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Improving the potable water generation through tubular solar still using eggshell powder (bio-based energy source) as a natural energy storage material — an experimental approach

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Abstract

The demand for fresh water is rapidly growing as a consequence of the increasing population and urbanization. Tubular solar still offers larger evaporative and condensing surface area as compared to single slope solar still. The aim of this study is to improve the performance of tubular solar still by employing eggshell powder (collected from Babcobb Broilers chicken) as the sensible energy storage material in form of bed, placed inside the basin of still to improve the water production. Results showed that the influence of eggshell powder as energy storage material in the basin improved the average water temperature by 3%, 6.2%, and 3.2% for the water thickness of 10, 15, and 20 mm, respectively. The usage of eggshells as a sensible energy storage in the basin augmented the peak hourly water yield by 67.64% with minimum water thickness. The total observed distillate output from the solar still is 1.45 kg without eggshell powder and 2.67 kg for with eggshell powder in the absorber at the lowest water thickness of 10 mm. TSS with eggshell powder as energy storage has a daily energy efficiency of 48.17%, 42.38%, and 36.38%, respectively, for water thicknesses of 10, 15, and 20 mm in the basin. Water thickness of 10, 15, and 20 mm has performance improvement ratios of 1.83, 1.81, and 1.78, respectively. Using cost analysis, it was found that the cost of drinkable water generated using eggshell as an energy storage material is 0.011$/kg, but the cost of water by traditional still without any storage material was 0.021$/kg.

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Abbreviations

AC:

area of cover (m2)

CSS:

conventional solar still.

hfg:

latent heat of condensation (J/kg).

I(t):

solar radiation (W/m2).

me:

mass of distillate collected (kg).  

PCM:

Phase change material

TSS:

tubular solar still.

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Acknowledgements

Amrit Kumar Thakur would like to acknowledge KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, India for providing the Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology, Arasur, Coimbatore, 641407, Tamil Nadu, India

    Amrit Kumar Thakur & Ravishankar Sathyamurthy

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  1. Amrit Kumar Thakur
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  2. Ravishankar Sathyamurthy
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Contributions

Amrit Kumar Thakur: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, validation, and writing — reviewing; formal analysis.

Ravishankar Sathyamurthy: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, validation, and writing — reviewing; formal analysis, project administration, and supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ravishankar Sathyamurthy.

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Thakur, A.K., Sathyamurthy, R. Improving the potable water generation through tubular solar still using eggshell powder (bio-based energy source) as a natural energy storage material — an experimental approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 40903–40920 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18906-8

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