Enhancing the performance of conventional solar still using sensible heat energy storage materials.

Abstract

The lack of drinkable, safe water is one problem that governments around the world are dealing with. There are many methods for desalinating saltwater, such as solar distillers, which can be used in remote places without access to traditional energy sources to produce distilled water. In this manuscript, two solar stills [conventional solar still (CSS) and CSS with high thermal conductivity material (HTCM)] were researched at the "School of Mechanical Engineering, B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Vandalur, Chennai, India," under the same climatic condition. The HTCM (silicon carbide) works as a sensible heat energy storage material, which was placed at the basin of the CSS. The silicon carbide used in the present research is used to enhance the freshwater production during lower solar intensity period and furthermore after evening time. It has been found that the maximum fresh water production from the CSS is 1.5kg/m2 and the CSS with HTCM is 2.9kg/m2. The daily yield production from the CSS with HTCM is 93.7% higher compared to the CSS. The study also has shown that the maximum daily thermal efficiency of the CSS is 13.43% and the CSS with HTCM is 26.09%. The CSS with HTCM produced 94.3% higher thermal efficiency as compared to the CSS.