Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305

Impact of temperature difference (water-solar collector) on

solar-still global efficiency

Pr. Kaabi Abdenacer*, Smakdji Nafila

Département du Génie Climatique, Université Mentouri, Route de Ain El Bey, 25000 Constantine, Algeria
Tel. /Fax +213 31 81 90 12; email: [email protected]

Abstract
Different theoretical and experimental studies carried out in the field of solar distillation with green-house
effect, have shown that global efficiency of a simple solar still are affected by physical and building parameters,
especially by the difference of temperature between the evaporation surface and that of the condensation.
Optimising this difference allows us to obtain a solar still with a better efficiency. A mathematical modelling has
been carried out aided by some basic and simplified hypotheses, according to overall thermal balances and
appropriate heat and mass coefficients, while taking into consideration a stagnant area in the solar still. Resolution
of equations, based on method of finite differences, has shown that a better efficiency is obtained at a maximum
temperature difference, as well as we can obtain this latter by a low glass thickness, a gradient (angle of
inclination) closer to that of the area latitude, in which our solar still is placed, a low thickness of the solution to
be distilled and a high wind velocity. Results issued from this study show clearly the importance of a cooled
condensation surface and a hotter evaporation surface.
Keywords: Backish-water desalination; Solar distillation; Global efficiency; Evaporation; Condensation;
Temperature difference

1. Introduction supply is being faced, where saline water is

Considering the increasing demand on water available and desalination represents a solution
all over the world and the water resources deple- for water resources increase.
tion, sea-water and/or brackish-water desalina- Progress in desalination has been made to the
tion are considered, in fact, as a contemplated point where industrial units have been set up
principle to realise, in order to obtain soft or using energy with a high cost price of a pro-
drinking water. In Algeria, the problem of water duced water cubic meters. In spite of having a
low efficiency, solar distillation proved to be a
*Corresponding author.
process of soft-water production, economically

The Ninth Arab International Conference on Solar Energy (AICSE-9), Kingdom of Bahrain

0011-9164/06/$– See front matter © 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2007.04.043
 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305 299

viable, particularly in desert areas, which have factor of 4.5, in order to pump water from the
an important solar deposit and where rainfall is Nile River for irrigation purpose.
rare or mostly absent. However, in the case of Solar energy still being used till 1938, from
the south of Algeria, an important groundwater which there was no other progress in solar-
resource, mostly brackish, is available and energy field, because of its lack of competitive-
where solar distillation can be an adequate solu- ness compared to energy issued from fossil
tion to face the increasing demand on soft water. fuels. From 1950, use of solar energy, began to
The aim of our work is to study the energetic develop slowly [1]. Among solar energy uses,
global efficiency of a solar still with a green- we can quote heating and air conditioning for
house effect, which is dependent on the temper- respectively building, solar swimming-pools, salt
ature difference between the brine and the inner production through salted-water evaporation,
side of the glass, on the climate and geometric drying products issued from agriculture and
parameters and on those related to the brine. A animals, solar cookers and pumps, food preser-
theoretical study has been carried out in order to vation, photovoltaic conversion, solar furnace,
set up equations governing the performance sys- electricity production, indirect solar-energy
tem as well as parameters influencing solar-still conversion, wind energy, hot-water production
efficiency. and for domestic and industrial use and distilled
By knowing equations governing the inner water [2].
and the outer heat transfer and through experi-
mental models, we can, by mathematical simu-
lation, set up an adequate solar still and elaborate 3. Main characteristics of saline water
a mathematical model, being able to meet Water resources the world is mostly saline,
distilled-water demand and where efficiency of which an excessive salt content renders their
can reach acceptable values. use inappropriate for human activities, and
where salt elimination is required. Sea water and
brackish water can then be distilled.
2. Literature review Sea-water composition is variable; it con-
It seems that Egyptians who discovered first tains about fifty simple substances, where chlo-
green-house effect. Use of solar energy began in rine represents 55% from the total weight of the
the third century before J. C, by Archimedes and dissolved salts. However, sea-water salinity is
100 years after J. C, by Heron of Alexandria, in closer to 35 g/l, but it changes from one sea to
1615 by Salomon de Gauss, in 1774 by Joseph another.
Priestley and in 1878 a solar still of 5000 m2 has Brackish water is defined as saline water
been set up in the desert of Atacama (Chile), in not drinkable, where its salinity is lower than
order to supply in water a mine of sodium nitrate. that from sea water; this salinity is usually con-
After 1878, works on solar energy has slow down tained between 1 and 33 g/l. Brackish water can
because of fossil energy availability in a lower be identified by its degree of salinity: waters
cost. Solar energy has been reused from 1902 to called slightly brackish have a salinity between
1908, by Schuman who built up solar machines 1 and 3 g/l. Moderately brackish waters have a
with much horse power to pump water. salinity between 3 and 10 g/l. High brackish
In 1913, Boys set up, near Cairo (Egypt), a waters have a salinity beyond 10 g/l. The first
big machine of 50 horse power with lengthy two categories are the most widespread, usually
parabolic cylinders which concentrates solar radia- found in North Africa, in Middle Eastern
tions upon a central pipe with a concentration countries and in some areas of USA. Chemical
300 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305

composition of this type of water changes also, 5. Solar distillation

for the same area, from one season to another, Solar distillation is used to supply small com-
and is dependent on many parameters such as munities with soft water, where drinking water is
physical structures of the rocks through which hardly existent. Solar distillation has been used
water is flowing, water flow-velocity inside the since many centuries. Mouchot has reported that
rocks, the contact time, the already dissolved the Arab alchemists are the first to have set up, in
substance and the evaporation phenomena. 1551, apparatus for water distillation [5]. The
French chemist Lavaoisier has used, in 1862,
4. Desalination techniques wide glass lenses, to concentrate solar rays to
distillate water being inside the flasks [5].
We can operate desalination for sea water The first conventional solar still is appeared
from which salinity is closer to 35 g/l, or for in 1872 near Las Salinas (north of Chile). The
brackish water having salinity between 1 and 10 model has been made up by Carlos Wilson, a
g/l. However, there is a thermodynamic problem Swedish engineer, with a glazed surface spread
relied to the source of water to be desalinated, over 5000 m2; it worked till only 1910, because
where efficiency is different. We therefore of a major problem relied to the rapid accumula-
notice that brackish water, for its salinity, tion of salts in the basin, requiring then a regular
requires less energy for its desalination than that cleaning of the still [6].
required by sea water, which means that effi- In 1920, Kaush has used a metallic reflector
ciency is different (Table 1). For this reason, to concentrate solar rays [6]. Pasteur has used, in
there are processes of desalination being used 1928, many concentrators to focus solar rays in
which are classified into two groups: order to heat water through a boiler. At the
• Distillation process (simple-effect distilla- beginning of the thirties, Trifinov has proposed
tion, multiple-effect distillation, distillation a cylindrical still [7]. Abbot has, in 1938, used
by vapour compression and distillation cylindrical and parabolic reflectors, to concen-
“flash”) [3]. trate solar rays and where the overall is con-
• Membrane process, which is a simple tech- veyed in tubes filled with water [7]. Maria Telks
nique used at ambient temperatures and con- has, in 1945, discovered a new type of solar still
suming only electric or mechanic energy called “spherical still”, used by the American
(electro-dialyse process and reverse osmo- marines: about 200,000 of this model have been
ses) [4]. used during the world war. As there was a
drought, just after the war, they used solar distil-
lation as an alternate solution to the problem.
Table 1 Cooper has, in 1969, proposed a simulation to
Comparison of energy quantities used for brackish- analyse efficiency of green-house solar still [8].
water and sea-water desalination Since the 1970s, many other types of solar
stills have been elaborated and studied, from
Soft water (%) Energy/m3 (kW) Energy/m3 (kW)
which we can quote: multiple-effect solar still,
initial water:sea initial water:
water brackish water
steeped plate or steeped solar still, wick solar
still or multiple-wick solar still and the combined
10 0.8 0.032 solar still–green house [9].
50 1.10 0.174 Many countries have then approached solar
90 2.20 0.290
still, like Algeria (1963) [10], Australia (1963
 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305 301

and 1967) [11], Chile (1969 and 1970) [12], Tve

Greece (1964–1973) [11], India (1957 and Reflection Gh

1966) [12,13], Tunisia (1960) [14] and USA

(1952) [15]. qca
Tvi
qra
Water inner
Absorption Reflection
6. Typical solar stills
We can distinguish two types of solar stills
with green-house effect: static stills (still with Insulation
green-house effect, solar still with cascade,
Fig. 1. Static solar still with a simple effect.
sweeping spherical still, steeped still with a
black and porous material and soil–water still)
and streaming solar stills.
8. Basic hypotheses of simplification
7. Theoretical study of a solar still In order to avoid complicating the study of
The aim of the study is to analyse the behav- this type of solar still, we allowed the following
iour of different solar-still components as well hypotheses:
as parameters having an effect on the solar-still • Temperatures of respectively the inner and
performance: the cover (through its nature, its the outer sides of the glass, of the brine, of
transmittance, its wetness and its inclination the absorber and inside the insulator are sup-
degree), the black plane, the space between the posed uniform;
brine and the cover, the brine thickness, the • Water condensation on the cover is homoge-
brine temperature, the wind velocity, the ambient neous and continuous;
temperature and the salt concentration. The aim • Lateral sides are at constant pressure (adia-
of this work is also to study the main solar-still batic);
characteristics, through its global and internal • Heat loss in the basin comes from the basis;
efficiency. • Brine inside the basin is static;
In our case, we have selected a static solar • The vault is considered as a black body;
still with a simple green-house effect, for its • Physical properties of materials are considered
quality like its simple design, its high daily output constant;
and because it does not require a stocking system • Brine concentration does not intervene in the
and it is economic [16]. mass and heat transfer, from and to the brine.
We are interested also to models taking into
account global thermal balance by bringing in a Finally, an analogy between thermal and
stagnant zone called “buffer zone”, inside the electric dimensions has been carried out.
solar still and where temperature and surface
pressure of vapour are constant as described also 9. Thermal balance
in Baum model [17]. A mathematical model has
been set up, expressing the performance of a The thermal balance is carried out regarding
static solar still with a regular geometry [16]. to the following law:
This device distils a charge of pure water, main-
M i ⋅ cpi dTi (1)
tained constant and subject to a constant global- ⋅
solar flow (Fig. 1). Si dt
302 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305

The balance is carried throughout: the cover 11. Interpretation and discussion of the
(inner and outer sides), the brine, the black sur- results
face and the insulation (inner and outer sides). The resolution of equations has allowed us to
obtain results, where computation has been
10. Mathematical resolution carried out for each component of the still at an
initial time “t” and at an initial temperature “Te”
The aim, here, is to study the model behav- with a time step equals to 1 h, and taking into
iour, which is relied to spatial and temporal divi- account geographical coordinates such as the
sions of some spatial sections having a length longitude and the time lag of the considered area
“Δx”, corresponding to the flow direction and to (Ouargla, south of Algeria) and where meteoro-
periods “Δt”, in the interval time “t + Δt”, we logical and design parameters have been
describe then all the system from the first to the selected for the day of July 15th.
last section. Resolution of the equation system, In addition to remarks that we can make about
expressing thermal and mass balances, gives the different parameters affecting the solar still,
temperature distribution for each section. The we can limit our discussion about the impact of
calculation is developed as follows: the temperature difference “Δt” on the energy
• At the initial time, all the elements are sup- output (Fig. 2) and on the efficiency (Fig. 3), in
posed at ambient temperature excepting the one hand and about the effect of wind velocity,
brine temperature. the inclination angle “β” and glass thickness on
• At each step time, and for each section, we the same temperature (Figs. 4–6) in another hand.
resolve the equation system by fixing param- Throughout the different results issued from
eters governing the system work, represented the simulation, we notice that the solar-still
essentially by the temperature. energy output and the power absorbed by the
glass and the brine reach their maximum value
Computation procedure is carried out accord- between 11.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m.
ing to the following steps: We notice also that the temperature is increas-
• Computation of thermal-exchange coefficients ing at the inner side of the glass “Tvi”, which is due
between the different elements, represented to different heat flows (by convection, radiation
by their temperatures at the instant “t”; and evaporation), going up to the glass (Fig. 2).
• Re-computing temperatures from thermal-
exchange coefficient being already computed; 800
• Re-computing thermal-exchange temperature 700
Simulation
Régression polynomiale
from the new temperatures. 600
Energy output (W/m2)

500
The two last steps are then repeated till we
400
reach accuracy between two successive iterations,
300
then, we carry out the same model (algorithm)
200
for the interval “t + Δt”, “t + 2Δt”, etc. till a
100
complete use of time “t”.
0
In our case, the solar still has been divided, 2 4 6 8 10 12
ΔT (°C)
in the space term, into two parts from which
ev = 0.002 m, β = 30°, V = 2.5 m/h, es = 0.02 m
the width is 50 cm and a step time is of one 2 2
qevap : Y = 311.45 + 145.59 × X –4.98 × X ; R = 0.999; P = 4.37 × 10
–4

hour, which usually suits well the distillation

system. Fig. 2. Variation of the evaporated energy output with ΔT.
 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305 303

0.9
6.3 Simulation
Régression polynomiale
0.8 Simulation
6.2
Regression polynomiale

6.1
0.7
Efficiency

ΔT (°C)
6.0
0.6
5.9

0.5
5.8

0.4 5.7

3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

ΔT (°C) Inclination angle β (degree)
ev = 0.002 m, β = 30°, V = 2.5 m/h, es = 0.02 m
ev = 0.002, V = 2.5 m/h, es = 0.01 m
2 2
Efficiency : Y = 0.455 – 0.057 × X + 0.0157 × X ; R = 0.81; P = 0.043
ΔT : Y = 5.015 + 0.0845 × X –0.00145 × X2; R2 = 0.971; P = 0.016

Fig. 3. Variation of the global efficiency with ΔT. Fig. 5. Variation of Δt with the inclination angle β.

The increasing in wind velocity, leads to an

As we can also notice that the temperature change
increasing production in distilled water, as well
is more and more slow, which may due to the
as to a better cooling of the inner and the outer
important heat loss due essentially to convection
glass sides, followed by an important temperature
and infrared radiation of the glass to external
difference between the brine and the inner side
environment.
of the glass (Fig. 4), where this difference is of a
A better global efficiency has taken place at
great interest, as it represents the cooler agent of
2.00 p.m., which can be explained by the exist-
the glass and where the external heat losses by
ing, at this time, of a better sunshine intensity as
convection can reach their maximum, as the coef-
well as a better temperature difference between
ficient of external heat exchange is dependent
the brine and the glass, yielding an important
on the wind velocity according to the relation:
quantity of evaporated energy (Fig. 3).
h = 5.7 + 3.8⋅ V (2)
8.0
We notice also that “ΔT” is reaching its maxi-
Simulation
7.5
Régression polynomiale mum for the same inclination (Fig. 5), yielding to
a better efficiency (Fig. 3). However, the power
7.0
absorbed by the brine decreases, as it receives
less energy and from which a part of this energy
ΔT (°C)

6.5

is absorbed by the thick glass, reducing then the

6.0
temperature difference between the brine and
5.5
that from the inner side of the glass (Fig. 6).

5.0
12. Conclusions and recommendations
1 2 3 4 5
Wind velocity (m/h) Elaborating this work has allowed us to set up
ev = 0.002 m, β = 30°, es = 0.02 m, heure locale = 13 h a model, being able to simulate the performance
ΔT : Y = 4.35 + 0.886 × X + 0.0226 × X2; R2 = 0.999; P = 1.01 × 10–4
of a solar still with a simple green-house effect.
Fig. 4. Variation of the temperature difference (ΔT) After setting up equations describing different
with wind velocity. phenomena governing the solar-still performance,
304 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305

6.5 • A higher temperature difference is obtained

Simulation
Régression polynomiale through the increasing of wind velocity, in
6.0 other words, through the increasing of external-
exchange coefficient by convection. Therefore,
5.5
we can say that design of such a solar still
needs to optimise parameters relied to its form
ΔT (°C)

and to its performance. A better optimisation

5.0
can also be obtained by a compromise between
respectively the glass inclination, the water
4.5
thickness, the wind velocity, the type of the
absorber as well as that of the insulator.
4.0
0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006
Thickness (m)
β = 30°, V = 2.5 m/h, es = 0.02 m, local hour = 13.00
In our case, a better production has been
2
ΔT : Y = 7.306 – 516 × X; R = 0.999; P<0.0001 obtained by using copper as the absorber mate-
rial having 3 mm in thickness and painted on
Fig. 6. Variation of the temperature difference (ΔT). black dull, and an ordinary glass having 2 mm in
with glass thickness.
thickness and having an inclination angle of 30°
and where a soaked glass is preferred. While in
we have set up a programme in order to define the
the opposite case, we may have a condensation
optimum conditions to realise a better efficiency of
in drops, giving a relatively important reflected-
the system. Resolution of the equations has been
radiation, and finally a wind velocity of 2.5 m/h.
carried out through finite-elements method. Using
In order to obtain a higher temperature differ-
this programme, we have first computed the
ence, we recommend:
instantaneous temperature through the different
• A preliminary heating of the brine before
components of the solar still, the temperature
bringing it into the solar still.
difference between the brine and the inner side
• A cooling of the glass by using a fan working
of the glass, and then the global efficiency and
with an electrical energy which is produced
the daily production issued both from the model.
by a photovoltaic system.
We have also studied the effect of the meteo-
• A cooling of the outer side of the glass by
rological and geometrical parameters on the tem-
flowing first the brine through the glass,
perature difference between the brine and the
before bringing it into the solar still.
inner side of the glass such as: the glass inclina-
• And the use of glass having blades at its
tion in relation with the horizontal position, the
external side, in order to increase heat losses
wind velocity, the initial brine thickness and
by convection, leading to cooling the inner
the glass thickness as well. We studied also the
side of the glass.
effect of this difference on the global efficiency
and on the distilled-water production, where the
obtained results allow us to observe that: References
• The increasing of temperature difference
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set up. Edition, 1978.
 Pr. K. Abdenacer, S. Nafila / Desalination 209 (2007) 298–305 305

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