Experimental investigation on dish solar distiller with modified absorber and phase change material under various operating conditions

Bassem F Felemban; Fadl Abdelmonem Essa; Asif Afzal; Mohamed Hamza Ahmed; Bahaa Saleh; Hitesh Panchal; Sengottiyan Shanmugan; Ammar Elsheikh; Zakaria Mohamed Omara

doi:10.1007/s11356-022-20285-z

Experimental investigation on dish solar distiller with modified absorber and phase change material under various operating conditions

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Sep;29(42):63248-63259. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-20285-z. Epub 2022 Apr 22.

Authors

Bassem F Felemban¹, Fadl Abdelmonem Essa², Asif Afzal^{3

4}, Mohamed Hamza Ahmed⁵, Bahaa Saleh¹, Hitesh Panchal⁶, Sengottiyan Shanmugan⁷, Ammar Elsheikh⁸, Zakaria Mohamed Omara⁹

Affiliations

¹ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia.
² Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, 33516, Egypt. fadlessa@eng.kfs.edu.eg.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. A. College of Engineering, Mangaluru, 574153, India.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Technology, Glocal University, Delhi-Yamunotri Marg, SH-57, Mirzapur Pole, Saharanpur District, Uttar Pradesh, 247121, India.
⁵ Mechanical Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80204, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Mechanical Engineering Department, Government Engineering College Patan, Patan, Gujarat, India.
⁷ Research Center for Solar Energy, Department of Physics, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Green Fields, Guntur District, Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh, 522502, India.
⁸ Department of Production Engineering and Mechanical Design, Tanta University, Tanta, 31527, Egypt.
⁹ Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, 33516, Egypt.

PMID: 35459998
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-20285-z

Abstract

The shortage of potable water is a global problem. One of the techniques used to participate solving this problem is the solar distiller. The main demerit of solar distiller is its low output yield. So, this work aims at improving the freshwater productivity of a dish solar distiller by enlarging its absorber surface area and increasing its evaporation rate. As a result, the effect of using three different shapes of absorber liner was investigated: convex dish absorber, stepped absorber, and corrugated surface over the stepped absorber. In addition, the absorber of dish distiller was covered by a cotton wick to enlarge the wetted surface area. Also, different water depths (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 cm) in dish distiller with stepped absorber were investigated. Moreover, the distance below basin liner was occupied by energy storing medium (paraffin wax + titanium oxide nanoparticles). The performances of dish distiller, dish distiller with stepped absorber, and dish distiller with corrugated absorber were evaluated and compared to that of a conventional solar distiller. Experimental results revealed that the performance of dish distiller with corrugated absorber, wick, and energy storing material was higher than that of dish distiller with stepped absorber, which was better than that of dish distiller, which was higher than that of conventional distiller. As well, the highest improvement in productivity of dish distiller with stepped absorber was 125% compared to conventional distiller and took place at 2-cm water depth. In addition, the productivity of dish distiller with corrugated absorber and wick was improved by 160% compared to that of conventional distiller. Additionally, the highest performance was obtained for dish distiller with corrugated absorber, wick, and energy storing material, where the productivity was augmented by about 183%, and the thermal efficiency reached 69.5%.

Keywords: Corrugated absorber; Dish solar still; Phase change material; Stepped absorber; Wick, TiO2 nanoparticles.

MeSH terms

Drinking Water*
Nanoparticles*
Paraffin
Sunlight
Water Purification* / methods

Substances

Drinking Water
Paraffin

Grants and funding

TURSP-2020/260/Taif University