Abstract
The availability of fresh drinkable water and water security is becoming a global challenge for sustainable development. In this regard, solar stills, due to their ease in operation, installation, and utilization of direct sunlight (as thermal energy), promise a better and sustainable future technology for water security in urban and remote areas. The major issue is its low distillate productivity, which limits its widespread commercialization. In this study, the effect of silicon (Si) particles is examined to improve the absorber surface temperature of the solar still absorber plate, which is the major component for increased distillate yield. Various weight percentages of Si particles were introduced in paint and coated on the aluminum absorber surface. Extensive indoor (using a self-made halogen light-based solar simulator) and outdoor testing were conducted to optimize the concentration. The coatings with 15 wt % Si in the paint exhibited the highest increase in temperature, namely, 98.5 °C under indoor controlled conditions at 1000 W/m2 irradiation, which is 65.81% higher than a bare aluminum plate and 37.09% higher compared to a black paint-coated aluminum plate. On the other hand, coatings with 10 wt % Si reached up to 73.2 °C under uncontrolled outdoor conditions compared to 68.8 °C for the black paint-coated aluminum plate. A further increase in concentration did not improve the surface temperature, which was due to an excessive increase in thermal conductivity and high convective heat losses.
Highlights
Freshwater plays a crucial role in a sustainable environment
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The highest temperature was attained in the case of specimens containing 15 wt % Si at a 1000 W/m2 irradiation level was 98.5 ◦C, which is 65.81% higher compared to the bare aluminum plate and 37.15% higher compared to the black paint-coated aluminum plate
Summary
Freshwater plays a crucial role in a sustainable environment. the demand for drinkable water is increasing gradually every year due to population enlargement. TiO2 nanoparticles have been mixed with black paint and coated on the absorbed plate in an attempt to increase the radiation absorption. It has been claimed that the addition of CuO improves the efficiency by 16% and 25% as compared to the conventional solar still at 10% and 40% concentrations, respectively [16] Another experimental study investigated the fumed SiO2 nanoparticles in black paint at a varied concentration from 10–40% coated on the absorber plate of a stepped solar still for augmenting the freshwater yield. The average temperature of the water and absorber increased by 10.2–12.3% by adding the optimized concentration of nanoparticles of 20% with black paint.
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