Desalination 414 (2017) 46–50

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Desalination

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

Effect of phase change material on concentric circular tubular solar

still-Integration meets enhancement
T. Arunkumar a,⁎, A.E. Kabeel b
a
Institute for Energy Studies, CEG, Anna University, Chennai 600025, Tamilnadu, India
b
Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering Tanta University, Egypt

H I G H L I G H T S

• The present work elucidates the integration of PCM with CCTSS

• The PCM is loaded in the specially designed portion in the tubular solar still
• The results showed that the productivity of CPC-CCTSS with and without PCM were 5779 ml/m2/day and 5330 ml/m2/day

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC)-concentric circular tubular solar still (CCTSS) with phase
Received 26 December 2016 change material (PCM) is presented. The experiment is conducted with and without PCM in the CCTSS. The PCM
Received in revised form 19 March 2017 is loaded (450 g of paraffin wax/tube) in the specially designed circular trough of the tubular solar still. The water
Accepted 21 March 2017
temperature (Tw), air temperature (Tair), outer cover temperature (Toc) and fresh water production are measured
Available online xxxx
in frequent intervals of time. The results showed that the fresh water production of CPC-CCTSS with and without
Keywords:
PCM integration were 5779 ml/m2/day and 5330 ml/m2/day. Therefore, the PCM enhanced the fresh water pro-
Compound parabolic concentrator ductivity by 8%.
Desalination © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Phase change material

1. Introduction
Thermal energy storage (TES) is an environmentally friendly meth-
odology that helps to decrease the gap between the energy supply
and demand. Latent heat storage stores the heat in the phase change
material (PCM). Compared with sensible heat storage, latent heat stor-
age density is much higher. The research about PCM is popular because
of this [1]. Al-Hamadani and Shukla [2] evaluated a solar still integrated
with Lauric acid and Myristic acid as PCMs. The results showed that the
Lauric acid integrated solar still enhanced the solar still productivity by
36%. El-Sebaii et al. [3] studied a single slope solar still with stearic acid
as a PCM. The stearic acid was put in the basin liner with thickness of
0.2 cm. They concluded that distillate productivity 9.005 kg/m2/day
and daily efficiency 85.3% were obtained. The productivity equals
4.998 kg/m2/day when used still without PCM.
Naim and Kawi [4] studied the paraffin wax with sodium chloride
solution in the solar still. About 70 ml of aqueous sodium chloride solu-
tion with paraffin was placed beneath the solar still at 0.5 cm thickness.
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: arunkumar@drngpit.ac.in (T. Arunkumar).
The results showed that PCM increases the productivity of the solar still
significantly. Radhwan [5] conducted an experimental work in a
stepped solar still with paraffin wax that acts as a PCM. The results
showed that the stepped solar still with PCM has an efficiency of 57%
and the productivity is 4.6 l/m2/day.
A modified solar still using hot air injection and PCM has been exper-
imentally studied by Kabeel et al. [6]. 17.5 g of paraffin wax was used in
the basin. The results showed that the PCM integrated hot air injection
modified solar still productivity is 9.36 l/m2/day versus 4.5 l/m2/day
for convention solar still. Kabeel and Abdelgaied [7] studied solar still
with paraffin wax (PCM) 17.5 g of paraffin wax was used in this study.
The daily fresh water productivity was measured for solar stills with
PCM as 7.54 l/m2/day, and without PCM as 4.51 l/m2/day. The PCM en-
hanced the overall productivity by 60%. Dashtban and Tabrizi [8] con-
ducted an experiment in a weir type cascade solar still with PCM. 18 g
of paraffin wax was used beneath the solar still to store the thermal en-
ergy. The results showed that the PCM enhanced the productivity by
31%. Chaichan and Kazem [9] studied a solar distiller using a concentrat-
ing solar water heater and PCM. The paraffin wax was selected as a PCM
and it was placed beneath the basin liner. The results showed that prop-
er tracking with a PCM in the distiller improved the system productivity
by 307%.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2017.03.035
0011-9164/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 T. Arunkumar, A.E. Kabeel / Desalination 414 (2017) 46–50
Fig. 1. Solar radiation measuring instruments.
Fig. 2. Circular water storage trough with PCM.
Rajasekar and Easwaramoorthy [10] conducted experiments on a
solar still integrated with nano-composite PCM. A mixture of Al2O3
and paraffin wax was used. The results showed that for Al2O3 with
Fig. 3. View of CCTSS with PCM portion.
47
paraffin wax mixture (nano-composites), the system efficiency was
45%, paraffin wax alone was 40% and solar still without thermal storage
was 38%. Sathyamurthy et al. [11] studied a triangular solar still with
paraffin wax as a PCM. From the experimental results, the paraffin
wax enhanced the productivity by 35% as compared with a conventional
solar still. Also, the productivity of with and without PCM in the triangu-
lar solar stills was 5.5 l/m2/day and 3.5 l/m2/day, respectively.
Concentrator powered solar distillation systems play a significant
role in producing de-salted water. Presently many researchers are in-
volved in these activities to accumulate high quality de-salted water
through concentrator-assisted systems [12–16].
In this work a phase change material (PCM) was loaded between the
tubular absorbers. Many researchers have worked in the field of desali-
nation with PCMs in conventional solar stills. However, no research ac-
tivities on tubular solar stills with PCMs were located. The PCM has been
filled inside the specially designed circular portion of five tubular arrays
with 450 g each. This configuration was tested and useful conclusions
are drawn here.
2. Material and methods
Fig. 1 shows the photographic view of solar radiation measuring in-
struments. A 2 m CCTSS was designed and fabricated. The outer and the
inner circular tubes (concentric) are put with a 5 mm gap for the
flowing water in order to cool the outer surface for the inner tube. Par-
affin wax (melting point 58–60 °C, latent heat 226 kJ/kg, density
818 kg/m 3 , thermal conductivity 0.24 W/m°C and specific heat
2.95 kJ/kg°C) is used as the PCM in this research work. Here, the circular
shaped trough is used to store the saline water. The circular shaped saline
water storage trough is made up of copper. Two circular shaped troughs
are joined with a gap of 5 mm for loading the PCM, which is shown in
Fig. 2. The PCM is loaded in a specially designed portion of the absorber
which is located at the bottom of the circular water storage trough.
450 g of paraffin wax was filled between two circular shaped troughs.
The absorbers for the system are modified to introduce the storage effect
with the help of the PCM. A circular strip was fabricated and two small
pieces from the same material were welded in the two faces (front and
back sides). The optimum level of saline water is filled inside the trough
using a burette and blocked the all the sides without any air gap.
The CCTSS is carefully placed over the focal point of the CPC for experi-
mentation. The thermocouples are adjusted and fixed at the appropriate
places to measure the temperature of the CPC-CCTSS. The climatic
48 T. Arunkumar, A.E. Kabeel / Desalination 414 (2017) 46–50

Fig. 4. Pictorial view of CPC-CCTSS.

parameters like solar radiation and wind conditions are measured.
Wind is one of the important parameter to enhance the natural circula-
tion inside the solar still. The productivity increases with increase of
wind velocity. The wind reduces the top glass temperature to certain
level. So the temperature difference between the glass and water in
the basin temperatures are increased causes increase in distillate pro-
ductivity [17]. The distillate collector is used to collect the output from
the CCTSS. Figs. 3–4 show the experimental setup of CPC-CCTSS and
an individual segment of CCTSS [18].
3. Economic analysis
The cost estimation for various components of the different incarna-
tions of the CCTSS is given in Table 1. The total cost of the fabricated CPC-
CCTSS without the water cooling apparatus was approximately $565.2.
With an output of 5.8 l/m2/day, a life of 15 years, an equivalent of 80%
of sunny days, and an interest rate of 6%, this is approximately $0.033/l
water.
variation of the basin water, ambient air and outer glass cover temper-
atures with the time for the CPC-CCTSS with and without PCM. The
CCTSS measured peak water temperature (Tw) air temperature (Tair)
and outer cover temperature (Toc) without PCM are 94 °C, 68 °C, and
50 °C. Similarly CCTSS with PCM peak x temperature of the water (Tw)
air temperature (Tair) and outer glass cover temperature (Toc) equal
92 °C, 70 °C and 52 °C. The temperature profile concludes that the de-
crease in 2 °C in the water temperature of CCTSS with PCM is due to en-
ergy stored by the PCM. The rise in air temperature is due to inclusion of
modified trough in the tubular cover to fill the PCM. The results are that
the productivity (see Fig. 7) of the CPC-CCTSS and CPC-CCTSS with PCM
were found as 5330 ml/m2/day and 5779 ml/m2/day. The PCM in the
CCTSS enhances the productivity by 8%. The freshwater productivity of
CCTSS without PCM drops to zero at 17:30 h. But PCM integrated
CCTSS retains the fresh water production up to 19:00 h. The phase
change from liquid to solid is enable when the system components
are in low sunshine hours. This change in phase releases the absorbed
energy to surroundings. The saline water associated with the basin

4. Results and discussion

The present work describes the effect of PCM in the CCTSS. Here, the
PCM is used as a filler material between specially designed portions of
CCTSS. The present work is carried out in the year of 2012 at Sri Rama-
krishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore-India
climatic conditions. Fig. 5 shows variation of solar insolation with re-
spect to time of day. This experiment is done with single distiller unit
subjected to similar climatic conditions Fig. 6(a–b) illustrate the

Table 1
Cost estimation for the components of the solar still.

Component Cost ($)

CPCs (2 m × 1 m) 278.67
Borosilicate glass tubes (10 pieces × 2 m) 116.11
Circular basin (5 × 2 m) 13.40
Black paint and primers 8.93
Water tank 15.18
CCTSS total cost 125.05
Phase change material 7.86
Total cost 565.2
Fig. 5. Solar radiation with respect to time.

Fig. 7. Fresh water production of CPC-CCTSS with and without PCM.
absorbed the energy from the PCM due to specific heat energy of water
is high. It is concluded that the paraffin wax seems to be one of the
promising candidates in the CCTSS.
Table 2
Integration of PCM with solar distillers.
S.·no. Author (s)
1 Al-Hamadini and Shukla [2]
2 El-Sebaii et al. [3]
3 Naim and Kawi [4] Egypt.
4 Radhwan [5]
5 Kabeel et al. [6]
6 Kabeel and Abdelgaied [7]
7 Dashtban and Tabrizi [8]
8 Chaichan & Kazem [9]
9 Sathyamoorthy et al. [11]
10 Arunkumar et al.
T. Arunkumar, A.E. Kabeel / Desalination 414 (2017) 46–50
Fig. 6. (a) CPC-CCTSS without PCM, (b) CPC-CCTSS with PCM.
Design
Single slope solar still
Single slope solar still
Single slope solar still
Stepped solar still
Single slope solar still
Single slope solar still
Stepped solar still
Concentrator assisted
solar distiller
Pyramid solar still
Present work
49
5. Comparison of present results with previous works
5.1. Integration of PCM with distillers
Many researchers have worked in the field of desalination with
PCMs in conventional solar stills [2–11]. The PCM has been placed at
the bottom of the basin liner. However, no research activities on tubular
solar stills with PCMs were located (see Table 2). In this work a PCM was
loaded between the tubular covers. Based on the comparison with avail-
able results, the PCM enhanced the overall system performance.
5.2. Integration of concentrator collectors
Srithar et al. [19] analyzed the parabolic dish concentrator with tri-
ple basin solar still in 2016 and found the maximum productivity to
be 16.94 kg/m2/day. Rajaseenivasn et al. [20] studied solar still with a
flat plate collector (FPC). The results were that the collected productiv-
ity is 5.82 kg/m2/day. Arunkumar et al. [21] investigated the concentra-
tor with using solar desalination system. According to the results, the
productivity of the distiller is 4460 ml/day. Feilizadeh et al. [22] worked
on a solar collector with a multistage active solar still. The outcome pro-
ductivity 11.56 kg/m2/day was achieved with the assistance of a solar
collector. A solar dish concentrator for desalinating water was studied
by Prado et al. [23]. The outcome of the work was that the collected
fresh water productivity is 4.95 kg/m2/day. Zaki et al. [24] studied the
trough type solar concentrator assisted distillation system. The result
PCM used Observations
Lauric acid The maximum yield of 2.63 l/m2/day was achieved.
Stearic acid The productivity increases with increasing mass of the PCM.
Sodium chloride The maximum productivity of 4.536 l/m2/day was achieved.
solution (70 ml)
Paraffin wax The efficiency of 57% and the productivity of 4.6 l/m2/day were observed.
Paraffin wax Modified solar still enhanced the productivity as compared with
conventional solar still.
Paraffin wax The PCM enhanced the productivity by 67%.
Paraffin wax PCM enhanced the productivity by 31%.
Paraffin wax The paraffin wax enhanced the productivity by 308%.
Paraffin wax The solar still with and without latent heat thermal energy storage
system were found to be 5.5 l/m2/day and 3.5 L/m2 day.
Paraffin wax The PCM enhanced the system productivity by 8%.
50 T. Arunkumar, A.E. Kabeel / Desalination 414 (2017) 46–50
Table 3
Integration of concentrator collectors with solar distillers.
S.·no Author (s) Design
1 Srithar et al. [19] Parabolic dish concentrator with triple basin solar still
2 Rajaseenivasan et al. [20] Solar still with FPC
3 Arunkumar et al. [21] Concentrator coupled solar still
4 Feilizadeh et al. [22] Solar collector with multi-stage active solar still
5 Prado et al. [23] Solar dish type concentrator
6 Zaki et al. [24] Trough type concentrator
7 Denkenberger and Pearce [25] CPC
8 Arunkumar et al. Present work
was that the productivity of the distiller was enhanced by 22% due to the
concentrator's effect. Denkenberger and Pearce modeled a CPC coupled
with a double slope solar still [25]. Using reflector height 2.5 times the
still width, the outcome per day roughly triples and about10% cost in-
crease and small maintenance (weekly tilts). Based on the comparison
with related results, solar stills have been equipped with CCC, CPC,
FPC and dish type reflectors. It is concluded that the system integration
enhanced the fresh water productivity. The comparison of present re-
sults with other available system integration are shown in Table 3.
6. Conclusion
The present work elucidates the integration of PCM with CCTSS. The
absorber of CCTSS modified to accommodate the PCM between two
layers. The PCM is loaded (450 g of paraffin wax/tube) in the specially
designed circular trough of the CCTSS. The results were that the CPC-
CCTSS and CPC-CCTSS with PCM produced 5330 ml/m2/day and
5779 ml/m2/day of distilled water. The PCM in the CCTSS enhances
the productivity by 8% [26].
Acknowledgement
This study has received funding from Ministry of New and Renew-
able Energy (MNRE), Govt. of India. Ref.No. NREF/TU/2010/001 dated
on 14.04.2010.
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Glossary
CPC: compound parabolic concentrator
CCTSS: concentric circular tubular solar still
PCM: phase change material