Abstract
The low freshwater productivity of a conventional solar still is considered a challenge for researchers due to the high temperature of the glass cover or basin water depth. In current work, a newly designed solar still was suggested according to the climatic conditions of Yekaterinburg/Russia, which included an enhanced condensation and evaporation process by spraying a thin water film on a hot absorber plate and then passing the generated water vapor by free convection over the aluminum plate (low temperature). The distillation system under study was tested during July 2020 and 29 July was chosen as a typical day from 08:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The results showed that the largest amount of water vapor condenses on the aluminum plate (about 46%), and the rest condenses on the glass cover. This means that the aluminum plate effectively improved productivity due to the flow of humid air naturally (free convection) on the aluminum plate (its surface temperature was lower than that of the glass cover). The cost analytical calculations showed that the cost of producing one liter of distilled water from the suggested solar still was 0.063$.
Highlights
The percentage of fresh water is about 2.5% of the total water that covers about 70% of the earth’s surface
After 8:00 a.m., there was a gradual increase in the intensity of solar radiation, and it reached its highest value at 1:00 p.m. of around 989.9 W/m2
In the morning after sunrise, sunlight transmitted thermal energy to areas on the surface of the earth and the surrounding air [21], so the highest ambient air temperature was recorded at 15:00 p.m., of around 30.5 ◦C
Summary
The percentage of fresh water is about 2.5% of the total water that covers about 70% of the earth’s surface. Seawater contains high levels of salinity ranging from 3500 to 4500 ppm, and according to reports of the World Health Organization (WHO), the acceptable proportions of dissolved salt in drinking water are generally 500 ppm and, in some special cases, 1000 ppm [1]. This makes seawater unsuitable for direct human consumption and for agriculture and industrial utilization without a desalination process [2]. The average daily production of fresh water from the desalination process worldwide is about 23×106 m3 [3]. Studies have shown that approximately 130 million tons of oil (annually) is used to produce 13 million cubic meters of potable water [4]
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