article · Ain Shams Engineering Journal
Solar distillers offer a viable way to produce freshwater for remote communities and small households, but their overall yield remains modest. This study evaluates modifications to rotating wick solar stills to enhance daily water output. Testing compared an L-shaped belt path against an LC-shaped belt path, while also examining black jute versus cotton wicks, rotation direction, cycle intervals, and the addition of graphene quantum dots nanofluid. The findings reveal that black jute outperformed cotton in collecting distillate. An LC-shaped belt moving counterclockwise at 0.1 revolutions per minute delivered the highest output, boosting freshwater production by approximately 17 percent compared to the L-shaped setup. Incorporating graphene quantum dots nanofluid further lifted daily yield by 19 percent over the baseline configuration. Freshwater costs were calculated at 0.018 dollars per litre with nanofluid and 0.021 dollars per litre without.
Freshwater scarcity severely affects remote areas and small households where large-scale water infrastructure is impractical. Solar stills offer an off-grid, low-energy solution, but their practical adoption is often constrained by low daily output. Demonstrating how design adjustments, suitable wick materials, and nanofluids enhance distillation efficiency helps make decentralised solar desalination more viable and affordable for underserved communities.
This work represents applied experimental research targeting small households and remote communities requiring decentralised water purification. By identifying cost-effective wick materials and geometry improvements, the findings could inform manufacturers designing compact off-grid solar stills. The reported costs of 0.018 to 0.021 dollars per litre provide baseline economic data, though practical adoption will depend on scaling nanofluid integration and establishing durable hardware for field use.
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The problem of freshwater shortage is increasing a day after day. Solar distillers are suitable devices to overcome this problem for remote areas and small families. However, these devices suffer from their low productivities. Here, two different modified designs for the distillers of rotating wick types were tested. One distiller contained a rotating wick belt with a path of “L” character shape (l-RWSS), and the other with a path of “LC” shape (LC-RWSS). In addition, the wick type was investigated for black jute and cotton wicks. Moreover, the effect of belt-rotation direction (clockwise and counterclockwise) on the still performance has been studied. The period of wick belt rotation was tested (ON = 5 min and OFF = zero, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 min). Also, the impact of using graphene quantum dots nanofluid on the distiller performance was investigated. Experimental results obtained that the jute wick obtained more distillate than the cotton cloth. Furthermore, the productivity of LC-RWSS with counterclockwise movement of wick belt was always larger than that with clockwise direction under all different OFF times. Also, the LC-RWSS (jute wick-counterclockwise-0.1 rpm) increased the freshwater productivity by about 17 % over l-RWSS. Besides, the LC-RWSS provided higher accumulated daily productivity than l-RWSS by 19 % and 17 % with and without nanofluid, respectively. Also, the cost of freshwater obtained is 0.018 and 0.021 $/L for LC-RWSS with and without nanofluids, respectively.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.asej.2023.102248
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