A numerical investigation of the enhancement of single-slope single-basin solar still productivity

Abstract

Enhancement of pure water productivity is necessary to keep human life, especially in the regions where people straggling of finding drinking water. The current work investigates numerically the increase in the productivity of the single-slope single-basin solar still by creating a new design of the absorbent base to increase the evaporation surface area. The new suggested design of the absorbent base is the use of stainless steel geometries which are different in shape and size in order to highlight their effect on solar still productivity. Results showed that using of stainless steel geometries increased the evaporation rate and enhanced the still productivity. In addition, the change in the geometry shape has a limited effect on the solar still productivity; whereas, changing the geometry size has a significant increase in productivity. The calculated data of the conversional solar still productivity was 2.987 kg/m2 with maximum temperatures of still water and the inner surface of the glass cover 63.6 °C and 54.2 °C respectively The maximum freshwater productivity was obtained by using cones, where the produced water was 4.13 kg/m2 with an enhancement ratio of 38.2%. In this case, the maximum temperatures of still water and the inner surface of the glass cover were 72.9 °C and 61.9 °C, respectively.

Keywords

• Solar still
• Water productivity
• New design geometries