locales continuously over its extended useful life.
License fees would be payable in two increments: fifty percent (50%) upon agreement, with the balance due upon delivery.

General Product Design and Functional Description:

Lodestone Engineering has developed a passive, durable, inexpensive and reliable distillation system. The initial prototype installation has been in operation and functioning reliably for nearly three decades. Each unit will produce potable water efficiently over an extended useful life of over ten years at an extremely low initial, per-unit cost. Its LWSS units produce potable water at an approximated average rate of about one gallon or more per day, at an amortized cost of approximately a quarter-cent USD or less per gallon, ($0.0025 USD). A production rate of one gallon of potable water per day combined with food source water, is sufficient for the minimum consumption needs of a family of four, (these rates will vary according to environmental conditions of the installation.)

Product Materials, Construction and Design Rationale

LWSS units consist of four components: thermal collector, a black conformal liner, seal and glass condensation plate. There are no moving parts. Materials of construction are universally available at viable costs in developing countries.
LWSS relies on the thermal differential between the heat of the batch water being purified in the evaporation troughs of the thermal collector and the cooler condenser plate to drive the distillation process. A series of evaporation troughs, conformal to segments of an "Archimedes Spiral" are molded into the face of the collector to provide maximum surface area and enhanced function and efficiencies. This was noted as a significant improvement over the system developed by the Brace Institute in a report critiquing the unit by the World Health Organization, (Somunek Unakuos, WHO).

Thermal Collector:

The thermal collector is a molded concrete structure approximately 3.5 ft. in width by 3.5 ft. in height, set on the ground at an angle most appropriate to the sun according to the latitude of the installation site.
In this application, concrete is the material of choice given its universal availability, high thermal density, durability and low cost, affording efficient use of absorbed heat for water distillation well beyond times of actual direct solar exposure.
The use of "Archimedes Spiral" troughs on the molded collector provides a profile which allows the base to be set at an angle optimizing solar exposure over the available surface area in comparison to conventional units set on a flat plane. This provides the highest possible thermal insolation with enhanced efficiency. Use of the troughs also maximizes capture of reflected and refracted radiant heat and sunlight through the glass condenser plate and off the surface of the process water.

Thermal Collector Liner:

Before concrete is poured into the mold to form the thermal collector, a proprietary, FDA approved black liner is set into the troughs of the mold. This material is UV stable material, will not absorb contaminates, out-gas nor contaminate product water over its' service life. Upon removal from the mold, the liner conforms to the surface of the molded concrete thermal collector and remains in place until removal and replacement for cleaning.
The black liner is initially used to help extract the thermal collector from the tool after the molding process, its' black surface then functions to convert solar energy into the heat that drives the process and then to facilitate periodic cleaning of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and salts scale that will precipitate out of solution in the distillation process. To clean the unit, the semi-rigid liner is simply lifted out of the thermal collector and shaken to remove the scale, as needed and then replaced onto the thermal collector.

Condensation Plate:

The condenser is a plate of clear tempered glass that is forty-two inches square. For safety, tempered glass only is used. The preferred glass for condensation plates is tempered low-iron glass, though commercial tempered float-glass may be substituted. Low-iron glass is preferred as the light green hue of standard glass, absorbs solar energy and converts to heat within the glass, increasing the condenser plates temperature and thereby reducing condensation efficiency. Commercial tempered float glass may be used, but a slight loss in thermal efficiency will be realized.
Glass is used to achieve a totally wetted surface. The characteristic of glass to attain a totally wetted surface allows the water vapor to evenly condense and produce a completely transparent sheeting effect, flowing down the plate surface to a molded collection trough and out a tube to a collection container for consumption. Various clear and translucent plastics have been evaluated for this application, but none, to date have been found suitable, as water droplets form on plastic surfaces rather than sheeting. The formation of these droplets on a plastic condenser plate causes a reflector like effect greatly reducing the amount of energy absorbed and resulting in spot condensation that causes the heavy water droplets to fall back into the process water, making it highly inefficient.

Seal:

The LWSS is a closed system. To maximize heat retention and eliminate infiltration of contamination, the condenser plate is seated on the thermal collector using a flexible closed cell foam seal. Seals are constructed of suitable food-grade synthetic closed cell foam materials which are readily available at a small price throughout the world.

Pure Water With a Twist of S nshine

David Wetzel, P.O. Box 981, Laguna Beach, California, 92652,

livingwatersystem@yahoo.com

Ph# (949) 494-6340    C# (949) 813-8658