Abstract :

A solar desalination unit consisting of a set of conventional basin-type solar stills, and a set of condensation pipes buried in the soil was investigated in this study. The effects of soil moisture and condensation pipes length, depth, diameter and material of the pipes in improving the efficiency of the solar still was studied. Compared to the traditional condensers used in conventional basin type solar stills, it was found that using buried metallic pipes as condensers led to an increase in the freshwater production rate by up to 136%. Additionally, increasing the soil moisture led to improvements in the effectiveness of the buried condensation pipes in condensing more freshwater. Compared to conventional solar stills the freshwater production rate in this study increased by about 54% for a soil moisture level of 30%. Furthermore, metallic pipes produced more freshwater compared to plastic pipes of the same heat transfer surface area. Compared to the plastic pipes, fresh water production rate increased by 98% when metallic pipes were used.