Phase change materials for improved performance and continuous output in stepped solar stills equipped with HDH

Abstract

Solar distillation technologies offer a viable solution to the need for access to clean and safe drinking water in water-stressed parts of the world. Solar still is a renewable and cost-effective technology with relatively low distilled water output and any attempts in the direction of improving their productivity and efficiency could bring a significant improvement in the quality of life in water-scarce regions. The effect of adding a humidifier-dehumidifier (HDH) system and applying a phase change material like paraffin wax to a simple passive solar still is being investigated in this paper. The performance of the solar still were found to have improved and the modified designs were able to provide a continuous output during the day time. The experiments revealed that by adding phase change materials to stepped solar still with HDH, the production of distilled water is increased by around 84.4% compared to stepped solar still equipped with HDH alone.