Experimental Study of a Single Slope Solar Distiller: Productivity Improvement by Sensible Heat Storage Materials

This work was focused into the exploitation and the application of solar thermal energy for the desalination of saltwater or wastewater. It was an experimental study of three single-slope solar stills designed and manufactured at ISSAT Kairouan in the center of Tunisia. The purpose of this study was to improve the freshwater productivity of the systems presented by implementing some modifications and improvements. In fact, the first distiller was conventional; the other two systems are equipped with external reflectors to concentrate the captured solar radiation as well as internal mirrors on the internal faces of the distillers. The particularity of this study was the use of some local materials available free of charge (from the Kairouan region) to store sensible heat during the hot period of the day and to diffuse this energy in the cold period of the day, in order to maximize fresh water production. The obtained results was promising: the daily production of pure water increased by 20% and it reached 5.8 L/m2 day.