Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519

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Groundwater for Sustainable Development

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/gsd

Review Article

Internal and external improvements of wick type solar stills in different

configurations for drinking water production– A review
Mariem Jobrane a, b, *, Achim Kopmeier c, Aliza Kahn d, Henry-Michel Cauchie b,
Adel Kharroubi e, Christian Penny b, **
a
National Engineering School of Gabes (ENIG), University of Gabes, Tunisia
b
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg
c
Myriado Cleantech Sàrl, Luxembourg
d
Jiddereen Sàrl, Luxembourg
e
Higher Institute of the Sciences and Techniques of Waters of Gabès (ISSTEG), University of Gabes, Tunisia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Water scarcity is one of the major problems facing the worldwide humankind due to the growing population,
Solar still water pollution and climate change. Therefore, producing freshwater using simple low-cost technology, has
Solar energy become a main challenge for researchers. Recently, several research studies aiming the improvement of the solar
Wick cloths
still devices have inferred that the wick type solar stills are among the most effective and efficient distillers. In the
Drinking water
Wick materials
present work, an attempt is made to present the current status of wick solar stills, highlighting the main in­
Efficiency novations and improvements. The geometrical design, wick arrangements and heating system integration appear
to have significant effects on enhancing the freshwater productivity of the wick type solar still. The wick solar
distiller in tilted shape increases the efficiency by around 60% in comparing to the conventional system.
Installing a rotating wick cloth provides high efficiency between 66% and 84%. Integrating a parabolic
concentrator solar tracking system with wick solar still enhances the productivity by 676%. Furthermore, this
work critically reviewed the influence of providing various wick materials on the thermal efficiency of not only
the conventional distillers but also of several configurations of solar still device. This comparative review pre­
sents a reference guide for future researchers intending to improve the performance of wick type solar stills and
focus on the most efficient techniques.

1. Introduction
Solar distillation in small scale devices is a cost-effective technology,
which presents a conceivable alternative solution for reducing the global
water stress and supplying safe drinking water in many regions around
the world. Several designs and technological innovations have been
introduced by the scientific community with the aim of coupling
renewable energy and desalination processes for freshwater production.
The solar still is the simplest device among the solar distillation systems,
and its principle is based on evaporation and condensation processes
(Das et al., 2020). The conventional solar still can be described as a basin
with a top cover of transparent material like glass or plastic. The inner
surface of the basin is blackened to efficiently absorb the entering solar
radiation. The solar energy passing through the transparent cover heats
up the brine water in the basin. The vapor then rises and condenses on
the underside of the top cover (Kaviti et al., 2016). A tremendous
amount of research studies were carried out during the last few years
with the aim of developing several possible configurations of solar stills,
based on theoretical and experimental approaches (Sampathkumar
et al., 2010) (Arunkumar et al., 2019). Increasing the amount of
drinking water output was the focus of intensive investigations (Selvaraj
and Natarajan, 2018). Thus, many studies inferred that the best distillate
yield is achieved by improving the evaporation process. Further in­
vestigations revealed that the evaporation rate is proportional to the
water exposure area inside the still (Selvaraj and Natarajan, 2018).
Therefore, using a black porous wick, supported by a tray or a frame,
inside the solar still has a significant effect on increasing the free water
surface and improving the evaporation rate (Kaviti et al., 2016).

* Corresponding author. National Engineering School of Gabes (ENIG), University of Gabes, Tunisia.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mariem.jobrane@list.lu (M. Jobrane), christian.penny@list.lu (C. Penny).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2020.100519
Received 18 June 2020; Received in revised form 31 August 2020; Accepted 2 November 2020
Available online 9 November 2020
2352-801X/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
M. Jobrane et al. Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519

Through the wick, the feed water slowly flows and gets evaporated once
receiving the solar energy and condenses on the inner surface of the
glass cover (Bhattacharyya 2013). Thereby, the black wick cloth acts as
a surface of sunrays absorption and water transport medium simulta­
neously (Mahdi et al. 2011). The wick covering all the surface area of the
basin is characterized by a high capillarity action property that leads to
rising the brine temperature by increasing its residence time and
reducing the water depth inside the still (Mahdi et al. 2011). However,
wick type solar stills also have some drawbacks. The first major problem
is the degradation of the wick material and the clogging of its pores due
to salt deposition. In addition, it is difficult to carefully control the brine
flow in order to avoid the dry spots throughout the wick surface (Mahdi
et al. 2011). In this context, many research studies were developed in
order to test several wick materials and to select the best choice that
ensures a high performance of the still (Hansen et al. 2015). Among the
earlier used wick in solar distillation devices is the jute cloth. The latter
is the most popular natural material that was used because of its low cost
and large availability (Sakthivel et al., 2010). Many researchers used the
jute cloth inside the solar still, such as (Prakash et al., 2016) and (Pal
et al., 2017). (Agrawal et al., 2018) conducted experimental research for
wick solar stills in Rewa, India. The results showed that integrating the
jute cloth offered a large evaporation surface area to the system, it led to
an increase in the cumulative distillate yield by 62% higher than that of
solar still without blackened jute. On the other hand, charcoal cloth has
high solar absorption properties, thus, it was integrated as heat absorber
medium in many research studies such as (Mahdi et al. 2011) and (Ouar
et al., 2017). Several investigations were established with the aim of
comparing the performance of wick type solar stills based on testing
different integrated wick materials as presented in Table 1. Further­
more, many research studies inferred that the efficiency of the wick type
solar stills could be improved not only by selecting the right wicking
material but also by investigating some internal and external modifi­
cations on the wick configuration and the still design. Usually the wick
type solar still is briefly cited in the literature reviews in the field of solar
distillation as a traditional solar still integrated with a wick cloth instead
of using simple absorber plate. However, numerous interesting research
studies have been developed recently for improving the performance of
wick type solar distillers by investigating different designs and several
internal and external modifications. Most of these investigations proved
that coupling the use of absorbing wick material with appropriate en­
hancements provides a high significant distillate output. Accordingly,
the present study focuses on describing the design specifications and
highlighting numerous improvements of the wick solar stills up on
which research efforts have been focusing in the recent past. All the
considered research studies are classified into three main categories
according to their improvement methodologies, namely wick solar stills
with various geometrical designs, with various wick cloth arrangements
and with different integrated heating systems. Each section ends with
relevant research points analysis and a critical discussion. Furthermore,
the major limitations and the research gaps in the introduced in­
vestigations are identified in this review, also several alternative prop­
ositions for wick type solar still improvement are provided. Therefore,
this research work presents an extensive review of state-of-the-art and a
comprehensive critical analysis of the most important optimizations in
the field of water desalination by using wick cloths together with solar
energy (see Table 2).
2. Wick type solar stills with various geometrical designs
The wick type solar still has gained the interest of many solar
distillation research groups with the aim of developing improved design
while maintaining the simplicity and low cost. In this section, wick type
solar stills with different configurations are discussed.
2.1. Wick solar still in tilted form
The wick solar still in tilted shape is one of the simplest devices that
offer a suitable angle to the sun, thus it enhances the absorption of the
sunrays and reduces the reflection (Aybar et al., 2016). Tilted wick solar
still at 30◦ of inclination was studied by (Munisamy et al., 2017). The

Table 1
Most efficient wick materials.
Wick References Advantages Drawbacks Results
materials

Jute cloth (Sakthivel et al., 2010), (Prakash - Most popular choice
et al., 2016), (Pal et al., 2017), ( - Very cheap
Agrawal et al., 2018) - Easily available
Charcoal (Mahdi et al. 2011), (Ouar et al., - Essentially black
cloth 2017) - No contraction after being
immersed in water
- Significant solar absorption
and capillary action
properties
Cow dung Panchal (2015) - Easily available
cakes - Relatively cheap
- Efficient physical
properties (porosity)
- Significant heat storing
capacity
Light black (Murugavel and Srithar 2011), ( - Cost-effective
cotton cloth Sriram et al. 2013), (Ahmed and - Efficient porosity
Ibrahim 2016) - Important solar radiation
absorption capacity
Water coral Hansen et al. (2015) - Significant durability and
fleece lifespan properties
- Important capillary action
and heat transfer capacity
Steel wool Yousef et al. (2019) - Significant thermal
fibres conductivity
- Efficient absorption of solar
radiation
- Degradation with time
- Blockage of pores and
lading
- Not black (Black dye is
required)
- More expensive than the
blackened jute
- Production of toxic gases at
high temperatures
- Limited resistance to fading
due to long-term sun
exposure
- Possibility of damage at
very elevated temperatures
- Decrease of the wicking
properties with time
- Significant improvement of the evaporation process.
- Enhancement of the solar still efficiency by 62%.
- Improvement of the daily efficiency by about 53%.
- Amelioration of the productivity up to 15% in
comparison to the jute cloth.
- Improvement of the heat transfer mechanism.
- Increase of the productivity by 25% higher than that
of simple steel plate absorber.
- Significant increase of the distillate output by 89% in
comparison to the simple plate basin solar still.
- Enhancement of the overall productivity rate by 71%
with stepped wire mesh absorber in comparison to
the conventional system.
- Quick increase of the water temperature.
- Efficient improvement of the annual yield by 1496.5
L of water.
- Significant reduction of CO2 emissions by 15.6 tons
for 10 years lifetime.

2
M. Jobrane et al.
Table 2
Wick solar stills with different proposed improvements for enhanced productivity and efficiency.
Classification
Wick solar still with different
geometrical shapes
Wick solar still with different
internal arrangement of wicks
cloths
Wick solar still with different
coupled systems
Category
Tilted wick solar still
Double tilted wick solar still
Single slope basin solar still
Double slope basin wick solar still
Single basin solar still incorporated in a
double slope basin wick solar still
Wick solar still in pyramid shape
Wick Solar still with “V” profile
Wick solar still in tubular shape
Solar still with small pile of wick material
Solar still with partially covered wick
Solar still with wick in rectangular
grooves and ridges arrangement
Basin solar still with corrugated wick
Basin solar still with stepped wick
Solar still with vertical attached wick
Solar still with moving controlled wick
Solar still with multi–wicks
Wick type solar still with glass film
cooling
Wick solar still connected to
humidification-dehumidification unit
Solar still with tilted wick integrated with
single effect diffusion solar still
Solar still with tilted wick integrated with
multiple effect diffusion solar still
Wick type solar still with integrated
reflector
Wick type solar still with water heating
system
Wick solar still with integrated parabolic
concentrator solar tracking system
Wick solar still with integrated with mini
solar pond
References
(Munisamy et al., 2017), (
Sharon et al., 2017)
(Swellam W. Sharshir, Peng,
et al., 2020)
Aybar et al. (2016)
Ouar et al. (2017)
Gnanaraj and Velmurugan
(2019)
Rajaseenivasan et al. (2015)
Sathyamurthy et al. (2014)
Prakash et al. (2016)
Suneesh et al. (2016)
Elashmawy (2017)
Modi and Modi (2019)
Suneesh et al. (2017)
Anburaj et al. (2013)
Matrawy et al. (2015)
Kassem (2016)
(El-Agouz 2014),
(Swellam W. Sharshir,
Eltawil, et al., 2020)
Sakthivel et al. (2010)
Agrawal et al. (2018)
Gad, El-gayar, and Gad
(2011)
Haddad et al. (2017)
Abdullah et al. (2019)
Pal et al. (2017)
Pal et al. (2018)
Agrawal and Rana (2019)
Tiwari and Somwanshi
(2018)
Sharshir et al. (2016)
Tanaka and Iishi (2017)
Tanaka (2017)
Kaushal et al. (2017a)
Dhindsa and Mittal (2018)
Tanaka (2015)
Tanaka (2018)
Omara et al. (2013)
Elashmawy (2017)
Dhindsa and Mittal (2018)
3
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519
Results
- Increased operating temperatures compared to the classic
system.
- Maximum daily yield: 3.63 L/d.
- Cost of the produced water: 0.048$/L.
- Enhancement of average efficiency by 39.07% in comparison to
the same system without black fleece wick.
- Productivity enhancement: 25.35%, 18.42% and 6.87% in the
case of using the bitumen coating, charcoal, and black ink,
respectively.
- Daily productivity improvement: 42.33% in comparison to the
conventional device.
- Highest daily productivity: 3.58 L/d
- Exergy of the evaporation rate: 79.12%
- Significant improvement of the distillation process
- Average efficiency: 50.25%
- Maximum daily productivity: 5.25 L/m2.d
- Daily distillate yield: 5600 mL/m2.d
- Optimum conditions: 20◦ of wick inclination and 200 mL/min
of mass flow rate.
- Daily yield: 4.71 L/m2.d for 0.059 m2 of surface area.
- Daily efficiency: 36.5%.
- Cost of produced fresh water: 0.033$/L.
- Enhancement of distillate yield by18.03% for the case of using
the small pile of jute cloth.
- Total maximum fresh water output: 0.91 L/m2.h
- Quick rate of evaporation and increase of water temperature
- Daily productivity: 3.64 L/m2.d at 25◦ of inclination.
- Optimum inclination for the still: 30◦ .
- Maximum daily productivity: 4.21 L/d.
- Enhancement of evaporation surface area.
- Daily productivity: 34% higher than the simple basin solar still.
- Enhancement of the water surface area exposed to the solar
energy.
- Distillate output: 35.8% higher than the conventional solar still.
- Energy efficiency: 52.81% higher than the classic solar distiller.
- Cost of freshwater production: 19.91% lower than the
conventional system.
- Significant improvement of the evaporation rate.
- Cumulative yield: 62% higher than conventional solar still.
- Daily distillate output: 5.03 L/m2.d in winter and 7 L/m2.
d during summer
- Daily efficiency: 84% and 82% with and without integrating
nanofluid material with the wick cloth, respectively.
- Maximum energy: 35%
- Maximum exergy: 3.83%,
- Daily yield: 6.2 L/m2 in summer and 3.23 L/m2 in winter.
- Enhancement of the solar still efficiency.
- Distilled yield improvement: 5.38% during the day and 30%
during the night.
- Significant amelioration of the energy input owing to the feed
water preheated by the HDH.
- Distillate productivity improvement: 278.4%
- Freshwater productivity: 4.88 L/m2.d for 13.6 MJ/m2.d of daily
global solar radiation.
- Distillate output: 21% higher than the conventional basin type
solar still.
- Significant nocturnal productivity: 1.34 L/m2 due to the high
stored heat in the floating wick.
- Annual productivity enhancement: 28, 19 and 14% in case of
using a coupled reflector with 0, 0.5 and 1 m of gap length,
respectively.
- Significant improvement of daily and nocturnal productions of
distillate water.
- Overall productivity enhancement: 215% in comparison to the
classic solar still.
- Large productivity enhancement: 676% in comparison to the
system without integrated parabolic solar concentrator.
- Nocturnal yield enhancement: 71.32% due to the additional
heat offered by the coupled mini solar pond.
M. Jobrane et al.
experimental investigation was carried out with the aim of testing the
efficiency of four proposed wick materials (jute, polyester, terrycloth,
and fur fabric) and identifying their effects on enhancing the evapora­
tion process inside the inclined still device. The obtained results indi­
cated that the maximum daily yield of 3.63 L d− 1 was achieved in the
case of using the fur fabric as a wick material in tilted shape. In addition,
the researchers suggested installing many vertical plates within the
absorber in order to increase the residence time of the brine water
flowing inside the distiller (Sharon et al., 2017). carried out an inter­
esting comparative research between a tilted solar still with simple basin
and an inclined wick type distiller. The black blended woolen wick
installed in tilted profile was used as sunrays absorber medium in order
to heat up the brine water in continuous flow every 30 min. As results of
this study, the daily average and maximum operating temperatures of
the inclined wick solar still were found higher by around 5 ◦ C than that
of the solar distiller with simple basin. Furthermore (Sharshir et al.,
2020), investigated the performance of an inclined solar still by inte­
grating a novel wick metal chips pad and testing different basin mate­
rials such as aluminum, copper and steel. The solar distiller was tilted
with an angle of 20◦ and all the external walls and bottom were insulated
by using a foam sheet. The theoretical and experimental results inferred
that the inclined solar still with copper basin and the novel wick-copper
chips had a maximum thermal efficiency of 61%, while it was limited to
37% for the simple inclined solar still.
In a study by (Aybar et al., 2016) the effect of covering the absorber
plate with black fleece wick on the productivity of double inclined solar
still was investigated theoretically and experimentally. The proposed
setup can be described as two connected rectangular boxes tilted at an
angle of 35◦ . The comparative study between the single and the double
tilted solar stills, with and without black fleece wick, affirmed that an
enhancement of 39% in the hourly average efficiency was obtained for
the double inclined distiller with wick cloth. The augmented produc­
tivity of the proposed solar distiller was the result of the increased solar
radiation received by the tilted system, the good distribution of water
upon the wick material and the improved evaporation and condensation
processes inside the upper and the lower part.
2.2. Basin wick solar still with single or double slope
A single slope basin wick solar still was investigated by (Ouar et al.,
2017), with the purpose of testing the effect of different absorbent ma­
terials on the performance of the enhanced system. The experimental
tests were carried out during spring in southern Algeria. The results of
this study concluded that the addition of absorber material in the bottom
of the single slope basin solar still increased significantly the nocturnal
productivity due to the heat energy storage. Compared to the conven­
tional solar distiller, the experimental results revealed that the produc­
tivity enhancements were 25%, 18% and 7% in the case of using the
bitumen coating, charcoal and black ink, respectively. Furthermore
(Gnanaraj and Velmurugan, 2019), designed and build three double
slope basin solar stills with the same dimensions and with different in­
ternal modifications, such as finned corrugated basin, still with black
granite and still with wick. The comparative study between the several
improvements showed that the daily productivity enhancement of the
double slope basin wick solar still was 42% due to the increased evap­
oration rate during the day.
In another study, a single basin solar still incorporated in a double
slope basin wick distillation device was studied by (Rajaseenivasan
et al., 2015) in order to reduce the heat losses and increase the fresh­
water productivity. The glass covers of the two integrated boxes were at
30◦ of inclination and the basin situated above had three partitions at
each side to enhance the water surface area. The effect of installing
different wick and energy storage materials on the performance of the
proposed system was investigated by developing an exergy analysis of
the evaporation process. The authors have inferred that the exergy
evaporation of the enhanced device was estimated as 79%, while it was
4
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519
limited to 54% for the conventional still.
2.3. Wick solar still in pyramid shape
The use of a pyramid shape for the glass cover on the solar still was
investigated in many studies with the aim of enhancing the condensa­
tion surface area and rising the temperature difference between the
evaporation and condensation surfaces (Sathyamurthy et al., 2014).
(Prakash et al., 2016) studied the performance of a pyramid solar still,
which consisted of four glass sides connected to a double plywood basin
with glass wool in-between for high thermal insulation. The performed
experiments, with and without wick, indicated that the highest global
internal heat transfer was obtained for the pyramid solar still with wick
cloth. Therefore, 50% of average efficiency and 5.25 L m− 2.d− 1 of daily
productivity were achieved for the pyramid wick solar distiller.
2.4. Wick solar still with “V” profile
A wick type solar sill with “V” shape was introduced and studied by
(Suneesh et al., 2016). Through a thin layer of cotton gauze arranged on
the glass cover, the water flows to the center of the still and then is
passed to a special tank from where it is fed into the still upon the in­
clined wick. The angle of inclination of the tilted wick and the feed water
flow rate were optimized in this study. The performed experiments
proved that the “V”-type inclined wick solar still has a higher perfor­
mance compared to the conventional system. The high yield output of
the proposed device was achieved due to the hot water feeding on the
wicks, which enhances the evaporation rate. Furthermore, a 20◦ wick
inclination and 200 mL min− 1 of mass flow rate were confirmed as op­
timum conditions.
2.5. Wick solar still in tubular shape
The design and efficiency of a wick solar still in cylindrical shape was
investigated by (Elashmawy, 2017). A comparative study between the
use of black cotton cloth inside a rectangular trough, and half-cylindrical
trough without wick material was developed theoretically and experi­
mentally under the climatic conditions of Saudi Arabia. The results of
this study affirmed that the tubular solar still integrated with a porous
black wick yielded 4.21 L m− 2.d− 1, which presents an enhancement of
around 17% compared to the system without wick. Regarding the eco­
nomic analysis, the cost for 1 L of freshwater produced was 0.033$ and
0.044$ for the proposed device with and without wick material,
respectively.
Among the different geometrical configurations cited above, the
tilted wick type solar still is considered the most convenient and cost-
effective device based on its simple design and high efficiency. First,
the simplicity of the tilted solar still design is manifested in offering the
possibility to change the inclination according to the altitude of the
place and the climatic conditions. Furthermore, the design presents a
lightweight structure with much flexibility so that it can be easily
transferable and installed in the rooftop of a dwelling. The simplicity of
design and operation of the inclined solar distiller leads to a lower cost
per liter of freshwater produced. Therefore, it would be preferable to
keep the simplest geometrical shape and focus on the internal wick
arrangement to improve the performance of the wick type solar stills.
The different geometrical modifications are presented in Fig. 1.
3. Wick type solar stills with various wick cloth arrangements
As evidence from the aforementioned survey, the external engi­
neering design of the wick solar still could play a useful role in
improving the productivity and the efficiency of the system. Neverthe­
less, many other researchers have inferred that modifying the structure
and arrangement of the wick cloths inside the solar still can contribute
significantly to the enhancement of the distillation process and the
M. Jobrane et al.
performance of the solar distillers.
3.1. Solar still with small pile of wick materials
(Modi and Modi, 2019) suggested a new arrangement of the wick
material in the shape of a small pile immersed in water instead of
covering the entire basin surface. Testing of the efficiency of the pro­
posed configuration for two wick materials (jute and the black cotton
cloth), and for two different water depths (0.01 and 0.02 m) were car­
ried out experimentally using a simple slope double basin solar still and
under the spring climate of Gujarat, India. As a result of this study, the
small pile of jute immersed in 0.01 m of water depth in the lower basin
yielded 0.91 L m− 2. h− 1 of total maximum freshwater output. Therefore,
the overall productivity of the jute in a small pile shape was 18% higher
than the black cotton cloth within the same structure.
3.2. Solar still with partially covered wick
In 2017 (Suneesh et al., 2017), studied the effect of using a different
arrangement of wick material inside a “V” solar still configuration
instead of the baseline design. The basin was partially covered by the
black porous wick with periodic cavities. The experiments revealed that
the temperatures of the glass cover and the wick material were higher in
the case of using the proposed configuration than the completely
covered basin, which led to a quick rate of evaporation and an increased
Fig. 1. Wick type solar still improvement options.
5
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519
yield. Therefore, the solar still with fully covered basin by wick yielded
3.3 L m− 2.d− 1 at 25◦ of inclination, whereas the system with partially
covered basin produced a little bit higher distillate of 3.65 L m− 2.d− 1.
3.3. Solar still with wick in rectangular grooves and ridges arrangement
(Anburaj et al., 2013) investigated the effect of using different wick
cloths arranged on an aluminum tray with five sets of rectangular
grooves and ridges inside a tilted solar still. Black cotton cloth, waste
cotton pieces, jute cloth and other porous materials were tested with the
proposed absorber structure. Further experiments were performed in
this study to optimize the inclination angles (25◦ , 30◦ and 35◦ ) of the
system. The results showed that the optimum inclination of the
improved setup was 30◦ . Furthermore, the study inferred that placing
the black cotton cloth on the absorber plate with rectangular grooves
and ridges had the greatest effect on the productivity enhancement
(4.21 L d− 1) compared to the other wick materials.
3.4. Basin solar still with corrugated wick
The influence of integrating wick cloths in corrugated shape inside a
simple basin solar still was analyzed by (Matrawy et al., 2015). A
mathematical model based on energy balance equations and various
experimental tests of the proposed device were developed. The authors
concluded that the black wick installed in a corrugated profile
M. Jobrane et al.
significantly increased the evaporative area and reduced the heat ca­
pacity of the water. Therefore, the daily productivity of the enhanced
system raised by 34% compared to the conventional system (Kassem,
2016). also examined the performance of a basin solar still integrated
with black wick in a corrugated shape. The modified setup and a classic
solar distiller were tested under the same climatic conditions in Saudi
Arabia. The performed experiments indicated that the temperature of
the jute cloth with a corrugated form could reach 82 ◦ C, however it was
76 ◦ C for the simple absorber plate of the conventional system.
Furthermore, the efficiency of the new configuration was about 59%,
while it was found only 46% for the simple device.
3.5. Basin solar still with stepped wick
(El-Agouz 2014) proposed an improved configuration of wick cloth
inside the solar still. A layer of cotton cloth covered an absorber plate
that was inclined at angle of 30◦ with the horizontal design in stepped
shape. The modified stepped wick solar still aimed to enhance the
freshwater productivity by increasing the surface area of brine water
exposed to solar energy and enhancing the distribution of water with
continuous circulation at low depth. An experimental study was con­
ducted to investigate the performance of the proposed solar distiller
with feeding the device with seawater and saltwater with 40,772 and
1681 mg.L− 1 of total dissolved solids (TDS), respectively. The results
inferred that the daily efficiency of the modified stepped wick solar still
were 53% and 47% for sea and saltwater, respectively, with an
enhancement of 20% compared to the conventional solar still. After
desalination, the total dissolved solids (TDS) of seawater and salt water
were 41 and 27 mg.L− 1, respectively Sharshir and Eltawil, 2020. studied
the performance of a double slope basin solar still that integrated linen
wicks in a stepped structure. Inside the still, linen wicks were installed
on steps to transport the brine water from the water basin located in the
middle of the solar distiller. The wick cloths were used as a heat storage
material and the stepped shape was proposed to increase the absorption
surface area. The improved wick configuration enhanced the distillate
output and the energy efficiency by 35% and 53%, respectively,
compared to the conventional solar still. Furthermore, the cost for 1 L of
freshwater produced by the improved stepped wick solar still was 20%
lower than that of the traditional design.
3.6. Solar still with vertical attached wick
(Sakthivel et al., 2010) studied the use of jute cloth as a storage
material placed vertically in the middle of a simple basin solar still, next
to another attached wick towards the rear wall. A mathematical
modeling was carried out with the aim of analyzing the heat and mass
transfer mechanisms and predicting the hourly yield. The theoretical
and experimental results showed that the highest efficiency of the pro­
posed concept was 52% compared to the classic solar still, due to the
increased evaporation surface area and the regeneration of the
condensation heat (Agrawal et al., 2018). proposed an improved design
of basin type solar still with using the jute cloth as a wick material. Inside
the basin box, an inclined galvanized iron sheet was installed and
covered by the blackened jute cloth. In addition, the backside wall was
wrapped by the jute material with keeping its lower part dipped into the
brine water. Energy balance equations were developed in this study with
the aim of predicting the temperature of the different parts and the ef­
ficiency of the setup. Based on the elaborated thermal models and the
performed experiments, it was concluded that the use of wick in the
modified layout could enhance the evaporation rate significantly.
Therefore, the cumulative yield was increased by around 62% compared
to the conventional solar still.
3.7. Solar still with moving controlled wick
The idea of integrating a rotating wick inside the solar still was
6
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519
suggested by (Gad, El-gayar, and Gad 2011), and it aimed at enhancing
the performance of the system with decreasing the cost of produced
freshwater. Inside a titled solar still, a black cloth wick was installed,
being able to rotate in a controlled alternative cycle using a computer
program. The high thermal efficiency of the system was established
when the wick was immersed during 30 s in water and then exposed to
the solar radiation for 25 s. In 2017, another study was established,
based on investigating the use of a vertical rotating wick inside an
improved basin type solar still (Haddad et al. 2017). The enhanced
configuration included three glass walls connected to a rectangular
wooden box in the base and to an inclined glass cover of 36◦ on the top.
Inside the still, a rotating black jute cloth was placed in a vertical po­
sition with keeping its lower part dunked into water. The rotating wick
was driven by a controlled DC motor. The experimental results revealed
that the productivity of the proposed system was 5 L m− 2.d− 1 in winter
and around 7 L m− 2.d− 1 during summer. The daily efficiency of the
improved system could reach 66% in summer. In the same context
(Abdullah et al., 2019), installed a horizontal and vertical rotating wick
system controlled by DC motor. The proposed design led to an increase
of the surface area for more solar radiation absorption and to an
improvement of the heat and mass transfer processes inside the still. In
addition, the results of this study inferred that the efficiency of solar
distillers with rotating wick achieved 84% and 82% with and without
integrating nanofluid materials, respectively.
3.8. Solar still with multi–wicks
(Pal et al., 2017) developed an experimental study of a double slope
multi-wick solar still. The modified design could be described as a
rectangular Fibre Reinforced Plastic basin (FRP) with three transparent
acrylic sheets (east, west and south walls). Inside the still, nineteen
wicks were gradually settled with the highest one in the center. They
were separated by 10 cm between every two wicks to facilitate the water
flow. The significant thermal efficiency improvement was achieved
owing to the high incident solar radiation through the transparent
acrylic walls, as well as the use of black cotton for the multi-wicks. The
greatest output gain was 4.5 L m− 2.d− 1 with a water level of 2 cm. In
2018, the same design was theoretically investigated by (Pal et al.,
2018) based on energy, exergy and enviro-economic analysis. The
hourly yield of the proposed solar still was calculated as the sum of the
distillate output collected from the south basin wall and the two sides of
the glass cover. The maximum energy and exergy instantaneous effi­
ciencies were estimated as 35% and 4% at 17:00 h, respectively.
Moreover, a single basin solar still with multiple V-shape floating wicks
was theoretically and experimentally investigated by (Agrawal and
Rana, 2019) during the summer and winter seasons in India. The black
jute cloths were installed in a V-shaped profile with an angle of 24◦ in
order to increase the evaporation surface area and maximize the
absorbed solar energy. Due to this specific configuration, the evapora­
tion area was increased by 26% compared to the conventional system.
The daily yield of the modified setup reached 6.2 L m− 2 in summer and
3.23 L m− 2 in winter. Furthermore, based on an economical investiga­
tion, it was estimated that the annual costs of the produced fresh water
could be 1.84 Rs/L (0.026 $/L).
Based on the above investigations, it can be concluded that the
rotating wick system presents the most efficient design compared to the
several proposed internal wick configurations. The highest efficiency
provided by the rotating wick cloth can reach between 66 and 84%.
Moreover, using a rotating wick belt inside the solar distiller has a sig­
nificant improving effect on the performance of the still. It offers the
opportunity for wick and water to absorb more solar heat and converting
the free evaporation to forced evaporation, hence a relevant enhance­
ment in the evaporation rate is achieved without the occupancy of a
larger horizontal space. On the other hand, the period of rotating wick
operation should be optimized by controlling the DC motor function,
which can be connected to a photovoltaic solar panel for energy supply.
M. Jobrane et al.
4. Wick type solar stills with different coupled systems
A number of research works have focused on enhancing the energy
efficiency and productivity of the wick solar still by integrating various
external improvements such as incorporating a glass cooling system,
multi-effect diffusion, and flat plate collectors. In this section, several
external developments integrated to the wick solar still device are
configured with the aim of increasing the rate of evaporation and
condensation processes and enhancing the amount of produced fresh­
water. The coupled systems used for wick solar still improvement are
presented in Fig. 2.
4.1. Wick type solar still with glass film cooling
(Sharshir et al., 2016) have developed an analytic investigation of a
wick type solar still with a glass film cooling system that was supplied by
hot water leaving a Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) unit. A
mathematical modeling was introduced in this study based on solving
the performed energy balance equations using MATLAB software. The
obtained average productivity of the improved solar still was increased
by 278% and 210% in comparison to that of the system without glass
film cooling and of the conventional basin solar still, respectively.
Recently (Tiwari and Somwanshi, 2018), developed a theoretical study
and economic analysis of a small distillation device composed of single
slope multi-wick solar stills connected to a fountain reservoir for glass
cover cooling. The obtained results indicated that the productivity
increased with a low glass cooling water flow, which would raise the
yearly efficiency by about 61%.
4.2. Solar still with tilted wick attached to single or multiple effect
diffusion solar still
(Tanaka and Iishi 2017) have presented an improved design of a
solar distillation device based on coupling single effect diffusion still
with a tilted wick solar still. Initially, the saltwater is fed into the system
from the top of the single effect diffusion still and it is evaporated once it
receives the solar radiation. The remaining brine water continues the
path to the wick of the second unit (wick solar still) where it gets
evaporated and condensed. The condensation heat coming from the first
unit and the latent heat of the vapor transferred by naturel convection
constitutes the energy source of the second unit. The experimental re­
sults indicated that the maximum daily yield of the coupled device could
reach 4.88 L m− 2.d− 1 when the daily horizontal solar radiation was 13.6
MJ m− 2.d− 1 and the daily incident solar radiation was 18.4 MJ m− 2.d− 1.
Furthermore (Tanaka 2017), developed a parametric investigation of a
vertical multiple effect diffusion solar still coupled to a titled wick still in
order to identify the optimum conditions. The maximum daily yield was
obtained for 30◦ inclination of the tilted device and for 20 mm and 10
mm of air gaps between double glass covers of the first unit and the
second unit, respectively. As well, the author proved that the daily ef­
ficiency increased with the minimum distance between the plates of the
multi-effect diffusion unit and with low flow rate of brine water. Further,
a floating wick basin still coupled with a vertical multiple effect diffu­
sion still and with waste heat recovery was investigated by (Kaushal
et al. 2017a) and (Kaushal et al., 2017b). With the aim of reducing the
thermal inertia of the evaporating surface, multi-floating cotton cloth
wicks were arranged vertically inside the basin, in addition, the heat of
the brine water output were used for preheating the feed water. The
productivity of the new system was enhanced by 21% compared to the
conventional basin type solar still and it was noticed a significant
nocturnal productivity of 1.34 L.m− 2due to the high stored heat inside
the floating wick.
4.3. Wick type solar still with integrated reflector
The benefit of coupling a flat plate bottom reflector to the tilted wick
7
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519
solar still has been investigated by (Tanaka 2015). Geometrical models
were developed with the aim of calculating the optimum inclination of
the solar device and the reflector, as well as determining the best posi­
tion of the reflector. In this study, the total amount of solar radiation was
calculated as the sum of the solar radiation reflected from the bottom of
the flat plate reflector and that absorbed by the wick. The obtained re­
sults inferred that the proposed reflector offered a high potential of solar
radiation absorption, thus, a high distillate yield was achieved. The
annual productivity of the enhanced design increased by 28%, 19%and
14% due to the coupled reflector with 0, 0.5 and 1 m of gap length from
the still, respectively. In 2018 (Tanaka 2018), introduced an analytical
study of a vertical multi-wick diffusion solar still coupled with an
enlarged flat plate reflector. The author found that the overall daily yield
is directly proportional to the size of the integrated reflector. Therefore,
the daily productivity of the improved device coupled to a flat plate
reflector with length and width equal to 3 m was increased by 27% in
comparison to that of the still coupled to a reflector with length and
width equal to 1 m.
4.4. Wick type solar stills coupled with solar water heating system/
parabolic concentrator/solar pond
(Omara et al. 2013) introduced an experimental study to investigate
the effect of coupling an inclined wick solar still with an external solar
water heating system. The evacuated solar water heater was composed
of 20 vacuum glass tubes. The feed water is preheated due to the
convective heat exchange process between the heat-transfer fluid placed
inside the tubes and the brackish water. Thereafter, the hot brine water
is distributed on the surface of a jute linen woven cloth inside the still.
The external solar water heating system had a significant effect on
increasing the evaporation rate and improving the daily and nocturnal
productions. The results of this study inferred that the overall produc­
tivity of the proposed design was enhanced by 215% in comparison to
the classic solar still, owing to the continuous feeding of hot brackish
water especially during night (Elashmawy, 2017). proposed to integrate
a parabolic concentrator solar tracking system to a tubular solar still in
coaxial form in order to increase the water temperature through the
raised amount of absorbed solar radiation. Hence, a high significant
productivity enhancement of 676% was achieved. In 2018 (Dhindsa and
Mittal 2018), carried out an experimental study of a basin type vertical
multiple effect diffusion solar still coupled to multiple floating wicks and
a mini solar pond. The integrated system was used for providing the
stored heat during the day to the solar still during the night with the aim
of generating nocturnal productivity and boosting the performance of
the device. Due to the additional heat given by the coupled mini solar
pond, the nocturnal yield was increased by 71% in comparison to the
conventional system.
As reported in this section, several active and passive heat sources
such as water heater, reflectors and solar concentrators, were used for
improving the heat transfer inside the system and accelerating the
distillation process. As a result, these technologies provide a higher
distillate output. However, most integrated systems are rather compli­
cated, technically demanding and cost intensive. In addition, most of
these techniques need specific materials that are not readily available or
accessible in many rural or remote areas.
5. Limitations of previous research studies and innovative
alternatives
In summary, there are currently large amounts of investigations
highlighting the diverse internal and external technologies applied for
enhancing the productivity of the wick type solar still as a main objec­
tive. Nevertheless, very limited studies were developed regarding the
quality of produced drinking water, in addition to the issues of highly
mineralized water output and the possible valorization methods of the
brine by-product. The assurance of good quality freshwater could be
M. Jobrane et al.
Fig. 2. Integrated systems for wick type solar still enhancement.
performed by a simple continuous monitoring of some physicochemical
parameters during the distillation process, such as pH, conductivity,
Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) and microbial quality indications.
Controlling the water quality and several internal and external param­
eters that have a significant effect on the performance of the still device
could be automatically maintained using a system of sensors and a mi­
crocontroller that can be installed and programmed in order to keep the
process constantly at the optimum. Likewise, many design and climatic
parameters like, thickness of insulation material, thickness of glass
cover, wind speed and ambient temperature, were overlooked in some
studies, because of the large number of required experiments and the
complicated experimental approaches. In this context, several design of
experiment (DoE) methods are available and widely used as a tool for
determining the relationship between factors affecting the distillation
process and optimizing the solar distiller systems in an efficient way and
with a reduced number of performed experiments (Wagner et al. 2014).
Many researchers have proposed enhancing the evaporation and
condensation processes by integrating several external systems such as
solar concentrator, reflectors, HDH unit and others. These integrated
systems are rather complicated and heavy, calling for a high cost and
high-level maintenance. On the other hand, improving the distillation
process by reducing the condensation heat losses through the trans­
parent cover to the ambient could be a great approach for enhancing the
productivity without requiring a high-level mechanical system. Thus,
recycling of the water vapor to a second condensation surface area using
forced convection and transferring the heat energy to the bulk water will
offer the possibility of increasing the temperature and enhancing the
evaporation rate.
Developing an efficient and lightweight solar still could be achieved
through the choice of adequate top transparent cover characteristics,
such as, type of material and thickness. In general, glass is the traditional
option as a transparent top cover due to its low price and easy avail­
ability. However, glass is a relatively heavy material and has a high
potential for breakage that make it inappropriate and unsafe for some
solar still installations. In the other hand, using fluoropolymer materials,
8
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 12 (2021) 100519
such as ETFE (Ethylene Tetra-Fluoro-Ethylene) represent a promoting
alternative for a lightweight top cover instated of the glass. The ETFE
film has strong bonds to avoid degradation of the material under adverse
weather conditions and ultraviolet radiation. It is also characterized by
high durability, good resistance at high temperatures, and good thermal
properties. Furthermore, the ETFE foil has a significant potential of solar
transmission, between 92% and 95% and a relatively low weight of
about 175 g m− 2 for a film thickness of 100 μm (Cremers and Marx
2016).
The majority of studies have focused on selecting the most cost-
effective wick with good capillary action and high absorption of solar
radiation. Nevertheless, the durability and the lifespan properties of the
porous black material have been neglected. The long-term sun exposure
and the highly saline water promote the degradation of the wick struc­
ture with time and decrease the resistance to fading. Whereas, innova­
tive solutions for more lasting absorber material with excellent
resistance to degradation were still limited until the near past.
6. Conclusions
A summary of previous researches, developments and evaluations of
various designs of wick type solar stills have been presented and dis­
cussed in this review. Many types of wick solar stills have been intro­
duced and investigated differing one from the other in geometry,
construction materials, wick configurations and external integrated
improvements. Most of the above listed wick distiller investigations
revealed that the integration of wick cloth is the most effective way to
enhance the evaporation process and significantly improve the distillate
output. Likewise, many studies proved that the engineering design of the
wick solar still could contribute to an improved distillation process.
Furthermore, several theoretical and experimental investigations infer­
red that the arrangement and the structure of the wick materials inside
the solar still significantly enhance the performance of the device. As
well, the efficiency of coupling various external heating and solar
concentrator systems to the wick solar still were validated by many
M. Jobrane et al.
research works. These technologies were proposed as convenient tools
for enhancing the performance of the system; however, they are rela­
tively complicated in their structures. Finally, it can be concluded from
this review that using wick cloths as absorber-evaporating surface inside
the solar still have significant and sustainable effects on the solar
distillation process. Moreover, more efforts are required to investigate
several design and climatic parameters such as condensing surface,
insulation materials, wind speed and specially to focus more optimizing
the chemical, physical and biological parameters of the produced
drinking water. Furthermore, several improvements could be achieved
to build an efficient solar still like using system automation and alter­
native mode of condensation, in order to make the solar distillation
device more viable, environmentally friendly and beneficial for
humankind.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This research is supported by the Luxembourg National Research
Fund (Grant number: 11504360) and the Ministry of Foreign and Eu­
ropean Affairs, Luxembourg. The support provided by the Luxembourg
Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the University of Gabès
Tunisia is acknowledged.
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