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Article history:
Available online 18 October 2013
Keywords:
Solar still
Solar desalination
Stepped solar still
Productivity enhancement
Reectors
a b s t r a c t
The performance of stepped solar still with internal and external reectors have been investigated in the
current study. The reectors are used to enhance energy input to the stepped still. The inuence of internal and external (top and bottom) reectors on the performance of the stepped solar still is investigated.
A comparison between modied stepped solar still and conventional solar still is carried out to evaluate
the developed desalination system performance under the same climate conditions. The results indicated
that, during experimentation the productivity of the modied stepped solar still with internal and external (top and bottom) reectors is higher than that for conventional still approximately by 125%. In this
case the estimated cost of 1 l of distillate for stepped still with reectors and conventional solar stills
is approximately 0.031$ and 0.049$, respectively.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
One of the viable options to deal with the water problem is the
conversion of saline water to potable water through water desalination by solar energy. Solar stills represent a most attractive and
simple technique among other distillation processes. Given all
their merits, solar stills face the problem of low productivity compared to their costs.
The various factors affecting the productivity of solar still [1] are
solar intensity, wind velocity, ambient temperature, waterglass
temperature difference, free surface area of water, absorber plate
area, temperature of inlet water, glass angle and depth of water.
The solar intensity, wind velocity, ambient temperature cannot
be controlled as they are metrological parameters. Whereas the
remaining parameters can be varied to enhance the productivity
of the solar stills. Many modications have been done to increase
the productivity of distillate of a basin type still, reviewed by [1,2].
Depth of water in the solar still inversely affects the productivity of the solar still. Investigations indicated that a reduction of the
brine depth in the still improves the productivity, mainly due to
the higher basin temperature. For maintaining minimum depth,
wicks, plastic water purier and stepped solar still were used. So
that stepped solar stills can increase the distillate productivity
about conventional solar stills, many reports studied the performance of stepped solar still [37].
877
878
Table 1
The optimum reector inclination for different seasons.
Reector angle
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Refs.
Top, hT
Bottom, hB
7
30
15
50
8
30
15
20
[11]
[13]
From Table 2, 5/8/2012, it can be indicated that the glass temperature and basin water temperature of modied stepped solar
still with internal reectors (mirrors) are higher than that of
conventional still by about 04.5 C. Because of, adding mirrors
on the vertical sides of steps of the stepped still minimize the
amount of energy lost. In addition, the reectors reect a fraction
of the radiation onto the water surface, thus consequently increase
the water and glass temperatures of the stepped solar still. So, the
evaporation and condensation rates in stepped solar stills were
higher than that of conventional still.
From Table 3, 5-8-2012, it can be noticed that daily productivity
(24 h) reaches approximately 3630 and 6350 ml/m2/day for
conventional still and stepped solar still with internal mirrors,
respectively. In this case the increase in distillate production for
stepped solar still with internal mirrors is 75% higher than that
for conventional still.
Al-Hayek and Badran [19] indicated that adoption of mirrors on
the inside walls of the solar stills will enhance the production of
distilled water and improve the efciency through controlling
the radiation losses from the still basin.
3.3. Performance of the stepped still with internal and top external
reectors
Fig. 3 shows the variation of solar radiation, atmospheric temperature, basin water temperature and outside glass temperature
for conventional still and modied stepped solar still with internal and top external mirrors. The gure shows narrower temperature changes during the experimental hours for the solar stills,
which means that the maximum temperature was maintained
879
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
9/8/2012
5/8/2012
Meteorological
data
Conventional still
Stepped still
Meteorological
data
Conventional still
I (W/
m2)
Ta
(C)
Tg
(C)
Tw
(C)
P (ml/
h)
Tg
(C)
Tw
(C)
P (ml/
h)
I (W/
m2)
Ta
(C)
Tg
(C)
Tw
(C)
P (ml/
h)
Tg
(C)
Tw
(C)
P (ml/
h)
780
950
1030
1100
1080
970
720
490
260
160
40
28
31
33
34
35
35
34
33
32
30
28
34
38
43
44
45
44
40
37
35
34
32
40
56
68
73
74
72
65
58
55
45
41
0
180
370
620
655
540
450
320
220
130
90
34
41.5
45
46
48
46
43
40
38
36.5
32
42
58
71
75
76
74
67
60
56
47
42
0
390
600
930
980
870
700
620
380
240
110
740
955
1010
1060
1050
950
705
450
270
180
38
28
30
32
33
34
34
33.5
33
32
31
28
33
38
40
43
44
42
40.5
37
36
34
30
38
54
65
72
72.5
70
63
56
50
44.5
39
0
180
360
600
630
560
450
320
200
130
80
34
41
44
46
47
46.5
43
41
37
35
31.5
42
58
69.5
75
76
74
67.5
59
53.5
46
41.5
0
370
690
950
990
870
780
650
460
260
140
Table 3
Accumulated productivity for some experiments days.
Date
12-6-2012
17-7-2012
5-8-2012
9-8-2012
2-9-2012
4-9-2012
6-9-2012
8-9-2012
12-9-2012
13-9-2012
15-9-2012
16-9-2012
18-9-2012
24-9-2012
Daily
productivity
rise (%)
Conventional
still
Stepped
still
Top external
Bottom
external
Internal and
top external
Internal and
bottom external
Internal and
external (top and bottom)
2800
3450
3630
3720
3500
3550
3600
3500
3400
3350
3450
3350
3400
3100
4350
5840
6000
6350
6500
5900
6830
6600
7300
7400
7240
7150
8100
7840
55
74
75
57
108
108
125
124
113
113
98
98
91
90
Ambient temperature
Solar radiation
90
1000
800
70
600
60
50
400
Solar radiation, W /m 2
Temperature, oC
80
9000
Conventional still
Stepped still with internal
8000
880
7000
6000
4/9/2012
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
40
200
30
0
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Time,h
20
0
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Fig. 5. The accumulative variation of fresh water for conventional solar still and
stepped solar still with internal and top external reectors.
Time, h
Fig. 3. Comparative analysis of conventional solar still and stepped solar still with
internal and top external reectors.
4. Cost evaluation
1200
4/9/2012
1000
Productivity,ml/m 2 .h
(top and bottom) reectors is 125% higher than that of conventional still.
800
600
400
200
Conventional still
stepped still with internal
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19 20
Time,h
Fig. 4. The variation of fresh water productivity for conventional solar still and
stepped solar still with internal and top external reectors.
The total xed cost of conventional still is about F = 103$. To obtain the average value of the cost of distillate output, it is important
to assume that V is the variable cost and C is the total cost, where
C = F + V. Assume variable cost V equals 0.3 F per year, as reported
in [20], then C = 103 + 0.3 103 10 = 412$. Where the minimum
average daily productivity can be estimated from the analysis of
different experimental data and it is taken as 2.5 l/day. To determine the annual cost for 1 l assuming that the still operates
340 days in the year, where the sun rise along the year in Egypt.
The expected still life time is 10 years. The total productivity
during the still life time = 2.5 10 340 = 8500 l. Then the cost
of one liter from conventional still = 412/8500 = 0.049$.
4.2. Cost estimation for modied stepped solar still
the stepped still. The results indicated that, the glass temperature
and basin water temperature of modied stepped solar still with
internal and external (top and bottom) reectors are higher than
that of conventional still by about 010 C and 09 C, respectively.
Where top and bottom reectors reect a large amount of the radiation onto the stepped solar still. Thus increase the evaporation
and condensation rates.
It can be noticed from Table 3 that daily productivity reaches
approximately 3600 and 8100 ml/m2 day for conventional still
and stepped solar still internal and external (top and bottom)
mirrors, respectively. In this case the increase in distillate
production for stepped solar still with internal and external
The total xed cost of modied stepped solar still with internal
and external (top and bottom) mirrors is about F = 160$. Then
C = 160 + 0.3 160 10 = 640$. Assume the minimum average
daily productivity 6 l/day, also assumed still operates 340 days in
the year. The total productivity during the still life time = 6
10 340 = 20,400 l. Then the cost of one liter from conventional
still = 640/15,300 = 0.031$.
5. Conclusions
We performed outdoor experiments of a stepped solar still with
internal and external (top and bottom) reectors. The results show
881
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ID
764145
Title
Enhancing the stepped solar still performance using internal and external reflectors
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