Floating solar energy conversion and water distillation apparatus

A solar energy water distillation apparatus floating on a body of seawater, comprising:

• an array of buoyant structures mutually joined within a buoyant peripheral seawall to form an atmospheric barrier, the buoyant structures including a distributed array of distillation modules for producing and collecting distilled water for on-shore usage, each such distillation module including a domed solar collector mounted on a buoyant base, a submerged energy absorber layer affixed to said buoyant base to define a chamber in which a shallow volume of solar-heated seawater is confined, a network of chilled heat exchanger conduits disposed in said chamber on which water vapor in the air above the confined water condenses, and a set of troughs for collecting the condensate for removal and delivery to a condensate storage vessel;
• and
• one or more buoyant mistifier units floating on the solar-heated seawater confined in the chamber of each distillation module for atomizing a portion of said solar-heated seawater to enhance an evaporative surface area of the water vapor therein and increase condensate formation on said chilled heat exchanger conduits, where said mistifier units each include a spinning disk disposed above and substantially parallel to a surface of said solar-heated seawater and a nozzle disposed above said spinning disk through which a stream of said solar-heated seawater is directed onto an upper surface of said spinning disk, and where said spinning disk is slightly concave so that the solar-heated seawater directed onto the upper surface of said disk is directed laterally outward in a shallow upward arc.

A solar energy water distillation apparatus floating on a body of seawater, comprising:

• an array of buoyant structures mutually joined within a buoyant peripheral seawall to form an atmospheric barrier, the buoyant structures including a distributed array of distillation modules for producing and collecting distilled water for on-shore usage, each such distillation module including a domed solar collector mounted on a buoyant base, a submerged energy absorber layer affixed to said buoyant base to define a chamber in which a shallow volume of solar-heated seawater is confined, a network of chilled heat exchanger conduits disposed in said chamber on which water vapor in the air above the confined water condenses, and a set of troughs for collecting the condensate for removal and delivery to a condensate storage vessel;
• and
• one or more buoyant mistifier units floating on the solar-heated seawater confined in the chamber of each distillation module for atomizing a portion of said solar-heated seawater to enhance an evaporative surface area of the water vapor therein and increase condensate formation on said chilled heat exchanger conduits, where said mistifier units each include a spinning disk disposed above and substantially parallel to a surface of said solar-heated seawater and a nozzle disposed above said spinning disk through which a stream of said solar-heated seawater is directed onto an upper surface of said spinning disk, and where said mistifier units include a buoyant platform, a motor mounted on said buoyant platform for driving said spinning disk, and a pump mounted on said buoyant platform for delivering said solar-heated seawater to said nozzle via a set of vertical pipes.