Optimal orientation of efficacy metal fins to enhanced freshwater generation in solar distillers: An experimental study

Abstract

The pressing issue of water scarcity in remote regions has stimulated the search for simple desalination techniques. Solar distillers represent one of the most important solutions in remote regions for producing freshwater, but they have low productivity. The efficient iron fins represent an effective solution to improve their freshwater productivity. However, due to the negative effect of the shadow resulting from the metal fins, the present study aims to obtain the optimal orientation of efficacy metal fins that achieves the highest productivity for solar stills. To achieve this, three solar distillers were designed and built with identical dimensions. The first distiller has vertically oriented iron fins incorporated with its basin. The second distiller has 45° inclined iron fins incorporated with its basin. But the third distiller is devoid of any iron fins and represents the reference case. Our findings revealed that the inclusion of iron fins, particularly inclined ones, significantly enhanced the yield of the solar still by 48.94 %. In contrast, the enhanced distiller with vertical fins showcased a 33.84 % increase in productivity compared to the reference distiller. Based on these results, we recommend adopting the 45° inclined metal fins to mitigate shading effects and achieve the highest productivity.