Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255

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Desalination

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

An experimental investigation of a v-corrugated absorber single-basin

solar still using PCM
S.M. Shalaby a,1, E. El-Bialy b,⁎, A.A. El-Sebaii c
a
Department of Engineering Physics and Mathematics, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta 31111, Egypt
b
Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Arts, Samtah, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia
c
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

H I G H L I G H T S

• A v-corrugated absorber single-basin solar still (VSBSS) with PCM is fabricated and tested experimentally under different operational conditions.
• The effect of using wick in the VSBSS with PCM is also investigated.
• It is advisable to use the VSBSS with PCM with less amount of basin water.
• The cost analysis for the various considerations is evaluated and the cost comparison is performed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, a new design of a v-corrugated absorber solar still with built-in phase change material (PCM) is pre-
Received 26 February 2016 sented. This design allows for the expansion of melting wax through a net of tubes extended inside the storage
Received in revised form 7 July 2016 tank. The system is tested with and without the PCM using different water masses. Adding wick over the corru-
Accepted 27 July 2016
gated plate using PCM is also investigated. Paraffin wax is chosen as a PCM due to its medium storage, safety, re-
Available online xxxx
liability, uniform melting and moderate cost. The experimental investigation shows that the solar still with using
Keywords:
the PCM beneath the corrugated plate with less basin water mass achieves the best thermal performance among
Solar still other studied configurations. Using the PCM causes a little decrease in the daylight productivity with a consider-
V-corrugated solar still able increase in the still overnight productivity. The daily productivity of the still with the PCM when mw = 25 kg
Phase change material (PCM) is 12% and 11.7% better than those for the v-corrugated still without the PCM and with the PCM using wick, re-
Wick spectively. Cost analysis is also performed where the cost per liter (CPL) for the still without PCM, with PCM
Daily productivity and with PCM using wick are estimated as 0.07182, 0.08369 and 0.09558 $/l, respectively.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Solar distillation systems have been used for several decades for pro-
ducing drinking water from salt and contaminated water or even liquid
wastes from different industries. The single basin solar still is the most
proven and famous one among other designs of basin types solar still.
The main disadvantage of the single effect solar stills is their low pro-
ductivity. To overcome this problem, many attempts have been per-
formed to enhance the thermal performance of single basin solar stills.
One of these methods is to increase the solar radiation absorbing area;
but this solution requires a large field area. Using the corrugated
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: saleh.shalaby@f-eng.tanta.edu.eg, shalaby1@mail.usf.edu
(S.M. Shalaby), i_elbialy@yahoo.com (E. El-Bialy), ahmedelsebie@science.tanta.edu.eg,
ahmedelsebaii@yahoo.com (A.A. El-Sebaii).
1
Current address: Clean Energy Research Center, College of Engineering, University of
South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA.
absorber plate establishes this purpose without need to extend the
field area. Increasing the solar radiation absorbing area leads to increas-
ing the heat transfer rates from the absorber plate to the basin water;
consequently, increasing the productivity. A solar air heater with corru-
gated black iron sheet placed inside an integrated solar green house for
water desalination and wastewater treatment was investigated [1]. A
solar collector with corrugated absorber plate was integrated to an indi-
rect vertical solar still [2] and to a single slope solar still [3]. Xiong et al.
[4] investigated the corrugated shape stacked trays triple-effect solar
still coupled to vacuum tube solar collector and a performance ratio of
1.86 was achieved the best performance. They also concluded that the
nocturnal productivity was about 40% from the total distillate. A corru-
gated stepped shape absorber solar still [5] was designed and tested
using a transverse reciprocating spraying system. Feeding the saline
water on the corrugated plate was in the form of fine droplets. Omara
et al. [6] reported that the productivity of the corrugated solar still
was 21% higher than that of the conventional one.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2016.07.042
0011-9164/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
248 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255
Wick-type solar stills are the most proven stills using the capillary
action as well as using a thin film of saline water; consequently, the pro-
ductivity increases. Wick-type solar still has some advantages over
basin-type still [7]; (i) it can be tilted with the desired angle to maxi-
mize the incident solar radiation, (ii) it has a large effective absorbing
area and the reflection is minimized, (iii) it uses a less feeding saline
water resulting in less heating time of the saline water; therefore, the
evaporating rate increases and (iv) wick material as an absorbing sur-
face is very cheap resulting in less cost per one liter of distilled water
which is the main goal of any solar desalination design. The main disad-
vantage of the wick still is: it has zero nocturnal productivity because of
the smallest volumetric heat storage capacity. Numerous investigators
were concerning with developing the thermal performance of the
wick-type solar still [8–13]. Adding tracking system [14] and flat plate
bottom reflector [15] to the tilted wick-type solar still improves the
daily productivity. Minasian and Al-Karaghouli [16] inferred that the
total yearly productivity of the wick-basin type solar still is 85% more
than the basin-type solar still and 43% more than the wick-type still.
Multi-wick [17] and tilted wick [18] solar stills were numerically stud-
ied considering flowing of water over the glass cover. It was also report-
ed that water flow over the glass cover increases the productivity by
10% [17]. A concave shaped wick (jute) [19], adding wick to the stepped
solar still [20], double layer black wick [21], covering the absorber plate
by wick [22] and different types of wick [23–27] were used and different
enhancement values were achieved. A corrugated wick surface [28–30]
was also used and it was concluded that using nanoparticles in the feed-
ing water improved the daily productivity by about 254–285% [30].
Thermal energy storage system is useful to conserve thermal energy
during sunshine-off periods to be used for enhancing the overnight dis-
tilled water productivity even in case of using a thin layer of basin water.
The thermal storage process can be achieved either using sensible or la-
tent heat storage materials. Some authors used many sensible heat stor-
age materials [11,23,26,27,31–42] in solar stills in an attempt to increase
the productivity particularly overnight. They investigated various de-
signs of solar distillation systems integrated with different sensible
heat storage materials where the corresponding percentage productiv-
ity improvement were reported.
The thermal energy can also be stored in the phase change material
(PCM). It was noted that the PCMs store larger amount of heat com-
pared to the sensible heat storage materials because the PCMs have
high energy storage capacity per unit volume and almost constant tem-
perature for charging and discharging [43]. The main disadvantage of
using PCMs is the leakage problem when it is in the liquid phase.
There is one important condition when using a PCM as a heat storage
material integrated with the solar stills; it is desirable that the maxi-
mum temperature of the basin water should around the melting point
of the PCM. Therefore, the choice of the PCM strictly depends on the
basin water temperature. Paraffin wax is preferable because of its medi-
um storage, safety, reliability, uniform melting and moderate cost [44].
As far as the authors know there are few papers [45–51] appeared
concerning using of the PCMs in the solar stills. It was reported that
using a mixture of PCM, paraffin wax (with different melting points),
copper balls filled with paraffin wax and steric acid enhances the pro-
ductivity by about 135, 6.75, 26.7 and 80%, respectively [45, 46–49, 50,
51].
When paraffin wax is used as latent heat storage medium, it is ex-
pected to face some difficulties; including the predicted increase in its
volume upon melting which leads to leakage of the melted wax from
the weakest points of the storage tank. The other problem is the emer-
gence of air bubbles enclosed within the wax. In addition, the low ther-
mal conductivity of paraffin wax leads to a decrease of the heat transfer
rate to/from the wax. The previous works did not discuss these prob-
lems in details.
In this work, a solar still with an innovative design of the v-corrugat-
ed absorber plate built-in the PCM storage tank was fabricated in an at-
tempt to solve the above mentioned problems. This new design allows
for the expansion of wax into a wider tube during the melting process
through a net of tubes extended inside the storage tank. For the first
time, as far the authors know, the v-corrugated absorber plate is used
in direct contact with the PCM which improves the heat transfer rate
to/from the PCM. The v-corrugated single basin solar still (VSBSS) is de-
signed, fabricated and tested under the prevailing weather condition of
Tanta (lat. 30°47′N, long. 31°E), Egypt with and without the PCM. Paraf-
fin wax is selected as a PCM because its melting temperature range lies
within the temperature range of basin type solar stills and its relatively
high latent heat of fusion [46,49]. Table 1 summarizes the thermo-phys-
ical properties of the used paraffin wax [52]. Comparative study of the
thermal performance of the still with and without the PCM is per-
formed. The effect of basin water mass (with PCM), on the daylight,
overnight as well as the daily productivity and efficiency of the VSBSS
is experimentally investigated. In an effort to further enhance the ther-
mal performance of the still, wick (uncoated jute cloth) is also used in
the presence of the PCM.
2. Description of the VSBSS and experimental setup
2.1. The solar still design basis and construction
Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the VSBSS integrated with the
PCM. It consists of a v-corrugated absorber made of copper sheet of
thickness 0.001 m. Based on the recommendations reported by El-Sebaii
and Shalaby [53], the v-corrugated plate was designed and fabricated
with v-shape height and pitch of 1.9 and 3.8 cm, respectively, while its
angle equals 90o. The paraffin wax tank was made of galvanized steel
and was placed under the absorber plate. It was designed to accommo-
date 18 kg of paraffin wax which enough to store about 20% of absorbed
solar energy per day. The water basin was manufactured of galvanized
steel and was insulated from bottom and sides with a layer of foam of
thickness 0.05 m (thermal conductivity k = 0.024 W/m K). A glass
cover of thickness 0.004 m was inclined at an angle of 30o with the hor-
izontal to be used as the condensation surface. The still was facing south
to maximize the amount of solar radiation incident on the still cover.
To accommodate for the increased volume of the melted wax and
the emergence of the air bubbles from the wax, an innovative design
was constructed. Accordingly, the v-corrugated absorber was welded
to the energy storage tank (the tank was kept under the corrugated
plate) to ensure that no leakage of wax during the phase change process
(Fig. 2). To overcome the problem of the increasing volume of wax upon
melting, 13 copper tubes of diameter 0.01 m were inserted through
vents that were drilled in one side of the storage tank as are shown in
Fig. 3. A number of holes with 0.005 m in diameter were also drilled at
equal separation distance of 0.15 m along each tube wall as illustrated
in Fig. 4. These tubes have been compiled into a horizontal wider copper
tube of 0.03 m diameter (see Fig. 2) that was closed with a fixed nut at
one end. The other end was anchored to another vertical tube of height
0.45 m with the same diameter. This vertical tube is locked at its upper
tip with a movable nut. The nut is removed during the molding process
of paraffin wax to allow for the air bubbles to exit from the storage tank.
This design avoid presence of air bubbles during solidification of paraffin
wax; therefore, the amount of heat transferred to the corrugated ab-
sorber and hence to the basin water increases. The upper tip of the ver-
tical tube was also used to mold the wax into the storage tank. Fig. 5
Table 1
Thermophysical properties of paraffin wax [52].
Property Value
Melting point 56 °C
Specific heat of solid/liquid 2950/2510 J/kg °C
Density of solid/liquid 818/760 kg/m3
Thermal conductivity of solid/liquid 0.24/0.24 W/m °C
Latent heat of fusion 2.26 × 105 J/kg
 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255
Solar radiation
Distilled water
Tap
Basin water
30o
Coper tube
Insulation (foam, k = 0.024 W/m K)
Fig. 1. Single slope single basin solar still with corrugated absorber plate (VSBSS) with PCM as a heat storage medium.
shows the photographic view of the VSBSS. However, this new design (a
v-corrugated plate built-in the storage tank) allows also for the expan-
sion of wax into the wider tube during the melting process through
the holes and the small tubes (see Figs. 2 and 3). All tubes extended out-
side the storage tank were painted black and were also kept inside the
still to increase the amount of absorbed heat and provide the thermal
energy required to melt the wax inside these tubes. This ensure ease
of flowing the melted wax inside the tubes and allows the excess of liq-
uid wax to move from the storage tank to the wide tube and vice versa.
Solar radiation transmitted through the glass cover and basin water
is absorbed by the v-corrugated absorber. The absorbed thermal energy
is transferred to the basin water by thermal convection and to the par-
affin wax by thermal conduction to be stored as sensible and latent heat.
The basin water loses its heat to the inner surface of the glass cover by
convection, radiation and evaporation; and then to the upper surface
of the glass cover by conduction. The upper surface of cover loses its
heat to surroundings by convection and radiation.
Fig. 2. The v-corrugated absorber plate built-in with the storage tank.
249
Glass cover
Thermocouples
Wick
v-corrugated absorber
Storage tank (paraffin wax)
1m
1.1 m
Thermocouples positions
2.2. Experimental procedure and measurements
The VSBSS was tested with and without using the PCM. The effect of
mass of basin water (mw = 25 and 35 kg) of the VSBSS was investigated
with the PCM. Tap water of salinity of about 1000 ppm was weighted
and then supplied to the still using external tube located at the side of
the VSBSS. The storage tank beneath the corrugated absorber was filled
with the PCM. Before filling the storage tank with the PCM, the storage
tank was tested using water to check for leakage. It is known that the
shallow depths of basin water give maximum distillate productivity
during sunshine hours, but they produce little amount of fresh water
overnight. In this work, a capillary action is used via using a wick; its
end is immersed in a PVC tank containing water, to improve daylight
productivity of the still. The PCM was used to store thermal energy
Fig. 3. Cooper tubes inserted within the storage tank through vents of one side of the
storage tank.
250 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255

where Lav is daily average value of the latent heat of vaporization of

water (J/kg), Ap is the surface area of the corrugated absorber (m2), Id
is total daily value of solar radiation (W/m2) incident on the still cover
and Δt is the time interval (s).

3. Uncertainty and error analysis

Mercury thermometer, calibrated K-Type thermocouples, a High

Fig. 4. The holes of 0.005 m diameter with an equal separation of 0.15 m in the tubes
within the storage tank.
during sunshine hours to be used as a heat source for the basin water
during the night, which enhances the overnight productivity. All exper-
iments were conducted during sequence days of September to ensure
that there is no large change in solar radiation.
To measure the global solar radiation on a surface tilted at an angle of
30° (equals latitude of Tanta), a High Precision Pyranometer (HPP)
model MS-802 [sensitivity of 7.03 (μV/W m2)] was used. Calibrated K-
Type thermocouples (0 to 1100 °C) coupled to KYORITSU KEW1011
multimeter (±0.5 °C) were used to measure the temperatures of vari-
ous elements of the still, viz. temperatures of outer Tgo and inner Tgi sur-
faces of the glass cover, water vapor inside the still enclosure Tv, basin
water Tw, corrugated absorber plate Tp and the PCM TPCM. The average
temperature of basin water was calculated using the reading of three
thermocouples distributed on the basin diameter. To measure the tem-
perature of the absorber plate, one thermocouple fixed at its center was
used tacking into account its high thermal conductivity. The position
distribution of thermocouples connected at different places of the
VSBSS using PCM is shown in Fig. 1. The distilled water was collected
every 1 h using a prepared channel and tap whose located at the
south side of the VSBSS. A digital balance, type 300-9213/b 125A, of
readability 0.0001 g was used to measure the mass of the produced dis-
tilled water and the mass of the PCM. All measurements were taken
every 1 h from 8 am to 11 pm and the obtained distilled water from
the midnight until 8 am (next day) was also collected. The daylight Pdl
(from 8 am to 7 pm; sunset), overnight Pon (7 pm to 8 am; next day)
and the daily (over 24 h) Pd productivities were also measured. The ex-
perimental data were used to calculate the daily thermal efficiency of
the VSBSS using the following formula [54].
P  Lav
η ¼
d   100% ð1Þ
Ap Id Δt
Precision Pyranometer (HPP), and digital balance, were used for accu-
rate measurements of the ambient temperature, temperatures of vari-
ous elements of the still, solar intensity and the mass of distilled
water, respectively. Based on the accuracy of each measuring instru-
ment, the standard uncertainty of measurements and the uncertainty
of the daily efficiency were calculated with the aid of Eqs. (2) and (5)
[55]. It is found that the uncertainty of the daily efficiency is 0.06. The
minimum error occurred in any instrument is equal to the ratio be-
tween its least count and the minimum value of the output measured.
The accuracies, ranges, standard uncertainty and errors of various in-
struments are given in Table 2.
a
u ¼ pffiffiffi ð2Þ
3
" #12
uðP d Þ2 uðId Þ2
uðηÞ ¼ η þ ð3Þ
P 2d I2d
where a and u are accuracy of an instrument and uncertainty,
respectively.
4. Results and discussion
The v-corrugated absorber single basin solar still (VSBSS), with and
without using the PCM is investigated experimentally. All experiments
are performed during sequences days of September 2015 to be sure
that the daily values of the total solar radiation are almost the same.
4.1. VSBSS with and without PCM
The temperature distribution of various elements of the VSBSS with-
out the PCM, solar radiation and ambient temperature are shown in Fig.
6 (1 September 2015). The solar radiation and ambient temperature
reach their maximum values of 913 W/m2 and 35.5 °C, respectively at
noon. The temperature of the basin water is delayed 2 h after noon to
show its maximum value of 72.5 °C, due to its thermal capacity.
Fig. 7 presents variations of different temperatures of the VSBSS
when 18 kg of paraffin wax is used as a PCM beneath the corrugated
plate. The solar radiation and ambient temperature are also shown in
Fig. 7. It is seen that the maximum value of solar radiation is 918 W/
m2 at noon. The temperature of the PCM increases with time and then
remains almost constant during the solid-liquid phase change of the
PCM as expected. After 6 pm, the temperature of the PCM starts to de-
crease when the solar radiation and ambient temperature decrease.
During this period the PCM transfers its latent heat to the corrugated ab-
sorber and then to the basin water above it. It is also obvious that the
temperature of the PCM (TPCM) is always greater than that of the basin

Table 2
Values of accuracy, range, standard uncertainty and error of various measuring
instruments.

No. Instrument Accuracy Range Standard uncertainty Error %

1 Thermometer ±1 °C 0–100 °C 0.577 °C 3.85

2 Thermocouple ±0.1 °C 0–1100 °C 0.058 °C 0.35
3 Pyranometer ±1 W/m2 0–2000 W/m2 0.577 W/m2 7.14
4 Digital balance ±0.0001 g 0–600 g 6× 10−5 g 0.01
Fig. 5. A photographic view of the VSBSS with PCM.
 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255 251

100 1000
1 Sep. 2015 Without PCM m w = 25 kg
m w = 25 kg Solar radiation 10 m = 18 kg
Ta PCM
80 800
Tgi

Solar radiation (W/m2)

Tp
5
Temperature (oC)

Tw
600

Tw - Tgi (oC)
60

0
40 400

Without PCM (1 Sep. 2015)

-5
With PCM (5 Sep. 2015)
20 200

-10
0 0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time of day 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Time of day
Fig. 6. Temperature distribution of the VSBSS without PCM. Solar radiation and ambient
temperature are also included. Fig. 8. Comparison of the basin water-inner surface glass cover temperature difference for
the VSBSS without and with PCM (mw = 25 kg).

water (Tw). Due to the presence of the PCM, the basin water of the
VSBSS with PCM is still warmer for a longer time than the basin water
in the system without the PCM (see Fig. 6). However, it is expected
that the system with PCM will produce a distillate with a reasonable
amount during sunshine-off hours (during night).
The main parameter affecting the water evaporation rate is the basin
water-glass cover temperature difference (ΔTwgi = Tw − Tgi). The ΔTwgi
of the VSBSS with and without the PCM is illustrated in Fig. 8 when the
mass of basin water remains constant at 25 kg in the two solar stills. It is
obvious that, in early morning (8–11 am), the values of ΔTwgi for both
systems are negative mainly due to the high heat capacity of basin
water compared with that of the glass cover. Thus, a large amount of
absorbed heat is required to increase temperature of basin water. This
means that, the basin water temperature takes a long time to be higher
than the inner surface of the glass cover. After 11 am, the ΔTwgi becomes
positive for both systems as clearly seen in Fig. 8. It is also noticed that
the ΔTwgi of the VSBSS with using the PCM is very small compared to
the system without using the PCM during the period (12 noon–5 pm)
because of a considerable part of thermal energy transferred to the par-
affin wax. This leads to drop the basin water temperature and conse-
quently, ΔTwgi becomes much lower than that of the system without
the PCM. After 5 pm, the ΔTwgi of the VSBSS with the PCM increases dra-
matically to be higher than that of the still without PCM due to the stor-
age effect of the PCM, where the heat exchange take occurs from the
PCM to the basin water during the solidification period of the PCM.
This large increment is also due to the drop of ambient temperature
100
5 Sep. 2015
m w = 25 kg
80
during night. The latter results in an increase in the productivity of the
VSBSS with the PCM compared to the case without the PCM.
The hourly productivity of the VSBSS with and without using the
PCM is compared as illustrated in Fig. 9. The accumulated distillate is
collected at 8 am in the next day. The data appeared at the right y-axis
represents the distillate collected at the end of the experiments at
8 am of the next day. It is proved that the hourly productivity (Fig. 9)
strictly depends on the water-glass cover temperature difference as il-
lustrated in Fig. 8. The hourly productivity of the VSBSS with and with-
out the PCM is almost the same and is too low from 8 am to 12 noon due
to the low values of ΔTwgi of the two systems during this period which
represents the preheating period of the still elements. The still without
the PCM shows its maximum hourly productivity of 0.558 kg/m2 h at
2 pm, whereas the system with the PCM has a maximum productivity
of 0.409 kg/m2 h at 3 pm, with 1 h delay due to the transfer of a consid-
erable amount of heat to the PCM. The daylight productivity Pdl of the
still without the PCM is calculated to be 3.119 kg/m2 which represents
92.9% of daily productivity Pd, while it is equal to 2.889 kg/m2 for the
system with the PCM which represents 76.8% from the Pd. The overnight
productivity Pon of the still without the PCM is 0.238 kg/m2 (7.1% of
daily productivity Pd), while it is found to be 0.872 kg/m2 for the system
with the PCM (23.2% from the Pd). This means that there is a decrease in
Pdl by about 7.4% and an increase in Pon by 72.7% when the PCM is used
as a storage medium. Accordingly, the daily productivity Pd of the VSBSS
using the PCM under the corrugated absorber plate is of about 12%
greater than that for the system without using the PCM. This improve-
ment is better than that reported by Radhwan [46] that was 6.5%
1000
With PCM ( m PCM = 18 kg)
Solar radiation mw = 25 kg
Ta 800 0.6
Tgi
Hourly productivity Ph (kg/m h)
Solar radiation (W/m2)

Tw Without PCM (1 Sep. 2015)

2
Temperature (oC)

With PCM (5 Sep. 2015)

TPCM
60 600
0.4
2
0.35554 kg/m

40 400

0.2
2
20 200 0.149 kg/m

0 0 0.0 0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 10 15 20 25 30 8 am
Next day
Time of day Time of day

Fig. 7. Temperature distribution of the VSBSS with PCM and mw = 25 kg. Solar radiation Fig. 9. Comparison of the hourly productivity of the VSBSS without and with PCM (mw =
and ambient temperature are also included. 25 kg).
252 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255

when a stepped solar still was used using the paraffin wax as a PCM. m PCM = 18 kg
Other configurations of solar stills were studied by various investigators 10
using different types of PCMs and the improvement was in the range
20–80% [45,47–51]. This high improvement may be because solar con-
centrators were integrated with the investigated solar stills. It is also re- 5

Tw - Tgi ( C)
alized that the theoretical results, as reported in [48,51,and], are

o
strongly differ from the experimental ones (actual) especially when
the solar stills are integrated with the PCMs. 0

In an attempt to examine the effect of using different masses of basin

water on the thermal performance of the VSBSS with the PCM, an addi-
tional experiment is performed with basin water mass of mw = 35 kg on
6 Sep. 2015. Fig. 10 shows comparisons of the temperatures of basin
water Tw and PCM TPCM for the VSBSS using PCM with different basin
water masses (mw = 25 and 35 kg). It is seen that during sunshine
hours, Tw when mw equals 25 kg is higher than that of the system
with 35 kg of water as expected due to the lower heat capacity of
basin water when mw = 25 kg Whereas, the TPCM when mw = 25 kg
is higher than that of the system with mw = 35 kg all the daylight peri-
od, except the period of the peak solar radiation (12 noon–2 pm). This is
because the increased amount of heat transferred to the PCM from the
corrugated absorber at this period. The plateau part in all curves pre-
sented in Fig. 10 takes occur during the solid-liquid phase change of
the PCM.
The variations of ΔTwgi for the VSBSS using the PCM when mw = 25
and 35 kg are compared in Fig. 11. It is shown from the results of Fig. 11
that the temperature of the basin water Tw, for the two cases, takes 4 h
(from 8 am to 12 noon) to become higher than that for the inner surface
of glass cover Tgi. This long time the basin water temperature take to be
higher than the inner glass cover temperature is due to a large amount
of heat transferred to the PCM during the melting period which lead to
delay the water heating process. In addition, the high heat capacity of
basin water is another reason as mentioned before. It is also noticed
that there are some slight fluctuation in ΔTwgi do not exceed 2.5 °C for
the two systems. These slight fluctuation may be due the change in
weather during the day especially wind speed and the amounts of
cloud. It is also appeared that after 6 pm, the values of ΔTwgi for the
VSBSS with the PCM (mw = 25 kg) is higher than that for the system
with the PCM (mw = 35 kg). This result may leads to an improvement
of the overnight productivity Pon for the system with mw = 25 kg over
the system with mw = 35 kg.
The effect of using different masses of basin water on the hourly pro-
ductivity of the VSBSS with the PCM is summarized in Fig. 12. The data
plotted at the right y-axis represents the distilled water collected at the
end of the experiment at 8 am of the next day. It can be seen that the
hourly values of productivity Ph of the VSBSS with the PCM (mw =
25 kg) are higher than those for the still with the PCM (mw = 35 kg)
80
-5 With PCM (m w = 25 kg) 5 Sep. 2015
With PCM (m w = 35 kg) 6 Sep. 2015
-10
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Time of day
Fig. 11. Comparison of the basin water-inner surface glass cover temperature difference
for the VSBSS with PCM when mw = 25 and 35 kg.
all the day. This result, as it mentioned above, is due to the higher values
of Tw all the day (see Fig. 10). It is also noticed that the daylight produc-
tivity Pdl of the still with the PCM when mw = 25 kg is 2.889 kg/m2
which is higher than that for the still when mw = 35 kg (1.953 kg/m2)
by about 32.4%. Furthermore, the overnight productivity Pon of the still
with the PCM when mw = 25 kg is 0.872 kg/m2 and it is higher than
Pon of the system with the PCM when mw = 35 kg (0.270 kg/m2) by
about 69%. Thus, the daily productivity Pd (3.762 kg/m2 day) of the
VSBSS with the PCM and mw = 25 kg is greater than Pd of the same sys-
tem when mw = 35 kg (2.223 kg/m2 day) by about 40.9%. The reason for
the less measured value of the daily productivity of the system with the
PCM and mw = 35 kg, may be referred to the lower total daily solar ra-
diation for this day, 6 Sep. 2015 (Id = 6101 W/m2 day). On the basis of
the above results it may be concluded that it is advisable to use the
VSBSS with PCM with shallow depths of basin water taking into account
avoiding the appearance of dry spots on the absorber plate.
4.2. The VSBSS with PCM and wick
According to the last conclusion, the capillary action by using un-
coated wick is used in the basin of the VSBSS with PCM to evaporate a
thin film of water. It is expected that this arrangement may enhance
the productivity of the still without any additional cost because using
wick adds almost zero cost.
The VSBSS with wick and using PCM is tested on a typical day of 28
Sep. 2015 and the temperature distribution is presented in Fig. 13. The
solar intensity and the ambient temperature are also shown in Fig. 13.
The temperature TPCM of the PCM becomes higher than Tw after 3 pm.

0.6
70
mPCM = 18 kg

With PCM (mw = 25 kg) 5 Sep. 2015

Hourly productivity Ph (kg/m h)
Temperature (oC)

60 With PCM (mw = 35 kg) 6 Sep. 2015

2

0.4
2
50 0.35554 kg/m

2
0.27030 kg/m
40 T w (VSBSS with PCM, mw = 25 kg)
0.2
T w (VSBSS with PCM, mw = 35 kg)
T PCM (VSBSS with PCM, mw = 25 kg)
30
T PCM (VSBSS with PCM, mw = 35 kg)

20 0.0
8 12 16 20 24 28 32
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 8 am
Time of day Time of day next day

Fig. 10. Comparison of the temperatures of basin water and PCM of the VSBSS using PCM Fig. 12. Comparison of the hourly productivity of the VSBSS with PCM when mw = 25 and
with different basin water masses (mw = 25 and 35 kg). 35 kg.
 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255 253

4
The solar radiation intensity has the same behavior as it shown in Figs. 6
and 7, i.e. it has a maximum value of 896 W/m2 at noon. But the sunset
occurs earlier 1 h (6 pm) with relative smaller value of total daily solar

Accomulated productivity (kg/m )

2
radiation intensity of 6075 W/m2 day. 3

4.2.1. Comparison of the accumulated productivity of the VSBSS without,

with PCM, and with wick and PCM 2
Variations of the accumulated productivity for VSBSS without PCM,
with PCM, and with wick and PCM when mw = 25 kg are illustrated Without PCM (m w = 25 kg ) 1 Sep. 2015
in Fig. 14. It is obvious from the results of Fig. 14 that the values of accu- With PCM (m w = 25 kg ) 5 Sep. 2015
1
mulated productivity of the system with PCM using wick are higher With PCM and wick 28 Sep. 2015
than those for the still under other different operational conditions;
i.e. without and with the PCM during the period from 9 am to 2 pm
0
due to the lower thermal inertia of the still with wick and PCM. More- 8 12 16 20 24 28 32
8 am
over, due to the capillary action in the wick, the small amount of Time of day next day
water in wick needs a lower heat to be evaporated. After that, the accu-
mulated productivity of the VSBSS without PCM becomes higher than Fig. 14. Comparison of the accumulated productivity of the VSBSS without and with PCM
those of the other two systems and this behavior continues a few when mw = 25. The accumulated productivity of the VSBSS with PCM and wick are also
hours after sunset. The later result is due to the large amount of thermal shown.
heat stored in the PCM during the melting process. The effect of this
stored heat significantly appears during night (discharging period) the corrugated absorber single basin solar still (VSBSS) with PCM and
where the system with using the PCM gives the highest accumulated shallow depths of the basin water.
productivity after 9 pm due to the large amount of heat recovered
from the PCM. Although the same amount of PCM is used in the system 4.3. Economics
with using wick, the effect of the PCM during night is insignificant. This
may be due to the low absorptivity of the uncoated wick. Thus, the small The main goal of the solar distillation systems is to minimize the cost
amount of absorbed heat is insufficient to evaporate a large amount of production per liter (CPL) of distillate. In this work, three configurations
water as well as melting all amount of the PCM. From the results of of solar stills are economically investigated; VSBSS without the PCM,
Fig. 14, the VSBSS with the PCM gives the highest daily productivity of VSBSS with the PCM, and VSBSS integrated with both the PCM and wick.
3.762 kg/m2 followed by 3.357 kg/m2 (for the VSBSS without PCM) Table 4 summarizes the cost of each item of the investigated stills.
and 3.321 kg/m2 (for the still with PCM using wick). The total fixed cost (F) for the VSBSS without PCM, VSBSS with PCM
For more understanding and analyzing the performance of the pres- and VSBSS with both PCM and wick are 181, 236 and 238 $, respectively
ent design of the VSBSS under the various operation conditions, the day- (1 US$ = 8.03 LE). The investigated systems need frequently mainte-
light Pdl, overnight Pon and daily Pd productivities as well as the thermal nance including supplying water, replacing the broken or damaged
efficiency for the investigated stills are shown in Fig. 15 and Table 3. parts, removing salt (when saline water is used), re-paint some areas
It is shown that the daily total solar radiation values, for the days of the absorber, cleaning basin and glass cover; etc. Since one year con-
during which the experiments are performed, are almost closed to tains about 52 weeks and 1 day per week is needed for maintenance, the
each other and are higher than 6000 (W/m2 day). Using the VSBSS still is assumed to operate about 300 days per year. The expected life
with both the PCM and wick enhances the daylight productivity Pdl time n of the stills is assumed to be 10 years. The variable cost (V) in-
(3.015 kg/m2) over the system with PCM using basin water mass of cluding the maintenance cost which varies in Egypt from 25 to 30%
mw = 25 kg (2.889 kg/m2) by 4.3%. However, the VSBSS with PCM from the fixed cost (F) [3]. In this work, the variable cost (V) is assumed
when mw = 25 kg has the highest values of Pd (3.762 kg/m2) and Pon to be 30% from the total fixed cost (F).
(0.872 kg/m2) over all investigated stills. In addition, the daily produc-
tivity Pd of the VSBSS with PCM when mw = 25 kg is of about 12%, V ¼ 0:3F  n ð4Þ
40.9% and 11.7% better than those for the VSBSS without PCM, with
PCM (mw = 35 kg) and the VSBSS with both PCM and wick, respectively
C ¼ FþV ð5Þ
(see Table 3). Accordingly, it can be concluded that it is preferred to use

100 1000
28 Sep. 2015
With PCM ( m PCM = 18 kg) 4 40
VSBSS with wick
Solar radiation P dl
80 Ta 800 P on
Pd
Solar radiation (W/m2)

Tgi
Tw 3 Efficiency 30
Temperature (oC)

Efficiency(%)
Productivity (kg/m2)

60 TPCM 600

2 20
40 400

1 10
20 200

0 0 0 0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 VSBSS without VSBSS with PCM VSBSS with PCM VSBSS with PCM
PCM ( m w = 25 kg ) ( m w = 25 kg ) ( m w = 35 kg ) and wick
Time of day

Fig. 13. Temperature distribution of the VSBSS with PCM and wick. Solar radiation and Fig. 15. Comparison of the productivities and efficiency of the investigated solar stills
ambient temperature are also included. under different operational conditions.
254 S.M. Shalaby et al. / Desalination 398 (2016) 247–255

Table 3 Table 5
Relevant parameters of the VSBSS without, with PCM and with wick. Estimated values of the various cost parameters of the investigated solar stills.

VSBSS without PCM VSBSS with PCM VSBSS with wick n F V C Pdav Pn CPL
(yr) ($) ($) ($) (kg/day) (kg) ($/l)
mw (kg) 25 25 35 Capillarity
Day 1 Sep. 2015 5 Sep. 2015 6 Sep. 2015 28 Sep. 2015 VSBSS without PCM 10 181 543 724 3.36 10,080 0.07182
Id (W/m2 day) 6486 6462 6101 6075 VSBSS with PCM 10 236 708 944 3.76 11,280 0.08369
mPCM (kg) – 18 18 18 VSBSS with PCM and 10 238 714 952 3.32 9960 0.09558
Pdl (kg/m2) 3.11941 2.88971 1.95265 3.01467 wick
Pon (kg/m2) 0.238 0.87244 0.2703 0.30673
Pd (kg/m2) 3.35741 3.76215 2.22295 3.3214
ηth (%) 32.9 37.1 23.2 34.8

- The daily productivity Pd of the VSBSS with the PCM is of about 12%
P n ¼ P dav  300  n ð6Þ greater than that without the PCM for a specified mass of water.
- It is advisable to use the VSBSS with the PCM with less amount of
C basin water without dry spots on the absorber.
CPL ¼ ð7Þ
Pn - The daily productivity of the still with PCM when mw = 25 kg is of
about 11.7% better than that for the v-corrugated still with the
where C is the total cost, Pdav is the average daily productivity, and Pn is PCM and wick assembly.
the total average productivity during the still life time. - The cost per liter for the VSBSS without PCM, VSBSS with PCM, and
Table 5 shows the estimated values of the various cost parameters VSBSS with PCM and wick are evaluated as 0.07182, 0.08369 and
for the investigated solar stills. It is clear that the CPL values for the 0.09558 $/l, respectively, which are competitive with those reported
VSBSS without PCM, VSBSS with PCM (mw = 25 kg) and VSBSS with in the literature for advanced designs of solar still.
both PCM and wick are evaluated as 0.07182, 0.08369 and 0.09558 $/l,
respectively. In comparison with the other solar stills, it was reported
that the CPL for the conventional solar still [19], still with corrugated ab-
sorber [6], SBSS with PCM [49] and concave shaped wick solar still [19]
was estimated as 0.083, 0.047, 0.0597 and 0.065 $/l, respectively. The Nomenclatures
values of CPL estimated in the literature differ from those estimated in Ap area of the absorber plate (m2)
this work, may be due to the variance of the cost of each item used in a accuracy of instrument
fabricating these systems. C the total cost ($)
CPL cost per liter ($/l)
5. Conclusions F total fixed cost ($)
Id total daily value of solar radiation (W/m2)
In this work, attempts have been performed to enhance the thermal k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
performance of a single basin solar still using a v-corrugated absorber Lav daily average value of the latent heat of vaporization of water
(VSBSS) instead of a flat plate one. The still was investigated without (J/kg)
and with PCM (paraffin wax). The still was also investigated with the mw mass of basin water (kg)
PCM and wick for an attempt to further improving productivity. The fol- n still life time (years)
lowing conclusions are drawn under all operational conditions: PCM phase change material
- The hourly productivity of the VSBSS with and without the PCM or Pd daily productivity (kg/m2 day)
even with wick and PCM depends strongly on the basin water- Pdav daily average productivity (kg/day)
glass cover temperature difference. Pdl daylight productivity (kg/m2)
- There is a decrease in the daylight productivity Pdl by about 7.4% Ph hourly productivity (kg/m2 h)
with an increase in the overnight productivity Pon by about 72.7% Pn total average productivity during the still life time (kg)
when the still is used with the PCM. Pon overnight productivity (kg/m2)
Ta ambient temperature (°C)
Tgi temperature of the inner surface of the glass cover (°C)
Tgo temperature of the outer surface of the glass cover (°C)
Table 4
Cost of components of the investigated stills.
Tp corrugated absorber plate temperature (°C)
TPCM PCM temperature (°C)
Cost of VSBSS Cost of VSBSS with Cost of VSBSS with PCM Tv vapor temperature (°C)
without PCM ($) PCM ($) and wick ($)
Tw basin water temperature (°C)
GI box 40 40 40 V variable cost ($)
Cooper 100 100 100
Δt time interval (s)
sheet
Glass 7 7 7 ΔTwgi basin water-inner surface glass cover temperature difference
cover (°C)
Insulation 15 15 15 u uncertainty
Paint 2 2 2 η thermal efficiency (%)
Sealant 2 2 2
Paraffin – 40 40
VSBSS v-corrugated absorber single basin solar still
wax
Cooper – 15 15 References
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