Enhancing solar still thermal performance through synergistic effects of silver nanomaterial-enhanced phase change material and geometric modifications

This work investigated a different mechanism of solar distillation through conducting a modified conventional solar still with corrugated shaped absorber (MCSS-CSA). To expand the MCSS-CSA's evaporation area, a vertical wick (VW) is added to the back and side walls. More other modifications such as integrating the MCSS-CSA-VW with a vertically positioned wick distiller (VWSS) and utilizing silver nanoparticles enhanced phase change material (PCM-Ag Nano). The location of the experiment was Kafrelsheikh, Egypt (31.1107 degrees degrees N, 30.9388 degrees degrees E). The experimental results demonstrated that the best thermal efficacy of 61.3 % was found for the MCSS-CSA-VWPCM-Ag and VWSS configuration. In addition, the yield of MCSS-CSA-VW-PCM-Ag + VWSS was improved by 277 % over that of the CSS, where the total accumulation of productivity for MCSS-CSA-VW-PCM-Ag + VWSS and conventional distiller (CSS) was 11,700 and 3100 ml/m2, 2 , respectively. Moreover, the cost of desalinated water was 0.024 & 0.011 $/L for CSS and MCSS-CSA-VW-PCM-Ag + VWSS, severally.