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Improvising the efficiency of single-sloped solar still using thermally conductive nano-ferric oxide

  • Renewable Energy and Water Sustainability
  • Published:
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Abstract

The world is facing a severe shortage of freshwater, and so we are in urge to fetch new technologies to resolve water scarcity. To desalinate saline water, the single-sloped solar still (SSSS) has proven to be a viable option with much affordability. This research work concentrates on the usage of nanomaterial on the absorbent layer to improve the thermal conductivity of the basin area and thus the distillate produced per hour. The micro-coated and nano-Fe2O3 particles were employed and analyzed. The experiment proved that the implementation of this idea had a better productivity rate. The nanoparticles and microparticles were added at weight proportions of 10%. The experiment was conducted on two consecutive days. On the first day, the saline water was maintained at 0.5 cm depth, while on the next day, the saline water level was maintained at 1 cm. The cumulative yield for micro absorbent layer solar still (MALSS) was 3.23 kg/m2 and nanoabsorbent layer solar still (NALSS) was 4.39 kg/m2.

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Abbreviations

SSSS:

Single-sloped solar still

CSS:

Conventional solar still

MALSS:

Micro absorbent layer solar still

NALSS:

Nanoabsorbent layer solar still

TDS:

Total dissolved solids

RPM:

Revolutions per minute

Ta :

Ambient temperature (°C)

G:

Irradiance (W/m2)

Va :

Wind speed (m/s)

Tw :

Basin water temperature (°C)

Tg :

Glass cover temperature (°C)

m ew :

Hourly productivity from a solar still (kg/m2 h)

Lfg :

Latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg K)

ηth :

Thermal efficiency (%)

h:

Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

Is (t):

Solar intensity (W/m2)

g:

Glass

s :

Sun

A:

Area (m2)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 625701, India

    Gurukarthik Babu Balachandran, Prince Winston David & Rajesh Kannan Mariappan

  2. Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Abd Elnaby Kabeel

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, 600048, India

    Muthu Manokar Athikesavan

  4. Department of Automobile Engineering, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 603103, India

    Ravishankar Sathyamurthy

Authors
  1. Gurukarthik Babu Balachandran
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  2. Prince Winston David
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  3. Rajesh Kannan Mariappan
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  4. Abd Elnaby Kabeel
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  5. Muthu Manokar Athikesavan
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  6. Ravishankar Sathyamurthy
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Correspondence to Gurukarthik Babu Balachandran.

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Balachandran, G.B., David, P.W., Mariappan, R.K. et al. Improvising the efficiency of single-sloped solar still using thermally conductive nano-ferric oxide. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 32191–32204 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06661-2

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