Performance evaluation of continuous solar still water desalination system

In this paper, the experimental study aims to enhance a distillate water productivity of solar stills. To achieve this objective, solar still with continuous water desalination along 24 h was designed, structured, and operated in the city of Tanta, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt. For the solar stills, the temperatures of the condensing surface are very low throughout the night and during the early hours of the morning. This advantage makes the uses of the solar stills with continuous desalination along 24 h to be more effective. To achieve the continuous water desalination, the electric water heater (EWH) was installed in the basin of solar still to heat the basin water in the night and during the early hours of the morning. The EWH is powered by solar batteries that are charged by PV panels during sunrise. The experimental results presented that the accumulated distillate water productivity for using the continuous water desalination along 24 h varied between 10,631 and 12,087 mL m(-2) day(-1) after period use of 2 May to 11 August. The improvement in accumulated productivity of solar still with continuous water desalination along 24 h varied between 159.3 and 177.9% as compared to solar still working without EWH. Also, the improvement in the overall efficiency of solar still with continuous water desalination varied between 27.9 and 31.3%.

Automated summary

The experimental study focused on increasing the distillate water productivity of solar stills by implementing continuous water desalination over 24 hours. A solar still was designed and operated in Egypt with the use of an electric water heater to heat the basin water during the night and early morning. Results showed a significant improvement in both distillate water productivity and overall efficiency when compared to solar stills without continuous desalination.