Sustainable and clean water distillation by parabolic dish collector and different heat absorber and thermal storage materials: An experimental study

Abstract

In this study, an integrated solar distillation unit with a parabolic dish collector and a spherical solar water distillation unit is designed. The use of parabolic dish collector increases the evaporation rate of the saltwater in the lower chamber (basin) of the spherical distillation unit considerably. The performance of solar water distillation system is investigated for different types of basin material, including copper, zinc, and iron. In the second part, the gravel is used in the copper basin of solar distillation system as the thermal energy storage material. The thermal efficiency, water productivity, exergy efficiency, and freshwater production cost of the integrated solar distillation system with different types of basin materials are studied. The thermal efficiency of the integrated solar distillation system with the copper, zinc, and iron basins was 13.97 %, 10.72 %, and 9.88 %%, respectively. The water productivity of the integrated solar distillation system with copper, zinc, and iron basins was 2.592 kg, 2.27 kg, and 1.825 kg, respectively during 9 h of experiment. The exergy efficiency of the integrated solar distillation system with the copper basin was better than the zinc and iron basins. The gravel can increase the productivity of solar distillation system up to three times in the sunset and night hours.