review · Results in Engineering
Solar still systems provide water distillation, and incorporating nano-enhanced phase change materials into these systems offers an effective method for thermal storage to increase overall operational efficiency. This review details heat transfer enhancement strategies, including fins, porous carriers, microencapsulated materials, and configuration adjustments. It covers the performance of various nanoparticles added to phase change materials, such as silver, copper oxide, aluminium oxide, graphene oxide, graphene, and carbon nanotubes. These enhanced thermal storage media are assessed across several solar still designs, encompassing conventional, pyramid, tubular, and tray formats. Furthermore, the review outlines efforts to tackle persistent operational obstacles, such as the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials, limited water output, thermal performance constraints, and broader economic and environmental considerations, alongside a scientometric overview of literature trends, contributors, and funding in the domain.
Solar stills offer a sustainable approach to water purification, but their output is frequently restricted by poor heat retention and low thermal conductivity. Using phase change materials enriched with nanoparticles improves thermal storage and heat transfer across various still designs. Clarifying these material behaviours and design options is crucial for developing more productive, cost-effective solar desalination systems.
The covered technology applies to solar water desalination equipment for decentralised clean water production. Potential users include manufacturers and developers of solar thermal purification devices. Given that the abstract describes a review synthesising laboratory techniques, configuration variations, and unresolved economic and thermal limitations, this field remains at the early-stage to applied research phase, with further development required before broad commercial deployment.
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In recent years, solar stills systems have garnered a lot of interest and have been thoroughly researched. It is currently thought that using Nano-enhanced phase change materials (NE-PCMs) as a solar still's thermal-storage medium is an efficient way to raise the still's efficiency. This paper aims to present an extensive overview of the latest developments in PCMs systems for solar stills that are enhanced by nanoparticles. Solar stills systems use a variety of heat transfer augmentation techniques, such as fins, porous carriers, microencapsulated PCMs, NE-PCMs, and system configuration modifications to enhance their heat conductivity. Regarding this, a thorough study has been covered comprising the effect of some important nanoparticles improved PCM such as Ag, CuO, Al2O3, GO, graphene, carbon-Nano tube on solar stills distillation systems. A summary of the uses of NE-PCMs in various solar still configurations, including conventional, pyramid, tubular, and tray solar stills, is provided. This paper also reviews all the attempts to address the limitations, which include the low thermal conductivity of PCMs, the water production and thermal efficiency of solar stills, as well as economic and environmental difficulties. Furthermore, a scientometric analysis of the literature available in the area of utilizing PCMs in solar still distillation is carried out to analyze the main journals, authors, funding, countries, and keywords in the research area.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2024.102088
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