Enhancing the performance of solar stills for desalination of the sea water

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine whether the production output of distilled water from desalination by distillation using a hybrid solar still coupled with Photovoltaic panels can enhance the overall efficiency of the system for desalinating the seawater. Desalination by distillation has not yet reached the global market as the output rate is significantly less compared to other methods such as reverse osmosis (RO). This research developed a working hybrid prototype solar still that utilized both passive and active heating sources to assess its performance and competitiveness with other solar stills in the market. The outcome of this research indicates that a solar still on its own is efficient enough in removing Total Dissolved Salts (TDS) for safe drinking water. However, it cannot compete with the performance of alternatives such as RO desalination units and is highly dependent on solar energy. Although, the results from this study show that the use of solar reflectors can increase the performance by 21%. This study concludes that a new technology/concept is needed to fill in the gap between solar stills and RO units whereby it can match the performance of a typical RO desalination unit and maintain the same capital and running costs of a typical solar still.