Solar Water Distillation using Energy Storage Material

With the increasing pressure of energy shortage, various technologies are being developed to meet the energy demand. Solar energy is one of the non conventional sources of energy widely used. Energy storage and renewable energy technologies have received more attention worldwide as economic progress as well as industrialization. One way to improve the efficiency is to store the energy during higher solar incidence and utilizing this stored energy during its lesser availability. Efficient storage technologies are required to store this energy to meet energy demand throughout day and night. Phase change materials (PCMs) are energy storage materials due to their characteristic of storing thermal energy by phase change and their ability to provide higher energy storage densities. Thermal energy storage (TES) research for seasonal storage is going towards thermo-chemical materials (TCM). However, nowadays, one of the promising methods is based on chemical reactions. Thermo-chemical materials using reversible chemical reaction principle are used to store energy. These materials are capable of storing solar thermal energy in one direction and to release it in another direction without heat losses, whenever energy is needed. In the present work, efficiency of solar still is improved with the aid of phase change materials. A wiper that pushes water to the collecting dish is also incorporated Combined effect of PCMs and wiper enhances the efficiency and productivity. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.