Stepped Solar Stills’ Development and Improvement for Seawater Desalination

Abstract

Nowadays freshwater needs were covered by fossil fuel-based desalination systems in many areas over the world. However, fossil fuels' excessive burning results in rapid depletion and pollution of the local environment as well as threat to life sustainability. Therefore, through the last few decades the scientific community focused on the systems relying on solar energy in seawater desalination as a clean alternative.Stepped solar stills, which convert solar energy to the required heat for producing freshwater in seawater desalination, are paid much attention. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of stepped solar stills' development.Performance enhancement techniques, desalinated water production, efficiency and maximum theatrical production are discussed. This work aims to keep researchers and concerned scientific community abreast of stepped solar stills' improvements. Such stills of low construction and running costs can meet the freshwater daily needs for small communities in coastal areas, islands and rural areas especially in Mideast. In conclusion, this review clarified that the stepped type solar stills still need multiple improvements to enhance their production efficiency and freshwater quantity. Further attention should be paid to the design of modified stills to attain better and efficient solar heat absorption as well as evaporation of seawater.

Active solar still with solar concentrating systems, Review

“…Solar stills are one of the simplest and cheapest methods for desalinating seawater [10]. The main issue with solar stills is their low freshwater productivity, which is limited to a range between 2.5 and 5 L m −2 day −1 [32].…”

“…1. The scientific community has focused on solar powered saltwater desalination devices as a clean alternative throughout the last few decades [10]. Solar stills, transform solar energy into the heat necessary to generate freshwater by evaporating the seawater and condensing the vapor on a glass cover [11].…”

3E enhancement of freshwater productivity of solar still with heater, vibration, and cover cooling

“…Integrating both techniques in the stepped solar still, the still efficiency improved by 112%. Moreover, using stepped solar desalination technology becomes an important solution for potable water shortage problems in hot arid areas such as Middle East, while such technology is inexpensive with low maintenance costs and less environmental impact compared with reverse osmosis technology (RO) (Shmroukh and Ookawara 2021 ). Every experimental and numerical investigation in the subject of solar water desalination includes an economic analysis.…”