article · Desalination and Water Treatment
Conical solar distillers maintain consistent solar exposure across their covers without casting shadows, making them useful for solar water purification. Placing graphite bars within the basin water at varied spacings acts as a corrugated heat transfer surface and thermal energy storage medium. An experimental investigation evaluated three conical stills with graphite bar separations between zero and 30 millimetres under the climatic conditions of El Oued, Algeria. The results show that narrowing the gap between bars raises productivity by expanding the water contact area and retaining surplus heat collected during daylight. Compared to standard conical distillers, configurations with graphite rods achieved energy efficiency increases of 46.23 to 90.46 per cent and exergy efficiency gains of 181 to 321 per cent. Concurrently, the overall unit cost of water produced fell by up to 74.91 per cent.
Solar distillation provides an accessible, decentralised method for generating fresh drinking water in sunny regions. Adding inexpensive graphite rods allows the system to store more thermal energy and expand heat transfer surfaces, substantially raising clean water output while cutting the unit production cost and shortening the payback period for users.
This work demonstrates an applied and experimentally tested approach to small-scale solar desalination using low-cost materials. It could enable more cost-effective passive water purifiers for off-grid or water-stressed communities. The technology appears to be at a working prototype stage tested under real climatic conditions, though manufacturing scalability and operational maintenance are not detailed in the abstract.
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This work aims to enhance productivity and reduce the production cost of conical solar distillers using green and inexpensive materials. Conical solar stills are characterized by their cover is always exposed to the same solar radiation in all locations and do not create shading. Different graphite bars are installed at various distances in the still basin, acting as corrugated surfaces and energy storage materials to increase the interface area, reduce energy losses, and enhance the overall performance. Three conical stills were designed and tested to investigate the effect of changing the distances (0 to 30 mm) between the graphite rods on the production rate at the same climatic conditions of El Oued, Algeria. Furthermore, energy, exergy, economic, and exergoeconomic approaches were conducted to assess the viability of the proposed distillers. Results showed that reducing the distances between graphite bars increases the production rate due to the increased interfacial space with basin water and the storage of excess heat absorbed during the day. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the proposed conical solar distillers incorporated with graphite bars improved by 46.23–90.46 % and 181–321 % respectively, compared with the traditional conical still. Based on the exergo-economic approach, the annual energy and exergy outlets improved by 45.65–90.46 % and 187.5–439 % respectively, compared to the traditional conical still. The cost of the yield and payback period decreased by 40.41–74.91 % and 28.8–42.8 % respectively, compared to the traditional conical still. Finally, incorporated graphite rods with conical solar stills represent a good option for obtaining high performance with economic benefit.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.dwt.2024.100611
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