Abstract
It seems like every hour, there is a greater need for fresh water. The demand for fresh water is rapidly growing as a consequence of the expanding population and the increased urbanization of the world's population. The tubular solar still offers much larger evaporative and condensing surface areas than normal single slope solar still. The scope of this study is to improve the performance of tubular solar still by employing eggshells as the bed material, which has good heat absorption properties. Results showed that the influence of eggshell powder as energy storage material in the basin improved the average water temperature by 10.8, 10.9, and 8.73% for the water thickness of 10, 15, and 20 mm respectively. The usage of eggshells as an energy store in the basin results in an increase of about 60.77 % potable water produced. The maximum observed distillate output from the solar still is 0.6 kg for solar stills with eggshell powder as energy storage material and 0.34 kg for solar stills without eggshell powder in the absorber of TSS at peak solar radiation and at the lowest water thickness of 10 mm. The hourly potable water generated from TSS using eggshell as an energy storage material increased by roughly 47% compared to the flat absorber without eggshell powder. TSS with eggshell powder as energy storage has a daily energy efficiency of 79.19, 75.49, and 44.18 % for water thicknesses of 10, 15, and 20 mm in the basin. Tubular solar still using eggshell as energy storage material and tubular solar still without any material produced 3.62 kg and 1.42 kg average yields at a water thickness of 10 mm. Water thickness of 10, 15, and 20 mm has performance improvement ratios of 2.54, 2.51, and 2.18 respectively.
Correction to: Energy and exergy efficiency analysis of solar still incorporated with copper plate and phosphate pellets as energy storage material
