Influence of collector type and the glass cover cooling on the performance of the solar distiller integrated with the solar collectors

Abstract

Improving the efficiency of solar distillers is essential to increasing freshwater production. One method to enhance the output of the solar distiller is to connect it with another solar collector. Previous studies did not indicate a comparison of the performance of integrated solar stills with different types of solar collectors. The current article aims to study the performance of solar distillers connected to two different types of solar collectors, study the influencing operational variables, and compare these cases. A practical model was built that included four operational cases. The first case (M1) was a solar heater with a solar concentrator collector and a solar distiller connected in series. The second case (M2): A solar concentrator collector and solar distiller connected in series. The third case (M3): A solar heater and solar distiller connected in series. The fourth case (M4): It is the same as the M1 system, but the solar distiller contains a tube to cool the glass and compare the productivity with the classical solar distiller. The results showed that the M1 case is higher than the M3 and M2 cases. In contrast, the M4 case had the highest productivity in all the cases and systems that were discussed, which is estimated at 7583 ml/ day; this means that the M4 system is the best system studied, and this is due to the glass cooling mechanism. The highest productivity recorded for the M4 system was on 28 June, and the lowest productivity recorded was on 15 July. The highest hourly productivity was reached when the glass surface temperature (4 ˚C) was 1400 ml/h at 14:00.