Improving the freshwater production from tubular solar still using sensible heat storage materials

Abstract

Higher productivity is considered an important parameter of solar still performance; tubular solar still (TSS) is being explored as a popular technique for improved productivity in recent days. Along with the improved shape of the solar still, the use of sensible heat storage materials in the solar still proved to be a beneficial way to increase productivity. The current study focuses on the experimental investigations on a TSS using jute cloth, iron pieces, and wire mesh as potential energy storage materials for improving its productivity. All experiments were carried out at a constant basin depth of 2 cm at Nagpur [21.1458° N, 79.0882° E] India. The TSS with wire mesh outperforms all other cases. When compared to a conventional tubular solar still, the use of wire mesh in TSS improves thermal and exergy efficiency by 35.1 % and 88.1 %, respectively. The experimental studies concluded that wire mesh has the highest productivity of all; an improvement of 41.35 %, 10.33 %, and 29.78 % was observed when compared to conventional solar stills, iron pieces, and jute cloth, respectively. The water cost per liter of fresh water obtained from TSS–Jute cloth, TSS-Iron pieces, and TSS-Wire mesh was about 0.00575, 0.00515, and 0.00499 US $/m2.