Effects of amount and mode of input energy on the performance of a multi-stage solar still: An experimental study

Abstract Effects of the amount and mode of input energy to an active multi-stage solar still were investigated in this work. To control the input energy, an electrical heater controlled by a PLC was utilized to simulate the energy absorbed by solar collectors. The study of the amount of input energy indicated that the freshwater production was a quadratic function of the collector over basin area (CBA) ratio. It was also found that stages 1 to 4 produced about 36%, 26%, 20% and 18% of the overall yield, respectively. Moreover, the effect of employing a thermal energy storage (TES) on the system performance was studied by comparing the mode of feeding energy according to the daily solar radiation pattern with the impulsive pattern (feed all of the energy at the beginning of the experiment). The current results showed that using TES increased the still's production by merely 5–10%. Thus, TES is suggested to be employed only if the CBA ratio is high and the system is not capable of operating at high temperatures.

[1]  Haruki Sato,et al.  Triple effect evacuated solar still system for getting fresh water from seawater , 1998 .

[2]  N. S. Al Baharna,et al.  Performance analysis of a triple-basin still integrated with a natural circulation solar heater , 1993 .

[3]  K. Kalidasa Murugavel,et al.  Comparative study of double basin and single basin solar stills , 2013 .

[4]  Khamid Mahkamov,et al.  Experimental study of the performance of multieffect solar thermal water desalination system , 2008 .

[5]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Transient analysis of double basin solar still with intermittent flow of waste hot water in night , 1988 .

[6]  Tapas K. Mallick,et al.  Performance analysis of an evacuated multi-stage solar water desalination system , 2012 .

[7]  Y. P. Yadav,et al.  A double-basin solar still coupled to a collector and operating in the thermosiphon mode , 1989 .

[8]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Experimental validation of thermal model of a double slope active solar still under natural circulation mode , 2010 .

[9]  Abdelaziz Arbaoui,et al.  Desalination of the brackish water using a passive solar still with a heat energy storage system , 2013 .

[10]  Rajendra Singh Adhikari,et al.  Transient simulation studies on a multi-stage stacked tray solar still , 1993 .

[11]  Pankaj K. Srivastava,et al.  Experimental and theoretical analysis of single sloped basin type solar still consisting of multiple low thermal inertia floating porous absorbers , 2013 .

[12]  M. I. Ahmed,et al.  On the characteristics of multistage evacuated solar distillation , 2009 .

[13]  Vassilis Belessiotis,et al.  Integration of solar still in a multi-source, multi-use environment , 2003 .

[14]  Khosrow Jafarpur,et al.  Experimental investigation of the effect of solar collecting area on the performance of active solar stills with different brine depths , 2015 .

[15]  R. R. Avezov,et al.  Heat utilization coefficient of solar water purification stills with multistage vaporization-condensation chambers , 2007 .

[16]  Ravishankar Sathyamurthy,et al.  Experimental analysis of a portable solar still with evaporation and condensation chambers , 2015 .

[17]  Bin-Juine Huang,et al.  Spiral multiple-effect diffusion solar still coupled with vacuum-tube collector and heat pipe , 2014 .

[18]  Klemens Schwarzer,et al.  Solar thermal desalination system with heat recovery , 2001 .

[19]  K. Srithar,et al.  An experimental investigation on a solar still with an integrated flat plate collector , 2014 .

[20]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Analysis of double effect active solar distillation , 1996 .

[21]  Z. M. Omara,et al.  A new hybrid desalination system using wicks/solar still and evacuated solar water heater , 2013 .

[22]  S. Aboul-Enein,et al.  Effect of fin configuration parameters on single basin solar still performance , 2015 .

[23]  Khosrow Jafarpur,et al.  A new radiation model for a single-slope solar still , 2010 .

[24]  Norberto Chargoy,et al.  Multi-stage, indirectly heated solar still , 1990 .

[25]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Thermal evaluation of high temperature distillation under an active mode of operation , 1992 .

[26]  Rasool Kalbasi,et al.  Multi-effect passive desalination system, an experimental approach. , 2010 .

[27]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) double slope active solar still , 2011 .

[28]  S. Boughali,et al.  Effect of partial intermittent shading on the performance of a simple basin solar still in south Algeria , 2010 .

[29]  M. Arslan,et al.  Experimental investigation of still performance for different active solar still designs under closed cycle mode , 2012 .

[30]  Rajendra Singh Adhikari,et al.  Simulation studies on a multi-stage stacked tray solar still , 1995 .

[31]  Moh'd S. Abu-Jabal,et al.  Proving test for a solar-powered desalination system in Gaza-Palestine☆ , 2001 .

[32]  Y. P. Yadav Transient analysis of double-basin solar still integrated with collector , 1989 .

[33]  Nader Rahbar,et al.  Experimental study of a novel portable solar still by utilizing the heatpipe and thermoelectric module , 2012 .

[34]  G. N. Tiwari Enhancement of daily yield in a double basin solar still , 1985 .

[35]  Khosrow Jafarpur,et al.  Experimental investigation of a multi-effect active solar still: The effect of the number of stages , 2015 .

[36]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Optimization of daily yield for an active double effect distillation with water flow , 1999 .

[37]  Bernhard Hoffschmidt,et al.  A new solar desalination system with heat recovery for decentralised drinking water production , 2009 .

[38]  Guo Xie,et al.  Experimental and numerical study on a new multi-effect solar still with enhanced condensation surface , 2013 .

[39]  G. N. Tiwari,et al.  Performance evaluation of an active solar distillation system , 1996 .

[40]  Khamlichi Abdellatif,et al.  Modeling an active solar still for sea water desalination process optimization , 2014 .

[41]  Khosrow Jafarpur,et al.  A thorough investigation of the effects of water depth on the performance of active solar stills , 2014 .

[42]  Khamid Mahkamov,et al.  Determination of rational design parameters of a multi-stage solar water desalination still using transient mathematical modelling , 2010 .

[43]  M. Daneshyar,et al.  Solar radiation statistics for Iran , 1978 .

[44]  M. I. Ahmed,et al.  Numerical modelling of a multi-stage solar still , 2000 .

[45]  Khosrow Jafarpur,et al.  Year-round outdoor experiments on a multi-stage active solar still with different numbers of solar collectors , 2015 .

[46]  H. P. Garg,et al.  Techno-economic analysis of a multi-stage stacked tray (MSST) solar still , 2000 .