Classification, Analysis

Prof. Mohamed A. Antar

 Solar Irradiation

Heat lost by
Convection + Radiation
Transmitted solar energy
Trapped radiation,convection &
and evaporation heat

Desalinated water
Condensing surface Sea water

Heat lost through the basin

 The first man-made large scale water
desalination system, which dates back to the
nineteenth century.
A solar still is made of an air-tight insulated
basin that is covered with a tilted glass
sheet.
 Solar radiation passes through the
transparent glass or plastic cover and is
absorbed by salty (or brackish) water in the
basin.
Water is then heated causing evaporation.
The water vapor condenses at the inner
side of the glazing.
liquid flows by gravity into a trough where it
is collected.
 Basins are painted black to increase solar
absorption.
Long wavelength radiation cannot pass from
the solar still through the glazing.
(Greenhouse)
It needs flushing to prevent salt
precipitation.
Flushing frequency depends on the quality
of feed water.
 Active Passive
Active: an external thermal energy source is
added to the unit to aid heat addition .
Passive : use only the solar energy falling into
the unit
 Geometry
Single slope
Double slope

vertical solar still

conical solar still

inverted absorber solar still

multiple effect horizontal

vertical solar stills

 Maximum, 1.5 L/day
Glass or
Plastic cover

Seawater container
Distilled
water outlet

http://www.thewatercone.com/Index.html

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNiPXfW605w
 Glass or
Plastic cover

Seawater container
Distilled
water outlet
 el
Pan
V
la rP
So
Seawater-in
Battery

Vaccuum pump

Heat Transfer Fluid

r
Heat Exchanger e cto
oll
la rC
So

Desalinated Brine
Water
Multi-stage solar still (Juran et al)
 Reflecting Surface

Condenser

Insulation Distillate
seawater
 sponge cubes
wicks
charcoal (15% increase)
violet dye in the water (27% increase)
Insulated foam

Black Polythene
Glass cover
Jute cloth

Water inlet
Excess water outlet

Distilled water outlet

 concentrated panel
waste thermal energy
conventional boiler
Heated oil through a solar concentrator
Glass balls at the bottom for energy storage
Rotating shaft to break the boundary layer at water surface to improve convection
and vaporization
 Irradiation, G
qga
Convection + Radiation

b (1-ag-t) G
(1-aw) tG
qr
qe tG
qc
distillate
Seawater
qb
 Irradiation, G
qga
Convection + Radiation

b (1-ag-t) G
(1-aw) tG
qr
qe tG
qc
distillate
Seawater
qb
 Energy balance for the solar still is shown
schematically in the figure.
Various heat transfer components are shown .
solar irradiation falling on the solar still
Heat transfer within the solar still
heat transfer by convection, radiation and evaporation
form the water surface back to the glass cover.
heat loss through the still opaque material and heat loss

to the ambient air (Convection and Radiation)

Heat transfer from glass cover to the surrounding
(Convection and Radiation)
 Energy balance to the water

dTw
a wt G q ga qb m c P
dt
Heat loss through the opaque surface

qb U b Tw Tb
 H. T. from the water surface

q ga qr qc qe

H. T. from the water by radiation

qr Fs (T T )
w
4
s
4

qr 0.9 (Tw4 Ts4 )

 H. T. from the water surface

q ga qr qc qe

H. T. from the water by Convection

qc hc (Tw Tg ) hc T
 H. T. from the water surface

q ga qr qc qe

H. T. from the water by Evaporation

qe md h fg
 H. T. from the Glass to surroundings

The previous equations are the key

equations needed for solar still analysis.
To complete the analysis, expressions for
the heat transfer coefficients are needed.
 Heat transfer coefficients
Natural convection within the solar still

hc L 1708 sin 1.8 b
1.6

1708 Ra cos b
1/ 3

Nu 1 1.44 1 1 5830 1
k fluid Ra cos b Ra cos b

The plus sign (+) in the exponentiation is that if

the term is negative (< 0), it is taken = 0
 Heat transfer coefficients
The modified temperature difference to be used for
Ra expression


Pw Pwg
T ' Tw Tg (Tw 273)
P M dryair
P
ambient M dryair M w vapoe w

M is the molecular wt, P is water vapor

partial pressure
 By the analogy between heat and mass transfer, the
distillate mass flow rate (productivity) can be
written as

mD 9.15 10 hc Pw Pwg
7

Wind loss coefficient

hgal 1 1
Nu 0.86 Re Pr
2 3

k air

Reynolds number range of 2104 to 9104

 The solution of the above coupled (heat and
mass transfer) equations is very sensitive to
thermophysical properties.
When the solution procedure is based on
variable properties (cP, , , , k, hfg, Pw, Pg,
etc.), they are updated when any value of
the temperature is calculated.
 500 650
qga 600
Heat transfer rate, W/m2

400 550
500

Hourly Productivity, kg
300 qe 450
400
350
200
300
250
100 qr 200
qb 150
0 qc 100
50
-100 0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
Time