The objective of the present work is to improve the performance of a solar still through increasing the productivity of freshwater.
In order to improve the performance of a solar still, a phase change material (PCM) was added
as a heat storage medium.
Two solar stills were designed, constructed and tested in the present experimental
study to compare the productivity of the solar desalination system.
One of them is a solar still with PCM and the other is the conventional solar still.
The experimental results show that, the daily freshwater productivity
for solar still with PCM is higher than that of conventional solar still.
The daily freshwater productivity approximately reached 7.54 L/m2 day for solar still with PCM, while its value is recorded 4.51 L/m2 day for the conventional solar still.
The results show that the daily freshwater productivity for solar still with PCMis 67.18% higher
than that of the conventional solar still.
Also, the solar still with PCM is superior in daily freshwater productivity
(67%–68.8% improvement) compared to a conventional solar still in the period fromJune to July 2015 under the ambient conditions of Tanta city (Egypt).
In this case study the estimated cost of 1 L of distillate water reached
approximately 0.24 LE (0.03 $) and 0.252 LE (0.032 $) for solar still with PCM and conventional solar still,respectively.