article · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Access to safe drinking water is a critical global challenge intensified by population growth and industrial expansion. Solar desalination offers a sustainable solution, with vertical distillers attracting attention due to their elevated rates of evaporation, condensation, and freshwater output compared to conventional systems. An experimental evaluation explored the effect of varying basin water depths (5, 8, 11, and 14 centimetres) alongside rotating discs operating at 1.5 revolutions per minute. The integration of moving discs consistently enhanced distiller productivity, with optimal performance occurring at a shallow depth of 5 centimetres. Modified single-stage and double-stage vertical distillers delivered efficiency rates of 48.4 percent and 77.2 percent, raising water yields by 350 percent and 617.4 percent over conventional tilted distillers. Both modified designs significantly decreased the unit cost of purified water.
Clean water scarcity is a growing global crisis driven by agricultural and industrial demands. Solar desalination provides an accessible method to purify water, but traditional units suffer from low productivity. By substantially boosting daily yields and lowering production costs through optimised water depths and rotating discs, this approach presents a viable pathway toward more affordable, decentralised drinking water generation.
This work demonstrates an applied and experimentally tested hardware design that reduces purified water costs to under two cents per litre. The system could be utilised by developers of decentralised water treatment units, off-grid communities, and commercial solar still manufacturers. As the findings reflect experimental performance data, transition to market would require pilot-scale manufacturing, durability assessments, and real-world field trials.
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The ability to get clean water is the most urgent birthright for human beings. The scarcity of safe drinking water is a major challenge in both developed and developing countries. Due to overpopulation, industrial revolution advancements, and agricultural evolution, this challenge has become crucially influential. Several studies on solar desalination are being conducted to create novel models that will improve the efficiency and production of these units. Because of their higher evaporation, condensing, exposure, and output rates than traditional stills, vertical distillers have lately piqued the interest of numerous academics. In this study, the scholars investigated the impact of varying water depth at the best rotating speed of discs from their earlier work (1.5 rpm) on the thermal productivity of vertical distillers. Numerous water depths (5, 8, 11, and 14 cm) were studied at 1.5 rpm to specify the best depth. The results indicated that utilizing moving discs enhanced the distillers' productivity. Besides, the peak distiller performance was obtained at 1.5 rpm and 5 cm. Furthermore, the yield of the modified single-stage vertical distiller (MSSVD) and modified double-stage vertical distiller (MDSVD) was increased by 350 and 617.4%, respectively, over the conventional tilted distiller (CTD) productivity of 2.3 L/m<sup>2</sup> day. MSSVD and MDSVD had the highest efficacy rates of 48.4 and 77.2%. Lastly, for CTD, CVD, MSSVD, and MDSVD, the pure water cost was 0.025, 0.0477, 0.0180, and 0.0193 $/L, respectively.
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DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-22220-8
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