DOI: https://doi.org/10.61435/ijred.2025.60704

Experimental investigation of the cooling effect in an autonomous-orienting conventional solar still

Renewable Energies Laboratory, Energy and Farm Machinery Department – Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine – Madinat Al Irfane, B.P. 6202, Rabat, Morocco

Received: 10 Oct 2024; Revised: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 25 Jun 2025; Available online: 20 Jul 2025; Published: 1 Sep 2025.
Editor(s): Soulayman Soulayman
Open Access Copyright (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published by Centre of Biomass and Renewable Energy (CBIORE)
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

This study aims to assess the cooling effect of the condensing glass cover in a high-temperature conventional solar still (CSS) that dynamically operates, continuously changing its orientation to track the sun from sunrise to sunset. The solar distiller was integrated with a 2-axis solar tracking system assisted by a parabolic trough concentrator (PTC). Throughout the day, the CSS adjusts its orientation while the PTC maintains constant focus on the absorber at the bottom of the still, thereby enhancing the evaporation processes. Simultaneously, the planned cooling processes of the top glass cover are in operation. The impact of two different cooling techniques was investigated. The first one consisted of flowing cooling water over the condensing glass of the PTC-CSS, while the second technique aimed to submerge the entire condensing cover using a modified basin. The analysis revealed positive impact regarding the CSS performance with condensing surface cooling compared to the tubular solar still (TSS). Flowing water had a limited effect on reducing the glass cover's temperature, resulting in only a 2°C decrease. Nonetheless, this yielded 4050 ml/day, marking a 12.16% increase. The second technique widened the water–glass temperature difference, leading to an improvement in productivity up to 6120 ml/day, which is 69.48% higher than that achieved with no cooling. Overall efficiency of the device can be assessed as moderate to low, owing to the high temperature of the condensing cover that continues to be the most significant constraint for the CSS associated with PTC.

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Keywords: Solar still; cooling; desalination; distillation; solar tracker; parabolic trough concentrator

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Section: Original Research Article
Language : EN
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