Population growth and continuous drought have played a major role in water scarcity over the last decade. So, available water have got more important. One significant loss of stored water is evaporation of open water in the reservoirs. This loss can be as much as 40% of total water stored behind a dam. Several methods have been proposed to reduce evaporation from open water. Among all of them, utilizing the monolayers, have been proved to be the only economical option for large reservoirs, like the lake behind a dam.
The purpose of this project is to determine the possibility of using this method in Iran. We have developed a custom-built powder, which has been named evaporation suppressive monolayer cover (ESMC). Experiment apparatus has been set up to measure the evaporation reduction rate and the spreading rate of the monolayer.
Monolayers are one-molecule-thick films formed at phase boundary of air/water interface. The molecule is comprised of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts, named as amphiphile, and that is insoluble in water because of the hydrophobic part. Hydrophilic part, on the other hand, is the spreading agent which prevents molecules from being piled on top of one another. This single layer of packed fatty alcohol molecules acts as a physical barrier to water molecules escaping the surface. Additionally, less surface tension of water is achieved while utilizing monolayers thus lowering the evaporation rate.
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