The effects of graphite nanoparticles, phase change material, and film cooling on the solar still performance

Abstract

In this paper, we performed four modifications on the solar still, as (A) adding the graphite nanoparticles, (B) the graphite nanoparticles together with the phase change material (PCM), (C) the graphite nanoparticles together with glass film cooling, and (D) graphite nanoparticles with both PCM and glass film cooling. The effects of modifications are measured and compared with each other. The productivities of modified (A), (B), (C), and (D) solar stills are enhanced by about 50.28%, 65.00%, 56.15% and 73.80%, respectively, as compared with the conventional solar still. The influences of saline water depths on the performance of modifications (A) and (B) are also considered. Results revealed that the best output yield is obtained for 0.5cm water depth for all solar stills.