Novel concept on the enhancement of conventional solar still performance via constant heat rate supply to the saline water.

Abstract

One of most reduction reasons of simple conventional solar still productivity is the coupling between high solar intensity and the high ambient temperature in the same time. The high intensity increases the saline water temperature, while the outside temperature increases the glass temperature, and consequently reduction in saline water and glass temperature difference leads to reduction in condensation and productivity. The present theoretical study focuses on the completion of the absorbed solar energy in the basin to be constant during the day. The basin water will be in high temperature level all day especially at the time of low outside temperature far away the noon. The absorbed heat in the basin is held constant at αw Imax by extra heat from wind turbine power with battery storage system all day hours. The results show that the solar still productivity with constant heat supply is more than that with same amount of variable energy during sun rise time only (6 AM to 6 PM) by 69.133%. So, constant absorbed heat in the water basin (αw Imax) through the 24 h of the day enhances the performance with productivity up to 248% with the hybrid solar and electric power consumption of the wind turbine power. The water in the basin is held constant at 2 cm via makeup water to compensate the evaporation rate.