Optimal configurations of hemispherical solar distillers using the higher conductivity extended hollow cylindrical fins filled with latent heat storage materials. (June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Attia, Mohammed El Hadi; Kabeel, A.E.; Abdo, Ahmed; Abdelgaied, Mohamed; Bellila, Abdelkader; Abdullah, A.S.
• Is Part Of: Journal of energy storage. Volume 50(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Subjects: Hemispherical solar distiller -- Extended hollow cylindrical fins -- PCM -- Performance improvement; Energy storage -- Periodicals; Energy storage -- Research -- Periodicals; 621.3126
• DOI: 10.1016/j.est.2022.104706
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-152X

Abstract

Abstract: The present study aims to improve the cumulative productivity of the hemispherical solar distillers by continuous distillation along the night and day with higher rates by designing and constructing innovative configurations. These innovative configurations were achieved by incorporating the higher thermal conductivity extended hollow cylindrical fins filled with the phase change materials (EHCF-PCM) in the basin of hemispherical solar distillers. To obtain the optimal configuration of EHCF-PCM that achieves the highest accumulative productivity, four different distances between the EHCF-PCM (0.0, 2, 3, and 4 cm) were studied. To investigate this idea, three configurations of hemispherical distillers were constructed, tested, and compared under the same Algerian climatic conditions. The first configuration is a conventional hemispherical solar distiller (CHSD) which represents the reference distiller, the second configuration is a hemispherical solar distiller with extended hollow cylindrical fins (HSD-EHCF), and the third configuration is a hemispherical solar distiller with extended hollow cylindrical fins filled with phase change materials (HSD-EHCF-PCM). The experimentation tests of the three distillers were conducted on four scenarios to test the four proposed distances between the EHCF-PCM, to obtain the best configuration that achieves the highest performance. The results showed that the utilization of the EHCF-PCM with zero gap distance represents the optimal configuration that achieves the highest performance of the hemispherical solar distillers. The utilization of the EHCF-PCM with zero gap distance (HSD-EHCF-PCM) gives accumulative productivity of 8.75 L/m 2 /day with an improvement of 80.4% compared to CHSD. Also, the utilization of EHCF-PCM with zero gap distance improved the daily efficiency from 39.6% for the CHSD to 71% for HSD-EHCF-PCM. Highlights: Extended hollow cylindrical fins with PCM hve a great effect on distillate yield. Optimal configuration of extended hollow cylindrical fins with PCM (EHCF-PCM) is studied. Impact of EHCF-PCM on hemispherical solar distiller performance was studied. Use of EHCF-PCM improved the distillate yield of hemispherical distiller by 80.4%. Use of EHCF-PCM improved the thermal efficiency of hemispherical distiller to 70.1%.