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Despite advances in enhancing the output of conventional solar stills, the pursuit of the most efficient solar distillation technique remains ongoing. Evacuated tubes, known for their superior thermal capacity compared to traditional single-basin solar stills, offer a promising solution for high-yield distillation. This study evaluates the performance of a semi-cylindrical tent-shaped solar still coupled with evacuated tubes (SCTSCET) against a conventional single-basin, single-slope solar still, used as a benchmark. Experiments conducted in Amman, Jordan, in May 2023, demonstrate that the SCTSCET significantly outperforms the conventional solar still in distilled water production. The SCTSCET achieved a daily yield of up to 9.7 liters, which is approximately 288 % higher than the 2.5 liters produced by the conventional still. This increased productivity is due to a 45.7 % enhancement in heat capacity provided by the evacuated tubes, which raised the water basin temperature to 61.4 °C, compared to 41.2 °C in the conventional still. This higher temperature facilitated a faster evaporation rate and improved water output. Additionally, the SCTSCET exhibited a 10 % higher hourly thermal efficiency and a peak exergy efficiency of 5.7 %, compared to 3.4 % for the conventional still, highlighting its superior ability to harness and utilize solar energy for distillation.

• Novel hybrid solar distillation integrated with solar cooling system is introduced. • The performance of the solar still is improved by integration with solar ejector. • The performance of the system is investigated for four different scenarios. • Scenario 4 productivity of still is five times higher and ejector COP improved 11%. To meet the high cooling and fresh water demands in hot and arid regions, a novel integrated solar cooling and solar distillation system is introduced. The system consists of a solar ejector cooling system integrated with single-slope solar still. The proposed novel system is the first study to integrate two solar systems for cooling and water production with outputs significantly higher than any existing system. A steady state thermodynamics model is developed based on the mass, momentum and energy conservations and the performance of the integrated system is investigated. Results showed that the productivity of the solar still is enhanced by increasing the evaporation rate (using heating coil) and by increasing the condensation rate (using cooling coil). Simultaneously, this improved the COP of the ejector system by enhancing its entrainment ratio with slight increase in the required solar collector area. The performance of the system is investigated further for four different scenarios of integration between the solar ejector cooling and solar distillation systems. Results showed that the productivity of the still is five times higher than that of the conventional solar still. The effects of the major operating parameters on the performance of the system with R134a as the working fluid are investigated and analyzed. At a solar radiation of 500 W/m2, generator pressure of 3.3 MPa, generator temperature of 365 K, evaporator temperature of 283 K, a cooling capacity of 10.4 kW and distilled water of 8.10 kg/day are obtained. The annual produced water considering the hourly variation of the radiant flux was 5067 kg/year, which is 5.7 times more than the conventional systems. The estimated cost of one liter distilled water per 1 m2 area of the present solar still is $0.04, which is only 18% of the water cost of other still technologies. Moreover, the performance of additional four working fluids is compared in terms of COP, cooling capacity, required solar collector area and still productivity, based on which, R134a working fluid was recommended for its overall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a copper inclined stepped solar still was designed and fabricated to study the seawater desalination productivity of copper inclined stepped solar stills. The experimental setup mainly consists of two parts: a seawater settling and feeding tank and an inclined stepped solar still. The inclined stepped solar still with internal dimensions of L 1.8 m, W 1.2 m, and H 0.20 m consisted of 28 trays, and the tray dimensions are 0.6 m in height and 1.2 m in length. Its performance was tested in Bangi City - Malaysia, under Malaysian environmental conditions in the period from September 2016 to December 2016. The inclined stepped solar still was sealed to reduce vapour leakage to the environment. The experiment studies the effect of different environmental parameters (solar intensity, ambient temperature, wind velocity, humidity and cloud coverage) and operational parameters on the system productivity (water production and glass out, inner, vapour, water and tray “basin” temperature). The result shows that the productivity of the solar still was highly affected by environmental parameters. For example, the increase in solar radiation and ambient temperature increases the still temperature, and the difference between the cover inner and outer temperatures enhances the condensing process and water productivity. However, the decrease in humidity increases the productivity, the wind velocity significantly reduces the (T i − T o ) difference temperature, which adversely affects the productivity of the system, and the cloud coverage affects the solar radiation intensity. The productivity was 4383 mL/m 2 d; the best hourly efficiency was approximately 58% at 17:00, which can be explained by the highest solar radiation and ambient temperature with respect to time lag for the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Transient mathematical models are presented for an active single basin solar still (ASS) with and without a sensible storage material under the basin liner of the still. Sand is used as a storage material due to its availability. The flowing water temperature is assumed to vary with time and space coordinates. Analytical expressions are obtained for various temperatures of the still elements as well as for the temperature of sand. The performance of the still with and without storage is investigated by computer simulation using the climatic conditions of Jeddah (lat. 21° 42′ N, long. 39° 11′ E), Saudi Arabia. Effects of mass flow rate and thickness of the flowing water for different masses of the storage material on the daylight P dl, overnight P on and daily productivity P d and efficiency η d of the still are studied. The dependence of P d and η d on the thickness and thermal conductivity of the basin liner material is also investigated. It is found that P d and η d decrease as the mass of the storage material increases, due to the increased heat capacity of the storage material. Furthermore, P d and η d are found to decrease with increasing thermal conductivity of the basin linear material. Therefore, it is advisable to fabricate basin liners of ASS from cheap insulating materials such as glass and mica with an optimum thickness of 3mm. On a summer day, a value of P d of 4.005 (kg/m2 day) with a daily efficiency of 37.8% has been obtained using 10kg of sand compared to 2.852 (kg/m2 day) with a daily efficiency of 27% when the still is used without storage. The annual average of daily productivity of the still with storage is found to be 23.8% higher than that when it is used without storage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]