Experimental yield analysis of groundwater solar desalination system using absorbent materials

Abstract

Nowadays, feeding population by drinkable water has become an enormous task. The most recent record of potable water shows that more than a billion people throughout the world still lack access getting potable water [1]. In Southern Algeria, the only source of fresh water is the underground water; however, it is of high salinity. Solar desalination is one of the best solutions to supply small communities of arid and semi-arid zones by drinkable water where it is unavailable.In this paper, attempt has been made to study the effect of the following absorbent on the still productivity under local climatic conditions:–0.5cm thick layer of bitumen.–100g of charcoal i.e. (0.6038kg charcoal/m2 of absorber area).–10 drops of Black Chinese ink /liter of brackish water.Experiments conducted at Ouargla University show that:–Absorbent materials increase water absorption to solar irradiance; additionally, they play the role of heat storage medium when they are added within still's absorber.–Moreover, absorbent materials generally increase the daily yield and leads to nocturnal distillation for a few times.–Bitumen, Charcoal and black ink improves the output by: 25.35%, 18.42% and 6.87% respectively relative to the baseline case.