A comprehensive review of tubular solar still designs, performance, and economic analysis

Freshwater and energy are indispensable resources for economic and industrial developments, they are key global challenges nowadays. In recent years, the emphasis has been placed on developing the design of various solar stills in order to overcome the problem of the low yield of traditional stills. Tubular solar still (TSS) is one of the results of continuous development in design techniques of solar stills. This paper reviews the advanced design techniques in TSS field, which aim to improve the yield of stills. A comprehensive attempt has been made to cover the economic feasibility, operation, thermal analysis, factors affecting operation and performance, and researches conducted on TSS technology. A summary of previous researches, developments, and economic analysis have been presented and discussed in details to arrive at useful conclusions. Results showed that the average daily water production of TSS is higher with multi-effect TSS. The economic analysis showed that the overall cost of the produced fresh water by TSS is between $0.0061 and $0.2 per kg water. Finally, based on the water production cost, horizontal TSS is more efficient than vertical TSS type. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.