Productivity enhancement of traditional solar still by using sandbags of El Oued, Algeria

Abstract

This manuscript aims to study the experimental analysis of solar still with sandbags as energy storage materials. To achieve this idea, 25 bags filled with El Oued sand was fixed inside a square basin vertically and distributed regularly, this is called the modified solar still with sandbags (MSS-SB). The sand used in this study is very effective than many store mediums considered within many previous works such as glass balls, sponges, phosphate, yellow sand, black sand, and black gravel. This fact is due to its components characterized by high thermal conductivity. By using the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence, it has been confirmed that the chemical properties of El Oued sand are composed mainly by 97.6% quartz (SiO 2) and 0.56% calcite (CaCO 3) and very low concentrations of some other oxides. To obtain the influences of the sandbags utilized in this study, the performance of MSS-SB and traditional solar still (TSS) was tested at the same climatic conditions of the southeast of Algeria throughout 24 hours. Experimental results revealed that the overall cumulative distillate yield of TSS reached 3.76 L/m 2 /d, while for utilization the sandbags for MSS-SB increase the cumulative distillate yield to 5.06 L/m 2 /d, representing 34.57% Abbreviations: MSS-SB, modified solar still with sandbags; TSS, traditional solar still. improvement in cumulative distillate yield. Also, the daily efficiency of TSS 33.1%, while for utilization the sandbags for MSS-SB increases the daily efficiency to 44.63%, representing 34.83% improvement in daily efficiency. K E Y W O R D S cotton bags, El Oued sands, energy storage, productivity, quartz (SiO 2), solar energy 1 | INTRODUCTION The demand for distilled water increases every day due to the increase in the world's population and its need for drinking water. Also, the use of this distilled water in all industrial developments, especially medical, became widespread. Many researchers are working on technologies to improve the yield of drinking water. The use of solar energy is the most common technology. 1-5 The use of single slope distillate is the traditional method of obtaining drinking water by using solar energy to heat the sink water, causing it to vaporize and then condense it through the glass cover. 6-10 Several previous studies have been conducted, all of which aim to improve the performance of solar stills by making adjustments to the design of stills, 11-15 use the nanofluids, 16 use the fins, 17-19 use the PCM, 20-23 and use the hybrid storage materials. 24-26 Energy efficiency was analyzed from several systems that used absorbent materials such as glass balls, black gravel, dyes, rubber, wicks, sand, and saw dust, as thermal storage materials. In previous studies, Samuel et al 27 experimentally used the encapsulation technique in one solar slope still to store thermal energy. The researchers concluded that this technology improved the yield by 2.5 times the traditional solar still (TSS). Badran 28 found that adding spong...

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