Natural brine solar pond: An experimental study

The South East of Tunisia is a sunny region. This area contains many minera l reserves of natural brine, which currently are not well exploited. These reserves are estimated to several millions of cubic metres. The abundance o f solar energy and salt has led us to test the collection and storage of so lar energy by a salt gradient solar pond. A small laboratory solar pond of dimensions 2 m x 2 m x 1 m, excavated from the ground, has been constructed at ENIT (National School of Engineers of Tunis). The salt utilised in the pond is a natural brine which comes from south of Tunisia. Temperature and solar radiation measurements have been carried out over 8 weeks to evaluate the efficiency of this pond. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.