Experimental investigation of an active thermosyphon solar still with enhanced condenser

摘要

In the present work, a new thermosyphon active solar still is presented and experimentally investigated. To propose a simple and reliable alternative for remote regions, evacuated tube solar collectors were used to adsorb solar energy, and an enhanced condenser was employed to increase the rate of distillate production. Taking advantage of a special design, in addition to the collector, water could be poured into the basin and/or condenser. Accordingly, four possible conditions of performance were studied in this work; BECE: empty basin empty condenser, BFCE: filled basin empty condenser, BECF: empty basin filled condenser, BFCF: filled basin filled condenser. Analysis of the results showed the BECE, BFCE, BECF and BFCF cases produced 10.22, 11.86, 15.25 and 16.98 kg/(m(2).day) of distillate, respectively. Consequently, it was concluded that filling the condenser effectively decreased the condenser temperature (increased temperature difference between basin and condenser), and caused 46% increase of distillate production. However, filling the basin (increasing evaporation area) enhanced the distillate production by only 14%. In overall, filling both of the basin and condenser simultaneously increased distillate production around 66%. In addition, it was revealed that the efficiencies of BECE, BFCE, BECF and BFCF cases, were 28.2, 34.7, 43.9 and 49.9%, respectively. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.