Experimental investigation on the impact of thermal energy storage on the solar still performance coupled with PV module via new integration

Abstract

An experimental investigation is performed on the impact of utilizing a thermal energy storage of phase change material (PCM) on the performance of single acting solar still coupled with photovoltaic module (PV) by new integration. The integration of the PV with the still is based on installing directly the PV module over the still condenser where the PV uses the same solar still space. Installing the PV over the still transmits the reflected solar energy from the PV to the saline water in the still basin and the PV output power is also transmitted directly to the saline water. The impact of integrating PCM with the still basin on the still performance is studied for the conventional solar still (CSS) and modified still (CSS + PV) and for forced air cooling (FAC) of the modified still condenser (PCM + CSS + PV). Additionally, the impact of using PV as only a reflector on the still performance is illustrated. The findings indicate that integrating the PV with the CSS increases its productivity by 9%. Using PCM unit with the still coupled with PV increases their daily yield by about 11.7% while using FAC with (CSS + PV + PCM) rises this daily yield by 19.4%. Using PV as a reflector with CSS rises its productivity by 3.5% and lower its production cost compared to CSS. Moreover, the positive impact of the FAC or PCM on the still performance increases with increasing the PV power where using PCM with (CSS + PV) increases its efficiency by about 20%. Using FAC with the system (CSS + PCM and PV) reduces its freshwater yield cost and increases its efficiency.