Impact of utilizing hollow copper circular fins and glass wool insulation on the performance enhancement of pyramid solar still unit: An experimental approach

Abstract

Desalination of salt and contaminated water, which is widely used in remote areas, is difficult due to high construction and maintenance costs. So, solar still units by using a free energy source are more economical than other desalination technologies. The current article aims to model the impact of copper fins, and insulation on the accomplishment of a solar unit. Hence, three different scenarios have been introduced, and the tests were done from August to September of 2020 in Shahriar-Iran. In each of the scenarios, a conventional solar still with pyramid-shaped compared with an enhanced pyramid-shaped unit. The scenarios were designed in order to evaluate the efficacy of increasing fins number and insulation on the solar still unit productivity. The outcomes revealed that the maximum daily productivity is about 5.33 L/m2 which demonstrated a 62.5% enhancement in freshwater productivity compared with traditional pyramid solar still units. Also, the daily efficiency of first, second, and third modified pyramid solar stills is estimated to be 39.64, 43.3, and 48.12% respectively. The economic analysis revealed that using hollow circular copper fins, and glass wool insulation diminishes the cost of producing freshwater from the first, second, and third modified pyramid-shaped solar still by 12.76, 16.68, and 27.33% respectively.