Experimental study of the impact of low-cost energy storage materials on the performance of solar distillers at different water depths

In the current research, a low-cost energy storage material was utilized to improve the performance of single-slope solar distillers. To this end, a conventional distiller was modified with low-cost energy storage materials by adding twenty-five spherical salt balls and seventeen sponges to the bottom of the basin at different water depths, and its performance was examined under the climate of Al-Hilla, Iraq. Therefore, two cases were tested; 25 salt balls + 17 sponges in 1.5 cm depth of water (Case 1) and 25 salt balls + 17 sponges in 2 cm depth of water (Case 2), and their results were compared with the conventional solar distiller. It was found that using reasonable energy storage materials (salt balls and sponges) has a good role in increasing the productivity of modified solar distillers. Also, the daily accumulated productivity of modified solar still (MSS) for Case 1 was higher than that for Case 2 and CSS by about 16.86% and 44.32%, respectively. The maximum productivity was attained for Case 1, which was 1934 g/m2, 1655 g/m2, and 1340 g/m2 for both modified solar still (MSS-SBS) for Case 2 and CSS, respectively. Finally, it is recommended to use low-cost energy storage materials such as salt balls and sponges with a minimum depth of basin water to improve the productivity of the solar still.

Automated summary

In this research, low-cost energy storage materials were used to enhance the performance of single-slope solar distillers. The conventional distiller was modified by adding salt balls and sponges to the basin at different water depths. The findings showed that using these energy storage materials significantly increased the productivity of the modified solar distillers.