Productivity enhancement of traditional solar still by using sandbags of El Oued, Algeria

Abstract

AbstractThis manuscript aims to study the experimental analysis of solar still with sandbags as energy storage materials. To achieve this idea, 25 bags filled with El Oued sand was fixed inside a square basin vertically and distributed regularly, this is called the modified solar still with sandbags (MSS‐SB). The sand used in this study is very effective than many store mediums considered within many previous works such as glass balls, sponges, phosphate, yellow sand, black sand, and black gravel. This fact is due to its components characterized by high thermal conductivity. By using the Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and X‐ray fluorescence, it has been confirmed that the chemical properties of El Oued sand are composed mainly by 97.6% quartz (SiO2) and 0.56% calcite (CaCO3) and very low concentrations of some other oxides. To obtain the influences of the sandbags utilized in this study, the performance of MSS‐SB and traditional solar still (TSS) was tested at the same climatic conditions of the southeast of Algeria throughout 24 hours. Experimental results revealed that the overall cumulative distillate yield of TSS reached 3.76 L/m2/d, while for utilization the sandbags for MSS‐SB increase the cumulative distillate yield to 5.06 L/m2/d, representing 34.57% improvement in cumulative distillate yield. Also, the daily efficiency of TSS 33.1%, while for utilization the sandbags for MSS‐SB increases the daily efficiency to 44.63%, representing 34.83% improvement in daily efficiency.