Enhancement of productivity of solar still with use of energy storage materials: A short review

Abstract

Solar still technology is a sustainable, low cost option for freshwater production in water scarce areas, but with limited productivity. The present short communication discusses some recent developments in improvement of the efficiency of solar stills by incorporating different thermal energy storage materials. Use of natural materials, agricultural wastes, and phase change materials (PCM) effectively store surplus thermal energy during the day to continue the distillation process at night. The technology that yielded the most fresh water (8.69 L/m2/day) and reduced potable water costs by 50.52% was eggshell powder, and wick-covered cement conical fins yielded 7.90 L/m2/day. Moreover, the use of agricultural wastes such as carbonized custard apple seeds increased productivity by 115.5%. The results show that the hybrid designs and low-cost natural storage media configurations are consistently superior to the traditional designs. The optimization using AI, long-term durability tests under field conditions, and scaling of hybrid thermal storage systems to further enhance the commercial viability are highlighted as future research priorities.