Exergo-Environmental and Sustainability Assessment of a Solar Still with Thermal Energy Storage Materials

The existing investigation focuses on boosting the freshwater yield of square pyramid solar still (PSS), using thermal energy storage materials (TESMs), namely, jute (J) and small size gravel (Chips). Experiments were conducted for four cases i.e., PSS only, PSS + J, PSS + Chips, PSS + J + Chips, at Greater Noida (28°28′N, 77°30′E), India, in the month of October 2023. The performance of the PSS was evaluated through analyses of productivity, exergy, environmental impact, and sustainability. In comparison to PSS, an improvement of about 9.72%, 14.23% and 32.26% in daily yield was observed for PSS + J, PSS + Chips, PSS + Chips + J, respectively. Notably, PSS + Chips + J mitigates maximum amount of CO2 during the life cycle period of 15 years (11.39 ton). The PSS + Chips + J has gained the maximum carbon credit of Rs 9571.48, while it is Rs 7125.54, 7962.98 and 8160.40 for PSS, PSS + J and PSS + Chips, respectively. Additionally, the different sustainability parameters include improvement potential (IP) and sustainability index (SI) for the four investigated cases spans across 85.51–88.87 kWh, 1.028–1.038, respectively.