Finest concentration of phosphate grains as energy storage medium to improve hemispherical solar distillate: An experimental study

Abstract

In this manuscript, phosphate grains were used as energy storage materials at different concentrations to improve the performance of solar hemispherical distillation. For the aim of verifying the best concentration of phosphate grains to achieve the highest performance of the hemispherical distillers, twelve different concentrations of phosphate grains 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60 and 70 g/L were studied. Additionally, three hemispherical distillers were designed and built; the first is a traditional hemispherical distillation device (THSS), the second and third are hemispherical distillates (HSS) containing phosphate grains with different concentrations. The pilot test was carried out on six days. The experimental results showed that the phosphate grains concentration of 30 g/L represents the optimum concentration of energy storage materials to achieve the highest performance of hemispherical distillates. The utilization of 30 g/L phosphate grains (HSS-PG30) gave a cumulative yield of 6 L/m2/day with an improvement of 57.9 % compared to THSS. Also, the daily efficiency of HSS-PG30 was 60 % with an improvement of 23 % compared to THSS. It is recommended to fasten the concentration of phosphate grains up to 30 g/L for maximum performance gain.

Keywords

• Hemispherical still
• Phosphate grains
• Energy storage
• Solar