An experimental study on carbon-metal composite tablets as solar absorbers for water distiller performance improvement

This experimental work investigates the possibility of using the reused carbon-metal composite tablets as solar absorbers with different metal types and ratios for enhancing the performance of solar still. Using carbon-metal composite tablets increases the waterbed absorptive over the traditional solar still. Numerous possibilities, such as metal weight ratio (MWR = 0, 5, 10, and 15%), metal powder type (MPT = Fe, Al, and Cu), tablet config-uration (TC = full and staggered), and water depth (WD = 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 cm), were investigated for their effect on the performance of the presented system based on thermodynamic, water yield, and economic analyses. The results show that carbon-metal composite tablets in solar still enhance thermal energy absorption. The presence of composite tablets enhances the solar still yield, energy, and exergy efficiency by 18.5, 17.5, 202% and, 44.1, 43.9, 29.1%, with cost reduction by about 5.03, and 21.9% for full and staggered arrangement configurations, respectively. The water depth concerning the composite tablets is an impacted aspect of the proposed system's performance. The yield and average energy and exergy efficiencies are enhanced by about 43. 8, 59.6, and 10.7% using copper powder and 19.8, 8.5, and 2.3% for aluminum powder, respectively, compared to iron at the same MWR. The composite tablets' thermal transmission ability increases with an increase of MWR which urges the evaporation and enhances the system yield. The suggested modification of the traditional distiller enhances its performance with production rate, average energy, and exergy efficiencies, and cost of 1820 mL/d, 23, 1.26%, and 0.0125 USD/L, respectively.

Automated summary

This study investigates the use of reused carbon-metal composite tablets as solar absorbers to enhance the performance of solar still. The results show that these composite tablets improve thermal energy absorption, overall yield, energy efficiency, and cost reduction. Factors such as metal weight ratio, metal powder type, tablet configuration, and water depth were analyzed for their impact on system performance. The suggested modification enhances production rate, energy efficiency, and cost of the traditional distiller.