Passive Solar Desalination Systems. Classification, Study Parameters and Future Enhancements.

Abstract

The scarcity in fresh water worldwide led to a great interest for the desalination systems. Passive desalination is a category of the desalination systems that fits the brackish and saline water desalination in the isolated zones without external energy source. This article introduces a comprehensive discussion of the existing designs of passive solar desalination systems. This includes the classification of different designs as well. The different parameters affecting the performance of the passive solar desalination systems are explored and discussed. The minimum water depth found to perform better than large water depths in the still basin. The wind speed found to affect positively on the desalination rate due to increasing the condensation rate. Using the fins on the surface of the cover found to enhance the desalinate productivity. Using of the heat storage found to improve the productivity during nighttime. Using reflectors to increase the solar energy incident on the basin increases the desalinate productivity. the inclination angle of the still found to improve the productivity if it is near the location latitude. However, the cover inclination has a negligible effect on the productivity. The cover material is preferred to be transparent with high thermal conductivity and lower thickness. Upon the findings based on the different parameters, some research points were suggested to enhance the performance of such systems.