Improvement of Solar Distiller Productivity by a Black Metallic Plate of Zinc as a Thermal Storage Material

Abstract

The lack of drinking water is a real global problem. Transforming polluted water into freshwater is another problem. Solar distillation seems a simple and economical solution to this problem, but the yield of a solar still is low, and this poses another problem. One of the best ways to improve the productivity of freshwater from solar energy is to incorporate sensible heat energy storage materials; i.e., the temperature elevation of a material allows for the storage of energy, and that is exactly the purpose of our work. Two similar solar distillers were exposed to the sun in May 2017 under the same weather conditions. Distiller Dc is retained as a reference and distiller Ds contains in its basin a black plate of zinc 48 by 48 cm with a thickness of 0.2 cm. This plate is used as a sensitive thermal storage material to improve the productivity of our device. The results of this simple and inexpensive technique have improved the productivity of distiller Ds by 1.54 times compared with the conventional Dc still. Thus, this technique increases the productivity of the distiller and participates in solving a technical problem affecting the solar still.

Effect of different basin materials on the performance of hemispherical distiller with mirrors and energy storage material

“…In addition, Khechekhouche et al (Khechekhouche et al 2021) studied the effect of using zinc plate (black metallic) to enhance the e ciency of the solar distiller. It was found that the daily production was 3.894 L/m².day when using the zinc plate versus 2.52 L/m².day for the distiller without the zinc plate.…”

Small iron pieces effect on the output of single slope solar still

“…A group of researchers employed aluminum balls fabricated from commercial aluminum sheets in the solar still's basin. Others have used dune sand as an enhancing material; however, the results show that when compared to a solar still without sand, pure water yield is reduced by 1.45 times [23][24][25][26].…”

Phosphate bed as energy storage materials for augmentation of conventional solar still productivity

“…This method is not attractive due to its low production and performance 3,4 . Many researchers are searching for inexpensive energy‐saving energy storage materials to improve the CSS's thermal performance and production 5,6 …”

“…3,4 Many researchers are searching for inexpensive energy-saving energy storage materials to improve the CSS's thermal performance and production. 5,6 Samuel et al 7 added various storage materials (salt balls and sponges) and studied solar still performance. The researchers concluded that the daily production reached 3700 ml/m 2 when using salt in balls, 2.7 L/m 2 for still with the sponge and 2.2 L/m 2 for solar distillation without storage.…”